Terrorists Without a Cause: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' engages in some [[Playing with a Trope]] in the Teddy Bomber episode. TB ''has'' a reason that's very important to him for bombing tall buildings, and he keeps trying to explain it, but every last time he tries he's [[The Un-Reveal|interrupted]].

** He does finally get to reveal it at the end of the episode, and despite being a [[Mad Bomber]], actually comes off as somewhat sympathetic. The whole episode works better when you know he's very obviously inspired (in looks, MO, and philosophy) by Ted "Teddy Bear" Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who actually had very well thought-out reasons for his actions. TB in ''Cowboy Bebop'' may have had a similar cause but he was never able to explain it past a fleeting generality.

* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' actually gives this trope [[Deconstructed Trope|something of a serious treatment]] with Masahiro Takenaka, a villain in one of the arcs who's an ex-member of the Japanese Red Army. Having [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|long since outgrown any notion that he'll ever get to incite a worldwide revolution through his actions]], Takenaka keeps fighting as part of terrorist organizations that have absolutely nothing to do with his original goals because being an enemy of the state is the only thing he finds meaning in doing. What with the series' usage of [[Black and Grey Morality]], he is [[Sympathy for the Devil|actually presented sympathetically for it]].

* [[Mad Artist|Deidara]] of [[Naruto]] thinks of explosions as fine art and wanted to share his art with everyone. Because indiscriminately blowing up people and ''villages'' is not acceptable behavior for a nation at peace, he went rogue and worked for various anti-government factions even before Akatsuki recruited him. Pein's own reasoning on why he became this is "Just Because."

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** Hydra's deal is now 'Big Business has taken over everything. Now it's time to defeat them. And take over everything outselves'.

 

* In ''[[Quarter-Life: Halfway To Destruction]]'', the "bad guy from the game" threatens to destroy Dallas with a radioactive isotope. All he says of his motivation is "If you do not agree to my demans [[You Make Me Sic|''[sic]'']] -- TOO LATE!" before the isotope "[[Artistic License Nuclear Physics|hits quarter-life]]" and begins to meltdown. (Maybe he would have gotten to say what he actually wanted if he used a less radioactive material?)

* In ''[[Desperately Seeking Ranma]]'', the magically-inclined offshoot of [[w:Aum Shinrikyo|Aum Shinrikyo]] which planted the portal bombs seems to have no purpose beyond simply causing chaos, mayhem and death. (Several dozen chapters later, though, you start seeing hints that they were part of -- or manipulated by -- a much larger, more rational consipiracy.)

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The bomber in [[Source Code]] was a middle class, apparently educated white guy, who's only articulated gripe is "the world is hell". His plan is apparently to destroy civilization and rebuild from scratch. His motivations seem crazy, yet he has enough intelligence and resources to build a dirty bomb.

* The terrorist in ''[[Déjà Vu (film)|Deja Vu]]'' never really talks about his reasons. He's obviously unbalanced, and his only apparent gripe against society is that he wasn't allowed in the army.

 

* [[Meg Cabot]]'s ''American Girl'' begins with a botched presidential assassination, but deliberately avoids political commentary in favor of examining the life of the bystander who thwarted the attack. The solution? The assassin was obsessed with a supermodel, and convinced himself that killing the president would impress her.

** Something like that [[Ronald Reagan|actually]] [[Jodie Foster|happened]], you know.

* Pretty much inverted in ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'', where ''everyone'' has an agenda and the stories see no problem at all with incorporating [[The War On Straw|scantily-clad analogues of real groups]]. The closest thing to "no cause" is the Yehtzig Pirate League, and their goal is [[A God Am I|to have Astrabolo overthrow God himself]]. The Drismabons come close, wanting the eternal damnation of the entire universe ''[[For the Evulz|just because]]''. The Muhmmaldian terrorists, however, are blatant knock-offs of real-life groups like Hamas. The Crooked Rainbow, of course, are ''gay'' terrorists. Pretty much every bad guy faction on Mantith is guaranteed to be a strawman (though how "straw" it is [[Ripped from the Headlines|may vary]]) for some Far Left cause or another. [[Refuge in Audacity]] seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

 

* The Mal Noche from ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' [[Weird Trade Union|started as some weird assassin's guild/street gang/Nicaraguan Mafia]] (apparently Miami has a lucrative market for hitmen) And then one of their leaders became a vaguely worded terrorist and decided to try to blow up an airplane.

