Took A Level In Badass / Literature

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• 1632 series:
  • Julie Sims goes from being an energetic high school cheerleader at the beginning of the book to a ruthless, crack shot sniper by the end. (True, as a cheerleader she'd also been training to be an Olympic markswoman, but it's still a noticeable change in attitude, if not in aptitude)
  • Jeff Higgins goes from a Dungeons & Dragons-playing nerd to being a Badass Biker and officer in one of the New United States elite regiments, in the first book alone tearing into attacking Croat soldiers, taking several of them down before he's wounded by one and saved at the last minute by Captain Gars, aka Gustav II. By 1636, he's a Lt. Colonel Badass, commanding "The Hangman", which is reputed to be the most badass regiment in the USE Army.
• All five main characters of Animorphs start the series as ordinary kids and over the course of fifty-four books gradually become hardened guerrilla fighters. Sometimes this isn't always for the best — Rachel becomes a scary Blood Knight.
  • Of the five none take more levels in badass than Jake. By the final arc he's become the most effective leader in the war, outwitting both his rival general Visser One and the Yeerk traitor infesting his brother. Near the end Visser One's host explicitly states that Jake is the only person the Visser is afraid of. Not bad for a 16 year old.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor David also gets a special shout-out. He has only three books to grow in, but during them he goes from a kid with a BB gun and a pet cobra to a foe so effective he comes closer to defeating the Animorphs than the entirety of an alien empire. The Threat ends with him defeating Jake in a duel between his lion and Jake's tiger and he's the only enemy in the entirety of the series who makes Rachel feel fear.
• Rob in An Outcast in Another World starts at the bottom of the totem pole. Through repeated combat, dangerous situations, and the Human racial trait of Fast Learner, he quickly becomes a legitimate threat. Orn'tol and Malika are lesser examples; they started at a higher baseline than Rob, but they're still young and growing much stronger than a standard person of their age would be.
• Bazil Broketail:
  • Lumbee goes from a Damsel in Distress dependent on Relkin's help to a mighty warrior taking part in many battles against slavers and soldiers from Mirchaz.
  • Norwul, though not to such an extent as Lumbee, since he is already a badass in his own right when we first meet him. Still, he starts out as one of the Ardu slaves who have to be liberated from a camp, but ultimately becomes one of the best fighters among his people and one of army leaders.
• In The Belgariad, Garion shifts from innocent farmboy to competent swordsman and sorcerer to Godslayer. By the sequel, he's one of the most powerful sorcerors on the planet and someone you absolutely do not want to screw with. His close friend Durnik undergoes a similar change. And oh yeah, speaking of the sequel, remember Sadi and 'Zakath? The drug-addicted eunuch and Empty Shell of an emperor? By the time The Malloreon has ended, 'Zakath has retaken the levels he lost in his time as an Evil Overlord, becoming perhaps the only fencer in the world to fight with a BFS, while Sadi has transformed his love of poisons and mind-altering drugs into a unique style of combat that leaves most of his victims dead or very, very messed-up.
• Also by Heinlein, in Between Planets the protagonist starts as a naive and sheltered teen but becomes a tough Venusian freedom fighter who probably had killed (off-screen).
• In Bloody Jack, Jacky Faber takes several levels in badass in the course of the series, rising from a London street brat to commanding warships, spying, meeting Napoléon Bonaparte, and other wild adventures.
• When Mundo Cani Dog first appears in The Book of the Dun Cow, he at first seems to be nothing but a self-hating whiner and nuisance. By the final chapter, he has unhesitatingly saved the lives of several turkeys from venomous serpents, personally confronted Cockatrice, and took down the Big Bad through a Heroic Sacrifice, his only weapon a cow's horn.
• Taran of The Chronicles of Prydain gets this something fierce. He's introduced as a whiny child who is eager to go on an adventure, but has no idea how to fight or find his way through a forest or even swim across a river. When it looks like the prince he was traveling with is dead, he's forced to pull himself together and lead his remaining companions to warn the king about an invading army. In each book, he learns lessons about life, strength, and sacrifice. By the final book, he is a great fighter who the Commont people willingly fight with, he leads an assault against the neighboring evil land, and is able to find the missing magic sword and kill the Big Bad. Gurgi also takes a few levels, going from a rather pathetic creature that begs anyone who comes across him for food to being a strong fighter who, at one point, terrifies the daylights out of two soldiers he battles.
• City of Bones by Martha Wells: One side effect of the ritual Riathen performs is to make Elen realize her magic is vastly more powerful than she knew, thanks to Riathen suppressing it out of a desire to control her. Far from being a magically weak Super Loser, she's among the strongest of all Warders.
• Ludovic Leblanc in City of the Beasts spends most of the novel being annoying, vain, and spouting theories that all turn out to be wrong. But when the expedition's in danger, he jumps into a firefight to save a native child, comes up with a cunning plan, and then manipulates the main bad guy, distracts him, and tries to get him drunk so that they have a chance at escaping. Alex and Nadia actually do most of the day-saving, but it's still pretty awesome.
• Tavi, in the first book of Codex Alera: small for his age sheepherder who is handicapped by lacking powers that everyone else has, and survives only because of his quick wits and having (and making) an assorted group of badass friends. Tavi (sorry, First Lord Octavian) in book 6 of Codex Alera: still wily and intelligent, has an even larger assorted group of badass friends, now a tall, physically powerful experienced warrior and wartime commander who now wields powers practically all his peers can only dream of.
  • The legion Tavi ends up leading in Cursor's Fury. The beginning of the book makes it clear these are, well, not Alera's best troops. Even the Knights are barely up to snuff, dubbed "Knights Pisces" for their resemblance more of fish flopping around than seasoned warriors. Then, at the end of the book, at the end of a grim, determined battle, they take that appellation and turn it around. Sharks are fish, too, after all...Similarly, the legionari are likewise wet-behind-the-ears kids, but by the end the survivors are the Battlecrow Cohort.
• Edmond Dantes becomes The Count of Monte Cristo to get revenge on his enemies. At one point, the narration asserts that Dantes' time spent languishing in a tiny cell has given him unusual strength.
