Great Offscreen War: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Maybe people still have to deal with its consequences. The war happened, and it left its ugly mark on the world. But it's [[Noodle Incident|never shown to the audience]] - we [[Take Our Word for It|never see]] a single [[Flash Back]] from the war, are never shown more than just a glimpse of what happened. The war will be referenced, but otherwise left mysterious, unexplained. Why it happened, how it ended, and what all the things that took place there (which people talk about [[Cryptic Background Reference|like it should be obvious]]) actually were, are never explained. The war is only a mysterious event of the past, included mostly to add a bit of mystery and [[Wild Mass Guessing|give people excuses for insane ideas]]. Needless to say, this trope can easily be processed into [[Fanfic Fuel]]

 

 

If said war is going on presently but the characters themselves aren't involved, then it is [[Behind the Black]].

Often used as a sub-trope of [[Cryptic Background Reference]]. Compare also [[Cataclysm Backstory]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' has the Britannian invasion and conquest of Japan, which we see only in flashbacks concerning young Lelouch, Suzaku and Nunally and the one from first episode opening sequence. There also was an alternate version of the Napolean wars, where Napoleon conquered Great Britain, making all the British aristocracy run to America, creating the Britannia Empire.

* The many wars of the Ancient Belka in ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]''. We have been told some general info about it, such as how it destroyed Old Belka and [[Year Zero|led to the current age]] where physical-based weapons were banned, but otherwise, it's a big question mark. As ''[[Nanoha Vivid]]'' revolves around the [[Reincarnation]] of two prominent figures from that war, many readers hope that it will eventually give more insight to that period.

* ''[[Last Exile]]'' also has the war between its two major powers, which is mediated by The Guild. Much of the action of this war takes place BEFORE the actual story, as a few episodes in we discover that {{spoiler|one of the planets these factions live on is dying, essentially taking them out of the conflict for good. They're pretty much refugees after this point.}}

* In ''[[Blue Gender]]'', we don't actually see humanity get overtaken by the Blues.

* Mysterious conflict with [[Mazinkaiser SKL]], whose conseqences are related to events of the series.

* ''[[Naruto]]'' has the first three Great Shinobi Wars in backstory. All we know is Konoha won the 3rd one against Iwa, which Kakashi's team fought in, and many, many lives were lost during all three.

 

== Fan Works ==

 

== Film ==

* When watching ''[[Airplane!]]'', they never make clear which war "The War" was for Ted Stryker, though judging by when the movie was made, one might assume Vietnam. As farcical as the entire movie is, it could very well have been some other war entirely though. Hell it could be a war they (or Ted) completely made up as well.

** "The War" in ''Zero Hour!'', the film on which ''Airplane!'' is based, and which came out a quarter of a century earlier, was obviously [[World War II]]. This timeframe informs a lot of the gags and references in the latter film.

* ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (1960): In-Universe. The protagonist from 1899 traveled a couple of decades into the future. One of his friends' sons mention "the front" of "the war". It's obvious its the First World War, but being a time-traveler, he was unaware.

 

* Twice in ''[[The Hunger Games]]:'' the [[After the End|civilizational collapse]] that led to the founding of [[Police State|Panem]], and the more recent "Dark Days" when Panem's provinces rose in an unsuccessful rebellion against the Capitol.

* [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[As You Like It]]'': Duke Senior was (somehow) deposed by his younger brother Fredrick and exiled to the Forest of Arden. A very blatant [[Deus Ex Machina]] at the end restores Senior to his rightful place.

** [[Othello]]'s military record might also count: he boasts at length of his experience with 'pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war', but we never see him fight.

** ''[[Macbeth]]'' begins with a recounting of a war between Scotland and Norway.

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has many of these. The most important is Robert's Rebellion, which is really the cause for all of the events in the series - giving the effect that the reader has plunged into the middle of the story rather than the end. The Blackfyre Rebellion also, and the Doom of Valyria (which is seldom mentioned in more detail than its name) are further back in time.

** Also, whatever it was that Tywin Lannister did the to inspire 'The Rains of Castamere'. "But there are no Reynes and Tarbecks"... "Exactly."

