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alt title(s): The Determinator; Never Give Up 
"I don't know the meaning of the word 'surrender'!... I mean, I know it, I'm not dumb... Just - not in this context." - The Tick
"Listen, and understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. " - Kyle Reese, Terminator
Every characters needs a certain amount of Heroic Willpower, but there are some who take it just too far. The personification of raw perseverance, this is the character - good guy or bad, and usually male (but not always) - who never gives up. Ever. No matter what. Whatever other attributes he may possess, his persistence stands out.
There is no stopping the Determinator. He does not understand patience. He does not Know When To Fold Em. No one can reason with him. No price is too great to pay for success, up to and including his own life (and others'). He'll do whatever he has to do. Do not expect him to consider he might be better off letting it go, even if he can barely stand. Giving up is just not in his nature.
The nobility of his goal is in no way proportionate to his persistence. This is just as often an obsessive rival with a grudge as it is a hero on a chivalrous quest. In such cases, his determination could actually be what makes him sympathetic.
Whether his super willpower ultimately leads to his victory or destruction tends to depend on his position. For heroes, "hit the villain until he drops" is a virtue that will be rewarded in a My Name Is Inigo Montoya moment - the villain loses simply because the hero is too stubborn to stay down.
For anti heroes, it's a sign of why they're too insane to be heroes. Anti heroes tend to lack genre blindness in this role, often looking down on their heroic counterparts for whom victory/success comes more easily. This makes the Determinator hard to fit on the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism - at times he seems to stand off to one side of the Scale and reach for both ends at once.
As for villains, especially those heavily influenced by comic book/cartoon cliches, this streak is occasionally written into their usually one-dimensional personality via We Will Meet Again.
In any case, you admire his dogged persistence even in the same breath that you might have to say, "What an idiot!". There is no line for him between "perseverance" and "insanity."
Compare Heroic Resolve and the (generally more short-term) Unstoppable Rage. Includes the Implacable Man, Doomed Moral Victor and Well Intentioned Extremist. Quite commonly, he will also be the Bad Ass Normal. Prone to Screw Destiny and continue fighting when normally, he should be dead now. Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid characters often act in this fashion.
Examples
Anime
- Pick a shonen protagonist, any shonen protagonist. And to a lesser extent, the entire cast of said shonen.
- Naruto's "Way of the Ninja" consists of three basic concepts, which remain consistent throughout the series, all of which hinge on the trope. Also Rock Lee; who out-Determinators even Naruto to the point of assuming a fighting stance despite the fact that nearly all the major muscle groups in his body have been torn and his left forearm and leg have been completely shattered, while unconscious. Taken to a hilarious degree in a filler where he fights back, and actually has the upper hand, against a villain who attacks him while he's
drunk sleeping.
- Jiraiya in the manga (this troper doesn't know if it occurs in the anime as well)he brings himself back to life in one chapter of the manga by willpower alone..
- Shikamaru, however, is somewhat of a subversion, in that although he apears to fit this trope durring his fight with Hidan, it is eventually revealed that He won the moment the fight began, and was just toying with his opponent before springing a pre-prepared trap. At another point in the series, the trope is totally averted when Shikamaru wins a tornement by surrendering (some say this was accidental, but given his status as The Chessmaster, this troper at least views it as being all of part of his masterplan).
- The tournament was essentially a test to see how suited each combatant would be to the rank of Chuunin. Advancing in the tournament simply meant that you had another chance to make a good impression. As for Shikamaru's surrender, he explained that he had worked out specifically how to defeat his opponent, but he couldn't really pull it off. Of course, realizing when a battle can't be won/isn't worth winning is arguably an important skill to have. As for his first fight in the tournament, he manipulated his opponent into defeating herself.
- Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece.
- Usopp also proved to be one in his battle against Mr. 3
- How can you forget Zoro. Just look at his ankles.
- Ash Ketchum from Pokemon.
- Team Rocket would also count as Determinators. Look at how long they've tried to catch Pikachu, without success, and they STILL try to do it (almost) every time!
- Ichigo from Bleach definitely qualifies for this. "Do you want to fight or live?" "I want to win!"
- Seto Kaiba, The Rival from Yu-Gi-Oh.
- And the hero, of course. Or at least his Superpowered Evil Side.
- Katsuya Jounouchi, proven when he got all the way to the semi-final of Battle City without holding a Egyptian God card.
- The Gutsy Geoid Guard, protagonists of King of Braves Gao Gai Gar, actually had written into their bylaws: "Article 5, Section 120: ... Under no circumstances must a GGG member ever give up."
- Daisuke/Davis Motomiya from Digimon Adventure 02: "No! I'll never retreat! Not as long as there's a fighting chance! I've never quit before, and I'm not going to start now!"
- Ditto Masaru from Digimon Savers in fact he broke through a shield made by the god of the digital world (even if it had been weakened) with a punch using his determination
- This is pretty much a default trait for all the goggle boys. Even Takato a few times.
- Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. Just... don't stand in his way. Being blasted apart by the pure awesome he radiates isn't worth missing the show for when he starts to fight. Simon becomes his successor in this regard, doing feats that would even amaze Kamina.
- He has a line early in the series that sums up this trope as perfectly as a single sentence can: "A real man never dies even if he's killed!" Considering the posthumous influence his attitude and ideals enjoyed, both in the series and in real life, it seems he was right.
- Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin. More in the manga than in the anime, the protagonist defeats enemies seemingly by pure willpower alone, such as his determination not to kill. He survives several seemingly insurmountable fights in quick series, sustaining massive injuries each time and still managing to win every single time.
- The young man who gave Kenshin the first slash of his X-shaped scar did so despite being nowhere near Kenshin's level as a swordsman. Kenshin told witnesses, "His skill was nothing. But his desperation to live ... was terrible." It didn't save him.
- Almost every boxer Ippo faces in Hajime No Ippo shows Heroic Resolve, but the title of Determinator must go to Takeshi Sendo who, in one fight, after fracturing several ribs, not only fights savagely for a whole 'nother round, but after being brutally KO'd (and shattering two ribs in the process) he stands up and walks out unassisted.
- Goku actually subverts this a couple of times - most notably so when he was fighting Cell, and he surrendered, explaining it was impossible for him to beat Cell, so he shouldn't even waste his energy. Instead, he conned Cell into unlocking his son's hidden power, which was more then enough to destroy Cell.
- Vegeta plays it straight, though; part of why he's such a badass is the insane amount of punishment it takes to bring him down. Seriously, he gets his ARM SNAPPED IN HALF, but when Trunks tries to jump in and help he's all like "NO STAY BACK I GOT THIS".
- Busou Renkin not only justifies this behavior in its protagonist Kazuki, it uses it as a major plot point. The kakugane serving as Kazuki's heart is a highly dangerous, modified version, which has given Kazuki energy-draining abilities and is slowly turning him into a monster.
- Every single Saint in Saint Seiya, especially if he's on the side of good. Beating them to within an inch of their lives simply means they'll start shouting "BURN, COSMO!" and either achieve a state of consciousness far beyond mortal ken, or get the goddess Athena to help them do it. Seiya himself, the Bronze Saint of Pegasus, has been affectionately nicknamed "The Cockroach Saint" because he just won't lay down and die when even his compatriots would have.
- Ueki from The Law Of Ueki just will not go down until he succeeds, no manner how much damage he takes. His absolute determination is so great that many characters have incredulously asked: "Is this guy immortal?" It helps that he is a cosmic being, albeit still killable, who was raised as a human, but even other cosmic beings are awed at his refusal to go down.
- Gon from Hunter X Hunter makes all the above guys look like pansies, mostly because unlike the rest of 'em, he's far from the strongest fish in the pond. This is a trait all Hunters share, since the final exam is to eliminate the least Determinator among them (it's an inverse fighting tournament where the loser moves forward, and the only way you can lose is by admitting defeat - killing an opponent will disqualify you). During this exam, Gon's opponent Hanzo clearly outmatches him, beating him unconscious several times, and breaking his arm. Even after hours of this, he still refuses to surrender. He finally wins as Hanzo realizes that Gon has won him over and that he's not willing to do what it would take to win (actual torture and permanent damage). As soon as he recovers, Gon pulls the same trick again when he's trying to find Killua - each time he crosses the boundary, he's smacked several yards back, but he keeps it going all day long until the person who's smacking him cries out in desperation, eventually persuaded to let him pass. The most recent (as far as the anime goes at least) arc has him getting his arm blown off - and counting that as a victory because he made his opponent use his special ability.
- Frankly, Gon's determination (or stubbornness) would probably get any non-protagonist killed within minutes. In the manga, he has gotten even worse since the death of Kaito
- Rosette Christopher in the Chrono Crusade manga. She'll do anything to get her brother back, going as far as making a Deal With The Devil that would ultimately cost her much of her life to do so. She even comes back from the dead, almost entirely by sheer force of will.
- Vita of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha would never fail Hayate (and later, Nanoha) if she could help it. For the people she loves, she will never allow herself to lose, no matter how injured she is. This is especially shown in the final battle of the third season. With her weapon damaged, her catridge supply almost spent, and her chest sporting a large, gaping wound, she finally reaches the Engine Room after fighting through a swarm of elite Mecha Mooks, only for the security system to kick in and direct a large amount of lasers at her. Her response?
Vita:...Bring it on.
- The four main characters of Vandread. Hibiki pulls through by sheer stubbornness, Meia is The Stoic, Jura pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment after being wounded in battle and on painkillers and Dita... Well, you'll know it when you see it. Considering her usual behavior, she is also a good example of a Crouching Moron Hidden Badass.
- Lampshaded in Z-Mind. When the title Super Robot is getting beaten up, Sumire encourages Ayame by telling her that the hero of a robot anime wouldn't give up now.
- Subverted in Eyeshield 21 - Hiruma in one early match against the Oujou White Knights stops playing because he realizes Deimon's chances for victory have reached 0%, although he is willing to keep playing in any other match as long as his team's chances for winning are even marginally greater than nil. In recent chapters, he's gone from being a subversion to almost an embodiment of sheer determinatorism: He's apparently healed his broken arm in less than a month by willpower alone.
- Then there's Yukimitsu Manabu, who has more determination than any of the other Devil Bats, and managed to overcome Agon in the game with the Shinryuuji Nagas. Ojou's Sakuraba and Takami both elevated themselves into great players by never giving up; Takami, particularly, had to overcome a lack of speed that many said killed his chances of being a quarterback. He compensated by practicing the living Hell out of throwing until there wasn't a more precise QB in the country. Monta managed to overcome the Nagas' catching ace, as well. Because catching is all he's good at, he's vowed to become the number one catcher in the world if it kills him.
