Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

On this end, we have [[The Hunter]]. The man who stalks the night, armed to the teeth, ready to mow down vampires, zombies, werewolves, or [[Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs|vampiric undead werewolves]]. And on this end we have the [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires]]. The guys and girls who keep a nocturnal schedule, [[Vegetarian Vampire|stop over at the blood bank]] for a quick snack, and do their best to help the community.

* Likewise, in ''[[Rosario to Vampire]]'', monsters have isolated their population centers and [[Masquerade|disguise themselves as human]] so that they can survive alongside them. In particular, {{spoiler|[[Witch Species|Witches]]}} have [[Inferred Holocaust|so suffered]] from [[Fantastic Racism|persecution]] and habitat loss, some other monsters essentially consider them an endangered species.

** 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.

* [[Clive Barker]]'s ''[[Nightbreed]]'', where the monstrous and reclusive Midianites are attacked by human cops who refuse to leave them alone. The psychiatrist helping the police also happens to be a [[Serial Killer]]. And he's played by [[David Cronenberg]].

* Averted in ''[[Van Helsing]]'' ([[Trope Namer|ironically enough]]), where Van Helsing is reluctant to kill Frankenstein's monster because he can see he's not actually evil, and Van Helsing does seem to feel remorse for having to kill people who've become monsters, like werewolves and Dr. Jekyll.

** The core aesop is about vanity and selfishness, and not getting obsessed with appearances. Gaston riled up the crowd to this trope, but he himself is not guilty of it. He wants to kill the Beast because he sees him as competition for Belle. He also has no trouble believing the Beast is harmless, but, being a [[Jerkass]], he actually mocks him for it.

* ''[[I Am Legend]]'' was intended to lead up to this, and still does in the alternate ending on the DVD release.

* In [[Lucio Fulci]]'s ''Don't Torture a Duckling'', the townspeople blame a string of child murders on a reclusive, unpopular, [[Hollywood Homely]] witch and [[Moral Event Horizon|lynch her]] based on zero evidence. The murders continue.

* A major plot point in the ''[[Kitty Norville]]'' series. It takes place in [[The Unmasqued World]], and a lot of people aren't happy to know that werewolves and vampires (and a lot of other things) are out there. At least four of the novels so far have featured normal humans treating Kitty like she's a monster, from accusing her of mauling cows with no evidence of it to trying to kill her.

* The titular ''[[Night Huntress]]'' is convinced that all vampires are bloodsucking demons. After she learns that not all of them are evil, she realizes that some of the vampires she killed may just have been looking for a snack and a one night stand, and killing them may not have been self-defense.

* ''[[I Am Legend]]'' is the [[Trope Codifier]], if not the [[Ur Example]]. Robert Neville, the [[The Last of His Kind|last human on Earth]], spends his nights being tormented by vampires trying to get into his house, and his days finding and slaying the creatures in their sleep. The title of the book comes from the end, where {{spoiler|Neville discovers that some of the vampires have learned to stop acting like monsters, and have begun to form a new society. Since Neville was unaware of their presence, and he's been slaughtering vampires indiscriminately for ''years'', he's slain a large number of the good vampires. Neville realizes to his horror that they view him as a monster, and he takes a suicide pill before they can execute him.}}

* This is raised by Peter in ''[[Moon Over Soho]]'' along with the thorny problem of [[Inhumanable Alien Rights]] when it comes to sapient individuals who are carrying out paranormal crime. He makes the point that the courts are the place to deal with them, not just arbitrarily hunting them down and executing them. Ultimately the author chooses to [[Take a Third Option]] in resolving it.

== Live-Action TV ==

** Before this there were plenty of online fora debates about whether Buffy was right to kill vampires when one (Spike) displayed the capacity for redemption; if one can, they all can, and therefore Buffy is wrong to deny them that opportunity, ran the argument.

** The episode "Phases" had Buffy going up against a werewolf hunter who saw nothing wrong with the fact that a werewolf is human 28 days of the month, but he was more of an amoral, greedy monster hunter than a bigoted, fanatical monster hunter.

** Holtz, who -- well, suffice it to say, Angel's vampirism is only Holtz's ''second'' most pressing reason for wanting him dead. Holtz is fully aware of Angel's curse, but unlike most other characters, he denies that this makes any ethical difference: "I will never agree that he has somehow been absolved from the past by the presence of his soul." Given his historical timeframe, this is pretty accurate for Holtz. Angel and Angelus are, essentially, the same being to him. That Angel feels bad is fine and good, but it's really up to God to forgive him if God feels Angel's suffered enough. Until then, Angelus has escaped mortal judgment time and again, and is still an abomination.

