History Main / PlanarShockWave

* In DarthsAndDroids, which loosely follows the plot of the StarWars movies, the shockwave bombs from AttackOfTheClones [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0294.html make their appearance]]. One player explains that they might work like that because of the inverse square law - by concentrating the force into a ring, more damage is done by the ring. In effect, Jango is sacrificing accuracy for power.

* In DarthsAndDroids, which loosely follows the plot of the StarWars movies, the shockwave bombs from AttackOfTheClones make their appearance. One player explains that they might work like that because of the inverse square law - by concentrating the force into a ring, more damage is done by the ring. In effect, Jango is sacrificing accuracy for power.

[[StarWars http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deathstarshockwave.jpg]][[caption-width:200:[[HomestarRunner So popular lately.]]]] Huge explosions in space turn into fireballs surrounded by unexplained rings of fire/plasma that expand usually on the relative horizontal or vertical plane, often racing just past the camera. Used to make big [[StuffBlowingUp kabooms]] appear more powerful, and when spheroid shockwaves just won't do.

* Appears in an extreme long-distance panel in SchlockMercenary, when the F'Sherl-Ganni (Gatekeepers) decide to deliberately detonate the ''t'okjith'' (trans: "very clever, but extremely dangerous thing"; a toroidal singularity trapped in the heart of a star) that was powering one of their ''buuthandi'' (trans: "very expensive thing"; sort of a DysonSphere made up of habitats slung on giant solar sails[[hottip:* :which is actually closer to Dyson's original concept than a solid shell]]) while under attack from Fleet Admiral Breya Andreyasn's forces, with their cheap wormgate-copy systems producing a ridiculous amount of missiles to force said fleet into the shockwave, with the intention of over-awing the "lesser species" by totally annihilating a multi-national fleet. [[spoiler: [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20020820.html The fleet escapes]].]] Justified by putting gravity-control devices out in the system's Kuiper Belt to ensure that when it ''does'' blow, rather than the star acting as a giant frag grenade, it rips the fabric of space/time a new one in one particular plane.

* Averted in ''StarFox 64'', where all explosions are [[SphereOfDestruction spheroidal]] (although they end up looking like geodesic balloons due to polygon limitations).

** ''StarFoxAdventures'' plays this straight however as most spaceship's in the game blow up like this. This is especially apparent when [[spoiler: Andross head]] explodes at the end of the game exactly like the Death Star did in Star Wars, complete with ship's outrunning the fireball.

[[StarWars http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deathstarshockwave.jpg]][[caption-width:200:[[HomestarRunner SO POPULAR LATELY!]]]] Huge explosions in space turn into fireballs surrounded by unexplained rings of fire/plasma that expand usually on the relative horizontal or vertical plane, often racing just past the camera. Used to make big [[StuffBlowingUp kabooms]] appear more powerful, and when spheroid shockwaves just won't do.

** ''Star Wars: Attack of the Clones'' takes it one step further, with the shock bombs dropped from Jango Fett's ship: The resulting explosion is focused into a thin disk shape that seems to simply cut through the surrounding asteroids. Which given that space is three dimensional makes them extremely ineffective weapons that only work because Obi-Wan seems not to be aware of that fact.

* ''StarTrek: The Undiscovered Country'', when the Klingon moon of Praxis explodes in a double shockwave ring. The effect is occasionally called a Praxis Shockwave after this prominent example. The shockwave actually gains plot significance here when it hits the starship Excelsior, since it makes the Federation aware of what happened. Most other examples feature the rings mostly for eye candy.

* Used egregiously in the ''WingCommander'' theatrical release, in which a character fails to [[OutrunTheFireball outrun a shockwave]] which is half the height of her fighter craft. Despite being the squadron commander, the idea of glancing behind her and pulling up never occurs to her.

* An apparent example occurs when [[spoiler:Jupiter]] explodes in ''[=~2010: The Year We Make Contact~=]'', but it is made clear that it is actually the visible edge of a spherical shockwave when it [[OutrunTheFireball catches up to the heroes' ship]].

* Narn energy mines in one of [[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'s space battles.

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* Possibly the earliest example of a planar shockwave is the self destruction of the Nostromo in ''{{Alien}}'' (1979). From Ripley's POV, it first forms a horizonal multicolored line and then an orange sphere appears behind/inside it. A few seconds later a horizontal shockwave of material hits her ship.

* In DarthsAndDroids, which loosely (Well, barely) follows the plot of the StarWars movies, the shockwave bombs from AttackOfTheClones make thier appearance. One player explains that they might work like that because of the inverse square law, by concentrating the force into a ring, more damage is done by the ring. In effect, Jango is sacrificing accuracy for power.

** ''Star Wars: Attack of the Clones'' takes it one step further, with the shock bombs dropped from Jango Fett's ship: The resulting explosion is focused into a thin disk shape that seems to simply cut through the surrounding asteroids.

* Averted in ''StarFox 64'', where all explosions are spheroidal (although they end up looking like geodesic balloons due to polygon limitations).

