Brought Down to Badass

Anime and Manga

Mirio fromMy Hero Academia, because his quirk (i.e. super power) required learning some skills that were useful even after losing it.Mirio, while unarmed and quirkless, foughtOverhaul, who probably has one of the most powerful quirks in the setting. Overhaul, in principle at least, could kill Mirio by touching with one of his fingers, or by touching the ground and reshaping it to impale him. Plus Overhaul had a teammate. And Overhaul could target someone that Mirio was trying to protect. Also Mirio was under the influence of a quirk that disorients people. He dragged this fight outfor over five minutes. Fifteen if you want to include the parts were he still had his powers.

In one chapter ofJoJo's Bizarre Adventure, protagonists Jotaro and Polnareff are attacked by a villain named Alessi who can de-age his victims into children with hisStand. Polnareff keeps his Stand upon becoming a child since he was born with it. However, Jotaro loses his Stand, since he didn't develop it until he was a teenager. Alessi thinks he's got the fight in the bag once Jotaro de-ages down to 7 years old, but Jotaro still has his nasty temper and manages to pummel Alessi with nothing but his fists.

InOne Piece, Blackbeard attacks Newgate with his darkness power, gloating about how it will nullify his earthquake ability... quite forgetting that he is facing the 18 foot tallWorld's Strongest Man with an even longerbisento.

Bleach

At one point, Captain Yamamoto is attacked by an arrancar custom-designed to seal the devastating fire from hiszanpakuto. Deprived of his famous ability he gives the hollow aDeath Glare... and promptly frags him with his bare fists.
Long after losingall of his spiritual powers,Ichigo demonstrates that one thing still remaining from when he had them is the physical reflexes and fighting experience from all theTraining from Hell he went through.

Darker than Black (second season): Even afterlosing hiselectricity-based superpowers, Hei stillkicks serious ass. Which is hardly surprising, given the fact that he earned hisnickname "BlackReaper" due to how good he was at killing contractorsbefore he got his powers.

Mahou Sensei Negima

Nagi Springfield, a powerful mage, rescues princess Arika from a valley filled to the brim with monsters. Magic doesn't work in there, so he simply jumps in, evades hordes of critters, picks her up and jumps out... using the monsters as a ladder.
It should be noted that it was said a single bite from these monsterskills.
Don't worry,Evangeline is still sealed by the School Curse, she can't be a threat... barring the century of martial arts practice she's had and the ruthless effectiveness of her puppet strings.
- And it turns out even then she's just screwing around. This is the girl whowiped the floor with the entirety of Cosmo Entelecheia ultimately using a spell that put them in aAnd I Must Scream situation with no intention of ever letting them out. Do not screw with Evangeline. Shewill destroy you.

The Slayers: When Gourry Gabriev lost his super mega giga artifact magic sword, he initially went through a period of depression and powerlessness. But after this brief period of despair was over, he quite adapted to kicking ass with a regular steel sword.

Wrath inFullmetal Alchemist always seemed to rely on hisCharles Atlas Superpower more than hisEvil Eye, so when he loses that and is badly wounded, he's still a terrifying threat to the protagonists- even the ones who havealchemy-related knowledge and abilities.

InUmineko no Naku Koro ni, Dlanor gets brought back to normal by a goat whose powers negate her Knox Commandments, and finds herself unable to fight back. Will, on the other hand, gets Brought Down to Badass as he proceeds toHEADBUTT THE GOAT TO DEATH because he insulted the mystery genre.Do not. Insult. The mystery genre. In front of Will.

Acqua of the Back fromA Certain Magical Index eventually loses his incredible powers, but he's still a walking tower of muscle and an experienced former soldier and mercenary.

InTiger and BunnyKotetsu's powers are fading away, yethe still manages to do incredibly well in fights with superpowered opponents without themand without his powered armor.In the epilogue, he decides that he isn't going to let a lack of powers stop him from being a superhero until the day he dies.

In the manga version ofSailor Moon the Sailor Senshi are temporarily depowered. During this period, most of them are defenseless until they recover their powers... But Minako still gives a run for their money at the enemy, reminding the reader she was the one that, untransformed, defeated a brainwashed but still super-strong Makotowith a single kick.

Comic Books

Marvel Comics:Hank Pym andBruce Banner have on various occasions throughout their careers gone from Ant-Man and Hulk (respectively) to "genius scientist" as their "superpower," arguably making them even more dangerous. (In Pym's case, he was a "genius scientist with aBag of Holding." Be very afraid.)

Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Skrulls gave everyone on Earth superpowers, but poisoned them as well. The only one who had not taken the "super pill" was Ben Grimm, who had just been returned to normal. He then proceeds to defeat the Skrull leader...with his bare hands.

X-Men: Storm went through a long stretch without her weather powers, butwith a Mohawk, a newleather wardrobe, and a take-no-crud attitude that made her just as dangerous as she had been when she was slinging lightning bolts or throwing tornadoes. Though her powers came back, she still possesses remarkable hand-to-hand prowess when she needs to use it.

Captain America: Steve Rogers, most commonly known for hus role as Captain America, in his own mini-series got exposed to vita-rays that deactivated his Super serum reducing him to a scrawny 100 lb weakling. When half a dozen goons enhanced with the same serum came to execute him, he easily dealt with everyone of them. The man fought inWW II and is one of the best trained soldiers on the planet, muscles only account for so much...

Not to mention that he's usually fighting opponents many times stronger than him anyway.

Iron Man: Tony Stark would like to remind you that even without his armor, he's aGadgeteer Genius trained in hand-to-hand byCaptain America (comics).

Ms. Marvel lost her powers briefly in one of her series, and continued to kick ass thanks to her years of training in the Air Force Special Ops...

Guy Gardnerthinks he's this, as was seen in the 1980sJustice League International series. He took off hisGreen Lantern Ring to have amano-a-mano showdown withBatman over leadership of the League. Batman knocked him out with one punch. (Guy's subsequent change of personalities came when he bumped his head while searching for his ring afterwards.)

He also once goaded Hal Jordan into a no-rings-allowed fistfight. It didn't goquite as badly for him as the aforementioned encounter with Batman, but Hal was more than holding his own until the cops break them up.

Catwoman vs Zatanna: After she found out Zee had brainwashed her into becoming a vigilante (long story).Catwoman duct-tapedZatanna's mouth to prevent her from casting spells, but forgot that all Justice League heroines go to Amazonian fighting training Summer camps. During the ensuing fight, Catwoman also points out that as a stage magician, Zee likely followed a pretty intense workout regiment to begin with.

Superman lost his powers and just intimidated criminals by, y'know,being Superman at them. This was in the same arc where he became Electric Blue Superman. By now, Superman has so much experience suddenly losing his powers in the comics that he hardly breaks stride, even when he's the only powerless person on a planet full of Kryptonians.

In52, he lost his powers again for just about exactly one year. Hedid retire from crime fighting, but instead spent the time pulling offIntrepid Reporter tricks that even gaveLois herself gray hairs.
Which makes quite a bit of sense really, because, even if you take away Superman's powers, you're still facing a six foot-plus man covered in muscle, with decades of experience as a Superhero and whose best friend isone of the best martial artists alive

All-Star Superman:Lex Luthor steals Superman's powers, and Supes isBrought Down to Normal. The result? Supes beats Luthor.With his brains, no less.

Immortal Iron Fist: Iron Fist has his link to his chi powers broken at one point, but the fact that he had to train to be a martial arts master to get those powers in the first place means he's still pretty damn hard.

JLA: Act of God, anElseworlds story, had the premise that every super-powered person on Earth one day lost their powers. Some members of theJustice League retrained, re-equipped, and went back into action watched over by their new mentors: theBadass Normal heroes of Batman, Robin, Huntress, and Nightwing.

For a while in the 70s,Wonder Woman had to give up her magical powers and learned kung fu to keep on fighting crime.

At the end ofThe Death of Superman, when hereally comes back, he has no powers, just his good ol' fists, and a bunch of automatic machineguns. He storms the Cyborg Superman's/Mongul's base just with that, keeping up withSteel, a genius creator of some superweapons which had been being used by criminals, and who made himself a suit ofPowered Armor capable of keeping up with said superweapons. He does get his powers back at the end of the arc, of course (and more), but hewas pretty badass in the meanwhile.

He actually does have a small measure of his power in that arc, being able to leap and possessing some super strength, but he's still going up against villains that would challenge him at full power so it hardly makes a difference.

Thor andHercules of theMarvel Universe have both had their godhood stripped away at times. With Thor it was back in the late nineties. He proved to be just as capable a fighter as Captain America. Hercules burned out all of his godly powers at the end of Chaos War leaving him without anySuper Strength at all and still fights super-villains and criminals. He has access to some magical weaponry, is highly skilled at using it, but even then can barely keep up. Yet he still kicks butt.

