Rousing Speech

We few, we happy few, we Band of Brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day!
—King Henry V, Act 4 Scene iii, by William Shakespeare, giving us the Trope Codifier

La Résistance is about to be crushed by The Empire. The Ragtag Bunch of Misfits sports team is way behind at halftime. The Dork Horse Candidate has just seen their opponent make a strong point in the political debate, to enthusiastic applause. The opposing attorney in the courtroom drama has just made their argument with laser-like precision. The MacGuffin was seized by the Mooks, and the team sees no way to recover it or succeed without it.

In short, everything looks hopelessly lost.

And this is when the hero will step forward and make a pithy speech including at least one noteworthy One-Liner (similar to a Facing the Bullets One-Liner), to the effect of (or the specific phrase) "It's time to take the fight to them," (often followed by a One-Liner Echo or a Dramatic Gun Cock). This sometimes happens right after a sidekick has joined the choir invisible via a Heroic Sacrifice. Sometimes the characters are going Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!.

In TV and movies, there's no situation so desperate that it can't be turned completely around with a brilliant one-minute rant. This speech means that the heroes are going to (finally) move to a proactive posture, despite the overwhelming odds and very real chance that they'll all end up dead.

The background music usually swells to a rousing, if not outright majestic climax as the hero drives his point home. The Slow Clap or other ovation followup is practically essential, followed by a Misfit Mobilization Moment (or a Miracle Rally for sports-based works). But if a Grand Finale does not result, the whole thing will often backfire leaving the heroes badly battered. A Sedgwick Speech often looks like one of these at the beginning. When it's the whole damn human race that's getting the Rousing Speech, that's The Eternal Churchill. When the Rousing Speech is delivered by the leader of a nation or world, it is an example of Emergency Presidential Address.

Usually, it's the leader of the heroes who delivers the Rousing Speech signaling this transition, but a common variation is to have whichever character is typically most cautious (even cowardly) deliver it.

Compare with:


Contrast with:

  • The War Has Just Begun: There's way more bad stuff ahead. Our task is as yet unfinished.
  • Sedgwick Speech: You get killed during your Rousing Speech.
  • Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: Subversion of the Rousing Speech, in which the speaker is perhaps a little too anxious to see the heroes march off to certain death—err, glory.
  • Bastardly Speech: Would be a Rousing Speech, if it weren't a complete lie.

Because of the sheer volume of memorable Real Life Rousing Speeches that exist, please do not add them to this page, add them to the Quotes page.

Examples of Rousing Speech include:

Anime

  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is pretty much the embodiment of this trope. The first comes in episode eight, and things just grow from there. The best definitely goes to Simon once he overcomes Kamina's death. His speech and his Theme Music Power-Up together are extremely rousing. Essentially every line Simon has in the last three episodes is one of these.

Kamina: Simon...never forget. Believe in yourself. Not in the Simon that I believe in. Not in the Kamina that you believe in. Believe in the Simon...who believes in you!

    • Near the end of the show, everyone else in the crew joins in and pretty much has this go into Badass Creed territory. For the last few episodes, EVERY motivating speech they give can basically be summed up as "We're about to Punch Out Cthulhu." That's an awesome creed right there
  • In Death Note, L gives a rousing speech to the task force right at the beginning of the show.

We are going to show Kira that we are willing to give our lives if that's what it takes. *smiles* And that justice will prevail no matter what.

  • In Hellsing, right before Captain Pip Berdanotte leads his ragtag band of mercenaries into what is most definitely a suicidal close-quarters battle against an army of Nazi vampires after Seras goes on the offensive, he lets out a short but brutally simplistic speech about their fates.

"To let such a sweet girl die befits a death worse than hell, am I right? [...] And if it comes down to that, all of your lives must be sacrificed. This is the place you shall be buried. Your fortress will become your grave. [...] You fellas came here to kill for chump change, same as me. You all chose the life of a mercenary. Let's go die like mangy dogs. Let's die, screaming "Fuck! Fuck!" Taking gut shots, and writhing on the ground in agony. Heh, heh, heh. What do you boys say to that?"

"Sounds great to me."
"Absolutely."

    • Anderson's speech to the entire Iscariot Orginization while saving Integra also definitely qualifies.
    • But by far the most famous Rousing Speech to come out of Hellsing is the Major's "I Love War" speech to the Last Battalion. Sure, a Nazi says it, but it's still rousing.

"My friends, it has often been said that I like war. My friends, I like war. My friends, I love war."

  • Pokémon. Mewtwo plus an army of genetically altered (read: enhanced) Pokemon. Imminent extermination of the human race. Enter Ash Ketchum with dozens of "ordinary" Pokemon in tow. Horribly outnumbered and outgunned. "You can't do this. I. Won't. Let you."
  • In the last episode of Last Exile, between the overwhelming enemy forces and indiscriminate attacks of Exile, the final battle threatens to turn into a war of attrition. Sophia responds that this is a war of attrition, and lays out in no uncertain terms that no matter how much they have to throw into this battle, no matter how much they have to sacrifice, this is their last chance to overthrow the Guild. "TARGET: MAESTRO DELPHINE!"
  • Parodied in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu when Kaname inspires her fellow students to assault the booby-trapped hill where Sousuke is hiding because they need him as an artist's model. "For the sake of our lost comrades! For the sake of our own human dignity! And above all, for the sake of everybody's grades!" Kurz gives a similar speech when inspiring his comrades to assault a Sousuke-protected hill...in order to perv on the girls while they're naked in a hot spring.
    • Done straight in the rugby episode, where Sousuke bravely encourages the school rugby team as they're about to take the field. Well, played *sort* of straight...

Sousuke: Listen up! As of this moment, you people are no longer lowly maggots! You are rugger men, do you understand?
Rugby team: SIR, YES SIR!
Sousuke: Now you are about to confront the greatest ordeal. The critical moment where you either win it all or fall to hell! So, ARE YOU HAVING FUN?!
Team: SIR, YES SIR!
Sousuke: NOW PREPARE FOR COMBAT!!! (team discard their clothing, changing into the team uniform) So, what's our specialty, ladies?!
Team: KILL! KILL! KILL!
Sousuke: And what is our goal in this game?!
Team: KILL! KILL! KILL!
Sousuke: Do we love our high scool?! Do we love our high school rugby club?!
Team: GUNG HO! GUNG HO! GUNG HOOOO!
Sousuke: Then let's go! (team cheers and rushes onto the playing field)

  • Much, much lower stakes in Eyeshield 21. In the regional championship game, Deimon is behind by 17 points when their seemingly invincible leader/quarterback gets crushed by one of the opposing players and is taken off the field with a broken arm. With no back-up quarterback, their strongest lineman in minute two of his Ten-Minute Retirement and the rest of the team totally shaken, the opposition asks if they're ready to forfiet the game. After a brief team meeting, the Devil Bats declare their decision in unison, "We will KILL them!"
  • General Revil's unforgettable "Zeon is exhausted!" speech in Mobile Suit Gundam, when The Federation was on the brink of total surrender.
    • On the Zeon side, Gihren Zabi had two of his own: once after his brother Garma is killed, and another before the Federation's final assault on the Zeonic space fortress A Baoa Qu.
  • Kaiji gives a few of these to Furuhata and Andou on the many occasions when things look hopeless on the Espoir.
  • In quite possibly the most unorthodox example of the trope ever, an episode of Gintama features Gintoki giving the now-fandom-infamous "truth of the strawberry milk" speech to justify going to find a missing person. Said speech is basically about how people that drink strawberry milk will wet the bed in their sleep, and everyone cheers him on for this. It's that kind of show. You can watch it in all its glory here.
  • A favorite pastime of the title character on Naruto, usually concerning the power of friendship and never giving up. Ironically, one of the most memorable of the show's speeches was much more cynical, given by not-exactly-main character Shikamaru.

Shikamaru: For as long as I've known him, Sasuke and I haven't exactly been close buddies. In fact, I don't really like him at all. All the same, Sasuke is a ninja belonging to the Hidden Leaf Village; he's a comrade, and I'll put my life on the line to help him. That's the way of our village. I know I usually seem like a pretty lazy guy, but not today... because now I'm responsible for your lives, too.

    • Now that the series has been going towards end game territory (with The End of the World as We Know It at hand), former Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Gaara has been given supreme command of the entire Shinobi Alliance Army. So how does he defuse xenophobia- and racism generations of animosity fueled conflict between the united shinobi? Well, of course, by this gem:

Three times now... we've fought world wars for our own nations, our own villages. We've hurt one another, we've hated one another. That hatred bred a lust for power, and that lust for power created ME. I was a jinchūriki, the embodiment of hatred and power. And I hated this world, and all the people in it... I wanted to destroy it with my own hands. The exact same thing Akatsuki is trying to do today. But one man, one ninja from Konohagakure stopped me. I was his enemy, yet he wept for me! I hurt him, yet he called me his friend! He saved me! My enemy, my fellow jinchuriki... he suffered the same pain as me, yet bore me no ill will!
 There are no enemies here because we've all suffered at Akatsuki's hand! So there is no Suna, no Iwa, no Konoha, no Kiri, and no Kumo! There are only "shinobi!" And if you still hold a grudge against Suna, then when this war is over, come and take my head instead! Our enemies are after the friend who saved my life! If they take him, if we hand him over, our world is finished! I want to protect him, and I want to protect our world! But I'm too young to protect it all on my own! All of you, lend me your aid! Everyone who's with me, let's go!

  • Skies of Arcadia's Vyse loves these, being the adventurous optimist incarnate.
  • Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Keiichi's rousing speech to Rena in Atonement Chapter, which not only helps her regain her sanity, but gives Rika hope and renews her will to fight against fate and break the cycle of tragedy.
    • Of course, later arcs make it clear that Rousing Speeches are Keiichi's specialty. Mion doesn't call him "The Magician of Words" for nothing!
  • In the Gundam Wing "Endless Waltz" movie, Dorothy Catalonia rouses the citizenry to openly protest Marimaia's coup d'etat. This can only be seen in the theatrical, not the 3-episode OVA cut.
  • A villainous example by Seiji in the Shin Hokuto no Ken OAVs. His speech regarding the madness of living and of combat is so godawful awesome it turns his milquetoast mercenaries who were about to break into crazed supersoldiers. He's like Evil Kamina or something. (And the milquetoastiest of them all, Chess, is instantly granted several hundred levels in badass by the speech alone, suddenly becoming as effective in combat as his master.) It turns the entire battle against the religious fanatics completely on its head. One wonders the kinds of world shaking power it would have upon being used on people who were empowered in some fashion, or already at Heroic Sociopath level. (And make no mistake that's what he sees himself as too.)
  • Happens a few times in Monster, notably when Tenma has to talk Nina out of her suicidal BSOD, and when he needs to impress upon the Turkish immigrants to secure the neighborhood or else face the wrath of the pyromaniacal Neo-Nazis.
  • Happens every now and then in Legend of Galactic Heroes, with varying levels of cynism, demagogy and good old stuipdity. The undisputed king is Yang Wen-li, whose first Rousing Speech goes something like this: "Er... Giving our life for the fatherland... and stuff... um, I guess it's just that we can only drink good tea while we're alive so let's fight and not die!" Earned him an ovation and the undying loyalty of a fleet of Ragtag Bunch of Misfits.
  • Goku gives a surprisingly potent Rousing Speech in Dragonball Z episode 253, Union of Rivals, in which he tells Vegeta that they've got to forget about their past histories and start fighting as one to protect their new race from Majin Buu.

"Look, you're always talking about our Saiyan race, how we're the last of a mighty people. Well it's time we accept we're starting a new race, one that can be just as strong, just as proud, but not if we're caught up in so much of our old birthrights to see what we have right in front of us - we've lost our old race, Vegeta! Let's not lose this one, too!"

  • Like the games it was based on, in Pokémon Special, Team Plasma gives one to convince the people that humans and Pokemon should be separated as Pokemon should not be used for tools of battle. While most people ignore them, amazingly enough however, a few actually take the speech to heart, one old man breaking down and crying how he abused many Pokemon over the years and some others immediately releasing their Pokemon.
  • Fleet Admiral Sengoku gives one in One Piece, after Blackbeard stole Whitebeard's quake powers and threatened to sink the Navy HQ island Marineford with them. This is especially rousing in the anime, which shows the Marines' spirits rising from it.

