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...and while they were arguing, the Borg came and ate it.
They invented a reason
That's why it stings
They don't think you matter
Because you don't have pretty rings.
"What is this, a model of Pluto? That planet doesn't even exist anymore, you moron!"
Pluto has become the Butt Monkey of the solar system. Want to get someone's attention? Show that things are serious? That a villain can put his money where his mouth is? Screw the status quo! This time, change is happening, and it's something big! Something cosmic! Something on a large-scale level that would shock the world if it happened in Real Life! A change that will alter the universe! ... Er, well, at least the galaxy... The solar system?
What do you mean Reed Richards Is Useless? What can we alter about the universe that would be a big deal without being a big deal? It's not like we can blow up a planet...
Wait! What about one of those planets floating around the edge of the solar system? That insignificant, dark, icy one with three minuscule satellites — no one will miss that. It wasn't even important enough to be called a real planet. What was its name again?
Never mind. Let's blow it up!
The reason Pluto was downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet is basically technical. A "real" planet has to have three characteristics: (1) It orbits the sun; (2) it's spherical; and (3) has no large debris field in its orbit. Pluto fails the third criterion; some of the objects in its orbit (such as Neptune) are huge.
See also Throwaway Country.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Sailor Moon: Pluto hasn't exactly had the most comfortable career as a Sailor; it gets lonely guarding the Gates of Time after a few centuries. Fan Fic also shows she didn't take Pluto's demotion very well...
- Suburban Senshi
 is an excellent example—the corollary chatroom even has "Pluto" filtered to its numerical designation.
- There's another fanfic out there, I forget which one, in which after Pluto finds out about her planet getting demoted, has a near royal fit only to be calmed down when Sailor Moon promises to promote her planet back to its original status in a thousand years when Crystal Tokyo is formed.
- One wonders why Sailor Pluto doesn't just lead a new group of senshi. Pallas and Vesta already have their own Sailors. Get off your duff and be proactive, Pluto! You're letting the Future Princess of Earth's Moon Who Also Rules An Insignificant Little Blue Planet When She Can Be Bothered hog the glory, Guardian and Protectoress of All Time.
- Furthermore, what is the main character of this show again? Sailor Moon! I'm pretty sure the Moon isn't a planet...
- There's actually a debate among astronomers about whether Earth and Luna should be classified as a planet-moon system, or a double-planet.
- In Getter Robo Armageddon, when a Negative Space Wedgie gets formed in the final moments of the series, Pluto naturally gets sucked in.
- Of coarse, this is right after the Getters had just destroyed Jupiter and three of its moons with THE Getter Tomahawk.
- Averted in Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato. When the crew discovers an enemy base on Pluto, they consider using the Wave Motion Gun on it, but the captain vetoes use of the superweapon because Pluto harbors primitive native organisms which the heroes have no right to destroy. Of course, later in the series, the evil Comet Empire shows off its muscle by destroying the Moon.
Comic Books
- In the Our Worlds At War DC Comics miniseries, Brainiac manages to take over Pluto, hollow it out, and turn it into a brand new Warworld. All without being noticed by the many and various interstellar agencies on Earth, Darkseid and his lieutenants on Apokolips (somehow relocated to the same solar system by Darkseid's badassery), or Imperiex and his many many miniaturized forms.
Literature
Live Action TV
- In the final season of Lexx, Stanley has the Lexx blow up Pluto, largely because it has been over a season since they've blown up any planets, and Lexx is getting antsy. This is followed by Mars and Venus. Then Earth itself is treated rather badly: part of the South American rainforest is eaten; Orlando, Florida, is blown up; Ottawa is blown up; Holland is eaten (Prince defends this by saying the Dutch are used to suffering); and Tokyo is blown up. Finally, the Earth itself is destroyed. Admittedly, Stan was not responsible for all of these.
Music
- Nellie McKay sings "As far as I'm concerned, Pluto's still a planet" in "Identity Theft", an ode to nonconformity, from the Obligatory Villagers CD.
- Aesop Rock's "Bring Back Pluto" uses this as its central inspiration.
Newspaper Comics
Tabletop
- Reference by Scion when talking about old Hades/Pluto. Hades isn't a happy camper at the downsize of the planet that uses his name.
Video Games
- In Super Robot Wars W, Pluto has become all but forgotten (foreshadowed in a scene in which Boss can't even remember it's name), until it's revealed that the Big Bad's base is there. To make matters worse, one of the penultimate boss' attacks features it skewering the victim so hard they go through the planet and out the other side.
- Though you can find our solar system in Spore, Pluto isn't part of it.
- In the final battle of Final Fantasy VII, among the many planets destroyed in Sephiroth's ridiculously long attack, Supernova, Pluto is the first.
- If it was destroying planets in order from outer to inner, it might not count as Pluto Is Expendable, but that's not the case. It goes Pluto -> Saturn's rings -> Jupiter -> Crashes into the Sun creating the actual supernova -> Mercury -> Venus -> Earth.
- Averted in Mass Effect. It turns out Pluto's moon was really a Mass Relay making Pluto the Sol's system's main space port and first line of defense.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Ben 10 Alien Force: An alien Evil Overlord blows it up in a demonstration of what he'll do to Earth if he doesn't get his daughter back.
- And then the Voices of Alien X argue about its status as a (dwarf) planet.
- And more importantly it's never rebuilt.
- The Fairly Odd Parents: On Friday the 13th, the president accidentally bumps a button that blows up "the planet." Guess which planet. Hint: it's not Earth.
- "Who cares? It's Pluto."
- Hey! That's not nice! It's where Cosmo keeps his corn!
- Futurama: Dark matter spill in a penguin sanctuary in Pluto.
- TMNT 2003: Michelangelo eats Pluto. Or the doughnut representing Pluto in Donatello's diagram, at least.
Mikey (munching): What? It's Pluto. Who cares about Pluto?
- In Mission Hill, Gus and Wally make a B-grade sci-fi movie about a man from Pluto coming to Earth to get revenge for his planet being blown up.
- In an episode of Batman The Brave And The Bold, Blue Beetle fights the Planet Master, who uses various powers thematically linked to the planets of our Solar System, including the "cold of Pluto". Blue Beetle protests that Pluto isn't considered a planet anymore. Planet Master's response?
"INSOLENCE!"
- An episode of The Replacements has the family playing a mini golf course, where they must hit the ball past some obstacles, among them a rotating windmill of planets that block a hole. Mr. Daring puts his ball which gets deflected by one of the planets. Riley then tells him it was deflected by Pluto, to which he retorts that it is not even a real planet anymore.
Web Animation
Web Original
- Chester A. Bum blows up Pluto with nukes in an installment of Atop the 4th Wall, just to get the Nostalgia Critic to take him seriously. The Critic is unimpressed. (He got more reaction from blowing up Hollywood, Rome and France.)
Real Life
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