• In Sean William's The Crooked Letter we have the two twins Hadrian and Seth who are inverted, with Seth being entirely normal and Hadrian being the complete mirror opposite of him in almost every way, right down to his heart being on the wrong side of his chest. Most of the book, Seth is taken on a dangerous and daring adventure where he gains new powers and allies. On the flip side, for most of the book Hadrian is beaten-up, kicked-around, dragged through mud, blood and sewers in a hellish amalgamated city that amounts to hell on earth, constantly being manipulated and thrown away as a pawn when people are done with him and continuously running for his life, eventually hunted to the ends of the earth. Then Hadrian Takes A Level In Badass by using magic from the strength of the centre of the earth to warp reality and out-maneouvering the god-like Big Bad Wannabe. And it turns out that Seth subverts this trope in the end by in fact being fairly incomplete without his brother and hence unable to have the strength required to participate when it really counts. ^note For the purposes of summary this is a very simplified take on a very complex book.
• In the Dark Heavens trilogy by Kylie Chan, Emma Donahoe goes from an ordinary nanny at the beginning to being able to take down high-level demons at the end. It helps that her employer is the god of martial arts.
• In Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, Roland's ka-tet go from regular folk to badass Gunslingers. Even the Team Pet gets in on the action.
• In The Demonata, Kirilli Kovacs goes from an incompetent loser to an insane badass over the last few books.
• Melodía from The Dinosaur Lords starts the story as a spoiled princess knowing lots of theory, but having no practice, and turns into an Action Girl leader of a horseback militia fighting successfully against dinosaur-mounted knights.
• Despite many of the Discworld's more iconic (and recurring) characters having a mostly constant level of badass (Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, Rincewind, Death, the Librarian) certain Discworld characters gain quite a few levels by the end of their books. Among the more notable are Brutha (Bishops move diagonally) and the great god Om from Small Gods.
  • The Librarian becoming an orangutan. Not only does this make him far more physically threatening, since orangutans are about seven times stronger than humans, he also gains the ability to learn things man was not meant to know, since he's not technically a "man" any more. Plus being an orangutan is very handy for climbing the book shelves and using his hands and feet for sorting books.
  • Agnes leveled up quite a bit in the course of Carpe Jugulum, as did her counterpart, Pastor Oats. We get a glimpse of how many levels he took since then in Unseen Academicals.
  • Vimes wasn't badass in Guards! Guards!, but in Men at Arms he was seriously Badass. It could be argued that he took another level after Men at Arms, as well: in the other Watch books he is probably the most badass thing on the Disc.
  • Susan Sto Helit, Death's Granddaughter has taken more than one level in Badass over the course of the books she's involved in. Most spectacularly was against Mr. Teatime in Hogfather. Tip: Don't piss off Susan when she's near a poker.
  • The wizards of Unseen University tend to both play this trope straight and then almost immediately subvert it. Nearly all of them, everyone from Archancellor Ridcully, down through Ponder Stibbons and his High Magic faculty to the Bursar take a level in Badass. However they will nearly always revert back to their Squishy Wizard selves in the end.
  • Nanny Ogg tends to have a fairly consistent level of Badassery, but, like Ridcully goes for Obfuscating Stupidity more often than not. Watch out for her Let's Get Dangerous! moments.
  • Magrat takes a sequential level in Badass every book. Her finest example is in Lords and Ladies where she dons a suit of armour and goes around shooting elves with a crossbow.
  • Rincewind could be described as a Stealth Badass. On the surface he is cowardly, incompetent and all-around useless ... but no matter what terrible situation he is unwillingly thrust into, he always comes out unscathed.
  • In Sourcery, Vetinari is turned into a newt by the wizards and is out of commission for the rest of the book. In the following books, he becomes so feared and respected by the city, including the wizards, that only complete loonies try to assassinate him (which, given Discworld's population of complete loonies, is still an issue, but in the later books he turns the assassination attempts to his own advantage). In fact, he even tells the wizards when they protest "You can't put a tax on knowledge" that you can, it's two hundred dollars per capita, and if per capita is an issue, decapita could be arranged.
  • Twoflower goes from a happy-go-lucky, Genre Blind tourist in The Colour of Magic to a vengeance-driven figurehead of a countrywide revolution and eventual Ruler of the Agatean Empire in Interesting Times. While still remaining adorable.
• A major plot point of Divergent. Tris goes from receiving multiple no-holds-barred beatdowns and languishing in the bottom ranks to a becoming a true Action Girl.
• In the Doctor Who New Adventures novel First Frontier, the Master discovers the hard way this has happened with the Doctor and Ace since he last fought them. He wipes the floor with some clones of them created by his allies and gets a fancy new pure Time Lord body with a new regeneration cycle just in time for a rematch with his ex-BFF. The problem? Well, the Doctor's become a ruthless Chessmaster, Ace has spent several years blowing up Daleks on the frontline of future-Earth's war with them, and new-ish companion Bernice has been conditioned by the Doctor to respond to the Master's usual hypnosis attempt with a big WTF? To add injury to insult, the second Ace realizes it's the Master, she shoots him in the head, forcing him to use up the first of those new regenerations mere hours after acquiring them.
• Robert A. Heinlein's The Door into Summer features Daniel Boone Davis, an engineer who loses his company to his business partner and secretary/former fiancee only to use time travel to and from the future to gain revenge by starting a competing company using knowledge from the future to drive his former partners out of business, and dropping the dime on his former fiancee's legal and financial indiscretions, and aging up a young girl who had a crush on him to an appropriate age where they could get legally married
• Joshua and Dora in Dora Wilk Series. He goes from The Unfavorite angel of his grandpa to healer, wielder of archangelic swords and one of few angels who can Manifest. She goes from half-blood witch living outside of her world to immensely powerful wielder of all magics and one of the most important figures on Thorn's political scene.
• In the Dragonlance Chronicles, while the elven princess Laurana had already shown herself to be much smarter, stronger and braver than the Brainless Beauty everyone initially dismissed her as, she finally became a true badass at the Battle of the High Clerist's Tower. At that battle she successfully controlled a Dragon Orb (something that was supposed to be impossible for all but the most powerful wizards to do) and used it to force the attacking dragons into a trap. Then, despite being so exhausted from her use of the Dragon Orb that she could barely even still stand, she rushed to the tower wall and single handedly stared down her Arch-Enemy, the Dragon Highlord Kitiara, to protect the body of her friend, Sturm Brightblade. Laurana's heroism at the High Clerist's Tower led to her being given command of the Whitestone Army where she would prove to be a Four-Star Badass as the Golden General.
