Gondor Calls For Aid - Television Tropes & Idioms

The Dark Masters arc of Digimon Adventure, and the last episodes of Digimon Adventure 02 and Digimon Savers, although it's kind of an accident.
The final Gokujou Seitokai arc, where nearly every minor character who showed up once and got named returned to help the titular student council.
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch always brought in the secondary trio, Kaito, and that season's orange princess in the end, even though throughout the series, they were either useless, unawakened, incapacitated or unwilling to do the job.
Sort of done in the climactic battle with Kid Buu in Dragon Ball Z: Goku continuously asks the people of Earth to lend some of their energy to his Spirit Bomb, but none of them want to because they can't see Goku, don't know who he is, and the few people who do lend their energy end up really exhausted afterwards. It takes Hercule/Mr. Satan, the Fake Ultimate Hero of the DBZ world, to convince the population to lend their strength.
- In the anime version, there are some people who answer Goku's request, and we get to see some faces we haven't seen since Dragonball (Bora and Upa and the group from Penguin Village come to mind). We also get to see what's become of Lunch and Seventeen.
While not exactly calling for direct aid, Eyeshield 21 has Every ace from every important team in Kantou show up to help the Devil Bats train for the Christmas Bowl finals.
When it comes down to the final battle in The Violinist Of Hameln (pictured◊), a truly ridiculous amount of reinforcements show up (including just about every minor character capable of taking to the field).
Inverted in The Law of Ueki. Friendly Enemy Smart Guy Kilnorton calculates the odds of defeating Big Bad Anon to be suicidal and thus refuses to participate in the Final Battle. For the sake of his Nakama, however, he convinces Ai to make him fall in love with glasses in order to bring him to the arena despite what his better judgment says. She succeeds and Kilnorton joins in on the action. Subverted when Anon knocks him out before he can actually do anything to help.
The final battle of Vandread brings back every character and civilization that ever displayed the ability to pilot a spaceship.
- And it was awesome.
The last episode of the hentai title Meiking, every group Cain helped (or spared) along the way showed up to assist in the final showdown with Cain's evil rival, Francis.
In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann episode seven, a number of characters (such as Kittan and Dayakka, amongst a bunch of newly introduced folks like the twins) arrive to help the Gurren-Dan capture what will become the Dai-Gurren. They stay around afterwards, however, and permanently expand the Gurren-Dan.
Towards the ending of Mai-Otome, BOTH sides in the final battle call upon reinforcements in the form of Otome from other nations, all seen briefly way back in episode three. And once the final battle breaks out, the teachers and entire student body of Garderobe comes to help the heroes.
In the OVA series Golden Boy's final episode, Kintaro Oe calls upon each of the women whose hearts he'd won in previous episodes for the finale in which he works for an anime production company (they each had talents to offer).
In the final episodes of G Gundam, all the Gundams of the world unite to help the Shuffle Alliance defend Earth. Naturally, they include nearly all the opponents the main cast has fought up to this point, all putting aside their differences to defend the world they love.
Near the climax of the G/S/C Story Arc of Pokemon Special, things were looking grim for the Pokedex Holders as they're fighting a losing battle against both Ho-oh and Lugia. Just then, they noticed something in the distance. Bill had finally fixed the Pokemon Transporter that the new Team Rocket had sabotaged, and with the director of Goldenrod Radio spreading the news, every single minor character introduced in the arc (and likely every trainer in the Johto region) had sent their Pokemon to help the heroes, producing a huge-ass army that rushed the two Legendaries and quickly tamed them.

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In the comic book series Elf Quest, when two elf tribes — the Wolfriders and the newly-introduced Go-Backs — join forces to wage war against the trolls of King Guttlekraw, the elves form a grudging alliance with the trolls formerly led by the late King Greymung, who have been enslaved by Guttlekraw, even though Greymung's trolls have been the hated enemies of the Wolfriders ever since betraying them back at the start of the storyline. The Go-Backs, meanwhile, would never have thought of teaming up with trolls of any kind, period... But it's probably only because of this uneasy alliance that Guttlekraw's trolls are defeated.
- This doesn’t really count as 'calling for aid', since Greymung’s trolls were already inside the enemy quarters, kept as slaves, and the elves freed them when they were just passing through on the way in.
Tom Strong spent nearly a dozen issues befriending and helping various entities and past enemies. The Gondor Calls For Aid scenario used them all.... to deal with a ludicrous, never before/ never again seen, dead-in-one-issue menace. This may or may not have been a parody, though.
The climax of the Lucifer comic involves the invasion of Heaven by a vast army, Lucifer himself forced to gather together a truly motley group of allies from past stories to defend it. Unfortunately at least one of them wouldn't mind killing him, and none of them particularly like him (or heaven for that matter).
Grant Morrison's run on JLA ended with the entirety of Earth gaining superpowers and joining with the Justice League to fight a potentially galaxy-destroying menace.
Nearly everyone the newest Blue Beetle had befriended (and a few of the previous Beetle's old friends, but oddly not the team he's currently affiliated with) came to the aid of either Beetle himself or his family and closest friends as he fought off The Reach during the "Endgame" arc.
Issue #125 of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic had just about every hero and villain still alive teaming up to fend off an alien invasion.

