Badass Boast/Real Life: Difference between revisions

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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:BadassBoast.RealLife 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:BadassBoast.RealLife, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license)
 
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* "From youth my heart has been inclined toward the Way of strategy. My first duel was when I was thirteen, I struck down a strategist of the Shinto school, one Arima Kihei. When I was sixteen I struck down an able strategist, Tadashima Akiyama. When I was twenty-one I went up to the capital and met all manner of strategists, never once failing to win in many contests. After that I went from province to province dueling with strategists of various schools, and not once failed to win even though I had as many as sixty encounters. This was between the ages of thirteen and twenty-eight or twenty-nine." From ''The Book Of Five Rings'' by Miyamoto Musashi.
* In his second campaign for reelection, [[Theodore Roosevelt]] delivered a speech immediately following an assassination attempt. His opening statement was "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
* This one was a common pre-battle ritual for [[Samurai]], which bit them in the bum when they came up against Kublai Khan's Mongol host, who of course had no concept of the formal traditions of battle the Japanese had practised during centuries of fighting themselves. When the Japanese drew up their battle lines and sent forth their herald to read the formal [[Badass Boast]] and ritual insult of the enemy, the Mongols [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|simply shot the guy]] [[Talk to The Fist|and charged]]. Fortunately for Japan, a freak typhoon later sunk the colossal navy Khan had sent to conquer them, thwarting his attempt and forever entering the Japanese psyche as "Kamikaze", the Divine Wind.
** This actually happened twice, a second time after the Mongols had already crushed the first line of defence on the actual islands of Japan. After the second invasion was obliterated by storm, the Mongols apparently decided that while the enemy troops were easy, their gods were a pain in the neck.
* "If the Army and the Navy / ever look on Heaven's scenes / They shall find the streets are guarded by / The United States Marines."
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** Also said at Thermopylae by Dienekes, a Spartan warrior, when informed that the Persians' arrows would block out the sun: "So much the better...then we shall fight our battle in the shade."
** The Spartans have a long history of this sort of thing. When Philip II sent a message to Sparta saying "If I enter Laconia, I will level Sparta to the ground," the Spartans replied simply; "If." Neither Philip nor his army entered Laconia.
** The Spartans invented [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconic short but sweet Badass boasts]. Notice the name of their county, Laconia. Seem ... [[Laconic Wiki|familiar?]]
* The men of the small Texas town of Gonzalez used a variant of this when the Mexican army tried to reposses their cannon: "Come And Take It". They later carried that banner -- and attitude -- to the Alamo. American frontiersmen were like that. Gonzalez still have the cannon, and the flag, which still says 'Come And Take It'. They have a parade every year. (A very small one, it's a pretty small town.)
* Suleiman the Magnificent, the tenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire, signed his letters by titling himself
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*** Seems that that's one of the better boasts. When you recall that they had a [[Simo Hayha|single guy]] with over 700 kills, it's not an idle one, either.
* The Comte de Cambronne, the French Old Guard commander at Waterloo is usually quoted as saying after the battle, "The Guard dies, but does not surrender". That's badass enough, yet what he actually said was even more so:
{{quote| [[Precision F -Strike|Merde]]!}}
** Somewhat [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in that he surrendered anyway.
* From the same era, we have Marshal Lefebvre, who had risen from the ranks to become one of Napoleon's senior generals. One of his dinner guests supposedly expressed envy of his wealth. Lefebvre's response was to offer to take him outside and take twenty shots at him from thirty paces; if the guest survived it would all be his. Unsurprisingly, he declined. "I had a thousand bullets fired at me from much closer range before I got this," said Lefebre. Most other French generals could have said the same.
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** When the German major who surrendered to York realized York had no other troops but a handful of terrified privates to corral his 132 prisoners:
{{quote| '''Major:''' How many men ''have'' you got?<br />
'''York:''' [[One -Man Army|I have got a'plenty.]] *''pointing pistol at major all the while''* }}
* Doctor Peter Rhee, one of the men taking care of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she's been shot through the head, seems to be prone to this, with two quotes coming to mind: "She will not die. She does not have that permission from me." and "If she comes to me alive, I can keep her alive." - Considering that, so far, he seems to have delivered very well, quality of life and speed of recovery included, he [[Insufferable Genius|earned it]].
