Destructive Saviour: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

Say a hideous monster is terrorizing the town. All seems lost, until the [[Big Damn Heroes]] arrive. They beat the monster down, and the whole village celebrates with them.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* The ''[[Dirty Pair]]'' got their name because of this ([[Berserk Button|don't call them that to their faces though!]]).

* Love Pheromone of ''[[Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge]]'' have been [[Fan Nickname|called]] "Dirty Pair [[The Same but More|from hell]]."

* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': This trope was played tragically. As soon as the first episode we could see how destructive [[Humongous Mecha|Mazinger-Z]] may be (in the original manga, [[Unbuilt Trope|Kouji destroyed half city]] [[Falling Into the Cockpit|as he was trying figuring out how handling the damned machine]]. In the anime series he activated Mazinger on an unpopulated area; still, he destroyed his grandfather's lab, went on a rampage through the landscape and nearly got his little brother killed). When Kouji and Sayaka battle a [[Robeast|Mechanical Beast]], usually there is not much left of the battlefield in the wake of the fight. And when it is a city, buildings crumble down and people dies. As soon as the episode 7 it was shown people did NOT appreciate this and as far as they were concerned, Mazinger-Z was just so bad like Dr. Hell's Mechnical Beasts.

* [[Slayers|Lina Inverse]] has a nasty habit of casting the [[Fantastic Nuke|Dragon Slave]] in populated areas, especially when the series takes a turn for the funny. The most famous incident is probably the first episode of the anime, in which a village is being attacked by a dragon Lina accidentally set loose by slaughtering/robbing the gang of bandits that it belonged to. Lina first makes the village elder promise to pay her before lifting a finger to help, then destroys the whole village along with the dragon because the dragon insults her by ''not'' stepping on her. (She still expects to be paid.)

* Averted in ''[[Desert Punk (manga)|Desert Punk]]''. In an early episode, Desert Punk and Rain Spider prepare to duel in the center of town for the right to a woman... as payment for her father's debt. The town elder tries to warn them off, saying their duel will be so epic and destructive that it will destroy the town. Turns out he didn't need to worry, as the duel turns out to be so [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|non-epic]] and drawn out that most of the townspeople wander off in boredom after a few hours.

* In ''[[Chrono Crusade]]''...

* When things are starting to get rough in [[Ghost in the Shell]], the members of Section 9 generally try to avoid hurting innocent bystanders. Everything else usually gets completely trashed within minutes by [[More Dakka|heavy machine gun fire]], rockets, tanks, and the occasional mecha.

* Ayaka Kisaragi from ''[[Phantom Quest Corp]]'' (''Yugen Kaisha'' in Japanese). Most of her battles with ghosts end up trashing the nearby environment (including poor Tokyo Tower).

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]] Parallel Works 6'' has an alternate Gurren-dan defeating their Beastmen oppressors in an incredibly [[Badass]] way, but at the very end of the short, the ersatz Simon (who is an older, ordinary bloke in this version) is distraught to find that they have completely decimated his hometown in the process.

* Vash the Stampede of ''[[Trigun]]'', who is known as the "Humanoid Typhoon" due to being one of these. He eventually gets declared to be "the first human Act of God" because wherever he goes, things get wrecked.

*** The best part, and a good bit of the comedy early on in the series, revolves around the fact that Vash is an [[Actual Pacifist]], and things getting wrecked is utterly caused by people gunning for him. His introduction into the series involves him sitting down to a bar and a hail of bullets completely and utterly destroying the entire building, save the stool he happened to be sitting on. Everyone tries to kill him because of the huge bounty on his head, and there's a huge bounty on his head because destruction follows him everywhere.

**** There ''was'' that one incident that started the hunt.

***** Technically, he's declared an Act of God because that means the insurance company won't have to pay off for damage he causes.

***** The torts law involved in this is very, very complicated, as torts law generally is, and the Gunsmoke version is of course unknown to us. The anime makes a lot more sense here, having Meryl and Millie called off the case for a while after this is declared, while in the manga, for [[Did Not Do the Research|no clear reason]], the insurance agents are ''assigned'' to him when this happens, but his ''bounty'' is removed. Which, let us reiterate, makes ''no sense.''

* The titular [[Humongous Mecha]] of ''[[Cannon God Exaxxion]]'' is so huge is causes massive property damage every time it takes a step. And let's not even get into the shockwave created by the damn thing's [[BFG]].

* In the ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' [[Devil May Cry: The Animated Series|anime]], Dante manages to stop a number of demons...unfortunately, the money for doing so is rarely enough to compensate for the way the damage bills add to his debts.

* [[Cowboy Bebop|Spike Spiegel's]] penchant for causing massive destruction when chasing a bounty head is one of the reasons why he and the other crew of the Bebop live in [[Perpetual Poverty]]:

{{quote|'''Spike:''' What happened to the one million woolongs we got as bounty for that last guy?

