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.""

- Black Knight, Magic the Gathering ]

War Is Hell? Not for this guy.

Fighting is everything to the Blood Knight. He lives for it. He might deliberately disadvantage himself in order to make fights last longer, and loves to reveal that he is not left-handed. It's not so much winning or losing, morality, the motives of his allies, or even the glory, that drives this guy so much as the opportunity for a good fight.

He can be heroic or villainous. If heroic, he will frequently be The Big Guy in an ensemble, the character most likely to solve his problems by force of arms, and he might make the less violent members of the crew a little nervous, especially if he goes off on a hair trigger. If villainous, he has a good chance of being a Worthy Opponent, since he doesn't want to defeat the heroes, necessarily, just fight them. He might affect a Heel Face Turn if he can find someone tough enough to beat him, or simply drop everything to pursue and obsess over his foe. However, sometimes, this trait may not be benevolent trope as some Big Bads and their right hand men or villains in general are either your devoted villain or worse who will do do all kinds of horrible things to trigger his opponent's Berserk Button enough to fight seriously and give them a challenge.

Personality-wise, he can be on the "burn, fight, kill!" level, or, if he's a little more sophisticated, he might have aspects of the Warrior Poet or the Warrior Therapist. 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. In some cases, the Blood Knight fights because he's looking for a way to die with meaning. Many Blood Knights Would Not Shoot a Civilian, though often, it's because a civilian will not give a good fight. This is not always the case though; if the person is less moral they will specifically target the innocent in order to make their real target want to fight them.

A common version found in Eastern fiction is the Wandering Martial Artist, who travels around the world/country looking for strong opponents to test his skills against. Luckily, this might be coupled with love of only specific fights such as duels, meaning he is not otherwise a particularly violent man.

If there's a whole society of guys like him, 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.

Sub-Trope of In Harm's Way. Sister Trope to Combat Sadomasochist, The Real Man and Boisterous Bruiser. Compare Cavalier Competitor. May be from a Martyrdom Culture and will often believe that War Is Glorious. As a rule they are just about always Not Afraid to Die.

A Monster Knight has a high chance of being one.

Oh, and 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.

If you're looking for persons who use blood to kick ass, try Bloody Murder.

Anime & Manga
""It's nice to be face to face with death every once in a while. Right now, the only thing in my mind is the fact that I'll fight to the death with you. Social status, career, origin, race, gender, name... none of that matters. Not being bound by anyone and fighting just for the sake of it. How astounding. I've finally reached this stage.""
 * Kenpachi Zaraki from Bleach exemplifies this trope. He explicitly tells Ichigo during their battle that fighting is the only reason he has for living, deliberately allows himself to be injured and wears an Eyepatch of Power that drains his own power (removing it only if his opponent proves himself strong enough to be worthy) in order to keep battles going, and joins up with the good guys' faction later in the Soul Society arc basically just so he'll have a chance to fight Ichigo again. All the members of his squad have this trait to a greater or lesser degree (the sole exception being Yachiru, she has yet to actually participate in a fight or unsheath her zanpakuto, though she does seem to enjoy watching "Ken-chan"'s fights), with a smattering of personal loyalty to Zaraki to round out their personalities.
 * has explicitly stated on numerous occasions that his alter ego is himself the supreme example, and just continuously living in denial.
 * Later on, Grimmjow and, to a lesser extent, Nnoitra qualify as well.
 * Byakuya shows a trait of this after his fight with, where he realizes that he enjoyed the battle.
 * Kurodo Akabane from GetBackers is a perfect example; he only takes on Transporter assignments that can provide him with "the greatest possible amount of amusement" through the conflicts that inevitably ensue.
 * Most of the characters in Samurai Deeper Kyo, but notably the titular character.
 * Wrath, a.k.a., from Fullmetal Alchemist (the manga and second anime). Near the end of the story, he's fulfilled his part in the Big Bad's plan and is bleeding to death with no chance of getting healed anymore. He challenges the good guys to a fight just because.


