It’s been a very popular theme for science fiction movies and television shows for decades: characters who survive the loss and total destruction of their home worlds. Having your home planet annihilated has got to be one of the worst things to happen to a sci-fi character, and will really ruin their week. It’s a terrible feeling to learn that everything you love and cherish about your home planet could be destroyed in seconds, leaving you homeless and without the people who are like you. We’re going to take a look at a few of the planets that were destroyed, and the characters who outlived this destruction.
Princess Leia Organa Skywalker had her home planet of Alderaan destroyed in Star Wars IV: A New Hope. While standing with the dark side incarnate, Darth Vader, she had to stand by and watch the Death Star display it’s fully operational laser weapon. The worst part is that she ended up giving up the location of the secret Rebel base the Empire was looking for, and then had her home planet blown up right in front of her eyes anyways. She should have known better than to ever think the Empire would play fair.
Superman suffered the loss of his home planet Krypton. It is one of the oldest and most cherished stories of comic book lore. As the story goes, Krypton exploded as a result of a nuclear chain reaction caused by the planet’s unstable radioactive core — which also created Kryptonite, and is deadly to Superman. All of the civilizations and races that inhabited Krypton were destroyed, except for one: the baby Kal-El, who was put on an escape rocket by his father, Jor-El, and sent to Earth. Where he grew up to become Superman. A human with powers no one on Earth had ever experienced before.
Check out the graphic below to see which other planets, and characters you’re familiar with who have lost their home worlds.
via: Confused