Badass Normal / Live-Action TV

Rory Williams: I have a message and a question: a message from the Doctor and a question from me. Where. Is. My. Wife? [the Cybermen do not respond] Oh, don't give me those blank looks. The Twelfth Cyber Legion monitors this entire quadrant. You hear everything. So you tell me what I need to know, you tell me now, and I'll be on my way.
Cyber-Leader: What is the Doctor's message?
[the Cybermen's spaceships explode in the window behind Rory]
Rory Williams: Would you like me to repeat the question?

— Doctor Who, "A Good Man Goes to War"

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• Angel:
  • Gunn is the epitome of the Badass Normal in the first four seasons. He's the only one who's received no special training and isn't a centuries-old demon or magically empowered in some other way. He's been fighting vampires since he was fourteen and, in the fourth season episode "Players", he took out six Asian warrior monk-types without getting hit once. Gunn and the street-gang members he used to lead also fought vampires with more success and less casualties using improvised melee weapons than the US government's secret black-ops demon-fighting organization was able to manage even using chemically-augmented super-soldiers and energy weapons. Admittedly, the government wasn't just hunting, but studying. In the spin-off comics, Angel states outright that Gunn could have beaten him in a fight if he ever got angry enough. He's probably the toughest character without supernatural powers in Buffyverse canon.
  • Halfway into Season 2 (exhibiting signs as early as the Season 1 episode "The Ring") Wesley started to evoke some measure of usefulness besides being The Smart Guy and hit his stride in Season 3 while growing a Perma-Stubble. Wesley may have had special Watcher training, but he apparently wasn't good at it, or whoever trained him sucked. It's a pretty big achievement to go from being the male Damsel in Distress to being a Badass Normal. By Season 5, he would shrug off almost anything short of Angel's level.
    • Until the series finale, when he suffered a mild case of being stabbed to death.
    • And at that point he wasn't really normal anymore, as he had acquired enough skill with magic to create fireballs at will.
  • Fred, who, in the later years of her short life, was very adept with a flamethrower (despite being a good ol' Southern girl). Cordelia could also qualify as this before her demonization; she could corner Angel without much of an effort after a couple of training sessions.
  • The show also gives us Holtz and Justine. Holtz has managed to capture Angelus/Angel more than once, though he generally had a posse helping him. He is considered the best non-Slayer vampire hunter in history, and he did it without any supernatural help.
• In The Aquabats! Super Show!, The MC Bat Commander is the only member without any actual superpowers. And as often as he's the butt of jokes, it's not uncommon for him to be the one to solve a problem confounding the rest of the team. There's a reason he's the leader, and it's not just because he's a good vocalist.
• Lori Baxter from Big Wolf on Campus kicks just as much ass as The Hero of the show, Tommy Dawkins.
• The Boys: With the exception of The Female, none of The Boys have superpowers themselves and also don't even have the official CIA backing they had in the comics. Instead, they have to rely on their own smarts, skills, and willingness to play to dirty to gain an edge on the Supes. Averted with Billy Butcher and Hughie in Season 3 as they both get superpowers.
• On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander Harris occasionally laments how all his friends and allies have superpowers — Slayers, witches, werewolf, Super Soldier, vampires — and that he's just the guy fixing the windows. Nevertheless, he is the only one to fight the good fight for more than eight years without ever straying from the path. He intimidated a centuries-old vampire into backing off, used a wrecking ball to corner-shot a god through a brick wall, and devised the plan to put an utterly unstoppable, unkillable demon in the ground — and it worked. But his crowning achievement was talking a magic-addicted, grief-stricken Willow Rosenberg down when she decided to destroy the earth, relying on nothing more than his love for her and their long history as friends.
• Charmed has Phoebe, who relied on martial arts before she got "active" powers on par with her sisters.
• Susi from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is at the end of the first season on the border between Action Survivor and Badass Normal.
• Logan of Dark Angel manages to come to the rescue of the genetically engineered protagonist more than once despite not only lacking superhuman abilities, he's also in a wheelchair.
