History Main / FutureBadass

* In the ''Series/Charmed1998'' fanfic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3562774/1/Once-and-Future-Witches Once and Future Witches]]", the Charmed Ones of 2007 (just after the series ends) go back in time six years and meet their past selves. Witnessing their future selves, the younger Charmed Ones are all surprised to see Piper as more confident and ‘take-charge’ compared to her meeker younger self, Phoebe in particular comparing the older Piper to Grams.

If they're lucky, the reappearance of the hero can [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong set things right]] before the BigBad is too entrenched to be removed. In some cases it can be AllJustADream, a TimeTravel made AlternateUniverse, or a MirrorUniverse with a [[ForWantOfANail tiny difference.]]

* Edward, yes ''[[SpoonyBard that]]'' Edward, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears''.

** Eoleo is the son of the famous pirate, Briggs. In the previous game, he was just a baby with some powers. 30 years later? He's now pirate like his dad before him with a mastery of [[KillItWithFire Fire Pysnergy]] [[spoiler: and he joins your party later on!]]

** ''The Box Ghost'', who is the epitome of a [[HarmlessVillain comically inept villain]] in the present day (except for that one time he stole Pandora's Box), can now generate powerful boxes of energy to throw at people, went from being fat to being very muscular, now has [[EyepatchAfterTimeSkip an eyepatch]] and a HookHand, and traded in his nerdy [[WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius Carl Wheezer]] voice[[note]]literally, they have [[Creator/RobPaulsen the same voice actor]][[/note]] for a GutturalGrowler one.

* ''Fanfic/ThisBites'': The "1000th Review Spectacular" chapter sees the Straw Hats being visited by a future version of Cross known Wyvern. And whereas Cross is at this point more of an ActionSurvivor barely removed from his initial MadeOfPlasticine state, Wyvern is a OneManArmy nearly at the level of the pre-TimeSkip Monster Trio.

* In the ''VideoGame/StarFox'' fanfiction ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1287617/1/Star_Fox_Adventures_Krazoa_Legends Krazoa Legends]]'' by Wolf E. Urameshi, more than one character is an example of this: [[spoiler:Falco Lombardi's life is shown when he has to escape with his sister after his parents are killed. '''Both of them.''']] [[spoiler:Also, Wolf O'Donnell goes through the same thing, though his story is more [[MommasBoy mommy dearest]] fare. But the original character Janus is probably the most accurate example of this. I mean, the guy starts his life abandoned by his own father, General Scales because he was apparently not muscled enough in the non-literal sense. The events that followed traumatized him- plus Scales killed Janus's mom a year after the latter was born.]] [[spoiler:He was rescued by an obligatory [[TheSmartGuy smart guy]], turned into a [[GeniusBruiser genius badass]] NiceGuy, and is even a [[HeroicBuild hot, muscled Sharpclaw]] with a [[SculptedPhysique toned bod]], avenges his family and guards ancient ruins with just a spear. He even scores. Yeah.]]

--> ''"His “body” is in two halves: the massive bone-white jelly-mass of his GIGANTIC BRAIN-HEAD being lowered into a hundred-legged servo-walker. His bloated “face” splits into a perpetually maniacal grin, his eyes held open by hooks and wires to survey the cosmic channel surfing that is his home."''

* Interesting variation in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' series -- in the episode "How Long is Forever?" Starfire is pulled into a future where the Titans broke up after she vanished. While Cyborg is reduced to living in the ruins of Titan tower attached to a crude power generator, Beast Boy has locked himself into a cage at a freak show and Raven appears to have lost her mind, Robin on the other hand has become Nightwing.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''

** This happens again much later in the series when Star and Marco accidentally [[spoiler: leave Mariposa and Meteora in said dimension. While they’re there, they eventually become independent children capable of defending themselves. Marco convinces them to come home by telling them about the food on Earth.]]

* Later on in ''Fanfic/TheBridge'', we're introduced to [[spoiler: Empress Flurry Heart]], who has come back from a horrible BadFuture -- where [[OmnicidalManiac Bagan]] and [[GodOfEvil Grogar]] both escaped their [[SealedEvilInACan prisons]] and devastated both worlds, claiming countless lives (including [[spoiler: her parents]]) -- with the intention of [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong subtly manipulating events to prevent this from happening]]. Given the battle wounds they sport, and the fact that they survived said devastation, they clearly count for this trope.

* In an unusual case to not involve time travel ([[TimeTravelTenseTrouble kind of]]), Ravage from ''{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. In the centuries since we saw him last, he became bipedal, decided to speak up more, and proved himself ''incredibly'' Badass. Maybe he was before, but he was too quiet to show it verbally back in the day, was too subservient to show it by personality, and was too kitty-shaped to show it with action. Then he took TheSlowPath. He also speaks with a classy Russian accent.

* In a 2004 arc in the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' comic, the Titans get warped to a BadFuture where the Justice League have all died and been replaced by their sidekicks, who are now uniformly deadly vigilantes: ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}} has become Franchise/{{Batman}} (and now uses a gun), ComicBook/{{Superboy|1994}} has become Franchise/{{Superman}} (and has no compunctions about ripping peoples' arms off), Beast Boy is the feral Animal Man, ComicBook/WonderGirl is a deadly warrior as ComicBook/WonderWoman, and so on. And they're all working for ComicBook/LexLuthor. Overlaps with FutureMeScaresMe.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': "Timetagger" introduces the rabbit-themed time-traveling superhero Bunnyx, who is none other than [[spoiler: the adult self of [[TeensAreShort comically tiny]] [[TheNapoleon but irascible]] DeadpanSnarker Alix Kubdel.]]

