Badass/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* ''[[The Unit]]''. But, on a team of badass Special Forces operators, Sergeant Major <s>David Palmer</s> Jonas Blane is the biggest and baddest of them all.

** Tony Almeida and Bill Buchanan deserved to be mentioned as well.

** As does Aaron Pierce.

** Renee Walker, too. And Chloe O'Brien had a few badass moments herself.

** Percy, Amanda, Roan and Ari Tasarov as well.

*** Owen Elliot occasionally.

** Other characters get moments that qualify them for this as well, including Nikita's former student, Alexandra Udinov, her CIA contact Ryan Fletcher, as well as Nikita and Michael's friend and ally, Seymour Birkhoff. Very nearly [[World of Badass]].

** And now ex-Navy Seal Sean Pierce.

* ''[[Dark Angel]]'' When Zack turns himself into the police and Manticore to keep Max safe, he is taken off in a humvee, as it drives off.. ''He GRINS SMUGLY at the guards''

* The [[WWE]]'s [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] beat his boss up, poured beer on him, filled his prize Corvette with mixed concrete, and pulled various other stunts, with no lasting ill-effect on his career prospects, despite attempts at [[George Jetson Job Security]]. He would also beat up teams of four, five, or more wrestlers on a weekly basis. His template has since been followed by many other top [[Face|faces]] (though with considerably less success).

** Most of the past 3 decades of ''Kamen Rider'' protagonists fit this mold, especially the original, Hongo Takeshi; the precursor to Tendou, ''[[Crazy Awesome|Kamen Rider Stronger]]''; and the titular character of ''Kamen Rider Hibiki''.

** Probably the biggest badass out of any of Shotaro Ishinomori's works, however, is Ken Hayakawa, of ''[[Kaiketsu Zubat]]''.

* A non-warrior example from the new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', Mr. Saxon, the Master, cheerfully gasses a dozen or so key governmental figures, makes fun of the US President before having him vaporised, and then dances to a pop song as he ends the world, all the while being a rather [[Magnificent Bastard]].

** Please, the Master was a [[Badass]] before John Simm. Watch "Logopolis" and Anthony Ainley's [[Incredibly Lame Pun|master class]] in [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastardry]], especially the part where he {{spoiler|holds the universe for ransom and oh yeah - ''kills the Doctor''.}}

** Then again... considering that the Ninth Doctor was able to make Daleks RETREAT when he yells at them,and possibly wiped out HIS ENTIRE RACE in the Great Time War to end said war, and also wears that battered leather jacket with the very, very short (if any) hair, I'd personally surrender as fast as I can if I found myself facing him.

*** [[Badass]] essentially sums up every role Christopher Eccleston has ever played.

*** Eleven gets a similar moment in his first appearance, telling the aliens of the week who are about to destroy Earth, "Hello. I'm the Doctor. In other words, run." ''They do.''

** [[Doctor Who/Awesome|Ace once beat the crap out of a Dalek with a baseball bat. That is all.]]

*** {{spoiler|He also punched Hitler.}} He's ''made'' of [[Badass]]!

*** And of course, the story of how he became the Last Centurion in the first place: guarded a large stone cube, armed only with a sword and arm-gun, for 2000 years. Never sleeping, never eating. He guarded it through the fall of Rome, and dragged it out of the London Blitz, all while made of plastic- not exactly the strongest material in the world. And 2000 years later? Not a scratch on him.

** Really, most of the Doctor's companions achieve some level of badass [[Took a Level In Badass|after awhile with him]].

** The spinoff series, ''[[Torchwood]]'' is not lacking in badasses either. Every member of the team has done some hardcore stuff, though one of the most badass team members would be Owen Harper, a [[Combat Medic]] who literally [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|fought Death itself and won!]]

* On ''[[Chuck]]'', Agent John Casey is badass to the point of hilarity.

** Yeah? You laugh at him. I'd recommend running immediately after doing so.

** He kept a girl in his closet, slept with the female Big Bad, killed his "father" and the Qwa'ha Xhan. You get the point.

* Buffy Summers, Faith Lehane and Kendra Young on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.

** [[Badass]] is the second half of any Slayer's job description, right after "slaying vampires".

** Actually, the entire crew of ''Serenity'' is badass, let's just leave it there. Even sweet Kaylee {{spoiler|helps ''Serenity'' pull a Crazy Ivan while unable to stand because of a ''gunshot wound to the stomach''}}. And Inara {{spoiler|in the [[Big Damn Movie]] uses her Ojou-ness, via a flashbomb disguised as incense, as a front to knock out The Operative so she and Mal can escape from him}}. And Wash {{spoiler|gets kidnapped, tortured by a complete psychopath, proceeds to continue his argument with Mal while doing so, and upon rescue, promptly stands up and starts planning a suicide mission back into Niska's complex to get Mal back.}} And he's just he pilot.

* Weevil on ''[[Veronica Mars]]''. For the first season, at least. This culminates in the second season, where he kills the guy who stole his biker gang by tasering him and taping the drugs he was carrying to the underside of the guy's bike, knowing that when he reported back to the crime family who owns the drugs that they would search the bike and "deal" with him - thereby leaving him in the clear.

*** Even [[Badass Bookworm|Rodney]]. It's a well-known fact that if you point a gun at his head, he can get shit done faster than Carter does.

** The Asgard, as a race, are purified, weapons grade Badass with a capital B. You want Crowning Moments of Awesome as well as Badassitude? Just watch for an Asgard battlecruiser entering the scene. The Ori count as well.

