Four-Star Badass

"I fucked Germany. I think I can take a fleshlump in a fucking waistcoat."

Soldier: Where ya goin', General?
Patton: Berlin. I'm going to personally shoot that paper-hangin' sonofabitch!

— Patton

The Four-Star Badass is a badass in a military hierarchy who also happens to be a flag officer.

The Colonel Badass page explains that a Colonel is usually more badass than a General because although a General has the higher rank (and may even be a certifiable badass himself) they're usually relegated to desk duty and administrative tasks. This is also the reason why The Captain will always be the star of the show even if they don't have the same clout as a Commodore or Admiral.

However, some fiction writers don't subscribe to this notion. They believe that in order to have reached a four-star rank you had to have done some serious asskicking once upon a time. While some writers feel Badassery is a muscle that grows weak with disuse, the writers who subscribe to this trope feel it's more like riding a bike; you never forget how to do it. Even after years of sitting behind a desk, filing reports, cashing fat checks, and being saluted by everybody.

The important characteristic of Four-Star Badass is the BADASS. It's not enough for them to be The Brigadier or a Benevolent Boss (although they tend to share some of the same characteristics, like never saying "We Have Reserves" and being A Father To Their Men). They have to actually do something to earn the title. This usually involves rolling up their sleeves, ditching the desk (heh), and mixing it up.

This is a man who will fight alongside his men while co-ordinating the campaign, and is not afraid of getting his own hands dirty in general terms. They will often have been non-commissioned officers for quite some time before being made a General, and as a result of that, fieldwork comes naturally and is more instinctive for them than others. As one on one fighters, they will generally also be superb, with an unusually strong, generalised knowledge of tactics.

This happens in a number of ways:

• The Four-Star Badass is the star - The Hero of the story also happens to be a General or Admiral, ensuring that they have to get involved in the story's conflicts and adventures.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning, Business As Usual - The Captain or Colonel Badass gets promoted. But they're The Hero so they continue to be badass.
• The Future Badass route - If its a Speculative Fiction series, we may get an episode glimpse in which a protagonist, usually The Captain, is promoted, probably 20 Minutes into the Future.
• Ten Minute Promotion - They're promoted for a moment, but events (or themselves) conspire to demote them right back into a position where they're back in the field.
• Da Chief To The Rescue - The Cowboy Cop or Military Maverick has gotten themselves in a real jam. Da Chief takes it upon themselves to personally get involved in order to rescue their subordinate. They might say something like "Sure X is a loose cannon, but dammit, they're MY loose cannon and I'm gonna get them."
• Your Base Is Under Attack, Commander - Enemy troops assault or infiltrate headquarters in a surprise attack, giving the commander an opportunity to shine on his home turf. May or may not involve a Last Stand atop a pile of enemy corpses.

Many examples of this trope will probably turn out to be Frontline Generals, and sometimes Cool Old Guys and Cool Old Ladies. Often a contemporary of the Old Soldier.

While the Four-star thing is in the title, this applies to any character holding any level of General or Admiral rank, including Commodores.

Contrast General Ripper^note Though sometimes this guy may be badass enough to qualify, especially if his obsession came from leading the fight from the front and snapped after seeing the Enemy's atrocities firsthand. and General Failure. May have a Chest of Medals.

No Real Life Examples, Please! With thousands of years of recorded history, there are enough of them to crash the entire wiki. Given the fact that being Badass is a requirement, every general in history, excepting those in militaries where money or family connections are considered more important than ability, is an example. noreallife

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Reinhard von Lohengramm is the main character of Legend of the Galactic Heroes and the Imperial equivalent of a Four-Star Badass at the start of the series, becoming a Five-Star Badass very shortly after. Most of the main characters of the series are flag officers as well.
• General Lawrence, AKA Mr. X in Argento Soma. He's more of a Manipulative Bastard, true, but hanging the outcome of his plan on himself and dancing through a Gambit Pileup (engaging in a serious Xanatos Speed Chess along the way) basically unscathed takes serious balls.
• The Generals of the Black Order in D.Gray-Man, thanks to Asskicking Leads to Leadership- they're required to have a greater than 100% synchronization rate to get the post.
• Fullmetal Alchemist's Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong, who once single-handedly took on the superhuman Sloth armed only with a sword.
  • Plus Führer King Bradley.
  • Brigadier General Roy Mustang. By the end of the manga, he becomes a full-on general.
• Admiral Dozle Zabi of Mobile Suit Gundam, a seven-foot tall Genius Bruiser whose Last Stand in the Big Zam killed thousands of Federation troops and bought his men time to escape.
• By the time Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny rolls around, both Kira Yamato and Cagalli Yula Atha count as this. The former is an Orb Admiral, while Cagalli is Commander-in-Chief of Orb's forces, though Kira rarely ever uses his position of authority instead having Murrue (A Captain) lead the Archangel.
• Naruto:
  • The Third Hokage is an old war veteran who generally comes off as a grandfatherly figure, but in the Chunin Exam Arc, he shows how he earned his title "The God of Shinobi" by fighting against both of his resurrected predecessors plus the most talented of his three legendary students, all at the same time, successfully defeating them at the cost of his own life.
  • Every Kage of one of the five major ninja villages is expected to embody this trope. Candidates need to be one of the strongest ninjas in their village just to be even considered for the position. This requirement seems to hold for minor village leaders and samurai generals as well, if Hanzo and Mifune are any indication.
  • The Fifth Kazekage and the Fourth Raikage take this trope to the next level when they're respectively voted in as the Regimental Commander and Supreme Leader of the Allied Shinobi Forces, giving them operational authority over the other Kages.
• One Piece: The Admirals get their position for being the toughest bastards on the planet, sometimes being tasked with taking down entire crews of pirates...if the Pirates are strong enough to warrant such a beatdown.
• Field Marshal Tenpou and General Kenren from Saiyuki Gaiden.
• Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Breetai is an imperious commander Zentradi fleet, and proves formidable in hand-to-hand combat against humans piloting Valkyries.

Comic Books

• General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. His appearance in the Ultimate universe is inspired by Samuel L. Mutha*** Jackson.^note Mainstream Fury is still Colonel Badass.
• Archangel Michael in Battle Pope.
• The Incredible Hulk: General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross.
• During his service in World War II, Steve Rogers, aka "Captain America" was in fact a captain. But when he formally retired from the Army after he returned to the modern world, he was promoted to Brigadier General.
• General Louise Cale is presented as an effective if ruthless military administrator through most of Revival. She takes to the battlefield in the finale and goes toe-to-toe with a ninja assassin.
• Wonder Woman: Ever since her introduction in Wonder Woman (1987) Philippus has acted as the stoic incredibly capable captain of the Amazon guard, which is the equivalent to the military in a society that has largly sworn off ever killing again and has certainly sworn off anything resembling war save for in defence of their home. She shows a more soft side when in private with her queen and love Hippolyta and their children but is very no nonsense with her guardswomen and is always ready to defend herself. The Amazons do not use the title "General", but Philippus fills this role and is sometimes called a general by outsiders.
  • In The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016) an entire contingent of traitor Amazons are easily defeated by Philippus on her own, with it taking two priestesses channeling the power of Hades and Ares to take her down which still doesn't kill her and nearly didn't work.
• Oz (Caliber): General Jinjur (originally from The Marvelous Land of Oz) is one of the most dangerous combatants in the Freedom Fighters of Oz.

Fan Works

• A Brief History of Equestria has several examples: Hurricane, Wind Whistler, Sullamander, and Lady Cripps the Pink.
• General Hugo Pelwicz from Friendship Is Optimal: Always Say No is an undisputed Badass, surviving constant assassination attempts by men much younger than him, having amazing strength for a man of his age, and barely being fazed when his hand is blown off by a sniper.
• Child of the Storm:
  • For the villains, Baron Zemo is HYDRA's chief military commander. He's also a Super-Soldier of some kind who took out an entire US Army patrol in Grenada with a sword, killed T'Chaka, a Black Pather with physical stats equal to his own without taking more than a few scratches and when T'Challa immediately tries to avenge his father, Zemo effortlessly disables him, and in their rematch, holds him at bay while dispensing a few Combat Compliments - it takes Wolverine stabbing him in the back to make him perform a tactical retreat.
  • Nick Fury and Peter Wisdom a.k.a. Regulus Black both take the Frontline General approach. Fury goes toe to toe with Baron von Strucker and is mentioned to have previously killed the Red Guardian, a Super-Soldier. Wisdom, like his mentor, fights on the frontlines, such as at the Battle of the M4, and is one of the few people known to have gone toe to toe with the Winter Soldier and survived.
  • Alison Carter, former Deputy Director of SHIELD and a mentor of Nick Fury, casually describes Natasha as a "sparring partner" in "the bad old days", led a rescue mission during the Gulf War to extract her son, a certain Jack O'Neill, at the age of 45 and even into her sixties is more than capable of going up against major supernatural monsters. Being a Super-Soldier by heredity helps.
    • O'Neill, by now a Brigardier, also qualifies, as he gets to demonstrate in the sequel.
• The Immortal Game:
  • Rarity's father, General Esteem. A monster, yes, but undeniably a badass one. He is The Dreaded to the Loyalists, and in the end it takes Twilight Sparkle becoming a Physical Goddess in order to take him down.
  • Initially subverted but ultimately played straight with Twilight. While Luna appoints her "General of the Armies of Equestria" about halfway through the story, she's still so traumatized by her time as Nihilus that she's become an Actual Pacifist, leaving all the fighting to the rest of the Mane Cast and Luna. However, after her She's Back moment, the badass part definitely comes into play as she as mentioned above, becomes a Physical Goddess and starts kicking ass all over the place. Oh, and she starts her badass streak by demanding (not asking, demanding) that Luna grant her the title of "Master General".
• Night of the Shy: General Spur, head of the Royal Guard (in Canterlot, at least) and Twilight's personal combat instructor. When Nightmare's armies attack Canterlot, he personally leads the defense, and when the city falls he is the last to retreat. This unfortunately causes him to be captured and he ends up tortured for information... during which he continues to mock Nightmare to her face. And after he's rescued and hospitalized, Twilight has to order him to stay in bed and heal.
• In The Night Unfurls, The Good Hunter is a One-Man Army who gets to lead his Men of Sherwood as a result of Asskicking Leads to Leadership, from minor skirmishes to major battles. Despite his introversion, he demonstrates a remarkable talent as a military commander, able to cooperate with the sergeants and the troops to achieve strategic victory.
• The Pony POV Series has another villainous example in General-Admiral Makarov, the Big Bad of Shining Armor's side story and one of the strongest fighters in the series. Though he kind of cheats by being an Equineoid Abomination.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has Lance and Clair's grandfather Javelin Wataru, a military officer who is explicitly a Four-Star General. He was the former Blackthorn Gym Leader, and even fought alongside his men to bring down the infamous criminal Twenty Gyarados Bill.

