History ApocalypseHow / ClassX

* ''Film/{{Eternals}}'': [[spoiler:The Emergence, the birth of a Celestial that was planted in the Earth]], will destroy the planet.

** In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', [[spoiler:Vulcan implodes into a black hole]].

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' has had Unicron eat a planet or two. He's also eaten a universe or two. It's AllThereInTheManual.

* It is mentioned by [[spoiler: [[TimeAbyss Lord of Change]] (cough, [[ByronicHero Mercury]], cough cough)]] at the end of [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9998018/34/Phoenix-fire Phoenix-fire]] that one of the the only two sure-fire ways to kill him would be to do this to Earth. The kicker? [[ItIsDehumanizing It]] [[WhoWantsToLiveForever wants]] [[DeathSeeker to]] [[NothingLeftToDoButDie die.]] The other way? [[AndIMustScream Wait until the Earth has cooled down enough to not even have the energy of a campfire.]]
* In the MagicalGirl CrossOver ''FanFic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'', [[spoiler:this is done by the ''heroes'' to the uninhabited planet [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Carnaaji]], as a last-ditch effort to keep a resurrected and repowered [[ArtifactOfDoom Book of Darkness]] and a [[PlanetEater planet-eating monstrosity]] from escaping off-world.]]

** And then Beerus from ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' takes it one step further when he blows up half a planet - by ''tapping one finger!''

* In WesternAnimation/RobotechTheShadowChronicles, humans nearly blasted Earth, averted only by [[spoiler: Invid Regess destroying the missiles]]. Though they were aiming for Class 2-3 just to get rid of the Invid, but [[spoiler: underestimated the power of the Neutron-S missiles.]]

* ''Anime/EurekaSeven'' has a phenomenon known as the Limit of Questions. If there are too many intelligent life forms, a black hole or something will destroy the planet. Specifically, the Limit of Questions means that too much sapient life occupying a certain amount of space will create a rift that destroys damn near everything close by, like, say, the planet said life is on.
* Attempted in ''Anime/{{Diebuster}}'', using [[spoiler:Earth]] as a projectile at significant fractions of the speed of light. [[spoiler:The attempt is stopped by Nono/Buster Machine 7 as the Diebuster]]
* ''Anime/RahXephon''. Temporarily.
* Sailor Galaxia is seen casually destroying planets in [[Anime/SailorMoon Sailor Moon StarS]] way early on in the series.
** She's also seen doing it in her backstory in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]]. And that was ''before'' meeting Chaos.

* This ''nearly'' happened in ''Anime/KillLaKill'' courtesy of [[spoiler:the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Life Fibers]], which can form a cocoon in the sky over the planet, then breed while absorbing the planet's energy until it blows up and spreads the Fibers through space, in search of new worlds.]]

* Adam Warren's adaptation of the ''LightNovel/DirtyPair'' revealed that the Earth had been destroyed decades earlier in a massive GreyGoo outbreak, the "Nanoclysm", which led to nanotechnology being regulated and virtually outlawed. The villain of the miniseries planned to use a cache of nanotech to take over HeroesRUs's Central Computer, and from there, the known universe. (Unfortunately, the Central Computer revealed that it was partially based on something the Nanoclysm left humanity as an apology…)

* The Franchise/CthulhuMythos has Dholes, enormous worms that destroy planets by burrowing through them until they collapse. In the TabletopRPG based on the books, an investigator unfortunate enough to be attacked directly by a Dhole will get a single roll -- to determine if there's enough bits left for a funeral.
* The Literature/{{Lensman}} books end up using planets as billiard balls against other planets as well as planet-sized masses of antimatter. The former results in a minor sun, while the latter leaves just a scattering of small rocks and immense quantities of hard radiation.
* Creator/GregBear's ''The Forge of God'' reaches its climax as [[spoiler:a neutronium-antineutronium bomb, deposited in the core of the Earth by malevolent von Neumann machines, detonates, disrupting the entire planet over the course of a few hours with enough force as to put significant portions of it in orbit around the dead, molten remains. A small selection of humanity is rescued before the disaster by ''another'' group of friendly von Neumanns who had failed to stop the attack.]]

