British Soldier: Taste my sword, French person!
French Soldier: No! Wait! We are allies! This is World War I!
British Soldier: I'm terribly sorry! I thought it was The Hundred Years War! Does this mean I can kill Italians?
French Soldier: [consulting manual] No, I'm afraid not. Not until World War II.
French Soldier: No! Wait! We are allies! This is World War I!
British Soldier: I'm terribly sorry! I thought it was The Hundred Years War! Does this mean I can kill Italians?
French Soldier: [consulting manual] No, I'm afraid not. Not until World War II.
— Dave Barry, "A Rash Proposal"
Pick a war. Any war. Then write a story about it; it doesn’t matter if the story is fictional or Based on a True Story. It doesn’t matter if the war in question actually happened or not. The point is to write a story that is meant to entertain and, usually, to make a point. For obvious reasons, people from countries that participated in a war are more likely to write about them. Usually media will focus on one unit whether it's a regiment, a company, or something smaller, like a squad or platoon. If the media is live-action, then it is usually based on foot soldiers due the expensive nature of filming aerial, tank, and naval combat. There are exceptions that use CGI, models, and stock footage of course.
This trope is named for the catchphrase of Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses. Note that the correct pronunciation is "JYEW-rin-na WAW-ah".
Contrast War Was Beginning and Great Offscreen War. See also Military and Warfare Tropes and Wars In History.
Examples
Real-Life Wars
- The Trojan War
- Greco-Persian Wars
- The Peloponnesian War
- Macedonian Succession Wars
- Punic Wars
- Salammbô. Mostly deals with the consequences of the wars for Carthage.
- Gallic Wars and Roman Civil War
- Roman Empire Wars
- Norman Conquest
- The Crusades
- The Anarchy
- Brother Cadfael
- Cadfael
- The Pillars of the Earth (literature)
- The Pillars of the Earth (series)
- Wars of Scottish Independence
- The Hundred Years War
- Wars of the Roses
- Italian Wars
- Sengoku Jidai
- The Ottoman-Safavid Wars
- My Name Is Red (Referenced several times)
- The Eighty Years' War
- Thirty Years' War
- Frontier "Indian Wars" (so-called)
- Dances with Wolves (Set during the American Civil War, but mostly takes place on the Western frontier in Colorodo)
- Fort Apache
- F Troop
- Geronimo: An American Legend
- Son of the Morning Star
- Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
- English Civil War
- Blackadder: the Cavalier Years
- By The Sword Divided
- Glorious Revolution
- Hanover-Stuart Wars
- War of the Austrian Succession
- Der Rosenkavalier. Set during the war, though this is mostly used to explain why the protagonist's husband is absent. He is off fighting the war while his wife engages in an affair.
- Seven Years' War
- Assassin's Creed III (The first segment of the game takes place in the American colonies where hostilities broke out between the British and French empires and the player actively fights in the Battle of the Monongahela
. The rest of the game takes place during the The American Revolution.
- Assassin's Creed Rogue (This game serves as a prequel to the above and explores the war in much more depth)
- Age of Empires III (Ice, John Black's segment)
- Barry Lyndon
- Fanfan la Tulipe (1952)
- Fanfan la Tulipe (2003)
- The Last of the Mohicans
- La Tour, prends garde!
- The Leatherstocking Tales
- Assassin's Creed III (The first segment of the game takes place in the American colonies where hostilities broke out between the British and French empires and the player actively fights in the Battle of the Monongahela
- The American Revolution
- The French Revolution
- The Napoleonic Wars
- War of 1812
- The Crimean War
- The American Civil War
- The Birth of a Nation
- Cold Mountain
- The Conspirator
- Dances with Wolves
- Free State of Jones
- Gangs of New York
- The General
- Gettysburg
- Glory
- Gone with the Wind
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- Lincoln
- The Outlaw Josey Wales
- Shenandoah
- History Civil War Games
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants (first book)
- Anglo-Zulu War
- The River War
- Spanish-American War
- Citizen Kane. The protagonists manipulates the public sentiment to incite the war.
