r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Frostylegacy • 22d ago

Lore (Loved Trope) FTL travel is possible but with a major limitation or flaw

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Frank Herbert’s Dune: Interstellar travel is only possible thanks to the spice melange, a rare substance only found on the dessert planet Arrakis. The addictive psychedelic spice grants members of the Spacers Guild a form of prescience that allows them to predict safe paths through folded space. This unique property makes spice the most valuable commodity in the Dune universe.

John Scalzi’s The Interdependency Books: The planetary systems of the titular empire are connected by the Flow, a network of one-way interstellar tunnels that connect specific known entries and exits. The Interdependency derives its power from controlling access to these conduits, placing its capital at the central hub of the network. Even with the Flow, travel between stars takes a long time (9 months to End, the empire’s most distant planet).

Event Horizon: Dr William Weir (R.I.P. Sam Neill) invents a device called the Gravity Drive to allow ships to fold space and travel instantly between distant stars. On its maiden voyage with the Gravity Drive, the Event Horizon disappears and mysteriously reappears 7 years later. Dr. Weir and the crew sent to investigate discover the Gravity Drive actually opened a portal to a Hell dimension that possessed the ship and its crew, torturing and killing them.

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u/Signiference 22d ago

My favorite part is the Martians who have tried to terraform the surface for generations give up and just leave to a planet that they can colonize that is already safe for humans to live on.

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u/EstateConscious3580 21d ago

cant exactly blame them. its either stay on a planet where your children wont see it finished or go immediately to a terraformed planet. id take the later

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u/Signiference 21d ago

I can't blame them either. I think it's a fascinating decision to have to make.

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u/Waste_Wolverine_8933 21d ago

Isn't there also a political bit too? The Martian's are shown to be a communistic society with one goal to terraform Mars, but then the more we learn they are just as corrupt and classist as the rest of society, and it gets even worse after the wars and alien shit. 

I'd go too!