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Doyle: He likes playing the hero. Walking off into the dark, his long coat flowing behind him in that mysterious and attractive way.
Cordelia: Is this a private moment? Cuz I could leave you alone.
Doyle: I'm not saying I'm attracted....Maybe I'm a little attracted.
Longcoat-wearing heroes probably started with Westerns or Film Noir, but became especially common in the public mind after The Matrix. Odds are they'll become a Subverted Trope in a few years. Until then, enjoy it while it lasts.
A Longcoat is the ideal action hero, not quite wearing a cape but a cool black or red coat called a "duster". He may have martial arts skills, but more often than not just absurd, godlike proficiency with weapons. In addition, a Longcoat of any level of 'billowy-ness' makes an ideal cover for producing any number of weapons, tools, supplies and whatnot. Certain styles of Longcoat are deliberately designed to distort the wearer's frame, making their wearer's access to Hammerspace almost believable to mundane eyes.
They usually have some quirk to humanize them, to avoid falling into the Mary Sue category. The ones who wear red have a tendency to get dismembered, but they're so badass it doesn't slow them down much. And of course, when a Badass really wants to do some damage he takes his longcoat off!.
A long coat is closely related to cape wearing heroes, except they are more hardcore. Both, however, realize the dramatic use of having something that flutters behind you. A variant involves jackets and excessively long shirts, but having less material to billow in the gusts necessarily makes such people seem less badass.
The most common types of long coats are dusters and trench coats. The principle difference between the two is that dusters are designed for horseback riding and thus have a long slit up the back. While a trench coat may also have a slit, it's usually only to the knees or lower thighs, not all the way to the waist as with a duster. Trench coats also usually feature a belt and epaulets.
A third style is the great coat, a predecessor of the trench coat but usually much heavier, with a wider collar that can be turned up to protect against the wind. Great coats were typically worn buttoned, losing some of their bad-assitude, though prior to the 20th Century they often featured a cape. They're most often associated with 19th Century naval officers and Russian soldiers. The Inverness cape is a lighter garment with a very similar appearance to the caped greatcoat.
There is of course a fourth variety, but it takes a very, very rare combination of personality traits to allow one to pull off the Badass Labcoat. A less modern example would be the Badass Long Robe. Cool Shades are a nice accessory, as are tacking on a Nice Hat and mask to achieve the Coat Hat Mask Effect. The Badass Longcoat is often combined with a pair of guns for extra effect.
Usually a subtrope of The Stoic, but need not always apply. Not related to Badass Longcat. Not to be confused with Conspicuous Trenchcoat.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Alucard in Hellsing. Luke Valentine, who wears a long white coat, and Alexander Anderson, who wears a grey cassock, are variations on this. Although none of them are particularly stoic, they are all distinctly Badass. Integra sometimes wears one too, as does Major Montana. There's The Captain too, whose Badass quotient is enough to easily stand up to the Charles Atlas Superpowered Battle Butler and have his tails do the bat-wing flutter thing even though it's a fully buttoned, double-breasted affair.
- Subverted with the normal members of Iscariot and the Nazi vampire mooks, who are more of a Redshirt Army.
- Randal Oland from Pumpkin Scissors is an extremely Badass Longcoat who can take out a tank single handed.
- In Bleach, Ichigo's robes intriguingly and briefly transform into a long-sleeved, ankle-length black coat with red lining that is closed at his chest during Tensa Zangetsu, the final release of his zanpakuto. It's also noted, however, that many of the captains in this anime could be considered badass and do wear haori, a type of long coat — however, the captain coats are white.
- Subversion: Shunsui Kyōraku (Eighth Squad Captain) subverts this by being a powerful fighter with an incredibly "un-badass" pink, flowery haori over his uniform.
- Arguably, some say that the Quincy pull off the Badass Labcoat look.
- Kyuzo in Samurai 7, an SF adaptation of Kurosawa Akira's original Jidai Geki film Seven Samurai. Unofficially is the most skilled of the samurai, possibly exceeding the group's experienced leader, and definitely the most deadly. Sports blonde hair and a distinctive crimson-red coat.
- Jo from Bakuretsu Tenshi is a Badass Longjacket, though she usually takes it off during combat.
- A pair of double-subversions: Trigun's Vash the Stampede and Abel Nightroad from Trinity Blood are infamous for deliberately subverting the trope to make opponents think they're harmless morons.
- Vash has another reason for the long coat: hiding the effects of heavily subverted Hollywood Healing.
- In all Yu-Gi-Oh series, some character will have an incredibly badass coat. Kaiba in the original series has several long coats; Manjoume in Yu-Gi-Oh GX wears a black trenchcoat, Ryo adopts a black duster after his Freak Out transformation into Hell Kaiser, and Judai trades in his jacket for a longer coat after coming through his Break The Cutie arc. In Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, the requisite badass coat is worn by anti-hero Jack Atlus, who ironically spends more time in his skintight bodysuit rather then utilizing the full dramatic effect of his coat.
- Rika/Ruki in Digimon Tamers (Word Of God: one of her early character models was a character from The Matrix), and Captain Sampson/Satsuma and BanchouLeomon in Digimon Savers.
- Gene Starwind in Outlaw Star. While it's really more of a big cloak, Gene is still an outlaw, a bounty hunter, and a gunslinger, so it counts.
- Plus, it was shown to have a practical use, since it was revealed in an episode to have four rocket launchers inside it that go off if he pulls off the coat fast enough.
- Some high-ranking Marines in One Piece, since a large jacket is part of the clothing for them. Admiral Aokiji when he was Vice-Admiral Kuzan, complete with Sinister Shades. Captain Hina and Vice-Admiral Garp, although the former usually takes her Marine coat off, and the latter does it when he gets serious. And recently, Admiral Kizaru, also complete with Scary Shiny Glasses (sort of, he's always cheery, but he's every pirate's worst nightmare) epitomizes this trope. He knocked out an entire mangrove tree with a kick, kicked two members of the Eleven Supernovas (seriously powerful rookie pirates, like Luffy) through a building (the first one with a sidekick knocking him through at least four or five) and during his entire escapade to the Sabaody Archipelago, including the four Supernovas he handed their ass to (two of which I've already mentioned), he caught no fewer than 500 pirates!
