Impressed by the Civilian

Private Hudson: Seventeen days? Hey man, I don't wanna rain on your parade, but we're not gonna last seventeen hours! Those things are gonna come in here just like they did before. And they're gonna come in here... and they're gonna come in here AND THEY'RE GONNA KILL US!
Ripley: Hudson! This little girl survived longer than that with no weapons and no training.

— Aliens

An experienced warrior, whether friend or foe, is impressed enough to acknowledge an untrained civilian, either for their quick thinking, bravery, or unexpected prowess in a tense combat situation.

For the purposes of this trope, a civilian is generally someone who does not have formal combat training. This includes military, law enforcement, or security agency members with support or non-combat roles like cooks and clerics as long as they haven't been trained beyond boot camp and have only served in safe support roles since then.

Also, this is most definitely about civilians. Trained military personnel and law enforcement/security officers performing their duties is brave, but also expected. It's the purpose behind their training. It is an untrained individual who stands by their principles or outthinks the villain, thus earning the respect of the hero or the villain which matters to this trope.

Compare and Contrast/May Crossover With: Badass Bystander, Badass Bookworm, Hidden Badass, Action Survivor, Badass Normal, Badass Unintentional, Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, Dare to Be Badass, Had to Be Sharp, Nerves of Steel, Took a Level in Badass, Mistaken for Badass, Underestimating Badassery

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• My Hero Academia: The story opens with Izuku Midoriya, a Muggle in a world where most people have a superpower, meeting his idol, number one hero All Might. All Might tells Izuku that without a superpower, he'll never be a hero, only for Izuku to throw himself into battle anyway in an effort to save his friend. All Might is so impressed by this that he not only changes his tune, he makes Izuku the successor to his own power.
• Before their Heel–Face Turn, the Grandis Gang of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water are very impressed by the skills of Nadia and Jean to escape them.
  Grandis: What amazing kids! They certainly are clever... BUT NOW THEY'RE GETTING AWAY! Hey, stop them! DO SOMETHING!
• Queen Emeraldas: El Domain and his First Officer are menacing a bar, asking for the identity of the ship that attacked his fleet. Hiroshi Umino, working at the bar, throws off his apron and tells them not to threaten his customers. They nearly shoot him, until a cloaked woman at the counter says that if an opponent is unarmed, they should fight unarmed. The First Officer obliges, beating Hiroshi, but Hiroshi refuses to stay down and starts gettting in some good hits of his own. At this point, the First Officer draws his gun again, only to find the cloaked woman shooting his blaster out of his hand with a gravity saber, revealing herself to be Emeraldas, and saying that Hiroshi, though a boy, was more a man than El Domain and his minions.
• Snow White with the Red Hair: Obi, who is implied to have worked as an assassin, shoots an arrow with a message at Shirayuki, at the behest of a court noble who thought she was a nasty Social Climber. Obi is thoroughly impressed when Shirayuki, rather than run away, plucks the arrow from the wall and takes it with her.

Comic Books

• Batman: Jason Todd's origin story saw him as a troubled street kid who managed to steal the tires off the Batmobile — historically a high-tech and well-protected vehicle. This feat impressed Batman enough to make the boy the second Robin.

Fan Works

• Adrien is very impressed in The Lucky Charm when he sees Marinette take down an akuma without any help from Ladybug or Chat Noir, lassoing it with an electrical cord, tying it to a chair, and snatching the akumatised object away before it breaks loose. (The reader, of course, knows that Marinette has extensive experience, but since she was untransformed at the time, it's still an achievement.)
  Had — had Marinette seriously just defeated an akuma all on her own, without any superpowers? And gotten away with it unscathed?

Films — Animation

• In Epic (2013), while fleeing a Boggin attack, Queen Tara is impressed by a young girl who is able to subdue an attacking Boggin with a branch. So much so, that by the end of the movie, she makes the girl the heir to her title and powers.
• Porco Rosso: Fio manages to earn the respect and admiration of the Sea-Plane pirates after not backing down and refusing to allow them to smash the plane she'd rebuilt.

