![DBTropes DBTropes](/static/logo.png)
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion
- 553 statements
- 104 feature instances
- 95 referencing feature instances
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | type |
FeatureClass | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | label |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | page |
EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | comment |
The easiest way to write an Alien Invasion is to make the invaders nigh unstoppable by giving them technology and weapons we can't even comprehend, defend against or overpower. If they were just like a human army, it might as well be a war story; there must be something about the aliens that makes them distinct from any other army. But the heroes and humanity can't just be dispassionately crushed under a cosmic steamroller, because a Cosmic Horror Story would be a box office dud due to the bleak narrative and Downer Ending. Besides, who would want to read that kind of story? So what authors do is craft an Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion. To compensate for the aliens' seemingly invincible power they build in a glaring and common weakness that the heroes and humanity can use to beat back this alien menace once it's identified. This doesn't just apply to armies, but can be done for individual aliens and non-sentient alien monsters. Maybe their skin is tough enough to stop bullets, or they're telepathic, or they have mind-control powers, or they have some sort of martial society and cannot comprehend "mercy", "surrender" or "peaceful coexistence". Whatever their advantage or power, it's always balanced by a vulnerability to an over the counter product. And sometimes, that Achilles' Heel is so serious that the humans don't even have to figure it out; the planet takes care of them without any help from us at all. The flora and fauna will make them all die naturally without human intervention, be it from the common cold or water or daffodils. Sometimes, the aliens don't even know it's a weakness (or can't conceive of it as one) until they begin dropping like flies from it. This can extend to making the cleanup after the invasion a snap. By handing humanity victory on a silver platter and having an epilogue where the characters happily explain how easy it was to destroy the aliens and return to life as if nothing had happened. Grimmer portrayals will give humanity one chance to exploit the weakness after they devastate the planet, making the victory a Bittersweet Ending. This trope can sometimes be justified if the "alien invasion" is actually only carried out by a few individuals, especially if they're completely ignorant about Earth, as is the case in many old Science Fiction movies. Compare Rock Beats Laser. See also Weaksauce Weakness and How to Invade an Alien Planet. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | fetched |
2024-05-02T09:32:18Z | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | parsed |
2024-05-02T09:32:18Z | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to AsYouKnow: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to Averted: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to AvertedTrope: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to BackFromTheDead: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to BigLittleMan: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to ConspiracyTheorist: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to EnergyWeapons: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to ExpansionPack: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to FullFrontal: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to IsThisThingStillOn: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to ItMakesSenseInContext: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to Lampshaded: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to MindControl: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to NoBiochemicalBarriers: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to ObstructiveBureaucrat: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to OlderThanTelevision: Not an Item - CAT | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to PlayedForLaughs: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to ReplicantSnatching: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to Subverted: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to TakeOverTheWorld: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheAssimilator: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheBodySnatchers: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingUnknown |
TheBodySnatchers | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingUnknown |
Averted | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingUnknown |
EnergyWeapons | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | processingUnknown |
FullFrontal | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_11a1dac2 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_11a1dac2 | comment |
At the end of the second incarnation the Communication, the Puella Magi, an intergalactic class spaceship, is built with the power to travel the multiverse. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_11a1dac2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_11a1dac2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Communication (Roleplay) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_11a1dac2 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_12b5b404 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_12b5b404 | comment |
In From the Depths, the Scarlet Dawn faction is the leftovers of a failed alien invasion that suffered setback after setback. After having been on ice for centuries while in-flight to the planet Neter, the aliens were extremely frail upon awakening. When they set down a pair of Von Neumann factories to the surface, the machines malfunctioned and lost their shackles, allying themselves to the planet's governing body for protection. And finally, upon landing the planet's extremely violent shifts in temperature, weather, and light allowed their laser-spamming high-altitude fighters to be beaten back by the government using little more than armor-piercing cannons and missiles. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_12b5b404 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_12b5b404 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
From The Depths / Videogame | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_12b5b404 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_13605458 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_13605458 | comment |
Gate: A medieval army of humans supplemented by a contingent of monsters invade Tokyo from another world and try to claim the area as their own. Their main weapons consist of swords and bows and arrows, which are not a match for the modern weapons of the Japanese military. Inverted, since the majority of the invaders were also human, albeit not from Earth. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_13605458 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_13605458 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Gate | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_13605458 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_168c4727 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_168c4727 | comment |
Guild Wars 2's main threats, the Elder Dragons, are mountain-sized entities that essentially restarted the world in the past... and yet the Vigil alone is shown to have enough resources to wage war against them on as much as three fronts. And the only thing keeping them from actually defeating the dragons is, apparently, their childish unwillingness to work with the spy and the scientist orders. While a lot of work is done to find the dragons' weaknesses, starve them of their respective sustenance, and build technology that directly counters their magic, it's still a relatively small number of people doing this work. In the ancient past, precursor races working together could only manage to barely protect a handful of races from the devastation. In the present, most of the world hasn't even been involved in the dragon plots yet. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_168c4727 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_168c4727 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Guild Wars 2 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_168c4727 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_169f043b | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_169f043b | comment |
StarCraft: due to being something of a Keystone Army, the feral zerg aren't much of a threat in the absence of a ruling intelligence directing them. Their basic units are as dangerous per capita as usual, but they have no unit cohesion beyond the pack level, lack access to the highest-level breeds, can't travel at FTL speeds unless the pack is lucky enough to have broken off with a Leviathan,note Per Word of God, the Overmind's Swarm was entirely dependent on him to open wormholes. Kerrigan mostly does the same thing, but her Leviathans, at least, can also do it. and seemingly don't breed as fast. Feral colonies have had their assaults repulsed by little more than outnumbered civilians with improvised weapons and small arms (e.g. Broken Wide, Liberty's Crusade), and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty reveals that some of their "invasions" are so weak that local rednecks hunt them for sport. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_169f043b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_169f043b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
StarCraft (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_169f043b | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1b56abaa | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1b56abaa | comment |
The Qularr invasion in Champions Online features as the tutorial. They aren't wiped out, but it seems most of their fleet attacks a single city and are driven off when their mothership is brought down. They are generally kicked around by all the other heroic and villainous groups; one open mission is called Nadir Of The Invaders. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1b56abaa | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1b56abaa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Champions Online (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1b56abaa | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1bfb9fe0 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1bfb9fe0 | comment |
Endless Sky has the Pug, whose primary weakness is their habit of deliberately limiting themselves enough to be beatable by whoever they are fighting, and hence won't bring out their big guns for the invasion of human space. It is also implied that the goal of the invasion is to be defeated — in the right way, so as to produce the right result in humanity. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1bfb9fe0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1bfb9fe0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Endless Sky (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1bfb9fe0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1e61151c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1e61151c | comment |
