Blood Knight

"Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight."

Fighting is everything to the Blood Knight. He lives for it. It's not so much about winning or losing, morality, the motives of his allies, or even the glory. that drives this guy so much as it is the opportunity for a good fight.

A Blood Knight can be of any morality whatsoever, although Anti Heroes and Anti Villains tend to be most common.

Heroic examples will frequently be The Big Guy in an ensemble, the character most likely to solve his problems by force of arms. They might make the less violent members of the crew a little nervous, especially if they go off on a hair trigger. He may merely enjoy the challenge and not hurting others necessarily; some don't hurt people unprovoked since they have a sense of right and wrong.

The Blood Knight doesn't even have to be a particularly violent man most of the time. A common version found in Eastern fiction is the Wandering Martial Artist, who Wanders the Earth looking for strong opponents to test his skills against. This might be coupled with a love of fair duels and a desire to challenge the best and strongest. This type still enjoys the thrill of the fight, but usually eschews the death and bloodshed aspect. A living opponent, after all, can improve their skills and provide an even better challenge later. Defeat Means Friendship is a common occurrence with these guys, their opponent's or their own.

As an antagonist, he has a good chance of being an Anti-Villain. since he doesn't want to kill the heroes, necessarily, just fight them. If he can find someone tough enough to beat him he might undergo a Heel–Face Turn and join the hero's team, or simply gain a newfound respect for his foe that he didn't have before. He might deliberately disadvantage himself in order to make fights last longer and loves to reveal that he is not left-handed. Despite the brutality that this trope implies, it's not uncommon for them to be a Noble Demon as well, when they want an exciting fight on specific terms or when they reject unfair advantages because it would make the fight no fun. He may even betray his boss if he insists on interfering to pursue and obsess over his foe on his own terms. Less pleasant ones may do all kinds of horrible things to provoke their opponents into fighting them. Though if they specifically love to kill (rather than fight) they are a Psycho for Hire.

Personality-wise, more evil ones may be a Flat Character (and quite possibly The Brute ) who just shouts "Maim! Kill! Burn!". Good/Sympathetic ones are usually more sophisticated/developed, and can have aspects of the Warrior Therapist. Warrior Poet or Cultured Warrior. He might be a normal, jocular guy when he's not brawling, or he might take the fight so seriously that he blocks out everything else and will therefore live only for battle. In some cases the Blood Knight fights because he's looking for a way to die with meaning.

A War God is one of these pretty much by definition. If there's a whole society of guys who like combat, you've got a Proud Warrior Race. If the character likes the 'killing' part more than the 'fighting' part, they're a Psycho for Hire. The Egomaniac Hunter also thrives on aimless violent thrill and loves a worthy quarry instead of opponent. If a character is in it for the challenge rather than just the fight, then we've got a Spirited Competitor. The Blood Knight's love of combat may be platonic, or it may have sexual undertones. It could also overlap with Ax-Crazy if their love of fighting crosses the line into psychopathic violence and mental and emotional instability.

Sub-Trope of In Harm's Way. Sister Trope to Combat Sadomasochist. The Real Man. and Boisterous Bruiser. Compare Cavalier Competitor and, for a more general trope, Challenge Seeker. Also compare Sadist. whose favorite part of fighting is the pain and suffering of his opponent. May be from a Martyrdom Culture and will nearly always believe that War Is Glorious. If he (or she, though it's much rarer, however; see Lady of War ) is in the military, then he will almost inevitably be a Colonel Kilgore. A Monster Knight has a high chance of being one. A more violent example that nonetheless fights on the side of good may (or may not) be a Sociopathic Hero. Not to be confused with the Knight of Blood. who is very unlike this trope. It also has nothing to do with a knight who uses Blood Magic. Contrast Shell-Shocked Veteran. who is of the opposite mindset.

Oh, just in case it wasn't clear, the character doesn't have to be a literal knight for this trope to apply. It is about the attitude, not the rank.

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• Magic: The Gathering 's Blood Knight card has a very appropriate quote: His is the fury of the wildfire, the boiling blood of the volcano. He fights you not because you've wronged him, but because you're there.
  • This and Knight Templar are the worse aspects of the White/Red mixture, as seen in the Nobilis of War from the Shadowmoor block and the legendary creature Ruhan of the Fomori from the "Political Puppets" Commander pack.
  • As hinted at below in the part about Radha, all native-born and -raised Keldons are like this, making them Proud Warrior Race Guys. The thing is, they are fully aware that their warmongering is to their own detriment as a society. Many of their abilities and mechanics work on an understanding that not fighting hurts, and fighting also tends to have some sort of extremist drawback. To whit:
    • Keldon Warlord: A single creature that gets stronger and harder to kill based on the number of total creatures (minus Walls) on the battlefield. What if they threw a war. and everybody came?
    • Keldon Berserker: They fight beyond fear, beyond thought, and beyond mercy.
    • Keldon Twilight: If no one attacked during your turn, one of your creatures dies.
    • Keldon Arsonist: By sacrificing two of your own lands, you can destroy a single opponent-controlled land. Fields can be replanted. Settlements can be rebuilt. Burn it all.
    • Keldon Vandals: Keldons divide all their spoils into two groups: trophies, and catapult ammunition.
    • Keldon Firebombers: [Jamuraa is the country Keld is invading] If there isn't enough of Jamuraa left to stand on, I will still claim it for Keld.
    • Keldon Megaliths: A land card with the special ability to inflict damage on a single target on your turn, but only if you have no cards in your hand. This means that in a situation where a normal player would have absolutely no options, the Keldons will still find a way to hurt someone.
  • There's even a recurring ability to sum up this trope. Formerly in black, now mostly in red, "this creature attacks this turn if able" is a common drawback, forcing creatures with it to run into the fray even if means certain death.
  • The Mardu Horde of Tarkir are very enthusiastic about combat, to the point where their Khan is a massively aggressive orc with the abovementioned attack-each-turn drawback. They have a clan mechanic that gives them bonuses for attacking, such as increasing the power of spells or giving creatures cast after the dust settles a useful enters-the-battlefield effect.
  • The Gruul Clans on Ravnica engage in this when not fighting out of more legitimate grievances. Bolrac Clan ogres pick fights with buildings if they run out of other opponents, and their favorite holiday, Rauck-Chauv, basically consists of breaking stuff and punching people.

