Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Bashir''': But the point [of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"] is, if you lie all the time, nobody's going to believe you, even when you're telling the truth.<br />

'''Garak''': Are you sure that's the point, doctor?<br />

'''Bashir''': Of course, what else could it be?<br />

'''Garak''': That [[Family -Unfriendly Aesop|you should never tell the same lie twice]].|''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''}}

{{examples|Examples:}}

* In Episode 11 of ''[[Cowboy Bebop (Anime)|Cowboy Bebop]]'', "Toys in the Attic," an Alternative Aesop was acknowledged after Jet lost his money (and clothes) in a card game with Faye. The Aesop he learns from it is that people can achieve something only by honesty and hard work. Faye, however, sees it as a proof for her [[Family -Unfriendly Aesop]], that [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]] and only the smartest and strongest can survive.

* ''Tricked'' is a graphic novel in which we find out at the end of the story that the moral the surviving characters took from the plot was "guns are bad". But, the access Steve had to his deceased grandfather's guns was just dumb luck. Steve himself didn't know whether his grandmother had gotten rid of the guns until he was already there. By contrast, Steve's mental illness and erratic behavior was observed and commented upon by several characters in the story, but they all decide it's [[Somebody ElsesElse's Problem]] and let Steve go on his merry way. In terms of preventing the situation that makes up the climax of the book, better mental health awareness probably would have been a lot more help than gun control advocacy.

* The obvious moral of ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' is to always [[Be Yourself]]. However, given how sympathetic Tai Lung can come across in how hard he worked to attain the Dragon Scroll only to be denied, and how it can be argued that Po hardly trained at all and ''did'' get the scroll, one could make an argument that the moral is [[Family -Unfriendly Aesop|the only thing that determines whether you succeed or not is fate]].

* In ''The Commitment'' by [[Dan Savage]], one chapter mentions a sexually inexperienced wife who divorces her husband, concluding that some non-monogamy could have saved their relationship. This assumption is based off of the intense interest she takes in Dan and Terry's sex life. But, as she considers "sexual adventures she regretted" to be a good thing, and assumes that Dan and Terry are [[Depraved Homosexual|depraved homosexuals]] because they're gay, we could just as easily conclude that her sexual inexperience is leading her to over-romanticize sexcapades—recall Savage's earlier befuddlement at how "stupid mistakes you survive become points of pride". That's assuming that their marriage wasn't suffering other problems, which seems likely. The wife says, "I would love to have a three-way. But I wouldn't want my husband to know the details." When her husband laughs, Savage takes this as an example of how marriage can be prudish, but note that the wife's statement about [[Three -Way Sex]] implies that she would be having sex with two strangers. Dan and Terry, by contrast, had two episodes of three-way sex, which were them with a third man whom they had both gotten to know personally.

* The obvious moral of the ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'' series is Love is more powerful than Evil. There are probably many possible alternative morals, but one easy one is: If you're putting all your security eggs in one basket (or seven horcruxes), ''keep track of those friggin' baskets''.

* In ''[[Slaughterhouse -Five]]'', Kilgore Trout argues that the real Aesop of [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]] is "Make sure people don't have connections before you kill them." For example, he claims that it would have been more meaningful if God had "adopted" [[Jesus Christ]] as he was dying on the cross rather than say he was God's son all along.

* There's a whole list of them over on [[Cracked]], [http://www.cracked.com/article_18787_6-books-everyone-including-your-english-teacher-got-wrong.html books your English teacher got wrong] over on ''[[Cracked.com]]''; take a look].

* Buzzfeed took [http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrismenning/what-dr-suess-books-were-really-about a second look] at various works by Dr. Seuss. Some of these are particularly [[Green Aesop|Green Aesops]]s. Considering the author, it is entirely possible that these are the intended lessons for adult readers.

* The narrator of ''[[Blood Brothers]]'' explicitly provides an [[Alternate Aesop Interpretation]] that counters what the symbolism and music have been suggesting about the tragic ending: ''Do we blame [[Curse|superstition]] for what came to pass? Or could it be what we, the English, have come to know as class?'

* ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' has discernible [[Aesop|Aesops]]s in most episodes, some more well-executed than others.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Homer's Enemy" was meant to show how a normal person would not be able to survive in that universe. It should be noted, however, that Frank Grimes' [[Sanity Slippage]] and {{spoiler|eventual death}} came about from his own obsessive hostility towards Homer. Homer's attempts at making it up to Grimes after getting him in trouble only fuel the [[Green -Eyed Monster]] in Grimes, which lead to him concocting a scheme to humiliate the former in front of everyone. He finally snaps when his own at spiting someone he doesn't like, itself a rather childish act, doesn't go as planned.