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{{trope}}
[[File:guillotine_9552guillotine 9552.png|frame|<small>Vive La Révolution!</small> ]]
 
{{quote|''Revolution is not a tea party.''|'''[[Mao Zedong]]'''}}
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If you fall, another might rise to take your place, but don't expect your comrades-in-arms to mourn. You were dead already the moment you put on the rebel uniform. Remember that [[Failure Is the Only Option]], and whatever you do, [[Do Not Go Gentle]]. If you are caught, you are on your own. You never existed. This is war, and people do things during war that can never, and should never be forgiven. Do you know whose side you are on now?
 
Can lead to a [[Reign of Terror|violent ideological backlash]] against supporters of the old regime, [[Truth in Television|as seen in history]]. But more importantly -- moreimportantly—more important because of the [[Irony]] involved -- itinvolved—it can lead and has led to violence against some of the revolutionaries themselves, often valiant leaders and close friends of near past, as in the most famous case of Georges Danton guillotined by [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]] during the [[Real Life|actual]] [[Reign of Terror]]. Robespierre tasted his own concoction later as of the Thermidorian Reaction.
 
See also [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic]]. Generally falls under [[Black and Grey Morality]]. Contrast [[The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified]] and [[Velvet Revolution]].
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== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', the flashbacks to the mid-1860s in the manga around the beginning of the Jinchuu arc and the Remembrance [[OVA|OVAs]]s, and Ishida's group in Peacemaker Kurogane. However, in reality, the first wave of "Patriots of the Restoration" was a lot worse than shown in Ruro Ken, murdering any merchant who had dealings with westerners.
* In ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' Rock encounters an ex-Japanese Red Army (see [[Real Life]] section) member in "Lock And Load Revolution". The old man was an idealist working for a world revolution, [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|and verged into terrorism]]. After the movement fell, he joined forces with other terrorists, in present, an Islamic group led by a Lebanese Jihadist. Also, the super-[[Meido]] Roberta was a Cuban trained assassin and a FARC guerrilla who became disillusioned when she realized she was just a guard dog for [[The Cartel]].
* ''[[One Piece]]'' - Dragon the Revolutionary and his posse. He functions mostly in the background and isn't even formally introduced until late in the series. He also happens to be {{spoiler|[[Luke, I Am Your Father|the main character's father]].}} Most of the cast respond to this revelation with shock and horror as he's more infamous than anything. As [[Mr. Exposition|Robin]] explains:
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== Comic Books ==
* ''[[V for Vendetta]]'': V makes no bones about the fact that he is a terrorist. <ref>But he also recognizes that such a person (or monster) has no place building or living in the new world that will rise from the ashes of the old (the one he plans to burn down). He is an agent of death and destruction, a weapon to be cast away when it has served it's purpose.</ref>
* Quite a few ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] comics have attempted to extend this to the Rebel Alliance, trying to [[Black and Gray Morality|soften the line between good guys and bad guys]], as well as explain how the cash-strapped outfit got its money. Sometimes its just down to the occasional [[Jerkass]] pilot, such as Jal Te Gniev (who later makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] after watching a teenager he'd abused [[Taking the Bullet|take the blaster bolt]] for him--andhim—and shooting with a gun that he'd bought to ''kill'' Gniev). However, it did sometimes come down to situations where in order to keep working, the Alliance and later New Republic would have to kill innocents themselves.<br /><br />In fact, after the Rebels won at Endor, destroying the Death Star, one of the first acts of the New Republic they established was to execute Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik for war crimes after he was captured in this battle. With Palpatine and Vader dead, he was pretty much one of the highest ranking Imperials captured. Tragic fact that Teshik was one of the few decent Imperials.
 
In fact, after the Rebels won at Endor, destroying the Death Star, one of the first acts of the New Republic they established was to execute Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik for war crimes after he was captured in this battle. With Palpatine and Vader dead, he was pretty much one of the highest ranking Imperials captured. Tragic fact that Teshik was one of the few decent Imperials.
* In the [[Marvel Universe]], Skrull Kill Krew.
 