A fortress can be rebuilt. However... this is Marineford, an island situated almost exactly in the center of the entire world. To the people of the world, who live in fear of evildoers coming and going amongst them, the true meaning lies in our position in this place! Our universal justice will never fall! Don't talk big about things like sinking this place, you damned punk!

Comic Books

  • Ultimate Captain America in Ultimates #1. World War II, and Cap's soldiers are assaulting a Nazi superscience bunker. They're being slaughtered by defenses ... until Captain America crashes the transport plane into it - and survives. As he climbs out, he waves the troops forward, proclaiming "What are you ladies waiting for - Christmas?!"
  • This happens with the X-Men in the Fall of the Mutants storyline. They know full well they will not survive the encounter with the Adversary, but go on to fight him anyway after Wolverine gives some rousing words to the people watching at home (a cameraman was accompanying them).
  • Subverted in Asterix And The Laurel Wreath where Asterix gives the courtroom a rousing speech that drives the entire courtroom to tears... in order to get themselves thrown to the lions in the hopes that Caesar will attend in order to obtain the titular laurel wreath.
  • Bron gives one of these in Scion to his army after the Heron army invades the Raven Kingdom.
  • In the mini-series Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, Krona, in service of the death god, Nekron, had defeated the bulk of the Corps and shattered their morale. While most of the Corps was ready to go and wait for death as the Universe is destroyed, Hal overcomes the temptation and remembers his vows. At that, Jordan addresses the Corps that he is a Green Lantern and he will not await death on his knees, but will fight to the last, alone if necessary. As he takes off, he finds first his best friends are joining and then the entire Corps as they join the fight noting the Corps has never surrendered and they will not now. Ultimately, they save the Universe.
  • At the end of volume one of Kill Shakespeare, Juliet gives a long one to the rebellion as they go to take down Richard III.


Film

  • Newsies has a pretty epic one at the point when everything has fallen and the Newboys felt they had been betrayed by Cowboy and abandoned by Denton. You can watch it here. It is delivered as a pamphlet rather than a speech.
  • Aguirre, the Wrath of God ends with Aguirre giving one of these, combined with his mad vision to conquer the Spanish Empire, to his crew - who are either dead or insane - himself, and a swarm of tiny monkeys. There is also a Rousing Speech (or at least one intendend to be rousing) in the first phase of the movie, when Aguirre goads the soldiers to mutiny. But both speeches are subversions of the trope, because 1. Aguirre is the evil guy, 2. his speeches make no effort to hide or euphemize his and his listeners' selfish and non-sublime motives (they all are only out for money and fame), and 3. many of the soldiers are not actually "roused", but only follow Aguirre out of fear of him and his accomplices. The last "speech" is actually partly an inner monologue, partly an address to monkeys instead of people, which leads the trope to absurdity.
  • Played straight in Airplane!! and subverted in Airplane! II: the Sequel.
  • In Animal House:
    • Bluto's (John Belushi's) speech leading to the sabotage of the parade, is an almost perfect parody of this trope, laced with fiery rhetoric, cliches that were already hackneyed by the 1960's, and garbled historical references.

Bluto: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.

    • A less-famous example from the same movie is Otter's address to the disciplinary council, which inspires the entire gang to walk out of the proceedings, ignore the closure of their fraternity, and hum the Star Spangled Banner:

Otter: Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests. We did. But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!

  • Beavis humorously inverts this in Beavis and Butthead: Do America. The whole thing is played as a rousing speech complete with a motivational music in the background:

Beavis: WE'RE NEVER GONNA SCORE! WE'RE NEVER GONNA SCORE! WE'RE NEVER GONNA SCORE...!
Bus Driver: ALRIGHT!!! THAT'S IT!!! * tackles Beavis to the floor*

  • Back to School has Rodney Dangerfield reciting the Dylan Thomas poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" from memory after almost giving up during his oral exams. He then goes on to (barely) pass.
  • Dan Aykroyd, in Blues Brothers 2000, launches into a semi-inspiring speech (mostly about the many reasons that the Russian Mafia was not, in fact, going to blow up Willy's Strip Club) -- but it consisted almost entirely of a history lecture on Russian politics that left everyone else entirely perplexed.
    • Another one after they've run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, and all but the main three are thinking of just giving up -

Elwood Blues: [addressing the rest if the band] You may go if you wish. But remember this...walk away now and you walk away from your crafts, your skills, your vocations; leaving the next generation with nothing but recycled, digitally-sampled techno-grooves, quasi-synth rhythms, pseudo-songs of violence-laden gangsta-rap, acid pop, and simpering, saccharine, soulless slush. Depart now and you forever separate yourselves from the vital American legacies of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Memphis Slim, Blind Boy Fuller, Louie Jordon, Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonnyboy Williamson I and II, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Elvis Presley, Lieber and Stoller, and Robert K. Weiss.
Donald "Duck" Dunn: Who is Robert K. Weiss?
[the rest of the band shrug]
Elwood Blues: Turn your backs now and you snuff out the fragile candles of Blues, R&B and Soul, and when those flames flicker and expire, the light of the world is extinguished because the music which has moved mankind through seven decades leading to the millennium will whither and die on the vine of abandonment and neglect.

    • They eventually follow, except for the saxophonist (Blue Lou Marini) who wanders off to get gas.
  • As a whole, Mr. Aykroyd seems to like these kinds of speeches. Spies Like Us also features a rousing speech given by Karen Boyer (played by Donna Dixon) to Austin Millbarge (Dan) and Emmett Fitz-Hume (Chevy Chase) just as they're prepared to pack up and go home rather than face the Russians and their Fantastic Nuke. Karen busts their chops, and tells them she's been preparing for this mission for months and even had to bury her partner that day, after the Russians killed him, and she's not about to let it all be for nothing.
  • Parodied in the Norm MacDonald movie Dirty Work: after screwing over the residents of an apartment block by trashing their building, Norm's character and his accomplice are themselves screwed over by the slimy businessman who hired them to do so. Norm appeals to the residents to join him in a scheme that will enable everyone to get their revenge on the businessman with a stirring speech that climaxes with him yelling "Are you with me?"... and the response is a stony, hostile silence. He then tries "Okay, are you with me on the assumption that if we fail, you get to kick my ass?"—and the crowd goes wild.
  • Parodied in Dr. Strangelove. To the crew of a B-52 on a nuclear bombing run into Soviet territory:

Major Kong: "(... ) [T]his thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions an' personal citations when this thing's over with. That goes for every last one of ya, regardless of your race, color, or your creed. Now, let's get this thing on the hump. We got some flyin' to do."

  • Viciously subverted in Glengarry Glen Ross. "Coffee's for closers only."
  • Subverted with terrific cruelty in High Noon, in the church.
  • In Independence Day, President Whitmore gives such a speech before he and the other pilots get into their planes for their battle. His speech ends like this:

President Whitmore: [...] This will be remembered as the day that the world declared with one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We are going to live on! We are going to survive! Today! We celebrate! Our Independence Day!

  • Bill Murray's terrific "it just doesn't matter" rant in Meatballs roused the entire camp to victory, even while emphasizing the superiority of their opponents and underscoring the pointlessness of the game.
  • Subverted awesomely in Muppet Treasure Island, when the rat with the toothpick-sized sword tries to put his life on the line and stand up to Long John Silver, but fails miserably:

Jim Hawkins: "Kill Captian Smollett and you'll have to kill me."
Gonzo: "Kill Jim and you'll have to kill me!"
Squire Trelawney: "Kill Gonzo and you'll have to kill me! (to his imaginary friend) Oh, and you too, Mr. Bimbo!"
Rizzo the Rat: "Kill Mr. Bimbo and the bear, and you'll have to, um... negotiate strenuously!"

  • Played almost completely straight in The Great Muppet Caper in Fozzie's speech to the residents of the Happiness Hotel.
  • Played nearly straight in Mystery Men. "Or will I eat this sandwich?"
  • Pirates of the Caribbean has Elizabeth Swann deliver an awesome one of these before the final battle of At World's End:

"Then what shall we die for? Now you will listen to me... LISTEN! The Brethren will still be looking here, to us, to the Black Pearl to lead. And what will they see? Frightened bilge rats aboard a derelict ship? No. No, they will see free men! And freedom! And what the enemy will see, they will see the flash of our cannons, they will hear the ring of our swords, and they will know what we can do! By the sweat of our brows, and the strength of our backs, and the courage of our hearts! Gentlemen...hoist the colors."

    • Barbossa gets one in On Stranger Tides, acknowledging the very real danger of where they're going (Whitecap Bay), but gets the men rallied by saying:

"Are we not King's Men? I did not notice any fear in the hearts of the Spanish as they passed us by. So I ask you: are we not King's Men?!"

  • Subverted and played straight (in that order) in Robin Hood: Men In Tights, where a Rousing Speech by Robin (done in the style of Winston Churchill) bores the villagers to tears, by a Rousing Speech done by Achoo (bless you!) in the style of Malcolm X succeeds.

"Now who can argue with that?"

  • A surrealistic variant occurs in the big fight scene at the end of The Rundown, where the Scottish pilot, in the midst of a battle, sits down and puts his feet up and has one of the villagers get him a beer. While Beck is pinned down. He then recents the trope name in a weirdly fascinating tone, and adds a couple of religious allusions as well, at which point Beck breaks his "no guns" rule and goes to town.
    • He's reciting a poem. "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight" by Dylan Thomas. The name speaks for itself; it's a Rousing Speech in poem format.
      • It gets even more surreal than that. Imagine a guy reciting that poem in a Celtic accent so thick you could break lumber across it. Then having have him conclude that recitation with "boom shakalaka!" when the guy unleashes his guns.
  • In Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino gives a speech in defense of a prep school student threatened with expulsion if he won't reveal the culprits behind a prank. You can see the whole thing here, but here's a highlight:

Headmaster Trask: Sir, you're out of order.
Lt. Col. Frank Slade: Out of order, I show you out of order. You don't know what out of order is, Mr. Trask. I'd show you, but I'm too old, I'm too tired, I'm too fuckin' blind. If I were the man I was five years ago, I'd take a FLAMETHROWER to this place! Out of order? Who the hell do you think you're talkin' to? I've been around, you know? There was a time I could see. And I have seen. Boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there isn't nothin' like the sight of an amputated spirit. There is no prosthetic for that. You think you're merely sending this splendid foot soldier back home to Oregon with his tail between his legs, but I say you are... executin' his SOUL! And why? Because he's not a Bairdman. Bairdmen. You hurt this boy, you're gonna be Baird bums, the lot of ya. And Harry, Jimmy, Trent, wherever you are out there, FUCK YOU TOO!

  • Serenity contains two versions of this trope: Once after The Operative destroys the group's safe havens, and once after the secret is found out. The latter is punctuated by Mal's Catch Phrase, "I aim to misbehave".

Mal: You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all came to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. 'Cause as sure as I know anything, I know this: they will try again. Maybe on another world. Maybe on this very ground, swept clean. A year from now, ten, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... (looks directly at River) better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave.

  • Star Trek: First Contact: Picard's "The line must be drawn here!" speech (though partial subversion, as this move ultimately has more to do with Picard's personal relationship with the Borg than with the importance of doing what's right).
  • Used memorably in the Street Fighter movie when Guile decides to shirk his (more weaksauce than usual) Allied Nations orders and lead his strike force against Bison as originally planned.

Guile: "Troopers! I have just received new orders. Our superiors say the war is canceled, and we can all go home. Bison is getting paid off for his crimes, and our friends will have died here... will have died for nothing. But... we can all go home. Meanwhile, ideals like these - freedom, and justice - they get packed up. But... we can all go home. Well... I'm not going home. I'm gonna get on my boat, and I'm going up-river, and I'm going to kick that son-of-a-bitch Bison's ass so HARD... that the next Bison wanna-be is gonna FEEL it. Now who wants to go home... and who wants to go with ME?!"

