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Took A Level In Badass
"Always remember, Elan: It doesn't matter if you win or lose - as long as you look really cool doing it!"
—Julio Scoundrel, Order Of The Stick, when Elan took his first level in badass

"Danny-boy, you've changed considerably...into a badass, if I may!"
—Curtis Blackburn, killer7

So you’re flipping channels looking for something to watch and you come across a battle scene in a familiar show. One character in particular is making a very good showing, doing at least as much as the main character to save the day. But who is this mysterious Badass Longcoat? Did you miss the episode where they were introduced? Why the nagging feeling of familiarity? And then it hits — you know this guy. It's just that last time you saw him, he was a nebbishy wisecracker with the constitution of a glass-jawed squirrel. What happened to transform him so completely? Simple: last time he leveled up, he Took A Level In Badass.

The phenomenon is the opposite of Badass Decay, and frequently just as unjustified. In some particularly egregious examples, a character’s personality does a complete 180 in a single episode. On the other hand, it can be the capper to an entire series worth of Character Development, and, if well-done, can make even The Wesley into an interesting part of the show.

If the change is a result of a Face Heel Turn, see Superpowered Evil Side. If the change is due to time travel, see Future Badass. Contrast Lets Get Dangerous and Not So Harmless, where actually competent characters who have been hiding their powers finally reveal their abilities.

The reference comes from roleplaying, where it's sometimes possible to "take a level" in a completely different class. For instance: a level ten Fighter could take a level in Wizard, therefore being both a level ten Fighter and a level one Wizard. (It's not a good idea, though, given how downright wimpy first-level magic tends to be.)

Compare Badass Abnormal, which gives the character ten levels in "badass", even if they really didn't need it (used often in Fan Fiction to make that character the 'ultimate badass').

