Do Not Attack the Bonnacon, A Medieval Beast with a Toxic Defense

Do Not Attack the Bonnacon, A Medieval Beast with a Toxic Defense

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The bonnacon is a strange beast believed to have existed in the ancient world. The first attestation to the existence of the bizarre creature is traced to the Roman natural historian, Pliny the Elder. Belief in its existence continued well into the Middle Ages and it was a prominent figure in many medieval bestiaries – perhaps due to the crude and unusual way it defended itself.

The Beast’s Protection

The earliest known reference to the bonnacon (variations include ‘bonachus’, ‘bonacon’, ‘bonaconn’, and ‘bonasus’) is said to be found in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History . According to Pliny, it can be found in the region of Paeonia, which roughly corresponds to what is today the northern part of Greece, the FYROM, and western Bulgaria. Pliny states the creature “has the mane of the horse, but is, in other respects, like the bull, with horns, however, so much bent inwards upon each other, as to be of no use for the purposes of combat.”

The mythical beast cannot use its horns for combat. ( CC BY SA )

As the creature’s horns are practically useless in combat, the bonnacon would, in the face of danger, flee, instead of standing its ground to fight. The most bizarre aspect of the bonnacon is the mechanism which it used to escape from its pursuers. According to Pliny, “while in the act of flying, it (the bonnacon) sends forth its excrements, sometimes to a distance of even three jugera (104 Roman feet, which is roughly 31 meters); the contact of which burns those who pursue the animal, just like a kind of fire.”

  • Beautiful, Decorative, and Sometimes Crude: Illuminated Manuscripts and Marginalia
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  • The Beast of Exmoor: Is this Phantom Cat More than Mere Folklore?

Another reference to the bonnacon can be found in a piece of writing known as On Marvellous Things Heard , which has sometimes been attributed to the philosopher Aristotle, though generally believed by scholars to be a product of the Peripatetic School. The description of the mythical animal in this piece of work agrees with that of Pliny’s, though further details are presented.

According to this work, the bonnacon’s habitat is placed specifically in “the mountain called Hesaenus, which divides Paeonia from Maedice,” Other details furnished by On Marvellous Things Heard about this creature include “each of these (i.e. the horns) holds more than three pints and is pitch black, but they shine as though they were peeled”, “when the hide is skinned it covers the space of eight couches”, and “its flesh is sweet”. This work also states that the excrement of the bonnacon only burns when the creature is disturbed.

Folio 16r from a 13th century Bestiary, The Rochester Bestiary (British Library, Royal MS 12 F XIII), showing the Bonnacon.

The Popularity of the Bonnacon Creature

For one reason or another, the bonnacon became a somewhat popular creature and it found its way into many medieval bestiaries. One of these, for example, is the Aberdeen Bestiary, which states that the beast is a native fauna of Asia (and not Paeonia as indicated in Natural History and On Marvellous Things Heard ).

Additionally, this bestiary notes that the heat of the creature’s excrement is so strong that it sets fire to anything it encounters. In these illustrated works, the bonnacon is often seen being hunted by human beings, and therefore, these illustrations show the creature shooting fire from its behind. The pursuers in these scenes are often shown with a look of disgust on their faces.

The creature defends itself. ( cludbdesmonstres)

The bonnacon is also mentioned briefly in the Golden Legend , a medieval collection of saints’ biographies. In the hagiography of St. Martha (a figure mentioned in the Gospels, and the sister of Mary and Lazarus), the saint is said to have left Judaea with her siblings after the resurrection of Christ and eventually arrived in France. In a wood between Arles and Avignon, the saint is recorded to have encountered a dragon-like monster called by the natives as Tarasconus – which is believed to be the offspring of the Leviathan and a bonnacon.

  • Bestiary, The Book of Beasts: Compendiums of Medieval Monsters and Moral Lessons
  • Creatures of the Land, Sea and Heavens: Ancient Beliefs in Animal Counterparts
  • Aspidochelone: A Giant Sea Monster of the Ancient World and an Allegorical Beast

Tarasconus model in a Corpus Christi procession in Valencia. (Chosovi/ CC BY 3.0 )

There is no hard evidence to support the existence of this strange being, yet the creature may indeed be based on a real animal. It has been suggested that basis of the bonnacon may have been a species of bison that once live in Central Asia, or the European bison, which still exists today.

A European bison in the Wisentgehege Springe game park near Springe, Hanover, Germany. (Michael Gäbler/ CC BY 3.0 )


Do Not Attack the Bonnacon, A Medieval Beast with a Toxic Defense - History

The Ormesby Psalter (Bodleian Library MS. Douce 366), is not a bestiary. It is a psalter, a collection of Psalms meant for contemplative reading. The wealthy would commission such manuscripts, and many of them are richly illustrated. Some of them used bestiary themes in their marginal illustrations (the Queen Mary Psalter has most of a bestiary in its margins) or in historiated initials. The Ormesby Psalter has a few beautiful animal illustrations, like this one.

While a knight methodically chops the heads off a multi-headed dragon (perhaps the hydra, or the Beast of the Apocalypse), two rabbits do mock battle with sword and mace, and a dog sleeps peacefully amid the carnage.

Another dog waits patiently for his master to stop having a symbolic conversation with a strange man she met while out walking her hound and squirrel. Quite what is going on here is beyond me, but perhaps the man, with a suggestive sword sticking out of his side and a very large ring, is proposing to the woman that they merge their menagerie in holy matrimony.

The dog looks amused by all this, but probably just wants to get on with the walk.

The illustration I like most is of the unicorn.

Here we have a spirited unicorn, that despite his wound turns to take on the cruel knight who spears him. Perhaps the unicorn will yet bag himself a knight to hang on his trophy wall. The maiden seems distressed, as well she should be, since she got the beast into this mess in the first place. At least she is gesturing to the knight to stop his attack maybe the unicorn will spare her when he finishes off his attacker.


Biology

Corviknight is a large, avian Pokémon resembling a raven. Most of its body is a lustrous black, but its lower beak and legs have a matte color. Its feathers are tempered with steel. Its mantle, breast, belly, flanks, and scapular feathers are smooth and resemble plate armor. Corviknight's talons, head, and upper beak are similarly armored. It has a crest above its eyes that resembles a crown, and a ruff of feathers on its throat that resemble a beard. Corviknight's eyes have white pupils, red irises, and black sclerae.