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Spy Kids 3D: Game Over ended with the Cortezes calling on their immediate family, then (in the vein of the running theme of "family") various people they had met over the course of their adventures to fight the Toymaster's robots. The movie's haphazard direction keeps it from the climactic feel it should have, but it's still a highlight.
In Army of Darkness, Ash calls upon Duke Henry the Red, last seen about to be put to death by Arthur, to help defend the Necronomicon from the Deadites. And while he does show up fashionably late, he does eventually bring his armies to Arthur's castle to assist.
Happens all the goddamn time the Godzilla series whenever the military can't handle a monster and calls another monster to help them. Perhaps the most notable example can be found in Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964). In that movie, Mothra is very angry with Japan for the nuclear testing that trashed her home island and the refusal to return her egg to her, but when Godzilla attacks Mothra shows up at the last minute to help based on some sincere Japanese citizens' pleads for help.
In James Cameron's Avatar, Na'vi-Jake Sully summons the aid of his fellow Human Aliens (successfully, thanks to his status as an Earn Your Happy Ending Chosen One) just in time for a climactic showdown with the humans.
Its A Wonderful Life

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Another fantasy fiction example comes at the end of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart, in which the heroine journeys to Alba (a fantasy version of Great Britain) to convince the Albans to bring their army to the aid of Terre d'Ange (France) which has been invaded by Skaldia (Germany/Scandinavia).
Harry Potter - the climax of The Deathly Hallows.
Subverted in the Star Wars X-wing novel Solo Command, when the Big Bad, Warlord Zsinj, calls up every pirate and mercenary he'd ever hired to come and defend his crippled ship. The protagonists are among that number, having successfully posed as pirates in the previous novel. Zsinj's call for help confirms that he is vulnerable, not preparing a trap, allowing the protagonists to go and kick his ass.
In the final book of the Prydain Chronicles, the heroes must rally all the forces of Prydain to fight in the final battle with Big Bad Evil Overlord Arawn. Virtually every character the heroes have ever met shows up to help. They lose anyway.
The Wings of Merlin, the sixth and final book of The Lost Years of Merlin, invokes this for its final battle.
Subverted in Star Trek: Destiny, where the federation needs to call on virtually every major power in the Alpha Quadrant for help against an impending Borg invasion. Only half of them agree to show-up and the fleet is wiped-out in minutes anyway.
The climax of Martin the Warrior, the sixth Redwall book.

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Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "Graduation" episode. Also "Chosen," but on a more epic scale.
Farscape: past one-shot enemies were called upon to help the main characters rob a bank.
One season finale for Stargate SG-1 had the Tau'ri, Free Jaffa Nation, Asgard, and Lucian Alliance (the last only agreeing to help after Teal'c beats the crap out of the leader's guards and points a gun at his forehead) band together to stop the Ori from gaining a foothold in their galaxy. In a rather shocking case of The Worf Effect, the Ori outright effectively slaughter the Milky Way alliance.
- Made even worse by the fact that the Asgard were one of the most advanced races in the Milky Way, and even THEY were trying to desperately think of something fast to stop the Ori.
- A more successful alliance recently happened in Stargate Atlantis, where the Atlanteans, their enemies the Wraith, and their allies the Travelers successfully destroy the Replicator homeworld, apparently losing only one ship in the process.
The Three Part Ending of Ultraman Mebius both subverts it wonderfully and then promptly plays it dead straight. When the alien Empera-seijin sends his army down to Earth to wear down the heroes, eventually rendering the hero near comatose and destroying most of their weapons and super-vehicles, the heroes get the aid of their various allies they've made over the season. Only to have it amount to nothing as Empera arrives and kicks the crap out of them with a few flicks of his wrist—eventually killing The Lancer and Ensemble Darkhorse before killing the hero in a single blow. A few of them get better, and get a true Gondor Calls For Aid from the Ultra-Brothers and a few of the slain are Not Quite Dead, and the world is saved.
My Name Is Earl, "Camdenites": Earl rounds up just about everyone he's ever helped with his list to help him right Joy and Darnell's trailer.
The new Doctor Who inverts this when Harriet Jones, the Morally Ambiguous former Prime Minister, who the Doctor deposed, finds she needs to call on the Doctor, despite the fact he's the one responsible for deposing her. She even sacrifices her own life to serve as a distraction for the Daleks so the call for aid can get through.
Part One of the Series Finale of Battlestar Galactica ends with Adama putting out one of these for the mission to rescue Hera from Cavil's Cylons. Every character we know from the fleet is called upon to help with the mission if they so choose, including those Marines that were imprisoned after supporting the mutiny against Adama earlier in the season.
Babylon Five: The cast spent a good amount of time gathering all of the younger races, and several of the older ones, for their battle with the Shadows and Vorlons.

