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Gordon Freeman, Ph.D, demonstrates here the practical applications of an MIT doctorate in theoretical physics. And a crowbar.This character is a quiet smart guy who is physically unimposing, naive, and softspoken, but with hidden depths of formidable physical and practical skills that no one except perhaps his closest friends suspect exist.
Typically, s/he is in an All Of The Other Reindeer and/or The So Called Coward situation where most everyone around the character sneers at the bookworm's unusually innovative ideas and his quietly thoughtful nature. To them, they are proof that the character is a muddle-headed egghead who is no match for them, so killing him and his friends to further their plans should be a snap.
However, the villains soon learn to their sorrow how gravely they've underestimated the character as he wipes the floor with them. For instance, especially in fantasy settings, the bookworm reveals that his "all A's education" extends into combat skills like swordsmanship and archery. Coupled with the proper motivation such as The Power Of Friendship, he becomes a living buzzsaw when forced to fight and often has additional training in strategy and tactics that would make Hannibal proud. Even worse, he could know arcane fighting techniques like nerve strikes that can reduce the biggest bruiser into a fetal position of pain with one touch. In modern settings, they usually are ridiculously accurate with handguns, sometimes noting that working on electronics takes really steady hands.
Furthermore, his unusual ideas turn out to be brilliant weapons and/or tactics that make him all but invincible.
In short, he may be an "egghead", but it's his enemies who certainly get egg in their faces.
Note this is a different trope from the typical Secret Identity superhero like early Peter Spider Man Parker as no one suspects the nerd to be the superhero.
Closely related to, and overlaps with, the Genius Bruiser. In general, a Badass Bookworm looks like your standard geek, but then displays a surprising amount of physical prowess, whereas a Genius Bruiser looks huge and powerfully muscled, then unexpectedly shows off an intellectual side.
May overlap with Hot Librarian. If the "egghead" seems sufficiently divorced from reality, it may lead to a Crouching Moron Hidden Badass. Strangely, it rarely overlaps with The Chessmaster or other similar archetypes where being a bookworm allows them to be badass. Also compare the Adventurer Archaeologist — a bookworm in polite academic company and a badass for the other 99% of the plot. There may be so many Badass Bookworms because they lend themselves to being a Mary Sue for the typical writer. If they prefer not to fight, doing so only when they must, they are a Crouching Scholar Hidden Badass.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Tintin of all people. He's young, rather scrawny man, but he's rarely ever bested in a straight fight.
- The version of Reed Richards in Ultimate Fantastic Four. His stretch powers were regarded as the suckiest of the four — right up to the point where he decided to pitch in anyway. Cue Doctor Doom getting thrown into scenery, Annihilus getting shot in the mouth (with his own gun!), and Diablo getting his Supervillain Lair blown up.
- The original Reed Richards at times possesses this to some extent as well.
- Some extent is an understatement. He punched out Blaastar and Klaw, beat Doom in a one on one time travel duel, killed a couple of dinosaurs... He's done his bit for the cause of badassery.
- Haven't you heard, though? Reed Richards Is Useless!
- Gina Diggers, in Gold Digger, recently discovered this after being the 'fish' in jail. She totally forgot that she's been, you know, hanging around superheroes without dying. It tends to work out muscles. She also has one heck of a right hook, and can do the math to know EXACTLY how much it will hurt. Ancient Gina, her "future me from the past" is even more powerful, being capable of creating an entire planet.
- Barbara Gordon in the DC Universe is one. Even when she was Batgirl, she was a bookworm who was physically unimposing and underestimated. Now as Oracle, she's in a wheelchair and still capable of kicking the ass of various muggers, five Men In Black and the elite secret agent Spysmasher on different occasions. In addition to being a master strategist with a photographic memory, unmatched computer skills and genius-level intellect, of course.
- Coincidentally, about half the Bat-family can seem to be this at times. Yeah, Batman's a Bad Ass and all, but what makes him dangerous when there are guys like Superman around is that he has figured out ways to incapacitate or kill pretty much everyone on Earth who's more than human, disable the tech of those who are normal except for super-smarts AND can beat the hell out of 99/100 of every non-powered, non-gadget-reliant costumed freak left.
- As with Batman, so too is Black Panther, with the advantage of Wakanda being more technologically advanced than either the US or Japan. To rather ridiculous levels, actually, but that doesn't stop Black Panther from being the kind of bookworm who will get back up when you shoot him.
- From the X-Men we have Sage, who explicitly has Awesome By Analysis as her superpower. Combine this with a strong Action Girl streak and you have a badass who will beat you up while explaining what you are doing wrong.
- Ozymandias, the smartest man alive in the Watchmen universe, can catch bullets. Yeah.
- Also the second Nite Owl, who aside from being smart enough to build his own crimefighting weapons, is effectively a comic book geek living out a childhood fantasy.
- Peter Parker. Science nerd. Photographer. Spider Man. Once punched Wolverine through an unbreakable plate glass window to fall to the street fifteen stories below when he was mad. Bad Ass.
- The JSA's Mr. Terrific is the third smartest man on the planet. He has a knack for having knacks. He also has an Olympic gold medal and six black belts.
- Amadeus Cho in the Marvel Universe is the epitome of this trope. When he isn't making SHIELD look like a bunch of fools with his mad hacking skills, he manages to take down foes with pebbles because of his understanding of physics and angles. HE isn't called the seventh smartest person on the planet for nothing.
- Tony Stark, the titular Iron Man.
- Tim Drake, third Robin. In a very Batman-like vein, he devotes his free time to developing electronic gadgets for crime-fighting purposes, when he's not actively trying to clone his dead friends back to life. He's been established as being way less agile than Dick Grayson, and Batgirl can wipe the floor with him (a single time when he managed to beat her is largely considered Dis Continuity, for too many reasons), but he's still pretty awesome and can beat Killer Croc while having the flu.
- Barry Ween, Boy Genius.
- Bruce Banner is the Badass Bookworm you wouldn't want to make angry! Perhaps not 100% applicable because the Hulk is a different personality, but overall they're the same person, and can certainly scrap any of the others.
Film
- The 2001 French movie Brotherhood Of The Wolf starts with a pairing of Gr'goire de Fronsac, a 18th century french royal taxydermist/scientist, and his companion Mani, an American Indian warrior/medicine man. After the torture and murder of his brother the mellow, charming scientist transforms into a double-sword wielding, war-painted killing machine on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge.
- Abe Sapien's hobbies include classical music, reading, swimming in demon-infested waters, and kicking trolls in the face. Sure, he doesn't look like much of a badass compared to his partner, but his partner is Hellboy.
- Indiana Jones. When he's not fighting Nazis and retrieving lost artifacts from booby-trapped temples, Indy earns a paycheck as a respected professor of archaeology.
- This troper maintains Mr. Universe from Serenity is an example of this. Come on, he gets stabbed through the stomach with a sword then drags himself across the room to record the day-saving message before he dies.
- Will Smith's character in I Am Legend. A brilliant research scientist who also kicks zombie ass. Handwaved by the fact he's also a Marine Lieutenant Colonel.
- Jijii from Ichi The Killer. A little old Chessmaster, Jijii manipulates the underworld from the shadows until he's confronted by a Yakuza enforcer, forcing him to whip off his clothes to reveal his impossibly muscular frame, then break every bone in an enforcer's body.
- Ling Ling Fat in Forbidden City Cop. A member of the Emperor's personal guard due to family heritage, LLF is actually an inventor and practicing gynecologist by trade, but in the end he uses his cunning and remarkable inventions to outfight the villains.
- Max, the villainous Side Kick in Broken Arrow, does very well against the Action Girl before he explains his badassness and attempts a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner while drawing a gun, sealing his fate.
- How come Andy Dufresne hasn't appeared yet on this list? He is a shrewd financial advisor, has geology as his main hobby, acts as a teacher to an inmate, helps improve the local library, exposes Warden Norton's frauds and escapes from the prison withthe help of a small hammer, a piece of rope and a plastic bag. Through a sewer pipe. With Norton's money.
- Let alone nearly managing to fight off three of the hardest lags in the prison during a rape attempt.
- Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight is a hotshot district attorney. When a witness pulls a gun on him, he casually disarms him, dismantles the gun, identifies its make and model, makes a clever quip, and continues his questions.
- "But your honour, I'm not done."
- Buckaroo Banzai: adventurer, surgeon, scientist, rock star.
- Jessica Martin in Cellular. She's a normal high school biology teacher who is kidnapped along with her son, and held captive inside the attic of a house that's located in the middle of nowhere. Still, she manages to make a completely destroyed phone work, which is the whole driving point of the movie, and then kills one of her kidnappers before he can rape her by cutting his brachial artery in one slice with a piece of broken glass, and even explains to him that he's about to die and apologizes before storming off.
- Donatello of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a geek who loves to invent stuff. He is also a stealthy ninja.
- Jack Ryan from The Hunt For Red October. He knows tons of naval minutiae. He is not intimidated by senior officers. He can solve a world crises. He can guess the moves of a renegade Russian sub captain with almost telepathic intuition. He can even jump out of a heliocopter into the freezing North Atlantic. And after all this he remembers to bring his daughter a teddy bear when he returns home.
