Planar Shockwave: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:deathstarshockwave.jpg|link=Star Wars|frame|[[Homestar Runner|So popular lately.]]]]
Huge explosions in space turn into fireballs surrounded by unexplained rings of fire/plasma that expand usually on the relative horizontal or vertical plane, often racing just past the camera. Used to make big [[Stuff Blowing Up|kabooms]] appear more powerful, and when spheroid shockwaves just won't do.
Perhaps this is done because the expected near-spherical explosion don't feel as big, or because a two-dimensional shockwave resembles that of powerful explosions on earth. In theory, it ''could'' be [[Hand Wave
Very commonly used in space-based video games, as it is a relatively "cheap" and easily produced effect.
Count on the hero's [[Cool Ship]] to be directly in its path by [[Contrived Coincidence|apparent coincidence]], allowing him to [[Outrun the Fireball]].
Note: a spherical shockwave that is relatively transparent would look like a planar shockwave viewed from a perpendicular angle; done that way it is not this trope.
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== [[Film]] ==
* Possibly the earliest example of a planar shockwave is the self destruction of the Nostromo in ''[[Alien]]'' (1979). From Ripley's POV, it first forms a horizontal multicolored line and then an orange sphere appears behind/inside it. A few seconds later a horizontal shockwave of material hits her ship.
* ''[[Star Trek VI:
** [[StarDestroyer.Net]] proposed a [http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Special/Praxis.html theory] that the planar thing is shipboard visualisation cut-out, noting that:
* The Special Editions of the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy does this three times: once for each Death Star (vertical and horizontal rings, respectively) and once when Alderaan is destroyed. They weren't in the original versions. ▼
**# the shockwave was not in realspace (it propagated FTL and the nearby planet was mostly unaffected);
** Partially justified with the Death Stars. The trench dividing the two hemispheres is weaker than the rest of the shell, which would cause a (if somewhat smaller) [[Planar Shockwave]]. However, the first Death Star exploded vertically, and the second Death Star wasn't completely built yet.▼
**# the ship had subspace presence ''and'' greatly reduced realspace inertia at the moment for cheap sublight acceleration, which happens all the time in ST 'verse;
*** ''Star Wars: Attack of the Clones'' takes it one step further, with the shock bombs dropped from Jango Fett's ship: The resulting explosion is focused into a thin disk shape that seems to simply cut through the surrounding asteroids. Which given that space is three-dimensional makes them extremely ineffective weapons that only work because Obi-Wan seems not to be aware of that fact.▼
**# it's [[Contrived Coincidence|improbable]] for a ship to be ''accidentally'' so close to the thin plane of propagation at the range of at least light years.
*** Another possibility is to start with Milky Way Galaxy being more or less a ''flat'' spiral. It only makes sense for ships to be very close to the main plane, and since this happened in "subspace" ([[You Keep Using That Word|ahem]]), it ''may'' make sense for the wave to expand mostly along this plane - which would also reduce energy requirements for being so strong at a great range. Either due to anisotropic properties of subspace as such, or the wave was shaped from the start because the equipment that exploded had to be oriented along this plane in the first place due to properties of subspace it was using.
▲* The Special Editions of the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy does this three times: once for each Death Star (vertical and horizontal rings, respectively) and once when Alderaan is destroyed. They weren't in the original versions.
▲** Partially justified with the Death Stars. The trench dividing the two hemispheres is weaker than the rest of the shell, which would cause a (if somewhat smaller)
▲
*** A planar shockwave has advantages: the 'blast' effect of a spherical explosion goes down with the square or the radius (4 Pi r^2). If focused into a planar one, 'blast' goes down with the radius (2Pi r). So if you can aim the shockwave, the mine has a much larger effective range.
*** It depends on what the warheads were initially made for... But didn't the mines [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic_mine first appear] in ''ground'' combat? In which case it's a good idea to deposit more energy into targets on the ground or close to it, and less into blasting a crater that's at best wasteful and at worst gives the enemy more cover.
** The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]] novel ''[[Death Star]]'' explains the ring produced by Alderaan as the realspace shadow of a hyperspace ripple, produced as a side effect of the Death Star's superlaser being fully charged when fired. Presumably this is also the case when the Death Star itself explodes.
*** This can also be used to explain the ring produced by the Death Star II in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. According to EU materials, the second Death Star could recharge much faster than the original, so it was likely charged to full power when it blew up.
* ''[[Stargate (
** This might be acceptable given the shape of the ship. ''Might''.
*** Actually, a better explanation would be the fact that it was sitting on a platform, surrounded by a ring of the as-yet-unnamed material the Stargates were made of, something that was explicitly stated would enhance the blast.
* ''[[Independence Day]]'' features something similar as the Alien Mothership explodes: The explosion spreads horizontally on the screen, eventually engulfing the camera. Might have looked like a Praxis Shockwave from another angle.
