Dreadlock Warrior

Dread the locks and the kicks.

Dreadlock Rasta meets Braids of Barbarism and often Barbarian Longhair — a character whose hairstyle preference is dreadlocks, cornrows, or a mane of many braids, will coincidentally be an ass-kicking fighter. If you've got a team and one of them sports this hairstyle, odds are that they're The Big Guy. Applies even to aliens who possibly don't have actual hair, but have something looking like dreadlocks sprouting from their skull.

A previously kempt character may signify that he Took a Level in Badass by showing up with locks so arrayed. Conversely, a character whose Important Haircut is the shearing of such a hairstyle has probably renounced violence. In science fiction works, this hair is frequently associated with the Predator Pastiche.

Not related to The Dreaded, although both tropes may apply to the same character.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Korikakkumon from Digimon Frontier, with the arrowheads on the tips of his dreadlocks serving as the main source of his Frozen Arrowheads attack.
• Izumi Curtis from Fullmetal Alchemist is the Elric Brother's teacher of both alchemy and the martial arts. In fact, she is one of, if not THE only person that they are afraid of.
• Kaname Tosen of Bleach is not only dreadlocked, but he is also blind. He was a respected Shinigami captain before turning to work for Aizen.
• Killer Bee and Ay (the Fourth Raikage) from Naruto. Both are the strongest shinobi of Kumogakure.
• Ermes Costello in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, a muscular Spicy Latina with dreads and a history of violent crime. Her Stand however, is more technical than one would expect, relying on creative uses of Weaponized Teleportation.
• Renee from Claymore has either thin dreadlocks or microbraids (it's hard to tell with the art style) and facial features that imply she might be of African descent, as opposed to most other characters who appear visibly European. Like all Claymores she's a capable warrior.
• Ivy from Blame! is a sword-wielding cyborg with very long hair that has this appearance.
• Zekka in Battle Angel Alita.
• Nils Nielson of Gundam Build Fighters has dreadlocks styled like normal hair. He's also a powerful Gunpla Fighter, piloting the Sengoku Astray and the Nimpulse Gundam.
• Bob Makihara from Tenjho Tenge, a practitioner of the Brazilian fighting style capoeira.

Comic Books

• In the Aliens vs. Predator comic books, the only survivor of the colony caught between the battle of the rival species is Machiko Noguchi, who joins the Predators in the end as an alien-hunter, as signified by her adopting tight braids and hanging dreadlocks.
• Static from the comic of the same name.
• Michonne from The Walking Dead has dreadlocks, usually held back by a bandana.
• X-Men:
  • Bishop had dreadlocks for several years, before going for a shaved bald look.
  • Joanna Cargill / Frenzy, a Nigh-Invulnerable Scary Black Woman member of Magneto's Acolytes. She changes her hairstyle, when she joins the X-Men.
• Maginty from "Kitchen Irish" arc of The Punisher MAX. A Scary Black Man who comes closest to killing Frank. (He does so with a machete.)
• Monica Rambeau, in her appearances since Nextwave. ^note During the events of Mighty Avengers she had short, straight hair instead, which is implied to be an attempt to forget about the events of Nextwave; after reclaiming the Badass Longcoat and dreads look, she uses and refers to it as an "underestimate-me look".
• Robin (1993): Villain Jager evokes this by wearing his hair in dreadlocks. He films himself killing monsters and people deformed to look like monsters to sell the ensuing snuff films.
• Watson and Holmes: Holmes has a head of dreadlocks and can throw down when he has to.

Fan Works

• Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger: In his youth, Darth Nihilus was a former Jedi warrior who fought for Revan in the Mandalorian Wars and wore his hair in dreadlocks. Because Jaune — who has Nihilus's memories implanted in him — doesn't know his name for the majority of the story, he takes to calling him "the dreadlocked man".

