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  • Adventure Time
    • Finn. He is a young teenaged human boy, however he fights off against evil demons and performs amazing athletic feats almost every episode. The entire series is effectively about him fitting into this trope.
    • Princess Bubblegum, officially as of "Lady & Peebles" when she beats the muscular Ricardio to a pulp and carries 4 people, including Lady Rainicorn who is a 15-foot-long unicorn, across the Ice Kingdom to the Candy Kingdom over 2 days. Also shows Badass traits in "What Have You Done?" where she is willing to beat screams out of the Ice King to cure the candy people of infection. Was once a close friend and eventual on-again off-again love interest of Marceline, the Vampire Queen, and is even relatively confident enough to openly insult her, while Finn and Jake are quietly terrified of Marceline (although they are also her friends). Somehow managed to convince the evil Flame King to lock up his own daughter.
      • This is later subverted in "Jellybeans Have Power", where it's revealed that PB is a candy elemental.
    • Warrior Princess and Clarence, who once led armies against each other in the past and battled to the death, with Clarence killing Warrior Princess who became Ghost Princess.
    • Joshua, Jake's dad, as it is implied he was an adventuring demon slayer in the past, and he has no powers, unlike Jake.
      • Joshua makes up for his lack of being a magical dog by being a dog that knows magic.
    • Betty. In fact, it's the entire reason she's able to defeat Bella Noche — she doesn't have or need magical powers to be a badass, so she's able to just punch the power-nullifying Eldritch Abomination in the face.
  • While Walter "Doc" Hartford of Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers has a Series 5 implant, his "superpowers" merely enhance his already genius-level hacking ability, and are useless in combat. When the fight starts, he holds his own with a standard issue blaster, a sword, his fists, and copious wit. Not bad for a dude who is fighting alongside a Cyborg with an Arm Cannon, a genetically-engineered Super-Soldier, and an Action Girl with Jean Grey-type Psionic abilities.
    • Red Witch's fanfic "Tangled Web" uses this to great effect. In the fight against the Black Rose, The Dragon factored in bionics, psionics, and biodefenses...only to have the hacker hand him his ass.
    • There's also Ambadassador Zozo. He's from a race of Hobbits, stands about a meter high, very cheerful, looks utterly harmless...but he's wicked fast, a great shot, and very sneaky.
  • Jake's Dad in American Dragon: Jake Long is this. Jake is a dragon, Rose is a born dragon hunter Action Girl, Spud is the embodiment of a Genius Ditz, and Trixie just has street smarts. Jake's Dad is a Cougar Scout, has extreme parent instincts, and that's it. However, he unknowingly defeated the Jersey Devil with a trombone and a can of bear spray. He also held his own against badass dragon blood drinking vampires for over four minutes with his bare hands in the episode, "Bite Father, Bite Son". During the final episode, he used a vase to kill an army of demons. Pretty good, considering he did it without knowing his son was a dragon (except the last one and he had just learned). All the above had powers, he didn't.
  • Atomic Puppet has Pauline, who may not have superpowers like her friend Joey (except for that time she became Sword Sister), but she is still clever and capable enough to be a helping hand against the show's various villains. Hell, she's even saved Joey on a few occasions.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Sokka is the only non-bender of the main group. Despite his near-uselessness in battle and lack of spirituality (and role as the comic relief), as the show progresses, we see his engineering and strategy prowess improve to the point where he is openly labeled as the "idea guy" of the team. In Book 3, his inferiority in combat spurred him to seek out training in that area, plus he acquired a unique sword, making him even more badass despite the fact that he is still inherently normal. He's also damn good with his boomerang, using it to hit three extremely skilled firebenders. He was able to take down Combustion Man, a Determinator so mean that the Bender part of the team could barely slow him down.
    • Early in season 2, we are introduced to Mai, an elegant shuriken specialist, and Ty Lee, a Kyusho Jitsu user and acrobat/gymnast, both non-bending Dark Action Girls. Both have been able to take down elite fighters and the main characters with little difficulty numerous times. The fact that Princess Azula chose them as part of her elite team over any benders should tell you something.
    • The Lady of War Suki, who kicks all kinds of ass even without weapons or bending powers, just Charles Atlas Superpower.
    • Of the Order of the White Lotus members who we see fight, only one is a non-bender, Piandao, who, not so incidentally, is the one who gave Sokka his training, and more than holds his own. To reiterate: a foot soldier in the Fire Nation achieved the rank of swordsmaster, then retired — and successfully resisted all attempts to unretire him. A force of 100 soldiers was sent after him. He sent them all back.