• Marta of the 'Dragon Slippers Trilogy'. in the first book, she's just an apprentice dressmaker with a huge romantic streak and happens to be Creels friend. by book two, she's leaping off a flying Dragon's back, landing on another dragon, killing the dragon rider (who had enslaved it) and the leaping onto ANOTHER. all while other dragons/ riders are doing epic battle.
• The Dresden Files:
  • Susan, between Grave Peril and Death Masks. At the end of the former she turns down Dresden's proposal of marriage to leave Chicago to find a way to deal with her half-vampirism, which she had gained after being taken hostage to try and manipulate Dresden. When she returns, a combination of the increased physical capabilities granted by her state, and training and mystic tattoos given to her by an organization which is a combination of a support group for people like her and covert organization fighting against vampires leave her a competent combatant (who at one point is able to match a surprised sorcerer being powered by a fallen angel) who is a useful asset to Dresden during his case in that book. At the end, she returns to South America (where she had spent the interim between books) to take part in the fight against the dominating vampire faction based there.
  • Do inanimate objects count for this trope? If so, Harry's shield bracelet takes a couple of levels between Proven Guilty and White Night, going from a burnt-out talisman that only blocks kinetic energy and spits out sparks every time he uses it to a shiny new trinket interlaced with several precious metals that blocks "heat, cold, electricity — even sound and light". Even (Elaine), whose specialty is in subtle and varied magics, was impressed by the versatility of it.
  • As do his rings, which can unleash a single powerful kinetic attack on a foe before needing to be recharged. He starts out with a single ring, then a ring with three bands, each band as powerful as the original ring, then starts wearing a three-band ring on each finger. Giving him a total of 30 times the kinetic goodness of his original single ring. The enhanced efficiency of both the shield bracelet and the rings are subtle hints that the man himself has been taking quite a few.
  • Harry himself. He's been getting steadily more awesome since the start, but after Dead Beat (He rides a zombie ''T. rex'' through Chicago!), he's been getting exponentially more awesome. Especially in Turn Coat.
    • During the first few books Harry would burn out after a couple of spells. Now he can blast spells like crazy in a fight, due to his toning of his metaphysical muscles. And the firepower of his gun has gone steadily up too. He is becoming adept at Xanatos Speed Chess.
    • He has gained better control over his spells as well. Originally defined as a 'magical bruiser' with power but little fine control, he gains finer control and ability at subtler magic as the books progress, particularly after he starts teaching Molly. He wouldn't even bother trying a veil before, but he had to brush up on them fast to avoid looking like an idiot in front of the Master of Illusion. Harry also takes hand-to-hand and quarterstaff combat lessons from Murphy, better allowing him to hold his own against other mortals.
    • He's also gotten more and more help from supernatural entities over time; Lash gave him Hellfire and some useful information, then, after her Heroic Sacrifice, Uriel grants him access to soulfire. And then Harry makes a well of dark power into his sanctum. Seriously, Harry's taken more levels in badass than a Shōnen hero.
    • Changes: Sir Harry Dresden, Winter Knight.
    • In Cold Days he gets Training from Hell from Mab over the course of months. The fact that he's recovering from being dead probably hinders his learning a little, but nonetheless he has stated that he has grown far better at using magic without any of the various instruments he used to use to focus his magic.
  • The Alphas. They go from a bunch of high-school senior/college age nerds who wear too much leather and Old Spice and just happen to be werewolves to a pack of fit, healthy young men and women who transform into a virtual army of monster-shredding fangs and claws; enough to strip a professional ghoul assassin to the bone. Mentioned by Harry in Summer Knight.
  • Murphy, once she begins to understand how to fight the supernatural. Storm Front, does nothing. Fool Moon, wounds a loup-garou with a pistol. Summer Knight, defeats an ogre and a plant monster with a chainsaw. Small Favor, drives off a Denarian by pulling Fidelacchius two inches out of its sheath.Changes, cuts a bloody swath through the Red Court, looking like an avenging angel complete with glowing gold halo, before One Hit Killing a Physical God (though admittedly that was with the help of Fidelacchius). And in Cold Days, Boom, Headshot!. And that would be the swan song of Maeve, the WINTER LADY.
  • Molly, finally takes a level in badass in Changes, despite still being one of the lesser badasses on Harry's side. While good at the subtle magic, her inability to use the more powerful offensive magics and nature as The Empath has left her a non action girl for most of the series; relegated to veiling herself and others who need to hide. By Changes she finally takes a level by first helping two others to fight and drive off a house sized demonic dog-thing that had already taken Harry out by popping in and out of veils to bait and distract the creature and later in the final climatic battle using her magics to create such bright lights and sounds that she could daze and disorient attacking vampires to prevent them from overwhelming her allies.
    • This is nothing compared to what she was capable of in the next book. A year and a half of Training from Hell has her producing dozens of simultaneous illusions while veiling herself, as well as figuring out lots of ways illusions can be pretty lethal if used right. However the training wasn't good for her stability. By the end of Cold Days she also becomes the Winter Lady. She really hasn't gotten a chance to show off since, but it should be safe to presume when she does maker her next appearance in a fight she will likely be an epic level badass.
  • Toot Toot anyone? Goes from mildly useful, mildly annoying fairy to the head of Harry's self-appointed honor guard and in Turn Coat helps Harry take down an Eldritch Abomination by attacking it with a box cutter.
    • Actually the nature of Faeries makes it obvious that Toot is constantly taking (small) levels in badass. Faeries grow in strength from the belief and power others place in them. It turns out being the leader of the Za-Lord's honor guard was enough to help Toot to gain some followers, and being the leader of the Winter Knight's guard even more so. In every book since the Za-Lord was appointed Toot is a little bigger and stronger. Of course he started out so tiny that even with all the extra power he is not exactly a heavy hitter. Still, by Cold Days he was able to take on dozens of other little folk single handedly, employing his own mini Foe-Tossing Charge. He proves a surprisingly valuable asset to Harry through the entirety of the book despite his still limited size.
