Trope Talk: Save The World

Bad news, guys! The stakes have never been higher! If we can't pull off the plot challenge of the week, the world as we know it will literally end! What do you mean, "the author can't let that happen"? Shush, you! We are in extremely real and worrying danger, and you should definitely be concerned of our chances of failure!

Got a favorite execution of this trope? Drop it in a comment!

EXAMPLES USED, ROUGHLY IN ORDER: Transformers 2, Steven Universe (It Could've Been Great), Resident Evil: Extinction, Berserk, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Gamma World), Gravity Falls (Weirdmageddon), Storm Hawks (Finale), Kingsman: The Secret Service, Galactus, Dark Phoenix Saga, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Danny Phantom (Urban Jungle), Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

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[michaelmacvittie]

"The world is in danger!" "My *evening's* in danger!"

[antares]

"A single death is a tragedy; a thousand deaths is a statistic."

[BL_Lusha]

I'm reminded of Guardian of the Galaxy, where Rocket asks Quill, "What has the Galaxy ever done for you! Why would you want to save it!" And his response is, "I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!"

[dappercuttlefish]

"What are you going to do? Actually destroy the world?"

Hirohiko Araki: "Did I stutter?"

[eilisevans]

I love how the background music is a violin cover of 'its the end of the world, I feel fine' or what ever it is.

[izzy]

'Because i'm one of the idiots who lives in it!'
-StarLord's reason for why he saved the world/universe.

[ScholRLea]

Arthur Dent's internal monologue upon discovering that the Earth was gone is one of the best descriptions of how hard imagining 'the end of the world' really is: _"Visions of it swam sickeningly through his nauseated mind. There was no way his imagination could feel the impact of the whole Earth having gone, it was too big. He prodded his feelings by thinking that his parents and sister had gone. No reaction. He thought of all the people he had been close to. No reaction. Then he thought of a complete stranger he had been standing behind in the queue at the supermarket two days before and felt a sudden stab - the super market was gone, everyone in it was gone. Nelson's Column had gone! Nelson's column had gone and there would be no outcry, because there was no one left to make an outcry. From now on Nelson's Column only existed in his mind. England only existed in his mind - his mind, stuck here in this dank smelly steel-lined spaceship. A wave of claustrophobia closed in on him... He passed out. When he came around a second later he found he was sobbing for his mother."_

[skyhideaway]

"I want to save the world for the people who depend on me."
"I want to save the world to honor Rose's legacy."
"I want to save the world where I'm allowed to express myself freely."
"I, uh.. I want to save the world because I live here."

[noizepusher]

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy takes advantage of the whole “humans can’t comprehend the entire earth being destroyed” by actually destroying the entire Earth and just shrugging it off as a joke.

[valritz]

"How many of you have had an existential crisis just looking up at the sky?"

TOO REAL. There's a reason we conceived of the sky as being a solid dome with stars on it. To consider otherwise is TERRIFYING.

[caggles]

My favourite version of this trope came from a D&D game I played in, where the party was actually tasked with CAUSING the end of the world. There was a prophesied apocalypse that was going to happen, and the party was going to use it to prevent an actually full-on "the world blinks completely out of existence" apocalypse. Going in, it was already a forgone conclusion that the world wouldn't blink out of existence because of this, so there was no worry there. The real tension came from our various plans to prevent the apocalypse from causing too much damage. Basically, the stakes were "how hard will it be to rebuild society on the other side" which turned out to be very effective.

[danieloceansmith]

Villain: IF YOU DONT DEFEAT ME I WILL BLOW UP EARTH!!!!
Hero:.... wait you mean the whole planet, the substance, or the guy named earth over there
Earth: HEY-O!
well the third one definitely.
Hero: YOU MADMAN!!!!

[albedo]

"The universe is where I keep all my stuff!"
-Argit, Ben 10: Omniverse

[Keairan]

"Maes Hughes' death is the first majorly upsetting thing in FMA Brotherhood" Nina and Alexander say hi.

[radhair]

The best way to subvert the "save the world" plot; ACTUALLY end the world

[danmenard]

Thank you, Red, for bringing up Beerus' spin on the 'destroy the earth' trope villains seem to love so much. All he does is destroy a rock and says "There, I destroyed the earth." I laughed at how absurd, yet accurate the statement was.

[gretablackwell]

So basically, to make a “save the world” plot you have to make it feel like a world, rather than just a setting.

[LLWTF]

"Heroes got bigger and stakes got badder"


Greatestest line ever. For better or worse.

[fionatastic.]

I think Stalin once said something like “one death is a tragedy, many deaths is a statistic.” It’s not necessarily less tragic if more people die obviously, but much harder to imagine and feel like you can care about or help with.

Edit: Whoops, a commenter kindly pointed out that Stalin did not say that but I think the quote still stands.

[MiguelGonzalez-dude]

I think Majora's Mask works pretty well with the "save the world" narrative. You literally have 3 days to stop the world from ending and the thing that makes it so personal and tragic are the characters and settings you encounter. Everyone has a very distinct personality and their whole lives are pending from a thread because they know they're gonna die. You can't help but feel very helpless when the last minutes are running and you don't want anyone to die, no matter how many times you go back in time