History Quotes / ShellshockedVeteran

->I'm a burden and a travesty\\

-->-- '''Music/NightWish''', "Tenth Man Down"

--''Cassie wonders, with a touch of annoyance at herself, if she’s going to be able to stop automatically mistrusting ex-hosts any time soon. Yeah. Sure. Probably around the time she stops flinching at loud noises and feeling half-suffocated any time she has to put on outer clothes that might restrict her in case she needs to morph in a hurry.''

->Too many puppies, are just like me\\
Too many puppies, are afraid to see\\\
The visions of the past brought to life again\\

-->-- ''Series/PeakyBlinders'''

'''Kara:''' Shut up! That’s Almost Death #2, Then we go back to the 20th and everybody gets into a big gang war with everybody else, and I wind up on Apokolips and save everybody from that damned Anti-Life Equation, and I’m the only one on her feet to fight Darkseid, and he damned near disintegrates me. Almost Death #3. Am I seeing a pattern here? And now... now... you snatch me and Dev from what was supposed to be a peaceful weekend of relaxing and, and seeing the sights, and catching up with old Legion friends and, oh, you know what all else, and now whoomp! I’m in whatever time I’m in, and you say that magic word ‘Darkseid’, and I’m supposed to drop everything and sign up for the latest crusade, and I DON’T WANT TO!\\
[beat]\\
'''Kara:''' (sighing, crouching and hiding her face) I. Am. Just. Getting. So. Damned. Tired.

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

->"Someday this war's gonna end". That'd be just fine with the boys on the boat. They weren't looking for anything more than a way home. Trouble is, I'd been back there, and I knew that it just didn't exist anymore.

->[[StrangerInAFamiliarLand How do you pick up the threads of an old life?]] How do you go on when in your heart, you begin to understand... there ''is'' no going back? There are [[BreakTheCutie some things]] that time cannot mend... some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold.

->NOTHING is "over". Nothing. [[TheRemnant You just don't "turn it off."]] It wasn't ''my'' war. You asked me, I didn't ask you.

->''"I can't get it out of my head. A dream of seven years. Everyday I have this. And sometimes I wake up and I don't know where I am. I don't talk to anybody. Sometimes a day - a week. I can't put it out of my mind."''
-->--'''John Rambo''', ''Film/FirstBlood''

->There was a time I could see. And I ''have'' seen... boys like these - ''younger'' even - their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there is ''nothing'' like [[DespairEventHorizon the sight of an amputated spirit]]. There is no prosthetic for that.

'''[[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} Logan]]:''' Yes.\\

'''Logan:''' [[OlderThanTheyLook All of them.]]

-->--''Film/{{Dunkirk}}''

->You know, it strikes me as the most extraordinary irony that you managed to come through [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo the war]] with flying colours but seem to find the peace so utterly defeating.

->''"I guess you forgot about the time you and Bravo company left my black ass for dead, huh? But I remember. I remember everything. I remember Vietnam like it was yesterday. I remember that village in Tainan that we cut down. It was a massacre. All the dead Chinamen we left in our tracks. I remember the faces, the children. This one child I'll never forget. Poor little bastard was still alive. His little Chinese legs were blown clean off! Still see his little shins & feet hanging from the ceiling fan across the hut. He was charred from his head down to his little Chinese knees. He tried to get up, but he fell over when what was left of his right leg broke off. As he laid there, flat on his face, he looked up at me. His little Chinese eyes burned right into my stomach, deep into my soul. He said something to me in Chinese like, 'Boo coo sow!', sounded like some cartoon shit. But I understood it to be a question that he was asking me. And I don't have to know how to speak Chinese to know what that question was. 'Why, Black Dynamite? Why?'"''
-->--'''Black Dynamite''', ''Film/BlackDynamite''

->We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.

->Black dice... You've been out in the field too long... that's what black dice means. Means the luck of the draw has run out on him. A guy with experience that can see death in another man's eyes. Yeah, the next time the dice of chance roll, they'll roll up black. Death.

->I wasn't battle-happy, or mentally scarred, or hung up with guilt, nor did patrols of miniature Japanese brew up under my bed (as happened to one of my section whenever we came out of the line; we used to tell him to take his kukri to them, and when he had done so to his satisfaction, swearing and carving the air, we all went back to sleep again, him included).

->It's so much worse than you think, Rose. The things that happen over there, the state of things in the trenches, and having to guard my unit at all hours? I changed, I got fit, I changed the way I think, how I sleep and eat, so I can be on guard, always watching for [[{{Ghostapo}} tricks.]] For rats that are a little too smart, or phantoms that would whisper panic into men’s ears while they sleep? For ghouls that... well, they pretend to be soldiers that die like anyone might, but when you let your guard down and search the body, they bite you and get a hungry kind of death into the wound?

