Beware the Nice Ones/Literature

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Beware the Nice Ones in Literature include:

Animorphs

  • Cassie. Sure, she might be in a war, but only reluctantly (and she's usually the one pushing for 'plans other than kill them all'). But if you piss her off, heaven help you. Just ask Davis, who made the mistake of calling her the n-word - whereupon she turned into a polar bear and pinned him to a wall.
    • She also suggested David's Fate Worse Than Death, being Mode Locked as a rat and stranded on a small island.
      • Cassie is interesting, because you don't have to get her into an Unstoppable Rage to get bad results. David's fate? That was cold rationalism; she was crying as he got stuck. For another example, the fate of Visser Four's host.
  • Likewise the Chee - immensely strong androids, and hard-wired pacifists. Except the one time Erek was freed from that part of his programming, and proceeded to wipe out an entire strike force single-handed. It's mentioned at some point that he did more damage in one or two hours than the Animorphs themselves did in months of missions.
    • It's so bad that Rachel, who has started her transformation into Blood Knight has to suppress the memories.
  • And the Hork-Bajir are Beware the Nice Ones writ large: an entire race of peaceful, not-very-smart herbivores that are covered in blades so that they could strip bark from trees. The Yeerks happened to think they would make excellent shock troops, and Aldrea, the lone Andalite on their planet, encouraged them to fight back, instigating a very long, bloody war. They lost that one, but the Hork-Bajir who escaped have "Free or dead!" as their motto, and have become very willing to fight and kill to protect what they have, as Dak Hamee sadly observed.

Discworld

  • Magrat Garlick, "the nice one" of the main witches of Lancre, a kind, romantic Cloudcuckoolander Granola Girl who just wants to help people and who seems used to being treated as a doormat and a wet hen. She's also demonstrated a willingness to fight viciously if pushed too far (witness what she does to the "Sisters" in Witches Abroad, or the elves in Lords and Ladies).
    • She's like a small, furry animal. "And the trouble with small furry animals in a corner is that, just occasionally, one of them's a mongoose."
    • "Magrat was always the nice, kind, soft one... who'd just fired a crossbow through the keyhole."
    • Magrat, on learning the new king who doesn't respect witches has commissioned a play discrediting them, suggests "We should fill his bones with hot lead!"
  • Though not as obvious as Magrat, Nanny Ogg is definitely someone you don't want to piss off. Contrast to Granny Weatherwax, Nanny is the nicest person you're likely to meet (unless you're one of her daughters-in-law), but pushing her is a very bad idea, evidenced by her threatening the Elf king.
    • "A mind like a buzzsaw behind a face like an old apple. She may actually be more powerful than Granny."
    • "I'm only nice compared to Granny Weatherwax, but so's practically everyone."
  • Heck, for that matter, Granny Weatherwax is a semi-example. She's not exactly what you would picture when you think "nice" but what you see is her nice side. You don't want to see her when she's being mean.
    • Lest we forget what she does to the would-be-robbers in Maskerade (stitching up their self-inflicted wounds with a rusty, blunt needle), there is nothing more terrifying than Granny Weatherwax about to do what is right.
    • Another case in point: her advice on what to do with a man who beat his child to death in Carpe Jugulum. When he pleaded that 'it began in alcohol' (i.e., that he was drunk at the time), she replied 'then end it in hemp!' The man was hanged.
  • In the same vein as Granny is Vimes, who's not nice at the best of times, but is known for being fair. His kill-count stands at at least 6 on page (not including those he killed while under the influence of The Summoning Dark in Thud), 3 of which are werewolves, and 2 of which he did in with his bare hands, after going over a waterfall.
    • Remember, Boys and Girls: "If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you are going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat ... A good man will kill you with hardly a word."[1]
  • There's also Carrot Ironfoundersson, a six-foot-six tall dwarf (adopted human, of course). He is perfectly kind, lawful, and incorruptible in a city that is far from any of the above, always sees the bright side of things, and is friendly to everyone he meets. He can convince bloodthirsty desert tribesmen not to charge (a feat which one who knows said tribesmen compares to "Making water run uphill"), get rival gangs of street urchins to play football, and have a friendly chat with a dictatorial if cultured tyrant. He's also strong and skilled enough to fight hand-to-hand with an alpha male werewolf and survive (in The Fifth Elephant), has a punch that will knock out a troll (those are guys made of solid rock, for those keeping score), and along with having a sword sharp and strong enough to do it, push a sword through a stone pillar like a knife through butter (in Men at Arms). It is not a good idea to give him a reason to take the gloves off, as the man standing between Carrot and said pillar found out.
    • Oddly enough, Carrot also subverts the trope by his buttons not being pushable by most personal methods. When his girlfriend/lover/person-with-whom-he-has-an-Understanding is kidnapped (in Jingo) and skips town (in The Fifth Elephant), he informs the proper authority before trying to go after her. This is because he believes with all his heart that personal is not the same as important - and this makes him all the more dangerous. How many heroes have been dissuaded from doing in the bad guy by a convenient personal appeal?
    • At one point Angua asks him if he'd kill her if she'd let her werewolf instincts get the better of her. He ponders the question and replies that yes, he would. It was the answer she wanted to hear, though.
  • And Mort in Mort. Death's controlling ways and preference for extreme consequences causes him to challenge the Grim Reaper himself in one-on-one combat. "My name is Mort, you bastard!"
  • Otto Chriek. He's a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire who maintains a Count von Count style persona to look as unthreatening as possible, belongs to a vampire teetotaller's society, and is happy to be left to practice photography in peace. But fuck with people he cares about and he will very gently remind you that he is still, in fact, a vampire.

