Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Difference between revisions

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** It also comes up in the fact that most mobile suits have fusion reactors: in both [[Mobile Suit Gundam|the original series]] and ''[[Gundam Unicorn]]'', someone accidentally blows a hole in a colony when an enemy MS they destroy goes up in a nuclear fireball. In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team]]'', amoral Federation officers attempt to [[We Have Reinforcements|take advantage of this]] to destroy a Zeon mobile armor. ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam F91]]'' introduces shotlancers, pneumatic lances designed specifically to keep this from happening by destroying specific parts of enemy machines (such as coolant lines) and forcing an emergency reactor shut-down.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing|Gundam Wing]]'' plays it straight only due to a faulty translation. Lady Une tries to get rid of the Gundams by self-destructing a stockpile of missiles beneath the base they're attacking. The English translation simply refers to them as "large missiles", but the original Japanese dialog explicitly calls them ICBMs.

** In ''[[Turn a Gundam (Anime)|Turn a Gundam]]'' (an [[After the End]] setting), the heroes unearth a cache of nuclear missiles and realize how dangerous they are when one gets set off by accident. [[The Hero]] Loran carries the remaining missiles around in the Turn A's chest for a good portion of the series, eventually using them to destroy a rogue asteroid headed for Von City on the moon.

** In ''[[Turn A Gundam (Anime)|Turn a Gundam]]'' (an [[After the End]] setting), the heroes unearth a cache of nuclear missiles and realize how dangerous they are when one gets set off by accident. [[The Hero]] Loran carries the remaining missiles around in the Turn A's chest for a good portion of the series, eventually using them to destroy a rogue asteroid headed for Von City on the moon.

** Plays a role in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED|Gundam SEED]]'''s backstory. When the Earth Alliance and ZAFT go to war, the Alliance's '''first''' response is a tactical strike on the colony Junius Seven. ZAFT invents devices called Neutron Jammers which prevent nuclear reactions, primarily to prevent any further nukings (which also has the side-effect of making most mecha in this setting battery-powered). Eventually a countermeasure is developed, and when the Alliance gets it they go for another bombing run. This time around, ZAFT has a counter-countermeasure called the Neutron Stampeder, which [[Hoist by His Own Petard|causes the nukes to go off early]].

** In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'', nuclear weapons never come up because the world's nuclear arsenals were disarmed decades before the show started. {{spoiler|Which was all part of Aeolia's plan.}} However, the Gundams' GN Drives may be a form of "clean" nuclear power (the name stands for "Gundam Nucleus").

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* Averted in ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]:[[Stand Alone Complex]]''. In the second season, the threat of nuclear bombs inside a Japanese metropolis becomes a major plot point in the later episode. {{spoiler|Although their actual existance always stays very ambigious.}} In the finale, {{spoiler|[[The Man Behind the Man|the people behind the government]] fire a nuclear ICBM at one of their own cities.}}

* The violence showing the aftermath of nuclear war and message that [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|nuclear weapons are bad]] is one of the reasons why ''[[Future War 198X]]'' is [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|extremely hard to find.]]

* In ''[[Heat Guy J]]'' most of the world's population has been destroyed after they appropriated the technology of the resident [[Superior Species]]. Originally, it was used for peaceful purposes (e.g. energy production), but [[Humans Are Bastards|people started wars]] using this [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. The survivors stopped trusting each other and closed themselves into seven city states, and the [[Superior Species|Celestials]] closely monitor any peaceful use of their technology. It's never stated what it is exactly, but it does sound an awful lot like nuclear power.

* [[Axis Powers Hetalia]] manages to be about anthropomorphic countries, set partly during World War II, with the personifications of America and Japan as main characters, and still never mention nuclear weapons. Partly because the WWII part of the story never gets to that point (it's more or less [[Aborted Arc|abandoned]] by now), and partly because the series avoids showing the [[Darker and Edgier]] parts of history.

* The ancient warriors from ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind]]'' certainly count.

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== Live Action TV ==

* There's a very odd [[Retcon]] example in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story "Genesis of the Daleks". In the previous Dalek stories, it had been repeatedly stated that the mutations that led to the Daleks were the result of a nuclear war on the planet Skaro. In the definitive origin story "Genesis", however, the word "nuclear" was never used and all the usual effects depicted in the story that one would associate with nuclear weapons (mutation, explosives that kill the slaves forced to handle them within a few days, massive destruction) were ascribed to mysterious "chemicals". It almost looks as if there was censorious [[Executive Meddling]]. The vast majority of fans, and subsequent canon writers, keep "Genesis" as the definitive origin but tacitly replace all references to "chemicals" with "nuclear" or "radioactivity" again.

* It's never stated outright, but it's pretty damn obvious that the [[Killer Robot|Killer Robots]] used nukes to [[Everybody's Dead, Dave|wipe out most of humanity]] before ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' started proper.

** Ziggy does mention to Dillon how the radiation interferes with both his compass and radio frequencies in their first meeting ("The Road to Corinth").

* Strongly averted in ''[[Babylon 5]]''. So much so that Captain Sheridan's community nickname is John "Nuke 'Em" Sheridan. On no less than 3 occasions, Sheridan deploys tactical nukes during the series. Londo Mollari uses them as well, and then is blackmailed by a nuclear threat later in the series.

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* In ''[[Resident Evil]] 3'', at the end, Raccoon City is destroyed in a huge flash of light that, to all appearances, would ''seem'' to be a nuclear explosion. However, in a later game, it's established that it was just hit by a whole bunch of conventional missiles at once. Note that in the real world, conventional explosions, no matter how large, do not give off the bright flash that is typical of nuclear detonations.