- Doc Brown in Back To The Future 3 comes to Marty's rescue with what looks to be an improvised Sniper Rifle, and boasts to be able to shoot a fly off a horse's tail.
Literature
- Gandalf in Lord Of The Rings. Of course he is a wizard you know...
- Prince/Shah Raschid in the Fangs Of K'aath book series. He is a quiet scholar whom everyone thinks is a brainy wimp compared to his sociopathic brother, Abbas. However, with his wily girlfriend helping with practical matters of command, he displays his formidable combat, command and diplomatic skills guided by his good nature that make him a triumphant and inspirational commander of whole armies deeply impressed enough into absolute loyalty to him.
- C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower who becomes a great Nelsonian seadog by his mathematical ability and his research skills.
- He also fights countless battles hand-to-hand, steals enemy ships by night, swashbuckles with the best, and duels a sadistic ship-mate who is so disturbed that he scares all others crapless.
- In the Discworld book Night Watch, a young Havelock Vetinari is bullied by his schoolmates in the Assassins' Guild for reading books with some interesting ideas about camouflage. Also chastised by one of his teachers for not being being seen in any of his camouflage classes. He attended them religiously. Later vindicated when he manages to avoid the fate of the assassin who took the contract before him: the aptly named Sir John Bleedwell.
- Susan Sto Helit, Death's granddaughter, certainly qualifies, following her initial appearance as an Agent Scully who just wanted to be normal. During her tenure as a Magical Nanny in Hogfather, she managed to turn a poker into a magical artifact, thanks to using it to pummel bogeymen: "It only kills monsters." Thus, now there's a good chance any bogeyman she meets will know her, recognize her, and fear her. In Thief of Time, she becomes something like a sarcastic, Goth version of Miss Frizzle, and shows a bit of a violent streak (mainly directed towards the Auditors of Reality).
- The Librarian who, among other things, kept Adora Belle Dearheart from smoking in his Library, making him the only person to ever stop her from lighting up. This could be because of his transformation into an 300lb orangutan.
- Vimes's butler Willikins is... a butler. Polite, fat and well shined, versed on matters of social graces and household affairs, he was a member of one of the toughest street gangs as a child (the "Shamlegger Street Rude Boys"), became a sergeant in the army in his 40s (where he was an exceptional and exceptionally violent fighter, biting the nose off one of the enemy in hand-to-hand combat) and has killed fully armed and armored dwarven assassins with an ice-cutting knife, hanging one of them on a meat hook (he later equipped himself with a pair of cleavers, which he handled with "rather worrying efficiency"). Due to his fighting abilities, he is also a member of the Specials, a auxiliary police force. See the books Jingo and Thud.
- To be fair, it's been stated a few times throughout the Discworld novels that anybody who grew up in the streets of Ankh-Morpork and survived to adulthood has a far greater battle knowledge than the average soldier. Even Rincewind, who is able to wield a half-brick in a sock with alarming efficiency.
- Lord Asriel from His Dark Materials has a bit of this, on top of being a morally ambiguous Magnificent Bastard. He ends up taking on Metatron, the Regent of the Authority, and hurling him into the abyss between the worlds, even after Metatron whacks him so well that Asriel's skull fractures and starts sliding around inside his head.
- And Mrs. Coulter, one of the few female Scholars in all of Oxford (In A World where gender equality is approximately early Victorian, if not earlier), an explorer of the Arctic circle, author of at least one respected travelogue, inventor of a device capable of severing soul from body... in short, a Psychopathic Vamp Bookworm who eventually helps kill God's Regent.
- Kirsty from the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy. In addition to having an I.Q. of 165, she's won a regional tournament in shooting and knows karate. The people who underestimate her tend to do so for a very short time.
- Hari Seldon in the first Foundation prequel. Turns out his entire homeworld knows kung fu.
- Adele Mundy in David Drake's Republic Of Cinnabar novels is a research librarian who is an expert shot with a pistol. "The Sissies were proud of their Signals Officer: the lady who'd as soon shoot you as look at you, who knew everything, and who never missed...."
- However, apart from her incredible composure in combat and Improbable Aiming Skills, she's fairly useless in physical situations. She's been known to fall down while firing if her footing isn't stable, and the fastest way for her to get around in a spaceship in zero-gravity is to be carried around by another crewmember.
- She still never misses, even in free fall, even if rotating in free fall from her previous shot. With firm footing on land, "She cleaned out this enclosure," Hogg said, wonder in his voice. "She did it. Tovera said she just walked in and shot them all."
- Harold Lauder from The Stand probably qualifies, although it's somewhat subverted in that years of being bullied, ignored, and rejected leave him bitter to the point of using his considerable skills and intelligence for evil rather than good.
- Sherlock Holmes: Brilliant detective, violinist and black belt. In one famous story, "The Speckled Band," the villain comes to the detective's home and attempts to intimidate in part by bending a solid metal poker with his bare hands, but after Sherlock casually waves him off, the detective chats with Dr. Watson while he casually straightens the poker with his bare hands.
- There's also the incident in "The Solitary Cyclist" in which the subject of Holmes' investigation takes physical exception to being investigated and gets taken home in a cart for his trouble, while Holmes himself comes out of the fight with a single superficial injury.
- Don't forget "Hound of the Baskervilles" where he outruns Watson and Lestrade when he goes hunt the hound and save Sir Henry. Lampshaded by Watson, who says he's a good runner but saw Holmes run as nobody else had done in front of him.
- And then there's Lord Peter Wimsey. Also extremely clever, he looks like an effete aristocrat (in Murder Must Advertise he's described as "Bertie Wooster in horn-rims"). He's slightly built, and only 5'9" tall... but he was also a highly decorated World War One veteran, judo-trained and capable of holding off large beefy antagonists on several occasions. And also a champion cricket player.
- Isaac Dan Der Grimnebulin, in Perdido Street Station — while he is supposedly just a rogue scientist, he holds off an attack by the corrupt government's trained militia, and faces off against monsters so scary that demons are afraid of them.
- Three of Doc Savage's five sidekicks qualify for Badass Bookworm: Elegant legal eagle "Ham" Brooks. The sickly looking, undersized "Long Tom" Roberts. And of course Professor "Johnny" Littlejohn with his monocle.
- Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter novels turns into this. Muggle-born and initially pegged as a useless know-it-all even by the other two-thirds of the Golden Trio, she eventually demonstrates that all her studying makes her a powerful witch and not to be trifled with.
- Hermione truly came into her own in the last book; where, lets face it, absolutely nothing would have gotten done if it hadn't been for her know-it-all hyper-organised super-preparation and CONSTANT VIGILANCE. (And a Mary Poppins bag, of course.)
- Atticus Finch of To Kill A Mockingbird sort of follows this. He's one of the smartest people in the town, the most successful lawyer in the town. He's also a crack shot with a rifle, shooting a mad dog from a block away, and is prone to selfless heroics, such as when he spent the night in a prison to personally face down a lynch mob out to get his client.
- Aramis from The Three Musketeers makes this Older Than Radio. His life ambition to become a priest and his writing a thesis on the hand positions used for ritual blessings in the Catholic Church does not prevent him from being a member of an elite military unit, and having martial skills on par with his less intellectual comrades-in-arms.
- William Weaver, Ph.D., from John Ringo's Into The Looking Glass, is a theoretical physicist who does most of his work in his head... while mountain biking, rock climbing, participating in kung fu tournaments, and fighting off an alien invasion. Except for the last, Ringo's co-author in the series actually does everything attributed to Weaver, in Real Life.
- Ringo really has a habit of placing badass bookworms in his stories, the Posleen War Series is rife with them, starting with Micheal O'Neal, a Sci Fi geek who gets placed in charge of an ACS battalion, and then we have Talbot in the Council Wars series, who is a historic reenactor and one of the main characters.
- O'Neal mostly gets his position because he's the only one with a clue how to effectively use the ACS's, though he is described as being very powerfully built. And Talbot is more a Badass who became a Bookworm after retiring from Badassery.
- The bookish and unimposing Achamian from Second Apocalypse is constantly underestimated and thought weak even by his friends. As well as being strong mentally, he is a sorcerer of vast destructive power he rarely has reason to unleash.
- Sabriel from the beginning of the Old Kingdom trilogy is explained to be at the top of her class in every subject, most notably Swordfighting and Magic (with Music close behind), and, while well-liked, certainly gives very little indication to her schoolfriends of her real powers. Lirael, in the second book, is a much more extreme example. Aside from being the Second Assistant Librarian, she hardly ever talks to anyone in the Clayr glacier, and never tells anyone of her after-hours activities, which regularly include awakening horrible Free Magic creatures locked in the deepest dungeons of the library and destroying them with the help of her freakishly powerful dog.
- 5'6", gaunt, clumsy, "small, indefinably odd and even ill-looking" Stephen Maturin is a doctor, polyglot, natural philosopher and all-round intellectual — and Britain's greatest spy. Over the course of the books, he is seen shooting the pips out of playing cards, winning several duels, operating on himself and dispatching his enemies in very badass ways. And then dissecting them. (Yet, somehow, he never quite develops the ability to board a ship under his own power without falling in the water...)
- Parodied (?) by the Chinese text of Lion-eating Poet in a Stone Den
 , where tht title character is a poet who... kills and eats lions.
