Troperville
Help us survive. All donations are anonymous on the wiki and unacknowledged, as we don't wish to create a hierarchy among Tropers.
Editing
Tools
Toys
|
alt title(s): Gar 
When I need to find something out, I just go out and find somebody that knows more than me, and I go and I ask them. Sometimes I ask pretty hard.
The Rule Of Cool personified.
A character who gets away with outright insane stunts (defusing a bomb with their teeth, conning a mob boss, getting into a firefight with the entire US army, etc.) that would never work in real life. A Bad Ass is a fantasy figure who the audience roots for precisely because they break the Willing Suspension Of Disbelief - or, between Refuge In Audacity and Rule Of Cool, barely manage to maintain it.
Fandom is very forgiving of this, because the stunts are so cool that they don't care. In fact, it's notable that fans are more likely to tolerate a violent monster of a "hero" than a befuddled, cowardly Type I Anti Hero. For example, in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji and Asuka each whine just as much as the other, but Asuka was more popular with the fans because she had guts, despite her being a complete and utter... um... Well, let's just say that she's one of the few characters in Evangelion to even come close to deserving what happens to them.
Most attempts to parody or subvert the Badass have turned into Misaimed Fandom - no matter how nutty the character gets (like Rorschach from Watchmen), the fans just cheer on how Badass the character is. This has led to a new trope: the Heroic Sociopath. Writers beware: Take it too far and either God Mode Sue or Jerk Sue will stride Out Of The Inferno of your work.
Anime fans often use the word " GAR ◊" (yes, all UPPERCASE) as a synonym of "badassitude", particularly when the badasses in question are Hot Blooded. Using this may bring you accusations of being mentally inferior in some circles. The meme originates on (where else?) Four Chan, where a poster declaring himself to be gay for Archer from Fate Stay Night mistyped it as "gar".
Subtropes include:
If an example can be placed in these previous tropes, please put them there.
See also: All Girls Want Bad Boys, Darker And Edgier, Nineties Anti Hero, Memetic Badass.
For many outstanding examples of badassness see: Crowning Moment of Awesome. For profiles of many and sunry badasses, see Badass Of The Week.
Considering almost every hero of ancient myth was Badass Incarnate ™, this trope is Older Than Dirt.
Examples
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- The heroine of the anime version of Witch Blade, Masane Amada, is by default Madeof Win as a result of being the Witch Blade bearer. She slowly but surely Took a Level in Badass over the course of the show, but from the end of Episode 23 until the ending, she became totally, balls out AWESOME. Basically, her life would soon be taken by the Witch Blade, thousands of death machines were hunting her ass, and she had a bunch of Evil Knockoffs making her life WORSE. Instead of wussing out, she decided to go down in totally Badass style, by yelling, and I quote, "LET'S BLOW SOME SHIT UP!" After that, albeit with a mild bit of help from her Badass Boyfriend Takayama (he kills one eight of the bastards, bare minimum) but the remaining 7/8ths, plus ALL of the Evil Knockoff Witch Blades arrayed against her have their asses totally curbstomped. However, what makes this example totally "grown men would weep Manly Tears over the sheer awesome" is that she was willing to face her own death with such badassery and raw dignity as long as it meant her daughter would have a better world to live in, and manages to save an entire city in the process! Despite it being a Downer Ending at face value, this troper has to admit hoping that when his own death is imminent, he's able to face it in a manner most dignified and awesome.
- Ladd Russo, Claire Stanfield and Firo Prochainezo of Baccano! fit almost perfectly in Badass category, but they sure as hell aren't the only ones. Rachel saves nearly six people from heavily armed terrorists with nothing but sheer grit, Jacuzzi demonstrates almost insane levels of courage under pressure, Graham can and probably will knock your head off with a monkey wrench, Nice will blow up anything and everything, Szilard can take machine gun fire while barely flinching, and Chane can deflect bullets.
- Kakashi, Gaara and Neji of Naruto In fact, most of the cast would qualify as badasses, due to the simple fact that they're ninja.
- Alucard, from Hellsing. In fact, many Friendly Neighborhood Vampires are Badasses. Then again, consider the origin of Badass Decay.
- Pretty much everyone in Bakuretsu Tenshi, especially Jo, and to a lesser degree, Takane and Sei.
- Zaraki Kenpachi from the anime Bleach is perhaps the greatest example of this, relying solely on brute force and his insanely powerful Battle Aura while all others in the anime rely on magic and/or special fighting techniques. In one memorable scene, he allows an opponent he can't see or hear to stab him in the chest just so that Kenpachi can then grab him.
- In another memorable scene, he's fighting a six-armed Espada armed with six giant scythes and purportedly unbreakable skin. Well into the fight, it looks like he's on the ropes, until he DECIDES TO HOLD HIS SWORD WITH BOTH HANDS. Quickly ending the fight.
- Zaraki's 3rd seat officer Ikkaku Madarame also fits this trope. The fact that Zaraki was the one person he could find who was a bigger badass than himself is the main reason he even joined the 11th squad in the first place.
- Really, just about any of the Shinigami Captains count as badasses; there is a good reason that Ichigo is told to run if he ever encounters one.
- Hitsugaya is badass? REALLY? REALLY?
- He's holding his own against Halibel, and may yet beat her, so yes.
- Popularity driven plotkai and a character-shield do not make him badass.
- Hachigen Ushoda. Yeah, that big, fat Vizard. How Bad Ass is he? Well, in the recent flashback arc, he one-shotted both the Captain and Lieutenant of the Ninth Squad (now turned into monsters). With binding spells. One of which was Level 99, without an incantation. And, he was the only one of the Vizards to really make any progress during that fight.
- If the Dattebayo sub is to be believed, Hirako Shinji actually calls him badass after he does this.
- What about Retsu Unohana? A woman so badass that she scares the crap outta entire squads AND captains with her sole Mama Bear presence.
- Recent chapters has Ichigo turn into an awesome hollow form and then proceed to rip his opponents arm off. And many consider his inner hollow to be badass as well.
- It doesn't stop there, hollow Ichigo then throws Ulquiorra's severed arm back at him at enough speed to cause him serious damage, then Ichigo easily cuts his opponent in half AND stomps his head with one foot WHILE firing a cero at point-blank-range blowing Ulquiorra's head off.
- Makoto Shishio, one of the main villains from Rurouni Kenshin, seems to be a combination of a Badass and a Diabolical Mastermind. The man single-handedly and effortlessly defeated (and made fools of) several of the most powerful swordsmen imaginable, despite having been burned alive and shot in the head. Hajime Saitou and Kenshin (when he sheds off his Obfuscating Stupidity) are pretty badass on their own, too.
- However, in Peacemaker Kurogane it is Toshizou Hijikata and Souji Okita who get to be the baddest badasses in The Shinsengumi.
- Mugen from Samurai Champloo is very clearly a badass. He literally lives for battle, and has performed such feats as cutting a thrown toothpick in half blindfolded, defeating countless highly trained and armed ninjas barehanded, and surviving numerous experiences that would have easily killed anybody else. His badassery is to the point where after double-crossing a dangerous gang leader, he tells him, "If you're gonna send somebody to kill me, make sure it's the toughest bastard you can find." When the gang leader refuses, Mugen actually comes after HIM. Jin from the same series is also a badass, and their interactions are mainly focused on their badassery.
- Cowboy Bebop's Spike Spiegel is the baddest ass around, in spite of the fact that he somehow always loses his bounty.
- Broly from Dragonball Z takes this trope to absurd levels, effortlessly defeating the most powerful warriors in the universe single handedly at the same time.
- Pretty much the entire cast is made of badass. From main character Goku, all the way down to fat guy Yajirobe. Guy wasn't a joke character when he killed one of Piccolo Daimao's warriors in one blow, nor when he cut off Vegeta's tail.
- Fist Of The North Star makes it a main priority to showcase just how much of a badass Kenshiro is. He is a walking death machine with an almost instinctual knowledge of every pressure point on the body, which he uses to annihilate entire armies in some of the most spectacular and gruesome ways possible. Don't even get me started on his Made Of Iron qualities as well.
- The only other person who possibly outstrips Ken in this regard is his brother Raoh. A man so incredibly badass that, after he died, a real-life funeral was held for him.
- Nougami Neuro from ' 'Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro' ' is an example. From the many ways he tortures his slave yako, to how he brutally tortured the new bloodline member DR.
- Ranma from Ranma 1/2, many examples of Bad Ass, including Punching out a Pheonix King, Destroying Mountains, defeating a 100 year old Martial Arts master while he has the strength of a child through sheer brilliance and not being able to learn a technique simply because it requires him to complain too much. Oh and having nearly every pretty girl in a Mile radius wanting to marry him.
- Guts from Berserk is an example (I don't think that it's possible for a character named "Guts" to not be badass). The Brand of Sacrifice on the back of his neck acts as a beacon for The Legions Of Hell. He's had it for two years and counting, and he's still alive. And despite losing an eye and having to have his left arm replaced with a mechanical one after having to cut off the original himself (and that's not even counting his ridiculous number of scars), he's not going to lay down and die anytime soon. The man's nickname is "The Hundred-Man Slayer", and he earned it honestly.
- Also qualifying is the Skull Knight from the manga series. This guy has been fighting the Godhand for
years CENTURIES, is more than a match for the Apostles himself, and can even face down a monstered-out Zodd on equal footing. And anyone who can defy the Godhand themselves to save Guts and Casca from a horrible death during the Eclipse qualifies as a serious badass. Then there's the matter of what the Skull Knight does to Behelits. He eats them.
- Domon Kasshu and Master Asia from G Gundam - they can defeat giant mechas with their bare hands (or sash/bandana), but they reach true badass levels when they have to escape a tunnel that is covered by a a small skyscraper, they summon all their strength and just kick the building out of the way.
- Prospective Getter Robo pilots need to prove their badassitude before being allowed anywhere near the titular mecha (unless they hijack it, which is in itself proof of their badassery). This typically involves being attacked by mafia assassins, cyborgs, oni or dinosaurs while completely unarmed, or in Gou's case, a humongous mecha when all he has is an assault rifle. Then once they've proved themselves, the real action begins.
- Maki from Airmaster - built like a brick outhouse, able to defeat 90% of the series' antagonists, capable of learning from all of them so she can beat the other 10%, and female. Don't try to bring up her past in front of her friends, though. You'll be pulverized.
- Akagi. Breaks minds and bones with ease. Just don't fuck with him. It's even said that you should not look him in the eye if you're in a group of less than five people.
- If you have a name in Black Lagoon, you will, at some point or other, be a badass. Yes, even if you're the Non Action Guy, or the twelve-year old kid. And if you're female, odds are good you'll do even better.
- That said, the scene in the "El Baile De La Muerte" arc of the manga where Roberta stops one of Shenhua's blades with her teeth, and then bites right through it, deserves to be on this page.
- Jotaro Kujo, (young) Joseph Joestar, and pretty much the whole Joestar family in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Jotaro is the most memorable example, who often beat his opponents with his brains more often than his fists (although he does enjoy enjoy wailing on the enemy any chance he gets).
- Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure is arguably the most GAR anime/manga series there is. Other badasses include Dio, Stroheim, Gyro Zeppeli (or any other Zeppeli for that matter), Weather Report, and many, many more. In fact, nearly every major character has at least one Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- The Major from Ghost in the Shell, also an example of a female badass.
- The brutal efficiency of the group enables any Section 9 member to be badass. Batou, however, does get the lion's share that isn't Motoko's.
