Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
These guys? Yeah, they're hardcore.
A Badass Family, even if they're not related. This will turn up a lot when discussing the Superhero Team, The Squad, and the Five Man Band. And a fair number of Sci-fi shows set aboard a ship, since normally, even the baddest hero can't run a whole Cool Ship on his own. This isn't a requirement though.
Some general conventions that apply to almost all Badass Crews are:
- They must include at least three people for obvious reasons. Two badasses would be Back To Back Badasses.
- A Crew typically has a recurring and more-or-less permanent roster; you can reasonably expect to see the same members over and over. Which is why this trope is a fixture of TV shows, comics, and other media which is made of recurring installments. You see this less in movie series, since they're often built around a central character who may have different supporters in each movie, i.e. Die Hard or James Bond. This is probably because it's easier to sign one actor for a film rather than three or five.
- Most heroes have some sort of support or backup, but in a badass crew, everyone must be capable of a Crowning Moment Of Awesome. In fact a given episode may involve the least badass character doing something so awesome the jaws of the others drop in unison.
- There's usually one person who acts as the leader of the bunch.
- Most important: the crew must have a certain loyalty toward one another. Like a family. If one of them is hurt/kidnapped/killed the others will bring holy hell on those responsible, even if it means violating orders. For this reason, all Badass crews are a form of Nakama.
Since, unlike a Badass Family, none of the members were born into the Crew, some writers will use the story of the Badass Crew's formation as an interesting origin story. In most Action/Adventures and Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories, the badasses came together to foil a Big Bad and/or save the world.
The members of the Crew may not have even liked each other at first or even been outright enemies, but they come together and join forces because a) none of them can defeat the Big Bad and his plot without total cooperation, b) they worked out their differences, c) they see the badassness in each other and recognize a kindred spirit, or d) all the above.
The Badass Crew may be or have been a Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits. Amazon Brigade is an all-female variation of this. The logical extension of this is the Badass Army where they are essentially a gigantic Badass Crew.
Also see Misfit Mobilization Moment, which is often an origin for the Badass Crew.
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- One Piece. One Image Song even mentions that the Straw Hats aren't related, but are still like a family.
- The Dai-Gurren Brigade from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. There's nothing else that needs to be said.
- Airship carrier doing a double roundhouse kick, for example.
- As pictured above, the Urameshi Team from Yu Yu Hakusho.
- Riot Force 6 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. When even the Staff Chick of the group is someone you don't want to mess with..
- Tsuna and his guardians from Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
- The Sanzo-ikkou from Saiyuki.
- The Z-Senshi of Dragonball.
- Askeladd's Crew in Vinland Saga, composed of The Berserker, a Genius Bruiser Magnificent Bastard, a teenage Determinator, a Scarily Competent Tracker and Those Two Guys. There's close to a hundred men in his crew, the number fluctuates, but those are the ones that stand out.
- The Band of the Hawk.
- No one has mentioned Naruto's Team 7? Or any of the genin teams, for that matter? I suppose Team 7 itself may be a subversion, or aversion, I'm not clear on those terms here, considering the group is so broken up between the Sasuke Retrieval Arc and Shippuden, but most of what you see in the manga dealing with other genin teams, is that the majority of them break up for good, or lose members, by the time they become chunin. The exception would be the Sannin, until they split, but Team 8, Team Gai, and especially Team 10 all remain a close-knit family. Asuma even mentions this, in a flashback, when he gives all the members of his team earrings as a symbol of sticking together. And, while Your Mileage May Vary, every single member of the Konoha 12 has their CMOA, even Ino, and especially Sakura, Shikamaru, and Naruto himself.
- Jacuzzi and Nice's gang from Baccano! is a group of Street Urchins, who still manage to fend off The Mafia.
- Onime no Kyo and his Shiseiten in Samurai Deeper Kyo
- The Kurogane House from Shin Mazinger, a group of former Yakuza members who were saved from the verge of death by their current leader, Tsubasa.
- The Yorozuya from Gintama is an example of this and Comic Trio.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has Ala Rubra, which had at least two members who are essentially invincible and a number of other members who aren't quite invincible, but still incredibly Bad Ass.
- Negi's group, Ala Alba, is well on it's way to this, as almost all the girls are drifting in an Action Girl direction. If one chooses to focus on the primary combatants (Negi, Kotaro, Setsuna, Kaede, and Asuna) it essentially is a Badass Crew with a bunch of people working the backup support positions.
