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Characters / Deadliest Warrior

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The various warriors featured in the show:

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     Tropes about Season 1 warriors 

Apache

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apache_5.jpg
The Apache, fierce, scalp-taking master of death
"There's no rules to an Apache when it comes to fighting. The bottom line is if you're my enemy, I'm going to kill you."

Appeared in the first episode fighting against the Gladiator.

  • Badass Boast: Fierce, scalp-taking master of death.
  • Licking the Blade: Licks the blood of his knife after the battle.
  • Oh, Crap!: The Apache has a non-verbal one when he sees the Gladiator yank an arrow out of himself.

Gladiator

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gladiator_5.jpg
The Gladiator, proud, thrilling killer of Ancient Rome
"The Gladiator lived only for one thing, and that is to kill."

  • Badass Boast: Crowd-thrilling killer of ancient Rome.
  • Blood Sport
  • Crippling Overspecialisation: The Gladiator's lack of armour and specialized weapons mean he loses to the more versatile Apache.
  • Kukris Are Kool: He has a sword-length predecessor of the kukri known as the sica.
  • Made of Iron: The Gladiator is trained to resist pain and damage. He even manages to pull out an arrow from his chest, which only makes him angry. However, this doesn't compensate for his lack of armor, allowing the Apache to eventually kill him.
  • Power Fist: The Cestus and Scissor.
  • Slashed Throat: How he dies at the hands of the Apache.
  • Suffer the Slings: One of his weapons.

Samurai

  • Armor Is Useless: Played with. His helmet can’t protect him from concussions, but the lamellar body armor saves him from every lethal blow the Viking tries to land.
  • Badass Boast: Japan's lightning-fast dealer of death.
  • Carry a Big Stick: The Kanabo.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Their experts certainly thought so. The katana was said to be a "two-body blade", as it cut through two whole pig carcasses.
    • That said they actually gave the edge to the Viking's axe in that category.
  • Ornamental Weapon: He carries a wakizashi in the simulation with his katana, but never draws it.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The plucky little Japanese dude goes around with a gigantic club and can swing it for good.
  • Sengoku Period: The test was based on the samurai of this time frame, fighting more on foot than on horseback and wearing more practical gusoku-type armor rather than a heavy and complex o-yoroi.
  • Swipe Your Blade Off: He flicks blood off his sword after impaling the Viking.

Viking

  • Armor Is Useless: Averted. Katana does nothing against chain mail. Unless, of course, you thrust with it.
  • Badass Boast: The battle-crazed berserker who terrorized Europe.
  • Death by a Thousand Cuts: How he loses. He’s a raging berserker but can’t fatally wound the more heavily armored samurai, who takes him down with an arrow to the shoulder, a stab with the naginata, an arm-crushing blow with the kanabo, and half a dozen strikes with the katana.
  • Horny Vikings: Averted. This is a realistic depiction.
  • Shields Are Useless: The Viking shield fails to withstand the kanabo strike.

Spartan

  • Badass Boast: The battlefield butcher from ancient Greece.
  • Boring, but Practical: The Spartan has exceedingly simple equipment by the standards of the show, consisting of just a short sword, a spear, a javelin, and a shield. It’s more than enough to curb-stomp the ninja.
  • The Comically Serious: He’s presented in the simulation as a consummate warrior going up against the more theatrical ninja.
  • Elite Army: As one of the smallest armies in Greece, their military power was second only to the Athenian Navy.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: One of the most noted things about the Spartans are how well their shields stand up against attacks. the Ninja had no weapons that could destroy the shield, and the massive Samurai kanabo needed multiple hits to do any damage. Even then, it would at most just dent the shield.
  • Shield Bash: The most effective weapon against the Ninja, as the shield is so massive that the Ninja had few options in dodging, blocking, or parrying it. The Samurai could also be killed by the shield, though it wasn't as relatively effective since the Samurai's armor was so strong.

Ninja

Pirate

  • Badass Boast: Murderous killer of the high seas.
  • Boom, Headshot!: The pirate does this at the end of the re-enactment, removing the Knight's visor and blasting him right between the eyes with his pistol.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: The first warrior (in the series, that is) to use an explosive weapon - in this case, a primitive grenade.
  • Sinister Scimitar: The pirate, as a lawless marauder, uses a curved cutlass to contrast the knight’s straight-bladed longsword.

