Cowardly Lion: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Unlike [[Took a Level in Badass]], the character's fearful nature isn't eliminated after their moment/s of glory. They remain scaredy-cats and/or insecure in their regular lives, despite the fact that they can kick major ass when they put their minds into it. Many of them will tell everyone to [[Think Nothing of It]], because they think the fear they felt trumps the heroism they performed.

Usually, inverse of [[Miles Gloriosus]]. Unlike [[The So-Called Coward]], this character is not actually misunderstood and does not need to be viewed by other characters as cowardly; it is his own opinion that matters. (And the so-called coward may be perfectly confident in his own courage.) Unlike the [[Accidental Hero]], the examples in this trope are characters that manage to get things done with their own worth, despite their fears.

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Usopp and Chopper in ''[[One Piece]]''.

* While Ranma Saotome of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' is a [[Combat Pragmatist]], he's generally pretty far away from anything that resembles cowardice... unless cats are involved, in which case a few seconds after being surprised by a housecat he is literally [[Incredibly Lame Pun|catatonic]] and will eventually lose his mind from the sheer terror until he starts thinking that he's a cat and starts kicking the ass of almost everything within eyeshot using the ultimate technique, the Neko-ken. However, when he was tossed into a situation that almost perfectly replicated his initial trauma (being tossed into a pit of hungry cats while wrapped in fish products), he managed to (sorta) maintain his composure until they brought out a tiger that was about as tall as he was, at which point he snapped. Later on, when facing a grandmaster that was casually kicking his ass and holding his manhood hostage, Ranma deliberately strapped a cat onto himself (or rather, herself) in order to pull out the Neko-ken and get his opponent to back down. That is to say, ''he deliberately drove himself insane with fear in order to win a fight.''

* Kasumi of ''[[King of Thorn]]''. She believes she is [[Heroic Self-Deprecation|weak and useless]], having depended on her braver twin sister Shizuku for most of her life. Later she depends on [[Genius Bruiser|Marco]] for protection and often needs him to rescue her. However, she's still able to put her fears aside long enough to save someone else's life. She even saves ''Marco'' a few times, and earns his respect for it.

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Empowered]]'' of the comic of the same name is a variation on this—instead of considering herself a coward while still being brave, she lacks in self-confidence in her super-heroing duties while still trying her darndest to be a superheroine—which, as her friends point out, generally ends up demonstrating that she's better at it than she thinks she is.

 

* Hobbes is [[Character Exaggeration|exaggerated]] into this in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]''.

 

== Film ==

* Albert Lory from ''[[This Land Is Mine]]'' lives in an unnamed country under Nazi occupation and, literally, runs home to his aged mother any time there is an allied air strike. He eventually makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] because he's more terrified of seeing his friends picked off one by one than actually dying.

* Bob from ''[[Drugstore Cowboy]]'' is pretty open about his neurosis and his reliance on drugs to keep the stresses of world away from him. The people around him are still awed by the acts of [[Magnificent Bastard]]ry he performs out of sheer panic.

 

== Literature ==

* Kell Tainer, from the ''[[X Wing Series|Wraith Squadron]]'', constantly deals with what he considers to be cowardice. When his commanding officer figures it out, he calls it more a case of "extremely strong performance anxiety", as he's not so much afraid of battle as he is of screwing up, particularly when people are counting on him—understandable, if not necessarily desirable, in military service pilots.

** {{spoiler|Though this officer was unaware of when Kell 1. Literally froze up while controlling an X-wing, unable to work the controls, thinking his ship was instead malfunctioning, and 2. Not really aware that Kell was one lever-pull away from just leaving battle...until he thought of his girlfriend, and pulled a [[Big Damn Heroes]]...but Kell definitely fits this trope in his first book. However, he also grows out of the cowardice almost completely, so...}}

* [[Ciaphas Cain]] quite literally [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|wrote the book]] on how to be one of these in the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' universe. Despite taking on (and defeating) foes that would have easily brushed aside other mortal men, Cain continues to consider himself a [[Dirty Coward]] and writes off all of his heroic feats as the result of either accident or pragmatism.

