Inferred Holocaust: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|[reading a poster] ''[[Motivational Poster|"'Hang in there, baby!']] You said it, kitty. ''[looking more closely]'' 'Copyright 1968.' Hmm, determined or not, that cat must be long dead. That's kind of a downer."''|'''Marge''', ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson"}}

[[Fridge Logic]] doesn't just find plot holes; it can make your typical happy ending into a [[Downer Ending]], and render even the most flawless moral victory into [[Black and Gray Morality]]. How? By helping the viewer realize that the "survivors" at the end of the movie don't have a future, even though they can't help but celebrate as the [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]] explodes [[Load-Bearing Boss|with its master's demise]]. When authors use large and amazing technologies and world or even galaxy spanning threats, they run the risk of letting the excitement of [[Stuff Blowing Up]] get the better of them and not think through how the survivors will make a living afterward.

 

 

Even if the movie runs with the above scenarios and makes it about characters from a [[Terminally Dependent Society]] surviving [[After the End]], the author may end up seriously overestimating their and civilizations' chances of survival.

* Inverted in ''[[The End of Evangelion]]''. {{spoiler|The world is supposed to have ended, with everyone but two people (see [http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/biology/CBCN/genetics/skw_paper.htm Rule of 50/500]) converted to protoplasmic Tang. However, it is explicitly stated that nobody died, they all just lost their individuality to the point that they ended up in one big group hug on the metaphysical level, and implied that even normal humans can regain their humanoid individuality with a decent show of willpower. Sort of an [[Inferred Survival]] for everyone on earth.}} Which then leads directly to this trope being played straight. {{spoiler|Unless the threshold for coming back from the Dirac sea is so low that plants and animals start coming back as well, the survivors would perish in short order from lack of food, and if they avoided that, lack of oxygen.}}

** {{spoiler|Turns into [[Moral Dissonance]]}} in ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]] 2.0''. {{spoiler|Shinji's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] [[Always Save the Girl|involves rescuing Rei]] [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|though as a result]] [[The End of the World as We Know It|triggers the Third Impact]]. [[Big Damn Villains|It takes a timely intervention with Kaworu to stop it.]]}}

* The movie ''[[Spriggan]]'' ends with the destruction of the [[Big Bad]]'s super weapon, the 'ARK" (yes, [[The Ark|THAT ARK]]. It has Dinosaurs). We are shown the heroes emerging triumphant from underground, to be cheered and applauded by the team members on the surface of the mountain. All seems well. And then we zoom out to show the Earth which looks not a little battered, as well as completely reshaped, by the earlier destruction. Clearly the world will never be the same now.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' has an inferred ''extinction'': After humans retake the surface, they live (largely) at peace with the Beastmen. However, Beastmen can't reproduce and all of the existing ones were made in [[People Jars]] by Lordgenome. Since they're apparently not making any more Beastmen, they'll eventually all die out (except Viral, because he's immortal) unless Beastmen have access to the cloning technology that Lordgenome used in the first place.

 

== Comic Books ==

* One 1970's ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]'' story, in a clear homage to the recently released film ''[[Star Wars]],'' had the team flying around in Quinjets cheerfully destroying an attacking spacefleet sent by [[Thanos]]. The Avengers have repeated many times that they never kill, but all those blown up spaceships had people... er, aliens on board. Oh well. [[MST3K Mantra|It looked cool, though!]] This also probably counts as a [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] moment since many Marvel and DC heroes have this attitude toward aliens, surprisingly enough.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and parodied in Scott McCloud's one-shot, over-sized comic ''Destroy!'': Two super-powerful heroes fight in New York City (and the surface of the Moon), destroying a good many buildings in the process. Until the very end, the only dialogue is '''Destroy!''' quickly met with '''Shut up!!'''; at the end, a bystander (police?) opines, 'Good thing no-one was hurt.'

* Although the [[Incredible Hulk]] is ostensibly a hero, many of his [[Unstoppable Rage]] rampages have caused enormous and widespread destruction, which raises the question of exactly how many innocents have lost their lives as collateral damage. This was partially addressed in the recent ''[[World War Hulk]]'' (in which Hulk sent prior warning to the citizens of Manhattan to clear out before utterly trashing the place), and again in the ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' arc, where one of his rampages is explicitly stated to have killed 26 people and a dog, making this particular holocaust not-so-implied. To be fair, this could be applied to almost ''any'' superhero whose battles involve large-scale trashing of urban environments.

