Berserk Button/Fan Works

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


When a nice, normal character suddenly goes into a rage, you've hit their Berserk Button.

"There isn't enough room in this town for me and somebody who would do a thing like that, and they're going to be the ones to go. I am going to find whoever did this, expose them, and clear my name. And then I'm going to teach them the error of their ways. Over several days. With a dull knife dipped in iodine, so it really hurts and so they don't get an infection and die before I want them to."

  • In one Knights of the Old Republic fanfic, Saul Karath isolates Carth while his Dark Jedi honor guard interrogates Revan and Bastila. After trying the We Can Rule Together tactic (which fails miserably), he proceeds to test every Berserk Button Carth has. Carth holds it together pretty well, until Karath mentions what he plans on doing to Mission...
  • In Path of Chaos: Ascension of Supremacy, don't you dare harm Ranma's mother. This can apply to 90% of Ranma ½ fics, but this one takes the cake.
    • While fighting the Justice League (not as ridiculous as it sounds) Superman gets a little too over zealous with his laser vision and shoots Ranma's mother, Tokimi, in the back. Ranma goes into a rage and destroys "the west and north quadrants of the universe".
      • Luckily the Lantern Corp send the future Green Lantern back to warn them and they manage to stop superman in time.
  • In Shadow Crystal Mage's Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha/Green Lantern Mega Crossover fic Takamachi Nanoha of 2814, the fact that Pluto is no longer a planet really sets off Sailor Pluto, causing her to go into a Berserker Rage. It's very effective when the Wolkenritter show up...
  • They Just Don't Care Anymore: If you value your life, you won't ever confuse Air Raid for a Canadian chick, or ask Inferno what beats napalm.
  • In the Disgaea fanfic Disgaea Jewel of the gods Laharl has quite a few of them. Including:
    • Being called short.
    • Someone saying there's a person stronger then him (Or Calling him weak in general)
    • Waking him up.
    • Trying to kill Etna and Flonne.
    • Saying that being an overlord means killing the weak.
      • As with canon, do not call Etna (or Flonne, though not shown yet) flat chested. And don't look at her panties either. Epic, and Mao, respectivley, learned this the hard way.
  • There are some things you don't do in Kyon: Big Damn Hero. You do not threaten any of Kyon's friends. Last time that happened, he dangled the person responsible out a window by the ankle and proceeded to put him through a Humiliation Conga for trying to shove poor Tsuruya off that same window. Similarly, threaten Kyon's life, and Haruhi will kill you. The only reason she didn't kill the criminals responsible for Kyon's shooting was because Koizumi convinced her that Kyon wouldn't want her to.
  • Otto and Robin Octavius. Do not threaten their adopted daughter Mouse. Just... don't. If you're lucky, Otto will rip you to shreds with the help of four sentient, pissed off metal tentacles. If you're not lucky... Robin Goodfellow gets to 'play' with you.
  • In Tales of a Warrior, a Warcraft fanfic, its safe to say that as of chapter five you should never, ever threaten Ayuri when Keleria is around. The 'berserk' is complete with Red Eyes, Take Warning and Laughing Mad.
  • Company 0051 has the The Captain of the eponymous Company. Basic inspection shows him as a calm, collected leader. Question how he runs the place, though, and he'll retaliate...
  • Amongst Touhou fans, a lot of portrayals of Sakuya have her react incredibly violently if anyone implies that she pads her bra, or even writing or thinking the word "pads". She also doesn't like people who sleep on the job, which is bad news for Meiling.
    • None of this, however, comes close to what she'll do to you if you mess with her ojou-sama, as Yukari found out in Koumajou Densetsu II
    • Patchouli likes to Throw the Book At Them on occasion in the fighting games, but as Touhou Musou Kakyou demonstrates it's not a good idea to do the same to her. When Aya does this accidentally, it sets up a big throwdown between her and Reimu.
    • Calling Yukari any variation of "old hag" is a good way to be sucked into one of her gaps. She's 17, after all.
    • Very few things can piss Yuyuko off, but two things, according to fanworks, will do it: interrupting her meal may get you put through a wall, but stealing her food will make her go Hollow on you.
