Battle Cry

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"Today Is a Good Day for Someone Else to Die!"

—Dwarf battlecry, Discworld

It's time for the hero to go to battle, to take action, to strive. Surely such a moment is worthy of an exclamation. If the hero (and it's almost always a hero) is up to it, he might produce a one-off Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner suitable for the occasion. It's not rare, though, to instead utter an appropriate Catch Phrase: the hero's trademarked Battle Cry.

A Battle Cry is usually written in title caps, and ends with an exclamation point or three.

This is more frequently a convention of comics, animation and video games than of live action, for some reason.

They have also appeared historically, in Real Life. Helps with Friend or Foe situations.

A common variation is calling out "Geronimo!" while leaping from a great height (usually when parachuting out of a plane).

Compare Rousing Speech. Screaming Warrior is sometimes an instance of this trope. Might also manifest as the dreaded Funny Bruce Lee Noises.

Contrast In the Name of the Moon, which is a longer speech and happens before the fight really starts.

Examples of Battle Cry include:

Anime and Manga


Comic Books

  • The Tick
    • The Tick parodies this convention with "Spoon!"
    • And his sidekick Arthur's "Not in the face! Not in the face!"
  • Fantastic Four
    • Ben Grimm: "It's Clobberin' Time!"
    • Mark Waid once said that the Avengers' battle cry is "Avengers Assemble", and the Fantastic Four's is "Johnny, wait, don't!"
    • Johnny Storm also has "Flame on!", which he says whenever he bursts into flames to attack an enemy. He doesn't have to say it (as evidenced by all the casual setting-himself-on-fire he does when not fighting), but he almost always does.
  • Captain America (comics)
    • "Avengers Assemble!" The phrase can and is said by any Avenger, but Cap seems to say it the most. Sometimes, for added pathos, "Avengers" is drawn out or has its own explanation point, and back in the '80s the team sometimes used "Avengers! Attack!"
    • Lampshaded in JLA-Avengers during the final battle, where they are technically fighting under the Avengers name (since Captain America (comics) is in charge). Everyone screams "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!", and then the Wasp adds in for the benefit of her friends from The DCU: "And Justice Leaguers, uh-- LAMBASTE!"
  • The Teen Titans have "Titans Together!" In the animated series, it was just "Teen Titans, Go!" or "Titans! Go!"
  • The Thunderbolts (infrequently) used to have "Justice like Lightning! Thunderbolts!"
  • Howling Commandos: "WA-HOO!"
  • Usagi Yojimbo: "RYAAAAAAAAAAA--"
  • Blackhawk: "Hawkaaa!"

Lady Blackhawk: Do not mock my special yell thing.

  • Incredible Hulk: "HULK SMASH!"
  • Possibly parodied by Birds of Prey's Misfit with "DAAAARKK VENGEEAAANCCE!" (She's a Batgirl wannabe, you see.)
  • In Battleground: Tattooine, some Imperial troopers abandoned into slavery on Ryloth are scooped up by the Rebels and allowed to go after their old commander. "SEMMM-TIINNNN!"
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    • The Turtles: "COWABUNGA!"
    • Casey Jones: "GOONGALA!!!"
  • In an all-Wolverine edition (it's complicated) of the Sliders-esque Exiles comic, the little girl Wolverine-thing (it's even more complicated) asks "Anyone have a battle cwy?" Zombie Wolverine responds with "Lunchtime!"
  • In one battle, Loki actually wound up on the same side as Thor and Odin while all of their allies were elsewhere. As the three launched themselves at their giant foe, Odin shouted, "For Asgard!" Since Earth was also endangered, Thor yelled, "For Midgard!" And Loki? Loki proclaimed, "For Myself!"
  • Namor has "Imperius Rex" which translates out as something like "Power of the King" or to put it more simply, "You're about to get your backside handed to you cause I'm Namor, bitch!"
  • The Wreckers from Transformers have one: "WRECK AND RULE!"
  • Elf Quest: "AAAYOOAHH!"
  • American Vampire: "Semper Fi, motherfuckers!"


