Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"To you, these monsters are just evil beings to be vanquished. I'm the one standing there when they die... and become the men they once were."''|'''Gabriel Van Helsing''', ''[[Van Helsing]]'' }}

 

* The demon hunters in ''[[Omamori Himari]]'' seemingly want to eradicate all demons, with minor exceptions (currently only one) like the Amakawa family, who have some demons as servants.

* In contrast with ''[[Hellsing]]'', in ''[[Chibi Vampire]]'', vampires usually only take enough blood to make the person feel anemic and drained of emotion (which can actually be a ''good'' thing, if a person has a lot of negative emotions). So it's not surprising that Vampire Hunters are portrayed as [[Knights Templar]].

** Witches suffer from this in ''both'' directions, because many monsters are prejudiced against them for being "almost human".

** {{spoiler|It later turns out that they are not in fact pure hollows, instead being Arrancars. Though this still qualifies since Arrancar were believed to be just as Chaotic Evil as the Hollows they came from.}}

* The [[Paper Master]] exorcist Yang Kailen from ''[[Hell Teacher Nube]]'', who vowed to exterminate all supernatural creatures because of his [[Dead Little Sister]], eventually arrives at Domori looking for the ultimate [[Youkai]]-killing weapon: Nube's [[Red Right Hand|Oni left hand]]. And along the way, he massacres and violently slaughters innocent, benevolent, cheerful, and even divine creatures that Nube was friends with.

 

 

* After being paralyzed by Shockwave when the Decepticons attacked an advanced oil rig she was working on in the ''[[Transformers]]'' comics, Josie Beller developed an advanced suit that allowed her to walk as well as [[Clothes Make the Superman|granting her superpowers]]. As [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Circuit_Breaker Circuit Breaker], she vowed to take the fight to the heartless machines that had crippled her. The problem was, she neither knew nor cared that there were two factions of robots, and that one of them was trying to ''help'' the humans. Her hatred did not distinguish between Autobot and Decepticon, and she often wound up doing more harm than good, especially as the Autobots refused to harm her.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

** They're [[Straw Man Has a Point|completely justified]], however, regardless of how stupid they are portrayed. Vampires almost to a man consist entirely of murderous blood-crazed psychopaths (not unlike the vampires in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''). The vampires who are main characters are the only ones who demonstrate any kind of self-control, and even then they freely kill anyone who threatens them or their lovers. It should be noted that in [[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries]], the Chaotic Evil types are the exceptions and are despised by "mainstreaming" vamps like Eric and Bill. Though, with a few exceptions, even the mainstreaming vamps can be utterly ruthless in pursuit of their (usually nebulous) goals.

* The UK miniseries ''[[Ultraviolet (TV series)|Ultraviolet]]'' centers around the moral progression of the main character after he kills his friend-turned-vampire and joins up with the people hunting them. According to them vampires, or Code Fives, are a "public health problem" who must be neutralized before they can organize any further. When it's revealed that the Code Fives {{spoiler|don't actually murder their prey, but even more importantly are close to designing viable synthetic blood}} Michael's role begins to change.

* The Van Helsings in ''[[Young Dracula]]'' towards Vlad.

* A ''[[Grimm (TV)|Grimm]]'' inevitably has this reputation among the creatures [[The Masquerade|hiding their presence]] by [[They Look Just Like Everyone Else|living among humans]]. As Grimms have the ability to see them for what they really are [[Glamour Failure|if they lose control]], they've historically been known to mercilessly hunt and slaughter non-humans. [[The Hero|Nick]], however, being a police officer, tries to treat them as he would anyone else once he figures out what's going on, and even prefers to arrest the ones who break the law whenever possible, rather than hunting them.

** That said, even the ones who legitimately try to live normal lives can be extremely dangerous. Even Monroe, the [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire|Friendly Neighborhood]] [[Our Werewolves Are Different|Big Bad Wolf]] only says that he doesn't kill people ''anymore'', and ended up ripping a guy's arm off when he lost control in a fight.

* Father Kemp of ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' has no qualms in killing most of Bristol's vampire population, kills werewolves under the guise of helping them, and forcibly exorcises ghosts. He does this in spite of good number of them actually being decent people just trying to live a normal life.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Treated oddly]] by ''[[Unknown Armies]]'', especially with the [[Church Militant|Order of St. Cecil]]. They're [[Belief Makes You Stupid|religious fanatics]] [[He Who Fights Monsters|who kidnap, brainwash, or kill anything that smells of]] [[Demonic Possession]]. [[Enemy Mine|That includes helping your group take down really nasty monsters]], [[Eldritch Abomination|frying creeps]] fresh out of a [[Religious Horror]] flick, [[And Your Little Dog, Too|or kidnapping and stealing the magic from the cute bibliomancer]] [[Death by Sex|one of the players was hitting on earlier]]. [[Gray and Grey Morality|On the other hand,]] [[Anti-Villain|they are interested in justice and saving living things]]. [[Bored with Insanity|Sometimes the 'cured' adepts are happy about it]], [[The Mad Hatter|knew they were mad]], [[Sanity Has Advantages|and are better off afterwards]].

