Gondor Calls for Aid - TV Tropes

Aragorn: The Beacons of Minas Tirith! The Beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid!
[Long beat]
King Théoden: And Rohan will answer. Muster the Rohirrim!

• In the anime adaptation of the Ben-To light novel series, Sen Yarizui, The Ice Witch, calls upon the Western District Wolves to defend the Western District Supermarkets against an imminent invasion from a gang of Eastern District Wolves, The Gabriel Ratchets. Whilst normally wolves fight alone and against one another for their half-priced dinners, Yarizui is able to use her reputation as an especially powerful and feared fighter to have the quarrelling Wolves to unite against the oncoming threat.
• The final Best Student Council arc, where nearly every minor character who showed up once and got named returned to help the titular student council.
• The Anime Adaption of Black Cat pulls this trope in the final few episodes. When Eve is kidnapped by Mason in order to activate the Eden Project, Train calls on literally every other surviving character (More than fifty) to aid in the rescue. Whilst the original call extends out to the remaining Chronos Numbers and the Sweepers Alliance, word spreads and Train and company eventually receive assistance from the likes of the rogue Apostles of the Stars, the kids from Leon and Tim's hideout, and later even Creed and Echidna.
• Digimon:
  • The Dark Masters arc of Digimon Adventure, and the last episodes of Digimon Adventure 02 and Digimon Data Squad, although it's kind of an accident.
  • At the climax of Digimon Next, literally every single character that the kids and their Digimon have met who isn't dead (and even a few who are) show up to help against the Final Boss, ranging from The Mentor to background characters to even the surviving villains. Unfortunately for them, said final boss verges on The Omnipotent, so he simply obliterates them all in one shot and the entire dimension while he's at it, leaving only the main characters alive. He's ultimately beaten simply be being convinced by the protagonists that he's wrong, and he restores everything and everyone he destroyed.
  • May be outdone by Digimon Fusion, where the second arc ends with every single Digimon in existence arriving to join the Combined Energy Attack Humongous Mecha.
• Dragon Ball:
  • In the climactic battle with Kid Buu in Dragon Ball Z: Vegeta, and later Goku, continuously asks the people of Earth to raise their arms and lend some of their energy to his Spirit Bomb. Because they can't see Goku and don't know who he is, and the few people who do lend their energy end up really exhausted afterwards, only the Dragon Team and some of Goku's old friends from the original Dragon Ball (Jingle Village, Upa and Bora) as well as Android 17 lend their energy. It takes Hercule/Mr. Satan, the Fake Ultimate Hero of the Dragon Ball world, to convince the population to lend their strength.
  • Dragon Ball Super: In the ultimate call for aid, Goku recruits many of his past allies from throughout the series to help fight in the Tournament of Power, along with one nemesis.
• While not exactly calling for direct aid, Eyeshield 21 has Every ace from every important team in Kantou show up to help the Devil Bats train for the Christmas Bowl finals.
• Inverted in The Law of Ueki. The Smart Guy Friendly Enemy Kilnorton calculates the odds of defeating Big Bad Anon to be suicidal and thus refuses to participate in the Final Battle. For the sake of his True Companions, however, he convinces Ai to make him fall in love with glasses in order to bring him to the arena despite what his better judgment says. She succeeds and Kilnorton joins in on the action. Subverted when Anon knocks him out before he can actually do anything to help.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch always brought in the secondary trio, Kaito, and that season's orange princess in the end, even though throughout the series, they were either useless, unawakened, incapacitated or unwilling to do the job.
• In Naruto, the Leaf Village gets the Hidden Sand Village to help them bring Sasuke back when he leaves Konoha for Orochimaru. Later, in Shippuden, its the Sand Village's turn to call for aid when they need to rescue the Kazekage.
  • The Raikage does this by issuing calls for an immediate summit of the Kages to discuss the threat of Akatsuki. With the threat posed, he insists that all the vilages must unite. He had previously ignored these very warnings from Konoha, and only acted when his own brother was lost.
• In Durarara!!, Mikado calls on everyone online at the Dollars website to help rescue Anri from the Yellow Scarves
• The last episode of the hentai title Meiking, every group Cain helped (or spared) along the way showed up to assist in the final showdown with Cain's evil rival, Francis.
• In Fairy Tail, Ichiya calls upon the Light Guilds of Fiore to aid Fairy Tail against the Alverez Empire.
• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann episode seven, a number of characters (such as Kittan and Dayakka, amongst a bunch of newly introduced folks like the twins) arrive to help the Gurren-Dan capture what will become the Dai-Gurren. They stay around afterwards, however, and permanently expand the Gurren-Dan.
• Towards the ending of My-Otome, BOTH sides in the final battle call upon reinforcements in the form of Otome from other nations, all seen briefly way back in episode three. And once the final battle breaks out, the teachers and entire student body of Garderobe comes to help the heroes.

  Happens in the manga too. When the real Princess Mashiro resurrects herself and dark versions of the Himes from the prequel, the protagonist(s) get help from Garderobe, the other nations, and even Shwartz in fending them off so Manshiro can get to the castle for the Final Battle.

• In the OVA series Golden Boy's final episode, Kintaro Oe calls upon each of the women whose hearts he'd won in previous episodes for the finale in which he works for an anime production company (they each had talents to offer).
• In the final episodes of G Gundam, all the Gundams of the world unite to help the Shuffle Alliance defend Earth. Naturally, they include nearly all the opponents the main cast has fought up to this point (and creating a Mythology Gag since several others are based upon past series Gundams; including an early appearance of Wing Gundam), all putting aside their differences to defend the world they love.
• Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE features a video game equivalent. Alus transports his last combat fleet from Eldora to try and attack GBN directly so he can keep the BUILD DiVERS from interfering with his long-obsolete mission of protecting the planet. How do the game staff respond? Declare an event mission, which results in a massive horde of players descending in a swarm looking for a chance at XP and loot. Players ranging from world-champion aces and social media personalities down to rookies and nameless scrubs answer the call to battle. Completely unprepared for wildly diverse opponents and the dedication of players with a chance for a prize and no fear of death due to respawn mechanics, Alus' flagships are sunk without inflicting any noticeable damage in return and his invading army of copycat Gunpla are wiped out entirely.
• Hoshin Engi: In the final battle, Genshi Tenson does a ritual to open up the Hoshindai and release all of the souls of the characters who were sent there to lend their soul energy to Taikobo/Fukki and confront Joka.
• Pokémon:
  • Near the climax of the G/S/C Story Arc of Pokémon Adventures, things were looking grim for the Pokédex Holders as they're fighting a losing battle against both Ho-oh and Lugia. Just then, they noticed something in the distance. Bill had finally fixed the Pokémon Transporter that the new Team Rocket had sabotaged, and with the director of Goldenrod Radio spreading the news, every single minor character introduced in the arc (and even some from the RGBY arc, meaning that it's likely every trainer in the Johto and Kanto regions) had sent their Pokémon to help the heroes, producing a huge-ass army that rushed the two Legendaries and quickly tamed them.
  • A more minor example happens in Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure!. Several gym leaders team up with Hareta to help defeat Team Galactic.
  • In the finale of Pokémon the Series's XYZ arc, all of the Gym Leaders team up with Ash and his friends together to stop the Zygarde rock monster.
• Ties into Write Back to the Future in Rave Master when Sieg Hart, in the past, writes letters to all of Haru's friends so that they arrive to supply much needed support in the final battle. How he knew when the battle would occur...
• Happens during the climax of Sailor Moon Super S. The Senshi need to use the Golden Crystal to defeat Nehelania, but when Sailor Moon tries to do so, she fails to activate its power. Nehelania reveals that the power source of the Crystal is the beautiful dreams of humanity...but mankind has lost the power to have those dreams, depriving the crystal of its power. Helios insists this isn't true, prompting Chibi-Moon to use the Crystal to call on all the people of the world with beautiful dreams to lend the power of those dreams to them. And, in a montage showing almost every character previously targeted for having beautiful dreams, they do just that, breaking Nehelania's spell over the Earth and repowering the Crystal.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, when Ed and Al call on the help of all their friends from places they've been (like Briggs) and from friends (like Izumi) to help them defeat the Homunculi and Father in the Final Battle.
• The Pretty Cure All-Stars movies (and other Pretty Cure movies since Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!) have this in terms of the Miracle Lights. It also doubles as Audience Participation, since the movie goers are given their own Miracle Lights when they go into the show.
• Transformers: Cybertron in the final battle against Galvatron, the Autobots are joined by the forces of Velocitron, Jungle Planet, Gigantion and the Decepticons under Lugnutz leadership.
• Raynesia does this in episode 18 of Log Horizon. She offers to go to Akihabara to ask the adventurers directly for help in defeating the goblin armies after talks between the nobles and adventurer leaders goes nowhere. Although she doesn't think anyone would seriously help, they're all smitten by her speech and looks, as well as being hyped up for a major event/quest in the game. As a result, practically everyone present volunteers.
• In Girls und Panzer Der Film, Oarai does not call for aid themselves, even when facing being on the wrong end of a Curb-Stomp Battle...but St. Gloriana does. And on the big day, Oarai starts out with eight tanks against thirty... until all their former rivals come charging in to join their team, bringing the Oarai team up to even numbers and making it a fair(er) fight.
• Shimoneta provides a Well-Intentioned Extremist example. For the first eight episodes, SOX manages to foil the Public Morals Committee and the student council at Tokioka Academy. Anna finally accepts that she can't stop them on her own, so she tearfully calls her father, Matsukage, for help. The scene shifts to his office as he assures her he's sending one of his best. The camera pans left, revealing Oboro standing behind him.
• Kemono Friends: The Lucky Beasts call in most of the Friends to help battle the black Cerulean in episode 12.
• Gintama in the Four Devas Arc had Otose hospitalized by Jirocho and with Gintoki losing his duel to him. Thus, the remaining Four Devas decide to tear down Otose's Snack Shop which is also the Yorozuya's home, and Saigou is forced to go with it. As the Yorozuya defends against all of them, everyone within the Kabuki District they encountered and helped through out the series lend in their aid to defend their home, and eventually have the other two Devas turn against Kada, who masterminded the operation.
• The Mysterious Cities of Gold: In episode 33, "The Reunion", the various villages are convinced to help the Village of the New Sun fight the Olmecs.
• Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama: The 75th episode has Kokoro's Cocotamas and Nozomi's Cocotamas recruit every minor Cocotama that has appeared in the series thus far so that they can all use their magic to help Vivit recover from a coma she fell into in the previous episode after attempting to use a forbidden spell to ascend to godhood without training.
• Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department: Despite technically being villains themselves, in the season finale, Agastia calls in help from heroes and villains alike to help defend against a hostile takeover.
• The final battle of Vandread brings back every character and civilization that ever displayed the ability to pilot a spaceship.
• When it comes down to the final battle in Violinist of Hameln.(pictured◊), a truly ridiculous amount of reinforcements show up (including just about every minor character capable of taking to the field).

• In Magic: The Gathering, the Invasion block had a major multicolor theme, to show people putting aside their differences. Tellingly, the last one, Apocalypse, reversed the traditional color pie, with enemy colors being allies and vice versa. For instance, white is about society, whereas black and red are about the individual.^note  Suffice it to say, they don't get along. Yet they did in this one. As did blue with red and green (logic vs. emotion); black with green and white (death vs. life); red with white and blue (anarchy vs. rules); and green with blue and black (nature vs. progress).

