La Résistance

Viva!

You see the distant flames, they bellow in the night
You fight in all our names for what we know is right
And when you all get shot and cannot carry on
Though you die, La Resistance lives on!

—Gregory of Yardale, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons! Marchons, marchons! Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons! [1]
—"La Marseillaise"

Wherever The Empire is, you'll always find La Résistance: A Ragtag Bunch of Misfits using the The Power of Friendship to fight against a tyrannical rule, often to help put the Government in Exile back into power. Always underdogs, they fight using guerrilla warfare and by raising the rabble of the people by revealing unpleasant truths about The Empire they've been trying to hide, causing the oppressed peoples to shake off the yokes of their tyrant rulers.

Inevitably, the hero will join La Résistance while the battle is already underway, and will grow to become a great champion in the fight against The Empire. Alternatively, La Résistance will be utterly incompetent and little more than an annoyance until the hero gets in there and shows them how it's done. Sometimes their inner dissensions render them nearly unable to get anything done. In an interesting twist, if the resistance is as unscrupulous as The Empire, then the hero will end up doing a bit of Conspiracy Redemption or forming a third faction.

People rarely like having it pointed out that these groups are terrorists from the point of view of anyone who disagrees with them and Innocent Bystanders who may get caught up in the crossfire of said conflicts.

Hollywood in general portrays resistance fighters sympathetically because America's revolutionary history has created romantic notions about rebels. In real life, most revolutions are brutal affairs and the new government is often worse than the old. Alternatively, La Résistance may represent the last remnants of the reactionary or counter-revolutionary cronies of the old regime fighting against the Revolutionary Progressive Forces.

When La Résistance form the main ensemble of the show, or one of them, they'll frequently exhibit a mix of characters similar to The Squad. However, they'll usually have sneakier methods, they tend to be more morally pragmatic and ruthless than most Squads, and in series like Battlestar Galactica members becoming Shell Shocked Seniors. Expect at least one member of La Resistance to be The Mole, or a homegrown Les Collaborateurs sabotaging their efforts from the inside. La Résistance may even be defeated without the assistance of its enemy: when the only thing uniting it is opposition to The Empire, they may end up struggling together thanks to some point of ideology (generally portrayed stupid) or method (generally portrayed as worthwhile).

Eventually, La Résistance will either die out, or grow into The Alliance as it gains power, allies, and sympathizers. This trope usually overlaps with The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified. For the Darker and Edgier version, see The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized.

For the villainous equivalent, see The Remnant. For the opposite of La Resistance, see Les Collaborateurs. Sometimes La Resistance may not be heroes but villains, as happens in an Enemy Civil War. When La Résistance is heroic, but nevertheless uses terrorism, see Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters. This may be deliberately ironic, perhaps inviting a "we are Not So Different" moment. Or, the author might simply assume that the audience will always sympathize with rebel protagonists against The Empire, therefore moral justification of the rebellion is unnecessary and the rebels can get away with whatever is expedient. This could be averted if the Evil Empire really is evil and the rebels exercise chivalry and restraint.

Usually lead by a Rebel Leader. Not to be confused with the First-Person Shooter series, Resistance.

Examples of La Résistance include:

Anime and Manga

  • A staple of the Gundam series.
  • The Joui from Gintama, who set out to take down the Amanto even if it meant going out into an all-out war with them. They failed. However, Katsura is the only one that makes an attempt to carry out any of the original group's ideals after that failure (and even then, it's kind of laughable); Gintoki decided that fighting stupid enemies was pointless and dropped out, Takasugi became a Nietzsche Wannabe in order to avenge the death of his teacher, and Sakamoto got a day job.
  • Team Dai-Gurren from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Not only do they rebel against Lord Genome and his forces, but also the millennia-long reign of the Cosmic Horror Anti-Spirals.
  • The People's Army in Glass Fleet serves as La Resistance against the Holy Empire.
  • Kenji of 20th Century Boys form a resistance out of a Rag Tag Bunch Of Middle Aged School Pals. A move eventually followed by his niece, Kanna, which takes the original (and now leveled up) members and throws in the part of the Chinese Mafia.
  • Tends to show up in Leijiverse a lot, particularly in Arcadia of my Youth and Space Symphony Maetel.
  • Code Geass is a prime time example of the useless-and-only-an-annoyance-kind of La Résistance until Lelouch turns them from a bunch of butthurt kids playing guerilla against the Britannian Empire to a fully organized and highly deadly army with victory after victory as its signature (that doesn't mean they're error-free, as we painfully find out in the Euphemia Massacre Incident and the following Black Rebellion).
  • Romeo X Juliet" has the followers of the Capulet family, fighting against Lord Montague.
  • Stig/Scott Bernard's True Companions in Genesis Climber Mospeada/Robotech: New Generation as they fight the Inbit/Invid that have inavded and conquered Earth.
  • Otonashi from Angel Beats! if you consider a bunch of dead highschoolers La Résistance and if you consider Angel an empire.
  • Saint Seiya: The Bronze Saints during the Sanctuary Arc.
  • The Secret of Twilight Gemini: After more than three hundred years of civil war, the remnants of the Geltic Tribe continue to fight the oppression of the Igo Tribe, who drove them from their ancestral home. Lara and her friend, Zora, lead them in the quest to unify their people and reclaim their homeland. With help from Lupin, of course.
  • In Saint Beast, the rebellion against Zeus is lead by the six Saint Beasts until four of them end up Brainwashed and Crazy leading to its failure and Judas and Luca taking the fall for it.