 * Also Solf J. Kimblee. Not only is his detonation-based alchemy designed primarily for combat, but he willingly lays his very existence on the line by intentionally orchestrating violent conflicts and battles simply to see which race will survive in the end - humans or Homunculi.
 * Yu Yu Hakusho's Yusuke Urameshi. Not to mention Jin and Chu, who are equally fight-happy (unless it's a cute girl for Chu, at least) Of course, Jin, Chu, and Yusuke quickly become best buddies.
 * Younger Toguro is definitely one as well as a
 * Yomi used to be like this; raiding fortresses and ransacking villages for the sheer hell of it. The only problem was that his actions pissed off his Magnificent Bastard partner, Yoko Kurama. Eventually, Yomi pissed Kurama off enough that Kurama decided to cure Yomi of his Blood Knight tendencies in the worst possible way.
 * Akagi doesn't just live for fighting, he would gladly die for a good fight, and believes that death is the essence of fighting. Only replace "fighting" with "mahjong".
 * Kotarō from Mahou Sensei Negima is a self-admitted example... mostly because, as he admits, fighting is really the only thing he knows. Once he does a Heel Face Turn this is turned more into a love of testing his strength, while fighting for his friends.
 * In this respect, as in many others, Kotarō is a Generation Xerox of Negi's father's rival, Jack Rakan..
 * The series also has a much darker version of this in his former partner Tsukuyomi who gets her fix from killing innocent or taking on the strongest women she can find. As of now, she's pretty much the only antagonist in the series with no redeeming virtues or Freudian Excuse.
 * Akamatsu once made a point through Anti-Villain Wilhelm about the advantage of being blood-thirsty and fight-happy because there simply isn't any logical reason to do so otherwise; if one can't fight all-out, then there's no reason to fight at all.
 * Fate, of all people, turns into one - though only when it's about fighting Negi.
 * It can be argued that nearly every single character in Vinland Saga is a Blood Knight to one degree or another. After all, they are Vikings.
 * Thorkell the Tall takes the cake though, as his entire reason for choosing a side was who would provide the better fight. And when he sees an even better fight, he changes sides immediately. He looks kind of like a danish Kenpachi as well.
 * Gantz's Kaze is a perfect example for the Eastern 'wandering warrior.' Also Izumi doesn't fight to  be freed, he only feels alive when fighting/hunting.
 * Mari from the second Rebuild of Evangelion movie.
 * Mugen in Samurai Champloo frequently ditches his companions to go out and challenge the various tough guys he hears about on the journey. A handful of the antagonists also have this trait, particularly Shouryuu, the renegade, psychotic samurai whose goal is to get everyone to realize what a great fighter he is by hunting down, challenging, and killing all the best fighters in the region.
 * Similar to Mugen is Revy from Black Lagoon, as they both have almost the exact same personality (though Mugen may be slightly more nihilistic). Revy is a Sociopathic Hero who gleefully indulges in the carnage that she finds herself in, often sporting a Slasher Smile and becomes obsessed with an enemy if they are shown to be particularly deadly or skilled.
 * Cyberdramon of Digimon Tamers. Just to drive the point home, his Catch Phrase is "Are you my enemy?" and his Image Song is "Dead or Dead". For a guy with, he seems to have his priorities sorted out.
 * Also Craniamon, a Royal Knight who wants nothing more than a good fight. Unfortunately because he's so strong, he can never find one.
 * Depending on how you view his character, Hellsing's Alucard is either a bloodthirsty killing machine who relishes his existence as a non-living weapon, or a bored immortal who fights everything he can in hopes of finding someone who can kill him once and for all. Or both. In any case, he's always looking for a new challenge and becomes obviously upset when an opponent doesn't live up to his expectations.
 * The Major, from the manga and OAV version is an completely unambiguous example of this. He even makes an utterly awesome speech on how much he loves war for its own sake, which lasts for more than five minutes and can have the most unambiguous pacifist raging out for blood.
 * Code Geass: Carine le Britannia
 * Luciano Bradley, anyone? The guy who become a Knight of Rounds only because this is one of the few places where you can kill people with extreme prejudice in unusual ways and not be branded a criminal?
 * The Fire Civilization from Duel Masters is, essentially, an copy of Red from Magic the Gathering, so it's no surprise that this is basically the attitude you get from its cards.
 * The "Nanaya" side of Shiki Tohno shows this. His assassination skills are meant for non-humans only, but he really loves his job. Whenever he physically manifests, he is always depicted as a Badass murderous sociopath, although technically that's the manifestation of Shiki's fear of his "Nanaya" side rather than the personality itself, so its exaggerated.
 * Kiri Nanaya, Shiki's father, showed this trope once. In his first meeting with a young Kouma Kishima,  because he knew someday he would give Kiri the fight of his life.
 * Lordgenome of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann may count. Granted, many  of his life he just sits on his throne will surrounded by an infinite supply of consorts as RULER OF THE ENTIRE EARTH. However, if there's a rebellion that manages to get to him , he gets off his lazy ass and defeats them himself. Oh, and his head catches on fire in the heat of battle from his pure, raw manliness.
 * Granted, he was
 * In Parallel Works 8, which shows his backstory, it shows him
 * Roronoa Zoro of One Piece is a good example to this, too. Basically, during his normal day, he does nothing but drink, sleep, and get lost when he's going around anywhere. Then someone wielding a sword pops out and... magic! Zoro becomes super energetic, draws his three (3!!) swords and starts to happily swing them. Which usually results into his enemy being sliced up pretty well. He often says he loves the fights; he can be really cruel; and, after all, his dream is to become the world's best swordsman (but, okay, that's to fulfill a promise to his long dead childhood friend).
 * Most swordsman not aligned with The Government, being Das Bonez,  and Ohm. Kaku is an Affable exception, though.
 * Rob Lucci is one taken to the evil extreme.
 * Even Dragon Ball Z's Goku fell into this trope occasionally, such as when he asked Krillin not to kill the genocidal Vegeta as he tried to escape Earth because he wanted to fight Vegeta again. For reference, Vegeta had in the previous few hours killed three of Goku's friends, destroyed the Dragonballs, beat Goku's son Gohan into unconsciousness, attempted to destroy Earth, and crushed nearly all of Goku's bones south of his neck. In the end, he went as far as training the reincarnation of the most destructive being in the Universe just so he could fight him again.
 * The above is no surprise; the ENTIRE Saiyan race could easily be considered to be Blood Knights, a love of and even obsessive desire to fight, particularly strong opponents is innate to Saiyans, though most of the race satisfied through the barbaric slaughter of entire planets rather than through competitive sport like Goku does. However, this is sometimes subverted because the Saiyans would kill entire races that stood no chance against them for money, or for the fun of it, instead of solely to satisfy this need for combat, though they would likely do it for free anyway.
 * This has also affected subsequent battles at times. There have been countless instances where Goku could've EASILY ended the fight with the villain of the week, but prolonged it just for the sheer sake of a good fight. He probably would've let the likes of Frieza live just so he could spar with them again. This has, on occasion, come back to bite him (and the world around him) royally in the ass. Thank god those Dragonballs have so many loopholes and flimsy rules.
 * Cell became a Blood Knight to the fullest once he became perfect. He was only concerned with testing out his new body and strength, and set up the Cell Games just so he could fight the earth's strongest warriors and have a little fun before he destroyed the planet.
 * Of course, this is in no small part due to the fact that he's partially composed of cells from the aforementioned Saiyans.
 * A few Gundam characters could be mentioned, as famous Char Aznable and Zechs Merquise are dedicated warriors, finding their only true purpose in battle. Even better examples are Domon Kasshu and Master Asia, though they don't seek to kill their opponents, their main purpose to live is to fight and therefore show their feelings.
 * Gym Ghingnham from Turn a Gundam IS this trope. In Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden, he even blatantly admits it
 * The brutal Ali Al-Saachez of Gundam 00 is one of the most evil examples of this trope imaginable. He has no qualms against admitting that all he lives for is war, and fears the day that men like him will no longer be necessary. During, he is asked why he carried out a series of bombings in Ireland some years ago. His response? "Because I'm a mercenary, it's what I do!''
 * from Gundam Age is quite possibly WORSE than Ali when it comes to this trope. He believes that wars are fun and that the soldiers and mobile suits are his toys. During episode 14, Flit asks  He admits that there was no reason; to , it just meant that he lost another toy.
 * Yazan Gable of Zeta Gundam is almost as bad as Ali. He specifically joined the army so he'd get the chance to fight and kill AEUG members.
 * Dorothy Catalonia of Gundam Wing is a female example, obsessed with the glory of war. She controls Zechs' mobile dolls for him, watches battles with almost orgasmic fervour, and in her final duel with Quatre seems to be actively trying to get him to kill her. Possibly subverted by Treize Khushreneda; he claims to be a Blood Knight but it may well have been a pose.
 * Guts from Berserk sometimes has a reason to fight, but most times he does it just because he enjoys it, good guys or bad guys be damned. To make it even more obvious, he gets a Slasher Smile every time he is about to go into combat. The same series has Nosferatu Zodd, who loved combat so much he became a demon in order to continue raising the stakes.
 * Hakufu from Ikki Tousen is another example; in a series full of You Can't Fight Fate and Serious Business replays of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, she's an Idiot Heroine who only wants to beat her opponents bloody in a nice, friendly way.
 * Non-military example: Gaoh from Eyeshield 21 is Large and In Charge (literally the biggest person on the entire cast) and so tough he has to wear a titanium mouthpiece because he'll chew through anything weaker. Doesn't feel any need to hold back his incredible strength because he expects his opponents to give it their all as well. Despite that, and the fact that he's caused several career-ending injuries, he's actually a pretty decent guy.
 * Gaoh's also shown a good deal of respect for individuals simply because they were willing to face him head on, even if they had no strength to provide him a challenge. Sena managed to do this when he moved towards Gaoh (and risking horrible injury) rather than another player who while they wouldn't have hurt Sena would have very likely taken the ball due to that players skills.
 * In fact, when Banba prevents him from crushing the quarter back for the first time in his career, he pays silent tribute to him. When an idiot in the crowd jeers at Banba for 'being weak', Gaou demands he turn himself in for punishment. IF he didn't, he'd just destroy the entire audience so as not to miss him! Luckily Riku defused the situation.
 * Gaou also won't break the rules, a fact the Kid used to try and beat him, by using his Quick Draw to throw the ball just before Gaou got to him, since if he wasn't holding the ball, Gaou wouldn't attack him. He did this despite knowing if he messed up once, he was finished, a point emphasized by the fact that when Gaou's pinky brushed him, leaving a large and nasty looking bruise.
 * Gaou's fanboy, Kisiragi is one as well, taking it to near Psycho for Hire levels.
 * Kirihara Akaya from The Prince of Tennis takes this as far as the refs are willing to go. In the anime, he gets a bit nicer and less violent, but in the manga he stays just as psychotic... if even more so. It doesn't help that his team condones that, to some degree
 * Tachibana Kippei started out like this, but cleaned up after.
 * Also, the Higa players seem to enjoy injuring their rivals if they can. To be fair, it's done per instructions of their Sadist Teacher of a coach, but they still do it with a smile -- specially Kai Yuujiro.
 * What, no Akutsu Jin?
 * Double Arts. It has Sui, a female pureblood humanoid who follows the protagonist Kiri to fight the strong people who are after him. She has a slasher smile and an iron hula hoop to help as well. Oh yes, and she seems to run on canned cherries.
 * Sechs from Battle Angel Alita: Last Order fits this trope. Her/his only reason for joining Alita's Team in the big ZOTT Tournament is to not miss any action which might make Alita stronger, to become stronger him/herself and to have to another fight to death with Alita after the tournament (Alita spared her/his life in their first battle). Sechs shows no interest in any political or personal events behind the ZOTT, unlike Alita who for example gets an Heroic BSOD after refusing to fight a team which stands in for children rights (which are unwanted in the dark future of that manga).
 * Alita herself would count for most of the series. Sure, she might fight for a cause every now and then, but is just as happy to fight just because.
 * Cain the Psychic Assassin from Cyborg 009.
 * Rurouni Kenshin has a few examples. The best example would be Sanosuke, who in the beginning of the series is a fighter for hire who determines his rate by how much he enjoyed the fight. After getting his ass handed to him by Kenshin, he decides to quit being a fighter for hire, but he still enjoys fighting. Then there's Shinomori Aoshi, who has a stone-cold desire for battle and to prove that he and his Quirky Miniboss Squad are the strongest around. Saitou has elements of this, as he wishes to conclude his fight with Kenshin from the Bakumatsu.
 * Armored Trooper VOTOMS. "The only place... I feel at home... is in battle!" Though to be fair, it's not so much that Chirico enjoys war, as he doesn't fit into normal society.
 * MD Geist fits this trope perfectly. He joined a group of freedom fighters who were trying to stop the military from releasing a horde of Doomsday Device machines called the Death Force. After Geist kills all the bad guys, he releases the Death Force anyway so he'll still have something to fight!
 * Karano Kyoukai's Shiki is a fusion of this and Sociopathic Hero. She loves killing people who are worth killing, but dislikes killing those who won't effectively fight back, as well as fighting when its not to the death. At one point she laments something along the lines of: "I thought it would be fun to kill you, but it turns out that I simply dislike the fact that you exist, so I'll make this quick."
 * Benares from Sazan Eyes is exactly this, Although the anime is too short to give him that much personality.
 * Ju Ensuu from Hayate Cross Blade cares not for prestige or ranking, and is so obsessed with fighting her "same kind" Ayana that she throws all restrictions out the window when finally seeing the latter after a long wait. It takes some quick reflexes and two of the strongest people in school to hold her back.
 * Let, the dragon dude from Rave Master. He won't even use Shadow Stones when he was one of King's elite guard.
 * Also Uta an embodiment of this trope, Megido as well as Beryl.
 * Trigun. Rai-Dei the Blade fights Vash the Stampede to find "the knowledge known only by those who face death"..
 * Most of the characters of Ranma One Half hit this trope to some degree or another at various times.
 * In Hajime no Ippo, Ryuuhei Sawamura doesn't fight to win, he fights to torture his opponents. Only after his fight with Ippo does he start wanting to win.
 * A good case can be made for Ryo Mashiba too. He might be slightly less blood-oriented, but still more than enough to qualify.
 * Saint Seiya's had a couple of these, with both Cancer Deathmask and his 18th Century equivalent Manigoldo loving to fight and then kill opponents. However, the REALLY HARDCORE Blood Knight in Lost Canvas was Scorpio Kardia, who doesn't just want to kill his opponents, but wants them to suffer at every point along the way.
 * Baki the Grappler has Yujiro Hanma who embodies this trope utterly. He once fought and beat . Unfortunately for him he is so far beyond the other characters in strength he belongs in a higher tier series and the mangaka has had to go GO VERY far to find a potential worthy opponent in Pickle.
 * In fact, the entire series (by now, it has more than 600 chapters) is about Baki powering up to beat Yujiro. And Baki was on roughly the same level as, say, the most famous karate master in the world, at the beginning.
 * The Heroic Tribe in Heroic Age were a race of Kaiju who apparently had little desire to do anything else but fight each other. They annihilated entire star systems in their civil war, and by the time the Golden Tribe put a stop to their fighting, only five individuals of the species remained.
 * Kisame from Naruto is a rare mix of this and Affably Evil: he may be polite, but he also has a great love of fighting and mutilating his opponents. When he was told that he needed to captured Naruto alive, he suggested cutting off his legs so he couldn't get away and would be easier to carry. While the databooks mention who characters want to fight, his entry says "anyone".
 * However, we do eventually find out that.
 * Suigetsu of Sasuke's Team Snake/Hawk has shades of this, too, given that he initially intends to kill Sasuke if he gets the chance, complains when Sasuke tells him not to kill the prisoners that get in the way while searching for Jugo, and has the backstory of being a murder prodigy who liked hacking off people's limbs before he killed them. His general motivation for all this is about a hair away from For the Evulz.
 * Hidan seems to live for absolutely nothing but bloodshed and slaughter, to a seriously fucked-up degree.
 * In the past, there was the entire Kaguya clan except Kimimaro. They all ended up dying out because they spontaneously decided to attack the Village Hidden in the Mist down to their last man (minus Kimimaro, who never joined in) without any strategy, just so they could kill people.
 * Surprisingly both Naruto was one before becoming the next messiah, as he was elated to hear Zabuza was alive and he considered him a strong enemy and /Pain are this because According to the databooks, the latter wanted to fight the former in his Nine tails form, it would explain why he almost killed Hinata to piss him off.
 * Gaara was this before becoming the messiah with Naruto's help
 * The 2nd Mizukage was one as well.
 * Hisoka from Hunter X Hunter is a rather standout example of this. His sole purpose is to find the strongest opponents he can and either kill them or be killed by them. Although he has a rather narrower focus than most: once he has selected his target, he'll patiently stalk them for years, if necessary, in order to get his fight. Even if he finds other strong opponents in that time period, he'll usually pass them over in favour of continuing to stalk his chosen target. Also has the distinction of raising up, and protecting to a certain degree, young fighters he thinks might give him a good fight in the future -- he calls them "unripe fruit", although there are hints of a, uhm, somewhat unhealthier interest in them as well.
 * Maki from Airmaster is not exactly bloodthirsty and prefers to just knock her opponents out cold, but she clearly fights for the thrill of it. So do most of her major competitors in Fukamichi Rankings.
 * Assassin Ken Hidaka starts Weiss Kreuz as a genuinely nice guy, but eventually goes crazy and begins to enjoy killing people. At one point, after he's been decommissioned, he begs two of his friends to start assigning him missions again so that he can kill people with a clear conscience.
 * Himeji in Himawari! loves fighting and things blowing up, even without an actual goal. She's on the side of the good guys, so she's reined in a little bit, but when investigating an explosion at the nearby boys' ninja school, she wishes she could've been there to see how the school blew up. Not to investigate the cause, just to see the wonderful explosion.
 * Both Nanoha and Signum of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha absolutely love fighting. It's reassuring to know that both of them are good guys, but that won't stop either of them from enjoying the hell out of a good fight. Adding to that is the fact that the two are generally seen as the two strongest mages of the cast. In the manga, we even get to see a flashback glimpse of a time where they actually fought each other. Let's just say that both of them had extremely over-the-top bloodthirsty looks on their faces.
 * Nanoha's status as a Blood Knight was only minimal at first, but after the aforementioned training fight scene with Signum (that had to be stopped due to both of them getting "too into it"). fans had never forgotten about it.
 * Veyron. His introductory chapter in Force has him constantly laughing and generally enjoying himself as he trades blows with Tohma in a Church Shootout.
 * Cypha of Huckebein, is even more of a Blood Knight than Signum ever was. To a degree that after the former near killed the lattler in the bloodiest Curb Stomp Battle of this franchise to date, Signum, upon recovering consciousnesses days later, didn't even show any interest in confront Cypha again, preferring to smile and enjoy the company of Agito and Rein.
 * Kamui of Gintama is this with a generous helping of Ax Crazy.
 * Surprisingly for The Hero, Natsu from Fairy Tail has undertones of this, though it depends on the situation. While his more serious and plot-important battles are to protect his True Companions, the rest are mostly for fun. He even shows plenty of Slasher Smile and picks fights with stronger guild members for apparently no reason other than this, not to mention that he's the most destructive member of Fairy Tail.
 * Fellow Dragonslayer Gajeel is just as enthusiastic about fighting, if not more so. During the S-class exam, he was actually upset that he and Levi picked the "easy" path that had no fighting. He also wasn't happy when the second part of the test didn't involve any fighting.
 * Azuma of the Seven Kin of Purgatory becomes Not So Stoic when facing a Worthy Opponent. He is ecstatic about having a chance to fight "Demon" Mirajane and Azuma is noticeably upset when  and solemnly leaves.
 * from High School of the Dead turns out to be one. Takashi also has hints of becoming one.
 * Kekkaishi has Kaguro from Kokuborou who's fixated on fighting Yoshimori at his full power . To a lesser extent, Gagin, a fellow fighter, is elated when he gets the chance to fight strong opponents except when losing to weak humans.
 * Majeh from King of Hell is this in spades, to the point where he's damned to super-hell
 * Nothing makes Spike Spiegel's eyes light up like a decent fight.
 * And Vicious is just as boisterous, if not even more considering the REALLY bloody way in which he massacres
 * Kyoko from Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a rare female, Magical Girl example. She gets better, though.
 * Hakuron (doubling as Bastard Boyfriend and prospect Combat Sadomasochist) and Di Long from Haou Airen are the rare Shoujo manga example. Kid of a Justified Trope since both of them are Triad members and their fighting skills are what brought them as high in the hierarchy as they are.
 * Tsuchigumo from Nurarihyon no Mago, who doesn't care about joining any group in the series and only cares about fighting strong warriors. He's also The Juggernaut which make him very hard to beat.
 * Dilandau of Escaflowne takes war to insane levels of glee which we see especially during his fight in the Dutchy of Freid. He loves destruction, burning, torture, blood, violence, and death of any kind so war is optional but war is good too.
 * Asuka Langley Soryu of Neon Genesis Evangelion falls under this category- but not how you'd expect. While she appears to enjoy the heat of battle against Angels, she's not got warrior blood- she's really trying to upstage and surpass everyone else to draw attention to only her and give herself power and purpose. Unfortunately, Shinji (unintentionally) starts to outshine her, which begins to gnaw at her resolve. Worse, she's only being used on the condition that she can pilot an Eva. If she falters, she's going to be tossed aside. Unfortunately, she suffers a horrific failure in battle that leaves her in turmoil... followed by a diabolical assault on her mind.
 * Hell Kaiser Ryo of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in Season 2.

