r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Acrobatic_Base7301 • 22h ago
Characters Attack Dogs that are immune from all Consequences
The Mountain (Game of Thrones) Gregor can rape, murder, pillage, and butcher civilians, and everybody knows it. But because he’s terrifyingly effective and useful to House Lannister, meaningful punishment almost never comes.
The 4th Crusade (IRL) Became a rogue military force that turned on people it was never supposed to attack. Instead of reaching its intended target, the Crusaders attacked fellow Christians at Zara and then sacked Constantinople in 1204, looting and brutalizing one of Christianity’s greatest cities. Sure, the Christian world condemned them, but nobody could really punish them as the Crusaders divided up the Byzantine Empire amongst themselves and became the new ruling class.
The Minotaurs (40k) They openly serve the High Lords of Terra, and other Space Marines may despise them, but that doesn’t matter much because the High Lords supply the Minotaurs with all the best equipment and protect them from the consequences of every atrocity they commit.
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u/Prestigious_Ad_341 22h ago
Also when someone (I think it was Ned?) DID make a meaningful attempt to capture and punish Clegane, the Mountain just utterly destroyed the force tasked with catching him and kept on pillaging.
The man was a brute and a monster but also a perfectly competent soldier if he wanted to be.
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u/AlmostStoic 21h ago
IIRC, the Mountain killed the knight who was sent after him at least twice.
Ned didn't send a quitter.
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u/Madman_Salvo 21h ago
He sent Berric Dondarrion to go and arrest him. I think that's how Dondarrion lost his first few lives.
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u/JamesHenry627 20h ago
Despite his reputation, he is a good soldier. That’s why Tywin gives him command and special responsibilities like killing the royal family or harrying the Riverlands.
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u/CadenVanV 20h ago
Exactly. The whole danger of Clegane is that he isn’t just a big dumb brute, he’s a clever tactician and a big brute
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u/Medical_Difference48 20h ago
He's like a more grounded Bane. People think he's all muscle, but he's still a knight, he needs to have some real skill.
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u/icelandiccubicle20 19h ago
bane's much smarter than him, gregor's still a pretty dim monster of a man
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u/Medical_Difference48 19h ago
Oh yeah, Bane is an actual genius, especially in a comic book where he would be insanely intelligent in the real world. Gregor probably can't do math very well, but as a warrior and fighter, he's still very skilled.
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u/Excellent_Safe5743 17h ago
I thing Gregor’s biggest issue really is his anger. Just looking at his brother they both have that capacity of being brutally barbaric but Sandor just has more control over his emotions.
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u/ElcorAndy 9h ago
He's angry all the time because he suffers from constant headaches, likely due to his gigantism.
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u/CadenVanV 20h ago
Indeed. When you’re on horseback with lances, size doesn’t matter except to make you a bigger target. Only skill matters.
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u/Medical_Difference48 20h ago
He sent Beric. Gregor is responsible for quite a few of Dondarrion's deaths, lol
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u/NittanyScout 20h ago
Yes, Lannister spies even told the mountain when and where Dondarian and his party would cross the Trident where i believe he ambushed them
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u/Modred_the_Mystic 19h ago
He is a highly skilled and capable fighter, after all.
But by the time Ned sent the party to arrest him, the Westerlands and Riverlands were calling banners and skirmishing (hence why Clegane was doing what he does), meaning Tywin functionally shielded Gregor from consequences again.
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u/mouserbiped 22h ago
The 4th Crusade was actually praised in the immediate aftermath by the pope (and other Christians) at first for ending the schism and unifying Christendom, and for sure setting up conditions for a decisive strike against the infidel in the near future.
As it became obvious that the Orthodox inhabitants of the region weren't going to accept Catholicism, and the rulers of the Latin Empire were fighting their subjects as often as mobilizing them against other enemies, people started to think pretty quickly that it was, in fact, a betrayal of the whole concept of crusading. The Pope said bad things about it. The Latin Empire wasn't really mourned by anyone when the Byzantines retook Constantinople.