** And then ''[[Resident Evil]]: Degeneration'' just comes right out and says that it ''was'' a nuke that was dropped on Raccoon city.

* Inverted in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', which features the M-920 Cain, a heavy weapon which produces archetypical mushroom clouds by firing high explosive slugs and nicknamed the "Nuke Launcher," despite not using any nuclear reactions.

* Some language versions of ''[[World in Conflict]]'' call the tactical nuke that can be used in multiplayer a "[[Big Bulky Bomb|BFB]]." Big Friggin Bomb? However, it's pretty obvious what it is a nuke, and the campaign plot doesn't attempt to hide it. However, they are only used as a last resort in the campaign, while it can be used with impunity in multiplayer given enough points. Not to mention that you get a medal for launching lots of nukes...

* ''[[Advance Wars]]: Days of Ruin'' refers to ''Nemesis'' missiles (''Climax'' in the European version) that were installed in both main countries by the IDS. They share a lot of similarity with the Cold War nukes the US and USSR were amassing, and ''might'' be in fact nukes, but the game leaves that open to interpretation, as they never launch.

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* [[After the End|Naturally]] [[Averted Trope|averted]] in most releases of ''[[Fallout 3]]'' but in Japan, the implications (which are, actually, not so much implied [[Nuclear War|as outright stated]]) of the setting resulted in some changes for localization purposes. The Japanese release of ''Fallout 3'' had the entire questline related to detonating the nuclear weapon at Megaton removed. This also removes the Tenpenny Towers quests that open up in relation to it. The Fat Man launcher was renamed "Nuka Launcher" (Perhaps trying to connect more towards the fictional in game soft drink Nuka Cola), though this one should have been obvious considering that the name "Fat Man" comes from the bomb dropped on Nagasaki...

* Used... ''differently'' in ''[[Singularity]]'': There exist nuclear bombs, but the ''real'' focus is on an E-99 bomb that is a little bigger than a basketball and can turn the ''whole East Coast'' of your United States into a smoldering crater. Then there's the eponymous [[It Got Worse|Singularity]].

* ''[[Command ~~and~~ Conquer Tiberium Wars]]''' German translation made aurora bombs out of the nuclear bombs due to the fact that depicting weapons of mass destruction in computer games would lead to an X-rating of same game. There was a Kane edition which still had nuclear bombs (and suicide bombers) and was sold only to adults.

* ''[[Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars]]''' German translation made aurora bombs out of the nuclear bombs due to the fact that depicting weapons of mass destruction in computer games would lead to an X-rating of same game. There was a Kane edition which still had nuclear bombs (and suicide bombers) and was sold only to adults.

* ''[[Command ~~and~~ Conquer Red Alert 3]]'' removed nuclear weapons from the game through a plot device while its predecessors used them amply. This no doubt had to do with the addition of a Japanese faction and someone rightly figuring that creating a game that you won by dropping a nuclear weapon on the Japanese might make someone mad.

* ''[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3]]'' removed nuclear weapons from the game through a plot device while its predecessors used them amply. This no doubt had to do with the addition of a Japanese faction and someone rightly figuring that creating a game that you won by dropping a nuclear weapon on the Japanese might make someone mad.

* The original ''[[Ace Combat]]'' setting, Strangereal, is supposed to be an alternate universe of our Earth with approximately equal level of technological advancement. However, the only nation that apparently has ever developed its own nukes is Belka (essentially an alternate [[Nazi Germany]]) and even then their warheads counted in ''single units'', not the thousands that world powers possess in [[Real Life]] today. For this reason, Strangereal's two superpowers Osea and Yuktobanian (counterparts of the US and Soviet Union) could duke it out in ''Ace Combat 5'' in what would have basically become [[World War III]] in our world, without risking a nuclear apocalypse. In fact, when Belkan remnants try to use their remaining nuclear warheads in that war, the hostilities soon cease and everyone gangs up on the Belkans instead. That ''[[Ace Combat]]'' was developed by the Japanese company Bandai-Namco probably explains things.

** Belka is the only nation stated to have ''used'' nukes in a war. During the events of [[Ace Combat Zero]], in an act of desperation, they resorted to dropping nukes on 7 of their own cities to try and delay the allied advance. The rest of the world was ''horrified'' at this, and may explain the world's preference for other types of weaponry.

** Even when Namco changed over to the real world in Ace Combat Assault Horizon, they played this trope straight. The [[Big Bad]]'s super weapon, Trinity, was shown to have varying levels of destruction, ranging from vaporizing a medium-sized bridge, to destroying an entire city, and still having enough power to nearly knock the Protagonist off his feet from twenty or thirty miles away. However, Trinity has shown to have zero nuclear fallout, and by all means, it is still a conventional warhead, all things considered. In short, it's not a nuke, but a really, ''really'' big bomb.

* [[The Reveal]] in ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' ''Continuum Shift'' that {{spoiler|Kokonoe has been stockpiling nukes as a last resort against Terumi}} shows [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|just how far]] {{spoiler|Kokonoe}} is willing to go for the sake of revenge. Hakumen is horrified when he discovers this secret; claiming that the destructive potential of nuclear weapons surpasses even that of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Black Beast]]. He would know since he was present when nukes were used in a desperate bid to kill the Black Beast. The nukes ''completely destroyed Japan'' and, to add insult to injury, failed to stop the Black Beast.