Basic Trope: An underground rebellion movement.
- Straight:
Chaotic Good revolutionaries fight Lawful Evil Empire. - Exaggerated:
- The vast majority of the populace is involved in the resistance... including many of the occupying soldiers.
- Every single person in The Empire is also a member of the resistance.
- The resistance has essentially become a state that operates wherever The Empire is not looking - with its own underground democratic elections, a system of taxes and welfare programs that operates Just Like Robin Hood, and a military that has extended the practice of Vehicular Turnabout to entire tank divisions and aircraft carrier battle groups.
- Downplayed:
- They're not trying to overthrow The Empire, they're just protesting so as to gain more say in government.
- Chaotic Neutral revolutionaries fight Lawful Neutral Empire.
- Justified: The Empire is oppressive, but rather inept at silencing the dissenters. Formation of a resistance movement is only a matter of time.
- Inverted:
- Lawful Good Republic fights Chaotic Evil terrorists.
- Lawful Good Empire fights Chaotic Evil Resistance.
- It turns out Hobbes Was Right.
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- Subverted: The resistance's supposed existence is actually a ploy by the Empire to capture anyone who dares to rebel.
- Double Subverted: The people in charge of this ploy, however, secretly recruit the would-be-rebels for their own purposes.
- Parodied:
- The Empire has banned comedy. As a result, the resistance consists primarily of disgruntled clowns, writers, and stand-up comedians.
- There's more than one resistance, they don't do anything other than discuss things around a table and angst about how the Empire has oppressed (i.e. improved) their lives, and the only time they actually do something they screw it up by arguing with each other.
- The Resistance consists of a bunch of pseudo-intellectual college dropouts with naive and unrealistically idealistic views of left-wing revolutions. They spend all day lecturing others about causes they know nothing about, ranting online about how their parents are abusive when they weren't and buying expensive communist-themed merchandise. They don't really do any real resisting.
- Zig Zagged: The resistance succeeds in overthrowing Emperor Evulz, but they are not much better - but there is another, good resistance movement, but they are actually benevolent aliens in disguise... And then it turns out it's All Just a Dream - of a resistance member fighting the Empire!
- Averted: There's no La Résistance, and the only hope lies with another state.
- Enforced:
- Nothing makes for high drama than a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits pitted against insurmountable odds.
- No matter how many times it has been said, the author wants to say once more: "totalitarianism is bad."
- Lampshaded: "Sir, there have been rumors of a resistance movement-" "Oh noooo, not again..."
- Invoked: Colonel Garrison has had enough of Evulz' atrocities, and founds the resistance to fight him.
- Exploited: A rival nation finds the revolution in the hopes that creating instability will make invasion easier.
- The rich rivals of Evulz fund a Staged Populist Uprising.
- Defied:
- Emperor Evulz devotes considerable resources to hunting down any resistance movements.
- The hero is a staunch Empire loyalist, and he spends all his time leading the counter-revolution. The climax of the story is him throwing the Rebel Leader off a bridge.
- "You've gone too far! I want nothing to do with you or your revolution!"
- "This is a cause I am willing to die for, but not one I am willing to murder for. Remember: we are reformers, not rebels."
- "The Empire gave us the aqueduct, the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, public health and brought peace while somehow still treated us with respect. Are we really gonna rebel for the sake of rebelling??"
- Discussed: "What are the chances for that resistance group we've been fighting?" "Oh, they'll win... eventually. They're the good guys here." "Then maybe we should * ahem* 'reconsider' our allegiances?"
- Conversed: "I don't see what the hell they're so mad about. The Empire gives us plenty of food and good living quarters."
- Deconstructed:
- Upon joining the resistance, the protagonist discovers they seriously lack in resources and are plagued by infighting.
- Darker and Edgier version: The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized, He Who Fights Monsters, Reign of Terror, Full-Circle Revolution.
- Morally ambiguous version: Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters.
- Akin to It Sucks to Be the Chosen One, being a resistance fighter is not as glamorous as fiction makes it seem. The rebels are outmatched and outnumbered against an authority that can snuff them out in an instant, and find themselves constantly on the run and in hiding from the authorities. They can never find a comfortable HQ because the enemy is always on the move, forcing them to sleep in the most uncomfortable places. Merchants are afraid to sell to them lest they be punished for aiding the rebels, meaning they are constantly low on resources. The rebels fear for their families, who can be killed or abducted by the authorities to leverage them over the rebels. The rebels often have to choose between morally grey actions or potentially leaving themselves vulnerable. And supposed allies often turn out to be spies, greedy opportunists, grifters, violent extremists, and other unsavory folk, so the rebels become increasingly paranoid as they do not know who they can trust.
- Reconstructed:
- An appropriately Magnificent Bastard helps unite decent resistance movements into a single big one.
- Revolutionaries, while not exactly heroic, are still far better than the Empire.
- The Rebel Leader, upon discovering these rebel atrocities, decides to hold his followers to a strict code of ethics. From this point on, any rebel caught committing warcrimes or atrocities is put to death.
- The Empire is cruel, corrupt, and inefficient enough to have a 0% Approval Rating, and because of that, vast amounts of people in the populace - and even some of the Empire's military goons and government functionaries who are disillusioned with it - are ready to help the rebels with no strings attached. While the rebels still have to deal with the hardships of being in a resistance against a much stronger power, they almost always can find someone who'd help, making their lives somewhat less difficult.
- Played for Laughs: The story is an absurdist, occassionally dark comedy where all sorts of enthusiastic but dumb Resistance members fumble and bumble their way to overthrowing the Fascist, but Inefficient Empire.
- Played for Drama: The Empire is a horrific Dystopian regime where every government loyalist is A Nazi by Any Other Name, and though the resistance faces insurmountable odds, they cannot afford not to fight it.
You might click on La Résistance, but you will never take our freedom! Fight on, my comrades!