- Leona from Dominion Tank Police. A female police officer that drives a tank and thinks it's completely viable to blow up half a city to catch a jaywalker if needed. Also Commander Britain from the same anime classifies here, having a lifetime subscription to "How to Kill" magazine and all.
- Simon and Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are the most GAR-badass couple ever created by man: thanks to Simon's massive power and Kamina's unstoppable bravado, they both manage to pull the strongest, most awesome moves ever seen in anime. Of course, for keeping Simon on the ropes throughout their whole fight and continuing to prevail even without his 'mech, Lord Genome clearly has a spot in GAR-halla too. In fact, pretty much every character that goes out with a Heroic Sacrifice Takes A Level In Badass as his last act.
- I'd say absolutely every member of the Gurren Dan. Doesn't matter if you can fight or not, being a crew member of a ship/giant mecha that intends to combat a cosmic horror is simply raw badass.
- In Gurren Lagann, much of the technology even operates on fuel grade badass. They call it spiral power, but what is badass if it's not going beyond the impossible?
- Vash the Stampede from Trigun acts as goofy as all hell... but this is Obfuscating Stupidity. When something draws his wrath and he puts on the Scary Shiny Glasses, all hell is about to break loose — and if he ever gets into "Eyes of the Diablo" mode, you are completely fucked. One of the few Technical Pacifist badasses. As well as Nicholas D. Wolfwood, only without the pacifism.
- And while he's more sensitive to pain than most of the other male characters, Million Knives has one hell of a macho complex, which is partly the origin of the problem. Add some steroids, overly huge cannons 'n blades and a fierce hatred for humanity and you have a badasser than badass son of a bitch version of Vash. Members of the Gung-ho Guns such as Legato (the man who can slaughter a whole gang through the power of his mind over a food incident and bend a guy into two or three while being tetraplegic and eating a steak with his chin in his plate) and Elendira the Crimsonnail have their own special flavour of badassery too.
- Bean Bandit, in both Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats.
- Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha. If you can shrug off having your arm brutally sliced off, than you are surely a Bad Ass.
- Gen Shishio of Kekkaishi.
- Numerous characters from One Piece, most notably Sanji, Luffy, and Zoro.
- Actually, it's hard to name a single sympathetic character who isn't a Bad Ass Determinator to some degree.
- Akasaka is the badass in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, even if he sure took his sweet time to level up. Just watch.
- Just to set the record straight, the people Akasaka beats up are a group of highly trained counter-intelligence mercenaries. Akasaka is that tough.
- Fullmetal Alchemist has quite a few; Ed pulls off the most blatant feats of badassery through the series, though Hohenheim and Roy Mustang make a strong case. However, the reigning champion Bad Ass for the series is Izumi, who routinely wallops everyone she meets even though she is missing large chunks of her internal organs.
- Let's not forget Greed, who's a piece of pure Badass, and Bradley, whose seven-swords technique oozes Impossible Manga Feats. Of course, they owe a lot of this to Father. Kimblee is one badass psychopath. Lin/Ling and Ran Fan/Lan Fan got trained since childhood to be kick-ass fighters. Sig/Sigu is Izumi's counterpart, the one and only man who can survive being her husband (heck, they routinely throw knives at each other casually while working). Riza Hawkeye is also so skilled and fierce with firearms that she terrifies her fellow soldiers including Roy. In the manga, Olivia Armstrong could easily rival with Izumi. And Alex Louis Armstrong is... well, badass in his own very peculiar way.
- And Scar. Just look at the guy and try to claim that he doesn't instill fear. If looking at him isn't scary enough, remember that he makes Your Head A Splode just by touching it.
- Not even a mention of the Pokemon Adventures manga? That one is full of badasses. From Giovanni (yes, THAT one, he's unbelievably awesome in the manga), to Blue, Silver and Ruby in the final battle, just to name a few, right down to Mewtwo, who, despite his slight power downgrade compared to the anime, demonstrates his badassery by performing a Diagonal Cut with a katana that makes Sephiroth's blade look pathetic, slicing a tower in two. And technically, he's doing it with his mind. And he usually fights with a spoon, too, and still looks awesome while doing it. There is no spoon, indeed.
- Add Koga to the list. When fighting Agatha's Arbok, which received strength from the markings on its stomach, Koga had his Golbat suck a large amount of blood from his arm to throw over the marks, nullifying them. Considering how vicious Golbat can be with its blood lust, and that Koga has no hesitation in ordering it to do this, it's awesome and resourceful.
- As for that other monster show, the cast of Digimon Savers is probably the baddest of the badass. Both Masaru and Ikuto will fight Digimon barehanded, Satsuma is a big damn hero and it's up for debate whether Touma is a Genius Bruiser or Badass Bookworm. Even The Chick Yoshino gets one really good moment where she smashes an evil pseudo-Digimon with a barrel, and the Bridge Bunnies have motorcycles.
- Tsukihime's Nanaya Shiki. For one thing, he's an amoral sociopathic killer split personality of the protagonist, which is just cool. But then, he has insanely skilled killing abilities and instincts, and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, which let him kill virtually anything with a fruit knife. To top it off, he easily slaughters some of the most powerful beings on the planet (who are nigh-unbeatable) while laughing, speaking poetically, and only feeling a mixture of amused enthusiasm and contempt.
- Nanaya Shiki does not actually have the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, He is more a 'What if' Tohno Shiki, Instead of the actual one. This means he does all that running on sheer, utter, skill. Yes, He cuts through bone with only a fruit knife because he is SKILLED.
- Tohno Shiki, the protagonist, is only slightly less badass. His utter pwnage of Nrvnqsr has yet to be topped by anything, ANYTHING this troper has ever seen.
- Don't forget his freak out against Akiha. That was essentially a preview of Nanaya Shiki with the eyes, And that in itself is sheer awesome.
- There are, however, a lot of other badasses around Tsukihime. Arcueid's normal badassitude is much hurt in the main story because she's regenerating from a brutal backstabbing by the aforementioned Nanaya, but it should still be remembered that this is a girl who slaughtered what amounted to the most powerful supernatural race on Earth singlehandedly. And then there's also The Ojou Akiha Tohno, whose badassitude is mostly off-camera in the original novel... but then showed (and how!) in the manga, driving the point home that the head of the Tohno might be a young girl, but she's not someone you should fuck with.
- Satsujinki, who is just a possible future Tohno Shiki. IMO, he is even more badass than his Nanaya persona.
- He's just way to GAR to exist, as of yet anyways. Hopefully...
- Absolutely every single character in Vinland Saga is GAR personified.
- Even Father Waribald, a priest, is pretty hard core. You'd have to be to drink an entire hall full of Vikings under the table.
- Nanoha Takamachi from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Do not let the "Magical Girl" part fool you. This is a lady who casually walks Out Of The Inferno, grabs energy blades with one unprotected hand, and frequently instills the very fear of God into her enemies with the sheer power she possesses. Her most popular name amongst fans is "The White Devil" and you'd be hard-pressed not to think it as fitting while watching her in action. Not to say that Fate and the Wolkenritter aren't badass either.
- In fact, it's hard to decide if there are mages who aren't badass. However, Signum might still be the most badass of them.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has tons, Takamichi, Rakan, Nagi, Kaede, Setsuna, and Mana all qualify, but the most extreme example is Badass Lolita Evangeline, who has taken down a superpowerful demon god in one (massive) shot.
- Also Negi himself, after obtaining Black Magic. Just read chapter 219.
- In this troper's opinion, as of the latest chapters with the fight against Rakan, not only could Negi be arguably the most badass character in Negima next to Evangeline but even comparably one of the biggest badass shounen leads out there today.
- Code Geass has several, most notably Kallen, Toudou and, Suzaku.
- In one of the spinoff mangas, Zero himself. Instead of having Mind Control powers, his suit gives him super-strength, allowing him to go toe-to-toe with Lancelot, without being inside of a Knightmare himself.
- I'm surprised Jeremiah hasn't made it here yet. He just BAMF! and turned completely badass from R1 Turn 25 onwards.
- Chiyoko from the Akira manga - she specializes in Foe Tossing Charges and can take down a small army all by her lonesome. While badly wounded.
- Yankumi from Gokusen personifies this, when she's not pretending to be a floozy ditz to keep her students in the dark about the fact that she is the sole heir to the feared Ooedo Yakuza group. Single handedly takes on Yakuza gangsters, thieves and at one point her entire class of punkass gakuran. Also takes down Man Mountain Tetsuru with two fingers straight up the nose to prove a point about strength. Combined with her tendency to go into yakuza mode at the slightest and most inappropriate provocation she is a 24/7 badass who will surely hold all of Tokyo in her iron grip when her grandfather finally croaks.
- Asuka Langley Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion could be considered a deconstruction of the Badass, fighting fiercely and acting all Tsundere to hide her vulnerability and insecurity. Fan Fic usually plays hers straight or reconstructs it after Epiphany Therapy.
- Natsuki Kuga from Mai-HiME, this trope is you. That sweet ride of yours certainly helps your image. Now, if you'd only come to school more than once in a while...
- Mikura from Mezzo DSA and Mezzo Forte is almost insanely badass. Just watch the bowling alley fight from episode one of Forte, and be amazed.
- Samurai 7's Kyuuzo masterfully wields two katana, wears red and black, and fits the criteria for "nosebleed-inducing male character" with his damn good looks and icy personality. Not to be confused with his mildly friendlier movie incarnation, though that Kyuuzo is just as badass.
- Manji from Blade Of The Immortal
- Bobby Margot, battleship helmsman from Macross Frontier also deserves a mention, made even more badass by the fact that normally he acts very campy, and used to be hair dresser and makeup artist.
- Ozma also is very badass in his own right.
- Kakuri from Bokko is a short, bearded warrior-monk who specifically goes out of his way to aid defenseless cities in times of war. With his strategy, wisdom and badassery he has helped countless small cities win against the odds.
- Marlene Angel from Blue Gender most definitely qualifies. Aside from her feat of fighting the Blue in or out of her Humongous Mecha, at one point in the movie she kills a giant armor-plated worm by throwing her mecha's bayonetted rifle into its mouth.
Comic Books
- Sergeant Rock. The man beat BATMAN in a "most badass man in comics" contest. He kills tanks with his hands. And he has no powers other than a dedication to kicking Nazi ass. His whole unit actually finds killing Nazis less physically stressful than any other activity, including eating.
- Blade.
- Wolverine of the X-Men.
- Most of the X-Men maintain some degree of badass. It helps that Cyclops makes them train without their powers to functional Badass Normal skill levels. By way of a few examples...
- Cyclops beating up six men at once with his eyes shut. Oh, and then there was the time when the X-Men were brainwashed into trying to kill him. He managed not to hurt any of them too badly...
- Storm losing her powers and still being badass enough to lead the team for a couple of years. Including beating Cyclops in a one-on-one duel.
- Beast can pull your arms off with his feet. He's also a Badass Bookworm.
- Nightcrawler once fought his way through several dozen superhumans without using his powers. Oh, and with a broken leg.
- Cannonball vs Gladiator. 'Nuff said.
- Jubilee can dropkick two men in the balls at once. After blowing their guns up just by thinking about it.
- Rachel Summers fought Galactus. It was a draw.
- The Punisher.
- And again with Spartans, most of the Spartans in 300. In fact, the narration makes a point of mentioning how badass they are. Repeatedly. It's not a Take Our Word For It, though; the narrator himself is one of the warriors.
- Venom and Carnage became popular among Spider-Man readers in the Dark Age, thanks to their Badass if not often outright psychopathic natures. Then came the even more insane marketing schemes.
