Blood-Splattered Warrior

Some people just look better when they're wearing red.

"Hoooo! Looks like I might have to change my name to Mr. Red! Ba ha ha ha ha ha!"

— Mr. Blank, Sam & Fuzzy

A Blood-Splattered Warrior is exactly that, a combatant drenched in blood. This is often used to show how insanely badass the character is due to the implication that they either took multiple wounds yet stood their ground, or were drenched in their opponents' blood. Or both.

Contrast its Sister Tropes, Blood-Splattered Innocents and Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress for innocents and brides, respectively. Expect Blood Knights, Sociopathic Heroes, and other combat lovers to want to be a Blood-Splattered Warrior. Related to Blood Is the New Black. Not to be confused with or have any relation to Blood Bath.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Baccano!: Invoked. While engaged in killing, both Ladd Russo and Claire Stanfield love to cover themselves with the blood of their victims. Ladd does it for aesthetics, even mandating white suits for him and his men because he likes how blood looks on white fabric, while Claire uses it as a disguise to preserve his Secret Identity when he's going on a killing spree as the notorious 'Rail Tracer'.
• Hellsing:
  • Seras's entire outfit is stained red with blood after she awakens her true vampiric power.
  • During the war, Integra's white Badass Longcoat becomes splattered with blood.
• Guts of Berserk is usually covered in blood after one of his many battles.
• Kirika from Tenchi Muyo! GXP after wiping out a boarding party.
• Rinne from ViVid Strike! after delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to three girls who had been bullying her, which had culminated in not only a heirloom she had been entrusted by her grandfather being broken, but also her being so beaten she was not able to be there where said grandfather died. Note Rinne and all involved were in elementary school at the time.
• In DEVILMAN crybaby, Akira Fudo always ends up getting drenched in demon blood whenever he's fighting them.

Comic Books

• In Red Daughter of Krypton, Supergirl's entire costume is stained with blood after fighting several Lanterns and getting dunked in the Ysmault's Blood Lake.
• Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons: Fittingly enough for a War God, Ares has blood all over his body.

Fan Works

• Fate of the Clans: During the first dream Mikoto has of when Cú Chulainn was alive shows the Servant covered in both his own blood and the blood of his enemies while standing among a field of corpses, shouting "bring it, ya bastards" and having a Slasher Smile, which establishes the savage side of him.
• The Good Hunter:
  • Cyril is covered in dried blood after he slaughtered his way through Lescatie to escape the city.
  • Both Cyril and Talbot were covered in the blood of marauders as the two put a halt to the slaver raid in the village of Glaspire.
• In the Turning Red fanfic The Great Red Panda Rescue, Mei is kidnapped and Ming kills the kidnappers messily.
• In Supergirl story Hellsister Trilogy, Satan Girl often ends blood-stained after every battle.
  The woman in black returned to the palace and brought with her the corpse of the starship's captain. She had stained her costume with blood, and burned it clean with heat from her eyes after tossing the body at her host's feet.
• Hope for the Heartless: Following the Horned King's intense fight against the Mad Pack, he's covered both in the wolves' red blood and the black substance that has replaced his blood.
• The Lost gets plenty of blood on him, his first night back in the realm of the Fae, in Into the Hedge.
• The Slayer in My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator after slaughtering the entire Steel Sabers organization. When confronting Curator and the Volcano Thieves in Chapter 18, his blood covered armor makes the students, Miruko and Melissa wary and fearful of him, while unnerving Dusty Ash, Gust Boy and even Curator.
• No stars in sight: After killing the Nïdhwal, Ikharos finds himself covered from head to toe in the creature's blood and mucus.
• By the end of Kate Kane and Sophie Moore's boxing match in Well-Matched, the two have blood spattered all over their faces, gloves, and shirts.

Films — Animation

• Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods: Subverted with Obelix sporting the look... except he's covered in food. The Romans are just as terrified as if he actually was covered in their blood.
• In Hercules, after cutting his way out of the Hydra, Hercules is covered with the monster's green blood.