Films — Animation

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse introduces Hobie Brown a.k.a. Spider-Punk, a capable, rebellious and extremely badass spider-person with dreads so awesomely immense they shouldn't by any rights be able to fit under his mask.
• How to Train Your Dragon 2: Drago Bludvist. A massive, psycopathic warlord voiced by Djimon Hounsou, bent on conquering the world by enslaving dragons, who holds his own against Hiccup's formidable father Stoick the Vast armed only with a bullhook. Also, he does this with one arm.
• Kung Fu Panda 3: Kai. A massive, Chi-stealing yak who escapes from the Spirit World planning on draining the chi of the Dragon Warrior. He fights with the help of a bunch of enslaved jade zombies, or "Jombies" and two short jade swords on extendable chains.

Films — Live-Action

• Predator franchise:
  • The alien hunters have fleshy tentacles growing from their heads that resemble dreadlocks. Critics such as Roger Ebert criticized the design as trying to tap into fear of the Scary Black Man.
  • In the second film, the violent Jamaican gangsters all sport actual dreadlocks.
• This is at least the intention of the Psyclos' hairstyles in Battlefield Earth.
• Alien: Resurrection: One of the mercenaries has warrior dreads and is strong enough to carry his colleague-fellow victim whilst fighting off the main villain.
• In The Lord of the Rings films, The Uruk-Hai have the matted-with-the-blood-of-my-enemies kind of dreadlocks, and are more than a little menacing.
• The Twins from The Matrix Reloaded have dreadlocks and are pretty good at fighting. Link, played by Harold Perrineau also counts.
• Liu Kang's initial tournament match in Mortal Kombat: The Movie was against an opponent with long dreadlocks.
• Bishop from X-Men: Days of Future Past. An extremely impressive and long variety.
• Patric from Children of Men, an Ax-Crazy, hot-headed member of the Fishes sporting impressive blond dreadlocks.
• As of Thor: Ragnarok, Heimdall, played by Idris Elba is shown leading the Asgardian resistance against Hela while sporting locks.
• Speaking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Big Bad in Black Panther is Erik Killmonger, a former US Black ops mercenary who sports short locks, making him even more distinguishable than the rest of the characters.
  • In the sequel, Nakia has grown her hair into chest-length dreadlocks which helps to convey just how much time has passed since the first movie where she had much shorter hair. She's still a capable fighter who goes on a solo mission to rescue Shuri from Namor.
• In Final Score the lieutenant of the main villain is Tatiana, a fighting female with a cornrow-style haircut. The tough girl image is completed by facial scarring and a leather outfit.
• Special Female Force: One of the president's lieutenants is a female gangster called Tung Zi, who stands out due to her exotic looks for a Hong Kong film, being dark-skinned with long blonde dreadlocks and she has one of the longest fight scenes in the film against the protagonists and even manages to kill one of them.
• Pirates of the Caribbean has Johnny Depp's badass pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, whose dreads also fit his free-spirited personality in keeping with the Dreadlock Rasta trope.

Literature

• Artemis Fowl: Trolls are tunnel dwelling simian creatures with venomous tusks that can reach nine feet in size, and require magical and high-tech equipped Fair Folk SWAT teams (or the third most dangerous man in the world with medieval weaponry) just to be stunned long enough for capture. Their naturally-forming dreadlocks are caused by their long fur being matted with blood and filth.
• Spike from the Thursday Next series, a laid back, dreadlocked undead hunter.
• In The Lost Hero the god killing giant Enceladus is described as having thick, matted dreadlocks.
• In Chronicles of the Kencyrath, The Merikit wear one braid for each man they've killed in battle, on the left side of their head.

• Ex-Heroes: Mauve Shirt Makana often takes a frontline role in defending the wall against horde of zombies, and his long, dreadlocked hair is his most commented-on feature.

• Zeph Mathuin from the Ravenor series is a stone-cold Bounty Hunter with lengthy dreadlocks and a six-barreled rotator cannon.
• In the Bronze Age world of Gods and Warriors, Akean warriors braid their long hair into dreadlocks. This includes Telamon and the rest of the villainous Crows, and in the last book, the Messenian warrior Periphas and Akastos, the returned High Chieftain of Mycenae.