Films — Animated

• General Rogard from The Iron Giant. He displays his badassness while being chased by a berserk, gun covered giant. While Mansley panics, Rogard turns around and shoots at it with a pistol. He remained completely in control throughout the battle and never even looked afraid, unlike many of his subordinates.
  • Another memorable scene: the giant is blowing up tanks only a few yards away from him. Rather than panic or run away, his response is to snatch a nearby radio from a soldier and angrily deliver this line:
  General Rogard: All battleships fire at the robot! [Ground shakes as tanks explode nearby] Now! Now, damn it, now!
• The Steam Engines of Oz: When the lions and the munchkins take on Oz's army, the Tin Man's general Sir Blackburn charges Magnus, the leader of the lions, wielding an elctro-sword in each hand.

Films — Live-Action

• In An American Carol we are treated to a scene where General George S. Patton is gunning down zombie ACLU lawyers with a non-automatic rifle. Despite being played for humor, it's pretty badass.
• In Behind Enemy Lines, Rear Admiral Leslie Riegart disobeys orders to abandon one of his stranded pilots and personally leads a force of Marines and Navy attack helicopters to rescue him, destroying a small Serbian army in the process. As he's played by Gene Hackman, Badassness must be expected.
• General George S. Patton in Brass Target. When the conspirators learn that Patton is investigating their conspiracy, it panics them so much they hire an assassin to kill him.
• A Bridge Too Far depicts both General James Gavin and General Roy Urquhart shooting German soldiers; in the latter case this is historical. Also, as depicted in the film, both Gavin and General Maxwell Taylor parachuted into battle, this being the normal practice for U.S. airborne division commanders; paratroopers and the World War II glider forces were badass to begin with.
• General Oreius, the centaur commander of Aslan's forces in the first The Chronicles of Narnia movie The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is particularly badass, as can be seen in the final battle.
• The Death of Stalin: It's only Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov who led the Red Army to victory against the Nazis and won't let anyone forget it. His high position makes him virtually untouchable, a blessing for Khrushchev once it's clear Zhukov is on his side in his power struggle with Beria.
  Marshal Zhukov: I fucked Germany. I think I can take a flesh lump in a waistcoat.
  • Zhukov, AK-47 in hand, leads a group of Red Army officers in arresting Beria in the middle of a Communist Party Central Committee meeting and personally subdues him with two big punches that leave the NKVD head bloodied and stunned. To get a better idea of what Zhukov with an AK-47 looks like, scroll back up.
• Brigadier General John Buford in Gettysburg, whose single division of dismounted cavalry held off Henry Heth's forces on the first day of battle until the main Union force could arrive, and whose tactical foresight in battleground selection was a vital factor in the Union's victory.
  John Buford: Got one brigade in position and that's all. We got the best damn ground around and they're hitting me with one brigade... lovely. Lovely!
• General Maximus in Gladiator, a Frontline General who later not only survives an Assassination Attempt and time as a gladiator intended to die in the arena, but manages to organize a conspiracy to overthrow Commodus and ultimately kills him in personal combat. But then, he is Russell Crowe.
• Admiral Greer in The Hunt for Red October, played by James Earl Jones. Although Ryan, Cmdr. Mancuso, and Capt. Ramius do the heavy lifting, his willingness to gamble and let Ryan do his job (and personally intervening during a tense standoff during the climax) resulted in a nuclear war being averted.
• General Grey, played by Robert Loggia - Independence Day. He's the only person in the government who manages to keep a cool head throughout the crisis, besides President Whitmore, who himself is a badass from the Gulf War. It's really no surprise that in the movie's second act—by which point the Vice President has been killed off-screen by the alien invaders—General Grey becomes the President's de facto second-in-command and closest adviser. It's likely that in the movie's universe, General Grey emerges from the crisis with a Patton or Eisenhower-like level of respect, and it's likely that he's either going to be Whitmore's new VP or Secretary of Defense...and the most likely candidate to be Whitmore's immediate successor once his term of office is up.
  • Independence Day: Resurgence Reveals that he was in fact Whitmore's successor as President; and both of them are Legendary in the Sequel.
• Ip Man has the Japanese General Miura, who is an honourable, honest-to-goodness ass-kicking pugilist. He is contrasted with the Smug Snake Colonel Sato who can't make the cut for Colonel Badass.
• The original M, played by Bernard Lee in the James Bond films, holds the rank of rear admiral in the Royal Navy as well as being the head of MI6.
• Legend Of The Fist: The Japanese general is the leader of the occupying forces in China as well as the most powerful martial artist in their military.
• General W.R Monger in Monsters vs. Aliens.
• Marshall Pentecost in Pacific Rim is a former Jaeger pilot and very badass. He doesn't flinch at the prospect of suffering fatal radiation poisoning, or even of setting off a nuke strapped to the back of his mecha.
• General George Patton who is a Trope Codifier if there ever was one. Apparently, he felt he was so badass he could shoot down warplanes with a pistol. But then again he did lead an American army first into Italy and then in France so maybe he was pretty badass after all.
• Commodore Norrington, especially in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Complete with badass sword skills.
• Kurogane, in Ran, Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear. Kurogane is the general serving Jiro, second son the old warlord Hidetora. He assassinates the eldest brother Taro during the battle with Hidetora's forces. He refuses Jiro's order to kill his wife Lady Sue after he's been seduced by Taro's widow, the vengeful Lady Kaede who's been orchestrating the destruction of Hidetora's clan. At the end. when all her schemes have come to fruition and she has Lady Sue killed, Kurogane beheads in her in spectacular fashion. See Overdrawn at the Blood Bank.
• Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel, Marines Force Recon from The Rock.
• Rear Admiral James T. Kirk in the first four Star Trek movies, and his TOS crew know it. When a new ensign protests Kirk's last minute command orders in The Motion Picture, Uhura coolly and effectively shuts him down with one sentence:
  Lt. Cmdr. Uhura: Ensign. The possibilities of our returning from this mission in one piece may have just doubled.
• Star Wars has a bunch:
  • The best known film examples are two Generals who were heroes at the Battle of Endor. You know them popularly as Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. Han resigned later; Lando left the service but retained the rank, because as everyone knows, "General Calrissian" just sounds awesome.
  • Also from the battle of Endor, Admiral Ackbar.
  • General Maximilian Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, who personally leads the Imperial Forces in their successful attack on the Rebel base at Hoth. And not merely in the sense that he hangs around in orbit looking at holographic displays; he actually dons an officer's combat uniform and rides an AT-AT into battle. This is an unusual ethos in a military full of Miles Gloriosi.
  • In the Clone Wars, Jedi Knights, while not soldiers by trade are all commissioned as Generals. Masters are High Jedi Generals or Senior Jedi Generals depending on the size of their Command. Padawans were all made Jedi Commanders, outranking the Clone Commanders.
  • He's a villain, yes. But there's no doubt that General Grievous was also a badass. Consider, when the man's cloak holds at least a dozen lightsabers; his souvenirs from slain Jedi. Think about that....
  • Poe Dameron from the Sequel Trilogy eventually becomes a General. He personally destroyed Starkiller Base before, while as a General he led the charge against multiple planet-busters.
• Street Fighter: General M. Bison not only commands a Badass Army, he gets up in front to kick ass directly. In Large Ham fashion, of course.
• William Stryker. First a Colonel in X2: X-Men United, then a Major in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Literature

