What Measure Is a Mook?/Quotes

So when Neo's mentor Morpheus gets captured by the bad guys, Neo responds by arming himself with an arsenal larger than that of most developing nations, slaughtering a cluster of security guards before they can even draw their guns, before dropping a bomb on the ground floor of the building just in case there were a few errant cockroaches that weren't killed in the earlier carnage.

Wachowski brothers fans have noted the deliberate parallels between the messianic Neo and the Biblical story of the moneychangers in the temple, in which Christ pulled out a Beretta and killed about 50 security guards.

—Cracked on The Matrix

Yeah, he was just this guy. A guy in a butterfly suit who got in over his head. And I could see it in his eyes that if I let him get away this one time he'd never come back. But, then I also thought, you know, kill him.

—Brock Samson, The Venture Brothers

Yeah, he just killed thirty people without a second thought, of course he's not gonna shoot YOU!

—Film Brain's review of Cobra

Homer: I'm not paying another penny to Burns and his evil power company!
Bart: Don't you work for that evil company?
Homer: Don't split hairs, boy. I may work for Burns, but I'm just an innocent Stormtrooper on the Death Star.

Bart: Even the innocent ones croaked when the Death Star exploded.

—Simpsons Comics, "Off the Grid"

Oh, come on, the soldiers? They don't grow on trees you know!

—General Tarquin, Order of the Stick

Vivi: Why...? Why would you do such a thing!? Weren't they your friends!?
Black Waltz No. 3: You fool! Do I look like some lowly black mage soldier?
Steiner: Even if they weren't your allies, what you did was reprehensible!

Black Waltz No. 3: Kwahahaha! Worry not about them: many more are being produced even now!

—Final Fantasy IX

This was but a mild adventure and it was necessary to kill only seven enemies in the way of business. The only serious happening was the wounding of Sir Gawain.

—Prince Valiant narration, 1937-10-30

Walk fast from that boring explosion
And don't think

About the people you killed

—The Lonely Island, "Cool Guys Don't Look At Explosions"

"You think I am a monster, but you're no different from me, Drake. How many men have you killed? How many, just today?"

—Zoran Lazarevic, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

"Even nameless soldiers have lives to live. Remember that..."

—Unnamed NPC soldier of Kislev, Xenogears

These minions gave their lives for guys like...me

—Bowser in Brawl in the Family, 200 - Ode to Minions

Xin Ji: You are a hero, you are...

Player: A killer? It isn't as noble when you say it like that, is it? I have slaughtered thousands simply because someone told me it was for a just cause. But something you'll learn over time is, everyone thinks their cause is just. The Ministry of Purity feels their cause is just. Reiko may be evil, but the men and women she has tricked into obeying her are as much victims as the rest of Cantha.

—Guild Wars Beyond: Winds of Change