What are your favorites galactic conflicts in fiction?

[SofNascimento]

When I say galactic, it doesn't necessarily needs to be in a galactic scale, just stuff with spaceships.

Here are my top three, in no particular order:

Idiran-Culture War (from Consider Phlebas)

Technically we see very little of this war, the book focus on a small group of people that only affect the conflict in small ways. Yet what makes this so great is the sheer scale of it. One of the big problems with galactic conflicts in fiction is that they feel remarkably small and simple. Star Wars is one of the best examples of this. The Republic clone army number in the millions. It's a small army for a planet wide conflict, image a galactic one.

The Culture, and in particular the Idiran Culture War is the opposite. The ships are amazingly powerful, the battles uninaginably big and destructive. It truly feels like galactic civilizations putting all their power into a conflict spanning a galaxy. Just look at these numbers:

Length of war: forty-eight years, one month. Total casualties, including machines (reckoned on logarithmic sentience scale), medjel and non-combatants: 851.4 billion (± .3%). Losses: ships (all classes above interplanetary)—91,215,660 (± 200); Orbitals—14,334; planets and major moons—53; Rings—1; Spheres—3; stars (undergoing significant induced mass-loss or sequence-position alteration)—6.

Banks, Iain M.. Consider Phlebas: A Culture Novel (Culture series) (p. 507). Little, Brown Book Group. Edição do Kindle.

This is how it should be!

Reaper Invasion (from Mass Effect 3)

The Reapar War has its fair shares of problems, but when it works, it works extremely well. It's a conflict that takes place in a galaxy you care about, involving people that you had a story with. The idea behind the Reapers (minus Starchild stuff) is amazing. I loved their visuals, their capacity for indoctrination and how they twist entire races to fight for them. Spearheading the efforts to defeat them was a unique experience, and one that result in many memorable and unforgettable moments.

Second Cylon War [from Battlestar Galactica (2003)]

Not really a war and more of a desperate retreat, but amazing all the same. What really makes this special in terms of conflict is just how good the space battles are. As far as I'm concerned, they are the very best in sci-fi. Seeing the Battlestar Galactica (and the Pegasus) engaging the Cylons was always a joy. Incredible visual effects, a unmatched sense of clarity, emotinal attachment to the people fighting and unforgivable odds made every engagement meaningful.

 

[Exist 2 Inspire]

The Dominion War in DS9 was great.

 

[Slayven]

The final borg war in the Star Trek EU, it starts with this message

"We are the Borg. You will be annihilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness have become irrelevant. Resistance is futile... but welcome."

Click to shrink...

 

[molnizzle]

When I say galactic, it doesn't necessarily needs to be in a galactic scale, just stuff with spaceships.

Click to shrink...

...oh. Why use that wording then.

 

[holtz]

The Alliance x Empire war from Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

 

[SofNascimento]

The final borg war in the Star Trek EU, it starts with this message

Click to shrink...

That's a cool declaration of war I'll give you that.

 

[Illiterate Bookworm]

The Federation versus Zeon.

Certainly a war that both sides did dirty on.

Nevermind all the mobile suit battles, the colony drops though...

 

[TheXbox]

The Idiran War is tops for sure.

Length of war: forty-eight years, one month. Total casualties, including machines (reckoned on logarithmic sentience scale), medjel and non-combatants: 851.4 billion (± .3%). Losses: ships (all classes above interplanetary)—91,215,660 (± 200); Orbitals—14,334; planets and major moons—53; Rings—1; Spheres—3; stars (undergoing significant induced mass-loss or sequence-position alteration)—6.

Banks, Iain M.. Consider Phlebas: A Culture Novel (Culture series) (p. 507). Little, Brown Book Group. Edição do Kindle.

Click to shrink...

The craziest thing about it is how it then goes on to compare those numbers to the true vastness of galactic civilization, and how despite those numbers the war was ultimately a footnote in history. It barely put a dent in the Culture.