"I never liked zer damn cocoa anyvay."

  • From the same book (The Truth), Sachrissa get a mad gleam in her eye when there's a reason for her to get nasty. The narration notes that is worse in people who have always been nice, as they have much more bad behaviour stored up than those who let it out regularly.
  • Apart from those already mentioned, add in Angua, Detritus, A.E. Pessimal, and ooh, probably many of the rest of the watch.
  • In Discworld, Death is actually a very nice guy. Unless you manage to upset him. The Auditors have managed it several times, and the results tend to be rather spectacular.

The Dresden Files

  • In Summer Knight, the faerie Aurora, the Lady of the Summer Court (which is generally much, much nicer than its counterpart the Winter Court), gets so sick of seeing the suffering caused by the continual war between the two Courts that she kills Summer's human Knight (their emissary to the mortal world), stores his power in a changeling girl, turns said girl into a statue, and plans to sacrifice the girl in order to transfer the power to Winter, tipping the balance of power in Winter's favor and causing the end of the world as we know it.
    • In the same book, Changeling Fix beats the crap out of the Winter Knight Lloyd Slate with a wrench after he mortally wounds Meryl.
      • And now Fix is the new Summer Knight, with the powers that come with the office.
  • For that matter, Harry Dresden himself can be considered one of these. He comes off as cheerfully geeky, quoting comics and movies in the middle of dangerous situations, which sometimes leads people to forget he's a damn decent wizard in his own right.
    • "Damn decent wizard" doesn't really cover it. He says in one book that as far as pure power, he's one of the Top 20 wizards in the world. He lacks subtlety, which makes it worse (He's not only powerful, but he's also a little unstable). Also, his specialty seems to be the use of fire magic.
  • Not only is he a sincerely faithful man of God, Michael is an incredibly sweet, even-tempered Nice Guy. That being said, he is also a Knight in Shining Armor who slings a badass holy sword that that can rip through evil magic like it was tissue paper. Do not mess with Michael. Ever. And especially don't threaten his family. This applies to all of the Knights, actually...
  • On messing with Michael and his family: If they don't get you, Harry will. The line: "Fuego, Pyrofuego! Burn!" comes to mind. As this was the line said by Harry as he blasted a beam of possibly soulfire enhanced flame, without a focus (which is serious) through a human posessed and wielding the full power of a fallen angel. It counts even more when you realise the last part of the line was an echo of something Superman said, when he completely flipped out at Mongul and used his heat ray vision on him. This makes it even scarier.
    • Harry is this in spades. Hurt someone he cares about, and whatever you are, full fledged Physical God, Eldritch Abomination or an entire Court of Vampires, he will do his very best to utterly destroy you. And the worst thing? Aside from being a type 3 Anti-Hero, he's creative. Witness Cassius. Cassius mocks Knights whilst in hotel. Knights leave. Harry breaks several of his bones. Harry then tells him to crawl to the payphone across the parking lot and call an ambulance. He flips him a quarter (not enough, though Cassius doesn't know that) and leaves. Also Lord Raith. This is one of the very good reasons that Big Bads all over the supernatural world crap themselves when his name is mentioned.
  • Behold Waldo Butters, geeky, cowardly Non-Action Guy. Spends most of Dead Beat panicking and needing to be rescued. But when he's on the ropes, he tackles Quintus Cassius and attacks him with his teeth to save Harry.

