History RousingSpeech / LiveActionTV

-->'''Frobisher''': They have called this day the eleventh of March. And whom-so-ever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand a hipnal when e'er you hear the name again, and you will get excited at the name March the eleventh. We happy few, we few, we band of brothers our names will be as like household names. Those who are not here be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves -- sort of crappy. Because they are not here to, to join the fight. On this day, March the eleventh!

-->''"[[AFatherToHisMen My children]], we have endured much. We cast off our shackles. Crossed mountain, field, frost and fallow 'till out feet bloodied the dirt. From Ered Mithrin to the Ephel Arnen, we have endured. Ye tonight, one more trial awaits us. Our enemy may be weak, their numbers meager..., yet before this night is through, some of us will fall. But for the first time, you do so not as unnamed slaves in far-away lands, but as brothers. Brothers and sisters in our home! This is the night we reach out the iron hand of the Uruk and close our fist around those lands.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' practically uses rousing speeches as motor fuel.

*** The series likes to point out that this is humanity's trademark: Any other race gives in to despair, but humans fight to the end.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' has a lot of these, as you can imagine. Most of them go to Commander (and later, Admiral) Adama, but a notable one goes to Colonel Saul Tigh -- not usually the guy you look to for reassurance -- in the Season 2 opener, "Scattered". Adama is [[spoiler: lying in sickbay, with two bullets in his chest]], and the Galactica has apparently lost the rest of the Fleet after a jump. Tigh admits that ''"This is Bill Adama's command. His orders are still the word of the Gods on board this ship. Just so we're clear. This will be Adama's command until the day he dies. And we are not going to let him die. So say we all."'' He then makes the call to network Galactica's computers together (something Bill would never do, and thus forcing him to deviate from his usual default setting of "follow Bill's lead").

* The first episode of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' has a parody, where Richard the Third gives a speech before the Battle of Bosworth Field which is largely cribbed from Theatre/HenryV's speech in the eponymous play, with smaller speeches offered by Prince Harry and the future King Richard IV (played by Creator/BrianBlessed).
-->'''Harry''': Now, I'm afraid there's going to have to be a bit of (''unhappily'') violence. (''Brightly'') But at least we all know its for a '''good cause'''.\\

* The finale of ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'' -- the whole series is set in the trenches of World War One, so it has a more serious overtone than the preceding three seasons/series of Blackadder. At the end of the final episode, [[spoiler: the characters admit they're scared, decide to follow their orders, leave their trench and charge into a hopeless battle, where they are shot dead. [[BolivianArmyEnding Probably.]]]]
-->'''Blackadder''' I'm afraid not. The guns have stopped because we're about to attack. Not even our generals are mad enough to shell their own men. They think it's far more sporting to let the Germans do it.\\

* In ''Series/{{Frasier}}'''s mind EVERY speech and piece of advice he has given fits, but often other characters will just tell him to be quiet. Sometimes played straight.
** It's played especially straight in the last episode.

** [[GuileHero Tyrion]] [[NonActionGuy Lannister]] gives a particularly cynical (and accurate) one during a desperate moment of the battle for the Mud Gate, but it works:

*** Particularly notable in that ''all present'' were saying ScrewThisImOuttaHere -- and it's the little lion who says possibly the dumbest thing he has ever said in his life and gets them to instead ''DareToBeBadass''.
---->[[FallingIntoTheCockpit I'll lead the attack]]... ''[[Awesome/GameOfThrones I'll lead the attack!]]'' They say I am half a man, but what does that make the lot of you?

** Averted heavily with Encino Man's speech in episode 4. He tries to use the loss of a supply truck (which was lost due to his own incompetence, taking with it most of the troops' food and a lot of weapons) to rally his men. It works out about as well as everything else he does.
--->'''Encino Man:''' [The enemy] took your food from you. That's the important thing to remember. It was the enemy who stole your food from you and you should be really, ''really'' mad at them. Before we step off on this next mission, I'm reminding you of who your enemy is... the enemy.

* In ''Series/Merlin2008'', Arthur, being the future Myth/KingArthur, occasionally gets to do a Rousing Speech. The first example of this is to the villagers in ''The Moment of Truth'', and the best so far has to be the one he gives to the soon-to-be Knights of the Round Table in ''The Coming of Arthur, part two''.

