The same sort of popularity has been applied to Manfred von Karma, Edgeworth's Control Freak mentor. Do not let him get within a foot of a taser.
At the other end of the spectrum, a group of members from the Court Records forum has elevated Klavier Gavin to the status of a rock/sex god, complete with commandments. Said commandments (numbering 55 as of this edit) include paying to see Klavier shower and losing one's virginity simply by looking at him.
More recently, there has been a push towards Luke Atmey getting this treatment. To wit, he is able to stop Manfred von Karma's soul-devouring gaze by hurling his Ace Detective badge directly into the prosecutor's face.
HoboPhoenix. After he's been hit by the car, he'll walk away with only a scratch- just in time to completely screw you over, destroy your livelihood, get his revenge, and he reunites families in his spare time. This does not apply to preHobo!Phoenix, however.
No, screw that; Phoenix Wright in general is this. Even in his college days, he was capable to knocking out a guy with a one-handed shove. And during his lawyer days... he proceeds to defeat three of the most formidable prosecutors in the world, and he the only reason he will ever lose is If he wants to lose, or is confronted with a certain memetic jerkass. And don't ever lie to him; if you do, he will find out and expose you as the liar you are.
Investigations's Tyrell Badd earned the Fan Nickname "Detective Baddass" within days of the game's release. You know how his Badass Longcoat is riddled with holes? Yeah, those are bullet holes. And that's canon.
Oddly enough, thanks to a certain song, Air Man has been elevated to Memetic Badass. It is completely undeserved, of course. Strangely enough, someone made a Mega Man-like game with Hatsune Miku as a main character. The final boss is Air Man in it, and he's actually HARD.
Rockman 2 has only one difficulty (the equivalent of the hardest difficulty in Mega Man 2) - Air Man's reputation is much more deserved in those circumstances (moreso if you haven't beaten Wood Man yet).
The Dead Rising fanbase considers 8-Ball from 2 the most badass character in the entire series....despite the fact that he's a corpse (and not a living one either).
Cutscene!Dante is invincible. You can't kill him, you can't surprise him, and you can't even hope to get a brief upper-hand. Hell, he can even kill you with billard balls and defy the laws of physics at a whim.
M. Bison from Street Fighter. So awesome and evil that he has done a lot of evil, Badass stunts, only to forget them, because for him... it was Tuesday. A role model for everyone who wants to, you guessed it, Take Over the World.
How badass is he? So badass that he can will his fiendish soul post-mortem and simply wait for a clone body to be produced so that he can kick your ass all over again. You simply cannot kill him. In fact, M. Bison is so badass that when SFIV was announced, he retconnedbeing sent to Hell by Akuma's ShunGokuSatsu. His words? YESH! YESH!
Recently, it has been said that if Cody would actually start giving a shit in battle, he could solo the entire SF universe (this version of him is known as Totally Serious Cody in some circles). Considering that he fights evenly with most of them already (keep in mind that he's a fifth-degree black belt who is a majorpragmatist when it comes to fighting and willingly holds himself back by continuing to wear his prison cuffs which he could take off at any time), this assumption doesn't seem too far off...
Oro doesn't fight with one arm because he's crippled. He fights with one arm because if he used both, he'd KILL you.
Chris Redfield is so badass, he rapes 16 ton boulders and then punches them to death.
Also Jill Valentine can survive 100-foot plunges face first, because that dying shit is for pansies.
Imagine yourself in an infested Raccoon City swarming with zombies. Now place all of the protagonists there. AndWesker. Finally, add HUNK into the mix. HUNK will solo them all. There's a reason his officialnickname is "Mr. Death".
When Leon Scott Kennedy fights a giant ogre monster and when it's weak point is spewing out its back, what would you do? Shoot it? Not Leon! He just climbs on the thing's back and slashes it with his knife!
Fighting bio-organic monstrosities, silencing fanatic cults that utilize said bioweapons, and being a Big Damn Hero in general is all in a day's work for Leon. It's how he earns his paycheck.
There was a green-armoured Redshirt who appeared in the first stage of Mega Man X2 and exploded in the game's opening. Nevertheless, the Green Biker Dude, as he became nicknamed, has gained something of a reputation.
Pull a wheelie and die, GBD! For Everlasting Peace!
What makes this especially ridiculous is that it's not exaggeration, but something that actually happens in game, making Asura an in universe Memetic Badass!
Nintendo
Nintendo's very hardware is virtually indestructible, as it is made of Nintendium, which is harder than diamond. note One example: a Game Boy that went missing for a week, turned up in the oil pan of the family car, and still worked after it was wiped off. Or an Nintendo64 that survived an earthquake...while playing Quake. Or when someone left their Pokemon cartridge in their pants pocket when they put it in the laundry and was playing it the very next day. (This last anecdote is verified by a troper.)
Back in the Game Boy Color days, their idea of quality assurance actually involved taking the machines to the roof of a three-story building and chucking them off.
Out there in the Internet wilds is a video of some guys who dragged their GameCube from a rope behind a truck through a rural neighborhood in attempts to disable it before they bought their shiny platinum GameCube. Despite the tumble, it still worked. Didn't survive the sledges and firepit, though.
There was a letter-to-the-editor in a 1990s issue of Nintendo Power: A old-school Game Boy had taken a bullet during Operation Desert Storm, and the owner sent it in to demonstrate that, though the screen was busted, it could still start up and play Tetris.
According to an issue of Nintendo Power, if you hurt yourself by dropping a GameCube on your head, the magical medical gnome housed inside the GCN will bandage the wound for you.
X-Play did experiments that showed the GameCube was the most durable of the consoles for its generation.
Nintendo's games are notoriously badass for another reason.
And apparently the games by Atlus is purposely made to be even more memetic than Nintendo's for being being Nintendo Hard. After all, one of their company spokespersons proudly admitted the following: We get off on your tears.
When the Wii released, shirts were sold depicting Reggie as a shirtless, muscular man holding a Wiimote and a Nunchuk, to cement his "Reggienator" image.
(after winning a Wii Sports Resort match) "That's why they call me the Reggienator."
"My body is ready."
On the Nintendo 3DS's one-year anniversary in the US, they distributed a Reggie Mii over SpotPass. If you venture forth with him in Find Mii, he's level 5 instead of the usual level 1 or 2 StreetPass Miis or wandering heroes you get.
Though to be fair, the same applies to the Iwata Mii given to European and Japanese players similarily to Reggie. This is likely a feature for all "special" Miis received over Spotpass.
Arguably justified in the first Super Smash Bros., since Captain Falcon was one of if not the most dominating characters in the game, and in the right hands could be absolutely devastating against any other character, or even multiple characters at once. So much so that he was greatly de-powered in the sequels, reducing him to merely a formidable opponent.
Not quite; Falcon was strong but community consensus is that Pikachu, Kirby, and Ness are more effective. However, Falcon's memetic badassery is known to rub off on the players that use him. In particular, Isai has filled that role in the Melee scene.
Nuclear physicists around the world have based their entire research procedure◊ on the Falcon Punch. How badass is it? Too badass for a physical manifestation to not blow itself up repeatedly.
The Captain's badassery is established also in the fact that we can see his muscles from underneath his clothing. Also, he originated in a racing game. How did the developers get the idea to give him those moves? He can shoot fire from out of his legs and arms... without magic or any technological explanation.