In the Acorna Series, the Khleevi (Always Chaotic Evil planet despoiling insectoids) are easily cowed by one squadron of battleships fighting back (though they were portrayed as bullies who preferred easy targets). And, after that, the heroes find a plant whose sap acted like purest acid on Khleevi exoskeletons. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1e61151c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1e61151c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Acorna Series | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1e61151c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1f9f4419 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1f9f4419 | comment |
In The Thing (1982), it's extremely fortunate that the ship carrying The Thing crashed on an ice desert continent with very little life to assimilate. It's even more fortunate that the few humans available for consumption have access to flamethrowers. The Thing quickly realizes it's at a disadvantage and attempts a Divide and Conquer strategy so it can pick off the camp one by one. Every time it is forced to reveal itself, it only manages to kill one or two people before being quickly immolated or blown up. It's made quite clear that if not for these circumstances (or if it were to get out), this trope would be very much averted. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1f9f4419 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1f9f4419 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Thing (1982) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_1f9f4419 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_22e82a23 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_22e82a23 | comment |
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut features a Martian attack on Earth. The Martians originate from human colonists and appear to be extremely well-prepared and equipped, but several (deliberate) mistakes in their plans make it extremely easy for Earth to repel the (drastically outnumbered) invasion. Which was their leader's plan all along: scaring earth-bound humanity into banding together to slaughter the out-classed Martian invaders, then exposing what a non-threat they had been all along, thus triggering a global My God, What Have I Done? in order to usher in an age of peace and unity | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_22e82a23 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_22e82a23 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Sirens of Titan | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_22e82a23 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_261c8d3f | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_261c8d3f | comment |
The Simpsons In a Halloween special, after humans have destroyed all known weapons, an alien invasion consisting only of Kang and Kodos alone, are able to Take Over the World, wielding only a slingshot and a bat. Eventually the two of them are overthrown and chased away from Earth by a rebellion, consisting only of Moe wielding a more advanced weapon than than Kang and Kodos can conceive of... a board with a nail in it. Another attempt was done when Kodos creates a portal which sends an army of aliens to Earth; it was thwarted by the U.S. Army which easily slaughters all the aliens, since they only have weapons like swords or spears. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_261c8d3f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_261c8d3f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Simpsons | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_261c8d3f | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_26562243 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_26562243 | comment |
The aliens in UFO: Aftermath are a death cult limited in resources and technology to what they could make off with; the empire they hail from liked humanity and is pissed. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_26562243 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_26562243 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
UFO: After Blank (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_26562243 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_28df3e79 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_28df3e79 | comment |
This trope gets downplayed by the Chitauri invasion in the MCU fanfic series, There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton. While the Avengers did win, it's acknowledged that they got lucky and were close to failing, not to mention the invasion caused a lot of collateral damage and death. The severity of the invasion, coupled with how it caused other hidden heroes to reveal themselves, is a major reason for why the Avengers are working to expand their ranks earlier than canon. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_28df3e79 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_28df3e79 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_28df3e79 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2baf4941 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2baf4941 | comment |
Toyed with in Blue Beetle, with the Reach, a race of invaders who know they're easily thwarted in a stand up fight (at least when Green Lanterns and Kryptonians are involved)... so they come on like friendlies and engage some very long-term planning that will give them the planet in a couple of hundred years. When their plans are exposed, Earth's governments (DC Earth being no stranger to alien invasions) immediately demand the Reach's surrender. They get it. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2baf4941 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2baf4941 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Blue Beetle (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2baf4941 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2fa6ab16 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2fa6ab16 | comment |
Exaggerated in Coneheads; Beldar and Prymaat aren't exactly the most competent invaders, crashing within minutes of arriving, with the Earth never even knowing about the attempted invasion. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2fa6ab16 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2fa6ab16 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Coneheads | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_2fa6ab16 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_30264158 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_30264158 | comment |
The Invasion! event from DC Comics is a Crisis Crossover event wherein all the antagonistic alien races of the universe decide to pool their resources to invade Earth because Earthlings are getting too big for their britches. How does this invasion end? Just like the Skrull-based Secret Invasion (2008) event; the aliens make landfall for five minutes, start talking like they've won, then summarily get kicked back into space to get curbstomped by the various Earthling superheroes. Oh, and one of the races of this coalition, the Dominators, drops a gene-bomb on Earth, causing a Mass Super-Empowering Event for humanity. Nice job uplifting thousands of those humans you came to destroy, alien dipsticks! | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_30264158 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_30264158 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Invasion! (DC Comics) (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_30264158 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_31a48e8e | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_31a48e8e | comment |
The Outer Limits (1963) episode "Specimen: Unknown" had alien plants that release a deadly gas and spread like wildfire. A spaceship carrying them crashes on Earth and it looks like the human race is doomed. Worse yet, a thunderstorm is brewing overhead, and the plants will spread even faster when they get some rain, right? Wrong. The rain causes them to shrivel up and die, and the world is saved. Think of it as the opposite of a Cruel Twist Ending. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_31a48e8e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_31a48e8e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Outer Limits (1963) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_31a48e8e | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_32500a5d | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_32500a5d | comment |
In Earthbound Beginnings a troupe of three small children (albeit with Psychic Powers) defeats an all-powerful alien by singing. Justified as the song belonged to a human woman who had been abducted by the aliens and raised this particular one lovingly as if it were her own child. You are essentially guilt-tripping him into giving up and leaving. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_32500a5d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_32500a5d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
EarthBound Beginnings (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_32500a5d | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_34fd3cf6 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_34fd3cf6 | comment |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Plutonians are a duo of aliens who continuously scheme to take over Earth, but are so moronic and incompetent that they don't know how to use their own technology, and often don't even have a plan to accomplish it. The Mooninites, as well as minor villains Randy the Astonishing, Travis of the Cosmos, and the Frat Aliens are all technically alien invaders, but don't have any ambition outside of committing petty crimes. With the exception of Travis, who just wants a 401k; the vandalism is just a bonus. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_34fd3cf6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_34fd3cf6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_34fd3cf6 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3669a15 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3669a15 | comment |
In the Catteni series, the preferred host species of the Eosi (body-snatching Evil Overlords) is deathly allergic to a plant that grows in abundance on Botany, the planet the main characters were stranded on. La Résistance manages to sneak boatloads of the plant's pollen into the ventilation system at a suspiciously fortunate gathering of 90% of the Eosi. The surviving Eosi were too few and scattered to retain their grip on their servant races. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3669a15 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3669a15 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Catteni | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3669a15 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_38c87187 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_38c87187 | comment |
