Mad Bomber: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

Sometimes you'll encounter someone who just seems to have the perfect personality to go along with their job, like a real life work related version of [[Personality Powers]]. For example, maybe an old time watchmaker would have a very careful, analytical mind that paid very close attention to detail. What could be better for someone who has to very carefully use, assemble and repair something made of hundreds of tiny springs and gears?

* The Greed Island arc of ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' features Gensuru, the "Bomb Devil" or "Demon Bomber", whose Nen abilities are based on explosions.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' has a one episode villain Teddy Bomber, who likes to hide his bombs in teddy bears that he leaves on his target site. He's quickly eclipsed by the "serious" rivalry between Spike and Andy during the episode in question, "Cowboy Funk."

* ''[[Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro]]'' has "Histerrier", who is quite literally mad, and has no motive for planting the bombs other than being {{spoiler|a bored housewife}}. Although she may have been the first of the main villain's pawns to be unveiled.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Solf J. Kimblee (also known as the Crimson or Red Lotus Alchemist) is certainly crazy, but he's good at hiding it, doubling as [[The Philosopher]] and a [[Social Darwinist]] with a [[Faux Affably Evil]] demeanour, and [[Moral Sociopathy|a genuine respect for people who stick to their guns]]. Still a raging [[The Sociopath|psychopath]] though, and one who [[Just Following Orders|sees no difference]] between saving people as a doctor and [[Sociopathic Soldier|killing them as a soldier]]. The Bomber part comes in with his own brand of alchemy: he destabilizes the molecules in everything around him to create explosions, at times making the very ''air'' explode.

* ''[[Naruto]]'' had Deidara, member of Akatsuki who passionately believes his explosions [[Mad Artist|are a work of beautiful, fleeting moments of art]], and has frequent arguments with [[Marionette Master|Sasori]] over it. His sole motive as a missing-nin (a ninja, who betrays his village by defecting) is to blow up things; the fact that he can get paid for it by Akatsuki or terrorist organizations is just icing. He doesn't mind Sasori having differing opinions so much, but he can't stand his art being treated with indifference as by Itachi and Sasuke, the latter of whom finally beats him .{{spoiler|Ultimately, he decides to blow himself, trying to take Sasuke with him- not for defeating him, mind, but for the whole indifference thing.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Detective Conan]]''; the bomber in the first [[Non-Serial Movie]] is {{spoiler|the architect who built all of the buildings he either blew up or nearly blew up. He did it because he was a [[Neat Freak]] who considered those buildings his [[Old Shame]]. And also wanted to "punish" Conan (and Kogoro) for trapping him, via getting Ran (almost) fatally trapped in the last one.}}

* ''[[Tantei Gakuen Q]] / [[Detective Academy Q]]'' also featured one of these: Yoshinari Taiki, a delightfully insane "Jewelry Summoner" who was thoroughly convinced that he was acting on behalf of his "gods" by targeting places related to birthstones. {{spoiler|It turned out that the nutcase somehow arrived to the conclusion that ''[[A God Am I|he was his own god]]'' as he tried to control everything}}.

* Minene, the 9th Diary Holder of ''[[Mirai Nikki]]'', who first introduces herself by blowing up a school. She does get a lot of [[Character Development]], though, and ends up being one of the most sympathetic characters in the series.

== [[Literature]] ==

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Aerys the Mad King had enormous caches of jars filled with "wildfire" hidden throughout the capital city to make it explode and burn to prevent it from falling into the hands of [[La Résistance]].

** Fiddler lampshades it occasionally, pointing out just how crazy and dangerous using Moranth munitions can be.

** Most evident during one assault when one of the sappers runs back to the lines laughing hysterically. Everyone who sees this takes cover, because a laughing sapper means they probably used ''all the munitions they had''.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Inverted with Carter in ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'', who is actually very friendly, enthusiastic, and amiably [[The Ditz|clueless]] about most things. He just really likes his explosives, to the point of being depressed that he had to send several of his handmade bombs to be dropped on a Nazi facility without getting to go along and watch, comparing it to sending a child off into the world.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'' there was Ace, perhaps the only heroic example of this trope. She carried around a backpack full of home made explosives which she was very quick to use, at least early on.

'''Ace:''' Of course not. I'm a good girl and do what I'm told.

'''The Doctor:''' Excellent! [[Hypocritical Humor|Blow up that vehicle.]] }}

** The Sandra Bullock episode of ''[[Muppets Tonight]]'' had a parody of Howard Payne who was simply called "the Mad Bomber". He turned out to be {{spoiler|Sandra Bullock in disguise}}.

* A more comedic nice guy example: Edgar Montrose from ''[[The Red Green Show]]''. While he's considered at times to be the local bomb squad, he once refuted the claim of being an expert; instead, he's more of an enthusiast. His [[Catch Phrase]]? KABOOM!

{{quote|"The only thing that separates us from a couple 14-year-old pyromaniacs is ballistic glass."}}

** ''[[Brainiac Science Abuse]]'', being one of those shows meant to capitalize on the popularity of Mythbusters, also likes to blow shit up, but isn't quite as good at it.

* Captain Gunpowder from ''[[Wild Boys]]''.