It is said to be the strongest bird Pokémon in the Galar region, being able to scare off any Pokémon that tries to challenge it. Due to its intelligence and flying skills, Corviknight serves a company called Galar Taxi, where it transports people from one location to another. Ώ] Corviknight preys on Bunnelby. It has violent territorial clashes with Skarmory.

As Gigantamax Corviknight, it becomes larger with a slightly altered look. While Gigantamaxed, Corviknight's wings are streaked with glowing red patches of Dynamax energy, and its ruff of throat feathers is more robust. The plate on its breast and belly separates into two adorned plates, and the plates on its flanks become slashed, such that they resemble medieval puffed sleeves. Eight feathers called blade birds on the back of Gigantamax Corviknight's wings can be launched from its body to attack foes independently. Its blade birds also glow with Dynamax energy. In its Gigantamax form, Corviknight is powerful enough to generate hurricane-force winds. It can use its massive wings to hover in the air on updrafts created while Gigantamaxing. Its reinforced armor is barely affected by its opponent's attacks. ΐ]

Gigantamax Corviknight is the only known Pokémon capable of using the exclusive G-Max Move G-Max Wind Rage.


2. They murdered a lot of Jews.

By 20th century standards, murdering six million Jewish people makes you history’s greatest monster, and rightfully so. To this day, no one can seriously name their child “Adolf” without subjecting it to a lifetime of sideways glances.

Unless he’s a Kardashian, probably. I dare you, Kim.

But back at the turn of the millennium, no one seemed that concerned. Even though Jewish families both funded and supplied the Crusaders, they were still overly taxed and massacred by the thousands.

During the First Crusade, God supposedly sent German knights an “enchanted goose” to follow. That goose had a totally different agenda. It led them to a Jewish neighborhood, which the knights immediately slaughtered. There were anti-Jewish massacres at cities like Worms, Mainz, Metz, Prague, Ratisbon, and others. Confused about why these are still European cities? Me too. The Crusaders hadn’t even left Europe before they decided to murder Jews.

I have no idea why every failed state tries to kickstart a recovery by killing Jewish people.

The Crusaders eradicated roughly one-third of Europe’s Jewish population.


G-Cells:

Kong: Skull Island

A Skullcrawler was first seen feasting on a dead Sker Buffalo by Kong. Kong was about to confront the creature when he was ambushed by a second one from behind. After a quick battle, Kong ends up subduing and killing both Skullcrawlers by stuffing one's head into the ground, breaking its neck, and smashing the other's skull with a devastating stomp.

Another Skullcrawler ambushed Jack Chapman and a Spore Mantis, but went for Chapman and ate him alive while the Spore Mantis managed to escape. The same Skullcrawler then showed up in the boneyard and vomited Chapman's remains. When William Randa attempted to make his camera work, he was devoured by the Skullcrawler, who then tried to attack the group. Randa's camera started to flash inside the predator, which started to aggravate the monster.

The Skullcrawler then started chasing Weaver but the group retaliated using flamethrowers. The creature batted a crew member with its tail onto one of the Kong skulls, causing his backpack to detonate several canisters of toxic gas. The Skullcrawler started to grow more relentless and disturbed a flock of resting Leafwings, which then turned their attention to attacking the group. Conrad managed to kill some of the flying creatures using Hank Marlow's katana. The Skullcrawler then set its eyes on Conrad and Reg Slivko, but Weaver rescued them by tossing Conrad's lighter at one of the subterranean vents, creating an explosion that killed the Skullcrawler on the spot.

The largest of all the Skullcrawlers was awakened due to seismic explosives dropped onto Skull Island along with the rest of his kind, and after Kong was incapacitated by Packard, he let his presence be known by emerging out from the water. Then he attacked the weakened Kong, quickly rendering the ape unconscious before turning his attention to the humans. As he chased Conrad and the other survivors of the research expedition sent to Skull Island, Earl Cole tried to sacrifice himself along with the beast by arming several grenades before having the massive creature try to eat him. However, the monster didn't take the bait and batted him against a mountainside as the grenades went off, killing him.

As the large Skullcrawler finally reached the rest of the crew in a marsh, Kong appeared in time to stun the giant reptile with a large boulder, allowing the crew to run to safety. The Skullcrawler then returned his focus to Kong, pouncing on him and biting his throat. Kong and the Skullcrawler continued to brutally wrestle, pummel, and bite each other until the Skullcrawler threw Kong into a shipwreck with his tail, where the ape became entangled in the chains. With Kong subdued in the wreck, the Skullcrawler was about to kill him when he's fired upon by Houston Brooks and the other humans. He then returned his focus to the humans and approached them, giving Kong the chance to free himself from the chains.

As he approached the crew once more, the monster's right eye was destroyed by a flare fired by Weaver, and Conrad lured him away from the crew on their boat. This allowed Kong to use and swing the propeller of a wrecked ship at his adversary like a medieval flail, which caught the beast in the shoulder and allowed Kong to pull the Skullcrawler back toward him and resume their fight. Kong continued to wrestle the creature and threw him into the side of a cliff, causing Weaver to fall into the water below.

As the Skullcrawler continued to attack Kong, the ape uppercut him with the ship's propeller, slicing the monster's throat wide open and seemingly killing him. As Kong saved Weaver from drowning, the Skullcrawler pounced at Kong once more. After coiling his tail around Kong, he wrapped his tongue around the ape's arm, pulling it down his gullet in an attempt to devour Weaver as she's clutched in Kong's hand. After a brief struggle, Kong tore out the creature's internal organs through his mouth, killing him instantly.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

In the novelization of the film, the Skullcrawlers intend to leave Skull Island upon hearing Ghidorah's call, but they are stopped by Kong before they can do so.

Godzilla vs Kong

The Skullcrawlers are set to make a return in Godzilla vs. Kong.


Friday, January 15, 2016

Defending Your Territory

One of the chief ways animals communicate with and defend their territory or belongings against other animals is through scent marking. This involves rubbing objects or creatures with scent glands, urination, defecation, and other methods of leaving one’s distinct smell on the target. Every species language includes scent as a component, and no one learning another species’ language can truly understand it without knowing that species’ repertoire of scent messages.

