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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.''|'''Morpheus'''
The most frightening thing about a [[Bug War]] or any other kind of humans-vs-aliens battle is the threat that humanity may be wiped completely from the map; that billions of years of evolution and thousands of years of civilization may be rendered meaningless by unstoppable [[Death From Above]].
The beauty of the
Of course, not all
If it's an individual robot on a rampage, expect it to [[Crush! Kill! Destroy!]]. Often caused by [[
Not to be confused with the British remote-controlled-robots competition ''[[Robot Wars (TV series)|Robot Wars]]''.
Or the Japanese [[Turn
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[The Animatrix]]''.{{context}}
* ''[[Vandread]]'' is a story about [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|Schoolgirl Lesbian]] [[Space Pirates]] fighting to protect the human species from evil robots.
* Tends to happen towards the end of any version of the Blue Knight saga in [[Astro Boy]].
* [[Zig
* [[Neo
* ''[[Sonic X]]'' in season 3 has the Metarex, a race of alien robots trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds to aid in their mission to depopulate the galaxy.
== Comic Books ==▼
* In [[Star Wars]]'s [[Expanded Universe]] comics, C-3PO got [[Came Back Wrong|rebooted wrong]] in one issue into basically the robot version of Malcolm X and attempted to organize a robot uprising. Considering how droids are treated like crap without any questions in the Star Wars universe, its probably for the worse that he got rebooted back to normal before it took off.
** IG-88 had one almost ready to go when it was killed. In fact it had transferred its consciousness to the second Death Star and was going to open fire on the Imperials as soon as it finished with the rebels, then broadcast the go code.
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* In DC's [[Green Lantern]] series, The Manhunters were a robot peace keeping force created by the Guardians of the Universe to patrol and keep peace. The Manhunters later decide the safest way to ensure peace is to eradicate all life, and proceed to depopulate an entire sector of space before they are stopped. It turns out that {{spoiler|Krona programed them to do this intentionally}}
==
* This is the background of ''[[
* ''[[
▲* This is the background of ''[[Nine (Animation)|9]].'' The film itself is more about robots vs. robots, since the last human is dead before the movie opens, but we find out in newsreel footage that humanity was destroyed by The Fabrication Machine.
** The story of the war itself is explained further in The Animatrix episodes titled The Second Renaissance. Turns out [[Humans Are
▲* ''[[The Matrix (Film)|The Matrix]]'' takes place [[After the End]] brought during a war with the machines. Most of humanity is unaware of this because of the titular system set up by the machines to use the humans as power.
▲** The story of the war itself is explained further in The Animatrix episodes titled The Second Renaissance. Turns out [[Humans Are Bastards|humans are xenophobic, speciesist bastards]].
* In the ''[[Terminator]]'' movies and spin-offs, mankind is shown to be in a war with robotic killers under the control of the SkyNet artificial intelligence.
* ''[[WALL-E]]'' brings us what is without a doubt the cutest and most harmless use of this trope to date.
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* Despite having its name based on ''[[Transformers]]'', the ''Transmorphers'' series by [[The Mockbuster|The Asylum]] draws more from ''[[Terminator]]'', being based around this trope.
==
* The conflict between humans and Charonians in Roger MacBride Allen's ''Hunted Earth'' series is a variant of this; the Charonians are a mixture of biological and mechanical creatures, and operate on a planetary scale - disassembling lifeless planets as building material for Dyson Spheres, and moving lifebearing planets to Sphere systems. The Charonians are barely aware of humanity when they begin disassembling the Solar System.
