Badass Normal/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

update links
m (update links)
(update links)
 
(2 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1:
{{trope}}
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'':
** Sokka is the only non-bender of the main group. Despite his near-uselessness in battle and lack of spirituality (and role as the [[Butt Monkey|comic relief]]), as the show progresses, we see his engineering and strategy prowess improve to the point where he is openly labeled as the "idea guy" of the team. More recently, his inferiority in combat spurred him to [[Took a Level Inin Badass|seek out training]] in that area, plus he acquired a [[Thunderbolt Iron|unique sword]], making him even more badass despite the fact that he is still inherently normal.
*** Also, he took down Combustion Man, a [[Determinator]] so mean that the Bender part of the team could barely slow him down.
*** Two Words:[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"Airship Slice!"]]
Line 25:
** Hell, Caleb is sometimes ''more'' effective than all of the main girls put together. ''That's'' [[Badass]].
** In the first season, Will more or less is a Badass Normal, as [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|her powers hold no use in battle]], [[Adaptation Decay|unlike in the comic]]. So the writers have to improvise, giving her what nonmagical actions she needs to fight the bad guys. ''However'', in the second season, once she gains the power of Quintessence, she no longer fits this trope.
* Robin from ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', though it frequently escalates into the [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] level. Slade is a villainous [[Badass Normal]], except in the fourth season where an intergalactic demon [[Back Fromfrom the Dead|resurrects him]] and grants him fire powers, removing the "normal" - until his powers are removed again, and he returns to [[Badass Normal]] status by ''killing a flaming-axe-wielding guardian of the underworld'' with nothing but tactics and martial arts.
** [[Combat Pragmatist|And explosives.]]
*** There's an episode where he takes down the rest of the team just by being [[Crazy Prepared]], Batman would've approved.
Line 55:
*** No love for Captain Black? He gets bonus points for being the show's resident skeptic.
* In the world of ''[[She-Ra: Princess of Power|She Ra Princess of Power]]'', almost every female character is either a super powerful [[Action Girl]] or [[Magical Girl]], and even the [[Dude in Distress]] [[The Archer|Archer]] male was a [[Master of Illusion|pretty good illusionist]]. Even then, the sniper Netossa and the space pirate Sea Hawk manage to hold their own when they're in battle despite their lack of magic powers.
* Jake's Dad in ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'' is this. Jake is a dragon, Rose is a born dragon hunter [[Action Girl]], [[Cloudcuckoolander|Spud]] [[Book Dumb|is the embodiment]] of a [[Genius Ditz]], and Trixie just has street smarts. Jake's Dad is a Cougar Scout, has extreme parent insticts, and that's it. However, he unknowingly defeated the Jersey Devil with a trombone and a can of bear spray. He also held his own against [[Badass]] dragon blood drinking vampires for over four minutes with his bare hands in the episode, "Bite Father, Bite Son". During the final episode, he used a vase to kill an army of demons. Pretty good, considering he did it without knowing his son was a dragon (except the last one of course and even then he had just learned). All the above had powers, he didn't.
** Arguably, the Huntsclan considered themselves normals.
* Elisa Maza in ''[[Gargoyles]]''. She can't fly, break rocks with her fingers, zap things, or even have access to high technology like practically everybody else, but all she needs is her handgun, a running start, and an attitude to help take down characters with far more advantages than she has. Sure, she loses quite often, but then so does pretty much everybody.
Line 64:
** One episode made fun of this trope. It featured Darkwing going to a planet where everybody had superpowers except for one normal guy. As he is one himself, he is told to take on the role of the normal guy. Normal Guy eventually shows up and builds a machine to steal everyone else's superpowers.
* [[Dark Action Girl|Silver Sable]] and [[Dating Catwoman|Black Cat]] are both examples of this from ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]''. [[Big Bad|Tombstone]] is possibly an example- he is never explicitly stated to have superstrength, but he is shown to be able to trounce Spider-man effortlessly when taking the latter by surprise, and be a match for him even a straight fight. [[The Dragon|Hammerhead]] is a partial example- he mostly relies on his strength and skill at brawling, but uses his steel-plated skull to absorb any punishment a normal man couldn't take. [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|The Enforcers]] also qualify in their first appearance, though later they get upgraded with [[Powered Armor]]. [[Egomaniac Hunter|Kraven]] was one, but has now acquired superpowers.