Fan Works


Film

Po: GET READY TO FEEL THE THUNDER!!

  • Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear: "To Infinity and Beyond!"
  • Wizards: The good guys, from the land of Montagar, use "For Montagar, forever." A variant in that it's mostly spoken with quiet determination rather than shouted.
  • Starship Troopers: "Come on, you apes! You wanna live forever!?"
    • This line is based on a real-life battlecry uttered by Medal of Honor recipient and historical badass Daniel Daly, during the Battle of Belleau Wood.
  • From The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, before Theoden and the Rohirrim charge at Minas Tirith: "Arise! Arise, Riders of Theoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! A sword day... a red day... ere the sun rises! Ride now!... Ride now!... Ride! Ride to ruin and the world's ending! Death! Death!! Death!!! FORTH, EORLINGAS!!!"
    • Perhaps due to it being a fancy way of saying, "Let's all go get killed", this has been described as "worst... speech... ever." Of course, the delivery makes up for it, but see Literature, below.
    • There is Aragorn's cry of "ELENDIIIIIIIIIL!" in the first film, as well.
    • The whispered "For Frodo" before the charge at the Black Gates should count as well.
  • Braveheart: "FREEDOOOMM!"
    • Used with great effect by Iron Maiden in the Filk Song "The Clansman".
    • In the same movie: "ALBA GU BRATH!"
  • Hot Shots lampshades this with soldiers jumping out of an airplane : (Soldier 1) Geronimo!!! (Soldier 2) Geronimo!!! (Native American) Me!!!
  • Red Dawn: "Wolverines!!!"
  • The film adaptation of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe has "For Narnia! And for Aslan!"
  • Hook gives us the Lost Boys and "Bangarang!"
  • Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves: "GOD AND KING RICHARD!"


