Room for improvement.: Badass Adorable

The trope is "badass adorable," not "badass pink blob of goo." Perhaps Kirby is supposed to be Ugly Cute or something, but I think we need something more conventionally adorable, like a cat or a dog or something.

edited 25th Sep '11 8:29:17 AM by HiddenFacedMatt

Uh...

Kirby IS cute. I have no idea what you're talking about.

I can see the adorable part in Kirby but badass? What, swinging a sword that looks barely sharper than your average toy sword makes you a badass? Don't make me laugh.

I never liked that picture but only stayed shut off because well, there were so many agreements in the last time this was brought up.

How about this pic of Fabiola from Black Lagoon?

EDIT: Oops, double post.

edited 25th Sep '11 9:08:22 AM by dRoy

Meh, I think it's still clearer that a cute animal like a cat or dog is supposed to be cute than it is for some pink blob.

That, and what others pointed to about the badass part.

Come to think of it, the image links section has a lot of potential alternatives.

edited 25th Sep '11 11:28:19 AM by HiddenFacedMatt

That Yotsuba pic is fantastic.

I don't know...I mean, because I read the series and know the context, that makes me laugh more than anything.

Eh. These alternate replacements are no more badass than Kirby. Makes you go "awww s/he thinks s/he can save the world."

edited 26th Sep '11 12:10:24 AM by Catalogue

Winner.

I prefer the current Kirby one over any of the suggestions.

Even my suggestion?

Hmmm. I wouldn't use that kind of "cute". People can say that the Bride of Lara Croft is cute and a badass, but let's stick to kittens or kids or things like that.

I don't know...doesn't she look really young? I haven't played that game so I can't tell exactly who you are talking about, though.

edited 26th Sep '11 6:25:04 AM by dRoy

edited 26th Sep '11 6:37:16 AM by Raso

She's young, but not a child anymore. Some might like that, but I'd rather stick to children, animals, or cutesy creatures.

It's not really a strike against it, but that's Not An Example, is it? Except the gangster cover one, which doesn't really happen and is practically a non-continuity art.

Well, she's only 14...oh well.

I don't read Yotsuba, so someone's gonna have to clue me in - is the pic of her in the detective getup fanart or an actual artwork from the manga? Does it tie into the panels posted above? I really like the one with her saying "Let me through".

edited 26th Sep '11 7:04:02 AM by Willbyr

It's the cover art of the same chapter. She never actually wears those, though.

The sequence is from a chapter where she pretends to be a gangster and shoots water gun. That "badass" picture was IIRC the cover for that chapter. It's just there with no explanation, just a "fanart" by the author. So you're free to take it however you wish.

If it's from the actual manga, then I'd say it's an example as long as we're willing to stretch the definition of "badass" to include obvious playing. If we just want to consider seriously badass characters, then maybe that should just go to the Image Links page.

Current is fine. Yotsuba's nice too, but while that's mostly a play on the trope, kirby is also a straight example.

I like this from the image links

That's not bad, either, although personally I think Yotsuba fits "adorable" a little better...then again, I've never really been a fan of Matt Groening's art so I'm a little biased.

Really? Yotsuba strikes me as just barely cute, while Maggie strikes me as much cuter.

Mathilda from Leon? 1◊, 2◊, 3◊.

edited 26th Sep '11 11:06:59 PM by ArtisticPlatypus