- Subverted with Captain Smoker, who lately became Commodore Smoker, who doesn't wear a Marine longcoat, rather a Marine jacket, but is clearly Badass. He even complains about the bounties given to certain pirates, and considers some so easy to capture that they are not worth his time.
- Alex Rowe on Last Exile. The only time he does show emotion is when Maestro Delphine is present, at which point Rowe turns into a raving homicidal madman.
- Amon on Witch Hunter Robin made a lifestyle out of being utterly unflappable, keeping his allies in the dark (for no particular reason), and always being a hat drop away from killing series lead and best friend/partner Robin because he thought she might fall prey to With Great Power Comes Great Insanity (again, despite knowing her well enough to discount that out of hand).
- The title character of the series was also badass in her own right, and not coincidentally, she also wore a long-coat. Hers, however, was red.
- A letter-perfect example of this trope, save for the length of the coat, is Misato Katsuragi in Neon Genesis Evangelion: commanding (at least in her role as a NERV officer), laconic ("Nothing personal"), a crack shot and stunt driver. When her arm breaks, of course, she wears the high-collared red coat on her shoulders like any proper commissar.
- Kuroudou Akabane in GetBackers. Ban Mido would fall under the "excessively long shirt" subset.
- Subverted in Mai-Otome with Garderobe headmistress Natsuki Kruger, who is about as far from badass as is mortally possible in her standard, coat-wearing outfit. Miyu, with her long black duster and matching hat, fits this trope to the letter.
- Reversed somewhat in Slayers NEXT with Gaav. He's not only extremely proficient with his chosen longsword, but at least seven foot tall at best guess looking at him, ungodly powerful both physically and in sorcerous power, and nigh indestructible. And he sports a suitably badass orange longcoat. The catch? He's the penultimate villain of the season, not a hero. He's also a character in a fantasy world setting where the trenchcoat look is rather out of place, to say the least.
- Hei from Darker Than Black. The longcoat is even bulletproof, but only when he wears it.
- Jotaro Kujo from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
- When Seishirou and Subaru are introduced in "X1999", both sport badass longcoats, with Seishirou's in black and Subaru's in white. Subaru also appears to have had an Important Haircut, and is significantly more badass than when he appeared in Tokyo Babylon (though after all that's happened to him, it's not all that surprising.)
- Fuuma appears to have a closet just full of a wide variety of stylish longcoats. Of note, he owns one that is both black and white (very appropriate to the character).
- Gally in GUNNM.
- Sola: Takeshi (pictured above), who fights with a sword and darts that explode into light.
- Van in Gun X Sword doesn't just wear a long coat, he wears a full tuxedo. It's the one he wore on his wedding day, when the Claw killed his bride.
- The standard uniform of the Amestrian military in Fullmetal Alchemist is a badass greatcoat.
- Edward Elric of Fullmetal Alchemist fame wears a red duster, but has yet to be dismembered while wearing it (his missing limbs were before the coat). Unless, of course, you count the number of times his automail has broke, but otherwise, he's good. He makes a point of wearing a red coat anywhere for various reasons (the biggest being to cover up his automail). In the most recent chapter, as his group is Heading for what appears to be the final confrontation, he buys a roll of red cloth and transmutes it into his signature jacket, most likely to show that he means business.
- Rin Asougi from Mnemosyne takes to always wearing a male's business suit. Which makes sense, as she's a business woman. However she often gets into fights with it, and generally looks like a badass while doing so. Unfortunately, her business suits are black, and she has a distinct tendency to get shot up and blown up and spray blood everywhere. Even worse, villains love catching her while she's actually not in her business suit and off-guard.
- Bolt Crank from Eat-Man sports a floor length trench coat while firing an assortment of 'uge freekin guns one handed.
- Dr. Black Jack almost invariably wears a black cloak and tuxedo when he's not in scrubs. As for how Badass he is, he once used a scalpel to deflect bullets.
- Mephisto of Demon City Shinjuku wears a long red coat which billows out dramatically in convenient winds. It's hard to say which of his moments is more badass: the one in which he smoothly diverts and calmly destroys a demon which is stalking the hero, or the one in which he shows up at the final battle and informs the Big Bad in all seriousness that he had better see a fair fight.
- Aya and Yoji of Weiss Kreuz both wear long coats, but it's not until sequel series Weiss Kreuz: Gluhen that they upgrade to properly billowing Badass Longcoats.
- Chrono from Chrono Crusade might be a bit of a subversion. While his normal outfit includes a long, red coat, he appears to be a twelve-year-old boy, and the rest of his outfit is fairly dorky looking. However, when he goes into his badass, true form of a demon he loses the coat, his coat being replaced by wings. It's possible his coat is supposed to be a visual reference to the wings he has in his true form.
- And then of course, there's the villain Aion, who is a truer version of the Badass Longcoat.
- Hitomi Landsknecht from ICE.
- Wilhelm from Mahou Sensei Negima.
- Simon Post-Time Skip in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Anko Mitarashi from Naruto wears a badass longcoat, though, much like other outfits in the Narutoverse, is not practical for a ninja to wear, but it does not necessarily make her a Highly Visible Ninja. Though one would assume the swooshing a proper badass longcoat would make from jumping around would decrease stealth, but, eh...
- Also Ibiki Morino and, in Part 2, Ino's father, who is revealed to be a member of the interrogation squad.
- Much later, Naruto himself shows up wearing a red-and-black one with flame pattern when returning from training in the toad village. Although it's torn up before the end of the Story Arc.
- Don't forget that his father the Fourth Hokage used to wear a similar coat.
- There's also the entire Aburame clan.
- Zest and Signum from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. The former took out Vita while she was Unisoned. The latter killed the former.
- Fate T. Harlaown (Barrier Jacket Impulse Form) and Erio count, too.
- In Nanoha Force, Nanoha, Fate, and probably Signum started sporting trench coats as their regular attire.