• Aquaman:
  • In the Aquaman (2011) story arc Throne of Atlantis, When Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Aquaman are captured by Ocean Master, Cyborg, the only Justice League member not captured, connects to the Grid to call for more heroes to aid the League. They include Element Woman, Hawkman, Black Lightning, Vixen, Zatanna, Black Canary, Firestorm, The Atom, and Goldrush.
  • In the cliffhanger of Aquaman (2011) #64, Ocean Master has Arthur pinned down, with the rest of Arthur's allies restrained by Orm's forces. He uses his telepathy to send out a distress call. Turns out this isn't one of his usual sealife summons, though. The rest of the Justice League comes to his aid instead. This also shows how far he's come since the Throne of Atlantis arc.
• The Avengers:
  • The first story arc of The Avengers (Kurt Busiek) sees virtually all of the (still-living) former Avengers teaming up to fight Morgan le Fay.
  • When the Avengers are facing their Darkest Hour during Avengers Disassembled, Hawkeye announces to Captain America that some heroes have arrived outside the Avengers Mansion. Cap steps out to see every former and reserve Avenger has shown up to help.
• Batgirl:
  • In Batgirl (2009) #23, Stephanie Brown pulls this by calling in various super-powered girls to help her defeat the Reapers, even trusting Supergirl's superhearing enough to trust that she'd hear the word "Shazam!" from wherever she happened to be at the moment...which happened to be the Hall of Justice.
  • The grand finale of Gail Simone's run on Batgirl (2011) has Barbara Gordon call in every female hero to deal with Knightfall's mercenary army as she, Black Canary and Huntress assault her nemesis' headquarters.
• Birds of Prey:
  • Issue #111 deals with Barbara Gordon going undercover at a tech convention and ending up in a tight spot with Calculator and Hellhound. Back at headquarters, Misfit gets the idea to text the entire convention list and send them all to Barbara's aid.
  • Two issues earlier in the Grand Finale of Gail Simone's run, Babs has Huntress call in every operative who ever worked for her including Power Girl Savant, Creote and Lady Shiva to intimidate Spy Smasher into leaving.
• Blue Beetle: Nearly everyone Jaime Reyes had befriended (and a few of the previous Beetle's old friends, but oddly not the team he was affiliated with at the time) came to the aid of either Beetle himself or his family and closest friends as he fought off The Reach during the "Endgame" arc.
• ElfQuest: When two elf tribes — the Wolfriders and the newly-introduced Go-Backs — join forces to wage war against the trolls of King Guttlekraw, the elves form a grudging alliance with the trolls formerly led by the late King Greymung, who have been enslaved by Guttlekraw, even though Greymung's trolls have been the hated enemies of the Wolfriders ever since betraying them back at the start of the storyline. The Go-Backs, meanwhile, would never have thought of teaming up with trolls of any kind, period... But it's probably only because of this uneasy alliance that Guttlekraw's trolls are defeated.
• Final Crisis: When Mandrakk shows up at the end. Just as he's about to eat the multiverse, in comes the Supermen of every universe, the Green Lantern Corps, the Zoo Crew, the new Fifth World gods, and the army of Heaven itself. Mandrakk doesn't last long.
• Godzilla: Rulers of Earth: The final issue has Godzilla surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by an army of powerful alien kaiju, he's exhausted by weeks of continuous fighting, and the mechs that were assisting him, Moguera and Kiryu, have just been destroyed. But being the Determinator that he is, he lets out a truly awesome Mighty Roar as a defiant battle cry. Cue thirteen other kaiju charging in to help him out in the Final Battle for Earth.
• Green Lantern:
  • Blackest Night: The Atom and Hawkman #46. Indigo-1 sends out a mental summons to the homeworlds of all the various Lantern Corps, summoning them to Earth to participate in the battle with the Black Lanterns.
  • Lights Out: Hal Jordan suggests the Green Lantern Corps to go to the Red Lantern Corps for help to stop Relic because he has Guy Gardner there as a double agent.
  • Green Lantern: Earth One: With his ring super-charged by the Oan Power Battery, Hal sends a distress signal across the universe to anybody wielding a ring to help him. They come.
• Justice League of America: The JLA (1997) story arc "World War III" ended with the entirety of Earth gaining superpowers and joining with the Justice League to fight a potentially galaxy-destroying menace. This was also something of a bookend moment, as Morrison's run began with an arc where all Earth's people hold up lighters, matches, and torches in order to defeat a Martian invasion (Martians in the DCU being weak against fire.)
• Lands of Arran: In Tome 2 of Elfes, Llali hopes that the Wood Elves will come to the aid of her kingdom Eysine, which had been a former ally with Duhann.
• Legion of Super-Heroes:
  • The Great Darkness Saga: The Legion have ascertained they are facing Darkseid, plus an army of billions of brainwashed Daxamites. So Dream Girl calls in every person who was ever a Legionnaire: active members, reservists, the Legion of Substitutes... even Supergirl, who resigned several years ago, travels to the 30th century to join the battle.
  • In The Condemned Legionnaires, Satan Girl has found the Legion's hideout, has disabled Supergirl and is finishing the female Legionnaires off. As a last resort, Lightning Lad uses the Time Bubble to travel to the 20th century and ask the Legion of Super-Pets help. Krypto, Streaky, Comet and Beppo answer and gang up on the villain.
  • The Death Of Ferro Lad: Subverted. The Legion is about to face the Sun-Eater, a cosmic monster with the power of billions of suns, so they call out to all non-affiliated heroes in the galaxy for help. Nonetheless, nobody answers the call for one reason or another, so the Legionnaires are forced to strike a bargain with the villainous Fatal Five.
• The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Junior Woodchucks, evicted from their fort by who they think is an enemy agent from Scotland, send a telegraph to the authorities for help. At the other end of their message is Theodore Roosevelt, who immediately goes to Duckburg with an army to repel the foreign invader.
• Lucifer: The climax of the comic involves the invasion of Heaven by a vast army, Lucifer himself forced to gather together a truly motley group of allies from past stories to defend it. Unfortunately at least one of them wouldn't mind killing him, and none of them particularly like him (or heaven for that matter).
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Boom! Studios): In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Shattered Grid, Zordon sends out a call to recruit whatever Rangers are still out there to aid in their assault on Lord Drakkon's moon fortress. To the Mighty Morphin' team's surprise, they get a lot - the Quantum Ranger, the Phantom Ranger, the Magna Defender, the remains of the Zeo Ranger team and the Gold Ranger, the Power Rangers Wild Force, the Wind and Thunder Rangers, the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, the Power Rangers Mystic Force, the Power Rangers Ninja Steel, the Dark Ranger, the Power Rangers Hyper Force and the biggest surprise of all, the Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
• Oz (Marvel Comics): Inverted in the comic-book adaptation of the seventh book of Land of Oz, The Emerald City of Oz. The Nome King sends his General to persuade the Whimsies to help him to attack Oz, but the General goes beyond his orders to recruit the Growleywogs and Phanfasms as well. The Nome King is not pleased about it.
• Red Robin: Tim takes advantage of Ra's al Ghul expecting him to take a leaf out of Bruce's book and try to defend Gotham against the League of Shadows without reaching outside the Batfamily for help. He calls in Superboy (Kon-El), Kid Flash (Bart), Wonder Girl (Cassie), Manhunter (Kate), Huntress, Manbat and others and thoroughly dismantles the plan Ra's had set into motion.
• Samurai Jack: The 20th and final issue of the IDW Publishing comic book ends with an older Jack leading a resistance movement against Aku's fortress. Among the group are many of the allies Jack made and the people he helped out throughout the run of the original show, including the Woolies from "Jack, the Woolies, and the Critchellites", the astronauts from "Jack in Space", Extor from "Jack and the Ultra-robots", and even the baby from "Jack and the Baby" as an adult.
• Secret War (2004): Nick Fury and several other heroes are investigating an issue that should have been brought up decades ago. Where do supervillains get the funding for their high-tech gimmicks? It kicks off when the Grizzly is being interrogated by two friendly SHIELD agents (the Grizzly helped prevent a crime, so he wasn't in really big trouble). One of the agents asks Grizzly how, with only a few hundred dollars in his bank account, did he get a bullet-proof, superstrong exo-skeleton? Grizzly then starts talking about a guy who trades tech to people in exchange for favors. Towards the end, Captain America, Nick Fury, Daredevil, and Spider-Man are all on the New York docks late at night running down a lead, and look up to see an army of tech-themed villains bearing down on them. The heroes immediately call for help.

  Fury: This is Fury. I need all available agents to converge on my location now.
  Captain America: Tony? It's Steve. Get every Avenger you can down to the docks.
  Daredevil: Luke, grab Danny and get to the docks as fast as you can.
  Spider-Man: Mommy!

• Serenity: Leaves on the Wind: Mal seeks the aid of the Operative to help him rescue Zoe after she's arrested by the Alliance. Nobody is happy about this.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Issue #125 had just about every hero and villain still alive teaming up to fend off an alien invasion.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
    • The "Battle for Angel Island" arc sees Sonic gather all his various allies, including new ones made over the course of the preceding issues, in order to liberate Angel Island after it's occupied by the Egg Fleet.
    • In "Urban Warfare", the threat of Eggperial City is too much for Sonic and the Diamond Cutters to handle, so he asks for some backup, where Jewel dispatches Tails, Amy, Blaze, and Silver to the scene. Even Team Dark arrives to help, albeit for their own reasons.
• Spider-Man: In Spider-Island, Peter publicly calls out to the good New Yorkers for help against the evil spider-powered New Yorkers.
• Supergirl: In Supergirl (2005) story arc Good-Looking Corpse, Supergirl believes she needs extra backup to deal with Project Cadmus' experimental subject, so she asks Miss Martian -who is not Kara's friend or teammate, and was not even involved in the situation- help.
• Superman: In the story arc Brainiac: Rebirth, Superman cannot deal with the newly-rebuilt Brainiac, who is approaching Earth with a huge slave army, so he goes to the Justice League. When Kid Flash -who is present when Superman walks into the Watchtower and asks the League for help- asks if Superman wants him to call his team the Titans, the latter replies that any help is needed and welcome.
• Teen Titans: Teen Titans (2003) #100, the Grand Finale of the series, has a bunch of former Titans coming together to help the current roster in their battle against the Legion of Doom.
• Tom Strong: Tom spent nearly a dozen issues befriending and helping various entities and past enemies. The scenario used them all.... to deal with a ludicrous, never before/ never again seen, dead-in-one-issue menace. This may or may not have been a parody, though.
• The Ultimates (2002): Captain America overrides communications and tells the military to ignore the orders from above (compromised by an infiltration) and head to the site of a battle to fight the aliens. The Ultimates proceed to fight the aliens on their own, and eventually the Air Force shows up to help Thor and Iron Man.
• What If?: In the What If?: House of M one-shot, instead of saying 'no more mutants', Scarlet Witch utters 'no more powers', and the result is that every super-powered being throughout the Marvel universe loses their powers. The Red Skull uses this as an opportunity to take control by using the Cosmic Cube, assembling the Hand and HYDRA to use as his army, murdering the remaining active Young Avengers and the Fantastic Four, and announcing his intentions to bring about the Fourth Reich. Iron Man creates new armors for the remaining Avengers to wear in order to challenge him, and Cyclops rallies the X-Men, armed with Shiar tech, to take out the Red Skull. This fails, resulting in heavy casualties for both the Avengers and X-Men. Peter Parker enters the fray, announcing to the citizens of New York, who were cowering in the shadows, that they can no longer stand by and wait for heroes to save them, and that they are all needed in order to save the world, because it is the responsibility of everyone to stop injustice, powers or no. Peter then leads an army of New Yorkers, many of whom stand no chance of winning (children, the elderly etc), into battle with the Red Skull and his army. The heroes win.

