A World Half Full: Difference between revisions

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[[A World Half Full]] is the other half of the more depressing [[Crapsack World]] (which was formerly known as [[World Half Empty]]). It is usually featured in a similar condition to the above, a place where the world is in an extremely broken state. In fact it is almost the same hellhole as it was when it was more depressing. However, it can be saved, sort of...

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.

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.

Just as before, the forces of darkness run through relatively unmolested and it is ill advised for players to confront them head on. Most of the time, the player or protagonist will skirt around the major sources of power and just go for the source of ills itself and [[Averted Trope|it will rarely result in]] [[Decapitated Army|the total destruction of the enemy,]] especially if the problem is [[Inherent in The System]] and the [[Big Bad]] is, for all his current importance, ultimately replaceable.

However, victory is often a minor one as it is only a small portion of a constantly decaying world that has been fixed. While you may change life for the better for your people and [[Earn Your Happy Ending|solve today's ills]], everyone else could potentially suffer whether or not [[Nice Job Breaking It Hero|you are deliberately or accidentally causing it]] through [[Hope Spot|false progress]] or is still suffering as usual, unaffected by the hero's successes. Nevertheless, it's still better than [[Death Seeker|waiting for the end to come]], as any [[Knight in Sour Armor]] will tell you.

However, victory is often a minor one as it is only a small portion of a constantly decaying world that has been fixed. While you may change life for the better for your people and [[Earn Your Happy Ending|solve today's ills]], everyone else could potentially suffer whether or not [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|you are deliberately or accidentally causing it]] through [[Hope Spot|false progress]] or is still suffering as usual, unaffected by the hero's successes. Nevertheless, it's still better than [[Death Seeker|waiting for the end to come]], as any [[Knight in Sour Armor]] will tell you.

== Anime and Manga ==

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== Film ==

* ''[[Dr. Zhivago]]'': A bourgeois doctor ([[Tall Dark and Handsome|Omar Sharif]]) chases [[The Dulcinea Effect|the love of his life]] through [[Glorious Mother Russia|Russia]] [[The Russian Revolution|after the Revolution]] and nearly freezes to death in the process, in this [[Epic Movie|David Lean film]] based on the book by Boris Pasternak.

* ''[[Dr. Zhivago]]'': A bourgeois doctor ([[Tall, Dark and Handsome|Omar Sharif]]) chases [[The Dulcinea Effect|the love of his life]] through [[Glorious Mother Russia|Russia]] [[The Russian Revolution|after the Revolution]] and nearly freezes to death in the process, in this [[Epic Movie|David Lean film]] based on the book by Boris Pasternak.

* ''[[Nine]]'' might be this [[Up to Eleven]]. Everyone in the planet is dead, except for some little robots and a giant war machine that killed all the people. {{spoiler|And in the end, life is back - in the form of bacteria, meaning that evolution might take a million years to evolve intelligence again}}.

* ''[[WALL-E]]'':

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* ''[[A Scanner Darkly]]''. The hero's brain is fried from Substance D but that allows him to infiltrate the drug manifacturing facility {{spoiler|the rehab clinic he was taken to}} and gather the evidence needed to destroy the syndicate making the drug.

* "Arda Marred", ie the [[Religion Tropes|fallen]] world in which most of [[JRR Tolkien (Creator)|JRR Tolkien]]'s works take place. This is especially notable in ''[[The Silmarillion (Literature)|The Silmarillion]]'', a long series of defeats and bloody infighting with some [[Earn Your Happy Ending|rare uplifiting moments]] and a [[Bittersweet Ending]].

* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Stand]]''. A book in which [[Kill Em All|almost everyone]] [[Apocalypse How|on the planet]] dies, including the main characters, yet {{spoiler|it has a happy ending}} and the planet [[Green Aesop|got better]] in the absence of all those humans.

* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Stand]]''. A book in which [[Kill'Em All|almost everyone]] [[Apocalypse How|on the planet]] dies, including the main characters, yet {{spoiler|it has a happy ending}} and the planet [[Green Aesop|got better]] in the absence of all those humans.

* The galaxy shown in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] varies wildly [[Depending On the Writer]], but in all of [[Matt Stover]]'s books - ''[[Shatterpoint]]'', the novelization of ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'', ''[[Luke Skywalker and The Shadows of Mindor]]'', ''[[New Jedi Order|Traitor]]'' - it's this. The galaxy is corrupt and messy and hostile, people are ungrateful, not everyone can be saved and those who were will die soon enough anyway, nothing will ever last - but it's still worth fighting for a better day, and a difference can be made.

* [[Andrew Vachss]]'s Burke books. Beneath the veneer of civility citizens see is a veritable cesspit of crime, the system is at best apathetic and at worst actively malicious and Burke can't stamp out all crime or save everyone - in fact, each book's villain invariably has quite a few notches on his belt by the time Burke gets to him - but every scumbag he manages to put down means a few more innocents who won't have to be victims.

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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 (Video Game)|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|Eldritch Abominations]].}} Yet in spite of this, ''[[The Messiah|one person]]'' can make an incredible difference, galactic peace can be attained, pirates can be brought to justice, slaves can be freed, the forementioned [[Hopeless War]] between the exiled species and their creations can be negotiated to a possible reconciliation, and you ''can'' [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu|punch out Cthulhu]].

* 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|Eldritch Abominations]].}} Yet in spite of this, ''[[The Messiah|one person]]'' can make an incredible difference, galactic peace can be attained, pirates can be brought to justice, slaves can be freed, the forementioned [[Hopeless War]] between the exiled species and their creations can be negotiated to a possible reconciliation, and you ''can'' [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|punch out Cthulhu]].

* 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 (Video Game)|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]].

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== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|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]].

* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|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 (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]: War, genocide, death, a cast of [[Child Soldier|Child Soldiers]] on both sides...but that just makes any success by the Gaang all the sweeter.

* 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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[[Category:Settings]]

[[Category:A World Half Full]]

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