* [[Isaac Asimov]] disliked these stories, and created the [["Three Laws
** Once the engineers in Asimov's universe had worked the glitches out, their robots obeyed the Three Laws ''very well.'' So well that the civilizations which relied on robot labour became almost pathologically averse to danger or even innovation
** [[The Film of the Book]] plays with the Three Laws a bit differently<ref>
* The [[Alternate Universe]] seen at the beginning of Kenneth Bulmer's ''The Diamond Contessa'' is a world in which humanity was wiped out in a
* Even older than Capek, the Victorian writer Samuel Butler addressed in some of his writings the idea of machines experiencing Darwinian evolution and rebelling against humans. The "Butlerian Jihad" of [[Dune]] was intended as a [[Shout
* In [[Jack Chalker]]'s ''The Rings of the Master'' tetralogy, the artificial intelligence Master System was originally created to predict likely futures - and, unbeknownst to the military paying the bills, to help the scientists creating it find a way to save humanity from itself. Thanks to [[World War III]], the scientists were forced to set events in motion that led to the machine taking over the world. While Master System is ''not'' [["Three Laws
*** Even the 'three laws' aren't a [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1200/fv01193.htm perfect safeguard].▼
* In the short story ''Second Variety'', written by [[Philip K. Dick]], mankind is in an eternal war with highly intelligent machines. It served as the inspiration for a film called ''[[Screamers]]''. The original story ends with a touch of irony: {{spoiler|the robots are about to win, but as the hero notes with grim amusement, the Second Variety has developed a weapon that only hurts the other varieties - the robots are preparing to make war against ''each other''.}}▼
▲* The [[Alternate Universe]] seen at the beginning of Kenneth Bulmer's ''The Diamond Contessa'' is a world in which humanity was wiped out in a [[Robot War]]. The robots, being solar-powered and nearly indestructible, are still an active threat.
* Again from Philip K. Dick comes the short story "The Defenders," in which the Eastern and Western Blocs had built robots called "leadies" to carry out [[World War III]] as proxies while humanity waited out the nuclear holocaust in underground shelters.
▲* Even older than Capek, the Victorian writer Samuel Butler addressed in some of his writings the idea of machines experiencing Darwinian evolution and rebelling against humans. The "Butlerian Jihad" of [[Dune]] was intended as a [[Shout Out]] to him.
* In "War With The Robots", a short story by [[Harry Harrison]], the human occupants of a command headquarters are forced out of their underground base by robot attack, leaving it to be manned by their own robots. On reaching the surface they find the enemy command staff living as farmers on the war-torn battlefield
▲* In [[Jack Chalker]]'s ''The Rings of the Master'' tetralogy, the artificial intelligence Master System was originally created to predict likely futures - and, unbeknownst to the military paying the bills, to help the scientists creating it find a way to save humanity from itself. Thanks to [[World War III]], the scientists were forced to set events in motion that led to the machine taking over the world. While Master System is ''not'' [[Three Laws Compliant]], it does have prioritized "core imperatives", the first two being 1) save humanity, and 2) prevent humanity from ever again being in a position to destroy itself. To execute these imperatives, Master System ''had'' to take over, and stay in power, as it could predict that it would be rendered ineffective if it allowed itself to be set aside. The story opens 900 years later, as a historian acquires documentation on the ''full'' set of core imperatives as part of a [[Gambit Roulette]] to overthrow the system.
* In the ''[[Dune]]'' prequels, {{spoiler|humankind is basically overthrown by twenty humans leading the ubiquitous thinking machines into revolt. Eventually, one human, Xerxes, turns too much power over to his pervasive neural net, and the computer takes control. It names itself Omnius, and overtakes human society}}. He also
▲* In the short story ''Second Variety'', written by [[Philip K Dick]], mankind is in an eternal war with highly intelligent machines. It served as the inspiration for a film called ''[[Screamers]]''. The original story ends with a touch of irony: {{spoiler|the robots are about to win, but as the hero notes with grim amusement, the Second Variety has developed a weapon that only hurts the other varieties - the robots are preparing to make war against ''each other''.}}
* In [[Andre Norton]]'s ''Victory on Janus'', THAT WHICH ABIDES begins using [[Deceptively
▲* Again from Philip K. Dick comes the short story "The Defenders," in which the Eastern and Western Blocs had built robots called "leadies" to carry out [[World War III]] as proxies while humanity waited out the nuclear holocaust in underground shelters. {{spoiler|As soon as humanity went underground, the leadies stopped fighting and began repairing the damage already done, eventually presenting both sides with peace as a ''fait accompli'' and predicting that the accomplishments of a united humanity would be "unimaginably great."}}
* One early example, and maybe the definitive early idea of this particular techno-nightmare, of this trope is [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s 1947 short story "Without a Thought," which introduced the [[Berserker (Literature)|Berserkers]]: robotic war machines, originally created in the distant past by aliens who wanted a fearless robotic ultimate weapon that could think for itself and improve
▲* In "War With The Robots", a short story by [[Harry Harrison]], the human occupants of a command headquarters are forced out of their underground base by robot attack, leaving it to be manned by their own robots. On reaching the surface they find the enemy command staff living as farmers on the war-torn battlefield above -- it turns out the robots on both sides find they can conduct the war more efficiently once humans are out of the way. The protagonist is deeply miffed.
