A World Half Full: Difference between revisions
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In this world, the Protagonist is [[Just One Man|only one man]], he can't bring life instantly to an abandoned village, but he can find the materials needed to bring upon the seeds of growth that will bring life back to the once desolate town. However, such changes are not overnight miracles and in fact many of them will not be noticed in his or her lifetime. He is also quite tempted to exploit the wasteland and will have to resist such urges. More [[Anti-Hero|Anti Heroic]] characters may not even bother holding back.
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== Comic Books ==
* The DC Universe and Marvel Universe (the mainstream ones anyway) arguably fit this description. Both of them are full of [[Complete Monster
{{quote|'''Superman:''' ''You came after all. What changed your mind?''
'''Doctor Fate:''' ''It was because you went back. You reminded me that it's not just the forces of evil that never give up.'' }}
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** [[Forgotten Realms]] in its earliest incarnations fit this trope. The world had been ruled and toyed with by one species of [[Eldritch Abomination]] after another, and there were whole empires of twisted races as well as cruel empires. However, there were places like Cormyr and the Dales which were the proverbial candles in the dark, the good gods schemed as hard as the evil ones, and most adventures featured chances to save something of value. 4th Edition made it a lot darker, possibly pushing it straight into [[Crapsack World]].
** [[Dragonlance]] has whole races and orders of evil knights. The [[Big Good]] has to die to stop the [[Big Bad]] and the gods remove their support from mortals for a while. It's still a [[High Fantasy]] world where some hero has always stepped up in the [[Darkest Hour]]. Latter adaptations written by other writers tended to miss this element.
** [[Planescape]] has seven independent hells, each infinite, and seven heavens all of which are rather terrifying in their own way. [[Good Is Not Nice|Good is downright terrifying]] when it isn't [[Good Is Dumb|pants-on-head stupid.]] The central [[City of Adventure]] is a dystopian blend of [[Charles Dickens]] and [[Dungeon Punk]]. Completely incompatible ideological groups have taken over vast aspects of public life and so are always a hair's breadth from civil war. Most of the planes are [[Death World
* ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'': Extinction is approaching. '''Fight it.'''
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*** Instead of a world overpopulated by humans, we have a world overpopulated by giant insects and genetically-engineered horrors like the Deathclaws, a single one of which could easily wipe out a small town were it so inclined. There could be argued to be ''zero'' peaceful settlements, because every town needs at several armed guards to protect it from giant ants and Jet-addicted psychopaths. Compared to the [[Crapsack World|Capital Wasteland]], though, life in the Mojave is pretty good.
*** The ''Lonesome Road'' DLC has this at its end. Ulysses wants to rain destruction on everything because he thinks the Bear is diseased, the Bull will feed on itself, and Vegas has too many ghosts of the past to ever let go. You can however convince him that the world can be saved and civilisation built anew - after all, {{spoiler|you did it before}}.
* ''[[Advance Wars]]: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict'' goes this way with the [[After the End]] setting. The world is obliterated, and many of the survivors are ''still'' fighting each other- but characters like [[The Good Captain|Captain O'Brian/Brenner]], and soon the protagonist [[The Messiah|Ed/Will]] hold strong faith in human goodness, and are fighting tooth and nail to save humanity. The 'S' rank victory animation has a touch of this theme, with white doves flying over the devastated battlefield.
* In ''[[Epic Mickey]]'', after Mickey Mouse accidentally creates him, the Phantom Blot turns the Cartoon Wasteland into a twisted, [[Disney Theme Parks|Disney Theme Park]] themed [[Crapsack World]]. Part of the game's main plot is that Mickey must stop the Blot and restore the world to its former self.
* In the ''[[Wild Arms]]'' series a common theme is how the environment will only last a couple more years, [[Green Aesop|so obviously the main characters save it.]] Of course, if the [[All There in the Manual|manual]] is correct, and all the games take place on the same planet, there's an invasion/war/disaster scheduled for a century or two after they ''do'' save it, and it's going to set everything back to ruined square one... but a new bunch of heroes always end up fixing things a couple thousand years later. It isn't very fun for the people in the intervening years, but things ''do'' get fixed eventually each time.