- Marv (pictured above) from Sin City is a walking personification of the concept. He is a near invulnerable man who at various points in the story shrugs off multiple gunshot wounds (including one to the head), being hit by a speeding car three times in succession, taking a blow to the head from a sledgehammer, massive blood loss, all while mowing down countless fully armed enemies using only his fists and whatever he can find. Even taking a jolt via electric chair only prompts him to tell his executioners, "Is that the best you can do you pansies?"
- Of course, Sin City is rife with badasses. Let's not forget Dwight McCarthy, John Hartigan, Wallace, or deadly little Miho. Or Kevin and Manute for that matter.
- Even among other Sin City badasses, Marv is considered a badass' badass
- Basically every major male and most female characters ever written by Frank Miller.
- He made Robin cool, by turning him into her, and making her kick ass.
- Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is infamous for the bad-assedness young Scrooge pulls off. In "The Raider of Copper Hill", he fights off a small army of claim jumpers bare-handed. In "Terror of the Transvaal", after getting double-crossed and left in the African savanna by a young Flintheart Glomgold, he's so mad he cows several angry wild animals on his way back to civilization. And in "King of the Klondike", Scrooge goes into an Unstoppable Rage after unscrupulous businessman Soapy Slick kidnaps him, chains him up, tries to steal his claim, and to top off the Kick The Dog list, makes fun of Scrooge's late mother.
- Midnighter of The Authority. Add Captain America's origin to Batman's skill and throw in Punisher's attitude, then square the result.
- What's even more impressive is that, crazy as his fighting skills are, he doesn't even have to hit you to destroy you. At one point, he basically analyzed and demolished a super-soldier's psyche, forcing him to question his life and leave the fight a broken man.
- Various characters in Preacher, especially the Saint of Killers. The special sidestory "The Good Old Boys" parodies the idea with a character who's all tough talk but no actual worth.
- Parodied by Ruben Bolling; The Impossible Squad! All members are clench-jawed hard smokin' macho sergeants and almost all of them solve things with explosives.
- How the hell did we miss Batman? Probably the original Badass Normal of superhero comics, not only does he nightly take on the psychotic criminals of Gotham City, but he is and always has been a premiere member of the Justice League - with no superpowers - and unflinchingly enters battle with alien overlords, dimension-eating demons and cyborg mutants - again with no superpowers. He's on par with and widely respected by even the most godlike metas in DC's mythos, and he's managed this by simply by keeping his mental and physical fitness superbly honed, utmost dedication to his Mission, and sheer willpower...
- A Superman/Batman storyline that involved Batman getting Superman's power proved what everyone already knew— if Batman had super powers, everyone else would be obsolete.
- Batman's reputation is known even among aliens, as shown when the Sinestro Corps attemtpt to recruit him. Luckily, he managed to summarily scare the ring off before it could take him to be trained.
- This is because he is the goddamm BATMAN
- Ogami Itto of Lone Wolf and Cub is Japan's greatest badass, although there is a justification. As the former Executioner of the Shogun, he was expected to fight for the right to get such a cushy job, presumably besting every other swordsman in Japan for the right to be "the Shogun's right hand". Consequently, when he goes rogue, no man/woman/ninja hit squad can stand against him. At one point in the series he literally fights off an entire crowd of female assassins while being drugged unconscious. Despite this, the series is fantastic for trying to find new, creative ways for the bad guys to provide some challenge worthy of him. His enemies, acknowledging him as the greatest swordsman in Japan, will attempt to send, say, the greatest rifleman in Japan against him, or some such.
- Can't leave Rorschach off list. Might get upset.
- There is also Ozymandias, who effortlessly defeated aforementioned Rorschach and his ally Nite-Owl at the same time, and later caught a bullet with his bare hands.
- Jon Sable Freelance
- Manji, from Blade of the Immortal. But then, it's kinda hard NOT to be a badass when you're infected with a parasite that will reattach your limbs and rebuild organs in order to keep a viable host.
- Manji earned his reputation for killing a hundred men before his infestation. If anything, the parasites made him less of a threat, since he couldn't be bothered to fight as hard as he used to.
- King Mob of The Invisibles turned himself into his hero, Jerry Cornelius, becoming not only a successful writer and accomplished magician but a master assassin capable of killing people in every conceivable way including inside his mind.
- Nextwave counts too. Even the Butt Monkey managed to make the lord of a hellish dimension wish he was dead... Using the contents of a restroom. Starting at the toilet, and finishing with the toilet brush.
- Agent 355. She once won a fight with both arms broken, by ripping her opponent's throat out with her teeth.
- Deadpool, feebs! He's fought Wolverine to a standstill, and in one issue escaped from being crushed by a giant stuffed teddy bear by snapping both wrists and ankles while talking the whole time...even though talking was what was making the bear fall. He also fought The Incredible Hulk and managed to steal his blood. Also, in one of the Marvel Alternate Universes, he was commissioned to kill all mutants. At the end of the story, there were four left, and they were hiding from him in Japan. FOUR. I could go on forever on this one.
- DC Comics' Frankenstein eradicated two supernatural creature infestations, dismantled a slave ring on Mars, killed a humanoid living universe and destroyed an entire invasion fleet from a billion years in the future. All of this in a limited four-issue series.
- Did anyone read the JLA issue where, on one of the first pages, there is a full page splash of Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, before he Took A Level In Bad Ass, standing on top of a massive pile of prison escapees, in a super-prison, or at least maximum security, considering that all of the inmates were villains he and his team put there, with his uniform torn, his body beaten blood and blue, and yelling out the words (paraphrased) "Who the HELL stole my power ring?!" (That was a run-on and a half...) In other words, Kyle Rayner, an artist, took on an entire prison-full of people with a grudge against him, bare-handed and without his powers. I say that makes him pretty Bad Ass.
- How is Judge Dredd not on the list? The man has survived hardened criminals, robot attacks, assassination attempts, city-wide riots, multiple wars and planetary-level apocalyptic events.
- Victor Von Doom, when he's written right. During the Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness crossover, Doom was infected with The Virus. The same virus that made every other human being in the world infected with it instantly become completely, unapologetically evil and devour their friends and family. And he just willed himself to ignore it. Why? Because he's Doctor Goddamn Doom.
Fanfiction
Film
- Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction. Samuel L Jackson has been a badass for most of his career, of course. One good example is Formula51 (a.k.a The 51st State), in which he wears a kilt for most of the movie, hangs out with Robert Carlyle, and beats up skinheads with a golf club.
- Anton Chigurh, "the ultimate badass", from No Country For Old Men.
- The titular character of the Terminator movies.
- No mention of the franchise's original badass protagonist, Kyle Reese? For shame.
- Or Sarah Connor after her level-up.
- Darth Vader, of Star Wars.
- The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of his prequel alter-ego Anakin, but try to look on
the bright The Dark Side of it.
- The other Sith Lords of the series also qualify, with Darth Sidious, Count Dooku and in particular Darth Maul each having plenty of Badass moments.
- On the Jedi side, there's Mace Windu (Sam Jackson again), at least until Anakin takes off his hand. After that ... probably not.
- This troper strongly reccomends Matthew Stover's Shatterpoint to ease the pain. It's pretty much solid awesome from start to end.
- Oh, I read it, and yes, it is awesome.
- There is also Kyle Katarn, As displayed in Jedi Academy, Kyle would use grapple attacks on Jaden like putting him in a head lock then throwing, or holding him with one hand and punching him with the other. During a lightsaber duel.
-
Yoda, after Attack of the Clones. (see Narm)
- Narm, hell! Yoda kicked ass.
- You're listing Star Wars badasses, and Han "Shotfirst" Solo hasn't been mentioned. Shame on you, tropers. Shame. On. YOU.
- Heck, Star Wars has too many badasses to list. The most notable of which include Han, Vader, Lando, Luke, Chewbacca, and Boba Fett.
- Fett only became truly awesome due to the fans. In the movies, he has a pretty ignominious fate.
- Riddick, of The Chronicles Of Riddick and Pitch Black.
- Riddick is so Badass he can actually physically transform a fragile tin teacup into a weapon able to penetrate a human sternum.
- Xander Cage, of XXX. In fact, just about every action movie role played by The Rock or Vin Diesel.
- Beatrix Kiddo, a.k.a. Black Mamba, a.k.a. The Bride in Kill Bill.
- The odious Captain Vidal from Pan's Labyrinth. Despite being a total and unrelenting bastard, he leads from the front, never even flinches as his men are mowed down around him, beats at least one man to death with a wine bottle, fights off the effects of heavy sedatives, and, in one particularly painful-looking scene, stitches up his own face with a needle and thread.
- I actually disagree — Vidal is no more a badass than the shark from Jaws is a badass, or the titular Perfect Storm — the man is barely human, and would be more of a force of nature than a badass.
- Mercedes, on the other hand, qualifies; the sheer courage taken to stand in Vidal's presence knowing what he would do to her if he were to ever find out that she was a rebel proves she has more balls than a christmas tree. Not to mention her Crowning moment of Face Slashing Awesome where she uses a knife she had very wisely kept about her person at all times to escape imminent torture and then stabs Vidal more than a few times with it . . . though not quite enough, unfortunately.
- Doug Gordon, Captain of the Gotengo, from Godzilla: Final Wars: "Listen, kid, there are two things you don't know about Earth. One is me; the other is Godzilla." This, to an alien who's just destroyed human civilization. Then he comes up against two heavily-armed aliens with just a katana...and puts down the katana by sticking it into a stone pillar.
- We'd be lying if we didn't say Godzilla himself is badass, damn it.
- Vasquez, in Aliens.
- For that matter, most of the marines in the same film. ( With the notable exception of Lieutenant Gorman, the guy in charge.).
- Although he does redeem himself.
- Lieutenant Ellen Ripley throughout the entire Film/Alien series, but especially in the climactic fight in Aliens: "Get away from her, you [[bitch."
- How has Indiana Jones not been mentioned?
- Captain Barbossa in Pirates Of The Caribbean.
- Agreed. He was a true badass, whereas Jack was more of a lucky trickster. Of course, Elizabeth turned into a budding little badass too.
- As of Evil Dead 2, and even more so in Army Of Darkness, Bruce Campbell's character Ashley Williams is equal parts Badass and Jerkass. At one point, he replaces his left hand with a chainsaw. Note that these movies lead to an apparent Law of Story: If you replace the lead of a horror movie with a Bad Ass, it becomes an action movie.
- Sean Connery. Always. Exhibit A: James Bond. Exhibit B: The Rock. Exhibit C: The Untouchables. Exhibit D: The Wind and the Lion.
- Exception: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- Professor Henry Jones: I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky. EXCEPTION DENIED.
- On that note, James Bond.
- Chow Yun-Fat in just about any movie made by John Woo.
- Every single one of the Spartans in 300 fitted this, but in particular King Leonidas. Considering The Spartan Way was the real life training method used in Sparta of Ancient Greece, anybody who survived would have to have been a Bad Ass.
- Chev Chelios from Crank. The entire movie revolves around the fact that if he stops doing absolute feats of badassery for more than a few minutes, he will literally keel over dead from poison. Really, just Jason Statham in all his roles.
- Any character portrayed by, or based on, Bruce Lee (who was truly a badass in Real Life).
- Not so much the latter. Bruce Lee was very agile, but not as skilled a martial artist as the movies let on.
- River Tam turns badass in the Firefly movie Serenity. She also had some badass moments during the series as well, such as taking out three of Niska's men with her eyes closed during Mal's rescue in "War Stories".
