Someone has to be the powerhouse of the villains; this would be Evil's answer to The Big Guy. A Giant Mook with personality, the Brute is huge, all muscle, loves to fight and is very good at it. However, while he may at first appear to be The Hero's equal or even superior in combat, subsequent battles will in all likelihood establish the Brute as being a constant jobber to the Hero.
He is usually a bully with a hot temper, and more often than not, also very stupid, though there are exceptions. Super Strength and Nigh-Invulnerability are common among powered varieties. Female brutes are rare outside of all-women groups, although not unheard of.
If The Dragon isn't the one that gets sent out to antagonize the heroes on a regular basis, it's this guy. He is usually the lowest-ranking member of the inner circle's hierarchy, and his abrasive personality means he generally gets little respect from them, though he may exercise authority over the mooks.
He is often the first opponent the heroes face after their successes require that someone more capable be sent to take care of them. He tends to be either blindly loyal or just too thickheaded and incompetent to ever stand a chance of overthrowing the leaders. Despite his role as the primary brute force of The Evil Army, he is rarely ever as strong as The Dragon.
One thing to keep in mind with this character type is that it's the role and rank as opposed to just the personality that defines it. Pete from the Disney canon is a classic example of the Brute personality type: a big dumb bully that just loves to throw his own weight around. However, he's generally used as a Big Bad (or, in works like Kingdom Hearts II, The Dragon). As such, in most appearances, he is not technically a Brute.
Considering his aforementioned general role as the mean, stupid, and disrespected meat shield for his team, the Brute tends to be especially susceptible to Humiliation Conga and The Worf Effect. A Brute whose demeanor becomes implacable will quickly ascend to the status of Juggernaut, while the more emotionally volatile risk becoming The Berserker. Be wary too, recruiters, of a Brute who pets the dog, lest he prove to be a closet Gentle Giant and, if you mistreat him once too often, may very well eventually pull a HeelFace Turn (if not a Humiliation Conga of his own) on you. The Dog Bites Back, in other words.
Compare: Smash Mook.
Examples:
- Vetto in Black Clover is the Eye of the Midnight Sun's physical powerhouse who loves fighting and killing. The Guidebook gives him a 5/5 in Brute Force. He's also not too bright having spent so much time buffed up with his Beast Magic, he had forgotten just how much of his supposed strength was due to it. His "strategy" of letting Asta stab him with the Demon-Dweller sword backfires immensely as a result.
- Slayers: Gaav, one of the five Mazoku Lords of Lina Inverse's world, played this to Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo, the local Eldritch Abomination, until he turned The Starscream.
- A female example is Smeddy from Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, a gruff, muscular swordswoman with a sadistic streak who fought the heroes as one of Ashram's Quirky Miniboss Squad.
- Dragon Ball:
- Major Metallitron, the Red Ribbon Android enforcer from Muscle Tower, fills this role well in the early series; he's even based on The Terminator. Dragon Ball: The Path to Power turns him into a Big Scary Black Man.
- Android #8 was supposed to be this, but revealed himself as a Gentle Giant.
- Drum, the second-to-last son of King Piccolo, is an interesting version of this, as his stoutness makes Tien underestimate him and is surprised when Drum turns out to be a Lightning Bruiser and decimates him.
- Nappa, the Older Sidekick to Vegeta, is one of the more notable examples. The first thing he did after landing on Earth was blow up an entire city, and he proved himself to be a nearly indestructible Hero Killer before Goku arrived.
- Dodoria showcases himself as The Brute when he brutally massacres numerous peaceful Namekians and Neck Snaps the village elder's neck in front of his sons. Dodoria's brutality is further shown in the Bardock episode where he's the one who kills Bardock's squad and gloats about it when he meets the team's leader. Ironically he is a Dirty Coward when facing his own death at the hands of Vegeta.
- Despite his persona of graceful beauty Zarbon becomes this in his transformed state.
- Recoome is the nigh-invulnerable brute of the Ginyu Special Force. He is actually quite smart, but very sadistic and cruel without an ounce of sympathy, ending his "fight" with Gohan by breaking the kid's neck.
- Android #19 serves as this for Dr Gero/Android #20, aside from needlessly killings civilians, #19 despite being a machine takes pleasure in his opponent's suffering such as when Goku was weakened by his Heart Virus brutalized him. Much like Dodoria he proves to be cowardly too as he runs away before Vegeta annihilates him.
- In the Buu Saga, Spopovich is very much this for Babidi and he is completely sadistic as he beats the life out of poor Videl to the point where his partner Yama has to demand he stop before he kills her.
- Also from Babidi's goons, Yakon can also be considered this being an outright monster.
- Jiren is this for the Pride Troopers, and is notable for also being the Big Bad of his arc as well.
- The non-canon Dragon Ball movies have Brutes galore:
- Bongo in Curse of The Blood Rubies.
- Ghastel in Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle
- Sanscho in Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone.
- Misokatsun in Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest.
- Almond in Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might.
- Wings in Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.
- Dore in Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge,
- Android 14# in Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13!
- Dragon Ball Z: Broly The Legendary Super Saiyan can be considered The Brute of his own movies. In his canonization Broly is still technically The Brute of the movie but conversely Broly is now a Gentle Giant around Sheelai and Lemo, the people he cares about.
- Bido in Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound.
- Shisami in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F
- Prince Dozle Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam. Noticeably, he was a 7 ft tall Genius Bruiser (meaning, he was no dumbass) made of pure badass who led his troops heroically in the Battle of Solomon.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, which recreates the One Year War in better detail and slightly shifted perspective, Dozle isn't even a Brute, his positive traits, evident even in the original, were really amplified in the Origin, making him more of a Hero Antagonist. So there he is rather a Gentle Giant, basically the only decent human being of his family bar Garma, a loving husband and a Doting Parent, who's just been born with the Face of a Thug. Moreover, even in his military capacity, he's an Officer and a Gentleman, A Father to His Men and a Genius Bruiser.
- Depending on who you ask, one of Dearka Elsman or Yzak Joule is Le Creuset's Brute during the first half of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, while the other is The Dark Chick. Dearka eventually pulls a HeelFace Turn, while Yzak upgrades to The Dragon.
- The Earth Forces have a Brute squad, composed of Slave Mooks Shani Andras, Orga Sabnak, and Clotho Bauer, who provide Azrael with expendable muscle but little else.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny, Auel of the Extended team, and Shinn Asuka comes very close to fulfilling this role hierarchically and personality-wise for the ZAFT team, despite being equal to, or better than, Rey The Dragon, in combat. Shinn is an unusual case in that he's the protagonist and doesn't realize until after ZAFT's defeat that he had been manipulated into fighting for the wrong side.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Michael Trinity in the first season, although his role his cut short when Ali double crosses him and his siblings and murders them. Depending on how you look at it, Graham Aker and/or Soma Preies may fulfill this role for the A-Laws in Season 2; Bring Stability, Divine Nova, or (female example) Hilling Care may be The Brutes for the Innovators.
- Mobile Suit Gundam AGE: In the Second Generation, following his younger brother, Zeheart's promotion to The Dragon, Decil Galette, ex-Enfant Terrible/Child Soldier and current Psycho for Hire & Sociopathic Soldier takes on this role for Vagan's forces, functioning as the high command's attack dog. As the former main villain of the First Generation, and a continuing power player in the Vagan ranks, he's one of the most prominent, and well-developed examples of this in the franchise.
- Decil is modelled on Yazan Gable of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, a thuggish, violent Blood Knight who served as a Hero Killer and Ace Pilot for Paptimus Scirocco. Incredibly dangerous, and with no interest in his superior's politics, Yazan is an example of a very capable Brute rather than The Dragon, and his feral cunning allowed him to cut a swathe through the AEUG's ranks, despite his total lack of Psychic Powers.
- Before Decil, Yazan had another expy in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ's Rakan Dahkaran, a Badass Normal Colonel Kilgore who favoured Lightning Bruiser type mobile suits and served as the muscle for first Haman Khan and later Glemmy Toto. Cold and unemotional, Rakan loves his work nonetheless, and acts as a very capable physical threat to the heroes, while Glemmy and his Dragon Ple-2 lead the army.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack Char Aznable picks up a rare female Brute in Rezun Schneider, a Distaff Counterpart to Yazan and Rakan with the personality to match. She's a badass Oldtype Dark Action Girl with a preference for fast, heavy mobile suits, a staggering Lack of Empathy, and the personality of the most overbearing bitch imaginable.
- Angelo Sauper in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is a straightforward Brute in terms of characterisation, but not in appearance. Instead, he's a Sissy Villain and Flamboyant Gay head over heels for his boss Full Frontal, and his main beef with the heroes is that they don't share the vision of his beloved boss.
- Digimon Xros Wars has Blastmon, a huge blue guy made of diamonds that works for Bagramon
- One Piece has had quite a few and more than a couple overlap with The Dragon.
- Alvida "Arc": Heppoko to Alvida.
- Buggy the Clown Arc: The Superhuman Domingos to Buggy. Mohji counts too.
- Captain Kuro Arc: Buchi to Kuro.
- Baratie Arc: Pearl to Don Krieg.
- Arlong Park Arc: Kuroobi to Arlong. Though since Hatchan The Dragon is pretty harmless as a villain, Kuroobi arguably does that role better.
- Loguetown Arc: Cabaji & Mohji, who used to be Co-Dragons to Buggy.
- Whiskey Peak Arc: Ms. Monday to Mr. 5.
- Little Garden Arc: Mr. 5 to Mr. 3.
- Alabasta Arc: Mr. 4 & Ms. Merry Christmas to Mr. 0.
- Jaya Island Arc: Ross to Bellamy.
- Skypedia Arc: Yama to Enel.
- Davy Back Fight Arc: Big Pan to Foxy.
- Water 7 Arc: The Kariki Destroyers to Franky.
- Eneies' Lobby Arc: Blueno, Furuko, Kumadori, Jabra and to a lesser degree, Oimo and Kashii to Spandam/Rob Lucci.
- Thriller Bark Arc: Ryumma and Absalom to Gecko Moria.
- Sabaody Archipelago Arc: Sentomaru to the Tenryubitto As well as a Dragon to Admiral Kizaru.
- Amazon Lily Arc: Bacura to Boa Hancock, Boa Marigold also fits this role.
- Impel Down Arc: The Demon Guards & The Bluegori to Magellan.
- Maineford Arc: Either Admiral Kizaru & to a lesser degree. The Giant Squad to Fleet Admiral Sengoku or Jesus Burgress, Vasco Shot and San Juan Wolf to Blackbeard.
- Return to Saboody Arc: The fake Sogeking to the fake Luffy/Demalo Black. Of the named bounty heads recruited, Cariboo & Coriboo. And Starscreams, too.
- Fishman Island Arc: Ikaros Much & Dosun to Hodi Jones. Wadatsumi pulls double-duty as both The Brute and The Dragon to Vander Decken IX.
- Punk Hazard Arc: Vice-Admiral Vergo to Doflamingo. In fact, in some translations his Red Baron is "The Brute".
- Dressrosa Arc: Pica and Machvise to again Domflamingo.
