Line #1 Main/ToppledStatue


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9	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_iraq2003.png]]
10	[-[[caption-width-right:350:US troops pull down a statue of former ruler UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.]]-]
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15	Welcome to {{Egopolis}}, seat of power of TheEmpire! No doubt you're in awe of the mighty [[{{Sculptures}} statue]] of TheEmperor dominating the town square. This statue was built as a sign of his highness's power and control over the lands and the people of his Empire, which is why when TheHero and his friends invade the town and destroy it, you'll be treated to a dramatic shot of it collapsing.
16
17	Nothing quite puts an exclamation point on the downfall of a ruler or a kingdom like the destruction of an effigy of them. Their power and control over the people is broken and to drive it home a statue of them is shown being destroyed in a spectacular, dramatic fashion. Or alternatively, it's already been done, and the rubble of the statue is a sign of the former kingdom and its failure.
18
19	Compare MonumentalDamage, SmashTheSymbol.
20
21	----
22	!!Examples:
23
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
27	* ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'': After infiltrating the Buggrom citadel, and rescuing Fatora, Makoto and the others make their escape. During which, he asks [[PlayingWithFire Shayla Shayla]] to help [[spoiler:Ifurita, who'd been freed from Jinnai's control and using her remaining energy to cover their escape]]. One of Shayla's blasts triggers a chain reaction of explosions throughout the hive which ultimately causes Jinnai's statue to crumble as it topples over.
28	* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', Kamina's statue in Kamina City was pulled down when the people revolted.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comic Books]]
32	* In the ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' storyline "Day of Chaos", the colossal Statue of Judgement (which symbolically dwarfs the Art/StatueOfLiberty in the series) is toppled by the forces attacking Mega-City One. It's not just symbolic in this case -- the statue was the headquarters of the Judges' surveillance and electronic tracking activities and its destruction creates many blind spots in the city.
33	* ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen: The Black Dossier'' shows a statue of [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother]] being removed.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
37	* In the DistantPrologue of ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'', during the night of the Russian Revolution, an angry mob tears down a statue of the Tsar, Anastasia's father.
38	* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'' has [[spoiler:Kai tearing a statue of Oogway off its foundation with his chains, then swinging it round to destroy the Jade Palace]].
39	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', the film's opening sequence shows a great statue being erected. By the end of the film's famous Plagues sequence, it's crumbled to the ground.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
43	* In ''Film/{{Agora}}'', Christians destroy the statues in the Library of the Serapeum.
44	* In ''Film/{{Alexander}}'', the statue of Philip almost topples as it is transported into position. [[spoiler:This foreshadows his murder later in the same scene.]]
45	* ''Film/BruceAlmighty'' has a variation when Bruce watches a billboard of himself be torn down and set on fire in the midst of a riot he inadvertently caused with his careless power abuse.
46	* In ''Film/{{Confessions of Boston Blackie}}'', the body of a murder victim is concealed in a counterfeit replica statue of Augustus Caesar and revealed when the statue is toppled.
47	* The opening credits of ''Film/GoldenEye'' allude to the EndOfAnAge, the end of both the UsefulNotes/ColdWar and the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] that is, with collapsing statues of UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin and {{Sexy Silhouette}}s smashing a hammer & sickle monument, a statue of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin and other Soviet statues. An important scene in the movie involves Bond meeting a former colleague from the Cold War days in a dumping ground for all these statues.
48	* The symbolic scene in ''Film/GoodbyeLenin'' in which an old statue of Lenin is being flown away by a helicopter.
49	* Creator/KennethBranagh's adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' ends with the destruction of the statue of the old king Hamlet.
50	* In ''Film/{{Lage Raho Munna Bhai}}'', a gangster poses as a historian specialising in Gandhism but is then haunted by Gandhi himself. When he is asked in a lecture what should be done to a boy desecrating Gandhi's statue, Gandhi tells him to encourage people to topple his statue and remove his pictures, but to keep him in their hearts.
51	* In the opening sequence of ''Film/{{Die Morder sind unter uns}}'' ("The Murderers Are Among Us"), filmed in post-WWII Berlin, Susanne walks past a shattered statue of a mother and child.
52	* In ''Film/{{Naplo apamnak anyamnak}}'' ("Diary for My Mother and Father"), a statue of Stalin is toppled.
53	* ''Film/{{October}}'' starts with a toppling of a statue of Tsar Alexander III, demonstrating the overthrow of the Russian monarchy in March 1917.
54	* ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968'' has the iconic image of the partially buried Statue of Liberty, providing TheReveal that the planet is actually EarthAllAlong, and humankind fell a long time ago.
55	* The special edition of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' adds scenes of celebration upon the Death Star II's destruction and the Emperor's demise, and among them is a scene on Coruscant with a mob tearing down a statue of Emperor Palpatine in the background.
