History BadassNormal / Literature

* Carmela in DianeDuane's ''YoungWizards'' series seems to qualify, given that she [[spoiler:destroys the Lone Power's body]] in ''Wizards at War''.

* ''TheWheelOfTime'' has Thom and Gawyn to name but two.

* [[LordOfTheRings Samwise Gamgee]]. A gardener at the beginning of the book. By the end of the trilogy... well, I know it's the film, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA0ffVBw584 but Shelob's lair]] is his CMOA. I mean, seriously. Sauron and Morgoth had trouble containing Shelob and Ungoliant, and Morgoth was the most powerful of the Ainur and Sauron the most powerful of the Maiar, but Sam goes and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punches out Cthulhu]].

* In the ''YoungWizards'' series, Kit's sister is definitely badass normal when she manages to not only make an intergalactic voyage, chat with Aliens, learn The Speech, and wound the series antagonist in his plan of the week in Wizards at War, but she does so without any skill in wizardry at all, just by hanging out with Kit and Juanita.
** In the same series, Juanita's mother sends the series antagonist back despite having no wizardry powers... all she just does is because it's inside her mind, give him '''all'' the pain she experienced in her life. This includes childbirth. Too bad you didn't get to see her pwn him again...

* [[{{Dragaera}} Vlad Taltos.]] He's a fairly good witch and a rudimentary sorceror, but this world has [[OurElvesAreDifferent Dragaerans]] who live for maybe 3000 years, are stronger and taller, and at least three of the ones he hangs out with have [[EmpathicWeapon "Great Weapons",]] and are ''very'' skilled at sorcery. [[spoiler:This is before he gains Lady Teldra/Godslayer.]]

* Leaf from the KeysToTheKingdom books by Garth Nix. Poor girl gets dragged into Arthur's adventures even though she barely knows him. She continues to help him and do what needs to get done on Earth even after being kidnapped and forced to serve for months on a ship in Drowned Wednesday. She stands firm against monsters and Denizens from the House and rescues Arthur almost as often as his official sidekick Suzy Blue does.

* Geoffrey Spazmo from BenElton's ''Gridlock''. Spastic, but smart and brave as a lion. Kills two professional assassins with a coffee maker and a bottle opener. [[spoiler:Still dies in the end... sniffle...]]

* Rod Gallowglass (a.k.a. Rodney [too many middle names to list] D'Armand) is the Badass Normal in Christopher Stasheff's ''WarlockOfGramaraye'' books, [[spoiler:or at least until around the end of the third book.]] InAWorld where everyone is at the very least a latent telepath, a few thousand people are full-blown, teleporting, levitating, telekenetic, you-name-it-it's-there telepaths. All he has is an advanced knowledge of Science and History, an epileptic robotic horse, training in all types of weapons, and an 8th degree black belt. He still manages to fulfill his role as TheChessmaster in guiding the planet towards democracy, plus raise the four most powerful telepaths to be born... ever. [[spoiler:Even after he discovers his own "witch-powers" he prefers to rely on the skills he learned beforehand.]]

* "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone in JimButcher's ''TheDresdenFiles''. Managed to bring Chicago's organized crime under his (relatively organized) reign, and has gone to ground with the things that go bump in the night on multiple occasions. ''White Night'' ends with him [[spoiler:becoming a recognized body in the supernatural community, able to defend his rights if any signatories to the Unseelie Accords infringe on them. There are twenty such bodies throughout the world, and Marcone's the only mortal.]] His biggest moment has to be when he was hung upside down and managed to kill a werewolf with a throwing knife. In the dark.

* Tavi in JimButcher's other series, ''CodexAlera''. He is uniquely powerless in a world in which all humans can control elemental spirits called Furies, though he compensates for this near-crippling deficiency by becoming a courageous, insightful, empathetic, and generally badass leader. This may be a slight exaggeration of this trope, as while he is normal by our standards, in his world he is considered a (sub-normal) freak. By the end of the third book, it is explicitly stated in-story that he is far more capable than most people with great Fury-powers. [[spoiler:And then he becomes a BadassAbnormal with the full furycraft ability of the First Lord.]]

* [[TheExtraordinaryAdventuresOfOrdinaryBoy]] has the main character. Hey, if you can be considered a hero by the standards of a town where everyone is super and you aren't...