 
== Fan Fiction ==
* Between 1980 and 1983, the ''[[Star Wars]]'' fandom was inundated with stories speculating on howhow—or -- or if -- Hanif—Han Solo might be thawed out of the carbonite in which he'd ended ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''. One particularly memorable story, "The Revenant", had him being unfrozen ''thirty years later''. Leia is dead, Chewbacca is dead, Lando is dead ... and Luke, who arranged Leia's death to bring a group of unaligned planets to the Rebellion's side, is First Citizen of a New Republic oppressive as ever the Empire was.
* [[Travels Through Azeroth and Outland|Travels through Azeroth and Outland]] presents the Defias Brotherhood as completely nihilistic and destructive.
 
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== Film ==
* The workers in [[Fritz Lang]]'s ''[[Metropolis]]'' are somewhere between this and an [[Torches and Pitchforks|Angry Mob]].
* ''[[The Wind That Shakes the Barley]]'', starring [[Cillian Murphy]], won the Palme d'Or award for its application of this trope to the Irish Revolution (and then the [[We ARE Struggling Together!|Civil War]]), so it must have done something right. <ref>In [[Real Life]], when the War of Independence ended, a significant amount of the next decade was spent by the new Irish government trying to get rid of the IRA, since they had been fighting for independence of the entire island, which the Free State government traded away, with the South becoming self-governing and then (with the Republic of Ireland in 1949) fully independent by itself. The Civil War (which is the worst things got) began when partition occurred under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, setting up the Free State government in the South. Much of the IRA became the Free State Army, while the rest rebelled, refusing to accept the referendum ratifying the treaty, seeking to unify all of Ireland. [[It Got Worse]].</ref>
* The [[Alternate History]] film ''[[It Happened Here]]'', set in a [[Day of the Jackboot|Nazi-occupied Britain]], deliberately subverts the gallant resistance trope. The protagonist witnesses the death of her friends in a shootout between local partisans and German soldiers, and the movie ends with prisoners from a British SS unit being massacred by their captors.
* [[Discussed]] in ''[[Lord of War]]'':
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== Video Games ==
* In the ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'' games, the Resistance is very, very much willing to use hardball tactics. The best example of this is the protagonist, the unleashing of whom on a target is not unlike using a tactical nuke, but in the manual it also notes that while General Maxis seems sincere in his ideals, the WEC has tried to get him to surrender himself, dismantle the Resistance, or do less drastically stupid things by threatening civilians. Maxis has never given in, nor tried a third option.
* The Scoi'a'tel in ''[[The Witcher]]''. The game does go to great lengths to explain the understandable grievances that led to their formation and continued existence (being conquered, treated as second-class citizens and subjected to violence and pogroms by the humans), but also makes it very clear that they are ruthless murderers who attack innocent or not-so-innocent civilians, sometimes in particularly gruesome ways, rather than the oppressing government's armed forces. Quite a few Dwarven and Elven NPCs express their profound dislike for them.<br /><br />At one point early on, a member tries to convince the player/Geralt to let him take some crates of medical supplies. If you give them to him, it later turns out they really contain some really nasty weapons that only work on unarmored civilians. Which they use to prominently assassinate an unarmed civilian. Who happens to have a second job as a drug pusher, making addicts of elvish teenagers so he can force them into drug-controlled slavery and/or prostitution. Or at least that's what the moderate dwarves and elves say. So, that one particular incident was probably justified, but later it gets worse.
 
