You Monster!

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Okay, look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster.
—GLaDOS, Portal 2

A Stock Phrase often directed towards a Big Bad or other particularly evil character. If a character is saying this, it's a good indication that whoever the statement is directed towards has crossed the Moral Event Horizon or is an out-and-out Complete Monster, at least in the character's eyes. Variations exist (such as "You're a monster" or "You're rotten to the core!").

See You're Insane! for when a character is calling another crazy rather than evil. This can also lead to an Insult Backfire if a particularly wicked villain takes pride in this label.

This trope can also be used to point out how powerful the character is. Characters who possess that much power are considered monsters by others because of their immense power.

In dramatic situations, this carries the same weight as the Japanese This Is Unforgivable! Unrelated to You Bastard, but there may be overlap if the work's being fairly Anvilicious.

This often shows up in What Measure Is a Non-Human? scenarios, often targeted at a character who either is or is trying to be human.

Examples of You Monster! include:


Anime and Manga

  • Black Lagoon. Janet Bhai is running away from gangsters, while Sister Eda is driving next to her in a car.

Sister Eda: Do you want us to save you? Think hard. If you don't want to hand over the plates, I guess we don't have a choice. You'd better run to a mosque next time. What do you think? [snip]
Janet Bhai: 30,000 dollars!
Sister Eda: Rock, it's almost my bedtime. I'm going back to the church.
Janet Bhai: You monster! 100,000!

  • In the TV series of Hellsing, there's this exchange:

Alexander Anderson: You monster.
Alucard: I get that a lot.

  • Nanoha from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha gets this a lot.
    • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's In the second season, it's the "villains" who refer to the eponymous heroine as a demon (after she shrugs off enough magical punishment to kill a lesser being 20 times over, no less). Her reaction? See that page's opening quote.
    • In the third season Striker S, Dieci wonders if Nanoha is human after being quickly defeated and seeing the amount of power Nanoha had at the start of the battle—ironic, seeing how she is one of the few mages of her level who actually are.
    • Signum also comments "Good grief, you monster. I thought I was going to die back there." to Nanoha in the last chapter of the StrikerS manga after their mock battle concludes in a draw. Kind of hypocritical of her, as she probably came closer to killing Nanoha with her fiery explosions.
  • Played with in Yu-Gi-Oh!, where Yugi says that he won't call an enemy a monster, since that would be an insult to the game's monster cards.
  • Dragon Ball: Possibly the most often-quoted dialogue exchange in the saga comes from the eighth Z movie, Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan, though it is more of a variation, wherein Broly verbally upgrades himself. To recap, the titular villain is completely curbstomping the heroes and has just roughed up Gohan, when Piccolo shows up. The dialogue is usually translated along these lines:

Broly: So, another little bug has come to die!
Piccolo: Hmph. Do as you like, you monster.
Broly: A monster? No, you're wrong, I'm THE DEVIL!

    • Dragon Ball Kai has Goku say this after Krillin's death and Frieza's subsequent threat:

Frieza: *laughs* I think the brat should go next.
Goku: Y-you ruthless... heartless... MONSTER/BASTARD!

  • Rave Master: "Grrrrrrrr -- you monster!"
  • Claymore: Teresa and the recently awakened Rosemary have this exchange:

Rosemary: You...damned...monster.
Teresa: Monster... That makes two of us.

Tenchi: If I had my way, I wouldn't be fighting a monster like you!
Ryoko: Monster? Tell me, just exactly what makes you call a pretty young lady like me A MONSTER?!
Tenchi: You walk through fire, you walk through walls, you rip holes in the roof and you can even fly!
Ryoko: Very good reasons, but not good enough!


Film

Seymour: You're a monster and so am i, it's gotta end, it's gotta stop right here!.

Gaston: Belle, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you had feelings for this monster.
Belle: He's no monster, Gaston. You are!

  • "You are a walking holocaust" - Used against an appropriately ruthless, borderline psychopathic target in indie creature-feature/body horror flick The Item.
  • In the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie, Daisy says this to Koopa in the form of "You murderer!" out of blame towards him for seeing to her mother's death and turning her father into fungus.
  • Grandpa Joe calls Willy Wonka this in the original Willy Wonka movie after he refuses to let his son get his promised reward. "You're an inhuman monster!" It was actually a Secret Test of Character.
  • In Die Hard With a Vengeance, Simon actively attempts to avoid this trope when he reveals he lied about planting a bomb in a school.

SIMON: I'm a soldier, not a monster. Even though I sometimes work for monsters.