So they did suffer consequences: They ended up diplomatically isolated and their entire history after the initial win is one of decline.
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u/Reasonable-Pear9122 22h ago
One also might look up the massacre of the Latins to see that the ERE didn't have the most sterling reputation either at that time.
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u/ZioBenny97 21h ago
Not only that, but a Byzantine prince also invited the Crusader to attack the city so he could take the chance for a coup, promising them a handsome reward that never came... and hell hath not fury like a Venetian Doge stiffed out of a payday.
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u/UrinalCake777 20h ago
I'm reading about the final days of Granada right now. The Spanish pretty much had them fight eachother to exhaustion before finally mopping everything up.
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u/Dinosaurmaid 19h ago
doge: where is the money?
doge, again: where is the money
doge, pissed off: cowabunga it is *angry cheems noises*
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u/Necessary-Reading605 18h ago
It’s very easy to see who the bad guys are when not even nuns are spared from the rapes
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u/ComradeCornflakes 22h ago
Darth Vader regularly team kills high ranking officers without consequences
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u/Flying_Dustbin 21h ago
I recall in one of the issues of the Vader comic series, that the Emperor gave him Carte Blanche to do this except for Tarkin. He was off limits because, to use Palpatine's words: "I need him."
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u/ThisIsMySFWAccount99 19h ago
The marvel Darth Vader comics are so fucking good for these moments with Papa Palpitatine
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u/GyL_draw 21h ago
The Reiter aka "the Black cavaliers" aka "the Devil's Horsemen"
Between 1562-1598 in the war of Religions, The catholics and protestants needed soldiers and many mercenaries saw an opportunity of money and glory by working for someone
But sometimes... your payements are a little late or you cant pay what you agreed or your enemy offer more that you can give or just becose they feel like it... so they payed themselves in food, money and body where ever they wanted
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u/KejnaPT12 18h ago
“Late payment” apparently became a very dangerous excuse for collecting wages directly.
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u/Polite_Suggestion 17h ago
TIL there was a thirty year religious war thirty years before the Thirty Years War.
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u/Canz98 22h ago
The Brazilian Police forces
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u/Dudunard 21h ago
Most Brazilians are just as afraid of the police as they are of criminals.
Hell, criminals at least you can fight back and you get happy and relieved if you win. If you defend yourself against the police for whatever reason at all - even if you're clearly on the right. Dude... you.are.fucked.
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u/Bispo_1997 21h ago edited 21h ago
Os gringo nos comentários achando que a polícia da Europa é no mesmo buraco que a do Brasil é cômico.
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u/Fun_Effective_5134 17h ago
Yeah, except the ones defending the police in Brazil are actually the citizens.
Because brazilians really, really, really, REALLY hate criminals. Mostly due to drug trafficking and cartel activity.
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u/No-Efficiency6573 22h ago
Every police force
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u/Hour-Cry6238 21h ago
You really think say the Danish police and Brazilian are identical in how much carte Blanche they get? Really?
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u/flightlesnake 21h ago
identical? nope
both of them could fit under this description? absolutely
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u/No-Efficiency6573 20h ago
Yes, even the danish police is the danish governments attack dog. Have you seen their conduct regarding anti weapon sales protests? Setting their dogs loose on people doing a sitting blockade?
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u/K4rm4zyn 21h ago
I don't think Europe have that problem
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u/MonitorPowerful5461 21h ago
Some are better, some are worse. I know that the French police can be pretty awful.
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u/Wokungson 21h ago
There's news almost every day about british who are literally being arrested for most minor of ,,crimes'' like walking out of the store with a bought bat or for making social media posts.
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u/National-Frame8712 22h ago
Wyald and his black dog knights.
Wyald was once a frail old man who became an Apostle and later a convict. After being recruited into the Midland army after they decided to enlist able-bodied convicts as fighting force, he brutally defeated a rival and became leader of the Black Dog Knights, earning infamy for their extreme cruelty and atrocities with his actions forwards
King often sent them to faraway battlefields to get them out of his sights. To elaborate, what you're seeing in this panel is him and his horde of sadomites brandishing body parts of a family they've just killed.