- Colonel Mustang's crew from Fullmetal Alchemist. They're so badass that when they made their move on the Promised Day, a platoon of five soldiers engaged with Central's forces without killing anybody; 60 injuries, no deaths.
- Section Nine from Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex.
- Hello, people, we can't forget the main heroes of Bleach! Two shinigami, one with a sword that would make Cloud Strife in fear, one with a sword that could freeze a Fraccion solid.One Quincy, who not only fires light arrows but has a freaking light saber!!! Not to mention two humans, one of whom can, oh, I dunno...defy divine law by rejecting reality?
- The four Frenchmen from Le Chevalier D Eon, three of whom are among the best swordsmen alive.
- Outlaw Star had the Badass Five Man Band consisting of Badass Longcoat wearing Gene Starwind, his partner Jim Hawking, Robot Girl Melfina, Cat Girl Aisha Clan Clan, and assassin Twilight Suzuka.
- How has Cowboy Bebop not been mentioned yet? That show is guided by the Rule Of Cool, and that includes the Badass Crew on the Bebop.
Comic Books
- The Secret Six. Even the idea of family roles are played with when Bane pretty much becomes Scandal's "father". But don't underestimate them; they are villains after all.
- The Avengers. But you gotta be badass when your core membership is Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor with special guest appearances from the Hulk and Spider-Man.
- The Uncanny X-Men.
- Teen Titans. Their whole premise is that they are a family, and they most definitely are Bad Ass. As an example, let me list a few from one of the most recent incarnations.
- Impulse, almost immediately after joining the new Teen Titans, gets kneecapped by Deathstroke. After healing, which happens extremely fast and needs to be rebroken multiple times, not to mention that his metabolism is so fast he is immune to anesthesia, he reads an entire library in a matter of hours, and retains everything he read, and proceeds to change his name to Kid Flash and Take A Level In Maturity and A Level In Bad Ass.
- Superboy finds out he is a clone, not only of Superman, but also Lex Luthor, and nearly kills everyone while under Luthor's mind control, but then proceeds to go shot for shot with Superboy Prime for multiple pages, culminating in the Heroic Sacrifice when he destroys the Anti-Monitor's tower by smashing himself and Superboy Prime into it, impaling himself in the process.
- As mentioned above, Speedy is HIV positive and still Fights The Good Fight. (If that isn't already a trope, I think it should be, though I wouldn't know how to define it...)
- The Justice League. Duh.
Film
- The Fellowship Of The Ring. Even those hobbits will bust your ass should you trifle with them or their pals.
- Daniel Ocean's crew. The precision point schemes they pull off make them Bad Ass, but what makes them family is made Reuben is hurt; they put on a heist not to make a fortune, but just to spite the guy who hurt him.
- The crew of the Black Pearl.
- The main characters of the Star Wars original trilogy. Well, all except Threepio, anyway.
- The Seven Samurai
- The Magnificent Seven
- The Ghostbusters.
- Captain Jack Aubrey's crew. When even the milquetoast doctor and a one-armed 13-year-old grab swords and kick ass, you know your crew is badass!
- The impromptu Power Trio and their back-ups in Independence Day.
- The VIPER assassination squad in Kill Bill "would've" been this, if they weren't a bunch of psychotic back-stabbers.
- While Your Mileage May Vary on their badass status in Real Life, the movie version of The Untouchables certainly fit this trope. Yes, even the nerdy tax accountant (tax accountant for crying out loud!) achieves CMoAs.
- The crew of Serenity from Firefly In the movie alone, each member shows just how badass he/she can be... although Book's Crowning Moment Of Awesome happens off screen...
- "Hell with this! I'm gonna live!"
- "You've always taken care of me. My turn."
- The crew of the Enterprise in Star Trek most definitely qualifies. Even 150 year old Spock Prime and Team Dad Captain Pike get Crowning Moments of Awesome.
- Andy's toys from Toy Story. Toys can't be badass, you say?? Kidnap or threaten one of them, they'll show you just how incorrect you are.
Literature
- From the Star Wars Expanded Universe: Any X-Wing squadron captained by Wedge Antilles. Specifically, the X Wing Series' Rogue Squadron, and especially Wraith Squadron. The four pilots of Red Flight, while being a much smaller crew, all know each other from before and are quite awesome.
- The four stormtroopers in Survivors Quest, Unit Aurek-Seven of the 501st. Cloud, Grappler, Watchman, and Shadow. They are unspeakably badass.
- The Animorphs from the series of the same name, a crew of badass shapeshifters.