  • The Ghost Rider movie inverts this when the titular character, Johnny Blaze, After putting an end to Legion by using the penance stare on every single soul he absorbed, refers to himself as a monster when his love interest approaches him, feeling that he is absolutely unworthy of her love due to feeling shame about the form he has to take on.


Literature

Annabeth: You're a monster.
Geryon: What gave it away? Was it the three chests?

  • In The Stand, Whitney Horgan protests the impending crucifixion of Larry Underwood and Ralph Bretner, having finally had enough of Flagg's evil. As Flagg prepares to kill Whitney with demonic lightning, Whitney tells him to his face that Flagg isn't a man at all but some kind of devil. Flagg agrees, then fries Whitney.
  • In the Graveyard Book Scarlett calls Bod a monster after he saves her from one of the Jacks.


Live-Action TV

  • The Twilight Zone: In the 2003 revival, Anthony's own mother calls him a monster after all the years she had to suffer under her son's godlike powers.
  • Doctor Who: "The End of Time"—Wilfred Mott to the Master after he turns the entire human race into doppelgangers of himself.

"What have you done, you monster?!

Michael: You are a monster, Lucifer. And I have to kill you.

  • Babylon 5: For most of seasons three and four, Earth President Clark had been committing various atrocities against various Earth colonies, but one particularly vile act has Commander Ivanova burst into Captain Sheridan's quarters with these words:

Ivanova: Bastards! Those cold-hearted rat BASTARDS!
(What set off perhaps the most upset expression on Ivanova's face? Two Earthforce destroyers jump out of hyperspace and, completely unprovoked, destroy five commercial liners packed with 10,000 civilian refugees. When Sheridan lets it sink in, he assumes the same mood if not the same words. He sums up his sentiment in a terse log entry seen in the beginning of the next episode.)
Sheridan: Enough is enough.


Theater

"Yes, I made the choice.
For Papa, I will stay.
But I don't deserve to lose my freedom in this way,
You monster!"


Video Games

  • In Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Terra says this to Braig regarding the kidnapping of Xehanort. Of course, the whole thing was a plot of Xehanort's, but nobody told Terra that..

Braig: The old coot certainly knows how to take punishment. Just like I know how to deal it out.
Terra: You monster! What are you after?!

  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: EVA says this to Volgin during his torture of Sokolov.
  • The Witcher: The Big Bad accidentally does this to himself. In response to Geralt preparing to kill him with his silver, beast-killing sword (having been disarmed of his steel human fighting one), he utters "That sword is for monsters!" Geralt's response is pretty much a silent "Yeah, I'll let you puzzle it out Sherlock", as he stabs him through the chest.
    • Much eariler in the game, Geralt has this little gem

"Witchers are known to carry two blades. A silver blade for monsters and steel for humans."
"Both are for monsters."

  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: "Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!"
  • The World Ends With You: Neku says this to Joshua after the latter's identity as the Composer and plan to destroy Shibuya are revealed.
    • Within the first third of the game, more specifically, after Neku's utterly heartless reaction to Rhyme's erasure, we had this little gem:

Shiki: "That’s inhuman... You’re inhuman, Neku. No better than those Reapers!"

  • Paper Mario: "You inhuman beast! How could you?"
  • Portal 2: "I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster." For bonus points, the Achievement for this scene is named "You Monster".
    • GLaDOS shows this trope again in co-op the first time you destroy a turret:
      • "What are you doing? YOU MONSTER! They're one of us!"
  • In a similar vein, GLaDOS stars in the Defense Grid the Awakening DLC appropriately titled You Monster.
  • Dragon Ball Z Raging Blast - Goku to Frieza in story mode, once he snaps and starts going SSJ.

"I won't let you get away with that, you...you monster!"

  • Crisis Core: Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis are all described by themselves and others as monsters. Sephiroth is the only one of the three who truly fits this trope. Interestingly enough, Sephiroth tends to call Cloud and Zack traitors in such a venomous tone as to suggest that he's the bad guy.

Cloud: I've got some things...to settle with you.
Sephiroth: You ignorant traitor!

  • In BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Ragna calls Hakumen a monster in his winquote against him because of how tough and powerful he has proven to be to him.

Ragna: Guh... this guy's a monster...! Damn, talk about cutting it close...!

Grolla: Michael Zeppelin!
Sepperin: ...Grolla. Such a rude entrance... how ludicrously fitting for a traitor.
Grolla: Silence, demon! Know that the price for toying with the souls of the dead is high!

    • She calls him such a thing again when she asks him for any last words after she defeats him, just before Iris comes and obliterates him into a burst of flames.