Gamebooks


Literature

  • Longfellow's Excelsior is an ironic commentary on this trope.
  • Conan the Barbarian: "Do You Want to Live Forever?!"
  • Various groups of Redwall critters over the course of the series have had their own battle cries. The two most common are "Redwaaaaaaaaaall!" (duh) and "Eulaliaaaaaaaaaa!", the traditional battle cry of Badger Lords (and the Long Patrol).
    • Also "Logalogalogalogaloga...!"
  • Subverted in Lois McMaster Bujold's The Warrior's Apprentice. While boarding an enemy ship, one of Mile's people enters a room with a "Whoop!" looking for someone to shoot. Miles points out that "You know, it might be better if we don't yell, going in. It's startling. It's bound to be a lot easier to hit people if they're not jumping around and ducking behind things."
  • The Lord of the Rings
    • Theoden's speech from the Film of the Book, above, is composed mostly of things said by Eomer, in the book, after he first sees his uncle the king die, thinks his sister Eowyn is dead, and then later, just when he thought they might be winning, sees the Corsair ships coming in, with what he assumes are reinforcements. Although "now for wrath, now for ruin, and a red nightfall" is the last line of a poem he speaks, laughing 'at despair,' when he thinks he's about to die by Corsair, since "he was young, and he was king: the lord of a fell people." Still, these circumstances probably explain why the words themselves are so depressing.
    • Aside from this, the books contain a lot of battle-crying. Frodo yells "For the Shire!" when he stabs an orc in Moria; Gimli "Khazad! Khazad!" before leaping into battle at Helms Deep; Eomer and Aragorn say "Guthwine for the Mark!" and "Anduril for the Dunedain!" when they draw swords together, and so on and so on.
    • Professor Tolkien helpfully adds a translation of the traditional Dwarf battle-cry, "Baruk Khazad! Khazad Ai-Menu!" i.e.,"Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!", which is a helpful warning that a lot of hairy kneecappers are about to run up up one side of you and down the other.
    • Aragorn also often cries with the name of his ancestor Elendil.
    • In The Silmarillion, at the end of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears: the Elves and their human allies have finally marched against Morgoth, they are losing and will never recover from this defeat. Hurin, a human warrior, is alone and about to be captured by trolls, but he is still fighting and all the while he keeps shouting: "Aure entuluva !" -- "Day shall come again !"—since he's fighting to allow the army of Gondolin to withdraw.
  • Discworld
    • Discworld's Dwarfs yell "Today is a good day for someone else to die!"
    • In Sourcery, Nijel the Destroyer has "Erm, excuse me..."
    • The Nac Mac Feegle like their battlecries. But because they're all stubborn individualists (despite having a hive structure), when a swarm of Feegles attack you, every one of them will be shouting something different.
    • "Remember Koom Valley" is another one, used by both Dwarves and Trolls. This may fall into disuse after the events of Thud!
    • And let us never forget Commander Vimes' terrifying war cry as he enters a berserker rage, also found in Thud!: "THAT! IS!! NOT!!! MY!!!! COW!!!!!"
  • In Percy Jackson and The Olympians, Tyson was attacked by a swarm of monsters. He tried to say, "For Poseidon!", but since his mouth was full, it came out wrong. The other Cyclops took up the cry, screaming, "PEANUT BUTTER!"
  • In H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, Kalvan sets up a battle cry for Friend or Foe, but adds "Down Styphon!" to make the issues clear. Later, a captured enemy complains of having been attacked by his own side when screaming his battle cry.
  • The Dresden Files
    • In the book Summer Knight, Harry has "I DO NOT BELIEVE IN FAIRIES!" before charging into battle and unleashing his surprise against the Summer Lady.
    • In the same battle Harry recruits several faeries (of the several inch tall variety) by buying them pizza. Their battle cry? "For the pizza lord!"
    • In Ghost Story, Harry gets himself an army of ghosts. His Battle Cry for them? "BOO!"
  • Dune: "MUAD'DIB!!!"
  • In P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath series, every Kencyr House has its own battle-cry. That of the heroine's House is the scream of a rathorn, a terrifying carnivorous unicorn-like beast.
  • Henry V: "Follow your spirit, and upon this charge, / Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' "
  • The Elric Saga: "Blood! Blood and souls for my lord Arioch!"
  • In the last Fablehaven book, Newel and Doren, junk-food-and-TV-loving satyrs, shout "Frito-Lay!" before battle.
  • Animorphs. Rachel's cry of "Let's do it!" became a custom at the start of every battle. Later none of them felt right going into battle without it.
    • Also the free Hork-Bajir battle cry: "FREE OR DIE!"
  • Inverted by the legions of Glen Cook's Dread Empire: "The soldiers of Shinsan fought, and died, without a word or cry. Their silence had unnerved men more experienced than Torfin." They're not under any kind of enchantment, or with tongues cut out; they're just that disciplined.
  • Tar Gibbons, the Master of Martial Arts from Rod Albright Alien Adventures yells out "Hee-yah! Frizzim Spezzack!" before attacking. Strangely, despite the Tar having Translator Microbes, this phrase is never translated.
  • Mat Cauthon from The Wheel of Time seems to be fond of these.
    • A notable example is "Carai an Caldazar! Carai an Ellisande! Al Ellisande!" ("For the honor of the Red Eagle! For the Honor of the Rose of the Sun! The Rose of the Sun!") from the first book.
    • Subverted and made more realistic later on, when his battle cry is "Blood and bloody ashes!"
    • When fighting the Gholam in Towers of Midnight: "Al dival, al kiserai, al mashi!" (For light, glory and love!) "Carai an manshimaya Tylin. Carai an manshimaya Nalsean. Carai an manshimaya ayend'an!" (Honor of my blade for Tylin. Honor of my blade for Nalsean. Honor of my blade for the fallen!)
  • The titular family of the Deathstalker series has maintained the battle cry of "SHANDRAKOR!" for centuries, in memory of said Death World.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire most of the battle-cries are the name of either their family or their city. Discussed briefly by Tyrion in his Rousing Speech during the defence of King's Landing. He specifically declares that he is not going to shout the name of the king or his own city, and instead reminds his troops that King's Landing is their city, and that is his warcry when he leads the charge.
  • The clans have them in Warrior Cats. The Dark Forest also has, "Kill the clans!"
  • Poul Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn rattles off several in a variety of languages during one battle, finishing up with "Heineken's Bier!"