{{quote|'''John''': We've never found a casualty at a Hulk site before, so I guess we shouldn't be too surprised.

'''Robin''': [[No Endor Holocaust|No deaths]]? Incredible.<br />

** Parts of ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'s'' viral marketing campaign focused on the aftermath of the city being exposed to the toxin in ''Begins''. The results was a sudden increase of insanity in city because of the contaminated drinking water. But there's no indicator that the people infected by the toxin were permanently damaged by the toxin. Rachel was a special case, as she was given a "concentrated dose" as said by Scarecrow. Odds are, most of the people infected by the fear toxin were able to recover after a time when the water vaporizer was destroyed.

*** [[Fridge Brilliance]], actually, mixed with a bit of [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]. This is part of the explanation for why Gotham's got so many madmen, and why Arkham's got a revolving door. Sure, some may have recovered, but some did not. Gotham's now got a disproportionately large number of lunatics, many of whom Joker tapped as his gang.

** Pottersville has more excitement and a superior economic infrastructure. Bedford Falls only has a moderate manufacturing economy and no obvious places to find excitement. Once the factory closes down Bedford Falls will suffer depression and unemployment. Pottersville has backup industries, such as the nightclubs, that can encourage outside investment.

** George makes it clear that he wants to leave Bedford Falls, go to college, and travel the world. All of his dreams are destroyed and he feels he must commit suicide to regain hope. Potter is correct that George’s life has not resulted in personal happiness. [http://www.agonybooth.com/movies/Its_a_Wonderful_Life_1946.aspx Agony Booth], [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/movies/19wond.html The New York Times], [http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2001/12/22/pottersville/index.html Salon], [http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2010/12/24/its_wonderful_life_terrifying_movie_ever/index.html Salon again], [[wikipedia:It's a Wonderful Life#Reception|Wikipedia]], and apparently Cracked.com

** In the [[Darker and Grittier]] (and how!) [[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|re-imagined series]], the realisation that there's no one left is brought crashing down on the survivors in all subsequent seasons (though the losses they all would have suffered in the initial attack are continually ignored), the one glimmer of hope being when the Battlestar Pegasus showed up. And that turned out to be commanded by a loony, power-mad admiral.

** And then there's the ''ending'' of the series, {{spoiler|where the survivors (humans and friendly Cylons) end up on our Earth in the past and throw away all available technology and start over on a peaceful world free of war where man can live in harmony with nature. The idea that this means plowing fields by hand, building houses by chopping down trees with stone axes, dying in childbirth, being killed by starvation and disease and wild animals, and losing all of their culture, while being completely unable to warn anyone about the cycle of history seems not to occur to anyone.}} Given that the finale implies {{spoiler|the Colonials will be introducing language (presumably with writing) and farming but such things didn't show up for another 100,000 years, there is even more support for the idea that things didn't go very well. The fossils found in the [[Distant Finale]] indicate that even Hera died young.}}

* ''[[Space: 1999]]'' starts with the Moon being blasted out of Earth's orbit, and follows the inhabitants of the moonbase. How badly did Earth suffer from this? We find out via [[Negative Space Wedgie]] [[Subspace Ansible]] that humanity survives for several thousand years... but [[Apocalypse How|the planet did not.]] All that is left of Earth life are recordings. While there existed the possibility of transporting to Earth... no one complained much that the window was missed.

** In one second season episode the Alphans make contact with Earth and discover that everybody is now living in domed cities because the planet's natural environment has been totally destroyed. The funny thing is, nobody on Earth seems to bothered about that. "Who needs nature?" they laugh. Maybe they're all just in denial. Then again, it was something like 200 years past the accident, long enough that nobody alive actually remembered what nature was like first-hand.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* The ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' supplement "Elder Evils" is basically designed around this concept. Yes, all of the Big Bads can be defeated (or at least can be temporarily driven off), but their appearance irrevocably changes the world. Take Atropus, the World Born Dead, as an example: even if you manage to repel him, his presence has unleashed hordes of undead upon your world and killed off most of the living inhabitants. The awakening of Leviathan, a serpent so large it encircles the planet, has caused earthquakes and tsunamis that have decimated civilization. Yeah, you defeated the Cosmic Horror... but at what cost?