Comic Books

  • Magneto's X-Men during the Age of Apocalypse is this to a T.
  • Played with interestingly in the Star Trek graphic novel The Modala Imperative. Captain Kirk and Spock help the resistance on the planet Modala break up a vicious dictatorship; a hundred years later, the Next Generation crew arrive to help celebrate the anniversary of the original coup and discover the erstwhile rebel leaders are now beating back an uprising themselves. Then suddenly everyone must put aside their differences when the real Big Bad beams in - the Ferengi, who had sold the original dictatorship their weapons and have now come to collect from the current rulers.
    • Also in the current comic book series "Year 4", continuing where the original series ended, the rebels attack with the crew present (and later kidnap Kirk) in order to get the Federation to intervene in their conflict...at the same time as the government tries to blow up the Enterprise, to get the Federation to intervene in their conflict.
  • The Secret Avengers and Typeface's Gang during the Marvel Civil War.
  • The Gaulish villagers in Asterix might be regarded as a somewhat humorous version of this.
  • Amulet has the unoriginally named "The Resistance", staffed by Funny Animals.
  • The also unoriginally named The Resistance (an army of comic-book fans, otakus, geeks, gamers, nerds, roleplayers, etc.) in the spanish comic-book Fanhunter
  • Subverted with Alpha Trion's group in Transformers: TransTech. Turns out it's a cover for a sinister plot involving the Grand Theft Me of TransTech bodies.
  • A major Story Arc in Strontium Dog follows a young Johnny joining the Mutant resistance against the violently anti-mutant government.
  • Judge Dredd has personally led resistances on a number of occasions, such as against Chief Judge Cal ("The Day the Law Died"), the East-Meg occupational army ("Apocalypse War") and the Dark Judges ("Necropolis").
  • There's a few of these brewing against Armtech in Last Man Standing.
  • The Picaros from the eponymous Tintin adventure. Tintin demands that their revolution will not see a drop of blood shed, much to the humorous consternation of many involved. Including the dictator being overthrown.
  • The Undergrounder rebels from Megalex.
  • The Prodigals in Kill Shakespeare who are trying to take down Richard III.
  • Marvel Star Wars has a resistance on Solay, trying to topple a pro-Empire king. They call on the Rebel Alliance for help after Endor, but it turns out the head of the resistance had secretly also been pro-Empire - soon after the king is deposed, the Imperial fleet comes in and imposes martial law, controlling the system directly.

Fan Works

Film

  • Hilariously parodied in Monty Python's Life of Brian, where there's more than one resistance, they don't do anything other than discuss things around a table, and the only time they actually do something they screw it up by arguing with each other. "THE JUDEAN PEOPLE'S FRONT? Splitters!"
  • The school kids who head off into the mountains to fight the Evil Empire in the movie Red Dawn are a perfect example of this trope. Readers here may be more familiar with it being referred to as a documentary on one of the radio stations in GTA Vice City. WOLVERINES!
  • Top Secret has the French Resistance in East Germany. (Why? Because it's funny, of course.)
  • In Double Dragon, there's a neon-overall-clad teenage resistance named the Power Corps, which is led by the Action Girl Love Interest in the battle against Vanilla Ice as played by T-1000.
  • Demolition Man features a resistance which is all about, among other things, the "choice to run naked down the street covered in lime jello."
  • Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End has the pirates of the world resisting termination at hands of the East India Trading Company. Ironically, when your cast is made of an Anti-Hero couple, a Gentleman Thief and an Affably Evil pirate, the only way to cheer for their resisting the law is by making the Government absurdly evil and corrupt.
  • South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut has a French-themed La Résistance (pictured) being composed of the children of South Park rebelling against their parents in the hope of rescuing Terrence and Philip from being executed.
  • Unusually for this trope, the movie Valkyrie focuses on the German resistance during World War II rather than that of the occupied countries.
  • The French partisans in Casablanca. Their singing of "La Marseillaise" (which provides the page quote) is their Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • The House of Flying Daggers is actually the name of a resistance group.
  • In Hero only a small group of five elite assassins is actually seen, but apparently assassins from the other conquered Kingdoms try to kill the emperor every other week.
  • A spontaneous rebellion forms around Shua in Sky Blue after one of them is killed by Ecoban soldiers. They end up being instrumental to Dr. Noah's plan.
  • Land of the Blind has La Résistance be popular at the beginning, then after taking power become at least as bad or worse than who they overthrew.
  • The Rebel Alliance in Star Wars, who struggle against the Galactic Empire for control of the galaxy.
  • Subverted in It Happened Here where the protagonist regards the Resistance as worse than the German occupiers.
  • "The Network" in Machete parodies this trope.
  • The Haters, which is One Nation Earth's name for underground groups of persecuted Christians during the Tribulation in the Apocalypse film series.
  • Pimpernel Smith, which is The Scarlet Pimpernel in WW 2, with a stuffy English professor running a resistance network rescuing Jewish and other persecuted prisoners and funnelling them to Britain.
  • The Resistance guerrillas in Sleeping Dogs fighting an oppressive police state that has taken over New Zealand.
  • The French film The Army of Crime is all about La Résistance, being set in Second World War France during the German occupation. Based on a true story.
  • Serenity: The crew of the titular ship turn into this during the course of the film.

