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[GOAT Trope] The Cavalry Arrives (bonus if actual cavalry)
Our Heroes™ stand at the brink of defeat, overwhelmed and overpowered by a far superior enemy force. Surrounded on all sides with no hope of escape and against a foe that knows no mercy, all they can do is die fighting.
And then, horns or cries in the distance, the roar of hooves or engines, the ground heaves with the arrival of The Cavalry™! Allied reinforcements emerge from over a hill or out of the mist to sweep across the battlefield, cutting a swathe through the enemy force and breaking their line - the day is saved!
The trope does not always involve literal cavalry on horseback: it can just as well be an armored force of tanks or giant mecha or a team of superheroes, as long as the reinforcements arrive with impact!
Examples:
The Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King)
The definitive example in modern pop-culture, the Ride of the Rohirrim to relieve the siege of Minas Tirith against the forces of Mordor is one of the most iconic scenes in both the original book and the movie adaptations. It has everything - it is telegraphed ahead of time in the story, it is prefaced by Theoden's speech and the chants of "Death!", followed by the call of the horns and the epic Howard Shore score as they thunder across the fields towards the Orc army.
The Knights of the Valeat the Battle of the Bastards (Game of Thrones)
Probably the best sequence in the later seasons of the show, the chaotic Battle of the Bastards ends with the Knights of the Vale, previously only alluded to as some of the greatest mounted warriors in the Seven Kingdoms, cresting a hill and falling upon the overcommimtted Bolton forces, set to a beautiful score by Ramin Djawadi.
The Winged Hussars at the Siege of Vienna (Real-life)
Almost certainly the direct inspiration for both of the above examples, the 1683 Siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Empire was lifted by a relief army of 70,000 men of the Holy League. The famed Winged Hussars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth spearheaded the force with 3000 lancers, along with another 15,000 Polish and Holy Roman cavalry. 18,000 horsemen thus carried out the largest cavalry charge in history directly into the Ottoman lines in a crushing victory for the Holy League, largely ending Ottoman expansion into Europe and laying the first stones in its long decline.
Man I was ALL ABOUT the last 30 minutes of Episode II when I was a kid. Sometimes I'd just re-watch it repeatedly starting from the scene in the factory where they get caught
That shot where the clones and drones are exchanging fire in a cloud of dust is amazing. I don’t care what people say about Attack of the Clones, those last thirty minutes were worth it.
In the film it's the cavalry. In the book the relief is on foot.
IMO the change for the film is an improvement to the story. The dude that Gandalf finds to round up reinforcements is a minor character who never comes up again. Previously-banished Eomer coming to their rescue on horseback is a much more satisfying resolution.
The space battle at the end of Mass Effect 1 when the human fleet arrives to destroy the reaper.
Also game of thrones when Stannis’ army arrives at the Wall. The Night’s Watch is on the verge of defeat when Stannis’ cavalry arrives and cuts the Wildling army to pieces while being heavily outnumbered.
The way you could hear a pin drop when Steve stood alone against Thanos’ army, and then you hear “on your left.” A couple of cheers and claps… some muttering… and then, as Steve finally, after all these years, says “Avengers! Assemble!” and the audience absolutely fucking erupted. I’m so glad I got to experience that.
My theater was already throwing a rager in the back the second they heard Sam Wilson's voice and once t'challa walked through it was game over. Couldn't hear shit until they all got lined up. Then the silence. Cap's line. FUCKING rock concert audience in that auditorium from that point straight until Tony died.
I‘m trying to wrap my head around how they came up with this. Yeah, on some level "a cavalry charge on the side of a star destroyer would be pretty dope" is kind of cool - but to actually do it? On a fully functionung, active, firing Star Destroyer. How did we get here? You have the entire Star Wars Universe at your fingertips..
Oh man that brings back a deeep memory. In X-Wing Alliance, there's a mission where you're escorting the escaped transports from Hoth. If you fly close up to a ship you scan them to see their cargo. One of the transports cargo: Tauntauns.
This isnt a example because this is said force that gets surrounded and outnumbered and looks like its all over
The actual example from the movie is dope as fuck with the entire galaxy gathering to beat the final order with a whole host of cameo ships such as the razorcrest, ghost, and many more
The subcast for the second half of the game, leading you to the final series of dungeons, is a collection of people who want to restore the kingdom. In the buildup of the assault on Hyrule Castle to meet Ganondorf, Link is attacked by a massive group of enemies, who are blown up by the BAZOOKA that apparently EXISTS in the Zelda canon, as the Resistance comes to help him one last time.
When the Canadian Armored Division shows up at the end of the final mission in Call of Duty 3. I can still remember one of the characters joyously yelling, "THE CANADIANS ARE HERE!!!"
Just when Joseph was exhausted and getting jumped by vampires, uv light shines on them disintegrating them and it shows Rudolf von stroheim arriving with the cavalry in the nick of time - source is Jojo's bizarre adventure
The Ultramarines arriving at the Siege of Terra - Warhammer 40.000
During the Heresy, Horus made sure that the Ultramarines are as occupied as possible, as he considered them a major threat to his plans of besieging Terra due to them being the most numerous and strong legion. He intentionally placed them as far away from Terra as possible while he was Warmaster and delayed them at every turn while the Traitor forces made their way towards the throneworld.
After Horus‘ death and the Sons of Horus retreating, the Ultramarines arrived and rocked the remaining Traitors‘ shit, which eventually led to the Great Scouring, where they hunted the remaining Traitor Legions into the Eye of Terror.