- On a much smaller scale, and also female, is Hikari from Special A. Because she lost a wrestling match against Kei as a kid, she's attempting to beat Kei at anything, and will stop at nothing to achieve that.
- Guts from anime and manga Berserk is a pure example of this trope. No matter how hellish his life is, no matter how many soldiers he faces, no matter how large and invincible the demons he fights are, no matter how seemingly impossible his goals are, he will simply not give up!
- Most (if not all) the teams in Slam Dunk, but in particular the main protagonist Sakuragi Hanamichi, who helps will his team to victory against all odds and a nigh-invincible opponent, despite crippling pain from a potentially career-ending back injury.
- Inspector Lunge in Monster obsessively chases Tenma all over Germany trying to get him to confess to the murders that were actually committed by Johann. Nothing - not even his wife and kids leaving him, or losing his job - matters as much as catching Tenma.
- Niz from Battle Angel Alita: Last Order holds "persistence" as his core tenet, and manages to impress the local Badass, Sechs, enough to learn what she can from his philosophy. Considering that Sechs had much more combat experience, was more physically capable, was kicking his ass for most of the fight, and on top of that was notorious for ignoring anything apart from a straight-on berserker assault, the mere fact that Niz made such an impression on her was pretty amazing. Then again, remaining standing and not crying or grimacing in pain after your arm, artificial heart, and half of your chest is blown away would probably have an impact on whoever you were fighting.
- And let's not forget Gally/Alita herself. She's quite the dogged survivor and determined fighter -she has even survived war on Mars, being sentenced to dying in outer space two hundred years before the events of Gunnm, nearly getting mashed and thrown to the garbage on Chief Bigot's order, being blown apart by Desty Nova, and, depending on whether you're reading Last Order or the ending of the first Gunnm, fusing with the Ladder or being entirely destroyed at the nano-level while looking for the fata morgana. On top of all the more 'regular' fighting and danger, which include the destruction of several of her cyborg bodies. And let's not forget that *just* achieving the Panzer Kunst and the whole training around it is a feat in itself.
- Alucard from Hellsing suggests that this is part of the reason why Humanity fascinates him, after Father Alexander Anderson refuses to roll over and give in despite having a partly blown off left arm and being severely outnumbered.
- Haruka from the Mai-HiME anime and manga is "Never Say Die" personified (even more so in Mai-Otome, where she's a freakin' general of an army).
- Shu in Now And Then Here And There. He keeps repeating "Everything's OK!" in the most extreme circumstances -to the point that he might seem completely unconscious or heartless, as when he tells Sarah that "everything's okay" because she's alive, even though she was spirited away from her world, unfairly imprisoned, raped by a soldier whom she had to kill, and ran away from a military fortress to avoid getting executed.
- Don't forget that the rape resulted in a pregnancy that she tried to terminate by bashing herself in the stomach with a rock, until the ever determined and optimistic Shu talked her into carrying it to term.
- Karasu from Noein is the series' Determinator. If you threaten Haruka, he will smack you down. It is that simple. In the last episodes he took this to the extreme, by taking on an entire universe just to get to her.
- Pretty much every character in Ranma 1/2. Hell, Rumiko Takahashi is FAMOUS for making characters like this. It'd be quicker to list the ones that AREN'T determinators.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, Negi is accidentally turned into one of these after Nodoka asks him for a kiss, unaware that the nearby The World Tree forces him to accept. He's going to kiss somebody, dang it, or die trying. He eventually kisses Asuna, nearly suffocating her in the process. Later on, he has two more traditional Determinator moments:
- Right after Negi and crew arrive in the magic world, Fate attacks Negi, putting a stone spear through his chest. When he moves to attack the students, Negi stops him by pulling the spear out and hitting Fate in the head with it.
- Later on, Negi gets attacked by a shadow mage. During the course of the fight his right arm gets cut off. His response? "I still have my left!" and attempts a finishing blow. Unfortunately, Jack Rakan stops the fight before we find out if it would have worked or not. And don't worry, he gets the arm back.
- Belldandy from Ah My Goddess. Not obvious since she is usually so easy going, but if you get her mad: "We will win." "But..." "We will win!" "But Belldandy..." "We will win!!" *Belldandy death glare* "Yes, Belldandy, whatever you say." Another case of Beware The Nice Ones.** This sort of attitude (Determinator for things she cares about) seems to be a hallmark of the archetype. Aoi from Ai Yori Aoshi is another good example.
- Sailor Moon is one of these despite being ditzy and a crybabay.This is highlighted during the battle against Pharaoh 90 where through sheer will power she manages to penetrate the core of the energy being, destroying him and saving Sailor Saturn from dying at the same time.
- Repeat after me: "Cephiro, the world that is shaped by the strength of the believing heart." And no one, absolutely no one, has a stronger heart than little pint-sized Hikaru Shidou, even when she's torn apart with injuries that would have killed a grown man. It's actually a plot point in the anime's second season, when her loss of will is downright catastrophic for the entire world, and her subsequent recovery makes her virtually omnipotent.
- This is basically the entire point of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure, for both flavors of 'tagonist.
- That and being wicked clever bastards. JJBA fights are traditionally won by the protagonist being put under an ungodly amount of pressure causing him to figure out something completely, well, bizarre and thus turn the tables on the unfortunate villain involved. Or sometimes to just stop time.