- The Fellowship Of The Ring is at least as badass in the books as in the film.
- From The City Watch novels, Vimes, Carrot, Angua and Detritus form one of these.
Live Action TV
- Every version of Star Trek features a version of this, but the best example is probably Star Trek The Next Generation. Even decidely un-badass types like Wesley and Troi got their moments to be badass; or at least Made Of Win.
- The appropriately named A-Team.
- The Impossible Missions Force of Mission:Impossible.
- Stargate SG-1.
- Dr. House's team. All extremely competent doctors, all competitive, all willing to bend rules to save a patient. And though it sometimes seemed they hated each other, their loyalty has actually lasted even though they've all gone their separate ways.
- As mentioned above, the crew of Serenity in Firefly.
- The Scooby Gang of Buffy The Vampire Slayer became this eventually.
- It seems that The Doctor and his companions touch on this trope pretty often. Then again, some of his companions were badass before getting into the TARDIS, like the Brigadier or Leela. Some became badass after they left like Martha Jones.
- The Operation Bartowski team from Chuck.
- The Unit.
- God help you if you mess with certain officers, officials, and crewmen of the Battlestar Galactica. Yes, they're an exceedingly dysfunctional crew, and are [literally] at each others' throats repeatedly, but mess with them, and the only question is which one of them is going to destroy you and how flashy that destruction will be.
- Certain Cylon models exhibit this quality. But that situation is....complicated......
- Team DenLiner from Kamen Rider Den-O.
- The Gibbs' Team in NCIS
- The Grissom team from CSI.
- The Metro-Dade Vice Squad of Miami Vice. Believe it or not, Crockett and Tubbs were not the only badasses working in Miami.
- The entire crew of Leverage. Each with their own specialties, each one the most badass at that particular art. And also an awesome Nakama.
- The crew of Moya from Farscape.
- The BAU team from Criminal Minds, from no-selling Team Mom Hotch to Badass Bookworm Reid, you don't ever mess with them.
- The outlaws from Robin Of Sherwood. Except Much...
- The outlaws from Robin Hood. Except Kate...
Tabletop RPG
- Most Dungeons And Dragons adventuring parties. Groups of (traditionally four) people who depends their lives on each other, fill specific roles, fight violent monsters, and generally perform superhuman feats of heroics (or villainy, as the case may be). Upon reaching a certain level of power, dying doesn't become so much a worry for these people as an inconvenience.
Video Games
- By the end of Princess Waltz, Badass Normal Arata Fukamori is leading a Badass Crew consisting of the titular princesses. And yes, they do smite ungodly amounts of ass.
- Halo's Spartan-II's. Members see their fellow Spartans as their only family (they were recruited at the age of 6 and trained together ever since). Possible slight subversion in that they are not a small group - there are over thirty of them, and every one is a certified Bad Ass.
- They become a more typical Badass Crew after most of them die in the battle for Reach, reducing their numbers to a small group of five.
- Delta Squad from Gears Of War. They're often split up into pairs, but when the four of them get together, they're practically unstoppable.
- That's the way most RPGs work: if at first the heroes are a Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits at first, by the end of the game and after taking several dozens levels in badass they usually end up at being roughly 50% of the world military power by themselves.
- In most First Person Shooters, the online cooperation mode has the players become this. Special mention goes to Doom and Serious Sam.
- The Alpha Numbers. You'd think a crew with Shinji Ikari in it would lose serious badass points. You'd be wrong.
- In the Original Generation canon, we have smaller versions of this. The SRX/ATX Teams,
The Aggressors, and they smash themselves together into a mega Badass Crew/Nakama when they join forces.
- Though she never actually does go through with her plan, Tohsaka in the True End of Heavens Feel in Fate Stay Night has a plan like this. It goes like this: Wait a few years until all necessary materials and abilities are gathered. Then, take her with Zelretch's sword, Shirou's Reality Marble, Sakura with the power of the Grail and Rider with... being Medusa and having an infinite mana supply. Then they'll go and enter tournaments for huge cash prizes because jewel sorcery is not for the poor. And roflstomp everyone because that combination is essentially all powerful. And yes, they are all most definitely capable of stand alone Crowning Moments Of Awesome. It's too bad the story ends before she can go through with it and the sequel eats continuity for breakfast.
- The Embryon from Digital Devil Saga are so badass they reunite in the afterlife to defeat God.
