Accidental Aesop: Difference between revisions

When a writer intends to simply write a piece of fiction without [[An Aesop]] but someone [[Misaimed Fandom|reads something into their work that they didn't intend]]. This can also happen when the creator did intend [[An Aesop]], but the one people pick up is completely off tack from the one they intended.

 

 

Like [[Misaimed Fandom]] (where readers fail to catch the moral or satire intended by an author), an [[Accidental Aesop]] may result from poor authorial communication or, indeed, the [[Unfortunate Implications]] that come with poor use of common symbols.

** A tract on abortion assures you that your aborted baby is in heaven. Numerous other tracts make the point that everyone is born in sin and will go to Hell if they don't convert. So if you want to be certain your child goes to heaven, abort it!

* A lot of comics written by [[Mark Millar]] seems to have pro-family messages. Several of his characters have issues that can be traced to their family lives. For example, Ultimate Red Skull and Spider-Girl in [[Bad Future|Old Man Logan]] are both despicable psychopaths because they had an absentee father, toward whom they hold a grudge. [[Kick-Ass|Hit-Girl]] is completly messed up because of her psychopath father. ''[[The Unfunnies]]''' Troy Hick has a [[Freudian Excuse]] for being a [[Complete Monster]] in the mental breakdown he suffered after his wife left him, and Millar's run on ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' portrays Reed and Sue Richards as perfect and extremely happy with their lives. However, Millar has said he never intentionally put any sort of message into his works, so all of this is completely accidental.

** He was also accused of having anti-George W. Bush messages in ''[[Black Summer]]'', which starts with superhero John Horus murdering the president who was clear stand-in for a Bush, but story doesn't realy deal with the reason Horus did it but the consequences of his actions. If anything, the real aesop seems to be "Even if everybody hates your president, you shouldn't murder him." And even ''that'' seems to be accidental, as Ellis thought of the story as a [[Deconstruction]] of the [[Superhero]] genre more than anything else.

 

* The film adaptation of ''[[300]]'' is often interpreted to glorify secular, westernized countries standing against the religious extremism and intolerance of the Middle East. However, some critics pointed out that in the film, Persia is a massive, wealthy empire bent on expanding its influence throughout the world, while the Spartans are a small group of dedicated, zealous fighters who are willing to break the rules of war and martyr themselves to resist the invaders. Some viewers interpreted Persia as representing the United States and Spartans representing the terrorists.

* [[Word of God|According to]] [[Mel Gibson]], the intention of ''[[Apocalypto]]'' was to draw parallels between the Modern and Mayan civilizations, and how the latter collapsed because of its greed, political corruption and environmental destruction before being finished off by the Spaniards; however, more than one person interpreted the final scene as that the Mayans were so vile and savage that they deserved to be conquered and subjugated, because they needed to be saved from their barbaric ways by [[Mighty Whitey|the white Europeans]].

** There have been conflicting or even parallel arguments for what, if anything, ''Revenge of the Sith'' was trying to be anvilicious about, ranging from the Bush and Nixon administrations to the rise of Nazism in Germany to [[Starring Special Effects|oh, hey, look at those awesome digital effects!]]

** This continued on after 2008 with a change in tone, where suddenly many critics began projecting hopeful, wondrous aesops onto movies. One reviewer went so far to claim that the 2009 ''Star Trek'' movie was now "light, fun, and inspiring" because Obama was now President, supposedly contrasted against the "dark, militaristic, despairing" ''Star Trek'' movies made during the Bush administration. Nevermind that the 2009 movie features the ''near genocide of an entire species'', as well as protracted gun battles and dogfights... Obama! Hope! Things changed!

* ''[[Batman Begins]]'' has Batman go out of his way to not kill someone because he deserves a fair trial, then ends with him refusing to save Ras Al-Ghul from a crashing train. The Aesop here is "If I have a personal grudge with someone, it's perfectly fine to let them die even if I have the means to save them easily." (note: In this universe Ras Al-Ghul probably isn't immortal, and even if he is then Batman still doesn't know it.)

** Alternately: "Everyone deserves a fair trial unless they know your secret identity, in which case you should just let them die."

* If ''[[Crash (film)|Crash]]'' had an aesop, it was probably "Racial stereotypes are stupid; everyone sucks." However, some deduced that the lesson was "If a guy rapes you, it's okay if he's a cop."

