Nature vs. Technology

When man brings his big guns, nature brings her big birds.

"My children, the only true technology is nature. All the other forms of manmade technology...are perversions. The ancient dictators used technology...to enslave the masses."

—Elf Leader, Wizards

A theme as old as the invention of fire, the idea of nature and mankind's progress has been pitted against each other in an eternal war. With the technological boom of the Industrial Revolution and the ever-increasing singularity that follows (including the backlash primitivists and environmentalists have given over the years), this motif has practically developed into a subgenre all its own.

• Nature: The balance of the Animal, Plant, Fungi, and Bacterial Kingdoms all under a delicate, naturally-engineered process living in harmony. When nature is presented as good (and it usually is), expect a Green Aesop to be there ready and waiting. Butterflies and bunny rabbits, towers trees with dew on them, perhaps even ancient magics left behind by animistic spirits in the trees and the rivers. Keep in mind however that while nature is essential and omnipresent, that doesn't necessarily make it safe. Nature is full of poisonous plants, feral predators, and parasitic wasps. Mother Nature can be nurturing, but she can also be vindictive and doesn't like it when you break her toys.
• Technology: Advancing technology and scientific progress have led to the invention of "the artificial." On the one hand, human civilization provided air-conditioners, vaccines, and the Internet. On the other hand, it also gave us lead paint, nuclear bombs, and social media. Science is amoral, but stories can make it out to be either good or bad. Transhumanism and Mechanical Lifeforms, data blossoming into Cyberspace, space-travel and Cyberpunk. Creating Life through the process can either end with destruction or the birth of a bright future. Anything is possible with science.

The "Nature Versus Technology" dichotomy is often applied to Elves Versus Dwarves (conflicts may involve the elves representing nature and the dwarves representing technology), Harmony Versus Discipline (coexisting lifeforms or carefully planned activity), Life/Death Juxtaposition (propagation of life or extermination), Magic Versus Science (Fantasy and Sorcery set against Science Fiction shenanigans), Order Versus Chaos (Nature is an unpredictable thing that propagates without logic or reason behind instinct, while technology is a clean and orderly force that doesn't function beyond its intended use), and Romanticism Versus Enlightenment (Appeal to Nature versus Science Is Good).

Super-Trope to Rock Beats Laser, which is what happens when nature wins. See also Ludd Was Right, Mother Nature, Father Science, and Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia, and Reclaimed by Nature (where natural also wins). Not to be confused with The Magic Versus Technology War.

Contrast with Solar Punk, which is about nature and technology co-existing in harmony side by side.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: Jean thinks technology is a wonderful thing for mankind. His friend Nadia holds the diametrically opposed opinion, inspired by her ability to Speak Fluent Animal and her abusive upbringing in the circus where she grew up. Ironically, Nadia comes from a race of Ancient Astronauts.
• Part of the conflict of Princess Mononoke. Lady Eboshi and Iron Town's industrialization and pollution damage the surrounding nature, which retaliates through various nature deities attacking the village. However, the movie also shows that technology empowers humans, and that the best way to live is by advancing in harmony with nature.

Films — Animated

• FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a film that has a heavy Green Aesop and isn't very subtle about it. Whilst it's main antagonist, Hexxus, is actually a primal Destroyer Deity that existed before the industrial revolution the movie portrays him thriving thanks to the polluting nature of the logging technology of a machine called the Leveller and implies cutting down any tree as a travesty at least to the forest fairy protagonist Crysta. The closest technology gets to being portrayed as "good" is when the fairies find deuteragonist Zak's walkman and enjoy the music it plays.
• The Lorax (2012) has a Green Aesop, with the truffula forest portrayed as an idyllic paradise, and the sci-fi type machines portrayed as nasty pollutants.
• The Central Theme of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards is the conflict between forces of Nature, represented by the fantasy folk led by the wizard Avatar, and the Forces of Technology, formed by nuclear humans led by the wizard Blackwolf. Interestingly enough, the movie not only focuses on the use of technology for weapons but also for propaganda, in one of the more famous scenes of the movie Blackfoot shows his army an old film reel filled with actual Nazi footage to inspire his army. Ultimately, the movie also shows that total rejection of technology is also foolish, technology becomes evil through the hands of whoever is wielding it.

