Specs of Awesome - Television Tropes & Idioms

Popular culture, especially in the West, tends to portray glasses as nerdy and as a sign of weakness. However, for some reason, if the one with the glasses isn't a meek Non-Action Guy, they are surprisingly likely to be this.

This trope has only two requirements: you must be badass, and you must wear glasses while demonstrating your badassery. Often overlaps with Badass Bookworm and Genius Bruiser, in which case the wearer is also likely to be The Stoic and frequently display Awesomeness by Analysis. These, however, are merely common traits, not requirements.

To qualify for this trope, the character in question must be badass while still wearing glasses, otherwise it's The Glasses Come Off. Distinct from Cool Shades in that these are actual, transparent glasses. Contrast Stoic Spectacles, where the character is witty but not necessarily action oriented.

Examples:

Manga and Anime

George Ushiromiya during the fourth arc of Umineko no Naku Koro ni: He reveals some mad martial arts skills and even adjusts his glasses during a jump while he prepares for a finishing kick (in the anime adaption).
Yukio Okumura from Blue Exorcist pulls this off, although he wasn't always a tough fighter, and you still wouldn't guess it at a glance.
America from Axis Powers Hetalia is awesome and has Purely Aesthetic Glasses essentially because they too are awesome. And because they are Texas. Or something.
Nice Holystone from Baccano. An interesting example that literally overlaps with Eyepatch of Power.
Ishida Uryu from Bleach fits this trope to a T. He is easily on par with Lieutenant-class Soul Reapers, and post-timeskip he demonstrates himself to be an excellent fighter even without his Quincy Powers. It Runs in the Family.
- Lisa Yadomaru has a rather slight build, but she turns out to be a Glacier Waif with a BFS (S in this case standing for spear).
  - Her successor, Nanao Ise, hasn't received much screen time, but she's the same rank as Matsumoto, Hisagi and Kira, which has to mean something. She can also deliver an Armor-Piercing Slap to her superior.
Gilbert G.P. Guilford from Code Geass.
Misaki Kirihara from Darker than Black.
Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist was a truly awesome guy.
- Then there's Hohenheim, who is truly epic when he decides to get dangerous.
From Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, we have Ryuuto Asamiya and Tsutomu Tanaka. Miu, while capable of fighting with them on, subverts it twice; the glasses are just for show and she always takes them off when she gets serious.
Takahata from Mahou Sensei Negima! has no magical abilities, but is one helluva fighter. He's even nicknamed "Death Megane/Death Glasses".
- Negi himself also qualifies later in the series, once he stops being a Squishy Wizard.
At Kyon's request, Yuki Nagato from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya stopped wearing glasses, but she got her first (and arguably best) Crowning Moment of Awesome while she was still a meganekko.
Kabuto from Naruto is clearly a badass even before he fuses with Orochimaru's flesh. After he does that, well... let's just say he's able to intimidate the apparent Big Bad!
Off duty, Tashigi from One Piece is a Cute Clumsy Girl, but she's actually a very capable and effective officer.
- Sengoku... just Sengoku.
- Who forgot Rayleigh?
From Rosario + Vampire, we have Hokuto Kaneshiro, the Big Bad of Season I. When they meet him again in Season II, the gap between him and Tsukune is wide enough that he can curb stomp him from his wheelchair!
Margery Daw from Shakugan no Shana has these as part of her Hot Librarian look.
Oxford, Kilik, Yumi and Stein from Soul Eater.
- Yumi needing glasses is a funny example as she's a sniper. Well, technically she's an gun/crossbow-ish Empathic Weapon, but close enough.
Rin Asougi of Mnemosyne does a lot of badass things while wearing glasses, but they tend to end up lost or destroyed in the process, requiring her to frequently replace them.
Conan Edogawa of Detective Conan keeps his specs in place whenever deploying gadgets or kicking a soccer ball into some poor criminal's teeth.

Film

In The Ipcress File and its sequels, there was Harry Palmer, a Cockney spy in National Health Service specs, way back in the 1960s. At the time, this was a notable subversion of the suave upper-class British intelligence agent epitomized by James Bond.
Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters and its Animated Adaptations The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters.

Literature

Harry Potter has quite a few. Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Luna Lovegood, Harry himself... his father James was apparently one of these, but we've never seen him duel, not even in flashbacks.

Live-Action TV

The Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who occasionally dons his Purely Aesthetic Glasses to look more clever (remember, this is a guy who takes Awesomeness by Analysis Up to Eleven).
Hiro from Heroes. His badass future self no longer wears glasses, though.
- HRG, however, is most certainly this trope. So much so that his Fan Nickname comes from his glasses.
Daniel Jackson definitely started out more bookworm than badass but even as he took several levels over the course of the show, he managed to avoid The Glasses Come Off (except when he was doing the Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence thing).
Danny Messer during the first few seasons of CSI NY. However, for some reason, he either quit wearing them nowdays or switched to contacts.
Commander and later Admiral William Adama wears glass and kicks Cylon ass. You can't say that he's not awesome when he puts them on.

Video Games

The gang from Persona 4.
Gordon Freeman in Half-Life.
The Medic in Team Fortress 2. Bonus points for pushing up his glasses in a very nerdy way before smirking and letting forth the very first Ubercharge in "Meet The Medic".
In the Pokémon games, there's often at least one bespectacled member of the Elite Four: Shauntal, Lorelei, Lucian. There's also Roark, the only Gym Leader in any game who wears glasses. Then there's Cheren from Black and White.
Charlie from Street Fighter Alpha never removes his glasses, even in a fight.
Tales of the Abyss has Jade Curtiss, although he does take them off for the very final battle - because they're a Power Limiter.

Web Original

In The Gamers Alliance, Richelieu wears glasses and is one of Alent's most powerful mages who has beaten several strong enemies.

Western Animation

The title character of Dexter's Laboratory
Gretchen Grundler and Gus Griswald from Recess
Charles Foster Ofdensen, Deathklok's manager in Metalocalypse. This fellow proves his badassery multiple times throughout the series, even coming back from death itself at the precise time he's needed most.
Artie Levawitz (AKA, King Arthur) in an episode of The Fairly Oddparents.

Real Life