• A Crown of Stars . Since she was a four-year-old child Asuka has been trained to fight. She is a warrior, a soldier and a Humongous Mecha Ace Pilot. She loves fighting. It is her life.
• Advice and Trust . Asuka had trained to pilot a Humongous Mecha and fight alien monsters since she was a four-year-old child and found her mother's corpse hanging from a ceiling. Fighting it is her whole life and she genuinely likes it. Her self image is so tied to being a Pilot that, when Gendo fired her and Shinji. she very nearly collapsed right away.
• The Child of Love . In chapter 3 Asuka had just woken up from a nightmare and was sick, weakened and bedridden. Then she heard there was a battle she was not taking part in. She rose right away and went to get in her giant robot and fight.
  • Subverted after the Angel War since for that point she is already sick of fighting and killing and she wants to live peacefully.
• Children of an Elder God . Deconstructed. Due to her upbringing Asuka is very aggressive, battle-hungry and eager to engage the enemy. However her first fight was against an alien horror was so repulsive-looking she does not even want to go near it. When it bites her robot's hand off, though, she goes berserker and bludgeons it until it is a bloody pulp. which earns her a reprimand for being too aggressive.
• Doing It Right This Time .
  • Although Asuka is trying to change her behaviour, she is still eager to fight the enemy as a way to stand out.
  • Rei, too. After returning to the past she has decided that resorting to extreme violence to deal with the enemy is a perfectly acceptable therapy. When she sorties for first time she decides against using weapons because bludgeoning the giant alien with her -robot's- bare fists would feel more satisfactory.
• Evangelion 303 . Asuka and Mari are jet fighter elite pilots that really enjoying flying their war planes and fighting. Especially Mari. She sings as she battles.
• Valla, Demon Hunter in Heroes Of The Desk is a downplayed version at first (as established in Diablo III . hatred must be tempered by discipline). However, after she defeats brainwashing solely through The Power of Hate. the "discipline" goes out the window and leads her to fully embrace this trope.
• HERZ . Although Asuka has not been an active pilot since her giant robot got torn apart, she still is a soldier and enjoys fighting.
• Higher Learning . Subverted. Asuka was one per canon. She trained during one decade and loved fighting. However she fought enemies were too powerful to her or against which her skills were useless. After fighting Arael and getting Mind Raped she broke down, but she bounced back when the MP Evas struck.
• Amaterasu from Infinity . However, she seems to have different kinds of Blood Knight personalities, varying between a cold, serious murder machine and openly admitting she's finding the battle a turn-on. Which she uses seems to depend on some combination of how angry she is. and how sexually attracted she is to her opponent. Yikes.
  • As of Chapter 25, it seems her switching her Barrier Jacket into its Final Drive Mode is an indicator of when she's switched over.
• Last Child of Krypton . Asuka really likes fighting, not only because she is a good fighter but also because piloting a giant robot and fighting Eldritch Abominations makes her feeling she is not worthless. When she got into her Eva to sortie for first time she was really eager because she had been waiting for that moment since she was three.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide . when new Angels appear, Asuka is really eager to fight them and go berserker on their collective butts.
• Once More with Feeling . Asuka lives for fighting. and Shinji is trying to show to her that she has more reasons to live. Likewise her battle lust has almost gotten her into trouble several times (such like when she rushed Israfel and almost got bludgeoned when it unexpectedly split into two halves).
• The One I Love Is . During several conversations Asuka tells Shinji she likes fighting why she is good at it and people notices when she fights. So she worked hard to become the best because she thought that nobody would care about her otherwise.
• Pokйmon Mystery Dungeon: Defenders of Warmth . Edge/ Cecil. who at first just seeks out worthy opponents to challenge to battle, even killing some of them, hoping to grow stronger. He even attempts to wake up the extremely powerful legendary pokemon who balance the world just so he can fight them. Discovers the reason for this attitude when he remembers he failed to save Alexa on their last night as humans.
• Quicken . Supervillains Hookwolf and his comrades, Cricket and Stormtiger live for fighting. In his first appearance, Hookwolf laments that he doesn't live in an age where fighting prowess and warrior spirit are valued and admired.
• Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton . Asuka's battle lust is an important part of her character. Although she changes a lot after becoming Supergirl . she still enjoys fighting (and her new powers allow her taking on giant aliens with her bare fists).
• Thousand Shinji . In this story, Asuka is a berserker of Khorne, God of War, Anger, and Blood . She is a consummate warrior. fighting is her life, and she can barely control her battle lust and eventually becomes the Goddess of War.
• Legionnaire features the Equestrian Legion, an entire Legion of Hell of blood knights.
• Weaver Nine . Jack Slash, as in canon. He gleefully cuts a bloody swath through the criminal underworld. He is, however, a little more rational than most members of this trope, and reacts to the approach of Leviathan appropriately (though he does decide to fight, in the end).
• Uplifted . Otto Skorzeny and Jack Churchill. Churchill once famously lamented the end of World War II, and Skorzeny was his counterpart on the German side.
• All eight protagonists of Morphic have some aspect of this as a product of their unusual heritage. It's most pronounced with Mia. a half-insect with bladed limbs. but even the resident Nice Guy eventually discovers an impulse to set things on fire.
• The combat-addicted skahs wizards and warriors of Baravada in With Strings Attached . Unfortunately they were so good at what they did that they wiped out all opposition and haven't had anything to fight except each other for at least ten years. They're so bored and have so little to do that when, in a brilliant Batman Gambit. Ringo spreads the word that there are monsters in the distant Ghost City of Ehndris, practically the entire skahs population of Ta'akan drops everything to try to get down there and see if it's true.
• The fanfiction More Than Human has two blood knights: Butch and Buttercup. This personality trait is actually a major plot point that connects the two together and allows them to bond.
• Kain who debuts during the Grazton arc of The Tainted Grimoire .
• Garrus Vakarian in Mass Effect Interregnum . For all that he tries to be good and honorable, he loves the parts where he gets to knock heads, because of how simple it is in comparison to justice and leadership.
• The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS fanfic Swords and Shields has Yuuno of all people start to become one while developing a relationship with Signum.
• The Immortal Game .
  • General Esteem. whose main purpose in life is warfare—hell, it's his Cutie Mark. He's so in love with war that he's disgusted by Celestia's peaceful regime, to the point that he willingly releases Titan. knowing that the latter shares his beliefs. and will enable him to fight and kill as many ponies as is needed to enforce Titan's rule of Equestria.
  • Nihilus also counts, as does Sir Unimpressive for a heroic example.
  • It's is revealed later in flashback sequence that Twilight's ancestor, Astor Coruscare was this. She was a powerful yet extremely ruthless commander of Celestia's army in the past. She happily slaughters an army just to make Celestia proud of her. Hell, her blade was named Sangrophile —blood lover.
• Ace Combat The Equestrian War has Night Raven, a griffon soldier obsessed with fighting and killing ponies not because of hatred, but for fun. Interestingly, while Night Raven comes off as borderline Ax-Crazy for most of the fic, he shows a bit of honor when Fluttershy defeats him. managing to congratulate her on a "good kill" before he dies.
  • On the other hoof, the good guys have Flare Star. Though she is not sadistic or prone to brutality, she is definitely more aggressive than most pegasi of the EAF. It's best shown in Chapter 6 of the sequel, Wings of Unity. where she makes quite a show of bombing the Exile artillery; complete with a Pre-Mortem One-Liner ("Here, catch!") and baring her teeth when she flies up to Tornado Swirl after making the kill.
    • A few chapters later, Flare Star delivers a. rather thorough beating to a Exile mare named Pearl Eyes, reducing the confident rookie to pleading for her life.
• Agent Diamond from Akatsuki Kitten: Phoenix Corporation Overhaul is halfway between this and completely Ax-Crazy. The main point is that a person's death doesn't mean quite the same thing to her as it does to everyone else, but she loves the sight of blood spilling. She is, however, more likely to enjoy a fight than she is to simply kill weaklings for sport.
• A Shadow of the Titans has Gadjo. who loves nothing better than a good fight (except pie ). His partner Machete qualifies as well.
• In A Father's Wrath . Lu Xiaong who refers to himself as a Warrior instead of a ninja is this as even though he sides with The Jashinists He makes his intentions known that he plans on challenging the Leader soon enough. When Kakashi calls him out on using his strength to fight for them he laughs him off and claims he doesn't fight for good or evil he just fights.
• The Dragonborn in the crossover fic Portalborn loves battle, needs it. Fire for her is symbolical, an icon of her hunger of power, in accordance with having the blood of a dovah. Disturbingly, she loves the taste of elven blood. Especially when eating tasty, detestable Thalmor in her Werewolf form. But when she rages, however. . The difference is that she fights better when she's actually enjoying herself, rather when she gets truely pissed, she's unable to battle to the best of her ability. Her entire personality provides quite the contrast with the meek and nervous Doug Rattmann.
• Chi and Chakra's OC Ryoko Saotome is a moe blood knight. Outside of a fight she's an emotionally abused nervous wreck that will let people walk all over her. Fighting is the only time she really feels relaxed and happy. Unless someone she cares about is threatened. In which case you're looking at a berserker.
• A Growing Affection makes this a trait of Pein's Ashura Path. She can sense the combat skills of other ninjas as animal motifs, and see most of the ninjas around her as ants. When she senses a badger and a falcon (Gaara and Neji) together, she seeks them out hoping they will give her a good fight. She even tells them the Deva Path has left the Rain village because she doesn't think either of them alone will be a match for her.
• Phoenix from Friendship Is Showtime . as with his canon self. This one actually gives a reason why he's a Blood Knight; he feels there's a void in himself he needs to fight to fill. In this canon, he's responsible for the events of "Dragonshy ", solely to get Haru to fight him. After winning the first fight easily. he even refuses to fight Haru again until provoked significantly. After being beaten by Flame Dragon Style. he becomes obsessed with fighting Haru.
• Iron Will in Iron Will's Foalcon Necrophilia Sex Rampage is this, because he quite clearly lives for the opportunity to rape and torture everyone he sees. There is also a sequel, which involves Iron Will getting released from prison and then gunning down vast hordes of gang members referred to only as "niggaz", and then molesting yet more underage foals before having an armed standoff with the police. Purely because he enjoys the thrill of violence.
• In the The Hunger Games fic Some Semblance of Meaning . several of the Careers (Amber, Achilles, Brigid) are shown to kill merely for the enjoyment of it. In fact, when they go for several days without encountering another tribute, they even attack an innocent fawn. This is what causes Obsidian to leave the pack.
• In Diaries of a Madman . Luna is very fond of battle, which doesn't gel well with the fact that she's not entirely sane to begin with.
• In All The Way Back . the returned Princess Luna is very eager to find chances to serve Equestria as its Princess of War—in part because it makes the lonely Fish out of Temporal Water feel useful again; in part because she simply enjoys battle.
• Pony POV Series has Strife, the Anthropomorphic Personification of Natural Selection. When called to exterminate a race, she prefers to fight them head on, even though she could simply wipe them out from a distance with her magic. She also says every race deserves the chance to fight for its survival.
• In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race . Punk seems to be this, and Bass definitely is. In episode 11 he comments that he loves the sounds of war, and the only thing better is silence before victory.
  • Duo is a heroic example, as he comments that he serves no purpose other than to fight the greatest of evils.
• Yamzarat Machtoro from the crossover fic Angels of the Storm is an ancient Titan built by the ancestors of the Quarians to fight the Reapers. He was defeated then, but is woken up and wants revenge, and gleefully smashes his way from the beachhead in China to Beijing, taunting his allies about being too slow.
• Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox . Tenten is always ready to fight, and in fact she'll willingly engage in bar brawls and street fights in an effort to make herself stronger.
• The Omega Chronicles has a few examples of this, but the biggest one of them all? Omega himself. Every time he thinks a fight's gonna happen, you can bet your ass he'll be there to enjoy it. Hell, tell him a massive fight will happen and he'll get paid if he does a job for you, and you've got yourself one God of Destruction working for you.
• Harkin from My Brave Pony: Star Fleet Magic III . to the point where he actually betrays Sombra over his feud with Lightning Dawn.
• Ichigo from Omni Bleach Abridged .
• Downplayed by Dante in Dante's Night at Freddy's . who insists he would rather sleep than battle the animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but is shown to have a lot of fun fighting them anyway.
• Peace Forged in Fire . Played for Laughs when Captain Koren, the CO of the Klingon flagship, arrives to discover that she's missed the battle entirely.