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The ending of Skies Of Arcadia, of course.
In Freelancer, the first half of the game is about finding someone who can identify the artifact that fell into Trent's hand. Near the end of the game, the Order calls the Outcasts and the Blood Dragons to help them against the Nomads.
The climax of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
Chapter 3 of Neverwinter Nights 2.
Used in both Heroes Of Might And Magic III and its expansion Armageddon's Blade.
- In the first, it's played straight, on both sides—the nations of Bracada, AvLee, and Erathia coming together to face Nighon and Eeofol (who later drop out of the war). Later, the necromancers of Deyja make an alliance with Erathia to stop the necromancers' own king, who has grown far too powerful for their liking.
- In Armageddon's Blade, the witch Adrienne asks Erathia for aid against an invasion of undead that threatens both their borders. Erathia, too caught up in its other problems, declines. Meanwhile, AvLee and Erathia are allied briefly against Eeofol, and then Erathia finds new allies in the Conflux towns, before the queen of Erathia abdicates in order to pursue the war with more vigor, Erathia having grown tired of war. Finally, the last mission of that campaign has to be completed within two months—or Eeofol's call for aid from Nighon will be answered.
In going against Bodhi's guild towards the end of Baldurs Gate II, the player character can form an alliance with a paladin order, the thieves' guild, and the Companions of the Hall (Drizzt Do'Urden and friends) against them. Doing so naturally makes the battle much easier.
In .hack//G.U. Redemption, Haseo and Zelkova use their influence to get help from all the players of "The World" to assist them in stopping Cubia.
In Earthbound, beating the BigBad requires the combined prayers of almost every named character in the game, including the player.
Final Fantasy IV: When the villains summon the giant world-ending monster, just about everyone you've ever helped, including all your ex-party members except the one that really died, shows up in tanks and airships and starts blasting away.
- Then, at the end of the game, Everyone prays to give your party the strength to defeat Zeromus. Even Tellah and his daughter Anna show up.
In Okami, the prayers from all the people of Nippon, inspired by Issun, are what revives Amaterasu and restores her full divine glory. Cue the Theme Music Power Up and the final boss fight.
Pick any RTS game. If it's any good, it will most-definitely feature a mission where you have to defend yourself for a set amount of time before reinforcements come. The first Dawn of War game seems to be the only exception...
- You're playing Space Marines, you are the aid.
The story mode of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe features this trope. Regardless of whether the player chooses to play as the MK or DC fighters, the chosen world's heroes end up having to work together with their villains to deal with the opposing faction's fighters, whom they initially see as invaders until Dark Khan finally makes his appearance for the final showdown.
At the end of Warcraft III, the night elves had to ally with the humans and the orcs to defend their World Tree Nordrassil. The first alliance stuck and continued into World Of Warcraft, the second didn't.
At the end of Space Channel 5, Ulala fights alongside her rivals Jaguar and Pudding, and every person who she's directly or indirectly helped throughout the game come out to lend their support and dance energy.
The second-to-last mission of Ace Combat 5 starts with squadrons from both the Osean and Yuktobanian armies supporting you in disabling the Belkan super weapon control station after hearing their leaders' speeches.
- Mission 12 of Ace Combat 6 requires you to evade no less than 30 enemy fighter jets. After a few minutes of dodging missiles for your dear life, every air squadron in the game comes to your aid (including a squad of electronic support planes).
You spend the main part of the game doing this in Dragon Age: Origins.

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The climax of this video game Michael Jackson tribute, where everyone joins together to stop a planet-sized Zangief from crashing into Earth.
- And while you're at it, why don't you watch all of the AWESOME three-part Moonwalker (and many other classic video games) tribute right here in one page? Japaneses love Michael Jackson, indeed.

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Oasis and Dr. Schlock play this role during the "Dangerous Days" arc of Sluggy Freelance (though with shades of Enemy Mine). The same can be said of just about any time Bun-Bun agrees to help anyone.
Just before the final battle against the God Machine in T. Campbell's Fans Book 5, Will informs team leader Rikk that some volunteers have arrived.
Rikk: How many, Will? If it's two or three, send 'em home. I won't sacrifice—
Katherine: Richard? Liege and Lord?...Your army awaits.

