Badass Bookworm/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Badass Bookworms in Video Games include:

  • The World Ends With You
    • Sho Minamimoto. He will nuke you with pi.
    • Also, Joshua. He's the most intelligent member of the playable cast, and he's the Composer, which pretty much means he's a physical god.
  • Gordon Freeman from Half-Life. Seriously, a theoretical physicist you do not want to cross, ever.
    • Half-Life 2 even calls attention to this. There's one area where Gordon hears a recorded announcement by Dr. Breen, chief collaborator to Earth's new alien overlords, chewing out a division of soldiers for not being able to stop him. "This is not some agent provocateur or highly trained assassin we are discussing. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist who had hardly earned the distinction of his PhD..." Yet, when the revolution comes, everybody's behind Gordon. Because things in front of him tend to die.
    • One HL2 fanfic goes so far as to have the two protagonists find out that Gordon occupied the same level on the Combine's threat roster as planet-destroying warships.
  • Lexicus Runewright in RuneScape. Looks like a harmless librarian before he starts summoning books that shoots pages at you, plus multiple exploding books that could easily tear you to shreds if you don't have the sense to run.
  • Probably one of the earliest FPS examples is The Hacker from System Shock, where he manages to survive in the space station filled to the brim with mutants and cyborgs controlled by the Megalomaniac AI. That Military-Grade Neural Interface probably helped too.
  • Extremely literal video game example: Lex (a worm) defeats a variety of monsters and creatures of legend in Bookworm Adventures, despite the fact that he is lacking not only weapons but limbs. And he is also using the power of words.
  • Several of the magic users in Fire Emblem, especially if they're of the Mage/Sage, Cleric/Priest/Bishop or the Shaman/Druid classes. More specific examples are:
    • Azel the Fire Mage (FE4);
    • Mage General Cecilia, Niime the Hermit (FE6);
    • Canas, Renault, Lord Pent of Reglay, Erk, Big Bad Nergal and his Shadow Archetype, the Arch-Sage Athos (FE7);
    • Lute, Saleh, Ewan, Artur, Knoll, Natasha, Lyon (FE8).
    • Soren (FE9/10)
    • And for non-magic users who are still Badass Bookworms... the Cavalier Lance from FE6 fit the trope to a T.
  • Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
    • Raspberyl is another example. Literally fights you with a book (and has access to fire spells).
  • Mitsuru Kirijo of Persona 3 is a top-marks student, president of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council, and daughter of the man who owns the school. She's also quite handy with a rapier. At one point late in the game, she even tries shouting down a Cosmic Horror. Even her own teammates are terrified by her at times.
  • Daniel Dankovski from Pathologic is a world-famous pathophysiologist, but he is also an excellent sniper and sharpshooter, and he is very strong at knife- and fist- fight.
  • Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat, before Hell broke loose in MK3, was a historian whose knowledge of both shamanism and Native American legends as well as his physical strength was what made him qualified to become one of the Earth Warriors. In the cartoon, he's also a computer genius on top of a fighter and a walking myth encyclopaedia. In the original arcade Mortal Kombat 3, as Nightwolf, you could actually throw your opponent, run after him, and throw him before he had a chance to recover. Also, in the newer games, he tends to have easy combos that take 25% of your life bar.
  • Citan from Xenogears is one of the best examples of this. He enjoys reading, tinkering with machinery, and other bookish hobbies, yet is one of the planet's best swordsmen, as well as being a master Gear pilot who has had an Omnigear since even before the events of the game).
  • The first six members of Organization XIII have this as part of their backstory (or so we assume); Six brilliant apprentices of a wise and loved king... who manage to release The Heartless on the worlds and become the most powerful Nobodies around. Zexion, who was one of the original 6 Organization XIII members, fits this trope literally. His weapon? A book.
  • Team Fortress 2 has the Engineer, although the "bookworm" part tends to take a backseat to the stereotypically Texan elements of his character in the actual game. He also has Mad Scientist tendencies.
    • The Medic is this too. He's got a lot more brains than brawn, but he's tough enough to hack you to pieces with a rusty saw with a needle sticking out of it.
  • A few examples from the Phantasy Star series:
    • Hugh from the second installment is seemingly just some random biologist who can use status debuffs, nothing especially useful, until he gains a surprisingly accurate multi-target insta-kill spell. That and the fact he can use a mace!