When an object or area becomes contested between two or more animals, a scent battle can ensue. Scent battles are a sort of non-lethal conflict by proxy, but follow different rules, since the parties are usually not both present at the same time. One party marks a target with her scent, then the other character comes along later and tries to overwhelm the previous scent. This can go on for days, sometimes months, without the two characters ever actually meeting. This does not imply, however, that scent battles are unwinnable, or fought by attrition. Victory can be achieved depending on the difference in Hit Dice/Total Levels between the two animals involved.

Table 4.4 Scent Battle Resolution Matrix shows one way to resolve the conflict. It is based on the original fantasy game cleric’s ability to “turn the undead.” A player consults the column on the left, “PC Level,” to find her own current Total Levels. She then cross-references it with her opponent’s Hit Dice or Total Levels to the right. The number shown is the modifier to her core dice roll when trying to win a scent battle against that opponent that is, the number she adds to her roll. A * indicates victory without rolling. The opposing character will simply give up the fight and move on to other prospects.

NPCs who fail three consecutive Scent Battles will also give up and move on to another area.

Note that this is the only modifier applied to your core dice roll during a Scent Battle, unless you have the Guardian niche. Guardians can add their niche die roll result to a Scent Battle check.


Personality

Tsuyu is a straightforward and aloof individual who always speaks bluntly from her mind and what she thinks about others. Tsuyu prefers to be called "Tsu", but only by people she views as friends. Ώ] She commonly refers to everyone with the honorific "-chan", save for teachers and other authority figures.

Tsuyu calming down a scared Ochaco.

Tsuyu's parents were always busy at work, requiring her to become the caretaker of her two younger siblings at a young age. Under these circumstances, Tsuyu grew into a highly mature and responsible individual who could divide her attention between school and home duties without letting one intervene with the other. This also means that Tsuyu knows how to lead and look after people, keeping them safe and at ease if they don't feel so. She has strong morals, goals, and principles and is willing to oppose her friends to defend them from decisions she considers rash. When several members of Class 1-A agreed to rescue Katsuki Bakugo after the Vanguard Action Squad Invasion, Tsuyu was the most outspoken against it, asserting that acting on their emotions and breaking the law to rescue him made them essentially the same as villains. ΐ]

Tsuyu showing a rare moment of emotional weakness.

Tsuyu is noticeably calm and collected, being able to stay levelheaded and focused even during the most stressful situations. An honor student since middle school, Tsuyu has great judgment, can communicate her intentions easily, and is rarely moved by emotion, making her an incredibly dependable ally who's capable of covering for a partner's weaknesses. For those reasons, Recovery Girl describes her as a "perfect pillar of emotional support". Α] However, even Tsuyu has limits when it comes to staying composed, having broken down in despair or heartbreak a few times. Her words may also come off as unintentionally harsh thanks to her blunt honesty, resulting in her feeling guilty and regretful when she speaks out against her friends.

Her usual expression consists of a vacant stare, which makes reading her thoughts and emotions difficult for those around her while also creeping them out in the process. Tsuyu has a habit of tipping her finger against her mouth while speaking, pondering, or showing curiosity. She tends to say "ribbit", emulating a frog's croaking, at the end of her sentences, or as a replacement for many of her single word replies.


