Rugged Scar

"God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars."

— Elbert Hubbard

A relatively simple way for a writer to show a character is tough, without explicitly saying it: give them a prominent scar. Even if the cause of the scar is never revealed, it's clear that the character suffered some sort of serious wound and survived. For example, you look at a group of Space Marines. Who do you think is the toughest one there: the clean-faced guy or the guy with a healed gash across his face?

Like an Eyepatch After Time Skip, it's a common tool to show a character is a Future Badass.

Common Rugged Scars include:

• A cut over one eye
• A claw mark (usually three or four even gashes on the chest or face)
• Any of the Standard Bleeding Spots
• Any scar shaped like an X.
• A scar on the face that happened in a sword duel.

Compare Every Scar Has a Story and Scar Survey. In this case, the story behind the scar is irrelevant, all that matters is that the character's scar sets them apart as tough or a survivor. Overlap between the two is possible; even if the cause of a scar is revealed, if it is used to show someone is tough then this applies as well. Covered with Scars is a subtrope. Goes hand-in-hand with Real Men Get Shot and Dented Iron.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Bleach: Many characters are Covered with Scars or examples of Every Scar Has a Story, but Tsubaki stands out as he came into existence with a scar over his eyebrow. Fitting, since he's Orihime's sole form of attack and the most brash of her fairies.
• Buso Renkin: Tokiko Tsumura has a large scar running horizontally across her cheeks and nose. It's very fitting, as she's the more aggressive of the main characters (her catchphrase is "I'll splatter your guts!"). It's left unexplained until the epilogue chapter, where it turns out she acquired it when she was attacked by a humanoid homunculus and activated her Buso Renkin for the first time. The author stated in the liner notes that it was partly inspired by the scar he'd put on Himura Kenshin's left cheek in Rurouni Kenshin.
• Cowboy Bebop: Jet Black has a scar over his eye and a piece of metal bolted to his face below it.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba doesn't shy away from acquired scars after so many encounters and battles with bloodthirsty demons:
  • At the start of the series, Tanjiro Kamado has a scar over his left temple, acquired from saving one of his siblings from a falling kettle. The scar later changes during the Final Selection during his fight with the Hand Demon, a result of getting struck by a tree.
  • Jigoro Kuwajima is a veteran demon hunter, now a master, that has a big scar under his left eye and also has a wooden leg, to show much of a seasoned warrior he was.
  • Gyomei Himejima has a huge horizontal scar on his forehead, acquired from before he became a slayer of demons, fighting his first demon when he was just a normal monk.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Colonel Silver, a Knight of Cerebus, has a small cross-shaped scar on his chest.
  • After coming back from offscreen Training from Hell at the end of Dragon Ball, Yamcha sports a few facial scars indicating that he's come back stronger (although he still Can't Catch Up).
  • Bardock, Goku's father is completely identical to his son (and his grandson as well), except for the fact that he has a scar on his cheek. Not surprising he'd pick something like that up, considering his job is to travel from planet to planet and wipe out their entire populations.
• Fairy Tail: Laxus has a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt over his eye.
• The descriptively named Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist has a scar in the shape of an X on his forehead, that reaches down to go over his eyes.
• The creator of Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin and its sequel Ginga Densetsu Weed is fond of this trope. Many characters of his have scars or acquire them at some point. Notable examples are the absolutely covered by them Riki, arguably the most powerful dog in either series, and his son Gin, the protagonist of Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin.
• GTO: The Early Years: Invoked by Tsumoto Katsuyuki, aka Katchan, who has a scar on his eyebrow that he did to himself, to look more badass. The scar on his side from when he fought Eikichi is real, though.
• Is the Order a Rabbit? has a rabbit with a cross-shaped scar. From his behaviour (such as terrifying Syaro) to his glowing red eyes, he can be considered to be Badass Adorable.
• Domon Kasshu, Hot-Blooded hero of Mobile Fighter G Gundam, has a cross-shaped scar on his right cheek. The origin is never given, but it fits his brash persona, though a 4koma makes fun of this saying that the scar was actually Master Asia etching an 'X' on his cheek with a marker, punishing him when he messed up.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Midoriya develops scars along his right arm from when he injured it grievously using the power of One For All. In particular, he has several scars on his right hand from overusing One For All on it during the Sports Festival tournament, and later develops a large scar covering a large area of his right triceps from fighting Muscular.
  • Aizawa has a scar under his right eye from the damage inflicted by the Nomu during the USJ arc. Later, he picks up a vertical scar across the first one from Shigaraki gouging out the eye on that side. His Eyepatch of Power conceals it somewhat. He also has a large scar on his elbow from the disintegration Shigaraki’s quirk caused.
• Naruto: Ibiki has multiple of these on his forehead from enduring physical torture in the past, and illustrates his capacity to endure pain without giving up the desired information to the enemy.
• One Piece:
  • Invoked by Luffy, who thinks it would be badass to himself a scar below his eye in tribute to his hero Shanks. After the time skip, Luffy sports another scar in the shape of an X on his chest after the battle with Akainu.
  • Shanks' own scar is a claw mark scar over his eye from his fight with Blackbeard.
• Rooster Fighter: A bitter turtle has a scar over his right eye and is just as strong as Keiji, though he's weaker outside of water.
• Rurouni Kenshin: Kenshin has a prominent x-shaped Dueling Scar on his cheek, which Nobuhiro Watsuki initially added because when he set out to create a protagonist as unlike the badass samurai Hiko Seijuurou from his debut one-shot "Crescent Moon in the Warring States", the character came out looking effeminate. The scar is finally explained during the manga's final arc: he received half of it from a samurai he killed during the Boshin War, then the other half when his wife Tomoe jumped between him and a man he was fighting while he was blinded and deafened.
• In Soul Eater, Black Star ends up getting a scar over the tattoo of his clan symbol. This also momentarily makes him come off as a Chick Magnet.
• YuYu Hakusho: Sakyo, The Sponsor of Toguro brothers, has a big scar that crossed his right eye and a good part of his face. Despite of this scar, his eye is intact.

