Can you really consider someone in a powersuit badass?

[Badger Kyre]

Until I read the full post, from the heading I thought he meant power "suit", as in , business suit, and I have known some pretty badass folks who have to wear suits because of the "professional" environments they are stationed in.
WELL> shows me.

 

[JaeKin]

I'm with the Bad-ass is more than just what you can defeat, a lot of it depends on attitude. I also don't think power armor disqualifies from qualifying as a bad-ass. They have to have some skill-set or ability that gives them an edge. For Batman it's martial arts training, technology, and his suit isn't made of silk, it does resist some damage. For Superman, it's the powers he gains from our sun. For Iron-man it's a complete lack of combat training, and a power suit that lets him fight.

As for my choice of who is the most bad-ass though, I gotta go with Spike. Martial arts, guns, and goes out in a blaze of glory.

 

[kickyourass]

I usually don't think power armor is badass at all, now yes, in a the case of Metroid or something that takes place in the vacuum of space they are nessisary. BUT if you're like Master Chief and the ONLY reason you're super powerful is because of your suit then you are far less of a badass. Like you said guys like Batman are badasses BECAUSE they do not need special armor (Most of the time at least)

 

[zealk]

Master Chief's armor doesn't really do that much. Sure, it makes him much stronger than the average human being, and gives him shields so that he can take a decent amount of damage before it actually hurts him in any way, but all of the technology of his armor is reverse engineered covenant tech. The elites that he's fighting have all the same abilities he does, they're pretty much just as strong, and they also have armor and shields. The difference between Master Chief and the elites he's fighting, is that there are hundreds more elites (as well as other covenant, some stronger, some weaker).

Basically, Master Chief is fighting hundreds of enemies that have basically the same strong points that he himself does. It would be like Kratos fighting hundreds of guys with his same exact arsenal and powers, or Samus fighting hundreds of enemies that have the exact same suit and powerups as her.

Am I saying that Master Chief is the most badass character? Not at all, but I really don't think that you can say that he isn't badass just because he has a power suit, considering the odds that he has to go up against.

well hold on a minute! then riddle me this bat man, if he is just as strong as the elite's then why can the elite's be killed by humans? or for that matter why are the brutes able to fight the elite's so easy? the answer, their skill does shit against a gun that every one has! if your weakness is the thing every one commonly uses it tend to cause problems

Well, that's exactly the point. Elites are way stronger than humans, physically, and they have shields. This doesn't make them invincible, it just means that they're a hell of a lot harder to kill. A normal human can't kill an elite. A group of humans can.

It's the same with Master Chief, all he has is enhanced strength and shields, it doesn't make him invincible, just harder to kill, and against enemies that have the exact same thing, it's a completely even playing field with no advantage on either side, except for numbers. That's why Master Chief is badass, because he can overcome the numbers.

so your saying all the humans i spawned that killed the huge groups of elites in halo wars was a glitch? no, seriously... even in halo 2... with a group of humans i have done nothing and watch them take on the much larger group of elite's and a hunter!

Were you playing on easy?

I won't dispute Halo Wars, but the only reason that marines were any good in that game was for balance.

As far as Halo 2, whenever I played, all of the marines on my time were wiped out by the third encounter at most. They could barely fight grunts and jackels much less elites, so I really have no idea what game you're playing, or if you just have the best luck with jesus AI teammates, but I've never seen a marine take down an elite, much less a hunter.

legendary... and yeah after three waves the FOUR mariens are done for...

 

[Jaker the Baker]

Of course, there's also the Chief's being trained since he was like 6, the surviving of hardcore chemical augmentations that only have a 50% success, the clever combat tactics, superhuman strength and speed, and winning of numerous medals BEFORE he ever donned battle armor

 

[Dr. Whiggs]

Master Chief has zero (zip) personality, no powers outside of a robot suit, and his pimp is a series of ones and zeros.

He is nothing.

 

[ultrachicken]

That's like saying snipers aren't bad ass because they don't give their enemy a fair chance to kill them.

By the logic you put forward in your OP, Batman and Kratos need to be removed from the list. Kratos gets weapons of gods, and uses pandora's box for power. Batman has every fucking gadget you can think of a bat-pun for.

Master Chief has zero (zip) personality, no powers outside of a robot suit, and his pimp is a series of ones and zeros.