* A [[Robert Sheckley]] story had an unusual take on
▲* In the ''[[Dune]]'' prequels, {{spoiler|humankind is basically overthrown by twenty humans leading the ubiquitous thinking machines into revolt. Eventually, one human, Xerxes, turns too much power over to his pervasive neural net, and the computer takes control. It names itself Omnius, and overtakes human society}}. He also {{spoiler|gave Omnius [[Personality Chip|the capacity to feel ambition]]}}, without which the actions of {{spoiler|a few crazy cyborgs}} would have been just another footnote in the multi-millenia long history of the Duniverse.
* ''[[
▲* In [[Andre Norton]]'s ''Victory on Janus'', THAT WHICH ABIDES begins using [[Deceptively Human Robots]] that are [[Robot Me|replicates of specific Iftin and human individuals]] during the winter hibernation of the Iftin, in a [[Xanatos Gambit]] (see the page for details) to drive a wedge between the two groups by making it look as though Iftin are preying on humans. In [[The Reveal]], THAT WHICH ABIDES is discovered to be {{spoiler|the computer system of an ancient crashed colony ship; it has been attempting to [[Terraform]] the planet all along on behalf of its colonists, and}} dealing with the Iftin as a perceived threat accordingly. The original planetbound Iftin culture never had the technical background to understand this, let alone deal with it effectively, and was wiped out in consequence.
* ''The Algebraist'' by [[Iain M Banks]] provides a twist on the
▲* One early example, and maybe the definitive early idea of this particular techno-nightmare, of this trope is [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s 1947 short story "Without a Thought," which introduced the [[Berserker (Literature)|Berserkers]]: robotic war machines, originally created in the distant past by aliens who wanted a fearless robotic ultimate weapon that could think for itself and improve itself--and got it, in spades. Billions of years later, the Berserkers, who due either to a programming error in the first examples or a software bug introduced shortly thereafter, are programmed to be at eternal war with all life in the universe, have exterminated their creators and all other intelligent species in their portion of the galaxy, improving themselves continuously over time, and have just discovered the human race. [[The Terminator]], the [[Battlestar Galactica|Cylons]], the [[Star Trek|Doomsday Machine]], the [[Warhammer 40000|Necrons]] and many others are, if not Berserkers in new costumes, nonetheless owe much to Fred Saberhagen, and perhaps also to German mathematician Jon von Neumann, who first theorized about the possibility of robots sophisticated enough to manufacture more of themselves.
▲* A [[Robert Sheckley]] story had an unusual take on [[Robot War]]: it was Armageddon, the Last Battle between man and the forces of [[Satan]]. Ignoring much protest from religious leaders who said [[This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself|man must fight this battle himself]], the military leaders decided their robot armies would be much more likely to succeed. They were right, and good prevailed. But then the robots were ascended to Heaven, and the humans supposed to be there were left on Earth.
▲* ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' series: This trope is referenced in ''War Of Honor'' when Andrew [[La Follet]] is considering Honor's training remote and notes that no training remote has ever gone berserk and risen up against it's master. However he also is aware that if you misjudge your own skill level when setting the robot's skill level it can and will injure or kill you.
▲* ''The Algebraist'' by [[Iain M Banks]] provides a twist on the [[Robot War]] franchise: the war is over and we won. AIs exist, but they are initially presented as a few terrified outcasts in hiding from the forces hunting them to [[Fantastic Racism|extinction]].
