Bluffing the Advance Scout: Difference between revisions
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It used to be a common trope in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, but not so much these days. Even then, it was frequently [[Played for Laughs]].
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' #2, the first appearance of the [[Secret Invasion|Skrulls]], the FF bluff them into thinking that Earth is crawling with giant monsters by [https://web.archive.org/web/20150405232524/http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/10.jpg showing them pages from a comic book], pretending they're real photographs.
* In one issue of the ''[[West Coast Team|West Coast]] [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]'', the aliens test the WCA line-up individually, putting their battle robot (and ship's power systems) under increasing stress. Then they finally get to [[Moon Knight]], who is empowered by the ancient Egyptian moon god. And they're testing the heroes ''in a dimension filled with moons''.
** Then again, contemporary Earth in the Marvel Universe [[Subverted Trope|doesn't usually ''need'' to bluff the advance scout]] -- something noted in an issue of ''[[X-Men]]'' where an alien invasion is called off after one of the leaders gets a summary on Earth's recent history, and reads, with increasing horror, "Homeworld of the current Sorcerer Supreme? Executed the Kree Supreme Intelligence? Has repelled Galactus ''four times in the last ten years''? All ships halt! Reverse course!"
* In one issue of ''[[Exiles]]'', the omniscient whatever-it-is that commands the Exiles sets up a chain of events that ends with some minor supervillain, feeling unappreciated, setting off a weapon that fills the Earth's atmosphere with foul-smelling gases for 72 hours. All because the omniscient whatever-it-is has foreseen that during those 72 hours an alien invasion fleet will arrive, scan the planet, and decide to move on to somewhere with a nicer atmosphere.
* A fairly recent{{when}} ''[[Mickey Mouse]]'' story had the mouse and his sidekick, Goofy, visiting an archaeologist-friend at Abu Simpel in Egypt, when they're abducted by [[Ancient Astronauts]] - specifically, the old
* ''[[Donald Duck]]'': One story has Scrooge McDuck make a bunch of money by producing and selling semi-sentient 'growing' cars to people. Things are already falling
* In the ''[[XXXenophile]]'' story "My Favorite Oitling", the human explorer convinces the Martian warrior women that the huge suit of power armour that arrives to rescue him is a typical Earth female and so Earth will be too tough to invade.
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* In the short story ''Iron Inferno'' from the [[Warhammer 40,000]] anthology ''Fear the Alien'', a Lord General, of the [[Redshirt Army|PDF]] of a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|conspicuously Japanese system]], made a ploy against the [[Our Orcs Are Different|Waaagh!]] that had just made planetfall. The plan was an elaborate deception to convince a vanguard force that a poorly defended hive was a veritable fortress with many more defenses and men guarding it than there actually were. After a brief battle, the deception had indeed worked, but the Lord General [[My God, What Have I Done?|was horrified]] that his goal [[Gone Horribly Right|met failure]]. Because of his inexperience with Orks, he didn't foresee that not only would they ''not'' avoid a costly and hard-fought battle, but they would ''[[Blood Knight|jump right at it]]''.
* A story from an old issue of ''Boys' Life'' has a young boy doing this to a team of Martian scouts completely by accident. He's just moved into the neighborhood and thinks the scouts are neighbor kids playing spaceman, and decides to play along. Through a series of [[Contrived Coincidence|contrived coincidences]] he ends accidentally convincing the Martians that that all of humanity is fearless and morally incorruptible, and that humans far outmatch the Martians technologically. In the end the Martians decide to invade another planet.
* Inverted (differently) in "The Woman Who Saved the World" by [[w:Susan Palwick|Susan Palwick]]. In this case it's not aliens invading the Earth, but alien ''scientists'' studying it. A woman whose life is terrible but who hides the fact from both the people around her and herself by mouthing comfortable lies about how wonderful it is gets interviewed by one of the aliens, who trusts her "innocent" answers to his questions to be accurate. And when they don't match up with reality, the aliens believe they've accidentally contaminated the culture they're studying, and immediately depart -- but not before "putting it back" to the way they think it "really" was, based on her lies.
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