- Jake Osborn of The Lonely Winds at first seems overshadowed by the series ensemble of badass normals. He's not the tall athlete that most of his compatriots are, nor as much of a fighter. He *is* a serious gun-bunny and has built his own low-generation power armor along with most of the customized weapons and gadgets that the team uses. When simply being a tough guy with guns isn't enough, Jake has been known to do serious damage using as much fire power as possible, even holding the line while the rest of the team runs away. The guy's motto is "There's no such thing as overkill."
- Sazed of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. At first, he seems to be a simple scholar. Then, he rescues the main heroine. In book 2, he kills a mess of koloss and nearly beats a Steel Inquisitor. In book 3, he becomes God.
- The entire enrobed cast of Anathem. This goes double for Fraa Lio and the avout of the Ringing Vale.
- Many protagonists from a Neal Stephenson book will qualify. Hiro Protagonist probably takes the cake in asses-kicked/bookworm ratio.
- You fail statistics forever.
- Also Casimir Radon from his first book, The Big U, a "Skinny, unhealthy-looking nerd", who shows immense courage and near-superhuman strength in every crisis.
- Strongbow Plantaganet from Edward Whittemore's Jerusalem Quartet.
- Snowball from Animal Farm is very intelligent, designing a windmill and setting up committes- and leading the animals to victory in The Battle of the Cowshed, where he sent Mr. Jones into a heap of dung, and was wounded in the process.
- Barrons from Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. He owns a bookshop, is named after a publishing company, and is pretty mysterious and badass, with being immune to shades, Living Shadow and all.
- Every Robert A Heinlein character ever. If they don't read advanced math at the beginning of the story, they either get really into it just in time to defeat the Space Nazis using calculus and Latin, or die.
- Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan in The Hunt For Red October. He is a quiet academic whose job and hobby is to study naval trivia for the CIA. But he does such things as anticipating the moves of Ramius the Defector From Commieland, and transfers to a submarine from a helicopter by droping from a swinging rope. He also wins a shootout that happens to take place amidst a Pile o' Nukes, and in the first twenty pages of Patriot Games, finds himself dealing, barehanded, with a bunch of Irish terrorists trying to kill the British royals, and saves them. With his bare goddamn hands. Justified, though, in that he's a trained ex-Marine.
- Annabeth from Percy Jackson And The Olympians reads architecture books in Ancient Greek at the age of twelve. She is also a brilliant but brutal strategist and fights with a bronze knife. We guaruntee that she can kick the butt of almost any mythological creature you care to name. Daedalus is also a brilliant swordsman who also happened to create the labrynth, the most brilliant piece of architecture ever.
- The titular character of the Artemis Fowl novels, though not exactly very competent physically, could get into any secure location you care to name, hack into any computer, and, with the help of several extremely deadly fairy friends and the best bodyguard on the planet, has saved the world on multiple ocasions. And, above all, he's filthy rich. He's really not someone you want to mess with.
- Aziraphale of Good Omens.
- Too many to count in The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms. Of special note are Zhuge Liang, who causes a larger enemy army led by the quite competent Sima Yi to retreat without battle by <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT86xQHGPqE&feature=related>opening the gates of a city he had occupied and sitting on the wall, playing his lute.</a> Sima Yi fled rather than "fall" into another of Zhuge Liang's traps, not finding out until much later that Zhuge only had a few hundred troops with him., Zhou Yu, Lu Xun, Jiang Wei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, Pang Tong, and quite a few others - even Guan Yu was well versed in the Confucian classics. Hinted at in the button-masher spin-off video game Dynasty Warriors, insanely important in the strategic RTS and career sims called Romance Of The Three Kingdoms. Especially interesting as this is a case of Truth In Television, as these men did exist (though their legends and histories are quite different). We still have the books some of the figures of that era wrote. Older Than Print, after all.
- Odysseus makes this one Older Than Dirt. Described in the Illiad as shorter by a head than most of the warriors. Cunning enough to try to dodge the draft by playing crazy and plowing the sea bed, proposes the Wooden Horse, proves himself in battle against the Trojans, then survives the Odyssey.
- Stephen King and Peter Straub's Black House features a whole gang of bikers each with Masters' degrees in philosophy who own and operate a microbrewery with full knowledge of the chemicals processes at work. Of course, they're still badass enough that most of the town knows to leave them the hell alone.
- Soon I Will Be Invincible's Dr. Impossible. He's the smartest man in the world and not noted to be particularly intimidating physically, but is superhumanly strong and tough.
- Henry from ''The Time Traveler's Wife would like to be just a simple librarian, but his Chronological-impairment tends to leave him in situations where he needs to mug people for pants. As such, he's managed to become very good at beating the crap out of people.
- Harry Creek from John Scalzi's Android's Dream universe arguably counts. Born a geek, raised a geek, created the world's first (Well. Second.) artificial intelligence, oh, and also survived one of humanity's worst military excursions, and managed to bring an opposing stellar government to its knees by surrendering.
- The Andalites from Animorphs are an entire species of badass bookworms. Members of their military are expected to embody the ideal of "scientist, warrior, artist."
- Alan Ryves from The Demon's Lexicon is a sweet, sensitive, mild-mannered guy who works in a bookstore and lives with his brother and crazy mum. Also, you mess with either of the aforementioned family members and he'll shoot you down before you know you've been hit.
Live Action TV
- If you watch 24 long enough, you start to realize that part of what makes Jack Bauer so deadly is that in addition to being to kill you with nothing but his eyeballs, he's frightfully intelligent and posess an almost MacGyver-like ability to think on his feet. Particularly in Season 7, in one episode he demonstrates CSI-level investigative ability.
- Jeff Goldblum's character in the short lived Tenspeed And Brownshoe was a prize example of this trope, a bumbling Walter Mitty who was a karate black belt.
- Mr. Spock from Star Trek. What could be more non-threatening than a science officer (geek) with no emotion or ego? Well, screw with his ship or his captain and you'll find out pretty quick he'll neck pinch you into submission; you may also find out that Vulcans are three times as strong as humans. And if you really provoke him he will shoot the damn dog. Just to prove the point.
- Commander Data from The Next Generation is shown at first to be very much like Spock, until it is revealed that he is much, much stronger than humans, Vulcans, or Klingons. He can armwrestle a Borg and win, and then go back to doing his research.
- Picard himself also qualifies, as he's a reclusive classical scholar most of the time, and doing things like pulling off political Batman Gambits against a whole empire, assuming the role of a hardened criminal to infiltrate a gang of mercenaries, and single-handedly defeating a group of terrorists the rest of the time. The movies eventually take things a bit too far in the physical combat direction, but there's a good reason why he and Data relate so well to each other.
- Giles on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Normally, he exemplifies the stereotypes you'd expect from a British librarian...but when the situation calls for it, he's willing to kick a little ass and show why he used to go by the nickname "Ripper." Consider, for example, the time he pulled a crossbow bolt out of his own back and stabbed a vampire with it. That's badass.
- There's also his one man assault on the factory after Angelus kills Jenny Calendar. He announces his presence with a Molotov cocktail, and proceeds to wail on Angelus, probably the most vicious vampire in existence, with a flaming baseball bat. The fact that it doesn't last in no way diminishes how awesome those few minutes were.
- Also: the re-teened Giles knocking out a police-officer in one smooth move was pretty impressive. No magic, gadgets or even time to prepare.
- Although, he does have a VERY soft spot for his books. You can almost hear his heart break when Jenny Calendar casually jokes that she earmarked, underlined, and spilled coffee on one of his first editions.
- What about Willow? She may not be typically badassed, but she sure can be dangerous. She took down Glory for a time, and she almost ended the world.
- Fred from Angel probably also qualifies. Although it isn't shown often, her engineering capabilities have at least once resulted in an insanely awesome guillotining machine.
- A very dark variation of this can be found in the title character of Dexter.
- To explain: Dexter is a forensic blood spatter analyst - which is basically longhand for "stay in the fucking
kitchen lab, nerd." Despite this, he's bested Doakes, an ex-Special Forces member and ultra-badass cop, twice in hand-to-hand combat, despite being shot in the leg right before round two. He also killed The Skinner, who was the leader of a Nicaraguan interrogation unit, with his bear hands. He did so one-handed, because he crushed his own hand to escape his bindings. So Yeah.
- Gil Grissom from CSI repeatedly emphasizes that he's a scientist, not a cop. It just so happens he's also an excellent shot with a handgun, on the few occasions it's come up.
- Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1. This, however, was the end result of long, patient Character Development — just compare the innocent cutie from Stargate and "Children of the Gods" to the action man in seasons 9-10, and every relative degree of badassery in between in the other seasons.
- An even truer example is Colonel Samantha Carter. Jack O'Neill said that her brain was a natural resource; that doesn't stop her from kickin' serious ass, alien or otherwise.
- Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis also tends to fill this trope on a rare occasion or three per season. A very rare occasion, admittedly, but he still fulfills it enough to join Jackson and Carter on this trope list.
- The Doctor started off as the feeble old scientist who had to have his younger and more physically-able companions do the legwork. When the plot required it, however, he became a master swordsman, or a blackbelt in Venusian Aikido, or even an expert in Good Old Fisticuffs.
- The recent Family of Blood episode spotlit just this with the final voiceover.