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' MadeForTVMovie "''WesternAnimation/ChannelChasers''", the beginning shows Timmy's geeky friends Chester and AJ as buff adults, fighting against a bunch of {{Mooks}}, only to get taken out by the villain's [[TheDragon Dragon]]. Later, Timmy's badass future self also shows up [[spoiler:having turned out to be the true identity of TheDragon all along, actually operating as TheMole to take her down]].

* One of the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' books concerned Jake waking up in the future, where all his friends were battle-scarred screw-ups. Jake himself has a huge RatedMForManly body "a Yeerk would give up three ranks for".

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E10TheGirlWhoWaited "The Girl Who Waited"]], [[spoiler:Amy gets trapped in an alternate timeline. When Rory manages to find her, she's 36 years older, dressed in armour made out of the robots she's killed, and armed with a sword and a home-made sonic screwdriver. Oh, and she's kind of pissed off.]]

** Waver Velvet, the NaiveNewcomer in ''LightNovel/FateZero'', who eventually grows up to become Lord El-Melloi II, the man who dismantled the Fuyuki Grail after ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''.

* ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' has Asahina Mikuru's future self. She's clearly more self-confident, [[OlderAndWiser wiser]] (and [[BreastExpansion bustier]]) than her present self, and [[spoiler: she's actually her own superior]].

* In ''LightNovel/TheWeaknessOfBeatriceTheLevelCapHolySwordswoman'', the Sage is a mysterious figure who invented the system of magic used by humans. It's revealed that she's the future version of [[spoiler:Beatrice, the main character... except then it turns out that this was a lie. She is a time traveler from the future, but she merely changed her appearance to pretend that she was Beatrice's future self]].

* Critical Shifts brought about by bad guys in ''TabletopGame/FengShui'' are the game's version of the BadFuture. Usually, people who the characters have met do much the same thing they did in the original timeline, but sometimes, the people go through changes as a result of the timeline. In one fan-written TabletopGame/FengShui adventure, a DistressedDamsel that the [=PCs=] rescued from a SerialKiller in a previous adventure goes Sarah Connor as a result of a Critical Shift where the demons of the Underworld have overrun the mortal world and leads LaResistance against the demons.

* The ''FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries'' shows us the version of [[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom Danny]] that replaced his [[EvilMeScaresMe evil future version]], and he's downright badass enough to stand toe to toe with Dark Danny, even able to control Danny's deadly SuperMode. [[spoiler: Even better, Sam's his partner, a revelation that began the entire series]].

* In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', Bradford is a neat, clean cut, by the book man in tie and sweeter. By the events of ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', he's become a grizzled, cynical, hard-drinking CoolOldGuy with CoolScars. Not to say he wasn't tough in the first game, but in the second he seriously TookALevelInBadass.

* ''Fanfic/ThisBites'': The "1000th Review Spectacular" chapter sees the Straw Hats being visited by a future version of Cross known Wyvern. And whereas Cross is at this point is more of an ActionSurvivor barely removed from his initial MadeOfPlasticine state, Wyvern is a OneManArmy nearly at the level of the pre-TimeSkip Monster Trio.

* Parodied by ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner''; in the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail168.html your funeral]], a FlashForward EasterEgg depicts [[EmoTeen emo-ish]], {{nerd}}y Strong Sad as a grizzled, scarred fighter in a ZombieApocalypse. Pom Pom is also even cooler than usual.

* Sort of example in ''ComicBook/HackSlash''; in the ''Murder Messiah'' Annual, it's revealed the previously thought dead Liberty Lochs cast a spell at the last minute that saved her from dying, but flung her into a post-apocalyptic future, where she was forced to become a badass, complete with [[CoolBike cool]] [[BikerBabe hoverbike]].

** The[[WesternAnimation/TheUltimateEnemy Timeline-based]] TV movie has several Future Badasses. The biggest is [[PsychoForHire Dark Danny]], who is now the most powerful ghost on the planet, or as Sam puts it "...okay, you're ''really'' a [[UnderStatement jerk]]." Well, that is certainly a mild way to put it-he becomes a rampaging [[PsychoForHire Sociopath]] who kills people and destroys things [[ForTheEvulz apparently just for kicks]]. The episode in which Danny sees what he [[BadFuture would become]] and is [[FutureMeScaresMe extremely horrified]] is one of the darkest, yet most highly acclaimed episodes of the series.

* [[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan]] is pretty badass in her own right as a [[KidHero teenage superhero]], but three adult versions of her from various {{Alternate Universe}}s have also appeared:
** [[http://wondygirl.tumblr.com/post/173978009973/older-kamala-khan-with-cosmic-awareness-rocking Kamala as an older woman]] and veritable cosmic powerhouse whom even Kang the Conqueror dreads.

** And U.S. President Kamala Khan from the [[ComicBook/AllNewWolverine Old Woman Laura]] timeline.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': In "Running With Scissors", Marco is stuck in another dimension where time flows much faster than on Earth. By the time Star retrieves him, 16 years have passed and he's now a tall, handsome, buff warrior riding a dragon/motorcycle. Sadly, when he returns to Earth, his body reverts to his 14 year old self, though he remembers everything.

** Invoked when Dexter travels to the future for the primary purpose of seeing what kind of badass he is. In the dystopian future version of himself, he comes to resemble his hero Action Hank: big, brawny, and [[ManlyFacialHair bearded]] (and unlike Hank, [[BaldOfAwesome he goes bald]]), and his MadScientist pseudo-Germanic accent is replaced by [[TheAhnold an Arnold impression]].

* In the first book of ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'', a future version of the bookish SmartGuy Davian appears to Asha as an apparition with an OminousMessageFromTheFuture. She remarks that he's much more muscular, stern and scarred than the present-day version of her friend.