Blood Knight / Live-Action TV

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• Anya from The 100. Through almost her entire fight with Clarke, she has a huge grin on her face. Even after being beaten up and almost killed, she's still smiling, and tells Clarke, with genuine approval, "You fought well."
• Lucas from Banshee seems to go out of his way to pick fights where he is outnumbered or outclassed. You can clearly see the joy on his face as he steps up to give or receive a beating. It is implied that this is his way of dealing with all the anger and pain he accumulated during his 15 years in prison.
• Barbarians Rising: Attila is portrayed as far more savage and outright evil than the other barbarian leaders: whereas they're portrayed as lighter-gray freedom fighters, he's invading from outside Rome and simply wants loot and slaughter. Emil Hostina plays him as bloodthirsty bordering on psychotic. This has the effect of making the Roman-Visigothic alliance gathered to stop him into the heroes of the segment, in a reversal of the rest of the series.
• Kara Thrace in Battlestar Galactica, as shown in the following quote.
  Kara: You know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. I'm fighting because I don't know how to do anything else.
• Blackadder: King Richard IV (played by BRIAN BLESSED) is a comedic example, as a man who utterly revels in slaughter, orders his troops to attack his allies (telling them to just dress up as Germans), and goes on Crusades, not so much for religious reasons, as much as because he really likes to kill Turks using small pieces of cutlery. His attitude is best shown by his Rousing Speech before the Battle of Bosworth Field:
  Richard IV: Let blood, blood, BLOOD be your motto. Slit their gizzards.
• Dayna in Blake's 7 is a weapon designer who loves guns and making them more powerful but also enjoys melee weapons because they're "more personal, more exciting". Her official motivation throughout is trying to get revenge for the death of her father, but she's strongly implied to just like fighting in general.
• Buffyverse:
  • Spike. Violence isn't the only thing he lives for, but it's one of his very favorites. A flashback shows that he enjoyed fighting more than killing, and loved to go against the odds, infuriating the more "sophisticated" serial killer vampire Angelus, who much preferred to pick his victims carefully and ensure their helplessness before he got to work. This side of Spike is even more prominently on display when he discovers that his violence-dampening chip doesn't prevent him from harming demons. He is so overjoyed that he can fight again at all, he doesn't even mind that he's helping the good guys by doing so.
  • Angel loves a good slugfest; even when he was just a normal human he continuously got in bar fights aside from whoring around with wenches. After becoming a vampire (Angelus) he plays it smart becoming a Smug Snake but that changes when he gets cursed with a soul and conscience. Angel loves fighting evil and actively disappointed when he can't go hunting, hell the only times where Angel isn't a Blood Knight is when he's Angelus.
  • Charles Gunn, was introduced into the series like this. Slaying vampires every night in L.A, Gunn found the Angel gang's smart careful way of fighting evil "boring" and preferred just to go in swinging. This changes when he and the others join Wolfram & Hart and get a brain upgrade turning him into a super lawyer. Though Gunn still likes roughing it, he enjoys the intellectual position, but his mindset comes at a terrible cost and Gunn goes back to his street-wise personality. Even when faced against almost certain death in the finale, Gun just says he'll take the thousand on the left.
  • Wesley is a unique example, he was Badass Bookworm who was excited to fight evil as a Rogue Demon Hunter and after joining Angel's gang was always apt for one-liners. But after a tragic series of events Wesley mellows out and has a calm collect approach to foes, reminiscent of Jack Bauer.
  • Illyria is quite fond of fighting and violence in general.
    Illyria: I enjoy hurting you.
    Illyria: I've been hitting the half-breed. He makes noise.
    Illyria: Wesley's dead. I'm feeling grief for him. I can't seem to control it. I wish to do more violence.
  • All Slayers are like this. Especially as a vigorous fight and kill makes them "hungry and horny".
• Charmed: Paige, who's the most vocal about killing Cole in series 5 and often the first one to suggest resorting to violence to solve a problem. Fittingly, she wound up becoming the Goddess of War in the Titans two-parter.
• Langston's father on CSI returned from the Korean war but never stopped fighting, and would go out at night to provoke bar fights. He once put several people in the hospital (and wasn't in good shape himself) and declared it "the best night of [his] life!". Langston fears this could be a genetic trait, but nonetheless uses the story and the fact that he became a doctor to assure the son of an infamous Serial Killer that In the Blood doesn't exist.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Sontarans are a race of Blood Knights. In spite of their short stature and potato-like heads, they have evolved towards finding thrill in combat. Born with a crippling weak spot on the back of their necks, they must always face danger head-on. War is all they care to know. When General Staal encounters the Doctor, he shouts angrily, "Legend says he led the battle in the Last Great Time War. The finest war in history and we weren't allowed to be part of it."