Live-Action TV

  • Whose Line Is It Anyway occasionally mocks these during skits involving gladiators, Vikings, or other warriors by giving them the the most unintimidating battle cries ever.
    • The most ridiculous one was during a game of "Whose Line" (where the they insert random lines given by the audience into the scene), when Colin was supposed to be a gladiator.

Colin: Give it a squeeze and check it's working!

    • Another runner-up was their take on the Alamo.

Colin and Ryan: SHUT UP AND TOUCH THE MONKEYYY!

    • They actually did "World's Worst Battle Cry" once.

Wayne: (girly voice) ... Hurt you!
Colin: Give me liberty or a bran muffin! (later) Get my brown pants!

  • Xena: Warrior Princess: Xena's battle cry is just too darn epic! Few characters try imitating it as well. It's something like "Aye-yee-yee-yee-yee-yee-yee-yee-yee." Lucy demonstrates. It's called uluation, boys.
  • Doctor Who
    • "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"
    • Also "Delete! Delete!"
    • "Sontar-HA!"
    • For the Tenth Doctor, "Allons-y!"
    • And for the Eleventh (by the looks of it), "Geronimo!" (occasionally)
    • Jamie often utters the battle cry "Creag an tuire".
  • Titus Pullo has "THIRTEEN!" (his old legion) in Rome. Sets up a Crowning Moment of Awesome for him and Lucius Vorenus.
  • Power Rangers SPD both uses and parodies this at the same time in episode 11, when the Rangers scream "BATTLE CRY!" as they maneuver towards the enemy in their Megazord.
    • Of course, many teams and individuals have these, but it probably falls under the "In the Name of the Moon" category, as they're more than a word or two and involve signature poses.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Today is a good day to die!"
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
    • "VICTORY IS LIFE!"
    • "FOR CARDASSIA!!!"
  • Community
    • "Britta for the Win!"
  • Chiana from Farscape has a battle cry that can best be described as "BRRRRRRUUUUGHHHH-YI-YI-YI-YAAAAAAH!"
  • Captain Dashell in Death Valley always ends his briefings with "Let's get out there and kill something!"


Music


Pro Wrestling

  • From wrestling: "Let's Get Ready to Rumble!" is the odd example of a battle cry uttered by a third party.
    • Very odd, as you won't hear it during any Pro Wrestling event held since WCW ended. Michael Buffer, boxing announcer and MC—who occasionally introduced WCW main events—has trademarked the phrase and has been somewhat aggressive against those who use it—not surprising as according to The Other Wiki, he's made $400 million off of those five words alone... (Buffer's introductions are deleted from WWE 24/7.)


Sports

  • In team sports, a collective battle cry before the match is not uncommon.
  • The All Blacks, New Zealand's national rugby union team, start every game with the Haka, a Maori war chant. Perhaps a bit more organized than the Trope category calls for, but impressive nonetheless. Ironically, haka Ka Mate is not a war haka, and the current haka was written specifically for the All Blacks.

"Kama Te Kama Te Ka Ora!!!"