Other works

  • Belisarius Series has plenty of characters like that:
    • Eon is a Genius Bruiser who loves his library. When a bad guy Empire killed his father, brother, and concubine(among others)he wages a war that ended up by first stranding an enemy army in the desert, then conquering every city on the coast and destroying the enemy navy. Individually he is a great and ferocious fighter and as eager in battle as any of his countrymen.
    • Shakuntala is a beautiful princess who is so nice she is adored by her maids and every man is in love with her. She is also capable of killing men with her bare hands and does it on one occasion.
    • Rajiv Sanga though a prince, is an amiable teenager who is nice to everyone, even a stable boy. He is also fanatically protective of his siblings and on one occasion he manages to kill three trained soldiers with a pickaxe and shovel.
  • Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. A Gang of Bullies was wanting to give the teacher a one-sided beatdown like they did with the other teachers before him, killing one of them. Those boys from Hardscrabble Hill didn't think that one teacher was ready for them, and handed out a literal ass-whipping... courtesy of a blacksnake ox-whip with a 15-foot reach!
  • Stephen King's Carrie, who on top of all the abuse heaped on her at school and by her mother, has one too many things go wrong on prom night, and thus goes on a killing spree.
    • Stephen King excels at this trope; Cujo was another example, and Jack Torrance (though he did have a history) in The Shining.
      • Not movie Torrance, though. We all know he was crazy from the start. He's played by Jack Nicholson, that should be a warning sign.
        • King was actually angry that Nicholson was cast. King felt that Nicholson's reputation for playing unhinged characters telegraphed Torrance's descent into madness from the start of the film.
      • And let's not forget Jake of the Dark Tower series. A nice normal little kid - but capable of being as ruthlessly efficient a killing machine as any other Gunslinger when necessary.
  • Near the end of A Storm of Swords, Tyrion Lannister finds out that his horribly abused first wife Tysha, who he thought was a prostitute, actually loved him. This is the last straw, and he swears vengeance on his family and kills his father (on the privy, no less) along with his former concubine (who had humiliated him during a show trial). *And* he tells his older brother Jaime that sooner or later he'll kill him too, for obeying their dad's orders of following the charade.
    • And let's not forget Cute Bruiser Arya Stark. Remember, the precocious little tomboy who just wanted to be treated equally with her brothers? Yay, you do not want to fuck with her, especially after she starts going valar morghulis on anyone who gets in her way.
    • And Arya's older sister, Wide-Eyed Idealist Sansa. As of book four, she's currently taking Magnificent Bitch lessons from none other than Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish himself.
    • There's also J'quen H'gar. To clarify, Arya joins up with Yoren and a party of criminals brought out of the king's dungeons to serve on the Wall. Three of these are considered so dangerous that they're kept in cages in a cart. One is a shameless rapist who's always harassing people, one is a mute cannibal who's always snapping at people, and one is a soft-spoken and unfailingly polite man with a strong personal code of honor. No points for guessing which one is the most dangerous. Even the other two are afraid of him.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has at least one lovely example of this. Molly Weasley is normally a pretty sweet-natured lady. However, when she's angry, her husband and sons are all terrified. How did J. K. Rowling describe her in the book again? Oh, right:

Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a saber-toothed tiger.

Molly Weasley: NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!