Examples

  • Armitage III: The villain D'anclaude has a habit of turning second-generation robots into walking bombs.
  • Played for Laughs in Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts. Class F, the worst class, is at war with Class B. They seem to be having some trouble, until the Class F leader gives Akihisa a secret weapon. He tells his classmates that the Class B rep is dating the Class C rep, which enrages them and causes them to blow their characters up in the summoner war in order to take out the much stronger Class B students. It largely works, although the Class B rep has a trick of his own.
  • Choujin Sensen: Baron swallows a live grenade and forcibly grabs onto Tomobiki in an attempt to take out his target.
  • The second episode of The Cockpit is about a kamikaze squadron.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • The Mafuba (Evil Containment Wave) from the original series, which Master Mutaito used to imprison Piccolo. Roshi attempts to reseal him with it, but fails and dies in vain. However, a sufficiently powerful and young user can survive the technique: Tenshinhan did when he tried it against Piccolo (though he was severely weakened and, had Goku not pulled a Big Damn Heroes, he would've been defenseless against any upcoming attacks), and Kami was able to use it against Piccolo Jr (though had it reversed on him and was himself briefly sealed). And then Future Trunks did it in Dragon Ball Super. And later in Super, Roshi has become sufficiently stronger that he's able to use it three times without dying. Though the third attempt almost killed him.
    • The Saibaman's self-destruct attack is the only instance in the entire series that kills its target as intended, and now Yamcha forever bears the shame of having been killed by cannon fodder.
    • Chiaotzu tried this on Nappa. He died, Nappa didn't.
    • Later, Tien tried to avenge him with the Kikoho (Tri-Beam), an attack so deadly that it eats up the life of its user, with the objective of both killing Nappa and killing himself, so he would see Chiaotzu again. It didn't work either, presumably because he was already badly injured before attempting it.
    • Android #16 tries to destroy Cell by grappling him and activating the self-destruct system Dr. Gero built into all his Androids. and unfortunately, that's when he learns that Bulma removed the bomb when they were rebuilding him Cell doesn't waste any time in destroying him. More's the shame, Cell's reaction suggests that it might have actually worked.
    • There's one example of a self-destruct successfully killing a target, but falling short of the intended effect. When Cell's fight with Gohan wasn't going as planned, in desperation he opted to take everybody with him via a self-destruct so powerful it would destroy the entire planet. What Cell failed to account for was that Goku could grab Cell and teleport him off the planet before the explosion.
    • In the Buu Saga, Vegeta figures out since Majin Buu can regenerate From a Single Cell, the only way to kill him for good is to destroy him all at once, and performs a Sphere of Destruction attack that expends his life energy (somehow causing his body to turn to stone in the process). Unfortunately, he failed to get all of Buu with the attack.
      • In Super, Vegeta pulls the same move on Toppo during the Tournament of Power. Not only does he succeed in eliminating his opponent, his increased strength in the intervening years allows him to survive with only his armor ruined!
      • In Digimon Adventure, Angemon's first appearance has him put all of his power, along with much of the other Digimon's power, into one attack to destroy Devimon. It works… and Angemon is immediately reincarnated as a Digi-Egg, though Patamon doesn't reach that stage again for almost thirty episodes.
      • In Digimon Adventure 02 Magnamon calls this attack. Extreme Jihad.
      • In V for Vendetta, V uses this as a threat against the receptionist at the BTN building.
      • In Holy Terror, the terrorists attack with suicide bombers before sending in jets and stinger missiles.
      • Transformers: More than Meets the Eye introduced K-Class Decepticons, Decepticons who have their alternate mode replaced with that of a bomb. These individuals are either fanatically devoted to the cause or criminals sentenced to this in lieu of execution.
      • Worst X-Man Ever is about a boy who discovers his mutant power of being able to explode and promptly die, thus meaning that he faces the fear and prejudice that mutants face without any of the potential benefits. His powers eventually drew the attention of Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who want to use him to assassinate Xavier. In the end, he uses his ability to kill off his former classmate, who killed Xavier and took over the world .
      • Hunter's Hellcats: In Our Fighting Forces #117, the Nazis recruit a band of Middle Eastern fanatics who stage suicide bomb attacks on French trains. The Nazis then claims these explosions were the result of Allied bombing raids as part of a False Flag Operation.
      • This is the mode of operation for Darkseid's Suicide Jockeys as introduced in the pages of Orion.
      • The Ultimates: Captain America manages to jump to the rocket and, with some explosives, destroy the internal guidance system, so that it goes off-course. He saves the United States, at the cost of his life (or so it seemed for everybody, including him).
      • This is the final action the hero does in I Did Not Want To Die.
      • Pretty much ordered by Jakobs military command in Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands /HaloMassive Multiplayer Crossover&mdashpitting a pair of destroyers against a huge, advanced super-dreadnaught isn't considered a sound tactic. Those under Jakobs' command know this is what will happen, but go with it because My Company, Right or Wrong.
      • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, a four-year-old Izuku remembers All Might's battle with Lord Death Man, a supervillain whose regenerative Quirk would allow him to survive the explosion of a powerful bomb that he strapped to his chest. All Might circumvents this by using his Oklahoma Smash to fling Lord Death Man far away just as the bomb is about to go off. Izuku tries to replicate this when Bakugou is busy clinging to him and firing off explosion after explosion, only to gape in horror when Bakugou goes flying through a brick wall.
      • In The Godfather Part II, while Michael Corleone is visiting Cuba during the Cuban Revolution, he witnesses a communist guerrilla blowing up both himself and a few government soldiers with a hand grenade.
      • Star Wars:
        • In Return of the Jedi, the A-Wing of Rebel pilot Arvel Crynyd is critically damaged during the battle over Endor and he happens to be close to the Executor's command bridge, so what does he do? Crashes his ship into said command bridge, causing the gigantic Star Dreadnought to crash on the new Death Star, which turns the tide of the battle as a result.
        • The Last Jedi:
          • The Resistance bombers sacrifice themselves to destroy the First Order Dreadnought that was about to obliterate the Resistance's command ship.
          • Vice-Admiral Amilyn Holdo buys time to the Resistance remnants in spectacular fashion by turning her command ship's hyperdrive on. right in the face of the Supremacy, Supreme Leader Snoke's monstrous flagship, and ramming it at lightspeed. The resulting blast cuts said ship in half and destroys about half the surrounding First Order fleet.
          • The good guys have an epiphany over the alien ship's weak point, but nobody has any missiles left - save for one, which malfunctions. With no other choice to stop the all-destroying enemy attack, the pilot of the malfunctioning jet pilots it straight in said weak point. Boom go the missile, the jet, the pilot and the gigantic alien ship.
          • It's made far more explicit in the rejected original ending, which had the pilot not participate in the battle in a jet, but instead turn up with a huge bomb tied to his crop-duster biplane. In other words, Fridge Logic suggests that he went with the plan from the outset knowing he was going to blow himself up. The filmmakers recognised how Narmy this idea was and changed it to the famously poignant Heroic Sacrifice we know today.