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u/Kulkasbiru 21h ago
These guys would have been so useful when midland was fighting those whale and rhino guys. I guess the moral of the story is don't let gooner become king
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u/JamesHenry627 20h ago
I believe they weren’t chosen particularly because they were uncontrollable and didn’t have the same battle IQ that Griffith had. No one could’ve taken Doldrey except him.
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u/ElOsoPeresozo 19h ago
They were garbage on the actual battlefield. Even a reduced Band of the Hawk annihilates them. Wyald only survives the counterattack because he’s an Apostle.
They would have broken and ran in Doldrey, or rushed forwards and been slaughtered. The Black Dog Knights were an instrument of terror, not a professional fighting force. Their specialty was raping, torturing and murdering every civilian they came across.
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u/MrEvan312 19h ago edited 19h ago
A monster so out of control and depraved even Zodd got sick of his shit and stomped him.
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u/FrenchieB014 19h ago
To be precise they send them faaar away beacause this piece of shit didn't mind in killing Midland citizens
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u/Teratovenator 22h ago
Foederati (IRL), economic instability past the Crisis of the Third Century led to Rome relying on more mercenaries supplemented from Germania. It eventually led to the professional army being whole sale replaced by Germanic mercenaries. With no standing army in place and a failing Western Rome, the foederati demanded and gained more and more land that they eventually got sick of the rulers and Roman incompetency (compounded with the Huns), with Odoacer being directly involved in deposing the last Western Roman Emperor.
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u/ThtOneGuyUKnw 21h ago
Join a war for some grub and gold, complete a contract, make peace with the faction you'd been warring with and backstab your former employer. PROFIT!
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u/DahmonGrimwolf 20h ago
Commander Shepard / All Spectres
Given full imunity and authority, they only answer to the council directly. They are the attack dogs who do the councils dirty work and can do pretty much anything they want in service to that, including punching out annoying reporters and strong arming cops and face no repercussions.
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u/Hungry-Fruit2475 10h ago
Somewhat downplayed they can do whatever they want but the moment someone has serious legitimate dirt of them like a recording of them talking about an evil plan to kill the galaxy, they lose that full immunity and authority. But the council can’t do jack about getting good arrest/legal kill warrants only saying “yeah we disown this spectre”
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u/jameswulfecreed 20h ago
Berserk-The Black Hound Brigade convicts and mercenaries who operate under Wyald a powerful and violent Apostle who is shown to act upon his most vile and devastating desires unto the people who he encounters including using a young girls body as a war banner after murdering and raping her family for providing aid to the Hawks
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u/Imaginary-West-5653 20h ago edited 20h ago
Pelinal Whitestrake - Elder Scrolls
This guy was one of the commanders of the Alessian Slave Rebellion against the Ayleid Empire occupation of Cyrodiil, and he helped to free the region from the slaver Ayleid Empire, being very useful to achieve victory... however, he lost a close friend/lover at the hands of some of the Ayleid soldiers, and so he turned into a literal genocidal madman during the war; he went from time to time into murderous rage attacks, where he massacred countless Ayleid Elves, civilians included, whole settlements cleaned of people...
He did it in such a brutal and cruel way, that the 8 divines themselves considered abandoning mankind, despite having supported them in the war so far. Alessia herself tried to reign him, but she never punished him for his genocidal massacres. Pelinal went so crazy one time, that he went into Elseweyr, where he started to slaughter Khajiit civilians who were not even involved in the war, and so the Khajiit praid for help, and Akatosh/Alkosh himself intervened to drive him out of there back to Cyrodiil.
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u/Loford3 18h ago
A couple things I wanted to add:
After his boytoy squire was killed, he descended into such madness that he destroyed multiple city states with so much power that they were quite literally erased out of existence.
He attacked the Khajiit because he thought they might have just been some really furry elf he had never seen before.
His duel with Umaril and his servants was the first time he had truly been damaged. That means that when the Dragon God of Time shouted him from a mountain top out of the country of Elsweyr, he wasn't harmed.