Asian Animation

• Wolffy of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf has a prominent scar on his face. It's made of several lines.

Comic Books

• Cable has a scar (or several, Depending on the Artist) over his right eye. It serves to show that he's a Future Badass from a Bad Future, although his early appearances played up the gruff aspects of his character as well.
• Kanan: Commander Grey has a large scar going diagonally across his face, stretching from his hairline on the right side of his face down across his nose and ending on his left cheek.

Fan Works

• Bait and Switch:
  • In the original fic, Admiral Amnell Kree is stated to have severe scarring around her left eye.
  • The Headhunt: Commander Imara Stadi, a former MACO operator, is stated to be a classic beauty marred by a scar that starts near her eye, crosses her lips, and ends under her chin.
• In Child of the Storm, Fury's eye is scarred from Lucius Malfoy's cutting curse.
  • Following chapter 70, in which he is temporarily killed by being stabbed by Daken, Harry has a scar over his heart. In the sequel, he gets another after Dracula pins him to the street through the shoulder, with his own sword.
• In Guiding Light (AuroraRose2081), Juan bemoans how Julieta's food heals all of his wounds because he won't get any cool scars out of their Near-Death Experience. Pablo retorts that he already has enough scars.
• The Night Unfurls
  • Vault has "a multitude of scars" with the look of a veteran.
  • Hugh is an unorthodox example. The terrible scars on his throat are due to a horrific mutilation by a bandit. He miraculously survived, of course, but at the cost of his voice.
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Night Blade has one across his eye after his fight with Sharp Point.
• Played with in A Political Perspective. Sakura gets a jagged scar over her left eye due to being taken hostage by an escaped prisoner. Though she's merely the token girl beforehand, said scar motivates her to become a true Action Girl.
• The Rigel Black Chronicles: After Marek unsuccessfully challenges Leo for the kingship, Harry heals his knife injury so well that Rispah predicts it won't scar — which Marek finds a bit disappointing.
• Giselle in Somnium has a scar on her face from when Narissa slashed her with her nails. It accentuates her Innocence Lost.
• Throw Away Your Mask: An In-Universe example from Akechi's classmates, who see his cheek scar and assume he's some sort of delinquent who lost a gang fight.