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: "Blast! Their iron is much stronger than our bronze!" | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_38c87187 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_38c87187 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_38c87187 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3a4d848c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3a4d848c | comment |
Sparky of Lady Spectra & Sparky convinced an alien invader to call off his attack by offering him a bouquet of flowers. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3a4d848c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3a4d848c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lady Spectra & Sparky (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_3a4d848c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_44127c7c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_44127c7c | comment |
Most alien invasions in Power Rangers. Almost universally taken out by "teenagers with attitude". Also, supersuits and giant robots. And not much in the way of attitude, when you get down to brass tacks. Nonetheless, five teens restricted to a single city with no military skill or training whatsoever fend off entire armies that know where they live, who they are, and what they like to do in their free time. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_44127c7c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_44127c7c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Power Rangers (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_44127c7c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_467c89f7 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_467c89f7 | comment |
Subverted in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, when just as the main cast finally deduce the aliens' weakness, the Zentradi wipe out Earth anyway. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_467c89f7 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_467c89f7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Super Dimension Fortress Macross | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_467c89f7 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4937d0d9 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4937d0d9 | comment |
The premise for the Dawn of Victory mod for Sins of a Solar Empire is loosely based on the Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove (see Literature). The Scinfaxi (not their real name) are a vast interstellar empire, who set their sights on Earth. Same deal, their invasion force arrives centuries after the initial probe, and they land in the middle of WW2. However, their tech is more akin to the aliens from The War of the Worlds. Despite being shocked at humanity's rapid technological progress (Scinfaxi are conservatives when in comes to progress), they manage to conquer most of the world before the Russians manage to steal one of their nukes and blow it up. The Germans and the US follow suit, scaring the aliens into retreating to the southern hemisphere. A century later, humans abandon Earth and nuke the hell out of it, to kill any Earthbound Scinfaxi. Thus begins a war between the aliens, Soviets, Germans, and Americans... IN SPACE!! | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4937d0d9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4937d0d9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sins of a Solar Empire (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4937d0d9 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4a11097d | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4a11097d | comment |
Oh Yeah! Cartoons featured a rather unusual example in the short "The Boy Who Cried Alien", where Floyd, who spent the short delivering paranoid ramblings about an alien invasion being imminent, ends up obliviously eating the unexpectedly tiny aliens with his cereal the instant they arrive on Earth. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4a11097d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4a11097d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Oh Yeah! Cartoons | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4a11097d | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4c095a1f | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4c095a1f | comment |
Not a direct example, but in one episode of the original Transformers cartoon, the Decepticons ceased their attack on the Autobot base because the chaos caused activated its fire-repellent systems... which was made up of fire-retardant foam being sprayed from the ceiling. According to Megatron, if they stayed and continued the attack, the foam would permanently damage their internal circuitry and they would shut-down for good. These are highly advanced Mechanical Life Forms who have been shown surviving being frozen in ice for centuries and being submerged in the deepest areas of the sea and yet apparently the one thing most damaging to them could potentially be found in fire extinguishers. Imagine how easy it would be to get the Decepticons off planet if they just used those? Remember, aim at the base and sweep. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4c095a1f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4c095a1f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Transformers | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4c095a1f | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4caf980 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4caf980 | comment |
Evolution had the aliens thwarted by Head and Shoulders Shampoo's Selenium Sulfide, which they hadn't even tested on an alien organism beforehand. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4caf980 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4caf980 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Evolution (2001) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4caf980 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4f1f3628 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4f1f3628 | comment |
The Anterians from the Suite Life on Deck episode "Starship Tipton". The ant part of their name probably should have been a tip off. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4f1f3628 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4f1f3628 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_4f1f3628 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_51fd0ee3 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_51fd0ee3 | comment |
Parodied in a Tiffany and Corey cartoon where an advance alien scout learns the true size of Earth people compared to his own. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_51fd0ee3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_51fd0ee3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tiffany and Corey (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_51fd0ee3 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_553051f | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_553051f | comment |
In Green Lantern, when Kyle Rayner gains the cosmic powers of Ion, when a fleet of crystaline aliens shows up to invade, the JLA scrambles to respond. Kyle keeps his feet on the table and informs them he 'handled it'. They didn't even last long enough to give us an ultimatum... Admittedly, this invasion is only Easily Thwarted because Kyle is, at that time, ridiculously overpowered. Without him (or at least, with him at normal power levels), it would have been a much more difficult fight. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_553051f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_553051f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Green Lantern (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_553051f | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_5bb5ad89 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_5bb5ad89 | comment |
In JLA (1997): Year One the ruler of a planet of elemental giants sends seven of his greatest warriors to a certain backwater planet for a grand battle to decide the new leader. The battle never happens; all seven are defeated by local superheroes within minutes of their arrival. The warlord decides that Earthlings are too dangerous to live and orders a full-scale invasion. And is, of course, beaten. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_5bb5ad89 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_5bb5ad89 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
JLA (1997) (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_5bb5ad89 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_608516dc | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_608516dc | comment |
A very humorous example: Mars Attacks!! involves a full-blown alien invasion. The enemies are going to exterminate all of humanity for shits and giggles, they have ray guns, Humongous Mecha, technology that allows them to shrug off nuclear weapon attacks... and they are fatally vulnerable to yodeling. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_608516dc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_608516dc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mars Attacks! | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_608516dc | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_61a39969 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_61a39969 | comment |
The other invading aliens in Avengers: Infinity War are the Outriders, who are worse than the Chitauri: they're completely unarmed, die even easier,note On top of Falcon gunning down a bunch with a 9mm pistol, much like Widow did to the Chitauri, we also see Hawkeye cut one in half effortlessly with a regular sword in Endgame. have no aircraft or vehicles at all besides a handful of unarmed thresher-wheel things (that explode when War Machine sprays minigun fire at them), and don't even appear to be sapient, having no tactics except running in a straight line across an open field. There are also only a few thousand of them. The few Avengers who actually do pack regular weapons (War Machine, Falcon, Bucky) waste them en masse, and they're only ever a danger to the protagonists due to a serious case of Hollywood Tactics and Schizo Tech on the part of the defenders. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_61a39969 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_61a39969 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Avengers: Infinity War | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_61a39969 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_62570927 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_62570927 | comment |
