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You Cannot Kill an Idea
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Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_3'); })What is the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities, rewrite all the rules, and transform the world. Neither armies, nor dictators, nor even mortality have power over them; people die, but their ideas do not. In fiction, we get heroes dying but hope passed onto the audience by knowing that somehow his idea has lived on. Sometimes the hero is a martyr and his death is a beginning as people use it for inspiration; they are throwing off some kind of mind-breaking torture attempt to show that the forces of fascism can't control them. A book of philosophy or some diary may have survived him, or one of his inner circle may tell his tale and so the story ends on a happy note, but not too happy. Our story is sad but the tide of inevitable revolution will come. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_2'); })The Trope Namer is WWII veteran and American civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who stated that "you can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea." He was later shot dead by a Klansman but the civil rights movement endured. Super-Trope of Can't Stop the Signal. The characters who pass on the idea are likely Doomed Moral Victors. Likely to inspire an Innocent Bystander to make a Defiant Stone Throw. Compare We Are Everywhere for those bad ideas that can't be killed, As Long as There is Evil for evil in general that's can't be killed, and the "Neurovirus" or "Memetic Science" for bad ideas that deserve to die but are too sentient and/or too contagious to be killed by law of morality, man or god (and don't expect Time Travel or Villainous Rescue to fix it either). Compare the Streisand Effect. See also As Long as There is One Man. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_1'); })Examples: |
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Sherlock: In the episode, "The Reichenbach Fall", Donovan and Anderson manage to sow the seeds of doubt regarding Sherlock's authenticity as a (relatively) aboveboard detective. When Lestrade comes to warn Sherlock of his impending arrest: That's the whole point of the episode, with Moriarty managing to convince everybody that Sherlock is a fraud and that even "Moriarty" is a paid actor hired by Sherlock. He proves it by killing himself, forcing Sherlock to jump from a rooftop lest all his friends die. This is then reversed in the "The Empty Hearse" which shows that given enough time, cooler heads were able to re-examine the subject and found major faults in the original theory. Once discredited, the idea quickly dies off and when Sherlock is revealed to be still alive, the public embraces him once again as a hero. |
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Watchmen: Rorschach's Journal is heavily implied to have been published after the events of the graphic novel, revealing Ozymandias' master plan to the wide public, even though Dr. Manhattan killed Rorschach SPECIFICALLY SO THAT IT DOESN'T HAPPEN. | |
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Tactics Ogre: | |
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In Fatherland (rephrased): "Cut a clearing in the forest of your mind, the trees are just waiting to reoccupy it." | |
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After the formation of the team Dai Gurren in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kamina dies in middle of the battle against every prediction. During the rest of the series, he is remembered constantly as a role model for the main cast, especially Simon... to the point that the new futuristic city is called Kamina City. | |
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The Phantom: Go ahead, try to kill him. You might succeed, it won't help. | |
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In The Outer Limits (1995)'s episode "Final Exam", this trope is discussed in relation to the moral and environmental implications behind cold fusion bombs and the advance of technology overall. When Martin questions how Todtman reached his breakthrough with cold fusion technology before the HereWeGoAgain ending in a different university implies the same scenario will take place : | |
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V for Vendetta had an epic one near the end. After taking dozens of bullets and killing a dozen men before they could finish reloading (as per his Badass Boast), V approaches The Dragon-in-Chief, who asks, in disbelief, "Why Won't You Die?!" His response? "Beneath this mask is more than flesh; beneath this mask, there is an idea, Mister Creedy — and ideas. Are. Bulletproof." The literal bullet proof vest helped, if only for a while; he died shortly thereafter to his wounds. | |
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Bruce Wayne uses this sort of reasoning when devising his future role in Batman Begins, as advised by Henri Ducard. A man acting just by himself as a man can be killed, bribed, or discouraged, but by becoming a 'symbol', the man becomes "more than just a man"; even if he dies, the symbol lives on to inspire others. Guess what symbol Bruce eventually settles on... And it's heavily implied that Ra's Al Ghul has operated by the same principle. | |
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A saying from the Norse Poetic Edda, attributed to Odin: | |
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In MadWorld, XIII says that he wants to see an idea die. A culture. A religion. Any idea. He got his wish. The Blood Sport Deathwatch is dead. | |
