When a character has an arc of growing in confidence, they have a moment where they speak up to the authority figure in their life (a parent or their boss being the two most likely examples) and usually gives them a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, or defies what the authority has been telling them to do. The authority figure acknowledges that the person has grown and changed, and is proud of them. They may give them a promotion or a statement of encouragement to show it.
Sub-trope of Grew a Spine. Often comes in conjunction with The Dog Bites Back, Teach Him Anger, Not Afraid of You Anymore, and Calling the Old Man Out. Can sometimes be an example of Secret Test of Character if the authority is testing the hero out.
Compare to Defeat Means Respect and Cool People Rebel Against Authority. See also Insurrectionist Inheritor, where the authority figure wants a successor who's prepared to stand up to them.
Expect unmarked spoilers.
Examples
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Fanfiction
- The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf barely survives and escapes his encounter with Drogon and joins up with the Iron Fleet (which he had converted to Chaos worship and ordered not to attack King's Landing), and orders an immediate attack on a nearby merchant fleet rather than waiting for him to heal. He asks the captains what they'd have done if he'd told them to wait some more, they say they'd have tried to kill him, and he tells them that was the right answer.
The Wolf: What would you have done, had I told you there was to be yet more waiting?
Gorion seemed to think his words over. When he spoke again, he put his hand on his boarding axe.
Gorion: Then we'd have looked for a new captain to lead the fleet. Emissary of the true gods or not.
The Wolf: Excellent! The pack that follows a toothless wolf soon starves.
Film — Animated
- Over the Hedge: When Tiger calls Stella filthy, she goes on an angry rant about how sick she is of everyone calling her dirty. Tiger says that no one has ever talked to him like that before... and he likes it because of how bold it is, and falls in love with Stella.
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: When Puss makes it clear to Death that he is not afraid of him anymore, and that he will never stop fighting for his last life, Death spares Puss out of respect, admitting Puss is not as arrogant as he was before.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie: When Mario first meets Peach and tells her about Luigi being captured by Bowser, he asks to accompany her on her quest to stop him. Peach is dismissive of Mario due to his small size, but Mario remains persistent and demands she help him. Peach, taken aback, ultimately gives in and allows Mario the chance to prove himself.
Film — Live-Action
- Contact. Ellie, the protagonist. The potential funder S.R. Hadden, instead of taking offense when she flips her lid at a meeting with his short-sighted employees, is so impressed with her passion he writes her a check.
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Simon can't attune with a magical helmet because his ancestor Elminster Aumar keeps appearing and refuses to help due to Simon's lack of confidence. Once he tries it again, Elminster continues to mock him until finally Simon just slugs him. After Simon punches Elminster, Elminster says to him "it took you long enough" and lets him use the helmet.
- The Shawshank Redemption: The first two times Red goes before the parole board, he tells them what he thinks they want to hear and gets denied. The third time, he speaks passionately and honestly, then tells them to stop wasting his time. It wins him his parole.
- Parodied in Ted. When Ted goes to a job interview, he immediately starts badmouthing the manager's wife. The manager expresses amazement at the way Ted talks and hires him. Ted responds "Shit." as he was trying to fail the interview.
- Violent Night: When Mr. Scrooge and his henchmen discover that the vault containing the family fortune is empty, Jason reveals that he had stolen it before the family was taken hostage. He was fed up with his mother Gertrude not giving him the respect he deserved and stole the money in order to escape her influence. Gertrude, however, deems the theft an act worthy of earning her respect.
- Whiplash: After a disastrous performance, Andrew walks offstage humiliated but returns and cuts off Fletcher's introduction to the next piece by playing the intro to "Caravan", cueing the band himself. Initially angered, Fletcher resumes conducting. As the piece finishes, Andrew continues into an extended, unexpected solo. Impressed, Fletcher nods in approval before cueing the finale.
Literature
- Dollanganger Series: In Petals on the Wind, the head of a ballet company, Madame Zolta, deliberately provokes one of her dancers, Cathy, into screaming at her that she quits. Madame Zolta wants to see if Cathy has claws.
Madame Zolta: You will wither away and die!
Cathy: You're a fool if you think that! I can live my life without dancing, and happily too — so go to hell, Madame Zolta!
Madame Zolta: (suddenly smiles) Ah? you have spirit. I was wondering if you did. Tell me to go to hell, it is nice to hear. [?] I only needed to know what you are made of. A dancer without fire is no dancer at all. - At the beginning of The Lady in the Lake, businessman Derace Kingsley wants to hire detective Philip Marlowe to find his missing wife. Kingsley tries to throw his authority around and cow Marlowe into submission: questioning his credentials, insisting his usual rate is too high, and all around insisting he's a tough boss who will fire Marlowe in a heartbeat if he doesn't like the way he's conducting the investigation. Marlow barely reacts to Kingsley's goading, then explains that he's used to getting exactly this kind of bluster from his clients. When Marlowe makes it clear that he's able and willing to walk away from the case if he wants to, Kingsley suddenly becomes much more agreeable—and admits that it was nice to finally have someone disagree with him for a change.
"And as for your being too tough for me," I said, "most of my clients start out either by weeping down my shirt or bawling me out to show me who's boss. But usually they end up very reasonable—if they're still alive."
[...]
Then he grinned. "I haven't been called down like that in four years," he said.
I didn't say anything.