** Admiral Theisman's purge of the [[State Sec]] forces which refused to fall in line with the new government after the overthrow of the Committee of Public Safety. The only part of it shown is from ''The Fanatic'', which itself took place away from the meat of the action. Not a typical example, as that particular conflict took place between two of the later books of the series.

** Earth's "Final War" many centuries before the current timeline, where the planet was nearly rendered completely uninhabitable until several colonies sent aid to repair the damage.

* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Dark Tower]]'' books occasionally reference the last war of the Gunslingers against the Good Man, and it's the backdrop against which ''[[Wizard And Glass]]'' is set. There is also an even older event implied to be a nuclear war, which is why the series is [[After the End]] in the first place.

* ''[[Lensman|Triplanetary]]'' mentions the first and fourth Jovian Wars, which resulted in the formation of the Triplanetary League from Venus, Tellus, and Mars.

 

 

* The Last Great Time War from ''[[Doctor Who]]''. It was never shown, we know only that it caused a lot of destruction and wiped out entire races, including the Time Lords, whose last survivor was the Doctor. We find out that the Doctor was the one who ended the war, killing ''every'' Dalek (apart from [[Joker Immunity|a few who got away, of course]]) at the cost of also killing ''every'' Time Lord, including his own children and grandchildren. The Doctor has to deal with the consequences of the Time War from time to time and sometimes he or somebody else makes a reference to some events of it, but it's still mostly a mystery.

** Current showrunner [[Steven Moffat]] has gone on record saying that he will never show the Time War since there isn't enough money in the world to do it justice.

** Older episodes referred to similar such events, including the survivors of the destruction of Phaester Osiris defeating Sutekh and sealing him in a pyramid on Mars, or the ancient war between the Time Lords and the vampires shortly after the beginning of time.

** Ancient battles between the Fledgling Empires (including Gallifrey) and the Racnoss were mentioned in "The Runaway Bride".

** The ongoing war between the Federation and the Klingons at the time of the Original Series is mostly not shown.

*** Note that the Federation and the Klingons have gone to war many, many times: A few of these conflicts ''have'' been depicted on-screen, including in the Original Series: The brief Federation-Klingon War of 2267 (which was ended by the Organian Peace Treaty, imposed upon the belligerents against their will) took place entirely within the episode "Errand of Mercy". Another Federation-Klingon War took place during the first half of the fifth season of ''Deep Space Nine'', which was effectively ended (and the terminated alliance suddenly restored) when the Cardassians joined the Dominion.

** As well as "brutal border wars" against the Talarians and the Tzenkethi, which happened at some point between the Original Series and the next Generation.

*** When first mentioned in the original series, this war was fought entirely at extreme ranges with nuclear weapons (and with neither race ever actually seeing a member of the other).

* Both series of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' have mentioned previous wars with Cylons.

** However, the new BSG's First Cylon War will be getting screentime in the upcoming ''Blood and Chrome'' series. A licensed video game also purports to cover that period, even being played from the perspective of Commander Adama as a rookie pilot, but it mixes and matches so many elements of the original series and remake that it probably belongs in its own separate continuity.

* The conflict between Dharma Initiative and the Others was only hinted at in the first four seasons of ''Lost'', though the Season 5 gives us a pretty clear picture of it. The conflict between the Others and the US Army is even more obscure.

* The war with the Magogs from ''[[Andromeda]]'', the end of which caused the [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzschean]] revolution, may count too, as it started at the beginning of the first episode. The episode then jumps 300 years in the future, to the main plot, not only skipping the downfall of the revolution, but also the civil war among the ones who caused it, the High Guard.

* Played with in ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' where a group of people are holed up in a nuclear bunker playing a game show and broadcasting in the vain hope somebody is actually watching. It all focuses around "The Event"; the only interesting thing any of the characters can think about but are sworn not to talk about for various reasons. The most probable event would be a nuclear war.

** Or alternatively whatever caused the majority of the human population to become zombies ('Them').

** Also the Telepath War. We are shown only before and after.

** Along with the numerous wars the Centauri Republic was waging with its neighbors in the third season, none of which are seen, or indeed the numerous smaller wars between the members of the League of Nonaligned Worlds in the same season.

