Kneel Before Zod: Difference between revisions

# [[Defiant to The End|The hero will say "Never!"]] and there will be a big fight, leading to the villain's defeat.

# The hero will say "Never!" and the villain will [[Agony Beam|zap him with magic]], knocking him to his knees, or [[Mooks]] will step in and manhandle him to the floor. This will allow the villain the fun of gloating for a while... and then there will be a big fight, leading to the villain's defeat.

 

Needless to say this is frowned upon by the [[Evil Overlord List]].

 

 

Compare [[Bring Him to Me]], [[Cower Power]], [[Evil Gloating]].

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': In the Japanese version, there is a scene where Sailor Moon is captured by Prince Diamond. He puts her in a trance and orders her to swear eternal loyalty and love to him. She drops to her knees and is about to kiss his hand as a sign of allegiance but manages to snap out of it before she does so.

* ''[[Higurashi]]'': Shion is pressured into apologizing to her grandmother this way. She then is forced to {{spoiler|strip herself of three fingernails}}.

** [[Superlative Dubbing|Even better in the dub.]] "I SAID '''''KNEEL!"'''''

* Happens in ''[[Code Geass]]'' during the beginning of the second season. Subverted when Lelouch kneels before the unintimidating and completely scared Prince Clovis, before killing him as the Trope demands.

* Beatrice in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Umineko no Naku Koro Ni]]'' absolutely ''loves'' doing this.

* The last episode of ''[[Fruits Basket]]'' has Akito angrily grab a kneeling Tohru by the hair and force her to get on both her hands and knees before him. He then states that he will "make her regret she ever had anything to do with the Sohmas", that she will "suffer as we suffer", and demands that she "beg him for forgiveness" and "swear that she'll never interfere with the Sohmas again."

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', when Grimmjow starts getting rebellious, Aizen activates his [[Battle Aura]], which is enough to force him to his knees.

* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', Evergreen threatens to shatter everyone whom she has [[Taken for Granite|turned to stone]] unless Erza takes off all her clothes and prostrates herself. Erza responds by telekinetically holding a dozen swords and threatening to turn Evergreen into a pincushion unless she breaks the spell and frees her victims. It works.

* General Zod of ''[[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]]'', of course with a hearty "Come to me, Son of Jor-El. '''Kneel''' before Zod!" This has pretty much become his [[Catch Phrase]] in the comics.

** Likewise Gorilla Grodd has adopted his own version to be on multiple occasions, likely because his name ends in the same "-od" sound. He once even shouted it while brandishing a spoon and, in the same comic, tried to bite off Lex Luthor's head. Needless to say he was a little unhinged...

* Somewhat subverted in the ''Infinity War'' epic-over from Marvel, in which the Magus, who has the eponymous gauntlet forces Thanos the [[Magnificent Bastard]] to his knees. Thanos dryly notes that he isn't doing it willingly, nor will he continue doing it unless forced before explaining to the Magus just how badly the villain had miscalculated.

* Max Lord in his fully evil head of Checkmate phase liked using his [[Compelling Voice]] for this.

** And then {{spoiler|she snapped his neck}}. And then {{spoiler|[[Blackest Night|he came back]]}}.

* In the ''Spider-Man / Human Torch: I'm with Stupid'' miniseries, a publicity-craving Torch tries to single-handedly storm the Latverian embassy. He's promptly frozen solid by "subthermic cannons", forcing Spidey to rescue him by pretending to join forces with [[Doctor Doom]]. Doom demands that Spidey kneel and swear his eternal allegiance. When Spidey does so without any fuss, Doom realises that they're just words and asks him to back it up. Spidey lifts up the frozen Torch as though he's going to dash him on the ground, then web-swings out.

{{quote| '''President:'''' Oh, God...<br />

'''Zod:''' ''(correcting)'' '''''Zod.''''' }}

** Leonidas [i]does[/i] kneel in the end; only so that he can get one last shot at Xerxes. He doesn't kill him, but he does make him bleed.

* In ''[[Gladiator (Film)|Gladiator]]'', Commodus offers Maximus the chance at first, but once turned down, Commodus just orders Maximus and his family's execution.

