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Crouching Moron Hidden Badass
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At first glance, he's The Fool. She's The Ditz. And no, it's not Obfuscating Stupidity — they're really like that.
Most of the time.
If you push the right button at the right time, things will suddenly change. The goofy smile disappears. Their eyes start glowing. An aura of energy surrounds them. Little pieces of rock start floating up from the ground. Alternately, they may simply display a sudden leap in speed, strength, martial skill and weapon use.
After the dust settles, however, they're right back to smiling goofily, tripping over their own feet, and just generally acting like the Plucky Comic Relief — while their teammates are rubbing their eyes, and trying to figure out what just happened. Often, the character doesn't actually know himself.
Basically, the individual has access to superpowers of some sort — could be psionics, could be Functional Magic or Applied Phlebotinum, could be Nanomachines — and they either don't know they have the power, or don't know how to control it.
Common triggers include a friend or loved one in danger (see Mama Bear), a Million To One Chance scenario, or just a "worthy cause." Sometimes, just getting 'em really, really pissed off will do the trick — although their easy-going personalities make that a rare occurrence.
The main point, however, is not the powers, but the radical change in personality that comes with them. The character may ordinarily be harmless, maybe even a Technical Pacifist, but when in Bad Ass mode, there's no mercy.
Sometimes, this can end up as a full-blown Superpowered Evil Side or Jekyll And Hyde scenario, if the Bad Ass side refuses to revert. In those cases, it might turn out that the individual was once aware of his powers and abilities, but somehow 'sealed' them — consciously or otherwise — because he knew that With Great Power Comes Great Insanity.
In most other cases, the character will gradually learn to control his power — although he'll usually still need to Freak Out a bit to use his full power — and may evolve into an Idiot Hero, or more rarely, a straight-up Messiah.
In a few cases, things will go bad. The Bad Ass powers are required too often, and they gradually take their toll on a previously cheerful individual. Usually results in an Emo or, in the case of females, an Emotionless Girl. Invariably results in her friends wondering if Saving The World was really worth the price.
Compare with Heroic Resolve, Beware The Nice Ones, Lets Get Dangerous. Characters like this are Action Santa and Gentle Giant. Contrast Weak But Skilled and Mistaken For Badass. See also Crouching Scholar Hidden Badass.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Film
- Star Trek 2009. Yes James T. Kirk is a spoiled brat, a chronic juvenile offender, a wanna-be ladies man, and he seems to excel only at getting beat up. He is also the baddest mother in all of Starfleet, and not even killing his dad or blowing up planets will change that. You may now go to warp.
- Star Wars : Compare and contrast Yoda as we first meet him in episode V and his duel with Palpatine.
- John Connor. You know it's true. He was one spoiled brat. 'Till cyborgs showed up and started blowing things up and trying to kill his Momma. He changed a bit after that....
- Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket, when external influences take him to a new level of competence, but before he completes his journey.
- Sing, the hapless hero of Kung Fu Hustle, starts off as a complete failure of a small-time street crook. Then he double-crosses the Axe Gang, gets beaten into a bloody pile of meat... and wakes up as an indestructible kung fu god.
- Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach had the leader of the academy being kidnapped and held hostage by the Big Bad. He mistakenly thinks it's all a game being put on for the media, and when someone points out that it's not, he rather quickly frees himself without breaking a sweat.
- Straw Dogs has Dustin Hoffman's character getting pushed around for most of the movie by the local thugs, getting worse when they also brutalize his wife. The film climaxes with The Siege, as they finally get straight-up violent while trying to break into his house, so he mans up and kills them all.
- On a similar note, George McFly of Back to the Future spends most of the first film as a milquetoast, nerdy loner, unable to stand up to bullies or ask out a girl. However, when circumstances get really dire and the Big Bad is molesting the girl he loves, with no one else around to help, he snaps and throws a very impressive punch, defeating Biff. Afterward, however, he remains in his Hidden Badass form.
- Maxwell Smart likely fits this concept in all forms of media, but the Get Smart movie shows him as being ridiculously skilled and resourceful, an excellent marksman, and really damn lucky. Except for when it's funny for him to be an idiot.
- This troper has the perspective that Max, while skilled, is so desperate to show his talent that he tries things that are still quite above his skill level.
- Meanwhile, this troper considers it to be that he is that good, but unlike most Action Heroes he doesn't always get it done on the first take — rather like in real life.
- Loren Visser, the private detective in Blood Simple, comes across as a goofy, loudmouthed, dumbass joke at the start of the movie... until he shoots Julian, the man who hired him. From then on, he's a nigh-unstoppable killer.
- In Galaxy Quest, Sir Alexander Dane spends most of his time complaining and being the redundant Deadpan Snarker, hating where he is and what he is doing. But then, after someone who hero worships him dies in his arms, he finally allows himself to get good and mad.
- Elle Woods from Legally Blonde DEFINES this trope!
