MF217 sure loves his World of Badass reinterpretations of canon characters of the works he writes for. Trying to list every single example would take an eternity to sort out. This is a list of the more noteworthy examples seen thus far.
- William Dunbar was already a manly character in his own series, but here he ends up having most of his Lyoko powers in the real worldnote , including the borderline superhuman strength, both offensive and defensive and just flat out making him into an Implacable Man who flat out unnerves both friends and foe in the long-term because of the possibility of him going through a He Who Fights Monsters crisis. By the time the first arc has reached its halfway point, he's pointed out as having the single strongest avatar on Lyoko to the point the until this point Orcus on His Throne Garuda tries to actively kill William directly, which is the plot regarding just two days before the events of the prologue begin to occur.
- The moment he first awakens his Aura Vision abilities, Ash Ketchum terrifies the Gym Leaders sans Iris because of the possibility of him being a repeat of his father who was a complete Invincible Hero whose power on the battlefield made him an ungodly terror despite his Nice Guy exterior. For the most part, Ash does indeed Turn Out Like His Father, but stays heroic overall whereas Sirius was implied to be at least somewhat Anti-Hero in nature by comparison. The author described Ash's journey up from the beginning to its inevitable conclusion as effectively as a situation similar to the Godzilla Unleashed Tyrant Ending, in which Ash goes completely From Nobody to Nightmare. Even into the sequel two years later he sticks to his heroic traits, but he's suffering a lot of angst because he's fearing his own power at this rate because after two years if he keeps going at it the way he has, his own power will destroy him faster than anybody else could even make the attempt.
- His Unfezant deserves special mention due to being extremely buffed by comparison to her lackluster anime counterpart, directly getting into a fight with Geneshine and actually survives unlike what happened to Simisear despite being an easier target for Geneshine, and continues to be a main part of Ash's team even when he begins to rotate between some of his mons, all the way down to an unexpected conclusion in the 8th Gym Battle in which she takes out Mega Rayquaza from what is heavily implied to be a Super Luck triggered, Critial Hit Sky Attack.
- Humungousaur is a Subverted case of this in this continuity. It's less so a case of Played Straight Adaptational Badass so much as instead a Forgot Flanders Could Do That; his Sizeshifter ability from his debut series, which is seldom used in comparison to his Super-Strength, is utilized far more often here to the point Humungousaur can turn battles that are otherwise Curb Stomp Cushion against him into a Curb-Stomp Battle in his favor with this ability. Due to the fact he uses this ability far more often, he actually can overpower Vilgax even if Vilgax is normally using his stimulated arm boosts, which is normally what puts Vilgax and Humungousaur on more or less equal footing until Humungousaur busts out the Sizeshifter ability.
- Sirius Ketchum. The O.C. Stand-in for Ash's Disappeared Dad from the canon. If you were just some random schmuck on the street In-Universe who thought Sirius was anything like what his canon self was implied to be in Pocket Monsters: The Animation, everyone will just slap you silly and tell you to stop kidding yourself because they are also simultaneously legitimately terrified of what he might do now that you've insulted his strength. Sirius' ungodly level of power with his Aura Vision isn't just something that makes him a living legend; he's literally the bane of everyone else who even so much has seen just a fraction of his battling experience. When Cheren reads off the moveset of Ash's newly hatched Pichu in Truth and Ideals, Cheren is floored to see what moves are on said Pichu to the point he hastily asks what kind of trainer Sirius must've been to have a powerful moveset like that right off of the bat.note
- Victor, AKA "Victor Veloci" as his canon name goes, qualifies, but more special mention goes to his Beast Mode; the unnamed, genetically engineered species of Raptor Attack dinosaur he can turn into. It stands 9 feet tall, it weighs almost 500 lbs., it has a bone crushing bite akin to a Hyena's, it's claws are akin to a Bear's even down to having five digits of razor sharp killing and butchering, and he is capable of running up to 100 MPH and can keep up with and outpace a Cheetah in long term speed due to having more stamina. So is Victor meant to be what the Indoraptor could've been had it been the final product instead of a prototype? Considering Victor was a generic Raptor Attack dinosaur in the show he's from, and he didn't have much of a good track record in fights, this is definitely a step up in terms of being a legitimately dangerous opponent whose butchering ability can make even a Tyrannosaurus rex think twice about attacking it.
