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"Today Is a Good Day for Someone Else to Die!"
It's time for the hero to go to battle, to take action, to strive. Surely such a moment is worthy of an exclamation. If the hero (and it's almost always a hero) is up to it, he might produce a one-off Pre Ass Kicking One Liner suitable for the occasion. It's not rare, though, to instead utter an appropriate Catch Phrase: the hero's trademarked Battle Cry.
A Battle Cry is usually written in title caps, and ends with an exclamation point or three.
This is more frequently a convention of comics, animation and video games than of live action, for some reason.
They have also appeared historically, in Real Life. Helps with Friend or Foe situations.
A common variation is calling out "Geronimo!" while leaping from a great height (usually when parachuting out of a plane). This is derived from an Apache chief known as Geronimo, notorious for the seemingly suicidal raids he would undertake while using his name as a battle cry, leading to his name's association with insane endeavors.
Compare Rousing Speech. Screaming Warrior is sometimes an instance of this trope. Might also manifest as the dreaded Funny Bruce Lee Noises.
Contrast In the Name of the Moon, which is a longer speech and happens before the fight really starts.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Gundam 00, Graham Aker: "HOOOOOOOOOWAAAAARD MAAAAAAAASOOOOOON!!!!!!!"
- Members of Blue Cosmos are fond of "For the preservation of our blue and pure world!"
- And, of course, there's the original "Sieg Zeon!" (Changed to "Hail Zeon!" in early dubs, although retained in Gundam Unicorn.)
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
- Squalo's: "VOIIIIIII!!!"
- Ryouhei's: "TO THE EXTREME!!"
- And Tsuna's: "___ AS IF I WERE TO DIE!"
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
- In Angel Densetsu, both Kitano's "KIIIEEEEEEEE!", and his father's "GUOOOOOOH" are taken as such by (and scare the crap out of) everyone else.
- Eyeshield 21
- The Devil Bat's, "WE'RE GONNA KILL 'EM! YA-HA!"
- In fact, every opposing thematic teams have their own themed Battle Cry (such as the Ojou White Knight's "Glory on the Kingdom !" or the Seibu Wild Gunmen's "Gun Gun Go!").
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
- Unlike the Memetic Mutation would have you believe, Dio Brando uses this not only after having finished off an opponent, but also during doing so.
- There's also Jotaro Kujo's famous " ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!"...
- Gun X Sword: Van and his cries of chesuto!
- Pokémon "[Pokémon name] I CHOOSE YOU!" or "GO [Pokémon name]!" kind of serves as a battle cry many times. So does Team Rocket's motto, which ends with "Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
- Pyramid King Brandon always says "[Pokemon], I need your assistance!" as a battle cry.
- Ash's Sinnoh region rival, Paul, has the battle cry "[Pokemon], Stand by for battle!"
- When Dawn send out her Pokemon for a contest, her cry is "[Pokemon], Spotlight!"
- Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai has "Reality, be rent! Synapse, break! Banishment, this world!", universally used by those having their teen delusion of grandeur (chuunibyou) to commence a delusion battle.
Card Games
Comics — Books
- The Tick
- The Tick parodies this convention with "Spoon!"
- And his sidekick Arthur's "Not in the face! Not in the face!"
- Fantastic Four
- Ben Grimm: "It's Clobberin' Time!"
- Mark Waid once said that the Avengers' battle cry is "Avengers Assemble", and the Fantastic Four's is "Johnny, wait, don't!"
- Johnny Storm also has "Flame on!", which he says whenever he bursts into flames to attack an enemy. He doesn't have to say it (as evidenced by all the casual setting-himself-on-fire he does when not fighting), but he almost always does.
- In the Ultimate universe, Johnny did have to say "Flame on!" whenever he wanted to use his powers, before he became more competent with his powers. Conversely, he also originally had to say "Flame off!" when he wanted to return to normal.
- Captain America
- "Avengers Assemble!" The phrase can and is said by any Avenger, but Cap seems to say it the most. Sometimes, for added pathos, "Avengers" is drawn out or has its own explanation point, and back in the '80s the team sometimes used "Avengers! Attack!"
- Lamp Shaded in JLA-Avengers during the final battle, where they are technically fighting under the Avengers name (since Captain America is in charge). Everyone screams "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!", and then the Wasp adds in for the benefit of her friends from The DCU: "And Justice Leaguers, uh— LAMBASTE!"
- Inverted in the Civil War arc series, in which the Registration detractors under Captain America shout "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" and Bishop replies "What's he talking about? I though our side was the Avengers?"