From watching his behavior in the Subspace Emissary plot (driving a racecar with his arms folded, knocking over a giant robot with his paunch, carrying other characters, and summoning his spaceship by snapping his fingers) one could conclude that the developers themselves acknowledge his fanbase and may secretly want to be a part of it.
F-Zero's characters are a homage to comic book superheroes; Falcon was always intended to be ridiculously badass.
Beam Claws from Kid Icarus Uprising. That's not the weapon he's using, it's his name. His particular weapon, however, has Paralysis properties. He can close gaps with his excellent foot speed and cure blindness by running really fast. He can turn a single slash into a brutal Combo. And he takes advantage of the fact that opponents on rails are easy targets. He's also the only one capable of firing Daybreak. To a lesser extent, everyone else in the multiplayer. It's thought that Masahiro Sakurai himself was playing as Beam Claws.
Anti-example in Fairy Orbitars, who didn't do a single thing to help his teammates out and just stood by looking like an idiot when Beam Claws fired Daybreak. And he had to call in Pit to replace him.
Black Club too. He's Beam Claws' worthy opponent. Hell, he was the first to land a kill, and who died? Beam Claws, getting rammed by Black Club's big black balls.
Beam Claws' teammate, Twinbellows Cannon also counts. He knocks his opponents off the edge with AUTHORITY.
Insight Staff is divisive. He's either a coward who only runs away and gets a few cheap shots or he's a ruthless, cunning Cold Sniper.
Jeff Andonuts has a cult following (a cult following within a cult following?) like this. The most famous example being found here◊. Mature content warning.
Also, Flint from Mother 3, who has earned nicknames such as Flint Norris and Flint Eastwood.
The Flint is disappointed he has not been mentioned as such.
One of the NPCs in Mother3 looks exactly like Mr. T. And what does he do the first time he shows up? He drags your silly ass off the train tracks and tells you, essentially, "don't do that, foo'." Best of all, you can do that several more times, and he has different dialogue each time.
Red from Pokemon is definitely this. Only he can defeat a mafia, stand in a pitch dark cave, on a mountain, in the snow (with no jacket), isolated from man, and run like a ninja... and he's fourteen (eleven when he defeated Team Rocket and became Champion). Cynthia also tends to be this when she isn't depicted as a Memetic Sex Goddess.
Red's silence has been known to make the manliest of men break down into hysterics.
Red did not climb Mt. Silver. Mt. Silver grew where Red decided to stand.
Just like his anime counterpart, Green from the games can be this due to his personality and the fact Gary is based off him. You usually beat him though. His new clothing◊ can also be used for this lately.
Gary Motherfucking Oak! Mostly because Green/Blue/Gary is always one step ahead of you and acts like a dick throughout the game.
Blue was the Ozymandias of his time. He was always leaving behind breadcrumbs for you to follow. "What's that? You beat all eight of the Kanto Gym Leader/all of the Elite Four? I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
Leaf, Red's Distaff Counterpart, has become one of these to varying extents. She's on the level of Red, she's stronger then Red, she's their weakness, she wasn't in HGSS because she was too good for it or would have made the universe explode if both her and Red were in it, etc.
You were not necessary to shut down Team Galactic. Rowan would have subdued them with nothing but a steely gaze and ellipses. He just deputized you to do it instead so he could spend the weekend at a spa.
Youngster Joey's Rattata is in the top percentage of all Rattata. EVER.
The best part is that the source data shows that his Rattata actually has MAXIMUM IVs. When Joey says "top percentage", he's not fucking kidding.
On the actual 'mon side of things, we have Genosectnote Genocide + Insect. Or Genesect for Genesis + Insect, also known asDennis. Why Dennis? This is whynote Please note that the song is actually for the Big Bad of the game, not Genesect.
Hilda, the most recent female protagonist, has been portrayed — especially in artwork around the revelation of her — as a Badasstruck- or motorcycle-obsessed Ladette.
To many Hilda is actually more of a badass than even Red.
Due to this◊ poster (Warning: NSFW!) on the internet, Aggron has become one. An updated version (NSFW as well) can be found here◊.
The shiny one looks darker, but only because GARchomp scares light.
Terrakion also gets this treatment, both because of its design and the fact that it's equally Awesome Yet Practical as an attacker in the games and TCG. Its Boisterous Bruiser personality in the anime also helps somewhat.
Magikarp. For one reason. It's so common. It evolves INTO THE STINKIN' LOCH NESS MONSTER! Because it's so common and so easy to catch (unless you happen to be in Unova, in which case be prepared to pony up to the magikarp salesman or complete your dex and get to the nature preserve), you can easily raise an unstoppable army of GYARADOS! Also, see Magikarp Power.
Officially, members of the GAR pantheon include GARizard, GARados, GARchomp, etc.
FUCK YEAH! SEAKING!
Where do you think Blue/Green/Gary got all of his magnificence? That's right, Professor Oak. The Oak family's got genes, bitch. Possibly doubles as Memetic Sex God and/or Memetic Molester.
Certain The Legend of Zelda CD-i Games characters are subject to this in Youtube Poops. Most notable is King Harkinian. Shopkeeper Morshu is also sometimes considered as a Memetic Badass. He has rope and bombs.
Also Gwonam, who uses SQUADALAH, DAI, and birds.
The Cuccos anyone? They are one of the most terrifying things in the Zelda universe.
Speaking of Zelda, we have Link himself and every reincarnation of him, seemingly the only guy you need when something bad happens. Silent but deadly.
And now, Groose and/or his pompadour join this elite club. This trope shall now be renamed Memetic Groosinator.
Demon Lord Deborah Ghirahim the Fabulous is Furious! Outraged! Sick with anger! at the fact that his tongue, which is longer than Long-cat, is not mentioned on this page.
It doesn't matter where in Weyard they are or what they're facing, war zones, monster-infested wilderness, trap-filled dungeons... if there are teenage Adepts on a quest and in need of exposition, Kraden will find a way to them.
Due to the lack of general logic within the series, practically ANY Super Mario Bros. character can be this at one time or another, when they do something particularly amazing.
Mario and Luigi in general. Probably helps that they live up to most of it.
The real, one true badass of Super Mario Bros.? The Green Thunder himself, Mr. L, of course. Mr. L wasn't working for Count Bleck; Bleck was working for him. Losing to you? All part of the plan, of course. And The Dark Prognosticus was completely correct in that Mr. L is the one most suited for the Chaos Heart; however, Dimentio was too afraid of him, so he had to settle for Luigi instead.
Princess Daisy, surprisingly, gets this treatment. Fanon says the reason she doesn't get kidnapped is because she'll give you a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown if you try.
Bowser. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story helps here, where the guy goes Determinator to a ridiculous degree and fights enemies ten times larger than himself, but generally fans like to see Bowser as damn near impossible to kill and super determined regardless. After all, he survives black holes!
Admiral Dane from Metroid Prime 3. Impressive, since he shares a universe with a woman that has (to date) blown up three planets, one which was a sentient parasite, and caused the near extinction of at least two major-threat species. This fandom was likely spurred on by official concept art portraying him with an eyepatch, peg-leg, cape, and laser sword.
Samus Aran needs no fandom to exaggerate her badassery. She is the intergalactic Queen of Badass.
In 'verse, too. Some characters talk about her like some kind of war goddess, while others can't believe the stories (they're wrong).
