Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Sometimes, [[The End of the World as We Know It]] just isn't enough. If you really want to end the world, why not destroy the whole planet—tear the very ground from under everyone's feet?

Some series prefer to have this as the final goal of the [[Big Bad]], with the heroes racing to stop him. In other series, there's no way to stop the Earth Shattering Kaboom, and the subsequent storylines focus on the actions of the few survivors as they try to carry on, seek revenge or simply live with the fact that their home has been completely obliterated.

 

 

 

The villain archetype who wants to cause this is called the [[Omnicidal Maniac]]. Alternatively, if he does it by accident (or just doesn't know ''why'' he'd do it), he's the [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds]].

 

Oh, and if somehow if some part of planet still remains, and someone settles on that, then it becomes [[Shattered World]]. See also [[Why You Should Destroy the Planet Earth]].

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Gunbuster]]'' goes past mere planetary destruction with the Black Hole Bomb, a weapon capable of destroying the core of the galaxy. One of the weapon's components? The planet Jupiter. (Quick! Blow up Jupiter!)

** I think a certain pair of moronic monarchs from ''[[Heroic Age]]'' could help you out with that one.

** {{spoiler|The Earth}} almost gets shattered into a million pieces, when the Grandmother decides it's time to get rid of the Mu for good.

* ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'' has {{spoiler|planets being ''thrown'' at the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann.}} And that's ''nothing'' compared to the [[Final Battle]]: {{spoiler|'''GALAXIES THEMSELVES BECOME WEAPONS!'''}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* Comic books like this trope as a sufficiently worthy threat for the best heroes to deal with. The most famous is probably [[Galactus]] of the [[Marvel Universe]], a gargantuan being who literally [[Planet Eater|eats planets]].

** While there is some debate over what ''actually'' happens if Galactus succeeds in eating, the zombies who ''ate'' his dimensional double definitely create massive rubble.

* Possibly the oldest comic book example is in [[The Monster Society of Evil]], where it nearly happens a couple of times, Mister Mind tries firing giant shells at America and Russia from a ten-mile Big Bertha, then in another chapter he tries to blow the Earth in half using explosives set up by tiny Americans living underground in case the war went badly for America.

 

* In Chapter 10 of ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3140820/10/Chronicles_of_the_Crusade_Book_2_The_Long_Road Chronicles of the Crusade: The Long Road]'', Captain Gideon and the crew of the ''Excalibur'' detonate the Mark IX inside of Enceladus so that Kathenn can be destroyed. They later remark that Sheridan would be pissed that he wasn't the one who pushed the button to detonate it.

* This happens several times throughout ''[[Reunions Are a Bitch]]''.

* In ''[[Keepers of the Elements]]'', [[Big Bad|Radcliffe]] does this to Zenith by taking out its central power core.

* During the course of ''[[Thirty Hs]]'', Harry kills the fuck out of at least two planets, and Dumblecop kicks another planet in half.

 

== Film ==

* One of the most famous Planet Killers is the Death Star from ''[[Star Wars]]'', and of course, poor Planet Alderaan to supply the Kaboom. Later on in the movie, the Death Star gets its ''own'' Earthshattering Kaboom (okay, space station the size of a small moon, close enough).

** The second (and larger) Death Star gets its own as well in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* The Douglas Adams book ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' starts with the Earth being demolished to make way for a hyperspace expressway.

** And then ratchets it up at the end of the series by {{spoiler|destroying every Earth in every alternate dimension ever.}}

*** [[Fridge Logic|Then why are we still here?]]

*** [[Fridge Horror|They're not finished yet.]]

* The [[Revelation Space]] universe features many Earthshattering Kabooms: First, the main antagonists destroy at least three planets during the main trilogy and an unknown but very large number more during the previous one billion years; second, defeating those antagonists releases a rogue terraforming agent, which, it is implied, destroys the whole ''universe'' in several billion years. From the very first novel a group of humans have a cache of 40 weapons, each capable of destroying a planet. And then finally, there are the Nestbuilder Weapons, of which little is seen but [[Take Our Word for It|much is said]].