Examples

Anime and Manga
  • Any anime lead who starts out as a Ordinary High School Student, but meets super-powered villains...unless his super-powered girlfriends do the fighting for him.
  • Omaeda Marechiyo from Bleach, after remaining a Chew Toy and a joke character for 300+ chapters, reveals his true power in a recent chapter- in it, he reveales that his bumbling idiot act, stretched across the entire manga, was a ruse, uses shunpo like an expert, and kicks the ass of his opponent without even trying.
  • Kouhei from Moon Phase, previously a bumbling magic-less thick-head, suddenly becomes a powerful mage after taking some serious Training From Hell after the 20th episode.
  • Akasaka in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni definitely did some Level Grinding in Bad Ass between his first fight against the Yamainu mid-first season and the rematch against them by the end of the second one.
    • And how about Keiichi Maebara toward the end of the second season? Granted, he went the inspirational leader route rather than the ass-kicking one, but he did it with such panache that I almost expected him to bust out a pair of pointy orange sunglasses and scream "GATTAI!"
  • In the first season of Shakugan No Shana, Hecate (an important member of the Evil Council) was portrayed as a cute, harmless girl who just prayed all the time and was doted on by another member. Even in the anime-original climax arc, the most she did was "synchronize". Her eventual reappearance in the second season quickly corrects this notion with liberal Beam Spam, Spheres Of Destruction, and a loaded "gun" to the face.
    • Yuji of Shakugan No Shana fits the "super-powered girlfriends do the fighting for him" part, but eventually takes a level in badass near the end of the second season. Suddenly he's impaling people with giant swords, blowing them up with balls of silver fire and crushing necks. Wow.
      • This Troper argues that Yuuji took three levels in badass over the course of the anime. He must be really good at MMORPGS.
  • Kei Kurono of Gantz starts the series as a repulsively selfish, sex-obsessed high school brat, but after surviving multiple rounds of the Gantz game (Training From Hell really does not begin to describe), a berserk, suicidal Death Seeker phase, and the brutal, splattering deaths of all of the people he never realised he actually cared about, he becomes a hardcore survival machine and capable leader. Also happens to a lesser extent to anyone who survives a round of Gantz...
  • Rock Lee was arguably the most pathetic ninja in Konoha, before he met Might Guy. Then he got Charles Atlas Superpower.
    • Naruto himself is an example of this trope. The second-most pathetic ninja in Konoha, he's now got enough power to take down Akatsuki members, and the series isn't even anywhere near done.
    • Sakura post-timeskip is another good example. She can actually do something after so much time as dead-weight. Training with Tsunade, or any of the Sannin for that matter, pays off in many levels in Badass.
    • Shikamaru might have been the first of the Konoha gang to make chuunin, but he was regarded as not being very strong and mostly a Teen Genius. That changed when his teacher Asuma was killed and he took down an Akatsuki almost singlehandedly and became more of a Badass Bookworm.
  • Takeru "TK" Takaishi went from cute Tagalong Kid in Digimon Adventure to a "veteran" Chosen who unflinchingly took the Digimon Kaiser/Emperor's whip strikes◊ before beating the crap out of him in Digimon Adventure 02.
  • Simon of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a pretty crazy example. Starting the series as a digger living underground, he then got by as The So Called Coward sidekick to the living incarnation of awesome, suffers a Heroic BSOD, but bounces back so hard that he's throw galaxies around by the end of the series.
  • Shiro Emiya, the most pathetic mage in the Fifth Holy Grail War. He gets pretty badass by the end of the series. Give him another couple of years, and you get Archer, a man so epic, they had to create the word gar to describe people like him.
  • Kazuma of Kaze No Stigma, in the backstory. Exiled a few years ago for getting his ass handed to him by his little cousin, by the present action he's become the most badass character in the show, basically handily defeating anyone and everyone (including his dad) without breaking a sweat.
  • This sums of the basic plot of History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi.
  • Series Butt Monkey Keitaro spends the tenth volume of the Love Hina manga off on an archeology dig with Seta and returns an omnicapable dreamboat that can face Motoko on near-equal terms and generally radiates awesome. Fans are split between those who see this as a logical outgrowth of man's growing self confidence and the ones who call it a near-Jump The Shark moment for abandoning the premise of the 'adorkable' landlord steadily earning ever deeper love/respect from tenants who in several cases casually outclass him. This was foreshadowed when it was mentioned that Seto, Keitaro's mentor failed the exam for Tokyo University three times.
  • In the Read Or Die OAV, Wendy Earhart is just a goofy, clumsy comic relief secretary. Then in the sequel RODTV, she's a cold uber-assistant; assassinating non-combatant scientists and ordering MIB to conquer countries.
  • Itsuki Iba, the president of Astral in Rental Magica, starts off as largely useless except for a magic eye that frequently hurts him to use, and is constantly rescued by the others. Eventually, he starts studying martial arts as a semi-magical discipline, and combines that with his magical sight to become fairly effective, at least in situations where hand-to-hand combat becomes necessary. Otherwise, he's still largely useless.
  • Sheeta in Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle In The Sky, starts off the movie as a quiet damsel in distress. By the end of the film, she's allowing the Big Bad to shoot off her pigtails and reacting with only a wince.
    • Of course, she did rescue herself right in the opening of the movie by smacking a guard with a bottle and jumping out of the airship.
  • Maya in Fafner of the Azure. Sat on the sidelines for the first two thirds of the series, finally got her chance to pilot... and turned out to be an absolutely awesome sniper.
  • In Grendizer, Duke Fleed's neighbor and best friend was the Naive Everygirl Hikaru Makiba, who soon becomes a Distressed Damsel. She realizes this won't get her anywhere, so she's Put On A Bus for some episodes and returns both wearing sexier clothing (miniskirts, boots and denim > gowns and pretty hats) and with a tougher, yet still gentle attitude. By the end of the series, Hikaru has become one of Duke's more trusty sidekicks, along with Koji and Maria Grace.
  • The robot Mic Sounders the 13th from GaoGaiGar actually seemed to be built around this theme. In his first appearance, he was little more than a gigantic little kid's toy with an annoying, childlike personality who can't even hope to scratch the Monster of the Week. (In fact, he gets flciked away as nothing more than a fly) However, then his restraints are de-activated, and he transforms into his "Boom Robo" mode, with a keytar and soundstage powerful enough to tear giant robots apart at the molecular level.....and then levels back down after he's done fighting, into his lame toy-looking "Cosmo Mode" again. Apparently his fluctuating Badass level was on purpose: He could accidentally destroy the Earth otherwise.
  • Aki in Tekkaman Blade was The Chick in the first series, but in the second, takes at least two levels in Badass: Not only has she become the hard-nosed commander of the Space Knights in the intervening ten years, but has also become a Tekkaman herself.
  • Previously in Claymore, Raki who served as The Load and Morality Pet to the main character turns into a badass swordsman over the timeskip, using an ordinary blade to slay a Youma in pretty much two strokes. And then going "Pimpin!", all Dante-like.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima gives this to a few characters that don't start the series being a Ninja with Boobs Of Steel, currently the list is:
    • Library Trio (Nodoka, Yue, and Haruna) - All three have gone from being Cute Bookworms to Badass Bookworms via treasure hunting, knowing magic, and magical drawing superpowers. Add in Haruna's somehow buying an AIRSHIP in the months we haven't seen her and Yue's Beating a Gryphon Dragon with her wits, a neat plan, and a dull knife they all have taken a few levels.
    • Asuna - Gone decent athlete to master swordsman who cancels magic and knows inheirantly how to do a very difficult combat ability.
    • Kuu Fei - Gone from just I know Waif Fu to Master of Waif Fu.
  • Erstin Ho got this treatment in the anime-to-manga transposition of Mai-Otome. In the former, she was The Mole for the Schwartz, who was too weak and gentle to actually fight, got hurt quite often and eventually died in a very heart-breaking manner. In the manga, however, while retaining her meek and gentle nature, she's shown as an extremely capable and powerful fighter, almost defeating Arika of all people in the first volume (even if she was, at that point, under Shiho's mind control), and later, after a very close brush with death, receiving a Meister Robe just like Arika and Nina, and playing a vital role in defeating Evil Manga Sergei. This is mainly due to manga Erstin being a master of Boob Fu, and has trained her breasts to be leathel weapons.
  • In ther trailers for the second season of Gundam 00, ex Ordinary High School Student, now tech engineer Saji Crossroads is seen pointing a gun, and we also get to see a new female mobile suit pilot from the new Arrows team... who is Louise Halevy, Saji's girlfriend and ex Scrappy, who has a more pro-active stance after her Break The Cutie times.)
  • Though Hellsing's Seras Victoria was a moderate badass for the first two-thirds of the series, she still remained a mostly terrified girl-turned-vampire who was totally in over her head....until Zorin kills Pip. Seras turns around and drinks Pip's freely offered blood, and her first taste of real human blood triggers an impossibly awesome Unstoppable Rage.
  • One Piece: Sogeking. Full stop.
    • Koby too. Apparently, he had a good (but not nice) professor.
  • In Vinland Saga, Canute goes from being a shy girly boy who can barely manage to say a word in front of the other Vikings, into Canute the Great, Emperor of the North and greatest king in Viking history after His father figure Ragnar is murdered by Askeladd
  • Jeremiah Gottwald caused more than a few "Holy shit," jaw drops from the audience when he reappeared near the end of season one. And then he came back in season two with even more badass.
  • Jomy from Toward The Terra, after the Time Skip. Jomy goes from being an unwilling and sort of whiny kid to becoming an admirable leader of the Mu when we see him again after 12 years.

