"Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons! Marchons, marchons! Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons!"note "To arms, citizens! Form your batallions! We march, we march/ 'Til the impure blood [of our enemies] waters our fields!"
Otonashi from Angel Beats! if you consider a bunch of dead highschoolers La Résistance and if you consider Angel an empire.
Code Geass is a prime time example of the useless-and-only-an-annoyance-kind of La Résistance until Lelouch turns them from a bunch of butthurt kids playing guerilla against the Britannian Empire to a fully organized and highly deadly army with victory after victory as its signature (that doesn't mean they're error-free, as we painfully find out in the Euphemia Massacre Incident and the following Black Rebellion).
Lelouch is literally considered the god of rebellion in the Pantheon.
The Joui from Gintama, who set out to take down the Amanto even if it meant going out into an all-out war with them. They failed. However, Katsura is the only one that makes an attempt to carry out any of the original group's ideals after that failure (and even then, it's kind of laughable); Gintoki decided that fighting stupid enemies was pointless and dropped out, Takasugi became a Nietzsche Wannabein order to avenge the death of his teacher, and Sakamoto got a day job.
Tends to show up in Leijiverse a lot, particularly in Arcadia of my Youth and Space Symphony Maetel.
One Piece has the Revolutionary Army, an anti-government faction directly opposed to the World Government and led by none other than Luffy's father, Dragon. So far they haven't actually appeared often, but they'll certainly be more important down the line.
Romeo X Juliet has the followers of the Capulet family, fighting against Lord Montague.
In Saint Beast, the rebellion against Zeus is lead by the six Saint Beasts until four of them end up Brainwashed and Crazy leading to its failure and Judas and Luca taking the fall for it.
Saint Seiya: The Bronze Saints during the Sanctuary Arc.
Team Dai-Gurren from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Not only do they rebel against Lord Genome and his forces, but also the millennia-long reign of the Anti-Spirals.
The Secret of Twilight Gemini: After more than three hundred years of civil war, the remnants of the Geltic Tribe continue to fight the oppression of the Igo Tribe, who drove them from their ancestral home. Lara and her friend, Zora, lead them in the quest to unify their people and reclaim their homeland. With help from Lupin, of course.
Amulet has the unoriginally named "The Resistance", staffed by Funny Animals.
The Gaulish villagers in Astérix might be regarded as a somewhat humorous version of this.
In the spanish comic-book Fanhunter also, the unoriginally named The Resistance (an army of comic-book fans, otakus, geeks, gamers, nerds, roleplayers, etc.).
The Prodigals in Kill Shakespeare who are trying to take down Richard III.
The Secret Avengers and Typeface's Gang during the Marvel Civil War.
Marvel Star Wars has a resistance on Solay, trying to topple a pro-Empire king. They call on the Rebel Alliance for help after Endor, but it turns out the head of the resistance had secretly also been pro-Empire - soon after the king is deposed, the Imperial fleet comes in and imposes martial law, controlling the system directly.
Played with interestingly in the Star Trek graphic novel The Modala Imperative. Captain Kirk and Spock help the resistance on the planet Modala break up a vicious dictatorship; a hundred years later, the Next Generation crew arrive to help celebrate the anniversary of the original coup and discover the erstwhile rebel leaders are now beating back an uprising themselves. Then suddenly everyone must put aside their differences when the realBig Bad beams in - the Ferengi, who had sold the original dictatorship their weapons and have now come to collect from the current rulers.
Also in the current comic book series "Year 4", continuing where the original series ended, the rebels attack with the crew present (and later kidnap Kirk) in order to get the Federation to intervene in their conflict...at the same time as the government tries to blow up the Enterprise, to get the Federation to intervene in their conflict.
Judge Dredd has personally led resistances on a number of occasions, such as against Chief Judge Cal ("The Day the Law Died"), the East-Meg occupational army ("Apocalypse War") and the Dark Judges ("Necropolis").
The Picaros from the eponymous Tintin adventure. Tintin demands that their revolution will not see a drop of blood shed, much to the humorous consternation of many involved. Including the dictator being overthrown.
A better example are the Changelings, who thanks to Cadance are now symbiotic instead of parasitic and protect ponies from Discord. They're also immune to Discord's magic thanks to Cadance. Cadance once ruled them and their kingdom Avalon was about the only place safe from Discord. While she was eventually killed and it destroyed, the Changelings are still protecting ponies from Discord and Discord hasn't managed to infiltrate them either.