  • Another great Bill Murray example in Stripes. Having lost their sergeant temporarily to an artillery accident, the platoon of army privates stays up all night studying for their march display the next day. Despondent, they begin to give up until Murray launches into a speech about the stick-to-it attitude of Americans:

Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out! The hell's the matter with you? Stupid! We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! Here's proof: his nose is cold! But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more loveable than the mutt. Who saw "Old Yeller?" Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end? I cried my eyes out. So we're all dogfaces, we're all very, very different, but there is one thing that we all have in common: we were all stupid enough to enlist in the Army. We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers. But we're American soldiers! We've been kicking ass for 200 years! We're 10 and 1! Now we don't have to worry about whether or not we practiced. We don't have to worry about whether Captain Stillman wants to have us hung. All we have to do is to be the great American fighting soldier that is inside each one of us. Now do what I do, and say what I say. And make me proud!

  • In Toy Story 2, Buzz Lightyear inspires the other toys to press on in their search for Woody, while working in a few continuity nods:

Buzz: Come on, fellas. Did Woody give up when Sid had me strapped to a rocket? No! And did he give up when you threw him out of the back of that moving van? No, he didn't! We have a friend in need, and we're not going to rest until he's safe in Andy's room! Now, let's move out!

  • Transformers: The Movie. Twice. With Theme Music Power-Up. "AUTOBOTS! Transform and roll out!"
    • And in the recent Michael Bay film, Optimus gives a speech on their obligation to help the humans, before they do the car equivalent of the Power Walk. The Decepticons have a team-up montage at the same time, so you know it's on.
  • Let's see, there's Braveheart, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (twice!), Gladiator, 300, the list goes on and on. This happens in pretty much every movie that features large-scale battles involving sharp objects. And if the guy is on a horse, riding up and down in front of his ranks while giving the speech, all the better.
    • Selections from the Lord of the Rings trilogy:
      • From Return of the King, when Theoden, prior to the charge of the Rohirrim, effectively tells his men, "You wanna live forever? I thought not! Let's go kill some bad guys and get our throats cut!" See Northern Heroism under Mythology below.

Theoden: Forth, and fear no darkness! Arise! Arise, riders of Théoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered - a sword day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride! Ride to ruin, and the world's ending! Death! Death! DEATH! FORTH ÉORLINGAS!

      • And from that same scene, a very short but very powerful speech from Eowyn to Merry.

Eowyn: "Courage, Merry. Courage for our friends.

      • And from Aragorn at the final battle:

Aragorn: Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day! An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the Age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand! Men! of the West!

        • Arguably, he says all of that again, with greater eloquence and impact, just a moment after he's done with the speech above; when he quietly says to the Hobbits "For Frodo."
      • Likewise from The Two Towers:

Theoden: Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath! Now for ruin! And a red dawn! FORTH ÉORLINGAS!

      • Sean Astin from Two Towers on is an absolute master of these speeches.

Frodo: "I can't do this, Sam."
Sam: "I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand! I know now! Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't! They kept going! Because they were holding on to something."
Frodo: "What are we holding onto, Sam?"
Sam: "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for!"

    • Suberverted in 300, as Leonidas does not seek to lead his men to victory, knowing full well that their defeat is inevitable, but encourages them to meet it with courage. Additionally, played straight at the very end of the film, at the Battle of Platea.
  • Knute Rockne, All American:

Rockne: And the last thing he said to me, "Rock," he said, "sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock", he said - "but I'll know about it - and I'll be happy."
Player # 12: Well, what are we waiting for?

    • And the team rushes out of the locker room to win the game.
    • Parodied in Airplane! where Dr. Rumack gives Ted Stryker almost the exact same speech, except that it's about George Zipp so it ends "...and win just one for the Zipper."
      • " 'I don't know where I'll be then, Doc,' he said, 'But I won't smell too good, that's for sure.' "
  • In that vein, the locker room speech before the seniors' final game in Rudy.

Coach Dan Devine: No one--and I mean, no one--comes into our house and pushes us around.

  • The "inches" speech in Any Given Sunday, spoken by the team coach (Al Pacino) just before their playoff game.

Tony D'Amato: You know when you get old in life, things get taken from you. That's part of life. But you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out life's this game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean...one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast, you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches, that's gonna make the FUCKIN' DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINNING AND LOSING! BETWEEN LIVING AND DYING! I'll tell you this - in any fight, it's the guy who's willing to die who's gonna win that inch. And I know if I'm going to have any life anymore, it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch. Because THAT'S WHAT LIVING IS! THE SIX INCHES IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE!

  • C'mon people, no locker room speech from Miracle?

Coach Herb Brooks: If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world. I'm sick and tired of hearing what a great hockey team the Soviets have! Screw 'em! This is your time! Now go out there and take it!

    • USA! USA!
  • Parodied (naturally) by Groucho Marx in Duck Soup: "And remember, while you're out there risking your life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are!"
  • The Goonies. The Hero, Mikey, gives a speech convincing the Goonies to continue following the Treasure Map after the Jerk Jock offers them a chance to be rescued.

Mikey: Chester Copperpot! Don't you guys see? Don't you realize? He was a pro. He never made it this far. Look how far we've come. We've got a chance.

Lorna Campbell: What are you going to do, Johnny? Sit in this grotty flat feeling sorry for yourself, or are you gonna get out there and save your country?
Johnny English: I'm gonna sit in the flat.

  • Possibly the best example: Charlie Chaplin's speech at the end of The Great Dictator possibly made even stronger in that it's Chaplin, a man not known for his verbosity.
  • Stonewall Jackson from Gods and Generals.
  • Lampshaded, sort of, in Major League II. Beloved manager Lou Brown is talking to head coach Jake Taylor while lying in a hospital bed, scheduled for heart surgery first thing in the morning. Taylor promises Brown that the team will "win this one for you", referring to that night's decisive playoff game. Brown sits up and warns him "not to give one of those corny 'Let's Win It For Lou' speechs". Guess what Taylor does, with loads of Narm and not a shred of visible guilt.
  • Subverted in Idle Hands when Seth Green's character said "No more Kevin Costner speeches, let's just go!"
  • Apollo 13:

Gene Kranz: I want you guys to find every engineer who designed every switch, every circuit, every transistor and every light bulb that's up there. Then I want you to talk to the guy in the assembly line who actually built the thing. Find out how to squeeze every amp out of both of these goddamn machines. I want this mark all the way back to Earth with time to spare. We never lost an American in space, we're sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option!

    • This is such a rousing speech that even though the real Gene Kranz didn't say "Failure is not an option" during Apollo 13, he used the line as the title of his 2000 autobiography.
  • In Changing Places, Winthorpe gives a pep talk before going into the Exchange building:

Louis Winthorpe III: Think big, think positive, never show any sign of weakness. Always go for the throat. Buy low, sell high. Fear? That's the other guy's problem. Nothing you have ever experienced will prepare you for the absolute carnage you are about to witness. Super Bowl, World Series - they don't know what pressure is. In this building, it's either kill or be killed. You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute you're up half a million in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don't go to college and they've repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me?
Billy Ray Valentine: Yeah, we got to kill the motherf... - we got to kill 'em!

  • Mercilessly played for laughs in Team America: World Police, when Gary convinces the audience to rise up against Kim-Jong Il by with a rousing speech about naughty bits.

Lisa: You had me at dicks fuck assholes.

  • Jason has a minor one to convince his friends to solve a murder in Mystery Team.
  • Avatar: Jake's speech to the Omatikaya to unite the clans, with Tsu'tey translating for those who don't speak English. The film also implies similar speeches at the other clans, although they aren't heard.

Jake: The Skypeople have sent us a message; that they can take whatever they want, and no one can stop them. But we will send them a message. You ride out as fast as the wind can carry you. You tell the other clans to come. You tell them Toruk Makto calls to them. You fly now, with me, my brothers, my sisters, and we will show the skypeople that they can not take whatever they want, and that this... THIS IS OUR LAND![1]

The President: We watched as the bombs shattered the second comet into a million pieces of ice and rock that burned harmlessly in our atmosphere and lit up the sky for an hour. Still, we were left with the devastation of the first. The waters reached as far inland as the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. It washed away farms and towns, forests and skyscrapers. But, the water receded. The wave hit Europe and Africa too. Millions were lost, and countless more left homeless. But the waters receded. Cities fall, but they are rebuilt. And heroes die, but they are remembered. We honor them with every brick we lay, with every field we sow, With every child we comfort, and then teach to rejoice in what we have been re-given. Our planet. Our home. So now, let us begin.


Literature

  • The unnamed U.S. President (implied to be Colin Powell) in World War Z gives one of these with a less then lukewarm reception. It still gets the job done.
  • Tyrion Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire gets a few of these. They may not be masterpieces, but since he's a dwarf, the fact that he makes the effort at all is nothing less than phenominal.
    • Consider also he was doing this for people who hated his guts, treated him like garbage, and lopped off his nose for his trouble in saving their sorry asses...
  • James Barrie's Peter Pan sort of fits into this trope: at one point, Peter has saved Tiger Lily but thinks he is going to drown (he was injured, so he couldn't fly or swim away). At first he is scared, but then he stands up, grins, and says "To die would be a very big adventure." However, the only person around to hear him is the reader.
  • Subverted in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow when Bonzo is out to kill Ender and Bean gives a speech about how anyone who's against Ender is on the Buggers' side. When he finishes, someone tells him Ender's alone and Bonzo and his gang are already after him.
  • Parodied in Robert Graves' I, Claudius, where Claudius meets historians Livy and Pollio. Pollio criticizes Livy for writing that generals gave rousing speeches before battles, and tells that Julius Caesar before the decisive battle with Pompey (where Pollio was present) didn't do anything of the sort; instead, he did funny skits involving a radish.
    • In the sequel, Claudius gives a similar speech before an important battle in Britain (without a radish though).
  • Spoofed repeatedly by Cleolinda Jones, author of Movies in 15 Minutes, who enjoys using the titular poem as a substitute for inspirational moments in the movies she parodies. Of note is the spoof of Independence Day, when the President begins to give his speech... and then, seeing that his audience doesn't get it, switches to a more contemporary reference - Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".
  • Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time has the Aiel oath:

Till shade is gone, till water is gone
Into the Shadow with teeth bared
Screaming defiance with the last breath
To spit in Sightblinder's eye on the last day.