Card Games

 * 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.
 * Another similarly named (and much older) card Black Knight also has Flavor Text fitting the Blood Knight's basic philosophy, as can be seen in the page quote.
 * 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, in that 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 who 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: Basically, 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 being the country Keld is invading) "If they 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.

Comics
"I caught a glimpse of heaven once... Then I was cast down. Back to a world of killers. Rapists. Psychos. Perverts. A brand new evil every minute, spewed out as fast as men can think them up. A world where pitching a criminal dwarf off a skyscraper to tell his fellow scum you're back is a sane and rational act. The angels thought it would be hell for me. (said "dwarf" hits the ground with a splat) But they were wrong. Welcome Back, Frank. Says New York City."
 * The Marvel Universe's The Incredible Hercules. He's the page picture for a reason.
 * Lady Shiva, from The DCU, has been both protagonist and antagonist depending on the storyline. The only constant to her character is that her life revolves around becoming and remaining the best martial artist she possibly can -- and proving it over the unconscious or dead bodies of as many other "A-List" DC martial artists she can possibly pound on. Recently had a brief fling in trying to be a Mentor figure for Black Canary.
 * For a more jolly and lovable version, see Obelix in the Asterix books. ("I do hope Asterix explains this to me later, I generally like to know why we're fighting," just before KO-ing an entire village of other Gauls in Asterix and the Cauldron.) In fact, most of the village act like this ("Hey, boys a fight!" "Come on, it'll be a change to fight each other!" leading to an all-village brawl in Asterix in Spain, which would eventually become a Running Gag).
 * Groo the Wanderer from the eponymous comic exhibits many of the characteristics: he will drop almost anything for a fray, and frequently chastises opponents who attempt to run away before he is finished slaying them.
 * In Gold Digger, the Murder Fist branch of the Shun Leep style makes its users into Blood Knights by putting them into a state of nirvana when in combat with a skilled foe. This inevitably drives them towards the Psycho for Hire category as they cease to care to exercise the control to not kill on purpose, while their skill continues to grow and grow from fighting powerful enemies.
 * Why does The Punisher kill? 33% justice, 33% revenge, 33% because he likes it, and the other 1% depends on the writer. This quote from Welcome Back, Frank is a good example.

""I love being me.""
 * This is only the tip of the Punisher iceberg. In Punisher: Born, his origin story, it's explained that Frank Castle was born Frank Castiglione, and changed his name to Castle because there was a limit on how many tours a solder could serve in Vietnam, and he wanted to go back for a third. During this third tour, Frank starts hearing a voice in his head egging him on to greater and greater feats of violence against his enemies, and taunting him with the fact that wars end, and eventually he would have to stop. The voice is never specifically explained, but it offers Frank a "war without end, for a price. All you have to do is say yes". Frank ignores the voice until it goes away, and goes about his mission. Later, his camp is overrun by 'Cong... while another soldier has ordered a napalm air-strike on the camp itself. As the bombs fall, the entire camp is incinerated as Frank says "YES". After the battle, all the Vietcong are dead, Frank's skin is covered in third degree burns, and he is standing in the middle of the bombed out camp, wielding a M16 with the butt smashed after bludgeoning several soldiers. The next scene is him coming out of the gate at an airport stateside, months after he has healed from his injuries. He goes to hug his family, when the voice returns for the first time, and says "Hey Frank... remember that price I talked about? Enjoy your time with them while you can."
 * Secret Invasion even shows Frank sporting a Slasher Smile as he goes around killing invading Skrulls.
 * Basically all the Dark Avengers (except The Sentry, Moonstone, and maybe Marvel Boy). the rest of them just love to hunt and kill, or beat the everloving shit out of real heroes (Spider-Man, Deadpool, Spider-Woman, She Hulk, etc)
 * Of course, Deadpool is a Blood Knight too. He punched Kitty Pryde to try and get Wolverine mad enough to fight him and was extremely happy when the claws came out, yelling "Snikt me! Snikt me!"
 * Wolverine is like this at least to some extent. The animalistic side of his psyche clearly does get pleasure from violence.
 * The Ultimate version of Wolverine seems to be this way or at least in Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk. In it he's offered a chance to save a village in a far off country from the Hulk he doesn't care about any of the people, he just wants a thrill from a fight.
 * Meanwhile, Sabretooth IS this. Easily the most bloodthirsty character in the MU besides maybe Bullseye and Carnage, he lives for nothing but the opportunity to be able to slaughter anything that it's practical to slaughter, and he'll usually also bag a few other prizes.
 * Juggernaut is this too. He is compelled to revel in wanton destruction of his own making by the powers of Cyttorak that fuel his strength. In fact, if the Juggernaut isn't engaging in indiscriminate violence for the sake of indiscriminate violence, he actually gets weaker.
 * In Usagi Yojimbo, Nakamura Koji is a swordfighter who goes around looking for worthy opponents to duel with. There are other such characters in the series too.
 * The Midnighter from the Wildstorm series The Authority as he's about to destroy an entire city by ramming it with a 30 mile wide space ship aimed directly at the Villain of the Week:

"Batman: Still, doing it this way does have its compensations. My fists fit so nicely into their guts. And impact meat and bone with perfectly satisfying thumps."
 * Overlord from Transformers Last Stand of the Wreckers never cared about rank, glory, or the advancement of the Decepticon cause... he was happy as long as he had the opportunity to fight and slaughter as many Autobots and bystanders as he could. Megatron, however, wasn't happy with that -- upstart subordinates had given him too much experience with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder to take it on faith that someone with that much power wouldn't make a power grab. So when Megatron tried to tighten the leash and take more control over Overlord's actions, Overlord re-purposed Garrus-9 into a planetwide spectacle of violence and chaos to provoke Megatron into the one fight that Overlord has always wanted.
 * And in the Marvel Transformers comics, Bludgeon probably qualifies. He talks about a grand dream for the Decepticons conquering the universe but when they actually conquer a world...he's bored out of his mind and wondering when the Autobots are going to show up to stop them. And again when he invades planet Earth, he's bored out of his skull (no pun intended) because Optimus Prime doesn't show up to fight him like he hoped he would. One suspects that if there were no Autobots he really wouldn't give a damn about the Decepticons or their plans to take over the world (OF COURSE!)
 * Green Lantern. Mongul II is merely one of these at his very best. The arrogant, fight-loving asshole side, however, is almost always supplemented with some of the most utterly disgusting behavior in the DCU. He bit off more than he could chew, however,
 * The one-shot "Mogo Doesn't Socialize" gives us a bounty hunter by the name of Bolphunga the Unrelenting, who hunts down the titular Green Lantern for the fun of it.
 * Batman shows Blood Knight tendencies at times. He often tries to make himself not enjoy the violence he inflicts upon criminals, but some pleasure does seeps through as this quote from War Crimes shows:


 * The Comedian of Watchmen gleefully admits that he is this trope. It's at least partially a product of his worldview, as he seems to act this way mostly because he acts the way he feels the world actually is.
 * In Sin City, Marv admits that he loves a good fight. Miho apparently does as well.
 * Incredible Hulk. Especially in his Greenscar and Joe Fixit personas.
 * Deadshot, oh so much.
 * Lampshaded by his then-lover Jeanette when she says that one of her previous husbands was "A mad dog killer who pretended it was for money" and goes on to say that he was probably a bit LESS single minded than Deadshot.
 * Catman and Scandal are also very much this trope, and King Shark certainly skirts it as well.
 * The Thunderbolts once featured two of these as members: Scourge,, a battle-crazed lunatic whose worst nightmare is a world without war, and Mr. X, whose empathic powers cause him to experience incredible bliss every time he kills. Mr. X reveled in the chance to go to Asgard during the Siege event -- he wanted to prove he could kill a god.
 * Avengers arch-foe Kang the Conqueror. He was a native of a peaceful age in humanity's future. Kang thought peace was boring, so he donned a futuristic combat suit and used Time Travel to become a conqueror of all time and space.

Fan Fic

 * 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.
 * In The Girl Who Lived, Rose Potter practically defines this trope, constantly prepared to curse you into oblivion for the most minor offence. She even bathes in blood at the start of Rose Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
 * 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
 * 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.
 * A Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Striker S fanfic called Swords and Shields has Yuuno of all people start to become one while developing a relationship with Signum.
 * Ponies Make War has 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.
 * Ace Combat: The Equestrian War has Night Raven, a griffon soldier obsessed with fighting and killing ponies not because of hatred, but for fun.

Films -- Animation

 * The titular villain of Megamind was like this. The reason is because 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 super-villain. As soon as he kills his own nemesis, he's left without a worthy opponent to reduce his boredom. So, he creates a new super-hero 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.
 * 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.
 * Luo-Long from Sword of the Stranger works this angle extremely hard. He's a European amid a group of hand-picked Ming Dynasty Chinese warriors, headed by an ancient noble who despises Luo-Long as a 'Western barbarian'. The old man's distaste really says something about Luo-Long's skill, that he was still chosen to come along. For his part, Luo-Long has access to painkillers that completely kill pain but don't slow down reflexes or the like, but doesn't use them because a fight wouldn't be interesting using them. He'll fight people just for fun (down to attacking a stranger just because the man has a sword) and it's implied he's a blond-haired, blue-eyed European hanging out in the court of the Ming Emperor because he was given asylum. He also hates the task he's a part of, as it means he hasn't fought anyone really worthwhile for a long time, and won't for the foreseeable future. It's only when he sees the hero fight that he thinks this whole trip from China to Japan has been worth it.

