Destructive Saviour: Difference between revisions

Say a hideous monster is terrorizing the town. All seems lost, until the [[Big Damn Heroes]] arrive. They beat the monster down, and the whole village celebrates with them.

 

 

Well, no one was killed, but these people are barely better for the town than the monster. Some saviors.

Often this comes from careless use of the powers of a [[Person of Mass Destruction]], but often it's just a tendency to cause [[Disaster Dominoes]].

 

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** The sequels --''[[Great Mazinger]]'' and ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]''-- also played this trope.

* [[Slayers|Lina Inverse]] has a nasty habit of casting the [[Fantastic Nuke|Dragon Slave]] in populated areas, especially when the series takes a turn for the funny. The most famous incident is probably the first episode of the anime, in which a village is being attacked by a dragon Lina accidentally set loose by slaughtering/robbing the gang of bandits that it belonged to. Lina first makes the village elder promise to pay her before lifting a finger to help, then destroys the whole village along with the dragon because the dragon insults her by ''not'' stepping on her. (She still expects to be paid.)

* In ''[[Chrono Crusade]]''...

** Rosette Christopher almost always creates a ton of property damage for every mission she is involved in. Her superiors have even said: "We can even make a BOOK from your destruction reports".

* Kuro and Al-Azif in [[Demonbane]]. Several areas of Arkham are devastated by their mech and magical spells. So many, in fact, that their [[Hero Insurance]] is rapidly running out. their employer even threatens them with not letting them use Demonbane (well, not supporting them, anyways. There's really no way she can not let them use it).

* ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'''s Kotetsu Kaburagi/Wild Tiger cares deeply about saving people -- and not a lick about property damage. Thank God there's literal [[Hero Insurance]] in his city, though it still gets him chewed out regularly by his corporate sponsors. It's also earned him the nickname "Crusher for Justice."

* Madoka from ''[[Rinne no Lagrange (Anime)|Rinne no Lagrange]]'' ''tries'' not to be one, but she's still in a [[Humongous Mecha]] fighting other Humongous Mecha, so it doesn't always work.

* There is a reason they make [[Idiot Hero|Luffy]] fight on the outer deck in the Baratie arc of ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]''. It of course gets smashed up, not in the least because Luffy declares he's going to fix everything by just sinking the goddamn ship and letting it be done with. {{spoiler|He doesn't really.}}

* Dying alien warrior Prince Elfangor, one of the technologically-advanced Andalites, reveals a covert invasion of Earth by another alien species, the Yeerks, to five human teenagers. He gives the teenagers access to morphing technology in hopes that they can launch a guerrilla war against the invaders, promising that Andalite reinforcements are on their way, and they wouldn't need to stall for time more than a year. The teenagers, becoming the [[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]], {{spoiler|end up fighting for three years, because the Andalite military that the Animorphs were so desperately waiting for deemed Earth a low priority, and assumed the kids were lying to try to become a high priority in the very few times the two groups were able to make contact. When the Andalites realized that they've made a mistake and the Yeerk invasion on Earth has turned into a full-blown war, they decide to forfeit Earth and let the Yeerks concentrate all their manpower on Earth...before they blast the entire planet from orbit, killing everyone there, Yeerk...or human.}} This really is something of an indicator of Andalite arrogance, who believe humans to be second-rate species.

* ''[[Sir Apropos of Nothing]]'' isn't really like this in the first book, but in the second book, when he isn't [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], he does things of his own choice, and in the third book, he's even more like this.

** Oh, and Lews Therin's reincarnation, the actual [[Main Character]] of the series, is the [[Chosen One]] and is ''known'' to be a [[Destructive Savior]], since male channelers are still going crazy. He will either prevent the release of the Dark One, leading to the unmaking of all reality, or succeed at defeating the Dark One, but at the cost of horrendous war--not to mention going insane enough to get back into the [[World Sundering]] habit. In amusing bits of [[Insane Troll Logic]], some people thus try to kill him in the hopes of "saving" the world.

* Referenced in the Zilpha Keatley Snyder youth novel, ''Song of the Gargoyle.'' One of the many songs court jester Komus taught his son Tymmon is "The Knight of the Honorable Name," a ballad about a lordly knight who wanders around fighting monsters and bandits, but often leaves his beneficiaries worse off than they'd started. One specific example is given of a town which is being menaced by a dragon. The titular Knight and his retinue slay the dragon, but only after they've lived in the town for so long, taking the townspeoples' goods and food, that they've laid waste to the town themselves. The Knight and his followers then ride off, proud of their success and oblivious to the destruction.

== Live Action TV ==

* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', the Tok'ra considered the Tau'ri to be this, since they lose a lot more people after the Tau'ri start knocking off System Lords left and right. If it weren't for the fact that they are incapable of reproduction, one might almost take it as just being mad that the Tau'ri are so damn effective for "newbies" while their [[Holding Out for A Hero]] method hadn't bore any fruit until recently (and then the Tau'ri forced them to shelve it for being too brutal).