Literature

  • Exists in David Wingrove's Chung Kuo
  • The undertreated members in This Perfect Day quickly discard the notion of actually trying to overthrow the oppressive supercomputer that runs their society, and content themselves with smoking and having illicit sex in empty museums in the middle of the night. The islanders occasionally send terrorist strike teams to attack UNICOMP, but these all fail thanks to an extensive system of shepherds who join all such strike teams and ensure they get caught. Our hero, Chip, eventually gets suborned into the secret ruling circle, and forms a one-man La Resistance inside their circle of power, finally managing to destroy the computer and free mankind.
  • The Varden in Eragon. Then again, the entire story is Star Wars re-recycled in a fantasy setting, so that wasn't much of a surprise.
  • In Harry Potter, we have the Order of the Phoenix, La Résistance group against Voldemort, and Dumbledore's Army, the student group created against Umbridge originally to study Defence Against the Dark Arts, which later becomes a true resistance group against the Death Eaters that control Hogwarts.
  • The revolutionary cell "The Red Army" in Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times is far too polite to do anything other than put up slightly incendiary posters. Rincewind, the erstwhile hero, subverts the "Hero becomes its champion" aspect: not only does he make it clear he wants nothing to do with them, he points out how they're far more likely to get themselves killed than they are to change anything and that a coup isn't going to affect the life of the average peasant, anyways. It probably counts as a subversion, since it is organized by the main villain. He discovers this is harder than it sounds.
    • Night Watch contains a very interesting take on La Résistance - initially it's pretty standard, with a small portion of the city taking up arms and building barricades against the corrupt government. But as the barricades expand, a character brings up the interesting point of what would happen should the barricades and the ranks of La Résistance expand until they contained a larger portion of the city than the entrenched government. It never quite happens, but it's still an intriguing thought.
  • The peasant revolution in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn is so inept that their greatest victory in decades is taking out one enemy garrison before being wiped out.
  • The protagonists of Jennifer Fallon's Demon Child series are blackmailed into joining La Résistance.
  • Steven Brust's Teckla and Phoenix from the Vlad Taltos series have Cawti involved in a resistance movement of the lower classes. In fact, Dragaeran society, which goes through a pre-determined cycle of leadership, is designed to have a period of time in which the peasant Tecklas rise up and convert the Empire into a Republic. Vlad is upset because this particular resistance movement isn't occurring during the correct time in the cycle, and thus he believes it is doomed to fail.
  • The very originally named Resistance in The Bartimaeus Trilogy. A slight subversion, as it turns out that, despite being an annoyance to the government, there are only a dozen of them and they're defeated rather easily when confronting a real danger. Not to mention that while one of the viewpoint characters is a member, another is a government magician hunting them down.
  • The commoners during the French Revolution were essentially a massive version of this... and in this way, they're the bad guys in The Scarlet Pimpernel.
  • Subverted and deconstructed to hell and back in Honor Harrington. The Havenite Revolutions, Civil Wars, Resistance Movements (please note that is plural on purpose) are based on the French Revolution, and if you have even the tiniest bit of knowledge about that era of European history you should be able to guess that things get very ugly and very bloody very quickly.
  • In The Ganymede Takeover by Philip K. Dick and Ray Nelson, the last-remaining resistance to the alien occupiers consists of a Black Muslim guerilla movement in the hills of Tennessee, and a secret organisation operating under the auspices of the World Psychiatric Association.
  • Mayday in The Handmaid's Tale
  • In Les Misérables, Les Amis pretty much epitomize this trope in both the book and the musical.
  • In Lois McMaster Bujold's short Vorkosigan Saga story "The Borders of Infinity", Miles has been dropped into a Cetagandan POW camp in order to find the man who, in his boss's words, is just the right person to give La Résistance of the Cetaganda-occupied Marilac "a shot in the arm." Unfortunately, he finds the man just in time for him to die. So he breaks out the entire prison camp en masse. Ten thousand new recruits with plenty of reason to hate the oppressors? That'll do. We learn in a later book that Cetaganda pulled out of Marilac entirely.
    • As part of Miles' backstory, his grandfather was a leader of La Résistance against the Cetagandan occupation of Barrayar.
  • The titular characters of Animorphs are this, most obviously when the Yeerks find out about their true identities.
  • In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novel Traitor General, Gaunt and his team join with the Gereon resistance to carry out their mission and, because of their sacrifices, stay to help reorganize and strengthen them after it is done. They are briefly reunited in The Armor of Contempt, but the Inquisition comes down hard on the resistance, and they vanish. Gaunt declares he will not help them find them again.
  • In the Legacy of the Force series, the galactic government that replaced The Empire[2] has become another The Empire, complete with another Vader. The inevitable result is a fresh La Résistance, with plenty of reference made to the circularity. (Especially because the new La Résistance has many of the same central people as the original.)
  • Played straight as an arrow by Robert A. Heinlein in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. The protagonist joins an ragtag resistance movement big on talk and small on action. He helps reorganize it along rational lines. A revolution is then planned, plotted, fought and won, all without any significant internal splintering, and Luna gains independence from the evil Earthling overlords. The End. (It does help that the sentient central computer that controls Luna's entire infrastructure sides with La Résistance).
  • In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40,000 Ultramarines novel The Killing Ground, the Sons of Salinas. The Imperial forces had invaded their planet as if it had been Chaos-tainted, and they are fighting back.
  • The Bible features many stories in the Old Testament of Hebrew resistance fighters throwing off conquering invaders. It's pretty much what the entire book of Judges is about, making this trope Older Than Feudalism.
  • Dragonlance. In Dragons of the Hourglass Mage Raistlin works with a secretive group within Neraka working to bring down the Dark Queen Takhisis, called the Hidden Light.
  • In Timothy Zahn's largely-unknown Blackcollar series, humanity has been curbstomped by the Ryqril, a very aggressive race whose idea of a war is to bomb entire worlds if that's what's needed to subjugate their enemies. Even the elite of the elite, the genetically-enhanced Blackcollar warriors, couldn't stop the massacre. But when defeat is officially signed the Blackcollars don't take it very well, declare themselves La Résistance and embark in a long guerrilla-like battle against their conquerors. They are ultimately forced to face the futility of their actions on the grand scale of things, and they more or less surrender and turn to a pathetic, sad life of drunkenly remembering the good old days. This is, of course, merely a ruse to throw their enemies off their tracks; when the opportunity presents itself they go back to their former selves, and epic asskicking results.
  • In the Legends of Dune trilogy, the League of Nobles and, later, the Butlerian Jihad act as La Résistance to the Titans and the Thinking Machines.
  • In the Bolo novel The Road to Damascus, a resistance against a corrupt planetary government is put up against a Bolo, faring better against it than one would expect, due in part to the wife of the Bolo's former commander advising them on how to conduct guerrilla warfare against a supertank that nominally requires another supertank to stop.
  • In the Dale Brown novel Wings of Fire, the Night Stalkers receive help from the Sanusi Brotherhood, led by usurped Libyan king Sayyid Muhammad ibn al-Hasan as-Sanusi and fighting against the current Libyan dictator.
  • In Andy Hoare's White Scars novel Hunt for Voldorius, on Quintus.
  • Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Rogues in the House," "Petreus and his ardent young nationalists "
    • In The Hour of the Dragon, resistance continues after Conan is driven from the throne; his survival lends it new strength, and when he recovers the Heart of Ahriman, it overwhelms his enemies.
    • In "A Witch Shall Be Born," Taramis' subjects are baffled by the Fake Queen, but struggle, and when one of them penetrates the secret, they are immediately out to rescue her.
  • Subverted with the Brotherhood in Nineteen Eighty-Four, in that it is implied to be a trap set by the Party to capture dissidents.
  • The Tribulation Force in the Left Behind book series becomes this as they oppose Nicolae Carpathia and his Global Community during the Tribulation, earning the pejorative "Judah-ite" once the converted rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah becomes the main mouthpiece of the resistance.
  • Metro 2033 has "The First International Red Fighting Brigade of the Moscow Metropolitan in the name of Ernesto Che Guevara", who oppose and generally Troll the Fourth Reich. They also save Artyom from being hanged.
  • Some of the characters in Rutherfurd's London get involved in this trope in the years following the Norman Conquest, trying to foment unrest that will leave it open to another Danish invasion and put a second King Canute on the British throne. True to history, they fail miserably.
  • Played with in The Poisonwood Bible: Anatole, now the husband of Leah, becomes a part of the anti-Mobutu resistance, and is portrayed as heroic for it. It's made clear, however, that not everyone in La Résistance is so heroic; for example, a more violent faction of it kills Pascal.
  • In Crossed}}, the Rising is a resistance against The Society that runs the country.
  • Many of the colonies in Harry Harrison's Starworld decide they've had enough of Earth's tyrannical rule. They band together, along with a number of fleet officers. In fact, the admirals commanding both fleets in the key space battle used to be good friends. It ends up being a Curb Stomp Battle, in which the rebels obliterate Earth's fleet using a new weapon (mass drivers). Then they attack Earth's orbital defenses, while Israeli forces storm the Mojave spaceport in a well-coordinated attack.
  • The Wizards in Septimus Heap secretly plot the overthrow of the Supreme Custodian and the return of Princess Jenna Heap. It doesn't all go according to plan.
  • The main protagonists of The Tripods are this, there's a group in the White Mountains of Switzerland and one mentioned as being in the Rockies in the US.
  • Katniss Everdeen and a group of teens in The Hunger Games turn into this by the end of Catching Fire and most of Mockingjay along with District 13, with Katniss ending up the mouthpiece of the rebellion.
  • In Michael Flynn's The January Dancer, the Loyalists.
  • Matteo, Ruth, Asher, Otto, Eliza, and Panga in Someone Else's War make up the core group trying to dismantle the LRA and send all the captive Child Soldiers home.
  • Andre Norton's The Sword is Drawn featured the Dutch Resistance in World War II. After a sequel in the East Indies just after the end of the war, third book At Swords' Points returned to The Netherlands in 1952 with indications that many of the Resistance were now preparing to possibly resist a Soviet invasion next.
  • Alan Furst novels often have these, being World War II spy thrillers.