Comic Books
  • Just about every single character who comes into contact with some kind of weird Green Rocks that give them superpowers.
  • Peter Parker is one of the best examples. High school nerd turned into an ass-kicking superhero via radioactive spiderbite.
  • Grunge of the newly rebooted Gen 13 series is a slightly different example. He starts out as your more than average nerd with genius IQ and photographic memory. And the first name... Percy. So he starts working out, hides his book smarts and his photographic memory, starts using his middle name, trains in martial arts and starts skateboarding. And turns into a stereotypical 'stupid' musclebound frat boy slacker by the start of the series when we first see him. And then he gets superpowers.
  • The other genius level nerd on the team, Fairchild, is of the Peter Parker variety. An added side-effect of her superpowers kicking in is having to buy bras at least 5 cup sizes larger.
    • And keep buying them, given her traditional (and even noted in the original series) problem of having her clothes slashed to ribbons while adventuring.
  • Captain America after the super-soldier serum.
  • Storm from X-Men is an interesting example; she started off as a fairly strong Claremont Woman, but a bit unsure of herself. After some time with the team and a radical makeover in Japan, however, she became less an African Yamato Nadeshiko and more of an ethnic Action Girl. She still used Spock Speak, however, and continues to do so to this day, much to this editor's unending delight. ^_^
    • Kitty Pryde, full stop. Hints of her ability were dropped from day one, but few who read her of late would believe the Genki Teen Genius Tagalong Kid of a Distressed Damsel she once was... scratch that, the Character Development was well done enough that she remains wholly recognisable.
    • On the subject of the X-Men, Cyclops has gone from the buzz-kill tightass leader to a badass strategist.
    • Tony Stark: Relatively uncaring-yet-suave alcoholic genius CEO, becomes a badass with a Powered Armor and slightly caring yet suave alcoholic genius CEO with a helluva sense of justice. He then turns back into a dick periodically.
  • In the Sonic The Hedgehog comic book, Evil Sonic, Sonic's Evil Twin (duh), is nothing more than a minor pest, at best. He spends his time either playing underling for more powerful villains, or behaving like a glorified thug. However, when the new writer comes into the comic, Evil Sonic gets jacked up on chaos energy, gets a makeover, changes his name to "Scourge", and proceeds to kick his threat level up a notch. It doesn't stop there, however - after a few "inspiring" words from Sonic, he returns to his home dimension, applies himself, and conquers his own version of "Moebius" in a matter of DAYS.
  • Yorick in Y: The Last Man starts as an inept loser who's often beaten up by women (including his sister) but with the help of some traumatic incidents, and training by Agent 355, becomes more adept at defending himself. Subverted also in one scene when a non-action character suddenly whips out a sword in an apparent elevation to Badass, only to be easily defeated by the more experienced villain.