- Heck, Mal, Book, and Zoe are pretty badass in that one as well. Ripping a torture device out of your chest shortly after dying and stabbing The Dragon of the villain with it? Badass defined.
- Not to mention The Operative, who fights both Mal and Inara to a standstill in the Companion Training Hall and gives Mal a hell of a fight on Mr. Universe's moon in the movie's final showdown.
- Jayne Cobb, "Shiny! Let's be bad guys!"
- Clint Eastwood in almost every movie he was in including and before Unforgiven.
- Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez's half of the Grindhouse double feature) takes the insane stunts aspect of Badass to the limit, especially in the characters of El Wray (especially when he fights his way through an army of The Infected with a pair of butterfly knives) and, later, Cherry Darling, who loses her leg to a zombie and has it replaced with various weapons, including an M-16 assault rifle with attached grenade launcher, and even a minigun!
- Hey, don't forget the three women in "Death Proof"! Especially the driver. They managed to turn the initial psychopathic badass into a snivelling grease stain on the highway. Hooray, ladies!
- Nearly everyone in Dog Soldiers, Spoon and Sarge especially. Spoon, for example, fistfights a werewolf - and almost wins.
- To hell with "almost", he is winning until a second werewolf shows up.
- By the same director as Dog Soldiers we have The Descent — this guy must like badasses, because again in this film almost everybody is one. If one considers that the ENTIRE CAST IS FEMALE, this becomes a wonderful thing — there really aren't enough women on this list. The story is: six extreme sportswomen go into a cave, and find themselves trapped when Juno reveals she lead them deliberately into an unexplored cave (read: Death Trap.) They soon realise that They Are Not Alone. It's fortunate then, that Juno is a raging, mother-frikking badass, who breaks all sorts of tropes by overpowering the people-eating humanoid cave monster that attacks her and killing it with an ice pick. She then goes on a rampage of destruction with so many Crowning Moments Of Awesome that it actually left this troper feeling sorry for the cannibals. She is matched only by Sarah, who after finding out her dead husband cheated on her and granting her best friend's request for I Cannot Self Terminate, primally kills the cave people in such charming manners as shoving her thumbs in through their eyes and biting out their throats. LEGENDARY.
- Right after the I Cannot Self Terminate, when a crawler is literally on top of Sarah without knowing she's there and her face remains completely emotionless, it's actually a little freaky in it's badassery. Normal people don't behave like that! Of course, she is crazy.
- Besides the obvious two, This Troper would like to nominate Sam, who didn't do much in the way of Bad Ass for most of the film, but went out hanging from the ceiling, climbing onto a fighting crawler's back in midair and stabbing its ass off the cave roof, all with her fucking throat slashed.
- Because Neil Marshall doesn't just like his badasses, he loves them, Doomsday. Bloody Doomsday. The movie itself and damn near everyone in it. Have you SEEN this car chase? It's insane.
- Minor league compared to some of these others, but Mel Gibson's character, the titular Maverick in the 1994 film, steps up to several moments of badassery. Near the beginning of the film, he's approached by several aggressive men with melee weapons: he responds by handing his coat and gun-belt, gun included, to a bystander. He then requests to be shot if it looks like he's losing on the grounds that he wouldn't deserve to live if he lets incompetents like them defeat him. Of course he wins.
- That's because the whole fight was staged - he paid them to lose beforehand. Badass averted.
- Badass reclaimed with his scary quickdraw skills in the poker game later.
- It's interesting to note that the original Maverick TV series was meant as an inversion of the westerns of the time; the Maverick boys were skilled at poker and good brawlers, but were not particularly fast guns. They relied more on guile than on muscle. The movie remained more or less true to this ideal.
- Toshiro Mifune in most of his films, especially when he plays Ronin characters. Subverted in Rashomon.
- Even the shoe company executive he plays in Tengoku to jigoku (AKA High and Low) is a badass. When colleagues try to persuade him that they should make cheap, fashionable shoes, he responds by tearing up their shoddy sample with his bare hands.
- The masterful and quiet Kyuuzo, from the movie Seven Samurai. In his first scene he coolly cuts down an arrogant challenger with a single sword stroke. He also, at one point, volunteers to steal a gun from the bandits during the night, and comes back the next morning unharmed and successful, although a little tired. As his starry-eyed admirer Katsushiro said, "It was like he had just gone on a picnic!"
- John McClane, from the Die Hard movies. In fact, most of Bruce Willis's roles qualify. John McClane has in fact gotten more and more badass with each film, going from "Everyman in extreme situations triumphs against improbable odds" to "middle-aged-man power fantasy."
- In the movie Shoot 'Em Up, in which Clive Owen's character, Mr. Smith, kills hundreds of people while skydiving, having sex, and delivering a woman's baby (although not all at the same time). Oh, and eating carrots, too.
- And he also kills people with carrots.
- Who can forget most of Jean Reno roles in films? He is usually portrayed as a high profile mercenary with just over-the-top competence.
- In his french-language movies he's most often a cop; still utterly Badass, though.
- The character of Zatoichi, played by Shintaro Katsu in 26 films and 100 television episodes, certainly qualifies. Not only is he a fantastically skilled swordsman, he's also blind. About once a movie they have some spectacular set-piece in order to show just how very badass he is. For example, from the very first film of the series: Zatoichi, kneeling on the floor, reaches up and takes a lit candle from a stand. He balances it in his hand for a moment, tosses it up in the air, then whips out his sword and resheathes it in an instant. The candle falls to the floor. It's been cut in half lengthwise. The wick in both halves is still burning.
- The newer iteration, played by Takeshi Kitano, is also nine kinds of awesome.
- Aragorn and Boromir from Lord Of The Rings: The latter was so tough he actually managed to get hit by 4-6 annoying arrows by the end of the first movie and still had enough strength to pretty much single-handedly take out an entire division of Uruk-Hai, while the former managed to hold off wave after wave of Uruk-Hai near the end of the second film.
- Annoying arrows? From Boromir's expression, the very first hit alone was lethal. He just decided not to die yet.
- This troper made Boromir a bigger Badass when playing battle for middle earth: he was the only man on the ground defending the walls of Gondor from endless onslaughts of uruk hai. He had archer support on the wall, but even so, this was the man who all the enemy attacks focused on. He carried on fighting after being hit by a stray shot form a trebuchet from his own side. Later, Boromir gained two groups of defensive spearmen, and those units dealt literally 'hundreds' of enemies. Oh, and not one of them ever died.
- El Mariachi from the titular film, Desperado and Once Upon A Time In Mexico is one of the best examples of such.
- Another example is Agent Sands from the third movie, who develops a Disability Superpower after getting his eyes gouged out by Dr. Guevara, proceeding to take out no fewer than five people, including his ex Ajedrez.
- Charles Bronson was a badass even in old age. In his later movies (Death Wish 4 for example) even though Bronson was in his 60s or 70s, he still manages to defeat bad guys half his age. In Real Life, he was mining coal at the age of ten.
- Snake Plissken from Escape From New York & LA
- Ricky from The Story of Ricky (aka Riki-Oh, aka Lik Wong), takes this to ludicrous levels for live action. There are really too many things to mention, but how about the time he is being tortured by the bad guys? They fill his mouth with razorblades, tape up his mouth and then beat him round the head. Then, when they take the tape off, he says nothing, merely spits the razorblades into his questioners face. He is also, strangely for the trope, a genuine, kind-hearted hero.
- Some bad guys are pretty Bad Ass too, even though they get their asses handed to them by Ricky; of particular note is Oscar, who, after realizing just how outclassed he is, slashes open his gut, grabs his intestines and tries to strangle Ricky with them.
- Bill "The Butcher" Cutting from Gangs of New York may very well be this trope incarnate. The reason he has a glass eye is because in a brutal battle against his rival and fellow Bad Ass Priest Vallon, he couldn't look him in the eye while the Priest gave what Bill called "the finest beating he ever took". In order to compensate, he cut out the eye that looked away and sent it to Vallon in wrapping paper. What's more at one point he gets shot in a theater, then proceeds to torture the man who did it (and takes his vest as a souvenir).
- Every character with a name in the film Hero... Until the end. Lame.
- Sam Gerard in U. S. Marshalls. Say what you will, a man bold enough to wear chicken suit in public is badass.
- John Rambo is a classical example of a one man army getting more badass with every movie of the series.
- Quite a bit of the main cast from 28 Days Later. Selena in particular is better off here than among Badass Normal characters, as the only ones who are anything other than normal are psychotically infected pseudo-zombies. Major West is just a big, angry male Mama Bear.
- Buddy from Six String Samurai.
- Burt Gummer from the various Tremors movies.
- Tony "You fuck with me, YOU FUCKIN' WITH THE BEST!" Montana.
- Though Tony Stark needs a suit of Bad Ass to do his feats of physical Bad Ass-ness, the fact that he's able to construct a suit powered by a miniaturized reactor that thirty years of research hasn't been able to shrink down, using science and engineering that a fully equipped team of engineers in a state of the art laboratory all agree ''does not exist yet'' in a CAVE, with a box of SCRAPS, pretty much defines how much of a complete Bad Ass he is.
- Tony Jaa. Seriously.
- Hannibal Lecter. Supergenius Wicked Cultured Affably Evil Magnifient and Manipulative Bastard Heroic Sociopath . . . the list just never ends!
- Pretty much everyone in Wanted, but definitely the best examples belong to the most unassuming of the cast - Wesley Gibson, played by James McAvoy ("What the f*** have you done with your life?"), and Sloan, played by Morgan Freeman.
- Yulaw, from "The One". He travels through dimensions killing alternate versions of himself in order to become more powerful.
- Scott the cameraman from Quarantine killed one of the Infected [who had already taken down a cop and a firemen without trouble] that jumped out unexpectedly near him - using the camera. Apart from this, he was solid as a rock all through the movie, handling the situation in general far calmer than anyone else in the building. Also Angela, for realising what the government was doing "quarantining," the residents and continuously heading towards the danger in order to get footage as evidence of what was really happening.
- The titular character of Ip Man. Bruce Lee's master, mind.
- Preston, the main character of Equilibrium, fits this in spades. His entire fighting style is designed around the premise that if you pull off cool enough poses while pulling the triggers of two pistols, you can clear rooms full of opponents armed with assault rifles without even suffering a scratch. His badass level is such that, in one scene, he uses this style (the famed Gun Kata) to kill a dozen men in the defense of a puppy dog he rescued earlier.
- Tran from Tropic Thunder. He is only a child, and yet he runs a large drug compound, has a cool tatoo all over his chest, can take Jack Black tackling him head on, and can expertly wield an RPG (not that kind) that is a third taller than him.
- Marshal Rooster Cogburn from True Grit western is known as the meanest guy around, shooting bad guys just like that. "Most people around here have heard of Rooster Cogburn, and some people live to regret it". Bonus points: Eyepatch Of Power.
- Frank Martin of The Transporter series.
- "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection. The man chases an el train in a car.
- Bud White, played by Russell Crowe, in L.A. Confidential. At one point, he's confronted with a snarky lawyer who refuses to give him the information he wants. "Don't pull that 'good cop, bad cop' crap; I practically invented it", quips the lawyer. Bud's response? Throw him out the window.
- No mention of Sulu from the new Star Trek? The man has a retractable katana, knows martial arts as well as fencing and can use them in tandem, oh, and he can quite competently fly a starship.
Literature
- Sent up in Terry Pratchett's The Truth, where one of the villains carries a wallet which says "Not A Very Nice Person At All." That said, Vimes is a badass.