  Koren: Tal’Shiar scum! This is Koren, daughter of Grilka, Captain of the glorious IKS bortaS’qu. You will—what the… What do you MEAN we missed out on a glorious battle? ARGH. I haven’t seen any action since Qo’noS! Why does it ALWAYS take an impending apocalypse for me to get to kill things.
  Brokosh: * A Lethean, and originally a gun-for-hire [facepalm ] Koren, you damn fool, get back in formation.

• Bambietta Basterbine is this in Alabaster Orchestra . much like in canon, but begins to avert it (to an extent) after the point of divergence.
• About the only thing that Yang from A World Of Bloody Evolution likes about the Warhammer 40,000 universe is the challenge her opponents provide. Her response to seeing four traitor marines is to grin and then challenge them all to a fight.
• Luna in the My Little Pony fanfic Actually, I'm Dead is a little too excited during her fight with monster!Trixie and later is more concerned with celebrating her victory, than seeking medical attention for her broken wing. among other things.

  Luna. “Somepony, fetch Us a cider with which to celebrate Our victory!� Luna wiped her bloody chin upon her fetlock, sparing it a glance. “And perhaps a medic.�

• Charisma from the My Little Pony Fan Fic Harmony Theory . has a Killer Cutie Mark. which basically means she was literally born as this trope. Her mark constantly telling her to kill anypony she find and the best ways to do it. Throw in special forces training and a grudge against society for her lot in life, and you get one of the most feared and dangerous ponies in the Bad Future the story takes place in.
• The Power Rangers Darker and Edgier parody film Power/Rangers 's version of Zack from the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is this; he was volunteered to join the Machine Empire because he liked fighting so much.
• A Brighter Dark turns the originally gentle and all-loving Corrin into a downplayed version
  • Although she seems to be growing out of it in later chapters, making this a slightly subverted trope.
• Mercy Graves in the Mercy series both enjoys fighting to an incredible degree (she frequently takes advantage of the fact Gringotts goblins negotiate with violence) but violence in general, having once bet Harry she could break all 126 bones in a person's appendicular skeleton without breaking them.
  • After beating one goblin with another goblin. Mercy is delighted that the second goblin stabbed her in the stomach and visibly disappointed that they don't have time for her to "negotiate" with more of them.
• Besides Kenpachi, both Dead Eye/Ichigo and Unohana are massive blood knights in To Prey Upon the Dead . Unohana even stops Ichigo from killing Kenpachi specifically because she doesn't want Yamamoto to kill Ichigo before she can fight him.
• Mercury in TRON. Endgame Scenario. The Mercury series of Programs were explicitly designed as guards, spies, and enforcers for the Math Assistant AIs. Mercury Six (the one seen in the game) relishes a good fight on or off the lightcycle arena.

• Bolt gives us Rhino, a little hamster in a plastic hamster ball of all creatures. He is psychotically excited about getting to share in the dangerous stunts Bolt tries to pull, will willingly attack a cat, has threatened grievous bodily harm against a human twice. and does all of this with seemingly no understanding of how small and vulnerable he is compared to everyone else he interacts with. Bolt himself can also qualify, but he at least has a Freudian Excuse.
• The titular villain of Megamind was like this. He didn't want to conquer the world, but rather to find a Worthy Opponent to challenge and develop his skills and experience as a supervillain. As soon as he kills his own nemesis, he's left without a worthy opponent to reduce his boredom. So, he creates a new superhero nemesis to give him a good fight, only for him to later on become more evil than Megamind himself and thus have to be stopped. As soon as Megamind defeats his own creation, he ends up saving the city and becoming a superhero instead, thus giving him more real challenges to feed his adrenaline rush, even though it would mean retiring from the supervillain business to become said superhero.
• Shan-Yu from Mulan is heavily implied to be this: He deliberately allows himself and the Huns to be sighted at the Great Wall of China as they breach it so they could send their best soldiers and thus have him prove his strength to them.

• Take any war movie and the most bloodthirsty solider or enemy force will be count as this.
• Forrest Gump Lieutenant Dan "was" this as all of his ancestors died on the battlefield and he believed that it was the most glorious thing to do. So when Forrest saves his life, the Lieutenant is furious especially since he lost legs in war as well. But after Forrest shows the beauty and simple enjoyment in a peaceful life, Lieutenant Dan turns his philosophy around and thanks Forrest for saving his life and goes off to fing god for himself.
• Lt. Col. William Kilgore from Apocalypse Now is an adrenaline junky who loves combat and the smell of napalm just as much as hanging ten on a surfboard.
• Aliens . All The Marine Troopers are all this, (expect Gorman). Even the main female of the squad Jenette Vasquez was the most blood thirsty of lot, screaming the iconic "LET'S ROOOOOOCK. " before fighting the Xenomorphs. Hudson acted tough for most part but revealed himself as a Lovable Coward toward the end of the movie. But still died like a blood knight screaming at the Xenomorphs (who were everywhere)to give him their best they've got as he killed dozens of them before being overwhelmed.
  • Ellen Ripley herself after living in terror of the Xenomorph she encountered, soon began to enjoy slaughtering them in her way of revenge especially when protecting her adoptive daughter Newt.
• Colonel Hessler, the panzer commander in the 1965 film Battle of the Bulge . For him life is to be spent in the turret of a tank, fighting until death takes you.
• Terminator is a subversion as while Skynet and all Terminators kill millions of humans and seek to destroy any threat to them, they are still robots and as such take no real pleasure in murder. The T-800 that protects young John Conner in Judgment Day only acts like a blood knight due to John teaching it human mannerisms.
  • Between Aliens, Terminator 2. and film Avatar it seems Director James Cameron himself gets a kick out of warfare while showing audiences the horror of war at the same time.
• Predator . Every single Yautja from birth to death are blood knights to an outrageous degree, they won't kill pregnant woman, children and unarmed civilians just because there's no sport in it. In fact the only people they hunt on Earth are policemen, well organized mobsters and trigger happy soldiers and military forces- anyone who could make the hunt all the more greater. Yautjas even line the skulls (and spines) of their prey around their hunting ground and inside their space ships as trophies of their work. And when they find a Worthy Opponent. they even cast aside their high-tech weapons on occasion to even the odds and make things more entertaining. To ensure victory, they blow themselves up as a last resort, partly to kill the prey in a last ditch effort, and partly to prevent their weaponry from falling into the wrong hands.
  • This aspect was parodied in How It Should Have Ended when Anna reaches down to pick up the wounded Poncho's rifle:

  Dutch. No, leave it, it didn't kill you because you were unarmed, there's no sport in it.
  Billy. Wait if that thing killing us because we're all armed, why the heck are we carrying all these guns for?
  Dutch. That is- that is a excellent question EVERYONE DROP YOUR WEAPONS.