Films — Live-Action

• Aliens: As noted by Ripley, Newt survived for a considerable amount of time in a Xenomorph infested area without weapons or training.
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2: During Rhino's rampage at the end of the film, a little boy in a spider man outfit crosses the police line to stand up to him. Shortly after, the real Spider Man shows up, compliments the kid on his bravery, and takes over for him.
• Die Hard with a Vengeance: Zeus is an ordinary Harlem pawn shop owner who happens to get entangled in Simon's plot to destroy John McClain. Over the course of the story, Zeus and McClain gradually come to earn each other's respect and friendship.
• John Carpenter's Vampires: Father Adam Guiteau is just an analyst of the Vatican and Jack Crow is quite unimpressed with him, especially because he keeps information on Valek (the Master Vampire Crow is hunting) secret until Crow literally beats it out of him. However in the final act the Padre finally is accepted by Crow when he helps kill some of Valek's goon vampires at great risk to his life and threatens to blow his own brains out with a shotgun to prevent Valek from fulfilling a ritual which would make him immune to sunlight (the ritual requires a Catholic priest and Guiteau had just blown away the one in league with Valek with said shotgun).
• Marvel Cinematic Universe: In Iron Man 2, as Hammer's robots rampage across the expo and people flee, one little boy in an Iron Man costume stands his ground against an approaching robot. Of course, the real Iron Man swoops in at the last second, destroys the bot, and complements the kid before flying off. invokedWord of God later confirms that the kid was a young Peter Parker.
• Real Men: CIA operative Nick Pirandello becomes impressed over time with Everyman Bob Wilson, an Identical Stranger stand-in for a murdered agent, when he willingly returns to the mission of his own accord.
  Bob: You saw that? But...you didn't say anything.
  Nick: You came back, Bob. A lot of guys would have kept running.

Literature

• Millennium Series, Section agents are so impressed with Lisbeth's fighting skills Evert Gullberg jokingly suggest their leader Birger Wadensjöö to hire her after she beat up two MC Svavelsjö thugs.
  "Zalachenko's daughter," Gullberg repeated. He turned to Wadensjöö. "You know what? I think you ought to recruit her for the Section."
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In the chapter of The Last Olympian aptly titled "My Parents Go Commando," Sally Jackson, a mortal woman who's a writer by trade, proves herself to be a Badass Normal when she blasts a monster with a shotgun taken from an abandoned police car. Her demigod son is stunned by the turn of events.
  Percy: Mom! When did you learn to fire a shotgun?
  Sally: About two seconds ago.
• Sherlock Holmes: There are a few times when ordinary people manage to impress Holmes, himself.
  • Irene Adler, neither a master criminal nor a recurring character (despite what Fanon would have you believe), managed to defeat Sherlock Holmes so impressively that Holmes only refers to her as The Woman, as if, according to Watson, she somehow summed up the whole of her sex.
  • The Big Bad of The Hound of the Baskervilles impresses Holmes by being cunning enough to tell the cab driver that he was Sherlock Holmes.
• Six Days Of The Condor: The protagonist has an encounter with a CIA agent who's sent sent to kill him. Despite being an academic with no combat experience, he puts up a good fight, leading the CIA agent to reflect that since he's a karate brown belt who is experienced, he'd better get back into a dojo and practice up before he meets an opponent who actually knows what they're doing. Then the protagonist manages to get his gun and kill him...
• Till We Have Faces, the soldier Bardia is impressed by the untrained Orual attacking him in a rage at her sister being about to be sacrificed, thinking she would be a good fighter if she was ever trained. He later ends up being inspired by this moment to actually train her.
• Thud!: Sam Vimes had no reason to like A.E. Pessimal when he was introduced as Lord Vetinari's inspector to the Watch. A small, unimpressive man with a fastidious nature and a fondness for paperwork, Pessimal was an annoyance. Then, through a series of circumstances, Pessimal ends up screaming defiance at a boozed-up mob of trolls and attacks one of them with his teeth to defend Vimes. When the normally unflappable Vetinari hears of this later, he's momentarily stunned to silence. Vimes later gives Pessimal a job in the Watch, recognizing that this is what Pessimal's always wanted, and he can use someone with Pessimal's skillset. He tops it off by giving Pessimal the right to call him "Mr. Vimes."