  • Terry Pratchett's Discworld, naturally enough, plays with this trope in a variety of ways.
    • In Lords and Ladies, Shawn Ogg attempts and fails to give a St. Crispin's Day speech, after which his mother calmly informs the unimpressed crowd that anyone who doesn't follow him will have her to deal with.
    • Nanny also uses one of these to enlist the aid of the Elf king, after a fashion - except she only means for humanity to not go gentle into that good night. In helping her he's merely ensuring that there'll be room for him on the day they do, when finally even the iron in the head is rusty.
    • In Jingo Carrot leads his small group against two battling armies with the cry "If we succeed, no-one will remember! And if we fail, no-one will forget!" (double subverted in that they're still behind him). We are told of the only worse attempt, General Pidley's famous 'Let's all get our throats cut, boys'
    • In Interesting Times Rincewind gives a passionate speech against the concept, claiming the leaders making such speeches are usually the only ones with decent armour.
    • In The Last Hero the heroes who are going to the Hub to intercept Cohen have patches made up with a slogan in actually rather good Latin: Morituri Nolumus Mori. Rincewind thought them up. With something between amusement and disdain, Lord Vetinari prompts him to translate: "We who are about to die, don't want to." (literally, "{the}About-To-Die We-Do-Not-Want To-Die")
    • Night Watch also parodies Braveheart by taking the most remembered line - "They may take our lives", etc. - and having people react to it as if the speaker had just said something profoundly stupid.
    • In Wyrd Sisters, Hwel, the dramatist thinks that Tomjon, who's the greatest actor in the world, could make a bunch of drunkards in a pub to storm the Patrician's palace by giving a speech - and they'd probably succeed.
  • In J. K. Rowling's first three Harry Potter books, Gryffindor Quidditch captain Oliver Wood was fond of these. His team, not so much.
  • Both King Theoden and Aragorn in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, prior to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. The speech Theoden gave in the movie, however, is given by Eomer in the novel, in despair after he sees Eowyn wounded.
    • The Tolkien metal band Battlelore based the song The Great Gathering off of a Rousing Speech for the Last Alliance of Men, Elves and Dwarves.
      • One of the speeches (I forget which) is a subversion known by some fans as the "Let's All Go And Get Killed" speech.
      • That would be Eomer's speech when he sees Theoden and his sister fallen, believes both are dead, is surrounded buy a bunch of oliphants, together with his whole army, and his solution is to lead a suicide charge at the enemy, much to the dismay of Imrahil who was coming to support him with the Knights of Dol Amroth. Luckily the Cavalry doesn't get Abandoned By the Cavalry, and Aragon saves their ass.
  • In the Silmarillion, Fëanor manages to convince a almost all of the Noldor to boldly go where no elf has gone before.
    • Subverted with his sons Celegorm and Curufin. They too are great orators -their speeches are compared to Fëanor's-, but they manage to convince a whole city not to follow their king, and make them so afraid that they refuse to go into open battle until a few decades later.
  • Commissar Genadey Novobazky delivers one of these at the end of the Warhammer 40,000 Gaunt's Ghosts novel His Last Command. Colonel Wilder, Novobazky and A Company of the 81/1st (Recon) stay behind during the retreat from Sparshad Mons to fight a rearguard action and allow Imperial forces to withdraw from the city before it gets bombarded from orbit. This example is a Bolivian Army Ending. We never see what happens, but there are only two possible outcomes. The Belladon either get slaughtered by the Blood Pact, or vaporised by the orbital bombardment.
    • It's also a convenient way for Gaunt to get command of the regiment again. Wilder is out of the picture, and most of the Belladon soldiers are dead.
  • The Novel We Few by John Ringo and David Weber is named after the Saint Crispan's day speech. Much thought is given to the problems when a King establishes a great deal of personal loyalty by surviving a Bolivian Army Ending with his own troops.

"The safety of the Empire? Admiral, I'm sworn to serve the Empire, we both are, but I serve Master Rog. We all do. You'd have to have been there to understand. He's not...who he was. None of us are. We're Prince Roger's Own. Period. They call aides 'dog-robbers' because they'll rob a dog of its bone, if that's what the admiral wants. We're...we're pig-robbers. We'll steal slop, if that's what Roger wants. Or conquer the Caravazan Empire. Or set him up as a pirate king. Maybe Pahner wasn't that way, maybe he fought for the Empire, even to the last. But the rest of us are, we few who survive. We're Roger's dogs. And if he wants to save the Empire, well, we'll save the Empire. And if he'd told me to come in here and assassinate you, well, Admiral, you'd be dead."

  • Another novel by David Weber, coauthored by Steve White, Crusade, has a corrupt alien religion based around the "Holy Mother Terra". The main headquarters of this religion on the alien home planet has been targeted for invasion/destruction by the Terran fleet that's laboriously fought its way through several other conquered systems, because capturing it will open a small hole in the planetary defenses, allowing the Terrans to force terms of peace. The problem? Said base has been constructed into a mountain, under two hundred meters of rock, the ground defenses are forty kilometers deep, there's four fighter squadrons based there, and countless rocket launchers, anti-shuttle weapons, minefields, auto-cannon, pillboxes, and mortar pits. It's described as being not so much a fortress as a weapon designed to drown the attackers in their own blood. The icing on the cake? A two hundred megaton suicide charge underneath the base proper. The reply from the back row, after all this has been explained to the troops?

"Question, Commander. What do we do after lunch?"

    • This book also features a very different kind of speech from the old and wizened Admiral, where he convinces the Terran Navy's High Command not to exterminate the religious fanatics entirely.
  • In Lords of the Bow, Genghis Khan gives a very impressive speech after gathering the steppe tribes together, which motivates them to cross the Gobi desert and attack the Chinese nations.
  • From the Able Team (spin-off of The Executioner series) novel Ironman.

"He had village assemblies. Set up loudspeakers. Preached 'beans and bullets'. The duty of the people to the nation. The evil of neutrality. The evil of communism. Promised schools and electricity. New roads. Should have saved his breath."
"Everyone knew the facts. Fight or get shit on."

  • Used irritatingly by Roran in The Inheritance Cycle to the entire village of Cavarhall in order to persuade them to abandon the town and join the Varden in Surda. Gloriously (and thankfully) subverted later on when the town needs to steal a boat. They turn to Roran, expecting another rousing speech, but he simply delivers the One-Liner "It's either this or walk," and goes to sleep.
  • In The League of Peoples Verse novel Expendable, the drunken old former Explorer Phylar Tobit manages to get a bunch of indolent aliens to help him out by firing them up with a rousing speech (which he then admits to loosely translating from Henry V).
  • Wedge Antilles has one in Starfighters of Adumar, before launching the united Adumari nation. The Adumari hat is Proud Warrior Race Guy, but that just gets them killed, so he speaks about keeping their minds on the task at hand, not on glory. Before he starts, he thinks that he's not one of those people who needs a rousing speech to fight at his best, and he's a little iffy on the idea of someone who does.
    • He also said something in Iron Fist before the Wraiths started a particularly important mission.

"I'm not going to give you some sort of stirring, half-witted speech about why we're here. They're for crowds, not for fighter pilots."

  • François Villon in If I Were King:

"Herald of Burgundy, in God's name and the king's, I bid you go back to your master and say this: Kings are great in the eyes of their people, but the people are great in the eyes of God, and it is the people of France who answer you in the name of this epitome. The people of Paris are not so poor of spirit that they fear the croak of the Burgundian ravens. We are well victualled, we are well armed; we lie snug and warm behind our stout walls; we laugh at your leaguer. But when we who eat are hungry, when we who drink are dry, when we who glow are frozen, when there is neither bite on the board nor sup in the pitcher nor spark upon the hearth, our answer to rebellious Burgundy will be the same. You are knocking at our doors, beware lest we open them and come forth to speak with our enemy at the gate. We give you back defiance for defiance, menace for menace, blow for blow. This is our answer--this and the drawn sword. God and St. Denis for the King of France!"

  • Robert "Bobby" Pendragon in Pendragon 10: The Soldiers Of Halla, before the final fight, says "This is the beginning of a new history... The way it was meant to be."
  • In James Swallow's Deus Sanguinius, at the climax, Rafen gives a rousing speech, reminding his fellow Blood Angels that their primarch died at the hands of Chaos and calling on them to renounce their allegiance to the false Reborn Angel.
  • Subverted in Chesapeake by James Michener. John Smith (the one that was linked with Pocahontas) sends his men out with a few orders. They come back, having been utterly victorious, and he writes it up in his diary with a rousing speech at the beginning that never happened.
  • Jiaan gives one at the end of Fall of a Kingdom, the first book in the Farsala Trilogy. The entire deghan army has just been destroyed, leaving Farsala with no defenders, and he only speaks a few lines, but we can assume they work. By the next book, he has assembled a ragtag but effective army.
  • Deeba gives one in Chapter 81 of Un Lun Dun.
  • Tavi gets an amazing one to his entire country via watercrafting in First Lord's Fury
  • In The Pale King, one is given by a substitute teacher on the final review day of the Advanced Tax class. It motivates Chris to clean up his life.
    • Gentlemen, you are called to account.
  • Sharpe

You don't see a battle. You hear it. Black powder blasting by the ton on all sides. Black smoke blinding you and choking you and making you vomit. Then the French come out of the smoke - not in a line, but in a column. And they march towards our thin line, kettledrums hammering like hell and a golden eagle blazing overhead. They march slowly, and it takes them a long time to reach you, and you can't see them in smoke. But you can hear the drums. They march out of the smoke, and you fire a volley. And the front rank of the column falls, and the next rank steps over them, with drums hammering, and the column smashes your line like a hammer breaking glass... and Napoleon has won another battle. But if you don't run - if you stand until you can smell the garlic, and fire volley after volley, three rounds a minute - then they slow down. They stop. And then they run away. All you've got to do is stand, and fire three rounds a minute. Now, you and I know you can fire three rounds a minute. But can you stand?

  • Dracula contains an absolutely epic speech from the Count himself. Though the context is wrong for this trope, the content is certainly worthy of a particularly good one. Plus, after the discovery that Dracula used to be a human lord who was also a great general, one can very easily imagine him giving a true Rousing Speech that could have said many of the same things.


Live Action TV

Sgt. Maj. John Sixta:
"Yo president... is watchin'! Amerike... is watchin. But more important... Godfather is watchin'. There will be no FUCK! UPS!"

  • Babylon 5 practically uses rousing speeches as motor fuel.
    • When Sheridan decided to attack Earth to get our government back.
    • "No more! NOT ON MY WATCH!"
    • "We can end this. Not just for now, not just for the next thousand years, but forever!"
    • Right before the Battle of the Line—the last, desperate battle in the Earth-Minbari war—the Earth President gives one.
      • This is more of a subversion, as speech was not meant to inspire them to victory, but to inspire them to hold back the Minbari for as long as they can to buy humanity time to escape Earth.
    • The series likes to point out that this is humanity's trademark: Any other race gives in to despair, but humans fight to the end.
  • The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica has a lot of these, as you can imagine. Most of them go to Commander (and later, Admiral) Adama, but a notable one goes to Colonel Saul Tigh - not usually the guy you look to for reassurance - in the season two opener, "Scattered". Adama is lying in sickbay, with two bullets in his chest, and the Galactica has apparently lost the rest of the Fleet after a jump. Tigh admits that "This is Bill Adama's command. His orders are still the word of the Gods on board this ship. Just so we're clear. This will be Adama's command until the day he dies. And we are not going to let him die. So say we all." He then makes the call to network Galactica's computers together (something Bill would never do, and thus forcing him to deviate from his usual default setting of "follow Bill's lead").
    • Adama also does this after Earth is revealed to be just a nuked cinder in space.
  • The first episode of Blackadder has a parody, where Richard the Third gives a speech before the Battle of Bosworth Field which is largely cribbed from Henry V's speech in the eponymous play, with smaller speeches offered by Prince Harry and the future King Richard IV (played by Brian Blessed)

Harry: Now, I'm afraid there's going to have to be a bit of (unhappily) violence. (Brightly) But at least we all know its for a good cause.
Richard IV: Let blood, blood, BLOOD be your motto. Slit their gizzards!

    • The finale of Blackadder Goes Forth - the whole series is set in the trenches of World War One, so it has a more serious overtone than the preceding three seasons/series of Blackadder. At the end of the final episode, the characters admit they're scared, decide to follow their orders, leave their trench and charge into a hopeless battle, where they are shot dead. Probably.

Blackadder "I'm afraid not. The guns have stopped because we're about to attack. Not even our generals are mad enough to shell their own men. They think it's far more sporting to let the Germans do it."
George "So we are in fact, going over? This is, as they say, 'it'? "
Blackadder "Afraid so. Unless I can think of something very quickly..."
From offscreen: "Company. One! Face, Forward!"
Baldrick: "Why there's a nasty splinter on that ladder sir, a bloke could hurt himself on that!"
From offscreen: "Company, stand ready!"
Baldrick: "I have...a plan, sir."
Blackadder: "Really Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?"
Baldrick: "Yes sir."
Blackadder: "As cunning as a fox who was just appointed professor of Cunning at Oxford University?"
Baldrick: "Yes sir."
From offscreen: "On the signal, company will advance!"
Blackadder: "Well I'm afraid it'll have to wait. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was better than my plan to get out of this by pretending to be mad. I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?"
Whistle from offscreen
Blackadder "...Good luck everyone."

