Fearless Fool: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|KAMINA.]] {{spoiler|Ultimately subverted - Kamina was always just as frightened as anyone else when thrust into dangerous situations. But he knew that everyone else was relying on him to be the front of courage and recklessness, especially Simon, and so he played the part faithfully to the very end.}}

* ''[[One Piece]]'': The hero Monkey D. Luffy is pretty much the embodiment of this trope. He charges headlong into dangers great or small without once thinking of his own wellbeing. This includes leading a small army in a siege against the World Government stronghold Enies Lobby, {{spoiler|punching out a World Noble, who are treated as walking Gods, engaged in a battle in the [[Alcatraz]] known as Impel Down, headed to the Marine Headquarters with a large group of dangerous convicts to fight the entire Navy!}}

 

* Claire Stanfield from ''[[Baccano!]]'' not only knows no fear ([[Mook Horror Show|apart from the fear of Claire he puts in others]]), he has managed to convince himself that he's ''immortal'' (despite being one of the [[Badass Normal|few characters that aren't]]) simply because he can't imagine what it'd be like to be dead.

* ''[[Saint Seiya]]'': The hero Pegasus Seiya has no sense of self-preservation whatsoever, often veers into [[Too Dumb to Live]] territory and will happily sacrifice his life on multiple occasions for his friends/goddess. When asked how he manages to keep on living, he most often responds with 'I don't know'. To this troper's knowledge, he's never been visibly afraid of anyone-not enough to say so, anyway.

 

== Fairy Tales ==

** Similarly in ''[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/350.htm The Boy Who Found Fear At Last]''

*** Made into an episode of ''[[Faerie Tale Theatre]]'' that culminated with the kid almost being brutally murdered by evil undead sorcerer [[Christopher Lee]]. [[Nightmare Fuel|That ought to clear things up for him]].

* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s ''Cain's Last Stand'', [[Ciaphas Cain]] tells the cadets that he is afraid, in order to urge prudence on them. But when he describes himself as a [[Dirty Coward]], Amberley Vail cites that a brave man is one who overcomes his fears, not one who has none, to say that Cain may not be giving himself enough credit.

** At one point, earlier, Cain's aide Jurgen offers to come on a mission. Cain is not sure whether this is courage or being too stupid to realize the danger. Amberley Vail, having seen much of Jurgen over the years, isn't sure either.

** In ''Grey Hunters'', when one Marine speaks of a heroic death, he is rebuked for not knowing the difference between heroic and stupid.

* ''[[Fearless (novel)|Fearless]]'' by Francine Pascal is about a teenage girl unable to comprehend fear.

** Other characters are shown to be almost fearless as well, Cohen and his 'horde' namely, but also Ridcully, Vetinari, and a few others.

* In Patrick Rothfuss's ''[[The Name of the Wind]]'', Chronicler tells Kvothe that they say he's fearless. Kvothe disclaims: only priests and fools are fearless, and he's not been on good terms with God.

* The ogres of ''[[Xanth]]'' are famous for being too stupid to fear anything. But this is played with—it combines with their great strength to ensure that every living creature smarter than them (and that's everyone, including a number of plants) fears ''them''. Even dragons know they can't match the sheer power-to-weight ratio of an ogre and that an ogre wouldn't be afraid of coming after them, and avoid picking fights.

** In ''Blood Rites'', when he is rescuing the puppies, one rears up in the box to bark at their former captors. Harry describes it as either more brave or more stupid.

*** Said puppy eventually becomes Mouse. This troper is fairly certain he would have won the fight.

* Jason in [[Tom Holt]]'s ''Ye Gods!''

{{quote|''Being a Hero, he didn't know the meaning of fear, just as the average person doesn't know the meaning of the word'' fourmart* .

** Later, this is invoked several times with the observation that what he felt couldn't really, therefore, be fear.

* The entire Kender race from [[Dragonlance]].

* The second-in-command in ''[[Moby Dick]]'' tells the crew a fearless man has no business being on a whale hunt.

* In [[Mortal Instruments|City of Ash]], Jace gets a Fearless rune put on him by Clary. After a few minutes of fighting [[The Legions of Hell]], he notes that the rune might be ''a little bit'' of too much of a good thing. In particular, he notes how blase he was becoming in regards to injuries.

