History Main / EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion

** In ''We from Arcturus'' the aliens plotting to kidnap and eat the humans turn out to have keen enough senses they were overwhelmed by the smell of the all the human pollutants.

* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' gives us the Moonenites, the Plutonians, the Jupiterians, Travis of the Cosmos, and the Frat Aliens.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': The Helmacrons are a microscopic species with egos the size of planets. Their one invasion force is a single ship the size of a plastic toy, and they still think they can win. To quote Marco, who snaps after constant exposure to their bravado:

* Seemingly played straight in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'': GDI manages to [[KeystoneArmy shut down]] the Scrin invasion of Earth after a lot of effort and massive destruction across the globe, ''and'' while being hampered by the Brotherhood of Nod which (except for a few token efforts) isn't even bothering to fight against the aliens and is actually prioritizing GDI as a target over the Scrin. Then it's a SubvertedTrope when you play as the Scrin campaign and you find out the fleet wasn't an AlienInvasion, it was a mining operation with a small security detail tricked into arriving. For most of their time on Earth, the Scrin forces were running an IndyPloy barely hanging on with lots of {{Improvised Weapon}}s and [[GeneralRipper uncaring leadership]] that were willing to let the entire force get wiped out if it gathered more information on humanity.

* Seemingly played straight in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'': GDI manages to shut down the Scrin invasion of Earth after a lot of effort and massive destruction across the globe, ''and'' while being hampered by the Brotherhood of Nod which (except for a few token efforts) isn't even bothering to fight against the aliens and is actually prioritizing GDI as a target over the Scrin. Then it's a SubvertedTrope when you play as the Scrin campaign and you find out the fleet wasn't an AlienInvasion, it was a mining operation with a small security detail tricked into arriving far ahead of procedure. For most of their time on Earth, the Scrin forces were running an IndyPloy barely hanging on with lots of {{Improvised Weapon}}s and [[GeneralRipper uncaring leadership]] that were willing to let the entire force get wiped out.

** When Frieza returns in ''Resurrection 'F''' he fares a little better, managing to destroy a city and in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' he kills Piccolo. The invasion is still easily handle with only a few of the Earth's strongest fighters, and Goku and Vegeta were more than enough to take care of Frieza even with his power-up.

* In ''Literature/{{Gate}}'', men with medieval armor, accompanied by a variety of monsters, all serving an empire from another world, invade Tokyo and try to claim the area as their own. Their main weapons consist of swords and bows and arrows, [[CurbStompBattle which are not a match for the modern weapons of the Japanese military]]. Inverted, since the majority of the invaders were also human, albeit not from Earth.

* The ''[[Comicbook/InvasionDCComics Invasion!]]'' event from Creator/DCComics is a CrisisCrossover event wherein all the antagonistic alien races of the universe decide to pool their resources to invade Earth because Earthlings are getting too big for their britches. How does this invasion end? Just like the Skrull-based ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'' event, the aliens make landfall for five minutes, start talking like they've won, then summarily get kicked back into space to get curbstomped by the various Earthling superheroes. Oh, and one of the races of this coalition, the Dominators, drops a gene-bomb on Earth, causing a MassSuperEmpoweringEvent for humanity. Nice job uplifting thousands of those humans you came to destroy, alien dipsticks!

* In the backstory of ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', the Vermicious Knids have ''tried'' to invade and conquer Earth the way they did the Venus, the Moon, and Mars, but Earth's atmosphere is too much for them -- what look to humans like shooting stars are actually Vermicious Knids burning up when they try to pass through. In the novel's present, they invade Space Hotel USA and manage to eat some of its crew, but the rest are rescued by Willy Wonka and company using the titular elevator to tow their ship to safety. When the aliens attempt to drag the humans to their home planet, Mr. Wonka instead steers the elevator and ship back into Earth's atmosphere, finishing the monsters off.

* The Shroobs in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time]].'' Right at the very end of the game, baby Luigi's crying on a Shroob Mushroom reveals that the Shroob materials dissolve when exposed to baby tears. The present-time E. Gadd creates an immeasurable amount of water with the same composition as baby tears in response to this. He then pumps it through the time-holes, saturating the past Mushroom Kingdom in baby tears, completely removing any traces of the Shroobs from the Mushroom Kingdom. [[spoiler:However, it seems Bowser had Shroob-napped a few survivors and put them in the deep freeze, to be battled in the next game of the series]]

* The [[Characters/SuperRobotWarsClassic Zuvorg Alliance]] in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'', particularly the Guests, though this is mainly due to getting the short end of the SortingAlgorithmOfVillainy. While the Inspectors at least had some time as the main threat of OG2 (before getting hijacked by the [[Characters/SuperRobotWarsAdvance Shadow Mirror]] and the [[Characters/SuperRobotWarsCompact2 Einst]]), in ''2nd OG'' the Guests aren't even able to make landfall on Earth ([[spoiler: thanks to [[BackFromTheDead Mekibos]] [[TheMole providing intell]] to the Federation]]) and the threat they pose is quickly eclipsed by the [[Characters/SuperRobotWarsDestiny Ruina]], [[Characters/SuperRobotWarsAlpha2 Youkijin]] and ultimately [[spoiler: [[Characters/SuperRobotWarsAlpha Euzeth Gozzo]].]]

* A novel titled ''Invader''by Albert Fay Hill had humanity's astronomers spot the massive energy release as the invasion fleet slowed from near-lightspeed, so the world's governments funded the construction of a massive gamma-ray emitter. One carefully-aimed shot killed every living thing in the fleet, and the now-dead ships just drifted past Earth back into the void.