• Patrick McLanahan from the books of Dale Brown. Various other characters get promoted to stars without much loss in badassery too. To be honest, though, while he is still a good bomber crew member and Tin Man user if needs must, he now spends more time as Mission Control and fighting off politicians or other generals so that the lower ranks can do their job.
  • In the earlier books in the series, Patrick's mentor, Lieutenant General Brad Elliott, is no slouch himself, sometimes personally taking his experimental planes into combat. His deputy, Brigadier General John Ormack, is seen in the cockpit even more frequently, and even took part in a commando raid at one point.
• General Doubleday in Animorphs. Though, as Jake notes, his rank isn't very intimidating to any of the Animorphs; "After you've stared down the likes of Ellimist and Crayak, you don't quiver just because some guy has stars on his shoulder."
• While of course also a real life one, Belisarius goes over the top in the Belisarius Series. As does his wife, Antonina and Rao but the Four-Star Badass amongst 6 novels worth of Four-Star Badasses is Rana Sanga: a general so good he worries Belisarius on the battlefield (and comes the closest to killing him, even with Aide boosting Belisarius's reflexes and senses to superhuman levels), a swordsman so good that Valentinian swears he'll surrender immediately before ever facing him again in sword fight following a three hour battle, and the man that went a full day in a fight with Rao (regarded as the greatest assassin in India), ending only when the two men were too exhausted to move. And then continued by debating philosophy until everyone else declared a draw.
• Black Fleet Crisis:
  • Etahn A'baht, the newly appointed leader of the Fifth Fleet. Even Admiral Ackbar admits A'baht is a better strategist at conventional warfare than he is, as most Rebel commanders were used to guerrilla tactics, but A'baht was used to fighting.
  • A'baht's backstory involves him being in charge of around 80 ships defending his home system's independence against the Imperial Navy. He managed to hold the Empire at bay without assistance while being heavily outgunned and outnumbered.
  • Then there's a small scene where A'baht, waiting for court martial, whiles away time by doing extremely difficult calisthenics in his quarters.
• In the Black Tide Rising series, one of the survivors retrieved from the Caribbean is retired military, but when it all drops into the crapper on the London mission at the climactic battle of Islands of Rage and Hope he reveals himself as a Special Forces Lt. General who was operating incognito for the sake of not winding up outranking Captain Smith, whose command of Wolf Squadron is more based on personal loyalties than formal chains of command. His actions when being swarmed by zombies ensure that every last Marine on the mission return safely and bring back enough material to make vaccines for all of the submarine crews.
• Discworld's Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch and one of the wealthiest if not the wealthiest man in the city (by marriage) by the end of Men at Arms, His Grace, the Duke of Ankh by the end of Jingo, and still giving the criminal element a good kick in the nadgers when he isn't fighting off quasi-demonic forces, foiling dastardly political conspiracies, or reading to his son, Sam Vimes Jr.
• Dragaera's Sethra Lavode is probably the best example. She's not just a general, she's one of the greatest military minds in history, and she's not just a Badass, she's a 450,000-year-old vampire sorceress powerful enough to order gods around. Do not mess with Sethra.
• In the Dragonlance novels the elven princess Laurana is originally appointed a general for political reasons and isn't expected to be anything more than a pretty little figurehead. Instead she proves to be a brilliant tactician and fearless warrior and becomes known as the Golden General.
• Morgan and Luccio in The Dresden Files. Morgan may be a complete dick but he there is no denying he is a badass. And Warden Commander Luccio taught him all he knows. Even resident badass wizard Harry Dresden is slightly scared of them.
  • Technically now that he is a regional Warden commander and Winter Knight Harry is one as well.
  • (General) Toot-Toot is quite the Five Star Badass; first, he is the leader of the Za-Lord's Guard. Secondly in a true Crowning Moment of Awesome he survived fighting an Eldrich Abomination so nasty and powerful that it took a Member of the Senior Council to scare off. He did this after said Eldrich Abomination had wiped the floor with Harry for the second time. Toot-Toot is a six inch tall Dew Drop Fairy, and was armed with a box cutter and armour made out of garbage scraps and Harry is one of greatest combat focused wizards on the entire White Council of Wizards. Let that sink in for a moment: a fairy with no real magical (or physical for that matter) power came to the rescue of one the greatest wizards in direct combat, who was at the time having was being beaten with in an inch of his life. Toot-Toot was swatted away but only after being a Mosquito from hell for several minutes. He most likely is the physically least threatening person on this page but he is Badass through and through.
• Raj Whitehall, the titular General from The General Series, does his own scouting when he can get away with it and is deadly with a sword, an excellent rifleman, and a fair pistoleer. When Center is helping him, his skills at all of the above reach absurd levels.
• Most of the leaders in Grent's Fall, but especially King Osbert Grent and the Bladecleaver.
• In David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series, the sixth book The Sharp End has a minor character: "Hellfire Hank Tedeschi had no manners and no patience. He successfully completed campaigns in minimal time and with minimal casualties among his own troops, because there was absolutely nothing else in the universe that mattered to him. He would cashier an officer in a heartbeat, and he was rumored to have knocked down underlings who didn't jump fast enough to suit him. Tedeschi believed in leading from the front. He'd killed people with his pistol, his knife, and his bare hands."
• Admiral Honor Harrington and a fair number of Admirals in the Honorverse.
  • Harrington starts the series as a space-naval Commander and, much like her inspiration Horatio Hornblower, gets promoted through the ranks until she is the supreme field commander of her nation's space navy, as well as one of its dozen or so most powerful citizens. Throughout her military career, she commands her battles from the lead ship. She also has a black belt in a fictional martial art that was proven effective when she killed a group of assassins with her bare hands, and skilled shooter who personally killed 2 people responsible for her boyfriend's death in a duel.
  • Other examples that are major or supporting characters include Admirals White Haven, Courvosier, Cortez, D'Orville, Kuzak, Hemphill, and Truman, all high ranking by the late installments (some from the start) for Manticore, as well as (sometimes Citizen-) Admirals Giscard, Parnell, Theisman, and, especially, Tourville (who purposely cultivates this image, in addition to actually being badass) for Haven.
• Horatio Hornblower spends the last three volumes of his series as one of these:
  • In Commodore Hornblower, he leads a British squadron into the Baltic, where he destroys a French privateer, personally saves the Czar of All the Russias from an assassin, and saves the Russian city of Riga by leading a critical counterattack against a besieging French army.
  • In Lord Hornblower, he recaptures a mutinous British brig (a small ship of war) and personally executes the leader of the mutineers, then plays a minor role in the final collapse of the French Empire.
  • In Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, Hornblower organizes the capture of a Spanish slave-runner ship, commands several small fights against petty pirates, and [spoiler:knowingly sacrifices his honor to foil an attempt to rescue Napoleon from his prison on St. Helena, and again renew the French Empire]].
• Sir Thursday from The Keys to the Kingdom was insanely badass, as well as having a fiery temper. His own soldiers were terrified of him.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: Lydia is the general of Baalaria's army and she makes a point of always leading from the front.
• General Serpilin from Konstantin Simonov's WWII epic The Living and the Dead, especially in the first book, when his troops escape being surrounded by Nazis.
• Dujek Onearm, Whiskeyjack and Dasseem Ultor from the Malazan Book of the Fallen all qualify in spades.
• Colonel-General Pavel Alekseyev^note Colonel-General being equivalent to three-star general in NATO of Red Storm Rising, the main Soviet viewpoint character, qualifies. A good tactician and strategist, he survives artillery barrages, being shot down, and a NATO fuel-air bombing, while at one point taking a temporary "demotion" to divisional commander in order to ensure that a crucial attack would succeed (much to his boss's displeasure, since he esteemed Alekseyev too highly for him to run around on the field). As a result of Field Promotions and attrition, he climbs the ladder from Deputy CINC-Southwest, a sideshow to the actual fighting, to CINC-West, the entirety of the European Front. He ends the war as Deputy Minister of Defense, having personally carried out a Kremlin coup and negotiated ceasefire talks with his NATO counterpart.
• Drauglir, the Calvarian general in command of the Arcasian campaign in The Reynard Cycle certainly qualifies. He doesn't always get his hands dirty, but when he does . . .
• Ael i-Mhiessan t'Rllaillieu of the Romulan Imperial Fleet in the Rihannsu series holds the rank of khre'riov ("commander-general"), which is the equivalent of a commodore. During a joint operation with Jim Kirk their Boarding Party gets into hand-to-hand with the defenders and she very much holds her own.
• Generals in Romance of the Three Kingdoms typically lead from the front, as troops were mainly peasant conscripts with little training and less morale. So Four-Star Badasses abound.
  • Lu Bu is known as the mightiest warrior of his day but not very bright when it came to actually leading an army.
  • Xiahou Dun ripped out his own eye and ate it after getting shot in the eye with an arrow. He felt it would be wrong to abandon his eye, since it came from his parents. And then killed the guy who shot him. He was forced to withdraw after that, though.
  • Guan Yu, who would eventually become a god of war and loyalty.
  • Zhao Yun. His resume includes fighting through Cao Cao's entire army (using one of Cao Cao's own swords for much of the fight after killing the weapon bearer) to rescue his lord's child.
• A fair few in the Sharpe series. Major-General David Baird in the early ones, based on the real life British general of the same name. The man personally leads the assault on Seringapatam with a claymore. By the end he is so covered in enemy blood his men don't recognize him.
  • Sharpe sometimes steps into this role, usually when he either manipulates ineffective superiors into taking the action he wants or when he simply decides the superior in question isn't up to the job and "promotes" himself.
  • General Harris didn't let losing part of his skull at Bunker Hill stop him crushing the Tipoo Sultan.
  • The Tipoo Sultan himself qualifies.
  • General Jean-Baptiste Calvet of the Imperial Guard is badass personified. Here are some of his better quotes:
    Calvet: In Russia, I ate my own corporal.
    Calvet: Human flesh tastes like skate. Did you know that, Ducos? Roast buttock of corporal, nicely peppered. Next time you eat skate, remember that.
    • His other achievements include getting his corps out of Russia intact (a feat in itself, though he just told us how), and impaling two Cossacks. At the same time.
• Admiral Rybakov in The Sixth Battle subverts this: He decides to lead his remaining carrier airwing into its last battle. However, he's shot down and can't even take out an AAA gun when he crashes.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire all the major houses have at least one of these. Jon Snow and Dany Targaryen are also both shaping up to become this as well.
• While the command structure in Starship Troopers can be defined as Rank Scales with Asskicking, the Sky Marshal takes the cake. In order to get that promotion, one needs to go through the command structures of both the Navy and the Mobile Infantry, starting from the bottom. Also note that Generals lead from the front. In the book, General Diennes, who planned the disastrous Battle of Klendathu, died there leading a diversionary attack to allow evacuation of the rest of the army. In the movie, he just resigned, being a REMF (Rear Echelon Mother Fucker). Also, neither the MI or the Navy have "commissioned officers", a requirement for the officer academy is going through basic training and surviving multiple combat missions.
• Dalinar from The Stormlight Archive starts reminding people exactly who he is near the end of The Way of Kings. Right after laying a beatdown on his nephew who just happens to be king. And this is after giving up his Magical Sword to fulfill an oath to a slave.
• Richard Hannay in Mr. Standfast is promoted quickly to Major-General once his determined badassery becomes apparent. Promotion dulls neither his skills nor his insane perseverance.
• The Tortall Universe's Lord Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, Commander of the King's Own, most prominently in Protector of the Small. Notorious for finding excuses to stay in the field, even when ordered otherwise by the king. Nicknamed 'Giantkiller' for a reason. A desk knight, he ain't.
• Vorkosigan Saga:
  • Admiral Miles Naismith of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, especially since he's really only a lieutenant in his "real" military identity.
  • Apparently, this runs in the family; his father is the bad-ass Admiral Aral Vorkosigan (the Lord Regent turned Prime Minister of Barrayar), whilst his grandfather was the great anti-Cetagandan military leader General Piotr Vorkosigan.
• General Antonio Vega of Larry Bond's Vortex is the commander of the Cuban Expeditionary Force in Angola. A brilliant commander who leads from the front, he defeats the South Africans and outmanouveres the Americans using second-line and older equipment, and nearly beats the USA to Pretoria. He Knows When To Fold 'Em, cares about his men's lives, braves nuclear attacks when the South Africans truly lose their minds, and is one of the most memorable characters in the book. Being a Deadpan Snarker who'll stand up to Castro himself doesn't hurt either.
• Mat Cauthon from The Wheel of Time. He becomes a general by ending up in charge of a small group of soldiers, despite being a civilian, and using them to slaughter thousands of the best warriors in the world, and killing the head of the opposing army in single combat while trying only to run away so that his band of inexperienced soldiers doesn't get decimated. His solders know it too. In a later book:

  Reimon: If I know Mat, he's planning us a battle. The Band of the Red Hand rides to battle again. It's been too long, if you ask me.
  Tuon: A battle won't get you out of Altara.
  Talmanes: In that case, he's planning us a war.
  The other three nodded in agreement as if that were the most normal thing in the world.
  —Knife of Dreams

  • In general, the Great Captains are this trope when they get to show their stuff, especially Gareth Bryne and Rodel Ituralde, who are both blademasters as well. Ituralde is practically The Ghost for most of the series while the other great generals have appeared, until The Gathering Storm where he holds his own with a ragtag, unsupplied army against the Seanchan, who have greater numbers, air forces, and damane. And Bryne raised an army to besiege the greatest city in the world out of raw recruits. Shame he didn't get to use it].
  • Demandred is an evil version- he's universally regarded as the best general on the side of the Shadow, and in the last book he proves himself a terror in person on the battlefield as well.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • The X-Wing Series's Wedge Antilles put off promotion for as long as he could, preferring to be a commander, but eventually Ackbar talked him around. It did come with deskwork, unfortunately, but he still got to fly. His track record, before and after getting that rank, is nothing short of spectacular. During the New Jedi Order he tried to lose a battle so that he'd have a poor Vong commander to deal with, only to very much not lose. Then he ended up facing a very good Vong commander, and still managed to very much not lose.
    Tycho: We'll put that in your biography. General Antilles was so good he couldn't fail when he tried to.
  • General Luke Skywalker in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor—the youngest general in his impressively-sized taskforce. The second-youngest is five years older than Han Solo. He's not bothered by the age gap. He's bothered by how the others assume that since he's a Jedi he automatically knows better, and people are afraid to question his plans.
  • In The Thrawn Trilogy, Grand Admiral Thrawn. He was the mysterious alien Grand Admiral who, five years after Return of the Jedi, returned from the Unknown Regions to breathe life back into the flagging Empire, and listing off all the things that make him awesome would take a while, but there's a reason why he was one of the (many, many, many) pictures on the Magnificent Bastard page.
    • To further emphasize just how awesome Thrawn is, note that the Galactic Empire is a xenophobic society. That an alien was even in the Imperial Navy is remarkable. That he was promoted to the service's highest rank, a rank only a dozen humans held, is unheard of.
  • Supreme Commander Gilad Pellaeon in Hand of Thrawn: "Supreme Commander" is just about the highest military rank in the Empire. This was Vader's rank, back when the Emperor lived. Pellaeon earned it. A dedicated naval officer and the best second-in-command anyone could hope for, Pellaeon started service when he was fifteen and died in service when he was in his nineties, having seen the start of the Clone Wars, the rise and fall of the Empire, the subsequent rise of the New Republic and all that that entailed, the Vong invasion, and the unpleasantness that followed. He was the one who was always there to pick up the pieces when the head Imperial died, which happened worryingly often, and he got his rank by being quietly competent, knowing when to retreat, and outliving everyone else who was in charge. Pellaeon picked up on some of the tactical skill of his Grand Admiral, and when the time came he pushed for peace with the New Republic.
  • The new canon also reveals that Admiral Ar'alani is also pretty good in a fight, often borrowing innovative tactics from Thrawn. Unlike Thrawn, though, she's fairly savvy in matters of politics and is able to bring that knowledge to devastating effect. Also, Thrawn once orchestrates an entire battle and then leaves it to his captain to implement according to his instructions, while spending the battle on the enemy's bridge.
• Mike Stearns from 1632 goes from being the Prime Minister of the United States of Europe to being appointed Brigadier General in charge of the Third Division. While at first he is dismissed as a rank amateur, he goes on to win several battles in such an overwhelming way against not only superior forces, but superior commanders who have decades of experience under their belt. It eventually gets to the point that the mere threat of his entering a field of battle will prevent others from attacking.
• The Machineries of Empire:
  • Shuos Jedao was an assassin and master spy spy turned general who has never lost a battle - or a shootout.
  • Kel Inesser has been an acclaimed general since before many soldiers' grandparents were born, is the only general in Hexarchate history to have a capital ship named after her, and is so well regarded that the possibility of facing her in battle is a serious morale drain. Fortunately she's also a Reasonable Authority Figure who comes to support La Résistance.
• World War Z has the incredibly badass General Raj-Singh of the Indian Army. It is he who devises many brilliant anti-zombie tactics emphasising mobility and sharpshooters that are copied by other world powers including the United States. His grand plan to cleanse India of every single zombie by having two lines of men the width of the entire continent marching north and south, up and down the country, is a resounding success. Sadly he does not survive the war: he performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save a group of refugees by detonating a nuclear device by hand.
• Temeraire: Jane Roland is a veteran Dragon Rider, Action Mom, and tactical genius who defies institutional sexism in the 19^th-century British Admiralty to become Admiral of the Aerial Corps, after which she remains an active combatant. She doubles as Hero of Another Story, winning entire fronts in the Napoleonic Wars offscreen.
• The Lost Fleet: While John "Black Jack" Geary spends most of the main series as a captain, he does so in command of an entire fleet. And he is later given the rank of Fleet Admiral, although he insists on being demoted back to captain after the mission is over. Which doesn't stop Fleet HQ from re-promoting him to regular admiral almost immediately afterwards. So he's a full admiral during the spin-off series. While early on he's more like a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond, later novels do show that he's a capable fleet commander and just hadn't been given the chance to shine before the war came.
• In Line of Delirium, Admiral Karl Lemak is a veteran of two large-scale interstellar conflicts (the Vague War and the Tukai Conflict) and is over a century old. He also doesn't shy away from putting himself in harm's way in order to achieve a mission objective (although it helps that he has aTan). In the second novel, when his flagship ends up exiting hyperspace at a relativistic speed, he chooses to stay aboard the ship rather than abandon his men to a one-way trip into the future.
• Bazil Broketail: Upon arriving on the Eigo continent, General Kreegsbrok utterly curb-stomped the armies of thee Kraheenian nobility, taking control of the entire country in no time. He is also the only Padmasan general in the series who managed to defeat the Argonathi forces in a major engagement (or, depending on the point of view, make their victory very, very costly and ultimately pointless), namely the battle at Tog Utbek — though admittedly, it was less due to his strategic skills and more thanks to the superweapon he deployed.
• Warrior Cats: Clan leaders and their deputies are expected to be this, leading from the front whether they're going into battle or a Gathering. Anything less would be cowardice.