Film
  • Pasha Antipov, a minor character in Doctor Zhivago, begins the movie as an utter wimp. He's a cuckold, a bespectacled naif, and an ineffective revolutionary. Even his name is a bit puny. But then he's hit by a bomb on the Eastern Front and drops out of the movie - only to return in an impossibly cool scene as the enigmatic "General Strelnikov," a Badass Longcoat with his own armored train.
  • In the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, delicate but spirited Damsel in Distress Elizabeth Swann has become a quite competent sword-wielding Action Girl. This is handwaved in a throwaway line: her fiance Will Turner, the best swordsman in the series, has been teaching her for the past year. Then again, she is hanging around with pirates...
  • One of the most jarring examples would be Sarah Connor's transformation between the first two Terminator movies: She (the actress) was a normal, happy looking girl in the first one, but looks like she lost about thirty pounds of body fat and transformed the rest into solid muscle by the second one, as well as going from Damsel In Distress to Psycho Action Girl. Of course, a decade of preparing for The End Of The World As We Know It will do that to a person.
    • In this editor's opinion Sarah actually starts levelling in badass in the first movie from the moment Reese compliments her how skillfully she patched up his wound onward.
    • This editor usually sees the first movie's line, "On your feet, soldier!" to Reese as he tells her to go on without him as the moment she leveled up.
  • Another alarming one was Straw Dogs, in which Dustin Hoffman starts out as, well, Dustin Hoffman, in the role of a mathematician. As the local louts gradually cause him more and more grief, however, he goes a bit mad, and ends up brutally murdering them all when they try to break into his house.
  • In Collateral, Tom Cruise's character spends the entire movie berating and insulting Jamie Foxx's character, instructing him to be more assertive. However, he is completely taken by surprise when Foxx takes a level in badass.
  • Lampshaded in Galaxy Quest. "By Grabthar's hammer, you shall be avenged!" is a level-up moment if there's ever been one.
  • As a general rule, the less someone did this in The Descent, the faster she died.
  • River Tam, though she had her Crowning Moments of Awesome during the Firefly series, levels up in a big way during Serenity when her deadly martial arts killing machine programming is activated at the Maidenhead bar. She eventually goes on to wipe out a whole mess of Reavers in order to save the crew of the titular ship.
  • In Feast, when all the hero types are dead and hope is lost, the mother who lost her son (Tuffy) "levels up" and becomes Heroine 2. Then she proceeds to punch all the monsters teeth out with the butt of her gun and punch its stomach through the mouth, choking it to death. Crowning Moments of Awesome? Yes, you could say that.
  • David Marcus, Admiral Kirk's nerdy son, takes it up a few Bad Ass levels between Star Treks II & III (see also Heroic Sacrifice).
  • Captain Sulu's 10 level Bad Ass upgrade is completed with the final battle in Star Trek VI. At the end of the movie he's reached full Bad Ass status.
  • Luke Skywalker may have set the record for most levels in Bad Ass taken up in a single trilogy. He's a whiny teenager who complains about having to clean droids in the first movie and becomes the man who nukes two Death Stars, amputates a number of bad guys, gives the Emperor the finger, and even brings his dad back to the Light.
  • Sgt. Powell in the first Die Hard. Munching donuts and relegated to desk duty in the beginning his gets a huge Crowning Momentof Awesome at the end when he shoots the final bad guy dead in the face complete with the Rousing Music playing in the background
  • Can a Cool Ship Take A Level In Bad Ass? If so, the Millenium Falcon counts. A dingy rustbucket only good for outrunning Star Destroyers at first, it actually vaporizes the Second Death Star from the inside out in the third movie. (Also, can a Cool Ship achieve Bad Ass status?)
  • Of all the people in the Cinderella Disney movies, The Prince is the one who takes several levels in badass in the third movie. Seriously, after being among the most... "plain" (to say it kindly) of the Disney male leads, he rides on his horse frantically to catch Cindy just in time before she's Put On a Boat and jumps on the sails when it seems he won't reach her... WOW. Impressive, to say it at least.
  • "Groovy."

Literature
  • Neville Longbottom of Harry Potter, previously a bit of a Butt Monkey, gets some character development in Book 4, then actually starts showing some competence in Book 5. This pays off in Book 7; the Power Trio misses out on what he's up to for much of the year, but when they see him again, he's clearly leveled up in Harry's absence and has become a leader in his own right. He's a key player in the final battle, and actually ends up doing part of Harry's job: Neville pulls the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat and uses it to lop the head off of Nagini, who is/was a Horcrux. Said snake was also the last Horcrux, leaving the way free for Harry to kick Voldemort's scaly ass one final time. Did we mention Neville was on fire during all of this? He's arguably more badass than Harry.
  • Miles Teg from Heretics of Dune undergoes a strange torture and becomes so fast that he kills Honored Matres with ease.
    • To be fair, this character was always a badass; he was just a thinking man's badass before this occurred.
  • Edmond Dantes becomes The Count Of Monte Cristo to get revenge on his enemies.
  • As does Gulliver Foyle, of The Stars My Destination. He was always an asshole, but now he's an obsessive one.
  • Happens to Admiral Daala from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. In her original appearances, during the 90's, she was an overblown Villain Sue, repeatedly stated as being a tactical genius, but her strategies were highly incompetent. On her return in the Legacy of the Force series, she not only lives up to the reputation she was given in-universe, but manages to kick all kinds of ass using a fleet consisting mainly of obsolete starships. On top of everything else, she has an eyepatch now, not to mention a full name. Natasi Daala
  • In War And Peace, Dolokhov returns from being Put On A Bus at an opera house the Rostovs attend. Rumors fly about concerning the adventures in Persia he has been on, and the new sword sheathed at his side shows he's not just a conniving swindler anymore. Nikolai Rostov also levels up when he goes hunting with his uncle during the book's Christmas Episode, as he transforms from a coward during battle to a war hero.
  • In Lord Of The Rings, Gandalf's evolution from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White is arguably a levelup, as exemplified in this poster.
    • Samwise Gamgee takes a big level in badass when Frodo is incapacitated by the Giant Spider Shelob and taken by the Orcs in Return of the King. He takes up the Ring in Frodo's stead to keep the Orcs from taking it, takes up Sting and takes Shelob down. Then he heads for Barad-dur and takes down every Orc standing between him and Frodo.
      • How about Merry, who helps take down the freaking Witch-King!, or Pippin, when he...you know what? Every single hobbit in the Shire ends up taking a level in the Scouring of the Shire!
  • Most of the main characters in the Whateley Universe, but especially Generator (Jade Sinclair). She levels up when her mutation kicks in, and she's no longer an undersized, under-developed child at the mercy of an abusive father. But her power is lame: she can make a PK 'copy' of herself for under an hour. She levels up again, and her power grows, until she can power up a collection of clothes and weapons with one copy, and keep another copy around herself for protection. Plus, she's been learning aikido. By the time of "Revenge of the Alphas", she has leveled up to the point that she takes out three massive Ultraviolents by herself.
  • In the Latin textbook series Ecce Romani, Sextus spends a whole two years worth of lessons being annoying, whiny, and cowardly. Then, being his usual wimpy self, he goes back to the changing room at the public baths because the water's too hot, sees a thief stealing his clothes and chases the guy halfway across the bath complex, then pushes him into a pool. The only CMOA I've ever seen in a textbook.
  • The Laughter of Dead Kings, the most recent Elizabeth Peters Vicky Bliss book, reveals that Schmidt has had a hidden level of badass all along, and actually is the Greatest Swordsman in Europe.
  • In Prince Caspian, when the Pevensies return to Narnia, they regain all the fighting skills they had learned in the fifteen years they were in Narnia the last time. They return as children, except the relatively inexperienced children you had read about in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are now a bunch of young badasses. The difference is even more noticeable in The Film Of The Book.
  • The Malazan Book of the Fallen. All of it. Innocent n00b characters will invariably become demon-slaying demigods within a few dozen chapters of their first appearance, whilst the already-extant badasses will become elite super-badasses in the same timespan. This troper wouldn't be surprised if we encountered one of the random peasents from the start of the first book again and it turned out they had levelled up to the rank of Jedi Ninja Half-Deities of Awesome.
  • The [[Wheel of Time]] novels, although granted magical reasons are usually given for the level-gaining, such as Mat's implanted fighting and tactical planning memories turning him literally overnight into a canny warrior and general, or Rand having his former, much more experienced and competent incarnation pumping advice directly into his brain, like Yoda-on-Tap. The only unexplained levelling up takes place with regards to Gawyn Trakand, who goes from a decent swordsman to somehow being able to take down experienced Warders twice his age to later wiping out attacking bands of Aiel warriors, trained since birth to be badass, by himself.

