Crush! Kill! Destroy!

Uh... Tech Support, we may have a problem here...

"Crush! Kill! Destroy!" —Killer Android IDAK Alpha 12 from Lost in Space

Robot Buddy Instruction Manual

Congratulations kid! You've got your first Robot Buddy, Ridiculously Human Robot, or Do-Anything Robot! But before you start playing with it and going on magical adventures together, there's a few things you need to know:

• Firstly, the big red switch on his back that flips between "Good" and "Evil"? Might want to be careful with that.
• Secondly, your Robot Buddy is not a toy! Well, OK, you did buy him at Bots'R'Us so he is a toy, but you should still treat him with kindness and care. Case in point: Turned Against Their Masters.
• Thirdly, do not feed it after midnight. Or at all, for that matter—it'll gum up the gears. (Or worse, give him a taste for meat)
• Fourth and last, if you've purchased the "Defense Bot" upgrade that adds Telescoping Robot functionality and Death Rays, please refrain from abusing the robot's WarMode to beat up bullies.

Failure to follow any of the previous instructions may result in your robot going haywire, and spouting lines like "Crush. Kill. Destroy!" or "Kill All Humans!". In which case, it is highly recommended you hit the Override Command located in [the rest of the instruction manual appears to have been disintegrated.] If you have purchased the Mechanical Monster model, Trope Co suggests you start running now.

Examples of Crush! Kill! Destroy! include:

Anime

• Epic Gilgamesh: "Crush! Destroy!" was literally the catchphrase (and protocall) of Gilgamesh in his short-lived 1974 series based on The Epic of Gilgamesh.
• Trinity Blood: Deceptively Human Robot Tres Iqus engages in "Genocide Mode" when using his Implacable Man Gun Kata to kill mooks.

Comic Books

• Agents of Atlas: M-11 has been caught saying this occasionally.
• Metal Men: When Dr. Will Magnus reconstructed his short-lived Plutonium Man, its first (and only) words were "Crush. Raze. Trample."
• The 'pet' Sentinel Rover in the X-Men storyline "Here Comes Tomorrow" had a one word vocabulary. That word was "DESTROY."

Film

• Pick any scifi movie with robots before 1970.
• Averted in The Day the Earth Stood Still, the peace keeper robot is entirely silent when on murderous rampages.
• Forbidden Planet: Despite what the poster would have you believe, this is also averted: Robbie is pretty tame.

Literature

• Isaac Asimov created the "Three Laws of Robotics" specifically to avert this trope. And a fairly big portion of his stories are about robots going haywire because of those laws. In really clever ways, mind you.
• AM in I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream destroyed humanity, although his behavior comes from more intense, personal loathing than a mindless rampage.
• A robot in one of the stories from Stanislaw Lem's Tales of Pirx the Pilot seems ro run on this. At first.

Live Action TV

• While the Daleks in Doctor Who with their iconic "Exterminate! Ex-ter-minate!" are not robots (they are living creatures inside machines giving them greater mobility), Terry Nation - who originally created them - apparently forgot this at least once (Destiny of the Daleks).
  • In an early appearance, Daleks apparently had some religious fervour: 'Align and advance! Advance to attack! Attack and destroy! Destroy and rejoice!'
  • "Daleks conquer and destroy!! Daleks conquer and destroy!!"
  • The Cybermen have a similar iconic "DELETE" (although they are human brains in metal bodies, they have been reprogrammed in such a way that they may as well be robots).
  • And the Host.

Host: Information: Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

• Lost in Space: This line is often mis-attributed to The Robot who does use the term "Destroy" several times in the pilot during his rampage. It's Killer Android IDAK Alpha 12 who says this in the episode titled, "Revolt of the Androids." Despite its use in only one episode, it became a more famous line than "Destroy" and was thus attributed to the main character robot.
  • This becomes an Ascended Meme in The Movie; Will has the Robot deliver the line (to scare his dad) in the scene where he shows that he's gained control over it. The movie soundtrack even has a Stupid Statement Dance Mix of the Robot saying "Destroy."
• Mystery Science Theater 3000's Mike Nelson built a robot in episode #602, following the lead of ex-host Joel Robinson, who built fellow snarkers Crow and Tom Servo. However, Mike's robot seemed only able to "DESTROY.. DESTROY.. DESTROY..".
• Star Trek: Voyager. Satan's Robot from the The Adventures of Captain Proton! holoprogram enjoys saying "SUR-REN-DER!" as it clanks menacingly towards people. Seven of Nine was unfazed, simply turning it off and asking Tom, "Can I go now?"