** Some blame can be placed on Lexx himself, as the ship does not have a very good grasp on ethics or even basic slang, not to mention that it ''likes'' to blow up planets. At one point a planet was destroyed simply because Lexx didn't understand the meaning of "belay that order" and didn't bother to ask.

* The [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]] destroyed a lot of buildings when they fought in their [[Humongous Mecha|Zords]]. Later [[Power Rangers]] series began to use clear areas for the Zord battles.

* If the [[Starcraft|Protoss]] technique is counted, we must also list the closest-to-good guys in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''. The Imperium has been known to 'save' cities from zombies or aliens by knocking half of it down with artillery and setting the other half on fire. (They also frequently save systems from daemonic incursions by reducing the world with the warp rift on it to a smouldering ruin with orbital bombardment.) The Eldar and Tau aren't much better when it comes to not solving problems by killing planets.

** The difference with the Eldar is, unlike the Imperium and Tau, it's never their own worlds that they destroy. And to the Eldar, no one else actually matters.

* Dragon-Bloods in ''[[Exalted]]'' have anima banners that flare up with representations of their elemental aspects as they use their Essence. Combat in ''[[Exalted]]'' tends to burn a lot of Essence. One of the Dragon-Blood aspects is Fire. Suffice to say there's a reason that Dragon-Blood construction favours stone instead of wood.

** Then there are the renegade Abyssals, whose efforts to protect locations have to include leaving ''really quickly'' to avoid wiping out the town in a colossal Resonance eruption.

** His first incarnation, Kim, is a researcher engaged in developing nanotechnology with the best of intentions in mind. {{spoiler|Kim's technology is rediscovered 6,000 years later and is instrumental in the development of nanotechnology which is utilized to revive Deus (and, consequently, wipe out most of the planet's population).}}

** His second incarnation, Lacan, is a mild-mannered painter who becomes a hero in the struggle against Solaris for the freedom of surface-dwellers. This lasts only until the love of his life dies in a heroic sacrifice. {{spoiler|This results in a [[Heroic BSOD|particularly]] [[Heel Face Turn|unfortunate]] series of events resulting in Lacan becoming Grahf, who immediately summons ancient murder weapons known as Diabolos which end up killing off most of the planet's population. And that's just for starters.}}

* In an [[Abridged Series]] of ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'', Link is like this.

** In the real games, he's limited to pottery and rocks.

* [[Prototype (Video Game)|Alex Mercer]] saves Manhattan from {{spoiler|a nuke}} and fights the infected. He also has a civilian kill count well into the thousands, often in a single mission and ''unintentionally''.

** The whole "saviour" thing [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|starts off unintentional as well.]] By the time you've finished the game, the player's probably unintentionally slaughtered the population of NYC at least 3 times over in civilians, not counting [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|intentional killing of civilians]], killing [[Punch Clock Villain|soldiers]] or killing [[Zombie Apocalypse|The Infected]].

* The title character of ''[[Nie R]]'' is like this, heedless of the destruction he causes trying to save Yonah. This ultimately results in {{spoiler|the death of mankind.}}

* Most chases in [[Driver San Francisco]] end with you using a semi truck, bus, what ever you shifted into to ram into the target from the oncoming lane.

 

== Web Comics ==

** In fact, {{spoiler|they're later outright stated to be the true villains of the universe.}}

*** Not that {{spoiler|Sarda is any better}}.

{{quote| "Nobody wrecks MY city! Uh... except me."}}

* ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]''. Most notable one being when the girls fight in [[Humongous Mecha]]. Others are not that destructive.

** Mojo Jojo also pulls a gambit to make the girls super huge so that they wreck townsville as they search for him. He's more anxious than usual about being caught, but the growth does get half the job done.

** Also shows up in [[The Movie]].

 

== Religion ==

 

 

* In [[Real Life]], happens quite a lot. [[World War II]] saw numerous examples, such as both Leningrad and Stalingrad, which were virtually levelled in the successful defence of them. Many of the great capitals of Europe, like Paris and Rome, escaped this sort of destructive fighting only because the German commanders quit them rather than engage in destructive fighting there. Douglas MacArthur, upon fulfilling his pledge to return to the Philippines, expected the Japanese to do the same in Manilla, but instead they dug in, and the US Army flattened most of it with artillery fire.

** The reasons for this type of defense are many, but the primary reason to obliterate a city while defending it is not so much to deny the enemy the resources, but rather to slow the enemy down. Stalingrad, for example, held up the Germans for ''months'' as they tried to get enough forces through the ruined city. This is less common in modern warfare with precision weapons, but still occurs. Fallujah during the Iraq War, for example.

* The liberation of France involved blowing a lot of it up. Some residents of coastal towns bear a lot of resentment towards the D-Day invaders (in part due to the rapes and such that accompanied the liberation).

** Succinctly described by the anonymous member of Patton's Third Army who remarked of the smoking ruins of the French Village he occupied, "We sure liberated the hell out of this place."

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Destructive Saviour]]