Line #15 Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E10DarkHeart


1	A rock-climbing couple unfortunately discover a huge pulsating blob of nanomachines that dropped in from space, which begins to rapidly produce robotic monsters bent on consuming everything and replicating itself until there's nothing left. Practically all of the Justice League is called in to stop the threat, but the battle seemed hopeless. Only The Atom has any chance of stopping the nanomachine nightmare for good.
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4	!!This episode includes examples of:
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6	* AIIsACrapshoot: Subverted. The Dark Heart does exactly what it was programmed to do: replicate itself, consuming matter until it devours entire planets in the process. And because [[AbusivePrecursors the civilization]] that built it [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard were destroyed by their own creation]] long ago, it doesn't realize its primary directive has long become obsolete.
7	* AbusivePrecursors: The Dark Heart was part of a series of war machines created for a conflict, initially assumed to be interplanetary, but was more likely interstellar (at the very least), that would eventually eradicate planets of the opposing side, and move on to the next. The conflict occurred around 50,000 years ago and by then, it had likely destroyed the civilization that created them - one of the probes arriving on Earth was more coincidental than deliberate.
8	* AdmiringTheAbomination: As he tries to find a way to stop the Dark Heart, the Atom is both horrified and amazed by it, although he doesn't underestimate how dangerous it is.
9	* ApocalypseHow: ApocalypseHow/ClassX, at the very least. Perhaps even [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX2 Class X-2]] going by what the Atom says about it.
10	* {{BFG}}: This is the first time that the League break out the '''[[LampshadeHanging B]]'''[[FunWithAcronyms inary]] '''[[KillSat F]]'''[[FunWithAcronyms usion]] '''[[SwordOfDamocles G]]'''[[FunWithAcronyms enerator]], described as packing as much force as a nuclear warhead, to slow down the advance of the nanomachine robots. The bad news: It uses the entire power of the Watchtower, which reboots its system in an hour after usage. Even worse news: [[TheWorfBarrage It does very little to slow them down]].
11	* ADayInTheLimelight: For the Atom, who not only gives exposition on the threat of the Dark Heart, but is also instrumental in defeating it.
12	* DramaticAmmoDepletion: Batman fires missiles from the Batplane, but they eventually run out.
13	* GodzillaThreshold: The Dark Heart pushes Martian Manhunter to declare a threat level of "Omega": Meaning ''sending every single superhero in the Justice League'' onsite to deal with it. They barely contain it, and given the amount of {{Badass Normal}}s on the team, [[EverybodyLives they are very lucky not to have received fatalities]]. To put it in perspective: only the threats of [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E8TheReturn Amazo]] and [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS3E13Destroyer Darkseid]] would prompt a similar response.
14	* GreyGoo: A particularly scary version of this trope, and one that isn't just limited to ''one'' planet in the scale of threat.
15	* HopeSpot: Martian Manhunter uses the Watchtower's satellite cannon to dig a deep trench around the nanomachine blob in an attempt to at least slow it down. By the time the Atom reaches the battlefield, the swarm has filled in the trench and is advancing as if it was never there to begin with.
16	* HopelessWar: No matter how many robots the League and the Army destroy, more instantly take their place.
17	* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: The episode ends up being crucial to the Cadmus arc. General Eiling is introduced and will later be shown as part of the leadership, while the Dark Heart technology will almost bring about the end of the world during the arc's climax.
18	* JerkassHasAPoint: Eiling questioning the League for having a devastating, space-based BFG and how that will be cause for concern. Later episodes make it clear that even some League members opposed installing the weapon, due to its destructive capabilities.
19	* TheJuggernaut: The Dark Heart is practically unstoppable. Even the full might of [[HeroesUnlimited the entire Justice League]] can barely slow it down. Only the Atom shutting down the central core, by giving it the equivalent of a heart attack, shuts it down.
20	* MenAreTheExpendableGender: The first ones to find the Dark Heart are a couple of mountain climbers. The girl survives and is evacuated by the army, but her boyfriend is heavily implied to have been KilledOffscreen.
21	* MookMaker: The namomachine blob releases hundreds of separate machine creatures/drones to consume everything in sight, even the surface. The more the drones are destroyed, the more they make, this time larger and stronger.
22	* MostCommonSuperPower: Wonder Woman has some very buxom breasts. This is {{lampshaded}} when the Atom gets a ride to the fight in Wonder Woman's cleavage.
23	* {{Nanomachines}}: What the Darkheart is made out of.
24	* TheScapegoat: When faced with a defective nanobot that's larger than anticipated, the Atom blames his assistant, Katie.
25	-->'''Atom:''' Because otherwise it would be my fault, and that can't be right. I'm a professor.
26	* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: The Atom, who in an earlier episode was described as the League's weakest member by Luthor, is the right man for the task of stopping the Dark Heart; having expertise on nanotechnology and his ability to shrink into microscopic size, he finds the Dark Heart's weakness, damages its 'central power core', and shuts it down.
27	* TooDumbToLive: General Eiling takes most of the killer robots back for study once the battle is won, saying that it "may prove useful as it almost defeated the Justice League". Atom sums it up well.
28	--> '''Atom''': Amazing. Show him a weapon that destroyed its creators and every other thing it saw, and he wants to ''play with it''...
29	* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Wonder Woman places a miniaturized Atom down her cleavage so she can use both her hands to fight the robots.
30	* WhamLine: When Superman retrieves The Atom, and talks to Batman over the commlink, having bought time with their space BFG to create a trench around the nanomachines:
31	-->'''Superman:''' We should be arriving soon. How's the trench holding up?\
32	'''Batman:''' What trench?\
33	(''Complete with WhamShot of nanomachine robots advancing having already reached ground level'')
34	* TheWorfEffect: To drive home the threat of the Dark Heart, the might of ''the entire Justice League'' isn't enough to stop it.
35	* ZergRush: The individual units the Dark Heart spawns are destroyed quite easily, with even the [[BadassNormal unpowered]] members of the Justice League shown wiping them out en masse, but that doesn't matter when the machine will quite literally keep respawning them endlessly until the entire planet has been consumed. As the invasion continues, it's even shown to have begun making giant sized versions of its troops that are powerful enough ''individually'' that heavy hitters like Superman and Wonder Woman start struggling to fight them.
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Context Recap / JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E10DarkHeart