History VideoGame / BluePlanet

* FalseFlagOperation: [[spoiler: Used by both the UEF and the GTVA. The GTVA colluded with the Gefs to ambush a Vasudan destroyer during a diplomatic meeting, and announce that they were doing it under orders from the UEF. Later, the UEF uses captured Gefs to attack Vasudan logistical ships so that the GTVA thinks the Gefs are trying to play both sides.]]

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: While the [[spoiler:UEF definitely has the moral high ground,]] the GTVA [[spoiler: has very understandable reasons for invading Sol.]] You [[AllThereInTheManual REALLY]] need to read the supplementary material in the Tech Room database to understand why. Mainly, the GTVA is (legitimately) terrified that [[spoiler: the UEF's Ubuntu philosophy and loose-Federation government style will catch like wildfire in the rest of the GTVA,]] given the cultural, social, political, and economic situation in (at least the Terran portion) of the GTVA. It is very strongly implied (and readily apparent) throughout ''War In Heaven'', and to a lesser extent in the series as a whole, that [[spoiler: neither the GTVA nor the UEF can survive as they currently are, and they need to reach peace and incorporate the best elements of the other in order to avoid the crippling weaknesses of both.]] Some of the supplementary material also suggests that [[spoiler: some parts of the UEF--especially its Council of Elders--is under the influence of or is being manipulated by some alien power (implied to be the Vishnans, who are apparently less benevolent than they appeared to be in Age of Aquarius, or even the ''Shivans''), of which the GTVA are utterly terrified. ]]

* BackToBackBadasses: The ''Katana'' and ''Altan Orde'' in the optional single-mission campaign named ''The Blade Itself''. Two humble [=UEFg=] ''Karunas'' and half a dozen fighters wipe the floor with a pair of ''Deimos''-class Corvettes and numerous other Tev ships long enough to evacuate some of the civilians, deny the station to the Tevs, and finally escape from a Meson Bomb attack. All of this despite a surprise attack and the ''Katana's'' dock being sabotaged, forcing her to depart without her full crew complement!

* FantasyConflictCounterpart: The devs of ''War in Heaven'' have stated that the war between the [[AntiHero United Earth Federation]] and the [[AntiVillain Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance]] is meant to be the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar InSpace. In both cases we have one side being far more powerful than the other but forced to fight a limited and conservative war due to political divisions and murky objectives while the much less powerful but more ideologically convinced side is simply trying to hold its own and ultimately push the other side out by costing them enough blood. Similarly to the Vietnam War, there is no clear-cut good guy.
** Also much like the Vietnam War, [[spoiler:both sides are actually proxies for much larger foreign powers.]]

* AcePilot: Plenty of them. On ''both'' sides. One mission is literally two small teams of AcePilot's going up against each other. [[spoiler: two of them happen to be Xinny and Zero, two of the pilots that made up the four SOC-man team that ventured beyond the second Knossos portal in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace2'' (including you, the player, and fan-favorite Snipes).]] Unusually for the trope, [[spoiler: it's possible to lose (by getting shot down), in which case you (barely) survive by virtue of your fighter getting disabled but not blown up, and Xinny and Zero survive to complete their mission, which is to retrieve (or rescue) a character from the first game in the ''Blue Planet'' series...though the cruiser they boarded gets practically blown up in the chaos, killing her entire crew.]]

* LandDownUnder: Owing to the voice acting, a surprisingly large number of characters can be considered to be Australian or descended from them after Earth was cut off from the GTVA. The big examples are Corey, Levi, Admiral Byrne, and Samuel Bei himself.

** Levi loses it during the mission, falling from his standard flippant nature into sheer panic before [[spoiler: screaming as he's killed]].

* HeroicBSOD: Seemingly happen to Kassim in ''War in Heaven'', early on after his first real combat sorties, he frequently strays from his path during missions, and midway he apparently freaked out, may or may not be GoMadFromTheRevelation, could be just trauma of war or having visions similar to Laporte. The same thing happened with Lorna Simms shortly after the Rheza Station battle until Laporte beat some sense into her, and [[spoiler:again after "Delenda Est"]].

* LandDownUnder: Owing to the voice acting, a surprisingly large number of characters can be considered to be Australian or descended from them after Earth was cut off from the GTVA. The big examples are [[Wingman Levi, Corey]], and [[PlayerCharacter Samuel Bei]] himself.

