History Main / SacrificialPlanet

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode, ''Visitors from Outer Soace'', Stuvon demonstrates his planet atomiser by blowing up an asteroid outside.

* King Nikochan destroys Mars in an attempt to threaten Arale in ''Anime/DrSlump''. It [[UnexplainedRecovery appears again]] in a later chapter though.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' starts too with [[PlanetEater Unicron]] devouring Lithone as a snack in the way to Cybertron.

** A Pre-Crisis comic had an army of Bizarros heading towards Earth. Superman watching with his telescopic vision, notices them cleave an obstructing asteroid in half and notes that they could do the same to Earth.

* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has an alien race from the [[StealthPun planet Jackers]] that captures other planets in a giant transportation sphere and throws them into the dying sun that orbits their world in order to stave off their own destruction, [[TooDumbToLive even though they could easily just move to a different, more stable planet instead.]]

* The 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' movie showed the planet Vulcan being destroyed, and then headed for Earth to do the same.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E6TheDoomsdayMachine The Doomsday Machine]]", the titular weapon has already annihilated a solar system and all but two planets of another by the time the ''Enterprise'' gets on the scene. It's set on a course through the most densely populated section of the galaxy to sustain itself.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the Borg's arrival in Federation space is heralded by several heretofore unseen planetary outposts being wiped out and scoured of all technology.
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', [[TheEmpire the Dominion]] conquers Betazed, showing how badly the war is going for TheFederation.

** The [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale various inconsistencies]] in the story of the Hobus supernova from the '09 ''Film/StarTrek'' film were explained as this in the "Romulan Mystery" episode. [[spoiler:At the behest of the Iconians, a Tal Shiar faction under Hakeev was experimenting with treaty-banned subspace weapons and accidentally blew up Hobus. Thanks to the subspace weapons, the shockwave traveled through subspace at FTL speeds and obliterated several star systems, including the Romulus System.]]

** The [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale various inconsistencies]] in the story of the Hobus supernova from the '09 ''Film/StarTrek'' film were explained as this in the "Romulan Mystery" episode. [[spoiler:At the behest of the Iconians, the game's BiggerBad, a Tal Shiar faction under Hakeev was experimenting with treaty-banned subspace weapons and accidentally blew up Hobus. Thanks to the subspace weapons, the shockwave traveled through subspace at FTL speeds and obliterated several star systems, including the Romulus System.]]

-> ''"One needs only to look upon the once-green planet of Mars to understand the full scope of the devastation the Rüstov leave in their wake."''
-->-- '''Jonas Smart''', ''[[Literature/JackBlank Jack Blank: The Accidental Hero]]''

How do you know that the problem the heroes are dealing with are a real threat? Because the threat in question hit another planet first, and they're coming for the plot-relevant planet next. If that next planet is Earth, see EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse.

Compare EarthThatWas and PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs, for when the crisis struck closer to home eons earlier. Usually the result of PlanetLooters, a PlanetEater, or AliensAreBastards. Can result in an EarthShatteringKaboom.

A special dramatic mention should be made for plots [[OnceGreenMars that use Mars in the place of the planet that was previously destroyed]]. Since Mars in Real Life is well-understood to be barren and lifeless, it already gives a very chilling demonstration of what the threat is capable of, as well as additional chills because it happened so close to us.