* While Walter "Doc" Hartford of ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]'' has a Series 5 implant, his "superpowers" [[Technopath|merely enhance his already genius-level hacking ability]], and are useless in combat. When the fight starts, he holds his own with a standard issue blaster, [[Took a Level Inin Badass|a sword]], his fists, and [[Deadpan Snarker|copious wit]]. Not bad for a dude who is fighting alongside a [[Cyborg]] with an [[Arm Cannon]], a genetically-engineered [[Super Soldier]], and an [[Action Girl]] with [[X-Men|Jean Grey]]-type [[Psychic Powers|Psionic abilities]].
** Red Witch's fanfic "Tangled Web" uses this to great effect. In the fight against the Black Rose, [[The Dragon]] factored in bionics, psionics, and biodefenses...only to have the hacker hand him his ass.
** There's also [[Ambadassador]] Zozo. He's from a race of [[Hobbits]], stands about a meter high, very cheerful, looks utterly harmless...but he's wicked fast, a great shot, and very sneaky.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. [[In a World]] where ghosts roam every corner, nearly all the ghost hunters shown are incompetent... except [[Anti-Hero|Valerie Gray]] who stands out among them as a normal gal packing (anti-ghost) heat. Sam Manson gets a few of these moments throughout the series as well, but not Tucker. He's more of the [[Action Survivor]].
**It should be noted that although Tucker isn't much of a fighter (though he fights sometimes), he was able to save both Gregor/Elliot's life, and Jazz on occasion.
** Danny's mom probably qualifies. And she does it without breaking her matronly demeanor! Jazz has also proven curiously capable at piloting her dad's powered armor, so it must run in the estrogen.
** Even Jack has his moments. He defeated Plasmius to save his family in "Million Dollar Ghost" and saved Danny from Skulker in "Girls' Night Out".
Line 73 ⟶ 74:
** Hell, it's been stated in series that Terry is a ''better'' Batman than Bruce.
* Special Agent Fowler from ''[[Transformers Prime]]'', who can last a few minutes on Soundwave in a fight with just a helicopter, and who survived being ''tortured repeatedly with an energon-powered transformer-sized cattle prod'' and still had enough badass in him to mouth off to his torturer.
* In ''[[Freakazoid!]]'', Cosgrove is so [[Badass Normal]] that all he has to do is point and say "Hey, cut it out!" to stop someone, from a burglar to a pterodactyl to [[Animaniacs|the Warner siblings]]<ref> in a crossover comic</ref>.
** In the final episode, we find out that Norm Abram, host of The New Yankee Workshop, is also this, holding his own against Freakazoid's [[Rogues Gallery]]. [[Fan Boy|Not that Freakazoid minded.]]
* Lt. Dwayne Hunter in ''[[Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (animation)|Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot]]'' proves his military skills in Double-Time part one, rigging up a pair of [[Arm Cannon|Arm Cannons]] powered by an [[Iron Man]] style chest piece in an abandoned mechanics shop to take out four Seek and Destroy scouts from Legion Ex Machina after the Big Guy suit has been heavily damaged.
* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' brings us self proclaimed boy genius Jack Spicer, who is generally too incompetent to be holding a lot of the show's [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]], too lazy to learn physics bending Xiaolin arts or Heylin sorcery, and about as fit as you'd expect from someone who travels exclusively by helicopter backpack. {{spoiler|Now -WHO- actually ends up taking over the world in the alternate future?}}.
* ''[[Kim Possible]]''. Especially during ''So The Drama'' and any time she fights someone with superpowers, such as her frequent run-ins with Shego, her generally mopping the floor with Team Go in ''Stop Team Go'', and even going toe to toe with an [[Eldritch Abomination]] for a few seconds before he kicked his [[Taken for Granite|magic]] in on her.
* Megan from the original ''[[My Little Pony]]'' is just a normal preteen girl, surrounded by magical talking Ponies and other fantasy creatures. She's surprisingly resilient, especially in the Pilot where she fights a giant dragon with her bare-hands. Earth Ponies also typically count.
Line 84 ⟶ 85:
* Applejack from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', despite not having any overt magical or reality-bending talents, can keep up with the rest of the Mane 6 and often surpasses them with her physical prowess, ropesmanship, and herding skills that she gained through pure hard work and practice. Though it's hard to determine what a talking magical horse is considered normal relative to a human being, especially when some of the things she does seems to put her into [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] territory.
* ''[[Thundarr the Barbarian]]'' faces off against powerful evil wizards [[Once an Episode]].
* Definitely Lucas Amato from [[Cybersix]] counts. He saves the life of the titular heroine almost as many times as she saves his, despite having no super powers to speak of.
** Also Yashimoto, Meridiana's most renowned detective from the episode "Yashimoto, Private Eye," who effortlessly figures out Cybersix's secret identity after being blackmailed into doing so.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Badass Normal{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]