- And don't forget Genghiz Cohen. Cohen the Barbarian. A very, very old barbarian. Think about how one manages to become a very old barbarian when you're a Barbarian Hero 24/7.
- The town of Badass on the other hand is anything but.
- It's Granny Weatherwax's hometown, what do you mean she's not Bad Ass?
- Granny Weatherwax could give lessons in being badass. After a few months of living with her, a kitten took down Nanny Ogg's lecherous cat Greebo, a serious badass in his own right.
- How much of a badass is Greebo, you ask? He doesn't just molest female cats (although a lot of it may be consensual) he goes after wolves and at least one she-bear. He's also killed two vampires at current date. The generally accepted wisdom by the people in the series is that it would take a direct meteorite strike just to slow him down.
- Many of Pratchett's characters count. Death's granddaughter Susan for one. Tiffany Aching for another. She took on the entire Fairy realm with a frying pan at the age of nine. And the Feegles, too. They got kicked out of the netherworld for being too rowdy. Even Rincewind is a Badass coward. Whereas his Luggage is just straightforward Badass.
- You forgot Lord Vetinari, arguably the most badass of them all. A Magnificent Bastard Xanatos Gambit wielding BADASS.
- And Darktan, a talking rat who, after getting caught in a trap and getting so close to dying that he saw the Grim Squeaker, promptly pulled himself back together and got down to some serious being the leader and giving inspirational speeches. In which he smeared blood from his open wounds on the foreheads of his underlings. And he, in conjunction with fellow badass rodent Hamnpork, also managed to take out a terrier much larger than him... with a Groin Attack.
- Kirsty from the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, though she generally only gets to use this against people who keep pointing their guns after Johnny's done talking to them.
- Many characters from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, especially Raven, as described in the page-quote above. Representing the defense in Tell vs Show, I thought I'd elaborate: Raven is a giant Aleut. His weapon of choice is a glass knife with an edge a single molecule wide. He has a hydrogen bomb in his motorcycle's sidecar, rigged to go off the moment it stops receiving Raven's vitals. Oh, and he has a tattoo on his forehead: POOR IMPULSE CONTROL.
- Not mentioned above: he can hurl spears cut from bamboo through bulletproof vests.
- And don't forget that he surfed from Russia to the Alaskan Aleut Islands in his handmade one-man sea kayak, not the part of Russia you can see from Alaska either.
- Conan, from the various Conan The Barbarian publications and movies, is one the oldest and most well-known badasses in modern American culture. In addition to serving as the inspiration of many other badass characters (including Sin City's Marv and Korgoth of Barbaria, who is an obvious parody of Conan), the original stories by Robert E. Howard also make a point of demonstrating formidable cunning alongside near-indestructability and the strength to kill absolutely anything he encounters. This is true about every one of Howard's heroes.
- Pick an ancient hero from mythology. Any ancient hero:
- Gilgamesh. And Enkidu, for that matter. Not just bad asses — the first recorded bad asses ever.
- Beowulf tore Grendel's arm off with his bare hands, and later wields a sword made by (and for) the giants. And then he broke the sword by swinging it too hard. If we believe his boasting, he also swam for five days in chainmail and carrying a sword, and killed nine sea monsters during the last night.
- Samson from the "Tanakh" (the Old Testament, to Jews) is one of the greatest examples of a true Badass. He was an angry, unstoppable man who over the course of his life had performed such feats as pulling apart an enraged lion with his bare hands, killing an entire army with a donkey's jawbone, and tearing down an entire building after having his eyes gouged out.
- Incidentally, and as the name suggests, Brock Samson from "The Venture Brothers" is based off of Samson.
- David is pretty badass, too. Sure he killed Goliath, but he also killed Goliath's giant brothers, and got his start as a shepherd... who killed lions and bears on a day to day basis. Later on, before he became the King of Israel after Saul's death, the Israelites sang his praises saying that he had "slain his ten thousands."
- And he's got a Special Operations unit of sorts, called "David's Mighty Men," each of which are definitely badasses. Leading the Thirty were the Three, who each had done individual badass things (like killing 300 men in a single battle) but gained the most fame from breaking through the Philistine lines just to get David some water from his father's well. The Thirty had some stand-outs, like Benaiah, who is casually described as having slain a lion in a pit on a snowy day, and killing two "lion-like" heroes of Moab, and a seven and a half foot tall Egyptian, disarmed and then killed with his own weapon.
- And let's not forget that Benaiah was also the personal hitman of Solomon, David's son, and, according to Jewish tradition, the greatest king of all time. Just reading Kings, it seems every chapter has Solomon sending Benaiah out to cap some enemy or other.
- Benaiah, equipped with a bottle of wine, a piece of wool, and a magic ring, single-handedly captured Asmodeus, the king of the demons, so Solomon could put him to work building the Temple.
- Cuchulainn, the Irish mythological hero/pimp is an all around Badass. Some of his feats defy logic and he has examples of an Unstoppable Rage that are Older Than Dirt. Seen 300? Where the 300 guys fight millions of guys, and they lose? When Cuchulainn did that sort of thing, he won. And he didn't have 299 guys behind him. That was all Cuchulainn, baby.
- The above troper forgot to mention that in his death throes, he tied hiself to a rock to remain upright, and his enemies refused to believe he was dead until a bird landed on him.
- And before Cuchulainn, there was Fionn mac Cumhaill. Ireland's version of King Arthur, complete with his own band of Bad Asses, the Fianna.
- Coming in from China, the Eight Immortals who, according to legend, founded a kung fu style had a number of stories about how Bad Ass they were. For example, one got so drunk that he passed out and got mauled by a tiger for a while before waking up and punching the tiger to death.
- Hercules from Greece is tough enough that the gods kick him off Argo because the epic adventure of the age apparently wouldn't be challenging enough for him. Instead he goes off to perform his Twelve Labors, during which he kills an invulnerable monster, holds up the sky for a while, frees Prometheus, steals the guard dog from Hades, and even mucks out some stables...by redirecting the course of a river.
- Roland Deschain, of Stephen King's The Dark Tower novels. In the events before the first novel, Roland shot and killed every man, woman and child in Tull, while they were trying to kill him. 58-1 odds should qualify. And he only shows himself to be more so as the series progresses. Of course, the ka-tet he gathers starts to work their way to his level as well...
- Another Roland, from the Older Than Print epic poem, The Song of Roland, is certainly a Bad Ass. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass is a testament to this, as Roland and the other legendary Twelve Peers (considered the greatest warriors of their time) led an army of 20,000 men against an ambush of 100,000-150,000 men. While the other warriors hesitated against this onslaught, Roland showed absolutely no fear or hesitation, even refusing help for the sake of battle and honor. He does eventually call for assistance, not in the expectation of rescue, but hoping that the others will bury their dead bodies and take revenge. In the end, through sheer badassery, Roland manages to be victorious, but unfortunately, he is mortally wounded in the process. Thus, after bludgeoning a thief to death for trying to steal his legendary sword, Roland dies holding his sword and his olifant.
- Túrin Turambar from The Silmarillion was the greatest Badass human ever seen by man. Even though he's just a Badass Normal compared with the elves, he was so goddamn powerful he single-handedly managed to slay Glaurung the dragon, when not even an entire army could do the job!
- Considering that his father Hurin's last battle involved holding off an entire army so his allies could escape, fighting until his axe melted in his hands, and then continuing to fight until buried under the bodies of his enemies, it's pretty clear that in Middle Earth badassery is genetic.
- It certainly is: Turin's cousin Tuor organised the resistance to the Siege of Gondolin, the escape tunnel through rock "like to forged steel", hurled a traitor from the walls, and killed a bunch of Balrogs (they were all over the place, like flies). For Karmic compensation for his Badassitude, he not only bedded an elf but became one himself. Yes, he was so Badass he leveled himself up an entire species.
- Just about all of the Elven High kings were incredibly badass. They are so strong that they're only killed By Gothmog, Sauron, or, in one case, Morgoth himself.
- In addition Ecthelion, the person who killed Gothmog was also quite badass. After getting both of his arms disabled while fighting he procedes to leap at Gothmog (the Lord of the Balrogs) and stab him through the chest with the spike that was on his helm. This is after having fought non stop for hours against orcs, trolls, dragons, and even other Balrogs.
- Speaking of Balrog-slayers, there's also Glorfindel who fought and killed one at the cost of his own life. Then, after resurrecting in the Undying Lands, as elves are wont to do, decided he wasn't done being a Bad Ass yet and hopping a boat and sailed back over to Middle Earth where he amused himself making the Nazgul flee from him in terror.
- This troper would like to propose the oft-overlooked Mirkwood Elves. Without the aid of a Ring of Power, they still managed to defend their realm against the forces of Sauron for centuries.
- Finrod Felagund, who broke the chains binding him and killed a werewolf with his bare hands.
- How could we get this far without mentioning Huan? This legendary hound was big enough for an elven princess to ride, and was subjected to a prophecy where the strongest werewolf ever born would be the end of him. and let's not forget his feats. Walking into Sauron's land, he killed several werewolves before Sauron sent out a werewolf specifically bred to fight Huan. Huan killed it, then Sauron himself came out. Yes, THAT Sauron, Big Bad of Lord of the Rings. Huan beat him too. The same evil that the heroes of LOTR tried to keep from achieving full power. Huan eventually met his end when the father of all werewolves swallowed a silmaril and killed him. Yes he didn't die until he was killed by a werewolf who was in mortal pain from the very light of the trees. Badass indeed.
- An honorable mention goes to Bullroarer Took, an ancestor of Bilbo Baggins who was able to ride a warhorse (he was a hobbit, who're normally half the size of the average human). He won a battle against an army of goblins by decapitating their cheif. With a club. An invented the game of golf at the same time when it landed in a rabbit warren.
- Karsa Orlong from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book Of The Fallen, a giant barbarian warrior, is immensely Badass, beating the shit out of pretty much everyone and everything he faces, almost without breaking a sweat. In House Of Chains, he holds his own against Icarium, a feared warrior whose rage has destroyed entire civilizations, and slays not one but two of the dreaded Deragoth, the ancient Hounds of Darkness.
- Another Badass character from Malazan Book Of The Fallen is Anomander Rake, who battles against terrible demons and entire cadres of enemy High Mages. In Memories Of Ice, Rake singlehandedly takes on a horde of three hundred thousand (300,000) Tenescowri warriors (although, to be fair to the Tenescowri, Rake flies, so they can't really fight back).
- Molly Millions, of William Gibson's Sprawl series. A female badass armed with implanted razorblades beneath her fingernails.
- Richard Cypher in The Sword Of Truth books two, four and especially six. He rips out an enemy's spine out trough the poor man's stomach. While inflicted with the Plague. And severely wounded. And when the enemy was using the series' titular Magical Sword.
- And then there's Chase, a man who, despite no magical ability, more than holds his own in every situation he's thrust into. Before the series, his day job included fighting off demonic hell hounds from the underworld.
- There's Grettir, the strongest man Iceland (and probably the world) has ever seen, who killed not one, but two GHOSTS, one of which was the height of a small house. Before that, his sheer badassery impressed numerous kings around europe. After he was killed in a mix of incredibly heavy poisoning, arson and tens of people raiding a cottage he was staying in, his brother sailed all the way to Istanbul just to avenge him.
- Second in is Guðlaugur Ormstunga, a man who chopped a guy in half length-wise and walked up to the king of Norway with a heavy case of parasites bleeding from his leg, just to prove he's that badass.
- Let's not forget Mark E Rodgers's Samurai Cat, Miaowara Tomokato. 'What a stud!'.