- Only on the first movie. On the second, it's Crouching Ditz (Not So) Hidden Aesop.
- Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story has Gordon Pibb, a bumbling loser whose mail order wife hates and who can't get angry or throw a ball with any force to save his life, making him the weakest link on the Average Joes team. However, that changes during the semi-finals. By himself against almost the entire opposing team, he sees his wife having fun with another guy and gets super pissed, going psycho and single handedly taking out the entire opposing team.
- The scene in question may be a homage to the first version of the film Rollerball. The film climaxes its Over The Top sermon on individuality vs. collective thinking and sports fixing by having the hero's team deliberately killed off all around him, until the quiet rebel in said hero snaps and he brutally destroys the entire opposing team by himself before scoring a goal nice and slow to drive the point home.
- Scrat from the Ice Age movies.
- In Destry Rides Again, the titular character becomes the deputy of the marshal in a lawless town. At first, he seems to be completely harmless; he doesn't carry a gun, drinks milk at the bar, tells anecdotes to everybody, and makes napkin rings as a hobby. However, he eventually proves to be a very capble gunfighter.
- Jack-Jack (not a moron, but a baby) from The Incredibles demonstrates a startling array of powers (which, by most reckonings, are probably more Bad Ass than those of the rest of the cast) when threatened by the Big Bad, Syndrome.
- Or the babysitter. In the fairly amusing short packaged with the DVD of The Incredibles, Jack Jack Attack, Jack-Jack reduces the babysitter to a stress-overloaded wreck by coming out with anti-gravity powers, teleportation, the ability to shoot eye beams, and Human-Torch-esque flame powers. Since the whole The Incredibles seems to be a Homage to The Fantastic Four, he might be a sly reference to the fifth Fantastic: Franklin. The writers, for their part, note that the reason they gave him so many powers he flips through like he's channel surfing is because he's a baby: he hasn't defined himself yet. What this means for the world of The Incredibles as far as power development goes....
- The CGI movie The Magic Roundabout, in which the affable stoner rabbit, Dylan, suddenly snaps and opens up a can of Whup Ass.
- In the Josie And The Pussycats flick, Melody uses some seriou Kung-Fu on the villainess' henchmen.
- Kwan-Yin from the Journey To The West TV film kicked demon ass without breaking her Goddess hand gesture.
- And don't forget Mystery Men, where Mr. Furious, when his love interest was threatened, wiped the floor with Casanova Frankenstein.
Literature
- Redwall: King Bull Sparra does this really well. Maybe a little too well...
- The character of Alfred from the Death Gate cycle, written by Weis & Hickman, is an over the top example of this trope. He first appears as a stumbling, clumsy butler, but in dire circumstances, at times off-screen, he is the pinnacle of his wizarding tradition and can perform miracles in Functional Magic up to and including resurrecting the dead, the right way, whereas other mages can do so only by draining the life of another being of the same race, somewhere in the multiverse. Of course, a lot of people want to get hold of Alfred for his magical prowess. Problem is, he doesn't remember how he pulls his magic off, pulling a complete black-out, more than often enough accompanied by an undignified fainting. It eventually turns out that he originally just used Obfuscating Stupidity to avoid revealing his powers to the world — but over time, it became so in-grown that he practically forgot how to use his powers at all.
- In the same series, a character named Zifnab appears to be a senile old man who can't remember the color of his own robe. He is later discovered to be one of the oldest living beings in the universe. Although he is afflicted with Alzheimer's, he is questionably the most powerful magician in the series, complete with his own pet dragon.
- I always thought it was less Alzheimer's and more way too many bad memories from when the world as we knew it was broken asunder and billions died. You go around with that mucking up your head and you would be daffy yourself.
- Then of course there's the absent-minded, bumbling elderly mage Fizban, from Weis & Hickman's Dragonlance series. Though occasionally his spells prove useful, this is mostly by accident. Later you learn the truth: he's actually the God the protagonists are fighting to bring back...
- Discworld's Captain Carrot exhibits the Badass Normal version of this trope. He normally presents a goofy, honest face that assumes everyone else is equally honest... and then he'll nail a REAL bad guy to a pillar with a sword.
- Vimes. He was always a Bad Ass, after all he did grow up in the Shades, the nastiest ghetto this side of hell. Only his heavy drinking and no real will to try anymore laid him low for so long. Get him off the Sauce and you have a dragon fighting, crime solving, riot stopping, peace keeping, patron saint of coppers in the making.
- Discworld's Nanny Ogg is the witch version of this trope and an even better example, appearing to be purely good-natured comic relief and then unexpectedly surprising you with witchly badassery. Best shown in her confrontation with Mrs. Plinge in Maskerade. Word Of God indicates that Nanny Ogg is in fact more powerful than Granny Weatherwax — or might be, if she were willing to lose her joie de vivre.
