Quarles: I'm gonna kill you, Raylan. Maybe not tonight, maybe not tomorrow, but one day you'll be walking down the street and I'm going to put a bullet in the back of your skull and you'll drop.
Raylan: [firing his gun] Why wait?
Raylan: [firing his gun] Why wait?
Fights between characters are commonplace. And there are many forms of combat.
A particular favorite is the Duel. Or a request for a Grudge Match. Or a Rematch. Someone will challenge another person to a fight. The person being challenged could set a date, but they're in kind of a hurry. So, they decide that there's no time like the present to get things out of the way.
It could be delivered with a sense of casual bravado, "Well, there's no time like the present."
The Stoic and the Combat Pragmatist might simply say, "Here." "Now." or both, "Here and Now."
A really hardcore Combat Pragmatist might simply dispatch their opponent once they've been challenged without bothering to reply.
May overlap with Badass Boast or Armor-Piercing Response. In cases where this headlong charge intersects with Too Dumb to Live, then it's a Leeroy Jenkins.
Compare Deliberately Jumping the Gun, which is about a character trying to "get an advantage in a competition or fight by starting before the signal to go".
Due to Values Dissonance, some cultures may see this as the hallmark of the Dirty Coward, particularly if the person being challenged doesn't respond before taking out their opponent. It can also be an Establishing Moment for a Hero, Villain, or Anti-Hero.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Haruhi Suzumiya: When the computer club president challenges the SOS Brigade to a duel, no sooner does the "d" word leave his lips than Haruhi, without waiting for an explanation, does a flying kick to his head. She justifies it by saying that a duel is a duel from the moment the word is mentioned.
- Konosuba has knight errant Mitsurugi Kyouya encounter Aqua being carted through town in a cage, and immediately presumes she needs rescuing. Mitsurugi challenges Satou Kazuma to a duel, with Aqua as the "prize." Presented with a "can't lose" situation (if Kazuma wins, he gains experience points; if he loses, he forfeits The Load Aqua), Kazuma leaps at the opportunity, taking two quick swings at Mitsurugi, making him backpedal. Kazuma then uses his Steal ability, which nets him his opponent's cursed sword. Kazuma simply bonks his stunned opponent with the flat side of the sword, and the duel is won.
- Ranma ½: The Golden Pair arc. Ranma and Akane are already scheduled for a duel with Mikado and Azusa. However, when Mikado steals a kiss from girl-type Ranma (helpless on the ice in her skates, not knowing how to skate at the time), Ranma runs to the restroom, transforms back to himself, and tells Mikado he's not waiting for the duel. He charges Mikado on the ice. The end result? Ranma gets knocked out of the whirling spiral the two were in but gets to his feet. Mikado? He'd been beaten unconscious where he stood.
Comic Books
- The Incredible Hulk has never been one to stand on ceremony. Once the Hulk determines that someone is an adversary, the closest he comes to hesitation is to deliver his Battle Cry "Hulk smash!" before pounding the bejesus out of his opponent. The Tao of Hulk is essentially "Hitting solves everything."
Fan Works
- Inter Nos: An officer denied promotion for belligerent behavior challenges Natsuki to a duel. He informs her that he'll take her on any time and anywhere. She asks him three times if he's sure, to make certain that he really means it. When he confirms he does? She replies, "Then, now." and lobs a steel dart into his left eye. Then her second dart nicks a vital artery. She informs him the duel is over, and to go see the medic. He doesn't listen, and as a result, expires.
Films — Live-Action
- Inverted in Maverick. Maverick is at a card game, and one of his opponents suggests he should get a do-over because he wasn't ready. The young man in question reveals that he is a renowned gunfighter, and Maverick agrees to the do-over, causing some at the table to accuse him of cowardice. He rises from his seat, prompting the gunfighter to rise as well, to which Maverick tells him to hold on, that he's merely expounding on his point, and that he doesn't see what's so good about bravery. He's a gambler and would like to be an old gambler. The kid is a gunfighter, and a good one. What chance would Maverick have? "Zero." he states while drawing his gun faster than the eye can follow. He then says he's there to play poker.
