Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: Difference between revisions

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* [[Warren Ellis]] is big on these.

** The entire run of ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' was a big, long, anvil about the importance of standing up for The Truth and speaking out for what you believe in, regardless of the personal consequences; and the evils of complacency and blindly accepting authority. Making the character who most embodied these principles a self-proclaimed bastard further emphasizes the already subtle-as-a-sledgehammer point.

{{quote| '''Spider Jerusalem''': ''I'm sorry, is that too harsh for you? Does that sound too much like the Truth? Fuck you. If anyone in this shithole city gave two tugs of a dead dog's cock about the Truth, this wouldn't be happening.''}}

{{quote|'''Spider Jerusalem''': ''I'm sorry, is that too harsh for you? Does that sound too much like the Truth? Fuck you. If anyone in this shithole city gave two tugs of a dead dog's cock about the Truth, this wouldn't be happening.''}}

*** #40, "Business", is a stark look at child prostitution and the failings of underfunded social services. Despite the comic's post-cyberpunk setting, the story rings far too true. But the conclusion/anvil that the story comes to:

{{quote| ''Why are your kids selling themselves on the streets? Because you completely fucked up the job of raising them.''}}

{{quote|''Why are your kids selling themselves on the streets? Because you completely fucked up the job of raising them.''}}

*** "Monstering" also has a good one about journalism and the duty of news media:

{{quote| ''It's the Journalism of Attachment. It's caring about the world you report on. Some people say that's bad journalism, that there should be a detached, cold, unbiased view of the world in our news media. And if that's what you want, there are security cameras everywhere you could watch footage of.''}}

{{quote|''It's the Journalism of Attachment. It's caring about the world you report on. Some people say that's bad journalism, that there should be a detached, cold, unbiased view of the world in our news media. And if that's what you want, there are security cameras everywhere you could watch footage of.''}}

*** Another one was dropped by the Reservations:

{{quote| "Remember the past, and learn from it, or you are doomed to repeat it."}}

{{quote|"Remember the past, and learn from it, or you are doomed to repeat it."}}

** His run on [[Thunderbolts]] is basically him railing against the aftermath of ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' - "No, the police should ''not'' be living tactical weapons roaming the streets looking for someone to wail on."

{{quote| '''Joseph Swetnam:''' ''Justice, like Lightning, should ever appear. To few men's ruin, but to all men's fear...''~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Joseph Swetnam:''' ''Justice, like Lightning, should ever appear. To few men's ruin, but to all men's fear...''

''We applaud masked police beating the politically inconvenient in the street and then disappearing them.'' }}

** [[Black Summer]]: A lot of people don't like the president, but only a giant prick would actually kill him.

* [[Captain America]] once was used quite often to address social issues. This tends to involve numerous misinformed people being led on by a few evil people against a few unfairly persecuted people, and Cap trying to resolve things.

** Cap tends to get [[Berserk Button|really pissed off]] by [[My Country, Right or Wrong|blind patriotism]]. He doesn't just talk the talk, he [[What You Are in the Dark|walks the walk]]. Many storylines state that his [[Unobtainium]] shield is reinforced by American [[Right Makes Might|righteousness]] as opposed to [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|''self''-righteousness]].

{{quote| ''"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world - "No, ''you'' move.""''}}

{{quote|''"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world - "No, ''you'' move.""''}}

** Another version was done in ''[[What If]]?'' #44, which involved [[Captain America]] being revived 'today' -- or, at least, well after a [[Red Scare|virulently anti-Communist]] version had laid claim to the shield and turned America into a rather unpleasant place to live. The resulting fight between the real [[Captain America]] and the John Birch Society knockoff was immediately followed by Cap delivering a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] to the '''entire country'''.

{{quote| '''[[Captain America]]:''' ''Without its [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|ideals]] -- its commitment to the freedom of all men, [[Eagle Land|America]] is a piece of trash!''}}

{{quote|'''[[Captain America]]:''' ''Without its [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|ideals]] -- its commitment to the freedom of all men, [[Eagle Land|America]] is a piece of trash!''}}

* Most of [[Grant Morrison]]'s comics (most notably ''[[Final Crisis]]'' and ''[[Flex Mentallo]]'') are tracts speaking against the Dark Age of comics, specifically the idea that comics should mirror [[Real Life]] in their violence and morally ambiguous attitudes. Morrison's takes on [[Superman]] and [[Batman]] are extraordinarily optimistic and straight-forward; [[Superman]] is often shown as a borderline God (especially in ''[[All-Star Superman]]'') who tirelessly works toward the betterment of mankind, while [[Batman]] represents the peak of human ingenuity and intelligence, who can break free from any trap and defeat any villain. The whole thing is a stark and welcome contrast to the Frank Miller ideal of the tortured outcast [[Batman]], and the ultimately ineffectual government puppet [[Superman]].

* The [[Green Arrow]] storyline where he discovers that his sidekick is addicted to heroin. During a time when the title had turned into a rather [[Anvilicious]] series, this particular arc was exceptionally well done and considered a turning point in the character, the series, and even to some extent comics in general being a transport for serious issues. Several anvils are dropped -- not just drug-related ones, but [[Green Arrow]]'s sense of betrayal of responsibility for his friend and his relationships with other superheroes. It's a remarkably deep arc during a time when most superheroes were wearing spandex tights and going "POW" at the villains.

* In the "Forever" story arc of ''[[Powers]]'', {{spoiler|Christian Walker}} goes to show his abilities to [[Albert Einstein]], to ask what they are and where they came from. In their conversation afterwards, Einstein delivers an astoundingly good speech about the nature of the scientific attitude, and afterwards...

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Walker'''}}''':''' I thought -- I thought maybe my story would ''upset'' you. I thought that I might be upsetting some of your theories of the--~~ ~~

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Walker'''}}''':''' I thought -- I thought maybe my story would ''upset'' you. I thought that I might be upsetting some of your theories of the--

'''Einstein:''' Listen to me, my new friend. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. Someone who can no longer pause to wonder, and stand rapt in awe, is as good as ''dead.'' }}

* A meta example is the ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comic book arc, [[wikipedia:Green Goblin Reborn!|"Green Goblin Reborn!",]] where Spidey encounters the negative effects of drug abuse, with his friend Harry ODing on pills. Despite this, the [[Comics Code]] Authority refused to approve the story for having ''any'' depiction of drug use -- even when it was peppered with [[Anvilicious]] anti-drug messages. [[Stan Lee]] decided to publish the stories without the CCA seal of approval, and the ensuing public support prompted the CCA to relax its overly-constrictive guidelines.

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* The first story arc of ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' Vol. 2 drops the same anvil as ''[[The Day After]]'', with Diana showing Ares that his plans to start World War III would leave him with nobody to worship him. Later, the "Who Killed Mindi Mayer" issue delves into drug use by revealing that {{spoiler|Mindi technically wasn't murdered; she died from a cocaine overdose before her attempted killer pulled the trigger.}}

* The moral of ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' is that morality ''is itself ambiguous''. Hammered home extra hard by {{spoiler|the death of Rorschach, perhaps the only remaining [[Black and White Insanity|morally absolutist]] vigilante.}}

{{quote| {{spoiler|"I leave it entirely in your hands."}}}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|"I leave it entirely in your hands."}}}}

** Also, life is a precious, fragile thing, and we should be grateful for every day we get.

** [[Knight Templar|Moral absolutism]] is bad. So are rape and child abuse.

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* In the [[Daria]]/LegionOfSuperHeroes crossover ''[http://thepaperpusher.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23667&p=329264#p329264 Bird With Black Wings]'' (set in the [[Crapsack World]] that is the shared-world series ''Daylight'', set after a [[Apocalypse How|civilization-extinction level event caused by massive solar flares)]], the members of the Legion get into an debate on [[Utopia Justifies the Means|whether they should revoke their rule on killing]]. The discussion is turned by [[Defrosting Ice Queen|Julia Carlyle]], who gives a [[Patrick Stewart Speech]] on how she, as a military officer, [[Humans Are Warriors|has it in her job description to kill]], but [[What You Are in the Dark|how others expect the Legionnaires to hold fast to their standards, even in the toughest of times]]. She even paraphrases [[Tom Clancy]] in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] at the end of her speech:

{{quote| '''Julia Carlyle:''' “There’s a passage I read in a book long ago. I’m paraphrasing just a bit – but the meaning is something I’ve always remembered. ''`So we don’t have a choice. You can name any reason you want, but it all comes down to the same thing; we have a [[Title Drop|debt of honor]] to the man who brought all of us together, and the people who believe that we stand for something more. If we don’t defend that principle, we don’t defend anything. And nobody will trust us, and nobody will respect us, not even ourselves. If we turn our backs on them by deciding to kill, then we are not the people we say we are, and everything we’ve ever done is a lie.’''”}}

{{quote|'''Julia Carlyle:''' “There’s a passage I read in a book long ago. I’m paraphrasing just a bit – but the meaning is something I’ve always remembered. ''`So we don’t have a choice. You can name any reason you want, but it all comes down to the same thing; we have a [[Title Drop|debt of honor]] to the man who brought all of us together, and the people who believe that we stand for something more. If we don’t defend that principle, we don’t defend anything. And nobody will trust us, and nobody will respect us, not even ourselves. If we turn our backs on them by deciding to kill, then we are not the people we say we are, and everything we’ve ever done is a lie.’''”}}

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* [[Frank Capra]] films are generally [[Anvilicious]] in a good way. ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]''; where Mr. Smith does [[Eagle Land]] so proud that if you are not, as an American, inspired by his advocacy for the rights of all of us, then you, sir or ma'am, are a communist!

