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[[File:end-of-the-world.jpg|link=Colony Drop|frame|Another day, another world ending disaster.]]
{{quote|"''There's '''always''' an alien battle cruiser, or a Korlian [[Death Ray]], or an [[The Plague|intergalactic plague]] that's about to [[Kill'Em All|wipe out life]] on [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet|this miserable little planet]]. The only way [[Muggles|these people]] get on with their happy lives is they '''[[Punctuated!
One day, the world is threatened with [[Death From Above|a meteor the size of Sicily]]. The next day, some [[Mad Scientist]]'s "[[Doomsday Device|ultimate weapon]]" will destroy the entire planet. The day after that, the entire universe will implode because the [[Cosmic Keystone]] slipped off its pedestal...
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', almost every villain at least tries to take over the world, which probably counts as doomed. Oh, and {{spoiler|it really [[Earthshattering Kaboom|IS destroyed]] once, though it got better}}. In fact one of the reasons Goku decides to stay dead midway through ''Dragonball Z'' is that he's [[Genre Savvy|noticed this]], and furthermore, that he's usually [[Weirdness Magnet|what the villains are seeking]]. Later, he tries to get Gohan, Goten and Trunks, and later Uub to be the heroes because the villains ''still'' come. Ironically, the one who [[Jumped At the Call]], his granddaughter Pan, didn't have the muscle necessary to take over the hero job.
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** The anime has Chise {{spoiler|offering to kill the human race out of mercy. Between her, the war, and damage to the planet, there's literally no chance for survival left. In the end, she opts to futilely fight one of the foreign invaders' out-of-control super weapon, retaining what little humanity she has left by making the otherwise empty gesture of protecting her hometown instead of putting it out of its misery. The world is reduced to ash and snow by the battle, leaving nobody alive but Shuuji and the now energy-being Chise.}}
** The manga is worse. {{spoiler|Chise is the apocalypse, and is completely unstoppable long before people realize how devastating she's become. She's not futilely protecting people from some foreign and out-of-control weapon, she IS the out-of-control weapon. She kills everyone. Personally. ''Except Shuuji.''}}
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', the Earth is threatened by [[Eldritch Abomination
== [[Card Games]] ==▼
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' gives us Dominaria, a planet that had so many magical near-apocalyptic experiences (five at last count) that it had a ''near-apocalypse caused by having had too many near-apocalypses''. Seriously, the place was starting to fall apart.▼
** When the game stopped focusing primarily on Dominaria and started showcasing a different world each year, every world visited would have a near-apocalypse... which were all later revealed to be ''[[Arc Welding|indirectly caused by Dominaria's latest near-apocalypse!]]''▼
** The Innistrad block is primarily about humans trying to survive in a world full of vampires, werewolves, and zombies. One character in particular, the Planeswalker Sorin Markov, is vampire lord trying to keep humanity from dying out. Because if the humans go, the vampires will have nothing left to eat. Even so, the other vampires aren't too happy with him.▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* As [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] puts it: "It's the DC Universe, the end of the world isn't even an excuse for getting off work any more."
* In one ''[[Astro City]]'' story, most residents of an apartment building gather on the roof to watch a potentially cataclysmic battle - except for one kid who stays inside to finish his homework. As his mother explains, "if the world doesn't end, he's still got school tomorrow." .
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Dark Crystal]]''. It's '''the end of the world'''... or the beginning. Same thing.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' movies. Apparently, every other day there's a situation where the world just barely avoids being blown up by disgruntled aliens.
== [[Literature]] ==
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* Many arcs and individual stories in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], ''especially'' those set after the ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'' duology, are all about the new Rebellion/Republic/Jedi-destroying Threat, even bigger and badder than the last ones! Vong, Joiners, Jacen going evil and causing a civil war, the Jedi going mad... Look! It's not like earlier media, now everyone dies pointlessly! It's difficult to find anything big that doesn't hype itself as The Biggest Threat Luke/Leia/Han Has Ever Faced.
** Lampshaded by Wedge Antilles in an ''[[X Wing Series]]'' comic set not long after Endor.
{{quote|
** Yet there's still ''Starfighters of Adumar'', which is "only" about civil war on a single world with the only thing at stake being whether its torpedo production goes towards the Empire or the New Republic. It's one of the lowest scale EU novels there is, and also one of the most entertaining.
** Nearly every second story set during the Clone Wars features The New And Improved Super Duper Completely Guaranteed Separatist Plan To Crush The Republic Forever, which is impressive considering that not only did the war last for a mere three years, but the local [[Magnificent Bastard]] planned for the Separatists to ''lose''. And again, ''[[Shatterpoint]]'', about an ultimately minor war on a single planet (and [[Samuel L. Jackson|Mace Windu]] being [[Badass]]), manages to be one of the best pieces from that time period.