Tabletop Games

  • Warhammer 40,000: Every Space Marine chapter and legion has their own battlecry, though virtually every Imperium force may use "For the Emperor!" and "The Emperor protects!".
    • The orks have the ever-recognizable "WAAAAGGGGH!"
    • The Eldar use "For the Craftworld!" in Dawn of War, but background material also includes "KHAINE!" and a wordless scream from the Howling Banshees.
    • Khorne worshippers pretty much has "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" as a Catch Phrase.
      • 'Harriers for the Cup!' in the same book Cain is startled to hear the members of the 597th chanting his name as a battle cry.
    • There's also a joke warcry for Slaaneshi cultists: "Porn for the Porn God! Smut for the Smut Throne!"
    • Warhammer 40,000 also includes a number of memorable subversions: for example, in His Last Command, the Tanith 1st have been merged with the 81st Belladon to become the 81/1st (recon). Their commander muses on the difficulty of merging all the regimental traditions, and notes that a Battle Cry of "Fury of Belladon, for Tanith, for the Emperor, and, by the way, Remember Vervunhive!" gets full marks for effort, but'll leave you dead in a slit trench before you can finish saying it and get on with the fight...
    • This is so ubiquitous that the Tyranids and Necrons are noted as being especially creepy for not using them.
  • Warhammer Fantasy Battle Fantasy has the same warcry for orcs and it even has an official spelling (it's always spelled WAAAGH!, though the alternate capitalization Waaagh! can be used when referring to an Ork army instead of the battle cry itself). The Khorne worshippers uses the same as in 40k. The regiments of renown also had a warcry each.
  • Legend of the Five Rings: The Crab Clan usually employ "HIDA!!!" as a battle cry.
  • These are weaponized in Magic: The Gathering.


Theater


Video Games

LOK'TAR OGAR! VICTORY OR DEATH!

    • On that note... "Arcanite Reaper, HOOO!"
  • Beyond Good and Evil: "CARLSOOOOON AAAAND PPEEETERSSSSS!"
  • Halo
    • Elites frequently yell "WORT WORT WORT!" as combat begins. Interestingly, it was made from taking "Go, go go!", reversing it, and speeding it up.
    • "I am THE ARBITER!"
  • Any depiction of the US Marines (Call of Duty, Halo etc) will likely feature their trademark "Oorah!"
  • The units and factions of the Command & Conquer series have various battle cries. For example:
    • Allied GI's in Red Alert 2 use the US Army's "Hoo-ah!" while Navy SEAL's utter the (inaccurate) cry, "Hoo-rah!"
    • The Badass Creeds of the Brotherhood of Nod -- "Kane lives!", "Peace through power!", and "One vision, one purpose!"—are often uttered as battle cries (the foremost is especially popular).
  • For some reason, the marines in Haze say "Boosh!"
  • Sudden Strike
    • The Russian infantry sometimes yell "Oora za Stalina!" ("Hail Stalin!")
    • From the Allies, "Eliminate them!" and from the Germans the equivalent "R?n Sie aus!"
    • The tanks take the cake though, specifically the Russian ones: "Nizu sen!" "Ejevash, voyo!"
  • Bioware loves this trope.

Dynaheir: For right! And I always am!
Minsc: GO FOR THE EYES BOO! GO FOR THE EYES! RAAAAARGH!
Xzar: I AM BECOME DEATH! DESTROYER OF WORLDS!
Edwina: I feel your stares! DIE! DIE!
Jan Janssen: Your knees are mine! (and) This isn't boring, I'll give it that!
Jaheira: FOR THE FALLEN! (and) NATURE! TAKE THE LIFE SHE GAVE! (and there's also) FALL, CREATURE! AND FEED THE EARTH!
Mazzy: Arvoreen! Guide my blade!
Viconia: L'il Alurl! FOR SHAR!
Sarevok: Death Comes for you! FEEL it's Icy breath!
Xan: Onwards! To futility!
Flaming Fist Mercenaries: I SERVE THE FLAMING FIST!" (and) I AM THE LAW!
Irenicus: You will SUFFER! You will ALL Suffer!
Ogres: Me will CRUSH you! Crush you to GOO!
Ogrillons: Time for some CARNAGE!
Bandits: So I kicked him in the head till he was dead! Hahaha!
A random mage has the memorable "Prepare to be eviscerated! FOOL!"

