History Main / DestructiveSaviour

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': Superman's NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech was followed up by him punching Darkseid through at least six skyscrapers (none come down, but at least a couple appear to take sufficient enough damage to be condemned) and then pounding him into a city-block-wide crater.

** ''Film/WonderWoman2017'' is a much [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example compared to ManOfSteel when liberating a Belgian village from the Germans. The worst Diana does is destroy a church tower to take out a sniper, but the rest of the church is fine. Of course, as the village is within spitting distance of the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI front, it wasn't in fantastic shape to begin with. Also if she hadn't destroyed the church tower, the Allied forces would've resorted to an artillery strike, which would've caused even more collateral damage.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime,'' Bulkhead is forever accidentally smashing sensitive equipment even if not in battle. Ratchet will always yell "Bulkhead! I needed that!"

** A-Train accidentally runs through and liquifies Hughie's girlfriend at SuperSpeed while on a mission, leaving him holding her detached arms. [[spoiler: This trope is somewhat subverted when we find out that A-Train wasn't even saving anybody, he was just high out of his mind on Compound V]]. Later Butcher tells Hughie that hundreds of people are killed by accident every year by superheroes, but most of it is hushed up through corporate and political pressure, plus generous compensation linked to non-disclosure agreements.

** Soldier Boy was just as bad as Stormfront, although unintentionally. His response to seeing a bunch of youths attempting to steal a car was to ''[[CarFu throw it at them]]'', destroying M.M.'s family home in the process. [[spoiler:When M.M. confronts him about this in the present day and tells him he killed his family, [[FakeUltimateHero his only response is]] [[ButForMeItWasTuesday "Which one?"]]]]

* In ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', Casey ends up ruining [[spoiler:Ellie]]'s wedding when he and his special ops team drop in saving Chuck, Sarah, and [[spoiler:Bryce]], his response "You rang". Of course being Chuck Jeffster then ruined it as well covering up the spy-related stuff.

* Reemus of ''[[VideoGame/TheSeveralJourneysOfReemus The Ballads of Reemus: When the Bed Bites]]'' would never stay employed if he weren't the only exterminator in the kingdom because he is so infamous for causing property damage while on the job that he considers catching a giant horsefly at the cost of only one bed rope a major achievement. As luck would have it, [[ForWantOfANail that bed rope ended up costing him a lot more in the long run]]. This never comes up in ''The Several Journeys of Reemus'', so it seems he's gotten better at it.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "Thank you, Bartman. Your overzealous homicide has saved me eighty cents!"

* Division 2 of ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' is notorious for the amount of collateral damage they leave in their wake, with destroyed buildings and vehicles tending to run up huge bills. Partly this is due to their best Patlabor officer being an OtakuSurrogate who really doesn't want to damage the Labors she is fighting, even if this results in the city being torn apart whilst she struggles to subdue it "peacefully". Mostly it's because their other Patlabor officer is a GunNut who tends to [[MoreDakka start firing at will]] at the first opportunity, blowing huge holes in the surrounding because he's too excited to aim properly. This is the big reason why Division 2 is mocked and scorned by the inhabitants of Tokyo.

%%* Fight Man in the ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse''.

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'':
** Even more so considering that in the ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' storyline he literally played the dualistic roles of Savior and Destroyer.
** His sons are also this. In fact, they may well be ''more'' dangerous than their father, because while the Hulk typically tries not to kill other people, his sons have no such compunction.

* Frequently {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''ComicBook/XMen''- after any particularly vicious, property-wrecking fight, one of them will look around and make the [[RunningGag standing joke]] of "... well, you can always tell where we've been." Peter Wisdom noted that "You can always tell where the X-Men have been because it's always on fire."

* ComicBook/TheAvengers are almost incapable of going more than half-a-dozen issues without having to promise some irate civilian that [[UnclePennybags Tony]] [[ComicBook/IronMan Stark]] will compensate them for losses incurred due to the Avengers smashing a hole in an intersection/using a street full of cars as crude ballistics/blowing up a subway tunnel/demolishing a building or three/etc, etc.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour2022'' opens with the revelation that Reed Richards has ruined the team's reputation because, [[spoiler:in order to stop an incursion of Negative Zone beasties, Reed teleported the Baxter Building and the surrounding city block a year into the future, leaving a smoldering crater in its place. This leaves children orphaned, business without workers, and parents without their children until they catch up with the Baxter Building in a year. The only saving grace is by the perspective of those teleported, nothing will have happened at all, but obviously for those left behind they're particularly put out at this turn of events]].

* In ''ComicBook/MonstersUnleashed'', Kei Kawade can summon monsters powerful enough to take on giant aliens that clash with Thor and the Totally Awesome Hulk. Naturally, when you summon dozens of monsters that can each level cities, there's a ''lot'' of collateral damage. By the sequel series, the government has acknowledged this, having ComicBook/DamageControl keep tabs on Kei to prevent him from intervening in anything less catastrophic than a nuclear meltdown or a swarm of giant bees in order to stop Kei from accidentally wrecking the cities he's trying to rescue.
* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'':
** Hulk was highly destructive in his own right, but the Ultimates were also destructive in their attempts to stop him.
** Later on, Hulk helps against the Chitauri ships, but doesn't mind taking down helicopters as well.
** Thor was so busy firing thunderbolts in all directions against the Chitaur armada, that he also attacked Hawkeye's men by accident.