- In fact, the Doctor is so much of a badass that he is feared by malevolent beings across the universe and throughout time. Most of his adventures were not exaggerated and his reputation is well deserved. He does not give second chances (or at least, the newest incarnation doesn't!).
- Many of his incarnations are the very embodiment of this trope. Take Eight: he's only 5'8", and, in the Television Tie In Novels, he starts out well-built, but as he Forgets To Eat, it seems he gets skinnier as the series goes on. Moreover, he's naive - at least in the novels, all manner of flirting and dirty jokes goes right over his head. And except for occasional detours into No Indoor Voice in dramatic situations, he really is quite soft-spoken. Naturally, he's a genius, although of the Absentminded Professor variety, and given the opportunity to use his brain can defeat almost any evil plot. What's more, the first thing he ever really does is knock a huge steel door off its hinges, and while he doesn't like to fight, on a couple of occasions he's proven to be not half-bad at Good Old Fisticuffs. And he once saved the world despite having a huge hole in his chest.
- Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap. A holder of multiple doctorates, speaks multiple languages, and happens to be a black belt in several disciplines.
- In Criminal Minds, Dr. Spencer Reid is originally pitied by the rest of the team for being slow and inaccurate when it comes to firearm proficiency. They all sort of regard him only as, not the 'necessary genius', but certainly a not well-rounded agent—until an incident where he fires a perfect headshot, saving his and his boss's lives.
- Similar to Dr. Reid above, in Numb3rs, Dr. Charles Eppes gets talked into learning the combat skills of a FBI agent. As expected for a bookish sort like Charlie, he is terrible in most of the trials, especially in his pursuit driving lessons where he scares his instructor by his bad driving. This seems to include when Charlie tested for firearm proficiency when he seems to be shooting too slowly compared to the others. However, when Charlie's shooting target is brought back for examination, it has a big hole where most of the bullets hit dead center. Charlie explains how he got the highest shooting score by saying he followed the advice of the famous gunfighter, Wyatt Earp, "Speed is fine, but accuracy is final."
- Noah "HRG" Bennett in Heroes. At the start of season two, his boss at Copy Kingdom berates him and sneers at him for failing to respect the art of photocopying papers. A short session with Mr. Horn-Rimmed Glasses in the backroom, though, ends with two broken fingers and a never-to-be-repressed terror of his new employee.
- Firefly's River Tam is an unmatched genius of all sorts, but is unfortunately a complete mental wreck, on top of being a tiny, unimposing little teenage girl. When confronted with danger, her typical response is of the crying, fetal-curling variety....until she unlocks the ingrained Super Soldier training that came with her insanity. Legendary asskicking ensues.
- Her brother Simon, qualifies in that, when it was really on the line, he air-tackled a gun-wielding, body-armored, bounty hunter who had JUST SHOT HIM IN THE LEG!
- Not to mention the opening scene of The Movie where Simon breaks River out of the Academy, a top secret military mad science testing facility, telling us that he probably would have developed into a full blown Badass Bookworm.
- He wasn't that good a fighter as such. But he had a Heroic Spirit. He was kind of a Badass Bookworm Determinator .
- In the Ariel raid he was essentially using what Gurps calls "area knowledge." In combination with Refuge In Audacity and enough of a Stiff Upper Lip to play it through for an agonizingly long time.
- Also Shepherd Book. Who, for a priest, is very good at shooting kneecaps.
- Hit man Brother Mouzone from The Wire. Inspires fear and respect in the entire Baltimore drug organization, with good reason, despite his small stature, bow tie and glasses, devotion to Harper's magazine, and frequent use of big words and carefully crafted sentences.
- By the end of the Farscape series, one of the only people even half as scary as Aeryn Sun is her lover, former Smart Guy and now Badass Bookworm John Crichton. He started out pretty helpless, but trained by her and with his levels of insanity consistently building, he became the kind of guy who would suicide bomb with a nuke.
- Another good example would be Scorpius; originally introduced as an Omnidisciplinary Scientist and Torture Technician, subsequent episodes revealed that he was strong enough to throw Captain Crais across his office like a ragdoll. Doubly impressive considering the number of health problems Scorpius suffers from.
- Power Rangers: Billy Cranston from the original series, Alyssa Enrile from Wild Force, Cameron Watanabe aka Cam from Ninja Storm, Ethan James from Dino Thunder and Dr. Katherine "Kat" Manx from SPD are the embodiment of the trope. And there's also one Dr. Thomas "Tommy" Oliver, science teacher and archeologist as well as the whole franchise's Ace...
- The series even parodied the trope in an episode of Dino Thunder where Conner McKnight temporally became a Badass Bookworm thanks to a meteorite which changed the three Rangers personalities (Cute Bruiser Kira became a dainty girly girl and the true Badass Bookworm, Ethan, became a Jerk Jock)
- Kendrix Morgan from Lost Galaxy would probably count if not for the fact that it's safe to assume every officer on that space colony was given mandatory fight training.
- The BadassBookworming of Tommy was even lampshaded in an episode of Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, where a former teammate of Tommy's even remarked that he found it hard to believe that Tommy became a Badass Bookworm.
- Don't let MacGyver's mullet and laid-back Minnesota drawl fool you: underneath that feathered-blond hairdo and behind all his folksy wisecracks lurks one of the most agile minds of any TV hero, capable of turning almost any collection of mundane objects into something amazing. Example? Tony Stark made his first Iron Man armor IN A CAVE, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS. MacGyver could've made good his escape with just the box. He was so good at this (and his makeshift gadgets often enough plausible) that his name has become a real-life verb. On top of that, if it comes down to a brawl, he can kick guns out of hands with the best of them, and he's an accomplished mountain climber and ice hockey player. Say what you want about him, but he didn't earn a spot on Badass of the Week by being a wuss.
- Quinn Mallory in Sliders fits this trope perfectly.
- Derek Raine of Poltergeist: The Legacy is rather badass also, despite being a 50+ year old bookworm.
- Sam Winchester from Supernatural. While of course a badass demon hunter (it's pretty much a family trait), he's also brilliant at research, and had his girlfriend not been murdered, he was well on the way to becoming a lawyer.
- Walter White, from Breaking Bad. A high school chemistry teacher turned drug dealer, with a side order of explosive expert.
- Michael Westen of Burn Notice. In addition to being rated on near "any weapon that fires a bullet or has an edge", he frequently gets out of situations by engineering some weird gizmo out of duct tape, paper clips, and cell-phone....that can blow a car full of snipers sky high. He also demonstrates, at the least, a rudimentary knowledge of finance, psychology, and chemistry. Comes with being a former CIA agent, I guess.
- Barney from the Mission Impossible TV show usually has a role designing gadgets or working complex machinery, but he is also often used for hand to hand combat. In one episode, he was revealed to have been a sixth fleet boxing champion, and while impersonating another boxer, wins several times against other skilled boxers without outside assistance.
- Lennier from Babylon Five. And probably a lot of Minbari religious caste, but still a prime example. Soft spoken and timid and studious enough to learn how to assemble an earth motorcycle in a week mainly out of good fellowship and curiosity (when Garribaldi had been trying for years without finishing, though Garibaldi had almost completed it at that point), but also fully able to dish out flying head kicks when needed.
- Cynthia from "Malcom In The Middle". While being both an adolescent girl and a huge nerd, her education extends to complete knowledge of Krav Maga, which she uses to disable Reese quite effortlessly on a couple of occasions.
Manga & Anime
- Yoshito Kikuchi and Kannzaki Urumi in Great Teacher Onizuka. Also, Azusa Shiratori's little sister.
- Aizawa Kouichi from Nabari no Ou is, for all intents and purposes, that one kid with the glasses — smart, somewhat nerdy, nice, and almost boring in the shadow of his weirder friends. Yet he's revealed to be the most professional and capable ninja in his village, and is more than willing to kill/brainwash the influential (including the CEO of a vast, international medicine/defense technology corporation) if the mission calls for it. To be fair, he's actually not exactly human, or a middle schooler, having been created as a living experiment centuries ago.
- I dare you to attack Faust VIII, from Shaman King. I dare you. Enjoy your vivisection if you do.
- He can operate a bone transplant on himself in the middle of battle. Now that's badass.
- Usopp and Nico Robin of One Piece.
- I just have to expand on Usopp a bit, considering that my imagination has turned him into my favorite (or at least close second, taking Zoro into account) character in the series. He has created the Clima-Tact, apparently from scraps lying on the ship, as well as its second, more powerful incarnation. The true feat is the original, however, because he created a weather manipulating tool without Dial shells. Basically, he invented a metal stick that can control the weather. This has been redundant, I know, but I can't put enough emphasis on what this guy was able to think up. Of course, the fact that he only ever thought of it as being a party favor kinda kills some of the awesomeness...
- There is also the fact that, until the stronger members get or get control of any form of "Ambition", which has been proven by now to allow physical attacks to hit Logia users, Usopp with his dials is the only one in the crew aside from Luffy, and maybe Zoro, who could conceivably take on most fruit users. Think about it. If he had better physical training, like with his reflexes, and physical resistance, what do you think he could do against Ace with a flame dial or Kizaru or Eneru with a flash dial?
- Nami the cartographer/meteorologist.