  Que the Predator showing up and urging the soldiers to hold their guns again, before leaving in a disappointed huff.

  • Dutch and rest of the team that faced the Predators, were just as bloodthirsty, like The Lancer of the team Blain Cooper.

  Poncho. Hey you've been hit man, your bleeding
  Cooper. I ain't got time to bleed.

• Battle Royale brought out true intentions of students who really gained pleasure from killing their peers.
• Stephen the Irish, in Braveheart . who seems more interested in killing Englishmen than winning wars or freedom.
• Deathwatch has Quinn, the fur wearing psychopath who's first focus shot is him with his newly found spiked trench club. He also marks one of the few times a revolver bayonet is seen in cinema. Also, he collects scalps, making the origins of his furs somewhat questionable. He also remarked that he killed a man whilst on holiday in Blackpool. The film is essentially a horror version of Journey's end, set in a WW1 trench.
• Elysium . Kruger and his squadmates Drakey and Crowe.
• Jean Vilain. the Big Bad of The Expendables 2 . He becomes so overjoyed when he finally fights Barney Ross that he urges him to keep fighting-even throwing his guns away so he can fight Stallone with a knife alone.
• Freddy vs. Jason . Freddy Krueger, aside from tormenting poor cheerleaders, finds joy in fighting Jason someone who can match his kill count and savagery. Jason on the other hand is so emotionless he doesn't care two ways about it as he stomps Freddy's ass in.
• Zantoro of Hell of the Living Dead . a member of an elite SWAT team that gets sent to take out zombies. He seems to enjoy killing, be it humans or zombies, armed or unarmed.
• Kurgan from Highlander loved to fight and kill and was a sadist to boot.
• Jack, of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer . has long been possessed of sudden and unstoppable rages. By the end of the film, he's learned to channel them into killing monsters.
• Vic Hoskins of Jurassic World believes that war is just the natural state of the world. He sees Owen's raptors as nothing more than a promising exploitable goldmine to be sold to the military. Averted as unlike, say, Muldoon or Roland from the previous films, he demonstrates no physical feats of badassitude throughout the movie, and the man who spent a good portion of the film vocally glorifying violence and struggle ends up meeting his end at the hands of Delta, but not before tearfully and pathetically begging the creature for his life.
• Gazelle from Kingsman: The Secret Service overtly enjoys carnage, whether by proxy or directly inflicting it.
• Brad Whitaker, chief villain of The Living Daylights is somewhat of a slight subversion: He's obsessed with warfare and weaponry, his house practically a museum full of the stuff, is the leader of a mercenary company, and calls himself a "soldier". However, he flunked out of West Point for cheating, and in general is really only bumming around in Tangier.
• The Lord of the Rings . Has a surprisingly amount Blood Knights while the series encourages peace it doesn't shy away from idea of taking pleasures in the destruction of thy enemy.
  • Aragon the Ranger /The Good King likes to be civil, albeit cautious but against his foes Aragon can't hide his satisfaction. Smiling when faced with Uruk Hai on Amon Hen, and is completely okay with the idea dying in battle so long as it's going out in blaze of glory with his friends. As Aragon says when before chasing after the Uruk Hai that captured Merry and Pippin: "Let's hunt some orc ".
  • Gimli the fearless, badass Dwarf, with shades of Violent Glaswegian in his personality. Eager to avenge his race's ancestral grudge against Orcs, and in so doing racks up the largest single body count in all three movies. Oh, and played by professional Large Ham John Rhys-Davies.
  • Legolas while not as apparent in the books loves a good battle too, despite he's almost entirely peaceful race. Legolas smirks while dodging the blows of the cave troll, keeps a kill count with Gimli over how many orcs they've slaughtered in the big battles and causally kills a building sized elephant without braking a sweat.
• In Mad Max: Fury Road . Immortan Joe's band of Warboys believe in a perverse form of Viking honor and crave a glorious death in battle. Since almost all of them are dying slow, premature deaths from radiation poisoning and other illnesses related to the Crapsack World they live in, Big Bad Joe uses this Brainwashed and Crazy cult of personality to give them some semblance of meaning in life. This is best demonstrated by Nux's genuine happiness at the idea of dying on the Fury Road. They even have a duel Madness Mantra of "I live, I die, I live again!" or "Witness me!" before they sacrifice themselves.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe .
  • Tony Stark aka Iron Man funnily enough only became a true blood knight after he shut down the Weapon's Program for the military and built his suits due to his four month stint in a Afghan cave. Where after his Heel–Face Turn. Tony took much pleasure in fighting back against his kidnappers, as he said upon escaping the cave in his Mark 1 suit. "My turn ". Tony is mostly a well intentioned Mad Scientist but it's clear as we see him fight the villains, Tony just loves fighting evil and building more suits to fight evil better. Despite more or less being a man in a can, Tony doesn't back down to anyone even when up against Thor. only smiling as Thor's lightingbolt powers his suit up, Tony even shows enjoyment when fighting the freaking Hulk who would ruin his day if Tony wasn't wearing the suit made to fight said person. Many others claim Tony is "self destructive ", to which he replies "Aren't we all? ".
  • Emil Blonsky from The Incredible Hulk held off being promoted out of the battlefield, despite his aging body (looking 45 when he's 39) for the sheer joy of being a "fighter", and when the opportunity to fight a foe as formidable as the Hulk arose, was willing to have himself transformed into a Super Soldier and an outright abomination (no pun intended) to be able to have a "real fight".
  • At the start, Thor is like any Asgardian of legend: boastful, headstrong, and will gladly take any challenger to task in the name of his homeland laughing like a boy when fighting colossal Ice Giants, and still smiling even when one headbutts him in the face. However spending some time on Earth weans him from his one-track mindedness. Nonetheless, he still relishes fighting; upon realizing how much of a challenge the Hulk is, he smirks.
  • In The Avengers (2012) . the Hulk only has one reason to live; as Cap gives him the simple order "Smash" he gives a brutish smirk and gives the invading Chitauri something to think about. Even when facing Loki. an Asgardian a god in the eyes of humans, Hulk doesn't waste a second smashing Thor's little brother into the ground and walking away growling Puny God in disappointment.
    • It becomes clear that even even tempered Dr Bruce Banner is just a Blood Knight on the inside always and The Hulk is just that aspect of his personality enhanced to the dangerous extreme. As he says to Cap before punching down a giant space snake: That's my secret, Cap'n. I'm always angry.
  • Clinton Barton aka Hawkeye despite being a Family Man and all around good matured person, that has to be Brainwashed into evil still has more than sanguine attitude towards combat.

  Cap. Can you hold them off?
  Hawkeye. Captain. (loads his arrows) it would be my genuine pleasure.