* Yossarian of ''[[Catch-22]]''. He views this as justified due to the fact that there are thousands of people he's never met who are trying to kill him, but as he's a World War II bombardier, it's nothing personal.

** For that matter, Louis Wu from the same novel. He's a self-proclaimed coward who is bad at fighting (something else that he'll be the first to tell you). That said, he managed to out-think a ''Pak Protector'' and fix it so the Protector died ugly, just because he pissed Louis off.

* The protagonist of ''[[Rowan of Rin]]'' is afraid of virtually everything, but has learned to cope with this enough to be functional in everyday life. This leaves him {{spoiler|the last one standing in a nonlethal [[Dwindling Party]] scenario--everyone else turns back rather than face their personal worst fear, but he's faced his fears so often that it's become second nature to him.}}

* Martha Abbott (rhymes with rabbit) in Zilpha Keatley Snyder's ''The Changeling'' is this. Deprecated as a coward and crybaby by herself and everyone in her family, she does a number of things that frighten the life out of her. She cries, even pukes, but she ''does'' them. Few if any children's books illustrate the difference between courage and fearlessness the way this one does.

* The foppish bard Dandilion in the ''[[The Witcher|Witcher]]'' series. He is obnoxious and cowardly, but in ''The Last Wish'' he mustered a [[Defiant to the End|brave face against execution]] and in ''Blood of Elves'' he held his tongue against torture—torture that would have rendered his hands paralyzed and thus unable to play any musical instruments—rather than betray his friend Geralt.

* [[Bloody Jack|Jacky Faber]] is a self-proclaimed coward, and insists that her moments of [[Little Miss Badass|badassery]] were just combinations of bad luck, coincidence, and what had to be done, but the fact is that those moments of badassery far outnumber any actual cowardice she may display.

* In Herman Wouk's books ''[[The Winds of War and War and Remembrance|The Winds of War]]'' and ''[[The Winds of War and War and Remembrance|War and Remembrance]]'', the character of Leslie Slote views himself as a coward, but his drive not to be one inspires him to commit some brave acts, and he ends up {{spoiler|dying a hero}}.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Mr. Carlton in ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]''. He's a nervous and henpecked man, but he's strongly implied to have seen heavy combat in World War II bloodbaths.

** Has his finest hour when he stays on the air during a tornado. "Sometimes we have to be very brave even when we're not."

* Mr. Monk in ''[[Monk]]''. He went into a panic about having laser pointers pointed at him by children early one episode. Later he has them pointed at him attached to guns, held by professionals, while ''keeping a jet airplane piloted by a man he knows is a killer on the ground by standing in front of it.'' He does the latter while barely flinching.

** All told, he shoots down about a dozen super-soldiers over the course of the show when things get serious. A slight subversion, as in his culture talking your way out of things gets you a lot more respect than what other cultures consider heroism.

* [[Adorkable|Connor]] in ''[[Primeval]]'' thinks of himself as a cowardly geeky, bookworm, but when it comes to it is just as capable of facing down velociraptors and other [[Nightmare Fuel|nightmare fuel-riffic]] creatures as any of the more traditionally heroic characters.

* The Cowardly Lion's counterpart in ''[[Tin Man (TV series)|Tin Man]],'' Raw. Quiet fellow, [[The Empath|empathic]], [[Empathic Healer|healer]], and generally not badass in the slightest...until the climax of the series.

* ''[[The Lone Gunmen]]'': Byers is a meek, mild-tempered guy - ''except'' when you ask him to look the other way on an injustice. Then, he suddenly develops enough balls to call out one of the most frightening members of [[The Conspiracy]] right to his face.

* ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'': Archie (or Jiminy) was such an [[Extreme Doormat]] that he gave up his humanity just to get away from his thieving family. However, [[God Save Us From the Queen|Regina]] made the mistake of trying to trying to interfere in his treatment for Henry. Instant backbone and set of [[Brass Balls]] showed up, and he ''threatened her'' by saying that he could be a deciding factor if Emma wanted to sue Regina for custody of the kid.