- Kiyomaro Takamine of Konjiki No Gash Bell, middle school student and master tactician with loads of stamina.
- Yomiko Readman of Read Or Die is a particularly good example, as her extraordinary power stems directly from her love of books.
- Kazuo Kiriyama from the Manga version of Battle Royale is an evil version, a sociopathic genius who spent most of his time quietly reading books and staying out of everyone's way. Due to this their gym teacher, a former Olympic Judo champion, decides to pick on him for a bit of a laugh, failing to notice that he's been reading a book on martial arts and looking remarkably confident...
- Not to mention Kiriyama's first meeting with the guy who became his lieutenant. A book on anatomy and no human compassion equals the most ridiculously violent high-school beatings ever captured on a page.
- Kiriyama's abilities are closer to Mega Manning, as he's a genius who can perfectly perform anything he has seen or read about (creating about the most awesome fight ever when he battles Sugimura, a kenpo artist).
- Yuki Nagato from Suzumiya Haruhi is usually quiet and unassuming, and rarely ever puts down her book, even when everyone else is playing around... or when she's playing around, or even when she is water skiing. However, whenever she's confronted by the weirdness brought about by Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuki exhibits surprising battle abilities. Such as the ability to temporarily overwrite reality, or play a bitchin' guitar solo. Her badass-ness is one of the reasons why she's not creepy.
- Her fight with Ryouko Asakura was great. Not only was she stabbed straight through by multiple objects, she was able to be graceful while doing it. She won that fight, actually.
- Yuuno Scrya of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is a mage, an Adventurer Archaeologist, a librarian, and a scholar — at age 9. In a library practically infinite in size, he can use magic to locate and decipher world-savingly critical information in a matter of hours. In battle, he can hold his own against a powerful ancient Magic Knight armed with a powerful Empathic Weapon, despite having no Empathic Weapon of his own, and he wasn't even giving the fight his undivided attention. Unfortunately, he is still a guy in a Magical Girl show.
- Vivio, who became a librarian in the Infinity Library in third grade, begins showing more of her fighting skills in Vi Vid, including her skill in the Strike Arts style of martial arts, sparring evenly with Nove. This comes off as a surprise to Rio, who had thought of Vivio and Corona as "more of bookworm types."
- Uryu Ishida (master Straight Arrow and top of his school class) and Nanao Ise (Shingami lieutenant and member of a famous reading club in Soul Society as well as the Shinigami Women's Association) from Bleach. Also, Risa Yadomaru from the Vizard group who was both Nanao's lieutenant *and* reading buddy before leaving Soul Society and possibly Momo Hinamori, who is known as an artist and bookworm inside of the Shinigami circles.
- And let us not forget eccentric inventor/businessman Kisuke Urahara, who (it turns out) used to be third in command of what amounts to Soul Society's Special Forces. Additionally, he was able to master Bankai, a devastatingly powerful attack which usually takes years of study to learn, in a record shattering three days. He has also been known to pitch his numerous inventions in the midst of battle.
- Not to mention the other geeky-looking inventor Aizen Sousuke.
- Played around with the Data Tennis players (Sadaharu Inui of Seigaku, Renji Yanagi of Rikkaidai, Hajime Mizuki of Saint Rudolph, Taichi Dan of Yamabuki and Koharu Konjiki of Shitenhouji) from The Prince Of Tennis. All of them use the information they collect to further their playing strategies (hence the "Data tennis" name), but the results are different since they have very distinct personalities and methods. Inui and Yanagi also qualify in the Genius Bruiser category, both being over 6 ft. tall.
- Professor Colbert from Zerono Tsukaima. Also qualifies for Retired Badass and Heel Face Turn.
- Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury from Sailor Moon. She's the smartest junior high/high school student in the whole of Japan and a Sailor Senshi with mastery over water and ice-based attacks. She even has a visor and a special calculator that allows her to analyze the situation and discover the weak spots of their enemies.
- L of Death Note, who is laconic, lazy, a brilliant detective, and quite able to hold his own in the occasional fistfight with Light. Must be all the sweets. In the third live action movie he uses a thrown hammer to knock out a Psycho For Hire.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric to some degree. Without all the angst and dangerous adventures, he's really just a short science geek.
- Minus of course, the Artificial Limbs and wiry physique.
- WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!?!
- Come to think of it, alchemists in general. I mean, every other alchemist we see is a Badass Normal murdering machine even without their alchemy, and the physical training regimen for alchemy seems to be more intense than son Goku's. This is made even more absurd when one considers that Alchemists supposedly had a strong aversion to martial pursuits prior to the Ishbalan war slightly over a decade ago.
- Most of the ones we see have military training, have a clear advantage in any fight (like Armstrong), use their alchemy to tip the odds or some combination of those traits.
- Izumi is another splendid specimen -though it mainly happens offscreen, she must have studied like hell to get her alchemical know-how. But the most obvious case is probably manga Hohenheim: he's shown as a nerd of unspeakable proportions who spends more time in his study than with his family, lives on his own little nerdy planet and hardly ever fights. But when he does, it automatically results in CrowningMomentsOfAwesome.
- Playwright prospect, Kaleido Stage fansite webmistress, very skilled with technical stuff as well as with literature-related knowledge, and a talented acrobat and actress on top of it all... That's Mia Guillem from Kaleido Star to you.
- Rider in Fate Stay Night, when you found out that she actually loves literature, when she is in her Meganekko mode. Of course, combined with her already powerful abilities... You Should Know This Already.
- Kuroo Hazama aka Dr. Black Jack. Apparently, obtaining his Medical Doctorate has transformed him into some sort of surgery-performing ninja. This is the only way one can explain feats such as using scalpels to deflect bullets, or climbing across the surface of an airplane in mid-flight. This troper suspects that he wasn't really mentored by Dr. Honma, but by Dr. McNinja.
- Inspector Lunge. While being a ridiculously intelligent BKA investigator with a photographic memory is impressive, Lunge's real threat is that he's practically a human terminator who doesn't shoot to wound so much as he shoots to cause excruciating pain.
- Negima plays this by translating the Library girls' abilities into battle magic. Of course, Teen Genius Yue was already clever enough to begin with to qualify.
- Given that said Library is filled with death traps to the point where the ground floor is off limits to Jr. high students and below the 3rd sub-basement is off-limits to the university students, rock climbing gear is needed to get to some parts of the Library that is open to the public, one of the librarians is a top class mage, and there is a dragon in the basement, a case can be made that they were fairly badass even before starting to learn magic.
- In a recent chapter of Mahou Sensei Negima, Yue Ayase defeats a dragon/griffin hybrid after saving two classmates by leaping in front of them to block an attack,using her artifact to look it up, determine its weaknesses, and coming up with a plan that involved her stabbing a spot a few centimeters square with a small knife while dodging friendly fire.
- And also, Albireo "Ku:nel Sanders" Imma, who qualifies as a badass librarian.
- Isuzu Ayane from Gate Keepers 21 is quiet, ranked third in the second year level of her high school, spends most of her time reading and sitting in front of her laptop, and yet when it comes to her part time job, effortlessly takes down scores of Invaders by throwing cell phones at them.
- In Ghost In The Shell, Ishikawa gets his Badass Bookworm moments near the conclusion of each season. The first time, he proves that he is definitely not a Technical Pacifist, by blowing up a building with his pursuers in it, and in the next season by bludgeoning a secret agent into unconsciousness with the cast on his broken arm so that he can safely deliver a rod of weapons-grade plutonium.
- Walter 'Angel of Death' Dornez from Hellsing, a polite elderly monacle-donning butler whose WWII experiences happen to include tearing whole armies to shreds with monofilament. He can still do that, as he eventually proves with spectacular scenes of gore and destruction.
- Appledelhi, Ed's father, from Cowboy Bebop is a geologist studying and mapping the ruined Earth, and a bit of a Cloudcuckoolander to boot. When he is forced into a confrontation with Spike, he effortlessly beats off all of Spike's attacks, and is well on the way to stomping him good when he's interrupted.
- Maka, the protagonist of Soul Eater is a recognized bookworm, a very badass bookworm that will kick you ass with her scythe if you get on her way.
- In the 3rd episode of Golgo 13, the titular hitman is in a sniper duel with two mercenaries using advanced rifles superior to his own M16, and modified with a unique electronic "super scope". Based on their firing patterns, he deduces that the scopes have a vulnerability in that they do not take shifts in gradient into account. He then calculates the gradient necessary for their shots to be totally inaccurate, and positions himself in an area of the battlefield with that gradient, easily blowing them away. Duke Togo- international assasin, and maths nerd.
- Hakkai from Saiyuki, the polite and scholarly type in the party heading west. He even wears a monocle (if for different reasons). And then there's the matter of his energy blasts ...
- His past life Tenpou from Saiyuki Gaiden is actually a bookworm (to the point of being shown literally buried in books) and bespectacled, but people know very well you don't want to get him mad. He also single-handedly does the work of an entire military unit.
- Tsutomu Tanaka, a minor character from History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. This 18 year old Salaryman with a young daughter first appears as a diminiutive wimp who is fairly well whipped by his wife and boss, up until he stabs his index finger into a man several times larger then him without any resistance, K Oing him instantly, and outruns a member of YOMI so fast that by the time she turns a corner, he has already disappeared.