    • They're also something of a Proud Warrior Race. Their attitude means that they fight as single warriors with no real tactical cohesion, and so they rely on their individual skill and superior technology. In a straight-up fight with human soldiers using conventional weapons in "The Sontaran Stratagem", they were utterly massacred.
  • In "The Dominators", the junior Dominator is like this, frequently disobeying and risking their plan in order to kill and destroy.
  • Leela of the Sevateem, possibly the most badass and combat-oriented companion the Doctor has ever traveled with, is a rare example of a blood knight who's both female and one of the good guys.
    Leela: Enjoy your death, Rutan! As I enjoyed killing you!
• In The Expanse, Amos seems to be one of these. Although he tries to restrain himself, tries to do the right thing, and even ask the opinions of others if he's not sure a particular course of action is right, he's always just a hair-trigger away from killing someone. And he enjoys it.
  Murtry: Some day I think you and I are going to end up bloody.
  Amos: How about now? I'm free right now.
  In a later episode, after Murtry takes a cheap shot at him: (with crazy eyes and a Slasher Smile) "Thank you."
• Jayne in Firefly seems to live for fighting and killing and using his guns and grenades. He’s a hired mercenary and Token Evil Teammate who seems to be mostly about fighting and sex and how much he’ll get paid to fight.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Jaime lives for fighting until well into the series. You can see his eyes light up when he faces off with Ned, and he even spends his captivity verbally sparring with his captors and generally acting like a caged lion. However, he is also courageous and (in most cases) honorable, as demonstrated by him sparing Ned after one of his men "taints" the victory by stabbing Ned in the leg. When he finally gets a sword in his hands again, his face lights up and he spends a few moments just savouring the fight to come.
  • Robert is an example of what happens when one of these becomes a king with no enemies to fight. He was a fearsome warrior in his prime who loved battle and recalls his first kill in battle as a fond, nostalgic memory. But being king means he can't fight like he used to, he's too valuable and no one would dare risk hitting him back, which infuriates and frustrates him. And ultimately his desire to just hit something gets him killed in a Hunting "Accident". He gets called out for this by Renly during said hunting trip, who is disgusted by Robert's reminiscing about "the good old days," which was a time when the continent got torn apart by strife and tens of thousands died. As Renly points out, Robert loves his killing and became king because he used to be good at it.
  • The Dothraki are an entire race who live this trope. They invoke Duel to the Death so frequently that a Dothraki wedding without at least three deaths is considered a dull affair.
  • The Hound tells Sansa that "killing is the sweetest thing there is." And he further goes on to say that everyone who has ever done it loves it on some level. May be partially subverted, despite his above quote. Most of his fighting he's done has been a means to an end, and he certainly doesn't glorify the act of killing.
  • Gregor Clegane doesn't seem to aspire to any calling higher than rape, pillage, and burning his way across Westeros. It's pretty clear he became a warrior to quench his blood thirst. Subverted in that people who can actually put up a fight just angers him more, he likes killing but not the challenge.
  • Robb shows a hint of this when he declares, "The Lannisters have been running from us since Oxcross. I'd love a fight. The men would love a fight. But I don't think we're going to get one."
  • Ramsay's response to a raid on his home is to declare, "This is turning into a lovely evening," and charge the enemy shirtless and smiling. This is then subverted when he becomes a coward against Jon Snow.
  • Daario declares that killing enemies and consensual sex are the greatest pleasures in life, an understandable worldview for a man who kills people for a living. In "Mockingbird", he even complains about acting as a glorified watchman.
  • Styr looks like he's having the time of his life when he's carving up Night's Watch with his massive axe.
  • Areo Hotah remarks in "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" that facing off with Jaime would have been a good fight once.
  • House Umber love fighting in the front lines. The Greatjon is extremely eager to lead the vanguard.
  • Qhono seems somewhat disappointed with the performance of Lannister soldiers, clearly expecting more of a fight.
  • Euron loves bloodshed like few things in life.
    Euron: When you rushed through the breach and started cutting people down, it was glorious. Like a dance.
    Jaime: The people I was cutting down were your own kin.
    Euron: Place was getting crowded.
• Generation Kill:
  • Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley, who only seemed excited by killing people, even civilians.
  • Cpl. Person gives this memorable rant in response to a child's letter from back home.
    Person: Dear Frederick, thank you for your nice letter. But I'm actually a US Marine who was born to kill, where you have clearly mistaken me for some sort of wine-sipping communist dick-suck. And although peace probably appeals to tree-loving bisexuals like you and your parents, I happen to be a death-dealing, blood-crazed warrior who wakes up every day just hoping for the chance to dismember my enemies and defile their civilizations. Peace sucks a hairy asshole, Freddie. War is the motherfucking answer.