  • A lot of Harry's friends take a level in Ghost Story. Murphy is now experienced enough with the magical stuff to be as effective in taking them down as Harry was in the firs few books, and she's been taking lessons in combat from Einherjar. And she's doing it without the Sword that has now been identified as Kusanagi. Molly has gotten her illusions to the point where she can work up to six copies of herself almost instantly (something Harry has never been able to do) as well as mentally grapple with the Corpsetaker. Her brother Daniel has now become good enough to take on a supernaturally fast sorcerer in a knife fight. Butter's new roommate Bob the Skull has been teaching him about magic, so even if he can't use it, he's damn good with understanding how it works, and therefore screwing with it. And Mortimer Lindquist probably took his long before Changes but... damn. He's one powerful ectomancer.
  • Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Waldo Butters: Goes from nebbish-y coroner who spent 3 months in a psych ward, to man who wore a polka suit to power a zombie T. rex, ended up as the man who crippled a cult leader while telling him exactly what happened to him.
    • Oh, and that's just the start. As of Skin Game Butters has become, as Murphy puts it, Batman (albeit with absolutely zero combat skills). Magical Batman. He's started fighting on the front lines with a vest full of cool magical Bob-powered gadgets. By the end of the book, he's a new Knight of the Cross. Armed with a Holy Lightsaber. That's right folks, Waldo Butters goes from a cowardly nerd to a Jedi Knight of the Cross.
  • Even Harry's dog gets in on this. Word of God is that as a temple dog Mouse actually draws a lot of power from the threshold of the location he is protecting. As a bachelor living in a rented apartment Harry's threshold was never that strong. So when Mouse moved in with the Carpenters to protect Maggie he got a pretty substantial power boost.
• 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 on slippery tiles, then pushes him into a frigidarium (that's the cold pool, for you non-Latin-students). He even joins the army in the Epilogue.
  • On the subject of Latin textbooks... the Cambridge series! In the first book, Quintus has such exciting adventures like going to debates and accidentally breaking statues in the public baths... then his dad gets killed in a volcano and all of a sudden he's a world traveler, fighting rowdy Egyptians, killing crocodiles, hangin' with kings, prosecuting corrupt officials, and just generally being ridiculously kick-ass.
• Ellen and Otis: In Otis Spofford, Ellen Tebbits has gone from a meek girl to one who's capable of literally shoving Otis to the ground. Just before doing so, she tells Otis it's because she's not afraid of him anymore.
• Mac from the Fever Series starts out as an unambitious young woman who loves pretty clothes and partying. By the second book she's a badass evil fae exterminator, and she only gets tougher from there.
• In the X-Men/Avengers crossover trilogy "Gamma Quest", featuring the Leader allying with the Super-Skrull, the Leader uses his study of the abducted Rogue, Wolverine and the Scarlet Witch to augment the Super-Skrull's powers so that he now access to the powers of Cyclops, Storm, Iceman, Beast, Captain America, Wolverine, Rogue, the Scarlet Witch and the Hulk on top of his original abilities (fortunately, Rogue is able to absorb enough of the Leader's memory to learn how to undo it before the Skrull kills them all).
• In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series, Ludd is diffident and in His Last Command has serious difficulty getting the New Meat to move into action. During Salvation's Reach he goes to stand down three Space Marines, ordering them to call off an attack. And gets them to obey him.
• Before Astrid Ellison was put on a bus in PLAGUE (4th GONE book), she was as dependent on her boyfriend Sam as a pre-feminist 1950s sitcom wife...She comes back 4 months later after living in the woods, smoking pot and apparently kicking any ass that comes her way, as she's apparently pretty violent now.
  • Diana Ladris did the inverse; whilst Astrid started out as a defenseless, pathetic damsel and evolved into a dangerous, quick-witted Action Girl, Diana started off as an evil badass who was smart and strong enough to get herself out of any trouble... Then she gets pregnant, and apparently that makes her a helpless little infant now.
• The Great Greene Heist: Unwitting Pawn Lincoln becomes a Badass Bureaucrat in the climax, and then a Stealth Mentor in the sequel.
• Private Henry from Paul Kidd's trilogy set in the world of Greyhawk. When he first appears in Descent Into The Depths Of The Earth he's somewhat comical in his attempts to light a lantern and being insulted for his sheer incompetence by his sergeant. By the end of the book, he's mowing down Drow by the dozens with his newly acquired magical, self-loading crossbow. By the end of the next book, he's outwitting undead warlords, faerie wizards, and facing down gods without flinching.
• As if the real Roman Republic wasn't badass enough, John Maddox Roberts' Alternate History Hannibal's Children has them take a level or three in reaction to being exiled north of the Alps. When they come back one hundred years later, a Greek thinks that the sound of Roman laughter reminds him of swords clashing against shields. They don't swagger or bully; they're too badass for that. In one battle, an "inexperienced" Roman army under a "second-rate" general faces a veteran mercenary force twice their size and led by Carthage's best general. The Romans are wiped out — but the Carthaginian army is wrecked, with two-thirds of its troops killed outright, and most of the rest badly battered.
• Harahpin :
  • Saphillin goes from being easily frightened and wanting to hide at the first sign of trouble to defeating an entire army of Sadarkyds by literally singing them to death .
  • Euron not only managed to wake himself up while trapped in a black void, but he rescued Thyrim and pulled him out, despite the void trying to keep them back in.
  • Eyrco freaking rides a Sadarkyd.
• Harry Potter:
  • Neville Longbottom, 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 destroying the last Horcrux: he pulls the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat and uses it to lop the head off of Nagini, 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?
  • Harry himself takes one of these, going from bullied and timid kid to a pretty reasonable all round badass by book 4 at the latest. You could argue he takes a further one of these in the final book, going to his death calmly, then just as calmly offering the man who killed his parents and a lot of his friends a chance at redemption, admittedly almost certain that he wouldn't take it.
  • Ginny gets several, first going from the shy girl who can't speak in front of Harry and gets possessed by Lord Voldemort and can't tell anyone no matter how hard she tries to the more confident teenager seen in Goblet and the early stages of Order. Then she levels up when she joins the D.A., starts training and then fights in the Ministry. Then, in Deathly Hallows, she's helping to run the D.A. and insists on fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts, against the express wishes of her mother (backed up by her father, Lupin and Harry). And then she fights Bellatrix.
  • Hermione and Ron also take levels in badass, but less markedly than the above examples.
