Storming the Castle: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

There are really only a few good ways to end an action movie. You've got your car chase, your [[Showdown At High Noon|mano-a-mano showdown]], your [[Battle Royale With Cheese|mano-a-mano-a-mano-a-mano-a-mano showdown]],<ref>That means that there are a lot of hands involved, not men.</ref> and your grand, sweeping [[Final Battle]]. These are all well and good, but sometimes the Big Bad isn't gracious enough to come to you. In that case, you'd better go to them.

 

In a variant, instead of directly attacking the castle with massive forces, a small party will sneak in (through the sewers, disguised as delivering supplies, etc.) and attempt to take the castle from within.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The first season of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has the heroes storming the Garden of Time.

 

== Comic Books ==

 

 

* As of the beginning of the ''[[Bleach]]'' fic ''[[Winter War]]'', Seireitei has [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us|been occupied by Aizen's forces for some time]]. Naturally, once things get underway, retaking the city is one of the heroes' first priorities. At the same time, a smaller group is sent into Hueco Mundo.

* ''[[Jewel of Darkness]]'': The Jump City arc ends with [[The Starscream]] leading the Titans to Midnight's lair, allowing them to catch her off guard. When the battle is over, {{spoiler|Slade appears to drag the badly-wounded Midnight away}} and the base [[Collapsing Lair|self-destructs]].

* ''[[Queen of All Oni]]'' features a rare villain-on-villain example. When [[Evil Sorcerer]] [[Smug Snake|Lung]] captures Jade's astral form and tries to torture her into serving him, her Shadowkhan [[Co-Dragons|Dragons]] Left and Right track down his fortress (with some anonymous aid from [[Villainous Rescue|Tarakudo]]), and proceed to [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb stomp]] everything he puts in their way.

* Pops up a few times in the ''[[My Hostage Not Yours]]'' trilogy:

** The climax of ''The Revenge of Player 2'' occurs as Dib and Zim attack {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Iggins]]}}' lair in order to save a brainwashed Gaz.

** Twice in ''The Inevitable Takeover''—first, Dib and Tak lead [[La Résistance|the Group]] in attacking Zim's base in order to stop his wedding to Gaz. This fails, since not only does Gaz not ''want'' to be saved (and she gives Dib a pretty brutal [[Hannibal Lecture]] to prove it), but Zim completely kicks Tak's ass.

* The [[Final Battle]] of ''[[My Little Avengers]]'' occurs when the Avengers sneak into Canterlot Castle to confront [[Big Bad|Loki]] and the [[The Psycho Rangers|Dark Avengers]], who have occupied it.

* Similarly, the first part of the [[Final Battle]] of ''[[Ponies Make War]]'' begins when the [[La Résistance|Loyalists]] attack the royal palace so the Mane Six can defeat Prince Empyrean as part of a larger plan to {{spoiler|restore Celestia's power}} and draw out [[Big Bad|Titan]] for the ''real'' [[Final Battle]].

** ''Attack Of The Clones'': The Jedi Knights storm the Geonosian arena.

** ''Revenge Of The Sith'': The ''Invisible Hand'', though this one's at the beginning. Inverted later on when the 501st storm the Jedi Temple.

* Most of the [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] films end this way. To be more specific, ''[[Dr. No]]'', ''[[Thunderball]]'', ''[[You Only Live Twice]]'', ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'', ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'', ''[[Live and Let Die (film)|Live and Let Die]]'', ''[[The Man with the Golden Gun]]'', ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me]]'', ''[[For Your Eyes Only (film)|For Your Eyes Only]]'', ''[[Octopussy]]'', ''[[The Living Daylights]]'', ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]]'', ''[[The World Is Not Enough]]'', and ''[[Die Another Day]]'' all end with James Bond willingly gearing up and assaulting a known enemy base that very definitely contains the major villain.

** ''[[Moonraker]]'' ends with an assault on Drax's space station by U.S. Marine astronauts with laser weapons. Bond was already inside the station when it occurred.

* Subverted and then played straight in ''[[Timeline]]''. The French arrive to Castleguard prepared for a year-long siege, exchanging arrows and siege weapon fire with the English. Then [[Gerard Butler]]'s character blows a hole to the catacombs, allowing the French general and a dozen men to storm the castle from inside. They manage to open the gates, allowing the French army to enter. While, the end result is known, as [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] at the beginning of the movie, the battle is still on as the main characters are returning to their own time.

