Greatest Badasses in Literature

[Knight of the Wineskin]

I just finished the Sundering duology by Jaqueline Carey, which I thought was great despite never having liked her Kushiel stuff. And Tanaros Blacksword definitely deserves a mention in this thread. "I am Darkhaven. Come and take me."

Hell yes.

Jaime's speech to Edmure in AFFC makes him the ice-cold sort of badass, I think.

[Mossman]

Uhlrich von Lichtenstein- He jousted in his nightshirt with an injured arm against the toughest knight around and managed to escape without a scratch. Then he dated a cowboy... Okay, nevermind.

Hercules in the movie Troy was bad news. I love his first single combat scene where he casually dispatches the huge guy and walks off.

Gotta' agree with Bigwig. He rocks!

Personally, I think Neville Longbottom's gran is a tough old bitch.

And, of course, Edmond Dantes is the greatest.

[Stubby]

Been a while since this thread was up and I can't remember if he was raised before, but Jean Tannen certainly deserves a mention:

SPOILER: RSURS

One plus one equals don't fuck with me.

[PhoenixFlame]

Two badasses from the Nightwatch series

- Anton: He's not the greatest magician. His powers are good, but as a level 2, he's far from the biggest hound. But he manages to get the job done, no matter who he's going up against. He knows when it's best to fight and when it's better to attempt to talk a way out of it. When he's attacked by vampires he burns one's face off with a chucked bottle of vodka and kills the other. Still, his most badass moment comes when he's confronted by the (at the time) most powerful magician in the world. He gets charged with power, all the power of almost all the magicians in the world. The three biggest magicians keep mentally telling him which spells to use, but they are all terrible, such as summoning up demonic wraiths from another dimension. And even then, it's unclear if it could defeat the bad guy. What's he do? Uses his brain, realizes the guy is probably unaware of a hitch in his plan, and quickly uses this huge amount of power to shield his mind (a super simple spell). The bad guy destroys himself.

- Olga: Olga is hardcore. She's the lover of a super powerful magician and used to be a Great Sorceress herself before her powers were banned. Nevertheless, even without much magic, she can outthink most peeps around her, and can whup their asses with her feet when they're expecting a magical assault. And she was turned into a stuffed owl for decades because of doing something bad. When someone hates you enough to turn you into a stuffed owl, you know you've done something pretty hardcore.

Honorable mention goes to Tiger Cub, who could shapeshift into a tiger and rip anyone to shreds. Too bad about her big weakness though.

[The Black Mamba of Dorne]

The Hound, without a fucking a doubt.

This Dog is bad to the bone. He's badass in the truest sense of the word(s?). He cuit Mycah in half for the hell of it, he throws the vows of knighthood into the faces Kings, Queens and fellow knights alike, he killed a man who couldn't die (whilst he was pissed out of his head) and then fought and beat three (or maybe two) more men whilst being even more pissed out of his head.

Added to all of this he's also, in my opinion, got the coolest lines in history (well, its between him and Waylander - my second most 'badassest' character of all time), like when he tells Lem Lemoncloak if he brings his sword near him, he'll FUCK HIM WITH IT!!!!!

Classic!!!!!!

[Artas]

Hercules in the movie Troy was bad news. I love his first single combat scene where he casually dispatches the huge guy and walks off.

You mean Achilles, I presume?

[Galactus]

- Olga: Olga is hardcore. She's the lover of a super powerful magician and used to be a Great Sorceress herself before her powers were banned. Nevertheless, even without much magic, she can outthink most peeps around her, and can whup their asses with her feet when they're expecting a magical assault. And she was turned into a stuffed owl for decades because of doing something bad. When someone hates you enough to turn you into a stuffed owl, you know you've done something pretty hardcore.

My favourite quote of hers was something like "Ahh.... I haven't had a shower since the uprising."

"The Revolution?"

"The Decembrists."

And Dream might be emo, but he still has his moments of badassitude.

Rorsach. "I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me!"

Ozymandias: "Who do you think I am? Some Republic Serial villain? I "Did it" 30 minutes ago."

[Mossman]

You mean Achilles, I presume?

Yeah, my fingers don't always type what my brain is thinking. Must be old age creeping up on me.

[Jon Targaryen]

Ender in Ender's Game.

[Deornoth]

I've often wondered what would happen if Nynaeve (spelling?) met Karsa Orlong or Cnaiur...

[Black Dow]

Here are a few (some may have already been mentioned):

Cnaiur. One quote from Cnaiur says it all...it's when he and Kellhus are trying to decide how best to deal with 68 enemy soldiers in the immediate area. After some consideration, Kellhus finally concludes that the odds of 68 against 2 are just too overwhelming. Cnaiur's response:''Even if we attack at night?"...now, that's a badass.