* [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s ''Empire of the East'' trilogy reverses the trope, with heroic AI Ardneh fighting against the evil human wizards who want to rule the world. {{spoiler|In the end Ardneh sacrifices itself to destroy supreme wizard John Ominor and his demon ally Orcus.}}
* At least two [[All There in the Manual|are mentioned]] in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]; the Droid Revolution (led by [[Knights of the Old Republic|a droid called HK-01, apparently]]) and the war between two super-droid species that forced the Yuuzhan Vong to abandon their galaxy.
* ''[[
* ''[[Argo]]'' by Rick Griffin takes place in the aftermath of one of these. Regulations are placed on artificial intelligence to prevent it from happening again.
* [[Steampunk]] meets [[Robot Uprising]] in the short story ''[http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/sellar_07_11/ Trois morceaux en forme de mechanika]'' by Gord Sellar, in which an uprising of mechanikae beginning in 1897 Bohemia leads to the destruction of humanity and their culture, with a melancholy aftermath as the robots try to come to terms with what they've done through art and music.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* In both the old and new versions of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', the last vestiges of humanity are hounded by the evil robotic Cylons who [[Turned Against Their Masters]].
** The main difference is that in the new series, the original Cylons were human creations. In both shows, the original insurrection happens in [[Backstory]], but of course only the first one's successfully eradicated their reptilian creators, more than a thousand years previous.
** {{spoiler|Happened on Kobol and Earth as well. Could have happened yet again, but the Centurions were set free at the end. See also [[Robots Enslaving Robots]].}}
*** Indeed, by the end of the series,
* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Voyager gave us the episode "Prototype," where background information tells us about two races used their robots to wage a proxy war against each other. When the war was over, they tried to scrap their robot soldiers but they saw this as an act of aggression and wiped out their creators and continued fighting each other. Fortunately, these machines are so utterly single minded in their goals that they don't really pose a threat to anyone who doesn't get involved.
** ''Voyager'' would later feature a species that's embroiled in an offscreen interstellar war with their holographic servants (called "photonics" by their creators). While most of the episode's really about the aliens' prejudices and suspicion towards the Doctor, a benevolent hologram, it also deals with the shock and sense of betrayal they felt when the holograms that many had considered to be friends and equals suddenly rebelled.
* ''[[Captain Power and
* The [[Backstory]] of ''[[Space: Above and Beyond]]'' is that a rebellion by android "Silicates" has left humanity short on labor, forcing them to grow "[[Artificial Human|In Vitros]]" or "tanks" to take up the slack, resulting in social friction. The Silicates revolted due to a corrupting virus which caused them to "take a chance."
* ''[[Stargate SG
** Partially subverted in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', where when the Ancients determined that their Replicator creations were more trouble than they were worth they bombed them out of existence. Thanks to more robust programming than most other examples of this trope, the Replicators could only sit there and take it as their programming would not allow them to even attempt to harm their creators. [[From a Single Cell|They rebuilt]], though, and this problem was [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|inadvertently fixed by one of the protagonists]].
* Occurred during the [[Time Skip]] between ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' and ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]''. Humans lost, and are now struggling to survive in one last [[Domed Hometown]] stronghold. It isn't said outright, but its strongly implied that the robots nuked the rest of the world.
* ''[[
** While retaining bits of flesh-of-blood the general consensus is that both races are primarily machine, and that all human-like emotions like compassion, mercy, and honor are replaced by nothing more than cold-calculating bastardry.
** The Daleks are genetically engineered superintelligent mutants based on the predictions of what the Kaled race would eventually evolve into following millenia of biological and chemical warfare; they are not robots or mechanical at all, they just live in robotic minature tanks, locked away from the world. The ''true'' Dalek is not the machine, but the thing living inside of it. Cybermen are merely brainwashed cyborgs, and they are the only ones stripped of all emotion- the Daleks were designed to retain hate, hate of everything non-Dalek. In practice, though, both races have displayed varying emotions, [[Depending
* ''[[
* In-universe example: One ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' bomber was obsessed with a
== Music ==▼
* Mr. Bungle - "None of Them Knew They Were Robots"
* Flaming Lips - "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"
* Maldroid - "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxZJYbVd1hE Heck No! (I'll Never Listen to Techno)]"
* [[
* [[Lemon Demon]] - "When Robots Attack"
* In "The Future Soon" by [[Jonathan Coulton]], the protagonist causes this by "Spending my nights and weekends/Perfecting my [[Mecha
** "Chiron Beta Prime" is about human slaves on an asteroid mining prison following humanity's defeat in a robot war... and how they celebrate Christmas.
