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Defiant Stone Throw

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Loki: Kneel before me. I said... KNEEL! [people in the crowd kneel] Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation ... In the end, you will always kneel.
Old German Man: [slowly stands up] Not to men like you.
Loki: There are no men like me.
Old German Man: There are always men like you.

So the villain is going on an evil speech about how now everyone must despair and obey or die... Only to get a rock to the head from a Muggle or Innocent Bystander. Rather than be paralyzed with fear, the meekest make a very brave, but mostly harmlessnote  gesture of defiance against a dangerous foe whom they have every reason not to piss off. For extra trope points, it'll be a child, old person, or someone who is completely unintimidating. For double bonus points, it will be someone previously shown to dislike the hero or badmouth them.

The symbolism here is pretty direct: even when in the face of overwhelming opposition and defeat, people are still capable of bravery and dignity.

Despite the trope name stones aren't always used, sometimes it's trash or even Produce Pelting. If even that is hard to come by, the (at this point) Heroic Bystander may just use a well-timed Shut Up, Hannibal!, saying that they reject their rule, believe in the hero, and that even The Hero's defeat will only embolden them to fight for themselves. This may lead to the rock thrower getting killed, a pro-hero riot starting, the villain getting distracted (and the hero taking advantage) or the release of the hero to finish the battle. In some cases, the civilian has no rock and instead uses trash, or does something equally impressive like standing during a Kneel Before Zod exchange.

See also Spirit Bomb, Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?, Least Is First (the lowest-status character steps forward first, shaming the higher-status ones into supporting a course of action). Boulder Bludgeon is when the character actively uses rocks as a weapon.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Has Tanjiro doing this to Giyu to stop him from Stabbing Nezuko to death What was Giyu's response? He stabbed Tanjiro almost to death, which knocks him unconscious.
  • In Dragon Ball's Bad Future there is a panel where an old man hits Android 17 in the face with a rock after surviving the destruction 17's supposedly weaker sister unleashed on his city by virtue of not being noticed. 17 compliments his aim before killing him.
  • Taken to a more close up version in Hokuto no Ken when a child mourning for Shuu's death at Thouther charges at him with a knife in a bid to kill him. His blade manages to hit him in the knee in which he was unfazed by the injury before being shouted down by Thouther for showing a futile display of love for Falco and lecturing him on how Virtue Is Weakness.
  • s-CRY-ed done by a little kid against a teenager with superpowers fits the spirit of the trope, but its also done to show the teen's Hidden Depths. The teen praises the boy's bravery in contrast to the cowering adults.
  • Happens in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann with a side order of Values Dissonance: Rossiu is surrounded by armed guards telling an angry crowd to calm down when a rock hits him in the head. We never see who threw it, but a shot in the next episode shows a man in a crowd with a mustache doing the Bicep-Polishing Gesture, which Fanon holds is the one who threw it.
  • In The Twelve Kingdoms: A girl named Shoukei throws a rock at a guard in protest of a particularly horrific public execution, leading to her being pursued through the city streets. The event becomes significant later, as it puts her in touch with The Heroine Yoko and a group of mercenary resistance fighters. This is made even more significant in Shoukei's Character Development as Shoukei's father, the former tyrant of a nearby kingdom, had an old woman's son executed for doing the exact same thing, and when said old woman told Shoukei this, she defended her father - it probably didn't help that she was in denial and being beaten by said grieving mother. Via being the only one who protested against said execution, Shoukei was showing how she was outgrowing her selfish behavior and was willing to do something against such injustice.

    Arts 
  • "Stone, the weapon of the proletariat", a famous Soviet monumental sculpture by Ivan Shadr, depicting an angry emaciated man grabbing the titular boulder and preparing to throw it. The title phrase itself became a proverb in Russian.