* Roran from ''TheInheritanceCycle''. In a world where [[OurElvesAreBetter elves]] have the [[SuperStrength strength of ten men]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] grow to the size of [[GiantFlyer large hills]], and [[FunctionalMagic magicians]] tear castles apart with their minds, Roran is armed with only his [[TheDeterminator determination]] and a [[DropTheHammer metal hammer]]. When his village becomes condemned by TheEmpire, he uses his potent charisma to convince his people to flee their homes and travel from the northern tip of Alagaesia to the sun-drenched country of Surda in the far south, avoiding [[EvilOverlord Galbatorix's]] troops all the while. He joins the [[LaResistance Varden]], kills the Twins (two extremely powerful magicians) with his hammer, [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill kills 193 men in one go]], survives being given 50 lashes to the back by [[GeneralRipper Nasuada]] for insubordination and is up and fighting again a few days later, journeys across Alagaesia to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend from the mountain lair [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Helgrind]], wrestles a battle-crazed [[OurOrcsAreDifferent urgal]] to the ground until the beast surrenders and acknowledges Roran as the stronger, and rises his way up to a commander in the Varden after only a couple of months of service. And he does this all without any magic whatsoever. Yeah, [[{{Farmboy}} Eragon]] doesn't look so impressive next to that, does he?

* For the matter of that Aragorn was a BadassNormal when compared to the elves among whom he grew up. And to top that off in ''Gandalf's'' {{Backstory}} he was a fairly minor figure in Valinor(He was Olorin, the Maiar in charge of giving people good dreams and visions).

* [[TheLancer Joseph Carrion]] of the Literature/MediochreQSethSeries is one of the most {{badass}} characters around - despite having, at best, [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower Charles Atlas]] ImprobableAimingSkills in a world populated by [[WizardsAndWitches mancers]], [[{{Dhampyr}} Dhampir]], TheUndead and [[HealingFactor functionally immortal]] [[AwesomenessByAnalysis superpowered geniuses]].

* Alexander Storm from the ''{{Deathstalker}}'' series. He was one of the few characters not either a [[spoiler:cyborg, super-gladiator in disguise, or afflicted by an ancient alien maze]], and yet he still managed to survive half the fights that hit him, [[spoiler:right up until his FaceHeelTurn.]]

* In the web-novel ''Literature/{{Domina}}'', Adam Anders doesn't have a power, and can't use the [[BioAugmentation toy maker]]. He compensates with lots of guns.

** [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Kincaid]] claims to be as human as the protagonist, and spends his first appearance in ''Blood Rites'' taking down multiple Red Court vampires with a golf bag filled with disposable shotguns with Dragon's Breath rounds. [[spoiler:In his next appearance [[SubvertedTrope he's revealed to be several hundred years old]] and a definite supernatural of some kind, though exactly ''what'' kind is unknown.]]

* In Creator/CSLewis C.S.' ''ChroniclesOfNarnia'' the two Pevensie brothers (Edmund and Peter) are subtly shown to be examples of this trope. Peter fights Jadis the White Witch hand-to-hand without instantly dying (despite the fact she is immortal, ageless and can tear iron bars "like barley sugar"). Edmund is given a "stunning blow" across the face by the same Jadis and his reaction is to feel sorry for someone else. He also fights his way through "three ogres" to reach Jadis and break her wand. Not bad for two '''pre-teens'''.
** Susan gets an upgrade into this for the movie as TheArcher.

* ''RepairmanJack'' goes against things straight out of [[HPLovecraft Lovecraft's]] worst nightmare with little more than healthy dose of righteous anger, resourcefulness and enough firepower to singlehandedly wage war on a small country. The results aren't pretty but awesome all the same.

*** On that note, Karrin Murphy from the same series. She's faced down rampaging werewolves, vampiric minions, and an army of ghouls, despite being a squishy mortal. It does help that she's an experienced cop and damn good at aikido, though.

** Marcone's bodyguard Hendricks also qualifies, managing to come through fights with super-ghouls and Denarians basically unscathed.

* Chase from TerryGoodkind's ''SwordOfTruth'' series has no magical ability, but can outfight pretty much anybody on the planet, and in the beginning of the series has a day job that involves him fighting demonic hounds that hunt by the sound of human hearts. He's mentioned as being "far tougher than he has any right to be", and carries enough weapons to equip a small army. Not surprisingly, his adopted daughter becomes a LittleMissBadass later in the series.

** To explain a little further, Anita is a Federal Marshall, necromancer, succubus, licensed Vampire Slayer, and part of a triumvirate with the master vampire of St. Louis and leader of the local werewolf pack, not to mention the mess of lycan blood she has in her. Edward...is a guy in his early thirties. Monsters call Anita The Executioner, they call Edward Death.