* At the end of ''[[Bad Boys]] II'', the titular bad boys and a team of volunteers storm the [[Big Bad]]'s mansion in Cuba to rescue Marcus's sister and Mike's girlfriend (same person). They have to hurry, though, as the drug lord has friends in the Cuban government, who will send the Cuban army after them.

** Marv geared up to storm the Farm in order to kill Kevin. A couple scenes later, he's heading to Cardinal Roark's mansion.

** Hartigan storms the same Farm in order to kill the Yellow Bastard.

 

== Literature ==

* Robert Jordan seems to like this as much as George Lucas, because ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' does it a lot:

** Book 2: Falme.

** Book 7: Illian. Subverted when Sammael runs away, and Rand has to follow him to Shadar Logoth.

** Book 11: The Shaido camp at Malden.

* The storming of the pool ship at the end of ''[[Animorphs]]''.

* [[S.M. Stirling]]'s post-apocalypse ''[[Emberverse]]'' novels feature ''some'' castle-storming, but in a subversion it's far more common for both the heroes and villains to do everything they can to ''avoid'' storming the other side's castles, because such attacks are so dangerous and time-consuming.

** In ''Dies the Fire,'' [[Red Shirt|local good guys]] unfamiliar with the idea of a castle send two hundred men against a hilltop abby manned by a gang allied to Norman Arminger, who is ''very'' familiar with castles. The good guys lose twenty dead and over a hundred badly hurt to zero gain. Subsequent attacks fail at the "find anyone who wants to do this" stage...

{{quote|[[The Mole|Two Fire Herb]]: "We must [[Romanovs and Revolutions|storm the Winter Palace!]]"

[[Chinese Girl|Lotus Blossom]]: "Excuse me, Two Fire Herb, but it is June."

[[Jerkass|Two Fire Herb]]: "Then we can storm the Summer Palace!" }}

* Torquilstone in ''[[Ivanhoe]]''.

* Happens in pretty much every ''[[Redwall]]'' book where the villain builds or steals themselves a looming castle fortress from which to rule the landscape. Examples include Terramort (''Mariel of Redwall''), Marshank (''Martin the Warrior'') and Castle Floret (''The Bellmaker'') Most of the other books have assorted villains trying to storm either Redwall Abbey or Salamandastron. Subversions include the Kingdom of Malkaniss, an underground fortress, and Kotir, which was flooded and destroyed with siege weaponry instead of stormed.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': ''Proven Guilty'' ends with Harry, Murphy, Charity and Thomas storming Queen Mab's castle in Faerie {{spoiler|to get Molly back}}. Subverted in that {{spoiler|while they have to deal with some forces, they arrive to find that ''something'' has already been through and wiped out most of Mab's army...}}

 

== Video Games ==

** Its ability to stand up to such an assault is later proven when you assist in its defense from the Jocks after putting indecent pictures of the head cheerleader all over town.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'': Assaulting the Shinra Building, [[Best Level Ever|the most awesome stretch of the game]]. Later in the game, you storm the city itself, and can revisit the Shinra Building, but this bit's only necessary if you want one character's ultimate weapon.

** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Wind Waker]]'', when Link storms the Forsaken Fortress at the start of the game, again at the middle, and later on {{spoiler|breaks the barrier around Hyrule Castle to storm Ganondorf's tower, ''at the bottom of the sea''.}}.

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|A Link To The Past]]'' has Link doing this right after starting the game with nothing but a sword and shield. Then he has to do it a second time.

* ''[[Kirby]]'' games generally have at least one level (or several) that involves storming King Dedede's castle single-handedly.

** Kirby Super Star's "The Revenge of Meta Knight" features Kirby storming an airship, which is large and complex enough to be considered a flying castle in and of itself.

* In fact, this actually applies to many (but not all) Mega Man games, especially the ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series.

* In ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]]: The Game'', you will have to attack and take over the warehouses, hubs and compounds of the other four families. As the trope suggests, you will have a harder time with these than with normal shops and rackets.

** Your objective ''is'' to storm a castle, after all.

* In the penultimate level of ''[[Modern Warfare|Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2]]'', {{spoiler|Price and Soap attack Hotel Bravo, the cliffside base of corrupt US General Shepherd}}.

