Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder You Know That Show... Trope Launch Pad Wishlist Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy
Go Ad-Free Report Bug
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Saving the World

Go To

Brain: Come, we have work to do.
Pinky: Oh, right, taking over the world, and all...
Brain: No, Pinky — tonight, we must save the world!
Pinky: Egad, Brain — save the world?!
Brain: YES! So it is available to take over tomorrow night.
— Pinky and the Brain, "Snowball"

While villains want to Take Over the World or cause The End of the World as We Know It, the heroes are most likely motivated by the polar opposite, saving the world. A fairly simple plot/motivation related to For Great Justice and what not, this trope is pretty broad and very common for many stories not focused on character interaction only. Frequently, this means the main character(s) preventing a preventable apocalypse, such as from the Undead or a natural disaster.

Most of the time, this is the result of The Call, or occasionally may be someone who Jumped at the Call and is just trying to be able to do this. Note, this doesn't always happen and it's entirely possible for the bad guy to win and the Earth to be destroyed. Sometimes, the villain will actually help with this goal, as what's the point in taking over a pile of rubble after all? (Especially if it's Not Me This Time.)

Extremely common in some genres, such as High Fantasy, soft Sci Fi, and The Epic.

If the plot escalates to this, it's "Save the World" Climax.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • Superman and Supergirl are determined and committed to save the world and protect people for reasons that go beyond simple justice or righteousness: they are the only survivors of a dead world. They cannot bear the thought of losing their adoptive home. Many of their stories lay emphasis on this:
    • In Krypton No More, Superman is having a breakdown because he fears losing Earth the way he lost Krypton, and he swears he will not let the planet die.
    • In War World, both cousins fight a planet-buster, star-sized killing satellite to save the whole universe.
      Superman: It seems the only thing capable of destroying Warworld... was Warworld itself! The universe has been saved — at least from this menace!
    • In Red Daughter of Krypton, Kara explains why worldwide genocide and planetary destruction are very personal issues for her:
      Supergirl: How could anyone make it their mission in life to murder whole worlds? Can you imagine what an abomination that is to an orphan from a dead planet? [...] This world-killing stuff... it hits a nerve. It makes me furious, and the ring just fans the flame!
    • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Supergirl manages -with help of Supragirl and Lena- to save all dimensions from being turned into energy fuel for Mxyzptlk.
    • In Bizarrogirl, Supergirl and Bizarrogirl team up to save Bizarro World, the former feeling compelled to help because she failed to save New Krypton.

    Fan Works 
  • In Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl crossover story The Vampire of Steel, the lead heroines have to stop an eldritch abomination from being drawn into the human plane; later they destroy a Kryptonian turned vampire who attempts to open the Hellmouth.
  • In Power Girl fanfic A Force of Four, several old enemies of Superman and Wonder Woman team up to take revenge by blowing Earth up, but Power Girl and the world's heroes manage to thwart their plans.
  • Blood Bond, Blood Omen Series: Not just Kim's schtick in this series. Eventually nearly everyone gets in on it.
  • In Fate/Starry Night, Ritsuka has saved the world time and again from Demon Gods, Beasts, and even Outer Gods. Shinji mocks the absurdity of such a thing, but Ritsuka offers Shinji and a chance to do so and prove himself to Zouken.
    Ritsuka: Matou Shinji. You want to prove to everyone that you're worthy of becoming the Matou successor? Then help me. Together, we'll save the world. There's no better way to prove it than doing something so grand, right?
    Shinji: [staring before laughing] Saving the world? What do you think this is, some sort of anime? This game wouldn't threaten the world!
    Ritsuka: [dead serious] When Chaldea's involved, the stakes are very rarely any lower.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Link to Life: Well, worlds. However, they're actually all little worlds that were broken off from one world, so technically that's still one world.
  • To the Stars: Several of them, all colonized by humans.
  • Calvin and Hobbes, formerly just best friends in suburbia, end up doing this several times in the Actionized Fan Sequel Calvin & Hobbes: The Series.
  • Digimon Legend has a new group of kids try to save both the Digital World and their home universe.
  • In crossover fanfiction Once Upon A Shooting Star, several music bands come together to seek out the final few chosen, learn more of the once-shrouded Redemption Organization, and, ultimately, set out to save the world.
  • In Hellsister Trilogy, several dozens of heroes come together to prevent cosmic-level villains such like Mordru or Darkseid from enslaving the whole universe.
  • In Last Child of Krypton, Kaji recruits Superman -in this story, Shinji Ikari with Kryptonian DNA- to save the world from a Darkseid cult.
  • In Self-Insert Fic Security! (Worm), Mike tells people straight-out what he's trying to do.

