troperville

tools

toys

Wiki Headlines
Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
SubpagesLaconic
Main
Quotes

main index

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

TV Tropes Org
random
Badass Boast

"If you think that's enough to kill me, you really don't know what a Slayer is. Trust me when I say you're gonna find out."
Buffy Summers, "The I in Team"

Many characters like to boast about their achievements, but only a few can gasconade in style, rattling off a string of titles and battle honours that impresses allies and intimidates enemies in a way which makes them sound mythic, not conceited.

The character has got to be pretty badass to be able to make this kind of boast convincingly, though sometimes a weaker character will bluff like this. It helps when he is obviously in a situation where he may be called on to demonstrate; if not, he may insist that he can show you at once, to prevent his appearing a Miles Gloriosus. The usual subversion is for something to promptly undercut the boaster's pretensions. The Combat Pragmatist in particular is given to unceremoniously cutting off boasters in the middle of their speech with a punch to the face. A Large Ham is particularly given to these.

Self-granted titles are considerably less impressive than those bestowed by awestruck allies, while titles of grudging respect from the character's enemies rank highest of all, all else being equal. Naturally, more powerful beings count for more, when ranking titles or battle honours.

The smarter heroes and villains may use riddling talk when describing their accomplishments.

A Badass Boast can be used in a few different ways.

This dates back to Gilgamesh, making it Older than Dirt.

See also Pre-Asskicking One-Liner, I Have Many Names, I Am The Noun (which frequently is a component of these), and "World of Cardboard" Speech. If your boast is really your oft repeated credo that explains who you are to yourself, then it is your Badass Creed. If the things you're boasting about are things that happened on-screen earlier in the story, the trope is Remember When You Blew Up A Sun?. A Badass Boast often happens either during or immediately before a Crowning Moment Of Awesome. May conclude with the observation that some one person has to be the one to attack him first.

Compare Blasphemous Boast, Famed in Story, The Munchausen. Blasé Boast is when this dresses up as But for Me, It Was Tuesday. Contrast Despair Speech.

Not to be confused with Badass Boats.

Examples have been divided into their own pages!


Actually, I Am HimI Am An IndexI Am A Monster
Attack Pattern AlphaWord PowerBlasé Boast
Badass BlinkBadassMy Name Is Inigo Montoya
Awesome EgoThese Tropes Love To BragBecoming the Boast
Badass BlinkAdded Alliterative AppealBadass Bookworm
Badass BaritoneSandbox/Badass TropesBadass Cape

alternative title(s): Badass Boasts
random
12385
0