->War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know. Then they get a taste of battle. For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. [...] All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. [[DangerousDeserter The broken man]] lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them... but he should pity them as well.

->Just about everyone comes to this crossroad. Some get seventy years, some only get fifteen. Enough time to grow, to take stock of who you are. Enough time to do things you’ll regret when you run out of time.

->'''[[spoiler:Taylor]]''': It's about regret, [[TheseHandsHaveKilled and coming to terms with it all.]]\\
'''[[spoiler:Annette]]''': You're only eighteen. Why are you worrying about something like that at this stage?\\
'''[[spoiler:Taylor]]''': Because I’m done. My life is over, for all intents and purposes. No matter how hard I try from here on out, [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu I'll never do anything one ten–thousandth as important as what I was doing before.]]

->Every night he dreams he is where air curdles his lungs and the sky is a toxic slurry of black and black-red clouds that the earth vomits and the ground is baked to powder and lost boys wonder and [[BodyHorror slough off flesh in clots]] and do not see him or each other though they pass close by howling without words or in a language of collapsing jargon, acronyms and shorthands that once meant something and are now the grunts of pigs.
-->--''[[Creator/ChinaMieville Foundation]]''

->Before the war, this was only packed earth and grass and dirt to me; before the war, I trod this path from home to the capital thinking of the sweetness of rare fruits. Now that my back is to Ayutthaya, the [[SceneryGorn ground is sometimes baked salt where nothing grows and sometimes wet mud bubbling with the voices of the dead]]. Inside my arteries there is blood which throbs and pumps, and my belly growls at emptiness as might a bad-tempered dog. But it is difficult to be sure, after so much soldiering, that one is still alive. It is difficult to be certain this is not all a fever dream.
->It can be difficult to remember who you are, having watched [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suriyothai Queen Suriyothai]] die.
->These are the common ailments of any soldier, though few will admit them.
-->--''Fade To Gold,'' by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

->They... they keep coming back. Yes, yes, coming back, trying to take me away with them... I remember them... Do you know what a cannonball can do, sir? Sometimes they bounce, very funny, ha, and then they are running along the ground, and some lad... yes, some lad from Ireland, with his head full of lies about combat, and in his pocket a badly-drawn picture of his girlfriend, who might have let him tickle her fancy because he was the brave warrior off to fight [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Boney]]... This young warrior sees that dreadful cannonball rolling along on the turf like it's a game of skittles, and so like a bloody idiot he calls out to his mates, such as have survived, and he decides to give it a big kick, not knowing how much force there is left in the ball. Which is quite enough to take off his leg, and not just his leg. [[TheMedic Barber-surgeon, that's me]], the surgeon bit on the battlefield [[MeatGrinderSurgery being somewhat akin to butchery]], but slightly better paid... And I see them now... the broken men, the handiwork of God twisted into terrible shapes, terrible.. and here they come, just as they always come, our glorious heroes, some seeing for those with no eyes, some carrying those with no legs, some screaming for them with no voice... Not enough bandages, not enough medicine, not enough... life... I ''tried.'' I never pointed the weapon at another man, I just tried to help, when the best help you can give is [[MercyKill the gentle knife]], and yet still they come... [[SanitySlippage they come here now, all the time.]].. looking for me... and they say they aren't dead, but I know they are. Dead, but still walking. Oh the pity of it, the pity.
-->--'''Sweeney Todd,''' ''Literature/{{Dodger}}''

->"This is what war does to all of us. It chews us up and spits us out mangled. There's no dishonor in taking a step away to recover. No more than there's dishonor in giving yourself time to heal from a stab wound."
-->--'''Dalinar Kholin''', ''Literature/Rhythm of War''

->The war gave them definition, direction, purpose. Without it, they don't know how to fit in anymore. So they keep looking for ways to go out in a blaze of glory. Some people call that being a hero. Maybe so. I don't know. I've never been one. Me? I think they're looking for something worth dying for because it's easier than finding something worth living for.
-->-- '''Garibaldi''', ''Series/BabylonFive'', "Infection"

->'''Corp. John Russell:''' This medal? I got it when [[MedalOfDishonor I lost my five best friends in a firefight.]] AK-47 rounds. [[SurvivorsGuilt I don't know why I survived.]]\\

'''Russell''': No. No, it's 'cause I was quick. You know that drill? (''at attention'') WHAT ARE [[ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld THE TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD]], SOLDIER?!\\

'''Russell:''' THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, SIR! [[SoundOff WHAT ARE YOU?! THE QUICK! WHAT'RE THEY?! THE DEAD!!]]\\

'''Russell:''' I don't want to be quick anymore. (''leaps to his death'')

->'''Jed:''' You were [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar there?]]
->'''Tom:''' Nun Dat, '68. You?
->'''Jed:''' [[HeroicBSOD Mate, I was there last night.]]
-->-- ''Series/BlueHeelers,'' [[TitleDrop There Last Night]]

->When does it stop - the ringing in your ears?

