Fantastic Aesop: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Calvin''': Well, Hobbes, I guess there's a moral to all this.

'''Calvin''': "[[Snowlems|Snow goons]] are bad news."

'''Hobbes''': ''That'' lesson [[Lampshade Hanging|certainly ought to be inapplicable elsewhere in life]].

 

One of the greatest strengths of [[Speculative Fiction|Sci-Fi and Fantasy]] is that they can convey real-life situations in a new context by showing everyday problems, humanity's greatest challenges, and even social commentary that's ostensibly free of the prejudices and preconceptions that weigh them down in [[Real Life]], giving us a more detached view of a given problem...as if we were aliens [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|visiting Earth]], or rather Earthlings visiting [[Planet Eris]].

* One episode of ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' has Zelda and Hilda deciding to hire someone to clean the house. Zelda rationalises that they can't use their magic to clean in case they just get lazy.

** One of the [[novelisation]]s has Sabrina trying to explain that she can't use magic to decide what classes she wants to take because it's somehow unfair since her mortal students can't. [[Subverted Trope|She quickly realises how flimsy this argument is and does it anyway.]]

 

=== Video Games ===

* Much of the criticism of ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' stems from the attempt to use an idealized fantasy world as a metaphor for escapism, with critics arguing that Alterna-Ivalice is just as "real" as Earth in any practical sense.

* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' gives us the Valkyria—rare women who are born with the power to channel huge amounts of energy through [[Green Rocks|unrefined ragnite]]—and the game tells us in no uncertain terms that Valkyria powers are bad and evil, because ''one man'' is inclined to exploit them. Always. Regardless of the Valkyria's age, intelligence, strength, or general stability, their powers are always bad, because they can be used for war. There are no practical uses for the ability to channel the raw energies of the earth that everyone is fighting a war over in the first place; there is no responsible or pragmatic approach to researching the effects that Valkyria powers have on the environment, or for developing new and better technology. Bad. Period.

** Related but not strictly falling into any of the prescribed types, the game uses Valkyria powers as a metaphor for nuclear weapons/WMD's, which is part of why they're portrayed as being as negative as possible, and {{spoiler|Alicia}} stops using her powers because she's afraid of the one-instance dehumanizing effect they have on her, which basically renders that aspect of the Aesop down to ''Won't somebody please think of the hydrogen bombs?!''. Because the game's presentation of the Valkyria as a race [[Broken Aesop|tries to satisfy the needs of two conflicting moral lessons]], the Valkyria are said to be mindless, soulless monsters that can do nothing but bring ruin, but the two we actually see in the game are good people with human emotions and free will; it's just that one of them is slavishly devoted to the villain and the other [[Internalized Categorism|just doesn't think for herself]]. This is exemplified in the ending, {{spoiler|where Alicia abandons her powers, essentially because she couldn't remain a Valkyria and still live a normal life.}}

* Type II Robot Revolution is subverted in ''[[Ghost in the Shell]].'' In ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'' it is explained that certain kinds of machines are made in certain ways in order to avoid people thinking of them as "too human." Human-looking androids are stupid and capable of only following basic programming, while the decidedly non-humanoid Tachikomas are given [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|full sentience]].

** Well, the issue is dealt to some degree in all the incarnations of the story. For example, the Tachikomas are initially decommissioned after their sentience is found out, because a weapon that may decide on its own that [[I Am Not a Gun|all life is precious]] is a major liability. Later they circle around the issue by treating them more like teammates than tools.

 

 

 

 

** Apparently decades ago (in the current series timeline) a brilliant billionaire industrialist/scientist designed a robot drone with perfectly emulated [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|Human movement, thought process, and emotions]] yet still be expected to act and behave like mindless drones (makes sense....[[Flat What|RIGHT?]]).

** As a final point according to both [[Wild Mass Guessing|fan theory]] and some actual [[Word of God|Canon Explanation]] the entire events of the show were orchestrated by a unseen "god" which may or may not be evil and created the conflict between Humans and Cylons him/itself numerous other times previous, basically meaning even if both Humanity and Cylons learned truly learned their lessons and got along this God could kick start the [[Crapsack World|whole thing all over again]] just [[For the Evulz]] it renders all the previous Fantastic Aesops pointless and moot.

* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Superstar," the moral seems to be "dreaming about being super-cool perfect is just selfish narcissism." The way it does it is by having Jonathan cast a spell that turns him into a [[Marty Stu]]. The moral has two halves; the first is that the spell creates an equally perfect evil opposite that torments people. This is a Fantastic Aesop, since the only reason the evil opposite exists is that the writers put it there. The other half can be considered a type 1 version: in the real world, people ''aren't'' perfect, so claiming perfection is narcissistic. But if it really ''were'' possible to be perfect, claiming perfection is not narcissistic, merely realistic. "Genuine" perfection just isn't a good metaphor for imaginary perfection.

** {{spoiler|Being fair, they eventually reveal that there really is such a thing as a soul, and other non-material aspects to reality. It wouldn't shock if said cure for death isn't just a chemical, but has a non-material component.}}

* One particular episode of the nineties ''[[Outer Limits]]'' dealt with the problems [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]] could cause a society, as [[Designer Babies|"fitter" babies]] grew into supermen and outpaced "normal" people. However, while this made for great drama in ''[[Gattaca]]'' it was not nearly [[Science Is Bad|bad and horrifying enough]] for the show. So to spice things up, around 5% of all genetically modified children turn into the crazed descendants of [[The Igor|Igor]], and are [[Kill It with Fire|killed when found.]] Naturally, the couple who originally wanted this for their child have changed their minds, ''but'' the deformed child of the neighbors kills the back alley scientist before he can undo the changes, so the [[Cruel Twist Ending|episode's sad ending]] is that they'll never fully trust or love their genetically enhanced son.