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"Do you have any idea who you're stealing from!? You and your friends are dead!"
Movies, anime, cartoons, even books have an unspoken fighting power curve where the hero and villain are at or near the top. The Muggles and Innocent Bystanders? They're waaaay down there at the bottom, duh! Otherwise they wouldn't really be Innocent Bystanders in need of protecting, now would they?
Except for this guy. The Badass Bystander is a background or minor character who shows significant or surprising fighting prowess or strength against a major threat. Whether it's a doddering old man beating the Deathbot 9000, going toe to claw with a werewolf, or purse-whacking the Giant Mook into submission.
Shows up frequently in martial arts movies, Western Barroom Brawls, and various Tabletop RPG's, in which random wandering monsters or random NPCs occasionally kick a PC's or villain's ass, depending on how the dice roll. NPC shopkeepers are pretty tough too; see Izchaks Wrath.
This can result in Fridge Logic. Why aren't they helping you, The Only One who is trying to save the world? Its Up To You only. I guess.
Frequently done for comedy, with the Bystander being either Weak But Skilled or otherwise seemingly harmless. These minor characters Fighting For Survival may be so powerful they qualify as Sidekick Ex Machina's, with the hero "beating" their opponent by tossing him to the Badass Bystander to finish them off.
By their nature, plots involving Zombie Apocalypse tend to include Badass Bystanders— out of the normal civilians in harm's way, the only ones left standing are likely to be unusually badass.
This is a subtrope of Badass Normal, related to Heroic Bystander. See also I Know Kung Fu.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- One is played for laughs in the Hyper Dolls manga when she appears; one of the titular Lovely Angels duo teases the other that the Badass Bystander is a possible Sixth Ranger... one of many to come... "Just like Sailor Moon..." "NOOO! (Knocks out bystander)"
- The Taxi Driver in Canaan.
- Yuuna 'the Kid' in Mahou Sensei Negima starts decimating robot invaders during the Mahora school festival to the utter astonishment of everyone around her. When the really really big stuff starts coming out, she does get outclassed though. Just like everyone except Negi, really.
Film
Literature
- Used a few times in the badass-saturated Malazan Book Of The Fallen, sometime to introduce a character that will become important a few books down the line. The most prominent example is that of Traveler, who first shows up in House of Chains accompanying a group of nameless soldiers, defeats a hundred elite mooks off-screen, and leaves the narrative by the end of the chapter that introduced him.
- In the last Percy Jackson book, Percy's mom and stepdad are surprisingly badass when faced with a horde of monsters. This despite the fact that neither has any kind of supernatural fighting skills, and Percy's stepdad can't even see the monsters thanks to the Weirdness Censor.
Video Games
Web Comics
- Officer Tod from Sluggy Freelance, a seemingly useless cop, actually manages to go toe-to-toe with the assassin who killed Oasis.
- Airman Higgs from Girl Genius is a low-level soldier who never distinguished himself, despite unreal stamina, enough strength to hold his own in a barfight with Jagermonsters, and a bit of a silver tongue
 .
- Never distinguished himself until he saves single handed the very Baron who rules Europe.
Western Animation
- Somewhat subverted in the Justice League Unlimited finale. Wonder Woman, Shining Knight, Vigilante, and Sapphire are having a difficult time fighting an army of Parademons when one of the Chinese bystanders stops running, tells his wife goodbye and runs to help. Wonder Woman tries to talk the old man out of it, until he one-hit K.O.s not one, not two, but THREE parademons, turns into a dragon, and whups several more, much to the heroes' surprise. The subversion comes in when the old man turns out to be the retired J'onn J'onz, aka Martian Manhunter.
Real Life
- Truth In Television- The ABC Primetime show What Would You Do would definitely testify to this.
- Truth In Television-This Troper saw an hilarious clip of a two "happy slapping" thugs assaulting this random passerby and his girlfriend. He is clearly a trained boxer and beats the living daylights out of them. His girlfriend had to pull him away from kicking them on the ground - even though they had happyslapped her too.
- A similar clip shows a pimp slapping around one of his girls. He goes off on some random bystander, starts walking the walk, talking the talk, and the girl tears off his shirt trying to hold him back. The pimp walks up to the bystander and gets karate-chopped in the neck for his trouble. The chopper, by the way, was teaching a self-defense class across the street when he saw the pimp hitting his girl and intervened.
- This guy, a Mixed Martial Arts practitioner who defended a cashier from an irate customer.
- John Smeaton, who kicked a burning terrorist in the balls so hard he injured his foot.
- A Delaware woman told USA Today that she had been walking home from church when her purse was snatched. A nearby man who had witnessed the attack jumped out of his car, chased the purse-snatcher through several backyards and over fences, and got the purse back. The man in question? Just happened to be her senator, Joe Biden.
- I knew there was a reason Obama picked him to be Vice President. Biden is immune to conventional weapons.
- Recently the mayor of London saved a Journalists, scaring away a group of Teenagers with a metal pipe, and riding them away on his bike.
- This Troper's sister once lived on the street for about ten years, and her favorite story was about a trio of thugs that started harassing a tall, scrawny nerd walking down the street. After three kicks to the head in less than three seconds, he walked away without a word, leaving the thugs half-conscious on the ground.
- This Troper's older brother once told him about something that happened near the house he was renting during his walk home one night, he came across two guys that were getting there asses handed to them by some burly Badass Biker type, turns out said guys tried to break into said bikers house AND try to steal his car.
- A Milwaukee man picked the wrong time and place to get into a "domestic dispute" when Mayor Tom Barrett was nearby.
- Unfortunately this one is more of an Averted Trope. Barrett did step in and try to call 911, but the most badass thing he was able to do was walk away from being beaten with a pipe with only minor injuries. Heroic, probably. Badass, no.
- Rukhsana Kausar, a farmer's daughter from India, living near the Pakistani border. After three armed militants invaded her home and began beating her father, she attacked one with an axe, disarmed him and shot him dead with his own gun. Indian police apparently believe he may be a wanted terrorist commander.
- This troper heard a story about a Mormon missionary who had his bike stolen-when he saw it on the street and tried to reclaim it, he got punched in the face. Unfortunately for the attacker, and two of his friends who came to his aid, said missionary was a Samoan kickboxer. Downside was that the gang the attackers were part of apparently decided that all Mormons are badass, and missionaries still can't go into that area.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TjDH0a0xBQ
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