          • The "Judean People's Front's Crack Suicide Squad" committed mass suicide by killing themselves with swords. Famous last line: "That will show em!"
          • No Roman soldier may have died, but they did all run away in terror!
          • What does the suicide bomber instructor say to his class? "Pay attention, I'm only going to do this once." Er, by the way, truth is stranger than fiction.
          • A man was working in the Middle East, but being away from home was depressing him greatly. He called the local suicide hotline and the counselors got all excited, asking "Can you drive a truck?"
          • The backstory to "Frictional Losses" by John W. Campbell mentioned the Japanese super-charging airplane engines, packing the planes full of explosives, and crashing them into enemy ships. The enemy in Campbell's story were extraterrestrials, and once the Japanese gave us the idea, the rest of Earth's nations started using kamikazes against the aliens, too, which is why they didn't wipe out humanity entirely (they did nuke Japan off the face of the Earth). He wrote this story in 1936.
          • In the Alternate History series, Timeline-191, suicide bombers are called "People Bombs". The tactic was invented by the Mormons during the Second Great War and later adopted by Black Marxists, Armenians, and other resistance groups.
          • In the Safehold series, Grand Inquisitor Clyntahn creates "Project Rakurai", which is designed around the use of such bombers carrying wagons loaded with gunpowder as the bombs.
          • In the Gaunt's Ghosts story Necropolis, a group of stranded workers of the war-torn Vervunhive banded together to fight off the invaders of their home, with military forces happening to meet and aid them. Their enemies have tanks the workers' leader explained they've adapted wraps of mining charges that they have run up and attached to said tanks. This being the Imperium, the workers have used the method diligently. The military officer's initial surprise at hearing about such dangerous tactics being constantly employed quickly turns to awe at the workers' courage and determination.
          • During 24 Day 8, Marcos (a half-Kamistani) does this mostly to avenge his father. He did surrender and asked for his vest to come off, but it exploded anyway due to failsafe.
          • Battlestar Galactica had this tactic used by both the Cylons and the Colonials in differing circumstances.
            • The original series had Cylon raiders doing kamikaze runs on Galactica, sometimes with their vessels pre-packed with explosives.
            • Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome: The Osiris flies directly into the Cylon basestar and sets off all of its nukes at once to destroy it.
            • The plot of Caprica is initiated by a suicide bombing.
            • In "Day of the Daleks". Two suicide bombings in that one, both against Daleks.
            • The Daleks themselves do this in "Destiny of the Daleks", despite having said earlier that suicide for a cause isn't logical.
            • In "Monday" Scully and Mulder keep getting killed because they don't know the bank robber is wired with explosives, which he detonates when the situation appears hopeless. Even when Mulder does become aware of this he can't stop events until the robber accidentally shoots his girlfriend, and is too emotionally stunned to even commit suicide.
            • "Babylon" starts as Islamic terrorists commit a suicide bombing against an art gallery displaying cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed. One of them survives, with Mulder and Scully seeking to communicate with him so they can find his cell, who are planning further bombings.
            • In the third episode, a Kavalryman takes Senator Keene hostage by threatening to blow himself up with a bomb rigged to his heartbeat, so it will explode if they shoot him. Laurie shoots him anyway, believing he was bluffing. However, it turns out he wasn't, and Angela has to quickly toss his body into the open grave so the blast is contained as people run for safety.
            • In the seventh episode, a flashback shows that Angela's parents were both killed by a Vietnamese suicide bomber, along with a number of soldiers (they were the target).
            • The music video for the Disturbed version of Land of Confusion (made by Spawn artist Todd McFarlane) features a young girl with a bomb strapped to her body and a detonator in her hand, preparing to press the button as a gnarled cleric spouts off rhetoric.
            • In the video clip of Rammstein's "Ich Will", the band commits a terrorist heist on a bank. Five members get out, one stays behind with a bomb strapped to his chest which he eventually detonates.
            • A lot of goblin cards in Magic: The Gathering, the Goblin Grenade&loz from Fallen Empires being the exemplar of this trope.
            • Warhammer 40,000, naturally. A small minority of Tau commander battlesuits are equipped with bombs. The Tau themselves consider this "the greatest expression of the Greater Good one can make". This isn't used en masse because battlesuits - and good commanders - take a long time to produce. The Tau otherwise do not have suicide attacks in their army, and view suicidal last stands as foolish they prefer to feign retreat, or really retreat, then come back when the situation is more favorable.
              • At least as of 4th Edition, and we're in 7th as of 2016, this is portrayed not as a suicide attack but as a Heroic Sacrifice the model with the bomb, when it would be dead anyway due to wounds or a sweeping advance, triggers a bomb that damages the attackers. In the older edition, it allowed the bomber's comrades to pull away from close combat and have a chance for survival. In the newer edition, battlesuits generally will save against the bomb, and the explosion may tip combat in their favor, allowing the Tau line to hold. In either case, the model with the bomb only sets it off when the model would already be dead and when its unit is almost certain to be overrun and slain.
              • Orks have been known to use Gretchin as missile guidance systems - as in, the gretchin sits on the missile and makes sure it goes where it's meant to - when not using them as duck boards, squig bait, bullet shields or footballs. Generally the Gretchin only realises this is what's going on when it's too late to back out.
              • Happens often among the Tyranids, who will happily hurl themselves in unending waves of chittering bodies at enemy lines. Being but extensions of a vast Hive Mind and thus (with extremely few exeptions) having no sense of self, they don't hesitate to eat up enemy ammunition with their own bodies. Some breeds aren't even born with digestive tracts, because it's a certainty that they won't survive long enough to process anything and the Hive Mind doesn't bother wasting the organs.
              • Sisters Repentia are nuns wearing a few rags and a few pieces of holy text who are armed with two-handed chainsaw swords, led by a black-clad Mistress who has a high tech whip in each hand, and who charge into battle in a fervor trying to redeem themselves in death or slaughter. Never let it be said Warhammer 40,000 knows what restraint means.
              • Now canceled Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar have flagellants, who are doing essentially the same thing as the Sisters Repentia, but with proper Dung Ages clothing, medieval weapons, no fanservice, and no BDSM undertones.
              • Binky Show: Garden gnomes will run at you and explode on contact.
              • Dune:
                • In Dune II Ordos Saboteur units had bombs strapped to themselves, and had a suicide attack.
                • In Emperor: Battle for Dune Besides the original Saboteur units, a new aerial unit called the Eye In The Sky also had an attack where it self-destructed with a Saboteur ejecting out of it.
                • Banzai Charges.
                • In Black Cats level, several Japanese planes attack as kamikazes.
                • Command & Conquer: Red Alert Series:
                  • Command & Conquer: Red AlertExpansion PackThe Aftermath provided the two first suicide units in the game: The Nuclear Demolition Truck and MAD Tank. The MAD Tank is a special case, in that the pilot actually gets out before it explodes, and the MAD tank only harms vehicles, not infantry. Both are Awesome, but Impractical however, as the Demo Truck had a tendency to explode at the slightest provocation (i.e: infantry gunfire) and mass producing them sometimes caused your base to be crowded with mini-nukes that'll go off in a chain reaction of anything bad happend (like an airstrike). MAD Tanks on the other hand had to deploy for several seconds, more than enough time for any enemy units nearby to simply flee the vicinity, not to mention it cost quite a lot to deploy in the first place.
                  • The (Cuban) Terrorist unit in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is the infantry variant, while the Libyan nuclear demolition truck is the vehicular variant.
                  • Crazy Ivans in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 can attach time-bomb to virtually every unit, including friendly or mind-controlled, thus making any unit ingame potential Suicide Bomber.
                  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: One of the special abilities of the Empire is "Final Squadron X'', a squadron of suicide aircraft (although they are only drones). The Yari Minisubs are manned though, and while not a pure suicide unit, it can be used as such with devastating effects. The Empire also has the Honorable Discharge upgrade, which makes all of their units explode and damage other nearby units when they're killed.
                  • In the original game, the Global Liberation Army has the Terrorist and Bomb Truck units. The latter can upgrade with even more explosives and/or poison warheads. They also have the aptly-named Demo Traps, which are cheaply constructed roadside bombs.
                  • Taken Up to Eleven with General Juhziz in the Expansion PackZero Hour, who has an upgrade that will turn everything (bar main structures) into suicide attackers, and his Advanced Demo Traps are both cheaper and stronger. Meanwhile, Master Poisoner Dr. Thrax has Toxin Terrorists, i.e. Terrorists that explode and leave behind poison clouds and Toxin Demo Traps, which do the same. Their Bomb Trucks are also locked into high-explosive and anthrax warheads, respectively.
                  • Command & Conquer: Renegade had no innately self-destructive enemies in the single player mode, but more than a couple of deranged folks in multiplayer would stack bricks of C4 onto a cheap, fast vehicle and charge headlong into the fray. As only repairguns could disarm C4 and the healing beams didn't discriminate against friend or foe, this meant that most attempts ended only with the willful detonation of the C4 blocks (or waiting until the 30 second fuse burned down). In most servers, allies were Friendly Fire Proof, so it was theoretically possible that allies could stick each other with C4 before joining a pitched fight, especially since even the cheapest, Mookiest infantryman spawned with a timed C4 block.
                  • As well as the Nod Fanatics from Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.
                  • The scourge are the flying version of this for the Zerg.
                  • In addition, the end of StarCraft has Tassadar carrying out a Suicide Attack on the Overmind .
                  • In the sequel, Zerglings can morph into Banelings, which are a purely biologic version of this.
                  • The Goblin Sappers seen in Warcraft II (as well as their counterpart the dwarven demolition squad), Warcraft III and World of Warcraft are trained only to blow themselves up and damage enemy buildings. World Of Warcraft also has an engineering gadget called "Goblin Sapper Charge", which allows the player to do this as well.
                  • The Warcraft III expansion pack The Frozen Throne features troll batriders who can set themselves to explode on enemy flying units.
                  • The Demolition Ships and Demolition Raft (added in the expansions) are ships loaded with explosives that collide and explode on ships, dealing damage to a group of them.
                  • Added in the Conqueror expansion, the Petard unit (the real life basis of which is the Trope Namer for Hoist by His Own Petard) is a medieval suicide bomber.
                  • In the Definitive Edition, the Flaming Camels are camels with burning hays wrapped on top of them that explode on enemy troops, which deals bonus damage against cavalry and elephants. Their appearance in the Tamerlane's campaign is based on how Tamerlane deals with the war elephants. It was originally a scenario-only unit but was added in March 2020 patch for the Tatars civilization once they researched the Timurid Siegecraft unique technique.
                  • The Ullapool Caber is this for any Demoman who has taken moderate damage and doesn't have a shield.
                  • From Halo 3 onward, Grunts will sometimes light up two plasma grenades in their hands and charge at you. Suicide Grunts are even a specific unit in Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2. It's become such an iconic part of their behavior that in Halo 5: Guardians, even Grunts piloting Beam Goblins will at low health occasionally overcharge their energy cannons to wildly unstable levels in order to turn themselves into mecha-shaped bombs.
                  • Additionally, Flood Carrier Forms have no means of attack other than walking up to someone and exploding the Infection Forms they carry are a half-example, as they only explode when attacking shielded foes.
                  • Second Generation introduces Perish Song, which makes both the user and the target faint in three turns.
                  • Fourth Generation has the friendly version Healing Wish, which heals the user's team instead of causing damage, and Memento and Grudge, which severely cripple the opponent in exchange for the user's life.
                  • Fifth Generation gives us Final Gambit, which has the user sacrifice all of its remaining HP to cause the same amount of damage to the enemy. Because of its nature, it is best used by Pokémon with high HP.
                  • Masterminds with Traps as their secondary powerset can also get the Detonator power, which allows them to do this to their henchmen, though henchmen that aren't zombies or robots will try to set the bomb down and get away before it blows.
                  • Your sidekick Darkling in the sequel performs a LOT of actions that keep constantly killing him, but since he respawns each time, he bears with it. Until the ending, when he dies for real by burning from Hell-stored sunlight .
                  • One of Zaeed Massani's retirement plan ideas (since the other ones are unlikely retirement opportunities) involves taking a ship filled with explosives and ramming it in to the Omega station.
                  • Fujiwara no Mokou, the Extra Stage boss of Imperishable Night, dies after her spell cards. However, since she's immortal, she just comes back to life and continues pelting you with danmaku until she gets tired. When she reappears in Urban Legend in Limbo she has gained an attack that effectively annihilates her body in a pillar of fire. On the flip side, this Suicide Attack actually heals her of all self-inflicted damage.
                  • In Killing Floor 2, critically injured Husks will charge toward you and attempt to detonate their fuel tanks at point blank. If you don't have armor, well. .
                  • Of course they would survive. Boss Borot would routinely fall apart during combat because it was made out of junk. In Heero's case, he actually did make his Gundam self-detonate while standing just outside the cockpit and survived (though he hadn't intended to).
                  • The sequel has Suicide Psychos, who has this as their primary attack as well as the EXP Loader, robots who run up to the player and self-destruct.
                  • . and with the Psycho DLC pack, you can even play as a Suicide Psycho: One of Krieg's skills replaces Fight For Your Life mode with a phase called Light The Fuse in which you throw dynamite left and right and finally blow yourself up, instantly coming back to life if you manage to kill something in the process.
