Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The easiest way to write an [[Alien Invasion]] is to make the invaders [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|nigh unstoppable]] by giving them technology and weapons we can't even [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|comprehend]], [[Death Ray|defend against]] or [[Deflector Shields|overpower.]] If they were just like a human army, it might as well be a war story; there ''must'' be something about the aliens that makes them distinct from any other army.

This doesn't just apply to [[Keystone Army|armies]], but can be done for individual aliens and non-sentient alien monsters. Maybe [[Nigh Invulnerable|their skin is tough enough]] to [[Five Rounds Rapid|stop bullets]], or they're [[Telepathy|telepathic]], or they have [[Mind Control|mind-control]] powers, or they have some sort of martial society and [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?|cannot comprehend]] "[[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|mercy]]", "[[Proud Warrior Race|surrender]]" or "[[The Virus|peaceful coexistence]]". Whatever their advantage or power, it's always balanced by a vulnerability to an [[Mundane Solution|over the counter product.]]

 

 

This can extend to making the cleanup after the invasion a snap. By [[Hand Wave|handing humanity victory on a silver platter]] and having an epilogue where the characters happily explain how easy it was to destroy the aliens and return to life [[Reset Button|as if nothing]] [[Status Quo Is God|had happened.]] Grimmer portrayals will give humanity one chance to exploit the weakness after they devastate the planet, making the victory a [[Bittersweet Ending]].

* Of all the aliens in the [[Marvel Universe]], the easily thwarted award has to go to the [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting]] [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|Skrulls]]. Their first appearance in ''[[Fantastic Four]] #2'' sees Reed Richards tricking them into thinking Earth is too dangerous to invade by showing them ''drawings'' of monsters. In [[Secret Invasion]], which sees the Skrulls throwing hundreds of advanced warships, dozens of overpowered [[All Your Powers Combined|Super Skrulls]], and a new technique for completely undetectable shapeshifting, they ultimately lose after {{spoiler|a small skirmish in Central Park and [[The Incredible Hercules]] leading a team of Divine champions to kill the Skrull's gods. When you have to kill gods to beat the bad guys, it's kind of debatable whether they count as "easily thwarted".}}

** Similarly, in an early comic, an alien lands on Earth with the intention of conquering it, but just happens to run into Thor, who promptly defeats him in battle. Thinking Thor is a native of Earth, the alien falsely belives that the entire human race is as powerful as him and he flees.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Independence Day]]''. A fleet of scientifically advanced homicidal aliens has its force field defense taken out by a [[Plug N Play Technology|computer virus uploaded from a]] [[Insult To Injury|Mac]], allowing the humans to blow up their base ships by attacking the ship's primary weapons as they fire.

** Justified by the aliens' reliance on their innate telepathy resulting in their telecommunications technology being comparatively less advanced (hinted at in the opening scenes where the aliens use humanity's communication satellites to coordinate their attack, rather than their own ships, suggesting that they in fact did not have an equivalent capability on their own). The character in question tested his virus and his laptop on the recovered alien ship first, suggesting that either he or the scientists had already hacked the alien OS. Either that or human computer programming was inspired by leaked alien tech.

** Also, it's a safe bet that none of their prior victims had the opportunity to reverse-engineer their technology and use it against them. (If they had, the events of the movie probably wouldn't have happened.) These aliens rely on shock-and-awe tactics to eliminate the major threats before they can respond.

* ''[[Signs]]'' with water. Although it's not really necessary, given that this is a race that can be stopped by a pantry door that probably wouldn't have kept a determined human in. Seriously. It's like if humanity invaded the acid-covered world, with acid rain, and invaded the natives by wandering naked into the rural farmhouses.

* ''[[Prince of Space]]''. The chickenmen of Krankor are able to travel [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|half a million miles]] to invade Earth, even though their fuel capabilities lag far behind ours, where they have their asses handed to them [[Villain Decay|repeatedly]] by a man who has no superpowers, but can skip reasonably well. Turns out that [[Shooting Superman|their weapons have no effect on him]].

** Isn't "invulnerable" a super power?

** The dissonance comes from the fact that in the original he wasn't immune to their weapons, but was dodging them. In the dub he claimed that their weapons couldn't hurt him - but still dodged when they shot at him.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Harry Turtledove's short story "The Road Not Taken" posits that the secret of interstellar travel is an absurdly simple technological concept (so much so that it seems obvious in retrospect, like the wheel), and yet Earth, by sheer happenstance, never stumbles upon it. Later, Earth is invaded by aliens in wooden spaceships armed with <s>stone-tipped spears</s> cannons and black powder muskets... who are confronted by humans who, having never discovered FTL drives, have instead devoted their research to other scientific pursuits, such as [[More Dakka|weapons that outclass the invaders' by centuries of development]]. The story ends with the captive aliens horrified that the humans will be able to discover the secret of hyperdrive from their ship, unleashing the violent, tremendously advanced (compared to other species) humans upon the rest of the galaxy.

