Bunnykill

Bunnykill is a flash series hosted on Newgrounds. The stories follow a white rabbit named Snowball slicing, hacking, slashing, shooting, gunning, and blasting his way through legions of grey bunny Mooks. The main draw of the series is the juxtaposition of cutesy cartoon bunnies getting shot up and sliced into bloody pieces. Mottis is not attempting to tell a "coherent" story with it; instead, like The Legend of Zelda franchise, each episode is stand-alone, taking the same characters in multiple directions.

The series is commonly described as Madness Combat with bunnies. In terms of animation and choreography, this is a very apt comparison, as admitted by the animator himself. More recently, the two series have distanced themselves quite a bit in the story department, with Madness Combat becoming Darker and Edgier while Bunny Kill has explored more fantastic setting such as a Star Wars parody and feudal Japan.

Mottis' account at Newgrounds, with the videos, can be found here.

Tropes used in Bunnykill include:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: All the blades. All of them.
• Action Girl: Ruby
• Alternate Continuity: Each episode takes place in its own continuity.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Dust becomes the protagonist of episode 5 after he's forced to kill Snowball while Brainwashed and Crazy.
• An Axe to Grind: Some of the mooks in 5 use axes against Snowball. For all the good it does them.
• Anyone Can Die: Even the protagonist.
• Art Evolution
• Ax Crazy: Professor Sludge is pretty much the only character who doesn't like getting his murder on.
• Awesome but Impractical: The minigun in 5.2 takes a long time to set up (with a progress bar even), but had Dust not had a riot shield handy he'd be Ludicrous Gibs. Even still, it's knockback was enough to keep him pinned until the ammo belt got jammed due to lack of maintainence.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Inverted. In 4, Snowball and Ruby are initially front to front badasses, and later instead decide to flank Flint.
• Badass: All over the place. Flint deserves bonus points, given his reaction to Snowball going all super-anime-glowing-mode is to simply spawn a second sword. His clones attack said Snowball unarmed.
• Badass Boast: "Shut the fuck up. I'm coming for you next, punk. Expect me."
• Barehanded Blade Block: Smoke, in the first installment. Leads immediately to Wrecked Weapon.
• Berserk Button: If you hurt Snowball's girlfriend, he will kill you. If you kill his girlfriend, he will kill you slowly.
  • And as revealed in 5, it is not a good idea to kill Snowball, make his good friend Dust do the same, or betray either of them. Because Dust will stop at nothing to end you.
• Bittersweet Ending: The fourth episode. Snowball defeats Flint, but not before Flint kills Ruby. Mottis said she'll likely come back if enough people like her, though.
• Blade Brake: Done a total of 3 times by Dust in 5.2: once to stop himself from falling off a truck into the street, twice to slow down a car.
• Blade on a Stick: Both Ruby and the samurai minions use one in 4.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Dust in 5, courtesy of Sludge's Psycho Serum. He snaps out of it only after killing Snowball.
• Butt Monkey: Professor Sludge, who goes down like a complete chump in both of his appearances.
• Chase Fight: The latter half of 5.2, on a highway. And it is awesome.
• Call Back: The death of the two ninjas in the fifth episode is the same as in the first: the first is stabbed by his friend, the second gets stabbed with two swords, then lifted bodily up to slide further down.
  • The second ninja uses teleport spam similar to what Smoke used in 1 and what Snowball himself used during his Super Mode in 4. Snowball knows the trick by now and correctly guesses where the next strike will come from.
• Cool Shades: Smoke is never seen without his blue sunglasses. They're all that's left of him in 5.2 after Dust is done with him, letting off one last shine before getting minced by a helicopter.
• Cool Sword: Snowball and Dust always get their hands on these: Snowball's trusty katana in 1, 4 and 5, Dust's several katana in 2 (one of which Snowball takes), the lightsabers (including Dust's Double Weapon) in 3), and of course Dust's awesome Swiss Army Weapon in 5. Smoke, who normally prefers handguns, uses a purple lightsaber in 3, and Flint summons katana with a thought in 4.
• Dead Sidekick: If Snowball is partnered up with someone in a Bunnykill flash, chances are he or she will be dead by the time the flash is over.