    • Hahn from the fourth game also does this, but can combine it with something else to cast Holocaust (you have to be badass to get away with that level of tactlessness)
  • Jaina Proudmoore in Warcraft III is actually like this, seeing that she really LIKES studying and declares to be 'in love' with her studies or profession as a mage, since it lets her study a lot.
    • As of the writing of this contribution, Discipline Priests, who also count as Badass Preacher.
  • Patchouli Knowledge from the Touhou series is a pretty good example of the "magician" variety: she closets herself in (what amounts to) her own private library virtually all the time—researching new and innovative ways to produce More Dakka. And she's not afraid to use them! Though the badassness level is sometimes slightly hurt by the fact that her frail health and asthma, due to lack of exercise and open air, can impede her ability to recite the incantations or endure protracted battles. Not that most people live to see the point where this matters, of course.
    • Also Marisa Kirisame, who got to be a magician in a setting where most true magicians have an inherent gift solely by studying really hard... and has enough firepower in her hands to turn a country into a crater. And very little moral trouble with using it, too.
    • Let's not forget Nitori Kawashiro. She goes by with the nickname "Super Youkai Warhead", and arms herself with an Extending Arm plus and Invisibility Module she built herself, despite the fact that the general level of technology in Gensokyo being equivalent to the Sengoku Jidai era. Or even earlier.
  • Keats in Folklore goes from mild mannered skeptical Intrepid Reporter to destroyer of souls with seemingly little convincing.
  • Isaac Clarke from Dead Space. He is the one and only to survive the events of the game. His weapons are MINING TOOLS, he is just a space engineer, and still manages to cut down (literally) an army of space zombies.
  • Chrono Trigger's Lucca. She built a robot and a teleporter while living in a quasi-medieval time period, not to mention the Time Key you use through most of the game. Her techo-geekness is established by her house, strewn as it is with books and cabling. She later repairs a robot 1,500 years ahead of her time. She also wields pistols and fire magic.
  • In older versions of Dwarf Fortress, order your bookkeeper to take the most accurate inventory of your stocks possible. He, a weak, unassuming social dwarf, will proceed to lock himself in his study, and work silently for roughly a season. Eventually, he will re-emerge, and after all those hours of updating the records, will have acquired the character notes 'Ultra-Mighty', 'Extremely Agile', and 'Unbelievably Tough'.
  • Shad, from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, could be a contender for this trope. He's a textbook nerd, with glasses and argyle socks and a freakishly large bow tie, who natters on extensively about the ancient race of bird-people called the Oocca. He's also tolerably muscular, uses an ornamental dagger as a bookmark, and forms a Resistance with the characters Auru, Ashei, and Rusl—all of whom are easily defined as being Badass. Not to mention the ancient Hyrulean BAZOOKA. It stands to reason that Shad wouldn't be part of that little collective if he couldn't hold his own.
  • Both Arcturus and Valerian Mengsk of StarCraft are both trained in swordsmanship and the use of a rifle as well as the former being a Magnificent Bastard and the latter being an Adventurer Archaeologist.
  • Lucian of the Elite Four in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl mentions that he just finished a book when you arrived and has the book depicted in his entering battle animation in Platinum. He's the last of the Elite Four, a devastating Psychic-type specialist. If you talk to him after beating him, he mentions he's going to go back to reading in order to prepare for his next battle. Awesome.
    • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: Rustboro Gym Leader Roxanne is also depicted as one, especially in the manga - where she forces all hopefuls into taking a written exam for the right to challenge her. It's pretty verbose on top of that, meaning that with one exception, everyone who got to fight her had some serious language comprehension skills.
    • Also of note is Cyrus from Team Galactic. Scientist, engineer, roboticist, strongest Pokemon trainer in the team and one of the strongest trainers in all Sinnoh, and the man who captured the embodiments of Willpower, Emotion, Knowledge, Space, and Time.
    • Azelf could be this in Pokémon form. It's a small, Psychic-type pixie, so it seems like it would specialize in the Special end of the spectrum, which is partially true; its Special Attack is very high. However, its physical Attack stat is just as high.
  • Jeff Andonuts from EarthBound. Unusual for an RPG in that he's also a Badass Normal; while he can't use Psychic Powers, he can make bazookas out of spare parts.
  • Likewise Lloyd in MOTHER 1, though storywise he had to Take A Level In Badass first.
  • Edmund from Gaia Online got his start as a Mad Scientist. Then he became a superhero. Then he fought off an Ax Crazy vampire hitman... multiple times... These days, he's supposedly retired. Supposedly.
