Heartwarming / 300

• Grown-up Leonidas training his son (in a kinder manner than his own father) and teaching him the importance of "Respect and Honor" for one's comrades as Gorgo and Artemis watch over them.
• Before he kicks the messenger into the pit and declares war on Persia, Leonidas looks at his wife meaningfully. She nods, giving her full support to his momentous action.
• This interaction between Leonidas and Gorgo. So much unsaid, but understood by both.
  Gorgo: Spartan!
  Leonidas: Yes, my lady?
  Gorgo: Come back with your shield, or on it.
  Leonidas: Yes, my lady.
  • This was actually a traditional Spartan farewell, meaning come back in victory (coming back without a shield meant you dropped it to retreat faster) or in glorious death (carried by your compatriots on your shield).
• Leonidas' speech just before the battle begins. "Remember this day, men, for it will be yours for all time!"
• After the death of Astinos, Leonidas comes to Captain Artemis and says "My heart is broken for your loss." In the midst of the fighting, Leonidas lowers his walls a little to tell his friend that he's sorry for his son's death.
• The moment when Leonidas sends Dilios back home; Dilios protests that he's still able to fight, and Leonidas readily agrees, but the king's words make it quite clear that he's sending the soldier back not because of his wound, but because he considers Dilios the only solider that's able to do the task that Leonidas needs done: to tell the story of the 300 and rally Sparta to finish what they started.
• The very touching interaction between Leonidas and Stelios at the tail end of their Last Stand:
  Stelios: My King... It is an honor to die at your side.
  Leonidas: It is an honor to have lived at yours.
• Leonidas's last thoughts are of his wife. Though the scene borders on Tear Jerker.
• Dilios' final narration.
  Should any free soul come across that place, in all the countless centuries yet to be, may all our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones: "Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here, by Spartan law, we lie."
  • The best part is, a traveler did write those words and set them on a centopath that he placed on the battlefield. The original is gone, but a new one was placed in 1955 and still sits there today.