* Koichi Hayase in the early parts of ''[[Linebarrels of Iron]]'' caused quite a lot of property damage with his humongous mecha, it later comes back to bite him in one of the most cruel ways imaginable, and THEN he gets called out on it.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' mentioned this a lot pretty early on, with NERV officials getting bills and complaints about all the damage caused by the frequent battles in and around Tokyo-3. Shinji is quickly singled out as the pilot of Unit 01 as he's the only new kid to show up right when everyone's moving out because they don't much like the idea of 'living in a warzone.'

** Almost taken to [[Beyond the Impossible|its logical extreme]] later on: Sadamitsu calls out the Vulture on [[Thou Shall Not Kill|killing said aliens instead of capturing and incapacitating them]]. Later on the Vulture [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower|gives him its power]]... and Sadamitsu's [[Powered Armor]] [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|starts behaving extremely erratically: it laughs at and taunts their opponent then retaliates with electrical torture]]. When Sadamitsu reminds it they should recover the alien instead of killing it, Junk attempts to do so... [[Crazy Awesome|by turning the Activator's power level so high a single shot would shatter the whole planet]]. It is at that point [[Know When to Fold'Em|Sadamitsu decides they wreaked enough havoc already and calls a retreat]].

* Heavily deconstructed in ''[[Bokurano]]'', where the heroes' [[Humongous Mecha]], along with their opponents, are so powerful that their battles can cause thousands of civilian casualties if they don't take extreme caution. The pilots soon learn to fight in evacuated or unpopulated areas to limit the damage, but even then they're [[Not So Different]] when {{spoiler|fighting in other worlds}}. The populace initially has no way of telling that the heroes are even fighting for the Earth, and commonly refer to the mecha as [[Kaiju]]. Some foreign governments are so afraid that they {{spoiler|send assassins against the pilots}}.

* [[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt|Panty and Stocking]] live and breathe this trope. Luckily the citizens of [[City of Adventure|Daten City]] all appear to be [[Made of Iron]].

* Kazuki's efforts to get to the roof of his school to stop Victor's resurrection at the end of the LXE arc of ''[[Busou Renkin]]'' cause more property damage than the LXE did in the ''entire story arc''. And to top it off {{spoiler|Kazuki's transformation into Victor III makes him inadvertently do as much harm to his classmates as Victor did once he woke up.}} At least he was able to prevent any actual (civilian) deaths...

* Guts from ''[[Berserk]]'' overlaps with this and [[Walking Disaster Area]], as most of the time, shit is already messed up by the time he gets to a town (the usual scenario is that [[The Usual Adversaries|an apostle]] is a terrorizing the place). However, since Guts [[Demon Hunter|hunts apostles]], he takes it upon himself to kill them, which should make him a hero... [[Anti-Hero|but he does his deeds at the expense of everybody around him]] [[Revenge|and for his own desires]] - [[Implacable Man|and he knows it.]] [[Deconstructed Trope|Thus,]] Guts is pretty much [[Hero with Bad Publicity|viewed as a villain]] by most who come across him.

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': In the final battle, Naraku banks on his enemies being so concerned about collatoral damage that they won't attack him just in case Kaede's village is destroyed as a result. This is part of a plan to buy him the time he needs to reach the Bone-Eater's Well. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, for him, he didn't take into account Sesshoumaru.}} As Inuyasha's group does indeed hesitate as he hoped, {{spoiler|Sesshoumaru responds with [[Shut UP, Hannibal|"So what?"]] and attacks which encourages Inuyasha's group to join in. Despite the damage the village suffers, they're happy for Inuyasha's group to live permanently with them after the grand finale and even tolerate frequent visits from Sesshoumaru.}}

* Madoka from ''[[Rinne no Lagrange]]'' ''tries'' not to be one, but she's still in a [[Humongous Mecha]] fighting other Humongous Mecha, so it doesn't always work.

* There is a reason they make [[Idiot Hero|Luffy]] fight on the outer deck in the Baratie arc of ''[[One Piece]]''. It of course gets smashed up, not in the least because Luffy declares he's going to fix everything by just sinking the goddamn ship and letting it be done with. {{spoiler|He doesn't really.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* Fight Man in the [[Marvel Universe]].

* [[The Authority]], dear god, [[The Authority]].

* [[Incredible Hulk]]

** His sons are also this. In fact, they may well be ''more'' dangerous than their father, because while the Hulk typically tries not to kill other people, his sons have no such compunction.

