History Main / GoYeHeroesGoAndDie

* ''Series/SmartGuy'': [[ButtMonkey Coach]] [[TheEeyore Gerber]]'s attempts at a RousingSpeech is anything but.

* In the backstory of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Storm Queen Argella Durrandon barred the gates of Storm's End after [[HeroicBastard Orys Baratheon]] killed her father in single combat, intending to go down against the Targaryens fighting. Given that the Targaryens had dragons, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome her soldiers disagreed. The issue was resolved when they delivered her to Orys buck naked and in chains.]]

** Earnest Shackleton's alleged advertisement for crew for his Antarctic expedition deliberately invokes this trope, to discourage all but [[MenAreTough Real]] [[TestosteronePoisoning Men]] from applying: "Men wanted for a hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success." It turns out this ad is [[http://www.antarctic-circle.org/advert.htm almost certainly apocryphal.]]

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin would commonly say speeches like this [[MundaneMadeAwesome before preparing to go sledding]]. [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Hobbes would wisely ditch the sled soon afterward]].
* In ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Charlie Brown is giving such a talk to Snoopy, who then shoves him off alone.

* The first ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' movie has Lord Farquaad giving a speech trying to inspire combatants in a tournament, saying that the winner will be given the chance to rescue the fair princess, Fiona. And then starts rambling on about a pecking order if the first hero should fall.
--> ''The champion will have the honour - no, no, the '''privilege''', to go forth and rescue the lovely Princess Fiona from the fiery keep of the dragon! If for any reason, the winner is unsuccessful, the first runner-up will take his place! And so on and so forth. Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice... I am willing to make.''

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'', Emmett spends a bit too long on the part of the RousingSpeech where he plays down his strengths, so that by the time he gets to the actual rousing part, everyone's lost faith in him.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', all of the ant children put on an adorable pageant for the "warrior bugs", featuring a mural showing them getting massacred in battle, and then a school play where all the characters die dramatically. The "warrior bugs", who are in fact circus performers who had no idea they had been mistaken for warriors until this moment, are horrified.
-->'''Rosie:''' Oh, look at the beautiful colors of the... blood.\\
'''Dot:''' We drew one of you dying because our teacher said it would be more dramatic!
* Admiral Fred gives one of these in ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' just before Music/TheBeatles board the submarine. Fortunately, the Beatles are not fazed for more than a few moments.
-->'''Fred:''' Well, lads, what do you think?\\
'''George:''' Well, I think that...\\
'''Fred:''' Remember, there'll be rough seas ahead. What do you think?\\
'''Paul:''' Well, then, um...\\
'''Fred:''' Pounding, overwhelming waves! Now, what do you think of that?\\
'''John:''' Well, I think that...\\
'''Ringo:''' As a matter of fact, I...\\
'''The Beatles:''' I think...\\
'''Fred:''' Well?\\
'''The Beatles:''' I've forgotten.

* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'':
** "Bravely, bold Sir Robin" is the song of a bard on how Sir Robin will suffer (his eyes gorged out, his elbows broken, his bowels unplugged, his nostrils raped, and his penis...) in his heroics.
--->'''Robin:''' That's... that's enough music for now, lads.
** Another famous line:
---> '''Tim:''' Follow. ''But!'' Follow only if you be men of valor, for the entrance to this cave is guarded by [[KillerRabbit a creature]] so foul, so cruel that no man yet has fought with it and lived! (...) so brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further! For ''death awaits you all'' with nasty big [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily pointy teeth]].
* Théoden has a remarkably short one in the ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'' movie. "No, we can't [defeat them]. [[LastStand But we will meet them in battle nonetheless."]] No wonder Aragorn took over the duties of rallying his troops in the next battle. The speech was originally Éomer's encouragement for a LastStand in the book, which is why it basically boils down to "let's at least try to die heroically".
* Kermit rallies the Happiness Hotel together to foil a robbery in ''Film/TheGreatMuppetCaper'', only to ruin everything by warning them of the probability of violence. ''Fozzie'', of all people, is the one to get them all back on the band wagon.

* ''Music/JesusChristSuperstar'':
-->'''Crowd''': Hey JC, JC, won't you die for me?\\
'''Jesus''': ''[suddenly looks awfully concerned]''

* In ''Film/KamenRiderXSuperSentaiSuperHeroTaisen'', the newly FaceHeelTurn-ed ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'''s speech to his forces basically consists of "You all suck except for the fact that [[RedShirtArmy you come back no matter how many times you're killed]], so go out there and fight until you win!" Subverted in that it actually ''does'' seem to motivate them, and makes a lot more sense when they reveal [[spoiler:that Decade is only pretending to be a villain..]]
* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' movie ''[[Film/BabylonFiveInTheBeginning In the Beginning]]'', the President of the Earth Alliance calls for volunteers to hold back the final Minbari advance to buy time for civilians to escape. A subversion in that, depressing as it is, the speech does motivate a last-ditch defense.
-->'''President:''' [[BrutalHonesty We will not lie to you.]] We do not believe that survival is a possibility. We believe that anyone who joins this battle will never come home.

