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{{trope}}
[[File:news-dudley-
{{quote|'''Spenser:''' Has anyone ever told you that you coalesce reality? That you brighten a room and make everything seem lighter and more pleasant?
'''Spenser:''' ''(after a thoughtful pause)'' They are accurate but limited. And if you give me their names, I'll kill them.
|''[[Spenser|The Widening Gyre]]''}}
In most media, the average [[Badass]] is usually a hairy-knuckled brawler unfamiliar with the finer things in life. But not this guy. Like his [[Sister Trope|Trope-brother]] the [[Cultured Warrior]], the
▲{{quote|'''Spenser:''' Has anyone ever told you that you coalesce reality? That you brighten a room and make everything seem lighter and more pleasant?<br />
▲'''Susan Silverman:''' No. They usually only say that I'm good in the sack.<br />
▲'''Spenser:''' ''(after a thoughtful pause)'' They are accurate but limited. And if you give me their names, I'll kill them.|''[[Spenser|The Widening Gyre]]''}}
▲In most media, the average [[Badass]] is usually a hairy-knuckled brawler unfamiliar with the finer things in life. But not this guy. Like his [[Sister Trope|Trope-brother]] the [[Cultured Warrior]], the [[Cultured Badass]] knows how to be sophisticated, is an expert on gourmet food and art, and knows just how to behave himself at a formal affair. In short, he knows how to be a gentleman.
But he also knows how to be a [[Badass]]. Just because he enjoys ''La Bohème'' and can tell the difference between bottles of 1938 and 1941 Moët et Chandon just from the <s>taste</s> sound of it being poured doesn't mean he's harmless. Get on his bad side and you will live to regret it if you are lucky. [[Department of Redundancy Department|(If you're unlucky, you won't live at all.)]]
Similar to [[Cultured Warrior]], except he's not in the military (though he might be a veteran). Sometimes he's a [[Badass Bookworm]], though not necessarily. Sometimes he's a [[Warrior Poet]], though often there's nothing spiritual about his love of culture... he just likes the finer things. When he's evil, he's [[Wicked Cultured]] and when he's nice (or [[Affably Evil]]), he's a [[Gentleman and
If a woman is a
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* He can disarm you with his looks. Or his hands. Either way. He's a lover, not a fighter, but he's also a fighter, so don't get any ideas. His blood smells like cologne. He can speak French...in Russian. His personality is so magnetic, he is unable to carry credit cards. [[Refuge in Audacity|Sharks have a week dedicated to him]]. He is... [[The Most Interesting Man in
{{quote|
== [[Anime]]
* Koetsuji Akisame from ''[[Kenichi:
* [[Spell My Name
** And he ''does'' play the cello pretty well, too. Not to mention he loves gardening.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* ''[[Gravion]]'' bring us Klein Sandman, who is obscenely rich, has a crap ton of maids, lives in a totally pimped out castle, and did we mention he's rich? However, he can build and pilot badass mecha, and regularly performs [[Crazy Awesome]] feats of life threatening insanity as if it were normal.
* From ''[[
* Albireo Imma from ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' likes to drink tea, speak politely, and can control gravity magic. His occupation is ''[[Hot Librarian|librarian]]'', and he'll still kick your ass. Without actually being physically present.
** After recent{{when}} events, Negi probably qualifies, as he's a [[Quintessential British Gentleman]] who enjoys a [[Spot of Tea]]...and is capable of beating the crap out of you if you [[Beware the Nice Ones|piss him off]].
** Negi's master Evangeline also qualifies, since she (also) enjoys tea (by Chachamaru), plays a wicked game of Go, and is in the Flower Arrangement Club. She is also one of the most powerful mages in the world, a deadly vampire with an enormous bounty on her head, and has earned a ton of titles in her [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|long life]].
** There's also our old nemesis, Fate Averoncus. Who, much like Negi, also enjoys drinking tea and has the habit of offering his enemies to a drink before a fight, which is sometimes not even his intention.
* Sanji from ''[[
** Additionally, Emporio Ivankov's right hand ummmm...''person'', Inazuma. With a big hairdo, and fancy clothes, and a glass of wine eternally clutched in his hands, Inazuma is able to kick ass and take names without spilling so much as a single drop.