* ''[[Secondhand Lions]]'' takes time out for Robert Duvall to expressly give this monologue on the moral of the story:

{{quote| Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things ''worth'' believing in.}}

{{quote|Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things ''worth'' believing in.}}

* ''Gojira'' derives a large part of its power from its explicit and not remotely subtle anti-nuclear-weapons message. While the giant dinosaur is something of a [[Space Whale Aesop]], the sheer devastation wrought by the monster was intentionally evocative of the aftermath of a nuclear bomb, showing exactly what one does every time they let a weapon of mass destruction loose.

** ''Godzilla VS Hedorah'' provides the very straightforward message that pollution is a huge danger to not only humans, but all life as well... And that we must all work together to stop it.

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** While being a kickass action-comedy, ''[[The Incredibles]]'' has some major messages on both the strength of family and the individual vs. a homogenizing society.

* Brad Bird's non-Pixar film, ''[[The Iron Giant]]'', drops the anvil that you are who you choose to be. Nobody programmed you to do anything; you choose who you become.

* The central message of ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' is that [[You Are Not Alone]].

* [[October Sky]]: Knowledge, especially education, plus determination and hard work, can enable you to accomplish any dream, no matter how far-fetched it may seem. (Doesn't hurt that it's a true story, either.)

* ''[[Pollyanna]]'' and the scene about all the Happy Texts in the Bible. It might be [[Tastes Like Diabetes]] to some but in today's society where everyone is taught to [[Accentuate the Negative]] and be cynical because positivity is considered "immature", Pollyanna's line about how there are over 800 texts in the Bible telling mankind to be happy is a very telling lesson.

* At its core, ''[[Serenity]]'' is an attack on do-gooding government social engineers. The first scene even has River, one of the movie's protagonists, stating that the Unification War which decimated the rim planets was the result of government meddling. [[Word of God]] says that the Independents were fighting for "the right to be wrong" -- the right to have their own way of doing things.

* The point of ''[[Schindler's List]]'' is that the Holocaust was bad. This might hardly seem like a message that needs to be repeated, but it's a lot easier to compartmentalize it in an academic setting as opposed to seeing it played out in front of your eyes.

* ''[[Silent Running]]''. [[Green Aesop|The natural world is valuable and important, and worth the effort to protect and preserve.]]

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* [[Love Actually]] has "even if you really are attracted to someone, and that particular someone is really attracted to you, sometimes it's just not the right time for romance. Sometimes there are overarching issues that need to be sussed out." Sara was one of the few people in the story who [[Did Not Get the Girl|did not get the guy.]] However, she chose to take care of her mentally ill brother rather than to be with her [[Love Interest]], showing that family is more important than romance. Their final interaction seemed to imply that they really are still interested in one another, but are just [[False Start|putting things on hold.]]

* This exchange from [[The Lord of the Rings|The Fellowship of The Ring]] sums up quite nicely the importance of making choices in one's life:

{{quote| '''Frodo''': I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Frodo''': I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

'''Gandalf''': So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you. }}

* Paddy Chayevsky's ''[[Network]]'' is one big anvil on Television and television culture.

{{quote| "So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth... Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth."~~ ~~

{{quote|"So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth... Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth."

"We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in ''illusions'' man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds... We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even ''think'' like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! ''WE'' are the illusion!" }}

** It also has a few other less-than-subtle anvils to drop about humanity, corporatization, and marital fidelity.

{{quote| '''Howard Beale''': "I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'"~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Howard Beale''': "I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'"

"The whole world is becoming humanoid - creatures that look human but aren't. The whole world, not just us. We're just the most advanced country, so we're getting there first. The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things." }}

* ''[[Inherit the Wind]]'' is necessary viewing for any who thinks themselves religious and is fearful of thinking for themselves. Such wisdom in the play/film, especially as spoken by [[Spencer Tracy]] in the 1960 film, can change your life and set your spirit free:

{{quote| ''[challenged to say if he considers anything holy]'' '''Henry Drummond:''' Yes. The individual human mind. In a child's power to master the multiplication table, there is more sanctity than in all your shouted "amens" and "holy holies" and "hosannas." An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters.}}

{{quote|''[challenged to say if he considers anything holy]'' '''Henry Drummond:''' Yes. The individual human mind. In a child's power to master the multiplication table, there is more sanctity than in all your shouted "amens" and "holy holies" and "hosannas." An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters.}}

* The ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'' remake has the aesop that animal abuse is a big warning sign of a future abuser/serial killer.

* In [[Paris Je T Aime]], a collection of short films about the city of Paris made by notable directors. The husband-and-wife team behind [[Bend It Like Beckham]] made a short about the relationship between the ethnic French and the growing Muslim community in Paris. A few teenage/college aged boys make fun of a hijabi and try pulling off her headscarf. One of the boys with them lingers to apologize. She's beautiful and intelligent, and they hit it off. {{spoiler|He tentatively asks her about her hijab and she explains that it was her choice, it's a reminder of her faith and it makes her feel good. At one point he vists at her house, and her scary male relative is there - oh no! But he's happy to meet the boy and invites him to go for a walk with them, all three together. The movie fades out as the older man makes small talk, full of pride, about the student project she's working on: stories about Paris, but about her own Paris ... }} Anvilicious as hell? Yes. Sweet, touching, and a refreshingly honest look at the fears non-Muslims have built up around Muslims, as well as what you generally get if you bother to actually talk to a Muslimah? Definitely yes.

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** ''[[Ender's Game]]'' also rejects subtlety and symbolism, and is all the better for it.

* A lot of Dickens falls under this heading from ''[[A Christmas Carol|A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas]]''. He gets away with his anvils because they're never based on the idea that [[Viewers are Morons|Readers Are Morons]] and need lessons in basic decency, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|they are always motivated by genuine passion, fury against real injustices, and a need to increase word count]]:

{{quote| ''"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."''}}

{{quote|''"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."''}}

* [[Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' is the book responsible for abolishing workhouses as a placeholder for orphans. Who can forget the iconic "Please, sir, I want some more!" scene?

* [[Ben Elton]]'s ''High Society'' makes some very important points about the harm created by drug prohibition and the power wielded by sensationalist tabloid media, and still manages to be a thoroughly entertaining read.

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* Norman Juster's ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'' drops the learning-is-fun anvil pretty early on, and keeps picking it up and dropping it again. This strategy would not work if the book were not also ''funny as hell'' -- it reads like a combination of [[Shel Silverstein]], [[James Thurber]], and [[Douglas Adams]]. Kudos to Norton Juster for also throwing in enough [[Parental Bonus]] moments to keep the book funny and relevant.

* Harper Lee's ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]].'' Enough said.

{{quote| ''"Atticus, he was real nice..." His hands were under my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me. "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them." He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.''}}

{{quote|''"Atticus, he was real nice..." His hands were under my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me. "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them." He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.''}}

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'' and ''[[Animal Farm]]'', both by [[George Orwell]]. If these books weren't overblown, they wouldn't be nearly as effective in conveying how truly fragile and precious the ideal of freedom really is.

** The chief Anvil in both is about individuality versus conformity and the important of holding onto the truth that's right in front of your eyes. As long as you have that, you are still free, no matter what anyone else does to you.

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* In ''[[Les Misérables (novel)|Les Misérables]]'', literacy is not just useful, but makes the difference between life and death for several different characters. [[The Power of Love]] changes Jean Valjean [[Heel Face Turn|from a petty crook into a great philanthropist.]] Javert [[Lawful Stupid|only cares about enforcing the law,]] and is driven to suicide when he finally realizes that Valjean is a more moral man than he is.

** The musical drops one as well at the end, when {{spoiler|almost all of the cast is dead, except for Cosette and Marius, who are [[Happily Married]]}}. All of the cast gathers on stage peacefully, for the final song:

{{quote| Do you hear the people sing/Lost in the valley of the night/It is the music of the people who are climbing to the light/For the wretched of the Earth/There is a flame that never dies/Even the darkest night shall end and the sun will rise!}}

{{quote|Do you hear the people sing/Lost in the valley of the night/It is the music of the people who are climbing to the light/For the wretched of the Earth/There is a flame that never dies/Even the darkest night shall end and the sun will rise!}}

** People can change when given the chance. And being friendly towards those in need DOES make a difference to them. While putting a Cain's mark on former convicts under parole most surely will exclude them from honest work, thus leaving them not much choice than resorting to crime again. By expecting them to break parole and treating them as criminals in advance again you're making them into criminals. Or by treating an unmarried mother as a whore and firing her you force her to resort on prostitution to provide for her and her child.

