Patrick Stewart Speech: Difference between revisions

 

See also [[Kirk Summation]], [[World of Cardboard Speech]]. Contrast [[Hannibal Lecture]] and [[Shut Up, Kirk]].

{{examples}}

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' gives these ''all'' the time. Her introduction speeches are all about the innocence and wonder that is currently being invaded by the bad guys. Then, right before she powers up to end the deal, she'll plead with the bad guys to let the people live in peace. In the manga, she even gives up being a being of pure energy and thought so she can live on earth, pain and all, with her friends—and gives a speech about it, too. When faced with the [[Big Bad]] every season, they tell her how awful the world is and how useless her idealism is.

{{quote|'''[[Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can|Sailor Galaxia]]''': Teamwork is a pitiful illusion! The only one you can rely on in this vast galaxy is yourself! Have you given up, Sailor Moon?

 

== Comic Books ==

* Professor Xavier of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', multiple times.

** Which is perhaps why for the X-Men movies, Patrick Stewart was a perfect fit. (The other reason why being that, despite the character having been created when Stewart was only 23 years old, [[Jack Kirby]] drew Xavier at the time looking ''almost exactly'' like the Patrick Stewart of today.)

 

== Film ==

* [[Al Pacino|Satan]] delivers one of these in ''[[The Devil's Advocate]]'' in his [[Large Ham|climactic scene]]. It involves his reasons why [[God Is Evil]], [[Satan Is Good]], and then wraps up with, "In spite of all his imperfections, I'm a '''FAN OF MAN'''! I'm a humanist. Maybe the last humanist."

* Optimus Prime in ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers]]'' delivers one of these in response to Ironhide's query why they fight for the humans, a primitive and violent race: "Were we so different? They're a young species - but I have seen good in them. We cannot let the humans pay for our mistakes. [[Catch Phrase|Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.]]"

 

== Literature ==

* At the end of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s novel ''[[Have Space Suit—Will Travel]]'', the hero gives a Patrick Stewart Speech to the aliens who were deciding whether to destroy Earth.

** Note that the most effective part of his speech is a threat. "Go ahead, take away our sun. We'll make one. And then we'll come for the ones that did it!"

* [[Ayn Rand]] and [[Terry Goodkind]] are a big fan of this ([[Anvilicious|perhaps too big]]), and their main characters have numerous paragraphs of monologue that extol the potential of man, usually focusing the most on things like our genius and indomitable will.

* T.H. White's ''[[The Once and Future King|The Book of Merlyn]]'' contains a lengthy [[Hannibal Lecture]] on humanity's flaws, which seems like a massive downer. However, it does follow it up with a brief Patrick Stewart Speech on what the speaker considers to be humanity's saving grace: the love it has for its pets.

{{quote|'''Death''': {{smallcaps| Lord, what can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?}}}}

* Even though he's talking about hobbits instead of humans, [[The Lord of the Rings|Gandalf]] is fond of them. And Hobbits are just Englishmen anyway.

* After being [[Joker Jury|outwitted]] and getting one of the greatest [[Shut Up, Kirk]] squelches ever by [[The Devil|Mr.Scratch]], Daniel Webster gives an outstanding example of this trope in [[The Devil and Daniel Webster]]

* In [[Sophocles]]' [[Antigone]] the chorus sing: "Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man".

 

* Jean-Luc Picard of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', multiple times.

** [[Lampshaded]] in the episode "True Q":

 

== Music ==

* In [[The Protomen]], Megaman tries, he really does. Just a shame {{spoiler|Protoman}} [[Apathetic Citizens|can counter it easily.]]

 

* There is a Jewish legend (probably [[Older Than Feudalism]]) that after the Flood, the angels came to God, and criticized his decision to create the humans, with the way it turned out. God's answers was a passage from the Old Testament which described the sufferings of pregnancy and childbirth. In other words "wait until I'm done".

 

== Video Games ==

* In what is possibly a subtle parody of the concept, the [[Sidekick]] Issun in ''[[Okami]]'' will comment that "Humanity sure was smart coming up with something like this" if you examine one of many [[The Thing That Goes Doink|things that go doink]].

* Shortly after the release of the independently developed [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'', [[Doing It for the Art|Four]] [[Freeware Games|Leaf]] [[Shown Their Work|Studios]], had ''[http://i.imgur.com/9JeSr.jpg this]'' to say about the game's [[Better Than It Sounds|seemingly squicky premise]].

 

== Web Comics ==

* Subverted - along with all other things - in ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]''. When the Vaguely Greco-Roman Godhead plans the destruction of the world to pave the way for a newer, better one, Wonderella shows the Godhead the value of human life... not with a well-reasoned speech, but by calling them "dickholes" and complaining that her sister can fly and she can't. Impressed that one of their creations should show such unbridled passion, they decide to leave the world as it is.

** In another strip, Wonderella convinces ''Patrick Stewart himself'' to give one of these speeches to an alien that thinks ''[[Star Trek]]'' is real. However, the purpose of this wasn't to convince the alien to leave, but distract him long enough to get a sniper bullet to the skull. Stewart, of course, wasn't aware of this.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Optimus Prime of ''[[Transformers]]'', multiple times.

* Parodied in the [[The Simpsons (animation)|Treehouse of Horror]] segment "Night of the Dolphin". Homer's speech to inspire the humans to fight back contains nothing but minor accomplishments of humanity (except the first one): "[[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|We invented computers, leg warmers, bendy straws, peel 'n' eat shrimp, the glory hole, and the pudding cup!]]"

 

== Real Life ==

* A defining characteristic of [[Carl Sagan]], who had an optimistic view of humanity and Earth's place in the universe even as he showed the world how insignificant we were on a cosmic scale. In fact, because Sagan's most famous Patrick Stewart Speeches were in ''[[Cosmos]]'', which aired in 1980, it is entirely possible he was the [[Trope Maker]] for this trope, and The Next Generation, which began airing in 1987, was inspired by him.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc This is one of several pieces of music] from [http://symphonyofscience.com/ Symphony Of Science] that illustrates this very ability of Sagan's, as well as a few others.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]

[[Category:Speeches and Monologues]]