The main character is never the biggest badass.

[Sacul]

Code Geass - Lelouch Vi Britannia

In the first episode he makes a entire group of soldiers kill themselves, and twice in the series he predicts someones thoughts and manages to make a video of himself flowing perfectly with the conversation, I would continue to list moments of his awesomeness but I don't want to completely spoil the series. At the very least he's the most badass person in the series to me anyhow.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Kenshin is way more badass than Saito....

 

[capin Rob]

Splinter Celll: Sam. Fisher.

 

[klakkat]

Counter examples:

JC Denton, Deus Ex.
Nameless One, Planescape: Torment.
Arguably, Terra, FF6

Anime:
Spike (and Jet; both are main characters) from Cowboy Bebop
Jean from Outlaw Star
the Major, from Ghost in the Shell
Kamina (and later Simon) from Gurren Lagann

 

[AMMO Kid]

your character in saints row 2

 

[AMMO Kid]

I'm gonna say Shepard is the biggest badass in Mass Effect. You can argue Wrex, Legion, Saren, etc, but the entire universe respects/fears/wants to have sex with the Shep. Can't get more badass than that.

Legion is bad ass, like super bad ass, as ass of bad as you can get.
But Shepard is pretty cool, but not a bad ass

Legion is the vanguard of a race of super-machines that are hell bent on eradicating all life in the galaxy. He's probably already killed billions of living organisms and, had he not been cast as the villain and required to die, would have gone on with the happy slaughter. Not to mention his voice was just out and out scary.

Um...wut
Legion was never portrayed as a villain and never required to die
I think you didn't play Mass Effect 2....

it really is based on what choices you make. I played a femshep and I bossed everyone around and picked all the renegade options. Can't get more b-a than that

 

[Soushi]

Master Chief in Halo

Lelouch Vi Britannia in Code Geass

Jake Sully in Avatar

Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3

Solid Snake in MGS

Vash the Stampede in Trigun

Captain Picard in Star Trek Next Generation

 

[Xeros]

I'm going to take a few minutes to offer some personal counter arguments to a few of the suggested characters. This is not a flame in any way, just my personal response.

Kratos(God of War) - He really kind of wins by default because the aren't any other real badasses in God of War.

Gordon Freeman - Gman

Vash the Stampede - Nicolas D. Wolfwood.

Dante (Devil May Cry) - Virgil

Commander Shepard - Sovereign

Master Chief - Johnson

James Bond - Most of his Villains

Solid Snake - Grey Fox

Iron Man - War Machine

Spike/Jet (Cowboy Bebop) - Vicious (or Ein, you don't fuck with Ein)

Motoko Kusanagi (The Major(Ghost in the Shell)) - Batou, or The Laughing Man.

Mordecai (Borderlands) - He's not really "the main character", but for the sake of argument, Interplanetary Ninja Assassin.

 

[ace_of_something]

I hate to do this but... the big guy is rarely the central hero in a [a href=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveManBand]Group of Heroes[/a] because they usually as a whole: Aren't that interesting. They also are rarely the 'Ensemble Darkhorse' because logically who puts the guy who doesn't get along with everyone else in charge?

Also, man. y'all give out the badass card like it was going out of style. Easily half of those listed here are tough guys, sure. Mean spirited, maybe. But badass? C'mon now that's tricky to attain.

 

[Mar451]

How is Master Cheif in anyway a badass? He is an emotionless plot device, Johnson is ten times badass when he is so stereotypical you know they are going to cast Samuel L jackson as him in the movie.

Oh and back on subject i would just like to mention one game where the side charecter was infinitly more badass then you

Portal, the companion cube

 

[OmegaXzors]

God Of War. Kratos. End of story.

Was my first thought. Glad it was the first answer.

There isn't a single more heartless bastard of an awesome saint as Kratos.

/thread

 

[Tdc2182]

The biggest bad ass you say.


I'll just let you enjoy the badassery that is Equilibrium. They made the most bad ass character by him being an emotional wreck.

If you havent seen this movie, shame on you.

 

[LeonLethality]

Kirby is bad ass. He's the main character. You're theory is wrong. HAHAHAHA!
Also Rockman is way better than Blues! (I like their music based names)

Also Megaman X is more bad ass than Zero.

 

[Imat]

Rurouni Kenshin - Hajime Saito,
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Seto Kaiba
Full Metal Alchemist - Again heavily debatable, but I'm going with Pride/Fuhrer King Bradley

I'll have to argue on Saito and Bradley here. Roy Mustang and Tenken Soujirou are much, much better than that.

Kaiba on the other hand kept getting more taller, darker, better looking and awesome as the story progressed. Even the author knew he had a better character in that than Yugi. Heck, he even gave him a better costume later on.

"Screw Yugi, Kaiba has money." I can guarantee at least one of us thought it.

 

[Xeros]

Lord of the Rings - Gandalf --

Lord of the Rings is an ensemble cast. Is there really a main character?
And even if you consider Frodo or the hobbits the main character, is Gandalf therefore the biggest badass?

Consider this.
The Witch King, kicks Gandalf's butt at Minas Tirath. He's got no answer for the leader of the Ring Wraiths.

But then on the field of battle, Merry stabs the Wraith dude, and Eowyn kills him. So, how is Gandalf the biggest badass, when a guy he's got no hope against, gets killed by a Hobbit and some chick with no magical powers?

Hmmm... that was a pretty stupid choice, wasn't it. Well, I suppose that's what I get for off-the-top-of-my-head choices.

 

[PurplePox]

gears of war 2. Marcus?

Cole>Marcus. Also Commander Shepard from Mass Effect.