The Mothership: Difference between revisions

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** The ''Ptolemaios'' and its successor, the ''Ptolemaios Kai'', function as this for the heroes, and the Innovators have {{spoiler|the ''Celestial Being'', a 15-kilometer-long armed-to-the-teeth asteroid-ship.}} In [[The Movie]], {{spoiler|the ELS have their moon-sized planetoid which had been hiding in Jupiter for a while.}}

* The Harvester ships in ''[[Vandread]]''.

* [[Big Bad|Bodolza]]'s flagship in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]''. [[The Movie]] not only has an even bigger version, but TWO of them; although Bodolza quickly [[Wave Motion Gun~~|Wave Motion Guns~~]] the other one on the grounds that it has [[Amazon Brigade|Meltran]] crew, blowing away a chunk of his own fleet too who couldn't get away from the line of fire quickly enough.

* [[Big Bad|Bodolza]]'s flagship in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]''. [[The Movie]] not only has an even bigger version, but TWO of them; although Bodolza quickly [[Wave Motion Gun]]s the other one on the grounds that it has [[Amazon Brigade|Meltran]] crew, blowing away a chunk of his own fleet too who couldn't get away from the line of fire quickly enough.

== Comic Books ==

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** Emphasis on the ''big''. It was supposed to be 1/4th the mass of the Moon. Most asteroids are smaller. Justified if you consider the hull to be some superdense degenerate matter for radiation shielding.

* Super Star Destroyer ''Executor'' from ''[[Star Wars]]'', a nineteen kilometre long command ship.

** The prequels' droid control ships are a literal example of the "blow it up and the [[Mecha Mook|(Mecha)]][[Mook~~|Mooks~~]] will likely give up" aspect of this trope, as the droid armies can't function without them.

** The prequels' droid control ships are a literal example of the "blow it up and the [[Mecha Mook|(Mecha)]][[Mook]]s will likely give up" aspect of this trope, as the droid armies can't function without them.

** And, of course, the Death Stars.

* The Ko-Dan Command Ship in ''[[The Last Starfighter]]''. (Since it controlled several fighter squadrons, it may also qualify as [[The Battlestar]].)

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** Fortunately for the ship and crew, including {{spoiler|Robert April, Sarah Poole (later April), and George Samuel Kirk (father of everyone's favorite [[Large Ham]] Captain and family)}}, the Romulans {{spoiler|1=have never heard of Transporter technology. 1 bomb + 1 power core = [[Oh Crap]] moment for the Romulans}}.

* The Lighthuggers from ''Revelation Space'' are four-kilometer-long spacecraft capable of reaching near-light speed. They contain numerous smaller craft and can use their onboard factories to produce more as needed, and can carry up to one hundred thousand frozen people.

* In Mikhail Akhmanov's ''Invasion'', the Faata starship definitely fits the trope. It is massive in size and, while not possessing powerful weapons itself, is able to launch numerous "battle modules" armed with [[Antimatter]] weapons. The ship's [[Deflector Shield]] can easily shrug off a nuclear barrage with a combined strength in the gigaton range. It also carries a huge army of [[Super Soldier~~|Super Soldiers~~]] ready to invade. The second novel ''Retaliation'' shows that it is just one of many Faata ships. In fact, three more are being constructed not to far from Earth.

* In Mikhail Akhmanov's ''Invasion'', the Faata starship definitely fits the trope. It is massive in size and, while not possessing powerful weapons itself, is able to launch numerous "battle modules" armed with [[Antimatter]] weapons. The ship's [[Deflector Shield]] can easily shrug off a nuclear barrage with a combined strength in the gigaton range. It also carries a huge army of [[Super Soldier]]s ready to invade. The second novel ''Retaliation'' shows that it is just one of many Faata ships. In fact, three more are being constructed not to far from Earth.

* A gigantic disc-shaped automated mothership is encountered in one of ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'' novels. It was created long ago by one of the [[Precursors|Precursor]] races as an exploration and terraforming craft. Due to most of the galaxy being unknown to the race, they equipped the ship with powerful weapons and defenses, as well as the capability to manufacture and launch fighter drones. When the ship returned centuries later, it discovered many other ships in the systems occupied by the race. These were later models that were not designed for combat. Treating them as hostile, the ship started a war and eventually wiped them out by using its built-in ability to replicate itself given enough resources. When first encountered, the humans have trouble defeating the ship. Understandably, they're horrified to learn that there are hundreds more just like that.

* In [[Animorphs]]'', the Yeerk pool ships.

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* One of the finest videogame examples is ''[[Homeworld]]'', in which the only real entity that can be called a character is the Mothership.

** The Mothership can also build [[The Battlestar|carriers]] that function like mini-motherships in their own right.

* The Titan ships, again, from ''[[EVE Online]]''. All in excess of ~~15km~~, and all ridiculously costly to build.

* The Titan ships, again, from ''[[EVE Online]]''. All in excess of 15 km, and all ridiculously costly to build.

* Sovereign, from ''[[Mass Effect]]'' {{spoiler|which is actually sentient, and one of the frighteningly powerful [[Eldritch Abomination|Re]][[Abusive Precursors|ap]][[Sapient Ship|ers]].}}

** As well as Sovereign, each race in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has dreadnoughts that are extremely few in number compared to other ships in the various fleets. They're similar in size to a human carrier, but otherwise are much bigger than the ships around them. They also carry kinetic weapons capable of impacting in the multiple-dozen-kiloton range, which is what makes them so special.