But I'm a Cat Person takes this from the dog's point of view. The kicker's identity is still a mystery, but the aftermath inspires the heroes (at least, one of them) to commit to being on the dog's side.
In Captain SNES: The Game Masta, Mother Brain (a Harmless Villain in the show the comic is based on) takes it half-literally by smacking Captain N's dog Duke into a pit filled with Omega Energy just to spite the Captain. This upsets not only her enemies, but also her henchman, King Hippo.
The Comic Irregulars: If you're going to have your bad guy do something despicably evil by destroying something huge, make it something that the PCs care about. Something they've fought for and made sacrifices to save.
Something they've actually heard of before.
Ludwig Von Koopa in A Day With Bowser Jr. He freaking punches a defenseless kid who tries to save Bowser Jr from his death!
In the "Parable" arc, literally kicking a dog is one way to earn "evil points" in the in-universe video game. Susan considers doing it, as she doesn't appreciate her character having angel wings, but she can't bring herself to go through with it.
For the opening scene of "Sister 3" Part 18, Dan wanted to make it clear that the aberrations were monstrous killers, but didn't want to show an innocent bystander being killed. Enter (and swiftly exit) an Asshole Victim who was planning to Burn the Orphanage as a distraction from his robbery, with the ultimate goal of stealing puppies loved by children to train as attack dogs.
Vriska Serket has kicked all the dogs. All of them. And has even shot a couple, though she got shot back for at least one of those dogs.
Eridan's destruction of the Matriorb, a defenceless, harmless object that the survival of the troll race depended on. Unlike some of his other actions, which could be seen as self-preservation or acting in the heat of the moment, this action was deliberate, calculated, and something he stood no personal gain from.
In the Act 6 Act 3 intermission flash, Cronus acts pretty creepily to Meenah, but his really earns his status as a Jerkass when he goes off on an abusive rant to Mituna for something that very clearly wasn't his fault.
Caliborn takes great glee in doing this whenever he can. It's extremely rare that he so much as interacts with anyone without insulting or physically injuring them in some way, often just for the hell of it.
Nemen Yi, the Chosen of Battles in Keychain of Creation. When she first shows up, her moral status is indeterminate: sure, she's trying to sequester the group's precious artifact, but it had just been stolen by the villains for world-ending purposes. Then, after one of the team gets it back, the Chosen of Battles looks like she's ready to throw down on the group — until Marena points out that that would be illegal. Fortunately, the conundrum of whether we're supposed to sympathize with Nemen Yi or not is solved in the very very next strip, as she immediately chooses to try and steal the artifact and bait the rest of the group into attacking her first (so she can "defend" herself) by attempting to behead Secret, on the legal technicality that even though she is a defector from team evil and working for the protagonists, she's still an Abyssal Exalted. Going straight for The Woobie's neck just to get around a bureaucratic roadblock in your path is what we call "a signal".
In Knights of the Old Republic, Darth Bandon attacks a guy as he's walking in to meet Darth Malak, and Darth Malak electrocutes two people for no apparent reason at one point.
Kubota has kicked several puppies. He not only orders his men to kill a pregnant woman (which doesn't work that well, but still...), he seals the deal by poisoning and killing his assistant Therkla, just so he can make an effective escape. This last act might even put Kubota into even worse territory.
Vaarsuvius threatening Elan with death when Elan says that he will not cover up for Vaarsuvius killing Kubota. In addition to suggesting that Elan had an affair with Therkla behind Haley's back. Note that Elan is their team-mate.
Killing Kubota in itself was a pretty significant moment, as though the guy definitely deserved it, Vaarsuvius didn't even know the guy's name. They just saw that Elan had tied him up, heard him talking about a trial, and then killed him to avoid a trial: not because he might escape justice, but because it would take too long and probably be boring.
Belkar constantly complains about not getting to kick any dogs. Although, he does eventually cross the line with his teammates when he kills the Oracle, an act which comes back to bite him hard as it triggers the Mark of Justice curse.
Yukyuk here. He had no way of knowing that Mr. Scruffy was an enemy — he just decided to shoot a cat for fun.
Xykon, of course, as you would expect from a Card-Carrying Villain. His favorite is sending the Mooks to their deaths. Redcloak does the same until his My God, What Have I Done? moment during the battle of Azure City.
Tarquin. We know his political moves are evil, but in case the audience would feel it justified, he quickly shows that he is still evil. Even Elan realizes this when it's practically spelled out in giant flaming letters made of escaped slaves. Later, Elan sarcastically mentions the trope to him, but...
Tarquin: "There is one more thing, Elan — then you may begin your long walk across the desert, if that's your decision."
Elan: "What, do you have a bunny you need to punch in front of me or something?"