Knight

  • Badass Boast: Sword-wielding slayer of the medieval age.
  • Combat Pragmatist: He plays dead for a chance to shoot the pirate in the leg with a crossbow.
  • Epic Flail: The Morningstar split open a skull on one of DW's test dummies with one hit.
  • Rock Beats Laser: Averted. The pirate's more advanced technology (read: gunpowder) is cited as the reason the knight lost the matchup.

The Mafia

The Sicilian crime family who flourished in the 1920s in New York. Appeared first in Episode 5 fighting against the Yakuza.

Yakuza

Green Beret

  • Badass Boast: One of America's most elite soldiers, fighting the fiercest battles.
  • Shovel Strike: The Green Beret's close-range weapon is the E-Tool, a collapsible shovel with sharp edges.

Spetsnaz

  • Badass Army: The show takes great pains to show off just how hardcore these guys are.
  • Badass Boast: Top secret commandos, the spearhead of the Russian army.
  • Cool Old Guy: The Spetsnaz commander kills four of the opposing Green Berets on his own despite looking to be in his forties.
  • Detachable Blades: The ballistic knife can launch its blade as a last-ditch projectile.
  • Training from Hell

Shaolin Monk

Maori Warrior

William Wallace

Shaka Zulu

Irish Republican Army

  • Back from the Brink: In the battle simulation against the Tailban, four IRA fighters get wiped out in the first few seconds. It all comes down to just one last IRA fighter somehow taking out the remaining Taliban fighters by himself and winning the battle for the IRA. It helps that one Talib got killed at the beginning of the fight and another got killed by Friendly Fire.
  • Badass Boast: Unstoppable urban guerrillas, who waged a bloody, savage war for Irish independence.
  • Fire-Breathing Weapon: The LPO-50 flamethrower.
  • La Résistance
  • Mad Bomber: Their nail bombs are one of their key advantages, and they really seem to like using them.
  • Slasher Smile: The IRA leader flashes one while trapping the last Talib in a bomb-rigged bus and taunting him with the remote.
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Your Freedom Fighters Are Our Terrorists: These episodes were never screened in Britain... Funny, that.

Taliban

  • Badass Boast: Hardline religious extremists who back their beliefs with bullets.
  • Friendly Fire: At one point during the battle simulation, one Talib is killed by an RPG fired by one of his teammates during a scuffle with the last IRA fighter (who manages to jump away at the last second).

     Tropes about Season 2 warriors 

SWAT

  • Badass Boast: The elite special forces of US law enforcement who take on the country's most dangerous police missions.
  • SWAT Team: Goes without saying

GSG-9

  • Badass Boast: The top-secret paramilitary arm of the German police known as the most lethal counter-terrorism squad in the world.
  • Badass Crew: What the GSG-9 are trained to be; they completed their first-ever deployment in under 7 minutes with no civilian casualties.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: In the simulated battle, the GSG-9 frequently wander into one ambush after another. And it's even how the last SWAT Team member ends up finishing off the last GSG-9 member.
  • SWAT Team: The German counter-terrorist elite forces.

Attila the Hun (and his Huns)

Alexander the Great (and Macedonian Hoplites)

Jesse James (and the James-Younger Gang)

  • Badass Boast: The vicious outlaw whose bloody crime sprees made him the most famous bank robber in America.
  • Big Brother Instinct: When Al Capone is delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Jesse, Frank delivers the killing shot with his Winchester to save him.
  • Big Damn Hero: Frank James in the battle.
  • Guns Akimbo: The Colt Revolvers are always wielded one in each hand.
  • Historical Domain Character
  • Quick Draw: Naturally.
  • Sole Survivor: Subverted. Both Frank and Jesse survive the final showdown.
  • True Companions: James's gang is portrayed as this; J.W. Wiseman, one of his experts, had this to offer about them.
    "The James Gang worked as a democracy. They looked out for each other. They took care of you and you took care of them.