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Winx Club: In the fourth episode of season two, Amentia tries to force one of the major characters into marrying her. Brandon effectively lucks out of it, and in the 24th episode of the season, Brandon and Sky decide to get Amentia's help in allowing the Specialists' ship to get inside the Underrealm to rescue Bloom. Also, in season one, a few nymphs from one of the Filler episodes warned Alfea of the arrival of the villains during the final battle.
Used multiple times in Justice League:
- In "The Savage Time", the Flash runs across the Atlantic to warn the US of Vandal Savage's airborne invasion force, while the rest of the League attempts to knock said force out of the sky. Just after Hawkgirl rescues John Stewart from one of the planes, anti-aircraft fire comes from off-screen: the US Navy arrives and starts shooting the German planes down. Those that evade the flak get shot down by the just-arriving Blackhawks.
- Pretty much the entire premise of the switch from Justice League to Justice League Unlimited, as the League expanded their membership to recruit as many superheroes as they could. This was even reflected in the Unlimited opening credits: Starting off with the members of the previous incarnation, it pulls away to show several dozen heroes in a really long line-up.
- The episodes "Dark Heart," "The Return," and "Panic in the Sky" saw the League actually call on their entire roster. The first uses most of the expanded league to beat alien nanobots, the next features the League teamed up with a (rather pissed off) Green Lantern Corps, and the final has the League face off against clones of the Superfriends Expys.
- In the Grand Finale episode "Destroyer", after the Legion of Doom inadvertently revive Darkseid and manage to return to Earth, they insist on allying with the Justice League to stop the New God's pending attack. Although Superman is less than enthused, the League agrees.
In the DTV movie Justice League The New Frontier, the Centre has finally shown up off Cape Canaveral. The military and the CIA, however, are more interested in keeping Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, the Blackhawks and Adam Strange away from it, both sides basically drawing weapons on each other. It takes an angry Superman to get the two groups to join forces — especially after he gets blown out of the sky and is presumed dead.
The final two episodes of X-Men Evolution were the main cast calling on aid from almost every mutant from the series to stop Apocalypse.
The fifth season finale of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon involved the turtles calling on pretty much everyone they'd ever worked with, and a few they'd fought against, to help stop the threat.
In Avatar The Last Airbender, during the Day of Black Sun, various allies of the Gaang from the Earth Nation show up to help out. It's also one of the few cases where this gambit fails almost completely. However, In the series finale, other characters such as Iroh, Jeong, Bumi, and Pakku, to name a few, show up to help fight the Fire Nation.
The series ender of Danny Phantom and the episode "Reign Storm".
Season 4 of The Batman involves an Alien Invasion with Gotham City at ground zero. There's a breakout at Arkham Asylum, and the Gotham City Police Department arrives to find the inmates fighting the aliens, the Joker being especially angry that the aliens are invading his turf. When his lieutenant asks Gordon what to do, he orders his men to back the supervillains up.
Chiro also called upon a bunch of previous allies for an epic battle against the Skeleton King... one which never did come (shakes fist at Jetix).
Suprised no one mentioned Teen Titans... They call in everyone to help them defeat the League of Evil and they lose... until of course comic relief characters show up and save the day predicatable as always
In the last story arc of the first season of Filmation's Flash Gordon, Flash, Barin, Thun, and Vultan put out a call to the various allies they've made for a final united battle against Ming. It's pretty awesome.

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The international volunteers that came to help Republican Spain against the fascists.
- The international volunteers to help the fascists as well. Nothing says this trope has to be nice, or that only one side can do it.
During Israel's war of independence, volunteers from all over the world (many of them WW 2 veterans) clamored to aid the Israeli side. Two of the American volunteers were later fined and one jailed.
- Similarly thousands of people from all over Europe went to Greece to join up with the Greek bid for independence from the Ottoman Empire, including famed crazy Byron.
Foreign volunteers for the Boer side in South Africa's Anglo-Boer War.
Occurred repeatedly during the Crusades, which were triggered by Constantinople's requests to the Pope for aid against the Turks. But as Crusade succeeded Crusade, relations between the Westerners and their Byzantine hosts broke down until 1204, when the Venetians bankrolling the operation convinced the Crusaders to turn against Constantinople and sack it bare. Though five more Crusades were to come, any sort of understanding between East and West was gone; when in their final hour the Byzantines swallowed their pride and asked for help again, only a few hundred Europeans bothered to answer.
The declarations of war on Germany in 1939 by members of the British Commonwealth can be seen as this. In the First World War, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians went to war because, as part of the British Empire, they were obligated to. In 1939, it's because they chose to come to Great Britain's aid, as did many Americans who crossed the border and became part of the Canadian military before 1941, and Irish citizens who put aside the country's neutrality to serve with the British (in some cases, entire units of the Irish Army resigned en masse, crossed over to Britain, and were quickly snapped up by a grateful British Army).

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