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"I could break your body, but I could never destroy your spirit."
The spirit of a true hero is an awesome thing. The heroes can do anything if they are driven enough. They will not surrender, they will not stay down. Death, The Virus, Wangst, they are all to be shrugged off when the chips are down. No Despair Event Horizon for them.
This seems to be strictly idealistic, but get an Anti Hero against the ropes, and the same spirit shows up, just manifested in different forms.
A Super Trope involving:
Not to be confused with the Servants...
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Rock Lee in Naruto is able to keep fighting after two limbs have been crushed by Gaara's sand coffin and he's been beaten into unconsciousness. On a lighter note, he also fights spectacularly well when he's drunk as a pirate. His mentor attributes both of these feats to his fighting spirit.
- A major motif in most Super Robot mecha shows (with some exceptions). It's sometimes even the key to using what ever green rocks/applied phlebotinum powers the robot. Examples include:
- One Piece has done this a number of times. Most notably with Usopp the Lovable Coward, since he pretty much needs Heroic Spirit to break through his fear. His fight with Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas had him stand up after taking a four ton bat to the face. His battle with Perona did this more literally, with Usopp calling upon his alter ego Soge King to save him.
- Ichigo of Bleach tends to act like this. On at least one occasion he essentially comes back from the dead just because he's that bent on winning.
- Jack Rakan. He's been known to
bend the laws of physics outright ignore the laws of magic just because.
- Tenma from Monster just won't break. Ever.
Comics
- Page quote comes from "Marvel Two in One Annual" #7. A Cosmically-powered warrior called simply "The Champion" beams the strongest heroes of earth up to his ship to Box with him. The fate of the Earth is at stake naturally. The Thing is the last hero into the ring (the others being mopped-up in short order by a bored champion or not really understanding Boxing, and thus being 'disqualified' and punted back to wherever they were yanked from- there's an absolutely classic moment where Thor pops up, thoroughly confused, wearing boxing gloves and trunks... and his winged helmet and cape. Of course, since Norse gods don't box much, he proceeds to wing Mjolnir at the Champion and get kicked out.). The Thing gives a good account of himself before being savagely beaten down. He gets back up and attacks again, managing to injure the Champion before being beaten to an utter pulp. He gets up and manages to land a few more blows before being beaten through the floor. As the Champion goes into his spiel about the fate of the earth, the Thing drags himself up and grabs him by the ankles (weakly). At which point the Champion declares "I could break your body, but I could never destroy your spirit" and leaves for other planets and other challenges. The story is based on a story in which Daredevil takes on the Hulk, which is itself based on a much earlier story involving Daredevil against the Sub-mariner. (Daredevil vs. either of these should be a hideously one-sided mismatch, seeing how they're superstrong and Nigh Invulnerable, and he's...not really blind.)
- This is more or less what allows members of the Green Lantern Corps to use their rings.
- Also sort of applies to the Blue Lantern Corps.
Literature
Live Action TV
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons And Dragons 3.5's Iron Heart Surge is a manifestation of such, but due to poor wording it is able to stop the sun's heat (because it is an effect under the rules for a desert) or the sun's light (as it lowers the accuracy of some races) forever as they are effects effecting you that are not instantaneous. Conversely, it is useless against most incapacitating conditions - if you're mind-controlled, stunned or nauseated, you can't take the standard action to use the maneuver.
- There's a lot of examples of this in the 4th edition of the game. As a side effect of the efforts to give healing abilities to more classes (and avoid the You gotta have a Cleric! problem of earlier editions), there's a lot of powers that allow characters to expend Healing Surges and regain lost Hit Points that are described as this trope at work.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! has an equip magic card called "Fighting Spirit." A monster equipped with the card gets (what this troper recalls) 500 attack points for every monster on the opposite side of the field. If that wasn't enough, when the equipped monster is supposed to be destroyed, the equip card is destroyed in its place. Pretty much wraps this trope in a nut shell.
- Exalted has Willpower, which can be spent to throw off mental influence, or to enhance ability rolls. Channel one of your Virtues for the latter use, and the action is all but guaranteed to succeed if that Virtue is high enough. So, basically, by being a heroic person, you can channel the raw Power Of Love (Compassion), level-headedness and discipline (Temperance), Hot Bloodedness (Valor), or sheer determination (Conviction).
Video Games
- Although the trope should not be confused with Fate Stay Night's Heroic Spirits, the trope is quite an important part of the series. Shirou in particular practically lives and breathes this trope, especially in the "Fate" route.
- Kingdom Hearts: Sora's heart is exceptionally strong, maybe even one of the strongest hearts in existence. Against all odds, he manages to regain his BFS from the Anti Hero by merely reciting a quote pretty similar to the one on top of the page. He also managed to keep his free will in the form of a Heartless - something that is actually IMPOSSIBLE to do, if one doesn't become a Heartless voluntarily.
- To be fair, Sora did become a Heartless voluntarily when he stabbed himself in the chest with the Heart Unlocker. Perhaps more impressive is the fact that he managed to save the world without actually regaining his body.
Western Animation
- In the Futurama episode "A Taste Of Freedom", Old Man Waterfall says a similar line to the Decapodian invaders. They proceed to smash him into the ground, at which point he says, "Ow, my spirit!"
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