 

== [[Music]] ==

** Similarly, Bombman from the original ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' and ''[[Mega Man Powered Up]]'', to the point that he accompanies every entrance by screaming "BOMBS!!". The best Dialogue in the game is between [[Ham-to-Ham Combat|the Pyromaniac Fire Man and Bomb Man.]]

* Bob-Ombs of ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' and onward, of course. There's also that damn chicken in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' that drops egg bombs on you...

*** In fact Punchinello is a humanoid bomb, as all of Smithy's goons are anthropomorphized weapons. However since the Mario series already has semi-humanoid bombs in the form of the Bob-Ombs, Punchinello was taken even further, to the point of being almost unrecognizable as a bomb... it doesn't help that he himself doesn't explode, but rather uses Bob-Ombs as explosives.

** Mouser from [[Super Mario Bros. 2]] counts, as well.

* As quoted above, a certain [[Scary Black Man|Black]] [[Violent Glaswegian|Scottish]] [[Eyepatch of Power|Cyclops]] from ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' fits this trope to a tee.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: Link's Awakening'' has a unique [[Elite Mook]] actually named the Mad Bomber.

* Never forget the Goblin Techies from that pervasive ''[[Warcraft]] III'' pastime: Defense of the Ancients (DOTA).

{{quote|'''Crazy Ivan''': "Here, hold this!}}

** To put it in perspective, the Crazy Ivan is the only unit in the game that has the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|pretty descriptive]] AttackCursorOnFriendlies attribute in the game files.

* The ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' DLC ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'' adds the Mad Bomber perk. The perk lets you make bombs out of tin cans, more efficient versions of mines you already have, and more destructive versions of time bombs. The kicker, however, is the Fat Mine: a mini nuke rigged with a proximity fuse. [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|Overkill achieved.]]

** In-universe, there's the Boomers, a particularly trigger-happy faction who reside in Nellis Air Force Base and have an arsenal of explosives to themselves. They were originally from Vault 34, which had an overstocked armory and left the vault when they weren't allowed to use the really destructive stuff. They are fiercely territorial, with their response to anyone approaching them being mortar fire.

** Creepers. Pretty much all they do is silently sneak up on you, hiss for a second and a half, and explode. If the explosion doesn't kill you, it'll do devastating damage to your health.

** Ghasts (found only in the Nether), which throw fireballs at you.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** The [http://www.warlordccg.de/blog/ Warlord CCG] created the card [http://www.temple-of-lore.com/spoiler/images/4E/Temb%27w%27bam.jpg Temb'w'bam] as an homage to that character.

* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' had one episode where an obsessed fan of fictional superhero the Gray Ghost blackmailed the city with bomb threats. He acted under the nickname of a Gray Ghost villain, known, you guessed it, as "The Mad Bomber". Although when confronted (in Batman. The [[Show Within a Show|Gray Ghost]] example wasn't shown to the point of the villain being revealed), the villain seemed far more enthusiastic about using his beloved {{spoiler|toys}} in his effort to get the money to keep his {{spoiler|toy}}-collecting hobby going than about actually blowing things up.

* A rare case of this character type not being a villain: Vincenzo 'Vinny' Santorini from the [[Disney Animated Canon]] movie ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]''. Vinny is a crewman who is often a little too eager to use find a way to use explosives to solve a problem. Of course they do mention they got him out of ''a Turkish prison''.

* ''[[The Incredibles]]'' had an [[Enemy Mime]] who doubled as a [[Mad Bomber]] known as Bomb Voyage.

* In a [[Looney Tunes|Porky Pig]] cartoon called ''The Blow-Out'' (1936), the criminal "Bomber" strategically blows up buildings with time bombs. While not explicitly mad, he cackles like a wicked witch and seems to have no goal beyond destruction ("Now let's see, what building today?").

* In the 1994 [[Spider-Man: The Animated Series|Spider-Man cartoon]], Kletus Cassidy was depicted as one of these before he merged with the alien and became Carnage, since a [[Serial Killer]] was deemed too disturbing for a kid's show. He's every bit as mental as his comic book incarnation though, and in his introduction was willing to blow himself up alongside Spider-Man and the police.

* Lugnut from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' is a mad ''bomber plane''. To wit, he is described in [[Word of God|the fluff]] as having nigh-infinite missile payloads, which we see in his first encounter with the Autobots. On top of that, there's the [[Rocket Punch|Punch Of Kill Everything]], which puts an explosive tip on the end of his ''fist'' that ''makes a crater when used.''

* Heroic? example with Rico in "[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]."

Skiper: Rico, enough with the dynamite already. }}

* The main villain of ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'' was evil peacock who was obsessed with explosives.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[Truth in Television|Real life example]]: George Metesky, who planted 33 bombs (22 of which exploded) and injured a total of 15 people from 1940 to 1956. He was motivated by being denied compensation when he waited too long to file a claim after an industrial accident. See [[The Other Wiki]] [[wikipedia:Mad Bomber|for details]].

** Also in real life: The Unabomber.

** Don't forget Luke Helder, he put pipe bombs in mailboxes to draw a smiley face across the United States. Caught before he could finish, though.