• Doctor Who: While the Doctor is not quite normal, many of their companions fall into this category, particularly Leela, Jamie, Barbara, Ian, Martha and Jack (at least before the whole "immortal" thing).
  • Ace can arguably lead the pack of the companions, being of a quick temper and always carrying with her a backpack full of homemade explosive charges that she's not afraid to use. The woman took out a Dalek with a powered-up baseball bat. And dispatched another with a rocket launcher.
    The Doctor: You killed it!
    Ace: I aimed for the eyepiece.
  • Martha Jones, in the series 3 finale, saving the Earth by travelling across it for a year, after it had been conquered by the Master and his army of malevolent cyborgs.
  • Donna Noble, while "just" a temp (a substitute worker who's hired on a daily basis to cover for sick employees), repeatedly proves herself remarkably smart, capable, and clever without any tricks or gimmicky technology. Her highlight reel includes pulling a Shut Up, Hannibal! that impresses even the Doctor ("Planet of the Ood"); using Badass Bureaucrat skills to expose an evil company's cloning operation ("The Sontaran Stratagem"); being one of the only people able to call the Doctor out when he goes too far ("The Fires of Pompeii"); and infiltrating an alien-backed company and learning the truth about it just by acting like she's supposed to be there ("Partners in Crime"). When she's empowered with the Doctor's mind, she's able to save all of reality with just her typing skills!
  • Rory Williams. Think he's just a nurse? You're wrong. It turns out that he, and not the Doctor, is the "good man" mentioned in the widely quoted saying, "Demons run when a good man goes to war." While physically human, he "lived" for 2000 years as a plastic centurion, alone, to keep Amy safe. He infiltrated a Cyber-Ship demanding his wife, he withstood House and the Minotaur's Mind Rape, fought off the Headless Monks at Demon's Run, encountered more of the Silence over the course of three months than any of the other characters, and punched Hitler.
    I'm here to kiss my wife or kick your ass. And I don't see my wife.
  • Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Many of the examples on this wiki have a Charles Atlas Superpower, centuries of experience, or are a Genius Bruiser. He's got none of those, just the good old-fashioned British stiff upper lip. He's faced down "Daleks, Cybermen, Autons, Zygons, and all manner of space thuggery," is the Trope Namer for The Brigadier, carries a cane that doubles as a gun, and is one of a handful of people in the entire universe who can actually (somewhat) boss the Doctor around. He is such a Memetic Badass that, even after his death, his daughter can make invaders pause when she invokes his name. Oh, and he punched out the Master once.
  • A lot of the one-or-two-episode-based companions serve as this in comparison to the more seasoned TARDIS travelers.
    • "The Next Doctor": Jackson Lake. An amnesiac Victorian gentleman who believes himself to be the Doctor and does very well, to the point of saving the real Doctor from Cybermen with a hastily improvised weapon at least twice.
    • In series six, there's Canton Everett Delaware III, who tells off the President of the United States from the get-go, runs into the TARDIS without a second thought to keep on top of the Doctor, pulls off lying to the FBI for three straight months while presumably keeping Rory, Amy, and River out of their cross-hairs, shoots down a Silent, tricks said Silent into dooming his race, works future technology to send the message of the Silent to the Doctor and Apollo 11 and to top it all off, comes out to President Nixon in the Oval Office.
• Cal Burns, her family, and by extension all monster hunters in First Kill. While they use some witchcraft to protect their homes and bases, in the field it's just them and their combat skills - and the ones we see are good enough to take down ghouls, vampires, wraiths, and assorted demons with relative ease.
• Game of Thrones: Meera is not a giant wolf like Summer, doesn't have Super-Strength like Hodor, and doesn't have supernatural abilities like Bran or Benjen, but one-shotting a White Walker definitely makes you one.
• Genseishin Justiriser: Reika Motomiya isn't a Justiriser, but her bodyguard training has given her quick reflexes and skills in martial arts that make her just as adept at fighting Zakoal as the Justirisers. In the Final Battle she's even able to keep up with Demon Knight.
