Guilt-Free Extermination War: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

You know how most wars end when one side gets what they want, or stops caring, or the other side surrenders? This is not that kind of war. This is a war where the only possible outcome is the utter annihilation of the other side. This isn't [[Good Versus Evil]] either, where one side wins forever and there's sugar and gumdrops for the rest of eternity<ref>(Or [[Evil Only Has to Win Once]] and you get a Crapsack [[Villain World]])</ref>, this is two sides fighting to the death for reasons [[Blue and Orange Morality|that cannot be summed up]]. Other options are neither explored nor put forth as viable in any way. Don't expect either side to feel guilty either.

== Anime & Manga ==

* ''[[Mushishi]]'', while Ginko is normally a [[Friend to All Living Things]] and incredibly forgiving to even the most violent or dangerous mushi, his response when confronted with a species of Mushi that exists solely by preying on people is to explain calmly that humans and that breed of mushi cannot coexist, and humans are stronger.

 

== Comics ==

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Lensman]]'' stories by E.E. "Doc" Smith: The conflict between Civilization and Boskone was a fight to the death. Neither the Galactic Patrol nor the pirates of Boskone ever surrendered to the other, and entire planets were destroyed in the conflict.

** [[Adaptation Distillation|Retained in the adaptations]], though they turned the Bugs into [[Organic Technology|non-technological]] [[Horde of Alien Locusts|alien locusts]], as opposed to the tool-using [[Hive Mind]] in the book that even had allies.

* ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'': the humans and elves vs the armies of Mordor. The closing section of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' talks quite pleasantly about the goblins being hunted into extinction in the Misty Mountains, without any hint that anyone ''could'' have a problem with this.

* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novel ''Sky Pirates!'' revealed that the Timelords had a couple of wars like this in the distant past, where the opponents were just so utterly different each side regarded the other as an [[Eldritch Abomination]] to be utterly eliminated. [[Captain Obvious|The Timelords won]].

* In the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', the conflict between the Alerans and [[Horde of Alien Locusts|the Vord]]. Most of the Vord are mindless beasts under the control of their Queens, which have a genetic imperative to wipe out any other species and expand to consume all. There is also the war between the Vord and {{spoiler|the Canim}}, which ultimately ended with {{spoiler|the Canim being almost exterminated}}, save for the ones that {{spoiler|Tavi and Varg were able to evacuate}}.

* Related to the [[Starfire]] example in Tabletop Games is the novels based off it by [[David Weber]] and Steve White. In addition to the war with the Rigellians as part of the back story there is the war with the Arachnids or Bugs. No attempt at communication succeeds and they view other sentient species as nothing more than food. The only world that is not subjected to massive orbital bombardment is the homeworld of one member of the Crucian Alliance which is liberated the hard way.

* The humans on ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', for the most part, believe this since the Cylons wiped out 99.99999% in the pilot. They will frequently torture and kill captured Cylons because they're "[[Ridiculously-Human Robots|just machines]]" and don't really feel pain. People who object are typically just written off as incredibly naive or crazy. {{spoiler|During the series, however, this attitude decreases to the point where the humans and some rebel Cylons form an alliance against the rest of the Cylons}}.

* ''[[Stargate Verse]]'':

** ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'': the fight against the Wraith is generally seen as an us-or-them game as well -- the Wraith might not be out to kill ''all'' humans, but that's only because they need to keep them as a food supply. Later on, Dr. Beckett develops a virus that turns Wraith into humans, but it wears off without regular boosters and is nigh-impossible to deliver. Even later the Replicators and renegade Asgard force the Atlantis expedition into multiple [[Enemy Mine]] situations with one Wraith faction and at one point offer them an experimental treatment that would allow them to live without feeding on humans.

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** This is quite literally the Imperium's standard colonization protocol: drop a few [[Badass Army|Imperial Guard]] regiments, exterminate all sentient life on the new planet, ship colonists in.

** The [[The Federation|Tau]] don't automatically exterminate every species they come across, preferring to integrate and "adopt" other species as they discover them. Still, when they do encounter a species that they determine unfit or unable to peacefully coexist, they will ruthlessly exterminate them. Considering [[Crapsack World|the]] [[Sick Sad World|galaxy]] they live in, this proabably happens pretty frequently.

** The Necrons serve beings that wish to annihilate everything related to the Warp. The Warp is sustained in part by the emotions of living beings. Nothing more needs to be said.

* ''[[Starfire]]'' by Task Force Games: The Third Interstellar War between the Alliance (Terrans and Khanate of Orion) vs. the fanatically racist and warlike Rigelian Protectorate. The Rigelians were determined to wipe out the Alliance, and the Alliance was forced to destroy the Rigelians completely to eliminate them as a threat.

* [[Dungeons and Dragons]] has the [[Evil vs. Evil|Blood War]] between the Lawful Evil devils/baatezu and the Chaotic Evil demons/tanar'ri, it's been raging for millenia and is unlikely to end until and unless one or both sides gets totally exterminated. Which is fortunate for everybody else because the fiends could probably wipe out the celestials and everybody else in the multiverse if they weren't so busy fighting each other.

* Frequent in ''3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars''. Because it's [[Omnicidal Maniac|us]] [[Bug War|or them]].

** In general, there's a standing order in [[The Federation|Council Space]] that all [[AI Is a Crapshoot|AIs are to be terminated on sight]]. The exceptions are those which are authorized by controversial research companies such as Synthetic Insights. Knowing that every organic in the galaxy is united to kill them without a second thought, many synthetic creatures (such as the geth) shoot first and ask questions later.

* The only option (other than Assimilation Plague) in [[Sword of the Stars]] before the second expansion added psychology techs that allow a player to force a planet to surrender after just one or two nukes.

* In ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]: Tools Of Destruction'', pretty much everyone who brings up the subject considers the Lombaxes the "Saviors of the Universe" for completely wiping out the Cragmites. {{spoiler|Granted, it turns out they actually sent them to another universe, but no one else ''knew'' that.}}

* ''[[Starcraft]]'': the [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Zerg]] are a race burdened with a hard-coded biological imperative, instilled by the Xel'Naga, to assimilate and destroy other species. The absolute best that could possibly be done short of true extermination is destroying the Overmind to reduce them to merely ''very'' dangerous animals. {{spoiler|Turned on its head when it turns out the Overmind [[Thanatos Gambit|intentionally got itself killed]] to place Kerrigan as its successor and finally relieve the Zerg of this compulsion, and on top of that they may be the ''only'' thing standing between the other races and an unknown party that will otherwise destroy all life in the galaxy -- the Overmind executed this gambit because otherwise the Zerg would destroy all other life, then be destroyed in turn by this new threat.}}

* The Human-Locust War in ''[[Gears of War]]'' is one of these. The Locust want to exterminate humanity so they can have the surface of Sera, and the humans want to exterminate the Locust in self-defense. The Lambent also get in on this when they show up, making it a [[Melee a Trois|three-way]] [[Guilt-Free Extermination War]].

* The war against the Kreegan in [[Heroes of Might and Magic]] III: Armageddon's Blade becomes this after Erathia drops out. The remaining anti-Kreegan forces are well aware that the 'Devils' are a severe threat to the world (even if they aren't aware of the full scope of the threat), and finishing the war to the bitter end is really the only long-term option, while the Kreegans built the titular Armageddon's Blade to burn the world. Even before Erathia dropped out, the problems the nobles had with a campaign of extermination wasn't the extermination, but rather the cost in troops and gold.