Films — Animated

• Carlos from The Book of Life, has an "X" scar underneath his right eye. Word of God explained it came from his bullfighting career. He's covered in other scars, including a massive gouge out of his shoulder, and appears to have something of a limp.
• In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, this is common in the Darker and Edgier Flashpoint Universe:
  • Both Aquaman and Aqualad have a scar across the bridge of their noses.
  • Captain Thunder (Flashpoint Captain Marvel) has a bunch of inexplicable scars over both his eyes.
• In Turning Red, Grandma Wu has a visible scar on her right eyebrow.

Films — Live-Action

• Avatar: The Heavy Colonel Quaritch has three scars on his head. Presumably it's a claw wound of some sort.
• The Dark Knight's incarnation of the Joker. Rather than the Joker's traditional Frozen Face, this one has a Glasgow Grin, indicating the series' Darker and Edgier tone while still establishing the character as someone who isn't going to die easily.
• Invoked by Turbo Shek in Dragon Tiger Gate. He has a scar on his face that he gave to himself in order to seem tougher and make others respect him.
• The Edge: Mr. Styles, the lodge owner, has a long scar on his face and is an avid hunter.
• Blind Master in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, played by the RZA, has a large gash running down his face. Its cause is not revealed in the movie, but he's shown to be a wise and skilled master.
• In Inglorious Basterds, Lt. Aldo Raine has a prominent rope scar on his neck which is never explained.
• Lethal Weapon 3: Martin Riggs and Lorna Cole compare scars in a one-up fashion, which also justifies taking off all of their clothing, followed by inevitable fornication. This overlaps with Every Scar Has a Story, but in this case, the actual story of the scars is less important than their symbol of showing someone is tough.
• In Glory Trip, a former slave, is given A Taste of the Lash as punishment for going AWOL from the army. He removes his shirt revealing a back already covered in whip scars. He doesn't flinch as he's given the punishment.
• Invoked, then inverted in The Magnificent Seven. While looking for gunmen to hire, one farmer suggests one that has lots of scars on his face, thinking that scars are a sign of toughness. Another farmer replies that "The man for us is the one who GAVE him that face."
• Raleigh from Pacific Rim has several burn scars on his torso and arm. They were caused by the circuitry in his suit shorting out when Knifehead destroyed Gypsy Danger's left arm.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Barbossa has a scar under his right eye, Pintel has a scar on his forehead, there's a couple guys with ritual scarification, Maccus has a bunch of scars across his head, the list goes on and on...
• Star Wars:
  • In Attack of the Clones, Jango Fett sports a number of prominent facial scars with his helmet off, which draws a direct contrast with the clean-faced clone troopers we saw a couple scenes earlier.
  • At some point between AOTC and Revenge of the Sith Anakin acquires a vertical scar on his right eyebrow and cheek. The EU explains it as the result of a lightsaber graze during a duel with a Dark Jedi named Asajj Ventress.
  • Clone Commander Cody, Obi-Wan’s right-hand man during the Battle of Utapau, has a wicked scar that goes down the right side of his face.
• Terminator:
  • In the first and second movies, the John Connor of the future has an unexplained scar on his face. We finally see what causes this scar in Terminator Salvation.
  • Sarah Connor was meant to have a similar scar on her face in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but the makeup process was too time-consuming and difficult to implement.