** The sequel picks up a thousand years later, when the human race (now stagnant for the same reasons as everyone else) tries to invade a race that ''still'' hadn't found the trick, but were now advanced enough that they don't need it to carve out an interstellar empire.

** It's debatable whether you could really call this "Easily Thwarted", though. After a series of ''Balance'' novels, the Race is fought to a standstill, and the ''Colonisation'' novels open thirty-four years later, with most of the Southern Hemisphere under their control.

*** Technically, in last novel, ''Homeward Bound'', humanity already outpaced the Race technologically, and while they have numbers on their side (for now), in a century humanity will out-pace them to a point where competition will be impossible.

* [[Out of the Dark]] by [[David Weber]] goes along a similar premise to World War except that it takes place in the modern day and humanity is pretty much screwed, {{spoiler|up until Vlad Drakul wakes up and kicks alien ass.}}

* [[Anne McCaffrey]] ''abuses'' this trope.

** In the ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' books, Thread is a ravenous mycorrhizoid spore that can eat virtually anything carbon-based and burrow into the earth. But water (even a good soaking thunderstorm) kills it.

*** And cold. In one book, the Pernese don't realize that Threadfall has started because the first few falls are over the northern area of the continent during winter.

*** Or {{spoiler|grubs, but those were genetically enginerred}}

** In a straighter application of this trope, Johny is inspired not to think of the Psychlos as invincible when Terl shows him the site of greatest military resistance... the US Air Force Academy. The cadets had figured out the Psychlos were using nerve gas and wore gas masks, and proceeded to put up quite a fight until overwhelmed by numbers.

** Granted, "quite a fight" is sort of a misnomer. They conquered Earth (according to the movie) in ''three minutes''. So this "quite a fight" must have been all of two minutes long. Not to mention the fact they annihilated our military in three minutes implies they had hella fast deployment capabilities... which, if you think about it, makes sense as they could probably use teleporters to just beam down a few tens of millions of dudes.

** In the proper application of this trope, when the humans see the airplanes (Which had been previously ineffective), they are able to easily learn how to use them and fight the Psychlos succesfully. Despite having learned how to use these things in a matter of weeks and them not having worked the last time.

** However, the supercomputer that the virus is uploaded to {{spoiler|helped humanity upload it.}}

** Also, it is explicitly explained that the viruses in question are not just your regular run of the mill viruses - they exploit the laws of mathematics such that ANY computing system that uses numbers is vulnerable, no matter how advanced, and NO countermeasures of ANY kind are possible.

*** The supervirus were described as working by {{spoiler|tricking the target computer into attempting a calculation that was impossible to complete}} meaning that they could in theory work against any calculating system no matter how advanced. However they presumably can be stopped at the point of infection by a good firewall like any other virus, which was probably how they were in the end contained and put into the lunar vault with all the other weapons of mass destruction. The target was the monolith, which was just a single machine, a single mostly autonomous tool of the aliens, not the alien civilization itself, and in fact {{spoiler|had been corrupted and damaged after millions of years of wear and tear}} which may have made it more vulnerable. But even then humanity would have had no hope in hell of successfully infecting it at all without {{spoiler|Halman's help}}. The conclusion of the last novel also left it ambiguous as to whether the supervirus actually worked or not, or was even necessary. (The monolith {{spoiler|may not have been planning to destroy the solar system at all}} and humanity was just being overly paranoid. The supervirus might have failed completely and the monolith {{spoiler|left the solar system}} because that was what it was intending to/instructed to do all along. Alternately the monolith was destroyed by the supervirus, but fights it off long enough to send a [[You Suck]] message to humanity, and call for reinforcements, which presumably would arrive sometime around 5001.)

**** So the virus works by {{spoiler|setting an infinite loop? Any ultra advanced computer should have more than a few safeguards against this kind of thing.}}

** In Wells' defense, he was writing before the discovery of antibiotics. Prior to WWII, far more soldiers of ''any'' invasion died of contagious diseases than battlefield injuries, and even in peacetime the British Empire lost scads of troops to malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical ailments in its overseas possessions. So the Martian imperialists weren't suffering from anything that Europe's own imperialists hadn't. (Wells took a dim view of imperialistic expansion.)

** Subverted in ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Book II'', where the bacteria which kill the Martians are actually {{spoiler|products of Dr. Moreau's genetic engineering and hybridization}}.