                  • Wilhem's "Termination Protocols" skill in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! is similar to Light the Fuse: Wilhelm no longer goes into normal Fight for your Life instead, he can fire normally, generates a constant electrical field, and explodes when Termination Protocols ends, gaining Second Wind if he gets a kill.
                  • The Fallen begin deploying Exploder Shanks with the House of Wolves expansion.
                  • The Hive like to send out Cursed Thralls along with a Zerg Rush of regular Thralls.
                  • The Vex have the Fanatics, which are headless, shambling zombie-like units. Destroying them leaves a pool of electrified radiolaria on the ground, which can damage the player.
                  • In Destiny 2: Forsaken, the Scorn have the Screeb, which function a lot like the Cursed Thralls.
                  • Kamikazee also reprises this role in Hero's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where it KOs Hero himself to inflict massive damage on all nearby enemies. Just don't use it on your last stock.
                  • If a Juggernaut Frigate reaches the opponent’s battleship, it will bore into the hull with its prow-mounted drill before exploding in a spectacular fashion for massive damage.
                  • Several NPCs will tell you that this is how the original Ellys Idaho (whom your character is a clone of) defeated the Survivalists: he loaded a battleship with nukes and piloted it into the crust of Ganyma, killing everyone on the planet at the cost of his own life. This is a lie. Idaho was ordered to nuke Ganyma but refused to do so on moral grounds, so Emperor Oberon killed him and had Okonkwo nuke the planet instead.
                  • The first episode of Ambition features a Western suicide bomber with elements of Papa Wolf.
                  • The drones in Frozen Flame by Mahu use this tactic. Controlled from afar, they mindlessly charge into the enemy force, exploding violently once they are destroyed. After the last drone explodes, the real army follows the attack, taking care of whatever enemy is still alive.
                  • According to Dream'sexplanation video of the Minecraft Manhunt grand finale, Sapnap was trying to use the bed to explode Dream before he could kill the dragon, but instead, he exploded himself and Dream got the achievement.
                  • Shaun: In Dropping the Bomb: Hiroshima & Nagasaki the fact that Japanese pilots late in the war were mostly reduced to suicide attacks due to limited resources and the depletion of their well trained pilots is brought up while discussing the many factors that led up to the decision to drop nuclear bombs on two cities.
                  • Volaster from Heartcore and his Blast Bomb spell. This is pretty much an ability with the same power as a nuke, meant to take down entire cities with him.
                  • This Subnormality strip gives a Take That! towards them with a unique approach to the old 72 virgin joke.
                  • Baskets of Guts: Myconid terrorists explode themselves in highly populated areas not to kill as much people as they can, but to infect them with their spores.
                  • This is the only method the kids can come up with to blow up the Green Sun in Homestuck.
                  • The Mask features this. "Cookie Baboom" decides to launch a suicide attack after her boyfriend, who happens to be the mayor, breaks up with her. How? By wearing nothing but a crude and skimpy bikini made entirely of dynamite.
                  • One reason why suicide bomb attacks these days are so fearsome is because they can come without warning and you can't really know who orchestrated the attack as the only evidence is already dead. Also the collateral damage caused by a detonation, whether the attack was successful or not, always has a negative psychological impact with physical damage tending to be a second priority.
                  • The War on Terror, the Arab–Israeli Conflict and the Sri Lankan Civil War, sadly, have produced countless examples.
                  • In the final months of World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy developed - with the tacit approval of the rubber-stamp civilian government - separate programs for 'Tokubetsu Kogeki'/'Special Attack' units. Today these units and their function are better known by the informal term "kamikaze" - after the 'Divine Wind' (a great typhoon) that sank one-and-a-half of the two invasion fleets Kublai Khan forced the Mongol-controlled Yuan Empire of China to send against Shogunate Japan in the 13th century. Given the US Navy had countless numbers of anti-aircraft guns and the US Army had nearly fifty years of experience dealing with suicide attacks from infantry, they failed.
                    • The experience above was caused by dealing with the Islamic Filipino Juramentados, who would tie ropes around their bodies, sneak upon enemy soldiers, officers and policemen and then charge with a sword. The Spaniards, who had experienced this before the Americans, were terrified, as their handguns weren't powerful enough to drop them at once and the ropes would slow the bleeding out. The Americans adopted more powerful guns (including the Colt Single Action Army in .45 Colt as a stopgap, revolvers in the .38 Special round developed just for them, and, ultimately, the Colt M1911), allowing their men to drop the attackers.
                    • However, some military findings suggest that even conventional attacks by Japanese air fleet would be considered suicidal. On average, a conventional air attack yielding 5 hits on a US Navy ship would cost the Japanese 88 losses for conventional attack yet a Kamikaze attack would deal the same damage at the cost of 56 losses. Furthermore, Japan's neglect of rescue forces means that any surviving pilots who were shot down would be more or less dead anyways. Regardless of the tactic, every attack on the US Navy would be a death sentence and that the Kamikaze attacks are an improvement with fewer losses to the Japanese.
                    • According to The Other Wiki, Hezbollah introduced suicide bombing to the Middle East in 1983 with the attack on the US Marines. Suicide attacks were introduced in 162 BCE by Eleazar ben Mattathias, younger brother of Yehuda the Hammer, who hit upon the technique of killing a war elephant by running under it and stabbing up from underneath
                    • However, the obvious reality is that suicide bombing is inferior to regular bombing as an attrition strategy, if you can pull off the regular kind. Indeed, for a while, suicide bombing was on the decline the Middle East it was brought back by Palestinian terror groups, who had low survival rates of their terror attacks in Israel. Although the situations aren't really comparable, in the nature of attacks and the Israeli access to weapons, this is frequently held up in American politics as one of the concrete examples of a "Good Guy With a Gun" working.
                    • Fatah provides large financial incentives for Palestinians to kill Israelis, which they will pay to the attacker's family even if the attacker dies. However, they also provide incentives to survive, get caught, and be put in an Israeli jail for a very long time, zig-zagging the trope.
                    • They did usually have an escape plan ready - sometimes every single bodyguard was in on the plot, for example. They only used this tactic when they wanted to make a really strong impression or were desperate. Good assassins take a long time to train.
                    • Somewhat subverted in that the crew of a fire ship would tie all the important lines tightly, so the ship would continue on its way for a while, then escape in a smaller boat or, if desperate, by swimming (presuming they knew how. Most sailors didn't, back then.). Actually dying with a fire ship was not usually on the cards.
                    • On the same basic lines, the Japanese fielded the Ohka (Yokosuka MXY7). They were more honest about the pilot's chances and bolted the canopy in place once the pilot climbed inside. US sailors had their own name for the weapon: "Baka Bomb".

