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Command & Conquer: Tiberium: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''EVA:''' Welcome back, commander.}}
The ''Tiberium'' saga is the "main" ''[[Command
The first game, later given the subtitle ''Tiberian Dawn'', was set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] with a smattering of sci-fi elements such as alien crystals, stealth technology, and orbital lasers. A terrorist organization operating from various Third World nations known as the Brotherhood of Nod harnesses the power of Tiberium to challenge the rest of the world on equal footing, under the leadership of the charismatic and enigmatic Kane. The UN-backed Global Defense Initiative, a military coalition dedicated to restoring order and containing the spread of Tiberium, manages to hold the line and defeat Nod, killing Kane in the process. The game was followed by a plot-free expansion pack, ''The Covert Operations'', a multi-player-only sequel named ''Sole Survivor'', and ''Renegade'', an average-at-best FPS that nevertheless boasts an active modding community and a small but dedicated fanbase.
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{{tropelist|Besides the tropes common in all ''[[Command
* [[Action Girl]]: ''Tiberian Sun'''s Umagon, Sakura and Hotwire in ''Renegade'' (and Sydney Mobius to a lesser extent), and the Nod Commando in ''Tiberium Wars''.
* [[Affably Evil]]: Kane very rarely loses his cool, and is oftentimes even affable towards GDI, whilst he is taunting them about how they [[You Can't Thwart Stage One|cannot possibly stop him]] and [[To the Pain|will all die horribly]].
* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: CABAL. Slavik seems to have been the only one aware of this, since he alone of Nod's leading officers didn't use cyborgs as personal bodyguards.
** The Scrin AI causes trouble too, but only when the Supervisor orders Foreman 371 to {{spoiler|pursue further information on Kane at the expense of the entire mining operation}}.
* [[Airstrip One]]: The Blue, Yellow and Red zones of ''Tiberium Wars''.
* [[Alien Invasion]]: Enter, The Scrin! Except it's {{spoiler|not really an invasion, but they try to make it look like one, to divert attention from their mining operations}}.
* [[Aliens Steal Cable]]: The Scrin use a satellite news broadcast to learn English; it takes them less than 10 seconds.
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* [[Bond One-Liner]]: "Yes, power shifts more quickly than [[The Starscream|some people]] think."
** The Commando is full of 'em. "That was left-handed!" "KEEP 'EM COMING!" "Real tough guy!" And, of course, "Gotta present for ya!"
* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Averted in ''Tiberian Twilight'', where many bullet-firing units must eventually hold fire and switch over to another ammo belt, or reload rockets into launchers after discharging those already loaded.
** Averted from the beginning with air units like the Orca, which hold a limited amount of missiles and have to return to base to restock.
* [[Bread and Circuses]]: Nod for the people in the yellow zones in Tiberium Wars. Overlaps with [[Villain with Good Publicity]].
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* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: ''Sole Survivor'', not having a Campaign mode or story, and being so poorly received, has been pretty much ignored in official re-releases. Seems the canon holders themselves have ejected the product from existence.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: ''Tiberium Dawn'' itself: A Daring, Highly-Trained Special Mission Force vs. a Ruthless Terrorist Organization Determined to Rule the World. [[G.I. Joe|Where have we heard this one before?]]
* [[The Chessmaster]]: Kane.
* [[Church Militant]]: Nod in general, the Black Hand in particular.
* [[Civil Warcraft]]: Happens a bit; Nod's first missions in ''Tiberian Sun'',and a few in ''Tiberium Wars'' have the Kane-loyalist players fighting Nod forces following someone else.
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** A certain ''Nick Parker'' has issues with GDI retiring the Mammoth Mark Two - that is, the big AT-AT wannabe.
*** And there is a statue of Nick in at least one city in the USA. He's a Big Damn Warhero! There are also billboards that show the other members of Dead-6.
