Quotes / What Measure Is a Mook?

Comic Books

Homer: I'm not paying another penny to Burns and his evil power company!
Bart: Don't you work for that evil company?
Homer: Don't split hairs, boy. I may work for Burns, but I'm just an innocent Stormtrooper on the Death Star.
Bart: Even the innocent ones croaked when the Death Star exploded.

— Simpsons Comics, "Off the Grid"

Fan Fiction

The Hood: You decided to become Hunt’s bodyguard?
The Woman in Black: I’m their bodyguards. Everyone has to put a roof over their heads and feed their families. They didn’t steal from those people.
The Hood: They work for the man who did.
The Woman in Black: So you threaten him but kill them? Guilt by association isn’t how it works in this city.

— Lord Help the Mister

Film — Live-Action

"When you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters; the very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged; and many of them are so inured—so hopelessly dependent on the system—that they will fight to protect it."

— Morpheus, The Matrix

"Did you kill all those guards?"
"Yes... I'm very sorry..."
"They cost 50 pounds each!"

— Swamp King and a genuinely embarrassed Sir Lancelot, Monty Python and the Holy Grail'

"I play Ragnar, a modern-day pirate, very — very close associate of John Galt, and as a matter of fact we are here to save John. We're here taking out a lot of guards, beating a lot of people up, flying some helicopters — or as Ragnar would call it, 'Tuesday'."
[...]
"I just saw you in a scene and I was telling these guys about it where you, uh, jumped in at the end of, kind of an alleyway, and you-you broke this guy's neck."
"Yes."
"Um. So-"
"Because he deserved it."

— Interview for Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?

Vesper Lynd: It doesn't bother you, killing those people?
James Bond: I wouldn't be very good at my job if it did.

— Casino Royale (2006)

Literature

"I went through my pockets. The money was gone from my wallet. I went back to the man with the white coat. He had too much money for his job. [...] I was sorry for him. A simple hardworking little guy trying to hold his job down and get his weekly pay check. Maybe with a wife and kids. Too bad. And all he had to help him was a sap. It didn't seem fair. [...] I patted his shoulder. I almost cried over him."

— Philip Marlowe after outsmarting a mook, Farewell, My Lovely

"Some will be caught, others killed. I couldn’t care less. These men are amateurs who were needed, so to speak, for the crowd scenes. They are extras, Mr Bond, brought in off the streets. What happens to them after the play is of no interest to me whatsoever."

— Auric Goldfinger on his hired help, Goldfinger

Cassie: They're not all like Visser Three. We know that. Some of the Yeerks and Controllers are just kids like us. They never had a choice. They participate or they're eliminated. And it's not like they get the information they need to make an informed decision. If you'd been raised since birth on empire propaganda, you'd fight to take over Earth, too.

Ax: You make an interesting argument. But there are a lot of inconsistencies between what you say and what you do. How can you make this argument knowing what you've done in the past?

—Animorphs #43: The Test

Live-Action TV

Diaz: Hey, thanks for shooting that guy.
Boyle: [chuckles] Hey, my pleasure.
Perp: Your pleasure? This was a human being you just killed. Bill "Perp" had a family!
[after a beat, both Boyle and Diaz decide to shoot the Perp again]

— Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Adar: My children have no master.
Galadriel: [The Orcs] are not children, they are slaves.
Adar: But each one has a name, a heart!
Galadriel: A heart created by Morgoth.
Adar: We are creations of The One, Master of the Secret Fire, the same as you. As worthy of the breath of life, and just as worthy of a home.

— The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Music

"Walk fast from that boring explosion
And don't think
About the people you killed"

— The Lonely Island, "Cool Guys Don't Look At Explosions"

Newspaper Comics

"This was but a mild adventure and it was necessary to kill only seven enemies in the way of business. The only serious happening was the wounding of Sir Gawain."

— Prince Valiant narration, 1937-10-30

Tabletop Games

"The line between hero and villain is so faint, it might as well not be there at all. Disagree? Consider this: A group breaks into a residence, kills everyone inside, and makes off with anything of value. Robbers sacking a roadside cottage are named villains for such a deed, yet adventurers who storm a goblin warren and do the same are dubbed heroes. The difference? You tell me because I cannot see it."

— Lord Robilar, The Book of Vile Darkness

Video Games

"Minion! What have you done!? These were human beings, with lives, and families, and—Ah, I'm totally kidding. Screw those guys!"