Live Action TV
  • Joel Fleischman, in his final season on Northern Exposure, went from a clean-cut, irritable Fish Out Of Water to a grizzled Zen master survivalist.
  • Wesley on Angel is one of the more long-term, visibly executed cases, marked with actual character development. It wasn't just the writers' decision to make him suddenly 'cool' — it was the character's decision to.
    • In fact, before his actual level-up, Wesley is a subversion of Took A Level In Badass. When first seen in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Wes was a weak, weaselly wimp. When he first appears in Angel, he seems to be leveled. He rides a motorcycle, dresses in badass chic, and claims to be a "rogue demon hunter." Turns out, though, he's just as pitiful. Then he nearly dies...
      • Giles is retroactively given levels in badass in Season 2, when it turns out he used to be a badass before putting his skills on hold when he joined the Watchers, but occasionally trots them out when the need is great. Best examples: unexpectedly beating the crap out of Ethan and later attacking Angelus with a flaming piece of wood and, momentarily at least, gaining the upper hand.
  • Quinn Mallory from Sliders apparently took a level of badass during the Channel Hop from Fox to Sci-Fi. This was mostly a result of Jerry O'Connell's increasing creative control over the show, and, like pretty much the rest of the show by this point, came off as contrived and meaningless.
  • Peter Petrelli takes a level of badass from Season One to Season Two of Heroes. Unfortunately his intellect fails to keep up.
    • In the Dystopian future of the 1st season episode "Five Years Gone", Future Peter, Hiro, and Sylar have all taken multiple levels.
      • The season 3 premiere is full of characters taking a level: Suresh by injecting himself, and future Ando (yet to be explained)
      • Ando previously took a level in Bad Ass when he challenged Sylar with nothing but a sword in the finale of season 1.
      • In all honesty, Hiro started taking severeal levels of Bad Ass from the first three episodes. He flirted with full Bad Ass status in the last episode of season 1.
    • Matt Parkman and Mohinder Suresh have taken up several levels of Bad Ass in season 2. Micah Sanders has potential to to do the same in season 3.
    • In the dystopian future revealed in Season 3, Claire has clearly taken a level in badass.
  • Daniel Jackson started Stargate SG 1 as the team's Smart Guy, and was at most armed with a Beretta, tasked mainly with translations and exposition on Earth's various pantheons. A couple seasons later, and he's upgraded to whatever automatic weapon the rest of the team's using, and holding his own as much as the career military characters.
    • This troper vaguely recalls someone (possibly Jackson himself) handwaving this by mentioning that Jackson had received some form of combat training since joining SG 1. Which is rather understandable, given the kinds of situations SG 1 found itself caught up in on a regular basis.
    • In Stargate Atlantis, Rodney followed in Daniel's footsteps. In a first season episode he's terrified of the idea that he might actually have to use a gun to defend himself. Not too long later, he's laying down covering fire with a P90 and using cover like a trained soldier.
      • Probably justified in both cases, as it wasn't an immediate change, and it seems like a matter of necessity given the situations they find themselves in. Rodney himself may be a partial subversion, as he still freaks out while killing Wraith, even though he seems good at it. This is also possibly due to his internal Chance of Imminent Doom meter; when it redlines, he gets Awesome.
    • More recently, Dr. Kaylee Keller is seen fighting off a Wraith with a stick long enough for McKay to shoot it. He asks where she learned to fight, and she mentions she's been taking sparring lessons.
  • In Smallville, Lana Lang, of all people, has traded the Wangst that made her The Wesley of the show for so long for running her own secret organization and being prepared to kill if necessary. They may have gone a skosh too far for it to be believable, though.
  • A long-term-development example: in Xena Warrior Princess. In episode 10, "Hooves and Harlots", Gabrielle had her first lesson in staff fighting. She kept hitting her own head. Over subsequent episodes, she practiced and got good at it.
  • Mickey Smith of Doctor Who does this twice. Or maybe it took took two stages. At first a cowering if sweet natured nerd, he moves up a level during the year he's falsely suspected of his girlfriend's murder. He becomes a lot braver, even willing to die to protect his girlfriend's mother, as well as developing some impressive hacking skills. He goes up another level offscreen after several years of fighting Cybermen in an alternate universe. Last time we saw him as a full Bad Ass complete with deeper voice and BFG.
    • Rose becomes equally badass by the end of season 4.
    • We can't forget Rose's mum Jackie, who got to carry a BFG and shoot a Dalek to smitheerens alongside Mickey.
    • They're not the only ones to do it. Between her departure and visit in the middle of season four, Martha joined UNIT and is now quite Badass herself.
  • John Connor takes a long-anticipated level of badass in the first episode of the second season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles when he violently stops a rape attempt on his mother and in doing so throws his old standard of Thou Shalt Not Kill out the window.
  • 24 is full of characters who have taken up multiple levels of Bad Ass. These include Teri Bauer, Kim Bauer, Chloe O'Brien in season 4 (see also Crowning Moment Of Awesome), George Mason (see also Heroic Sacrifice), Wayne Palmer, and even Milo Pressman (total geek in season 1; to taking bullets in season 6). Some of the bad guys pull this off as well (Behrooz Araz and his trusty shovel in season 4 is the premier example)
  • John Crichton from Farscape takes multiple levels of badass over four seasons: he starts out as a clueless nerd, and by series end is so badass he manages to intimidate two entire galactic empires into leaving him the frell alone by threatening to wipe out the universe. THE ENTIRE FREAKING UNIVERSE! And what makes it Bad Ass is he can pull it off.
  • Dawn from Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a relatively mild (or at least non-flashy) but still striking example, being a fairly normal high school kid who manage to pick up reasonably fluent Turkish and Sumerian, apparently in her spare time.
  • In Babylon 5 Lennier is introduced as a mild-mannered, monk-like Minbari religious caste-member with a zen-like philosophy who is surprisingly shown a few episodes later to be able to defend himself with martial arts and take out a whole room full of drunk people, which is fair enough. However, by Season 4 he is fully capable of taking out multiple opponents belonging to the Minbari warrior caste trained almost from birth in the art of unarmed combat. This is before he joins the thousand-year-old organisation of elite badasses from beyond badassery in the final season who train up his badass skills to something on the other side of preposterousness.
  • Several characters in Lost seem to have taken a few levels in this, most notably Jack and Sawyer who are not hinted at using firearms prior to crashing on the island, but are nevertheless shown becoming expert shots able to hold their own in gunfights with people who have been trained in weapons use for years, with no evidence of them practicing their aim (in fact, given the scarcity of ammunition on the island, it has to be assumed they're not). This is most notable when Sawyer is able to shoot and kill an Other through dense foilage and at range in the Season 2 finale, and in Season 4 is able to hold his own in a gun battle against trained mercenaries armed with missile launchers.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine featured a notable moments of this such as the principal characters defeating a boarding action by the Klingon equivalent of the SAS in unarmed combat despite being physically weaker and substantially less well-trained than their opponents.
  • Hoshi Sato, the nervous alien language specialist in Star Trek Enterprise, is given retroactive martial arts skills which she uses during Dr Phlox's kidnapping. While it's likely Hoshi would have become more assertive after her experiences during the Xindi conflict, it would have made more sense for her to have used the more simple takedowns taught to the crew by Major Hayes during this time. But less cooler, I'm sure.