** ''Renegade'' itself has quite a few nods towards the original ''[[Command
** In ''Tiberian Sun'' some of the later maps feature the decaying remains of bases from the original ''C&C'', while wrecked Mammoth Mk. IIs and Titans can be found on the battlefields of ''Tiberium Wars''.
** Also in ''Tiberian Sun'', working Mammoth Tanks and other units from ''Dawn'' are used by the Forgotten mutants, and in one GDI mission you can find some and use them yourself.
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* [[Cool Starship]]: The ''Kodiak'', enough that it even appeared in Battlestar Galactica.
* [[Crew of One]]: In ''Renegade'' you can somehow pilot ''any vehicle'' all on your lonesome. Even the Mammoth Tank, which according to in-universe fluff normally takes a crew of ''eight''.
* [[Crippling Overspecialization]]: Commandos can cut through swathes of infantry and demolish structures, but are helpless if faced with a guy in a dune buggy or Humvee.
* [[Cult]]: The Brotherhood Of Nod.
* [[Cutscene Power to the Max]]: The cinematic introducing the original incarnation of the [[Kill Sat|Ion Cannon]] has its wiping out a small base, while in-game it can't even one-shot a Construction Yard. However, as of ''C&C 3'' it has been beefed-up ''considerably''.
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* [[Death World]]: In ''Dawn'', Tiberium's just a few patches of crystals growing in scattered fields. In ''Sun'', humanity has relocated to a few isolated safe zones while the world is wracked by ion storms, monstrous mutants, desertification, and the unstoppable advance of Tiberium. By ''Wars'', only 20% of Earth remains safe, and portions of it are completely uninhabitable to non-mutated life. And then the Tiberium Control Network in ''Twilight'' suddenly and miraculously reverses the trend, though the landscape still resembles a mostly barren desert after decades of Tiberium irradiation.
* [[Determinator]]: Kane. No matter what setback he suffers, he will return with greater force than his previous attempt in his quest for ascension, a journey that has spanned thousands of years and four of the bloodiest wars in history.
** Commander Michael McNeil, the field commander of GDI during the Second Tiberium War, makes it very clear that he will win whatever means possible. Its makes him Kane's most ultimate arch enemy of today.
** Captain Nick Parker, the best commando of GDI during the First Tiberium War. He wouldn't let some fanatical terrorists, mutated freaks of nature, [[Psycho for Hire|psychos for hire]], and one of the greatest [[Magnificent Bastard]] in history stop him from defeating the Brotherhood of Nod and win the war.
** Nod itself might count, given how they managed to survive multiple devastating defeats, and even ''thrive'' in Tiberium-infested wastelands.
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** On the other hand. in ''Firestorm'' Umagon ends up mutating out of control, and the crash of the ''Kodiak'' kills Lt. Chandra, McNeil's second-in-command. ''Firestorm'' was not kind to McNeil.
* [[Drop Ship]]: Used as a special unit in ''Tiberian Sun''. Bonus points since the game stars ''[[Aliens]]'''s Michael Biehn as the player character in the cutscenes.
* [[Enemy Mine]]:
** ''Firestorm'', where the remnants of Nod and GDI have to work together to stop the renegade Nod AI, CABAL.
** In ''Tiberium Wars'', Nod general Kilian Qatar allies with GDI to face off against the Scrin, until Kane reveals himself to be not quite dead, flips out, and orders GDI nuked.
* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: ''Tiberian Sun'' is infamous for this, with Visceroids, Tiberian Fiends, Tiberium Floaters, Veinhole Monsters destroying vehicles and buildings and the gas they produce killing infantry, Tiberium poisonous to infantry, ion storms causing lightning strikes and your planes to fall out of the sky and crash, etc. etc. On the one hand, this does realistically evoke the feel of a [[Crapsack World]] going to hell and anarchy because of the effects of Tiberium; on the other hand it is actually possible to win one-on-one skirmish battles without ever seeing the enemy, because the enemy was just overwhelmed by all the third-party nasties on the map.