* In Eric Nylund's ''Signal to Noise'', not-so-nice aliens provide humans with a teleportation system which is powered by the rotational inertia of the planet. The aliens then abuse this system to blow up the Earth, as well as an unrelated detonation of Mars by some post-humans trying to get away from Earth as fast as possible.
* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfSevenSuns'', the Faeros do this to the Moon. Yes, chunks do threaten Earth, but a coordinated response is possible. Additionally, humans destroy a brown dwarf more than 13 times the mass of Jupiter inhabited by Hydrogues, who then obliterate four moons around that once-planet-now-star (Class X destruction), declare war on humanity and the Ildirans, attempt to destroy two human planets, manage to destroy one Ildiran (two would-be Class 3s except other parts of humanity help them, and one Class 4-5 forcing an evacuation of the few who survive up to that point), had attempted to obliterate three ancient races previously, make a second (or possibly even further in) attempt on two of them, destroy a number of skymines, which given the size of the machines and their crew could count as Class 0s, to name a few things that happen.

* Michael Reaves' ''The Shattered World'' is a fantasy novel about a world that already suffered a Class X, but ''without'' losing its civilizations or ecosystems. The planet broke apart, but some fast action by the world's wizards kept its many fragments orbiting one another in an envelope of breathable air. The sequel, ''The Burning Realm'', is about attempts to avert the belated Class 3 and Class 5 consequences of this Apocalypse before these orbit-sustaining spells wear out.
* This is [[BigBad Ruin]]'s immediate goal in ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'', and [[NearVillainVictory he comes uncomfortably close to succeeding]]. Because he's a literal god of entropy and decay, it's implied that having accomplished this he'd then keep marching up the scale if left unchecked.
* In ''When Worlds Collide'' by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, the Earth is about to be hit and destroyed by the larger of a twin planet. Fortunately the smaller planet is drop-in replacement for Earth. The story (which arguably is the ur-creation that gave rise to stories like ''Franchise/FlashGordon'' and the many similar tales that followed), revolves around the attempt of a group of scientists to build a [[TheArk pair of rocketships]] to escape a world facing destruction.

* In Literature/TheCulture series, planetary annihilation is practically a casual event. So much so, that in ''Literature/TheHydrogenSonata'', when a Culture [[DeusEstMachina Mind]] performs a precise hyperspace jump into an underground tunnel, it was quite aware that even the tiniest error in the maneuver would have destroyed the entire planet.

* In the final story of the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series, the old Earth is destroyed to make room for a new Earth created by God on which the holy city New Jerusalem will be placed.
* ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'': The Fifth Men's exodus to Venus is prompted when the Moon's orbit begins to decay, causing it to fragment and bombard the Earth into uninhabitability.
* ''Literature/TheLastGuardian2001'': Earth and Noron are both destroyed utterly. But... there is still (or again?) a planet the Shining City lands on in the epilogue.

* By the end of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' season eight, three planets have been destroyed by MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds

* Season two of the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' sees Lord Zedd building his own zord Serpentera, a giant craft specifically stated to be capable of wiping out entire planets. In the episode of its introduction, Zedd takes Serpentera, follows the Rangers to a deserted planet, and destroys it. Luckily, with the sheer amount of power it uses, Serpentera runs out of power really quickly, making it a very ineffective weapon in the long-term.

** In ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' season 4, [[spoiler:Kwejian]] is utterly destroyed by gravitational waves from a mysterious Dark Matter Anomaly.

* The planet Eris was blown up in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge''.
* This is the worst case [[NintendoHard (and most likely)]] scenario of ''TabletopGame/TheApocalypseStone''.

* Planet annihilation is possible in ''VideoGame/StarRuler''. Simply park a big enough ship nearby, order it to attack, and the ship will bomb the planet to the point where the planet will break up.

* ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'' episode two (entitled ''The Earth Explodes!'') has the villains of the first episode position a planetary destruction ship in orbit over Earth. If you screw up, you get to activate it. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Guess what happens.]]
* High level Overlords in ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' are usually capable of destroying entire worlds in giant [[EarthShatteringKaboom Earth-Shattering Kabooms]]. It's best not [[NonstandardGameOver to get them mad enough to do this]].
* In ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion 2'', the player could research, build, and mount a stellar converter on a large enough ship and wipe out entire planets with a nifty movie showing the massive explosion. This typically doesn't eliminate the empire that occupies it, but it does remove the planet from play permanently. Though if the system still has a colony, the resulting asteroid belt can be used to build a ''new'' planet. Even better, all planets constructed this way have the same size, which may be larger than the original one. Also, it is possible to avoid the "no terraforming on toxic planets" rule this way, making this a very rare example of using a Class X as a reasonable (if abusive) step in terraforming.
** Also, the newly reconstructed planet can easily be ''bigger'' than the original one since all planets built from asteroids are the same size, making this actually a Class 0, unless you happen to lose your last planet in this fashion.
* ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion 3'' also has the Stellar Converter, but it was sadly de-powered to Class 6 level, leaving the planet an un-colonizable, lifeless cinder, but otherwise intact.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. [[BigBad Sephiroth's]] plan for his planet was to [[spoiler:crash Meteor into it, thus forcing the Lifestream to stream out of the impact point in the planet's death throes. Where Sephiroth will absorb the entire Lifestream, [[GodhoodSeeker become a god]], and use the planet's lifeless husk as a giant spaceship to explore other worlds.]]
* Cyborg Smoke's gloriously OTT (and immediately [[RetCon retconned]]) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwFKxs0YTLE fatality]] from ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3''.
* In the cult DOS game Captain Blood, YOU could nuke a planet into tiny pieces of VGA debris, though sometimes this would make the game {{Unwinnable}}.
* Though possibly not a perfect example, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has [[http://www.wowpedia.org/Outland Outland]], which is the result of portals ripping the planet to bits, leaving only a large continent-sized chunk and several hundred minor pieces of debris. [[RuleOfCool Yet the place still supports a few thousand inhabitants despite by logic lacking an atmosphere and dangerously close to a planet that would drag the left over planet chunks into fiery death...]]
** Of course, Outland isn't floating in space. As the EarthShatteringKaboom that transformed Draenor into Outland was a result of dozens of interplanetary portals straining the planet, Outland was tossed into the Twisting Nether, which explains its complete disregard for physics.
* ''Galaxian 3'''s bad ending (whether you fail to destroy all of the power relays or die in the middle of your journey) has Cannon Seed using its planet-fueled WaveMotionGun to blow up the Earth into "fragments smaller than California."
* Take a guess at what the Planet Buster in ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' does? There's a reason its use is forbidden by the Galactic Federation.
* This happens to Palma in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'', while Motavia suffers a Class 2 shortly after the end of the game.
* The entire story of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' is based around the premise of rebuilding the Earth after it is transformed into the embryonic, demon-infested Vortex World as the result of an event called the Conception. The Earth as you once knew it, and any living thing outside of a small hospital in the middle of Tokyo, is utterly destroyed. This happens in the ''first ten minutes of the game'', by the way.
* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002'', [[BigBad Chairman Drek]] tries to do this ''twice''- first with the [[BigBulkyBomb Planet Buster Maximus]] to destroy Hoven, and again with the [[WaveMotionGun Deplanetizer]] to destroy Veldin, the latter being used to blow up his new planet ([[KarmicDeath and him]]).
* The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Planet Eaters]] in ''[[VideoGame/{{Boktai}} Lunar Knights]]'' are able to trigger one of these, especially when its governing [[OmnicidalManiac Immortal]] decides keeping it around isn't worth it any longer. This can be because the Immortal is bored, because they just hate the people on the world, or because their plot [[WorldOfSilence to impose eternity upon the cosmos]] [[DidntSeeThatComing goes off the rails]]. [[spoiler:[[TheWoobie Alice]] is a lagomid survivor or a descendant thereof (Sheridan explicitly says a Planet Eater visited her homeworld), while the titular Lunar Knights cause Polidori to trigger its self-destruct before it can do the same to theirs (and shoot him down before he can attempt a Class 4/5 himself). [[SequelHook When he's revived in the optional epilogue, Dumas states that this act of rebellion has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the Immortals, but we haven't seen this play out so far]]...]]