    Films — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • 31 Minutos: In 'Maguito explosivo' and the 'La Amenaza Siluria' Story Arc.
  • Standard recurring plot in Doctor Who.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer has saved the world more times than she can count.
  • The plot and motivation of nearly every single Super Sentai and Power Rangers series ever. Be it from some evil witch or wizard, space pirates, warlords, demons, or mutants, boasting about saving the world means very little to any ranger, as they've all done it.
  • The entire plot of Season 3 of Star Trek: Enterprise is the titular ship and her crew fighting to save Earth from the Xindi. Things become complicated when the Xindi's motivations are revealed.
  • Supernatural at the end of season five (Lucifer), six (Eve and Raphael), seven (Leviathans), and eleven (The Darkness).
  • A common plot thread in The Middleman
  • Duncan Macleod from Highlander saved the earth from Ahriman.
  • So common in Stargate SG-1 it is even joked about.
    O'Neill: What's your time frame there?
    Felger: Uh, a day or so, then you guys can get right back to saving the world again. (laughs) For the seventh time.
    Teal'c: Eighth.
    O'Neill: What, you're counting?
  • Season 4 of Arrow and Season 2 of The Flash (2014) involve saving the earth.
  • In the episode "Better Angels" of Supergirl (2015).
  • Hercules saves the earth from Dahak, The Titans, and angels in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
  • Clark Kent saves the earth from Apokolips in the final episode of Smallville.
  • The Charmed sisters save the earth on a number of occasions.

