Who Dares?
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Standard villain or otherwise ominous being Stock Phrases. Said in a booming deep voice, the villain rhetorically asks Who Dares? whatever action the hero has done; be it defy them, attack them, talk to them, look at them, etc. Expect them to start referring to themselves in the third person, and giving themselves important sounding adjectives.
Possibly has something to do with the odd word-order (you don't say "How do you dare?") making the phrase sound like Antiquated Linguistics, always the domain of the overimportant egotist.
Proper heroic form, incidentally, is to stand tall and reply "I dare!"
"How dare you!" is a common variant used by heroes and villains alike, the former usually in response to the villain Kicking The Dog.
Any villain using this will usually give a "This Cannot Be!" variant upon defeat.
Comic Books
- Of course Doctor Doom plays this every chance he gets.
- From Legion of 3 Worlds #2, when Mordru is angry at Super
bratman-Prime's appearance:
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Mordru: Who dares disturb Mordru? |
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- In Sandman, Desire starts in on Dream for banishing Nada to hell, earning a cold "You...dare..." from Dream. Desire's totally unimpressed.
- In one of the Avengers Heroic Age comics where the Avengers are battling Apocalypse, Iron Man traps him in a forcefield. Cue the following exchange
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Apocalypse: Who dares!? |
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Fan Works
- In A Very Potter Sequel, Goyle announces his presence by bellowing WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMBER???????
Film
- The Wizard of Oz, where Oz is bluffing at how awesome he is, using special effects to make people not pay attention to The Man Behind the Curtain.
- In Labyrinth, when Sarah tries to enter the Goblin City, the gate slams in her face...and each wing of the gate has half of a golem, which grabs a huge axe and starts swinging it back and forth while repeatedly booming "WHOOOOO GOES?!...WHOOOOO GOES?!"
- In Yellow Submarine, the head Blue Meanie asks Who Dares? bring music back into Pepperland. The Dragon, Max, first answers, "Rachmaninoff?"; this gets him blasted and stomped. He next suggests "Guy Lombardo?"
- In the movie adaptation of Hogfather, Death's Crowning Moment of Awesome against the Auditors.
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"Yes, there ARE rules. And you BROKE them! How dare you! HOW DARE YOU! |
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- The Nightmare Before Christmas has a(n anti)heroic example. During the final confrontation with Oogie, Jack bellows "How DARE you treat my friends so shamefully!?" in the most righteously indignant way possible.
- Bonus points for it being a Pre-Mortem One-Liner.
- The Cave of Wonders in Aladdin: "Who disturbs my slumber?"
- Dracula's first line in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires after he is woken from his slumber:
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"Who dares to disturb the sanctity of Dracula?" |
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King Osric: What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance! ... I salute you. |
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- In more a homage to this trope than anything, at the start of the climax of Megamind, as the titular character finally realises it's worth risking everything to correct his mistakes, the former Supervillain announces his presence in the most dramatic, villan-esq way possible...
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[as thousands of his worker drones come together to form a giant holographic version of his head] |
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Literature
- Voldemort, twice, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Harry calls him by his real name ("Riddle") during the Final Battle. It's always met with the same derisive response:
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Voldemort: You dare- |
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- The Troperrific Doctor Impossible shouts this repeatedly in Soon I Will Be Invincible, especially during the climax.
- From Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the coincidentally named He Man (Pronounced something like 'Huh Mahn') shouts 'I am He Man, the devil who shoots across the sky. Who dare fight with me?' when he appears. He is immediately cut down by a random minor character.
- Lucy, now fully undead, calls this out in some versions of Dracula after the heroes stop her just as she is about to feed on a child.
- Played fairly straight in one Star Wars novel, where Mara Jade strolls into the lair of the Big Bad to save the main character in a Big Damn Heroes moment:
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Big Bad: Who DARES? |
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- In the Hand of Thrawn duology, the booming automated voice whenever someone enters Thrawn's personal cloning chamber:
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"Who dares disturb the sleep of the Syndic Mitth'raw'nuruodo?!" |
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Live-Action TV
- Every Go'auld in Stargate SG-1 play this straight; naturally O'Neil mocks them for it every chance he gets. Eventually, by the episode Zero Hour it becomes:
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Ba'al: You dare mock me? |
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- Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Innocence. The Judge, an invincible demon summoned to destroy the world, asks this when Buffy shoots him with a crosssbow. What follows is the Crowning Moment of Awesome that all others in the series is measured by.
- And in the spin-off Angel when Angelus gets annoyed at how the Beastmaster is booming away in his head.
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BEASTMASTER: YOU WOULD DARE TO DEFY ME? |
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Music
- In Devin Townsend's concept album Ziltoid the Omniscient, the Sixth Dimensional Planet Smasher makes his entrance growling "Who dares awaken the Planet Smasher?"
- The Nox Arcana song "Hall Of The Witch Queen" opens with dramatic thunder and a shout of "WHO DARES INTRUDE UPON MY DARK DOMAIN?!"
Video Games
- Baldur's Gate 2
- Irenicus says this exact line when you interrupt his plans for ascension.