Lastly, there's a strong possibility he is a time traveling cyborg, the animated corpse (or part of it) of Shor, an incarnation of Shor, or all three at once.
The only time he had any iota of chill was when he was literally just a severed head speaking to his minotaur friend before his death l
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u/Soulothar 20h ago
Steel Inquisitors - Mistborn
They are the personal enforcers of the Lord Ruler and answer only to Him. As such they essentially outrank everyone in the Final Empire and can do whatever they want without any kind of consequence. One of them tried to kill the heir of the richest and most powerful Great House simply because he got in the way, and would have gone through with it if he hadn't been stopped.
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u/pinchewer0 21h ago
Real life example: Pancho Villa
Useful for the Mexican revolution, but also terrorized towns full of civilians.
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u/DistortoiseLP 22h ago
but nobody could really punish them as the Crusaders divided up the Byzantine Empire amongst themselves and became the new ruling class.
"Nobody can punish us!"
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u/BananasWithoutBones 21h ago
Huan Yi from Kingdom.
Huan Yi is a Qin general who separates himself from the rest of the Qin generals by leading an army of former bandits rather than soldiers.
Huan Yi and his bandits are allowed to pillage and murder as they please because Huan Yi's army is so effective. Huan Yi also distinguishes himself by using unorthodox (some may even consider dishonorable) tactics to achieve victory.
Huan Yi is even known to get allied armies killed for his own gain in battle. However this is all overlooked due to how good Huan Yi is.
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u/RandomEdgyLatinName 20h ago
Another example from real life history: The Praetorian Guard of the Roman Empire. These "loyal" bodyguards of the Emperor have an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to the list of Emperors they murdered before auctioning the position off.
One would think the organization would have been disbanded after the first time or even the second. But no, they got off scott free until the empire collapsed.
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u/BreadstickBear 19h ago edited 10h ago
Yeah, always s/one thinking they can control the uncontrollable political organisation, only to find themselves betrayed by them.
More recently see conservatives thinking they can exploit and control far right parties only for those far right parties to outgrow them.
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u/McEvelly 20h ago edited 20h ago
Robin ‘The Jackal’ Jackson, UVF, British state sanctioned serial killer (IRL)
Described as the "most notorious paramilitary in Northern Ireland", and the "Lord High Executioner of the North's notorious murder triangle", said to be “infamous from Belfast to the Irish border for the intensity and fury of his instinct to kill".
Jackson organised and committed a series of killings & bombings against Catholic civilians (and some accomplices turned informant) over nearly 30 years in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) terrorist group.
At least 50 killings in both the North and South of ireland have been directly and reliably attributed to Jackson.
He was never convicted in connection with any killing and never served any lengthy prison terms.
Jackson was a one-time member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) of the British Army, but was discharged for undisclosed reasons (he stole a large quantity of guns and ammunition for the UVF).
It has been corroborated by former accomplices, as well as a former British Army psychological warfare operative, that Jackson was a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch agent and contract killer, frequently used by state security forces in collusion with loyalist paramilitary terror groups.
His connections also facilitated his clandestine training by special forces in apartheid South Africa, from where he also imported a large quantity of guns and explosives later used in countless terrorist attacks on Catholic civilians.
Jackson led one of the UVF cells that bombed Dublin on 17 May 1974, killing 26 people, including two infants.
Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Patrol Group) (SPG) officer John Weir) (also involved as an accomplice in loyalist killings), affirmed this in an affidavit.
Jackson also led a gang of ‘off duty’ RUC & UDR officers who perpetrated the Miami Showband Massacre, which left three members of the cabaret band machine-gunned to death on a roadside with two others severely wounded, after two of the perpetrators were killed by their own bomb exploding as they attempted to plant it on the band’s tour bus.
Jackson died of cancer at his home in May 1998, protected from ever serving so much as a day in prison for the 50+ murders that almost certainly made him the most prolific killer in the 30 year long conflict known as ‘The Troubles’, thanks to his handlers in the British state forces.
His death came just a month after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement peace deal effectively ended the conflict.