Yes, [[PlutoIsExpendable a certain former planet]] qualifies for this trope as well. It's in our solar system, it counts. Compare DoomedHometown.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'', the Book of Darkness is said to have destroyed countless planets before finding its way to Earth, and so Team Nanoha embarks on a quest to locate and stop it.
* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
** Frieza single-handedly destroyed the planet Vegeta some years prior to the start of the series.
** Vegeta and Nappa destroy the planet Arlia on their way to Earth. This anime-only scene is just for showcasing the Saiyans' power.
* ''Anime/JapanAnimatorExpo'': "Tokio of the Moon's Shadow" starts with the beast killing the guardian of Neptune and its planet, then tearing up every planet after on its way to Earth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'':
** The planet-eating ComicBook/{{Galactus}} came to Earth a few times to devour it after spending centuries feeding on other planets without much trouble.
** Galactus's opposite number Abraxas was introduced as having destroyed a number of parallel Earths before heading to the "main" one.
* Similarly, in the lead-up to ''Comicbook/AvengersVsXMen'' the Phoenix Force destroys all sentient life on several inhabited worlds while headed towards Earth.
* The origin story of minor ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' villain Mano features him using his disintegrator power to destroy his entire homeworld and everyone on it. Given that he was never even remotely that powerful in any of his actual appearances, it almost reads as an example of CutscenePowerToTheMax.
* The famed Creator/AlanMoore and Alan Davis run of ''ComicBook/CaptainBritain'' introduced the vastly powerful RealityWarper James Jaspers by having a weaker alternate counterpart so damage his home reality that it had to be destroyed to contain the threat. However, the character who makes this claim is an UnreliableExpositor at best and has ulterior motives for ordering the parallel reality's destruction.
* The final arc of Creator/JohnByrne's ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' run involves Kryptonian villains from a "pocket reality" stripping its Earth bare of all life and even destroying its atmosphere as a show of power and then threatening to come to the "real" Earth and do the same.
* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in a ''Comicbook/DoctorStrange'' StoryArc from the 1970s, wherein the villain Nightmare manages to destroy the Earth at the beginning and the story is about trying to bring it back, or at least get Earth recreated anew.
* In ''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', Earth-3 is destroyed in the opening pages to establish the threat, and [[SerialEscalation that's just the beginning; by the end, all but one of the infinite parallel universes has been wiped out.]]
** The various ''Comicbook/JusticeLeague'' "Crisis" team-ups with the Justice Society occasionally used Earth-2 as a Sacrificial Planet in much the same way; at least two of the crossovers involved the temporary destruction of Earth-2 by some cosmic menace. Luckily, though, StatusQuoIsGod and the ResetButton kicked in by the end.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film]]
* In ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'', after the Surfer inadvertently interrupts Richard and Sue's wedding and nearly causes a helicopter crash, Richard discovers energy signatures in the cosmos matching the Surfer that correlate to destroyed planets.
* The 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' movie showed the planet Vulcan being destroyed, and then headed for Earth to do the same.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** ''Film/ANewHope'': Alderaan is destroyed to demonstrate how evil the Empire is and the powers granted to them by the Death Star at full power.
** ''Film/RogueOne'' shows that the planets Jedha and Scarif were prior victims of the Death Star. While neither one was shattered into an AsteroidThicket like Alderaan since the Death Star was tested on them at low power, the damage was still extreme. (Think H-bomb on steroids. ''Lots'' of steroids.)
** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', thirty years later, has a bigger, badder superweapon that can destroy ''entire solar systems''. So it gets tested on the Hosnian System, current capital of the New Republic.
* [[Main/BigBad King Ghidorah]] from ''Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster'' made Venus (Mars in the English Dub) the barren wasteland devoid of life that it is today.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* A throwaway line in the first ''Literature/JackBlank'' book shows that the planet of Mars once was as green as Earth, and that the reason it's as barren as it we know it is because the [[PlanetLooters planet-consuming Rüstov]] already finished with it, and they are presently attempting to invade the Earth.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' has a brief passage from the perspective of the Martians who adopted Valentine Michael Smith. From their perspective he's evaluating humanity, and if they don't measure up, well ... Jupiter used to be the sixth planet and Mars was always fourth.
* In ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', the Vermicious Knids are said to have eaten the former inhabitants of Venus, Mars, and the Moon. The only reason why they haven't devoured Earth yet is because they can't survive the friction heat from plummeting through the atmosphere.
** [[FridgeLogic Apparently no one mentioned to Roald Dahl that Venus's atmosphere is a lot thicker than ours, which was already known at the time]].
* At the start of the ''Literature/StarCarrier'' series the Sh'daar Empire's vassal races have already destroyed several of Earth's extrasolar colonies. By the middle of the first book their latest victims are most of the inhabitants of Eta Boötis IV, killed by a multi-AU kinetic strike from a Turusch warfleet. [[spoiler:This foreshadows the Turusch attack against Sol late in the novel, which is only barely driven off at the cost of tens of millions of lives.]]
* In ''Wrath of a Mad God'', one of the late ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'' novels, the heroes help this along. The emergence of a [[EldritchAbomination Dreadlord]] on the planet of [[spoiler:Kelewan]] is such a GodzillaThreshold that the heroes [[spoiler:[[ColonyDrop drop the planet's moon]] on it]] ''themselves'' in order to stop it, since it had already [[ApocalypseHow wrecked several planes of existence]] on its way to theirs, and this was a preferable alternative. They [[spoiler:[[HomeworldEvacuation evacuate as much as possible]]]], but the threat was so great as to only allow a minimal amount of time to do so.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E6TheDoomsdayMachine The Doomsday Machine]]", the titular weapon has already annihilated a solar system and all but two planets of another by the time the ''Enterprise'' gets on the scene. It's set on a course through the most densely populated section of the galaxy to sustain itself.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the Borg's arrival in Federation space is heralded by several heretofore unseen planetary outposts being wiped out and scoured of all technology.
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', [[TheEmpire the Dominion]] conquers Betazed, showing how badly the war is going for TheFederation.
* Late in the Shadow War on ''Series/BabylonFive'', the Vorlons began destroying every planet on which a Shadow presence or influence was detected, with their planet-killer vessels closing in on Centauri Prime.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Toys]]
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': One ad for a Unicron model goes, "He devours entire worlds. His name is Unicron. And he's heading ... for Earth."
