History Main / SparkOfTheRebellion

* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', the final warrior generation's rebellion against the Organization starts with a low-level Claymore--who isn't even named in the narrative!--refusing to follow her handler's orders and to deliver the killing blow to [[spoiler:Miria, the future RebelLeader]]. After the rest of the generation similarly feigns obedience, the latter is able to recover from her wounds and returns to rally them against their handlers.

** Following the Wano arc, we learned that Dragon's Rebellion has kicked off in earnest with a moment like this. [[spoiler: Sabo and several other high-ranking Rebels led an attack on the Reverie, a meeting of the many kings and queens of the One Piece world in the "Holy Land" of Marie Jois where those who control the world live. The Rebels shattered the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon, the ultimate symbol of the World Government's authority, in their own untouchable base of operations and successfully escaped with their lives despite being pursued by multiple Admirals. This show of both defiance and power according to the narration inspired multiple World Government-aligned kingdoms, who mostly followed out of fear of the consequences of being seen as its enemy, to denounce the WG and join with Dragon after the rebels made them look weak.]]

* ''ComicBook/BeastWarsUprising:'' Lio Convoy was already feeling doubts about the [[AbusivePrecursors Builder]] regime, but a chance encounter with Blackarachnia followed by seeing two Maximal cops harassing another Maximal for ''looking at his reflection'' finally has him decide "screw it", and join the rebellion, becoming their leader. He interrupts the next round of the Games to call on Maximals and Predacons to rise up against the Builders.

* ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'': Early in the film, Hopper explicitly points out to his gang that the grasshoppers are wildly outnumbered by the ants, and their ability to extract tribute depends on all of the ants being too intimidated to stand up to them. Sure enough, at the end, Flik, [[IronWoobie despite having taken a beating]], defies Hopper in front of everyone, triggering all the ants to turn on the grasshoppers once and for all.
* Tiny kitten Edmund from Creator/DonBluth's ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle'' dares to blare the name Chanticleer in front of the Grand Duke, and gets swatted down hard for it. Edmund's close friend Patou takes up the chant, followed by the multitude of small creatures oppressed by the Duke. Despite the villain's efforts to silence them, their chanting awakens Chanticleer's memory of his purpose in life, triggering a HeroicSecondWind that sunders the Duke.

* In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', after the events of ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' had effectively demolished the New Republic thanks to the First Order, the Resistance -- a military formed by Leia but not authorized by the New Republic -- is all that's left to continue fighting the good fight. Poe Dameron says at one point that "We [the Resistance] are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down!" This is also a CallBack to TropeNamer ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'', as described later in this page. ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' carries this forward, culminating in '''the largest fleet ever assembled''' arriving to help the heroes at the last minute, made entirely up of volunteer pilots.

* In Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert's... ''contested'' series of ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' prequels, the robot Erasmus triggers a massive uprising against the machine-run, human-enslaving Synchronized Empire by dropping a baby off a building (his motivation is a particularly twisted and useless version of ForScience).
* In ''The Final Empire,'' the first book of Creator/BrandonSanderson's [[Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy original Mistborn trilogy,]] [[spoiler:Kelsier planned out the entire heist plot of the book, including his own place as a religious figure and eventual death, to serve as this for the enslaved Skaa people of the Empire.]]

** Katniss volunteering in place of her sister to be their district's warrior tribute for a BreadAndCircuses tournament put in place by [[TheEmpire the Capitol]], which was almost unheard of in their district (as [[ButtMonkey District 12]] had only ever won the Hunger Games twice in their 73-year history). While preparing for the event, Katniss does do some things that edge on being barely acceptable in the Capitol, but the most significant thing she does is (appear to) fall in love with fellow District 12 tribute Peeta. Unknowingly, this soap opera-esque love entertains the masses of the Capitol, which causes the gamemakers to decide to change the rule about how to win the Hunger Games; you can survive with your fellow district tribute. This ultimately comes back to kick them in the teeth, because when those conditions are met and the gamemakers decide to backspace for dramatic effect, the couple attempts to commit suicide to be TogetherInDeath and prevent there from being a single winner for the games, so since that would upset the audience, the Capitol reluctantly lets the two live. The Capitol bending over just to entertain the masses ends up giving covert rebels throughout Panem a chance to begin their rebellion. It may also be mentioned that there was also a firebird motif with TropeNamer ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'', which was released after ''The Hunger Games'' series.

* In ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'' in the Thule Universe, Sebastian was informed Lily, New York's Second in Command vampire, was sending information to the rebels, so she is killed mercilessly. The seemingly emotionless Head vampire, Raphael, led thousands of Downworlders out of the peace talks with Sebastian, sparking the rebellion, and almost succeeded in killing him.

