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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Independence Day]]'' is a big one. In fact, this trope seemed to be largely the premise of the entire film.
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* Ditto the film versions of ''[[Lord of the Rings|The Two Towers]]'' and ''[[Lord of the Rings|Return of the King]]''.
** [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|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 woes 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!]] [[This Is Sparta|MEN! OF THE WEST!]]
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** Indeed, even the aliens acknowledge this: one major difference between Yeerks and humans is that Yeerks will give up if they know they're going to lose, while humans won't. Some, like the Yeerk that controlled Jake or Visser Three, think this is basically pointless, but Visser One was smart enough to realize this would make conquering humans a harder task to accomplish.
** Stated almost flat-out by one of Visser One's hosts:
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** From Ax's "Earth Diary": "''Give me liberty, or give me death.'' A human named Patrick Henry said that. I wonder if, when the Yeerks invaded, they knew humans said things like that. I wonder if they truly knew what they were getting into."
* E.E. Knight's ''[[The Vampire Earth]]'' series has a heavy dose of this, at least when it comes to the humans that aren't [[The Quisling|Quislings]].
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* There were a few examples of this in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', which probably contributed to why the Doctor liked the human race so much.
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** Near the end of Day Four of ''[[Torchwood]]'': "Children of Earth", we're led to believe that this will happen. Then the trope is horribly, horribly subverted.
* The ''[[Babylon 5]]'' movie ''In the Beginning'' depicts the last stand of humanity against the onslaught of the Minbari Federation. Of the war, the following was said:
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** Actually, ''In The Beginning'' had back-to-back speeches about the same situation, and the latter was a flat out [[Tear Jerker]].
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* ''[[Space: Above and Beyond]]'' was all about this trope: humanity banding together against the evil "chigs". In the pilot, the Secretary-General of the United Nations makes a very Churchillian speech about "the coming storm", then quotes Churchill directly (the Battle of Britain "Never has so much been owed by so many to so few" speech) after the Wildcard's first major victory.
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* ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' will be this on a galactic level, but it starts on Earth.
** At the end of the last DLC for ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', a [[The Messiah|Paragon]] [[The Determinator|Shepard]] [[Shut UP, Hannibal|also gives]] [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|this trope]] to [[Eldritch Abomination|Harbinger]] right after s/he already flipped them off again.
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* Partly subverted by ''The Ur-Quan Masters'' (AKA ''[[Star Control]] II''). At the beginning, humanity ''has'', indeed, been defeated, trapped beneath [[The Wall Around the World|planetary shields]] in "[[Vichy Earth|Fallow Slavery]]", and the small detachment of humans left in a space-station outside the shields are nice and obedient to the eponymous Ur-Quan masters. (It helps that they can't maintain life support without Ur-Quan assistance.) Until the player character shows up with a Precursor spaceship. ''Then'' they rebel, and put together [[The Alliance]] with great speed, before taking on the Ur-Quan directly.
** The Ur-Quan specifically chose to use planetary shields to [[Averted Trope|avert]] [[Genre Savvy|this trope]]. Any race too courageous to agree to serve them would end up trapped in an [[Sealed Good in a Can|impenetrable force field]]. This allows the Ur-Quan to win against enemies who were too dumb to [[The Determinator|know when they're beaten]], without having to [[Kill'Em All]].
** If you talk to Commander Hayes, he reveals that Earth kept the war going right up to the point where Ur-Quan ships were positioned in orbit, ready to glass the entire planet.
* The Terran Faction in ''[[Starcraft]]'' invokes this. They're a bunch of colonists descended from outcast criminals from Earth (think Australia [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]]) with [[Used Future]] technology, and fighting against both the [[Horde of Alien Locusts|insatiable rampage]] of [[Bug War|the Zerg]], and the [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|hyper-advanced]] [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Protoss]]. And yet, [[Badass Normal|they hold]] [[Badass Army|their own]]...
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** However, Mengsk is one of the less evil villains, and his only goal is more and more power.
*** True, but at least he seems to be trying to keep his promise, up until the UED starts kicking apart his empire.
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