An Aesop: Difference between revisions

{{trope|wppage=Moral}}

{{quote|''"I can't tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit."<br />

''"Perhaps it hasn't one," Alice ventured to remark.<br />

The episode ends with a moral ''a la'' [[Aesop's Fables]]. Either the last line of the episode summarizes the whole point of the episode, or it leaves the viewer with the issue that the writers want them to ponder. Fifties sitcoms often end on the "Gee, I learned my lesson," type of moral, while ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' leaves you pondering.

A lot of kids' shows go out of their way for this, especially [[Disney]] animated shows. Writers often call it the "[[Object Lesson]]", and write the episode around it. This is particularly noticeable in programs made in the United States during the late 1970s through the early 1990s, as the FCC at the time required that all children's television shows have "educational" content, and this was the simplest way to meet its requirements.

In an American [[Dom Com]], the point where the [[An '''Aesop|Aesop]]''' is delivered is often referred to by writers as the [[Golden Moment]].

In some quarters [['''An Aesop]]''' delivered to another character, often a child, directly is referred to as a "You See, Timmy" from the frequent use of that line to deliver the [[Aesop]] in the television show ''[[Lassie (TV series)|Lassie]]''. This definition was put forth originally in the movie ''Speechless''.

* [[Captain Obvious Aesop]] - an aesopAesop that should be obvious to almost everyone; e.g mass murder is bad, cancer is bad, yet is still treated as revolutionary and insightful by other characters.

By the way, <s>in literary circles</s> [[All the Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary|everywhere outside of this wiki]], [['''An Aesop]]''' is properly known as a [[moral]]. The original Aesop was a Greek slave of the 6th century BC. A collection of allegorical tales (including "The Tortoise and the Hare", "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", and others) attributed to him have survived to the present day and are known as ''[[Aesop's Fables]]''.

Ironically, Aesop probably doesn't deserve the dubious honor of having this trope named after him. In their original forms these stories likely did ''not'' end with heavy-hitting moral [[Anvilicious|anvils]]. The listeners (for Aesop would have been an oral storyteller) were probably left to sort out the meaning for themselves; the one-liner morals (such as "slow and steady wins the race") were likely tacked on by modern compilers.

[['''An Aesop]]''' is among the [[Tropes of Legend]].

== AniméAnime &and Manga ==

* ''[[Princess Tutu]]'': Don't be afraid of being yourself. {{spoiler|even if you are "only a duck" you don't need to become a "beautifullbeautiful swan" to be loved. [[Take That]] Hans Chistian Andersen}}!

* The main theme running through the ''[[Aria]]'' series is that you should [[Iyashikei|enjoy life to its fullest and pay attention to little everyday wonders]]. It helps when you live on a [[Terraform|terraformedterraform]]ed planet full of mysteries and are allowed to spend your time rowing a gondola in a beautiful [[City of Canals]], populated by friendly people.

* ''[[Eureka 7]]'': Never give up on being with your [[The Power of Love|loved one]].

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': In the manga. It's subtle, though: compromise your dreams with what is best for everyone. {{spoiler|Roy compromised his dream for power by vowing to use it for others, and being patient about it. May gave up her quest to restore her clan to help save another country. She got both though. Scar compromised his quest for vengeance by just preventing it from happening again in the future. Ed gave up his alchemy, and didn't get his leg back. Al rejected his body because he couldn't fight with it, and when he got it back it was incredibly weak. The only person who didn't compromise was Father. He wanted out of his flask, and didn't balance it with morality, empathy, or just settling for anything less. And he got screwed}}.

* ''[[Franken Fran]]'': Though there are exceptions, the dominant aesopAesop to be learned is that death is not something to come back from, especially via science.

* ''[[Super GalsGALS!]]'' has the ironclad rules for girls which are general aesopsAesops, mainly circling around: [[Be Yourself]].

