Badass and Child Duo: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
[[File:mgs4 3283.jpg|link=Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots|frame| If you want the girl, you gotta go through him. [[Sarcasm Mode|Have Fun.]]]]
 
 
The '''Badass and Child Duo''' in its purest form, occurs when a (usually) male badass takes it upon himself, out of goodness, interest, or circumstances beyond his control, to protect an orphaned, unrelated young (usually) girl.
 
=== The Badass and Child Duo is made up of two parts ===:
 
* '''The Badass''' is a [[Jade-Colored Glasses|jaded]], cynical, and very often [[Always Male|male]] [[Anti-Hero]] with a [[Dark and Troubled Past]], age anywhere between their mid-twenties to mid-forties. He will generally be a Jerkass or very serious and [[The Stoic|stoic]] in personality. Even if he has a more sensitive side, he will not talk about his emotions, his past or what bothers him if he can help it. He is brutally practical and [[Street Smart]], cynical, but [[Knight in Sour Armor|he will still hold the hope for a more idealistic world somewhere in his heart]], even if on the surface he denies its existence. In combat he is always a veteran and he will be a [[One-Man Army]], usually well known in-universe, often with a [[Red Baron|badass nickname]] to match. Easily able to mow down dozens of [[Mooks]], one after another without too much effort, his dangerous reputation is sometimes the cause of half the problems the two face, as at least some of their opponents will be there to defeat him, rather than snatch away the child he's protecting. The Badass often sees the child as a [[Morality Pet]], as a way to atone for the sins of his past, or as a [[Replacement Goldfish]] for a deceased child that he's lost. It's not uncommon for him to perform a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in order to protect the child.
 
* '''The Child''' is a Hero, who is [[Always:Category:Usually Female|very often female]] but may be of either gender, between toddler-age and tween-age who has been [[Parental Abandonment|orphaned]] in the dangerous world these two very different people are trying to survive in. Either the child's proximity to the Badass will constantly bring her into dangerous situations, or the Child herself is valuable for some other reason and will have one or more organizations vying to attain her, usually to [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|exploit her in some way that is immoral]]. It is not uncommon for the child to be supernatural or otherwise special in some way to justify this. If very young the child may not have much of an actual personality, but if a little older she will usually be [[The Pollyanna]], with a smile on her face despite their circumstances. [[Children Are Innocent|She]] will [[The Power of Trust|trust the Badass completely]] and insist upon his goodness even with complete knowledge, and sometimes even acceptance or approval, of the violence he has done to protect her. The Child will at least begin as a [[Non-Action Guy|Non Action Kid]], on the sidelines, not involved in battles at all, perhaps not even present if the badass can find a safe place to stow her for the length of it, though it's also not uncommon for them to develop powers or abilities as they remain in contact with The Badass, especially if they are older, which allows them to participate in combat. The Badass and The Child are nearly always [[Walking the Earth]], either trying to defeat whatever organization is after The Child, to get out of whatever horrible place they are in, or to carry out some [[Revenge]].
 
If they are not the main characters, their meeting will have taken place off-screen before the story even started. If main characters their meeting will take place very early in the story, and their relationship will develop almost instantly into a [[Promotion to Parent]] [[Papa Wolf]] (or [[Mama Bear]] if the Badass is female) or [[Big Brother Instinct]] and an adopted child/sibling. Assuming heterogeneous genders, if the child is a little older (tween-age) the child may develop a [[Precocious Crush]] which is usually not returned (although in the future it may be).
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Not to be confused with [[Badass and Baby]], when a hero fights while holding a baby, usually to underscore how badass and heroic he is.
 