- The Asari, from Mass Effect. They lack the numbers to field a true Badass Army, but their individual special operation units are repeatedly stated to be the most lethal fighters in the entire galaxy.
- From Ace Combat 5, we have the player and his wingmates. They originally started out as rookie flight cadets that were forced to fight as frontline units in the beginning of the war. By the middle of the war, you all become known as the Demons of Razgriz, and your very presence on the battlefield scares the enemy shitless. The enemy gets a short respite when your unit is forced to play dead, but upon your comeback, the enemy absolutely freaks out, and your unit not only becomes dubbed the Ghosts of Razgriz, but you all fly in a wicked awesome black color scheme. Yes, the Razgriz are a flying unit of badass.
Web Comics
- The Order Of The Stick.
- The main cast of Sluggy Freelance has gradually morphed into this over the years. At first Torg and Riff were the only real close friends, and Bun-Bun was the sole Badass, but as time went by the bonds between them grew stronger, as did their individual badass levels. Gwynn acquired some freaky magical powers, Riff showed everyone what a Mad Scientist with two much time on his hands can do, Torg's become a master swordsman, and even Zoe has done pretty well against zombies, vampires, and psychotic assassins. Pretty much the only character without a Crowning Moment Of Awesome at this point is Kiki, unless you count her Caffeine Bullet Time being used to fuel a ferret bazooka.
- Bub-Bun wielding the Ferret Bazooka would be of a "Crowning Moment of Crazy Awesome" for both of them.
- Looking For Group A nigh unstoppable warlock, an extremely skilled archer/swordsman, a cleric capable of reviving the dead as long as she has MOST of the ashes, an axe wielding dwarf, and a guy who tackled/wrestled a dragon and is actually smarter than he is strong.
Web Original
- The original Grand Lake Heroes League in the Legion Of Nothing. The current team is working it's way there, but it's a little difficult when the badasses in training are also precocious teens.
- Team Kimba of the Whateley Universe. They may just be teenagers at Whateley Academy, but they've already taken out The Necromancer. And his Children of the Night. And the mercenaries he hired just in case Team Kimba showed up again.
Western Animation
- The main cast of Avatar The Last Airbender eventually attains this status; by the end of the show, we have a superpowered Kid Messiah (Aang), one of the world's best waterbenders (Katara), the world's best earthbender and only metalbender (Toph), a talented firebender (Zuko), and two Badass Normal warriors (Sokka and Suki). The Order of the White Lotus probably also qualifies.
- Dethklok. They may be dumb as a box of particularly dim hammers and they may fight and bitch at each other all the time, but when it really counts, they're thick as thieves (even if they don't admit it). Many of the Crowning Moments of Awesome in Metalocalypse double as Crowning Moments of Heartwarming because they're all at their most badass when they're looking out for each other.
- Transformers Cybertron: The Autobots. All of them can, when it counts, crack open a can of whup-ass. Especially Optimus Prime. Four words: "Optimus Prime, Super Mode!"
- Team Venture from the Venture Brothers, the original version at least.
- The Penguin Team from The Penguins Of Madagascar
- Codename Kids Next Door: Sector V...on occasion
Real Life
- The crew of Apollo13. Complete with The Captain, Mission Commander James A. Lovell, Number Two Fred Haise, Ace Pilot Jack Swigert, and featuring the two CoolShips the Aquarius and the Odyssey. Definitely a Nakama, as training to be an astronaut will force you to see the man next to you as family. The crew was so badass, they were able to get back home even after their Cool Ship got busted in mid-flight.
- The Assault Team that launched a rescue mission to save over 100 hostages from from a hijacked plane at Entebbe Airport in 1976. Not surprisingly, they were part of the Badass Army known as the Isreali Defense Forces.
- The Zeezura Club devoted to the exploration of the Egyptian and Libyan desert in 1930. Contained many a Badass such as Bagnold, Almasy, and Wingate.
- The 1953 Everest team. Also contained many a Badass .
A great number of Sports teams are this:
- The 1972 Miami Dolphins; who won every game that season, up to and including the Super Bowl.
- The 2007 New England Patriots nearly equaled the feat. But they were beaten in the Super Bowl by another Bad Ass Crew, namely the New York Giants.
- That team was pretty ordinary, but Strahan, Umenyiora, and Tuck - who harassed superstar quarterback Tom Brady throughout - absolutely count.
- The New York Islanders ice hockey team, which won four straight Stanley Cup titles between 1980 and 1983.
- Several Montreal Canadiens teams accomplished similar feats in several decades.
|
|