- The Teen Titans have "Titans Together!" In the animated series, it was just "Teen Titans, Go!" or "Titans! Go!"
- The Thunderbolts (infrequently) used to have "Justice like Lightning! Thunderbolts!"
- Howling Commandos: "WA-HOO!"
- Usagi Yojimbo: "RYAAAAAAAAAAA—"
- Blackhawk: "Hawkaaa!"
- Incredible Hulk: "HULK SMASH!"
- Possibly parodied by Birds Of Prey's Misfit with "DAAAARKK VENGEEAAANCCE!" (She's a Batgirl wannabe, you see.)
- In Battleground: Tattooine, some Imperial troopers abandoned into slavery on Ryloth are scooped up by the Rebels and allowed to go after their old commander.
◊ "SEMMM-TIINNNN!"
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- In an all-Wolverine edition (it's complicated) of the Sliders-esque Exiles comic, the little girl Wolverine-thing (it's even more complicated) asks "Anyone have a battle cwy?" Zombie Wolverine responds with "Lunchtime!"
- In one battle, Loki actually wound up on the same side as Thor and Odin while all of their allies were elsewhere. As the three launched themselves at their giant foe, Odin shouted, "For Asgard!" Since Earth was also endangered, Thor yelled, "For Midgard!" And Loki? Loki proclaimed, "For Myself!"
- Namor has "Imperius Rex" which translates out as something like "Power of the King" or to put it more simply, "You're about to get your backside handed to you cause I'm Namor, bitch!"
- The Wreckers from Transformers have one: "WRECK AND RULE!"
- ElfQuest: "AAAYOOAHH!"
- American Vampire: "Semper Fi, motherfuckers!"
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Casey Jones in the Mirage Comics had the phrase, "GOONGALA!" It's seldom remembered in other works.
Fan Works
- In With Strings Attached, the Hunter yells the name of his BFS during battles: “Blackfire! Blackfire!”
- In Ace Combat The Equestrian War, Cloud Kicker comes up with a battle cry for the Mirage squadron: "May the sun and moon shine upon us!"
- The Immortal Game: Rainbow Dash coins one for the pegasi Loyalists. Twilight borrows it when she fights alongside them during the Battle of the Everfree.
Rainbow Dash: Thunder and lightning!
Troops: Wings and steel!
- In the Dashverse story Hot Heads, Cold Hearts, and Nerves of Steel, we have this exchange when the group is going to enter Sombra's palace, and Applejack asks if anyone has anything to say for inspiration.
Zecora: There is a seapony battle cry of which I am aware. Cry halibut and let slip the cods of war!
beat of silence as everyone else stares
Zecora: …I said it was a battle cry. I never said it was good, by the by.
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
- Starship Troopers: "Come on, you apes! You wanna live forever!?"
- This line is based on a real-life battlecry uttered by Medal of Honor recipient and historical badass Daniel Daly, during the Battle of Belleau Wood.
- From The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, before Théoden and the Rohirrim charge at Minas Tirith: "Arise! Arise, Riders of Théoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! A sword day... a red day... ere the sun rises! Ride now!... Ride now!... Ride! Ride to ruin and the world's ending! Death! Death!! Death!!! FORTH, EORLINGAS!!!"
- Perhaps due to it being a fancy way of saying, "Let's all go get killed", this has been described as "worst... speech... ever." The delivery makes up for it, but see Literature, below.
- There is Aragorn's cry of "ELENDIIIIIIIIIL!" in the first film, as well.
- The whispered "For Frodo" before the charge at the Black Gates should count as well.
- Braveheart: "FREEDOOOMM!"
- Used with great effect by Iron Maiden in the Filk Song "The Clansman".
- In the same movie: "ALBA GU BRATH!"
- Hot Shots! lampshades this with soldiers jumping out of an airplane : (Soldier 1) Geronimo!!! (Soldier 2) Geronimo!!! (Native American) Me!!!
- Red Dawn 1984: "Wolverines!!!"
- The film adaptation of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe has "For Narnia! And for Aslan!"
- Hook gives us the Lost Boys and "Bangarang!"
- Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves: "GOD AND KING RICHARD!"
Gamebooks
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Pro Wrestling
- From wrestling: "Let's Get Ready to Rumble!" is the odd example of a battle cry uttered by a third party.