Films — Live-Action

• In Die Hard with a Vengeance John McClane emerges blood-spattered from shooting five mooks in an elevator. Zeus asks with concern, "You all right?" McClane replies, casually, "Yeah, yeah, it's not my blood."
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: After Thranduil slaughters a large number of orcs inside Dale with his two elven swords, black droplets of orc blood are smeared across his face and neck.
• A less gory example happens in Iron Man 2 during the final battle, Iron Man and War Machine are battling Hammer Drones and oil splatters in War Machine’s mask. Shortly before Whiplash arrives, both of them are covered in oil.
• John Wick: The titular assassin ends up wearing a lot of blood during his Roaring Rampage of Revenge — other people's, to illustrate why he's legendary even in the world of organized crime, and his own, to show just how much punishment he's prepared to take in pursuit of his goals. Lampshaded when he limps into a Truce Zone after a prolonged fight:
  John Wick: How good's your laundry?
  Charon: [Beat] I'm sorry to say that no one's that good.
• The Killing Room (2009). Several subjects are locked in a room as part of a lethal psychological experiment. In the end, they decide to rush the door next time it is opened, and one of them covers himself with blood from a dead subject to make his body slippery so he can't be grabbed.
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): When Max returns from the fog after killing the Bullet Farmer, he is coated in blood. It's not his.
• Magadheera: By the end of the movie's iconic 100-on-1 fight scene, the warrior, Kala Bhairava is understandably drenched in blood after killing his enemies... all 100 of them. Some of the blood on his body is from his own though, notably the mark on his forehead when he slits his own palm to smear his blood as facial markings.
• Up the wazoo in Shaw Brothers movies, due to the studios apparently spending a sizeable chunk of their budget on red syrup. Most of these comes from copious use of High-Pressure Blood they keep using in their movies, and just to name a few (There's honestly too many to list)...
  • Silver Roc (played by Jimmy Wang Yu) from Golden Swallow in the final battle gets slathered in streaks of blood after spending what seems to be the entire film in a killing spree. His white outfit is coated in plenty of blood, both from his enemies and himself thanks to suffering an Agonizing Stomach Wound.
  • The Assassin (1967) have the titular hero (Jimmy, again) in the finale, when he managed to kill the Emperor - but then must slay his way out of the palace, surrounded by dozens and dozens of guards. There's plenty of red on him too, again from his enemies and himself - especially considering how he ends the film commiting Seppuku while surrounded by mooks.
  • Vengeance! (1970): Guan Xiao-lou (played by David Chiang), the vengeance-seeking protagonist, spends all his scenes in a white suit, which gets splattered in karo syrup in the final battle once he starts slicing up enemies left and right.
  • Duel of the Ironfist, a Spiritual Sequel to Vengeance! (1970), have Chiang-nan the Rambler (Played by the same actor!) kicking ass in a similar white attire, who gets himself bloodied after killing multiple enemies. His co-star (played by Ti Lung) fights barechested instead, and thus have his abs coated in the blood of himself and his enemies.
  • Both the titular characters from The Deadly Duo, as they fled from the enemy camp after their rescue mission. The younger of the two, Hsiao the Bat, then performs a Hold the Line and get himself covered in blood of enemy soldiers. He's finally taken down by a dozen arrows and Died Standing Up, surrounded by his enemies.
  • The Rescue (1971) have both the heroes, and their cadre of ragtag La Résistance members, in two fight scenes where they slaughter their way through legions and legions of Mongol soldiers, which ends with their clothing getting plenty of blood all over.
  • The Devil's Mirror ends with the main characters - the Battle Couple heroes Wen Jian-feng and Bai Xiao-feng, with Xiao-feng's father Master Bai - fighting the main villainess and her platoon of mooks. All three of them gets covered in the blood of numerous enemies in the process.
  • The Lady Assassin have the titular heroine in her final scene - having slaughtered the tyrant Emperor's Praetorian Guard legion, she then kills The Dragon, and the Emperor - both of them by slicing into halves - vertically for the former, horizontally for the latter - and both with High-Pressure Blood to boot. Then she gets cornered by reinforcements and the film ends with a still of the Lady Assassin ready to battle while drenched in red.
    • Earlier on, the La Résistance leader goes through this as well when he fends off a few dozen palace guards while resisting arrest, killing plenty before he gets speared from all directions.
  • The Heroic Ones takes this to the extreme with the fate of the eleventh Prince, Shih, when he have to hold off an entire legion of enemies to evacuate his father. He gets coated in plenty of blood, and at one point gets a curved blade shoved into his guts - only to pull it out and throw it into the thrower's neck.
  • The Iron Bodyguard have the titular bodyguard in this manner after a massive battle in the streets, thanks to him slicing Imperial soldiers to shreds with his BFS. And climbing out from a pile of dead bodies belonging to mooks he killed.
  • Delightful Forest ends with the infamous Duck Hall Massacre (lifted from The Water Margin, the movie's source material) where Wu Song the warrior kills an entire building's worth of his enemies, getting himself covered in red in the aftermath. He even use the blood on his clothes to write a message on the mansion's wall in the aftermath proclaiming that he's the murderer who killed everyone in it.
  • The martial arts classic The Boxer From Shantung ends with the hero, Ma Yung-Zhen fighting hordes of rival gangsters... while having an ax shoved into his abdomen. He does get plenty of blood on him in the process.
  • The climax of The Imperial Swordsman, which have the sisters Shi Xue-Lan and Shi Xue-Mei and their ally, the swordsman Yin Shu-Tang, fighting through a whole fortress of rebels. It's especially notable for Yin since he's the only one in white.
  • Both films from The Water Margin, but especially the Bloodier and Gorier sequel, All Men Are Brothers, with the heroes fighting hordes and hordes of enemies while getting themselves sliced up left and right.
  • The Lady Hermit ends with the titular hermit and her two students fighting the Black Devil and his legion of corrupted martial artists, killing plenty and getting themselves bloodied in the process. It's not too obvious for her students as they're in red and black, but the Hermit is clad in white, and ends up bloodied after she had killed the Black Devil.
  • The Casino, being a gornfest of a film, have the hero Luo finally losing it and killing everyone in the titular location, slicing and dicing left and right with his white shirt coated with red.
  • Flying Guillotine 2: Palace Carnage have the dwindling La Résistance party, led by the hero Ma Teng, battling the tyrant Emperor and his army within palace grounds. All of them ends up coated in red one way or another, with Ma himself nearly drenched in blood by the time he yanked off the Emperor's head from point-blank.
  • Oath Of Death ends with the last of the three brothers, Jin Liang, on a mission to kill his eldest brother who betrayed him, while surrounded by Tartan soldiers, and he must kill his way through dozens of enemies before a direct confrontation.
  • Usurpers of Emperor's Power have this happening to the two heroes; Li Lang while fighting his way through a column of guards in a (failed) attempt to kill the main villain, Xiang Ling after realizing Li Lang is dead and choosing to spend her last minutes fighting off her enemies.
  • Hong Kong Godfather ends with the three protagonists fighting their way through a building full of enemies. All three of them are armed with sharp, edged weapons like machetes and hacksaws, which predictably results in them being bloodied after a night of killing enemies.
  • One of the studio's more recent films, Hero (1997), ends with the hero Ma and his mentor Tam fighting the main villain in an extensive duel after slaughtering nearly a hundred mooks, while sustaining assorted injuries themselves. They're in a predictably bloody mess in the aftermath, with Tam having Died Standing Up.