    Pinball 

    Theme Parks 

    Video Games 
  • Despite being rooted in the effort to Save the Princess, most games in the The Legend of Zelda series fit this trope. In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, for example, you're trying to prevent the destruction of the world by keeping the moon from crashing into the realm of Termina. Several of the games involve preventing Hyrule from falling under the control of Ganondorf — or, in the case of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, wresting it away from his control.
  • Particularly galling in Illusion of Gaia, where your goal is generally exploring ancient ruins and collecting mystic statues.
  • Deus Ex subverts this — while your inevitable goal is to prevent Big Bad from taking over the world, you can't actually save the world. It's in ruins and your choice is who to hand the reconstruction contract to an AI who wants to assimilate with you, a "compassionate conspiracy" leader that keeps his mentor in cryogenic almost-stasis in his basement, or a well-intentioned ally who thinks that the Big Bad's technology is more trouble than it's worth and wants to destroy it and send the world into anarchy. If any of that counts as "saved" is largely a matter of opinion (or, as the game would put it, choice).
  • Being an epic Sci Fi trilogy, Mass Effect uses the scaled-up version: Shepard and friends are out to save all sentient life in the galaxy.
  • The original Halo trilogy is primarily about Master Chief, Cortana, and friends trying to prevent the galaxy-killing Halos from firing. The other games have been a mix of world-saving and more small-scale stories.
  • Drakengard is notable here in that, while the first and fourth endings employ this, the second ending straight-up tells you that Failure Is the Only Option, the third ending is mildly ambiguous as the world still needs saving, and the fifth ending... well, it's hard to tell really.
    • According to Word of God, the fifth ending caused the downfall of another world...
      • And in that world, Nier ultimately destroys the last hope for humanity, driving them all to extinction within a generation.
  • In Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, one of the characters, Klungo, creates a horrendous 8-bit arcade platforming game (which he proclaims to be the best ever), titled Hero Klungo Sssavesss Teh World, in which you save the world by holding it over your head.
  • Jak and Daxter: Jak does this every game. Not that he ever gets a "thank you" lasting more than 30 seconds into the next game...
    • Actually, he does get some respect in the third game, mostly from your allies and commoners, but it's easy to miss because literally everyone (yourself included) is preoccupied with the three-way war that's slowly reducing the city to rubble.
    • Also, the fact that the upper class (reduced to consisting of one guy) still hates you in the third game is a plot point.
  • Many Mario games mostly focus on rescuing Princess Peach, but a good handful of the RPG spinoffs have saving the world as the main plot. For example, in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Mario is tasked with finding the Crystal Stars before Grodus does, otherwise he will use the Crystal Stars to unlock an ancient power to conquer the world with.
  • Despite appearances of a plotless pretty-looking Puzzle Game, World of Goo's Wham Episode sets you down this path when you have to journey down the Information Superhighway and discover you can thwart the enemy by flooding all their inboxes with spam, and not just any spam, all and any messages deleted in the history of the internet..
  • Xenosaga did this in different quantities at the end of each game. Since the setting of the game is universal, the first game, which merely threatens the existence of a planet, can't really be a "Saving the World" scenario. The second game is rather unclear in whether or not the characters are saving the world or just fighting some bad guys. The 3rd game is phenomenally epic in scale.
  • One of the complaints against the plot of Neverwinter Nights 2 is that you aren't saving the world, and the titular city isn't attacked in the Bad Ending, because Status Quo Is God in the Forgotten Realms.
  • Frequently the case in Final Fantasy games. The trope is played straight in I - V, VII, and VIII and invoked in VI, IX and XIII by the villains and in X by the heroes.
    • XII has the team of heroes trying to save the kingdom/city-state from becoming the battleground between two rival empires. Not the same scale, but played for just as much drama.
    • FFVII actually deconstructed this, as it did with many other JRPG tropes. The line gets thrown around a lot, but as we learn more about the characters it becomes clear that there are more personal matters that drive them. Indeed, it almost becomes an excuse; an easy answer that people use because they don't want to admit to their real reasons, or can't explain. In the End, Cloud breaks RPG tradition and admits that the reason he's going after Big Bad Sephiroth isn't due to some higher cause. For him it's a Personal matter, a fight that was started years ago that he intends to finish. Saving the Planet just happens to be a part of that.
  • Crono from Chrono Trigger wants nothing more than to go to the Millennial Fair, but ends up roped into a time traveling quest to save his planet from annihilation at the hands of an incomprehensible Eldritch Abomination.
  • Skies of Arcadia spends most of its time as a charming adventure revolving around exploration and piracy... until the final ten hours or so, when The Very Definitely Final Dungeon is raised from the depths of the planet, a devastating superweapon is unleashed, a country is leveled, and Heroic Sacrifices abound.
  • Shadow Hearts: Covenant shows why it's important to save the Save the World element for last. Being told that the end boss is going to destroy the world loses a lot of kick when you've already saved the world twice; even once before the halfway point of the game.
  • The Elder Scrolls usually have this present in their main quest. It may start out with something smaller scale, especially in the first few games of the series, but by the end, there is usually some force threatening to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, if not destroy it entirely.
  • Every Wild ARMs game.
  • Star Ocean. All of them. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Star Ocean: The Last Hope replace "world" with "universe".
  • Most of the Pokémon films. And in the Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum games, replace "the world" with "all existence".
    • All of the games have this as a major subplot integrated with the main plot of To Be a Master since Gen III, barring the remakes of Gen I and Gen II. It started with May and Brendan in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, and proceeded to escalate from there, up to the above situation.
  • One of the (many) notable aspects of Planescape: Torment was that the plot had nothing to do with saving anything, be it city, world, plane etc. Rather, your main quest involved an amnesiac immortal trying to figure out who he is, who took his mortality, and eventually die.
    • On one occasion you do have to save a town that had literally gone straight to hell. Or, more strictly speaking, it restores itself to its rightful place once you defeat the local villain.
    • Similarly, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of The Betrayer. While there is a (in the grand scheme, rather small) danger to the world involved if you fail, but the majority of your motivation is that solving the spirit eater curse prevents you from dying, the fact that it no longer terrorizes the world at large is only casually mentioned. This is due to many shared developers.
      • Averted by the real evil ending which has the player devouring the curse thus becoming the curse itself, getting him/herself expelled from the City of the Dead, then cleansed countless githyanki cities by devouring the souls of all the adults and then delivering their children to their mortal enemies, the brain-sucking, mind-raping mind flayers aka Illithids. If that's not enough, he/she devours the spirits/souls inhabiting the land where he/she once helped (or screwed depending on your playing preference), turning it into a wasteland filled with the walking dead. As if that is still not enough, the player then travels to the planes of existence where the souls of his/her dead former treacherous companions are now resting... and eats them. Whoa. Understandably, the gods get so pissed off, they assembled a humongous army to kill the player and guess what? He/she eats some of the gods too!
  • Ironically Averted in The World Ends with You. The world never even comes close to being destroyed. The plot of the game is about getting Back from the Dead. The title refers to the fact that Neku needs to expand his horizons and stop being a gloomy loner. That said, Shibuya does come close to being destroyed and the heroes do have to save that. Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been A Small District of Tokyo Ends With You.
  • Dragon Age: Origins plays with this trope. While technically you are saving the world by stopping the Blight (i.e. a vast horde of evil monsters led by a corrupted Dragon-God), the game's codex makes it quite clear that failure on your part will not actually lead to the end of the world. Blights reoccur every few centuries in Thedas, so people who dedicate their lives to stopping them have created a military organization, the Grey Wardens, just for that purpose. If you do not succeed, then one of the other members of your organization, which is thousands strong, would finish it in your place. By stopping the Blight, all you really do is keep the country that you live in from being destroyed before the other Wardens could act. Your victory simply means that the threat ended before the rest of the world noticed the problem.
  • Persona 3's Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World plot really only involves saving random people in your city, but the heroes act as if they've saved the world. Then it turns out that the entire world really is at stake, the heroes' lives included, and they freak out.
  • One of the driving plot points for Parasite Eve and Parasite Eve 2. The other point is trying to figure out why a bunch of animals are mutating and attacking people.
  • In the RPG parts of Half-Minute Hero, saving the world is so mundane task that while the hero is busy killing the boss to prevent it from catching world destruction spell, he will do other things like put out forest fires in the meantime.
  • The Shin Megami Tensei games twist this around: the world is already destroyed, and you get to "save" it by choosing how the pieces are put back together.
  • Ultima IV averts this entirely, as there is no threat to the world whatsoever. Ultima VIII kind of subverts it, as you wind up doing a great deal of damage to one world in order to have the opportunity to try to save another. The rest of the main Ultimas play this trope to varying degrees of straight.
  • In Black Sigil, your ultimate goal is prevent the world from being destroyed by The Forbidden.
  • The entire plot of the Mass Effect franchise is stopping the Reapers from wiping out every spacefaring species in the galaxy, as they have done every 50,000 years for, according to the "Leviathan" DLC for Mass Effect 3, at least ten billion years.
  • The plots of three of the first four X-Universe games revolved around stopping two separate Alien Invasions from destroying the Community of Planets. X: Beyond the Frontier saw fish-out-of-water Major Kyle William Brennan join up with the Argon Federation to stop a Xenon planet-killer. X2: The Threat had his son Julian Gardna working to destroy a Kha'ak planet-killer before it could be used a second time. X3: Reunion continued this storyline with Gardna working to stop the Kha'ak warfleet itself.
  • The ultimate goal in the pacifist run of Undertale is saving the world, both the underground and the surface world, from Asriel. Even the final battle theme is called SAVE The World!
  • You Have to Burn the Rope: In the expository theme ("Now you're a hero, you burned the rope and saved us a-all"). This seems to be the only place in the game where this particular plot-point is mentioned, however. Interesting that the boss was a threat to the world, given that he's too tall to get out of his headquarters.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Every core game focuses on the eponymous hero's quest to save the world. Initially from would-be world conqueror Dr. Eggman, later games upped the stakes by having humanity and the world get threatened by Ancient Evils and Omnicidal Maniacs.