Trask: For the Republic!
Carth: Down you go!
Bastila: You cannot win. / For the Jedi!
Mission: Just die already!
Juhani: For the Order! / For the Republic! / I will be your doom!"
Canderous: This is what I live for! / This is gonna be fun! / DIE!!
Jolee: Never too old for this!
HK-47: (cheerfully) Combat mode ACTIVE!

    • Dragon Age has Sten's Qunari one and Alistair's cry of "For Ferelden! FOR THE GREY WARDENS!!!" before the final battle.
    • Mass Effect 2 has Grunt's "I. AM. KROGAN!" whenever he charges.
      • The Reapers make an extremely loud foghorn like noise, which seems to serve as a battlecry, given the situations in which they use it.
  • Considering their working relationship with Bioware, Obsidian also loves it.

Dak'kon: There cannot be two skies!
Ignus: BUURNNNN....
Vhailor: Justice is not blind! I am her eyes!
The Transcendent One: I CAN FORGE PLANES WITH MY POWER! I CAN UNMAKE YOU!

    • Neverwinter Nights has one of the custom voice-sets ("High Strung Evangelist") use the battle-cry "Attaaaack ah saaaayyyy attaaaack!" It's awesome.
  • Kingdom Hearts has a few.
  • The World Ends With You
    • When performing a Combination Attack, Neku and his partner each have half of one: "Ready to Die?" "Then die!"/ "Follow my lead!" "Screw that!"/"Pick it up, Phones!" "I'm there!"
    • "A new world awaits." "And you're going."
  • Team Fortress 2 has at least one per class, and complement the initial mad charge when the round starts quite nicely.
    • SAXTON HAAAAAAAALE!
  • Urban Dead has quite a few of these, primarily used by zombie groups speaking zamgrh. The most common and famous is BARHAH!
  • Metal Wolf Chaos: RICHAAAAAAARD!
  • Every (non-monster) NPC in Morrowind makes a battle cry before attacking (things like "Now you die!" etc.).
  • From Dawn of War II, we have this rather epic rally cry: "Show me what passes for fury amongst your misbegotten kind!", among others "Purge the alien!"
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
    • Even Dr. Eggman has a few. Most remembered is "Get a load of this!" from Sonic Adventure and "You know what they say, the more the merrier!" from Shadow the Hedgehog.
    • Sonic and Shadow had their own in the final battle of Sonic Adventure 2, such as Shadow's "Here I come, you creep!" Eggman's continued in Sonic Unleashed with things like "How about THIS!"
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link's famous screams. "HYAAA! EYAAA! HAAAA!"
  • Tales of Symphonia had a few, from the main characters and from the humanoid enemies. Genis usually had the most elaborate ones. "Form a torrential vortex and engulf the evil spirits!" Zelos, however, had my favourite, "Don't run!", said in such a smug, taunting way.
  • From Tales Of Destiny 2, there's Barbatos Goetia and his memorable "BURUAAAAAAAA!". Additional Rs are sometimes added (And rolled) to increase how hammy it is.
  • In Persona 3, the main character yells the name of whichever Persona he's summoning when he gets a critical. When equipped with a bow, he will also yell "Persona!" or "Come forth!". Others have their own battle cries, my favourites being Aegis's "I need your HELP!" and Junpei's "Mano a mano. Let's do it!". The most traditional Battle Cries come when you do an All-Out Attack, however. Mitsuru's "You'll fall by MY hand!!" is the best example here.
  • The title character of Legacy of Kain is fond of yelling out "Vae Victus!" when fighting.
  • Evil Zone: The de facto main character of the game Danzaiver proclaims and sometimes fervently barks out the excessively dramatic battle cry " The power of a supreme ruler destroys evil! The ultimate hero! DANZAIVER!!! ". A prime example of this is in his final battle.
  • League of Legends: Garen's DEMACIAAAA! has entered memetic status within the community. Lux and Jarvan IV yell out a similar cry of their nation while casting their ultimate abilities.
  • Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 seldom generate character's line before using magic and skills. While some of them being total stupid, some are really awesome.