• Grimm:
  • Most characters in the show end having special powers one way or another, however, Hank Griffin qualifies 100%. Mere minutes after learning about the existence of Wesen, he was able to handle a fight with a particularly tough one, and continues to be a very tough combatant during the whole run of the series with no enhance abilities at all.
  • Main character Nick starts as such, he has the ability to see creatures for what they really are, and gets expert-level fight skills he sometimes doesn't know he has. As the series progresses it is discovered that Grimms do have especial abilities like better sense of hearing, healing easier, and some level of super-strength.
  • Most astonishingly, Nick's fiancée Juliette, even before she became a Hexenbiest. When knowing nothing she saved Nick's ass from a nonhuman opponent via Frying Pan of Doom, but that was just a harbinger of things to come: when protecting a friend from an abusive boyfriend, Nick was surprised and knocked out when the guy first came in the door, leaving just Juliette. She kicked his ass. Then he went One-Winged Angel. Juliette nonchalantly said "Not impressed" and kicked his ass even more. When Nick was finally in fighting condition again, all that was left for him to do was put some handcuffs on him. When he recognized Nick for a Grimm and went into oh-god-don't-kill-me mode, Nick said that he should worry more about Juliette.
  • Later in the series, Sergeant Wu joins this trope, being able to fight Wesen, especially since he typically comes armed to the teeth. But he also uses his intelligence to great advantage in the fight. He ends up losing the "normal" part of this label when he's infected with a Wesen virus and gains the ability to change into a stronger but more primitive version of himself, but not voluntarily.
  • There is also Meisner, a key member of La Résistance, who is most definitely not a Grimm, but has killed many highly-trained and dangerous Wesen, including members of the Verrat. The episode where Nick finally meets Meisner has them fighting back-to-back. Meisner also casually walks up to a dangerous Wesen unarmed in an elevator. The doors then close, and all we hear is signs of fighting. You can guess who wins (hint: it's not the Wesen). You could almost imagine a spin-off focused on the character.
  • On the evil side, there's Prince Kenneth, although it's not clear if Royals are regular humans or a strange type of Wesen. He is shown to be incredibly strong, able to knock Sean Renard (Zauberbiest/Royal hybrid) halfway across the room.
• Iolaus from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, which shares a verse with Xena, qualifies too. The man hangs out with Hercules and regularly aids him in combat, and saves his ass more than a couple times.
• Heroes:
  • Noah Bennet. He has defeated superpowered people simply by knowing how they work and going around them. He thought in Japanese to counteract telepath Matt Parkman's mind reading, arranged an escape from a prison meant to contain superpowered people, and kept an electrically-powered super under control by soaking her in water. In one of the online comics available, he defeats a man who can destroy things with his hand by grabbing him by the wrist and beating him unconscious with a baseball bat. Why not shoot him? It was inconvenient to figure out a way to go get his gun which was near his family. In "The Butterfly Effect" (Season 3 Episode 2), Bennet is being held in a Level 5 cell. Level 5 is normally only for the most dangerous superpowered people, but Bennet is so badass without powers that the Company feels the need to keep him in Level 5. During the two-parter "Eclipse" coupling, he became the most powerful character in the show after all the others lost their powers. Suffice to say quick wits, extensive knowledge of powered individuals and a handgun are all he needs! And a box cutter. Season 5 seems to be topping the sundae that is Bennet's badassness. Gut sliced up by speedster assassin? Silly Edgar, you can't kill Noah Bennet. Bennet's up and walking again by the end of the week. He gets his revenge in "Let It Bleed", locking Edgar in an industrial freezer for an indefinite amount of time, then tying him to a chair and spending several hours practicing the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique on him.
  • The Bennet family is pretty badass (even Claire, but she is superpowered), considering Sandra goes with her daughter on a rescue mission to save Meredith and Lyle goes after Ted with a baseball bat and throws a bucket of water on Elle, in the style of dear old dad.
  • Ando, Hiro's best friend and somewhat-sidekick with absolutely no powers whatsoever. In the first 3 volumes at least. "Somewhat-sidekick" because Ando's common sense and steadfast loyalty to his geeky, Idiot Ball carrying buddy has a tendency to save the day more often than any superpower.