** Even later, in the semi-spin-off ''Wizard'' series, Magnus Gallowglass takes on a partner, Dirk Dulaine, who is decidedly a Badass Normal. Hell, you don't get much more "normal" than Dirk's genetics. [[spoiler:His entire ancestry comes from maybe 100 individual people, who were then cloned. A few centuries later, and the servant population bears a striking resemblance to each other.]]
* The ''SeekersOfTruth'' have a couple. Trigger uses technology and an eagle eye, and Grizzly has lived in the woods for the last twenty-five years honing his body and his instincts, until he can read the sounds of every animal in his woods.

** Let's not forget, he is [[NewJediOrder Blackmoon Eleven]]. ''The greatest pilot of all time.'' And when he led a battle that was supposed to be a stalling tactic, he unintentionally won, even though that was exactly what they were trying to avoid. It was lampshaded immediately afterwards by Tycho.

** When Sam and Frodo are trapped in the fortress of Cirith Ungol by the supernatural Watchers, they use the Phial of Galadriel as a focus and break the wills of the guardians, long enough to get through! And of course, the biggest badassery of it all, Frodo carries the One Ring to the very lip of the Cracks of Doom, in the Chambers of Fire where the power of Sauron is strongest in all the world. Only there, ''only there'', weakened by over a year of worry, hunger, thirst, torture, labor, travel, and the cumulative burden of the Ring, '''only there''' where Sauron and the One Ring are strongest in all the world, is Frodo Baggins finally overcome by the Ring. Frodo does ultimately fail in his quest, and has to be rescued by the Mercy of God, acting through Smeagol, but Tolkien has said specifically that nobody else in the world east of the Sea, ''nobody'', would have gotten nearly as far as Frodo did.
* On the subject of the worlds of Tolkien, let's not forget Beren son of Barahir. A Man, mortal born and mortal doomed, who fought with the last band of guerilla warriors led by his father after Morgoth's forces overran his lands, last survivor of the ambush the slew them, and then he waged a ''one man'' war that was so successful that eventually Morgoth set a price on his head equal to ''the High King of the Noldor''. Even then, most of his forces would flee if the rumor had him in area rather than try to capture or kill him. So Morgoth finally sent an ''army'' to track him down, with ''balrogs''. Think about that, he had become enough of a nuisance to rate that. Finally forced to flee from that magnitude of a threat, Beren became the first Man to enter Doriath, successfully penetrating Queen Melian's defenses that had held off Morgoth's forces for centuries. Then, in order to win the hand of his lady love, he is successively tortured by werewolves, defeats two sons of Feanor in battle with them mounted and him on foot, narrowly escapes death repeatedly, with his lady he penetrates Thangorodrim itself to take a Silmaril from the crown of the greatest evil power of all time, then he is slain and becomes one of the only Men ever to return to physical life (briefly) after his physical death. As an afterthought he leads an army of Ents to overcome an army of Dwarves after a massive charlie foxtrot incident that led to the destruction of Doriath. Beren was, very probably, the greatest badass in the history of Middle-earth other than some of the Ainur.

* Roland in ''TheDarkTower''. Pretty much the whole Ka-tet become Badass Normal by the end of the book including Oy, the TeamPet.

** Vimes has survived ''nine'' assassination attempts by the Assassin's Guild ''without any injuries''. After that, they basically gave up and started using him to test their trainees.

* Rachel Elizabeth Dare from the ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' has no divine blood in her--her only power is to see through the story's WeirdnessCensor. Yet she can navigate an impossible maze, and even [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu throws a hairbrush at Kronos]] once.

** Han Solo of course qualifies as a Badass Normal himself. Just shooting Darth Vader off Luke's tail in the first movie would have done that, let alone everything else he manages in the Expanded Universe novels...

* Aren't these just plain badasses?

* ''RepairmanJack'' goes against things straight out of [[HPLovecraft Lovecraft]]'s worst nightmare with little more than healthy dose of righteous anger, resourcefulness and enough firepower to singlehandedly wage war on a small country. The results aren't pretty but awesome all the same.

* In the ''{{Discworld}}'' novels, Commander Vimes has fought a dragon, outwitted a vampire, outran a pack of werewolves and is the only person to have bested the Summoning Dark which is an ancient evil that works by corrupting and controlling men's minds. He does all this even though he is a middle-aged man with no powers whatsoever, going as far as to ''refuse'' magical help from wizards.