* BonusMaterial: Several single missions that come with the campaign, one of which is basically "What would happen if we stuck every single named capital ship in the story together and [[StuffBlowingUp had them shoot at each other?]]" There is also a RacingMiniGame with UEF interceptors. One (good) mission even has you commanding a ''capital ship'' during the battle that the opening cutscene of ''War In Heaven'' depicts, complete with its own HUD and coding.

* HopelessWar: The UEF are completely outmatched by the GTVA. Their weapons technology is woefully behind, and they've been a society of pacifists for decades while the GTVA is a highly militaristic war machine willing to do whatever it takes to survive. The UEF are primarily hoping on draining the GTVA populace's will to fight and having them cave due to socio-political pressure, as there's no chance of a military victory.

** The Shivans are theorized to be something similar for the universe as a whole: they are Destroyers, first and foremost, and admit to it. However, their destruction is believed (at least by themselves) to be for the purpose of culling dangerous elements out of the universe for the sake of everything else's survival. [[spoiler:It's particularly telling that, in the Shivan consciousness, "preserve" and "destroy" appear to be ''the same concept'' according to them.]]

** [[spoiler: The Great Darkness, an unknown entity so horrible that even thinking about is implied to be dangerous, would also fall into this category. No one is sure what exactly it is... it may not be an intelligence or even an "entity" at all, but rather some kind of existential collapse event. It's physical form, as revealed in FRED, is an enormous, vaguely cylindrical gas cloud; in-game, trying to look at it instantly drives you insane.]]

* HyperspeedAmbush: Used frequently by both the GTVA and UEF. In fact most of the newer GTVA warships are designed specifically with this tactic in mind.

** [[spoiler: The Great Darkness, an unknown entity so horrible that even thinking about is implied to be dangerous, would also fall into this category. No one is sure what exactly it is... it may not be an intelligence or even an "entity" at all, but rather some kind of existential collapse event.]]

* UnexpectedGenreChange: The later missions of the campaign include a long chain of stealth missions, a strategy mission, and a mission that consists entirely of a TowerDefense minigame.

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything:

** The Fedayeen in a nutshell. As one would expect of a covert black ops group that doesn't officially exist, they are generally willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. Their "leader" mentions at one point that his suggestion when the GTVA showed up, before the war even started, was to nuke their jump gate into oblivion before anything could go wrong, but the Council of Elders said "no".

''Blue Planet: War in Heaven'' (2010/2013/???) is set a year and a half after ''Age of Aquarius''. The 14th Battlegroup returned to their home dimension to find the United Earth Federation as the current government of the Sol system. Their standing orders: crush the Federation and forcibly assimilate it into the GTVA. Samuel Bei, his father, and several other members of the 14th Battlegroup defected to the UEF, leaving the blitzkrieg assault the GTVA was hoping for in tatters. However, the GTVA were quick to regroup, and are now slowly grinding the UEF's miltary into dust. The player character this time is Noemi Laporte, a newly commissioned pilot in the UEF navy. Noemi has...issues, most notably a history of mental instability, aggression, and hearing voices [[spoiler: which are actually SufficientlyAdvancedAliens speaking to her through her PsychicPowers]]. She must face both her own personal demons as well as the forces of the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance, who outnumber, outgun, and generally outclass the UEF's. Currently only the first three-fifths of ''War in Heaven'' has been released, and the remaining two-fifths is currently in closed beta status. ''War in Heaven'' was hyped extensively prior to release, and so far the general impression has been overwhelmingly positive of the released first part. More than one player has declared it the best ''[=FreeSpace=]'' campaign ever released.

* AdaptiveAbility: [[spoiler:The Shivans' strategy when they're fighting someone. They attack randomly and use what works, refining their combat strategies and ship designs, narrowing it down until they have the perfect attack pattern for their opponent. The process can take a ''very'' long time... but the Shivans are willing to wait and lose a few wars if it will ultimately, maybe thousands of years down the line, end in their victory.]]

* BackToBackBadasses: The ''Katana'' and ''Altan Orde'' in the optional single-mission campaign named ''The Blade Itself''. Two humble [=UEFg=] Karunas and half a dozen fighters wipe the floor with a pair of Deimos-class Corvettes and numerous other Tev ships long enough to evacuate some of the civilians, deny the station to the Tevs, and finally escape from a Meson Bomb attack. All of this despite a surprise attack and the ''Katana's'' dock being sabotaged, forcing her to depart without her full crew complement!

