Non-Action Guy and his Action Girlfriend.
"Seven years, Dawn. Working with the slayer. Seeing my friends get more and more powerful. A witch. A demon. Hell, I could fit Oz in my shaving kit but come a full moon, he had a wolfy mojo not to be messed with. Powerful. All of them. And I'm the guy who fixes the windows."
— Xander, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
A Non-Action Guy is a male who is not heavily endowed with a certain quality that's expected of males in shows; usually courage or combat ability. He's usually a sidekick; often to the Action Girl (or Action Girlfriend), or sometimes to an entire Five-Man Band (or Battle Harem). Expect him to need occasional rescuing. This combo has the added danger of de-masculinizing him or just making him annoying in the eyes of viewers.
The Non-Action Guy seems much more likely to be played for comedy than female characters who don't fight. While women are not expected to kick ass (and thus those that do are exceptional), men often are—so a Non-Action Guy's lack of ability is written as something to laugh at.
Often he'll either grow into a more action-oriented role, become ignored, or become the Butt-Monkey as punishment for his failure at masculinity. A common, more acceptable practice is to put him on the Mission Control (of the Female Fighter, Male Handler sort), where he can be of actual help without having to use any sort of action skill.
To avoid the negative connotations associated with this character type, it might be combined with other tropes such as the Loveable Rogue or The Smart Guy where such a character may be unsuitable for action due to age, build, infirm, upbringing, or simply because it would be a waste of his talent. However, they make up for it by being a Guile Hero, The Chessmaster, or The Strategist. It sometimes goes hand in hand with Con Men Hate Guns or Thou Shalt Not Kill. The Non Action guy on a team may not literally be "no-action", but they may be the weakest member as far as offensive power is concerned. But it's not really what they are there to do. They may make up for it by using purely psychological tactics. They may also be a Terror Hero or a Master of Illusion, deception, or any various methods of combat on the cerebral level. Very often, either a Gentleman Detective or Gentleman Thief. In all other cases, he's Weak, but Skilled.
Expect Fix Fics to be written where his character is changed to fit expectations as a Canon Sue. If he's the protagonist, then he's likely an Action Survivor. If he's the Villain, he's likely a Non-Action Big Bad. In RPGs, he will often be the Utility Party Member. Compare Unfazed Everyman.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Reki from .hack//Legend of the Twilight, since he's never seen fighting or indeed as having any combat skill whatsoever.
- In Attack on Titan, Armin himself said that it was "a miracle" that he passed the simulated combat section of the military graduation exam. He makes up for this by being a Guile Hero, coming up with vital strategies and uncovering the identity of the Female Titan, allowing them to lure Annie into a trap. Averted later on when he gains the power of the Colossus Titan; while he still relies on his wits and isn't as good of a combatant as his peers, he's still an asset to his allies.
- Black Butler's Ciel is considered the least physically capable in the entire series, despite being one of the most dangerous in intentions and actions.
- Rock of Black Lagoon is one of two Non Action Guys in the Lagoon Company (the other is Benny, the resident techie), but Rock has the distinction of being the Non Action Guy thrown right in the middle of most of the violence that Revy and Dutch get into. However, he also stands as a prime example that "non-action" does not automatically equate to "weak" — put a gun to his head, and he'll not only keep it but quite possibly throw it back in your face. This fearlessness, combined with his ability to network, have made him recognized as one of Roanapur's most dangerous figures, despite his never even touching a gun.
- Leonardo Watch of Blood Blockade Battlefront doesn't have the abilities of his co-workers, and has basically no formal combat training... but he prevents himself from being The Load by utilizing his All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods.
- Computer expert Yoshiki Yaegashi from Blue Seed is this in the beginning due to his non-existent field experience prior to the series (he worked for the Economic Planning Agency before being transferred to the TAC). He eventually mans up and rises to the challenges presented at the end of the series.
- Teruharu Kousukegawa from Change 123 is a particularly standout example, given that he nevertheless has a nasty habit of trying to interpose himself between danger and his friends, who are usually fifteen to twenty times stronger than he is.
- Raki from Claymore, the Tag Along Kid and Morality Pet to protagonist Claire. He spends the first half of the series as a rather helpless human kid but feels determined to become useful. After the 7-year Time Skip, he's matured in a fully fledged Badass Normal after spending years in training.
- Code Geass:
- Lelouch Lamperouge is an odd case: He's a Magnificent Bastard and genius Chess Master, but so horribly unfit he has been easily outrun by girls wearing mascot costumes, fancy dresses with petticoats and high heels. He's routinely curbstombed in mecha battle. It's even lampshaded symbolically with the show's chess theme, where Lelouch plays the part of the king, simultaneously the most important piece and the slowest moving. Yet despite all this, he's anything but cowardly or harmless: On his own, he has managed to easily infiltrate and take control of several aerial battleships, and from the very first episode he killed large groups of hostile soldiers with ease. Even without his Geass he is shown to be very competent with a gun and can score headshots if his targets aren't endowed with Charles Atlas Superpower, and in the second episode he doesn't even flinch when Villetta is firing her knightmare-mounted machine gun at him. Essentially, half-Non Action Guy, half-badass.
- Rivalz Cardemonde also counts, as he's present in all the Ashford scenes, but never does anything action-related - a genuine Ordinary High-School Student.
- Light Yagami from Death Note only writes people's names in the titular Artifact of Doom. It's not that he's incapable of holding his own in a fight, it's just that he considers getting his own hands dirty to be beneath him.
- In Detective Conan The Hero Conan Edogawa has absolutely no combat skills even as 17 year old Shin’ichi Kudō. The series’s structure means that he doesn’t really need to do more than deduce but should conflict arise he has his trusty Stun-Gun Wristwatch and utilizing his incredible soccer skills he can instantly inflate balls with his Anywhere Ball Dispensing Belt and kick them with superhuman strength thanks to his Power-Enhancing Kick Shoes, all three inventions of his friend Professor Hiroshi Agasa.
- Delicious in Dungeon has Chilchuck. As a thief, his expertise lies in disarming traps and picking locks, not fighting, although he can hold his own when needed.
- Doraemon: Nobita is a Failure Hero who is hopeless at sports and is the most unathletic guy around. In one story, he uses a gadget to challenge the other kids in the neighborhood to a sumo competition while they're asleep, and he still loses to all of them (even Girly Girl Shizuka). Another gadget that produces always-accurate bar charts also confirmed that he is physically the weakest out of the main cast. This trope does not apply, however, when it comes to his marksmanship, one of the few things he is very good at.
- In Endride, one of the first things we learn about Eljuia is that he has no fighting skills. His Warp Relic is a protective cloth barrier, so he can use it to prevent someone landing a blow, but almost always when there's a fight he's standing in the background carefully watching things unfold. Shun's first words to him lampshade his peaceful appearance.
Shun: Umm...are you strong like everyone else, Eljuia? I just can't picture you swinging a weapon.Eljuia: No...I'm rather poor at fighting. That's why I pull my weight where I can.note
- Happy from Fairy Tail is an Exceed, a flying cat-like creature with little to no combat ability. That said, he can carry Natsu or others while flying, so while he isn't much of a fighter, he's invaluable for aerial combat.
- Yoki from Fullmetal Alchemist is an ex-pencil pusher surrounded by numerous Master Alchemists, BeastMen, and Homunculi. Having no useful skills of any kind quickly pushes him into the position of The Load, though he does get one badass moment (running over Pride with a car.)
- Zigzagged with Hohenheim, who is one of the most knowledgable and powerful alchemists in the world but has no combat skills whatsoever. When he does get into a fight, he casually performs incredibly advanced transmutations that lack the finesse of his sons or their alchemist allies while stumbling around barely able to stay on his feet.
- In Future Diary, Yukiteru spends the vast majority of his time running crying and screaming from the people determined to kill him. He occasionally fights back when cornered, but more often than not he's saved by the wrath of his psychotic stalker-girlfriend.
- Mikiya Kokuto from The Garden of Sinners could be considered pretty badass by normal standards but there is only so much that a normal can do. He does have his moments at times when he felt it is necessary but for the most part, he sticks to investigation and information gathering, which he is very good at, and leaves all the fighting to his Action Girl love interest, who is also very good at what she does. Considering how dangerous investigations can be in his line of work, he gets a decent amount of action trying to get away from danger.
- Makubex from Get Backers. Doesn't stop him from being a computer genius or ruling Lower Town, though.
- Gundam:
- Dr. Farzenberg of After War Gundam X, which is justified by him being a doctor and thus an Actual Pacifist. He never picks up a weapon, though he does substantially assist an escape from the Federation.
- Guin Sard Lineford of ∀ Gundam is the ruler of Inglessa and a competent strategist who is one of the most active forces in the show. But the only time he picks up a weapon himself is either to take it off someone else or to fake a Hostage Situation.
- Several in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, all of them useful or competent in other fields. Sai Argyle is leader of the Archangel's Bridge Bunnies and is far more valuable when it comes to running the ship than he ever would be in a fight. Patrick Zala and later Gilbert Durandal serve as ZAFT's leaders and as such don't have to get their hands dirty (although given Patrick's past as a general it's entirely possible that he'd do just fine in a fight; the key here is that we never see him actually in one). And Muruta Azrael and Lord Djibril? As the leaders of the anti-Coordinator terrorist group Blue Cosmos, they don't need to be fighters in order to be dangerous. Azrael in particular combines this trope with Smug Snake, Axe-Crazy, Bad Boss, and Nuke 'em.
- Kyon in Haruhi Suzumiya (who is also the Unfazed Everyman), at least when compared to Koizumi and especially Yuki. This is justified by his being the only member of the Brigade without any sort of supernatural ability (Wild Mass Guessing aside). Interestingly, in spite of this, he's still able to get his stuff done, even if it takes him three tries to clear a level.
- Austria from Hetalia: Axis Powers. He was "created" by Switzerland to be a fighter, but it failed spectacularly and he ended up as a pint-sized James Bondage. He didn't get a lot better as he grew up into one of the Team Dads of the series, but he had the good sense of mostly staying as Mission Control and leaving the fights to his Ninja Maid Hungary, whom he later married.
- North Italy. He's not only a Lovable Coward that is prone to surrendering in tough situations almost immediately, but an almost constant Distressed Dude who often needs to be rescued by his good friend Germany.
- Luxembourg, being a calm, prim and proper and elegant Nice Guy with Blue Blood influences. Notably, in the past, he was often pushed around and bullied by other countries due to his lack of strength, but it all changed after he captured all of Europe's finances.
- In a series where soccer is treated as Serious Business and matches are often really dangerous, Megane Kakeru from Inazuma Eleven is the only member of Raimon who is perpetually on the bench in the first season.note His main contributions are to name techniques and act as a Combat Commentator and always gets upset when somebody else does his job.
