No Swastikas/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Swastikas (and related expressions and imagery) are absent because of what happened in Nazi Germany.

  • Played Straight: A suspiciously Nazi-like army has the red armbands, but in place of a swastika is some other symbol.
  • Exaggerated: The army doesn't do the Roman salute, but instead does something else to salute its leader. (Possibly something silly, if this is a Those Wacky Nazis context.)
    • The plot is set during World War II, but this trope still applies.
  • Inverted: Swastikas are seen all over the place, even though this is a non- Nazi Germany setting.
  • Justified: Nazi Germany was a particularly dark period in history, and most people are not proud of it and don't want to glorify (or appear to glorify) it. Except in educational or My God, What Have I Done? contexts, it falls into the category of Let Us Never Speak of This Again.
    • The regime knows that the populace hates nazis so they try to avoid the association
  • Subverted: A magic seal that looks suspiciously swastika-like is seen.
  • Double Subverted: But it is quickly explained that it's a manji (a Buddhist symbol that looks the same, but has a completely different meaning)
  • Deconstructed: The writers decide that even though it was a shameful point in history, they should not censor history, and were wrong to censor it.
  • Reconstructed: ...But don't want to expose kids in to this.
  • Parodied: The Army of "Stop Having Fun!" Guys has armbands with frowny-faces on them.
  • Lampshaded: "Dude, you can't, like, use a swastika for your club. People will, like, totally get the wrong idea."
  • Averted: Swastikas are not banned. They may or may not be ubiquitous, but using one is allowed.
    • Using a swastika would be absurd in this setting (for example, the story takes place in Bible Times) and therefore they are not dealt with.
  • Enforced: That symbol has Unfortunate Implications and evokes a horrible period in history; we shouldn't allow it to be used.
  • Invoked:
  • Defied: An artist with a penchant for Darker and Edgier works puts one into his painting, in a blatantly obvious way.
  • Defied and Enforced: The author says "I don't give a fuck what people think, I'm going to put a manji in there".
  • Discussed: "Hey, I thought that seal was originally a swastika in the manga..."
  • Conversed: "No. It's a manji, a Buddhist symbol of protection, and the producers changed it for the anime so people wouldn't accuse them of Putting on the Reich."
  • Played For Laughs:
  • Played For Drama: Almost always is.

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