Maverick: Who wants to play poker? [others at the table raise their hands] Who wants to see some guy get killed? [hands go down] C'mon, let's play poker.
- In The Patriot (2000), Colonel Tavington responds with these exact words when Benjamin Martin tells him that he will kill him before the war is over.
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Kirk is relying on this response from Khan. The Enterprise is heading into the Mutara Nebula, where none of the Reliant's tactical advantages will matter. Kirk needs Khan to follow him because if he breaks off, they have a starship and can go anywhere they want with a Doomsday Weapon on board. So, he goads Khan with a taunt. Khan swallows the bait, hook, line, and sinker:
Khan: Full Impulse Power.
Live-Action TV
- Firefly: Attempted by Malcolm Reynolds in "Shindig" when he inadvertently provokes a Duel to the Death by punching out a local aristocrat for insulting Inara.
Judge: The duel will be tomorrow morning at Kaytree Pond.
Mal: Well, why wait? Where's that guard? He collected a whole mess of pistols.
Judge: If you require it, any gentleman here can give you the use of a sword.
Mal: Use of a sw—what? - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: "Hundred Dollar Baby"; Sweet Dee and Frank are harassed in a boxing gym by Frank's old rival Bobby Thunderson and his daughter. When Dee doesn't show up for a fight with the daughter, Frank challenges Bobby, who begins laying out a laundry list of rules... until Frank throws a hook punch and knocks him out mid-sentence.
- Justified: In Season 3, Quarles threatens Raylan after finding out that he's not dirty and he's been looking into Quarles's past via the FBI. He tells him that he'll kill him one day, to which Raylan shoots at the ceiling and replies "Why wait?" They don't end up fighting because Lindsey the bartender pulls a gun on both of them and tells them she won't have it in her bar.
- Leverage: In "The Tap Out Job", a crooked fight promoter tumbles to the team's scam, and threatens them. He notes, however, looking at Eliot, that at least one of the team was real, and wants Eliot to fight his star, Tank. Eliot's reply? He starts advancing, saying, "I've got five seconds to kill."
- Oz: Vasquez taunts Alvarez with the fact that his attempt to serve as a rat in the Latinos will get him sent to solitary, and promises to kill him should he ever get out. Alvarez promptly tells him to Bring It and stabs him to death.
Theatre
- Hamilton: As their argument escalates, Philip angrily suggests to George that he'll "see you on the duelling ground unless you want to go outside and go now." George tells him to "piss off" and let him watch the show.
Video Games
- Persona 5: Downplayed. During Maruki's boss battle, the doctor stops fighting after a few defeats and starts walking towards his Persona to regroup and start again with an advantage. While everyone else waits, Akechi simply takes out his gun and opens fire, explaining that whatever Maruki is about to do will probably kill them. However, his bullets are unable to pierce the Persona user's defence.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: In the Sith Inquisitor's storyline, eventually the Inquisitor will be challenged by Darth Thanaton to a Kaggath: a scaled-up duel where Sith lords pit their entire power bases against each other in a battle to the death. While in the game the player must slowly whittle down Darth Thanaton's power base by killing or turning his allies, a datapad entry makes mention of one occasion where a powerful Sith Lord declared a Kaggath... only for his intended target to behead him before he'd even finished.
Webcomics
- Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures has Wildy the ferret, a Pint-Sized Powerhouse, visit Lost Lake Inn when adventurers arrive and attack Abel the cubi. Abel can hold his own against the two melee fighters, but Gen the mage prepares to launch a spell in strip #1323. Gen is interrupted by Wildy, who proceeds to pounce on her, which results in a Defeat by Modesty for Gen. Wildy is actually saddened that she couldn't mix it up with her.
- The Order of the Stick: When Redcloak learns
that he can become Supreme Leader of the hobgoblins by vanquishing the incumbent, he hits the hobgoblin he mistakes for the Supreme Leader with a slay living spell mid-sentence. The actual Supreme Leader decides not to push his luck.
