It's Always Spring: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Robert Moscoe:''' The kids fly from one pole to the other in a short amount of time and the season doesn't change.

'''Bryan Konietzko:''' Um... let's not talk about that.

 

{{quote|"Once upon a time, there was a magical place where it never rained. The end."|'''Mr. Sir''', ''[[Holes]]''}}

Think back to the last cartoon series you watched. Did you see red, orange and yellow leaves coming off the trees? Was there snow on the ground? Was school out of session?

 

 

Cartoon characters tend to have a [[Limited Wardrobe]], which generally does not lend itself to cold weather. Furthermore, school is often a plot element in cartoons about kids, so that rules summer out of the question. Finally, it is probably easier to just put green leaves on every tree and to never draw leaves lying on the ground, so ultimately, the lack of seasonal change is a matter of convenience.

 

[[Do They Know It's Christmas Time?]] episodes almost invariably shift the setting to winter.

 

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', where Second Impact shifted the axis of the Earth such that there are no longer seasons in the modern sense. This is subtly hinted at by the constant droning of summer cicadas in background scenes where the kids are nonetheless attending the normal school year, and more humorously by Pen-Pen being a variety of penguin who've adapted to a warmer climate.

** This may be best illustrated by the expression "... and tomorrow it will snow", which has apparently taken on the same meaning as "when pigs fly" in Japan.

** Even in winter, much of Japan doesn't get much snow—and without snow it's difficult to tell how cold it is. Occasionally the characters' breath is visible, usually at night.

 

* Justified in [[Peter S. Beagle]]'s ''[[The Last Unicorn (novel)|The Last Unicorn]]'' book and movie, since it is eternally spring in any forest where a unicorn lives. When the eponymous unicorn leaves her forest to travel, however, she has to endure changing seasons just like any mortal.

** Ironic, since Asian cultures find cherry blossoms beautiful ''because'' of how short the time is they're in bloom.

*** {{spoiler|Fixed at the end of the book.}} Lu-Tze got the entire point that Wen missed.

* The Lost Hero has the characters heading to Walnut Creek, CA in the middle of december. the weather is described as ' brisk' but also as if 'winter wasn't a concept'( forget the real wording) and Mt. Diablo has no snow on it. it gets very cold in WC in the Winter- not enough to snow, thanks to the wind currents off the ocean, but it's not 'warm' in the morning either. And there's often snow on MT. Diablo- enough that hikers can't climb. another fun mention was the Berkeley hills, holding back the fog. while they do that, they are only ' golden brown' in the late spring , summer, and fall. the rest of the time, they are green.

 

* An odd live-action example: in the Australian soap ''[[Home and Away]]'', it's always summer in Summer Bay. Even when the actors are filming in the middle of winter next to the strong cold winds of the ocean, their wardrobe reflects a summer climate. No wonder they have trouble emoting—they're too busy trying not to shiver. This is justified only by the nature of filming: episodes filmed in winter won't air until mid-spring.

* A live-action [[Did Not Do the Research]]-y example in ''[[Greek]]''. The show is set in a college in Ohio. The second part began after winter break. The finale was spring break. In between, [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|Not. One. Snowflake.]] Not even a heavy coat. In ''Ohio''. Where winters are known to ''kill people''.

* ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' not surprisingly fits this trope. It's always a sunny, warm day outside, despite the fact that Philadelphia can get quite cold. Even when news reports warn of a huge storm bearing down on the city, the weather is perfect and Frank notes, "It's warm as shit!" Only the direct-to-DVD Christmas episode has the cast actually start wearing winter clothing, and even then the weather is still sunny. The pilot for the show was titled ''It's Always Sunny on Television'', referencing this trope directly.

 

* This is the reason the songs "Winter Wonderland", "Let It Snow", "Baby, It's Cold Outside", "Sleigh Ride" and, hell, even ''"Jingle Bells"'' are considered Christmas songs, despite not mentioning Christmas at all. On the other hand, it's also probably the only reason anybody still remembers them at all.

** It's also weird considering that winter doesn't officially start until the 21st or 22 December (depending on the Solstice). Therefore, most the Christmas season is actually in the fall.

* Olivia the Band, a rock group from Hawaii, has an album called ''Where We Come From It Never Snows''. Which is true of Oahu, but not the entire state of Hawaii - Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island see snow most winters, and even Haleakala on Maui can get it on rare occasions.

 

 

* In outside dungeons in ''[[Dark Cloud]] 2''/''Dark Chronicle'', it sometimes rains at different frequencies, but it never snows. And it never even rains anywhere else except in the opening movie.

* The ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series has this problem, although it is averted in ''Vice City'' and ''San Andreas'', which are set much closer to the equator than ''GTA3''. The fictionalized New York of ''GTA3'' never changes climactically despite the significant amounts of time that can pass in game (it is actually possible to check how many days have passed in game from the menu).

*** For ''Vacation'', mentioned above, it's [[Justified Trope|semi-justified]] by being a mountainous island: the winter-like lots are up on the snow-cap, the temperate lots are in a forest up on the mountain's side, and the summer lots are down on the beachy shore.