- Ichika Orimura from Infinite Stratos is the only male who can pilot the titular Powered Armor. He is not entirely defenseless but the girls are way more capable than him in a fight.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Robert E. O. Speedwagon has exactly one fight against Jonathan before he becomes outclassed by pretty much everyone, and from that point on he joins Jonathan to hunt down Dio as simply a tagalong character providing the occasional act of support (like helping to thaw out Zeppeli's frozen arm). However, he does eventually go on to create the Speedwagon Foundation, an organization that supports the Joestar family through several other Parts.
- Due to being a child on top of having a non-combat based Stand, Boingo from Stardust Crusaders prefers hang out on the sidelines while his brother, Oingo, and later Hol Horse do all the heavy lifting.
- Golden Wind:
- Despite being the most obviously muscular of Team Bucciarati, Leone Abbacchio is the only member of the group that has a Stand not designed for combat. Though that doesn't stop him from beating the crap out of Illuso with his bare hands.
- Melone, whose Stand, Baby Face, allows him to observe the fight from a distance while the homunculus created from the Stand does all the fighting.
- Headhunted to Another World: Unlike most isekai protagonists, Uchimura Denosuke got no New Life in Another World Bonus at all: he has no fighting skills and is only able to cast magic with the use of a runestone. His talents are wholly in administration and negotiation. Fortunately he has Ulmandra to do his fighting for him.
- Shiro, the (arguably) main character of K, doesn't participate in the anime's gorgeously animated fight scenes. He mostly has to get rescued by his two companions. If he rescues anyone else, it's pretty long-distance, through something like a psychic hologram. This is true even after he regains his memory of being the most powerful King. He does have some ability as such, but when he uses his parasol to defend someone in a battle, it stood out.
- In Kaleido Star there's the stage manager Kenneth "Ken" Robbins, who has a heart condition and can't join the troupe of acrobats and artists. To make up for it he becomes Sora, Anna and Mia's Lancer when it comes to training, strategies, and planning.
- Mizuki from Kamisama Kiss. He is far stronger than any normal human and has quite a bit of magical power but so far he hasn't shown any fighting skill whatsoever and has a real laid back personality.
- Nijima of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is the only member of the Shinpaku alliance (well, other than that guy who carries the flag) who has absolutely no fighting skill.
- Yuuno Scrya from Lyrical Nanoha is the only Mage in the cast without a magical weapon (he had given it up to the series's titular Action Girl — for whom it was much better suited anyway), so his contribution in battle is largely limited to offering backup, rather than throwing around spectacular offensive spells. He's actually extremely handy in a fight, but he ends up accepting a position in the library of all knowledge where he can pursue his passions as an archeologist/scholar (and give more screentime to the female cast). After that, he participates in only one more fight, and the rest of the time he just researches whatever big nasty or mystery the main cast is dealing with now.
- It's possible that Yuuno remains a Non-Action Guy because his one demonstrated offensive ability, forcing someone to teleport off the field against their will, offers so many unpleasant possibilities that neither he nor the series creators want to go there.
- Genya Nakajima is this for his family, with his late wife and all six of his adoptive daughters being powerful mages in their own right. That's not to say that he's useless, it's just that his skills are as an officer rather than a combatant.
- In Mnemosyne, Maeno plays a role much like Black Lagoon's Rock, mostly playing a helping hand in investigations, but avoiding the combat, for good reasons.
- Monster's Johan Liebert has three ways to kill people: shoot, poison, and drive them to suicide. Though this is probably less "useless in a fight" than "so terrifyingly good at manipulating people that he doesn't need to fight."
- Tanda and Chagum in Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, the former contrasting with Action Girl Balsa, and the latter being a prince with no combat training (though Balsa does give him a little training while he's in her care) and serving as the series' Living MacGuffin.
- Mother Keeper, Lint is this, he talks a big talk about being a great fighter and is mentioned to be a serial killer, however, he only seems to get in one fight which very quickly results in his death. During most fights, he's either plugged into the computer or just nowhere to be seen.
- Yuichi Tate from My-HiME usually gets into situations where he finds himself over his head. It isn't until the final episode that he finds his... er, manliness.
- Less apparent in the manga, where he's still largely useless but at least tries, and his presence is in fact necessary for Mai and Natsuki to access their full powers.
- He tries in the anime, he just ends up realising quite quickly that there's very little a normal person can do to help in those sorts of situations and decides to take himself out of the game to take care of Shiho, whom he thinks got hurt because he left her alone while he ran off to try to play hero. Also, while the method of his involvement in the finale is arguably a bit stereotypically manly, he wasn't trying to play hero there. He just decided he cared enough about Mai to be willing to put himself on the line to help her out a little. Anime Tate only gets to be cool when he's not trying to be.
- Gau from Nabari no Ou, despite technically being a ninja. His only function seems to be to hold Raikou's sword, stand at the sidelines, shout "Raikou-san!!," and to be attacked by the enemy, effectively turning Raikou's battles into escort missions.
- Cruz from NEEDLESS is literally the single most harmless guy in the series as he does not have any powers and always end up saved by third parties.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
- Negi Springfield isn't lacking in courage or combat ability. He is, however, a ten-years-old mage and teacher with 31 gorgeous female students. As such, he still finds himself in situations where one of the more experienced fighters (the Ninja, the vampire, the demon-hunting mercenary) among his students end up bailing him out. Anime-only trope, in the manga he is anything but that...
- The resident Non-Action Guy of the manga is probably Chamo, who doesn't really do anything combat-related other than occasionally acting as The Strategist. Although this is probably because he's an ermine, so his lack of combat ability isn't really his fault.
- Interestingly, Chisame also fits this, despite being female, especially when compared to most of the other girls in the cast. Eventually, she forms a Pactio with Negi, gaining Magical Girl hacker powers, which fail to have any effect nine times out of ten.
- In One Piece, Usopp is generally a coward that runs from all signs of danger, and he's a lot weaker then everyone in the main cast (he is quite durable...but his crewmates are even moreso). The few times he gets a serious fight, he usually wins by nifty use of a wide array of gadgets. Eventually, he becomes quite a bit stronger and less of a coward, but he still relies on his tricks and gadgets.
- Ruby from the Pokémon Adventures manga prefers to hang back and stay out of fights. But only when other people are watching.
- Shuichiro Oishi, the gentle Seigaku sub-captain from The Prince of Tennis. Putting other people's well-being before his own actually causes more than a bit of trouble, both physical (as he gets his arm injured right before the Hyotuei matches and such an injury has repercussions later) and mental (not only he has quite the breakdown in the Jyousei arc of the anime, but he later gives up his spot in the regulars to Tezuka (manga) or Echizen (anime), thinking he's a burden when he's not). This makes him look less skilled and strong than he really is, and as a result he's unfairly ignored in fandom and only featured in fanwork regarding his partner, Eiji Kikumaru even when Eiji has him in such high regards that, after he loses Oishi, he swears to not have any other doubles partner than him.
- Kabuto from Psyren, who's the only person who can't boost his physical power using PSI, so has to resort to using his ability to sense incoming attacks to run away praying he dodges in time. That changes after he almost dies, discovers his Mental World and learns boosting his physical power.
- Subaru from Re:Zero is one of the weakest protagonists in the plot. Word of God says he would lose in a duel with almost every other protagonist. Subaru can't even resort to magic to fight effectively. In the end, it's just not completely useless because he's so versatile.
- Tsukune from Rosario + Vampire was initially the weakest student at Youkai Academy, due to being human. He was heavily reliant on Inner Moka's strength, as well as that of his other friends. About halfway through the first season, he gained the power to fight on his own, but he doesn't become a full-time combatant until the second season. In the anime, none of that happens, so he remains the Non-Action Guy in both seasons.
- Sakai Yuji during the first season of Shakugan no Shana, who still managed to find use as a sort of on-site Mission Control and by being an intentional source of Heroic Resolve for the titular Tsundere heroine. He gets increasingly more action-oriented during the second season, culminating in episode 19, when he single-handedly destroys a (albeit somewhat pathetic) Guze no Tomogarra with five bodies by flambéing three of them, snapping one's neck, and impaling the last on his BFS, and becoming a nice asset to the team until he falls to The Dark Side and becomes the Big Bad in season three.
- Manta/Morty Oyamada from Shaman King. 95% of the time. The remaining 5% contributes to either him becoming a shaman in the anime pr him saving his friends with the Soul Train in the manga.
- Futaba Kudo from There, Beyond the Beyond. Justified in that he's a 12-year-old boy Trapped in Another World.
- Aoyama, Ryou and Keiichiro from Tokyo Mew Mew — although the constant switching around of one of the boys in question was used to set up a few Red Herrings as to the identity of Ao no Kishi.
- Urami Koi: Nekuni Kyouichi is the head of the Rat family but has no fighting abilities or powers. He makes up for it with his nature and kindness.
- Vinland Saga: Einar is one of the only main characters who has no fighting skills and has never killed anyone. He also hates warriors until he meets Thorfinn. That said, he manages to fight off three farmers single-handed in a fist fight and displays impressively quick thinking during Thorfinn's knife-fight with a bear. And more impressive again trying to protect Thorfinn from Hild.
- Yuuen from Wild Rock, to the point his father decides he will be more useful pretending to be a girl to get food rather than hunting for it.
- Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! is just so incredibly small that he has no physical fighting ability whatsoever. Even given the fact that in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, almost everything is determined by playing a children's card game, he still counts, as he takes a back seat to the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle for most of his duels. It's not until near the end of the series that he starts to duel for himself.
Comic Books
- Marvel Comics had a villain who fits this trope: Sidewinder, especially after he'd founded the Serpent Society. He acted as the group's Mission Control, setting up deals, deciding who would go on which assignments, etc. He still managed to give the superhero community fits, because he'd also habitually teleport his teammates out of jail. A perk which is the biggest reason for villains to join the Serpent Society.
- Cacofonix the bard and Getafix the druid in Asterix. The entire rest of the male half of the village just loves beating up Romans, but they both only engage in fights on special days (like the anniversary of the battle of Gergovia), or when personal honour is at stake - for example, in The Mansions of The Gods, when Cacofonix gets kicked out of his Roman-built flat and the Gauls declare war on them on his behalf, he takes pride of place on the front line, and if someone insults his music in the critical moment just before a punchup starts, he'll join in. This does make sense, as both of them have important political roles in the village, with Getafix the druid in particular being the only thing keeping them from Roman domination, and they are too precious to risk (well, Getafix is). Both tend to take Distressed Dude roles as a result.
- Their non-action-ness leads to a funny moment in The Roman Agent. The greatest battle the village ever had is in full swing, with labels and a key so we can keep track of how everyone is fighting. One of the labels is in the middle of the village far away from the action, pointing out Cacofonix, asking Getafix if he has any idea what's going on.
- Batman: Harold Alnut, a Gadgeteer Genius who works on the Bat-family's cars, computers, hideouts, gadgets, and costumes, is the non-action guy of the group.