Al Capone (and the Chicago Outfit)

Aztec Jaguar

  • Badass Boast: Swift-moving slayer of the ancient Mexican empire.
  • Badass Native: Essentially the Aztec Empire's equivalent to a knight.
  • Human Sacrifice: The Jaguars were the cornerstone of the Aztec's sacrifice business, being responsible for the capture and execution of victims.
  • Mayincatec: Actually averted, the hosts and experts did their homework on this one.

Azande

  • Badass Boast: Ferocious barbarian of Central Africa.
  • Darkest Africa
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Just take a look at the design of their weapons. "It's a symbol of masculinity!"
  • Fragile Speedster: The Azande wore little armor and the Kube shield was one of the most frail shields on the entire show, but because of their lightweight tools and experience as hunters and fighters on the African plains, they were fast runners. Even the Jaguar Warrior, who are also known for their speed, are only on par with the Azande.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Invoked and subverted. They pretended to be cannibals to terrorize their enemies but were just faking it.

Viet Cong

  • Badass Boast: The ragtag guerilla force that took the U.S. military head on, and won the Vietnam War
  • Improbable Weapon User: Punji stakes, which are sharpened bamboo covered in human feces.
  • Lesser of Two Evils: Despite being communist terrorists and having a history of committing war crimes, the Viet Cong pale in comparison to their explicitly genocidal enemy; the Waffen-SS.

Nazi Waffen-SS

  • Badass Boast: The fanatical shock troops who led Adolf Hitler's evil charge for world domination.
  • Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Flammenwerfer 41.
  • Groin Attack/Crippling Castration: The "Bouncing Betty" landmine, named such because its secondary fuse system was designed to propel a triggered mine a couple of feet off the ground before the primary explosion sent steel ball bearings every which way as deadly shrapnel. The height at detonation meant that any man unlucky enough to be in the blast zone, even if they didn't die immediately, was liable to have his genitals shredded by shrapnel. As a result, it earned a feared reputation among the Allied troops. When the DW crew tested it, well...
    Max Geiger: ...[this dummy's] junk is pushed in.
  • State Sec: There's a reason they're the trope image.

Roman Centurion

  • Badass Boast: The killer commander whose brutal assaults led Rome to conquer the world.

Rajput

  • Awesome, but Impractical: The aara; which was deemed capable of grisly lacerations, but ended up getting zero kills in the sim. It was entirely ineffective against the Centurion's armour.
  • Badass Boast: India's menacing martial arts master who defeated enemies with a diabolical arsenal designed to kill.
  • BFS: The Khanda.
  • Rings of Death: The Chakrams.
  • Whip Sword: The Aara.

Somali Pirates

  • Badass Boast: Africa's deadly new breed of high seas hijackers who make millions holding merchant ships hostage.
  • Enemy Mine: The ships fishing in the waters of Somalia were a common enemy for people who once fought each other in the Somali Civil War, from fishermen who spent their lives on the seas to militiamen who knew guns.
  • More Dakka
  • Ruthless Modern Pirates

Medellin Cartel

Persian Immortal:

  • Awesome, but Impractical: Played with via the chariot scythes. They look nice and tore through two pig carcasses, but they were deemed to lack true killing power and lost the edge to the Celt's Burda club. However, it still got over 100 kills.
  • Badass Boast: The precision killer in a massive war machine who forged the largest empire the Middle East has ever seen.
  • Elite Mooks
  • The Empire: Because history is written by the winners, and they were imperial troops.
  • Spiked Wheels: What the Immortals' chariots become with the scythes attached.

Celt

  • Badass Boast: The savage, war-loving barbarian from 400 BC who dominated Europe through brute force and raw fighting skills.
  • BFS: The Celtic Longsword.
  • Fighting Irish: The Ur Example.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Not seen in the show, but the Celt experts note that some of them used to fight dressed in nothing but war paint.
  • Violent Glaswegian: Also The Ur Example

KGB

CIA

  • Badass Boast: America's elite corps of espionage artists, fighting an undercover war around the globe.

