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alt title(s): Big Guy "Less talking, more hitting!"
"I know, I know! You're thinking, 'A big strong guy like him would be great to have along!' Right?"
The Big Guy is essentially the powerhouse of the Five Man Band. Often they are the largest member and even more effective in combat than The Hero or The Lancer. They will often be the point man, they cause a disturbance and hold off the mooks while The Hero challenges the Big Bad. Of course, against stronger enemies they might end up suffering The Worf Effect; getting trounced to set up the villain as a credible threat for The Hero.
Usually what holds them back from leadership is being Dumb Muscle, they know how to knock heads together but don't do much in the way of strategy. While The Hero and The Lancer fight side-by-side, The Big Guy is a One Man Army.
The Big Guy on the Five Man Band can be subdivided into five classes:
If the team has a Robot Buddy, he'll either be this guy, or The Smart Guy, or both.
Powers and skills common to the big guy are:
This bandmate is rarely a woman, unless it's anime and the whole team are women. The Big Girl can be classified into three subspecies:
- The Cute Bruiser — she who packs a surprising amount of punch. Traditionally a little girl, but can be stretched to any woman who is not obviously of amazonian stature. May be a martial artist or some other form of athlete. In cases of truly ridiculous strength, she may be a cyborg, robot, mutant, alien, possess Charles Atlas Superpower, or have some other justification for unusual power. Usually just as cute and/or pretty as more typical female characters. Male versions of a cute bruiser can exist too, only a Cute Shotaro Boy instead of a little girl.
- Alternatively and more unusually, she's a giantess, and thus plainly strong. She's rarely masculine but rarely conventionally attractive. (There's also nothing stopping her from being a robot, mutant, alien, etc. It's just that the surprise is gone.)
- Somewhat more rare, the Hot Amazon. She's big, she's strong, she's hot, and guys (and sometimes girls) drool over her. In the romance level, she either is admired AND feared because of her strength or only be willing to yield to a a really powerful male who is able to beat her in battle.
An exuberant Big Girl is either a Boisterous Bruiser or Genki Girl. If she's instead a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold, her softer side is often a secret cache of feminine traits or one particularly girlish habit, which may make her embarrassed when found out.
Besides gender, there most common way to subvert the trope is when the Big Guy is actually physically short, slim, or unimposing — and yet his strength comes with raw determination or intensity. (Or possibly supernatural means)
The Five Bad Band's Evil Counterpart is The Brute. Not to be confused with that other Big Guy.
Can have some overlap with the Proud Warrior Race Guy.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Android Sixteen of Dragonball Z falls into the Gentle Giant category, as while previously enjoying nature and taking on the role of a Friendly Enemy he does a Heel Face Turn and subsequently attempts to destroy Cell, who is threatening the peace of the planet.
- Kugayama from Genshiken, who's a Gentle Giant.
- Hap from Eureka Seven.
- Mori from Ouran High School Host Club.
- Chad from Bleach.
- Hiei in Yu Yu Hakusho (an unusual example, as he's the shortest and least physically imposing of the team).
- Arale from Dr. Slump is a textbook example of a Super Powered Robot Meter Maid.
- Kagura from Gintama.
- Chouji Akimichi from Naruto.
- Millie Thompson from Trigun is an example of the "Giantess" version of the Big Girl.
- A female example who's not at all feminine: Jeanie of Rune Soldier Louie, who towers over her teammates and could be mistaken for a guy if not for the sports-bra-like top. (Of course, opinions vary.)
- From Beet the Vandel Buster: Bluezam, the wielder of the Boltic Axe in the hunting group 'The Zenon Warriors'. His status as 'the big guy' is emphasized when Beet is seen wielding the Boltic Axe for the first time. The weapon is so large and unwieldy (for the small Beet) that misses in combat tend to destroy walls, rocks and any teammates who might be nearby.
- Aisha from Outlaw Star is a rare example of a female Big Guy outside of an Amazon Brigade.
- Takashi "Jumbo" Takeda from Yotsuba&!, probably in an attempt to make the cute protagonist look even cuter.
- Yuki Nagato's true 'position' (Haruhi sees her as The Smart Guy) is most likely a form of the Cute Bruiser. Compare Superpower Lottery - She can do just about anything. But when she can't do something (Haruhi's powers at full action, Snow Mountain Syndrome chapter) you know it means trouble, which is The Worf Effect in a distorted way.
- And of course subverted with Koizumi, whom Haruhi believes to be The Big Guy, but really isn't.
- Thorkell of Vinland Saga goes by the epitaph 'The Tall'. He's a seven feet tall Axe Crazy Blood Knight Boisterous Bruiser who isn't above a little Kick The Dog action. His men believe he's the Avatar of Thor.