Hell, the Space Pirates actually treat stories of her as some sort of myth. It'd be like telling your kids about how Satan will come to blow up them and everyone they love if they act out... only Satan's a hot blond chick in power armor.
Besides, Dane's too manly to wear a helmet or filtration system while landing on the Space Pirate Homeworld to order Samus around. Note that no pirates have the balls to even try to snipe him during the briefing.
That, and he does so on a planet ravaged by rain so acidic that even Samus has to use a special widget to survive. What does he use as an umbrella? His own personal flagship.
Also notice that most space pirates stop appearing after he makes planetfall. This fact has been linked to his slightly "bulkier" appearance later in the game. So, what did he do to the pirates?
Rounded them up, locked them in a huge cage, then bench-pressed it.
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has a faceless, nameless NPC that the fandom calls the 3-13 Archer. Has been called the best character in the game. Has had fanfics devoted to him. Is known for having had entire strategies revolving around him.
Statistically, he is considerably worse than your player characters, being only midway through his second tier, with average stats at best for said tier. This does not explain how he manages to instantly kill a tiger laguz every turn whilst taking no damage. It is the great mystery of Radiant Dawn.
Fire Emblem 7 has Glass, a level 3 mercenary, who gives us the famous quote "I am Glass! The gods fear my name!", as well as Batta, a level 2 brigand, with the quote "You think you can stand up to Batta the Beast?"
There's also Gheb, from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. He's very unattractive and makes not-so-subtle advances to Amelia, and has had the game in which he appeared HACKED TO STAR HIM.
Said hack also stars GLASS!
Not to mention pretty much every Swordmaster in the entire series, many tend to overlap with Memetic Sex God.
Most Heroes do that as well.
In the Japanese fandom, Wrys (Or Riff or whatever) is this, despite weing a weak Cleric who can be considered borderline useless (recruited in the first chapter, but has bad stats and there isn't much need for a healer in the beginning, and you get a better Cleric in chapter 3), to the point the SNES remake didn't include him (the DS one did, to his fans' rejoice). Or probably because of this.
Forget America, Kirby's a memetic badass everywhere. His punch... can split a planet in half! His resolve... trumps everything. His appetite and mouth... even God himself fear. Even in the anime when Dedede was inhaled by Kirby (temporarilly, apparently) he saw the universe! Don't be fooled by his cute little face and little round, pink body... Kirby is the walking apocalypse.
What about the Wild Mass Guessing that Kirby is actually fighting a Reaper from Mass Effect (in the form of Zero)? Colonizing planets? Assuming direct control? Augmenting them? And Kirby's still the one who sets things straight by fighting a freakish eyeball made of what could possibly be liquified Pop Star inhabitants, and Mass Effect 2 has eyeball bosses! Talk about perfect sense.
For that matter, many have described the Waddle Dee from Kirby Super Star'sArena as the most powerful boss in the entire game, in spite of the fact that his sole distinguishing trait is an unusually large amount of health for a Waddle Dee (though Kirby can still inhale him).
The DS remake gave Waddle Dee a bandana and made him a secondary character in one of the storylines. FEAR THE BANDANA DEE!
What about Sailor Dee? He went down with the ship. Like a MAN!
Actually, Meta Knight saved him in the end. But the fact remains that he was willing to go down with the ship.
Let's not forget the big guy himself, King Dedede; a.k.a. the TRUE hero of Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Subspace Emissary. The mere fact he has the balls to fight the pink destroyer of the universe is certainly enough, but this cunning penguin apparently outplanned everyone, even the likes of Ganondorf and an interdimensional being, in order to save the greater world all in a scenario where nobody talks. Andhe pimp-slaps Bowser! In Kirby's Adventure as well, he's the REAL hero while you, Kirby, have ironically shown your True Colors as the greatest villain the universe has ever seen. To go up against Kirby man... that's gutsy. If you don't agree well... then youcanhave...
Not exactly a villain, just a victim of ignorance.
Don't forget that Kirby can turn the innocent game of golf into a bloodsport (minus the blood.) That's right, Kirby's so hardcore, that he kills his enemies as a golf ball of doom.
Matter of fact, as of Canvas Curse he doesn't even need his hands or feet to be badass.
Diddy Kong. Period. In the Subspace Emissary of Brawl, he fired two peanuts at a couple of Bullet Bills IN MID-AIR, and then he and DK stood doing an Ass Kicking Pose while the bullets EXPLODED BEHIND THEM!
And he's running as fast as it is - backwards - on top of that.
Forget a train, Sabin can suplex himself! He defies physics. That's how badass Sabin is.
In a little known universe known as Final Fantasy VII, there exists a woman who can powerbomb a 50 foot monster... UNDERWATER! ON THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN FLOOR!. That woman is Tifa Lockhart.
Jecht, originally from Final Fantasy X, has achieved this thanks to Dissidia: Final Fantasy, and has earned the Fan Nickname"Captain Jecht." The nickname only makes more sense when you think that he has his own version of the Falcon Punch - one of his HP attacks is an exploding punch. Also, in a cutscene where he slams his son Tidus halfway across the arena with a single blow, and takes a sword slash to the chest and literally shrugs it off.
And in Duodecim, he gains the ability to shoot lasers from his eyes. Why? Because he's Jecht.
Kain Highwind from Final Fantasy IV isn't quite as memetic as Gilgamesh or Jecht, but he definitely has his fans, and his own "Kain Facts." With his inclusion in Dissidia 012, you can be assured that there will be many a YouTube video of Kain and Jecht duking it out... or teaming up via the new Assist feature.
Hell, Golbez, the not quiteBig Bad of IV, is one of these in Dissidia (not to the levels of the above three, but still). Jecht might beat your face in with his manly vigor, but Golbez literally pimp slapssome knowledgeinto you.
Before there was Vanitas, there was Mickey Mouse. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That Mickey Mouse. Square made him the KH-verse's answer to Yoda, and it worked. He's so Badass, that they made Big Damn Heroes a gameplay mechanic revolving around him.
Also from Birth by Sleep, there's Aqua. Considering what this Cute Bruiser can and has done including kicking (Master) Xehanort's ass when he was theoretically at his strongest, kicking the aforementioned Vanitas' ass three times, with the the third and final time in a Back-to-Back Badasses moment with Mickey, and being the only one of the game's trio to not have their body stolen or end up in coma, it's easy to see why!
And she's a raging goddess of pain and destruction in gameplay too. Meld a few commands, and by early midgame no mob can touch you.
What commands, you ask? Mega Flare is one of them. Yep, Aqua can spam the ultimate attack of the God of Dragons.
She spent 12 years in the World of Darkness without a Black Coat and yet none of the darkness has eaten away at her heart. The storyboard writers have probably kept her out of commision for so long in fear of Aqua becoming a One WomanStory Breaker Power.
She's not speaking in Dull Surprise, she's just relaxed because petty matters such as Master Xehanort's plan are child's play for her.
The KH version of Seifer has undeniable proof that he can totally own lamers like Roxas. He's always lookin' after the town, y'know?
Lightning. She's so badass, people actually mistrope her as a Super Soldier. Nope. Pure skill and badassness lead to her being considered among the best in the military after less than six years for XIII. Fans then ran away with the nickname "Warrior Goddess" as given by Caius in the sequel. And now many people have asked "Is she still a goddess in Lightning Returns"?
Sazh's Chicobo.