Films — Live-Action

• Parodied in Adaptation., where Donald's Cliché Storm movie script includes a chase scene with the killer on horseback and the cop in pursuit on a motorcycle, which Donald describes enthusiastically as "technology versus horse". And the killer and cop are the same person.
• Avatar: Puts the indigenous and sentient life of Pandora against the resource-exploitative technological humans. Eywa, the supreme being of Pandora, comes to the Na'vi peoples' aid when they go up against the humans.
• Back to the Future:
  • Discussed in Back to the Future by Doc Brown, as an advocate of Science Is Good, he cannot understand why Old Man Peabody wanted to grow pine trees on what was Twin Pines Mall's location. Later, he and Marty exploit nature's gift of a lightning strike's known time and date in order to power the time machine so it can get back to the future.
  • Back to the Future Part II: as Technology Marches On, the society of the future seems to have weather control that is more reliable than the post office. Word of St. Paul in additional materials hints that the future depicted is a nuclear-powered one by the very common availability of Mr. Fusion. No matter how impressed Marty and Doc Brown are about it though, there are two police officers that discuss among themselves that it is a Crapsaccharine World.
• Godzilla vs. Kong: Godzilla, Kong and most of the Titans have been established previously throughout the MonsterVerse to be eons-old embodiments of natural forces and Gaia's Vengeance, with Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) particularly establishing that despite both sides' destructive capacities, Titans and humanity can coexist together in harmony if they so choose to. The human antagonists of this movie, Apex Cybernetics, are a remarkably hi-tech corporation whom are obsessed with rampant technological advancement in the name of dominating or subjugating nature (the Titans) to establish humanity as the supreme lifeform on Earth, embodying Ozymandian hubris and greed. Apex are secretly creating Mechagodzilla with the aim of killing and usurping Godzilla as the supreme Alpha Titan, uncaring that Godzilla is the chief reason why humanity hasn't already been destroyed, but using Ghidorah's undead skull and Green Rocks as the remote piloting brain and the fuel source respectively leads to the Mecha breaking free of Apex's control and turning against them, and it poses an active threat to all humans and Godzilla. Mechagodzilla comes close to killing Godzilla (albeit only because the latter was only at half strength when fighting it), but it's ultimately overwhelmed and destroyed by Godzilla and Kong.
• The Time Machine: A Trope Codifier where Nature pulls double duties as Time Master against the protagonist, Alexander, preventing him from saving his love from dying. Later, as Alex attempts to seek answers in order to learn, resource exploitation on the Moon ends up destroying it and with it, the human civilization. After some time though, shown to be several thousands of years, what remains of humans, the Eloi, live in harmony with their surroundings if not for their antagonism by the Morlocks, who have evolved underground. Ultimately, Alexander repurposes his time machine as a bomb in order to destroy the Morlocks' threat to the Eloi.
  • ^note This entry is also doubling for source The Time Machine and invariably the other adaptations.