Films -- Live-Action

 * Stephen the Irish, in Braveheart, who seems more interested in killing Englishmen than winning wars or freedom.
 * Colonel Hessler, the panzer commander in the 1965 film Battle of the Bulge. For him life is to be spend in the turret of a tank, fighting until death takes you.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Emil Blonsky from the 2008 The Incredible Hulk: held off being promoted out of the battlefield, despite his aging body (looking forty-five when he's thirty-nine) 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 even an outright abomination (no pun intended) to be able to have a "real fight".
 * 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 Hessian (who was beheaded and became the Headless Horseman) in Sleepy Hollow came to fight as a mercenary in America "for love of carnage".
 * Battle Royale brought out true intentions of students who really gained pleasure from killing their peers.
 * Deathwatch 2002 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 WW 1 trench.
 * The predator aliens from the Predator film series. They use their advanced technology to travel around the galaxy and hunt the most dangerous game. They even cast aside their high-tech weapons on occasion to even the odds and make things more entertaining.
 * Royce from Predators is not only open about the fact that he became a mercenary because he enjoys war, but also seems to believe that most people who fight for a living follow this trope.
 * Gimli from The Lord of the Rings: 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.

Literature

 * Lord Borel, in the Chronicles of Amber, has as his main goal in life to outfight either Eric, Corwin, or Benedict, some of the other best swordsmen in that universe. Corwin shows him that it's not all about bladework.
 * The "Warriors at the End of Time" in some of Michael Moorcock's fantasy novels (particularly The Dragon in the Sword) are said to be powerful soldiers who loved fighting for its own sake, and were then damned to fight on behalf of the Cosmic Balance for all eternity.
 * Keeping in step with the trope's title, Radha of Keld in Magic: the Gathering's Time Spiral card set and novels was intent on little other than fighting, at first spurning the world-saving efforts of Teferi and his companions...at least until he gave her the ability to kick even more ass than she could previously. She softens a bit as she grows to accept the necessity of helping Teferi, but she's always a hard-bitten warrior first and foremost. To wit:
 * "Run home, cur. I've already taken your master's head. Don't make me thrash you with it."
 * "I hope to have such a death - lying in triumph upon the broken bodies of those who slew me."
 * To be fair, all Keldons are like this. Look down in the Tabletop games section.
 * In several of the later Animorphs books she narrated, Rachel expressed fear that she might be slowly becoming like this.
 * Too bad she pretty much WAS this soon after acquiring her grizzly bear form. Seriously. She and Zaraki up top would make a lovely couple.
 * The Silastic Armourfiends of Striterax in The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy took this to extremes since if one was locked in a room by himself he would eventually beat himself up just for something to do.
 * David Eddings' The Elenium and Tamuli trilogies had the Atans, a race who bred themselves as fighters-- but did so a little too well, giving them hair-trigger violent reflexes, so that their society was plunged into endless war until they voluntarily pledged their entire race to slavery to the peaceful Tamuli, who as a result gained an unconquerable empire by default. Every Atan believes that they have to have a master to hold them back, or they go on killing sprees.
 * In Belgariad, many Mimbrates, Chereks, and Murgos fall into this trope. Taur Urgas, King of Cthol Murgos, is an especially scary example. He sleeps in his armour, is always at war with someone, and dies screaming at the man who killed him to come back and fight.
 * The Nac Mac Feegle in the Discworld novels are clans of "pictsies" who live primarily for drinking, fighting, and stealing, preferably at the same time. Each clan also has a Gonagle or Warrior Poet, though in this case the poetry itself is a weapon of war. Taken to extreme when it's explained that a Feegle left all by himself may very well kick himself in the nose just to keep himself occupied.
 * There's also the D'regs, a nomadic tribe from the desert regions of Klatch characterized by their love of fighting. It's said the D'reg word for "stranger" is the same as their word for "target". Their is one scene in Jingo where someone has a hard time translating the concept of "fighting for freedom", since in the D'reg language they are the same word. It's also mentioned that when the nations of Klatch and Hersheba drew an arbitrary border across the D'Regs home desert, they leapt on this new division of nationality as a wonderful excuse to start fighting each other, too.
 * Several characters in A Song of Ice and Fire see combat as an end to itself. Jaime Lannister hardly feels alive unless he's fighting (or with Cersei.) Strong Belwas, a former pit fighter, delights in showing off his prowess to the point that he always allows his opponents to get one slash in before he kills them. House Clegane has spawned two--Sandor Clegane lives for little other than fighting and believes that "killing is the sweetest thing there is", and he's the good brother. Gregor Clegane managed to make a career out of raping and murdering his way across Westeros, referred to as "foraging" in polite conversation.
 * Mace Windu struggles with this in the Star Wars Expanded Universe novel Shatterpoint. You don't get to be second-in-command of the Jedi Order by going to town on everyone with a lightsaber, and Windu loves the stability the Republic provides, but he likes fighting anyway. He develops the dangerous lightsaber style known as Vaapad as a way to channel this aggression for good purposes.
 * Ninety-nine and ninety-nine hundredths of a percent of the Drow race from R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt novels (and Dungeon & Dragons in general) are Blood Knights. They are born, raised, and die (usually before anything close to the natural end of their 700+ year lifespan) in a perpetual power struggle featuring hundreds of noble houses. And ninety nine percent of them (with the exception of Drizzt, his father, and a couple others from other scenarios, and even they partially meet this tropes standards in the sense that although they don't kill for fun they get fun from killing), live for it and enjoy every second of their blood-soaked lives. Even Drizzt is a Blood Knight to a certain, less evil extent: in one of the long introspective commentaries placed at the opening of each act, Drizzt comes to realize that he is a "creature of action": he can only be truly content if he has his swords strapped to his waist and is going somewhere, though this is more of a thirst for adventure than a true hunger for battle. He has, however, been known for bouts of berserker rage when the right buttons are pushed. Drizzt's rage does not hinder his incredible focus in the slightest, and makes him hundreds of times more dangerous to even disciplined foes.
 * Speaking of R.A. Salvatore's novels: Artemis Entreri. The most Blood Knighty Blood Knight of all Blood Knights!
 * The most wild battle rager Thibbledorf Pwent! He is a blood knight personified!
 * All the Brothers in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series fit this trope. They're elite vampire warriors bred to protect the vampire race from vampire hunters and they love their job. All of them, but especially Zsadist, live for fighting and killing -- until they meet a good woman because Love Redeems.
 * In Alan Dean Foster's The Damned novels, all of humanity were Blood Knights. It turns out that the humans only fought each other because they lacked an external enemy to fight. When such an enemy presented itself...
 * Kage in Gav Thorpe's Warhammer 40000 The Last Chancers.
 * Ralan Bek from Raymond Feist's Dark War trilogy. Of course, since it turns out he is really
 * The Dasati themselves pretty much have this, taken to Always Chaotic Evil extremes, as their hat.
 * In Dragaera, this is the hat of the Dzur house, along with being Proud Warrior Race Guys. In the novel Dzur, the psychology of the House is discussed to the effect that while they love fighting in general, they will do what is right when no one else is (but not until then). Vlad tells the joke: "How many Dzur does it take to sharpen a sword? Four: one to sharpen the sword and three to put up enough of a fight to make it worthwhile." Dzur characters vary from Boisterous Bruiser Tazendra to Telnan, who is The Ditz, but still embraces the philosophy, to Sethra Lavode, a Four-Star Badass Lady of War older than some geography and as powerful as a lot of gods.
 * Richard the Lionhearted in Ivanhoe. Friar Tuck too.
 * As well as all Mantids in Shadows of the Apt, Felise seems to be one of these, at least after she Thalric.
 * Conan the Barbarian
 * The Valerians of the Lensman universe are this - seven foot tall denizens of a three-grav world, whose favourite weapon is the space-axe (because personal shields increase their resistance with the velocity of the impacting body), whose ultimate goal is a warrior's death, and for whom a peaceful death is a disgrace. As Smith himself says: "No bifurcate race, and very few others, have ever willingly faced the Valerians in hand-to-hand combat." Fortunately they are the good guys, and even more fortunately they are very good at recognising authority (in terms of who to kill and when to stop).
 * The Rohirrim in The Lord of the Rings.
 * Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia.
 * Jacen Solo  is a lead from the front, get-stuck-in kind of fighter. It catches up with him in the end however, as the intensifying pace of battles leaves him increasingly debilitated.
 * The warships and militarised drones of The Culture all exhibit this to some extent. They have exceptional self control but when they feel that circumstances are such that they can let themselves off the leash they will utterly annihilate their opponents and have enormous fun doing so. In at least a couple of cases, they've been known to keep very high resolution recordings of the battles they're involved in that they seem to get an almost sexual thrill from watching later.
 * A lot of Death Eaters are this in Harry Potter. Notable ones are Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback.
 * Peter Pan. No, really. The various adaptations have gentled him down but the book version, in Robin Williams' words is "a lethal boy who never grew up." He switches sides when fighting Indians if he feels the fight is too easy, kills thirteen pirates in a pitch black room and the whole rivalry with Hook? He doesn't even remember Hook after he kills him.

Live-Action TV
"Dean: Lets kill some evil sons-of-bitches and raise a little hell!"
 * Dean Winchester in Supernatural is an example of one. He loves hunting supernatural creatures.

""Dear Frederick, thank you for your nice letter. But I'm actually a US Marine who was born to kill, where you have clearly mistaken me for some sort of wine sipping communist dick suck. And although peace probably appeals to tree-loving-bisexuals like you and your parents, I happen to be a death-dealing, blood-crazed warrior who wakes up everyday just hoping for the chance to dismember my enemies and defile their civilizations. Peace sucks a hairy asshole, Freddie. War is the mother-fucking answer.""
 * Debatable. Dean fights because it's what he's been trained since childhood to do. He enjoys hunting in the earlier seasons, but he tires of it pretty quickly and it's made clear that he keeps going out of a sense of responsibility to the job than any real enjoyment. 'What Is and What Should Never Be' is one long testament to this, and he's pretty much stated outright that if he had the option to do something else, he would.
 * Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger has Bisque, a one-off villain with a history to The Mentor Doggie Kruger. An out-of-control berserker charged with 999 counts of illegal dueling to the death (all of which he won); he was so bad that he was passed over by his father for control of his family's dojo in favor of Doggie.
 * Samurai Sentai Shinkenger/Power Rangers Samurai has Juzo/Deker, who is just as bad - and fixated on the Red Ranger as his next Worthy Opponent.
 * Generation Kill has Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley, who only seemed excited by killing people, even civilians.
 * Cpl. Person gives this memorable rant in response to a child's letter from the USA.

""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.""
 * Kara Thrace in Battlestar Galactica Reimagined, as shown in the following quote.