  • Every single episode of Boston Legal. However, the cases they take on are so incredibly far-fetched, that, prior to each Rousing Speech, you can't help but thinking "How are they going to get out of that one?"
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Just about one per season, along with a spectacular backfire or two in season 7.
    • Subverted in "Doomed" (Season 4, Episode 11): Spike's sudden unexpected outburst of enthusiasm for "fighting the good fight" (after he realized that the implanted behavioral modification chip didn't punish him for killing demons) meets with helpless silent protestation from Xander and Willow that, and after a long exhausting day of monster-slaying, Spike was blocking their view of the TV box. The irony of course lies in the fact that Spike is a vampire, and used to be Buffy's enemy until that point.

What's this? Sittin' around watching the telly while there's evil still afoot? It's not very industrious of you. I say we go out there and kick a little demon ass! What? Can't go without your Buffy, is that it? Too chicken? Let's find her. She is the chosen one, after all. Come on! Vampires! Grrr! Nasty! Let's annihilate them, for justice, and for... the safety of puppies... and Christmas, right? Let's fight that evil! Let's kill something! [Credits start running.] Oh, come on!

    • Subverted in The Gift (season 5), in which Buffy gives an unimpressive speech before the final battle, and Spike and Giles have the following exchange referencing Henry V:

Buffy: Hey, everybody knows their jobs. Remember, the ritual starts, we all die. And I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn.
Spike: Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day speech, was it?
Giles: (Wryly) "We few, we happy few..."
Spike: We band of buggered.

    • The greatest has to be Buffy's speech to the Potentials in "Bring On The Night" where she declares war against the source of all evil.
    • Also occasionally lampshaded.

Buffy: Hello! All I do is look at the big picture. The other day, I gave an inspirational speech to the telephone repair man.
Giles: It takes more than rousing speeches to lead, Buffy.

  • Doctor Who contains a memorable one in the story 'Earthshock', in which the Doctor confronts the completely emotionless Cyberleader with the limitations of their existence, pointing out that small, beautiful things - which they cannot appreciate - are what make life worth living.
    • The Tenth Doctor takes control in "Voyage of the Damned" by stating he's going to save "your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?"
    • How about Colonel Alan Mace's speech in front of the Atmos facility in "The Poison Sky"? The whole planet is covered in soon-to-be toxic gas, and there's an alien invasion underway, but he finds time to give his men a speech, before proceeding to kick the Sontarans' cloned asses back to space with a Airborne Aircraft Carrier

Col. Mace: The Sontarans might think of us as primitive, as does every passing species with an axe to grind. They make a mockery of our weapons, our soldiers, our ideals, but no more. From this point on it stops. From this point on, the people of Earth fight back. And we show them, we show the warriors of Sontar what the human race can do.

    • Subversion: The Tenth Doctor starts a Rousing Speech "From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking, step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than..." but abruptly stopps himself realizing that his speech was in fact a quote from The Lion King
    • The Ninth Doctor was fond of a gentle, understated, individualised version of this. And unlike with Ten, it usually didn't involve himself but was solely aimed at building up the other's self-confidence. (Exception: the World of Cardboard Speech at the end of "Bad Wolf".) It had more impact because he could be quite cynical about humanity as a whole, whereas Ten sometimes seemed unrealistically idealistic in his constant gushing.

Ninth Doctor: Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says 'no'. 'No'. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. *smiles* You're amazing, the lot of you. Dunno what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then... do what you've gotta do. Save the world.

  • Sent up with Buck Frobisher's "March 11th" speech in the final episode of Due South, which, while only truly appreciable onscreen, deserves to be reprinted in full:

Frobisher: They have called this day the eleventh of March. And whom-so-ever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand a hipnal when e'er you hear the name again, and you will get excited at the name March the eleventh. We happy few, we few, we band of brothers our names will be as like household names. Those who are not here be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves - sort of crappy. Because they are not here to, to join the fight. On this day, March the eleventh!

  • While Farscape didn't have any speeches in the direct sense, a good portion of the final season had Crichton convincing his alien friends (and often himself) that this was the only course of action left: Stop running, make a stand, end this madness once and for all. In the final episode, Crichton goes back to Earth one last time, calls his father from the moon and tells him that he's sealing up the wormhole to Earth (to keep it safe from the Scarrans) and isn't coming back. The 'speech' ends with an endearing father/son moment.

Jack:"You tell my grandkids about me."
John:"Ha, that's a no-brainer. They gotta know who my hero is."
Jack:"You're going to find, when you have your own, you want them to surpass you. Be better. Climb higher. I guess if that's the measure, I'm the greatest Dad on Earth."
John:"I love you, Dad."
Jack:"You're the heart and soul of my life, son. I love you."
John:(with a definite tone of finality)"Goodbye."

  • Lexx: "Brigadoom". Usually cowardly Stan delivers the relevant speech, with the One-Liner delivered as the last line of a song: "If this should be our final stand / Then we stand together with pride / We will honor the past / And fight to the last / It will be a good way to die."
  • Common two or three episodes before the finale to any season of Power Rangers.
    • In the season finale of Power Rangers in Space, there's an interesting (and plain ol' inspirational) variant, where resident bumbling comic relief characters Bulk and Skull declare that everyone in the crowd full of unarmed civilians facing down a superpowered alien threat is a Power Ranger themselves, and that they'll fight the aliens without the "real" Power Rangers show up, because they're just that heroic. The real Rangers do come, but not before Bulk and Skull deliver an Ensemble Darkhorse kind of ass-kicking.
    • A similar variant happens in the finale of Power Rangers SPD. The Ranger team has been captured by Emperor Grumm, and Grumm is making a final assault on SPD headquarters. Boom, an academy washout who works as the resident guinea pig for new Ranger gear, stands up and tells the demoralized cadets that he will stay and fight. Not because he thinks that they'll win, but because that's what Power Rangers do.
    • Jason delivers a pretty good one in Green With Evil, rallying the Rangers to not give up in spite of their losses. Tommy gives a speech to in the third season about even if Ninjor won't give them the Ninja Powers, they're still Rangers at heart, and Zedd can never take that away. They'll keep on fighting to protect the world. This is the confirmation Ninjor needs that they are indeed truly heroic.
  • Red Dwarf: "Out of Time". Shocked at the decadent attitude of their future selves, the crew refuse to hand over the Time Drive to them, and are delivered an ultimatum: hand it over or be destroyed.

Rimmer: Do we have any chance of winning?
Kryten: Their craft is greatly upgraded. We have no chance whatsoever.
Rimmer: Then I say Fight.
Kryten: (shocked) Sir?
Rimmer: Better dead than smeg.
Lister: All right! Cat?
Cat: Better dead than sofa-sized butt.
Lister: Kryten?
Kryten: Better anything than that toupee!

  • Star Trek: Whenever a Klingon is around for one of these, he gets the Catch Phrase, "Today is a good day to die."
    • Facing an overwhelming Klingon force in The Next Generation alternate timeline captain gives the speech, ending,

Picard: "Let us make sure history never forgets the name ... Enterprise."

    • In the Deep Space Nine episode "Sacrifice of Angels", the Federation manages to retake the eponymous space station - partly because of Sisko's Rousing Speech to the Prophets:

Sisko: (...) We all know that's exactly what's going to happen if the Dominion takes over the Alpha Quadrant!...You say you don't want me to sacrifice my life - well FINE! Neither do I. You want to be gods? Then BE gods!...I need a miracle. Bajor needs a miracle...STOP THOSE SHIPS!!!"

    • Deep Space Nine: Having failed to succeed militarily, Damar gives a rousing speech to Cardassian civilians calling for them to revolt against the Dominion. It works.
    • One Deep Space Nine episode had:

Omet'iklan: I am First Omet'iklan, and I am dead. As of this moment, we are all dead. We got into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Remember, Victory is Life!
Assembled Jem'Hadar: Victory is Life!
O'Brien: I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. I'm very much alive and I intend to stay that way!

  • 3rd Rock from the Sun episode "36! 24! 36! Dick!". After a group of hot Venusian women fail in their plot to steal everything of value from Earth, Dick cheers them up by telling them how they can make something of their lives by becoming supermodels.
  • Quoted and used as the theme in an episode of Titus. It involved getting closer to death to make you feel alive. "Erin makes me not want to splatter myself on the rocks. Great! Now I'm boring!"
  • In Torchwood, medic Owen Harper, trapped in a nuclear bunker which will shortly fill with radiation, begins to shout and run around and smash things, insisting that he will "rage his way to oblivion". He stops, though- it wasn't accomplishing anything except hurting Tosh's feelings.
  • Dramatic example: The West Wing: "Shutdown", when President Bartlet decides to stand up to Congress (also a He's Back moment). The speech was more impressive, but the context less seasons earlier when something similar happened in "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet", which employed a One-Liner Echo with "I serve at the pleasure of the President."
  • Firefly ruthlessly subverts this in the pilot episode, where Mal delivers a quick, rousing speech to his troops, only to have one of them clam up in terror, another get killed while trying to call in air support, and at the end of the entire scene, the Allaince coming in to obliterate the entire Independent army, utterly crushing both the Browncoats and Mal's spirit.
    • Worse, it's not The Alliance that they see, it's the The Cavalry and air support retreating. Given that Mal had just described the incoming ships as "Angels of the Lord" coming to aid because God was on their side...
  • Peter gives one to his fellow mutants superhumans "people with abilities" when they're being pursued by the government in the Heroes episode "Trust and Blood."
  • Brutally subverted in the season 5 premiere of Supernatural. Dean delivers a rousing-yet-typically-Dean speech to Sam and Bobby about how, in this apocalyptic and collateral damage-heavy war between Lucifer and the angels, they're gonna win the war for humanity... only, once Bobby is out of earshot, Dean admits to Sam that he was just talking shit to keep Bobby's spirits up, and they don't have a chance in hell of winning.
  • On The Daily Show John Oliver cuts off Jon Stewart's mockery of a British politican using public funds to clean his moat to deliver a grand speech about the pride the British take in their moats, no matter how they're funded. A lampshade is properly hung:

Jon Stewart: You're going Richard II on us?
John Oliver: F--k yeah, strap in!

  • Abby likes to deliver these on Survivors, especially when her groups cohesion is hanging by a shred.
  • In Merlin, Arthur, being the future King Arthur, occasionly gets to do a Rousing Speech. The first example of this is to the villagers in The Moment of Truth, and the best so far has to be the one he gives to the soon-to-be Knights of the Round Table in The Coming of Arthur, part two.
  • Robin Hood loves doing that, some of which are also episode titles, such as "Will You Tolerate This?" and "We Are Robin Hood".
  • On Community when something needs to get done, Jeff usually relies on one of these to rally the study group.
  • Stargate SG-1 has a notable subversion of this trope in "The Serpent's Lair":

O'Neill: I suppose now is the time for me to say something profound. [pauses] Nothing comes to mind. Let's do it.

  • What happens when one person writes the Rousing Speech, and somebody else ends up reading it out (from The Legend of Dick and Dom)

Prince Dick:Be brave, Blah Blah Blah, never take our freedom, blah blah blah, two lemons, a pint of milk and some loo roll, blah blah blah, zero chance of success- don't read that bit out, blah blah blah, good luck. Let's go!
Audience: Yaaaay!


Music

  • The Robert Burns song Scots Wha Hae is written as a fictional Rousing Speech given by Robert the Bruce before the Battle Of Bannockburn. It also acts as a rousing speech for the radicals and Scottish nationalists of Burns' day, invoking (arguably anachronistic) ideas of liberty and national self-determination.
    • The song, particularly the opening lines, are referenced in Bruce's very brief speech at Bannockburn during the final scene of Braveheart.
  • Slipknot's "Pulse of the Maggots"
  • Ludo's amazing Zombie Apocalypse song. There's a time to pray, there's a time to fight. Anything can be a weapon if you're holding it right...
  • VNV Nation's "Honour" has verses which are of this trope.
  • The Decemberists' "This is Why We Fight" is one of these in the most plain and simple terms. And when we die, we will die with our arms unbound. This is why, this is why we fight.
  • Symphony X on Iconoclast (the song): "We Are Strong! We will stand and fight!"
  • "Rise" and "Ten Thousand Fists" by Disturbed. The band's concerts sometimes contain sections in the set reserved for speeches by the lead-singer designed with this in mind (that and getting the crowd more pumped up).