Live-Action TV

  • In the show Merlin, this applies, surprisingly well, to the main villains of the series.
  • Bootleg has the main characters manufacturing chocolate in defiance of a viciously enforced ban on it by the Good For You Party, and eventually joining up with the Chocolate and Freedom Party, and it's beautiful.
  • Subverted in the Doctor Who two-parter "Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel", where the Badass leader of La Résistance against the Mad Scientist John Lumic is London's most wanted... for parking tickets. "I was fighting the system! Park anywhere!" he says. No wonder they accepted Mickey as a replacement so easily.
    • Played straight in season 3 with The Year That Never Was, although it was only mentioned briefly by Martha as she faces the Master.
    • In The Invasion Of Time, Andred tries to organize one—and assassinate the doctor as part of it.
  • The French Resistance (two of them, reflecting the political divisions in the group) in 'Allo 'Allo!. They're virtually all female and the Communist leader wants to sleep with Rene.
  • Parodied in Andromeda when Harper makes contact with a resistance group on Earth, fighting the oppressive tyrants, led by his cousin. He almost leaves in disgust when he finds out it's just small band of misfits instead of a planetwide network.
    • Of course, his cousin's message at the end of the episode (even though he himself is killed) results in multiple uprisings on Nietzschean-held worlds.
  • V: The Miniseries- Alien fascists invade and humanity fights back... those who don't collaborate or do nothing, anyway.
  • Nine out of ten episodes of Sliders had the gang sliding into a world that had serious societal problems, running afoul of the authorities that benefit from them, and joining the local resistance to set things right. Sometimes they would be the ones to start the resistance.
  • Somewhat obvious in Season 7 of 24. The rogue CTU consisting of Chloe, Tony, and Bill have all had their looks changed to fits this trope and make them look tougher. Chloe has had her hair died dark, but the most noticeable change is former Bureaucrat Bill Buchanan wearing black head to toe with a two day stubble. He's one beret short of a parody. Tony's transformation is more convincing.
  • In Volume Four of Heroes, Micah organizes a resistance against the government roundup efforts under the name "Rebel". It isn't quite La Résistance yet[when?], but it's getting there. He currently has Claire, Hiro, and Ando working for him.
  • The Maquis in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager mostly fights the Cardassians, but isn't averse to some precision strikes against the Federation, largely because they blame Federation peace treaties for letting the Cardassians run roughshod over any number of planets...plus, the Federation considers them terrorists. They occasionally get decent characterization:

Michael Eddington: Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves paradise. Everyone should want to be in the Federation. Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day they can take their "rightful place" on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious. You assimilate people and they don't even know it.