  • In Left 4 Dead fanon, Louis likes pills a lot. Stealing his pills, or even having pills when he doesn't, will drive him into a frenzy.
  • Rei in Shinji and Warhammer40K is for the most part as non-threatening as she is in the source material, but she takes her self-appointed protection of Shinji very seriously, with his kidnapping being the first time Apocalypse Rei was unleashed.
  • Scott from The Sibling Rivalries of Scott and Penelope goes absolutely berserk if you even DARE call him "Scotty".
  • Lina in Blood That Flows is pretty calm most of the time. Doing anything to harm her daughter, or her future adopted daughter, or even her daughter's friends however, is a quick way to bring her out of retirement and show you all new ways to feel pain. To date, she took on a Mazoku Lord while being injured, another one while being pregnant, nearly ripped a Gold Dragon and her sister a new one and committed genocide on a criminal organization, the last one because they attacked her husband.
  • Don't tease Tails in Journey Into Darkness about Cosmo's death if you know whats good for you, Shadow learned this the hard way.
    • In fact, Tails seeing Shadow in general pushes his beserk button.
  • Go ahead, burn Meciel's silk sheets. Then run.[context?]
    • From the same fanfic series, Harry gets violent very fast when people insult Meciel.
  • One warning for readers of the Tamers Forever Series: Do not, under any circumstances, put someone Takato cares about in danger, or he will end you.
    • The Nightmare intentionally tries to press Takato's Berserk Button by torturing his friends.
    • Daemon also hits Henry's Berserk Button when he attacks and critically injures (she had to be put on life support) Henry's seven year old sister Suzie in cold blood.
    • Rika's Berserk Button is triggered when a swarm of Kurisarimon and [DarkScubamon] torture Takato almost to death.
  • The Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic series The Elemental Chess Trilogy has all the same berserk buttons as the original canon. In addition, though, some others come up. Don't endanger Ling's friends, his people, or his little sister. Don't mistreat women in the vicinity of Alex Louis Armstrong (or, as shown in a flashback, Roy Mustang). Don't mess with the members of Team Mustang if you don't want to feel the wrath of the rest of that Nakama. And pray for deliverance if you're caught red-handed having something to do with the disappearance and possible murder of Riza Mustang, because if her husband doesn't incinerate you (and that's a really big if), their friends will.
  • Wheatley in the Portal 2 fanfic Test Of Humanity still hates being called a "moron". However, it's also a very bad idea to say he's anything like the HAL 9000 or GLaDOS. And, whatever you do, don't you dare hurt Chell or imply that he can't feel love because he's not really human. He may be a Gentle Giant cyborg in the fic, but he won't hesitate to punch you in the eye As GLaDOS found out if you so much as harm one hair on the girl he loves.
  • Speaking of things you just shouldn't say, don't ever insult background character Ditzy Doo's child and expect to get away with it; she doesn't mind the mocking nickname 'Derpy Hooves' but dissing her foal will just lead to her helping Chell wreck you.
  • Progress: Don't break Luna's glasses. Just don't. Also don't threaten anypony under her protection.
  • Past Sins: Nyx loves Twilight. Twilight loves Nyx. Both wield magical power unmatched by anypony save, perhaps, Celestia and Luna. Do the math.
  • From The Doctors and the Nurses They Adore Me So, hurting the Joker's dog is bad for everyone.
  • Doubled in the Blood+ fanfic Nobility has Anjou's initial fight with Nathalie. Nathalie goes berserk because Forrest ripped a few strands of her hair out. She kills him, which sets off Anjou's berserk button.
  • Hunting the Unicorn: If you mess with Kurt, Blaine will not hesitate to pick a fight with you. If you hurt Blaine, the Warblers will want to rip your kneecaps out. And if you sleep with sixteen-year-old Blaine, break up with him, and then string him along for weeks--without correcting his notion that Sex Equals Love--then his brother will threaten to burn you alive.
    • Kurt doesn't take Blaine's kidnapping very well.
  • Harm an animal, or one of the others, around Paul in With Strings Attached and he may quite violently stop being an Actual Pacifist... though he has such a horror of hurting anyone that it's not too hard to talk him down.