- Bone: Fone Bone— all the threats he faces in The Valley are so much larger than him that he invariably has to run away or get rescued. He's no coward, but his courage involves giving moral support and good advice to resident Action Girl Thorn, rather than busting heads himself.
- Thaddeus Luken of Copperhead is the local schoolteacher and a perfectly nice guy. He's absolutely useless when Clara is attacked, cowering while she goes face-to-face with the bad guys.
- In The Maze Agency, cerebral Great Detective Gabe invariably comes off second best in any fight he gets into; usually having to be rescued by his Action Girlfriend Jen.
- In Legion of Super-Heroes, Dyrk Magz loses his magnetic powers in a fight with Mordu. However, he can't bring himself to stay in civilian life and comes back to work as Mission Control. He served a crucial role in a battle with the Fatal Five (see the Quotes page).
- The Second Life of Doctor Mirage: Hwen Mirage is not a terribly physically dept guy even before his becomes discorporated. Fortunately, his wife Carmen is a trained capoeira fighter.
- Supergirl:
- One of the main Love Interests of the titular heroine is Dick Malverne, an average guy with absolutely no fighting skills who dated the world's strongest girl during several years and later died from cancer.
- Post-Flashpoint Supergirl had a short-lived relationship with a disabled boy named Michael, a normal, non-powered human.
- In Escape from the Phantom Zone, teen journalist Ben Rubel gets accidentally dragged into another dimension, forcing Supergirl and Batgirl to dive into a dimensional hole to save him. Ben, who has absolutely no skills to speak of, contributes to their adventure by freaking out every time he sees something unusual and stepping back and aside while the girls do all the work (breaking out of a cell, fighting villains, finding a way back home...)
- Supergirl (1984): Ethan, a completely average normal guy gets dragged into the battle between Supergirl and the powerful witch Selena, playing the role of helpless Unwitting Pawn who is easily kidnapped by the villain and used as bait for the heroine.
- The Tick's sidekick, Arthur, is a pudgy accountant in a moth-suit that he barely knows how to work. His battle cry is "Not in the face! Not in the face!"
- Ultimate X-Men: Angel has wings, but he's inexperienced and unskilled at combat, and he knows it.
- Wonder Woman: Apollo, at least prior to the New 52, will show support for most of Artemis's plays but he stays out of the action himself, preferring to act as an observer and messenger. He also has a habit of trying to avoid conflict altogether, at one point in Volume 2 going so far as to give up and accept death in the face of the challenge presented by the New Gods and choose to be put into an enchanted sleep to wait for death, infuriating Artemis.
Fan Works
- In A Force of Four, Andrew Vinson is an average reporter. He isn't particularly fit and has no fighting skills to talk about. And he's dating Power Girl, who is hands down the world's most powerful super-being.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità
: Italy doesn't fight. He didn't fight the homophobe. He didn't fight the bully. It's not that he ''can't'' fight, but still.
- Between Minds, a Half-Life/Portal fic by 3theCaptain has Marcus, who helps main characters during battle... by carrying things, opening doors, navigating, operating shields, and applying first aid.
- In Child of the Storm post chapter 60 Harry correctly guesses that Ron and Hermione, for all their courage, more usually fall under this category and goes out of his way to avoid involving them in his usual chaotic hijinks. Jane Foster is also this trope-though just because she doesn't fight does not make her helpless or useless.
- Maverick Storm of The PreDespair Kids is a psychotic manipulator who has a talent for a person's weaknesses, could ruin practically anyone's life without even touch them if he wanted, and has warped people into committing murder and suicide since he was very young. But he has absolutely no combat skills whatsoever.
- Marcellus Ardsen of Soul Eater: Troubled Souls is one of the very few people (guy or girl) who can't fight in the setting. He has no combat ability. He makes up for it by being the smart one between him and Tsuji and being a good Demon Weapon.
- In the fanfiction Street Sharks: Redux, Bends is painfully aware of how useless he is in combat.
- Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Shinji has no relevant fighting skills or combat training, he is a tad meek and sometimes he needed to be rescued. In contrast, his Love Interest is Asuka, an Ace Pilot has trained since she was four to pilot Humongous Mecha and fight alien monsters... and is Supergirl.
- Ringo in With Strings Attached. Lacking any defensive or reliable movement magic, he has to be toted around and protected by the others. He's hardly useless, though, even if he does have a moment or two where he feels like The Load.
- Actually, in a sense all four are Non-Action Guys, since they do not want to be involved in adventure and have zero interest in combat.
- In The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, Ringo is never seen to do anything in the cities except cower next to John or be carried around by George, and hence is actually nicknamed “The Load” by some outworlders. (However, the Power Groups know better....)
- Code Prime: Like in canon, Lelouch is a master strategist, but is in poor physical condition and a mediocre Knightmare pilot. It later becomes averted in R2, spending six months being trained in Knightmare combat by Ironhide, and learning how to fight by Sayoko and Tohdoh. He also receives a new Zero suit that is armed with weapons.
- Charles is much like his son Lelouch, dangerously cunning, but poor at fighting. When he fights Megatron in Fall of Britannia, the only thing he has going for him is the Knightmare he is piloting was built to fight Megatron. Megatron easily defeats him, and even points out that at least Lelouch makes efforts to improve as a pilot.
- Zig-Zagged with Leila. While she is skilled in Aikido, she is lacking in skills as a Knightmare pilot.
- Ratchet, Perceptor and Fixit are usually the only Autobots not seen on the battlefield, due to Ratchet being a medic and an old Autobot, Perceptor being a scientist, and Fixit not being a combat-oriented Mini-Con.
- Shockwave is capable of being a strong force on the battlefield, but logic dictates that his skills are more necessary as the Decepticons’ scientist rather than as a soldier.
Films — Animation
- A Bug's Life: All the circus bugs put themselves to good use during the fight with the goldfinch...except Manny, who just sits on Dim's back and then takes some of the credit for fighting the bird. He is also the only circus bug who has wings he can use and doesn't actually use them. However, he is one of the first circus bugs to pretend to be dying during the attack, and he did prove himself useful earlier with the Disappearing Box trick.
- Mr. Ping of Kung Fu Panda. He has no kung fu skills whatsoever and devotes almost all his time to manning his noodle store. At least until Kung Fu Panda 3 where he takes an active role in fighting off the Jombie army.
- Chi Fu of Mulan in stark contrast to every other member of the Chinese Army is a completely non-fighting guy who is there solely to complain, whine and be a jackass.
- WALL•E: The character WALL•E qualifies in comparison to trigger-happy EVE. That doesn't stop him from being a Determinator who saves humanity from its own indolence.
- Zootopia:
- Despite being considerably larger than Judy and of a predator species, Nick is much less physical and leaves most of the fighting to her while relying on his wits. Justified in that Judy has received extensive physical training to become a cop while he has not. At least not until the ending.
- Officer Clawhauser, who is a respected and well-liked employee for the ZPD, but does solely administrative support duties such as greeting and aiding visitors, dispatching backup, and delivering oral and written information. He happily aids the in-shape and tough field cops from the sidelines. It's a bit of a Genius Bonus, too; real-life cheetahs are actually remarkably weak and fragile animals, ill-suited to any kind of fight.
Films — Live-Action
- In Blade II, Blade's new sidekick Scud is a noncombatant. When confronted by Reapers, Scud retreats into his van and nearly has a heart attack. In contrast, Whistler ambushes a den of vampires with a Gatling gun in the first film and guns down a few SWAT guys in the third. Probably helps that he was Beneath Suspicion the entirely of the time, as Scud was The Mole and also claims he was a "lover, not a fighter." Blade figures it out by the end, however.
- Harry in Condorman is the titular hero's friend and a CIA Desk Jockey who is really not all that well suited for the dramatic Cloak and Dagger world of spying that the Wrong Genre Savvy Woody thinks they're in. He manages to pull off a few rescues nonetheless.
- The Dark Crystal: By no means has Jen been trained for the kind of perilous journey the Mystics send him on, for the reason that the Mystics are themselves pacifists and extreme doormats and mainly raised him like the erudites they are. He owes his survival against the Garthim to his relatively small size and it is not sure how far he could've managed to go without the help of Kira.
- Caleb from Ex Machina is not at all athletic or tough, which is unsurprising since he's an office worker. His contribution to the third act is to hack Nathan's security protocols, after which he's laid out by a single punch while Kyoko and Ava confront and overpower Nathan.
- Breaker from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Scarlett and Snake Eyes are Storming The Control Room, bullets are flying everywhere, and what does he do? He's standing there calm as you please, fiddling with his Palm Pilot. (It's like he totally knows he has Character Shields or something.)
- Rick Moranis' character Louis Tully in Ghostbusters II fills this role for the Ghostbuster team. Even when he tries to be a Ghostbuster himself, he is a goof.
- Abe Sapien is mostly the geeky backup to the burly Hellboy in the first movie. When he faces Mr. Wink in The Golden Army, he proves to be quite acrobatic, but still barely escapes with his life until Hellboy shows up to save the day.
- The Imitation Game: Both as an adolescent and as an adult, Alan Turing is meek when confronted with physical violence.
- Matt Farrell in Live Free or Die Hard. Although not very good in a fight, his computer savvy still helps John McClane keep up with Thomas Gabriel.
- Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. Whilst Hobbits generally are Non-Action Guys, Merry, Pip, and Sam can and do throw themselves into the action when the 'taters are down. Frodo tends to whimper when faced with combat against anyone but Gollum. In fairness, having to constantly resist the ring's influence had to have been taking its toll on him.
- Zig-zagged with Bruce Banner from the Marvel Cinematic Universe much like the comic he doesn't have much real combat skill and Hulking Out is his trump card when things get dire. However, in his first movie Bruce has shades of Badass Normal being to escape from Ross's covert ops team and is pretty good at stealthing his way around. The Avengers (2012) plays it straighter as Bruce has more of a supporting role when he isn't a huge green rage monster, Avengers: Age of Ultron plays around with it as Bruce is able to overpower Scarlet Witch with a headlock and claims he could choke her out "without changing a shade", however Black Widow makes it clear they need the other guy in the climax. Thor: Ragnarok lampshades it as Bruce gets annoyed that Thor clearly prefers his stronger alter ego, however, Bruce finds himself flying an alien spaceship and getting involved in the action. Avengers: Infinity War initially plays straight as Bruce (unable to transform) is The Load to Tony and sorcerers, then it's subverted hard in battle of Wakanda where Bruce ironically pilots the Hulkbuster and takes down Obsidian Cull without turning into Hulk. Played mostly straight in Avengers: Endgame as even when combined with the Hulk, Bruce is a Gentle Giant and doesn't do any fighting until the end.
- Miller's Crossing: Tom Regan is a unique protagonist example. He hates getting his own hands dirty and is almost useless in a fight, spending almost the whole running time getting beat up. He more than makes up for it by always being the absolute smartest man in the room, and sometimes even incorporates getting his own ass kicked into his plans.