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The heavily associated spin-off Faction Paradox basically is this trope. | |
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It plays out again in The Dark Knight Rises. Bruce Wayne fakes Batman's death and retires from superhero-ing, but he leaves the keys to the Bat Cave with detective John "Robin" Blake, so Blake can be the hero that Gotham needs. | |
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In Assassin's Creed I, Altaïr found out the hard way that the Knights Templar are not just Crusaders. They can also be Saracens and even Assassins as well, like his mentor, Al Mualim. As long as there are people who believe the world must be controlled in order for there to be peace, the Templar Order will never be rid of. | |
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The Dresden Files subverts this idea. The Oblivion War is an ancient ongoing war against old malevolent gods and demons who now are remembered only by a scant few mortals. If those mortals die and all records of the god are destroyed, and no one is there to take up remembering the name, then the leader of the humanity's faction can fully delete the god and information about the god from the last possible source on Earth. This then banishes the god to oblivion. One advantage for the gods' factions is even accidental knowledge of the god is enough to make a binding. So, if one put the name of a god on Twitter and tweeted it to 10 people, they would become binds to the mortal realm. They would need to die before the human's leader could act. Thankfully, Humanity's leader is patient enough to wait a thousand years to really make sure all records and knowledge are destroyed, so waiting a hundred years for these mortals to die is okay as long as they don't start spreading the name further and become liabilities or agents of the god. One saving grace of the limits to knowing this is the gods must be known by a mortal being. If a spirit of knowledge learns of the War or a god's name, it won't become a tie to the world. The novella Backup goes into a bit of detail about The Oblivion War where a side character who participates behind the main hero Harry Dresden's back. We don't get a lot of information, but since the antagonist is a cultist of said gods, and Thomas (the novella protagonist) mentioned the war has been ongoing for thousands of years, it fits. It is said in the novella, Humanity's side cannot even know how many victories and banishes they have made because even that could risk some of the defeated enemies a chance to come back.note As an interesting side note, there is zero mention of the Oblivion War in any of the main series novels, even though, according to Word of God, Thomas has been actively participating in it since the beginning of the series (and before), specifically because Thomas does not want to and cannot let Harry know anything about it: since the main series is told in First Person, the reader only knows what Harry knows. There are very subtle hints in the stories, but they have no connecting thread without the context of Backup. | |
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Cruelly subverted by Sylvanas Windrunner in her Warbringers short in World of Warcraft. The Horde has just attacked Darkshore and is about to capture Teldrassil, the Night Elves' home. Conversing with Delaryn Summermoon, a Night Elf Sentinel who is dying from her wounds, Delaryn tells Sylvanas that she has made life itself her enemy, and that's a war she'll never win because she simply can't kill hope. Sylvanas coldly responds "Can't I?", turns Delaryn's head towards Teldrassil, and orders her soldiers to burn it down.note Sylvanas had also planned to kill Malfurion Stormrage to demoralize the Night Elves, and when High Overlord Saurfang strikes Malfurion from behind and renders him unconscious, Sylvanas leaves to oversee Teldrassil's capture, ordering Saurfang to bring her Malfurion's head. Saurfang, however, refuses to kill him since his back was turned when Saurfang attacked. This allows Tyrande Whisperwind to swoop in and rescue Malfurion, leading Sylvanas to discover that Malfurion is still alive and doing the next best thing. | |
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Iron Man uses a villainous version. It's one thing if you want your idea to spread and inspire people, but what if you want to keep your idea—like, say, the key to Powered Armor—to yourself to avoid it being abused? | |
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Iron Man 2 confirms this. Iron Man's existence made the whole world realize that Powered Armor is a viable and powerful weapon. Tony initially downplays the problem because he's one of the only people who can actually make a reliable suit. Unfortunately, the villain of the movie is also smart enough to make his own suit, and he's got a grudge against Tony. | |
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On The Daily Show, Mo Rocca suggested that to adequately fight the War on Terror, what America needs is "a bomb that destroys ideas". | |
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The Twilight Zone (1959): The episode "He's Alive" has it work for both good and bad. After Peter betrays his former friend Ernst and shoots him, Ernst warns him that the ideas he fought for - equality, freedom and justice - will not die by a single bullet. At the end, when Peter dies, his spirit advisor Hitler returns to the shadows to find another to guide. Rod Sterling then warns the audience that the ideas Hilter fought for - oppression, hatred and prejudice - are also ideas that will exist so long as people continue to allow them to. | |
