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The Sons and the Spears
- 125 statements
- 23 feature instances
- 9 referencing feature instances
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An old story, Older Than Feudalism. The story goes something like this: There is a king, said king has several sons. They don't get along. Fearing for the safety of his kingdom, the king decides to teach his sons a valuable lesson. So he gathers his sons together and he tells them that he has a task for them: the son who can complete the task shall succeed him. He then takes out a bundle of spears (alternatively sticks or arrows) and asks his sons to break them. When none of his sons succeed he then takes the spears one by one and breaks them, thus impressing on his sons that in unity there is strength. This is, as said, an old story, and various versions exist. It is also one that is relatively often referenced in various media. Compare Thicker Than Water and Divided We Fall. |
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| The Sons and the Spears / int_10861ce9 | comment |
In The Smurfs episode "The Smurfs' Time Capsule", Papa Smurf has Hefty gather a bundle of sticks due to the riddle in the time capsule saying "A stick by itself is too weak; it's sticks in a bundle you seek". With the sticks, Papa Smurf has Hefty break one of the sticks, then him trying to break the whole bundle at once. When Hefty finds out that he can't, Papa Smurf discovers the meaning behind the riddle, that in the unity of the Smurfs there is strength to resist. | |
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A Bug's Life uses a variation with pieces of grain. Hopper, the grasshopper villain, tosses a seed at a henchman, saying "Let's pretend this grain is a puny little ant." It bounces off the mook's chest, and he's fine, because grasshoppers are much bigger than ants. Next, Hopper triggers a slide of grain onto another henchman, crushing him, to demonstrate the power ants have in groups. Given that the film is a loose adaptation of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, this is probably a Shout-Out to Ran. | |
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Together is set in a Stockholm commune where cooked porridge is served on a regular basis for economical reasons, much to the kids' dismay. Goeran tries to sugarcoat the meal to them by comparing the porridge to commune life: | |
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Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The Roman usage of this trope (see below under Real Life) makes the name 'Caesar' a very meaningful one. | |
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The Simpsons: In "The Haw-Hawed Couple" Martin Prince gives a speech to this effect. | |
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In A Silent Voice, the teacher explains with chop sticks how the whole class is stronger if they hold together and include the deaf-mute New Transfer Student Nishimiya. | |
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Done in Red Cliff, by Zhou Yu with a handful of reeds intended to be woven into footwear, using the resulting strength of woven sandals as a metaphor for Shu and Wu banding together against Cao Cao's forces. | |
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A Practical Guide to Evil: As a symbol of her power, First Prince Cordelia Hasenbach uses a wooden baton made to look like a bunch of twigs tied together - symbolizing the 20+ principalities that make up the Principate of Procer and their strenght in unity. | |
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The Boys (2019). Billy Butcher gives his quarreling teammates a pep talk about how the Spice Girls were nothing on their own but great as a team. Whether it works is questionable, but at least the Boys can agree on the fact that their leader gives awful pep talks. | |
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In the first Galaxy Angel game, Tact tries to use this metaphor with arrows in a scene with Ranpha, trying to explain why they fled from a battle hoping for reinforcements. Ranpha, however, is strong enough to break the bundle as well, and she instead takes heart from the assurance that next time, she's strong enough to plow through the enemy and any of their reinforcements, no matter how many of them appear. Tact simply rolls with it. | |
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Yousei Daisensou ~ Touhou Sangetsusei: The Three Mischevious Fairies completely miss the point: | |
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The Ultimates (2015) has the Blue Marvel offer a rebuttal to the trope's origins in Rome. He says a bundle of sticks are essentially dead and brittle, and that true strength comes from trees together as a forest, living and deeply rooted. | |
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Genesis of Aquarion mentions the Japanese version by name. | |
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Used as a metaphor for family in David Lynch's The Straight Story, with Alvin convincing a pregnant teenage runaway to go back home to her family, who will eventually understand. Within Alvin's own narrative, it reinforces his plot-driving need to reconnect with his estranged brother. | |
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In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, during the fifth trial, Touko Fukawa references this proverb when the group discusses how the titanium arrows could have been bound together and made into a bludgeoning weapon. | |
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Iron Fist (2017). Colleen Wing is shown giving this speech to her martial arts students. Subverted with The Reveal that they are all members of the Hand cult, and her students turn against Colleen when she tries to disobey the Hand. | |
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| The Sons and the Spears / int_76c01b30 | comment |
Adam Susan in V for Vendetta makes reference to the Roman version of this trope (see Real Life below) during an internal monologue to justify the Fascist dictatorship he has forced upon the British - as one arrow will snap easily but a bundle will not, the survival of Britain as a whole must always come before the rights and freedoms of individual citizens. | |
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In The Mummy: The Animated Series, Alex is training with some other Medjai and they're given a bundle of arrows and told to break it, which none of them can. This does not work; a Jerk Jock keeps setting Alex up to fail training exercises until a real problem comes up and they become Fire-Forged Friends. | |
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In Vision of the Future, the batlike alien Qom Jha quote a proverb at Luke and Mara to the tune of many vines woven together being far stronger than the same number of vines used separately. | |
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In Brave, Elenor illustrates the point to Merida with the story of the four brothers. A king left his kingdom to his four sons to rule together. She sets up a chessboard supported by four pieces to represent the four brothers holding up the kingdom. When one brother became greedy and sowed discord and fought with his brothers, the kingdom fell. She knocks one of the pieces out and the entire board falls over. | |
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In Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, one Optional Boss, Zeus possessing Elizabeth, references this trope when mocking the protagonist as "One who lives not for thyself, but as a lone twig in a fasces" before expressing disdain for the idea of banding together instead of doing as one pleases. | |
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The Bible: Ecclesiastes 4:12 - Also, if one attacks, two can stand up to him. A threefold cord is not readily broken! | |
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Alluded to in Yakitate!! Japan when Kirisaki and Yukino discusses about the merits of sending the Hiroshi Kaname, Shizuto Narumi and Go Chimatsuri against Pantasia for the Saito battle. The three members of CMAP are individually very skilled, but really don't get along and spend almost every single moment together bickering. Kirisaki mentions the proverb about arrows being harder to break when bundled, but immediately dismisses it, saying that arrows are meant to be fired individually and whether or not it's more fragile is irrelevant. He meant that as long as the three St. Pierre representatives are given tasks that play to their strength without hindering the other members, they can still achieve great things in spite of their lack of chemistry. Although the fact that the three ends up losing the battle against Pantasia seems to prove that the original proverb's interpretation of unity and The Power of Friendship is the right one after all. | |
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