At one point early on, a member tries to convince the player/Geralt to let him take some crates of medical supplies. If you give them to him, it later turns out they really contain some really nasty weapons that only work on unarmored civilians. Which they use to prominently assassinate an unarmed civilian. Who happens to have a second job as a drug pusher, making addicts of elvish teenagers so he can force them into drug-controlled slavery and/or prostitution. Or at least that's what the moderate dwarves and elves say. So, that one particular incident was probably justified, but later it gets worse.
* The Defias Brotherhood in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' may count as an example of this. The Defias began as a group of disgruntled stonemasons who were cheated by their government. Unfortunately, they became too heavily involved with criminal elements and ended up robbing and killing the peasants.
** [[Our Werewolves Are Different|King Genn Greymane]] repeatedly refers to the Northgate Rebels of [[Victorian London|Gilneas]] as [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|terrorists]]. Since they have hidden an important quantity of explosives in the capital, he might not be entirely wrong. Additionally, the general pointlessness of the civil war (on both sides) puts a point on it. [[Rebel Leader|Rebel Lord]] [[Memetic Badass|Darius Crowley's]] [[Big Badass Wolf|status]] helps a little.
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* In ''[[Halo]]'', there are secessionists who want to break off from the UNSC (they mostly appear in [[Expanded Universe]], and they make a few breif appearances in ''[[Halo Wars]]'' multiplayer). At the beginning of their campaign, they were viewed sympathetically, as all they wanted was their independence. This view ended when they started killing people, and now they're squarely in this trope.
* The Renegades from ''Tales of Symphonia'' are a group dedicated to fighting the organization that "guides the world," Cruxis. How do they do this, you may ask? {{spoiler|It's implied that most of the time, when a Chosen fails in the Journey of Regeneration, it's because the Renegades kill them, thus prolonging the cycles of Regeneration. Hell, even after forming an alliance, Yuan still resorts to his plan to hold Lloyd hostage and force Kratos to undo the seal. Even Kratos seems to acknowledge that Yuan is serious with his threats.}}
* AVALANCHE in the ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' games are the protagonists, but certainly not civilized -- ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' itself starts with these rampaging eco-terrorists committing a massive bombing, killing a lot of innocent people -- andpeople—and then the next day, they do it all over again! Not to mention the fact that some of the members (read: Barret) act thuggishly when ''not'' on the job too.
** That's the revived AVALANCHE. The original incarnation of AVALANCHE seen in ''[[Before Crisis Final Fantasy VII]]'' was far more ruthless.
* Played brutally straight in ''[[Command & Conquer|Command And Conquer: Generals]]'' with the Global Liberation Army. Your first mission involves "liberating" a local village by flooding the valley it is in, wiping out half of the village in the process. Your ''second'' mission involves stealing aid supplies from more poor villagers, and you are ''explicitly ordered'' to shoot the villagers if they are taking supplies and level their homes. The third mission involves a massive riot and leveling and looting half a city, and by the final mission, you've {{spoiler|gassed a major Chinese city.}} [[Moral Event Horizon|Any doubt that the GLA are not utter bastards]] is wiped away very, ''very'' quickly.
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[Tech Infantry]]'' has various rebel factions, from the Christian Federation and their penchant for suicide-ramming freighters into enemy vessels, to the Liberation and their campaign of terror-bombings. Even the Resistance has as their main gripe the fact that supernaturally-powered humans are forced to serve in the Tech Infantry [[Space Marine]] forces. These forces are fighting against [[Bug War|alien Bugs]] that want to eat everyone, other aliens that want to kill all humans and take their planets as living space, and still other aliens who want to enslave humans and work them all to death. This makes their occasionally violent tactics seem a bit extreme.<br /><br />Although the Earth Federation and the Middle Kingdom that replaces it are both quite nasty, the aliens -- especially the Bugs -- are usually worse, and the endless rebellions, mutinies, and civil wars make it darn hard to fight the Bugs as a united front.
 
Although the Earth Federation and the Middle Kingdom that replaces it are both quite nasty, the aliens—especially the Bugs—are usually worse, and the endless rebellions, mutinies, and civil wars make it darn hard to fight the Bugs as a united front.
* ''[[A World of Laughter, A World of Tears]]'' sees the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement collapse thanks to a drastic misreading of the political climate by President Disney. Martin Luther King, Jr. gets publicly egged, destroying his credibility, and the movement falls under control of the Nation of Islam. One word: ''jihad''.
* The French Revolution in ''[[Look to the West]]'' starts out being as violent as our history's...and never really calms down. In the long term this has the effect of forcing nearly all reformist movements to be more nonviolent by default, just to avoid the comparison.
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** And firing at the parliament was the least bloody part (few people will ever know whether there were anyone on the higher floors where the shots were aimed), fights around all Moscow before siege of parliament were the deadliest street fights in Moscow since 1917. Neither side was fully legitimate by the confrontation and neither side was civilized in the confrontation. So, whatever side was The Revolution, it was not civilized.
* The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
* The [[English Civil War|"English" "Civil Wars"]]. The romanticized view paints this as a falling-out between King and Parliament leading to several battles and ending with the King's unfortunate execution followed by an "interregnum" during which England is ruled by the firm-but-fair Oliver Cromwell before eventually ending in an inevitable restoration and the new King and Parliament making peace. The actual history has an incompetent, tyrannical King dragging his country into a bloody, fractious civil war and who refuses to compromise with Parliament despite his eventual defeat (after seven years of warfare!) leading to his execution, the abolition of the monarchy and the institution of a republic.<br /><br />The republic leads to an autocracy, then the republic again, then a monarchical restoration followed by further political upheaval, another King overthrown, a parliamentary-appointed monarchy and the overthrown line seeking to regain the throne at which they make two serious attempts. All in all, the civil strife started in 1642 continued to have repercussions, on and off, well into the next century if one includes Cromwell's [[Reign of Terror]] in Ireland.<br /><br />England did get this nicely out of the way early however. During the Victorian/Regency period politicians made a point of creating a revolution slowly and bloodlessly through the changing of government policy. They'd seen what happened in France and really didn't like it.
 
