Rule of Cool/Quotes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Budd: You're telling me she cut her way through eighty-eight bodyguards before she got to O-Ren?
Bill: Nah, there weren't really eighty-eight of them. They just called themselves "The Crazy 88".
Budd: How come?
Bill: I don't know, I guess they thought it sounded cool.

...Saito, the resident sniper, gets more time to shine because he's a sniper and only has one eye, and snipers with only one eye are cool.

Simmons: Wait a second, so you build an entire chamber capable of holographic silulations instead of building the car itself? That doesn't seem very efficient to me.
Sarge: Simmons, sometimes you just gotta go for style points...hoo-ahh

—Red vs Blue: Relocated

Always remember, Elan: it doesn't matter if you win or lose - as long as you look really cool doing it!

Julio ScoundrélThe Order of the Stick #392

... Sometimes, the impossible can become possible - if you're awesome!

Rhino the Hamster, Bolt

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'Ooo-hoo!- this could be a little more sonic!'?"

Jack, Doctor Who

I see you out there. You're wondering if you should buy Prototype. You're on the fence. "Should I buy it? I don't know!" I can help you with that. In Prototype, you can do a karate kick on a helicopter. WHAT THE FUCK ELSE DO YOU WANT?!

I guess I'd hoped that by shifting the technology to escalators, the awesomeness might somehow - you know... ...break science.

T-Rex, Dinosaur Comics

MOTHERFUCKER SUPLEXED A TRAIN.

Spoony, on why Sabin is The Man

This is the culmination of cars, track, electric motors and gravity all wrapped into one giant ball of sheer what-the-fuckery. We've examined the photos and we've even watched this commercial for the thing and still have no idea what's going on. It is awesome, however, so we really couldn't care less how it works.

This cracked.com page; unfortunately, the commercial in question was pulled by YouTube.

Two things. First, Ron Wizard is my City of Heroes character, and he's a Badass. Second, top right, that's an ent with a helicopter head.

That would be Abe Lincoln with a chainsaw fighting a wooly mammoth. Sorry for the small panel.

Oh. How stupid of me. That was the sound of chainsaw nunchuks.

The Cool Stuff Theory of Literature is as follows: All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool. And that works all the way from the external trappings to the level of metaphor, subtext, and the way one uses words. In other words, I happen not to think that full-plate armor and great big honking greatswords are cool. I don't like 'em. I like cloaks and rapiers. So I write stories with a lot of cloaks and rapiers in 'em, 'cause that's cool. Guys who like military hardware, who think advanced military hardware is cool, are not gonna jump all over my books, because they have other ideas about what's cool.
The novel should be understood as a structure built to accommodate the greatest possible amount of cool stuff.

Steven Brust

But to remain historically accurate, I would have to leave out an important question that I felt needed to addressed, which is, "What if Jesus had known kung fu?"

GM: Wait, you're going to backstab him with a ballista?
Rogue: Uh-huh.
GM: With a f***ing siege weapon?
Rogue: Uh-huh.
GM: Ok, there's gotta be a rule against this. (Checking rulebook). Well... there's nothing agaist it in the rules. (Sighs) I can't believe I'm doing this. (Rolls a critical hit). Well, that's 264 points of damage. You splatter Hunk all over the common room. The patrons shriek in horror and run out of the inn, occasionally slipping on blood and entrails. You're now alone in a room that looks like a vat of beef stroganoff exploded in it.
Barbarian: (Wipes remains of Hunk from face)...Cool!

The Gamers

But it's tough to really care about questions like, "Why did that happen?" or even "What's going on?" when you're constantly interrupted by "Oh my goodness! Giant robots! Wheeee!"

Peter Suderman, reviewing the 2007 film adaptation of Transformers

We don't know exactly how this works, and the artist probably didn't either, but it sure does look cool!

This Transformers wiki page

Graydon: And then they're on the roof!
Clifford: Why are they on the roof?
Graydon: Because those are the rules!

"Who cares?! It's awesome!"

Plus he went into battle with a shield that also doubled as a flamethrower, and this is a point that I can't possibly emphasize enough.

Candace: Okay, that doesn't even make any sense.
Truck Driver: It doesn't have to, I've got a monster truck!

Phineas and Ferb, "It's a Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud World"

One of the major canons of construction for RPG rules is: Always err on the side of awesome. Therefore, applying this, the Laser Jellyfish can definitely fly up out of the water.

Now, I'm no expert on this or, indeed, anything except dick analogies, but I do know that modern military jets are very fucking fast things. By the time you see one it's already over there, so combat in such a thing would usually amount to pressing a button and watching something half a mile behind you burst into flames, and that's not just idle fact, it's cold-hard speculation. But Real Life makes not for entertainment, so for this game we're all just going to dogfight in jets like it's nineteen-forty-fucking-five, okay?

"You walked out of the room. The laws of physics stopped, the laws of awesome tripled."

How I Met Your Mother episode "Blitzgiving"

In writing a screenplay for a movie, be sure to include plenty of action.
WRONG: "To be, or not to be."
RIGHT: "LOOK OUT! GIANT RADIOACTIVE SQUIRRELS!"

Dave Barry, "Grammar: De Letter of De Law"

"We reject physics in the name of awesome!"

Le Chuck 4 GG: OMIGAWD T-REXES OMIGAWD CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPHS?
Karon: Huh?
Amanda: Uh...
Fiifii: Of course!
(Fiifii autographs a picture of herself she carries around.)
Fiifii: Here you go!
GG: "HOLY SHIT THANK YOU!"
(GG hugs Fiifii and takes the autograph, then begins dancing around)
GG: THIS IS THE MOST AWESO-...wait.
(GG stops.)
GG: Waaaaaaaait. My girlfriend is a human shark. I have a robotic hand that can shoot laz0rs. Why the hell am I so impressed by people fighting dinosaurs?
Asagi: ...Dude, they have a spaceship that can turn into a semitruck. That's still pretty kickass, in my opinion.

AI: My people worked themselves into extinction converting our planet into a navigable space vessel!
Zim: Why would you do all that?
AI: Because it's cool.

Invader Zim, "Battle of the Planets"

While it will feel ridiculous...it will look awesome.

J. J. Abrams on the set of Star Trek

I- Wha- .... You know what? Screw it. That was awesome.

I don't know what's going on there but it's awesome.

Lucy: The definition of feasible seems to be a moving target here.
Danae: My idea is cool, and cool trumps all other words.

Rarity: Do you not like the shape?
Rainbow Dash: The shape's fine, just make the whole thing... y'know... cooler! It needs to be about... 20% cooler.

"Nuclear party foul" has a nice ring to it.

—Kevyn Andreyasn, Schlock Mercenary, November 22, 2013

Grimnoir [Chronicles] used dirigibles because I wanted to have cool dirigible fights. That was it.

—Larry Correia