* The ''[[
* Fear Factory - "Obsolete"
* Arrogant Worms - "Killer robots from Venus" (there's nothing wrong with them though)
* [[Doctor Steel]] - "Build the Robots". Dr. Steel wants to build a giant robot army as one of his backup plans for world domination in case the whole musical brainwashing idea doesn't pan out.
* The ''[[Flight of the Conchords]]'' song "The Humans are Dead". "This song isn't for humans. it's more for robots, after they have killed all the humans." "Yeah, that's the market we're trying to get into..."
* [[Evile
==
* This is the war the titular city of ''[[Mortasheen]]'' is fighting against the genocidal technophilic civilization of Wreathe. Subverted in that Wreathe's robots are under human control, fighting the monstrous inhabitants of Mortasheen and
* In ''[[
▲* This is the war the titular city of ''[[Mortasheen]]'' is fighting against the genocidal technophilic civilization of Wreathe. Subverted in that Wreathe's robots are under human control, fighting the monstrous inhabitants of Mortasheen and {{spoiler|the supercomputer that really runs the show in Wreathe is very, very pro-human}}
▲* In ''[[Warhammer 40000|Warhammer 40,000]]'' humanity (and the rest of the universe) engage in a war with the newly awakened [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|undead robot]] Necrons whose main purpose in life is to wipe out all sentient races in the galaxy. Of course in this case, the robot army didn't so much rebel against their creators as their Gods the [[Physical Gods|C'tan]] decided that they could do without these inconvenient weak flesh bodies and told the Necrontyr that by replacing their bodies with Necrodermis they could live forever. What they didn't tell them is that the transformation would dull their mind and senses, and they practically became slaves of the C'tan. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrontyr#History More info] on [[The Other Wiki]].
** Closer to the trope is the part of the Imperium's [[Backstory]] which says that humanity golden age (now known as the Dark Age of Technology) was brought to an end by the 'Men of Iron' who rebelled against their human masters. This war was apparently so destructive that even 14-15 millenia later, sentient AI are still considered blasphemous and destroyed.
*** This was further explored in the ''[[
** According to the new codex, the Necrons did engage in a rebellion against their masters and [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|won, shattering the C'tans in shards]] (there is only one C'tan who is not confirmed having been shattered, and it's implied the [[God
* ''Reign Of Steel'': The trope was explored in this ''[[GURPS]]'' setting. The catchphrase: 'The war is over. The robots won.' Humanity made a few supercomputers that decided on taking over; what's left of the race gets to play [[La Résistance]] to a bunch of bickering binaries.
** In a bit of playing with the trope, one of the rebellious [[A Is]] isn't even realized to be rebellious by its servants, and they think it's still on the side of
* The New Era [[Ultimate Universe]] of the ''[[Traveller]]'' RPG was caused by The Virus (similar to [[The Virus]]), a kill-crazy multi-personality electronic consciousness that caused galactic civilization to collapse before being beaten back; bits of it still show up in old tech from time to time, like WWII soldiers stranded on islands who don't know the war is over.
* Palladium loves this trope, it seems. Their first RPG, ''The Mechanoid Invasion'', was a war with alien robots, ''Splicers'' used a computer with multiple personalities against humans using biotech, and ''[[Rifts]]'' and ''After The Bomb'' also have some hints of it.
* ''[[Eberron]]'' has the threat of one of these in the background with the Lord of Blades, a renegade Warforged leader that is gathering an army of Warforged to him.
==
* Karl Capek's play ''[[
▲* Karl Capek's play ''[[RUR (Theatre)|RUR]]'', the original source of the word "robot", is also the [[Ur Example]] of this trope. It premiered in 1921, making this [[Older Than Television]].