 

[Pellaidh]

Freespace 2 does an incredible job of making you feel like a single soldier in a vast galactic conflict, flying around in a single fighter or bomber while massive capital ships battle around you. To this day it's still to this day the best military sci-fi game I've played.

Its story is also shockingly similar to Mass Effect, to the point where it's clear Mass Effect took massive inspirations from the game (to put it mildly). Except that Freespace manages to tell its alien invasion story without nonsensical endings, and ends it in a way that feels meaningful and personal (instead of just having a magic space ghost magically solve everything).



I also like The Expanse as far as TV shows go. It's small scale, but puts more work into having somewhat realistic space conflicts and spaceships than pretty much anything else out there, especially on this high of a production budget.

 

[Chopchop]

Mass Effect's war with the Reapers was very compelling before we got to the ending in ME3. A lot of the allure of the Reapers came from the fact that they were unknowable, so revealing their motivations kind of ruined that.

I liked Freespace's Terran-Vasudan Alliance VS the Shivans for the same reason. An unknowable, advanced, and overwhelmingly strong foe.

I loved Star Wars as a kid, back when it was just the original trilogy and Timothy Zahn novels.

The final war in Gurren Lagaan was great, mostly because I appreciate the battle's stupid scale.

 

[hydro94530]

The Dominion War in DS9 was great.

Click to shrink...

YES!!!!

 

[SofNascimento]

The Idiran War is tops for sure.
The craziest thing about it is how it then goes on to compare those numbers to the true vastness of galactic civilization, and how despite those numbers the war was ultimately a footnote in history. It barely put a dent in the Culture.

Click to shrink...

Indeed, I was reading the wiki entry and begin with this:

The Idiran-Culture War was a conflict between the Culture and the Idiran Empire that officially spanned from 1327 CE to 1375 CE. The result was the dissolution of the Idiran Empire. It was regarded as a small and short war that involved .02% of the galaxy's volume and .01% of the population. Nonetheless from a historical perspective it was the most significant conflict of the previous 50 thousand years.[SUP][1][/SUP]

It was but a skirmish.

 

[dapperbandit]

Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Because the fleet battles play out almost like musket formations a lot of the emphasis is on the strategy and guile played out by admirals and staff. Theres a great bit where the alliance invades the empire, and the empire just takes all the supplies off world and let's the alliance take territory. Soon they're stretched out but massively under supplied so where at first they're greeted as liberators, before long they're shooting unarmed farmers for not surrendering their food. Then the imperial fleet swoops in and annihilates them. Between battles theres lots of scheming and discussing politics and philosophy.

On the other end of the spectrum theres the War in Heaven from the Prehistory of the 40k universe. A race of sickly, radiation poisoned people start an ill fated war with the Old Ones who refuse to share the secrets of immortality. Thoroughly trounced, the Necrontyr strike a bargain with a group of beings called C'tan that feed off the energy of stars. The C'tan say they will help the Necrons fight the Old Ones and give them eternal life. The Necrontyr agree and are turned into machines, losing their souls which the Ctan devour, becoming obscenely powerful. They go to fight the old ones again but this time the C'tan are there and can bend the forces of reality and time, throwing around black holes and extinguishing stars with a gesture. Billions die but the end, when the Old Ones are beaten and busy devouring the life force of their foes the Necrons betray them and using massive super weapons shatter the Ctan into thousands of pieces and capture them in vaults, enslaving them to their will.

 

[Rei Toei]

A somewhat recent example would be Dark Age from Pierce Brown (and the 4 books before it) - it combines battles in space with planetside combat and it's pretty much always rather bleak and brutal, but especially so in numbers and tactics in Dark Age.

 

[SofNascimento]

A somewhat recent example would be Dark Age from Pierce Brown (and the 4 books before it) - it combines battles in space with planetside combat and it's pretty much always rather bleak and brutal, but especially so in numbers and tactics in Dark Age.

Click to shrink...

Oh this is the continuation of Red Rising... I only read the first book. I thought it was ok but didn't quite captivated me to continue reading. But sometimes I think about it.

