(she/her)
That's how the trope is supposed to used, yeah.
Macron's notes
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
Boobs Of Steel has been floated as a TRS candidate before due to heavy misuse. I could entertain an argument for a rename for the record. IIRC ~Vampire Buddha was working on a wick check for it.
VampireBuddha—do you still want to work on this, or could someone else adopt the check and TRS Boobs Of Steel if they wanted?
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Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
Is Boobs Of Steel in its official definition actually a meaningful pattern, as opposed to a statistical overlap in a genre which typically values both combat ability and breast size?
The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
Calendar enthusiast
I'll try and get a wick check done tomorrow.
As I see it, there are two ways it is misused.
- Action Girl has breasts: not tropeworthy.
- Big breasts: not tropeworthy in and of itself, but some examples could be moved to Gag Boobs or Buxom Is Better.
Thank you all for your advice and clarity; this definitely helps, and I’ll clean up any misuse I encounter. ![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Lex.
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Neither of those tropes go by those names anymore. They're Boob-Based Gag and Buxom Beauty Standard now.
Ideally examples should be more aligned with Stout Strength, where body type indicates a particular fighting style and not just that they are capable in combat. A curvy figure implies they are able to take and throw a punch, while a well endowed sniper is not what the trope is about.
Do you not know that in the service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils!
I think this is a thing where a few different trends correlate:
2) In a Fighting Series, the strongest combatants are almost always the most important characters (or the most important characters become the strongest combatants, one or the other).
3) In most visual media, the most important characters are usually quite attractive, while less important characters can have more varied, less conventionally beautiful appearances.
So this can create some greater-can-random overlap between "strongest female fighter" and "woman with the biggest rack".
This is what I wonder too, since a lot of the examples seem coincidental.
From what I can gather from other similar tropes (namely Heroic Build and Most Common Superpower) the basis of the idea is that giving a female character big breasts is the equivalent of giving a man strong pectorals to make him look strong and imposing.
There's probably also "fighters have more opportunity to 'breast boobily'", but even that feels like a reach.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Personally, I feel like it may be because in these sorts of works, the Action Girl is usually a primary character. And creators want the eye candy to be around as much as possible. So they give the Action Girl big boobies.
Otherwise it may be a subversion of expectations: big breasts tend to be associated with girly girl types or "bimbos", so making the big breasted woman a brawler is different.
Edited by WarJay77 on May 10th 2023 at 4:48:26 AM
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
I'd say it's also important to note that this trope only occurs when there is more than one combat capable female in the work. One female fighter having big boobs for Fanservice isn't this trope. A group of girls who are all combat capable, where the brawler (or one most like a brawler) is the one with the biggest breasts, is this trope.
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i'm at the combination she and it
my understanding is that a "proper" example of Boobs Of Steel would be someone like tifa from Final Fantasy VII, who's the best physical fighter of the party in that game and has the biggest chest of the three girls (whereas aerith and yuffie are relatively flat). but i do think that this specific idea is a lot rarer than "action girl with big boobs", which may be the reason why it's misused.
edit: ...and it's been so long since i looked at the actual page that i didn't realize tifa is the page image, LMAO. i have to wonder if it might be similar to the issue raised in Rule of Two where proper examples are only seen in works derived from the most popular example.
Edited by NoUsername on May 10th 2023 at 5:56:10 AM
Calendar enthusiast
Wick check for Boobs Of Steel.
52 wicks were checked. Fractions add up to a little over 1 because in a couple of cases there were multiple examples on a page.
A few of the examples listed here as valid are ambiguous, and I made a judgement call as I'm not familiar with most of these.
- Boobs of Steel: It comes with the build. She well endowed, and has shown hints of being able to fight.
Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General (Note: The first subbullet is incorrect but the second one is accurate, so I'm going to list this under correct usage)
- Boobs Of Steel:
- Impact has a decently big chest, being slightly smaller than the General, which does well to signify that despite being strong enough to be one of the Top 4 Heroes, her debilitatingly massive appetite, which causes her to lose her strength if she misses a meal, prevents her from being as effective a powerhouse as she could be.
- Mother Justice has the absolute largest chest among the entire female cast, visibly beating out the General by 1-2 cup sizes, and she is far and away the strongest hero in the story, to the point that she's The Dreaded for the next 3 strongest heroes.
- Boobs Of Steel: The strongest fighter in the first half of the game next to Yuri, and even at the end, she and Keith are the strongest. And of course, she's far more buxom than Alice.
Characters/Shadowverse
- Boobs Of Steel: Magic variation, she has the largest breast size when compared to the other female characters.
- Boobs Of Steel: One of the few female Battleborns whose methods of attack are dedicated to melee, comprised with stats to compensate the inability to block direct attacks or hide behind the frontlines while having a bust that is easily recognizable to her outfit compared to the other well-dressed femme fatales.
- Boobs Of Steel: She has G-cups and is the tankiest of the bunch.