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Unfortunately, the same can be said for the Blood Red King, Amnesty's fiercest rival and the most feared villain in the Global Guardians universe: he is the Anthropomorphic Personification of Terror, Despair, and Man's Inhumanity to Man... something that has proven just as impossible to kill as hope. | |
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Invoked in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Ulfric Stormcloak. Partially subverted if you complete the Imperial Legion questline, as while there would still be holdouts, most would eventually lay down their arms and return to their homes. | |
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Averted in Nineteen Eighty-Four, in an inversion of the inspirational "the hero lives on" type of endings: Winston is allowed to live long enough to be forced to admit that he really does love Big Brother before being killed, so the audience knows that in no way were the ideas of The Party overcome. In fact, the entire concept of Newspeak is meant to defy this trope, by systematically eradicating even the words that could express ideas such as liberty, rebellion, or individuality, which run counter to the ideological orthodoxy of the Party. | |
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The Dark Knight Trilogy: Bruce Wayne uses this sort of reasoning when devising his future role in Batman Begins, as advised by Henri Ducard. A man acting just by himself as a man can be killed, bribed, or discouraged, but by becoming a 'symbol', the man becomes "more than just a man"; even if he dies, the symbol lives on to inspire others. Guess what symbol Bruce eventually settles on... And it's heavily implied that Ra's Al Ghul has operated by the same principle. It plays out again in The Dark Knight Rises. Bruce Wayne fakes Batman's death and retires from superhero-ing, but he leaves the keys to the Bat Cave with detective John "Robin" Blake, so Blake can be the hero that Gotham needs. |
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In It Can't Happen Here, the totalitarian government never completely stamps out people's longing for freedom and dignity. Revolts erupt across America as people take back areas from Haik's forces. Doremus, in particular, exemplifies this trope, continuing the struggle after having lost loved ones, endured torture and incarceration, and lived in lonely exile. | |
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The Stormlight Archive: Spren are living ideas. The more common ones are things like wind and rot and anger, but more powerful and intelligent ones are spirits of honor and lies and law. Normally, killing any of these is essentially impossible, but there is one way to kill them on an individual level: When they bond with a human (which grants that person special powers), the spren gains the ability to maintain their sentience in the Physical Realm, but they also become vulnerable. If the human does not hold to their oaths (the precise oath varies depending on the spren), the spren will weaken and eventually lose their sentience. Actively breaking their oaths will actually kill the spren. They can be brought back if the human re-swears their oaths. The spren who were bonded to the old Knights Radiant were all killed during the Recreance when all the knights broke their oaths at once. Since the spen were also their Shardblades, they were locked in that form when they died, and the kingdoms of the world have been using the corpses of spren as the most dangerous and valuable objects for millennia. A non-Radiant can bond with a Blade, giving the spren a simulacrum of life for a moment (enough to be summoned and dismissed at will), but no more. Truly bringing them back to life has been implied to be possible but very difficult, as their original bonded knights are long dead. According to Word of God, it would not only require a wielder of the dead blade to swear the oaths of the order of the Knights Radiant the spren was associated with but something more to forge a new bond with the spren and heal their mostly destroyed minds.. |
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In The Sandman, is is establish that the Seven Endless are capable of being killed (the methods and logistics being as archaic and eldritch as the Endless themselves), but should the current incarnation of the Endless be killed, they will be replaced with a new one because the Endless are the Anthropomorphic Personifications of abstract concepts that permeate the universe. This first happened with Despair and later with Dream, Morpheus having his place taken by Daniel as the new incarnation of Dream. It is even implied that this will happen with every Endless (with the exception of Death, of course) before the universe ends. | |
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Invoked in Secret City: | |
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Far Beyond the Stars". Benjamin Sisko, dreaming that he's a science fiction writer in the 50s, reacts rather badly to having his story pulped because it has a black Captain. | |
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In Mass Effect 3 the Illusive Man cites this trope as the reason Cerberus will never fall, even with their headquarters in ruins and their forces scattered. | |
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V for Vendetta: The anarchist title character, to Eric Finch, who's just shot him: | |
