Chuck Bartowski: I'm Chuck! Chuck Bartowski! I work at the Buy More! I fix computers!
Not mentioned: The fact that he has a supercomputer/
Magical Database in his brain, and
as of Season 3, it can teach him Kung Fu, fencing, knife-throwing, and how to hit a dude in the neck with a nacho plate.
The
Accidental Hero, except... they actually
did something to earn their hero stripes. Or, look at them as a
Badass Normal, who never wanted to be one.
These are heroes that actually prefer their
boring, uneventful lives, and wish to remain nobodies. Or it could be that saving the day is just not high on their list of priorities. However, fate forces them to step up, and they do, even if they're bitching and moaning the whole time. After saving the village, town, or world, they go right back to being, well, themselves.
Until the next crisis.
What makes them particularly amazing is that they accomplish
badassness by way of doing something particularly un-
Bad Ass. No
radioactive spider bit them and they don't possess a
BFG or
BFS. Think of the housewife whose home is invaded and beats the bad guys with a
frying pan. Or a guy who works at a burger joint who uses his french-fry-making skills to foil a robbery.
There are many methods to creating a
Badass Unintentional. These include
a) A
Badass Bookworm... who uses his/her smarts.
b) A
Spanner In The Works or
Xanatos Sucker is guaranteed to become a
Badass Unintentional if he
takes a level in badass but only temporarily. Otherwise he'd simply become a
Crouching Moron Hidden Badass.
c) A
Die Hard who saves the day through means other than gunplay or fisticuffs, probably because he/she is no good at either.
d) A
Loyal Sidekick who suddenly finds himself without
The Hero because he's incapacitated, on vacation, kidnapped or whatever.
e) A
Distressed Damsel who realizes
The Hero ain't coming any time soon and thus has to make do on her own.
In order to qualify as a
Badass Unintentional, they have to do something big. It's not enough for them to help or
just live through it, it must be a
Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
Needless to say, a
Badass Unintentional will make great use of the
Indy Ploy, will
Throw It In when necessary, and will often come up with a plan
Crazy Enough To Work.
Sometimes, after enough
highlight-reel moments a
Badass Unintentional may decide to quit moping and just
upgrade to full Badass.
Compare
The Drag Along.
Examples
Comic Books
- Ellen Baker in Animal Man. A supervillain breaks into her house to get at her superhero husband... and she beats the crap out of him.
- Similarly, Mary Jane from Spider-Man once beat up the Chameleon with a baseball bat and talked down a hostage-taker while wearing nothing but lingerie. Though really, wearing nothing but lingerie is probably how she got away with it in the first place.
- In the Donald Duck tales of Carl Barks and Don Rosa, this describes Donald himself. The thirty-cent-an-hour odd jobs that Uncle Scrooge throws him are the closest he gets to regular employment — but frequently end up with him dragged along in search of ancient treasures and lost cities. Rosa's final Donald story, "The Magnificent Seven (minus 4) Caballeros
", draws a bright red line under this, as Donald's two old chums are repeatedly stunned by his casual, off-hand references to things like finding El Dorado or Lost Atlantis.
Film
- The 1992 movie Hero is about a guy who is the epitome of this trope: Bernard Laplante is the opposite of the muscled blonde man-god that everyone wants a hero to be like, but is extremely able and cool-headed in a crisis. He accidentally becomes the center of media attention after he rescues a female TV reporter along with other survivors of a plane crash, but it causes more trouble for him than it solves because of his criminal record, so he lets his good-for-nothing Vietnam veteran friend take the credit.
- The entire cast of Police Academy (except Hightower. He's just a Bad Ass). Pick any installment, but especially the first one.
- Johnny Five in Short Circuit. Just a wacky computer that realized he was "Alive!" The hero part just happened to come along.
- The Donkey in Shrek.
- Dory in Finding Nemo. (Arguably Marlin as well. But he's more a case of the Berserk Button being pushed, namely, his son being kidnapped).
- The protagonist of the Home Alone movies.
- Pretty much all the Hobbits in The Lord Of The Rings.
- R2-D2 in the original Star Wars trilogy. He's waaaayyy more Bad Ass in the prequels (hopping on a rocket pack, seriously??)
- Jeff Goldblum's character in Independence Day. His only concern the whole movie was getting his ex-wife back. But he still saved the world... with a Mac virus. If that ain't Bad Ass, I don't know what is.
- Forrest Gump. Notably, he doesn't even notice that his most impressive actions are exceptional.
- Jamie Lee Curtis's character in True Lies. She has quite a few Bad Ass moments in the movie. But this troper is STILL stunned by the way she cleans out a dozen terrorists by dropping a MAC-10.