    Comic Books 
  • Mighty Avengers (2013): During the events of Infinity, Proxima Midnight unleashes a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Luke Cage. A nearby old lady throws a brick at her, yelling "fascist" (though another bystander tries to correct her that technically, they're cosmic nihilists). Since Proxima is Nigh-Invulnerable, it just annoys her. Doesn't stop lots of others throwing stuff at her till Luke Cage gets back up.
  • In Millennium (1988), a Manhunter is psyching out Green Lantern Hal Jordan during a fight at how his cause is worthless and the people he is defending are nothing but sheep to their "superiors." This gets to Jordan as his will begins to fade and thus also his ring's power until it almost goes out. However, one of the humans he is defending blindsides the Manhunter with a thrown snowball noting that she will defy him. From that outburst, Green Lantern's faith in his cause is restored and the ring's power shifts from fading out to blazing fury, curb stomping the Manhunter.

    Fan Works 
  • MCU Rewrites: In Age of Ultron: Redux, during Ultron’s attack on Sokovia, when the android claims that he will take away people’s hope, a little girl throws a rock at one of his drones.
  • In My Hero Playthrough, Inko uses her Quirk to pull Overhaul's mask towards her before she's rescued, ensuring the mask snaps back when she disappears.
  • In Origin Story, Typhoid Mary smacks down Louise first, knowing that it's Alex who is the true threat. Mary then proceeds to put a serious hurt on Alex and completely ignoring the fact that Louise is even still in the room. This turns out to be a big, big mistake on Typhoid Mary's part.

    Film — Animation 
  • Lampshaded in A Bug's Life. Even though they've got enough food for the winter, Hopper insists on his gang of grasshoppers going back to intimidate the ant colony as usual, because a single ant (the protagonist Flik) stood up to him. To demonstrate why, he throws a seed at one of the dissenting minions and asks if that hurt. The minion laughs it off. He throws a second seed, which is also laughed off. Then Hopper knocks the lid off the seed container and buries them under a huge pile of seeds.
    Hopper: You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there goes our way of life! It's not about food, it's about keeping those ants in line. That's why we're going back!
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has an astonishing double bonus. Pre-teen girl Marlene tosses a Materia Orb at Yazoo to stop him from finishing off Tifa once he KOs her. It works, but only because he decides to take the Materia instead.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Leonidas' final scene in 300 is an elaborate one of these. While it is debatable whether he meant for the spear to just wound Xerxes or to kill him, he does make good on his earlier statement that "even a God-King can bleed".
  • In A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, David is captured, and about to be executed in the Flesh Fair. But since David has a sense of self-preservation, he cries out for help. When the crowd starts wondering if he's a real child or not, the circus master gives an impassioned speech about how the machines are starting to replace the children, and therefore, should be destroyed. He ends the speech with a calm "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone." A man stands up and throws a stone... at the circus master. The rest of the crowd quickly follows suit.
  • In The Avengers, an older German refuses to bow to Loki, saying he remembers the pettiness of those who force others into submission.
  • Subverted in The Forgotten Battle. When the Germans are withdrawing from the town earlier in the film, Dirk is taking photographs of the withdrawing soldiers when one storms over and angrily smashes his camera. Hot-blooded and defiant, young Dirk throws a rock through the windshield of a German truck, striking the driver in the face and causing the vehicle to veer off the road into some of the marching infantry. This results in three deaths. Dirk escapes the vengeful Germans but they return to the town, vowing to execute hostages if Dirk does not step forward. This results in the capture and execution of Dirk and several other Resistance members, and few people in town are impressed by the act.
  • In The Hunger Games film, after Rue's death a man starts attacking the peacekeepers (who basically act as an armed force of Jerkasses). A full-scale riot occurs after that.
  • In Kung Fu Hustle, after getting beaten to a pulp by The Beast, the hero still manages to whap him on the head with a small piece of wood.
  • At the end of Matilda, the children all start throwing the contents of their lunchboxes and water balloons at the defeated Trunchbull.
  • None Shall Escape: When Wilhelm has been arrested on suspicion of raping Anna and Father Warecki tries to get the lynch mob to disperse, Jan tosses a stone at Wilhelm. It hits his left eye, causing him to lose it.
  • Spider-Man Trilogy:
    • In Spider-Man, a bridge full of passer-by pelt the Green Goblin with trash to buy Spidey the time to save a wire car from falling.
    • In Spider-Man 2 the passengers of a train Spidey just saved stand together to keep Octopus from reaching the hero, even though they are easily knocked aside.
  • In the Prisoner of War film Stalag 17, the Commandant of the camp is standing on some boards to keep his boots nice and clean during the morning speech after two prisoners were killed trying to escape. While the Commandant was speaking ill of them and saying in a condescending tone how he will show how nice he is after this "incident" by letting the men have warm baths for lice, a Christmas Tree, and there might even be snow, one prisoner throws not a stone but an ocarina from another prisoner into the mud puddle to dirty the Commandant's boots he worked to keep nice and clean by walking on planks of wood on the muddy ground set out just for him.
  • In Superman II, the residents of Metropolis march on the three Kryptonians when it seems like Superman was killed, despite the fact they could wipe them out with a single look.
  • In Watchmen this happens during one of the crowd scenes, with the Comedian and the second Nite Owl.