  • Same with a good many of the secondary characters. In the first book, it's made clear that most of the new students at Hogwarts could do hardly any magic at all. By the last book, the same students are participating in a battle with full-grown, extremely dangerous criminals, and holding their own.
• In Frederik Pohl's Heechee Saga series, the protagonist Robinette Broadhead (a male, he assures) goes from a Wyoming mold miner to a man who survives an encounter with a black hole then, after his death, saves some children from escaped convicts as a digitally stored personality.
• The Hobbit contains one scene where Bilbo vanquishes a giant spider. The description of his newfound confidence afterward practically qualifies as gaining a Character Level.
  • Thorin and the dwarves, too. They spend the book getting caught by trolls, caught by goblins, caught by wolves and goblins, caught by giant spiders, and caught by elves. But when the Battle of Five Armies is going down, with thousands of combatants on both sides, Thorin and his twelve companions (one of them comically obese) make a significant difference to the battle and almost cut their way through to the freakin' Goblin King himself. True, they had the pick of the armour and weapons in Smaug's legendary hoard, but even so...
• Inevitably for a military setting, a few characters in Honor Harrington are shown to do this. Most notably, it is one of the main plotlines in book 6 when a technician gets targeted by a much larger bully of a crewman for no reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The ship's authorities know what is going on but the technician is too scared to testify, so strings are pulled and he ends up being invited to spar with a few Marines, which builds up his martial skill, so when the bully confronts him again, he loses.
  • Being a realistic military setting, he ends up facing disciplinary action for taking the law into his own hands, which Honor sees as his punishment for not testifying in the first place. He gets over it.
  • On a larger level, this also applies to various star nations and militaries in the setting, with the Graysons going from being a frontier Cult Colony with laughably outdated hardware to one of the setting's premier military powers with the assistance of the Manticorans. A major theme of the Back Story is how the Royal Manticoran Navy made a similar advance, due to their suddenly becoming very important with the discovery of the Manticore Wormhole Terminus, and the resulting need to fend off foreign conquest.
• ''The Infected" The protagonist, Brian Yi, starts off as a massively-overweight gamer, and closes the series as one of the most powerful and feared superhumans on the planet. This growth is best shown in the fights with the Jackal, a serial killer with enhanced physical abilities. Brian's own power is to take the place of people who die, leading him at the start of the book to replace one of the Jackal's victims and get beaten within an inch of his life, flailing helplessly and only managing to get in a couple of hits through sheer determination. Fast forward to the rematch, and after a month of doing nothing but work out and train to fight, and Brian kills the Jackal with his bare hands and teeth.
• Jackie and Craig has this happen to Craig, who starts as a paranoid basket-case and slowly becomes an expert monster-hunting warrior.
• Justman takes one level in badass when he saves Superman, Spider-Man, and Flash from the bull.
• Knaves on Waves has Barnaby, who begins the novel as a fairly useless deckhand. Over the course of the novel, however, he becomes a truly hardened sailor, who can stand toe-to-toe with both Jacques and Sheridan in a conversation or ploy.
• The Last Dragon Chronicles: Happens twice to Agawin. First by absorbing Galen's tear. Then by becoming Alexa.
• In The Last Unicorn, Schmendrick the Magician has spent an indefinite number of years being useless — he has a talent for magic, but no idea how to exercise it, and it only goes off occasionally at random. Then, just in time for the climactic scene, his brain makes a significant connection, he realizes how to say the right words and how to say them differently next time and as many times thereafter as he needs, and for the rest of his career, monsters "worse than afrits surrendered at the mention of his name".
• 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 The Atrocity Archives Dominique O'Brien is a Damsel in Distress Muggle who gets captured on two separate occasions. In her next appearance she's fully versed in the Laundry's weirdness and plays a truly killer violin solo.
  • Bob Howard, the series protagonist, appears to have taken a few levels himself without realizing it. Most of the series takes place from his point of view, and he retains the personality of a snarky I.T. geek in over his head throughout.
    • The Apocalypse Codex finally lets us see Bob from other characters' perspectives: namely, a very dangerous sorceress and her partner/bodyguard. Both of them have to keep reminding themselves not to take Bob lightly. At the end of the book, it turns out he's so good, the Laundry wants him in Management.
    • He took a much bigger level in badass in the third book, after he Came Back Wrong. Fortunately for everyone involved it didn't stick.
• The sequel, Legacy of the Dragokin, has three examples:
  • Lydia, the Token Mini-Moe from the last book, is now a Four-Star Badass.
  • Mordak, a formerly mindless weapon, is not only sentient but has psychic powers.
  • Benji awakens his powers and becomes a formidable warrior.
• Otaku Girl - After getting a power-up in the final chapter, the main character, Haru, turned from an insecure and socially-anxious geek into a godlike expy of Madoka Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
• R.A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt:
  • The Hunter's Blades Trilogy features Obould Many-Arrows, who goes from being an Elite Mook leading a Zerg Rush and being manipulated by a group of drow who are causing havok for shits and giggles, to being blessed by a god with super strength, speed, agility, and increased intelligence. He starts bossing around the giants he was partnered with, the drow that were manipulating him, leading his zerg rush with dangerous tactics and foresight, tossing heroes out of the way as if they were nothing, and forcing Drizzt Do'Urden to flee from battle.
  • He becomes a recognized, if Lawful-Evil aligned, estadist and king who creates a ruling dynasty, set peace treaties and would-be alliances with humans, elves and freaking King Bruenor and his dwarves, and establishing at least a century of orcist peace through the region. That was mainly achieved through asskicking and badassery.
    • While not in the novels, the 4E source books top it of by having him ascend to a true (demi)godhood upon his death. So he leveled up again.
  • Regis, who was a rouge and spokesperson in rather than a fighter before his rebirth, has as of Companions Codex trained his whole new life to be an asset to the group: He is trained in alchemy and brews healing potions among other things, learned how to fight from a very young age, has a plethora of magic items in his possession and can stay underwater for long periods, because of racial genetics from his mother.
• Kip Guile from The Light Bringer Series starts out as an awkward fat kid from the back end of nowhere. By the end of the second book, he's well on the way to joining an elite band of warriors and has killed both a king and a reincarnation of a god. By the end of the fourth book, he's commanding an army, riding into battle on a giant bear, and believed to be the prophecied hero of legend.