- "Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor, who had nearly stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol, and who had personally wet himself at the Battle of Badon Hill" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- Once Upon a Spy: Although Jack Chenault is in excellent physical shape, he pretty much fails at anything to do with spy fieldcraft: he cannot assemble a gun, does not know how to parachute, etc. His partner Action Girl Paige Tannehill does all of the fighting for him.
- Topher Grace's character in Predators is introduced this way. In a team of professional and criminal badasses, he is an unassuming doctor with no particular combat or survival skills. The badasses spend most of the movie protecting him or at least trying to keep him from getting them all killed, until the end, when he reveals his true nature as a murderous psychopath.
- The Rock: Downplayed with Stanley. He is a fully trained FBI agent, and shows skill with both pistols and hand-to-hand as the film progresses, but he is primarily a chemical weapons expert, and well aware than the Force Recon Marines, Navy SEALs and SAS operatives with military-grade weapons that make up the rest of the cast have him severely outmatched and outgunned.
- Declan, Beck's bush-pilot sidekick in The Rundown, eschews any direct involvement in the action, blaming a "dodgy knee" which presumably would inhibit his mobility in combat. Still, he is not without courage- unable to fight, he walks to the edge of Hatcher's compound playing the bagpipes, then delivers a crazy sermon warning Hatcher of the coming judgment... just before a herd of cattle stampede through the town.
- Save Yourselves!: Jack is hilariously incompetent when it comes to doing "action" things. He's unable to chop wood with an axe, and he's reluctant when he realizes he may have to learn to handle a gun in order to fight off the pouffes.
- Every single Racer in Speed Racer is a capable hand-to-hand combatant. Except for Sparky, who's... not.
- Star Wars: in the original trilogy there were six recurring heroes. Of them, Luke was a Jedi Knight and Ace Pilot; Han was an Ace Pilot and The Gunslinger toting a Hand Cannon; Leia was an Action Girl with Improbable Aiming Skills, as well as a diplomat and leader; and Chewbacca had superhuman strength and a railgun-bowcaster that he was adept with, on top of being Han's co-pilot and gunner. The last two, C3P0 and R2D2, had no combat capabilities whatsoever, but had non-combat skills that kept them useful. The former was a Cunning Linguist who spoke thousands of languages (including whatever R2 was speaking), and the latter was a master hacker that could interact with and manipulate just about any technology the plot demanded. In the sequel trilogy, their role is filled by BB-8 (basically an expy of R2).
- Lenny Nero in Strange Days is a classic example of this as a protagonist! He spends much of the action in the movie getting saved by Mace. This is made a little strange when it's revealed that he's a former cop.
- Rick Moranis' character Billy Fish in Streets of Fire, on the other hand, at least has bowling-ball-sized testicles to make up for the fact that in action situations he's utterly useless.
- X-Men Film Series:
- X-Men: The Last Stand: Pyro mocks Iceman for being this after the latter refuses to duel with him in a street full of people. ("Same old Bobby; always afraid of a fight.") Later on, Pyro learns the hard way that Iceman is actually more badass than he is.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: 1973 Charles invokes this trope to explain to Logan why he always tries to talk his way out of a problem (even if it results in ineffective rambling) instead using brute force. However, Xavier can still throw a mean punch if someone really pisses him off despite not being much of a fighter.
- Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2: Weasel is a bartender who folds the moment he's in any real danger (he's honest about it, so none of his friends/allies hold it against him). Dopinder is a cab driver who wants to be a badass, but is definitely not there yet (though he does get to run over the evil headmaster in 2). There's also Peter from 2, a completely normal, slightly paunchy human with no combat experience or training who somehow manages to get accepted into X-Force, which is otherwise comprised of badass mutants. Somehow, he's the only member of the team other than the supernaturally lucky Domino to complete his airdrop without dying or getting hurt.
- The Bowery Boys - Huntz Hall plays Sach Jones, the adult version of the character he played from 'The Dead End Kids'. Sach is played as an asexual, uncombative comedy relief character, who never takes part with the gang when a fight breaks out. He in fact sits it out with the women. He never throws a punch, or gets hit in a brawl. But he is loyal to his friends, and the plot commonly has something strange happen to him to make him central to some scheme the boys are cooking up.
Literature
- Animorphs:
- Erek King is an ageless, nearly-indestructible android perfectly capable of being a One-Man Army but is bound by his programming which prevents him from harming other living things. This is probably for the best - the one time he does fight, it's so brutal it leaves the resident Blood Knight in tears.
- It's probably a good thing that the narrator for that particular book was out cold during the battle, so whatever he did happened off-screen. Though others that have witnessed it made references to what happened, without going into any detail.
- Foaly in the Artemis Fowl series.
- Artemis is far better suited to orchestrating everything from behind Butler and letting his more athletic companions do the dirty work, but as often as not circumstance forces him to at least try to do something physical anyway. It seems like he resolves anew to start getting fit at least once a book, but it never quite happens.
- This is subverted by Artemis's Split Personality Orion whose shooting skills (something that Artemis doesn't have) disabled a controlled Holly.
- Marcus of The Arts of Dark and Light more or less plays this role in Summa Elvetica, where he is much less impressive than Caitlys, the Action Girl who saves him from the villains. Generally speaking, he doesn't like fighting, being more of a peaceful man by temperament. However, he becomes more formidable in A Throne of Bones, where he serves on active duty as an officer and deals more proactively with the dangers he faces.
- It's the default in the world of A Brother's Price. Because men are so rare, they are kept sheltered and are almost universally more tenderhearted than the women who run the world. Jerin is seen as weird because unlike most he was taught to shoot and ride a horse, which serves him well when he is abducted, but he quickly falls off said horse into the protective arms of a much tougher love interest, and when he actually uses said gun it is textbook Bleed 'Em and Weep.
- Jason Richter from the Dale Brown books starts as non-action guy. Although he's a Major, he's really an engineer who hasn't touched a gun since Officer Cadet School, unlike Pat McLanahan who can handle himself on the ground even before receiving further combat training and becoming a Tin Man. At one point, he even visibly winces at the prospect of having to kill. He gets better, partly due to having El CID. Some Sky Masters personnel also joined the company without being part of the military first and thus are ill-prepared to actually use the equipment in a live-fire situation against hostiles actively trying to kill them.
- Simon, in City of Bones, is the only main character that is 100% a mundane and is depicted as totally normal and needs rescuing from a hotel crammed with vampires. However, this is ended when he kills a Greater Demon, and then is turned into a vampire in City of Ashes.
- Rincewind is one main character in Discworld who prefers running away from... everything, really.
- A more straight example is Nijel the Destroyer, son of Harebut the Provision Merchant. He wants to become a barbarian hero (by reading books), but has some... problems. He promptly falls in love with Conina, who's the daughter of Cohen the Barbarian and has inherited her mother's looks and her father's urge to kill. She really wants to become a hairdresser.
- Moist von Lipwig is another protagonist example; he's not at all comfortable with fighting, preferring trickery and disguise instead. Vetinari notes that Moist is more uncomfortable with a sword in his hand than when having one pointed at him.
- Waldo Butters, M.E., in The Dresden Files. He is, as Thomas insists on pointing out, kind of a coward, and when the baddies wind up targeting him in Dead Beat, spends most of the book hiding from them. However, this is the Dresdenverse, so he eventually winds up saving Harry by attacking Cassius with his teeth. He also gets non-action awesome cred for helping with the Dinosaur Incident.
- Encyclopedia Brown: a brainy adolescent detective whose tomboy not-girlfriend acts as his bodyguard.
- Maia from The Goblin Emperor is this. It doesn't affect the plot much, as he has his bodyguards to take care of that kind of thing.
- Ron Weasley is somewhat this in the Harry Potter series. We don't see him get to duel like Harry (though neither much Hermione in that matter.) This is played up more in the films than in the books.
- Neville Longbottom is a bigger example of this, being pretty timid and unassuming. Starting in Book 5, he has Character Development and becomes more confident in himself. He tops it off by using Gryffindor's sword to slice Nagini off (and thus, giving Harry the edge needed to settle things with Voldemort.)
- Ron also bleeds over into Action Survivor: he doesn't exactly seek out danger and thrills but is pretty good at reacting to the stuff his friends drag him into ("ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?!")
- Karal in the Mage Storms trilogy of the Heralds of Valdemar. He's a priest in training, is a certified Nice Guy, has no magical or psychic powers (except for one, which is completely passive), and has absolutely no interested in heroing. It doesn't stop him from playing a pivotal role in saving the world.
- A Hero's War: Cato has no combat-relevant skills, not even leadership, and for some reason he physically can't use magic. However, his insights from Earth about engineering and science lead to a Magitek revolution that results in the territory of Minmay developing the most dangerous military force in the world. Cato himself, meanwhile, is mostly just running the new university and collaborating with specialists to come up with new ideas.
- Pantalaimon and Roger in His Dark Materials both count as this, although in the former's case he can be relied on when push comes to shove.
- Marvin the Paranoid Android of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy is a rare case of this trait making a character extremely popular.
- Every single Hobbit almost without exceptions. Of course, Hobbits have Hidden Depths and the book can be mildly Anvilicious about that sort of thing, though fortunately, the author's skill keeps it in control.
- In a series where virtually every naval protagonist is tremendously tactically gifted, the Honorverse's Admiral Augustus Khumalo, station commander of the Talbott Quadrant, is notable for bucking that trend rather violently. A pedestrian tactician at best — and not even considered that before he Took a Level in Badass — Khumalo instead distinguishes himself by being a deft politician, exceptionally capable administrator, and — critically — excellent judge of his subordinates' capabilities. The moment that got the entire Royal Manticoran Navy to look up and realize his excellence as an officer came not from a spectacular display of tactical prowess, but instead of taking a chance and risking his own career by backing a subordinate's initiative and tactical genius. As a result, despite the Talbott quadrant becoming an absolute hotbed of tactical genius with the arrival of Aivars Terekhov, Michelle Henke, Naomi Kaplan, Michael Oversteegen, and Abigail Hearns, among others, he remains in overall command because his skills as an administrator and politician make him the ideal ultimate military authority in a corner of space which is rather distant from Manticore's home system and government.
- How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: As King of Friedonia, protagonist Souma Kazuya attracts a Battle Harem of martially talented women including his Magic Knight Top Wife Princess Liscia, which is fortunate because he has no fighting skills whatsoever: he's at best a competent shot with a crossbow.
- The Hunger Games: Peeta Mellark is the series Guile Hero and plays Non-Action Guy to his Action Girl love interest. This is especially prominent when he's compared with her other love interest. He is mentioned being good with a knife and a wrestler, but it's more of an Informed Attribute since we never actually see him fight and all his badass moments involve playing the crowd. This actually turns out to be a good thing as while Katniss has the skills to survive in the arena, it's only through his charisma that they're able to manipulate the audience and so stay alive. Ironically if she'd been in there with her other love interest they probably would have died.