Demolition Man features a resistance which is all about, amongst other things, the "choice to run naked down the street covered in lime jello."
In Double Dragon, there's a neon-overall-clad teenage resistance named the Power Corps, which is led by the Action GirlLove Interest in the battle against Vanilla Ice as played by T-1000.
In Hero only a small group of five elite assassins is actually seen, but apparently assassins from the other conquered Kingdoms try to kill the emperor every other week.
Hilariously parodied in Monty Pythons Life Of Brian, where there's more than one resistance, they don't do anything other than discuss things around a table, and the only time they actually do something they screw it up by arguing with each other. "THE JUDEAN PEOPLE'S FRONT? Splitters!"
Even better if you take it as a comment on the state of left-wing and palestinean movements in that time.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has the pirates of the world resisting termination at hands of the East India Trading Company. Ironically, when your cast is made of an Anti-Hero couple, a Gentleman Thief and an Affably Evil pirate, the only way to cheer for their resisting the law is by making the Government absurdly evil and corrupt.
The school kids who head off into the mountains to fight the Evil Empire in the movie Red Dawn 1984 are a perfect example of this trope. Readers here may be more familiar with it being referred to as a documentary on one of the radio stations in GTA Vice City. ''Wolverines!'
The same goes for Red Dawn 2012 except instead of the Soviet Union, it's now North Korea overrunning the United States.
The alternate universe in Shrek Forever After has a secret band of ogres, led by Badass Princess Fiona, who plan to attack and overthrow Rumpelstiltskin.
A spontaneous rebellion forms around Shua in Sky Blue after one of them is killed by Ecoban soldiers. They end up being instrumental to Dr. Noah's plan.
The Resistance guerrillas in Sleeping Dogs fighting an oppressive police state that has taken over New Zealand.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut has a French-themed La Résistance (pictured) being composed of the children of South Park rebelling against their parents in the hope of rescuing Terrence and Philip from being executed. They even had their own song, as well as a Dark Reprise.
The French film The Army of Crime is all about La Résistance, being set in Second World War France during the German occupation. Based on a true story.
The Matrix has a population of humans attempting to strengthen numbers by freeing people imprisoned in a virtual simulation created by advanced artificial intelligence using them as a fuel source.
Pimpernel Smith, which is The Scarlet Pimpernel in WW 2, with a stuffy English professor running a resistance network rescuing Jewish and other persecuted prisoners and funnelling them to Britain.
Unusually for this trope, the movie Valkyrie focuses on the German resistance during World War II rather than that of the occupied countries.
Zwartboek (Black Book) deals with the Dutch resistance in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II.
Oblivion 2013 : A big group of humans led byMalcolm Beech who live underground the wasteland Earth. They may or may not be all that's left of the human race.
Newspaper Comics
The Dragon Lady becomes a resistance leader, fighting the Japanese invaders in Terry and the Pirates. Terry and Pat are frequently dragged into her plots. Other resistance leader, such as the Blue Tiger, also feature prominently.
Music
The Resistance is a reoccuring faction in Kaizers Orchestra's song universe, especially in Ompa Til Du Dřr, which is set during WW 2.
The 1970 sci-fi concept album Blows Against The Empire by Paul Kantner & Jefferson Starship has hippies in the 1990s operating as La Résistance against an increasingly oppressive US government.
Dark Sun has the Veiled Alliance which provides most support in areas of non-defiling magic and helping slaves to escape.
Forgotten Realms got Randal Morn and his supporters conducting guerilla war against Zhentarim occupation of Daggerdale for about 16 years (1353-1369) before Zhents were finally kicked out and he became the official ruler. Calimshan has Janessar, the group with strongholds in Marching Mountains that works to support common folk and free slaves.
Magic: The Gathering has the Mirran resistance struggling against the forces of New Phyrexia. They know the odds are against them and that they are vastly outnumbered, which is reflected in the greater number of Phyrexian cards in the "New Phyrexia" block, but they refuse to lay down and give up.
In Return to Ravnica story, the population who are not part of the ten guilds are starting to take up arms against those guilds. Considering that the ten guilds include The Mafia who'll bleed people (of their money or life) dry, Mad Scientist guild who should be maintaining the city's infrastructure but aren't, sneaky spy guild, an entire clan of barbarians and so on, it is understandable why the populace are angry.