  • It is heavily implied that Quintessential British Gentleman Professor Layton is one of these, even though the games consist mostly about solving puzzles. One particular example of this appears in the second game, in which one cutscene shows that Layton is quite proficient with a sword.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics: the Calculator does stuff with math. Stuff like injuring every enemy on the screen. At once. Since the game lets you change classes, every one of your characters can learn to be a bookworm. Combine this with all the other classes... Badassery out the behind.
    • Nu Mou Scholars in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 use books as their weapons of choice. Seriously, no one expect a short and fragile race like the Nu Mou to be physically strong since they specialize in magic, but Scholars can deal a good amount of physical damage and use spells that hits everyone by just reading from the book. Human Seers also uses books for weapons and their Magick Frenzy ability lets them hit enemies with spells AND the book.
    • Not only can Calculators nuke every enemy on the screen with high-level spells, they do it for no MP cost! If properly used, Calculators are an even bigger Game Breaker than the infamously broken optional character Orlandu.
  • John Vattic from Second Sight, a skinny, awkward-looking academic... that also happens to be one of the most powerful psychics in the game. Plus, as seen in the first level of the game, he can kill people with his bare hands.
  • Briar Rose in The Lost Chapters expansion of Fable I. Spends a lot of her time shuttling back to the Heroes' Guild to research eldritch incantations and ancient prophecies, but is fully capable of throwing down on fell abominations when necessary.
  • Mass Effect
    • Liara T'Soni is a rather unassuming archaeologist, until you find out she can kill you with her mind. If the player isn't an Adept, she's the most powerful biotic in the game.
    • Tali'Zorah nar Rayya: don't let that 'all tech' rating fool you, she can pack a mean shotgun and gets the strongest shields in the game pretty much by default, in addition to her ability to kill you with her toolkit. Quarians in general tend to fit the trope. Their entire life and culture revolves around spaceships and technology, and their environmental suits make them look like skinny engineering nerds. But don't let that fool you.
    • Professor Mordin Solus. Motor Mouth doctor. Ran clinic during plague, threat to mercenaries. Came to start trouble. Killed them, left bodies on display. Formerly part of Special Tasks Group. (inhale) Never saw him coming. Salarians in general fit trope. First impressions awkward, but Salarian ingenuity, intelligence, and logic will hold the line.
    • To a degree, Kaidan Alenko. He's a techie with medical training who initially appears to simply be a Nice Guy. However, as you learn later, he's also an incredibly powerful biotic (for a human) who (accidentally) killed one of his instructors in biotic training who threatened the girl he liked and then Kaidan after Kaidan stood up for her.
  • Eternal Darkness
    • Alexandra Roivas is a student in abstract mathematics and number theory.
    • Her grandfather was a clinical psychologist who, in the chapter you play him, gets two of the most awesome guns in the game (a sawed-off shotgun that can be used at close range to remove one arm and two heads from 9-foot-tall brutes, and an elephant gun that knocks him over when he fires it). Other people were Edwin Lindsay (Think Indiana Jones, with a beard), a 14th-century monk, Roberto (an architect during the Renaissance), and a WWI journalist who puts all that spare ammo lying around to good use. Everyone gets to dismember zombies and other monsters.
  • Protagonist Giacomo from Rise of Legends is this. Who else would lead a Roaring Rampage of Revenge that culminates in him destroying Sufficiently Advanced Aliens who claim to be gods?
  • Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog. He is a freaking genius, even making a robotic suit that rivals Eggman's, while at the same time being fairly fast, having the ability to fly, and, in some games, being able to take out Eggman by himself. Not through intelligence, though. No, through beating the ever loving crap out of him! Heck, in Sonic Adventure Series, he has to go and beat Eggman to a missile then take on one of Eggman's mechs by himself, saving the city SINGLE HANDEDLY.
  • Alex Mercer from Prototype. Before the events of the game, he had already earned a phD in genetic engineering by age 29, and it's heavily implied that his work was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else's. Then he's infected with The Virus and offensive abilities so great that he can slice a tank in half (and then pick up those halves and smash helicopters out of the sky with them) and decimate entire bases single-handedly, as well as defensive abilities that enable him to survive point-blank tank fire and survive a direct hit to the face with a nuke. Oh, and he also gains all of the knowledge and memories of anyone he consumes—yes, that includes other geniuses, as well as military personnel whose expertise lies in operating tanks, choppers, etc.