In fact, I was between getting the second book and Old Man's War. I picked the latter, but I'm not liking it that much.

 

[Geeker]

It would be cool to have blockbuster movie do the planetary scale combat right. The closest I can think of is enders game when he controls all the space ships

For Star wars and MCU you really have to leave your brain at the door to accept the tiny scale of the conflicts vs how they are presented as galaxy spanning

 

[Deleted member 16516]

Does the Outside Context Problem in Excession count? If so, that. Seeing The Culture finally up against something that could have wiped them out was very entertaining and amusing in equal measure.

Another I like is the conflict against the Blight in A Fire Upon the Deep.

 

[SofNascimento]

Does the Outside Context Problem in Excession count? If so, that. Seeing The Culture finally up against something that could have wiped them out was very entertaining and amusing in equal measure.

Another I like is the conflict against the Blight in A Fire Upon the Deep.

Click to shrink...

It has the coolest battle in the series, all eleven microseconds of it. But I never saw it as a proper conflict. The Excession was just kind of there, they didn't truly fight against it, only some limited interactions.

 

[Gernau Morat Gurgeh]

Came to post the Idiran war - good choice OP. I would add the war aginst the Greenfly from Alistair Reynolds Revelation Space series -essentially an unstoppable horde of rogue von Neumann terraforming machines trying to turn the universe into an infinte number of plant filled terraria.

 

[Siggy-P]

Time War in Doctor Who. That stuff is wild. Detonating galaxies and undetonating them. Wiping out entire species from existence. References to vague super powerful entities like the "nightmare child".

Also serves an effective emotional core to the show before it was undone :(.

Otherwise I like the conflict between Helghan and Vetka in Killzone. Lore that's better than the actual games story.

 

[Deleted member 62221]

I've been reading the Horus Heresy novels (Warhammer) and I think I enjoy more the fleet and massive formations battles than the "bolter porn".

Battles have huge scale but not as huge as Legend of Galatic Heroes (other of my favorites) or the Culture to be unimaginable.

 

[SweetBellic]

Borg invasion during Star Trek TNG The Best of Both Worlds. Wolf 359. Never forget.

Dominion War in Star Trek DS9 is great too, though marred by some pretty lame deus ex machina moments from the wormhole aliens.

 

[Seductivpancakes]

The Federation versus Zeon.

Certainly a war that both sides did dirty on.

Nevermind all the mobile suit battles, the colony drops though...

Click to shrink...

This and the Clans vs the Inner sphere in the battletech universe.

Almost forgot, the Free planets alliance vs the galactic empire.

 

[SweetBellic]

Mass Effect's war with the Reapers was very compelling before we got to the ending in ME3. A lot of the allure of the Reapers came from the fact that they were unknowable, so revealing their motivations kind of ruined that.

Click to shrink...

I thought the motivation for the Reapers worked and found it a pretty interesting (albeit fucked up) concept to have programmed a recurring galactic culling of advanced civilizations. What spoiled it for me was the options for breaking the cycle involved nonsensical space magic.

I loved Star Wars as a kid, back when it was just the original trilogy and Timothy Zahn novels.

Click to shrink...

Oh man, back in the day when Star Wars was good. The Thrawn trilogy still holds up really well as a true sequel trilogy that is actually informed by the events of the OT in a meaningful way.

 

[i hate cheaters]

the entirety of babylon 5

 

[Chopchop]

I thought the motivation for the Reapers worked and found it a pretty interesting (albeit fucked up) concept to have programmed a recurring galactic culling of advanced civilizations. What spoiled it for me was the options for breaking the cycle involved nonsensical space magic.

Oh man, back in the day when Star Wars was good. The Thrawn trilogy still holds up really well as a true sequel trilogy that is actually informed by the events of the OT in a meaningful way.

Click to shrink...

True, the Reaper thing could have just been sold better by the game. The galactic culling thing would be fine if it wasn't for some lines that hurt the sense of menace, such as Sovereign saying that its motivations are unknowable when in reality they could be explained in a short paragraph.