Happens rather interestingly in aSuperman Elseworlds story. When Earth faces destruction, scientists Jonathan and Martha Kent send their infant son Clark off in a rocket, which eventually lands on Krypton, where he is found and adopted by Jor-El and Lara. Clark has extreme difficulties surviving with Krypton's greater gravity and red sun that saps his strength, until he encounters a dying alien who entrusts him with a ring, making him the new Green Lantern. He is eventually sent to investigate activities on Earth, which wasn't actually destroyed completely, but has suffered a post-apocalyptic collapse of civilization. When he lands in Metropolis, he is captured by Lex Luthor, who takes his ring and throws him in a cell with Lois Lane. Clark complains that without the ring he is powerless, and lashes out at the wall... smashing a hole. Growing up on Krypton does a body good, apparently.

Spider-Man lost his powers once or twice, notably in the 70's; when tricked to drink a potion that nullified his spider powers, he manages to burst out of several lengths of rope tying him up on a chair by flexing his muscles and getting pissed off - looks like playing super-hero daily helps building up upper body strength. On top of that, he remains a skilled chemist and physicist, good enough to show up the likes of Reed Richards, Doom and Tony Stark. He has, more than once, used his intellect to escape baddies while preserving his secret identity.

Black Canary went for a while without herCanary Cry, instead relying on her hand-to-hand ability. Since the character only gained said power after a couple decades of being aBadass Normal, this was more of a Returned Down To Badass.

Film

InBubba Ho-Tep,Elvis Presley is bedridden in a nursing home, and mistakenly assumed to be an impersonator. But he can still take care of business when the mummy shows up.

Thor may have been stripped of his powers and Mjolnir but that doesn't stop him from beating up SHIELD agents to get back Mjolnir.

Agent Coulson:" It's not easy to do what you did. You made my men — some of the most highly trained professionals in the world — look like a bunch of minimum-wage mall cops."

Another suitlessIron Man example: He would like to remind you that without the suit, he's still aBillionaire, Genius, Playboy Philanthropist

Freddy vs. Jason: Sure, dragging Freddy Krueger out into the real world made him killable, but he doesn't take it lying down. He still inflicts significant damage to Jason withimprovised weaponry and his own machete.

Literature

In the first novel of Robert Asprin'sMyth Adventures, there is a wizard named Aahz who loses the ability to cast magic. Despite this loss, he earns a fearsome reputation that continues to grow throughout the series, as he uses his strength and cleverness to aid his allies.

InTimothy Zahn'sThe Thrawn Trilogy, there is a creature called an ysalamiri that "pushes back"The Force. A Jedi's powers don't work within 4 meters of an ysalamiri, or anywhere at all in a forest crowded with enough of them. Luke Skywalker finds himself in such a forest, completely cut off from the Force, and yet he's still able to take down a base full of Imperial stormtroopers with nothing but a good blaster at his side and a basic knowledge of structural engineering.

Luke did have his lightsaber, and Artoo's ability tocalculate a trajectory to put it in his hand when and where he needed it. It's still very impressive, though. This is only one of several examples in Zahn's novels of Luke'singenuity getting him (and, often, his friends) through a situation, rather than having Lukebrute-Force his way through.

InThe Son of Neptune, Percy loses the invulnerability he had previously gained inThe Last Olympian early on in the book...and then spends the rest of the story reminding you why he was badass before he went and bathed in the River Styx.

Bionicle: The Toa Nuva lost their elemental powers when the Bohrok-Kal stole the source of their elemental powers. Subverted in that they could still use their mask powers, but they did have to rely on their wits and skills to stop them.

At various times inThe Sword of Truth series, Richard is stripped of pretty much everything (his magic on more than one occasion, his friends, his freedom in several different ways, his love, and even his self-confidence), and invariably not only gets it back, but becomes more powerful as a result.

In the thirdMonster Hunter International book the king of the werewolves loses his werewolf abilities, but remainsson of the greatest monster hunter who ever lived and keeps his over a century of hunting experience.

Live Action TV

In a season premiere ofDoctor Who, the Doctor finds himself with neither his sonic screwdrivernor his TARDIS. He still manages tosave the world in 20 minutes with some creative Internet usage.

The companion Rory Williams fits this, too. He spent2000 years as a Roman Centurion with the memories of a trained warrior, and furthermore, one made of plastic and with a gun in his hand. Even after being normal again he still manages to kick ass andpunch Hitler.