- Jet Black in Cowboy Bebop is a textbook Class 3 Big Guy. He is also Class 5, filling in as The Smart Guy before Ed came along.
- Sweden from Axis Powers Hetalia is a Class 3 Big Guy. Russia looks like a Class 2, but is violently unstable and feared by many of the other characters.
- Sailor Jupiter from Sailor Moon fits the second form of The Big Girl.
- Utu and Coopa from The Tower Of Druaga.
- If anyone from Gunsmith Cats fit this trope, it'd be Bean. He leans towards a type II, given his soft spot for children.
- Briareos of Appleseed probably fits into Class 3.
- Guts, the protagonist of Berserk, is a Class 1 Big Guy who is very much The Berserker, particularly after the Eclipse. Pippin from the Band of the Hawk during the Golden Age arc was a Class 2.
- Randel Oland of Pumpkin Scissors. In fact, Oreldo even calls him that.
Comic Books
- In the Dynamo 5, this role is shared by Scrap and Scatterbrain. Scrap is a Cute Bruiser, while Scatterbrain has sheer size on his side (he's a star football player.)
- "Gothic Lolita" from Adam Warren's short-lived Livewires miniseries is a textbook Cute Bruiser.
- Ben aka The Thing of the Fantastic Four.
- She-Hulk when she was with the team as well
- Piotr aka Colossus of the X-Men, replacing Genius Bruiser Hank aka Beast.
- "Strong Guy" of X-Factor, whose name came from him explicitly Lampshade Hanging this trope during a press conference.
- Atom Smasher (formerly Nuklon) was the Big Guy and Gentle Giant for the original Infinity Inc, an incarnation of the JLA and much of the JSA, until he did a Face Heel Turn (he later turned back). His godbrother Damage has more or less taken up this role in the current Justice Society Of America, who until Gog repaired his face was definitely a Class 1. Atom Smasher is presumably a reserve member and still drops in on occasion, usually when the team takes on Black Adam.
- Vlad in Hack/Slash is a classic Class 3.
- Whenever the Hulk teams up with other heroes, he generally fulfills this role.
- Molly from Runaways is a very typical Cute Bruiser.
- Channon Yarrow of Transmetropolitan is a relatively subtle Big Girl— to be fair, being physically imposing by comparison with Spider Jerusalem isn't that hard. Still, she doesn't easily fit into any of the subtropes.
Film
- Chewbacca in Star Wars. Class 2 or 3, depending on how you look at Wookiees.
Live Action TV
- Teal'c from Stargate: SG-1.
- Ronon Dex from Stargate: Atlantis.
- Worf from Star Trek The Next Generation.
- Gunn and Connor from Angel. Gunn was even pointed out as "the muscles" once, and Connor was something of a subverted Big Guy, his slight, boyish appearance contrasting with his incredible strength and ferocity.
- Jayne Cobb from Firefly.
- Dean Winchester from Supernatural is also a subverted Big Guy. He's tiny compared to Sam and looks girly and vulnerable (those pouty lips, the general pretty-boyness and the huge Bambi eyes) but is an incredibly brutal fighter.
- Cameron of The Sarah Connor Chronicles fills in this role, which is ironic, as she is easily the smallest and most waifish person in the entire cast.
- B.A Baracus from The A Team.
Literature
- Tazendra from Steven Brust's Khaavren trilogy. She's considered very attractive.
- Bear from Genesis of Shannara "Armageddon's Children". He is described as the biggest and strongest member of the Ghosts.
- Honorverse's Victor Cachat is a Type 2 with both subversions: he's a Cute Bruiser and Genius Bruiser at the same time, his Sue'ness notwithstanding.
- His longtime buddy Anton Zilwicky is a Type 1 (his daughter called him Daddy Dour on occasion), while being only a Genius Bruiser all along.
- Brion Stoutarm in the novelization of Magic The Gathering's Lorwyn cycle, who is a literal 30-foot giant. He's also a Boisterous Bruiser. His brother Kiel is even bigger, but doesn't fight as much.
- Subversion: "Try Again" Bragg of Warhammer 40000: Gaunt's Ghosts. Looks like a Class 2 at first to everyone who meets him, but actually quite intelligent. The plot point of one of the stories in the second novel revolves around Gaunt choosing him for a mission because everyone assumes that he must be dumb because he's big.
- The Ogryn race (Ogres IN SPACE) generally fills this role for the Imperial Guard.
- Bigwig from Watership Down.
Video Games
- Kanna Kirishima from Sakura Taisen, a rare female Big Guy — who is an amazonian musclebound type with rough-hewn manners, but also a cheerful and smiling attitude.