Vlad the Impaler

  • Ass Shove: How Vlad the Impaler typically did said impaling. Despite not being a weapon as accounted for in the simulation, an entire segment is dedicated to testing it with predictably grisly results.
  • Ax-Crazy: Allegedly, not only did he kill babies and force the parents to eat the corpse, but he dunked his bread in the blood of his enemies.
  • Badass Boast: The medieval Romanian prince whose insatiable thirst for blood inspired the legend of Dracula.
  • Hand Cannon: Vlad's special weapon is literally called this.
  • Historical Domain Character
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His favorite form of execution.
  • Irony: The same Turks who beat and tortured Vlad when he was a child fell by his hand when he was an adult.
  • Laughably Evil: He gets presented as this in the simulation, namely by shooting out Sun Tzu's teapot with an Evil Laugh and mockingly saluting his foe's corpse after impaling him.
  • The Magnificent: in format, though it also doubles as a name to run away from really fast

Sun Tzu

  • Arrows on Fire: Used these. They proved useful for setting off flame traps, but not so much in direct assault, mostly owing to Vlad's armor minimizing penetration.
  • Badass Boast: The ruthless Chinese warmonger whose revolutionary "Art of War" led to the massacre of millions.
  • Big Book of War: The Art of War, which has, according to the show, been called The Bible of Battle Tactics.
  • The Strategist: Arguably the most famous in history, due to having written The Art of War.

Ming Warrior

Musketeer

  • Badass Boast: The king's ruthless personal guard and fierce defenders of France's borders.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Quite possibly one of the more fashionable warriors to appear on the show.
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: The representatives like to avert this trope and portray the Musketeers as classy gentlemen and superb soldiers. They're right.
  • Royal Rapier: Their main weapon in melee combat.
    • Dual Wielding: They used the main-gauche in their off (usually left) hand note , mainly for parrying/disarming purposes. Of course, being a long dagger, it proves effective as a weapon in its own right.
  • State Sec: Yes, they did exist. The French Musketeers (the kind examined on the show) was divided into two branches: one worked to guard the king, the other for the cardinal. Making them also an example of a Praetorian Guard.

Comanche:

  • Badass Boast: The born-in-the-saddle killers who terrorized the 18th century American plains.
  • Horse Archer: As it turns out, superior to the Mongol, who is more famous for it, due to better speed and accuracy.
  • Injun Country: Protecting their lands is often described as one of the reasons why they fight.

Mongol

  • Badass Boast: The vicious Asian horse warriors who used pure savagery to conquer more territory in the 13th century than any empire in history.
  • Horse Archer: Naturally, what they are most famous for. Ironically, it loses the edge to the Comanche bow, due to being less suitable for one-on-one long-ranged combat.

Navy SEAL

  • Badass Boast: America's amphibious special force, trained to neutralize any enemy, any time, anywhere.
  • Elites Are More Glamorous: The US Navy's special forces unit, one of the most famous and well-respected military units in the country.

Israeli Commando

     Tropes about Season 3 warriors 

George Washington

  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Became the first American President
  • Badass Boast: The American hero who against all odds, defeated the mighty British army.
  • Large and in Charge: The leader of the Continental Army, listed at 6'3", about 200 pounds - bigger than today's average American male, practically a giant in the late 18th century.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Scattershot, the poor soldier's grapeshot
  • The Stoic: After winning, George calmly cleans his sword and stares off into the horizon.
  • Worthy Opponent: The experts note that in real life, Napoleon had a great deal of respect for Washington as a fellow tactical genius and fellow enemy of the British.

Napoléon Bonaparte

  • Badass Boast: The bloodthirsty French emperor whose maniacal dream was to conquer the world.
  • Bait-and-Switch: His tactic that earned him the victory at the Battle of Austerlitz: fool the Prussians into thinking he and the Grande Armée were surrendering, luring them onto the hill Napoleon and his men were just on; then obliterate the present forces when a dense fog overcame the area.
  • Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey: Averted. Even though he lost, it was a difference of 60 battles out of 5000, the second-closest margin of defeat throughout all three seasons.
  • The Conqueror: Responsible for the First French Empire, a massive conquest of neighboring countries and assorted colonies.
  • The Napoleon: The experts mentioned how 5'6" was actually about normal height for a European man of that time period, but he comes off looking like this anyway because he's paired with the freakishly tall Washington and his own taller-than-average bodyguards.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Grapeshot
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: The experts speculate he probably could have beaten Washington handily had the fight been using armies, which Napoleon was considered a genius at commanding, instead of the small squads Washington often led.