* Used [[
** Also, during the ship-to-ship battle between the ''Tiger's Claw'' and the Kilrathi ships, an enemy capital ship is hit with two torpedoes and explodes, emitting a planar shockwave that proceeds to destroy another Kilrathi ship. Apparently, traveling close together, leaving no room to maneuver, is standard operating procedure for the kitties. No wonder a single human ship was able to deal so much damage to the more advanced Kilrathi.
* ''[[Armageddon]]'' has one when the nuclear ordnance exploded inside the asteroid.
** At least this one ''kind of'' made sense, since the asteroid wasn't blown up, but blown apart. The shockwave would have escaped from between the two halves. It still wouldn't have been perfectly planar, but still...
** The shockwave seems to be forming an hourglass shape if viewed from the front, so it does expand at least partially accurately. But this is Armageddon, which has as much basis in real physics as the [[Ghostbusters|Stay Puff Marshmallow Man]].
* An apparent example occurs when {{spoiler|Jupiter}} explodes in ''[[
* The orbital laser station (the ZEUS) in ''[[Final Fantasy The Spirits Withi]]''n explodes like this at the end of the movie.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Though averted in ''[[Stargate SG
** Not to mention EVERY exploding wraith ship. Bonus points for [[Old School Dogfighting|making nearby ships explode too]].
* In a ''[[Space Cases]]'' episode, the two-dimensional shockwave of two exploding Spung battlecruisers (due to double [[Deadly Dodging]]) destroys the third one.
* Narn energy mines in one of ''[[Babylon
* A spectacular one is seen at about 40 seconds into [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koX5UJy4QiI the opening] for ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]''.
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* Because stars involved rotate at high speeds, collapsars (a form of hypernova) tend to form hourglass-and-ring shapes.
* Other supernovae look like this because the brightest ejecta forms a thin shell. You can barely see the part that's coming straight at us, but the edges (where our view is tangent to it) look very bright. [[wikipedia:SN 1987A|SN 1987A]] is a good example of this.
* A recent supernovae picture also serves as a good example of a planar explosion. This one is particularly death-starish. [http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3111/5818422030_a1920a17b0_z.jpg Supernova 1987A]
* As mentioned above, large nuclear explosions can look [https://web.archive.org/web/20130928023555/http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Science/Images/massive-nuclear-explosion.jpg something like this]. However, it's just cloudlike condensation as the invisible spherical-ish shockwave passes through layers of the atmosphere where pressure and water content are right. Depending on conditions, this can produce [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8adFNycaanI/RiXsoHQ3d8I/AAAAAAAAAFs/FJv_0fHjPG4/s400/Bravo%2Bfireball.bmp multiple stacked rings].
* In the
* There are also fireworks that have this sort of effect.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Heavy bombs and capital ship explosions in ''[[Free Space]]'' and its sequel. The "randomly oriented" part is only when 3D shockwaves are enabled in the updated FreeSpace 2 Open engine. In the original games they were always oriented so you saw the "ring" head-on. In the first game in the series, the shockwaves even looked spherical. The explosion effect, however, is spherical.
* In ''[[
* Tactical battles in ''Master of Orion 3'' use these for capital ships.
* ''Star Trek: Armada'', ''Starfleet Command'' and their respective sequels make frequent use of them. In ''Starfleet Command'', the same planar shockwave effect is used for every ship above the fighter class.
* ''Star Wars: [[Rogue Squadron]]'' and its sequels feature these whenever a starfighter explodes in mid-air.
* Shows up in the explosion of Zebes in the ending to ''Super [[Metroid]]''.
** We also see it exploding in the same way, but with cooler visuals, in the Adventure mode of [[Super Smash Bros.]]. Melee.
* Tactical battles use these in ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''.
** They are actually ''weaponized'' by Chakkars/Chakrams, where the planar shockwave is used to [[Armor-Piercing Attack|slice through armor.]]
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* While most explosions in the ''[[Escape Velocity]]'' series will just be the usual yellow-orange-red atmospheric looking fireballs, the very most awesome ships and weapons exploding will make planer and ring shockwaves in pretty colors.
** Also seen on the splash screen of EV:Nova.
* Averted in ''[[Star Fox (
** ''[[San Francisco Rush]]'' series too, where [[Every Car Is a Pinto]] and [[Made of Explodium]], exploding violently with spherical fireballs in crashes.
** ''[[
* The Scrin mothership in ''[[Command
* In ''[[Serious Sam]]'', rockets, grenades, cannonballs and ''laser beams'' send
* ''
* The Stinkowing in ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Real Life Comics]]'', when [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/081024.html Tony's space station explodes]. Given a [[Lampshade Hanging]] in the following strip:
{{quote|
* In ''[[Darths and Droids]]'', which loosely follows the plot of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies, the shockwave bombs from [[Attack of the Clones]] make their [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0294.html appearance]. One player explains that they might work like that because of the inverse square law - by concentrating the force into a ring, more damage is done by the ring. In effect, Jango is sacrificing accuracy for power.
* Appears in an extreme long-distance panel in ''[[
== [[Web Original]] ==
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The shockwave ring from the first Death Star's destruction is carried over into the parody of the scene in ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]''.
* The Transwarp Wavefront in ''[[
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