** For informational purposes: Gabrielle Giffords was shot ''in the head'' on January 8th, 2011. She had recovered enough to travel to Washington D.C. from Arizona to vote on an important bill on ''August 1st, 2011''. That's ''seven months'' recovery time for being shot '''''in the head'''''. Doctor Rhee has ''more'' than earned his status as a [[Badass]] doctor.
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* The USA, during the invasion of Afghanistan, flooded the airwaves with the following message to demoralize and intimidate the Taliban: "Attention. You are condemned. Did you know that? The instant the terrorists you support took over our planes, you sentenced yourselves to death. You will be attacked by land, sea and air. Resistance is futile."
* During a siege of Quebec in 1690, the English Admiral Phips sent an ambassador into the city to offer terms for its surrender. Governor Frontenac said to him "my only reply to your general will be from the mouth of my cannons!"
* The way Soviet soldiers spoke of one of their most formidable pieces of ordnance - [[Macross Missile Massacre|MLRS]] BM-13, aka [[I Call Her "Vera"|Katyusha]] (Katie): "Those foes who heard Katyusha are now deaf; those of them who saw Katyusha are now blind; those who tussled with Katyusha are naught but ash."
* Allegedly when the U.S. military entered World War I a group of soldiers in France went to the tomb of Lafayette, the French noble who was responsible for much of the French assistance in the American Revolution and said "Lafayette, we have come" or "Lafayette, we are here."
* French general Henri Gouraud, after marching into Damascus in July 1920 to put down an anti-colonial rising, stood upon Saladin's grave, kicked it and said: "The Crusades have ended now! Awake Saladin, we have returned! My presence here consecrates the victory of the Cross over the Crescent."
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** Sheridan's men interpreted this ''as an order'', and charged the Confederate line along with their captain. The Confederates, despite their superior position, fled in panic, and the equally off-guard Union troops who weren't under Sheridan's immediate command (including Ulysses S. Grant) hastily mounted their own offensive and won the battle. Bear in mind that the Battle of Missionary Ridge was what led largely to the Cofederate defeat in the West, which in turn led to Grant being made overall general of the Union army.
* This [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhahiQJhfTo Royal Marines Commando advert]: "I am your worse nightmare. I have conquered fear. I have come to terms with terror, and pain is my best friend. I am a Royal Marines Commando. I will come from the sea. I will disappear without trace. My brothers will lay down their lives for me, as I will for them."
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTHyVWCoJdg This] video by [[YouTube]] user "TheThinkingAtheist" in response to Pastor Mike Stahl, who compared atheists to ex-convicts, sex offenders, and the KKK, and [[Idiot Plot|suggested they should be registered on a list]], [[Jerkass|so that they could be shunned and avoided]], [[What an Idiot!|and their businesses boycotted]]. Needless to say, TheThinkingAtheist was most displeased, leading to a [[Badass Boast]] demonstrating the sheer size of the atheist demographic today and yesterday.
{{quote| If The Christian National Registry of Atheists suggests that anyone should be discounted, avoided, or shunned, it should be any person who conceives of such a list. The one who attempts to quell opposing opinions with ignorance and oppression. To paraphrase Robert Green Ingersoll, "You are the inferior of any man whose rights you trample underfoot". Pastor Stahl, we are your neighbours, your educators, your entertainers, your authors, your scientists, your business partners, your community. ''Your world''. We are atheists. We are ''everywhere''. ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|And no list will]] '''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|ever]]''' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|contain us]]''.}}
* As the story goes, the Nazis sent an ambassador to Switzerland before the outbreak of [[World War II]]. The ambassador noted that the Swiss didn't have a very large standing army, to which the Swiss Representative replied that all citizens of the country were trained as citizen soldiers and kept their rifles in their homes, and that, if their country were to be invaded, their standing army of 20,000 would be increased to 500,000 in 24 hours. Which led to the following exchange:
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[[Category:Badass Boast]]
[[Category:Real Life]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]