Of all the aliens in the Marvel Universe, the easily thwarted award has to go to the shapeshifting Skrulls. Their first appearance in Fantastic Four #2 sees Reed Richards tricking them into thinking Earth is too dangerous to invade by showing them drawings of monsters. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_62570927 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_62570927 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Marvel Universe (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_62570927 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_64d714a | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_64d714a | comment |
Exaggerated and parodied in Spaced Invaders, where the aliens are Harmless Villains who wind up helping the community they invade far more than hurting it. It didn't help that they were on completely the wrong planet; the fleet sent to the real target did even worse. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_64d714a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_64d714a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Spaced Invaders | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_64d714a | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_66521be6 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_66521be6 | comment |
In the Talents series, the Hivers (a more rapacious version of the Buggers from Ender's Game) prove to be completely unprepared for human telekinesis. Later, humanity found a pheromone combination that turned the Hivers from Borg-like aggressive conquerors to more docile, agrarian types. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_66521be6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_66521be6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tower and the Hive | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_66521be6 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_671d5c19 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_671d5c19 | comment |
In The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Beat Your Greens", Earth is invaded by a race of broccoli aliens after all of the adults are brainwashed by eating modified broccoli. Naturally, the children escape this fate and fight back, by literally eating the invading aliens. Naturally, the aliens (and probably some viewers), were absolutely horrified by this. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_671d5c19 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_671d5c19 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Powerpuff Girls (1998) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_671d5c19 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_686684b0 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_686684b0 | comment |
Agent Bishop faked up one of these to get extra funding for his organisation in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_686684b0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_686684b0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Men in Black | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_686684b0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_68b8bdfe | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_68b8bdfe | comment |
In the original X-COM: UFO Defense, the aliens' weakness is logistics. They simply don't have enough forces available at the beginning of the game to launch more than a couple of small missions a month (though their forces build up more and more later), requiring them to operate in secret through infiltration and subversion of national governments, showing the world that X-Com is too weak to defeat them and attacking and destroying X-Com bases instead of open warfare. Meanwhile, even one crashed alien craft allows for humans to import their phlebotinum, and enough research allows them to take the fight to the alien base on Mars. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_68b8bdfe | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_68b8bdfe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
X-COM: UFO Defense (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_68b8bdfe | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a4c8f1b | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a4c8f1b | comment |
Played with in One-Punch Man. The alien invaders are said to be among the strongest in the galaxy, led by Galactic Conqueror Lord Boros because of The Prophecy stating that he'll find an opponent strong enough to satiate his boredom. He finds that in Saitama, who in the midst of their fight destroys the spaceship they and the alien invaders were in. The other top heroes manage to take out one of the alien generals as well. However, a city does get completely levelled in fighting off the invasion, which one of heroes (who's a Slave to PR, and wasn't even there to help because he was busy doing a promotional interview for his upcoming film) chews all the others out on. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a4c8f1b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a4c8f1b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
One-Punch Man (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a4c8f1b | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a7e6314 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a7e6314 | comment |
In Thor: Ragnarok, Hela plans to conquer several worlds with an army of undead Asgardians, specifically her former army when she was still Princess. Unimpressive numbers aside, they never even get off the planet because the bulk of them are mowed by Skurge with a pair of regular M16s he got on a trip to Texas. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a7e6314 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a7e6314 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Thor: Ragnarok | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a7e6314 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a989b15 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a989b15 | comment |
Subverted in When The Tripods Came, the Tripods prequel. The first three Tripods are easily destroyed, and everyone believes this trope. But then The Trippy Show comes along, and... | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a989b15 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a989b15 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Tripods | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6a989b15 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6e1d5f36 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6e1d5f36 | comment |
This trope is referenced in Farscape when the crew of Moya ends up on Earth. Both John and Aeryn also note in the episode that Earth's defenses would be woefully ineffective if any alien race decided to attack. An attempt to invade Earth happens in the series finale (prior to the wrap-up mini-series), when the Scarrans send a single warship to conquer Earth. John ends up destroying it in flight, but is forced to collapse the wormhole to do it. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6e1d5f36 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6e1d5f36 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Farscape | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6e1d5f36 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6ef57be4 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6ef57be4 | comment |
The Rhombulans in Elite Beat Agents are so vulnerable to music that rhythmically beat garbage can lids is enough to knock out their soldiers. The easily-thwarted part happens when you remember what genre this game belongs in, at least from a story point-of-view. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6ef57be4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6ef57be4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Elite Beat Agents (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6ef57be4 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6f48e446 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6f48e446 | comment |
Seemingly played straight in Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars: GDI manages to shut down the Scrin invasion of Earth after a lot of effort and massive destruction across the globe, and while being hampered by the Brotherhood of Nod which (except for a few token efforts) isn't even bothering to fight against the aliens and is actually prioritizing GDI as a target over the Scrin. Then it's a Subverted Trope when you play as the Scrin campaign and you find out the fleet wasn't an Alien Invasion, it was a mining operation with a small security detail tricked into arriving early. For most of their time on Earth, the Scrin forces were running an Indy Ploy barely hanging on with lots of Improvised Weapons and uncaring leadership that were willing to let the entire force get wiped out if it gathered more information on humanity. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6f48e446 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6f48e446 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_6f48e446 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_70814599 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_70814599 | comment |
Stargate SG-1: "Politics" is about a Senator who believes that the Goa'uld are this, thus wants to cut SG-1's funding. He's not entirely wrong but underestimates the Goa'uld considerably since SG-1 keeps coming back alive. Destroying the Goa'uld by uploading a computer virus to their ship is sarcastically mentioned. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_70814599 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_70814599 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Stargate SG-1 | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_70814599 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_72f3e556 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_72f3e556 | comment |
Arrivals from the Dark: In Mikhail Akhmanov's Invasion, the super-powerful alien starship wipes out a large chunk of Earth's fleet and shrugs off a nuclear Macross Missile Massacre without a scratch. In a Deus ex Machina fashion, a different alien teleports onboard and gives the hero a device that destroys the ship's brain, shutting down all systems. In a brutal subersion of No Endor Holocaust, many major cities get hit with smaller falling alien ships full of antimatter, with the casualty count in the tens of millions, not to mention all the material damage. Earth recovers remarkably quickly in the sequel, though. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_72f3e556 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_72f3e556 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Arrivals from the Dark | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_72f3e556 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_747f61fd | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_747f61fd | comment |
Exploited in an episode of Fangface when the title character starts Playing Sick to convince the alien vanguard that the Earth is full of contagious diseases, and that a full-scale invasion would be a very bad idea. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_747f61fd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_747f61fd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Fangface | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_747f61fd | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_76dd653d | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_76dd653d | comment |
