History Main / WarriorTherapist

* TimothyZahn's ''StarWars'' books, which jump started the fandom way before the second trilogy, had the inverted ScienceFiction version of this. Grand Admiral Thrawn knew how an entire species would fight by simply examining their artwork.

* Surprisingly, ''SailorMoon'' manages to pull this off by the time the ''Stars'' season kicks off - it's how she manages to defeat [[spoiler: Nehelenia and Sailor Galaxia.]] First she [[spoiler: listens to Nehelenia's bitter DarkAndTroubledPast, redeems her via offering her own life in exchange for the freedom of the other Senshi and Mamoru, and finally manages to give her a LastSecondChance to do things over]]; then, at the end of the series [[spoiler: she refuses to kill Galaxia and keeps talking to her kindly even after the massive BreakTheCutie she has gone through, ultimately purging Galaxia from the evil within her and getting to her.]]

-->--''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic II]]''

->''"Know how a man fights, and you will know the man."''

ImplausibleFencingPowers [[XMeetsY meets]] BreakThemByTalking.

* The [[PlayerCharacter Player Characters]] of both ''{{Persona 3}}'' and ''{{Persona 4}}'' derive [[ThePowerOfFriendship power from friendships]] they make in their everyday lives, called [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 Social Links]]. The setting of either game happens to be a big DysfunctionJunction, so unlocking your truest combat potential demands that you be one of these.

An evil (or TerrorHero/antihero) WarriorTherapist will use this knowledge to intimidate and unnerve his foes, gleefully deflating their egos and likely reminding the hero that they're really NotSoDifferent; [[BreakThemByTalking sometimes to the point of breaking their wills entirely.]] A good Warrior Therapist will deliver a lifechanging motivational speech and beat the everloving crap out of them while he's doing it. (See DefeatMeansFriendship.)

* Taken to its logical extreme [[http://www.nobodylikesonions.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10736 here.]] (WARNING: contains some gore)

** Not to mention the fact that the show's final boss, [[CharClone Rau]] [[FauxAffablyEvil Le]] [[OmnicidalManiac Creuset]] pulls this off ''gloriously'' in the villanous fashion with two heroes (Mu and Kira) ''in sequence''. Mu simply accepts Rau as beyond redemption and a monster that must be destroyed. Kira's idealism results in him constantly trying to do a heroic version to Rau at the same time. It doesn't work, [[spoiler: and only after Rau [[HeroicBSOD kills Flay]] ]] does Kira go for the kill like Mu did.

ImplausibleFencingPowers meets BreakThemByTalking.

-->-- Motto of every Warrior Therapist ever

* ''Videogame/SengokuBasara'': [[ActionGirl Magoichi]] becomes one to Mitsunari if you side with him in her story in the third game. Since she's someone Mitsunari can't intimidate, he is forced to talk to her about his problems. She eventually finds that beneath the AxCrazy, {{Revenge}} hungry man with NoSocialSkills, Mitsunari values his allies (betrayal is a BerserkButton) but the lack of people skills makes it very hard to see.
** In the fourth game, Kenshin tries to play this to Matabe in the latter's drama route. Unfortunately, Matabe is too much of a broken wretch of a man for this to work on, especially when it comes to his second most-hated enemy. As such, Kenshin's last words are him lamenting his failure while Matabe laughs wildly to himself.

->'''Darth Sion:''' You seek to erode my will, you will not succeed.
->'''Caption:''' [You have eroded Sion's will]
-->--''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic II]]''

* ''{{Sengoku Basara}}'': [[ActionGirl Magoichi]] becomes one to Mitsunari if you side with him in her story. Since she's someone Mitsunari can't intimidate, he is forced to talk to her about his problems. She eventually finds that beneath the AxCrazy, {{Revenge}} hungry man with NoSocialSkills, Mitsunari values his allies (betrayal is a BerserkButton) but the lack of people skills makes it very hard to see.

--->'''Garrus:''' [[TrueCompanions Before your friend picks you up, dusts you off and reminds you that you're the best damn solider he's ever served with.]]

* Both Li Mubai and Shu-Lien from ''CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon''.