- Katou Masaru of Gantz is a determinator messiah, of the "Leave no man behind!" and "There is no 'Combat Ineffective' in 'Sudden Battlefield Limb Amputation'!" variety. In one case he beats an unstoppable alien demigod equipping his own severed arm, and in another he crawls over to a BFG, props himself up on his bleeding leg-stumps, and cuts loose on yet another unstoppable alien demigod. His favored tactic? Talking people down. And he's not even the main character.
- Kazuma of Scryed is definitely a Determinator, and Ryuhou may be considered one, as well.
- Akagi pursues outrageous, life-threatening gambles with absolute determination. Part of it is due to completely trusting in his abilities (which would already qualify him for this trope), but his total disregard for the possible consequences of failures even when large amounts of luck are needed has forced every single character, including a batshit insane serial-killer, to call him "a devil" and "a lunatic with a deathwish".
- Thorfinn of Vinland Saga will do whatever is required of him to earn a duel with Askeladd, even if its down right suicidal.
- Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho tends to win all of his major battles by refusing to stay down. One example is his battle against Rishou in the Dark Tournament. Kuwabara starts the fight severely weakened from a previous fight and proceeds to get the stuffing beaten out of him for an entire episode. In the end, he manages to pull off a win with some help from The Power of Love.
- Yusuke and Kurama have had their Determinator moments as well.
- Kallen Kouzuki and Jeremiah Gottwald are competing fiercely for this title in Code Geass, with the former having succeeded in fighting Suzaku to a Combat Breakdown standstill in the Grand Finale, and the latter having survived everything from Kallen blowing his mech to hell to getting hit point blank with an EMP device specifically designed to work on the metal his later cyborg parts were made of, and continuing to keep moving by sheer force of will.
- Orguss 02's Verifer Decimator shrugs off absolutely everything the Rivellian army throws at it, from artillery to bombs aimed directly at its head. Even when it's finally damaged (by having nuclear weapons detonated right against its body) it only loses both legs, continuing to drag itself forward with its hands until it's destroyed by an even bigger Decimator.
Comic Books
- Every time you beat the hell out of the Incredible Hulk, he gets madder. And when he gets madder, he gets stronger.
- For reference, in the official Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game, the highest possible strength score is 10, which is reserved for Thor and other gods. When angry, the Hulk has a maximum possible strength of 18.
- Batman in most incarnations.
- Lampshaded in an issue of Superman/Batman where the two heroes are standing in the Mall in Washington D.C., surrounded by an obscene number of supervillains.
Superman: They're all around us, you know.
Batman: Do you think we can take them? I think we can take them.
Superman: You always think we can take them.
- The Tick.
- Basically every main character in Sin City: Hartigan, Marv, Dwight, Wallace...Some of the predicaments that these characters find themselves in are flabbergasting, yet they never show even the slightest notion of fear in their endeavors.
- To be fair, Marv throws up in fear before the final fight. Though he takes it as a matter of course, making a point of having his panic attack and get over it before going to the fight.
- The graphic novel 300 (and really, the real life battle that it it based on) makes a note of showing that all of the 300 Spartans (particularly King Leonidas) are some of the most Bad Ass Determinators imaginable.
- The to be-Saint of Killers from Preacher managed to retain his mind even in death by pure hatred of the two men who he had swore vengeance on.
- The Thing never gives up, no matter how often his opponents may have beaten him before.
- In the Marvel GI Joe continuity, Snake-Eyes has just been in a helicopter crash, his crush is badly injured, and his head and throat have been burned and implanted with shrapnel-like shards of glass. Ordered to stand down, he writers two letters in the sand: C M. Continue Mission. Then, he all but single-handedly pulls the mission off.
- Rorschach from Watchmen: "no. not even in the face of armageddon. never compromise."
- No mention of Wolverine yet? Healing factor + Power Creep Power Seep + REALLY BAD TEMPER = Pants-wettingly tenacious.
- Captain America defeats superpowered opponents with both his incredible fighting skills and that he just won't quit!
- And Spider Man could be his protege. That's almost as much a part of the character as Spider-Sense and webslinging.
- The Green Lantern Corps is full of Determinators, with Hal Jordan being the biggest of them all.
Film
- Obviously, The Terminator. As well as the quote at the top of this very page:
Kyle Reese: "You still don't get it, do you? He'll find her! That's what he does! It's all he does! You can't stop him! He'll wait for you! He'll reach down her throat and tear her fuckin' heart out!"
- Given the hellhole of a future he lived in, Reese himself must have been one to survive. Also Sarah embraces her inner Determinator in the climax of the first movie (this editor is probably one of the few people on the planet who haven't seen the second and third movie so he'll leave it at that).
- Sarah practically becomes a Terminator in the second movie, to the point she's halfway to shooting a defenceless, wounded man in front of his wife and children for something he hasn't actually done yet. Even after that, she's still perfectly capable of firing a 12-gauge shotgun repeatedly after minutes earlier having an inch-thick metal spike rammed straight through her shoulder. Fuck the third film, there are only two Terminator movies.
- Captain Vidal in Pans Labyrinth. This makes him an utterly terrifying villain, while at the same time almost pitiable. (In fact, when he got shot in the head, he actually had the time to feel it!)
- The Black Knight from Monty Python And The Holy Grail - played completely over-the-top and for (extremely many) laughs.
- Paul Newman's character Luke in the movie Cool Hand Luke is a perfect example of a Determinator. Acts of sheer determination include eating fifty eggs in under an hour to win a bet, multiple attempts to escape from jail, resisting the worst the warden could give him, and "winning" a boxing match by repeatedly getting up, no matter how many times he was knocked down, till his opponent, who was so far unharmed, refused to hit him any more. His nickname came from his habit of keeping going and refusing to quit when he has absolutely nothing
- Both Neo and Agent Smith of The Matrix are up there - Smith possibly even more so.
- Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men has a belief system that revolves around this trope.
- James T. Kirk from Star Trek. In the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it is pointed out that he is so determined to win that he cheated in his "Kobayashi Maru Test", an intentional no-win situation designed to test the character of officers-in-training. He won. The Character Development of the film is that he must deal with losing Spock, there is no way he can keep Spock from dying.
- Smith. Shoot Em Up. 'Nuff said. he even manages to kill the Big Bad and The Dragon with guns despite the fact that he had all his fingers broken.
- Oh yeah, this one was deconstructed in Little Miss Sunshine, where the father is an annoying self-help program author who keeps saying "Only losers give up, winners don't!". And on top of that, he's bankrupt.
- Ricky Bobby, when his career takes off, either wins his races or doesn't finish because he crashes trying to win.
- Rocky Balboa, as summed up in this speech to his son
 .
- John McClane of the Die Hard movies. He is often outclassed, outmaneuvered, and outfought by his opponents, but the man just will not stop coming. He usually ends up barely more alive than the Big Bad by the end of one of his movies. This is a man so utterly unwilling to ever falter from his goal that even Samuel L. Jackson thinks he's nuts.
- Alex Forrest, the character played by Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.
- Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) in Casino. His friend Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro) describes him thus:
Ace: No matter how big a guy was, Nicky would take him on. You beat Nicky with fists, he comes back with a bat. You beat him with a knife, he comes back with a gun. And if you beat him with a gun you'd better kill him, because he'll keep coming back, and back, until one of you is dead.
- Quint, the obsessed shark hunter in Jaws.
- Ethan Edwards, the Confederate soldier-turned-Indian hunter in TheSearchers.
Literature
- As far as I know... every single Dick Francis hero/narrator character. I'll just mention one: Sid Halley, who is tortured by a villain who destroys his crippled left hand, then threatens to destroy the right hand as well, the thing he most fears. Needless to say, he doesn't give up. And that's topped in a later book.
- Roland of Gilead, the Gunslinger of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.
- Captain Ahab, from Moby-Dick, making this Older Than Radio.
- Fëanor, from The Silmarillion, who has a dying vision that the Noldor will never defeat Morgoth, and tells his sons to keep their oath to take back the Silmarils at all costs anyhow. His sons die too early or break down at the end.
- The Deliverators from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash will get you your pizza pie within thirty minutes or else the head of the corporation will fly down by helicopter and personally apologize for wasting your time, offering your family free tickets to Sicily at a luxury resort for compensation. Needless to say, they do not give up lightly.
- Of course, considering that they work for La Costra Nostra Pizza, and given their bosses original full time occupation, I would not want to cause him to be 'inconvienced' either.
- The protagonist of half of John Steakley's novel Armor joins the military in a Bug War. This leads to him being in scout armor (weaker than standard issue) in a mission gone very wrong. He's the only person to survive the mission , which, due to a processing error, means he gets sent on every single high casualty raid against the bugs. He doesn't quit. He doesn't complain. He doesn't die. He just kills. Over and over again, eventually devoting a whole mental subroutine to living through constant war.
- The main character of the Sword Of Truth series is described at at least one point as "the kind of man who would jump over a cliff to come after you". Which is either Too Dumb To Live or Determinator. Or possibly both.
- Most characters in Les Miserables, including Jean Valjean, who is an insatiable dogooder who won't stop even when half the police in Paris are breathing down his neck, Eponine and her insane suicidal crush, eventually all the revolutionaries (even Grantaire), Fantine, who keeps working to save her daughter despite losing her teeth, hair, dignity, health and life, the Thenardiers and especially Inspector Javert.
- Villain Protagonist Knight Templar head of the Guardian Service Operations Headquarters General and Colonel Stanis Alexander Rashid Trastamara from Yulia Latynina's "Inhuman", was at a certain point called "inhuman" by his boss, for being completely calm and unphased even after having just gotten fired as a result of intrigue and virtually exposed to revenge from his political enemies; as the boss mused, Trastamara was utterly ruthless (to the point of sending his son on a suicide mission; then again, apparently he did become concerned when it got even more suicidal, implying that he simply was this confident in him), unphaseable and unbribeable. Another quote: "It was not as though Stanis thought he could get away. It was just a matter of principle: don't give up before someone fries your head with a laser, and don't do it yourself. This, after all... was the difference between him and the poor terrorist he stopped [at the spaceport by tackling him immediately upon noticing the mark of a symbiont, despite himself having broken legs from a recent botched operation and disabled prosthetics]. He did not seek death. He sought victory". That was just after he shot the hyper-paranoid Evil Prince with a hidden "primitivi" projectile weapon and went on to have an insanely awesome and successful escape from the prince's private fortress.
- Granted, he was a dog but Big Fido of the Discworld novel Men At Arms is a tiny poodle that rose up through the ranks of the feral dog population by being a small, fast, impossible to defeat, killing machine. The narration notes that you could have sandblasted him for five minutes and what was left 'still wouldn't have given up and you'd better not turn your back on it'.
- Then there's Zombies, who are literally fueled by their obstinate refusal to die. Reg Shoe is probably the shining example.
- Vimes might get a couple of points here too. The man managed to outlive zombies, Trolls, and Golems in an alternate universe where the Watch
was wiped out by Klatch.