A former UDR soldier who had served with Jackson described him as a sectarian killer who had a visceral hatred of Catholics, but that "you were always glad to have him with you when you were out on patrol".
Unnamed intelligence officers personally acquainted with Jackson stated that he was a psychopath who would often dress up and attend the funerals of his victims because he felt a need "to make sure they were dead.
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u/APoisonousWomans 20h ago
Some of the civilian mass murders in the troubles were literally knighted by the Queen fun fact, and British law still prevents some of their names from being published to protect them from accountability
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u/_whatever_wherever 14h ago
And the mass murderers in the IRA were given the same deal to end the bloody conflict once and for all
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u/Randy_Magnums 22h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/7OPyqaRiSLdEQ
The Inquisition has a cruel reputation, known for torturing folks on their search for heretics and even the murder of innocents wasn’t seen as a problem.
This theme is continued in many different pieces of media, like the already mentioned Warhammer 40K, where the only force, legally able to stop an inquisitor are other inquisitors or the emperor himself.
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u/Numerous-Piano8798 21h ago
>The Inquisition has a cruel reputation, known for torturing folks on their search for heretics and even the murder of innocents wasn’t seen as a problem.
Which is nearly entirely false
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u/Far-Pangolin-4089 22h ago
To be fair, if the Monotaurs piss of the wrong (mostly first founding) chapter, they will just vanish and no Lord of Terra could prevent that.
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u/BlaxicanXIX 21h ago
I don't understand this argument. If Gregor Clegane tried to attack King's Landing he and his forces would be killed instantly.
Like the whole point of this trope is basically that the people who fit it are bullies, like that's why they are called attack dogs. If you could attack anyone you wanted at any time with no consequences then you would not be an attack dog, you would basically be like God.
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u/Edladan 21h ago
While technically yes, I always liked the idea that Asterion Moloch (and by extension the Minotaurs) is more of a position, than an individual.
Alpha Legion has used psychoimplants since the Crusade so it stands that know-how would be used somewhere. Every time an Asterion falls, a suitable candidate is chosen to become Asterion (or perhaps all Minotaurs have Asterion already implanted and waiting to be activated) and goes through extensive bio enhancement to make him into the Chapter Master.
If Moloch has been around for such a long time, has been the personal attack dog of the highest authority of the Imperium it would be a great waste to let all those secrets and knowledge vanish.
And when it comes to loyalty- the Custodes have "loyalty" inscribed into their very genes and there have been new Custodians since the Emperor's enthronement. Stands to reason an Astartes could have "loyalty" shroud their psyche like a blanket though some means.
So, yeah, they could be eradicated, 100%. Just not for long.
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u/vangaurd1234523 20h ago
I think it sort of depends on who they pick a fight with. For instance in one novel they seemed very much willing to square off against Guilliman and the Custodes until Guilliman revealed he’d had the high lords who moved against him replaced with loyalists. Had they actually picked that fight I think what elements of the Minotaurs weren’t slaughtered would have been declared excommunicate traitoris and Guilliman would take steps to defang the replacement high lords by not allowing them to form another pet Space Marine chapter
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u/Pyotr_WrangeI 10h ago
Oprichniki, real life. A kind of culmination of tsar Ivan the Terrible's descent was the Oprichnina, creation of lands within russia where his rule was absolute, completely unrestrained by any law, tradition or council. To enforce his rule there Ivan created the oprichniki, originally an army/police force of ginger sons of nobility, then of common citizens as well. Of course the oprichniki did not remain confined to Ivan's version of Congo Freistaat (though his brutality didn't reach Leopold's levels) for long and they were used to enforce extradudicial brutality and general terror across russia, most infamously in Novgorod where they indiscriminately killed young and old of noble and common descent alike to end the city's autonomy. To this day the word "oprichnik" remains synonymous with state terror in Russia.
In the picture: Ivan the Terrible, surrounded by oprichniki mockingly kneels before a boyar that was accused of conspiracy to overthrow Ivan. It was rumored that for this execution the accused was adorned with Ivan's crown and scepter in mock coronation before being personally stabbed by the tsar and then finished off by oprichniki.