He is nothing.

Dr. Whiggs, I direct you to the following post.

Of course, there's also the Chief's being trained since he was like 6, the surviving of hardcore chemical augmentations that only have a 50% success, the clever combat tactics, superhuman strength and speed, and winning of numerous medals BEFORE he ever donned battle armor

 

[Calum_M]

This is all irrelevant, because everyone knows that Duke Nukem is the badassiest badass of all time.

 

[VonBrewskie]

Yup. You can consider them badass. Macross Variable Fighter Pilots, by the way, are the MOST badass.

 

[Thedayrecker]

To be fair, Master Chief did.... you know what? Just read Fall of Reach

 

[LarenzoAOG]

I think badassery (sorry OP but that word's been around for a long ass time), should be reserved for people who actually exist... like Ron Perlman.

 

[Death God]

They could be in a powersuit and still have a badass attitude. Or they could have a badass weapon they use. Enhanced powers don't make a person badassed at all usually.

 

[The Sandvich]

I usually don't think power armor is badass at all, now yes, in a the case of Metroid or something that takes place in the vacuum of space they are nessisary. BUT if you're like Master Chief and the ONLY reason you're super powerful is because of your suit then you are far less of a badass. Like you said guys like Batman are badasses BECAUSE they do not need special armor (Most of the time at least)

I understand what you're saying, but like I said earlier, Master Chief was a badass way before he even joined the military

Master Chief has zero (zip) personality, no powers outside of a robot suit, and his pimp is a series of ones and zeros.

He is nothing.

*cough*FallOfReach*cough*

 

[kickyourass]

*EDIT* Fucking posting glitch.

 

[kickyourass]

I usually don't think power armor is badass at all, now yes, in a the case of Metroid or something that takes place in the vacuum of space they are nessisary. BUT if you're like Master Chief and the ONLY reason you're super powerful is because of your suit then you are far less of a badass. Like you said guys like Batman are badasses BECAUSE they do not need special armor (Most of the time at least)

I understand what you're saying, but like I said earlier, Master Chief was a badass way before he even joined the military

Master Chief has zero (zip) personality, no powers outside of a robot suit, and his pimp is a series of ones and zeros.

He is nothing.

*cough*FallOfReach*cough*

Did we read different books or something? He didn't 'join' anything, he was practically kidnapped when he was like 5, and the ONLY thing we see him do before that is win a game of king of the hill (Or what ever the hell they called it). How low are your standards if a 5 year-old winning a school yard game is badass? After that it was all genetic manipulation and power armor.

 

[Amerikhan]

No, not really.

 

[Atmos Duality]

"It's not the power you wield that matters; it's how you use it."

 

[MetroidNut]

Powered armor decreases badassery? "Haloid" begs to differ.

Seriously. That video is amazing.

 

[Withall]

"Badassery" depends entirely on how the story is designed.
Though, I assume the most common source of badassery is the inability to be scared or intimidated, and also coping and overcoming what makes you afraid in an (un/)realistic fashion.

One could consider most current action heroes bad-ass by those standards: but it could also be the result of poor characterization.

I have no better example that the Chief in this case (shows you which reference pools I have).

Master Chief is born and bred into war, and are in many ways a war-machine steeped in human form. He has little characterization, but what little there is hints at a person who's used to putting his neck on the line without whining, and that he knows very well that he is there to fight, kill and persevere. Or die horribly trying.

He has a few quips that hints at a person who despite the horrors of war and the weights of his duty, he can keep a humorous personality, even if it could be considered dark, or even one-dimensional (Halo: when he is told that he needs to blow up the reactors of the Pillar of Autumn. Halo 3: He meets up with Cortana and suggests that he'd mix things up by shooting things).

I've not played Gears of War or God of War, (GoW, and GoW???) so I can't say anything about them, but if we were to look at say... Altair from Assassin's Creed (only played the first one, so little to go by) he starts out as very cocky but also very confident- usual traits of badassery- but he is very early overpowered by a Templar nearly twice his size- which lends itself to an indicator that the Templar is even more badass than him.

The game ends with him being more mature and wise, but I haven't finished the game, so I can't say anything.

My point is: badassery lies in the characterization in the characters involved. I'd easily say that a badass character needs a good premise (story) as much as a believable personality.