Tarquin: "No, I'm talking about your dismal combat performance back in the pyramid." to his aide "Though make a note of the bunny thing for next time, that's good stuff."
Vaarsuvius is on the receiving end of a kick when Qarr, for no apparent reason, decides that what Vaarsuvius needed was to have salt rubbed in the wound of realizing how many people they killed by casting Familicide. There was literally no reason for him to do that, especially given how Qarr was there to convince V that it wasn't their fault and push them further into evil, and Qarr kind of ruined that scheme when he was indulging in diabolic mocking.
And there was very little need for Nale to rub it in Malack's face that he had killed his children. He shouldn't have been surprised by Malack's reaction.
Bounty hunter friends Ganji and Enor get on Tarquin's bad side when they extort a comparatively small amount from the general. In a Disproportionate Retribution, Tarquin arranges for the two to fight a duel to the death in the Empire's arena. As Roy put it, "That lizard folk may a jackass, but he still doesn't deserve this. It's like watching someone duel their own puppy."
In Our Little Adventure, Peganone, Eva and Randi were attacked by Angelo. Not only they lost the fight, but Angelo ended up magically forcing the Paladin Eva to slay her own horse. The dramatic effect of this was lessened by her horse easily being able to outrun her, and Angelo getting bored and calling it off. It was still very cruel and unnecessary.
At the end of a Penny and Aggie storyline, Charisma rants to her illegitimate son's face that he exists to ruin her life, after a series of events he had no control over, in front of her boyfriend. Needless to say, he leaves her soon after.
Misty Snow from Shadowgirls. She was racist at the age of 5, and when she grew up, she became a teenage Queen of Jerkass. Her biggest feat in kicking a dog? She made Lin betray her best friend Becka for popularity, and led her in a trap, but instead of embarrassing her in public, like Lin thought it would end, Becka almost gets raped by three guys. And Misty was meanwhile playing with Lin's guilt, and thinking about it made Fate Worse than Death even worse.
And if you think Misty's bad, just wait until she becomes Possessed ByMotherHydra, who surpasses her in kicking a dog like hell. And she has this promo art.
First, we have the as-yet unnamed hooded archer, whose first action in the story is to kill Sakido.
Shortly afterwards, we're introduced to Lazuli and Talos, two demons who got their kicks out of tormenting Kieri.
And shortly after that, we learn Kieri's bunny form was a curse from a rabbit spirit (go figure), who did it to her for the lulz.
And then there's Denevol, who despite being an Angel, has done nothing but kick dogs (and bunnies) since he appeared.
Azurai was largely played for Black Comedy for several chapters, but we see how truly nasty he is in the St.Curtis arc, where none of his actions are Played for Laughs. He viciously beats up the elderly Denevol, who was already heavily injured at that point, murders Sanjulo after his partner, Kazai,sliced a piece of his horn off, and when he captures Kieri, he asks Buwaro what "that bitch's" full name is, showing himself to be a blatant sexiston top of being a remorseless killer.
Dakostortures an angel child and tells his mother he'll let him go on the condition that she sings for him, knowing full well the magic braces placed on her makes speaking impossible.
Iratu flat-out tells his adoptive brother Buwaroto his face that he should have died instead of Sakido, stating that she gave up her life for "something stupid". He's even callous enough to try and kill him in cold blood himself later on, blaming him for Darius and Sakido's deaths.
Aylee (actually her evil clone) gets one of these after she goes through her corporate executive transformation. She attacks the gang's Halloween party and leaves all the guests unconscious outside and taunts Riff with the knowledge that she can kill him and everyone he knows so easily.
Used for an Establishing Character Moment in Terra. In a flashback apparent Big Bad Solus Kalar orders one of his underlings to kill a human civilian in cold blood. When the underling attempts to fake it when Solus' back is turned he isn't fooled and hunts her down himself.
Mr. Bignose from Tragic Deaths does this quite literally.
Starfish spends quite a lot of time being unnecessarily cruel, especially to children. He forces Matty to watch as Ana and Knock drown his father, which unsettles them despite them being killers for hire who have no issue with murder.
Keon core leaches Elan when Elan was already disarmed and quickly dying, just to ensure Elan's death was as horrifically painful as possible in what little time he had left. He also steps on Elan's hand as the dying man reaches for his Peaceguard badge, for added petty cruelty.
Sandra does this to her entire town once she fully embraces her demon nature. Things get really serious when you realize that she imprisons and tortures(at least, mentally) Sam.
After being turned back (temporarily) into an human again, Sandra steals Mabel's thimble from her, just because she can. However, this time, she takes pity on Mabel and gives it back. This is the first sign of humanity she has showed in months.
in an 8-bit Theater strip.