Warrior Poet/Playing With

Basic Trope: A warrior who applies poetry, philosophy, and/or art to combat.
 * Straight: Bob is a war veteran who writes an epic poem based on his experiences in war.
 * Exaggerated: Bob is a Dance Battler who, in the midst of battle, sings a beautiful and mournful elegy to each enemy he kills.
 * Justified: Bob needs to cope with war somehow, so he uses expression to help himself along.
 * Inverted: Bob is an artist by day and a brutal, psychopathic serial killer by night. The latter is inspiration for the former.
 * Subverted: Bob writes an epic contemplative poem based on his experiences in war but it turns out he's a Miles Gloriosus.
 * Double Subverted: But when the Miles Gloriosus is thrust into a combat situation, he ends up doing well and writing an even better poem.
 * Parodied: Bob uses his experiences in war to write childish nursery rhymes.
 * Deconstructed: War turns Bob into a savage or traumatizes him, which crushes any poetic tendencies he might have.
 * Reconstructed: War turns Bob into a Shell-Shocked Veteran but this only fuels his desire to express his views on combat through art and poetry.
 * Zig Zagged:
 * Averted: A movie takes place in a time and place where warrior poets are a traditional trope (ancient China, ancient Japan, the Crusades, Sparta, etc.) but the main characters are unthinking soldiers who fight without wondering why they do.
 * Enforced:
 * Lampshaded:
 * Invoked: Bob is a scholar of samurai literature, and when he's thrust into war he tries to apply this trope to his life to keep himself sane.
 * Exploited:
 * Defied: Bob is a Cultured Badass, but as far as he's concerned, once battle starts the artistic aesthete side of him stays in the tent. When he picks up his sword he turns into a brutal Combat Pragmatist and Screaming Warrior.
 * Discussed:
 * Conversed:

Back to Warrior Poet