56	* ''Film/TheScorpionKing'': A large statue of Memnon at the front of his palace is destroyed when the palace gets blown up.
57	* In ''Film/{{Twilight of the Ice Nymphs}}'', Dr. Solti has lost a leg before the start of the film, after the statue of Venus fell on it. At the end of the film [[spoiler:Zephyr is crushed to death by the falling statue]].
58	* In ''Film/UlyssesGaze'', a dismantled statue of Lenin is transported up the Danube on a barge.
59	* In ''Film/{{W}}'', Barbara and [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush George Bush Sr.]] watch and discuss the overthrow of UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein: "Well, they got the statue, but now they gotta catch the man."
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Literature]]
63	* ''Literature/TheEndOfTheRaven'' ends with [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Poe]]'s cat knocking over the bust of Pallas.
64	* In the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' book ''Desecration'', protesters at the Temple Mount destroyed the golden Nicolae Carpathia statue just as it was about to be erected inside the Jewish Temple itself, signaling the coming downfall of the self-proclaimed king of the world 3 1/2 years later.
65	* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', orcs defaced a monument to a king of Gondor when they took Ithilien. They broke the head of the king off and put a boulder with Sauron's eye there instead, and wrote some ClusterFBomb runes on it.
66	* The sonnet ''Ozymandias'' by Creator/PercyByssheShelley ({{Trope Namer\|s}} for LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair) centers on this concept, a destroyed statue lying in the middle of buried ruins (based on a real one discovered in Shelley's time showing Pharoah Rameses II -- Ozymandias is his Greek name).
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
70	* The ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "[[Recap/FireflyE07Jaynestown Jaynestown]]" has an interesting variation, when Jayne discovers that he is celebrated as a Robin Hood-style folk hero by a town of slaves, complete with a statue in his likeness. By the end of the episode, Jayne's true nature is revealed to the townsfolk, and Jayne angrily pushes over the statue himself. Later, he remarks to Mal that nobody in town seemed to care what he really was, and they were probably rebuilding the statue as he spoke.
71	* PlayedForLaughs in a third-season episode of the ''Series/TheGrandTour''. Clarkson, May, and Hammond are testing European pickup trucks and decide to see if they can be used to pull over statues, specifically statues of each other's heads. [[VitriolicBestBuds Naturally, they relish the idea of destroying each other in effigy.]]
72	--> '''May:''' ''[laughing triumphantly after toppling Clarkson's head]'' He's gone! What a feeling!
73	* ''Series/JourneyToTheWest1996'' has the memorial statue of the Long Armed Ape getting dismantled when the citizens of Lei-yin decide to worship Sun Wukong instead by erecting a new statue. The Long Armed Ape is ''not'' amused, and after threatening the citizens, then decides to destroy Wukong's statue himself.
74	* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'': At the start of Season 2, after Darken Rahl's death, people in the Midlands can be seen taking down his statute to great fanfare.
75	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': At the end of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E28TheLittlePeople The Little People]]", the statue of a man who'd been lording over a [[{{Lilliputians}} microscopic civilization]] on another planet is toppled by the little people themselves after [[AlwaysABiggerFish the man is killed by a giant]].
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Music]]
79	* The music video for Tim Pool's song "[[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B-iNIwAFzPw Will of the People]]" starts with rebels about to pull down a statue of a dictator. The end of the video shows four statues set up on a wheel so that a new one instantly pops up no matter how many times they are pulled down, symbolizing the endless cycle of {{Full Circle Revolution}}s.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Video Games]]
83	* ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'':
84	** In ''Titans'', you have to destroy several statues of [[GeneralRipper General Melagius]] before dealing with him in person, in this case because smashing statues grant you gifts and bonuses.
85	** In general, destroying the statues Egyptians build to their gods will prevent them from gathering the Divine Favor resource, and in the case of worshippers of Isis it will allow the player to use divine powers against them (since Isis' monuments forbid the use of them).
86	* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'': One of the first sights in Dernholm (formerly capital of the greatest kingdom on the continent) is a statue of the king tilted at a crazy angle and lying in a mudpit. Here it's not a sign of vandalism or rebellion but simple neglect, the kingdom refusing to embrace the ways of technology (even after being defeated by a modernized army) being singlehandedly responsible for its decay.
87	* A side-quest in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' has you sneak into Hyperion's model city of Opportunity and use a hacked Constructor to destroy four big statues of the game's BigBad, egotistical Hyperion CEO Handsome Jack. In-universe, however, this doesn't necessarily detract from Jack's power, and it simply just pisses him off, swearing to build statues of him [[GroinAttack kicking you in the junk]] to replace those you've toppled.