• In the Galaxy Rangers Fan Fic Chrysalis, the League fleet is in a hopeless battle in the Queen's asteroid field, having been forced into a trap. However, they some critical backup courtesy of the otherwise-xenophobic Traash (which even Her Majesty won't engage because they're just that nasty if crossed) and the Circle of Thought (who were isolationists, content to let the galaxy tear itself apart, so long as they were left alone...until Niko showed them that the Queen was an exile from the Circle, and thus a mistake they made).
• Here Comes the New Boss: Before setting up to repel the Empire's attempts to retrieve Hookwolf, Taylor arranges for the Undersiders to wait out of sight, with not even the heroes knowing about them. She signals them at the right time to tip the balance of the fight, blocking Kaiser's sight with Grue's darkness, keeping Rune too busy dodging Whirlygig's projectiles to contribute and slaughtering Crusader's ghosts.
• The Mega Crossover fic Odyssey, by Drunkengrognard, has the likes of Chrono Harlaowan and Jean-Luc Picard, amongst others, preparing their ships for a major battle against a group of Voidspawn (essentially giant killer space squids) and planning to close the portal that they are coming from. Due to circumstances connected to the portal opening, their current location has basically turned into a multiversal thoroughfare; the suggestion is made that help could be requested throughout said multiverse in order to ward off the Voidspawn long enough for the portal to be shut. Rogue Squadron and the fleet they were a part of are amongst the first to answer the call, and it just gets bigger from there.
• During the Final Battle of the MLP AU fic Rainbooms and Royalty, the Diamond Dogs, sea ponies, and gargoyles that the Mane Six had befriended on their way through the Everfree Forest all show up to help them fight Nightmare Moon's Shadowbolt army.
• Takamachi Nanoha of 2814: Nanoha connects with every other Magical Girl in Japan and programs an automated message into her ring in case she was ever in serious need of help.
• In book 2 of A Growing Affection, when Naruto is captured by the Akatsuki Tsunade immediately contacts the other four Kages to request aid. The Kazekage and Mizukage send troops to assist, while the Tsuchikage and Raikage only provide information. And the Raikage's assistance is especially grudging.
• In the Pony POV Series, during the Final Battle of Dark World, the Benevolent Interloper gets Rainbow Dash and the Princesses to return to the battlefield just in time to save the group from Nightmare Eclipse/Paradox's Psycho Rangers and assists Minty into making it to the fight as well. Discord then interferes to distract Eclipse long enough for Twilight to charge up a copied time spell from Paradox herself, that performs one of these across time and space to summon the G1, G2, G3, and G4 (from before the reign of Discord) Mane Casts to the present, allowing for six sets of Elements (including Celestia and Luna's reawakened ones) to be used at once. Finally, Twilight's parents (still plants) restrain Paradox for the final blow.
  • A flashback to the Final Battle of the Age of Myths (G1) shows that both sides did this — Hydia called in her entire family of witches and warlocks, while the Paradise Estates ponies called on every ally they had.
• Occurs multiple time in Tenhawk's Buffy Mega-Crossover Journeyverse, sometimes combined with a Crisis Crossover.
  • Probably the biggest example comes in City by the Bay, when Xander has been infected by a demonic virus and summons mental versions/soul fragments of everyone he's been friends/allies with over the course of the series thus far, and manages to drag along everyone they're closely tied to as well, to help him fight off the demons trying to posses him. Made all the more amusing by the fact that there had just been a backwards time-jump that removed the memories of most of those he called of ever having met him in the first place, leading to some interesting WTF moments.
• The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds: After Tirac reveals himself and kidnaps Megan, Celestia not only mobilizes the Elements of Harmony and the Equestrian military, but summons help from Spykoran, Queen Rosedust, and the Princess Ponies.
• In Waking Nightmares' Pony vs Machine arc, Ponyville calls for help from Chrysalis, the Wonderbolts, Mare-Do-Well, and virtually all of Ponyvile (whom are civilains) to defend Ponyville from Gray Mann's robot army, which is at least a thousand strong.
• In The Measure of a Titan the Big Bad goes to great lengths to avert this by arranging things so that every potential ally the Teen Titans could call is tied up elsewhere. The Justice League is off-planet, the other Titans are dealing with other villains, and even Tamaran has been attacked by the Gordians.
• In Pokémon Black & White: Tale of a Legend, Bianca is tasked with summoning Landorus when her friends get into a fight they can't win alone.
• In Besides the Will of Evil, Applejack goes out to Gildsdale to help fight the big bad.
• The Equestrian Wind Mage has an example in Season 2: When Maulgrim calls on the Diamond Dogs to aid the Ponyville volunteers and Vaati's monsters in acting as a relief force for the besieged Crystal Empire, he is surprised when they arrive in the company of pretty much every predator of the Everfree, sent by Gaia/The Tree of Harmony to aid in purging Ganon's evil from Equestria. And on the way to the Empire, they're joined by the buffalo tribes, who had heard of the danger and also come to help.
  • In Season 2.5, when the Diamond Dogs realize that the Gohma have invaded the Everfree in order to destroy the Tree, they rush to Ponyville to ask for help from the ponies and Vaati, who in turn call for help from the Princesses, who also inform the Changelings. And when they actually show up at the Tree, they find that Gaia has once again called on the predators, as well as the Sunnytown ponies, for help as well.
• In Robb Returns, Eddard accidentally does this with one of his family's ancient relics, warning everyone with First Man's blood that the Others are coming. Every house with First Men ancestors soon sends messages to Winterfell, proclaiming their support.
• Miraculous Ladybug vs. the Forces of Evil: Two worlds are in danger! Ludo and Hawkmoth have obtained both miraculous and are using ultimate power to take over Mewni and Earth. Marco wants to retrieve the moth miraculous discarded, but realizes he needs extra help in this fight. So, he has Wayzz call on some of his acquaintances and friends. Wayzz ends up returning with Queen Butterfly, Buff Frog, Princess Pony Head, The Laser Puppies, The Gorilla, Natalie, Janna and Jackie. (Not all of these were asked for, but they came along to ensure they could help)
• Mischief (MHA): Right before the Kamino raid begins, All Might sends a distress signal asking for backup, saying that his students taught him that he doesn't need to face his nemesis alone, and can rely on others for help. Thor quickly answers his friend's call for help and arrives ready to take on All for One.
• Hellsister Trilogy: When Satan Girl surfaces, joining forces with Mordru, the Fatal Five and the Legion of Super-Villains, the Legion of Super-Heroes immediately contacts Supergirl, who hasn't been a regular member for years.
• It happens several times in A Fighting Chance:
  • Earth asked for help from its allies, but the League of Not-Aligned Worlds is too scared by the Minbari: the only help they get are weapons from the Narn, a fleet disappeared in hyperspace from the Drazi, and the mentioned sensors from the Dilgar.
  • After the Battle of the Line, Branmer asks for help from the races of the Minbari Protectorate, old allies who were driven to near extinction in the previous Shadow War. While they haven't fully recovered yet and their ships aren't anywhere as advanced as the Minbari's, they still have a serviceable force that can at least gain some time to produce new ships and refurbish old ones.
• Kara of Rokyn: In Last Waltz with Luthor, both Superman and Lex Luthor have been missing for over one month. Sensing that her cousin is in mortal danger, Supergirl calls in the whole Justice League to look for and rescue Superman.
• In A Kingdom Divided, Celestia sends a letter to Shining Armor when she learns that Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Detrot rebelled against her, and Luna has an army of bat ponies.
• A Prize for Three Empires: In order to find and rescue Carol Danvers from the Kree Empire, the Avengers call in the X-Men and the Starjammers.
• In Fractured (SovereignGFC), Mamaril's plan to use the interstellar radio. It brings a combined fleet from the Citadel and what's left of the Republic's task force.
• Subverted in A Force of Four. Power Girl intends to call heroes from Earth-One to help fight the alliance of three Kryptonian rogues and a Wonder Woman's enemy, but she discovers the four villains have rendered dimensional travel impossible through magic.
• In Spirit Of Redemption, Pelagia manages to send a message through the NCAI network that Omega was being attacked at the beggining of the batarian/yahg war.
• Subverted in The Age of Dusk. Biel-Tan craftworld does not call for help from other Eldar— but they come nonetheless.
• The second part of The Vampire of Steel crossover begins when Buffy Summers bumps into a vampire with Kryptonian-like powers, and feeling her gang needs extra firepower, calls Supergirl.
• Tendencies: In Quiver, the heroes plan to re-akumatize Juleka into Liberator (with permission), and have her turn as many of their classmates as they can gather back into their akuma forms, creating an army to take on Hawkmoth.
• In FIRE! (DarkMark), the original X-Men, who had retired three years before, return to fight back an army of super-villains at the behest of their erstwhile mentor Professor Xavier.
• After Takigakure is taken over by Hidan and Kakuzu in Son of the Sannin, Jiraiya requests for help from Rasa and Mei to retake it. They both agree, although the latter's forces don't make it to the battle in time, instead delivering help in food, medicine and supplies for rebuilding afterwards.
• Inverted in Shazam! story Here There Be Monsters. Radar suggests Captain Marvel that the Marvels will need allies to confront a super-villain army, but Cap is sure the Marvel Family can handle it alone. Radar thinks otherwise, so he proceeds to call all retired heroes and puts a team together to help the Marvels out.
• The Secret Return of Alex Mack: When Harry and Ron are assigned to a team investigating the silicate monsters, but before anyone knows anything except that a team of marines vanished without reporting in, Hermione is concerned and asks Terawatt to help. Naturally, she responds immediately and gets there Just in Time.
• The Weaver Option: Both a heroic and villainous version are issued during the razing of Commorragh. The defending Dark Eldar issue a call for aid from the Craftworld Eldar who answer to spite Taylor; meanwhile, the Salamanders issue a call to the Imperium on behalf of Taylor.
• Hours 'Verse: When the world starts ending late into Butterfly Cascade, Mitsuru calls in the older Persona users.

• The Lion King: during the climactic final battle of the movie, Simba is headed to Pride Rock to face Scar alone. As soon as he takes his first good look at his rightful home, he is shocked to see the devastation that has taken place during his absence. Cue Nala walking out of the fog, telling him that this is what Scar has done to the once-majestic Pride Lands, soon thereafter offering her help. Simba initially refuses, rather vehemently, but then Timon and Pumbaa emerge, backing Nala's claims and addressing how grim the situation is, and offering their servitude. Simba then accepts, dashing off to go confront Scar and reclaim his land. As said actual battle progresses and more and more of the major characters are freed, Rafiki, Zazu, and the pack of lionesses charge in to help Simba.
• The Twilight Bark sequence in 101 Dalmatians; usually only a gossip chain, as lampshaded by Perdita, it is repurposed for this to find her and Pongo's stolen children.
• Rango has the titular character calling upon the aid of the family of mole hillbillies that had previously tried to kill him several times.

  Mother mole: You got some nerve showing up here.
  Rango: Your boys are about to be hung for a crime they didn't commit. (beat) But I have a plan.

• Recess: School's Out pulls this off twice. When protagonist TJ gets captured, his friends head back to summer camp and call in all of the Third Street student body to mount a rescue mission and stop the bad guys' plans. And in the midst of the battle, Ms. Finster comes in with The Cavalry, consisting of the entire Third Street faculty.
• The Rescuers Down Under: Upon learning of a young boy's kidnapping, members of the Rescue Aid Society relay for help to their base in New York from ''Australia''. The signal is sent first from a ramshackle broadcasting station in the outback, then from the jury-rigged wreck of a P-35 fighter in the Marshall Islands, then from there to a high-tech American Intelligence listening post in Hawaii, which the RAS has apparently hacked into, and then (whilst we don't see the rest of the stations), it jumps from San Francisco to Denver to Chicago to D.C. before finally arriving in New York.
• In WALL•E, after the titular robot is crushed to keep the Holo-Detector from closing, EVE desperately cries "PLANT!" to the crowd of humans and robots gathered on the Ledo Deck. MO finds the tiny sprig, and both the people and the robots work together to pass the greenery to her.