* Tactical battles use these in ''Sword of the Stars''.

** Exception: ''Star Trek Generations'', whenever it showed a star exploding, the shockwave (barely visible) was spherical.
*** Not strictly a shockwave as such, but there was an episode of ''Enterprise'' where the ship gets engulfed in a planar ion-plasma-storm-radiation-belt-thing that the ship couldn't otherwise outrun, causing the crew to have to hide in one of the nacelles for the duration of the episode to avoid death by radiation. Outrunning or going round may have been impossible, but the ship could have easily dodged above or below the ''suspiciously flat'' anomaly - it would have made far more sense to show it as some sort of massive three-dimensional cloud. Doubly silly (if possible for a ''Star Trek'' negative space wedgie of the week) is that ''this is supposed to be impossible in-universe''... we are told in ''The Next Generation'' (set 200+ years later) that there are no natural phenomena capable of warp travel, so the ''Enterprise'' should have been able to outdistance the storm regardless.
* It [[{{Fanwank}} might be argued]] that as the Rebel's goal was to detonate the main reactors of the Death Stars, the wave is actually a normal feature of said reactors exploding. Even in the original version the 2nd Death Star's reactor doesn't appear to explode spherically when we see Lando & Wedge torpedo it.

*** Note that if we're talking about bombs, it's not quite so unrealistic, since they could be made to project their explosion however you want (''why'' you'd want to do that is suggested in DarthsAndDroids, see below.)
**** WordOfGod says the seismic charges are designed to cause seismic disturbances and destroy underground structures, hence the planar shockwave. They weren't really intended for use in space.
*** Which of course just begs the question as to why a CrazyPrepared bounty hunter would be using them instead of some far more suitable space-based ordnance the Star Wars galaxy seems to be otherwise stuffed with...
*** RuleOfCool, obviously.

* Heavy bombs and capital ship explosions in ''{{Freespace}}'' and its sequel.
** This is also a bit of an aversion. While the visual effects throw off randomly-oriented planar shockwaves, the explosions are spherical - you can get messed up by a close-proximity blast even if the ring effects are nowhere near you.
*** The "randomly oriented" part is only when 3D shockwaves are enabled in the updated [=FreeSpace=] 2 Open engine. In the original games they were always oriented so you saw the "ring" head-on. In the first game in the series, the shockwaves even looked spherical.

** ''StarFoxAdventures'' plays this straight however as most spaceship's in the game blow up like this. This is especially apparent when [[spoiler: Andross head]] explodes at the end of the game exactly like the Death Star did in Star Wars.

* The Quantum Surge in ''BeastWars'' was plot-significant throughout the second season.

* It [[Fanwank might be argued]] that as the Rebel's goal was to detonate the main reactors of the Death Stars, the wave is actually a normal feature of said reactors exploding. Even in the original version the 2nd Death Star's reactor doesn't appear to explode spherically when we see Lando & Wedge torpedo it.

*** Which of course just begs the question as to why a crazy prepared bounty hunter would be using them instead of some far more suitable space-based ordnance the Star Wars galaxy seems to be otherwise stuffed with...

* ''{{Armageddon}}'' has one when the nuclear ordanace exploded inside the asteroid.

* Appears in an extreme long-distance panel in SchlockMercenary, when the F'Sherl-Ganni (Gatekeepers) decide to deliberately detonate the ''t'okjith'' (trans: "very clever, but extremely dangerous thing"; a toroidal singularity trapped in the heart of a star) that was powering one of their ''buuthandi'' (trans: "very expensive thing"; sort of a Dyson Sphere made up of habitats slung on giant solar sails) while under attack from Fleet Admiral Breya Andreyasn's forces, with their cheap wormgate-copy systems producing a ridiculous amount of missiles to force said fleet into the shockwave, with the intention of over-awing the "lesser species" by totally annihilating a multi-national fleet. [[spoiler: [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20020820.html The fleet escapes]].]] Justified by putting gravity-control devices out in the system's Kuiper Belt to ensure that when it ''does'' blow, rather than the star acting as a giant frag grenade, it rips the fabric of space/time a new one in one particular plane.

* Appears in an extreme long-distance panel in SchlockMercenary, when the F'Sherl-Ganni (Gatekeepers) decide to deliberately detonate the ''t'okjith'' (trans: "very clever, but extremely dangerous thing"; a toroidal singularity trapped in the heart of a star) that was powering one of their ''buuthandi'' (trans: "very expensive thing"; sort of a Dyson Sphere made up of habitats slung on giant solar sails) while under attack from Fleet Admiral Breya Andreyasn's forces, with their cheap wormgate-copy systems producing a ridiculous amount of missiles to force said fleet into the shockwave, with the intention of over-awing the "lesser species" by totally annihilating a multi-national fleet [[spoiler:the [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20020820.html fleet escapes]]]]. Justified by putting gravity-control devices out in the system's Kuiper Belt to ensure that when it ''does'' blow, rather than the star acting as a giant frag grenade, it rips the fabric of space/time a new one in one particular plane.