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GOT A BREATH MINT?!
"AH-YIYIYIYIYIYI-HIYA!!!"
— Xena's famous battle cry
"Why don't you stop screaming and just hit him?"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The polar opposite of a Screaming Woman. While a Screaming Woman instinctively yells at the top of their lungs at the first sign of terrifying danger, hikes up her skirts, and runs away from it, screaming all the way, a Screaming Warrior yells at the top of their lungs at the first sign of terrifying danger, hikes up his weapon, and then proceeds to charge headfirst into it, screaming all the way. Occasionally, the Screaming Warrior is the terrifying danger, at least to his enemies. Or friends.
Everyone likes a good battle cry right before a big fight, but this character just keeps on yelling even while the fight is well underway. Perhaps it's to intimidate their opponent, maybe it's just a habit, maybe it's to follow tradition, or maybe it's just cool to do. For bonus points, once the fight is over, don’t be surprised if the character lets out one last cry of victory while standing over the pile of heap that was their opponent.
Not to be confused with Make Me Wanna Shout (where the screaming is an attack in its own right).
Make note that the trope is not limited to simply to screams. Loud, consecutive grunts and various roars very well qualify. A Screaming Warrior is most likely an angsty Badass, Action Girl, Proud Warrior Race Guy, Hot Blooded, a berserker or all of the above.
See also: Calling Your Attacks, Kiai, Leeroy Jenkins, Stab The Sky.
Examples
Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Of the numerous Screamers within comic books, Wolverine is the most well known. The characteristic has since been endowed into just about all of his incarnations.
- Naturally, his clone X-23 also shares the habit.
- I've always found X-23 rather quiet, as befits an assassin. I can only recall the occasional "Hup!" This could be just when Kyle and Yost are writing her, though.
- The Incredible Hulk ties him with the trope.
- The Tick's battle-cry of "Spoon!" looks like it fits here.
Film
- For comedic effect, Han Solo can be seen in Star Wars as the Screaming Warrior chasing after a detachment of Stormtroopers, blaster drawn, until
they notice he's only one he runs into their reinforcements, at which point he begins screaming and running away from them.
- One of Bruce Lee's iconic traits.
- Joker has 2-4 guys like this in the '89 Batman film. One of them fights Batman in an alley with dual swords, and the other three fight in succession in the belfry scene at the end. The last guy, a Scary Black Man, provides the only real threat.
- Appears in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: after being swallowed and spat out by a sea monster, one of Proteus's soldiers charges screaming at the monster, prompting Sinbad to remark to Proteus, "Give that guy a raise."
- Just about every male character in the film Big Trouble In Little China is one of these.
- Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), the farmer's son crazy pseudo-samurai in Shichinin no Samurai.
- Even characters who aren't normally warriors can pick up this habit. As Jay and Silent Bob leap in to save Bethany from the Stygian Triplets in Dogma, Jay howls "SNOOTCH TO THE MOTHERFUCKIN' NOOOOOOOOTCH!"
- Darkwolf from Fire And Ice
- Shan-Yu from Disney's Mulan, is the Screaming Warrior after his army is killed by the avalanche created by Fa Mulan (disguised as Ping).
- In Star Trek III The Searchfor Spock Admiral Kirk is seen as the Screaming Warrior while jumping on Commander Kruge.
- Brendan Frasier's character attempts to scare off a group of warrior mummies in The Mummy. Turns out warrior mummies have a pretty impressive scream of their own.
- CHAAAAARRRRGE! CHARGE THE BLOCKHOUSE!
- A bizarre example from Last Action Hero. Jack Slater's daughter is attacked by the Big Bad's goons, and starts out a Screaming Woman... then continues to scream in terror while beating the tar out of them. This may be one of the reasons she ends up getting captured.
- Chinese armies usually scream SA! as they charge in movies (drawing it out, of course). It means 'Kill.'
- Ace Ventura in the second film, while fighting the Hatutu tribe champion
- See any Reb Brown movie. Often results in quality Narm due to how Brown is a real life Screams Like A Little Girl.
- In The Matrix, Morpheus, when he busts out of the wall to take down an Agent to allow the others, including Neo, to escape. His capture sets up the rest of the film.
- Beaten to a gruesome death in John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars. The leader of the zombie-type-things goes through every possible emotive inflection of "RARRrrrrh!" in his first ten minutes onscreen, depending on his apparent mood. Then he gets to deliver them all over again, a few times each. Scarily enough, this makes him one of the best actors in the film.
Literature
Live Action TV
Professional Wrestling
- Former WWF wrestler The Ultimate Warrior built a career out of being a screaming, snarling, grunting, face-painted lunatic.
- Those who are aware of his behavior since his retirement are convinced it's not an act.
- Ring Of Honor wrestler Ms Chif screams at her opponent all throughout her matches.
Real Life
- The infamous, rolling, yipping "Rebel Yell" employed by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War was said to have chilled the blood of any Union troops that heard it. Scottish Highlanders and certain Native American tribes were also said to have employed similar-sounding yells in battle.
- According to Ken Burn's The Civil War, the version we hear today is a pale imitation and can only be truly heard "In the heat of battle."
- This editor has employed the technique in games of flag football.