* BigDamnHeroes: Samuel Bei leads a [[spoiler: Vishnan]] fleet to save his father's battlegroup from being destroyed by the Shivans. [[spoiler: The victory party didn't last long...]]
* BlackAndGrayMorality: This is present in the conflict between the Shivans and [[spoiler:the Vishnans.]] The former are... well, the ''[[OmnicidalManiac Shivans]]'', but the latter may not be benevolent, no matter how they choose to present themselves when talking to Terrans. [[spoiler: Of course, there's an AlternativeCharacterInterpretation that the Vishans are the Black and the Shivans are Gray.]]

* BrownNote: [[spoiler: The Great Darkness in War In Heaven's Universal Truth.]]

* CliffHanger: The first part of ''War in Heaven'' ends on a ''massive'' one: [[spoiler:The Wargods have been effectively annihilated by the GTVA, the Indus is disabled, 80% of the crew is incapacitated due to radiation poisoning, your character's girlfriend is in the infirmary and you don't know whether she's alive or dead, and the Fedayeen show up in a last-minute rescue to retrieve your character for a secret mission ... and then the credits roll.]]

* {{Cutscene}}: Both [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seORm2SR5oc Age of Aquarius]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u_nooix_ko War in Heaven]] use in-game cutscenes for campaign intro. Age of Aquarius ends in a playable cutscene from first person view, while War in Heaven ends with something that could be called a cutscene montage. There is also a flashback cutscene in the form of recording [[spoiler: which reveals [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biGB_P59KWE what happened to Earth]].]] There's also a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgAgWe9ZWig rendered version of the Age of Aquarius intro cutscene]], made by a community member.

* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler: Captain Gennady of the Katana]], in the extra mission included you see why he choose to [[spoiler: stand back and hold the line to allow the Indus and Yangtze to escape.]]
* DefensiveFeintTrap: [[spoiler: Used in the climax of War in Heaven Act 2 by the GTVA. The Wargods fight a desperate battle to destroy the GTD Carthage which is hunkering down above the rings of Saturn. After a difficult battle the Wargods get within spitting distance of victory...only for a destroyer that UEF intelligence said was out of the system to jump in and [[CurbStompBattle wipe the floor]] with the Wargods' already damaged ships.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: The UEF seems to be hovering right on the edge of it. And Kassim ultimately, he was not ready to see so many people die.

** If you [[spoiler:destroy the GTD Carthage in ''Delenda Est'' - which is only feasible by cheating - Mr. Cuddles, a Sathanas Juggernaut, will show up to attack you. If you can destroy Mr. Cuddles too, you even get a debriefing specifically made for such an occasion!]]
** [[spoiler:It is also impossible to stop the corvettes warning the GTD Carthage during the initial trap for it, period. ''Even if'' you disable ''every single subsystem'', they ''still'' manage to jury-rig a transmitter to warn the Carthage to retreat. You cannot stop this without losing the mission, as the corvette(s) must survive.]]

* DysfunctionJunction: The pilots of the [=UEFg=] ''Indus''.

* FromBadToWorse: Just when you think things couldn't possibly go worse for the United Earth Federation in ''War in Heaven''...

* GlassCannon: The GTVA's Chimera and Bellerophon corvettes have incredible forward firepower, but are completely helpless should an enemy capital ship get close or approach them from a blindside and do not perform very well during prolonged engagements. They were designed to emulate the Shivan tactic of dropping out of subspace on the enemy's flank and hitting them so hard they can never recover.

** Act III shows that Laporte is dangerously close to the line after the events of ''Delenda Est''. However, in toeing the line, some others call her "the Ubuntu ideal".

** [[spoiler:Then in act 3, there's a complete reversal of the situation where you're the assassin piloting a stealth fighter and tasked with killing a traitorous elder before she reveals important info to Steele.]]

* HeroicBSOD: Seemingly happen to Kassim in ''War in Heaven'', early on after his first real combat sorties, he frequently strays from his path during missions, and midway he apparently freaked out, may or may not be GoMadFromTheRevelation, could be just trauma of war or having visions similar to Laporte. The same thing happened with Lorna Simms shortly after the Rheza Station battle until Laporte beat some sense into her, and [[spoiler:again after Delenda Est]].

* HumansAreSpecial: Averted. Though the two human protagonists of the series are able to achieve a form of communication with the Shivans and/or Vishnans due to their Nagari sensitivity, it is also apparent that the Vasudans also have N-sensitive individuals as evidenced by the Jester. The Vishnans also state in Age of Aquarius that both races (Humans and Vasudans) exhibited potential, though what this means is not yet clear.

