Husky Russkie/Playing With

Basic Trope: Most Russians in fiction are invariably big and strong.

• Straight: One of hero's friends is Nikolai: a two-metre tall, very muscular, yet none too bright man sporting a Badass Beard and a rocket launcher.
• Exaggerated: Nikolai is a 10' tall Super Soldier able to throw cars at helicopters and he is dwarfed by Russians who are actually big.
• Justified: Nikolai has been training all his life to become so large and muscular.
• Inverted: Nikolai is incredibly weak and impotent, and measures in at a puny 5'2". He is, however, quite smart.
  • Nick Barnes from Eagle Land is a two-metre tall, imposing, yet none too bright man carrying a King James Version of the Bible with lots of bookmarks in one hand and a Magnum revolver in the other.
• Subverted: The heroes first meet Nikolai when visiting Russia in January. Later it's revealed that under the huge Badass Longcoat, he's not really impressive.
  • A subversion of "Dumb Muscle" stereotype: Nikolai turns out to be a Genius Bruiser.
• Double Subverted: It turns out, despite his feeble looks, that Nikolai is in fact incredibly strong and powerful
• Parodied: Nikolai makes Saxton Hale look feminine. He is known far and wide for punching out Cthulhu. The secret behind his strength? Bear wrestling ("Am trying to find bigger bears, but bears have started to run from me!") and radioactive vodka. ("Some days, is not enough vodka to go around, so I just drink plutonium without chaser!")
• Deconstructed: Because of his outrageous size, Nikolai beings to develop several health issues, including high blood pressure and heart palpitations. Before too long, he cannot even stand on his own and is completely bed-ridden.
• Reconstructed: Nikolai undergoes special treatment to prepare his body for being so large and muscular, which is able to prevent all of the adverse size-effects.
• Zig Zagged: Nikolai is only able to temporarily turn into a muscle-bound war machine, and he cannot control the mechanism that enables this transformation, so he randomly shifts from feeble Russian scientist to super-strong meat head.
• Averted: Nikolai is a Perfectly Average Dude nearly indistinguishable from the American average dudes.
• Enforced: The good old USSR is putting out this film, and they would like to portray their soldiers as impressively as possible
• Lampshaded: "The new guy reminds me of bears... he has to be Russian."
• Invoked: As a kid, Nikolai is impressed by the achievements of the Soviet athletes and decides to start training himself.
• Defied: Nikolai was never predisposed to physical strength, so he chose to go with the flow and pursue a scientific career instead.
• Discussed: "Okay, there is no way every man in Russia can bench press 400 pounds..."
• Conversed: "Why are Russian people always portrayed on TV as huge and brutish?" "From exagerrating the facts and to Red Scare, there are a lot of reasons."
• Played For Laughs: When Nikolai gets drunk he Does Not Know His Own Strength, and Hilarity Ensues.
• Played For Drama: Nikolai's fighting skills, perpetual frown, and alcoholism are all caused by the fact that he suffers most.

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