Bully Hunter: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The high-school version of the [[Vigilante Man]], these kids prefer to take matters into their own hands rather than wait for a teacher to sort the problem out. They may believe that [[Adults Are Useless|teachers are useless when it comes to dispensing justice]], or that while the teachers are competent, [[Inherent in the System|the school system isn't]].

 

The appeal of this trope is obvious; everyone who has been bullied at some point in their lives will instantly sympathise with the urge to give a fictional tormentor a commuppance. As such, this can be a good way to introduce a heroic character as a [[Establishing Character Moment|guy or gal you can trust.]] It can also be used to give a backstory to an anti-heroic character if the bully hunter takes things too far; [[He Who Fights Monsters]] can be hinted at. All in the simple act of standing up to a bully.

 

* Sendoh Takeshi from ''[[Hajime no Ippo]]'' became a [[Delinquent]] only to protect others from bullies and other crooks, going so far as to to make his own gang. When his grandma calls him a scumbag, sportswriter Mari answers "But he never bullied the weak, right? He was a righteous scumbag."

** This is explained by his backstory. He once was brutally beaten up by highschoolers when he was in primary school, and [[Heroic Self-Deprecation|he hated himself for not being able to protect his friends]]. The next day, little Sendoh grabbed his baseball bat and ambushed the bullies, beating them back as punishment. And one thing led to another soon...

** The girls' [[Backstory]] make this a far more [[Serious Business]]; a certainly bully caused 10 Bully Hunters from 4 elementary schools to form [[The Alliance]] and engage in warfare against the former. They barely made a draw.

 

{{quote|'''Grant Morrison:''' If anyone in the world's been bullied, then Superman exists to take out the bully, no matter how big or smart or armed that bully might be.}}

* In one arc of ''[[Gotham Central]]'', the detectives re-open the unsolved cold case of the bloody bombing of the Gotham High School Hawks baseball team. One of the the theories of the detective who had been investigating the crime when it was fresh was that two nerds who had been bullied by the popular jocks had thrown a pipe bomb into the locker room as vengeance, supported by the fact that the two of them had actually stood up and ''cheered'' at the memorial service. However, the two nerds, who by now have grown up to become wealthy software tycoons, emphasize that they would never have done such a thing, especially since some of the boys on the team had been nice to them. One of the jocks had actually been an unofficial member of their computer club. They recognize the man suspected of being behind the bombing and are able to point the current detectives on the right path.

 

* The outcasts in ''[[The Final]]'', who lure all of the popular kids to a party so that they can drug them and torture them.

* The title character of ''[[Matilda (film)|Matilda]]'' becomes an example of this after her father tells her 'bad people get punished'. She starts by playing pranks on her abusive father. Then she meets the [[Big Bad]], [[Complete Monster|Agatha Trunchbull]], the sadistic headmistress of her school, and promptly directs her attacks to her.

* The short film ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131103014548/http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2259303/eric_and_dylan_hitmen_for_hire/ Hitmen for Hire]'' is about two hitmen who protect a student from bullies using violent means. It becomes incredibly scary when you realize [[Harsher in Hindsight|who made the film]] -- {{spoiler|Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the [[Columbine]] killers}}.

* ''[[Dick Tracy]]'': The Kid snatches wallets and other valuables for Steve the Tramp, a hideously ugly bum who lives in a shack on the edge of town. After bringing Steve a stolen watch, the Kid tries to help himself to some of Steve's roasted chicken - and gets viciously backhanded to the floor. That's when the titular detective (whose watch the Kid stole) shows up unexpectedly, orders Steve to let the Kid have some chicken, and knocks Steve around with surprisingly powerful punches that [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|eventually cause the entire shack to collapse]] (fortunately, after all three characters have cleared out). The police soon show up and arrest Steve, whom Tracy says is getting what he deserves for daring to [[Would Hurt a Child|abuse a child]]. (He then asks the kid if Steve is his father, but the Kid [[Ungrateful Bastard|just sneers and tells Tracy to mind his own business]].)

* What Bastian does with Falkor at the end of ''[[The Neverending Story (film)|The Neverending Story]]''.

* In ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger]]'', Steve Rogers' motivation for wanting to join the Army and volunteering for the Super Soldier Experiment: "I don't want to kill anybody. I don't like bullies. Don't care where they are from."

 

* An example of a child standing up to a [[Sadist Teacher]] is [[Roald Dahl]]'s ''[[Matilda (novel)|Matilda]]''. When you intend to make the lives of [[Complete Monster|a helpless class of young children a living hell]], [[Fantastic Aesop|be aware of the possibility that one of your victims may have latent magical powers]].