** In the latter half of the season, Cassian ends up in a six-year prison sentence on Narkina 5 [[DisproportionateRetribution for loitering]], forced into hard slave labor on an imperial construction project. Eventually, he and his shift manager Kino learn that [[spoiler: their sentence doesn't matter - it expires and the Empire just shunts them off to a different block to be worked to death]]. This causes Cassian and several of his allies to lead a riot and overthrow the guards, which eventually leads to the escape of all five thousand prisoners, one of which is Melshi, who will become a Rebel sergeant by the time of ''Rogue One''.
** Finally, the final episode of the first season has things all come to a head. [[spoiler: The Imperials are exerting their presence on a funeral procession for Maarva, already making the people of Ferix just barely hold back their contempt for them. When Maarva's final will and testament turns towards inspiring Rebel sentiment, one of the Imperial officers [[KickTheDog kicks B2EMO]], who most of the city treats as a pet, to stop the hologram from playing and it quickly devolves into an open riot, which escalates into a bloody war zone when one of the rioters - whose father was tortured to death for information he didn't know - throws a pipe bomb into the Imperial's garrison and causes a violent chain reaction. Between Nemik's manifesto, Maarva's final words and his experiences on Narkina 5, Cassian finally becomes a true believer in the cause of the Rebellion.]]
* The ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'' episode "[[Recap/CastleS4E15Pandora Pandora]]" has Dr. Nelson Blakely, a specialist in "linchpin theory", or looking for small actions that can induce large events. He claims responsibility for a lone act of civil disobedience that led to UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring. [[FailedFutureForecast (The episode aired before the Arab Spring went pear-shaped.)]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/{{Utawarerumono}}'': The spark that sets off a rebellion that overturns not one but over a dozen nations? An old woman getting accidentally killed by royal guards in a backwater, no-name farming village. The village immediately arms for war, joins forces with another village already doing the same, and then the idiot emperor starts pre-emptively slaughtering neutral villages "just in case", which leads to even ''more'' villages joining the rebellion... and it all snowballs from there.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In one episode, Katara wants to save the earthbenders from a Fire Nation's prison barge but finds trouble due to the lack of something for them to bend, so she has Aang blowing up a lot of coals from the barge's furnace, through the vents, onto the upper deck. At first, the warden stands there and gloats about how broken they are. It's not until one of the earthbenders throws a lump of coal at the alerted prison warden that the big riot starts. In the end, the earthbenders manage to escape with the Gaang.
* Referenced in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "A Better World", where in the [[BadFuture Justice Lords timeline]], Lord Green Lantern and Lord Hawkgirl go to intimidate a protest against their rule despite the police already being there to handle it, with Lantern stating that "it only takes a spark to light a fire", although it's implied that the Lords [[VictoryIsBoring are bored and just need an excuse to get out]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' is the epitome of this trope and is the TropeNamer. There's whole reason why the PilotMovie is even ''called'' "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsSparkOfRebellion Spark of Rebellion]]". True to the trope, the ''Ghost'' crew do everything they can to make life on Lothal better from TheEmpire, but the defining moment was when they liberate Wookiee prisoners from the spice mines of Kessel. Since then, their actions on Lothal would signify the start of a growing rebellion. To further deliver the punch, the season finale is titled "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS1E13FireAcrossTheGalaxy Fire Across the Galaxy]]"[[note]]Which in itself is a reference to ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'', when Yoda describes the Clone Wars conflict as spreading like fire across the galaxy.[[/note]] -- as the season ends with the rebel cells beginning to unite and people beginning to turn against the Empire, and it has served as ArcWords for the rest of the [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Star Wars reboot]].
** Ironically, the speaker of the page quote, an Imperial agent, [[spoiler:ends up joining the rebellion in Season 3, further demonstrating how powerful this trope is]].

** Finally, the final episode of the first season has things all come to a head. [[spoiler: The Imperials are exerting their presence on a funeral procession for Maarva, already making the people of Ferix just barely hold back their contempt for them. When Maarva's final will and testament turns towards inspiring Rebel sentiment, one of the Imperial officers [[KickTheDog kicks B2EMO]], who most of the city treats as a pet, to stop the hologram from playing and it quickly devolves into an open riot, which escalates into a bloody war zone when one of the rioters throws a pipe bomb into the Imperial's garrison and causes a violent chain reaction. Between Nemik's manifesto, Maarva's final words and his experiences on Narkina 5, Cassian finally becomes a true believer in the cause of the Rebellion.]]

* The ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "[[Recap/CastleS4E15Pandora Pandora]]" has Dr. Nelson Blakely, a specialist in "linchpin theory", or looking for small actions that can induce large events. He claims responsibility for a lone act of civil disobedience that led to UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring. [[FailedFutureForecast (The episode aired before the Arab Spring went pear-shaped.)]]

** Following the Wano arc, we learned that Dragon's Rebellion has kicked off in earnest with a moment like this. [[spoiler: Sabo and several other high-ranking Rebels led an attack on the Reverie, a meeting of the many kings and queens of the One Piece world in the "Holy Land" of Marejois where those who control the world live. The Rebels shattered the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon, the ultimate symbol of the World Government's authority, in their own untouchable base of operations and successfully escaped with their lives. This show of both defiance and power according to the narration inspired multiple World Government-aligned kingdoms to denounce the WG and join with Dragon.]]

* The ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "[[Recap/CastleS4E15Pandora Pandora]]" has Dr. Nelson Blakely, a specialist in "linchpin theory", or looking for small actions that can induce large events. He claims responsibility for a lone act of civil disobedience that led to UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring. [[HistoryMarchesOn (The episode aired before the Arab Spring went pear-shaped.)]]