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Line 1: {{trope}} {{quote\|♫Justice is what he claims to fight for, but it's a mystery - what does this 'justice' mean? He hasn't got a clue!♫~~\|'''Space Hunt Drake Redcrest's Theme (Vocal Version, English)''', ''[[Chibi-Robo!]]''}}~~ \|'''Space Hunt Drake Redcrest's Theme (Vocal Version, English)''', ''[[Chibi-Robo!]]''}} Can't think of a convincing personal motivation for your hero, no problem. There are lots of useful words out there. Useful words like [[Meaningless Meaningful Words\|'freedom' or 'justice' or 'peace' or 'mankind']]! Or 'love'! Or 'hope'! Or '[[Omniscient Morality License\|good]]'! Yeah! Line 8 ⟶ 9: '''Concepts Are Cheap''' is the natural result of writers stuffing their narratives with lots of glossy one-size-fits-all words, rather than inventing motivations which emerge organically from the character's experiences. Like a cheap meal, it leaves you empty two hours after you've finished the work. Sure, the hero might have just told the villain that 'freedom' is better than 'tyranny' and then struck him with his laser sword, thus (violently) winning 'peace' for all 'mankind'. But why? Why did he care? Why should ''we'' care? And would anyone but a [[Card-Carrying Villain]] ''say'' that tyranny is better than freedom?<ref>[[Rhetorical Question Blunder\|If "freedom" means "freedom to starve" and "tyranny" guarantees food is provided, plenty of people would.]]</ref> [[Values Dissonance]] can hit with some of these concepts. [[For Science!]] was a cheap concept in [[The Fifties]] (positive or negative, depending on [[Mad Scientist\|the sanity of the scientist]]). Line 17 ⟶ 18: Unrelated to [[High Concept]]. {{examples}}▼ ▲{{examples}} == [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] == * ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' skillfully uses this trope as a plot point. It turns out that the point of Celestial Being sending hundreds of people home in bodybags in the name of "peace" was to {{spoiler\|create a peace by making themselves the entire world's common enemy.}} * One problem with ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]''. On one hand, one ([[Decoy Protagonist\|possible]]) protagonist has the Destiny Gundam. And his opponents are piloting machines with the names Freedom and Justice. * For somebody who claims to fight for "Love and Justice", Sailor Moon gets awfully jealous, with no real evidence, of any girl her boyfriend spends any time with during ''[[Sailor Moon]] R''. == [[Comic Books]] == Line 30 ⟶ 32: ** Not too long ago (right after the above happened) during a team up, Stark calls out Peter for [[Reed Richards Is Useless\|wasting his genius]]. Peter retorts that he can't exploit it because then his villains will be able to come after his loved ones. He's saying this while standing in the ruins of Stark's company which was destroyed by a super-villain to get back at Stark, which Stark chose to allow in order to save his employees. So you can see Peter's point. * Inverted by the morally gray characters of [[Alan Moore]]. V (''[[V for Vendetta]]'') not only fights for "freedom", but puts into practice. In ''[[Watchmen]]'', Rorschach and Ozymandias, in very different ways and results, devote their entire lives to their ideals, at the cost of distancing themselves from the morality (and, in Rorschach's case, hygiene standards) of everyday folk. Ozymandias firmly believes that [[Utopia Justifies the Means]] and that a few million deaths to prevent the ''rest'' of the global population from dying is an acceptable sacrifice, while Rorschach believes that ''not even Utopia'' justifies the means, and that global extinction under the truth is better than peace through a lie. * Periodically, [[Captain America (comics)\|Captain America]] will become disillusioned when he realizes that even he doesn't really know what representing "America" really means. [[~~Author~~Writer Onon Board\|Usually when a Republican's in office.]] * The ''[[Justice League]]'' villain Prometheus was designed as a sort of reverse Batman, whose parents were Bonnie and Clyde-like criminals gunned down by the police before his eyes. Why did he take on the Justice League? Because his parents death instilled in him a deep and abiding ''hatred of justice.'' It's entirely possible it was meant to be as trite as it sounds, but most writers (and readers) don't treat it that way. ** Spinning off from Prometheus comes the mini-series "[[Cry for Justice]]" where, suddenly, every single major character becomes this. They spend the entire series demanding "justice" without ever bothering to define what it means or how it's different from what the other heroes are already doing. Their actions are also closer to that of [[Revenge\|another concept]] altogether. == [[Film]] == * The ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels abused this a lot, which might be ~~forgiveable~~forgivable in a free-wheeling [[Space Opera]] story, except that they tried to hang a lot important plot points off it too. Anakin is introduced as a slave: we don't see his performing