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheClueFinders: Mystery of the Missing Amulet'', the game's eponymous MacGuffin, the Amulet of Life, was responsible for completely reducing the planet Millenia into a dying wasteland. At the end of the game, the evil sorceress Malicia says that once she finishes off Millenia with the Amulet, she's going to drain life from the Cluefinders' home planet, Earth, next.
* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'':
** Inverted in ''Metroid Prime 3: Corruption''. The planet Norion is doomed from the start from a looming Phazon leviathan impact, but Samus manages to save it at the last minute. Later on it's revealed that the other planets in the system suffered a Phazon leviathan impact while she was in a coma and are already showing signs of corruption, so Samus goes to those planets to stem it.
** Played straight if the planets in the earlier titles, Tallon IV in ''Prime'' and Aether in ''Echoes'' would be any indication regarding the fate of the Phazon-corrupted planets in ''Corruption''. The difference being that Samus already saved those planets and they're on their way to recovering so she knows she could save the others.
* In ''Videogame/CrashTeamRacing'', it's revealed that [[BigBad Nitros Oxide]] is the cause of the barren wasteland on Mars: the inhabitants on the planet failed to defeat him at racing and thus get decimated. He threatens to do the same on Earth (by making the planet a parking lot and slaving all its inhabitants) if they failed to defeat him at racing, too - setting up the story.
* In the original ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' trilogy, most of the story takes place in late 2552, after [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] destroyed the planet Reach during their war against humanity. The Covenant had already burned hundreds of human colonies in the twenty-seven years of war before, but Reach, being humanity's second most important military stronghold after Earth, is viewed to be the point-of-no-return, the point where humanity has been dealt a crippling blow and now needs to pull a miracle out of their asses if they want to prevent the Covenant from wiping them out by the end of the year. The Fall of Reach itself is described in ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' and playable in the prequel ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', where you are DoomedByCanon.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'':
** Episode "Klingon War", mission "The Doomsday Device", which is for all intents and purposes an expanded repeat of the TOS episode set 150 years later. Another planet killer half-destroys a small moon ahead of it before the player attacks to prevent Ambassador B'vat from siccing it on the Federation.
** The [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale various inconsistencies]] in the story of the Hobus supernova from the '09 ''Film/StarTrek'' film were explained as this in the "Romulan Mystery" episode. [[spoiler:At the behest of the Iconians, the game's BiggerBad, a Tal Shiar faction under Hakeev was experimenting with treaty-banned subspace weapons and accidentally blew up Hobus. Thanks to the subspace weapons, the shockwave traveled through subspace at FTL speeds and obliterated several star systems, including the Romulus System.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}'', it's stated that most other Ages for which Gehn produced linking books have already collapsed or expired, with Riven only the latest one endangered. The fact that the recently-written Age where Gehn lives is number 233 suggests there have been a ''lot'' of these failed Ages.
* In ''VideoGame/WingCommanderIVThePriceOfFreedom'', the planet of Telamon is used as a testing ground for Tolwyn's Gen-Select bioweapon. Tolwyn plans to use it on other worlds after achieving satisfactory results.
* ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria'' has a unique take on this on that the planet showing the threat is the main game world in an alternate future, having fallen to desertification.
* From ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'':
** Due to the Varelsi [[TheStarsAreGoingOut consuming stars]] in the universe, countless planets were rendered completely uninhabitable from the loss of their stars which provided heat and gravitational stability for them. This of course is counting only the majority of planets. There are a few rare cases wherein the Varelsi not only drag stars back into their dark dimension but also whole planets as well. With Solus being the last remaining star left in the universe, the number of habitable planets and places is terrifyingly scarce.
** The prologue web motion comic depicts the event wherein the planet of Penarch was destroyed. It's loss was one of the reasons that prompted Ghalt to form the Battleborn in order to protect what's left.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger'', a PlanetEater eats a system's outer planet, moons first and then the main world a week later. Then it ate the life-bearing planet's moon, and that was a week ago...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' episode "Fool's Gold", mischievous but harmless aliens come to a village every 17 years where they eat massive quantities of popcorn and [[SolidGoldPoop defecate solid gold]]. When the town's mayor gets greedy and kidnaps one, he gives the alien a steak, causing the alien to grow into massive size and defecate unstable uranium. The alien's friend tells Ben that Mars "used to be called The Popcorn Planet" before his kind came there.
* When the Brains go on a rampage in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Hermes points to each destroyed planet on a ''[[TwoDSpace flat]]'' star map and notes that each planet forms a ''straight line'' that points directly toward the Earth; precisely the planet that the Brains attack next.
* The first episode of the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' cartoon displays an invasion of aliens coming to Earth. These aliens previously had taken Mars, leaving the Martian Manhunter as the sole survivor, who comes to Earth to warn the planet and help form the Justice League to fight them off.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' "Dial M for Monkey" shorts Rasslor, the universe's greatest wrestler goes searching for worthy opponents on inhabited planets. If no one can beat him he destroys the planet.
--> "And so my quest has brought me to this timid little planet you call Earth, so, terrestrial heroes, can one of you quench my thirst for the divine conflict, the supreme struggle? Or will your planet be doomed to the same fate, that has befallen so many."
** The short is a spoof of ''Marvel Two-In-One Annual'' #7, where the Champion of the Universe makes the very same threat to Earth's heroes.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has an alien race from the [[StealthPun planet Jackers]] that captures other planets in a giant transportation sphere and throws them into the dying sun that orbits their world in order to stave off their own destruction, [[TooDumbToLive even though they could easily just move to a different, more stable planet instead.]]
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents''. Mark, the Yugopotamian, is wished to Earth, and his parents take a ship to go look for him. Along the way, Mark's dad blows up every planet he sees in hopes that each one is Earth. Mark's mom objects.
-->You know, you wouldn't have to blow up all these planets if you just stopped and asked for directions.
* ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders'' starts out with the [[PlanetEater Beast Planet]] devouring Planet Tek. Whose princess escapes just in time to attempt to warn the next star system in its path.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' starts too with [[PlanetEater Unicron]] devouring Lithone as a snack in the way to Cybertron.
* In the episode "The Humanoids" of ''WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois'' Space, a ship able to destroy planets is tested on an [[EarthShatteringKaboom unfortunate]] (seemingly) Moon-like, barren, world.
[[/folder]]