** In just about every other possible ending for the other gamelines humanity is almost wiped out, and much of the planet lies in ruins. These can be considered happy endings since the alternative is that all life on Earth is completely wiped out.

** For all the apocalyptic doom and gloom, one of the endings to ''Mage'' DID imply the end of life as we know it... but only because all of humanity had transcended mortality, awakened as mages, and combined once more into the One and recreated the universe from the beginning.

* When you think about it, all 4X games, from ''[[Civilization]]'' to ''[[Total War]]'' to ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' end this way, win or lose. Yay! You've won! What's the death toll of your supreme greatness? Bummer, you lost. Not only did your plans suck and got your ass conquered, but you took most of your population down with you in that desperate last stand. Even games which, like ''Civilization'', allow for peaceful victories, it's often necessary to butcher quite a lot of people on the way, especially when your victory is at hand and everyone freaks out and dogpiles you, [[Gang Up on the Human|crab bucket-style]].

* The main plotline of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] IV: [[Oblivion]]'' ends with Emperor Martin sacrificing himself in order to stop the daedric invasion. Unfortunately, this left Tamriel without an Emperor, and with ''massive'' casualties in Cyrodiil and beyond courtesy of Mehrunes Dagon's armies. Eventually, in [[Skyrim]], the "inferred" became explicitly stated: the Empire is [[Vestigial Empire|a shadow of its former self]], and [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|the Aldmeri Dominion]] is the main superpower.

* In the ending of ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', the Reaper take control of {{spoiler|the Citadel, a gigantic space station and probably the largest city in the galaxy}} and use it as storage for the corpses they collect. No word on what happened to the inhabitants.

** It's actually worse than that: {{spoiler|In all endings, all the mass relays are destroyed. The lore established that those were the base for the galactic community, so this means the combined fleet Shepard amassed during the game is going to be stranded in the Sol system. Earth has been devastated so it has no resources to support the billions of individuals that are going to be going hungry shortly. Most of the galactic fleet is probably either going to starve to death or be killed during the fight over what little resources and supplies are available. And all this is assuming that the 'space magic' somehow prevented a repeat of what happened in ''Arrival''.}}

*** Also, {{spoiler|the destruction of so many starships and stations in Earth orbit means that a considerable amount of dust-form element zero has been deposited all over Earth. As previously established in the Codex, that means that 30% of all newborns are going to develop fatal tumours... assuming anyone survives long enough to breed}}.

*** And all this is just happening on Earth. What about {{spoiler|all the other worlds that the Reapers ravaged? Or the colonies that are now cut off from support? Sure, some of them are going to become self-sufficient, but waaaay too many are going to end up dying off. The only races that get out of ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' without some form of inferred holocaust are the quarians (assuming you didn't exterminate them), the salarians, and maybe the krogan, and even for them an entire generation of soldiers and the cream of their leadership are trapped away from their homeworlds}}.

*** To make matters even worse, consider this: {{spoiler|A single mass relay contains an amount of potential energy close to that of a supernova, which are estimated to released between '''1 to 2e44''' joules of energy. In order to create just a single mass relay pair, it would take a [[Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun and Profit|Type III]] civilization operating at 100% efficiency and devoting all their energy to the project about half a year to create a single mass relay.}} That's well beyond the means of any current galactic civilization, even before the reaper war. Still think {{spoiler|the mass relays will be rebuilt}} any time soon?

*** [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]]. {{spoiler|Given how the Citadel is actually '''Super''' Mass Relay capable of reaching Darkspace, the energy within its storage capacity must be simply ''astronomical''. One has to wonder ''where'' that energy went? If a regular Mass Relay detonation is capable of a Supernova, one could infer the Citadel exploding would most likely create a '''Hypernova''' level explosion.}}

*** {{spoiler|Also the fact that 3 Relays are currently in the Solar System. While the Charon Relay is only powerful enough to reach Arcturus, one must remember that the Citadel is a '''Super-Relay'' capable of extra-galactic distances and the Conduit, despite being a minituarised Relay, is ''still'' poweful enough to get to Ilos. The three of them detonating, with the latter two being on Earth's doorstep is NOT a good idea. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice Job Saving Earth, Shepard]]!}}

* ''[[Portal 2]]'' contains loads of this for the discerning player.