Fang is the Sexy-Female-Dragoon-Aussie version of Chuck Norris, AKA: Chick Norris.
Two words: Snow. Villiers. As one YouTube comment puts him:
Snow is goddamned awesome. He punches monsters in the face to get strong enough to punch bigger monsters in the face. He faces beasts, abominations, god-like beings and Lightning's wrath to save his fiance. He nearly gets killed protecting Hope's life and STILL protects him after Hope made it clear he wants to kill him, and he rides a motorcycle made of women! If this dude was anymore bro, the game would be about him (andSazh) instead.
Touhou
Touhou has them in spades. It's probably easier to count the characters who are NOT Memetic Badasses.
It is notable that as of ''Fairy Wars'', while she is still a Ted Baxter, some of what fanonically made Cirno idiotic has been disproved (she has been shown to have knowledge of maths, including fractions), along with an admission by Marisa herself that she is growing strong or skilled enough to pose an actual challenge. At this rate, she may well become a canonical Bad Ass as well!
But can she compare to CAPTAIN MINAMITSU MOTHERFUCKING MURASA?
No, no, the strongest is clearly Yuugi, her sake NOT EVEN DROP.
Rumia, or rather EX-Rumia (without her hair ribbon).
Everything in Gensokyo is exactly how Yukari wishes it. Even while sleeping for most of the time, everything continues to be Just As Planned. Even think of messing with her plans, and she will hurl a train at you.
Forgotten character Mima has the Twilight Spark, which has lead many to believe that when she comes back (and it will be when) there will be explosions.
Let's not forget about Hong Meiling. She may be feeble at danmaku, but she can and WILL kick the asses of every martial artist in the universe, simultaneously.
Then there's EX Keine. She has the power to "create and change history", which is the kind of vague power which could mean anything and everything, but of course the fans took it as an indication of omnipotent and godlike power and ran with it.
Mokou wears the pants in Gensokyo. (She also possesses strong phoenix vibes, which helps.)
Wriggle may be a stage 1 boss, but she can still (litterally) kick your ass.
The only time the ball is ever compromised is during Ran's Shikigami: Heavenly God's Descent where it briefly becomes too radiant to see clearly and splits in two when Ran kicks it. And then it merges back together.
Some postulate that the ball has been imbued with the Hourai Elixir.
And then ther's ZUN, who apparently can finish the games at the hardest difficulty setting with closed eyes without getting hit once, depending on how drunk he is.
World of Warcraft
World Of Warcraft: High Overlord Saurfang, an NPC on the Horde side, characterized by his glowing equipment, ridiculously high critical attacks, and Badass Boast, is a target of this, to the extent that a massive list of Saurfang Facts exists. "Area-effect target caps were implemented after Saurfang used Cleave on Stormwind and it shattered Draenor."
Amusingly, Word Of God apparently approved of this, and Saurfang is now a bona-fide Bad Ass as exhibited by his actions in Northrend. Among other items he's storywise now the boss of the players and shows up to save them from time to time. In the upcoming civil war, popular support is on his side versus the actual other factions that exist.
Which, to an extent, became an Ascended Meme in Cataclysm, where he now has a posse, a hill named after him, and a reappearance at level 25 in the Stockade, complete with disbelief from a nearby NPC that killing him was even possible.
At the same time the Saurfang fad was really hitting its stride, the Alliance attempted to elevate Bolvar Fordragon to a similar memetic position. It never quite caught on.
Its now being attempted on Genn Greymane, whose hatred of the orcs was so fierce that he actually left the Alliance because they didn't hate them enough.
Note that the Alliance was putting orcs in internment camps at the time...
Also being attempted on Darius Crowley, a NPC in the Gilneas starting area. He Cleaves oncoming hostile Worgen mobs WITH HIS BARE HANDS; this attack has subsequently become known as the "fistcleave". Of note was that his model in Silverpine Forest originally carried a sword and gun as weapons; Blizzard changed it to fist weapons as a response to the fistcleaving meme. Also associated with the meme surrounding this NPC is the song "Mr. Crowley" by Ozzy Osbourne, first started by its prominent usage whenever mentioning Crowley in Jesse Cox's Cataclysm beta videos.
The Devilsaurs of Un'goro Crater also count, as any players who have suffered through their stealth Ninja attacks while leveling in that zone can attest. Seriously, a 50-foot tall dinosaur should not be able to sneak up on you like that!
Mor'ladim was the original. A level 35 elite with more HP than most level 60s, wandering around a level 25-30 questing area. He was silent and deadly.
There's also the Whale Shark Which is a shark that literally outsizes some villages, and one hit kills anything.
All whaleshark did was blink. It was that blink that hit me so hard it disbanded my guild and deleted my account.
Gentlemen I present what might be the greatest badass (besides Saurfang) in Warcraft, Rhonin. note * This is about 120+ pages long, but it is full of /brofist's and win.
Yes, but in Hellfire Peninsula, the Horde and Alliance resistance could tell that the Fel Reaver coming by the extremely loud footsteps, and managed to fight it with relatively few casualties. The very next day, a Devilsaur stealthed through the Dark portal, and wiped out every Ally and Horde in the region.
Many people in MMO-champion have grown fond of Bolvar being the ultimate badass hero of the Alliance, where anything can apply to the Lich King Cutscene.
Algalon The Observer in the Hard Mode of Ulduar. His JOB is to assess Azeroth and determine whether the Titans need to hit the planetary "reset button". Two of his attacks are called "Black Hole Explosion" and "Big Bang". In a topic on the forums about Hard Mode, this is what a LEAD WORLD DESIGNER said:
Hard mode rewards will be the best in the game. With that said, I want to be sure that everyone understands: Hard mode is hard. Some hard modes are harder than others. Then there's Algalon the Raid Destroyer. He feeds off of your tears.
In the same vain as Algalon: You! The player! Well, assuming you beat him. Assuming a player beats Algalon, he attributes your raid PERSONALLY as showing him that Azeroth has a fighting chance if the Old Gods DO awaken. Beings so powerful the only solution was to ANNIHILATE THE WORLD, and he basically says "Yeah, you can take 'em".
Gamon, a neutral tauren NPC in Orgrimmar whose purpose is to be pickpocketed for a rogue quest. After spending 6 years as essentially a Memetic Woobie, being repeatedly killed to the point where many horde players had honed it to a reflex, with Cataclysm he has been buffed to a level 85 elite, capable of two or three shotting anyone who would dare mess with him
People did continue to mess with him in the early days of Cata though (because it was possible to kite him). That only served to make him even more badass. Come the next patching, they beefed him up again. Now he can't be kited and hits like a mac truck going downhill at 150mph.
Shandris Feathermoon, leader of the night elf military, has an ability that brings down dozens of super-powered moon beams (like the Druid spell Moonfire but Up to Eleven). For a time, players could kite her - she could kill Garrosh and all the players trying to defend him in mere seconds.
The X-Box and Playstation 3 are so large, they are visible from orbit and warp gravity around their frames.
Sylvia, of all people, is one now too. Yes, the girlfriend that was kidnapped in Spartan X, known to us US people as Kung Fu Master. Punch in "Natraps X" into youtube and witness her true unadulterated badassery.
Not even driving simulators are safe from Memetic Badassery. In Forza Motorsport 2 (and Forza Motorsport 3), the AI Driver M. Rossi has been elevated to this status (although "Memetic Bastard" would be a better way of putting it for him).