- Two Words: Sandor Clegane.
- Bernard Cornwell's historical novels always feature a badass as the lead character. The most famous of these is Richard Sharpe, who once disarmed a master swordsman by impaling himself on the other guy's blade. And then hacked him apart.
- Come on, how can you guys forget Lan Mandragoran from 'The Wheelof Time' series? He's not only got the long hair and horrible background of most bad asses, but he is also a blade master who teaches the main character of the entire series to wield a blade.
- That's hardly what's so badass about him. It's the fact that he somehow manages to both be bigger and meaner and more bitter than Rand Al'Thor, even when the latter toughs it on fighting the hordes of darkness through excruciating pain and in the face of the inevitable fate of having to die to save the world. Hell, Lan even manages to get one of the shrewy Aes Sedai somewhat under control and marries her, and for the Wheel of Time setting that's saying something. Even in the prologue novel to the series he mentions how it's "impossible for one man to defeat six in a straight fight", and then goes on to do just that.
- Then there's Rand's childhood friends Mat and Perrin, one of which is a Badass Lovable Rogue Simple Staff ''Master'', the other of which is a Badass Blacksmith who is somewhat bone hard. And then there's Logain, and most everyone of the Warders... In fact, the Wheel of Time world seems pretty thick with badasses. Somehow though, they seem repressed at times, and often find themselves under many a verbal barrage from the Aes Sedai. This might have something to do with the latter being the sole highest authority and users of magic in the lands though, a fact that has foreseeable social and political repercussions...
- Felix, from John Steakey's "Armour". A man who 1: Is the only survivor of a mission on a bug world where he (in scout rather than standard armor) drops an atomic (involuntary) suicide bomber into the bug base, 2: Is therefore listed as dead, and is accidentally sent on every single mission, and 3: Survives them all. A reasonable level of badass if anything is.
- If this troper remembers correctly, the reason he's such a Bad Ass is because whenever he gets shoved into a combat situation, which is all the time, he is bladder-clenchingly afraid to die — so he doesn't. Which kind of makes him a Bad Ass who is Cursed With Awesome.
- Thomas Covenant, anyone? Convinced that he's hallucinating the magical world just before his death, he gives himself the title The Unbeliever. He then proceeds to, whether by destiny, luck, or epic rage, pretty much destroy everything dumb enough to stand in his way.
- There are a lot of badasses in The Land - like the Giants, who are basically gentle poets and utterly loveable people who believe that laughter is more important than life in some ways, but who can become unstoppable killing machines when pressed. The Bloodguard are basically a collection of the most badass members of a badass tribe, who have effectively ceased to age and no longer need sleep because of their oath to serve the Lords. But this troper has long since decided that Lord Mhoram is the most badass individual in the entire universe (and certainly the most loveable character in the entire series), as while he's easily one of the most perceptive, sensitive, and understanding people Covenant ever meets - and considers himself utterly unworthy of the responsibility that has been thrust on him - he still manages to completely defeat a demon-possessed evil magic wielding giant more or less single handed by sheer willpower.
- Martin the Warrior and his more popular chosen ones, particularly Matthias and Mariel. Sure, what they do should by all rights be impossible, but they do it in a way that looks plausible to at least the twelve-year-old target audience and still manage to be cute and furry while they do it. See the Battleblade Dance. The Badger Lords are less cute, but even more Badass (at least, much more logically so).
- On the subject of cute, fuzzy badasses, we have Bigwig and General Woundwort. Not to mention Blackavar, who became one of the most competent fighters in Hazel's group even though Woundwort had imprisoned him and ripped his ears off.
- Reepicheep from The Chronicles Of Narnia.
- In his Mistborn series, Brandon Sanderson has plenty of badasses to go around in the form of Mistborn (and now you know the reasoning behind the title of the series). The Mistborn's feats include defeating a Dragon that no one ever had before, downing a purported god, taking out cadres of soldiers trained specifically to fight them, and slaughtering or mentally dominating troops of inhuman beasts.
- Socrates, as written by his disciple, Plato. Sure, the guy probably couldn't throw a punch to save his life, but getting into an argument with him was like a chimp getting into the ring with King Kong.
- Couldn't throw a punch, nothing. The man was an Athenian war hero. He fought alongside Spartans and acquitted himself well. Brains, brawn, and eloquence, in one betogaed package.
- Caine from Matthew Stover's Heroes Die and sequels is one of Overworld's deadliest assassins. Stover writes him more realistically than most badasses, pointing out that he's not the best fighter, he has plenty of weaknesses, is far from invincible, and a lot of the shit that goes on around him is either out of his league or impractical to solve just by beating it into submission. Despite that, he routinely manages to pull off stunts that would put Beowulf to shame. He continues doing this even after the injuries he receives at the end of the first book leave him partially crippled.
- The Badass Bookworm from the novel Red Storm Rising, USAF Lt. Michael Edwards. Goes from being a weatherman at the main USAF base in Iceland, whose only claim to marital fame is being a marathon runner, to killing multiple hardcore Badass Soviet paratroopers with just a combat knife. Not to mention marching half-way around Iceland with the island crawling with Soviet goons, including several "Hind" helicopters, while keeping NATO informed of the situation in Iceland.
- What, you can mention Tom Clancy and not mention John Clark/John Kelly? Read almsot any book with im in it, particularly Without Remorse.
- Richard Seaton from Doc Smith's Skylark series. His handgun fires tactical nukes. Plus, he designed a spaceship 1000 kilometers in diameter in 8 hours. (Badass architecture!)
- Logen Ninefingers in The First Law trilogy. They sing songs about how he mixes his enemies blood with his beer.
- Druss. The. Fucking. Legend. Here is a man whose wife was kidnapped while Druss was nothing but a large and gruff farmer. In response, Druss took up the axe and carved his way through two continents to get said wife back. Which he did. Then he accidentally broke the jaw of his nation's Olympic-equivalent fighting champion, who was over 10 years younger than him, took his place and proceeded to kick the shit out of absolutely everyone he fought. Then he fought his way through a desert and a metric fuckton of enemies from two different armies. Then he helps another badass defeat an evil monastery containing one of the deadliest swordsmen who've ever lived. Then, when he should be seriously considering dying of old age, he participates in the largest siege in the history of his nation. And it takes over 10,000 Nadir to kill him. Bad. Fucking. Ass.
- And then there's Skilgannon the Damned...
- In fact, most characters written by David Gemmell. The above two are particularly noteworthy, but many of the Rigante, not to mention Waylander and Jon Shannow, are also very much acceptable.
- Mara Jade.
- While her badassery starts to diminish after she becomes a mother, the moments she gets are what gained her this troper's undying respect.
- A very old example. Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey. This is a man who 'defeats' the witch Circe by having sex with her (no, seriously). A man who goes to Hades (hell) itself, talks to the ghosts of his mother and many of his friends and then comes back to the land of the living. A man who, after 20 years away, kills 108 men, all in their prime, who are in his house and trying to steal his wife. He also did a hell of a lot of other things, including coming up with the legendary Trojan Horse. Not bad for a character from a 3000 year old story.
Live Action TV
- The Unit. But, on a team of badass Special Forces operators, Sergeant Major
David Palmer Jonas Blane is the biggest and baddest of them all.
- Jack Bauer of 24.
- Tony Almeida and Bill Buchanan deserved to be mentioned as well.
- As does Aaron Pierce.
- Vaughan Rice of Ultraviolet
- Mr. Chapel from Vengeance Unlimited certainly qualifies: He will do anything and everything (except use guns) to give the bad guy his.
- The WWE's Stone Cold Steve Austin beat his boss up, poured beer on him, filled his prize Corvette with mixed concrete, and pulled various other stunts, with no lasting ill-effect on his career prospects, despite attempts at George Jetson Job Security. He would also beat up teams of four, five, or more wrestlers on a weekly basis. His template has since been followed by many other top faces (though with considerably less success).
- Tendou Souji from Kamen Rider Kabuto, who frequently displays confidence beyond the point of arrogance; to be fair, this rather unappealing trait is the reason his Zecter (henshin device) picked him as Kabuto in the first place.
- Most of the past 3 decades of Kamen Rider protagonists fit this mold, especially the original, Hongo Takeshi, the precursor to Tendou Kamen Rider Stronger, and the titular character of Kamen Rider Hibiki.
- Probably the biggest badass out of any of Shotaro Ishinomori's works, however, is Ken Hayakawa, of Kaisetsu Zubat.
- A non-warrior example from the new series of Doctor Who, Mr. Saxon, the Master, cheerfully gasses a dozen or so key governmental figures, makes fun of the US President before having him vaporised, and then dances to a pop song as he ends the world, all the while being a rather Magnificent Bastard.
- Then again... considering that the Ninth Doctor was able to make Daleks RETREAT when he yells at them,and possibly wiped out HIS ENTIRE RACE in the Great Time War to end said war, and also wears that battered leather jacket with the very, very short (if any) hair, I'd personally surrender as fast as I can if I found myself facing him.
- Bad Ass essentially sums up every role Christopher Eccleston has ever played.
- In the episode "Forest Of The Dead", the Tenth Doctor reminds the advancing Vashta Nerada (shadow predators who can render victims Stripped To The Bone in a matter of milliseconds) that they're in the largest library in the universe, then tells them to look up "The Doctor". They do. Then they immediately back off.
- Ace once beat the crap out of a Dalek with a baseball bat. That is all.
- On Alias, anyone whose last name is Bristow or Derevko.
- Also on Alias, Anna Espinoza, Kelly Peyton, and Renee Rienne
- On Chuck, Agent John Casey is badass to the point of hilarity.
- Future!Hiro, HRG, Niki's alter ego Jessica, Sylar, and Claire in Heroes.
- Buffy Summers, Faith Lehane and Kendra Young on Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
- Bad Ass is the second half of any Slayer's job description, right after "slaying vampires".
- Mal, Zoe and Jayne on Firefly, as well as River during the big damn rescue in "War Stories." Shepherd Book takes on extra points as, unlike the others, he doesn't shoot to kill.
- Weevil on Veronica Mars. For the first season, at least. This culminates in the second season, where he kills the guy who stole his biker gang by tasering him and taping the drugs he was carrying to the underside of the guy's bike, knowing that when he reported back to the crime family who owns the drugs that they would search the bike and "deal" with him - thereby leaving him in the clear.
- While they might look young, cute and vulnerable and act like slightly pansyish woobies, you do not want to mess with Supernatural's Sam and Dean. Just ask Meg (still exorcised back to hell by Dean even after she told him their father was still alive), Gordon (beheaded with barbed wire by Sam after he took a bite out of Dean) or the Crossroads Demon (shot in the head with a bullet from The Colt by Sam after she told him there was no way of saving Dean).
- And that's just when Sam has his big brother around. When Dean is killed off by the Trickster (he gets better, for a while) in season 3 Sam shuts down emotionally and becomes even more badass than normal and we are treated to a montage that culminates in him cutting off his shirt, removing a bullet from his abdomen and stitching himself back up, alone, without drugs, in a seedy motel room. This troper is a little worried about what Sam will do in Season 4 to rescue his brother from hell.
- Most of the characters have had their moments on Lost, but Mr. Eko and Sayid are badasses pretty much all the time.
- Mikhail "Patchy" Bakunin from the third season of Lost. He is zapped by the sonar fence, only to come back a few episodes later. In the finale, he is shot in the chest with a harpoon gun, then comes back to life minutes later, only to die while blowing open an underwater window with a grenade.
- Teal'c. That is all.