Live-Action TV

• 24:
  • General Benjamin Juma is so badass he decides to lead a raid on the freakin' White House himself and even slaps the President. It's too bad he's a villain.
  • Turns out President Omar Hassan is a retired General in the Kamistani Revolutionary Guard. It explains a lot of the badassitude we see from him as Day 8 wears on.
• The A-Team: General Stockwell of the 5th season is shown to be a excellent marksman and hand-to-hand combatant as well as fluent in Chinese and always two steps ahead of everyone else. Of course, he is played by Robert Vaughn....
• Battlestar Galactica (2003):
  • Due to the weird system of Colonial rank, Commander Adama is most likely equivalent to a Commodore. And he is certainly a Badass. And he becomes an even bigger badass when the President promotes him to Admiral.
  • Admiral Helena Cain was certainly a Ripper but she was undoubtedly badass.
• Chernobyl: Colonel General Vladimir Pikalov, commander of the Soviet Army's Chemical Troops sent to contain the fire at the plant, who personally volunteers himself to drive a truck fitted with radiation sensors to get an accurate reading at the site of Reactor 4. The sensor ends up recording over 15,000 roentgen, which would have been enough to kill him, had the vehicle not been lined with lead. Pikalov survived the aftermath of Chernobyl, became a Hero of the Soviet Union, and died peacefully in 2003 aged 78.
• Chuck: Brigadier General Beckman is aiming this way. In the later seasons, she seems to be somewhat succeeding.
• Doctor Who: Brigadier Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (later renamed the Unified Intelligence Taskforce).
  • In his final appearance in the main series, he is face to face with a world destroying demon. This doesn't seem to bother him at all. In the same story, one enemy tells another "Beware this one, he is steeped in blood".
  • The only thing that ever bothered him, and he only expressed mild annoyance at, was how often everything he came up against was Immune to Bullets. When it turned out that an enemy wasn't, it ended badly for them.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark were considered some of the best warriors in Westeros and led the rebelling forces against the Targaryens.
  • Dothraki are always led by the mightiest warrior. Drogo commands the largest khalasar in the Dothraki Sea, is undefeated in battle and a peerless warrior.
  • Before hitting his twenties, Robb Stark wins his battles by leading his own Badass Army of Northmen from the front.
  • Jaime Lannister was this until his army was ambushed. Even then he killed a dozen Stark men before being captured.
  • The Battle of Blackwater features no less than four: King Stannis who leads the assault from the very front, and is well-known for being a competent soldier and commander, something he again shows at the Battle of the Wall, Tyrion Lannister, who leads the desperate counterattack against him and proves himself to be quite the strategist and a capable commander, Loras Tyrell, and Tywin Lannister who combine their respective armies into a massive cavalry charge to save the city. Tywin has never lost a war, as he proudly remarks to Arya and is a cunning and gifted military strategist. He is also a Frontline General unlike his book counterpart.
  • Jorah to Daenerys as her commander-in-chief.
• House of the Dragon: Daemon Targaryen's prowess as a warrior and Frontline General was definitely in display in the war of the Stepstones against the Crabfeeder's forces, and by the end of Season 1 he leads the forces of the Black faction. His unequaled expertise with the use of dragons at war also counts.
• JAG:
  • Rear Admiral A. J. Chegwidden, an ex-SEAL and Vietnam veteran, fits the trope to a tee, save for the minor fact that he's merely a two star flag officer. Given he's the boss of all the Naval lawyers and 2-stars is the maximum rank any soldier can hold permanently in peacetime (higher ranks are usually a fleet command, White House Military Office, Chief of Naval Operations or Navy Chief of Staff), it's neligible (the first half of the series IS in peacetime, and the JAG office is not very big).
  • Even on his spare-time this Badass directly challenges Italian mafiosos.
  Chegwidden: Signor Amati, many people have tried to kill me one time or another. They're mostly dead. So there's a good chance that your brother-in-law will join them if he does come after me.... Does he have other sons?
  Enrico Amati: Uno.
  Chegwidden: When he comes... I'll regrettably kill him too.... And after him?
  Amati: My sister will expect me to uphold the honor of mi famiglia.
  Chegwidden: Then I'll have to kill you. I don't want to have to do that.
  Amati: [in Italian] You're either a very *bold* man, or crazy!
  Chegwidden: [In Italian] Not crazy. Practical.
  • Well what do you expect? Before he became a lawyer he was a Navy SEAL and earned a Navy Cross (the second-highest decoration in the U.S. Navy, behind the Medal Of Honor) in The Vietnam War.
  Chegwidden: My name is Admiral Chegwidden. I am the Judge Advocate General of the United States Navy. Before I leave this hangar I will know the why and the how of Lieutenant Douglas Marion's death or Commander Rabb, here, is gonna have your ass...and I'm gonna own your soul.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Galadriel became known over centuries as the Scourge of the Orcs, Commander of the Northern Armies and Warrior of the Wastelands, for her martial abilities.
• Revolution: Miles and Monroe, as shown in episode 3.
• Smallville: He may start out as a Major Badass, but Major Zod, the Big Bad of Season 9 eventually promotes himself to General as he and his Badass Army proceed to take control of Earth.
• Stargate SG-1:
  • Jack O'Neill was promoted from Colonel Badass to Four-Star Badass.
  • General Hammond put on fatigues every now and then and was never afraid to leave the desk when a more "personal" touch was needed. Also, Sam Carter's dad General Jacob Carter became one of the leaders of the Tok'ra resistance.
    • The writers were even kind enough to give Gen. Hammond a Badass Moment of Awesome. One episode found him serving as gunner in a Goa'uld vessel piloted by Teal'c. After a successful strafing run against the bad guys, Hammond yelled out a good-ol' Texas "Yee-haw!"
  • Also worth mentioning, the defunct Third-Person Shooter Stargate Resistance had Samantha Carter get promoted to general and given command of the SGC.
• Star Trek:
  • In the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Commander Riker becomes Admiral 20 Minutes into the Future, but he's lost some of his badassness. He gets it back, though.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • General Martok of the Imperial Klingon Defense Forces, who survived for at least a year and a half in a Dominion POW Camp while being used as a Jem'Hadar punching bag the whole time, and gave as good as he got. He's also able to give the much younger (and still possessing both eyes) Worf a good fight in "Soldiers of the Empire" (although Worf gets beat up by everybody).
    • Vice Admiral William Ross who leads the Starfleet forces during the Dominion War. He gets props for being both a Frontline General and Badass Bureaucrat, knowing when to lead advances himself and when to delegate command to Captain Sisko while he works behind the scenes to ensure the continued stability of the Federation-Klingon-Romulan alliance.
  • Star Trek: Voyager showed that Captain Janeway became FAR more badass when she became a Vice Admiral in the future. We later see her as an actual Vice Admiral in Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Prodigy. Star Trek: Picard states she later went on to become a full four star Admiral as well.
  • Star Trek: Picard:
    • Jean-Luc Picard now holds the rank of Admiral, and although he is retired from Starfleet now, he is no less badass than he was in his active duty life.
    • Geordi La Forge is now a Commodore and curator for the Federation's Fleet Museum at Athan Prime.
    • Beverly Crusher as well now holds the rank of Admiral, being re-instated after a 20 year absence from Starfleet.

Roleplay

• In The Sydney Scroungers, Marshall Rachel Zhu of the Sydney Shatterdome makes her first appearance by calling in a Jaeger and dropping on to the main character's Cool Ship from a helicopter. She's also a former Jaeger pilot herself, much like Marshall Stacker Pentecost from Pacific Rim, the game's source material.

Mythology & Religion

• Russian Imperial Navy Admiral Fyodor Ushakov evades the full broadside of the ban on Real Life examples by being the patron saint of the Russian Navy. Yes, seriously. What else to do with a Father to His Men who never lost a battle nor a ship, and normally achieved a casualty ratio of 1 to 100 at a time when there was no meaningful difference in technology to exploit? His secret? He used combat subunits instead of a solid line of battle, and he maneuvered.
• Archangel Michael, the commander-in-chief of God's forces in Christian and Jewish mythology. Bilingual Bonus applies on his name.

