Let's Talk Alien Invasion Media

[Zeropoint]

The Jupiter Theft; where the aliens have arrived to refuel by stealing Jupiter. They are so indifferent to us that they are going to destroy Earth by passing nearby it with Jupiter not out of malice, but because they simply have no interest in the fact that doing so will destroy our species.

This is the kind of crap Lovecraft was talking about.

[Alkaloid]

I think most of the issue your (Simon and Meta) are having is that while it's possibly to be tactically clever, it's only really possible to be strategically sound.

For example, in WWII, during the siege of Tobruk, the Allies used a clever tactic to halt the German blitzkrieg. They allowed the German tanks to advance relatively unmolested through their trenches and then had their infantry engage the German infantry following them on their own terms, while the German tanks were force to fight emplaced anti tank guns without the infantry support they required to defeat them. This was a clever tactic, but it doesn't equate to a clever strategy because strategy mostly doesn't rely on cleverness, it relies on being able to assemble enough force in the right place at the right time.

If we isolate the North African campaign, we can call Rommell tactically clever but strategically poor, and the Montgomery strategically sound but tactically poor. (Arguably. Just go with it. It's another topic of discussion. It's an example. I'm slightly drunk. Shush) This sucked for the Axis because ultimately, no matter how clever they were, there was no Independence Day style mother ship they could go after to insta win, but the Allies were consistently able to assemble enough men and equipment to defeat their local forces. In the same way that no matter how clever Taliban insurgents get, they can never hope to defeat the US Military or render them unable to fight any more, they can only hope they choose to go home.

This leaves Meta looking for an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion that requires some cleverness and a maguffin/fatal weakness to exploit, and Simon needing aliens no more advanced than the ones from Battle: LA to win. (incidentally, the aliens in that movie made perfect sense. Don't want to trash the planet, want to colonise, so no orbital bombardment. Use water for fuel, so instead of carting billions of tonnes of it across the galaxy they land in the ocean, run a pump for a few minutes and then get to killin'. Guy on TV saying they cam to steal our water was an idiot. End of.)

[cosmicalstorm]

The only somewhat realistic alien-invasion being repelled story I ever read was True Names by Vernor Vinge.
Spoiler

The main character gradually realizes that a very competent but somewhat timelagged hacker is most likely an alien AI which is about to subvert the human specie via digital attack-ways.

[Korto]

What about a Trilogy?
Part 1) First contact - Aliens attack - Earth inevitably defeated and subjugated
Part 2) Life under the alien overlords. They consider us (and other conquered races on other planets) to be sub-grik and so ruling over us is the green grik's burden. As an example of life under the aliens, at some point a human is being abused by some grik, and is in terror for his life, and so strikes back, causing a minor wound. Immediately it becomes a matter for the authorities, and, despite the protests of the human's owner (taking the justified view that it's hardly the human's fault if he struck back when being abused), the human is destroyed and the owner heavily fined for keeping a dangerous human.
At the same time, however, revolt is brewing. Humans secretly acquiring and learning grik weapons. Other races elsewhere doing the same. All aided and coordinated by secret rebel griks who felt what their government was doing was wrong (or do they have darker motives?).
Part 3) The massive revolt! Multiple planets and races, Earth being just a small part (although the focus of the movie, for obvious reason). Perhaps at the end, the Grik emperor coincidentally flees to Earth and so we can get the HUMANS YEAH! of the kill. The End.

[Metahive]

*snip*

I think people get too hung up on the semantics of cleverness. As I already said, substitute "basic competence" for it. It's all too often lacking with the invaders and one of my biggerst gripes. So no, the invaders won't be defeated because they forgot their flu-shots and decided to run around on a foreign world butt-naked*.










*no, not talking about Signs here, but about the 2005 version of War of the Worlds.

[Borgholio]

but about the 2005 version of War of the Worlds.

Actually, every single version of WotW was that way, including the original novel.

[Metahive]

but about the 2005 version of War of the Worlds.

Actually, every single version of WotW was that way, including the original novel.

Nope, it's different. In the original, the invaders are said to be working in a desperate hurry because their planet has become inhabitable, so them not taking the necessary precautions when invading a foreign planet is excusable.

The shmucks from the Spielberg version not only lack this urgency, they've already been to Earth before to bury their war-machines. So them exposing themselves to Earth germs is just scripted stupidity.

[Borgholio]

they've already been to Earth before to bury their war-machines. So them exposing themselves to Earth germs is just scripted stupidity.

TBH that is the biggest sore-spot that stuck out at me when I was considering seeing the movie (which I never did, btw). All other versions have the cylinders coming down from space which gives humanity a chance to act a little curious and inquisitive before getting their asses handed to them by the Martians. It also makes more sense than the idea that...somehow...we have missed digging up one of these massive war machines after all the tunneling we've done over the last few thousand years.