- Gainax's OVA sequel to Gun Buster, Die Buster, features Dix-Neuf, a Humongous Mecha that wears a gigantic duster. Rule Of Cool to the max.
- Let's not forget D from Vampire Hunter D.
- Dr Stein from Soul Eater, rocks the rare Badass Labcoat.
- Ye gods, Archer from Fate/Stay Night! The man they invented "Gar" for and very much deserving of it!
- Badassery aside, it's not a true longcoat; it's actually a pair of sleeves and a long battle-skirt-thing. Looks damn similar, though.
- Kotomine Kirei definitely qualifies with his bullet proof priest's robes, and proves in Fate Zero that people don't necessarily die when they are killed, and again in the Heaven's Feel route. Kiritsugu Emiya also sports a more traditional style duster, but while he definitely has his badass moments, can take Combat Pragmatist a little too far sometimes.
- Captain Bravo from Busou Renkin, who is entirely aware of how cool it makes him look.
- In Yami no Matsuei, Muraki Kazutaka is almost always seen in a white trench coat, while Tsuzuki Asato sports the black variety.
- Brandon "Beyond The Grave" Heat from Gungrave exemplifies both The Stoic and Badass Longcoat in both the anime and video game. Strong, silent, dangerous. In both the anime and original video game he wears an intricately detailed purple coat with a large Gothic cross emblazoned on the back. Even in normal clothes he wears a black longcoat that is mostly prominent in the anime (in the game he's seen wearing it only in the opening and quickly changes to his "battle suit"). Most of the anime is backstory to the game, in which he more closely matches the Aloof Big Brother type; even though not technically related to any of them, he does have an overriding protective streak toward friends, lovers, partners, that would manifest in nothing less than sacrifice of self and true love.
- Jiro from Black Blood Brothers.
- Claire Stanfield from Baccano! is usually seen wearing one of these, at least when he's not running around in that blood-soaked conductor's uniform....
- Shana from Shakugan No Shana.
- Sven (while with the IBI), Train (while with Chronos) and Belze from Black Cat. Here, though, Train's long black coat isn't so much a symbol of his badassitude but of his place in Chronos as an assassin; during most of the series, he wears a cropped black jacket over a long shirt, even though he's still pretty badass. Significantly, he dons his old coat again for a major showdown with Creed, another Chronos assassin who killed the love of Train's life.
- Tooya from Ayashi No Ceres wears a trench coat (with shades and stoicism, to boot) at the beginning of the series, while he's still working for the Mikages.
- Additionally, he wears a labcoat when he disguises himself as a doctor at Aya's school.
- Eat-Man is the story of Bolt Crank, who is a jumbo-sized longcoat, who interestingly doesn't actually keep anything in his coat. Instead, he just keeps all of his miscellanous BFGs, BFSs, bombs, and... steam train locomotives... in a sort of built-in Hammerspace inside of his body.
- Raven in Pandora Hearts. There are others though.
- In the 5th opening of Gintama, Takasugi is shown sporting a long dark trench coat while fighting hordes of aliens with Gintoki, Katsura, and Sakamoto in what appears to be a hopelessly one-sided battle. And he is kicking ass.
- The Exorcist uniforms in D.Gray-Man.
Comic Books
- Agent Shepperd from 100 Bullets wears brown trench coat is a signature piece of wardrobe and the guy proves why he's the only one in the series who can wear it.
- Dr Octopus has been doing this since before it was cool. After a while they changed his look into a high-tech looking jumpsuit (the Eighties, I think), but the trenchcoat remained his "classic" look, up until they brought back the old style.
- The Punisher, particularly by Garth Ennis.
- The Boys, which is written entirely by Ennis.
- The Saint of Killers from Preacher, also written entirely by Ennis.
- Nextwave, where the longcoat is an issued part of the uniform for the main characters (who still wear tights underneath)
- Other examples of the Badass Longcoat Over Tights (see also Civvie Spandex):
- Gambit of X-Men fame.
- Take a good, long look at Gambit one of these days, by the way, and mentally take off the coat. What the hell is that costume?
- Static (whose baggy coat in the comics somehow manages to look more badass than the neatly-tailored one from the cartoon)
- Blade, as also mentioned in Film.
- Midnighter of The Authority.
- Rogue wore one for a while, having apparently taken a fashion cue from Gambit.
- John Constantine from Hellblazer.
- Also Mr E, Dr Occult and, according to Constantine, the Phantom Stranger (although his does seem to be more of a cape). While John invented the term "The Trenchcoat Brigade" as a joke, it's the title of their Books of Magic spin-off miniseries.
- The heroes of Frank Miller's Sin City have also been known to don the Badass Longcoat.
- Marv's longcoats tend to get ripped to shreds during big fights, requiring him to find another big longcoat, usually off a bad guy. There was actually a oneshot where he wakes up in a new coat, with no memory of where he got it, and tries to work out where it came from.
- Dwight McCarthy from "The Big Fat Kill" combines the Badass Longcoat with Guns Akimbo.
- Who forgot Wallace? He's a Badass Longcoat and a Badass Longhair. He fits this trope to a tee, being amazing with weapons and an incredible fighter, military trained, possessing depth and mysterious qualities, and wearing a trenchcoat that comes to his ankles.
- As noted in the Film section, Hellboy is a pretty obvious example of this.
- Dream of The Sandman.
- Bruce Wayne's son Damian wears one as Batman in Batman #666.
- Flint Henry's reincarnation of Grimjack has John Gaunt aka Jim Twilly make his entrance in a dark purple greatcoat with gold embroidery. The coat is later shown to hold about 50 lbs. of guns and edged weapons when he is busted by robot cops.
- Ivan Isaacs of Priest wears one of these.
- These are what amounts to The Boys' uniform, contrasted with the capes-and-spandex look of the superheroes they keep in line.
- Misaimed Fandom aside, Rorschach from Watchmen does look pretty badass in that coat.
- Black Canary occasionally wears one. Fishnets, fighting boots, martial arts, and longcoat. Yeah.