— Claptrap, Borderlands 2

Vivi: Why...? Why would you do such a thing!? Weren't they your friends!?
Black Waltz No. 3: You fool! Do I look like some lowly black mage soldier?
Steiner: Even if they weren't your allies, what you did was reprehensible!
Black Waltz No. 3: Kwahahaha! Worry not about them: many more are being produced even now!

— Final Fantasy IX

Xin Ji: You are a hero, you are...
Player: A killer? It isn't as noble when you say it like that, is it? I have slaughtered thousands simply because someone told me it was for a just cause. But something you'll learn over time is, everyone thinks their cause is just. The Ministry of Purity feels their cause is just. Reiko may be evil, but the men and women she has tricked into obeying her are as much victims as the rest of Cantha.

— Guild Wars Beyond: Winds of Change

"If I must kill a man because he has done wrong, do I really wish to know that he is a devoted father?"

— Samara, Mass Effect 2

"The living may not hear them. Their voices may fall upon deaf ears. But, make no mistake. The dead are not silent. Now you will know the sorrow of those whose lives you have ended."

— The Sorrow, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

"You think I am a monster, but you're no different from me, Drake. How many men have you killed? How many, just today?"

— Zoran Lazarevic, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

"Even nameless soldiers have lives to live. Remember that..."

— Unnamed NPC soldier of Kislev, Xenogears

"So you were able to play by your own rules. You spared the life of a single person. [lists off each monster] Think about those names. Do you think those monsters had friends? Do you think they had families? Each one could have been someone else's Toriel. Selfish brat. Someone is dead because of you."

—Flowey, Undertale

Kill 1000 mean, nasty skeletons without families.

— Luchonarrative Resonance achievement description, Guacamelee! 2

"So principled you might explode,

But when you burst, who's really cursed?

Your loved ones have to bear that load."

— Agent 8 on the Octopods, Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion

You look behind and see your kingdom. You have gems, a colony, and territory. You wonder if enough Trimps have already fallen in battle. After contemplation, one word falls out of your mouth as you begin to move forward. 'Nah'

— Trimps

"It's so unfair! You ruin everything! Nobody loves a ghost!"

— Toc-Man, in his true form as a ghost pilot, Pac-Man World

"I-I served under Lord Gaius in the XIVth Legion. I was there on the night the Praetorium fell...

You and your adventurers... You killed them. My comrades, my friends... Swept them aside in their dozens, as though they were nothing to you...

...And maybe I am too. Just another faceless enemy to be cut down. But it won't be long until our countrymen return─until you get what you deserve. Mark my words!"

— Garlean soldier, Final Fantasy XIV

Jetstream Sam: All those cyborgs you've killed, up to now… maybe they weren't kids, but they were people. You ever think about them? When you're chopping them into hamburger?
Raiden: (mildly shaken) They're adults. They… made their choice.
Jetstream Sam: Sure, they're adults. Sure, they signed up for this. Right on the dotted line of their PMC contract. Usually, they're no strangers to war. In fact, many times they already lost a limb or two. Many times, they were out of work and starving on the street. So, yes… they sign up for surgery to fight God-knows-where. How else would you provide for your family when your country's embroiled in civil war? Pain receptors shut down, pumped full of fear-inhibiting nanomachines and sent right into the blender? Your blender? But they made their choice, right?

— Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Web Animation

"We should probably drop the word "Monster" from the title since you usually just kill blameless wildlife that only attacks because you're invading its' territory or because you just pushed a sharpened stick through the ear of its' favourite child, But I guess calling it Hunter/Gatherer of Innocent Young Dinosaurs Pathetically Mewling Their Last as The Memory of Their Mother's Warmth Drifts away to Be Replaced by the Unforgiving Coldness of— Oh, fuck it. Let's just call it You Bastard!."

— Yahtzee, Zero Punctuation, on Monster Hunter Tri

"Now, when Reid says he hasn't killed shit, he's truncating a little. He should've said 'I haven't killed shit, except for the 500,000 vampire hunters I murdered in standard combat.' Yes, this is the rather glaring incongruity in Vampyr. There's something a little bit hollow about Jonathan Reid's quiet nobility and pacifism when he's just had to murder twelve Cockney thugs on the way back from the chemist. Well, I suppose it's self-defense killing, but it still raises a lot of questions. How come killing these lads by the hundreds somehow doesn't affect the rest of London's population like killing named characters does? Did they all get bused in from Wolverhampton?"

