Unstoppable Rage: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Vinland Saga]]'' Canute has a divine revelation that transforms him from a frightened sissy into an incredibly charismatic and powerful leader. And the very first thing he does is to calm down a raging berserker four times the size, that is about to crush him, with a [[Cooldown Hug]]. After that, he only has to look at people to make them worship him.

* In ''[[Blue Exorcist]]'', Rin has some... problems with restraint once he draws his sword to transform into his demonic form. This was especially visible in his fight against Amaimon in the anime as he started off as a bit angrier version of himself but ended up as a snarling and growling bundle of [[Ax Crazy]], behaving more like a feral dog than a human. Right in front of his [[Nakama]] who up until that point thought he was a [[Badass Normal]] and [[Superweapon Surprise|definitely not the son of]] ''[[Satan]] himself''. Good thing Shiemi was on-hand for a [[Cooldown Hug]], otherwise it would've gotten real ugly real quick.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In ''[[Runaways]]'', during the "Home Schooling" arc, {{spoiler|a missile strikes the team's Malibu house, killing Old Lace and injuring Klara. Upon regaining consciousness, Klara freaks out and causes a forest of vines to grow and consume the house.}}

* Similar to the [[Wonder Woman]] example above, Orion from the [[New Gods]] has a intense, building rage inside him that's held back by a Mother Box. The reason for this is that his father is [[Darkseid]], and the burning hatred for all living things is [[In the Blood]].

 

== Fan Works ==

* [[I Am Not Weasel|Pterosaurs are not Dinosaurs.]] [[Rise of the Galeforces|Adam Squall]] is a [[Ptero-Soarer|pterosaur]]. He flies into one of these whenever somebody calls him one.

* In ''[[Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]'', when [[Blood Knight|Night Raven]] tells Fluttershy he fights and kills the ponies not because he hates them, but because he sees it as "fun", she becomes ''furious''.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[The Fugitive (film)|The Fugitive]]'': Richard Kimble displays this upon finally encountering the man who murdered his wife, and upon confronting his {{spoiler|so-called friend who set the murder plot in motion}}.

* When a Psi-Cop attempts to shut down Juri Arisugawa's mind in a late installment of ''The Symphony of the Sword'' from ''[[Undocumented Features]]'', the cool, elegant fencer instead explodes into unstoppable berserk frenzy that the Psi-Cop cannot even begin to control.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Honor Harrington]] goes on several during the course of the novels, usually when someone she cares about is set upon by goons. Additionally, the entire Grayson Navy goes on one {{spoiler|when Haven attacks Basilisk station again, as they believe that their most beloved Steadholder has been murdered by the Peeps. ''"Admiral Yanakov to all Grayson units," it said, and White Haven could almost hear the clangor of clashing swords in its depths. "The order is''--Lady Harrington, and no mercy!"}}<ref>This inspired a massive [[Oh Crap]] on the part of Admiral White Haven, who was sure he was about to witness a massive war crime until he realised that the order was "no mercy" as opposed to "no ''quarter''." (The former means that the victors won't be picking up survivors. The latter means that the victors won't be ''[[Sink the Life Boats|allowing]]'' any.)</ref>

** In ''Mission of Honor'' this is what {{spoiler|Mike Henke has Baroness Medusa and her staff do to Admiral Crandall.}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|"You misunderstand me. I am not here to keep the darkness out. I am here to keep it in." Yeah. He fought unstoppable rage--not 'someone under rage', the rage itself as it tried to use him--and ''stopped'' it.}}}}

* The rogue drow fighter/ranger Drizzt do'Urden from Salvatore's ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' D&D novels is prone to falling into berserk rages when his self-defense reflex is triggered. Drizzt dubbed this mental state "the Hunter", as he becomes a merciless and calculating killing machine and virtually unstoppable.

* Visser Three in ''[[Animorphs]]'' had one of these several times a book practically. <You have failed me!!!> *body parts begin flying off*

 

* The show ''[[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' is all about the Unstoppable Rage, and provides the page quote above.

{{quote|'''David Banner:''' "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."}}

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': [[Too Dumb to Live|Some idiot]] makes the mistake of throwing a knife at John Sheridan, who is saved because [[One True Love|Delenn]] throws herself in front of it instead. Sheridan's response is to attempt to kill the being responsible with his bare hands, and he would have succeeded if Security hadn't intervened.

 

* [[Older Than Dirt]]: Sekhmet, an [[Egyptian Mythology|Egyptian goddess]] of war, pestilence, and healing, went on a bender when some mortals dared suggest that her father, the sun god Re, was getting a little old. She had no intention of stopping and nearly exterminated humanity. Finally Re himself stopped her, and then only by making a literal sea of beer mixed with pomegranate juice. Sekhmet, mistaking it for blood, drank herself stupid, and thus the world was saved by alcohol.

* Cuchulainn from [[Celtic Mythology|Irish mythology]] has a prime example of the "[[Super-Powered Evil Side|monster within]]" kind of unstoppable rage. In the epic, ''Táin Bó Cúailnge'', he enters a "ríastrad" or "Warp Spasm". In this state he transforms into a [[Demon Head|horribly mutilated monster]] who doesn't know friend from foe. At one time, they broke him out of his rage by dunking him into three separate water barrels. The first one exploded, the other began boiling, and the last one finally cooled him down.

* [[Norse Mythology]] is the very source of the word '[[The Berserker|berserker]]' (from an Old Norse word meaning "bear shirt"), and was full of them, most famously Thor.