Literature

• In Billy Budd, the Dansker has running across one of his cheeks "a long pale scar like a streak of dawn's light falling athwart the dark visage."
• Cira in A Brother's Price has a scar that goes across her face, and is very tough.
• The Calf of the November Cloud: Konyek has a nasty-looking scar running from his right shoulder down to his chest, acquired from a spear wound received when he was attacked by cattle riders and left for dead.
• Earth's Children : In The Clan of the Cave Bear, Creb's eye is scarred over - his backstory reveals that this was caused by a cave bear attack when he was a young child.
• Doglands:
  • Furgul is a lurcher covered with scars, which he receives throughout the story from either dodging bullets or fighting with other dogs. Female dogs find his scars especially attractive.
  • Furgul's father Argal has his own scars due to his status as a wild, hardened Living Legend who can fight off anyone.
  • Dervla gains a few scars from her time as a deadly Angry Guard Dog.
• Though Wizards in The Dresden Files do eventually heal sufficiently that scars disappear (they don't necessarily heal faster, but their bodies don't stop healing when a limb is functional but keep doing so until they're completely fixed), the title character has an impressive number of scars, to the point where Anastasia Luccio, the battle captain of the Wardens (the White Council's military wing) who's about two hundred years old, is astonished by their number during a Scar Survey, saying that she knows wizards hundreds of years old without half his number of scars. A few books later in Skin Game, he notes that the fairly thuggish bodyguards at a fancy party are nervous around him because 'they recognised one of their own kind and one who had better scars than they did'. This is particularly notable since he's in a full tuxedo at the time. That said, the classic awesome facial scar he has and the fact he's about six foot ten probably helps.
• Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter is a walking collection of scars and missing body parts from his days fighting dark wizards.
• Played With in Ranger's Apprentice, where some tough fighters do indeed have scars. It's when they have an excess of them where it becomes subverted, as Horace and other expert fighters note it's usually more of a sign of their inability to avoid getting hit than it is of their badassery.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, Jon has scars around one of his eyes as a result of a hawk trying to claw the eye out.
• Squeakerbane from Tailchaser's Song is a brown tabby so covered with scars that he's compared to "weathered wood". Everything about him, from his name to his appearance, suggests a seasoned fighter and hunter.
• Senior Captain Roland, Aerial Corps from the Temeraire series has a prominent facial scar from a sword wound received when on the wrong side of a midair boarding action several years ago. It magnifies the contrast when she is obliged to go about in 'appropriate' civilian attire.
• A minor Running Gag in Unseen Academicals is that a member of Ankh-Morpork's warring tribes of Football Hooligans who acquires an impressive scar at the hands of the enemy will never have to buy their own drink again, especially if it runs over their eye and they get an Eyepatch of Power.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • In the Ciaphas Cain novel The Emperor's Finest, Cain gives Drumon, a Techmarine (of all people) he's sparring with, one, albeit on his armour (which might as well be skin as far as a Space's Marine's concerned, especially a Reclaimer Techmarine). Drumon decides not to repair it as a reminder not to let his guard down (as he was deliberately holding back, and still confident that Cain wouldn't accidentally wound him).
  • In the Shira Calpurnia trilogy, Calpurnia has three scars running from her left eye up her brow into her hair, which she rubs unconsciously when she's deep in thought or mentally distressed. Their origin isn't revealed until the memory of the injury is dredged out of her mind in the third novel.
• Warrior Cats: Lionpaw wants one of these during Dark River. He gets injured in a battle and hopes that his wound leaves a scar to prove how well that he fought.

Live-Action TV

• Barbarians: Ariminius has a scar on his right arm that he tells Centurion Metellus was his souvenir from Pannonian steel, which he received in battle in Pannonia. In response Metellus shows him the scars on his left hip, stating that people had to carry him to the latrine for two months after he received those particular scars.
• EarthForce Colonel Ari ben Zayn in the Babylon 5 episode "Eyes" has one that starts next to his left eye and goes down to his jawline. Pretty clearly meant to make him look threatening since the only explanation given (when Commander Sinclair pisses him off) is that he "got it leading men into battle."
• Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine has a small scar over her eyebrow. She's easily the scariest person in the precinct.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • When Riley returns, he's taken a level in badass and gained a really neat scar over an eye.
  • Wishverse Buffy has one which is used to show that she's much more gruff and combat-oriented than the main universe Buffy.
• Future versions of Peter Patrelli in Heroes always have an unexplained healed gash across his face. This is particularly odd since he gained a superhuman Healing Factor fairly early in the series.
• Zigzagged in an interesting way in Hogan's Heroes. General Burkhalter has a prominent scar across his right cheek, which does little to enhance the menace of the tubby, comic-opera Large Ham. However, that scar is not makeup (well, not compeltely, it was probably enhanced to make it more noticable on screen). The scar was genuine, and was inflicted on Leon Askin due to a vicious beating by Nazi thugs in Germany before he was able to flee the Nazi regime.
• Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: Captain Mitchell has a prominent scar to the left of his nose, which helps emphasize his status as a veteran rescue worker who constantly braves danger.

