Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,518
edits
m (Mass update links) |
|||
(11 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
▲[[File:No_Mere_Windmill_4342.png|link=Xkcd (Webcomic)|frame|"[[Alt Text|The moment their arms spun freely in our air,]] [[War of the Worlds|they were doomed -- for Man has earned his right to hold this planet against all comers]], by virtue of occasionally producing [[Don Quixote (Literature)|someone]] [[Crazy Awesome|totally ]] [[Sophisticated As Hell|batshit insane.]]"]]
{{quote|''"Ah yes, Reapers. An immortal race of sentient starships allegedly waiting in dark space. [[Memetic Mutation|We have dismissed that claim.]]"''|'''[[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Councilor Sparatus]]''', ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''}}
Line 8 ⟶ 6:
A [[Windmill Political]] is a threat that doesn't exist, but some people [[Windmill Crusader|believe it does]] or [[Straw Hypocrite|pretend]] [[Manipulative Bastard|that it does]]. There are lots of windmills, lots of people who (honestly or dishonestly) [[Crying Wolf|Cry Wolf]]. With so much nuttery and dishonesty going on, how is one to accept a ''real'' but really strange threat to be real?
Some threats are easy to mistake for windmills, but they turn out to be real threats.
There are four ways that this can come into play:
* Type A is the metaphor: The claims about the threat were not literally true, but they described a real threat, although in a metaphorical way.
* Type B is the straight warning: The threat turns out to be exactly as foretold.
* Type C is when outrageous claims turn out to be modest: The guy accused of fighting a windmill had actually not yet understood the full magnitude of the real threat
* Type D is somewhat like Type C, but much worse: The people whom the supposed Windmill Crusader is trying to warn either are
For something to be [[No Mere Windmill]], it must first be dismissed as a windmill. Thus, the trope is often closely related to [[Only Sane Man]], [[Ignored Expert]], [[Cassandra Truth]] and, depending on context, either [[The Cuckoolander Was Right]] or [[Straw Man Has a Point]].
In many cases, it is also related to [[The Conspiracy]] and [[Devil in Plain Sight]].
Likely to result in various forms of [[Dying Like Animals]]. See also [[Not So Harmless]].
Contrast [[Elephant in
Just as with the supertrope [[Windmill Political]]: No contemporaty [[Real Life]] examples please, and no history examples except ones surrounded by a really thick consensus.
Not to be confused with ''[[G Gundam]]'', which includes a [[Humongous Mecha]] that disguises itself as a windmill, but is completely non-threatening.
{{examples}}
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Chick Tracts]]'': In this setting, Hell is a literal truth and the Devil is actively hovering over the Earth trying to siphon away as many souls as he can. Only the kewl superpowers that come with being a Christian can save you now. (That and [[Creepy Child|Lil'Suzy]].) In spite of fundamentalist Christianity being [[Captain Obvious]] truth in this setting, many still mistake the Devil for a mere windmill. These people invariably find out that he is indeed not.
* ''[[Superman]]'' with [[Ignored Expert|Jor-El
* Type D example: ''[[The Simpsons]] Treehouse of Horror'' story "Immigration of the Body Snatchers" (obivously a send-up of the sci-fi classic ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'') has Homer trying to warn the authorities in an insane asylum in which he's been confined that "pod people" from outer space are taking over the bodies of everyone in Springfield, inlcuding Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and Marge. Everyone refuses to believe him except for psychiatrist Dr. Marvin Monroe, who finally admits that the threat is true...but that it's nothing to worry about, because he is actually a three-eyed spy from the planet Venus (his doctor's headgear has been concealing his third eye) who has come to lead an invasion against both the pod people and Earthlings. Then one of the police officers who had arrested Homer suddenly strips off his skin to reveal that "he" is actually two Martians who have anticipated the Venusians' plot and are here to foil them. Then ''another'' policeman strips off ''his'' skin and exposes himself as [[The Terminator|"a robot ghost clone from the future"]] who is there to assassinate everybody. And so on, and so forth...
Line 39 ⟶ 35:
* In ''[[The Day After Tomorrow]]'', the bad weather is only bad weather. It’s only bad weather, it’ll get better soon... or not. This is a Type C, where the main character gets ridiculed for a prognosis that is far less lethal than the situation they are really about to face.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Defendor]]'', the hero appears to be a lunatic going up against an imaginary [[Super Villain]] called "Captain Industry". Defendor may or may not actually believe this, but in either case the "Captains of Industry" is actually a metaphor for the very real threat of drug
* In ''[[Terminator]] II: Judgment Day'', we are introduced to a crazy woman who is obviously a paranoid schizophrenic. She even believes that evil robots from the future are out to get her, imagine that. To the great surprise of everyone except the audience, it eventually turns out that the robots are real and Sarah is completely sane (although traumatized). She knows exactly what a terminator really is, a straight Type B of this trope.