    • And Hermione Granger. Nerds are scary when they're angry, particularly if they're witches. Her list includes punching Malfoy straight in the face, scaring the shit out of the Weasley twins, and putting Rita Skeeter under her thumb.
    • Despite all that Harry went through he is still a nice guy, just don't call his deceased Mom a bitch or you will end up like his aunt Marge.
      • And when Harry finds out how horribly the Carrows treated their students, and witnesses one Carrow spit on Professor he cares about, he Grabs a Gun and fires a Cruciatus bullet at the offender.
    • Neville Longbottom. A nervous little Woobie whose greatest feat in the first couple of books is to try, unsuccessfully, to stop his friends misbehaving. Then the Big Three leave school just as things turn nasty, so he Takes Up The Mantle and leads an underground resistance movement, culminating in decapitating Voldemort's snake right in front of him.
    • And let's not forget that Dumbledore is about the nicest old professor you could hope to meet as well as being the single most powerful wizard on Earth - and the only thing other than death that's known to scare the Big Bad.
    • Hagrid is a Gentle Giant until you insult Albus Dumbledore or threaten someone he cares about. Then he becomes a Nigh Invulnerable half-giant who can concuss ordinary men with a single blow.
    • Remus Lupin. At the climax of the book when he and Sirius confront Peter with the evidence of his betrayal, Sirius asks him casually "Shall we kill him together?" and Remus simply answers "Yes, I think so."
  • Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo. Edmond was a guy who had everything going for him, then lost everything thanks to being screwed over by whom he thought were his friends. What ensues is a gigantic Batman Gambit to take revenge on every last one of them and their families.
  • In the first book of Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts's Empire Trilogy, the basically sweet and gentle Mara, who has had the position of ruler thrust upon her, marries a young man who starts abusing her on their wedding night. In response, she manipulates him into a position where he's forced to commit ritual suicide.
    • Heck, messing with Lady Mara is generally a VERY bad idea. Consider the way she snaps in Mistress of the Empire, when she has her spymaster eradicate an entire order of assassins because they killed her son, another not-yet-born child of hers and very nearly herself.
  • Honor Harrington in the eponymous series. Even though warfare is her business, when she's not doing that, she pours her personal resources into public and charitable works. She'll even take it when abuse gets heaped on her head. But harm somebody she considers to be under her protection, and you unleash an Unstoppable Rage that will run you to the ground.
    • A special mention must go to Shannon Foraker. Absent-minded tactical officer who consistently forgets to use the approved Revolutionary titles when addressing her superiors, and mostly goes unpunished because she's good at what she does, and she's adorable. Kills 10,000+ mooks in the blink of an eye with a keystroke and the word "Oops."
    • None of the humans in the setting hold a candle to bonded treecats, at least on an individual level. Treecats are cute, and make wonderful companions, especially for children. But if you even think about hurting their human, they will turn into flying furry buzzsaws aimed directly at your face.
      • For the matter of that, it really is not wise to hurt Treecats when a Sphinxian is near. Every Sphinxian will dedicate themselves to making absolutely sure that you are consigned to a level of hell deeper then Dante ever thought of.