- Ronon Dex is the Stargate Atlantis equivalent of Teal'c, and just as badass, if not more.
- About as badass, maybe. Not more.
- But he's hotter, so maybe that evens it up.
- It does not. He is the Man
- Let's not forget Bratac, still kicking ass at over 130 years of age.
- Dr. House from House and Dr. Cox from Scrubs are as badass as doctors can get.
- Titus Pullo, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Lucius Vorenus, from Rome. Two great examples are how they casually kill all the brigands who stole the eagle in the pilot "The Stolen Eagle," and how Pullo killed or maimed half the roughnecks in a gambling den and then survived brutal ancient Roman brain surgery. Then of course there's the episode where the two of them kill an entire rabble of gladiators. And let's not forget the sequence where Pullo and his gang confront a rival gang. The rival gang leader calls for parley. Pullo apparently accepts, taking the man's hand. Then he pulls him towards him and bites the man's tongue out before throwing an axe into someone's chest and charging whilst screaming. He later relates the story of him doing this in the manner of someone telling an afterdinner anecdote.
- Cameron, and to a lesser extent, Derek Reese.
- And to a greater extent, Sarah Connor.
- Hawkins of Jericho, who once frightened a man into giving up information by pretending he was going to be inflicting torture that would somehow involve Drano and knees.
- Surprisingly, Olive Snook turned out to be Pushing Daisies' resident Badass. Surprising, because she's also The Ditz, usually manic, and less than five feet tall.
- Michael in Burn Notice. Sure, he can kill you with one of his eyebrows. But he can also manipulate you into fashioning the noose around your own neck.
- Pretty much the entire cast of the UK drama Spooks, but in particular Harry Pearce, Roz Myers and Lucas North, qualify as badass. If only they didn't have a tendency to get killed off so much.
- Ace Rimmer... what a guy.
- Elliot, Christian Kane's character in Leverage. The man held off three goons and a guy attacking him with meat cleavers using a saucepan, a whisk, and HORS D'OUEVRES! If that is not Bad Ass, I don't know what is!
- Tyr Anasazi in 'Andromeda'.
- How have we gone this far without recognising the badass that is Gene Hunt?
- Leroy. Jethro. Gibbs.
- Worf from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He got a badass uprade during the series, from defeating many Klingon Warriors all with a mek'leth in 'Way of the Warrior', to 'Call to Arms' where he faced 20 Jem'Hadar (who are also Badass Super Soldiers) in a consecuitive match, and killed them all until he was too tired and injured to even stand, much less fight. The First even said "I cannot beat this man, I can merely kill him."
- Star Trek should not be mentioned on this page without mentioning Captain James T. Kirk. The man was hardcore.
- Fonzie from Happy Days was the probably the closest thing you could get to Badass in a 1970's show imitating the 1950's. But still, he won every fight he was in, and always had a girl on each arm.
Tabletop Games
- About every sentient being from the Warhammer 40000 universe. We got ridiculously ballsy Imperial Guard, the Power Armoured Space Marines, the Sisters of Battle, the demonically-enhanced forces of Chaos, the war-loving Orks, the ninja space elf Eldar, the battlesuited gunslinging Tau, the unkillable beyond-ancient robot Necron and the various other factions. One can say that just about every combat personnel, as well as some non-combat personnel from the universe is pretty badass.
- But not least Inquisitor Eisenhorn Who while being "questioned" not only bites off his interrogators lip off WITH HIS TEETH he also manages to make sexual innuendos about his female siblings. He then proceeds to kill him, his employers, three uber beasts, and a chaos space marine. in just the first of three books too!
- The Cadian Kasrkin deserve a special mention. Basically, these are lightly augmented humans, not wearing power armour or equipped with very powerful weapons, but they, unlike most Imperial citizens, aren't intimated by an Inquisitor, aren't afraid of full on body tackling a ticked off Daemon and fight it even if they know it's going to kill them.
- The original, fantasy Warhammer has it's fair share, as well. The Army Book for each faction featured a supposedly, but not always, Bad Ass quote on the back cover. The Skaven, of all armies, actually gained the most Badass of them all with just two words. Kill, kill!
- Radha, Heir to Keld from Magic The Gathering. "Run home, cur. I've already taken your master's head. Don't make me thrash you with it."
- Sadly somewhat undercut by her actual card representation, though. That said, badasses of all persuasions aren't hard to come by in the Magic multiverse.
- In Exalted, there is actually a badassery stat - Conviction. The example given in the 2nd edition core book states that someone with Conviction 5 (maximum possible for most people) would be capable of enduring a century of horrible torment, and unflinchingly inflict the same upon others.
- This troper is under the belief that Conviction is actually the Determinator stat. Essence is the closest thing to a Badass stat, given that it often adds automatic successes to rolls and suchlike.
- In 7th Sea there is Roary Finnegan, founder of the drunken bare-knuckled boxing school that bears his name. The GM secrets on him in the Avalon sourcebook say it best: "Roary has no secrets. He really can kick anyone's butt."
- Scion, which is {{Exalted's}} spiritual cousin, also seems to be of the mind that the players should be laughably Badass. By the end of Hero (low level), player characters can hit enemies with cars. By the end of Demigod (Mid leve), they can hit them with houses. By the end of God, it is permitted in system for a character to hit an enemy with a mountain. In fact, This Troper is a little confused why the system hasn't put out damage numbers for things like Nuclear Weapons and Hydroelectric Dams.
- While most P Cs in Dungeons And Dragons qualify (especially Martial characters in 4th edition), the cake has to go to the Valenar elves of Eberron, who are better. As in, "sociopathic Klingon rider of Rohan vietcong vikings with scimitars" better. When a massive war broke out, not only did they sieze themselves a small nation, but one group accepted mercenary service to Cyre by killing a Karrnathi general, then sending his skull to the Cyran queen with "We accept" engraved on it in Elven.
- The most badass PC I've ever been graced to be the DM of, managed to kill the ruler of The Empire with a single arrow. To make that even more badass, he did it from a mile away. Through A foot of steel. On a natural 12.
Videogames
Webcomics
- Well... when we first met him, he had a few sharp moves but a long way to go... and while he's had his moments, he might not be there quite yet... but Gilgamesh Wulfenbach is certainly starting to aim in this direction. Might get it from his dad.
- Still aiming?! The bullet's already on its way!
- Not that we should forget Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!), of course. Or the Jaegerkin. Heck, the whole dang series is crawling with these guys, up to and including the heroine, Agatha. Oh yeah, and there's a guy who can douse hell-raising fury in an instant... with pie.
- There is even a badassNANNY. Who wears black leather.
- Oh, she's no nanny ... she's a killing machine whom Klaus Wulfenbach repurposed into a babysitter. Threaten her kids and she will rip you to shreds.
- Kevyn from Schlock Mercenary kills shielded tanks and shoots down warships from time to time with antimatter grenades. That he wears on his shoulders. And explosives are "Just a hobby."
- Take a look at what the paladin O-Chul does in This Order Of The Stick strip and tell me that he's not badass. This is apparently a regular occurrance for him, and yes, that is an acid-breathing shark. Based on the number of attacks/round he gets in a strip, he is at least level 16, a higher level than at least one of the P Cs. Word of God claims he has a constitution score in the mid 20s, when most characters would be lucky to get their primary stats into the low 20s without falling into Crippling Over Specialization .
- The titular character of Dr McNinja, who took out evil Ronald McDonald with a mime ninja rocket launcher, punched out a giant crazed lumberjack, captured and now rides a trained velociraptor, beat up Death himself, and recently punched Dracula in the face.
- Luna from Dominic Deegan spelled it out pretty literally, after foiling a mafia boss trying to move in and run the place: Go ahead...look at it. Admire it. Fear it. I am a bad ass woman.
- Miranda Deegan is an archmage with a nigh-infinite knowledge of arcane magic; Donovan Deegan is an awesome musician and master swordsman; Dominic, of course, has incredible intellect, an amazing ability to think several steps ahead, and has never thrown a single punch throughout the length of the comic; hell, the Deegan family is turning into a Badass Family... And Luna is marrying in to the family!
- Misfile. While angels Rumisiel and Vashiel both have their moments, the real Bad Ass is the human Kamikaze Kate. She just is that scary, even when she isn't possessed by the vengeance seeking spirit of her dead sister. Hell, especially when she isn't.
- Black Hat Man from xkcd. Especially in this comic.
- Bun-Bun and Riff from Sluggy Freelance often take on this role, as do Torg and Zoe on occasion.
- The MS Paint Adventures series Problem Sleuth has the titular hard-boiled detective, who is unique from his teammates in that he does all of his own asskicking throughout the story instead of creating replicas of himself. His fighting technique, "Sleuth Diplomacy" basically runs on the Badassery of the character. This is the guy who saves the entire imaginary world and defeats the Final Boss DMK once and for all through sheer virtue of his charisma alone. He's pretty much the series' version of Kamina.
Web Original
- A Survival Of The Fittest example would be Bryan Calvert. Perhaps his best moment is when he dropkicks an attacker off a roof. Shotgun toting, agressive and incredibly blunt, Calvert is not somebody to be messed with. (And god forbid if you ever harm his girlfriend...)
- Mecha Sonic, the Big Bad of Super Mario Bros Z, definitely qualifies as this, especially in Episode 6 where he singlehandedly gives the Mario crew, the Axem Rangers and the Koopa Bros one of the most epic fights of the series so far.
- Agent Washington became badass around the time he took down a Hornet solo in less than a minute. Nothing he has done since then has changed this, only added to it. Notable points are taking on the Meta with a chain gun and everything he does from episode 15 onward.
- LessThanThree Comics has two examples. One: The Shadow, a teenager who fights crime on the streets of LA. His natural healing factor allows for such badass stunts as diving through the windshield of an oncoming car, forcing it to crash, and sending himself and the driver 20 feet through the air, and then standing back up to threaten the driver with more grievous bodily harm. Two: Firestorm, the Brat Pack's Lancer, during a fight with Gauss, one of the <3-Verse's top villains, found his body trapped in an oxygenless environment. He cut himself open, and used the oxygen in his blood to melt through his bindings, before throwing a fireball at Gauss. All to prove he was ten times the hero his dad was. No mean feat, considering his dad was a 'Nam vet, and was a founding member of the <3-Verse's Avengers equivalent. Not to mention his alter ego, the Pumpkin King, who teams up with the Shadow on a regular basis.
Western Animation
- Aeon Flux
- Brock Sampson from The Venture Brothers is the epitome of brutality and machismo. Over the course of the show, he is seen maintaining a vicious death-grip on a man while being shot with at least 20 tranquilizer darts and run over by a van, killing two men with his rectum, and tearing out a man's eyeballs and making him dance like a marionette with his optic nerves (these are only a few instances).
- All while protecting charges that he'd rather throw off a cliff.
Brock Samson: Now, Hank, touch your throat. That tube you feel is your trachea. Think of it as your handle. That thing your thumb is on is your carotid artery. Think of it as your button. I want you to grab the handle, push the button. Can you repeat that, Hank?
Hank Venture: [gasping] Grab the handle, push the button.
Brock Samson: Let go of your own throat, Hank.
- The main character from Korgoth Of Barbaria, Korgoth, is an almost stereotypical example of a badass.
- There's a pretty good number of badass Transformers:
- Pretty much anyone from Beast Wars at some point, including Dinobot and Depth Charge pretty much constantly.
- The Dinobots from G1, especially in the comics. They're vicious, savage, completely out of control, and on the side of the good guys.