And the less said about the space magic ending, the better.

 

[Calvinien]

Exosquad. Though technically it is only intrasolar.

 

[Daingurse]

Annihilus's Annihilation Wave. The scope of the Negative Zone's invasion was absolutely insane. Just an incomprehensible amount of death and destruction in the universe, all while Earth is focused on Civil War bullshit.

 

[Sordid Plebeian]

Probably the Galactic Civil War from the Star Wars OT and the Human-Covenant War from Halo.

 

[∀∃:ETURNA]

EVE Online features some truly epic engagements. CCP Games delivers some really good write-ups in their published devblogs for the game. No other game today reaches the scale that EVE does.

The Massacre at M2-XFE [Most recent]
Fury at FWST-8 Battle Report

Now that the game features fleet formations, I imagine that future battles will look a lot less blobby. 😆

 

[Palette Swap]

A somewhat recent example would be Dark Age from Pierce Brown (and the 4 books before it) - it combines battles in space with planetside combat and it's pretty much always rather bleak and brutal, but especially so in numbers and tactics in Dark Age.

Click to shrink...

I was coming to post about Red Rising. I really like how wide things have gotten across the solar system in the second trilogy. Brown really needs to finish that sixth book.

 

[Quinton]

This list will include spoilers for every pick.


Babylon 5: "The Second Shadow War"
"Weep for the future, Na'Toth. Weep for us all...After a thousand years, the Darkness has come again."

Arguments might be made that after all the buildup, the war itself lasting a scant 6-7 episodes (depending on one's reckoning) was a bit of a letdown. Indeed, JMS' understandable worries over the fourth season being Babylon 5's last did somewhat rush things. But what we got was nevertheless riveting, especially when we consider the relatively low budget the show was allotted. It wasn't just a 1990s space show — it was a 1990s space show without the Star Trek cash. And yet, the CG marries concept art in vivid and memorable ways, and the final battle stole the crown of "most spaceships in one shot" from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. (Another thread today rightly points out that quantity does not matter nearly as much as quality, but the number of ships on display here makes perfect sense and feels earned.) Most importantly, the writing doesn't let us down. The Army of Light is well-founded through previous seasons. The Minbari Federation, the Narn Regime, and even the League of Non-Aligned Worlds all participating in the last engagement is well worth a cheer; it's the kind of galactic coming-together story I love dearly.

Babylon 5: Earth Alliance Civil War
"This is Captain John Sheridan. We are here on the authority of a multi-planetary force, that can no longer stand by and watch one of their greatest allies falling into darkness and despair. We are here on behalf of the thousands of civilians murdered under orders from the current administration, who have no one else to speak for them. We are here to place President Clark under arrest, to disband Nightwatch, and return our government to the hands of her people. The time to act is now! This is not the voice of treason. These are your sons, your daughters, whose loyalties have never wavered, whose belief in this alliance has forced us to take extraordinary means.
For justice, for peace, for the future... we have come home."

And here's the other big one. In fact, I like the Earth Alliance Civil War more than the Second Shadow War. To be sure, the scale of season four's first engagement is wider. But the ramifications for the rest of galactic society had President Clark and his forces won would nevertheless have been dire. While it may be a touch controversial to say, I prefer the buildup leading to humanity's personal climax over the more fantasy-oriented "light and darkness" of the Shadows and Vorlons. From the moment President Santiago is assassinated, that sense of dread arises. The show capitalizes on this first shocker at believable speeds throughout the course of its second and third seasons, as well as a fair stretch of its fourth. There's also the rather obvious truth to any and all leftists (and even centrists, I reckon) who are fans of Babylon 5; the parallels to real life in America (and the American impact on other countries) have never felt more real. JMS is reminded of this often on social media and he cannot help but concur. I cheer every time this conflict ends, enthralled on the whole road there.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Dominion War
"The Alpha Quadrant seems wracked with chaos – it could use some order...."
"Imposing your type of 'order' on the Alpha Quadrant... may prove more difficult than you imagine."