• The Lord of the Rings features a number of examples:
  • Gandalf's evolution from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White. He's granted the ability to use more of his natural power while acting as Gandalf the White. In a popular parody Russian redub of the series, Gandalf in fact says, "I fell into the white and gained a levelup" upon his return.
  • All the hobbits take a level in badass throughout their adventures, going from idle country folk to heroes whose various exploits help save Middle Earth. "The Scouring of the Shire" shows their evolution, as they return to their old home and must give the other hobbits a quick lesson on the badass that they've learned. Hobbits as a species have a predisposition toward this trope, summoning their "hidden depths" and rising to great challenges.
• A Mage's Power: Compare Eric at the start, where he freezes in front of monsters, to Eric at midbook, where he kills one by himself. This is all before he's tutored by Dengel, which accelerates his magical education.
• The Magicians:
  • Over the course of the first book, Josh goes from an Inept Mage who barely managed to graduate from Brakebills at all... to the guy who defeated a giant by conjuring a black hole. In the next book, he takes another level and begins working as a well-regarded intermediary between Brakebills alumni and hedge magicians.
  • Alice starts out as a shy, retiring girl with an impressive academic bent and no taste for violence. Over time, she begins gradually gaining confidence and proving her strength in magic — as Alice's Story demonstrates. Then, when her friends and loved ones are threatened in the finale, she's the one to truly take the fight to the Beast in a combination Wizard Duel and Shapeshifter Showdown, managing to keep pace with a Humanoid Abomination and slay him through a Heroic Sacrifice.
• In the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Ganoes Paran starts out as the Ensign Newbie and is treated as a tool by pretty much everyone in the setting. Then he becomes the Master of the Deck of Dragons by accident and after some "How Do I Shot Web?" he's suddenly the one setting the rules the gods have to follow.
• Josephine Jerome in Sophia Mac Dougall's Mars Evacuees. Starts out as a bullied bookworm terrified of having to become a soldier in several years to (several months later) charging into battle armed with a flamethrower she'd improvised.
• In The Mental State, the timid and ineffectual 'Zachary' is quite different from the cunning and manipulative 'Zack'.
• In the Mistborn series, Elend Venture increases massively in competence by the third book. Being Mistborn will do that to a guy... Though one could argue this happened before he became Mistborn — when, without any magic at all, he decided he was tired of being pushed around, and strode into the tent of the commander leading one of the armies sieging his city, stabbed the guy, delivered an ultimatum, then on the way out, killed one of the guy's koloss for information.
  • Also, Spook, who spends the first two books solidly Overshadowed by Awesome, finally gets a chance to shine in Hero of Ages and show off just the kind of things someone with street savvy and Super-Senses can pull off.
  • Honestly, Vin herself. Our heroine begins the trilogy an emotionally scarred, scrawny teenager with mildly useful but seemingly minor Emotion Bomb-type abilities, and grows from there into the most powerful member of La Résistance, the best assassin in the world, a true Lady of War, an empress, and then, briefly, a goddess.
• Clary and Simon from The Mortal Instruments start out as two ordinary teenagers. Clary becomes a shadowhunter in the series, and fighting against demons. Simon, on the other hand, becomes a vampire who remains untouched by daylight and is the smartest and strongest fighter in his group.
  • The prequel The Infernal Devices has Tessa Gray. She begins as an ordinary girl of seventeen, and learns at the beginning of the plot that she is a witch. In the course of the plot, however, she becomes more courageous and combative, and later more than capable of fighting demons on her own.
  • In the sequel The Dark Artifices is Mark Blackthorn. If in the prequel he was just a half-fairy shadowhunter who was kidnapped into the fairy realm, he is a good fighter at the beginning of the plot who can effortlessly keep up with another other shadowhunters, and can hunt and fight demons.
• Nightfall (Series): Myra starts out as a naive coward, but by the end of the first book learns to play the power games at court.
• One of Us is Lying: Addy. Starts off with no persona outside of her boyfriend Jake, who we quickly learn is deeply controlling. After her infidelity comes out and he dumps her, she cuts her hair, takes up cycling, joins in Bronwyn's investigation, records Jake incriminating himself and survives a murder attempt.
• Most of the major characters from Percy Jackson and the Olympians go through this, but a special mention for Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. When we first meet him, he's a somewhat nerdy little kid who's really into a collectible card trading game and is ignored in favor of his sister. By the last book, he shows up in a Big Damn Heroes moment, dressed in skull motif armor, radiating an aura of death, wielding a sword of three-foot long Stygian iron, and at the head of an army of the dead, with his father Hades, his stepmother Persephone, and his grandmother Demeter right behind him. Damn.
  • Percy himself, too, takes a level in the Last Olympian. He bathes himself in the river Styx, after all, and becomes practically invincible and able to fight Titans equally — and BEAT them.
• Peter Pan in Scarlet evolves Slightly, once a cowardly and stupid little brat, into an intuitive and somewhat melancholy figure who fights evil in Neverland armed with a clarinet and the power of rhythm 'n' blues. ^note (Which, incidentally, is a nice Continuity Nod — in the original play/book, Slightly is said to have a knack for turning tree branches into "whistles".)
• Poplock in Phoenix Rising, goes in a single Time Skip from being a frightened small youngster to one so mighty that the Spiritsmith judged he had little to give him that would help.
• 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.
• Prince Roger: MacClintock goes from spoiled fop to serious badass when he sees his bodyguard unit sacrifice itself for his sorry behind.
• Project Tau: Kalin goes from being a weak, eager-to-please nerdy freshman, to a clawed killing machine.
• The Fellowship of The Questport Chronicles, big time. They go from a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits at the beginning of the saga to a true Badass Crew that doesn't flinch from even the most challenging quests.
• Nathaniel Starbuck begins the novel Rebel a jilted, humiliated, penniless son of an emancipation preacher who has been caught by a mob in Richmond and has to be rescued by his friends. The book is about his taking a level in badass after joining the Confederate Army. The definitive moment comes when he has to arrange rail transport for his regiment and the controller isn't willing to lend him the cars necessary:
  Obstructive Bureaucrat: I'm not a miracle worker, laddie!