"Richard IV: Let blood, blood, BLOOD be your motto. Slit their gizzards.."
 * Blackadder: King Richard IV (played by Brian Blessed) is a comedic example, as a man who utterly revels in slaughter, orders his troops to attack his allies (telling them to just dress up as Germans), and goes on Crusades, not so much for religious reasons, as because he really likes to kill Turks using small pieces of cutlery. His attitude is best shown by his Rousing Speech before the Battle of Bosworth Field:

"Mycroft: You're not haunted by the war, Dr Watson...you miss it! Welcome back!"
 * Langston's father on CSI returned from the Korean war but never stopped fighting, and would go out at night to provoke barfights. He once put several people in the hospital (and wasn't in good shape himself) and declared it "the best night of my life!" Langston fears this could be a genetic trait, but nonetheless uses the story and the fact that he became a doctor to assure the son of an infamous Serial Killer that In the Blood doesn't exist.
 * Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an arguable case. Violence isn't the only thing he lives for, but it's one of his very favourites.
 * A flashback tells that he enjoyed fighting more than killing, and loved to go against the odds, infuriating the more "sophisticated" serial killer vampire Angelus, who much preferred to pick his victims carefully, and ensure their helplessness before he got to work.
 * Faith, who equates fighting and killing with sexual pleasure, would count. Then she goes off the deep end.
 * Doctor Who:
 * The Sontarans are a race of Blood Knights. In spite of their short stature and potato-like heads, they have evolved towards finding thrill in combat. Born with a crippling weak spot on the back of their necks, they must always face danger head-on. War is all they care to know. When General Staal encounters the Doctor, he shouts angrily, "Legend says he led the battle in the Last Great Time War. The finest war in history and we weren't allowed to be part of it."
 * In "The Dominators," the junior Dominator is like this, frequently disobeying, and risking their plan, in order to kill and destroy.
 * During the Last Great Time War, the Doctor became one of these. His Ninth incarnation was particularly prone to these tendencies although after meeting Rose he began to attempt to throw them off, which continued to be a trait in his Tenth incarnation. He's mostly succeeded by his Eleventh incarnation, but he does still have his moments.
 * Phantom Zone escapee Titan in Smallville is an alien Super Soldier and Proud Warrior Race Guy, portrayed by Kane. Having arrived on Earth he fights his way through biker bars, and criminal hangouts, eventually participating in underground gladiator-style competitions with Meteor Freaks, before finding the ultimate Worthy Opponent in Clark. Think of him as a bullet-proof wrestler with an attitude problem and you've pretty much got him.
 * Clark becomes one under the influence of Red Kryptonite as well as Clark Luthor from Earth-2
 * All "true" Klingons are this. Even the good ones still love a good scrap.
 * John Watson from BBC's Sherlock is this. Lampshaded by Mycroft when they first meet;


 * In Star Trek Deep Space Nine, we see a Blood Knight in the least expected place: Leck, a Ferengi "Eliminator" (read: assassin, he "eliminates competition") who is in his chosen profession for the thrill of a good fight, not for the profit - something that would be unthinkable for most Ferengi (though being in demand certainly doesn't hurt).

Music

 * The narrator from David Bowie's "Running Gun Blues". Even after the war has ended, he still lusts for battle and blood, even to the point of committing random acts of violence on civilians.
 * Most songs by Manowar, including "Black Wind, Fire And Steel."
 * "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor is a blood knight anthem, especially the chorus. "It's the thrill of the fight!"
 * "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 fights because he loves the violence.
 * 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: being really, really bored for all eternity.
 * The Morrígan 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 country-wide 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.

Pro Wrestling

 * WWE wrestler Finlay has 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 just about 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.

Tabletop Games

 * In The Real Man, pretty much every single Real Man is this.
 * Both the Warhammer and the Warhammer 40000 universe features several species and factions who exhibit this trope to varying degrees.
 * The Orcs/Orks were literally bred for war 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.
 * 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.
 * Eldar Aspect Warriors. Actually... Eldar themselves, pretty much. It's the only reason they're still hanging around in the galaxy.
 * 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 the many in-universe statements and preaches seem to consider warring against their enemies to be a way of worshipping the God-Emperor, 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 finds an unworthy opponent, and up his stats if he does. 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, Motifcators, Space Wolves (some of them, at least), Knights of Blood, Flesh Tearers and Angels Encarmine, to name but a few.
 * Witch Elves of the Dark Elves are this trope, as well as Khainites in general. As the brides of the Elvin god of war, murder, pain, suffering, and blood shed in general, they go in a drug induced frenzy and rush in with a furry 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 none chainite charecters from joining them as no one trusts them.
 * 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 enamoured 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 bloodsoaked 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.
 * 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
 * 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.
 * 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 honour (Enlightenment is Honour). The Arrow Sourcebook notes that in virtually every war in history, their were Arrows fighting for both sides, and even includes an example of a character who was on both sides of the Vietnam War.
 * 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.
 * 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.

Video Games
"Skrimir: Run down all who get in your way! Make your path of blood and bone! Advance! Advance! Advance!
 * Sonic the Hedgehog might be considered a blood-knight himself as well, as he's "the guy who loves adventure." In other words, he loves the thrill of cheating death many times over and facing impossible odds to give him the adrenaline rush he always wanted. This is why he has Dr. Eggman as his nemesis, because Sonic and his addiction to combat and danger wouldn't be complete without that overweight mad-scientist and his robot-armies feeding as much of his suicidal-tendencies as possible.
 * The Advance Wars Eternal War series has three: Pink Queen loves killing people who don't wear pink, Flash thinks the bloodstains make pretty patterns, and Robyn becomes this when at war.
 * Karel from Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword is a wandering, half-crazed swordsman whose only goal is to seek out the most powerful fighters on the continent and cut them into tiny little pieces. He joins the protagonists only because he's curious as to whether they'll become stronger (with the implication that he'll kill them if he likes what he sees), killed his parents, threatens to kill both his younger sister Karla and his apprentice Guy if they ever grow strong enough to make for a decent fight, and bribes Dart the pirate for gossip about the toughest fighters in the land, only to discover he's already beaten them all. This characterization actually came about as a result of Karel's appearance in the previous game, Sword of Seals (which follows Blazing Sword chronologically). The designers wanted the young Karel to contrast the saintly Warrior Poet personality he sported in the latter game as much as possible. It's implied that he was mellowed by the death of Karla to illness during the timeskip between the two games -- he finally found an opponent he couldn't defeat with strength alone.
 * He more or less flat-out states this with his dying words. "Death cannot be bested with a sword... My skills are not yet honed to such a level. I should take my leave of this battle."
 * This trope is frequently used by other characters in the series (mostly Fighters and Myrmidons), to a lesser degree. Karel's future brother-in-law Bartre, also from Blazing Sword, plays the trope mostly for comedy. His daughter Fir also uses it, although she's a little more stable than both her father and her uncle. Other examples include Marisa the Crimson Flash from Sacred Stones, Stefan from Path of Radiance, and several boss characters.
 * Karla seemed to be a much less extreme version than her brother, and somewhat less than Barte or Fir. While she isn't totally obsessed with killing like Karel is, she has dedicated her life to swordsmanship and seems to get some enjoyment out of fighting.
 * Another example from Sacred Stones is Valter, who wants to kill Eirika and Ephraim solely for the thrill of fighting them. However, he focuses on Eirika quite a lot.
 * And then there's Skrimir, from Radiant Dawn. If he doesn't qualify, no one does.

Skrimir: Bah! Is that it? I still crave blood! Find me more humans to kill!"

"Honor comes from slaying your opponent, and the true reward of any job is the taste of your foe's drying blood on your tongue."
 * In one of the numerous mods for Medieval II: Total War, amongst other new factions, you can play as the Principality of Wallachia. Yes, the same Wallachia that the infamous Vlad Tepes came from. And while you can turn any faction into an Evil Army of Blood Knights, Wallachia is almost this by default. Their peasants, the supposed Cannon Fodder, wield axes, have unusually high morale, and may charge without orders. Their description also notes "they have a taste for fighting". The most awesome peasants in the game.
 * The Scots in the regular version of Medieval II manage to come pretty close, though. Most of the other factions have the bog-standard peasants. The Scottish equivalent are Highland Rabble: unwashed, kilt-wearing, and extremely fast-moving painted Highlanders wielding big knives. That's before you factor in the regular Highlanders, who carry axes and shields, and the much nastier Highland Nobles, who are armed with giant claymores. And all of these Highlanders are fast-moving infantry who work best blindly rushing the enemy. The Scots are basically an infantry army built to CHAAAAAARGE!
 * Blood Knight tendencies are an actual trait that generals can pick up, usually as a direct result of personally charging their bodyguards into the fray. It starts with the "Fine With Blood" trait, which gives a bonus to dread, Command, and Morale. It progresses to the "Sanguinary" trait, explicitly describing the general as actively wanting to charge into combat and kill people, increasing Dread and Command, but unnerving the troops and causing a small penalty to Morale. The last level of the trait is "Bloodthirsty", in which the general is so balls-out demanding for blood and violence that while he gets a big boost to Dread, he suffers a penalty to Command and the troops are so terrified of him that they suffer a huge Morale penalty.
 * An unusually calm version of this trope is Ryu from Street Fighter. He'll only fight those who are willing, and (save for the "Evil Ryu" arc) conducts each fight respectfully and never to the death. Nonetheless, he's not in the tournament for the glory, just the next fight. The flip side of the coin is Akuma, who seems to exist only to fight and grow stronger, and will explore Dangerous Forbidden Techniques, kill his opponents, and generally do anything he can do in order to fight and gain power. The similarities in their motivations serves as a source of dramatic tension between them, as Ryu shows a considerable level of angst over whether he'll eventually end up like Akuma.
 * There is at least one Adaptation Distillation, Ryu Final, where Ryu and Akuma's path are explored down to their final destination and outcome. It is first implied, then explicitly stated, that the path of the True Martial artist is a journey of self-betterment, with each fight (hopefully) making both warriors learn and grow as people,.
 * The darkly flexible Juri Han from Super Street Fighter IV.
 * That felt good, didn't it?
 * Vigoro from Skies of Arcadia combines this trope with the Handsome Lech -- men are for fighting, women are for loving, and the strongest man gets to be with the sexiest woman.
 * Canderous from Knights of the Old Republic is a perfect example of this trope. (He does eventually decide he needs some kind of cause to fight for, but doesn't seem to care very much what that cause is.) In fact, most of the Mandalorians seem to be that way.
 * The Mandalorians aren't the worst, though. In one level you meet an Iridorian whose worldview makes the Mandalorians look like the Care Bears. Like he said:

"Dante: So bring it on! I love this. This is what I live for. And I'm absolutely CRAZY about it!"
 * The premise of Warriors Orochi is that Orochi is a Blood Knight who abducted the characters from the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series to test his personal might and that of his army against them...some of his opposition including other Blood Knights.
 * Dante from Devil May Cry is a bit of a Blood Knight, but at least everything he kills deserves to die, him being a demon hunter. Unlike some Blood Knights, Dante is not obsessed with fighting; he doesn't go out and kill for fun, but fighting is such a part of his life that he makes it fun. In fact, the point of the combat isn't to kill the enemy so much as to kill them stylishly, which he demonstrates constantly in cutscenes.