- 'S'matter of fact, what Word Of God specifically states is that her joie de vivre is the very thing that makes her more powerful than Granny. She may not necessarily be able to do it with bees (read Lords and Ladies, it'll make sense), but she gets on with people and in it's own way that gives her power the crabby Esmerelda Weatherwax could never quite manage.
- Speaking of Maskerade, there's also Walter Plinge, who pulls a double Homage to Michael Crawford by being a bumbling Frank Spencer clone who badasses into the suave Opera Ghost by putting a mask on.
- Mightily Oats in Carpe Jugulum is a possible example too. At the start he's a well-meaning but rather ineffectual priest. Gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) prodding by Granny Weatherwax allows him to come to terms with his religious faith and have the courage to stand up to the head vampire and slice his neck with an axe.
- Lord Downey counts for this in Night Watch. For nearly all of the book, the younger version of him is a Jerk Jock Upper Class Twit. However, there's one scene where a young Vetinari is in "ninja mode", and Pratchett describes Downey's ears perking up and sensing him lurking in the shadows. While Vetinari does doodle on his face shortly after this scene, it is an effective foreshadowing of Downey being competent enough to become the head of the Assassin's Guild.
- Eddie Dean in The Dark Tower is a washed-up cynical junkie loser when he first falls into Midworld, and seemingly dependent upon the Last Gunslinger for basic survival. He reveals himself to be a talented gunfighter when provoked.
- The wizard Schmendrick of The Last Unicorn is, at times, capable of awe-inspiring magic...the trouble is, he can hardly ever get it to work, and usually it doesn't do what he expected. But he gets it under control in the end.
- In George Macdonald Frasier's McAuslan stories, Private McGlinchy is, in a football game, either completely useless or completely amazing, depending on factors that other characters are trying to figure out.
- In Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Cycle, a gibbering, mindless beggar barely capable of feeding himself is later revealed to be the mortal shell of Macros the Black, the most powerful sorcerer in the world. His mind was not in his body, until suddenly it was imperative for him to be present to fight the darkness and chaos.
- Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series has JonTom Merryweather, the spellsinger of the title. A modern human in an alternate, medieval-equivalent universe filled with Talking Animals, who is pretty much useless in a fight, at least in the first few books... except for his spellsinging, which is the ultimate wild card and capable of doing anything he can sing about. The only trouble is that 1.) he has to know the right song, 2.) sometimes nothing happens, and 3.) even he's not sure what's going to happen when he starts. It's done everything from switching the entire party's genders, to changing a wizard's apprentice into a phoenix, to summoning a god.
- While this editor isn't sure how much this is true of the character in actual mythology, some stories of Ganesha present the jolly Big Eater god as equal in power to his fearsome father Shiva, capable of stopping the sun and destroying the world, but luckily too nice to do so.
- The novel Armor by John Steakley follows two storylines set about five years apart, with the earlier one framed by the discovery of the powered armor used by the earlier protagonist on a distant, non-wartorn colony in a crashed escape pod. The armor's owner, Felix, is quite literally an unstoppable killing machine: in a war where no one has survived more than ten major missions, armor notwithstanding, Felix makes it through over twenty before being killed by another human soldier. Meanwhile, in the present-day, a rebellion is brewing right underneath the nose of the colony's drunken, dimwitted owner, Lewis, causing great consternation to the present-day protagonist... especially when it breaks into open war and a nearby space pirate decides to capitalize on the situation. With a military grade dreadnought. Fortunately, Lewis is Felix, lying low and enjoying life. At least, until he decides to save his colony by putting his armor back on, slaughtering an army's worth of pirates, and then takes down the dreadnought with his bare damn hands.
- Neville Longbottom of Harry Potter, although he worked hard to achieve the Badass designation from the Moron.
- Notable in that his badassery level only rises with every challenge; it doesn't revert. Ever.
- Culminates in a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- This series also gives us Vincent Crabbe, who is revealed in the final book to be by far the most competent and most evil of the Slytherin trio.
- In the books Operation: Red Jericho and Operation: Typhoon Shore, Posh Charlie has a very minor role and is known for his constant stuttering and nervousness. Put him in a combat situation and he becomes a confident soldier, immediately dropping the stutter. This may possibly be Obfuscating Stupidity due to the knowledge in the latter book that he is actually a very competent researcher.
- Percy Blakeney, a.k.a. The Scarlet Pimpernel, is perhaps the ultimate example of this trope, going from useless twit to daring adventurer in mere moments.
- But that's INTENTIONAL. He's not a complete moron with occasional flashes of brilliance; he uses the fop act to hide the fact that he's really the hero. That's completely unlike the trope description which says "They're really like that."
- Lovable the raven, from the Firekeeper series, is described as a "bubble head" and has a love for anything shiny. This is in stark contrast to her far more serious mate, Bitter. However, in the fifth book, Wolf Hunting, when Bitter and Lovable are ensnared by magic vines that can kill their victims, Lovable forgoes her shot at escape to stay and keep the vines from getting Bitter completely. She manages this for quite some time until help arrives and is the only reason that help wasn't too late for Bitter.