Music

• The German future pop band Rotersand composed a song using samples from Doctor Who entitled, appropriately enough, "Exterminate Annihilate Destroy."

build me a shelter, a place I can dwell in show me a future that I can enjoy give me a reason and I'll be your fellow show me the target I have to destroy

• The chorus of the song "Stress" by the rap group Organized Konfusion: "Crush! Kill! Destroy! Stress!"
• Brazilian Death Metal band Sarcófago's first record was named "Crush, Kill, Destroy".
• The Misfits "Astro Zombies" - Prime directive, exterminate the whole human race!
• The American heavy metal band GWAR have a song on their 1994 album Ragnarok named "Crush, Kill, Destroy".

Tabletop Games

• The robot supervillain Mechanon has been trying to wipe out all organic life in every edition of Champions to date.
• Bots in Paranoia have an Asimov circuit to prevent this from happening. This chip is removable. The Corpore Metal society enjoys removing these chips. You should know how this goes.
• The Iron Men of Warhammer 40000, who ended up losing the war, but in the process sent humanity into a galaxy-wide dark age.
  • Also, while not a robot himself, Kharn the Betrayer, a pretty fun guy:

Kharn: KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!

• • • Khorne Berserkers in general. Heck, Khorne himself after Flanderization.
• The organic robots known as Manglers do this in Mortasheen.
• Older editions of Dungeons and Dragons did this with golems, the magical equivalent of robots. Many golems had a certain chance every round of combat to simply flip out and try to kill everything in sight, as the golems of Jewish folklore often did.

Video Games

• Final Fantasy IX has an army of manufactured Black Mages who shout "KILL!" when they attack. The Black Waltzes aren't much better; "I EXIST ONLY TO KILL! I EXIST ONLY TO KILL!" Some Black Mages develop independent will and a better vocabulary, and form their own village. Another Black Mage, Vivi, is adopted by Quale, and later joins Zidane's party as they take on Kuja.
• Interestingly, the first Krush Kill N Destroy (KKnD) game does not feature Killer Robots. The second one does, however (with killer farming robots).
  • It did have the 'Mech, from the Tech Bunkers. The manual states it was initially created as a toy for kids.
• Troggs in World of Warcraft will shout Crush!, Kill!, or Destroy when they attack.
  • Ogres tend to yell in things like "Rawr me smash you!" and other things in You No Take Candle.
• In Robot Alchemic Drive, one of the main robots the player controls will eventually activate its forbidden "Human Genocide Mode," which is pretty self explanatory. It even keeps droning, in the protagonist's head, "DESTROY IT ALL."
• E-123 Omega is a textbook Turned Against Their Masters variety who is really pissed off about Eggman shutting him down and leaving him. And he's very entertaining in battle. ANNIHILATION! KILL! FIRE, FIRE!
• In Spore, the Big Bad are The Grox, who all talk like this, being cybernetic gerbils.
• The Slylandro probes in Star Control 2 begin by transmitting "We come in peace" before their buggy programming override activates and compels them to "Break target into component compounds/materials".
• Starsiege: a repeated refrain from Cybrids: Hurt//Maim//Kill.
• Not a direct example, but possiblly a Shout-Out: Urien from Street Fighter III: Third Strike has three separate attacks that have him say "Crush! Kill! Destroy!" when used in the proper order.
• Thief: Deadly Shadows is practically the Trope Codifier.

Stone Guardian: A noise... and find and crush and KILL AND CRUSH AND KILL!!!

• This is a line in Soul Purpose's "Survival" track in the Wii game, MadWorld. He is not a robot, so far as we know.
• Chaos, the ancient robot from Shining Force.
• Astaroth of the Soul Series, especially in second game, seems fond of this. "SCREAM!" "KILL!" "SHUT UP!"
• In Borderlands, Claptrap will scream "Murder! Death! Kill! Annihilate! Exterminate!" when you use the WIRED device on him at the end of Claptrap's New Robolution
• A boss battle in Star Fox 64 involves an enormous ROB look-alike who has gone haywire, constantly repeating "DESTROY ALL ENEMIES. YOU ARE AN ENEMY."
• Russel from Bully sometimes says it word by word. Especially in the final mission.
• When he appeared in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, MODOK was fond of following up his attack names with chants of "Kill! Kill!".

Web Comics

• In Adventurers, one of the party members is named "Killer Evil Death Spybot 5000" and always talks like this. No one appears to find this suspicious.Or even particularly unusual. (Except Ardam, of course.) At one point, he becomes a pop star with the hit song "Don't DESTROY My Heart."
• Of course, we must include Red Robot from Diesel Sweeties. His prime directive is "Crush All Hu-mans!".
• Girl Genius features this gem from an overly-assertive robot:

Go to fallback interaction sequence: kill everyone.