In GiantGuardianGeneration, the Revolutionary United Front has taken up arms against the Outsider-led United Earth Federation. Curiously, although they're outnumbered, the RUF appears to have the technological edge of better Gears and the AI-controlled Mobile Battleship Wagner.
Theatre
In Les Misérables, Les Amis de l'ABC (whose name has "the friends of the downtrodden" as a second meaning).
Later, on post-Scratch Earth, adult versions of Rose and Dave lead La Résistance against the forces of Betty Crocker/the Condesce, who far in the future has taken over everything. Unfortunately, they are doomed to fail, but they go down fighting and take out some of her top puppet leaders in the process.
In Sluggy Freelance, when demons invade the Dimension of Lame, the humans put together a resistance movement. Unfortunately, since it's a very lame dimension, "resistance" consists mainly of hitting the demons with pies. And most people in the dimension even think thatmakes them no better than the demons who kill them for fun and eat their souls. It's a very, very lame dimension.
In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Galatea joins Riboflavin thinking he represents some romanticized version of this. He's actually a megalomaniac.
The Resistance in The Order of the Stick is composed of two of the main characters and a bunch of Azurites whose main goal is to fight Xykon's troops who are currently occupying Azure City after having won a huge battle and taken over the city. Eventually, Haley and Belkar leave the group, leaving the paladin Thanh in charge of the Resistance.
There are also two other factions, one claims The Order corrupted Lord Hinjo, and the other thinks Hinjo was responsible for the death of lord Shojo, and the Order were cohorts. The three groups don't get along at all, until united due to a makeshift prophecy.
As of strips 825-827, Redcloak has successfully killed every member of the resistance except for Niu, and destroyed their base.
The Chaos Timeline has various. Spaniards against Republican France, Germans against Russians and Italians, (again) various against the Socialists.
In Decades Of Darkness, there are several ones fighting the expansionist, slaveholding *USA, like the Velvet Underground in Pennsylvania, Mexican generals like Juarez, and Eunuco Mitchell (it's a pseudonym). Unfortunately, none have prevailed.
In Shadowhunter Peril, the main characters are forced to become the Resistance because it's either fight back or die. They actually end up doing a pretty good job, even amassing a giant army of phoenixes and raining a fiery storm down upon the Big Bad's capital city. Currently they're in the middle of the final battle, so there's no way of knowing who's going to win, especially with Lilith and Valentine still alive.
Taking from its source material, the Rebellion in The Gungan Council have been revived several times to restore democracy after the Galactic Empire came back.
In Victoria, a story from The Wanderers Library, the Earth has been taken over by… something. What exactly is never made clear, but they're opposed by the Human Resistance Group, who uses superior numbers and technology to fight back. Whether it eventually succeeds or fails is never elaborated upon.
Western Animation
By the third season of Avatar The Last Airbender, Aang and his True Companions are basically this. See also: Order of the White Lotus in the last couple episodes.
The invasion force from the Day of Black Sun, made up of the Gaang's allies from the two remaining nations opposing the war.
There are active resistances of Eath Kingdom citizens against the Fire Nation occupying forces throughout the series. We see one of them in "Return to Omashu."
Lampshaded in the Justice League by Green Lantern in "Hearts and Minds." "There's always a resistance, isn't there?"
The Resisty from Invader Zim were a resistance movement against the Irken Empire. To their credit, they very nearly destroyed the Massive, but only because Zim had seized control of it and had removed its defenses. Also in Invader Zim is the Swollen Eyeball Network, a group of genre-savvy conspiracy theorists who have foiled alien invasions. Naturally, Dib is a proud member, codenamed Agent Mothman.
The Burners in Motorcity, against Abraham Kane of Detroit Deluxe.
The backstory of one chef in Ratatouille involved running guns for one of these. "Which one?" "He won't say - apparently they didn't win."
On The Venture Brothers the Orange County Liberation Front is a resistance movement trying to take down the Brisby "empire", an obvious Disney parody.
The second season of The Venture Bros also features a lame but zealous resistance to Baron Ünderbheit's iron fisted (and jawed) rule in Ünderland. One of their proudest achievements is sneaking a cat hair into his drink.
The first season of W.I.T.C.H. features the rebellion against the Big Bad Phobos, with Badass Normal Caleb as the young rebel leader. After Phobos is defeated and imprisoned, the situation is inverted during season two, with a small band of Phobos' remaining loyal troops attempting to overthrow the benevolent queen Elyon.