->I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy.
-->-- '''The Tenth Doctor''', ''Series/DoctorWho'', "School Reunion"

->'''Dalek Sec:''' [[AC: How did you survive the Time War?!]]
->'''Tenth Doctor:''' By fighting. On the front line. I was there at [[CrypticBackgroundReference the fall of Arcadia.]] Someday, I might even come to terms with that.
-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', "Doomsday"

->There's no place I can be\\
Since I found Serenity...

->I'm sorry about your friend Mark. But I think that most of him died somewhere in Kandahar.

-->-- ''{{Series/Supernatural}}''

'''Frank:''' I went too far. I overseasoned it. Men were keeling over all around me. I can still hear the retching, the screaming. I sent 16 of my own men to the latrines that night! They were just boys...\\

->'''Bashir''': Now, I'd like to take a look at this arm-\\
'''Vargas''': (''grabs Bashir by the collar'') The hell are you doin'? You keep your hands off this bandage!\\
'''Bashir''': I need to treat your wound.\\
'''Vargas''': ''Nobody touches this bandage.'' Is that understood?\\
'''Bashir''': Why is that?\\
'''Vargas''': ''I asked you if you understood''.\\
'''Bashir''': Yes...\\
'''Vargas''': (''releases Bashir'') ...[=McGreevy=] put this bandage on me. He ripped up his own uniform to make it.\\
'''Bashir''': He sounds like a good friend.\\
'''Vargas''': He was a jerk, I couldn't stand the guy. He wouldn't shut up. ''Yap yap yap''. He thought he was the world's greatest authority on everything. I know...he's dead, and I should have more respect, but ''God, I hated him''...One minute, he's tying this bandage around my arm, talking his head off, and the next minute, he's lying flat on his back with a hole in his chest...and I just sat there and I looked at him...It was so great...he was so quiet...''ONE TIME IN HIS LIFE, HE'S QUIET!''
--> ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "The Siege of AR-558"

->'''Nog''': Don't you get it? I can't go out there!\\

'''Nog''': .....''I'm scared!'' Okay?! I'm scared! ...when the war began, I wasn't happy or anything, but I was eager! I wanted to test myself! I wanted to prove I had what it took to be a soldier! And I saw a lot of combat! I saw a lot of people get hurt! I saw a lot of people ''die''! ...but I didn't think anything was going to happen to ''me''...and then suddenly, Doctor Bashir is telling me ''he has to cut my leg off!'' I couldn't believe it...I still can't believe it...if I can get shot, if I can ''lose my leg''...anything could happen to me, Vic! I could die tomorrow!...I don't know if I'm ready to face that...
--> ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "It's Only a Paper Moon"

->The other day, a kid threw a snap at me. Before I knew it, I had him in a headlock. ''[{{Beat}}]'' Now, the judge says I gotta clean some parks.
-->'''Ramona''', ''Series/OneDayAtATime2017''

->And so I sit here at this [[DrowningMySorrows bar]] \\
I'm not a hero, I'm not a movie star \\
I've got my beer, I've got my stories to tell \\
But they won't tell you what it's like in [[WarIsHell hell]] \\
Red flowers bursting down below us \\
Those people didn't even know us \\
We didn't know if we would live or die, \\
We didn't know if it was wrong or right \\
We didn't know if we would live or die, \\

-->-- '''Music/{{Sabaton}}''', “To Hell and Back”

-->-- '''Music/{{Streetlight Manifesto}}''', “Your Day Will Come”

I am hanging on the edge

->Disaster lurks around the bend\\

-->--'''Music/{{Dream Theater}}''', "The Enemy Inside"

Our mission was only to get in and kill

->A free vacation\\

Trading innocence for permanent psychotic hell

->Hearing voices from miles away\\

-->--'''Music/{{Dream Theater}}''', "War Inside my Head"

->Now that the war is through with me,
->I'm waking up, I cannot see.
->That there is not much left of me.
->Nothing is real but pain now.

Too many puppies, are afraid to see\\

->The visions of the past brought to life again\\

-->--'''Music/{{Primus}}''', "Too Many Puppies"

->Do they matter - [[FlashbackNightmare those dreams in the pit?]]\\
[[DrowningMySorrows You can drink and forget and be glad,]]\\

The fate of those who perished in the war, \\
For every younger pal or senior vet \\
Left yonder; nor is anybody saying \\
That I could save them, but fell short of saving, \\

->The people I killed...they're not comin' back, Leo. What's left for ME!?

->[[ANaziByAnyOtherName Their]] fires lit up the night. All across Lake Rumare, like stars come to earth. It was beautiful, really.\\

I finally understand what it all means. What its all for. The killing. And the dying.

->There's only so much fight in a person. Only so much death you can take before...