Literature

• In Codex Alera, Plant/Wood and Metal are treated as opposing elements.
• Dune: Explores the interplay between nature and technology and balance between the two.
  • Arrakis (also known as Dune), is a harsh desert world with limited water resources, a stark contrast to the highly technological and advanced societies of that universe. The struggle for control of Arrakis and its most precious resource, the spice melange — it is both a natural resource and a catalyst for advanced technology.
  • The Fremen, the native people of Arrakis, have a deep understanding of this ecosystem and they adapt their way of life to it through a philosophy that regards everything in their surroundings as resource management. The Bene Gesserit, employ advanced genetic manipulation and religious conversion in order to further their political goals and struggle for control. The Spacing Guild's navigators rely heavily on the spice in order to make space travel possible. Advanced technology, especially artificial intelligence, is strictly limited due to the Butlerian Jihad, a war waged against powerful machines leading to a prohibition on them, promoting Mentats — humans who have undergone training in order to enhance their reasoning skills.
• The Leviathan book series is an Alternate History retelling of World War I. The Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, and The Ottoman Empire) are here named the Clankers; possessing sufficiently advanced (though not exactly fuel-efficient) Mechs, Spider Tanks and artillery. The Entente Powers (Russia, France, and The British Empire) are known as the Darwinists; having used Charles Darwin's discovery of DNA, their technology takes the form of Bio Punk animals that function as vehicles, weapons, and a wide variety of other things that take the form of machines in Real Life. Other countries beyond the various powers (the Americas being one) use off-hand mixtures of these two conflicting forms of innovation.
• Lord of the Rings: Has something of a sliding scale of living in harmony with nature vs. exploiting resource through technology. Lothlórien, Rivendell, the Shire — Mines of Moria, Isengard, and Mordor are on it in that respective order.
  • Lothlórien is an enchanted forest realm inhabited by the Elves. It's a place of ethereal beauty, where nature reigns supreme. The Elves of Lothlórien have a profound bond with their surroundings, and they possess an extraordinary understanding of the natural world. Their city of Caras Galadhon is built high in the trees, seamlessly blending with the forest.
  • Rivendell is a harmonious fusion of nature and subtle Elvish craftsmanship. The elven refuge blends seamlessly with its natural surroundings, showcasing a balance between ethereal elegance and minimal technology.
  • The Shire, homeland of the Hobbits, is an idealized version of a British country shire, characterized by rolling hills, lush fields, and small farming villages.
  • The joint realm of Erebor and Dale probably comes closest to balancing nature and technology: the Dwarves mine and manufacture, and the Men of Dale trade food and crafted items for these industrial products.
  • Moria stands as a stark contrast to The Shire. It's a once-great Dwarven city, now a forsaken mine, marred by industrial greed and technology, reflecting the perils of uncontrolled advancement and neglect of nature.
  • Isengard, once a beautiful place, is transformed into an industrial powerhouse under the influence of Saruman the White. The wizard, once a guardian of wisdom and nature, succumbs to the lure of power and seeks to rival Sauron. He turns Isengard into a mechanized fortress, with the lush gardens replaced by furnaces, pits, and smoky forges. Saruman employs his knowledge of technology and machinery to create an army of Uruk-hai that can rival any in Middle-earth.
  • Mordor exemplifies a dystopian vision of industrialization taken to its extreme. Ruled by the Dark Lord Sauron, is depicted as a nightmarish industrialized wasteland. The land is scarred and desolate, with vast factories and forges churning out weapons and machinery for Sauron's armies. It's said that there are farmlands away south and east, which produce the food for Sauron's armies, but those parts are never shown. The landscape is dominated by the oppressive presence of Barad-dûr, Sauron's dark fortress, which serves as the epicenter of this industrial complex.
  • One of the most iconic moments illustrating this theme is the Ents' assault on Isengard. Ents are ancient, tree-like beings deeply connected to the natural world. They are the guardians of the forests, and their existence represents the embodiment of nature's power and wisdom. On the other side, Isengard is the fortress controlled by Saruman the White. The Ents, feeling the pain of their ravaged forests and angered by Saruman's destruction, launch an attack against his fortress and prevail, eliminating his threat to Middle-Earth.
• In the world of This Is How You Lose the Time War, there are only two possible futures: one is the Garden, a biological society filled with Organic Technology that prefers to move at nature's pace; the other is the Agency, an aloof, technological society that prefers mechanical efficiency. These two groups are locked in a Time War and send out agents that try and ensure their futures come to pass.

Tabletop Games

• Magic: The Gathering: the dichotomy between green and blue stems from this. Green wants things to stay natural while blue endeavors to increase the technology. The various artifact-centric sets naturally tend to favor blue, while green cards are hard-pressed to have appropriate cards to the set and are often made to destroy artifacts.

Theatre

• Hadestown: Hades and Persephone's marriage is on the rocks in part because Hades keeps turning Hadestown into an industrial artificial city in a misguided attempt to reach out to her. Persephone, a goddess of nature and springtime, finds it appalling and calls it a "neon necropolis". The Broadway version ups the ante by stating that Hades is also keeping Persephone away from the surface for longer periods of time, which throws the seasons out of balance.

Toys

• BIONICLE: The early years presented the tropical paradise of Mata Nui inhabited by tribal peoples regaling each other of tales of the Toa who would come to save them from the evil Makuta. Every living creature on the island is a biomechanical being, effectively robots, and the Toa must physically assemble themselves once they arrive on the island in pieces. The most sophisticated their technology will get are mechs the toa and villagers pilot themselves. Creatures like Bohrok and Rahkshi are grown and hatch from cocoons. This aspect faded from the story as the world expanded and firmly established the world as a science fantasy.