Grolla: Any last words, Devil?

    • Also, during the beginning scene way earlier in said mode, after Iris attacks Grolla with her immensely powerful magic, Grolla begins to fear her from her attack and wonders what in the world she is (probably suggesting that she's describing her as a monster.)

Grolla: What in the...!? How did she obtain such powerful magic? Iris, what are you?

  • Sam and Max: They stole Max's Brain when Sam threatened to shoot Carol before the scanner complied, much to Curt and Bob's worry.

Bob: Audiences across the country say: "You're a monster, Sam!"
Curt: "What have you become?"

"Come now, was that really monstrous? This, now this is monstrous."

Caellach: Hmm... You waste your last breath on insults, and feeble ones at that. Die then, fool of Frelia.

  • Final Fantasy VI: Kefka is referred to as such in the Advance remake. Well, sort of. The exact words are "You're Inhuman" when Shadow and Sabin reveal themselves to Kefka shortly after Kefka demands to get the poison ready so he could proceed to dump it into Doma's water supply, the message is still just as clear.
  • Baiken's win quote against Order-Sol in Guilty Gear.

Baiken: You Monster!! Don't pretend to be human!

  • The first diplomatic dialogue option when confronting Meredith before the Final Boss Battle in the mage campaign of The Last Straw in Dragon Age II is "You're a monster".
  • In The Reconstruction, this is Dehl's response to learning that Havan tortured Donz to death.
  • In Dark Souls, Eingyi will call you a monster if you kill his mistress the Daughter of Chaos. Since she's one of the most kind-hearted and sympathetic characters in the game and is totally defenseless and non-hostile, it's hard to disagree.
  • In Legacy of Kain, Kain gets called this by Vorador after he kills Umah in cold blood. Kain responds (possibly correctly) that Vorador would have done the same in his place, but the incident is still shocking because it was starting to look as if Kain might have found a Morality Pet.
  • Bishop Doplin of Legaia II: Duel Saga gets called "garbage" and a "truly evil person". After you defeat Elliot and Marienne for the final time, the party confronts Doplin in order to obtain the Pyrolith. After he learns the duo is dead, he remarks that he never cared about them, and was just using them for their power. The party goes ballistic on hearing this, and call him out for it.

Maya: I used to think that there was no such thing as a truly evil person. but... I guess I was wrong.
Kazan: I've never met anyone as rotten to the core... This is not a man, he's garbage.


Web Originals

  • An amusing variation in 4 Swords Misadventures, when the heroes encounter Dark Link:

Green Link: What have you done with Princess Zelda?
Dark Link: Heheh... What haven't I done with Princess Zelda?
Green Link: You monster!
Blue Link: You fiend!
Red Link: You lucky bastard! Uh... I, uh, mean, how could you.

Axem Red: You...you monster! How could you do such a thing?
Mecha Sonic: Monster? I'm not a monster. I'm a god!

  • This Threadless T-Shirt.
  • When an ursa presses Yang's Berserk Button by slicing a single strand of her hair from her head in V1E7 of RWBY, she screams "You monster!" at it before literally exploding into flame and then pummeling it to death.

Webcomics

Leo: Do you think Sims feel pain?
Aeris: You're a monster, and you're going straight to hell!

  • In RPG Comics Hero says it to Gaaralion.
  • The Order of the Stick has this as the Ancient Black Dragon's last words after Vaarsuvius uses Familicide. The subject agrees to a certain degree.

Vaarsuvius: We are all in the Monster Manual somewhere, are we not?

Abraham: You don't understand. I'm here about a monster.
Raven: There are many unusual beings in this school, but none among them are monsters. Except, perhaps, the man who now stands before me.

  • Kevin and Kell While Rudy and Wendell are delivering Easter Eggs they find find that the quality control isn't what it should be and some are hatching. Rudy decides to eat the chick leading to Wendell cry this out.
  • Schlock Mercenary had Schlock occasionaly referred to as a monster - partly due to his habit of devouring enemies - in the "face" as often as not; some even do it in a friendly way ("our pet monster ate their pet monster").
    • Sometimes it goes both ways:

Schlock: Pau shot my friend Shep. [...] Just to be mean to ME. [...] He's still a monster. Can't I THOOM him just a little? He's a doctor. He can probably grow his legs back.
Dr. Pau: You're calling me a monster?

    • Max Haluska caught it twice in a row soon after being called Complete Monster in absence (he's that sort of a guy).