Live-Action TV

• Tyr Anasazi from Andromeda, a Proud Warrior Race Guy.
• Ronon Dex of Stargate Atlantis survived years being hunted by the Wraith, and started hunting them back.
• Star Trek: In Deep Space Nine and a lesser extent in The Next Generation Worf's hair is in long braids which are tied back into a ponytail. Usually only noticeable when his 'do is dekempt.
• A sci-fi variation with Luxans, a Proud Warrior Race in Farscape with tendrils on their head that give them a dreadlock appearance.
• In High&Low, Tetz is the resident dreadlock warrior. A Japanese dreadlock warrior, mind you.
• Michonne from The Walking Dead (2010) wears her hair in well-maintained dreadlocks throughout the whole series.
• The 2013 miniseries The Bible depicts Samson this way. As a Nazirite (sort of an Old Testament proto-monk), he actually combines this trope with Dreadlock Rasta.
• Rome: Gaia wears her hair in dreads, and proves to be one of Pullo's most effective fighters against Memmio's gang.

Music

• Bob Marley: "Buffalo Soldier" from Confrontation
  Buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta
  There was a buffalo soldier in the heart of America
  Stolen from Africa, brought to America
  Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

Myths & Religion

• Samson and Delilah: Samson, the inhumanly strong One-Man Army from The Bible, is specifically stated to wear his hair in dreadlocks in Book of Judges 16:13.

Pro Wrestling

• Karateka, kickboxer, occasional mixed martial artist and pro wrestling legend Willie Williams. Dude beat a bear.
• Booker T and Kofi Kingston have wrestled in these during their time in WWE. Tyler Reks was called the "dreadlocked demolition man" by commentator Matt Striker.
• Delirious probably does not have real dreadlocks, they'd have to be really short, but he does have attachments on his masks that Chris Jericho calls dreads. The same applies to Cyber Kong.
• Bray Wyatt starts rocking dreads after returning after an injury in 2016.
• Legio (Kronya and Spectro) have white dreadlocks, making them look like old men in masks(or, perhaps, ghosts). They can fight though, even when they were actually late into their careers, briefly dethroning the best tag team in Puerto Rico for WWL's Campeon de Parejas in 2015.
• Nina Monet had brown dreadlocks branching out of a black base.
• Amber Rodriguez has worn purple dreadlocks in ring.
• Brown haired Jessica James started tying on red dreadlocks.
• Dio Maddin or Mace has a dreadlock hair since become a commentator at RAW.

Tabletop Games

• In the Apocalypse: Time of Judgment book of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Zhyzhak and a generic Black Fury who fell to the Wyrm are depicted with dreadlocks.
• A strange variation in Warhammer 40,000. Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters is bald, but the "Butcher's Nails", cybernetic augmentations that increase one's aggression level, are long metallic coils that evoke this trope. As a Daemon Primarch, they actually bond into his body, with several becoming fleshy dreadlocks.