- How could you all forget the magical trunk from the first few Discworld novels! Yes, its sole purpose for existing was to carry luggage around in extra-dimensional space for its owner, and it was only armed with its own lid as a mouth, a big red tounge, and the hundreds of very short, very small feet it used to move around; But this thing never ever felt fear, was completely invinceable to every type of magic, could shrug off most physical damage like it was nothing, and always knew where its owner was and the fastest way to get to him/her. It has an amazing track record, fighting across multiple continents and bottoms of oceans, fighting with the incarnation of a God of madness, and smashing through a diamond as big as it is, thus shattering the diamond; and it only ever took one break of its own free will, and that was to get hammered at a bar.
- Correction, there was one other time. To get it on with a female luggage on a trip to its home continent, and to the confusion of its current and previous owner somehow father several children. Keep in mind, till this point the Luggage race were see as well crafted luggage from special trees.
- Certain (Citizen) Major Victor Cachat, a special agent of (People's) Republic of Haven at a first glance is the least physically imposing or frightening person. A very young man for his rank and position (he is in his early thirties in a society where average life expectancy routinely tops 250-300 years), of slim build and rather short stature, somewhat moderately attractive (he was even described as cute at least once), kind, naive, eager, and a bit prudish, he isn't all that menacing... Except when he has his moments, which tend to scare the utter shit out of LARGE groups of heavily armed and certifiedly Badass adversaries, including religious fanatics, terrorists and genetically engineered super soldiers. And it isn't even Split Personality - he just takes his job very seriously, and pull absolutely no punches. The fact that his second novella is just called Fanatic speaks volumns.
- Honor Harrington herself, in the same series. If you are in the way of her fulfilling her mission, or hit the Berserk Button of threatening people she cares about (or both), nothing you can do will stop her from taking you down sooner or later. And it's usually awesome.
- Ethan Gage from William Dietrich's books Napoleon's Pyramids and The Rosetta Key. No matter what his enemies throw at him, he manages to survive it, including dangling him over a pit of snakes, burying him up to his neck in the middle of the desert and sending an entire (Napoleonic) French military brigade after him. His enemies ask him whether or not he is immortal on several occasions, Including Napoleon right before his planned execution
- Edmond Dantès, aka the Count of Monte Cristo, is certainly worth a mention. After his betrayal he devotes his entire life to the pursuit of vengeance. And I mean his entire life. Absolutely everything he does is somehow a step in his giant Xanatos Roulette designed to get his just revenge. He does settle down in the end, but by then he's pretty much accomplished everything he intended.
- One of the catchphrases of the pulp hero The Shadow was "The Shadow never fails!"
- Rand in The Wheel of Time. The Aiel, on the other hand, take an oath to be Determinators: 'Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit into Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day.'
- Let us not forget the original determinators, the Erinyes (a.k.a. the Furies) from Greek mythology (making this trope much Older Than Radio... in fact, Older than Dirt.).
- It's well known that Raistlin Majere of Dragonlance was willing to sacrifice anything for his magic.
- Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy: do wathever you want to this 4 feet 11 inches tall girl: strand her on a bed for one full year, beat her nearly to death, rape her in the most gruesome way you can imagine, attack her in the middle of a tropical storm, send half the scandinavian police after her, shoot her in the head then bury her, she will get back and have her revenge no matter what.
Live Action TV
- Dani Beck from Law And Order Special Victims Unit. Elliot Stabler admired her for her "over-zealous" reputation, but he was very much in the minority.
- Pretty much every main event Face in Professional Wrestling since Hulk Hogan, and half the Heels too. Incidentally, being a Determinator is one of the things that can make a heel a Draco In Leather Pants. It worked for Steve Austin, after all.
- Wrestling actually has so many Determinators running around, that it actually has a contest to see who the biggest Determinator actually is: the I Quit Match, a special Gimmick Match in which the only way for the match to end is for one of the participants to say the phrase, "I Quit," on a live mic, in front of the thousands of fans in the arena and the millions watching at home. Naturally, I Quit matches tend to be among the most brutal affairs one can see in wrestling.
- Mister Monster's Catch Phrase is "Mister Monster Never Gives Up!"
- The Doctor. The World Is Always Doomed, sometimes the entire universe, yet he rises to the challenge every single time, even after his own planet was converted to radioactive vapour. The Master is also an exceptional Determinator, having died at least three times and yet still coming back for more.
- The Daleks are even bigger Determinators than the Doctor, utterly devoted to their self-imposed purpose of becoming the only form of life in the universe. Part of this is how they perceive themselves, but you have to admire a species that manages to survive even after being made extinct. Twice. At least. In the new series alone.
- The original series' Cybermen are up there too. By the end they're a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers floating around the galaxy in a derelict spaceship, with no home planet and no influence... and they still refuse to lay down and die. "They never get tired, and they never give up."
- Davros has survived several No One Could Survive That scenarios through sheer willpower, and he has never abandoned his dream of ruling the universe through the Daleks.
- Yup. This this trope fits Mal Reynolds from Firefly to a 'T'. The man will NOT stay down.
- Shot in the arm? Minor annoyance. Hit in the chest with a thrown knife? Flinch and a gasp of pain. Shot in the stomach? Some medical tape and a jolt of adrenaline is all he needs. Impaled through the gut with a sword? Pull it out and keep fighting. Tortured to death? Get back up, stick the torturer with his own toy, and proceed to beat the hell out of the Big Bad.
