Basic Trope: An army beats their oppressors, despite being at a technological disadvantage.
- Straight:
- The people of Troperia are able to beat back the invading Evil Empire by sheer force of will—even though the Empire has the latest and greatest technology.
- Steve is the ultimate hacker, capable of entering any database that is online (and Everything Is Online), but he can't do anything to Bob's files from his computer because Bob files everything on old-fashioned paperback journals.
- Exaggerated:
- Troperia never advanced past the Stone Age, and the Evil Empire has tech that makes the people living in Star Wars look like Luddites. But they still lose to Troperia.
- The evil empire invades with humongous mecha that fall to pieces when kids throw stones at them.
- Steve is the ultimate hacker, capable of overriding machines that are not even supposed to be able to do what he commands them to as long as he can handwave some technical terminology and the machine has something even vaguely resembling a computer on board. But he can't do anything to Bob's files because Bob lives in a cave and his files were written in stone and papyrus.
- Downplayed:
- Troperia has 19th century or World War I tech and beats the Empire's 21st century tech.
- Troperia wins its battles, but all are bloody and hard-fought if not outright Pyrrhic, and it's not clear how long it can keep this up.
- Justified:
- The war is on Troperia's terrain, which they know—and the Empire doesn't.
- Alternatively, the tech, for all its bells and whistles, is able to break down—but the human spirit of Troperia isn't.
- The Empire's tech still has a lot of teething problems, which Troperia's tech, having already matured, doesn't suffer from.
- Or, Troperia has a large numerical advantage and uses human wave tactics
to overwhelm the Evil Empire. - Alternatively, Troperia can use magic.
- The evil empire discovers too late that Troperians happen to be immune to their weaponry, either through some freak mutation or magic that makes their weaponry not work.
- If the Empire cut loose with everything it had, it could win easily by levelling everything. Fortunately for the natives, it wants to capture Troperia intact for use and doesn't have terraforming technology, so nuking it to the bedrock and restoring it afterwards is impractical. Therefore, they must rely on vulnerable boots on the ground.
- Alternatively, the Empire's forces is led by their personal General BadTaktiks who knows jack about commanding troops; this allows Troperia's survival by virtue of superior strategy and tactics.
- The Empire focused on protecting themselves from the wrong things—their flexible armor blocks lasers, bullets, shrapnel, and blades fine but offers little protection against blunt force.
- Troperians are naturally extremely strong—their spears can be thrown with enough force to penetrate tank armor.
- Troperia cuts the Evil Empire's supply lines and uses guerrilla tactics to slowly wear their forces down—they win by strategy and averting Easy Logistics, not an open battle.
- The Empire is a Smug Super faction—has a lot of power, but give them a bit of a bloody nose and they run away crying for their mommies. Or they just stand there gloating that they have lasers and don't think of ducking for cover. With a weakness like that, a well-thrown rock is all the weapon someone needs.
- You just can't hack something written with pen on paper.
- The environment of Troperia creates a natural jamming field that disables advanced technology, but obviously has no effect on flying rocks.
- Inverted: The invading force is at a distinct technological disadvantage, but succeeds in their conquest anyways.
- Subverted:
- Seemingly primitive Troperia wins against the Empire... because they have a lot of Sufficiently Advanced Bamboo Technology that eclipses the Empire's own tech.
- Troperia wins, but Foreshadowing throughout the work culminates in The Reveal that they did so only because a power on the Evil Empire's level is secretly backing them or hindering the Empire.
- Troperia's ability to put into practice all those devices needed to fight the Empire betrays the fact that their tech is actually good, even if it's not applied the same way as the Empire.
- Troperia beats the Empire... then it turns out that Those Were Only Their Scouts, deliberately underequipped and poorly trained suicide legions meant to die en masse probing the enemy. Emperor Evulz decides it's time to Get Dangerous, sends in the elite troops with up-to-date gear, and promptly Curb Stomps the Troperians.
- Troperia captures the Empire's tech and uses it against them.
- Double Subverted:
- Even if they are made of Unobtanium, those are still spears being used as the primary weapon of Troperia's armies. You would think that they would have upgraded to something more practical for modern warfare (like crossbows) by now.
- But while it's by no means old, it's still ancient compared to the Empire's brand-new machinery.