- The Heavy Weapons Guy of Team Fortress 2 doesn't really fit into any of the four choices. Considering his weapon of choice is a minigun weighing over three hundred pounds which costs $400,000 to fire for twelve seconds and that he cackles insanely while using it in battle, he's not a Gentle Giant, but at the same time he's not mean, withdrawn or scarred. He's most likely to be the Boisterous Bruiser, but if his presence is bigger than his physical size, this troper is scared to think how big his presence must be.
- That's easy. It's about the reach of reasonable accuracy on his minigun. He will make his presence felt! Moreover, while other characters use things like bonesaws and fire axes as close combat weapons, the Heavy relies on his own fists.
- Let's be honest here- the Heavy is The Brute.
- Also on Team Fortress 2, the Soldier is a type 1 leaning towards Type-4.
- The Demoman is a mixed Type-1 and Type-4. He's not remotely gentle (his primary weapon's a grenade launcher, for crissakes), and he's not a Smart Guy, but he alternates between "withdrawn and melancholy" and "loud, happy, crazy berserker" depending on how happy/drunk he is. I'm noting a pattern.
- Dekao from Rockman.EXE (known as Dex in the American dub. Which reminds me...)
- Bowser in Super Mario RPG and Super Paper Mario. He's also the Id in Super Paper Mario's Power Trio. He ping-pongs between being Type-1 and Type-4 — he's technically a bad guy, and he won't hesitate to remind you of this fact, but he mostly just comes off as obnoxious as opposed to downright evil.
- Double H in Beyond Good And Evil. He's largely a Type-3 —while he acts quite tough, especially when it gets down to brass tacks, he's quite affable and fun-loving beneath it all.
- Wrex from Mass Effect.
- Gan Isurugi from Rival Schools, who's a card-carrying Type-2.
- Largo Potter from Valkyria Chronicles is a Type-4, whose presence becomes even larger whenever vegetables become concerned. And for bonus, he uses an Anti-Tank Lance.
- Captain Gordon in Disgaea, Taro (subverted as he's a Meat Shield), Mr. Champloo. Sapphire has elements of this though she's The Chick.
- Big the Cat and Omega in Sonic Chronicles. Their Fastball Special move is 'Wrecking Ball'.
- Amy, like Sapphire above has elements of big guy.
- Kanji from Persona 4 is a text book type 3 (Jerk With A Heart Of Gold). Chie is a Cute Bruiser type.
- Minsc from the Baldurs Gate series is a Chaotic Good Boisterous Bruiser type. He enjoys watching squirrels play, long walks in the forest, and beating the crap out of villains with a really big sword.
Webcomics
WesternAnimation
- Hawkgirl, Justice League Unlimited.
- Bulkhead of Transformers Animated is a Class 2 and 5. He's got the clumsiness and the slightly oafish voice, but is a Gentle Giant as well as quite intelligent, especially in battle (like how he countered Lugnut's Rocket Punch) though still quite far from a Genius Bruiser.
- Lugnut himself fills The Brute role for the other side, but similar to Bulkhead he isn't stupid, but his overzealous devotion to Megatron often clouds his judgment.
- Not to mention in the original Transformers, Ironhide fits this quite well for a group much larger than 5, although there's certainly a group that's considered more central than others. Also a good example of this trope from the original would be Brawn, who despite actually being SMALLER than most of the autobots, otherwise fits this trope extremely well.
- Bunnie from SatAM Sonic The Hedgehog is a female example by virtue of her being a Hollywood Cyborg and her girliness being outweighed by Antoine's qualifications as a male Chick.
- The biggest Big Guy of all is, believe or not, Godzilla, in Godzilla The Series. He's even nicknamed as such.
- Toph from Avatar The Last Airbender is a Cute Bruiser variety. Her first episode had her taking on five skilled earthbenders and taking them all out sequentially. Her Disability Superpower certainly helps in that regard; her opponents underestimate her and she kicks up a cloud of smoke that doesn't affect the way she "sees."
- Her original design was a large, muscly man- this is one of many Lampshades hung in 'The Ember Island Players'', where her part in a play is inexplicably filled by a burly, muscled man. (Toph is delighted)
- Enzo of Re Boot.
- Split between Hawkgirl and Superman (plus the Martian Manhunter when the writers remember that he can do more than just phase) in Justice League.
- The show King Arthur and the Knights of Justice was an interesting example, because it starred a team of football players temporarily taking the place of the Knights of the Round Table, it was unique in having about five big guys (Lineman) who were essentially interchangeable from one story to the next.
- The Mighty Ducks has Grin- a massive musclebound giant who fights with his bare hands, but also an ardent follower of Zen philosophy, who never uses more force than needed.
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