I like the new crop of Star Trek shows just fine, but this is still the biggest damn event to hit the franchise no matter how many artificial intelligence invasion attempts Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard attempt to convince me otherwise. Deep Space Nine built this thing up from the second season midway through the fifth, and when it began in earnest it shook the foundations of the Star Trek universe forever. The machinations of the Dominion, from the subtle to the anything-but, leave viewers increasingly unsettled and desperately hoping that three long-running Alpha Quadrant rival powers — the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire — can turn over a new leaf before it's too late. One might think the Klingons would be immediately amicable, given the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Picard's role as arbiter throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation. One would be mistaken; the Dominion's successful infiltration of Klingon High Command spells near-disaster before the war even begins. Between the six-part sixth-season opener and the ten-part finale stretch, both of which suitably epic and not without sacrifice, there are numerous episodes that highlight the Dominion War in meaningful and emotional ways. The vintage pick is "In the Pale Moonlight," but it's far from alone. And the writers were smart to conclude the war in the first hour of the two-hour series finale; say what you will about the Sisko-versus-Dukat finisher, but they knew we wanted ample closure for the characters who lived through it all. We got it.

Mass Effect 3: Reaper War
"Never before have so many come together--from all quarters of the galaxy. But never before have we faced an enemy such as this. The Reapers will show us no mercy. We must give them no quarter. They will terrorize our populations. We must stand fast in the face of that terror. They will advance until our last city falls, but we will not fall. We will prevail. Each of us will be defined by our actions in the coming battle. Stand fast. Stand strong. Stand together. Hackett out."

Yeah, yeah. I know. The original ending sucked and the Extended Cut merely sucked less. Whatever. The Reaper War itself is gold. You'll notice a trend with my choices here: I love a good buildup. From the first mission in the first game of the epic Mass Effect trilogy, this war was inevitable. The adventures of Commander Shepard throughout the first two games encompass many settings and many themes, but at their core is the effort to unite the galaxy before it's too late. I critique the start of the Reaper War — the beginning of Mass Effect 3 — for feeling somewhat rushed. And we all know the finale is rushed. But what exists in-between is of a high enough quality that I love the whole thing, anyway. In particular, Priority: Tuchanka is the franchise's zenith; Priority: Rannoch, while not quite as good, isn't far behind. What makes the Reaper War work more than anything is its commitment to the characters. Mass Effect, like Dragon Age, thrives on its cast. If you like the characters, you generally like the games. If you don't, you stand a substantially lower shot of enjoying yourself. Thankfully, Mass Effect 3 gives most fan favorites an excellent sendoff. Some of Mass Effect 2's are undeniably shortchanged, but the Citadel DLC's only crime is its ridiculously bland name. The rest of it gives everyone such a lovely shore leave time to shine that in the final telling, we get something for everyone. And that last space battle? London might have disappointed, but look beyond Earth's atmosphere and it's a chef's kiss.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Gryps War
"I came to laugh at you."

So, here's the funny part. I'm not even a Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam diehard. It's a good show. It tells its story well and generally just... does what it sets out to do. It also suffers from the usual Tomino issues: the women mostly suck, the protagonist's emotional journey, while strong, lends itself to some bitterly bad scenes; the characters wax quasi-poetic philosophy at each other for long stretches of time. Often, they're even saying the same thing, over and over again, just in case you didn't understand before. None of that matters to me in the end. The Gryps War is, well, pardon the terrible pun. It's gripping. It's a grey zone in a franchise that prides itself on recurring grey zones. Sure, the One Year War gets most of the special treatment. We keep getting different perspectives. We got Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. Some of that stuff is fun. Some of it isn't. But whatever. The Gryps War is the real breadwinner in my mind. The hints from Mobile Suit Gundam that maybe the Federation isn't all it's cracked up to be, they all blossom into ugliness in Zeta Gundam. The Earth Federation has let loose the extremist force known as the Titans, and all of a sudden, even the Zeon Remnants don't seem so terrible. It forces viewers to take a deeper look at the better things Tomino has done, loath as I am to praise him; war is hell, he says, again and again, and the Gryps War says it best. The heroes are caught in the crossfire, trying to preserve decency in a solar system gone mad, and the conclusion makes the protagonist's at-times insufferable psychological travels feel worth it.