*** Holtz's attitude is actually very similar to Angel's own - both consider Angel responsible for what he did as Angelus. It's just that Angel is trying to make up for it while Holtz thinks he needs to die. Angel can never really make the claim that Holtz is ''wrong'' for pursuing his vendetta.

** The First Season Episode in which a gang of Demons arrive in LA and start killing 'Abominations'. That is, any demon who is even slightly Human or half human, like one of the main characters, Doyle, or any vampire at all. According to the previous Buffy Finale, they weren't purebloods themselves, either. The Nazi analogy isn't all that subtle, is it? This is ''the'' Angel theme. Some monsters aren't so bad!

** Another episode has him [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|kill the last defender of a pregnant woman,]] who was a Buddhist monk to boot. Until he takes up the role himself of course (protector, not Buddhist).

* ''[[True Blood]]'' is an HBO series based upon the ''Sookie Stackhouse'' novels by Charlaine Harris. Harris's vampires have "come out of the coffin," politically speaking, and since, naturally, "[[Fantastic Racism|God hates Fangs]]," there are more than a few religious types who find this disturbing.

** 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.

*** {{spoiler|[[Debate and Switch|Of course then it turns out that the whole "synthetic blood" thing was all part of a master plan that centred on killing off humanity...]]}}

* 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.

* ''[[Vampire Diaries]]'' plays with this a great deal - on a few occasions, ruthless vampires framed more peaceful ones for their crimes and let the town's indiscriminating Council kill them. Of particular notice is Bill Forbes, who attempted to torture his daughter in an attempt to teach her not to be a vampire. More recently, {{spoiler|the repeated deaths of Alaric Saltzman allowed the ancient witch Esther to turn him into one of these, to the extent that he brutally murdered other Council members for their failure to kill every vampire.}}

== Tabletop Games ==

*** In ''Reckoning'', viewpoints aim from "Kill 'em all" (Avenger) to "Kill 'em when they threaten humanity" (Defender) to "Study them, and use that to your advantage" (Visionary) to "Some of them can be cured" (Redeemer) to "They can be good people, too" (Innocent).

*** In ''Vigil'', the Compacts and Conspiracies range from new media visionaries who wish to study and expose the paranormal, to fundamentalist Christians who want to "redeem" monsters, to [[Church Militant|Church Militants]] who view monsters as demons, to debauched aristocrats who kill monsters because it's ''fun''.

** Most player characters, larger-than-life heroic badasses by default, are pretty much bound to have to deal with the fact that a great many people consider them demonic 'Anathema' out only to tempt them into straying from the one true (Immaculate) faith... and that there are quite a few powerful individuals and factions around who'd just as soon see them safely dead once they learn of their existence. All this while trying to save the world from all sorts of ''genuine'' threats...

** This can also happen to Abyssal and Infernal Exalted, which are usually the evil champions of said genuine threats. Not ''all'' of them are bad, however -- it's possible to play either type as a hero or anti-hero. But other Exalted, even outside the Immaculate catchism, may well decide to fight them as part of the general struggle against the Deathlords, Neverborn, and Yozi. It doesn't help that Abyssals are largely [[Walking Wasteland|Walking Wastelands]] whether they like it or not, and the Infernal Green Sun Princes are all slowly turning into [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]].

* 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.

* The Anvilicious [[Call of Cthulhu]] adventure 'Gothic' from the modern day Goatswood campaign book, in which the scenario writer clearly states that the PCs are expected to sympathise with a couple of vampires who 'just happen to be' gay. Quite apart from issuing victim status to a pair of undead parasites, the scenario then goes on to indicate that all of their antagonists are raving bigots ''and'' to give us all a large dose of [[Christianity Is Catholic]] in a way that doesn't sit too well with its rural English setting. Needless to say this adventure takes a lot of re-writing to be playable.

* 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.

** A slightly less common, but still all too regular occurence, is for players to forget that there aren't actually all that many races that are ''all'' Evil. Killing evil without other provocation may be borderline, but killing someone without provocation because you wrongly assume that they are evil...

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

* In ''[[Castlevania]] [[Castlevania Judgment|Judgment]]'', Sypha Belnades (herself a witch) spends her time hunting vampires, werewolves, and those who wield Dracula's power. Unfortunately, her targets turn out to be Alucard, Cornell, and Shanoa, all of whom oppose Dracula just as much as she does. The game tried to justify it by having Sypha come from the timeline before ''[[Castlevania III Draculas Curse]]'' began, thus having not yet met or allied with Alucard.

** 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]].

* In [[The Witcher]] there are {{spoiler|High Vampires running a high-end brothel who drink the blood of customers without turning them}} and {{spoiler|a [[Batman|Batmanesqe]], crime-fighting werewolf}}. Both present conflicts for Geralt, s Witcher, whose sole purpose is to destroy monsters.

