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Saiyan Blood! Get you down! (Get you down!)
Get you down! (Get you down!)
I was born to fight!
Saiyan Blood! Beat you down! (Beat you down!)
Beat you down! (Beat you down!)
I am about to become legend!
Get you down! (Get you down!)
I was born to fight!
Saiyan Blood! Beat you down! (Beat you down!)
Beat you down! (Beat you down!)
I am about to become legend!
— Vegeta's Theme Music Power-Up, Dragon Ball Z Kai
Fan Fiction
"I have studied Terran history. Many Terran cultures have similarities to the Klingon culture." Ezra sighed. "I do have to admit, sometimes they take it to extremes."
"I saw them mock you, you know, saw the way they laughed and made fun of the fact that you were a healer. I love the Yun, I always have, but only a foolish warrior mocks a healer."
Films — Live-Action
Barbarian: Conan, what is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!
Xerxes: It would be nothing short of madness were you, brave king, and your valiant troops to perish all because of a simple misunderstanding. There is much our cultures could share.
Leonidas: Haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.
Leonidas: Haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.
— 300
"Harm? An ominous word. Since the time of our ancestors, the Takeda have never run from a fight. Forward!... Forward!"
—Katsuyori Takeda, Kagemusha
Literature
We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship... Ah, young sir, the Szekelys, and the Dracula as their heart's blood, their brains, and their swords, can boast a record that mushroom growths like the Hapsburgs and the Romanoffs can never reach. The warlike days are over. Blood is too precious a thing in these days of dishonourable peace, and the glories of the great races are as a tale that is told.
— Count Dracula
Here we are at last, Hero of Sontar! Just seven minutes from clone-birth to full deployment on the battlefield: a new Sontaran record, and a victory for us all! I am delighted to inform you that over half of your batch-generation, despite fierce bombardment from this planet's surface, are about to face their first foe. As to this foe's identity...we ask you this, soldier. Does it matter? Do you need to know? [...]
You exist by the might of the Empire's science, and it is your duty to repay that in conquest and triumph. When you march, you do not march as a single soldier, but as a component of the Empire, a link in a chain unbroken from the first Sontaran, millenia ago. When you march, the Empire marches with you. Where you tread, the weight of a billion Sontaran boots fall. This is your birthright. This is what you were made for, and we are already proud. Go forth and conquer! SONTAR-HA!
You exist by the might of the Empire's science, and it is your duty to repay that in conquest and triumph. When you march, you do not march as a single soldier, but as a component of the Empire, a link in a chain unbroken from the first Sontaran, millenia ago. When you march, the Empire marches with you. Where you tread, the weight of a billion Sontaran boots fall. This is your birthright. This is what you were made for, and we are already proud. Go forth and conquer! SONTAR-HA!
— The Sontaran Subliminal Education Matrix, Doctor Who: Twelve Angels Weeping
Tazendra and Ibronka: I will remain until the last.
Tazendra: Your name, madam?
Ibronka: I am Ibronka, my lady.
Tazendra: Well, I perceive you are a Dzur.
Ibronka: I have that honor, my lady. And I observe that you are, as well.
Tazendra: That is true. Therefore, let these others go up the ropes, and, if there is a last defense to be done on this spot, well, we shall do it, you and I.
Tazendra: Your name, madam?
Ibronka: I am Ibronka, my lady.
Tazendra: Well, I perceive you are a Dzur.
Ibronka: I have that honor, my lady. And I observe that you are, as well.
Tazendra: That is true. Therefore, let these others go up the ropes, and, if there is a last defense to be done on this spot, well, we shall do it, you and I.
You are no Kavalar. You do not understand Kavalars, I would guess, yet you stand here and I see judgment in your eyes. By what right? Who are you to judge us? You scarcely know us.
— Garse Janecek, Dying of the Light
Now it chanced when the old King - the Queen's son - completed his days, the four who stood in his presence were Goorkhas. Neither Sikhs, alas, nor Pathans, Rajputs, nor Jats. Goorkhas, my Father.
Only on Barrayar, Miles reflected, would pulling a loaded needler start a stampede toward one...