Live-Action TV

• Arrow: Moira Queen offers herself as a Heroic Sacrifice to save her daughter, Thea, from Slade. Slade acknowledges her bravery with sincere regret, even as he stabs her to death.
• Burn Notice: In "Question and Answer", the father of a kidnapped boy has to negotiate in person with the hostage taker to get information for Team Westen's rescue effort, and coolly keeps to his story even when the hostage taker starts beating him. Michael, an Army Special Forces veteran and ex-CIA agent, observes in his Internal Monologue that this unassuming suburban dad has "ice in his veins."
• Castle: When Castle and his mother find themselves hostages in a bank robbery, Castle impresses the groups leader by correctly deducing that they're not really robbers, but hired mercs, and that they have some hidden agenda for their employer. The head merc sincerely states that he likes Castle, which is why he vows to kill Castle last. A double cross by the employer kills the mercs, though.
• Chuck: Nerd Herder Anna Curb Stomps a Jerk Jock from the nearby sporting goods store by wielding a large camera tripod as a battle staff. John Casey, a U.S. Marine-turned-NSA agent who's not easily impressed, calls up his bosses to recommend her for field agent status at the earliest opportunity.
• Doctor Who: The Doctor is frequently impressed with various individuals he meets in his travels, and not just those whom he chooses as companions.
  • In "Aliens of London/World War III," Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North wins the 9th Doctor over with her courage, refusal to back down in the face of danger, and desire to help others. It's later subverted when the 10th Doctor becomes upset with Jones in "The Christmas Invasion" and derails her career.
  • Amy Pond earns the 11th Doctor's respect after she prevents him from killing a Star Whale by revealing that the creature had volunteered its services. Then she follows it up by defeating a Dalek bomb by appealing to the human memories of the android carrying the bomb.
  • The 12th Doctor is so impressed with the train engineer Perkins in "Mummy on the Orient Express" that he declares him sincerely to be a genius.
• The Sarah Jane Adventures: Sarah Jane Smith, an experienced journalist and space-time traveler, takes after her friend and mentor The Doctor by being impressed by those who have otherwise never experienced alien threats acting cool and calm under pressure:
  • In the pilot, "Invasion of the Bane", 13-year-old Maria and The Archetype (who was literally just born, albeit in the body of a 13-year-old boy) manage to figure out how to stop the Bane faster than Sarah Jane could using their wits. She adopts The Archetype as "Luke" and he and Maria become involved in Sarah's alien investigations.
  Sarah Jane: Maria, there's two kinds of people in this world: people who panic and... then there's us. Got it?
  • In "The Man Who Never Was", when Adriana, a cleaner who stands up for the enslaved Skullions, loses her job due to helping Sarah Jane free them, Sarah Jane gives her UNIT's business card, saying the organization could use someone as compassionate and quick-witted as her.
• Sherlock: Sherlock makes it clear that he is utterly impressed with Mrs. Hudson. Especially after she pulls a Guile Hero moment and retrieves a cell phone from Holmes' coat while pretending to be a hysterical, crying woman.
  Sherlock: Mrs. Hudson leave Baker Street? England would fall!

Video Games

• Dragon Age: Origins: During the Dwarf Commoner origin, the player — a crime boss' goon with no real combat training — has to impersonate a warrior in a tournament, even though as a casteless they are banned from fighting. The player is only unmasked after defeating several of the tournament's best warriors. The rest of the dwarves are appalled by a casteless having the gall to sully the tournament in such a manner, but Duncan, the human commander of the Grey Wardens, is extremely impressed, and ends up recruiting them.
• In Fallout 3, the protagonist is a 19-year-old vault dweller who has experienced the post-apocalyptic wasteland for only a short time and never fired anything bigger than a BB gun before leaving. While pursuing your father during the main quest, you come upon a group of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers outfitted in Power Armor being attacked by a Super Mutant Behemoth. You can grab a Fat Man from a fallen Brotherhood soldier and use it to take out the mutant. Afterward, the Brotherhood will acknowledge that a civilian carrying a nuke is a scary sight, but they pay you the respect you deserve for saving their lives.
• Spider-Man (PS4): Miles' first encounter with Spider-Man (in costume, at least) happens as Miles is attempting (and failing) to subdue some thugs. After defeating the thugs, Spidey complements Miles on his bravery and gives him a few quick fighting tips before swinging off.

