‘Fortnite’s Ned Flanders is a Homicidal Maniac

Homer Simpson’s neighborino Ned Flanders is famous for his Christianity, his left-handedness and his passion for constructing robot doubles of his dead wife (probably). But he isn’t generally known for being a violent man – although that’s not the case in the world of Fortnite.

As we’ve mentioned before, The Simpsons has partnered with Fortnite for a new season that allows players to enter the world of Springfield. And hopefully fans of the game weren’t too put off by the cross-promotional couch gag in which America’s favorite cartoon family disembowels a beloved character.

While much of the game looks very faithful to the show, Flanders is a tad more murderous than one might expect. The NPC (non-player character) Ned is mostly harmless, unless he’s attacked. Per Dexerto, players have been sharing videos of a provoked Flanders taking out other characters with a pair of ski poles. His weapon of choice is seemingly in reference to Homer’s sexually-charged daydreams from season eleven’s much-memed episode “Little Big Mom.”

The official Fortnite account then shared that Springfield’s most pious resident, shockingly, has more than 33,000 “global eliminations.”

While Simpsons fans might take issue with Fortnite turning Flanders into a homicidal maniac, his character has been associated with cold-blooded murder on more than one occasion in the show. Back in season six’s “Bart of Darkness,” a Jimmy Stewart-coded Bart theorized that Flanders had bumped off Maude and buried her corpse in the backyard. But it was later revealed that he merely killed a ficus plant.

And before that, season five’s “Homer Loves Flanders” found Ned dreaming about taking a rifle up to a clocktower and going on a killing spree.

Then there were all the Halloween episodes in which Flanders really did commit murder, like the I Know What You Did Last Summer parody in “Treehouse of Horror X.” Technically he was a werewolf at the time, but still.

More disturbingly, one segment from “Treehouse of Horror XXII,” titled “Dial D For Diddly,” was all about how Flanders is compelled to become a serial killer, beheading Mr. Burns, fatally bludgeoning Snake and crushing Patty & Selma with a boulder, all because he believes it’s God’s will.

Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before he finally snaps and impales someone with those ski poles on the TV show.