    Literature 
  • In The Black Magician Trilogy when the affluent magicians go out into the town people will throw stones at them non stop. Since they can just put up a magical barrier this isn't a problem... until the main character's natural ability shows itself by throwing a stone through that barrier with no problem.
  • Mentioned several times in Discworld:
    • In Night Watch, where Vimes notes that "unarmed civilians" can be decidedly dangerous once they pry a few cobblestones off the street and a number of tradesman's tools are basically nastier versions of military weapons.
    • Worth noting is that when Lord Rust orders Vimes' men to fire arrows over the top of the barricade in response to a fairly minor hail of missiles, Vimes lays him out flat with one punch and tells his men to simply move out of stone-throwing range.
    • Thud!: When Vimes and company investigate a murder claim in a dwarven compound, a group of unruly dwarves show up to protest. One of them throws a half brick and knocks out the dwarf officer Vimes brought with him and in a subversion of the "harmless" aspect of the trope, ultimately kills him.
  • The Elenium: An odd example, in that the "harmless" object is an axe. It's thrown at a giant statue inhabited bynote  a god, though, and so is incapable of doing any actual harm—but it distracts said god just enough, at just the right moment.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire this happens after the Battle of the Blackwater, when the Lannisters have defeated Stannis with the aid of the Tyrells. When some of Stannis' defeated troops are brought in, a Florent bastard tells Joffrey his time will come and is beheaded. However a knight of Stannis then truthfully says Joffrey is born of incest and calls on the people to act against him. When Joffrey orders their death he cuts himself on the Iron Throne (it is believed if a ruler cuts themselves on the Iron Throne it has rejected them), and the man continues to shout defiantly as he is killed.
  • In The Spirit Rebellion, towards the end Eli convinces the spirits of the town to rise up against the Duke that is enslaving them. They are too afraid at first until one roofing tile launches itself at the duke, triggering all the other spirits to join in It turns out to be a subversion as Eli's adoptive father actually threw the stone to motivate the others.
  • In The Witcher short story The Lesser Evil, after Geralt kills Renfri in defense of the villagers of Blaviken, they, quite ironically, proceed to pelt him with stones, thinking him nothing more than a murderer. Geralt survives unscathed due to a timely Quen Sign, however, he is forced out of Blaviken and awarded with the epithet "The Butcher of Blaviken".

    Live-Action TV 
  • On Game of Thrones, King Joffrey gets a hunk of excrement thrown at him when passing a crowd. The scene quickly dissolves into a riot where several secondary characters are killed by the mob.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Just as the Dweller prepares to finish off the Stranger, Nori beans her in the head with a pebble.

    Music 
  • Referenced in the Enter The Haggis song "No More Stones" except the song is ultimately from the perspective of someone who regrets doing this as it cost him everything he had and he wasn't prepared to face the consequences.