  • The nicest character in the Wheel of Time is Perrin Aybara, a henpecked husband, that's basically his wife's bitch. In one memorable scene after his wife has been kidnapped he chops off an Aiel's hand, orders an Aes Sedai to heal the stump, and then tells the Aiel that unless he talks Perrin will cut off his other hand and his feet, and then dump him into a town, so the Aiel can beg for a living. Then he walks away.
    • To put this in perspective, remember that the Aiel are a people who live by honor above all else, to the point where some kill themselves over an act of dishonor. And they view beggars as possibly THE least honorable thing to be. Perrin is basically threatening the guy with a Fate Worse Than Death. The Aiel and his companions, who are members of what's known to be the most stubborn tribe out of all the Aiel (which is REALLY saying something), cave almost immediately.
    • The Ogier are an entire race of nice guys (on the main continent, at least). The saying 'To anger an Ogier and to pull a mountain over your head' is thought to refer to two impossibilities. Events show that it might have originally read 'To anger an Ogier is to pull a mountain over your head.'
      • Loial's Crowing Moment of Awesome (so far) is probably when he defends a group of children during a Trolloc attack. People are simple DUMBFOUNDED by his actions. If an Ogier ever tells you that he is "putting a long handle" on his axe...run...run fast.
    • Rand isn't necessarily a very nice person (being driven slowly insane, having people wanting to control you and having the voice of Lews 'Kinslayer' Therin babbling away in your head would drive most people to more ruthless tendencies), but if you hurt someone he cares about or is related to someone he cares about, you will find out exactly why people fear the Dragon Reborn and he will wipe you from time itself so comprehensively that even the Dark One himself can't save you.
  • The Betsy The Vampire Queen series gives us Laura, daughter of Satan and one of the nicest people you could meet, since she's trying to be an Anti-Anti-Christ. Problem is, when she gets mad, she breaks out a sword of hellfire and slaughters everything in the area. Those instincts are a bitch to keep restrained.
  • More of a "Nice Civilization" than "Nice Person", The Culture, the society in Iain M. Banks' series of novels, makes a point of being morally and ethically spotless, considers it their mission to find and improve the lives of "lesser species" and likes to ensure its denizens live happy and carefree. When you threaten this mission, they will go to war, and you will lose.
    • Not only that, but the Culture is basically a civilisation of space hippies, whose Hat is "Make love, not war": they are so reluctant to go to war that it takes years long debate among its 30.000+ billions citizen to makes the Culture go to war. When the Idiran Empire crossed the line in Consider Phlebas, the war that followed cause the destruction of more that 14,000 space colonies, the death of over 850 billion intelligent beings, and the destruction of more than 50 planets and 6 stars: When you encounter space hippies, remember to be polite, courteous, and do not accuse them of being a threat to your way of life: if pissed off, they will blow up your home solar system. They may be softly spoken, but they carry really big sticks.
      • Stick here being translated as the ability to reduce whatever patch of existence it's being fired at into absolute nothingness. Oh, and every single one of their warships is capable of reducing an entire world to slag, ...on their own....
    • Lampshaded in that one of their spaceships is actually named I said, I've got a big stick (which is supposed to be spoken softly...)
    • There's the saying, quoted in several books "Do Not Fuck With The Culture." This is proved rather horrifically in Look to Windward.
    • Use of Weapons gives us this gem:

"You might call them soft, because they're very reluctant to kill, and they might agree with you, but they're soft the way the ocean is soft, and, well; ask any sea captain how harmless and puny the ocean can be."

  • The Mord Sith in the Sword of Truth series are the kindest, gentlest and most sensitive girls that can be found. They make the best torturers once they've been broken, because the greatest cruelty comes from the greatest kindness.
    • Rather a lot of the good guys in the series fit this trope.
  • In the book The Last Knight, Sir Michael is constantly honest, chivalrous and idealistic, much to his streetwise squire Fisk's disgust. But after Michael has spent a few weeks in a dungeon being force-fed experimental potions, even Fisk notes that he "preferred the crazy Sir Michael to the ruthless one."
  • The book series Murphy's Lore takes place in a supernatural pub. The owner of said establishment is a kindly leprechaun named Padriac Moran, or Paddy for short. Normally, he's wise, gentle, and refuses to kill anything, including undead, because all life is sacred in his eyes. However, if you were to, say, desecrate the memory of his dead wife on the anniversary of her death, which the devil unwisely chose to do, at which point he will have enough alcohol in him to pickle a sperm whale, you will probably find yourself getting crushed as Paddy makes the floor beneath you turn into a mouth and bite you.
  • Daine is a nice young girl from the mountains with frizzy hair and a good hand with animals. Then tell her that her beloved teacher is murdered. She'll reanimate dinosaur fossils, tear down a palace, specifically destroy tax rolls and imperial records to make the damage last, and get the entire nation's rats to infest the ruins for a year and a day. In the next book, when she finally corners the man responsible, not that Numair actually died, but still: She goes after him buck-ass naked with a badger claw and tears his throat out.
  • Ashfur from Warrior Cats began literary life as a sweet, shy young apprentice. Then he became the series' most shining example of Break the Cutie, when his best friend is abducted by humans (though only temporarily), his mother is brutally murdered, his father (if you believe the family trees) is killed in battle, he loses the love of his life to the son of the cat that killed his mom, and finally is forced to mentor their kit. He'd always been sweet, gentle, and friendly, but then in Book 5 of the Third Series, he goes insane and tries to kill all three main characters, one of which is his own apprentice. No wonder his fangirls were upset.
  • The Scolosaurus in The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure is extremely timid and terrified of humans, but when he is cornered by the Tyrannosaurus, he loses his temper. The results are rather bloody.
  • In Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Vera Claythorne appears to be a very sweet, sensible person... at first. And if you're not scared by the fact that she killed her former pupil so her lover could inherit the child's estate four years before the events of the novel, just wait and see what four days of psychological torture does to her...
  • In The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, the always polite and civilised Edenists go to great lengths to avoid killing, but when Al Capone sends a force to conquer a nearby Edenist habitat it gets wiped out. To the man.
  • David Eddings seems to enjoy this one. Belgarion is a generally nice guy who tries to do the right thing, and if you go after his family or murder some farmers, "the right thing" tends to involve you, his BFS, and a demonstration of why he's allowed to put "Godslayer" on his official letterhead. Polgara has spent most of her life as a doctor and taking care of children, but can give you a matinee of your worst nightmare or turn you into a snake, and she isn't afraid to Shoot the Dog. But for the gold, there's Aphrael and Sephrenia in The Tamuli: upon learning that Zalasta had been plotting to kill Aphrael for several centuries, Aphrael begins planning to eat his heart, and Sephrenia enjoys breaking his spells (which hurts, oh sweet Edaemus it hurts) just a bit too much.
  • Ender Wiggin of Ender's Game isn't "a sweet little kid", he's even sweeter. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. He loves everyone he meets the way they love themselves. And if he determines someone should no longer be able to cause harm, he makes sure that someone will never be a threat, ever. He wasn't called the Xenocide, in the following novels, because he was the Formics' drinking buddy during the first book, after all.
    • Remember that Ender is a nickname. He got it for a reason.
      • The reason was that his sister Valentine couldn't pronounce Andrew.
  • The titular society of the Freehold War series. Basically The Culture when it was a kid. Sex-crazed stoner party animals, the lot of them, and they always have room for company. And if you have enough a problem with that to invade their planet over it, they will blast, bomb and terrorize yours back to the Stone Age.
  • The Dark Elf Trilogy has Drizzt Do'Urden, who at first is depicted as the Wide-Eyed Idealist with a heart of gold. His enemies make the unfortunate mistake of assuming that he's weak and wind up having the living shit being beaten out of him in one of his biggest Unstoppable Rages in the history of dark elves. And he's completely outnumbered and severely injured in most of these battles?
  • This is one of J. R. R. Tolkien's favorite tropes, and appears throughout The Lord of the Rings. Witness any and all Hobbits if you need an example.
    • Special mention must be made of Sam, who is a slow, unassumingly loyal every-Hobbit who kills an Eldritch Abomination Giant Spider when it threatens his master. (Technically, he only gravely wounded the Giant Spider, he didn't kill it. Still, he is pretty badass.)
    • The Ents. Pacifistic keepers of the forests. Once angered, you're in trouble.
    • Also Eowyn in Return of the King, as the Witch King finds out.