Tabletop Games
  • Pawn promotion in Chess.

Video Games
  • Raiden in Metal Gear Solid started life as a naive dork, albeit one with a nasty secret and a bit too much talent at chopping people up. In the sequel he's turned into a homicidal, husky-voiced, immortal cyborg ninja capable of killing things with antigravity kung-fu and his feet. It was a backlash against him being The Scrappy, probably. He also appears to have taken a few levels in "Lightning Deity", since he was capable of killing soldiers with bolts of lighting from inside a properly grounded ship.
    • Surprisingly enough, Johnny Sasaki, the recurring joke character takes a level in badass in Metal Gear Solid 4 by removing his mask, but only gets to show it in the cutscene where he admits his love to Meryl and makes a Combat Proposal. The rest of the cutscene is then nothing but pure badassery.
  • This troper blames The Great Crash for not mentioning Leon from the Resident Evil series. In RE 4, this idealistic Naive Newcomer who just began his first day of duty at the Raccoon Police Department in RE 2 somehow became almost as badass as Albert Wesker!
    • At least Leon was a trained cop in RE 2, and was hired on by the U.S. Government before RE 4. Claire Redfield's level-up has no similar justification. She goes from being a college student in RE 2 to a certified ass-kicker in RE: Code Veronica.
      • Notable in that Albert Wesker HIMSELF takes a level in between Resident Evil and Code: Veronica— notable in that said level was taken AFTER he was STABBED THROUGH THE CHEST, and was shown off in a brilliant Crowning Moment Of Awesome as he smacked Code: Veronica's virus-injected baddie around like a ping pong ball, completely outshining the game's own protagonists. And Leon's RE 4 incarnation is almost as badass as this new Wesker.
  • Any RPG main character. Typically starts out as a level 1 newbie and ends up punching out Cthulhu.
  • Super Robot Wars manages to do this to Shinji Ikari. And it works. (Partially Or So I Heard due to translation issues.)
    • That said, word was that was partly thanks to Captain Bright's infamous bright slaps, which has been scientifically proven to turn wimps into men of awesome (MEN OF DESTINY are another thing).
      • Also, Shinji freaked the hell out during the last two missions in the End of Eva Route of Super Robot Wars Alpha 3.
      • Sidenote: This troper recalls being told of a scene where Kira (Jesus) Yamato of Gundam Seed gets mopey after losing a battle, and of all people it's Shinji freaking Ikari who slaps him around for it.
      • Actually, what happened in that scene was that one of Kira had begun talking down to one of his friends, Sai Argyle, after Sai spotted him with his then-girlfriend Flay Allster. As Kira's doing that, Shinji and Zeta Gundam pilot Kamille confront Kira and tell him to back off. Not as dramatic, but still, it's a great step up from "I mustn't run away"
    • In addition, one of the main characters in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 starts out as a delivery boy with a minor Karate background. Then he trains with certain members of the Alpha Numbers - this includes, but is not limited to: cyborgs (Guy and Hiroshi/Jeeg), combat pros (the Wing boys, Banjo, Tsurugi Tetsuya...), a yokozuna, masters of various martial arts (Camille, Wufei, Yun Lee...), a dude who cleaves evil, gods, and battleships (Zengar), a dude who smacks stuff around in space with a ball and chain (ware koso wa~ waRE koso wa~ Baran Doban! fire!fire!fire!fire!), and various characters voiced by Kamiya Akira. By the end of the game, he's kickin' gods around.
    • This troper also remembers playing the Compact series of SuperRobotWars with, of all people, Leina Ashta of ZZ Gundam fame. Considering that, in the series, she got kidnapped by Gremmi Toto a few episodes in, and spent her time either waiting for Judau to rescue her or being thought dead after almost getting crushed by a MS you'd think her to be a useless character... WRONG! She's, in fact, pretty powerful if used correctly, reaching a Newtype Level of 6 (Amuro, Camille and her brother reach Level 8, just to give a comparision) and becoming quite destructive if placed in a Mobile Armor. From personal experience, I managed to take down Bask Ohms' flagship just using her. I am not making this up.
    • The original Super Robot Wars 3 on the SNES does this with Kou Uraki, hero of Stardust Memory. Starting with less than half the levels of most of the worthwhile characters and piloting a unit meant only for skirmishes, the GP-01. However, as soon as you head off to space and it's upgraded to the Full Vernian model, he proves to be a nimble character if you put effort into training him. Near the end of the game, upon gaining the GP-03, Kou ends up being a proverbial tank in a top-notch Mobile Suit.
    • Of course, they couldn't go for too long without doing this to one of their original characters. Original Generation features a character named Ryoto who first appeared as a scared enemy mook. He remains a very minor character until the end of the game, piloting only his original mook mecha or a hand-me-down from more important characters. By the time he rejoins the crew in OG 2, however, he's spent the last six months testing Super Prototypes, and pilots one that can combine with either his girlfriend's tank-thing or a suit of Powered Armor that can detach and turn into a weaponized flying surfboard. Oh, and he almost single-handedly holds off a giant robot dragon that routinely crushes more important characters long enough for said girlfriend and his co-workers to escape. Appropriately enough, this is the point where his theme song upgrades to one called "Ace Pilot" ("Ace Attacker" in the original Japanese).
