History Main / InsignificantLittleBluePlanet

* This trope was a favorite of Creator/CarlSagan. He [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] it in his books, in speeches, and in ''Series/CosmosAPersonalVoyage.'' He famously popularized the Pale Blue Dot photograph, which is now often shown with his famous quote:

** Since ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS'', the setting is on Mid-Childa and the main characters have moved from Earth to there, with only two of them (Nanoha and Hayate) being real humans anyway. The Nakajima family is mentioned to originate from Earth, but we don't get specifics. The other characters from Earth don't have any origin there.

** Since ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS'', the setting is on Mid-Childa and the main characters have moved from Earth to there, with only two of them being real humans anyway. The other characters from Earth don't have any origin there.

See also: EarthThatWas and ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway. PunyEarthlings usually goes hand-in-hand with this, for obvious reasons. Earth is also no longer the only planet subject to this -- compare PlutoIsExpendable.

* In ''StevenUniverse'', Earth and its inhabitants are largely considered unimportant by most of the Gems - Garnet and Amethyst are the only ones who haven't expressed derision towards it at some point, and it is entirely probable that's because Garnet is TheStoic and Amethyst [[spoiler: has never been anywhere else]]. The Crystal Gems still defend it, of course, because being largely insignificant doesn't mean wiping out all life on it would be justified or defensible.
** While the [[spoiler: Gem Homeworld]] IS attempting to invade Earth, the sum total of their effort thus far has been one ship with two people in it. It's clearly not the most important thing on their minds.

* The aliens of ''[[ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock From The Sun]]'' regarded Earth like this until they discovered that HumansAreSpecial.
* The theme of an entire season of ''{{Lexx}}''... beginning with the episode "Little Blue Planet."

* The primary motive of the Terran Cult in ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' revolves around this trope. At one time Earth was the center of a massive colonial empire that spanned galaxies. However, Earth began to brutally exploit and repress the people of its colonies, which led to a bloody revolution. The colonies barely scraped by with a victory and Earth was left a hollow shell of its former self, becoming less and less significant as time passed by. The Terran Cult's plan is to use organized religion and terrorist actions in order to manipulate politics and history so that Earth is made the center of the Universe once again.

* The new ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' (and the old one for that matter) centers around a journey across the cosmos to find the legendary planet known as "Earth". Earth is built up to almost mythical status over the course of the series partly due to the fact that perfect habitable planets are [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale few and far between in the BSG universe]] (never mind that the series starts out in a set of four solar systems where there are, collectively '''[[ArcNumber 12]]''' of 'em) and every almost-Earth-but-not-quite planet turns out to be a CrapSackWorld. When they finally find Earth [[spoiler:it turns out to be just another CrapSackWorld, the original inhabitants having annihilated themselves millennia ago. After a period of much despair, the survivors happen upon a perfectly habitable planet due to angelic intervention seemingly sent by God, when they decide to cut their loses and settle on and dub it "Earth" just for the sake of saying they made it to Earth. That random planet turns out to be our Earth]].

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'', to an extent--Earth is important to humanity, culturally, but otherwise has little interest and less relevance on the galactic stage--the [[TheFederation Systems Alliance]] capital is a massive SpaceStation in the Arcturus system. The player can select the Earthborn origin for Shepard, the protagonist, in which case he/she is an orphan who grew up on the streets of Earth's slums...
** The codex entry states that the planet is still home to the mass of humanity, the biggest human colony is only 4.4 million strong. Earth is heavily overpopulated as well, and humans are looked down on by other Citadel species for still having things like homelessness, especially on the homeworld.

* ''InvaderZim'': The conqueror Irkens, bent on taking over the entire galaxy, don't even know Earth exists (there's a note stuck to the edge of their vast map of the galaxy that reads "Planet?") until Zim lands there after being sent into a supposedly empty area of space on a cosmic SnipeHunt. Even then, Earth is the one planet the conquerors are ''not'' interested in conquering, hence why they decide it's a safe place to stash the annoying, persistent eponymous character. Though it seems they might want to in the future, this actually [[spoiler:turns out to be Dib in a LotusEaterMachine]].

* Initially, the Data Integration Entity almost completely ignored Earth. It's mostly "inhabited" by creatures who actually have to use physical matter to interact with each other, something at best, slightly interesting. But then one [[SuzumiyaHaruhi Haruhi Suzumiya]] showed evidence of being capable of "Auto-Evolution" and they had to start paying some real attention. They still don't really care about anyone else on the planet though. (Yuki Nagato doesn't count.)