The only reason the Order was able to kill Harry Mason is because they must have caught him enjoying a little "me-time". He's indestructible otherwise.
And he's not even the king of this trope within the series. That title can only belong to Pyramid Head, whose memetic... badassery became so enormous that future Silent Hill developers just had to find a way to include him in almost every game. And, of course, the movie.
Harry Mason could kill Pyramid Head, but not before asking it if he's seen a little girl.
Far Cry 2 gives the player character a chance to become this. At reputation level five your journal will note circulating rumors that you are literally Satan himself and never kill your enemies before extensively torturing them.
Under no circumstances should anyone entertain the notion of pursuing LuBu.
Also HondaTadakatsu. Not only was a dragonfly split in half by simply landing on Tadakatsu's spear, his drill spear will pierce the heavens!
He is also one of the very few NPC heroes that you are never given the chance to fight in the game, so there is no telling just how tough he really is.
Actually, with the new Dark Astoria arcs, you do get to fight him. These arcs are intended for demigod-level Incarnate Characters.
But with the new Shield Defence powerset added in the last update, we might get to see him in action (read: kick his ass) after all!
Star Wars fans have, in addition to Mace Windu as played by the aforementioned Samuel L. Jackson, KyleKatarn. There was No Endor Holocaust because Katarn said so. The shockwaves from the explosion of the second Death Star knew to not screw with him.
A joke idle animation showing him shaving with his saber elevated Kyle Katarn's beard to it's own, independent status as the toughest material in existence.
But behind Kyle Katarn's beard, there isn't a chin. It's just another pistol.
When Kyle Katarn does pushups, he doesn't push himself up. He pushes Nar Shaddaa down.
No! He pushes Nar Shadaa up, because that's the way HE defined gravity!
It gets to the point that no-one protests that Kyle Katarn is quite a bit more difficult an end-game boss than a ressurected ancient Sith Lord, because, well, it is Katarn.
And they get Darth Revan as well. Who is so badass in-game that he can't be killed by a full turbolaser barrage from a Knights of the Old RepublicStar Destroyer. And can kill three terentateks all by himself, normally the work of nine Jedi. And can out-swoop-race, out-lightsaber-duel, and out-shoot everyone in existence.
It doesn't hurt that his d20 game stats have six levels on Kyle Katarn.
As of their recent appearance in Star Wars: The Old Republic, it appears that HK-series droids are starting to acquire this reputation, though mostly through comparisons to Chuck Norris in in-game chat.
Here is what the Expanded Universe says about the Katarn Commandos (whom he was a member of): "Around this time the unit changed its name to the Katarn Commandos - some say as a tribute to Commander Katarn, though Wookiee member Frorral insisted the name referred to her homeworld's jungle predator. No team member dared mention Frorral's crush on Katarn as a possible contributing factor."
Don't forget Gilad Pellaeon. His first major post was the ship Anakin Skywalker was based on. He then served as the head of Darth Vader's personal flagship, the Executioner. He was The Watson to Grand Admiral Thrawn and took over the Imperial Remnant after Thrawn's death. Then he single-handedly made peace between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic, and won against the Yuuzhan Vong. He was then the founder and first head of the Galactic Alliance (New Republic + Imperial Remnant), and he died only because he was personally assassinated by a Sith Apprentice, and only because she was too close for him to shoot her.
To elaborate, Altaďr apparently has killed every SINGLE person who has ever lived. Ever. And yet, strangely enough, he's still only a lesser god in the House of Life and Death.
He is only seen when he wants to be seen.
Perhaps unintentionally, the game gives him an implied But for Me, It Was Tuesday attitude toward killing Templars. To wit, the synch bar increases as Desmond grows closer to Altair by doing things that Altair remembers doing. However, it does not increase if he kills a Templar, nor even if he kills all sixty of them. In other words, Altair may have killed every single Templar in the Holy Land, and he doesn't even remember it.
Being hit also calls Desyncronization. Meaning Altiar never got hit.
Malik also gets this treatment, being as he still manages to be a competant fighter and badass after losing an arm.
Sanger Zonvolt and Elzam von Branstein/Ratsel Feinschmecker of the Super Robot Wars games. The latter is for much the same reason as Char Aznable, with the added bonus of his theme song overwriting all others. The former is said to be able to cut ANYTHING, and may have a bit more truth to the claim, due to breaking open the roof of an underground fortress designed to withstand an alien apocalypse, from the outside, while fighting his alternate-universe cyborg self in some sort of Chuck Norris joke Gone Horribly Wrong.
Russel Bagman waits in the night to strike evil with his generic might.
A Word Of God-approved version of this is Master Chief in Halo. In the original games, Master Chief was relatively slow and weak (at least compared to FPS heroes like the Doom guy, who can run at 60mph while carrying a metric ton of equipment and can soak up hundreds of bullet hits before dying), with only his regenerating energy shield allowing the player to make it through a level long after the standard allied Mooks have all perished. In the novels based on the Halo universe, Master Chief and all his fellow SPARTANs have been drastically upgraded to Space Marine level Super Soldiers who see in bullet-time, can punch out Powered Armor while naked, can run at vehicular highway speeds, can flip armored jeeps over with their hands, and can soak bucketloads of small-arms fire without much concern.
Also, he canonically has the one form of cancer that makes him immune to the Flood, but at the same time he is so Badass that there's no indication that he has it.
Johnson was there for every point in the Human-Convenant War: he started it and he ended it. The only reason that Master Chief was needed is because Johnson was too awesome to need Cortana.
"Master Chief only managed to kill three ODSTs because they were just in a firefight and went to the gym to cool down." "They are so badass that they can do a headshot. Using a Shotguns. With buckshot. At 100 meters." "A ODST squad could have done Master Chief's job, in one quarter of the time. They just let Master Chief have fun." "If an ODST and a SPARTAN had children, the offspring would reach Johnson badassery." "ODSTs can defeat chieftans using ball pens." "ODSTs can Dual Wield Gravity Hammers. They don't do it because that way is too easy." "ODSTs use Pods, because if they didn't, the energy released upon impact would be enough to destroy a city." "Spartans never die. ODSTs never lose."
Segata Sanshiro, the "mascot" for the Sega Saturn, though he was portrayed this way in the ads even before the Internet got to them. Really, how else can you describe a man who threw one person into another, causing both to explode?! The fact that he's played by Kamen Rider 1's actor just adds to the badassery.
It took a nuke aimed at SEGA HQ to get him off the planet. He wasn't affected by the vacuum of space, and the explosion gave him an awesome sendoff tossed him to another galaxy where he's too busy introducing the natives to the Saturn to come back to Earth.
He resurfaced briefly in 2008 in person, advertising the Rambo game of the fourth film, with a much younger girl by his side.
The Nord hero Ysgramor is one of these in-universe in Skyrim. In Windhelm, there's a museum of oddities which includes Ysgramor's soup spoon. It's a fork. You think no-one could eat soup with a fork? You, my friend, did not know Ysgramor.
In the Dwarf Fortress forums, Captain Ironblood from Nist Akath (A Community Fortress, which is kinda-sorta-not-really a fanfiction).
Also, the Elven king of dwarves Cacame surfs zombie wyverns into battle, fights carp and wins.
And as a merely "Competent" Hammerman, he made mincemeat of a dragon. No, seriously.