* [[Groo the Wanderer]] is the [[Anthropomorphic Personification|living embodiment]] of this trope- he's flattened multiple cities he was trying to save (accidentally, of course), ruined the lives of everyone involved in his periodic attempts to help them, shattered empires, and is widely considered to be worse than plague, famine, drought, war, pestilence, flooding, and bandits ''put together''... often because he'll cause any or all of them to happen, sometimes simultaneously. People who know of him learn never to ask for his help, but he will still offer, which is more terrifying than him offering to ''kill'' them. Heart of gold, brain of stone.

* Played for drama in the ''[[Astro City]]'' story "Old Times", when [[Flying Brick]] Supersonic is called out of retirement to stop a rampaging giant robot. Unable to think of a clever scheme to stop it, he settles for simply pounding it instead, and the ensuing brawl takes out a dozen residential blocks.

* ''[[The Avengers]]'' are almost incapable of going more than half-a-dozen issues without having to promise some irate civilian that [[Uncle Pennybags|Tony]] [[Iron Man|Stark]] will compensate them for losses incurred due to the Avengers smashing a hole in an intersection/using a streetful of cars as crude ballistics/blowing up a subway tunnel/demolishing a building or three/etc, etc.

 

 

* ''[[Fairly English Story]]'': There's a lot of colleteral damage in the Full Moon Shadows.

* ''[[Pokémon Master]]'': Places tend to end up burning, crumbling down or exploding in the wake of Ash and his friends. One character lampshades this in episode 10:

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Lily:'''}} "You know, places that go to hell seem to be quite common when you're around."

'''Ash:''' "Tell me about it." }}

 

 

* In ''[[RoboCop]]'' the title character stops a convenience store robbery ... but damages most of the store in the process. The owners don't look too happy.

* Pretty much the point of the first half or so of ''[[Hancock]]''.

* Pretty much ''everyone'' in the second half of ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]''. A city official tries to call them on it during the post-battle montage of news reports, but he's drowned out by the chorus of civilians saying "thanks for saving us from an alien invasion." But the MVP, hands-down:

 

 

== Literature ==

* Dying alien warrior Prince Elfangor, one of the technologically-advanced Andalites, reveals a covert invasion of Earth by another alien species, the Yeerks, to five human teenagers. He gives the teenagers access to morphing technology in hopes that they can launch a guerrilla war against the invaders, promising that Andalite reinforcements are on their way, and they wouldn't need to stall for time more than a year. The teenagers, becoming the [[Animorphs]], {{spoiler|end up fighting for three years, because the Andalite military that the Animorphs were so desperately waiting for deemed Earth a low priority, and assumed the kids were lying to try to become a high priority in the very few times the two groups were able to make contact. When the Andalites realized that they've made a mistake and the Yeerk invasion on Earth has turned into a full-blown war, they decide to forfeit Earth and let the Yeerks concentrate all their manpower on Earth...before they blast the entire planet from orbit, killing everyone there, Yeerk...or human.}} This really is something of an indicator of Andalite arrogance, who believe humans to be second-rate species.

* ''[[Sir Apropos of Nothing]]'' isn't really like this in the first book, but in the second book, when he isn't [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], he does things of his own choice, and in the third book, he's even more like this.

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', Lews Therin Telamon and the male Aes Sedai (read: wizards) successfully locked the Dark One [[Sealed Evil in a Can|back in his prison]], but the Dark One countered by ''poisoning [[The Force]]'', causing all male channelers to go irrevocably insane and start [[World Sundering]] ''en masse''. Even in the story's modern day, 3,000 years later, there are debates on whether men hiding in [[Anti-Magic]] Fields made the Breaking Of The World worse (by spreading out the damage) or better (by preventing an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]).

* Referenced in the Zilpha Keatley Snyder youth novel, ''Song of the Gargoyle.'' One of the many songs court jester Komus taught his son Tymmon is "The Knight of the Honorable Name," a ballad about a lordly knight who wanders around fighting monsters and bandits, but often leaves his beneficiaries worse off than they'd started. One specific example is given of a town which is being menaced by a dragon. The titular Knight and his retinue slay the dragon, but only after they've lived in the town for so long, taking the townspeoples' goods and food, that they've laid waste to the town themselves. The Knight and his followers then ride off, proud of their success and oblivious to the destruction.

* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]]. Fights monsters, saves the city, and racks up a ton of property damage in doing so. Since he favors fire magic, [[Running Gag|he tends to burn down or severely damage at least one building per book]]. Check out the [[Destructive Saviour/Quotes|quotes page]] for some choice comments on the subject. The foreword for one short story in the ''Side Jobs'' compilation notes that a part of the planning process was finding a nice mall in the Chicago area for Dresden to destroy. Needless to say, the place is on fire by the end of the piece.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* On ''[[Lexx]]'', [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|Stanley tends to carelessly blow up the planets he just visited]].