  • Heralds of Valdemar: Talia of Sensholding, Royal Advisor/Confidant/Babysitter and generally softhearted little Proper Lady sort complete with empathic powers. Sure she has had some self-defense training as a Herald, but one would think that her Companion is a bigger threat than she is, right? Well, those who have pushed her too far would be glad to inform you otherwise... if they stop screaming long enough.
  • Kaitlynn in Privilege seems to be a Nice Girl, to the point where Ariana swears revenge on the girl who framed her...but when she fails to get her hands on the girl's inheritance, Kaitlynn snaps and reveals her true form: she was guilty after all, and is in fact quite the vicious little cold-blooded killer. She then becomes the series antagonist.
  • Mendoza from The Company Novels, left to her own devices, is a quiet botanist. Give her a love interest, and she turns spy. Kill him, and suddenly she starts throwing human heads around.
  • The heroes of Redwall are cute fuzzy little woodland animals, who live happily in an Abbey devoted to upholding peace. And if you wrong them, they will fuck you up.
    • Two words: Badger Lords. Wise and caring leaders of Salamandastron. Get into a fight with them and the bloodrage takes over. A fully armored Badger Lord in a full-on bloodrage is capable of taking on a small army by himself.
      • Or herself. The Badger Mothers of Redwall are gentle and loving, typically somewhat older badgers who typically watch after the young children in the Abbey. But if you threaten anyone, especially those children... well, you're going to find out pretty quickly that sweet older female badgers are just as capable of murderous bloodrage as the Badger Lords. Special points go to Cregga Rose Eyes, who used to be a Badger Lord--well, Lady, but she ruled Salamandastron, and was one of the most powerful warriors in the series, even after she went blind and took up residence in the Abbey.
  • While Morrolan of Dragaera is portrayed in the main series as a Lawful Neutral (or possibly Lawful Evil) Jerkass who pets the dog frequently, his presentation in the prequel novels is as this. The narration talks about him being a rather amiable guy during his period of Oblivious Adoption, and had yet to lose his temper, since everyone around him was wise enough not to do anything to elicit an angry Morrolan. When followers of a Religion of Evil kill some of his friends and torch part of his village, Morrolan's revenge consists of slaughtering three villages of these worshipers, man woman and child, and then killing their god.
  • Nathan Slaughter of the 1837 novel Nick of the Woods. A Quaker and often made fun of by the townsfolk where he lives for his pacifist ways, turns out to be the Jibbenainosay that's completely terrifying everyone in the area by his massacre of the surrounding Indian population.
  • Cordelia Naismith of the Vorkosigan Saga, is a peace-loving egalitarian in a feudal, militaristic society. She's ethical, honorable, and loving; she sees the best in everyone and makes them want to live up to it. But if you insist on harassing her, she will run you down. And if you threaten her child, she will take your head home in a shopping bag.
    • To underline this, Cordelia's husband is one of the most legendary badasses in the history of a culture of Proud Warrior Race Guys, a man who has spent his entire life proving constantly that to face him in battle is to court death. But while his peers highly respect him, they are not afraid to face him. But ever since Cordelia ended the War of Vordarian's Pretendership with the aforementioned shopping bag incident, they're terrified of her.
  • Sadrao from Black Dogs is probably the kindest, politest, most caring and definitely the most loyal character in the whole series. Don't ever threaten any of his wards or former wards, though... In the act of defending and protecting Lyra, he literally bites off a bandits face, tears apart an entire church and is completely unapproachable by anyone. Even the person he's trying to protect has to take caution not to get caught in his berserker rage.
  • Karl Sadeghi, from the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures book The Year of Intelligent Tigers, is a shy male Meganekko, who occasionally stutters. He's a musician and a generally sweet guy, and although the Doctor knows how to annoy him (because they're so close, and the Doctor really is very annoying), it seems his record for getting angry is a whopping page and a half. Then he gets kidnapped and mistreated by talking tigers. So he intentionally opens up a dam to drown a whole bunch of the poor, sapient tigers. To be fair, the tigers killed several people, but not all the ones he killed were dangerous.
  • Yumiko Shirasagi of Digital Devil Story is very sweet and mischievous, a fun girl, really. She's also the Reincarnation of the goddess Izanami, and she teaches Loki a thing or two about the efficacy of fire.
  • In War of the Dreaming, Titania is one of the few characters unreservedly on the side of humans, and who respects them for their own merits, rather than seeing them as pawns or Puny Earthlings. She's behind many of the historical human victories over the Fae (even though some of those victories hurt her as well). She's also the Queen of Nemi James Fraser was talking about in The Golden Bough. The one annual kings were sacrificed to.
  • In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Luke Skywalker's characterization varies pretty significantly Depending on the Writer. But his characterization in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor is very much this. When he has any choice at all, he resolves things peacefully. He will forgive anything, if you try to make up for what you've done. He gives you a lot of chances to be reasonable, and will wholeheartedly regret the loss of life if you don't take them. After Luke lets himself get captured, he asks too many questions and a stormtrooper clubs him with a blaster rifle, telling him to be quiet. Luke says "Please don't hit me" and is smacked again while the stormtrooper says "Didn't you hear me?" Luke says he did, but didn't see any particular reason to obey. The stormtrooper tries to hit him a third time, and Luke catches the blaster rifle and shatters it. Another stormtrooper tries to shoot him; Luke catches the blaster bolts.

