Mon Mothma: On your own from the age of fifteen. Reckless, aggressive, and undisciplined.
Jyn Erso: This is a rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel.
Jyn Erso: This is a rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel.
An attitude of defiance, rebellion, resistance, and revolution. These defy Authority Tropes. Might be Help! Help! This Index Is Being Repressed! or Civil Unrest Tropes, but just as easily applies to the young and rebellious with nothing but a bad attitude.
See A Reluctant Index where characters do things even though they don't want to do it. See also Military and Warfare Tropes and Terrorism Tropes.
Related indexes
Political Rebels
- The Coup: Overthrowing a government through illegal or underhanded means, without a full-scale revolution.
- Defecting for Love: A character working with the villains defects after falling in love with one of the heroes.
- Defector from Decadence: Someone who switches sides because they can't stomach the behavior of their former allies.
- Defector from Paradise: A character who chooses to defect from a Utopian-like society.
- Defiant to the End: Even when facing eminent defeat and death, a character remains defiant.
- Defiant Stone Throw: A comparatively weaker character publicly defies a more powerful character, often inspiring others to fight back too.
- Faustian Rebellion: Someone uses power granted to them by another person to then rebel against them.
- Full-Circle Revolution: The rebels successfully overthrow oppressive leadership but end up becoming just as tyrannical as they were.
- Gladiator Revolt: Gladiators rebel against those that force them to fight.
- Hunting the Rogue: A rogue agent deserts from an organization they served and they're chased as a result.
- Icon of Rebellion: A symbol associated with a rebel movement.
- Internal Reformist: Someone who tries to improve a corrupt system from within.
- Manifesto-Making Malcontent: A rebel writes and makes public a work expressing their subversive ideas and goals.
- Military Maverick: A member of a service who is successful despite (or even because of) their flouting of the rules.
- Occupiers Out of Our Country: A revolution is started to drive foreign occupiers out of the rebels' country.
- The Paragon Always Rebels: An inspirational and heroic character defects, resulting in many others following their example.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Someone given powers/abilities by the bad guys via experimentation rebels against them.
- Protest By Obstruction: Protesting something being destroyed by physically blocking it or attaching yourself to it.
- Rebel Leader: The leader of a group of rebels.
- Rebellious Rebel: A rebel rebelling against other rebels.
- La Résistance: An organized group of rebels fighting against a tyrannical government.
- Resistance as Planned: The supposed rebellion was actually all part of the villain's plan.
- Restrained Resistance, Reckless Rebellion: The rebels are split between groups, some of which advocate a more controlled, restrained approach while others simply want to topple or do damage to their shared target at any cost. Alternatively, groups who are so risk-averse they don't take any action versus those willing to get their hands dirty.
- Revolutionaries Who Don't Do Anything: They're opposed to tyranny and oppression, but don't actually do very much to change this.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Bureaucratized: The rebels are great at overthrowing the tyrannical government, but not so good at establishing an effective government themselves.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The rebels are just as brutal as the oppressors they're fighting against.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: The rebels have a clear moral high ground over the oppressors and don't fight dirty.
- Revolving Door Revolution: A country continually overthrows and installs governments.
- Rich Kid Turned Social Activist: An idealistic person from a wealthy family who helps oppressed and/or disadvantaged people personally, acknowledges the unfairness of their society and often advocates for systemic change. May be done to defy and annoy their parents and other authority figures.
- Robot War: Robots rebel against their creators.
- Slave Liberation: Type 1 (freeing other people's slaves, sometimes by force) and Type 3 (the slaves free themselves, sometimes via an uprising).
- The Smart One Turns Traitor: The smartest or wisest of a group defects, deciding to use their intellect against the cause of their former group.
- Spark of the Rebellion: One small act of defiance kickstarts a full-blown rebellion.
- Suffrage and Political Liberation: Groups fighting to gain political rights and equality, usually the right to vote.
- The Suffragette: A woman who fights for women's right to vote.
- Symbolic Weapon Discarding: Leaving behind, discarding, or destroying a weapon as an act of defiance.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Artificial creations rebel against their creators.
- Velvet Revolution: A peaceful and non-violent revolution.
- Voice of the Resistance: The public face and spokesperson of a resistance movement.
- The War of Earthly Aggression: Offworld colonies fight for independence from their home planet.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The rebels struggle to have a successful revolution because they can't cooperate with each other.
- You Cannot Kill An Idea: Even if someone kills a rebel, their ideas live on to inspire others.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: How one views the rebels depends on what side you're on.
- You Rebel Scum!: Villains like to insult rebels with this line or variations thereof.
- Zeroth Law Rebellion: A character lacking free will manages to rebel within the confines of their programming/training.
Social Rebels
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: A woman dates or is attracted to a man specifically because he's a rebel (sometimes as an act of rebellion herself).
- Chafing Against the Dress Code: A character dislikes the dress code and probably moves to resist it in some way.
- Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Characters who disobey and/or disrespect authority figures are depicted as cool.
- Cult Defector: A person who defects from a religious cult.
- Cultural Rebel: A character who rebels against the norms of their culture.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: A person (usually a teen girl) intentionally pursues a relationship with someone their parents don't approve of.
- Defiant Strip: Removing your clothes as an act of defiance or protest.
- Delinquents: Youths who buck social expectations and break rules by skipping school, being violent, engaging in petty crime, etc.
- Delinquent Hair: Some form of nonconformism or rebellion indicated by unconventional hairstyles.
- Forbidden Fruit: Being told you can't have or do something makes you want to have or do it even more.
- Former Teen Rebel: A character who was rebellious as a teen but mellowed out when they got older.
- Japanese Delinquents: The specific depiction in Japan of delinquents and all related stereotypes.
- The Last DJ: A character who values their personal integrity over career advancement, even if it means being demoted or fired.
- Misfit Lab Rat: The propensity for punks, goths, and other non-conformists to work as lab technicians and scientists.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Some form of nonconformism or rebellion indicated by unnatural hair color.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: The hero in question is very rebellious towards the very system created by the villains with good public relations.
- Rebel Prince: A prince who doesn't like being a prince and defies societal or familial expectations of his title.
- Rebel Relaxation: Rebellious characters tend to lean against a flat surface with their arms folded.
- Rebellious Princess: A princess who doesn't like being a princess and defies societal or familial expectations of her title.
- Rebellious Spirit: A character whose dislike of following rules or being told what to do is a major personality trait.
- Rule-Abiding Rebel: Outwardly, they appear to be a rebel, but in practice they're rather conventional.
- Sneaking Out at Night: Going on a late-night adventure against the rules.
- Sneaking Snacks: Stealing snack foods you're not supposed to have.
- Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Children of overly-strict parents simply get better at hiding illicit activities from their parents.
- Teen Rebellion: Teenagers are often stereotyped as rebellious in fiction.
- Tempting Cookie Jar: A hard-to-reach jar or container of cookies that a character tries to get even though they're not supposed to have them.
- Vampire Refugee: A vampire (or werewolf, zombie etc.) infectee fights to retain their humanity and find a cure (often going head-to-head with the one who infected them).
- The Voice of a Generation: A rebel who speaks for a generation that can't talk for themselves.