    • In one Voyager two-parter, most of the crew becomes part of the actual French Resistance via the holodeck.
    • The Bajoran Resistance. While the Bajorans are shown as sympathetic, and the Cardassians as almost pure evil, the Resistance itself is definitely shown as The Revolution Will Not Be Civilised, and Deep Space Nine shows many former Resistance members having trouble adapting to the fact that the Occupation is over, and they don't need to fight anymore. Plus, some just see The Federation as the new oppressors.
  • The 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica had two examples of this trope: the resistance on Caprica which consisted of handsome, well-scrubbed athletes fighting in beautiful irradiated pine forests, and the resistance on New Caprica which consisted of unshaven tent-dwellers fighting a dirty war of suicide bombers and no razor blades. Although the Caprica resistance were quite willing to blow up civilians in bars, in a way that was only relatively less morally ambiguous than the second example.
    • Funnily enough at least one of the leaders of the first was a leader in the second.
      • Even funnier that the main leaders of the New Caprican Resistance, including the one who led the old Caprican Resistance were not only what they were waging war against, they were the one who are responsible for the damn things!. No wonder Tigh was so upset.
  • Blake's 7 revolves around the adventures of a resistance force composed of such characters as a cowardly thief, a computer hacker who only wants to get rich, a smuggler, a murderer, and so on.
  • From Stargate SG-1 - Several thousand years ago, a group of Go'auld decided to put down the Villain Ball and reject the Large Ham, Body Snatching ways of their race and its leader Ra and actually, *gasp* co-exist peacefully with voluntary hosts. They formed a resistance known as the Tok'Ra, literally meaning, "Against Ra". They join up with two other resistance movements, a network of Jaffa slaves secretly working to overthrow the Go'auld, and Stargate Command, which can be considered the primary Tau'ri resistance. These then form an Alliance, which defeats the Go'auld once and for all (with help from allies like the Asgard; of course, it's the Replicators who actually end up killing the last Goa'uld off).
  • In Dollhouse the LA branch seems to have become this against the other Dollhouses, and Rossum in general. Especially in the Epitaph episodes.
  • La Résistance is formed in the pilot of Earth: Final Conflict, whose main purpose is to find out the Taelons' purpose on Earth. In later seasons, several world governments, under pressure from the Taelons, declare martial law and start hunting down the resistance members. Both Boone (season 1) and Kincaid (seasons 2-4) are protectors of a Taelon called Da'an, although both are also secretly members of La Résistance. Initially, the resistance is well-funded, as it was founded by a wealthy tycoon. Their numbers are also high. Later on, though, the numbers and the funds dwindle. By the end, there are very few members left. In the final season, there are less than a dozen members left, as they fight to prevent the Atavus takeover.
  • Winds of War/War and Remembrance sometimes shows resisters, especially Jewish ones. They are definitely brave though most of their life is pictured as rather gritty.

Newspaper Comics

  • The Dragon Lady becomes a resistance leader, fighting the Japanese invaders in Terry and the Pirates. Terry and Pat are frequently dragged into her plots. Other resistance leader, such as the Blue Tiger, also feature prominently.

Music

  • The Resistance is a reoccurring faction in Kaizers Orchestra's song universe, especially in Ompa Til Du Dør, which is set during WW 2.