Tabletop Games

• Valeros, the iconic fighter in Pathfinder, has a scar on his cheek. Presumably it's to make him look more battle-hardened.
• It's easier to find a character who doesn't have massive scars from bolter rounds/chainswords/choppas/claws/plasma burns/etc. in Warhammer 40,000. The one exception tend to be Slanneshi cultists, who revere beauty and sensuality (and another exception in Lucius the Eternal, the champion of Slaanesh, whose entire head is crisscrossed with scars, some self-inflicted).

Toys

• Action Man, the UK equivalent of G.I. Joe, had a scar on his face to set him apart from cheap, generic soldier dolls.

Video Games

• In Crusader Kings II, if you get the "Wounded" trait (Usually from random events or personally leading troops into battle) it will usually eventually heal into the "Scarred" trait which gives a -5 dip for attraction (modifier for how much people like you), but you gain a +0.5 prestige (general measurement of how respected you are) bonus every month.
• In Elsword, Raven's is somewhere between this and Covered with Scars. He's also a grizzled veteran who has witnessed many tragedies in his life (including surviving the death of his family).
• The End Times: Vermintide and Vermintide II:
  • The veteran soldier Markus Kruber has a heavy scar down his chin, gains several more across his eye socket by the second game, and refers to more from a lifetime of campaigning. One cosmetic in the sequel, called "Veteran's Scars", foregoes his usual hats to show off the damage to his forehead.
    "Another battle, another scar."
  • The heroes' elderly Getaway Driver, Quest Giver, and seasoned Shadow Wizard Olesya Pimenova has an Eyepatch of Power and some vicious scars running across the socket, to say nothing of a peg leg.
• Hyde in Evolve has a burn scar across the left side of his face, presumably earned in the Mutagen Wars.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Barret in Final Fantasy VII Remake has two scars coming down from his right eye in a shape that resembles tear tracks.
  • Final Fantasy VIII: When designing the main character, Squall Leonhart, Tetsuya Nomura wanted to give him some characteristic to make him stand out from past protagonists. Since he was a mercenary, Nomura decided to go with his iconic scar. Squall's rival, Seifer Almasy, has a mirrored scar on his face, which the game's opening FMV shows Seifer receiving in retaliation for scarring Squall during a sparring match.
• Springtrap from Five Nights at Freddy's 3 is a highly damaged zombie-like animatronic, with a distinct scar-like crack across one of his eyes.
• Ser Royland Degore in Game of Thrones (Telltale). His personal history is only briefly referenced in-game, and his prominent facial scar is never explained. He is the master-at-arms of Ironrath and is immediately established as a tough, reckless, and aggressive character, always advising the player to choose the least diplomatic option available. His background is explained a bit better in the game's codex, revealing he indeed is universally regarded as a brilliant and tough commander.
• Baiken from the Guilty Gear series has a long vertical slash mark across her left eye and it's permanently closed. Starting with her appearnce in Xrd -REVELATOR- she covers it with an Eyepatch of Power.
• Halo 2 introduces The Arbiter's closest ally and nearly-as-badass Elite Rtas 'Vadumee, whose scars take the form of his two missing left mandibles. Expanded Universe material expands on the circumstances only hinted at in-game and reveals he got them during the events of the first game when he led a Spec-Ops team onto a Flood-infested ship and fought a desperate battle to destroy it, being the Sole Survivor and losing his mandibles to his Flood-infected second-in-command's Energy Sword as part of a Deliberate Injury Gambit.
• Cole MacGrath has one in Infamous 2 which was possibly obtained in the comics.
• Saïx from Kingdom Hearts is the best example for this trope. A stoic, ice-calm commander with an X-shaped scar with the center on his nose is easily one of the most feared villains in the whole series. Many characters, including seriously powerful ones, often choose to flee on his arrival. And when the moon finally breaks his calm, the scar nearly covers all of his face, and he becomes an unstoppable demon.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, both King Dorephan and his son Prince Sidon of the Zora have scars, the former two T-shaped scars on his forehead, the latter one T-shaped scar on the left "pectoral fin" of his head. Dorephan is stated to have gotten his scar when he tossed a Guardian off a cliff.
• In Love & Pies, Benny Benson, a low-ranking criminal, has two scars on his face: one on his left cheek and another running down the left side of his lips.
• Loopmancer have it's main character, a badass Hong Kong cop named Xiang Zixu, bearing a scar that leads from his forehead to his cheek, even passing his eye.
• Mass Effect:
  • Character Customization allows players to give Shepard any one of a selection of prominent facial scars, including the classic vertical eye scar and a particularly nasty one that runs all the way across their face diagonally over the bridge of the nose. The scar selection is the same for both the male and female models, and since this a role-playing game, it's easy to assume that the scars were sustained during whatever career-defining moment the player chooses as part of Shepard's backstory.
  • Wrex has claw-like scarring on the side of his face and skull plate.
  • In Mass Effect 2, Shepard is covered in scars as a result of the numerous procedures undertaken to restore them to life, and the scars can either fade on their own (max Paragon), become permanent (max Renegade), or be healed completely with the optional med bay upgrade.
  • Garrus also gets a wicked patch of scar from taking a missile' to the face, which carries over into Mass Effect 3.
  • DLC squadmate Zaeed Massani has extensive scarring all over his face, including mismatched eyes. This is because he was one of the founding members of the Blue Sun mercenary organization, and after an argument with his co-founder, said merc put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