** There are also allusions to various minor conflicts that the Earth Alliance took part in. Not to mention the Earth Minbari War, which we heard much about, but saw little of, until the prequel movie ''In The Beginning''.

** ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' had a great battle between Good and Evil 10,000 years ago. Zordon was with the good guys, Rita with the bad guys under the command of Zedd. We have no other clues about it beyond that, despite the ''many'' ancient magical characters who were there and make none-too-informative references to it.

** ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]'' is so vague that we don't even know if there was one big event or just a bunch of isolated incidents. Either way, a lot of backstory happened 3,000 years ago.

** ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'' had the war between the Animarian civilization and the Orgs 3,000 years ago.

** ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' introduced one of the generals this way; the warlord Shimazu terrorized the populace with his Wolfblades 2,000 years ago until he is sealed in a mask.

** ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]'' saw a group of wizards seal away the forces of the underworld only twenty or so years prior.

** Averted in ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'', where we get a number of flashbacks to Venjix's conquest of Earth the year prior.

** ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'' had the Nighlocks sealed away by samurai in feudal Japan, and apparently a number of skirmishes between them and the samurai's descendants in the intervening years.

* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' has an unusual example: ''[[Kamen Rider Agito]]'' is a non-direct sequel to ''[[Kamen Rider Kuuga]]'', most explicitly referenced by the police-made G3 [[Powered Armor]] being based on data from Kuuga himself. According to the backstory, Kuuga's old enemies the Grongi fought a war against another monster group, the Lords, who eventually won and became the villains of ''Agito''. ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' directly references this when the heroes go to an [[Alternate Universe]] version of ''Agito'' and land right near the end of the Grongi-Lord War.

** And of course then there are things like the Rinto Kuuga's battle with the Grongi, the [[Kamen Rider Blade|Battle Royale]], and [[Kamen Rider OOO|the original OOO's battle with the Greed]], though that one is not what it seems.

 

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

** The [[Points of Light]] settings in 4th Edition has the war between the civilization of Nerath led by King Elidyr and the gnoll demon horde headed by Yeenoghu. There was also the war between the tiefling (half-devil) empire of Bael Turath versus the dragonborn empire of Archosia. [[Dungeon Crawling|Your characters most likely will start their career scrounging leftover supplies from said wars.]]

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has a few examples: the Primordial War, the Aftershock War, the Usurpation and the Balorian Crusade. All of these are provided some level of detail (specifically who was fighting and why), but the exact events of the wars are generally shrouded in mystery (typically because they all involved reality being damaged to some degree).

** And those are just wars involving the Exalted. The occasional hint is dropped regarding wars waged by gods in the era before humanity, and even occasionally to conflicts involving the Primordials prior to the existence of Creation.

* ''[[Freelancer]]'' has the [[The Empire|Coalition]]/[[The Alliance|Alliance]] war, the beginning of which was shown in ''[[Starlancer]]'' but which lasted for another century afterward and the winner is not the one the first game would indicate, as well as the 80 Years War between Rheinland and the [[NGO Superpower|GMG]].

* ''[[Star Wars]] [[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' has the Mandalorian Wars. Much of the information about it is from allusions and [[As You Know]] statements in the games, and lots of characters you run into in both games are war heroes or veterans from one side or the other.

* ''[[Guild Wars]]'': Prophecies has the actual Guild Wars, Factions has the Tengu Wars, Nightfall has the war against Palawa Joko.

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has numerous wars in its long history: the [[Bug War|Rachni War]], the Krogan Rebellions, the [[Robot War|Morning War]], the First Contact War, the Skyllian Blitz and {{spoiler|the Reapers' genocide of the Protheans}}.

* [[Metal Wolf Chaos]]: The Arizona Conflict

* ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' has Gear War, apocalyptic conflict between humans and Gears, led by Justice. In some games you can play duels that happened back then.

* The Seven Hour War from ''[[Half Life]] 2''.