    • Any non-bender who gets a combat reputation. In a world where people can shoot fire out of their freaking hands, it must take a lot to get noticed. Considering how tiny the Southern Water Tribe is, and that they lack waterbenders, it's quite something that Hakoda's group survived for over two years to mount an attack with Team Avatar on the Day of Black Sun. The Chief seems to be a very smart and respected Badass Normal himself.
    • The Yu Yan Archers are Badass Normal mooks. These guys actually managed to capture Aang by themselves, with nothing but their own impressive archery skills. Granted, Aang was hampered, but it's still an impressive feat.
    • All of the Freedom Fighters, especially Jet. Yes, he's a well-intentioned extremist, but he's incredibly skilled with his Twin Tiger hookswords, to the point where he can defeat an (admittedly in-training) Avatar. If Katara hadn't gotten involved, Jet would have won. He's smart, he's cocky, he can hold his own against powerful benders, and he gives us one of the best fight scenes in the entire show (a personal favorite of Mike and Bryan's) when he has a hooksword vs. double broadsword battle with an incognito Zuko. It is not known who would have won if the Dai Li hadn't interfered.
    • The pirates from season one, who manage fairly easily capture Aang and Sokka, and later manage to hold their own with Zuko and his fellow firebender with just smoke bombs and normal (if some what exotic) close range weapons.
  • Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond. Yes, he has the suit. But he has taken on explicitly superpowered villains without it, including psychics, shapeshifters, aliens, and mix-and-match creatures, even when he is at a distinct disadvantage. And won. He, armed only with one of his mentor's utility belts, also went up against his own suit when it was taken over by a rogue AI. He won that, too.
    • It's been stated in series that Terry is a better Batman than Bruce.
  • A villainous example — Belphegor, from the animated series of the same name. Aside from using a Ring of Power as his only weapon (and the occasional smoke bomb for escape purposes), he has no superpowers to speak of. He uses said ring only to tranquilize people. How does he always get away without guns? Well, he's strong, smart and always has an escape plan or a Batman Gambit ready. Many times, he doesn't even make use of his underlings' help, but handles the most dangerous situations himself.
  • Ben 10:
    • According to Word of God, the Omnitrix turns its user into the badass normal version of whatever alien they've selected. So while your average Vaxasaurian would still have Super-Strength and be able to grow to the size of a skyscraper at will, they likely wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as Humongosaur.
    • Maxwell "Grandpa Max" Tennyson, Ben and Gwen's grandfather, despite ostensibly just being a retired "plumber", is shown to be a surprisingly brave and capable source of support during their early adventures. It's later revealed in the season one finale, that the "plumbers" he was a part of, is actually the code name for this universe's Space Police, of which Max used to be one of their best members before going into retirement. And has even met and defeated the series' Big Bad already in the past. Despite just being a human agent. And comes fully out of retirement as the series goes on.
    • Gwen herself was this for the first couple seasons, before she discovers her latent magical abilities. Before that, while her lack of powers could be a hindrance at times, she wasn't useless, thanks to having far above average intelligence, exceptional athleticism, and fighting skills for a 10 year old girl.
    • Rook Blonko, Ben's new crime fighting partner in Ben 10: Omniverse, despite being an alien himself, has no explicitly superhuman abilities on top of being a rookie "Plumber" and inexperienced with Earth when he's first introduced. But he is still a very athletic, skilled in combat, and has a high-tech Swiss-Army Weapon called a Proto-tool.
  • Lt. Dwayne Hunter in Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot proves his military skills in Double-Time part one, rigging up a pair of Arm Cannons powered by an Iron Man style chest piece in an abandoned mechanics shop to take out four Seek and Destroy scouts from Legion Ex Machina after the Big Guy suit has been heavily damaged.
  • Castlevania (2017): Trevor Belmont is a down-to-his-marrow ordinary human traveling with a spellcasting prodigy and Dhampyr. He is also Trevor fuckin' Belmont, Hunter of Monsters par excellence, master of the Morning Star Whip, and bane to everything that goes bump in the night. At the end of the series, Trevor single handedly kills Final Boss Death, an eternal entity greater than Dracula who was about to usher in the Apocalypse and while he needed the Godzilla Threshold ritual dagger to do so, the fact Trevor still put up an incredible fight before bringing out his secret weapon and managed survived afterwards abolishes anything "normal" about him.