- The Rough Riders
- Philippine-American War & Moro Rebellion (in Muslim Mindanao, in the southern Philippines)
- The Second Boer War
- Russo-Japanese War
- The Mexican Revolution
- World War I
- Russian Civil War
- Irish War of Independence
- The Chaco War
- Tintin: The Broken Ear. Clearly based on the war, though the actual combatants were replaced by two fictional countries in the comic.
- Spanish Civil War
- The Devil's Backbone
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- The Last Circus
- Pan's Labyrinth. Set in the aftermath of the War, with the winners attempting to eliminate the last pockets of resistance.
- The Spirit of the Beehive. Also set in the aftermath of the War, and serving as an inspiration for Guillermo del Toro's aforementioned works.
- Second Sino-Japanese War
- Tintin: The Blue Lotus. Covers the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, a prelude to the war.
- City of Life and Death
- The Girl Who Played Go
- World War II:
- First Indochina War
- Arab–Israeli Conflict
- Korean War
- The Manchurian Candidate (book and 1962 film)
- M*A*S*H (which, oddly enough, lasted much longer than the active hostilities during the Korean War did!)
- Pork Chop Hill
- Algerian War of Independence
- Vietnam War
- American Dreams
- Apocalypse Now
- The A-Team
- Bat*21
- Born on the Fourth of July
- Battlefield Vietnam
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Casualties of War
- China Beach
- The Deer Hunter
- First Blood
- Flight of the Intruder (both versions)
- Forrest Gump
- Full Metal Jacket
- Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
- The Green Berets
- Hamburger Hill
- Missing in Action
- The Odd Angry Shot
- Platoon
- The Punisher: Born
- Punisher: The Platoon
- Purple Hearts
- Tigerland
- Tour of Duty
- Tunnel Rats
- Uncommon Valor
- Vietcong
- We Were Soldiers
- Indian-Pakistani Wars (including Kashmir Conflict)
- Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
- Iran–Iraq War
- Operation Urgent Fury
- Gulf War
- Bravo Two Zero
- Courage Under Fire
- Eternal Darkness (One chapter is set in the aftermath of the war as Michael Edwards leads a firefighting team to extinguish burning oil fields.)
- Jarhead
- The Manchurian Candidate (2004 film)
- Three Kings
- The Yugoslav Wars
- Sierra Leone Civil War
- Afghanistan War
- Iron Man (the movie)
- Bomb Patrol Afghanistan
- The Outpost
- Iraq War
- American Sniper
- Generation Kill
- Green Zone
- The Hurt Locker
- Over There
Fictional Types of War
- Alien Invasion
- Battlefield Earth
- Dawn of the Monsters
- Doctor Who
- Footfall
- Halo
- Independence Day
- Legacy of the Aldenata
- Pacific Rim
- Power Rangers
- Von Neuman's War
- The War Against the Chtorr
- The War of the Worlds
- Warcraft (2016)
- The Lost Fleet (Hinted at in book 1 through 4 and then explicitly from book 5 onwards)
- Bug War
- Blue Gender
- Doctor Who
- Ender's Game (First book and Ender's Shadow)
- Macross Frontier
- Muv-Luv
- The Outer Limits (1995) (several episodes)
- Space: Above and Beyond
- StarCraft
- Starship Troopers
- Tekkaman Blade
- Warhammer 40,000 (Tyranids)
- Wing Commander Prophecy
- Demonic Invaders
- Divided States of America Wars
- Interstellar Civil War
- Firefly (only just barely "interstellar", as it all takes place in a single multiple star system, and the series starts after the war proper except for one battle shown as a flashback at the beginning of the pilot).
- Halo has two going on at once: The Insurrection and the Great Schism.
- Star Wars
- Transformers
- Warhammer 40,000 (Chaos again)
- Wing Commander (Kilrathi, post-war)
- Honor Harrington
- The Magic Versus Technology War
- American Gods
- The Longest Journey
- Princess Mononoke
- ThunderCats (2011)
- Warhammer 40,000 (Anyone else vs. Necrons or Tau)
- Wizards
- Wolf's Rain
- Imager Portfolio has elements of this.
- The Corean Chronicles has elements of this.