* In one ''[[GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]]'' story, Ut'ua the Gardener, a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien who claims to be the first sentient being to arise in the Milky Way, tells the titular team of heroes that the Earth always has been an insignificant speck of dirt and would be for billions of years to come. But he also reveals that eventually Earth will be of some significance, because while he might have been the first sentient being in the galaxy, a human from Earth was going to be the '''''last'''''.

* In {{Gantz}} the aliens that save Earth from another alien race say this, along with the fact that human life is meaningless. Destruction of life is simply 'matter being reshaped.' Even when the humans try to [[ShutUpHannibal point out that the alien took a vested interest in Earth]], it simply says not to read too much into it.

* ''CalvinAndHobbes'':

* In ''CowboyBebop'', about half a century before the series, a disaster on the moon left a ring of moon rock orbiting Earth, with pieces regularly plummeting to the surface and causing problems for the inhabitants. Result: Mars is now the center of civilization, while Earth is a ghetto for those who couldn't afford to move off the planet.

-->'''Cochrane:''' Is that Earth?
-->'''Geordi:''' That's it!
-->'''Cochrane:''' It's so small...
-->'''Riker:''' [[TheFederation It's about to get a whole lot bigger]].
* In ''Film/TheAvengers1'', this is [[spoiler: the Chitauri]]'s attitude towards Earth, until the Avengers prove them wrong.

* In ''Film/TheAvengers'', this is [[spoiler: the Chitauri]]'s attitude towards Earth, until the Avengers prove them wrong.

If the people on Earth think they're the [[EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse center of the universe]], but everyone else thinks they are just an InsignificantLittleBluePlanet, then you can probably expect some sort of [[DuringTheWar conflict]] over this or, at least, a few words about [[HumansAreMorons how stupid humans are]] for thinking that way.

* In {{Traveller}} when they first meet the Terrans think EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse and the Vilani think that Earth is an InsignificantLittleBluePlanet. After they spend two hundred years arguing the point it is finally agreed that EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse because after all [[HumansAreWarriors Terrans are warriors]], and AsskickingEqualsAuthority.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/StarCraft''; The human faction of the game, the Terrans, is merely the result of criminals and dissidents exiled from Earth who ended up the Koprulu sector and built their own civilization. As a result, Earth is little more than a sour memory to them. As for the alien factions, WordOfGod states that the Protoss are aware of Earth's existence, but are frankly uninterested in visiting it, while the Zerg are likely aware of its location but are more concerned with the Koprulu sector than this far away planet. Ironically, Earth itself is ''terrified'' by the prospect of either of those two alien species reaching them one day, and ''Brood War'' has them sending an army to the Koprulu sector in order to preempt such attempts as a plot point.

* In ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' the Nemesites consider Earth a nature preserve, with humans as part of the local wildlife.

* Spoofed in ''{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/1246/ Pale Blue Dot]]. The protagonist talks about the topic, but the audience [[ComicallyMissingThePoint thinks it's just an artefact on the photo]].

-->And crawling [[note]]{{AudienceParticipation where?}}[[/note]], on the planet's face

-->And meaning [[note]]{{OverlyLongGag Who the fuck is meaning? Don't forget to turn off the globe. Shit! He does that every week}}[[/note]]

-->And crawling, on the planet's face
-->Some insects, called the Human Race
-->Lost in time and lost in space
-->And meaning

* In Frank Herbert's ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' series, humanity rules an Empire of a million worlds that stretches across the galaxy. Thing is, not one of those is Earth.
** According to ''The Machine Crusade'' (written after Frank had died, so possibly not canon), humanity nuked Earth in a first strike against the thinking machines.
** It's inconsistent in the main series. You'd get that impression most of the time (and maybe the common people on the streets don't know) but information about Old Earth is mentioned in the appendices as being the place where the Ecumenical Council created the Orange Catholic Bible, and Paul mentions it in the sequel (though his information is garbled through thousands of years).
*** This is mercilessly {{RetCon}}ned in more prequel novels as happened ''after'' the Butlerian Jihad, being met with a ''huge'' public outcry, as it basically told people of various faiths: "here, read and follow this book; forget all this other crap". The Commission of Ecumenical Translators was nearly lynched by the mobs, only protected by Emperor Jules Corrino's decree. That is until one of their number was caught possibly raping the Empress. Cue public beheadings.
** On the other hand, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers certainly ''should'' be expected to know the truth, if they bother to want to remember it, via their access to the female ancestral memories of the human race. Leto the Second, the God Emperor, most ''certainly'' knows all about Earth from his ancestral memories from both sexes. He knows more about Earth and its history, in fact, than we do today.

* Crichton's shipmates in ''{{Farscape}}'' routinely put down his descriptions of earth as backwards and savage, and when ([[spoiler: a false]]) earth appears in a wormhole, it is dismissed immediately as an uninteresting little blue planet.