  • Code Lyoko:
    • Ulrich defeated XANA-Tamiya in episode 89 "Music to Soothe the Savage Beast", by using a mirror to send Tamiya’s electric charge back at her and knock her out. We're talking about a Lyoko-warrior defeating someone xanafied on Earth, people. Someone that is generally so OP he is almost always close to kill the heroes.
    • William:
      • In Episode 54, "Lyoko minus one", William effortlessly defeated three of his Xanafied classmates with only a wooden stick and one kick. But nooo, he doesn't stop there! He then proceeds to knock out the remaining of his Xanafied class offscreen (only Ms. Hertz stopped William's rampage by knocking him out). They regained consciousness only after the activated tower was destroyed alongside the entire Forest Sector This is even more badass knowing that William was only a secondary character back then.
      • When teleported on Earth in Episode 92 "Cold Sweat", XANA-William didn't use his trademark powers such as Super Smoke or Sword Beams. He still managed to beat down Odd and Yumi, and it was only thanks to Aelita he did not send them back to the Skid.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: The KND are a paramilitary organization entirely of kids, who fight villians who either have superpowers, or use technology that's to be considered a lot more advanced (or at least more sophisticated) when compared to the KND's 2x4 technology. While the KND, on the other hand, use strictly military training and the aforementioned 2x4 tech when engaging in combat.
  • Cybersix:
    • Lucas Amato saves the life of the titular heroine almost as many times as she saves his, despite having no superpowers to speak of.
    • Also Yashimoto, Meridiana's most renowned detective from the episode "Yashimoto, Private Eye", who effortlessly figures out Cybersix's secret identity after being blackmailed into doing so.
  • Elise in Dan Vs. is a normal human being who is also an undercover agent and very proficient in hand-to-hand combat, as shown during the times she fights her foes. At one point, Dan quickly effaced her name off his revenge list just seconds after watching her attack another guy.
  • Danny Phantom. In a World… where ghosts roam every corner, nearly all the ghost hunters shown are incompetent... except Valerie Gray who stands out among them as a normal gal packing (anti-ghost) heat (and being a ninth-degree black belt). Sam Manson gets a few of these moments throughout the series as well, but not Tucker. He's more of the Action Survivor.
    • Danny's mom probably qualifies. And she does it without breaking her matronly demeanor! Jazz has also proven curiously capable at piloting her dad's powered armor, so it must run in the estrogen.
    • Even Jack has his moments. He defeated Plasmius to save his family in "Million Dollar Ghost" and saved Danny from Skulker in "Girls' Night Out".
  • Darkwing Duck:
    • Darkwing himself, once he put his ego aside.
    • NegaDuck all the time. Except on the rare occasions when he has superpowers.
    • Taurus Bulba has no superpowers, and still manages to be what's probably the most threatening villain of the show, relying on his brilliant intellect and brute strength. However, he later gains superpowers - sort of. He is turned into a cyborg with robotic enhancements that makes him even more dangerous than before.
    • Quackerjack manages to be a "supervillain" without actual superpowers. When NegaDuck steals the powers of a number of other supervillains, which includes Quackerjack, he gets his "wackiness".
    • One episode made fun of this trope. It featured Darkwing going to a planet where everybody had superpowers except for one normal guy. As he is one himself, he is told to take on the role of the normal guy. Normal Guy eventually shows up and builds a machine to steal everyone else's superpowers.
  • General Amaya from The Dragon Prince also qualifies. She is not only the leader of her soldiers, she is also the strongest fighter, and can even hold against elven assassins in the fight.
  •  Dragons: The Nine Realms:
    • Tom is physically a normal teenager...who fought dangerous dragons with nothing but a thin sword.
    • Despite rarely fighting, recurring antagonist Welma Sledkin has taken down two Gembreaker dragons with nothing but a stun buton.
  • Fangbone!: Bill Goodwin is an average 9-year-old boy who regularly fights alongside the titular Pintsized Powerhouse Barbarian Hero against ferocious and deadly monsters, powerful magical entities and curses, and other sinister or ambitious beings all sent to Earth by an Evil Sorcerer, often using nothing but his own wits and agility to overcome his foes.
  • In Freakazoid!, Cosgrove is so Badass Normal that all he has to do is point and say "Hey, cut it out!" to stop someone, from a burglar to a pterodactyl to the Warner siblingsnote .