    Web Comics 

    Western Animation 
  • Gadget Boy & Heather: Gadget Boy, from the evil villainess Spydra.
  • The Legend of Korra: A recurring plot for the titular Avatar each arc. Korra had to save her world from non-bending terrorists, an Eldritch Abomination, and a cabal that seeks to eliminate the world's governments.
  • Ben 10: Omniverse: A recurring plot.
  • Danny Phantom: Danny and all the other ghosts turn the entire Earth intangible so the disasteroid could pass through.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: One of its advertisement slogans is Saving the world before bedtime!
  • In Futurama, Fry and the rest of the Planet Express crew have saved the world (and sometimes the universe) more times then they can count. At one point, Fry saved the earth from giant brains.
  • Kim Possible:
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Twilight Sparkle and her friends do this at least once a season. They actually save the world by redeeming a thousand year old villain in the first two episodes, defeat a god of chaos at the beginning of the second season and stop an evil queen's plot at the end, restore a long-lost empire in the third season by defeating the evil emperor, so on and so on. By season 5, their friends and family have become used to it; at several points, they are surprised to be given the benefit of the doubt in odd situations, and everyone else points out that they've saved the world half a dozen times already.
    Pinkie Pie: (Just before the Final Battle of the series) What are we going to do, Twilight?
    Twilight: The same thing we do every time, Pinkie...Try to save the world!
  • In Invader Zim, Zim saved the earth from the Planet Jackers. Furthermore, Dib and Zim saved the earth from Tak in the episode Tak the hideous new girl. Dib also saved the earth from the various schemes of Zim.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Intangible World

With the help of every ghost there is (many of whom doing it mostly to save the Ghost Zone), Danny and the others are able to turn the entire planet intangible and allow the Disasteroid to pass harmless through it.

Alternative Title(s): Save The World, Saved The World

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder You Know That Show... Trope Launch Pad Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top

Intangible World

With the help of every ghost there is (many of whom doing it mostly to save the Ghost Zone), Danny and the others are able to turn the entire planet intangible and allow the Disasteroid to pass harmless through it.

How well does it match the trope?

4.91 (11 votes)

Example of:

Main / SavingTheWorld

Media sources:

Report