To elaborate on his (in-game) backstory: He was a common elf child born in a kingdom that was under constant war with the dwarves. He lost his mother when he was only 1, and his father when he was 2. When he was 5 years old, the dwarves conquered his city, and installed a new government there. At the young age of 12 he joined the army, and married the elf Nemo. Two years later, an elven attack injured his lower body and killed his wife (who was then eaten by the elf that killed her). Two years after that, in 99, the dwarven king was killed in battle and, somehow, Cacame became the leader of the civilization at the age of 16. It can only be assumed that his hatred of his other elves at eating his wife was so great that it impressed even the dwarves, who then granted him the title of King.
He is also the only elf to be beloved by most of the fanbase.
Simon Belmont, who can cause Galamoth to run away like a wuss. He once appeared on the cover of Nintendo Power magazine, waving around the severed head of Dracula.
He killed Dracula twice. He was dyingthe second time, and yet Dracula's curse did nothing to deter him. Nothing.
This thread on the GameFAQsCastlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles board started off as a questioning of why Richter Belmont is so "average". Eventually, it turned into a pages-long thread about Richter's awesomeness that would go on to hit the capacity of 500 posts.
And lest we forget about The BelmontWalk. Richter's own variant is so pimpin', it's divine.
Richter is so badass that his memory imprinted into the Vampire Killer itself can kick ass without trying. Not the real Richter, a mere shadow of him.
His Bible can fire holy rainbows beams of concentrated testosterone able to kill anything within a 20-mile radius. Eat your fucking heart out, Joshua. (How Alucard survived is up in the air; he should bless his lucky stars.)
Most of the other characters do a simple Double Jump and call it a day; Richter backflipsin midair. It has also been theorized that Richter's super jump was the progenitor of the Shoryuken.
Sorta justified by plot and extrapolation, though. That guy, Dracula, that confirmed memetic badasses Richter and Simon could only keep down for a couple of years, a decade or two at best? Julius killed him permanently, in something that has been referred to as a war. And then met Drac's reincarnation, and whupped his ass too, until said reincarnation either followed orders or disobeyed. In the latter case he killed him permanently a second time.
Going by the manual for Aria of Sorrow, Julius is simultaneously the youngest (19) and the oldest (55/56) canon Belmont to have kicked Dracula's ass.
Soma (said reincarnation of Drac) has to use Magic Seals in Dawn of Sorrow to permanently seal away the bosses, lest they regenerate and start the battle anew. Julius had no such problems; he was whipping their asses so hard that they had no chance to regenerate.
You need two theme songs to make his, because no single theme is enough.
Just from a gameplay example: imagine a Tiidani heavy cruiser merrily laying waste to your capital ship fleet. Ambush it with a small contingent of 'vettes and, if you're lucky, you'll be the proud new owner of a free cruiser.
Eilis' buddy Keith. For someone who is never once shown onscreen and may or may not be real, he's quite the badass. He has suffered from third degree burns over 95% of his body twice (once making fireworks, once deep-frying turkey), lost two fingers and a toe to frostbite, broke both of his legs after driving his car off a cliff, built a shack out of mud, been stabbed by a homeless man, got tear gassed by the police, snuck a paintball gun on a roller coaster, got attacked by an alligator, bombed by the military (among the bombs, Ellis claims, were nerve gas and cluster bombs), drowned in the Tunnel of Love, got cut up by his own "bumper-car" lawn mower leaving him with wounds over 90% of his body, got cement paved over him in a sewer after falling down an open manhole, lived in a graveyard for a year after getting kicked out of his house, hung spit on the overhang in the Tunnel of Love, fell off a roller coaster onto the tracks with the ride still going, got a tattoo on his forehead saying "I'm a moron" for $200, ate three pounds of raw chicken (The in game subtiles say catfish), turned a recreation of colonial times into a raccoon fight in his backyard, drove across a river without using the bridge, married a couple, and would have even gotten married himself, had he not ran away from his own wedding.
Dead Space's Isaac Clarke: curb stomping legions of alien zombies and cutting up monsters with his mighty power tool is all part of the job (also to save his girlfriend).
Kratos, Villain Protagonist of the God Of War series. Given that he fought his way out of Hell on three separate occasions, and killed the Three Fates, even after they decided he wouldn't, it's entirely justified.
Pit, Kid Icarus himself, did it seventeen years before him, though.
Pit did it once, and his hell was a bit more family friendly than any time Kratos saw it. Also, Pit defeated Medusa using three sacred relics. Kratos ripped her head off and used it as a weapon... while it was still alive.
That's Kratos's response to anything immortal when he doesn't have an ultimate weapon handy. So far, he did it to Medusa, Eurayle, and according to the demo, Helios.
And what did he do with the head of Helios? He used it as a flashlight.
Come God of War III, Kratos has gained a reputation as a walking apocalypse.
Listing everything badass Kratos did would be a category in and of itself. Hell, he can even score instant threesomes.
The ultimate sign. Kratos managed to, by sheer badassery, score a place in Mortal Kombat. That's not the impresive part. Every other character then said this was unfair. Wizard gods, machines built for fighting, karate masters and the lord of the dead all thought being pitted against Kratos was just too much.
Kratos is so badass, he put the smackdown on Thanatos in Ghost of Sparta. For those unawhere, Thanatos was a god that the Titans and that GODS THEMSELVES feared. While Hades is the god of the underworld, Thanatos was the God of DEATH. Yes, Kratos BEAT DEATH to DEATH.
Duke Nukem. Heck, his character is supposed to be seen as a Memetic Badass.
Or a parody of one. Either way, he's still more than capable of doing awesome things.
This is the reason Duke Nukem Forever was in Development Hell for a good 12 or so years. The devs had to keep on scrapping the project because they knew that the chickenscratch they kept coming up with wouldn't do him any justice. When you bet on the Duke, you do it right.
Gaia Online has, in its 'casual' MMO zOMG, the Bonus Boss Landshark. Players roughly describe it as "what would happen if Chuck Norris used a Shark Attack spell".
On GameFAQs, it seems Captain MacMillan of Call of Duty4 and Sergeant Reznov of Call of Duty: World at War are Memetic Badasses, the former despite being present for two missions, spending half the second one with a leg injury. Captain Price in all his porn-stache glory isn't one.
Captain Price isn't a Memetic Badass, he's a canonical Badass. As for MacMillan, spending half of the mission with a leg injury just makes it more badass that he still lays down covering fire for you.
The same goes for Reznov, seeing as he not only survived and fought his hardest all the way from Stalingrad to Berlin, but did it with half a trigger finger. All of his deliciously sadistic dialogue and his saving Petrenko (the player character) at the very end of the last mission certainly helped, too. Hell, he even has an article on Uncyclopedia that calls him the "alpha male of the human race"!
The same website has an article on the Red Shirt Carmine from Gears of War. To best sum up their opinion of him, their link to a more professional version of the article is God on That Other Wiki.
RAMIREZ, DO EVERYTHING!
RAMIREZ! STOP THAT NUKE WITH YOUR RIOT SHIELD!
RAMIREZ! DESTROY THE RUSSIAN ARMY WITH THIS FRENCH FRY!
RAMIREZ! TAKE OUT THAT HIND WITH A THROWING KNIFE!