"Black Whirlwind: I won't stop until I'm ankle deep in blood, standing on my head!
 * Rugal Berstein, Gato, and Shen Woo from The King of Fighters. To be more specific about Rugal, he holds the tournament in the first game because he was BORED about not having any strong enemies. As for the others, Gato has left pretty much everything  to dedicate himself to fighting, and Shen is extremly boisterous and always ready for a fight.
 * For a female example, look no further than Rugal's ex-Sexy Secretary and membress of the Orochi clan, Vice. Leona can come up as such sometimes, but she's more of a Sugar and Ice Girl.
 * Kratos from the God of War series delves into this at varying times in his life. It definitely applies in his backstory in the first game, as well as the interim between the first and second. During the games he seems to have a definite cause he's fighting for, but between them, he's more than happy to just go out and kill whatever the gods point him at.
 * Arguably, the average player fits the trope. At least to this editor's knowledge, everyone who played the games did so in order to enjoy the fighting for its own sake.
 * Both Yuber and Luca Blight from the Suikoden series are arguable examples (arguable in that while they both love battling strong opponents, they love torturing and killing everyone else more).
 * Zegai in Suikoden V is a straighter example of this.
 * Kelgar Ironfist from Neverwinter Nights 2 loves nothing more than beating the crap out of things, and seeks to join the Monks of the Even-Handed so he can beat even more crap out of things. Try to explain to him that Monks Don't Work That Way and he'll completely miss the point.
 * Interestingly, if/when he actually earns membership in the monk order, he becomes far less of a Blood Knight. So much so that in the Expansion Pack, Storm of Zehir, he is actually the steward of Crossroad Keep, and refuses to join you in fighting bad guys because he knows he has a more important duty.
 * Volf is one of the Four Greater Fiends the hero must slay in Ninja Gaiden II. He takes the form of a massive, four-armed werewolf with tribal tattoos and a massive scythe, and commands an army of lycanthropic demons. He is also obsessed with causing violent injury to fleshy things. The scene that introduces him shows him sitting on a throne watching as an army of his demons rips a (strangely out-of-place) gladiator to shreds, and then, with the simple comment, "This bores me," annihilates half of his own subordinates with razor wind out of sheer boredom. Following this, he tells his army to go out and find him a worthy adversary, essentially planning to sacrifice his entire army of werewolves to see if anyone can make it to him. Ryu just happens to fit that particular bill, killing Volf and taking his scythe after ripping through his entire werewolf army. However, Volf's battle lust doesn't stop there. In the final level of the game, Volf attacks Ryu in the Underworld after Ryu enters to prevent the revival of the Archfiend. Naturally, he is subsequently slaughtered, for good this time, but talk about persistence.
 * The Channel 4 News Team in the browser-based MMO Urban Dead. They're usually rather polite to other survivors though, focusing on zombies, and are responsible for many of the notable survivor victories in the game, so they may count as Proud Warrior Race Guys instead.
 * Many PKer groups have this as their schtick as well.
 * Don't forget the zombies. Nearly every social zombie player group can sum up their tactics as "Go find the nearest large group of survivors and start the party," the only divisions being what is considered fair play on the "finding-survivors" part. Mass zombie movements ("tours") are almost the same as an Ork Waaagh in intent, tactics, and the habit of leaving a lot of new zombies in their wake. And they seem very pleased at their worthy foes when a mall or important building manages to outlast a zombie siege, honoring it by making sure it's a major stop on the next "tour".
 * Mitsurugi from Soulcalibur. While he initially seeks Soul Edge in the hopes that the sword will make him powerful enough to defeat a rifle, he ends up strong enough to do so anyway, so he just keeps fighting for the sake of fighting. Even in his Soulcalibur IV ending, when offered the option to absorb the power of the Big Bad, he ignores it, because he says: "I don't need it."
 * In his backstory, it's revealed that Mitsurugi used to deliberately offer his services to vastly outnumbered armies so that he could fight as many foes as possible.
 * Algol as well: "Fighting is my all. It is my existence!" Same for Olcadan.
 * Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown, who, just like Mitsurugi, is just on the scene looking for a good fight. Almost everyone he encounters, especially bosses, will get this kind of response from him: "Hey, you gotta be strong, huh? All right, this is gonna be a good fight!"
 * He's a bit less extreme than Mitsurugi in that he takes on all comers but doesn't actively seek out massive conflicts (for the most part, he doesn't have to), and he just wants to be the strongest fighter around. If Amakusa gets flattened by a boulder, well, dead is dead. Definitely on the heroic side of the equation (he couldn't have formed working relationships with the likes of Nakoruru and Charlotte otherwise), whereas Mitsurugi is resoundingly amoral.
 * Quake III Arena states that the gods, wanting entertainment, have put you and these others in the arena, and even made you all immortal so that even death would not release you from endless fighting.
 * Bass of Mega Man leans this way. He's largely unconcerned with his creator's (Dr. Wily's) goals and fears, and in the arcade games and Mega Man and Bass, he'll stand against Wily if Wily annoys him enough. His primary goal is simply proving he's the strongest robot around.
 * Three out of the Four Guardians in Mega Man Zero are like this. Upon discovering that Zero is a Worthy Opponent, they tend to shirk their other duties in favour of fighting him and rapidly escalate the whole business to Foe Yay levels.
 * Plenty of Mavericks and hostile Reploids that you fight say they were looking forward to fighting the protagonists. Even when the world is ending all around them. Magma Dragoon from Mega Man X 6 is the best example, as he caused the plot of the game, and the resulting deaths of millions, just to fight the protagonists.
 * Axl from the X series is equal parts this and Tagalong Kid. When asked why he fights, his most common answer is that he enjoys it. The fact that he's fighting for justice is largely a fringe bonus (although X7 explicitly shows that he doesn't enjoy being an asshat).
 * Omega-Xiz in Mega Man Star Force can be like this. He wants nothing more than to cut loose and 'go buck-wild' on assorted viruses, villains, and so forth, and his default response when presented with any piece of human technology he doesn't immediately recognise is to ask "Is it a weapon?" In the backstory, the Zerker tribe from 2 are described as "living only for battle".
 * Travis Touchdown of No More Heroes is a very rare protagonist example, which is an odd contrast to his Otaku nature and love of all things Moe. He seems to be devoid of any actual morality, and for most of the game his only drive is "being the best", no matter how many people he kills along the way. Mind you, for most players this is fine by them.
 * He seems to have an aversion to killing women. Though perhaps he just hates to see some good lechery-fodder go to waste.
 * He also seems to be averse to killing anyone who fights with honor and/or proves to be a Worthy Opponent.
 * Actually, most of the assassins in the series seem to be Blood Knights. Death Metal, Dr. Peace, Destroyman, Holly Summers, Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii, Speed Buster, Bad Girl, Matt Helms, Cole Walsh, Ryuji, Margaret Moonlight and possibly even Henry seem to greatly enjoy battle and killing to perverse ends.
 * Sword Dancers in the Tales (series) are like this. They only exist to fight (but not kill unless they're fighting for fellow Blood Knight Emil Castaginer) strong opponents.
 * In Tales of Vesperia, Yuri seems to be happiest when he's in a good fight and says that he enjoys the "raw challenge" of fighting a tough opponent, and the only time Judith's excitement level rises above "sedated" is in battle. Flynn, who is normally soft-spoken and mellow, becomes very energetic when fighting (lampshaded by Rita in the PlayStation 3 version). Zagi is the standard villainous version who becomes obsessed with Yuri because he is the only opponent that forces him to use his full potential. There's also Tison, who unlike most of the Hunting Blades fights monsters more for the thrill of battle rather then a personal vendetta.
 * Adell from the Disgaea series qualifies as well. He's more of the cheerful sort that only kills when he has to tough (though his chief target certainly deserves it).
 * seems to have turned into this in her more recent appearances.
 * Black Whirlwind from Jade Empire probably most definitely counts.
 * Black Whirlwind from Jade Empire probably most definitely counts.

Black Whirlwind (while waiting for an army to arrive): Why wait? We should just charge them now"

""Fightin's like breathin', Mac!"
 * Red Arremer, also known as Red Blaze or Firebrand, in Gargoyles Quest and Demon's Crest.
 * Kirby: The only wish of Meta Knight is to become stronger and fight a worthy opponent.
 * A light case of this: As of Undefined Fantastic Object, Sanae appears to be enjoying "youkai extermination" -- which is merely beating youkai in danmaku battles, and not truly "exterminating" anything -- as she progresses towards the "treasure ship." Some see it as sadism that ruins her "good girl" image, when really, she's just having fun fighting.
 * Touhou is flooded with this. It is pretty much the only reason for the bosses of the first two to four stages to even be fighting the heroines. In the fighting games, it's the only reason anyone but the Big Bad fights.
 * Cody Travers from Final Fight became this when he appeared in Street Fighter, the backstory explaining that after beating Belger, he just kept fighting until he was jailed, breaking out whenever he gets bored. During his storyline, he plainly tells his old friend Guy that he doesn't consider himself a hero, just a dude who only feels complete when he's kicking ass, though his ending does imply that he still has some heroic spirit in him.
 * This happens again in Super Street Fighter IV, complete with him and his somewhat-estranged friend Guy having another tussle. There are several strong hints that Cody is simply a Knight in Sour Armor with a Jerkass Facade.
 * Big Boss, protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater and Portable Ops and antagonist of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, originally founded Outer Heaven because he only ever felt truly alive when he was on the battlefield, and wanted to create his own independent warrior nation of mercenaries that would participate in conflicts all over the world. It is not so much that Big Boss wanted a world of eternal conflict; in his mind soldiers would always be needed and wars will always be fought so long as there are people. He simply wanted to create a system where soldiers are respected for their talents and not manipulated by corrupt political forces in the government as he had been (as well as The Boss had been). True warriors like them have no allegiances to nations or ideologies; war is their home and what they believe in.
 * Big Boss explains to Snake his reasoning for Outer Heaven; not only does he enjoy conflict but he has fought in so many wars (his career as a soldier started in 1950 during the Korean War so by 1999 he had been a soldier for almost 50 years) that he has spent the majority of his life on a battlefield of some sort and civilian life is foreign and intolerable (he mentioned at one point that, if a soldier like himself who was living a civilian life was even lucky, he'd get an interview from a two-bit tabloid, at best). Big Boss needs war; a world without conflict is absolutely inconceivable to his very existence. He knew from the moment he had a taste of war and had awoken the warrior spirit within he could never go back (an optional Portable Ops conversation has Big Boss tell how he tried to put the warrior spirit to rest, he tried to be a combat instructor or a hunter, but despite his efforts, ended up back on the battlefield again). Big Boss craves ever bigger thrills and ever bigger tensions; he is not satisfied by money, power, or even sex... only war. Big Boss then states that as a warrior Snake realizes all of this already and has the same killer instincts, something Snake tries to deny.
 * What Big Boss tells Solid Snake about his true nature later becomes a big part of his Character Development in the first Metal Gear Solid and is later reinforced by Liquid telling him the same thing, he comes to the conclusion that they are right. Snake tries coming to terms with the fact that being a mercenary meant that he was a Blood Knight, and realising that he could use his Blood Knight tendencies for the forces of good. Raiden was raised to be a Blood Knight, as he was a child soldier.
 * Raiden's apparently a full-fledged Blood Knight now, going by his comment about "having some fun" shortly after his superiors at a PMC told him that he has to take out a Cyborg that ambushed them.
 * Quite a lot of the soldier characters in the Metal Gear series qualify, actually. Other than Big Boss, Solid Snake, and Raiden, there is also Gray Fox, Olga Gurlukovich, several of the FOXHOUND members, and possibly Solidus Snake.
 * The Boss claims to be a blood knight as well, but it seems her and  made her want to unite the world rather than fight it. Still, whether she is acting or not, she says she wants to make  the "best ten minutes" of her life.
 * Boomerang from Wild Arms 1 is a good example. Pretty much the only thing he cares about is finding a worthy foe to fight, and is only helping the villains because he believes that'll lead him to the fight he seeks. The same could arguably be said for his wolf companion, Lucied.
 * Ubel in Battalion Wars, somewhat. He serves Xylvania at least partly for the... entertainment value. Interestingly, he does support both Kaiser Vlad and Ingrid as a dim but loyal little brother figure, whose main ambition is to be "governator", rather than a kaiser himself.
 * Aran Ryan from the Wii version of Punch Out. He even hits himself between rounds.

"Keep hittin' me. I love it.""

""That was interesting. But dropping a battleship on me is cheating. Take it back...""
 * Xenogears's Id is a fine example of this. He fight because  he is literally incapable of connecting with others in any other way. At one point the heroes drop their Cool Ship the Yggdrasil atop his Humongous Mecha. Moments later, the Yggdrasil cracks in two, rising off the sands...

""Swords, not words!""
 * Captain Falcon's theme song in F-Zero GX seems to be from the point of view of a Blood Knight that idolizes Captain Falcon.
 * Minsc from Baldurs Gate, sort of.