- Imperium: As opposed to most other of the leading politicians of the late Roman Republic, Cicero is not a military man. He admits in Dictator that he is "too squeamish" to even watch others fight, much less fight himself. This sometimes makes him look bad and earns him a tongue-lashing from Quintus after Quintus, who unlike his brother fought at Pharsalus, learns that Cicero is giving up.
"What do you know of fighting," demanded Gnaeus Pompey, "you contemptible old coward?"
- Artie Harrington from InCryptid is a downplayed example compared to his human cousins. He still knows how to use a gun and field-dress a wound, as expected of all members of the Price-Healy family. However, his Power Incontinence makes him stay indoors almost all the time, so he doesn't have much field experience.
- Geralhd from The Iron Teeth web serial. He is educated, civilized, and intelligent. He is also an outlaw stuck out in the boonies among a rough group of bandits.
- Elend Venture of Mistborn is this, being a nobleman who prefers philosophizing and reading. Although at one point he does rush off, armed only with a duelling cane to rescue his girlfriend, Vin. She winds up saving him (though the cynical Vin was very touched that he actually cared enough about her to risk his own life). Elend takes a level in Badass in the third book, becoming not only a full Mistborn, but with the original power level rather than the modern diluted level. He never really gets as good of handle on his powers as Vin and would never claim to be as good in a fight, but he does have much much more raw power, when that matters.
- Spook from the same series is pretty tough by normal standards, having grown up on some very nasty streets, but he's only a Tineye (he has Super-Senses but is otherwise a normal teenage boy) in a setting where there are lots of people with superpowers that actually have meaningful combat applications. As a result he never does anything more than scouting, although he's quite good at it. In the third book he takes a level in badass, using his Tin powers nonstop until he gains Daredevil like combat sense. Plus he ends up gaining the power to burn Pewter as well. Then after Sazed ascends he becomes the planets only and final Mistborn.
- Sazed subverts this. He insists that he's no a warrior but is perfectly capable of holding his own against for more powerful characters such as Marsh, whom he comes within seconds of defeating during their only fight.
- The Deuteragonist of The Mouse Watch is Jarvis Slinktail, a timid nerd who doesn't enjoy the risks of field work. He's always warning the impulsive protagonist Bernie Skampersky to follow orders, think before acting, and not take unnecessary chances. However, this rat turns out to be a Cowardly Lion: When Bernie or the other heroes need him, he's always there, and he'll do whatever it takes to save his friends.
- Neuromancer: Henry Case is a console cowboy of Cyber Space. His job usually requires him to sit comfortably at homebase and monitor his Action Girlfriend while she handles all the wetworks.
- The Stormlight Archive:
- The Alethi are a Proud Warrior Race who have devolved into Blood Knights, so almost all their highprinces are extremely talented frontline soldiers or at least generals. Highprince Sebarial is neither of these things. He's very much a merchant prince, making his money off the other highprinces going to war rather than going to war himself. He even happily pays the fees for not actively participating in the war, knowing that his investments in industry will more than make up for it. It's to the point that in the final battle of Words of Radiance, Dalinar orders him to stay out of everyone's way and give command to one of his mercenary generals, which Sebarial does gladly.
- Shallan Davar is a scholar and thus isn't exactly prepared for physically fighting the coming Desolation. That said, she has a surprisingly high body count, achieved through surprise attacks and manipulating others into fighting for her.
- Jasnah laments this fact in Rhythm of War. She's among the most talented and intelligent people in the setting, but has basically no actual combat experience. As the Queen of Alethkar she feels she should be on the front lines as would be expected of her, but her lack of training with Blade or Plate that Alethi noblemen have means she's not actually very good at it. While she's able to mostly keep up with the help of her surgebinding, a lack of experience means she simply isn't as effective a warrior as her uncle or cousins.
- Temeraire: Perscitia the dragon is a Gender Inversion. Unlike almost every other dragon, she's afraid of combat and worries that others might think less of her for it. Temeraire reassures her that her genius is more useful away from the battlefield, so she happily takes on a non-combat role as tactician, inventor, and eventual member of Parliament.
- To the general populace (in-universe, not to most readers) of Tamora Pierce’s Tortall Universe, George Cooper is this. He's a just an ex-commoner who married Alanna, Champion of the Gods, first Lady Knight, heiress to an ancient dukedom and all around badass. Of course, George does have his claims to fame—like being the former King of Thieves and current Spymaster for the nation.
- Johnny from The Truth of Rock And Roll. That's okay, though. Jenny doesn't mind taking care of these things for him.
- Luxa's grandfather, Vikus from The Underland Chronicles, who would rather talk out problems than fight.
- Adrian Ivashkov from Vampire Academy tends to avoid fighting and is unskilled in it.
- Villains by Necessity: Robin is really pretty useless in most combat scenarios, and tends to react to trouble by either running away or panicking. He gets better near the end, fighting fiercely along with the others.
- Vorkosigan Saga:
- With brittle bones and stunted growth due to a pre-natal poison attack on his parents, it is often pointed out to Miles Vorkosigan that his proper place is behind the action, giving directions to the more physically capable. This usually happens while Miles is in the hospital, recovering from injuries he sustained while being in the middle of the action. That makes Miles a subversion. Yes, he's short and frail (at least until all of his bones are replaced by prostheses). But that doesn't slow him down — and probably makes him more dangerous.
- Commodore Baz Jesek, while Miles's nominal second-in-command for several books, starts the series as a deserter. Honour regained, he's never seen in a combat setting again, being more gifted at engineering and organising and supporting the more action-y types - such as his wife.
- The Witcher: Dandelion is no coward, more than willing to stick his neck out for his friends, well-connected and usually a font of useful information. However, he is very much a Spoony Bard and not much of a fighter compared to most mundane enemies he makes (let alone the things professional monster hunter Geralt deals with on a daily basis).
Live-Action TV
- Alias: Will. He's not an agent like most of the men on the show. He manages to get himself in trouble trying to be tough and Sydney has to rescue him. Even though he starts to work for the CIA and makes some results, he's still only a paper-pusher.
- Angel: Lorne. While the rest of the team fights evil, Lorne's major skill is singing. It's not so much that Lorne is incapable of combat as that he hates it.
- Band of Brothers: Nixon, an intelligence officer, is this, having never fired his weapon in combat. He did, however, have a sniper shoot through his helmet in Holland.
- Big Wolf on Campus - The three main characters (from season two onwards) are a male werewolf, a kickboxing Action Girl, and a media-saturated goth who pulls his weight by being Crazy-Prepared.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Xander. He gained in combat ability throughout the series, but was still a second-line fighter at best by the end, taking on the Mission Control role in the "Season 8" comics. Even so, he's another example where lack of combat ability is compensated by extreme testicular fortitude; his more powerful friends often worry about his near-suicidal charges against superpowered opponents.
- By Any Means: TomTom is the team's computer genius and not very good at the physical stuff. In episode 1x06, he attempts to help subdue a drug dealer and ends up having to be rescued by Jessica.
- Chuck:
- Chuck Bartowski was this for the first two seasons until an upgrade in the Intersect in his brain at the end of Season 2 allowed him to access some serious fighting skills in an instant.
- Even before he got the Intersect 2.0, however, Chuck had already picked up some serious marksmanship ability thanks to years of training on Duck Hunt.
- Columbo: Lieutenant Columbo is about exactly the same as the Homicide example (see below).
- Criminal Minds:
- Dr. Spencer Reid. He's the only member who failed all physical FBI physical exams, but because he's a genius with 4 PhDs, Photographic Memory, and reads 20 000 words a minute. There's a reason that any time a character is kidnapped or in danger its Reid, the writers even named those kind of episodes as "Reid In Peril" episodes.
- In the season 2 episode Revelations he manages to kill Tobias Hankel after being drugged repeatedly, tortured for two days, being forced to dig his own grave, and actually dying.
- Dark Angel: Action Girl Max had Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly) as her Non-Action Guy; in a wheelchair, partly because it would help prevent him from being seen as wimpy in comparison to Max's superhuman strength.
- Doctor Who:
- In the first season of the new show, Mickey Smith is explicitly set up as The Guy Who Doesn't Have What It Takes, in contrast to Action Girl Rose Tyler. In the second season, to justify his continued inclusion in events, it turns out that he does Have What It Takes after all.
- The Doctor himself qualifies for the trope as well, as with the exception of his third and sixth incarnations he runs away from the Monster of the Week as often as he runs toward it.
- Original series companion Harry Sullivan was conceived as an Action Guy in case an actor too old to handle action was cast as the Fourth Doctor. But when they cast Tom Baker as the Fourth, Harry immediately became this instead and was quietly dropped in Baker's second season.
- Rory Williams was very much this before he became The Last Centurion. He would much rather become a small town doctor than fight aliens.
- Dollhouse:
- Topher once gets beaten up by a one-armed Non-Action Girl. That pretty much sums up his physical prowess.
- Of course, he punched out that one-armed non-Action Girl earlier in the season. (It's Less Dickish In Context.)
- Isn't it hilarious to find a situation where punching out a tiny one-armed female scientist makes you more masculine?
- Firefly:
- Wash knows that his job is limited to flying the ship and providing needed levity and snark, and leaves the fighting to his Amazon-like wife Zoe. His acceptance of their non-standard relationship (aside from a brief bout of unfounded jealousy in "War Stories") results in them having arguably the happiest and most stable relationship in the whole show. To his credit, he does make it through two personal firefights late in the series, at a starting disadvantage in both.
- Simon is the ship's doctor, so even though he's proven to be physically fit, he stays out of the fighting. Also, he's a terrible shot.
- Subverted Trope with Shepard Book. At first glance, he seems a kindly, elderly preacher, with elements of the Wide-Eyed Idealist and at best, seems to be Badass Pacifist. Our first clue is him working out with Jayne. Our second is his surprisingly large knowledge of the military arts. Our third is him shooting a man in the kneecap from the hip holding a large rifle with one hand. From the hip.
- Game of Thrones:
- Davos claims to be a poor fighter which is probably true as he lacks four fingers on his right hand and never had any highborn training. His mind and no-nonsense attitude are better than any sword he could use.
- Jojen Reed is perfectly comfortable admitting his sister is the better fighter.
- Varys, which is lampshaded when Ned asks why he did nothing to help, and he says that he can't do much against multiple armed soldiers.
- Renly is the only Baratheon brother who is not a warrior. Both Robert and Stannis have a low opinion of Renly because of this.
- Homicide: Life on the Street: Det. Pembleton is a rare example of "empowered" Non-Action Guy; Pembleton is constantly portrayed as an ace detective and as one of the most prominent and charismatic characters of the show, and yet he detests weapons and is a lousy shot.
- JAG: Bud Roberts.
