There were no signs, it came without warning. Doom came to us all. The desperate few struggled to survive. Perhaps we had a chance for Peace, but Desperation and Trust are seldom allies. So began a Millennium of Conflict, a thousand years of war. The Greatest Warriors the world has ever known. The reason they fight: lost to the ages...
For what can war, but endless war, still breed?
— John Milton
"In accordance to the principles of Doublethink, it does not matter if the war is not real, or when it is, that victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous. The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects. And its object is not victory over Eurasia or Eastasia, but to keep the very structure of society intact."
—Emmanuel Goldstein, Nineteen Eighty-Four
"How many days? How many more?
How many men lost to this war?
I can't remember what we're fighting for!"
— The Civil War: The Musical
"Spinning your wheels in a lake of shit" is as good a metaphor for the war in Afghanistan as I can give. Maybe they'll issue us snorkels on the next tour.
Doctor: The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans. It's been raging, far out in the stars, for fifty thousand years. Fifty thousand years of bloodshed, and for what?
General Stahl: For victory!
— Doctor Who, "The Poison Sky"
Thrax: And when the war is over? What will we do then?
Sharos: For us, the war will never be over.
Sharos: For us, the war will never be over.
"On Ventrexia, wars never end."
Avocato: I fight for Ventrexia!
Lord Commander: Tell me, what is so special about Ventrexia? It sends its people to fight a thousand-year war, for what?
Avocato: [beat] I don't know anymore...
Lord Commander: So then they have you kill for no reason?
Lord Commander: Tell me, what is so special about Ventrexia? It sends its people to fight a thousand-year war, for what?
Avocato: [beat] I don't know anymore...
Lord Commander: So then they have you kill for no reason?
"Gentlemen. We shall continue with plans for the upcoming war. And the war after that. And the next, and the next, and the next..."
— The Major, Hellsing OVA #3
"For forty years, I've been at sea. A war at sea, a war with no battles, no monuments, only casualties. I widowed her the day I married her. My wife died while I was at sea."
— Capt. Marko Ramius, The Hunt for Red October
"This delightful and cheery war started in July 1914. It is now February 1964, and believe it or not... it's still being waged..."
— Lieutenant Anderson, Iron Storm
The War had no end or beginning. It was continuous and forever... No universe, dimension or plane was unaffected as the War rolled on, the mighty combatants caring nothing for the innocents they trampled as they fought, powerful enough to ruin all creation but not to destroy each other. No matter how much they destroyed, the vast armies never stopped or slowed.
"It doesn't matter who wins here. Our fight will continue. The loser will be liberated from the battlefield, and the winner will remain. And the survivor will live out the rest of his days as a soldier."
— Big Boss, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
"The one who survives will inherit the title of Boss. And the one who inherits the title of Boss will face an existence of endless battle."
— The Boss, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
"In the not too distant future... on a tired battlefield... war has become routine."
And these wars, they can't be won
Does anyone know — or care — how they begun?
They just promise to go on
And on and on
But soon we will see
There can BE OOOOONLY OOOOOOOONE
Does anyone know — or care — how they begun?
They just promise to go on
And on and on
But soon we will see
There can BE OOOOONLY OOOOOOOONE
— Muse, "United States of Eurasia"
Judge: Mr. Prime, any reason you may not be able to serve on this jury?
Optimus Prime: I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. For millions of years, we have battled the tyranny of Megatron and his evil Decepticons. The fate of our home planet Cybertron hangs in the balance, as does the freedom of all sentient beings across the galaxy.
Judge: Does this war that spanned millions of years have anything critical planned over the next... five to seven working days?
Optimus Prime: I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. For millions of years, we have battled the tyranny of Megatron and his evil Decepticons. The fate of our home planet Cybertron hangs in the balance, as does the freedom of all sentient beings across the galaxy.
Judge: Does this war that spanned millions of years have anything critical planned over the next... five to seven working days?
"I met your people a long time ago. And some time off yet. I can tell you that the Sontaran Empire is going to be around for another ten thousand years. Unfortunately, there will still be no end to your war with the Rutan Host... but knowing Sontarans, that's probably the way you like it, isn't it?"