- Ceallio, in Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, is a mute simpleton when he is discovered by the protagonists working in an inn in the marsh town of Kwanitupul. However, it turns out that he's really the famous knight Camaris, who suffered a Heroic BSOD and attempted suicide many years ago. When sorely provoked, he displays incredible strength and fighting skill, first beating up a group of thugs and then defeating a Nabbanai nobleman in a swordfight, but remains in a childlike daze. It is not until he's brought to Prince Josua that he finally recovers his wits.
- Orbek Black Knife from Blade Of Tyshalle. The above quote comes right after Orbek's Crowning Moment Of Awesome. The irony lies in that Caine originally targeted Orbek first when breaking up Orbek's old gang because he thought the young ogrillo was the gang's weakest point.
- The Belgariad and Malloreon have several of these and several subversions. Played straight with Silk who normally plays the thief/rogue member of the cast, but in The Malloreon when Bethra is murdered, he tortures the killer into revealing who hired him and then proceeds to assassinate half the family before being stopped by his companions. Later, when the Dagashi assassin Brill pisses him off at Rak Cthol, he beats the hell out of him and kicks him off the mountain. He then coolly informs Belgarath that Brill was learning how to fly, and not all that successfully. These were, of course, Crowning Moments of Awesome. Also in the same series, when Belgarath gets pissed he has been known to destroy entire mountains and also buries Zedar, who betrayed him and his master, alive for And I Must Scream. He likes to let the world think he is a Dirty Old Man, and he likes to make remarks of his time with the fully female Dryad race and of the very open-minded Marag women. He also tends to become badass when his family is threatened.
- Tyrion's squire Podrick Payne in A Song Of Ice And Fire. He's tongue-tied and incompetent most of the time to the extent that Tyrion suspects the boy was inflicted on him as a joke, but when Tyrion is caught on a bridge of wrecked ships on a burning river with Ser Mandon Moore, one of the elite Kingsguard, trying to kill him, Pod somehow manages to kill Mandon and drag the unconscious Tyrion to safety.
- Lord Of The Rings: Tom Bombadil.
Live Action TV
- Dana Scully of The X Files is another borderline case. While she mainly portrayed the buttoned-down, intellectual non-action oriented FBI agent, in one notable episode with a VR Game coming to life and killing the players, someone had to rescue Mulder and the Lone Gunmen. Her sudden evolution into Action Girl in a Big Damn Heroes moment left Mulder and company totally speechless. Until they realized how completely cool her Rambette performance had been, like good fanboys.
- Played with in Disney's The Suite Life: Apparently London Tipton is quite the athlete (notably in volleyball), but only when she's mad.
- In Get Smart, Maxwell Smart may be a bumbling idiot most of the time, but when he realizes the situation is becoming make-or-break, then he buckles down and becomes nearly unstoppable.
- R.J., Trickster Mentor of Power Rangers Jungle Fury, seems at first to be nothing more than an overly-mellow pizza restauranteur. Then he steps out of the kitchen and reveals himself by taking down a sqaud of Mooks without breaking stride, and suddenly the guy who seemed like bumbling comic relief a few seconds ago takes on a whole new light. He barely changes at all, busting out the crazy martial arts skills while remaining as calm and carefree as ever.
- River from Firefly is a Crouching Crazy Hidden Badass. Most of the time, she tends to be a Cloud Cuckoo Lander with some endearingly whimsical moments mixed in with seriously disturbing fits and a few Ax Crazy moments. But mess with her brother Simon or her friend Kaylee, and she will take you down, whether by gunning down three men with her eyes closed or orchestrating an impressive Batman Gambit. And that's even before the Big Damn Movie.
- Dr. Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis fits this trope, more or less. He's usually a coward, disliked by most for his lack of any social skill. However, when under pressure he falls into something like the Unstoppable Rage, even though it's not physical violence — well, except for that one time. He suddenly knows exactly what to do to get the Team out of any near-doom situation. Also, he activates the "bravery" mode, which leaves his cowardice behind. Lampshaded frequently; even McKay knows it.
- Similarly Colonel Jack O'Neill. Probably more a case of Obfuscating Stupidity, he acts Book Dumb in everything remotely scientific. He never reads Carter's reports, he refuses to listen to Daniel explain some ancient piece of writing or technology, and acts as if nothing matters except The Simpsons. But... when some dumb Goa'uld or other bad guy threatens his team or the Earth, he gets very serious, and reminds you just why he's leading this team.
- How did this trope list get this far without mentioning the original Crouching Moron Hidden Badass... HM "Howling Mad" Murdock from the A-Team? Seemed like just another comic relief moron, right? Wrong. If it's got wings, he's flown it; if it's got wheels, he's driven it. And he worked for the CIA!