  • Elisa Maza in Gargoyles. She can't fly, break rocks with her fingers, zap things, or even have access to high technology like practically everybody else, but all she needs is her handgun, a running start, and an attitude to help take down characters with far more advantages than she has. Sure, she loses quite often, but then so does everybody.
    • Probably the best example is King Arthur Pendragon, who manages to defeat Macbeth (who is immortal and virtually unkillable) with his powered suit in outright combat one on one, something Goliath was never able to do despite his physical advantage. He did this without Excalibur, just an ordinary mace.
    • And of course, David Xanatos is the trope namer for plans that are immune to failure. He never loses his cool no matter how powerful an opponent he is faced with. He says he isn't afraid of anything because he believes nothing is beyond his power to change. So far, he hasn't been proven wrong.
  • Generator Rex:
    • In a world of Nanite-created EVO monsters, Agent Six is just an ordinary human, but with his ninja skills and Magna-Blades, he's able to hold his own against them all, even briefly fending off the Big Bad, Van Kleiss, along with his Pack.
    • This as well as Dos, Trey, IV and Five. They aren't known as the 5 most dangerous people on the planet for a reason.
  • Get Ed has Ol' Skool, the old Mentor of the main group of heroes. Every other character has high tech Hoverboards, Jetboots, Jetpacks, etc. and top-of-the-line protective gear to use. Ol' Skool has a conventional skateboard & a simple construction helmet. With just these things he is able to outrace anything in the series without getting hurt or breaking a sweat.
  • In Gravity Falls, the Pines family faces dozens of supernatural creatures, and defeats them with only their wits and whatever they can get their hands on.
    • Wendy Corduroy is no slouch when it comes to hand-to-hand combat and utilizing an axe thanks to her lumberjack dad. She's even arm-locked a beefy prisoner guy in the first part of the finale. She is a flipping Corduroy after all.
    • Special mention goes to Melody, Soos' Love Interest who started beating up the .GIFfany-controlled animatromics on her first encounter with the supernatural.
  • Harley Quinn (2019): Harley's crew consists of Psycho, Clayface, King Shark and PoisonIvy while her only "power" is being really good at gymnastics. She's still the most technically proficient fighter and battlefield tactician of her crew by a long way, and extremely willing to fight dirty.
  • Dib Membrane of Invader Zim isn't the luckiest example, but he still has his moments.Being a kid Paranormal investigator,he's gone up against everything from interdimensional monsters to an ever-evolving mutant Santa Claus and survived injuries that would kill any kid his age, all while lacking Zim and GIR's alien enhancements or his sister's implicit supernatural powers. And then there was the time he piloted Mercury.
    • One-Shot character Countess Von Verminstrasser earns a spot as well. Granted she is a terrifying fanatic who put the entire school under lockdown just to deal with a lice infection, but she's still a middle aged woman who hunted, fought, and killed a massive mutant Lice queen. Wielding a grinded up alien, no less.
  • Jackie from Jackie Chan Adventures. He pulls off many stunts including the classic Improvised Weapons and a great deal of other things that would be impossible if he weren't a cartoon character. He also doesn't use the magic on the show as much as other characters, using his own skills instead. Lampshaded by Ratso when Chan ran back up a train as it was falling off a cliff.
    "No way he's human."
    • Jade as well, in an Offscreen Moment of Awesome Jade was able to beat up a black belt that was at least 4 times her height and musclemass.
      • She also is often able to solve complex problems and schemes that are able to defeat superpowered beings.
    • Uncle, Tohru, Viper, El Toro, Valmont, and Chi Fu also have moments of badass normalcy.
      • Captain Black. He gets bonus points for being the show's resident skeptic.
  • Jade Armor: Having been trained in martial arts since childhood, Lan Jun is a force to be reckoned with even without the Jade Armor. She even defeated the Big Bad the Crimson Lord in an alternate universe without wearing the Jade Armor.
  • In the Justice League, we have Batman and The Joker as a heroic and villainous example respectively both of whom have superpowered allies and enemies alike intimidated by and afraid of them. For good reason, too: they both regularly take down said superpowered individuals with nothing more than cunning, intelligence, and some gadgets. So much so that in one special when Joker shifts his attention from Batman to Superman, he refers to it as "playing on easy mode for a change."
