Badass Furry

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
It's not a fair fight. Those guys are doomed.
Man, don't you know not to mess with a sleeping wombat? ...We're like biceps with feet.
Digger, Digger

When "furry" loses one of its r's.

Anthropomorphic animals have a difficult hurdle when it comes to becoming a Badass. For one, they're usually given roles as extras or side characters. Otherwise, they're generic henchmen or brutes for the main, noisy characters (on either side) to vanquish.

With that said, there are those who have stepped things up. Not only do they make humans awe at their feats, they're very amazing on what they do and what they are capable of. Heck, their badassery could even make them exceptions for people who generally don't like Talking Animals. The male characters tend to have that sense of manliness in them, more so than their human counterparts, that they release that GAR feeling on them.

Badass Furries are anthropomorphic characters that exhibit the qualities of being a badass despite not being a human. They are so astounding that their peers, human or not, are taken aback at their feat.

See also Big Badass Wolf for wolves in general and not just being a furry, and Animal Superheroes. Depending on how they are drawn/shown, werewolves may count too. May coincide with various animal related tropes like Mega Neko or Canis Major.

Due to the fact that, at least in the west, anthropomorphic animal characters tend to inhabit children's shows, a lot of these characters are also an example of a Tailkicker (pardon the pun). Characters leaning more towards the animal side are inclusive.

In Japanese media, you may expect these characters to be voiced by TetsuInada.


Examples of Badass Furry include:


Anime And Manga

  • Black Cat Detective is like if Tom, instead of taking all of Jerry's shit, would just pull out his nine and bust a cap. Furry Badass.
  • Digimon has Leomon and BanchoLeomon, who are both large, muscular, anthropomorphic lion men type of Digimon. Both are regarded as gentle yet cunning and fierce warriors, yet both have a rather sad fate.
    • Incidentally, BanchoLeomon is left ambiguous, although a SaberLeomon does die. This is mostly due to the show's running "joke" (if you can call it that) of a Leomon dying each season. BanchoLeomon simply doesn't show up at the ending along with the other characters. We can assume he went back to the Digital World just as much as we can assume he died. It doesn't diminish his complete awesomeness, though.
      • Averted, surprisingly enough, by the V-Tamer manga - Leo the Leomon lives on despite suffering hard injuries.
    • The WarGreymon family are part of the Dragon-Man Digimon species, making them anthropomorphic dragons in the Digimon world. All of them (well... depending on whether you like some of them) are very powerful, and are generally shown as the partner of the main character.
    • Early in the first series, the Big Badass Wolf Garurumon evolved into one of these: WereGarurumon. Too bad this powerup soon became obsolete.
    • Renamon is a Lady of War with Nerves of Steel, proficient in Flash Step and Roof Hopping, can run fast enough to overtake speeding traffic, turn her enemies into Swiss Cheese with a cloud of diamond shards and sports a pair of brilliantly subverted Black Eyes of Crazy, which practically give her a permanent, built-in Death Glare.
  • There's Sajin Komamura, known as Captain Furry in Bleach, who is one of the strongest shinigami captains Statistically Speaking. Your Mileage May Vary though, as out of the five fights he's had in canon, he's lost three (granted, two fights were both against Aizen and he ended his fight with Zaraki early to help Yamamoto), but for his victory, he oneshotted a Fraccion. Plus, he is a Inada furry so...
    • Grimjaw's release in the anime, though not in the manga.
  • Kotaro of Mahou Sensei Negima counts when he switches to his Wolf Man demon form.
    • Also the literal Mama Bear from the Magical World, who has no qualms beating up jerkasses to protect her charges and was a former Action Girl who fought her way to freedom. Not to mention her (temporal) death was a Heroic Sacrifice to sace Kotaro and Natsumi.
  • The titular character of Montana Jones owns a bi-plane, has a girlfriend, travels around the world, and stop a thieving treasurer. He's like Indiana Jones mixed with James Bond!
  • In Summer Wars, King Kazuma is the avatar of a young otaku/gamer. King Kazuma, an anthropomorphic white rabbit, is quite skilled in martial arts and is generally deadly despite looking "adorable". In fact, he has become one of the more notable characters in the anime.
  • Depending on how you view the characters of Legendz (not the humans of course), they could fit this trope.
  • The 90's anime Wild Knights Gulkeeva features a teenager and three other-world characters who are an anthropomorphic wolf, eagle, and gorilla. When the teenager powers them up, they suit up and become armored feral creatures.
  • Whilst usually just a perfectly ordinary badass, Rob Lucci in One Piece turns into a hulking leopard man to enhance his combat ability.
  • Jillas in TRY. Starts as an unlucky evil minion, but gets better after his Heel Face Turn.
  • Pantherlily from Fairy Tail, who is a reformed villain and wields a BFS. He's also an Exceed, like Happy.
  • Kurama is badass all the time, even if wearing pink (the school uniform which is automatically associated with him). But if he enters his Yoko form, some as is seriouslly gonna get kicked.
  • Guin, of Guin Saga—basically Conan with a leopard head.
  • Inugami and Suguru from Tezuka's Phoenix.
  • Death Panda. Oh God, Death Panda. It even ends with all the badasses he's killed until then coming back as Badass Furries themselves, probably to start their own killing spree and make the world crapsackier.