- Boobs Of Steel: She’s one of the more powerful characters. Needless to say, she has the largest chest in the series.
- Betty and Veronica: Sasuke was the Archie to Sakura's coy and smitten Betty and Naruko's Tomboyish and feisty Veronica. What draws the parrellel more is that Sakura is more book smart and intelligent while Naruko shines in the muscle and jutsu department. As time goes on, Sakura becomes stronger and Naruko becomes smarter. Plus, the size of their busts are very different as Sakura is very sensitive about her lack of growth and Naruko has the size comparable to her tomboyish attitude.
- Evil Is Sexy:
- Balalaika is hot. Revy is hot. Shenhua is hot. Eda is hot. Roberta is hot. All of the main female characters are, to some degree, evil (as is everybody else in this series). And they are hot.
- And the men aren't? Mr. Chang is hot. Rock is hot. Dutch is hot. Benny is hot. Villainy apparently makes for very sexy bodies.
- Boobs Of Steel: She has at least a D-cup, can easily dish out the most damage in combat
Earth Twenty Seven The Justice League
- Boobs Of Steel: As you may have noticed, Karen is rather buxom. And being a Kryptonian she's one of the strongest heroes DC has to offer.
Fire Emblem - Recurring Characters
- Boobs Of Steel: Called "The Voice", the daughter of Naga the Divine Dragon, and extremely powerful and long-lived in her own right. AND by the time she reappears in Awakening as an adult, she's among the bustiest of the cast, perhaps only behind Aversa and Tharja. Even further hammered home when she appears in a bikini as part of Heroes' "Ylissean Summer" Banner - without the dress to cover them up, it's clear she's buxom enough to give Camilla a run for her money. As icing on the cake, Female Robin, who is also revealed to be fairly well-endowed in the same Banner, is decisively smaller in comparison to Tiki when looking at both in swimwear side-by-side.
Punishing: Gray Raven - Playable Constructs
- Boobs Of Steel: Has the largest bust thus far, and is a very physical fighter who uses a very large weapon.
Dragon Age: Inquisition – The Inquisitor
- Boobs Of Steel: In addition to being the most physically imposing, a female Qunari inquisitor is bustier than human, elf, or dwarf inquisitors.
- Boobs Of Steel: Fitting for the ultimate knight.
Unbreakable Red Silken Thread Secondary Characters
- Boobs Of Steel: She has these just like in cannon, in chapter 11 she confirms they're a Double D 42. She is also probably the strongest character in the entire story so far.
- Boobs Of Steel: She's definitely stacked, and she's strong enough to throw a Terran Marine in full power armor over her shoulder.
- Boobs Of Steel: It's Wonder Woman; this is a given.
Skeleton Knight in Another World
- Boobs Of Steel: She's one of the deadliest Dark Elves and is quite stacked.
- Boobs Of Steel: Downplayed. Ronka's got some curves, but they haven't been given much focus yet.
- Boobs Of Steel: Both Maya and Kilmaria are well-endowed women who are the two most powerful beings in the fantasy world.
- Boobs Of Steel: Well endowed and the sturdiest tank in the game.
- Muramasa: The Demon Blade gives the Tiny Guy, Huge Girl couple of Fuujin and Raijin. Raijin is a visibly and hugely muscular woman (seriously, she'd put any and all female bodybuilders to shame) about 3.5 times larger than the player with little in terms of clothing, a large chest, and monstrous thighs (think "tree trunk-sized") that'd make Chun-Li look like a twig. She's still very beautiful, especially when her "dere" side finally comes to the surface. Fuujin, by contrast, is a very mellow, very adorable little imp, usually calming down the thunder goddess in her less rational moments. He also states (in the original Japanese version and in the Aksys retranslation) that he loves her fat ass.
- Boobs Of Steel: Even as the other players do get stronger, Ouka is the only main team member (aka not Balmung) to be able to take an enemy down in one hit. Hell, her first scene in human form is beating the crap out of a data-bugged skeleton with her fists, something that gave everyone else trouble. Of course, that also falls into Rule of Funny whether or not she's able to.
Video Game/Drakensang
- Boobs Of Steel:
- An Amazon character may become this, if you choose the right body type.
- in TRoT Eilif Thunderfist, who also doubles as Large and in Charge.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: The duo Asra line, Ninja and Archer (especially Archer), for two big reasons. They're the ones with the most variations and re-releases.
- Bullet also strongly resembles Angel in, eh... build, hair colour, dress sense and fighting style, though their personalities couldn't be further from each other.
- Boobs Of Steel: Leigh and Mai Giru, who Naruko nicknames 'Busty boobs' and 'Super-busty-boobs-sensei' because of this.
- Boobs Of Steel: Clarissa's core cadre of assassins is all women with sizable busts, including Zaki.
- Boobs Of Steel: She's quiet busty and once even killed a crocodile.
