Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Difference between revisions

** The Death Scythe Tezca Tlipoca initially seems clinically incapable of acting serious, and makes a fool of himself on a regular basis. {{spoiler|Then he fakes his own death, tracks someone halfway across the world, and holds his own against one of the more powerful villains.}}

** Spirit Albarn absolutely is everything he appears to be: womanizing, juvenile, and a miserable failure as both a husband and a father. It's just that he also happens to be one of the most powerful (arguably THE most powerful) Death Scythe in existence, the weapon of Lord Death himself, and one half of the DWMA's designated ass-kicking duo.

* Yuri in ''[[Kyo Kara Maoh!|Kyo Kara Maoh]]!'' acts this way whenever his Demon King side gets activated, and although he won't kill his enemies he usually succeeds in scaring the crap out of them.

* ''[[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt|Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt]]'': Brief is a nerdy wannabe ghost exterminator, a frustrated virgin, and has a crush on Panty, who doesn't reciprocate. However, in episode twelve, {{spoiler|he manages to fend off a few ghosts on his own, and even saves Panty from Scanty and Kneesocks when she starts losing her powers.}}

** Wonderweiss Margera is a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] at very best. Then he's revealed as being capable of rescuing the top three espada from their captain opponents and even Aizen from Yamamoto's prison and so completely outspeeding Ukitake he one-hits him {{spoiler|before then being revealed as the one thing capable of sealing the strongest zanpakutou in existence, Yamamoto's sword.}}

** Isshin is the [[Bumbling Dad]] for most of the first half of the series. Then we learn he's a [[Retired Badass|captain-class shinigami]] when he kills Arrancar Grand Fisher in [[Curb Stomp Battle|one blow]], to [[It's Personal|avenge]] his long dead wife.

* Shiro from ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'' initially appears to be an unpowered albino [[Teen Titans (animation)|Starfire]]...until she's cornered by a bunch of dangerous guards in a watchtower. The tower explodes, and {{spoiler|she rends the guards into many small parts.}}

** {{spoiler|Which makes sense when Shiro turns out to be the one and only, Wretched Egg}}

* The novel ''Armor'' by [[John Steakley]] follows two storylines set about five years apart, with the earlier one framed by the discovery of the [[Powered Armor]] used by the earlier protagonist on a distant, non-wartorn colony in a crashed escape pod. The armor's owner, Felix, is quite literally an unstoppable killing machine: in a war where no one has survived more than ten major missions, armor notwithstanding, Felix makes it through over twenty before {{spoiler|being killed by another human soldier}}. Meanwhile, in the present-day, a rebellion is brewing right underneath the nose of the colony's drunken, dimwitted owner, Lewis, causing great consternation to the present-day protagonist...especially when it breaks into open war and a nearby space pirate decides to capitalize on the situation. With a military grade dreadnought. {{spoiler|Fortunately, Lewis ''is'' Felix, lying low and enjoying life. At least, until he decides to save his colony by putting his armor back on, slaughtering an army's worth of pirates, and then ''takes down the dreadnought with his bare damn hands.''}}

* Neville Longbottom of ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'', although he worked hard to achieve the Badass designation from the Moron.

** Culminates in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]. Consider also that the prophesy nominating Harry as "the chosen one" easily applied to Neville as well. The fan meme is, "Neville is the Boy-That-Could-Have-Been-But-Did-Anyway."

** Let's face it; this trope could easily be renamed "The Neville."

** Other wizards in the series fit the mold in one way or another, such as Warren who's a total nerd and [[Non-Action Guy]] until he and Zedd go to show an opposing army "[[Kill It with Fire|an old fashioned firefight]]", and Nathan, who is described at one point as a "1,000-year-old child", but is as clever and deadly as they come.

* Somewhat of a subverted trope, but {{spoiler|Orion}} in ''[[Artemis Fowl]] and the Atlantis Complex''. {{spoiler|During the penultimate scene, Artemis realizes that his brains are useless and uses electricity to switch back to Orion. As Holly states, "Artemis can't shoot." But Orion can.}}

** {{spoiler|It helps that due to a certain incident he gains the memories and battle experience of [[Past Life Memories|thousands of generals and soldiers throughout history]], effectively turning him into the greatest battle tactician known in the world.}}

* Those who grew up reading the books of [[Lloyd Alexander]] will remember the bard and minor king Fflewddur Fflam, who at first seems like only a half-trained musician with a gift for exaggeration and a magic harp that calls him on it every time. But drop him in a fight with something important at stake and you realize he's also a capable and dangerous warrior...though still one with his heart in his mouth until the battle is over.

* Todd "The Todd" Quinlan from ''[[Scrubs]]'' is an utter meathead, seemingly only capable of communicating through innuendo and [[That's What She Said]] jokes. But he is also a ridiculously talented surgeon, one of the best in the hospital.

* ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'s Methos poses as a mild-mannered, sheltered scholar with the Watchers; even with his friends who know he's the oldest living Immortal, he'd rather lounge around drinking beer than accept a challenge. And he would just as soon not talk about how he {{spoiler|used to be Death of the Four Horsemen}}.

* In social game shows like ''[[Survivor]]'' and the American ''[[Big Brother]]'', a good (albeit boring) strat is to make everyone think you're not a threat to them, so they won't target you for eliminations. Then, you start playing much harder and make them regret not taking you out in hindsight.

** Perhaps the most triumphant example in ''[[Survivor]]'' was Fabio. His entire strategy was basically him flanderizing his [[Dumb Blonde|himbo]] personality and flying under the radar while the alliances pick off at people perceived to be bigger targets. Then when he was the only target in between the [[The Load|easily beaten Dan]], he finally started to win immunity, and then [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|tricked Chase and Sash into telling Jane they were voting her out TO HER FACE!]] He then chain-won immunity all the way into the final three, making Chase and Sash both think "[[Oh Crap]]".

** Nick "Eugene" Dinsmore would act like Dustin Hoffman's character in [[Rain Man]], as well as wear two large foam hands.

* Maria was a WWE diva so vapid she could leave viewers wondering how she hadn't died from forgetting to breathe but apparently possessed an impressive breadth of knowledge about law.

 

 

** Hordes of hundreds of dead darkspawn did nothing more than get some blood on him. In the sequel, he freezes an Ogre solid and wipes out dozens of demons, up to and including a Pride Demon.

* The Khajiit race in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series come across as quite thick. But just ask the wood-elves how their border-disputes with the Khajiit are going, the phrases 'vertical ambush' and 'terrifying humanoid lions' will probably come up.

* Katze Kotolnos from ''[[Endless Frontier]]'' is a [[Camp Gay]] cat person who is constantly making passes at protagonist Haken Browning. Then there comes a point where you have to fight him and he proceeds to kick your ass with his hands in his pockets. When you first fight him, he fights alongside Ezel, who you've been chasing for a while, and who wears an intimidating skull helmet and looks like a total [[Badass]]. ''Katze'' is the more dangerous of the two.

* Hewie of the H-Game ''[[Castle Fantasia 2 Renewal]]'' is this to degree. He acts a carefree moron who always sent one of his team member angry over and over again, but turns out he's a very great war strategist.

** While lacking the Crouching Moron element, Lilah is notable for having insanely good game playing skills whenever she's really angry with Ethan.

* [[Complete Monster|Xykon]] in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''. He's funny and a fan of what one might call "[[Leeroy Jenkins|Leeroy Tactics]]". However, if you challenge his reputation, he'll smash the whole ceiling on you. And gods help you if you lose his phylactery...

*** Ah, but he's a [[The Ditz|Ditz]] with a firm grasp of [[Genre Savvy|"bardic tradition,"]] so much that he has accurately predicted future events based solely on how good a story they'd make.

** The Monster in the Dark is also a nearly textbook example. He's pretty much a moron {{spoiler|(although he has been thinking a bit more lately since his friendship with O'Chul)}}, and a [[Minion with an F In Evil]], but he's been shown to actually be ridiculously powerful, to the point where stomping his foot causes a major earthquake.

* In ''[[The KAMics]]'', Gertrude and Brunhilda are normally comic bumblers, but when their sister was in trouble, glowing eyes and dead Mooks followed.

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'':

{{quote|'''Riff:''' ''Dude!'' When did you learn to kick ass?

'''Torg:''' I've been taking an Internet college correspondence course in kickass.

*** By extension, this applies to pretty much the entire Fae race - Mab is merely the one most often found mixed up in the main plot. Being superdimentional beings of pure magic and/or insanity will do that to a race.

* Subverted in ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' as he is more of a [http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=30&issue=11 Crouching Badass Hidden Moron].

* Stanley the Tool from ''[[Erfworld]]'', who on first appearance seems more concerned with the fact his [[MacGuffin]] turns walnuts into pigeons when cracked than the impending destruction of his forces. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0125.html Then he decks Chief Warlord Caeser in one hit].

* Ordog from ''[[Out at Home]]'' is a tiny, frail, senile old man who doesn't know where he is half the time. But he will [http://www.out-at-home.com/archives/286 kick your ass.]

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Popeye]]''.

** Also during that battle, not only was he the first to defeat his Justice Lord robotic double (even though there wasn't one in the alternate universe), he was also the only one who wasn't effected by his double's [[Hannibal Lecture]] speech, meaning not only that he doesn't have any doubts in his abilities as a hero, but it furthers his role as the heart of the group.

*** Adding onto this, everyone else needed assistance on their double. He took his on single-handedly and was the first to finish. While everyone was busy with theirs, he just shrugged off the doubts his double was trying to create and whooped its metal ass.

* Bubbles in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''. While technically the whole concept and style of the show has echoes of [[Grotesque Cute]], Bubbles is the cute and ditzy "sugar" in "sugar, spice [Buttercup] and everything nice [Blossom]" and occasionally gets to go berserk.

** "Hard Core!"

** There was also that one time he watched a video called "Five Second Massive Pecs," and then proceeded to kick large amounts of ass against Crocker...who was in a mech suit.

* In one episode of ''[[G.I. Joe]]'', three Cobra [[Mooks]] dogpile on the simpleton Bazooka, which causes him to exclaim, "Darn it, ''swallowed my gum!''" and knock them all out with one punch each.

[[Category:You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry]]

[[Category:Badass]]