History Main / BadAssBookworm

* JacquesCousteau developed his passion for undersea exploration and perfected modern scuba-diving apparatus as an officer in the French Navy during World War II...while also leading commando operations against Axis intelligence operatives and helping to bring the French fleet onto the Allied side. Also notable in that his home was directly opposite that of Admiral Darlan, Prime Minister of the Vichy government.

* All the wizards in ''TheBlackCompany'' fall into this category, especially the Taken. The setting averts SquishyWizard, hard. One particular Taken has a building collapsed on him and survives without permanent damage. A later scene has a single Taken fighting off his attackers while outnumbered five to one and treating the severing of his right arm as little more than an inconvenience. It's noted that a different Taken eschews physical weaponry entirely, knowing that his sorcerous talents afford all the protection he needs. Bonegnasher, is another Taken, a OneSceneWonder who is described as a giant man who is shown fighting his foes by tearing them to pieces ''with his bare hands.''
** Croaker himself probably counts, as well. What time he doesn't spend writing the Company's annals, patching up the wounded, or studying ancient documents, he spends either playing cards or fighting the enemy (despite being in his forties by the start of the second book).

* All the wizards in ''TheBlackCompany'' fall into this category, especially the Taken. The setting averts SquishyWizard, hard. One particular Taken has a building collapsed on him and survives without permanent damage. A later scene has a single Taken fighting off his attackers while outnumbered five to one and treating the severing of his right arm as little more than an inconvenience. It's noted that a different Taken eschews physical weaponry entirely, knowing that his sorcerous talents afford all the protection he needs. Bonegnasher, is another Taken, a OneSceneWonder who is described as a giant man who is shown fighting his foes by tearing them to pieces ''with his bare hands.''
** Croaker himself probably counts, as well. What time he doesn't spend writing the Company's annals, patching up the wounded, or studying ancient documents, he spends either playing cards or fighting the enemy (despite being in his forties by the start of the second book).

* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' Bartowski. Even before he gets the Intersect 2.0, Chuck's intelligence, resourcefulness and GenreSavvy allows him to outwit and defeat trained spies and hardened criminals practically at will. By the end of the series he's completely capable of kicking [[spoiler: Shaw's]] ass even ''without'' the Intersect

* OlderThanFeudalism: David in the Old Testament/Hebrew ''[[Literature/TheBible Bible]]'' was a harp virtuoso and psalmist who also knew how to beat up men and beasts much bigger and stronger than himself..

* Tucker from ''Series/{{Danger 5}}'' leads a team that fights Nazis, Nazi dinosaurs, Nazi robots, [[WidgetSeries and all manner of dangerous monstrosities]]. He relaxes in-between missions by reading a good book or stuffy magazines like 'Sensible Chuckles'.[[/folder]]

* OlderThanFeudalism: David in the Old Testament/Hebrew ''[[Literature/TheBible Bible]]'' was a harp virtuoso and psalmist who also knew how to beat up men and beasts much bigger and stronger than himself.
* {{Chuck}} Bartowski. Even before he gets the Intersect 2.0, Chuck's intelligence, resourcefulness and GenreSavvy allows him to outwit and defeat trained spies and hardened criminals practically at will. By the end of the series he's completely capable of kicking [[spoiler: Shaw's]] ass even ''without'' the Intersect.

* And in the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers G1 cartoon]] spinoff ''TransformersWingsOfHonor'', when the Elite Guard finds itself low on members, they take in two "desk jockeys" as volunteers--one of which turns out to also be a sharpshooter, and the other of which once dispatched Decepticons using a ''desk stapler''.

* Both ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' and SkinHorse have more than enough {{Badass Bookworm}}s to satisfy even the most jaded troper. If Dave from the former isn't the very CHARACTERIZATION of this trope near the end, well.

* A certain mild-mannered reporter named [[{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] can be quite safely stated to be one of the biggest {{Badass Bookworm}}s of them all.

The trope is the inverse of GeniusBruiser. A BadassBookworm looks like your standard geek, but then displays a surprising amount of physical prowess, whereas a GeniusBruiser looks tough, then unexpectedly shows off an intellectual side.

*** Her BadassBookworm status is lampshaded by Ami herself in the ''Stars'' season, when Haruka chides her for prioritizing the analysis of the rival they're fighting over her own safety and Ami replies "This is MY way to fight!"

* In ''GhostInTheShell,'' Ishikawa gets his BadassBookworm moments near the conclusion of each season. The first time, he proves that he is definitely ''not'' a TechnicalPacifist, by [[spoiler:blowing up a building with his pursuers in it]], and in the next season by [[spoiler:bludgeoning a secret agent into unconsciousness with the cast on his broken arm so that he can safely deliver a rod of weapons-grade plutonium]].