* Most of the levels in Bungie's ''[[Oni]]'' are Storming the Castle scenarios, especially after {{spoiler|the TCTF turns on Konoko}}.

* In ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'', the only way to win (at least in most scenarios) is to capture all the other players' castles through direct assault.

* ''[[Stronghold]]''. You are either storming a castle, or building a castle that can withstand a direct assault.

** In the latest installment, ''Total War: Shogun 2'', a castle can be defended from a full-sized army by an ashigaru (armed peasant) force half their number. This is often because a number of the attacking units will be cavalry, which are utterly useless when assaulting castles, at least the way the AI does it (wait until all infantry are dead or routing, then run to the castle and dismount). Archers on the battlements are heavily protected from incoming arrows, while the same cannot be said for the attacking archers. The standard way to storm a castle is for infantry to climb the walls, during which time they are extremely vulnerable to arrows and defending infantry. The AI never seems to try to destroy the gates and come in this way.

** Automatically resolving the battle will usually lead to less casualties since the AI is more efficient at storming the castle.

* ''[[Call of Duty|Call of Duty World at War]]'' the final American mission is to storm Shuri Castle. And the final Russian mission is to storm the Reichstag.

* To beat the game in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (video game)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' you need to get inside castle and kill the sheriff and his henchmen.

* At the end of ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3'', Samus and the entire Galactic Federation does this to {{spoiler|Phaaze}}, in order to get rid of the Phazon menace once and for all.

* ''[[Something]] series'':

** Mario has to storm the Chateaus at the end of each world in Something. They even get an Elemental [[Theme Naming]].

** Luigi gets to storm DDDark Castle <ref>a World 5 secret level</ref> in Something Else. Luigi even gets to fight a Dark Matter-possessed Dedede at the end.

 

== Webcomics ==

* Used several times in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', most notably in the story arcs "Vampires," "Dangerous Days," and "That Which Redeems."

** A couple of arcs later, after getting [[Drunk with Power]] from [[Ambiguous Gender|his/her]] {{spoiler|[[Deal with the Devil|deal with the IFCC]]}}, Vaarsuvius attacks Xykon's newest fortress in an attempt to defeat him by him/herself. {{spoiler|V gets his/her [[Curb Stomp Battle|ass handed to him/her]], but still manages to rescue the captive O-Chul and make Xykon lose his [[Soul Jar|phylactery]].}}

* ''[[Girl Genius]]''. Or rather, tricking the guards into thinking you're a new prisoner being sent there as punishment, only to storm the castle from the ''inside.''

* [[Looking for Group|"Good Evening. This is a diversion."]]

 

 

* Jonas suggests this strategy in the ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'' episode "Storm The Castle," but in the end they use a different tactic.

** The later raid on Pleasant Manor could be counted as a (narrowly) successful castle-storming.

* ''[[Associated Space]]'' has several variations on this trope, from Fatebane sneaking into the Executive Mansion to give a [[MacGuffin|mysterious box]] to the President, to Fatebane rescuing David [[Runaway Bride|from his own wedding]], to {{spoiler|Fatebane and Nazar rescuing David from his mother's mansion}}.

* On the ninth day of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' version four, {{spoiler|STAR launches an assault on the terrorist HQ and the island, causing a lot of damage and rescuing many of the students}}. This eventually comes to a head when {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Danya]] is shot by [[The Dog Bites Back|Dorian Pello, one of his own men]], [[Heel Face Turn|who then escapes with STAR]]}}.

* In ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'', Spider Skull Island was once a bad guy base until Team Venture captured it. The original owner fled and attempted to initiate a self destruct, but it failed due to faulty hardware.

* Done twice in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2003). The first occurs in "Return to New York", where the turtles storm Foot HQ in order to kill The Shredder, and the second in "Enter the Dragons," where the turtles and a shitload of allies storm The Demon Shredder's keep in order to kill him.

 

 

* During the Battle of Actium, Julius Caesar wisely recognized this trope, so he avoided it on purpose by building a castle around a castle. His enemies tried to storm his siege wall multiple times and failed, eventually surrendering.

* During the Battle of Chapultepec, Mexican forces were made to defend the military school, which was based on the Chapultepec castle, against the American invaders.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Ending Tropes]]

[[Category:Home Base]]