History Main / ThrowAwayCountry

'''HASBRO''': [[{{Eagleland}} Wiping Moscow from the face of the earth]] [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp would be fine.]]
** Ironically, Ellis had previously blown up Moscow in ''ComicBook/TheAuthority''.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021'' episode "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?", Captain Marvel explains that she held back on using her full power because it wasn't worth the collateral damage to get rid of [[{{Fratbro}} an overgrown frat boy]] throwing a WildTeenParty. Darcy suggests taking the battle to North Dakota, or maybe South Dakota.

* Averted in Creator/PoulAnderson's AFTER DOOMSDAY, underlining how shocking the destruction of Earth is. "How does this happen to planets?" "It doesn't."

* In ''Series/{{Jericho}}'' Iran and North Korea are mentioned as being outright destroyed in the exchange of nuclear weapons. Then again, it's not like America escaped unharmed, as the premise of the show is about scraping together a post-apocalyptic society in a small midwestern town that was far enough from major cities to survive.
* The titular ''{{Series/Lexx}}'' ate Holland. It was hungry, and the Dutch, according to Prince, are used to suffering anyway.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', [[BigBad The leader of Homunculi]] enacts this twice. First, 400 years before events of the manga to the country of Xerxes, [[spoiler:as he does it to get himself a body and sentience.]] Second during the "Promised Day", he takes [[spoiler:the lives of nearly 50 million residents of Amestris[[note]] The very nation was created for this very purpose[[/note]] to gain the body of God.]] Thankfully, the second time, [[spoiler: it doesn't stick.]]

* In ''Film/TheAvengersAgeOfUltron'', the titular robot once again blows up an irrelevant [[{{Ruritania}} fictional Eastern European country]], Sokovia. Maria Hill even says it's "nowhere special, but it's in the way to on the way to everywhere special". In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', this is slightly downplayed, as the country is listed as the most prominent example of places which have suffered massive collateral damage during Avenger missions and even becomes the reason for a UN resolution to issue the so-called "Sokovia Accords" to disband the Avengers, but this is all treated as a temporary setback and the heroes move on to different conflicts, by the time of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' more or less assembling again.

* A few locales have gotten this treatment in the Archie ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' comics, though the most egregious has to be the Floating Island, which had recently had its entire population quite literally decimated in a semi-off-panel war against Eggman and the Dingoes in an apparent bid to shift the action away from the [[SpotlightStealingSquad spotlight stealing]] Echidnas and back onto the main heroes. It worked; Knuckles' and the Dark Legions' stories were shifted off the island, and the last we heard of its population, it was quietly rebuilding, given little reference in later comics.

The smaller a country is, the more likely it is to experience offscreen destruction, or of showing up on a disaster-map without any mention at all. And you can just forget about them getting any mention in global disasters.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Since the name change from Paradise Island to Themyscira, and decreasing the power levels of the Amazons as a whole outside of Wondy, the island has been destroyed or jettisoned from earth by numerous villain attacks (Circe once tossed the whole place into the limbo like outer reaches of Tartarus). This never sticks, but attacking Themyscira and causing major damage has become a shorthand for making an attack on the Earth's heroes seem serious.

* Disney's ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'' has a throwaway village which Mulan's troop find burned to the ground, with the corpses of ImperialChina's RedShirtArmy strewn around nearby.

* ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'' sees your scientists in need of a target for their latest experimental weapon. They ultimately settle on ''UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}}'', though not without begrudingly admitting that they're really doing the world a favour by wiping the home of CountryMusic off the map.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' [[PlayingWithATrope lampshades this trope while playing it straight and arguably justifying it]]. It is explicitly stated that various supernatural predators and malevolent entities are far more active in less developed parts of the world than they are in America, and as a result they get pretty much ignored. While it's undeniable that predations are much more likely to avoid discovery by muggle authorities if they happen in such countries, it strains credulity that, for example, the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Red Court's]] nerve gas attack on a White Council hospital in Africa (which supposedly killed 30,000 ordinary people in the surrounding eight city blocks) didn't even get mentioned on the news. The fact that Harry and co, while mentioning the death toll with outrage, are more furious over the deaths of the hundred or so White Council Wardens (who can in no way be considered civilians) smacks of this trope being played uncomfortably straight.

** There is passing mention to a nuclear bomb wiping out San Diego (in the past). This was going to be an aversion, with a shadowy organization based out of its ruins, but it was [[AbortedArc dropped]] after the first episode and became irrelevant again. Season 4 had passing mention of planets destroyed/devastated by Vorlons and Shadows.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' loves this trope. A lot of its games have started out with one (if not many) of the main character's nations being invaded.
** Also subverted in that most of the games subsequently revolve around said main characters fighting a war to defend/regain said home nation. Other countries (like [[spoiler:6's Ilia and 10's Phoenicis]]) do tend to fall by the wayside, though.