** Much earlier on, we had Captain "Iron Fist" Fullbody. However, after being bumped down to Marine Recruit so that he could work with both [[Heterosexual Life Partners|Jango]] and [[All Love Is Unrequited|Captain Hina]], he appears to have dropped the 'cultured' part.
* Treize Khushrenda from ''[[Gundam Wing
** Don't forget his [[Something About a Rose|rose-scented]] [[Real Men Wear Pink|baths]].
* ''[[
* Kenshiro Kasumi in ''[[Fist of the Blue Sky]]'' is a
* Ren from ''[[Skip Beat
* Full Frontal from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn]]'' when he is holding Banagher captive, he offers him tea, has no qualms with answering Banagher's questions, and treats him with the utmost of courtesy. Whether or not you think that he truly is Char, you can't deny the fact that he is classy
* Spitfire from ''[[
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Batman]]'s [[Battle Butler]] Alfred Pennyworth is much more than the skinny, soft-spoken, gentleman's gentleman that he appears to be. (He's a former [[Brits With Battleships|SAS]] commando, after all).
** Bruce Wayne himself isn't exactly an unsophisticated ruffian, either. He mingles with high society nearly every night he isn't dressed up as a bat.
* [[Deathstroke
* V from ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' easily constitutes this. Every second line is a quote from some major literary source, he's a fan of the original [[Zorro]] film, and can dance too!
* [[Doctor Strange]], the Master of the Mystic Arts and former Sorcerer Supreme, is an upper-class former surgeon trained in magic by a Tibetan mystic. To qualify as Sorcerer Supreme he had to go out and force ''Death'' into submission. His manservant, Wong, is much like an Asian version of Alfred.
* ''[[G.I. Joe]]''{{'}}s [[Scary Black Man|Roadblock]] carries an [[BFG|M2 Browning heavy machine gun]] around and is also a gourmet chef.
* Abominus from the ''[[Transformers]]'' [[Mirror Universe]] of ''[[Transformers: Shattered Glass|Shattered Glass]]''. The Shattered Glass Terrorcons are all well-regarded performers of some form or other, and when combined their foppish charm is magnified tenfold.
* [[Wonder Woman]] is a princess, and thus remains very well-schooled in the ways of etiquette and grace even whilst fending off an alien invasion with her bare hands. Her mother, Queen Hippolyta, is even more regal and rigid then her daughter, yet capable of kicking just as much ass.
* Dwight and Wallace from ''[[Sin City]]'' are both very well-read and enjoy the arts. A villain example would be Manute who speaks well and is obviously quite intelligent.
* Tawky Tawny, [[Catfolk|the humanoid tiger]] from ''[[Shazam]]''. One of his best moments was in ''Trials of Shazam #10'' — he had this little discussion ''while'' wearing a shiny shirt and tie and drinking something with olive in it from a small glass… and did his best to follow up with a demonstration when the warning was not heeded.
{{quote|'''Tawky Tawny''': Well, you do know what those who underestimate tigers always say, right?
'''Sabina De La Croix''': What?
'''Tawky Tawny''': They scream "Oh, ''God'', help me, I'm being ''mauled'' to ''death'' by a ''tiger''."}}
▲== [[Fanfic]] ==
* The version of [[Marvel Comics|Sabertooth]] native to the ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' universe is Sir Victor Creed, an elegant, erudite Neo-Victorian gentleman from a Welsh-flavored colony on the world of New Snowdonia.
▲* Kartik Abingdon from ''[[One Piece Parallel Works (Fanfic)|One Piece Parallel Works]]''.
== [[Film]] ==
* Bond. [[James Bond (
* Dorian Gray in [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)|the
* Everett Hitch in ''[[Appaloosa]]'' is the Far West version of this trope.
* [[Sherlock Holmes (
* [[Overly Long Name|Leopold Alexis Elijah Walker Thomas Gareth Mountbatten]], a 19th century gentleman and (fictional) inventor of the elevator thrown to the 21st century in the [[Romantic Comedy]] ''[[Kate and
* Hannibal Lecter of ''[[Silence of the Lambs]]'', anyone?
* [[Ghost Dog]] is a hitman who is also an enormous fan of Samurai culture and philosophy. And that's only the start of it: he also trains pigeons, reads classic literature along with books about philosophy, civil rights struggles, fantasy novels, and has warrior symbols from multiple cultures in his tiny shack.
* Pretty much every ''[[
** And Indy himself (he's a <s>history</s> archaeology professor after all...)
* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Equilibrium]]'', being a hypocrite, keeps an art collection and reads poetry, quoting Yeats right before the climactic fight. He is also a [[Gun Kata]] [[Authority Equals Asskicking|master]].
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* English Bob from ''[[Unforgiven]]'' appears to embody this trope, although it is later implied that his debonair, cultured manner may be a facade (and also that he may be less of a badass than his public image would suggest).
* Doc Holiday in "[[Tombstone]]" as portrayed by Val Kilmer. He speaks Latin, wears a spiffy purple vest, and shoots a double barrel sawed off.
== [[Literature]] ==
* [[Sherlock Holmes]] In the novels is portrayed more cultured than badass, but instances still arise that show the hidden badass within. For example, a goon came in and with some effort bent his fire poker. With little effort Holmes straightened it, barehanded. Oh yeah, and straightening a bar of iron is harder than bending it in the first place.
** He's also a bare-knuckle boxer.
* Robert B. Parker's hard-boiled detective [[Spenser]] is a gourmet cook, an appreciator of classical music, classical literature, and finely brewed beer, a lover of dogs, a respecter of women, and is absolutely capable of breaking you into several small bleeding chunks should the job call for it.
* Simon Templar, the gentleman thief better known as [[The Saint]].
* Havelock Vetinari of the
{{quote|
* Edmond Dantès, [[The Count of Monte Cristo (
* [[Doc Savage]] and, probably even more so, his aide 'Ham' Brooks.
** Definitely Ham, who embodies sartorial perfection even in the jungle and stabs people with a sword cane.
* Many characters in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', such as Fëanor (the [[Ax Crazy]] [[Magnificent Bastard]] who rebelled against good deities and [[Big Bad]] alike and was also a great linguist, among other things), Faramir, Elrond, etc.
{{quote|
* The titular character of the ''[[Erast Fandorin]]'' bovels
* In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Grand Admiral Thrawn]], who led the Empire after Palpatine's death, was an art collector. But he had more than mental toughness. In a novella called "Side Trip", he disguised himself as a bounty hunter for an extended period and proved to be an excellent shot.
** Thrawn wasn't just an art collector because he appreciated art in itself (not that he didn't)... {{spoiler|he was able to determine the tactical makeup of a race/culture just by analyzing ''one'' of their pictures or sculptures.}} Needless to say, Thrawn is probably the first example of being Badass ''because'' he was Cultured, as opposed having either as separate parts of his character.
* A number of protagonists in Raymond Feist's ''[[The Riftwar Cycle
* ''[[Tarzan]]'' can put on airs as Lord Greystoke one minute and rip out your throat with his teeth the next if you piss him off.
* Seregil and later also Alec from Lynn Flewelling's ''[[Nightrunner]]'' series - always well-mannered, always insisting on wearing gloves (since callused hands would be such a disaster!), always speaking properly - that is when they're not busy with spying, fighting and stealing. Almost any member of Skalan Royalty counts too.
* Jean Tannen from the ''[[Gentleman Bastard Sequence]]'' series. Master of sums, and lover of
* China Sorrows from the ''[[
* [[Jack the Ripper]] in ''[[
* Derek Sagan in ''[[The Star of the Guardians]]''. Quoting ''[[Tosca]]'' to his opponent while torturing him is among the things he does.
* [[
* Butler of ''[[
* [[Lord Peter Wimsey]], the second son of a duke. Described in Dorothy Sayers' novels as speaking multiple languages (including French and Latin), a book collector, a well-known cricket player, very careful of his clothes, and who actually does correctly identify several rare wines based on taste alone in one short story (to be fair, the competition was designed to figure out which of three men was
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Robert McCall, the hero of ''[[The Equalizer]]'', is urbane and well-read. And an ex-spy with no compunctions at all with ending a person if they become a problem.
* Duncan MacLeod, from the ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' series, is a lover of opera, a reader of poetry, a bit of a gourmand, a lover of fine art, a skilled dancer, a collector of fine antiques, and is qualified to teach history at the college level. Oh, and did we mention he's a multiple black belt who regularly chops off the heads of his enemies with a katana (in the use of which he is an expert, naturally)?
** Nicely justified - he's had a few hundred years to develop all of that.
* Wesley Wyndam-Pryce from ''[[
** He didn't start out as much of a badass, though (and when he was introduced in ''[[
** Angel himself is an accomplished artist, a voracious reader, and skilled with languages human and demonic. Plus there's his longstanding love of ballet - strong enough to be the core of an entire episode, "Waiting in the Wings" and that he admitted to admiring even without a soul as Angelus. Part of the reason for his diverse abilities is simply his inhumanly long life; the rest is intelligence and perhaps a compulsion to make up not only for his evilness as Angelus but also his wastrel past as the human Liam.
* Giles from ''[[
* To a much lesser degree, Mal from ''[[
{{quote|
** Also Shepard Book. A preacher who discusses ancient Chinese philosophers, and is also a good enough shot that he can unerringly hit his opponents in the kneecap in a tense firefight. It's more than hinted at that he's a [[Retired Badass]] with a [[Mysterious Past]].
** And Simon Tam. Very well educated, dresses nicely, unerringly polite, but able to take on an entire corrupt government without flinching to protect his mei-mei.
* To a certain extent, the title character of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. He's definitely ''not'' a gentleman, but he's very intelligent, a great doctor, well-read, fond of jazz... and heavily anti-social. Therefore, cultured and badass, even if he doesn't classically fit the trope.
* Ben Linus of ''[[
* Your average Starfleet officer in ''[[Star Trek
* When not playing the cello (a '''[[Small Reference Pools|Stradivarius]]''' cello, to be specific) and tending to his priceless art collection (including apparent examples of lost works by famous painters), Stringfellow Hawke blows shit up in his Big Damn Gunship, ''[[Airwolf]]''. [[Donald P. Bellisario]] likes his protagonists to be fairly well-heeled.
* ''[[
* The impeccably dressed, bowler-hatted, champagne-drinking John Steed from ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]''.
* Paladin of ''[[Have Gun — Will Travel]]'' takes in the opera, ballet, recites poetry and classical literature off the top of his head, displays talent as an artist, and is the baddest man in the Old West.
* ''[[Grimm]]'' gives us Eddie Monroe. He speaks German, High German, fixes clocks, plays the cello, collects stamps, is knowledgeable about antique cameras, and is a highly proficient chef who makes his own sausages, appreciates fine wine, and such. He's also the Grimm-universes version of a Big Bad Wolf, capable of ripping your arm off on accident
* ''[[Bully (
▲== [[Video Games]] ==
* Pictured above: Dudley of the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series ''defines'' this trope: you try kicking arse in a ruffled shirt and bowtie, and having tea whilst wearing gentlemen's sports gloves.▼
▲* [[Bully (Video Game)|Bully]] has the preppies, though your mileage may vary on just how badass they are.
** Also, Eagle from ''Street Fighter''. His batons are nothing to sneeze at, and he's also rather polite and sharp-dressed.
▲* Pictured above: Dudley of the [[Street Fighter]] series ''defines'' this trope: you try kicking arse in a ruffled shirt and bowtie, and having tea whilst wearing gentlemen's sports gloves.
* Despite appearances, Sten from ''[[Dragon Age
▲** Also, Eagle from Street Fighter. His batons are nothing to sneeze at, and he's also rather polite and sharp-dressed.
▲* Despite appearances, Sten from ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins''. The man is a true lover of art, as well as soft-spoken intellectual, despite being a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] the size of a refrigerator. Though his pseudo-Confucian life philosophy makes him rather stiff-necked with some issues, like women's rights.
** Hawke from ''[[Dragon Age 2]]''. Has an expansive library in their estate, maintains a personal diary and is shown to be perfectly capable of dealing with the aristocracy of Kirkwall. In their spare time, they regularly battle Blood Mages, slay High Dragons, end a city-wide invasion by taking down the Qunari Leader in honourable single-combat. In ''Legacy'' they even defeat {{spoiler|an Ancient Tevinter Magister who was one of the first Darkspawn}}.
* Vulcan Raven from ''[[
* Andrew Ryan in the ''[[
* In his introduction scene in ''[[World in Conflict]]'', French commander Sabatier is forced to cooperate with American troops under [[Colonel Badass|Colonel Sawyer]]'s command. After an American officer fails to pay due respect to French culture, Sabatier breaks into an angered monologue in French about American barbarians, until the "barbarian" Sawyer politely asks him to shut the hell
{{quote| ''"Liiiiisten to my heart, you will understaaaaand~"''}}▼
▲* Andrew Ryan in [[Bio Shock]]. The man might not be [[Anticlimax Boss|much of a challenge physically]], but he hits you with a huge mental/emotional revelation that [[Trick Twist|completely changes]] the way you look at the game on the second playthrough. He's completely nonchalant when you encounter him, ''playing golf'' on the other side of his bulletproof glass. Then he proceeds to make sense of everything that's happened in the game so far, all while forcing you to be his captive audience due to using {{spoiler|a mind-control phrase, which your [[Voice With an Internet Connection|Voice With A Radio Connection]] has also been using to get you to kill Ryan in the first place.}} Then he '' {{spoiler|makes you kill him.}}'' Andrew Ryan is many things, but a coward is definitely ''not'' one of them.
** [[Player Character|Shepard.]] [[Badass|Greatest warrior (all races included) the galaxy ever created,]] [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|gave the finger to the]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Reapers]] ''twice'', is lusted by ''every species in the galaxy'' (and [[Even the Guys Want Him|every]] [[Even the Girls Want Her|gender]]), was killed but s/he was deemed [[Badass]] enough [[Back
▲* In his introduction scene in ''[[World in Conflict]]'', French commander Sabatier is forced to cooperate with American troops under [[Colonel Badass|Colonel Sawyer]]'s command. After an American officer fails to pay due respect to French culture, Sabatier breaks into an angered monologue in French about American barbarians, until the "barbarian" Sawyer politely asks him to shut the hell up--in fluent, accent free French (he then proceeds to reprimand the officer who caused the incident). It is later mentioned that the Colonel is also fluent in Russian and a few other European languages.
▲* Several from [[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]] :
▲** [[Player Character|Shepard.]] [[Badass|Greatest warrior (all races included) the galaxy ever created,]] [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|gave the finger to the]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Reapers]] ''twice'', is lusted by ''every species in the galaxy'' (and [[Even the Guys Want Him|every]] [[Even the Girls Want Her|gender]]), was killed but s/he was deemed [[Badass]] enough [[Back From the Dead|to be brought back to life]], familiar with Hobbes and Machiavelli.
** Liara. Galaxy-known Prothean expert despite being almost a kid (106 human years, which is little more than a child in asari terms) and [[Psychic Powers|biotic]] user.
*** {{spoiler|In ''2'', with help from Shepard, she kills and takes the place of [[The Man Behind the Curtain|The Shadow Broker]]. Give her ten minutes and she can ''start a war''.}}
** Mordin Solus. Creator of the [[Depopulation Bomb|genophage]].<ref>
*** Well he is, after all, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umN7YOsmGl4 the very model of a scientist Salarian].
** Thane Krios. Can kill anything with his bare hands, is a galaxy-class assassin ''and'' a deeply philosphical and religious man, praying before and after his missions and casually quoting Thomas Hobbes at one point during a conversation with Shepard about the fate of his homeworld.
** Urdnot Wrex, which is particularly surprising considering he's a krogan. Naturally he's a tough and badass fighter, but he's also introspective, highly intelligent, and even philosophical.
*** Grunt, another krogan, is similarly introspective, if not as intelligent. He's also a fan of Ernest Hemingway.
* Ezio Auditore, the protagonist of ''[[Assassin's Creed
* The Disciple from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic
* In ''[[Jade Empire]]'', Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard definitely presents himself as this.
* Slayer from ''[[Guilty Gear]]''. He perpetually smokes a pipe and wears a suit and tie while fighting, and can make his opponent disappear by reading a haiku.
** Don't forget [[Husky Russkie|Potemkin]]. He is very intelligent and also has a knack for drawing, painting and poetry.
* Kyle and Forde from ''[[Fire Emblem:
* The Honest Hearts DLC for ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' gives us Joshua Graham, a New Canaanite missionary (essentially a post-apocalypse Mormon). He is soft-spoken, erudite and obviously well-read, with a philosophical streak and a penchant for quoting Bible verses. He was also once the infamously brutal [[General Ripper|Malpais Legate]] of Caesar's Legion (where his education was helpful in translating threats of death and orders to conquered tribes). [[The Atoner|Joshua's put that behind him now]], but he rightfully remains perhaps the most feared man in all the Mojave Wastes and will kill without hesitation when he feels it necessary.
** The Courier themselves, if played with high intelligence can reveal themselves to be familiar enough with the works of ''Virgil'' and ''Cicero'' to be able to quote them from memory. ''[[Wicked Cultured|In Latin]]''.
* [[Professor Layton]] is a tea-loving gentleman in every regard, as clearly evidenced by the fanciness of his top hat. He has also shown off his extensive fencing skill to the villains of both the [[Professor Layton and
* Gar in [[Arcanum]] is one of several 'pure melee/dodge' followers who excels in melee combat... but he's the only one to have ''very'' strong opinions regarding ''[[A Spot of Tea|tea]]''.
* In ''[[Luigi's Mansion 3]]'', we have Amadeus Wolfgeist, a ghost who's the exact type of sophisticated maestro you would expect performing for the wealthy customers of a luxury hotel. He is also the first major boss of the game, and when his indirect approaches fail, he possesses his piano to turn it into a rampaging beast and relentlessly tries to crush Luigi under its massive weight. If you thought [[Super Mario 64|the mad piano in Big Boo's Haunt]] was scary, [[Nightmare Fuel|this one is on a whole new level.]]
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has a lot of them, given that most [[Mad Scientist]]s and nobles (which often overlap) fit here more or less. Of particular note, there's Jorgi, a [[Commander Contrarian|particularly contentious]] [[Super Soldier|Jägermonster]] and [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120627 son of a wannabe philosopher] (which in a town full of mad scientists' minions may be more common than average). Conversely, many people from Mechanicsburg and lands under its control who used to be more violently inclined when younger, no matter their status and training, did "ride with the Jägers", i.e. joined the army of Heterodynes for a while. And the [[McNinja|Smoke Knights]] have their [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160909 moments] that remind us these people call princes and princesses "cousin" and "grandma" because they are indeed born and raised by nobility, just don't get to inherit the titles to the land (which in itself gives those who ''do'' a good incentive to not miss their own training sessions, of course [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120620] [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130614]).
* In ''[[Hiimdaisy]]'', [[Metal Gear Solid|Vulcan Raven]] has this exaggerated even further compared to canon, breaking into song before even fighting.
== Web Original ==
* Phase of the ''[[Whateley Universe]]''. Raised from an infant in the wealthiest family on earth, he's intelligent, urbane, well-read, and loves opera and classical music. He's a gourmet, and a brilliant businessman. This makes him utterly unprepared to be a high school girl in a [[Super-Hero School]].
* Lord Doom, from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]''. Wealthy? Check. Highly educated? Check. Loves the classics? Check. Patron of the arts? Check. Gourmand? Check. [[Friend to All Children]]? Check. Published author and poet? Check. Olympic-level athlete? Check. Mad scientist dedicated to ruling the world? Check.
* Cassidy Cain from ''[[Grandmaster of Theft]]''. Cultured: She's heiress who attended a private school, speaks in a eloquent tone, dresses in expensive
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[
** Aang is as well as he is shown to be quite knowledgeable of other cultures including pre-war Fire Nation.
** Toph's background of living in a very high class family gives her decent knowledge to be able to blend into high society; she just chooses not to act that way.
** Also, Piandao, a [[Badass Normal]] [[One-Man Army]] who enjoys painting, calligraphy, and rock gardening.
* Charles Foster Ofdensen, the manager of Dethklok in ''[[
** He did get himself beaten by the weird guy in the mask so a little less badass...Still badass though and just being able to handle Dethklok without dying or going stark raving bonkers is badass.
*** His record against the mask guy is 1 and 1, they've each claimed a victory over each other. And the mask guy is a legendary assassin...who according to record is Ofdensen's ''equal''.
* ''[[
** While knowledge of trains could be seen as more of a hobby than a sign of culture, his appreciation of art does show [[Hidden Depths]].
== [[Real Life]] ==
* King Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire was equally famous for the cruelty with which he treated his conquered foes and his singular devotion to literature in a time when almost nobody else cared about reading. He amassed one of the world's earliest libraries with texts scavenged from across the empire and pillaged from foreign
* [[Theodore Roosevelt]]: hated being called Teddy
** Also known for being very polite to people who pissed him off, until they took it too far, at which point [[The Glasses Come Off|he took off his glasses so they wouldn't break]], and beat the shit out of them.
*** While president, he once boxed with a bear. The fight left him blind in one eye for the rest of his life. He was also a skilled negotiator who hammered out a treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.
** TR recruited his famous Rough Riders cavalry regiment largely from two groups: cowboys and Harvard football players. He personally had been both.
*** Not only that - during his campaign, he
* The Roman general Scipio Africanus was a great lover of Greek culture and a great reducer of the number of Greek-trained Carthegenian mercenaries.
** Not to mention the fact that he was a gentleman that, when his troops offered him a young woman upon the capture of a city, he returned her to his fiancée, instead of brutally raping her.
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* This was common among, and even somewhat expected of [[Samurai]], especially during relatively peaceful times; one's education and cultural skills, such as tea ceremony and flower arrangement, became as important in determining honor and status as one's actual strength in battle.
* While the [[Proud Warrior Race|Scottish Highlanders]] have been stereotyped as savages and of course sometimes justly(it has to be ''sometimes'' true after all), it was not unknown for Highland nobles to be cultured folk, well educated in famous universities. While still being as [[Badass]] as a [[No True Scotsman|true Scotsman]] should be.
* [[Roald Dahl]]. He wrote excellent satire (before he started writing children's books, he was known as the "Master of the Macabre"), was educated at Eton School, won several awards for photography, and wrote the screenplay of ''[[
* [[wikipedia:Chess boxing|Chessboxers.]]
* Medieval and Renaissance knights were mostly born into nobility, and therefore schooled in social graces from an early age. This form of knighthood could be considered to start with the crowning of Charlemagne and his efforts to establish a more strongly unified Western Europe through social reform. Earlier knight equivalents, such as of the Migration Period, do not fall under this trope. Otherwise, this certainly applies in full force by the 14th century, where social and spiritual considerations became teaching points of the greatest fightmasters of the era.
** Well, that was the ideal, anyway, in a fashion not dissimilar to samurai. And like the samurai, whether any one knight actually lived up to that ideal or not was another matter entirely.
* Cultured badass? [[Memetic Mutation|This... Is... Sparta!]] Spartans were obviously known as fierce warriors but they were also expected to have a "strong mind and body". Education was just as important as being able to cave in a skull.
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* Doc Holliday. They didn't just call him "Doc" because they thought it was a cool name. Before graduating as a qualified dentist, he received an extremely good secondary school education - as his father was loaded - whereas most of the other prominent figures of the Wild West were comparatively fairly ill-educated. He could play the piano, was well versed in Shakespeare, studied mathematics, history, rhetoric and grammar and spoke Latin fluently as well as possessing very good French and Ancient Greek. He was also very refined in his demeanour, displaying the manners of a [[Southern Gentleman]].
* Don't forget Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia. A noble prince who was known for building villages to aid peasants, had been celebrated by the pope, and had improved culture and lifestyle of his entire country during his reign, marks him as cultured. The title 'the impaler' and being credited as one of the major real life sources that the worlds most notorious vampire (Dracula) was based, probably marks him as a badass. And if not, there's the fact that he has a listed victim list that ranges from 40,000 to 100,000, showing he's more then willing to raise and wipe out armies.
* Italian Medieval and Renaissance nobility used their great wealth and influence(and for a long time they had [[Merchant City|far more wealth]] then their northern counterparts)to patronize art. Among the things they did was sponsor the Humanist movement which had it's disadvantages(it held the Medieval period to much in contempt and thus ignored it's technological, legal, and artistic innovations), but did do much to recover Greco-Roman civilization. They were also often ferocious galley captains and dominated the seas so much that their chief enemy was each other. They incorporated mathematics and science into warfare(notably in the new star-forts designed to take advantage of firepower), and even private mayhem(as in their fighting styles for the rapier and the sidesword). They also had a brutal labyrinth of kin and factional politics which reminds one of [[The Mafia|an Italian stereotype.]]
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Badass]]
[[Category:Cultured Badass]]
[[Category:Extraversion Tropes]]
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