He may have gotten the coolPower Walk scene in Volume 2, butPeter Petrelli certainly turned up the heat on his awesomeness during his S3Brought Down to Normal phase, thinking situations through, teaming up with the Haitian to take downArthur, basically being a much better, smarter person than hisV2 persona. Luckily, he retained these qualitieseven after he regained powers, mainly because he was no longer aGod Mode Sue.

A fairly sureal vesion occurs in an episode ofLois and Clark,on Lois and Clark's wedding night, H G Wells appears from the far future, with a device that lets people experience their prior reincarnations. He informs them that they are soulmates, destined to meet and fall in love in every life, but are also under a curse that will kill them on the first night they have, ahem, relations... He takes them through two of their past incarnations,one in Medieval England and one in the Wild West, in an attempt to remove the curse, and in each, Clark is a vigilante hero with aSecret Identity, apparently also part of his destiny. However, since both these incarnations are human, Clark is aBadass Normal for the majority of the episode, easily capable of beating up multiple opponents without his powers.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Tommy can still kick ass after losing the Green Ranger powers the second time because he's a fourth-degree black belt.

This happens too many times to list, in the later Power Rangers seasons. This was done partially because they became less reliant on dubbing overSuper Sentai footage, as time went on.

Dexter has Chutsky, losing an arm and a leg, literally, and still kicking ass atBrian's level. There's less than half of Sergeant Doakels and he still hounds Dexter, albeit not with the same stamina. Dexter unfortunately didn't fair so well when he wasBrought Down to Normal in the third book by losing his Passenger, but in the 5th, where he just shunned it, still showed skill, even if only in avoiding death.

Although Castiel lost most of his Angel powers over the course of the fifth season ofSupernatural, he still managed to kick a fair amount of ass via ingenuity and good old-fashioned nerve.

Smallville has seen this happen to Kal-El more than once.

His cousin, Kara, managed to survive for over50 years trapped in thePhantom Zone, without her powers. One could argue this definitely qualifies her as one of the biggest badasses in the entire series.

A lot of the past Sentai members inKaizoku Sentai Gokaiger fit into this mold. The king of this is probablyRyo of the Celestial Fire Star, who can keep up with Gokai Silver and still do all of the insane Dairanger posing and martial arts in his forties.

Chuck gets his powers from a government supercomputer stored in his brain called the Intersect. The Intersect 2.0 allows the user to tap intofighting knowledge. Chuck lost the Intersect and his best friend Morgan got it. Morgan turned in to aJerkass and made aFace Heel Turn. Chuck fights him and is easily a match for Morgan.

With the corrupted Intersect out of Morgan's head,nobody hasany version of it now. It hasn't stopped the team from being quiteBadass.

In an episode ofHercules: The Legendary Journeys, Hera strips Zeus of his godhood and exiles him to Earth, assuming he will become miserable and quickly killed. While Zeus does get confused by life as a mortal (he had to ask Hercules what this unpleasant sensation he was feeling was: pain), he easily wins aBar Brawl.

Wesley ofAngel was shot and nearly killed after having taken the first of hismultiple levels of badass, temporarily confining him to a wheelchair and making him useless in hand to hand combat, the basis of most the show's action sequences. When faced with a demon in his weakened state, Wesley grabbed a shotgun and blew it away. He didn't forget about his handiness with a gun after he recovered and occasionally used them thereafter.

At the end ofPretty Guardian Sailor Moon the Sailor Senshi lost their powers. In the Special Act, set a few years after the end of the series, a group oflow-level youma try and kidnap Minako, quickly subdue her bodyguards... Andback down in terror after Minako kicked one in a concrete pillar so hard toshatter the pillar's surface. Youma and bodyguards alike understood why Minako complained of her bodyguards' weakness when the youma started defeating them...

In the same Special Act we are shown thatall the Sailor Soldiers are still badass: Rei attacked theBig Bad of the episode while without her Senshi powers and survived, albeith needing to be hospitalized; Ami resorted toCar Fu to beat up the low-level youma and escape one of theBig Bad Dragons; Makoto simply beated up an horde ofMooks; and Mamoru and Usagi (who was implied to bepregnant) quickly subdued a freakin'fake Shitennoueach to cover each other's running away, with Mamoru later temporarily incapacitatingall of thefake Shitennou.