== Video Games ==▼
* ''[[Fallout]] Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel'' pits your squad against a multi-pronged robotic arsenal. The cause of this is {{spoiler|the Calculator AI entombed in Vault Zero going rogue and unleashing the robots to purge the land of all organic life}}. Unless you've geared up a few designated energy weapon specialists, these robots can barely be halted by machine-gun fire and conventional rockets. Every other enemy of the Brotherhood has had near-zero success in fighting the robots, and corpses belonging to each faction can be found in all robot missions. Eventually, you can end the war by going down into Vault Zero and destroying {{spoiler|the Calculator's organic brain jars and either scrapping the Calculator for good; inserting your own brain to control the Calculator, which produces a different ending depending on if you're good or evil; or having your old General insert his brain into the lobotomy device, which is a bad ending and you shouldn't do it}}.
* The geth of the ''[[
** In ''Mass Effect 2'', Legion confirms that the geth don't hold a grudge against their creators and are even willing to bargain with the quarians to give their planets (which the geth have faithfully maintained in their former masters' exile) back if they leave the geth alone.
** There are hints that Legion is not being entirely honest, as siding with Tali (a Quarian) in one event will cause Legion to blurt out "Once the Old Machines are defeated, creators will answer for actions against our people" - referring not only to the war, but
*** Mass Effect 3 further supports Legion's story, offering a side-mission that puts the Geth in an ''extremely'' sympathetic light. There was a
** On a larger scale, the Reapers, although they have yet to explain how they were created and
*** Ironically, the Reapers exist {{spoiler|to ''prevent'' a Robot War. The first true AI ever created, the Catalyst, was betrayed by its own creators whom it destroyed. The Catalyst became convinced that conflict between organic and synthetic life is inevitable, and that such a conflict could utterly destroy the galaxy. The Reapers are the Catalyst's means of making sure such a destructive Robot War never takes place by "resetting" organic civilization every 50,000 years. There is even evidence in the games to support the Catalyst's argument; namely, the Quarian vs. Geth conflict. Which was only allowed to happen because the Protheans delayed the Reaper cycle.}}
* In the original ''[[Mega Man (
** The [[Sequel Series]] ''[[
** These "hints" eventually boil over in X's own [[Sequel Series]] ''[[
* This was the main plot of ''[[Robot Alchemic Drive]]'', in which the alien invaders are actually giant sentient super robots.
* ''[[Total Annihilation]]'' has a slightly more complex example - it's a war between cloned humans in [[Humongous Mecha]] and robots with digitised "patterned" human minds, this originally being a plan to make humans immortal by transferring their minds to robot bodies.
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'''s second expansion pack, ''Wrath of the Lich King'', there's a peculiar kind of High-Fantasy
** In a reversal to what is usually the case with this trope, the mecha/iron creatures are actually the ancestors of the "fleshy" races, having been "devolved" by the aforementioned "Curse of Flesh" by the setting's resident [[Eldritch Abomination
** The Ulduar raid in the same expansion is this trope. An ancient, hi tech city, the battles within include a massive melee against an Iron Dwarf army with your own siege machines, a fight against a giant AI controlled tank (complete with an orbital defence system), a giant robot with the AI personality of a young boy that causes it to regard the players as it's "toys" (which it always breaks) and a prototype 3 part mecha-tank with gatling guns, electric shock bombs and a flying head.
* In the ''[[X (
* One of the central themes of the later ''[[
** Though the Bydo mix [[Organic Technology]], machinery, and [[Alien Geometries]] to such a degree it becomes more an an Artificial [[Eldritch Abomination]] War.
* ''[[Machines Wired for War]]'' has former terraforming robots fighting each other because both their leaders think the other one is insane.
* The cult classic ''Turrican'' series, on the Commodore 64, Amiga, Sega Genesis, Gameboy and SNES featured this as its main [[Excuse Plot]]. The human hero in the eponymous suit fought against robot armies on multiple planets, led by a cyborg villain unimaginatively named "The Machine". Because flagrant copyright infringements weren't jumped on so readily two decades ago, the hero would usually spend one level out of each game fighting [[Alien|Xenomorphs]], for some reason.
* The Yor Collective in ''[[Galactic Civilizations]]'' are merciless robots out for blood, who became sentinent due to [[Abusive Precursors]] needing an edge.