* [[Evil Gloating]]: Kane gives a good one to Mike McNeil after breaking through the Hammerfest defenses in ''Tiberian Sun'' and stealing the sonic crystals, leaving behind a broadcast in which he glibly informs him that the sonic tank "will make an excellent addition to my collection", and that he is [[Sarcasm Mode|sorry to hear]] that McNeil's brother died a slow and painful death in the raid.
* [[Evil Laugh]]: CABAL likes to do these during missions in ''Firestorm''.
{{quote|'''CABAL''': Cybernetic lifeforms will always be superior.
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* [[Evolutionary Levels]]: Nod strongly believes in this interpretation of evolution, and sees Tiberium as heralding humanity's next step in it.
* [[Expy]]: The standard assault rifle in ''Renegade'' is basically the [[Alien (franchise)|M41A pulse rifle]], minus a working grenade launcher.
** A number of units from the games are borrowed from Westwood's earlier [[Dune II]]. The Mammoth Tank is the Harkonnen Devastator: Both are twin turreted, double barreled supertanks. The Disruptor and Shatterer tanks are based off the Atreides Sonic Tank. The Nod Saboteur is more of a [[Shout-Out]] to the Ordos unit, since Nod's version is merely an Engineer.
* [[Family-Friendly Firearms]]: As a result of continuity error in the [[Novelization]]: suddenly, Nod grunts are using laser rifles!
* [[Free Wheel]]: In ''Tiberian Sun''.
* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: Nod's signature weaponry. It started as early as the first game with the Obelisks of Light, defensive towers that melted tanks with ruby rays of death, ''Tiberian Sun'' featured laser ''fences'', and by ''Tiberium Wars'' many Nod vehicles can be upgraded to use them.
* [[A God Am I]]: Kane plays with this a fair bit. He concedes that he is not God Himself, but certainly a good runner-up. More often he calls himself "[[Dark Messiah|The Messiah]]" and the Brotherhood of NOD "[[Faux Symbolism|the chosen people]]". Kane has been alive and unaged for over a century now, and has successfully deflected shots from an orbital laser cannon with his face, so why not? Not even the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] know what he is. In ''Renegade'', it's hinted that he may be, or at least may lead his followers in believing that he's ''[[The Bible|that]]'' [[Cain and Abel|Kane]].
{{quote|'''McNeil:''' You're not God, Kane!
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** And stated way earlier by his right-hand man, Seth:
{{quote|'''Seth:''' I'm Seth. Just Seth. From God, to Kane, to Seth. I am his right hand and I have a task for you.}}
* [[Got the Whole World In My Hand]]: The Hand of Nod (in all but ''Tiberian Sun'' incarnations), the Brotherhood's infantry-producing structure, takes the form of a giant metal hand usually clutching a globe.
* [[Gray and Gray Morality]]: With ''Tiberium Wars'' Nod went from clearly villainous to the only group caring about the people trying to survive in the Yellow Zones, which also undermined GDI's status as the only good guys.
* [[Green Rocks]]: Tiberium, one of the original [[Trope Codifier|Green Rocks]], is a particularly nightmarish example. For one thing, it can turn ''you'' into a green rock if you get too close.
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* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Captain Parker from ''Renegade'' disobeys orders at least twice because civilians were in trouble. His reaction to being greeted by MPs when he returns to the carrier after the first implies he pulls off things like this all the time. And he also once decided to help a defenseless city against the Nod instead to retreat with Dead-6.
* [[Hufflepuff House]]: The Forgotten (mutants) in ''Tiberian Sun'' act as a third faction, reached out to by GDI and manipulated by Nod. Their units are, appropriately enough, cobbled together from odds and ends and include old vehicles left over from ''Tiberian Dawn''.