Video Games

  • In all of Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games you face the problem of revolution and rebellion, most notably by taking someone else's land and enforcing your rule on them but revolts can happen in your own country if you push the people to far.
  • The last Free Radical Design game, HAZE (Play Station 3 exclusive), revolves around this very trope. You start out as a sergeant in Mantel Global Industries' PMC (Private Military Corporation) with the purpose to fight against a rebel group, La Mano de la Promesa (or Promise Hand), that has taken over the fictional south-american region of Boa, and has been wreaking havok by ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and the like. In the end, it turns out that Mantel are the bad guys and you, the hero, end up joining La Resistance. (This has not been hidden as a spoiler because this, the main plot-twist in the game, is given away in all advertisements/reviews/the back of the freaking box.)
  • Every single Final Fantasy game that had an evil Empire has a La Résistance. Examples: Final Fantasy II with the Wild Rose Rebellion against the Palamecian Empire, Final Fantasy XII with the Insurgence Resistance against the Archadian Empire, The Returners in Final Fantasy VI, AVALANCHE in Final Fantasy VII, The Forest Owls in Final Fantasy VIII, N.O.R.A (No Obligation, Rules, or Authority) from Final Fantasy XIII, the name pretty much speaks for itself.
    • Subverted in Bahamut Lagoon (a Squaresoft RPG, much like Chrono Trigger that while not called "Final Fantasy", certainly shares many similarities). The player characters are part of a resistance group, but as the game progresses, it seems that the Empire may not be all that evil, and a larger plot emerges. It is specifically mocked when another resistance group called "The Freedom Revolutionaries" is introduced, whose avowed purpose is to be cool and meet girls.
  • The Lost Souls' Alliance in Grim Fandango. "Viva La Revolución!"
  • The entire premise of the Red Faction series.
  • The Freedom Phantom in Freedom Fighters.
  • Subverted in the Panzer Dragoon series. Although they're the straight villains in the first and second games, the third and fourth games reveal that The Empire is corrupt, but ultimately the only thing protecting humanity from dangerous biological weapons—and members of the various La Résistance groups that have cropped up are shown to take a toll on the lives of innocent bystanders.
  • Brutally subverted in Trapt. Heavy taxation, starvation, and general mismanagement of the kingdom has caused the populace to rise up against the old royalty. Unfortunately for them, the player is one of them—Princess Allura, the heir apparent. And since the game begins with you inheriting the terrible, demonic powers of The Fiend (aka Satan), these particular rebels do, indeed, get stabbed, burned, skinned, tortured, and worse...
    • Subverted precisely once, hidden away in Sidestory B, where a former knight can be reasoned with. He dies two missions later. (Not sure what happens if you kill him...)
  • The rag-tag bunch of people fighting the Soviets in the aptly named Operation Flashpoint: Resistance fits the bill perfectly.
  • Humans Fighting the Combine in Half Life 2. One might not think much of a resistance that puts a theoretical physicist at the head of their battle... but then, he is Gordon Freeman.
  • In Crusader, La Résistance is actually called the Resistance, by both sides—they claim to have no need for a flashy, "formal" name. At most, they are referred to as the Global Resistance, which actually undersells it because there are cells off-world, too.
  • One level in Command & Conquer: Renegade has you fighting through a NOD-occupied city with the help of resistance fighters.
  • Lucy Flathead in Zork: Grand Inquisitor claims to be part of the magic resistance. However, the cut scene just shows her using spray paint on an Inquisition poster.

Lucy Flathead: I was part of the resistance. You know, the magic underground. There's a whole movement in the streets!
 Dalboz: Ugh. Well somebody better clean it up. You can get a pretty stiff fine for that sort of thing.

  • The IRIS Network from Beyond Good and Evil.
  • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has the Dawn Brigade led by Micaiah, though it quickly comes to resemble Joan of Arc pushing the enemies out the country, with the heroine being known from everyone, including the enemy, and hailed as a miraculous figure head, and joining and then leading the prince's army.
    • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance also has it, though it happens off-screen and is only mentioned when members of the Resistance join up the Liberation army.
  • Played straight in Escape Velocity and not so straight in EV Nova.
    • In the backstory, anyhow. The Rebellion of Escape Velocity has gotten entrenched since its establishment, and the war is now more of an open conflict, starship-against-starship style, than an actual revolution. In other words, the game starts with La Résistance already having grown into The Alliance... and stays there.
  • Deus Ex. There's the NSF, who're La Résistance to the US government and Majestic 12. Then there's the Luminous Path, who're La Résistance to Majestic 12 and Silouette, who're La Résistance to the "Vichy" French Government and Majestic 12. Finally, the Luminous Path are also La Résistance to The Illuminati, who're already on your side.
    • The novel Deus Ex: The Icarus Effect (taking place 27 years earlier) has the Juggernaut Collective, a cyberterrorist cell dedicated to fighting the influence of the Illuminati. One of their main financial supporters is Juan Ivanovich Lebedev, a wealthy industrialist. He is also the founder of NSF.
  • The collective Reploid protagonists of Mega Man Zero, aptly (and simply) called the Resistance, fighting against the government that wants to retire them.
    • Mega Man X Command Mission had a "Resistance" to...the rebel army opposing the government. So it was pretty much The Resistance to The Resistance. Yeah.
      • Granted, both resistance movements were good at their core - the Resistance, which X aligns himself with over the course of the game, seeks to protect the people of Giga City from the Rebellion, which has Well-Intentioned Extremist faculty and simply wished for a Reploid-only domain independent of Federation politics. The latter are only seen as evil due to the fact that a few among the Federation unjustly branded them as Mavericks, forcing them to develop weapons in order to be heard and acknowledged. Not like the Mavericks Hunters haven't dealt with internal corruption before, though...
  • In Jak II: Renegade, the Underground is a darker version of this, without actually falling victim to The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized. While they're willing to employ pretty much anyone who can help, deal with crime lords, and generally behave like terrorists, their leaders are still fundamentally nice guys who are doing the best they can; Torn left the Krimzon Guard rather than support Baron Praxis's continued canine-raping, and seems genuinely concerned for the people in the Slums who risk death when Praxis cuts off the water supply.
  • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness, the future is grim and eerily still, and a small band of resistance fighters led by Celebi is fighting the rule of Primal Dialga. Grovyle and the player were both members of La Résistance who were sent back in time to try to prevent Dialga from going Primal in the first place.
  • While mostly backup for the Hero, the cunningly-titled Group from The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess fall under this category. Starring Master Swordsman Rusl, Action Girl Ashei, Cool Old Guy Auru, Badass Bookworm Shad, The Bartender Telma, and Bartender Telma's cat, Louise, they're essential to the game. Also, Hyrulean bazooka.
  • Ace Combat games often have a resistance movement on the ground aiding your efforts in the air.
  • StarCraft's Jim Raynor (and the Magistrate) are first rebelling against the Terran Confederacy, and, after its fall, against their former partner turned Emperor of the Terran Dominion.
    • In the novel StarCraft: Ghost: Nova, the titular characters wealthy parents are murdered by another resistance group, opposed to the Confederacy. Her first task as a Ghost operative under the Mengsk regime is to eliminate the cell that ordered her parents' murders. Apparently, after ascending to the throne, Mengsk becomes even more ruthless to various resistance groups than the people he overthrew.
  • Guild Wars has a couple of these groups. Prophecies has the Shining blade; Nightfall has various groups in Kourna joining together in one of these; Eye of the north has the ebon vanguard. Players join these groups at different times in the storylines.
  • On Praetorian Earth in City of Heroes, The Resistance are a high-tech ragtag group who seem to be the Good Counterpart of the anarchist Cyberpunk gang the Freakshow on regular Earth.
  • In the second Quest for Glory game, there's supposedly an underground group opposing the totalitarian regime in Raseir, whose off-screen help you receive at the climax.
  • The Saboteur has you play an Irish ex-mechanic/driver who joined the French Resistance about three months after the Nazis occupied France. You'll find the bulk of the resistance, the Foreign Legionnaires most especially, to be badasses.
  • One major twist (among several others) at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4 is that neither Ocelot nor Big Boss are the series Big Bad, but have been La Résistance all along! Outer Heaven had never been about creating a world of eternal conflict, but to bring down the secret rule of the Patriots.
  • Yggdra Union deconstructs this trope; Cruz plays it straight.
  • The Iron Grip games have you playing as various guerrillas and resistance groups fighting militaristic empires. Badass Last Stand included...
  • In Strife you have the Front, fighting the Evil Empire Religion of Evil, the Order.
  • The Free Drudge in Conduit 2 is a group who helps the player against the Big Bad's Bug War.
  • Agent USA has a subtle example. Whenever fuzzbodies enter a city the (normally randomly wandering) citizens start dropping crystals to try to fend off the fuzz menace. That's about as useful as they get, though, but being from a game from the early 80's it's more help than one would usually get from games at the time.
  • The Vox Populi in BioShock Infinite look to be a deconstruction of this trope. While they originally grew out of opposition to the Founder's isolationist and white supremacist policies, they have been fighting for so long that their original beliefs have become a dogma of blind hatred against the Founders.
  • Home Front has you being "recruited" into the titular resistance (or the home front) in the first level, right before the fighting starts. Not that you had a choice anyway, since the North Koreans weren't too keen on giving those.
  • In the original Making History Gold edition, resistance fighters will spring up and retake undefended regions in occupied territory. In the sequel, they'll rise up and try to fight a government that is doing poorly, or that they feel should not control their ethnic, national, or religious group.
  • RuneScape is home to Morytania, land of the dead. This is a horrific and dark place, ruled by vampyres who oppress the living inhabitants of the land and require them to pay 'blood tithes'. However, there is a resistance force known as the Myreque. Unfortunately, the odds are not in their favour, at least when the player first meets them.
  • Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten revolves around Prinny Instructor Valvatorez forming a resistance party to overthrow The Corrupternment because their most recent policy makes it hard for him to give the Prinnies that bonus he promised them.
  • Tales of Symphonia has The Renegades, a group of half-elven Defectors From Decadence who oppose the Desians that enslave and torture humans and the Cruxis, who control both the Desians and the Church Of Martel.