* Rudolph van Richten, [[Ravenloft]]'s greatest monster-hunting expert, could have gone down this path, but chose not to let hatred rule his life. His books on ghosts, werebeasts, witches and Vistani address the possibility that a "monster" may be inoffensive and/or unwilling; other Ravenloft monsters are so irredeemably evil and destructive that the Hate Crimes are justified in their case.

* Witch hunters in ''[[Witch Girls Adventures]]'' range from comparatively decent sorts who try to target witches that are actually a problem for people and are willing to let children off with a warning, to the Malleus Maleficarum, who take Van Helsing Hate Crimes into [[Complete Monster]] and [[Knight Templar]] territory, being perfectly willing to kill (relatively) harmless witches and children, and whose ultimate goal is the complete genocide of witches.

** Some supplements that oppose the idea of killing evil do so by assigning the evil alignment (in terms of a statistics block) to characters who are in no way evil in thought or deed. So they don't really oppose the idea that evil = okay to kill so much as they dispense with any meaning behind the terms "good" and "evil," beyond how they affect spell mechanics.

** In older versions of D&D, "Lawful" implied good and "Chaotic" implied evil. "Old School" D&D derivative ''Lamentations of the Flame Princess'' uses Lawful to mean "assigned a destiny by higher powers" and Chaotic to mean "aware of incomprehensibly powerful cosmic forces that could engulf our world any day now". There's no moral code or philosophy attached to either alignment; spells that detect "good" or "evil" merely detect entanglement with these powers/forces, although characters might not see it that way. Notably, all Clerics are Lawful and all Magic-Users (and Elves, who use MU spells) are Chaotic.

* ''[[Deadlands]]'' has this in spades. There are plenty of nasty bugaboos running around in the Weird West. Most of them are pure unadultered evil, but some just want to get on with their lives, and some have volunteered or been strongarmed into becoming [[The Men in Black|Men In Black]] or monster-hunters. You can even play an undead MIB if you want to.

 

== Videogames ==

* The Stranger in Terminal Realitys awesome game, Nocturne; is a prime example.

* In both [[Baldur's Gate]] games, the protagonist has to (if so chooses) save Viconia, [[Our Elves Are Different|the drow elf]] - once from [[Knight Templar]] and once from [[Burn the Witch|burning at the stake]]. Possible subversion, because Viconia is [[Neutral Evil]].

** Though if you make the effort in Throne of Bhaal, [[Love Redeems|she]] [[Heel Face Turn|becomes]] [[True Neutral]], and the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue|epilogue]] states that she is well on her way to becoming [[Neutral Good]].

*** And Geralt's explanation for why peasants keep believing in monsters imagined by themselves (while still existing in fantasy setting)? They want to know there's something more monstrous than them.

**** Actually, in the books it is stated that vampires are simply another race that came there during Conjunction, and that they reproduce 'normally' (Blood for them is only an equivalent of alcohol, and can be eliminated from diet completely.)

** The Worgen of Gilneas have a bit of this as well. Most Worgen are beasts, though often cunning ones, while the Gilneans have found a way to retain a human mind. The people of the town of Darkshire, however, still sees the Worgen as a whole as monsters to be exterminated, so the Gilnean Worgen who maintain their non-human forms have set up their base some ways away from the actual town and those within it maintain a human form around the locals.

** The Scarlet Crusade, a band of zealots who are determined to wipe out the undead, but they also attack innocent people who they suspect as undead, or undead sympathizers, or just kill them to be very sure.

* Shades of this appear in later ''[[Mega Man X]]'' games; the Maverick Hunters dutifully destroy any Reploid that goes "Maverick", according to their standards...which would be fine, if those standards were limited to those Reploids actively infected with [[The Virus]] or deliberately causing grievous harm to humanity and/or Reploidkind. Unfortunately, it seems to encompass ''any'' form of resistance against the natural order of things, including otherwise non-hostile acts like peacefully exiling themselves to their own space colony (''MMX4'') (though Repliforce ''was'' implicated in the deaths of several million people and refused to clear their names in because it would involve doing things that would conflict with their martial pride, namely: disarming and coming in for questioning) or merely having traits that could potentially cause problems with controlling them (''MMX6''). In fact, [[All There in the Manual|it's revealed in]] ''MMX5'' that the Maverick Hunter commander in charge during ''X4'' retired in disgrace for ''mis''applying the label of "Maverick" on RepliForce, and thus causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Reploids. Doesn't stop X or Zero from blowing away their [[Designated Villain]] targets, though.