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The Aviators song "Bulletproof" is all about this: "You can shoot me down, but you're never gonna hide the truth / 'Cause words are bulletproof." | |
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Equilibrium: "A heavy cost. I pay it gladly." Partridge refuses to give in to Preston, deconstructing the meaning of a system without emotion. Being aware that he has just committed a sense offence, he faces death in the most composed way possible as a form of his defiance, because he'd rather die for his beliefs than be committed to a corrupted establishment. Fair to say, his words continue to reverberate as Preston unravels the truth and the Resistance gain a chance to seep through. | |
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The Victoria Games by Paradox Interactive, spanning from the early 19th century (specifically, 1836) to right before World War II has this in the game-play where your population will get silly ideas such as minimum wages and universal suffrage on their minds. Starting revolts if the pressure of having enough people saying they want it isn't enough. Victoria 2 adds a suppression mechanic to stop ideas you find dangerous. However, it is a temporary reprieve—the suppressed movement will most likely show up again after a few years and be more radical and inclined to violence. |
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Bruce Wayne isn't the only one who's taken on the role of Batman. Many incarnations of the character support the theme of Batman being more of an idea than a single person (especially The Dark Knight Trilogy). | |
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Iron Man: Iron Man uses a villainous version. It's one thing if you want your idea to spread and inspire people, but what if you want to keep your idea—like, say, the key to Powered Armor—to yourself to avoid it being abused? Iron Man 2 confirms this. Iron Man's existence made the whole world realize that Powered Armor is a viable and powerful weapon. Tony initially downplays the problem because he's one of the only people who can actually make a reliable suit. Unfortunately, the villain of the movie is also smart enough to make his own suit, and he's got a grudge against Tony. Vanko believes he has killed an idea, having attacked (and nearly killed) Tony. The idea, specifically, being that Iron Man can't be beaten; "If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him. There will be blood in the water, the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit back and watch as the world consumes you." He's kind of right, and much of Tony's Character Arc in the later MCU films demonstrate his increasing inability to keep things from spinning out of control despite his best intentions. |
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A villainous example from the finale of Star vs. the Forces of Evil: After Mina Loveberry and her genocidal army are de-powered, most of the heroes let her leave out of pity, except for an anonymous archer who simply shoots her. The first shot fails to connect, and Mina convinces her (in her unique words) that it wouldn't matter if she succeeded. | |
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One Piece: Both Gold Roger and Dr. Hiruluk died embracing this ideal. Gold Roger manages to start the Golden Age of Piracy. In the face of a Marine victory which could have snuffed out the Golden Age of Piracy, Whitebeard, with his last breath, proclaims that Roger's treasure does exist, thus reigniting the idea once more. The Marines were not happy with this. The villains of the Fishman Island arc attempt to invoke this, hoping to have their grudge against humans carry to the next generation by killing as many people as they can (humans and Fishman alike) when it looks like they're not going to win. As it turns out, you can kill an idea, if you do it with a contrary one. Luffy's human (though we use that loosely) crew fighting to protect Fishman Island causes that idea to blow up in their faces. |
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Parodied in Futurama: | |
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Happens in Code Geass. Lelouch's ideals were to fight against injustice and tyranny caused largely by the Britannian Empire. Later, he causes changes in the empire itself, and in the end helps make the world a better place for almost everyone, at the cost of his life and reputation, while passing on the torch of Zero to Suzaku. Earlier in the second season, Lelouch pulls off a Moment of Awesome by exploiting this trope. When cutting a deal with the Britannians, they want to know if he's the original and he gets them to agree that it doesn't matter, because anyone who wears the costume and espouses the beliefs is "Zero". Then when the Britannians announce that they're formally exiling Zero from Japan, a million of his supporters put on Zero costumes, meaning the Britannians are forced to exile all of them, giving him a million-strong army (the only reason why that same million isn't just exterminated on the spot on the off chance that the real Zero is among them and to give all other rebels a lesson (and they were seriously entertaining the idea) is because the one in charge (Suzaku) still held a degree of Honor Before Reason and had given his word that this agreement would be upheld no matter what). |
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In 300, Xerxes angrily declares that once he defeats the Spartans, he will completely destroy them and wipe out any trace of them from history. | |