- Zou Arc: Jack to Kaido, and Sheepshead is The Brute to Jack himself. We learn later in Wano Jack is below King and Queen being outright Dumb Muscle in comparison.
- Big Mom has quite a few as their her sons:
- Cracker seems to be the embodiment of the trope before he reveals he is much smaller but no less powerful man in a self made biscuit suit.
- Daifuku unlike his other brothers who possess redeeming traits, is just an arrogant violent asshole who lets his genie do the fighting for him and the genie is just as brutish slicing up an entire fleet of battleships (which were on his side) just to kill Carrot.
- Oven is very much this as well, attacking his own sister when he knows she's a traitor and is completely relentless when it come to the heroes using his heat powers to boil them when they escape across the ocean.
- Counter and Cadenza while fairly minor thugs, successfully knock Luffy out cold.
- In Wano Arc:
- Urashima for Kaido's Headliners.
- Page One for the Flying Six.
- Just like DBZ the One Piece movies have a ton of brutes:
- Boo Jack from Clockwork Island Adventure.
- Hot Dog from Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals.
- Boo Kong from The Cursed Holy Sword.
- Kotetsu from Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island.
- Honki from The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle.
- Scarlet from One Piece Film: Strong World.
- Binz from One Piece Film: Z.
- Dice from One Piece Film: Gold.
- This fits the depiction of Thymilph from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann pretty well. A gorilla that is Large and in Charge and the first of the four generals that Simon and crew encounter, this guy has the distinction of being the first villain to kill one of the heroes, namely, Decoy Protagonist and Big Brother Mentor Kamina.
- Viede from the Sinners in Chrono Crusade fills this role, although in the manga he's actually something of a Gentle Giant and a Genius Bruiser. The anime, however, plays him completely straight — most of what he does involves punching his hand into his fist and laughing evilly when he's about to smash things.
- During the Nazi arc in Black Lagoon, Revy, having just come down from a bout of Whitman Fever, faces off against Fritz Stanford (or in the manga, Blitz Stanford), the biggest member of the Neo-Nazi Aryan Socialist Union. He carries a big-ass golden Luger Hand Cannon whose destructive power he shoots his mouth off about. This shooting off at the mouth gets him killed, as Revy spends the rant reloading her gun and then gunning him down mid-sentence.
- Normally she's The Dragon to Mr. Chang, but Shenhua arguably fills this role in the Bounty Hunter gang that Russel hires to go after Rock, Revy, and Eda in the Greenback Jane arc. She's tough, persistent, and a physical match for Revy (though not nearly as bright), and is a secondary threat when compared with Russel's lunatic Dragon, Claude Weaver.
- Vita of the Wolkenritter from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's ties this trope in a knot. Yes we are looking at a hot tempered, rude, and arrogant warhammer-wielding berserker. However, not only are the Wolkenritter in general the platonic ideal of anti-villains but Vita herself is an (apparently) eight-year old redhead in a poofy dress and matching hat.
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, there are several brutes among the Numbers. Dieci has the strongest firepower, Deed is the best in armed close-combat, Nove has a very hot temper whose very strong in close-combat, Sette has a heavily combat-orientated personality, and Cinque is one of the strongest, but isn't one of the Co-Dragons.
- In Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha FORCE, Deville of Hückebein is probably the best example in his family, having the largest build, An Axe to Grind and the most drastic change when Reacting so far. Arnage also fits, thanks to her reckless Macross Missile Massacre/More Dakka fighting style, and if they aren't enough, she switches immediately to a Wave-Motion Gun. On the other hand, she could also be a Dark Chick.
- Quinn Garland is the special attacker of the Grendel Family, and has some anger issues in contrast to the more level-headed dragon, Mariya Ranevskaya.
- Anji the Destroyer of Rurouni Kenshin serves as Shishio's brute. He's physically the strongest of Shishio's men, is the first one to be defeated (and the only member of the inner circle, other than The Starscream, to be defeated by someone other than Kenshin, specifically Sano who's halfway between The Lancer and The Big Guy). Interestingly, he's also the most moral of Shishio's henchmen, and is neither a pushover nor an idiot, being a seven foot tall, Badass Preacher, ex-Buddhist monk, with some serious culture and brainpower, as well as a genuinely sympathetic backstory. Still very much The Brute though, especially in combat. Inui Banjin (Thuggish, brutal, and stupid.) and Kujirinami Hyogo (See previous description, but add a legitimate grievance against Kenshin, berserker tendencies and an inability to fall down or give up) are Enishi's Brutes during the final arc of the manga.
- Maro, the sumo-wrestler-esque, gravity controlling Taoist from Black Cat is definitely Creed's Brute. He's big, none-too bright, a purely physical fighter, and intensely loyal. He's also the highest ranking member outside of Creed's inner circle, and often relays Shiki's orders to the other grunts.
- In the Band of 7 arc in Inuyasha Ginkotsu is The Brute to Bankotsu, the temporary Big Bad and leader of the Band of 7. He's big, stupid, very loyal, and relies on Brute force to win, while being the lowest ranking member of the group and subordinate to Evil Genius Renkotsu.
- Gluttony and Sloth in Fullmetal Alchemist are both Dumb Muscle giants who rely on overpowering their opponents. They're also clearly at the bottom of the homunculus totem pole.
- In Naruto Jiroubou of the Sound Five definitely qualifies. One could argue that Hidan, Kakuzu, or Kisame fulfills this role for the Akatsuki, and that Jugo (his bloodthirsty side, at least) is Sasuke's in Hebi / Taka.
- Sasuke in Tobi's post-Pain Akatsuki; Zetsu and Kisame are Tobi's Co-Dragons, with Zetsu being more of the right-hand man and Kisame being more of the strong right arm, but both have Tobi's absolute trust and display Undying Loyalty to him. Sasuke, on the other hand, is well-known for his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, so while he sees himself as an Aloof Ally or Dragon with an Agenda, Tobi tends to throw him and his followers at difficult problems, like softening up a priority target such as a jinchuuriki and a kage. The assignments he gave Zetsu and Kisame and their roles in his plans compared to how Sasuke is used makes it abundantly clear that Sasuke's quest for revenge has put him under the power of a guy who sees him as expendable muscle. The revived Madara Uchiha is this for Tobi and Kabuto's alliance (alongside Sasuke), due to him having both the Mangekyo Sharingan and Rinnegan along with inexhaustible reserves of chakra and sheer raw power greater than any other Edo Tensei zombie. Then Kabuto gets taken out of the picture and Madara takes his spot in the Big Bad Duumvirate.
- Bleach: Yammy Llargo is an unskilled mass of raw temper and rage, who lives for destroying and consuming souls and never develops the spiritual skills that make other Espada and even Fracciónes so dangerous. He is the lowest-ranking member of the Espada until his rage-fuelled Resureccion is released, which powers him up to become the strongest, angriest, most violent and most thoughtless of all Espada. As a result, he is viewed as an embarrassment by the Espada and an unworthy opponent by the Shinigami. He has average intelligence, which makes him on the bottom of the Espada in terms of brains yet again.
- Berserk:
- Zondark for the Count, being one of the few humans bigger than Guts and twice as arrogant. After losing to the Anti-Hero he becomes a Pseudo-Apostle devolving into a mass of tentacles.
- In the Golden Age, Adon Coborlwitz is supposed to be this for the Tudor army but his brother Samson fills the role better as a mindless brute.
- In the Bakiraka the massive Spearman is clearly this, ironically he is killed by Judeah one of the shorter members of the Band of Hawk.
- Wyald appears to be this for Zodd being a brutish Killer Gorilla who loves to Rape, Pillage, and Burn. Despite his strength he is the first Apostle Guts defeats.
- Conrad, the huge, apparently mute member of the Godhand from He's almost psychopathically destructive (what with the whole, unleashing a plague thing) and seems to be lowest on the totem pole.
- The massive Apostle-beetle man who serves Rosine in the Lost Children arc counts as this, given he nearly chopped off Gutss head with his pincers.
- The Angel Face to Mozgus, being literal Dumb Muscle with the face and IQ of a child, strong enough to give Guts a spectacular beating.
- In the New Band of Hawk, Grunbeld has this position as a huge Blood Knight, though his back story shows he is a Tragic Villain. Zodd probably fits the bill better as he holds the same position that Guts did for Griffith during the Golden Age.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Varon/Valon from the Dartz arc in favours an Armour deck, attacks his opponents himself, and is extremely violent.
- Ota/Nezbitt uses a Machine deck based on brute firepower. He takes three people at once and his main schtick is inflicting as much damage as possible without planning ahead. During the duel against Yugi and Jonouchi, Ota is the only member of the Big Five to fall for Yugi's bluff while the other four members don't.
- In the Duelist Kingdom arc, Player Killer of Darkness/PaniK is The Brute to the rest of Pegasus' eliminators. A gigantic man with a sadistic streak, the Player Killer of Darkness gets a real kick out of tormenting opposing players, but is really a coward at heart. He uses flamethrowers (or, in the manga, a spring-loaded garrote built into the dueling platform) to disorient his opponents, and after losing to Yami Yugi, actually tries to kill him. It's implied rather strongly that he's actually a very bad Duelist, and relies on psyching his opponents into making mistakes to stand a chance against foes above his weight class like Mai Kujaku. When he realizes this won't work on Yugi, he has a Villainous Breakdown.
- Bandit Keith Howard is essentially a Brute who got away, having the personality, but being loyal to no one but himself. Among his henchmen, Dumb Muscle Satake/Zygor could also be seen as a Brute-ish type.
- Ryudou "The Undead" Hishiki, in Get Backers. He's actually the only villain the titular heroes go to great lenghts avoiding to fight.
- Fairy Tail has several examples: Toby Horhorta from Galuna Island, Aria from Phantom Lord, and Bickslow from Fighting Festival.
- While Gamagoori is the largest member of Kill la Kill's Elite Four, Athletics Committee Chairman Uzu Sanageyama is the actual Brute, being the challenge-seeking Blood Knight and offensive powerhouse of the team.
- Stinch is this to the Engineers of Hollow Fields. Designed to be "the perfect watchdog" by Miss Weaver, he serves as a hall monitor, intimidating and bullying the students into following his command. Unfortunately for him, because this is a setting full of Evil Geniuses, he gets taken advantage of because of his dimness, causing him to have a Villainous Breakdown in the climax.
- Tessai from Ninja Scroll. He is a giant who can turn his skin to stone at will and wields a BFS that doubles as a boomerang. How he's able to move with the grace and agility of a ninja is up for debate.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Tarkus from Phantom Blood is the biggest and physically strongest of Dio's zombie army, and, alongside Bruford and Dio, one of the few characters able to give Jonathan an even fight. And unlike most examples, he's actually quite intelligent.
- Santana from Battle Tendency is the least talkative of the Pillar Men, and the only one who relies almost completely on his brute strength. This is rather justified, as Joseph fights him almost immediately after he's woken up and he's still adjusting to the new world.
- Secco from Vento Aureo has enough physical strength via his Stand to go toe-to-toe with Bruno, but he's rather lacking in intelligence. That is, until it's revealed to be an act.
- X-Men
- Blob is usually portrayed this way in most media and adaptations.