Web Comics

Web Original

  • In Decades of Darkness, there are several ones fighting the expansionist, slaveholding *USA, like the Velvet Underground in Pennsylvania, Mexican generals like Juarez, and Eunuco Mitchell (it's a pseudonym). Unfortunately, none have prevailed.
  • The Chaos Timeline has various. Spaniards against Republican France, Germans against Russians and Italians, (again) various against the Socialists.
  • Taking from its source material, the Rebellion in The Gungan Council have been revived several times to restore democracy after the Galactic Empire came back.
  • In Shadowhunter Peril, the main characters are forced to become the Resistance because it's either fight back or die. They actually end up doing a pretty good job, even amassing a giant army of PHOENIXES and raining a fiery storm down upon the Big Bad's capital city. Currently they're in the middle of the final battle, so there's no way of knowing who's going to win, especially with Lilith and Valentine still alive.

Western Animation

  • As the page quote implies, the children of South Park formed their own resistance group in the wake of Kyle's mother's impending war against Canada. It makes sense in context. They even had their own song, as well as a Dark Reprise.
  • The Freedom Fighters in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series and original Saturday morning cartoon.
  • On The Venture Brothers the Orange County Liberation Front is a resistance movement trying to take down the Brisby "empire", an obvious Disney parody.
    • The second season of The Venture Brothers also features a lame but zealous resistance to Baron Ünderbheit's iron fisted (and jawed) rule in Ünderland. One of their proudest achievements is sneaking a cat hair into his drink.
  • The rebel pirates in Skyland.
  • By the third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang and his True Companions are basically this. See also: Order of the White Lotus in the last couple episodes.
    • The invasion force from the Day of Black Sun, made up of the Gaang's allies from the two remaining nations opposing the war.
    • The Freedom Fighters (no, not the Sonic ones) fit this, even if they are a bunch of Well-Intentioned Extremists.
    • There are active resistances of Eath Kingdom citizens against the Fire Nation occupying forces throughout the series. We see one of them in "Return to Omashu."
  • The first season of WITCH features the rebellion against the Big Bad Phobos, with Badass Normal Caleb as the young rebel leader. After Phobos is defeated and imprisoned, the situation is inverted during season two, with a small band of Phobos' remaining loyal troops attempting to overthrow the benevolent queen Elyon.
  • The Great Rebellion in She-Ra: Princess of Power.
  • The Resisty from Invader Zim were a resistance movement against the Irken Empire. To their credit, they very nearly destroyed the Massive, but only because Zim had seized control of it and had removed its defenses. Also in Invader Zim is the Swollen Eyeball Network, a group of genre-savvy conspiracy theorists who have foiled alien invasions. Naturally, Dib is a proud member, codenamed Agent Mothman.
  • The Maximals in Beast Machines.
  • Lampshaded in Justice League by Green Lantern in "Hearts and Minds":

There's always a resistance isn't there?