- Very odd, as you won't hear it during any Pro Wrestling event held since WCW ended. Michael Buffer, boxing announcer and MC— who occasionally introduced WCW main events — has trademarked the phrase and has been somewhat aggressive against those who use it — not surprising as according to The Other Wiki, he's made $400 million off of those five words alone... (Buffer's introductions are deleted from WWE 24/7.)
Sports
- In team sports, a collective battle cry before the match is not uncommon.
- The All Blacks, New Zealand's national rugby union team, start every game with the Haka, a Maori war chant. Perhaps a bit more organized than the Trope category calls for, but impressive nonetheless. Ironically, haka Ka Mate is not a war haka, and the current haka was written specifically for the All Blacks.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40000: Every Space Marine chapter and legion has their own battlecry, though virtually every Imperium force may use "For the Emperor!" and "The Emperor protects!".
- The orks have the ever-recognizable "WAAAAGGGGH!"
- The Eldar use "For the Craftworld!" in Dawn of War, but background material also includes "KHAINE!" and a wordless scream from the Howling Banshees.
- Khorne worshippers has "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" as a Catch Phrase.
- There's also a joke warcry for Slaaneshi cultists: "Porn for the Porn God! Smut for the Smut Throne!"
- Warhammer 40000 also includes a number of memorable subversions: for example, in His Last Command, the Tanith 1st have been merged with the 81st Belladon to become the 81/1st (recon). Their commander muses on the difficulty of merging all the regimental traditions, and notes that a Battle Cry of "Fury of Belladon, for Tanith, for the Emperor, and, by the way, Remember Vervunhive!" gets full marks for effort, but'll leave you dead in a slit trench before you can finish saying it and get on with the fight...
- This is so ubiquitous that the Tyranids and Necrons are noted as being especially creepy for not using them. Furthermore, the Legion of the Dammed are noted for fighting in "disturbing silence".
- The various Chaos Legions each have their own, ranging from the Iron Warriors' monotone chant of "Iron Within, Iron Without" to the Night Lords' "We have come for you!"
- Warhammer Fantasy has the same warcry for orcs and it even has an official spelling (it's always spelled WAAAGH!, though the alternate capitalization Waaagh! can be used when referring to an Ork army instead of the battle cry itself). The Khorne worshippers uses the same as in 40k. The regiments of renown also had a warcry each.
- Legend of the Five Rings: The Crab Clan usually employ "HIDA!!!" as a battle cry.
Theater
Video Games
- World Of Warcraft
- Beyond Good And Evil: "CARLSOOOOON AAAAND PPEEETERSSSSS!"
- Halo
- Elites frequently yell "WORT WORT WORT!" as combat begins. Interestingly, it was made from taking "Go, go go!", reversing it, and speeding it up.
- "I am THE ARBITER!"
- Any depiction of the US Marines (Call of Duty, Halo etc) will likely feature their trademark "Oorah!"
- The units and factions of the Command And Conquer series have various battle cries. For example:
- Allied GI's in Command And Conquer Red Alert 2 use the US Army's "Hoo-ah!" while Navy SEAL's utter the (inaccurate) cry, "Hoo-rah!"
- The Badass Creeds of the Brotherhood of Nod — "Kane lives!", "Peace through power!", and "One vision, one purpose!" — are often uttered as battle cries (the foremost is especially popular).
- For some reason, the marines in Haze say "Boosh!"
- Sudden Strike
- The Russian infantry sometimes yell "Oora za Stalina!" ("Hail Stalin!")
- From the Allies, "Eliminate them!" and from the Germans the equivalent "R?n Sie aus!"
- The tanks take the cake though, specifically the Russian ones: "Nizu sen!" "Ejevash, voyo!"
- Bioware loves this trope.
Dynaheir: For right! And I always am! Minsc: GO FOR THE EYES BOO! GO FOR THE EYES! RAAAAARGH! Xzar: I AM BECOME DEATH! DESTROYER OF WORLDS! Edwina: I feel your stares! DIE! DIE! Jan Janssen: Your knees are mine! (and) This isn't boring, I'll give it that! Jaheira: FOR THE FALLEN! (and) NATURE! TAKE THE LIFE SHE GAVE! (and there's also) FALL, CREATURE! AND FEED THE EARTH! Mazzy: Arvoreen! Guide my blade! Viconia: L'il Alurl! FOR SHAR! Sarevok: Death Comes for you! FEEL it's Icy breath! Xan: Onwards! To futility! Flaming Fist Mercenaries: I SERVE THE FLAMING FIST!" (and) I AM THE LAW! Irenicus: You will SUFFER! You will ALL Suffer! Ogres: Me will CRUSH you! Crush you to GOO! Ogrillons: Time for some CARNAGE! Bandits: So I kicked him in the head till he was dead! Hahaha! A random mage has the memorable "Prepare to be eviscerated! FOOL!"