- Shaun Of The Dead loves fighting zombies — in video games. Or doing anything in video games. He's rather dim and unambitious, and it takes him a long time to recognize the Zombie Apocalypse as a real threat, but he makes the transition to Bad Ass Action Hero surprisingly quickly once the chips are down.
- Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon movies. He really hates being dragged into all this crazy crap. Reluctant Badass might be a better term.
- Sam Witwicky of Transformers has the Unintentional part down pat in the first movie. The Badass doesn't really kick in until the sequel.
Literature
- Rincewind, the "Wizzard" from Discworld. Continually gets into (and survives through) adventures despite wanting nothing to do with adventure, being completely terrified of adventure, and actively trying to avoid adventure whenever possible. Is also the world's least accomplished wizard, having only ever known one spell (and that one having left him as soon as possible). His list of actual accomplishments, though, includes falling off the world, bringing several new worlds into existence, defeating a sourceror (who are essentially living fonts of magic), was instrumental in taking down a demon lord, and bringing down one of the most powerful armies of the planet.
- Arguably, most of the heroes from Discworld fall into this category: Sam Vimes (City Watch) just wanted to be a copper, and ended up stopping wars, time traveling and changing history, and becoming (to his horror) a nobleman. Brutha from Small Gods was just a novice, but ended up becoming the eighth prophet of the Omnian Church. Susan Sto Helit just wanted to be normal and get on with her daily job, despite being Death's adopted granddaughter. Even Death just wanted to do his job, but ended up in conflict against the enemies of humanity several times.
- Like Rincewind, Ciaphas Cain tries to avoid danger whenever he can, but he is often forced to confront his fears through a combination of wanting to keep up appearances and simple pragmatism (a Million To One Chance of survival being reasoned as better than no chance at all).
- We are informed by the editor that despite his negative character traits, Cain is one of the best swordsmen in his corner of the galaxy. Given the types of horrors he seems to attract, all that practice time wasn't wasted at all.
- And let's not forget the remarkably genre-savvy Apropos. Born crippled and suffering abuse from basically everyone but his mother and best friend, all he really wanted to do was (paraphrasing) "Live an excitement-free life and die of old age in my bed." Against his wishes, however, he ends up becoming a knight, hijacking a phoenix from—and by default becoming—The Hero, saving his kingdom from siege, saving the world from an evil and amorous goddess, and basically leading a coup on an Expy of Feudal Japan (he blew it up.)
Live Action TV
- The above paraphrase is from Chuck, a series about a true Badass Unintentional. Chuck actually can't wait for the government to rebuild its database so that he can go back to being just another wage-worker. However, he constantly foils numerous evil plots and often succeeds where his Badass Normal partners fail, precisely because he's a geek. In one episode he finds the codes to stopping a nuclear weapons satellite by defeating an old arcade game that only a fanboy would be able to recognize, let alone beat.
- Amanda King of Scarecrow And Mrs King is a good example of this. She's pretty much an ordinary housewife, but she can handle herself in a crisis, which is why she's chosen to partner Agent Scarecrow. She once evaded kidnappers using only the contents of her grocery bag (as I recall, a bottle of Cheez Wiz featured prominently.)
Manga & Anime
- In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, Izumi refuses to acknowledge her badass status, despite occasionally being forced by circumstance into conflict to protect the ones she loves.
Greed: Who are you?!
Izumi: I'M A HOUSEWIFE!
- Well, until the most recent chapter anyway.
- Before shooting at Roberto and earning his status as a full-fledged Badass, a traumatized, paranoid Tenma jumps off a bridge to save himself from potential enemies.
Video Games
- Jimmy in Bully. He just shows up at school and just tries to get people to like him, and ends up being "King of the School" because of it.
- Kurt from the MDK series of video games. He's just a janitor (not even an Almighty Janitor) who just so happens to save the universe on many occasions.
Real Life
- The emperor Claudius of Rome. A stuttering, limping, "alleged" fool, he never wanted to lead Rome, and truly just wanted to write. In a wonderful turn of irony, he wound up becoming Emperor AND surviving to old age (most Emperors got killed) precisely because he seemed so harmless. He did a good job running the country too.
- Well, somewhat. He died at 64 when his wife Agrippina poisoned him. His first wife also planned on killing him and making her lover emperor. And the way he governed... He just stands out from his predecessor Caligula and his successor Nero. Sorry, but this troper is a history geek.
- The I Claudius version of him was probably truer to this trope.
- Sam Cowley, the Desk Jockey FBI man who killed Baby Face Nelson.