  • When Admiral Hacket appears in person in Mass Effect 3 we are treated to a face that matches Lance Henriksen's gravel-laden voicework.
• In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Punished/Venom Snake's face is covered with these along with an eyepatch and large pieces of shrapnel lodged into his head.
• Sub-Zero gained a scar over one eye in between Mortal Kombat II and 3. The details behind it are never given, but it does coincide with him being cast out and hunted by his McNinja Assassin Clan.
• Persona:
  • Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4 has a small scar on his brow. Fitting, since he's a delinquent infamous In-Universe for getting into fights and feared by many (even if he does have a very soft center).
  • In Persona 4: Arena, Akihiko has been Walking the Earth since Persona 3, and he's picked up a couple of scars, notably a giant claw mark on his chest. It's never elaborated on, but it fits his "wild man" redesign and the fact that, when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, he's probably the best fighter in the game.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Matt Engarde from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All hides a double example under his bangs; he has the claw-like scars over one of his eyes. This highlights that he's nowhere near as innocent as he seems, but hides it well as these never get seen before The Reveal that he's the Big Bad of the case.
• Potion Permit:
  • Ottmar has a scar running down his left eye, presumably from one of his past seafaring adventures.
  • Yorn has a scar running down his right eye, adding to his seemingly intimidating look.
• In Quilts & Cats of Calico, Cousin Frank, a soldier fighting in Scratchington's war against its neighbors, has two big scars running down his right cheek.
• Infinite in Sonic Forces has a scar over his right eye.
• Similarly, Siegfried from the Soul series of games gained a scar over his eye at some point while Walking the Earth between Soul Edge and the first Soulcalibur.
• Splatoon 3: Befitting the original Agent 3’s status as Legendary in the Sequel, they’re now shown to have scars on the tips of their Tentacle Hair.
• Star Trek Online:
  • The game features these on multiple NPCs, for example Agent Franklin Drake◊ from Section 31, and J'mpok,◊ Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. A wide array of scars are also available for Character Customization, although whether they fall here or under Every Scar Has a Story depends on how RP-inclined the player is.
  • Admiral Amnell Kree in the Foundry mission "Bait and Switch" has very heavy scarring across her left eye. Her in-game dossier implies them to be the result of injuries sustained during the Dominion War (she got a Purple Heart after the Battle of Cardassia), but they serve more to mark her as a Frontline General. Section 31 Agent Grell likewise sports a lightning bolt-shaped scar on the left side of his forehead, which is left unexplained.
• The huge, diagonal scar running the length of Sagat's torso in Street Fighter, courtesy of a Metsu Shoryuken from a Satsui no Hado-infused Ryu. Some adaptations show how it happened, and sometimes it really is as nasty as it looks (such as in the animated movie). There's also Zangief, who is Covered with Scars from wrestling bears in the Siberian wilderness.
• In Sunless Skies, the Indurate Veteran has one all over the left side of her face, apparently caused by frostbite. One can conjecture it was earned during the first encounter between Stovepipes and Tacketies, and that a hole in the hull of her locomotive was to blame.
• In Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, a conversation between Annie and Senel has her believe that there must be some amazing story behind the T-shaped scar on his face. After she leaves, Senel claims he only got a scar because he thought it would look cool.
• Clementine from The Walking Dead (Telltale) picks up a couple over the course of the series:
  • Clementine's left arm is bit by a dog in Episode 1 of Season 2. Suspecting that it may be a walker bite, the cabin survivors lock her in the shed for the night, forcing her to sneak in and around the house for supplies to stitch her arm up, leaving a permanent scar. Luke will acknowledge this after the wound's been stitched up, but he notes that scars are better than stumps.
  • Depending on what choice she makes at the end of Season 2, she will have a different wound when you meet her in season 3. She will have a scar going over her eyebrow if you choose the "Go with Kenny" ending. She will have a bullet graze scar on her cheek if you chose the "Wellington" ending. If Clem goes alone with AJ, she will have lost part of her left ring finger. Averted with the "Go with Jane" ending in that Clem will have "AJ" tattooed on her right hand by Jane.
• Absurdly common in RPGs including Warcraft despite almost all such games also including widespread using of magical healing. Indeed, it is not at all infrequent to see such scars borne by individuals who would be fully capable of healing themselves: Turalyon in the Legion expansion to World of Warcraft would be a prime example. This is made all the more strange by the other characters who exhibit such scars having lore justifications for keeping them: Varian Wrynn's scars are a sign that he is the wolf god Goldrinn's chosen champion, Illidan's scars are tattoos used to bind a demon to his body, etc. We can only assume that Turalyon's wife Alleria asked him to keep his scars since they do make him quite the Silver Fox.
• In The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia is Covered in Scars, befitting a man who spends his days fighting various monsters, but the one that qualifies him for the trope would probably be the one running over his left eye.
• XCOM 2 has an impressive selection of these as character customisation options, and sometimes they'll be added automatically after your soldiers get wounded severely.