Film
- A good 75% of the characters in the Matrix trilogy.
- Most of the cast of Pirates Of The Caribbean wears long coats of some sort. Though this includes badasses such as Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, Elizabeth, etc. the cowardly Governor Swann also wears one.
- John Preston in the movie Equilibrium. He starts the movie literally feeling no emotion, but by the end, when he goes off the emotion-inhibiting drug, he feels the full spectrum of human emotion while having to hide it from his superiors. Subverted only as far as the stoic part, though, since he doesn't lose any badass-ness.
- This troper thinks that he totally stops being cool when he goes emo (pun intended) and therefore does not longer count as badass.
- The final action sequence when he goes into Tranquil Fury mode should dispel that little notion pretty damned quickly.
- The titular hero Hellboy of the movie Hellboy (2004) wore a brown duster over black clothes, possibly in a futile attempt at Clark Kenting the fact that he was a large, bright red-skinned demon with a tail and horns.
- More likely just to look really freakin' awesome. Also, I think it's BPRD standard issue.
- He also wore the duster in the graphic novels of the same name. This, along with the filed-down horns (which resembled goggles on his head), were intended to play up the "Average, Blue-Collar Joe" image of the character.
- Mark and Ken Gor (both played by Chow Yun-Fat) from John Woo's A Better Tomorrow series, though both of them are less stoic than they might seem. The main bad guy of the first movie, Shing, wears a white Badass Longcoat.
- Ken's badass quotient is doubled by the fact he wears his twin brother's old bullet hole riddled Badass Longcoat in the final action sequence of the movie.
- After the release of the first film wearing similar coats became a trend among young men in Hong Kong, and the style of coat is still sometimes referred to as "Brother Mark's Coat."
- In any Heroic Bloodshed film in general, if you're not Dressed To Kill, you're likely to be wearing a Badass Longcoat.
- Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element.
- Carlito Brigante with his black leather trenchcoat in Carlito'sWay.
- Joker in the Dark Knight Trilogy dons a purple one, and still makes it look badass, as opposed to the traditional purple tuxedo.
- Jim (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in The Basketball Diaries, in the classroom shooting dream sequence.
- On a similar note, Jason Dean (Christian Slater) in Heathers sports a black longcoat throughout the entire film.
- Eric Draven (played by the late Brandon Lee) in The Crow. He takes it off Tin Tin, the first of the guys responsible for murdering him and his fiancee. He sets it aside when he finishes them off...and after it was filled with holes from about five hundred bullets.
- Selene in the Underworld films is an archetypal Badass Longcoat Action Girl. That she is a vampire and effectively a demigod in the second movie only adds to her badassery.
- Technically, Jedi wear robes, but the difference largely amounts to the fact that they have hoods and longer sleeves. The costume designers apparently tried to compensate for Lucas's writing and directing resulting in a lack of badass for what should have been the most badass character in Episodes II and III, and had Anakin dress in a lot of black leather under his plain brown robe.
- Tom Cody in Streets Of Fire, complete with shotgun.
- William 'The Butcher' Cutter from Gangs Of New York appears in the opening scene not only in a super-badass longcoat, but a silver false eye in the shape of the Federal Eagle.
- The title character of the Blade series of movies has a longcoat that's so badass it's black on the outside and red on the inside.
- Mister Furious from Mystery Men tries to pull this off. He wears a black overcoat, drives a black motorcycle and refers to himself as the "lone wolf". Thing is, he's not really more Badass than any other team member, he just has a very short fuse.
- Freddy Krueger in Wes Craven's A New Nightmare, which is more of an antihero / villain type, but it is the first and only time he appeared in a long coat, in addition to the usual striped sweater.
- Another villainous example, Spider-Man 2's Doctor Octopus wears a long coat and pairs it with Cool Shades.
- Gabriel Van Helsing in the movie Van Helsing.
- Lampshaded in Rustler's Raphsody when the narrator notes that western villains always have thugs who wear raincoats in the desert.
- Silent Bob has a little bit of the badass longcoat in him, especially the Hyperspace Arsenal bit.
- In the Samuel Fuller movie Baron of Arizona, Vincent Price plays a conman who spends most of the movie dressed like this (he dresses as a monk to alter the history of royal land grants). He doesn't do anything particularly Bad Ass, but women throw themselves at him and he's as tall as all the other characters standing on each other's shoulders.
- Somewhat Played For Laughs with Detective Billy Rosewood in Beverly Hills Cop II. There are several instances in the movie which shows that Billy (who's hardly a stoic character) leaning towards this, concluding when he pulls a bunch of guns and a long trenchcoat from the back of his car before heading off to meet with the bad guys.
[Taggart sees Rosewood take two shotguns and an overcoat out of his trunk]
Sergeant Taggart: Billy, what are you doing?
Billy Rosewood: I've been wanting to wear this for a while, Sarge.
Sergeant Taggart: What are you, nuts? Jesus Christ, Billy! We gotta talk! What the hell is this?
Billy Rosewood: You can never have too much firepower.
- Amazingly enough, he does kick quite a bit of ass, even if at times he borders on Idiot Hero.
- Sgt. Mitch Hunter from the Mutant Chronicles movie and his incredibly shiny coat qualify.
- Believe it or not, Doc Brown in Back To The Future Part III, for his first appearance: shooting the rope hanging Marty, and forcing Buford Tannen and his gang to back down.
- Doc seems to favor long coats in general during the trilogy — he wears a trenchcoat during the famous scene at the Clock Tower, and a long black coat while in 1985-A (and again in 1955, while searching for Marty). The Old West duster, though, is definitely the most badass of them.
- Of all people, Aragorn in Lord Of The Rings.
- The titular hero in Darkman. This troper actually thinks of the poster whenever he hears the term.
- Cameron Vale in Scanners.
- No mention of The Shadow? His coat is so badass it deflects bullets.
- Subverted in The Incredibles when Bob (Mr. Incredible) goes to Edna for a fix-it job on his old suit, she offers to design him a new Super-Suit and he's the one that wants a cape. For the look, obviously - but E won't give it to him. Too dangerous.