  • Volume 4 gives us Emile Danko, a veteran soldier who, while he does occasionally need some help from the likes of Noah or Sylar due to his inexperience at dealing with superpowered people, proves to be a very dangerous adversary due simply to his cunning and creativity (like framing a hero as a suicide bomber). You can call him the Anti-Bennet, due to having the same amount of badassness, but far looser moral standards.
  • Peter Petrelli in Season 3 when he lost his powers. He still managed to get into Pinehearst, and would have killed his Too Powerful to Live father.
• Kamen Rider
  • Kazuya Taki in the first Kamen Rider is the Trope Codifier for the franchise. He's not as strong as Kamen Rider himself, but he's a skilled FBI Agent capable of taking on multiple Shocker Combatmen, who are stated to be much stronger than your average human.
  • Riderman from Kamen Rider V3. Unlike other Showa Riders who was a cyborg, Riderman was just an ordinary human with an artificial arm as enhancement. Doesn't stop him from being pretty awesome, though. His will and determination along with his own smarts and resourcefulness is more than enough to close the power gap.
  • Isaac in Kamen Rider Saber is stronger than any of the Sword of Logos Kamen Riders, even though he himself isn't a Rider at all. When he fights Saber and Calibur in episode 33, he's able to handle duel wield the Ikazuchi and Gekido blades against them and defeat both of them at once. And then he obtains the Omniforce and becomes Kamen Rider Solomon.
• Legend of the Seeker: Jennsen's just a shepherd girl, but proves herself quite brave and resourceful though she has no special skills or magic. Given that she has both Rahl and Zorrander heritage, it's probably not surprising (her brother is also the Seeker of Truth).
• Kenzi from Lost Girl, who uses her wits and pure grit to keep up with the Fantasy Kitchen Sink of magical powers. Also, the Science Hero Lauren has her badass moments.
• The Mandalorian:
  • The eponymous Mando himself, a.k.a. Din Djarin, may possibly be the most badass non-Force-Sensitive character in canon, and would likely even give a few from the expanded universe a run for their money as well. He's able to take on armies of opponents, rip the limbs off droids, charge through More Dakka blaster fire, slay Kaiju-sized alien monsters, destroy one of the Dark Troopers and even hold his own against Ahsoka Tano, a former Jedi Knight, and block her dual lightsaber slashes with the beskar armour on his wrists. By the time of The Book of Boba Fett, Din can wield the Darksaber in combat as effectively as the Force Users who have previous wielded it in the past like Darth Maul. Of course, this is less surprising considering that Mandalorians generally have Charles Atlas Superpowers and are seen as Worthy Opponents to the Jedi, having had wars with them in the past, but even by Mandalorian standards, Din is most impressive.
  • Mando's True Companions Greef Karga and Carla Dune aren't too shabby themselves, being able to take on scores of Imperials, with the latter being able to go hand to hand against alien opponents (including a Zabrak, one of Darth Maul's race). In Chapter 12: "The Siege", they have a Chase Fight with a bunch of Imperials and survive long enough for Mando to come in at the last second to save them with his Cool Starship.
  • Fenneic Shand certainly counts; she's a Cold Sniper with martial arts skill who could've killed Mando (twice) if not for his protective beskar armour and returns later in the series to take on an army of Stormtroopers, at one point dislodging a boulder to crush them all. Given that she's played by Ming-Na Wen of Chun-Li and Mulan fame, it's to be expected.
  • Mayfeld qualifies; he's the only human out of the team of rogues in Chapter: 6 "The Prisoner", but still goes Guns Akimbo on a load of security droids. Taken even further in Chapter 15: "The Believer"; when confronted with his former Imperial boss, Mayfeld snaps and kills of the son of a bitch and every other Imperial in his way before blowing up the entire base.