Video Games

• Gabriel Tosh in StarCraft II is a Spectre, an elite type of Ghost, who are themselves elite assassins.
  • Infested Kerrigan has what looks like dreadlocks but are in fact tentacles that allow her to psychically control the zerg. She retains them after being returned to human form in the end of Wings of Liberty.
  • The Protoss have similar tentacles that allow them to link their minds to their fellow Protoss. The Dark Templars cut their tentacles to remove themselves from the communal mindlink since they valued their individuality and freedom over the order of the Khala.
    • In StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void the Big Bad Amon uses the Khala to take control of the Templar, forcing those who try to resist to sever their nerve cords like the Dark Templar.
• Many Troll players in World of Warcraft.
• Ulysses in Fallout: New Vegas sports dreadlocks, and is one of the few characters who can rival The Courier in badassery. If you choose to fight him at the end of the Lonesome Road DLC, he's got 1000 health, (more than Lanius, the Final Boss in the main game), max skill in all weapon skills, and maxed S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. In his case, the dreads aren't simply for style as they were the trademark of his former tribe, the Twisted Hairs, and were used as symbols denoting such things as status amongst other members of the tribe.
  • The White Legs tribe from the "Honest Hearts" DLC also wear them. They adopted them to honor Ulysses, who (while realizing that they meant to honor him) took it as an insult, as they'd adopted it without understanding their meaning (his Berserk Button). They're an entire tribe of Sociopathic Soldiers.
• Mortal Kombat's cyborgs, Sektor, Cyrax, Smoke and Cyber Sub-Zero. Later games where Cyrax is given alternate costumes in which he still appears human, he still has them, and the reboot eventually reveals that he was the only one of the cyborgs that had dreads while he was human.
• Tekken's first capoerista, Eddy Gordo.
  • Craig Marduk, the Vale Tudo fighter, is normally shaved bald but some of his alternate costumes show him with dreadlocks. Particularly prominent in Tekken 4, in which he appears this way in his ending.
  • The old kung-fu master, Leroy Smith, who first appears in Tekken 7, has a full head of snow-white dreadlocks.
  • As well as Raven's superior and successor, the female ninja Master Raven.
• Knuckles in the Sonic the Hedgehog series has quills shaped like dreadlocks, and he is considered to be one of the strongest characters in the series. His entire echidna race, especially members of the Knuckles tribe, all feature dreadlocks and are known for their incredible power. Knuckles' dreadlocks even double as Hair Wings, being able to extend them to catch air in order to glide.
• The Proud Warrior Race Guy Sten from Dragon Age: Origins wears his dreadlocks additionally bound into a sort of ponytail at the back of his head.
• Bernie Mataki from the Gears of War series and its expanded universe has a dreadlock ponytail in the third game. Skorge, the second game's Dragon, has decorations on his helmet that makes him look like he has dreads.
• In Borderlands 2, one of Salvador's head customizations gives him long dreadlocks tied back in a ponytail. Sasha from Tales from the Borderlands also qualifies.
• Senua from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a Celtic Action Girl who wears her hair in dreadlocks, and she's quite gifted at combat, despite being mentally ill.
• You can make one in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but only if your character is either an Orc or a Redguard.
• Marcus Seligman, leader of the Apollo's Chariot mercenaries, in Front Mission Evolved, sports dreadlocks.
• In League of Legends, there is Lucian, who seeks to get rid of all the undead beings from Runaterrra; but even more dreaded is Rengar, whose objective is to hunt every other living being strong enough to be a challenge. The Resistance skin for Illaoi features reddish dreadlocks.
• In Far Cry Primal, Ull, the Warchief of the Udam tribe, has his hair done up short dreadlocks on the right-hand side of his head. The other side is bald, due to having his face scarred by fire arrows. And in Ull's case, Rank Scales with Asskicking.
• In Dark Souls II, the Lion Clan Warriors have their manes in dreadlocks.
• In Pokémon Sun and Moon, the Gen VII Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon's final stage, Kommo-o's head scales give the impression of this.
• The protagonist of SiN, John Blade, has his hair done up in dreadlocks. They're generally pulled back into a ponytail in the games, though some artwork for the first game depicts them flowing freely.
• Nagoriyuki from Guilty Gear -STRIVE- is a vampire samurai who has dreadlocks tied back into a ponytail.
• The Australian-born pankratist Jeffry McWild from Virtua Fighter wears dreads in his default look.

Western Animation

• Jedi Master Quinlan Vos in Star Wars: The Clone Wars was a Boisterous Bruiser with a long and slightly unkempt-looking rasta-like hairdo who trained Aayla Secura to become a Jedi Knight and eventually a Jedi Master, and was Vitriolic Best Buds with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• The alien Jhanna, who the turtles meet in the episode The Peoples Choice of the 2003 series, is a great warrior whose hairstyle greatly resembles blue dreadlocks.

Real Life

• Numerous NBA and NFL players.
• The Curly Horse, a breed of horse with curly hair whose mane naturally becomes dreadlocked.... and who are known for their stamina and toughness.
• The light heavyweight MMA fighter Sokoudjou.
• Da'Mon Stith, an American martial artist who specializes in African and Ameri-African styles, sports this look.
• The Komondor and its smaller companion breed the Puli are Hungarian herding dogs known for their long corded coats. Given that they were bred to protect livestock from all manner of predators including wolves and bears the badass part is a given, with the two types of dog often working in tandem with the former providing the muscle and the latter the speed. The corded coat is actually a defensive trait that protects them from the weather and from attack, since any predator that tries to grab them would just get a mouthful of hair before hitting anything vital. "Rasta dog" or "mop dog" are common nicknames for the breeds.

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