  • Justice League made sure the normals were all badass in their own way. Though it was a sore spot for Wildcat, believing that just with no superpowers besides being an excellent fighter made him obsolete in the League. He even said that while Black Canary Fights Like a Normal, the fact she had the canary cry sonic scream made her much more useful to the team.
    • The Question, who is often nearly as many mental steps ahead of everyone as Batman. He's a consistently paranoid conspiracy theorist, but he lives in a world where conspiracies are a lot more likely.
      • All his theories that were actually put to the test on-screen turned out to be right. He's 3-for-3 so far, who's to say he's wrong about the rest?
      • He's also right that Baskin Robbins had a secret 32nd flavor. The significance of this isn't quite clear.
      • ...Yet.
    • In the episode "Tabula Rasa" of Justice League, the Justice League battle Amazo, an android with the ability to copy any superpower. He defeats the Justice League one by one. Possessing Superman's powers, he turns to Batman to scan him:
      Amazo: You don't have any special powers.
      Batman: I have this. (pulls out kryptonite) It's a package deal. You get our strengths; you get our weaknesses.
      • Another Batman case:
      Doctor Destiny: You know, I could let you go. You're a distraction now, and it's the others I have the real problem with. We're like insects to them - they step on us, ruin our lives, and they don't even realize it. But you're different. You don't have any special powers.
      Batman: Oh, I have one, Johnny. I never give up.
    • In the episode "Patriot Act", a tribute to the Seven Soldiers of Victory, and Badass Normals in general.
    • "Panic in the Sky", too, where not only do three of the League's badass normals take out at least five clones, including a super-sized Apache Chief wannabe, but the Watchtower staff fights a T. rex. The jury's out on whether or not they survived that, but the mere fact that they tried is badass incarnate.
    • "Taskforce X" uses this trope to help make the Villain Protagonists of the episode more sympathetic. Even if they are evil, watching four normal people (with a fifth as mission control) infiltrate the Watchtower and make off with a giant magical suit of armour is still sort of cool.
      • Speaking of which: Rick Flag, asskicker extraordinaire. Of the four members, three carry weapons. Flag does not. When questioned about this, the simple explanation is "he doesn't need a weapon." He more than lives up to that hype.
    • The head of Cadmus Amanda Waller. Not only is she able to intimidate Batman, she has absolutely no combat training, and yet still goes up against Brainthor along with the original seven with nothing but a handgun, even pulling a brief Back-to-Back Badasses with Green Lantern.
    • Green Lantern gets this himself in 'A Savage Time'. The League is sent back to WWII, where GL's ring runs out and he meets up with a group of Allied soldiers. After proving himself by beating down TheBigGuy, he identifies that he was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. He spends the rest of the movie kicking ass with no super powers what-so-ever.
  • Kaeloo: Mr. Cat. He doesn't have any superpowers, yet he is The Leader of the main four (two of whom do have superpowers), is a highly intelligent Gadgeteer Genius and Child Prodigy, and can handle challenges such as single-handedly reversing the effects of a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Kim Possible is able to hold her own against Shego, a recurring superpowered Arch-Enemy. She's also been known to defeat an entire superteam (in "Stop Team Go") and even go toe to toe with an Eldritch Abomination for a few seconds before he kicked his magic in on her. Her practically superhuman level of agility and fighting skill is usually attributed by her being a really good cheerleader.
  • Darel, the protagonist from Kulipari: An Army of Frogs, is not a Kulipari himself. Nevertheless, he's a brave warrior who constantly trains to be like a Kulipari, and he always manages to hold his own during intense fights.
  • From The Legend of Korra, we've got an organization, the Equalists, who are trying to eradicate bending completely. They are led by the Big Bad Amon, a Magnificent Bastard through and through, who has no problem getting his own hands dirty. He gives numerous benders a chance to fight back before he takes away their bending. None of them succeed in fighting him off. Not even Korra; luckily, he could not take the element she did not yet have. However, this is subverted in the season finale, where it is revealed that Amon (real name Noatak) is actually a waterbender and more importantly, a bloodbender. When he accidentally reveals this to all of Republic City, he and his revolution loses all credibility and he is forced to flee the city.
    • There's also The Lieutenant, who at one point takes on both Mako and Bolin and utterly curb stomps them.
    • Amon has frighteningly competent henchmen. The Equalists have no lack of Elite Mooks, and they use clever strategies and strength in numbers to overwhelm their bending opponents. Even without those, just a few of them can put up a fight against powerful benders. They also have new technology on their side, most distinctively the electroshock weapons that put opponents out of commission quickly, and are particularly effective against the metal-wielding, metal-armored police force.
