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I just wet myself!
"Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe...maybe. I have yet to meet one that could outsmart bullet boolit." The Heavy, Team Fortress 2
The Brute is evil's answer to The Big Guy. A Giant Mook with personality, the Brute is huge, all muscle, loves to fight and is very good at it. However, while he may first appear to be The Hero's equal in combat, subsequent battles will establish him as being either lesser in strength, or the Goliath to the Hero's David.
He is usually a bully, incapable of empathy, and, more often than not, also very stupid, though there are exceptions. Super Strength and Nigh Invulnerability are common among powered varieties. Female brutes are rare outside of all-women groups.
If The Dragon isn't the one that gets sent out to antagonize the heroes on a regular basis, it's this guy. He is usually the lowest-ranking member of the inner circle's hierarchy, and as such generally gets little respect from them, though he may exercise authority over the Mooks.
He is often the first opponent the heroes face after their successes require that someone more capable be sent to take care of them. He tends to be either blindly loyal or just too thickheaded and incompetent to ever stand a chance of overthrowing the leaders. Despite his role as the primary brute force of The Evil Army, he is rarely ever as strong as The Dragon.
One thing to keep in mind with this character type is that it's the role and rank as opposed to the character type that defines it. Pete from the Walt Disney canon is a classic example of the Brute personality type: a big dumb bully that just loves to throw his own weight around. However, he's generally used as a Big Bad (or, in works like Kingdom Hearts II, The Dragon). As such, in most appearances, he is not technically a Brute.
This character type often shows up as part of the Five Bad Band dynamic (in fact, his presence is often what defines it). He can also show up as a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, but (like all the other members) will lose most of his threat level by virtue of his quirkiness.
A Brute whose demeanor becomes implacable will quickly ascend to the status of Juggernaut, while the more emotionally volatile risk becoming The Berserker. Be wary too, recruiters, of a Brute who pets the dog, lest he prove to be a closet Gentle Giant.
Compare The Ogre.
Examples
Anime
- A female example is Smeddy from Record Of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, a gruff, muscular swordswoman with a sadistic streak who fought the heroes as one of Ashram's Quirky Miniboss Squad.
- Prince Dozle Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam. Noticeably, he was a 7 ft tall Genius Bruiser (meaning, he was no dumbass) made of pure Bad Ass who led his tropes heroically in the Battle of Solomon.
- This fits the description of Thymilph of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann pretty well. A gorilla that is Large And In Charge and the first of the four generals that Simon and crew encounter.
- A few examples of this in Dragonball Z including Nappa, Dodoria, Recoome, and Broly.
- Viede from the Sinners in Chrono Crusade fills this role, although in the manga he's actually something of a Gentle Giant and a Genius Bruiser. The anime, however, plays him completely straight — most of what he does involves punching his hand into his fist and laughing evilly when he's about to smash things.
- During the Nazi arc in Black Lagoon, Revy, having just come down from a bout of Whitman Fever, faces off against Fritz Stanford (or in the manga, Blitz Stanford), the biggest member of the Neo-Nazi Aryan Socialist Union. He carries a big-ass golden Luger Hand Cannon whose destructive power he shoots his mouth off about. This shooting off at the mouth gets him killed, as Revy spends the rant reloading her gun and then gunning him down mid-sentence.
Comic Book
- Blob is usually portrayed this way in X Men media and adaptations.
- Rhino, in Spiderman, has generally been portrayed this way. His Dumb Muscle personality was even used in a Homage to Flowers For Algernon where he briefly became smarter.
- Validus of the Fatal Five from Legion Of Super Heroes.
- Bambi Baker from Strangers in Paradise is a female example, but then most of the SiP cast is female.
- Parallax, despite being an Anthropomorphic Personification of fear itself, acts like a bully and is the first of the Sinestro Corps' five leaders to be defeated.
- Most incarnations of Batman's foe, Killer Croc. When he was introduced in 1983, he was actually portrayed as a dangerously cunning Genius Bruiser with a chip on his shoulder, but as time went by, Flanderization set in as writers focused more and more exclusively on his brute strength at the expense of his other traits, and at his worst (around Batman: Hush), he was written as little more than a hungry animal.
- The current in-universe explanation/Ret Con is that his mutation is degenerative, slowly making his brain more reptilian as well as his body.
- On the other hand, another of Batman's enemies, the Man-Bat, is usually just a near-mindless beast.
- Darth Nihl and Darth Stryfe from Star Wars Legacy are the least cunning of the main Sith characters but are their two strongest warriors. Stryfe in particular is single-minded about killing anything that his boss, Darth Krayt, doesn't like.
- Ironclad from the Incredible Hulk's rogues gallery, the U-Foes.
- Red Hulk too, though he isn't dumb.
- Blockade, from the original Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Film
Literature
- Gregor Clegane from A Song Of Ice And Fire is somewhere between this and Giant Mook. He's not on any inner circle, in part because he's too psychotic for that, and because Lord Tywin doesn't really keep an inner circle, (he has one or two people he genuinely consults with, the rest are dupes that he manipulates) however he is Tywin's choice for virtually all of the dirty and bloody work that needs to be done, and shows real taste for and skill at it.