 

== New Media ==

 

== Video Games ==

** If you'd like a demonstration of Khalid not being as big a wimp as he seems, just sent your group into a random inn and start indiscriminantly slaughtering everyone. Watch as Khalid's usual stutter completely vanishes and he actually soiunds ''sure of himself'' for the first time in game.

* Luigi in ''[[Super Mario Bros.]].'' He proves to be more effective than Mario on quite a few occasions. He took down the lord of the underworld by himself. And it was certainly a [[Curb Stomp Battle]].

** Koops in the second ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' game.

* [[Mother 3|Lucas]] is like this in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]].''

** He ultimately gets over this, however, reflecting his character growth in his original game.

** Also a [[Miles Gloriosus]] at times.

* Almaz, from ''[[Disgaea]] 3''. He's a normal human fighting demons; he has a right to be scared. Still manages pretty well for himself when it counts.

* Hahn Mahlay from ''[[Phantasy Star]] IV'', a meek young scholar who learns the instant death skills Vol and Savol.

* In ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]'', [[Gentle Giant|Chunky Kong]] [[Pose of Supplication|begged for mercy]] to a big monster to no avail. What followed was... well, let's just say it must hurt a lot.

* Satoshi Mochida of ''[[Corpse Party]]'' ''hates'' scary stories. But once he finds himself ''in'' one, he actually handles himself pretty well.

* Daichi in ''[[Devil Survivor 2]]'' is always scared of the next demon attack and complains that the others are much more calm than him, but he'll always volunteer to fight and will drive a truck right onto a killer divine being to save his comrades.

 

== Web Comics ==

* The rock-crabs, from ''[[Vexxarr]]'', are a species that do not eat (they feed on energy gradients), lives in terror of the predators in their native enviroment, and have trouble understanding that other species ever do anything other than running or hiding from danger. They rarely realize that those predators are about the only thing that can harm them. [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=071808 See] [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=072108 these] [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=072808 examples] of their encounter with a Bleen warfleet.

* Sir Carrot in ''[[Cucumber Quest]]'', though he is quite loyal.

 

== Web Original ==

* Chip from the web fiction serial ''[[Dimension Heroes]]''.

* Phase, from the [[Whateley Universe]]. While Team Kimba fearlessly charges into fights against supervillains, Phase is the only one who's really frightened. He still dives in like everyone else. He has claustrophobia, and his best trick is walking into solid matter ''which sets his phobia off''. Or maybe he's the [[Only Sane Man]] in a comic book world.

 

== Western Animation ==

** Pretty much sums up [[Cowardly Sidekick|Jeremy]] as well; he's an obvious wuss, but he goes out of his way to help Mrs. Brisby ([[The Klutz|even if it often causes]] [[Stop Helping Me!|more problems than it prevents]]). In his defense though, he does protect her by attacking [[Nightmare Fuel|Dragon]] (who ''everyone'', bravado or not, is fearful of) while he and the near equally cowardly Cecil save her two sons in the sequel despite their intence fear of NIMH.

* [[Donald Duck|Donald]] is portrayed this way in ''[[Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers]]''.

* The vultures of Disney's adaption of ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' tremble before Shere Khan and flutter to the highest tree, when he threatens Mowgli and Baloo however, they quickly swoop in and take the fearsome tiger head on.

* Zilly on ''[[Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines]]''. He was hypnotized into being brave in the episode ''Zilly's a Dilly,' but he only made things worse.

* [[The Woobie|Eugene]] [[One-Shot Character|the]] [[Smelly Skunk|skunk]] from ''[[Chucklewood Critters]]''.

* [[Kim Possible]]'s best friend and partner([[Relationship Upgrade|and later boyfriend]]) Ron Stoppable continually has to deal with a host of phobias, largely stemming from his childhood summers spent at Camp Wannaweep. Lampshaded by Kim's cousin Joss:

{{reflist}}

[[Category:More Than Meets the Eye]]