** Also he loved to ponder about whether wars and fights are justified or not - concluding that wars are always bad and should be avoided. Unless they are necessary to bring humanity along. Still, every death is regrettable, no matter which side.

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* Many of these in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.

** This one in particular:

{{quote| '''Gandalf:''' ''Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment, for not even the very wise can see all ends.''}}

{{quote|'''Gandalf:''' ''Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment, for not even the very wise can see all ends.''}}

** For the series in general: "There is good in the world. There is also bad in the world, but the good is worth fighting for."

** "Never leave your friends behind."

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** There's a rather lovely scene at the end of ''[[The Two Towers]]'' when Sam is talking about his very favorite stories, and how things go so bad that you wonder how anything could ever go back to the way it does before, and yet it does. Not only is it a not-so-subtle "This is what's happening right now to the person saying it" moment, but it perfectly encapsulates the anvil mentioned here.

** Treebeard's comment when Merry and Pippin ask him about what side he's on. Considering that Tolkien wrote this before green anvils were being dropped like the Blitzkrieg, the message is pretty powerful:

{{quote| ''"I am on nobody's side because nobody is on my side. Nobody cares for the woods anymore."''}}

{{quote|''"I am on nobody's side because nobody is on my side. Nobody cares for the woods anymore."''}}

** The movie follows up with a second anvil when Treebeard is promped into choosing a side when he discovers that Saruman has been cutting down the trees, the lesson being: if you refuse to take a side because YOU have no personnal stake in it, it will come back to bite you in the ass later.

** And, of course, the obvious messages of the One Ring: "Power Corrupts", and "The End Does Not Justify The Means".

** One of the most important and poignant Aesops in all of Tolkien's works is that times change and that all things, no matter how good or beautiful, will someday end. The First Age of Middle-earth, a time of immense beauty and magic when the gods walked the earth, ended without ever coming again. The whole race of the elves is a testament to this Aesop. Because of their immortality, the elves wither away from grief and longing of the Undying Lands if they stay on Middle-earth too long. The mortality of humans is portrayed as a ''good thing'', because man is able to pass to a new world freely. More so, the same applies to the Shire, in the Book at least. The Scouring of the Shire drops an anvil about the safety of Home and personal investment in a fight.

* ''The Hobbit'', especially what Thorin says to Bilbo near the end:

{{quote| ''"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!"''}}

{{quote|''"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!"''}}

* One [[Sherlock Holmes]] story (The Sign of Four) had Dr. Watson blatantly chastising Holmes for the dangers of his cocaine habit. Although it's often thought that having a character give this lecture was either prescient or a lucky guess, in reality, it was not: doctors already knew that cocaine was dangerous when used as a recreational drug, but the idea that drug sales could and/or should be restricted had not yet been imagined, let alone implemented. (When the idea was suggested some years later, Doyle was among its strongest supporters.) At this point in time, it was perfectly possible to buy arsenic or strychnine at the apothecary's without any formality greater than signing a book, and there was no doubt that both of those drugs were pure poisons.

** ''The Adventure of the Yellow Face'' contains a remarkably progressive anti-racist message for its time. The client hires Holmes to find out why his wife keeps asking him for money and not revealing what it is for. He also spies her making visits to a cottage and spots someone with a hideous jaundiced and deformed face from the window. He suspects a blackmailing plot, but when Holmes enters the cottage and confronts the yellow-faced individual, it is revealed to be a young black child wearing a mask. Turns out the wife was previously in an interracial marriage before her husband died, and she has been hiding their child out of fear that her current husband will leave her if he finds out that she was married to a black man. The story ends with the client picking up the child, kissing the young girl, and saying "I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being."

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** Also from ''The Lorax'': "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

** ''Horton Hears a Who'' is just as anvilicious. And ridiculously necessary, considering the simplicity of the message.

** ''The Butter Battle Book,'' is about the Cold War arms race, of all things.

** And the anti-racism message of ''The Sneeches''. In fact, a great many of his books drop a pretty obvious anvil of some sort; but then, subtlety is not necessarily useful or effective when writing for children.

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** As well as Arya Stark's entire arc in Clash of Kings. Basically, Martin would like you to know that [[War Is Hell]] and that the common folk suffer the most during war.

** After Tyrion learns about how his siblings were almost married into the Martell family {{spoiler|and how King Aerys spurned friend/hand Tywin Lannister by not marrying Cersei to Rhaegar}}. At that moment, Martin makes explicit just how much of the strife and trauma our current characters are going through is due to the actions of those generations before and often long dead.:

{{quote| ''"It all goes back and back, to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads."''}}

{{quote|''"It all goes back and back, to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads."''}}

* ''[[Candide]]'' was essentially an anvil dropped on the philosophy that everything that happens is a good thing and that we 'live in the best of all possible worlds.'

** It's a particularly delicious anvil, because it points out that, although life really sucks, [[Earn Your Happy Ending|we can still make some good out of it in the end]].

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** Death is inevitable; respect it, know it, and you will live a happy life.

** Pretty much every poignant sounding line said by Dumbledore resumes some important anvil from the books:

{{quote| "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."~~ ~~

{{quote|"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

"To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."~~ ~~

"To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."~~ ~~

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."

"Fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself."~~ ~~

"Fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself."

"You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."~~ ~~

"You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."

"It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated."~~ ~~

"It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated."

"Do not pity the dead. Pity the living, and above all, pity those who live without love." }}

* The ''[[Wicked Lovely]]'' series -- "There are always choices."

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* Terry Pratchett's early Discworld novel ''Small Gods'' deals with the difference between believing in God and believing in church. The only character who still believes in Om at the novel's start is a naive young boy, while His church controls an entire nation. The anvil is illustrated in the comparison between simple, honest Brutha and [[Knight Templar]] Deacon Vorbis, who is ready to incite holy war with anyone and everyone, despite the fact that Om Himself states point blank that holy war was never His intention, even more so in the distant future of the ending: {{spoiler|Vorbis dies when Brutha is just a boy, but without his "belief" to guide him, waits between the land of the living and the dead for nearly a century, until Brutha also dies and leads him to the afterlife.}} The overarching message seems to be that if one twists religious scripture to suit one's own selfish desire, it becomes a completely different body of work.

* ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' by [[Kurt Vonnegut]] drops the [[War Is Hell]] anvil about once a page or so. It also really, really wants to the reader to know that [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing|enjoying (even vicariously) or glorifying war is foolish and wrong]]:

{{quote| ''I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.''~~ ~~

{{quote|''I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.''

''I have also told them not to work for companies that make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.'' }}

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* The ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' episode ''Homecoming'' is a brick-through-plate-glass rant against needless wars, and government corruption and duplicity. It doesn't just drop an anvil on the viewers, it drops a railroad car full of pig iron -- and it only works ''because'' the message isn't hidden. Unfortunately, it spawned a [[Misaimed Fandom]] that were screaming about how [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|Ann Coulter wasn't eaten by zombies...]]<ref> But she WAS.</ref>

** They also have Karl Rove's ersatz having his eyes gouged out and his head repeatedly slammed on a metal table until he dies. This happens 10 minutes after he says,

{{quote| ''Kurt Rand'': The three of us sold a war, dammit! We sold a war based on nothing but horseshit and elbow grease! We are the best in the goddamn game!~~ ~~

{{quote|''Kurt Rand'': The three of us sold a war, dammit! We sold a war based on nothing but horseshit and elbow grease! We are the best in the goddamn game!

''David Murch'': It's not a goddamn game, Kurt! }}

* The basic premise of ''[[Scrubs]]'' means that [[An Aesop|Aesop]]s are going to occur every episode, but that doesn't stop episodes like "My Old Lady", "His Story", "My Screw Up", "My Life in Four Cameras", "My Way Home", and "My Musical" from being widely loved.

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' is essentially a series of anvil drops, with some of the most didactic, moralistic writing you can imagine. And it almost always works. One of the best is "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street". [[Anvilicious]]? Yeah. Still amazing, though? Hell yes. [[Rod Serling|Rod Serling's]] bit at the end is especially moving.

{{quote| ''The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own; for the children, and the children yet unborn.''}}

{{quote|''The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own; for the children, and the children yet unborn.''}}

** The episode "He's Alive!" - in which [[Adolf Hitler]] comes back from the dead to 'mentor' an American fascist - can seem like [[Narm]] by modern standards... but when it first aired, the episode promped more hate mail than any other episode - 4000 people wrote in ''protesting the show's depiction of Adolf Hitler as a villain''. There's a reason Rod Serling called that episode the most important one he ever made.

{{quote| ''Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare - Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.''}}

{{quote|''Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare - Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.''}}

** Rod Serling was especially worried about Nazism, and history's gone on to show that he had good reason. ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "Deaths-Head Revisited" not only gives a former concentration camp captain his just reward, but also ends with what seems like an [[Anvilicious]] closing statement - but the surge of Holocaust denials since then has proven that this anvil can't possibly be dropped too hard.