- Karsa Orlong, from the Malazan Book Of The Fallen. Approximately nine feet tall, strong enough to pick up and throw armored men one-handed, and uses an unbreakable stone sword nearly as tall as he is. While he has something of the brute's personality, he's relentlessly opposed to the Crippled God. Also much smarter than people expect.
- Adus in David Eddings' Elenium trilogy. "Just put armor on a gorilla and you've got him." He kills men on his own side just to get to Sparhawk slightly quicker. Also noticeably lacking in personal hygene.
- Lu Bu in The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms. Initially, he is able to handily intimidate all dissenters from taking down Dong Zhou, drive away Cao Cao when Cao Cao comes to assassinate Dong Zhou, and take on Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, and Liu Bei at once. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Liu Bei are held up as amazing warriors because three on one they didn't flee Lu Bu and forced him to retire. Of course, Lu murders his lord and adopted father for a horse, his next lord for a 16 year old dancer (not that kind), and dies an alcoholic wreck of a man.
Live Action Television
- Leo Johnson on Twin Peaks. Hired goon, abusive husband, profane loudmouth: the whole package.
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Flak in Advance Wars 2. He also appears in Dual Strike, but has no role in the story. (His Limit Break is called "Brute Force".) His role as The Brute is filled in the new Black Hole by Jugger, who has the exact same abilities as him.
- Heidegger in Final Fantasy VII doesn't do too much direct fighting himself, but fills this role in ShinRa's army.
- Lexaeus in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, though he's not stupid.
- Saix and Xaldin trade off as The Brute in Kingdom Hearts II. Both are certainly sadistic, imposing, and dangerous fighters—although neither are stupid. Xaldin, though, is much larger than the compact Saix, while Saix, being a berserker, seems to take much more joy in the actual fighting than the cold Xaldin does; though Saïx is far colder when he's not under the influence of Kingdom Hearts moonbeams. Saïx also appears to be Xemnas's second in command, while Xaldin spends all of his time in Beast's castle, making Beast's life miserable. Which is the true Brute? Take your pick.
- An archetype in City Of Villains is actually called The Brute.
- Fittingly, NP Cs that fall under this trope are generally of that archetype, including The Wretch. Captain Mako is a subversion though, being a Stalker.
- Several Cut Scenes in Street Fighter Alpha 3 show Balrog playing this role within Bison's Shadloo organization. Although if you play as him, he will betray Bison in a power grab.
- Berserker/Hercules from Fate Stay Night.
- Largo the Black Lion from Tales Of The Abyss fits the role but also subverts it: A giant man over six feet tall and wielding a Sinister Scythe, he is a Well Intentioned Extremist Warrior Poet who is usually very calm and collected, and views battle as a means to an end and not as an end in itself. He is also something of a Worthy Opponent. Although he is the first God-General defeated he returns to plague you several times, and in each of his appearances he's usually strong enough to be a match for a full party.
- Raven from Metal Gear fits this in terms of appearance and group role: a huge man, all muscles, who goes into battle carrying a gatling gun, and eschews the schemes of the rest of the group. In personality he's a major subversion, being an intelligent Warrior Poet shaman, and possibly an Anti Villain going by how he says he doesn't actually want to live in the sort of world being created by Liquid and The Patriots, and how he welcomes death, rejoicing in returning to "Mother Earth".
- Dapang from John Woo's Stranglehold, who also has the distinction of being Wong's Dragon.
- Roach from Heavenly Sword.
- The Heavy in the page quote from Team Fortress 2 fills this archetype as a playable character, being a Mighty Glacier weilding a big freakin gatling gun named Sasha.
- Hel-lo-o? The Brutes from Halo. One is pictured above without a helmet. They're scarier without helmets on!
- In Wild Arms, Belselk, the first member of the Quarter Knights, is definitely The Brute of the squad. He's a rare case that's actually stronger than The Dragon, and Zeikfried admits this in the remake, calling him the strongest fighter of the Quarter Knights. The heroes were only able to beat him because a trap backfired and left him weaker. The remake had Alhazad revive him after his death at the hands of Boomerang, and he returns near the end of the game to pay Boomerang back then goes on to face the heroes one last time just before the Big Bad.
- Lenny in Shadow Hearts 2.
- Third level boss The Giant from Kung-Fu Master.
- Crash Bandicoot 1 gives us Koala Kong, while most subsequent Crash games have this position filled by Tiny Tiger.
Web Comics
Web Original
- One persona of Two Worlds, protagonist of the Arielverse is known as "The Brute."
Western Animation
- Lugnut in Transformers Animated, definintely falling under the "blindly loyal" version.
- The Rhino, a Supervillain in The Spectacular Spider Man definitely qualifies, being especially powerful, threatening and dumb. Other brutish types include his former partner the Sandman, who has the good fortune to be a little more clever and less single-minded, and The Dragon Hammerhead, who is intelligent enough to loyally serve the Big Bad.
- Siege in The Mighty Ducks cartoon. Not particularly dumb but definitely the biggest and strongest of the baddies, who prefers brute force.
- The Fairly Oddparents has Francis. He's usually just a bully, but in episodes where he's changed through magic, like "Timmy the Barbarian" or "The Big Superhero Wish" he takes on this role a lot more seriously.
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