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Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: This is one of Kreia's favorite tropes. She points out that killing men is easier than killing belief and that Revan, in the process of fighting the Mandalorians, adopted Mandalorian tactics and their intolerance for the "weak." She also points out that every time the Jedi and Sith fight each other to near-extinction, the ideals of either side still remain as strong as ever, waiting for their chance to strike back in revenge and dooming the galaxy to endless warfare. Subverted with Kreia herself. Not being the most social woman, her worldview ultimately died with her, since the only person she bothered teaching it to didn't share it (plus she had a nasty habit of killing those to whom she preached). No other character in the Star Wars universe ever expresses the same view on the Force ever again. |
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Mage: The Ascension inverts it too. This from the Revised Void Engineer splatbook: One Deviant told me that I could take his life, but I could never kill his dreams. This was incorrect. The standard protocol for killing an RD’s dreams requires two sniper/spotter teams with Primium hypervelocity weapon loads, and an officer operating a hyperdimensional field generator. Let’s practice now. | |
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Played with in Dogma, where Rufus comments that "ideas" are malleable and can change and possibly even die out. "Beliefs," which are strengthened ideas, are much harder to even change, let alone kill. It also places a spin on it in that the fact that a belief is hard to 'kill' is not necessarily a good thing if the belief is not a good one, or if the belief has become an overly rigid dogma. | |
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Evil example done in the prologue to Shadowchasers: Conspiracy; in a flashback set in 1945 during the siege of Berlin, an American Chaser named Anderson Steading and two others have cornered a Nazi officer who is, in reality, an illithid. | |
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Doctor Who: "The Christmas Invasion": The Doctor was able to destroy a prime minister with this trope. He only needed to say six words to an aide. "Don't you think she looks tired?" He doesn't die (quite the opposite, really), and the PM isn't necessarily evil, but he does use the principle of an idea being unkillable. "The Satan Pit": The Doctor references the trope when he confronts the Beast's body and realizes it's an Empty Shell, with the Beast attempting to escape by sending its mind away inside someone. While the mind may not be as powerful as it would be inside its own body, it could still spread the evil throughout the universe, knowing how hard it is to defeat an idea. "Rosa": The antagonist, a Politically Incorrect Villain from the far future, is trying to kill an idea by derailing the American Civil Rights Movement. He can't literally kill anyone due to a Restraining Bolt, so he has to resort to other methods, while the Doctor and company work to stop him. |
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Braveheart: William Wallace, right after being racked, stretched by horses, and disemboweled, defiantly yells "FREEEEDOOOOOOMMM!" | |
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Invoked in Deus Ex when the terrorist leader says 'You can't fight ideas with bullets'. A running theme throughout the game. "A single artist, a single general, a single hero or a single villain may all die, but it is impossible to kill a people, a nation, an idea—except when that idea has grown weak and is overpowered by one that is stronger." —The Doctrine of the Mighty | |
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In the Eighth Doctor Adventures, a group of Time Lords (the Celestis) take this concept literally, and convert themselves into ideas for this very reason. Unfortunately for them, a later book reveals that the Whoniverse also contains creatures which can kill—and eat—ideas. The heavily associated spin-off Faction Paradox basically is this trope. |
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In Casablanca, Victor Lazslo tries to assert this about La Résistance against the Nazis. The film itself does a good job of illustrating the concept. Unfortunately, Those Wacky Nazis also have ideas and ones that Lazlo is kinda, you know, trying to kill. | |
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In F-Zero GP Legend, before his base is destroyed, Black Shadow yells that he'll never die, nor will his dreams. Captain Falcon responds by Falcon Punching him. | |
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In Assassin's Creed II, one of the Codex pages reveals that Altaïr mused on this subject more than once, noting that the Templars waged war by seeking to win over the hearts and minds of people with ideas, rather than more conventional weapons. This made it rather difficult for the Assassins to fight back... But it also makes it rather difficult for the Templars to exterminate them. | |
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In And Quiet Flows the Don, Podtyolkou the Bolshevik says this right before his execution, telling the crowd that they'll be sorry later and that all Russia will be Bolshevik. | |
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Mage: The Awakening: Inverted — you quite literally can go into the collective Dream Land of humanity's subconscious, find the embodiment of an idea, and kill it. The most powerful archmages can snuff out a concept from every mind on Earth in this way. | |