    • Does this also apply to Setsuko Ohara of Super Robot Wars Z? She starts out as the lowest of her team, is quite timid and unsure of herself. Her debut actually starts with being shot down by Kamille Vidan. But then, she is subjected with lots and lots of traumatic event. And when she eventually gets pissed, not only her emotions evolve her BFG into a much more dangerous version, she discards her timid and unsure persona into a badass, yet still gentle, soldier, then proceeds to one shot the guy who breaks her with her new BFG.
  • Muse from Romancing Sa Ga 3. She shifts from Ill Girl to Lady Of War instantly. Also Sharl who is upgraded from Broken Hero provided that you got the Silver Hand in Muse's Dream
  • Mickey Mouse in Kingdom Hearts 2 You'd have to see it to believe it.
  • Phoenix Wright in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
    • It's debatable if he's actually badass in that game rather than just being frustratingly cryptic. If anything, the rather competent attorney he became by the third game has been downgraded.
  • Leo Stenbuck from Zone of the Enders, who started out in that game as a (justifiably) depressed street kid, apparently spent the four years between the plotlines of ZoE 1 and ZoE 2 frantically leveling up in Badass until he emerged in the second game almost as a wolf among lambs, capable of piloting his non-Unobtainium LEV against full-on Orbital Frames and more than holding his own.
  • In Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, Alicia starts off the game with such fight quotes as "Do we have to fight?" and "My hands are stinging." Three-fourths of the way through the game ironically, after Silmeria, the titular warrior maiden, is stripped from her she takes a real role as leader, gets an upgrade to her special attack, and is practically thirsting for blood in her fight quotes.
  • In Half Life 2, Alyx Vance practically has to be babied by the player during the sequences where she tags along. Valve paid attention to these complaints and from Episode One on, she's a capable shooter who takes out wave after wave of zombies and soldiers, both during the gameplay and in the scripted events. In one level with a shortage of ammunition (which doesn't affect Alyx's gun), the player spends a lot of time using the flashlight to illuminate targets for Alyx to shoot, turning the first half of the stage into a sort of reverse Escort Mission.
    • Not really, while Episode 1 makes her even more Nigh Invulnerable, even in Half Life 2 she can take tons of punishment as long as you at least try and shoot a few things for her.
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Haar was a fairly average unit who joined too late to be useful, come Radiant Dawn Haar joins earlier (among other things) and is now in the top tier.
    • In the gap between The Binding Blade/Fire Emblem (AKA Blazing Sword) we have Barte (to a degree) and Karel, depending on weather you go by chronological order (Karel) or release order (Barte)
    • What, have you guys forgotten Oifaye and Shanan? The first part of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War has them as tag-along cute kids no older than 14 and the second showes them as quite capable fighters and leaders.
    • In Fire Emblem 8 (Sacred Stones) one of the characters you get is Ewan, a young boy in training to become a mage. His attack animation has him pathetically stumbling around, attempting to cast a spell at his enemy. Train him up enough though, and he's quite possibly the best magic user in the game.
    • The other two trainees start out similarly, both the boy with the hatchet whom you have to rescue from bandits along wiht his Retired Badass father and the young girl with the lance whom you recruit from the Grado army.
  • Zelda, previously a Distressed Damsel, leveled up in Ocarina of Time with her alter ego Sheik, and has ever since had the tendency to assist Link in the final battle, even though she still tends to be a Distressed Damsel for some/much of the game.
    • Continued further in The Wind Waker with her identity of Tetra and assistance in the final battle. Likewise, she assists in the second-to-last battle of Twilight Princess, and her period of captivity in that game are of her own choice (to protect her people) rather than because she was kidnapped.
    • Link himself is pretty much an incarnation of this trope; he starts pretty much every game as an unarmed kid in a backwater and ends up Bad Ass enough to believably take down the Big Bad. Differs from the standard RPG hero listed above by being more of an Action Adventure character.
  • Baldurs Gate saw several characters take levels in badass at various points-Sarevok, Nalia, Aerie, and Imoen in Throne of Bhaal come immediately to mind. <CHARNAME> (the protagonist) seems to take his/her biggest round of badass in Spellhold in BG 2.
    • The change is especially notable in Aerie, who is initially the most timid and insecure character in the entire game. And then, suddenly, she blurts out the battle cry, "This will hurt you a lot more than me!". Even Minsc's battle cries can't beat that one...
  • Zack, the titular character in Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, is one of the more feeble game protagonists. He can flip switches, set off cannons, and use enemies' strength against them, but if he were to encounter a common goon who isn't asleep or distracted, and he's done for. In the penultimate mission, however, Zack finds a sword and is actually able to duel and destroy roaming guards. This troper verbally said "Finally!" after killing an enemy in what is closest to the old-fashioned way.
  • Metal Sonic in Sonic Heroes.
  • In his first appearance, Wally in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald is quite sickly and needs help in catching his first Pokemon (Ralts), and moved to a cleaner town to recover. He later shows up partly recovered but still only has that one mon and is easily beaten. Much later he shows up right at the end of Victory Road and has an almost full team of mons levelled in their forties.