"Damn it all," he said, "I liked it. I liked it fine." - In the Warcraft novel Lord of the Clans, Thrall has managed to find the Frostwolves, the clan he was originally born in. To ingratiate himself into the clan, Thrall willingly does menial tasks during his stay with them. When one orc orders him to clean his wolf's soiled bedding and throws it at him when he refuses, Thrall snaps and attacks him. After he comes to his senses, he assumes that he'll be forced to leave. Instead, the clan's leader Drek'Thar says that while they wouldn't have accepted him if he demanded to be treated like a prince, they also wouldn't want anything to do with an orc who wouldn't stand up for himself.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire: In "Pregnant!", when Brittas demands Tim to take off his clothes to prove that he was a woman, Gavin leaps to the defense of his boyfriend by punching his boss in the face. However, as it turns out, Brittas approved of that — apparently, he thought Gavin was "a bit girly", and to him, Gavin leaping to Tim's defense disproved this in his eyes. As such, he decides to officially make Gavin, who had been training for a career in Management at that point, his new Deputy Manager.
- Seinfeld: George Costanza gets this from George Steinbrenner when he interviews for a job with the New York Yankees and gives Steinbrenner a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
Steinbrenner: Nice to meet you.
Costanza: Well, I wish I could say the same, but with all due respect, I find it very hard to see the logic behind some of the moves you've made with this fine organization. For the past several years you have caused myself and the city of New York a good deal of distress as we watched you take our beloved Yankees and reduced them to a laughingstock. All for the glorification of your massive ego.
Steinbrenner: Hire this man! - Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- In the episode "The Pegasus", Captain Picard reveals that the reason that he chose Riker to be his first officer is an incident that happened when Riker was serving as first officer on the starship Hood. During a crisis at Altair III, Captain DeSoto wanted to beam down but Riker refused to let him leave the ship. He disobeyed a direct order and risked a court-martial to protect the ship and his captain. Picard was impressed by that; he didn't want a Yes-Man, he wanted someone who would put the safety of the ship and the success of the mission above how it would look on their service record.
- In "Redemption", several ships, with Enterprise crew members temporarily in command, are enforcing a blockade on the Klingon-Romulan border to prove that the Romulans are supplying the Klingon rebels. When Captain Picard commands the fleet to regroup after the Romulans weaken the blockade's ability to detect them, Data instead lays a trap to expose them. He succeeds but subsequently goes before Picard, on his own accord, for a disciplinary hearing for disobeying him. Instead, Picard commends him for using his initiative rather than obeying orders without question.
Video Games
- In For Honor, Apollyon runs the Blackstone Legion in this manner. Those willing to fight and struggle even when defeated or captured are "wolves" who are commended and allowed to live, while those who surrender and accept their fate are "sheep" to be slaughtered. When a group of deserters is captured, she waits until several of them attack her and has them physically restrained, executes the remainder for meekly surrendering, then allows the ones who tried to kill her to rejoin the Legion. Later on, when a group of Vikings is captured, she has the prisoners executed except for one who continues struggling and fighting and who slew a number of her knights. Apollyon declares that it would be a waste to simply kill him, praises his ferocity and tenacity, and orders the Viking warrior to be set free.
Western Animation
- Used for a Cutaway Gag in Family Guy that shows Peter taking a college test.
Peter: Damn it, this is too hard! marches up to the teacher's desk Here's what I think of your test, Mr. Teacher! Peter rips up the paper, rubs it on the seat of his pants and throws it on the ground.Teacher: You just stood up to me. Congratulations. That was the test.
- Futurama: In the episode "T.: The Terrestrial", Lrrr's son Jrrr befriends Fry, who is stranded on Omicron Persei 8. Lrrr finds out and tells Jrrr to kill his friend. After running away, Jrrr stands up to his father and refuses to kill Fry. Lrrr says that standing up to him was pretty manly.
- Gravity Falls: In "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future", Dipper and Ford come across prison droids that only sense adrenaline, meaning they leave you alone if you aren't afraid of them. Dipper is unable to control his fear, and Ford gets captured. Dipper chases after the orb and stands up to it, making it clear he will not let the machine take his uncle. The orb no longer detects any adrenaline and disables itself. Ford praises Dipper for his bravery.
- Rugrats (1991): In "Jonathan Babysits", Jonathan wants revenge on Charlotte (his boss) for how demanding she is towards him, so he looks for something to blackmail her with. He finds an unflattering videotape of Charlotte in her bathrobe and hair curlers, but when Charlotte learns about this, she decides to give him a promotion because she feels like she's underestimated him.
- Steven Universe: Future: In "Mr. Universe", Greg tells Steven of his decision to take off and leave his old life, including his conservative parents, behind and never look back. Steven is incensed by his attitude, calling him out for not giving his family a chance or giving him at least a semblance of a normal life, until he accidentally crashes the van. Afterward, Greg tries to lighten the mood by commending him for speaking his mind, saying that he wished he had the guts to tell his dad off like that, but by now, Steven won't have any of it.
- In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) episode "H.A.T.E", April meets Casey's stern mother who Casey claims has never liked any of the girls that he's dated. April initially performs the tedious chores Mrs. Jones demands of her, until she gets fed up and firmly tells her that she's tired of being ordered around and that she deserves a little respect. Although Mrs. Jones seemingly brushes this off, at the end of the episode she compliments April for passing all of her tests, including the "assertiveness test".