White clothing for a killer was a tradition among the Parshendi. Although Szeth had not asked, his masters had explained why.
White to be bold. White to not blend into the night. White to give warning.
For if you were going to assassinate a man, he was entitled to see you coming.
White to be bold. White to not blend into the night. White to give warning.
For if you were going to assassinate a man, he was entitled to see you coming.
— The Way of Kings (2010) (first book of The Stormlight Archive)
"Every pasture needs three things. Flocks to grow, herdsmen to tend, and watchers at the rim. We of Alethela are those watchers—the warriors who protect and fight. We maintain the terrible arts of killing, then pass them on to others when the Desolation comes."
— Knight Radiant, The Way of Kings (2010) (first book of The Stormlight Archive)
Leave to the soft Campanian
His baths and his perfumes;
Leave to the sordid race of Tyre
Their dyeing-vats and looms;
Leave to the sons of Carthage
The rudder and the oar;
Leave to the Greek his marble Nymphs
And scrolls of wordy lore.
Thine, Roman, is the pilum:
Roman, the sword is thine,
The even trench, the bristling mound,
The legion's ordered line;
And thine the wheels of triumph,
Which with their laurelled train
Move slowly up the shouting streets
To Jove's eternal flame.
His baths and his perfumes;
Leave to the sordid race of Tyre
Their dyeing-vats and looms;
Leave to the sons of Carthage
The rudder and the oar;
Leave to the Greek his marble Nymphs
And scrolls of wordy lore.
Thine, Roman, is the pilum:
Roman, the sword is thine,
The even trench, the bristling mound,
The legion's ordered line;
And thine the wheels of triumph,
Which with their laurelled train
Move slowly up the shouting streets
To Jove's eternal flame.
— Sir Thomas Maculay, "Lays of Ancient Rome"
Live-Action TV
Hear! Sons of Kahless. Hear! Daughters too.
The blood of battle washes clean
The warrior brave and true.
We fight, we love, and then we kill.
Our lives burn short and bright.
Then we die with honor and
Join our fathers in the black fleet,
Where we battle, forever battling, on
Through the eternal fight.
The blood of battle washes clean
The warrior brave and true.
We fight, we love, and then we kill.
Our lives burn short and bright.
Then we die with honor and
Join our fathers in the black fleet,
Where we battle, forever battling, on
Through the eternal fight.
— Translation of Klingon battle chant in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Soldiers of the Empire"
Worf: "Sweet"?
Ezri: Not a very Klingon word, is it?
Worf: No.
Ezri It's very...honorable.
Worf: Better—albeit a little obvious.
Ezri: Not a very Klingon word, is it?
Worf: No.
Ezri It's very...honorable.
Worf: Better—albeit a little obvious.
—Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Tacking Into the Wind"
I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion.
— Din Djarin, The Mandalorian
Music
From birth we're taught
How to survive
We're taught how war is waged
And there are no men now alive
Who stop our wild rampage
How to survive
We're taught how war is waged
And there are no men now alive
Who stop our wild rampage
— Amon Amarth, "Live Without Regrets"
Tabletop Games
You think you know glory, whelp, just because you have survived a single day of battle? To feel the thunder of munitions like the fury of the gods as the ground tears apart around you, to wet your blade with the blood of kings, to be the first man on a planet crawling with alien terrors; that is to know true glory. Mark it well.
We iz gonna stomp da ‘ooniverse flat an' kill anyfing that fights back. We iz gonna do this coz' we're Orks an' we was made ta fight an' win!
— Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, Warhammer 40,000
Video Games
The Saiyans are a true warrior race! Don't underestimate us!
— Vegeta, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
Remember this always, son of the north - a Nord is judged not by the manner in which he lived, but the manner in which he died.
— A Dream of Sovngarde, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
We're the children of Skyrim, and we fight all our lives
And when Sovngarde beckons everyone of us dies
But this land is ours and we'll see it wiped clean
Of the scourge that has sullied our hopes and our dreams
And when Sovngarde beckons everyone of us dies
But this land is ours and we'll see it wiped clean
Of the scourge that has sullied our hopes and our dreams
— "The Age of Aggression/Oppression" (Nordic folk song), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim note
Victory or Sovngarde!