* In the Devil's Due version of ''GIJoe'', Boston gets nuked by COBRA using stolen Russian missiles as the opening salvo in their plan to ignite World War III.

* RightWingMilitiaFanatic manifesto disguised as a novel ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' has several examples:
** The civil wars in California and Texas between Hispanics and their enemies (proto-[[LadyLand Azanians]] and [[ValuesDissonance Texan]] [[VillainProtagonist patriots]], respectively) are implied to be extremely brutal, yet occur almost entirely offscreen and don't upset the protagonists too much, them having their own wars to fight closer to home.
** Even more true for countries outside the US. For example, Sweden suffering a gene-modded super plague apocalypse and Israel being annihilated by a MiddleEasternCoalition get exactly one throwaway line each. Again, to be fair, the [[ValuesDissonance "protagonists"]] had their own hands full at the time.

* Dystopian near-future thriller ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' has several examples:
** The civil wars in California and Texas between Hispanics and their enemies (proto-[[LadyLand Azanians]] and Texan patriots, respectively) are implied to be extremely brutal, yet occur almost entirely offscreen and don't upset the protagonists too much, them having their own wars to fight closer to home.
** Even more true for countries outside the US. For example, Sweden suffering a gene-modded super plague apocalypse and Israel being annihilated by a MiddleEasternCoalition get exactly one throwaway line each. Again, to be fair, the protagonists had their own hands full at the time.

** In ''Film/ANewHope'', Alderaan is used as a throw-away planet to showcase the destructive power of the Empire's battle station, the Death Star. It also serves as Leia's DoomedHometown. The [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]went into a lot more detail about the impact this act had on the Empire (short version? One hell of a GenocideBackfire).

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Since the name change from Paradise Island to Themyscira, and decreasing the power levels of the Amazons as a whole outside of Wondy, the island has been destroyed or jettisoned from earth by numerous villain attacks (Circe once tossed the whole place into the limbo like outer reaches of Tartarus). This never sticks, but attacking Themyscira and causing major damage has become a shorthand for making an attack on the earth's heroes seem serious.

* Franchise/TheDCU has in the past 20 years destroyed [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Coast City]] (''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman / Emerald Twilight''), Montevideo (''ComicBook/DCOneMillion''), Vladivostok (Terror Incognita arc, ''ComicBook/{{JLA}}''), and Bludhaven (''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''). ''Permanently'' destroyed, with nuclear fire.

* ''Franchise/StarWars"":
** In ""Film/ANewHope'', Alderaan is used as a throw-away planet to showcase the destructive power of the Empire's battle station, the Death Star. It also serves as Leia's DoomedHometown. The [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]went into a lot more detail about the impact this act had on the Empire (short version? One hell of a GenocideBackfire).

* ''Franchise/StarWars:
** In Film/ANewHope'', Alderaan is used as a throw-away planet to showcase the destructive power of the Empire's battle station, the Death Star. It also serves as Leia's DoomedHometown. The [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]went into a lot more detail about the impact this act had on the Empire (short version? One hell of a GenocideBackfire).

** In Film/ANewHope'', Alderaan is used as a throw-away planet to showcase the Death Star's power. It also serves as Leia's DoomedHometown. The ExpandedUniverse went into a lot more detail about the impact this act had on the Empire. (Short version? One hell of a GenocideBackfire.)

* In ''Film/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', Alderaan is used as a throw-away planet to showcase the Death Star's power. It also serves as Leia's DoomedHometown. The ExpandedUniverse went into a lot more detail about the impact this act had on the Empire. (Short version? One hell of a GenocideBackfire.)
** In keeping with its status as a SoftReboot of the franchise, ''Film/StarWars: Film/TheForceAwakens'' features Starkiller Base blowing up the capital of the New Republic at Hosnian Prime and four other planets in the Hosnian system. None are given any characterization whatsoever before they're fried, and afterward their destruction has little impact outside of the [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] other than leaving the Resistance without any kind of reinforcements or support in ''Film/TheLastJedi''.

** In keeping with its status as a SoftReboot of the franchise, ''Film/StarWars: Film/TheForceAwakens'' features Starkiller Base blowing up the capital of the New Republic at Hosnian Prime and four other planets in the Hosnian system. None are given any characterization whatsoever before they're fried, and afterward their destruction has little impact on anything.