History Main / CavalryRefusal

* ''Fanfic/HoursVerse'': When the world is on the verge of ending in ''Butterfly Cascade'', Mitsuru [[GondorCallsForAid contacts all of the older Persona users]], requesting backup. Yuka Ayase refuses to answer the call, as she lives up north and decides she'd rather stay with her kids.

* A justified example happens at the midpoint of the ''Literature/CodexAlera'' novels. When the SuccessionCrisis that's been growing more urgent as [[TheHighKing the First Lord's]] health worsens finally erupts into open rebellion, the First Lord calls upon his remaining loyal vassals for military aid, only to discover that TheUsurper took the precaution of [[IHaveYourWife having at least one of each lord's family abducted to hold as hostages]]. [[spoiler: The heroes do ultimately free the hostages, but not before the First Lord has to resort to some ''very'' DirtyBusiness to buy time.]]

* ''VideoGame/SuikodenIV'': Razril is an island outpost for the Dukedom of Gaien; however, they'd been scaling back their navel operations before the game begins, forcing Razril's branch of the Knights of Gaien to heavily rely upon [[ManipulativeBastard Vincent Vingerhut's]] financial backing. They make no effort to support their outpost during the war, even after the Kooluk Empire completely takes over Razril; this results in Razril [[spoiler:seceding completely and becoming part of the newly founded Island Nations]].

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Casca's first meeting with Griffith starts with her escaping from a rapist. Instead of helping her, he throws a sword between the two, intending for Casca to choose to take it up and kill the guy ("If you have something you wish to protect, take up that sword."). After a struggle, Casca wins, and Griffith allows her to join him.

* Downplayed in ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy''. When Peter is busy getting his ass kicked by the Prowler, a coalition of Pro Heroes including Mount Lady, Kamui Woods, Backdraft, and Death Arms are dispatched to contain collateral and stop the fight. But their efforts are thwarted when Prowler embeds a bomb in Mount Lady's neck to take her hostage, forcing them to stand by and take care of the gathering crowd instead of intervening. This means that Izuku is the only one willing to rush in and help (and it nearly gets him killed) until All Might swoops in and steals the detonator.

* Often seems to be the case of the [[PowersThatBe Elder Gods]] in the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' franchise. They are nominally in charge of enforcing the use of the titular tournament to slow multiversal konquest, but often refuse to interfere in the tournament itself, even if one side is blatantly disregarding the rules ([[Film/MortalKombatTheMovie assassinating participants]] [[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance before they can enter]], [[VideoGame/MortalKombatII forcing follow–up tournaments]] [[VideoGame/MortalKombatShaolinMonks before the agreed–upon time frame]], [[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 straight–up invading the victorious realm after the fact]]). In fact, [[spoiler:the entire thrust of the plot of [[VideoGame/MortalKombat9 the reboot]] is averting this trope and forcing the Elder Gods to punish Shao Kahn for invading Earthrealm rather than leaving his defeat to the heroes.]]

* ''FanFic/BurningBridgesBuildingConfidence'': Chat Noir is ''supposed'' to be Ladybug's partner and fight alongside her, and has done so for quite some time. However, shortly before this story begins, he decides that's not good enough for him: he wants a RelationshipUpgrade, and decides to [[AchillesInHisTent sit on the sidelines]] and refuse to help unless she admits that she needs him and agrees to start dating. When Cole [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out on this]], he dismisses her as just a civilian, prompting her to arm herself with some improvised weapons and jump in instead. This stunt also fails to impress Master Fu, who decides to establish another permanent hero in order to offset this: Vexxin, a new Fox, with Cole as its new bearer.

* In ''Film/{{Zulu}}'', a force of actual cavalry arrives upon the scene where the heroes are making a LastStand... and promptly flees. This happened in RealLife, too, but in reality, the cavalry were much more [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in their flight than depicted in the film.

* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', when Bane has all of Gotham held hostage, despite [[BlatantLies the government saying that they won't give up on the city]], Gordon knows that they're on their own.
* In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', the plan for the Resistance is to get to an old Rebel base and wait for the First Order to pass, while sending out a distress signal to their allies across the Outer Rim to get help. [[spoiler:However, since the First Order is so powerful, and with the New Republic apparently helpless after the destruction of the Senate and most of their fleet in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', no one comes.]]

* Played oddly in one episode of ''Series/BurnNotice''. Team Westen is trying to get rid of a [[TheMafia Mafia capo]] who's leaning on their client, which in the end comes down to hiring a bunch of scary looking guys to act as a replacement for his soldiers (the heroes have convinced the capo that his crew is no longer reliable). Then they get him to try and assassinate his boss, and then have the crew pull out at the critical moment.
* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', at the Battle of Serenity Valley, the independents pull this on Mal's squad, ordering them to lay down arms rather than providing the air support they had promised. Of course, whether or not said air support would have turned the tide of the battle is unknown; given it was the last battle and the sky almost immediately went black with the number of arriving Alliance ships, probably not.

* Zigzagged in the [[KarmaMeter Renegade]] option at the end of ''VideoGame/{{Mass Effect|1}}''. [[spoiler:Shepard calls in the Systems Alliance Fifth Fleet under Admiral Hackett to stop the geth led by the Reaper ''Sovereign'' from starting the Reaper invasion. In the Renegade route, the fleet bypasses the ''Destiny Ascension'' and heads straight for the Citadel. Citadel ''space'' is saved by TheCavalry, for a couple years at least, but its ''leaders'', trying to escape aboard the ''Destiny Ascension'', die a fiery death at geth hands.]]
* At the Battle of Ostagar in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', the Warden is sent to light a beacon to signal Teyrn Loghain's reinforcements. When Loghain sees the beacon, he does not send the reinforcements as originally planned, but instead orders his forces to withdraw and return to the capital, leaving King Cailan, all of his forces and many of the Grey Wardens to die at the hands of the Darkspawn. Loghain does this because he believes the Darkspawn aren't massing in a true Blight[[labelnote:*]]false[[/labelnote]] and that Cailan's in bed with Orlais, the nation he fought bitterly against for Ferelden's freedom.[[labelnote:*]]True: As established in the "Return to Ostagar" DLC, Cailan's trying to arrange for himself to divorce Loghain's daughter and marry the Empress of Orlais.[[/labelnote]] Both in and out of universe, there's debate on this point. The survivors of the main army insist it was a cowardly betrayal as above, but Loghain and everyone from his army insist the king was beyond saving by that point (in the actual scene the king died ''seconds'' later but it's presented in a way that means a time skip is possible), and all charging would accomplish is getting the relievers all killed by overwhelming Darkspawn numbers. The only neutral observer simply says he quit the field, and according to Solas in the third game the reproduction of the battle in the Fade shows both versions.
* ''VideoGame/YesYourGrace'': [[spoiler:Atana's army]] does the CavalryBetrayal variant during the battle against Radovia by simply not showing up when called for.

* During the Discordance of the Demiurges in ''WebComic/KillSixBillionDemons'', [[spoiler:Gog-Agog refuses to get involved in the battle against Jagganoth until Solomon David explicitly demands she obey the Pact of the Sevenfold World. At which point [[OneWingedAngel she makes a really impressive showing]] and partially subdues Jagganoth so the other six can set up another binding... Only to pull a full-fledged CavalryBetrayal and abandon the others [[EntitledBastard when they fail to be sufficiently contrite to her for her help]].]]

* ''Literature/TheGraceOfKings'': Part and parcel of [[WeAreStrugglingTogether the infighting]] that undermines the rebellion against [[TheEmpire the Xana Empire]]. The armies of Faça and Gan stand by and watch at the Battle of Wolf's Paw, having been convinced they should trust Xana mercy rather than stick their necks out for the other kingdoms; when Mata Zyndu rallies the troops in a crushing victory for the rebellion, they belatedly help out, but Zyndu has their leaders arrested afterwards.