- Quicksilver boils down to role for his father Magneto a lot of the time as well like in Ultimate X-Men. Though he pulled off a HeelFace Turn in the main universe.
- The Juggernaut is defined by this role for his partner in crime Black Tom.
- The Sentinels for Bolivar Trask.
- Avalanche, Pyro and formerly Rogue were this for Mystiques Brotherhood of Mutants.
- Sabretooth to Magneto or Weapon X.
- Omega Red to The Don Matsu'o Tsurayaba.
- Donald Pierce for the Hellfire Club.
- Though he outstrips most of them in terms of power, Gladiator is often this to the Shi'ar Empire e.g The Dark Phoenix Saga.
- Spider-Man
- Rhino in has generally been portrayed this way. His Dumb Muscle personality was even used in a Homage to Flowers for Algernon where he briefly became smarter. Subverted in the Ultimate Spiderman game, where Rhino is a geeky genius in a robotic Suit who only speaks Latin until he's defeated.
- Among The Sinister Six, Sandman and Kraven also fulfill this trope.
- Scorpion frequently serves as The Brute for the Sinister Six and later the Dark Avengers.
- Venom becomes this for the Sinister Six, as well as for the Revengers as Anti-Venom.
- Titania is a fairly rare female example. Fittingly she married the equally brutish Absorbing Man whose often The Brute for villain teams himself.
- Validus of the Fatal Five from Legion of Super-Heroes.
- Bambi Baker from Strangers in Paradise is a female example, but then most of the SiP cast is female.
- Green Lantern: Parallax, despite being an Anthropomorphic Personification of fear itself, acts like a bully and is the first of the Sinestro Corps' five leaders to be defeated in Sinestro Corps War. For more Corps-specific examples, the Sinestro Corps have Arkillo, and the Red Lanterns have Skallox.
- Batman:
- Most incarnations of Killer Croc. When he was introduced in 1983, he was actually portrayed as a dangerously cunning Genius Bruiser with a chip on his shoulder, but as time went by, Flanderization set in as writers focused more and more exclusively on his brute strength at the expense of his other traits, and at his worst (around Batman: Hush), he was written as little more than a hungry animal. The introduction of Bane, another Genius Bruiser, rendered the original characterization of Croc redundant - few people remember that running Batman ragged and breaking his back was how Croc was introduced. The current in-universe explanation/retcon is that his mutation is degenerative, slowly making his brain more reptilian as well as his body.
- On the other hand, the Man-Bat, is usually just a near-mindless beast.
- Though he often depicted as The Dragon Crossbones is more often than not The Brute for Hydra.
- Darth Nihl and Darth Stryfe from Legacy are the least cunning of the main Sith characters but are their two strongest warriors. Stryfe in particular is single-minded about killing anything that his boss, Darth Krayt, doesn't like.
- In the Republic comics, and the various other media that he appears in, Gen'Dai Bounty Hunter Durge plays this role to Asajj Ventress and Count Dooku. An eight-foot Implacable Man with a Healing Factor and a well-deserved reputation as a Hero Killer, Durge was a near-unstoppable killing machine, who was nevertheless totally subordinate to Dooku and his commanders.
- The Wrecking Crew from The Defenders serve as Brutes in all villainous ensembles, like in Secret Wars.
- Abomination to Hulk's The Big Guy.
- Red Hulk too, though he isn't dumb.
- Ironclad from the U-Foes (Evil Counterparts of the Fantastic Four), which (uncharacteristically) belong to the Incredible Hulk's Rogues Gallery.
- Skaar, Hulks son for the Dark Avengers
- Blockade, from the original Guardians of the Galaxy.
- Black Dwarf for Thanos being the powerhouse of the Mad Titan's army. At one point Black Dwarf withstood attacks from Ronan, Super-Skrull, and Annihilus at the same time and did not even flinch. Though his head is the weak point.
- Solomon Grundy is typically The Brute The League of Doom uses against the Justice League of America.
- Interestingly Cheetah is often a rare female example.
- Though they both are quite intelligent, Black Adam and Gorilla Grodd fall into this trope when The Joker and Lex Luthor are in command.
- Patch from Scourge's Suppression Squad in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics).
- If a Sin City mafioso needs a big guy to smack the hero around, they will call Manute everytime. Subverted in that he is quite intelligent and rarely loses his cool.
- Due to Superman's powers, several of his "normal" foes (especially Lex Luthor) often resort to a super-powered brute to do the physical work against Superman. Examples include Bizarro, Metallo and the Parasite, all of whom Luthor used as brutes in the Last Son storyline. When Luthor is dealing with a normal human being he instead resorts to bodyguards like Hope and Mercy.
- Most of the enemies that Werewolf by Night fought were big dumb monsters out to smash stuff and hurt people.
- The Astro City villain Slamburger looks like a half-ton of sulfurous ground beef and has the personality to match.
- Ulik the Rock Troll from The Mighty Thor shows up nine times out of ten as muscle for the main bad guy of the story.
- Requiem Vampire Knight features a textbook example and the other not-so-much:
- Attila the Hun serves Dracula his fleet admiral and is exceptionally large for an vampire. He is also not very bright either and tries to have the main protagonist killed for being a degenerate that displays honor and chivalry - which are taboo in the world they live in.
- Thurim is a very unconventional example compared to Attila, since he has a rather lean-build instead of looking like a brutish fiend. With that said, he fits the trope nicely, acting as muscle powerhouse for the conspirators that seeking to overthrow Dracula and he certainly has a fitting personality to match. For bonus points, he wields a magic warhammer in combat.
- Wonder Woman: Prior to Wonder Woman (Rebirth) where his attempts to reform into a modern style hero panned out a bit better than in previous incarnations Hercules Unbound had incredible strength that he would turn on people with little notice, and obscure reasoning. He was also incredibly misogynistic by today's terms and his father can set him on people quite easily since he rarely thinks things through before acting.
- Bluto from Elsie Segar's Thimble Theatre first introduced himself in 1932 by saying he would kill Popeye come the morning. Since then in both print and on film, Bluto, whose bruteness has been lampshaded many times by Olive Oyl, has been a pain in Popeye's side.
- Rep-Stallion from My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic.
- Out of the three main big bads in Teenage Jinchuriki Shinobi, Utrom Shredder fills this position the most, as unlike Orochimaru and Kira, he specializes almost entirely in physical combat.
- Ryuji Sakamoto in The Evil Queen serves as Makoto's enforcer to bully students to get in line with her high standards. He's regularly called Makoto's "attack dog", a sentiment Makoto herself has.
- Commander Hildread from the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fic Loved and Lost is this among the main minions (who're all female) of Prince Jewelius. A tall pegasus whose right wing is completely metallic, she's Canterlot's head jailer who was expelled from the Royal Guard because she's a sadistic Knight Templar who arrogantly believes she can ensure national security better than the heroes with extreme brutality.
- Beauty and the Beast has Tom, Dick and Stanley. All three are local bullies who assist Gaston and Lefou's schemes throughout the film out of pettiness and For the Evulz; Stanley in particular is of a size comparable to Gaston.
- A Bug's Life gives us Thumper. He's so vicious the other grasshoppers have to keep him on a leash much of the time.
- Banzai from The Lion King is a large, aggressive hyena who thinks with his muscles.
- Robin Hood has Captain Crocodile, the captain of Prince John's guards. He serves as backup muscle to the Sheriff of Nottingham and is shown to be the most physically capable of the villains, holding his own against Robin Hood and is only taken down (temporarily) by a horde of stampeding rhinos.
- The Green Goblin, Tombstone and Scorpion for Kingpin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Green Goblin is hulking, angry muscle, Scorpion is the Psycho for Hire type, and Tombstone is just Kingpin's bodyguard... not that he needs it.
- The Cymbal-Banging Monkey from Toy Story 3. He is Lotso's nighttime guard and he makes sure no toy leaves Sunnyside Daycare. He is so strong that he easily overpowers Woody before being defeated by him and Slinky. He doesn't speak, but he does make screeching monkey noises.
- The Batman movies have some brutes:
- In Tim Burton's Batman (1989), the Joker had Lawrence, who also carried around a boombox to provide the background music. Theres also the unnamed Big Scary Black Man who beats up Batman in he Final Battle. Jack Napier himself was the Brute for Carl Grissom's gang, being the most physical of the hoodlums. It's not all that hard to bully a Fat Bastard like Eckhardt.
- Bane in Batman & Robin is a clear example. While hes dangerously intelligent in the comics, film-Bane is an incoherent muscle-bound moron. The Dark Knight Rises corrects this; he becomes a Genius Bruiser, though he still actually fits the role — whether or not you believe that he's serving directly under Talia, he is still part of an evil team with her and serves as her muscle.
- The Brute Man. It's....right there in the title. And yet hilariously enough, the titular character is exclusively only ever referred to as "The Creeper." Very much pointed out in the film's MST3K feature episode.
- Commando: Cooke is a Scary Black Man and ex-Green Beret who's the largest of Arius' henchmen and gives Matrix his toughest fight outside of Bennett.
- Thorgrim to Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian (1982). He's a big (6'5") man who raised a snake, knows how to Drop the Hammer and not much else. This part proves to be his downfall in the climax when Conan deliberately leaves a helmet within Thorgrim's line of sight; Thorgrim hits it, causing a thick spike to be planted straight in his chest.
- DC Extended Universe:
- Man of Steel: During the Battle of Smallville, Faora is accompanied by Nam-Ek, a fellow Kryptonian warrior. The difference between the two is that Nam-Ek's nine feet tall and encased in armor. He noticeably matched Superman in strength while Faora The Dragon focused on speed and skill, despite his clear usefulness Nam-Ek disappears completely in the Final Battle.
- Doomsday from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is an "ancient Kryptonian deformity" upwards of 15 feet tall who is created by Lex Luthor as a last trump card against Superman. Doomsday reacts to everything with animalistic rage, sends Superman and Wonder Woman sprawling with every punch, overpowers Superman's heat vision, can survive being hit with a nuke, and was generally considered too dangerous to even exist by the Kryptonian genetic council.
- Incubus to The Enchantress in Suicide Squad (2016). Also The Dragon.
- Ludendorff from Wonder Woman (2017) though he's set up as the Big Bad, boils down to this role as Ares is the real Greater-Scope Villain.
- Black Manta to Orm in Aquaman though it's clear by the end of the film, he's become the up in coming Big Bad in his own right.
- In Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, Mario Brega consistently plays the Brute in each film as a Giant Mook for the villains who is brought in to beat up The Man with No Name (or Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). In For a Few Dollars More, his character Niño is also The Dragon to El Indio.
- Storm Shadow from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Firefly from G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
- Luca Brasi from The Godfather is Don Corleone's bodyguard and personal hatchet man, a fearsome figure who is capable of committing assassinations without backup and once went on a rampage for days when Don Corleone was attacked and had to be personally called off by him. On more humorous notes he has to rehearse his speech at Connie Corleone's wedding.
- Hero and the Terror: Simon Moon. A truly massive monster and Serial Killer who is just pure uncontrolled rage, so strong that he easily overpowers Chuck Norris himself in the opening. He lacks "higher reasoning skills", to boot.
- Michael in Hot Fuzz.
- The Hunger Games: Marvel in the Career Tributes' team.