* The entire tenth episode of ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' consists of each of the members of the Bebop giving [[An Aesop]], which is [[Lampshaded]] by the use of caption cards reading 'lesson'. The entire concept gets more and more twisted as the episode goes on: Jet starts out with a straight Aesop about how hard work is the only thing that pays off in the end and those who trust in their luck get theirs eventually (after having lost his savings in an attempt to gamble with Faye). Faye follows up with a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] about how humans are always playing each other and trusting people is for fools (after it's revealed she was cheating). Ed delivers a [[Broken Aesop]] about how, [[Word Salad|if you see a stranger, you should follow him]] (after it turns out there's a stowaway poisonous creature on board that's attacking the crew). Finally, Spike finishes it off with the episode's ''real'' lesson... {{spoiler|[[Spoof Aesop|Don't leave food in the fridge]]. The poisonous creature [[It Came From the Fridge|had mutated from a lobster left in the ship's backup refrigerator too long]]}}.

* The English dub of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' often ended with a "Sailor Says" segment, tacked on by the translators in order to sell the show for the Saturday-morning broadcast segment.

* Spoofed in the legendary ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' rugby episode. At the end of the episode, Sosuke muses that violence is never the answer; Chidori [[Dope Slap|smashes him upside the head with her]] [[Paper Fan of Doom]], shouting "Don't go trying to put a neat little conclusion on this!" She's pissed because Sosuke's the one responsible for the violence in the first place, turning a team of tea-sipping pansies into violent psychopaths with [[Training Fromfrom Hell]].

* ''[[Gunnm]]'' delivers an especially hard-hitting Aesop in volume five: Be a little considerate of people's feelings. AllwaysAlways treat others with respect, even if you think they are cowardly, selfish jerks. You may not like the result if you don't.

* ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]'' shows us that [[Just Like Us|teachers are human beings too]]. They have feelings and they deserve your respect. They do care about you and are willing to help you if you let them. There ''are'' bad teachers but they are the exception and not the rule.

{{quote| '''Hobbes:''' [[Medium Awareness|"This is gonna be one of those moral shows, isn't it?"]]<br />

* In ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality (Fanfic)|Harry Potter and Thethe Methods of Rationality]]'', there is [[Once Per Episode|at least one in most chapters]].

{{quote| '''<nowiki>SpongeBob:</nowiki>''' You're right, Plankton. I am a kid. But I've been through a lot in the last six days, five hours and twenty-seven minutes, and in that time, I've learned that no amount of mermaid magic, or managerial promotion, or [[Rule of Three|some other third thing]] can make me any more than what I am inside: a kid.<br />

'''[[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Plankton]]:''' Very impressive. Now, back against the wall...<br />

{{quote| '''Mr. Krabs:''' Mr. Squidward, front and center! I think we both know who deserves to wear that manager pin.<br />

'''[[Perpetual Frowner|Squidward]]:''' I couldn't agree more, sir.<br />

[Crowd cheers]<br />

'''<nowiki>SpongeBob:</nowiki>''' Wait a minute, everybody. I need to say something first. I just don't know how to put it.<br />

'''Squidward:''' I think I know what you're going to say. After your life-changing journey, you found that you really didn't want what you thought you wanted. What you really wanted was inside you all along.<br />

{{quote| '''FBI Chief:''' So, what have we learned?<br />

'''Subordinate:''' I don't know, sir.<br />

{{quote| "I think we've all learned a few things in the past 90 minutes. We've learned that Irishmen have huge nipples. We've learned that film-critic intellectuals are a bunch of gaywads. And most of all, we've learned that creeping corporate influence over the news protects us from terrorism."}}

* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 2''. The toys watch Al half-crying during an Al's Toy Barn commercial on TV after losing his Woody's Roundup dolls.

{{quote| Hamm: I guess crime doesn't pay.}}

* The [[Aesop]] in ''[[Reefer Madness (Film)|Reefer Madness]]'' is this: if you smoke marijuana... sorry, "marihuana"... even once, you'll instantly become addicted and as a result you'll go crazy, become a sex-crazed lunatic, and murder your girlfriend in cold blood.

{{quote| If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, l won't look any further than my own backyard, because if it isn't there I never really lost it to begin with.<br />

* In ''[[How Kazir Won His Wife]]'', a sorcerer in the [[Framing Story]] identifies the moral of the story he tells as being "not to rely on general principles and routine mechanical methods"

* Every Oompa-Loompa song in ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'' and ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'' is [[An Aesop]] in rhyming verse.

* ''[[War and Peace]]'': There are no [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]]s, only [[Smug Snake|bastards who think themselves magnificent]]. Told via an [[Author Filibuster|entire part]] just in case you didn't catch it in the plot.