• In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, Roofus the Roof-Repair Robot goes on a brief rampage of this sort. But he was provoked! They destroyed his roof!
• The lyrics of the "Madblood Battle Anthem", as performed by his 'Evil Robot Army' in Narbonic. At least, Dave III's version. (Shaenon Garrity held a contest.)
• Subverted in Skin Horse where there are a group of ex-killer robots who have old vocal programs, and use 'destroy' for EVERY verb. As in: "let me destroy you some tea".
• Vaporware, who shows up first in Checkerboard Nightmare and then in Starslip Crisis, wants nothing more than to kill every human. Preferably by strangulation.
• A non-robotic example: Crap! Piss! Kill!

Red Mage: Tell me that's not a declaration of intent.

Web Original

• Crush! Kill! Destroy! Dance!
• Blinky. Just... Blinky.

"Ready or not, here I come!"

• Pony Dot Mov: Done by the RD-5000.

CRUSH. KILL. DESTROY. SWAG.

• In the Madness Combat series, Hank J. Wimbleton's katana has this written along the blade in Thai script. He certainly does plenty of each.

Western Animation

• In the X-Men franchise - the Sentinels.
• Arguably, in The Animatrix, the robot that signs the unconditional surrender treaty at the UN, when it calmly says "Hand over your flesh and a new world awaits you. We demand it." Right before it self-destructs in an atomic blast, killing everyone at the UN
• The R.E.G.I.S. Mk. V in Megas XLR tells people to not panic it while destroying most everything in its path.

R.E.G.I.S. Mk. V: "Do not panic. You will all die."

• • Also R.E.C.R., in a spoof of 1950's-era panic.

R.E.C.R.: Everything is the enemy! R.E.C.R.: But I must destroy and protect! R.E.C.R.: I must destroy all enemies! Because all enemies are MY enemies!

• The Simpsons,
  • Mr. Burns orders robot workers, and the box says "100% Loyal." The next scene is Burns and Smithers being chased by the robots, who are droning "Crush, kill, destroy!" over and over.
  • In another episode, Bart's class has a robot telling them about the new "fun museum" in town. Bored, Bart glances out the window and sees the robot's operator sitting in a tree. Bart hits him with a rock, knocking him out and making the robot slump over. After a second, it utters "Command link severed. Default setting..." and starts throttling Principal Skinner, to the delight of the children.
  • In "Itchy And Scratchy Land," the cat and mouse robots have a protocol that ensures that they only attack each other; their HUD commands them to "KILL" their opposite number. Inevitably, they malfunction, and the "KILL" command is demanded of human targets.
• Transformers: Used nearly word for word, wherein mad Decepticon leader Galvatron undergoes word association therapy (you know you're Ax Crazy when the Decepticons send you to a psychiatrist.) and the first things he can think of are "Kill! Smash! Destroy!" Asked to continue, he obliges with "Rend! Mangle! Distort!".
  Afterwards he blew up the planet where he got the therapy; it was less than successful. Clearly, he is a bot of his word.
• Futurama
  • Roberto was created by a team of engineers who actually wanted to build a criminally insane robot.

Roberto: "AND THEY FAILED!" Vending Machine Bot: "But doesn't that mean-*Is stabbed*"

• • Robot Santa is at least willing to restrict his rampages to one night a year. Unfortunately he has much more firepower than Bender or Roberto.
• The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3: Mario provides a non-robotic example when Bowser and his son, Kooky (Ludwig von Koopa,) puts him under his control with a mind-control helmet. When Luigi shows up to rescue him, Bowser orders Mario to "Smash! Crush! Pound! Destroy!" him.
  • Unfortunately, Kooky get the helmet put upon himself, much to Bowser's chagrin and terror!
• In the Gargoyles episode, "Upgrade," when the Manhattan Clan gang up on the Coyote robot and Goliath rips out and squishes the controlling head, the rest of the robot gets up and blindly flails "Destroy, Destroy..." before being flattened by a subway train.
• The Bat-Bots in Batman the Brave And The Bold end up chanting Destroy. Destroy. Destroy. when Black Mask's guy Taboo reprograms them for evil.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog had a Monster of the Week that was a cruise-missile-delivered carrot that turned into a bomb. Anyone who ate the carrot began inflating to house-busting proportions before exploding themselves, and Courage had to dive through Murial's body to find the tumor-like carrot growth and shut it down. No, it does not make any more sense in context. However, when Courage gets there, for some reason the carrot can talk, and is chanting "Grow! Expand! Explode!" in ever-increasing volume and excitement.
• In an episode of Class of 3000, the kids decided to replace all their teachers with celebrities. Their new dance teacher, a parody of Optimus Prime, kept shouting this phrase as he pirouetted through walls.
• In the Family Guy episode "Hannah Banana", Brian and Stewie find that Miley Cyrus is actually an android. At Brian's suggestion, Stewie tries reprogamming her so Brian can have sex with her, but instead she goes haywire and starts running around saying "MILEY SMASH!"