Mythology

  • This might possibly be one of the oldest tropes in all of Western entertainment, as revealed in The Iliad. As the Trojan War is going on, Achilles, the strongest member of the Greek army, refuses to get involved. This changes when his friend and possible love interest dies, causing him to go berserk on the Trojan Army, ultimately helping to win the war, but resulting in his death at the hands of Paris.
  • This was the entire basis of Teutonic mythology. Even the gods were ultimately doomed and what mattered was to die bravely. JRR Tolkien, and expert in Northern mythology, tried to invoke this spirit in The Lord of the Rings. Being doomed was no reason not to fight.


Tabletop Games

  • The flavor text of the Magic: The Gathering card Awakening.
    • Going one step further, the flavor text of the card Primal Rage shows just how rousing that speech was.
  • Apply this concept to entire species, and you'll have an idea what life for the Eldar and Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40,000 is like. As one might expect, such speeches are commonplace.
    • This also applies to its sister setting in Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The dwarfs have lost their empire, their numbers are dwindling, the craftsmanship and skills of the past are being lost, and one by one their last remaining strongholds are falling to the grobi or rat-men or other nasties that inhabit the Warhammer world. But they keep fighting, out of sheer, stubborn, dwarfish bloody-mindedness. The high elves have a similar situation regarding their dark kin and the forces of Chaos, but are naturally more stuck-up about it. Oddly enough, the human Empire is a bit more optimistic, due to spanking Chaos in a recent campaign a few years back.
      • The Orc warlord Morglum Necksnapper deserves mention for combining brevity, inspiration, and a structured explanation of his tactical projections for the battle ahead in terms his troops can understand and connect to.

"If it ain't green, belt it 'til it stops moving. Then belt it again, just to be sure."

  • Dungeons & Dragons
    • A bard in D&D 3rd edition who specializes in oration provides combat or skill buffs through rousing speeches. There's even a feat in an issue of Dragon magazine named "We Few, We Happy Few" that enhances this ability.
    • This is one of the character schticks of the Warlord class (the "Martial Leader") in the 4th edition of. Like a number of other classes, the Warlord can choose between several "motifs" at character creation; two motifs focus towards manipulating their allies in the fight (Tactical and Resourceful), while the other two focus towards inspiring allies to fight harder. The Inspirational Warlord is the more likely of these latter motifs to make use of Rousing Speeches—the Bravura Warlord prefers inspiring through example. Beyond being part of the theme, a number of the Warlord's powers actually take the form of particular speeches and battle cries.
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse puts a pretty badass one in the mouth of Margrave Konietzko in the final battle against the Wyrm:

Know this, warriors of our Mother! There is nothing after this. Our ancestors have been butchered twice over, once in body and once in spirit. There is no Heaven, there will be no Hell, Valhalla does not exist. All that is will be destroyed if we fall here today. And many of you will. The enemy is mighty and fearsome, and we march forward into the mouth of death. Do not fight for an afterlife reward for your bravery, for it will not come. Fight instead, for Gaia. Fight for all that you know and love. Fight with every last ounce of Rage left inside you, so that even should the Wyrm destroy us, he will be awestruck by your mighty fury. Prove your arms so mighty, prove your anger so terrible, prove your love so pure and your passion so encompassing, prove your minds so resourceful, and your zeal and courage so overwhelming that even should every last one of us fall today, the armies of the Wyrm will never rest easy. In their reign of Oblivion, every one of their soldiers will look over their shoulders and sleep - with one eye open. They will live in fear...fear that one day, we will find a way back!!!

  • The New World of Darkness has the "Inspiring" Merit for all character types, which allows the character to make a speech which allows others to regain a point of Willpower. Combine this with the Hope Virtue, and the character can gain all their Willpower back as well.

Theater

  • While the "St. Crispin's Day" speech tends to be more famous, King Henry's "Once more unto the breach, dear friends!" speech from Shakespeare's Henry V definitely falls under this category.
  • Subverted in Antony and Cleopatra. Before one of the battles, Mark Antony gives an incredibly depressing speech ("Haply you shall not see me more; or if,/A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow/You'll serve another master.") This is the only battle in the play that Antony actually wins.
  • In Julius Caesar, he manages to entirely turn the public opinion about Caesar with a speech that he gives on his funeral, and makes the people revolt against Caesar's killers.
  • In the play Richard III, rather surprisingly, despite his Designated Villain status, Richard III gives a very good one while his opponent, Henry Tudor, gives a rather lackluster speech at best.
    • The play also has an offstage subversion: Buckingham relates to an angry Richard how he completely failed to engage a crowd to accept Richard as king, with even the people he'd planted in the audience to cheer him not helping at all.

Video Games

  • Gray Fox towards the finale of Metal Gear Solid. "We're not tools of the government, or anyone else. Fighting was the one thing, the only thing that I was good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in. Snake... farewell." Inspired this player, anyway, to strap on body armour and just spam missiles at the Big Bad and ignore any damage being taken. Echoed in the sequel by the Older and Wiser hero.
    • "One must die and one must live. No victory, no defeat. The survivor will carry on the fight. It is our destiny. 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. I'll give you ten minutes. In ten minutes, MiGs will come and bomb the hell out of this place. If you can beat me in less than ten minutes, you'll be able to escape in time. Jack, let's make this the greatest ten minutes of our lives!"
  • In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Martin Septim gives a rousing speech to his assembled soldiers before a giant portal to hell opens and legions of demons begin to pour out. The player then gets to go inside and close it.

"The Prince is dead!" *clang* "LONG LIVE THE PRINCE!" (from 5:40)

  • Commander Shepard of the Mass Effect series has a penchant for rousing speeches, such as the one given upon taking command of the Normandy in Mass Effect 1, which was real nifty since you choose your speech piece by piece, and unlike Knights of the Old Republic, your character does talk. You also give one in Mass Effect 2, at two stages during the Suicide Mission. Again, you choose how the speech unfolds, and it really takes on a different tone in the second speech—at that point, more than half Shepard's team can have been killed. It's either "one final effort, and then we can all go home" or "don't let their sacrifices be in vain". In Mass Effect 3, however, Shepard delegates the honor to Admiral Hackett before the Final Battle, which is just as good.
    • Additionally, in the first game, Captain Kirrahe of the Salarian special forces gives a pretty good 'Do Not Go Gentle...' speech on Virmire. Made even better by the fact that it's impressive to the (obviously human) player, despite Kirrahe being an alien that refers to events that the player had never heard of before. Even more impressive as a it comes from a salarian, whose hat throughout the game has been Mad Science. A nice little subversion there. Lampshaded in the sequel by Mordin, who mentions Capt. Kirrahe briefly and says he always went a little heavy on the dramatic speeches, specifically mentioning "hold the line" as an example. Of course, Mordin also mentions that he liked the speech, but doesn't exactly see the need for them himself. And then calls back to it if he's killed during the suicide mission. "Tell them... I held the line..."
  • Auron, from Final Fantasy X: "Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!"
  • "...because some things, are just worth fighting for."
  • "Remember Great Comrade Stalin's order - not one step backwards!" Subverted in that the speechmaker is not exactly heroic, and the soldiers first try to escape and then get killed en masse.

"The healthy human mind doesn't wake up in the morning thinking this is its last day on Earth. But I think that's a luxury. Not a curse. To know you're close to the end is a kind of freedom. Good time to take . . . inventory. Outgunned. Outnumbered. Out of our minds. On a suicide mission. But the sand and the rocks here, stained with thousands of years of warfare . . . They will remember us. For this. Because out of all our vast array of nightmares, this is the one we choose for ourselves. We go forward like a breath exhaled from the Earth. With vigor in our hearts and one goal in sight: We. Will. Kill him."
"This is for the record. History is written by the victor. History is filled with liars... <Another minute and a half of non-intresting speech>."

    • A speech along the lines of the first, but a bit more heroic, comes from Call of Duty: Finest Hour. As our rookie protagonist looks on at the hell that is Stalingrad, Commissar Viktor Durasov speaks to his men, accompanied by some serious Crowning Music of Awesome:

"Welcome to Stalingrad. You're about to begin the greatest moment of your life. The Germans have lost hundreds of tanks and planes. Hitler's brutalized hordes are now advancing toward Stalingrad over mountains of their own dead bodies! Our Bolshevik party, our nation, our great country, have given us the task not to let the enemy reach the Volga, and to defend the city of Stalingrad. Forward against the enemy! Up into the unremitting battle, comrades! For Stalingrad, for our great country, not one step back! Cowards and traitors will be shot! Do not count days, do not count miles; count only the number of Germans you have killed! Kill the German; this is your mother's prayer! Kill the German; this is the cry of your Russian earth! Do not waver! Do not let up! Kill! Death the the German invader!"

"Brave comrades of Vorkuta, the time has come to rise against our oppressors! Today, we show them the hearts of true Russians! We have all given our blood for the Motherland. We have answered her calls without question. We gave our youth, our hearts, our very souls for her protection..As brothers, we fought side by side against the German fascists. We crawled through dirt and blood and sand to achieve our glorious victory..Not for medals, or glory...but for what was right. We fought for revenge...When Berlin fell, how did our leaders repay us? We returned not to the rapturous welcome...but to suspicion and persecution. In the eyes of our leaders we were already tainted by the capitalist West. Torn from the arms of our loved ones, we found ourselves here... this place... this, this terrible place. Here we have languished, with no hope for release... No hope for justice. We have toiled in Dragovich's mines until the flesh peeled from our bones... We have watched our comrades succumb to sickness and disease... We have been starved. We have been beaten. But we will not be broken! Today, we will send a message to our corrupt and arrogant leaders. Today, my comrades... Vorkuta - BURNS!!!"

"SeeD was formed to fight the sorceress; at least, that's what I heard. And Garden was created to train SeeDs. So this battle is Garden's destiny and also our destiny. It's a grueling battle, and I'm sure you guys are all exhausted. But I don't want to have any regrets. I don't want anyone to look back and regret this day. So just this once, I want you guys to give everything you've got! For yourselves and for me!"

  • Knights of the Old Republic 2 allows the player to choose from one of four rousing speeches before a climactic battle on Dantooine. It loses something since the player character can't, you know, talk, but the reaction from your soldiers if you choose the right speech is pretty nifty.
    • Also a partial subversion, since you can twist it around give a huge bummer of a speech and utterly destroy their morale to make it easier for the invading army to kill them. You know, if you're a Jerkass.
    • Interestingly enough, when you give that speech, the militia leader comments that you shouldn't worry, as they always react like that after a rousing speech... at least, after his. In unrelated news, La Resistance has about five members.
  • Before the final chapter of Fire Emblem 9 Ike gives one of these speeches, one noteable bit is he states that he finaly understands the meaning behind True Companions.
  • Malfurion Stormrage, just before the last mission of the regular game in Warcraft III, sounds a battle call to the allied forces—the Horde, the human Alliance, and the Night Elves—as they face down an endless army of undead and demons, not even trying to win, just trying to hold them back.
  • General Sheppard, the GDI commander(not to be confused with Mass Effect's Commander Shephard), gives one of these as the final mission briefing.

We've found it, Commander - Kane's temple and base of operations. This field operative's covert transmission came to us live just five minutes ago, so there's no doubt that Kane's inside. He's surrounded himself with his own crack militia. Getting to him... won't be easy. Ironic, isn't it? Kane's planted his temple just outside of Sarajevo. If that sounds familiar, it's because that's where another madman started World War I. And here we are, trying to stop this madman from doing it again. Commander, there is to be no quarter given. No leniency in dealing with Kane and his zealots. Wipe his temple off the face of the earth. Destroy the bastard!... Or prepare to die trying.

    • The restate (a text summary of the briefing) is also rather inspiring, ending with the following words:

"Nod is rumored to have developed its own nuclear weapons, so it's do or die this time. Let's do it."