88	* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare'': During the helicopter flight sequence of "Shock and Awe", a toppleable statue of [[TheDragon Al-Asad]] can be hit with a grenade from your door gun. [[spoiler:If you didn't hit it, it probably gets toppled later into the mission when Al-Asad detonates a nuclear bomb inside the city.]]
89	* If you proceed to the BrutalBonusLevel in ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', you can take a detour to visit a room with a statue of the Doctor (as well as the three previous bearers of the Crown). You can destroy these statues -- and they drop powerups when you do so.
90	* ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'': As a sign of how badly things have become in Pacific City, Don Domingo Garcia, one of the three ganglords ruling over the city, had a gigantic statue of himself built on the cliffside overlooking his mansion villa in La Mugre. Once you've dealt with him, the residents of La Mugre are shown tearing it down.
91	* ''Franchise/FarCry'':
92	** In the final story mission of ''VideoGame/FarCry4'', right before you confront Pagan Min, you must blow up the golden statue of him. Afterwards, Pagan himself calls you up and complains about how many artifacts he had to melt down as well as his [[BodyDouble body double]] standing in place for god-knows-how-long to pose for the statue.
93	** In ''VideoGame/FarCry5'', a gigantic statue of Hope County's local {{cult}} leader, Joseph Seed, ends up destroyed. Joseph calls [[PlayerCharacter Rook]] afterward to say he's not mad, just disappointed.
94	** The reveal trailer for ''VideoGame/FarCry6'' shows the people of [[BananaRepublic Yara]] pulling down a statue of their unpopular president, [[TheGeneralissimo Anton Castillo]].
95	* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', after starting the rebellion, one of the first things you witness is one of Breen's propaganda screens (where his HugeHolographicHead would pop up to make speeches) being toppled by the resistance.
96	* ''VideoGame/JustCause'':
97	** ''VideoGame/JustCause2'' lets you topple statues of "Baby" Panay, the president of the local republic, to decrease his control.
98	** You also do this in ''VideoGame/JustCause3'' to statues of Di Ravello, the dictator of the island the game takes place on, to liberate towns from his control.
99	* In ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', there is a building where you have to fight three of the bosses again. In the main room, there are statues of the three of them. After you defeat each one, its statue crumbles.
100	* ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}}: Playground of Destruction'' has this as an entire side quest: you earn cash and reputation points for South Korea every time you destroy a North Korean monument or statue of General Song.
101	* The "People's Ending" of ''VideoGame/RepublicTheRevolution'' features a crowd smashing the statue of Novistrana's now-former dictator.
102	* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'': After you beat each Colossus, their respective statue falls.
103	* After running from the LivingStatue of Salazar in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', it topples and takes out a bridge, forcing you to PressXToNotDie.
104	* ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'': The opening cinematic of ''Heart of the Swarm'', which is a dream or possibly a vision of the future by Kerrigan, includes a shot of the Zerg Swarm knocking over a statue of Mengsk on Korhal. In the game itself, any level that takes place on Korhal invariably has destructible icons of Mengsk for the player to attack. Including one multiplayer map, in which it is well-known for players to go out of their way to destroy the Mengsk statue even while concentrating on their opponent.
105	* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'':
106	** In the Dwarf intro to ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'', the statue of Thorin Oakenshield has been torn down by the Dourhand clan and a statue of Skorgrim, the Dourhands' ancestor, erected in its place.
107	** The Gorthaur from ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' is a giant statue depicting [[MonumentOfHumiliationAndDefeat Sauron dominating the kings of Men]]. It doubles as a gate blocking one of the few exits from Mordor, so Hirgon destroys it with dynamite to allow his people to escape. This has the added bonus of luring out one of Sauron's lieutenants for Talion to confront.
108	** The sequel to the above, ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar'', has different monuments for each of the Orc tribes. Talion can destroy them for experience points and gems.
109	* In the first mission of ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', Operation Gatecrasher, your team destroys a statue of an alien elder to show them that the resistance means business.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Western Animation]]
113	* ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
114	** In the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderSozinsCometPart2TheOldMasters Sozin's Comet, Part 2]]", King Bumi topples the statue of the Firelord as part of his reconquering of the city, while every firebender is powerless due to a solar eclipse. It should be noted that the statue is several stories tall, apparently solid on the inside and Bumi uses it to destroy the Fire Nation bridges that lead to the city.
115	** The SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' also features this trope at the end of Book 2: [[spoiler:Unalaq (fussed with Vaatu) topples Aang's statue while in giant form to symbolize the victory of the new "Dark Avatar"]].