"Please don't shoot me, either." He turned the palm upward in a friendly shrug and let the astonished troopers stare at the only effect of the Force-blunted blasterfire: a faint curl of steam that trailed upward from his unmarked palm. "Let's try to end the day with nobody else dying, shall we?"

    • That's not really a case of Roaring Rampage of Revenge. He did control himself, after all. A better example for Luke would be after Mara is killed by Jacen. Luke thinks Lumiya killed her and proceeds to mercilessly hunt her down and kill her, very nearly falling to the Dark Side in the process.
  • In Princess of the Midnight Ball, we get 12 princess, all very nice( although the eldest and love interest/ main character(sometimes) is snarky at time.) but I'm not talking about Rose. no, I'm talking about her sister, Lily. Lily is the second oldest- never complains about her lot in life, never gets snappy, very, very sweet- never violent in the least. And then she and her sisters get taken to the World Under Stone, with arranged marriages ( with half demons) in mind. during Rose's one true love's rescue attempt, Lily gets her hands on a gun. turns out her own one true love taught her how to shoot. things don't end well for the attackers.
    • Galen himself( the real main character) counts as well- he just wanted to be done with war, and is one of the nicest guys ever- even giving up his last bit of food to an old beggar. then Rose goes missing, and he's ready, armed with magic, a gun, and pure Badass-ery.
  • Daphne of Sisters Grimm is a a sweet little 7 year old, who loves everybody( even the big bad wolf.) she doesn't have an evil or violent bone in her body. but if you mess with your family, she will try her darndest to end you, and she's not the keeper of a ton of magical items for no reason. she causes a tornado. 'nuff said.
  • Ryo, the namesake of The Longing of Shiina Ryo, wishes to inform you that it is unwise to ignore her. She will use an ASCII weapon of mass destruction if you do. And that's just her warm up. Gravity is her friend, not yours.
  • The Mule from Foundation and Empire.
  • Also from Isaac Asimov is Jackson, the thief from the first of the Black Widowers mysteries. He was totally honest, to the point that the detective refers to it as a "pathological" condition. But his business partner, Anderson, treacherously forced him out of the business with no funds to speak of — and then Jackson took revenge by stealing something from Anderson. Anderson wasn't quite sure what had been stolen, but he knew Jackson had taken it, and yet he couldn't prove anything. It drove Anderson to a mental and physical decline, and he died within five years. Jackson placidly admits that every day he was glad that he'd stolen what he did from Anderson. It was nothing physical; only Anderson's peace of mind.
  • Percy Jackson's mother Sally is the ideal mom. She always makes him feel good, and both of them find it impossible to stay angry at the other for long. But just about anyone would snap from year after being married to an abusive asshole like Smelly Gabe. And when she gets her hands on Medusa's head...well, you can pretty much guess what happens. She goes back to her normal self after this, though. But in Book 5, she (and her second husband, Paul Blofis) fight ferociously to defend New York from Kronos and his armies.
    • And then there's Grover. He's a clumsy, Adorkable satyr most of the time...but when he needs to be, he can be incredibly Badass, especially after he gets the gift of panic.
    • Annabeth's dad, too. One moment, he's an eccentric bookworm who wears an aviator's hat around the house; the next, he's flying a Sopwith Camel into battle and spraying celestial-bronze bullets while wearing the same aviator's hat.
  • Mild-mannered science fiction author Peter Frigate of To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer is not afraid to fight, he's afraid to unleash the rage within. People die when that happens.
  • In Wearing the Cape, Hope Corrigan, who at the age of 18 stands less than 5 feet tall and is self-described as an "underdeveloped teenage Tinkerbell", is one of the strongest superheroes on the planet (in the top 10%, anyway). Also, though she spends a good deal of time worrying about accidentally hurting anyone, she opens an alarming can of Whupass at the end of the story.
  • In Enid Blyton's Famous Five books Anne is a young lady in training. Occasionally she ulitizes this trope.
    • Likewise, Mary-Lou from Malory Towers.
  • Nick Chopper (the Tin Man) in Baum's Oz novels. He is, hands-down, the sweetest, kindest guy you will ever encounter. He cried himself rusted after accidentally stepping on a bug because he regretted taking innocent life. When it comes to creatures threatening innocent lifes, or those of his True Companions? The axe comes out and heads start rolling. Baum even lampshades it in the second book by stating that Nick "fights like a Roman Gladiator."
  • Ibram Gaunt from Gaunt's Ghosts cam be considered an example of this. By Imperium standards, he's pretty reasonable. Get someone killed through incompetence or stupidty, however, and he will not hesitate to make an example of you.
  • At the beginning of The Tomorrow Series, the main characters are a bunch of nice, normal, reasonably-harmless Australian small-town and farm/ranch kids. When they find their country's been invaded and their families have either been killed or rounded up and imprisoned...that's their Let's Get Dangerous moment, and they eventually become guerrillas with an international reputation, and tops on the enemy's "better dead" list.
  • In Mario and the Magician by T. Mann, the magician Cippola uses his powers on a nice sweet waiter Mario. He forces Mario to reveal whom he is in love with, and then, makes him believe that he is that girl and that Mario should kiss "her" - all this during the show with hundreds people watching. Then Mario is snapped out of his trance and realises he just kissed Cippola instead of his girl in front of all those people (who are amused by his ordeal) and is basically humiliated into the ground. Sounds sad? Well, directly after that, Mario shoots Cippola dead. End of story.
  • Raoul, the hero of Gerfalcon by Leslie Barringer, doesn't like hunting; early in the book he complains about how he "must learn to kill animals as though I liked it." The grandfather of the girl he loves said of him later, "That Raoul will be implacable in strife; beware the man reluctant to slay beasts when he takes to the slaying of men." Raoul's men-at-arms capture fourteen brigands who'd been part of an attempt to kill him and rape her. All Raoul says is "Behead them instantly."
  • David Drake's Daniel Leary is inclined to be friendly and generous; the first book describes his expression as so naturally warm that when he smiles at something he's thinking, strangers on the street smile back. Thinking that he's "soft," however, is a mistake. For a lot of enemies, it's the last error they ever make. He's a combat officer with great skill and a well-honed killer instinct, not to mention very strong arms and hands.
  1. ↑ Men at Arms; said to have been learned by Vimes as a young guard.
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