- Jonathan Creek:
- The title character himself. If there are buildings to be broken into or criminals to be confronted, expect Maddie/Carla/Joey to do it. Jonathan hangs back, watching what's going on and deducing the truth from what happens.
- Except that one time where Jonathan disarmed a gun-wielding multiple murderer by throwing, of all things, a playing card at his hand.
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. In the 11/15/15 installment, in which John is tackling the subject of Daily Fantasy Sports web sites. John says, "To say that anyone can succeed on Daily Fantasy is like saying that I could be the next James Bond. Sure, it's a mathematical possibility, but it's a longshot!" And on the left side of the screen is a parody of the Quantum of Solace poster, with the title "Aversion to Violence" ("007" being spelled out in the O's of the words "to" and "Violence"), and John standing with his palm up toward the burning hotel and an expression on his face that says, "No, thank you."
- Leverage: Hardison has this role as the team's hacker. He is often paired with Eliot or Parker. As the series begins, he fights the wounded, though by season four he is getting better.
- Leverage: Redemption: In contrast to Eliot, Parker, and even Sophie on occasion, neither Breanna nor Harry do very much fighting. Justified; Harry's just an ex-lawyer who probably doesn't even know some basic self-defense techniques while Breanna's young with a non-physical specialty and doesn't have the physical capabilities to do any real damage even when she does try.
- The Lone Gunmen: All three of them (four, if you count Jimmy). None of them were anything close to action guys. What they did have was a copious amount of brainpower and bullshit.
- Patrick Jane of The Mentalist is a decidedly non-action guy whose skills lie in detective work and psychological profiling rather than any form of physical prowess. He has no apparent combat skills and if he finds himself in a dangerous situation, his tactic is to try to talk his way out or confuse his opponent until help arrives rather than fighting them.
- Merlin (2008): Subverted with the title character. He's weak, clumsy, unskilled with a sword (or any type of weapon) and is easily thrashed in a physical fight. But as soon as he gets to use his magic, he's a Person of Mass Destruction bordering on Invincible Hero.
- Monk: Adrian Monk. As an ex-cop, he's fully capable of holding his own in physical combat, but his complicated network of phobias and neuroses make him freak out at the thought of physical contact, placing him here.
- NCIS:
- McGee is this in the early seasons, although it's more due to inexperience and lack of confidence than any lack of ability. He gets better after Character Development kicks in and he takes his first levels in badass. It's even discussed in one episode: McGee is in a deep funk after unknowingly killing a cop — the first time he ever killed anyone — and admits to Tony that he's always felt seriously out of his depth compared to the others on the team.
- Of the series regulars, Ducky and "autopsy gremlin" Palmer are the closest to this trope.
- NUMB3RS: Charlie and Larry. Though Charlie takes a level in badass later on, he's still on the sidelines for the most part.
- Power Rangers:
- In the transition from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers to Power Rangers Zeo, Badass Bookworm Billy Cranston was demoted from a full-fledged team member to a Non-Action Guy.
- Ironically, the reverse often happens in more recent PR. Most notable is Cam of Ninja Storm, although the Super Sentai version combined with Cam's wardrobe made it an easy enough guess.
- Mention must be made of Ziggy in RPM, as he starts out a Non-Action Guy and pretty much remains one throughout the season, even after he becomes Ranger Green. He's competent in a fight, but only competent, and still a bit of a coward.
- Primeval: Connor fills this role.
- Red Dwarf: Arnold Rimmer. Justified Trope at first, since he's just an intangible hologram, but even after getting a "Hard Light" upgrade in Series Six, he remains a feckless, neurotic coward. Also, there's some Hypocritical Humor here, because he is constantly reading about and admiring soldiers and other military heroes.
- Revolution:
- In "Soul Train", Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson. According to him, this was what he was before his Action Girl wife died. Of course, when push came to shove, he stabbed Nora Clayton in the gut when she tried to stop him from bombing a train.
- Aaron Pittman. His non-action status is justified because he is a former Google CEO who is overweight and serves as the comic relief of the show. However, he does become more badass, like when he pretended to have killed himself and then shot dead the drug lord Drexel in "Sex and Drugs", as well as defending kids from the Monroe militia in "The Children's Crusade".
- The Sentinel: Blair Sandburg. Unless he has a vending machine, a firehose, a walking stick, or some baseballs handy.
- The Shield: In the Grand Finale, Vic's new federal job turns out to be a three-year probation where, being a Desk Jockey, this will definitely apply.
- Stargate Atlantis:
- Most of the male scientists qualify. Of the three main male science-oriented characters — Carson, Zalenka, and McKay — McKay is the only one who regularly has to go off base, and he is all but worthless in a fight. (A good example is the time he has to be explicitly instructed to open fire on an advancing Wraith, and then again to reload once he's run out of bullets!) Of course, as many missions involve the rest of the team protecting him while he performs some variety of technobabble, so he is far from useless. Carson and Zalenka are even less action-oriented due to how rarely they leave Atlantis. (Though Carson's ATA gene allows him to cause quite a bit of damage with drones, he is very nervous at the idea of using them and has a VERY difficult time controlling them. It doesn't help that, as a doctor and a truly gentle man, he is about as much of a pacifist as he could be without packing his bags in protest.)
- While Zelenka doesn't see much action and clearly dislikes it, his age and nationality suggest that he probably has some background in the military. For all that most people probably wouldn't look to him in a fight, he drops a marine in "Tabula Rasa" and manages to avoid many more of them for most of the episode when forced to fall back on instinct.
- Stargate SG-1: Daniel Jackson. Gradually became more suited for action.
- Star Trek: Picard: Hugh is wholly dependent on Elnor to protect him from Narissa and her mooks, and we never see him fight anyone.
- Torchwood:
- Ianto Jones in has absolutely no desire to leave Mission Control and reckons the rest of the team are adrenaline junkies. But he gets action from the hero, if that counts...
- Ianto seems to be getting in on the action (in multiple senses of the word) more in the second season. And by the third, he spends more time by Jack's side than anyone else. Although that doesn't end well.
- Owen even mentions this at one point when he's sidelined, more or less implying that this is what Ianto actually wanted... Of course, this could just be Owen being Owen.
- Xena: Warrior Princess: Joxer. He tries, oh how he tries, but he's just too dumb to ever be an effective warrior. Even Gabrielle routinely wipes the floor with him.
- The X-Files: Agent Alex Krycek had no action qualities while partnered with Mulder. Of Course....
Music
- Bands are littered with spare wheels. Usually a friend of the talented one who works okay with the band.
- Ringo Starr, as Lennon once famously quipped, "isn't even the best drummer in The Beatles." But he kept everyone together.
- Andrew Ridgeley from Wham! is the canonical example in British music journalism. To his credit, he actually broke up Wham! when he realised just how ridiculously far ahead of him George Michael was. That said, he still released an utterly superfluous solo album.
Podcasts
- Vivaldi from Sequinox can provide plenty of support, and eventually learns some defensive techniques, but he's not nearly the fighter that the Sequinox girls are.
- Lucas Miller of The Adventure Zone: Balance, right up into the finale and his return with Upsy.
Pro Wrestling
- WWE wrestler Stevie Richards once spent a considerable length of time not wrestling, and instead accompanying borderline-psychotic woman wrestler Victoria to the ring for her matches and acting like a submissive, lovestruck little puppy. He also wore pink tights. Maybe he just got sick of being a jobber...
- Back in the mid-'90s,
Triple HHunter Hearst Helmsley was perfectly happy to hide behind his female bodybuilder bodyguard Chyna. Although he wasn't purely non-action, back then he did completely rely on her. - A particularly domineering heel will often have a non-wrestling male attendant whose job is to help them cheat and to get beaten up by the face so that the heel can use the distraction to flee the arena. Examples of this type of character include Daivari for Muhammad Hassan (although Daivari did have some wrestling skills himself), Ranjin Singh for The Great Khali (before their Heel–Face Turn), and Ricardo Rodriguez for Alberto Del Rio. Sometimes, though, the attendant will be even more physically intimidating than the wrestler he serves (Ezekiel Jackson or Tyson Tomko, for example), with such "enforcer" types obviously being more likely to end up wrestling on their own and throwing off the "Non-Action" status.
Roleplay
- Dr. Shelton and Dr. Kerzach from Darwin's Soldiers start the first RP like this. Dr. Kerzach and Dr. Shelton do end up taking a few levels in badass but they are still nowhere as badass as the other characters. Dr. Bailey from the third RP plays this straight.
- Fire Emblem On Forums: Bards and Priests have no real offensive options. The Lore Master does gain access to spells for Bards, while the Priest gains spells as a Bishop, but Enchanters and Saints play this trope straight.
Tabletop Games
- In the Serenity RPG, a male character who takes the "Non-Fightin' Type" complication will be this by definition.
- Stratego: The Sergeants, Lieutenants and, to a lesser degree, Captains are likely to fall victim to this; they are too low in rank to pose a credible threat to your opponent, but contrary to the Miners, Scouts and Spy, they likewise lack any special abilities to make up for it. Which means that for the mayority of the game, they don't have much use for you on the opponents side of the field, and are usually resigned to staying on your side and defend your own bombs against enemy Miners.
- Danuvian men in Talislanta. (The women are Action Girls.)
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: The vast majority of available starting careers offer little to nothing in weapon and armour training. This isn't Dungeons & Dragons, you're no great hero; you're just a peasant or bandit, trying to survive against all the odds.
- In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Corax (were-ravens) fit the bill. Their animal form is significantly weaker than every other shifter (except possibly the Ratkin), and they get the fewest bonuses (outside of dexterity, to aid dodging and running away) to their hybrid forms. While said hybrid forms are usually called "war forms" for every other member of the Fera, Corax call theirs rara avis because they try to avoid taking said form if at all possible. Corax ideally are infiltrators, spies, and other support roles for the more violence-capable Fera.
Theatre
- The Mrs. Hawking play series: Nathaniel. As Mary puts it in part V: Mrs. Frost, "he's supposed to talk, not fight."
- Westeros: An American Musical: One of the songs mentions that Sam is Pyp and Grenn's Butt-Monkey due to having a non-combat position in the Night's Watch.
Video Games
- Daniel in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. When the monsters come by, all he can do is hide in a corner, and pray they don't find him.
- Luka from Bayonetta isn't very good at the whole "fighting" thing... he is good at escaping, though. Justified as while Bayonetta is a Person of Mass Destruction fighting Eldritch Abominations, Luka is just an amazingly lucky human whose only tool is some kind of grappling hook device.
- At one point in Breath of Fire III, you have to train a bookworm named Beyd to become an Action Guy in order to get into a lighthouse. (He has authorization, but has to prove he's stronger than his romantic rival to justify going.) If trained properly, he wins his fight... and ends up so badly battered that he just gives you the go-ahead to enter while he recuperates. (On the plus side, he gets the girl.)