->The winter after the curse was lifted, hundreds of veteran orcs like me were lost to despair. Our minds were finally free, yes... Free to relive all of the unthinkable acts that we had performed under the [[TheLegionsOfHell Legion's]] influence. I think it was the sounds of the draenei children that unnerved most of them... You never forget... Have you ever been to Jaggedswine Farm? When the swine are of age for the slaughter... It's that sound. The sound of the swine being killed... It resonates the loudest. Those are hard times for us older veterans.

->'''The Chief''': Is it possible that you were living out a war flashback, Sarge?\\
'''Sarge''': Aye.\\
'''The Chief''': Let's go ahead and say that's what happened.\\
'''Sarge''': It would explain a lot.

->It's not that I don't want to remember. I have to remember... for those who can't.

->Lately I've been thinking about all the people I've had to kill. God, the first five, ten times you take a life it's eerie, you remember every detail. I can see all their faces, one had a beard. Each time I pulled the trigger I tied a little knot in my memory that no amount of whisky could loosen. Course, eventually I stopped caring, now I can put a bullet through a man's head while thinking about how much KFC to pick up on my way home. It's usually no more than a bucket. The sick part is I've come to love it, snuffing out lives, I crave it! I feel like an angel of death, the messenger of eternal darkness, a merciless demon with an unquenchable th- oh they just put more orange chicken in the buffet, gotta run.
-->--'''Stan Smith''', ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''

->I think I've seen the world almost end so many times now that everything that goes wrong feels that... that extreme. I should be feeling so good these days! The Earth is safe, i-it's Era 3... but I'm- I'm swelling up over these Third-Era Problems. What do I do? How do I move on from all the stuff I've been through? How do I live life if it always feels like I'm about to die?
-->--'''Steven''', ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture''

->Battles leave scars. Some you can't see.
-->--'''Kanan Jarrus''', ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''

->''"It's... It's hard, gramps..." He suddenly deflated a bit, letting go of the bag, "I know I seem like an [[TheStoic uncaring, emotionless]] bastard, but all of this has affected me so badly, I don't even know where to begin. The nightmares are the worst, because I can pretend nothing happened during the day, I can pretend everything's normal and nothing is wrong, but I can't do that when I sleep, and I can't tell anyone about the new ones because [[CaughtInTheRipple nobody fucking remembers]]."''
-->-- '''Jotaro Kujo''', ''Fanfic/JonathanJoestarTheFirstJoJo

->''"It's... It's hard, gramps..." He suddenly deflated a bit, letting go of the bag, "I know I seem like an [[TheStoic uncaring, emotionless]] bastard, but all of this has affected me so badly, I don't even know where to begin. The nightmares are the worst, because I can pretend nothing happened during the day, I can pretend everything's normal and nothing is wrong, but I can't do that when I sleep, and I can't tell anyone about the new ones because [[RippleEffectProofMemory nobody fucking remembers]]."''

'''Frank:''' ''[[[INeedAFreakingDrink pours a glass of whisky and downs it]]]'' Inchon, Korea, 1950. I was the best cook Uncle Sam ever saw, slinging hash for the Fighting 103rd. As we marched north, our supply lines were getting thin. But one day, a couple of [=GIs=] found a crate. Inside was 600 pounds of prime Texas steer... at least, it once ''was'' prime. The use date was three weeks past. But, I was arrogant, I was brash. I thought if I used just the right spices... cooked it long enough...\\

'''Frank:''' Tell that to Bobby Colby! All that kid wanted to do was go home! ''Well, he went home, alright!'' With a crater in his colon the size of a ''cutlet!'' We had to sit him on a cork the entire 18-hour flight home!\\

-->--'''Black Dynamite''', ''Film/BlackDynamtie''

->'''Tom:''' Nun Dat, 68. You?

->'''Jed:''' [[HeroicBSOD Mate I was there last night.]]

->I think I've seen the world almost end so many times that now that everything that goes wrong feels that... that extreme. I should be feeling so good these days! The Earth is safe, i-it's Era 3... but I'm- I'm swelling up over these Third-Era Problems. What do I do? How do I move on from all the stuff I've been through? How do I live life when it always feels like I'm about to die?

--> I think I've seen the world almost end so many times that now that everything that goes wrong feels that... that extreme. I should be feeling so good these days! The Earth is safe, i-it's Era 3... but I'm- I'm swelling up over these Third-Era Problems. What do I do? How do I move on from all the stuff I've been through? How do I live life when it always feels like I'm about to die?

->'''Dalek Sec:''' [[AC: How did you survive the Time War?!]]\\
'''Tenth Doctor:''' By fighting. On the front line. I was there at [[CrypticBackgroundReference the fall of Arcadia.]] Someday, I might even come to terms with that.

-->-- '''Frodo Baggins''', ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Return of the King]]''