Video Games

Hakumen inBlazBlue was once one of the world's most powerful beings, so much so that the only being implied to be around his level still said Hakumen was the sole reason as to why they finally managed to slaythe Black Beast. After he was imprisoned in the Boundrary for 90 years, the one who salvaged him could only get 20% of his existence out of there; however, 20% of Hakumen's former full power turns out to be several levels above what most characters can handle.

InThe King of Fighters XI,Villain Protagonist (well,not quite) Ash Crimson gets the jump onIori Yagami after he succumbs toThe Riot of the Blood and becomesOrochi Iori (for those not in the loop, theSealed Evil in a Can onOrochi had been weakened in thissaga), trashing his teammatesKyo Kusanagi andShingo Yabuki. This leaves Iori without his trademarkcursed purple fire. What does he decide to do?Slash the hell out of his foes with hishands. Unfortunately when this same thing happened toChi zu ru Ka gu ra in the previous game, she was hithard byChickification, being regulated to the sidelines and her confidence shaken.Isn't it sad, Chizuru?Thanks to aCosmic Retcon due to aTemporal Paradox-inducedHeroic Sacrifice by Ash inKOF XIII, both Iori and Chizururegain their powers.

According to thedevelopers,Asura has lost most of his godly power of being sealed away for 12,000 years. Even without them, he slaughters mooks like they are nothing, can keep up and takes hits from Wyzen after growing over 60 meters tall, and when angry enough, stops Wyzen's Tennessee-sized finger in his planet sized state and punches it and Wyzen into oblivion.God damn.

Gig inSoul Nomad and The World Eaters. Let's see, he wassealed in a sword for millions of years, lost most of his godly power, lives as a formless spirit sealed in the body of a mortal and only gives theMain Character a very small share of what's left. They are still able to destroy pretty much anything on their path. Also still considered one of the Nippon-verse big three alongside Zetta and real Zenon.

Valvatorez inDisgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten was originally titled the Tyrant due to his netherworld being absolutely terrifed of him. He may have been an equal to Baal. After no longer drinking blood, he was reduced to a Prinny Instructor who Zetta (official title: The Most Badass Frickin' Overlord in All the Cosmos) considers aWorthy Opponent.

InMaple Story to the six Heroes who originally opposed and defeated the Black Mage. At the time of that battle, they were the most powerful warriors in Maple World (in game terms, they were Level 250) but after spending many centuries asHuman Popsicles afterwards (due to theVillain's Dying Grace) they woke up with their skills regressed to that of Beginners, and had to start over from scratch. (And all of them had other curses placed upon them that caused them a lot of grief in the process.) Of course, when the Black Mage himself broke free of his prison, he didn't have this problem at all.

Western Animation

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Azula, even when deprived of her firebending on the Day of Black Sun, she still manages to keep Toph and Sokka busy long enough for the eclipse to get over with.

TheDVD Commentary mentions a funny story behind that: she decidedMai and Ty Lee would be her friends exactly because she'd be able to learn some of their abilities, and indeed the aforementioned scene does have her using some veryTy Lee-ish moves.
Same with Zuko—normally, he's an at-least decent firebender (he beat Zhao in an Agni Kai early on with just the basics, and his skill notably improves over the course of the series), while Ozai isThe Greatest Firebender In The World. But during the eclipse, Ozai is at his mercy because Zuko is a master swordsman. Also, when Zuko had to hide his powers while traveling in the Earth Kingdom, he was still able to take on several bandits and matchJet in a fight.

FromJustice League:

In one episode, Superman ended up in a world with a red sun (Earth), robbing him of his power, and still manages to survive, kill the leader of a pack of wolf-like animals to become their leader, andteam up with Vandal Savage to take back a nuclear fusion device from a bunch of giant mutant insects.
In an episode where the League travels back in time toWorld War II,Green Lantern John Stewart's power ring runs out of juice in the middle of a battlefield. He quickly recalls his Marine training and goes native with a squad of US infantrymen.

Pharaoh Man in theMega Man cartoon. Mega Man steals the powers of a couple of Robot Masters, and they don't do much of anything.Not Pharaoh Man.DECISIVELY not Pharaoh Man.HILARIOUSLY not Pharaoh Man.

Hal Jordan and Kilowog inGreen Lantern: The Animated Series are both quite competent fighters even without theirpower rings. This comes in handy in "Razer's Edge," when they are trapped on an asteroid filled with yellow crystals (which cancel out Green Lantern power rings) and ambushed a troop of alien guards.

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