The republic leads to an autocracy, then the republic again, then a monarchical restoration followed by further political upheaval, another King overthrown, a parliamentary-appointed monarchy and the overthrown line seeking to regain the throne at which they make two serious attempts. All in all, the civil strife started in 1642 continued to have repercussions, on and off, well into the next century if one includes Cromwell's [[Reign of Terror]] in Ireland.
 
England did get this nicely out of the way early however. During the Victorian/Regency period politicians made a point of creating a revolution slowly and bloodlessly through the changing of government policy. They'd seen what happened in France and really didn't like it.
* Both the IRA and the Ulster Defence Volunteers were playing this one straight from an early stage.
* During the Iranian Revolution in 1979, almost everyone from communists to religious fundamentalists worked together to overthrow the Shah. As soon as they won, control of the country boiled down to who had the largest number of organized thugs out on the streets. The Islamic socialists having lost their main leader, Ali Shariati, to a [[Secret Police|SAVAK]] assassin's bullet in England in 1978, they couldn't organize their thugs well enough to enforce their will, and fanatical Khomeinist Islamists won the day. The Khomeinists promptly purged the country shortly after they clinched power.
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* After its Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, many residents of the Canadian province of Quebec wanted it to become an independent country. Most Quebec separatists wanted to secede democratically, but the Front de Liberation du Quebec aimed to turn the province into a Marxist-Leninist state by force. After kidnapping British diplomat James Cross and murdering Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte, the FLQ was finally crushed after federal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act and deployed troops onto the streets of Montreal.
* The Syrian civil war started with the opposition armed with whatever weapons they could get against the army, who ruthlessly gunned down anyone who opposed Bashar al-Assad's rule and [[Moral Event Horizon|deployed chemical weapons and incendiaries against civilians]]. Over time, the opposition became more and more radicalized, and terrorist groups began co-opting the revolution for their own purposes. Things started getting bad when reports started coming out of the rebels using [[Child Soldiers]], [[I'm A Humanitarian|eating enemy soldiers']] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrian-civil-war-the-day-i-met-the-organ-eating-cannibal-rebel-abu-sakkars-fearsome-followers-8617828.html hearts], and performing [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2616694/Horrifying-scenes-Syria-Islamic-extremists-CRUCIFY-two-fighting-against-Muslims.html crucifixions]. As of 2015, almost all the secular and/or moderate rebels have been killed or otherwise neutralized, and the [[Evil Versus Evil|major anti-Assad forces left are the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front]] (which is al-Qaida's official branch in Syria).
* The [[wikipedia:Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]], aka ISIS, ISIL and "the Islamic State", starting in 2014. A extremist Sunni Islam army seeking to carve out a fundamentalist Islamic state -- thestate—the "Islamic Caliphate" -- from—from both Syria and Iraq, it quickly became known for the breathtaking brutality with which they did practically everything in the public eye, from wholesale sex slavery of the women in their conquered territories to the online propaganda videos of Western hostages being beheaded. As of this writing (late 2014), they are still active but are being seriously damaged and hindered by airstrikes from a coalition of nations, in response to which they appear to be ''escalating'' their atrocities.
 
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