I am Saurfang. Brother of Broxigar. You know me to be the Supreme Commander of the Might of Kalimdor. An orc - a true orc warrior - wishes for one thing: To die in the glory of battle against a hated enemy. Some of you have fought in battles. Peace has been with us for many years. Many years we sat idle but many years we battled. In those years - where strife the land and Legion and Scourge sacked our homes, killed our families - these insects dwelled beneath us. Beneath our homes - waiting. Waiting to crush the life from our little ones. To slay all in their path. This they do for their god. And for our gods? We defend. We stand. We show that as one. United. We destroy. Their god will fall. To die today, on this field of battle, us to die an orcish death. To die today is to die for our little ones. Our old ones. Our... loved ones. Would any of you deny yourselves such a death? Such an honor?
—High Overlord Saurfang, address to the combined forces of the Horde and the Alliance, during the Ahn'Qiraj War
    • Highlord Tirion Fordring gives a similar speech in Icecrown Citadel as the raid engages the first of the trash:

This is our final stand. What happens here will echo through the ages. Regardless of outcome, they will know that we fought with honor. That we fought for the freedom and safety of our people. Remember, heroes, fear is your greatest enemy in these befouled halls. Steel your heart and your soul will shine brighter than a thousand suns. The enemy will falter at the sight of you. They will fall as the light of righteousness envelops them! Our march upon Icecrown Citadel begins now!

    • In Operation Gnomeregan, one quest required players to consult various NPCs on a speech to give to the troops. The finished result referenced several movies.
    • In Mount Hyjal, the player can give one to the Twilight Hammer cultists in order to encourage them to riot against the ogres of the cult.
  • Gre Nade of Evolution personifies his trope, not only in how he speaks to his charge, Mag Launcher, but in that his combat abilities which heal, boost stats, and even revive from death, are all various forms of rousing speeches.
  • Ezio delivers a combination of this, World of Cardboard Speech and The War Has Just Begun to the people of Florence at the end of the War of the Vanities DLC of Assassin's Creed II.

"Don't follow me. Don't follow anyone!"

  • Scolar Visari, the leader of the helghast in the Killzone games is very adept at making hair-raising, inspiring speeches. His truly epic speech in the intro to Killzone 2 has inspired many a player to fight for cause of the Helghast.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War has several, the most notable being Governor-Militant Lucas Alexander's speech when an army invades Victory Bay in Dark Crusade. If Chaos is the attacker, Chaos Lord Eliphas the Inheritor even notes "What a rousing little speech, Governor..."
    • Likewise, when Eliphas attacks the Blood Raven stronghold in North Vandia he comments "Such inspiring courage. Perhaps we'll mount your corpse on a golden chair and make an idol out of you as well."
    • Thoroughly subverted in Soulstorm, with Indrick Boreale's infamous:

"SPESS MEHREENS, TODEH THE ENEMEH IS AT OUR DOAR..."

  • Subverted in Ace Combat 04 Shattered Skies. One of these is made near the end; unfortunately, it's made as you select your plane for the final mission, not with a dedicated cutscene, and no subtitles are provided, so it's possible to never notice it if the Nothing Is Scarier doesn't compell you to listen more closely, and thus it loses quite a lot of impact. Here's the transcribed version.

"Good morning, troops. I have an important announcement. In one hour, each one of you will take part in the most important mission in our history. A mission that will result in the defeat of the vile enemy who has brought chaos to our continent. Although we are from different nations, and of different races, we have fought, suffered and died together, fighting for what we believe in, fighting for freedom! Today, we shall gather for our final battle, to liberate our beautiful continent and restore freedom to our people, our friends, and our families. Our victory will herald the beginning of a new era of prosperity for the Usean continent. Victory will be ours! We shall return peace to our people, and win back our freedom, and our future! The skies belong to everyone! Now, let us take back our Shattered Skies!"

  • Played straight in Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War. The president of Osea and the prime minister of Yuktobania broadcast a joint one worldwide on TV, which gives you some reinforcements for the second-to-last mission.
  • "You represent what is greatest in us all, and all our hopes go with you. En Taro Adun, brave sons of Aiur!"
    • Raynor delivers one prior to the final battle of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. It is played out in the cinematic entitled "Fire and Fury". Ironically, Raynor may not have intended to give a speech, but the troops were all listening to him anyway as he delivered his badass lines.
    • Zeratul and the other protoss commanders give several speeches through "In Utter Darkness", a vision of a Bad Future where the protoss are exterminated by the Dark Voice. Artanis takes the cake, though - even his incidental lines sound like they're part of his speech:

Strength in unity!
Faith before fear!
Dawn will come!

  • Prior to the Final Battle of Dragon Age Origins, depending on how you resolved the Landsmeet, either Alistair or Anora will deliver a Rousing Speech to the army you gathered. A speech that uses you as a source of inspiration.
    • YMMV, but Alistair's sounds a lot better. Try listening to Anora's shrieking voice without cringing (or laughing) once.
  • In Dragon Age II, Hawke gives an inspiring speech to his/her compatriots prior to the final battle. Silly!Hawke's memorable subversion includes the line "I can fight harder scared than they can angry!"
    • "We're getting out, and I'm buying when we do!"
  • While it's not exactly at a moment where all hope seems lost, when Dashell is obtained in Super Paper Mario, he gives quite the rousing speech, including the line "You! Must! Treasure! Life! You've got to! Got to! GOT TO!"
  • In the Total War series you general will, depending on the game, give an inspiring speech before the start of a battle. The content alters depending on the enemy, troop types present and the commander's personal traits. The content ranges from Do Not Go Gentle oratory, through insults of the opposing faction and tactical insight, to complete non-sequiturs, if your general's either mad or drunk.
    • Some speeches actually praise the enemy but acknowledge that they must still die. This is especially evident in Shogun 2.
  • From The Force Unleashed.

Senator Bail Organa: It is settled then. My wealth will fund the Rebellion, while Garm provides our fleet, and Mon Mothma our soldiers. And with you leading us, we have the power of the Force on our side. Therefore let this be an official declaration of rebellion! Today, we all vow to change the galaxy, and one day the galaxy will indeed be free!

Lord Recluse: "I must therefore rely on all of you to spread the word of Lord Recluse's vision. A vision of a glorious future, in which man is not encumbered by the desire for truth, peace, or justice. A future where you no longer must obey others, where you must no longer bow down to those who deem themselves your superiors, a world in which you can finally say "No more." No longer will you have to listen to those who tell you that you must earn what you wish, that you must work hard to achieve your goals. You will have the strength to take what you desire. Through my way, the way of villainy, you can have what you want now. You can leave the weak lying in your wake as you grasp with both hands the glorious future of havok. The heroes are doomed! Join me now, or you will suffer the same fate that awaits all those who defy me. I, Lord Recluse, shall cover this world in darkness!"

Chris Stone: New Yorkers, fellow Americans...I am Chris Stone, the so-called "Freedom Phantom". I stand before you today a free man and I vow to die a free man. Like you, my world was shattered eight long months ago. I watched as my family and friends were tortured, captured, and killed. I have nothing left of my former life...except the hope for a better future...a better future for our children - the American dream. I for one still believe in that dream. We've read this in our schoolbooks as children, now is the time for us to embrace those ideals and stand up against the weight of tyranny. We have a duty to ourselves to throw off our oppressors. When I look around this city, I do not see smoldering ruins...no, instead I see a sleeping army, ready to awaken. The world is watching us now...how we respond will prove our claim. I stand before you now to reaffirm the pledge our forefathers made to each other, and for each of us - to protect our lives, our fortunes, and our self-worth. So I ask you now to take up arms against the evil invaders and yell in their faces that they will never take our freedom!

“Listen up, all of you. This is our last chance to die as we've lived. As proud soldiers of the empire. If we survive this fight, imprisonment and a hushed-up execution await us. If we run from this fight, dishonor and pursuit will dog our miserable days. So I say, let's give those Daein curs a fight to remember, and let the glory of our deaths light our way! We've lived as proud soldiers of the empire! Let us die as proud soldiers of the empire! Now GO!”

  • Who can forget Sergeant Johnson from the Halo games?

Johnson: Dear humanity, we regret being alien bastards, We regret coming to earth, and we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet. Oorah! **To a random pilot.

Web Comics

  • In Order of the Stick, the Order's bard Elan gives a speech to Azure City's troops before battle, an act he calls a Bardic Right of Passage. The speech conglomerates most well known quotes in this entry, each time examining the statement a bit too closely . It works...until the last phrase, when Fridge Logic ruins it.

Elan: They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom! Unless...Unless they kill us and animate our corpses as zombies to fight for them. Then I suppose they've taken our lives and our freedom. (Awkward pause)
Elan: Fight, fight, fight, fight the-
Soldier: You suck!

  • Subverted hard in Goblins when a guard gives this speech...to a lynch mob.

Guard: But above all else...they are a level 1 encounter. And we will not allow our city to fall to a level 1 encounter!

  • At the end of the main story of the first run of Fans, Rikk, Kath and the assembled geek armies of the world recite Aragorn's speech in unison, to each other, before going to war with the God Machine.
  • During GPF's mammoth 'To Thine One Self...' arc, the Grey Drone, Pi, attempts to rouse his fellow aliens into revolt against The Empire, in a classic Rousing Speech playing on morality and justice. And fails utterly. Then his comedic sidekick, Planck, steps up, after having serendipitously ended up with a fairly decent Braveheart costume through a series of improbable mishaps - and successfully rouses the drones into revolt with a mishmashed speech combined from various real and fictional Rousing Speeches, and some general-purpose silliness. (Though the ending isn't as crazy at it would appear to the uninitiated - earlier comics revealed that the Greys find cheese to be both delicious and addictive.)
  • In Punch an Pie, right after one of the employees at the toy shop quits, another gives a speech along these lines:

Aaron (wrapping up): And we all knew that one day, one of us would crack under the pressure. So her time was now. So what? The rest of us are here, for you, and we will continue to fight for our cause till we cease to be!!!
[[[Beat Panel]]]
Angela: ...and this cause would be?
Aaron: Money.

"Ready to save the world, you post-ironic, post-yuppie?"

  • The Cirbozoid leader in Starslip Crisis gives on here however the fact that most proper nounds in the Cirozoid language are Cirbozoid is comes out rather strange.
  • Grace of El Goonish Shive delivers one here. It would take a while to quote in full, but the first line forms a pretty neat summary:

Grace: Someone has to try.


Web Original

  • The Nostalgia Critic and The Angry Video Game Nerd both parodied these speeches in the TGWTG Team Brawl video. Nostalgia Critic tells he's not good at speeches... and he really isn't, because he's simply reminding everyone which movies DID have good speeches. Angry Video Game Nerd simply spewed out a bunch of swearwords.
    • The Critic improves on this by Kickassia. Granted it's about Nazis, but it worked.
      • Precisely, it was something like this:

Nostalgia Critic: Are you Nazis?
Everyone: *boos*
Nostalgia Critic: OR ARE YOU NAZIS?!
Everyone: *cheers*

Critics, reviewers, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. Unlike all the other times we've ever done this, this time we're really fighting for something! A day may come when a dark mage threatens to throw us back into the stone age. A day may come when the cult of an unwitty hack actually allows him to do it. A day may come when the courage of critcs fails, and we break our oath of snark and irony. But it is not this day! Sure, we may have abused science. Really abused it! But that doesn't mean we still can't learn from it! There may be no more shows, when the age of technology comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! So by all the cool gizmos and technological toys that you hold dear on this good earth, stand, reviewers of the Internet!

  • The Flash cartoon Arfenhouse Teh Movie Too contains the immortal line, spelled here as in the subtitles: "TEY MAY KIK R AZZ BUT TELL NEVFR KIK R FREEDUM!!!!!!!!"
  • Parodied in the web video series Knob Hockey, with several caricatures of real-life hockey players giving out some... interesting motivational speeches. "Ryan Smyth" rambles on about being an Edmonton Oiler, while "Rod Brind'amour" rips off Braveheart much to the disdain of his Carolina Hurricane teammates ("Oh god, it's the f* cking Braveheart speech."). The second season has "Daniel Alfredsson" taking a cue from Brind'amour, much to the confusion of his teammates, and "Chris Pronger" inspiring his teammates by reminding them what city they play for ("We are bringing the Cup to the home of hockey, the twelfth-largest hockey market in the continental United States... I am talking about Anaheim, California!").
  • The USA topic page on Cracked.com starts out as a Hot-Blooded parody of American patriotism, but ends with a legitimately moving speech on what it means to be an American.
  • 40 Inspirational Speeches In 2 Minutes.
  • A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever

"Inspiring final lines of a speech that douchebags will quote in their Facebook profiles!"
"Cheer!"