any slave duties (working in a shop could just be his job for how he's treated), or the effects of slavery on him, or any motivations as a result of his experience, but it earns the tyke sympathy points. Obi-Wan declares his loyalty not to any political party or leader, but to 'democracy'. The Sith are dangerous moral relativists, except when they're rigid moral absolutists, but in the end they only seem to be whatever term the story can hang off them to make then [[Card-Carrying Villain\|eeeevil]]. It also goes to show you that a lot of fantasy and [[Space Opera]] [[Backstory\|backstories]] ''[[Fridge Logic\|do not make sense]]''. ** It's even worse when you consider the [[Narm]] line from ''Episode III'' during the Anakin/Obi-Wan: "Anakin, the Chancellor is evil!" "From my point of view the Jedi are evil!" which is just randomly throwing moral relativism in there for some extra drama, not because it actually fit (since there wasn't an indication Anakin actually thought that before, aside from being ticked at how the council treated him). * ''[[Evita]]'' had a bit of this. Late in the film, when Eva {{spoiler\|is dying}}, her and her fascist dictator husband Juan start talking about how their "dream" may never come to pass. It's never really revealed what this dream was supposed to be, unless it turns out it was "Enjoy and abuse the Presidential office"(in which case, Mission Accomplished). Line 48 ⟶ 50: == [[Literature]] == * ''[[Discworld]]'': * * Remarked on in ''[[~~Discworld/Interesting Times\|~~Interesting Times]]'' when Rincewind explains why he doesn't support "worthy causes". ** Also see ''[[~~Discworld/~~Night Watch (Discworld)\|Night Watch]]'', wherein a rant by Sir Samuel results in the rebels fighting for truth, justice, freedom, reasonably-priced love...and a hard-boiled egg. The egg, at least, can be had by morning. * ''[[Don Quixote]]'' is a deconstruction of this trope: In the first part of the novel, he wants to be an [[Knight Errant]] [[For Great Justice]]. In reality, he is [[The Hedonist]] and all his efforts are really guided to live his dreams, but he doesn't accept it because he is an [[Hypocrite]] . In the second part of the novel, his motivation changes [[For Happiness]]. But this time Don Quixote is an honest man that must admit at the end of the novel that [[Shaggy Dog Story\|his efforts didn’t help anyone]] and her [[Chivalric Romance]] [[Fan Disillusionment\|dreams were shallow]]. * [[Discussed Trope\|Discussed]] in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[The Caves of Steel]]''. Robophobic detective Elijah Bailey scoffs at the notion that law-enforcement robot R. Daneel Olivaw has a "justice circuit," saying that justice is too abstract a concept to be programmed into a robot. When asked to define justice, Daneel says "That which exists when all laws are enforced." While that would not be any human's concept of justice, it is perfectly adequate for a law-enforcement robot to function. == [[Live -Action ~~Television~~TV]] == * In the ~~latest~~ BBC series of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)\|Robin Hood]]'', the main character would often use [[Richard the Lion Heart\|King Richard]] as his rallying cry. This posed problems within the context of the show, which because of its modern PC sensibilities, took a negative stance against the Crusades. Therefore, the storylines ran on an odd paradox: King Richard was good, but his actions were bad. Many of the storylines revolved around trying to bring King Richard home, yet when the outlaws travel all the way to the Holy Land, Richard is revealed to be a rather weak, misguided King, raising questions as to why Robin was so slavishly devoted to him in the first place. The King even tries to have Robin and the gang executed, but by season three, everyone has reverted back to the mind-set of King Richard = good, peace, justice. * Mohinder's voice-overs at the beginning of each episode of ''[[Heroes (TV series)\|Heroes]]'' can be summed up thusly: "Destiny, blah, blah, fate, blah, blah, life and all its mysteries, blah." Line 85 ⟶ 88: == [[Western Animation]] == * ''[[The Tick (animation)\|The Tick]]'' more-or-less [[~~Lampshades~~lampshade]]s this trope. "Let's hang ten for Justice!" * ''[[The Fairly ~~Oddparents~~OddParents]]'': The Crimson Chin also uses "Justice!" as his vague but enthusiastic rallying cry. * ''[[Batman: The Brave ~~And The Bold\|Batman~~and the ~~Brave And The~~ Bold]]''{{'}}s version of Batman also loves making pithy one-liners about "justice". This usually fits the show's tone, though it was rather jarring in the "Tornado Tyrant" episode where Red Tornado tried to explain good and evil to his son, when he could have just said "Evil people like stealing trucks and talking about crime, good people like punching those people and talking about justice, the end." == [[Real Life]] == Line 105 ⟶ 108: {{reflist}} [[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼ [[Category:Script Speak]] [[Category:Bad Writing Index]] [[Category:Motivation Index]] ▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]