* In ''Fanfic/OnceMoreWithFeeling'', after Shinji (deliberately) destroys half of the city in his first simulated exercise, Misato nicknames him "Godzilla".

** A non-exhaustive list of the destruction Harry has inflicted includes: wrecking an elevator (giant scorpion golem), burning down a townhouse (evil sorcerer drug ring), blowing a hole through three buildings (giant loup-garou), burning down a warehouse (vampire kidnappers), setting most of a mansion on fire (more vampires), rampant destruction in a Walmart (faerie assassins), setting fire to most of a floor on a high-rise (fallen angel terrorists), burning down a school (it wasn't ''his'' fault, it was those demon baboons with flaming poo), burning down a homeless shelter (more vampires!), massive damage to downtown Chicago (zombie tyrannosaur and necromancers), destroying an entire cavern complex (giant clusterfuck involving vampires, ghouls, evil sorcerers, and C4-packing mercenaries and gangsters), the walls of a business tower, the front end of a townhouse, most of a subway station, and the Shedd Aquariam's Oceanarium exhibit (faerie hitmen and more fallen angels). ''Changes'' takes this even further, with an entire building being blown up (they said they were cleaning out asbestos....) and the finale involving leveling most of a pyramid.

** When Noah, a gigantic ark ship of great significance to the fishmen and merfolk, [[ColonyDrop threatens to crash on Fishman Island]], Luffy decides the best course of action is to [[RapidFireFisticuffs pummel the damn thing]] [[MegatonPunch until he's reduced it to splinters.]] [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething King Neptune]] [[GodzillaThreshold sees this as an]] [[NecessaryEvil acceptable sacrifice]] in exchange for saving his people and their home, even if it means they will no longer be able to fulfill [[ThePromise a certain promise]] made by his ancestors some 800 years ago. [[spoiler:Luckily for everyone, [[TheBeastmaster Shirahoshi]] is able to [[SummonBiggerFish summon the]] [[SeaMonster Sea Kings]] [[TheCavalry to stop Noah from falling.]] By the time they show up, however, Luffy had already destroyed half of the ship, and probably would've destroyed the other half in time even if the Sea Kings hadn't shown up. They then tow what's left of Noah to the sea forest, where they intend to have the ship repaired.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'':

** By the time of [[VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame the 2009 game]], the city has decided to just roll with it, and has a [[HeroInsurance standing insurance policy]] to cover the damage they do. People still aren't too happy, though.

Since their unintentional destruction is often the fuel of their conflict with others as well as motivation to improve themselves, the NoHarmRequirement often serves as a DramaPreservingHandicap for them . Whether it's a HiddenPurposeTest, a desire to no longer [[InnocentBystander endanger the innocent]], a realization that their abilities are too dangerous for the situation and they need to [[HoldingBackThePhlebotinum hold back]], etc. a Destructive Savior will often be faced with a task that requires them to save day with more reserved and/or nonviolent means. Successfully completing such a task is often a SecretTestOfCharacter and shows their potential to {{subverted|Trope}} this trope after all.

Since their unintentional destruction is often the fuel of their conflict with others as well as motivation to improveme themselves, the NoHarmRequirement often serves as a DramaPreservingHandicap for them . Whether it's a HiddenPurposeTest, a desire to no longer [[InnocentBystander endanger the innocent]], a realization that their abilities are too dangerous for the situation and they need to [[HoldingBackThePhlebotinum hold back]], etc. a Destructive Savior will often be faced with a task that requires them to save day with more reserved and/or nonviolent means. Successfully completing such a task is often a {{Secret Test Of Character}} and shows their potential to [[SubvertedTrope subvert]] this trope after all.

** Eren whenever [[spoiler:he uses his Titan form in a city]]. He tends to cause more collateral damage than the [[spoiler:other]] Titans by themselves, since they're only interested in eating people, while he punches and kicks them around, causing them to crash into buildings. Fortunately the first two times he did that, the city was already evacuated.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'':
** Guts overlaps with this and WalkingDisasterArea, as most of the time, shit is already messed up by the time he gets to a town (the usual scenario is that [[TheUsualAdversaries an apostle]] is terrorizing the place). However, since Guts [[DemonSlaying hunts apostles]], he takes it upon himself to kill them, which should make him a hero... [[AntiHero but he does his deeds at the expense of everybody around him]] [[{{Revenge}} and for his own desires]] - [[ImplacableMan and he knows it.]] [[DeconstructedTrope Thus,]] Guts is pretty much [[HeroWithBadPublicity viewed as a villain]] by most who come across him.
** Schierke ends up flooding Enoch village while trying to protect it from monsters, destroying most of the houses. She apologizes, but the villagers were just happy to be alive, and said that the houses can be rebuilt.

** While trying to help the Powerpuff Girls [[IOweYouMyLife out of gratitude for saving his life]], [[DumbMuscle Big Billy]] wrecking things way worse than even the girls, with Blossom even noting that he did less damage as a villain than when trying to be a hero.