- The trope shows up fairly often in the James Bond series. These actually often have a character filling the roles of both Dragon and Brute, emphasising the difference between the mental power of the Big Bad and the physical power of his chief henchman. Leaving aside the smart ones like Gobinda in Octopussy who are pure Dragon examples include:
- Red Grant in From Russia with Love, who is interesting in that he also has the most direct role in the action, and spawned similar characters like Kriegler in For Your Eyes Only, Necros in Film The Living Daylights, and Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies.
- Oddjob in Goldfinger.
- Osato's car driver in You Only Live Twice, played by Peter Maivia, Dwayne Johnson's grandfather. He can endure several hits of sofa and punching him in the face is quite ineffective (much like Oddjob). Hes also shown to be Ax-Crazy, as evidenced by his glee when he finds a katana and hacks at Bond with it.
- Grunther from On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Interestingly Bond never actually faces him in combat, that job falls to Tracy.
- Whisper in Live and Let Die is a near-silent henchman who is built much more stoutly than his Lean and Mean compatriots like Tee-Hee and Baron Samedi.
- Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. He has superhuman strength, can even kill a shark with his teeth, and is ungodly tough since he shrugs off whatever's thrown at him throughout both films.
- Eric Kriegler in For Your Eyes Only.
- Necros in The Living Daylights, depending on whether or not you consider Koskov to be The Dragon. He'd fit under the Genius Bruiser type.
- Braun in Licence to Kill is a large (6'3"), silent henchman for Franz Sanchez.
- Xenia Onatopp from Goldeneye is an interesting example; while she doesn't fit the physical archetype, her job specialty (she's brought in as a hitman) and personality cement her as such (she gets sexually enthused by violence).
- Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies, also The Dragon.
- Bullion in The World Is Not Enough, who happens to overlap with The Mole. There's also Gabor, Elektra's bodyguard who is sent to kidnap M.
- Mr. Kil in Die Another Day.
- Hinx in Spectre.
- Kill Bill:
- Gogo Yubari, O'Ren Iishi's psychotic bodyguard. Even The Bride, a ruthless Professional Killer, deems her crazy.
- Budd for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. He's the biggest, wields more powerful weapons (like a shotgun) and unlike his compatriots has let his skills atrophy. However, he's far from stupid and his clash with the Bride ends with a resounding victory for him where he could have easily killed her had he wanted to.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Abu Bakaar for The Ten Rings in Iron Man, he is a Fat Bastard who tortures Tony as well as killing and brutalizing poor villagers in Gulmira. Of course, he is also a coward as seen when Tony shows up in his Sunday best and he hides behind a wall only to brought out with a Barrier-Busting Blow.
- Ellen Brandt from Iron Man 3 is a rare female example. She acts as backup muscle for Eric Savin and shows a certain love for her work.
- Kurse in Thor: The Dark World, starting off as a normal dark elf after he uses the Kurse Stone; he's strong enough to back hand Mjölnir when Thor throws it at him and mercilessly kills Frigga earning the wrath of both her sons (Thor and Loki). It takes a black hole to kill him.
- Brock Rumlow from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, while at first he seems like a reliable ally to Cap; Rumlow reveals his true colors and allegiance to HYDRA halfway through the movie. While he doesn't pose any significant threat to Cap, to regular humans (like Sharon Carter and Falcon) he is extremely dangerous and uses cheap tactics to get an advantage. In Captain America: Civil War he becomes "Crossbones" and much more of a threat to Cap, able to knock him around with his Power Fist.
- Korath the Pursuer from Guardians of the Galaxy: Cyborg + Big Scary Black Man who works for Thanos then Ronan the Accuser who can get knocked down by shots that kill the Mooks and keep going. Korath is especially brutal to Peter Quill since "Star-Lord" got the jump on him at the start of the movie. Luckily for Quill, Drax takes issue with the cyborg "hurting his friend" and murders Korath when he attacks Quill.
- The Shocker (both versions of him) from Spider-Man: Homecoming. Unlike The Vulture, The Shocker(s) technology revolves around just punching and shooting electricity.
- Fenris from Thor: Ragnarok overlaps between this and Right-Hand Attack Dog. Notably she's the second villain to make the Hulk bleed since the Abomination in 2008.
- Avengers: Infinity War: Cull Obsidian. He's the strongest and most physically imposing member of the Children of Thanos, being just as tall and muscular as the Hulk. He also seems to be the least intelligent among them, speaking only in unintelligible grunts and relying mostly on brute strength to win his fights. Ironically he's killed by plain old Doctor Bruce Banner instead of his big green alter ego who fittingly uses Cull's lack of smarts to defeat him. He returns in Avengers: Endgame thanks to Time Travel, but he's the first Children of Thanos to go down when Spider-Man and Ant-Man team up to crush him underfoot.
- Bron-Char from Captain Marvel is The Brute of the Starforce; though he's actually softer-spoken than his build suggests, he's still brutal in combat. However, while he's strong, Bron-Char is effortlessly beaten by the title heroine in her Super Mode, being quite weaker than his comic counterpart.
- Leroy in Mystery Team.
- Pirates of the Caribbean:
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Bo'sun the Big Scary Black Man to Barbossa, even though he's technically The Dragon.
- Among the Fish People crew of the Flying Dutchman Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest there's Maccus the hammerhead shark Man for Davy Jones
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End adds Morey the eel headed man.
- In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, has Gunner the zombie. We know that he was cruel and sadistic, even before being a zombie.
- The Big Bad of Primecut has a hulking, mentally retarded assistant called Weenie.
- Pulp Fiction: Vincent Vega is a rare protagonist example. Hes an abrasive but quiet Professional Killer who serves crime boss Marsellus Wallace and hes Dumb Muscle: he doesn't clear an apartment which nearly gets him and his partner killed, has little understanding of gun safety, doesnt wash his hands correctly, and winds up dead because he leaves a loaded gun where his target can access it.
- Reservoir Dogs has Mr. Blonde. Hes the largest of the gang of criminals that the film follows (6'2") and is a psychopath who likes torturing cops for fun.
- Torque, the robot-henchman from Robot Holocaust.
- Lothar in The Rocketeer, who was modeled upon 30s film actor Rondo Hatton.
- Dredger from Sherlock Holmes (2009). He stands 611 and serves as a Giant Mook for Lord Blackwood, dogging Holmes throughout the film.
- General Zod from Superman II has Non, a hulking, "mindless aberration whose only means of expression are wanton violence and destruction".
- In Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Lex Luthor creates the Nuclear Man, a brute who barely talks, to kick Superman around.
- Transformers Film Series:
- In the second film, Grindor acts as this during the 3-on-1 battle in the forest while in the final battle, the role clearly belongs to Devastator.
- Shockwave's Driller in the third film.
- The View Askewniverse:
- Mallrats: Mr. LaFours is a massive mall security guard who can take a swing from a bat to the head and get up, working for Jared Svenning to stop T.S. and Brodie from either ruining his game show or dating his daughter.
- Dogma: The Golgothan is Hell's top assassin, a hulking monster who's composed of the poop of every criminal who died at Golgotha. He is defeated quite comically.
- White House Down:
- Carl Killick is a massive, muscled bully who is brought in to take hostages and intimidate them.
- Vadim also qualifies seeing as he is one of the most aggressive terrorists and gives Cale one of the hardest fights in the film.
- Wolf Warrior II: "Great Bear" is one of the evil Private Military Contractors. He isn't the boss' deputy, he's just a large, powerful man who can fire an FN Minimi machine gun (or near equivalent) single handed. Probably the boyfriend of Dark Action Girl Athena.
- X-Men Film Series:
- Sabretooth to Magneto in X-Men, as he's the largest of the Brotherhood and uses brute force in his fights in contrast with his teammates Mystique and Toad who employ ambushes and acrobatics.
- Staff Sergeant Lyman to Stryker in X2: X-Men United and Brainwashed and Crazy Cyclops effectively becomes this.
- The Juggernaut from X-Men: The Last Stand is big and strong and expresses pleasure at being given an order to kill children.
- Riptide in X-Men: First Class, though hes not as physical as Azazel.
- The younger William Stryker serves this role to Trask in X-Men: Days of Future Past though the Sentinels are more fitting of this trope.
- Angel plays this role in the Four Horsemen of the titular villain in X-Men: Apocalypse, especially since apart from Metallic Feather Projectiles, Flight and general brute strength he has absolutely no special powers and pales in comparison to other horsemen.
- Yojimbo: Kannuki the Giant is a hulking (6'8") henchman for Ushitora who sometimes wields a giant mallet in combat. Probably an inspiration for Mario Brega's character Chico in A Fistful of Dollars (see above).
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- Ser Gregor Clegane (AKA "The Mountain that Rides") is this to a T. He's not on any inner circle, in part because he's too psychotic for that, and because Lord Tywin Lannister doesn't really keep an inner circle, (he has one or two people he genuinely consults with such as his brother Kevan, the rest are dupes that he manipulates) however he is Tywin's choice for virtually all of the dirty and bloody work that needs to be done, and shows real taste for and skill at it. He's also the World's Strongest Man and the physically largest human seen so far (almost 80 tall), and will gleefully show it off.
- Similarly, Victarion Greyjoy is this for House Greyjoy. They also make an interesting comparison, as they are two very different characters who fall under the same trope type; while Clegane is a vicious and amoral sadist, Victarion is The Fettered, believing wholeheartedly in the grim, Even Evil Has Standards code of honor that the Iron Men share.
- Shagga son of Dolf serves as a Boisterous Bruiser style Brute to Tyrion, doing most of his dirty work, while Tyrion and Bronn keep their hands relatively clean. Timmett son of Timmett is somewhere between this and a second Dragon.
- Ser Amory Lorch is a far less impressive Brute for the Lannisters - he's essentially nothing more than an idiotic thug, lacking Gregor Clegane's Super Strength and fear factor. His only conceivably useful quality is his utter ruthlessness.
- David Eddings:
- Adus in The Elenium trilogy. "Just put armor on a gorilla and you've got him." He's a mentally-handicapped thug who serves Martel as his best enforcer and killer. Martel considers Adus to be little more than a weapon ("I use him for killing people") and everyone who meets him looks down on him due to his stupidity and lack of hygiene. He has all the hallmarks of the personality type too, being dumb, but a savante when it comes to small unit tactics, willing to cut through his own men just to get to the heroes, and lacking the ability to so much as read.
- Taur Urgas, the King of Cthol Murgos, in The Belgariad. He's got all the hallmarks of the personality: no empathy, Ax-Crazy, a Berserker in combat, and he also seems to fit in terms of his position and role in the villainous hierarchy: he's the ruler of one of the largest countries subject to Torak, and provides manpower and muscle for the Angarak armies, while still being subject to Ctuchik, Torak's Dragon.
- In The Redemption of Althalus Pekhal and Gelta are the ones that Ghend calls in when he and Daeva have a situation that requires straight up brute force, as opposed to cunning or subtlety (which Evil Genius Argan and Dark Chick Koman deal with). Both are relics from the Stone Age, and are vicious, cruel, more than a little stupid, and in Gelta's case prone to fits of psychotic rage. They don't get much more brutish.