- Rutger Hauer in Split Second.
- The Man with No Name from The Dollars Trilogy, includes The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a good example of typical long coat skills, has nearly unrealistic skills with a revolver.
- The futuristic soldier (not to mention father of John Connor and a total badass) Kyle Reese, in The Terminator.
- Snake Eyes in the upcoming G.I. Joe film, if this action figure
 is any indication.
- Shockingly averted in The Punisher War Zone film, where Frank wanders through New York with all his holsters and guns and WHITE SKULL SYMBOL perfectly visible - even though his penchant for longcoats is an established comic book trait.
- The title character of the Samuel L. Jackson remake of Shaft wears a black leather trench coat that's every bit as badass as he is.
- Bryan Mills from Taken puts a black one on for most of the movie and some of the publicity material has him in it.
- Shua in Sky Blue.
- Jade in Bulletproof Monk ends the movie in a Badass Longcoat. It helps that she has been kicking ass pretty much the entire movie but there is something about a bodyhugging red leather outfit complete with a red longcoat that made this troper drool.
Literature
- Harry Dresden famously sports a duster. He's enchanted it to be bulletproof and knifeproof, so almost never goes anywhere without it - no matter how unfashionable it is.
- It's not, however, impact-proof, as he notes on one occasion after being shoulder-checked by an enormous muscly brute, which denotes why it's an important measure but by no means a perfect one.
- He's gotten it to the point that the impact is spread out across his body, which any physics fanatic will tell you reduces the force of the impact. Though his shields do work better.
- It's alot of things proof.
- To put into perspective just how dedicated to that jacket he is, think of this. While most books take place during winter or fall months, a few have been during the summer. After the first experience without it, he suffered the odd looks and possible heat stroke of a Chicago summer, just so he would still have the protection it offered
- Hey, it's relatively lightweight, highly effective armor that noone is going to bust him for wearing in public, plus it looks cool. This troper would wear it in all weathers too if I was in his line of work.
- COMMISSAR! CIAPHAS! CAIN! in Sandy Mitchell's novels of the Warhammer 40K setting, who kicks ass and takes names while wearing a huge, red-sashed and gold-trimmed greatcoat, complete with natty cap. This is rather ironic, as Cain, despite being a certified Bad Ass, is a complete coward who runs away from battle far more readily than he charges into it.
- Well, for most time it's exactly the other way 'round, as if Cain's long (and often very painful) experience had ever taught him anything, it's that in 40K Crapsack World it is much safer to run into the battle, not from it. He hangs a lampshade on it himself, musing in The Traitor's Hand that he finds it much easier to fight and eliminate the threat, rather than wait for it to grow and come after you.
- Commissar-Colonel Ibram Gaunt (of Dan Abnett's novels) is a more straight example; he and the Tanith First-And-Only have triumphed over forces that most other Imperial Guard units would be rolled over by.
- John Taylor from Simon R. Green's Nightside series wears a long white coat. He can also terrify enemies just by introducing himself.
- Let us not forget the SELF-DESTRUCT in Taylor's coat, which sends it up in flames if it gets too far from his body. Green gave a reasonably plausible justification (let a significant personal possession get loose, and you're likely to have all sorts of magic nastiness come down on you), but the reader suspects he had tongue firmly in cheek while writing that one...
- Carl Hollywood, a secondary character from Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age, would not even come close to being described as a bad ass for most of the book. He is for all intents and purposes the manager of a theater, and the job mostly fits his personality. He was, however, also raised essentially as a cowboy. So, at one point toward the end of the book while clad in a leather cowboy duster complete with hat and boots he proceeds to (with a small group of others) fight his way through a future Shanghai in the middle of a war zone.
- While not a long coat exactly, Gerald Tarrant of the Coldfire Trilogy wears calf-length, medieval-style tunics, and he's fairly badass.
- The Marquis de Carabas, from Neverwhere, wears what is somewhere between a trench coat and a frock coat.
- Sherlock Holmes was known to pull this off, so much so that a billowing Inverness cape (a sleeveless long coat, with a short cape) is frequently associated with images of him.
- Michael Daniel Liberty, from the Starcraft novel Liberty's Crusade, gets one early on. He doesn't start off very badass, but... he gets better.
- The same coat keeps turning up in Steven Brust's novels, usually on coachmen. The best description is in Freedom & Necessity: "Last week I found my most treasured item of clothing ... a vast and possibly antique driving coat, rusty black, with deep turned-back cuffs and a high-standing collar, and a pair of pockets so large that I could drop one of Mr Colt's pistols in each and hardly grudge the room. It swallows me up nearly to the ankles.... As his boots were to Puss, so this coat is to me. I assure myself that I seem a latter-day Dick Turpin when I've got it on, though I may in fact look a quite modern scare-crow."
- Will Thatcher of The Lonely Winds.
- In The Edge Chronicles, most sky pirates wear great coats as part of their uniforms, and they're most certainly badass.
- Subverted in American Gods with the "new god" of the Internet. He wears a black longcoat in a Shout Out to The Matrix but is an unpleasant, physically weak nerd.
Live Action TV
- Duncan MacLeod in Highlander The Series.
- Captain Mal Reynolds in Firefly. Though he physically is pretty much human, he makes for it by having a nigh-indomitable will.
- He's also too pretty to die, and that should count for something.
- This is also said to be the standard uniform for Independent soldiers during The War (hence "Browncoats"). An entire faction of Longcoats, Badassitude optional. They did lose, but The
South Outer Planets will rise again!
- Zoe's browncoat appears in "Out of Gas", in the flashback where she and Mal first buy Serenity, and yes, definitely badass.
- Angel and Spike on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel. In Spike's case, the coat was an explicit symbol of his badass-ness, since he took it from the body of one of the Slayers he killed.
- In fact, one of the marks of Spike's himification was that he put the coat away towards the end of the sixth season. In mid-season 7 episode of Buffy he realizes that he's turned into a wimp, so he pulls the old coat out and promptly starts kicking ass. He's never without it again, his Badass Decay briefly halted by the act.