Killing you will bring me honour!
— Dremora, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
You ask a krogan if he'd rather find a cure for the genophage, or fight for credits, and he'll choose fighting — every time. It's just who we are, Shepard. I can't change that. No one can.
— Urdnot Wrex, Mass Effect
Other races go to colonize new planets. We're not settlers - we're warriors. We want to fight. A lot of krogan leave... and most never come back.
— Urdnot Wrex, Mass Effect
Victory... at any cost!
—Tarquin Victus, Mass Effect 3
Marcus: Greetings to clan leader Zatuk, whose father is Movar, the Comet Spitter, whose father is Raghir, the Lash of a Thousand Barbs. I'm honored by your presence.
Zatuk: Greetings to the Marcus from the Cromwell clan, whose father is Richard, the Settler. We come in peace. Chief Marcus, we Gorgs do not like wasting words on false pleasantries. We both know why we are here: we want to put an end to this war. Do you find anything objectionable in my words?
Marcus: Your words are clear and wise, Chief Zatuk. We have only to agree on the conditions.
Zatuk: Very well. Our conditions are as follows...
(three hours later)
Sweetwater: Looks like you owe me a drink, Commodore. Gorg ships are closing on us.
Marcus: Chief Zatuk, what is the meaning of this? Is your word worth so little?
Zatuk: Pale, cadaverous human! How dare you question my honor?! The word of a Zordon is a bond! If I desired, I could crush you in an instant - I have no need for cowardly tricks.
Marcus: Commander Sweetwater, can you determine which clan these ships belong to?
Sweetwater: Their marking indicate they are affiliated with the Raggra clan.
Marcus: Chief Zatuk, eight of the Raggra clan's vessels are approaching. If you had no foreknowledge of this, then I apologize for my previous words.
Zatuk: I have been betrayed! Someone must have told them the location of this meeting. Well... if it's a battle they desire, THEY SHALL HAVE IT! Warcry, Red Alert! Chief Marcus - this is our battle. You stay out of this.
Zatuk: Greetings to the Marcus from the Cromwell clan, whose father is Richard, the Settler. We come in peace. Chief Marcus, we Gorgs do not like wasting words on false pleasantries. We both know why we are here: we want to put an end to this war. Do you find anything objectionable in my words?
Marcus: Your words are clear and wise, Chief Zatuk. We have only to agree on the conditions.
Zatuk: Very well. Our conditions are as follows...
(three hours later)
Sweetwater: Looks like you owe me a drink, Commodore. Gorg ships are closing on us.
Marcus: Chief Zatuk, what is the meaning of this? Is your word worth so little?
Zatuk: Pale, cadaverous human! How dare you question my honor?! The word of a Zordon is a bond! If I desired, I could crush you in an instant - I have no need for cowardly tricks.
Marcus: Commander Sweetwater, can you determine which clan these ships belong to?
Sweetwater: Their marking indicate they are affiliated with the Raggra clan.
Marcus: Chief Zatuk, eight of the Raggra clan's vessels are approaching. If you had no foreknowledge of this, then I apologize for my previous words.
Zatuk: I have been betrayed! Someone must have told them the location of this meeting. Well... if it's a battle they desire, THEY SHALL HAVE IT! Warcry, Red Alert! Chief Marcus - this is our battle. You stay out of this.
— The Gorg, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
To make a Thraddash your friend, kill him - but then of course, he's dead so what's the point?
— Melnorme saying, Star Control II
Player Character: Do you believe that the goal you are attempting to achieve was worth killing civilians?
Tran: I didn't want to attack this ship. There is a nobility to being a soldier. When I enter battle, I know I could be killed. I know that others will die at my hands. But that is what we must do. It is part of being a soldier. Civilians are not part of this unspoken agreement. They do not wake up each day and know in their hearts it could be their last. They should be out of bounds as targets for people like you and me. There is no honor in fighting someone who is unprepared to fight back. I regret that I had orders to kill these civilians. More than that, I regret that I carried out those orders.