* [[Humans Are Warriors]]: Why the harvesting operation goes bad for the Scrin in ''Wars''. While it's true that the Scrin's "invasion" was actually just a ''mining operation'' that harvests Tiberium-infested planets when all the inhabitants are dead, they still view humanity as "warlike to the extreme" and a major threat to the survival of their entire race.
* [[Humongous Mecha]]: ''Tiberian Sun'' gave GDI the Wolverine and Titan walkers, and the [[Star Wars|AT-AT]] [[Shout-Out|lookalike]] Mammoth Mk. II. ''Firestorm'' added the Juggernaut, an artillery platform on legs, and CABAL's "defense protocol" the Core Defender - probably the most powerful single unit in any of the games. In ''Sun'' there seemed to be a conscious design choice that GDI ''only'' used mechs and floating vehicles.
** ''Tiberium Wars'' and ''Kane's Wrath'' had GDI return to tanks except for the Juggernaut, although the Wolverines and Titans are still used by the Steel Talons sub-faction. Nod, meanwhile, gained the [[Awesome but Impractical]] Avatar, Redeemer, and the Black Hand-only Purifier. As for the Scrin, if it doesn't float or fly, it walks.
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* [[I Am Not Left-Handed]]: But the commandos shoot with that arm anyway, being [[Badass]] and all.
** In Renegade, when asked if he's gonna fight against the whole ship's crew all by himself, Havoc casually replies, "Just don't seem fair, does it? Maybe I'll shoot left-handed."
* [[Idiot Ball]]:
** Just about everyone in ''Twilight''. Kane won't reveal his (rather harmless) goal, so half of the GDI accuses him of having evil plans, half of Nod feels betrayed, and everyone else gladly fights for Kane without knowing the truth.
* [[Invisibility Cloak]]: Nod loves stealth, be it in the form of Stealth Tanks or generators that can cloak an entire base.
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* [[I Work Alone]]: Nick "Havoc" Parker invokes this repeatedly in ''Renegade''. He doesn't want to work with his old team again (all soldiers equally as component as he) to begin with, when he does meet up with them he orders them to sit around doing nothing while he retrieves the scientists all by himself (and screws this up), and leaves them standing on the sidelines for the rest of the game.
* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|After starting four wars that devastated the planet and cost millions, if not billions of lives, Kane ascends at the end of ''Tiberian Twilight'' ''in both endings.'' That's right, whether you side with GDI or Nod, Kane still gets away clean.}}
** Although he does sort of help to clean up his mess by helping to create the network.
* [[Kill Sat]]: The iconic Ion Cannon. Unusually for the trope it's used by the good guys, and used intelligently - GDI builds a lot of them, and is generous with the missile defenses.
* [[Kill It with Fire]]: At first, Nod Flamethrowers and Flame Tanks. The Black Hand runs with this lategame, as all of the units will have some sort of fire-based weapon (either they were fire based to begin with, or they gain a Black Disciple, a Black Hand Squad commander with a flamethrower). Not only that, but the upgrade "Purifying Flame" makes all flame-based weapons extremely damaging to ''all'' unit types.
* [[Klingon Promotion]]: [[Smug Snake|Seth]] attempts this in the original game, but Kane steps in. After giving you your orders, as an afterthought, he mentions "Oh by the way - congratulations on your promotion."
** Nod's commanders do this all the time.
* [[Knight Templar]]: Both GDI and Nod. This actually causes civil wars in ''Twilight'' between die-hards who refuse any sort of Nod-GDI cooperation.
* [[Large Ham]]: "And he cried in a loud voice'', ''Lazarus, come forth!'' And Lazarus did arise from the grave..."
{{quote|'''Kane:''' ''Kane '''LIVES!''' ''}}
* [[Les Collaborateurs]]: Jake McNeil in ''Tiberian Sun'''s Nod campaign.
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** Although the Wolverine is technically a [[Powered Armor|suit]].
* [[Minovsky Physics]]: Tiberium as of ''Wars''.