- Don't mess with Akira Shirase. Yes, he does look like a textbook example of computer nerd, who haven't shaved, washed or got enough sleep in three or four days. He also can listen to a song and write a binary of mp3 of it out of his head. He can also hack your PC into going boom using nothing more than a cellphone with internet connection. Ir hack and drop a sequence of decommissioned spy satellites on your head. So, yeah, don't mess with Battle Programmer Shirase.
- Manabu Yukimitsu from Eyeshield 21. Scrawny and weak, the only thing that even lets him join the team is the fact that he's more of a Determinator than the character whose determination is a running gag. However, after finally being put into the game against Shinryuuji, he manages to outsmart gifted Jerk Jock Agon Kongo and score a touchdown.
- Seto Kaiba of Yu-Gi-Oh is one of the top two Duel Monsters duelists of all time, a master chess player, CEO of the world's most successful game company, and inventor of the Duel Disk system, among other high tech gaming gadgets. Oh, and he was also apparently trained well in Krav Maga, and can disarm someone with a card fling.
Religion & Mythology
Close Religion & Mythology
Tabletop RPG
- Space Marine Librarians and Techmarines from Warhammer 40000 are psychics and engineers in an organisation Badass down to the man; they use their extra abilities to kick even more ass.
- As far as tabletop games go, the Dungeons And Dragons wizard class (or magic-user, in the older versions) is probably the oldest example. Raise your hand if you can wish for something and have it come true.
- See this motivator.
- Similarly, Archivists and Cloistered Clerics (the divine bookworms) can cast Divine Power to transform themselves into beefy bruisers.
- The GURPS Black Ops RPG setting features an organisation of Badass special ops/MI Bs, with two divisions filling the Badass Bookworm category: the Science division (multidisciplinary scientists) and the Tech division (engineers). The former usually knows medecine and how to best fix or take apart the human body, while the latter can build ultra-tech (if unstable) superweapons.
- The World Of Darkness has two entire playable supernatural factions devoted to this trope: The Ordo Dracul (Vampire The Requiem) and The Mysterium (Mage The Awakening). Also, innumerable Hunters also fall into this flavor, including the Loyalists of Thule (ex-Nazi occult researchers turned to killing the bad things and trying to atone for World War 2 being their fault) and the Null Mysteriis, who blend the Badass Bookworm with the Agent Scully.
- The Ordo Dracul's founder, Vlad Tepes, subverts this trope quite a bit, though; Vlad starts out as Vlad The Impaler (yes) and it takes him 200 years to get to the point where he can read. Then, of course, he goes on to become the Vampire L. Ron Hubbard, soyeah...
- The Sworn of the Axe, the "militaristic" faction of the Ordo Dracul, are Badass Bookworms par excellance. For the "goon squad" of the covenant, the Sworn of the Axe is nevertheless filled with geniuses, mad scientists and librarians... all of whom are dead fascinated in mowing over anybody that stands in the way of Transcendance from vampiric existence.
- The Mysterium, meanwhile, has been in steady existence since the fall of motherfucking Atlantis. It's been hinted at fairly regularly that the Mysterium could have Awakened the whole of mankind a dozen times over, but they choose not to, if only because they are the librarians of the secrets of everything, and nobody comes to understand anything about the real universe unless they pay homage to the Mysterium first.
Video Games
- Zoey!
- Sho Minamimoto, from The World Ends With You. He will nuke you with pi.
- Also, Joshua. He's the most intelligent member of the playable cast, and he's the Composer, which pretty much means he's a physical god.
- Gordon Freeman from Half-Life (pictured). Seriously, a theoretical physicist you do not want to cross, ever.
- Half-Life 2 even calls attention to this. There's one area where Gordon overhears Dr. Breen, chief collaborator to Earth's new alien overlords, chewing out a division of soldiers for not being able to stop him. "He's not some agent provocateur, or highly-skilled assassin. He's a theoretical physicist who had barely earned the distinction of his PhD..." Yet, when the revolution comes, everybody's behind Gordon. Because things in front of him tend to die.
- Extremely literal video game example: Lex (a worm) defeats a variety of monsters and creatures of legend in Bookworm Adventures, despite the fact that he is lacking not only weapons but limbs. And he is also using the power of words.
- Several of the magic users in Fire Emblem, specially if they're of the Mage/Sage, Cleric/Priest/Bishop or the Shaman/Druid classes. More specific examples are:
- Azel the Fire Mage (FE4);
- Mage General Cecilia, Niime the Hermit (FE6);
- Canas, Renault, Lord Pent of Reglay, Erk Big Bad Nergal and his Shadow Archetype, the Arch-Sage Athos (FE7);
- Lute, Saleh, Ewan, Artur (to some degree), Knoll, Lyon (FE8).
- Soren (FE9/10)
- And for non-magic users who are still Badass Bookworms... the Cavalier Lance from FE6 fit the trope to a T.
- Mao of Disgaea 3. Bespeckled nerds can be very intimidating if they also happen to be Mad Scientist demons with BFSs.
- Raspberyl is another example. Literatly fights you with a book (and has access to fire spells).
- Mitsuru Kirijo of Persona 3 is a top-marks student, president of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council, and daughter of the man who owns the school. She's also quite handy with a rapier. At one point late in the game, she even tries shouting down a Cosmic Horror. Even her own teammates are terrified by her at times.
- Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat, before Hell broke lose in MK3, was a historian whose knowledge of both shamanism and Native American legends as well as his physical strength was what made him qualified to become one of the Earth Warriors. In the cartoon, he's also a computer genius on top of a fighter and a walking myth encyclopaedia.
- In the original arcade Mortal Kombat 3, as Nightwolf, you could actually throw your opponent, run after him, and throw him before he had a chance to recover. Also, in the newer games, he tends to have easy combos that take 25% of your life bar.
- Citan from Xenogears is one of the best examples of this. He enjoys reading, tinkering with machinery, and other bookish hobbies, yet is one of the planet's best swordsmen, as well as being a master Gear pilot who has had an Omnigear since even before the events of the game).
- The first six members of Organization XIII have this as part of their backstory (or so we assume); Six brilliant apprentices of a wise and loved king... who manage to release The Heartless on the worlds and become the most powerful Nobodies around.
- The Engineer from Team Fortress 2, as demonstrated in the page quote (although the "bookworm" part tends to take a backseat to the stereotypically Texan elements of his character in the actual game). He also has Mad Scientist tendencies.
- The Medic should be considered one too.
- Jaina Proudmoore in War Craft is actually like this, seeing that she really LIKES studying and declares to be 'in love' with her studies or profession as a mage, since it lets her study a lot. Despite all this, that's one of the most powerful human spell casters in Azeroth you're talking about.
- Despite? Try because. She's studying magic. Mages who don't study tend not to be very good.
- Patchouli Knowledge from the Touhou series is a pretty good example of the "magician" variety: she closets herself in (what amounts to) her own private library virtually all the time — researching new and innovative ways to produce More Dakka. And she's not afraid to use them! Though the badassness level is sometimes slightly hurt by the fact that her frail health and asthma, due to lack of exercise and open air, can impede her ability to recite the incantations or endure protracted battles. Not that most people live to see the point where this matters, of course.
- Keats in Folklore goes from mild mannered skeptical Intrepid Reporter to destroyer of souls with seemingly little convincing.
- Isaac Clarke from Dead Space. He is the one and only to survive the events of the game. His weapons are MINING TOOLS, he is just a space engineer, and still manages to cut down (literally) an army of space zombies.
- Chrono Trigger's Lucca. She built a robot and a teleporter while living in a quasi-medieval time period, not to mention the Time Key you use through most of the game. Her techo-geekness is established by her house, strewn as it is with books and cabling. She later repairs a robot 1,500 years ahead of her time. She also wields pistols and fire magic.
- In Dwarf Fortress, order your bookkeeper to take the most accurate inventory of your stocks possible. He, a weak, unassuming social dwarf, will proceed to lock himself in his study, and work silently for roughly a season. Eventually, he will re-emerge, and after all those hours of updating the records, will have acquired the character notes 'Ultra-Mighty', 'Extremely Agile', and 'Unbelievably Tough'.
- Shad, from The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, could be a contender for this trope. He's a textbook nerd, with glasses and argyle socks and a freakishly large bow tie, who natters on extensively about the ancient race of bird-people called the Oocca. He's also tolerably muscular, uses an ornamental dagger as a bookmark, and forms a Resistance with the characters Auru, Ashei, and Rusl — all of whom are easily defined as being Bad Ass. Not to mention the ancient Hyrulean BAZOOKA. It stands to reason that Shad wouldn't be part of that little collective if he couldn't hold his own.
- Both Arcturus and Valerian Mengsk are both trained in swordsmanship and the use of a rifle as well as the former being a Magnificent Bastard and the latter being an Adventurer Archaeologist.
- Lucian of the Elite Four in Pokémon mentions that he just finished a book when you arrived and has the book depicted in his entering battle animation in Platinum. He's the last of the Elite Four, a devastating Psychic-type specialist.
- If you talk to him after beating him, he mentions he's going to go back to reading in order to prepare for his next battle. Awesome.
- Rustboro Gym Leader Roxanne is also depicted as one, especially in the manga - where she forces all hopefuls into taking a written exam for the right to challenge her. It's pretty verbose on top of that, meaning that with one exception, everyone who got to fight her had some serious language comprehension skills.