Web Animation

• RWBY: Weiss has a scar over her left eye, which she got during her battle with the Arma Gigas in the "White" trailer.

Webcomics

• In Alice and the Nightmare, Dee and Dum Vena both have ragged scars on their faces; Dee on her cheek and Dum across her mouth.
• Inverted with Samuel from Angel Down, who has a large jagged scar over his left eye, but is otherwise a goofy, Friendly Sniper.
• In Ctrl+Alt+Del's version of the Console Wars, the leader of the Sony Playstation 4 squad is a grizzled veteran with a scar over one eye.
• In Niels, Agent 250 is covered in scars like this, notably on his face, arms, and torso. Since he's in the paramilitary branch of the government agency he works for, it can be assumed they're all from previous missions. The only one that he acquires on-panel is the most recent one, a large scar where his bellybutton used to be, from Niels shooting him in the stomach.
• The wolf Raigho of Off-White gets a GLOWING eye scar as a side effect of being healed by Sköll.
• King from One-Punch Man has a trio of scars on his face from a claw wound, and is believed to be the most powerful superhero alive, so much so that it's believed that even other S-class heroes are going into certain death if they fight him. None of it is true. King is an unusually tall geek who has survived several monster incidents that Saitama resolved, and because Saitama was an unregistered hero and left the scene immediately after killing the threat, King got the credit, and earned a fearsome reputation. In truth, the only thing King can do is look intimidating and give a Death Glare until people or monsters back down. Fortunately, most of them do exactly that.
• Ceres from Orbit has a dramatic-looking scar over his left eye; how he got it is never explained.
• O'chul from The Order of the Stick, one of the comic's most badass characters and a high ranking paladin, has a single jagged scar on his cheek. He gets upgraded to Covered with Scars after a lengthy imprisonment by Xykon, who used him as his personal torture toy.
• Pixie and Brutus: Brutus has scars across his eye and muzzle and an ear notch. It fits considering he used to work as a military dog before retiring and joining Pixie's family.
• In Rise Of The Heroes the antagonist of the fourth chapter, Douglas, is revealed to have a large scar running across his entire back. It is not yet revealed how he got this scar.