Comic Books

  • Blacksad is an awesome black cat detective who will ruin your shit if get on his bad side.
  • X-Men has Beast, Depending on the Artist. He's sometimes drawn as a feline-headed mutant, and at times even a wolf-headed one. Technically speaking, Beast is an animorphic human furry.
  • Image Comics has one of the (only few - you know why) good series back in The Nineties called The Kindred, which are basically furries who generally teamed up with Grifter. Despite looking lite and "cuddly", the Kindred trio are generally powerful and crafty, capable of impressing even Grifter.
  • Another Image Comics title called The Astounding Wolf Man has the main character Wolf-man. Early in the series he was a fairly powerful superhero who soon faced many personal losses due to his werewolf curse. However, after a rough training with the Elder Brood, he recovered his senses and became more attuned with his lycanthropy.
    • The fact that he teamed up with Invincible and be recognized as a hero by him should already be enough to rank him as a badass.
  • We then have the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where their badassery is pretty much cemented in their debut issue.
    • As well as Master Splinter, their sensei, who doubles as a Badass Grandpa.
  • Marvel Comics has Howard the Duck, a wise-cracking duck from a different dimension. He hits on human chicks, and likes to occasionally Break the Fourth Wall. The Movie didn't give him a proper light though.
  • Marvel also gives us Rocket Raccoon who is one of the VERY few characters in any Marvel universe to single-handedly defeat Thanos. And unlike others who accomplished this task like SquirrelGirl, his "superpowers" are nothing more than being a tactical genius, and being fond for solving problems by shooting them with bigger guns.
  • Usagi Yojimbo has Miyamoto Usagi, as shown on this page's image, and many other characters who qualify to be included here.
  • Detective Inspector Archie LeBrock from Grandville. In fact, he's so heavily built (his luggage contains weights) for a traditional detective, and he has his ways with women.
  • Also under Big Badass Wolf, the comic Fables has Bigby Wolf, also a detective, also frightening, also super Badass.
  • On the less anthropomorphized end of the scale, there are the protagonists of WE 3, a cybernetically enhanced rabbit, housecat, and dog. The military comes after them. It doesn't end well for the military.
  • Oedi, last of the Cat people in Dreadstar.
  • A lot of the characters in Kamandi, set in a Post Apocalyptic future where animals become intelligent. Especially Prince Tuftan, who is a ten-foot-tall ass-kicking tiger-man.
  • Speaking of which, in Shazam, Mr. Tawky Tawny is a ridiculously cutely-named humanoid tiger in a tweed suit and bow tie...who disembowelled Kalibak in one swipe during Final Crisis.
  • Oedi, last of the Cat people in Dreadstar.
  • Most of the cast in Elephantmen
  • A number of Green Lanterns come to mind, with Isamot Kol probably being the most famous.
  • Young Scrooge as seen in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, even though he is only half the size of most dog-nosed inhabitants of his universe. May or may not have single-handedly destroyed a steam-boat, just by pulling on the chains he was shackled with to the boat's chimneys. Also, Scrooge is still quite spry as an old man duck, in the stories playing in the present.