- Towards the end of the show, Buffy herself adds a long coat to her Unlimited Wardrobe.
- Captain Jack Harkness is an example of this trope, as is the Tenth Doctor: definitely a badass, and practically epitomizes this trope. Both are from Doctor Who as well as Torchwood.
- Donna Noble wears a long coat in the episode Turn Left during which she is the only one who can save the world.
- The Fourth Doctor fits this trope.
- John Crichton's increasing badass-ness on Farscape is symbolized by his abandonment of his IASA civvies and taking up of a Peacekeeper long black coat.
- Hell, virtually everyone gets the Badass Longcoat treatment as the show progresses. D'Argo's costume progression is notable, and Aeryn and Crais get their own BL moments in later seasons.
- This troper had a hard time focusing on what was actually going on in some episodes because she was too distracted by their awesome, awesome coats. Aeryn's coat? Want.
- Future Hiro, Future Matt and Future Peter in Heroes
- Supervillain Sylar also upgrades to an iconic badass overcoat at the end of Season 1 for the final battle.
- Mick-St.John in Moonlight
- In the Sci-Fi channel's Tin Man, the Mooks are literally called "longcoats" on screen, though this is in reference to their Gestapo fashion.
- Parodied in the Stargate SG-1 episode "200", when Teal'c imagines himself as a Badass Longcoat detective.
- In the Season Six episode 'Nightwalkers' Carter, Teal'c and Jonas Quinn show up in a small Oregon town all three wearing long, dark leather coats. Way to go, guys, could we look any MORE threatening and sinister?
- Omar Little in The Wire uses a duster to conceal his kevlar vest and double-barreled shotgun while robbing drug dealers.
- In Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia parodies the longcoat on several occasions. In one episode, Charlie remarks how cool Frank's trenchcoat looks and wants one of his own. In another episode, Mac buys a black leather duster because he thinks it makes him tough. At one point he thinks it will help him kick down a door. When Charlie wants a try at the door, he demands to put the duster on first. Mac ends up hitting Charlie against the wall while Charlie wears the duster. In a third episode, Mac's will demands that his duster be burnt after his death, but Dennis insists on keeping it for himself.
- Villainous version: the Huntsman of The Tenth Kingdom.
- Edward Woodward, The Equalizer.
- The Badass Longcoat is part of a Makai Knight's standard uniform in the Toku series Garo. The title character wears a very cool white longcoat when he's not in armored mode.
- Wraith officers in Stargate Atlantis tend to wear long black coats. And what can be more badass, than an alien that can hardly be killed and feeds on your life force?
- Also the series' most memorable human villain, Acastus Kolya, who wears a long black coat when not in uniform.
- Michael from La Femme Nikita. Sometimes others, as the situation demanded.
- Possibly Mulder from The X Files, who is often depicted in a trenchcoat, broods a lot, and is subtly cool.
- Scully alternates between the Badass Trench and the Badass Labcoat, and arguably looks cooler than Mulder in either case.
- Wyatt Cain in Tinman is a good example of this as well as Glitch.
- Inverted in that the Mooks are specifically called "Longcoats" for their...long coats.
- Romo Lampkin on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica is a badass longcoat lawyer.
- Detective Olivia Benson of Law And Order Special Victims Unit frequently wears a long, tan leather swing coat, usually when she's about to break down a door or beat up the Freaky Sex Criminal of the Week.
- Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows was an Inverness cape wearing vampire.
- Castiel, the ass kicking warrior of God from Supernatural, is modeled after John Constantine wardrobe-wise (trench coat and all). Being an angel, Castiel’s clothes have the added bonus of self-repairing damage from gunshot blasts and stabbings, not to mention magical dry cleaning for blood stains.
- Adam Lambert on the Season 8 American Idol performance finale wore a long, black trench coat with fog machines while singing "Mad World".
- It's probably anachronistic, but Arthur's brown coat in Merlin definitely qualifies.
- It looks in the set pictures like Uther might be going to wear one in season two.
- Not completely certain yet if Toby in The Listener is a badass or not, but the coat he wears—even if it's only about knee-length—is pretty sweet.
Professional Wrestling
- Many wrestlers have adopted the longcoat to improve their image as badasses; among them are The Undertaker, Sting, Edge (one of the earliest adopters), and Christopher Daniels (who ups the badass quotient by wearing a sleeveless Badass Longcoat).
- Although, really, Chris Daniels's Badass Longcoat kind of loses its badass quotient when you notice that Trevor Murdoch wears the exact same coat.
- Are you saying Trevor Murdoch's not badass? Show me another fat, pasty redneck who can pull off a perfect Canadian Destroyer.
- Matt Hardy recently started sporting a very nice Badass Longcoat, though at the moment he might be a subversion of the associated trope.
Close Professional Wrestling
Tabletop Games
- Imperial Commissars in Warhammer 40000, who have absolutely no qualms with summarily executing their men for cowardice, disobedience, incompetence, fighting amongst themselves, drinking on duty, looking at heretical materials, wearing the wrong cap-badge, sneezing on the Emperor's holy icons....
All *cough* Ciaphas Cain *coughcough* I mean most Commissars are also Badass enough to scare their underlings more than whatever horrors are faced. As mentioned in the Literature section above, though, some Commissars are more Badass than others.
- Of course, no one should forget Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, he of the laser eye and Power Klaw.
- Commisar Cain chooses to go the route of convincing the troops he serves with actually have a chance and that he cares about them. Of course, being Warhammer 40000, he has his own reasons for it.
- I can just imagine how employment works. "congratulations commisar. Here is your lisence to kill, your bolter pistol, your uniform and your cloak." "What is the cloak for?" "It is kevlar- it will keep your men from shanking you."
- Only if your men aren't catachans, who use knives the size of small swords and whose commisars have a 50% chance of not showing up due to being fragged.
- The Eldar have some level of Badass Longcoat going with their rangers, who were chameleon cloaks to give them stealth which just so happen to look like sleeveless trench coats.