Web Original

• In one of his silliest moments, World's Greatest Adventures's Rufus Hooter Talltales claims some mosquito bites on his arms are scars sustained during his globe-trotting adventures.

Western Animation

• Arcane: Vi has one on the left side of her upper lip, and in adulthood has another one over her left eyebrow. As Boxing Battler who engages in close range fights, it quickly conveys how tough she is.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Song from Avatar: The Last Airbender survived a fire bender's attack, but has a scar on her leg. She bonds with Zuko, who has a burn scar on his face (which was given to him by his father).
  • In a fairly rare female example, Lin Beifong from The Legend of Korra, Republic City's chief of police, has a pair of scars across her right cheek.
• Biker Mice from Mars has Throttle's girlfriend Carbine, who leads the Freedom Fighters and has a scar just below her left eye. Her debut in the three-part episode "Back to Mars" implies that she first got the scar some time after Throttle, Vinnie, and Modo originally left Mars, but this was later retconned in the three-part finale "Once Upon a Time on Mars", which depicted her as having the scar when the titular Biker Mice were still on the planet.
• G.I. Joe: Renegades: Hard Master, former leader of the Arashikage Ninjas, had three scars on his head.
• Colonel Staquait, the cruel leader of the French Foreign Legion in The Legend of Tarzan, has a cut scar over one of his eyes.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Twilight Sparkle subverts this in an episode where she meets her future self. The time-travelling Twilight does indeed have a scar, as well as an Eyepatch After Time Skip, but she's only from next Tuesday and it's a harmless little cut. Later played straight during the movie with Tempest Shadow. A scar across her right eye as well as her broken unicorn horn show she's not someone to trifle with.
  • The Bad Future version of Rainbow Dash from the Crystal War seen in "The Cutie Re-Mark" has a scar running over her left eye. She also has a notched ear and a metal prosthetic wing on the same side.
• The Owl House:
  • Hunter the Golden Guard, The Dragon to Emperor Belos, has a large scar over his right cheek and a notch in his left ear. This is actually somewhat subverted later on — Hunter, is a Child Soldier with an extremely abusive father figure, which forced him to grow up fast and put on a facade of condescending haughtiness or sullen anger to hide his vulnerability. After leaving the Emperor's Coven and getting the chance to be a normal teenager, Hunter is revealed to actually be a very kind and sensitive boy.
  • Flapjack, Hunter's Palisman, is missing his left eye dude to a large scar carved into that side of his face.^note Flapjack is briefly shown with two functional eyes in "Hunting Palismen", but this was later confirmed to be an animation error.
• To underscore the Bad Future, Future Enzo in one episode of ReBoot has a scar over an eye. Though in this case, the audience gets to see when he receives this scar.
• Parodied in South Park episode "Black Friday". The head security guard has a large scar over his left eye. It turns out to be a fake stick-on prosthetic to symbolize his leadership, and he gives it to Randy to wear when he dies, telling him he's the new leader.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks has Mariner recover in the sick bay. Doctor T'ana clears her to return to duty, but offers to repair the scars on Mariner's body. Mariner refuses the cosmetic procedure, stating "No way. These are my trophies." "Congratulations," sneers the Caitian doctor, "you look like a fucking scratching post."
• Young Justice (2010)
  • Vandal Savage sports a trio of scars along his face. This is despite being an immortal caveman and Magnificent Bastard.
  • Harm has a set of claw-like scars over his face.

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