- Also of note is Cyrus from Team Galactic. Scientist, engineer, roboticist, strongest Pokémon trainer in the team and one of the strongest trainers in all Sinnoh, and the man who captured the embodiments of Willpower, Emotion, Knowledge, Space, and Time.
- Jeff Andonuts from Earthbound. Unusual for an RPG in that he's also a Badass Normal; while he can't use Psychic Powers, he can make bazookas out of spare parts.
- Edmund from Gaia Online got his start as a Mad Scientist. Then he became a superhero. Then he fought off an Ax Crazy vampire hitman... multiple times... These days, he's supposedly retired. Supposedly.
- It is heavily implied that Quintessential British Gentleman Professor Layton is one of these, even though the games consist mostly about solving puzzles. One particular example of this appears in the second game, in which one cutscene shows that Layton is quite proficient with a sword.
- Final Fantasy Tactics: the Calculator does stuff with math. Stuff like injuring every enemy on the screen. At once. Since the game lets you change classes, every one of your characters can learn to be a bookworm. Combine this with all the other classes... Badassery out the behind.
- Nu Mou Schoalrs in Final Fantasy Tactics A 2 use books as their weapons of choice. Seriously, no one expect a short and fragile race like the Nu Mou to be physically strong since they specialize in magic, but Scholars can deal a good amount of physical damage and use spells that hits everyone by just reading from the book. Human Seers also uses books for weapons and their Magick Frenzy ability lets them hit enemies with spells AND the book.
- John Vattic from Second Sight, a skinny, awkward-looking academic... that also happens to be one of the most powerful psychics in the game. Plus, as seen in the first level of the game, he can kill people with his bare hands.
- Briar Rose in The Lost Chapters expansion of Fable. Spends a lot of her time shuttling back to the Heroes' Guild to research eldritch incantations and ancient prophecies, but is fully capable of throwing down on fell abominations when necessary.
- Liara T'Soni from Mass Effect is a rather unassuming archaeologist, until you find out she can kill you with her mind. If the player isn't an Adept, she's the most powerful biotic in the game.
- Alexandra Roivas from Eternal Darkness is a student in abstract mathematics and number theory.
- Her grandfather was a clinical psychologist who, in the chapter you play him, gets two of the most awesome guns in the game (a sawed-off shotgun that can be used at close range to remove one arm and two heads from 9-foot-tall brutes, and an elephant gun that knocks him over when he fires it). Other people were Edwin Lindsay (Think Indiana Jones, with a beard), a 14th-century monk, Roberto (an architect during the Renaissance), and a WWI journalist who puts all that spare ammo lying around to good use. Everyone gets to dismember zombies and other monsters.
- The titular character of the Professor Layton series of games for the DS initially comes off as little more than just a regular bookworm...until you see him outflying the game's Big Bad's flying machine on an improvised glider in the first game and his sword duel in the second. Also, come on, anyone who can pull off that hat has to be badass.
- Protagonist Giacomo from Rise Of Legends is this. Who else would lead a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge that culminates in him destroying Sufficiently Advanced Aliens who claim to be gods?
- What, no Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog? He is a freaking genius, even making a robotic suit that rivals Eggmans, while at the same time being fairly fast, having the ability to fly, and, in some games, being able to take out Eggman by himself. Not through intelligence, though. No, through beating the ever loving crap out of him! Heck, in Sonic Adventure, he has to go and beat Eggman to a missle then take on one of Eggman's mechs by himself, saving the city SINGLE HANDEDLY.
Web Comics
- Nearly every educated Spark (mad scientist) in Girl Genius qualifies for this trope, including the protagonist, Agatha. Not only can they build death rays and turn even the most innocuous of mechanical items into death traps (such as a merry-go-round that can level a small town), but they are generally shown kicking butt with their bare hands (and feet) as well as with less sophisticated weapons, such as giant wrenches and rapiers.
- And don't forget brooms!
- Not quite accurate in Agatha's case. Early in the comic, she was physically as weak as one would expect for a bookworm type. Her current butt-kicking abilities are the result of intensive (and not entirely voluntary) training by Zeetha.
- Both Narbonic and Skin Horse have more than enough Badass Bookworms to satisfy even the most jaded troper. If Dave from the former isn't the very CHARACTERIZATION of this trope near the end, well.
- Dr Mc Ninja. Totally badass. Has an MD.
- Vaarsuvius from Order Of The Stick is an excellent example.
- Zaebos from Earthsong is a member of the elite Haven Guard, and the librarian.
- Kevyn Andreyasn "I'm not a mad scientist" from Schlock Mercenary use to wear a 13,75 kiloton Antimatter bomb as a uniform shoulder-pad.
- has he'll say later : "I am Commander Kevyn Andreyasn , I have shaped the destiny of worlds, of nation, of galaxies. I have created and destroyed. I have followed and I have led. I flirt with death for a living and I have cheated with the reaper more time than I can remember."
- Colin from Goodbye Chains. Attended MIT with enough engineering skills...to blow everything the shit up. Oh, and guns. Can't forgot those.
- Misho. Dear Gods in Yu-Shan Misho. Now being a Twilight Caste Solar is all about being a Badass Bookworm in the first place, but Misho is a glasses-wearing healer who prefers to use Awesomeness By Analysis to defeat his foes. And if you piss him off, he will obliterate you.
- Felicia Whitewind from Fetch Quest: Saga of the Twleve Artifacts also qualifies, since not only is she a scholar, she's also capable of making it hard for thieves to get to her. Just watch her and you'll see.
Web Original
- Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch, but Chip, a cowardly bookworm from the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes, exhibits power that matches that of his teammates when push comes to shove.
- Dr. Tran has a PhD in Kicking Your Ass.
- Tech Infantry has Icarus Hicks, a medical researcher and neurosurgeon who manages to hold his own against Space Marines in Power Armor.
- Ashpaw Longstripe in Tasakeru is a quiet, even-tempered, philosophical type. He also carries around a gigantic morning star as big as the other characters' heads. And it has spikes.
- Tuck and others in The Saga Of Tuck are D&D geeks, sci-fi bookworms and math geeks. With a piquant overlay of close arms fighting and covert counterintelligence ops.
Western Animation
- Samantha aka Sam of Totally Spies. Heck, the first OP has her expertly using a chemistry kit as Clover and Alex watch her in amazement. While at the same time, she is able to fight off the random villains that the trio encounter just as effectively as her partners. AND she also manages to get and keep excellent grades at school.
- While Justice League member The Question is more crackpot than bookworm, he does distill this trope into one glorious moment where he nails a guy in the face with a computer monitor just after he's finished using it.
- In Challenge of the Super Friends, Asian Captain Ethnic Samurai (real name: Toshio Etou) was a Japanese history professor before he was turned into a super hero by the New Gods of New Genesis.
- In Spider Man The Animated Series Doctor Otto Octavius was a brilliant scientist and teacher before becoming the villainous Dr. Octopus.
- In The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, scientist Benton Quest sometimes shows Badass tendencies (though he's usually overshadowed by his more conventionally badass bodyguard, Race Bannon), particularly during his escape from the villain's headquarters in "General Winter" and his climactic fight with Big Bad Dr. Zin in "The Robot Spies."
- This was also true in the original Johnny Quest series, in which Dr. Quest is a "real dynamo when he gets going" according to Race Bannon himself.
- In Spiral Zone, Benjamin Davis Franklin of the Zone Riders is a geeky, scrawny science nerd who looks like Weird Al Yankovic. Nevertheless, he's tough enough to kick Big Bad Overlord in the face in one episode.
- Danny's brainy older sister Jazz in Danny Phantom discovers she has amazing ghost fighting skills in "Maternal Instincts". She has since displayed said skills in a couple of other episodes. We're going to ignore "Secret Weapons".
- Dexter, from Dexters Lab, is a tiny, stub-limbed boy genius who spends all his time in his secret laboratory, trying — in vain — to keep his pretty-princess Cloudcuckoolander sister out. Until a monster attacks the city, or aliens invade, or a meteor threatens earth; then Dexter pulls out one of his giant, anime-inspired robots, super-powered exoskeleton suits, or space ships and kicks ass. He also seems to have learned kung-fu at some point.
- And let's not forget Blossom from The Powerpuff Girls.
- Dethklok's manager, Charles Foster Ofdensen.
- Starscream was a Cybertronian scientist before his ascension to air commander of the Decepticon forces.
- To an extent, Kyle from South Park. On the outside, a potty-mouth, angry nine-year old who's also the smart one of the group ('some people think I'm strange because I like to study for an exam'. But the movie demonstrated that he can hack into top secret military databases.
- Dr.Splitzy/Splitzy of Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys is the ship's engineer whose technical expertise is matched by his subtle but effective fighting skills. Then again, you do not want to mess with orangutans.
- Tanya, the Gadgeteer Genius of The Mighty Ducks, may wear glasses and speak with a stutter, but she holds her own with pros in ice hockey as well as on the battlefield.
- Bishop, from the newer Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You THINK that he's the resident Obstructive Bureaucrat, but when Mikey finally gets to take his revenge Bishop easily wipes the floor with him.