  • Red vs. Blue: Revelation sees Sarge, of all people, give a legitimately stirring one that begins with an Meaningful Echo of the first line of the series: "You ever wonder why we're here?"
    • It was, in fact, SO rousing, that it even pushes Grif into action, albeit reluctantly: "*sigh* I'll go get my car keys."
  • From A Very Potter Sequel, when everything looks bad and the Power Trio Power Quartet can't even summon a single happy thought to fight off the army of Dementors, and as Ron says, "there is absolutely no way we can win!"

Harry: No way? You listen to me now! For eleven years, I was a Muggle douchebag living under some stairs. But this year, I found out I'm a wizard! I'm famous! I can fly, turn invisible, and I just travelled the fuck back in time! So fuck you, Draco, how's that for a happy thought! There is absolutely no way that there's no way! [cue The Eleven O'Clock Number]

  • One episode of Dragon Ball Abridged has Yamcha show up for the epic battle against Vegata, Nappa, and their Saibamen, and tell with heroic music playing, tell the Z-Fighters present how they trained almost to death for this battle, and they'll win if they stick together...just before a Saibaman grabs him and self-destructs.
  • In The Codex, one of the early Halo 2 machinimas, there was a stunningly good one of these. Massive bonus points for overlaying two such speechs, by the (sympathetic) opposing commanders.

Western Animation

  • Very nearly subverted in Avatar: The Last Airbender, when Katara gives a dramatic speech encouraging a group of prisoners to revolt... and they all pretty much ignore her, unconvinced they can win. Thankfully, the second attempt goes better all thanks due to the one prisoner who actually knew Katara and had only been in the prison for a day.
  • Played with a lot in Chicken Run. Ginger, a chicken at a chicken farm, constantly makes speeches about her dreams of freedom to the others in an attempt to convince them to go along with her plans to escape. Sometimes they work, sometimes they're met with clueless responses or sarcastic jibes. In one scene this trope is subverted, when after one of Ginger's speeches a more cynical chicken, Bunty, responds with an 'enlightened' look on her face "In all my years, I've never heard such a fantastic load of tripe!"

Ginger: We either die free chickens, or die trying!
Babs: Are those the only choices?

  • The Braveheart example is spoofed in an episode of South Park - as Thanksgiving turkeys are attacking the town, Chef rides in front of the townsfolk in Braveheart face-paint and gives them the Braveheart speech to inspire the town to fight. The scene then cuts to the turkey army, where a turkey - complete with facepaint - is doing the exact same thing, only in turkey-speak ("Puck-puck puckpuck puck puck puck-puck-puck!")
  • The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Band Geeks" parodies this when Squidward gives up in despair of his Zany Scheme to impress his high-school rival by getting his friends and neighbors to form a marching band, and Spongebob delivers the following speech after Squidward has walked out:

Spongebob: What kind of monsters are we? That poor creature came to us in his hour of need, and we failed him. Squidward's always been there for us when it was convenient for him. Evelyn, when your little Jimmy was trapped in a fire, who rescued him?
Evelyn: A fireman.
Spongebob: And Larry, when your heart gave out from all those tanning pills, who revived you?
Larry: Some guy in an ambulance.
Spongebob: Right! So, if we can all just pretend that Squidward was a fireman, or a guy in an ambulance, then I'm sure that we can all pull together and discover what it truly means to be in a marching band.
Harold: Yeah, for the fireman!
All: Hooray!

  • Towards the end of Teen Titans, Beast Boy has managed to avoid being captured by the Brotherhood of Evil, but the only apparent other "survivors" have rather lame powers and don't see the point in trying to fight back. He manages to rally everyone together to go save the day.
    • Starfire gives one to the other Titans in "Revolution" (sans Robin who has been captured by Mad Mod), which enables the team to come up with a successful strategy to defeat the villain, utilizing bits and pieces of the methods they'd already tried before.
    • Robin gives one in "The End Part Two" in order to rally Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire to keep fighting Trigon, even though Raven is apparently dead and it's literally the end of the world.
  • Subverted in Ratatouille where Linguini finally confesses he is really a front for a rat, Remy, who is the real cook who has revived the restaurant's fortunes. In the face of the staff's stunned disbelief, Linguini eloquently tells them that if they have faith in this rat's culinary genius, they will all have a glorious future. Unfortunately at the conclusion, the entire staff reacts to this seemingly insane proposal by immediately quitting.
    • Yet that speech is simultaneously played straight in that while the humans are not impressed, Remy's rat family is so moved in part by Linguini's efforts, that they step up to be the new kitchen crew.
      • Which is then subverted when the restaurant is closed down for good because of its rat infestation.
  • Subverted in the 2008 Horton Hears a Who! where Horton tries to Shame the mob with a rousing speech explaining why he is so devoted to protecting a speck on a clover which contains a microscopic community on it. At the end, even the Sour Kangaroo notes that the speech is moving, but immediately orders Horton bound and caged anyway.
  • In Disney's 1995 Pocahontas, both the white settlers and Pocahontas' tribe have rousing speeches at the same time leading up to the battle between them. Oh yes, this being Disney, it's done in song. This is a subversion, since the audience can see just how distorted each speech is in demonizing the other side.
    • Quite a bit of both speeches are identical, so the two sides can say them together. Oddly, both contain a lot of focus on race, while the issue had been pretty much ignored in favor of culture clash for the rest of the movie (the settlers had been referring to the natives as 'savages' the whole time, but until the song no-one was saying 'red-skin' or anything like that).
      • Later releases changed "red-skin" to "shrieking".
  • In Mission Hill, just after Andy has given a rousing speech in defense of his brother:

The Judge: The man in the hot pants speaks the truth. Case dismissed!
Mr. Bang: But they rob my store!
The Judge: Well, maybe you should have given a rousing speech.

  • In Futurama, Zapp Brannigan responds to being court-martialed:

Zapp: I'd like to make one final statement. Kif, come here and hold up the flag. And wave it a little, for God's sakes. My friends, you can take away a man's title and his uniform but you can never take away his integrity or his honour. Plus, it was mostly Kif's fault.

  • In the Duckman episode "Vuuck, as in Duck", Duckman gives a speech to his women's baseball team that parodies the famous Knute Rockne "Win One for the Gipper" speech, and culminates in "... or I swear I'll go beat that legless bastard."
  • Optimus Primal delivers one at the end of Beast Machines right before facing Megatron's final onslaught.
  • Near the end of the Phineas and Ferb special, "Summer Belongs to You", Phineas gives up while he and his friends are on a deserted island, but Isabella tells him he can't give up with a speech, which motivated him to continue finding out a way to get off the island.
    • In "The Lizard Whisperer", Ferb gives one to Danville, when his pet chameleon, Steve, goes missing.
  • While in the mall security holding cell, Invader Zim notices an air vent on the ceiling and gives a rousing speech on how if all the inmates use teamwork, he can reach the vent and then he leaves them behind.
  • Happens a few times on Recess, usually given by T.J.
  • Batman the Brave And The Bold: Aquaman's Rousing Song of Heroism is a particularly hammy and catchy version of this trope.
  • Gaston does this to everyone in Belle's village near the end of Beauty and the Beast so that they will "kill the Beast!"


Sports

  • In college football, the annual University of Miami vs. Florida State University matches have been among the most heated, competitive and exciting games of any given year. In 2001, after a relatively disappointing 2000 season in which they considered themselves robbed of a chance to play for the National Championship in spite of their 11-1 record, undefeated #2 Miami went to Doak Campbell Stadium to face #14 Florida State, the current champions and the ones that had been chose to play the championship game instead of them the previous year. During the first half, the game is constested, with star defensive player Ed Reed playing injured. At half-time, Miami wins 21-13, but isn't showing the level its coach and players expect from themselves. Larry Coker, the coach, gives them an encouraging speech in the recess. Afterwards , with Reed refusing to be taken out, and while heading to the tunnel for the second half, he is approached by another player who asked him if he was alright. The following exchange happens. The team answers by scoring 4 T Ds in the 3rd quarter. Miami went on to trash FSU in the, 49-27, ended the season undefeated and won the National Championship.


Other

  • A joke:

A sports team is losing badly to their opponents. Displeased with their distress, the team captain decides to instill in them some good old fashioned team spirit:
Team Captain: What's with the long faces? Aren't we the Everyschool Teamnames?
Team: Yeah!
Team Captain: Don't we have the best team of the season?!
Team: YEAH!!!
Team Captain: And don't you have me as your captain!?!
Team: * gloom*

"We have come too far- we have seen and done too much- to be turned aside now!" She stared hard at them, her deep blue eyes sparkling not with charm or delight but with barely-restrained fury. "We are not going to be turned aside! Not after everything we've been through! Haven't we crossed over mountains and plains, through rivers and forests? We have! We've won the praise of the Lady of the Shimmerwood! We'll have our names etched in the Stone of Gildedale!" She fixed Applejack with a stare. "Applejack! You faced the King of Gildedale in all his pomp, in all his pride and told him he was wrong! And you proved it!" She swiveled her gaze to Dash. "Rainbow Dash! You entered the Dreaming with the pronghorns and you mastered their lightning magic, something only one other pony has ever done! And you mastered yourself!" She took a deep breath. "And I! I looked into Lady Falalauria's eyes when they burned with fury and I told her to trust me! And she did!" She was panting. "We! Are! Not! GOING!"

Twilight Sparkle: We have to stand together once more, but this time, not as earth ponies. Not as unicorns. Or pegasi. We must stand together as the ponies of Equestria! It’s true that, on the outside, each of us is different. We live in different parts of Equestria, we have different names, we look differently. But... we have fought, suffered and died together! Deep inside, in our hearts and souls, we are all children of this land! We cannot ignore the time when our land is in danger. We must fight! We must have courage! I don’t know if you will decide to follow me or not, but I want to live in Equestria with my friends! That’s why I will keep fighting! To the bitter end, if it must be! [...] Everypony, we’re gonna take back Canterlot today! Let us make haste! The sun and the moon will lead our way to victory! Know that this is not the day we will surrender! This is not the day we fall! This day we fight! FOR EQUESTRIA!!!

"So you're the first of the Neon Knights. Zero-One. Or should I call you John Henry? I don't know if you can understand me, but Earth is in danger. And the hope of the world rests firmly on our shoulders. I can try, but I know I won't be able to keep it up on my own. And that's why I'm asking you, John Henry, to join me. In the name of mankind, let us fight the evil aliens that are coming to purge us from the universe! Together, we will stand against the forces of darkness, you and I. And united, we will emerge VICTORIOUS! JOHN HENRY! BORN OF STEEL AND BUILT BY HOPE! FIGHT ALONGSIDE ME FOR OUR FUTURE! My name… is Shinji Ikari! With our strength, let's wipe away the tears of mankind and pave the way for a brighter tomorrow! WAKE UP! JOHN HENRY! AWAKEN AND BEAR WITNESS TO THE BIRTH OF EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HERO! ON THIS DAY IS BORN THE KING OF BRAVES! JUST WHO ON EARTH.... 'DO YOU THINK WE ARE?"

...Now go out there and do something awesome! Chaaaaaaaaaarge!!!!!!!!!

  1. ↑ Fpole’ sawtutel ’upxaret ayoeri tsat new tsun mivunge. Slä awngal 'upxaret fpìye' for. Kämakto nìwin, ayngati spivule hufwel ayolo'ru alahe peng ziva'u. For peng syeraw Toruk Makto. Tswayon set oehu ma smukan, ma smuke! Sawtuter wìyintxu ayoeng ke tsun fo fìkem sivi, fìtsenge... lu awngeyä!
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