Basic Trope: A war becomes more significant or personal after hitting the hero's homeland (town, city, nation etc).
- Straight:
- When the Empire attacks her homeland and threatens invasion, Alice takes up arms for her country.
- The Republic of Tropeland joins a World War after getting attacked by the Empire of Evulz.
- Exaggerated:
- When the Empire attacks her homeland and burns her house and family to the ground, Alice joins the military, becomes a commander, leads a propaganda campaign, creates her own industrial complex to win the war and personally leads the charge against the Empire.
- The Republic was stationed on a planet, and Alice watches helplessly as the Empire targets it with a planet killing superweapon and incinerates it.
- Every single country in all of existence collectively decide that Alice's house is the best place to use as a warzone.
- Downplayed:
- When the Empire attacks her homeland, Alice decides to start buying war bonds to help her patriotic soldiers.
- The Republic of Tropeland's President has family in the Kingdom of Storius and urges citizens to offer amnesty to refugees after they are attacked by the Empire of Evulz.
- Justified:
- Alice was a pacifist who stayed out of the conflict believing that if she remained peaceful then the Empire had no reason to attack her or her country. When this happens anyway she promptly takes up arms to atone for it.
- When citizens see their homeland getting bombed and invaded it motivates them to either buy war bonds, work in the factories or join the armed forces.
- Inverted:
- When Alice's homeland is burned to the ground, she surrenders as she has no reason to keep fighting.
- When the Republic is attacked, they sue for peace in order to stay out of the conflict.
- Subverted:
- Alice watches as her homeland is attacked by the Empire... and decides to ignore their suffering, does not join the fight and simply carries on like life is normal.
- The Republic's president uses propaganda to cover up the invasion of the Empire in order to keep people from wanting to escalate conflict.
- Double Subverted:
- ... But Alice decides to become a part of the resistance and secretly works to undermine the Empire from within.
- ... Alice decides to join the Empire and turns on her countrymen as a collaborator of the puppet government.
- ... The citizens promptly take up arms and form a resistance when the propaganda campaign fails.
- Parodied: The citizens of the Republic get upset at the invading Empire because they are interrupting tea time.
- Zigzagged: Some citizens decide to join the world war when either their country or their countries of origin are attacked by the Empire, while others side with the Empire and encourage the Republic to join the Empire, while others are pacifistic and want to stay out of the conflict, while others decide to stage an uprising against the republic of the revolution etc...
- Averted:
- Alice joins the war regardless of whether or not her homeland is attacked.
- The Republic is never attacked and stays out of the conflict.
- Enforced:
- The writers decide that the hero and her heroic faction needs to be ruthlessly and violently attacked in order to ramp up the stakes and tension.
- Lampshaded: "Oh you wanna attack my homeland to scare me? Like that's gonna work!"
- Invoked:
- Alice secretly supports allies that oppose Evulz and his imperial ambitions.
- The Republic place an embargo on trade goods to the Empire and Evulz retaliates.
- Exploited: Evulz decides to hit Alice where it hurts and orders his armies to attack her country with the hope of destroying her loved ones.
- Defied: Evulz doesn't dare piss off the Republic and he avoids provoking war with them.
- Discussed: "Bob! Get the kids to safety! The Empire has invaded the continent!"
- Conversed: "Now comes the part where the hero sees the planes flying over their house... and it isn't the friendly planes."
- Implied: Alice is out in the field and reads a field report... that a majority of enemy troops are heading towards her village's location.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice doesn't join the war effort until her homeland is attacked... and the other allies take notice. They call her selfish and short sighted.
- The Republic deliberately avoids war because they don't want their citizens to suffer from this terrible fate.
- Alice has no home... because it's already been destroyed by the Empire years ago.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice apologizes to her companions for not recognizing the importance of the war effort until it was too late, but vows that she will fight even harder to make up for it. Her friends forgive her afterwards as they fight together.
- The Republic watches ally after ally get invaded and conquered by the Empire's expansion and the president warns his citizens of what war will bring but that they must fight on anyway in spite of the risks involved.
- Alice has a new home and she will fight till her dying breath before she lets it fall to ruin as her last home did.
- Played for Laughs: Alice worries that with the attack on her homeland, her precious garden will be destroyed, her windows will get full of soot and various other priorities...
- Played for Drama: Alice goes into shock when she reads a report about the attack on her homeland, terrified that her family got caught up in the bombings. She quietly swears to avenge those that fell with renewed fury.
- Played for Horror: Alice wakes up one day to see soldiers looting, murdering, pillaging and raping her fellow citizens. And then the soldiers spot her...
Back to War Comes Home, where nothing is the same anymore
