No Blood for Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions
→[[Literature]]: replaced: [[Lord of the Rings → [[The Lord of the Rings
m (categories and general cleanup) |
(→[[Literature]]: replaced: [[Lord of the Rings → [[The Lord of the Rings) |
||
| (12 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
{{quote|''"War never changes. In the 21st century wars were still fought over the resources that could be acquired..."''
|''[[Fallout]]''}}
{{quote|''"When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will."''
|'''Frederic Bastiat'''}}
Nearly every conflict in human history has been over a resource of some kind. Land, water, food, oil, mineral rights, timber, livestock, labor... something other than national pride or honor and glory is usually lurking around as subtext whenever man kills man on the field of battle.
Line 8 ⟶ 10:
The local [[Unobtanium]], [[Green Rocks]], [[Spice of Life]], [[Minovsky Physics|Minovsky Particles]], [[You Require More Vespene Gas|Vespene Gas]] or [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]] are all naturally rare and valuable, so much that everybody wants to get their hands on it. Quite naturally, this can lead to world- or galaxy-wide wars over the damn stuff. Caught up in the middle are the usual tragic bystanders, for whom your magical miracle substances are [[Worthless Yellow Rocks]]. Things will get... [[Fantastic Aesop|interesting]] if the resource in question turns out to be [[Aesoptinium]] that decides it doesn't want people fighting over it and sets up a [[No MacGuffin, No Winner]] scenario.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== [[Anime]] ==
* ''[[Transformers Energon]]'' was all about fighting over and using the titular [[Green Rocks]].
** ''[[Transformers]]'' is usually about that ''in general'', be it [[Transformers Generation
** ''[[
* In ''[[
** Or, possibly, the even more critical phlebotinum, {{spoiler|the thought elevator}}.
* E2 energy from ''[[Another
* ''[[Darker
* Shortly before the events of the main series, the world of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' was subject to the "solar power wars". When advanced solar technologies were discovered, oil suddenly became relatively worthless, leading to a number of Middle Eastern countries continually splitting apart into new ones. To harness the technology, countries needed to build space elevators, and this lead to blocs of nations forming who jealously guarded their elevators and were constantly at the brink of war with the other blocs.
== [[Film]] ==
* The whole point of [[James Cameron]]'s ''[[Avatar (
* All Phlebotinum in ''[[District 9]]'' has a biological component, so while everybody is stockpiling [[BFG
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Dune]]'' had its Spice, a resource so vital that whoever owns Arrakis, the only planet that produce them, will have a huge power over other planets. Several novels have story arcs where someone attempts (unsuccessfully) to break the Arrakis monopoly on spice by transplanting a [[Sand Worm]] to another planet, creating a spice substitute, etc.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': The Ring, obviously.
** Except the Ring is not what the war is about. It is about whether or not people of Middle Earth will be ruled by Sauron. The ring is just one of the weapons.
** Also Mithril in the [[The History of Middle Earth|supplemental material]], and the eponymous silmarils in ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. And the dwarven treasure horde taken by Smaug in ''[[The Hobbit]]''.
* Pynvium in Janice Hardy's ''[[The Shifter]]'' can absorb pain. Its mines are important enough to fight over, but it's when {{spoiler|the healers run out of it}} that the plot kicks in.
== [[Live
* In the ''[[
** In an episode of ''[[Star Trek
** In the first ''[[Star Trek Shatnerverse]]'' novel, Chekov and Uhura are engaged in an undercover operation and pretend to deal with a shady Klingon. He offers dilithium as payment. Chekov brushes him off, saying it's nearly worthless now, ever since the whole "nuclear wessels" discovery (i.e. ships can run forever on a single set of dilithium crystals without needing to replace them).
** Somewhat bizarrely, in ''[[Star Trek
*** That's mainly because the Kazon are [[Too Dumb to Live]]. The Borg refuse to assimilate them because of that.
* A classic ''[[Doctor Who]]'' had one of these, in the episode "The Caves of Androzani". It was over spectrox, "the most valuable substance in the universe."
Line 42 ⟶ 44:
== [[Music]] ==
* "Roadkill (...or Be Killed)" by Steelwing:
{{quote|The scavengers soon will rule
Waging war for a tank of fuel }}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''
**
* ''[[Spelljammer]]'' has [[Space Whale|kindori]] fat used for e.g. lamps, and most Greek Fire made from it. As a result, kindori riders occasionally clash with space whalers; they collect and sell fat only when kindori die of natural causes, of course - the creatures that can [[Turtle_Island|carry a village]] don't reproduce like rabbits and are just too valuable.▼
** The same goes for many natural resources, from less common ores to Nephium (a toxic exotic substance with variety of uses, mined on some planetoids) - in ''[[Rogue Trader]]'' had two strongest dynasties come to blows over a rich source of the latter until they had to settle on division.
** The "Archeotech" (among the Human factions) and various [[Precursor|more ancient]] [[MacGuffin|artifacts]] (in general).
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' in various settings have a lot of wars in various settings over a local source of something valuable or trade route allowing access to it.
** ''[[Dark Sun]]'' over... well, [[Death World|just about anything that can help to survive or give one an edge]], from water sources to obsidian mines.
** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has Zhentarim trying to control trade over the whole continent, thus their fortified bases (like Darkhold) tend to sit in a spitting distance of some or other trade route.
▲** ''[[Spelljammer]]'' has [[Space Whale|kindori]] fat used for e.g. lamps, and most Greek Fire made from it. As a result, kindori riders occasionally clash with space whalers; they collect and sell fat only when kindori die of natural causes, of course - the creatures that can [[
== Toys ==
Line 53 ⟶ 61:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Command
* Humans fought a really big war over Imulsion in the [[Backstory]] to ''[[Gears of War]]'', before the scary underground alien invasion.
* "Ragnite" was one of the reasons behind the war in ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'', with the player's small neutral country caught right in the middle due to its large natural deposits of it.
* Tarydium in the ''[[Unreal]]'' series.
* "Nectar" in ''[[Haze]]''. [[Anvilicious|Not in any way a stand-in for a certain other resource found in South America.]]
* Practically inevitable in the later installments of ''[[Civilization]]'' if you want your faction to prosper, unless you get really lucky with city placement or allies. If you do not have era-appropriate strategic resources, expect to be invaded by other civilizations who do and consider you easy pickings. If you have era-appropriate strategic resources, expect to be invaded by other civilizations who do not have it and desperately want it. Either way, wars are almost certainly going to be fought over it.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' features the miracle substance Mako. Generated from the essences of creatures long-since dead and pumped from the ground, it has allowed the company controlling it to control world politics, and its overuse creates serious consequences for the planet... similar to a certain black substance that the people of Earth have been using for several decades with similar results. This certain black substance is later treated as a viable alternative to mako in ''Advent Children''.
** There's a bit in Shinra's headquarters where they have a set of advertisements for the line of cars that they make (represented during the opening FMV). The video clearly shows the engines of said cars using Mako in a way that is analogous to the use of the... distillates of the aforementioned black substance. (And "The Aforementioned Black Substance" would make a [[A Good Name for
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series' backstory mentions conflicts over the world's dwindling oil reserves between the 2050's and 70's. The European Coalition invaded the Middle East once oil prices rose too high, though these Resource Wars ended suddenly once the last of the petroleum in the region was tapped out. With Alaska containing the last oil on the whole planet, China invaded America in a conflict that led to a global nuclear war, hence the game's [[After the End|post-apocalyptic setting]].
<!-- No Real Life Examples *means* No Real Life Examples -->
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:No
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
| |||