 

[Helix]

The Alliance-Imperial war from LOGH comes to mind

 

[WildGoose]

I was going to say the Shadow war in Babylon 5, but yeah, I think the 'war' itself is ultimately too short, despite the high quality of the episodes themselves and the galactic ramifications of the outcome.

The Horus Heresy in Warhammer 40K is a decent shout, there are some truly excellent moments and the conflict is utterly massive in scale, although it's an over-written, bloated mess, and it's very hard to get past the mountains of filler and the complete non-existence of important female characters.

Idiran-Culture War is a good one. I love that it's so gigantic in scale yet later in the series is regarded as nothing more than a footnote. I'm still upset that the Consider Phlebas adaptation was cancelled.

 

[Quinton]

I was going to say the Shadow war in Babylon 5, but yeah, I think the 'war' itself is ultimately too short, despite the high quality of the episodes themselves and the galactic ramifications of the outcome.

Click to shrink...

Totally get that, aye. I would have loved it if JMS's original vision, time-wise, was able to be put to screen. Ironically, it's the fast-paced, skips-a-beat, nature of the fourth season that cements it as my favorite nonetheless!

 

[Xero grimlock]

all of Babylon 5, massive bonus points for being coherent and making perfect sense the whole way through and doesnot jump the shark at all.

Gurren Lagaan, because it's crazy, but also due to the casualties. Yes it's zany and over the top, but tons of minor characters die and the show manages to give them all pretty good moments, yet manages to reinforce the stakes. One subtle scene I love is when then female engineer husband dies and the show gives us a few seconds where we see her stop and morn, but seeing as they are still in combat she then immediately snaps back into giving orders.

 

[SofNascimento]

This list will include spoilers for every pick.


Babylon 5: "The Second Shadow War"
"Weep for the future, Na'Toth. Weep for us all...After a thousand years, the Darkness has come again."

Arguments might be made that after all the buildup, the war itself lasting a scant 6-7 episodes (depending on one's reckoning) was a bit of a letdown. Indeed, JMS' understandable worries over the fourth season being Babylon 5's last did somewhat rush things. But what we got was nevertheless riveting, especially when we consider the relatively low budget the show was allotted. It wasn't just a 1990s space show — it was a 1990s space show without the Star Trek cash. And yet, the CG marries concept art in vivid and memorable ways, and the final battle stole the crown of "most spaceships in one shot" from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. (Another thread today rightly points out that quantity does not matter nearly as much as quality, but the number of ships on display here makes perfect sense and feels earned.) Most importantly, the writing doesn't let us down. The Army of Light is well-founded through previous seasons. The Minbari Federation, the Narn Regime, and even the League of Non-Aligned Worlds all participating in the last engagement is well worth a cheer; it's the kind of galactic coming-together story I love dearly.

Babylon 5: Earth Alliance Civil War
"This is Captain John Sheridan. We are here on the authority of a multi-planetary force, that can no longer stand by and watch one of their greatest allies falling into darkness and despair. We are here on behalf of the thousands of civilians murdered under orders from the current administration, who have no one else to speak for them. We are here to place President Clark under arrest, to disband Nightwatch, and return our government to the hands of her people. The time to act is now! This is not the voice of treason. These are your sons, your daughters, whose loyalties have never wavered, whose belief in this alliance has forced us to take extraordinary means.
For justice, for peace, for the future... we have come home."