Para: Max, you're a monster. You mind-wiped poor Tarfeather. Her consciousness is gone. You left her a lifeless automaton.
Max: Hypocritical child. You hacked all of the Sanctum Adroit's tarbots! [...] I suppose they follow you because they love you?
Tarvalon: Actually, we do love her. You monster.

    • Sergeant Kowalski is another Phrase Catcher. He was referred as "an absolute monster of a special forces soldier" by Gav-clone Danita who received his memories, but retained free will in a botched takeover attempt. So far, the list of people who flatly called him or his clone "monster" in the face on-screen includes Admiral Manyara Emm (who was his commander to begin with) and Haley Sorlie (who got command of his brain-clone in an emergency and as such was given dossier) and Alexia Murtaugh. Kowalski makes sarcastic comments, but doesn't object, and even points out when teammates fail to think "monstrous enough". He does find it more satisfying if he gets to kill freely during a mission... That said, his clones remove inconvenient civilians peacefully if it's up to them and are trusted to not go rogue when sent on suicide missions (one did ally with the target, but that's after she discovered a greater and immediate threat, so this was approved on the next contact).
    • And once Kaff Tagon, in a case of "for the art!" (or DIY extreme sport show, anyway).

Western Animation

Von Goosewing: Duckula! Your days are numbered! Soon, you monster, you will be no more!

Young Canmore [to Demona]: You are the cause of all this! You - you monster!

  • Family Guy
    • Said to Peter after he tricks Dr. Hartman into giving him a flu shot that was in short supply and needed for the elderly. He responds with a pop culture refrence.
    • In another episode Peter gets called one by both Brian and Lois, after using his son as a prop to get a canceled TV show back on air via the make a wish foundation. It Makes Sense in Context?
  • The Simpsons: In "Who Shot Mr. Burns", when Burns steals a well of oil from Springfield Elementary, this destroys the old folks' home, gets Moe's bar closed down and causes Bart's pet dog to be badly injured. He later begins a project to block sunlight from reaching Springfield, as a means of maintaining his monopoly over local heat and light. When a town hall meeting is called about this project, people are discussing their various grievances against Burns, who just so happens to come in right when Bart is talking about his injured pet dog:

Burns: Oh, those wheels are squeaking a bit. Perhaps I could sell him a little oil.
Bart: You twisted old MONSTER!
[Bart runs at Burns, as if about to attack him, until he sees that Burns brought a gun]
Burns: I have decided to protect myself ever since I was attacked in my office by an unidentified assailant.
Homer [from the crowd]: D'oh!

  • Played for laughs in Transformers Animated. Scrapper uses the exact words to call out Sari after she smacks the slag out of him and Mixmaster using some heavy industrial equipment.
  • Blaineley, in Total Drama World Tour. When Geoff calls her a monster, she dismissively replies, "Meh. Been called worse."
  • Darkwing Duck: Towards the end of the pilot, Gosalyn (not yet his daughter) is held hostage and essentially tossed off the top of Saint Canard's tallest building, rescued when Darkwing gives the Big Bad what he wants. In exchange, Taurus Bulba declares that Gosalyn has outlived her usefulness, has her raised even higher, and drops her. Darkwing's answer? 'You butcher!', a cheap shot, and Bulba being worried for the first time in his criminal career.
  • A flashback on X-Men: Evolution showed a castle, Mystique's voice screaming "Monster! What have you done to him?" and Mystique running out of the castle with an infant Nightcrawler in her arms with Magneto in pursuit. It's hinted that Magneto is somehow responsible for Kurt's fuzzy blue appearance. Or maybe he just circumcised him.
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward, Leonardo, while going to stop Baxter Stockman from transplanting Bishop's brain into himself, explains the true meaning of being a monster as well as the differences between a monster and a man, and asks him whether he was either one and whether he would like to use his power to create or destroy.

Leonardo: (about Bishop) He owed a lot of people, Baxter. But he's been paying it back by changing the world. Bishop's work is actually united people of all races, earthlings or otherwise. I mean, we can walk the streets in daylight... because in Bishop's world, no one's considered a monster based on how they look, only by how they act. Are you a monster or a man? Do you wanna use your skills to destroy? Or like Bishop, can you see a way to create something?

  • The Phineas and Ferb episode "The Beak" has this, after the villain drops water on the people of Danville:

Guy: You monster! Now I'm wet!

Spongebob: Donut! You Monster!

  • American Dad: Steve calls Stan this after Roger appears to die and Stan callously asks Steve to burn all evidence of Roger's existence. Stan sadly refutes this after Steve leaves, only for a human skull to drop out of the furnace, which he kicks back in.
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