* An unusual version happens in ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'', where it is a planetary-sized being that gets destroyed this way, Wyzen gets punched to death and explodes after turning into the planet sized Gongen Wyzen.
** This is also narrowly averted in the last episode where [[spoiler:Gaia is almost torn apart by a gigantic laser.]]
* In ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VI'', if you don't get the Ritual of the Void from Archibald Ironfist but go ahead and destroy the Reactor anyway -- or if you have the Ritual but teleport out of the Hive rather than leaving by way of the exit -- you blow up the world. You were ''warned'', fercryinoutloud.
* There was a reason the aliens were afraid of VideoGame/TheMaw. It's too bad their maximum-security specimen (and you) escape when their ship crash-landed. With nothing else in the offing, you and Maw work together to fight for your freedom. However, it becomes clear that Maw has an [[OneTrackMindedHunger ever-growing appetite for]] ''anything''. He climbs up the destruction scale as you progress and, by the end of the game, reaches this level... [[spoiler:by ''[[PlanetEater eating]]'' the entire planet (you escape in a spaceship). Worse, the implication in the closing credits sequence is that Maw is not done yet]].
* Your [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Eater]] does this in the "Bad" ending of ''VideoGame/ChimeraBeast''. It then proceeds into a Class X-2 and maybe even X-3 as it starts destroying more planets in its way. And the cause of all this is... [[NiceJobBreakingItHero you, the player]].
* In ''VideoGame/MachineKnight'', Frain's original mission is to find a way to save his world from the "black sun" that science accidentally created. The opening narration states it's simultaneously eating up the last of the sun's energies ''and'' pulling the planet dangerously close, so depending on if the sun eventually goes nova or if there are other planets nearby, it could even be upgraded to a class X-2.
* ''VideoGame/{{Muri}}'': Mars has disappeared. Presumably destroyed.

* This very concept is the entire idea behind the RTS game ''VideoGame/PlanetaryAnnihilation'', though what would be lower levels of Apocalypse How are certainly possible.

* In ''[[VideoGame/RAYSeries RayForce]]'', this is the goal of the protagonist: Earth has been so overrun by an omnicidal AI that decides its clones and creations are superior to the originals that the only option left is to give the entire planet a MercyKill.
* The premise of ''[[VideoGame/DontEscape Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive]]'' is that the Moon has blown up, and in four days, the fragments will crash into Earth. No living creature will be left alive, no matter how far underground they are.

* This is what will happen to the world of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' if [[EldritchAbomination The Snarl]] gets released - and it ''is'' what happened to the previous world before the existing one was made (or so we've been told). Arguably a case of Metaphysical Destruction, as the Snarl is made of the threads of Creation itself, and is predicted to destroy the entire known 'verse, its inhabitants' souls, and the gods themselves, reducing everything to primordial Chaos. Meanwhile, the [[spoiler:gods' proposed solution of physically unmaking the world and carefully rebuilding a new one to better imprison the Snarl]] is harder to classify, but seems closer to a straightforward Planetary Scale Physical Destruction.
** Comic [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1139.html 1139]] made it worse. [[spoiler:The world didn't get destroyed ''once''. It happened ''too many times to count''.]]
* In ''Servants of the Imperium'', a moon the characters visited began falling apart as ''collateral damage'' from a space battle going on in orbit around it. Specifically, it was hit by ''a single stray Lance shot''. But, this is the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe, so what do you expect.

* In ''WebAnimation/TheDementedCartoonMovie'', the world is continually either blowing up or crashing into the sun.
* In ''Literature/FineStructure'', this happens to [[spoiler:the Earth]] as a side note during the FinalBattle. Barely any human casualties though, thanks to the intervention of some really advanced [[spoiler:alternate universe humans with copious experience in large-scale split-second rescues]]. They even build a new planet afterward.
* The Literature/ChaosTimeline faces this threat at its end. (Cause: NanoMachines.)
* [[http://qntm.org/destroy One article]] at Website/ThingsOfInterest discusses why and how to destroy the Earth. Destroying humanity is not good enough, and ideally the destruction would be permanent.
* [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending on whose lore you read]], Lord Helix and Red were attempting one of these at the end of [[LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemonCrystal Twitch Plays Pokemon Crystal]]. The Godslayers had the task of stopping them from doing so, a task which they succeeded at.

* In the season three finale of the 2012 ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' series, the Triceraton Empire comes knocking and prepares to destroy Earth with the Heart of Darkness, a device that creates a black hole that will engulf and annihilate the planet. Despite New York's most powerful heroes, mutants, and crimelords assembling to fend off the invasion, a betrayal from Shredder results in the crew failing to stop the Heart of Darkness before it activates, and thus the entire supporting cast is sucked into the ensuing black hole to their deaths, along with the rest of Earth. It takes a CosmicRetcon six months in the making to go back in time and avert this.