Averted entirely in Universe at War - The tutorial mission is the only time you play the humans and it's Unwinnable; Earth has to be rescued by other aliens. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_76dd653d | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_76dd653d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Universe at War (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_76dd653d | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_77677ed1 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_77677ed1 | comment |
In Sword of the Stars when the Hivers first struck humanity, they soon respond by launching hundreds of nuclear missiles, forcing the Hivers to turn tail. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_77677ed1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_77677ed1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sword of the Stars (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_77677ed1 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7cf17151 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7cf17151 | comment |
Battle: Los Angeles. The alien drone ships are controlled by a single vessel that for some reason is operating from the ground instead of from orbit where it would be difficult to destroy (especially given the drones' complete air superiority) and have better signal coverage. However, the command ship destroyed in the course of the movie only stops the aliens in Los Angeles, and they have at least 11 other ships worldwide given the number of other cities under siege, of which LA was one of the few still holding out against the invasion. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7cf17151 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7cf17151 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Battle: Los Angeles | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7cf17151 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7d20ef2c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7d20ef2c | comment |
One old Bloom County arc features an invasion by creatures called Zygorthians, who blast cities with death rays, enslave women, serve the entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir as hors d'oeuvres, and lock Pat Robertson in a room full of AIDS activists. How are they thwarted? By serving them with a Congressional subpoena. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7d20ef2c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7d20ef2c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Bloom County (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_7d20ef2c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_87e36d20 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_87e36d20 | comment |
The French comedy Le Gendarme et les extra-terrestres (The Gendarme and the Extra-Terrestrials) has police sergeant Ludovic Cruchot discover that aliens have landed in Saint-Tropez. They appear to be Mechanical Lifeforms with the ability to take on anyone's appearance and have Mind over Matter abilities. They also easily rust from water, which is how the gendarmes defeat them. The thing is, it's never made explicit that the aliens had hostile intentions. In fact, one of them appears to Cruchot in the form of his Da Chief and offers flowers as a peace gesture. Cruchot's response? Try to kill the alien for... not sure what. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_87e36d20 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_87e36d20 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Le Gendarme et les extra-terrestres | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_87e36d20 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_8d001a97 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_8d001a97 | comment |
In Slither, the alien parasite that has been stated to be responsible for multiple planetary genocides is stopped after destroying a small remote town. Sure, people died, but it's nothing compared to every living thing on Earth being destroyed. It's possible none of the previously-conquered planets had explosives- the alien planet that Kylie sees when the worm tries to take her over doesn't appear to have had any sort of civilization on it when the parasite arrived. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_8d001a97 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_8d001a97 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Slither | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_8d001a97 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_90c73dda | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_90c73dda | comment |
Animorphs: The Helmacrons are a microscopic species with egos the size of planets. Their one invasion force is a single ship the size of a plastic toy, and they still think they can win. To quote Marco, who snaps after constant exposure to their bravado: Ultimately, the entire Yeerk invasion that the series is based around ends as this, with the Yeerks mostly contained to a single California city for the whole of the story and ultimately being beaten without even managing to conquer that. In a what-if alternate story where the titular Animorphs don't acquire their morphing powers but get pulled into the war anyway, the Yeerk invasion is literally thwarted in days. Some great alien conquerors they turned out to be. Much of this is because the Yeerks could do an actual open-war invasion, but this would defy their whole objective, which is to obtain a large number of usable hosts and avoid being noticed by the Andalites. Because of this, they're stuck with a slow-and-steady approach. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_90c73dda | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_90c73dda | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Animorphs | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_90c73dda | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_925296da | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_925296da | comment |
The invasion of the Gorg in The True Meaning of Smekday. For some reason, the Gorg try to kill every single cat on planet Earth. As it turns out, the Gorg are allergic to cats due to cloning themselves so much. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_925296da | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_925296da | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The True Meaning of Smekday | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_925296da | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_92ac8bc0 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_92ac8bc0 | comment |
Xenonauts has its first research consisting of explaining "Why we haven't already lost." The Aliens are invading a planet that is nothing like the ones belonging to any of the constituent alien species, Higher oxygen levels, thicker atmosphere, ETC, ETC. The Alien ships need to be refitted for atmospheric combat, which is logistically intensive, and time consuming, forcing them to rely on small scout craft for the early phases of the invasion. Ultimately, this gives humans time to research, and reverse engineer their technologies, to hopefully stop the alien invasion before it gets intense enough to actually become a full scale invasion, which is less then a year. The aliens are not trying to outright exterminate humanity, but subjugate them to see what genetic traits can be gleaned from them, which explains why they don't just nuke us all from orbit and get it over with. The Game Over screen implies that the fate of the last humans is nightmarish. Later on it is revealed that the alien empire covers an entire galactic arm, so like the Asterix comics, the aliens are the Romans and Earth is the plucky Gaulish village just barely hanging on in the face of massive military and industrial muscle. However humanity has a chance because the alien empire is organised among feudal lines: the High Praetor overseeing the invasion is at the end of the day just a two-bit warlord invading the planet as a personal project; if his invasion fails, the rest of the empire won't care much. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_92ac8bc0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_92ac8bc0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Xenonauts (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_92ac8bc0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_93985d2b | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_93985d2b | comment |
Plan 9 from Outer Space has an invasion that involves a zombie apocalypse consisting of three non-contagious zombies. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_93985d2b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_93985d2b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Plan 9 from Outer Space | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_93985d2b | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_976efc02 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_976efc02 | comment |
Referenced in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Prince of Space. After the villain, Krankor, announces his plans to conquer the Earth, we cut to newspapers flying off the presses and the 'bots imagine the headline: | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_976efc02 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_976efc02 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mystery Science Theater 3000 | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_976efc02 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_985ad25d | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_985ad25d | comment |
When Frieza returns in Resurrection 'F' he fares a little better, managing to destroy a city and even kill Piccolo in Dragon Ball Super. The invasion is still easily handled with only a few of the Earth's strongest fighters, and Goku and Vegeta were more than enough to take care of Frieza even with his power-up. Of course, by that point they had attained a Super Mode beyond even Physical God, so 'easily' is a relative term. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_985ad25d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_985ad25d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dragon Ball Super | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_985ad25d | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_986e857e | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_986e857e | comment |
Usually justified to an extent in the original Ben 10 series, where most invasions are stopped by Ben before they could actually reach a large scale (such as the Great One in "The Big Tick," or the Mycelium in "Camp Fear"). Same for Vilgax, whose army is mostly composed of Mecha-Mooks, meaning they will stop working once their leader is gone. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_986e857e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_986e857e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ben 10 | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_986e857e | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9a7088bc | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9a7088bc | comment |
Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Day of the Dove". An alien powerful enough to destroy a Klingon battlecruiser, transmute matter and control the minds of hundreds of beings simultaneously takes control of the Enterprise. How do the humans and Klingons get rid of it? By laughing at it. Seriously. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9a7088bc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9a7088bc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Trek: The Original Series | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9a7088bc | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9dbdbeac | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9dbdbeac | comment |
Prince of Space. The chickenmen of Krankor are able to travel half a million miles to invade Earth (even though their fuel capabilities lag far behind ours) where they have their asses handed to them repeatedly by a man who has no superpowers, but can skip reasonably well. Turns out that their weapons have no effect on him.note In the original he wasn't immune to their weapons, but was dodging them. In the dub he claimed that their weapons couldn't hurt him (or was mocking their inability to hit him; the dub isn't quite clear) - but still dodged when they shot at him. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9dbdbeac | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9dbdbeac | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Prince of Space | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9dbdbeac | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9eddb2fb | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9eddb2fb | comment |
Played with with the Vespa in Irredeemable. At first, it seems that one lone Badass Normal hero snuck into their ship and forced them all to leave Earth just when things looked grimmest. Turns out he struck a Deal with the Devil with them instead. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9eddb2fb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9eddb2fb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Irredeemable (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_9eddb2fb | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a183d57f | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a183d57f | comment |
Parodied in Futurama's version of The Twilight Zone, The Scary Door. Another humorous example, this time from a B-Movie on a planet of killer robots: Fry repels the Brain invasion by trapping them in a story full of plot holes and spelling errors. It Makes Sense in Context... sort of. The Omicronians invade just to see a thousand-year-old TV show that they had missed. The Planet Express crew reenact the episode for them, and they all go home. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a183d57f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a183d57f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Futurama | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a183d57f | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a40b1126 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a40b1126 | comment |
Independence Day. A fleet of scientifically advanced homicidal aliens has its force field defense taken out by a computer virus uploaded from a Mac, allowing the humans to blow up their base ships by attacking the ship's primary weapons as they fire. While they do a ton of damage to Earth's cities before this happens, there is a huge disparity between what their technology indicates they should be capable of, and what they actually manage to accomplish. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a40b1126 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a40b1126 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Independence Day | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_a40b1126 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ad82bcd4 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ad82bcd4 | comment |
Heroman. The Skrugg are only around for about a whole of 8 or so episodes, and while they totally destroy the US Government, Joey and Heroman still manage to kick their butts to hell and back in a timespan of two or so days. Also subverted near the end of the series, where they're not just back, but even stronger. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ad82bcd4 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ad82bcd4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Heroman (Manga) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ad82bcd4 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b0fc9724 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b0fc9724 | comment |
A Saturday Night Live sketch from the '80s ("Target: Earth") featured an invasion by a race that has a spaceship... but in every other way appears to be far less advanced than Earth. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b0fc9724 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b0fc9724 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Saturday Night Live | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b0fc9724 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b4fe32c9 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b4fe32c9 | comment |
Invader Zim: Not all the Irkens are idiots. Most of them (Especially Invaders) are actually pretty competent. The one assigned to Earth on the other hand, Zim, is so stupid that they sent him into an uncharted area of space to find a planet they made up just so that he would die slowly and horribly due to starvation. They didn't anticipate Zim actually finding the planet. Despite all the advanced technology at his disposal, he is kept at bay by a lone Conspiracy Theorist (with occasional help from his sister). This trope is also parodied in the episode "Germs", where an Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion (by germs) in a bad sci-fi movie makes Zim paranoid about falling into the same pit-trap, and Hilarity Ensues. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b4fe32c9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b4fe32c9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Invader Zim | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b4fe32c9 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b5a087d7 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b5a087d7 | comment |
Parodied in Robot Chicken, when a bunch of drunken celebrities are revealed to be lizard aliens a la V (1983); they start their invasion because they've been drinking tons of alcohol to kill our deadly atmospheric bacteria, and were unaware of the side-effects. (The only exception is Mel Gibson, he was there for the uniforms and "team hatred".) As you'd expect from a bunch of drunk-as-a-skunk celebrity aliens, it goes poorly and they all wind up dead by the end of the skit. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b5a087d7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b5a087d7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Robot Chicken | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b5a087d7 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b618b457 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b618b457 | comment |
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b618b457 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b618b457 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b618b457 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b6cb9396 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b6cb9396 | comment |
Lost in Space episode "Invaders From The Fifth Dimension" features Will Robinson abducted by a group of aliens who are repulsed by the sight of tears due to being unable to understand emotions, and eventually let him go as a result. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b6cb9396 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b6cb9396 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lost in Space | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b6cb9396 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b747108f | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b747108f | comment |
Out of the Dark by David Weber goes along a similar premise to World War except that it takes place in the modern day and the aliens get most of the world's governments to surrender within days by dropping large amounts of rocks. But their ground forces still get Curbstomped by the various Resistance groups that crop up ranging from an alliance between Al-Qaeda and an American Armor Battalion to a couple survivalist families in the Midwest. Up until the aliens rediscover nerve gas, but then Vlad Drakul wakes up and kicks alien ass. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b747108f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b747108f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Out of the Dark | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b747108f | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b92d0e9a | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b92d0e9a | comment |
In Journey to Saturn, the alien invasion is thwarted by having the heroes throw and shoot beer at them. It probably wasn't a good idea to invade Denmark. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b92d0e9a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b92d0e9a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Journey to Saturn | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_b92d0e9a | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ba9d1b1c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ba9d1b1c | comment |
Signs: The Reveal is that plain old water is pretty much a deadly acid to the aliens, yet they invade the conspicuously water-covered planet Earth without any protective gear or weapons other than the poison gas glands in their wrists. Apart from that, they're slow and weak enough to be easily killed by an average human with a baseball bat. The global invasion is resolved offscreen in a few days with no noted lasting damage to humanity. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ba9d1b1c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ba9d1b1c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Signs | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ba9d1b1c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_bcadd7cb | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_bcadd7cb | comment |