• Parodied in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. At a bar, Ron Burgundy calls his news friends by using a horn, yelling "NEWS TEAM, ASSEMBLE!". Ron's dog, Baxter, who'd been thrown off a bridge, answers from a distant location, but it turns out Ron's friends were already at the bar.
• In Angels & Demons, Langdon finds himself unable to save Cardinal Baggia, the fourth Preferiti, from his near-death in a fountain, and screams desperately: "HELP, SOMEBODY!" After a tense minute, various passerby rush into the fountain and help save the cardinal.
• In Army of Darkness, Ash calls upon Duke Henry the Red, last seen about to be put to death by Arthur, to help defend the Necronomicon from the Deadites. And while he does show up fashionably late, he does eventually bring his armies to Arthur's castle to assist.
• Avatar uses this twice. First, Jake Sully uses his new position as Toruk Makto to summon other Na'vi tribes to fight the RDA who seek to strip their home moon dry. Second, Eywa, the mother goddess of Pandora herself summons the Pandoran wildlife to reinforce the united Na'vi army just as their about to be wiped out, winning the battle. Bottom line, don't fuck with Eywa.
• In Breaker! Breaker!, Arlene manages to escape from Judge Josh's goons and find a working CB radio, which she uses to put out a desperate call for help, as JD (Chuck Norris) is about to be killed by the town's corrupt police. Cue every trucker in hearing range — all of whom presumably are friends of JD's and/or were screwed over by Judge Josh and his minions — massing into one giant Convoy of Destruction massive enough to make the ground shake at their approach. Of course, thanks to the film's limited budget, this was about seven or eight older trucks. Still enough to knock the town flat, though.
• The same thing happens in the 1978 film Convoy. When a trucker named Spider Mike leaves the eponymous convoy, he gets arrested and beaten in Texas by a sheriff, working with the main antagonist of the film. The janitor of the local jail gets on the CB to call for help and various truckers pass the word to the leader of the convoy, Rubber Duck, who heads out to rescue him. The next morning, Rubber Duck and eight other truckers line up outside of town, deliver an ominous, spine-chilling blast on their horns, and wreck the town to free Spider Mike.
• Parodied in Duck Soup. Firefly (Groucho Marx) gets on the radio and calls: "Mayday, mayday! Rush to Freedonia! Three men and a woman are trapped in a building. Send more men at once! If you don't have any men, send three more women!" Cue Stock footage of fire engines, police motorcycles, Olympic runners, monkeys, elephants, and dolphins.
• Parodied in Fahrenheit 9/11 when Michael Moore lists the names of the countries that answered US calls for aid in defeating Saddam Hussein, whether or not they had a military.
• Happens all the goddamn time in the Godzilla franchise whenever the military can't handle a monster and calls another monster to help them.
  • Perhaps the most notable example can be found in Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964). In that movie, Mothra is very angry with Japan for the nuclear testing that trashed her home island and the refusal to return her egg to her, but when Godzilla attacks Mothra shows up at the last minute to help based on some sincere Japanese citizens' pleads for help.
  • In later films, beginning with Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, it was Godzilla himself who was summoned to aid the JSDF or other forces of good when they were in over their heads.
• Independence Day gives us a twofer. First, the Air Force recruits any civilian who knows how to fly a plane to fight the aliens, and then this trope plays out on a global scale as the US uses a telegraph to unite the Russians, the Chinese, the Israelis, the Arabs and many other nations into one coordinated counterattack.
• In Iron Sky, the US space ship is severely outgunned by the Nazi Cool Airships and desperately calls for reinforcements - promptly provided by everyone but Finland, who have opted for not violating space armament treaties.
• In It's a Wonderful Life, when George is on the verge of bankruptcy, Potter snidely tells George Bailey that if he were to ask the "riff-raff" he spent much of his adult life helping for aid when he needed it, they would turn on him. Fortunately for George, Rousseau Was Right, and all those who George had helped over the course of the movie are more than happy to help him.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. From the Pirate Lords of the Seven Seas, using the Nine Pieces of Eight.
• Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over ends with the Cortezes calling on their immediate family, then (in the vein of the running theme of "family") various people they had met over the course of their adventures to fight the Toymaster's robots.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, naturally. In the film, Denethor refused to light the signal fires due to a combination of bad blood between Gondor and Rohan, and due to a misguided notion that Gondor needed no aid (Denethor being under the influence of Sauron affected his decision making somewhat). Pippin manages to sneak into one of the towers and lights the fire himself. Théoden, when the subject was first broached by Aragorn, was bitter over Gondor not sending any help to Rohan during their devastating fight... when he actually gets the call, though, he personally leads The Cavalry. (Worth noting, in the book, even under Sauron's corrupting influence, Denethor had the presence of mind to send for help before the heroes arrived, and was waiting for the reinforcements.)
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Avengers: Endgame: After travelling to the past to borrow the Infinity Stones, the Avengers create a new Infinity Gauntlet to try to reverse Thanos' Snap. A past version of Thanos becomes aware of this plan and hijacks the Avengers' quantum tunnel time machine to arrive at the present, so he can stop them. He destroys the Avengers' base, but not before Banner uses the Gauntlet to unSnap the universe. Thanos battles Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, until only Cap is left standing, and then calls in his army. It looks like Cap is about to take on all of Thanos' forces by himself, until he hears Falcon in his earpiece say, "On your left." A portal opens up, and Black Panther, Shuri, and Okoye step through. Then another portal opens, bringing in Valkyrie, Korg, and Miek. Then Falcon, Bucky, Groot, and Scarlet Witch come through another, and another one brings in Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Star Lord, Mantis, and Drax. More and more portals open all over the field, and the Wakandan military, the army of Asgard, the Masters of the Mystic Arts, the Ravagers, and more begin pouring onto the battlefield. Giant Man emerges from the rubble, bringing Hulk, Rocket, and War Machine with him. Wasp pops up to normal size, and Pepper Potts drops from above in her Rescue armor. Tony and Thor are able to get back on their feet and ready their weapons. With a renewed look of confidence, Cap tightens his shield to his arm and shouts, "Avengers! Assemble!" And the Final Battle begins with the Avengers' theme swelling to triumphant heights.
  • In Black Panther, T'Challa asks Chief M'Baku of the Jabari tribe for help after being dethroned and nearly killed by Erik Killmonger, which he refuses. While he helped save T'Challa's, life it was only out of gratitude for T'Challa sparing his own days earlier, and he has no desire to sacrifice any of his warriors or endanger his people by aiding in a battle that his completely isolated tribe has no stakes in. However, after thinking it over and realizing the danger W'Bari and Killmonger pose to Wakanda, he does ultimately decide to help, arriving with his warriors just as all seems lost.
• The Music Man. During the film's climax, Marian saves Harold Hill from the wrath of the town after his con is revealed by appealing to individual townspeople whose lives Harold improved during his time in River City. One by one the townspeople stand up in support of Harold until the Mayor agrees to relent.
• Star Wars:
  • Subverted at the end of The Last Jedi. The entire plot of the film is about the Resistance getting to Crait so they can summon their allies...and they don't respond, leaving the Resistance with nothing but gutted speeders to fend off against the entire First Order.
  • Played epically straight in The Rise of Skywalker. As the remnants of the Resistance prepare to launch a desperate attack to stop the Final Order (an armada of Star Destroyers equipped with planet-destroying weaponry) from being unleashed on the galaxy, they send Lando out on the Millennium Falcon to call for help from the free worlds. During the Final Battle, just as it appears the Resistance is going to be overwhelmed, the Falcon returns at the head of millions of ships from across the galaxy, which instantly turn the tide in the Resistance's favor.

    General Pryde: Where did they get all these fighters? They have no navy!
    Commander: This isn't a navy, sir. They're just... people.

• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • The Trope Namer from The Lord of the Rings is, ironically, not really an example of this trope. However, the trope does occur in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, between the same two peoples, so in a sense it's still the Trope Namer... just not the way most people think.
  • During the stewardship of Cirion, Gondor was attacked by Easterlings and its allies couldn't or wouldn't help them. The Steward sent a last-ditch plea to northern horse-warriors called the Éothéod. While the Éothéod were on friendly terms there was no formal alliance and things were so bad that the Gondorians had given up hope already. That is, until Eorl the Young showed up with just about every Éothéod warrior just in time to save Gondor from being overrun. The Steward granted the Éothéod the (mostly...) unpopulated northern lands in gratitude, and the Éothéod became the Rohirrim. One condition of the grant was that Rohan would aid Gondor whenever they were needed (and vice-versa, although the one time Rohan called for aid, Gondor was busy and couldn't come).
  • This event means that in the War of the Ring, Gondor and Rohan are formal, treaty- and oath-bound allies. The only factor creating doubt about whether Rohan will answer Denethor's call is the fact that they've just finished fighting another war and are exhausted and concerned about threats to their own realm. Denethor has also called for aid from Gondor's outlying provinces (such as Dol Amroth), lit the beacons long before Gandalf got there (unlike in the movie) and sent a messenger to Rohan to hurry them up. The problem with reinforcing was mainly that said provinces and Rohan were pretty far away, and most were unable to spare more than a tenth of their forces—Rohan went above and beyond the call with the amount of troops they brought, on the thought that if Sauron beat Gondor there wouldn't be much point defending their borders anyhow. (And also honor and stuff.)
  • The Fall of Númenor: When Sauron's forces invade Eriador in overwhelming numbers, Gil-Galad sends a plea to, hoping that the ancient friendship between Elves and Men will outweigh the absence of any formal treaty between both kingdoms. King Tar-Minastir responds by sending a massive fleet which drives back and later destroys Sauron's army.
• The Lay of the Last Minstrel: The war-beacon is lit, so the seneschal sends out men to the castle's allies.

  Young Gilbert, let our beacon blaze,
  Our kin, and clan, and friends to raise.

• Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy: In Kushiel's Dart, the heroine journeys to Alba to convince the Albans to bring their army to the aid of Terre d'Ange which has been invaded by Skaldia.
• Lazy Dungeon Master: In Volume 17, in order to save Haku from Core 10's possession, Keima and Co have to conquer her labyrinth. Thing is, the furthest any adventurer made it is the 53rd floor, and the full dungeon is over 150 floors deep. A party their size would have to spend years conquering the dungeon, but they have a time limit of less than two weeks. Keima's solution is to call the entire world for help.
• The Phantom Tollbooth has this at the very end.
• Harry Potter - the climax of The Deathly Hallows, in which the school students, the Order of the Phoenix, estranged members of the Weasley and Dumbledore families, and even Harry's old Quidditch team all turn out to fight. Nearly every single wizard aligned against the Death Eaters arrives at the battle towards the very end. And the centaurs. And even the house-elves (whom Ron Weasley refuses to ask for aid because he won't issue a request to fight and possibly die to a species incapable of refusal. In the end, one of their own does the recruiting).
• Star Wars Expanded Universe:
  • X-Wing Series: Subverted in Solo Command, when Warlord Zsinj, calls up every pirate and mercenary he'd ever hired to come and defend his crippled ship. The protagonists are among that number, having successfully posed as pirates in the previous novel. Zsinj's call for help confirms that he is vulnerable, not preparing a trap, allowing the protagonists to go and kick his ass.
  • During the Yuuzhan Vong war the Galactic Alliance, the Imperial Remnant, and every capable fighting force in the galaxy join forces against the Yuuzhan Vong.
• In The High King, the heroes must rally all the forces of Prydain to fight in the final battle with Big Bad Evil Overlord Arawn. Virtually every character the heroes have ever met shows up to help. They lose anyway.
• The Wings of Merlin, the sixth and final book of The Lost Years of Merlin, invokes this for its final battle.
• Subverted in Star Trek: Destiny, where the United Federation of Planets needs to call on virtually every major power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants for help against an impending Borg invasion. President Bacco hosts an emergency conference and tries to persuade or pressure nine other nations into sending forces to the Azure Nebula alongside Starfleet. Some of them refuse to show up and the fleet is wiped-out in minutes anyway. All that her efforts really accomplish in the long run is to antagonize the Tholians.
• The climax of Martin the Warrior, the sixth Redwall book.
• At one point in Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series, a telepathic call goes out to all the Regulars. They respond so immediately that at least one stove is left running, a suicide prevention is called short (they bring him along!), a bomb-tech leaves an active bomb-site (he brings the bomb along!), and even more extreme 'drop-everything' examples.
• The Night's Watch of A Song of Ice and Fire for the first 3 books keeps asking the realm for help against the wildlings, and possibly even worse threats beyond The Wall. They were sure Eddard Stark would answer the call before he was executed. The Watch finally sends ravens after the great ranging ends in disaster, only Stannis Baratheon came to help, but it is still enough to win the battle.
• In the climax to The Prefect, the governing body of the Glitter Band puts out a call for aid in the evacuation of space stations under attack by Aurora. The highly disparate Ultranauts - the cybernetic, transhuman crew of irreplaceable interstellar starships - respond, using the massive holds of their multi-kilometer long ships to aid in the evacuation of dozens of space stations and the destruction of those contaminated by Aurora's machinery through Weaponized Exhaust, conventional and exotic weaponry
• In Ready Player One, Parzival sends a missive to every user in the OASIS about how IOI has control of the last Gate. He expects just some of them to show up then just sit back and watch while still serving as a distraction. Instead, they all arrive and decide to team up with him to keep the OASIS out of IOI's hands.
• In Warrior Cats, the Clans are all rivals, but occasionally a Clan will be desperate enough to ask another for help, or they'll try to convince all the Clans to team up against a threat. For instance, in The Darkest Hour, WindClan and ThunderClan intend to fight the invading rogues who call themselves "BloodClan", but they know they probably don't have enough cats do it alone, and end up convincing their recent enemies RiverClan and ShadowClan to join them.
• Realm Breaker: The ending sees all the main countries in Allward sending armies to Iona to aid in the defeat of the Gallish army. Of significant note is the moment when the Kasa and Ibal armies arrive, forcing Isibel to actually consider joining the fight. During the battle itself, at a point in which all seems lost, the world renown army of Temur arrives to turn the tide.