    Podcasts 
  • Welcome to Night Vale:
    • In episode 49, Leann Hart throws Sara Sultan, president of the Night Vale Community College, at some of the attacking Strex workers, to great effect. It falls under this trope because Sara Sultan happens to be a smooth, fist-sized river rock.
    • This trope is also played straight with twelve-year-old Tamika Flynn in Episode 36. The rock actually does something there too, in this case taking down a yellow Strex Corp helicopter.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Theatre 
  • In the Swedish version of Chess, a flashback to the 1956 Budapest Revolution shows Hungarians throwing rocks at an approaching Soviet tank.

    Video Games 
  • The angry mob unit in Command & Conquer: Generals throws rocks and molotov cocktails before being upgraded to wield AK-47s.
  • Possible to invoke by the player in Final Fantasy Tactics: One of the squire job's job skills is to throw a rock as an improvised ranged attack, and this is a game where all characters can die for real and you will fight various enemies from corrupt tyrants to actual eldritch abominations. Often a squire on the verge of death will have nothing better they can do anyway.
  • In inFAMOUS, random passers-by will either do this to Cole (if he's evil, or in the beginning when he's been framed for causing the accident which gave him his powers) or enemies (if you have a 100% Heroism Rating).
  • Mega Man Legends: In The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, one stage has Tron piloting the Gustaff to rob the city bank. While most of the population will freak out at the robot and run, most kids will shout "Go away!" and hurl rocks at Tron.
  • Sonic CD has a bad ending where Eggman wins, covering Little Planet entirely with a robotic shell and making it fly away. Sonic, from the ground, throws a rock at it.
  • Played for Laughs in Sonic Unleashed, Eggman is terrorizing the citizens of Mazuri, demanding to know the location of the Gaia Temple. One of the children screams at him "WE'RE NOT TELLING YOU ANYTHING!" and chucks a rock at Eggman, hitting him in the head. While the kid's parents hide him from Eggman, his Servile Snarker robot can be seen laughing.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, the heroes enter the town square of Palmacosta to find the oppressive Desians there, about to hang one of the townsfolk. After her "crimes" (refusing to "sell" them supplies on the basis that they're evil oppressors demanding them for much less than they're actually worth) are announced publicly, a little boy starts throwing stones at their leader. He orders the kid executed, at which point the party steps in to save both townspeople and drive off the Desians.
  • In Xenogears has this with Fei (the PC) on the receiving end of the rock throws! In one arena match when facing a much weaker but massively popular opponent, the crowd throws stuff at the player in opposition.

    Web Original 
  • 3rd Life SMP: On Day 5, when Ren, now a bloodthirsty warlord, comes in demanding tribute from the Flower Forest faction, Jimmy is on board with hearing him out... until Ren not-so-subtly implies that said tribute would include one of Scott's lives. Jimmy responds by shutting down negotiations, burning Ren's banner, and telling him and Martyn in no uncertain terms to get lost.
  • Dream SMP: Niki's mode of protest against the tyrannical Schlatt administration. She's practically the only one in Manberg willing to publicly rebel against Schlatt (with the others either in exile in Pogtopia, being The Mole, or too afraid to do anything drastic), and has torn into him on multiple occasions. One such blowup at the Manberg Festival winds up getting her exiled after Schlatt finally had enough.
  • In Grim Tales from Down Below, Mimi does one of these in a flashback to a demon who was attempting to kill the remaining heroes. As seen here.
  • In Homestar Runner, the Strong Bad Email "disconnected" parodies this with Strong Bad's headless body throwing rocks from a box labeled "Riot Rocks".

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • Balilla, a boy who started a revolt against Austrians occupying his city by throwing stones at them.
  • The anonymous man ("Tank Man") who stood in front of a column of Chinese Type 59 tanks the morning after the Chinese military forcibly removed protestors from in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. Wikipedia discusses that here.
  • Emil Gallo, a plumber by trade, was photographed baring his chest in front of a tank and daring it to shoot during the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. The photo can be seen here.
  • Peoples' Temple member Christine Miller, who tried to talk Jim Jones out of forcing her and her fellow followers to commit suicide at the Jonestown community's final meeting on November 18, 1978.

 
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Thrown Rock

In the midst of attempting to calm down an outraged crowd, Rossiu is struck by a tossed rock.

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Main / DefiantStoneThrow

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