- Badass longcoats are also very popular in Cyberpunk RPGs, like Shadowrun or CP 2020. Especially since you can use them very well to hide guns under them.
- Shadowrun actually has a fun bit of flavor text in the Street Samurai's Catalog supplement about how Securetech's kevlar-lined trenchcoat has become something of a standard-issue uniform among runners.
- Deadlands, being inspired by Westerns and requiring a good deal of Badassitude from at least some character classes, are a kind of natural habitat for BadassLongcoats too.
- Also very popular among players in the World Of Darkness games, to the point that someone appearing in one, particularly if he uses a katana sword, is an utter, utter cliché.
- Or worse, they'll somehow justify having more firearms than North Korea under their coat. This would be comical if the character's Strength is less than 3, but no stroyteller this troper has known has thought to make characters justify how they can so much as move..
- Mutant Chronicles (the tabletop game Warzone, to be precise) had at least two of them:
- Jake Kramer from Capitol: started of as teen in a penal company and excelled in battle, but since he didn't learn the leson about listening to your superiors he got transfered to the special-ops. He lived and is still kicking ass, while being old enough to be the father or even grandfather of some other named characters.
- Cyril Dent, who was so badass in the 1ed that no template weapons could harm him.
- Going by the artwork in the books, trenchcoats are Standard Issue among ''Dark Champions'' vigilantes.
- In the game Dogs In The Vineyard, a Badass Longcoat is standard issue to every player character. Depending on how the GM decides to run the game, they can even deflect bullets.
- Just about every faction from Warmachine and Hordes has someone wearing an incredibly baddass longcoat.
Video Games
- Dante from Devil May Cry is notable for being both a Badass Longcoat and a White Haired Pretty Boy. So is his twin brother Vergil, as the third title revealed. So was their father Sparda, as is newcomer Nero too.
- Parodied in the browser MMORPG Urban Dead, where characters with overly "badass" description, especially the ones with long coats, scars, katanas (and other weapons not in the game) etc. are mocked to no end. The term "trenchcoater" also a negative term for the Munchkins of the game. This also exists in the MMORPG Nexus War, which was founded and played by a lot of Urban Dead Players.
- Grit in the Advance Wars series.
- Gilder in Skies Of Arcadia.
- Carmen Sandiego sports a distinct red longcoat and hat combination.
- Antonio Guster in the F-Zero games wears a long lab coat over his combat outfit.
- The character of Setzer from Final Fantasy VI wears an overcoat, drinks, gambles, and pilots both of the only flying machines (The Blackjack and the Falcon) to appear in the game.
- Gamov from the remake of Ninja Gaiden represents a subversion; despite having a long green coat, Cool Shades and a capacity for Offscreen Teleportation, he never does anything wow-inducing. In the endgame, The Man Behind The Man chops him up before he can defend himself. In NG: Sigma, he was made a boss with Handguns Akimbo, but unfortunately a rather ineffectual one. It didn't help that he had an annoying laugh.
- Keats from Folklore - especially when he activates his hidden powers.
- Endorph from Soul Nomad And The World Eaters and Walnut from Phantom Brave. They're the same person.
- Vermilion from the Battle Arena Toshinden series, who's also a Gunslinging Blood Knight.
- JC Denton in Deus Ex wears a dramatic long black coat; this is Lampshaded by Agent Navarre in an interview: "I do not expect you to perform as well as Agent Hermann, but the mission will require us to do more than frighten the NSF with our baggy coats that make us look bigger than we really are." His brother Paul wears such a coat as well, as does Walton Simons. That is to say, every nano-augmented person in the world wears a Badass Longcoat. And that is badass.
- Mickey Mouse in Kingdom Hearts 2. Yes, you read that right.
- Most of the members of Organization XIII fit into this trope as well (Demyx, not so much).
- Sanger Zonvolt from the Super Robot Wars series wears his Badass Longcoat even in space. If his cockpit suffered a hole or he needed to eject he would die but he would looks badass while doing it.
- His alternate universe twin manages to out badass him, however, by cutting apart an entire army of mecha in one sword swing. General blows up. Army behind him blows up. Entire building blows up. This happens directly after a sword fight between Sanger and his twin broke open a building designed to survive armageddon.
- From Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga, we have Harken Browning, with his black and red longcoat. How badass is he? He wields a machine gun/katana/pile bunker with one hand and a long-barreled revolver/Wave Motion Gun with the other, and often juggles and spins them through the air. Officially, he's an Expy of Kyousuke Nanbu, but he may or may not have a bit of Sanger in him as well.
- Back to the normal universe, Shu Shirakawa also comes with a Badass Longcoat. He probably won it during his graduation and receiving the Ph.D title.
- Shinjiro of Persona 3, unlike the rest of the party only has one outfit. And it's a Badass Longcoat. The protagonist's usual outfit can also sometimes display some aspects of the Badass Longcoat without being one.
- Which member of the Belmont clan succeeded in killing Dracula off for good? Badass Longcoat Julius.
- Soma Cruz has a White Coat that manages to be badass,
despite especially with the pimp qualities. The 21st Century is obvious the era of Badass Fashion.
- Not to say that Richter isn't a badass either. All of them are badasses.
- Also, in Curse of Darkness, Trevor Belmont wears a belt with the lower part of a trench coat on it, just because it looks cool.
- So where does the not-all-there, blood-splattered trenchcoat wearing villain Walter Sullivan of Silent Hill fit into this trope?
- Clive from Wild ARMs 3 and Jack from the original Wild ARMs.
- Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, and Fortune from the Metal Gear Solid series.
- Croix from La Pucelle Tactics, with the added bonus of blowing about in a nonexistent wind when he rises to a god-like level of badass.
- In the superhero MMORPG Cityof Heroes (and its sister game/expansion City of Villains), trench coats are unlocked for an account that's been active for over three months. They come in several types (long, short, tattered, split) and take up the 'back' slot used for capes or wings. Like all costume pieces in the game, they have no affect on gameplay besides looking cool.
- Wild Dog from Time Crisis dons a Badass Longcoat in the third and fourth games of the series, and throws it off to the side before proceeding to wipe the floor with your ass.