- Robot War
- Battlestar Galactica (Both versions)
- Doctor Who
- Mass Effect
- The Matrix
- Power Rangers
- Second Variety
- Screamers
- Terminator
- Transformers (Not a war with robots, but a war between robots, although humans sometimes get involved)
- Warhammer 40,000 (Iron Men and the Necrons)
- The Lost Fleet (Beyond the Frontier end arc)
- World War III
- Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (a Fantasy Conflict Counterpart version)
- Alas, Babylon
- Amerika
- Damnation Alley
- The Day After
- EndWar
- Modern Warfare 2
- Red Dawn (1984)
- Red Storm Rising
- Star Trek (backstory)
- Team Yankee
- The Third World War: August 1985
- Threads
- World in Conflict
- Various others
- Babylon 5 gives us the Earth-Minbari War, which finished ten years before the series started, is what people usually refer to when they say "during the war...". There's also the Dilgar War, referred to in one episode but very important to the series' backstory (as it proved the Earth Alliance's status as a major galactic power). The series itself, however, is set during no less than six concurrent, interrelated wars:
- The Shadow War
- The Earth Alliance Civil War
- The Minbari Civil War
- The Second Centauri-Narn War
- The Drakh War
- The Telepath War
- Mobile Suit Gundam
- The war is typically The One Year War, during which a huge number of side stories are set.
- The Gryps Conflict
- The First Neo-Zeon War
- The Second Neo-Zeon War
- The Zanscare Insurrection
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The war in Ishval...
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: The war with the Fire Nation, which began during the reign of Fire Lord Sozin a hundred years before the start of the story proper.
- Baskets of Guts is set in the multiracial country of United Kingdoms. The myconid state of Alnia seems to be one of the few who still persist Kingdoms' expansion. Since myconids are shown to be sentient and mostly comprehensible, it doesn't fit into the Bug War type.
- Fables is set during a war of conquest, with the Adversary's Evil Empire encroaching on various storybook lands. The heroes are refugees from many different worlds stuck together in New York.
- Pennyworth: A second Civil War in an alternate 1960s England.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has the first five seasons build up to the Dominion War, which openly begins in the season five finale and continues for the remaining two series.
- Babylon 5 gives us the Earth-Minbari War, which finished ten years before the series started, is what people usually refer to when they say "during the war...". There's also the Dilgar War, referred to in one episode but very important to the series' backstory (as it proved the Earth Alliance's status as a major galactic power). The series itself, however, is set during no less than six concurrent, interrelated wars:
- The Elder Scrolls:
- Oblivion takes place during the eponymous Oblivion Crisis. Due to the assassination of Emperor Uriel Septim VII and his legitimate heirs, the metaphysical barrier between Oblivion and Mundus (the mortal world) maintained by their lineage is lost, allowing Big Bad Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon and his Legions of Hell to invade. The Player Character must first rescue and then team up with the Emperor's bastard son to save the world.
- Skyrim takes place during the Skyrim Civil War, a clash between the secessionist Stormcloak rebels and the Imperial Loyalists, which itself is an aftershock of the Great War between the vestigial Cyrodiilic Empire and the reformed Aldmeri Dominion. The Player Character can choose a side to support and lead to victory, all against the backdrop of the reappearance of the thought-extinct Dragons.
- The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard is an Action-Adventure Gaiden Game prequel which takes place some 400 years prior to the main series of games. Following the Redguard Civil War which weakened their kingdom enough to be absorbed by the rising Septim Empire, the game is set against the backdrop of the Stros M'Kai Revolt (of which the main character, Cyrus, accidentally becomes the leader).
- The Elder Scrolls Online, a prequel MMO taking place roughly 500 years before the main series, takes place during two related wars: the Alliance War (which pits three alliances made up of former provinces of the Second Empire) and the Planemeld (an attempted invasion of Mundus by the Daedric Prince Molag Bal).
- The Call of Warr takes place during the warr described in Cry Of Mann, with a focus on soldiers and civilians trying to survive.
- Mahabharata is set in ancient northern India around circa 8000 BC. It chronicles the events leading upto and the events of the Kurukshetra War between cousins for control of the Kingdom of Hastinapur (present day Varanasi) and Indraprasth (present day Delhi). The historical significance of this war is questionable.