- Troperia beats the Empire... then it turns out that Those Were Only Their Scouts. Emperor Evulz decides it's time to Get Dangerous, sends in the main army.... that are poorly trained, and with gear that makes the Troperians look advanced, and promptly gets Curb Stomped by the Troperians.
- But there's only so much recoverable Empire tech to go around, and the majority of Troperian forces still rely on their native outdated tech.
- Parodied: The people of Troperia only fight with sticks and rocks—and beat the Empire in five minutes flat.
- Zig Zagged:
- Troperia has some pretty good tech, but it's pretty crappy compared to what the Empire is packing. But then Troperia's top scientists unveil the newest Super Prototype.
- Troperia is relatively "modern" in some levels but is technologically stunted in some others. The invasion causes Troperia to copy the Evil Empire's tech.
- Averted: The more technologically-advanced side wins handily.
- Enforced: "All right, let's get cerebral with this one. Have the good guys win with strategy instead of superior firepower."
- Lampshaded: "How are they winning?! They don't even know what a robot is!!!"
- Invoked: The leader of Troperia gives a Rousing Speech to tell them not to give up right before the war.
- Exploited: The Empire's wars have been fought using energy weapons for so long that Troperia suspects it's stopped bothering to make its troops' armour effective against solid objects, so the Troperians arm themselves with clubs.
- Defied:
- "I'm sure their spirit is unsinkable and all that. But I don't care. Get more robots in there right now!"
- The Empire's department of robotic drone engineering make damned sure that their drone soldiers are invulnerable to everything from the most violent info-warfare hack to mud gumming up the joints and beyond, with extensive and oftentimes ridiculous testing. The robots could still be a beaten by a rock… if that rock weights 950 tons, meaning tactics way beyond what Troperia can do.
- "Rock can't beat nuke."
- Discussed: "How are we winning?" "We have weapons that won't jam or break, and they don't know how to fight once you break their pretty space swords!"/"It's not about who's got the biggest stick-it's about who's swinging it!"
- Conversed: "In a real war this wouldn't work... but these are the heroes defending their homeland, so of course a man with a rock can beat a soldier in futuristic space armor."
- Deconstructed:
- Troperia won the battle—but the numbers they lost aren't so easily replaced compared to the Empire, who can replace those soldiers at a moment's notice.
- Troperia won the battle. The spiteful Empire, deciding that If I Can't Have You…, then neither can they, decides to utterly level Troperia with scorched earth saturation artillery/aerial/orbital/kinetic bombardment. The Troperians can't do anything to save themselves because of their low tech.
- Reconstructed:
- However, Troperia made such an impression on the Empire that they don't try to invade again.
- Troperia are the Decoy Protagonists of the work. Their Doomed Moral Victory inspires other nations to stand up against the Empire and form The Alliance, which is what the rest of the story focuses on.
- Played For Laughs:
- The Empire's technology is so ridiculously delicate and its soldiers so woefully incompetent that the Troperians treat their invasions more like pest control with a really big rock. The Empire also falls for the same primitive traps every single time.
- A reverse Lensman Arms Race develops as both sides work their way down more primitive weapons to get an advantage.
- The town drunk beats back an entire alien army with a lasso and a wooden board with a nail sticking out of it. For further comedy points, the aliens (who have tech that makes The Culture look like the hippies they are often compared to) revere the drunk's items as "the ultimate weapons".
- Played For Drama: The work cuts between several perspectives: The Empire's troopers on the ground, who go from confident to jumping at shadows as the Troperians take their toll; General Ripper or Admiral I.N. Sane who grows increasingly frustrated with High Command's refusal to let him cut loose with the nukes; the frontline Troperians carrying out their ambushes; and Troperian High Command who while publicly celebrating every victory, privately fear that every win of theirs draws the Empire's patience thinner and fear what will happen once the Empire gets pushed too far.
- Played For Horror: Even in a show with both sides packing lasers, there is still some primal horror in the implication of someone falling into a punji stick trap and getting impaled (even if that part isn't shown on screen) that allows a quick labeling that one side is definitely playing for keeps.
- Implied: It's mentioned that Troperia succeeded in beating the Empire in the past. Neither's tech level is clear, but Troperia appears rural, and the Empire industrial.
Back to Rock Beats Laser