** The eponymous device of Alastair Reynolds' short story, ''[[Merlin's Gun]]''.

* David Weber and Steve White's ''The Shiva Option'' features this (in the form of anti-matter warhead barrages from fighter swarms) being used against a genocidal alien race as a regular tactic, once the good guys discovered the aliens communicated by telepathy. Kill anything over several hundred million on-planet, and the psychic hammer-blow of the mass deaths cripples anything else in-system. Given that the alien species was a lot of ancient horror clichés come to life (including [[Human Resources]] to the point of making conquered races into planetary-scale livestock ranches), I'm inclined to rule it necessary. Especially since an earlier book in the series ended with a Terran Federation ex-President sacrificing his own health to prevent the destruction of a different species' planet where only the world government was at fault.

** In Weber's ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' stories, pretty much everyone has the ability to do it, but no one does because of the "Eridani Edict." Anyone indiscriminately bombarding planetary targets will themselves meet the same fate, when everyone else in the galaxy turns around and does the same to them.

** In the epilogue of the expanded edition of that novel, it is noted that {{spoiler|the Martians eventually do decide to destroy the Earth; by then, however, ''humanity'' has colonized space, a lot.}}

* In the novel ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]'', the Terran Federation develops the Nova Bomb. It is used on planets that are heavily occupied by bugs and of no strategic importance to the Federation.

* The print version of ''what if?'' (by Randall Munroe, the creator of ''[[xkcd]]'') ends with a question about what would happen if a magnitude 15 earthquake hit a major city. The reply includes the sentence, "To put it another way, [[A New Hope|the Death Star caused a magnitude 15 earthquake on Alderaan]]."

 

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', the USS Enterprise can be assumed to have planet-killing abilities (of the lesser kind), unless Captain Kirk was bluffing when he mentioned General Order 24...

** The ISS Enterprise in the Mirror Universe clearly does have the capacity to destroy a planet, or at least sterilize its surface. Mirror Kirk's first action as captain was the suppression of the "Gorlan uprising" through the destruction of the rebels' home planet.

 

== Music ==

* The video for [[Frankie Goes to Hollywood]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOQUnvI3CA Two Tribes].

* On the cover of the album ''Fragile'' by [[Yes]].

* On the cover of the [[Self-Titled Album]] ''Boston'', by [[Boston (band)|Boston]].

 

 

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' gives us a number of ways to kill a planet, from the appropriately named [[Cool Starship]] ''Planet Killer'', to fleets of Space Monsters that can literally ''eat'' a planet down to the rock. Like ''[[Star Wars]]'', they also have a planet-killing order, called "Exterminatus." Exterminatus is usually used on planets where there is no possible way of ever using the planet again, say because soldiers deployed to it invariably defect to Chaos.

** Most of these methods usually leave a dead ball of rock, however. Except the Planet Killer; that really ''does'' blow up planets. And then we get to the Blackstone Fortresses...

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Star Ruler]]'' allows players to bombard planets until they break up - usually by shooting giant railgun slugs the size of Cyprus at a sizable fraction of the speed of light.

** And then there's the DSM, or Directed Spatial Manipulator, a super-weapon so powerful it can only be fired manually, which is capable of blowing up planets, and even suns.

* Can be invoked by the player in the [[Nintendo 3DS]] AR Games. When playing with the globe, all you can do is spin it around by shooting it at different angles. However, shooting it repeatedly causes it to start turning red. Should you keep shooting it beyond that state, it ''explodes'' into a million fiery pieces, leaving behind a message that says "Take care of our planet" and is accompanied by creepy doomsday-like music that shifts into a sad melody. The globe is erased from your games list and you have to buy it again to play with it again.

* In ''[[Evolva]]'', the Parasite tries this in the final level.

* ''[[Terminal Velocity]]'' features two planet killers: one the ''Moon Dagger'', that must be taken out ''before it cores the Earth'' (actual in-game text), and the other the asteroid ([[Science Marches On|now minor planet]]) Ceres that has been sent on a collision course with Earth.

 

== Web Comics ==

* The Earth exploding randomly is a constant [[Running Gag]] in the [[Sprite Comic]] ''[[Neglected Mario Characters]]''.

* The end of the War In Hell arc in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' ends with an Earthshattering Kaboom in hell, which is powerful enough to breach dimensional barriers.

** The GOFOTRON arc ends with a universe-shattering kaboom, in fact. But it's only a tiny universe.

* In ''[[Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger]]'', the Racconan Empire of the Seven Systems owns a small fleet of Stellar Lances. One of which was used to destroy a Kvrk-Chk solar system. [[Word of God]] is that the Lance operates by firing a planet-sized beam of "antigravitons" through the heart of the system's star, causing it to hemorrhage from either side, spraying the surrounding planets with white-hot stellar matter (picture a water balloon with a pinhole on either side spinning on a string).... the lawn sprinkler from Hell. If conditions are just right, it goes downhill from there, into a stellar collapse and supernova...