Video Games

• Asura's Wrath: The 12,000+ year war between the Shinkoku Demigods and the Gohma has shades of this. The Demigods are an advanced race using Magitek cybernetics, weapons and warships, while the Gohma all look like monstrous (and massive) wild animals, or sometimes animal hybrids, and are said to be the planet's own will and wrath manifested.
• Civilization: Beyond Earth: The Harmony affinity represents Nature, prioritizing preserving the new planet's ecosystems, using genetic engineering to adapt humans for life in a new environment and domesticating alien lifeforms, while the Supremacy affinity represents Technology, using robots, artificial intelligence, and cybernetic upgrades to create a human race that can thrive independently of their environment.
• Dragalia Lost: The setting is revealed to have had this kind of conflict in the distant past. 1000 years before the game's current events, the people's society was highly technological and advanced, including with alchemy, but this upset the nature-aligned Dragons since their technology was disruptive to the flow of the world's mana, initiating the First War of Binding, with the Dragons representing nature and the humans representing technology, with both sides initially seeking to eliminate each other. Events in this war would eventually lead to the manifestation of Morsayati, one of the main villains of the game, and to seal Morsayati away, a woman named Ilia (known as a goddess in-universe) made an apparent Heroic Sacrifice to do so, resulting in the Ilian Church being established to set up a more cooperative relationship between humans and dragons, leading to an enforced Medieval Stasis that has lasted up to the current times.
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: The game's first world, Bryyo, explores a conflict between two groups of the Reptilicus who lived there: the Primals, a group of nature-connected magic users, and the Lords of Science, who were interested in technology and progress. Their differences eventually led to an all-out civil war that rendered the planet virtually inhospitable; tellingly, the Reptilicus only had a chance at peace when people from each side decided to Take a Third Option and combine the nature of the Primals with the machinery of the Lords of Science, creating Magitek. Unfortunately, by that point it was too late for Bryyo, and after the Primals wiped out the Lords, they turned on each other, leaving the planet a barren wasteland even before a Phazon Seed showed up.
• Mother 3: A major theme of the game involves the conflict between the more nature-leaning heroes who come from Tazmily Village, a town that initially lived in harmony alongside nature without much development, and the more technology-leaning villains, the Pigmasks who modify nature to not only create modern technology but also change the animals of the land into chimeras fit to their views. Narratively, the game starts out very nature-settled especially in Chapter 1 where technology is only somewhat influential but starting in Chapter 4, it moves away into technological landscapes transitioning with an in-between state, finalizing with Chapter 8 taking place entirely in the technologically advanced New Pork City. The logo itself reflects this dichotomy as it is made out of wood, but is shown covered in metal reflecting the transition of the game, at the end of the game after Lucas pulls the last needle the logo is shown covered entirely in wood, implying that nature won in the end thanks to Luca's wish.
• Mysterious Journey II: The few inhabitants of planet Saarpedon have divided themselves along both ends of this trope. One side is the technocratic Transai, whom believe science is the only answer for survival, and ally themselves with the mysterious Great Oracle and associated Companions. Meanwhile, the Ansala side with nature, and gradually taught themselves to manipulate the environment by thought. When Sen Geder crash-lands a shuttle, two members of each tribe fight for control of it, only to end up destroying it when neither side wins.
• Noita: The Hiisi is a faction of monsters that wield guns, jetpacks and explosives, they are just as aggressive to the Noita as they are aggressive to the rest of the monsters. According to the translated runes/glyphs Nature, Magic, and Technology were all three born from the eggs of a cosmic loon, and they are in constant conflict.
• Plants vs. Zombies: The Plants often use their natural capabilities to fight against the Zombies, who often use tools, robots, and advanced technology invented by Dr. Zomboss.
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon Black and White juxtaposes Black City and White Forest as their respective version exclusives. Black City is a Cyberpunk-esque city that provides additional Trainers for the player to fight as its population increases, while White Forest is an Arcadia preserve that features wild Pokemon for the player to capture.
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Paradox Pokemon featured in each game have a unifying theme. The Scarlet exclusives feature prehistoric, ancient variations of modern-day Pokemon, while the Violet exclusives feature futuristic, almost robotic variations of modern-day Pokemon. The designs of the professor in the game also represent this: Violet's Turo wears a futuristic bodysuit, while Scarlet's Sada wears what resembles the clothes of early humans.
• Sonic the Hedgehog has usually held this to be an underlying theme, with Robotnik's technology and bases shown as killing off nearby natural places, and Sonic and friends trashing said bases in kind. However, Sonic CD decides to Take a Third Option: Getting Good Futures in each zone shows nature and technology working together to flourish in ways that neither could accomplish on their own.
• Super Mario Odyssey: Played With in the Wooded Kingdom. It is a forest on the outside, but a giant factory on the inside. Instead of nature and technology working against each other, the kingdom shows nature and technology working together, as the factory helps maintain the outside forest, while the plants help compliment the factory.
• The motif of Cipanku in Temtem is that the artificially-created Digital Temtem have escaped into the wild and are displacing the native Electric Temtem, who are important to the Cipanki's beliefs.
• The Thief franchise has this trope present in the conflict between the two main religions of the city, the Pagans worship nature, chaos, and magic while the Hammerites use construction and technology to advance civilization. The Big Bads of the first two games have a Contrasting Sequel Antagonist relationship with each other from taking these two positions to dangerous extremes. In the first game, The Trickster, a Nature Spirit the pagans worship as a god wants to use a magic ritual to return the city to its natural state, destroying all trace of human civilization, while in the second, Father Karras plans to use a robot army to flood the city with poison gas and wipe out all organic life that doesn't meet his ideals.
• This is the theme for the rivalry between Bravehoof and Volcanus of Tournament Of Legends as Bravehoof is the minotaur of myth who came to love nature after escaping the labyrinth, and Vulcanus is a robot seeking to become a god.
• This trope makes up the central conflict of Xenoblade Chronicles 1, which follows the battle between the organic life of Bionis, an organic titan, and the Mechon of Mechonis, a mechanical titan, who are intent on wiping out the organic life. Except while the conflict is initially set up as "Bionis good, Mechonis bad", the reveal that it was the Bionis/Zanza that started the conflict, and Mechonis/Lady Meyneth is only attacking in retaliation, makes things far more complicated; by the end, the remaining Mechon actually help the heroes fight against Zanza’s own attempt to feed on his creations.