• Angel's finale, with Angel asking the hated and usually villainous Lindsey to help his team against the Big Bad, although he then, through Lorne, betrayed Lindsey. Illyria was also a semi-unlikely ally.
• Babylon 5: The cast spent a good amount of time gathering all of the younger races, and several of the older ones, for their battle with the Shadows and Vorlons.
  • From the backstory, there's the Dilgar War. At the start of the war the Abbai called for help from anyone willing to fight, but the few who answered the call (League races that hadn't been attacked yet and a few Narn related to the ones slaughtered by Jha'dur) didn't have the strength to stop them. Then the Earth Alliance answer the call, stopping the Dilgar out cold with a growing strength that already matched theirs.
  • Again from the backstory, the Earth-Minbari War. According to the Expanded Universe Earth Alliance decided it was time to cash the life debts owed by the League, and called for their help. It was subverted; most of the League races sent condolences, the Brakiri were organizing a fleet but changed their mind when a Minbari warcruiser jumped in bombing range of their homeworld and powered up the weapons before jumping out, and the Drazi switched their support from combatants to heavy weapon technology plans after the first wave of their reinforcement fleets disappeared in hyperspace. This perceived betrayal is half of the reason of the human attitude in the series (the other being the fact nobody knows why the Minbari surrendered as they prepared to destroy Earth).
• Part one of the series finale of Battlestar Galactica ends with Adama putting out one of these for the mission to rescue Hera from Cavil's Cylons. Every character we know from the fleet is called upon to help with the mission if they so choose, including those Marines that were imprisoned after supporting the mutiny against Adama earlier in the season.
• Doctor Who:
  • "The Stolen Earth": Harriet Jones, the former Prime Minister (yes, we know who she is), finds she needs to call on the Doctor despite the fact he's the one who deposed her. She even sacrifices her own life to serve as a distraction for the Daleks so the call for aid can get through. However, unlike other examples, it is more obvious the Doctor's companions will help.
  • "A Good Man Goes to War": The Doctor does this again when he needs to rescue Amy and her daughter, by gathering people who owe him debts. Some of them we've seen before, such as the pirates from 'The Curse of the Black Spot', the space-Spitfires from "Victory of the Daleks" and Dorium the black marketeer from "The Pandorica Opens". Others are introduced in the same episode.
  • In "The Wedding of River Song", there's an especially touching one when River explains they've constructed a distress beacon to broadcast "The Doctor is dying. Please, please help." and the Doctor comments "That would mean nothing to anyone." To which River replies:

    River The sky is full of a million million voices, saying, "Yes of course. We'll help." You've touched so many lives, saved so many people. Did you think when your time came you'd really have to do more than just ask?

  • In "The Day of the Doctor", the Time Lords are losing the final battle of the Great Time War, when three versions of the Doctor show up to save the planet, using their TARDIS's to put the whole planet in a pocket universe. The War Council doesn't think it can be done. That is, until every, single one of the Doctor's past regenerations (and one from the future!) arrive to combine their efforts.
• Farscape: Past one-shot enemies were called upon to help the main characters rob a bank.
  • And at the end the Big Bad from the previous season shows up to save the day.
• Game of Thrones:
  • In response to his father's imprisonment and the Lannister invasion of the Riverlands, Robb Stark calls all the Stark bannermen to assemble for war.
  • Maester Aemon and Sam draft letters imploring all the factions of Westeros to help the Night's Watch stand against the White Walker's march on the Wall. Stannis answers.
  • Jon Snow and Sansa Stark do this in season 6, hoping to rescue their youngest brother and liberate the North from Bolton rule, calling on wildings and noble alike. Most don't answer, and the ones that do aren't sold on loyalty (or gratitude in the free folks' case) alone, and rather there being a zombie apocalypse on the way.
  • But ultimately played straight with the Vale Knights. At Littlefinger's suggestion, young Lord Robin Arryn agrees to send all his army to help his cousin Sansa.
• Kamen Rider: The movie Let's Go Kamen Rider. Faced with the Great Colossus that was stated to be unstoppable until it's destroyed everything, ALL of the Riders (whether a hero, villain, or neutral) from the series' 40-year history appear, in order to help finish off the Colossus with the All Rider Break. If anyone's counting, that would be 90 Kamen Riders, more or less.
• The Kids of Degrassi Street: Both subverted and played straight in the episode "Martin Meets the Pirates". Pete attempts to get neighborhood kids to help out against a street gang called the Pirates, but many are too scared or won't help Pete as he had messed their bicycles up as part of a failed moneymaking scheme. Played straight later on when Martin rallies for help against the Pirates and succeeds, mainly because his little sister was targeted by the gang.
• Legends of Tomorrow: In the Season 3 finale, the Legends find themselves cornered in the Wild West by Mallus and about to face down his army, and send out a temporal SOS. A response comes in the form of several allies made over the course of the season, and one former team member who was previously Put on a Bus.
• Leverage: Done in "The Last Dam Job". Notable in that it is one of the few examples where the heroes are clearly not okay working with their enemies.
• Madam Secretary's season three finale is titled "Article 5" after the mutual defense clause of the NATO Treaty, which Bulgaria invokes when Russian Spetsnaz operators disrupt its government and media in preparation for an invasion. France unexpectedly vetoes the move, which Liz and Henry trace to the Russians having funded President Perrin's campaign, getting him impeached and forcing France to abstain in the second round of voting.
• A strange corporate example occurs at the end of Season 3 of Mad Men. When Sterling Cooper's British overlords at Putnam Powell & Lowe decide to sell the firm to McCann Erickson, Roger Sterling, Bert Cooper, and Don Draper instantly realize that they (and Don's creative talent) would be sidelined at McCann's "sausage factory" of an ad agency. As a result, they rally a number of people to start a new firm: they get Lane Pryce — who had had something of a strained relationship with them as PPL's representative in New York — to fire them all in exchange for making him a partner in the new firm; they pull in Pete Campbell, whom Don still regards as too ambitious for his own good, to get his account skills and contacts at the lucrative Richardson-Vicks account; they get Peggy Olson, whom Don had recently insulted, to join as head of Creative; they get Harry Crane, the only man in the office smart enough to see the potential for having a TV division, as head of Media; and finally, they bring in the formerly-exiled Joan Harris as office manager, who scrounges up materials and people for the agency. And then, in a Midtown hotel room:

  Joan: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, how can I help you?

• Once Morgana takes over Camelot at the end of season three of Merlin, Merlin writes to Lancelot, asking for his assistance. Lancelot arrives just in time, with Percival in tow, to save the company from a band of immortal soldiers by causing a rockslide.
• Ms. Marvel (2022): In the finale, when Kamala and her friends face off against Damage Control, Zoe broadcasts online to her Tik Tok followers to get them to come to the school. Before the night is over, much of the population of Jersey City is there to show support for Kamala. Even the police end up joining the crowd against Damage Control in protest against their tactics.
• My Name Is Earl, "Camdenites": Earl rounds up just about everyone he's ever helped with his list to help him right Joy and Darnell's trailer.
• Many times in the finales of the Power Rangers series. But the most memorable is the one for In Space series. In it the rangers are beaten and Andromeda issue an ultimatum to surrender themselves or she'll kill the citizens. When zero hour comes, who should actually stand up to her but Bulk and Skull proclaiming themselves to be Power Rangers More citizens of Angel Grove start doing likewise, inspired by their bravery. Eventually the Power Rangers themselves join in and a full on battle takes place between the citizens and Andromeda's forces. What makes it memorable is that its the non-powered characters that ultimately help achieve victory.
• Subverted in Robin Hood: In the finale Robin and the gang are under siege at Nottingham Castle and they manage to sneak one of their people out in order to fetch King Richard's army who are rumoured to have landed back in England. However, the Sheriff soon informs them that Richard is in fact held hostage in Austria and no help is coming.
• An inversion for the series finale of Seinfeld. When the four main characters are put on trial for violating the Good Samaritan Law, a long list of significant characters from the show's entire run are called as witnesses... for the prosecution.
• Series Two of Blake's 7 ends with the crew of the Liberator calling on the Federation to defend against the Andromedan spacefleet — and defending the pass on their own until help can arrive. The relationship between the allies was... not nice, shall we say?
• Stargate:
  • One season finale for Stargate SG-1 had the Tau'ri, Free Jaffa Nation, Asgard, and Lucian Alliance (the last only agreeing to help after Teal'c beats the crap out of the leader's guards and points a gun at his forehead) band together to stop the Ori from gaining a foothold in their galaxy. In a rather shocking case of The Worf Effect, the Ori outright slaughter the Milky Way alliance.
    • Made even worse by the fact that the Asgard were one of the most advanced races in the Milky Way, and even THEY were trying to desperately think of something fast to stop the Ori.
  • A more successful alliance recently happened in Stargate Atlantis, where the Atlanteans, their enemies the Wraith, and their allies the Travelers successfully destroy the Replicator homeworld, apparently losing only one ship in the process.
  • In Stargate: Continuum, SG-1 (in F-15s) are attacked by gliders. They are saved by a squadron of Russian MiGs, possibly one of the few cases in Western fiction where incoming MiGs are a good thing.
• Invoked and subverted in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when a combined Federation and Klingon fleet about to face an overwhelming force of Dominion and Cardassian warships en route to the Bajoran system aiming to retake Deep Space 9 as the first act of their new alliance are unexpectedly joined by Romulan warbirds decloaking and announcing they are there to assist. The subversion comes when it turns out the enemy fleet was a hoax: The whole thing had been a Dominion plan to gather those opposing them together and then destroy the whole system with a bomb planted by a mole. (It fails.)
• In the Supernatural episode "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" (S09, Ep01), Dean prays for help from the angels.
• Super Sentai: Expanding on the beginning of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, the 199 Heroes movie reveals that the Goseigers are at first overwhelmed in battle by the Zangyack Empire's military might, which prompts the arrival of all previous Super Sentai to help fight off the invasion.
• In the 1970s version of Survivors, the Whitecross settlement realise they're next in the path of a sniper who has randomly been killing the women of the surrounding communities. They send out a call to other settlements but get a lot of rejections... until a settlement leader who had been against the idea of co-operation at the start of the episode turns up with help, having realised it's in his best interests to get rid of the sniper before his people are next.
• In Taxi Driver (2021), prosecutor Kang Ha Na has been on the tail of our protagonists' hidden revenge actions for about half of the series, and even though she didn't discover the details, she did reprimand the protagonist for his actions. However, when her colleague dies after she gets into a mysterious case of a murder without a body, she realizes that the methods she has as per being a law-abiding person are no longer enough to catch the criminals, and so, she eventually plans revenge using our protagonists' hidden company. This is commented on as they are told that the prosecutor asked for revenge of the victims case (usually, the victim decides to take revenge).
• Ultra Series
  • The three-part ending of Ultraman Mebius both subverts it and then promptly plays it straight. When Empera sends his army down to Earth to wear down the heroes, eventually rendering Mebius near comatose and destroying most of GUYS' weapons and super-vehicles, the cast get the aid of their various allies they've made over the series. Only to have it amount to nothing as Empera arrives and kicks the crap out of them with a few flicks of his wrist — eventually killing Ultraman Hikari and Zamusha before vaporizing Mebius with a Rezolium Ray. A few of them get better, and they get a true Gondor Calls for Aid from the Ultra-Brothers and a few of the slain are Not Quite Dead, and the world is saved.
  • Ultraman Gaia also gets one, though it's far more effective. All of Earth's monsters awaken to fight Zogu's (aka The Root Of Destruction) army after Gaia and Agul are defeated, XIG ultimately helping them. In the end, they lend some of their energy to Gaia and Agul to revive and super charge them, allowing them to put an end to Zogu once and for all.
• Walker, Texas Ranger:
  • In Season 9's "Division Street", ex-con-turned-community center director Boomer Knight (played by Hulk Hogan) is kidnapped by a gang of drug dealers led by the villain, Carson. Danny, whose brother belongs to the Blades Gang, witnesses the kidnapping occur and he and Jeff, whose cousin belongs to the rival gang, the Guardians, notify their respective gangs of what happened, to which both gangs realize after they refused to deal drugs for Carson anymore after the community center brought them together, Carson would frame them for Boomer's murder. While the two gangs go to Carson's hideout, Danny and Jeff tell the Rangers what happened. When the gangs come bursting into Carson's hideout and beat up the henchmen, they release Boomer from his noose and threaten to hang Carson instead. Boomer tells them not to do it, as they will end up in prison like he did. The gangs release Carson from the noose, seconds before Danny and Jeff come storming in with the cavalry to arrest him and have him indicted for drug dealing and Boomer's attempted murder.

