Powder Keg Crowd: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

This can last a long, long, long time, with no overt effect except some hostile looks, but eventually something will happen.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In the ''[[Wild Series]]'', every time the [[Our Werewolves Are Different|manbeasts]] go into human settlements, the humans start getting suspicious and violent because they subliminally pick up the destructive power the manbeasts are capable of. This in turn makes the manbeasts lose their control and [[Shapeshifter Identity Crisis|involuntarily react]], escalating the situation.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Nathanael West's ''The Day of the Locust'' climaxes with a movie premiere during which the crowd of star-gawkers gets more and more restless and agitated, and finally explodes into a full-scale riot after a young child actor {{spoiler|gets stomped to death}}.

** It's disturbing enough in the book, but John Schlesinger's movie version takes it to the level of [[Nightmare Fuel]].

*** It should be noted that it's been repeatedly said that Ankh-Morpork exists in a perpetual state of "proto-mob".

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire|A Clash of Kings]]'', King Joffrey and the other Lannisters are riding through a resentful crowd of starving peasants on their way back to the castle. Someone throws dung at Joffrey. Furious, Joffrey orders [[The Brute|the Hound]] to cut his way through the crowd and retrieve the offender. This triggers a riot that spreads throughout the city.

* In [[Stephen Hunt]]'s ''The Court Of The Air'', when a crowd gathers about the castle, the figurehead/scapegoat king [[Come to Gawk|comes out on the balcony]] to let them throw fruit and rubbish at him, sating their desire to riot.

* At the end of ''[[1632|1633]]'', one of these was gathering in Magdeburg after word of {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|the death of Hans Richter]]}} reached the general public. Mike Stearns and company defuse the situation before it actually blows up, though.

** Examined in ''1635: The Cannon Law'', where it is made blindingly obvious that the crowd is only there because somebody who thinks he's [[The Chessmaster]] paid them to do so. Several of them aren't even sure what they're gathering around angrily protesting, just that they're getting a nice bit of gold to stand in the square and yell incoherently.

** In ''1635:The Dreeson Incident'', what was supposed to be a protest against vaccination at a Grantville hospital turns into a protest against autopsies (a much bigger religious issue at the time). When a policeman takes offense at the insults being thrown, he draws his gun and fires, killing a protester. The policeman is then killed by the furious crowd and a major riot erupts with multiple deaths on both sides.

* ''[[Sword of Truth]]'': The moment in ''Faith of the Fallen'' where a large crowd has gathered around the statue created by Richard, [[Narm|on their knees and weeping with pure joy]], only for an official of the Imperial Order to force Richard to destroy it. This doesn't go down well.

* The crowd in [[Lewis Carroll]]'s '''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]''. Who, among other things, shout "Less! Bread! More! Taxes!"

* It is mentioned at some point in the Persian part of ''[[The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar]]'' that as a result of an economically disastrous recent war with Russia, all of Persia - and especially Tehran - has been teeming with all the right ingredients for such a powder keg. [[It Was His Sled|Needless to say, it turns out to be a]] [[Chekhov's Gun]].

* In Tamora Pierce's book ''Bloodhound'' the combination of rampant counterfeiting of silver, and a potential blight in a major grain crop turn the entire capital into this with a massive riot starting after a shop owner doubles the price for bread in the slum district.

* ''[[Shadows of the Apt]]'': In ''Blood of the Mantis'', the news of the {{spoiler|queen's death}} puts {{spoiler|Szar}} into this, although the Wasps foolishly think they can suppress it.

** Solarn appears to be a city of intrigue and politics, but with the arrival of the Wasps, violence erupts. Che thinks it's been a power keg all along.

* ''[[Scaramouche]]'': Andre-Louis constantly lights the powder keg crowds of the [[French Revolution]].

 

== [[New Media]] ==

== Theater ==

* [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Julius Caesar]]''. The conspirators calm them down. Mark Anthony whips them back up again.

 

== Video Games ==

* In the [[Game Boy Advance]] game ''[[Zone of the Enders]]: The Fist of Mars'', Nadia (under Bolozof's orders) infiltrates a street protest and fires on the police mechs stationed there as crowd control, giving Bolozof's Acemos unit [[False-Flag Operation|an excuse to move in and attack]].

* In ''[[Suikoden V]]'', the Prince {{spoiler|finds out that Salum Barrows took advantage of one of these to steal the Dawn Rune}}

* In ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'', one of the [[Big Bad]]'s plans is to produce one of these out of a pro-independence Taiwanese rally, {{spoiler|aided by the assassination of the speaker. You can only stop one of the two plans, which will either lead to the death of one important politician or nationwide riots that kill hundreds. [[Morton's Fork|Chinese-Taiwanese relations hit rock bottom either way]].}}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Also happens in "Now Museum, Now You Don't", though everyone's discontented for different reasons.

'''Brock:''' Welcome to my life. }}

** "Well, we're not celebrating anything... so we must be an angry mob!" Cue the [[Torches and Pitchforks]].

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' in the 2nd part of ''The Boiling Rock''.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* During 1848, there was a string of nationalist revolutions, revolutionary attempts and riots all across Europe. England avoided violence. Historians suggest this is because the English police weren't given firearms when they were sent to overlook protests.

* The 1863 New York City draft riots. People were annoyed at the draft (which allowed the wealthy to buy their way out) and the Emancipation Proclamation (many whites not thinking that abolitionism was a cause to die for, and many of the working class being pro-slavery). What was the spark? A fireman was drafted. Three days later, the riot ended. The total dead is still debated, with estimates ranging from 120 to 2,000.

** Most analysts agree that the decision to fire on peaceful, unarmed civilians attracted sympathy for the protesters that would not otherwise have existed, which in turn led to increased turnout at the protests. This is borne out by the results in Libya, Yemen, and Syria, where the protest movement grew each time it was reported the police or army had fired upon civilians; this led Syria and Yemen into a state of vague turmoil, and led the Libyans to take up arms. The only way (it seems) for a strategy of brutal violence to work is if it is done whole-hog and very quickly; the Bahraini government managed to crush the protest movement, but only because hardliners did not hesitate to use the military to break up the sit-in at Pearl Roundabout and then [[Summon Bigger Fish|call in Saudi and Emirati troops]] to quell the uprising once and for all.

** Also, a government which won't fire on its citizens is a good candidate for genuine reform, while a regime which kills its own people kind of ''needs'' overthrowing.

* The anti-austerity riots throughout Europe in 2011, most notably in Greece.

** [[wikipedia:2011 London riots|The riots in London and other major centers in England]] that same year.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Index Means Trouble]]

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Civil Unrest Tropes]]

[[Category:The Only Righteous Index of Fanatics]]