- Lu Bu in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Initially, he is able to handily intimidate all dissenters from taking down Dong Zhou, drive away Cao Cao when Cao Cao comes to assassinate Dong Zhou, and take on Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, and Liu Bei at once. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Liu Bei are held up as amazing warriors because three on one they didn't flee Lu Bu and forced him to retire. Lu murders his lord and adopted father for a horse, his next lord for a 16 year old dancer (not that kind), and dies an alcoholic wreck of a man.
- Ronald Niedermann from The Millennium Trilogy is able to deal out a lot of pain, being able to break normal people's necks like sticks. Coupled with the fact that he is unable to feel pain due to a neuralgic defect, it makes him nearly unstoppable.
- In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "A Witch Shall Be Born," Khumbanigash.
- In Malevil, Armand serves as the Sinister Minister's enforcer; big, dumb, and cruel, a man who only understands bullying people.
- Harry Potter:
- Crabbe and Goyle are this to school bully Draco Malfoy. They are described as being dimwitted (they didn't pass their exams in fifth year) and having gorilla-like arms. They are always seen accompanying Draco, being used by him to intimidate his victims.
- Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were the two largest Death Eaters present at Voldemort's rebirth and seem just as dull-witted as their sons.
- Thorfinn Rowle is this within Voldemort's Death Eaters. He is one of, if not the largest of the Death Eaters and usually duels in a very skilled and aggressive manner, killing one of his fellow Death Eaters with a stray shot.
- Walden Macnair is a large, bloodthirsty and aggressive Death Eater. He spent the years between wars as an executioner for the Ministry, greatly appreciated Voldemort's promise of victims, and helped recruit the Giants by bonding over bloodshed. Hagrid refers to him as a maniac.
- Another good example is the savage Werewolf Fenrir Greyback. He is an ally to the Death Eaters who revels in his bloodlust. Voldemort used him as a weapon to intimidate people into doing his bidding. If people refused, Fenrir would be sent to attack their children.
- In the later books, it is revealed Voldemort acquired Giants for his army. In this universe, Giants are a sentient species slightly less intelligent compared to humans, but have the power to make up for it.
- René St. Charles from Samhain Island is described as having "muscles that could rival a wrestler" and does most of the dirty work. If it wasn't for the intervention of Miss Vargas he would have ended up shooting a thirteen-year-old.
- Tool in Ship Breaker is set up to be one to first Lucky Strike and then Richard Lopez. Subverted, as he's actually a Genius Bruiser & The Unfettered, and is thus works for no one. Regular Halfmen, who are The Fettered fulfill the stereotype better.
- In the Black-and-Gray Morality world of The Godfather, Luca Brasi is a rare protagonist version of this, but man is he brutal! Read 'throwing a newborn baby in a furnace because he didn't want illegitimate children' brutal. It's little wonder he's the Corleones' most feared enforcer, and it's why, when he is the first of the protagonists' side to die in the story proper, Barzini's people do not give him an opportunity to fight back before making him sleep with the fishes.
- In the late Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure Of The Mazarin Stone" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sam Merton fills the role of the brute.
- Wild Rhona, the protagonist in A Harvest of War, almost seven feet tall and over 300lbs of solid muscle. She's fast and smart for this trope and on the good guys' side to boot, but her mean streak is so wide that, together with the even heavier and less vicious Baindur, it pushes her into this trope.
- Baroness Shelby is a straighter example, if much smaller and also not lacking in brains, skill and agility.
- Cato in The Hunger Games, and the aptly named Brutus in Catching Fire.
- The Osthan from The First Dwarf King could be seen as this; however, unusually for this trope, they avert Dumb Muscle, instead being a group of Genius Bruisers.
- In the Erebus Sequence, Golia, the most physically imposing of the Orfani, is also both the nastiest and stupidest. He's being prepared for a role as dumb muscle, but thinks he's being prepared to be the next king. (He doesn't genuinely care, and just wants to strike out at people who think they're better than him.)
- Yerrininae, the leader of Xorlarrin's drider force in Companions Codex is the strongest drider seen in The Legend of Drizzt series. Entreri describes being indirectly hit by him as worse than being directly hit by a frost giant.
- The Barrier: Rai, the usual driver in the wealthy home in which Hugo and Julia work as house staff, is also the person called upon for tasks that require physical strength. Those tasks are usually an obstacle to whatever Hugo and Julia are trying to accomplish. Rai's personality is The Quiet One, with one of his few instances of breaking out of it being an attempt to become Hugo's workplace bully.
- Buffyverse
- Luke, The Three, and Absalom for The Master.
- Kakistos comes more from the "Hulk Smash" school of approach.
- Mr tick for The Mayor in Buffy Season 3.
- Lindsey though he's very intelligent and both he along with Lilah are the Co-Dragons for Holland Manners, Lindsey is still the one most willingly to physically attack Angel (his nemesis) even running even him over with a truck and going to town on him with a sledgehammer. In Angel Season 5 he's more a villain in his own right.
- Forrest for Adam in Buffy Season 4.
- As shown in flashbacks, Spike was essentially this for Angelus, Darla and his lover Drusilla aka "The Whirlwind" being the most combat orientated out of the quartet. Best shown in one humorously dark moment when Darla in command is demanding that the gypsy leader remove Angelus's soul, Spikes then comes out of his caravan burping having eaten his whole family.
- After his HeelFace Turn Spike is The Big Guy for Buffy and Angel's respective groups.
- The Captain for the Covenant of Trombli in Pylea.
- Weatherby for the Watchers Council Special Operations Team.
- Skip is intentionally meant to invoke this, basically being the mercenary for the Powers That Be (however subverted as he's actually very crafty and manipulative and secretly serves Jasmine an Eldritch Abomination).
- The Beast from Angel Season 4 makes most brutes look like a pushovers though like Skip, he's more intelligent than he looks. However Angelus recognizes the Beast is still essentially this trope for a greater evil i.e. Jasmine.
- Caleb for the First Evil.
- Hamilton for The Senior Partners.
- Game of Thrones:
- Gregor and Sandor Clegane are simply muscle for their masters, exerting no political influence in Westeros except with the point of their swords. However, Sandor's Screw This, I'm Outta Here! at the Battle of Blackwater has put an end to this for him.
- The Smalljon is described as "a massive bear of a man with a temper to match" and he serves as Ramsay's muscle in his forces.
- Rorge within the Lannister army. He doesn't appear especially intelligent, and is prone to aggressive threats uttered in a vicious snarl.
- Eliot Spencer, The Big Guy in Leverage sometimes acts more like this trope than is usual. The show also provides a number of straight examples, most of whom eventually fight Eliot at one point or another:
- From "The Wedding Job", there's The Butcher of Kiev, who's probably the most archetypal Brute on the show. A hulking thug in the employ of the Russian Mafia, The Butcher is a Knife Nut who uses his massive size and fondness for meat cleavers to overpower his opponents, and is far too stupid to be anything more than a leg-breaker. He has a personal grudge against Eliot for scarring his face in an earlier confrontation.
- Mr. Quinn, of "The First David Job" is a nondescript Badass in a Nice Suit retained by Nate's Evil Counterpart, Sterling, for the specific purpose of beating Eliot into submission. Not important enough to be The Dragon he displays enough personality to avoid being a simple Elite Mook, and his role as the muscle puts him firmly in this trope. He later reappears during "The Last Dam Job" to help Eliot when Eliot is recognized by the mark. He and Eliot seem to get along despite their previous conflict.
- Finally we have Roper, a member of the kidnap gang in "The Carnival Job." He's a Psycho for Hire who seems to have a personal history with Eliot and is probably the best fighter the gang has available, as well as a ruthless Combat Pragmatist (seriously, he attacked Eliot in a funhouse, while he was injured, and still made sure to have a little girl as a hostage). However, he's not the Number Two, and seems to have been contracted for his skills at breaking heads and nothing else, not even appearing until the end of the episode.
- Person of Interest: Martine Rousseau for Samaritan is a cross between this trope and Dark Chick. Out of all Samaritan's assets, she possesses the most aggressive tactics and is noticeably Trigger Happy, willing to shoot up a department store full of innocent people to take out a single opponent.
- Super Sentai and its American adaptation Power Rangers have a fair share of brutes within their evil groups. Most of the time, at least one villain per group fits the role of brute. More often than not, these characters are portrayed by People in Rubber Suits, as opposed to more sophisticated villains, who are often more recognizable as humans.
- Grifforzer from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger plays this trope straight at first, being portrayed as a monstrous beast, incapable of human language. Later on, he does get a voice, which sounds very sophisticated, subverting this trope.
- Goldar, from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, does seem to fit this trope, being the muscle to Rita and later Zedd, but also has the capability of making plans that rely on psychological warfare, rather than brute force. Rito Revolto, introduced in the third season, actually comes closer, as he is really dimwitted and only used as a dumb muscle.
- Branken from Mahou Sentai Magiranger. He's the most hot-headed of the villains, and the only character in a magic-themed series to rely on a BFS rather than spells. He'd also qualify for Disc-One Final Boss if N Ma hadn't been present, if trapped, from the beginning. This character is adapted, with very little differences, as Morticon in Power Rangers Mystic Force.
- Power Rangers RPM has a strange example, as the Brute in this series, General Crunch is of a very lean build, while the more broadly build General Shifter is actually the Evil Genius.
- Kamen Rider has had its fair share of Brutes over the years.
- Kamen Rider Kuuga has Go-Gadoru-Ba, who leads the strongest Gurongi group, the Go Group, and acts as enforcer for the Gurongi "judge" Ra-Baruba-De, who herself is The Dragon for Gurongi leader N-Daguva-Zeba.
- Kamen Rider Ryuki has Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja, a battle hungry Serial Killer with the highest kill count among the Riders in the Battle Fight. He's initially brought in thanks to Jun Shibaura/Kamen Rider Gai, but later ends up doing temp work for Shiro Kanzaki.
- Kamen Rider 555 has Mr. J, the Crocodile Orphnoch, as this among the Lucky Clover and the one usually used by their employer for missions that require muscle. After J's exit, the role was left vacant in the Lucky Clover until they fill it in with Ax-Crazy mass murderer Aki Sawada.
- Kamen Rider Fourze has Kou Tasugami/Leo Zodiarts, bodyguard to Mitsuaki Gamou and his go-to guy for missions that require muscle.
- Kamen Rider Wizard has the Phoenix Phantom, a psychotic berserker and Greater Phantom whose method for creating more Phantoms usually involves assaulting a Gate until they give into despair. In fact, because of his sadistic and brutish tendencies (which in one case led to him beating a Gate to death before a Phantom could fully manifest), he's often kept on the sidelines by Wiseman while Medusa is the one who usually creates Phantoms.
- Kamen Rider Gaim gives us a female example with Yoko Minato/New Generation Rider Marika. Despite her smaller stature, Yoko is a skilled fighter, even in her non-transformed state, and acts as the Bodyguard Babe of Ryoma Sengoku. Later on, Ryoma adds another Brute to Yggdrasill's ranks when he takes Kaito Kumon on as an additional enforcer. When the Overlord Inves make their introduction, the role gets taken by Demushu.