Web Animation

• Dingo Doodles: In D&D Story: Fools Gold, the Foreclaimers are an ancient race of techno elves who lack empathy, their society was built on technology and advancement above all else, at the expense of nature.
  • This came to a head when they created an artificial god out of their second sun, Stella, and kept him locked up for experiments. The god, Xanu, eventually turned their technology against them, slaughtering many but unable to wipe them out entirely when escaped through a portal. Still, Xanu as a force of nature was able to nearly destroy their entire society, but he still considers any surviving Foreclaimer society a threat to the Bellowing Wilds.
  • When the Fools Gold team reopen the portal 3,000 years later, they discover the Foreclaimers split into two camps in the wake of the attempted genocide: One, the Old Society, continued to value technology above all else, while the other, Stella?s Children, believed having empathy and kindness would have stopped the disaster from occurring and decided to forego enhancements in favor of living more in tune with the earth and trying to develop empathy. Even their methods of getting food from petrified rock are juxtaposed: While the Old Society use tech to zap plants out of rock faster, the plants lack flavor and die faster. Stella's Children use druidic magic to coax nature out of the rock, which takes longer but leads to a better crop. Downplayed, since Stella's Children still struggle with empathy, which Sips points out means they could still slide back into their old ways.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Downplayed. One of the themes throughout the series is how the Fire Nation managed to take over so much of the world not just because of their bending, but because of their military industrialization. While all of the nations but the Air Nomads had developed complex cities and societies powered by their own forms of bending, it was difficult to stand up to the massive battleships and tanks developed by the Fire Nation on top of their bending. This caused a lot of imbalance and natural destruction, shown by the destroyed forest in "Winter Solstice Part 1: Spirit World", Zhao's hunt for and later killing of the moon spirit in "The Siege of the North", and Ozai's plan to scorch the entire Earth Kingdom during Sozin's Comet. Avatar Aang, as the embodiment of balance in nature, is the only one capable of stopping them for good, and he and Zuko later discover that the Fire Nation had forgotten the true nature of fire as a source of light and energy rather than mere destruction. However, people like Sokka and the mechanist also developed technology to help aid the Avatar and stop the destruction, showing that nature and technology don't have to be at odds.
• Beast Machines: Played With. The Maximals arrive on Cybertron to find that Megatron has taken over and removed the sparks from every single Cybertronian on the planet. The Maximals, primarily Optimus, believe that the Oracle has tasked them with the goal of restoring organic nature to Cybertron to overtake Megatron's rampant technology. Instead, they later learn that they must "seek the balance" between both forces to reformat Cybertron into a technorganic planet.
• Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors: Again we have the conflict between technology and nature. This show managed to flip the script, however, with the heroes piloting powerful mechanical vehicles while the villains were a group of mutant plant creatures.
• The Legend of Korra: In the 60 years since the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the bending world has become even more advanced, with automobiles, radio, and lightning benders working in power plants in major cities. While the show isn't anti-technology, it does argue for more of a balance:
  • In Season 1, the naturally-talented benders are antagonized by nonbender Equalists, who use technology to fight on a more even playing field with opponents, bringing them to their leader to remove their bending. While this is treated as wrong, especially when the Equalist tech becomes overpowered, Asami also makes use of tech weapons to defend her bending friends. In addition, Korra is able to connect with her bending more through modern pro-bending than through Tenzin's super-spiritual techniques, which gets him to ease up on his rules of Korra living a totally modern-free monk lifestyle.