- Syndicate put you in command of a whole squad of Badass Longcoats. Cyborg gangster badass longcoats. With miniguns.
- Kane from Command And Conquer series probably sleeps with his longcoat on. He dies more than twice during the course of the games and is the greatest badass and Magnificent Bastard in the series.
- Two sorts of Elite Mooks (Theron Guards and Kantus) in Gears Of War are distinguished first and foremost visually by their long dark coats.
- Not So Elite Mooks (Helghast Stormtroopers) in Killzone: Liberation also wear distinguishing black coats.
- Ganondorf in Wind Waker wears a pretty cool longcoat, the sleeves being so large that he actually has a sword hidden in each.
- Caleb of the Blood series.
- Sly Boots, the protagonist of Anachronox, is a Film Noir detective. In a trenchcoat.
- Fallout 3 gives you the chance to wear at least two different types of dusters, both of which look badass.
- Also, Colonel Autumn wears a trenchcoat and gives a pretty good show of being evil when he kills your father's assistant and gets seriously irradiated for it, but then... well... he's a one-shot enemy when you finally get to him.
- Also take note of The Regulators, a law enforcement group with standard issue dusters.
- For a while, the standard garb for Swordmasters in Fire Emblem gave them the appearance of a Badass Longrobe (or Long-Slitted-Skirt for female characters), until Lloyd from FE7, whose sprite was edited to reflect the longcoat he wears in his character art. As of Radiant Dawn, the longcoat is the signature garb of the Trueblade.
- Crimson Viper from Street Fighter 4 has a longcoat as her alternate costume. It's badass on it's own, even before factoring in the taser gloves and flamethrower shoes.
- The as-of-yet unknown protagonist of Red Steel 2. All we know about him so far is that he wears a longcoat, and that he's chosen to take on the town of Corona all by himself. And he wields a katana and a revolver.
Webcomics
- Shadehawk from Antihero for Hire is at least partial subversion. All his moments of badassery (which are numerous) are mixed with just as numerous moments of screwing up hilariously. Sometimes in one strip.
Shadehawk confronts a Tyke Bomb assassin, who had earlier smashed his glasses
Tyke Bomb: Whoa, that would've been totally badass if your face didn't look like shit.
Shadehawk:'' Well, that isn't exactly my fault now, is it!?
- Dr. Mc Ninja of The Adventures Of Doctor Mc Ninja has yet to be seen without his white coat. In the past, he's tried to emulate Batman by handling it like a cape.
- Riff from Sluggy Freelance is a classic example. Usually he wears a brown trenchcoat, but he's been known to level up. His humanizing quirk is the tendency of his inventions to only mostly work, prompting his Catch Phrase: "Let me check my notes."
- Donovan Deegan of Dominic Deegan has a badass long coat...made even more badass in that said long coat is pink.
- Vic from Charby the Vampirate did a 180 going from a comic villain & Team Rocket of one to The Hunter kick butt vampire killer archtype as shown when he kill a vampire with his bare hands, of course this hasn't helped him with the ladies.
- Charlie from The Zombie Hunters punches in a zombie's skull, but later loses the labcoat.
- Metal Gear Solid webcomic The Last Days Of FOXHOUND has them, of course, but it's not just Liquid who wears them.
- Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, the Anti Villain dictator of Europa in Girl Genius. While his is more of a great coat than a trench coat, it does serve to make his already imposing figure more so. An early version shown here. His son Gilgamesh does a little bit of this too, but he doesn't quite have his father's knack for it.
- Balthios from Barkley, Shut up and Jam Gaiden.
- Benjamin generally wears a police trenchcoat, though he also pulls off the rare badass labcoat, in A Miracle of Science.
- Dexter (yes, from Dexter's Lab) pulls off the Badass Labcoat quite nicely in Bleedman's Power Puff Girls Doujinshi.
- Briefly used in Gunnerkrigg Court. In Chapter 19, Antimony is wearing a Gunnerkrigg uniform trenchcoat when she gets pulled into Zimmy's Black Bug Room. When Zimmy flips out and attacks her, Annie uses her Judo-ish skills to very quickly incapacitate her attacker. Coincidence?
- T-O-E from Rice Boy is a robotic Badass Longcoat.
- Red from Kagerou gets a more suitable outfit.
- Julio Scoundrél of the Order of the Stick.
Web Original
- In Survival Of The Fittest, Jacob Starr of v1 and Julie Mikan of v3 wear trenchcoats. Jacob started with a suit, but when the jacket was damaged in a gun battle he took the trenchcoat off of one of the people he killed. Julie is a slight subversion in that, though she started off as a Bad Ass player, she soon realized she just wasn't capable of murder on the sheer scale playing the game would require.
- Big Boss wears one of these in Stray, and another character comments on the garment's dramatic value.
- Parodied by Travis Boles in Three In The Afternoon—he wears a bathrobe. Which, according to one of his foes, "smells".
- Parodied by Trenchcoat from Vatsy And Bruno, who is a mockery/pastiche of the Private Investigator/Longcoat stereotype. He dictates everything that happens to him in a persistent, hard-boiled monologue.
Western Animation
- Caleb in WITCH.
- Hard Drive, a villain from Swat Kats, derived his data-hacking/teleporting/electrical powers from his "Surge Coat". Why not just a form-fitting data-suit or a backpack and goggles? Because the Surge Coat looks badass.
- Lampshaded in Roswell Conspiracies, when the totally unbadass Fritz is overjoyed at the opportunity to borrow the Hero's "cool coat".
- The Spectacular Spider Man' villain Doctor Octopus pairs his long coat with goggles.
- Macbeth in Gargoyles. It came in handy when he fought Goliath, as he was able to quickly slip out of it and escape the gargoyle's clutches.
- Cyclops gets one in Wolverine and the X Men and uses it to great effect. In fact, he effectively becomes the bad ass of the team and subverts the usual relationship between Wolverine and Cyclops.
Music
- Cake's song "Short Skirt/Long Jacket".
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