* [[spoiler:Subverted]] in the Season 5 premiere of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. Dean delivers a rousing-yet-typically-Dean speech to Sam and Bobby about how, [[spoiler:in this apocalyptic and collateral damage-heavy war between Lucifer and the angels, they're gonna win the war ''for humanity''... only, once Bobby is out of earshot, Dean admits to Sam that he was just talking shit to keep Bobby's spirits up, and they don't have a chance in hell of winning.]]

* ''Series/{{Andor}}'': Maarva records a speech just prior to her death, encouraging the people of Ferrix to rise up against the Empire's oppression. When it's played at her funeral, it has the desired effect, as the crowd of mourners is so riled up that when the Imperials try to step in and shut down the recording, it triggers a city-wide riot.

-->''"[[AFatherToHidMen My children]], we have endured much. We cast off our shackles. Crossed mountain, field, frost and fallow 'till out feet bloodied the dirt. From Ered Mithrin to the Ephel Arnen, we have endured. Ye tonight, one more trial awaits us. Our enemy may be weak, their numbers meager..., yet before this night is through, some of us will fall. But for the first time, you do so not as unnamed slaves in far-away lands, but as brothers. Brothers and sisters in our home! This is the night we reach out the iron hand of the Uruk and close our fist around those lands.

* In ''Series/Merlin2008'', Arthur, being the future Myth/KingArthur, occasionly gets to do a Rousing Speech. The first example of this is to the villagers in ''The Moment of Truth'', and the best so far has to be the one he gives to the soon-to-be Knights of the Round Table in ''The Coming of Arthur, part two''.

** The greatest has to be Buffy's speech to the Potentials in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E10BringOnTheNight Bring On The Night]]" where she declares war against the [[UltimateEvil source of all evil]].

** Averted heavily with Encino Man's speech in episode 4. He tries to use the loss of a supply truck (which was lost due to his own incompetence, taking with it most of the troops' food and a lot of weapons) to rally his men. It works out [[WhatAnIdiot about as well as everything else he does.]]

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' has a lot of these, as you can imagine. Most of them go to Commander (and later, Admiral) Adama, but a notable one goes to Colonel Saul Tigh - not usually the guy you look to for reassurance - in the season two opener, "Scattered". Adama is [[spoiler: lying in sickbay, with two bullets in his chest]], and the Galactica has apparently lost the rest of the Fleet after a jump. Tigh admits that ''"This is Bill Adama's command. His orders are still the word of the Gods on board this ship. Just so we're clear. This will be Adama's command until the day he dies. And we are not going to let him die. So say we all."'' He then makes the call to network Galactica's computers together (something Bill would never do, and thus forcing him to deviate from his usual default setting of "follow Bill's lead").

* The finale of ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'' - the whole series is set in the trenches of World War One, so it has a more serious overtone than the preceding three seasons/series of Blackadder. At the end of the final episode, [[spoiler: the characters admit they're scared, decide to follow their orders, leave their trench and charge into a hopeless battle, where they are shot dead. [[BolivianArmyEnding Probably.]]]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Just about one per season, along with a spectacular backfire or two in season 7.

** Truly the greatest parody of this trope (and its usage on the show) is in [[Recap/CommunityS2E21ParadigmsOfHumanMemory Paradigms of Human Memory]], a ClipShow made from non-existent episodes. Jeff begins by noting how all the speeches he gives are all so different- it then proceeds to splice together about six different speeches from [[NoodleIncident a haunted house, an aquarium, a steam engine, "Free Caesar Salad Day", a camping trip, a drug lord's compound and an asylum]] into one perfectly coherent speech.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock "Earthshock"]] has a memorable one, in which the Doctor confronts the [[StrawVulcan completely emotionless Cyberleader]] with the limitations of their existence, pointing out that small, beautiful things — which they cannot appreciate — are what make life worth living.

-->'''Frobisher''': They have called this day the eleventh of March. And whom-so-ever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand a hipnal when e'er you hear the name again, and you will get excited at the name March the eleventh. We happy few, we few, we band of brothers our names will be as like household names. Those who are not here be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves - sort of crappy. Because they are not here to, to join the fight. On this day, March the eleventh!