"Garland [to the Warrior of Light]: It is time for you to accept the cycle and embrace combat's grim pleasure!"
 * Garland, the Tin Tyrant from Final Fantasy I, is given a more philosophical take of this characterisation in Dissidia Final Fantasy; he believes that all existence is a repetition of "the cycle of battle", and that all attempts to bring peace to the world are futile. He actually gets offended when his nemesis, Warrior of Light, promises to rescue him from the Cycle. Later on its shown that the reason Garland loves fighting is because the cycle of the war of Chaos and Cosmos has gone on for so long, he's lost all hope of it ever ending and has resigned himself to an eternity of fighting. Taking delight in doing so is Garland's way of adapting to the Groundhog Day Loop he's stuck in.

""Beat or be beaten! Such is the way of the Legion!"
 * On that note, Sephiroth in the same game is implied to have Blood Knight tendencies, such as, shortly after fighting the Warrior of Light to a draw, Sephiroth implies while trying to give him a Not So Different response that he himself is in the conflict because he enjoys the fight.
 * Shadow from Final Fantasy VI is another example of a character who likes to fight for its own sake. Or at least, "it's the only thing I know".
 * Even better, Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V is another obvious example, while also being a collector of rare weapons. Hell, while travelling The Multiverse, he wound up right in the middle of the conflict, solely to find Bartz for a rematch!
 * Pit Lords of the Burning Legion in World of Warcraft fit this trope. They are hulking demons that exist only to fight and destroy. They revel in combat and don't even particularly mind dying if they get killed in battle and take as many enemies as possible with them. Brutallus, a boss in the Sunwell Plateue has some appropriate quotes:

"Another day, another glorious battle!"

(on death) "Now this gets interesting...""

""Harness your hate, make it useful!""
 * The class introduced in Wrath of the Lich King is called "Death Knight", elite soldiers of the Scourge. Their only job is to kill for the Scourge, and to cut down anyone who stands in their path. One of your first tasks as a Death Knight is to kill one of your own kind to prove your loyalty. When you succeed by showing no mercy and no restraint, you are praised and given a BFS. You're then sicced on a village to kill everyone. Although the player class then breaks free from the Lich Kings control, they are still the most fitting class, and the Deathknight faction in Northrend is clearly filled with this.

"Grunt: Shepard! You're missing it! It's goddamn glorious! I'll climb out on their bodies!"
 * Garrosh Hellscream, much like his father, is pretty much this. He has practically no reason to hate the Alliance and didn't even drink the demon blood that turned most of his kin into berserkers. Why Thrall gave him command of the Northrend forces rather than the more reasonable Saurfang is anyone's guess.
 * Varian Wrynn, or at least his Lo'gosh side, lives for battle. He could spend the rest of his life killing for sport and be happy, and probably would if he didn't care about his responsibilities.
 * Morrigan, Demitri and Bishamon from Darkstalkers.
 * Soldier and Heavy from Team Fortress 2.
 * Well, pretty much everyone except the Sniper and the Spy (the "professionals").
 * Mass Effect: The Krogan are a living, breathing, walking and talking example of this trope. In the second game a crew member, Grunt, born via test tubes has a good laugh over brutal imagery from his tank and cites that there's no joke to what he's seen only that, "It was a good fight."
 * Grunt makes this even more clear if he's the one who radios you during the final boss sequence. Every other party member will say they're being overrun when ordered to fall back, whereas Grunt...

"Garrus: Hospitals aren't fun to fight through.
 * In the sequel, Garrus has shades of this, though he keeps up certain standards:

Shepard: What is fun to fight through?

Garrus: Gardens, electronics shops. Antique stores, but only if they're classy."

"Marlowe: I wonder what you're really afraid of. Not bullets or blood or broken bones. No, you get off on all this, don't you? Cheating death..."
 * The third game has Kai Leng, a Canon Immigrant from the novels. His back-story is that he enlisted in the military at age 16 using false credentials, and made it as far as N7 - the same program that produced Shepard and Anderson - before showing his true colors in a bar fight. He was discharged and thrown in jail, only to be broken out by the Illusive Man, who put him to work as an assassin.
 * A Renegade Shepard definitely comes across as one. Unlike Paragon Shepard, they don't go around the Galaxy because there is always someone who needs saving but because there is always someone who needs their head smacking together or taught a lesson. And these lessons often involve bullets.
 * from Rosenkreuzstilette counts as this, having given up on relating to nearly everyone Also, Schirach Fuehler from the sequel ~Freudenstachel~.
 * Special mention goes to the Blood Knights from Digimon World 2. Yes, that's their real name in-game. And the game actually came out in July of 2000, meaning that they had the trope name before this trope even existed. They live up to their name by being psychotically over aggressive conflict-creating people who manage to cross the Moral Event Horizon before we even meet them by treating digimon like pieces of data to be used, abused, deleted and traded as they see fit. And if that didn't make you hate them enough, they also employ Child Soldiers and mind control to meet their ends.
 * The Mithra in Final Fantasy XI have shades of this. We have not yet seen their homeland, but the Mithra we do see are predominantly mercenaries who are spoiling for a good brawl or just lazing about and enjoying good weather...similar to normal cat behavior in a way. So yes, Mithra are more on the mellow end of the Blood Knight scale, content to enjoy life, but if the chance for a fight picks up, the bravado quickly kicks in. This is all especially visible in the Wings of the Goddess expansion when you see the Mithran role in the Great War.
 * Fawkes of Fallout 3 is like this, but only in combat. After blowing away an enemy with his Gatling Good Laser, he'll laugh and shout, "Too fun!" But outside of combat he's surprisingly gentle and polite; also, he will only be your follower if you have high Positive Karma.
 * Also, Legate Lanius of Fallout: New Vegas. He openly mocks Caesar's Frumentarii (the intelligence and assassination division of their forces) as cowardly and underhanded, preferring direct and spectacular action, and is correspondingly viewed with wariness by both Caesar and Vulpes (the head of said Frumentarii). In all but one of the games endings, he serves as the Final Boss. And he is tough.
 * He also claims that his ideals will "free people in ways they can't see". His proof?.
 * Left 4 Dead: Bill misses 'Nam and is actually glad that the zombies have given him an enemy to fight and Francis treats the Zombie Apocalypse like "the world's biggest barfight."
 * Ellis in the sequel is a more naive version of this trope, but he still views the zombie outbreak as a way to have some fun, especially going to an abandoned carnival.
 * Sgt. Avitus from Dawn of War 2. "He wields his wrath as his most powerful weapon". Granted, the 100-caliber heavy machine gun probably helps.
 * According to Master Xehanort's reports in Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, this is one reason that the Keyblade War got so bad. Every Blood Knight in the universe flocked to it and started fighting both sides indiscriminately.
 * Starcraft: When his home planet is overrun by aliens, Fenix is actually excited to be fighting a stronger enemy than ever before. Even after he's killed and brought Back From the Dead, he doesn't mind being part machine, as long as he can still fight.
 * This may be a common trait with Protoss. The Zealots seem to be using melee weapons only because it's more 'honourable' and gives them a better battle, for instance. Some Protoss in the second game say that they are looking forward to doing battle with Raynor's forces.
 * Legacy of Kain: Kain has shades of this. He certainly seems to be enjoying himself when he shouts out his battle cry after impaling an opponent.
 * Jack Krauser was revealed to be one in Darkside Chronicles, which also acted as one of the reasons for his Face Heel Turn in Resident Evil 4 (Let's just say that the last mission that he had, which was with Leon, resulted in him being kicked out of SOCOM due to an arm injury he suffered against one of the monsters that never quite recovered, something that he evidently didn't take well as he felt the battlefield was his life and could not function in regular society.)
 * The Aztecs in Civilization V is a whole faction of these. That is at least how they will be played due to their faction ability, which grants the civilization a bit of culture for every kill. Combined with the fact that their iconic unit heals after killing, means they will always want war.
 * This has long been the Hat of the Aztecs, who have been "militaristic" since Civilization III. It's particularly pronounced in IV, in which the Aztecs are probably the single most annoying neighbors to have, as they will attack given the slightest opportunity, regardless of the chances of victory. This is also true of the Zulus.
 * The Persians in Civilization V are just as bloodthirsty as the Aztecs. If you find yourself starting on the same continent as them and a few other starting nations, the Persians are almost always guaranteed to rampage through and conquer the entire continent. You can hold them off from harassing you by using gifts and diplomacy and they'll see you as a cute little harmless nation until they run out of other empires to take over and they'll swiftly turn their eyes and swords on you. It's often best to wipe them out as soon as you find them.
 * Nathan Drake from the Uncharted games. In practice he's an Action Survivor, but one of the Big Bads thinks that Nate must be some kind of Blood Knight in order to keep throwing himself into dangerous situations.

"Augus: "I don't fight for good, and I don't fight for evil! I just fight!""
 * Shale of Dragon Age: Origins is a definite Blood Knight. When her true past is revealed as a dwarven woman, she suggests that she would like to do something "girlish" like smashing something soft and squishy and then watch it fountain blood.
 * Leon, from Yggdra Union and Blaze Union. He heard there was a war and wanted in.
 * Demon Dog King Kanata from Trinity Universe loves to fight, not because he likes to kill per se, but because he enjoys the thrill of it as a part of adventure.
 * Kobra of Mortal Kombat reflects the dark side of this trope. He was once a promising martial artist, but was frustrated by the fact that he wasn't allowed to do his moves at their full force in his karate classes. He began prowling the streets of New York looking for a fight. He starts off fighting gangbangers and drug dealers, but with time he develops an insatiable bloodlust, which leads him to endless violence, bloodshed, and theft until he is finally arrested. This bloodlust is exactly why he gets recruited to the Black Dragon clan.
 * Considering how the heroes in Dungeons gain Spiritual Energy by fighting and getting hurt in battle, they're probably this.
 * Augus from Asura's Wrath is this trope. The man lives, breathes, and talks for the fight. Rarely a word comes out of his mouth that isn't about fighting. He sums it up best with this quote, during his battle with Asura.


 * The Templar from Diablo III seems to indulge in this, no reason he can't enjoy purging demons from the land, right?
 * Dwarves in Dwarf Fortress periodically receive a happy thought: "He/she took joy in slaughter lately." When people will use their own children as improvised weapons, you know you've got a Blood Knight on your hands.

Visual Novels

 * 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 hell outta 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.
 * 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.
 * Ittosai from Yo Jin Bo loves fighting and killing, walking the line between this and Psycho for Hire.

Web Animation

 * 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."

Web Comics

 * Girl Genius got 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 aware of the differences enough to specify if "a town really needed burning" or this time someone is killed not by her.
 * Captain Vole, who is so bloodthirsty that the other Jagermonsters 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.
 * Belkar, the Token Evil Teammate, is this in The Order of the Stick. Just look!
 * Tarquin, Elan's father, has shades of this as well. Just note his response when attacked by.
 * 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.
 * Yatta-Ta of The Challenges of Zona is, in part, a parody of this.
 * Skoll of Cry Havoc is a mercenary who enjoys her job, and welcomes being a werewolf as a chance to fight more.
 * Sojueilo of Juathuur.
 * Ramael from Misfile is a former angel of vengeance who, after  admits that he finds it addictive.
 * Jack Noir from Homestuck 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 undyingUmbrage, one of two trolls who regularly contact the post-Scratch kids. He wants to get into the game seemingly just so he could satisfy his blood lust and turning it into a competition between uranianUmbra, to the point where he seems to relish the idea of outright killing her.
 * Nahast: Lands of Strife gives us Thunder the warrior spirit.
 * Zokusho Comics: Serge really seems to enjoy shooting people. Raziel is also pretty gleeful at the thought of a fight.