Webcomics
  • Done in the Dungeons And Dragons-based Order Of The Stick, where Elan literally takes a level in badass — or, rather, in the Dashing Swordsman prestige class.
  • Zebra Girl: Jack / Jack The Plaid
  • In Narbonic The character Seth was a pimple-faced girl-shy role-playing nerd. Then he got sent to hell, where he fought his way out after obtaining the demonic axe Zürrr by defeating the devil queen Sh'zk'ra. And picked up a Badass Longcoat somewhere along the way. No Seriously.
  • Torg of Sluggy Freelance took his level in badass during the That Which Redeems arc. Being stuck in an alternate universe with demons hunting you all the time will do that. Afterwards he seems to have settled back into a Crouching Moron Hidden Badass.
    • It's easy to forget that, yes, he still owns a sword that can kill demons and gods if he allows it to feast on the blood of the innocent. Untill somebody gives him a reason to pick it up again.
      • It's also worth keeping in mind that, prior to That Which Redeems, he succeeded in killing off Aylee's Evil Clone, who had just defeated Bun-Bun. Bun-Bun prefers to pretend that the whole thing didn't happen, and nobody feels like arguing the point.
  • Under the tutelage of her 'Kolee,' her teacher, Zeetha, Agatha's most literal level-in-badass in Girl Genius appears to be a work in progress, though the mere evolution from hopeless klutz of Polygnostic University to a Spark on the level of any previous Heterodyne would certainly qualify.

Web Original