* [[Myth/GreekMythology Dionysius]] ("Mr. D") sometimes pulls this in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''.
* In the backstory of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Storm Queen Argella Durrandon barred the gates of Storm's End after [[HeroicBastard Orys Baratheon]] killed her father in single combat, intending to go down against the Targaryens fighting. Given that the Targaryens had dragons, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome her soldiers disagreed. The issue was resolved when they delivered her to Orys buck naked and in chains.]]
* ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}'' is about a spaceship sent out to examine an alien artifact. At one point, it turns out that the aliens may have been manipulating the perceptions and actions of the crew all along. The ship's captain, [[ItMakesSenseInContext vampire]] Jukka Sarasti, tries to instill confidence in the crew by telling them that their human senses and sense of agency are largely illusory anyway, so this isn't that different. It doesn't really help.

* ''{{Series/Lexx}}'':
** Subverted in the MusicalEpisode, where the tale of a noble but doomed last stand genuinely inspires the heroes to do the same. The rousing finale:
--->'''All:''' We will honor the past\\
And fight to the last\\
It will be a good way to die
** In this case, they know that if they do not fight now, they will still suffer the same nasty death a short time later. If they fight now, they at least have a chance at hurting the enemy.

* On British panel show ''Series/MockTheWeek'', on the subject of "Bad things to do when leading troops into battle", Creator/FrankieBoyle offered these: Soon you'll be at home with your families! In a jar... on the mantelpiece..." and "Our best hope is that the enemy kills so many of us they become slightly depressed."

* The pilot of ''Series/{{Community}}'' contains a non-death related variation; the Dean's RousingSpeech to welcome the new students in the pilot becomes one of these when he manages to lose the middle, which is unfortunately the bit that contains the 'Rousing' part. The rest is just basically a list of all the stereotypes (which, unfortunately, match our heroes quite closely) of the kind of 'loser' who attends community college. Naturally, no one listening is particularly roused.

* The first ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movie has Lord Farquaad giving a speech trying to inspire combatants in a tournament, saying that the winner will be given the chance to rescue the fair princess, Fiona. And then starts rambling on about a pecking order if the first hero should fall.

* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' movie ''[[Recap/BabylonFiveFilm01InTheBeginning In the Beginning]]'', the President of the Earth Alliance calls for volunteers to hold back the final Minbari advance to buy time for civilians to escape. A subversion in that, depressing as it is, the speech does motivate a last-ditch defense.

* At the beginning of ''Series/TheWestWing'' episode "Election Day", in the moments before the polls open it is suggested that Josh Lyman, the Santos Campaign Manager, might want to say a few words to thank, rouse and inspire the troops. Unfortunately, Josh is in the process of allowing his own neuroses about the occasion to overwhelm him, with the result that his speech quickly derails into a rant about a key tactical mistake that someone he's already fired made months ago. And he forgets the whole 'thank you' part. Needless to say, the troops are neither roused nor inspired by this.

-->'''Ensign Nog''': How does that poem end?
-->'''O'Brien''': ''[slightly abashed]'' Uh, you don't want to know.

-->"Is it hopeless? Yeah, you said it!
-->We might as well forget it.
-->Tomorrow we'll regret it, but today, we rise!"

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'', any and all attempts made by the PointyHairedBoss to raise morale.
%%* [[http://comics.com/wizard_of_id/2010-01-16/ This]] ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId'' strip.%%Broken link. Please write description and/or find a working link before uncommenting example.
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin would commonly say speeches like this [[MundaneMadeAwesome before preparing to go sledding]]. [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Hobbes would wisely ditch the sled soon afterward]].
** Similarly in ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' Charlie Brown is giving such a talk to Snoopy, who then shoves him off alone.
[[/folder]]

Compare with UnwantedAssistance, where good intentions don't outweigh the negative effects of the "help". Contrast with the RousingSpeech, which "Go, Ye Heroes, Go And Die" subverts... unless the listeners are from a MartyrdomCulture where a call to go forth and die heroically is a RousingSpeech played straight. Also contrast SuicideDare, where the speaker leaves out the heroic part and just says "Go and die."

* At one point in WebVideo/OutsideXbox's ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign, Dob the half-orc bard makes it his personal project to provide some CharacterDevelopment to the recently dethroned "King" Lynton of Dunbridge - a former butcher's boy who tricked his way onto a small village's hastily assembled throne and spent his time on it being just kind of obnoxiously selfish and juvenile. One stage of this plan consists of enlisting Lynton into a very small rebellion, and then spouting an elaborately detailed metaphor about the importance of choking the machine on their bones. It goes so badly that even the other players aren't sure what, exactly, Dob was trying to accomplish with it.