  • Morgan Elsbeth from Chapter 13: "The Jedi" earns her Badass Normal credentials when she engages in a duel with the aforementioned Ashoka using a beskar spear and actually gives her genuine fight. Granted, it's strongly inferred that Ahsoka is being a good sport by not using the Force, but just being able to knock one of her lightsabers out of her hand is definitely nothing to scoff at. Subverted in Ahsoka which retroactively reveals Elsbeth is actually descended from the Witches of Dathomir and knows Force Magick, perhaps better justifying why she could give Ahsoka any trouble in Episode 13 of The Mandalorian.
  • The series Big Bad Moff Gideon is one of the few Badass Normal antagonists in Star War and is very intimidating in his own right. Not only is he a ruthless Combat Pragmatist who almost kills Mando by shooting a nearby generator which blows up in Mando’s face (rather than wasting his shot by shooting uselessly at his armour like every other foe) but he proves to be effective enough with the Darksaber to put Mando on the defensive when Gideon surprise attacks him. By the finale of Season 3 he’s given himself Vader-esque Beskar Powered Armour and is more than able to take on both Din and Bo-Katan at the same time.
• Every character in Merlin (1998) who doesn't have magic is this. King Vortigern rips through a platoon of enemy soldiers, has dealings with the queen of The Fair Folk, and unflinchingly faces a powerful wizard in single combat. Frik manages to take down numerous opponents, survive a war, and work against Mab even after he lost all of his magic. Ambrosia regularly acts unimpressed by magical beings such as Mab, insults them to their faces, and declares that one point that, magic or no magic, if Mab harms Merlin in any way, "I'll have her guts for my bootlaces."
• Kung Lao, Siro, and Taja, the protagonists of Mortal Kombat: Conquest, are all ordinary human beings who regularly face off against supernatural opponents who can shoot ice, throw fire, teleport, devour souls, re-animate the dead, etc. Not only do they stand toe to toe against these enemies but they usually win. In one episode Shang Tsung, Kung Lao's primary rival, destroys a military encampment with his powers because he was just that pissed. Had he thought of doing that when he faced Kung Lao in Mortal Kombat, Earth Realm would have been doomed before the series even began.
  • When Quan Chi and Kung Lao first fought, Quan Chi tried to use his sorcery but was immediately stopped by Raiden in the name of "a fair fight."
• Once Upon a Time: Snow White, Prince Charming and Captain Hook are all normal people who take on dragons, sorcerers and literal gods armed with nothing but swords and bows, and come out on top. Emma was this until she unlocked her Saviour powers and became an Empowered Badass Normal.
  • In Season 8; Henry, Cinderella and Tiana have no magic of their own but manage to defeat two of the most powerful magicians in all the realms.
• In Powers, pretty much everyone in Powers Division, as they are normal humans who investigate superhuman crimes.
• Power Rangers:
  • Semi-lampshaded in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive for the series' 15th anniversary Reunion Show. Four recent Rangers with civilian form-only extra powers were teamed up with Adam from Season 2. After a straight martial arts fight scene where the others used their powers, Adam commented on his unpowered martial arts skills, "It may be old school, but it gets the job done." Considering how the fandom has complained about civilian powers and the fact that the actor's face was always visible (to assure the audience that no stunt double was being used), probably overlaps with Fanservice.
  • Most every Ranger has some badassitude without their powers, showing them fight the Mooks of the season is supposed to help the transition to the Super Sentai costume footage.
  • Dr. K took down her season's Dragon by playing the violin. Twice.
  • Kendall Morgan proves to have fighting abilities not much farther below that of the Ranger team she's Mission Control for. It's probably Foreshadowing for her eventually becoming a Ranger herself.
• Red Dwarf:
  • Dave Lister, a slob he may be, is actually quite the space hero in own right. Having taken on and defeated on Simulants, genetically engineered monsters and even outwitted The Dreaded Inquistor who had survived to the end of time and had a Thanos-esque Tricked-Out Glove. This espeically impressive considering the rest of the Dwarfers are: a humanoid cat person with Super-Reflexes, a Mechanoid with immese intellect and Swiss Army Appendages and a Hologram made of Hard Light, Lister manages to be pretty smegging badass for a vending machine repairman. Lampshaded by a few kids on a bus and Lister himself in Back to Earth: "I'm pretty cool, I don't take any smeg, and even though I'm disgusting, sometimes I can be quite brave".