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' space villain Fructose Riboflavin likes to extort cooperation from people by threatening to do this. "Remember, Galatea... threatening to blow up a planet ''always'' works." Bob is the only person who has ever [[Too Dumb to Fool|called him on it,]] realizing the fact that Riboflavin ''[[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|needed]]'' [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|Earth for his plan and so]] ''[[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|couldn't]]'' [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|blow it up,]] so the threat was an obvious bluff.

* Used [http://www.viruscomix.com/amtaham.html here] in [[Subnormality]].

* In [[Bob the Angry Flower]] it is [http://www.angryflower.com/yes.gif easy to do].

* Fractal bombs in ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire|Buck Godot Zap Gun for Hire]]''.

* [[Eldritch Abomination|The Snarl]] did this to the first world the gods made in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''.

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' had [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-29 Io-shattering kaboom].

 

== Web Original ==

* On [[Deviant ART]], there are "Power emoticons" that [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|take regular emoticons to the EXTREME]]. Many include a view of the Earth (or a part of it) being destroyed.

*** Technically, one of the latter by itself wouldn't do the trick. A whole *bunch* of "Zeeky Boogy Doog"s (or one broadcast all over the world), however, would and did.

* ''[[Tech Infantry]]'' has an dinosaur-killer-sized asteroid dropped on earth in the backstory. After the Earth partially recovers and is just starting to be recolonized by rebels against the main human government, said government sends in a fleet that blows up the moon, first by firing several small black holes through it to weaken its structure, then ramming it with a miles-long starship moving at 90 percent of the speed of light. The shattered fragments of the moon rain down on the surface of the earth, melting the top few miles of crust into a continuous layer of molten lava, boiling off the oceans, and blasting the atmosphere away. A few decades later, some nasty aliens invade, and the invasion is only stopped by using Dooms Day Devices to send the suns of the main alien homeworlds into supernova.

** Also in the Abridged Series, a running series called "Zorc and Pals" features [[Big Bad]] Zorc Necrophades and Yami Bakura discussing Zorc's plans to destroy the world. The clip from "Zorc and Pals: The Movie" in the Abridged Movie details what Zorc is going to do after he destroys the world... [[I'm Going to Disney World|He's going to Disney World.]] And then he's going to destroy it. However, he found it much too fun, so he destroyed Euro Disney instead.

* In ''[[Fine Structure]]'', {{spoiler|this is the ultimate fate of Earth during the [[Final Battle]]. Luckily humanity from the [[Alternate Universe|next universe over]] jumps in to pick up survivors.}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''Once Upon a Time, Man'' ("Il était une fois l'homme") was a multiple nationality and educational cartoon,from 80's and about History (as a serious ''[[Histeria!]]!''). The credits were Abridged History, and future of humanity was already told [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNURUGCOQ5I at the end:] mens running away with rockets and then, Ka-boom.

* An episode of ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' had the destruction of the Earth at the end of the episode, but it's all right...everyone had already moved to Brain's papier-mache replica.

* In the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episode "Car Alarm", Shego seems to [[Depending on the Writer|graduate to]] [[Omnicidal Maniac]] by hoping to use a rocket car she and Motor Ed stole in order to use its full powered rocket boost to destroy the planet. Ed on the other hand just wanted to use it to drive around with Shego as arm candy.

* ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'': King Triton blows up the model of the planet Earth in Ariel's lair, along with the other of Ariel's human things.

 

== Real Life ==

* The current prevailing theory of the formation of Earth's moon is that the proto-Earth was hit by another proto-planet that blasted both the proto-Earth and the impacting planet into a loose conglomeration of material, most of which reformed into the Earth and some of which coalesced into Luna, the moon Earth has today. ''Literally'' Earth-Shattering. Although there was [[Space Is Noisy|(probably)]] no Kaboom.

** It is a testament to just how hard it is to blow up a planet. Even running head long into another planet at full speed isn't going to cut it.

* It's been hypothesized that Miranda, a moon of Uranus, had been shattered by an impact and its fragments reassembled; thus explaining the patchwork of geological features on the moon.

** Insert [[Incredibly Lame Pun|rocky fragments near Uranus pun]] here.

* Discussed in the History Channel series ''The Universe'', where they point out that blowing up the planet would require hitting it with something extremely massive (i.e. another planet).

 

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