* In ''Film/{{Signs}}'' it turns out plain old water is pretty much a deadly acid to the aliens. Yes, they clearly felt like a challenge invading Earth. Although their weakness is not really that necessary given that this is a race that can be stopped by a pantry door that probably wouldn't have kept a determined human in. Amazingly, they conduct their invasion ''unarmed'' save for a natural poison gas gland on their wrist that exhales a small amount of localized gas. And worse still the aliens also forgo armor or clothing of any kind. They're also weaker, slower and clumsier than the average human with apparently no concept of hand-to-hand combat, to the point where one of the main characters beats an alien to death with a baseball bat and it doesn't even try to put up a defence. It's like if humanity invaded an acid-covered world, with frequent acid rain and despite the hostile environment decided to engage the natives naked. Some argue the movie drops hints that they aren't really aliens, but demons who cannot enter a room with a preacher, and can be harmed by holy water... which would simply make it an easily thwarted demon invasion as they're still naked and unarmed. In either case, the entire global invasion incident was resolved off screen in a few days with no noted lasting damage on humanity’s part.
-->'''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic:''' Probably should’ve thought of that before attacking a planet '''''[[SuddenlyShouting MOSTLY COVERED IN WATER!!!]]'''''

* ''Film/{{Evolution}}'' had the aliens thwarted by [[spoiler:[[ProductPlacement Head and Shoulders Shampoo's]]]] Selenium Sulfide, which they hadn't even tested on an alien organism beforehand.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': While it wasn't easy, Andrias' invasion of Earth was thwarted by the heroes before he could even conquer Los Angeles, even though Andrias and The Core prepared for this invasion for 1,000 years and that they have already conquered countless worlds before, the girls even lampshade this.

* While it wasn't easy, Andrias' invasion of Earth from ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' was thwarted by the heroes before he could even conquer Los Angeles, even though Andrias and The Core prepared for this invasion for 1,000 years and that they have already conquered countless worlds before, the girls even lampshade this.

-->'''Anne:''' Can you believe we just defeated an ancient invading emprie?.\\

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1 In the first book]]:

* OlderThanTelevision: ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' did this with bacteria. In fact, it's pretty much the TropeMaker and TropeCodifier for the "The planet takes care of the invaders itself" version of this trope. The novel implies that the Martians were severe germaphobes who rid their native habitat of all microbial life, thus [[BlessedWithSuck blessing themselves with major suck]] right before the invasion of Earth. It's also - as the first chapter makes pretty clear - a metaphor for British imperialism, since British colonial soldiers stationed in Africa were dying of malaria in droves around the time the book was written. Wells wanted to stress that the aliens ''did not belong'' on Earth, to express his real point: Britain did not belong in Africa.

->''[T]he Martians – dead! – slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth. . . . But there are no bacteria in Mars, and directly these invaders arrived, directly they drank and fed, our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow. Already when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro. By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his against all comers; it would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are. For neither do men live nor die in vain.''
-->-- ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds''

* In Creator/KieronGillen's series ''ComicBook/{{SWORD}}'', the Drenx demand heavy tribute or face invasion. Beast and Abigail Brand bring a mop to the negotiations, gesture in the direction of [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'s good buddy Beta Ray Bill, one of at least a dozen supers in that power class on world at the time, and indicate SWORD's job isn't just to protect the Earth from alien invasions, but to protect alien invasions from the Earth, so they don't have to use the mop to clean things up. The Drenx take the point and beat a hasty retreat from Earth space.

* ''Film/BattleLosAngeles''. The alien drone ships are [[KeystoneArmy controlled by a single vessel]] that [[IdiotBall for some reason]] is operating from the ground instead of from orbit where it would be difficult to destroy (especially given the drones' complete air superiority) ''and'' have better signal coverage. However, the command ship destroyed in the course of the movie only stops the aliens in Los Angeles, and they're implied to have [[ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts at least 29 other ships worldwide]] given the number of other cities under siege.

* ''Film/BattleLosAngeles''. The alien drone ships are [[KeystoneArmy controlled by a single vessel]] that [[IdiotBall for some reason]] is operating from the ground instead of from orbit where it would be difficult to destroy (especially given the drones' complete air superiority) ''and'' have better signal coverage. However, the command ship destroyed in the course of the movie only stops the aliens in Los Angeles, and they're implied to have [[TheseWereOnlyTheirScouts at least 29 other ships worldwide]] given the number of other cities under siege.

* ''Film/BattleLosAngeles''. The alien drone ships are [[KeystoneArmy controlled by a single vessel]] that [[IdiotBall for some reason]] is operating from the ground instead of from orbit where it would be difficult to destroy ''and'' have better signal coverage.

* ''[[TheJenkinsverse TheDeathworlders]]'' opens with the cyborg reptilian Hunters, the scourge of the galaxy and the terror of trillions, landing on Earth expecting to bathe in glory and the blood of a particularly tough new species, but ultimately just more "Prey". Unfortunately, their usual Prey are not accustomed one bit to worlds infested with bacteria and plagued with constantly unpredictable forces of nature, and the Hunters are therefore not accustomed one bit to Hunting anything that evolves on a "Deathworld"; their weapons, which would turn a typical sentient into a nice, multicolored paste, only serves to [[HumanityIsSuperior knock humans back a few feet]]. The invasion of Earth ends with a [[CurbStompBattle comically decisive human victory]]...and it wasn't even an army who joined battle with the Hunters, but a hockey team in Vancouver taken by surprise by the Hunters mid-game.