                    Video Example(s):


                    5 ways spouses can help service members’ PT scores

                    Posted On March 18, 2019 21:16:39

                    Help! My service member needs to lose weight to stay In…how do I help?

                    This is a question that all of us have either heard or asked ourselves at least once during our trials and tribulations as a military family.

                    1. Accountability

                    Commit to holding them accountable while they’re in the process of dropping the weight. Participate WITH them. As a spouse, it’s crucial that we actively help them pursue their goals. When our loved one needs to lose weight, with that territory comes dedication to doing whatever is needed to help them succeed – their career is on the line!

                    This means removing processed foods from your shopping list, learning what “clean” ingredients to buy instead, encouraging them to be more physically active (any activity is better than none), and even sending them silly text messages or emails daily with emojis reminding them to drink more water.

                    Back in early 2016, my husband and I learned first-hand how important this is. It truly made a massive difference when we committed to getting healthy TOGETHER. I was much better at staying on schedule as we learned to eat more frequent meals and had to constantly stay on him at first to make sure he was remembering to eat. He was excellent at staying focused and not eating a bite of this or a taste of that. He really kept me in line when I appeared close to straying. Tiny bites off the kids plates can truly throw you off course!

                    2. Workout smarter, not harder

                    Most people actually perform their workouts in the wrong order! Maximize your time in the gym by always doing your HIIT and strength training (yoga included) BEFORE fat-burning cardio.

                    3. Encourage sleep

                    Support them in getting to bed earlier. Make sure they aren’t using their snooze button, instead just set the alarm 30 minutes later if that is what time they really intend to get up.

                    4. Remove inflammatory ingredients from cupboards

                    Cut out salt, gluten, cheese yogurt, soy protein, grains, artificial sweeteners, processed sugars, soda, alcohol, coffee caffeinated tea for a week. A simple 7 day detox from these ingredients, eating real food around the clock, throwing in natural detoxifying herbs, upping your water intake, and halting all workouts yields an average of 7-12 pounds of weight shed!!

                    5. Avoid Quick fixes

                    Keto, Whole 30, Intermittent Fasting, Juice Cleanses. They ALL work for a very brief moment in time, but the moment you reintroduce your old eating habits the weight comes back and even MORE will follow. Repeated “yo-yo dieting” actually slows the metabolism and causes our bodies to take a longer time losing the weight go-round…and there is always a next time, especially in a world where part of your job description is to meet weight standard requirements every six months.

                    It’s important to take a few moments to learn the reason for following a system that can be implemented and sustainable for life. Protein, Fats, and Carbs (PFC) are necessary macronutrients, and eating them together every 3 hours is ideal (a balanced shake will work when on the go) in order to create and maintain homeostasis within the body. It will release stored fat much faster this way! Be as strict or as relaxed as needed, but follow the guideline of PFC/3 as best you can year-round for better health and stable blood sugar.

                    For FREE downloadable recipes, sample meal plans, and step-by-step guides and supplement recommendations to assist with weight loss visit zp8withmary.com From there you may also reach out through email if interested in a FREE 30 minute health evaluation with Mary, a Certified Nutrition Coach through the International Board of Nutrition Fitness Coaching (IBNFC). Her nutrition programs, based on blood-sugar stabilization and macro-nutrient balance, are designed to permanently end dieting.

                    This article originally appeared on Military Spouse. Follow @MilSpouseMag on Twitter.

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                    MIGHTY TRENDING

                    3 Hwacha

                    China was fiercely protective of its gunpowder weapons during the 14th and 15th centuries. They held the most explosive advance in military technology since the bow and arrow, and they didn&rsquot plan on giving it up without a fight. China imposed strict embargoes on gunpowder exports to Korea especially, leaving Korean engineers to fend for themselves against a seemingly endless onslaught of Japanese invaders.

                    By the turn of the 16th century, however, Korea had more than stepped up to the gunpowder challenge and was churning out their own war machines, matching any of the spurting tubes defending the Chinese mainland. The Korean tour de force was the hwacha, a multi-rocket launcher that could fire over 100 rockets on a single match. The larger versions used by the king could fire closer to 200. These things were samurai busters, capable of taking down entire formations of densely packed samurai with each salvo.

                    The hwacha&lsquos ammunition was called a singijeon, which was basically an exploding arrow. The singijeon&lsquos fuses were adjusted based on the range of the enemy so that they would explode on impact. When the Japanese invasion began in full force in 1592, Korea already had hundreds of hwachas in operation.

                    Perhaps the greatest testament to the hwacha&lsquos power came during the 1593 Battle of Haengju. When Japan mounted an attack on the hilltop fortress with 30,000 troops, Haengju had barely 3,000 soldiers, civilians, and warrior monks in place to defend it. The odds were overwhelming, and the Japanese forces advanced with confidence, unaware that Haengju had one final trick up its sleeve: 40 hwachas mounted on the outer walls.

                    The Japanese samurai struggled up the hill nine times, only to be repelled again and again by a rain of pure hellfire. More than 10,000 Japanese died before they called off the siege, signaling one of the first major Korean victories in the Japanese invasion.


                    Fantastic Nuke

                    In a fantasy setting featuring Fantasy Gun Control, Medieval Stasis, and assorted other reasons why the culture would never develop anything even close to nuclear weaponry, there may be some form of magic attack so powerful and destructive that it is obviously a stand-in for nuclear weapons. This goes double if it leaves behind some sort of corrupting effect that lingers long after the spell itself is cast, a la fallout. Compare to how Automatic Crossbows stand in for guns. Kamehame Hadoken, Wave-Motion Gun, and Person of Mass Destruction are common ways of invoking it. Everything Makes a Mushroom is the usual result.

                    Elsewhere, this trope is about the deliberate insertion of something nuke-like into a civilization that hasn't even invented the steam engine yet. That isn't to say this trope doesn't ever appear in higher-tech settings, where it will instead be some nuke-like weapon that nonetheless isn't nuclear. Like Fantastic Racism and Fantastic Drug, in that the situation is obviously designed to parallel a real world situation, either in order to make some point about the issue or simply to allow all the connotations and associations of the real world situation to easily be applied to the fantastic. In Japanese works, may be related to Nuclear Weapons Taboo.

                    A Fantastic Nuke may set off a World-Wrecking Wave or precipitate The End of the World as We Know It. It's frequently also an Unholy Nuke based on The Dark Arts.

                    In some less subtle cases, there might even be some kind of reference to matter-energy conversion.

                    Finally, we should note that while it's not just nuclear weapons that create the infamous "mushroom clouds" (any sort of explosion or even rapid combustion can do this in still air it's just that the more powerful the explosion is the larger the cloud will be, the longer it will last and the less sensitive it is to disruption by wind, so it's primarily associated with very large explosions such as nukes), if something in fiction is described or depicted doing so, it's a good bet the author/creator was attempting to invoke this trope, and it might qualify for Superweapon status.

                    Watch the video: Monsters Dissected: Bonnacon - The Acid Farting Bull