- An unusual example with the Digimon Kimeramon, who in newer media featuring it is an Ultimate Level. As far as the entirety of Citadel of the Heart is concerned, canon or otherwise, Kimeramon here are all classified as Mega Level. This has to do with a Grandfather Clause sort of effect, as Kimeramon was actually intended to be Mega Level originally as seen here
and here. - While Diary of an Analog is otherwise non-canon to Citadel of the Heart, some of it's cases of Adaptational Badass are still noteworthy enough to be listed here.
- Gatomon is described as losing her power almost entirely when she loses her Holy Ring. However, there is also the fact her gloves on her claws contain data from the Mega Level SaberLeomon. What happens is that the Holy Ring is a sort of power limiter to the Beast-Species Data within her, so that her Holy-Species Data takes center stage most of the time. When her Holy Ring is briefly lost when a Unimon catches her off guard, she is able to awaken her Beast-Species Data and unleash one of SaberLeomon's own moves against Unimon, shattering the Control Ring with ease, and freeing Unimon in the process, all the while Gatomon reclaims her Holy Ring and places it back on her tail and tightens it, making it crystal clear that with this display in Chapter 11.5, that her Badass Decay from the canon 02 series will never apply here.
- In the same chapter, on the subject of SaberLeomon, because of the New File Island having all Digimon in the past series being able to be reborn here, not only is Leomon Back from the Dead, but he also Came Back Strong by now being perpetually in SaberLeomon form instead of only being able to maintain the form temporarily.
- Wizardmon also came Back from the Dead and Came Back Strong in the process, by being reborn as Royal Knight Dynasmon.
- Because of the plot point of the kids giving up the Crests to free the Sovereigns never occurring because the Crests were last seen destroyed by Apocalymon, the kids still manage to Digivolve their partner Digimon beyond Champion because of a plot point that took place during the Final Battle with Apocalymon; that they had outgrown the Crests in terms of being able to Digivolve into higher forms. As a direct result of this, and combined with 2-3 years worth of training to become stronger and independent from Tai and Matt, T.K. is able to have Patamon Warp Digivolve straight into MagnaAngemon in the very first chapter. Gatomon is sometimes able to Digivolve to Ultimate by herself, and she can even use Saint's Air to empower her friends to allow them to Digivolve unassisted.
- WarGreymon inherits some of his moveset from the Digimon Adventure: (2020) series, which results in him using a miniature, handheld Terra Force after ramming his Dramon Destroyer into Lady Sigma's chest and ignites it, promptly blowing the target up to smithereens to the point they only wind up surviving by virtue of this being Lady Sigma, as in, Royal Knight Alphamon, who isn't going to die all that easily.
- Gatomon in spades:
- Angewomon in particular is best demonstrated in her fight with LoaderLiomon turned BanchoLeomon. When the opponent in question was an Ultimate Level as the former, Gatomon had used her claws to bitch slap him despite LoaderLiomon's face being designed to drill through Chrome Digizoid. As Angewomon she hardly has to actually try in the fight that ensues, only having to do so when LoaderLiomon uses her innate abilities against her by stealing some of it for Digivolve to Mega Level, but even then Angewomon's experience with her Ultimate Level form is superior compared to the different body BanchoLeomon is now stuck with, and thus she pins him into the nearest wall with BanchoLeomon's lack of experience in a humanoid body doing him in.
- Gatomon herself as a standalone Champion Level does not have her canon opponents go unnoticed, even if they are "sorta" toned down. Her appearance against the legion of Knightmon quickly demonstrate that Levels will more or less matter in this fic, especially in large numbers and with a Digimon that's advantageous against Gatomon to boot. However, when a Unimon catches her a tiny bit off guard and actually knocks off her Holy Ring? Gatomon still manages to turn the fight into a Curb-Stomp Battle by simply trading her Holy-Species abilities for her Beast-Species abilities, using SaberLeomon's own Howling Crusher move through her gloves containing its data as a secondary power source, and thus using it to destroy the Dark Ring on Unimon, and then reclaiming her Holy Ring and placing it back on her tail without so much as breaking a sweat. Even Dynasmon appears impressed by this, although given how Dynasmon is Wizardmon reborn as a Mega Level Royal Knight it's not all that surprising he'd think this about her.