* In ''Runescape'' there is a series of quests in which the player helps save pacifist goblins from a group called Humans Against Monsters.

* In ''Divinity 2: Ego Draconis'', the Dragon Slayers have been systematically exterminating all the dragons and Dragon Knights because a Dragon Knight betrayed and murdered [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|The Divine One]] during a confrontation with [[Big Bad|Damian, the Damned One]] long ago. Not only are the dragons mostly innocent of this (the murderer was corrupted and controlled by Damian at the time) but they have been hard at work preventing Damian from destroying the world ever since then, a task not made easier by having an entire organization dedicated specifically to your personal annihilation.

* [[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]] introduces the Silver Hand, a group that hunts werewolves. It wouldn't be a problem... except they don't make any distinction between werewolves who are a problem and those who just want to live.

* Vanda Hellsing from ''Dead Hungry Diner''. Initially protecting the town of Ravenwood from zombies by fighting them, when the main characters Gabriel and Gabriella find a peaceful alternative she's disgusted and starts trying to kill their monstrous customers.

 

== Webcomics ==

** In fact, most times Redcloak gets a significant portion of dia/monologue with the heroes he spends time pointing out these kinds of things.

** Also lampshaded when [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0013.html the plot first arrives.]

* ''[[Goblins]]: Life Through Their Eyes'' is built on this trope. It takes place in a universe where the traditionally evil races of D&D are *not* always chaotic evil, but still have their traditional reputation. Enough fantastic racism is in place that the "good" races are perfectly willing to slaughter them now and cast spells that reveal alignment never.

** To drive the point home it introduces members of the "good" races, such as Kore, Dellyn Goblinslayer, and Saral Caine, who are amoral at best and at worst far more vile than any characters from the "evil" races. Kore is a paladin who kills a dwarf (human?) child because prolonged contact with "evil" contaminated him, and Dellyn's actions sicken even Min-Max, a brainless fighter who (at the time) had no problem killing monsters.

* In ''[[Slightly Damned]]'', most warrior angels attack demons on sight, due to generations of conditioning from [[Forever War|the Great War]]. Notably the seraph Denevol, who tried to kill "Demons and [[Category Traitor|traitors]]", aka completely inoffensive protagonists Buwaro and Kieri.

* ''[[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]]'' features Abner Van Slyk, a [[Punch Clock Villain]] who doesn't care much about the difference between [[Fully-Embraced Fiend|Adelaide]] and [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire|Conrad]].

* Doctor Von Goosewing from ''[[Count Duckula]]'' keeps coming after the titular Count, despite the fact that he (the Count) is a vegetarian (Actual Vegetarian - not just a [[Vegetarian Vampire]]).

* An interesting variation of this trope occurs in ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]''. While many of the supernatural entities the Ghostbusters came across were as evil and dangerous as one might typically expect, and had to be busted in one way or another, sometimes the ghosts, vampires or other beings were in fact the ones who needed the Ghostbusters' help. Whether it was a family of [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires|suburban spirits hiring the Ghostbusters to get rid of the malign demons that infested their house]], ghosts who were causing trouble for the living but only needed the Ghostbusters' assistance to complete their [[Unfinished Business]] to be able to rest in peace, or a clan of vampires that fed on synthetic blood needing help with some overzealous vampire hunters who wanted to kill them even when they weren't a threat, the Ghostbusters could just as easily be helping the supernatural as fighting it.

* Valerie Gray from ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' who is fully convinced all ghosts are evil. Her primary target is the not evil [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-ghost]] hero Danny Phantom. For that matter, the series also has also shown Danny isn't the only good ghost around, but that sure as hell won't stop her!

** Or will it? Danny was able to convince her to help free another half-ghost. Perhaps there is hope for her after all.

** That said, by the end of the series, {{spoiler|Hoss has hooked up with Eris, Goddess of Chaos.}} [[It Makes Sense in Context]]—or, rather, it makes ''exactly'' as much sense as one would expect it to.

* Similar to the Huntsclan, ''[[The Life and Times of Juniper Lee|Juniper Lee]]'' had H.A.M. (Human Against Magic) an organization that hunted monsters regardless of their alignment. They're not exactly fond of humans that help them either, a.k.a Juniper.

[[Category:Werebeast Tropes]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]

[[Category:Big Trope Hunting]]

[[Category:Hatred Tropes]]