Tabletop Games

• BattleTech:
  • Most of those with the rank of general (ranging from leftenant general all the way up to Marshal of the Armies) does so by being quite good at warfare, and indeed, most such officers are expected to take the fight to the enemy personally if needed—it's no surprise that an entire niche of Humongous Mecha has cropped up called 'command 'Mechs,' generally something huge, well armed, heavily armored, and usually boasting improved command, control, and communication gear. The setting universally holds fighting generals in far higher regard than their non-fighting 'armchair general' counterparts.
  • In the Clans, you are obligated to be a Four Star Badass if you want to make it to the top ranks of the Clan hierarchy, namely Galaxy Commander (equivalent to a general) or Khan (a combination of General of the Armies and Chief Executive). If you haven't fought your way to the top, you are not worthy of the rank you hold in the eyes of the Clans. An officer must be able to hold their position in defiance of all challengers and actively face those challengers in any form of combat deemed necessary—this goes double for the dozen or so elite officers at the top of a Clan's chain of command.
• In the Exalted RPG, this is the norm. A few examples;
  • Leviathan is one of the favourites; a Lunar Exalt from the First Age, where he was the Admiral of the West, responsible for most of the Navy of First Age. His spirit form is an Orca, which only grew larger as he grew older - he currently considers most "giants of the deep" food, if not bite-sized food. His weapon is a giant trident, so heavy that you would need three or four mammoths to lift it - the name "Islebreaker" says it all. He is also, thanks to a custom shapeshifting Knack, his own military unit.
  • We also have the Bull of the North, the First And Forsaken Lion, the Mask Of Winters, the Roseblack, Ma-Ha-Suchi... Every Exalt who opts to lead an army automatically qualifies; the Celestial Exalted, in particular Dawn and Zenith caste Solars, were made to be this for armies of Exalts.
• Great Battles of the American Civil War:
  • Every general in each game of the series has a counter (and can be captured or killed), as well as some colonels and the occasional major. As with most such games, their purpose is for command and control of the units under them, though most can influence melee combat if present. The more badass the general was historically, usually the better his ratings. (In the larger battles, overall commanders like Robert E. Lee are there for historical purposes and have no ratings.)
• Legend of the Five Rings provides multiple examples: a number of Clan Champions, Emerald Champions and Family Daimyo, as well as Toturi Tsudao, General of the Imperial Legions, The Shogun Akodo Kaneka, and even the Splendid Emperor Toturi I himself all fit in here.
• In the board game The Napoleonic Wars, one of the cards you can play is "Before I Was A General, I Was A Grenadier." It does Exactly What It Says on the Tin; your general wades into the thick of combat (quite effectively!), but has a chance of getting killed.
• In the Roleplaying game Rogue Trader you begin as one, and gets to chose how you became one.
• In the Squad Leader module Crescendo of Doom, one scenario featured the British counterattack at Arras (1940). Leading the attack is General Gifford LeQ. Martel, who is included as a named armor leader with the highest possible ratings. In contrast, in another scenario Erwin Rommel is represented by one of the 10-3 leader counters already provided in the game and does not receive his own named counter, though the French automatically win the scenario if he is killed. When these scenarios reappeared in Advanced Squad Leader the Martel counter was not reprinted, and an equivalent leader counter substituted.
  • Also subverted in both games: leader counters with the rank of general printed on them usually have the lowest possible ratings and are often as much a hindrance as a help.
• Admiral Albadawi of the Terran Confederation in Traveller.
• Used in Warhammer as well, where every race gets more powerful characters the higher in rank they are. This is explained with some like Chaos and Orcs, where brute strength does take you to that position (and is required to keep it), but not for Elves and Dwarfs that inherit their positions as leaders, but still are far superior to the best elites of their armies. The Empire makes a single exception to this with the general choice which only excels the captain in leadership and is otherwise equal to a captain.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • For Imperial forces:
    • Generals are among the most powerful units in their respective armies. This is especially true with the Imperial Guard. The rank-and-file are little more than cannon fodder who don't stand a chance in melee combat, while generals wield power swords, plasma pistols, and armour themselves with carapace armour and refractor fields.
    • Doubly true of the Space Marines. Promotions up through the ranks from basic footsoldier (Scout) to Brother-Marine, Brother-Sergeant, and Brother-Captain to Chapter Master. They can dual-wield most power weapons (the picture in the Codex shows one dual-wielding Thunder Hammers), call down orbital bombardments, and take to the field in Terminator armour, the best protection around.
    • The founders of the Space Marine legions, the Primarchs. Apart from being so freaking badass that they all basically took over the planet they grew up on. Sanguinius apparently broke the back of a Greater Daemon of Khorne (AKA "Bloodthirster") over his knee in the Siege of Terra.
  • Subverted with Planetary Defense Forces higher-ups, the vast majority are incompetent (much like their troops, especially on relatively peaceful worlds) and/or inbred nitwits who were put there via relations and serve only to get in the Imperial Guard's way.
  • For the Eldar:
    • Farseers can bend fate to bless their own units and doom their enemies, eldritch storms and literal mind rape as a psychic attack, spears that return like boomerangs once thrown while capable of piercing even the heaviest tanks in the game... This while running around on the field of battle, in spite of being several thousand years old.
    • Autarchs have to master not just one, but several (preferably all) of the eight different Warrior Paths. They lead from the frontlines, where they enjoy the benefits of personal forceshields and plasma grenades, in addition to their pick from an inventory which includes personal teleport generator, wings, psychic amplifiers for their battlecry, a hand-held directed fusion beam gun, a monofilament web-thrower, and a rapid-fire AP rocket launcher.
    • Greater still are the Phoenix Lords. You know how Autarchs have to master several martial paths to train? These guys made the paths they train in. They're all legendary, immortal and ridiculously Badass Eldar heroes who travel the galaxy, occasionally jumping in to aid and lead the Eldar in times of need. Maugan Ra once took out an entire Tyranid splinter fleet which included a Bio-titan single-handedly, Fuegan is known for Curb Stomping Greater Daemons and carrying a burning axe that lets him fight like a monstrous creature, Jain Zar can dodge and block bolter shells and make murderously psychotic super soldiers flee in terror, Karandras is the ultimate Stealth Expert with Frickin' Laser Beams that can penetrate Terminator armor, Baharroth can take on fighter aircraft with grenades, the oldest and greatest Phoenix Lord Asurmen is currently strolling through the Eye of Terror kicking Chaos ass... Yeah.
  • Da Warboss of da Orks is da Warboss kuz e's da biggest, da stompiest, da choppiest, da shootiest...in short, 'e's da Orkiest Ork in da whol damn WAAAGHHH, an' 'e stomps anyone wuz sez diff'rnt.
  • The Tau Shas'Os. In Tau culture, there are only two ways to retire from the field: Ascending to become a Shas'O and remaining in the rank for four years...or going to the grave. The Shas'Os lead entire armies of fire warriors from the frontlines, with a minimum of 12 years of constant fighting required to ascend to the rank, and so every single Tau who manages to ascend to that rank is a Four-Star Badass by design. The fact that they get the coolest armor and the biggest guns helps.
  • Any Chaos Lord ever. Chaos Space Marines are superhuman genetically-engineered warriors with centuries (or even millennia) of fighting experience and daemonic blessings to make them even more badass than loyalist Space Marines, and many of them are also murderously insane. They do not abide weak leaders and any Lord who loses the respect of the warband and/or the favour of the dark gods will wind up dead at the hands of someone who thinks they can do a better job. Abbadon the Despoiler is the Warmaster of all Chaos, commander of the Black Crusades and one of the most dangerous and powerful beings in the entire galaxy - on the tabletop he's a horrific close-combat beatstick capable of munching through entire squads on his own without being scratched and easily killing just about any other character in the game 1v1.
  • In-game, any model that is designated as a Lord of War in that army's codex is a leader of nigh-legendary renown in the fluff and is a very powerful figure in an army.

