Debate and Switch: Difference between revisions
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'''Everyone:''' ''Hmm...''|'''[[Chaotic]]''', ''Battle of the Sexes''}}
This is when a show sets up a moral dilemma, then finds a way to [[Cutting the Knot|resolve the plot without actually answering the question]] it set up. Used mostly to avoid giving an [[Anvilicious]] answer to a moral question that is not particularly clear-cut, to avoid alienating the part of the audience that might think you picked the wrong answer, or just to make a happy ending out of what was a morally-complex story. Expect this in works invoking ethnicity and/or gender tropes in ways that might otherwise be blatantly liable to charges of [[Unfortunate Implications]], e.g. relating to [[Mars and Venus Gender Contrast]]. Usually, a
* The antagonist is originally set up as doing something that falls in the moral (and legal) gray area, then [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|jumps off the slippery slope]] or is revealed to be a [[Straw Hypocrite]].
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** Magneto's entire philosophy can be considered an example: In the first film, {{spoiler|he wants to shift humanity's prejudices by converting the world's leaders into mutants.}} By the 2nd film, {{spoiler|he wants to [[Hijacked by Ganon|hijack the bad guy's plan]] and use Dark Cerebro to [[Kill All Humans]]}}; a definite [[Moral Event Horizon]] but one that doesn't diminish his commitment to mutantkind. The 3rd film shows just how far throwing one's lot in with Magneto will get his recruits when many of them are hit with cure darts and Magneto's reaction is to casually dismiss them as expendable "pawns" to be sacrificed in favor of the larger goal.
* ''[[State of Play (film)|State of Play]]'', so much so the main plot is made moot by the last 10 minutes of the film. And because of this the [[Big Bad]] for the most part goes unharmed. Cal McAffrey clearly didn't know how to sort out the [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]], or prioritize the [[Sliding Scale of Villain Threat]].
* In the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' movie, {{spoiler|Kirk offers assistance to the about-to-be-crushed-by-a-black-hole Romulan ship, whose crew committed genocide by destroying Vulcan}}. Spock objects to this. Before any actual debate could happen, Nero, the ship's captain, tells Kirk to go screw himself, thus giving Kirk all the moral cover he needs to hasten their inevitable destruction. Kirk even says to Spock that offering them a chance for survival is the logical choice.
* [[The Contender]]: So, will Laine win the Vice Presidency despite the furore of controversy surrounding her? Will she prove to the world that the bending of the truth and exposure of someone's shady moral history should never be used for political gain and need not necessarily ruin your chances of a high-powered career? {{spoiler|never mind, the girl in the photos wasn't actually her after all. Oh, and her main rival's a backstabbing liar.}} Crisis averted.
* In ''[[Machete]]'', the villainous politician seemed to be concerned about illegal immigration and wants to protect the US border by building a giant wall, even if it lead him to associate with racists and killed illegal immigrants, setting up the character as a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]. But then it was revealed that {{spoiler|he was a [[Corrupt Politician]] who was in cahoots with a drug cartel and that building the wall will result in the drug cartel having an exclusive access to the US border, which would make the US border more dangerous if he had succeeded.}}
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* This happens in ''Mercy''. The whole thing is about the ethical issues of euthanasia and mercy killing, and it turns out that...oh, wait, it doesn't. Not only do we not get an overall view on euthanasia, we don't even get to find out the views of 90% of the ''characters''. It's the kind of 'debate' where people stand around chatting and occasionally eat a biscuit.
* ''Winds of the Forelands'' has at its center a smoldering racial conflict, and the [[Big Bad]] is a leader of the oppressed race who claims he will liberate it. He's also a Hitler-esque tyrant who would make everyone's lives worse if he actually won, so it's up to the heroes to stop him and let oppression continue. Apparently, the only reason it even comes up is so the villain's followers can be portrayed as misguided rather than evil.