* Kel in [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''[[Tortall Universe|Protector of the Small]]'' quartet.

* The town of Grantsville on a grand scale in ''[[1632]]'' when they declare war on anyone who commits [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|mayhem]] in their neighborhood.

* In ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'', Ginny is this for Luna and to a lesser extent, the rest of the D.A. Even before her first year began she defended Harry against Malfoy.

 

* Adult example in ''[[Scrubs]]''. Dr Kelso does his absolute best to make Elliot's life a living hell. When he engages in a particularly brutal session (while Elliot was in the middle of her own personal [[Trauma Conga Line]]), Dr Cox, the resident [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]], steps in and wallops Kelso so hard he has a squeak in his nose that makes him audible from a hallway away.

** And out of his shoes, don't forget that. He whacked him so hard his shoes stayed perfectly stationary while his feet came out of 'em.

* Tucker had this reputation in ''[[Grange Hill]]''.

* Seth Bullock in ''[[Deadwood]]'' hints at this background. When Hearst gets on a particularly loathsome role, Bullock interrupts with barely contained rage, stating that bullies never know when to ''shut up''. Hearst takes the hint and leaves.

* Happens on ''[[Step by Step]]'', of all shows. When the nerdy Mark is being bullied, he doesn't tell anyone about it because he's too humiliated at being beat up by a girl. When his tomboyish stepsister Al finds out about it, she confronts the bully directly and gives her some very blunt threats about what she'll do if the bully ever picks on Mark again. The bully, remembering that Al beat the crap out of the toughest male bully in the school, immediately complies, allowing Mark to think that all he had to do was stand up to her.

** She also gets a group persecuting witches to back down [[Psychotic Smirk|by smiling at them.]] The fact she is known as a pyromaniac (her old school gym), possible murderer (Ted, Kendra), borderline psychotic (thanks [[Alpha Bitch|Cordy]]) or any combination of the above helps.

** In a scene late in [[The Movie]], Buffy is already in a bad mood when a lecherous male student grabs her rear end. Within seconds, she's judo-flipped him into the lockers and reduced him to a cringing coward who instantly apologizes. The other students at Hemery High just look on in shock, since Buffy has never been seen doing anything like this before.

* On ''[[Judge Judy]]'', if the case is about bullying expect Judy to make the bully break down in tears.

 

{{quote|'''Cyrano:''' Take notice, boobies all,

[[The Grotesque|Who find my visage's center ornament]]

[[Disproportionate Retribution|To let him taste my steel, and not my boot!]] }}

 

* Jimmy Hopkins of ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'' is the epitome of this trope, and can also fall afoul of the [[He Who Fights Monsters]] aspect of it. His treatment of the school's [[Alpha Bitch]] was particularly over-the-top, even if he didn't actually put the posters of her up and despite his trying to patch things up later. He's prone to other mean-spirited actions as well. And as for what the player may do with him... [[What the Hell, Player?|so, it sure is fun to run over, wedgie, and otherwise traumatize the hell out of little kids, isn't it?]]... [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|why are all these prefects suddenly after me?]]

* In both ''[[Fable (video game series)|Fable]]'' games, your character becomes one... that is, if you don't decide to be the bully in the first game. The second game is pretty much compulsory due to Rose having a [[Leeroy Jenkins]] moment.

* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', you have the option of saving your childhood friend from Butch and the other tunnel snakes before an exam. Cue some clever talking or a hard fist-fight if your strength is low.

** More [[Karma Meter|evil]] oriented characters can also simply murder him while leaving the vault a few scenes later.

* Keisuke was one of these before you met him in ''[[Devil Survivor]]''. {{spoiler|Then it backfired on him one day. ''[[Break the Cutie|Horribly.]]''}}

* Pretty much the ''only'' somewhat consistent good trait that [[Jerkass|Makoto Itou]] shows in the ''[[School Days]]'' saga is his hate for school bullies. [http://youtu.be/qQPhTCKdjlA One of the good endings with Kotonoha]{{broken link}} in the original game has Makoto defending her when he learns that [[Alpha Bitch|Otome]] and her [[Girl Posse]] are bullying her (he even stops one of the girls when she's about to slap poor Kotonoha); in ''Cross Days'', he also {{spoiler|steps in defense of his [[Gay Option]] Yuuki after finding out he was gang-raped by other boys - including Makoto's own [[Bromantic Foil]] Taisuke}}, and in the [[School Days]] backstory, he [[Rescue Romance|gained Setsuna's appreciation]] by protecting her from other kids that bullied her for looking smaller and younger than she truly was.