Film


Literature

  • All the warrior characters from the Redwall series.
    • Especially Badgers.
  • Guin, of Guin Saga—basically Conan with a leopard head.
  • Destroyermen: By Taylor Anderson, has close to a dozen. The most notable is Chack, who isn't even into his 20's yet and is the commander of the Marine Detachment onboard a WW2 Destroyer.
  • There's a Japanese novel called Guin Saga, about a lone brutish warrior who has amnesia named Guin. Depending on the interpretation, Guin is either described as a man with an irremovable leopard mask (that moves like a real one) or a man with a leopard head (including the neck), so essentially he's like King, only a bit more, uh, feral. The anime adaptation turns this up a notch and have leopard spots appear on Guin's shoulders as well. Obviously, Guin (and King) are homages to Tiger Mask.
  • The Kzinti, from Known Space.
  • Codex Alera: The Canim. Fear them.
  • The Adventures of Fox Tayle: Fox Tayle, who was created in a lab, escaped, and is now trying to prove his own sentience while the FBI chases him.
  • Several characters in S. Anfdrew Swann's Moreau series, the lead character in two of the novels is a 7-foot tall, 300 pound anthropomorphic tiger who is a Noir Private Detective.
  • In Queen Of The Demonweb Pits (the third volume of a Greyhawk trilogy by Paul Kidd) we have Polk. He was brought back from the dead...as a badger. He's not too pleased with being a badger, but it does give him a hell of a bite. In the opening of the book he tears a giant spider limb from limb with his teeth. After he's drank approximately his own body weight in alcohol.


Live Action TV

Tabletop Games

  • Coalition States mutant animals in Rifts. Dog Boys are legendary for their loyalty and courage. When a human sacrifices themselves for others, it's above and beyond the call; when a Dog Boy does it, that is completely normal.
    • Battle Cats are the most deadly "normal" commandos in the setting.
    • Kill Hounds, Kill Cats, and Ursa Warriors dispense with the "normal".
  • This would seem to be the point of WhiteWolf's two Werewolf games, Apocalypse and Forsaken.
  • German game Pluesch Power Und Plunder is about living plushies, and, well, most plushies are non-human animals...
  • Speaking of Living Toys, Fuzzy Heroes is a minatures wargame made for young children. The "bad guys" TEND to be whatever action figures you have laying around, but you use stuffed animals for the "good guy" faction.
  • In most editions of Gamma World, it is quite possible to-with the right build, luck on the mutation rolls and playstyle-to create this kind of character.