{{quote| ''There is an answer to the doctor's question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes - all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God's Earth.''}}

{{quote|''There is an answer to the doctor's question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes - all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God's Earth.''}}

** "The Eye of the Beholder". So many anvils -- one of which is ''in the title itself.''

{{quote| ''Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it? What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? You want an answer? The answer is, it doesn't make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true. Beauty ''is'' in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out amongst the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lesson to be learned... in the Twilight Zone.''}}

{{quote|''Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it? What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? You want an answer? The answer is, it doesn't make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true. Beauty ''is'' in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out amongst the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lesson to be learned... in the Twilight Zone.''}}

** "A Passage for Trumpet". The main character learns that while life can be a bitch at times, it also has plenty of good moments, if only you know where to look.

{{quote| ''Joey Crown, who makes music, and who discovered something about life; that it can be rich and rewarding and full of beauty, just like the music he played, if a person would only pause to look and to listen. Joey Crown, who got his clue in the Twilight Zone.''}}

{{quote|''Joey Crown, who makes music, and who discovered something about life; that it can be rich and rewarding and full of beauty, just like the music he played, if a person would only pause to look and to listen. Joey Crown, who got his clue in the Twilight Zone.''}}

** Pick pretty much any monologue from Rod Serling at the end of any Twilight Zone episode, and it usually has some important message.

* In the classic ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek: TOS]]'' episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", Kirk and co. pick up the last two survivors of a wartorn planet. Bele is an extraterrestrial cop who has been pursuing Lokai for thousands of years. When a perplexed Kirk questions Bele for the reason of their intense racial hatred, Bele replies, "Isn't it obvious? Lokai is white on the right side. All his people are white on the right side." Not subtle at all, but in 1969, an anvil that needed to be dropped, and '''hard'''.

** ''A Taste of Armageddon'' drops an effective anvil about how [[A Million Is a Statistic|handling war with detached intellectual coldness]] helps facilitate it.

{{quote| '''Kirk:''' Death... destruction... disease... horror... that's what war is all about, Anan. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided. You've made it neat, and painless. So neat and painless, you've had no reason to stop it.}}

{{quote|'''Kirk:''' Death... destruction... disease... horror... that's what war is all about, Anan. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided. You've made it neat, and painless. So neat and painless, you've had no reason to stop it.}}

** Similarly, there are only two usual reactions to the [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]] episode "Who Watches The Watchers": You either love it or you hate it. No matter which side you choose, it will likely be because of the episode's morals: Religions should be disproven wherever possible. Controversial? Yes. But for those for whom it works, it ''only'' works because of the anvil.

*** Another possible interpretation tof that episode's moral is that you should rely on your own ingenuity, your own courage and your own strength to change and grow and learn, not rely on a god of any kind to come along and make things right for you. Religion itself is not nessecarily a bad thing, it's only when you start using it as a reason to kill people or pass judgement in any other way that you have a problem.

** Also the episode ''Measure of A Man'', which puts [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|Data up in court to prove his rights as a sentient being]]. Having [[Whoopi Epiphany Speech|Whoopi Goldberg deliver the message as bartender Guinan]] makes this especially anvilicious. But extremely well done.

{{quote| '''Guinan:''' Consider that in the history of many worlds there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that nobody else wants to do because it's too difficult or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable... You don't have to think about their welfare, you don't think about how they feel... Whole generations of disposable people.~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Guinan:''' Consider that in the history of many worlds there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that nobody else wants to do because it's too difficult or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable... You don't have to think about their welfare, you don't think about how they feel... Whole generations of disposable people.

'''Capt. Picard:''' ...You're talking about slavery.~~ ~~

'''Capt. Picard:''' ...You're talking about slavery.

'''Guinan:''' I think that's a little harsh.~~ ~~

'''Guinan:''' I think that's a little harsh.

'''Capt. Picard:''' I don't think that's a little harsh, I think that's the truth. But that's a truth that we have obscured behind a... comfortable, easy euphemism: ''Property''. But that's not the issue at all - is it? }}

** "Muse" is basically a plea for understanding from the writers of the oft-criticized series ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'', showing how they're pulled between the desire to create meaningful works of art, the need to satisfy those paying their wages, and the demands of the audience for action and romance - all told through the point-of-view of a struggling poet on a primitive world trying to create a play from the logs of a crashed Voyager shuttlecraft.

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** The first really ''big'' anvil came in the episode "Abysinnia, Henry": '''[[Anybody Can Die]]'''. And they didn't even rely on just the force of gravity to drop it, either.

** The Introduction of Col. Sherman Potter dropped the "it's about all wars" anvil even harder. Potter has fought through WWI, WWII, ''and'' Korea, and often reminisces about his experiences. In one episode, he mourns some old comrades:

{{quote| Here’s to you boys. To Ryan: who died in W-W-One; the war to end all wars. To Gianelli: who died in the war after that.}}

{{quote|Here’s to you boys. To Ryan: who died in W-W-One; the war to end all wars. To Gianelli: who died in the war after that.}}

** He drops one himself in an episode where a specialist is brought in to inform the gang of new weapons, and the usual [[Class Clown]] antics push him to the limit:

{{quote| '''Col. Potter''': Lemme ask you this, if they can invent new ways to mutilate the human body, why can't someone invent a way to end this... ''[[Tear Jerker|stupid war?!]]''}}

{{quote|'''Col. Potter''': Lemme ask you this, if they can invent new ways to mutilate the human body, why can't someone invent a way to end this... ''[[Tear Jerker|stupid war?!]]''}}

* The last episode of ''[[Blackadder]] Goes Forth'' dropped the same who-would-notice-if-you-were-mad-in-war-because-all-generals-are-equally-mad anvil as ''Catch 22'', but because it dropped it on the entire cast, mere minutes after the last joke, it achieved an epic anti-war message with its famed [[Downer Ending]].

* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'': Olivia Benson's speech in the episode "Babes" about why teenagers shouldn't have babies is as anvilicious as they come. However, since the plot was [[Ripped from the Headlines]] about a club of teen girls who all wanted to get pregnant together, some viewers thought it a ''desperately'' needed anvil. (This was less true after the revelation that those headlines were false, the "pregnancy club" never existed, and the whole thing was made up by an assistant principal with an overactive imagination.) But that doesn't excuse the fact that 20% of all teenage pregnancies are planned.

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** Another is "Tommy's Not Gay", that dealt with gay bashers and hate crimes. They hit everything from peer pressure to Matthew Shepard to [[Stupid Sexy Flanders]] moments to the social ramifications of coming out of the closet. By the end, Titus was explaining that everyone's a racist and we'd all prefer if the people we feel uncomfortable around were separated into their own little groups, pointing out "over there and over there and over there", eventually mimicking the Nazi salute. "You see how this can get out of hand."

* ''[[Judge John Deed]]'''s episode "Popular Appeal" is very little other than [[Take That|one giant middle finger]] aimed at ''[[Big Brother]]'' (and shows of its ilk) and the perennial media circus that surrounds it. [[The BBC]] frequently airs repeats of it up against the ''Big Brother'' finale. The final summing up is what makes the episode, in which the producers of a reality show called ''Dungeon'' are made to face manslaughter charges after a contestant is killed on-screen (it's made fairly clear that [[Ratings Stunt|that was the the producers' hope]] - ''Dungeon'' seems to amount to a more calculated version of the Stanford Prison Experiment). They were found guilty.

{{quote| '''Deed:''' Celebrity! The pursuit of the talentless, by the mindless. It's become a disease of the twenty-first century. It pollutes our society, and it diminishes all who seek it, and all who worship it. And you must bear some of the responsibility for foisting this empty nonsense onto a gullible public.}}

{{quote|'''Deed:''' Celebrity! The pursuit of the talentless, by the mindless. It's become a disease of the twenty-first century. It pollutes our society, and it diminishes all who seek it, and all who worship it. And you must bear some of the responsibility for foisting this empty nonsense onto a gullible public.}}

* ''[[Extras]]'' took on the "celebrity is bad" Aesop as well, but in a different way. The finale special is pretty darn [[Anvilicious|heavy-handed]] in telling us that being a celebrity isn't worth it, if you've betrayed the only people who cared about you, celebrity or not. Making fun of ''[[Big Brother]]'' and their ilk in the process? [[Hilarity Ensues|Just bonus.]]

* ''[[Full House]]'' teaches us that ''any'' problem can be solved by talking it through, that your friends and family will be there for you no matter what, and that ''any'' situation can be improved by a hug.

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* ''[[Dragnet]]'' became more erratic in quality and heavy-handed in execution as the years went by, but it often had strong [[Aesop|aesops]] worth recalling:

** In the 1968 episode [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0565654/ The Big Departure], Friday and Gannon deliver a grand speech to the young anarchists about just how much they have gotten from the society they grew up in, and how much it protects them, and how difficult it would be to recreate what they have from nothing.

