Dying Like Animals: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* A rather literal example of suicidal Boars: the magical boars in ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'' know they'll die if they make a headlong rush against the human settlement, but do so anyway.

** If I remember correctly, this was a case of [[Honor Before Reason]] as well.

* In [[20th Century Boys]], virtually the whole world is turned into sheep, except who they rally around is not the true heroes of the story but [[Magnificent Bastard|Friend]], who was behind the world-shattering events he pretended to stop in the first place.

* Oh various random extras from ''[[Violinist of Hameln]]'', can you ever stop being Reindeers, if only because of finally realizing that pissing off a [[Person of Mass Destruction]] who is known (in at least one case, ''seen just a day before'') to go on [[Super-Powered Evil Side|unstoppable, devastating rampages, when sufficiently provoked]] is [[Too Dumb to Live|not very conductive to your health]]?

* The humans in ''[[Melody of Oblivion]]'' are either ignorant of the fact that Monsters have invaded—and defeated—humanity, or are complicit in offering children as sacrifices. Children and most adults fall into the former category, with only the leaders of a given area knowing the truth. The existence of the heroes, the Melos Warriors, is completely denied by nearly everyone.

 

* In most incarnations of [[Superman]], the planet Krypton seems to consist entirely of Mules and Bats, with [[Ignored Expert|Jor-El]] silenced and censured not only because they doubt his scientific findings but because they find it offensive he would even suggest that the mighty planet Krypton might explode in the first place.

** In at least one [[Superman: The Animated Series|incarnation]], they were Lemmings; they placed all of their trust in a single super-computer, fed with all of the data of Krypton and which thoroughly disagreed with Jor-El's findings. [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|Unfortunately for them, said super-computer was smart enough to realise that organizing the salvation of the Kryptonian people would almost certainly result in it being abandoned to die with the planet due to lack of time, self-centered enough to consider its own survival as being more important than that of the Kryptonians (after all, as the sum of all the lore of Krypton, it would effectively allow the planet to live on through its own survival), and canny enough to lie to the rulers of Krypton.]] This computer would become Brainiac.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Blindness]]'', a crowd of scared people with contagious blindness, and a group of very nervous armed guards. A very bad combination.

* In ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', [[The Joker]] is all about turning many of the people of Gotham into wolves, jackals, and weasels, and the rest into lemmings while laughing as they march straight over a cliff in their panic.

 

== Literature ==

** [[Alternative Character Interpretation|If you think the one who kills and tortures billions and actually triggers the end of the world]] [[God Is Evil|is the real bad guy,]] Christian 'Tribulation Saints' become pretty clear examples of Jackals and Moles.

* Mundane people on the [[Discworld]] are usually either Sheep (especially in the City Watch and Witches books, where the public always relies on the overworked and underappreciated main characters to save the day, and never have any serious doubt that they can't handle it) or Bats (especially in the Death books, where people just ignore what their brains can't handle, like [[The Grim Reaper]] walking around in public). The Sheep metaphor is especially prevalent in the books starring Tiffany Aching, who is both a shepherd's daughter and a witch in training. On the other hand, CMOT Dibbler is a Weasel all the way (not completely; he too {{spoiler|wears the Lilac}}).

** The Sheep nature of [[Discworld]] citizens was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''[[GURPS]] Discworld Also'', where if ordinary citizens are asked why they haven't investigated large animal corpses floating down the river, they respond ''"What do we look like? Daft 'eroes? No offense, o'course!"''

* It is stated in the second book of ''Abarat'' that everyone actually felt something was going on, but the commoners prefer to ostrich themselves. This is somewhat justified by the fact that those who were capable enough to do something had been "put to sleep with the Requiax".

** Then, Candy's father refuses to be rescued by the Abaratians because they are, in his words, freaks. ''He refuses to get out of a sinking boat'' just because they told him to. Reindeer much?

* ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' has Colonel Mason, a Turtle who believes that the city's forcefield will keep out the bulk of the [[Killer Robot]]s and his own security forces and the Rangers will take down any that make it through. (Compare with the Rangers' [[Mission Control]], who is very concerned about the humans' ability to keep pace in an [[Exponentially Escalating Arms Race]].) He only reluctantly goes along with any of the Rangers' more proactive plans that risk lowering defenses even the slightest amount. This backfires once when an evil plan hinges on having everyone trapped ''in'' the city; and he eventually admits he's wrong at the end, once [[Big Bad]] Venjix activates a bunch of [[Manchurian Agent]]s under his nose.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' had a skit about scientists who went to Antarctica to live as penguins, and consequently died like penguins (only a lot quicker).

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[The World of Darkness]]:'' Humanity as a whole, with a tiny handful of exceptions, are Bats, but not of their own free will. There's a reason the keystone game of the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' was called ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'', after all.

 

== Theatre ==

* ''[[Cabaret]]'': Schultz, who thinks the Nazis aren't a serious threat, is a Bat. Schneider, who thinks she's seen it all, is an Ostrich. The Emcee, who shamelessly panders to the Nazis in his audience, is perhaps a Snake (though he was implied to have ended up in a concentration camp in the Sam Mendes revival). Sally is a Butterfly. Of course, there would be no hero to stop the rise of [[Nazi Germany]] even if ''Cabaret'' weren't [[Based on a True Story]].

 

== Video Games ==

** Weasels can be found as the various scammers throughout the wastes, with the most prominent example being drug dealers who profit off of a world half empty that makes escaping reality a fetching proposition, at least in theory.

* Ben from ''[[Barrow Hill]]'' is a Turtle who would probably turn Chicken in a heartbeat, if any means of escaping the hill existed. He lapses into Bat or Mouse behavior when his fears overwhelm him.

 

== Web Original ==

** Somewhat subverted in that Horrible has no intention of killing them. {{spoiler|Killing Captain Hammer, on the other hand…}}

*** He may also or alternatively been referring to how they just sat through (and sang back-up for) Captain Hammer's [[The Reason You Suck Song]] about them.

* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' can easily fall into this trope, though usually what category a character falls into depends on the character themselves. Many characters who decide to play fall into the "wolf" or "boar" category, however this is [[Justified Trope]] due to [[There Can Be Only One|the point of the game]]. However, many other assortments can show up in a given version.

 

== Western Animation ==

** One episode had a whole town of Lambs to a fortune teller; she'd tell them everything would work out okay, so they'd do nothing to save themselves from danger. {{spoiler|The heroes are only able to convince them to actually cooperate in successfully saving themselves and their town from an [[Too Dumb to Live|obviously erupting volcano]] by tricking the fortune-teller into predicting disaster. The revelation of this deceit reverts the townspeople back into Lambs, because ''the fortune-teller was right about everything working out okay'' before the heroes tricked her into predicting doom}}

* In ''[[Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated|Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated]]'', the townsfolk of Crystal Cove as a whole are Weasels. Most of the town's income comes from tourist trade based on the monster sightings, and they don't want any [[You Meddling Kids|meddling kids]] mucking things up.

 

== Real Life ==

* Vultures abound at Wal-Marts during Black Friday in America. In some of the most extreme cases, people have ''died''. One famous case had the doors cave in from the sheer weight of the crowd. Said crowd then stampeded in, proceeding to trample one temp worker and pick the store clean.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Animal Tropes]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]