    • Asami Sato serves as the group's resident Badass Normal, being a talented martial artist who's quite handy with an Equalist Power Fist.
    • Zaheer, the Big Bad of Season 3 is the leader of a group of benders dedicated to killing the Avatar and is treated as equally dangerous as his crew despite the fact that prior to Harmonic Convergence he was a non-bender. However, after the events of Season 2, he gains the ability to Airbend.
    • In season four, Varrick even gets a few moments. Though he's not skilled in combat, he manages to take out multiple mecha tanks on his own just by rigging what looks like an EMP generator. His assistant Zhu Li on the other hand is a straightforwards example of this, being quite capable at piloting Powered Armor as opposed to just designing it. She is also incredibly strong for her size, capable of lifting her much larger boss.
    • Bumi, the oldest of Aang's children, spent most of his life as one as he was the only one of his siblings unable to bend. He actually developed a complex because he was a non-bender born to an Avatar, but he was determined to prove himself in other ways. You don't become a commander of the United Forces without being a badass. Like Zaheer, he gains Airbending late in his life, as well.
  • Band manager Charles Foster Ofdensen of Metalocalypse, who can kick the ass of a man twice his size and be thrown from a top story window and land like a cat. He also runs the seventh largest financial empire in the world.
  • Mighty Max and his allies Virgil and Norman all count, as they often had to defeat super-powered villains while possessing no actual powers of their own aside from Norman's great strength and swordfighting skills.
  • Wayhem from Miraculous Ladybug is a minor example. While at first he only looks like a crazed fan of Adrien, when said person is in danger, Wayhem will do anything to help him. He's even seen standing up to Gorizilla (an akumatized villain of the size of an house). He also realize that Gorizilla can track Adrien through his smell, so he bravely spray some perfume in his face to weaken his sight and sense of smell. And mind that his akumatized identity, Party Crasher, is the first villain that has ever managed to obtain both the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous and needed six heroes to be defeated.
  • Monster Allergy has Elena Potato even though she only has the Sight Dom.
  • My Little Pony: Megan was just a normal preteen girl, surrounded by magical talking horses and a variety of fantasy creatures... but she fought a giant dragon with her bare hands, and killed Tirek, the most evil and violent villain in the show.
  • Quite a few examples in Samurai Jack. There's the Daughters of Aku, the Scotsman's Wife, Josephine, the Shaolin Monks, the African Chief, Jack himself... The big standout though has to be Jack's father, a Japanese king and warlord who managed to subdue Aku without the proper magical weapons needed to properly kill him.
  • Scooby-Doo:
    • Scooby and the Gang themselves. They're just a group of average teens and their Great Dane, but they've outwitted and captured countless hardened criminals and fearsome villains over the franchise history. And as of the direct to video movies, they've battled several legit supernatural foes including Soul-sucking Werecats, a powerful undead witch, a sapient computer virus, and eventually a world-devouring cosmic abomination.
    • For that matter, most of the Gang's many, many costumed enemies count. Despite not being real monsters, they're still frighteningly skilled in disguise and special effects, surprisingly strong(some enough to punch through walls and throw heavy objects) and generally terrorize the populace as good as any genuine supernatural creature. That said some rely on rather implausible tech and abilties, such as the 10'000 Volt Ghost's electro suit and the Ghost Clown's near mystic hypnosis skills, while others are fully functioning robots and mechas like Charlie the Robot, the Snow Beast, and SHARI.
  • In The Secret World of Santa Claus, Guilfi is the only elf without magic powers for most of the show. He is still a great help to Santa.
  • In the world of She-Ra: Princess of Power, almost every female character is either a super powerful Action Girl or Magical Girl, and the Distressed Dude Archer male was a pretty good illusionist. Even then, the sniper Netossa and the space pirate Sea Hawk manage to hold their own when they're in battle despite their lack of magic powers.
  • Cerina from Skysurfer Strike Force, who may be a cyborg, but unlike the rest of the Bioborgs, has no noticeable special powers.
  • In Skyland there's Mahad and Dahlia who, despite not having powers like Mahad's sister Lena, can certainly hold their own against a Sphere patrol. Cortez, although primarily involved in being the leader of the rebel base of Puerto Angel, is no slouch either.