- Kamen Rider Drive has Mashin Chaser as this for the Roidmude Executives, the "Grim Reaper" used by them to eliminate rogue Roidmudes or, more often, just as muscle to hold off Drive.
- Kamen Rider Build has Fu and Rai Washio/Remocon and Engine Bro's, a pair of Tyke Bomb Supersoldiers raised by Juzaburo Namba, and typically used by him as muscle to hassle the heroes or back up his other fighters.
- In the 2010 version of Nikita, Roan fills the role. A Cleaner who Nikita scarred by his own acid and silent badass, the universal reaction to encountering him is to wet your pants and run.
- Roan may be so deadly that he qualifies as a Hero Killer. To date, Nikita is the only one who managed to get one-up on him, and she still runs if she has the chance when he shows up.
- As of mid-Season 2, it can also be argued that Roan has elements of The Dragon — he's Percy's most loyal and deadliest remaining agent, and the one organized the Guardians into action when Amanda and Oversight locked Percy up.
- Roan may be so deadly that he qualifies as a Hero Killer. To date, Nikita is the only one who managed to get one-up on him, and she still runs if she has the chance when he shows up.
- Leo Johnson on Twin Peaks. Hired goon, abusive husband, profane loudmouth: the whole package.
- The appropriately named Eartha Brute from Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.
- The Wire has at least one for each major organization. The Barksdale Organization has Roland "Wee-Bey" Bryce in Season 1, (and later Slim Charles after Wee-Bey gets life in prison) Husky Ukrainian Sergei Malatov for The Greeks, and the rare case of a female brute in Felicia "Snoop" Pearson for the Stanfield Organization.
- Revenge: If you go by Alternative Character Interpretation, Jack Porter is this to Emily Thorne/Amanda Clarke.
- Justified:
- Coover Bennett plays this role to his mother, Mags and brothers Dickie and Doyle. A hulking, dim-witted Mighty Glacier with a marijuana problem, and a penchant for descending into Unstoppable Rage, Coover's about as archetypal a Brute as you can get.
- Boyd Crowder has the less obvious Jimmy Tolan, a quiet, loyal thug who plays back up to whoever Boyd's Dragon of the moment is, displays some Blood Knight tendencies and acts as his enforcer while being at the edge of the inner circle. In Season 5, with Boyd's other henchmen dead, Jimmy gets promoted to Dragon.
- Criminal Minds normally features solo killers, but has occasionally featured groups large enough to include a Brute.
- Vincent "Vinny" Perotta, UnSub of Season 1's "Natural Born Killer", is a six and a half foot tall mafia hitman, who moonlights as a Serial Killer, and has a thing for gruesomely dismembering his victims. Profiled with antisocial and paranoid personality disorders, Vinny's too unstable to take part in the day-to-day operations of Michael Russo's mob outfit and sits outside the regular chain of command, holding no official position or authority over their underlings, but taking orders from Russo and Russo alone.
- Leon, from Season 6's "Supply & Demand" is a hulking giant strong enough to stomp Morgan in hand to hand combat, and large enough that one of his hands can wrap all the way around a victim's throat. Subordinate to human trafficking ring leader Lucy, and her Number Two, Max, Leon serves as the group's thug, transporting victims to and from cages, brutalizing them while the others (or paying customers) look on, and killing them when there's no further use for them, or an especially depraved customer wants to watch someone die.
- The Bible: Goliath, is probably the most triumphant example of this trope. He's a giant Boisterous Bruiser who serves as the champion of the Philistines when they go to war with Israel.
- Ajax and Diomedes serve this role for the Greeks in The Iliad. They are out ranked by Agamemnon and Menelaus, but are probably the two most dangerous Greeks in the Trojan war (other than Odysseus, who was a Guile Hero). Diomedes was known as The Dreaded by the Trojans for injuring gods when he got bored of murdering their forces! Sarpedon fills the role for the Trojans.
- In the Nart Sagas, there is the cruel swineherd Argwana, who is strong but stupid. Because of a prophecy, he is recruited by Warzameg to help him in the abduction of Setenaya, but they soon become concerned he will try to take her for himself... Which he does.
- Being partially based on The Spy Who Loved Me, Gottlieb's James Bond 007 shows Jaws on the backglass leaping at Bond.
- The wrestling term for a Brute is a "Monster." This is usually (but not always) distinct from The Giant wrestling archetype. Notable examples include Kane, early Mankind, Big Show, Vader, Brock Lesnar, the Great Khali, André the Giant, and TNA's Abyss.
- Another type of Brute that pops up occasionally in professional wrestling is the most physically imposing member of a heel Power Stable, such as Barry Windham in The Four Horsemen or Batista in ripoff group Evolution. This can sometimes overlap with being The Dragon to the stable leader's Big Bad, such as Mason Ryan in The New Nexus.
- Big Titan, Giant Singh and Giant Silva, of TEAM2000 in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, going from big, to bigger to biggest. Silva would serve as such again in the Makai Club.
- A recurring trope in Chikara. Mano Metallico for Sweet 'n' Sour International, The Horny Vikings Tursas and Nøkken in Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes, STIGMA in the UnStable, combANT in the Swarm, etc
- The 300lbs Giant Bernard and especially the 500 lbs Big Daddy Voodoo in All Japan Pro Wrestling's Voodoo Murders. Defacto "leaders" TARU, Minoru Tanaka and MAZADA weren't even half Big Daddy V's size.
- The Beautiful People ended the suspension of their fashionist Cute Kip, to instead have him serve as their brute after they decided they were going to bully Awesome Kong.
- Knux and DOC in Aces & Eights. There was also Tito Ortiz, but he was just there because Spike TV was using TNA to promote Bellator and he was pulled out by Bellator before he could do anything.
- Doc Gallows, Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga in Bullet Club. Fale is even called "the under boss", while Tonga serves twice over in both New Japan and CMLL.
- Darwin's Soldiers: Piotr Kozlov is a hulking Russian anthropomorphic Grizzly Bear. He is not hesitant use his fists in a fight. He did however, develop the flare shotgun.
- Meant as a type of classic retro-toon character in Cartoon Action Hour, but this came to mean "The Big Guy".
- If an orc, ogre, or giant in a game of Dungeons & Dragons is given a name and role, chances are they'll be The Brute. (or for a rebellious player, The Big Guy... or sometimes The Brute again.)
- One of the archetypes for slashers in Hunter: The Vigil is the Brute, a strong man (or woman) who kills just because it feels right. Their natural talent embodies the slasher trope of "the killer gets back up just when you think he's dead," and they eventually become the Mask, which is like Jason Voorhees on PCP.
- Magic: The Gathering:
- The Brute, a card which is a Status Buff that can be tossed onto a creature to make it more dangerous. Very slightly more dangerous. Even when first printed, the card was pretty weak; by modern standards it's downright laughable.
- Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger plays the role for New Phyrexia.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- The Orks are an entire species devoted to this trope, being genetically engineered for nothing but war. They're also the comic relief.
- Among followers of Chaos, Khornates are this, living only to get into close combat and chop heads (until they get theirs chopped).
- Surprisingly enough, the setting's ogres (called Ogryn) are actually an aversion, having childlike personalities and devotion to the God-Emperor. Getting them to fight for Chaos doesn't require temptation or corruption like other humans, just telling them the Emperor is angry at the loyalists.
- Wyzen in Asura's Wrath. Big, fat, wielding a Power Fist as big as he is, he is the largest and dumbest of the Seven Deities.
- Flak in Advance Wars 2. He also appears in Dual Strike, but has no role in the story. (His Limit Break is called "Brute Force".) His role as this is filled in the new Black Hole by Jugger, who has the exact same abilities as him.
- Jugger (at least when the CPU is controlling him) switches from this to Genius Bruiser when he uses his Super CO Power, which gives him a huge AI boost as well as an attack power boost.
- Heidegger in Final Fantasy VII doesn't do too much direct fighting himself, but fills this role in ShinRa's army.
- Rude for the Turks though he's very calm and stoic.
- Xord in Xenoblade appears to be this at first, but since it's later revealed he's just one of many Mass-Produced Faces, he's just an Elite Mook.
- Metal Face plays this more straight, even though he considers himself to be the Big Bad, or if not that, at least The Dragon.
- Kingdom Hearts has a few of these:
- Lexaeus from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is at least head and shoulders of the rest of the members, and is the only one who can physically lift his weapon (an axesword). Here's a picture of the Org comparing their height.
◊ Despite being The Brute, though, he's not stupid; he manages to cut short the one argument we see around him, and apparently has a head for strategy, given that Zexion goes to him for advice to deal with Riku.
- Xaldin in Kingdom Hearts II. Sadistic, imposing, and dangerous... but definitely NOT stupid.
- Ursula served this role among the Disney Villains in Kingdom Hearts. She is one of the more formidable battlers, capable of subduing King Triton, and in her first boss fight, she is nearly invulnerable due to her never-ending spin attack that deflects any keyblade strike. Ursula's giant form really cements her role as the brute; she is the largest of the villains (one of the larger members initially), where she is relentlessly attacking you with powerful magic. Like the other Kingdom Hearts Brutes, she isn't dumb; she is capable of manipulating her enemies.
- Terra-Xehanort and Saix share this position in Kingdom Hearts III. They were both shown to be the two most powerful members of the XIII Seekers of Darkness, both of them were also shown to overpower and tire their opponents with ease, however, they were both eventually defeated by the Guardians of Light.
- Lexaeus from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is at least head and shoulders of the rest of the members, and is the only one who can physically lift his weapon (an axesword). Here's a picture of the Org comparing their height.
- An archetype in City of Villains is actually called The Brute, though thanks to the variety of powersets available (and the free-reign character creation), all player characters of this archetype don't necessarily fit the trope - at least the "big" and "all muscle" parts. You can just as easily make an incredibly agile rapier-wielding Brute. They do love to fight, though - the archetype's entire schtick is that they get stronger as a fight goes on.
- Subverted even more with the past few updates of the game. Since Going Rogue in 2010, it's been possible to change your villainous Brute into a hero, and since City of Heroes Freedom in 2011, it's been possible to start as a heroic Brute.
- On the other hand, NPCs that fall under this trope are generally of that archetype, including The Wretch. Captain Mako (a large muscle-bound shark man) is a subversion though, being a Stalker.
- Devil May Cry:
- Giant Spider Phantom is this for Mundus being a big dumb fiery arachnid, who Dante heartily mocks before impaling him on a statue. Phantom typically for this trope dies pathetically realizing too late that Dante is the son of the legendary dark knight Sparda.
- Nefasturris the giant building possessing demon in DMC2. Also the Secretary is a rare female example for Arius.
- Beowulf from DMC3 definitely fits this mold being a massive brutish demon lacking the charm of most of the other bosses in the game due to having previously been beaten by Sparda. Naturally, Beowulf extends his hatred of Sparda to his two sons.
- Bael and Dagon from DMC4 in contrast the other bosses are unintelligent being big smelly frogs who unsuccessfully try and lure and eat Nero and Dante.
- Goliath (which is a fitting name) from DMC5 is a massive boisterous demon who has Suicidal Overconfidence thinking he can rule the Demon World with simple might. Nero notes that Goliath is simply Dumb Muscle and wrecks him.