• In Red Dawn (1984), Daryl is found to be a traitor, Robert shoots him, Daryl falls forward, smearing his blood on Robert's white snow camo.

Literature

• Goblin Slayer: Goblin Slayer deliberately covers himself in blood and grime whenever he goes hunting, to disguise his scent from the goblins.
• Mentioned in Night Watch and Thud!: After Sam Vimes goes through a bunch of enemies, he ends up covered in blood. In Night Watch (involving Time Travel), he tells Coates he's from another time (the future). Coates takes a look at the blood-covered guy in armor Dual Wielding swords and asks "From how far back?" In Thud, the guards run at the sight of him.
• The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny: In The Guns of Avalon, after the climactic battle Corwin is soaked in blood. One of his colleagues tells him he's wounded. He tells them no, he's just tired; the blood is that of his brother. He didn't kill him, though — he got there just as the man was dying.
• Sharpe: Harper poses as a wounded French soldier to get the Chosen Men into a fort (the blood comes from pulling the rotten tooth that's been bothering him all episode). The unfortunate Frenchman who happens to be passing right when the signal is given and gets subjected to a huge man covered in blood leaping up, grabbing him, and growling in his face looks like he needs new pants.
• In The Girl from the Miracles District, Nikita is often covered in blood after a fight. Taken a step further when she goes berserk and literally tears her enemies apart.
• In Jean Johnson's Theirs Not to Reason Why series, Ia finishes a battle where she has some of the enemy's blood on her uniform. But as an incredibly powerful precognitive she knows that she needs to be known as "Bloody Mary" to complete her long-range plans so she accidentally slips and falls into a big puddle of the enemy's blood, causing her to be absolutely drenched in it.