  Nate Starbuck: But I am. (*shoots wall beside him)
• The Reynard Cycle has a pair of good examples:
  • Reynard himself starts the series as a flashy duelist who's more thief than fighter. This becomes apparent after he duels Isengrim for the first time and gets his ass handed to him without landing a single blow. Years of training with Isengrim slowly transforms him into one of the deadliest duelists on the planet.
  • Rukenaw is introduced as a peasant girl with no military skill whatsoever. Five years later she's become a captain of men (well, women) who personally crushed an enemy general's skull with her morning star.
• Teela Brown spent most of Ringworld getting into trouble through being too useless and naive to know how to stay out of it because she never needed to through being genetically ultra-lucky. When she reappears as a Protector-stage human in the sequel, she is intelligent enough to deduce how to hack into a Puppeteer stepping-disc system and strong enough to fight a full-grown, experienced and rejuvenated Kzin bare-handed and nearly kill him despite deliberately trying as hard as she could to lose.
• While Septimus Heap is more of a Squishy Wizard in the early books, in Queste he knocks down the rather strong Toll-Man almost on his own.
• E. E. "Doc" Smith has a few examples:
  • In the Lensman series:
    • Kim Kinnison does this, going in a few chapters of Galactic Patrol from relying almost wholly upon brawn and gadgets to not only taking over multiple enemy officers' minds to achieve his ends undercover, but controlling guard dogs in order to turn off shield generators that are blocking him, and more besides. Lampshaded by Mentor, the Deus ex Machina who grants him his powers, who tells him the advanced training he's getting was inevitable if he survived long enough, and if his mind became mature enough to appreciate the need for it.
    • Clarissa MacDougall goes from being Sector Chief Nurse to the only female Lensman, justified in canon as her mental abilities have long been evident to the people responsible for her promotion. When she goes back to field work twenty years and five children later, she takes her Level 2 Arisian training (one of only five Lensmen to do this) and becomes truly formidable, controlling several extremely hostile minds simultaneously while piloting her ship, rescuing a prisoner and throwing off the aim of every enemy soldier and pilot who comes close enough to threaten her. And her enemies are all lethal telepaths by nature. It's implied that this is the supreme performance by any Lensman in the field, up until the conclusive battle.
  • In the Skylark Series, Dorothy Seaton gets a heroic upgrade in the last novel, finally putting her foot down and telling husband and protagonist Richard she'll be fighting alongside him from now, just like her Osnomian woman-friends do alongside their husbands. Though she falls down at the end, all the other humans do as well — the only exception is DuQuesne, whom Dorothy regards as an inhuman monster.
• A Song of Ice and Fire has a few of these:
  • Daenerys Targaryen spent most of her early life getting pushed around by Viserys, her crazy older brother. After getting sold off to a warlord, she starts developing self-confidence and wielding her power more effectively. By the end of the first book, she's executing the murderer of her husband and using magic to hatch dragons. She later finds herself facing off against sorcerers, commanding armies and ruling city-states.
  • Rhaegar Targaryen apparently underwent this in the setting's history. He was a scholarly young boy until he found something in an old book that convinced him he needed to become a warrior. He quickly became quite a notable knight.
  • Lord Manderly goes from having no notable characteristics besides obesity, and generally ignored by the fans, till he shows his true colors, rescues Davos and plots to return Winterfell to the Starks, being unable to before as his only surviving son was a hostage. In the process, he gets revenge on murderers of his son by killing three Freys and serving them in pies at a feast for Roose and Ramsay Bolton. To convince everyone that the pies aren't poison, he eats an enormous helping himself with gusto.
  • In the first Dunk and Egg short story "The Hedge Knight," Dunk is a Mighty Glacier with very little actual skill at swordplay. By the third book, "The Mystery Knight," he's still a terrible jouster but has fought in a few battles and regards himself equal to any man alive with a mace or axe in his hand. He demonstrates by easily dispatching a competent swordsman. We know that at some point in his future, he will become the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.
  • Subverted with Samwell Tarly. After dispatching a White Walker with dragonglass (which was an act of desperation more than anything), his brothers in the Night's Watch start calling him Sam the Slayer, but he insists he's not a badass.
  • Being the Tom Boy of the Stark sisters, it doesn't take much to peg Arya as a future Little Miss Badass, but the extent of her badassification can still be surprising. In her first real scene to speak of she receives a sword as a gift, but still relies on her wolf to do her fighting for her until she gets a few lessons from her "dancing master." After a year or two Walking the Earth as an Action Survivor in a war zone, pretty soon she's shanking dudes left and right when the mood strikes her and masterminding prison breakouts in her spare time. After receiving formal assassin training in Braavos and beginning to consciously unlock her latent warg abilities, she's a stone-cold killer at the age of eleven.
• The Spirit Thief:
  • Nico starts off as a girl with some Super-Strength and minor Shadow Walker powers. By the last book, she can turn into an enormous demon capable of killing Lovecraftian-esque horrors from beyond the world.
  • Josef is already a Master Swordsman at the start of the story, but becomes an Empowered Badass Normal upon mastering Heart of War.
  • Miranda goes from a skilled Spiritualist with above-average number of regular spirits obeying her. In Spirit's End, she's the Rector Spiritualis and has bonded both the spirit of an entire sea and the Lord of Storms himself.
  • For that matter, the Lord of Storms goes from being a powerful spirit of a hurricane whose human form gives Josef a run for his money to becoming a Physical God tasked with slaying the aforementioned Lovecraftian-esque horrors 24/7, with only one hour of break every century — and he's well capable of pulling this off.
• As does Gulliver Foyle, of The Stars My Destination. He was always an asshole, but now he's an obsessive one.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Happens to Admiral Daala. In her original appearances, during the 90s, she was an overblown officer suffering from terrible levels of Informed Ability, 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 kicks all kinds of ass using a fleet consisting mainly of obsolete starships. On top of everything else, she has an eyepatch now, and a full name: Natasi Daala.
  • Captain/Admiral/Grand Admiral Pellaeon himself is also an example of this trope. In The Thrawn Trilogy he is 'merely' capable, a reliable and hard working Star Destroyer captain and little more. Yet through learning from Thrawn and Daala and through sheer weight of experience he becomes quite a wily and formidable commander until decades later in the New Jedi Order when he defeats an enemy fleet while floating in a bacta tank. The Legends continuity is full of brilliant admirals and commanders, but Pellaeon is probably the only one who made it to the top through sheer hard work rather than being a born genius.