  • Princess Sally in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) doesn't have Sonic's Super-Speed or Bunnie's Super-Strength, much less any superpowers at all, but she is the leader of the Freedom Fighters and a skilled strategist, excellent hacker, and of course, a competent fighter, Damsel in Distress moments aside.
  • Silver Sable and Black Cat are both examples of this from The Spectacular Spider-Man. Tombstone is possibly an example- he is never explicitly stated to have superstrength, but he is shown to be able to trounce Spider-man effortlessly when taking the latter by surprise, and be a match for him even a straight fight. Hammerhead is a partial example- he mostly relies on his strength and skill at brawling, but uses his steel-plated skull to absorb any punishment a normal man couldn't take. The Enforcers also qualify in their first appearance, though later they get upgraded with Powered Armor. Kraven was one, but has now acquired superpowers.
  • Hobgoblin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. In this universe, he predates the Green Goblin, and while his weapons came from Norman Osborn there was no strength-enhancing formula involved. Unfortunately for him, when the Green Goblin does turn up, he's at least as strong as the comics version.
  • In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Marco Diaz has good enough karate skills to defeat Ludo's minions. Star Butterfly herself used to fight with her bare hands before she gained her magic wand.
  • Connie Maheswaran from Steven Universe is a young woman whose only abilities are high intelligence and athelticism. She is completely overshadowed by the Gems who all possess magical properties and superhuman strength and dexterity that Connie cannot hope to match. Despite this, she demonstrates herself an effective combatant and helps Steven on missions despite her comparative frailty to Steven or his Gem allies.
    • This idea is referenced in the episode Rocknaldo. Ronaldo believes this trope is in play for him and becomes jealous when neither the Gems nor Steven allow him to join on missions, and yet Connie is treated as an equal member. Steven eventually snaps at him a few times, and one of the points Steven brings up is that Connie trained to use a sword unlike Ronaldo who believes his abilities will just magically unlock during combat (despite having zero experience).
  • Superfriends: Whether it's dealing with villain with a time manipulation device or a Criminal Amnesiac Superman, Batman and Robin with their intelligence and cunning are equal to nearly any challenge for the Super Friends.
  • The SWAT Kats are two ex-police officers who, despite being Reassigned to Antarctica, manage to construct their own Cool Plane, the TurboKat, from junkyard scrap, alongside a bunch of other vehicles and gear, and manage to save the day. Deputy Mayor Callie Briggs, Enforcer Commander Ulysses Feral, and his niece, Lt. Felina Feral, are also quite capable of standing up to the villainry (though Commander Feral is against the SWAT Kats because of their vigilante activities).
  • Robin from Teen Titans (2003), though it frequently escalates into the Charles Atlas Superpower level. Slade is a villainous subversion of Badass Normal, Word of God clarifies that he is actually enhanced just like in the comics, while in the fourth season an intergalactic demon resurrects him grants him fire powers, until his powers are removed again. He returns to Empowered Badass Normal status by killing a flaming-axe-wielding guardian of the underworld, but prefers to fight like a normal using nothing but tactics and martial arts.
    • And explosives.
    • There's also Red X, who utterly curbstomps all of the Titans at once with barely any effort at all, and that was the first time he faced them. True, he has the stolen suit that Robin created, but the Titans have formidable powers and Robin has all of his own gadgets, and they still could barely touch him.
    • In the spinoff, though he's more insecure in this version, Robin can still prove quite the worthy adversary, most prominently in the movie.
    • Speedy can give Robin a run for his money in the badass normal department with his skill in martial arts and assortment of trick arrows.
  • Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) fits this trope. He manages to take down street gangs, alien triceratops and robots with just a hockey stick, two baseball bats and a golf club, while all he has for protection is a hockey mask.
    • Hamato Yoshi is a posthumous example. Flashbacks show that he was the Battle Nexus champion, a title he would have had to earn by fighting and defeating all types of super-powered aliens from across the multiverse.
  • Thundarr the Barbarian faces off against powerful evil wizards Once an Episode.
  • Spoofed in a Tiny Toon Adventures episode parodying DC comics. Batduck (Plucky Duck) is being inducted into the Just-Us League of Supertoons, whose members mock him for having no superpowers other than his immense ego. However, his lack of superpowers helps him defeat supervillain Wex Wuther (Montana Max) who steals the superpowers of everyone else. For this feat, Batduck becomes the valet for the League members.