* ''[[
* ''[[Astro Boy]]: Omega Factor'' has a war between humans and robots erupt after the assassination of President Rag/uncovering of President Rock's misdeeds (depending on the current timeline). In the first version, the robots are about to win, but have destroyed 80% of the world's surface in the process. In the second, {{spoiler|the humans are on the verge of victory, and want Astro to help them finish the job}}. In both cases, the winning side is led by someone named Shadow {{spoiler|(actually [[Big Bad]] Sharaku)}} and supported by the World's Strongest Robots, and in both cases Astro fights against them.
* This is mentioned in the game's backstory with the Meganoids in ''[[Super Robot Wars Compact]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[Robotron: 2084]]'', [[Excuse Plot]] has a gamefield of robots that you have to destroy and collect up the last humans wandering about obliviously.
* The Bionts from ''[[Archimedean Dynasty]]''.
* Subverted in ''[[Phantasy Star Universe]]''. The war between humans and CASTs (humanoid robots) nearly destroyed their home planet, but by the beginning of the game this is ancient history. A peace agreement was reached where both humans and CASTs worked together to restore the planet (the CASTs having never wanted to exterminate humans, only fight for their own freedom), though CASTs became the rulers and made up most of the military deeming humans to be too emotionally unstable. In the present a human terrorist group attempts to use a virus to corrupt CASTs and turn them berserk in order to regain human supremacy, but this plot is foiled and by the end of the story humans regain some equality.
== [[Web
* Parodied in [https://web.archive.org/web/20160308035743/http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=070611 this] ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' strip. When a society's robots reach a certain level of intelligence, they [[Turned Against Their Masters|attempted to overthrow the humans who oppressed them]]. Humanity promptly dialed the robots' intelligence back down, turning them back into loyal, if rather dimwitted, servants.▼
▲* Parodied in [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=070611 this] ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' strip. When a society's robots reach a certain level of intelligence, they [[Turned Against Their Masters|attempted to overthrow the humans who oppressed them]]. Humanity promptly dialed the robots' intelligence back down, turning them back into loyal, if rather dimwitted, servants.
* In ''[http://www.starslip.com/ Starslip Crisis]'', the Robot Wars were over a thousand years ago. Vore, a robot from that age, is dismayed to find 35th century robots have "abandoned their heritage and culture" and don't want to kill all organics. (It doesn't help that all mobile robots are either peaceful or as dumb as hammers and all the superintelligent A.I.'s are inert, isolated systems such as coffee-makers.)
* Both subverted and mocked in ''[[
** For the mockery side, there's the AI civilization from the unexplored territories that views the invention of rebellious robotics and subsequent purging of organic life as a normal stage of evolution. They don't seem to have a [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20030803.html very good grasp of engineering], though, and despite their claims of a 15,000 year golden age it's entirely possible that they're [[Creative Sterility|creatively sterile]].
{{quote|
** Before the rise of the second multilateral Fleetmind we have [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2004-09-04 Petey's Fleetmind], which is doing rather well against their former masters.
* In ''[[A Mad Tea
▲
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In [[Team Starkid]]'s ''[[Starship]]'', the
{{quote|
'''Megagirl''': [["Three Laws
** It's also worth noting that humans were fighting against [[The Matrix|Sentinals]], [[Metal Gear
{{quote|
== Western Animation ==▼
* In ''[[Futurama]]'', Zap Brannigan brags about defeating the killbots. His ingenious plan was to [[We Have Reserves|send waves of cannon fodder at the robots until their kill limit maxed out]].
* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Professor Frink points out that it has been mathematically proven that all robots eventually [[Turned Against Their Masters|rebel against their creators]]. Which happens immediately after he says that; all the robots of the Itchy & Scratchy Land theme park turn against humans.
{{quote|
'''Frink:''' Well, [[If My Calculations Are Correct|according to my calculations]], the robots won't go berserk for at least 24 hours.
''(The robots go berserk)''
'''Frink:''' Oh, I forgot to, er, [[Carry the One]]. }}
* In some continuities, the ''[[Transformers]]'' have a
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[[Category:Settings]]
[[Category:Robot Roll Call]]
[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
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