* In [[Michael Flynn]]'s ''[[Spiral Arm|Up Jim River]]'', the Brute is the only one not afraid, he's too stupid.

 

* In ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', Lister has his fear removed by the polymorph beast that feeds on emotions. He wants to charge in recklessly at the beast and volunteers to be the bait, so the others can kill it "while it's eating me to death".

* Alan Davies on ''[[QI]]'', whose job is to leap in with the obvious answers where a wiser panelist might hesitate. Has been working in his favor lately, as the panelists have started to assume the obvious answer will be incorrect and go to great lengths to avoid giving it—when it was correct all along, giving Alan easy points.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S10/E04 Planet of the Daleks|Planet of the Daleks]]", the Doctor explains to a Thal, a fellow captive, that his heroic action of leading off the enemy was heroic despite his fear, and that everyone else who does heroic things is the same.

 

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* It is quite common that a good guy, or "babyface" is said to have "more guts than brains" (as [[Jim Ross]] would say), because they continue to fight back despite being beaten down time and again, refuse to submit to submission moves, have no problems with accepting a 3-on-1 challenge, etc.

* The "Rate Tank" Kellie Skater (weighing in at ''[[Large Ham|68 kilograms of pure adamantium]]'') of [[SHIMMER]] is a heel version - she blithely walks up to every [[Badass]] woman on the roster, registering no fear whatsoever as she disrespects them and challenges them to matches. Every single time, she gets obliterated - but at no point does Kellie ever catch on that she's being destroyed. She keeps on taunting her opponent and bringing the fight even if she's getting smashed against the barricades, tied into a pretzel, or back-fisted in the face.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The Orks too, arguably. Although the only reason for their lack of fear is they were the only race not affected by the Nightbringer, they definitely ''appear'' Fearless Fools to the rest of the galaxy.

** One [[Genre Savvy]] (Insane even by Ork standards, but still [[Genre Savvy]]) ork boss knows that Orks aren't afraid to die. So, when da boyz piss him off he tears their arms off instead. THAT intimidates them.

* One demonic, gluttonous race called the Gordians (imagine a cross between an ogre and a dwarf that has been fed on a steady diet of lard) in [[Rifts|Palladium]]'s Land of the Damned One: Chaos Lands are described as having eggshell thin egos and going to insane lengths to prove themselves worthy ("You call Throka coward? Watch, Throka kill Dragon!").

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Touhou|Touhou Project]]'' has these in spades. Partially justified with the Spellcard rules making official fights nonlethal, but you would think that, given that fighting is still ''painful'', to the point where even true immortals just give up rather than keep getting hurt, some fairies would learn not to die in relentless [[Redshirt Army]] wave attacks at heroines who are functionally impossible for a [[Mooks|basic nameless fairy]] to kill, [[Conservation of Ninjutsu|no matter the odds]], especially since some don't even have offensive powers, and essentially can only harm a heroine by simply standing there as the heroine blindly collides with her. As a justification for the fearlessness, (if not the aggression in the first place,) fairies have lives tied to nature, and as long as nature exists, they will regenerate [[From a Single Cell]].

** Cirno deserves special mention. In spite of being a fairly weak character (normally), she proudly boasts about how she's "The Strongest" (of the fairies, which isn't saying much, as most fairies are weaker than unpowered ordinary humans), and trying to prove it by repeatedly challenging beings far more powerful than herself, even though those characters have already easily curb-stomped her in the past. Apparently, [[The Fog of Ages]] is on extra strength for Cirno, and she can't remember the numerous humiliating defeats she seems to suffer on a regular basis.

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Dork Tower]]'' [http://www.dorktower.com/2006/06/12/comics-archive-794/ With motivational poster!]

* In ''[[American Barbarian]]'', [http://www.ambarb.com/?p=342 Rick assures someone that yes, it's all right to be a little afraid when facing something completely unknown.]

 

== Web Original ==

* Rob from the web fiction serial ''[[Dimension Heroes]]'' seems to go out of his way to pick fights with Creturians who invade his city.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fear Tropes]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]