** There's also the Strange Matter apocalypse. Same thing, except with unstoppable strange quantum matter - think of the Earth melting like ice cream in the hot sun and evaporating.

* Models show that a few billion years from now, Mars is all but confirmed to pass too close for comfort from Earth [[note]]somewhere in the lines of 700km[[/note]], with a small chance of frontal impact. [[note]]Don't panic yet, though. The models in question were exploring what could happen given various tweaks to Mercury's orbit thanks to interactions with the gravity wells of other planets. After running 2,501 simulations with a 0.38mm (yes, less than a millimeter) change in Mercury's orbital track the results were: 2,472 - nothing noteworthy happens; 25 - glancing collisions with Venus or the Sun (either of which would destroy Mercury); 3 - Mercury drops into the Sun, has a brief career as the Solar System's largest shooting star, and is obliterated; 1 - Mercury has a head-on with Venus; 1 - Mercury perturbs the orbit of Mars, resulting in Mars pulling a close pass by Earth at an altitude of about 800km in about 3.34 billion years, and the resulting strain rips Mars apart and it showers Earth with debris. The Paris Observatory places the odds on Mercury pulling a drunk-driver in the Inner System and running into another planet or running another planet off its road at less than 1%.[[/note]]

** ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' has Dr. Soren attempt to re-enter the Nexus… by destroying the Veridian star. The shockwave will annihilate every planet nearby, including one with three billion primitive aliens living on it. [[It actually happens, but then Picard averts it with time travel.]]

** The S2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' shows most of [[spoiler:Pakled Planet]] has been reduced to a huge crater thanks to [[spoiler:a varruvium bomb. The Pakleds probably did it to themselves by accident (and were planning on doing the same to Earth), but for reasons yet to be revealed, Capt. Freeman is falsely blamed and arrested by Starfleet]].

** The S2 finale of ''Series/StarTrekLowerDecks'' shows most of [[spoiler:Pakled Planet]] has been reduced to a huge crater thanks to [[spoiler:a varruvium bomb. The Pakleds probably did it to themselves by accident (and were planning on doing the same to Earth), but for reasons yet to be revealed, Capt. Freeman is falsely blamed and arrested by Starfleet]].

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' gave us the Doomsday Machine, which would break up a planet into smaller chunks and then eat them, and the Xindi Weapon from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''.
* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', the episode "Scorpion" features Species 8472, which blows a Borg planet to pieces with just 9 small ships.

** And Frieza has a move called "Destroy the Planet."

** Earth and ([[ArcFatigue eventually]]) Namek in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. Earth was reset with the Dragon Balls, and part of Namek's population was resurrected and given a new home. Arlia was less lucky.
** Earth actually gets it twice, first from Kid Buu (although Super Buu had performed a Class 3 previously), then again in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' thanks to the effects of the Black Star Dragon Balls. The Namekian Dragon Balls restored it both times.

* Narrowly averted in a ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'' story about [[HollywoodAcid the Universal Solvent]], which dissolves everything except diamonds and does not dissipate. When it's poured to the ground, it's going to [[MinovskyPhysics keep dissolving]] the planet from within unless the heroes recapture it with a diamond-lined container.

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'', Karmang's evil scheme involves two parallel Earths colliding with each other and blowing up.
* ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'' ends with the eponymous planet exploding, and the whole Kryptonian race becoming nearly extinct ''again''.

* The Literature/{{Lensman}} books end up using planets as billiard balls against other planets as well as planet-sized masses of antimatter.

* Episode 3 of ''Series/Loki2021'' takes place on a moon about to crash into its planet, obliterating the moon and everything on it.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The Death Star has the power to destroy entire planets, and in ''Film/ANewHope'', it is used on Alderaan, Leia's home planet. ''Film/RogueOne'' reveals that it can create [[spoiler: [[WorldWreckingWave a massive but localized wave of destruction]] on a planet's surface as well,]] if only one reactor is activated.

* ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'': Though a handful of humans evacuate.
* [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Marvin the Martian]] ''tried'' to accomplish this, but was repeatedly thwarted by a [[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny dangerous Earth creature]]. In ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'', Planet X, the planet of the shaving cream atom, is blown to pieces by Duck Dodgers and the Martian one-upping one another.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders'', the Beast Planet [[PlanetEater eats other planets]], as demonstrated with planets Water, Tek, Fire, the Prison Planet, and Reptizar. Another planet was blown up by setting a crap load of explosives next to its (nonfunctional) world engines. The Beast ate the remaining chunks. Given that the Beast Planet is not only capable of self-propelled intergalatic flight, but actively seeking out new planets to consume, it could be taken as an example of X-2.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', Fox and her mother are working with some nanomachines which escape and begin a GreyGoo scenario (below), where everything it doesn't turn into more nanomachines is restructured into unchanging order. Since it's meant to grow and evolve it will eventually engulf the entire earth (the heroes only have as much time to stop it as they do because it's reached it's current bounds and will take some time to gain the capacity to come further). They eventually stop it by sending Goliath and Dingo into the Dreaming, where they discover they can communicate with it. Dingo manages to convince it to protect the earth rather than destroying it by suggesting that instead of mathematical order it try ''law and order'', which is similar, but requires less extinction.
* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain''. Episode: 'It's Only a Paper World'. Pinky and the Brain move everyone to a duplicate Earth next door so that Brain can conquer the empty Earth. Then it gets smooshed by meteorite.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dexter and Mandark bicker over each other while forgetting about the meteor shower that destroys the Earth. [[NegativeContinuity This is ignored the very next episode.]]
* The planet of Thundera suffered this fate in the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'', forcing what was left of the Thunderans to get off the planet and find a new world to call home.

* Unicron threatens Earth with this in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', but not via [[PlanetEater his usual method]]. In this case, Unicron instead [[SealedEvilInACan slumbers at the core of planet Earth, which formed around him]], and his awakening would shatter the planet into uninhabitable pieces.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The Cluster is a gigantic, inseparable Fusion, comprised of billions of Gem shards. It's currently incubating in the Earth's mantle, and if it forms, it'll grown larger than the Earth and crack the planet open like an eggshell. [[spoiler:Fortunately though, Steven and Peridot managed to stop it. By talking to it and encouraging it to make friends with itself. Yup. ]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfPussInBoots'' has an unstable {{Hellgate}} cause the planet and the Netherworld to collapse into each other, destroying both. Even enlisting the aid of the most powerful mage in the series, it's all he can do to protect just the single town of San Lorenzo from being destroyed with the rest of the planet.

* Franchise/{{Superman}}'s backstory is his planet Krypton exploding spectacularly, becoming the Last (or close enough) Son of Kypton. Occasionally, the planet's ''sun'' is what goes, which would push those versions into Class X-2, but the majority just had the planet explode. As of ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Krypton's sun Rao still exists in the comics, but the entire planet was blown to smithereens, presumably naturally.
* ''{{Transformers}}'' has had Unicron eat a planet or two.
** He's also eaten a [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 universe or two]]. It's AllThereInTheManual.

* ''FanFic/ClashOfTheElements'': At the peak of his VillainousBreakdown [[spoiler: Joe Dark]] starts charging up an attack that was stated by the Star Spirits to be capable of destroying an entire planet.

* Narrowly averted in a ''DonaldDuck'' story about [[HollywoodAcid the Universal Solvent]], which dissolves everything except diamonds and does not dissipate. When it's poured to the ground, it's going to [[MinovskyPhysics keep dissolving]] the planet from within unless the heroes recapture it with a diamond-lined container.

* In ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'', a planet can be destroyed by either ejecting a charged slipstream core at the planet[[note]]Which, given that you've just fired your FTL drive in an planet-shattering kaboom, is as likely as not to be suicidal[[/note]] or by chucking a Nova Bomb at it. (Though because Nova bombs momentarily invert gravity, planets hit by them more fall apart than explode. As the name implies, they're more intended for use against a system's sun, making them usually a Class X-2.) A Nietzschean weapon called a "Maxim Charge" is mentioned as being capable of destroying a planet when it's rigged for maximum capacity, but being survivalists first and foremost the Nietzscheans have a strict policy about never using these on inhabitable planets. It's one of the only reliable Nietzschean rules of war.