  • In Season 2, Unalaq argues that due to this rapid progress, the world has lost touch with the spirits and with nature, blaming the spirits' attack the Southern Water Tribe on the sacred Glacier Spirits Festival becoming commercialized. While it turns out this was Unalaq's fault, since he sided with the literal force of darkness that caused the spirits to become less peaceful, Korra reconnecting with the spirit of light makes her see Villain Has a Point, and she leaves the spirit portals open rather than close them back so that the world can reconnect with the spirits and with nature.
  • Season 3 sees the results of Korra's decision at the end of Season 2. While Republic City struggles with the inconvenience of the spirit vines retaking parts of the city and blaming it on Korra, non-benders around the world start gaining the ability to airbend, correcting the imbalance that had been present since the Air Nomads were wiped out 160 years before. Thus, Korra turns her back on Republic City and travels to rebuild the Air Nation.
  • In Season 4, when Kuvira creates a tech weapon that is powered by spirit vines, ordering her troops to harvest them to the point of near-extinction, the spirit vines start fighting back, not just against the troops, but against all humans.
• Phineas and Ferb: In "Perry Lays an Egg", Phineas and Ferb want to use technology to take care of the egg they found, while Candace wants to rely on nature. Discussed heavily in the song for the episode.
• She-Ra: Princess of Power: Unlike its distaff counterpart, this show had a very clear Nature vs Technology theme, with the heroic Rebellion operating on the side of the Natural and Ancient Magic while the invasive Horde primarily utilized technological war machines and tended to be an empire of steel.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Mobius used to be an advanced, but fairly Solar Punk civilization. When Dr. Ivo Robotnik conquered it, it became an oppressive, polluted Crapsack World inhabited by mindless machines (many of which having once been innocent mobians who were robotized). The Freedom Fighters — led by Princess Sally Acorn and Sonic the Hedgehog — have since been living in the forest, planning their resistance against Robotnik.
• A Rule of Symbolism example can be gleamed in the conflict between the Crystal Gems and the Diamond Authority in Steven Universe.
  • The Gem Homeworld is itself a hollowed out planet devoid of any life outside of gems themselves, all structures being buildings and technology that, while beautiful, is also cold and lifeless. Gems are an artificially propagated race that live under a Standard Evil Empire Hierarchy and are expecting to act out their purpose and nothing else despite their own capacity to feel and want just like anybody else. Notably in Steven Universe: Future, long after the Diamonds and Homeworld adopt the Crystal Gem's philosophy, plant-life is shown to propagate on the planet's surface.
  • The Crystal Gems are gems who rebelled against Homeworld when their leader and founder — Rose Quartz — saw Earth in its natural state and was inspired by it to rebel against The Empire. While much smaller in numbers and technologically inferior to Homeworld's forces, the Crystal Gems are less bogged down by the inherent limitations that Homeworld is obedient to (allowing gems to learn against their intended purpose and freedom to practice fusion) and they are more accepting of Earth's thriving ecosystem. This can be best gleaned from their leader and founder Rose Quartz, who has Green Thumb and healing abilities.
• Voltron: Legendary Defender: Zig-Zagged with Pidge, subverted with the Olkari and the Green Lion. Gadgeteer Genius Pidge starts the series in this mindset, as someone who loves technology and is generally allergic to nature on Earth. However, the Green Lion mech she pilots represents the Forest element, and Pidge learns from the Olkari in "Greening the Cube" that technology and nature are not so different — they're all "made up of the same cosmic dust." This allows her to connect even deeper with her lion and unlock a Next Tier Power-Up in the form of a nature cannon.

---