Live-Action TV

• In the Supernatural episode "Caged Heat" (S06, E10), Meg is drenched in blood after slashing her way through the Hell Hounds.
• Game of Thrones: Jon Snow is covered in blood and dirt by the end of the Battle of the Bastards.
  • House of the Dragon: By the end of the final battle against the Crabfeeder, Daemon Targaryen has blood on his face and in his hair. Behind the scenes, separate wigs had to be created for the occasion and it was quite complex to render them red enough, it was found out the paint that was first used became closer to pink once applied.

Podcasts

• Morton Koopa in the Interstitial: Actual Play one-shot A Rush of Sugar to the Head is covered in blood after killing Wreck-it-Ralph with a hammer.

Professional Wrestling

• IWA Japan's King Of The Death Match Tournament was so bloody it instantly made the new promotion a credible competitor to FMW, which until then was the undisputed king of Garbage Wrestling. The event helped create or add to the legends of Hiroshi Ono, Mr. Gannosuke, Shoji Nakamaki, Terry Funk, Terry Gordy, Tiger Jeet Singh and, most famously of all, Mick Foley.
• Any time Big Japan Pro Wrestling books an "Ancient Way" Death Match this trope is unavoidable, as said match involves punching one another with hands coated in broken glass. ECW's variant "Taipei Death Match" is no less bloody.
• CZW's annual Tournament Of Death is guaranteed to produce at least four of these, as the matches always require the use of barbed wire, glass, and other sharp objects. Both wrestlers who worked under the name Wife Beater have images of themselves caked in blood which are iconic to CZW events.
• Prior to Survivor Series 2018, Becky Lynch lead the Smackdown divas to the ring against the Raw divas, during which she was given a stiff punch by Nia Jax that not only gave her a concussion, but also broke her nose. Yet she continues to go on despite blood covering her face and hands.

Tabletop Games

• The samurai in Legend of the Five Rings live according to a strict code of honor, and part of that honor code involves following rules about personal cleanliness. A samurai does not present themselves as dirty or touch corpses, for example. However, it also mentions that only applies in peacetime, and when a samurai is on the battlefield those rules about cleanliness are suspended. As it explains, a samurai who walks off the battlefield covered in the blood of her enemies is hardly someone you would call dishonorable. A samurai is still expected to ritually clean themselves and their equipment once the time for killing is over though.
• This is part of the backstory of one of The Empire's named unit regiments in Warhammer Fantasy. The Carroburg Greatswords held their ground during a civil war between two provinces, taking horrendous losses in the process. At the end of the battle, their side won, but the surviving members of the unit were drenched in blood from all the fighting, staining their white shirts red. The look stuck, and they even painted their armor black for added effect.
• From Warhammer 40,000:
  • The World Eaters legion and their Primarch, Angron. During Angron's days amongst humanity, he was well known for personally leading his legion in vicious frontal assaults which obsessively emphasized melee combat; this practice led to his public image fulfilling this trope as one of his more infamous attributes, earning him the epithet "the Red Angel". With his white and blue-trim armor, he was often told he should just repaint it red, and his legion's colors did eventually change to red and brass. Some in the 40k-verse say they never actually repainted their armor, but just stopped cleaning the blood off of it (smarter characters note that this is disproven by even basic knowledge of chemistry).^note In one novel, a dead Space Marine's corpse was seen by the protagonists in the rain in a pool of blood, and the characters were confused upon seeing the blue-and-white color scheme, as there were no marines using that color scheme in the campaign the story is set in. Then one character pushes the dead marine over, revealing the World Eaters Symbol on the shoulder pad.
  • Angron's brother and ally Konrad Kurze and his Night Lords, who sometimes invoke this trope to make themselves more terrifying. While Night Lords' combat doctrine does seem to focus on melee slightly more than ranged fighting, they're not quite the assault force the World Eaters are, focusing on guerrilla warfare and terror tactics. As such, while they are known for "painting" their armour with blood in intimidating patterns, they more often attach severed body parts and flayed skin. It also helps that their armor inexplicably has electricity arcing across it.

