The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
The "I think therefore I am" reference being lost could be Lost in Translation.
Yeah, that's true. What about the reference itself, though? It obviously appears indicative of Deus' character, as it basically is him defining himself through his resistance against the Eldritch Abomination that is Gohma Vlitra.
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
An example of Stock Quotes used in "Deliberately altering the quote" form. That is, this statement is meaningful is because we recognize the famous quote and how it's been altered.
There's some Sophisticated as Hell overtones here also given that he replaces "think" with a word that can also be translated as "fight back" or "oppose" - implying that he doesn't think, he just fights.
Warning: spoilers for Asura's Wrath ahead!
Late in Asura's Wrath, the villain Deus merges with the Karma Fortress superweapon and assumes his Sakra Devanam Indra Deus form, he says the following line when Japanese dialogue is enabled:
Ware aragau yue ni, ware ari. (我抗うゆえに、我あり。, literally "Because I resist, I exist")
After a bit of searching, I discovered that this is almost identical to the following pre-existing Japanese phrase, different only in a single word.
Ware omou yue ni, ware ari. (我思うゆえに、我あり。)
This second phrase happens to be the conventional translation of the famous Latin phrase cogito, ergo sum, or "I think, therefore I am." Deus' version of the phrase essentially reads "I resist, therefore I am."
What tropes apply to this? For context, Deus is defined by a colossal amount of pride that drives him to believe he is the one destined to save the world, become consumed with a god complex and become an Evil Overlord who excuses his atrocities as being a case of Necessarily Evil, being firmly in denial that there could be an alternative solution that doesn't require as much cruelty and tyranny as he believes needs to be committed; all in all, he perceives himself as a Well-Intentioned Extremist when ultimately he is not one at all.
Edited by MarqFJA