* In ''[[The Three Musketeers (novel)|Twenty Years After]]'', d'Artagnan wants to kill Mordaunt, but not out of a sense of
* In David Isaak's ''Shock and Awe'', one of the protagonists is an ex-special forces operator with many personal grievances against Muslims, including losing her brother in 9/11. A mysterious billionaire offers her the chance to strike back with vigilante attacks, culminating in an audacious plan to hit Mecca with a dirty bomb. Along the way, she starts doubting whether she is really doing the right thing and thinking that maybe this is going too far. Before she gets a chance to work it out, however, {{spoiler|the billionaire is revealed to be in league with another bunch of terrorists, who take the radioactive material and try to use it on the US.}}
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* In one ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' episode, a woman is believed to have drowned her baby because it had Tay-Sachs (which is confirmed). At the end of the episode, it is revealed that {{spoiler|she had had an affair and gotten pregnant, and killed the baby because she didn't want her husband to know. Even the Assistant District Attorney complains that the woman was convicted only "because I turned her into a whore"}}.
** In another episode, what looks like a rape turns into a right to die debate until it turns out {{spoiler|the woman who runs the "lemme help you suicide" website entered into a suicide pact with someone and didn't fulfill her end of the bargain. The debate ''then'' becomes about whether that's murder, manslaughter, or something else.}}
** Another ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' episode discusses whether it is acceptable to apply capital punishment [[Double Standard|to a woman]], who by this point has already been proven to be a serial killer. {{spoiler|The woman hangs herself.}} (It should be noted that this pissed off the characters as well.) Even before this, the episode has already pulled ''another''
** A husband played by John Ritter cuts his unfaithful wife open and kills her fetus, claiming he was [[Insanity Defense|enraged]] by the thought of her having her lover's child. The trial is not so clear-cut because killing a fetus isn't murder unless there's proof that it took a breath outside the womb. As he's on the stand, {{spoiler|Cabot presents him with evidence the fetus actually belonged to him and he killed his own child, prompting him to admit the baby cried before he killed it.}} Notably the episode ends before {{spoiler|the verdict is read; the viewer is meant to assume his insanity defense was rejected solely on the basis of the murder charge being provable.}}
** In another episode, a prostitute accidentally gives birth prematurely at five months. Despite doctor's warnings that the child will be severely mentally handicapped and will have health problems her whole life, the woman decides to keep her baby (it's implied she doesn't fully understand the consequences being born so early will have for her child). In the end, she runs off, giving power of attorney to Olivia. {{spoiler|Olivia gets a call from the hospital before the closing credits; the baby's heart has failed. Olivia could choose to save the baby, but the baby would require lifelong hospitalisation and would have to be kept on a respirator 24/7 -- or Olivia could choose to let the baby's heart fail, which could be interpreted as more merciful. The episode ends after Olivia was presented with the choice, showing her conflicted...though notably, the baby doesn't appear or get referenced in any later episodes, meaning Olivia either decided to let her die, or they tried saving her and she died anyway.}}
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** This was actually the result of [[Executive Meddling]], in the original script Phlox refused a direct order from Archer to give the species in question the cure he had developed. The higher-ups were worried that a major conflict between the characters might upset the audience, so Archer's decision was changed at the last minute to agree with Phlox. Unfortunately this had the opposite effect as viewers began calling [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]].
* In an episode of ''[[The 4400]]'', one of the returnees has the ability to heal genetic defects ''in utero.'' It is later revealed that this returnee is a Rwandan war criminal and the rest of the episode debates whether his ability to heal should preclude him from getting sent back to Rwanda to pay for his crimes. It is later resolved by revealing {{spoiler|that every genetic defect he fixes is taken into his own DNA, making him sicker. Either way, this man is assured a death sentence; it becomes a choice of whether he dies quickly via execution or slowly, but helping others along the way.}}
* A fifth-season episode of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has to do with Doctor Franklin learning that one of the (minor) alien species, the Hyach, once had a "sub"-species that they exterminated (along with all halfbreeds) before becoming an interstellar society, and then hid all evidence of the genocide from outsiders. It turns out that the Hyach have a species-wide congenital condition which will eventually destroy them as it becomes more common through their "closed" breeding
* Averted earlier in ''[[Babylon 5]]'', when the same Doctor decides to operate on a child despite the facts that his parents insist that the operation will cause him to lose his soul and become a demon. After the operation the child seems fine, and the parents accept him back. Then {{spoiler|kill him, because they believe him to be an empty shell without a soul}}. (The episode leaves the subject of whether or not there's any basis for the belief ambiguous; the child is clearly healthier after the operation, but Franklin does notice what he dismisses as some air escaping when he makes his initial incision, and the soul is treated as a physical commodity in other parts of the series.) Ironically, since the episode aired medicine has advanced to the point that the procedure would not require an incision today and the entire plot would be avoided.