- Marcus Brutus on Rome. He spends most of season one being controlled by his mother and letting everyone and their brother walk all over him. Then he takes control of the group plotting to kill Caesar and partakes in the deed himself. At which point he loses his badass-ness and weeps like a baby. Only to go on to rally an army and face off against Antonius and Octavius.
- Adrian Monk: Socially inept, obsessive-compulsive and afraid of everything. But he manages to solve the most baffling crimes and he can hold his own in a fight — he was a cop once, remember. And if you even so much as insult Trudy, he will hand you your ass.
- He isn't stupid by any means, but Ned from Pushing Daisies is neurotic, nervy and totally unassuming... as well as an incredibly skilled fencer capable of sliding under a table in one fluid motion and throwing a baseball hard enough to knock someone off a ledge.
- On Heroes, Mohinder Suresh spends the first half of the first season generally carrying the Idiot Ball. His gullibility is such that he unwittingly ends up on a road trip with the serial killer Sylar, the man responsible for his father's murder, which ends at Mohinder's own apartment. Just when you think he can't get any dumber, Mohinder reveals he is fully aware of Sylar's real identity, straps him to a chair and proceeds to unleash all kinds of torture, including the creative and agonizing use of a tuning fork.
- Otoya Kurenai from Kamen Rider Kiva, who at first blush seems to be nothing more than a foolishly self-absorbed Casanova who doesn't have a serious bone in his body. But then he starts pulling Batman Gambit after Batman Gambit, demonstrating an incredible degree of character judgement, and kicking monster butt with an experimental Powered Armor — typically stolen from its intended user as part of said Batman Gambit. It's no wonder that near the end of the series, the Fangire Queen, normally tasked with killing "race traitors" who fall in love with humans, has herself fallen for Otoya and would go on to bear their child, the show's protagonist Wataru.
Professional Wrestling
- WWE worker Festus has this as his entire gimmick. Most of the time, he was little short of catatonic, staring blankly into space with his tongue hanging out as his tag team partner Jesse dragged him around. However, when the ring bell rang, he would wake up and destroy all of his opponents, and would not let up until the bell sounded the end of the match.
- Unfortunately for Festus, several of his opponents (notably Miz and Morrison) have shown themselves to be fairly Genre Savvy in using this against him.
- Doink the clown (when he started out) was an evil version of this trope.
Close Professional Wrestling
Puppet Shows
- Miss Piggy in The Muppet Movie seems like a ditzy wannabe actress... until Kermit gets threatened, upon which she goes berserk on a pack of Doc Hopper's goons. Of course, fans of The Muppet Show would know that Piggy has a bit of a temper (and knows karate), and is quite dangerous when provoked.
Real Life
- Wei general Xu Zhu earned the nickname "Lazy Tiger" for his loafing about in his spare time and his ferocity on the battlefield. He single-handedly defended his hometown from bandits and fought Dian Wei, another fearsome general, to a standstill.
Video Games
- In Disgaea 2, Rozalin shows off a particularly fearsome variant of this. Having spent her entire, pampered life in a palace, surrounded by servants waiting on her every whim, she's a complete novice when it comes to fighting (thus giving the hero, Adell, an excellent opportunity to explain the combat-system to her...) It's up to the player how much he wants to level her, but she'll probably still only be around level 50 when you first encounter, and are soundly defeated by, a level 1200 Overlord. At which point a seal is broken, and she suddenly jumps to level 1700, learns a world-destroying special move, and kicks seven different shades of ass. Afterwards, when she snaps out of it, she's got no idea what happened.
- And in Disgaea 1, Laharl's castle has a half-dozen vassals who really don't do much aside from standing around and acting snarky towards the Overlord-to-be — until Laharl gets ambushed by an Overlord from an alternate Netherworld. The vassals then pull off a Big Damn Heroes moment and save the entire playable party's asses, kicking the Alt. Overlords ten clone bodies without breaking a sweat. Slightly averted in that you could check up on their stats before this scene and realize that they're hovering in between levels 300 to 400.
- Arado Balanga of Super Robot Wars Original Generations is exactly like this. He's normally a reckless idiot who gets shot down more than not, but if his partner Seolla (who he was trained to work as a perfect partner to) is threatened with death, he'll be there to take it and go down in flames or utterly kick ass.
- Demyx from Kingdom Hearts II is the villainous embodiment of this trope. His clumsy, cowardly, scatterbrained personality was stressed so much that even Jiminy's Journal called him "a poor fighter". He isn't. It should be noted, however, that because he is a philosophical zombie
 , technically any personality he takes on is fabricated.
- Anveena Teague from World Of Warcraft. Somewhat justified by the fact that she merely pretends to be a timid human girl. Yes...I am the Sunwell...not human...not Anveena...only great power...and so...you...you have no hold over me...and no hope against me.