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*** Its already happening, to a degree. Yes, much of Azeroth was absolutely devastated in The Shattering. However, {{spoiler|Desolace is now once again full of plant life, the Plaguelands are slowly recovering from plague toxins due to the Cenarion Circle, Earthen Ring and Argent Crusade, and Duskwood is finally on the road to recovery due to the death of Morbent Fel and the Gilneans bringing the madness cure to the Nightbane worgen, among other recovery efforts}}
* [[Deus Ex]], depending on your personal beliefs, any of the endings can fall under this.
* The Milky Way in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is a dangerous and brutal place to live. Filled with monstrous aliens, pirate fleets, amoral mercenaries and cruel slavers, with the largest civilized government hamstrung by red tape and millennia of tradition and unwillingness to budge, an entire species has been driven from their homeworld and is locked in a 300 year long [[Hopeless War]] with their mechanical creations, and {{spoiler|every 50,000-odd years, all technologically advanced sapient life is purged and consumed by [[Eldritch Abomination
* Arguably, the Light Side path of [[Knights of the Old Republic]] 2 is this. Either that, or the Exile is merely an [[Unwitting Pawn]].<br />It can be both for a Light Side Exile. Despite how, in the main plot, {{spoiler|Kreia}} is pretty much manipulating everyone all the time, the Exile's actions throughout the Galaxy can drastically improve life for both invididuals and for entire planets (though, this being an Obsidian Game, a lot of the 'good' decisions can end up having sizable downsides as well).
* ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]] III'' is this at the end. The world has gone straight to hell due to Kratos killing damn-near every Olympian there is. {{spoiler|However, Kratos, in one of his rare acts of selflessness, decides in the end to restore Hope back to the world by sacrificing himself rather than simply handing the power back to Athena.}}<br />It's still more like "A World ''Millionth'' Full", though, when you consider just how many people and creatures he killed [[For the Evulz]].
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'', heavily inspired by both [[Marvel]] and [[DC]], sets out its world like this. The world is filled with criminals, monsters and [[Super Villain|Supervillains]] of every imaginable kind, is recovering from an [[Alien Invasion]] that's not quite over, and looking at [[The Multiverse]], this is one of the ''best'' options. So what stands in the way of evil? [[Superhero
* ''[[Baroque]]'' is set in an [[After the End]] world where humanity has been reduced to a handful of [[Body Horror|mutated freaks]] whose forms are based on their own individual psychoses. {{spoiler|At the end, you don't fix the world. But you do make it so that the world has a chance}}.
* In [[Shin Megami Tensei|a franchise]] where God is almost ''always'' [[God Is Evil|evil]] or [[Devil but No God|out of the picture]], and the heroes never save the day without a [[Bittersweet Ending|huge sacrifice on their part]], ''[[Persona 4]]'' stands out by having this type of message at the end. It basically boils down to "Humans can act like assholes, but we can change for the better if we have the courage to accept [[Awful Truth|that fact]] first."
** ''[[Devil Survivor]]'' also qualifies. {{spoiler|God is actually ''good'' and}} will accept whatever future you build, even if you mess up ''big time''! That's right. ''{{spoiler|God}} basically trusts you to govern the entire planet'', in spite of all the horrible things human beings are capable of.