  • Smoke is killed by Dust in 3 after a battle reminiscent of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode 1.
  • Ruby is killed by Flint in 4, taking the shuriken for Snowball and triggering the mother of all Unstoppable Rages in Snowball.
  • 5 looked like it would be going this way too, only for Snowball himself to end up this for Dust, who recovered from being Brainwashed and Crazy only after killing him.
• Death Is Cheap: Thanks to the Alternate Continuity, characters killed in one episode can come back in another.
• Decoy Protagonist: Snowball himself in episode 5.
• Determinator: The robot walker from the third episode.
• Double Weapon: Dust in 3 wields a double-bladed lightsaber reminiscent of Darth Maul. Ruby in 4 wields a double-bladed staff.
• Diabolus Ex Vacuus: Dust in 3.
• Dual-Wielding: Most anyone who uses a melee weapon has a chance of pulling this trope. Snowball in particular is pretty much guaranteed to mow down Mooks faster and take down Elite Mooks in the next few moments once he gets his hands on two katanas.
• Elite Mooks: The ninjas in 1, agents in 2, the jetpack duo in 3, the red ninjas in 4, and the invisible teleporting bunnies in 5.
  • Every installment after the first has darker grey bunnies that are slightly more competent and better-armed compared to basic Mooks.
• Exploding Barrels: Prevalent throughout 5 but only utilized on a few occasions.
• For Science!: Professor Sludge's entire character, according to the credits for 5.2.
• Flash Step: Various forms of short-range teleportation are used in the fourth installment; Flint's even uses the pose of Goku's instant transmission. Smoke can also do this in Bunnykill 1, leading to a Teleport Spam move that reduces Snowball to You Can Barely Stand.
• Gatling Good: Or not so good, as two mooks found out when they only managed to stall Dust long enough for Smoke to escape to the helicopter on the roof. Smoke would have made a clean escape if the minigun's feeding belt hadn't jammed.
• Giant Mook: Several
• Gorn: It was inspired by Madness Combat, after all.
• Gun and Sword: Snowball, on occasion.
• The Gunslinger: Smoke.
• Half the Man He Used To Be: well, bunny. But it happens.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Invoked. Snowball's final line in the credits of 5.2 is "Heroes never die." Wow.
• Helicopter Blender: Smoke's ultimate end in 5.2.
  • Up to Eleven: The helicopter blades damage several cars and shred the underbelly of a cargo truck without slowing down.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: For the most part averted. Snowball has to keep moving and use a lot of Implausible Fencing Powers. At worst, they shoot where he was a half-second ago.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Dust's katana-shotgun thing in 5.
• Invisibility Cloak: Used by a pair of Elite Mooks in 5.
• Katanas Are Just Better: They're the only swords to appear (other than lightsabers in 3).
• Kick the Dog: Flint in killing Ruby, Snowball's only Love Interest thus far.
  • Smoke gets one in 5 by activating the Psycho Serum injector, turning Dust Brainwashed and Crazy and ultimately leading to Snowball's death. Leaving his own partner to be killed by the aforementioned Dust was also a serious dick move. He's also a colossal dick to his mooks in the second half, deliberately shoving them into the way of his pursuer to save his own hide.
• Killer Rabbit: Well, duh. Check the title.
• Laser Blade: The standard sword in Bunnykill 3 is a lightsaber.
  • In 5, the cyborg ninjas have laser blades that don't seem as reliable, and other Elite Mooks sometimes carry stun batons that glow just like a Laser Blade.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Some of the mooks in 5 use police shields. Naturally, Snowball steals one, as does Dust.
• Mad Scientist: Professor Sludge.
• Master Swordsman: Snowball and Dust.
• Mecha-Mooks: Robot rabbits in the third episode.
• Milky White Eyes: Dust. In 5, they're a sign that he's Brainwashed and Crazy.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Dust, after killing Snowball in 5.
• Neck Snap: Snowball does it in 5.
• Non-Action Guy: Professor Sludge. Sadly, he's in a World of Badass, so of all the named characters he tends to die the quickest after appearing in person.
• Not Quite Saved Enough: One mook in episode 5 part 2 who gets his arm ripped off by Dust manages to escape for a few moments while Dust tends to his colleagues. Dust even lets him live once said colleagues are dead. Unfortunately for him, Dust ends up needing to use him as a Bulletproof Bunny Shield.