- Jack Bauer, who will stop the terrorists no matter what it takes. Torturing him to death just makes him angrier.
- Several characters from Babylon 5, though none as much as G'Kar. Over the course of one arc, he takes off in search of a friend, is captured by his enemy, tortured repeatedly (only screaming once, and that was rather than die), has an eye plucked out, and breaks out of "unbreakable" chains.
- Not with violence, but this troper was mightily impressed by "Helo" Agathon in "The Woman King". Seeing that something definitely wrong is happening, he refuses to drop his investigation, over the racism of his crewmates and demands to just drop it from his superiors.
Tigh: You may as well take whatever credibility you have left and chuck it out an airlock. You seriously want to stand up for these crazy frakkin' people? What is it with you?
- This troper was impressed since the miniseries. First fix the hole in your ship. Then fix the hole in your leg. Wow.
- Both the Borg (before their Villain Decay) and the Jem'Hadar in Star Trek.
Q: You can't outrun them. You can't destroy them. If you damage them, the essence of what they are remains – they regenerate and keep coming... eventually you will weaken – your reserves will be gone... they are relentless.
Omet'iklan:I am First Omet'iklan, and I am dead. As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember, victory is life.
- Even after their Villain Decay, the Borg remained as determined as ever.
- Worf, in By Inferno's Light.
- It shouldn't be too terribly shocking, considering what she is, but Cameron is pretty darn tough. Little things like getting caught in a massive car bombing don't do much more than give her a limp for a bit.
Music
- Gloria Gaynor's song "I will survive".
- And its Spanish similar of sorts, Dúo Dinámico's "Resistiré".
- Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
- It's My Life by Bon Jovi
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons and Dragons actually has monsters based around this trope. The Inevitables, a race of extra-planar automotons, are designed to uphold the universal concept of law. Someone who has escaped a fate destined for them, or otherwise gained the ire of the Inevitables will be hunted down unceasingly by these creatures. If you manage to kill one that's after you, they'll just send more. No matter where you hide, no matter which plane of existance you flee to, they will hunt you down until you are dead.
- Characters that take the Diehard feat (and it's required precursor Endurance) tend to be the ones that will finish a fight, even if it kills them. (D&D has a 10 HP buffer between KO'ed and dead as a doornail, Diehard allows a character to ignore the KO and keep fighting at the cost of their few remaining HP)
- The real Game Breaker is the Frenzied Berzerker class. When one of these guys goes into his Unstoppable Rage, he literally cannot be killed or stopped by hit point damage. His hit points may be less than 100, but you can do millions of points of damage and he'll continue fighting. The Achilles Heel? As soon as he calms down, his wounds suddenly take full effect.
- Between Space Marines, Necrons, Imperial Assassins, Orks, Tyranids and various other daemons, freaks, unkillable monsters and religious maniacs, Warhammer 40000 has a horrifying number of these.
- The Necrons and their C'Tan gods are [un]living embodiments of this trope. Shoot them, they repair themselves. Blow them to bits with explosives, they reassemble. Rout them, they phase out and will come back for more eventually. Shoot the C'Tan with the combined power of thirteen Blackstone Fortresses, each capable of destroying a star (and the system along with it), and which fire the only weapon in existence, they're noted as powerless against and vulnerable to, and they take a nap (altho how much damage the C'Tan in question sustained is unknown, as it has been "napping" ever since, for 60 million years, and doesn't show any indications of waking up yet). Force the entire race into hibernation, and a few billion years later, they'll wake back up and resume the attack with gusto. Each and every Necron is a Determinator, and there are thousands of them at minimum, complete with physics-bending weapons, vehicles, and starships.
- The Imperial Guard get special mention, as the entire army is one giant Determinator. Unlike their opponents, the regular troops of the Guard are just ordinary men and women who will often break and flee in the face of the mind-breaking horrors they have to fight. However, the Guard itself as an organization is a massive, unstoppable entity that soaks up casualties without stopping, refusing to break and surrender in the face of the tremendous suffering and terror it has to deal with.. The common strategy of the guard is to simply march their men straight into the enemy fire while simultaneously blasting everything infront of them with massed artillery.
- The Space Marines embody this trope to the t. Not only are they heavily armoured supersoldiers with the ability to withstand wounds that would kill a normal man thrice over, they are also unshaken n their faith and determination. Some notable examples include the Ultramarines 1st (veteran) company that defended their chapter fortress against the innumerable Tyranid swarms. They managed to hold them back long enough for the orbiting fleet to drive off the Tyranid hiveships, even though it cost them all their lives (as well as several nearly irreplaceable suits of Terminator armour).
Video Games
- Practically every scrolling shooter boss ever won't give up, even when it's had huge holes blown in it, is trailing smoke and flames, or has mostly fallen apart. In fact, it may actually get more powerful as a result.
- Kratos from God Of War and its sequel and prequel. He's literally climbed out of Hell... three times. As he puts it: "If all of Olympus would deny me my vengeance, then all of Olympus must die!" The fact that his only clear motivation is the desire to kick the ass of anyone who screws with him just solidifies his status as an undiluted Bad Ass.
- The space marine from Doom utterly refuses to go down without a fight, despite the fact that all hell has literally broken loose, and he is the only non zombified person in millions of miles. He proceeds to blow up all the demons and zombified people that are attacking him. He then fights his way into Hell, kills everything there, and fights his way back out. And that's just the first game. In Doom 2, he actually destroys Hell. Talk about a Bad Ass Normal.