{{quote| '''Marcus Antonius:''' You dare ask a representative of the Roman--<br />

'''Cleopatra VII:''' I ''asked'' it of [[Julius Caesar]]. I '''demand''' it of you. }}

{{quote| '''Li Mubai:''' '''''Bow''''' to your teacher!<br />

'''Jen:''' '''''Never!''' (jumps off waterfall)'' }}

** As well as Satan's final temptation of Christ:

{{quote| Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."<br />

** There's also the bit in the Book of Daniel where Darius wants everyone to worship him, but Daniel refuses and gets thrown into a lion pit. The lions leave him alone, and Darius is impressed enough to convert to worshiping the Abrahamic [[God]].

** Also from Daniel's book is the story of Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego, which is essentially the same story. The three guys refuse to worship Nebuchadnezzer's giant idol and get thrown into a furnace. God sends down an angel to protect them from the flames, and Nebby is impressed enough to convert. For a while, anyway.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]''

** Played with in the episode "Wishful Thinking", where a small child who gains super-strength yells "Kneel before Todd!" when toying with teenagers who used to bully him.

* In ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', on hearing that a team of strong contenders will not feature in the University's Physics Bowl Tournament, Leonard invokes this trope.

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Mock the Week]]'', discussing the recent Church of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Synod_of_the_Church_of_England England Synod]:

'''Biker:''' I got a better idea. How about you get on your knees instead.<br />

'''Valkyrie:''' ''(begins [[Star Wars|choking him with her mind]], he falls to his knees in pain)'' Foolish man, you do not command us. WE COMMAND YOU! }}

* In the ''[[Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "The Squire of Gothos", Trelane holds Captain Kirk at swordpoint and demands that he kneel. Kirk knocks him away and snaps the sword over his knee.

 

** High Prophet Barim, a boss in the Lost City of the Tol'Vir in Cataclysm, will yell "Kneel before me and repent!" midway through the battle. The players will be drawn to him, forced to kneel and have their souls sucked out of their bodies, forcing them to kill the Harbinger of Darkness before they can resume the battle against him.

** We also have Cho'gall, using his Conversion ability to force players to kneel and worship him, granting him more power. Said players' companions had best snap them out of it quick.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''

** Seifer's [[Catch Phrase]] for the game: "KNEEL LOSER!"

* In the old ''[[Panel De Pon|Tetris Attack]]'' game for the Super Nintendo (a port of ''[[Panel De Pon]]'' in which all of the characters were replaced with characters from [[Yoshis Island (Video Game)|Yoshis Island]]), you could take a look at all of the characters available in the Options menu, complete with a bit of text from that character. [[Squishy Wizard|Kamek's]] text starts off with superiority and ends with demanding Yoshi to "KNEEL, KNEEL BEFORE YOUR NEW MASTER".

** "''Sit'', {{spoiler|would you kindly.}}"

** In the ''Bioshock II'' opening, Sofia Lamb casually tells Subject Delta to "Kneel, please." Unfortunately for Delta, the [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] Lamb has already put him under [[Compelling Voice|Hypnosis]]. [[Moral Event Horizon|After he kneels, she hands him a pistol]] [[Psychic Assisted Suicide|and commands him to put it against his head]]. '''"Fire."'''

* Happens in ''[[The Force Unleashed]] 2''.

{{quote| '''Darth Vader:''' ''(force-chokes Juno)'' Bow before me, or she dies.<br />

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Darths and Droids]]'': [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0139.html "Cyborgs under my command, Kneel before Valorum!"] It is [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0206.html later] revealed that the GM [[Actor Allusion|planned to name Valorum "Zod"]].

* Parodied: "LINE UP ALPHABETICALLY." "Hey! Neil before Zod!" [http://www.flickr.com/photos/apelad/1481245335/\]

* ''[[Homestuck]]'': {{spoiler|[[Monster Clown|Gamzee]] demands that [[Genius Bruiser|Equius]] kneel before him, playing on Equius's strong belief in/fetish for [[Fantastic Racism|submission to his superiors]]. Equius does indeed kneel after having [[Death By Irony|an arrow fired through his knee, and is promptly strangulated to death]]. What drives the scene into outright horror is that it's also heavily implied that Equius is ''[[Too Kinky to Torture|getting off on his own murder]]''.}}