• Not the Fall That Kills You: Dust falls god-knows-how many stories off the roof of a building after missing Smoke's helicopter, and all that happens is he lands on top of a truck, and keeps going.
  • The ending implies he broke several ribs.
• One-Man Army: Snowball, obviously.
• The Rival: Some fans consider Dust to be this to Snowball.
• Playing with Syringes: What Professor Sludge and Smoke were doing to Dust in 5. And the syringe was full of Psycho Serum.
• Professional Killer: Everybody except Professor Sludge.
• Reliably Unreliable Guns: A jam in the minigun is what gives Dust the chance to take it out and catch up to Smoke in 5.2.
  • Truth in Television; if a belt-fed gun is crew-operated, it's crew-operated for this very reason.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Following Snowball's death in the climax of the first half of 5, Dust goes on one hell of a rampage in the second half, and kills not only Smoke, but Flint, who it turns out was behind the Psycho Serum thing in the first place and deliberately sent Snowball to his death on the orders of an as-of-yet unnamed figure. And Dust is going after him next!
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Flint.
• Scenery Porn: The city backgrounds in 5.
• Sequel Escalation
• Shout-Out: Bunnykill engages in quite numerous shoutouts on occasion. 3 has the lightsabers, 4 has one to Killer Instinct, and the Dragon Shrine showdown in 4 has several to shounen anime, such as Flint's shadow clone jutsu and Snowball going into a Super Saiyan-like state after Flint kills Ruby, complete with fireball moves and even Rugal's Genocide Cutter.
  • 5 has several to Metal Gear: The intro with codec screen, hiding in boxes, the exclamation mark warning...
• Sociopathic Hero
• Stab the Scorpion: How Smoke becomes Snowball's ally in 3.
• Stock Scream: Wilhelm joins the FBI in 5 part 2.
• The Stoic: Flint. He fights, kills Ruby, and even dies with the same level of calmness.
  • He's demonstrating a certain mixture of exhausted panting and attempts to flee by the end.
• Swiss Army Weapon: Dust's shotgun-katana in 5.
• Super Mode: Snowball's "White Avenger" mode, which is seen by many as a Shout-Out to Dragonball Z's Super Saiyans.
  • Fighting game fans may also see references to the Satsui No Hadou and the Orochi power. It's a strange mixture.
• Suddenly Voiced: Until 5, no one spoke, except for rare instances where "conversations" were staged using speech bubbles and pictures. Flint, Snowball, Dust, and an unknown person, are all given lines in 5
• Taking the Bullet: Well, taking the shuriken in Bunny Kill 4.
• Taking You with Me: One red ninja attempts this after being shot with an arrow by Snowball. It doesn't work, but he gets points for trying.
• These Hands Have Killed: Dust does this in 5 immediately after snapping out of his Brainwashed and Crazy state and realizing he's just killed Snowball.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The final kill of 5? Dust chucks his Impossibly Cool Weapon at Smoke, impaling him and sending him falling into the spinning rotors of his own helicopter.
• The Man Behind the Man: Flint and the mysterious figure that he answers to in 5.
• Treacherous Advisor/Treacherous Quest-Giver: Flint in 5
• Unstoppable Rage: Snowball unleashes the fury in 4 when Flint crosses the line.
  • As does Dust throughout the second half of 5 in response to Snowball's death.
• The Voiceless: Everybody. Some get quotes during the credits, though, and Smoke speaks to Snowball with simple pictures in thought balloons.
  • Averted thrice in 5'. During the intro, characters have text dialogue; and at the climax, a character actually gives a voiced scream ( Dust breaking out of the Psycho Serum trance) and in the 2nd half one of the mooks performs the Wilhelm Scream during the highway chase in the finale.
• Wham! Episode: Episode 5 turns the series formula right on its head by having Snowball killed for the first time in the entire series, and subsequently the first episode where Snowball ultimately isn't the main protagonist.
• Wilhelm Scream: Let out by a mook during the Chase Fight scene between Dust and Smoke.
• World of Badass: Professor Sludge is the only character, named or unnamed, who isn't a fighter. And he's a Mad Scientist.