  • At the start of Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader's self-confidence is as shattered as his body, recently returned from Mustafar and encased in uncomfortable but life-sustaining Powered Armor. As he becomes accustomed to his cyborg body, however, he becomes increasingly competent and dangerous.
  • Darth Bane had already become an elite soldier by the time the Sith recognized his force sensitivity and began training him. After getting thrashed by a rival student he takes several at once. Taking to reading ancient sith lore, getting private instruction from the saber master, and being tutored in how to harness the force by another student. When Bane faces his rival again he's having a hard time trying not to crush in him the first few seconds.
• Verna in Margaret Atwood's short story "Stone Mattress".
• The Stormlight Archive: Every Surgebinder goes through multiple levels as they gain more understanding of their Surgebinding powers. Kaladin is probably the most notable; he started as a Badass Normal One-Man Army, and only went up from there.
• In The Sword of Shannara, Menion Leah goes from ditzy prince who's constantly getting lost to savior at least two cities, defeater of Grí­ma Wormtongue the mystic Stenmin, and rescuer of two elves, a mighty warrior, and an awesome dwarf. Oh, and he picks up a hot girl along the way.
• Stinger: Fat, cowardly, mildly corrupt Sheriff Vance becomes a lot more brave and determined to defend the townspeople once the aliens show up.
• The Supervillainy Saga: Specifically, Tales Of Supervillainy: Cindy's Seven.While starting as a werewolf, Cindy acquires a magical sword that belonged to an ancestor of hers and becomes significantly more powerful.
• An in-universe example comes up in Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman. On the last leg of his journey, Jack suddenly recalls a scene from the fictional Western Last Train to Hangtown, in which an inept, cowardly character unexpectedly takes on the main villain as payback for killing his brother. The character's cry of "You made a mistake— you shoulda killed both of the Ellis brothers!" resonated so deeply with Jack that he actually uses the line when performing a few of his own moments of badassery.
• Every person who was part of the Italian Resistance took a level in badass in A Thread of Grace. The one who took the most levels had to be Claudia, but that's largely because she started off so low to begin with.
• Time Scout: Margo Smith, from Freudian Excuse teen runaway to deadly, time-hopping, wealthy warrior.
• All the kids in The Tomorrow Series. They start off as boringly-normal Australian rural high-schoolers...and end up as some of the most badass guerrillas in the war, with an international reputation and the enemy mobilizing heavily to try to capture or kill them.
• Trapped on Draconica has Two examples:
  • Deconstructed with Ben. He never becomes an asskicking warrior because he doesn't have the time or equipment to do so, but he does become significantly braver. It's played for laughs where Ben finds a suit of armor that more or less fits him and says he looks like an asskicking warrior. Then he falls over and says he'll leave the fighting to Daniar and Kalak.
  • Ritchie also becomes braver, and considering he's a tiger in his prime, he should be good in a fight. Zarracka curbstomps him.
• Trigger Warning: Dr. Montembault, a skinny, nervous professor who despises guns, manages to disarm and kill one of the library's gunmen with his own weapon, allowing him to assist Jake later on. Jake has a hard time believing this, due to Montembault's previous behavior.
• Tally Youngblood in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. She starts out as a normal Ugly kid and quickly becomes a rebel with insane hoverboarding skills who thinks her way out of brainwashing (twice) and eventually turns into something called a Special complete with crazy techno tattoos, long claw-like nails, and sharp teeth. Also she overthrows the government, unbrainwashes everyone, and then disappears into the wilderness after warning the new government to step lightly because she's watching their every move now. And apparently she wasn't kidding.
• 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.
• Daisy from Warrior Cats. When she joins ThunderClan, she's absolutely terrified of living in the wild and has no useful skills. Attempts to train her in even the basic self-defense fail miserably, and for a long time the only thing she does for her Clan is looking after kits. It takes her a long time but she eventually shows willingness to defend her Clan, and manages to get training just in time for battle with the Dark Forest, where she proves to be a pretty effective fighter.
• A Warrior Exiled by the Hero and His Former Lover: Almost immediately after being kicked out of Sain’s Party, Toru manages to get enough experience to break the limits of his Experience Absorption skill. Doing so grants him all the experience stored in the skill, multiplied several times. The end result is the Level 20 Toru shoots up to Level 300, far above just about anything he encounters, and he evolves into a Dragonoid (an ancient species that apparently hasn’t been seen in centuries).
• One of the characters in Richard C. Meredith's We All Died at Breakaway Station is Glenn, Guardian Culhaven, a destroyer captain on a mission into enemy territory to rendezvous with and rescue an admiral who's been scouting the enemy defenses. Unfortunately, he's convinced that feeling fear and being a coward are the same thing. This is his first time facing combat, and Glenn constantly tears himself up about the fact that he's so afraid, (mentally) whimpering ... while he firmly makes decisions that expose him to extreme risk. The narrative makes clear that no one watching him on this mission would dream that he's ever in his life felt fear. He doesn't so much take a level as finally begin to realize that he's a brave
• The Wheel of Time has this happen to most of the initial cast. They start out as random villagers, and slowly develop over the series.
  • Rand is consistently Leveling Up in Badass. The climaxes of the first five books, and most thereafter, are an expression of this leveling-up. The other primary channeling characters experience similar (though lesser) bursts of growth.
  • Magical reasons are sometimes given for the level-gaining. Mat Cauthon, for example has implanted fighting and tactical planning memories turning him overnight into a canny warrior and general. Rand al'Thor also has memories from one of his previous incarnations to help him along.
  • 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.
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was, in his debut book, most known for being a humbug, and more a plot device than a character. His return to the series in the book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz made him into an Action Hero, dual-wielding swords against all manner of monsters on his way back to Oz. Later on, he became a full-fledged wizard.
• Taylor, the protagonist of Worm, does this over the course of the story, going from a victim of severe high school bullying to a member of a formidable team of superpowered teenage villains, and also manages to take down a few powerful villains and heroes on her own as well.
  • Theo Anders goes from a wimpy, overweight teenager to the hero Golem, capable of taking on multiple members of the Slaughterhouse Nine and winning.

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