- The 2007 Live Action Adaptation is pretty much built on robot badassery.
- Megatron in Animated can beat all of the Autobots single-handedly and is one of the few version of the character to actually punish Starscream for his betrayal.
- In the same vein, Animated Optimus Prime is pretty badass too. He fights this Megatron solo, which takes ball bearings in itself, and once entered an Autobot ship that had been captured and rescued all four captured Elite Guard bots, beating five Decepticons, all of which were combat-ready and willing. He also spends his free time being one of Detroit's superheroes and the leader of the other four heroes.
- Toph Bei Fong, the ass kicking, rock throwing, boulder smashing, smack talking metalbender from Avatar The Last Airbender certainly counts.
- As does Iroh, especially after breaking out of his prison cell. There's also Piandao, even though he's only been in one episode (in fact it's All There In The Manual that he beat 100 soldiers in a battle by himself).
- As of the Grand Finale, Aang, especially in the Avatar State, and even more so when we consider that he didn't even kill his opponent, definitely qualifies.
- Bumi, Jeong Jeong, and Pakku. 'Nuff said.
- The Blue Spirit.
- How about Azula, Sokka, Katara, Mai, Suki, Ozai and... screw it, let's just say pretty much the whole cast has a least one badass moment?
- Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda. Nowhere is that more true than when he escapes his prison: 1000 guards, giant crossbows, a holding cell a mile underground and personal restraints specifically designed to neutralize his kung fu abilities; the warders didn't have a chance.
- Quite a few characters in Justice League, but Aquaman deserves special mention...Yes, we just called Aquaman badass. Yes, we mean that dude who swims fast and talks to fish... look, the guy took out two tanks with his bare hands, okay?
- And hands can only be plural in his first appearance - he cuts off his own hand to escape a trap in order to save his child. The replacement is a hook... that can actually be launched.
- The Question, in the same show, once tried to kill Luthor with his tie, and, while in a hospital bed, defeated a government supersoldier using a bedpan.
- Green Arrow as well. With the Bat Embargo, Green Arrow filled the teams roll of Badass Normal quite well.
- Of course, anyone not expecting moment upon momment of Badassery in Justice League Unlimited with the opening scene of Green Arrow beating up robbers and talking smack to Green Lantern (homage to the Green Lantern Green Arrow comics?) they only had to wait five minutes for the revamped, Rock Opera theme song, which disabused that notion in spades.
- Hawkgirl ("Less Talking, More Hitting") and her Big Honking Mace.
- Correction: Anyone who ever made an appearance in Justice League Unlimited is badass beyond belief.
- Darkwolf the prehistoric Batman with an big axe from Fire And Ice.
- Samurai Jack
- All the main characters of Teen Titans fit this trope at one point or another, but the creators paid special attention to making Robin as Bad Ass as possible, to the point where he hits the bad guys just as hard as his superpowered comrades.
- And Slade trounces them all in Badassitude. How badass is he? He's voiced by Ron Perlman; he's that badass.
- The Swat Kats
Other
- Segata Sanshiro was a ridiculously badass martial artist created to be the Sega Saturn's mascot in Japanese commercials. He kicked people's asses for having social lives instead of being hardcore gamers, including an instance where he took out an entire nightclub for the aforementioned reason. Other feats of badassery include turning a Soccer net on its side rather than stopping the incoming ball, dropping his baseball bat in a batting cage in favor of kicking the ball, throwing a man with such force that he exploded upon hitting the ground, and making children cry by revealing that he's the one hiding behind a Santa Claus mask. When the Sega Saturn stepped down to make way for the Dreamcast, Sanshiro went out with a bang - literally. He redirected a missile with his bare hands, rode it into space, and died in a glorious explosion while shouting his catchphrase: "Sega Saturn... SHIROOOOOOO!" (You must play Sega Saturn!)
- He was also played by the man who portrayed the original Kamen Rider who, as previously mentioned, was a total badass.
Real Life
- These people.
- Theodore Roosevelt's life was pretty much a nonstop tale of badassery. One event that particularly stands out is an assassination attempt made in 1912, when he was shot in the chest by a deranged saloonkeeper. Instead of going to the hospital he proceeded to give a 90-minute speech at a political rally. Oh, yes, and when he wasn't doing that president thing he was a martial-arts master known for challenging visitors to the White House to a friendly judo bout.
- Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper who racked up five hundred and forty-two kills during the Winter War, without using a scope, and another two hundred kills with a Suomi submachinegun. How big of a badass was he? He was fighting the Soviet army in the dead of winter and they nicknamed him "White Death".
- You know you've earned a reputation for badassery among the enemy when they start calling in artillery strikes on you and you alone.
- Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. One of the first two people to set foot on the top of Mt. Everest. He spent his whole life climbing and anything he didn't know about climbing wouldn't have been worth knowing. Even Sherpas think he was a badass climber. That is pretty badass.
- Thomas Cochrane, 10th earl of Dundonald. Kicked off his career (as a British naval officer in the Napoleonic era) by capturing a spanish frigate six times the size of his own vessel (the doctor gets an honorable mention: He steered the ship) he then went on to shut down the coastal trade on the southern coast of france, put together the archtypical fire ship attack at the Aix Roads, and (after switching to the navy of Chile) led 240 men to liberate the entire nation of Peru. As a full admiral in his 70s he applied for a command during the Crimean War but was turned down because the british government were afraid he'd sail to St Petersburg and conquer Russia. Just about every fictional captain from then on, from Horatio Hornblower to James T. Kirk, owes something to him.
- Richard Sharpe (Bernard Cornwell's Napoleonic-era hero) is one of the most badass men ever written. When he shared a book with Cochrane, he was simply and effortlessly out-badassed. That's how badass Cochrane was.
- Fighting Jack Churchill. Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill was an English soldier who served in WWII armed with a bow, arrows and a claymore (the huge sword, not the explosive).
- Discounting his role in the Watergate scandal, G. Gordon Liddy stayed quite busy being a badass. When he was a kid he was afraid of lightning, so one day he "killed the fear" by climbing a tree during a severe thunderstorm. Later in life he became known for an interesting parlor trick involving his arm and a lighter; a movie re-enactment can be seen here. (starts at 1:30).
- Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira. Quoth wikipedia: "He was run over by a truck when he was nine, and fell into a coma for 25 days. During this time he lost a rib and part of his liver and had to be hospitalized for eleven months. As a result of the accident he has a large scar, including a noticeable indentation, on his lower back." Went to to become an MMA champion with a 31-4-1 record. Hell, a bunch of MMA fighters could qualify.
- Wilaim Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke. A man of legendary badassery, he was charging into battle at the front of armies, killing fully-armored knights well into his seventies. When men spoke of mighty warriors in the 12th and 13th centuries, they simply had to say "THE Marshall" and everyone knew who they were talking about.
- Alexis Goggins. Saved her mom by taking six bullets from the estranged boyfriend. Including a couple to the head. Said hi to the Grim Reaper, then told him she still had some s*** to do. Was in grade one at the time. You go, girl.
- Cracked's List of 5 Real Life Soldiers Who Make Rambo Look Like a Pussy.
- Pavlov's House. Twenty-odd soviet soldiers held out behind enemy lines for longer than any country other than the Soviet Union. They only left the building in between nazi attacks to remove enemy dead, refusing the nazis cover.
- Many types of animals are badass:
- Elephants
- Bears
- Sharks
- Dinosaurs
- Honey badgers.
- Tigers
- Wolves
- Wolverines
- The Signal Crayfish. It takes twenty-four hours in a bucket of concentrated crayfish poison to kill one.
- Barry, the four-feet-long polychaete worm with jaws tough enough to eat coral and the strength to break a 20-pound fishing line. When they tried to catch it with hooked bait? She swallowed the hooks. Not to mention she's so poisonous, just touching her renders you numb for life.
- Honda Tadakatsu, the mightiest general of the Tokugawa clan. Amongst his achievements is that he has been around since the era of Okehazama to Sekigahara, accompanying Ieyasu in about 55 battles, and NEVER get wounded from it. He is so Badass that he is considered Ieyasu's luxury and Ieyasu would've bitten the dust very quickly if it wasn't for Tadakatsu. He also possesses a Badass spear named Tombogiri, a spear so sharp that a dragonfly would get cut in two if it passes by the spear's blade... while he's not even swinging it.
- When German state police spectaculary failed to end a hostage situation during the 1972 olympic games in munich, German federal police responded by creating its first counter-terrorism unit. Four years later, their very first mission was a hostage situation in a plane on an african airport (which is often considered as one of the most dangerous and dificult situations). They shot all four hijackers with only one officer and one hostage wounded. In the next 30 years and over 1,500 missions they had to fire their weapons only four more times.
- When they first competed in a SWAT-unit championship in 2005, they won all eight contests in a row.
- In 2005, german federal police Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS) was renamed to Bundespolizei. Gruppe 9 (unit 9) was the only one badass enough to keep its old designation.
- Audie Murphy, a highly decorated American soldier who served in the European Theater during World War II. Among other things, he earned the Medal of Honor. We'll let the Citation for his Medal of Honor speak for his actions:
- Second Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by six tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to a prepared position in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, one of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire, which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machine gun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from three sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad that was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued his single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way back to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack, which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective.
- In the 60's, he was addicted to the insomnia medication Placidyl to treat his PTSD. When he realized his addiction, he locked himself in a motel room for a week and suffered withdrawal symptoms, quitting cold turkey.
- While we're on the subject of the Second World War, Otto Skorzeny deserves mention as well. His service record alone should speak for himself, with many a Crowning Momentof Awesome, but among his crowning moments was saving Benito Mussolini, who was under heavily armed watch, without firing a single shot.
- Cassius Clay. No, not the boxer later known as Mohammed Ali. The original Cassius Clay was a 19th century Southern aristocrat and landowner who abhorred slavery with burning hatred - a concept hard to swallow in itself. His badassness aside from fervently defending a cause all his peers detested was manifested in his survival of an assassination attempt in 1843, where he was shot point blank during a speech, after which he proceeded to cut off the attacker's ear, nose and eye off with his Bowie knife - the knife's scabbard had saved his life. When he had reached the age of 92, three men broke into his home with intent to rob and kill him - only one of the assailants survived to tell the tale, and Clay died peacefully a year later.
- Scottish baggage handler John Smeaton. In June of 2007, when Al-Queida attacked Glasgow airport, this civilian responded by attacking the terrorist (whose body was mostly on fire) WITH HIS BARE HANDS (okay, he kicked the guy a lot too.), cussing him out according to Wikipedia. Then, later in a television interview, he publicly threatened Al-Queida if they ever returned to Scotland. By the way, the terrorist died from his burns and injuries.
- An inconspicuous little white mushroom with the formal name of Amanita bisporigera is considered one of the most toxic mushrooms in the world and responsible for more mushroom poisoning deaths than any other. Even half a small cap has enough amanitoxin to kill a healthy, adult human if not treated. Making it worse, symptoms don't appear for 12-24 hours after you've eaten it, by which time it's likely too late for treatment. It will destroy your liver and kidney function, cause vomiting and cramps, delirium and convulsions with death in a few days. It's called the Destroying Angel, possibly the most Bad Ass name for any living organism, and completely descriptive.
|
|
◊" (yes, all UPPERCASE) as a synonym of "badassitude", particularly when the badasses in question are Hot Blooded. Using this may bring you accusations of being mentally inferior in some circles. The meme originates on (where else?) Four Chan, where a poster declaring himself to be gay for Archer from Fate Stay Night mistyped it as "gar".
Subtropes include:
