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Badass on Paper: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:The_Man_Who_Killed_Batman-Title_Card_925.png|link=Batman:
{{quote|'''Harry''': You've sort of made up for it tonight. Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcrux. Saving my life.<br />
'''Ron''': That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was.<br />
'''Harry''': Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was. I've been trying to tell you that for years.|''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and
You hear tales about the character. Every achievement, every victory. You get assured time and time again that every story you've heard is true. You come to the conclusion only someone of a divine level of badassery could have done these things.
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As unbelievable as it is, they did actually earn the achievements they're famous for and quite often we the viewers actually see them do it.
The question of how they did it can be answered in different ways. It could be [[Accidental Hero|lu]][[Idiot Houdini|ck]], the hero could have specific [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|talent]] that continuously saves the day, an ability to make his flaws [[Crazy Awesome|work for him]] or simply the fact that despite how dumb the hero is, the villains are just that [[Up to Eleven|bit dumber]].
Often the answer to [[Dude, Where's My Respect?]] because frankly, achievements or not, these guys just don’t seem to deserve it.
Can be considered a sister trope to [[Warts and All]], where the hero is as badass as the stories say but doesn't live up to the pure and virtuous image that people have of them.
Compare with [[Expecting Someone Taller]] in which the character is still badass but just doesn't fit the expected image and [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]] where the character is mostly a moron but when the time is right unleash their inner badass.
Contrast with [[Feet of Clay]] where the character turns out to be incompetent and was in fact lying about most (if not all) of the things that they are famous for.
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Not to be confused with the [[Badass Bureaucrat]] or [[Paper Master]], both of whom are badasses ''with'' paper.
{{examples
== [[Anime]] ==
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* [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Shinji Ikari]], both in the TV series and in the fandom. It's undeniable he defeated more alien enemies each with the potential to end the world by itself than anyone, risking his life several times in the process. On the other hand, his psychological issues, not to mention the plainly nasty things that happen to him prevent him from getting any respect.
* [[Trigun|Vash The Stampede]]. A legendary force of destruction, leaving nothing but rubble in his wake, and sporting the worlds highest bounty(60 billion double dollars). Then you meet him...a goofy, spiky haired nitwit, with a great love of donuts.
* [[Fairy Tail|Lucy Heartfilia]] often gets asked about her huge list of achievements (often she takes out much more experienced mages, or ones tailor-made to fight her), but she is a pretty normal girl in person, not an especially great fighter, and has only an average amount of magic. She's even the [[Butt Monkey]] of the group, and she often [[Heroic Self
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== [[Literature]] ==
* For a lot of the series, ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' views himself as one of these. The event that made him famous happened when he was a baby and when in Order of the Phoenix he gets asked to teach a defense against the dark arts club, he argues that all his other achievements have been either through luck or from getting a lot of help.
* Rincewind is the worst wizard the [[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]] has ever known. His hat is the only thing about him that says "wizzard," and ''that's'' misspelled. With no magic talent to speak of and a survival instinct heightened by his [[Genre Savvy]], his usual response to a situation is to run like hell, and he's gotten ''very'' good at running over the years. He's also [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|thrown down]] with [[Eldritch Abomination|eldritch horrors,]] challenged a [[Enfant Terrible|childlike demigod]] with nothing but [[Improbable Weapon User|a half-brick in a sock,]] and saved the entire Discworld. ''Several times.'' Arguably, he's gotten being the [[Right Man in The Wrong Place]] down to a ''science.''
* ''[[Ciaphas Cain (Literature)|Ciaphas Cain]]'' claims that all his achievements were down to luck or the result of him trying to save his own skin ([[Humble Hero|if you're willing to take his word for it, of course]]).
** Make no mistake though, the fact that he's a genuine badass is indisputable. He's fit, very well trained in marksmanship and swordplay, and knows the ins and outs of manipulating people to a T. In the [[Warhammer 40 K]] universe, however, this is basically the [[Crapsack World|bare minimum of what is required]]. The debate is over his attitude (modest hero or lucky coward) and how much more of a badass he may be.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'': We have a villainous example with Jack Spicer. In the span of three seasons he has built countless robotic armies, a time machine, a Shen Gong Wu detector, a shapeshifter, highly impressive AI, is responsible for the release of Wuya thus causing the Wu to start revealing themselves and in a future without Omi he would be ruler of the whole world. Not bad for a guy who lives with his parents and loses his pants everyother episode.
* In an episode of ''[[Batman:
{{reflist}}
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