- Not directly game-related, but the first time this troper played Army Of Two, he was getting lost every five seconds, crashing into walls, and being a complete idiot. Except in a firefight, where he somehow would be able to mow down entire hordes without aiming.
- In Metal Gear Solid 4, we are introduced once more to Johnny Sasaki, who had spent a majority of the earlier games on the toilet. This time around, however, his cowardice proves to be a hidden strength, as his fear of needles leaves him without nanomachines, making him immune to the Big Bad's trump card. Along with The Power Of Love, this leads him to develop amazing Gun Fu and sniping skills.
- And turned right back around for comedic effect in multiplayer, where Johnny's lack of nanomachines robs him of SOP-linking and the benefits it provides; if you try to link while standing still, he does an anime pose, and if you try while running, he does a Rainbow Six-esque hand signal. He also can't do CQC and will flail hilariously if you try. His diarrhea, however, turns him into a walking gas grenade as it will incapacitate anyone he runs by.
- A less specific example would be RPG characters with a Limit Break. Your reg'lar everyday Designated Hero suddenly wipes the floor with every single one of those Goddamned Bats. The one that springs to mind is Selphie Tilmitt in Final Fantasy VIII, who is essentially a young blonde airhead, but can pull an attack that instantly defeats anything. Yes, anything. Armoured Slimes, Goddamned Bats, That One Boss, the Big Bad of the entire game — you name it, The End kills it. Suddenly Selphie doesn't seem so innocent...
- What's more is that the attack (like her personality) seems pretty innocent. How you say? It's a beautiful field of flowers that appears on screen, that's it.
- This troper didn't really ever see Selphie as too innocent considering she wanted to "blow the car to smithereens!!!" once they were done with the plan to switch the train cars so they could take down the President...
- In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness, Wigglytuff seems to be nothing more than a simple, Perfect Apple-loving, uber-happy goof of a Pokemon. But if he gets upset, you'll find out exactly why Chatot seems to fear his temper.
- King Trode from Dragon Quest VIII would be a great example. He spends most of the game just sitting in the wagon and generally complaining about various things like his curse or how you haven't found Dhoulmagus yet. But in the ending? He can be seen beating up several Argonian guards. His weapon of choice? A twig. You heard me. He beats up men twice his size, who are reportedly tough enough to kill Argon lizards, and he does it with a 2-inch piece of tree wood.
- The latest generation of the Pokemon games has this (in a manner of speaking) with Bibarel. The evolution of that generation's version of Goddamned Bats — rendered slightly more annoying due to its higher HP stat, when toyed around with one will find that they can get an ability called "Simple" that DOUBLES the effects of any stat-changing skills used on it. Couple that with the most famous Buffer of the previous generation (Ninjask), a few turns of Swords Dance (and Ninjask's accompanying Speed Boost ability), and a Baton Pass to Bibarel and you have a complete and utter monster that your opponent will be in a BIG hurry to kill.
- Grit from Advance Wars is a top-notch distance weapons specialist, but he hardly ever shows it due to his incredibly laid-back, agreeable demeanor.
- Touhou Project is positively brimming with examples of this trope. Shall we start with Yukari Yakumo herself, wielder of powers far beyond godly who nonetheless prefers to spend her time goofing around, bothering Reimu, and generally acting like a little trickster imp? Or Yuyuko Saigyouji, who is genuinely amiable and nice and enjoys a good meal and sake under the cherry blossoms far more than anything else in the world, but who has been heavily implied by the author to know a lot more than she lets on, being able to keep up with aforementioned Yukari? (not to mention her power is to cause the death in anything that can die). Maybe Komachi Onozuka, who is a God of Death and the Ferryman of the Dead — and also a complete slacker who runs low on her quota of souls ferried because she prefers to lay down near the Styx and catch a shuteye or twenty? Or Suika Ibuki, a little girl who looks like a perpetually-tanked seven year old with horns and an unquenchable thirst for parties — and can also bench-press a mountain? All in all, when you're in Gensokyo it certainly pays to not underestimate whatever little girls you may find.
- The Black Baron of Mad World. An Uncle Tomfoolery who is constantly killed by his own deathtraps and girlfriend, it's hard to believe he poses any real threat, even when he turns out to be the final boss. Most players saw an easy fight...and then he goes Super Saiyan, kicks at you with lightning and punches you with a black hole. Sadly, when he meets his final end, he's reverted back to his moron stage.
- In one instance of Lord Of The Rings Online, Radagast the Brown walks through a wight-infested swamp talking to little animals while the players have to fight all around him. In the end, he incapacitates who seems to be the endboss with a single hit, saving the players.
- Emil Castagnier from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World might qualify, as he becomes much stronger in battle. At least, in the beginning. As the game progresses, this 'Ratatosk Mode' seems to appear more often, usually when Marta is in trouble.