* According to [[Japanese Mythology]], the storm god Susano-o flew into a drunken rage and did everything possible to mess up his sister Amaterasu's life. He defiled all her shrines, killed her handmaidens, and threw shit in her temples. The gods were unable to stop his overwhelming douchedness.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** When a vampire character in [[White Wolf]]'s ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' or ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' enters a Frenzy and lets the [[Enemy Within|Beast]] within take control, he or she can tear lesser foes to shreds and overwhelm another vampire, as they are able to ignore ''all'' wound penalties. A more powerful (and usually elder) vampire can still take a frenzied vampire down, especially if he goes into frenzy himself. Vampires interested in maintaining the [[Masquerade]] frown on those who frenzy, while those who aren't tend to embrace it.

** Werewolves from ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' and ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' have the Frenzy ability as well, and alternately embrace it and fight it (noted that vampires, in game terms, roll to ''resist'' going berserk; werewolves roll to both resist and ''trigger'' it). They tend to have an even easier time than vampires, since frenzy is always accompanied by turning into a 9 foot-tall lupine death machine... that paradoxically makes their [[Masquerade]] ''easier'' to maintain due to something called the Delerium. Still, ''Forsaken'' calls it "Death Rage" for a good reason.

** Both gamelines' vampires, and ''Forsaken'''s werewolves, can instead enter Unstoppable ''Terror'' -- or "Rötschreck," as it's known for vampires -- with the victim fleeing in blind panic from the trigger, tossing aside or shredding anything that stands in the way of doing so. In ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' it's treated as another facet of the Unstoppable Rage, while ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' treats it as an unrelated phenomenon also originating with the vampire's Beast. ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' has human witnesses freak out ''any'' time they see a werewolf or other shapeshifter in their hybrid form.

** [[Promethean: The Created|Prometheans]] also have their own state of emotional disarray, known as Torment. How rage-filled Torment really is depends on the element of the Promethean's humor, but each one has some elements of Unstoppable Rage. [[Frankenstein's Monster|Frankensteins]] (fire) and [[Golem|Tammuz]] (earth) have the more traditional "Hulk Smash!" rages, Galateids (air) tend to go all ''Fatal Attraction'' when it comes to obsessing with others, Osrians (water) go cold and emotionless, and Ulgans (spirit) lock onto whatever spirit is closest and copy its traits. And then you've got the rare nuclear Prometheans, the Zeka, whose Torment tends towards "destroy ''everything''."

* In ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', a base class, the Barbarian, is built around this idea. Rage is the Barbarian's primary special ability, allowing them a marked increase in their physical prowess and mental fortitude in exchange for a slight decrease in their willingness to dodge blows and think straight. The ability becomes more potent as the character's level rises. Unlike most fictional versions of this trope, Barbarians may invoke and end their Rage at will (but are limited to one rage per encounter), not in response to any specific trigger.

** Third Edition also has an "on steroids"—or perhaps, "on 'roid rage"—prestige class version of the barbarian: the Frenzied Berserker. The main difference is that there are few defensive benefits to a frenzy (but see below) as opposed to a rage, that its bonuses and penalties can stack with a rage, that frenzy will continue until its time limit expires or the character forces himself out (rage can be ended at will, but you need to make a Will save to end a frenzy) -- and if he runs out of enemies the character will attack anyone in the vicinity, including allies—and finally that it can be triggered by damage as well as entered at will. Finally, he can also inspire frenzy in his ''allies'', which if you consider that most frenzied berserkers probably hang around a lot of barbarians and fighters as opposed to wizards and rogues is a very scary thought.

* Righteous Fury mode is the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' RPG version of Unstoppable Rage. A character can spend two Drama Points to go into Righteous Fury mode, but only in response to something very bad and deeply personal happening, like a brutal attack on a loved one, an unexpected and very nasty betrayal, or the raising of a monstrous former lover killed years ago. When in this mode, the character gets a + 5 to all attack actions for the rest of the fight, which is cumulative with Drama Points spent for Heroic Feats. Even a White Hat can kick serious ass when properly motivated like this.

* Several races in ''[[Talislanta]]'' have some sort of innate rage ability. However, there's usually a catch: For example, if your [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|Ahazu]] goes "shan-ya," you're a danger to everyone...and if your Vajra evokes the Dark Fire, you're [[Heroic RROD|probably going to need a new character]].

 

== Theatre ==

** ''[[Hamlet]]'' is theoretically in unstoppable rage after the last soliloquy of the play ("...from this point forth/my thoughts be bloody or nothing worth"), but, given that this is Hamlet, two scenes later he's cracking jokes with a gravedigger.

** ''[[The Winter's Tale|The Winters Tale]]'' is about what happens when an extremely powerful man gives in to paranoia and unstoppable rage and takes it out on his subjects.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Endstone]]'', [http://endstone.net/2010/01/04/issue-3-webpage-6/ Kyri deliberately triggers this in Cole, so she won't realize she's exhausting her power.]

* It takes a lot to make Byron from [[Guilded Age]] go into berserker rage, but when he does [http://guildedage.net/webcomic/chapter-8/chapter-8-page-20/ he doesn't take half-measures.]

 

== Web Original ==

* Along with his better-known abilities, [[SCP Foundation]]-682 is noticeably prone to these. Given that he's unstoppable even ''outside'' his rages, this is a bad thing.

* Among the boards of 4chan, /v/ is (rightly) the butt of many jokes as being rage incarnate...

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', Maggie turns the house into a war zone when her pacifier is thrown out. At one point, she's shown chewing on a chair like an animal.

* ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'' Superman will go easy on any super villain, but when he sets his sights on Darkseid, he will kill him without second thought.

 

== Real Life ==