{{examples}}
== Anime Andand Manga ==
 
* "''[[Pokemon"]]'': Houndoom and Togepi.
== Anime And Manga ==
 
* "Pokemon" Houndoom and Togepi.
* ''[[Lone Wolf and Cub]]'' is probably the [[Ur Example]], though the child in this case is the Badass's baby son.
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': Kouji Kabuto and his little brother Shiro. Since their parents' death {{spoiler|-supposed death in the case of their father-}} he had been playing [[Parental Substitute]] for Shiro, even if their grandfather was their guardian. After their grandfather's murder, Shiro was the only family Kouji had left and vice versa {{spoiler|(as far as they knew)}}. And even if they often drive each other crazy (due to Shiro using common sense to explain his brother the stunt he tried to pull was dumb, or Kouji making something stupid or being a jerk), if you want to get Shiro, you WILL have to go through Kouji first. A [[Hot-Blooded]] [[Badass]] perfectly capable to hold his own on a fight and pilots a [[Humongous Mecha]]. Get your will ready only in case.
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* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': Sesshoumaru and Rin fit this trope to perfection. She is the orphaned, troubled young human girl who approaches the wounded taiyoukai with a smile. He is the taciturn, cold, badass Lord of the West who acts like he barely tolerates her presence. Yet he's willing to {{spoiler|[[To Hell and Back|literally storm Hell itself]]}} to rescue her.
* A rare gender inverted example, from ''[[Claymore]]'', Claire who is a claymore who protects a tweenage boy named Raki. It is later revealed that Claire herself was protected by Teresa [[Red Baron|of the Faint Smile]], in the same way in a same-gendered example.
* Twisted and subverted in ''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index]]'': [[Anti-Hero|Accelerator]] and his [[Morality Pet]] [[Token Mini-MoeLoli|Last Order]]. Twisted because Accelerator is a teenager only a few years older than her. Subverted because while he's [[Story-Breaker Power|undeniably]] badass, [[Handicapped Badass|his brain injury means he can't use his power without her assistance]]. Also twisted in that, at least in one case when Accelerator was going crazy, Last Order had to become the mature Badass.
* ''[[Berserk]]'' enjoys this trope. The most prominent example is [[One-Man Army|Guts]] as the badass and [[Child Mage|Schierke]] as the child. It's not the purest example, though, since the latter [[Glass Cannon|isn't so helpless]], and is the one who protects the former from his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]. A straighter example would be when he (reluctantly) had the dynamic going with [[Naive Everygirl|Jill]] for a time. Guts also has something like this for [[The Ophelia|Casca]], who isn't a child, per se, but has regressed into infancy as a result of horrible trauma suffered during the Eclipse, but [[Super-Powered Evil Side|circumstances]] force him to keep his distance from her.
** In the Hawks camp, [[Oracular Urchin|Sonia]] would ''like'' to have this kind of relationship with [[Dark Messiah|Griffith]], but of late, seems to have developed it with an Apostle named Irvine.
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** Gingetu and Ran may count as a same-sex example, though they don't walk the earth.
* Yasha and Ashura in ''[[RG Veda]]''.
* In [[Digimon Tamers]], Ai and Mako are toddlers paired with Impmon, a mischievous Digimon whose Mega form is basically a Demon Lord.
 
== ComicsComic Books ==
 
== Comics ==
 
* ''[[X-Men]]'': Wolverine with Kitty Pryde, Jubilee and X23 (and Rogue in [[The Movie]]).
** He teamed up with Katie Power, the youngest member of [[Power Pack]], at least twice too.
*** Katie also teamed up with ''[[The Punisher]]'' '''twice'''.
** There's also an android Wolverine named Albert with an android little girl named Elsie Dee as his partner. Basically, people really want Wolverine to do this trope.
* The [[Marvel Comics]] character known as [[Captain America (comics)|Nomad]] went through this phase in the 90's when he turned into a [[Vigilante Man]] with a baby strapped to his back. It's a long story.
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== Film ==
 
* ''[[Leon]]'' (a.k.a. [[Léon: The Professional]]) hooks up with [[Badass Adorable]] Mathilda to [[Teach Me How to Fight|avenge the murder of her family]].
* ''[[Shoot'Em Up (film)|Shoot Em Up]]'' is an example, though the child is only a baby and the Badass gets a little help from a lactating hooker.
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== Literature ==
 
* John Ferrier and Lucy in ''[[Sherlock Holmes|A Study In Scarlet]]''.
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': Sandor and Sansa, though he only protects her in the sense of not actively hurting her, with the exception of when he {{spoiler|saves her from gang rape, which is kind of cancelled out by [[Near-Rape Experience|what he almost does later]]}}. Sandor and Arya, though he only takes her under his wing through kidnapping her for the purpose of ransoming her. Jorah and Dany, though mostly because he falls in love with her.
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* Essentially the entirety of [[The Road]], in which a man [[Walking the Earth|treks southwards]] with his young son in tow. For a post-apocalyptic novel, some of the interaction between them can be pretty heartwarming.
 