* The 1971 George C. Scott film ''[[They Might Be Giants (
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
== Literature ==
* In the fifth novel of ''[[Harry Potter]]'' (as well as the end of the fourth), people cling to the belief that Voldemort cannot have returned. Thus they let the dark lord grow in power undisturbed, while they accuse Harry of being a [[Windmill Crusader]] and Dumbledore of being a [[Manipulative Bastard]] using this Windmill Political for some shadowy political game.
* The Dragonriders in the
* The Guardians of Selfhood in ''[[
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' the Night's Watch is mostly seen as a joke, since while they do defend the realm from wildling raiders, that's not really a job that requires a 900 foot wall of ice, multiple fortresses, and lifelong dedication forswearing all lands and family to do. Their real purpose is defending the realm from the White Walkers,zombifying ice people, but hardly anyone believes in them anymore. {{spoiler|They're real, and waking up.}}
Line 57 ⟶ 53:
* The ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' [[Zombie Apocalypse]] Halloween Special has a Type C with the genetically modified food in the cafeteria from season 2. Emma just thought they were trying to poison the kids, but it turns out it's a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Buffy's mother doesn't believe in vampires. Buffy stopped trying to explain the very real threat of vampires after her mother had her put in a mental hospital for believing such silly "[[Windmill Political|delusions]]". But in this setting, the vampires are very real.
** Also,
* Type A: In the BBC TV series of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]
** The same Type A is [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[The Goodies]]'', only it's Tim wearing the placard and it's just an advertising gimmick for his chestnut stall. Of course, the world gets blown up "in an unprecedented show of international military cooperation" shortly thereafter.
== Newspaper Comics ==
* Another Type D example from a ''[[Far Side]]'' strip: A seemingly crazed man is [[Soapbox Sadie|standing on a soapbox]] on a bustling street corner, screaming to the pedestrians all around him that "[T]he vampires are everywhere! Listen to me! Everyone must beware! Vampires!" Everyone just ignores him... and with good reason, because two workingmen walking by carrying a sheet of glass betray that nobody on the streets except for the mad prophet is casting a reflection, meaning that ''they'' are the vampires!
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'': The [[Memetic Mutation|oft-repeated]] page quote comes from the Citadel Council, as they dismiss [[Player Character|Shepard's]] claims that the [[Eldritch Abomination|Reapers]] are real, that they were responsible for the events of the first game, and that they are on the warpath. Only in the third game is Shepard finally vindicated, as the Reaper fleet attacks Earth.
* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' protagonist, Sōsuke Sagara in [[Super Robot Wars]] games is most of time treated as [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] [[Windmill Crusader]] who sees danger at every corner. Sometimes however, he turns out to be right. Like in [[Super Robot Wars Judgment]] when he informs [[Martian Successor Nadesico|Yurika]] that suspicious person has appeared - that suspicious person turns out to be [[
== Web Comics ==
* [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2134#comic This] ''[[SMBC]]'' strip [[
* [http://xkcd.com/556/ This] ''[[
== Real Life ==
* One classic example is the people who kept believing that The Titanic was unsinkable, even while it was actually sinking. The Iceberg was dismissed as a mere windmill, but it most certainly was not. Many lives could have been spared if the leaders had faced reality a bit earlier.
** It wasn't just the leaders, sadly; in fact, many of the in-charge types (such as the ship's designer, Thomas Andrews) were quick to take action once they were made aware of the situation. Unfortunately, many of the passengers had bought into the hype about the ship's unsinkability and refused to leave the warm indoors and seemingly sturdy ship for a rickety lifeboat in the cold ocean (and many of the officers manning these lifeboats didn't bother to fill them and let them go at times with barely a quarter of their maximum capacity). This, of course, meant that by the time the ship's plight was all-too apparent, most of the lifeboats had gone and there were only a few left.
** Whilst useful as an example, the claim that Titanic was unsinkable is [
* Most people believed that the warnings about the [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi Party]] was a [[Windmill Political]]. People read [[Hitler]]'s ''Mein Kampf'' and [[My God, You Are Serious|didn't believe he was serious]]. [[You Should Know This Already|We all know how it turned out in the end]].
Line 85 ⟶ 81:
[[Category:Politics Tropes]]
[[Category:The War On Straw]]
[[Category:
|