Tran: I didn't want to attack this ship. There is a nobility to being a soldier. When I enter battle, I know I could be killed. I know that others will die at my hands. But that is what we must do. It is part of being a soldier. Civilians are not part of this unspoken agreement. They do not wake up each day and know in their hearts it could be their last. They should be out of bounds as targets for people like you and me. There is no honor in fighting someone who is unprepared to fight back. I regret that I had orders to kill these civilians. More than that, I regret that I carried out those orders.
— Star Trek Online, Episode "Breen Invasion", mission "Cold Comfort"
Dwarf Warrior: I'm impressed by your skill with a blade. I'm offering you the chance of glory as we wade into the Orcs horde.
Dietrich the paymaster: And what of our payment?
Dwarf Warrior: What? Is the honor of battle and a barrel of Bugman's brew to nurse your wounds not enough?
Dietrich: Honor and a sore head do not pay the Innkeeper.
Dietrich the paymaster: And what of our payment?
Dwarf Warrior: What? Is the honor of battle and a barrel of Bugman's brew to nurse your wounds not enough?
Dietrich: Honor and a sore head do not pay the Innkeeper.
We Tarka are a simple people, when all is said and done. We cleave the universe in clean, straight lines. We show our faces in battle, rather than our tails. And we want what is ours, by right of superior arms and tactics. If that is the universe? Well, so be it. Have at you, and join the fray as joyously as we do; after all, my friends, war is nothing personal.
— The Tarka, Sword of the Stars
"We embrace the glory of battle!"
"Glorious combat is upon us!"
"Glorious combat is upon us!"
— Zealot and Adept under-attack quotes, Starcraft II
"Yah, come and FIGHT me! Gyahahahaha!!!"
— Thor under-attack quote, Starcraft II
"Norn have no need of armies. We are Norn."
— Olaf Olafson, Guild Wars Eye of the North
"Wanderers seeking death, welcome. May you find swift end upon our claws."
— Engraving outside Mantis Village, Hollow Knight
Webcomics
Khilothi Soldier: (After the ship is critically damaged) To the escape pods!
High Murderix Knell'Dorn: No! We shall die with honor!
Khilothi Soldier: But... the escape pods...
High Murderix Knell'Dorn: With honor!
Khilothi Soldier: Why do we even have escape pods!?
High Murderix Knell'Dorn: So we can not use them with honor!
Web Original
Jay: Do the Predators do anything else with their existence but go to other planets and hunt things? That's all we've ever seen them do!
Rich: We don't know. These could just be elite, rich Predators. Weekend warriors.
Mike: Literally. Predators back home, they wear suits, monocles and top hats.
Rich: We don't know. These could just be elite, rich Predators. Weekend warriors.
Mike: Literally. Predators back home, they wear suits, monocles and top hats.
— Half in the Bag, AVP: Alien vs. Predator Rifftrack
There seems to be some kind of rule of science fiction. When you have no idea what to do, make the aliens space warriors with their code and all that crap.
KOTOR II did something I really appreciate where it used the Mandalorians to kinda dunk on the trope of "Warrior Races" by showing how a culture based around war and fighting is self-defeating and unsustainable.
After the Mandalorian Wars, you see loads of Mandalorians complaining that their culture is going to die out if they don't get any help, but nobody really cares because their culture was burning down everyone else's culture.
In fact it was this warrior culture that allowed them to be easily manipulated into being a blunt instrument to fight a proxy war for the Sith Empire in the first place.
And as KOTOR II would tell it, the Mandalorians "died a death that would take millennia", as constant war left them less and less capable of bouncing back until eventually Jango Fett was kinda the last living time capsule of their culture and was just casually offed by a Jedi.
They make a big song and dance about how noble and storied and worthy of preservation they are, but to the rest of the galaxy they were just violent dicks, until their culture died its final ignominious death in a the form of some bounty hunter in a pointless fight in some arena.
Its kind of a bummer how The Mandalorian has kinda rubbed out the TCW idea of them finally getting their act together and becoming a peaceful society, in favor of going back to wall to wall jetpacks and knives. In TCW the people who wanted to go back to that were the bad guys.