Real Life

  • The White Rose, a German nonviolent resistance group who opposed Nazi rule despite the inevitable consequences.
  • Mahatma Gandhi led a nonviolent resistance against British rule of India which actually succeeded.
  • The American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
  • The partisan movements in Nazi-controlled areas during World War 2 were instrumental in winning the war.
    • The largest partisan movements were in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
    • The most famous partisan movement was the French Resistance. In spite of their unfair reputation as being Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys, French civilians were responsible for preventing Nazi Germany from building a stable base in France and sweeping through the rest of Europe.
    • The Polish Home Army was not just a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, but a full-blown government operating in conspiracy. They had their own judicial system, educational system (extending from primary schools to universities), hospitals, arms factories and intelligence service operating in other countries. Its political activities ranged from assassinations of German officials to taking care of families of deceased soldiers to providing Jews with false documents. Downplayed in that the Home Army was technically an extension of the Government in Exile and operated under its orders. The two politically distinct groups, the National Armed Forces (nationalist) and People's Army (communist), play this trope straight.
    • The Greek National Liberation Front was also heavy organized, with its own government, polls, and a popular army of thousands essentially controlling almost all the rural areas of Greece by the end of the war, and had already set up infrastructure like schools and health care for the places they freed BEFORE the war was over, and did heavy fighting with the Germans holding essential reinforcements from the East Lines.
    • Italy had the biggest partisan movement of any Axis power. That was because Fascism got its supporters from the upper-middle class, who considered it a way to control the lower class. Needless to say, Fascism wasn't seen in a positive light by the farmers and workers who made up the majority of the population.
    • Due to the Chinese Civil War, this was the main conflict with the Japanese during the invasion of China. It was also a Melee a Trois as the Nationalists and Communists generally fought each other as much as they fought the Japanese.
    • Much of them were made more of than they were because most people really were willing to collaberate just enough to be left alone, usually not going so far as actual treason in their collaboration. Also sometimes a Rebel Leader was not ruthless enough to put his people through the full rigors of an insurgency when it was obvious conventional support wasn't coming for years if ever. The Free French were really ambiguous about that and really wanted recruits for conventional armies. The resistance they wanted to do a little spying and maybe a few "bangs" (as the British govenment charmingly termed blowing something up) and otherwise wait until the landing when they could have a real effect by snarling German military traffic. And there is some reason to believe many supporters joined only as soon it was safe, and just made noise. Not so much a French thing as Miles Gloriosus is universal.
      • Communists in many countries were often more effective. Sometimes they were with Comintern (basically international Communists terrorists) and it wasn't their country anyway. Or they were more likely to be bloody minded enough even to prefer having their own country wrecked than occupied. To give them their do they often were quite heroic.
  • Some libertarians (especially in the US) consider themselves this. One very good example of the above would be Claire Wolfe.
  • Stay-behind units organised in case of a Soviet invasion of Europe. During World War II the Home Guard Auxilary Units in Britain carried out a similar function.
  • Several resistances against undemocratic governments in Latin America and South America qualify, markedly in Brazil the MR-8.
    • The MIR/Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front in Chile and the Montoneros/People's Revolutionary Army in Argentina might qualify as well.
  • During many wars local civilians were provoked by the incredible presumption of passing soldiers into becoming this. As if they failed, they would be subject to worse Rape, Pillage and Burn then before, if they succeeded they would end up becoming like their persecutors and if they did nothing they would simply be ground down underfoot, it was a tough choice. Effectively it was La Résistance against both sides for pure self-preservation, but the chief target would be the nearest army.
  • The Spanish Civil War serves as both an example and a subversion. The Nationalists thought of themselves as La Résistance to the leftist government, but were much better organized and prepared for war than the leftists (Loyalists). This makes sense considering that the Nationalists controlled most of the army, and had the direct backing of Hitler and Mussolini. As a result, the Loyalist government itself was reduced to a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who frequently fought among themselves (in some cases, particularly for the Stalinists, the faction fighting was actually more important than fighting the Nationalists—many Loyalist offensives never got off the ground because important officers were detained and sometimes executed by the Stalinists in the name of ideological purity).
  • The Arab Spring. Protests and revolutions have occurred in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, Bahrain, Syria, and Iraq and Iran.
  • Haiti is an entire nation formed out of the success of a slave rebellion—a rare (indeed, unique) feat.
  • Finnish Civil War 1918 - both sides. The Whites considered themselves as the representatives of the legitimate government resisting the Communist Imperialism, while the Reds considered themselves as the sole defendant of the small guy against Capitalist oppressors. Needless to say, the Finnish Civil War was extremely bloody.
  • The Vendée Rebellion 1793-1796 in France. The Vendées, who had initially welcomed the French Revolution, saw it quickly escalating off the hands and after the execution of the King, decided they had had enough of this revolution stuff. They repulsed the Revolutionary armies, declared themselves as the defendants of the legitimate government and managed to evict the Revolutionary regime completely off the Vendée department. The mutiny was quashed in 1796 and ended in genocide, but guerrilla war continued until the end of the Napoleon's regime and restoration of King.
  • In Australia there is a radical socialist youth organisation called Resistance.
  • The duties of the OSS and SOE in World War II often involved making contact with resistance groups and bringing supplies and expertise. This could include urban guerilla warfare and sabotage in Casablanca-like towns, mountain and forest work in the Balkans, scalp-hunting with jungle tribes in Asia, or any other sort of exotic venues.
  1. ↑ To arms, citizens! Form your ranks! March, March! Let the impure blood water our fields!
  2. ↑ Well, the Spiritual Successor of the government that replaced The Empire, but let's not quibble. Much.
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