== Live-Action TV ==
* An episode of ''[[Literature/Stargate Atlantis|Stargate Atlantis]]'' revolves around such a duo. Doctor Keller is kidnapped by a runner (a strong human warrior who is implanted with a tracking beacon and released so the Wraith can hone their hunting skills) to treat a young girl in his care. He later reveals that he stopped briefly in the girl's village which brought the Wraith who then slaughtered them all. Since he blamed himself for the carnage, he took it upon himself to save and protect her.
* A defining trope of ''[[The Mandalorian]]'', with the titular Mandalorian as the Badass and the infant ... whatever race Yoda was ... as the Child.
 
== Live Action TVMusic ==
* There seems to be this relationship with the band and the little girl in [[My Chemical Romance]]'s latest music videos, although she seems to be pretty [[Badass]] herself.
 
== Theatre ==
* An episode of ''[[Literature/Stargate Atlantis|Stargate Atlantis]]'' revolves around such a duo. Doctor Keller is kidnapped by a runner (a strong human warrior who is implanted with a tracking beacon and released so the Wraith can hone their hunting skills) to treat a young girl in his care. He later reveals that he stopped briefly in the girl's village which brought the Wraith who then slaughtered them all. Since he blamed himself for the carnage, he took it upon himself to save and protect her.
* In Team Starkid's musical ''[[Starship]]'', Up and Taz fit this Trope. We're given a list of times when Up has saved her (that was tough!), and at one point he goes so far as to let the giant mosquitos that were sucking her dry drink his blood instead. In case there was any doubt of his badassness, he kills the mosquitos by making his heart beat so fast that they explode from the extra pressure.
 
** Which considering he is an expy of the trope page image (cough [[Metal Gear Solid|Solid Snake]]), isn't too surprising.
== Videogames ==
 
== VideogamesVideo Games ==
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' features Snake and Otacon, the former of whom is one of the biggest badasses on the planet (according to the latter), serving as foster parents to the six-year-old Sunny Gurlukovich, who is Olga's daughter and was snatched away from her by the Patriots soon after her birth.
* Jack, the [[Terminator]] [[Expy]] from ''[[Tekken]]'', carries around a little girl whose parents he killed and who he subsequently adopted.
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* ''[[Fatal Fury|Garou: Mark of the Wolves]]'' has policeman Kevin Rian, wo is always accompanied by his dead partner's son, Marky.
 
== Web Comic Comics ==
 
* ''[[Chirault]]'' has Kiran, a demon and a [[Hunter of His Own Kind]], paired with Teeko, a young [[Catgirl]]. In this case, Teeko had been doing fine on her own even though she was orphaned, until [[Incredible Shrinking Man|a stray magic spell]] reduced her to a few inches in height, so Kiran has agreed for her to accompany him until they can find a mage to reverse the spell.
* ''[[Unsounded]]'''s Sette and Duane, though Sette is hardly innocent.
 
== MusicOther Media ==
 
* There seems to be this relationship with the band and the little girl in [[My Chemical Romance]]'s latest music videos, although she seems to be pretty [[Badass]] herself.
 
== Theatre ==
 
* In Team Starkid's musical ''[[Starship]]'', Up and Taz fit this Trope. We're given a list of times when Up has saved her (that was tough!), and at one point he goes so far as to let the giant mosquitos that were sucking her dry drink his blood instead. In case there was any doubt of his badassness, he kills the mosquitos by making his heart beat so fast that they explode from the extra pressure.
** Which considering he is an expy of the trope page image (cough [[Metal Gear Solid|Solid Snake]]), isn't too surprising.
 
== Other ==
 
* The Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin has a statue that might have this trope written on it: [http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/9957559.jpg a 12-m tall soldier with a huge sword in hand holding a child on his other hand.] According to the Soviet Marshal Vasily Chuikov, the statue commemorates the deeds of Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, who during the final storm on the center of Berlin risked his life under heavy German machine-gun fire to rescue a three year old German girl.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Hidden Badass]]
[[Category:Duo Tropes]]
[[Category:Ensembles]]
[[Category:Badass]]
[[Category:Badass and Child Duo]]