• Heroes: Sylar spent a long time complaining that he didn't want to kill people to get power. Then, in Volume 3, he discovers how to get powers without killing, however, he still kills because it's more fun.
• Kamen Rider Ryuki: Takeshi Asakura is one of the most frightening examples in modern media. A homeless Serial Killer who murdered his own family at the age of 13, Asakura feels a pathological tension that can only go away with senseless violence. When he is not in the presence of other people to fight or is not in a good shape to harm others, Asakura beats himself or asks to be beaten. His wish if he had won the Rider Battle? To fight forever.
• Kamen Rider Ex-Aid has the Graphite Bugster, born from Drago Knight Hunter Z. To him, there is nothing more sacred than a battle, and he is extremely overjoyed when his final battle against Kamen Riders Brave and Snipe lasts for several hours.
• Merlin: Sir Gwaine, an actual knight. In his first appearance, he helps Arthur and Merlin in a bar brawl because they were outnumbered and he likes those odds. In the Season 3 finale, he says he doesn't think Arthur and Co. have any chance of succeeding in their attack to retake Camelot, but he "wouldn't miss it for the world".
• Preacher: When Jesse is finally provoked by Donnie into fighting, it is clear that Jesse deeply enjoys the violence. As soon as he blocks the first punch, he breaks into a big smile.
• Rome: Mark Antony qualifies to a degree, at least in Julius Caesar's mind.
  Brutus: I don't know how you tolerate that man.
  Caesar: He likes to fight.
• Samurai Sentai Shinkenger/Power Rangers Samurai has Juzo/Deker, who wants nothing more than to able to fight for eternity and is very fixated on the Red Ranger as his next Worthy Opponent.
• Sherlock: John had shades of this. Likes the violence and danger of the Afghan war which he was forced out of due to an injury. Plus, he's very good at handing ass to criminals, despite him being a Pint-Sized Powerhouse, because he can get physical (especially if you threaten Sherlock). Though he is pretty clever at solving cases (being a doctor helps).
• Star Trek:
  • All "true" Klingons are this. Even the good ones still love a good scrap. Ur-Example? The Trouble With Tribbles is one, and The Day of the Dove is another, but the latter gets subverted later on.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • An example in the least expected place: Leck, a Ferengi "Eliminator" (read: assassin, he "eliminates competition") who is in his chosen profession for the thrill of a good fight, not for the profit — something that would be unthinkable for most Ferengi (though being in demand certainly doesn't hurt).
    • The Jem'Hadar are created to fight, but they do seem to enjoy it — early on they express disappointment that the Federation ship they're fighting doesn't have any Klingons on it, because they've heard Klingons are the Alpha Quadrant's greatest warriors and are really looking forward to the chance to fight some.
• Supernatural:
  • Dean Winchester. He loves hunting supernatural creatures. In a bit of a twist on this trope, it's not the fighting specifically he enjoys (although he's really good at that), it's the knowledge that the monsters they hunt won't be hurting people any longer.
    Dean: Whaddya say we kill some evil sons of bitches and we raise a little hell.
    • At the end of Season 5, Dean settles down with a girl and a kid and tries to live a normal life. He ends up leaving them for several reasons, the most driving one being the fact that hunting is in his nature. It's a part of him. He voluntarily abandoned a normal family life for a life of hunting evil.
    • In Season 9, Dean gets the Mark of Cain, which ratchets his normal Blood Knight tendencies up whenever he is holding the First Blade and screws with his head — especially his logic and impulse control — even when he's not. In Season 10, he actually loses most of that bloodlust because as a demon he can control the power of the Mark better.
  • War, the red Horseman of the Apocalypse, naturally, as he put it to Sam.
    War You think I'm a monster. I'm jello shots at a party. I just... remove inhibitions.
• Teen Wolf: Werewolf hunter Kate Argent.
• Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: Bisque, a one-off villain with a history to the mentor Doggie Kruger. An out-of-control berserker charged with 999 counts of illegal dueling to the death (all of which he won); he was so bad that he was passed over by his father for control of his family's dojo in favor of Doggie.
• The Wire: Felicia "Snoop" Pearson simply lives for shoot-outs and, by extension, killing. She even gets annoyed during a time of peace and prosperity for her organization's business, a time that most would dream for.
• Workaholics: Karl is a slightly downplayed example of this trope. He likes to fight, but specifically at concerts, getting amped up by the music. The guys refuse to let him go to an Xibit concert with them because of his past, like biting through a little girl's ear and throwing a rock at Reba. At the end of one episode, he pretends to be sleeping with Montez's wife so that they will fight. He displays elements of the Combat Sadomasochist as well — he lets Montez get the first hit in (with a double-headed dildo) and says "oh, hell yeah, bitch" as he gets knocked down. Then he laughs as Montez keeps hitting him.

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