{{quote| '''Sergeant Joe Friday:''' I don't know, maybe part of it's the fact that you're in a hurry. You've grown up on instant orange juice. Flip a dial - instant entertainment. Dial seven digits - instant communication. Turn a key - push a pedal - instant transportation. Flash a card - instant money. Shove in a problem - push a few buttons - instant answers. But some problems you can't get quick answers for, no matter how much you want them. We took a little boy into Central Receiving Hospital yesterday; he's four years old. He weighs eight-and-a-half pounds. His parents just hadn't bothered to feed him. Now give me a fast answer to that one; one that'll stop that from ever happening again. And if you can't settle that one, how about the 55,000 Americans who'll die on the highway this year? That's nearly six or seven times the number that'll get killed in Vietnam. Why aren't you up in arms about that? Or is dying in a car somehow moral? Show me how to wipe out prejudice. I'll settle for the prejudices you have inside yourselves. Show me how to get rid of the unlimited capacity for human beings to make themselves believe they're somehow right - and justified - in stealing from somebody, or hurting somebody, and you'll just about put this place here out of business!~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Sergeant Joe Friday:''' I don't know, maybe part of it's the fact that you're in a hurry. You've grown up on instant orange juice. Flip a dial - instant entertainment. Dial seven digits - instant communication. Turn a key - push a pedal - instant transportation. Flash a card - instant money. Shove in a problem - push a few buttons - instant answers. But some problems you can't get quick answers for, no matter how much you want them. We took a little boy into Central Receiving Hospital yesterday; he's four years old. He weighs eight-and-a-half pounds. His parents just hadn't bothered to feed him. Now give me a fast answer to that one; one that'll stop that from ever happening again. And if you can't settle that one, how about the 55,000 Americans who'll die on the highway this year? That's nearly six or seven times the number that'll get killed in Vietnam. Why aren't you up in arms about that? Or is dying in a car somehow moral? Show me how to wipe out prejudice. I'll settle for the prejudices you have inside yourselves. Show me how to get rid of the unlimited capacity for human beings to make themselves believe they're somehow right - and justified - in stealing from somebody, or hurting somebody, and you'll just about put this place here out of business!

'''Officer Bill Gannon:''' Don't think we're telling you to lose your ideals or your sense of outrage. They're the only way things ever get done. And there's a lot more that still needs doing. And we hope you'll tackle it. You don't have to do anything dramatic like coming up with a better country. You can find enough to keep you busy right here. In the meantime, don't break things up in the name of progress or crack a placard stick over someone's head to make him see the light. Be careful of his rights. Because your property and your person and your rights aren't any better than his. And the next time you may be the one to get it. We remember a man who killed six million people, and called it social improvement.~~ ~~

'''Officer Bill Gannon:''' Don't think we're telling you to lose your ideals or your sense of outrage. They're the only way things ever get done. And there's a lot more that still needs doing. And we hope you'll tackle it. You don't have to do anything dramatic like coming up with a better country. You can find enough to keep you busy right here. In the meantime, don't break things up in the name of progress or crack a placard stick over someone's head to make him see the light. Be careful of his rights. Because your property and your person and your rights aren't any better than his. And the next time you may be the one to get it. We remember a man who killed six million people, and called it social improvement.

'''Sergeant Joe Friday:''' Don't try to build a new country. Make this one work. It has for over four hundred years; and by the world's standards, that's hardly more than yesterday. }}

* The Disney Channel movie ''Sixteen Wishes'' is about a teenage girl on her 16th birthday and wishing that she would be treated like an adult. This results in a [[Be Careful What You Wish For]] story where she actually becomes an adult and learns that adulthood is not all it's cracked up to be. In our modern society where kids are growing up too quickly, especially with what's popular on the Disney Channel of all things nowadays, this could not be a more important lesson for kids and "tweens" to take to heart.

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* The [[Speculative Documentary]] [[Earth 2100]] talks about the worst case scenario that could occur if we continue to pollute and waste resources. The [[Green Aesop]] basically says "The earth is our home, and we should not take it for granted."

* The episode of ''[[Party of Five]]'' where Julia discovers she's pregnant has a very powerful line from Justin:

{{quote| "You know, just once it would be nice if someone asked if I was okay. This is my baby we're talking about as well"}}

{{quote|"You know, just once it would be nice if someone asked if I was okay. This is my baby we're talking about as well"}}

** It's a given in any episode dealing with unplanned pregnancy that the mother-to-be will get a lot of drama but how often do you see the father's side? The father is normally either portrayed as a deadbeat or the one responsible for the whole mess, but how many examples are there where the Anvil gets dropped that the father is just a kid as well.

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** Also "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy", which is a commentary on how many people died for the sake of "progress" during the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and how many of them were Chinese migrants who were paid much less than their Caucasian counterparts.

** Yet another Gordon Lightfoot song is his 1968 "Black Day In July", about the 1967 Detroit race riots. Radio stations in 30 states banned the song, fearing that it would incite further violence.

{{quote| Why can't we all be brothers?~~ ~~

{{quote|Why can't we all be brothers?

Why can't we live in peace?~~ ~~

Why can't we live in peace?

But the hands of the have-nots keep falling out of reach... }}

* "I Was Only Nineteen/A Walk In The Light Green" by Australian folk rock protest band Redgum and covered by the Herd manages to completely explain the horrors of the Vietnam war and the stupidity of war in general.

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** Also, his song "My Youngest Son Came Home Today" (sometimes mistakenly believed to have been written by Billy Bragg, who covered it).

* No one would call "Christmas in the Trenches" subtle, but grown men have been driven to tears by it.

** Jona Lewie's Stop The Cavalry has pretty much the same message, but people hear it as a cute Christmas song.

* [[Black Sabbath]]'s "War Pigs" wouldn't gain anything by being subtle.

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** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP4clbHc4Xg Make It Stop] is the 9001 ton anvil that they felt needed to be dropped.

* [[Michael Jackson]] - "Man in the Mirror" [1987]. It even hangs a lampshade:

{{quote| "I'm starting with the man in the mirror~~ ~~

{{quote|"I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways~~ ~~

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer,~~ ~~

And no message could have been any clearer,

If you wanna make the world a better place~~ ~~

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and make a change" }}

** The videos for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Hcd60VoRM "Earth Song"] and "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nAvTVeR6o They Don't Really Care About Us]" also qualify.

** Also, "Black or White", about racism and accepting people for who they are.

* Pagan Altar's "Armageddon", "The Interlude", and "The Aftermath", meant to be listened to in sequence, describe a nuclear war that obliterates human civilization.

{{quote| "Chariots of fire rode roughshod through the world,~~ ~~

{{quote|"Chariots of fire rode roughshod through the world,

Men of vision stood ridiculed, seen but never heard.~~ ~~

Men of vision stood ridiculed, seen but never heard.

Cries of disillusionment were drowned by man's desire~~ ~~

Cries of disillusionment were drowned by man's desire

And the need for mass destruction~~ ~~

And the need for mass destruction

Fueled the raging fire." }}

* [[John Lennon]]'s entire solo career revolves around [[War Is Hell]] anvils. He gave up on subtlety with so many of his Beatles songs (and those of the other group members) being [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|misinterpreted]], the ultimate example being the Charles Manson murders. He wanted to make it very clear what messages he was sending.

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* Franco De Vita's "No basta" has the anvil "It isn't enough satisfying your offspring's material needs and wants, you also must ''care'' for them and give then moral guidance and emotional support before they get it in other places (or substances) and before they become too old to even consider hearing you". It's like a [[Very Special Episode]] in 4 minutes, but it's also one of his best songs, and, given that the song is very obviously directed to fathers (which in Latin America tend to be the biggest absence in many a kid's upbringing, even if they ''are'' living with the mother), that anvil is a very needed one.

* Folk songs. Only when the songs themselves aren't totally anvilicious to begin with. Good examples from Bob Dylan: "Masters of War," "Oxford Town," "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," and especially "With God on Our Side:"

{{quote| If God's on our side,~~ ~~

{{quote|If God's on our side,

He'll stop the next war }}

** [[Phil Ochs]] was a particularly cutting 60s folk singer whose Anviliciousness was offset with biting wit, particularly in "Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends" (an anti-apathy song) and "Love Me, I'm A Liberal" (about the hypocrisy of mainstream leftists—it was even updated in the 90s by Jello Biafra!)

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* This list wouldn't be complete without ''The Legend of Billy Jack'', aka ''One Tin Soldier''. Peace on Earth, indeed.

* Bruce Hornsby's ''The Way It Is'', and it's equally good remake by [[Tupac Shakur]], retitled ''Changes''.