The Ultramarine series of Warhammer 40,000 features a Tyranid invasion on Tarsis Ultra. It was a tendril that made up half of the supposedly unstoppable Hive Fleet Leviathan that was annihilated by 2 companies of Space Marines, 2 Imperial Guard regiments and a rather small and underwhelming Imperial Navy battlegroup. note Meanwhile the other tendril devoured 20 sectors in under 2 weeks including some no-name Space Marine chapter homeworlds. The battle was won when Ventris poisoned the Hive queen, but still. Unfortunately, there are so many similar victories in novels and codices that it makes fans question: if just so few IG regiments and Astartes companies can thwart a galaxy-ending threat, why hasn't the Imperium, which has millions of regiments and thousands of companies of Astartes, won already? | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_bcadd7cb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_bcadd7cb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Warhammer 40,000 (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_bcadd7cb | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c0d7fd2e | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c0d7fd2e | comment |
Bump in the Night featured a pair of aliens named Sleemoth and Gloog as a pair of recurring villains. Mr. Bumpy, Squishington, and Molly Coddle always beat their plans to invade easily because they are rather overconfident and incompetent. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c0d7fd2e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c0d7fd2e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Bump in the Night | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c0d7fd2e | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c35747a3 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c35747a3 | comment |
The Deathworlders opens with the cyborg reptilian Hunters, the scourge of the galaxy and the terror of trillions, landing on Earth expecting to bathe in glory and the blood of a particularly tough new species, but ultimately just more "Prey". Unfortunately, their usual Prey are not accustomed one bit to worlds infested with bacteria and plagued with constantly unpredictable forces of nature, and the Hunters are therefore not accustomed one bit to Hunting anything that evolves on a "Deathworld"; their weapons, which would turn a typical sentient into a nice, multicolored paste, only serves to knock humans back a few feet. The invasion of Earth ends with a comically decisive human victory...and it wasn't even an army who joined battle with the Hunters, but a hockey team in Vancouver taken by surprise by the Hunters mid-game. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c35747a3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c35747a3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Jenkinsverse | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c35747a3 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who loves this trope, with dozens of aliens invasions ranging from single vessels to vast fleets (The World Is Always Doomed, after all) being Easily Thwarted by a single person with unusual dress sense, albeit one with thousands of years of experience and access to some of the most advanced (if somewhat unreliable) technology ever created. The spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures plays it even straighter than its source material. This generally reaches its extreme whenever the Doctor fends off Dalek fleets. For reference, Daleks are the scourge of the universe, with precious few civilizations being able to stand against even small numbers of them. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c43df4d8 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c511c682 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c511c682 | comment |
Later on it is revealed that the alien empire covers an entire galactic arm, so like the Asterix comics, the aliens are the Romans and Earth is the plucky Gaulish village just barely hanging on in the face of massive military and industrial muscle. However humanity has a chance because the alien empire is organised among feudal lines: the High Praetor overseeing the invasion is at the end of the day just a two-bit warlord invading the planet as a personal project; if his invasion fails, the rest of the empire won't care much. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c511c682 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c511c682 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Asterix (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_c511c682 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ca5d97f1 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ca5d97f1 | comment |
The Science Fiction Sketch of Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which blancmanges from Andromeda seek to win Wimbledon by turning everyone in the world into a Scotsman. They were thwarted when two people ran out onto the tennis court and ate the blancmanges. It would have been more easily thwarted, but the camera rudely cut away early in their first appearance. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ca5d97f1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ca5d97f1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Monty Python's Flying Circus | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ca5d97f1 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cb6abef3 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cb6abef3 | comment |
The Chitauri invasion in The Avengers (2012) consisted of what amounts to light infantry and a handful of much hardier Leviathans. Yet Loki and The Other were positively certain they'd be enough to take over the entire planet. While they do have the titular Super Team on the ropes at one point, their lack of tactics past a Zerg Rush and the fact they're susceptible to human sidearms makes a longterm victory unlikely. However, that doesn't even come to pass when a single (mostly accidental) attack on their home dimension reveals they're a Keystone Army and they're instantly killed. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cb6abef3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cb6abef3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Avengers (2012) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cb6abef3 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cd899ed6 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cd899ed6 | comment |
In the Grand Finale of Kim Possible, two aliens and their robot army invade the world "in the time it takes to order a pizza", but only hold on to it for a few hours before being defeated. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cd899ed6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cd899ed6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Grand Finale | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cd899ed6 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cea2cefe | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cea2cefe | comment |
In the Birdman (1967) episode "Skon of Space", Skon, the advance scout for an alien invasion, attacks Birdman. Birdman defeats him and sends him home with the warning that everyone on Earth has powers like him, so any invasion would be futile. Birdman calls Falcon 7 and warns him to prepare for an invasion just in case Skon's superiors are not as gullible as him. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cea2cefe | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cea2cefe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Birdman (1967) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_cea2cefe | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d2c93f02 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d2c93f02 | comment |
In the classic horror movie The Day of the Triffids, the eponymous carnivorous plants are killed off by sea water. Contrast with the original novel in which the invasion isn't thwarted, the survivors instead having to adapt to the Cosy Catastrophe. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d2c93f02 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d2c93f02 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Day of the Triffids | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d2c93f02 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d5e9a8ed | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d5e9a8ed | comment |
The Ultimates: The Chitauri organized a deep and complex infiltration that would allow them to destroy humanity's free will and turn everyone into mindless drones, as their race had been doing on many other planets. But then, the main Chitauri fleet shows up and orders those on Earth to pack and leave, because of intergalactic reasons. Without time to purify the planet, they leave a bomb for a Earth-Shattering Kaboom, but Thor managed to teleport it to another dimension. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d5e9a8ed | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d5e9a8ed | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Ultimates (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_d5e9a8ed | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_de00af4b | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_de00af4b | comment |
In one episode of Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot, Care-a-Lot is invaded by Gobblebugs, tiny bugs that eat any and all plants, except ones that are yellow. Once the Care Bears realize this, they turn all the remaining plants yellow, and the bugs lose interest and leave. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_de00af4b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_de00af4b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_de00af4b | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e081af79 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e081af79 | comment |
In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Every Man Bob has thwarted two alien attacks, one by Fructose Riboflavin and one by the Pirates of Ipecac, though in both instances he had help. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e081af79 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e081af79 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e081af79 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e15a3879 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e15a3879 | comment |
The Shroobs in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Right at the very end of the game, baby Luigi's crying on a Shroob Mushroom reveals that the Shroob materials dissolve when exposed to baby tears. The present-time E. Gadd creates an immeasurable amount of water with the same composition as baby tears in response to this. He then pumps it through the time-holes, saturating the past Mushroom Kingdom in baby tears, completely removing any traces of the Shroobs from the Mushroom Kingdom. However, it seems Bowser had Shroob-napped a few survivors and put them in the deep freeze, to be battled in the next game of the series | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e15a3879 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e15a3879 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e15a3879 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e5d5d23c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e5d5d23c | comment |