Video Games

• In Battle Realms, a unit who either managed to accrue enough kills (or a fight goes on for long enough) will result in their weapons being stained with the blood of their opponents. The chance for their weapon to be stained with blood increases if an opponent is gibbed.
• The intro for Dawn of War has this (though it's to be expected when the guy is wielding a chainsword).
• A staple in the Dragon Age series: every prolonged fight leaves the melee warriors splattered in gratuitous blood, particularly visible in cutscenes that ensue.
• Dragon Age: Origins: During the city elf origin, there comes a point where a noble tells one of his men off for not noticing that you are drenched in the blood of his guards.
• Downright guaranteed for any troops that fight in a melee in Total War series within and past Shogun 2, if Blood DLC is owned.
• Exit Limbo: Opening starts off with you wearing bloodstained clothes after regaining consciousness, and as the game goes on your attire gets progressively bloodier and covered in spilled guts thanks to the simply insane amount of over-the-top fatalities you can pull off.
• Stryker's win pose in Mortal Kombat 9 (should the player not perform a Fatality) has him toss a grenade to his off-screen opponent, blowing up their body and covering his face with their blood. By the time a typical fight ends in Mortal Kombat 9, you will typically be covered in blood — either your own or your opponent's.
• ULTRAKILL:
  • The Killer Robot protagonist V1 has this trope as their only source of healing (other than finding secret powerups that double V1's health). However, this only works if V1 hurts or kills their enemies at close range, most preferably with a shotgun.
  • The Sisyphean Insurrectionists still have their hands and feet utterly drenched in the blood of their enemies centuries after their rebellion ended. The Terminal entry notes they take care to keep them this way both out of defiance and to protect themselves from the burning-hot gold dust that serves as sand within the Greed layer. The Prime Soul of king Sisyphus himself is similarly bloodstained, an indelible mark of how he went down fighting in the rebellion.
• Certain win conditions in Samurai Shodown 4 and 5 will leave the player character drenched and dripping with the opponent's blood.
• Dwarf Fortress: It is not uncommon, especially in adventure mode, to quickly become covered in blood. This is fortunate, since you may run out of water.
• The Dofus Sacrier class have their arms coated in blood. They then use the blood to attack their foes.
• Mount & Blade has this for both people who have sustained injuries or dealt them. After a battle, especially one where the player has a large bladed weapon as their primary equipment, there's a fine crimson layer on most player and horse models by that point.
• Due to the way Team Fortress 2 handles blood decals, they only appear on a player when they are shot by any projectile that isn't an explosive or fire-based, as well as melee attacks. It also has zero indication on actual healthiness because a medic could be healing that heavy, meaning he could look like he's covered in his own blood, yet has well over his normal allotment of 300 HP.
• God of War III even goes as far as to have an achievement/trophy for having had a given number of gallons of blood coating Kratos.
• Grunt in Mass Effect 3 after surviving a wave of rachni husks, provided you secured his loyalty in the previous game.
• In Drakengard 3, the more Zero fights, the more blood-drenched she is. The blood is actually used to fuel her Super Mode, which leaves her clean after it's all used up.
• Similarly, Bloodborne also deals with blood splatter as an important tool to survive. Since this game is basically a spiritual sequel to the Demon's Souls series, but with blood as the main theme, it's obvious that covering yourself in the blood of your enemies is usually a good thing. Player characters drink vials of blood potions instead of estus flasks, blood is used as currency for items and upgrades, and characters can now heal by splattering themselves with blood quickly after taking damage.
• As Eddie Riggs decapitates Doviculus, Eddie screams out "DECAPITATIOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNN!!" as he's showered in the demon's blood.
• The Dead Rising series will usually have whichever hero of that game become increasingly coated in blood as they hack up zombies or are themselves attacked. The blood will at least fade, but let's hope that Frank/Chuck/Nick are paying their dry cleaners well.
• Bravely Second Introduces a character by the name of Geist the Bloody. One could be forgiven for thinking he's wearing a red coat. (It's actually white.) After getting his Asterisk, any character who takes on the Exorcist class gets a similar blood-soaked white outfit. Which is a bit silly when it's, say, Yew.
• From The Elder Scrolls series' backstory, Pelinal Whitestrake, the legendary hero of mankind/racist berserker, first appeared in the camp of St. Alessia "drenched" in Ayleid blood. This would be far from the last time, as later tales tell of his "white hair gone brown with elfblood".
• Several mechanics in Mary Skelter: Nightmares revolve around this. When Marchens take a Critical Hit, have their weakness struck, or are Overkilled, they spray Alien Blood onto the Blood Maidens. When a Maiden is covered with enough blood, they either enter Massacre (if the splattered blood is clear) or Blood Skelter (if the splattered blood is muddied due to taking heavy damage or watching a teammate fall). Dedicated Support Party Member Jack can spray his blood onto a Maiden to purify her, though at the risk of incapacitating himself due to blood loss. Maidens can lick the blood off of each other for support effects. And finally, blood of specific types is used for character upgrades and job changes.
• In Noita, you can become a blood-splattered witch. Both player and enemies can be soaked in blood, which protects against burning and also gives a chance to deal a Critical Hit more often.
• Wanted: Dead: When fighting in melee, Hannah quickly becomes covered in the blood and guts of the enemies she's slicing apart, to the point she has to shower when she gets to HQ after every mission.