  • Guardians of the Galaxy .
    • Drax. When the team gets into fights, he is clearly enjoying himself throughout, laughing like he's on a roller coaster while brutally slaughtering dozens of mooks.
    • Rocket Raccoon. He approaches firearms, explosives, and their use with all the giddy joy and level-headed justification of a serial arsonist. When he is finally given a weapon (a large, high-powered Gatling-style gun that's twice his size) to use during the prison break, his reaction is essentially a barely-contained orgasm:
  • In Avengers: Age of Ultron . Ultron accuses Captain America of being "God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war". Similarly, Steve's "nightmare" from Scarlet Witch is Peggy telling Steve his fight is over and the world no longer needs him. In the end, Steven concedes that he feels at home with the Avengers. This is extended to Captain America: Civil War where Steve can't accept the accords because it's mean he can't fight his own way Steve acknowledges it's one of his shortcomings and apologizes for it saying it's something he just can't change.
  • Spider-man yes even him as first seen in Civil War when Spidey utterly overpowers Falcon and Bucky, but is delighted as school boy (which he is) throughout the fight, even geeking out over Bucky's metal arm when he effortless catches his fist. Even up against Giant-man while shocked at first, Spidey leads the rest of Team Iron Man in bringing it down and exclaims in triumph when he succeeds, only to be knocked down as well.
  • In his solo movie Spiderman Homecoming. Peter is completely reckless at times, extremely anxious for another chance to kick with the Avengers after Berlin and is left disappointed. Spidey even brakes the limits aka "training wheels" put inside his suit by Stark when foiling the Vulture's plans leading to him getting punished by Tony himself. Before the end of the climax of the movie, Peter was willingly to throwing his school/social life away just to chase the glory of being a superhero before reality kicks in. but heeding his Stark's words Spidey learns from his reckless mistakes and man-ups. Peter plays it safe from then on, even refusing Stark's offer to be become recognized officially as a Avenger despite wanting it to fight with The Team so badly before then.
• The Mask of Zorro . Alejandro is this before and after taking up the mantle of Zorro, even when not revenge driven. He just loves fighting and Swordplay as a result of watching former Zorro as a boy. De La Vega the former Zorro is of the same mold but has cooled his swashbuckling ways in his old age and even holds the younger and more reckless Zorro back.
• Mad Dog on in The Raid loves fistfighting. Twice he disarms himself and allows his enemies a fair chance to defeat him in unarmed combat.
• The Hessian (who was beheaded and became the Headless Horseman ) in Sleepy Hollow came to fight as a mercenary in America "for love of carnage".
• TRON. Sark's Establishing Character Moment is de-rezzing a hapless conscript on the Game Grid, and thanking Master Control when his boss called him "brutal and needlessly sadistic," and all but salivating over the possibility of engaging in combat against military Programs.
• In X-Men Origins: Wolverine . Victor joins many wars for over a century only to keep his killer instincts satisfied. He enjoys being a warrior far too much to start a life of peace with James.
• Tallahassee from Zombieland loves him some zombie-killin'. Give him a few guns and a couple of blunt weapons and he'll be off having fun for hours. And probably cackling maniacally while he's doing it, too.

• Anya from The 100 . Through almost her entire fight with Clarke, she has a huge grin on her face. Even after being beaten up and almost killed, she's still smiling, and tells Clarke, with genuine approval, "You fought well."
• Kara Thrace in Battlestar Galactica . as shown in the following quote.

"You know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. I'm fighting because I don't know how to do anything else."

• The narrator from David Bowie 's "Running Gun Blues". Even after the war has ended, he still lusts for battle and blood, to the point of committing random acts of violence on civilians.
• A lot of lyrics by Dismember are in the perspective of Blood Knights and Sadists. but "Of Fire" deserves mention over how crazy the protagonist is, killing anyone in his way, including his comrades.

• GWAR
• "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor is a Blood Knight anthem, especially the chorus:

  It's the
  Eye of the tiger
  It's the thrill of the fight
  Rising up to the challenge of our rival
  And the last known survivor
  Stalks his prey in the night
  And he's watching us all with the eye
  Of the tiger

• "Iron " by Within Temptation describes one of these. "You can't live without the fire, it's the heat that makes you strong".

Myths & Religion

• Ares was one of the Greek gods of war. While Athena was goddess of wisdom and tactics, the domain of Ares was bloodlust and slaughter. He fought because he loved the violence. Which is not to say Athena didn't relish warfare (she was, after all, a war goddess), as indicated by this verse . She's just not as bloodthirsty as Ares. Then there's Ares's sister/sidekick Enyo, whose epithets include "blood-splattered", "destroyer of cities", and "impartial"—because she would support both sides of a battle to maximize the slaughter.
• Existing on the edge between mythology and history, the legendary Viking Berserkers struck fear in the hearts of all Europe during the Viking Age. Historians have put forth several different theories to explain the rage that seized these warriors on the battlefield, but ultimately, all that is known is that they would rush into battle with little-to-no armor, ignore wounds that would cripple an ordinary man, and strike down anything and anyone who got in their way. Contemporary accounts state that even their allies gave them a wide berth, for The Berserker did not distinguish too well between friend and foe. According to their beliefs, a Berserker who fell in battle gained automatic access to the Warrior's Heaven of Valhalla (where they'd get to fight forever without dying, a Blood Knight's true paradise), and so they fought, not for plunder or honor—but simply for the fight itself, and for the eventual warrior's death. Dying outside of the battlefield would result in a Fate Worse Than Death for any berserker: not getting in to Valhalla.
• The Morrigan from Celtic Mythology is famous for being the most fearsome goddess in most pantheons. She would often fight on both sides of a war, depending on who was slaughtering more people, and specialized in making minor misunderstandings slowly escalate into countrywide bloodbaths. Poor Communication Kills. No, she's just that good .
• The Asura of Hindu and Buddhist religion. They loved to fight, and would seize on any opportunity to do so, whether it's for a good cause, an evil cause, or just for the hell of it. Which is why the race's name is often translated to "warring deities". In Buddhism, people who loved to engage in battle were often reborn as this. The Aesir, the Norse pantheon of sky gods, derive their name from the same Indo-European word that the name Asura came from. note Oddly, the Zoroastrian angelic Ahuras and supreme God Ahura-Mazda also derive from the same root; however, Zoroastrianism flips the Indian and Norse system, with the Ahuras being good and peace-loving, and the Daevas (equivalent to the "good" Devas of Hinduism; the word is related to the Latin divi "diety" from which we get "divine") are evil, chaotic demons.
• The Yazi . one of the nine offspring of the Chinese dragon. They love fighting and killing and they are often depicted on the handles of weapons.

• WWE wrestler Finlay attained tweener status, being between Face and Heel. for the sole reason that he'll simply beat up anybody he comes across for kicks, not particularly caring whether they're "good guys" or "bad guys". His Catch-Phrase sums it all up: "My name is Finlay, and I love to fight!"
• CHIKARA 's Eddie Kingston turned into this after his Face–Heel Turn in 2007, declaring his desire for a "warrior's death" and pledging to take all of his hatred and misery stemming from an industry that he felt didn't respect him out on anyone who got in his way.
• Having gradually alienated people for almost two years, in 2012 Mercedes Martinez went on to proclaim she needed no one and her love, was pain.
• The night after the 2012 installment of WWE "Hell in a Cell", Sheamus (who had lost the WWE RAW World Heavyweight Title at the event), came out and proclaimed with a smile that in spite of his loss, he got an amazing battle that he was thirsting for, regardless of the outcome. He declared The Big Show a Worthy Opponent and said he was on pins and needles waiting for another swing at the world title.