{{quote| '''Hornsby's version:'''~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Hornsby's version:'''

''They say hey little boy, you can't go where the others go''~~ ~~

''They say hey little boy, you can't go where the others go''

''Cuz you don't look like they do''~~ ~~

''Cuz you don't look like they do''

''Say hey old man, how can you stand to think that way''~~ ~~

''Say hey old man, how can you stand to think that way''

''Did you really think about it before you made the rules''~~ ~~

''Did you really think about it before you made the rules''

''He said Son''~~ ~~

''He said Son''

''That's just the way it is, some things will never change''~~ ~~

''That's just the way it is, some things will never change''

''That's just the way it is,'' '''oh but don't you believe them''' }}

{{quote| '''Tupac's breakdown:'''~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Tupac's breakdown:'''

''We gotta make a change...''~~ ~~

''We gotta make a change...''

''It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.''~~ ~~

''It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.''

''Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live''~~ ~~

''Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live''

''and let's change the way we treat each other.''~~ ~~

''and let's change the way we treat each other.''

''You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do''~~ ~~

''You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do''

''what we gotta do, to survive.'' }}

* While political punk music basically ''is'' this trope, Propagandhi do it particularly well. They manage to sum up their entire ideology in a couple of lines at the end of the two-minute song ''Resisting Tyrannical Government'':

{{quote| ''And yes, I recognise the irony: the system I oppose affords me the luxury of biting the hand that feeds. That's exactly why priveliged fucks like me should feel obliged to whine and kick and scream - until everyone has everything they need.''}}

{{quote|''And yes, I recognise the irony: the system I oppose affords me the luxury of biting the hand that feeds. That's exactly why priveliged fucks like me should feel obliged to whine and kick and scream - until everyone has everything they need.''}}

* [[Queen]] was no stranger to this. And their most perfect [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|Anvil that needed to be dropped]] was ''Is this the World we Created?'' Especially in their ''Live Aid'' performance.

* Australian band ''The Cat Empire'' has the song ''The Chariot'':

{{quote| "this song is written 'bout my friends~~ ~~

{{quote|"this song is written 'bout my friends

it's engraved into this song so they know I'm not forgetting them~~ ~~

it's engraved into this song so they know I'm not forgetting them

Maybe if the world contain[s] more people like these~~ ~~

Maybe if the world contain[s] more people like these

The the news would not be telling me 'bout all our warfare endlessly..." }}

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* [[Loudness]] has done this repeatedly. See [[Protest Song]] on their page. Among others, [[War Is Hell]] is a VERY common theme, but everything from spammers to meta on [[Heavy Metal]] to animal testing to religion has gotten its turn.

* [[Frank Zappa]] dropped so many anvils in his time, it was like "Anvil Chorus", but the anvils never took away from the music. Some ''particularly'' anvilicious albums:

{{quote| ''Freak Out''(well, every other song)~~ ~~

{{quote|''Freak Out''(well, every other song)

''Absolutely Free''~~ ~~

''Absolutely Free''

''We're Only In It For The Money''~~ ~~

''We're Only In It For The Money''

''Joe's Garage''~~ ~~

''Joe's Garage''

''You Are What You Is''~~ ~~

''You Are What You Is''

''Thing-Fish'' }}

* [[Jethro Tull]] drops them by the megaton, but this just makes their music all the more brilliant. Some of ''their'' more anvilicious albums:

{{quote| ''Aqualung''~~ ~~

{{quote|''Aqualung''

''Thick As A Brick''~~ ~~

''Thick As A Brick''

''A Passion Play''~~ ~~

''A Passion Play''

''WarChild''~~ ~~

''WarChild''

''Stormwatch''~~ ~~

''Stormwatch''

''A'' }}

* [[Suzanne Vega]]'s "Luka" - Child abuse and how no one should ignore the plight of the children enduring it.

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* Almost every song by Tracy Chapman has an anvil that gets dropped - greed, helping your family, racial tension, domestic abuse - she runs the gamut.

** From ''Behind The Wall'':

{{quote| Last night I heard the screaming~~ ~~

{{quote|Last night I heard the screaming

Loud voices behind the wall~~ ~~

Loud voices behind the wall

Another sleepless night for me~~ ~~

Another sleepless night for me

It won't do no good to call~~ ~~

It won't do no good to call

The police~~ ~~

The police

Always come late~~ ~~

Always come late

If they come at all~~ ~~

If they come at all

And when they arrive~~ ~~

And when they arrive

They say they can't interfere~~ ~~

They say they can't interfere

With domestic affairs~~ ~~

With domestic affairs

Between a man and his wife~~ ~~

Between a man and his wife

And as they walk out the door~~ ~~

And as they walk out the door

The tears well up in her eyes }}

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IctjZXTg7iQ "Young"] by Hollywood Undead. "When adults wage war, children are the ones who pay the most." (Link is to an [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]] AMV because ''that'' series dropped that anvil as well).

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* [[Tori Amos]]' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKzCxi2yf5s "Me and a Gun"], which is about her real-life rape. Many victims came to terms with their rape because of it, and it lead to Tori co-founding RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), the largest anti-sexual assault organization in America.

* [[Kate Bush]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n2VSe_lja4 "Breathing"], which was released during the Cold War. It's about a fetus knowing that a nuclear fallout has happened, but it still wants to live.

{{quote| ''My radar send me danger, but my instincts tell me to keep breathing.''}}

{{quote|''My radar send me danger, but my instincts tell me to keep breathing.''}}

* [[Peter Gabriel]] has lots of these, especially on his third self-titled album ("Melt"). "Family Snapshot" humanizes Lee Harvey Oswald to show how even the most evil among us start out as ordinary humans, "Games Without Frontiers" analogizes the absurdity of warfare in the context of a 70s game show reminiscent of Global Guts, and "Biko" is a stirring tribute to Stephen Biko, one of the first prominent anti-apartheid activists in South Africa to gain worldwide recognition.

* Johnny Cash's song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfI9B8e9tW4&NR=1 "Man in Black"] explains why Johnny Cash all ways wore black on stage, say that as long as there was suffering and injustice in the world, he would wear black to remind us.

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* A bit meta maybe, but members of Franz Ferdinand are willing to forthrightly state what many people [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYruygabgUE need to hear].

* Metallica gets a couple "war is hell" Anvils dropped in some of their best songs. The most up-front is "Disposable Heroes", which alternates between the view of a soldier for the verses, and his commander for the chorus:

{{quote| "Back to the front~~ ~~

{{quote|"Back to the front

You will do, what I say, when I say~~ ~~

You will do, what I say, when I say

Back to the front~~ ~~

Back to the front

You will die, when I say, you must die~~ ~~

You will die, when I say, you must die

Back to the front" }}

** Their more famous "One", from the view of a [[And I Must Scream|severely-disabled]] veteran, hits it just as hard:

{{quote| "Darkness imprisoning me \ All that I see \ Absolute Horror \ I cannot live \ I cannot die \ Trapped in myself \ Body my holding cell"}}

{{quote|"Darkness imprisoning me \ All that I see \ Absolute Horror \ I cannot live \ I cannot die \ Trapped in myself \ Body my holding cell"}}

** And yet again in "For Whom the Bell Tolls":

{{quote| "For a hill \ Men would kill \ Why? \ They do not know. \ Stiffened wounds test their pride. ~~ ~~

{{quote|"For a hill \ Men would kill \ Why? \ They do not know. \ Stiffened wounds test their pride.

Men of five \ Still alive through the raging glow \ Gone insane \ from the pain that they surely know ~~ ~~

Men of five \ Still alive through the raging glow \ Gone insane \ from the pain that they surely know

[[Title Drop|For Whom the Bell Tolls]] }}

** Also "Hero of the Day", on the same theme, or "...And Justice for All" about the failings of the legal system, and "Master of Puppets" and "Frantic" on the "drugs-are-bad" theme.

** Dyer's Eve is about someone blaming his/her parents for overprotecting him/her and leaving him/her unprepared for life.

* "Going To A Town" by [[Rufus Wainwright]] expresses his disappointment with America's role in the world under the Bush administration and the rampant homophobia used by politicians for political gains at the expense of its most vulnerable citizens. The message is loud, clear, and unforgiving.

{{quote| Tell me, do you really think you go to hell for having loved~~ ~~

{{quote|Tell me, do you really think you go to hell for having loved

Tell me, and not for thinking everything that you've done is good~~ ~~

Tell me, and not for thinking everything that you've done is good

I really need to know, after soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood~~ ~~

I really need to know, after soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood

I'm so tired of America }}

** To further hammer the point home, during at least one live performance of the song he's dedicated it to the late Edward M. Kennedy, whose successor in the US Senate Rufus is not a fan of.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXlB_Vk9VQ "You Say the Battle is Over"] by John Denver contains a [[Green Aesop]] mixed with [[Humans Are Bastards]].

{{quote| Now the blame cannot fall~~ ~~

{{quote|Now the blame cannot fall

On the heads of a few~~ ~~

On the heads of a few

It's become such a part of the race~~ ~~

It's become such a part of the race

It's eternally tragic~~ ~~

It's eternally tragic

That that which is magic~~ ~~

That that which is magic

Be killed at the end of the glorious chase~~ ~~

Be killed at the end of the glorious chase

From young seals to great whales

From ~~waters~~ to ~~wood<br~~ />

From young seals to great whales

From waters to wood

They will fall just like weeds in the wind~~ ~~

They will fall just like weeds in the wind

With fur coats and perfumes~~ ~~

With fur coats and perfumes

And trophies on walls~~ ~~

And trophies on walls

What a hell of a race to call men }}

** According to Jello Biafra, Denver was dropped by RCA Records over this plus his testimony before Congress against the [[Moral Guardians|Parents Music Resource Center]].

