Great Speeches from SF & Fantasy

[ProphetOfTruth]

Tywin's lecture to Tommen about the virtues of a good king is hard to top.

 

[f1onagher]

"That man won't quit as long as he can still draw a breath. None of my teamates will. Me? I've got a different problem. I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard, always taking constant care not to break something, to break someone. Never allowing myself to lose control even for a moment, or someone could die. But you can take it, can't you, big man? What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose and show you just how powerful I really am."

Not exactly top ten material, but definitely a standard of cool quotes. Forgive my indulgence here, I'm trying to get the warm piss taste of Young Justice season 3 out of my mouth by watching good DC cartoons.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

What’s wrong with Season 3?

 

[f1onagher]

What’s wrong with Season 3?

Among a meandering plot, uninteresting characters, lackluster fight scenes, and idiot balls aplenty the finale literally has Lex Luthor say "There are good people on both sides," when talking about a villainous coup in Markovia and "This is Fake News,' when Black Lightning publicizes his crimes.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Among a meandering plot, uninteresting characters, lackluster fight scenes, and idiot balls aplenty the finale literally has Lex Luthor say "There are good people on both sides," when talking about a villainous coup in Markovia and "This is Fake News,' when Black Lightning publicizes his crimes.

“Good people on both sides”.....the Light barely ever does anything to help the world/humanity out, Lex may as well upgrade infrastructure and technology to prove he’s a good thing

Oh, making Lex a Trump expy? Well, it was a matter of time given that they were essentially making out the whole Biyalyan thing as an analogy with modern day muslim immigration anf how its totally the Westerners fault and they’re all just bigots sort of stuff

 

[LTR]

From my precious DareDevil...

Spoiler

 

[CarlManvers2019]

“Street Level Superheroes” could be a nightmare for what would be ordinary crime today

 

[CurtisLemay]

My fave B5 speech:

 

[Vargas Fan]

Talking of Babylon 5



"“No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments, and tyrants, and armies can not stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it may take a thousand years, we will be free. We will be free.”

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Talking of Babylon 5



"“No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments, and tyrants, and armies can not stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it may take a thousand years, we will be free. We will be free.”

Those dictators or invaders need to use the Ellsworth Toohey way, that way the population will be too ashamed or even outright sorta confused and drowned out in the bias of crazier people to rebel

 

[Husky_Khan]

My fave B5 speech:

Nice and a classic choice. Don't suppose you have a transcript of it do you?

 

[CurtisLemay]

And one of the best scenes from Serenity:

 

[Husky_Khan]

And one of the best scenes from Serenity:

He doesn't want an overbearing government to teach people how to think?

I love Serenity and Firefly... in no small part because of the Libertarian message it slides into the series. It's nothing loud and egregious, but it's present just enough to spice up the setting and story arcs without being a real distraction to the overall quality of the series.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Captain America's Little Exchange with Thanos, from The Infinity Gauntlet #4 after Thanos killed off all of the rest of the heroes assembled against him.

Spoiler

 

[Husky_Khan]

How could I forget this gem?

Chun Li: My father saved his village at the cost of his own life. You had him shot as you ran away. *scoffs* A hero at a thousand paces.

M. Bison: I'm sorry, I don't remember any of it.

Chun Li: Y-You don't remember?!

M. Bison: For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important of your life. But for me... it was Tuesday.

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

Humans are no strangers to war. After all, we've been fighting for as long as we can remember. War is all we know. In the past, we fought for imulsion. We fought for country. We fought for freedom. But all that changed after E-Day.

For fifteen years, we've been fighting for our very survival against inhuman, genocidal monsters. But it is a fight we cannot continue. Humanity faces extinction, unless we end this war now. We had hoped the Lightmass bombing would decimate the Locust Horde. But they survived. And have returned, stronger than ever. They've brought with them a force that can sink entire cities. Even Jacinto, our last beacon of hope through all these dark days, is now at risk. Soon we'll have nothing left to defend. And that means we have only one option: attack.

Gears, what I ask of you now is not an easy thing, but it is necessary. If we are to survive. If we are to live long enough to see the seasons change, our children grow and experience a time of peace that we have never known, then we must now take this fight to the Locust! We will go to where they live and where they breed and we will destroy them! This is the day we take the battle to the heart of the enemy. This is the day that we correct the course of human history! This is the day that we ensure our survival as a species! Soldiers of the COG, my fellow Gears, go forth and bring back the hope of humanity!

I can't really articulare why this speech impresses me so much, but it does make me sad that GoW 1 and 2 were banned from sale in Germany because of "excessive brutality against humanoid figures".

