History Main / ApocalypseNot

* ''{{Mai-Otome}}''. Apparently, despite the claim that the war 300 years ago left the world devastated, the desert extends to just the immediate surroundings of Windbloom, and everywhere else it is lush and beautiful.

An unfortunate side effect of combining AfterTheEnd and ExpansionPackWorld.

* The film ''Warrior of the Lost World'' was mocked on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' for how clean and nice the post-apocalyptic world looked.

* Both played straight and subverted in {{Dune}} and its sequels: Paul Muad'Dib establishes an environmental program to turn the originally hellish-desert planet Arrakis into a more verdant and fertile place to live... only to have his son disrupt the process, showing how a verdant Arrakis would create its own hellish political climate... only to, during his own reign over the universe, turn it into a verdant world with only a thin strip left of the original desert... ''only to turn it back into its original desert harshness'' as part of his plan for the continued preservation of the universe. Honestly, Arrakis goes back and forth from temperate to desert climate so often that it's impossible to tell whether a given situation is upholding this trope or setting it on fire and tossing it out the window.

* A large part of the plot and theme of TheStand by Creator/StephenKing is whether or not this will happen to what remains of civilization after the superflu.

* Arguably, AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict goes like this halfway through. The beginning of the game implies worldwide destruction, with few survivors and no hope. However, we later see functioning cities, functional industry and many soldiers on our way, implying there isn't such a shortage of people after all. It's mostly GameplayAndStorySegregation though, since the cutscenes still give the apocalyptic feel.

** It is also worth pointing out that Japan was one of the biggest ''losers'' during both wars. Then again, given that country's history with startlingly quick turnarounds following [[WorldWarII previous world wars]], this isn't unprecedented.

* The DMZ that divides North and South Korea. Due to mines and the armistice boundary, wildlife and plantlife thrives in the area. There are no hunters, only UN observers and the few people allowed to live in selected areas.

!!Examples

* At the end of ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', JC Denton shuts down global communications, triggering the Great Collapse and throwing humanity into a Dark Age. Twenty years later, a number of cities have not only been rebuilt, but are once more engaged in cutting-edge research into emergent technologies. However, most of the world is either a)devastated or b)the same Illuminati-controlled dystopia the first game started with.

* ''{{Macross}}'' suffered from this, possibly because the post-apocalypse episodes were [[PostScriptSeason made in a hurry after the series was lengthened]].
** Don't they have cloning technology? Between that and the biomass contained in the relics of the destroyed Zentradi ships, they could have easily recreated their population from what had survived. And I recall the background materials openly stating that.
** It is indeed mentioned that mass cloning was used following the war. It's also notable that unlike many series there was never any real indication any critical knowledge was lost, just industrial capability. There are some passing mentions though of certain cultural information being lost due to the devastation of ethnic groups and the fact no one probably thought it overly critical to preserve copies of Lady Gaga songs, lolcats memes, etc in hardened military databases.

* The film ''Warrior of the Lost World'' was mocked on ''MST3K'' for how clean and nice the post-apocalyptic world looked.

* [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands}} Pandora]] is a complicated example. This isn't to say it's at Fallout levels, mind you. In VideoGame/{{Borderlands2}} the planet is arguably ''[[UpToEleven more]]'' of an environmental disaster area, featuring even more dangerous bandits, a mutated human subspecies, and 2-3 times the amount of deadly creatures. However, in the first game, most of the CrapsackWorld-iness came from the fact that the planet was a backwater's backwater's backwater, with only few (if any) attention from outside the planet. By the beginning of Borderlands 2, however, it's made clear that five interplanetary and even intergalactic megacorporations have (or had) holdings and major settlements on it, one of which even has an ongoing business selling wood, and the world actually has some semblance of normal life there besides survival. And the rest of the human population in the Borderlands world ''knows'' about Pandora by now. Although, it's debatable whether or not the increased attention from the various {{Mega Corp}}s has actually ''improved'' life on Pandora at all or just [[CrapsackWorld made it worse.]]

* The Deathlands action/adventure novels (by Jack Adrian et al), [[spoiler:though they got around it somewhat by having the protagonists travel in time as well as space.]]

** Made even more explicit in VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas. The only people having a difficult time making ends meet are the N.C.R., who are that way due to overextending themselves, the Followers, who are actually using the supplies to help other people, and the poor around Vegas, most of whom lost their money to drugs and gambling.

* [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands}} Pandora]] is a complicated example. This isn't to say it's at Fallout levels, mind you. In VideoGame/{{Borderlands2}} the planet is arguably ''[[UpToEleven more]]'' of an environmental disaster area, featuring even more dangerous bandits, a mutated human subspecies, and 2-3 times the amount of deadly creatures. However, in the first game, most of the CrapsackWorld-iness came from the fact that the planet was a backwater's backwater's backwater, with only few (if any) attention from outside the planet. By the beginning of Borderlands 2, however, it's made clear that five interplanetary and even intergalactic megacorporations have (or had) holdings and major settlements on it, one of which even has an ongoing business selling wood, and the world actually has some semblance of normal life there besides survival. And the rest of the human population in the Borderlands world ''knows'' about Pandora by now.

* [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands}} Pandora]] seems destitute early in the first game, but with each DLC and the sequel, more and more towns and stable areas are shown.

* The Chernobyl exclusion zone is by no means a safe area even decades from the disaster, but the destruction of everything living that many foresaw would happen through horrible mutations never took place. There have been mutations, and certainly many animals have died from the radiation in their food, but evolution has done its work, and through natural selection vegetation and wildlife in the area has grown more resilient to radiation damage, and has been reclaiming the area with fervor.

** It is indeed mentioned that mass cloning was used following the war. It's also notable that unlike many series there was never any real indication any critical knowledge was lost, just industrial capability. There are some passing mentions though of cultural information being lost due to the devastation of ethnic groups and the fact no one probably thought it overly critical to preserve copies of Lady Gaga songs, and lolcats memes, etc in hardened military databases.

** It is indeed mentioned that mass cloning was used following the war, it's also notable that unlike many series there was never any real indication any critical knowledge was lost, just industrial capability. There are some passing mentions though of cultural information being lost due to the devastation of ethnic groups and the fact no one probably thought it overly critical to preserve copies of Lady Gaga songs, and lolcats memes, etc in hardened military databases.

* [[Borderlands Pandora]] seems destitute early in the first game, but with each DLC and the sequel, more and more towns and stable areas are shown.

* ''VideoGame/TheSims 2'' SelfImposedChallenge "the Apocalypse Challenge" has this as its goal: your starting sim survives a nuclear meltdown that wipes out Sim City, and establishes a dynasty that rebuilds civilization, one career path at a time.