* [[Modern Stasis]]: Whenever civilians appear in FMV cutscenes, they look straight out from whenever the game was made. Especially egregious in ''Tiberian Twilight'', which takes place in 2071 but a shot of a street in the final cutscene looks like modern-day Los Angeles.<br /><br />Largely averted in-game though, where GDI cities and settlements have a more [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] flavor while the cities that look present-day are crumbling Yellow Zone hellholes whose governments collapsed decades ago.
* [[Mundane Utility]]: Dr. Pascal's optical implants can Activate the Scrin Tower, Receive encrypted transmissions and... watch television. Which the player character does all the time.
* [[Mythology Gag]]: The GDI campaign in ''Tiberium Wars'' has many homages to the Soviet Campaign from ''Red Alert 2'', including a first mission involving the Pentagon and a virtually identical opening to the second mission.
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** [[Pyrrhic Victory|Nice job dropping the Liquid T. Bomb, Commander]]... Maybe.
* [[NGO Superpower]]: In ''Tiberian Dawn'', Nod was essentially just a well-financed and equipped terrorist organization, which could stand toe-to-toe with GDI, a coalition of powerful Western Countries. This abated in the sequels as Nod became more or less the de facto government of any habitable area not controlled by GDI (50% of the globe, by the time of ''Tiberium Wars'').
* [[No Campaign for the Wicked]]: Inverted in ''Kane's Wrath''. The bad guys are the only campaign available.
* [[No Canon for the Wicked]]: It was only in ''Firestorm'' that ''C&C'' caught on the idea of opposing sides' campaigns telling parts of the same story.
* [[Not Quite Dead]]: Kane has been supposedly killed so many times that he is widely believed to be immortal, having evidently died at least once in almost every game in which he appears.
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* [[People Jars]]: CABAL stands for 'Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform'. Nod's [[Master Computer]] derives much of his/its intelligence and computing power from the brains of numerous humans suspended in fluid cylinders. The Nod ending from the ''Tiberian Sun: Firestorm'' expansion shows Kane in one of these tubes, raising further questions about exactly who or what he is. Later games reveal {{spoiler|that he is a millennia-old alien, and was recovering at the time}}.
* [[Photoprotoneutron Torpedo]]: The GDI's ion cannon.
* [[The Political Officer]]: In ''Tiberium Wars'', Nod's Confessors serve as these, providing guidance and education to their Militas. In-game, the Confessors are an upgrade, increasing the Milita squad's effectiveness.
* [[Powered Armor]]: GDI's Zone Troopers start wearing it in ''Tiberium Wars'', and by ''Twilight'' most of its infantry are wearing it. Nod is a bit more selective, regulating theirs to the Black Hand.
* [[Previous Player Character Cameo]]: General Solomon in ''Tiberian Sun'' was the player character in the GDI campaign of the original C&C (in that he is stated to have led the attack on Kane's Sarajevo temple, which was the final mission of the first game). In ''Tiberian Dawn'' itself, the player 'character' is a Nonentity General.
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* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: Kane, yet again.
** The Scrin as well. It's not even clear if they ''are'' the Scrin, since the GDI [[Translator Microbes|translation computers]] returned several terms for their name.
* [[Show Within a Show]]: Occurred in all three [[Command
* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: A ''perfect'' example of the trope is seen in the channel-surfing video intro of ''Tiberian Dawn''.
* [[Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence]]: ''Tiberian Sun'''s CABAL is definitely not a God-level AI, but is almost certainly above Human-level, despite apparently being not much more than a tactician and strategist. EVA is little more than a Brick right from the first Tiberian game to the last, and LEGION from Tiberium Wars is a [[Silent Protagonist]] somewhere between Brick, Human and God depending on the player. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGFi2hJDw5E#t=37s Scrin Motherships] are definitely at Nobel-Bot level ''at minimum''.