Trask: For the Republic! Carth: Down you go! Bastila: You cannot win. / For the Jedi! Mission: Just die already! Juhani: For the Order! / For the Republic! / I will be your doom!" Canderous: This is what I live for! / This is gonna be fun! / DIE!! Jolee: Never too old for this! HK-47: (cheerfully) Combat mode ACTIVE!
- Dragon Age: Origins has Sten's Qunari one and Alistair's cry of "For Ferelden! FOR THE GREY WARDENS!!!" before the final battle.
- The sequel has some memorable ones - Merrill's "May the Creators have mercy on you - I certainly won't!", Aveline's "You are not enough!" and Anders: "MY MAGIC WILL DESTROY YOU!" (or just screaming)
- Mass Effect 2 has Grunt's "I. AM. KROGAN!" whenever he charges.
- The Reapers make an extremely loud foghorn
like noise, which seems to serve as a battlecry, given the situations in which they use it.
- Considering their working relationship with Bioware, Obsidian also loves it.
- Never Winter Nights has one of the custom voice-sets ("High Strung Evangelist") use the battle-cry "Attaaaack ah saaaayyyy attaaaack!" It's awesome.
- Kingdom Hearts has a few.
- The World Ends With You
- When performing a Combination Attack, Neku and his partner each have half of one: "Ready to Die?" "Then die!"/ "Follow my lead!" "Screw that!"/"Pick it up, Phones!" "I'm there!"
- "Another world awaits." "And you're going."
- Team Fortress 2 has at least one per class, and complement the initial mad charge when the round starts quite nicely.
- Urban Dead has quite a few of these
, primarily used by zombie groups speaking zamgrh. The most common and famous is BARHAH!
- Metal Wolf Chaos: RICHAAAAAAARD!
- Every (non-monster) NPC in The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind makes a battle cry before attacking (things like "Now you die!" etc.).
- From Dawn of War II, we have this rather epic rally cry: "Show me what passes for fury amongst your misbegotten kind!", among others "Purge the alien!"
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- The Legend Of Zelda: Link's famous screams. "HYAAA! EYAAA! HAAAA!"
- Tales Of Symphonia had a few, from the main characters and from the humanoid enemies. Genis usually had the most elaborate ones. "Form a torrential vortex and engulf the evil spirits!" Zelos, however, had my favourite, "Don't run!", said in such a smug, taunting way.
- From Tales Of Destiny 2, there's Barbatos Goetia and his memorable "BURUAAAAAAAA!". Additional Rs are sometimes added (And rolled) to increase how hammy it is.
- In Persona 3, the main character yells the name of whichever Persona he's summoning when he gets a critical. When equipped with a bow, he will also yell "Persona!" or "Come forth!". Others have their own battle cries, my favourites being Aegis's "I need your HELP!" and Junpei's "Mano a mano. Let's do it!". The most traditional Battle Cries come when you do an All-Out Attack, however. Mitsuru's "You'll fall by MY hand!!" is the best example here.
- The title character of Legacyof Kain is fond of yelling out "Vae Victus!" when fighting.
- Evil Zone: The de facto main character of the game Danzaiver proclaims and sometimes fervently barks out the excessively dramatic battle cry " The power of a supreme ruler destroys evil! The ultimate hero! DANZAIVER!!! ". A prime example of this is in his final battle.
- League of Legends: Garen's DEMACIAAAA! has entered memetic status within the community. Lux and Jarvan IV yell out a similar cry of their nation while casting their ultimate abilities.
- Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 seldom generate character's line before using magic and skills. While some of them being total stupid, some are really awesome.
Lulu: (casting Waterga) Let's see you under pressure.
- Quite a few characters in No More Heroes have one, but a boss from the sequel, the robotic Doctor Letz Shake takes it the most literally.
Doctor Letz Shake: Three... Two... One... Battlecry!
- In Kingdom of Loathing, if you have access to the Distant Past where you take control of Krakrox the Barbarian, you have access to his Mighty Shout ability, wherein his battle cry gives a temporary boost to your muscle and moxie. The description of the boost explains that Krakrox's battle cry was just "Battle cry!", as he discovered it doesn't really matter what you shout, so long as it's extra loud and has a vowel sound at the end.
- Solid Snake has possibly the world's quietest Battle Cry: "It's showtime."
