A lot of the real-life examples are of great generals with no particular record as arse-kickers in personal combat. The Duke of Wellington, for example, conquered India and beat every one of Napoleon's marshals followed by Napoleon himself. He never lost a battle after one embarrassing incident when he was a lieutenant-colonel. Great, great strategist, great logistician, great field commander, worshipped by has troops, five star rank in nine armies....
But "The important characteristic of Four Star Badass is the BADASS." And Wellington didn't personally kick arses after playground fights at school. He was renowned as the worst shot in England. Only actually fought with his sabre once (escaping a French cavalry patrol a few days before Salamanca).
I don't mean to disparage the generals listed as generals, but I feel someone ought to go through the page and remove all the examples except of generals who personally kicked arse with their own weapons. I feel a bit too diffident to do it off my own bat, but if someone gives me encouragement....
Hide / Show Replies
Then who is going to?
It's the page for 4-star badasses, not good generals.
Agemegos, in modern times a general is usually a bureaucrat whatever airs he puts on, because armies are so spread out. In Wellington's day a battle was only ten miles or so wide, and generals regularly played fireman by rushing to the most critical-meaning the most dangerous-area. A reasonably skilled pre-modern general was almost automatically a badass even if he had no personal combat skills.
Furthermore, in Wellington's time, personal combat skills counted little for anyone. Most soldiers simply loaded and fired mechanically and the one who could put the most dakka in the air won. The only ones who engaged in hand-to-hand combat regularly were cavalry and even they did this for only brief occasions. Wellington however, though he wasn't a good shooter, was if I remember a very good horseman, and several other generals were, as that would be a needed skill for a general in a pre-modern battlefield.
My Namesakes
Does this trope still apply to badass field marshals (which rank higher than generals)?
"Think like a man of action, act like a man of thinking, and don't be a dumbass." Hide / Show Replies
Umm, which branch are you refering to? because in the army the only ones that rank higher than Generals are the federal people, and 'field marshal' isn't a rank.
Until death do we part
He's talking about the army, and it is very much an actual rank. Marshal and field marshal are a step above a general. The United States doesn't use it, but much of Europe does. Arthur Wellesley (the Duke of Wellington), for example, was a field marshal.
In the United States, a field marshal is considered the equivalent to a five-star general.
I'm pretty sure Shining Armor doesn't count for this trope. He's a captain not a general.
Roy Mustang was only a general for about 3 seconds, and only in the terrible, terrible first anime. He is a Colonel for the vast majority of the first anime, in the SOURCE MATERIAL, and in the new anime. Shouldn't he only be included under Colonel Badass and not here?
Hide / Show Replies
Admiral Ackbar a badass??? Maybe in some comic book or non-canon novel somewhere, but not in the movies. He gives some commands and that's about it. He never rolled up his sleeves, and he never came face to face with an on-screen enemy. If he even found a bar fight, he might well get his ass *kicked*.