Video Games

  • In any Shining series, there's always a badass anthropomorphic creature ready to join the cause or be playable. For instance, Shining Force has Zylo, the wolfling, who generally has one of the best statistics in the game. And of course, in Shining Wind we have Tetsu Inada's very own beast king Rouen, a pirate king and emperor of a Chinese-inspired kingdom. In Shining Force III we also have Frank, Rock, Leon and even the birdmen.
  • And speaking of ShiningForce, its spiritual sister title FEDA: Emblem of Justice features recruitable anthropomorphic characters who are generally bad-ass on their own right, especially as they are actual soldiers of your faction before they join as playable characters. Even one of the two main characters is the wolfling named Ain MacDougal, who fights enemies along with his human buddy (and other main character) Brian.
    • One of the recruitable characters is Arby Hexzool, a humanoid black panther. He joins you after a bombing mission when you retain the Justice ranks. What makes him unique? He has high defense, yet very mobile and has a good attack... and he's wearing nothing but bandages on his forearms and legs, and a loincloth. Yeah, so he's basically nude yet he has more defense than the main characters.
  • Leo from Red Earth may count. He is a noble king who, in order to save his kingdom, got cursed into becoming a lion-headed humanoid. He still has human speech, but he has tendencies to act like a lion, making him a fierce fighter. Oh, and he wears only a loincloth and a pair of boots, with only his muscles and sword for protection and attacking.
  • King's Quest VI had Captain Saladin, captain of the Guard Dogs, a Hero Antagonist who is fierce, noble, very serious, and a talented fighter, despite being an anthropomorphic dog.
    Narrator: The guard returns a moment later with a majestic-looking creature. Captain Saladin speaks with a voice that's gentle, but reflects a will of iron.
  • Ratchet from the Ratchet & Clank series. He isn't impressive physically, but beating up bad guys with an oversized wrench is pretty rad... but this doesn't even begin to describe his arsenal, ranging from "mere" grenades and plasma rifles to weaponized Eldritch Abominations and nano-disassemblers. General Azimuth from A Crack in Time also qualifies.
  • Max, the four-armed, cigar-smoking robot dog from MDK2.
  • Eugene Gallardo, a panther, from Tales of Rebirth. He's the only beastman who will join your party. He also acts as the adoptive father of Mao, and is very protective about it.
  • Golden Axe III featured Chronos "Evil" Lait, a bipedal black panther.
  • Many Pokemon count as this, but ones like Mewtwo, Lucario, and Blaziken instantly come to mind...
  • Several characters in Star Fox qualify, but Wolf O'Donnell ("What's the matter, scared?") and Fox McCloud spring instantly to mind.
  • For that matter, most of the Sonic the Hedgehog characters, including Sonic himself and Knuckles the Echidna, definitely qualify as this.
  • In the Jak and Daxter series, Daxter becomes one of these after he takes a level in badass. By extension, Tess, Veger, and every other Precursor has the potential to be one of these.
  • Gen. Ridley in Suikoden II, one of the only two useful kobolds to be ever be recruited in the game (the other being his son Boris, who will replace Ridley should he die from the mission involving the undead). He has high offense and defense stats (though more on offense), while his son Boris has more on defense than offense (but generally has high stats).
    • In Suikoden III, Sergeant Joe is a walking, talking dug warrior from a tribe of ducks. He looks ridiculous, but hits hard and is a deadly serious if caring mentor for one or the heroes of the story, Hugo.
    • Suikoden V gives us the beaver army. Yes, that's right: talking beavers, who are as cute and silly-looking as you could imagine. That's until you realize they are amphibious soldiers capable of swimming out to enemy ships and biting holes in their hulls.
  • Final Fantasy games tend to feature a non-human party-member, who tends to be a Proud Warrior Race Guy if male and a Lady of War is female.
  • Amphibian, not furry, and the result of a curse, but Frog from Chrono Trigger definitely has the spirit of this down.
  • Mareg of Grandia II.
  • Cornell fills this role part of the time in Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness and full-time in Castlevania Judgment.
  • All the main characters of Fur Fighters but major points have to go to Roofus and Viggo.
  • The whole animal cast of The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs.
  • King Mickey, and to a slightly lesser extent, Donald Duck and Goofy, in the Kingdom Hearts series...Althought they lack fur, thinkin' about it...
  • Deego from Rogue Galaxy counts as one of these.
  • Koromaru of 3. Some people swear by him, especially in The Answer.
  • No one from Sly Cooper on here yet? Sly is the best example but his team mates are no slouches either.
  • Leon from F-Zero qualifies(and possibly finishes first), being that he's a wrestler, is a soccer coach, is head of an orphanage, and oh yeah, pilots a racing craft that regularly and easily goes FASTER THAN SOUND.
  • The Kilrathi from Wing Commander are brutal, violent, superhumanly strong cat-people who are out to enslave the human race. Of special note is Ralgha "Hobbes" nar Hhallas, a Kilrathi who defected to the Terran side and is also noble, intelligent, and compassionate (until it turns out he was The Mole and gets turned evil again with a secret code).
  • The Wizardry series allow you to create multiple badass furries. Yes, you can create a psychotic samurai dragon.
  • Two thirds of enemies in Vivisector are anthropomorphic animals, including hyenas with rayguns, cougars with M60s and tigers with rocket launchers. Oh, and, uh some of them look like they were sewed together.
  • Sveta from Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a beastman that at first glance looks like a human with animal ears and feet ("She's a kitty-dog!"). In battle, if you use her transform ability, she will change into a giant white werewolf, boosting her stats and gaining a few extra abilities that involve either body slamming enemies or just mauling them. Or you can use her as-is, and she's still a powerful warrior and a skilled Adept.
  • The Argonians and Khajiit of The Elder Scrolls series are anthropomorphic reptiles and felines respectively. Depending on how the player builds their character, they can be quite the badass.
  • The Laguz from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, which are basically humanoids with the ability to morph into the animal of their respective tribe (Cats, Tigers, Birds, and Dragons, Oh My.). Most all of the characters fall under this trope. ALL OF THEM.
  • Turner in Lugaru. Although there are other rabbits that are just as badass, none of them has the courage to go up and kill the Alpha Wolf!
  • All the fighters in Bloody Roar have the power to transform into super-powered beast forms.
  • In BlazBlue, it is mentioned that the most dangerous person on the planet is probably Jubei, an anthropomorphic cat (with the personality of a chill old ninja).
  • Red Savarin, the main hero of Solatorobo.
  • Conker the Squirrel? When he is drunk, he urinates on his foes!
  • The Pandaren Brewmaster from Warcraft III.
    I bring PANDAMONIUM!