** ''Scrubs'', however, definitely has [[Almighty Janitor|the most badass janitor in the universe]].

* ''[[Rome]]'': Titus Pullo, and to a marginally lesser extent, Lucius Vorenus. {{spoiler|Two great examples are how they casually kill ''all'' the brigands who stole the eagle in the pilot "The Stolen Eagle," and how Pullo killed or maimed half the roughnecks in a gambling den and then survived brutal ancient Roman brain surgery. Then there's the episode where the two of them kill a rabble of gladiators. And then there's another episode where they slaughter an ''entire gang'' of criminals, so that Vorenus can confront (and then decapitate) the Big Boss.}} And let's not forget the sequence where Pullo and his gang confront a rival gang. The rival gang leader calls for parley. {{spoiler|Pullo apparently accepts, taking the man's hand. Then he pulls him towards him and bites the man's tongue out before throwing an axe into someone's chest and charging whilst screaming. He later relates the story of him doing this in the manner of someone telling an afterdinner anecdote.}} Really, they're the epitome of [[Badass|Bad Ass]], the pair of them.

** Fiona Glennane

* The cast of the UK drama ''Spooks'', but in particular Harry Pearce, Roz Myers and {{spoiler|Lucas North}}, qualify as badass. {{spoiler|If only they didn't have a tendency to get killed off so much.}}

* Eliot, Christian Kane's character in [[Leverage]]. The man held off three goons and a guy attacking him with meat cleavers using ''a saucepan, a whisk, and HORS D'OUEVRES!'' If that is not [[Badass]], I don't know what is!

** There's also, I don't know, the rest of the team as well, they managed to {{spoiler|break a Steranko security system}}, which in the Hardison's own words "is considered [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|overkill]] by the Department of Defense".

* Worf from ''[[Star Trek]]: Deep Space Nine''. He got a badass upgrade during the series, from defeating many Klingon Warriors all with a mek'leth in 'Way of the Warrior', to 'Call to Arms' where he faced 20 Jem'Hadar (who are also Badass Super Soldiers) in a consecuitive match, and killed them all until he was too tired and injured to even stand, much less fight. The First even said "I cannot beat this man, I can merely kill him."

** [[Star Trek]] should not be mentioned on this page without mentioning Captain James T. Kirk. The man was hardcore.

*** He punched-out Q! He ''[[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|punched-out]]'' ''[[Physical God|Q!]]''

*** Bah, forget Sisko and Worf. Kira Nerys kicked major ass. Even when she was extremely pregnant!

* Fonzie from ''[[Happy Days]]'' was the probably the closest thing you could get to [[Badass]] in a 1970's show imitating the 1950's. But still, he won every fight he was in, and always had a girl on each arm.

* Paul Ballard from [[Dollhouse]]. He takes down three Russian mafia toughs ''after'' being shot, then a few days later, while ''still in stitches'' takes down four scurity guys, even after they taser him. And his fight with the other cast badass, Boyd should be the stuff of legends.

* [[The Wire|Omar comin'!]]

** Even Rimmer (that's Arnold Judas Rimmer, not Ace), cosmic butt-monkey and all around failure, gets a baddass moment in the finale of season 6. In a story where they meet their future selves (all of whom are jerkified versions of themselves), whom then open fire on the "current" crew killing Cat, Lister and Kryten - Rimmer takes a gun and blows the time machine to hell as Starbug is blowing up around him. Prior to this point Rimmer was a coward who was afraid of his own shadow, despite being virtually indestructible as a hard light hologram.

*** Actually, Rimmer makes the transition to badass just before that. When deciding whether to give their future selves the Time Drive, or fight, he asks Kryten if they have any chance of winning. Kryten replies that they have no chance at all. Rimmer then votes for 'fight', producing perhaps one of the greatest [[Badass Creed|phrases]] in the series: "Better dead than smeg."

** Laura Roslin is a political Badass who becomes president on the same day she got asked to resign and found out she had terminal breast cancer.

* ''[[Shameless]]'' Yvonne Karib - uses her baseball bat to threaten or attack [[Berserk Button|anyone who messes with her shop]] including debt collectors and armed soldiers.

* Saejima Kouga and Suzumura Rei from ''[[Garo]]''. Both kick ass hard every time they fight. The fight in the final episode is the ultimate proof of this

* ''[[Smallville]]'', being a show about, you know, [[Superman]] has its share of these. Clark himself has become one of these as the show progresses, while [[Magnificent Bastard|Lionel]] and [[Lex Luthor]] were from the start. Then there's [[Green Arrow]], an enormous [[Badass Normal]], his [[Justice League of America]], who define [[Badass Crew]], [[Kneel Before Zod|Major Zod]], who eventually graduates to [[Four-Star Badass]] without breaking a sweat, and [[Hollywood Cyborg|Metallo]] who managed to take on Clark and Zod at the same time. [[Green Rocks]] or no [[Green Rocks]], that is ''[[Badass]]''.

* Dale Cooper of ''[[Twin Peaks]]''.

** As well as Sheriff Truman and DEFINITELY [[Badass Native|Deputy Hawk]].

* Carter Grayson of ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]]''. People might complain about his lack of [[Character Development]], but this is the man who tried to run over the [[Monster of the Week]] with his jeep in the very first episode. How do you improve on that?

** What, no love for Tommy Oliver?