* In ''[[Persona 4]]'', it's always the rainy season, as it's guaranteed to rain every couple of weeks or so for matters of plot convenience.

* In the first four generations of the ''[[Pokémon]]'' series, each region seems to take place in a specific season. Kanto takes place in the spring, Johto in the fall, Hoenn in the summer, and Sinnoh in the winter. (The trope is averted in ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' and subsequent games; see below.)

* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] in the last three ''[[Elder Scrolls]]'' games. Officially, there ''are'' seasons (the names of the months are derived from agricultural practices among other things, e.g. Last Seed), but in the games the season is apparently keyed to the location rather than the time of year. To wit, it's always spring or summer in [[Morrowind]] and [[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Cyrodiil]], and always late fall or winter in [[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind|Solstheim]] and [[Skyrim]].

* In the ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' series the seasons never change regardless of how many times the [[In-Universe Game Clock]] cycles from day to night.

** Despite the name, Neverwinter ''does'' get snow in the pen-and-paper game. Its name comes partly from the fact that the river never freezes, due to being warmed by a dormant volcano upstream inhabited by fire elementals.

 

* After several years of sunny summer weather, ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' announced it would be introducing seasons, inaugurating it by having a [[Humongous Mecha]] [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090811.html knock over Bob's freshly raked pile of leaves.]

 

* In ''[[South Park]]'', it is always winter, even when it's not (during baseball season, or while school is out). In the original short films that preceded the series proper, the creators figured characters in snowy landscapes would be easier to animate since their feet would be obscured by the snow.

** As Cartman puts it in "Jakovasaur", "There are two seasons in South Park: winter and July."

* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', it appears to always be summer unless the season is relevant to the plot. In one case this led to bafflement when a Fall Episode occurred soon ''after'' a Winter Episode, with no discernible transitions in either direction. Admittedly, the seasons are explicitly magical, but [[Word of God]] claims they still take the normal amount of time and this was purely because they didn't want a calendar to limit what plots they could do.

 

 

 

* Averted in ''[[Aria]]'', where Akari mentions the changing of the seasons in her letters, which is reflected in the art for the episode. The manga volumes are actually seasonally themed, with the first being fall, the second being winter, the third being spring, and so on. That 2–3 years pass and nobody seems to get any older is not mentioned.

** Note: 2-3 ''Mars'' year, which means roughly 4-6 Earth years.

* Averted in ''[[Kimi ni Todoke]]'', where the beginning and end of each school term is clearly marked, accompanied by an appropriate change of season.

 

** Look at the clothes worn by people in the background, fall episodes are filmed in summer. Spring episodes are shot in winter. The amount of sunlight is also a giveaway.

* Averted on ''[[ER]]'', which gives the impression that Chicago never has spring. Most of the time it's either snowing or raining, unless it's sweltering hot because they wanted an air-conditioning failure episode.

** Longtime residents of the Chicago area know that this is Truth in Television - Spring here lasts about 45 minutes after the last snow melts. Then we skip straight ahead to high-80s temperatures and high-90s humidity.

 

 

* Averted somewhat in ''[[Persona 3]]'', the game takes place over the course of nearly an entire year. As the seasons change, the trees lose their leaves and they eventually grow back... but that's about it.

** Your party members will change clothing depending on the season [[Limited Wardrobe|(and little else)]], and school goes in and out of session as expected.

** As noted above, it's Japan. You were expecting snowfall that close to the equator?

* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', with typical depth, averts this by simulating the seasons appropriate to the local climate.

** Played straight in Adventure Mode due to [[Good Bad Bugs]] which cause the season to reset to spring every time you quick Travel, which is rarely more than a couple days each time.

* Averted, kind of, in ''[[The Lost Crown]]'', which does take place in springtime, but with the full range of weather—fog, cold, thundery, sunny, rainy, windy—one might expect from a realistic depiction of that season.

 

* Averted by ''[http://epparker.com/tallcomics/ Unwinder's Tall Comics]'', which not only changes seasons, it maintains the seasons for multiple comics (none of which are actually related to the plot or [[Dreaming of a White Christmas|Christmas]]), and characters' clothing changes appropriately.

* Played with in ''[[Our Little Adventure]]''. The seasons do change but since the [[Flat World|world is flat]], they logically ''shouldn't.'' There are also places in Manjulias where it's always summer or always winter. This like many other things in the comic [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0222.html get lampshaded.]

* The plot of ''[[The Phoenix Requiem]]'' happens during the course of one year, with the changing of seasons clearly seen in time.

 

* Despite the quote at the top of the page, ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' averts this for the most part, especially in season one, which features a trip from the south pole to the north pole, with the weather and outfits notably changing to being appropriate equatorially and back over time. Sure, you'd think that there would be different seasons in the north and south hemisphere, but let's just go with the [[Fanon]] that the ''Avatar'' globe doesn't have a tilt.

** One episode did seem to explicitly take place in Autumn.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Did Not Do the Research]]

[[Category:Lazy Artist]]

[[Category:Tropes of Nature]]