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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfz_QtVM-hk "Sex is Not the Enemy"] by Garbage: "Sex isn't bad, and you shouldn't be ashamed of your sex life."

* "Heaven is Falling", which [[Bad Religion]] originally released as an "emergency" 7-inch during the first Gulf War. Given the lead time for CD production -- and the brevity of many "wars" against overwhelmingly-disadvantaged opponents -- they didn't think people should have had to wait for the release of ''Generator'' to hear the song:

{{quote| God I know that it's wrong~~ ~~

{{quote|God I know that it's wrong

To kill my brother for what he hasn't done~~ ~~

To kill my brother for what he hasn't done

And as the planes blacken the sky~~ ~~

And as the planes blacken the sky

It sounds like heaven is falling~~ ~~

It sounds like heaven is falling

You promised me a new day dawning~~ ~~

You promised me a new day dawning

I've seen a thousand points of light~~ ~~

I've seen a thousand points of light

Like so many points of hatred, shame and horror }}

* [[Gorillaz]]' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH1UmMu3R7o "Feel Good Inc"] is especially [[Anvilicious]] when accompanied by the video. The anvil - hedonism is not a way to live your life and it will imprison you sooner or later, leaving you yearning to go back to the little joys of your innocent youth.

* "Slow Down Ghandi," by Sage Francis:

{{quote| So what's the truth, quit seeking forgiveness~~ ~~

{{quote|So what's the truth, quit seeking forgiveness

You need to cut the noose, but you don't believe in scissors~~ ~~

You need to cut the noose, but you don't believe in scissors

You support the troops by wearing yellow ribbons?~~ ~~

You support the troops by wearing yellow ribbons?

Just bring home our motherfuckin' brothers and sisters }}

* Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle". The anvil is to be there for your kids, and appreciate your time with them. The real tragedy to that song, of course, is that the son DIDN'T grow up just like the father - who would never let "... and the kid's got the flu ..." interfere with his affairs.

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* India.Arie's I Am Not My Hair: Drops an anvil on the black community that is [[Serious Business|way to focus]] [[But Not Too Black|on achieving a Eurocentric look.]]

* Lauryn Hill, similar to India.Arie above, released some very anvilicious songs before deciding celebrity wasn't worth it. ''That Thing'' called out people in the black community who claimed to be Christians and Muslims but behaved like sex-crazed exhibitionists. It was practically a sermon, but damn if it didn't make for some fine listening

{{quote| How you gonna win when you ain't right within?~~ ~~

{{quote|How you gonna win when you ain't right within?

Uh-uh, come again. }}

* [[Pink]]'s "Stupid Girls" urges young women to ''think''.

{{quote| Disasters all around~~ ~~

{{quote|Disasters all around

A world of despair~~ ~~

A world of despair

Their only concern~~ ~~

Their only concern

Will it **** up my hair?~~ ~~

Will it **** up my hair?

* The song and especially the video can be pretty heavy-handed and downright mean to the type of girl she's ripping into, but in a world where eating disorders and plastic surgery overload are becoming increasingly common, someone needed to let people (not just girls) know your ''brain'' is just as important. }}

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVNlG5cZyQ Raise Your Glass]" and "F***in' Perfect" are both [[Be Yourself]] anthems, the latter with a strong anti-suicide theme. (Especially in the [[NSFW|video]].)

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* Billy Joel's "Leningrad": both sides of the cold war were just people - basically the same in the end.

{{quote| "We never knew what friends we had until we came to Leningrad."}}

{{quote|"We never knew what friends we had until we came to Leningrad."}}

* Tomboy's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j4t185wl-0 "It's OK to be Gay"] is [[Refuge in Audacity|too ridiculous to be taken seriously]], yet [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|the message]] is too important to ignore.

* [[Adam Lambert]]'s "Aftermath" has a message which basically boils down to [[You Are Not Alone|you are never alone]]. Proceeds from a remix of the song went to the [http://www.thetrevorproject.org/ The Trevor Project].

{{quote| Anytime anybody pulls you down~~ ~~

{{quote|Anytime anybody pulls you down

Anytime anybody says you're not allowed~~ ~~

Anytime anybody says you're not allowed

Just remember you are not alone~~ ~~

Just remember you are not alone

In the aftermath. }}

* The [[Bowling for Soup]] song ''I'm Gay'' is essentially the message of the [[Justice League]] episode below: You don't have to be serious. Sometimes all that matters is if you have fun and enjoy doing what you're doing. And no, its not Jarret Reddick coming out of the closet.

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* [[Tom Robinson]]'s protest song, "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lR3ffBsMTc Glad To Be Gay]". Nothing with that title is going to be subtle; the song is bitingly bitter, sarcastic, angry, and delightful -- and released in the ''mid-seventies''.

* [[David Bowie]]'s "Repetition" (''Lodger'', 1979) is a clanging, dissonant tune that threatens to bruise the ears, but once you've digested the lyrics it makes sense that it be so -- it's a blunt description of the life and mindset of a [[Domestic Abuser]] and the cowed acceptance of his victims, a subject undeserving of melodic or vocal tenderness.

{{quote| Well Johnny is a man~~ ~~

{{quote|Well Johnny is a man

And he's bigger than her~~ ~~

And he's bigger than her

I guess the bruises won't show~~ ~~

I guess the bruises won't show

If she wears long sleeves~~ ~~

If she wears long sleeves

But the space in her eyes~~ ~~

But the space in her eyes

Shows through }}

* ''[[Rush]]'' has "The Pass" - which states that suicide is NEVER the answer, and that there is always hope.

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* El Général, who wrote and performed the song Rais Ebled, dropped an anvil that needed dropping. It opened the floodgate and started the Tunisian Revolution.

* [[Elton John]]'s "American Triangle", which is about the real-life murder of Matthew Shepard [[Bury Your Gays|for being gay]].

{{quote| 'Western skies' don't make it right~~ ~~

{{quote|'Western skies' don't make it right

'Home of the brave' don't make no sense~~ ~~

'Home of the brave' don't make no sense

I've seen a scarecrow wrapped in wire~~ ~~

I've seen a scarecrow wrapped in wire

Left to die on a high ridge fence~~ ~~

Left to die on a high ridge fence

It's a cold, cold wind~~ ~~

It's a cold, cold wind

It's a cold, cold wind~~ ~~

It's a cold, cold wind

It's a cold wind blowing, Wyoming }}

* [http://www.facebook.com/RyanCasataMusic Ryan Cassata] seems to be very fond of this:

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** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvFKEZyv_YE "Hands of Hate"] is about the murders of Mathew Shepard and Lawrence King, and the suicides of Tyler Clementi and Jamey Rodemeyer. All four gay youth.

** "In My Hands" is about anti-LGBT bullying, and was written after he received many letters from LGBT kids telling him about how they had been bullied.

{{quote| And I'm holding people's stories in my my hands~~ ~~

{{quote|And I'm holding people's stories in my my hands

'Cause they write me, and they tell me what's gone wrong~~ ~~

'Cause they write me, and they tell me what's gone wrong

And I'm holding people's stories in my hands~~ ~~

And I'm holding people's stories in my hands

Because they write me, and they told me who's to blame~~ ~~

Because they write me, and they told me who's to blame

'Cause they write me, and they told me you're to blame }}

* "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World. Explicit in its theme, it is still something that many a generation of confused and insecure teenagers need repeated back to them. Don't let other people make you question your self-worth, you are worthwhile.

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* "The Irony Of It All" by UK rap/garage outfit The Streets, which all but hammers its message of marijuana's relative harmlessness, compared with the many serious issues with alcohol abuse. Tim the pothead introduces himself as a criminal in his verses, but is practically harmless to the point of not complaining when the pizza delivery sends him the wrong order. Terry the alcoholic lout describes himself as a "law-abider" throughout his verses, but gets into fights regularly and mentions spitting in the face of a police officer.

* [[Sabaton]]. [[War Is Hell]]. There in no right side or wrong side, just soldiers dying in the mud because of politicians' games. "Angels Calling" ("Hell on Earth.[]..the ultimate test is a synchronized sacrifice.[]..Dream of Heaven, angels are calling your name") and particularly "The Price of a Mile".

{{quote| Six miles of ground has been won~~ ~~

{{quote|Six miles of ground has been won

Half a million men are gone~~ ~~

Half a million men are gone

And as the men crawled the general called~~ ~~

And as the men crawled the general called

And the killing carried on and carried on~~ ~~

And the killing carried on and carried on

What was the purpose of it all?~~ ~~

What was the purpose of it all?