* According to [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/king_of_fighters/v01/c002/115.html one of the mangas], Kyo Kusanagi from ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' began his streetfighting career by defending his elementary school friends from bullies.

 

* Antimony of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' delivers a beautiful display of the trope when she takes down the class bully who was tormenting Kat. It cements their friendship.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Elliot admits that he used to have a bad habit of looking for bullies to fight. In fact, Tedd and Justin both met Elliot when he rescued them.

* ''[[Paranatural]]'' has an entity who [http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-5-page-23 possessed Jeff] and decided that since being detained for injuring another student [http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-5-page-26 is a simple way to move its mission along], it may well [http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-5-page-43 harm Johnny] who bullied Jeff earlier. Max [http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-5-page-93 tells it off] after this mostly failed.

 

{{quote|'''Xin:''' "Everywhere I go I run into idiots like you, who think they can do whatever they want, just because they know how to throw a punch. [[Badass Boast|I'm just here to make sure they know how to take a few as well]]."}}

 

* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Bart the General", Bart doesn't just go bully hunting, he does it on a grand scale with the entire class ganging up on Nelson and his gang, complete with aid from Grandpa and Herman. He even goes far enough to get Nelson to sign a treaty saying he "respects Bart's right to exist."

** The trope is even explicitly invoked in an earlier scene, when Bart angrily confronts a [[Mook]] who has stolen his sister Lisa's cupcake. Despite Lisa trying to warn him that the Mook works for Nelson, Bart tries to pummel the thug into submission, gets hauled off the floor, throws a wild punch without looking - and soon discovers that he has swung right at Nelson's face, ''bloodying it''! Once Nelson realizes that it's his own blood he's tasting and not that of a victim, he immediately burns with hatred for Bart and warns him that he's now as good as dead. But Lisa is proud of her brother for being so brave, and points him out to the entire school as "Bart the Bully-Killer" - a moniker that Bart would just as soon not have.

** Martin's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in ''[[The Simpsons Movie]]'' when he beats up ''three bullies by himself!'' (He thought he was going to die in a nuclear explosion, so he figured he didn't have to be afraid anymore.)

* An episode of ''[[Fillmore!]]'' had the safety patrol tracking down someone targeting bullies for humiliation, ending with [[An Aesop]] about there being better ways to deal with bullies.

* [[Adam West]] did this in an episode of ''[[Johnny Bravo]]''.

* On ''[[American Dad]]'', Stan starts bullying Steve in an attempt to make the boy more assertive. After weeks of being beaten senseless, Steve does learn a lesson on taking action for himself, but not the one Stan hoped. Steve hires Stelio Kantos, Stan's former high school bully, off of Craigslist to beat the ever living daylights out of Stan until he agrees to leave him alone.

** Just so this makes sense to those who don't understand, Chris was being bullied by this kid who was stealing customers from his paper round, insulted and humiliated him, etc. When Peter confronted the little punk, the kid [[Too Dumb to Live|starts insulting and cracking jokes about Peter, a fully grown man who]] [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|gets into a glorious fist fight with a giant chicken,]] [[Too Dumb to Live|when he was trying to be civil]], resulting in Peter beating him into unconsciousness. When he apologizes, the kid convinces him that its fun to hurt people, so Peter started bullying everyone, from his family to his friends to his ''paraphelgic cop neighbor''. He decided to hunt down his own former tormentor when he realized it was his fault for why he was acting so dickish, only to find out he now has MS and is unable to walk by himself. Peter doesn't care, so Chris beats him up to stop him.

* The first episode of ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' establishes Scott as this. Later episodes give this trait to just about everyone once mutants are revealed (Thought understandable since its, you know, them who're being picked on).

* [[Bugs Bunny]] tended to be a fairly good-natured fellow who didn't actually seek out bullies, but if he was provoked, or if he saw it happening, he'd take it upon himself to put a stop to it. In fact, they even had to create a new character to avert the [[He Who Fights Monsters]] danger the trope often runs into; though Elmer Fudd versus Bugs Bunny is an iconic rivalry, the factors that made it famous meant that there were actually very few Bugs vs. Elmer cartoons: Bugs is simply so much smarter than his would-be murderer that Elmer's threat is completely defused and Bugs starts to look like the bully. So they created Yosemite Sam, who was (relatively speaking) much smarter than Elmer, and far more belligerent, so that Bugs could have someone to face off against who wouldn't take too much audience sympathy from Bugs.