Visual Novels

• When facing the Demon Tsukuyomi in Spirit Hunter: NG, Akira rushes forward and attacks it with a katana, spraying its blackened blood all over him. Since he has the power of psychometry, which is activated when he touches blood, this actually provides him an important clue to Tsukuyomi's involvement with Kakuya.

Web Comics

• Girl Genius: During his brutal fight with Zola in Castle Heterodyne Higgs gets covered in his own and her blood, which makes him look quite imposing when he manages to chase her back down after she escapes to try and kill Agatha.
• Mara: When Mara first gets her axe, it reportedly got the site's advertising restricted. Perhaps adsense didn't appreciate showing multiple bodies and an eight year old girl dripping blood?
• In Necropolis, the immortal rulers of Hyberia, the Seer King and Conquerer Queen, have a falling out after the Seer King has a vision where he sees himself killed by his wife and the realm fallen into ruin. As a result, the Seer King attempts to pull a coup against her while she is away from the capital on a matter of state, kicking off a wave of instability and violence across the country. When the tide of violence reaches the area the queen was visiting, she needs to personally take up arms to put it down. Cue a page showing the Queen covered in the blood of her former subjects, her eyes absolutely shining with fury.
  And the Queen, for the first time in her long, bloody life, took up the sword against her own people. She cut down those who led the mob, conscripted the remains, then brought the stronghold, then the district, then the city under her control. Only when the whole province had been subdued did the Queen, still painted in the blood of her subjects, stand still. And in that stillness she vowed to paint herself in the blood of whatever creature (man, woman, or god), had dared disturb Hyberia's millenia of peace.
• Unsounded: While putting down the Foi-Hellick rebellion Lemuel often had "war rouge" on his gloves and boots and a little splattered elsewhere, but when Duane finds him on the burning battlefield while singing about Ssael killing the gods after Danila was killed he's properly covered in blood, some of it his own.

Web Original

• The Jenkinsverse: In chapter 26 of The Deathworlders, Adam Arés becomes one of these when his Dynamic Entry into a combat zone involves killing six hostiles in a handful of seconds, one of whom he crushes by the simple expedient of landing on them at speed. The sight (and smell) of him afterwards repulses and dismays his ex-girlfriend Ava.

Western Animation

• American Dad!: In "Season's Beatings", Stan comes home from his Mall Santa job, his suit covered in blood from him beating the shit out of Roger.
  Francine: Oh, my God, what happened to you?!
  Stan: (beat) I sat next to Courtney Love on the bus, and she sneezed.
• Samurai Jack: but with oil instead of actual blood, because it's a kid's show. This is subverted in Season 5, since the show moved to [adult swim], though.

Real Life

• Legend has it that the Austrian flag's creation is related to this. Arch-Duke Leopold V of the Österreich was soaked in blood from a battle, and took off his belt - under which his clothes were still white. Apparently he liked that sight well enough to make it the (new) flag of his Duchy.
  • The very similar-looking Latvian flag has a similar story.
• After the Battle of Lepanto Genoan Admiral Andrea Doria was covered with the gore from a round shot which had caught an unlucky sailor next to him. In a subversion, he had spent most of the battle harassing the Ottoman flank rather than in the thickest part and the blood spattering was a fluke.

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