Real Life
- If a 14-year-old you know built a windmill that generated electricity, you'd call him a clever bookworm. But what do you call it when said 14-year-old lives in a third-world African hellhole of a village, has survived a famine and a cholera outbreak that killed thousands, and yet still manages to build said fully-functional windmill ''in a '''shed'''!!! With a '''box of scraps''' and manages to introduce the first steady power supply in that part of Africa?? Tony Stark, move the fuck over and make room for the new reigning Badass Bookworm, William Kambkwamba of Malawi.
- David Ben-Gurion. He was an intellectual with formidable brainpower. When he was called upon he was able to match wits with the most powerful and cunning rulers of the world and make a small cluster of settlements into a powerful nation. He would also likly qualify as either a strategist or a chessmaster, possibly both. He's sort of a Jewish Lord Vetinari.
- T.E. Lawrence. Yes that Lawrence. Who by chance is also an example in film.
- Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Astronomer, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, wrestler and boxer in school and still, as he told an interviewer "a nerd who could kick your butt." This troper doesn't doubt it.
- Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters is also a brainy geek who's repeatedly demonstrated his excellent badassery with firearms (for example, he did the Scope Snipe test, firing freehand without a scope on his rifle). In another episode, he smashed the locks off a door, barehanded. Not to mention calmly reporting the situation with a steady voice while being buried alive.
- Daniel P. Bolger, writer and soldier.
- Given how many military people of all branches have Master's degrees or higher, examples could go on all day. In fact, pretty much anyone in a military "technical" field, given how much material they must commit to memory. Especially pilots. They practically get a degree in aeronautical engineering before ever planting their butt in a seat. Even Dubya.
- Perhaps the best example though was Alfred the Great, King of Wessex and arguably the founder of England. He was bookworm to the Nth degree and he was badass to the Nth degree. He was a great scholar, fond of theology, philosophy, and the classical lore from the Romans and before. He was also a great warrior and could earn the devotion of his followers at a time when kings were expected to fight beside their men. He codified laws, encouraged learning, and so on as well as organizing a military system that could protect against the Danes.
- A number of people in the 1930's and '40s sound remarkably like Indiana Jones. But Ralph Bagnold is a great example of a Badass Bookworm. Not only was he a Commando in the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa, he wrote the premier book on the physics of sand which is still used by NASA for studying the deserts of Mars. He also spent time with a number of quite cinematic Badasses like Orde Wingate, Count Almazy, and others, searching for the lost oasis of Zeezura in the North African Deserts.
- Another possibly Indy inspiration: Hiram Bingham III—pilot, American politician, and rediscovered the Incan city of Machu Picchu.
- Henry Knox. He started out as a bookseller in Boston, who read all the books on military science as they came in. When the Revolutionary War broke out, Washington put him in charge of the artillery corps. He moved sixty tons of cannon overland, through mountains, from Ft. Ticonderoga to Boston and drove the British fleet from the harbor. Knox shared Washington's boat during the crossing of the Delaware, and wound up as the nation's first Secretary of War.
- Roald Dahl was an Ace Pilot in the Second World War. Yes, THAT Roald Dahl.
- What is arguably more badass is when the war broke out he had to round up all the German people in the town in Africa that he lived. He managed to stop them from escaping with only one death on his hands. Oh, and he did this with out any training, only being told it was his responsibility the day before.
- Most African-American civil rights leaders fit this trope.
- Frederick Douglass taught himself to read, and was an excellent orator. He also beat his slavemasters ass. No, seriously.
- Just because he was minister and a very educated man, Martin Luther King Jr. was undeniably Bad Ass.
- Malcolm X. Nuff said.
- F. Story Musgrave- computer scientist, chemist, mathematician, medical doctor and biophysicist. Went into space six times. On his last mission, he stood up during re-entry to film, taking 1.7 Gs. He was SIXTY-ONE at the time.
- Also went back to school to get a Masters degree in Literature so he could properly express what he'd seen and done.
- Arguably, to be an astronaut in general you have to fit this trope.
- While he never really went out asskicking, the fact remains that Niels Bohr, second most important theoretical physicist of the 20th century, aka "The Great Dane", was a huge, 2 metres tall, athletic guy known for always taking two stairs at once even at old age. Ernest Rutherford, an experimental physicist with a pronounced dislike for theoreticals once remarked "Bohr is different, he plays football".
- Leonardo Da Vinci was allegedly able to bend iron horseshoes straight. He also used a gun of his own design to kill soldiers attacking the city of Florence from 300 yards away. Good shooting even compared to modern day soldiers.
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Da Vinci made his living designing war-machines. Wrong. Leonardo da Vinci was an artist first and foremost, and lived on the art commissions of wealthy patrons.
- This troper holds that Alexander the Great is a preeminent example of the Badass Bookworm. The kid was educated by Aristotle, and managed to impress foreign dignitaries with his genius. He outdid his much more experienced father in generalship when he was just 18, then proceeded to create one of the largest land empires in history. A personal favorite story; after his conquests in Persia, part of his spoils was a beautiful chest. He set it aside to carry his equally beautiful and painstakingly written copy of Homer's poetry, a gift from Aristotle.
- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is a particularly striking example of this trope. Before he joined the Union Army in the civil war, he was a professor at Bowdoin University. At the Battle of Gettysberg he commanded the 20th Maine. Not only was he awarded multiple honors for bravery in combat, including the Medal of Honor, he received wounds that should have been fatal not once, but twice. He survived the war, and went back to teaching. By the end, he had taught every subject except mathmatics.
- Dian Fossey. While all of Louis Leakey's "angels" were pretty badass, this troper has a soft spot for Fossey and her film portrayal by Sigourney Weaver, walking right up to heavily-armed gorilla poachers and telling them off.
- Francis Lovell, later Viscount Lovell. Boyhood best friend of Richard III, he was as much a bookish scholor as Richard was an accomplished warrior. However, upon hearing that Richard had been killed in Battle against Henry Tudor, he proceeded to lead a revolution against Tudor in order to put Richard's heir on the throne - including literally leading the army into battle. The fact that the revolt ultimately failed does not in any way decrease the utter awesome badassedry of that.
- Richard III had his own moments of awesome, mostly when he was still Duke of Gloucester- including the time he repelled a Scottish invasion with only his own army, then drove home the point by leading his army through Scotland straight to Edinburgh, where he informed the petrified Scottish nobles in essence "Stay in your own land, or I'll be back and next time I won't be so nice." The coolest bit was that he had been good by medieval standards- he did not allow his army to loot or harm anyone other than combatants. There was also the time he snuck into an enemy camp under the dark of night to talk his misbehaving brother George, Duke of Clarence into rejoining Richard and their brother Edward IV. He also led one wing of his brother's army in two battles that put Edward back in the throne. Richard was 18 at the time.
- AND he did it all while vacationing in France, according to equally-accurate accounts.
- Chris Langan. Learn to talk: six months? Check. Score 200 on various IQ tests? Check. Kick the shit out of the stepdad who abused you for eight years, literally throw him out the door, and tell him never to come back? Check!
- He's also a giant who's about 300 lbs. and works as a bouncer, so "quiet and physically unimposing?" EHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
- General V� Nguy�n Gi�p was a schoolteacher and journalist before he joined up with Hồ Ch� Minh and became one of the Vietnam People's Army's most badass military leaders.
- Mishima Yukio, author of 40 novels, 18 plays, 20 books of short stories, and at least 20 books of essays, one libretto, as well as one film, also actor, director, and model, recognized as one of Japan's greatest living treasures. Also a kendo master, started his own private army, and used it to stage a coup on the day he sent in the manuscript for his final book in for publication. Hell, just look at a picture of the guy.◊ Possibly also a Magnificent Bastard.
- Socrates served as a foot soldier in three major Athenian campaigns. He once escorted Alcibiades, one of his superiors, through a chaotic battle back to safely by himself.
- Annmaria Rousey Demars. Ph.D.'s in both engineering and statistics. Barely over five feet tall. Judo gold medals. And she's obviously a great teacher too: her daughter Rhonda Rousey won a gold in judo at the Beijing Olympics. Do NOT mess with this family!
- Sir Richard Francis Burton. In this case, truth is far more awesome than fiction.
- The Klitschko brothers, Wladimir and Vitali, are giant, Ukrainian, heavyweight boxers who both have PhD's and are currently the top two heavyweights in the world. They only get more Badass as you learn more about them.
- Too bad they stubbornly refuse to ever fight each other. They're content to just whup on everybody else and leave it to the boxing public to decide which of them is the better fighter.
- Seems like more of the above are Genius Bruisers than Badass Bookworms. The distinguishing factor is appearance, not accomplishment.
- Insofar as his appearance on film is concerned, Lieutenant John Chard, (British) Royal Army Engineers probably qualifies. Oh, you don't know who he is? Well, there's this little confrontation called the Battle of Rorke's Drift where about 100 English soldiers held off four thousand Zulus. John Chard was the commanding officer during the battle.
- Siegfried Sassoon - These days, his reputation is as an anti-war war poet. What's often forgotten is that he was just as good at waging war as writing about it, including a single-handed attack on a German trench (which got him a medal) and numerous other near-suicidal exploits. Unlike fellow warrior-poet Wilfred Owen (equally brave and equally decorated), he managed to die of old age.
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