Basic Trope: A conflict that continues without end.
- Straight: The war between Tropertania and Evilus has been raging for over 50 years by the time the story begins.
- Exaggerated:
- The war has lasted for 500 years with no end in sight.
- Every country is at war, and has been at war for millions of years.
- Tropertania has always been at war with Evilus.
- Downplayed: After 20 years of fighting and innumerable deaths, the leaders of the two countries are close to reaching a deal that satisfies them both.
- Justified: The war has been deliberately (or not) protracted, either by a Government Conspiracy playing/Running Both Sides, a Mole in Charge, some unaligned Manipulative Bastard or Private Military Contractor, an "Ass" in Ambassador, or simply by an inefficient, incompetent, or obstructive bureaucracy gumming up the works.
- Inverted: The war is resolved in two seconds, in a massive Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Subverted: The two nations are gearing up for a war of potentially mutual annihilation, with perilous mountain ranges, vast deserts, seas and jungles lining their shared border, convincing horrified onlookers that logistics and long-term occupation of each other would soon be impossible, not that their leaders care. Yet in a concentrated Tropertanian assault into the heartland of Evilus, the empire is swept off the map in a handful of weeks. There is no war in Tropertania.
- Double Subverted: There is no war in Tropertania.
- Parodied:
- Tropertania and Evilus squabble over an insignificant rock in the middle of the ocean until the sun burns from the sky.
- World War II never ends, as the world is suffering from "Groundhog Day" Loop.
- Zig-Zagged: Sometimes Tropertania and Evilus are at war, sometimes they're not, on and off for millennia.
- Averted:
- The two countries never go to war.
- Alternatively, a third country steps in and crushes them both.
- Enforced: The point of the story is to illustrate that War Is Hell.
- Lampshaded: "These countries seem never stop fighting..."
- Invoked: The Tropertanian Head of State deliberately sets up a war that they cannot win in a reasonable timespan to 'illustrate' that Democracy Is Bad and inefficient and justify quashing personal freedoms in the name of national security.
- Exploited: Related to the justification above, a major defense contractor seizes the opportunity to gouge military hardware prices, knowing that one or both sides are dependent on their products, for a quick profit.
- Defied:
- The leaders of both sides actively work to avoid large-scale conflict.
- One side considers invading the other, but then realizes that it would be a death wish, or that their reasons for war are frivolous.
- Or they just open up with a barrage of tactical nuclear strikes.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- The inability of the government of Tropertania to swiftly sign a bilaterally beneficial peace treaty with Evilus results in the erosion of the trust her people have invested into her.
- After the first few decades or so of war, hostilities will eventually subside and business will continue as though the war had ended de jure.
- The war wipes out the finest of entire generations, ruins the economy, wastes resources and destroys the environment. Eventually both Tropertania and Evilus just flat out can't pursue the war and are left with ruined countries in a downward spiral they can't recover from.
Back to Forever War, which will never end.