To elaborate, Ramirez, a US Ranger and Player Character for half of the campaign, constantly gets ordered around by his superior Foley into literally doing everything. A bunch of Infantry Fighting Vehicles are attacking you position? Ramirez operates a predator drone and destroys them. Enemy snipers? Ramirez can counter snipe them. Column of enemy armor? Ramirez can take that Javelin and wipe every last tank out. A platoon of soldiers in the Burger Town? Ramirez has already killed them. It's gotten to the point where Ramirez is basically the USA's entire army.
The Tails Doll of Sonic R infamy was an innocuous, debatably unsettling bonus character. From there, it escalated to a Bloody Mary-like figure.
Does Shadow count? He even had his own presidential campaign website back in 2008. (Quaker and Bowen hosted it, and have since taken it down, although the link remains on the Tails Doll site.)
Sonic himself certainly has quite a bit of fan exaggeration at how fast he can go. Then again...
The ultimate proof of Sonic's badassery: If Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) couldn't stop him, what chance does anything else have?
Super Sonic can only be played with a console that has Blast Processing. Using him on anything else will cause it to crash because it cannot process that much awesomeness.
After the game was reviewed by the Hungarian 'Bad PC Games' webseries, the AFGNCAAP of Airborne Hero became the legendary Dick Assman (not related to the gas station owner of the same name).
Pablo Sanchez of Backyard Baseball. If you look on youtube for the comments on any video about the best player in the game (the video makers' opinions range from Maria Luna to Nomar), there will always be comments about Pablo as a Badass, mostly because he speaks Spanish. Though he really doesn't.
In Starcraft II We have General Horace Warfield, who even before acquiring his Memetic Badass status beats a hydralisk to death with his bare, well power armored hands, takes terrible, terrible damage, survives enough poison to kill an Ultralisk, then gets his arm amputated and replaced with an Arm Cannon.
The proper phrasing is that he punched a Hydralisk INNA FACE. TO DEATH.
In Resistance: Fall of Man, whenever you played co-op, the second player was an unnamed African-American soldier with no relation to the plot and no spoken lines (and coincidentally the only black guy in the game). He's actually a representation of a real-life QA tester whose hard work was awarded by the game designers putting his likeness into the game. That doesn't stop some of the fans from calling him "the greatest video game character of all time", and jokingly point out how Hale is wrongfully credited for the random black dude's epic heroism.
From Fallout 3, Old Lady Palmer and Deputy Weld have both been given "badass" status by various communities.
Mr. Zurkon shall spare your life, puny alien. PSYCH! Mr. Zurkon lives only to kill!
Gordon Freeman receives this treatment inside and outside of the games. By the second game he has become so legendary due to his actions in the first that the interdimensional alien empire collectively crap their pants at the mere sight of him, and La Résistance members and Vortigaunts especially are constantly in awe of him. The fandom meanwhile considers him to be an unstoppable killing machine equivalent to planet-destroying superweapons (with is techincally true). Also, the reason he never speaks is because doing so would cause peoples' heads to explode.
No love for Adrian Shepard? Drop him in the same place and he will be extremely close to catching Gordon, but he will never quite reach him. He is The Shepard to Gordon's The One Free Man.
Lets see... the combine defeated the earth forces in seven hours, yet they have trouble dealing with Gordon Freeman. He lives in an Orwellian Police State, and he survives by killing the shit out of anybody who messes with him. Also, when he's attacked by combine, his friend Barney throws his signature crowbar to him, seemingly thinking that all he needs for beating a mighty, orwellian space empire to oblivion is a crowbar, and he's RIGHT!
Barney himself is almost on the same level as Freeman, which caused the fans to worry when he didn't appear anywhere in the second episode despite having escaped the city before Freeman and Alyx.
Mors' dog in the Game Of Thrones RPG can one-hit kill anyone he sneaks up behind. No warning, no chance to resist, no matter the strength of your armor, if the dog gets behind you, you die.
Duncan (or more specifically, his beard) of Dragon Age: Origins gets this treatment, being considered unkillable due to the great power given to him by his beard. Bann Teagan also gets this treatment and is also a Memetic Sex God.
All of them, however, pale before Sandal, who can make hearts explode with his terrifying battlecry of "ENCHANTMENT!"
Which may just be canon. How do you explain all the darkspawn he killed just by saying "Enchantment!" repeatedly?
Random guy in the bar: I hear the Champion of Kirkwall sleeps on a bed made of the bones of a High Dragon. And he uses the Arishok's skull as a gravy boat.
More appropriately for that game...Shepard is this both out-universe AND in-universe. S/he became well-known in the first game for being the first human SPECTRE. By the time the second game rolls around, he/she is such a living legend that even though it's well known that Shepard died two years before, hardly anybody mentions that except in passing and no one is freaked out with talking to someone who should be a corpse. Because it's Shepard: death is merely an inconvenience.
Not to mention that as far as we know, the only reason Shepard was resurrected in the first place was because of his/her memetic badassitude in the fight against the Reapers.
Also remember: The Collectors killed him/her once, and all they did was piss him/her off.
Along with the fact that Shepard can use the Widow and the Claymore, both guns that would break a normal human's arm (the Widow had to be modified to be handheld, it's normally a vehicle-mounted weapon), the Revenant machine gun, and the Cain. Shepard is a goddam Devastator.
Fighting the Shadow Broker involves quite a bit of punching him. Yes. SHEPARD PAWNCH is effective against people four times the Commander's size.
Shepard: "I expected [the interrogation] to be more difficult." Thane: "Shepard, he was just a common criminal. You killed a Reaper."
In the first game. In the second he takes on Frank Castle levels of badassitude. "How'd you manage to piss off every mercenary group in the Terminus Systems?" "It wasn't easy. I had to really work at it."
Zaeed Massani, who can't even go and get a drink at a bar without everyone around him dying horribly.
The reason why Zaeed is the only survivor is because he is literally unkillable. He walks into a bar, gets set on fire, shot in the head multiple times, and has a bomb explode beneath him. He says "Give me a goddamn drink." Then everyone around him dies. He tells them "Suck it up, I've seen worse." Because he has.
Zaeed got an entire thread dedicated to documenting his badassery on the Bioware forums. According to it, he:
Is Sean Connery's grandson
Is actually spacer!Shepard's father
Once had sex with a Krogan female once, and lived to tell about it. But he doesnt, because he's a gentleman.
Was scheduled to catch a bullet between his teeth, but the whole thing had to be called off because the bullet got scared.
And can interrupt a Renegade Interrupt.
Kal'Reegar, who held the line against a entire squad of geth and a Colossus before Shepard got there, and is evidently the quarian Rambo.
You can not mention "holding the line" without mentioning, Captain Kirrahe, basically the Salarian version of Shepard.
Dungeon Fighter Online has GSD. He is the first character the player has to escort, though it's more like GSD is escorting you. The various theories for his blindness include God getting Scared, GSD believing that being sighted was too easy, and that he witnessed his own pwnage.
According to Daniel Remar, Youtube user Reallyjoel's dad is the best gamer to have ever lived. There used to be a difficulty level suited to his skill, but he beat it so hard it ceased to exist.
Iji has a hidden Reallyjoel's dad difficulty level with an impossible time limit, no stat increases (and thus 2 HP), no health items, and a barrier at the end of the first level telling you you must kill all enemies. It is patently impossible.