* [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk Bruce Banner]] is ''the'' BadassBookworm you wouldn't want to make angry! Perhaps not 100% applicable because the Hulk is a different personality, but overall they're the same person, and can certainly scrap ''any'' of the others. Not so long ago Bruce lost his powers (again) because of VillainSue RedHulk. Every sign on [[WordOfGod heaven]] or earth shows that Bruce is so BadassBookworm that taking away his Hulk persona can make him even '''more''' dangerous. It's easy to forget he turned into The Hulk to begin with because he had a career building super-weapons for the government, which as Banner, he's intelligent enough to use and improve upon.

* Three of DocSavage's five sidekicks qualify for BadassBookworm: Elegant legal eagle "Ham" Brooks. The sickly looking, undersized "Long Tom" Roberts. And Professor "Johnny" Littlejohn with his monocle.

** By the end of the series, one of the only people even half as scary as Aeryn Sun is her lover, former SmartGuy and now BadassBookworm John Crichton. He started out pretty helpless, but trained by her and with his level of sanity consistently gently curving down into a plummet, he became the kind of guy who would threaten to suicide bomb with a nuke.

* '{{Warehouse 13}}'': [[ActionGirl Myka, Claudia and H.G.]] and Artie are all examples of this. The series is exceptional in that more of the heroes fall under BadassBookworm than non-Bookworm Badasses.

* The ''{{GURPS}} Black Ops'' RPG setting features an organisation of Badass special ops/[[TheMenInBlack MIBs]], with two divisions filling the ''BadassBookworm'' category: the Science division (multidisciplinary scientists) and the Tech division (engineers). The former usually knows medicine and how to best fix or take apart the human body, while the latter can build ultra-tech (if unstable) superweapons.

** Also, innumerable hunters in ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'' also fall into this flavor, including the Loyalists of Thule (ex-Nazi occult researchers turned to killing the bad things and trying to atone for World War 2 being their fault) and the Null Mysteriis, who blend the BadassBookworm with the SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic.

* [[KeychainOfCreation Misho]]. Dear Gods in Yu-Shan ''Misho.'' Now being a [[{{Exalted}} Twilight Caste Solar]] is all about being a BadassBookworm in the first place, but Misho is a glasses-wearing [[TheChick healer]] who prefers to use AwesomenessByAnalysis to defeat his foes. And if you piss him off, he will ''[[http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0100.html obliterate you.]]''

* Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is a wonkish bookworm Fulbright scholar with a master's degree from [[IvyLeague Cornell University]]. She's also married to an equally BadassBookworm astronaut and test pilot who has flown in combat, and she enjoys [[WrenchWench fixing her own cars]], [[BikerBabe riding and racing motorcycles]], and taking part in a little roller derby now and then. Oh, yeah, she also survived a [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain bullet to the brain]] in an assassination attempt and is making what doctors have called a [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow remarkable and miraculous recovery]]. Though many patients describe rehab as the hardest thing they've ever done, Giffords decided her rehab regimen was "too wimpy" and designed a more rigorous plan. Unfortunately, Congresswoman Giffords has been unable to return to work and has had to resign her seat in Congress, but that doesn't make her and her amazing feat of recovery any less badass. It just makes her human.

** Jor-El's computer clone. MAnages to come up with the plan to defeat General Zod within mere moments of being briefed on the situation. While taking complete control of Zod's ship. He then deftly frees Lois and Clark both from Zod's custody, and gives Zod a BadassBoast on his son's behalf, followed by a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.

* A few characters apply in ''ASongOfIceAndFire''. Tyrion Lannister is a bookish dwarf with no love of physical exertion, but he goes into battle twice, once taking down a knight by accident and in the second performing great feats of heroism. It is also hinted that Petyr Baelish, a short, noncombatant financial genius, is an expert with knives and fairly nimble on his feet.
** The stand-out example has got to be Rhaegar Targaryen, who was well known as a reclusive, scholary prince who one day out of the blue decided to take part in a tourney against the best knights in the kingdom... and won, despite only ever ''reading'' about tourneys. He then promptly ran off with the protagonists' sister, unintentionally helping to set off a CivilWar (though his [[TheCaligula Caligula]] dad did most of the work by killing some nobles in horrible fashion for no reason) by pissing-off her betrothed, hot tempered ActionHero and future king Robert Baratheon, and the only man in Westeros who doesn't think Rhaegar was the most awesome BadAss WorthyOpponent who ever walked the Earth. The two eventually fought and though Rhaegar lost, he is said to have fought valiantly and bravely in a truly epic battle. In between all of this he apparently found time to father [[spoiler: TheMessiah, something he ''planned'' after years of meticulous research.]]

* Howard Hughes. Many of the airplanes he designed were built from his experience as an airplane racer, and he had little former education in how to build or design aircraft, but went on to make some of the most influential designs in post WW1 aviation. When he crashed the XF-11 in 1946, he ended up grievously injured and confined to a bed. Deciding he did not like the bed, he ended up dictating a design that had hot and cold running water and push-button adjustments. He was also the archetypal millionaire playboy. [[{{Batman}} Bruce Wayne]] [[IronMan and Tony Stark]] were both heavily inspired by Hughes.

* Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is a particularly striking example of this trope. Before he joined the Union Army in the civil war, he was a professor at Bowdoin College. At the Battle of Gettysberg he commanded the 20th Maine. Not only was he awarded multiple honors for bravery in combat, including the Medal of Honor, but he also received wounds that should have been fatal, not once but twice. He survived the war and went back to teaching. By the end, he had taught every subject except mathematics.

** And then we have Talbot in the ''CouncilWars'' series, who is a historic re-enactor and one of the main characters. Though he is more a {{Badass}} who became a Bookworm after [[RetiredBadass retiring from Badassery]].

* After a brief stint with [[OrderOfThePhoenix the Wreckers]] in [=IDW=]'s ''[[TheTransformersIDW Transformers]]'' comics, during which he was badly wounded, Perceptor decides he needs to improve his combat abilities. (This takes place chronologically before his appearance in All Hail Megatron, thus {{retcon}}ning an answer to the question, "When did Perceptor get scary?"

* [[BadassPacifist Atticus Finch]] of ''ToKillAMockingbird'' follows this well. Scout actually calls him a wimp when compared to other fathers. He spent most of his time inside, reading and working as a lawyer and always giving fortune-cookie-ish advice to the kids. But when a rabid dog comes slinking into the neighborhood, he proves to be the best shot in the neighborhood. After this day, Scout never calls him a wimp again.

** [[TheAce Izumi]] is another splendid specimen -though it mainly happens offscreen, she must have studied like ''hell'' to get her alchemical know-how. But the most obvious case is probably manga Hohenheim: he's shown as a nerd of unspeakable proportions who spends more time in his study than with his family, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} lives on his own little nerdy planet]] and hardly ever fights. But when he does, it automatically results in [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome CrowningMomentsOfAwesome]].

** The CloudCuckooLander part? The earth he's mapping is STILL BEING RUINED by rocks falling from the sky. Every time one lands he races off to map the changes. And like Ed, Appledelhi can take somewhat cartoonish amounts of abuse and shrug it off. In a show that, for the most part, obeys all the laws of physics. A show so based on reality that Spike uses a known martial art--Jeet Kune Do, as created by Bruce Lee. Sure, the Bebop crew run into some pretty strange occurrences, but Spike is strictly BadassNormal, ending the episode several times wrapped up as if he were a mummy. He is... outclassed several times.

* [[TheFlash Barry Allen]], who's powers also come with the benefit of giving him a faster working brain, and were caused by him playing with chemicals. He's one of the most powerful superhumans in the DCU, but he's also a scientist by trade.
** [[ComicBook/YoungJustice Bart Allen]] is more of a CloudCuckooLander by personality, but he may qualify for this trope on a technicality for using his super-speed to ''read every book in the San Fransisco Library in a single afternoon.'' Since then, his usual 'wing it' strategy has been interrupted by occasional bouts of scholarly tactics.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' story ''Fanfic/BraveNewWorld'', the first new addition to Team Aurabolt is a fat basement-dweller Squirtle with [[CloudCuckoolander tenuous grasp on the]] [[MetaGuy difference between fiction and reality]]. He starts things off by pounding the crap out of the protagonist (who has already defeated entire armies) via ConfusionFu, proceeds to predict half the plot turns in the story, defeats homicidal demons via [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries children's card games]] and a manifestation of the futility of life using ''nothing but logic'', stores entire arsenals in his shell, holds his own in direct combat, and generally embodies CrazyPrepared and CrazyAwesome.

** Usopp has ''created'' the Clima-Tact, apparently from scraps lying on the ship, as well as its second, more powerful incarnation. The true feat is the original, however, because he created a ''weather manipulating tool'' '''without''' Dial shells. He invented a metal stick that can control the weather. There is also the fact that, until the stronger members get or get control of any form of "Ambition", which has been proven by now to allow physical attacks to hit Logia users, Usopp with his dials is the ''only'' one in the crew aside from Luffy, and maybe Zoro, who could conceivably take on most fruit users. Think about it. If he had better physical training, like with his reflexes, and physical resistance, what do you think he could do against Ace with a flame dial or Kizaru or Eneru with a flash dial?

** Klahadore/Kurahadol is introduced as Miss Kaya's unassuming, well-dressed butler. Early on he's shown to be incredily gentle and possibly bookish, as he constantly has to adjust his glasses. He's secretly a massive badass named [[spoiler: Captain Kuro, who to his credit, still wears those glasses and was pretty well-dressed when he was a pirate. Acknowledged as the third smartest character from East Blue by the series' creator, he's a genius whose nickname is "Kuro of the Thousand Plans." And besides being a mastermind when the gloves come on (his Freddy Krueger-sque clawed gloves) he's also an incredibly powerful pirate who can move fast enough to vanish in front of people. Oh yeah, plus he zero respect for human life and plans on murdering his entire crew after his latest plan, a pirate attack on the village culminating in the death of Miss Kaya so he can inherit her fortune), is completed. He also faked his death by framing a look-a-like via hypnosis]]