* 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 Reveal]] in ''[[Nie R]]'' reveals that {{spoiler|the shades, aka Gestalts, that the player has been killing are far from being just evil monstrosities. In fact, they're the true humans while the humans we've seen are mere "Replicants", shells for the Gestalts to bond with once the millennium-long plan to save humanity from extinction has come to fruition. However Nier, in his tireless quest to save his daughter has ensured the extinction of humanity. To be fair, the Gestalts have no normal way of communicating with the Replicants (who were not supposed to be sentient in the first place) and many of the Gestalts have gone insane.}}

* In the [[Whateley Universe]], there's the ongoing conflict between Carmilla and the Reverend Darren Englund and his student posse. So far, he's been behind at least two attempts on her life. (To be fair, Sara is generally depicted as one of the good guys right now, but it's easy to see why even characters rather less fanatic than Englund might worry that there could be a [[Face Heel Turn]] looming in her future -- and as she's a budding [[Cosmic Horror]], that would be decidedly bad news.) Even better, there's a [[Super-Hero School|Whateley]] student named Nightbane. She's an Exemplar blonde and good religious girl whose powers are ideally suited to fighting creatures of the night. She's basically the bad guy, since she's trying very hard to kill Carmilla.

** She's a descendant of Shub-Niggurath on her father's side and of Cthulhu on her mother's side. She is foretold to be the thing that wipes humanity off the face of the earth and replaces us with her spawn. As The Kellith, she has has an evil cult that numbers in the thousands. She has [[Combat Tentacles]] as well as [[Naughty Tentacles]]. If there weren't stories told from her point of view, no one would think the Reverend and his monster hunters were in the wrong.

** Partly subverted in that "contain" has a flexible meaning based on just how harmless a given SCP is; so for [[Omnicidal Maniac|SCP-682]] contain means "keep in a suspended-animation state of near-death so as to prevent SCP from murdering humanity", for the tickle monster that once managed to subdue 682, it just means "keep fed and happy".

** Some, like SCP-085 (The 2D woman) and SCP-507 (Dimensional Shifter) are quite friendly with staff members. 507 even gets (monitored) internet access.

== 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.]

* ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' goes so far as to have a ''zombie'' shout "HATE CRIME!" at the [[Designated Hero|heroes]] after they shoot it. That said, this zombie had just been having a conversation with his buddy about how he'd murdered a few of the living (and yet, still portrayed himself as the victim), so this wasn't exactly undeserved...

** 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 ''[[Scary Go Round]]'', the West Yorkshire Anti-Zombie Unit leap into action when they meet [http://www.scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20021031 Zombie!Shelley] ([http://www.scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20021022 long story]), but soon have the error of their ways pointed out to them. Ashamed, they decide to be a "more caring group, rehabilitating offenders in the community", because "[http://www.scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20021204 Just because someone doesn't have a soul, doesn't mean they don't have a heart]".

* 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.

** Not that she really have anything against vampires, seeing how she's clearly [http://www.eeriecuties.com/strips-ec/staking_customers disappointed] when ''not'' bitten, but Tiffany knew Layla and was out to stake her. She "forgot" to do this after their concert playdate and later invariably got so... ''distracted'' that she herself wondered whether she became a "[http://www.eeriecuties.com/strips-ec/that_i_am_alive bite junkie]", into "[http://www.eeriecuties.com/strips-ec/curse_you_hormones sexy vampire bities]" or it's [[Les Yay|just with Layla]], her "[http://www.magickchicks.com/strips-mc/when_there_are_more_boys_around sworn best frienemy]". This turned ludicrous quickly - Layla "[http://www.eeriecuties.com/strips-ec/it_is_for_realsies got lucky the last 12 times... in this park]", and so on. Mostly, it looks like Tiffany's "hunt" is but a pretext to meet Layla again and Layla seems not to suspect Tiff is anything but her best friend - they have similar tastes and are giddily happy to be around each other.

** In [[Paranormal Mystery Squad]] crossover [http://www.eeriecuties.com/strips-ec/treasure_it_always_-_guest_strip guest comic], Layla became an "old friend" of another hunter just as effortlessly.

== Western Animation ==

* 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.

* The first [[Big Bad]] in ''[[American Dragon Jake Long]]'' was an organization called the Hunts Clan, which was dedicated to destroying all magical creatures, and especially dragons. [[The Dragon]] (who is, of course, not an actual dragon) is a girl named Rose, and Jake is both her main target (in his identity as a dragon) and her [[Dating Catwoman|love interest]].

** 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.

{{reflist}}