Toppled Statue

Welcome to Egopolis, seat of power of The Empire! No doubt you're in awe of the mighty statue of The Emperor dominating the town square. This statue was built as a sign of his highness's power and control over the lands and the people of his Empire, which is why when The Hero and his friends invade the town and destroy it, you'll be treated to a dramatic shot of it collapsing.

Nothing quite puts an exclamation point on the downfall of a ruler or a kingdom like the destruction of an effigy of them. Their power and control over the people is broken and to drive it home a statue of them is shown being destroyed in a spectacular, dramatic fashion. Or alternatively, it's already been done, and the rubble of the statue is a sign of the former kingdom and it's failure.

Compare Monumental Damage, Smash the Symbol.

Examples of Toppled Statue include:

Anime and Manga

• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kamina's statue in Kamina City was pulled down when the people revolted.
• El Hazard: After infiltrating the Buggrom citadel, and rescuing Fatora, Makoto and the others make their escape. During which, he asks Shayla Shayla to help Ifurita, who'd been freed from Jinnai's control and using her remaining energy to cover their escape. One of Shayla's blasts triggers a chain reaction of explosions throughout the hive which ultimately causes Jinnai's statue to crumble as it topples over.

Comic Books

• In the "Day of Chaos" storyline in Judge Dredd, the colossal Statue of Judgement (which symbolically dwarfs the Statue of Liberty in the series) is toppled by the forces attacking Mega-City One. It's not just symbolic in this case—the statue was the headquarters of the Judges' surveillance and electronic tracking activities and its destruction creates many blind spots in the city.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier shows a statue of Big Brother being removed.

Film

• Bruce Almighty has a variation, where Bruce watches a billboard of himself be torn down and set on fire in the midst of a riot he inadvertently caused with his careless power abuse.
• Planet of the Apes has the iconic image of the partially buried Statue of Liberty, providing The Reveal that the planet is actually earth and humankind fell a long time ago.
• The Scorpion King, a large statue of Memnon at the front of his palace is destroyed when the palace gets blown up.
• The special edition of Return of the Jedi added a scene with a mob tearing down a statue of the emperor on Coruscant.

Literature

• In The Lord of the Rings, orcs defaced a monument to a king of Gondor when they took Ithilien. They broke the head of the king off and put there a boulder with Sauron's eye instead, and wrote some Cluster F-Bomb runes on it.
• The sonnet Ozymandias (Trope Namer for Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair) centers on this concept, a destroyed statue laying in the middle of buried ruins containing an inscription of the great wonders the king built.

Live-Action TV

• At the end of The Twilight Zone episode "The Little People", the statue of a man who'd been lording over a microscopic civilization on another planet is toppled by the little people themselves, after the man is killed by giants.

Video Games

• In the Dwarf intro to The Lord of the Rings Online, the statue of Thorin Oakenshield has been torn down by the Dourhand clan and a statue of Skorgrim, the Dourhands' ancestor, erected in its place.
• The "People's Ending" of Republic the Revolution features a crowd smashing the statue of Novistrana's now-former dictator.
• In Kid Icarus Uprising, there is a building where you have to fight three of the bosses again. In the main room, there are statues of the three of them. After you defeat each one, its statue crumbles.
• In Half-Life 2, after starting the rebellion, one of the first things you witness is Breen's propaganda screen being toppled by the resistance.
• If you proceed to the Brutal Bonus Level in Cave Story, you can take a detour to visit a room with a statue of The Doctor (as well as the three previous bearers of the Crown). You can destroy these statues—and they drop powerups when you do so.
• In Age of Mythology: The Titans, you have to destroy several statues of General Melagius before dealing with him in person. In this case because smashing statues grant you gifts and bonuses.
• Shadow of the Colossus: after you beat each Colossus their respective statue falls.
• Mercenaries has this as an entire side quest.
• Just Cause 2 lets you topple statues of "Baby" Panay, the president of the local republic, TO decrease his control.

Western Animation

• The Prince of Egypt, the film's opening sequence shows a great statue being erected. By the end of the film's famous Plagues sequence, it's crumbled to the ground.

Real Life

• The overthrow of a Saddam Hussein statue in Iraq was seen as symbolic of his utter defeat.
• During The American Revolution, the statue in New York City of George III on horseback was toppled after the Declaration of Independence. The statue was later melted down to make bullets.
• The British raised a statue of Lord Nelson in downtown Dublin (similar, but smaller than, a statue of Lord Nelson in London). Many took it as a symbol of the British dominion over the Irish. The IRA blew it up in 1966. Then they wrote a funny song about it.