• Old Master Q Fantasy Battle has the titular characters entering the world of various storybooks in order to find their missing father. In the crossover episode with The Little Mermaid, they end up discovering the world of mermaids are being threatened by a race of Shark Man, but then the prince from the original Little Mermaid tale suggests getting another army. Big Potato then remembers the Eastern Dragon King from Chinese Myths probably exists in this universe as well, at which point they set off east to fetch reinforcements (in the form of Giant Crab soldiers).

• Miracle of Sound's The Elder Scrolls Online song "The Call" is this musically; The lyrics call on the aid of each of Tamriel's species:
  • "Bring us your arms, pariahs of yore" for the orcs.
  • "Exiles of the ash, stare through crimson glow" for the dumner.
  • "Guards of the north sing their songs of the snow" for the nords.
  • "Bring us the breath of the marshes and rain" for the argonians.
  • "Pride of summer's shores, guide the voices of kings" for the altmer.
  • "Children of bark, they will tighten their strings" for the bosmer.
  • "Bring us the wits of the warm summer sands" for the kahjiit.

• In the Black Jack Justice episode "The Late Mr. Justice", an old enemy of Jack's, Rick Morales, gets released on parole and immediately sets out to kill Jack. To do so he kidnaps Jack's girlfriend Dorothy and threatens to kill her if Jack doesn't give himself up. Jack agrees, but during the confrontation, Jack reveals Morales gave Jack enough time to assemble as many allies as he could on short notice. What Morales intended as a massacre turns into a shootout between his gang and Jack, his partner Trixie, fellow detectives "Button-Down" Theo and Alf McKinney, and police officers Lieutenant Sabien and Sergeant Nelson, during which Jack's long-time friend and small time hood Freddy "the Finger" Hawthorne locates Dorothy and gets her to safety.

  Dorothy: [witnessing the aftermath] Thank you all. You... you killed... Wow, look at how many people you killed...
  Trixie: Only because there weren't more.

• In 1992, Genichiro Tenryu departed from All Japan Pro Wrestling to become the spokesman of Megane Super, an eyeglasses company. Megane Super executive Hachiro Tanaka had interest in running a pro wrestling promotion however and so Tenryu became one of the faces of the "Super World Of Sports", which in turn led to Yoshiaki Yatsu, Ashura Hara, Shunji Takano, The Great Kabuki, Hiromichi Fuyuki, Tatsumi "Koki" Kitahara, Masao Orihara, Isao Takagi and even referee Hiroyuki Unno to also depart from All Japan to join Tenryu in the new promotion. Giant Baba felt betrayed and proclaimed he would never allow Tenryu to return to All Japan, pushing Mitsuharu Misawa in his place and leading Tenryu to start his own promotion, WAR, when Megane Super pulled the plug on SWS. After Giant Baba died his wife demoted Misawa, who in turn also left All Japan and took 92% of the native roster with him to form Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000, whom All Japan's distributor, NTV, decided to broadcast instead of All Japan while using its shares in AJPW to keep it from shopping for another television network spot. The situation became so dire Mokoto Baba called on Tenryu, who closed down WAR and took the roster back to All Japan. WAR was the first promotion in the history of Japanese pro wrestling that shutdown for a such a practical reason, rather than monetary failure, political in fighting, mismanagement, or the like.
• Pro Wrestling loves this trope and tends to use it interchangeably with Everyone Join the Party. The most famous recent example happened on Monday Night Raw in the summer of 2010 when John Cena was being victimized by the fifth-column terrorist group The Nexus. For a terrible moment it looked as if Cena was going to tuck his tail between his legs and walk out of the arena in defeat....but then turned around and announced: "You've sealed your fate 'cause guess what: I got me some help." Right on cue, every Raw Superstar who had been attacked by the Nexus in the past few months came out to join Cena in a Moment of Awesome: Edge, John Morrison, R-Truth, the Great Khali, Chris Jericho, and....wait for it....Bret Hart! What really made this moment splendid is that all these guys often had only negative associations with each other in the past if they had associations at all, and two of them (Edge and Jericho) had been Heels up to this point. The "seven samurai" (as Morrison referred to them) then rushed the ring to chase off the Nexus villains, and Cena shouted: "At SummerSlam, the Nexus IS HISTORY!!!"

• In Realms of Hyrule, after ascending to the throne after the death of his predecessor, Prince Regent Victor makes an appeal to the citizens of Hyrule during his coronation ceremony to take up arms and fight to reclaim Kakariko.

• The ending of Skies of Arcadia. Rather unusual in that Gondor never actually called for aid; rather, everyone just showed up because they knew that the heroes were the only ones brazen enough to go head-to-head with the Big Bad, and wanted to join in on the fun; in a sense, aid called for Gondor.
• In Freelancer, the first half of the game is about finding someone who can identify the artifact that fell into Trent's hand. Near the end of the game, the Order calls the Outcasts and the Blood Dragons to help them against the Nomads.
• The climax of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. In her real form (Possessing Peach was actually hindering her), the Shadow Queen No Sells all of Mario and his party's attacks, then drains the audiences' lives to restore all of her health. It's truly the Darkest Hour for the heroes...but then, the Crystal Stars manage to travel to their home locations, and all of the friends Mario made along the way realize that he is fighting to save their world. They use the Stars as conduits to send him and his allies positive wishes and energy, which harms the Shadow Queen, makes her vulnerable, and even allows Peach to fight back against her possession and use the last of her own power to restore the heroes to full strength.
• Used in both Heroes of Might and Magic III and its expansion Armageddon's Blade.
  • In the first, it's played straight, on both sides—the nations of Bracada, AvLee, and Erathia coming together to face Nighon and Eeofol (who later drop out of the war). Later, the necromancers of Deyja make an alliance with Erathia to stop the necromancers' own king, who has grown far too powerful for their liking.
  • In Armageddon's Blade, the witch Adrienne asks Erathia for aid against an invasion of undead that threatens both their borders. Erathia, too caught up in its other problems, declines. Meanwhile, AvLee and Erathia are allied briefly against Eeofol, and then Erathia finds new allies in the Conflux towns, before the queen of Erathia abdicates in order to pursue the war with more vigor, Erathia having grown tired of war. Finally, the last mission of that campaign has to be completed within two months—or Eeofol's call for aid from Nighon will be answered.
• In going against Bodhi's guild towards the end of Baldur's Gate II, the player character can form an alliance with a paladin order, the thieves' guild, and the Companions of the Hall (Drizzt Do'Urden and friends) against them. Doing so naturally makes the battle much easier.
• In .hack//G.U. Redemption, Haseo and Zelkova use their influence to get help from all the players of "The World" to assist them in stopping Cubia.
• The Courier can pull this off at the ending battle of Fallout: New Vegas by doing enough of the right favors to the smaller factions in the Mojave.
• Super Robot Wars Alpha 3: In the final battle, the dead come back to support the player. Irui even joins the battle with the same stats as she had in Alpha 2 if you got enough battle masteries
• In EarthBound (1994), the heroes travel back through time to fight Giygas, an Eldritch Abomination and Almighty Idiot who is so powerful that their attacks can barely scratch him. With hope dwindling fast, Paula begins using her "Pray" command to send a cry for help into the void...and one by one, the various people the heroes met throughout their adventure hear that cry and send the children their love and positive thoughts. This destabilizes Giygas and does increasing damage, but he can't be truly defeated without the help of one final prayer: that of the player. By which we mean the person holding the controller.
• Final Fantasy IV: When the villains summon the giant world-ending monster, just about everyone you've ever helped, including all your ex-party members except the one that really died, shows up in tanks and airships and starts blasting away.
  • Then, at the end of the game, everyone prays to give your party the strength to defeat Zeromus. Even Tellah and his daughter Anna show up.
  • Something similar happens in Final Fantasy IX, where the air forces of the entire world arrives to save the heroes from a hundred dragons emerging out of The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, and Final Fantasy X, the people of Spira sing the Hymn of the Fayth, the only way to calm down Sin, in order for the heroes to stand a chance of fighting it.
• In Ōkami, the prayers from all the people of Nippon, inspired by Issun, are what revives Amaterasu and restores her full divine glory. Cue the Theme Music Power-Up and the final boss fight.
• Dawn of War mixes it up a bit at the start of the Space Marine campaign, in which you get to be The Cavalry for a hard-pressed Imperial Guard unit that's desperately trying to Hold the Line on the surface.
• The story mode of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe features this trope. Regardless of whether the player chooses to play as the MK or DC fighters, the chosen world's heroes end up having to work together with their villains to deal with the opposing faction's fighters, whom they initially see as invaders until Dark Khan finally makes his appearance for the final showdown.
• At the end of Warcraft III, the night elves had to ally with the humans and the orcs to defend their World Tree Nordrassil. The first alliance stuck and continued into World of Warcraft, the second didn't.
• At the end of Space Channel 5, Ulala fights alongside her rivals Jaguar and Pudding, and every person who she's directly or indirectly helped throughout the game come out to lend their support and dance energy.
• Ace Combat:
  • The second-to-last mission of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War starts with squadrons from both the Osean and Yuktobanian armies supporting you in disabling the Belkan super weapon control station after hearing their leaders' speeches.
  • Mission 12 of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation requires you to evade no less than 30 enemy fighter jets. After a few minutes of dodging missiles for your dear life, every air squadron in the game comes to your aid (including a squad of electronic support planes).
• You spend the main part of the game doing this in Dragon Age: Origins. The bulk of the questline involves solving whatever problems are preventing them from being able to dispense said aid. The Elves, Magi, and Dwarves all greet your Warden with variations on, "We'd love to help you, but..."
• In Mass Effect, near the end, should Shepard decide to save the Council, cue the Alliance Fleet pouring through the Relay and immediately pull of a Big Damn Heroes moment, in addition to turning the tide of the battle.