Joan of Arc

  • Action Girl: At the age of 17, Joan led the entire French army to win the Hundred Years War; without her, a British victory would've been inevitable.
  • Badass Boast: The teenage French fighter whose battlefield heroics defeated England's superior army and ended the Hundred Years War.
  • Fanservice Pack: In the game, she suddenly upgrades a couple of cup sizes, gets a form-fitting breastplate, and marches around in heels.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: Greatly outsized by William the Conqueror.
  • Small Girl, Big Gun: Despite being one of the smallest warriors on the show, Joan brings a Medieval cannon, which is absolute overkill when it hits its target.
  • Stone Wall: Joan's small size, young age, and lack of experience made her physically weaker than her opponent William; however her more advanced plate armor allowed her to outlast him in combat. Joan was able to stab directly through William's chainmail, but William (despite his strength) could not do any damage to Joan's plate armor.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: In Real Life, she actually did not personally fight but rather held on to the flag to keep herself from killing.
  • Wounded Gazelle Warcry: How she managed to be Little Miss Badass while adhering to Thou Shalt Not Kill. She herself didn't take up arms but took to the battlefield to motivate the troops with her presence.

William the Conqueror

  • Badass Boast: The daring and deadly French duke who crushed his English enemies and crowned himself king.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Edward the Confessor promised William (who was Duke of Normandy) that he would be the next King of England. After Edward's death, when William found out that Harold Godwinson (one of the most powerful English barons) had claimed the throne instead, he was furious and raised an army to invade England.
  • Eye Scream: How William used his crossbow to kill Harold.
  • I Have Many Names: Also known as Duke William of Normandy, and William the Bastard before earning the one above in becoming King William I of England.
  • Large and in Charge: Future king of England and, at 5'10", much taller than what was normal at the time. Naturally, he towers over Joan of Arc.
  • The Magnificent: He actually gets this treatment twice (see I Have Many Names above) and one of them just so happens to be The Conqueror, which he is also.
  • Rock Beats Laser: Averted. William loses to Joan of Arc in part because his equipment is no match for a teenage girl equipped with weapons and armor literally centuries ahead of him. He puts up a good fight though.
  • Would Hit a Girl: He is momentarily surprised to find himself fighting a teenage girl, but it doesn't stop him.

U.S. Army Rangers

  • Badass Boast: "America's premiere light infantry division who would lead a massive counterattack."
  • Eagleland: They're given the Type 1 treatment, characterized as the pinnacle of the American martial way.
  • Elites Are More Glamorous: Often considered the elite of the U.S. military alongside fellow elites like the Green Berets and Navy Seals.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Rangers lead the way!"

North Korean Special Operations Force

  • Badass Boast: "Extremist super-commandos poised to launch a communist invasion of South Korea."
  • Dirty Communists: They're military from one of the last remaining Communist countries in the world, and the show is pretty overt about villainizing them accordingly.
  • Seppuku: Ok, they're Korean, not Japanese, and it is with guns by someone else, but the crucial elements of being Asian and making a big deal about submitting to their own deaths for honor are there.
  • The Spartan Way: The only "modern" army in the show that made a point of using this trope. Many KPA's were drafted in their early teens.
  • Yellow Peril: The show clearly doesn't want to be racist, but it can't exactly afford to make them out as the good guys either.

Hannibal

  • Ambiguously Brown: The videogame portrays him as having a dark complexion that can be taken as either Moorish or East African.
  • Beast of Battle: The War Elephant.
  • The Unfettered: His army is getting to Rome one way or another. That is the bottom line.

Genghis Khan

  • The Conqueror: Of large tracts of Eurasia.
  • Enemy Mine: The tribes located throughout central Asia were all at war with one another prior to Genghis uniting them.
  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: He had a fondness for goading his enemies this way.
  • Neck Snap: His grapple kill in the second game ends with his opponent's neck being broken.

