Rousing Speech: Difference between revisions

** 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...

{{quote|'''Sousuke''': Listen up! As of this moment, you people are no longer lowly maggots! You are rugger men, do you understand?

''Sousuke'': '''Then let's go!''' ''(team cheers and rushes onto the playing field)'' }}

*** It should be noted that, at that point, the rugby team had all gone [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]. [[Only Sane Man|Kaname and Kyoko]] immediately lampshade this.

{{quote|'''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]] {{spoiler|Gaara}} has been given supreme command of the entire Shinobi Alliance Army. So how does he defuse <s> xenophobia- and racism</s> generations of animosity fueled conflict between the united shinobi? Well, of course, by this gem:

'''[[I Will Fight No More Forever|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, '''[[Turn the Other Cheek|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.

** 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 -

{{quote|'''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.

'''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.

* 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:

{{quote|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!}}

{{quote|'''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 [[The Power of Friendship|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!"

* [[Robert Jordan]]'s ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' has the Aiel [[Badass Creed|oath]]:

{{quote|Till shade is gone, till water is gone

To spit in [[Satan|Sightblinder]]'s eye on [[The End of the World as We Know It|the last day]]. }}

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'', naturally enough, [[Playing with a Trope|plays with this trope]] in a variety of ways.

* In the ''[[Silmarillion]]'', [[Magnificent Bastard|Fëanor]] manages to convince a almost all of the Noldor to [[Star Trek|boldly go where no elf has gone before]].

** [[Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die|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.

** {{spoiler|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.

{{quote|'''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]]'')

'''Audience''': [[Too Dumb to Live|Yaaaay!]] }}

* The flavor text of the ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' card [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=5110 Awakening].

** Going one step further, the flavor text of the card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5149 Primal Rage] shows just ''how'' rousing that speech was.

** 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.

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

** 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)|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.

** Additionally, in the first game, Captain Kirrahe of the Salarian special forces gives a pretty good 'Do Not Go Gentle...' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXLVFnl3WcE 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 [[Planet of Hats|hat]] throughout the game has been [[Mad Science]]. A nice little subversion there. [[Lampshade Hanging|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. {{spoiler|And then calls back to it if he's killed during the suicide mission. "Tell them... I held the line..."}}

* [[Badass Longcoat|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!"

* [[Call of Duty|"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.

** An excelent one in Modern Warfare 2: The real [[Big Bad]] is only revealed after his plan has allready succeed, {{spoiler|[[Monumental Damage|Washington]]}} lies in smoking ruins, {{spoiler|[[Everybody's Dead, Dave|the entire team]]}} was killed, and Price and Soap are [[Clear My Name|hunted as traitors and terrorists]]. But there's still one thing left to do:

* 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.

* [[Command & Conquer|General Sheppard, the GDI commander]](not to be confused with [[Mass Effect]]'s Commander Shephard), gives one of these as the final mission briefing.

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

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

{{quote|"Don't follow me. Don't follow anyone!"}}

* [[Large Ham|Scolar Visari]], the leader of the helghast in the ''[[Killzone]]'' games is very adept at making hair-raising, inspiring speeches. His truly epic [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2-swSqw2pY speech] in the intro to ''Killzone 2'' has inspired many a player to fight for cause of the Helghast.

** 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 [[Narm|infamous]]:

{{quote|"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.

** 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", {{spoiler|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:

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick|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 [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0421.html too closely ]. It works...until the last phrase, when [[Fridge Logic]] ruins it.

Soldier: You suck! }}

** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0654.html O-Chul] gets to play it straight.

'''Aaron:''' Money. }}

* Remember [[Hellsing|the Major's "I Love War" speech mentioned in Anime and Manga?]] ''[[And Shine Heaven Now]]'' cranks it [[Up to Eleven]]. Gentlemen, the ''fandom'' [http://hellsing.comicgenesis.com/d/20090629.html version].

* ''[[Freefall]]'' parodied this sort of speech with Sam Starfall "the larcenous squid" [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1700/fc01669.htm addressing] several thousands of ''crickets'' he was going to send into an attack. DoS attack on an alarm system.

* [[Penny and Aggie|Penny gave Aggie]] [http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=759 this speech], which results in the two former adversaries becoming friends in order to take on [[Alpha Bitch|Karen and her clique.]]

* In ''[[Mission Hill]]'', just after Andy has given a rousing speech in defense of his brother:

{{quote|'''The Judge:''' ''The man in the hot pants speaks the truth. Case dismissed!''

'''The Judge:''' ''Well, maybe you should have given a rousing speech.'' }}

* In ''[[Futurama]]'', Zapp Brannigan responds to being court-martialed:

[[Category:Speeches and Monologues]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]