* Arguably, Karkat from ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''.

** Rose claims that psychology is one of her hobbies and makes attempts at psychoanalyzing her friends early on, but as it turns out she's either not very good at it or has since lost interest.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fan Fiction ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* In ''DragonballAbridged'', Nappa claims that he majored in Child Psychology (WITH A MINOR IN PAIN!) and goes on about how the values of healthy communication... right before pounding the crap out of the guy he was talking about because they had interrupted him while he was talking to Vegeta.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* This is also played straight in ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', most notably in the final battle between the Chouginga Dai-Gurren-dan and the Anti-Spiral. This is taken to the extremes in the second compilation movie, where the battle is extended from approximately 10 minutes to a whooping 25-30 minutes of epic ass-kicking on a galactic scale (literally).

* Dracule Mihawk from ''OnePiece'' gives one of the best Warrior Therapy sessions ever in his first fight with Rorona Zoro.

* Touma of ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex'' has a few of these moments, including in his fight agianst Kanzaki where he called her out on her treatment of Index, and [[spoiler: Accelerator, twice. The first time was accidental, and he became a slightly better person by using Touma as an example, but the second time was deliberate. The results have yet to be seen.]] One of his skirimishes against Misaka, when she [[spoiler: was trying to [[SuicideByCop sacrifice herself against Accelerator]] in order to stop the Experiment,]] and he stopped her by not fighting probably counts as well.

* [[spoiler: Tharja]] from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is a very... uncommon version, considering [[spoiler: that she's a '''really''' odd StrangeGirl who can curse you into oblivion at timnes, but at others will listen to other people's problems and won't judge them for anything.]]

* ''MassEffect'''s Commander Shepard, when played as a Paragon, can end up spending about as much time counseling people as he or she does fighting. Renegade Shepard, meanwhile, is far more likely to [[KillHimAlready just shoot people]], but can sometimes act as a much more cynical variety of WarriorTherapist. Either way, bullets appear to be quite integral to their therapeutic method.

** Even moreso in MassEffect2, where to EarnYourHappyEnding you have to solve your entire crew's problems, which range from dealing with an odd form of puberty to various forms of rescuing.
** Lampshaded in ''MassEffect3'', where Shepard will ask EDI if she has any issues "like an imperfect creator you could view as a twisted father figure or anything." When EDI asks why on Earth Shepard's asking those sorts of questions, Shepard'll comment that s/he's learned it's just easier to ask them sooner or later.

* In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Liam Neeson's character Henri Ducard a.k.a. [[spoiler:the ''real'' Ra's Al Ghul]] not only trains proto-Batman Bruce Wayne at the monastery of the sinister Brotherhood called the "League of Shadows", but also lectures him during training fights on the importance of overcoming his fears and making fear his ally, using it against his enemies. This evolves into full-blown {{Hannibal Lecture}}s later on when they're fighting each other as enemies; NietzscheWannabe Ducard frequently makes snide comments about Bruce's emotional "weaknesses" (hope for a better world, compassion and mercy) and claims that he and {{Batman}} are NotSoDifferent. Unfortunately for him, Bruce has the last word.... Probably.

-->-- Motto of every WarriorTherapist ever

* ''{{Batman}}'', of course, gets tons of opportunities to practice this, since most of his enemies are actual mental patients. Harley Quinn and Scarecrow, both former psychiatrists themselves, are particularly likely to fall victim to Bat-psychoanalysis.

* {{Superman}} has spent a good number of his battles simultaneously talking ''and'' beating some sense into his opponents. It's turned more than a few villains to a less destructive path.

* Dr. Tofu of the Ranma1/2 franchise is a LITERAL Warrior Therapist: He is both a chiropractor AND a martial arts master.

* [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Rei Ayanami]]. [[ApocalypseMaiden Yes]], [[EmotionlessGirl that]] [[{{Kuudere}} Rei]] [[TheWoobie Ayanami]]. Even though she is intended to be creepy and cold Rei still sets out to help Shinji, Asuka, even Ritsuko this way. RebuildOfEvangelion takes it further with her convincing Gendou to get closer to his son.