* ''[[Goblin Market]]'' concludes with a very obvious aesop:

{{quote| For there is no friend like a sister...<br />

To fetch one if one goes astray,<br />

To lift one if one totters down,<br />

== Live -Action TV ==

* For more than three decades starting in the early 1950s, there were a number of Christian anthology dramas populating the airwaves. Each episode was fairly straightforward in formula: An off-screen narrator or on-camera host (always a clergyman, either real or played by an actor) will introduce a story and a situation/dilemma one or more characters are facing, along with a hint of the Christian doctrine that is about to be illustrated. The story unfolds, with the situation reaching its peak as the characters try various ways to resolve the situation; finally out of options, the characters turn to their Bible or a clergyman for advice, and the situation reaches its resolution. The [[An Aesop|moral]] would be told in the final act, with the host reviewing the situation and providing both commentary and appropriate Scripture. The best-known of these shows was "This is the Life," a Missouri Lutheran Synod-underwritten program that dated from 1952 (on the old [[DuMont]] network) through syndication in the 1980s; other denominations, including the Catholics, Baptists and Methodists, had their own anthology programs. Save for perhaps rural communities and/or public access stations having old tapes and running them as filler, these Christian anthologies have all but disappeared from the airwaves, with reruns of "This is the Life" last seen in terrestrial syndication in the early 1990s.

* ''[[Highway to Heaven]]'', the Christian drama starring Michael Landon and Victor French as itinerant workers who help the people they encounter deal with situations using a (though not explicitly stated) Christian solution. Said [[An Aesop|moral]] would come usually toward the end of the episode, after which the person gets a chance to apply what he/she learned and/or any villians are defeated.

* ''[[Strangers with Candy]]'' based its entire premise on parodied Aesops: every episode ended with Jerri learning such lessons as the usefulness of illegal steroids.

* Every episode of ''[[Scrubs]]'' ends with J.D. reciting the theme of the episode over a musical piece. Often, though not always, an Aesop.

* A great many ''[[Star Trek]]'' episodes end on an [[Aesop]], sometimes even degenerating into a minor [[Patrick Stewart Speech]]. In fact, ''every'' episode of the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' ended on an Aesop, as Roddenberry was apparently obsessed with moralizing everything in the most convoluted way.

** Subverted in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' when Garak claims that the moral of The Boy Who Cried Wolf was actually "Never tell the same lie twice."

* ''[[Sister, Sister]]'' was full of these, ranging from the typical (such as stranger danger and the value of wise spending) to the more complex (such as Lisa dealing with her fear that she cannot compare to Ray's dead wife).

* [[Community/Recap/S1 /E01 Pilot|The first episode of]] ''[[Community]]'' has Prof. Duncan attempting to impart one to Jeff about academic honesty. Jeff, however, feels strongly that community college is not the place to learn anything. Jeff's objection notwithstanding, many episodes end with speeches, tilted-head smiling people, happy music, and reconciliations.

* ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' frequently had these, and they were usually delivered by the character Wilson, who would dispense advice to help the other characters with the issue of the episode.

* One episode of ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' played with the notion of the Aesop: Mister Feeny assigns Corey, Topanga, and Shawn a seemingly impossible task. After trying and failing, the [[Genre Savvy]] kids come to the conclusion that Mister Feeney was giving them a [[Secret Test of Character]] to teach them a lesson about teamwork. Unfortunately they were wrong: Mister Feeney was actually trying to teach them a lesson about never giving up, and ''wants'' them to complete their seemingly-impossible task, and so he sends them back out again.

{{quote| '''Hobbes:''' Live and don't learn, that's us.}}

{{quote| '''Calvin:''' I like lessons that aren't applicable later in life}}

** In ''[[Oklahoma!]]'', "The Farmer And The Cowman" ends up with Aunt Eller waving a gun at the feuding ensemble and making them repeat this lesson:

{{quote| "I don't say I'm better than anybody else,<br />

{{quote| '''Sonic:''' Merlina, every world has its end. I know that's kind of sad, but... that's why we gotta live life to the fullest in the time we have. At least, that's what I figure.}}

* In the [[Framing Device]] of ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' the Seeker Cassandra is trying to find out who is responsible for starting the conflict between the Mages and Templars that threatens to tear the world apart. The message that Varric is trying to get through to her (and by extension the player) is that no one person -- notperson—not Hawke, not Orsino, not the Arishok, not Meredith, not even Anders -- wasAnders—was wholly responsible. It was simply the unfortunate result of a bunch of well meaning people with different ideas of right and wrong being pushed beyond the point of compromise. Moreover, these tensions have been building up for centuries and any possible solution would be both horrific and necessary, with the status quo being just as intolerable. Sometimes there is no [[Big Bad]] whose defeat will solve everything.