    • All of the four have a Berserk Button if one of the others is threatened. Certainly John laid some heavy (tho' nonlethal) offscreen water whoop-ass on a handful of Raleka after George was badly injured falling through a roof. No matter that none of the Raleka had anything to do with this... but they were approaching in a slightly threatening manner.
      • Given that John had just been awakened from an enchanted sleep by George peeing on him through said roof, had no idea what was going on save that it was bad, and was pissed as shit, he seems justified in attacking anything that moved at that point.
    • The only time in the book that Paul followed through on an attack was when the Hunter's BFG threatened the others.
    • Ringo immediately threw As'taris back when he threatened John.
  • Rise of the Galeforces: Whatever you do, do NOT call Adam a "dinosaur." The only reason the one person who ever made that mistake and lived got away with it was that she used the term by accident and in passing (not to mention that she was his sister), but use that insult deliberately and ESPECIALLY to his FACE, and you'd best be saying goodbye to your balls, because this young Ptero-Soarer is gonna SLICE THEM INTO TINY LITTLE PIECES.
    • And while we're at it, it's probably not a good idea to call Dash a "morsel" either... as Velociripper finds out the hard way.
  • The Vinyl Scratch Tapes: If you mess with one of Octavia's friends, she will beat the crap out of you. If you mess with Octavia, Vinyl will call you a jerk, go out of her way to humiliate you, and then have security (the Diamond Dogs) beat the crap out of you.
  • Yoko in Futari wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon cannot stand destruction of property and is often set off ranting about it... like the time she walked up to the Monster of the Week in the middle of a battle and lectured it about the mess it made. Oh, and you might not want to remind Kainatrol of her sister unless you know what you're doing.
  • Two different villains in A Growing Affection, while fighting Naruto and Hinata together, decide it would be easier to take out Hinata and fight Naruto alone. They were wrong.
  • In All You Need Is Love Light flips out at any mention of Matsuda's soap opera, or more specifically of Matsuda's "reimagining" of his character as poor wimpy Hikaru Imagay the gay prostitute.
  • Turnabout Storm: Do NOT ask Rarity about why she didn't show up at the trial, NOR mention the post office or pens in her proximity. Phoenix learned it the hard way.
  • In Naruto Veangance Revelaitons, Ronan tends to lose his temper when someone calls him a "fag", even though he often does this to his enemies. He also tends to get angry about the same things that the author gets angry about, such as religion, homosexuality, capitalism, feminism, the US, anything his stepbrother likes and so forth.
  • In Lilly Epilogue Family Matters, no one is especially fond of Mr. Satou insulting Hisao and Hanako, but Lilly takes it especially hard.
  • In The Wizard in the Shadows, if you hurt someone Harry cares about, he will burn you until there is nothing left, hit you with lightning bolts that vaporised a Mumak (and that was a secondary effect), or use the Cruciatus curse in fairness, he had just found Sirius who Saruman had been torturing for the last seven years on you repeatedly.
    • Ginny has the Violently Protective Girlfriend thing going on with Harry (not that he can't fight for himself). When he dies temporarily, she destroys most of Mordor's army (by channelling some sort of higher power), utterly destroying the physical forms of three of the Nazgul.
  • Eri, Shiki's best friend, in The World Ends With You fanfic, Eri's Game has one when she will attacking anyone who tries to hurt or insult Shiki. The beating with Beat, who is a Reaper really does it.
  • Hurting or nearly killing Buzz Lightyear's adopted sis is not a good idea, even if you're the EVIL Emperor Zurg. Captain Lightyear takes his role as a big brother very seriously.
  • Don't mess with Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Watson. Seriously, don't. If you hurt one of them, the other one will come after you, and it won't be pretty. And, for the love of heaven, do not beg Watson for mercy if you played a part in Holmes's long-term imprisonment. You will probably end up dead.
  • In the WWE fanfic/alternate history, Cruising for a Jobbing, Charlotte makes the mistake and trashed talk about Anna's namesake on social media. Many of the other wrestlers were upset with Charlotte breaking the Never Speak Ill of the Dead clause.
  • In Final Stand of Death, it's best never to make chainsaw noises towards Spur or face her wrath.
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