Webcomics

  • Most of the cast of Lackadaisy Cats fit this trope.
  • The titular heroes of Tales of the Questor and Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger arguably fit it as well. They're small, cute, fluffy and have both kicked serious buttock.
  • Most of the cast of Jack fit this trope to a T.
  • The entire Bastin race from Twokinds. Their top three generals are always introduced with a Badass Boast about how they can take down a Dragon (Dragons, of course, respond with "I bet I could chomp off his head before he could bink...) or outwit a dragon (fat chance. Dragons live so long even a young one was around before bastins were even created.)
    • Then there's Adelaide, the king of the Bastin, provider of the current page quote. She (yes, she's a she, the title of King goes to the best warrior of all the Bastin, regardless of gender) can kick the ass of every Bastin alive, and it shows: she's at least two feet taller than any other Bastin, and is impressively muscled. And she's at least in her forties.
  • Harkovast.
  • Homestuck now has Bec Noir.
  • Fisk Black from Better Days; singlehandedly saves his mom from being raped as a kid, serves as an Army Ranger during Desert Storm and the Battle of Mogadishu, then becomes a member of a black ops organization, during which he rescues his cousin Persia from a mob-run prostitution ring.
    • And he's still at it in Original Life, by which time he's married and has several kids.
  • The Cyantian Chronicles: Half of the main cast. All of the main wolves, as well as a few others. Also one of the villans gets double points for his Complete Monster and Big Badass Wolf status.
  • The demons of Slightly Damned. Sakido is one of Hell's most fearsome warriors. Her Crowning Moment Of Awesome being when she went into berzerk mode and fought her way through her former comrades in hell. She was Killed Off For Real by a holy arrow to give her younger brother and his friend a chance to escape back to the mortal realm.
  • The Beast Legion: Xeus' tiger form definitely falls into this Category as seen on this page.
  • The People, a race of Proud Warrior Race Girl's from Webcomic/Digger. Hint: they're anthropomorphic Spotted Hyenas! Don’t mess with them!
  • Both Lucco and Guz from Fite!
  • Florence from Freefall falls into this category and likely Big Badass Wolf too, mostly in her competence and confidence, with which she's been able to alter social structures on a planetary scale.
    • She also killed a deer by unearthing a piece of tile from a walkway and bashing the deer's head in with it. And then proceeded to butcher the deer.
  • Last Res0rt, full stop. With the story centered around criminals on a Deadly Game Reality Show, does this surprise anyone?
  • The whole cast from Exterminatus Now could apply, but Lothar, Rogue and Wildfire deserve a special mention.
  • Bun Bun from Sluggy Freelance. He's a smallish lop rabbit. The least effective weapon he uses is a switchblade. He's been thrown out of the UNIVERSE for being a psychotic douche bag at anthropomorphic personifications. TWICE. His plan for getting vengeance on the pyrokinetic self-resurrecting assassin Oasis involves using all the other characters as BAIT to lure her out, then killing her so brutally she'll stay dead out of pure FEAR. (Who said a Badass has to be NICE?)
  • Pretty much the entire cast of Zodiac.


Web Original


Western Animation