  • If leading the Squad that wins practically every major victory of an entire war counts as badassery, Gunter Welkin from Valkyria Chronicles definitely counts. He's not a true soldier but just a student learning biology to become a school teacher. A skill which actually helps him win a number of critical battles, by using the environment to his advantage.
  • Trilby, from the Chzo Mythos, studied hard at engineering and mechanics before turning to the life of a Gentleman Thief. What truly makes him a badass is that he used his skills to face the forces of evil not once, not twice... but THREE TIMES! Having also become a Man In Black he literally becomes The Stuff of Legend.
  • Grace Nakimura from the Gabriel Knight series, who is well versed in tai chi and not about to let herself be a Damsel in Distress.
  • Mical/Disciple and Bao-Dur from the second Knights of the Old Republic. Mical is a historian and spy trying to salvage Jedi history and lore for the Republic. You meet him doing a little "light" reading in the bombed-out, nasty-critter-infested ruins of the Dantooine Enclave. His starting class is Soldier (VERY tough, plenty of combat feats), but you cross-class him to a Consular (MASSIVE amounts of Force whoop-ass). Bao-Dur is a shy, soft-spoken engineer who came up with such a nasty weapon of mass destruction (the Mass Shadow Generator) that even the Mandalorians were horrified when they saw it in action. He's also no stranger to more...personal combat, either. It's what cost him his left arm. Badass he is, he built his own artificial one. You can cross class him as a Guardian (mostly because his mechanical arm prevents him from wearing robes, thus limiting his ability to use Force powers anyway).
  • Tales of the Abyss has Colonel Badass Jade Curtiss. He discovered/invented fomicry, an entire branch of science, by himself before he even turned ten; he is the personal confidant and right-hand-man to Emperor Peony, with some people speculating that Jade is really running things through his emperor; he is well versed in several scientific subjects, including medicine; he figures out the game's big plot twist almost instantly, if you pay attention near the beginning of the game; he is, excepting seventh fonists, the most powerful fonist in the world; by the end of the game he's even shrugged off the effects of a Fon Slot Seal, a rare and dangerous weapon akin to a nuke in-universe.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, Genis is small, he's smart and carries a toy kendama as a weapon. He also has the most dangerous spells at his disposal. His sister also has her moments.
  • Super Robot Wars has Shu Shirakawa, pilot of the Granzon. He has multiple P.H.D.'s at age 21, a strong grasp on alchemy, and improved on technology granted by Guest, which involves weaponized black holes. Also, he and Jade Curtiss above have the same seiyuu.
  • Jason Hudson, the secondary protagonist of Call of Duty Black Ops; in addition to being a double-major in psychology and political science prior to his service, he is described as an excellent tactician with genius-level IQ.
  • In Heroes of Might and Magic V Tribes of the East, vampire lord Giovanni dismisses Arantir as a humble bookworm, then attempts to backstab him... and Arantir easily eradicates him. Arantir points out that there is great power to be found in books, especially magical ones.
  • Fallout: New Vegas
    • The Courier, of course, can be this.
    • Arcade Gannon. Speaks fluent Latin? Check. Quotes Shakespeare? Check. Reads books about socioeconomics for fun? Check. Owns Ancestral Armor and can take down a Death Claw with a pistol? Check.
    • Veronica is skilled with all manner of tech and is good at punching people.
  • Shantotto from the MMO Final Fantasy XI easily qualifies. She's short, a professor, and can cast ancient magic spells without useing what some would call the "magic casting pose."
    • She also says everything in a rhryme, for most people that would take a lot of time.
  • Edgar Roni Figaro from Final Fantasy VI is an engineer who outfitted the entire Figaro Castle with the ultimate defense—a submerge mode! He also fights with his engineering tools, including a drill, a bolt gun, and a CHAINSAW. And did I mention that he's the king?
  • The heroes of I.M. Meen. Enough to fight trolls and demons bare-handed, literally punching out Cthulu .
  • In Golden Sun games, Mercury Adepts are prone to this. To date, we have:
  • Ghostbusters the Video Game upgrades Winston to the badass bookworm status of his colleagues, stating that he's just received his doctorate.
  • Shulk in Xenoblade Chronicles is a rare example of a main JRPG protagonist being this. He is a weapons researcher who is studying the Sword of Plot Advancement, and eventually wields it himself. Even before that, he's pretty adept at swordplay, while being smarter than the usual Wangsty idiots we're used to.
  • Mages in general in Dark Souls naturally enough. Of the specific NPCs are Big Hat Logan and his apprentice, Griggs.
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