  • Ace Rimmer as seen in "Dimension Jump" is this to Memetic Badass-levels... in stark contrast to Dirty Coward Rimmer of the main universe. Ace in his debut episode saves the crew after they crashed onto a ocean moon, repairing the ship (while hanging upside down to fix the starboard engine) in the middle of storm with a broken arm and knocked Kryten the aforementioned Mechanoid out when the latter tried to stop him due to said injury. By his next appearance in "Stoke Me A Clipper", he's surfing crocodiles, killing Nazis, shrugging off shots to the chest and saving beautiful princesses without so much as breaking a sweat subverted though as it turns out he's a Hard Light Hologram and not actually the same Ace that the crew met in "Dimension Jump". Even non-dead Rimmer has managed once in a blue moon to be this, like in Series VIII when he knees The Grim Reaper in the nuts and gets away with it, "Only the good die young" indeed.
• Shadow and Bone is set in a world where mages like Grisha are the combat elite. However, some of the characters are so martially competent despite not having Grisha, they can take on the mages and survive.
  • Played With in Jesper, a quick-draw gunslinger with Improbable Aiming Skills. It's mentioned that firearms are slowly making Grisha outdated, but the tech level of the setting isn't quite at the point where manipulating materials and the human body is useless. However, Jesper's incredible skill with a gun lets him take out not only Grisha, but also volcra, monstrous creatures of darkness that even the Grisha have trouble fighting against. However, Season 2 reveals that Jesper is secretly Grisha himself and has been applying his Durast control over solid matter to his gunfights.
  • Inej is just as great in a fight vs. Grisha and volcra as Jesper with her throwing knives, with apparently only incredible aim and a background in acrobatics to account for it.
• Star Trek:
  • James T. Kirk from Star Trek: The Original Series. What else do you call a regular human who can defeat a "superman" with his fists and a wrench and survive two fights with a Vulcan?
  • Captain Sisko has Kirk beat in spades. In his time, he is able to fell Klingons and Jem'Hadar by the dozens in melee combat despite both races being many times stronger than humans, and even punched Q in the face and lived to tell about it. That said, Kirk did slap Trelane (in the most humiliating way possible) about a century before.
  • Miles O'Brien. Started as an enlistee without all the fancy Academy training the commissioned officers get. Worked his way up to become Trek's most notable noncom. Decorated 15 times, has been on six starships in 235 different tactical scenarios, and is considered an expert on ship-to-ship combat. He's not bitter that he's still only a Senior Chief Petty Officer and not a full commissioned officer despite everything, though. First, he already has de facto commander rank by virtue of being the chief engineer on Terok Nor, and second, he wouldn't enjoy those officer dinners anyway. Too many forks.
  • The human species as a whole when compared to all the aggressive species they meet. The humans have the drive and spirit to hold their own and always somehow manage.
• Supernatural:
  • Dean Winchester. When the guys he stops the Apocalypse with include an angel, an archangel, a demon bigwig, a much more experienced hunter, and his brother who can exorcise demons with his mind and you're STILL the most awesome, you're pretty badass.
  • Bobby Singer could also be included as this, especially after he ends up in a wheelchair.
• Super Sentai:
  • Honourable mention go to Eiji Takaoka from GoGo Sentai Boukenger. Before he becomes BoukenSilver, he is so badass that in his human form he can beat up two Ashu demons, whom the five other Boukengers together, in their Ranger form, were unable to defeat.
  • Choujuu Sentai Liveman: Arashi Busujima. His debut episode features him biting a strong Monster of the Week and turning it and its minions into his new gang. Also, in addition to not having special powers, the man is an idiot among geniuses. Sure, next episode he's turned into a genius, but he eventually is reverted back into his old self. At which point he make a suicide run into what was arguably the strongest Monster Of The Week in the season and succeeds.