  Asari: It's the Alliance! Thank the goddess!

• Mass Effect 3 is filled with this, as Shepard finally cashes in all the goodwill they've potentially earnt over the course of the previous two games, depending on their actions. If Shepard plays his/her cards right, (s)he can look forward to calling on the aid of the Turians, Krogan, Salarians, Asari, and Quarians, and possibly the Geth and the Rachni.
  • In the Leviathan DLC, Shepard even gets an Eldritch Abomination on their side, part of The Remnant of the first race harvested by the Reapers and whose form the Reapers modeled themselves after. Yes, that race!
• Mass Effect: Andromeda: At the climax, Ryder and their team call in everyone they know across the Heleus Cluster for assistance with the fight against the kett. This can include the other Pathfinders, the first colony Ryder founded, the boss of Kadara Port, the krogan, the local Resistance, the Moshae, and various miscellaneous characters Ryder's met over the course of the game.
• Toward the end of the main quest of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Martin Septim realizes that in order to pursue Big Bad Mankor Camoran to his Paradise, the heroes will need a Great Sigil Stone. Unfortunately, the only way to get one is to open a portal to Oblivion outside of the city of Bruma, which will send countless Daedra into Cyrodil. The player is then given the option to travel to each of Cyrodil's major cities and request support from the Counts and Countesses that run them; the nobles will agree if the player seals the Oblivion Gates that are menacing their own cities. If you choose to do this, each city you rescue will send powerful guards to join Bruma's defense; if not, the Bruma guard is left standing alone, which makes the fight much more difficult.
• The Witcher 3 has Geralt calling on several of his friends for help defending Kaer Morhen against a siege by the Wild Hunt. He even manages to convince Emperor Emreis to offer to send troops for the battle, which Geralt refuses due to the fact that they wouldn't be answering to him.
• This is pretty much what Neptune is doing for most of the game in Hyperdimension Neptunia to fight off against monsters roaming around the world. Of course, the other goddesses would rather not bother with it since they all hate each other for various reasons.
• Your quest in Dark Sun: Shattered Lands is to get military aid from neighbouring cities. That's the object of the entire game.
• Touhou Project:
  • Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism has Reimu and Marisa being helped by various kind of people (who each have their own reasons) on their fight against the subterranean horrors. Yukari is interested in maintaining peace, Aya is going for scoop, and Nitori is defending her rivers — which makes Marisa the aid. In a twist, the unleashing of subterranean horrors themselves is Rin's call for aid. She can't stop her best friend Utsuho who is drunk with (nuclear!) power, so she hopes that someone strong enough from the surface will stop the crazy hell raven.
  • Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires: An aid was called for, but it's not for the heroines. The heroines come the source of the problems and solve it anyway before the supposed aid even come.
• Pokémon Black and White: Bianca calls for the Unova Gym Leaders to come and fight versus Team Plasma at N's Castle, after the Elite Four challenge.
• In Darksiders, this is what happens when War gets Uriel to break the seventh seal, summoning the other three Horsemen.

  Uriel: You will be hunted! The White City for certain...the Council...and there will be others! You would wage this war alone?

  War: No. Not alone.

• To fight against Nero, Blanck, and eventually Tartaros in Solatorobo, Red enlists the help of Opéra and the Kurvasz, who then put out a call for everybody to help. And they do.
• Diablo III: An obvious homage, a quest in ACT III has your character being instructed to light five signal fires along Bastion's Keep's walls. Somewhat averted since the King of Westmarch, the leader of the army you're asking help from, dismisses the request since they did not believe Bastion's Keep was really being attacked by demons.
• In the fourth level of Iji, you're tasked with sending a distress signal to the Komato, a race of aliens who are at war with the aliens already invading Earth, in the hopes that they'll take care of the problem for you. This backfires massively.
• The endgame of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. A light-side Exile will receive aid from the TSF and Mandalorians, plus Zherron's Khoonda militia and Talia's Royalist troops. And as proof that this trope does not have to apply to the good guys, a Dark Exile will still have the aid of the TSF and Mandalorians, plus the DS winners of the Dantooine and Onderon conflicts (Azkul's mercenaries and Vaklu's troops).
• The Jedi Consular's arc of Star Wars: The Old Republic is entirely this, from Act 2 onward. There's an alliance of powerful, but politically neutral worlds that don't much like the Republic, but like the Imperials even less. The Consular gets tasked by the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic to essentially go door to door and enlist their help. By the time you roll into Imperial-occupied Corellia, you have the largest droid and weapon factories in the Core from Balmorra (and their most notorious "Freedom Fighter" as a party member), medical supplies from Manaan (with oceans producing a near-miraculous healing substance), a Voss Mystic (who normally are forbidden to leave the planet due to their value) and his entourage of healers and commandos, the Shakari army looking to avenge an attack on their monarchs and the murder of their Senator (and under the command of the Consular's padawan), and an army of Esh-Ka (a species not even the Rakata wanted to cross swords with when they conquered most of the galaxy)
• Alpha Protocol features this. The more allies Mike has, the more help he gains during the endgame. It is especially awesome if G22 shows up. Assuming that Mike is able to conceal their existence in his interrogation with Big Bad Leland, Halbech and Alpha Protocol have no idea they even exist. Then when Mike is on the ropes and all of his known allies are accounted for, suddenly the compound is hit by dozens of heavily armed commandos that appear out of nowhere.
• Unlike the original game, the power of the Three Towers in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals is not enough to hold Doom Island in place. Cue the people of the entire world, previously too fearful to act against Daos, sending their energy waves to the Three Towers to help Maxim.
• The Minutemen in Fallout 4 operate in this manner. A settlement under attack will call for aid, and it is generally up to the player to answer (the player can leave the situation alone and the attack will succeed or fail based on how well the player prepared defenses beforehand). On the flip side, the player can call for aid from other Minutemen, eventually up to and including artillery support.
• Undertale both invokes and subverts this. First in the battle against Omega Flowey, you have to gain the support of the souls of the previous fallen children by calling out for help. After defeating the boss, calling out for help a final time will appear to do nothing at first, even lampshaded by Flowey, who mocks you for trying—at least until the souls respond and revolt against him. Then in the True Pacifist ending, all of the friends you made throughout the game arrive to support you, eventually with more arriving to include all of the monsters of the Underground. Unfortunately, Flowey was the one who put out the call.
• In Starcraft, the villainous Arcturus Mengsk manages to pull this off in the final mission. Kerrigan had already shredded the Dominion's military, but Mengsk "called in a few favors [and] made a few concessions" to the Koprulu Sector's Terran factions, and came right back to threaten Kerrigan with their support.

You'd be surprised how many special interest groups in this sector want to see you dead.

• In Tornado Jockey, you can summon UFOs and Godzilla to aid you in the destruction.
• In the build-up for the final level of LEGO Dimensions, After almost getting erased from reality after a 1x1 brick of Lord Vortech overloads, Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle realise that they'll need help from their new friends. They spend a montage gathering everyone they met from their dimension-hopping to fight Lord Vortech together.
• In Psychonauts, one of the last power-ups the player can receive (and easily one of the most useful) has all of Raz's fellow campers directly channeling their positive thoughts and well-wishes to him through the collective unconscious (it helps that they're all psychic). This serves as a Healing Factor that gradually restores the player to full strength after taking damage.
• Days Gone plays this straight, with an alternative set of cutscenes in the final act. Although there's no indication that you should do so late in the game, maxing trust and completing the questlines of the Hot Springs and Copeland settlements sees them send fighters to join Deacon St. John in the final battle.
• In Horizon Zero Dawn Meridian sends out a call for help to defend against an attack from the Shadow Carja. Which characters turn up depends on which side quests Aloy has completed prior to that point. Marad actually notes that many of the allies who have turned up have come out of loyalty to Aloy rather than a desire to help Meridian.
• In Chapter 7 of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, Roy is informed that the mighty troops of Bern are on their way to conquer Ostia. At this point of the story his army is quite small and weak, so he sends a letter to his teacher, General Cecilia of the neighboring country Etruria, asking for help. Cecilia arrives in the nick of time along with fellow General Percival, whose presence alone scares Bern's troops away. This aid doesn't come for free, though: Roy has to do Etruria's bidding for a while in exchange for this protection. And this bidding allows Bern free reign in the mainland while Roy is away doing errands on the Western Isles.
• In Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker expansion, the Scions learn that the Aetherburner needed to launch a spacecraft ark to Etherius' moon to rescue who and what they can from the Final Days needs special Alligan adamantite to make it more effective. The Warrior of Light is primed and ready do so, but Alphinaud decides that they need to do it faster and requests aid from the various countries. To everyone's surprise, not only do they come to help, but so do virtually every other character still living from post-expansion storylines. This show of help not only helps surpass the Aetherburner's effectiveness levels, but it makes Alphinaud and Alisaie's father, Fourchenaut, realize what a monumental fool he was for dismissing them all.
• In Judgment, protagonist Takayuki Yagami can befriend various individuals throughout Kamurocho, either through completing substories or simply being a recurring patron of their businesses. Completing all 50 Friendship events results in a final substory to wrap up the sidequest chain concerning the Keihin Gang; when they attempt to turn the city against Yagami, all the people he's befriended rise up in their own ways to help Yagami finally take the Keihin Gang down.
  • Similarly, in its sequel Lost Judgment, a large subsection of the game is dedicated to the School Stories of Seiryo High and helping its detective club solve the mystery of an individual using the school for their own nefarious ends, which requires Yagami to integrate himself into the various other clubs in order to investigate. Much like the Friendship events, the clubs all in turn assist Yagami in the finale of the School Stories.

• Warhammer: The nations of Estalia and Tilea were being invaded by the armies of the Araby Sultan Jaffar. The combined armies of Bretonnia and The Empire soon came to their aid and drove their armies all the way back to Jaffars stronghold and slew the evil Sultan.
  • Happens hourly in Warhammer 40,000, across all media, usually with the Space Marines playing Rohan. The typical version of this is for the flavor-of-the-month faction to come in and save the day. When done well, it can be awesome. When done badly, such as an infamous section of the 5e Grey Knights codex when the Grey Knights answer the call and proceed to wipe out the Sisters of Battle who held the line in order to use their blood as holy armor lubricant, it can be a real stinker.
  • The goal of the Planetary Defense Force of a given Imperial world is to be the first on the ground, engage the enemy as soon as possible, learn what they can, and above all stall for time. While they're dying in droves to accomplish that, the astropaths call for reinforcing units of Guardsmen and, if necessary, Space Marines (although they aren't always available, and don't always get there in time.)
  • In some cases, it's actually standard procedure. Some Forge Worlds are used as resupply stops by other Imperial forces, so the Adeptus Mechanicus figure they might as well cut defense funding to the minimum to make more room for workers since there'll always be a fleet or two in orbit. Turns against them in The Greater Good, where a difficult start to negotiations ends when Cain points out that if the Mechanicus doesn't want the Guard's help against the Tyranids on the Guard's terms, there's probably another system around that could use it.

• In Hamilton, the eponymous "Guns and Ships", courtesy of France and Lafayette, arrive just after "Stay Alive", the lowest point of the war for the revolutionaries. Just two songs later, they've won the war at "Yorktown".
• Averted in Les Misérables. Enjolras expects the help of the French army and the people of Paris in his revolution; however, he can no longer count on the help of the former when ally and military General Lamarque dies of an unspecified illness, and "The Final Battle" begins with Enjolras's somber realization that they have been abandoned by the people of Paris as well. They are quickly overwhelmed by the French forces and only two — Marius and Valjean — survive.
• As mentioned on the Film page, this trope saves the day at the end of The Music Man. After Professor Harold Hill is exposed as a con artist and fraud who never planned to form a children's band in the first place, all of River City gathers to see him tarred and feathered. Marion Paroo turns on the crowd and reminds everyone of how Harold's positive energy and joy have genuinely improved their lives; Mayor Shinn then snaps that anyone who thinks Harold shouldn't be run out of town should step forward. After a tense moment, Marian's mother Mrs. Paroo does just that...followed by the rest of the citizens, the School Board (who've served as the Mayor's lackeys throughout the show), and even Eulalie Shinn, the Mayor's wife. Though the Mayor tries to win back the crowd by saying that Harold still ripped them off, Marion's diversion buys enough time for the children of River City to assemble with their instruments and begin playing. They're absolutely horrid, of course, but the parents love it, the Mayor is won over, and Harold gets to stay with Marion.
• Even William Shakespeare used this trope, making it Older Than Steam. In Henry IV Part II, a rebellion against the titular king begins to brew. John Falstaff, a friend of Prince Hal, decides to join the Loyalist army in hope of gaining favor from Hal, Henry IV's son and the future monarch. To that end, Falstaff heads to the country and tries to gather up some farmers to join the cause, but given that he's dealing with rubes, the elderly, and people who would rather pay him off than enlist, it's definitely Played for Laughs.