Video Games

• General Shepherd from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, who barehandedly defeats even Captain Price, who is de facto the resident Colonel Badass.
• City of Heroes has Lord of War: Hro'dtohz, the Rikti general in command of the homeworld forces invading Earth. He towers over his subordinates, wields a massive sword-gun that's about as long as he is tall, and he's classified as an Archvillain, meaning he's capable of taking on groups of super-powered heroes or villains.
• General-turned-Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander of the 1st Kronus Liberators in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. He's the supreme commander of all the Imperial Guard forces on Kronus, as well as political leader of Victory Bay and its provinces. But he fights on the front line in every conflict on the planet. Of course, you could say the same for most/all of the leaders (see the Warhammer 40,000 entry under Tabletop Games), but Imperial Guard merit and leadership systems best emulate real life ones, so Alexander fits this trope best.
  • Vance Stubbs finds himself in the same situation. While Fanon believed him to be the victor of the campaign of Dawn of War: Soulstorm, come Dawn of War III it was revealed Gorgutz was the winner. Manly tears were shed by many,
• The Admiral of DotA All Stars and his Dota2 incarnation, Kunkka.
• Legate Lanius in Fallout: New Vegas. Averted pathetically with General Lee "Wait-and-See" Oliver.
  • The previous Legate Joshua Graham, also known as the Burned Man, was also horrifically terrifying in battle, though his poor understanding of warfare leads him to be more of a General Ripper, or even a General Failure (part of the point of the character's backstory seems to be a deconstruction of this trope: being a badass in person and leading from the front does not itself make you good at tactics and especially not at operational art).
  • Potentially played straight by the Player Character, should they side with House and lead an army of the most dangerous robots in the series against both the NCR and Caesar's Legion at the same time.
    • Even moreso if the Player decides to go completely independent, commanding the same robot army, along with the Brotherhood of Steel, Khans, Boomers, and a squad of Enclave soldiers as what could qualify as the largest Ragtag Band of Misfits in gaming history.
• The Player in Fallout 4 can become General of the Minutemen barely 20 minutes into the game, though how much weight that title carries depends on how much asskicking you do on Minutemen behalf. Doubly so for the male player, who served in the US Army during the reclamation of Alaska in the pre-war world.
• Final Fantasy IX has General Beatrix from Alexandria, whom you never beat during the game. You fight her three times.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Somewhat unusually, General is the name of a playable class: likely due to the fact that Generals are very commonly lategame bosses, and therefore, aren't necessarily commanders themselves. Their distinguishing traits are a Mighty Glacier statline, use of multiple weapon types, and the ability Great Shield, which lets them simply ignore damage every so often.
  • On another note, Ike from Path of Radiance is given the title of General. He certainly qualifies.
  • Zelgius is the commander of Bengion's largest armies, and he's also a supreme badass in a fight. For most of Radiant Dawn, your army attempts to avoid fighting him by any means necessary, his reputation is THAT terrifying. Oh, and he's also the Black Knight, one of the strongest bosses in the series. (Only being barely beatable in the previous game, and even then only if you get lucky)
  • Subverted with Micaiah. She is the Vice-General of the Daein Liberation Army, and later Supreme Commander of the Daein Royal Army, but she has no actual military experience and is only made the leader because she's the figurehead for the Daein forces in their rebellion against Begnion. Her actual strategies rely heavily on her ability to see the future and even then, leave a lot to be desired.
  • Wallace from Blazing Blade is regarded as one in-story, though it's not quite reflected in his stats. Still, in spite of his tendancy to lose his bearings, he's shown to be A Father to His Men, and acknowledges that doing what's right sometimes means going against one's orders while still accepting imprisonment for his insubordination. Oh, and he killed off the Taliver Bandits to save Lyn from a life of revenge!
• Halo:
  • The Elites are promoted based on kill count - one needs to personally slaughter thousands in order to be promoted to a Field Marshal or Fleet Master. In particular, Thel 'Vadam (the Arbiter) was formerly Supreme Commander in charge of the massive fleet that attacked Reach, and his skills in combat are on par with the Master Chief.
  • Admiral Cole. Considered by many in-universe to be the sole reason the Covenant took more than a couple of years to wipe out humanity, his absolute greatest moment had to be taking on a Covenant fleet of hundreds with a single ship, badmouthing their religion and triggering their Honor Before Reason mentality with his taunts, luring them closer, firing hundreds of nuclear missiles into a nearby gas giant, which ignited the planet and turned it into a small star, wiping out the entire Covenant fleet. And he might still be alive.
  • The Didact, who was the leader of the entire Forerunner military, and a super soldier even more powerful than the Chief. His rival Forthenco, ancient humanity's Lord of Admirals, was one too, managing to hold off the Forerunners from humanity's capital for several years and earning the Didact's respect in the process.
• Colonel Buster Monroe from Harvester. The bastard got his entire lower body shot off during WWII, so what did he do? He crawled all the way from Germany to England, stopping every few miles to wind his intestines back in.
• Generals are surprisingly good at fighting in Hearts of Iron.
• Komato General Tor from Iji is the Final Boss of the game for a reason. For starters, he is equipped with the Phantom Hammer, a weapon designed for use in spaceship combat.
• General Armin Metrac of Killzone Liberation is one of these. Most high-ranking Helghast Generals don't initiate in combat with normal soldiers. Most Generals don't sling around chainguns with under-slung rocket launchers with relative ease, either.
• In the Kingdom of Loathing, The Man is several times more powerful in every way than any other Frat Army soldier, and his opposite number The Dude is similarly stronger than the rest of the Hippie Army.
• The Jedi Exile from Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. While she probably doesn't hold an actual star rank in the Republic Fleet, she held a position of such authority within Revan's army that she is commonly referred to as "General". Needless to say, she is a Jedi, too, promoting her to instant badass.
  • Ditto with Admiral Onasi and Mandalore the Preserver (formerly: Canderous Ordo). Remember how badass they were in the first game? There was also the little matter of your Player Character from that first game who said Exile was reporting to...
• Mass Effect has Admiral Hackett, who is mostly a Memetic Badass rather than an actual one, since you never get to see him in action but his cool voice will give you missions from time to time and is the commanding officer of the Alliance 5th fleet during the defense of the Citadel. There is also Captain Anderson, who will be promoted to Admiral if you choose Udina as the Councilor, who may punch his way into a high security platform and hack a computer after being shot, and surrendering only after making sure the Normandy is no longer ashore.
  • In the "Arrival" DLC, we finally get a look at Admiral Hackett, and it is quite clear from the number of scars on his face that he has earned his rank.
  • According to the codex of Mass Effect 3, Hackett started off as just an Enlisted before the First Contact War, and worked his way up the rank ladder, earning a commission, then earning a flag commission, and then becoming the top admiral in the Alliance Navy. His climb is the stuff of legends... according to the Codex.
  • In Mass Effect 3, Admiral Anderson and Shepard fight their way through the Reaper invasion of Earth, and then Anderson stays behind to lead the Resistance personally. Seeing that he was one of the first graduates ^note  Alec Ryder may have preceded him of the N7 commando program in the Alliance Marines, he definitely qualifies once he gets his admiral's stars.
  • If Shepard has the Spacer Background, their mother, Captain Hannah Shepard is mentioned in the second game as having turned down several promotions to Admiral, preferring to remain serving with the people under her command. However with the Reaper invasion causing the death of most of the upper echelons of the Alliance military, she's been rapidly promoted to Rear-Admiral.
  • Admirals Han'Gerrel and Rael'Zorah definitely have badass aspects to their character. Depending on the viewpoint of the player though they might be tragically misguided.
  • The Cerberus Daily News brought turian General Partinax to the fore, who dueled Facinus leader Kihilix Tanus. His record is surviving seven duels, 5 to first blood and 2 to the death.
  • The Codex also references Admiral Coronati, who defeats the Reapers in an engagement over Pavalen with an ingenious tactic that involved using the sheer size of the Reaper combat ships against them; by making a daring jump right in the midst of the Reaper force, his relatively primitive dreadnoughts were able to destroy several of them with concentrated fire while they struggled to turn about and engage.
  • General Septimus was apparently this before his Heroic BSoD. Shepard can pull him out of it.
  • In Mass Effect 3, Shepard is this is all but name. While s/he still technically holds the rank of Commander, s/he still stands toe-to-toe with admirals of other races and is essentially, along with Hackett, the leader of the allied forces in the war against the Reapers. Certainly the reason they are united and who they look to. In the end, Hackett ends up commanding the entirety of the space fleet and Anderson commands the allied ground forces.
  • Some of Shepard's surviving squad throughout the trilogy qualify as well by the end:
    • Garrus had his vigilante squad on Omega that was similarly slaughtered, but is later the de-facto second-in-command of the entire Turian military.
    • Tali takes her father's place on the Admiralty Board.
    • Wrex is the leader of the entire Krogan race.
    • Legion is largely only an interface between the squad and the rest of the Geth collective consciousness, but if it successfully disperses the Reaper upgrades to the rest of the Geth, Legion essentially becomes the Geth, who then pledge their considerable navy to the war effort (along with the Quarians, if a peaceful solution is achieved).
• General Donald Morden, the main antagonist of the Metal Slug series, certainly qualifies. Before he defected to the rebel army he was one of the most influential commanders in the Regular Army. Upon going nuts over the death of his son due to military incompetence, he then got a badass eyepatch (and a mustache) and defected to the Rebel Army. As a boss he fights from massive tanks and aircrafts, blasting away his opponents with his BFG.
• General Guy from Paper Mario, a Shy Guy who fights Mario in his specially-designed tank, which would've given Mario a great deal of trouble had he not found Watt earlier, who can tear through the tank's defenses like they're nothing. He is also the only major boss that is shown to be a Badass Normal; while the other bosses have either been beefed up thanks to the Star Rod, or have access to several magical powers or special techniques, all General Guy has is his army and tank.
• General Horace Warfield, the Terran Dominion's answer to the Zerg invasion in Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty. Previous examples of four-or-better-stars in the series were impressive, but lacking true badassery. Warfield, however, holds the line on the ground in a suit of Marine armor on Char itself with his men, not from the bridge of a battlecruiser. He bayonets a zergling, only to get spined by a hydralisk—then punches the hydralisk right the hell out when it subsequently pounces on him. In the end, he needed rescue from Raynor with a BFG and a few Banshees, but the fact remains—he knocked out a hydralisk. Later, he's complaining that the medics wouldn't cut his arm off to halt the spread of the hydralisk's poison. Still later, he shows up...with a mechanical arm that can change into a gun.
• In Star Trek Online, the Player Character becomes this upon reaching Grade 40 for every faction but Jem'Hadar^note Jem'Hadar start at level 60, but leaving that aside their actual promotions in the rank system stop at the canonical highest Jem'Hadar rank First, very roughly equivalent to a Starfleet commander (although STO puts it at 30, along with Starfleet captains, in line with the Jem'Hadar PC being allowed to command a starship autonomously instead of passing on orders from a Vorta commander), instead appending adjectives indicating respect for your competence and experience - Starfleet Rear Admiral, Lower Half, Klingon Brigadier General or Romulan Subadmiral I. This only improves at grades 45 and 50: Rear Adm. Upper Half, Major General and Subadmiral II, then Vice Admiral (for both Starfleet and the Romulans) and Lieutenant General. Becomes outright ridiculous with Delta Rising, where the level cap is moved up to 60: Starfleet and Romulan characters end up as Fleet Admirals, while the Klingons stop actually promoting you at General (level 55, where the other two become full Admirals)... because the final level 60 promotion is instead you being declared a Dahar Master, a title which boils down to 'You're so badass a warrior that you've reached legendary status amongst Klingon warriors'.
• Generals Oka (Voltes V) and Igor (Dancougar) in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden. They were quite willing to risk being shot to make damn sure the Titans were screwed over from trying to jack Great Mazinger. Kinda helps that Oka was an honest to God ninja.
• The bodyguard units of your Generals and Princes (which includes the Generals) in the Total War games are some of the best cavalry units in the game. They are very good fighters.
  • Somewhat averted in Empire and Napoleon; they're the numerically smallest cavalry unit at full strength, and due to the fundamental shift in field warfare they're more of a (valuable) support unit.
• In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Subverted. While the game introduce Grand Marshal Garithos, who leads the last remnants of the Alliance of Lordaeron, and can fight Balnazzar, the most powerful Demon currently in the area to a standstill. It's heavily implied he rise to the rank of Grand Marshal not necessary because of his own abilities, but his father's reputation and title, and he happen to be the only highest-ranking survivor of Lordaeron military after the Scourge's rampage across the land. While he has many success in driving the Scourge out of Lordaeron, it's not without the aid from Ironforge and the ruined Quel'Thalas, and later he attempted to purge the Blood Elves from his ranks. His campaign was met with nothing but obstacles and failure, Garithos and his entire forces was enslaved by the dreadlords Detheroc and Balnazzar, becoming a mere pawn for some time until the real four-star badass, former ranger-general Sylvanas Windrunner, steps in.
• As probably isn't surprising for a former Colonel Badass, Commodore Blair, in Wing Commander Prophecy, qualifies. He even goes out on a mission with Lance Casey at one point, even though he's aboard the TCS Midway only as an observer on the ship's shake-down cruise.
• One of the possible Council missions you can be offered in XCOM: Enemy Unknown is rescuing General Peter Van Doorn after his convoy is attacked on a bridge. Of the Council missions where you escort a comparitive weakling back to the Skyranger, he's the only one who actively itches for payback against the aliens. The reason he's stranded? Because he tried to rescue a soldier who was left behind. While he failed at that part, actually surviving running out of ammo while being surrounded by aliens is a feat in itself. XCOM: Long War actually has him join your troops when you accomplish this mission.
• In The Elder Scrolls series backstory, Tiber Septim, the founder of the Third Tamriellic Empire who ascended after his death as Talos, the Ninth Divine, was a peerless General. He commanded the Imperial Legions into forging the first truly pan-Tamriellic Empire. He crossed over with Frontline General (and Risking the King, naturally), at least early in his campaigns, though this was justified as he could use the Thu'um, a very powerful weapon.
• Elden Ring: The wrecked setting is the result of a world-rending civil war known as the Shattering, where demigodly princes and princesses led their armies against one another in an attempt to claim the throne. While they were all implicitly renowned fighters and leaders prior to the Shattering, four of them were particularly notable for their deeds during it:
  • Elden Lord Godfrey lead Marika's armies during the empire's brutal period of expansion early in the Age of the Erdtree, and as far as we see his martial accomplishments are pretty much unrivalled. He conquered more or less the entire continent for his queen, wiping the dreaded Fire Giants out almost to a man and breaking the power of the dragons. Godfrey was at the forefront of all these fights, earning the title "Lord of the Battlefield". He was such a god-tier badass that Radahn spent his whole life trying to follow in Godfrey's footsteps rather than his own birth father's. His achievements apparently didn't end when he left his throne behind; the Long March of the Tarnished he led is implied to be a saga in its own right, with him leading his exiled army to victory in countless brutal battles.
  • Infamous and known throughout the land as the Red Lion General, Starscourge Radahn was an extremely talented commander, being a master tactician on top of being one of the strongest warriors the land has seen. His leadership and charisma were such that even after the disastrous Battle of Aeonia, his Redmanes are still organized and disciplined enough to simultaneously contain the spread of Scarlet Rot to Caelid in a brutal Forever War and host the Radahn Festival to give the good general the honorable death he was denied against Malenia.
  • Malenia, Blade of Miquella had the weakest conventional starting position of any of the demigods; her fief of the Haligtree is a small kingdom located in the remote far north, greatly removed from any location of strategic relevance. It's mostly populated by exiles and outcasts from the rest of the continent and was founded fairly recently. Yet her army is both totally devoted to her and utterly elite. Malenia marched her host from the Haligtree all the way down the length of the entire continent with no noted difficulties, fighting through Liurnia, Limgrave, and Caelid in the process, and only facing heavy resistance when facing the after-mentioned General Radahn's Redmanes, said to be an elite army that "knew no weakness", and held the upper hand till the two armies destroyed themselves during the Battle of Aeonia. On a personal level, Malenia is a World's Strongest Man contender who stands head and shoulders above practically anyone else in the setting in both strength and skill despite being a blind triple amputee, with only General Radahn capable of stalemating her in a duel (and even then, only so long as she holds back the Outer God of Scarlet Rot). She's the game's Super Boss for a very good reason.
  • Morgott of the Golden Order inherited command of the main royal army in the capital region of Altus-Leyndell after his parents disappeared, and commanded it to victory after victory in the Shattering despite most of the other claimants targeting him by default. He repulsed campaigns against the capital by both Radahn and Godrick in decisive triumphs. His offensive against Rykard's fief of Mount Gelmir was not totally successful and had him taking heavy losses, but by the time of the of the game he has still basically totally neutered Rykard's faction and pushed them back to a single fortress, arguably making him the victor of their conflict. While not up to par with Malenia or Radahn, Morgott is also an amazing warrior. During the Shattering he took to the field disguised as a common Omen soldier and "stacked high the corpses of heroes." It's no wonder that he serves as both the Wake-Up Call Boss (when limited to projecting his power from far away) and the game's main Climax Boss.