- Hunter from the Alternate Universe attempted Reboot game, DmC: Devil May Cry.
- Several cutscenes in Street Fighter Alpha 3 show Balrog playing this role within Bison's Shadaloo organization. Although if you play as him, he will betray Bison in a power grab.
- Balrog/"Boxer" is definitely The Brute of Shadaloo... anywhere but in Street Fighter Alpha 3. In that game, he's The Dragon (to Bison/"Dictator").
- Interestingly The Dolls actually fit this better for Shadaloo being unthinking killing machines albeit unwilling ones.
- Since Helen aka Kolin fits better as The Dragon for Gill, Urien fulfills this role for The Illuminati being a violent, sadistic, arrogant scheming Jerkass. As seen in Street Fighter III and SFV.
- Charlie Nash played this role twice for The Illuminati and Shadaloo (Udon comics) when he Came Back Wrong, he got better though.
- Berserker/Hercules from Fate/stay night. Actually, pretty much any "Berserker" class Servant. The class drives them completely insane so they really can't do anything other than Attack! Attack! Attack!, but to make up for it, their physical strength, speed, toughness, etc all get a massive boost (and Servants are almost always very, very strong to begin with).
- Largo the Black Lion from Tales of the Abyss fits the role but also subverts it: A giant man over six feet tall and wielding a Sinister Scythe, he is a Well-Intentioned Extremist Warrior Poet who is usually very calm and collected, and views battle as a means to an end and not as an end in itself. He is also something of a Worthy Opponent. Although he is the first God-General defeated he returns to plague you several times, and in each of his appearances he's usually strong enough to be a match for a full party.
- Arietta actually plays this more straight in personality and actions while being the Token Mini-Moe of the God-Generals. Despite her Leeroy Jenkins tendencies and not being particularly clever (she spends the majority of the game being manipulated by others) she doesn't need to be when she can just Zerg Rush enemies with her monsters. Whenever something calls for pure force, the God-Generals rely on Arietta and her beastmaster skills.
- The Tyrants from Resident Evil, in particular, T-00 aka "Mr X" of RE2 is this for Umbrella, an Implacable Man sent to retrieve the G-Virus and when possible brutalize the heroes.
- It appears that everyones favorite Umbrella Special Forces Operative HUNK is The Brute for the evil pharmaceutical company.
- In Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City demolition expert BELTWAY is The Brute for HUNK himself.
- Mendez for Saddler in RE4, and in the same game Jack Krauser is The Brute for Wesker.
- Brainwashed and Crazy Jill Valentine is this for Wesker in RE5 being used as an unthinking killing machine as well used as emotional torment for Chris, Jills partner. Interestingly thanks to some Bio-Augmentation Jill is nearly as superhuman as Wesker himself.
- Ustanak for Simmons in RE6.
- In RE7 since Lucas fits better as The Dragon for Eveline, Jack fulfills this role being the first boss you face and the most relentless one.
- It appears that everyones favorite Umbrella Special Forces Operative HUNK is The Brute for the evil pharmaceutical company.
- Metal Gear:
- Raven from Metal Gear Solid fits this in terms of appearance and group role: a huge man, all muscles, who goes into battle carrying a Gatling gun, and eschews the schemes of the rest of the group. In personality he's a major subversion, being an intelligent Warrior Poet shaman, and possibly an Anti-Villain going by how he says he doesn't actually want to live in the sort of world being created by Liquid and The Patriots, and how he welcomes death, rejoicing in returning to "Mother Earth".
- Vamp from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for Dead Cell, unlike other Metal Gear antagonists, has no greater ambition beyond creating chaos for the mad men he serves loyally, and being a Death Seeker he revels in all bloodshed having a whale of time fighting his Worthy Opponent Raiden. Like Raven, Vamp is also honorable, being disgusted with his fellow Dead Cell members disloyalty and he also questioned orders of Solidus Snake and Ocelot.
- The Pain in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, at over two meters tall he's the most imposing of the Cobra Unit and his Pest Controller powers is gonna give anyone a rough time.
- Fat Bastard Cyborg Sundowner from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance invokes this being by far the most brutish and unlikable of Desperado even though he's supposed to be The Dragon (a role Monsoon fits into better). You could make the argument Jetstream Sam (Raiden's Worthy Opponent) is more like The Brute despite being an Anti-Villain.
- Volgin aka Man on Fire for Skull Face in Metal Gear Solid V.
- Dapang from John Woo's Stranglehold, who also has the distinction of being Wong's Dragon. On the Golden Kane side, we have Ty Lok, who Tequila fights in the third major mission, who isn't as big and powerful as Dapang, but does pack a big whacking machine gun.
- Roach from Heavenly Sword. A rather pitiable Anti-Villain in a game that has some truly hateable villains, including Flying Fox.
- The Heavy in the page quote from Team Fortress 2 fills this archetype as a playable character, being a Mighty Glacier wielding a big freakin Gatling gun named "Sasha".
- And he can get another one, its named Natasha.
- Thing is, while he mostly qualifies for simply The Big Guy of the second variety while on your team, he definitely qualifies as this while on the other team, since while he is generally one of the nicest members of the cast to his other team members, he is taunting and berating to his enemies.
- Halo:
- The Brutes (Species name: Jiralhanae), whom as a whole serve as this for the Covenant. One is pictured above without a helmet. They're scarier without helmets on! They're even worse if they're toting a Gravity Hammer.
- We also have Hunters (or Mgalekgolo), even bigger aliens with huge-ass shields and BFGs for hands. If they're not roaring at you and blowing you to bits with their weapons, they're roaring at you and bashing anything near them to bloody shredded ribbons and scrap metal. They are not Dumb Muscle though; in fact, they're damn near Genius Bruiser instead, thanks in part to the fact that they're essentially A GIANT COLONY OF MICROSCOPIC WORMS FITTED INTO STARSHIP-CLASS ARMOUR WITH A POWERFUL ENERGY CANNON STRAPPED TO THEIR ARM.
- In Wild ARMs, Belselk, the first member of the Quarter Knights, is definitely The Brute of the squad. He's a rare case that's actually stronger than The Dragon, and Zeikfried admits this in the remake, calling him the strongest fighter of the Quarter Knights. The heroes were only able to beat him because a trap backfired and left him weaker. The remake had Alhazad revive him after his death at the hands of Boomerang, and he returns near the end of the game to pay Boomerang back then goes on to face the heroes one last time just before the Big Bad.
- Lenny in Shadow Hearts 2.
- Third level boss The Giant from Kung Fu Master.
- Crash Bandicoot (1996) gives us Koala Kong, while most subsequent Crash games have this position filled by Tiny Tiger.
- Gades the Sinistral of Destruction from the Lufia series.
- So far, it seems that every set of Robot Masters in the Classic continuity of the Mega Man series contains at least one Master that fits this trope.
- Mega Man: Guts Man
- Mega Man 2: Wood Man
- Mega Man 3: Hard Man
- Mega Man 4: Dive Man
- Mega Man 5: Stone Man, and maybe Napalm Man
- Mega Man 6: Knight Man and Yamato Man could both apply, though to a lesser extent than the others, and Centaur Man certainly applies in terms of size.
- Mega Man 7: Junk Man and Turbo Man
- Mega Man 8: Sword Man, Search Man, and Grenade Man
- Mega Man & Bass: Ground Man
- Mega Man 9: Concrete Man
- Mega Man 10: Commando Man
- Mega Man 11: Impact Man and Block Man in his Double Gear enhanced form.
- Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge, the first of the Mega Man World series, stands as the only game in the Classic continuity to not have a Brute type character, as, despite reusing Robot Masters from the first two games, neither Guts Man nor Wood Man return. The sequels, however...
- Mega Man World II: Wood Man, who decided to show up in this game instead, and Hard Man
- Mega Man World III: Dive Man, and the new member of the Mega Man Killers, Punk
- Mega Man World IV: Stone Man
- Mega Man World V: Uranus
- Mega Man: The Wily Wars: The new, Wily Wars-exclusive game, Wily Tower, gives us Hyper Storm H
...Whew.- And this doesn't even begin to mention the Fortress Bosses and some of the larger enemies!
- Yellow Devil and its descendants, big time!!
- Bolo and his Palette Swap Abobo in Double Dragon, and Burnov and Abore in the sequel.
- The Witcher, has Savolla. It is very unusual for The Brute to be an Evil Sorcerer, but he is still this. He is the first opponent that The Hero faces and he also, aside from being a sorcerer, is also quite large physically.
- God of War;
- Even though, Hades is usually portrayed as a Big Bad in fiction, God of War III portrays him as The Brute. He relies more on hitting Kratos with his chain blade things than anything else, and his second form relies on NASTY physical attacks.
- Hercules in the same game also qualifies, since he uses exclusively brute strength in combat with his Nemean Cestus and later his bare hands after his weapons are taken from him. In Olympus' chain of command, he ranks as Hera's champion below Poseidon, Hades and Helios.
- Magni and Modi in God of War (PS4) are a pair of Aesir brothers that confront Kratos and Atreus. Despite being sons of Thor, they are minor deities that serves as muscle to Odin and of the two, Magni fits the trope better being extremely tall, bulky and wielding a BFS. He also gets on hell of an Establishing Character Moment when he drops in front of the heroes struggling with an ogre, only to snap its neck and casually throw its carcass with one hand.
- Agatio from Golden Sun: The Lost Age is an unusually clever example, despite Alex and the official strategy guide writing him off as mere Dumb Muscle. He's sharp enough to fight dirty, hits like a truck... oh, and did we mention he's a Fire Adept with a huge variety of unique and powerful spells at his disposal? The good news is that he defers to authority. The bad news? He thinks Prox plans to Take Over the World, and is quite determined to make it happen...
- Super Paper Mario: O'Chunks is a classic example.
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has Marilyn who has the most health and strongest attack power of the Shadow Sirens.
- Balrog from Cave Story is a large soap-bar shaped robot (or something) who also serves as the Doctor's right-hand man, trying to kill the main character on several occasions.
- In the Fire Emblem series:
- Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade has Wyvern General Narcien. He's the most destructive and ruthless of the three Wyvern Generals, but in last place among the three with regards to sanity, loyalty, courage, tactical aptitude, and fighting skills. Makes you wonder how he even got hired.
- Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade features Denning. He doesn't actually seem to be part of the inner circle of villains (as he has no scenes with the Big Bad or any other prominent enemies) and he's a one-chapter wonder, but he fits in that he's dumber than a post and exists solely to sic legions of even stupider Mooks at you and rant "This is a message from Lord Nergal. 'I await you on the Dread Isle.'" He's also the only physical attacker among the Morphs.
- Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance has General Bertram, one of the Four Riders of Daien, a Brainwashed and Crazy Death Seeker who only speaks in broken Sssssnake Talk. Theoretically Co-Dragons with The Black Knight and Generals Bryce and Petrine, Bertram is too insane to actually lead his troops, and holds his position based solely on his combat skills.
- Fire Emblem Fates has Hans, one of Garon's Co-Dragons. He serves as the main ground-level enforcer of Garon's will and takes great joy in slaughtering anyone who crosses him, and he's a massive Leeroy Jenkins.