116	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS2E9IfImDyinImLyin If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin']]", Peter lies that he's a miracle healer and people start to worship him and erect a gold statue of him, which leads to God sending plagues down upon him. This culminates in a BoltOfDivineRetribution toppling the statue, which falls on Chris (the final plague is the death of the firstborn son).
117	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E8MargeVsSSCCATAG Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays]]" has the adults of the titular group destroying every child-friendly thing in town, including toppling an Itchy and Scratchy statue as a ShoutOut to the Saddam Hussein statue mentioned below.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Real Life]]
121	* During UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, the UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity statue of George III on horseback was toppled after the Declaration of Independence. The statue was later melted down to make bullets.
122	* The statue of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin in Budapest, built as a "gift" to him by UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}} for his seventieth birthday in 1949, was torn down in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. A recreation of his shoes was built in 2006 to commemorate its destruction.
123	* The British raised a statue of Lord UsefulNotes/HoratioNelson in downtown UsefulNotes/{{Dublin}} (similar, but smaller than, a statue of Nelson in London). Many took it as a symbol of the British dominion over UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}. The IRA blew it up in 1966, and few local people complained. Then they wrote [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__3v0eKHB_s several funny songs about it]].
124	* In UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, many of the prolific statues of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek (though notably, not the massive one in his memorial) have been torn down by the public, in the two decades since the end of the half-century of dictatorship.
125	* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when UsefulNotes/{{France}} was occupied by UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and under the [[TheQuisling government of Vichy]], there were requisitions of metal (mostly to satisfy the German demands for their war effort). [[https://paris1900.lartnouveau.com/paris00/statues_de_rues1/statues_rues8.htm Many metal statues]], especially in Paris, were scrapped to that end. Those that were immediately targeted were folks whose writings etc wouldn't align well with Vichy's ideology, including the likes of Creator/{{Voltaire}} and Émile Zola.
126	* Following the end of the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], many statues of Creator/KarlMarx, UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, UsefulNotes/JosefStalin (some remaining ones after the Destalinization of TheFifties after his death at least) and other communist or Soviet figures were removed in Russia, the other former Soviet republics and the countries of UsefulNotes/{{Central\|Europe}} and Eastern Europe that used to be on the Eastern side of the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain.
127	* In UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} Taliban blew up a number of Buddha statues until 2001, including the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan dating back to the 6th century.
128	* When a statue of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher was erected in UsefulNotes/{{London}} in 2002, one protester proceeded to knock its head clean off. With a cricket bat.
129	* The overthrow of a UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein statue in UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}} in 2003 was seen as symbolic of his utter defeat.
130	* On the unveiling of a topiary likeness of Music/TheBeatles in UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}} in 2008, Music/RingoStarr was asked what he missed about living in the city and replied "Nothing, really." Scousers responded to this by cutting his head off the hedge.
131	* In response to the Neo-Nazi/White supremacy rallies in Charlottesville (ostensibly meant as protest against the removal of a [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar Confederate war monument]]), activists in Durham, North Carolina [[https://twitter.com/i/moments/897240195895967745 tore down their own local Confederate memorial, complete with kicking and spitting on the broken statue.]]
132	** The subsequent social reckoning resulted in the removal of numerous statues of slaveholders and/or Confederates, though most of those were peacefully dismantled by local authorities for contextualized display in other locations.
133	* In 2020, as part of global anti-racist protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by police in America, protesters in Bristol, England tore down a statue of 17th-century merchant Edward Colston (notorious for his involvement in the slave trade) and dumped it into the harbour. The empty plinth was subsequently occupied by a mocking effigy of Creator/JimmySavile, a bronze recreation of a BLM protestor, and a [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] figurine to commemorate the recent death of Bristolian Creator/DavidProwse.
134	* The mass scale invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} by UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} in 2022 caused several instances of this upon some remaining Soviet era and Russian monuments:
135	** Several Ukrainian memorials to the Soviet Hero Cities (which resisted the Germans during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII) were purged from the names, statues, and symbols of Russian and UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}}ian cities (since Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus is a passive ally/pawn of UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin and served as launchpad for the failed Russian assault on Kyiv in February and March 2022 and for missile attacks upon Ukraine).
136	** In Kyiv, the People's Friendship monument was dismantled in April 2022. The bronze statue depicting a Russian worker and a Ukrainian worker holding up the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples was removed (the Russian one was beheaded, while they were at it).
137	** In Chernivtsi, a Red Army soldier statue was taken down and replaced by a statue of composer Volodymyr Ivasyuk, who crated the famous song "Chervona Ruta".
138	** The statue of UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat in Odesa was dismantled on December 28, 2022.
139	** Several remaining Soviet-era memorials were destroyed in UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} and the Baltic states (in UsefulNotes/{{Lithuania}} especially) following the start of the Russian aggression.
140	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ToppledStatue