And here's the other big one. In fact, I like the Earth Alliance Civil War more than the Second Shadow War. To be sure, the scale of season four's first engagement is wider. But the ramifications for the rest of galactic society had President Clark and his forces won would nevertheless have been dire. While it may be a touch controversial to say, I prefer the buildup leading to humanity's personal climax over the more fantasy-oriented "light and darkness" of the Shadows and Vorlons. From the moment President Santiago is assassinated, that sense of dread arises. The show capitalizes on this first shocker at believable speeds throughout the course of its second and third seasons, as well as a fair stretch of its fourth. There's also the rather obvious truth to any and all leftists (and even centrists, I reckon) who are fans of Babylon 5; the parallels to real life in America (and the American impact on other countries) have never felt more real. JMS is reminded of this often on social media and he cannot help but concur. I cheer every time this conflict ends, enthralled on the whole road there.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Dominion War
"The Alpha Quadrant seems wracked with chaos – it could use some order...."
"Imposing your type of 'order' on the Alpha Quadrant... may prove more difficult than you imagine."

I like the new crop of Star Trek shows just fine, but this is still the biggest damn event to hit the franchise no matter how many artificial intelligence invasion attempts Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard attempt to convince me otherwise. Deep Space Nine built this thing up from the second season midway through the fifth, and when it began in earnest it shook the foundations of the Star Trek universe forever. The machinations of the Dominion, from the subtle to the anything-but, leave viewers increasingly unsettled and desperately hoping that three long-running Alpha Quadrant rival powers — the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire — can turn over a new leaf before it's too late. One might think the Klingons would be immediately amicable, given the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Picard's role as arbiter throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation. One would be mistaken; the Dominion's successful infiltration of Klingon High Command spells near-disaster before the war even begins. Between the six-part sixth-season opener and the ten-part finale stretch, both of which suitably epic and not without sacrifice, there are numerous episodes that highlight the Dominion War in meaningful and emotional ways. The vintage pick is "In the Pale Moonlight," but it's far from alone. And the writers were smart to conclude the war in the first hour of the two-hour series finale; say what you will about the Sisko-versus-Dukat finisher, but they knew we wanted ample closure for the characters who lived through it all. We got it.

Mass Effect 3: Reaper War
"Never before have so many come together--from all quarters of the galaxy. But never before have we faced an enemy such as this. The Reapers will show us no mercy. We must give them no quarter. They will terrorize our populations. We must stand fast in the face of that terror. They will advance until our last city falls, but we will not fall. We will prevail. Each of us will be defined by our actions in the coming battle. Stand fast. Stand strong. Stand together. Hackett out."

Yeah, yeah. I know. The original ending sucked and the Extended Cut merely sucked less. Whatever. The Reaper War itself is gold. You'll notice a trend with my choices here: I love a good buildup. From the first mission in the first game of the epic Mass Effect trilogy, this war was inevitable. The adventures of Commander Shepard throughout the first two games encompass many settings and many themes, but at their core is the effort to unite the galaxy before it's too late. I critique the start of the Reaper War — the beginning of Mass Effect 3 — for feeling somewhat rushed. And we all know the finale is rushed. But what exists in-between is of a high enough quality that I love the whole thing, anyway. In particular, Priority: Tuchanka is the franchise's zenith; Priority: Rannoch, while not quite as good, isn't far behind. What makes the Reaper War work more than anything is its commitment to the characters. Mass Effect, like Dragon Age, thrives on its cast. If you like the characters, you generally like the games. If you don't, you stand a substantially lower shot of enjoying yourself. Thankfully, Mass Effect 3 gives most fan favorites an excellent sendoff. Some of Mass Effect 2's are undeniably shortchanged, but the Citadel DLC's only crime is its ridiculously bland name. The rest of it gives everyone such a lovely shore leave time to shine that in the final telling, we get something for everyone. And that last space battle? London might have disappointed, but look beyond Earth's atmosphere and it's a chef's kiss.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Gryps War
"I came to laugh at you."