** Of course, drug lords/cartels having planes blown up isn't entirely unheard of. See Pablo Escobar.

* The IRA are featured in the show ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'', with the deconstruction of how the IRA have essentially went from terrorists to a glorified crime syndicate that focuses on selling guns to whoever will buy them. This leads to the main character Jax (and fellow biker Chibs, an exiled IRA member who fell victim to the ambition of the leader of the organized crime wing of the organization) being forced to help expose and kill the pro-crime leader of the IRA when a high ranking member of the political wing of the IRA gets his hands upon Jax's son.

 

* ''D20 Modern'' includes one of these in a supplement—the group causes destruction, death, and chaos for its own sake as part of a bizarre, paranoid, pseudo-religious doctrine.

* The PURGE secret society in ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' has no common motive beyond overthrowing The Computer.

* ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' has the Umbral Underground, whose only goals are causing chaos and recruiting [[Power Born of Madness|more]] [[Reality Warper|Marauders]]. Unusually for this trope, they're [[Obliviously Evil]] [[Anti-Villain]]s: Their leader is [[A Father to His Men]], the rank and file include superheroes and chivalrous knights, and they [[Even Evil Has Standards|really don't like the Chaioth Ha-Quadesh.]]

** The Chaioth Ha-Quadesh is basically the Umbral Underground's [[Evil Counterpart|Eviler Counterpart]]. It's a genocidal group that includes [[Knight Templar]] crusaders and jihadists, a Chinese gang that thinks it's [[After the End]], and a group of guys who think they're in a virtual reality FPS and [[Omnicidal Maniac|act accordingly.]]

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The PLR from ''[[Battlefield 3]]'' seem to have rather nebulous motivations, though it's at least clear that they're not jihadists of any sort. Analysing some of Al-Bashir's dialogue suggests that they may simply be radical Iranian nationalists who want to oppose the West, but that's about as far as it gets, and [[True Final Boss|Solomon's]] own motivations are a mystery.

* The protagonist of ''[[Hitman]]'' is nominally killing for money. But while in some games there was a given reason he needed the money, in ''Blood Money'' it was only used to buy upgrades so he could do more assasinations. Meanwhile, 47 was living in derelict warehouses. There is an overarching conspiracy going on, but 47 didn't care for it. He could've probably done the first 2, 3 hits without buying upgrades and live of the proceeds for the rest of his life, is all I'm saying.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* The motives of the terrorist group in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' are, as of yet, unclear. It's not entirely certain if they even ''have'' a motive beyond trying to cripple the US with fear through targetting its children. For some reason, "ratings" are important to them; that's about all we get. Originally, they were from a country at war with the United States, and one of Danya's demands in v1 is that the American military completely demobilise, but given various [[retcon]]s to the setting, it isn't clear how much is still canon; at the least, them being at war with the US isn't.

* At the end of [[Doom House]], {{spoiler|the police officer is revealed to have been a terrorist...who has just spent the last few days trying to scare a homeowner out of his new house, apparently with nothing better or more terrifying to do. Why? Because it was built on his "burial camp". Right.}}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' has [[Fun with Acronyms|MECH]], a cyberterrorist group whose goals aren't very clearly stated.

** Specifically, the manifesto is as follows: "there is a conflict coming between the new world order... and the ''newest''. The winner will be the side which possesses the most advanced technology." This seems true as far as it goes, but why Silas pursues this goal through massive acts of violence rather than, say, buying out Google is never explored or mused upon.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Only Righteous Index of Fanatics]]

[[Category:Criminals]]

[[Category:Older Than Television]]