* Diane Duane's ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series. Considering that the ultimate antagonist is [[Satan|the Lone Power]], which invented death, loves suffering, and threatens to destroy the protagonists' home worlds when they piss it off, this isn't too surprising.
** It actually gets [[
* [[Lampshade
* Very much present in [[Terry Goodkind]]'s ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, where one book's solution tends to lead directly or indirectly to the next book's problem. Many of these dooms make a return for the [[Grand Finale]] trilogy, making the world doomed by at least four different methods simultaneously.
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s short story ''The End of the World Again'', in which a werewolf goes to [[H.P. Lovecraft|Innsmouth]] and somewhat-deliberately thwarts a ritual to destroy the world.
* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''. In the first book, Earth is destroyed; in the second, the universe ends (billions of years in the
* The ''[[Alex Rider]]'' series seems to have a villain bent on destroying the world every few weeks (in-world time).
* In ''[[The Sharing Knife]],'' malices can be destroyed while young, but new ones will never stop appearing, and if one ever gathers too much power it will [[Enemy to All Living Things|devour all life]].
* A major plot point in the later ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' books is how the series of [[Masquerade]]-breaking disasters and near-apocalypses strung together can't be coincidence. It leads to [[Foreshadowing]] of a [[Bigger Bad]] to be revealed in the second half of the series.
* Par for the course in the ''[[Secret Histories]]'' series, as defending humanity from epic-scale threats is the Droods' job.
* In the fiction chapters of ''[[
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' have ''at least'' one planet-ending apocalypse per year (the Hellmouth alone was almost opened on three separate occasions), as well as one ''reality-ending'' apocalypse, along with endless armies of vampires, demons and the forces of darkness maiming and slaughtering and generally being not very nice. [[Lampshade
▲== [[Live Action Television]] ==
▲* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' have ''at least'' one planet-ending apocalypse per year (the Hellmouth alone was almost opened on three separate occasions), as well as one ''reality-ending'' apocalypse, along with endless armies of vampires, demons and the forces of darkness maiming and slaughtering and generally being not very nice. [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]] in numerous episodes, to the point where characters were going "AGAIN?!" whenever anybody mentioned it. One episode of ''[[Angel]]'' even has Spike and Angel arguing over who ''saved the world more'':
'''Spike:''' Like I haven't.
▲{{quote| '''Angel:''' I helped save the world, you know.<br />
'''
'''
'''
'''
'''Angel:''' Yeah, you wore a necklace. You know, I helped kill the Mayor and, uh, and Jasmine...
'''Spike:''' Do those really count as saving the world?
▲'''Angel:''' Yeah, you wore a necklace. You know, I helped kill the Mayor and, uh, and Jasmine...<br />
'''
'''
'''Angel:''' Yeah, but I made her do it. ''(Spike gives him a disbelieving look)'' I signaled her with my eyes.
▲'''Angel:''' Yeah, but I made her do it. ''(Spike gives him a disbelieving look)'' I signaled her with my eyes.<br />
'''Spike:''' She killed you. I helped her! That one counts as mine. }}
** Further, the fifth season of ''Angel'' seems to indicate that all those big "end the world" scenarios are mere distractions while the ''real'' apocalypse goes on right under our noses. The world spins more and more into chaos and decay... and the heroes chase around monsters all day long.
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** The Doctor remarks about the population: "You lot, you're like rabbits. I'll never be done saving you." He's got a gleeful, joyous grin on his face while he says it.
** In the [[Comic Relief]] [[Affectionate Parody]] "The Curse of Fatal Death", the Doctor states "According to my calculations, I have saved every planet in the universe at least twenty-seven times." This is not much of an exaggeration.
** Also parodied in a comedy sketch by [[Mark Gatiss]], where a villain tries to come up with a sufficiently villainous plan to interest The
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is an epitome of this trope. Every time a character [[Time Travel|travels into the future]] (which is quite a bit) it turns out to be doomed, a dystopia, or [[Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs|a doomed dystopia]].
** Of course the threats are seasonal, usually one per season, and are the only things that keep the rest of the plot going. For example, the first season kept talking about saving the world when there was never any real indication that the world was in danger on the large scale, not even at the end, just that there was going to be war and strife, still bad but hardly Apocalyptic.