After the Mandalorian Wars, you see loads of Mandalorians complaining that their culture is going to die out if they don't get any help, but nobody really cares because their culture was burning down everyone else's culture.
In fact it was this warrior culture that allowed them to be easily manipulated into being a blunt instrument to fight a proxy war for the Sith Empire in the first place.
And as KOTOR II would tell it, the Mandalorians "died a death that would take millennia", as constant war left them less and less capable of bouncing back until eventually Jango Fett was kinda the last living time capsule of their culture and was just casually offed by a Jedi.
They make a big song and dance about how noble and storied and worthy of preservation they are, but to the rest of the galaxy they were just violent dicks, until their culture died its final ignominious death in a the form of some bounty hunter in a pointless fight in some arena.
Its kind of a bummer how The Mandalorian has kinda rubbed out the TCW idea of them finally getting their act together and becoming a peaceful society, in favor of going back to wall to wall jetpacks and knives. In TCW the people who wanted to go back to that were the bad guys.
— Daniel Orrett, here
Western Animation
To defeat you in such a manner would be lacking in honor. [...] I prefer to beat my opponents the old-fashioned way... brutally!
— Dinobot, Beast Wars
Quickstrike: So, what's a warrior without weapons?
Dinobot: A warrior, STILL!
Dinobot: A warrior, STILL!
My home, Thanagar, is a war-like world. There one must strike first or die.
— Hawkgirl, Justice League
Raphael! That is a rash, foolhardy and extremely dangerous act! Count me in.
— Traximus, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)
Ultra Magnus: Cyclonus, you saved me? But why?
Cyclonus: Warriors such as you and I should meet their end in battle.
Cyclonus: Warriors such as you and I should meet their end in battle.
—The Transformers, "The Killing Jar"
Real Life
But on the frontier, in the clear light of morning, when the mountain side is dotted with smoke puffs, and every ridge sparkles with sword blades, the spectator may observe and completely appreciate all grades of human courage-the wild fanaticism of the Ghazi, the composed fatalism of the Sikh, the stubbornness of the British soldier, and the jaunty daring of his officers.
— Story of the Malakand Field Force, by Winston Churchill
Born to be a soldier, from his youth he hears of nothing else. The farmer who bears arms tells to his son his adventures, and the lad, eager to tread in the footsteps of his elder, trains his feeble arms early to the use of formidable weapons; so when he has reached a size necessary to take a place in the valiant ranks, he is quickly formed into a soldier.
— Military Experience in the Age of Reason by Christopher Duffy
Heaven grew weary of the excessive pride and luxury of China... I am from the Barbaric North. I wear the same clothing and eat the same food as the cowherds and horse-herders. We make the same sacrifices and we share our riches. I look upon the nation as a new-born child and I care for my soldiers as though they were my brothers.
— Genghis Khan after 75,000 Mongols defeated 600,000 Chinese and sacked Beijing.
Their loyalty was rarely in doubt, their ferocity proverbial, and their habit of collecting the heads of slain foes never seriously discouraged.
— Description of Balkan warriors in Venetian service, from Fighting for the Faith by David Nicolle
Gay palaces and music and poetry were well enough for Egyptians and Syrians and Greeks; but a Roman set the quick eye, the hard hand, and the sharp sword above these pleasures. With the sword came land and sea, harvests and fishing, the vine and the wheat crop, the flax for making linen, the wood for building a house or a ship, the iron and the copper and the bronze and the gold for making weapons and cauldrons and a coinage that would buy anything, in any market in the world. Give a man these things, and he could employ others - Syrians and Greeks - to make music and poetry for him. But first came the sword...
— Fighting Men: How Men Have Fought Through the Ages by Ewart Oakeshaft and Henry Treece
Let the weeping be for cowards: but you child, I bury without a tear; you are my son, and Sparta's too.
Cattle die, kinsmen die, all men are mortal.
Words of praise will never perish, nor a noble name.
Words of praise will never perish, nor a noble name.
— Viking proverb