* [[Dragaera Vlad Taltos.]] He's a fairly good witch and a rudimentary sorceror, but this world has [[OurElvesAreDifferent Dragaerans]] who live for maybe 3000 years, are stronger and taller, and at least three of the ones he hangs out with have [[EmpathicWeapon "Great Weapons",]] and are ''very'' skilled at sorcery. [[spoiler:This is before he gains Lady Teldra/Godslayer.]]

* Leaf from the KeysToTheKingdom books by Garth Nix. Poor girl gets dragged into Arthur's adventures even though she barely knows him. She continues to help him and do what needs to get done on Earth even after being kidnapped and forced to serve for months on a ship in Drowned Wednesday. She stands firm against monsters and Denizens from the House and rescues Arthur almost as often as his official sidekick Suzy Blue does.

* ''Literature/LastLegionary'': Douglas Hill's Keill Randor ''does'' have his skeleton rebuilt with an unbreakable organic alloy...but he was a {{Badass}} who was a [[IKnowKarate highly skilled fighter]] to start with. Man cannot kick ass on unbreakable bones alone.

* ''Superhuman'' the book by Michael Carroll (the author of the ''TheNewHeroes'' trilogy), takes place in a world where not everyone has superpowers, but people with powers, both villains and heroes alike, aren't a new occurrence. The book details the efforts of four kids' efforts to stop a [[AncientConspiracy four thousand-year plot to resurrect and evil king]], Out of the four kids there are two girls and two boys. Three of the kids have amazing superpowers. The first child to be introduced in the book, however, is the only one without powers. This boy, Lance, is presumably the youngest in the group, [[KidHero being only 14-years-old.]] However, his manipulative skills and way with words made him boarder on MagnificentBastard status. Even those that didn't like him at first admitted that they needed his help ''off'' the battlefield.

* In CSLewis C.S.' ''ChroniclesOfNarnia'' the two Pevensie brothers (Edmund and Peter) are subtly shown to be examples of this trope. Peter fights Jadis the White Witch hand-to-hand without instantly dying (despite the fact she is immortal, ageless and can tear iron bars "like barley sugar"). Edmund is given a "stunning blow" across the face by the same Jadis and his reaction is to feel sorry for someone else. He also fights his way through "three ogres" to reach Jadis and break her wand. Not bad for two '''pre-teens'''.

** Boba Fett is shown to be quite the badass in spite of lacking Jedi powers. He's extremely physically strong and able to handle a lightsaber much like a Jedi. He even fights Mace Windu to a standstill in a novel as a 14-year-old boy! As quoted by Han Solo himself: "There are six, maybe seven people in the entire galaxy who can beat Boba Fett in a fair fight... and I'm not one of them."

* RaymondEFeist[='=]s ''[[TheRiftwarCycle Riftwar]]'' series is chock-full of these, but usually the magic-users deal with The Affairs of Wizards and the normals deal with problems that swords can solve. Special mention, however, goes to Jimmy the Hand. He routinely takes on the plots and schemes of wizards and demons with nothing more than a quick blade, a quicker wit, and a lot of street-bred cynicism, before [[spoiler:his HeroicSacrifice when he [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome destroys half the Serpent Queen's army]] by [[XanatosGambit luring them into taking his home city and setting off a fuel-air explosion]].]]

* ''RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''. Take your pick. [[EyeScream The man who yanks an arrow and his own eyeball out of his skull]] [[ImAHumanitarian then eats said eyeball]]? [[GoodOldFisticuffs The man who kills tigers with his bare hands]]? [[OneManArmy The guy who uses a strategically-placed bridge to hold back thousands of men on his own with just a spear]]? Seriously, open to a fight scene, pick out a Chinese name and you are bound to find one of these.

* Earth-born Hari Michaelson in Matthew Stover's ''TheActsOfCaine'' is, in his Caine persona, a superstar in a ''D&D''-inspired parallel universe. He goes up against the most brutal warriors of a fighting species, thaumaturgists, humans channelling the powers of their gods, and, well, ''gods''. He beats them all through a combination of [[TrainingFromHell training]], a few [[MasterOfYourDomain semi-magickal meditative disciplines]], [[KnifeNut his knives]], and, when he's physically incapable of anything else, [[CombatPragmatist extraordinary tactical ability]] and a healthy dose of badassery.

** Let's not forget, he is [[NewJediOrder Blackmoon Eleven]]. ''The greatest pilot of all time.''

* Jenna Heap in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', despite not having '''Magykal''' powers, did knock the Toll-Man and Jakey Fry down in ''Queste'' and ''Syren'' respectively.