- Axel Almer from Super Robot Wars: Original Generation 2 is absolutely obsessed with defeating Kyosuke Nanbu. The part that makes him a Determinator is that his actual beef is with the Kyosuke Nanbu from Axel's original dimension (he is part of an invasion from another dimension), this Kyosuke is known as "Beowulf" and repeatedly humiliated Axel in battle. The fact that this dimension's Kyosuke has no idea who Axel is or why he is so determined to defeat him doesn't seem to matter to Axel.
- Original Generations mellows Axel's Determinator personality a little, but he's still intent on stopping Kyosuke. Though he just uses another reason. And when he's Back From The Dead in OG Gaiden and had a Heel Face Turn, he seems to completely lose his Determinator status...
- Until at one point Axel decided to save a Brainwashed And Crazy Lamia, everyone else was pretty much in hopeless state that she can't be saved, especially Kyosuke. Axel's response? "Just.Trust.Me". And then he really did succeed saving her. That's the only case his Determinator status rose back after being dormant for so long, or maybe he's still a Determinator when it comes to stopping Kyosuke becoming Beowulf, which could happen any time if Lamia ends up dead.
- And speaking of Kyosuke Nanbu, whenever something happens to his partner and lover Excellen Browning, he himself becomes a Determinator, plowing through anything in his path to get her back.
- Luca Blight, the main villain of Suikoden 2 is the embodiment of this trope. Despite being the prince (and later king) of a massive country, he is the single most powerful human warrior on his side of the field (and arguably, the entire Suikoden universe), turning the tides of entire wide scale battles simply by appearing and punishing/killing any of his men for so much as hesitating in battle. If more proof is needed, his death scene should make this trope obvious. This trait, combined with the fact that he is a sadistic Omnicidal Maniac and a Nietzsche Wannabe, makes him a very intimidating and frightening villain.
- Deconstructed in Tales Of Symphonia: Part of what made the Knight Templar main villain what he is was that he could not, in any way, manage to give up on his ideals as they became more and more warped and admit that there might be a better way to do it - even as he lies dying, he is unrepentant and claims he would do the same things over again if given the chance to redo his life. This puts the villain in sharp contrast with Lloyd, whose ideals also clash with the way the world works - Lloyd, however, knows to yield and learn from his mistakes when it is obvious that he has done wrong, which is an integral part of the Character Development that turns him into The Messiah.
- Seymour from Final Fantasy X, seeing as you have to defeat him 4 times, even after you kill him.
- And what of Auron? Once, in a fit of righteous rage, he confronted the great Yunalesca about the truth of the summoners' pilgrimage, and... Well, let's just say that what she did to him - namely, killing him - did nothing at all to stop him from coming back for round two, ten years later and with his friends' kids to lend a hand.
- Galuf from Final Fantasy V does it too. The rest of the party is imprisoned... it looks like the end... then Galuf gets up and beats the hell out of Exdeath single-handedly in a completely awesome Heroic Sacrifice.
- Caim, the protagonist of Drakengard, has it in for every single Empire soldier and civilian. All of them. He will kill them all. No one will escape. Even his dragon mount, who detests all of humanity, says to him, "Must you slaughter so many?" Not even The End Of The World As We Know It keeps him from fulfilling his vengeance.
- Adell from Disgaea takes this to the point where it actually grants him in-game bonuses: he deals extra damage against enemies with a higher level than himself.
- Vyse from Skies Of Arcadia. In fact, his Infinity Plus One Title can only be achieved by never running from a single battle. At all.
- Liquid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Nothing can kill him, he always comes back and he evens seems to be present in MGS 4 even though he died from FoxDie in the first Metal Gear Solid. His determination to kill Snake while yelling "SNAAAAAKE!" even makes him survive falling off the top of a Metal Gear. Next time you kill him, make sure he doesn't come back, Snake!!
- Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3 is more straight example in that he keeps on going even though his mentor kicks his ass every time they meet.
- And don't forget that he also loses an eye!
- Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 4 is equalled in his stubborn desire to get himself killed only by his inability to give up under any circumstances. A vampire is stabbing you repeatedly in the chest? Just fight harder! A building falls on you? You don’t need your limbs! Someone drops a battle ship on your head? Bring it on.
- Not to mention Solid Snake himself, who spends most of the time between later missions coughing up his lungs and trying to put himself back together with sticky tape. It doesn't stop him for a moment.
- Doctors Robotnik and Wily from the Sonic The Hedgehog and Mega Man series share more than just a PhD in robotics: no matter how many times the heroes stop their plans to take over the world, they keep coming back. Heck, toss Bowser from Super Mario Bros in and you have a triumvirate.
- Emiya Shiro from Fate/stay night simply refuses to die (or stop) when someone he cares about is in danger, or someone is about to create danger for others. Slashed from shoulder to waist, overloaded nerves in half the body, broken arms and legs, cuts and slashes, loss of sight, flung into the air from wind pressure, thrown out third-floor windows, et cetera... It appears that the closer he is to the verge of death, the more desperate and insane(ly powerful) his attacks become.
- Gordon Freeman from Half-Life. Even when put up against extradimensional armies, the US Marine Corps, and alien-backed world governments, he still kills, kills, and never stops killing. It's possible to temporarily restrain him, but he'll eventually break out and be more than happy to continue his trail of destruction.
- On that note, both the Master Chief and the Arbiter in
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