Took a Level in Badass/Other Media

Board Games

 * Chess has two examples:
 * The humble pawn, which upon reaching the last rank on the chessboard gets promoted, almost always into a Queen, the most powerful piece in the game
 * The Queen herself. Initially the piece was known as the vizier and moved very similarly to a pawn (i.e. it was much weaker than a king, which can at least cover all eight squares around it). Then, during the 15th or 16th century, it was given it's current movement abilities and, well, there's a reason the pawns tend to get promoted to queens.
 * This upgrade (orthogonal and diagonal travel without limit where unobstructed) became tellingly known as "madness chess" ("That much power wielded by a woman? Madness!") and the Italians called the piece rabioso.
 * If it comes to that, the ancient bishop was even weaker, moving diagonally two squares exactly, which restricted it so that 56 of the 64 squares were permanently off-limits.

Manwha

 * Shi Woon, protagonist of The Breaker, takes several huge levels in badass over the course of the story. He starts out as a loser who gets beaten up by bullies daily. After he eats a strange pill and trains under one of the greatest martial artists in the world, he becomes strong enough to break a cement column with his bare hands and take on other more experienced martial artists. He also learns to stand up for himself and becomes The Determinator, which impresses even the antagonists he cannot defeat.

Puppet Shows

 * Parodied in Team America: World Police with the "montage" song.

Toys

 * As with the cartoon series, so too with the toy line it's based on. When Transformers makes a new toy of an old character, the advances in manufacturing technology usually mean the toy itself is better. It is also often larger. Recent examples include Seaspray, once the Aquaman of the Autobots, who has a toy that is apparently both his G1 character and a character for the new line, going from an equivalent of Scout to Voyager (two size steps up). This can even happen within a single line. In the Revenge of the Fallen toy line, Bludgeon was originally a repaint of Wreckage, a decent mold from the first movie's line, but got his own unique mold which was a full size class larger, more in tune with his fan-favorite G1 self, and dripping with flavor.

Music

 * Elefseus in Sound Horizon's Moira. After his sister is killed, he turns into Amethystos, prince of taking down fate.