** The trope is majorly inverted with the case of the Golgafrinchan Arks, where the Golgafrinchan refugees are [[Too Dumb to Live]] and yet crowd out the native neanderthals - becoming the ancestors of modern mankind as a result.

* ''Robin Cook's Invasion'' had the [[Invasion of the Body Snatchers|Body Snatcher]]-esque aliens are thwarted by the release of a rhinovirus aka The Common Cold.

* The invasion of the Gorg in ''[[The True Meaning of Smekday]]''. For some reason, the Gorg try to kill every single cat on planet Earth. As it turns out, the Gorg are {{spoiler|allergic to cats.}}

* ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers|The Body Snatchers]]'', the short story upon which the film versions were written, had the aliens simply ''give up'' when the figure out they can't tolerate human resistance. The films tend to end [[Downer Ending|on a darker note...]]

* In Stephen Baxter's novel ''Space'' has the solar system invaded for use as an stellar fuel depot {{spoiler|by the Crackers, which will result in the explosion of the sun. Having battled through the friendly Gaijin fleet, they are utterly destroyed by Nemoto's [[Superweapon Surprise|secretly modified and transplanted Moon Flowers]], which use the top layer of Mercury's soil as cosmic buckshot.}}

* Brutally averted in Greg Bear's ''Forge of God'' where humanity is totally screwed even before we realize we're under attack, have absolutely no way of even inconveniencing the invaders even a little bit even after we find out, and the total destruction of the earth is a foregone conclusion from essentially the first page. In the end we nuke a few decoys but never even ''see'' the aliens or their principle weapons. {{spoiler|A few survivors are rescued at the last moment by another perhaps more benevolent alien race, but at least according to some interpretations of the sequel, it was only to be used as pawns and cannon fodder in a wider galactic war.}}

* In [[Mikhail Akhmanov]]'s ''[[Arrivals From the Dark|Invasion]]'', the super-powerful alien starship wipes out a large chunk of Earth's fleet and shrugs off a nuclear [[Macross Missile Massacre]] without a scratch. In a [[Deus Ex Machina]] fashion, a different alien teleports onboard and gives the hero a device that destroys the ship's brain, shutting down all systems. In a brutal subersion of [[No Endor Holocaust]], many major cities get hit with smaller falling alien ships full of antimatter, with the casualty count in the tens of millions, not to mention all the material damage. Earth recovers remarkably quickly in the sequel, though.

* [[Sirens Of Titan]] by [[Kurt Vonnegut]] features a Martian attack on Earth. {{spoiler|The Martians originate from human colonists and appear to be extremely well-prepared and equipped, but several mistakes in their plans make it extremely easy for Earth to repel the invasion.}}

* Averted ''hard'' by the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' series, in which it takes nineteen books spanning five years of war to defeat the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Yuuzhan Vong]]. It's not until the New Republic/Galactic Alliance readopts asymmetric warfare strategies and combines them with Imperial tactics (like orbital bombardment) that the tide turns permanently.

* ''[[Lost in Space]]'' episode "Invaders From The Fifth Dimension" features Will Robinson abducted by a group of aliens who are repulsed by the sight of tears due to being unable to understand emotions, and eventually let him go as a result.

* The TOS ''[[Outer Limits]]'' episode "Specimen: Unknown" had alien plants that release a deadly gas and spread like wildfire... literally. A spaceship carrying them crashes on Earth and it looks like the human race is doomed. Worse yet, a thunderstorm is brewing overhead, and the plants will spread even faster when they get some rain, right? Wrong. The rain causes them to shrivel up and die, and the world is saved. Think of it as the opposite of a [[Cruel Twist Ending]].

* Most alien invasions in ''[[Power Rangers]]''. Almost universally taken out by "teenagers with attitude". Also, supersuits and giant robots.

** And not much in the way of attitude, when you get down to brass tacks. Nonetheless, five teens restricted to a single city with no military skill or training whatsoever fend off entire ''armies'' that know where they live, who they are, and what they like to do in their free time.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smwd8b0ycBg Better call Apeldoorn... or maybe not].

** This generally reaches its extreme whenever the Doctor fends of Dalek fleets. For reference, Daleks are the scourge of the universe, with precious few ''civilizations'' being able to stand against even small amounts of them.

* The Science Fiction Sketch of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', in which blancmanges from Andromeda seek to win Wimbledon by turning everyone in the world into a Scotsman. They were thwarted when two people ran out onto the tennis court and ate the blancmanges.

** And then they started learning how to use it themselves.

* Averted entirely in ''[[Universe At War]]'' - The tutorial mission is the only time you play the humans and its [[Unwinnable]]; Earth has to be rescued by other aliens.