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** ''Film/ANewHope'': Alderaan is destroyed to demonstrate how evil the Empire is and the powers granted to them by the Death Star.
** ''Film/RogueOne'' shows that the planets Jedha and Scarif were prior victims of the Death Star. While neither one was shattered into an AsteroidThicket like Alderaan, the damage was still extreme. (Think H-bomb on steroids. ''Lots'' of steroids.)

* Alderaan from ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope]]'' is destroyed to demonstrate how evil the Empire is and the powers granted to them by the Death Star.

* In ''Film/FantasticFour: Rise of the Silver Surfer'', after the Surfer inadvertently interrupts Richard and Sue's wedding and nearly causes a helicopter crash, Richard discovers energy signatures in the cosmos matching the Surfer that correlate to destroyed planets.

* Alderaan from ''Franchise/StarWars Episode IV: Film/ANewHope'' is destroyed to demonstrate how evil the Empire is and the powers granted to them by the Death Star.
* [[Main/BigBad King Ghidorah]] from Film/{{Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster}} made Venus (Mars in the English Dub) the barren wasteland devoid of life that it is today.

* In the ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' games, most of the story takes place in late 2552, after [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] destroyed the planet Reach during their war against humanity. The Covenant had already burned 800 human colonies in the twenty-seven years of war before, but Reach, being humanity's second most important military stronghold after Earth, is viewed to be the point-of-no-return, the point where humanity has been dealt a crippling blow and needs to land a killing strike on the Covenant right away before they destroy Earth. The Fall of Reach is described in [[Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach the first Halo book]] and playable in the prequel ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', where you are DoomedByCanon.

A special dramatic mention should be made for plots [[OnceGreenMars that use Mars in the place of the planet that was previously destroyed]]. Since Mars is Real Life is well-understood to be barren and lifeless, it already gives a very chilling demonstration of what the threat is capable of, as well as additional chills because it happened so close to us.

Yes, [[PlutoIsExpendable a certain former planet]] qualifies for this trope as well. It's in our solar system, it counts.

** As with the movie example above, the planet-eating ComicBook/{{Galactus}} came to Earth a few times to devour it after spending centuries feeding on other planets without much trouble.