Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Why Earth of all places? It would have been nice if it decided to hibernate on Neptune or something.''|'''Kyon''', ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya|The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya]]''}}

{{quote|Whenever something (or someone) leaves, escapes, or is otherwise ejected from Cybertron, there's a disproportionate chance it will eventually wind up on Earth.|The [[Transformers]] [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Main_Page wiki] [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Earth page on Earth.]}}

Of course, maybe [[Science Fiction]] shows really ''do'' show aliens invading the planet Zog just as often as they do Earth. It's just that those shows are only aired on the planet Zog, where Earth is just one of the countless [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet|Insignificant Little Blue Planets]]s.

Both [[Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe]] and [[Big Applesauce]] taken to the MAX''max'' of the EXTREME''extreme''. For subversions and aversions, see [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet]] and [[Earth-That-Was]].

** Averted in recent [[Crisis Crossover|Crisis Crossovers]]s set in the cosmic side of the Marvel universe in that the alien empires and conquerors are too busy warring over each other to care about Earth. The only time the events happening in space impacted on Earth resulted in an [[Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion]]. The threadbare state of the rest of the universe after the result of [[Annihilation|three]] [[War of Kings|consecutive wars]] [[The Thanos Imperative|along with an invasion from]] [[Eldritch Abomination]] s has little to no bearing on the events happening on Earth.

* In ''[[Dune]]'', Earth used to be the capital of the Old Empire for many millennia before the Time of [[Humongous Mecha|Titans]]. Even after [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|Omnius]]'s coup, Earth is considered to be the core Synchronized World. The [[La Résistance|League of Nobles]], however, is based on the outskirts of the former Empire, and their capital is Salusa Secundus. After the rebels [[Nuke'Em|nuke]] Earth, Corrin becomes the center of the Synchronized Worlds. Then the machines are defeated, and the Imperium is formed, making Salusa Secundus the center of the universe. House Tantor nukes Salusa Secundus, and the Corrinos make Kaitain the new center, followed by Arrakis when Paul takes over.

* In ''[[Discworld/The Science of Discworld|The Science of Discworld]]'' and sequels, the wizards have an entire non-magical universe to study. Once a planet with actual oceans and stuff emerges, they pretty much lose interest in the rest of it. Especially when it aquiresacquires people. (There may be other lifeforms on other planets. The wizards have never asked.)

* ''[[Time Scout]]'': [[Time Portal|Time Portals]]s only ever open on the surface of the Earth.

* Averted in [[Alastair Reynolds]]' ''Revelation Space'' universe: the little we hear about Earth suggests that a major Ice Age has turned it into a backwater.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Why on Earth would the capital of the Federation be... er, Earth? ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Star Trek Enterprise]]'', depending on your point of view, either [[Justified Trope|justifies]] this or [[Hand Wave|waves it away]] by saying that other species were out there first, but humans were the diplomats of the galaxy and formed the heart of the Federation -- thatFederation—that without humans, it would have taken much longer or might never have happened at all. It is also noteworthy that, while the Federation is based on Earth, several presidents have been non-human.

** [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country|Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country]]'' when a Klingon refers to [[The Federation]] as a "'homo sapiens only' club". Quark the Ferengi expresses many similar sentiments in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' too.

*** We are never told exactly how big a "sector" is, but it is at least tens of light years based on several episodes.<ref>It contains Wolf 359 and 40 Eridani A, which are just under 20 light years apart</ref>. 001 could well contain many other species homeworlds as well.

** With Canonicity of the Prime universe up in the air for now,{{when}}{{verify}} many sources have come around to explain such apparent inconsistencies. ''[[Star Trek Online]]'' has Sector 001 referred to as the "Vulcan Sector", and it contains not only Vulcan and Earth, but Andoria as well. Still played straight in that the dividing line between Alpha and Beta quadrants runs EXACTLY''exactly'' through Earth's solar system. One mission also involves escorting a Vulcan, not Federation, medical transport, which shares design similarities to the Vulcan ships seen in the Enterprise era. This would suggest that private or noncombat starships have been independently built by individual member worlds of the Federation from the beginning, which helps to explain a lot.