Saddam Hussein

Pol Pot

  • Ax-Crazy: He probably takes the cake of all the contestants on the show in terms of murderous insanity.
  • The Caligula: The show makes no bones about how utterly insane his ideas were.
  • Child Soldier: Pol Pot himself led the Khmer Rouge as an adult, but it was mentioned that the average age of his soldiers was 16.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Infamous for his use of Electric Torture.
  • You're Insane!: The show made it abundantly clear just how gonzo this guy's plan was.

Theodore Roosevelt

Lawrence of Arabia

  • The Chessmaster: The guest experts are effusive in their praise of Lawrence's skill as a strategist, citing his campaign against the Ottomans as proof.
  • Going Native: And the Arabs loved him for it.
  • Gatling Good: Actually a Vicker's. Just, you know, not as good as a proper Gatling Gun.

Ivan the Terrible

  • Axe-Crazy: The episode emphasizes the rumors that Ivan's brutality was rooted in insanity and sadism.
  • Badass Boast: Russia's sadistic sixteenth-century Tsar, whose murderous death squads built Europe's largest empire of its time.
  • Bad Boss: Used one of his own soldiers as a meat shield and shoved another off a horse so he could ride it during the sim.
  • The Caligula: In terms of sheer insanity, he's one of the "greats" among monarchs.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: With such variety and such a hands-on approach as to be his own Torture Technician
  • The Conqueror: Responsible for greatly expanding the holdings of the Russian Empire.
  • For the Evulz: During the sim, he doesn't let Cortés's attack stop him from torturing and killing a peasant.
  • A God Am I: Believes he is the Archangel Michael.
  • Husky Russkie: The show hedges its bets at 6-foot even, and some accounts add at least three inches
  • Knight Templar: His acts of brutality are motivated by a fanatical devotion to the idea of divine punishment, as well as his belief that he himself is the Archangel Michael, divinely appointed to mete out that punishment.
  • The Magnificent: One of the most noteworthy examples. As stated in the episode, the "Terrible" epithet is meant literally, as in "inspiring terror".
  • Power Born of Madness: How else does a 51-year-old man with a bad back kill his healthy adult son?
  • Sanity Has Advantages: This is played straight in Hernán Cortés VS Ivan the Terrible, and is one of the biggest reasons why Ivan lost the fight.

Hernán Cortés

  • Badass Boast: The brutal Spanish explorer, whose conquistadors conquered the largest empire in North America of the sixteenth century.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: His methods are simple compared to the others but effective.
  • The Conquistador
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He looked positively disgusted when he saw Ivan torturing and killing a random peasant apparently just because he enjoyed it.
  • Gold Fever: At the end of his match against Ivan, Cortés helps himself to the Tsar's purse after killing him.
  • Only in It for the Money: His stated motive.
  • Sanity Has Advantages: This is played straight in Hernan Cortés VS Ivan the Terrible, and is one of the biggest reasons why Cortés won the fight.
  • The Sociopath: He was stated by the experts to display signs of psychopathy.
  • Swiss-Army Weapon: The Alabarda has a pike on top for thrusting, a hook on the back for dismounting mounted opponents/pulling invaders off ladders, and an axe head for cutting.

Crazy Horse

  • Doomed Hometown: Crazy Horse's motivation is said to be the mass slaughter of Lakota at Blue Water Creek.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: At one point during the battle simulation, Crazy Horse uses a revolver to take out one of Pancho's men with a single bullet to his eye socket from quite a good distance.
  • Mythology Gag: Crazy Horse is said to have received a vision that bullets could not kill him. Sure enough, while Pancho still kills Crazy Horse, it's not with any of his guns. Rather the final blow comes from his bolo knife.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The episode frames his career as a warrior with a desire for revenge for "the Blue Water massacre". In reality, Crazy Horse was simply one of the most famous commanders in a long-term war between the US Army and the various tribes of Plains Indians.

Pancho Villa

French Foreign Legion

  • Army of Thieves and Whores: They love to portray themselves as this.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Played with. One of the Legionnaires is a black man who gets killed in the battle simulation. However, he's the third casualty, not the first. And to his credit, he does manage to take out one Gurkha before getting killed himself.
  • Legion of Lost Souls: The episode takes this trope and runs with it, referring to the Legion as "real-life expendables".

