Badass is one of the best qualities when you're an action hero. There's nothing better than to be a badass. However, not every character is a badass. Oh, and of course, not all works are of the action genre, which is why there's not badasses everywhere.

But most characters can dream. So, if they truly want to do something awesome in their life, if they want to be badass, so far the only alternative is to imagine it.

Dreams, hallucinations, fact-altering memory, select the way your imagination will make you badass. In any case, this trope applies to a character, arguably one that is not badass at first, whose subconscious decides to bring him a vision of a badass version of himself. To some extent, the character could also "badassify" his or her friends in that dream.

This trope relies a lot on the power of imagination. Expect characters to become out of character when such scenes appear, which is a bit understandable since it's a character's dream. This can accompany other nonsensical events that are all part of the dream.

Compare Dream Sue, where the character dreams himself or herself as perfect, which includes every good details of that character's personality, not just the badass aspect.

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Examples

Film

• Total Recall. (description written a little later)

Western Animation

• In the South Park episode "Fishsticks", Cartman keeps reasoning that he (and not Jimmy) wrote the joke that became so popular through all of America. Each time he imagines the moment the joke was written, he imagines himself more badass. In one of his souvenirs, he slays a dragon; in another, he becomes fiery like the Human Torch and burns down an army of Jewish robots.