** There is at least a brief subversion to this with the Dominion War where Deep Space Nine and the wormhole take over the "center of the universe" position. While the Dominion would love to take Earth, the wormhole and the region around it is far more important real estate. Even Sisko would rather see Deep Space Nine and the wormhole taken back before Earth.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' practically defines the trope. Every time there's a rift, a cosmic vortex, a long-dead race returning to conquer, an evil galactic bureaucracy whose schemes require a planet-sized sacrifice, ''anything'', it happens to Earth. The 2005 revival is a particular offender: At last count, seven different alien menaces have suffered some kind of catastrophe and, needing a planet on which to convalesce or just crash-land, chose Earth for no adequately explained reason -- orreason—or they just "fell through time and space" and landed there by coincidence. (Including the Daleks. ''Three times''.) {{spoiler|At least in series 5 this is likely due to the fact that falling through time and space actually meant falling through the cracks in time and space caused by the explosion of the TARDIS on Earth in the penultimate episode.}} During the first series, no episode was set outside the Solar System. In the [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] audio ''Doctor Who And The Pirates'', the Doctor rattles off (to the tune of "I am the very model of a modern Major General") a list of planets he's saved, and Earth is every third entry.

** It should be noted that the Doctor himself is a gargantuan [[Weirdness Magnet]], and that his fondness of Earth may be what draws a lot of stuff here. And several aliens display a variant on the [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet]] attitude, in that Earth is invaded/chosen to be blown up/whatever because no one else would miss it.

*** And another lampshade is hung in "The Empty Child"- The Doctor laughs about how you can barely go a week without bumping into Earth. Rose notes that it's every time they run out of milk.

** In the new series, the Doctor says he finds humans fascinating because their adaptability lets them survive right up to the end of time. Other races either see humans as major adversaries, or find present day Earth to be a convenient backwater planet that is populated by a less advanced and easy to manipulate species.

* ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' is also guilty of this, usually having international-scaled disasters that could've killed millions of peoples (remember the Horoscope Incident? It's lethalness was the polar opposite of ''[[Flash Forward 2009|FlashForward]]'').

* Inverted in ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined(2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]''; rather than ''coming'' from Earth, the entire cast is busily trying to get there.

** To be fair, the Ultramen are basically Japanese [[Green Lantern|Green Lanterns]]s. It can be asumedassumed there are thousands of other Ultramen patrolingpatrolling the rest of the univearseuniverse.

* The [[Stargate]] franchise has several occurrences of this trope.

* Played semi-straight and justified in ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]''. Earth/Terra is the psychic beacon known as the Astronomicon, necessary for faster-than-light travel by providing a "landmark" in [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the Warp]]. If the Astronomicon didn't exist, then all ships wishing to travel through the Warp would be eaten by daemons (or worse), rather than there being just a slight chance of such horrors occurring.

* Subverted in ''[[BattleTech]]'' -- Earth—Earth is indeed pretty much the spatial center of the known universe because it's the planet mankind started out from and there are [[Absent Aliens|no other known intelligent species]] in the setting, but most of the important political and military action has moved elsewhere centuries ago and the governments of the Successor States have their seats on their own capital worlds.

* You'd think that ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' would avoid this easily, being a fantasy RPG, but no. Two of the oldest D&D game-settings, Mystara and Oerth (get it?), have each been described as "parallel Earths", and the top-selling [[Forgotten Realms]] was named that because it'd supposedly been visited by medieval Earth folk, giving rise to our own legends of magic, dragons, unicorns and so on. A spin-off of the [[Ravenloft]] product line was called Gothic Earth, from which one of the domains of the Land of Mists was derived. Several major NPC wizards from the early Greyhawk/Oerth products made a habit of visiting Earth, and when it became necessary to hide the Mace of St. Cuthbert from hostile forces, it was sent off-world and concealed in London's British Museum. The last one ties into legends that St Cuthbert was a mortal from "another reality" - the [[Genius Bonus]] being that Cuthburt of Lindisfarne was a real British saint.

** ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' continues this tradition, with Earth having stores of Dark Energon, sleeping warriors, and, at one point, visitation from Ancient Cybertronians. However, there is a rather dark [[Justified Trope|justification]] for this: Earth is actually {{spoiler|Unicron's dormant body.}}

* Lots in the ''[[Western Animation/Legion Ofof Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion Ofof Super-Heroes]]'' cartoon. Zix shows up there, with no reason as to why. The most glaring example is when Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad are all aboard the same ship headed for Earth. When they suddenly decide to set up the Legion, they put HQ on Earth - with ''no'' explanation as to the original reason they were headed there. Presumably Earth really is the centre of the universe, or at least a really popular place for fortune-seekers.

** I'd definitely watch a show set on the Harlem Globetrotters' homeworld instead.

** Confusingly, despite the universe being ~13 billion years old the observable universe has a radius closer to ~45 billion light years and the radius of the actual universe is even bigger. Something to do with how the expansion of space-time isn't limited by the speed of light. Hopefully someone who gets it will come along and explain.

* Don't know if Real Life fits here{{verify}} as it is part of the entertainment industry, but the [[Universal]] [[Iconic Logo|logo]] -- [[Logo Joke|with a few exceptions]]-- centers—centers on the planet Earth.