* The teaching of tolerance is a big theme in the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' series but nowhere is it more clear than at the end of {{spoiler|"Priority: Rannoch" in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]''}}: a planet is big enough for everyone--justeveryone—just put down your guns, blockheads, and you can share it all in peace.

* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' decide to drop an aesop about [[Be Careful What You Wish For]] in [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2182.html this] strip, [[Anvilicious|anviliciousyanvilicious]]y, with links to this AND that page.

** One of the funnier genunine spoofs of this trope was in "Super Fun Time", in which a completely nonsensical, out-of-left-field moral wound up being preached in the end by the episode's ''villain''.

** Cartman is sometimes opposed to the lesson at hand - and seems intent on disrupting the Aesop delivery.

{{quote| "Oh goddamnit, Kyle! You gave him one of your gay little speeches, didn't you?"}}

* The original ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe|He Man and The Masters of The Universe]]'' animated series always ends with an [[Aesop]].

* ''[[The Proud Family]]'' had a tendency to overdo this at times, with some episodes being particularly Anvilicious(most notably the one about how [[Digital Piracy Is Evil]])

* Disney Channel's ''[[Lilo and& Stitch: The Series]]'' is another one of those animated kids shows that works by rote, it's usually a [[Stock Aesops|lesson]] about the power of friendship and tolerance and honesty, to the point of being cloyingly cute.

* ''[[Jem]]'' did this in practically any episode about the Starlight Girls -- oneGirls—one of them would do something stupid (anything from stealing to drugs) and have to have [[An Aesop]] explained to them. A few featured other characters, such as the one where Roxy got screwed over again and again because she couldn't read.

{{quote| "It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long, the grasshopper kept burying acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched TV. But then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus ate all his acorns and also he got a racecar. Is any of this getting through to you?"}}

* Roughly 1/3 of all ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episodes ended on [[An Aesop]] (sometimes due to [[Aesop Amnesia]]), roughly a third of the episodes ended on a [[Subverted]] Aesop, and the remaining thirty took the aesop and twisted it about as far as possible to create fantastic aesops (don't buy mutant toys) [[Space Whale Aesop|Space Whale Aesops]]s (Eat healthily or your DNA will mutate you into a mini-Hulk) or just outright lampshading them for comedy value.

{{quote| '''Beast Boy:''' So, I guess it is bad to watch too much TV.<br />

'''Starfire:''' But, we were only victorious because you watches too much the television.<br />

'''Raven:''' So, I guess there really is no lesson.<br />

'''Cyborg:''' Yep, it was all completely meaningless.<br />

* Remember, kids--nowkids—now you know. [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle]]!

* Before he went to Disney, ''[[Doug]]'' had [[An Aesop]] in almost every single episode. You could tell the Aesop after a couple of minutes already, often even before the episode title.

** While most shows would treat these as throwaway morals, these actually are ''a plot point'' in [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E2/E02 The Return of Harmony Part 2|"The Return of Harmony, Part 2"]]: {{spoiler|Celestia sends all of them back to Twilight to remind her why she should be fighting for her friends, instead of giving up, packing her bags and leaving Ponyville and Equestria to Discord's mercy. Also, the aesop of the episode ends up being used in Twilight's [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] speech.}}

** The aesop becomes a [[MacGuffin]] in [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E3/E03 Lesson Zero|"Lesson Zero"]], where Twlight panics because she doesn't have an Aesop of the Week to report to the Princess.

* ''[[Adventures from the Book of Virtues]]'' had a valuable virtue in every episode -- twoepisode—two children have typical problems involving other kids, so they visit four [[Talking Animal|Talking Animals]]s to have their problems solved with stories from the Book of Virtues.

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