— Sarah Jane Smith, The Sarah Jane Adventures
When the war is over, if he survives the serum, they'll still put him, and men like him, to use. He sees it now, the map with all the battle lines drawn, where all the points of friction are. They're the borders that cross Africa and Asia, drawn in London and Paris by men who'd never seen those places. The current alliance is temporary and there will be a fight for the spoils of war should they win. It's happened before, and it will happen again.
—Michael Carter, Sixes and Sevens
"Death... destruction, disease, horror... that's what war is all about, Anan. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided. You've made it neat and painless. So neat and painless that you've had no reason to stop it."
— Capt. James T. Kirk, Star Trek: The Original Series, "A Taste of Armageddon"
"The war is endless, it will never cease. Stay ready."
— Description of Malekith's "Warleader" skill, Total War: Warhammer II
"But there's always been a war! That's like saying there's no more blue or—or the weather's stopped!"
— Fulcrum, Transformers: More than Meets the Eye
It was the 23rd Century...mankind's Darkest Hour. The war had been raging for almost a hundred years. We had been fighting for so long, no one could remember the reason why it all started in the first place. All we knew is that there were two sides; the Coalition, and the Alliance. For decades, millions died for the same piece of rock again and again. Finally, one side managed to gain the upper hand: the Coalition.
Last Castoff: "What's the point of the Endless Battle?"
Tybir: "The fighting itself is pointless. All those lads and lasses dying for a cause centuries old." He smirks sadly, his gaze distant. "Now, I know I just described any war, but we both know that certain people make a tidy profit from bloodshed on a grand scale. And the Endless Battle? Well, it's endless, and that makes it endlessly profitable."
Tybir: "The fighting itself is pointless. All those lads and lasses dying for a cause centuries old." He smirks sadly, his gaze distant. "Now, I know I just described any war, but we both know that certain people make a tidy profit from bloodshed on a grand scale. And the Endless Battle? Well, it's endless, and that makes it endlessly profitable."
Warhammer 40,000
"There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods."
"Gorgath!
A city only in name, for none would claim to dwell there. A battlefield in form and function, into which endless columns of damned men are fed to oil the war machine!
None can say when the battle began, and many are those that say it had no beginning. It is an echo of a battle yet to come, or the shadow of a war fought out of time, or a reflection of all the bloodshed in the galaxy sprung up in all its hideous forms to blood the plains of Drakaasi.
The battlefield of Gorgath is ever-changing, filled with the ruins of fortresses and of cities raised only so they can fall again to siege. Here is a weapon of fiendish design, brought low by spears and flint arrowheads! There are cavalry in their finery, cut apart by bullets, and scorched by mechanical flame. There can be no tactic for victory, for Gorgath despises victory, and its battlefields deform to deny any ruse, no matter how brilliant. Only blood lust and hatred can win the day at Gorgath, and then only until the next day, when a new war blooms among the corpse strewn plains.
What can Gorgath be? A creature with a sentience of its own, with violence for lifeblood and warfare for breath? A machine for the blooding of Drakaasi's armies, whose lords feed their underlings through Gorgath to take command of the bloody veterans that emerge? Or some conglomeration of Chaos, some function of the ever-changing warp, bled through into flesh and blood?
Not one of these questions troubles the mind of Gor-gath's killers, for they are truly its children, devoted to it and yet despising it, trapped in the war machine, the age of slaughter, the one true battlefield that is Gorgath!"
— Mind Journeys of a Heretic Saint, by Inquisitor Helmandar Oswain (Suppressed by order of the Ordo Hereticus), Warhammer 40,000
"We've been claiming this damned planet for the Imperium all of my life, and all of my father and grandfathers lives before that. I just wish someone would get round to telling those damned Orks to get off our damned land!"
"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war."
Space Jesus Saves.
Thus, War. Forever.
— /tg/
Girl Genius
"Monsters and machines blotting out the sun
Fighting in a war that never can be won.
The men in the castles are having lots of fun
And all we can do is run, run, run."
— Traditional children's song, Agatha H. and the Airship City
"The Long War was inevitable. How it started is unknown. There were always conflicts between rival Houses, so keeping track of who was fighting or not fighting at any given time became confusing and ultimately pointless. Eventually everybody was simply fighting everybody else. This simplified things greatly."