Gurkhas

Zombies

  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Nobody was expecting a fantasy creature to appear in Deadliest Warrior.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Technically lost the fight, but then the vampire gets infected...
  • Oh, Crap!: Cited as an actual X-Factor. They are physically incapable of feeling any human emotions, such as fear.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Romero version, more or less.
  • The Virus: Stated as the reason the zombies need to feed on living flesh is to pass this on.
  • Zerg Rush: Their primary tactic is to swarm and overwhelm the opponent by sheer numbers. This is why they decided to pit an entire horde of almost-200 zombies vs 3 vampires. It doesn't work.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: What they are intended to portray, being a 200-strong horde fighting against a trio of vampires.

Vampires

  • Even Evil Has Standards: Both downplayed and implied when two of the vampires watch in legitimate horror as their comrade gets torn apart and eaten by the zombie horde.
  • Genre Blindness: What's the first thing to do in a zombie attack? Split up! There is no way this can possibly go wrong.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Nobody was expecting a fantasy creature to appear in Deadliest Warrior.
  • Last Stand: Sort of. The final vampire can't escape because the sun is rising, and thus has to fight back against the remaining horde of Zombies. Does it end well? Yes.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If those 189 zombies were the extent of the zombie outbreak then the three vampires may have saved the world a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Cited as an actual X-Factor. As powerful as they are, they are still capable of feeling human emotions, like fear. Sure enough, the vampires freeze up, stare, and then retreat upon seeing a comrade get torn to pieces and then eaten.
    • Also happens at the end of the sim. Once all of the zombies are taken care of, the lead vampire raises his hand and roars in victory...only to realize his hand is rapidly decaying as the zombie virus takes over.
  • One-Man Army: A fair fight was considered near 200 zombies vs. 3 vampires because one on one the vampires would win every time thanks to being able to One-Hit Kill zombies thanks to their superior strength. The vampires win.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: The 30 Days of Night version.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Technically won the fight, but then infection starts to set in. The resulting zombie-vampire would still have the vampire's weakness to sunlight but not the brains to avoid it, so would last until it tried to chase something in the dawning day. Final score: double KO. Which is probably for the best from mankind's perspective.
  • Rise from Your Grave: Three vampires rise up from their coffins as soon as the fight begins.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Followed it in regards to the female vampire.

     The hosts 

Geoff Desmoulin

  • Genius Bruiser: Obviously well-built former soldier, knows his way around a gun, karate black belt... also has a degree in biomedical engineering.
  • Large Ham: His response to the testing of weapons ranges from highly-animated to actively screaming with glee.
  • The McCoy: He's absolutely ecstatic when the weapons start tearing up mannequins, and the way he describes setting up and using his data collection tools is "playing with my toys".
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Canadian forces veteran, EMT, biomedical engineer, black belt, and Ph.D.

Max Geiger

  • Cool Shades: A pretty enviable pair of aviators, often seen whenever the group ventures outside.
  • Teen Genius: Implied to have been this, given his young age (23 at Season One's start) and obvious aptitude and experience with computers.

Doctor Armand Dorian

  • Captain Obvious: Often when one of the experts goes to town on one of their test targets with a weapon.
  • The Medic: When he wasn't at the show, he was usually at the Los Angeles emergency room saving lives.
  • The Spock: He's definitely the most stoic of the trio, and his measure of a weapon basically boils down to "which one would I rather not be hit with, and which one is less taxing were I to use it for myself?"

Richard "Mack" Machowicz

  • The Kirk: While he doesn't get quite as worked up as Geoff, he's definitely more animated than Armand. On top of that, his main role on the judges panel is to bring a more grounded, hands-on perspective to the weapons that the engineer and medic simply aren't as trained for.

Robert Daly

  • Badass Bookworm: Replaced Max Geiger in Season 3 as the team's resident computer expert, mostly distinguished by having actual military experience.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: His stint on the show was very brief, due to a controversy over whether he misrepresented his military service forcing him out.

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