* ItGetsEasier: Laporte starts the War in Heaven campaign and her first battle worrying about this very concept. [[spoiler: Judging by her actions and personality later on in the campaign, especially act 3, her worries were justified.]]

* KeystoneArmy: The Vishnan Sacred Keeper functions as a keystone. Killing a Keeper is not easy, but should one manage it, [[spoiler:it will shut down an entire Vishnan fleet instantly.]]
* KnightTemplar: The Wargods as well as those on the ''Toutatis'' have become like this near the end, forgetting their Ubuntu principles, especially when hunting the GTD Carthage: not only is Admiral Lopez not [[AFatherToHisMen exactly a bad person]], but they are willing to sacrifice hundreds of civilians in doing so and label them collateral damage.

* LightningBruiser: The Lao Tze advanced fighter used by the White Guard. The Durga bombers may also count seeing how fast they tear through unfortunate GTVA corvettes that are not fast enough to run.

* MacrossMissileMassacre + MoreDakka: The UEF fighting doctrine, unlike the GTVA which uses powerful beam weapons, involves dakka-venting the enemy ships with multiple railguns and spamming loads of torpedoes at the enemy (hopefully also knocking out several weapons and subsystems). The Solaris is the embodiment of this trope, sporting 12 anti-warship torpedo launchers, each firing 4 torpedoes per salvo, and its railguns are mounted on turrets, allowing it to engage enemies from virtually any direction. In addition, its numerous burst flak and point defence turrets will send any enemy bombers that come close into a BulletHell nightmare.

* MindRape: In the Director's Cut re-release of ''Age of Aquarius'', this happens to Samuel Bei as he approaches the SD Lucifer and the Shivan superdestroyer begins some kind of mental assault on him.

** Noemi does see her failure to [[spoiler: destroy the GTD Carthage, which resulted in the deaths of all the Wargods]] as this. The survivor's guilt probably contributed to her outlook.
* MyGreatestSecondChance: When Noemi goes up against the GTD Carthage again during the second battle of Neptune, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome she succeeds]].

** The Shivans are theorized to be something similar for the universe as a whole: they are Destroyers, first and foremost, and admit to it. However, their destruction is believed (at least by themselves) to be for the purpose of culling dangerous elements out of the universe for the sake of everything else's survival.

* OhCrap: Pretty much any time a big Shivan capship shows up in ''Age of Aquarius'', and the surprise entrance of the [[spoiler:GTD Imperieuse]] in ''War in Heaven''.

* PunchClockVillain: Most enemies in ''War In Heaven'', especially the GTD Carthage battlegroup.
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Serkr corvettes. No matter how much you hate them at first, they are [[PunchClockVillain properly humanized]] [[JustFollowingOrders in their second appearance]].

* TheSlowWalk: The assault on the Agincourt starts with this, also when breaking through the Hood's blockade.

** Act 3 cranks this up to eleven. In the first mission alone [[spoiler:you can detonate some hostage pilots you're using for a strike after they outlive their usefulness, and destroy your own UEF fighters who's only crime was stumbling into your black ops mission and seeing too much.]] In another mission, you can choose to [[spoiler: destroy the GTD Carthage after Admiral Lopez surrenders]].

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The sleeper ship ''Sanctuary'', along with its entire crew, simply disappears between the events of ''Age of Aquarius'' and ''War in Heaven'' and is never mentioned again. So are the fellow GTVA defectors in the GTL Solace, [=GTCv=] Labouchere, and GTC Duke who decided to follow Admiral Bei. However, the ''Solace'' is given a passing mention by Admiral Netreba after the ''Agincourt'' is escorted well behind Federation lines. [[spoiler:It appears that both ships are being used in some capacity for Byrne's project.]]

** In ''Delenda Est'', [[spoiler:the vast majority of the Wargods attempt this to allow the ''Indus'' and ''Yangtze'' to escape when the GTD ''Imperieuse'' shows up. It is a spectacular (and [[TearJerker tear jerking]]) failure, as the ''Imperieuse'' wipes the floor with them with [[CurbStompBattle no effort at all]].]]

** [[spoiler:One way to win "Her Finest Hour" is to order a fighter/bomber ZergRush on the Carthage near the end of the mission, although chances are you'll lose a lot of units in doing so]].