Web Original

 * 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 worths of Hell's Angels to fights... sometimes without bothering to issue the challenge first.
 * Vesa Turunen of Survival of the Fittest version two shows signs of this in his death scene, even believing that his death at the hands of was honourable 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.
 * 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.
 * Now 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.
 * 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.

Western Animation
""I prefer to beat my opponents the old-fashioned way: brutally!""
 * 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?"
 * Transformers has quite a few of these.
 * Dinobot, from the same show, 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.


 * 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.
 * The biggest Blood Knight of them all is of course, Megatron who in all his incarnations has grand designs to conquer the universe. Destroying autobots is of course his greatest joy. He destroys everything he touches because everything is food for his hunger. His hunger for power!
 * Numbuh Four from Codename: Kids Next Door suggests we beat the crud out of those Delightful dorks!
 * In Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, Ben and Gwen's cousin Sunny only decides it's fun being around them once she gets to fight.
 * In Mega Man, Protoman seems to only be happy when he's fighting--sometimes, only when it's with Mega Man.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Brock Samson from The Venture Brothers 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.
 * Finn of Adventure Time once entered into a battle arena he knew to be a trap just so he could fight gladiator ghosts.
 * 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.

Real Life
"A challenge to fight was often less a reflection of animosity than an invitation to engage in a convivial form of recreation."
 * Lobsters. Yes, lobsters. American lobsters live alone. When they meet (for reasons other than mating), they determine who is stronger. If one is clearly stronger, the weaker will be permitted to flee. Otherwise, they go through a ritual of conflict that starts with whipping their antenna at each other, and ends with going for the kill with the claws. At any time, a lobster is allowed to retreat. The loser will recognize the winner for a week (assuming he survived), and flee. Female lobsters with eggs don't worry about the rituals, and just go for the kill. There's a reason lobster claws are clamped with tight rubber bands when they're being sold.
 * Likewise, pike are noted of their pugnaciousness and aggressiveness. They will attack anything at sight and eat them, including other pike.
 * King Richard I Lionheart of England could well be the Trope Namer.
 * Spartans in their heyday had a culture built around finding honor and glory in battle. Spartans had the luxury of spending almost all of their time training for war because their culture was built on slave labor. To protect this lifestyle, their focus had to be on keeping their slaves under control rather than going off on campaigns of conquest. Spartans were also not quite as suicidal as sometimes believed. They did occasionally flee battle, but this mostly happened during the dwindling period of their warrior culture.
 * The Theban Sacred Band fit into this role. They were 300 of the absolute best soldiers ever, trained for nothing but war, and were essentially the Spartiates of their day, solidifying their reputation further after defeating the Spartiates HEAD ON at the Battle of Leuctra. What may shock modern people: they were all homosexual. 150 homosexual couples. It was believed that a man would fight better if he were fighting alongside his lover-- he would have the added incentive to fight of protecting his beloved, and nobody would want to shame himself in front of his beloved by fleeing in cowardice while he was present. The Theban Sacred Band were finally defeated by Alexander the Great at the Battle of Chaeronea, where, after the entire Theban army and their allies fled the battlefield, the remnants of the Sacred Band fought to the last man, some even committing suicide rather than be taken prisoner. Philip II, Alexander's father, when seeing the corpses, reportedly said "Perish any man who suspects that these men either did or suffered anything unseemly."
 * Charles Hazlitt Upham. VC. And bar. Read the War Office citations for both. In the history of the Victoria Cross exactly three people have gained a bar to their VC. Upham was the only combat soldier. 'Nuff said.
 * Charles was later captured and sent to Colditz Castle for no less than three previous escape attempts (including one so bold that a German machinegunner held his fire out of sheer respect). When he was liberated, he broke into the prison armoury and went hunting Germans.
 * World War II general George Smith Patton. He expressed a bizarre fascination with warfare from a young age, which contributed heavily to his famous hard-nosed personality. He gleefully volunteered for any combat assignment offered to him and quite literally loved warfare, despite being badly wounded as a tank commander in WWI. In between the World Wars, he and his friend Dwight D Eisenhower spent their free time driving around in a civilian car with guns hoping bandits would try and rob them. Although he believed that he had been reincarnated repeatedly so he could fight and die again, his odd world view made him one of the Allies' best generals. He once said, "An entire world at war and I'm'' left out of it?! God will not permit this to happen! I'm going to be allowed to fulfill my destiny!" Fittingly, he died in a car accident four months after the end of WW2, as a world at peace was no world for him.
 * After VE day and before his fateful car crash, Patton was fully prepared and eager to fight the Russians next.
 * If you believe the accounts, the "factions" of Ireland that were common in the latter half of the nineteenth century were a pleasurable variation on this trope. The closest fictional example to the attitude behind it would be the frequent Fight Clubbing between the Gauls from Asterix's village. The reasons were frequently trivial or nonexistent; they fought for the fun of it and if someone died, well, as long as it was a fair fight, it wasn't meant in malice. Sticks and stones were the Weapon of Choice, women and children could "join in" and the larger brawls were prearranged for meetings such as fairs. From the article:


 * If the accounts of samurai are to be believed from Kamakura and Muromachi-era Japan, many samurai could have been considered Blood Knights. It was custom at the start of battle for samurai to advance toward the enemy without any larger battle plan, shout their names and seek a worthy opponent, then decapitate them and move on to the next. All samurai were paid according to their head count. (This of course encouraged samurai to poach kills off already-dead foes killed by non-samurai, which itself lead to the interesting practice of head-viewings.)
 * Miyamoto Musashi had an entire philosophy built around this. He won his first duel at age 13, and at 16 traveled Japan searching for skilled opponents and defeating them with wooden swords.
 * Khalid ibn al-Walid, one of best military commanders period, (as he is among the few historical generals who never lost a battle), pretty much qualifies. According to A.I. Akram, one of the motivation for his conversion to Islam is because the Muslims of that time were busy conducting military campaigns across Arabia and he felt that his missing out the glory. Somewhat of a Death Seeker too, considering that he spent his last days lamenting that he will die of old age instead of battle.
 * While this may be apocryphal, there is a story that Frederick the Great turned into this during battle, deliberately cutting himself and working himself into a frenzy.
 * Theodore Roosevelt had elements of this at times. He demoted himself so he could fight in the front lines during the Spanish American War. He also referred to his one genuine experience in battle, San Juan Hill, as "the greatest day of my life", and, when he was dying, expressed regret that he didn't die in battle. During his political career, he spent most of his pre-presidential career clamoring for a war to fight in, and explained once that he didn't start any wars as president because the idea of being cooped up in the White House rather than on the front lines during a war was unthinkable. He spent most of World War One begging Woodrow Wilson for permission to form a volunteer regiment and get sent over to Europe.
 * Walter Cowan, Royal Navy. Commanded a battleship at Jutland, and loved war so much he spent his leave periods in the trenches on the Western Front. When the Armistice was signed, he cried. Retired as a Rear Admiral. In WW2, despite being well over age (he was in his seventies), he joined the British Army in Africa and fought against the Italians. Captured when trying to SINGLE-HANDEDLY ASSAULT A TANK WITH HIS REVOLVER, he was repatriated by his enemies as an act of mercy (because of his age) and immediately tried to join the Commandos.
 * Bernard Freyberg VC, given the habits that caused Winston Churchill to call him "the Salamander" (always in the fire).
 * Winston Churchill himself was a particularly crazy Blood Knight. He and the British chiefs of staff formed Operation Unthinkable on May 22nd 1945 which would have started a preemptive war by the United States and Great Britain against the Soviet Union. The fact that the Soviets outnumbered Britain and America two to one is the main reason why the plan was abandoned.
 * Likewise General Douglas MacArthur was gearing up after the Korean war to start a nuclear war with China by dropping 30 to 50 atomic bombs on mainland targets, and was nearly granted the authority to do so by the joint chiefs of staff until President Truman fired him.
 * Hitler was probably the most famous Blood Knight of the modern age. He wanted to go to war even in 1938 to take the Sudetenland. There was testimony from surviving Nazis that Hitler loved the idea of enormous battles with enormous casualties even when it made no sense to lose so many German troops needlessly.
 * Andrew Jackson suffered from having a bullet in his lung and is said to have dueled at least 100 times and loved scalping Indians. Although this might just be because he's nuts. There was an assassin who tried to kill Jackson while he was in office. On a misty day the man drew two pistols and tried firing them at Jackson. Both guns jammed. Jackson meanwhile was busy rushing the gunman over 100 feet and beat him into unconsciousness with his cane. Jackson was asked why he rushed the man when he was facing two guns. He replied "I would rather have a closed casket (funeral) than get shot in the back, fleeing like a coward."
 * Jack Churchill was an allied commander during WWII and volunteered for commando duty. He carried a claymore into every battle and is credited with capturing 42 Germans and a mortar squad using only his sword. He was finally captured by Germans after the rest of his squad was killed by a mortar shell. The Germans cautiously approached him as he played "Will ye no come back again?" on his bagpipes, which he also carried into every battle. He was sent to a concentration camp, which he promptly escaped. He was soon recaptured and sent to another concentration camp, which he also escaped. He finally made it back to Britain to find that the war had ended. He was quoted as saying, "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!"
 * Ronald Speirs of Band of Brothers fame. Would turn up wherever there was fighting whether his unit was engaged or not, chose to stay with his company after European hostilities ended in the hopes of getting transferred to the invasion of Japan, then stayed with the army to serve in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
 * Child soldiers are raised to show no mercy and are only praised and given food when they kill. They will ruthlessly murder innocent civilians, or kill mothers and kidnap the children so they will be raised as child soldiers. Many of these children have a hard time fitting in with normal society, as their empathy has been suppressed for so long.
 * Charles Askins is an odd example because many of his killing was as a non-military border patrolman. During his long career as a policeman and soldier, Askins took deep pleasure in the fact that he had killed 27 people, "not counting black people or hispanics." Among other things, during an ambush he once ordered soldiers under his command not to fire until he fired first, because he had a pre-distribution .44 Magnum and he wanted to be the very first person to get a kill with it.
 * According to some historical documents, at least one of the reasons why Benedict Arnold ended up defecting to the British is because of anger that he was not allowed to serve actively in the Revolution because of an injury he sustained when attempting to recruit Canada to their side that ended badly, as he viewed service to the military as being his life. He was re-injured at the Battle of Saratoga, and then sidelined. Washington set him as military governor of Philadelphia, which the Colonists had just recovered and which was a hotbed of Tories - and beautiful Tory women....
 * Bobby Fischer was sort of a chess version of this-leaning way over into Sociopathic Hero territory. It was said he liked humiliating players as well as beating them. According to one legend he visited a harlot and when he left said that Chess was more fun.
 * Horatio Nelson loved his job.
 * Ernst Jünger - German novelist/author and WW1 Sturmtruppenführer. Yep, the people handpicked to storm the enemy trenches all by themselves. And he wrote a book about that. Im Stahlgewitter. Which is prove that he was truly 'psychopathicly brave'.
 * Most gamers, after all 90% of games are about killing the hell out of the enemy. Because video games are completely virtual and there are no permanent consequences, they can enjoy fighting without their Blood Knight attitude necessarily translating to real life violence.
 * A long time ago, the Spanish were sailing in the Caribbean when they found a group of three islands full of very aggressive Indians. Remembering the Spartans, they named these islands "Nueva Esparta" (New Sparta). One of their greatest moments was during the Independence war: thousands of royalists against hundreds of Neo Spartans, their weapons couldn't match the enemy's...and they won. Ever since then, both the battle and the mountain where it happened is called "Matasiete" ("Seven at one blow"), even though the real proportion was ten to one.