- In Tales of Symphonia, Boisterous Bruiser Magnius fills this role for the Desian Grand Cardinals.
- The Metroid series has Kraid.
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has El Tiburon who throughout the entire game exists as a physical threat and a bodyguard to Torres. He does not say a word throughout the entire game including in his dying moments.
- And in most of the other titles there is simply the brute class of enemy, no matter the time period is either walking around in hulking great armour and carrying large weapons or just a really big guy.
- Thomas Hickey from Assassin's Creed III merits a mention too. While not as classic as El Tiburon, he is bigger and more muscular than other templars from the game, and he is not so devoted to the order. He is just a Psycho for Hire who is only in it for money. He is certainly not stupid though.
- Sinjid has the Bandit Brute. He's bloodthirsty, stupid, and relies on Good Old Fisticuffs to get the job done.
- Neptunia:
- Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2: Among the Four Felons, Judge The Hard/CFW Judge is always Ax-Crazy and he is an Omnicidal Maniac and a Blood Knight. He is also the very first opponent the player has to face.
- Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory: Copyliace/Copypaste and Magiquone/Arfoire fit this role, since they are the main fighters of the Seven Sages. Copyliace is a Boisterous Bruiser and a Dumb Muscle who thinks he is the strongest and loves destroying stuff, while Magiquone has a violent Hair-Trigger Temper and she thinks Murder Is the Best Solution.
- This is the niche of the Infernal Behemoth from Nexus Clash - they're gigantic armored hunks of Determinator that are all too happy to rampage, destroy, and incidentally draw fire away from the subtler demons.
- Wilhelm in Borderlands 2. In Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, he started out as the Enforcer for Jack's group of Vault Hunters, a hulking, very durable mercenary with a selection of durability and damage enhancements (he has an entire skill tree called Dreadnought). By the time of 2, he's Handsome Jack's most feared minion, a terrifying murder machine who threw the original Vault Hunters out of New Haven by taking them all on solo and winning. While not stupid, exactly, he's not shown to be particularly deep or thoughtful (his idea of a deep personal confession is "I like steak and robots").
- Fergal Bansha in Vampyr is a tall, bulky, dark grey-skinned vampire that serves as Lord Redgrave's muscle and strongest enforcer. While he is seen fighting barehanded against multiple opponents like most examples of this trope, he displays the unusual ability to summon a Living Shadow to fight alongside him. And in the true spirit of this trope, he is deemed completely expendable by his boss, who doesn't feel bad about his death at the The Hero's hands.
- Darkest Dungeon: The Swine King (or Prince/God depending on level) is a Brute boss. The result of botched summoning rituals that bound an entity from Beyond into a boar, the Swine King is a giant, seemingly blind killing machine that the Ancestor describes as "brutish and stupid". It needs another pig, a small but smart creature called Wilbur, to direct its attacks; if Wilbur dies, the King loses all restraint and starts just trying to crush the entire party at once with his giant butcher's cleaver. Notably, Wilbur is the only gimmick to the entire fight; the King is otherwise just a slab of ill-tempered, demon-possessed meat.
- Dragon Quest III: King Hydra doesn't speak a word, but he certainly has the physical power to exert Zoma's will upon the world, even to the extent of killing the Hero's father Ortega.
- Homestar Runner has its resident brute in the form of Strong Bad's brother, Strong Mad.
- Agent Maine, better known as The Meta in Red vs. Blue definitely qualifies. Since he is incapable of speech (at least in any form the main characters can understand), this seems to be one of his only personality traits.
- RWBY: Physically, Hazel's the tallest character in the series at eight feet zero, which combines with his muscular build to make even tall characters look frail by comparison. Although Hazel appears calm, rational and pacifistic on the surface, it hides a darker truth. He descends into a violent, unstoppable rage when in the presence of Ozpin, due to his undying hatred for the man he holds responsible for the death of his sister. Unlike most fighters in the setting, Hazel does not appear to use any weapons. Instead, thanks to a Semblance that allows him to Feel No Pain, he stabs Dust crystals into his arms which powers him up even beyond his physical limits. He then fights with his fists, empowered by the Dust crystals which give his fists elemental attacks, such as fire or lightning.
- MAG-ISA: — Kyle
. He just wanna go UUUAAARRRGGGH!!!!
- The Order of the Stick:
- The Monster in the Darkness fits into this role for Xykon's organization. He's the closet Gentle Giant, but the others don't seem to notice.
- As does Thog, for Nale's group. He's later replaced by Tarquin, who as well as being a skilled fighter is also highly intelligent.
- Wrecking Paul from Everyday Heroes.
- The Midnight Crew's Hearts Boxcar from Homestuck. As a Dersite agent, he's appropriately referred as the Hegemonic Brute. Oddly enough he's also a Shipper on Deck, though he's still quite brutish about it.
- Paranatural has Ollie Oop in Johnny's gang. Though the bio says that he's also the heart and the brain of the gang.
- In El Goonish Shive, of the Abberations that attack Adrian Raven, the Abberation known as Gullet is shown to be big, strong and dumb.
- One persona of Two Worlds, protagonist of the Arielverse is known as "The Brute".
- Warduke from France Five is very much the physical fighter, and gives a good run for their money to all five heroes when he gets serious. His role in the story is closer to The Dragon, though, as he commands each Monster of the Week. It's only after his demise that we're introduced to the proper Dragon Zakaral.
- The Fairly OddParents has Francis. He's usually just a bully, but in episodes where he's changed through magic, like "Timmy the Barbarian" or "The Big Superhero Wish" he takes on this role a lot more seriously.
- General Molotov on Jimmy Two-Shoes.
- Siege in Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series cartoon. Not particularly dumb but definitely the biggest and strongest of the Saurians, who prefers brute force.
- The Rhino, a Supervillain in The Spectacular Spider Man, definitely qualifies, being especially powerful, threatening and dumb. Other brutish types include his former partner the Sandman, who has the good fortune to be a little more clever and less single-minded, and The Dragon Hammerhead, who is intelligent enough to loyally serve the Big Bad (until eventually betraying him during a gang-war).
- Transformers:
- Lugnut in Transformers Animated, definitely falling under the "blindly loyal" version. In the same series, Blackout takes this role in Team Chaar.
- Demolishor and Tidal Wave from Armada qualify.
- From Transformers Generation One, there's Decepticon gestalts, the first and most famous being Devastator.
- Pinning down this role in Beast Wars is difficult. Scorponok has the personality, but he's Megatron's Number Two; same goes for Inferno who's more or less The Dragon following his initial appearances. The arrival of Quickstrike in Season 2 marks the first time that the team has a dedicated Brute; he's short-tempered, psychotic, and low on the hierarchy due to his status as a newbie. Rampage is somewhere between this, and an unwilling Sixth Ranger. He's kept under control by a Restraining Bolt, has more physical power than any member of the team (including the Big Bad), and is a Genius Bruiser in the vein of Hannibal Lecter.
- Transformers: Prime:
- Breakdown, in an interesting departure from his usual role. He's not especially unintelligent, though; he simply prefers to leave the more cerebral matters to his partner Knock Out, while letting his missile launchers and giant hammer do the talking for him.
- Both Skyquake and Dreadwing, two brothers who are loyal to Megatron and use heavy weapons, can count (although Dreadwing become The Dragon after his initial appearance, and is actually a Genius Bruiser).
- Hardshell, an Insecticon with a personality and voice now serves this role. Well, he used to, then he got hit with a bunch of missiles from the Jackhammer and is dead now.
- Season 3 introduces the new Predaking. A massive ancient Draconic Cybertronian beast revived by Shockwave to hunt the now scattered Autobots. Powerful enough to through around both Wheeljack and Bulkhead and durable enough to barely notice a grenade going off underneath it and only slowed down being crushed by a mine falling on its head. Later he reveals that he is capable of transformation. When he speaks for the first time he reveals a rather eloquent and almost tragic side, being alone and unsure of his destiny. Megatron is not pleased to discover that his new "Brute" is actually a Genius Bruiser capable of overthrowing him if he so chose.
- Skylynx and Darksteel play this role in Predacons Rising.
- Thundra in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series is a rare female example. She's the muscle of the villainous Frightful Four.
- God Brand from Castlevania for Dracula's Army being the least sophisticated, least intelligent and most gluttonously bloodthirsty Vampire General. Of course, Dracula easily perceives that God Brand is a Paper Tiger the moment the latter attempts to confront him over the lack of available human blood. God Brand doesn't even get to fight the heroes being unceremoniously killed off by The Dragon Isaac.
- Dragoslav and Zufall two other Vampire Generals also fit this trope being little thuggish cannon fodder for Trevor, Sypha and Alucard to effortlessly beat.
- In terms of monsters The Minotaur seen in the Belmont Hold battle is certainly this.
- Bubba in Chop Socky Chooks, though he often shows Gentle Giant tendencies.
- Harchi from Oscar's Oasis, though he's more of a follower than an outright villain.
- The gang of teenage goons who terrorize Springfield Elementary on The Simpsons consist of Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. Kearney is the most physically imposing of the bullies, wears spiked bracelets on his wrists, and - unlike the other gang members - is actually a slightly-smaller-than-average adult who remembers the U.S. Bicentennial of 1976, has a son nearly as intimidating as he is, and has apparently been held back in grade school indefinitely because he really is that stupid. (An issue of Simpsons Comics reveals that he wears pink underpants.)
- Felicia from The Great Mouse Detective. While not sapient like the mice, she still towers over them, and can simply eat whoever gets in her way (except Toby).
- Steven Universe features Jasper, a massive individual who's strong enough to evenly match Garnet one-on-one. While she shares many standard brute tendencies- being a bully who likes to yank people around, and sporting an impressive Slasher Smile- she's generally more articulate and intelligent than the standard depiction of the trope- and seems to have a case of Worthy Opponent going on for Steven's Missing Mom.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Female Cute Bruiser brute example in the form of Ty Lee. She's the only antagonist who doesn't have any Bending or weapon, instead shes a Bare-Fisted Monk who uses her martial skill to Chi-block Benders leaving them defenseless. She also the Token Good Teammate for Azula and a Perky Female Minion to boot.
- Combustion Man. Hes a large, silent Professional Killer and Implacable Man sent to go after the Avatar who doesn't have complete control of his explosive powers (that's why he has a metal arm and leg).
- P'Li of Book 3 of The Legend of Korra — who seems to double as The Dragon of the Red Lotus — is another of those rare female examples. On the one hand, she's a deeply wounded former Child Soldier (and, ultimately, a Tragic Villain) who's in mutual, genuine love with the primary antagonist and has been stated by Word of God to match him in antivillainy; on the other, she's a scary 6'8" Cold Sniper with an inked-up face, who can blow things up with her mind.
- Kaeloo gives us a variant with Mr. Cat. He isn't big or dumb, but he has a massive wealth of athletic skills and physical strength (and an impressive arsenal of weapons), and is very short tempered. Long story short, you don't want to mess with him.
- Brutus, the made-for-TV version of Bluto from the Popeye cartoons, benefits from Jackson Beck's deep and sandpaper voice giving him a menacing texture. More often than not, though, Brutus is more an annoyance than a threat.