So, here's the funny part. I'm not even a Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam diehard. It's a good show. It tells its story well and generally just... does what it sets out to do. It also suffers from the usual Tomino issues: the women mostly suck, the protagonist's emotional journey, while strong, lends itself to some bitterly bad scenes; the characters wax quasi-poetic philosophy at each other for long stretches of time. Often, they're even saying the same thing, over and over again, just in case you didn't understand before. None of that matters to me in the end. The Gryps War is, well, pardon the terrible pun. It's gripping. It's a grey zone in a franchise that prides itself on recurring grey zones. Sure, the One Year War gets most of the special treatment. We keep getting different perspectives. We got Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. Some of that stuff is fun. Some of it isn't. But whatever. The Gryps War is the real breadwinner in my mind. The hints from Mobile Suit Gundam that maybe the Federation isn't all it's cracked up to be, they all blossom into ugliness in Zeta Gundam. The Earth Federation has let loose the extremist force known as the Titans, and all of a sudden, even the Zeon Remnants don't seem so terrible. It forces viewers to take a deeper look at the better things Tomino has done, loath as I am to praise him; war is hell, he says, again and again, and the Gryps War says it best. The heroes are caught in the crossfire, trying to preserve decency in a solar system gone mad, and the conclusion makes the protagonist's at-times insufferable psychological travels feel worth it.

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Amazing post!

I feel that every sci-fi thread I see people mentioned Babylon 5 in a positive light, but I still have no watched it. When it comes to game, I can play 30 year old games and not care a finger for the graphics, but when it comes to sci-fi shows I don't feel equally comfortable. I've afraid I'll just be put off by the CGI. Maybe I should just commit to watch a season or something like that.

About Mass Effect, yeah, London was awful, but the space battle is pretty cool, especially how it changes considering your playthough. It's a good example of a large scale battle. And 8, almost 9 years later I still believe this is one of the best vistas in sci-fi:

Generally when we this kind of vistas the Earth is "below and in front", like here and here.

In this scene in ME3 the Earth is "above". You can turn 360o and still see the Earth covering the top half of the Horizon. And all around the battle taking place. You could say it's a shortcoming fighting on Earth, where the space battle feels completely divorced from the ground battle. It's just amazing to simply see the battle around you in the Citadel.

 

[Quinton]

Amazing post!

I feel that every sci-fi thread I see people mentioned Babylon 5 in a positive light, but I still have no watched it. When it comes to game, I can play 30 year old games and not care a finger for the graphics, but when it comes to sci-fi shows I don't feel equally comfortable. I've afraid I'll just be put off by the CGI. Maybe I should just commit to watch a season or something like that.

About Mass Effect, yeah, London was awful, but the space battle is pretty cool, especially how it changes considering your playthough. It's a good example of a large scale battle. And 8, almost 9 years later I still believe this is one of the best vistas in sci-fi:

Click to shrink...

Thanks!

Oh lordy, those are some excellent ME3 screenshots. Every time I've reached the end, I've been reminded that hey, at least it looks cool. :P

Re: Babylon 5, I completely understand. There's something about low-budget sci-fi sets that can be rather off-putting. You just know you're supposed to be looking at something more grandiose. Even three-decades-old videogames can find ways to visualize the grandiose, if only through still imagery in-between gameplay segments. Obviously, that approach... doesn't work on TV!

For what it's worth? The show hasn't looked as good in ages as it does in 2021.

 

[Nakho]

The Alliance x Empire war from Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

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I thought this was going to be in the OP. I think it's above and beyond the others ones I've seen.

 

[SofNascimento]

Thanks!

Oh lordy, those are some excellent ME3 screenshots. Every time I've reached the end, I've been reminded that hey, at least it looks cool. :P

Re: Babylon 5, I completely understand. There's something about low-budget sci-fi sets that can be rather off-putting. You just know you're supposed to be looking at something more grandiose. Even three-decades-old videogames can find ways to visualize the grandiose, if only through still imagery in-between gameplay segments. Obviously, that approach... doesn't work on TV!

For what it's worth? The show hasn't looked as good in ages as it does in 2021.

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That's good to know. I'm thinking of starting a new tv series soon. Right now I'm thinking of The Shield, but I'm in a sci-fi phase.