  • Mirai Sentai Timeranger: Among the vast numbers of superpowerful Big Bads in the franchise, the mastermind behind the events of this season is the perfectly normal Captain Ryuya, who simply did a few things to destroy a good chunk of the past all to save his own life. While he is associated with both the Time Red and Time Fire powers, he's not the primary user of either.
• Teen Wolf:
  • Deaton, the veterinarian. COMPLETELY UNFLINCHING in the face of the Big Bad Wolf, even after getting a chair thrown at him. "We. Are. Closed."
  • The Argents and werewolf hunters in general make a freaking point of being this, using wolfsbane-laden arrows and bullets to take down wolves.
  • Stiles, who is able to fight monsters and save his supernatural friends with only a baseball bat is pretty impressive for someone who's only human. Usually.
• Many of the recurring non-supernatural characters in True Blood, but particularly Jason Stackhouse (less so in Season 1); he defeats Steve Newlin with a paintball gun, chucks Bill out of his house when he starts getting uppity, and saves Tara from an insane Yandere vampire.
• The Umbrella Academy has multiple examples like Hazel, Cha-Cha^note  though it's implied they may be enhanced , Lila, the Swedes, The Handler but Diego and Allsion deserve a special mention as even when not using their specific superpowers (which often aren't as immediately as impressive as Luther's Super-Strength or Five's Teleport Spam) have the hand to hand skill to kick plenty of ass. Diego in particular was the The Cowl long before his powers evolved from mere Improbable Aiming Skills to Bullet Dodges You Mind over Matter power. There's also Reginald Hargreeves who despite being a older man, matches Diego in a one one fight, shanking him the torso and doing the Unflinching Walk away subverted when it turns out he's a alien.
• Ultraman: Gomora is nothing more than an extraordinarily large Earth dinosaur, and its only special ability is tunneling through the ground (which it doesn't use in combat), yet it is the only monster to fight Ultraman to a draw.
• The Vampire Diaries:
  • Elena Gilbert is one of an increasingly dwindling number of major characters who don't have superpowers, but she shows herself to be able to hold her own and gain control of situations where she is physically the underdog on numerous occasions.
  • Alaric Saltzman is a much better example, until he he gets turned into a vampire in Season 3
• The Witcher (2019):
  • In a world full of sorcerers and empowered mutants like Geralt, Black Knight Cahir is just one skilled warrior who is able to fight a Doppler and royally kick the ass of Vilgefortz a Magic Knight with little diffculty. Downplayed in Season 2 though as it's shown while effective in a pure melee he's pretty much helpless againist magic users such as Tissaia and Fringilla.
  • Queen Calanthe in a case of Royals Who Actually Do Something, is a warrior queen and Blood Knight who actively particates on the battlefield, slaying multiple Nilfgaard soldiers before being overrun. In a flash back episode, she even matches blades with Geralt himself.
  • Renfri, as seen in the climax of the first episode is such a Master Swordswoman she can hold her own againist Geralt in a sword fight being one of the very few human characters to give him any trouble at all.
  • Jaskier although more a Action Survivor has proved espeically in Season 2 to be a Guile Hero who's survived being a room full of Witcher munching Basilisks and a Person of Mass Destruction without getting a single scratch on him.
  • Yennefer in Season 2 when Brought Down to Normal. She manages free Cahir in a room full of sorcerers, survives getting pulled underwater by a octopus monster and saves Jaskier from Rience aka "Fire Fucker" by playing drunk and spitting alcohol at the right moment, permanently scarring the fire mage.
• Xena: Warrior Princess:
  • Autolycus and Gabrielle. Autolycus is the King of Thieves and Gabs Took a Level in Badass from being a village girl who dreams of adventure to taking Xena's place in the series finale, with no suspect ancestry.
  • Xena herself wanders in and out of this trope. It's possible that she doesn't apply at all, because it's implied but never confirmed that she's Ares' daughter. The standard assumption in-universe is that she's 100% mortal, and she can kick ass and take names with the best of them but it can verge on Charles Atlas Superpower at times.

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