Badass Creed/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Badass Creeds in Live-Action TV include:

Doctor Who

  • Doctor Who: From both the novels during the hiatus era and "Girl in the Fireplace".

Doctor: "Even monsters have nightmares."
Scared Little Girl: "What of?"
Doctor: "Me!"

    • The whole of John Pertwee's "Who is the Doctor" spoken word single counts as an extended Badass Creed for the Doctor.
    • The entire speech at Stonehenge.[context?]
    • Colonel Mace's speech just before UNIT counterattacks (and wipes the floor with) the Sontarans.

Colonel Mace: The Sontarans might think of us as primitive, as does every passing species with an axe to grind. They make a mockery of our weapons, our soldiers, our ideals, but no more. From this point on it stops. From this point on, the people of Earth fight back. And we show them, we show the warriors of Sontar what the human race can do.

Destroy without mercy!
 Attack without fear!
Live without conscience!
Exterminate without pity!
KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!
The Daleks are supreme! The Daleks are supreme! The Daleks are supreme!

  • The overhead announcement on a ship of Sontaran troops: "Battlestations... Rejoice."
  • Torchwood provides: "Torchwood. Above the Government, beyond the Police."

Star Trek

  • Any Klingon, any time, anywhere: "Today is a good day to die."
  • Also, not really a creed,[please verify] but -- when a Klingon dies in battle, other Klingons roar at the heavens to warn the dead that a true Klingon warrior is coming.
  • The Jem'Haddar battle cry is pretty Badass:

"I am First [name of Jem'Hadar First], and I am dead. As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember: Victory is Life!"

  • And then Miles O'Brien turns to his men and says:

I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. I am very much alive and I intend to stay that way.

  • While not designed to intimidate as such, the opening narration detailing the mission of the Enterprise (and Starfleet in general) is pretty Badass:

"Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before."

  • The Cardassian Resistance only needs two words:

For Cardassia!

"We are the Borg. You Will Be Assimilated; Resistance Is Futile. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us."

"We are the Borg. You will be annihilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness have become irrelevant. Resistance is futile...but welcome."

    • And then you have this version.... (What?)

"We are the Canadian Borg. Resistance would be impolite. Please wait to be assimilated. Pour l'assimilation en francais, veuillez appuyer sur deux."

Other Works

"We are Rangers.
 We walk in the dark places no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass.
We live for the One - we die for the One."

    • In the Spinoff Legend of the Rangers, one ranger starship captain amends the above creed to end, "We Live for the one, we die for the one...but we don't die stupidly."
      • Also, let's not the PSI Corps and their motto: "The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father."
  • Firefly: Possibly the motto of the Serenity Valley soldiers: "When you can't run, you walk. When you can't walk, you crawl. And when you can't do that, you find someone to carry you."
    • "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
    • "I aim to misbehave." (Only said once, but it was memorable.)
    • And the theme song: "Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me."
    • How about; "To Hell with this, I'm gonna live!"
  • Battlestar Galactica: "What do we do now, Captain?" Starbuck: "Same thing we always do: fight 'em till we can't."
    • "What do you hear?" "Nothing but the rain" (The sound of the debris of enemy craft hitting the hull)
    • Let's not forget Commander Adama's favorite "We've got to roll the hard six."
    • "So say we all!"
  • Jaffa rebels: "I die free."
    • Shel kek nem ron!
    • When they show up for the first time, the Ori battleships are quick to announce their intentions: "And those who are prideful and refuse to bow down shall be laid low and made unto dust."
  • The Brunnen-G battle hymn in Lexx probably qualifies:

Yo Way Yo
Home Va Ya Ray
Yo Way Rah
Jerhume Brunnen-G
Fighters of the fight
For their home and their heart
We fighters will win or die
Forever we are Brunnen-G

  • The titular Kamen Rider Stronger proves just how badass he is every time he shows up on screen with his creed.

"The heavens call!
The earth cries out!
The crowds roar!
All calling on me to strike back against evil!
now listen up, villains!
I am the warrior of justice!
The Kamen Rider...Stronger!"

  • Parodied on Hey Dude! Mr. Ernst tries to psych Jake up for a fight by telling him to remember the Ernst family motto. "We like math?" Mr. Ernst then tells him it's: "An Ernst never backs down!" To which Jake tells him he's never heard of that one before.
  • "The rich and powerful take what they want. We steal it back for you. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys. We provide...Leverage."
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