Web Animation

• Battlefield Friends features Colonel 100, who does things like routinely taking down attack helicopters with a knife. He's so badass that he can paralyze opponents in fear at the mere sight of him, has never once been depicted wielding a gun in a game built around them, and hasn't been killed by anything other than pure chance, not even under normally instant-death circumstances.
• After two seasons of handling things from the backseat as a proper general, James Ironwood from RWBY shows that he is more than capable of throwing down with the rest of them. To show how much of a badass he is, he is able to solo an Alpha Beowulf with his personal sidearm without much effort. It helps that he's also a Cyborg.

Webcomics

• The Jager Generals in Girl Genius each qualify, on account of surviving in the service of the Heterodynes for some 600-700 years. And there are currently seven.
  • Case in point
• General Tarquin from The Order of the Stick — when he first arrived on the Western Continent, he conquered eleven different nations over the course of eight months, and was only deposed through the combined efforts of twenty-six others. And if this page is anything to go by, he's still got it even in his later years. Subverted. Tarquin is in fact a deranged psychopath with Delusions of Grandeur who is at best a capable fighter with some talent for scheming, but has no real military experience, and most of his empire's military talent came from elsewhere in his party. Rich Burlew confirmed all this in the forum.
• From Schlock Mercenary:
  • Captain Kaff Tagon and his father, General Karl Tagon. The former has his own mercenary company, which has played a pivotal role in almost every modern (for the comic) conflict. The latter is retired, pushing 70, and still remains in fighting condition, even when reduced to a head in a jar (as seen in Massively Parallel Part V). Karl was pivotal during the Celeschul Terraforming Wars (the same conflict that gained him his rank), to the point that many historians claim that the rebels lost the war the moment their brutal first strike failed to kill him. Karl Tagon does not agree with this assessment.
  • Admiral Breya Andreyasn's badassery isn't mostly of the physical type (though she can handle herself in a fight), but it's not some average person off the street that can string together a massive fleet from multiple interstellar-capable races for the sake of fighting a galaxy-threatening menace.
• Legostar Galactica has General/Admiral Graves, Captain Smith's direct superior. He usually does Desk Jockey duties, but when he has to knuckle down and fight, such as when he's part of Robin's Caper Crew in "Cunningham's Eleven", he can be found Dual Wielding Cool Swords on the front lines.
  • In the episodes where Belinda and the Doctor visit the planet Devlin fifty years in the relative future, the Future Badass versions of most of the main cast are either Admirals (Skip, Robin, Red, possibly TAG although it isn't confirmed), Generals (Shauna, possibly 46 although that isn't confirmed either), retired (Johnny, Alice), a ghost (Marty), or conspicuously absent (Bob, Belinda herself).

Web Original

• Open Blue has at least two of these, Vice Admiral Royche, an NPC Man in Black who knows Kung Fu, and High Executor Altara Sigrdrífa, a historical figure, who personally led the Precursors' Praetorian Guard in battle. Starting in v4, Admiral Flota Vladimir Ilyavich Tokarev, HERO OF THE TRIBES, now joins this list.
• In The Salvation War, the fictional version of the aforementioned David Petraeus (the point of divergence being January 2008) led the combined human forces (albeit operationally only the US military) against the legions of Hell, leading to some of the most lopsided battles in human history. They've since been aimed at Heaven. Oh, and he has release authority over multiple nations' nuclear, biological and chemical arsenals (in Heaven anyway).
• The Ruins of an American Party System has Grand Marshal Tukhachevsky, the head of the Soviet Union's military, who is capable of personally and singlehandedly fighting off and killing an entire German hit squad sent to assassinate him.

Western Animation

• Joseph Walsh of Galaxy Rangers. The rank is technically "Commander," but considering he is in command of BETA and much of Earth's defenses...
• Although General Iroh of Avatar: The Last Airbender is retired, he was once the Fire Nation's most fearsome general. By the time we meet him, he has dedicated his life to drinking tea, eating, shopping, playing pai sho, and making sure Zuko grows up right... but is still the only person besides Aang who has any chance of matching Ozai's combat prowess
  • While we're at it: General Iroh II of The Legend of Korra, his namesake's great-great-nephew. He manages to burn through the Equalist forces while the rest of his army gets decimated.
• Hawk from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. To a somewhat lesser extent, Flagg. Their naval counterpart is Keel-Haul, an admiral who still sometimes gets behind the stick of a fighter jet.
• In Starship Troopers: Invasion General Johnny Rico eventually decides to join the fight himself in a Mini-Mecha with chainsaws, rocket packs, gatling guns, and missile pods. Then, in a mad dash for the Bug Queen he starts stripping out of his armor as his weapons run out of ammo and Bugs grab onto him and then kills the Queen with a combat knife wearing nothing but his jumpsuit.
• The Venture Bros.:
  • General Treister is apparently an example of this. He prefers a hands on approach to warfare, and continually exercises despite having had eight heart attacks.
  • At the end of season 4, Treister hands command of The OSI over to Col. Hunter Gathers — a man who was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson. It's a given that he'll embody this trope.
• Sky Marshal Wade in Voltron Force is a villainous example, as he confronts the Voltron Force personally a few times.
• Star Trek: Prodigy: Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway returns, having last been seen in Star Trek: Nemesis. She has taken personal command of the Federation-built U.S.S. Dauntless NCC-80816 to track down the U.S.S. Protostar and proves to be a formidable, albeit unintentional adversary to Dal, Gwynn and the other kids. She later becomes a valuable ally once the truth of their situation is revealed.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Toffee of Septarsis is a former general who led the monster army against Mewni, but his last confrontation with Moon badly wounded his pride (and his finger), forcing him to hang up his chevrons and take up roles that involve brains rather than fighting.
• Star Wars Rebels: Grand Admiral Thrawn. Just like in the source material, Thrawn is a military genius second to none. He also demonstrates his Chiss combat skills by taking Kallus in a one-on-one fight.

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