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Pendulum War: Difference between revisions
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* The battle scenes in ''[[Braveheart]]'' are a prime example of this trope: the English and Scottish extras don't actually get to kill each other. Only Mel Gibson's character and other Scot heroes get screentime to do mass slaughter. Even in the last battle where the Scots lose, there are only a few shots of Scottish soldiers getting hit with arrows. The rest of the scene is Mel Gibson wading through English grunts.
* The ''[[Army of Darkness]]'', probably about a thousand zombies, were held off by sixty men until reinforcements came from Scotland. Bruce Campbell fought [[Enemy Without|on both sides]].
* In ''[[
* The film version of ''Battle of the Bulge'' is exactly like this. Either the Germans are completely succeeding or they aren't. In a battle that included over 800,000 soldiers, the battle was completely one-sided. Throughout most of the film, the Germans are succeeding in every single thing they attempt. Weather, machinery, and even the attitudes of the American leaders are on the side of the Germans almost to the point of being comical. At one point, a general even chastises a lieutenant colonel for suggesting that the Germans may intend to attack. When they do attack, the Americans are surprised. The only thing that turned the tide on the Germans was that they ran out of fuel. At that point, they completely gave up, despite still having weapons and ammunition and the ability to fight.
* [[Saving Private Ryan]] averts this: the opening Omaha Beach sequence is one of the most realistic and unglamorous portrayals of war, ''ever'', in a Hollywood film. The winning side suffers great casualties almost from the start, and Captain Miller, the film's "hero", is just another insignificant soldier. Same with the final battle: long and hard, with the winning side suffering great casualties, and the victory is due to the collective efforts of the [[Ensemble Cast]].
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' films largely avert this, as named characters are usually essential for victory but random soldiers on both sides score most of the kills. That said, the battle of Naboo in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' is completely a One Sided Battle. The good guys are getting creamed, and then {{spoiler|Anakin blows up the Trade Federation mothership, disabling all the droid soldiers, [[Instant Win Condition|wiping out the army in one swoop.]]}}
* ''[[Battle: Los Angeles]]'' features a surprise Alien attack, then the Marines get sent in with air support and seem to be coming out on top. {{spoiler|Only for alien aircraft to turn up, wipe out the FOB and dominate the battle. Then our heroes decide to go back into enemy territory, destroy a control centre and suddenly they're dominating.}}
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== Literature ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In [[Homer]]'s ''[[
* In the ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' books (and movies), Gondor is getting badly clobbered until Rohan's cavalry arrives. In the movies, the conflict is presented by scenes of desperate struggle within the city walls and civilians fleeing screaming in terror -- with emotive music playing in the background, of course. This also occurs in ''[[The Hobbit]]''; the Battle of Five Armies swings back and forth, back and forth, from extreme to extreme. However, the latter example is also a subversion, in that Bilbo, the viewpoint character of the book, is knocked out early in the battle and only comes to once it's all over.
** Gondor is not badly clobbered in the books. Gondor is beaten back by huge hordes of orcs (and managed to rack up awesome kill ratios - 10 dead orcs for every dad man), but is hardly clobbered.
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* The ''[[Redwall]]'' book series is notorious for this. No matter how much the vermin army is built up, the actual fighting is almost always in favor of the good guys. Even if they're pacifist churchmice. Outnumbered 1,000 to 1.
** They ''usually'' have the advantage of terrain, as well. For the Redwall sieges, anyway.
* Both used and averted in the ''[[
** Justified by the wildly divergent nature of Chaos troops. Most Chaos forces are barely-controlled rabble, generally undisciplined and unskilled, with poor structure, no squad support weapons, and "armor" an average dune buggy could beat in a fight, if they have armor at all. On the other hand, elite Chaos troops are hardened fanatics, literally [[Training From Hell|trained from hell]], with plenty of heavy weapons, Chaos [[Tank Goodness|Leman Russes and Baneblades]], and often backup from Chaos Space Marines, alien mercenaries, or other [[Super Soldiers]]. There isn't a whole lot of middle ground between the crap and the elites.
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'' seems to have a pattern: First the big huge armies are fighting and the good guys are winning, next some character working for the Sith comes in and is able to completely turn the tide of the battle with just his/her presence, then a Jedi character comes in and flips it over again (unless the Federation's side has Grievous, then he'll beat the Jedi and it remains one-sided). {{spoiler|Of course, the same person ''is'' in charge of both sides, and is specifically trying to massacre both.}}
* ''[[Teen Titans (
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* The Iran-Iraq War. Both sides push the other back and forth inflicting heavy casualties on both of their troops while doing so.
* The 1973 October War on the Egyptian front at least. Egyptian success in Operation Badr followed by the successful Israeli counteroffensive across the Suez.
* A recognizable theme in warfare among Europeans and European inspired military cultures. One side will find some technical advantage and roll over it's opponents for a time. However all occidental armies were formed in an environment so similar that it is impossible to find a technique that is incomprehensible; for instance [[Horse Archer]] s needed a culture that was [[Born in
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