Incredibles 2 (Helen might be a valid example, but the example as written takes the trope to mean "big breasts" rather than "bigger than the other action girls")
- Fanservice Pack: Helen was redesigned to be more buxom and toned, and Violet has slightly wider hips than in the first movie. Violet and Tony also received upgraded designs, the former also having longer hair.
High School D×D: SLASHDØG (one or the other might be a valid example, but they can't both be). [[quoteblock]]
- Boobs Of Steel: The Harem King Memorial artbook listed her boobs size at 100 cm, surpassing the likes of Rias.
- Boobs Of Steel: As the head of the Himejima family she is a powerful mystic with an immense purification ability. She also ties with her cousin as having the biggest recorded breasts in the series at 102cm.
- Boobs Of Steel: Every female hero in the game have sizable busts, and all are badasses.
Black Widow [[quoteblock]]
- Boobs Of Steel: She quite well endowed and is a deadly physical fighter.
Manga/Freezing [[quoteblock]]
- Boobs Of Steel: Generally prevalent among the stronger and strongest cast members, particularly Satellizer and later, Cassandra, but some characters such as Charles Bonaparte are extremely skilled and very petite in build.
Punishing: Gray Raven - Playable Constructs
- Boobs Of Steel: She's typically not this as she's a long-ranged fighter, but her Abystigma frame puts her into this category by both making her an incredibly powerful melee combatant and most overtly showing off her ample bust.
- Boobs Of Steel: Susuki is quite stacked and kicks plenty of ass.
- Boobs Of Steel: Lt. James has an incredible rack and is the only female character to have engaged extensively in combat. She's good at it, including hand-to-hand — reference the brutal butt-stroke she deals out in "Divided" and when she "kills" Scott at the beginning of "Pain".
Azur Lane Sakura Empire Battlecruisers And Battleships
- Boobs Of Steel: Has a quite sizable rack, and she's one of the strongest Sakura Empire battleships.
Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA
- Angelica, full goddamn stop. The fans are already clamoring for her when she first appeared with her awesome Gilgamesh Install, and her following appearances gave her plenty of time to shine, what with The Reveal about this series' background and her awesome fight vs. Kuro and Miyu's brother. After her Heel–Face Turn, she's become even more popular as the fans jokingly said that she embodied "the perfect heroine for TYPE-MOON", with her combining traits of all three of Stay Nights heroines (blonde hair, Girlish Pigtails, big boobs', stoic yet honorable nature, and older sister-like personality).
- Boobs Of Steel: Yang and Ceres have the largest busts and the hardest punches.
Wanna Be the Strongest in the World!
- Boobs Of Steel: Tons. It's justified since many of the female characters are wrestlers.
- Boobs Of Steel: Is very well endowed and since she wears Sarashi, it shows.
- Boobs Of Steel: She's quite fit and very well endowed. Her large chest somehow doesn't affect her running. Anna is confused by this, and how she got them.
- Boobs Of Steel: She's one of the bustier girls of the main cast, and she's no slouch in the physical strength department, either, as her Action Girl entry shows.
- Boobs Of Steel: Tang Xuan supposedly has the largest chest of the main characters, and she's also a very tough tomboy.
- Boobs Of Steel: Awesome Girl is a very tough Flying Brick with a very large bust to match.
- Boobs Of Steel: Hanzo.
Fabricant 100 [[quoteblock]]
- Boobs Of Steel: One of No. 100's clear characteristics beside her strength is her very large breasts size.
- Boobs Of Steel: She has one of the largest busts among the characters and is one of the three leaders of her biker gang.
Survival in Another World with My Mistress! [[quoteblock]]
- Boobs Of Steel: Sylphy is quite stacked, and one of the most lethal ground combatants in the series.
- Boobs Of Steel: Zig-zagged. Ayame is the bustiest character (so far) but is below a less-endowed Yarizui in terms of fighting capability, but Matsy used to be the "Monarch Butterfly", the strongest Wolf in the east, and she's bustier (even back then) than Yarizui is.
- In Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja Shizune has huge breasts that she notably lacks in the regular universe, meanwhile Tsunade (Boobs Of Steel incarnate) ironically inverts this, since she is flat chested here.
- Kirze from King's Raid is a Cat hybrid with Boobs Of Steel and Hartman Hips, has cat-like mannerisms when you speak to her in the inn and her trascendence animations, and her default outfit is a corset with a transparent short Showgirl Skirt and high boots.
Conclusion: Fully half of the examples are cases of people thinking the trope is simply about action girls with visible bosoms, and that's not even all of it.
I suspect the issue is the name. It sounds like the female counterpart of Balls of Steel, but is a completely unrelated trope.
Ukrainian Red Cross
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
I think you could add it to the TRS Queue arguing for a rename.
Hi all,
May I please have clarity on who qualifies for the trope Boobs Of Steel? From my understanding:
What the trope means: The action girl with the biggest breasts is also the action girl who is the best at fighting.
Incorrect use: Action girl with big boobs.
Just want a bit of clarity before I edit further, as this trope seems more defined than is perhaps often thought.
Lex.