*** Particularly notable in that ''all present'' were saying ScrewThisImOuttaHere - and it's the little lion who says possibly the dumbest thing he has ever said in his life and gets them to instead ''DareToBeBadass''.

--->''"Any man dies with a clean sword, '''I'l rape his fucking corpse!'''"''

* A rather twisted one from the finale of ''Series/TheLibrarians2007'', after Frances decides to stand up to Xavier Fisher over the cutbacks at the library, which would force her to fire three of the staff. The thing is, [[HeroicSacrifice all of them were quite]] ''[[HeroicSacrifice willing]]'' [[HeroicSacrifice to be fired]], each believing that they could find work elsewhere easier than the rest (and some of them were probably right). As such, her motive for taking action seems to be wanting them all to remain under her thumb if possible, since she wouldn't be able to get any satisfaction out of firing any of them - but none of them seem to pick up on this in the end.

'''Frances''': None of you are leaving this library. I will not see one position, let alone three, discarded. You are highly-trained and highly-skilled... [[DamnedByFaintPraise in your different ways]], dedicated librarians ...[[AndZoidberg and cleaners]]. I will not stand by for a moment longer while this library is undermined and its resources diminished. They think we can't do that for ourselves? Yes, the library is a drain on the public purse and, well, it should be because it's the public who use it - the... the students, the families, the elderly, the poor, the nutcases. I mean, where would the nutcases go if they didn't come in here to wee on our chairs while they read a big-print novel? Mr Fisher is not interested in anything that doesn't make money. Well, that's too bad, because the library is the last free public space and it's going to stay that way. I will not see a single member of my staff laid off to satisfy the corporate bullying of a government staffer. [[HypocriticalHeartwarming I do the bullying around here!]] You are librarians and, by God, you are going to stay librarians in this library!\\

* ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' has an extraordinary example in the finale - extraordinary in both content and the fact that it's Lex Luthor, of all people, giving one to Clark Kent.

** In the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Sacrifice of Angels", the Federation manages to retake the eponymous space station - partly because of Sisko's Rousing Speech to the Prophets:
--->'''Sisko:''' (...) We all know that's exactly what's going to happen if the Dominion takes over the Alpha Quadrant!...You say you don't want me to sacrifice my life - well FINE! Neither do I. You want to be gods? Then BE gods!...I need a miracle. Bajor needs a miracle...STOP THOSE SHIPS!!!"

* [[spoiler:Subverted]] in the season 5 premiere of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. Dean delivers a rousing-yet-typically-Dean speech to Sam and Bobby about how, [[spoiler:in this apocalyptic and collateral damage-heavy war between Lucifer and the angels, they're gonna win the war ''for humanity''... only, once Bobby is out of earshot, Dean admits to Sam that he was just talking shit to keep Bobby's spirits up, and they don't have a chance in hell of winning.]]

--->'''Sam''': I called you here because people, um, our people are being slaughtered and we're next. The British Men of Letters -— they came here because they thought they could do our job better than we could. And they helped us with their flashy gear and their tech. Most of you had the good sense to turn them down. They said they wanted the same thing we wanted, you know? A world free of monsters. That's not what they really wanted. They want control. They wanna live in a world where they can sit in some office and decide who gets to live and who gets to die. And they've killed people, they've killed innocent people, just because they got in the way. They think the ends justify the means, but we know better. We know hunting isn't just about killing. It's about doing what's right, even when it's hard. So we go by our gut, right? We play by our own rules. And that scares them. That's why they want us dead—because we're the one thing they can't control.\\

* In ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', medic Owen Harper, trapped in a nuclear bunker which will shortly fill with radiation, begins to shout and run around and smash things, insisting that he will "rage his way to oblivion". [[spoiler:He stops, though- it wasn't accomplishing anything except hurting Tosh's feelings.]]

* Subverted with Ana Gasteyer's Janet Blaum character from late-nineties ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', whose whole schtick was ''attempting'' to do these, but [[EpicFail utterly failing]] due to her complete lack of presence, charisma or speaking skills, to the point that [[DontShootTheMessage even the people she was trying to stick up for were embarrassed.]]