• BattleTech . The Warrior caste of the Clans live solely for war, for them its better to die in combat than in of old age. Some Crusader Clans are more ruthless then the rest, such as Clan Jade Falcon, Smoke Jaguar, and Ice Hellion. Rather than die of old age, "outdated" Clan warriors past 35 years old are reassigned to Solahma units, given an outdated assault rifle, and sent out as Cannon Fodder to distract battlearmor and battlemechs.
• The Dark Eye has the clerics of Kor, god of bloodshed and war, whose definition of a "good fight" almost crosses into Combat Sadomasochist territory.
• Several examples can be found in Dungeons & Dragons .
  • The Elves of the Valaes Tairn in the Eberron setting.
  • The Battleragers in the Forgotten Realms setting are dwarves enamored with battle. While they also protect their home clanholds, the fight is what they desire most, and they run towards it with a fervent glee that give even drow pause.
  • Garagos and Tempus in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The former is the divine exemplar of Blood Knightdom, a multi-armed blood-soaked berserker who even makes the other gods nervous; the latter is a much more sensible war god who likes fearless berserkers and isn't shy about bloodletting but avoids excessive destruction of resources or lives (which can be used for another battle) and generally advertises war as the most heroic pastime possible. He also does not consider those who oppose his dogma real foes worthy of a conflict (some of the descriptions even indicate that while he doesn't understand Eldath, the goddess of peace, he does genuinely respect her conviction), and has the necessity of peace as part of his dogma ("war is only given meaning by the peace that follows").
  • If an Orc is given a motivation in D&D. he'll probably be a Blood Knight (as opposed to Hobgoblins. who are Proud Warrior Race Guys.
  • Warblades, from the Book of Nine Swords, revel in melee and seek, above all else, to gain glory from combat.
• Exalted . Slayers among Green Sun Princes are well-known for this. Their patron defines the smoldering rage that burns the world with overwhelming power.
  • Any characters with high Valor in general are prime candidates for this treatment.
• The only way to escape the Crapsack World of pre-Ragnarok Midgard in Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok is to die gloriously in battle in order to be resurrected as an immortal warrior, to drink and fight every day until the end. Needless to say, the world is full of Blood Knights.
• GURPS gives us the Bloodlust disadvantage, and with it rules to handle playing a Blood Knight character.
• The Adamantine Arrows of Mage: The Awakening believe that reality expresses itself most profoundly through conflict (Existence is War) and so believe that conflict is the most viable path to enlightenment. They thus seek to become the ultimate warriors by honing their minds, bodies and souls (The Supernal is the Self) and training themselves in as many methods of combat as possible (Adaptability is Strength), then engaging in as much conflict as possible. However, they also believe that conflict is meaningless unless the warrior is fighting for an individual, office, organisation, or cause (Service is Mastery) and adopts some manner of code of honor (Enlightenment is Honor). The Arrow Sourcebook notes that in virtually every war in history, their were Arrows fighting for both sides, and includes an example of a character who was on both sides of the Vietnam War.
• Pathfinder .
  • The chaotic neutral god Gorum, god of Strength, Battle, and Weapons. His followers are almost entirely all Blood Knights of one kind or another.
  • Many half-orcs are also Blood Knights, to the point where a large group of them have formed their own Gorumite sect claiming Gorum is, in fact, the first Half-orc ever, and the reason he's always seen with steel armor covering all of his body is to hide his true appearance from human Gorumites, who wouldn't be able to handle his true appearance.
• In The Real Man . every single Real Man is this.
• Maduri males in Rocket Age are bred to be savage and recklessly brave. They often charge into suicidal situations and rarely take prisoners.
• Both the Warhammer and the Warhammer 40,000 universe features several species and factions who exhibit this trope to varying degrees.
  • The Orcs/Orks were genetically engineered by a precursor race for the specific purpose of being tireless warriors and killers, and will gleefully fight anything, themselves included, if there's a good fight to be had from it.
  • Worshippers of Khorne qualify partially—but their main interest is spilling blood and spreading death and mayhem in Khorne's name. not in the quality of the battle. After all, "Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, as long as it flows"—they've been known to kill themselves if they run out of other victims to kill. The appropriately named Skulltaker, the highest ranking of Khorne's lesser daemons is this trope personified. His sole reason of existence is to look for the greatest warriors and fight them in hand-to-hand combat. If he wins (and he usually does) he'll rip the foe's head off and attach the skull into his cloak.
  • Notably, the quote is interpreted differently Depending on the Writer. Those trying to make Chaos a bit less of a mustache-twirling For the Evulz villain go for the full trope, so that the "from whence the blood flows" quote refers to Khorne not caring which particular faction bleeds, only about the skill level of your opponent. Decapitating a fellow Chaos Champion is just pleasing to Khorne as slaying an Imperial hero, while killing a lowly cultist or citizen barely gets His attention.
  • Dwarf Troll Slayers exhibit this, although it's case not a question of thrills: seeking out the biggest and meanest foe you can think of and fighting it is essentially the Dwarfs' form of honorable suicide.
  • Blood Dragon vampires subvert this; they're trying to emulate the first Blood Dragon Abhorash, who defeated a dragon and drank its blood, permanently quenching his blood thirst. The Blood Dragons have the goal of becoming great enough fighters to do the same, meaning that their constant fighting actually has the ultimate goal of allowing them to stop killing people. In the newer edition they're available only in squads of lesser vampires actually known as Blood Knights.
  • Dark Eldar Incubi are essentially a dark reflection of the Aspect Warriors and are essentially entirely built around this trope. The Incubi don't fight for any higher cause, or even to improve their skills or find a worthy opponent. They fight for the sole purpose of killing, and everything else they do is to make them more efficient killers. Ironically, the Incubi are actually the most trustworthy of the Dark Eldar, as they don't care for things like wealth and political power and therefore have no reason to betray their employer (in fact, they apparently have a code of honor forbidding them from doing that), making them popular bodyguards for Dark Eldar Archons.
  • While the Imperium's soldiers are generally better described as Church Militant. the fact that many in-universe statements, prayers and sermons seem to consider warring against their enemies to be a way of worshiping the God-Emperor means that it can get kind of confused at times.
  • In the previous edition of the Chaos codex, Lucius the Eternal used to lower his stats in-game if he fought an unworthy opponent, and raise his stats if he found a worthy one. He also takes a memento of people who defeat him and take pride in it by fusing their souls to his armor.
  • Plenty of Space Marine chapters have this as their quirk. The Manticores, Carcharodons, Executioners, Mortifactors, Space Wolves (some of them, at least), Black Templars, Knights of Blood, Flesh Tearers and Angels Encarmine. to name but a few.
  • The Minotaurs, a chapter that actually specializes in fighting other Space Marines. Because what is a worthier opponent for a Space Marine than another Space Marine?
  • Witch Elves of the Dark Elves are this trope, as well as Khainites in general. As the brides of the Elven god of war, murder, pain, suffering, and bloodshed in general, they go in a drug-induced frenzy and rush into battle with with a flurry of attacks. Oh, and to make sure they kill something, they use poisons. Even other Khainites are not too terribly sane as their Khaineite rule prevents non-Khainite characters from joining them, as no one trusts them.
  • Drazhar (which means 'Living Sword') is such an extreme example of this that he unnerves even the other Dark Eldar Incubi. Drazhar just showed up one day, killed a Hierarch to prove his prowess, and is now The Thing That Would Not Leave. He hasn't even taken an official position in the Incubi hierarchy despite being more than qualified to be a Hierarch. He shows no ambition whatsoever and exists solely to kill. Nobody knows anything concrete about him, though rumors abound that he is actually the fallen Eldar Phoenix Lord Ahrha.
  • The twelfth legion of the Space Marines, once known as the War Hounds and now better known as the World Eaters, fought with a ferocity that reminded the Emperor of the white war hounds employed by a warrior tribe on Terra (hence the name). They became even more extreme examples after their Primarch Angron had the Butcher's Nails copied and implanted in most of their heads. The Nails made it so that rampant fighting and bloodshed were the only things that could grant them satisfaction. Small wonder this was the legion that would pledge themselves to Khorne during the Heresy.
• Werewolf: The Forsaken has the Blood Talons, who consider the "hunter" aspect of a werewolf's existence the most important part. Almost all of their rituals involve someone's ass being kicked. Their extra part of the Oath of the Moon forbids them from surrendering in a fight unless they would make the offer to their opponent in similar circumstances.

• Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet is one: During the opening fight scene, he states that he hates two things: peace and Montagues. At the party, he asks a page boy who is carrying his rapier to give it to him to he can kill Romeo, although he is stopped by Lord Capulet. And he sword fights with Mercutio even when Benvolio tries to negotiate.

• Uruka and Takios in Eien no Aselia . The former is rather honorable and the latter is something of a worthy opponent. Both of them serve as The Dragon to other villains. Uruka later makes a heel face turn and admits that while she really likes fighting, she hates killing.
• Lancer in Fate/stay night embodies this trope. He has no interest in the Holy Grail, only in beating the crap out of the other heroes in a good fight. Unfortunately, his Master does not share his Blood Knight tendencies, so there are only few moments he can fight on his fullest and enjoy the fight. And in the same series, Assassin. Only interested in sparring with other Servants. His drawback is that he is stuck on only one place and can't move freely. So he had to wait for the other Servants to come at him.
• Momoyo from Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! is impossibly strong and easily one of the most, if not the most powerful character in the entire series and only gets stronger as she grows older. This proves to be a tremendous asset when helping the rest of her True Companions tackle whatever villain they're currently facing but also gives her a growing blood lust that can only be satiated by battling strong opponents. As Momoyo grows stronger, fewer and fewer characters prove capable of fulfilling this urge, which leads to the central conflict of her route.
• Ittosai from Yo-Jin-Bo loves fighting and killing, walking the line between this and Psycho for Hire.