- Dog of Half Life. The guy's a cute, lovable robot about as intelligent as a dog that can do advanced math. Press him however, (or make him think Alyx Vance is in danger) and he will fuck you up with his bare hands. Even Gordon Freeman would be hard pressed to take him down.
Web Animation
- In Red Vs Blue Caboose is usually a complete idiot who loads his gun with crayons and keeps killing his teammates, however in episode 40 Caboose thought about everything that made him angry (spiky kittens, Red bull and Babies) and was able to kill every single one of the flag obsessed zealots in about 10 seconds.
- Homestar Runner is one of the most idiotic characters to hit the internet. In The Strongest Man in the World, he bicycle kicks the Cheat, while upside down, into the far horizon
Web Comics
- Zap Vexler from Zap! is a prime example. Huge Psychic Powers are usually triggered by threats towards his crush, Reona. The first example is here. Don't make fun of his hair, either. Recently revealed to suffer from Amnesiac Dissonance, with his former self being a powerful psychic out to Take Over The World.
- Trace from TwoKinds is basically the same, only substituting Functional Magic for Psychic Powers. His powers mostly makes an appearance when he needs to protect Flora, his Cat Girl girlfriend. Had a full-blown Amnesiac Dissonance meets Superpowered Evil Side episode, but is currently tending towards The Messiah.
- Arguably Liquid Snake of The Last Days Of Foxhound also applies, considering it's been implied that despite his borderline idiotic behavior he is in reality a killing machine, but has lost the majority of his skills due to an accident caused by his overly aggressive behavior. He gets more intelligent as the comic moves closer to the events of the Shadow Moses rebellion of Metal Gear Solid.
- Vashiel from Misfile is an interesting variant. He's not so much stupid as a complete innocent, to the point where he's physically incapable of lying and gets a Nosebleed if he as much as has an impure thought. However, when his brother or Ash are threatened, you're suddenly reminded that his job description reads "Avenging Angel". Also a prime example of instantly snapping back to his ordinary, chivalrous personality afterwards.
- Rumisiel, Vashiel's pot smoking brother, is also one of these. Normally a slacker to the point where his goal in life is to sit on a couch drinking beer all day, as soon as someone's life is on the line, he suddenly becomes competent and, due to limiters placed on his brother, the stronger of the two when it comes to dealing with the supernatural. And as this comic shows, it is important to remember that ALL angels in this series are ancient supernatural beings.
- Gilgamesh Wulfenbach from Girl Genius is a bit of a fop, tends to stumble over his own tongue a lot when Agatha is around, and looks particularly weak compared to his father, the iron-fisted tyrant, Baron Wulfenbach. However, if Agatha needs saving, he suddenly shows another side of himself: capable of turning a hard-bitten, long-term undercover British Secret Agent into an obedient minion in a matter of seconds.
- This is an ability virtually all sparks have in the Girl Genius universe.
- Also, Gil seems pretty darn competent when Agatha isn't around, so that may just be the usual romantic awkwardness.
- Even Dupree, a hard-bitten pirate queen, underestimates Gil. In this strip, she calls Gil "Mister Sensitive" and scoffs at the idea that he could stop her from completing her mission. Baron Wulfenbach thinks differently.
- Let's not forget that lovely moment where when everyone thought Mechanicsburg was done and he was coming out to surrender he blasted apart an entire army with a stick without anyone to so much as hold his coat.
- Both Joyce and Walky from It's Walky! fall under this. Joyce in particular is ordinarily a complete innocent, with a passion for puppies, stuffed animals, and all things pink and frilly. However, if you push her just far enough... whoops, maybe that was a bit too far.
Big Boss: How's Joyce doing? Why has she made no progress?
Professor Doc: Big Boss, we can't afford to fix her! Do you know how many times she's saved the world's collective ass with her psychotic outbursts?
Big Boss: Three.
Professor Doc: Well, I'm holding out for five.
- Walky, meanwhile, is an excellent example that the trigger doesn't have to involve an immediate threat to yourself or your loved ones. This, for example, is what happens if you mess with his favorite snack food...
- Ping from Megatokyo is a dating-sim accessory who is just a regular Ridiculously Human Robot girl... whose way of dealing with rejection involves throwing buses and uprooting telephone poles to use as clubs (Largo once used this to save the city of Tokyo from a drunken, rampaging, giant turtle).
- Grace from El Goonish Shive can best be described as a bubbly, naive girl, which would almost make you forget she's a genetically engineered Super Soldier who, the one time she actually got angry, proceeded to toss megalomaniac arch-villain Damien around like a rag doll, only to turn around at the last moment and ask him to forgive her.
- Mega Man in Bob And George. Ordinarily he's a complete buffoon. But when he goes into battle, particularly against the Robot Masters, he becomes Badass, often coming up with clever ways to defeat them. The fans figured out a reason for this, and the author said "Sure Why Not": In one of the early comics, the punchline is that Mega Man was accidentally programmed first to defeat evil robots, and second to be an idiot. He later retconned that this was the reason Mega Man was a default moron whenever there wasn't evil around, but when a bad guy shows up, he becomes an instant badass for the duration of the crisis.