* In the ''[[Ground Control]]'' games: [[World War Three|World War 3]], the Independence Wars, the First Stellar War, the Terran-Viron conflict, most of the Second Stellar War. There are mentioned in a few brief lines in the [[All There in the Manual|manual]].

* In the ''[[Earth 2150|Earth]]'' series, we never get to see or read details about [[World War Three|World War 3]], only that it was a [[Nuclear War]] that destroyed all former nation-states. Only a few facts are known from before the war, mostly about the founding of the [[One Nation Under Copyright|Lunar Corporation]]. The game history starts after the war, with the creations of the [[Eagle Land|United Civilized States]] and the [[The Empire|Eurasian Dynasty]].

* ''[[Fallout]]'' has the Great War, a two-hour war during which every nuclear-capable country in the world launched. No one knows who launched first.

*** Also the theory that a bored AI started it.

* Loghain of [[Dragon Age Origins]] often mentions the Ferelden rebellion against Orlais. Vague references to the war between the Qunari and the Tevinter Imperium are also present.

* ''[[Touhou]]'': The Great Suwa War, in which Kanako subjugated Suwako; and Yukari's (first) invasion of the Moon. {{spoiler|''Silent Sinner in Blue'' is essentially Yukari making a petty revenge upon the Lunarians over her defeat 1000 years ago.}}

** Your milage may vary on {{spoiler|whether it was petty, or even revenge. She outright stated it was payment for her letting an exiled moon princess and pharmacist live in Gensokyo, despite not conforming to the roles of either human or youkai. Especially since it's likely she started the invasion to teach a lesson to her fellow youkai, rather than in an actual attempt to conquer the moon.}}

* Since [[Grand Theft Auto]] 3 radio conversations and ads have hinted at a war between America and Australia which happened sometime in the mid 1980s. It's played for laughs.

* [[Septerra Core]]. The Resource Wars, the most recent of the wars between Ankara and Jinam. Also the war between Chosen factions that devastated Maya's hometown.

* ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' references The Great War between humans and Entelexeia. One of the party members is a veteran.

* The ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe]]'' games (being the 6th and 7th titles) had a great war between humans and dragons, referred to as 'The Scouring' that occurred roughly 1000 years before the events of the games. It ended with the humans supposedly killing off the dragons, when, in actuality, the dragons, on the verge of defeat, exiled themselves to the land of Arcadia, closing the gate portal behind them.

* ''[[Hexx]]'' mentions the Chaos wars, which apparently involved one of the four deities in the setting.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

* One (probably two) of the four "Breakings" from ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]''.

* The war with the Other in ''[[Girl Genius]]'' occurred about twenty years before the events of the comic, which resulted in chaos across Europa and [[Mad Scientist|Sparks]] fighting one another in the resulting havoc. It only ended when Baron Klaus Wulfenbach showed up and smacked all of the insane Sparks down to establish his empire.

 

 

== Web Original ==

 

== Western Animation ==

** The War itself is an an interesting variation in the show. We know why it started (the Fire Nation needed resources), when it started (100 years previous), who is fighting it (Fire Nation vs Earth Kingdom and the mostly neutral Water Tribes), and the characters are fighting its final year. However, we only get, at most, a couple flashbacks over 61 episodes. We don't see any battles even during the present (well, three, ''maybe'' four if you count the drill), so no Alternate Universe Counterparts to [[WWII|Stalingrad]] for the Earth Kingdom (unless you want to count the, again mostly unseen, 600 Day Seige of Ba Sing Se by [[Cool Old Guy|Iroh]]), or a [[WWI|Jutland]] for the Water Tribes, or even any [[WWII|D-Day]] recreations for the Fire Nation's first invasion of the Earth Kingdom at the start of the war. In fact, the entire century of conflict between Aang's freezing to when Katara frees him is mostly untouched even in fan fiction. Which is sad, because [[Fanfic Fuel|it has a lot of potential]].

*** That may be mostly because it's a kids' show.

*** [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|Which is a damn shame]]

** Also notable is the war between rainicorns and dogs, which is never elaborated upon (beyond mention of Lady Rainicorn's father being saved by a dog at some point during it) but shown as a cause for great strife between the species.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Index Happened Offscreen]]