** Some blame can be placed on Lexx himself, as the ship does not have a very good grasp on ethics or even basic slang, not to mention that it ''likes'' to blow up planets. At one point a planet was destroyed simply because Lexx didn't understand the meaning of "belay that order" and didn't bother to ask.

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[[Monsterpocalypse]]'', the faction called G.U.A.R.D. are UN troops who ride around in [[Humongous Mecha]] to defend the world's cities from devastation by giant monsters. Needless to say, given how the game works, they knock down just as many buildings as the freaks.

** A number of spells usable by player characters can lead to this trope. A few examples include: Meteor Storm, Tsunami, Earthquake, Wish, Alter Reality, the Mordenkainen spells, Colossus, any of the higher level Monster Summoning spells, a well placed Fireball, Creeping Doom, Summon Weather, Gate, etc. Honestly there are too many to name. The more powerful a magic-using PC gets, the more the potential for this trope increases. Keep in mind, this applies to Psionicists and reckless artifact/relic users, also.

** This is set up in the adventure module ''Apocalypse Stone''. The player characters are unknowingly being tested by a divine agent, and their current test is one of generosity. They are given the possibility to donate magic items to renew enchantments that protect a village from a minor [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]. To make sure they can't [[Take a Third Option|just get away with]] waiting for it to be released and killing it (actually, them; two behirs), it's written so that the battle will automatically destroy the village even if they win.

** The difference with the Eldar is, unlike the Imperium and Tau, it's never their own worlds that they destroy. And to the Eldar, no one else actually matters.

** In the words of a man who was unfortunate enough to be on a planet that needed Space Marine assistance, "We used to pray to [[God-Emperor|the]] [[Dark Messiah|Emperor]] to send his [[Space Marines|Angels]] to deliver us. Now we pray He never does so again."

* In an [[Abridged Series]] of ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'', Link is like this.

** In the real games, he's limited to pottery and rocks.

* The entire premise of the ''[[Red Faction]]'' series revolves around saving people from oppression by BLOWING SHIT UP!, particularly ''Guerrilla''. (It helps show off the [[Wreaking Havok|Geo-Mod]] system.)

* The main goal of the ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause]]'' series: you destabilise the governments of various rogue nations by blowing the crap out of their property. Most of this property also being ''used by civilians'' (such as water towers and power generators) isn't even lampshaded, hilariously.

** Notice how ''Red Faction: Guerrilla'' and ''Just Cause 2'' have VERY similar premises?

** Only way to be sure.

* ''[[World in Conflict]]'' actually has you avoid that situation to a degree. In several cases, you have to deal with enemies under a time limit before command is forced to take drastic measures. Played straight with {{spoiler|Cascade Falls getting nuked to stop the Russians}}.

** That being said, there aren't many cities that survive being saved by American forces. Even {{spoiler|Seattle}}, at the end of the game, will likely require billions upon billions of dollars to bring back to any semblance of normalcy.

* ''[[Freedom Force]]'', though it's only towards the end of the sequel that confrontations start knocking down city blocks by accident.

* ''[[Mercenaries]]'' is ''built'' on this. Though how much of a "savior" you are [[Sociopathic Hero|depends]].....

** The whole "saviour" thing [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|starts off unintentional as well.]] By the time you've finished the game, the player's probably unintentionally slaughtered the population of NYC at least 3 times over in civilians, not counting [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|intentional killing of civilians]], killing [[Punch Clock Villain|soldiers]] or killing [[Zombie Apocalypse|The Infected]].

* The trope could well be renamed [[Angry Birds]], as the object isn't just to [[Kill'Em All]], but points are awarded based on how much is destroyed.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

** In fact, {{spoiler|they're later outright stated to be the true villains of the universe.}}

*** Not that {{spoiler|Sarda is any better}}.

* There's a reason that Celesto Morgan of ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' is referred to as "Collateral Damage Man." He's only recently become anything close to a "savior" in his attempts to stop [[Eldritch Abomination|"The Beast,"]] and tends to prefer the fighting style of "throw Chaos at it until it explodes." Admittedly, strictly speaking he wasn't trying to save Lynn's Brook in particular, but the world as a whole, and considers the loss of Lynn's Brook acceptable.

* Kamina (Yes, ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|that]]'' Kamina) of ''[[Double K]]'' proudly boasts during his introduction that he's the only cop on the force to cause more collateral damage than the entire budget could cover.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': "Thank you, Bartman. Your overzealous homicide has saved me eighty cents!"

* ''[[Mega Man X]]'' in his one-episode appearance in ''[[Mega Man (animation)|Mega Man]]''.

* This trope, or rather the lawsuits that resulted from this trope, is the reason for the "forced superhero retirement" in the beginning of ''[[The Incredibles]]''.

* Godzilla in ''[[Godzilla: The Series]]''. He IS as big as a building and can tunnel underground, so it's unavoidable.

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[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Finagle's Law]]