See the Whites of Their Eyes: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

* The trope is often a function of practical visual cheats by filmmakers rather than a mistake. ''[[Star Trek]]'' often refers to a vessel being "300,000 kilometers away and gaining" but still presenting a real threat to the ''Enterprise''. A representation of this actual distance is near impossible without some sort of visual trickery. Television is also a visual medium that emphasizes "[[Show, Don't Tell]]". In order to get a sense of the size of the two or more spacecraft they need to somehow be next to each other. The cheat may be required to get around logistical problems in portraying a situation accurately: in the case of ''[[Star Wars]]'', special effect technological innovations during the time of the original trilogy hadn't reached the point where one could plausibly represent the flight path of missiles through a vacuum other than in the most rudimentary way.

* Many filmmakers hearken back to [[Space Is an Ocean|naval or submarine combat as the closest metaphor for space combat available]], and consequently use visual devices and images consistent with the representation of eighteenth-century seagoing vessels shooting at each other to place space battles on film. Of course, they might do that just because they know [[Space Is an Ocean]]. As it is, naval vessels have had the capacity to engage with guns at ranges of tens of thousands of meters since the late nineteenth century, albeit it took a while for fire control to make firing at said ranges accurate rather than [[A-Team Firing|spray and pray]]. Even torpedoes, relatively slow and short-ranged weapons, have had [[wikipedia:Type 93 torpedo|10-20 kilometer ranges since at least the 1940s]]. Nowadays guided/homing missiles give the capacity to engage targets at ''hundreds'' of kilometers.

* The trope may also have a tactical justification as follows, as drawn from ''[[Mass Effect]]'': most ships aren't going to start shooting each other in deep space for no reason; they'll start shooting at each other because one ship stands between the other ship and something it wants. For the ship on defense to actually ''defend'' its charge, it can't go anywhere. By contrast, space battles where the combating ships are the only factors will usually take place at extreme ranges. Some examples on this page fit this situation; notice that in the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' instance of aversion, the objective of the aggressors is to destroy the ''ships''. Of course, this is still an imperfect explanation when the setting features FTL independent of fixed nodes, which ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has in the form of [[Portal Network|Mass Relays]]. The example of aversion in ''[[Star Wars]]'' regarding the ion canon below illustrates this problem, where the Star Destroyer comes out of lightspeed anywhere it damn-well pleased, but the Star Destroyers or other ships in freeform-FTL settings still approach the target very closely instead of firing on the defending ships from afar.

** Similarly, because space ''is'' so huge, no weapons that don't approach the speed of light would actually hit the enemy within a reasonable amount of time, ''assuming'' there isn't any countermeasures that can be deployed in the 15 minutes between being fired upon by a sublight missile and actually being hit. And even at the speed of light it is still about 8 minutes to get to the sun and several hours to exit the solar system. Space is big.

* ''[[Independence Day]]'', where advanced alien shielding technology is not matched by a comparable technology providing the ability to target and destroy enemy fighters outside visual range. On the other hand, your advanced technology is probably [[Cool but Inefficient]] anyway if it can be hacked by a TV repairman using Apple OS.

** This troper got the impression that the aliens' tactics were based on the fact that [[Old School Dogfighting]] is fun when you're [[Deflector Shields|cheating]]. Until the humans exploited their lack of IT security, the only danger to them was that if they were careless they could crash into the ground.

** His mission is to retrieve the [[MacGuffin]] AND to free Megatron. He might've figured it's better to announce his arrival when he's close enough to cover for Megatron's escape.

** This scene [[MST3K Mantra|gets a pass]] because it's [[Rule of Funny|hilarious, and in a comedy]].

 

 

* ''Note that in literature this trope is commonly averted, since it's relatively easy to describe in a narrative fashion the causes and consequences of interstellar warfare without actually showing it subject to the physics of the conflicts themselves.''

*** This strongly informs the outcomes of several of the novels, especially the first, Consider Phlebas, due to the fact that aggressor societies tend to trip all over themselves in attempting to fight the Culture on conventional terms, using starships as methods of conveyance of troops towards Culture habitats, while the Culture merely evacuates their population to a safe distance and either commandeers or detonates the enemy ships on approach.

** Distinctly averted in [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''[[The Bear And The Dragon]]'' novel. American fighter-bombers launch specially designed bombs from almost a ''hundred'' kilometers away, using satellite imagery and AWACS to guide them in the rest of the way. Since AA and [[SA Ms]] don't have the same range, the enemy doesn't even have a chance to know the attack is coming, much less defend against it.

** Averted in Joe Haldeman's ''[[The Forever War]]''. The battles take place across entire star-systems at good fractions of light-speed (and even then it can take days or weeks for a single battle to finish), and while ships do have lasers for last-ditch defense, most of the action uses drones (big missiles), with a backup of 'fighters' (though these are probably closer to motor-torpedo boats in that they require 3 crew, and can fit up to 12).

*** As the series progresses, new technologies that extend the range of ship weapons make the Kingdom of Manticore Navy one of the most dangerous navies in the region.

** Justified in the [[Miles Vorkosigan]] series. The ever-escalating race between space weapons and the defenses to stop them has resulted in extremely short ranged weaponry.

** ''[[John Carter of Mars]]''. Despite the incredible range of Martian rifles everyone still carries and uses swords/spears. An honor code exist which means no Martian can take on someone with a superior weapon.

** Averted in ''[[The Lords of Creation]]'' series where it's pointed out that such as system as above wouldn't work, as "the cheaters would win too often."

{{quote| Contrary to what you might see in an episode of ''Attack Run'', starships in combat seldom approach to within point blank range of one another, exchanging fire at distances of hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres.}}

* Also averted in CS Friedman's ''In Conquest Born'', where the idea of getting close enough to an enemy ship to be able to attempt to capture it was considered insane. Which made it all the more stunning when they pulled it off.

** May be somewhat [[Justified Trope]] in that Cylon ECM is usually enough to make any kind of guided Colonial munition worthless, necessitating a close-in gun battle.

** Also Justified by the presence of FTL that cannot be jammed or traced. As demonstrated by the Colonial fleet surviving multiple Cylon attacks by the simple but effective tactic of jumping away every time the Cylons show up. In such a situation the only realistic option for an attacker is to jump in practically on top of their target, so they can hit them before they jump away. Since both sides rely heavily (but not exclusively) on fighters which must be launched and then get close to the target (presumably since their own guns have unspectacular muzzle velocity) this means positioning your capital ships very close indeed. Of course all of this assumes your target will want to run away (and you want to prevent him), but if he thinks he can fight back you may want to reconsider your attack anyway.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** That said, distances in the battles are measured in tens to hundreds of kilometers. The Mothership itself is something like four to six kilometers on its longest side, for goodness' sake. So this might actually be an aversion - visual range is just a freaking long distance.

** Not even close, hundreds of kilometers is nothing in space.

** The prequel, ''Total Annihilation'' is much more forgiving about this sort of thing past the first tier, although tank battles still escalate to a mass of tangled metal if their respective armour is sturdy enough.

** Actually, Supreme Commander was notable for avoiding this trope. Even the weakest weapons have a range of half a kilometer. Additionally, conventional artillery pieces have ranges exceeding one kilometer (for example, the UEF's Duke cannon has a ''minimum'' range of 3 km).