• In Homestar Runner . Strong Bad's anime alter ego, Stinkoman, is a good example of a (comedic, and not very bloody) Blood Knight; he's always "looking for a challenge".
• Quirky Misadventures Of Soldine The Cyborg .
  • Soldine enjoys reducing his opponents to pulp. Combat situations are also the only ones when he shows enthusiasm, because he's The Quiet One most of the time.
  • Handsome Rogue delights in chaos and mayhem, complete with Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter".
• Red vs. Blue has Sarge, who practically delights in the Red/Blue conflict, and is the only one enthusiastic about it and its continuation. On top of this, it's implied that Sarge was an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper during the war.
• RWBY 's Nora Valkyrie is just as enthusiastic about battles as she is about everything else. Her response to being launched into a monster-infested forest is to smile.
  • Yang Xiao Long is one of the "seeks excitement" manifestations of this trope. It's suggested her reason for becoming a Huntress is to travel the world and find exciting fights. It's the only way you can explain a girl who deliberately antagonizes an entire bar full of thugs. Even her Semblance reflects her fight-happy personality—her attacks become even more powerful when she gets hurt. Eventually deconstructed in Volume 3 as she is framed by Cinder and co. for "breaking" Mercury's leg in an unprovoked attack on live television during the Vytal tournament. Yang becomes a Hero with Bad Publicity because of it.
  • Ruby Rose is a more reserved example. She takes great interest in designing weapons and seeing them in action, and vocally expresses confidence in her abilities. Not to mention the fact that her first reaction upon seeing a herd of Goliaths is "Let's kill it!"

• Yatta-Ta of The Challenges of Zona is, in part, a parody of this.
• In Circumstances of the Revenant Braves . both Mecha and by extension Sol are blood knights. Though in the latter's case, it's not necessarily by choice.
• Skoll of Cry Havoc is a mercenary who enjoys her job, and welcomes being a werewolf as a chance to fight more.
• Naomi from The Far Side Of Utopia is a pretty normal happy girl. Then you give her any excuse to start punching things. She seems to enjoy it more than a little too much .
• Girl Genius has the Jägermonsters: Blood Knight Super Soldiers frequently slipping into Cloudcuckoolander territory. With Nice Hats.
  • Bangladesh Dupree is an Ax-Crazy example. And expects the same from others . Though she's aware enough to specify if "a town really needed burning " or if this time she didn't kill anyone.
  • Captain Vole, who is so bloodthirsty that the other Jägermonsters kicked him out. He initially joins up with Gil because the latter beat the crap out of him multiple times, but then makes it clear he is now perfectly willing to go with him simply because the ensuing civil war will be one of the most glorious things in history . He seems to have lost these tendencies, however, after an incident during his retrieval from a time-stop caused him to age hundreds of years in seconds. It's unknown if it's him being Older and Wiser or if the trauma of that stint, which he described as a hundred-year nightmare, traumatized him off bloodshed.
• Homestuck .
  • Jack Noir is implied to be this. He's compelled by general bloodlust, but he seems invariably drawn to fights that will challenge him most.
  • Ironically subverted for Karkat, whose Sgrub title is "Knight of Blood". He's anything but this. The title is still appropriate, just not by human standards. His entire species has been in perpetual conflict because they use blood color to define their caste system. so anything related to blood without specifying color has to do with the unity of the race.
  • The B2 session has Caliborn, one of two individuals who regularly contact the post-Scratch kids. He wants to get into the game seemingly just so he could satisfy his bloodlust, and he turns it into a competition between himself and Calliope to the point where he relishes the idea of outright killing her.
• Sojueilo of Juathuur .
• Zavier from Messenger enjoys killing outsiders, and can't even begin to consider the possibility of coexisting with them. He also hates Akiara, calling her a traitor for running away, and so is considering ways to kill her, even though he was ordered to bring her back alive.
• Ramael from Misfile is a former angel of vengeance who, after killing two would-be rapists. admits that he finds it addictive.
• MS Paint Masterpieces has Quick Man, who LAUGHS when he is defeat and in pain.

  Reader: Excited when we lose, grumpy when we win. That's Quick Man.

  • Allegro. the eponymous Greatest Killer, also falls into this.
• Nahast: Lands of Strife gives us Thunder the warrior spirit.
• The Order of the Stick .
  • Belkar, the Token Evil Teammate. is this. Just look .
  • Tarquin, Elan's father, has shades of this as well. Just note his response when attacked by the entire Order, sans Vaarsuvius.
• Vesper from Plume exhibits all signs of a Blood Knight in the making, from the apparent ease with which she takes to killing to her clear enjoyment of the whole thing.

  But God help me, killing is therapeutic.

• Schlock Mercenary . Most of the mercenaries are Private Military Contractors because of the money, their severe personality dysfunctions, a legally awkward situation in UNS space, or some combination of the above. Schlock, on the other hand, views the money as a nifty bonus that can be converted into Ovalkwik, guns, or both, and actively looks for the chance to get involved in carnage. It might be because amorphs don't really die, just get absorbed into the others, or it might just be because he's kind of nutty.

  Schlock: With these, I could have put a five millimeter pulse bolt of plasma through Snipey McWipey's scope and into his brain. One shot, no collateral damage.
  Kevyn: But that's not what you would have done. If you'd had plasma cannons you would have hit his window with a two meter blast, vaporizing him and setting the room on fire. Am I right?
  Schlock: Okay, that does sound like it would have been more fun for me.

• Hector, a Psycho for Hire from The Story of Anima . He chews his opponent out for being boring simply because they opened with a blow aimed at his neck . which would've ended things before they got to fight.
• The Red-Haired Swordsman in TwoKinds . whose war cry is "In the Name of Meaningless Battle. ".
• Zokusho Comics . Serge really seems to enjoy shooting people. Raziel is also pretty gleeful at the thought of a fight.
• Jane Doe of Nobody Scores! enjoys a bare-fisted beatdown win . lose or draw. Any excuse or none . or even if she has no idea what's going on, Jane is down for a punch-up.

  Jane: A six-on-one climactic battle! You guys kick ass.

• Stand Still, Stay Silent . Sigrun. While she's pragmatic and tries to avoid trolls if she can, she clearly likes having a good fight when she gets the opportunity. When the crew has to get rid of a water troll via getting in stranded on land, she mentions that she chose to not go into seafaring because she doesn't like this method and prefers killing trolls and beasts with her own hands.
• Questionable Content . Punchbot is one of the fixtures in Northampton's underground robot brawl scene. Outside the ring, he is polite, non-confrontational and a pretty great guy (he even has a day job as an accountant) but he also gets positively giddy at the chance to fight a new opponent, and thanks a combat AI for picking him up and smashing him into a wall.