- "Bannzzaaaiii!" or so the old Japanese war cry goes, not fun for those fighting in the Pacific during WWII, it got called "Hell in the Pacific" for a reason, and the fanatical Japanese soldiers were that reason.
- Also "Totsugeki!!" (which literally just means "charge!")
- Kendo, a Japanese martial swordfighting art, utilizes kiai shouts before and during attacking, with the shouts before attack used to throw your enemy off-guard and help you concentrate yourself and the kiai during the hit to let others know that you are concentrating on your hit and are giving your best to hit it.
- A similar but less formal practice occurs in Western fencing during attacks.
- Actually, the point behind yelling is that your strength is at its highest while breathing out. Also the name of part of the armor you are hitting is called out so that the referees know you know you know what you are doing.
- In the "loud consecutive grunts" department, many tennis players are known for this. Especially the female ones.
- This female tennis player realized some time ago that the action is quite involuntary.
- Related is the "boxers' snort," which supposedly adds power to the punch.
- REMEMBER THE ALAMO!!!
- Aiyo Gurkhali ("Blood for the goddess of death. The Gurkhas are coming!")
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer and Warhammer 40000 have the Orcish battle cry, which they are known to scream until such time as they pass out. Say it with me: WAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!
- Also: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
- As for the Imperium: FOR THE EMPEROR!
- And the Tau: FOR THE GREATER GOOD!
- Particularly notable are the Eldar Howling Banshees, whose shrieking, wordless battlecry is psychically amplified by their helmets to paralyse the enemy.
- The list is fairly long considering the vastness of the universe.
- To the extent were the Necrons are seen as more terriyfing because they fight silently.
- Also the Legion of the Damned are considered scary as hell because they are wholly silent (aside from the sound of their guns)
- Not to mention they appear out of nowhere, wearing black Power Armor decorated with bones and wield heavy weapons, as pictured here
 ◊.
- Dungeons And Dragons has multiple mechanics for this, the simplest being the Kiai Shout feat. All of them allow you to render enemies shaken or panicked by shouting at the beginning of battle.
- Given the Truth In Television entry above, it probably isn't surprising that characters with the appropriate background in Deadlands can actually take a Rebel Yell as an Edge. But wait, weren't Native Americans known for their warcries, too? One thing that virtually any Native American warrior with his salt can do in the setting is a fast Ritual called "War Cry," which tends to earn favor with the War Spirits. Worth mentioning here because the Ritual has a higher chance to succeed if the player yells, too. What's that, you say? Role-playing? In a Tabletop Games? What are the odds?
- Trollkin Fell Callers are born with inate vocal powers which are so strong they can deafen opponents within their immediate vicinity if they yell loud enough.
Video Games
- The character properties screen in City Of Heroes includes a field labeled "Battle Cry".
- Serious Sam has a unit called the Kamikaze Bomber. Despite not having a head it screams, continuously, from the moment it's created until it dies. It gets quite unnerving.
- In the Mega Man X games after X7, X himself becomes one of these. Many of his dialogue sequences are also spent screaming at his opponents.
- Grom Hellscream (pictured above), chieftain of the Warsong Clan from Warcraft II and III. In a scene in one of the books, he makes an enemy drop his defences by screaming so loud it physically hurts him.
- One of the reasons he follows Thrall is that Thrall was barely annoyed. His most memorable appearance in the game was doing this to a giant demon, and winning.
- Double H from Beyond Good And Evil. He charges into battle with a healthy CARLSON AND PEETERS! whenever he attacks, and he enjoys yelling in general.
- While in Rage mode the Arbiter of Halo Wars will often yell: I AM THE ARBITER!, just in case you forgot.
- Link. After all, if you're going to pay Nobuyuki "Gai" Hiyama to play your Heroic Mime, you've gotta make use of his voice somehow.
- Diablo 2's Barbarian has an entire tree of skills which involve roaring to either buff himself and his allies, or de-buff enemies. One of the highest-level war cries, simply called War Cry, deals direct physical damage.
- World Of Warcraft's Warrior Class takes a slice from the Barbarian, with multiple abilities relying on shouting for a similiar range of effects, although he can't directly deal damage with any of them.
- Heroes Of Might And Magic 5: Orc Barbarian Heroes have their own brand of magic, called War Cries. One of them deals direct damage by making all his units shout at an enemy.
- Enja.
- Hot Blooded Sanada Yukimura from Sengoku Basara just will not shut up! No wonder we feel sorry for his voice actor...
Web Animation
Western Animation
- Hawkgirl in Justice League. On average, it was about one yell for every swing of her mace.
- Tell me that a woman with huge wings flying/charging at you with an indestructible mace of Nth metal isn't scary. I dare you.
- Prince Zuko in Avatar The Last Airbender
- Sokka initially tries to be this in the second episode, but gives up on it once he realizes he's no match for Zuko. After some training, he's shown to indulge in it from time to time. He also tried to do a sneak attack on Aang from behind...whilst screeching "SNEAK ATTAAACK!!!" at the top of his lungs. He is forcefully reminded of the negatives of this trope.
- We also see the Southern Raiders all letting out a battle cry before attacking the Southern Water Tribe.
- Shego of Kim Possible
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