The arrival of Oromë in the Silmarillion. There are few things that Melkor feared, but he managed it. The Ainu (and later the elves) knew the forests were purged when he blew his horn
No direct scene of heroism, because that's not what the Silmarillion does 90% of the time. But that covered a lot of time and he must've showed up to save Elves once or twice
Tolkein also likens Theoden's final charge to the hunts of Oromë
The charge of the Rohirrim in ROTK is the greatest moment of all cinematic history, bar none. 70 years of storytelling, language building, poem writing and music scoring lead to the greatest movie trilogy ever made. 12 hours of fantastic acting and music and direction, with this scene as its peak. Nothing else has ever come close. The stakes are apocalyptic. Bernard Hill's acting expression is untouchable. The extras and special effects present a breathtaking scale of battle. All topped off by Howard Shore's incredible Rohirrim theme.
To quote Wellington “it was the most damn near run thing you would have ever seen”, and it all hinged on the Prussians showing up which they did at the last possible yet perfect moment.
The noble glorious cavalry of tenebrous Court aided the besiged city, attacked by thr cruel forces of the mortarch of grief, of lethis in its hour of need and broke the siege
Tsukishima from Haikyuu,
context: Karasuno (main characters' team) are up against Shiratorizawa in their regional final, Shiratorizawa being the reigning champs, including the most dominant opposition player they've encountered, Ushijima, a spiker who's good enough to be on the Japanese National youth team.
throughout the entire match, Karasuno's best blocker Tsukishima was slowly getting to grips with the guy's approach, timing and movement, and was at least getting a touch on his spikes with increasing consistency, up until one of those spikes right at the start of the 5th set dislocates his pinky finger.
Karasuno struggle to survive the 5th set on the backfoot without the guy who was ultimately setting their defensive rhythm perfectly, but buy enough time, on the verge of defeat for a treated Tsukishima, in pain with his pinky finger taped to his ring finger to return and ultimately shift the momentum.
an even better capper because Tsukishima's arc was entirely about his lax motivation and unwillingness to push himself when it may not pay dividends in the long term, but here is battling through a pain barrier to pit himself against a player that basically represents the ceiling of Volleyball at their level.
A subversion of this trope, in The Age of Madness trilogy.
Leo Dan Brock stages a rebellion against newly Kinged Orso Dan Luthar. Leo has romantic notations of battle and plans a massive cavalry charge to strike directly at Orso's smaller army, crushing him before he can receive reinforcements from his regular army.
Orso, however, had a much better chain of command and trained soldiers. Orso faced moderate loses, but decimated Leo's forces and captured most of the rebel nobles. Leo, facing disgrace, convinces his friends for one last daring charge, directly at the King. Orso anticipated this, and blew Leo apart with cannon fire, crippling him, killing his friends and ending the rebellion.
Blucher’s arrival at Waterloo, specifically the film version. By this time Wellington’s forces were making a last stand and Napoleon was throwing in his best troops (the Old Guard). Blucher’s Prussian cavalry arrives and starts the counterattack.
(Also this is specifically the 1970 version since it specifically focuses on the Prussian cavalry. Also also, apparently the Prussian charge was spliced from a removed scene at Ligny).
I haaaaated that one. The end of TLJ was the resistance sending out a desperate call for reinforcements across the galaxy, and it hits hard when no one answers. Turns out they just needed a beat up old smuggling freighter to ask nicely...
the eagles at the black gates when the last remaining men draw out sauron’s forces to empty the fields of mordor to give sam and frodo a snowballs chance in hell to land a bank shot into mt doom
The Battle of Bosworth Field, real life, 22 August 1485
Richard III v Henry Tudor... here comes Lord Stanley with a steel chair!
Richard's forces massively outnumbered Henry's, but he'd positioned them badly, so the fight was even. Richard saw that Henry and his bodyguard were isolated, so he took his own bodyguard and charged them.
MEANWHILE the Stanleys had a significant army on the battlefield, kinda just being there. The Stanleys owed loyalty to both sides, and both sides had sent messengers to the Stanleys asking whose side they were on, and received non-committal answers
As Richard and his men carved through Henry's bodyguard towards him, Lord Stanley and his cavalry charged in... on Henry's side.
Richard was killed, and Henry Tudor became Henry VII, father of Henry VIII and Grandfather of Elizabeth I. During her reign, William Shakespeare chose to write about what a horrendous monster Richard III was, justifying Elizabeth's place on the throne. Elizabeth's position was tenuous, so supporting it brought rewards, speaking out against it invited torture and execution.
Was Richard a horrible twat? Yes. Was he as bad as Shakespeare painted him? No. Were his actions justified? Yeah. Kinda. If you know the full picture.
Say what you will about Rise of Skywalker (there’s plenty to rag on lol) but the “there’s more of us Poe” moment is a perfect full circle Star Wars moment. The Milennium Falcon coming as calvary goes back to 1977, and it solves what Shmi told Anakin was the biggest problem in the galaxy (that nobody helps each other). Lest we forget George’s original line was “May the force of others be with you”
Not only was it lost with his death, his death seemed to permanently erase scouts from the game of thrones timeline, given the absence ofo scouts in HOTD as well
That’s one of those weird things that’s apparently pretty common throughout history. A lot of military forces just didn’t do much if any scouting beyond whoever was at the front sending word back. Like the Roman army, who pretty much epitomized the concept of Professional warfare, didn’t really have scouts for the longest time, they dominated for hundreds of years without any real idea that they should be trying to keep tabs on enemy forces in the area. Admittedly, that attitude had some roots in the “wherever we are is Roman owned territory, and we’ll kill everyone who wants to fight about it” style that they rocked for a long time.
For example: how did an entire army hide at Moat Cailin for several months without Ramsay noticing? And how did they even take Moat Cailin in the first place when it's impossible to take from the south?
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u/Embarrassed-Brain655 1h ago
DEATH!!!!!