• The aptly-named War from Fallout is Dragons . After the heroes killed him, he turned down a resurrection on the grounds that he would probably never find such a thrilling fight again.
• The aptly named Battle from the Global Guardians PBEM Universe is a super strong Nigh Invulnerable woman whose idea of a good time is challenging entire bar's worth of Hell's Angels to fights. sometimes without bothering to issue the challenge first.
• In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device . the Big Bad of the first season, Lord Inquisitor Karamazov, believes that there is no such thing as innocence and will gleefully bathe a whole world in blood, fire of both if he suspects it of heresy. It doesn't help that he's confident that he's the only person who knows what the real truth is and won't accept the possibility that he may be wrong.
• Golgotha from Noob gets bored if she has to do a quest without any battles and frustrated if battles happen but are too short.
• In the web serial Stone Soul there are several characters that fit this trope, all of whom are from the Ovleni culture. However, they do not simply love to fight. The Ovleni culture is quite fixated on experienced the most amazing and intense sensations that can be found. In the serial, the "ultimate experience" they are usually after involves battle-axing people in the face. However the use of psycho-active plants is also featured heavily, and battle and hallucinogens are also combined in some instances in pursuit of the ultimate experience.
• Survival of the Fittest .
  • Vesa Turunen of version two shows signs of this in his death scene, even believing that his death at the hands of Damien Carter-Madison was honorable enough to make up for his past mistakes and allow him to get into Valhalla. Version three character Adam Reeves, while mostly a Social Darwinist Jerk Jock. also has a few Blood Knight tendencies, as while he enjoys tormenting his weaker classmates and pushing them around he enjoys fighting the ones brave enough to push back even more.
  • Tyler Lucas from version 5 is also heavily implied (and confirmed by Word of God ) to be one. He's known for starting physical altercations with the other students, seemingly because he enjoys the very act of fighting with others.
  • V6's Junko Kurosawa is described as someone who was an adrenaline junkie prior to the game. It's implied on a few occasions (and also confirmed ) that fighting her classmates and being in danger gives her a buzz. This proves to be her undoing, as she attacks a friend over a misunderstanding, forcing him to shoot her. It's okay though: the experience gave her such an intense rush she simply smiles and gives a thumbs up before bleeding out.
• Many characters in This Is War . ranging from simply enjoying combat, to enjoying the feeling of winning a fight, to grimly enjoying killing a particular species, it's all there.
• Helen from Twig is this by design as an Artificial Human whose primary driving feeling is bloodlust, maintaining her relationships with the rest of the Lambsbridge Gang primarily because if she could crawl inside of them to feel the insides of their skin they'd be dead, and she doesn't want that.
• AJ from Twitch Plays Pokйmon Crystal has occasionally been written like this, as has his direct successor Camila A Slash —though while AJ is definitely in it for the fighting and vengeance, Camila's motivations for her violent streak are a little hazier.
• Zanthosus, Sonikdude, and Xbaxman from Water Glass Gaming are this when playing Burnout Revenge. The video in question is titled "Soccer Mom Massacre". They claim to have killed a soccer mom on her way to pick up her son from practice, a prostitute down the street that got impaled with some car shrapnel, Mr. Miyagi, a drug dealer, and Mr. Smith who was coming home from work to his wife when he got killed.
• In the Whateley Universe stories, there's Counterpoint. He's a power mimic, among other powers, so whatever you've got, he's got too (within limits). He's regarded around campus as pretty psycho, since all he wants to do is find worthy opponents and fight them. If he loses, he comes back and tries again. And again. And. he isn't interested in killing people, just beating them. It looks like Counterpoint might be the avatar (or something) of the Greek god Ares, so that actually makes sense.
• SCP Foundation. SCP-076-2 seems to see combat as the only worthwhile pursuit in life, and agreed to work with the Foundation instead of slaughtering them because he realized it could provide him with more dangerous creatures to fight. Backfired on the Foundation immensely when he got bored. He slaughtered his way through countless Foundation agents in what is currently the worst breach the Foundation has experienced so far.
• Taylor from Worm is not a combat monster, but she is a strategic genius who specializes in controlling the battlefield and developing strategies, and it's been suggested by at least one of her close friends that she lives for moments of great danger, when she is outnumbered and outgunned and the world is at stake, at least partially because that's when she's at her best.

• Finn of Adventure Time once entered into a battle arena he knew to be a trap just so he could fight gladiator ghosts.
• Binky Barnes from Arthur was hinted to have shades of this in one episode. During a summer workshop session, he and Sue Ellen were doing a karate match, and he manages to win against Sue Ellen, only for him to be upset that she lost due to realizing that she didn't even bother to try and beat him (due to thinking from one of Francine's sister's teen magazines that kids hate people who are exceptionally skilled), sending him into a deep amount of depression, which was only cured when Sue Ellen managed to actually defeat him in karate after getting her act together.
• Toph Beifong from Avatar: The Last Airbender is a short. blind girl who routinely (and gleefully) kicks the asses of grown men almost three times her size. When she tells her parents about this, she states that she loves fighting and being an Earthbender. and that she's really good at both.
• In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien . Ben and Gwen's cousin Sunny only decides it's fun being around them once she gets to fight. Ben is also eager to get into fights for him to go alien, and beat up bad guys. a desire that's amplified even further if the alien he turns into happens to be Rath.
• Numbuh Four from Codename: Kids Next Door suggests we beat the crud out of those Delightful dorks.
• Manny Rivera's mother Maria in her alter ego Plata Peligrosa from El Tigre . She is reluctant to use the glove that gives her powers because it makes her very bloodthirsty. At first, El Tigre enjoys fighting crime with her, but once they run out of criminals to fight, she releases them from prison so she can fight them again.
• Kaeloo . Depending on the episode, Mr. Cat may or may not be one of these. In some episodes, he acgually goes out of his way to make people get angry at him so he can have a fight.
• Hank's father Cotton from King of the Hill loved fighting in World War II and often told others of his actions he would've continued to fight in other wars had the Japanese not blown his shins off, he will still pick fist fights if he feels he has to, usually to defend his honor, he is a formidable fighter for someone of his size and sometimes has to be restrained before he can kill someone if angered enough. Slightly deconstructed in that this eventually has him landed in a mental hospital in one episode.
• When she's first introduced, Korra from The Legend of Korra loves to fight and picks battles just for fun. She sees bending as purely a physical skill and ignores the spiritual side of being the Avatar. Character Development sets in slowly but surely, however, and over the course of the series, she mellows out and becomes a great deal more diplomatic.
  • On a more sinister note, there's the Book 3 waterbender villainess Ming-Hua and her recurring habits of threatening everyone and grinning evilly in battle.
• In Mega Man . Proto Man seems to only be happy when he's fighting—sometimes, only when it's with Mega Man.
• Norman in Mighty Max . He eats Blood Knights for breakfast. In one episode in particular, he responds to all problems with "Want me to break it?"
• Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic . Multiple times she has been shown reveling in the idea of battling monsters, and her favorite dream is one where she battles endless hordes of Changelings.
• Buttercup of The Powerpuff Girls enjoys fighting the most out of her sisters and will sometimes tell others of her battles. She also has a habit of sometimes taking it too far and is disappointed when a monster won't fight back. She doesn't take too kindly to the Professor or her sisters being threatened. though. You've been warned.
• Princess Star Butterfly of Star vs. the Forces of Evil is an endless fountain of energy who loves fighting monsters. Her friend Marco Diaz was a safety-obsessed kid who thought his life was boring until he got caught up in her adventures. Now he relishes fighting along side her.
• Teen Titans . Raven could possibly be this—as well as her allies, but she's most notable. God help you if you really piss her off by messing with her friends. She'll kick your ass if you do.
• In Teen Titans Go! . all of the Titans except for Raven have shades of this.
• In the short-lived animated version of The Tick . The Tick once notably said, "I don't want to stop evil. I just want to fight it!"
• Transformers has quite a few of these.
  • Dinobot. from the Beast Wars . fits the trope to a tee. He's all about honor and glory, and abhors an unfair fight because there's no honor in winning that way. He can't let a "clear out" order by without at least one objection, either.

    "I prefer to beat my opponents the old-fashioned way: brutally !"

  • There's also Quickstrike, who will fight anyone, anytime, anywhere, while speaking in an incredibly stereotypical cowboy accent.
  • Scourge, from Cybertron. refuses to listen to anyone who won't face him in combat.
  • Sunstreaker from Generation 1 (comics and cartoon) was a Sociopathic Hero version of this, generally willing to run right into a heavily guarded Decepticon outpost and try to outright fight everyone inside at once. He also happens to be a huge Jerkass.
  • Megatron in all his incarnations has grand designs to conquer the universe. Destroying Autobots is his greatest joy. He destroys everything he touches because everything is food for his hunger. His hunger for power. Of course, different incarnations are different when it comes to whether or not he loves to smash. Some versions are patient schemers and some versions love to get into the fight personally and smash some Autobots. and if you're a Decepticon, you'd still better stay out of his way when he's in this mood. G1 Megatron interestingly goes through several types over the course of his existence: as Megatron he's a campy cartoon villain. Upgraded to Galvatron in The Movie. he becomes smart, patient, and using his increased power in conjunction with brains. Processor damage results in Galvatron becoming the biggest Blood Knight in franchise history, all about mad schemes and maximum destruction.
• Brock Samson from The Venture Bros. vacillates between someone who solves things violently because there is no other way, and someone who relishes an opportunity to fling blood across the room. Rarely limits himself to mere incapacitation when dismemberment is an option.
• Yang from Yin Yang Yo! . whose favorite hobby is to "hit stuff" and even struggles to suppress it at times. Yuck is an evil example, since he's gotten his aggression from Yang.
• Pearl from Steven Universe is this to an extent, having a highly romanticized recollection of her time fighting in the Gem Rebellion. Garnet, whom would be expected to at least have traces of this due to Ruby's personality. averts this trope, reflecting on the war with the attitude of a Shell-Shocked Veteran. Amethyst and Jasper play the trope straighter, as both are more aggressive and enjoy fighting for its own merit. Given the events of "Steven Vs. Amethyst", it's possible that fighting is a natural form of emotional expression/venting/bonding for Quartz gems.