Dirty Coward: Difference between revisions

== [[Film]] ==

* Beni from ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy 1999]]'' fits squarely into this role, betraying just about every member of the cast and joining with the villain in order to save his own skin. His [[Karmic Death|comeuppance]] is suitably horrible.

* Bernie Bernbaum of the [[Coen Brothers]] film ''[[Miller's Crossing]]''.

* Lieutenant Roget from ''[[Paths of Glory]]''

* Luther, leader of [[Gang of Hats|the Rogues]] in ''[[The Warriors (film)|The Warriors]]''

* [[The Starscream|Starscream]] seems to almost revel in it. From ''[[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]],'' in an exchange with Megatron that combines this with [[Know When to Fold'Em]]:

* Simon, Elaine's fiancee from ''[[Airplane!]] 2: The Sequel''. He lied and said that Stryker was wrong about the Mayflower shuttle being defective, and later abandons the shuttle rather than help save its passengers from the disaster.

* In 'Attack', Captain Cooney continually puts his men in jeopardy by being too cowardly to send reinforcements. At the end, when they're trapped in a basement in a town overrun by SS and other Nazis, he becomes a full-on dirty coward when he grabs a gun and threatens anyone that would keep him from surrendering. This is despite the fact that one of his men is Jewish and the others tell Cooney the SS won't honor his POW rights. {{spoiler|The others shoot him before he can surrender and reveal their position.}}

** In ''[[Discworld/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'', Rincewind also gets to use all his knowledge of cowardice and panic in one magnificent [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when he starts a rumor among the soldiers of the Agatean Empire than Cohen's Silver Horde is most certainly ''[[Reverse Psychology|not]]'' backed up by an army of [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|2,300,009 invisible bloodsucking vampire ghosts]].

*** Also in ''Interesting Times'', Rincewind ponders running away from the rebel army and letting them fight without his aid. He argues with one of the rebels about this, and the exchange goes like this:

'''Rincewind:''' ''(deep breath) [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Continously!]]'' }}

* The title character of ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'' is a shameless example... [[Noble Demon|or so he claims]].

* In [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'', when invisible beings threaten to massacre them unless Lucy goes into the magician's tower and casts a spell, Caspian declares that they are trying to make her do something they are too afraid to let their own daughters do. They agree that he has put it quite nicely. (One reason why Lucy agrees is that she thinks it may not be as bad as they say, as they are obviously great cowards.)

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|A Princess of Mars]]'', John Carter describes Tal Hajus as this to force him into battle.

** In ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'', Jav exults when he thinks Tario dead, and instantly cowers when he realizes he's alive. It does not save him, and he whimpers through the following ordeal.

** In ''Chessmen Of Mars'', O-Tar. When he berates his followers for cowardice, one of them declares:

* [[Corrupt Church|Bishop Sansum]] from ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'' is a great example. Unfortunately he's also a [[Smug Snake]] who always manages to get an advantage out of his betrayals and slimy political power grabs. Also, very unusually, there's {{spoiler|Lancelot}} who contrary to his [[Knight in Shining Armor]] image in most of [[King Arthur|the Arthurian Legend]], here gets his reputation by paying off minstrels and bards to tell of his deeds and taking the credit for other people's work. However, it should be noted with {{spoiler|Lancelot}} that he is basically the [[Arch Enemy]] of Derfel, (the story's protagonist) and Derfel does admit that {{spoiler|Lancelot}} was a surprisingly good fighter when the two actually fought and that it's possible that his hatred for {{spoiler|Lancelot}} is coloring the tale.

* Nom Anor from the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' series is a self-proclaimed coward- indeed, everything he does is to ensure his own safety, power, and comfort. He's an exception to the rule that a [[Dirty Coward]] cannot be a [[Magnificent Bastard]], however, because he often comes off as the only one of [[Proud Warrior Race|his]] [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|people]] with any common sense whatsoever.

* Chang in the penultimate episode of ''[[Community]]'' Season 2. At one point he runs through the paintball wasteland screaming "Does anyone have an alliance I can join?!", {{spoiler|having betrayed at least 3 other groups already (The Study Group, Math Club, and The Cheerleader Alliance).}}

* Lailoken, the soothsayer of King Vortigern in the 1998 ''[[Merlin (TV miniseries)|Merlin]]'' series. He is motivated entirely to keep himself out of danger (makes sense, considering he's around ''Vortigern'' of all people) and preserve his own life. After Vortigern tasks him to try to find out why his tower is collapsing, Lailoken makes a perfect dirty coward quote while at his religious rituals.

* Angel Martin of ''[[The Rockford Files]]'' fits quite well. He frequently refuses to do his part in plans that put him in the slightest amount of danger, and he sells out his friends immediately when things go south and he ends up in jail, or in the hands of organized crime.

* The [[Asshole Victim|victim]] of the ''[[Cold Case]]'' episode ''Justice'' is a serial date rapist who exploited the lax laws regarding date rape to repeatedly perpetuate the crimes, peed himself when several of his former victims confronted him at gunpoint, and then acted unapologetic and unrepentant about his actions once they left. The detectives become so repulsed by what they learned of him that they ''actually tell the killer what to say in court to defend himself''.

