Transcender of Gender
Moving this example so it doesn't cause an Edit War:
- Badass Decay: Valkyrie from time to time.
- Valkyrie in The Faceless Ones when she's terrified by the possibility of fighting Vaurien Scapegrace!
- And again in Dark Days when she virtually breaks down at the prospect of fighting a friggin' Hollow Man when she could defeat armies of them at the age of twelve. Then she flees in terror from Billy-Ray Sanguine who's ass she previously never had any difficulty in kicking and later does so in the same book during the fight at the Midnight Hotel. Then he goes and easily beats her in a fight at the end of the book.
- Her Badass Decay could possibly be brought about by her constant headaches which are the result of remembering her True Name.
I removed it because it doesn't fit the trope description; Badass Decay is for when a character starts out badass and ends up like a wimp as the story progresses. Valkyrie start out weak, takes levels in badasses, and in two isolated moments her resolve wavers (which, really, she's still just a teenage girl, a little showing of terror here and there isn't really demeaning her) before she immediately springs back to being badass. The examples don't count for this trope.
they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob Hide / Show Replies
Not sure if it matters, but I agree. The trope is about a character starting out badass and becoming less so over time, not when a character has occasional lapses in will and is still badass a few chapters later. Not only that, but all the examples are arguable. She was afraid of Scapegrace because she was in a cell that dampened her magic as well as being handcuffed, and despite how silly Scapegrace is he's a grown man with every intent to kill her, at the time a teenager with only a year or two of combat experience. I don't remember the Hollow Man example well, but she's always been wigged out by them, and I'm pretty sure she previously defeated Sanguine through either assistance from Tanith and Skulduggery or surprise. He's also an adult with years of combat experience who has no trouble killing her. And the last one is a Justifying Edit.
From what I've seen and read on the Skulduggery blogs, there isn't a great deal of love for the reflection, so I've added it/her as a Scrappy.