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* [[Spanner in the Works]]: {{spoiler|Alexa screws with Kane's plan, by framing Kilian and trying to destroy LEGION, out of "her loyalty to him".}}
** James to her GDI superiors in ''Twilight''. Having lost her sons in the previous war, she isn't willing to believe Kane.
* [[Standard Sci-Fi Army]]: ''Tiberian Dawn'' starts off as conventional, but eventually adds in [[Kill Sats]], Supertanks, and even Stealth Tanks. Latter games add in more exotic and futuristic technology and units, such as cyborgs, mutant supersoliders, mecha, and warships.
* [[Starfish Aliens]]: The Scrin. So alien in fact, that we don't even know how they ''look'' like. All we get is the shimmering, cephalopoidal avatar of the Supervisor during his Warp-Link transmissions.
* [[The Starscream]]: Seth in the first game.
* [[State Sec]]: Nod's Black Hand subfaction fits this trope to a T.
* [[Suicide Attack]]: Nod Fanatics are suicide bombers hopped up on Tiberium infusions and religious zeal.
* [[Super Prototype]]: In the last Nod mission of ''Twilight'', GDI sends in a ''Prototype'' bomber as a last ditch effort to stop you. It's by far the most powerful unit ''anywhere'', being able to destroy even Crawlers with little effort. It's only weakness is the fact that it has to land to call in reinforcements (the three GDI AI's just give up before it arrives).
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** Additionally, the GDI (official name: UNGDI), while originally founded as a UN-sponsored black-ops unit, is not only reformed into the UN's de facto military branch, but eventually either outlives the UN itself while assuming its original functions, or subsumes the parent organization outright.
* [[Unwinnable]]: A lot of the missions in ''Sole Survivor'' and ''Covert Ops'' are ridiculously tough, and rely heavily on [[Save Scumming]]. One example has you trying to rescue a Nod MCV trapped in the middle of a GDI base using only one stealth tank, and then using it to destroy the base it's in. ''Not fun''.
* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: GDI's acting director Redmond Boyle in ''Tiberium Wars'', {{spoiler|The Commander}} from ''Tiberium Twilight'' to {{spoiler|Louise James}}... you know, anyone who is not Kane.
** The ''Scrin'' themselves are rather embarrassed to find out that they're no better.
* [[The Uriah Gambit]]: In ''Tiberian Dawn'', {{spoiler|Seth}} becomes jealous of the player character's success, and likely being a potential threat. So he tries to send the player on a super secret mission "that not even Kane knows of." The plan: Leading a strike on America, a military superpower, on it's own turf. In all likelihood, this would have destroyed the player {{spoiler|had Kane not shown up and shot Seth.}}
* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: "How could my own brothers believe that what transpired at the Temple Prime did not [[Xanatos Gambit|unfold exactly as I had planned]]. Of course I could not have planned for an ambush '''BY MY OWN FORCES!'''"
* [[Villain with Good Publicity]] : Kane, of course. "The world only believes what the media tells them to believe... and I tell the media what to believe. It's really quite simple."
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* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: Kane's strategies tend to hinge on these, bordering on [[Gambit Roulette]] at times - though in ''Kane's Wrath'' we get to see just how much planning and effort went into making ''Tiberium Wars'' unfold the way it did. In the first game, however, Kane gets played by GDI, which faked having its UN funding cut in order to lure Nod into the open, before hitting them with their latest wave of weapon technology.
* [[You Call That a Wound?]]: Cyborgs in ''Tiberian Sun'' can have their legs blasted off and still crawl about at full walking speed.
* [[You Have Failed Me]]: In ''Tiberian Sun'''s GDI campaign, Nod General Vega has just lost to McNeil and is beseeching Kane for reinforcements. Kane's response is to nuke Vega's entire island base.
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: In the second video to the Nod campaign in ''Tiberian Sun'' a prominent GDI general implies this trope to a certain Nod leader.
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