- Lemmy in F@nboy$. Normally he's a timid, goofy Nintendo fanatic. However, should anyone ever accuse Nintendo of being "kiddy" within his vicinity, he literally phases out into a trance and turns into a rampaging lunatic, with little to no memory of what he has done afterwards. This may also be triggered by getting hit in the head, or more precisely, accidentally hitting other things with his face.
- Fighter of 8-Bit Theater is a childish dimwit who is blind to the obvious (for the most part at least) but is also a highly proficient swordmaster who can wield the Sword-Chucks (yo!) with enough proficiency to fight a six-armed demon of fire. Oh and if you're an enemy, watch yourself if you kill Black Mage...
"Cool. Because friends look out for one another and we're friends, but Black Mage is my best friend. Also, I can block any attack and kill anything that bleeds. Hint."
- He once used his swords as chainsaws to destroy an entire flight of unstoppable dragons just because Red Mage convinced him that he could.
- Smoke from WTF Comics, starting as a little pocket Monk with seemingly no real battle capabilities besides dodging things, until Nikisha stabs Anna in front of him, and make him go "all out" in rage with annihilating an entire bridge of Mooks along with the bridge itself under them, nearly killing her too in the process.
- Oh, and did we mention that he can also teleport, modify his own perception of time, resurrect the dead, and see the very fabric of the Timespace around him?
- In a couple of Ctrl Alt Del comics starring the "players" (homicidal gamers with the tendency to carry out in-game vendettas in real life), Player 3 makes an appearance. He's normally laid-back and "normal", but can turn homicidal if threatened...
- Lilah, the main character's wife, also fits this trope. Except instead of normal powers, her gaming abilities go through the roof whenever she is angry. When she enters gaming tournaments, she will sometimes deliberatly attempt to goad her husband into ticking her off so that she plays better. In her ultra-gaming state, she even drove Zeke, the series' walking, talking Xbox, to exhaustion.
- The Order of the Stick. Xykon's Monster in the Darkness is this trope, acting childish all the time, but when he does show his power (often completely accidentally), he causes massive destruction.
- In The KAMics, Gertrude and Brunhilda are normally comic bumblers, but when their sister was in trouble, glowing eyes and dead Mooks followed.
- Torg from Sluggy Freelance, despite taking a few levels in badass over the years, is still mostly just a goofy, not-to-bright guy that everyone treats as pretty harmless. Probably best exemplified in this strip:
Riff: Dude! When did you learn to kick ass?
Torg: I've been taking an Internet college correspondence course in kickass.
Riff: You have not.
Torg: But I so want to teach one!
- Daniel 'Dan' Ti'Fiona of Dan And Mabs Furry Adventures is technically a hero — graduated from Adventuring School and with titles to match. His friends, however, doesn't really take it seriously, what with him usually being bungling, lazy, caught up in romantic mishaps, and getting transformed into a woman. However, when faced with old enemies, he'll usually loose his shirt, narrow his eyes, and demonstrate that he IS, in fact, worthy of those titles. With the later addition of Cubi powers, this transformation has reached the level of 'make a demon piss her pants and run like hell'.
- Subverted in Dr Mc Ninja as he is more of a Crouching Badass Hidden Moron.
- Hod from Brat-halla is one of these after he Took A Level In Badass. His brothers have a thing for it as well tough. And his father. And his mother. And his back-up dad...
- Stanley the Tool from Erfworld, who on first appearance seems more concerned with the fact his Mac Guffin turns walnuts into pigeons when cracked than the impending destruction of his forces. Then he decks Chief Warlord Caeser in one hit.
- Diva Beelze from Evil Diva is kind of a little...silly but she's pretty bad ass in the latest chapter in that she beats the crap out of the devil thugs without hardly doing anything. She has the super special wand but...so did Sailor Moon!
- Sir Muir, a scarred old Darsai knight from the webcomic Harkovast appears to be a prattling, senile goofball when nothing exciting is happening. However he proves that he's quite a competent (though distractable) fighter when the situation calls for it.
- Kharla'ggen from Drow Tales plays with rubber duckies and rarely, if ever, utters a complete sentence. Her guards barely care about their job. But she's the leader of one of the major clans in the setting and her laissez-faire rule is undisputed because she also likes to play with dolls.
Web Original
- Doctor Horrible.
- Subverted with Arthur Williams in Survival Of The Fittest, who shoves aside his shyness and fear, charging an armed player in order to save a hostage, and gets shot in the face for his trouble. Paul Smith, also from Survival Of The Fittest is usually a Chivalrous Pervert, pretty goofy and laid back — very much a comic relief character. However, from time to time, he almost seems to "switch on" and become one hell of a lot more dangerous. And try lethally dangerous.
Western Animation
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