Brains and Brawn: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

"No! That's your job Ranulf. You're my second in command, think of a way for me to use my strength!"|''Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn''}}

* [[Lois McMaster Bujold|Miles]] [[Vorkosigan Saga|Vorkosigan]] and his cousin Ivan "You Idiot" Vorpatril by preference, although [[Squishy Wizard|almost anyone will do for the latter in a pinch]] (albeit usually with less abuse).

** Subverted in that Ivan turns out to not actually be an idiot - just lazy, and willing to use [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] to avoid being put in charge of anything, or responsible for anything.

'''Ivan:''' God knows I try to be. }}

* The ''[[Gentleman Bastard]]'' series has [[Shorter Means Smarter|small guy]] Locke Lamora partnered with 'muscle and fat' [[Badass|bruiser]] Jean Tannen. Slightly averted as, although Locke is capable of making up vast and complex [[Xanatos Gambit|Xanatos Gambits]], Jean is fairly clever himself, often having to come up with his own (admittedly less elaborate) gambits while Locke is incapacitated.

* Tragic example: George and Lennie from ''[[Of Mice and Men]].''

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[Queen of the Black Coast]]," Belit and [[Conan the Barbarian]]. Well, an [[Anti-Hero]] pair.

* [[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'s Bran and Hodor make what is probably the most extreme example on both ends, Bran being a 7-9 year old lordling {{spoiler|that gets crippled at the beginning of that first book.}}, Hodor being the gigantic oaf that only knows how to say his name (and it's not even actually his name) {{spoiler|that is put to the task of carrying him around wherever he goes.}}

* [[Ciaphas Cain]], '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''', to some degree. While Cain does kick copious amounts of ass with sheer skill and light weaponry, physically he is no match for Jurgen, a sturdy Valhallan who skips wussy laser pistols in favor of a [[BFG]] melta gun. Cain is a [[Guile Hero]] while Jurgen is socially stunted, [[Literal Minded]] and largely considered ignorant by most (though Jurgen has a decent case for more being [[Book Dumb]] and is very capable in the areas of scrounging and [[Crazy Prepared|being prepared]]).

== [[Video Games]] ==

* [[Crash Bandicoot]] and [[Enemy Mine|Dr. Neo Cortex]] in ''Crash Twinsanity'', though Cortex initially considers it a combination of his brilliant intellect and Crash's vacuous stupidity at first. In the end, most of the time Crash just winds up [[Grievous Harm with a Body|whacking things with Cortex]].

* The above quote from ''[[Half Life]]'' is one of the lines you'll hear when the hero, Gordon Freeman, enlists a scientist to help him out during a stage. It's also something of a parody, given that the "brawn" is a ''[[Badass Bookworm|nuclear physicist]]''.

** Somewhat inverted in ''[[Half Life]] 2'' when Gordon is teamed up with [[Action Girl]] Alyx Vance for some of the game and practically all of ''Episode 1'' and most of ''Episode 2''.

* Tulip and Pin from the [[Discworld]] novel, ''The Truth''.

** [[Terry Pratchett]], writer of said novel, has had fans point out to him that it's "obvious" that Tulip and Pin are based on Croup and Vandemar, and had this to say:

== [[Live Action TV]] ==