* Major Bloodnok (Peter Sellers) in ''[[The Goon Show]]'' is a coward through-and-through, and there's not a thing he won't do for money.

** Also, everyone else. While deciding who gets volunteered for a dangerous mission:

'''Seagoon''': ''Three'' cowards. }}

* Thomas in ''[[Old Harry's Game|Old Harrys Game]]'' (whose nastiness [[Even Evil Has Standards|disgusts even Satan]]) has many horrible characteristics, but his dirty cowardice is among his defining traits. Though he does occasionally show signs of [[Character Development]], this is nearly always unwound by the end of the episode.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* [[Magic: The Gathering|Ib Halfheart]], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=157923 Goblin Tactician]. His tactical insights include:

''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?name{{=}}Blinking+Spirit "Don't look at it! Maybe it'll go away!"]'' }}

* [[Exalted|The Ebon Dragon]] may be one of the Titans who created the world, and one of the most overwhelmingly powerful beings in existence, but his pitiful Virtues (especially Valor), the easily exploitable holes in his defenses and the personality constraints of his Excellency make him an utterly rank coward. He will very rarely engage in a straight fight against anything capable of hurting him (which can be pretty much everything) and will ''never'' do so against something that has the slightest chance of killing him. Fortunately for him, being the Principle of Villainy makes one ''really'' good at talking your way out of trouble, or just plain running away.

** The public of The Burgundy Theater invokes this trope about Montfleury [[Run or Die]] decision instead of [[Last Stand|standing to Cyrano (who has threatened to Kill Montfleury if he insist to act in a play)]] in the middle of Act I Scene IV. Subverted at the end of that scene, after [[Sociopathic Hero|Cyrano literally kicks a Bore's ass and wounds De Valvert]], then [[Fridge Logic|is obvious that Montfleury displayed true valor]] daring Cyrano's prohibition to be in scene. [[Jerkass|The public still think that Montfleury is a DirtyCoward]].

** At Act II Scene III Cyrano admits to himself he is one of those when he thinks to write a letter to Roxane and flee. Interestingly enough, he has a [[Freudian Excuse]].

''(Throws down the pen):'' [[Lampshade Hanging|Coward!]]... But strike me dead<br />

[[Cannot Spit It Out|if I dare to speak to her]],... ay, even one<br />

* Anub'Arak in the Old Kingdom dungeon in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is widely regarded as a despicable coward due to his fight mechanics, where he constantly burrows underground becoming untargetable and sends minions after the players. Far from being a challenge it is merely an annoyance and prolongs the fight unecesarrily.

** That's probably a fan-reaction to a [[Scrappy Mechanic]] more than anything else. In ''The Frozen Throne'', when he is first introduced, he is pretty brave, serving as Arthas' [[The Dragon|dragon]], accompanying him through Azjol-Nerub and fighting at the front. In one mission, the duo meet a [http://www.wowwiki.com/Forgotten_one forgotten one] (basically an Old God-lite), and Anub'Arak's first response is to charge the thing.

** Many generic enemies in ''World of Warcraft'' have a cowardly streak, upon depleting most of their health they will attempt to flee and the message "[enemy] is trying to run away in fear." is displayed. If not controlled or killed they could potentially reach other enemy groups for help resulting in a wipe.

* Patches the Hyena of ''[[Demon's Souls]]'', and [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo|later]] ''[[Dark Souls]]''.

** Inverted slightly in the Hunter's Trilogy, while he is out for "thelf-prethervation", he also seems ''very'' set on his rival getting his head blown off. The numerous instances Elmer actually turns his attention on Bugs, and naturally screws up, Daffy will actually [[Motive Decay|go up to Elmer and berate him to his face to]] "Shoot him! SHOOT HIM!". On one occasion he actually snatched the gun from Elmer and attempted to do the job himself, [[Harmless Villain|the latter just walked off bewildered]].

** His greed can overcome this, though: in "Ducking the Devil" (1957) he ''beats up the Tasmanian Devil'' when Taz takes some money from him!

* When the chips are down, Zapp Brannigan from ''[[Futurama]]'' is a coward.

** In one of the ''[[Futurama]]'' movies, Bender, Amy and one other character are trapped by a bunch of orcs in a castle. Bender tells the two ladies he has a plan, and next scene shows him holding them up in the air (and looking like he's about to surrender). Suddenly the orcs are killed by the [[Big Damn Heroes]] causing Bender to look relieved. It's pretty obvious he meant to sacrifice his "friends" to save himself.

*** It's more than obvious. Bender outright ''tells'' the orcs to take his friends first, just to give him one more second of sweet sweet life.

'''Fry''':(Jumps out of a land rover and immediately gets stuck in moon dust) Help me Leela! }}

** In "Bendin' in the Wind," the crew is plunging off a cliff. Bender grabs a nearby cable, loudly declaring, "I'll save ME!" The rest of the crew is only saved by grabbing his legs just in time.