- Dragon Quest:
- Dragon Quest V: In contrast to her love interest Nera, who is an adept mage, Crispin is pretty weak, and admits himself to being "A lover, not a fighter". Even so, he proves to be capable of making it to the center of a volcano by himself.
- Dragon Quest VIII has King Trode, who spends most of the game as the victim of a Forced Transformation. He seems unfazed by the constant battles with monsters. However, he doesn't go into the dungeons himself with the rest of the party, instead staying outside to take care of the wagon and his daughter, Medea. He can be seen in one of Yangus's attacks, Golden Oldies, where a large group of old men bum rush the enemy.
- The Adoring Fan in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Especially if you are playing as a female character.
- EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Professor Ace reliably disappears as soon as the fighting starts.
- Fire Emblem has two types of male classes that aren't known fighters:
- One is the Priest Class (a counterpart to the female Cleric and Troubadour classes); they can only use staves, which are usually used for healing, but they can also be used to cast Status Effects.
- The Elibe games also include a Spear Counterpart to the Dancer class, the Bard class. The bards in those two games (Elphin, a sickly tactician in Binding Blade, and Nils, a young boy from Blazing Blade) are definitely not combat material, and unlike priests, who can promote into classes that can effectively fight back, bards are out of luck. The herons in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance are similar in that regard as well.
- Golden Sun: Scholar Kraden spends most of the first game as a hostage. In The Lost Age, he is the fifth member of protagonist Felix's party for 99% of the game, yet never takes part in any of the fighting. Weirdly enough, appears to make him immune to monsters, since he's never actually endangered by the constant monster attacks. In the sequel Dark Dawn he again takes on this role. He also inexplicably never needs to pay to stay at an inn.
- Roman Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV is the protagonist's overweight, optimistic and somewhat cowardly cousin. Niko kills people for a living, Roman runs a cab depot. He puts up with an incredible amount of abuse through the game, being beaten up, having his home and business burned down, shot, kidnapped, stuffed into a trunk, and more, mostly as mission fodder for the player. At the end of the game he may or may not be killed at his wedding. Still, he takes it with reasonable good cheer, and having his cousin around does make him rich.
- Gay Tony in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony rarely does any damage, preferring to let Luis do his work.
- Heavy Rain's Ethan Mars. Despite that, he is willing to save his son, Shaun.
- Hi-Fi RUSH: CNMN is a robotic psychological analyst, so his main role in the team is to provide mental evaluations, moral support, and occasionally healthcare, instead of directly participating in fights. As he witnesses play character Chai's reckless heroism throughout the story, he becomes insecure about his role and says he wants to be more than just a bystander. He gets his wish at the end of Track 11, when he hijacks a laser robot arm to fight Kale's mech, getting partially blown apart in the process.
- Ib has Garry, who begins his appearance by lying down on the ground and painfully (nearly) dying. You get to save him. Especially evident when you contrast him with Ib (a 9-year-old girl), who is the one to do the saving, and solve pretty much everything. However, Garry does save Ib if you complete a certain event a certain way. If not, Ib has to save him instead.
- Dan from Iji, who takes up Mission Control for his cyborg Action Girl sister.
- Henpecked Hou from Jade Empire was once a competent and respected Drunken Master... until he got tricked into marrying a woman who disapproved of drinking and fighting, and could back up her words. If you have him accompany you, he won't fight enemies, but instead throws wine bottles that allow you to use Drunken Fighting style. On the other hand, he has enough courage to follow you into any sort of danger... as long as you're there to protect him.
- Daxter is one of these at the start of the Jak and Daxter series, but Character Development quickly took care of that.
- Kingdom Hearts:
- Zexion of Organization XIII fame prefers scheming over combat. Even when he finally gets to fight in RE:Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, he doesn't do much (He can't attack unless he absorbs Riku's power in the former game, and in the latter his only move is to trap Sora, Donald, and Goofy into his Book dimension, from which he can attack them completely indirectly.)
- Demyx from the same Organization in the same series likes to pass himself off as one of these, running away from enemies, claiming he really doesn't know how to fight very well, and using a sitar as a weapon. He's lying. Big time. In 358/2 Days, Demyx's claims tend more towards laziness than incapability, probably because he's more likely to stay not-Duskified if he keeps them thinking that he IS good for something, and it's just a matter of getting him to do it. He's also apparently the greatest scout in the organization.
- DiZ (a.k.a. Ansem the Wise) is similar to the aforementioned Zexion. He only seems to use his power of Darkness for non-combat purposes (e.g., Thinking Up Portals), and even the lowest-level enemies seem able to kick his ass. That said, if you fight him in his digital Twilight Town, you're screwed.
- Makai Kingdom: Lord Zetta is very much a non-combatant, since he is trapped in the form of a book and cannot even hold a weapon, and has to rely on his servants to fight for him. When Alex, God of Destruction, challenges him to a one-on-one fight, defeat seems inevitable... until Salome, Zetta's former apprentice and lover, swoops in and tears Alex a new one.
- Joker from Mass Effect. Not a playable character (bar a short sequence, mostly involving running/limping away, in the second game of the series) his brittle bone disease makes him worry about breaking bones whilst DANCING let alone fighting. Of course he can make the Normandy do things that no-one else thinks it should be able to do.
- Then inverted in Mass Effect 2 during the final scenes, where he wields an assault rifle holding off Collectors so that Shepard can escape onto the Normandy.
- Shepard got a lot of upgrades from Cerberus. It's never stated that Joker didn't get a few.
- Your engineering crew also mostly stay out of frontline combat, except Tali.
- Then inverted in Mass Effect 2 during the final scenes, where he wields an assault rifle holding off Collectors so that Shepard can escape onto the Normandy.
- Otacon of the Metal Gear series is about as Non-Action as possible, a Bunny-Ears Lawyer of an engineer with nerd glasses thick enough to rival Gordon Freeman, but that doesn't stop him from being vital to Snake's success in all three of his appearances.
- Neverwinter Nights features Fenthick Moss, the pacifistic, priestly counterpart to his Action Girl love, Aribeth de Tylmarande.
- Peter Gray of the game Noctropolis. He gets pulled into and gets to replace the hero of his favorite comic book, but he decisively loses most of his encounters with the comic's villains, gets beat within an inch of his life, and has to escape from whever he is and hurry back to his lair to magically heal himself or he'll die. The times when his side wins, one of his friends usually does the important work.
- In Octopath Traveler, Ali turns out to be this, despite his claims to the contrary. He tries to bluff Omar, Morlock's hired bodyguard, by claiming that he's a One-Man Army, but gets taken down almost immediately, and is forced to admit that he'd been bluffing. It thus falls on Tressa and her companions to save him and defeat Omar.
- The introductory text to Outlast explicitly tells you that the protagonist, Intrepid Reporter Miles Upshur, is not a fighter, so you'll be forced to use your wits and stealth to save your skin from the asylum's variants, who are very much equipped to get their hands dirty with your blood. The following two protagonists, Waylon Park of the Whistleblower DLC, and Blake Langermann of Outlast II, are just as unable to intentionally injure any enemies who mean them harm.
- Most of the playable characters from Resident Evil: Outbreak are this, except David and Kevin. Jim Chapman is about as non-action as you can get: all his combat abilities and stats are low and his ability is to play dead. Ironically he's one of the best characters since his infection meter climbs so slowly and he, being a subway worker, can operate machinery and mechanisms no one else can.
- Robert Ripley in The Riddle of Master Lu is a typical Adventure Game Player Character — relying on his wits, not strength or physical skill. His girlfriend Mei Chen is the one who knows how to fight. There's a scene in which she starts having a go at it with a large, skilled thug, who simply smacks Ripley aside when he tries to intervene, leaving him to figure out a way to help Mei indirectly.
- Most of the player characters in the Silent Hill series are not someone you expect to be able to kill gods with whatever weapons they find lying around, though as the plot progresses it's clear that the ordeal causes them to Take a Level in Badass. (How well the level takes depends on which of the Multiple Endings you get.) Notable exceptions to this are Travis, a trucker whose Dark and Troubled Past is fairly obvious even before The Reveal, and Alex, whose combat abilities are explained as having come back from the military ( though even THAT comes into question, and is somewhat foreshadowed throughout the plot).
- Bentley and Murray from the Sly Cooper games were this in the first game. Subverted in the sequels after they both Took a Level in Badass.
- Of your allies at the Outpost in Starbound, the guys are prone to this. Koichi is a nerdy scholar who looks like he'd break his spine from lifting anything heavier than a book, Tonauac is a sedentary temple caretaker with a habit of falling asleep on his feet, and the Baron, although quite the adventurer in his youth, prefers to sit back and let the new generation do their thing. Conversely, your female allies (save for Esther, who's technically retired, although she used to be Grand Protector) are badass Action Girls; Nuru is a hunter prodigy and several times over champion of the Floran hunting challenge, while Lana is a ranking member of the Apex resistance who leads from the front. Tellingly, during the Glitch Artifact mission, both girls come to your aid in defending the keep, while the guys (including the Baron, who owns said keep) sit back.
- Thomas of Suikoden III has the same Star as the previous two names' badass heroes, but if you're expecting Kung-Fu Badass... you're sorely mistaken. He's rather meek in personality and is quite terrible in combat. Fitting since he's not a fighter, but a businessman. However, he makes up for it for being The Determinator. If you bother to level him up to be on par with the other main characters, he can be competent in a fight, but most players don't bother since he starts all the way down at level 1 and even when built up he'll still only be an average fighter. ...Until you realize he has a ton of skill slots and -- when built right -- can become pretty nasty in his own right.
- Rhys and Vaughn from Tales from the Borderlands, Office Drones who are manifestly ill-equipped to handle Pandora, especially compared to natives Fiona and Sasha. As time goes on they manage to be Action Survivors, especially Vaughn, who grows a beard and becomes the de facto leader of the surviving Hyperion employees who crash-landed onto Pandora after Helios fell.
- Emil from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is the Non Action Guy who uses his Superpowered Evil Side to fight until Chapter 8.
- Ion from Tales of the Abyss is a Squishy Wizard that can use Fonic Arts, but unfortunately he's so squishy that he's unable to fight alongside the rest of the party, and even using his powers is very taxing. That being said, he can be used as an Assist Character during Luke's Mystic Arte.
- Tomb Raider brings us Endurance's technician Alex Weiss who has a Amazon Chaser crush on Lara and gets himself killed getting the tools to fix the getaway ship to "impress" Lara in some stupid way. Actually subverted, if you pay attention to the cutscenes, Alex is actually pretty skilled with guns and fights off dozens of cultists, and even goes Guns Akimbo before he dies. The simple fact is Alex isn't Lara and he really shouldn't have endangered himself pointlessly trying to impress her when she cared enough about him already, in the tie-in comics Lara still has dreams about Alex and actually does treats his death like a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Tomb Raider: Legend has Alister and Zip, Lara's sidekicks. Lara does the tomb raiding while the other two stay behind at Lara's mansion and act as Mission Control. They do accompany Lara to England on one level, but they still stay behind in the van to give Lara advice as always. This bites them in the ass later on when the Big Bad sends his mercenaries after Lara and they capture Alister and Zip, forcing Lara to go save them. In Tomb Raider: Underworld, Lara's evil clone storms the mansion and, while destroying the mansion, kills Alister.