Doom: in most of the games, the armies of Hell invade Mars and are defeated almost solely by a single Badass Normal mostly using a 12-gauge shotgun and a minigun. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e5d5d23c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e5d5d23c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Doom (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e5d5d23c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e8d13e52 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e8d13e52 | comment |
Urusei Yatsura has a few of these. The series started with the Oni deciding to invade Earth, but then deciding to call it off if a randomly chosen earthling could beat Princess Lum in a game of Tag. Naturally, Ataru manages to win (even if he does end up unintentionally proposing to their princess in the process). Other invaders include a bunch in a spaceship that got mistaken for a rugby ball (the battering it took, plus the way Ataru chased the princess in charge after being miniaturised into it scared them off). Also there was the time a shapechanging alien came to Earth and tried brainwashing the locals... unfortunately he disguised himself as Ataru... and his brainwashing technique involved pressing his lips against his victim's. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e8d13e52 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e8d13e52 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Urusei Yatsura (Manga) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e8d13e52 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e9f7699c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e9f7699c | comment |
In the backstory of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, the Vermicious Knids have tried to invade and conquer Earth the way they did Venus, the Moon, and Mars, but Earth's atmosphere is too much for them — what look to humans like shooting stars are actually Vermicious Knids burning up when they try to pass through. In the novel's present, they invade Space Hotel USA and manage to eat some of its crew, but the rest are rescued by Willy Wonka and company using the titular elevator to tow their ship to safety. When the aliens attempt to drag the humans to their home planet, Mr. Wonka instead steers the elevator and ship back into Earth's atmosphere, finishing the monsters off. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e9f7699c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e9f7699c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_e9f7699c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_eb5d7301 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_eb5d7301 | comment |
Amphibia: While it wasn't easy, Andrias' invasion of Earth was thwarted by the heroes before he could even conquer Los Angeles, even though Andrias and The Core prepared for this invasion for 1,000 years, and that they already had the experience of conquering countless worlds before, the girls even lampshade this. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_eb5d7301 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_eb5d7301 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Amphibia | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_eb5d7301 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec28245c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec28245c | comment |
Dragon Ball Z: When Freeza and his father stop by with a ship filled with soldiers, they are killed quickly by Trunks with no casualties. When Frieza returns in Resurrection 'F' he fares a little better, managing to destroy a city and even kill Piccolo in Dragon Ball Super. The invasion is still easily handled with only a few of the Earth's strongest fighters, and Goku and Vegeta were more than enough to take care of Frieza even with his power-up. Of course, by that point they had attained a Super Mode beyond even Physical God, so 'easily' is a relative term. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec28245c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec28245c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dragon Ball Z | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec28245c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec5cf89a | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec5cf89a | comment |
In Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, the alien Squillacci are the ones who draw Crop Circles and experiment on cattle. Their repeated invasion attempts are stopped only by a guy in a Humongous Mecha and an android the size and mentality of a child. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec5cf89a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec5cf89a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_ec5cf89a | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_efbf004f | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_efbf004f | comment |
The High Crusade: Invaders landing in England in AD 1345 can only defend themselves against energy weapons, leaving themselves helpless against swords and arrows. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_efbf004f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_efbf004f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The High Crusade | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_efbf004f | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f6da9a18 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f6da9a18 | comment |
Sgt. Frog: While mostly the characters are too lazy to pull off an invasion attempt, when they do you can bet it'll fall apart pretty easily. One season finale involved a massive, monolithic alien the size of a city that was defeated when it slipped on a banana peel, which sent it hurtling into the sun. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f6da9a18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f6da9a18 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sgt. Frog (Manga) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f6da9a18 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f849875f | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f849875f | comment |
The aliens in It's Walky! are mostly dimwitted pop-culture junkies who are perfectly vulnerable to earth weapons, and can't even operate their own technology properly, because the suits they must wear to survive on earth dampen their telepathic abilities. Attempting to create an army of super-powered human slaves who can use their tech results in an army of super-powered human not-slaves who devote themselves to fighting the invaders with their tech. Oops. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f849875f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f849875f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
ItsWalky | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f849875f | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f9742e61 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f9742e61 | comment |
In the Dragonriders of Pern books, Thread is a ravenous mycorrhizoid spore that can eat virtually anything carbon-based and burrow into the earth. But water (even a good soaking thunderstorm) kills it, as does fire and cold. In one book, the Pernese don't realize that Threadfall has started because the first few falls are over the northern area of the continent during winter. Also grubs, but those were genetically engineered.If it seems improbable that Thread could ever live on any planet with anything worth eating, that's because it is. It's a deep-space organism which only falls on Pern due to a very unfortunate accident. Once Thread falls, it's doomed — but it can still do a hell of a lot of damage before it dies. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f9742e61 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f9742e61 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dragonriders of Pern | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_f9742e61 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fa5e90fd | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fa5e90fd | comment |
Subverted in City of Heroes- the extra-dimensional Rikti invaders turned out to be vulnerable to magic, so they targeted magic users as soon as they found out. Their invasion still caused massive devastation, though not quite to After the End levels, and decimated the Superhero population. And then they started learning how to use magic themselves. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fa5e90fd | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fa5e90fd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
City of Heroes (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fa5e90fd | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fb1f271c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fb1f271c | comment |
Although the invasion is never shown to have actually happened, in Lilo & Stitch Earth avoids invasion by being the natural habitat of a highly endangered species... mosquitoes. What's more, the decision was apparently based on the testimony of the Earth-native who tricked them, with not even a basic survey done to see if it was true. There was a little bit of implied help from the seemingly Obstructive Bureaucrat, who in a twist of that trope was helping the good guys for once. At the very least, when they get (back) to Earth, she recognizes the secret agent that masterminded the whole shenanigans to save the world in the first place when they showed up the first times, and seems to be on relatively friendly terms. |
|
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fb1f271c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fb1f271c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lilo & Stitch | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fb1f271c | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fd19ca35 | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fd19ca35 | comment |
Spectreman: Dr. Gori attempts to invade the Earth after being exiled from Planet E. However, due to the fact that he only has on ally (who's a complete dumbass), La, and because Nebula 71 deployed the android Spectreman to stop him, he doesn't get very far. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fd19ca35 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fd19ca35 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Spectreman | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fd19ca35 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fe16b92c | type |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fe16b92c | comment |
In Happy Heroes, Big M. and Little M.'s goal is to take over Planet Xing, but whatever schemes they devise to do so always fall flat on their faces, most often due to the Supermen defeating whatever Monster of the Week they send out. | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fe16b92c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fe16b92c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Happy Heroes (Animation) | hasFeature |
Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion / int_fe16b92c |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.