  • Transformers: Animated: Captain Fanzone gets an honorable mention here for managing to hold off one of Meltdown's mutated monstrosities by himself (while the other one gave the robot ninja trouble). Despite his trouble with technology and usual Butt-Monkey status, he's still a brave and competent police chief who doesn't let his early prejudice against the Autobots get in the way of upholding the law.
    • And on the organophobic Cybertron he's perceived as a walking bio-terrorism weapon, something he puts to good use to interrogate a robot four times his size.
    • Sari. Sure she's got her all spark key, but there's been several times when it doesn't work and she finds a way to beat the bad guys anyway. Point in case: survival of the fittest — uses the moves Prowl taught her to distract meltdown, Nature calls — manages to escape from and then save zombified Prowl and Bumblebee, Megatron Rising — tricks Blackarachnia into walking in circles, Sari no ones home — fights off the constructicons (admittedly she did use her key several times here, but moments like rollerblading through those automaton arms at full speed still count!)
  • Special Agent Fowler from Transformers: Prime, who can last a few minutes on Soundwave in a fight with just a helicopter, and who survived being tortured repeatedly with an energon-powered transformer-sized cattle prod and still had enough badass in him to mouth off to his torturer.
    • Jack Darby. Regular teenager, works at a burger joint...oh, and has successfully defeated a psychopath Decepticon with nothing but some energon and a multi-tool, traveled to Cybertron, and various other acts of surprising badassery.
    • Silas, the leader of MECH, proves himself to be just as ruthless, competent and deadly as the Decepticons. He proves to be very skilled in guerrilla combat to claim technology, especially from dissecting Cybertronians themselves. He also give Agent Fowler a good beating in unarmed combat, a testament to his experience working in the United State military, and he finally goes all out in controlling his magnum opus, a robotic Evil Knockoff of Prime.
  • T'Challa in the second episode of What If…? (2021). Despite not eating the heart-shaped herb, he has made a name for himself in the galaxy with for his strength, cunning and charisma, acting as the galactic Robin Hood and able to even convince Thanos to give up his mission of genocide.
  • In Wild C.A.T.s (1994), Grifter is the only member of the team who is full-blooded human, while the rest have superpowers due to being descendants or full-blooded members of an ancient alien super-race. His only powers are trickiness, good aim, and general badassery.
    • And was, temporarily, entrusted with the Matrix of Leadership, which arguably made him the first human Prime.
  • In Winx Club, while Cloud Tower and Alfea teach magic to witches and fairies, Red Fountain is a paramilitary school teaching combat, and the students do not do magic. However, Red Fountain is one of the three schools of Magix, on the same level as the first two, and the Red Fountain Specialists are able to effectively fight against magical foes.
    • The Winx themselves are this in the spinoff World of Winx where, because they must go undercover, they must deal with any threats, using their fairy powers only as a last resort.
  • W.I.T.C.H.: Caleb never has any more powers than your basic fit young man, yet he somehow is just as effective in a fight as the main girls who, kinda, control the essence of the five elements! By the end of the second series, even Will's pet dormouse has more powers than him, and he still manages to hold his own in a fight. If that isn't badass, nothing is.
    • Caleb is sometimes more effective than all of the main girls put together.
    • In season 1, Will more or less is a Badass Normal, as her powers hold no use in battle. So the writers have to improvise, giving her what nonmagical actions she needs to fight the bad guys. However, in the second season, once she gains the power of Quintessence, she no longer fits this trope.
  • In Wolverine and the X-Men (2009), there is an episode where a team of non-mutant ninjas attack Xavier's mansion and manage to neutralize all the X-men without being noticed. Those guys from Mutant Response Divisions should have hired ninjas to hunt mutants instead of building giant semi-sentient robots.
  • Xiaolin Showdown brings us self-proclaimed boy genius Jack Spicer, who is generally too incompetent to be holding a lot of the show's MacGuffins, too lazy to learn physics bending Xiaolin arts or Heylin sorcery, and about as fit as you'd expect from someone who travels exclusively by helicopter backpack. Now -WHO- actually ends up taking over the world in the alternate future?. It's important to note, though, that he does show great talent with robotic and programming and was able to construct some impressive machines to replace magical artifacts. He's also surprisingly skilled in winter sports.
  • Young Justice (2010) has many, but a special mention has to go out to Artemis and Robin I/Dick/Nightwing. They turn fight scenes into an art form. When they were fighting together in Homefront, they worked seamlessly together against androids that had taken out their superpowered friends.

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