Lulu: (casting Waterga) Let's see you under pressure.
Auron: (using Overdrive) Pray. Now!
Yuna: (casting Nulblaze) Shield us from fiery fury!

  • Quite a few characters in No More Heroes have one, but a boss from the sequel, the robotic Doctor Letz Shake takes it the most literally.

Doctor Letz Shake: Three... Two... One... Battlecry!

  • In Kingdom of Loathing, if you have access to the Distant Past where you take control of Krakrox the Barbarian, you have access to his Mighty Shout ability, wherein his battle cry gives a temporary boost to your muscle and moxie. The description of the boost explains that Krakrox's battle cry was just "Battle cry!", as he discovered it doesn't really matter what you shout, so long as it's extra loud and has a vowel sound at the end.
  • Solid Snake has possibly the world's quietest Battle Cry: "It's showtime."
  • Practically all fighting games.

Ryu: The answer lies...in the heart of battle.
Scorpion: Vengeance will be mine!

  • City of Heroes includes an optional battle cry as part of character design, and it's automatically mapped to F10 so it can be "shouted" with a single keystroke.


Web Comics

  • Digger gives us the memorable "Remember Tunnel Seventeen!"
  • In Erfworld, Parson teaches some of his troops a new battle cry. It may be familiar to you: Leeroy Jenkins!!!
    • Bogroll's cry "For my Lord...Hamstaaaaahrr!"
  • S.B.D. from Everyday Heroes has a running-and-hiding cry.
  • Girl Genius: The Jägers have "Ve hunt!" Given that Jäger translates as "hunter", their choice of battle cry is highly appropriate.
    • Agatha's code word for activating a little mechanical army she made and concealed in a travelling circus "SHOWTIME!"
    • Martellus unleashed Knights of the Hunt (his personal elite guard of werewolves) with "The hunt is on! GO!".
  • Looking for Group
    • "For pony!"
    • And Cale's "With me!" too.
    • Cale's "For Gamlon!", which inspires Richard's equine-themed cry, and was itself copied from the last Battle Cry of the King of Gamlon.
  • Twokinds: "In the name of meaningless battle!"
  • In the The Zombie Hunters, Sammie's is the self-demonstrating "BATTLE CRY!"
  • Blue Crash Kit sees the debut of one member of the eponymous trio's suggested Battle Cry: "Justice is cute!"
  • Let's not forget Spark of Dominic Deegan's "DEATH FROM ABOVE!"

Web Original

  • The Whateley Universe has a high school team called the Vindicators, who are a parody of the Avengers, so they have a battle cry too. "Vindicators Avaunt!" (Their leader is Belgian.)
  • Though the regulars in AH Dot Com the Series don't really have one, the Pole Trolls of The Other Wiki were known to use "CITATION NEEDED!"
  • In the short series of animations based on the DS game Spectrobes released online, main character Rallen has "Iku ze!" (yes, in the English dub) as his Catch Phrase / Battle Cry.
  • Spoony would shout out "Wolverines!"
  • Film Brain once used "Symbolism" as a battle cry in Kickassia
  • The Gamers has Mark The Red's battle cry: "Blood, Death, and VEENNNGGGEEEEAAANNNCCCEEEEE!!!!!!"
  • In Greek Ninja? Lots of 'em. The most weird one by far, is brought to us by Eleonora.

With this many trees around... you could have written on a tree!! (ruin as many trees as you wish, as long as the rock is okay.)