- Practically all fighting games.
Ryu: The answer lies...in the heart of battle.
- In Final Fantasy XIII, after entering the Cradle, Lightning replaces her usual Pre Ass Kicking One Liners with "I am nobody's slave!" whenever she launches her Signature Move "Army of One".
- Thanks to the player character's nature in The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, you have a whole host of battle cries to choose from, all in the dragon language. And no matter which one you opt for, it spells bad news for your enemies.
- Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 The Rival: Prepare to feel my wrath! (directed at Team Plasma).
- Far Cry 3: Sam, being German*
actually American, but raised in Germany , has one:
Sam: "BLITZKRIEG!"
Jason: "...seriously?"
- Imperial troops in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion frequently holler "For the Emperor!" as they charge. The Blades add "For the Blades!" There are also a few gloriously hammy battle cries specific to members of the Mythic Dawn, such as "Lord Dagon will welcome your soul in Oblivion!" and "Be glad you will not live to see the day Dagon walks the earth!"
- There's a dedicated button to scream out a war cry in Chivalry Medieval Warfare. Pressing it while running will make your character yell at the top of their voices, while pressing it while standing still with make them say something vaguely inspirational.
Agatha Knight: FOR THE GLORY OF AGATHA!!!
Web Comics
Web Original
- The Whateley Universe has a high school team called the Vindicators, who are a parody of the Avengers, so they have a battle cry too. "Vindicators Avaunt!" (Their leader is Belgian.)
- Though the regulars in AH Dot Com The Series don't really have one, the Pole Trolls of The Other Wiki were known to use "CITATION NEEDED!"
- In the short series of animations based on the DS game Spectrobes released online, main character Rallen has "Iku ze!" (yes, in the English dub) as his Catch Phrase / Battle Cry.
- Spoony would shout out "Wolverines!"
- Film Brain once used "Symbolism" as a battle cry in Kickassia
- The Gamers has Mark The Red's battle cry: "Blood, Death, and VEENNNGGGEEEEAAANNNCCCEEEEE!!!!!!"
Western Animation
Real Life
- The Other Wiki has an extensive list
of Real Life battle cries, as well as some fictional examples. A particularly notable is the one used by the Japanese in WWII ("Banzai!").
- Yelling the words "Attack!" or "Charge!" in relevant situations may very well count as a Battle Cry, with good reason, since in those relevant situations it likely also counts as an order or "advice" to the yeller's allies.
- "Fire!" may also count.
- Teddy Roosevelt added to the mounting evidence that he was a Badass at the battle of San Juan Hill when he ordered his Rough Riders not to "Charge" but to "Follow me!" Which btw happens to be the motto of the Infantry Officer's School.
- The Scots Covenanters' battle cry (from the English Civil War, which spilled over into Scotland) was "Christ and No Quarter!" Short, terrifying, and internally inconsistent.
- HAKKAA PÄÄLLE! Litteraly translates as "Hack them down!" or "Keep on hacking!". War cry of the Finnish auxiliary cavalry. Also short, to the point and completely pants-shittingly terrifying.
- This war cry is today used by Finnish ice hockey fans.
- Finnish cavairy didn't follow the normal battle tactics of the time. Instead of "shoot-retreat-reload-repeat" they went "shoot-shoot-CHARGE". For a soldier who was used to the former, this could be a major Oh Crap moment.
- This war cry was also popular during the Winter War. Another, popularized by The Unknown Soldier, was "Tulta munille!", which roughly translates to "Fire at their balls!", as according to The Other Wiki.
- Aayo Gurkhali!note Here come the Gurkhas!
- Even hotter tip: If you hear this, run the fuck away.
- The Sikhs have this: "Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal!"note "Victory belongs to those who recite the name of God with a true heart!"
- While the US Marine Corps is known for saying "Semper Fi", they are just as likely to issue forth a loud, guttural OORAH.
- Those families or clans that fought in the Crusades were awarded a Coat of Arms, and these would have the clan's battle cry on a banner above the helm. The clan motto is always placed below the shield. The pattern on the shield and the battle cry were critical devices for determining true allies from imposters.
- During The American Civil War, Confederate soldiers had a distinctive, blood-curdling "Rebel Yell" that was terrifying to Union soldiers. Sadly, nobody today knows what it actually sounded like, given that audio recording technology had yet to be invented.
- Allied fighter pilots in World War II used "Tally-ho". Germans used, "Horrido". Both of these naturally enough, were originally hunting calls.
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