** Furthermore, "Every single person in America is a racist", "Scary black men are going to rob you", and "If a man rapes you, don't report it, because he may save your life someday."

** Though this is likely nitpicking, considering both aesops are still "People who are away from home wish they could be at home for Christmas." Trying to narrow it down to being only about college students because the creator was a college student seems unnecessary.

* The Crash Test Dummies Song, "Mmm mmm mmm mmm," is VERY frequently interpreted as being about child abuse, with the eventual message that brainwashing your child and forcing your child to hold your own beliefs is worse than physical abuse. [[Word of God]] says the message is that [[Kids Are Cruel]], and the song is to be taken at face value.

* [[Iron Maiden|Iron Maiden's]] The Number of the Beast was thought by many religious extremists to be a song praising devil worship, when it was actually based on a nightmare by the author, who is, along with all band members, a christian.

 

* The racist FPS ''[[Ethnic Cleansing]]'', as well as its [[Spiritual Successor|Spiritual Successors]] ''White Law'' and ''ZOG's Nightmare'', were made by a white supremacist record label in order to convert young white gamers to its cause. Those few people who played the games mostly went away thinking that, the next time they hear white supremacists claiming that they oppose violence, they will treat such comments with a fair bit of skepticism.

** Alternatively: if these are the best games that the racists can come up with, then they clearly have no idea what they are doing, and shouldn't even be trusted to run a newspaper route.

* Thanks to Capcom's [[Executive Meddling|inability to make new main characters]] the ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series argues in favor of capital punishment, and possibly the dangers of racism. Because Dr. Wily was not executed after he was captured by the [[Fan Nickname|BlueBomber]] in ''6'' (the intended end point of the series), he {{spoiler|built Zero}}, causing a chain of events that, as of the ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' series, has {{spoiler|killed more than half the population of earth, and has left the planet itself almost scorched beyond recovery, which oddly enough involved another human villain that also wasn't executed once captured by our robotic heroes, which only made things worse when said villain came back}}. Also, because Capcom hasn't continued the ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'' series, it's implied that in the ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'' series, {{spoiler|humanity has ultimately gone extinct}} because the legal system in this world couldn't put down a [[Mad Scientist]] who had certainly caused enough chaos to warrant such a punishment.

** ''[[Mega Man 7]]'' also has an accidental aesop found only in the English version. In both versions, the blue bomber prepares to shoot Wily and Wily reminds him that robots can't hurt humans due to being [["Three Laws"-Compliant]]. In the japanese version, Mega Man puts his blaster down with no argument, while in the English version we get "I am more than a robot!! Die Wily!!" but still hesitates long enough for Wily to escape. This not only supports the above message about capital punishment but can also be seen as condemning pacifism or that there are exceptions to principles like do not kill.

== [[Web Original]] ==

* From a [[Nezumi Man]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXO9FsERhwg&feature=channel review] "GAH! See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Smoke, and all your skin falls off".

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** "The Mysterious Mare Do-Well" was also problematic in that it came across to some fans as effectively saying, "It's totally okay to go behind your friends' backs, show them up and sabotage them if they act in a way that you don't like," as opposed to, you know, just talking to them about it like friends." The message the episode was supposed to have about how one shouldn't be boastful or a gloryhog is completely lost because, firstly, the Great and Powerful Trixie showed this lesson far more effectively and, secondly, because the other ponies ''do'' boast and brag about how awesome Mare Do-Well is and gladly receive accolades and talk up all their own successes. So, ultimately, the episode just comes across as the ponies being smug and hypocritical and contradicting the friendship message central to the show.

** In ''Winter Wrap-Up'', Twilight searches in vain for a way to help with the town's winter cleanup activities, but only comes into her own when she realizes everyone else needs organization and management (which are her specialties). The obvious aesop is that you should play to your own strengths rather than trying to fill anyone else's shoes, but some interpreted it as saying that the "elite" (Twilight, in this case, being from Canterlot) have to boss around the stupid common folk because they're too pathetic to do it themselves. Much like ''Feeling Pinkie Keen'', the people who saw this aesop didn't do so to agree with it, but apparently just so they could be outraged by it.