Neil McVren from Keyes' series. I can't forget the image of him singing that old island song as he fights against brutal odds in the Briar King.

Greatjon Umber. Remember the epilogue of a Storm of Swords. The alkie Frey is giving one task, and one task only when the plot is cooked for the Red Wedding. And that's to get the Greatjon so drunk he can't even carry a sword, let alone swing one. He's such a badass that he requires that kind of special care. Of course, drunk as he is during the massacre, he still does collossal damage.

[childe roland]

Oooohh to all of you who picked Locke Lamora, no no no, and not cos I don't like Locke (I do) but because the REAL badass in tLoLL is of course JEAN TANNEN! I <3 Jean!

"Wicked sisters, meet the wicked sisters". I almost peed myself when I read that line.

There are loads of badasses in the Malazan books. Anomander Rake, Karsa Olong and Icarium are some classic badasses, Itkovian and Quick Ben some less obvious ones, perhaps.

This is true. and my fav line from the book jean tannen is a bad ass

[Lies And Perfidy]

Cnaiur Urs Skiotha, and this is why:

"You know nothing of war. War is dark. Black as pitch. It is not a God. It does not laugh or weep. It rewards neither skill nor daring. It is not a trial of souls, nor the measure of wills. Even less is it a tool, a means to some womanish end. It is merely the place where the iron bones of the earth meet the hollow bones of men and break them.

"You have offered me war, and I have accepted. Nothing more. I will not regret your losses. I will not bow my head before your funeral pyres. I will not rejoice at your triumphs. But I have taken the wager. I will suffer with you. I will put [your enemy] to the sword, and drive their wives and children to the slaughter. And when I sleep, I will dream of their lamentations and be glad of heart."

How fucking metal is that?

[dornish prince]

skipped to the end but jean tannen FTW.

i'm also currently a big fan of cnaiur; the breaker of horses and men.

i'd also like to throw out a shout (again) to levi (biff) in chris moore's "lamb: the gospel according to biff, christ's childhood pal.

it takes a real badass to be the best friend of the son of god.

[A Time for Wolves]

Did anyone mention Commander Vimes?

SAM VIMES IS FULL OF WIN.

[Ser_Not_Appearing_In_This_Book]

Jean Tannen is pretty damn badass

Here's another : How 'bout Barak from the Belgariad ( I know, I know, but he was pretty badass =)

[Lawrence]

This is true. and my fav line from the book jean tannen is a bad ass

I thought his best one (in LoLL that is) was:

" I'm Jean Tannen, and I'm the ambush "

Pretty hilarious if you ask me. On a side note, I don't think we give enough credit to Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt here, he's one classic badass character. Smokes some 'lights', racks up an enormous bodycount and doesn't give a damn about all the different clans in new york city downtown.

[whelp]

Ash Williams from Army of Darkness.

Reasons:

"Lady, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the store" and "This is my boomstick!"

Jorge of Burgos from Name of the Rose is somewhat of a badass - he manages to protect a library and manipulate a community despite being a blind guy without any special abilities.

[SkyPirate]

Did anyone mention Commander Vimes?

SAM VIMES IS FULL OF WIN.

Oh man, I couldn't agree more. Especially in Nightwatch, that was brilliant.

[Isgrimner]

The comic Preacher (later released as a series of graphic novels) had quite the collection of badasses.

However the baddest of the bad assess from the series easily had to be the Saint of Killers

The Saint of Killers was based off a collection of movie western characters, chief among them was Clint Eastwood's character William Muny from The Unforgiven. Only after The Saint initially failed in getting his revenge and died. However he never stopped hating, and caused hell to freeze over with his cold heart. Satan couldn't stand what had happened to Hell, and tried to torture the Saint in an attempt to return Hell to normal. When that failed, Micheal the Angel of Death who was in Hell and lamenting his duties, pawned off his job as the Angel of Death onto the Saint. Satan crafted twin revolvers from the Angel of Death's sword, promptly pissed off the Saint and was killed. As part of the bargain for the Saint of Killers to become the new Angel of Death, he was allowed to enact his revenge. He did not stop at killing those who had wronged him. He killed everything in the town, women, children, even the horses.

Later he was put on the trail of Jesse Custer, and the body count rose quite a bit. He had a nuclear bomb dropped on him and his only response was, "Not enough gun".

SPOILER: The Saint of Killers eventually

The Saint eventually kills God and takes over sitting on his throne