* The world of the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series, though the world's crappiness is much less severe (and therefore [[Fridge Horror|much less readily apparent]]) than many other examples of this trope. Crime is apparently so common that the justice system's been perverted into a series of [[Kangaroo Court|all-but-kangaroo courts]], the vast majority of prosecutors will do [[Amoral Attorney|anything]] to get their conviction, and nobody seems to give a good damn about due process or suspect's rights
* Sera in ''[[Gears of War]]'' becomes this after {{spoiler|Adam Fenix's [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. The Locust and Lambent are wiped out and the Imulsion is destroyed, but Humanity finally has its future.}}
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* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers|Galaxy Rangers]]'': The Crown Empire may be crumbling, but it's still powerful. The [[God Save Us From the Queen|Queen]] herself is a bloodthirsty, genocidal megalomaniac. The jail system is about as good as [[Batman|Arkham Asylum]]. Tortuna is a [[Wretched Hive]], and some other planets aren't much better. Earth's politicians are often [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|questionable]] or [[Corrupt Bureaucrat|worse]], as are the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|business-beings]]. One of the Rangers is ''essentially a slave.'' A quarter of the episodes are [[Bittersweet Ending|BittersweetEndings]]. A few are [[Downer Ending|DownerEndings]]. Oh, and Eliza is never rescued. Still, sometimes the "villains" are merely misguided. There are also [[Rousseau Was Right|GOOD Corporate executives]], [[For Science!|benevolent scientists]], [[Reasonable Authority Figure|competent military personnel]], [[I Come in Peace|friendly alien factions]], and sometimes the townsfolk have a change of heart and [[Heroic Bystander|show up to help]].
* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]: War, genocide, death, a cast of [[Child Soldier
* The Earth, [[WALL-E|after the crew and passengers from the Axiom return there.]] It's still completely covered in garbage and smog. Can it actually sustain life? Who knows, but there's at least one spot where a plant's able to germinate.
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* [[Real Life]], for all the problems it still has, seems to be shaping up to be this. Wars are getting less frequent and less severe. The [[War On Terror]]- as costly as it is- is nowhere near the scale or death toll of the Vietnam War, World War 2, the Napoleonic Wars, etc. The Internet has allowed the public to more easily see when businesses or politicians behave unethically, discouraging such behavior. Crime and drug addiction are falling, standard of living is improving, people are living longer, and the mentally ill are treated far, far better than they used to be. Civil liberties slowly improved in developed nations until 2001, though they've taken a beating since. And of course there's [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]...........
** [[It Gets Better|It gets even better]]: Terrorism, though perceived as global, is generally a regional issue at worst, and though some forms of crime have increased, violent crime rates have decreased dramatically (which, unfortunately, doesn't change the fact that close to 2% of Americans are imprisoned). And although some germs have become resistant to antibiotics, new and better antibiotics to which disease have not developed resistances are invented every year. Divorce, abortion and illegitimacy are far more frequent than ever, but far greater (and increasing) tolerance makes such things almost irrelevant and devoid of real stigma, at least in the developed world. Unemployment and poverty are in decline. The world economy continues to grow, though rather more slowly in the developed world. The Internet has opened new avenues for creative crime, but still far fewer than in the past. Slavery does still exist, and is far more commonplace than anyone would like to admit (especially considering that slavery is ''finally'' illegal in every country) and there are more slaves today than at any point in history (between 12 and 27 million), but slaves today represent a much smaller part of the total population than when slavery was ubiquitous. That is, today there are 7 billion humans, as opposed to about 1 billion in 1800, when the slave trade was at its height.
** It gets even more better. Space technology appears to be stagnating. However, commercial space travel is starting to boom(check out [[The New Tens]] for more on that). Likewise environmental protection laws are starting to have an effect as numerous species are being reported as recovering nicely. Also while resources are depleting, certain resources aren't as scarce as you may think. And many people and companies are working hard towards clean energy and sustainability and making great progess. Yes there are problems, but we are doing well towards finding solutions.
** Let's give public health a special mention. The First World and much of the Developing World has undergone one of the greatest triumphs of human ingenuity. We die old, fat, and rich, rather than young, hungry, and wounded. We have pandemics of obesity, heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes because we have enough food, good sanitation, good treatments, and extensive safety measures. They save the majority of us from infectious diseases, injury, and hunger. Just in the disease category, consider the following killers: bubonic plague, anthrax, gonorrheal meningitis and blindness, syphilis, polio, typhoid, tuberculosis, cholera, measles, rubella, smallpox, influenza, diphtheria, mumps, Hepatitis B and liver cancer (Taiwan 1984), shingles, rabies, hookworms, and Ascaroides. In industrialized and industrializing nations, these sicknesses are mostly gone.
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