** Daenerys gives one to her ''khalasar''. RealityEnsues when some choose to leave anyway.

* In ''Series/Merlin2008'', Arthur, being the future KingArthur, occasionly gets to do a Rousing Speech. The first example of this is to the villagers in ''The Moment of Truth'', and the best so far has to be the one he gives to the soon-to-be Knights of the Round Table in ''The Coming of Arthur, part two''.

** The Ninth Doctor was fond of a gentle, understated, individualised version of this. And unlike with Ten, it usually didn't involve himself but was solely aimed at building up the other's self-confidence. (Exception: the WorldOfCardboardSpeech at the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf "Bad Wolf"]].) It had more impact because he could be quite cynical about humanity as a whole, whereas Ten sometimes seemed unrealistically idealistic in his constant gushing. For instance, from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]]:

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion "The Christmas Invason"]] has a subversion: The Tenth Doctor starts a Rousing Speech "From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking, step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than..." but abruptly stops himself upon realizing that his speech was in fact a quote from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion "The Christmas Invason"]] has a subversion: The Tenth Doctor starts a Rousing Speech "From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking, step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than..." but abruptly stops himself upon realizing that his speech was in fact a quote from ''Disney/TheLionKing''.

** Subverted in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E11Doomed Doomed": Spike's sudden unexpected outburst of enthusiasm for "fighting the good fight" (after he realized that the implanted behavioral modification chip didn't punish him for killing demons) meets with helpless silent protestation from Xander and Willow that, and after a long exhausting day of monster-slaying, Spike was blocking their view of the [=TV=] box. The irony of course lies in the fact that Spike is a vampire, and used to be Buffy's enemy until that point.

** Subverted in "Doomed" (Season 4, Episode 11): Spike's sudden unexpected outburst of enthusiasm for "fighting the good fight" (after he realized that the implanted behavioral modification chip didn't punish him for killing demons) meets with helpless silent protestation from Xander and Willow that, and after a long exhausting day of monster-slaying, Spike was blocking their view of the [=TV=] box. The irony of course lies in the fact that Spike is a vampire, and used to be Buffy's enemy until that point.

** Subverted in "The Gift" (season 5), in which Buffy gives an unimpressive speech before the final battle, and Spike and Giles have the following exchange referencing ''Henry V'':

** The greatest has to be Buffy's speech to the Potentials in "Bring On The Night" where she declares war against the [[UltimateEvil source of all evil]].

--->'''Arthur''': Tonight...we do battle. Tonight we end this war, we end a war as old as the land itself. War against tyranny, greed, and spite. Not all will greet the dawn, some will live, some will die. But each and every one of you fights with honour, and with pride. For not only do we fight for our lives, we fight for the future. The future of Camelot. The future of Albion. The future of the united kingdoms. [He lifts Excalibur into the air.] For the love of Camelot!

** How about Colonel Alan Mace's speech in front of the ATMOS facility in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]]? The whole planet is covered in soon-to-be toxic gas, and there's an alien invasion underway, but he finds time to give his men a speech, before proceeding to kick the Sontarans' cloned asses back to space with a AirborneAircraftCarrier

* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' episode "36! 24! 36! Dick!". After a group of hot Venusian women fail in their plot to steal everything of value from Earth, Dick cheers them up by telling them how they can make something of their lives by becoming supermodels.

* While ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' didn't have any speeches in the direct sense, a good portion of the final season had Crichton convincing his alien friends (and often himself) that this was the only course of action left: Stop running, make a stand, end this madness once and for all. In the final episode, Crichton [[spoiler:goes back to Earth one last time, calls his father from the Moon and tells him that he's sealing up the wormhole to Earth (to keep it safe from the Scarrans) and isn't coming back.]] The 'speech' ends with an endearing father/son moment.

* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'':

** Aeron delivers one for Euron when he legitimizes him by drowning.

--->'''Ninth Doctor:''' Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says "no". "No." Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. *smiles* You're amazing, the lot of you. Dunno what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then... do what you've gotta do. Save the world.