 

[Lanmandragon]

I can't really articulare why this speech impresses me so much, but it does make me sad that GoW 1 and 2 were banned from sale in Germany because of "excessive brutality against humanoid figures".

Simple because your a man. Speeches like the above have inspired men to fight and die throughout history. Duty honour family country. These are all things worth dieing for the above encapsulates that.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Just saw this movie today... best scene of the whole trilogy to be honest. Well that and the whole action scene that happened afterwards though this was still the highlight of even that.

And the quotation:

Smaug: Well thief. I smell you. I hear your breath. I feel your air. Where are you? Where are you? Come, now... don't be shy. Step into the light. Hmm. There is something about you. Something you carry. Something made of gold. But far more...precious. There you are! Thief in the shadows.
Bilbo: I did not come to steal from you O Smaug the Unassessably Wealthy. I merely wanted to gaze upon your magnificence. To see if you really were as greatas the old tales say. I did not believe them.
Smaug: And do you now?!
Bilbo: Truly the tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormity O Smaug the Stupendous.
Smaug: Do you think flattery will keep you alive?
Bilbo: No, no.
Smaug: No, indeed. You seem familiar with my name but I don't remember smelling your kind before. Who are you and where do you come from? May I ask?
Bilbo: I come from under the hill.
Smaug: Underhill?
Bilbo: And under hills and over hills my path has led. And... And... through the air. I am he who walks unseen.
Smaug: Impressive. What else do you claim to be?
Bilbo: I am... Luck-wearer. Riddle-maker.
Smaug: Lovely titles. Go on.
Bilbo: Barrel-rider.
Smaug: Barrels? Now that is interesting. And what about your little Dwarf friends? Where are they hiding?
Bilbo: Dwarves? No. No, no. No Dwarves here. You've got that all wrong.
Smaug: Oh, I don't think so, Barrel-rider! They sent you in here to do their dirty work while they skulk about outside.
Bilbo: Truly you are mistaken O Smaug, Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities.
Smaug: You have nice mannersfor a thief and a liar! I know the smell and taste of Dwarf. No one better! It is the gold! They are drawn to treasure like flies to dead flesh. Did you think I did not know this day would come? That a pack of canting Dwarves would come crawling back to the mountain?!
Smaug: The King Under the Mountain is dead. I took his throne. I ate his people like a wolf among sheep. I kill where I wish, when I wish. My armor is iron. No blade can pierce me.
It's Oakenshield, that filthy Dwarvish usurper. He sent you in here for the Arkenstone, didn't he?
Bilbo: No. No. No. I don't know what you're talking about.
Smaug: Don't bother denying it. I guessed his foul purpose some time ago. But it matters not. Oakenshield's quest will fail. The darkness is coming. It will spread to every corner of the land. You are being used, Thief in the Shadows. You were only ever a means to an end. The coward Oakenshield has weighed the value of your life and found it worth nothing.
Bilbo: No. No. No, you're lying.
Smaug: What did he promise you? A share of the treasure?As if it was his to give. I will not part with a single coin. Not one piece of it. My teeth are swords. My claws are spears. My wings are a hurricane.
Bilbo: So it is true. The Black Arrow found its mark.
Smaug: What did you say?
Bilbo: I was just saying your reputation precedes you, O Smaug the Tyrannical. Truly. You have no equal on this earth.
Smaug: I am almost tempted to let you take it.If only to see Oakenshield suffer. Watch it destroy him. Watch it corrupt his heart and drive him mad. But I think not. I think our little game ends here. So tell me thief how do you choose to die?

 

[LTR]

Aragorn: A time may come soon when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.

Eowyn: All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.

Aragorn: What do you fear, lady?

Eowyn: A cage. To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Wallace Breen TedTalk on Collaboration:

It has come to my attention that some have lately called me a collaborator, as if such a term were shameful. I ask you, what greater endeavor exists than that of collaboration? In our current unparalleled enterprise, refusal to collaborate is simply a refusal to grow--an insistence on suicide, if you will.

Did the lungfish refuse to breathe air? It did not. It crept forth boldly while its brethren remained in the blackest ocean abyss, with lidless eyes forever staring at the dark, ignorant and doomed despite their eternal vigilance. Would we model ourselves on the trilobite? Are all the accomplishments of humanity fated to be nothing more than a layer of broken plastic shards thinly strewn across a fossil bed, sandwiched between the Burgess shale and an eon's worth of mud?

In order to be true to our nature, and our destiny, we must aspire to greater things. We have outgrown our cradle. It is futile to cry for mother's milk, when our true sustenance awaits us among the stars. And only the universal union that small minds call 'The Combine' can carry us there.

Therefore I say, yes, I am a collaborator. We must all collaborate, willingly, eagerly, if we expect to reap the benefits of unification. And reap we shall.