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- He gets an earlier one while slaughtering the Shadow Thieves after you escape from Chateau Irenicus:
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You dare to attack me here? Do you even know whom you face? |
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Lucien:You dare to mock the power of Lucien? |
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- Warcraft: "Who dares defile these ancient lands? Who dares the wrath of Cenarius and the night elves?"
- World of Warcraft: "Who dares awaken Archaedas? Who dares the wrath of the Makers?" Apparently daring the wrath of things isn't actually all that daring in the Warcraft universe.
- Subverted in the Blood Furnace:
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Keli'dan the Breaker: Who dares interrupt--What is this, what have you done? You'll ruin everything! |
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- Doopliss, the doppleganger from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door asks something like this when you confront him and your deceived allies.
- From the same game, Gloomtail also gets one of these moments when you enter his lair in the final chapter.
- Also, from Super Mario Sunshine: "Mario! How dare you disturb my family vacation!" Made Narmy by Bowser sounding like Cookie Monster.
- And let's not forget Super Mario RPG: "How dare you dodge the barrel!"
- WHO DARES TO TRY TO STOP THE TIME BOMB?
- Tekken 6: Feng Wei asks this to anyone who crashes his private training grounds.
- In Mass Effect 2, Commander Shepard has the option to headbutt a Krogan rival. Even better is that the watching Krogan Shaman finds it hilarious.
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Uvenk: You...You dare? |
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- Disgaea: "What fool dares awaken me, the great Laharl?"
- Knights of the Old Republic: You find some Sith in the Temple on the Unknown Planet. "Who dares intrude on our meditations?"
- Undead King Joseph attempts to intimidate the player like this in Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. Then he remembers that he was only a minor villain who died in all endings of the first game, and immediately decides it would be much smarter to get on the player's good side.
Web Comics
- A Penny Arcade strip had a book containing the lines:
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A voice was heard to say, "Who dares disturb the Crypt Of The Immortal Space Bitches?" "I am Grimm Shado," said Grimm Shado, his triple wand claws extending. "And I am here to take it to the limit." |
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- Fuck yes.
- In The Order of the Stick prequel "Start of Darkness":
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"Who dares to disturb Xyklon the Consequential?!" |
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- Also, when Haley summons Celia. (Celia's sick of her mom summoning her to ask why she doesn't have any grandkids yet.)
- In Gunnerkrigg Court Ysengrin demands this of Renardine after seeing him in his wolf form. After Renardine's response is to mock Ysengrin's appearance, then his superpowers, the Alt Text mentions "The answer is yes".
- Played for Laughs in Blip, when Liz insults Hester awake.
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Liz: You leave me no choice. Hey Hermione! |
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- In Girl Genius when a Castle Heterodyne node notices the meatbags around and says "Hi!" (Act 2 Vol.2, Page 075), it sounds as "Who dares disturb the destiny of the Heterodynes?"
Web Original
- Raocow: "Who dares to try to stop the time bommmmmmmmmbbbbb!?"
Western Animation
- A Robot Chicken sketch had George W. Bush discover he was a Jedi. He then used his lightsaber to vandalize the Lincoln Memorial only for it to rise from the ground and reveal a hibernating Abe Lincoln underneath...
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Lincoln: Who dares disturb my slumber? |
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- Aku of Samurai Jack is particularly good at this, playing it utterly straight in his first confrontation with Jack...only to subvert the trope much later on when he's visited by a group of gangsters that don't merit the full Who Dares? speech.
- Rocko's Modern Life had a very large hippo-woman whose Running Gag was berating Rocko the Accidental Pervert with "HOW DARE YOU", delivered in a way that bordered on Nightmare Fuel.
- In "Legacy", series finale of Superman: The Animated Series, Superman and Darkseid have finally come to blows in the climax of the series. As Darkseid mercilessly devestates Superman with the Omega Beam, Superman manages to get close enough to finally lay hands on his foe. However, unlike many of the entries on this page, Darkseid really is that powerful, and regards Superman's blows more with confusion than anything before he grabs Supermans fist, crushing his hand as Darkseid drags the Man of Steel to his knees.
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Darkseid: You DARE strike me? |
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- Darkseid gets into it in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse as well, when Batman blackmails him.
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Darksaid: You DARE? *Swats Batman into a wall* |
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- Memorably parodied in the Justice League Unlimited episode This Little Piggy:
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Circe: Insolent trickster! You dare to strike...*smacked with a table* You dare to strike... *smacked with a chair* Youdaretostrike... *covered in a tablecloth* QUIT IT! Oh, no... *pianown'd* |
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- Not villain-ish, but a few episodes of The Backyardigans invoke this trope. A good example, in High Tea:
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Grumpy Emperor Austin: WHO DARES RING MY DOORBELL?! |
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- My Little Pony
- In the G3 movie Twinkle Wish Adventure, when the ponies approach the dragon's cave, they are greeted with a booming, "Who dares disturb the dragon?" However, when Pinkie Pie states their names and business, the voice instantly changes to a friendly tone and welcomes them in.
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Dragonshy", this is said to the dragon, signifying Fluttershy's shift from The Load to Beware the Nice Ones.
- In a 'What If' future episode of Ben 10, Kevin thought it would be funny to attack Ben's son mid-battle. Big mistake.
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Ben: [mashing Kevin into the ground, having morphed into Way Big] HOW DARE YOU?! |
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