— Yahtzee, Zero Punctuation, on Vampyr

"Yes, these soldiers were likely veterans who served their country faithfully before being forced to join the PMC due to hard economic times and yes, they likely suffer from untreated PTSD, but we will overlook that as the main characters mow them down without remorse."

— Terrible Writing Advice - Megacorporations

Webcomics

"These minions gave their lives for guys like... me."

— Bowser in Brawl in the Family, 200 - Ode to Minions

"Oh, come on, the soldiers? They don't grow on trees you know!"

— General Tarquin, The Order of the Stick

Web Original

"Janeway is pretty wasted here but there is wonderfully sadistic scene where she is holding the Borg baby and orders the Doctor to start deploying the virus to wipe out all of the kids. She’s the heroine, right?"

— Joe Ford on Star Trek: Voyager, "Collective"

"The Koopa Kids are Bowser's chief lieutenants in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World...Each one guards a stronghold in Mario's path, which is, historically, a tremendous mistake. Mario marches through them, tossing them all, without exception or remorse, into boiling lakes of molten rock. He does this for sex, so we think nothing of it. But we should, because the Koopa Kids are child soldiers, conscripted by their tyrannical father and thrown headlong into a conflict that predates their own births against an enemy they have no real chance of defeating. All they know is that Dad handed them a scepter and a castle and said 'This is yours now.' They can't possibly have any concept of what they're really doing."

— Cracked, "5 Famous Video Game Villains (Who Are Actually the Victim)"

Web Video

Orc!Dad: Honey, this cranberry sauce is breathtaking! What's in it?
Orc!Mom: My Grandma Beatrice taught me! I put some lemon juice in it! But the secret ingredient is love!
Orc!Dad: Aww! I love you! Merry Christmas!
Orc!Tim: And God bless us every one—
Avatar: (bursts in) AHA! THERE YOU ARE! (hacking sounds) YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME, CHAOTIC EVIL BUTT HOLE SPAWN! DON'T RUN! THE AVATAR SLAYS YOU IN THE INTEREST OF VALOUR AND JUSTAAAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!

— Noah Antwiler on Ultima: Runes of Virtue

"The movie touches on the issue of racism in that era in such a clumsy, caveman-ish way, and at the same time it's being racist toward Germans and portraying them all as, like, evil villainous bad guys with scars on their faces. (Palpatine voice) 'Africans! Kill them all and show no mercy!' They said show no mercy. The German pilots were probably just as terrified as the American pilots!"

— Half in the Bag on Red Tails

Alucard: Hey guys, how's your health plan? *SWAT team opens fire* Apparently it's great!
*carnage and gore ensue as the cops finally retreat into the elevator*
Integra: Walter, be honest with me: what are we looking at in terms of collateral?
Walter: Well...*Alucard walks out of elevator filled with corpses* the Alucard amount.

— Hellsing Ultimate Abridged

(Wheelo and Kochin are talking about the Bio-Warriors).

Wheelo: Wait, can they all talk?
Kochin: Of course they can. They're completely sentient.
Blub-Blub: ...I need a hug...
Kochin: With all their own wants and needs... and a crippling fear of death!
Blub-Blub: So dark... and cold... (sobs uncontrollably)
(Shot of Bulma's Stunned Silence)
Wheelo: (devastated) Blub-Blub, no...

— Dragon Ball Z Abridged cruelly averting the trope.

Western Animation

"Yeah, he was just this guy. A guy in a butterfly suit who got in over his head. And I could see it in his eyes that if I let him get away this one time he'd never come back. But, then I also thought, you know, kill him."

— Brock Samson, The Venture Brothers

Rick: I need to type in the coordinates to our home world, Morty. Cover me! (throws him a gun)
Morty: Oh man! I mean, y'know, I-I-I don't wanna shoot nobody!
Rick: They're just robots, Morty! It's okay to shoot them, they're robots!
(Morty shoots an alien in the leg)
Alien: Ahh! My leg got shot off!
Other Alien: Glenn's bleeding to death! Someone call his wife and children!
Morty: (horrified) They're not robots, Rick!
Rick: It's a figure of speech, Morty! They're bureaucrats! I don't respect them. Just keep shooting, Morty!

— Rick and Morty

Other

"[W]henever a massacre of Armenians is reported from Asia Minor, every one assumes that it has been carried out 'under orders' from somewhere or another; no one seems to think that there are people who might like to kill their neighbours now and then."

— Saki

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