Silly Reason for War: Difference between revisions

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** The fighting continued despite the fact that in the present day the ''rulers of the two sides were happily married to each other''. Fortunately, Her Majesty was unusually sensible for an Arend, and once she'd looked into the matter and discovered what a ridiculously tiny technicality it was, she managed to make her subjects see reason, too.

* ''[[Tristram Shandy]]'' has a chapter-long aside about a war between France and Switzerland that starts when the countries disagree about what to name the French heir.

* Donald Westlake's short story "Don't You Know There's a War On?" had an exploratory starship touch down on a [[Lost Colony]] that'd been fighting a [[Civil War]] for '''400 years''' over a paradox propounded by humorist Robert Benchley: "There are two kinds of people in the world -- those who believe there are two kinds of people and those who don't." As one of the starship's crew points out, whether you agree or disagree with his paradox, you prove Benchley correct.

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== Tabletop Games ==

* Orcs/Orks in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer ~~40000~~]]'' don't ''need'' any reason to kill their enemies (or each other), but they'll take any opportunity at justification in order to do so. For example, there's two Orkish gods, Gork and Mork, one being the god of cunning brutality and the other of brutal cunning. If given the chance, Orks will fight over ''which is which''.

* Orcs/Orks in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' don't ''need'' any reason to kill their enemies (or each other), but they'll take any opportunity at justification in order to do so. For example, there's two Orkish gods, Gork and Mork, one being the god of cunning brutality and the other of brutal cunning. If given the chance, Orks will fight over ''which is which''.

** This specific schism was used in the late 90s spin-off game ''Gorkamorka'' in which a load of Orks stranded on a planet got into a civil war over whether the space hulk they were (kind of) trying to rebuild to escape was Gork or Mork - in the ensuing conflict, the hulk was destroyed, but they continued to nominally work on it afterwards anyway, and still remained divided between "Gorkers" and "Morkers". This would be a [[Downer Ending]] in any other universe - here, it just kind of makes sense.

** In ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'', orcs have a special rule that requires them to make a willpower check to ''avoid'' picking a fight with the nearest orc if given the slightest provocation to do so—with exceptions if any [[Bad Boss|Black Orcs]] are nearby or the orc is already in melee with someone.

* Also in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'', [[French Jerk|Bretonnian]] [[Aristocrats Are Evil|nobles]] are noted to be notoriously thin-skinned and will war with each other for the silliest of reasons (such as an flippant insult) if not restrained by their liege lords. This is especially true in regions of Brettonia where there are no orcs or beastmen to fight. In fact, one particular pair of [[Feuding Families]] are still going at it over an alleged ravishing that happened several hundred years ago (if it happened at all) and which both sides claim to be the victimized party in. The feud is so formalized the time and place of any battles are agreed upon in advance, fought according to a timetable, and are apparently a great spectator sport for neighbouring nobility and peasants.

* Any given Beholder in ''[[Dungeons ~~and~~ Dragons]]'' is engaged in a never-ending race war against any Beholders not of its breed, killing them on sight. While there are some varieties that are vastly different in terms of appearance and philosophy, they will fight over any difference at all, even ones that anyone other than a beholder would never notice. Of course, there is the true Beholder, whose form would clearly be the correct form for a beholder to have. Unfortunately, whenever any beholder sees it the thing looks exactly like them.

* Any given Beholder in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' is engaged in a never-ending race war against any Beholders not of its breed, killing them on sight. While there are some varieties that are vastly different in terms of appearance and philosophy, they will fight over any difference at all, even ones that anyone other than a beholder would never notice. Of course, there is the true Beholder, whose form would clearly be the correct form for a beholder to have. Unfortunately, whenever any beholder sees it the thing looks exactly like them.

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* In the ''[[Zork]]'' games, a bloody war was fought between the city-states of Phee and Bor. What was it over? Whether the name of the river that started near Phee and ended near Bor should be named Pheebor or Borphee.

* ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]''. The two brothers destroyed Unova in a battle over what was arguably a petty squabble.

* ''[[~~Starcraft~~ II]]'' Blizzard ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'' has [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJS3Cdvw-5c two gods at war] with one significant difference: one blue, one red. They wage massive war [[For the Lulz|to amuse themselves]].

* ''[[StarCraft II]]'' Blizzard ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'' has [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJS3Cdvw-5c two gods at war] with one significant difference: one blue, one red. They wage massive war [[For the Lulz|to amuse themselves]].

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