** The Mimbari could also test to see if he still had a soul afterwords.
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* Season 8 of ''[[Smallville]]'' introduced Davis Bloome, [[Super-Powered Evil Side|a.k.a. Doomsday]], who, due to his split personality, discovers he is responsible for the deaths of several people in Metropolis. At one point he is goaded into becoming Doomsday; under the other side's influence, he smothers the person, and Doomsday recedes, allowing him control. Once Clark and Chloe figure out that he's been killing criminals to keep Doomsday at bay, they have to decide if Davis is still a good guy making the most of a horrible situation or a horrible killer. {{spoiler|They seemed to be leaning toward the former, then he gained his freedom and [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|promptly hopped off the slope]] by [[Murder the Hypotenuse|killing Jimmy]], cementing him as a bad guy.}}
** Clark in Season 9 was faced with the difficult question of what to do about the Kandorian refugees: should they try to pass as normal humans and live regular lives or acquire their rightful Kryptonian powers? Being normal left them vulnerable to paranoid humans who had no qualms about killing them off but under Major Zod's leadership, the empowered Kandorians were destined to conquer Earth. Clark gives them [[Take a Third Option|a third option]]: {{spoiler|shaking their faith in Zod and using the Book of Rao to send them to another plane of existence where they can make a new start}}.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'', which can usually be counted on to examine social problems at some length, fell into this trap in Season 4.5. In light of [[Crapsack World|recent discoveries]] the policies of the Adama/Roslin administration are brought into
** ''Battlestar Galactica'' had a recurring theme of [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]], about whether the Cylons are really "alive" and had souls. But according to ''[[Caprica]]'', the Cylons originated when a human's memories and personality are coded into a digital avatar. So basically, the skinjob Cylons have bodies molecularly indistinguishable from humans, and their minds are essentially human minds, and assuming ''[[Caprica]]'' doesn't end [[Deus Ex Machina|with a massive wave of amnesia]], the BSG characters should know this from history class. So they are as human as anyone else. Why the hell are even they considered [[You Keep Using That Word|robots]] by any criteria except [[Artificial Human|Karel Capek's?]]
*** Well, they're still hulking metal monstrosities. Also, it's it would seem that the fact about uploaded human minds never becomes public knowledge, and it's quite possible that the only ones to know will be dead before the war breaks out.
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* The second season of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' raised some serious questions about how much power a league of superheroes should be allowed to have, and whether or not the U.S. government was justified in trying to restrain them, but those questions were more or less pushed aside when it turned out that {{spoiler|Lex Luthor was secretly provoking the conflict with sinister intentions... and ''Brainiac'' was manipulating ''Lex'' the entire time. [[Word of God]] admits that this was due to not wanting to come off as too much of an [[Author Tract]]... considering ''Civil War'', it's hard not to say they may have had a point. At the least, they had Green Arrow try to provide an 'answer'.}}.
** The last season of the series shows the League has been given military garrison and regularly has checks from members of the US Government now, and the members of the group agreed they need limitations (like the not keeping a super-zappo-laser on the Watchtower). So yeah, the show didn't skirt the issue and found a reasonable solution - [[Creator Provincialism|at least for the Americans.]]
* [[South Park]] is pretty fond of its [[Spoof Aesop
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