The Eternal Churchill: Difference between revisions

* 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!]]

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s "Berserker" universe - "When they came, you [humans] were waiting and dug in on a hundred worlds. Because you were, some of you and some of us are now alive." The alien narrator also comments on his race's perception that humanity had suffered war for its entire history, against the day when nothing less would serve for the survival of all life.

** Granted, the aliens got their advanced technology from plans left behind by the [[Precursors]], and therefore weren't even close to psychologically prepared to deal with other civilizations' paradigms. As proven by their decision that establishing dominance with an orbital bombardment is a good way to say "hello".

** Those countries aren't entirely random, incidentally. Within recent memory, the Finns had held off the full might of the Soviet Union in 1939-40, while the Turkish contingent in Korea had fought bravely and won unit citations in 1951. The Chinese of course were also involved in Korea, on the other side, while Bolivia had recently undergone a revolution and deposed a dictator in favour of democracy...

** 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:

* In [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Memory]]'', Miles repeats a joke about his ancestors (which I'm sure is based on a real joke with the ethnicities switched): that when they were invaded, they tried to surrender, but were so backwards they couldn't find anyone who could read the terms of the treaty, so they kept fighting and eventually won. This also sparks an epiphany as to which of his dual identities is the true him; because Admiral Naismith strove for victory, but Lord Vorkosigan could not surrender, so in the end Lord Vorkosigan was the persona he chose.

* Princess Leia gets a speech like this in ''[[New Jedi Order|Star by Star]]'', though admittedly its an entire ''galaxy'' she's encouraging to fight back against the evil invaders and not "just" the human race.

** Earlier in the same book, the main characters had found a copy of Churchill's speeches in the president's personal library among ordinary books, and had commented it was a disgrace to see something so valuable sitting there unappreciated.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

{{quote| '''Colonel Alan Mace:''' Attention all troops! The Sontarans might think of us as primitive, as does every passing species with an axe to grind. They make a mockery of our weapons, our soldiers, our ideals. But no more. From this point on, it stops. From this point on, the people of Earth fight back and we show them. We show the warriors of Sontar what the human race can do. <much slaughter of the Sontarans ensues>}}

{{quote| '''Londo Mollari''': The War. The humans, I think, knew they were doomed. Where another race would surrender to despair, the humans fought back with greater strength. They made the Minbari fight for every inch of space. In my life, I have never seen anything like it; They would weep, they would pray, they would say goodbye to their loved ones, and then throw themselves without fear or hesitation at the very face of death itself, never surrendering. No one who saw them fighting against the inevitable could help but be moved to tears by their courage. Their stubborn nobility. When they ran out of ships, they used guns, when they ran out guns they used knives and sticks and bare hands. They were magnificent. I only hope that when it is my time, I may die with half as much dignity as I saw in their eyes in the end. They did this for ''two years''; they never ran out of courage. But in the end, they ran out of ''time''.}}

** Actually, ''In The Beginning'' had back-to-back speeches about the same situation, and the latter was a flat out [[Tear Jerker]].

{{quote| '''Earth Alliance President''': Are we on? This is... this is the President. I have just been informed that the midrange military bases at Beta Durani and Proxima 3 have fallen to the Minbari advance. We've lost contact with Io and must conclude that they too have fallen to an advance force. Our Military Intelligence believes that the Minbari intend to bypass Mars and hit Earth directly and the attack could come at any time. We have continued to broadcast our surrender and a plea for mercy and they have not responded. Therefore we can only conclude that we stand at the twilight of the human race. In order to buy time for our evacuation transports to leave Earth, we ask for the support of every ship capable of fighting to take part in a last defense of our home world. We will not lie to you, we do not believe that survival is a possibility. We believe that anyone who joins this battle will never come home. But for every ten minutes we can delay the military advance, several hundred more civilians may have a chance to escape to neutral territory. Though Earth may fall, the human race must have a chance to continue elsewhere. No greater sacrifice has ever been asked of a people. But I ask you now to step forward one last time, one last battle to hold the line against the night. May God go with you all. }}

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The entire ''[[X-COM]]'' series is pretty much about this. The original ''UFO Defence'' game even gave you a nice [[Nightmare Fuel]] cutscene to show the final fate of Earth, if you get a Game Over.

{{quote| '''Shepard:''' "Maybe you're right: [[Failure Is the Only Option|maybe we can't win this]]. But we'll fight you regardless. Just like I did with [[Mass Effect 1|Sovereign]], just like I'm doing now. No matter how insignificant we might be, we ''will'' fight. We ''will'' sacrifice, and we ''will'' find a way. [[Humans Are Special|That's what]] [[Humanity Is Superior|humans do]]."}}

* 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.

** 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]]...

** 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.

* In ''[[Deadlock]]'', the human faction is mainly known for its prowess in the [[Humans Are Diplomats|realms of trade and diplomacy]] - greatly suited for winning the game in peaceful ways. But if they're forced into a fight, they have a special weapon too - all Human Infantry can use the 'Berserk' command in battle, injecting themselves with [[Super Serum]] that [[The Berserker|whips them into a frenzy, granting them the incredible strength and durability they need to take on vastly more powerful alien foes]]. Unfortunately, any survivors will either be killed or crippled for life by the drug's body altering effects. Even the '''[[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Tarth]]''' find this fanatical dedication to be downright disturbing.

* [[Halo]]: The UNSC also runs off this trope, to the point where the human population at war's end was reduced from 39 billion to about ''16'' billion.

== [[Web Original]] ==

* [[The Salvation War|Salvation War]] has this trope as what seems to be its dominant feature.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==