** The failure of the Relaxation Center condemning tens of thousands of test subjects to death or a persistent vegetative state. Wheatley, of course, comes right out and says this during the opening sequence, so it's less inferred than outright stated. The [[Fridge Horror]] comes in below, though.

** Cave Johnson's [[Posthumous Character|pre-recorded messages]] in Old Aperture all but explicitly state that a vast majority, if not all, of the test subjects the company recruited over the decades died or suffered horrific injuries or mutations. Yes, this means that a whole generation of "astronauts, Olympians, and war heroes" were slaughtered by [[Mad Science]], not to mention Aperture's own scientists once they started [[Professor Guinea Pig|testing on themselves]]. Think of the sheer human potential lost here and you wonder if Aperture didn't help Earth fall to the Combine by murdering its best and brightest.

** Several of the alternate Caves from the Perpetual Testing Initiative implied that many more of this happened in alternate universes, usually involving alternate versions of the pre-recorded messages in the main game, such as Mantis-men overrunning Aperature, a sentient cloud siphoning off people's skins and a space prison escape. Lampshaded with the Sick Boy, who Cave Prime specifically mentioned had died to eliminate any ambiguity on your end. Most of these end up saving Cave Prime's universe by solving his money problem {{spoiler|and scaring him out of building [[G La DOS]]}}.

== Western Animation ==

* Ignored in most ''[[Transformers]]'' series, bar ''[[Transformers Animated]].'' In one episode of ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' they actually blow up Paradron, a planet recently populated by a pacifist race (who may or may not have completely evacuated everybody) just to keep the Decepticons from getting at its plentiful energon supplies. Aside from the Paradronian Sandstorm being sad, nobody seems to care.

** Subverted in ''[[Transformers Animated]],'' and used as a source of major angst for the well-meaning but clumsy Bulkhead every time somebody needs a cheap excuse for him to get depressed. The humans of Detroit seem to actually waver between welcoming the Autobots as heroes and fearing them for all the property damage they cause, and one episode actually shows the Autobots helping to rebuild a bridge ''they'' destroyed though they did destroy it by having Megatron smack them around.

** Lampshaded in a G1 parody in ''[[Robot Chicken]]'', where Optimus proudly states that ''only'' fifty humans were killed in the crossfire of their latest engagement, a new record.

** Also, one episode involves an EVO who puts everything in the world to sleep, Holiday mentions they don't have much time before people start dropping dead from dehydration, but it never brings up people who were in the middle of doing potentially dangerous tasks such as driving (which is a bit jarring, considering the show doesn't shy away from the implications of civilian casualties).

* In one episode of ''[[Gargoyles]]'', Oberon puts almost everyone in Manhattan to sleep for several minutes, during which he also conjures a freezing rain storm. Yes, a couple of traffic accidents are shown when everyone falls asleep, but nobody calls him on it when he claims everyone will wake up just fine. Unless he put far more thought into his spell than it looked like (and judging by what he seems to think of the rights of anyone aside from [[The Fair Folk|his own kind]], he probably didn't), then it's likely that between traffic accidents, interrupting dangerous tasks, or simply falling from precarious places, thousands of people died. And everything is back to normal by the next episode, as though nobody outside Manhattan even noticed.

** Not to mention, like in the ''[[Generator Rex]]'' episode mentioned above, the time where all of Human life on Earth was rendered unable to move for several days. Part of the initial problem was shown, where Octus walks down a street and passes a few crashed planes and helicopters.

* The ''[[Super Mario Bros Super Show]]'' episode "Koop-zilla" apparently takes place in a fictional Japanese city called Sayonara. [[Freak Lab Accident|Because of a lab experiment gone wrong]], [[Big Bad|Bowser]] actually transforms into the titular Koop-zilla and starts destroying the city, and as a result Mario also becomes a giant just so he can stop Bowser, causing the city to be destroyed even more. Also, a later episode called "Karate Koopa" also takes place in Sayonara, except that instead of a large, technologically-advanced metropolis, it's now a small Japanese fishing village, and Bowser is now a samurai. And by the way, Sayonara means "goodbye" in Japanese.