- The only male character of note among Touhou Project's Improbably Female Cast is Rinnosuke Morichika, the owner of a curio shop. He's a total wimp, has a non-combat powernote , and like the trope's description says he's mostly used for comic relief in the form of thinking he's far smarter than he actually is.
- Saki in Uncommon Time. Though he does participate in battle, he's The Medic and is very frail.
- Knox, from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a ghoul, and very, very aware that he cannot reasonably be expected to survive a fight against a vampire. Which is why he cons you into doing it for him.
- Dandelion in The Witcher. He's not so much a coward but he lacks any kind of combat skill. In many occasions, he's fully willing to follow Geralt into danger, only to back down because Geralt tells him to.
- Allen Ridgeley from the Xenosaga games is a textbook example. Despite accompanying the hero party everywhere, he is only called upon to fight once as a guest party member during Episode 3 and is laughably bad; during the final climax, he managed to combine heroism with trope loyalty by pulling a Gandhi when confronted by the heroine's now-antagonistic ex-boyfriend, saving HER from More than Mind Control, redeeming the ex-boyfriend, and then machine-gunning a Gnosis to death. He took a level in Bad-Ass, after being useless for three games!.
- Tatsu of Xenoblade Chronicles X follows Team Elma (specifically Lin) around but doesn't actually contribute in combat at all. Interestingly, Dummied Out audio files in the Japanese version seem to indicate that he was originally intended to be a fully fledged party member rather than the tag-along he is in the final game.
Visual Novels
- The lawyers in the Ace Attorney series rarely get into physical fights, but when they do, they come off worse. This happens most frequently with Phoenix, although the fact that he's Made of Iron means he always comes out alright.
- Judge Nickel in Fleuret Blanc. He runs a group of elite fencers, but can't fence himself, and spends most of his time moderating the organization's finances.
- Takuya "Moro" Morooka from Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! is a computer nerd who is physically weak and untrained in combat. Compared to the rest of his friend group which consists of five obscenely powerful girls, a bodybuilder who can obliterate walls in a single punch, a guy who is both lucky and talented enough to succeed at everything he tries and an Action Survivor who wins most fights through clever tactics, he comes off as pretty unimpressive. This gets brought up several times, frequently by Moro himself, who feels inadequate when with the others.
- Seiji from Spirit Hunter: NG isn't nearly as physically fit as protagonist Akira, and relies on him to do any heavy lifting, even saying that he's the type to let others handle physical work for him. He makes up for it with his people skills and his Yakuza connections.
Webcomics
- Prince Joakim from Ashface's Daughter pretty clearly states that's he's rather pathetic when it comes to fighting.
- Tedd of El Goonish Shive is like this. He acts as Mission Control in the only combat arc he is involved in, and he can be rather cowardly at times. Then again, he is a scientist-type character surrounded by shapeshifters and supernatural martial artists, so it is to be expected.
- Tavros, of Homestuck, is this trope- unfortunately so, as he belongs to a Proud Warrior Race. Vriska bullies him to break him out of this peaceful mindset, and she's very angry that it hasn't worked.
- Acheron, the protagonist of Inverloch, has little ability or inclination to fight. This is unusual for da'kor, and it actually gets him into fairly serious trouble over the course of the story. He does lament his need to be protected by his more combat-ready friends after these incidents, but he's just not a fighting type.
- Boss the Intrepid Merchant from Merchant Band is almost useless in combat, which is why he hired bodyguards.
- Jordie, from Our Little Adventure. He's the team's Cleric and is quite useful for his divine magic, but his combat skills are awful and he won't willingly fight non-evil sentient creatures.
- Buwaro from Slightly Damned is the weakest in combat of the three main characters, having no combat experience at all at the start of the comic. Mostly all he can do is breath fire and run away. He is aware of this and wants to become stronger for his Action Girlfriend.
- Stand Still, Stay Silent is set in a Plague Zombie ridden world in which only five neighboring and relatively culturally close nations have survived. People in combat jobs are hence much more likely to face a Plague Zombie than another human being and enough of the population is The Immune that those who are not can be kept away from the action, regardless of gender, with the possible sole exception of mages. The expedition's Little Stowaway is a male non-immune who had no idea he was a mage until he ended up with the crew, which makes him the only one of the four males in the main cast (including The Medic) with absolutely no combat skills.
- Rick MacFarlane of Terra is a flight engineer who only joined the military to feed his family. After he and Alex are shot down he pulls a gun on the guy who finds him, Resistance agent Grey O'Shea. Grey is a former infantryman and it's clear to him that Rick has never actually had to use a weapon in combat before, so he disarms him with little effort then gives the gun back to show he's not an enemy.
- In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Bob is practically worthless in a fistfight. Fortunately he knows this, and is almost always clever enough to resolve a situation by other means, but on the rare occasions he forgets it in the heat of the moment, he is likely to painfully make a fool of himself. (He did briefly hold his own against Jerry once, but that's not saying much, and they stopped fighting after a moment anyway.)
- Eugene from Weak Hero is the only protagonist who lacks any sort of combat prowess- even his fellow nerd Rowan ends up being a semi-decent fighter with his elbow jab. Gray advises him to focus on his studies instead of learning how to fight, and Eugene takes his words to heart and declines an offer of boxing lessons. He instead contributes to the group with his extensive knowledge of the antagonistic hierachy of bullies, and also by being an emotional anchor that helps pull the group together after tough spots.
Web Original
- Sylvester in Twig is this, as a result of his Super-Intelligence acting up and forcing him to get caught up in possibilities when he takes a fist to the face.
Web Videos
- Donnie DuPre from Demo Reel was subject to a fair amount of homophobic reactions because he knew full well that he wasn't experienced enough to survive in woods (after being kidnapped no less) without having a breakdown.
- Rahat in Fight of the Living Dead. He always needs to be protected by the stronger members of his team, which is ironic since Rahat ends up being the Sole Survivor of the experiment.
Western Animation
- Rattrap was forcibly turned into one in Beast Machines, much to his annoyance. However, he was as resourceful as ever, and when the need arose was usually able to exploit the environment to defeat his enemies.
- Ben 10 has one of Ben's transformations, Grey Matter. Being one of the few aliens with no extranormal powers, as well as of very small size, he's not ideal in a combat situation. But Grey Matter is far from useless, as his naturally high IQ and tiny stature lets him sneak into places other aliens couldn't. This extends to Grey Matter's species the Galvans as a whole. The most prominent is Azmuth, who created the Omnitrix and is mostly there to help Ben figure out the mechanics of the watch.
- Among Ben's Rogues Gallery is Mad Scientist Doctor Animo. Like Grey Matter, his main weapon is his high intellect and therefore his creations pose more of a physical challenge than Animo himself. In Alien Force, however, he at one point discovers a mysterious ray that gives him Flying Brick abilities and turns him into a far more serious threat. His possible future self also transplanted his head onto the body of a gorilla, giving him combining his mind with the strength and agility of an ape.
- Jérémie Belpois of Code Lyoko, who operates Mission Control while the others fight all the battles. Yet he is also the team leader since when your enemy is an evil computer A.I., the most crucial member of your team is the computer genius. Jérémie has gone to Lyoko a few times though, often for various reasons, such as to make sure the return to the past doesn't wipe his memory and to build up a natural resistance to XANA's Demonic Possession specters. We don't actually get to see his Lyoko avatar or him battling at any point in the series but, given the reactions of the other warriors, it was fairly humorous to watch him in "action".
- While Numbuh Two of Codename: Kids Next Door manages to keep up with the rest of his team of child badasses fairly well, he's the most likely of the Five-Man Band to be left out of the direct action and the most easy-going of the main male characters. However, he still has his training and is ultimately a Badass Bookworm Private Detective Ace Pilot Mr. Fixit when he's on his own. Heck, his technological skills alone seem to surpass virtually the rest of his colleagues. In an episode where a supposed splinter cell was kidnapping the scientific kids, priority was given to protect Numbuh Two, since as Numbuh One put it, if they got him, they'd be able to build almost anything.
- Tucker Foley from Danny Phantom, who rarely saves the day with his techno gizmo. The rest of the time, he's either the Butt-Monkey or ungracefully ignored.
- Rufus of The Dreamstone, eventually fell to this due to ensemble setup. Though originally a Badass Normal and the main protagonist, it soon became evident Rufus was outshone by nearly every other hero character, who was smarter, more experienced and/or granted with some far greater array of powers than him. As such he very quickly ended up tossed into this trope to let others shine, even becoming The Load for some time. He started to gain some credibility later on, if mostly by placing the others Out of Focus.
- Fry from Futurama. While he certainly has his moments (only person who can defeat the Brainspawn?), in most stand-up fights he's cowering behind Leela.
- Averted in the Justice League animated series as Martian Manhunter is usually the "inacton guy" on the satellite directing things and he just happens to have pretty much the same powers as Superman, plus psychic abilities, plus he's a shape-shifter.
- Ron Stoppable of Kim Possible fame starts out like this, though he gradually becomes better (and even saves the day in the very last battle of the Grand Finale). Most of the time, he only demonstrates his competence when Kim isn't around, so Overshadowed by Awesome may also be in play.
- From The Legend of Korra, Bataar and Huan are the only two members of the Metal Clan to never participate in a fight. The latter is a bender to boot.
- In Lilo & Stitch, in all its incarnations so far, Pleakley is a Non-Action Guy whenever the action shows up.
- Chuck, the Cowardly Lion Shaggy Expy in Motorcity. Especially when it's revealed that he doesn't know how to drive.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: While he does have his moments, Spike almost never fights, is rarely actively involved in fixing problems the protagonists have and usually contributes to the group through managing small-scale tasks for them and doing their menial work, fitting this trope quite readily. Though let it be known that when he has his moments, he really has his moments.
- Professor Utonium of The Powerpuff Girls. Don't worry; he's a perfect dad otherwise.
- In Storm Hawks, we have Stork, who as the carrier pilot, is the one member of the team who usually won't be fighting Mooks out in the open, on flying motorcycles, or both. Usually.
- Mad Mod of Teen Titans (2003) qualifies for this. In his first appearance, he is an old man who attacks the Titans with a holographic version of his young self who uses hypnotics and moving objects. Then, in his second appearance, it's hypnotics and robots. Oh, in the same episode, he is back to his younger self thanks to absorbing Robin's youth.
- Cameron of Total Drama Revenge of the Island falls into this category. It's most prominent in "The Enchanted Frankenforest," where he teams up with Action Girl Zoey for a challenge and ends up becoming The Load.