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** Earth did get a few breaks though. Earth didn't get attacked in ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy|Lost Galaxy]]'' because the villains were attacking the heroes in space, and there was a one-year reprieve after ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder|Dino Thunder]]'' because the next season took place in the year 2025. It also got a break after ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury|Jungle Fury]]'' because ''[[Power Rangers RPM|RPM]]'' took place in an [[Alternate Continuity]] (and in the future of said [[Alternate Continuity]], at that).
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' spent about every second episode attempting to prevent some horrible calamity about to befall the planet, whether it was a another Goa'uld plot, an incredibly virulent Space Infection, or a group of [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] they had managed to annoy. Eventually the series graduated to The ''Galaxy'' Is Always Doomed, with one thing after another attempting to conquer/exterminate/consume all life (Goa'uld, Replicators, Ori, Wraith...).
** [[Lampshade
{{quote|
'''Col. O'Neill''': [sarcastically] Save the world?
'''Maj. Carter''': Getting old for you, sir? }}
** And another time:
{{quote|
'''Lt. Col Mitchell:''' I suppose after you've saved the world seven or eight times...
'''General O'Neill:''' ''[amused]'' Who's counting, huh?
'''Lt. Col Mitchell:''' Teal'c, actually. He mentions it quite often. }}
* This trope was basically the entire premise of ''[[Seven Days]]''. It's about the agent the NSA sends back in time to avert all the catastrophes that would befall us every week without his intervention—things like a weapons test wiping out all life on Earth, or [[
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' does this with an ''entire galaxy''. The [[The Heartless|daemons]] of [[The Corruption|Chaos]] and their mad human servants, the implacable Necrons enacting the will of the [[Time Abyss|ancient]] [[Physical God|C'tan]], and the [[Horde of Alien Locusts|endlessly ravenous Tyranid hordes]] are all closing in, completing intricate plans or simply steamrolling over everything in the path, and any minute now the galaxy will meet it's end... ''aaaaaany'' minute now...▼
▲* ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' gives us Dominaria, a planet that had so many magical near-apocalyptic experiences (five at last count) that it had a ''near-apocalypse caused by having had too many near-apocalypses''. Seriously, the place was starting to fall apart.
▲** When the game stopped focusing primarily on Dominaria and started showcasing a different world each year, every world visited would have a near-apocalypse... which were all later revealed to be ''[[Arc Welding|indirectly caused by Dominaria's latest near-apocalypse!]]''
▲** The Innistrad block is primarily about humans trying to survive in a world full of vampires, werewolves, and zombies. One character in particular, the Planeswalker Sorin Markov, is vampire lord trying to keep humanity from dying out. Because if the humans go, the vampires will have nothing left to eat. Even so, the other vampires aren't too happy with him.
=== War Games ===
▲* ''[[Warhammer
== [[Video Games]] ==
* There is a set of [[Cosmic Keystone|four seals]] in the world of ''[[Drakengard]]'': the Forest Seal, the Desert Seal, the Island Seal, and "the Goddess", a human woman who is a living seal. If all of the seals are broken, [[The End of the World as We Know It|untold calamity and catastrophe befalls the world.]] It is only in the sequel that it is revealed that
* In any given ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' game, the earth is usually dealing with world-wide threats of a dozen or so different series more or less all at the same time.
* ''[[Wild
** Though, a small difference is that the catastrophe tends to have happened ''before'' each installment, and apparently the people before weren't able to prevent it (or caused it).
* Almost every major patch of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' introduces a new threat to the world. The Lich King expansion started with a zombie plague, set up 3 separate world-ending threats, ''and'' tossed in a world war on top of that. The fact the Horde & Alliance are still kicking after all that is pushing [[Suspension of Disbelief]].
** The fact that none of those temporary team-ups have stuck pushes it a bit too. Seriously, the factions have ''no'' point of contention.
** In justification of the trope (not in defense of the Horde vs. Alliance feud, though, that is indeed very contrived), most if not all of the world-ending threats are caused, directly or indirectly, by one or the other of two [[Omnicidal Maniac]] [[Eldritch Abomination
* ''[[Touhou]]''. So very, very much. Seemingly every other week Gensoukyou has some problem occurring, varying from "annoying" to "seemingly dooming everyone to horrible death". Sometimes they aren't as bad as they first appear. Other times they're ''worse''.
* ''[[Lusternia]]''. It'd be easier to mention the times that all of reality ''isn't'' in imminent danger of being devoured by a [[Cosmic Horror]], and scarcely a week goes by without something [[Sealed Evil in a Can|breaking out of an ancient prison]] intent on ruling/corrupting/destroying the earth.
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** The fact the Bacterian Empire also doubles as a form of [[The Virus]] helps.