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In Dr. Stone, Tsukasa kills Senku after the latter refuses to give up science when they awaken after having turned to stone for the past 3700 years. Tsukasa fears that Senku's plans to use science to revive adults and bring back the corruption they inherently had would ruin the new stone world they found themselves in. However, Senku manages to survive the assassination attempt, and is amazed at a man named Chrome who had collected various items throughout his life, being fascinated by things and doing primitive experiments on them. Senku realizes that even had Tsukasa of killed him, he couldn't have been able to stop everyone who like Chrome, was innately curious about how the world worked. And sooner or later, humanity would rediscover much of the science and technology that had been lost from the old world. | |
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One of the Madness talents in Don't Lose Your Mind grants you a knife that can cut, sever or kill anything, including ideas. There's always a ritual quality to such an act — dubbed memeticide — for instance, slitting Fidel Castro's throat would kill the idea of Communism in Cuba, meaning the idea not only gets forgotten but loses all momentum and will never be taken seriously anymore. That being said, the knife can also cut off flaws, sever abusive relationships, and kill personal demons. | |
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Belisarius Series: Used first seriously and then humorously. Belisarius starts a rumor about sexual prowess and general horniness of the Kushans in order to get Kungas and his men pulled away from their guard duty of a captured princess. Their incompetent replacements are easily dispatched and allow her to be rescued. Later, once the confused Kushans find out about the origin of the rumor, they then take delight in spreading it themselves. | |
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The Matrix features this trope quite heavily. The idea that the human mind cannot truly function without a real choice plays into the design of the Matrix itself and the cycle of the One as a means for the machines to keep the human population under control. The entire trilogy revolves around breaking this control for true freedom. | |
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay has Katniss telling president Snow that the rebellion will never submit to him, regardless of his atrocities. There are also scenes where this promise of Katniss get validated by many impressive heroic sacrifices. | |
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In Babylon 5, at the climax of the Vorlon-Shadow War Delenn and Sheridan point out that, even if they and their coalition are killed, their assertion that the younger races no longer need the First Ones is true. All the First Ones can do is subjugate them, not "teach" them as the two sides insist they want to. | |
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Assassin's Creed: In Assassin's Creed I, Altaïr found out the hard way that the Knights Templar are not just Crusaders. They can also be Saracens and even Assassins as well, like his mentor, Al Mualim. As long as there are people who believe the world must be controlled in order for there to be peace, the Templar Order will never be rid of. In Assassin's Creed II, one of the Codex pages reveals that Altaïr mused on this subject more than once, noting that the Templars waged war by seeking to win over the hearts and minds of people with ideas, rather than more conventional weapons. This made it rather difficult for the Assassins to fight back... But it also makes it rather difficult for the Templars to exterminate them. Taken Up to Eleven in Assassin's Creed III by Haytham Kenway when fighting Connor; while the Assassins are literally born of lifetimes of discipline and self-study, the Templars grow like weeds no matter what the Assassins do because Evil Is Easy and Evil Pays Better. The Templars are even more resilient than the Assassins because they're not even an idea—they're the absence of one. |
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Inception addresses this and emphasizes why it is so hard to plant one. The title refers to the act of doing so, but the main obstacle is that the subject has to believe it's their own idea for it to stick. The next complication is that the idea will grow to define their entire life... even to suicidal extremes. | |
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Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Rightful Heir": Chancellor Gowron talks about the symbolic effect of the return of the Klingon God-Emperor. Later in the episode, the same argument is used to convince Gowron to let Kahless be a figurehead Emperor rather than oppose him. When Kahless counters that this Kahless is a clone, Worf points out that it won't matter to a good number of Klingons, who will still see it as reincarnation and would only result in fracturing the Empire. Gowron is forced to, reluctantly, kneel before Kahless (even though Gowron is still in charge). In the two-part episode "Birthright", Worf discovers a Romulan prison camp where Klingons and Romulans have learned to live together in peace. However, he finds that the Klingon children are not informed about their heritage. The Romulan leader, Tokath, finds him a threat to this peace and demands that Worf stop or else he'll get executed. Worf tells him he is content to Face Death with Dignity for this reason. |
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