* The Rhombulans in ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'' are so vulnerable to music that rhythmically beat garbage can lids is enough to knock out their soldiers. The easily-thwarted part happens when you remember what genre this game belongs in.

* ''[[Half Life]]'' averts this hard. The scientists in the original game come up with two plans that they hope will Easily Thwart the invading Xenians, but the first is countered by the invaders, and the successful execution of the second plan actually has the opposite effect, and causes millions upon millions of Xen creatures to be teleported all over Earth. The best part? All of this interdimensional activity attracts the interest of a nigh-unstoppable alien empire known as the Combine, who then conquer Earth in an invasion known as the ''Seven Hour War''.

** In both cases, it's more of a sort of softcore [[Mind Rape]] performed on Giygas than a [[Weaksauce Weakness]], due to the circumstances.

** Regardless of the tactics used to defeat Giygas himself, a group of 3 or 4 children basically are capable of fighting off everything Giygas can send at them in a more traditional sense.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Parodied in ''[[Futurama]]'''s version of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', ''The Scary Door''.

** Another humorous example example, this time from a B-Movie on a planet of killer robots:

** Fry repelling the Brain invasion by writing a story full of plot holes and spelling errors.

* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'', the childless child-hating adults, who had disposable income and free-time on their side, "had no protection against God's lowliest creatures... children." Or to be more precise, 'kid germs' to which they had no natural resistance.

* In one episode of ''[[Care Bears]]: Adventures in Care-a-Lot'', Care-a-Lot is invaded by Gobblebugs, tiny bugs that eat any and all plants, except ones that are yellow. Once the Care Bears realize this, they turn all the remaining plants yellow, and the bugs lose interest and leave.

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'': Not all the Irkens are idiots. Most of them (Especially Invaders) are actually pretty competant. It's just that the story is about Zim. An invader who is so stupid that they sent him into an uncharted area of space to find a planet they made up just so that he would die slowly and horribly due to starvation. They didn't anticipate Zim ''actually finding the planet''.

** It's generally implied, however, that even though the Irkens aren't always pillars of intelligence, they have a VERY powerful armada and [[Crapsack World|are helped by most of the universe being even dumber.]]

*** However, it should be mentioned that most of the Irkens advanced technology is created and designed by another alien race, the Vortians, who were Invaded and conquered by the Irkens. For example, we find out they built and designed the Massive.

* In the [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Kim Possible]]'', two aliens and their robot army invade the world "in the time it takes to order a pizza", but only hold on to it for a few hours before being defeated.

** That's not an example of this trope; the aliens were defeated only after the arrival of [[Mad Scientist]] Dr. Drakken's mind-controlled fast-growing [[Alien Kudzu]] and Kim's [[Sidekick]] Ron Stoppable's [[Super Mode]] turned his [[Badass Abnormal]] powers [[Up to Eleven]]... neither of which qualifies as a mundane [[Weaksauce Weakness]].

*** Still, the heroes wouldn't have managed that in the first place if they hadn't brought down the [[Mother Ship]] by finding it's [[Self-Destruct Mechanism|off switch]].

** Remember, aim at the base and ''sweep''.

* In ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Beat Your Greens", Earth is invaded by a race of broccoli aliens after all of the adults are brainwashed by eating modified broccoli. Naturally, the children escape this fate and fight back, by literally ''eating the invading aliens''. Naturally, the aliens ([[Nightmare Fuel|and probably some viewers]]), were absolutely horrified by this.

* Although the invasion is never shown to have actually happened, in ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'' Earth avoids invasion by being the natural habitat of a highly endangered species... mosquitoes. What's more, the decision was apparently based entirely on the testimony of the Earth-native who tricked them, with not even a basic survey done to see if it was true.

** There was a little bit of implied help from the seemingly [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]], who in a twist of ''that'' trope was helping the good guys for once. At the very least, {{spoiler|when they get (back) to Earth, she recognizes the secret agent that masterminded the whole shenanigans to save the world in the first place when they showed up the first times, and seems to be on relatively friendly terms.}}

* In ''[[Journey to Saturn]]'', the alien invasion is thwarted by having the heroes throw and shoot beer at them. It probably wasn't a good idea to invade ''Denmark''.

* In the ''Birdman'' episode "Skon of Space", Skon, the advance scout for an alien invasion attacks Birdman. Birdman defeats him and sends him home with the warning that everyone on Earth has powers like him, so any invasion would be futile. Birdman calls Falcon 7 and warns him to prepare for an invasion just in case Skon's superiors are not as gullible as him.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Plots]]