** Lampshaded in ''Gradius V'' by the "[[Final Boss]]":
{{quote|
* Completing a mission on ''Yoda Stories'' and talking to Yoda bought you the response 'Congratulations! Taken another step you have...along the road that never ends!'.
* The Bydo of [[R-Type]] are a similar case. While they were ''apparently'' beaten for good in [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Final]], it's hard to say for sure when your enemy aren't just [[The Virus]], but also exist [[Eldritch Abomination|outside of time]].
==[[Web Original]]==
* The ''[[SCP Foundation]]'' has all kinds of Keter{{context}} objects that can destroy the world, and will unless handled with care. In fact civilization has been pretty much destroyed at least twice, and was rebuilt by a [[Reset Button]], that doesn't work as well as typical reset buttons (for example it is a long process, and using it would result in higher rate of birth defects).
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Ben 10]]'' did this numerous times. A two-parter involved a ghostly alien that planned to mutate all of Earth. One episode titled "Ultimate Weapon" involved a weapon that could destroy all of Earth. The ''[[Ben 10]]'' animated movie had Ben's Omnitrix in danger of self-destructing... and taking out the entire <s>galaxy</s> [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|universe]] with it.
* [[The Incredibles|Mr. Incredible]] describes it perfectly in the opening sequence.
{{quote|
** It's a funny fact, though, that the very moment superheroes are forced to hide supervillians disappear too, and it's not until the Parr family don the suits again that supervillians come back.
*** Not really come back... more like they cannot hide as well as before.
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* The [[Animated Adaptation]] of ''[[Men in Black (animation)|Men in Black]]'' both uses and averts this trope, with world-ending disasters being not unusual but the most common situations involve a single alien (or group) or a threat to the MIB itself instead of the planet.
* ''[[Mighty Max]]'': (almost) every episode summoned Max to help save the world from aliens/magic/parasites whatever. The episodes that involved [[Big Bad]] Skullmaster's attempt to steal Max's hat are much better as a result.
{{quote|
'''Virgil:''' Oh merely the end of the world!
'''Max:''' Oh good. I was afraid it was something serious. }}
* In the beginning of Disneys's ''[[Fun and Fancy Free]]'', Jiminy Cricket remarks how the newspapers are always reporting one disaster or another.
{{quote|
* In ''[[Futurama]]'', every year at Christmas Robot Santa goes to Earth and wrecks everything for jollies.
{{quote|
* It sometimes seems like every other episode of ''[[Peter Pan and The Pirates]]'' involves the threat of "the end of Neverland".
* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]''. Raimundo: "Is it me, or does the fate of the world rest on us a lot?"
* In one episode of ''[[Superman: The Animated Series|Superman the Animated Series]]'', [[Doctor Fate]] refuses to help Superman fight an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that Fate defeated in the past because he's grown weary of the neverending fight against evil. Superman being willing to fight against impossible odds (Supes is weak against magic) convinces Fate to help.
{{quote|
'''Fate:''' It was because you went back. You reminded me that it's not just the forces of evil that never give up. }}
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', threats that will spell doom for Ponyville, if not all of Equestria, are horribly common. A burst dam, choking smog, [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Parasprites]], [[Fallen Hero|Nightmare Moon]], [[God of Evil|Discord]], even {{spoiler|a full scale invasion}}; the ponies never seem to get a break. Furthermore, "Hearth's Warming Eve" shows that even in the distant past ponies were frequently doomed.
** Somewhat lampshaded in "It's About Time", with Twilight ''immediately'' assuming that Future Twilight contacted her to warn her of some terrible catastrophe, every other pony easily believing her (at least before she started another [[Sanity Slippage]]), and in the course of attempting to prevent the disaster {{spoiler|that doesn't exist}} they encounter ''another'' potential disaster completely by accident.
** The same episode also revealed that Ponyville is located at a walking distance from ''the gates of Hell'', where an imense number of monsters and demons are kept imprisioned. And then we have the dreadful Everfree Forest, which is literally next to Applejack's farm and it's full to the brim with all kind of deadly creatures.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* This may also apply to the hotter parts of the [[Cold War]]. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, it's been argued that ''over a dozen incidents'' came close to ending it all.
* Any number of events could result in the complete extinction of a huge chunk of life on Earth. Some are predictable, others are not. Massive volcanic events, asteroid impact and cosmic rays are just three examples.
** [[Wave Motion Gun|One such "cosmic ray"]] makes it seem like the universe hates us, mostly because of the ridiculous misfortune that it may result from.{{context}}
* Several economists predict that the real socioeconomic/financial Armageddon (2008 was just the beginning) will happen as early as 2012.
* See [[Exit Mundi]] for many examples, some of which could happen any day now.
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