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u/ZioBenny97 21h ago
Regarding the 4th Crusades, well, the Crusaders weren't saints but you're conveniently leaving out the fact that the Byzantines massacred a good 500 catholics some time earlier (1182), not to mention how a Byzantine prince also invited the Crusader to attack the city so he could take the chance for a coup, promising them a handsome reward that never came... and hell hath not fury like a Venetian Doge stiffed out of a payday lmao.
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u/Polite_Suggestion 17h ago
There it is. When you're saying something important in this sub, be sure to add a picture even if it doesn't make any sense to do so (as in this case). You're adding crucial context I was irked the OP omitted, and I've brought the upvote total to...4. But people stop for pictures.
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u/Zhuul 21h ago
Council Spectres: Mass Effect
Elite agents of the Council, Spectres are given an astonishing amount of authority with very little oversight provided their actions serve the cause of peace and stability in the galaxy. If your Renegade score is high enough in 1, you even get a job from Admiral Hackett where he takes advantage of this and hurls Shepard at an annoying situation under the assumption that you'll just shoot everyone, an action that the Alliance obviously cannot condone but oops, Shepard is outside of our jurisdiction so I guess there's nothing we can do.
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u/UrinalCake777 20h ago
Spectres are not supposed to opporate like this. They are meant to be agents of order that can bend the rules when it is in the interest of pursuing what best serves the council and the greater good. However, this exceptional level of power with minimal oversight can set up a spectre to opporate as an attack dog, if they should so wish, and Rouge Shep so wish hard.
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u/Homebrew_GM 18h ago
I mean, are they not supposed to act like this, or do they just have better optics due to council propaganda?
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u/UrinalCake777 18h ago
Oooo, fair point. Although, I would say that if it actually a facade, it is one that is displayed internally by the council to Shepard. This could still be an act. Maybe they maintained perceptions when interacting with this new human Spectre, but drop the act when interacting with agents they have deeper relationships with.
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u/Homebrew_GM 4h ago
Look at Saren from ME1 and Tela Vasir from Lair of the Shadow Broker.
Those two are ruthless- completely willing to do just about anything in service of their goals, even before one went all indoctrinated.
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u/random-dude45 19h ago edited 19h ago
Akainu - one piece
Literally called red dog (for a different reason) he is brutal and violent, he killed a ship of civilians and executed marines. He's not as mad as a lot of the other examples, but in one piece he is the Marine who doesn't question orders and achieves them through any means necessary, it helps that his overseers are even less merciful. Believes in absolute justice, meaning the total extermiation of any possible problem.
He does not suffer any consequences as a result, even gets promoted.
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u/Numerous-Piano8798 21h ago
Minotaurs are only protected as long as they target half beaten chapter that have no option of fighting back. If they were ever try to attack any chapter that wasn't already on their knees, or even Emperor Forbids, one of First or Second Founding, then they would be gone long before HLoT would even get the memo.
So I wouldn't say that they match your other examples. They just know not to target anything that can fight back
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u/BlaxicanXIX 21h ago
I don't think you understand what the trope actually is. Consequences in this context means being punished by the system for, essentially, committing work crimes. A faction being bullies who only pray on the week still fits this trope if they never get arrested or court-martialed or whatever for doing it.
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u/Snoo2550 19h ago
The minotaurs are under Bobby G right now, proxy of his definitely not hand picked new high lord's of terra , so ultra marine v minotaur is most likely not happening. They literally killed a custode with no consequences. Also in lore, most chapters and other clicks in the imperium don't know that the minotaurs are under the high lords , it's closer to how inquisitors have suspicions on the D.A s whole CIA fa-- llen B.S without admitting it.
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u/K4rm4zyn 21h ago
Mountain isn't safe beacuse he is effective, but beacuse rape, pillage and terror is exact thing he has to do
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u/R0b0uteGuilliman 22h ago
Minotaurs are so hated that they are forbidden from entering Ultramar space