Western Animation

  • Thundercats and Thundercats 2011
    • Thunder... THUNDER... THUNDERCATS, HOOOOOOO!!!!! and from the latter:
    • For the pride!
    • Clerics, to the death!
  • G.I. Joe
    • The G.I. Joe team uses "Yo, Joe!"
    • And on the other side: "COOOBRAAAAA!"
    • And who could forget: "COOOBRAAA-LALALALALALALALALA!"
  • Danny Phantom
  • American Dragon: Jake Long: "DRAGON UP!"
  • Transformers
    • "Autobots! Transform and roll out!"
    • Due to them being animals, the phrase is not used in Beast Wars—until Optimus Primal gets Optimus Prime's spark (read: soul) in his body, where he orders the Maximals to "Transform and roll out" as a Shout-Out. In Beast Wars, the transformation code phrases were often used interchangeably with battle cries. Inferno's frenzied shouts of "For the ROYALTY!" fills this purpose.
    • Coopted by Megatron in Transformers Animated with the more aerial-oriented "Decepticons! Transform and rise up!" Also fitting considering their evil-rebel nature in the Animated universe.
    • Megatron has also been known to use the more succinct "Decepticons! ATTACK!"
    • ALL HAIL MEGATRON!
  • Code Lyoko, William: "FOR XANA!"
  • CAPTAIN CAAAAAVVVEEEEEEEMMAAAAANNNNNNNN!
    • ... and SON!
  • Dave the Barbarian loves to parody this trope, with Strom the Slayer's "Al-limba-lee!" When Dave has to create one it involes a Hammerspace hat and cane: "Look out world, cause here I come!" sung like a Broadway hit.
  • The Tick (animation): "SPOOOOOOOOOON!"
    • Arthur: "Not in the face! Not in the face!"
  • The Superhero Squad Show: "Hero Up!"
  • Toxic Crusaders parodies this trope, then plays it straight. Toxie's original Battle Cry is "I hope I don't get hurt!", but he later changes it to "It's clean-up time!"
  • The Problem Solverz: "ALFEEEEEEEEE!"
  • Beast Wars
    • "For the Royalty!"
    • "For the glory of the colony!"
  • Can't forget Tarzan's call, instantly recognizeable by anyone who's ever seen the movies, and usually means that someone, beast or human, is going to get their ass handed and gun broken.
  • Parodied in Aladdin and the King of Thieves when four Genies parachute out of an airplane.

Genie #1: GERONIMO!!!
Genie #2: ARAPAHOE!!!
Genie #3: NAVAJO!!!
Genie #4: Pocahontas.


Real Life

  • The Other Wiki has an extensive list of Real Life battle cries, as well as some fictional examples. A particularly notable is the one used by the Japanese in WWII ("Banzai!").
  • Yelling the words "Attack!" or "Charge!" in relevant situations may very well count as a Battle Cry, with good reason, since in those relevant situations it likely also counts as an order or "advice" to the yeller's allies.
    • "Fire!" may also count.
    • Teddy Roosevelt added to the mounting evidence that he was a Badass at the battle of San Juan Hill when he ordered his Rough Riders not to "Charge" but to "Follow me!"
  • The Scots Covenanters' battle cry (from the English Civil War, which spilled over into Scotland) was "Christ and No Quarter!" Short, terrifying, and internally inconsistent.
  • HAKKAA PÄÄLLE! Litteraly translates as "Hack them down!" or "Keep on hacking!". War cry of the Finnish auxiliary cavalry. Also short, to the point and completely pants-shittingly terrifying.
    • This war cry is today used by Finnish ice hockey fans.
    • To clarify, Finnish cavairy didn't follow the normal battle tactics of the time. Instead of "shoot-retreat-reload-repeat" they went "shoot-shoot-CHARGE". For a soldier who was used to the former, this could be a major Oh Crap moment.
    • This war cry was also popular during the Winter War. Another, popularized by The Unknown Soldier, was "Tulta munille!", which roughly translates to "Fire at their balls!", as according to The Other Wiki.
  • Aayo Gurkhali![2]
    • Even hotter tip: If you hear this, run the fuck away.
  1. ↑ "Oh my god, he just ran in."
  2. ↑ Here come the Gurkhas!
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