History Main / PlanetaryParasite

* In ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'', [[AbsentAliens no nonhuman sentient life is known to exist]]. However, life-bearing planets are complex enough to have their own souls. As in, each planetary biosphere has one, single soul. And lychters kill them for practice manipulating large amounts of thenagy (death energy). We're not shown a planet after its soul has been extinguished, but it's implied that the biosphere falls into an unstoppable vicious cycle until it's another dead space rock.

* In ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'' [[AbsentAliens no nonhuman sentient life is known to exist]]. However, life-bearing planets are complex enough to have their own souls. As in, each planetary biosphere has one, single soul. And lychters kill them for practice manipulating large amounts of thenagy (death energy). We're not shown a planet after its soul has been extinguished, but it's implied that the biosphere falls into an unstoppable vicious cycle until it's another dead space rock.

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* The Dark Bramble in ''VideoGame/OuterWilds''. The solar system has four {{Baby Planet}}s, but it is implied that long ago there was a fifth icy world. The tangled, consuming plant grew in its core until it cracked and burst the planet to pieces. A ShatteredWorld remains, and the Bramble itself is a sprawling EldritchLocation that is BiggerOnTheInside. The Bramble can fling its seeds through outer space, so other planets might be at risk of the same fate, but have not met it yet.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ''
** The Tree of Might from the [[Anime/DragonBallZTheTreeOfMight movie of the same name]] sucks all the life from a planet, producing fruit that empowers whoever eats it.
** The Big Gete Star from ''[[Anime/DragonBallZTheReturnOfCooler The Return of Cooler]]'' is a mechanical life form that was trying to absorb New Namek.
* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', [[spoiler:the entire Gourmet World]] was spawned by such a parasite. [[spoiler:A meteorite infused with Gourmet Cells struck the original planet Earth long ago. The Gourmet Cells fed off the energy of Earth's mantle and grew new landmass. Gourmet World is a giant tumor that dwarfs its host]].

* It turns out that origin of ninjutsu in the world of ''{{Franchise/Naruto}}'' can be traced to aliens planting a life draining tree on the world so they could eat the fruit and maintain their PhysicalGod abilities.

* In the Creator/MarvelComics {{Alternate|Universe}} future ''ComicBook/EarthX'', it's revealed that Celestials gestate their young inside of planets, and genetically manipulate the dominant species to turn them into superpowered protectors for their child.

* ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'' Volume 2 #5 (September 1978). In the story "Urban Renewal" by Stephen Bissette, giant insects attack a planet and lay their eggs in it. When the eggs hatch, it destroys the planet.
* An issue of an anthology comic had scientists discover that Mercury has blown up and some mysterious giant creature in the wreckage. Then people discover a giant egg in a chamber of magma and fearfully conclude the planets of the solar system have been seeded with them to incubate. This would mean Earth is due soon to be destroyed by it hatching. After multiple failures to destroy this egg, they conclude further that Mercury only hatched because it was closest to the sun, and that Earth is far too cool for the egg to ever hatch.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretShow'' fanfic ''Fanfic/NeverBeTheSameAgain'', the Impostors mainly thrive by terraforming other planets to suit their needs. [[spoiler:The original Impostor colony terraformed its home planet into an ice planet, killing off half of the Mombis (specifically, the males) in the process. Eventually, the Impostor population got too big for their world to handle, so they started swarming other planets and settling down in their underground caverns in the hopes of terraforming them, including Earth.]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Agent Smith in ''Film/TheMatrix'' describes humanity as this:
-->"Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed, and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague, and we are the cure."
* ''WesternAnimation/StrangeWorld'': The Pando superorganism turns out to be a parasite that is growing into the TurtleIsland on which the whole story takes place, threatening to kill it.

* Creator/HPLovecraft (of course) had the Dholes, [[EldritchAbomination titanic worm-things]] which burrowed beneath worlds to slowly devour them from the inside-out and multiply until nothing but a shattered husk was left. Fortunately, the closest they got to Earth is the {{Dreamland}}s.
** A later addition to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, the Worm that Gnaws in the Night, was this to the planet Shaggai, except that it was doing it all by its lonesome; it's so massively powerful that when the Planetoid Abomination Ghroth arrived in its solar system (something which makes every other resident top-tier abomination fully active), the Worm's full awakening resulted in an EarthShatteringKaboom.
* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Prime Directive'' gets points for parasitic complexity with a three-species symbiosis: Species A secretly bases on worlds which emit radio transmissions, feeds the Cold War paranoia of the locals through UFO sightings and signal manipulation until the hapless natives nuke each other, then seeds the newly-radioactive environment with Species B, an algae which uses gamma rays the way most plants use sunlight. Species A's signals eventually bring Species C, an immense spacefaring cloud which consumes the algae, and then provides A with transportation and life-support on the way to the next target. The unlucky world is left an irradiated wasteland with much of its organic chemistry sucked away. Spock identifies all three species as non-sapient, and determines that the time needed to evolve their incredibly complex behavior proves they are relics of a prior iteration of the universe.
* In the ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'' novel ''End Game'', the Great Bird of the Galaxy (which is also a nickname for Creator/GeneRoddenberry) is found to be gestating inside the planet Thallon. The Bird hatches, and a [[EarthShatteringKaboom Planet-Shattering Kaboom]] ensues.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': In the episode "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E6Trial Trial]]", Zil is a member of a humanoid species who live on the surface of a living planet they call Host. They are safe as long as the planet isn't aware of their presence, so try to keep moving and avoid forming into groups. When the planet does become aware, it changes its surface to rid itself of them through subsidence and flooding, consuming their bodies to replenish the energy used in the process. Fortunately their eggs are tough enough to survive this absorption and begin their life cycle anew.
* The Giga Shadow of ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' spent thousands of years regenerating under the surface of the Cluster world, as well as ruling the Light Universe through His Shadow and feeding on the {{Human Sacrifice}}s given by his loyal followers.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E7TheTwinDilemma The Twin Dilemma]]" features the Gastropods, a race of nearly indestructible creatures who devastate entire planets, but whose eggs can't hatch unless seared by a supernova first, limiting their spread.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'', the Helheim Forest proves to spread its seeds like wildfire, and there is a very real threat that if the dimensional portals aren't closed, this invasive species could end up turning Earth into a new Helheim. [[spoiler:We know because this is what happened in the formerly-Earthlike world now known as Helheim. Oh, and the monsters used to be that world's people and animals, as anything that eats the fruit of the plants becomes an Inves monster and ends up spreading the seeds further still. Earth has ten years left]].

* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' boxed set ''Spawn of Azathoth''. If a Seed of Azathoth strikes a planet, it can penetrate it and grow into [[EldritchAbomination a Spawn of Azathoth the size of a star]]. All that's left of the planet is shattered ruins. The former fifth planet of the solar system suffered this fate: its remains are the Asteroid Belt.
* ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles''. Starswarm robots burrow into planets and use raw materials underground to create more robots. Once enough new robots are made, the swarm leaves the planet and heads into space.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' ''Space Bestiary'''

** Invader swarms are made up of thirty ton aliens that land on a planet in numbers of 200-1200. They breed prolifically, doubling their population every month, while eating all of the organic life they can find. When they reach their maximum population (in the trillions), they launch themselves into space and head for the next life-bearing world, leaving behind a dead planet.

* The Parasite from ''Videogame/{{Evolva}}''. A giant egg comes to the planet, develops lots of tentacles, creates an army of aliens, and uses the planet's resources to make new eggs, supposedly to send them to other planets.
* Lavos from ''Videogame/ChronoTrigger''. Similar to the previous example, but he doesn't create an alien army, is instead exploited by the planet's mages ([[EvilIsNotAToy doesn't end well]]), and the heroes get to fight [[MonsterIsAMommy some of the offspring]] before they're sent to other planets.
* The infamous Jenova of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', from the exact same company that developed the above ''Chrono Trigger''. Jenova shares a few similarities, feeding on the collective life-force of the planet and being directly responsible for the downfall of [[{{Precursors}} the Ancients]]. When [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the Shinra Corporation tries to ]] exploit the thing, mistaking it for one of said Ancients, they end up simply creating Sephiroth--[[HumanoidAbomination a new form of Jenova that's smarter, stronger and a]] ''lot'' [[{{Bishonen}} prettier]].
* [[EldritchAbomination The Old Gods]] from ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' are planetary parasites that merge themselves to a planet and slowly corrupt it. They were created by the Void Lords to corrupt nascent Titans gestating within planets as part of their plan to destroy existence. The Old Gods of Azeroth are so deeply connected with the nascent Titan that outright destroying them would kill it as well, so they were instead subdued and sealed.[[note]]More accurately: The Titans were so large and so lacking in subtlety that their method of killing the one they did - grabbing ahold and tearing it bodily from the surface - proved so devastating that they daren't try it again. Had they instead killed it in place then cleansed the corruption, the damage (The Well of Eternity) would have been much less severe. Sargeras came up with a more direct approach to dealing with Old God infestation: call the planet/titan a loss and cleave the entire thing in two.[[/note]]
* ''Videogame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' reveals that the origin of Phazon is a possibly-sentient planet known as Phaaze, and that it sends seeds over to other planets in order to infest them with Phazon.

** You can find a seed that recently crashed on Timber Hearth and started growing roots. Tektite warily examines it, confirms the sinister seed is not native to Timber Hearth, and correctly guesses it's from Dark Bramble. They are concerned by how fast it's growing, but Tektite seems confident the treekeepers can eradicate it before it causes more damage. [[spoiler: The Sun explodes before they get the chance.]]

* ''VIdeogame/RuneScape'': The planet Renmark was parasitized by a creature known as Mur that fed on its core. Guthix, a god visiting the planet, attempted to destroy Mur with the Elder Blade but inadvertently destroyed the planet instead while the parasite survived. Even worse, Mur was scattered across the cosmos, increasing its influence.
* The Mycon's "Deep Children" from ''Videogame/StarControl2'' are dropped from orbit, burrow their way down to the mantle of a planet, grow tendrils throughout the planet, then start tearing holes in the planet's crust, turning it into a lava world (or Juffo-wup as they call it). The whole process takes about a year.
* The over-arching plot of the ''VideoGame/UFOAfterBlank'' series revolves entirely around these. Their mating rituals, the chaos they've caused for humanity and other aliens whose planets they've infested and the attempts of various factions to control them for their own nefarious purposes.
* The Noizoids from ''VideoGame/HarmoKnight'', who arrive on Planet Melodia on a massive, spiky-green meteor and cause nearly every animal nearby to become violent.

* The Dark One Worm from ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperForceGo''. It's also implied that there are other members of its species on other planets.

* The Shlorpians in ''WesternAnimation/SolarOpposites'' [[spoiler: thrive entirely by terraforming planets with the pupa into copies of Shlorp. The episode "99 Ships" reveals that the Shlorp that exploded in the intro was not the original planet, but one of potentially unlimited copies of the original homeworld. When a Shlorp becomes uninhabitable or is due to be destroyed, 100 ships are sent from that planet and the process restarts.]]

* ''Film/StrangeWorld'': The Pando superorganism turns out to be a parasite that is growing into the TurtleIsland on which the whole story takes place, threatening to kill it.