Hero Core has a hidden Reallyjoel's dad difficulty level which IS possible, in theory—you are just dumped in a room with every boss in the game at the same time. Both, however, treat you to humorously modified intro scenes.
In Hyper Princess Pitch the equivalent difficulty level is called "Reallyjoel's Mom", as all difficulties in the game are named something feminine (Combat Lady, War Queen, Goddess of Explosions, etc). The enemies are powered up to the point that the first ones you encounter (which normally die in one hit and slowly walk towards you to inflict Collision Damage) move super fast, take a ridiculous number of hits to destroy, and rapidly fire fast moving projectiles. You will not make it past the first room.
Nine Ball from Armored Core (no relation to that other one), to both fans and in-game. The title given to those that get to the spot of "Number 1 Raven" is "Ninebreaker" simply because he actually, "it" was that much of a Bad Ass and held the spot of Number 1 for so long. And pretty much the mantra for every new AC title in the works is "Is Nine Ball gonna be in it?" This is despite, or rather because of, the fact that Nine Ball personifiesNintendo Hard in AC.
Think that's badassed enough for him? Well, he appears in Another Century's Episode R as a second to last boss fight! That's right! He's so badass that he fights with damn near any known badass from countless mecha animes. And YOU even get to experience the power of Nineball yourself!
The Fraxy Community has a notable member named Eboshidori, A.K.A. Creator of the Best Bosses Ever A.K.A the most awesome Fraxian in existance A.K.A. Your Lord And Savior.
Anthony Higgs, from Metroid: Other M, has taken on a life of his own in terms of memetic badassery. it is said that if he and Armstrong Houston (the other memetic badass from Metroid) were to meet, the universe would implode from the sheer awesome.
Professor Layton has no equal in his universe. If he wanted to rule the world, he could do so over a weekend, and that's even taking time out for tea. He is the greatest puzzle-solving, sword-fighting, car-driving, bullet-dodging, device-making, detective/archaeologist in existence. He is also very modest. Also, his level of epic exponentially increases between games.
Mr. Blank. You can send him out to space, force him to dance, stick him inside a TV and he WILL NOT DIE. Hell, he was wearing the Kamina shades BEFORE Kamina did. And they were PINK.
Boone from Fallout New Vegas. He headshots the Sun five seconds before it appears over the horizon.
And then there's Joshua Graham, who is this in-universe for being possibly the one man that not even Boone could kill. If five confirmed shots from 1st Recon, getting blown up at Boulder City and finally getting covered in pitch, set on fire and tossed into the Grand Canyon couldn't kill him, then what can? Asides from the Courier? all with a .45 caliber pistol and nothing else.
The Courier is one as well. In-universe. The Powder Gangers call him/her the Grim Fucking Reaper and every faction wants them to help them win the war. Cass describes it best.
"Don't fuck with the man who delivers your mail."
This also applies to Ulysses: he went through literally everything the Courier went through: the first three DLCs are just tests by him of the Courier.
Also, he survived where even the greatest of Caesar's Legion and the NCR became monstrous ghouls wearing nothing more than a filtration mask and a sleeveless jacket.
Did we forget to mention his massive nuclear stockpile?
Red Dead Redemption gives us Herbert Moon. Sorry, Herbert MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!
"YOU EAT BABIES!!!"
From Freespace: Alpha 1 (aka the player character). A fighter pilot so amazing that he can take down entire fleets of enemy ships on his own, and is The Alliance's greatest weapon.
Allen sends you home to mama! Not only can he take more bullets than any tank, weapon or enemy machine, but he also wanders around below freezing temperature with nothing but a machine gun and a pair of shorts. He has been swallowed by a killer whale which spit his bones out, and returned later to fight you again! And he can kill you with a casual whip of his ammo. Nothing can stop his resolve to return to his wife and son at the end of the day.
The Rock is the deadliest enemy you will encounter in Agarest Senki. It's so deadly, that the Big Bad of the game couldn't win against the party without the help of one Boulder itself.
As far as player characters go, the Raglen family is made of pure badass, with Rex in particular reigning supreme. Vashtor has reached this status due to his amazing strategies, mixed with his lack of moral compass. And then there's Reverie. A young girl, relatively unimportant when compared to the rest of the cast, and yet she's the only one who can wield the spear that belonged to the freaking god of war (not that God Of War mind you).
Usually, when you're on the receiving end of a Limit Break Combination Attack, you cower with fear. The "Fairy" Mook (and its different kinds) however eat an apple before getting all clobbered up like it was just a random encounter! Take note, the attack is formed up by an elf who has the protection of the highest light god and the three protagonists who are the Reincarnation of the dark god!
Colonel. Mael. Radec. Awesome incarnate, so badass he makes other Helghast look like ISA pussies. You think you beat him at the end of Killzone 2? Ha! Radec got so bored fighting you, that he killed himself so he could respawn somewhere more intresting.
Legend of Mana: In-Universe, Mr. Moti the Dancing Turban Man. His Encyclopedia entry reads: "He is everywhere. He sees all."
Jebediah "Jeb" Kerman, of the Kerbal Space Program, laughs in the face of danger. Literally and figuratively. Possibly half dorf, but the jury's still out on that one.
Modern Warfare has MacMillan. CoD fans have made countless Chuck Norris-esque facts about him and begged for his return in MW2 and 3. They got their wish: MW 3 reveals that codename Baseplate, the SAS commander, is MacMillan.
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean gives us The Great Mizuti. How badass is Mizuti? She's a fourteen year old girl. Who fights gods by tackling them.
Inverted with Mike Dawson of Darkseed. The sequel has actually made him wimpier and sadder compared to the first installment; he's now considered to be the least heroic video game character by some.
Sub-Zero (the original, although it's frequently overlapped with his younger and more popular brother as well) is something of a meta example, as he and his infamous "Spine Rip" Fatality are responsible for the creation of the ESRB. That's right, he's more or less the father of the ESRB.
Steve?, the player character of Minecraft. Beating animals to death with his bare hands. Fitting cubic tons of material into his pockets. Swimming up waterfalls. Going for days without sleep. Yes, truly an average day in the life.
Iron Knight Tarkus of Dark Souls, a summoned character that you can call to help you with an area boss, can easily solo the boss on his own. The boss in question is the Iron Golem of Sen's Fortress, one of the most physically imposing and powerful bosses in the game, and one with impressive physical defense. Tarkus fights this gigantic beast in physical combat, and bests him easily. Odds are, at this point in the game, you can't, and wouldn't be able to for some time. Tarkus is better at the game than you.
Ninja Kiwi made a perfect god among bloon popping towers: The Super Monkey. He fires faster than a machine gun & can target enemies from a big distance. When the going gets tough, he can switch to laser vision & gain more range. When the going gets tougher, he can switch to plasma & gain Epically huge range. He's so amazing that he can turn into a Physical God who kills his foes with the energy of the sun or a robot who can target 2 different enemies at once.
That last pragraph was just for his Bloons Tower Defense appearences. Bloons Super Monkey makes him out to be Ninja Kiwi's most badass character. His powers include spiked balls that turn into bursts of darts when they strike bloons, whips made of plasma, a beam of pure bloon destruction, an octuple that rotate around him & an entire fiesta-full of others
The final boss of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Senator Armstrong reached this level soon after the game's release. As it turns out, Nanomachines and playing college ball for the University of Texas are the best superpowers in the Metal Gear universe.