Web Comics

• The Greenhouse: Liv's grandmother, a professional and highly experienced exorcist, is impressed and fascinated by Mica's ability to survive the Possession Burnout side effects of being in an incomplete contract with a demon for months. She offers to apprentice Mica on the basis of this accomplishment alone. For context, other knowledgeable characters are impressed that Mica is still alive, sane, and standing on day two.
• In Necropolis, this is why the main character's Third Sword's mentor Lin decides to take her into the Queen's service rather than having her executed after a year of acting as, essentially, a combination of Vigilante Man and unofficial Bounty Hunter. As Lin says before the Queen's administrator at Third Sword's trial:
  Lin: Majesty, you got the right of it. The girl's an insolent, ignorant little killer with no shoes and less sense. But I like what she's made of. Kid's got real iron in her. You don't toss out good iron just because you found it in the dirt. You beat it into steel and point it at your enemies.

Western Animation

• Batman: Gotham Knight: In the segment Have I Got a Story for You, a group of teenage skate punks trade stories about their run-ins with Batman as he pursues Firefly across the city. Soon however, that pursuit reaches its climax at the warehouse the kids were hanging at. With the help of one of the kids, Batman is finally able to apprehend Firefly and gives the kid his thanks before disappearing.
• Dungeons & Dragons: "Eye of the Beholder", Venger pays a compliment to Sir John's son, partly to take a shot at Sir John himself, but considering Venger isn't big on compliments...
  Venger: He is a brave boy. Not at all like his father.
• In Steven Universe, this happens twice in rapid succession with Bismuth in "Reunited." First, she's pleasantly surprised by Peridot—who is the smallest of the Crystal Gems and little more than an advance scout and science officer—standing up to Blue Diamond with the attitude of a warrior: "You got guts, tiny!" Later, Connie, a human, also wins her respect by being willing to join the fight despite lacking any special powers. Bismuth crafts Connie a specially-made sword of her very own for her courage.

Real Life

• Gordon Ramsay himself accomplished this when he underwent a Royal Marine training course and managed to keep pace with his squad (and even finish ahead of some of them) despite being twice their age. Ramsay is an extremely fit person who often runs marathons and exercises on the regular, but he has never undergone any formal military training. He described it as the longest half-hour of his life, and yet his middle-of-the-pack finish impressed the sergeant overseeing the course.
• The Warsaw Uprising saw the Polish Home Army, a ragtag group of Polish civilians resisting German occupation, fight tooth and nail to retake the capital of Poland from the Nazi regime. Their dogged determination and refusal to give in until the end won the respect of many of their opponents, and when they finally did admit defeat and surrendered, many of their German adversaries saluted as they walked by.
• While filming Predator, the actors making up the Badass Crew underwent a daily military training regimen to both get in shape for filming and learn how to navigate the jungle setting. Several of the actors had military experience including Jesse Ventura (a Navy SEAL^note While Ventura did not complete the extra 26 weeks of training required to be a SEAL by modern rules, he was part of the Underwater Demolition Unit which, during the war, were deployed with SEALs. After the war, the unit was absorbed by the SEALs, leading to some inaccurate criticisms of Ventura's credentials years later. during The Vietnam War who plays Blain), Richard Chaves (who plays Poncho), and even Arnold Schwarzenegger (who plays Dutch and did compulsory service in the Austrian National Army at 18). According to behind the scenes commentary, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, and Sonny Landham impressed their veteran co-stars, ultimately being able to run five miles in the humid jungle, move silently, rappel, and communicate via military hand signals.

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