• Red vs. Blue: The Reds and the Blues hear a distress signal coming from Church, at first most of them don't even think about going to help Church, but Sarge was able to convince everyone to go in and help Church and Wash and save them just in time from the Meta.
• In RWBY Volume 8, with Salem making a direct assault on Atlas, the heroes decide to launch the Amity CCT to reestablish Global Comms and warn the rest of Remnant about what is happening. Not simply to call for help, but so that the other kingdoms will have time to prepare for when Salem comes after them.

• Oasis and Dr. Schlock play this role during the "Dangerous Days" arc of Sluggy Freelance (though with shades of Enemy Mine). The same can be said of just about any time Bun-Bun agrees to help anyone.
• Just before the final battle against the God Machine in T. Campbell's Fans! Book 5, Will informs team leader Rikk that some volunteers have arrived.
• Tower of God: When Ja Wangnan tried to get Viole's help, he did it as a last resort and tried to bargain with him and ultimately had to rely on his goodwill — while trying to trick him into entering his team. He succeeded, but that's because Viole decided to join anyway after seeing through it.
• Schlock Mercenary has one of these at the climax of the Resident Mad Scientist book. After the Milky Way is doomed by a superweapon so powerful it breaks causality, a time-traveling Kevyn Andreyasn escapes to the past to try again. Upon his return, resident super-AI Petey convinces basically every sentient, starfaring race in the galaxy to aid in a battle against the dark matter entities at the galactic core who set the weapon off.
• Finally happens at the very end of Errant Story, when the elves figure out that they are utterly screwed and ask Tsuiraku for help. Of course, what really matters isn't that they get the Tsuirakuan battlemages, but rather, that they get the Five-Man Band (Meji, Ellis, Jon, Sarine, and Sara), whom they did not actually ask for.
• Kevin & Kell: Fiona has been appointed Maid of Honor to Leona's wedding in the Thursday 7 November 2019 strip. Since Leona is obsessive and insecure, she's prime bridezilla material. This causes Fiona to entreat help from Greta and Miranda, citing this trope by name. Anyone pre-planning the nuptials of an emotionally haywire lioness needs all the help they can get.

• Renegade Rhetoric had a post of Cy-Kill describing the events of the fictional second season Challenge of the GoBots episode "The Guardian Smashers", which was about a team being formed of various human villains the Guardians had faced. In the end, Matt Hunter turns the tide by assembling the Guardian Auxiliary League, consisting of humans who helped or were helped by the Guardians (Mira Shaw from "Renegade Carnival", Buddy from "Whiz Kid", Greg and Don from "Speed is of the Essence", Professor Janus from "Terror in Atlantis" and Dr. Aeolis from "Clutch of Doom").

• Positively Dreadful: When held at gunpoint by a masked villain, Sideburns calls on fellow Youtuber Julz Chan for help. Which he does, at the end of the video.

• Winx Club: In the fourth episode of season two, Amentia tries to force one of the major characters into marrying her. Brandon effectively lucks out of it, and in the 24th episode of the season, Brandon and Sky decide to get Amentia's help in allowing the Specialists' ship to get inside the Underrealm to rescue Bloom. Also, in season one, a few nymphs from one of the filler episodes warned Alfea of the arrival of the villains during the final battle.
  • The fairies and witches joining forces against the Trix.
• Justice League Unlimited's "The Return" had the entire League trying to help out citizen Lex Luthor (he got a pardon in a previous episode of Justice League) who was being targeted by AMAZO, an unstoppable robot. They didn't like it but they had to try and stop AMAZO especially after it looks like he disintegrated Oa. He didn't, he just warped it out of his way. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, he warps it back.
  • Done during the finale of the series as well when the Legion of Doom unwittingly resurrected Darkseid due to a final act of revenge from Tala, who was being sacrificed for the ritual intended to bring back Brainiac, and the evil extraterrestrial comes gunning for Earth. Both the JL and the Legion team up to take on the bigger threat.
• In the DTV movie Justice League: The New Frontier, the Centre has finally shown up off Cape Canaveral. The military and the CIA, however, are more interested in keeping Batman, The Flash, Green Arrow, the Blackhawks and Adam Strange away from it, both sides drawing weapons on each other. It takes an angry Superman to get the two groups to join forces — especially after he gets blown out of the sky and is presumed dead.
• The final two episodes of X-Men: Evolution were the main cast calling on aid from almost every mutant from the series to stop Apocalypse.
• The fifth season finale of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon involved the turtles calling on everyone they'd ever worked with, and a few they'd fought against, to help stop the threat.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, during the Day of Black Sun, various allies of the Gaang from the Earth Kingdom* show up to help out. It's also one of the few cases where this gambit fails almost completely. However, in the series finale, other characters such as Iroh, Jeong Jeong, Bumi, and Pakku, to name a few, show up to help fight the Fire Nation.
  • The sequel series, The Legend of Korra, has General Iroh II of the Fire Nation responding to Republic City's call for help in the battle against the Equalists. Iroh brings the whole United Forces armada, in two waves (the second led by Bumi II, Aang and Katara's son).
• The series finale of Danny Phantom and the episode "Reign Storm".
• Season 4 of The Batman involves an Alien Invasion with Gotham City at ground zero. There's a breakout at Arkham Asylum, and the Gotham City Police Department arrives to find the inmates fighting the aliens, the Joker being especially angry that the aliens are invading his turf. When his lieutenant asks Gordon what to do, he orders his men to back the supervillains up.
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: Chiro called upon a bunch of previous allies for an epic battle against the Skeleton King... one which never did come (shakes fist at Jetix).
• The penultimate episode of Teen Titans, "Titans Together", had every young hero the team had encountered over the past five seasons coming together to help battle the Brotherhood of Evil.
• In the last story arc of the first season of Filmation's Flash Gordon, Flash, Barin, Thun, and Vultan put out a call to the various allies they've made for a final united battle against Ming. It's pretty awesome.
• ReBoot has Bob call for help from Megabyte and his viral army when the CPUs are outmatched by the web creatures. It turns out Megabyte was deliberately waiting in order to let the web creatures cripple the CPU forces so that Megabyte would have an easier time taking over after his inevitable betrayal.
• Mr. Bogus:
  • This was also somehow used in the episode "Bookstore Bogus", where Bogus calls on the help of Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, and Humpty Dumpty to help him save Rapunzel from the clutches of his sworn enemies, Ratty and Mole.
  • Subverted in the second act of the episode "Kung Fu Campout". In order to stop the aliens from running amok, Bogus calls on the help of a raccoon, a squirrel, and and a star-nosed mole (via use of a drum), but these animals refuse to help. However, it is played straight afterwards when Bogus has no other choice now but to call on the help of his sworn enemies, Ratty and Mole.
• Ben 10: Alien Force does this in the season 2 two-parter finale, where Ben's team goes and summons all of his allies that he had encountered over the series (and Darkstar) to help fight against the Highbreed Alien Invasion.
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes does this twice. In one episode Annihilus attacks Prison 42 with his army of bug creatures and traps the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stationed there with no way to escape or call for help from the outside. So they end up releasing most of the super villains being held there to help fight off the invaders. Most, except Baron Zemo, who Captain America knows he can't trust. Also in the series finale when Galactus and his heralds come to devour the Earth, the Avengers call on almost every superhero that has appeared on the show so far.
• In the season finale of Thunder Cats 2011, Wilykit and Wilykat, realizing that the others are going to need help during the battle against Mumm-Ra's forces, go off to recruit nearly every friendly person or group the Thundercats had met during their journey thus far. They come back to provide The Cavalry at the crucial moment. This is comically Double Subverted when they first come in: the big fanfare is for them to bring in one guy to help, but then we find out there were more in their Bag of Holding, he was just the one who didn't want to go in it.
• The second season finale of Young Justice (2010) has every single live superhero showing up to help save the Earth.
• Happens on South Park when the people from Jersey Shore stage a take-over of state-wide magnitude. After their pleas to the government fall on deaf ears, the inhabitants turn to Osama bin Laden of all people. And they get his support.
• In the season finale of Gravity Falls, Dipper and Mabel resort to asking for help from an unlikely source, Jeff and his gnome army, who in the first episode acted as the twins' enemies, in order to defeat Gideon. They lose, resulting in a few honestly very sad scenes before things are turned around.
• The Grand Finale of the [adult swim] revival of Samurai Jack has many of Jack's allies and the people he helped out unite to aid him in defeating Aku. Among them are the Scotsman and his daughters, Rothchild the dog archaeologist, the Spartans, the Three Blind Archers, and the Monkey-Man who taught Jack how to "jump good".
  • Ironically, in this case it was Mordor who called, to gloat. This ultimately served to let his allies know he needed them.
• In the Grand Finale of Star Wars Rebels, the Rebellion has abandoned Lothal as a lost cause, so Ezra calls in every friend they have to help him with one last attempt to free Lothal from Imperial control. They come very close to failing, until Ezra's final friends, the space whales he saved in season 2, arrive as The Cavalry and turn it around.
• In Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, Perry sent Phineas and Ferb back home with his collar, which unlocked his lair to them along with the replications of every invention they did throughout their summer and winter breaks. The aid arrives after the O.W.C.A. agents attempted to fight back against the Norm Bots, only to be overran even with Agent P's help. Phineas and Ferb arrived just in the nick of time, having rallied almost everyone who had gotten involved with their inventions at some point or another, and when they reinforced the O.W.C.A. agents they formed an effective line of defense against the Norm Bot invasion.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's finale "The Ending of the End", Equestria is divided again due to sedition by 3 of the series' villains, who also managed to become the most powerful beings in Equestria. They bring the whole nation to its knees, the ponies' allies abandon them and even the six main heroines are powerless… but when all hope seems lost, characters from each pony tribe and befriended species convince their own to come to Equestria/the Mane 6's aid. Characters from all over the series return for the final battle, resulting in several nations' worth of The Power of Friendship, which lets the heroes turn the tides.
• Johnny Test plays on this trope a little too many times. And it's not just limited to allies but enemies and acquaintances too. Sometimes it's not even played as an epic. For example, one episode has Johnny challenging a group of Upper Class Twits to a canoe race and for no real reason, familiar characters appear just to say they want to participate in the race too.
• Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy ended with Whirl and Hot Shot having to prevent Citadel Secundus from crashing into the Earth and enlisting the aid of Brushfire, Laserbeak and the Dinobots Sludge, Snarl and Slash to complete the task.
• The Legend of Vox Machina: In the third season, in order to launch an assault on Thordak the Cinder King, the titular adventurers call on every ally they can reach, from the Fire Ashari to the warrior-monks of the Stormlord, but it's still a small and patchwork alliance that stands no real chance. The largest military that they can call upon are the elves of Syngorn, but they're entrenched in keeping their city safe and isolated in the Fey Realm. Vex has to go to great effort to convince her estranged father, Syldor, to have a change of heart. But when he does, the sudden arrival of a massive number of elven soldiers dramatically increases their forces, as well as morale. And later, while Kashaw and Zahra of the Slayer's Take seemed uninterested in joining, they show up to be Big Damn Heroes when the assault goes bad.