What is the price of a mile? }}

* [[Moxy Fruvous]], especially in their early days - from ''Bargainville'', their first album, we get "River Valley" (environmentalism), their cover of "Spider Man" (over-comercialization and jingoization of products aimed at children), "The Band Played On" (dangerous binge drinking), and "Gulf War Song" about the polarization of political positions, with the inimitable line:

{{quote| What makes a person so poisonous righteous~~ ~~

{{quote|What makes a person so poisonous righteous

That he'll think less of anyone who just disagrees? }}

* [[Great Big Sea]] used to sing about Canadian east-coast political issues, dropping anvils regarding the loss of a valid, viable fishery due to deregulation and commercialization and subsequent overfishing ("Fisherman's Lament"), election promises leading nowhere ("Someday Soon"), and the grand-scale personal depression that follows on the heels of economic depression ("Nothing Out Of Nothing").

* Ed Sheeran's song ''The A Team'' is, by itself, a touching song about a prostitute who's addicted to illegal drugs. It's not obvious enough to be anvilicious, but the message doesn't take much decoding to understand. ''Little Lady'' is a collaboration using parts of ''The A Team'' with Mikill Pane, who raps about an immigrant whose mother worked to send her to Britain to live with her uncle, in hopes of her having a better life. The girl's uncle is a pimp who brutalises the girl, and when his attacks force her to go to a hospital, she attracts the attention of a nurse who calls the police. The girl refuses to co-operate, and when she goes home she is murdered by her uncle when he sees the number the police gave her to call. Moral:{{spoiler|prostitutes do not deserve to be vilified and punished. They are the victims of their crime, stuck in horrific situations, and they deserve to be helped.}}

* The [[Power Metal]] band Metal Church dropped many anvils during their time with Mike Howe as singer (1989-94) but none so effectively as "In Mourning" and "In Harm's Way" off of ''The Human Factor''. All children need to be given love, guidance, and a stable family, and that the lack of these is what causes school shootings, suicide, and other childhood tragedies.

{{quote| ''Maybe if you'd listen than you'd know what I just said~~ ~~

{{quote|''Maybe if you'd listen than you'd know what I just said

If you think the words I'm singing are why your kids are dead~~ ~~

If you think the words I'm singing are why your kids are dead

Maybe could it be that no one was there to hear~~ ~~

Maybe could it be that no one was there to hear

Did you pay attention to their angers and their fears?~~ ~~

Did you pay attention to their angers and their fears?

You're trying to find someone to blame who can't be put on trial~~ ~~

You're trying to find someone to blame who can't be put on trial

The enemy you're looking for is laughing all the while~~ ~~

The enemy you're looking for is laughing all the while

I mourn for those who have been so deceived~~ ~~

I mourn for those who have been so deceived

You know the last words that they spoke were "Who loves me?"~~ ~~

You know the last words that they spoke were "Who loves me?"

I hope that someday you will stop and realize~~ ~~

I hope that someday you will stop and realize

Just why so many kids have died'' }}

* [[REM]]'s lyrics are usually very cryptic, but ''Everybody Hurts'' is so plainly expressed that it might as well be being spoken directly to someone who's contemplating suicide. The message: [[You Are Not Alone]], however much it may feel like it. Most of humanity will have been depressed at some point, and there are people who are willing to help and don't want you to end your life.

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** Everyone's a little bit racist, so chill out and we'll all get along better. Charity feels good.

** Also, it's ok if you don't live up to your dreams right now. You've got your whole life ahead of you, so enjoy it.

{{quote| "If you were gay~~ ~~

{{quote|"If you were gay

that'd be okay~~ ~~

that'd be okay

I mean cause hey~~ ~~

I mean cause hey

I'd like you anyway" }}

* ''We Will Rock You'' pretty much lives off the 'Don't be like everyone else' Aesop.

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* [[Little Shop of Horrors]] drops its anvil of "Don't give into temptation" very well, especially through its finale song, "Don't Feed The Plants".

* It wasn't the original main purpose of the play, but ''[[Inherit the Wind]]'' has a powerful message about the value of human reason over unthinking faith:

{{quote| '''Drummond''': "In a child's power to master the multiplication table, there is more sanctity than in all your shouted "amens" and "holy holies" and "hosannas." An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters."}}

{{quote|'''Drummond''': "In a child's power to master the multiplication table, there is more sanctity than in all your shouted "amens" and "holy holies" and "hosannas." An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters."}}

* Reba [[Mc Entire]]'s song "She Thinks His Name Was John" is about a woman who contracts HIV/AIDS from a one-night stand. It was released in the mid 90's, a time when many people thought only homosexuals could contract the disease.

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* The CoD games in general love smacking the player in the face with an anvil labeled "war is hell."

** ''[[Call of Duty]] 4'': The part where you {{spoiler|play as a soldier crawling around just before dying from the aftereffects of a nuclear explosion}}. The worst part of that one scene hits so much harder because of the level before, and the reason you're {{spoiler|not at a safe distance.}} You stick around to rescue a downed pilot, because "[[No Man Gets Left Behind]]", and it seems like things will turn out well. And then {{spoiler|NUKE}}, ruining any hopes of a happy ending. Despair hits so much harder when it has hope to contrast with.

{{quote| "[[Zero Punctuation|It was an unflinching and effective statement that cheered me up immensely.]]"}}

{{quote|"[[Zero Punctuation|It was an unflinching and effective statement that cheered me up immensely.]]"}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' dropped a clearly [[Green Aesop|environmentalist]] anvil by literally showing a company sucking out the life out of the planet to use as a fuel source. All the over-the-top additions, such as a corrupt president, the repetition of the phrase "the planet is dying", and even ''{{spoiler|a botched public execution to try to throw off the blame}}'' only added to the message.

** A subtler aesop is "Be yourself and not who you think you should be".

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** Also, "don't try to force your kid to grow up to the way you would like him to grow up. It'll only create negative feelings to both sides, and after all, being different is a good thing."

* ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'': People with disabilities are just that - ''people''. Nothing [[Disability Superpower|more]], nothing [[Disabled Means Helpless|less]]. [[Patrick Stewart Speech|And never ever forget that]] [[You Are Not Alone|"You are not alone,]] [[Heartwarming Moments|and you are not strange.]] [[I Am What I Am|You are you,]] [[Humans Are Flawed|and everyone has damage.]] [[Rousseau Was Right|Be the better person."]]

{{quote| -'''[http://i.imgur.com/9JeSr.jpg A message from Four Leaf Studios]'''}}

{{quote|-'''[http://i.imgur.com/9JeSr.jpg A message from Four Leaf Studios]'''}}

* [[Kingdom Hearts]] could not hammer home its message that [[The Power of Friendship|as long as you stay loyal to your friends, you'll always be okay]] any harder, and although it does become [[Narm]] on occasion, it can still be touching, and that anvil should probably be dropped as often as humanly possible, because, yes, good friends do make it possible to survive anything.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' runs on [[Grey and Gray Morality]], and as such it demonstrates that in a war the people on the other side are ''people'' just like the heroes. With the exception of a single minor villain, the Archadians are normal humans beings with dignity, honor, and perfectly understandable reasons for why they do what they do. Even the [[Big Bad]] Vayne is a [[Necessarily Evil]] [[Anti-Villain]]--he is fully aware that he is doing evil things but considers them needed to achieve the ends he desires.

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* ''[[Bioshock]]'' is very unsubtle about its aesop: Utopianism Is Unrealistic.

** Also, from the audio diaries from Minerva's Den:

{{quote| '''Charles Milton Porter''': Sure, you hear it in Rapture. One of the business types asked me, "Why don't you [[White Like Me|splice white]]? Get ahead!" Well, that's some idiocy! I told him, "First of all, I AM ahead. Second, in Rapture, it's your WORK that's supposed to matter, not your skin!" Too bad for some folks you can't splice in common sense.}}

{{quote|'''Charles Milton Porter''': Sure, you hear it in Rapture. One of the business types asked me, "Why don't you [[White Like Me|splice white]]? Get ahead!" Well, that's some idiocy! I told him, "First of all, I AM ahead. Second, in Rapture, it's your WORK that's supposed to matter, not your skin!" Too bad for some folks you can't splice in common sense.}}

* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]''. The Zeal story arc is as [[Anvilicious]] as they come, but it offers an important metaphor for nuclear warfare.

** Heck, every timeframe had some form of racism/segregation: 65,000,000 BC had Reptites oppressing "humans" 12,000 BC had a very clear apartheid allegory 600 and 1000 AD had the war between the ubermensch and the humans And 2300 AD had Robots and their genocide.

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* [[Sonic Battle]] hits us with an anti-war message in a very personal way. The player and characters spend the game bonding to a new character, a robot named Emerl. Emerl was created to be a weapon of war, but for the most part, Sonic and friends put it out of their minds. He's more than a weapon; he's their friend, and like Shadow, he has heart and couldn't willingly kill anyone. When it is acknowledged, Rouge finds codewords that will supposedly free Emerl's mind, disengaging the destructive programming. Then Dr. Eggman unleashes a weapon to overload Emerl with power, making him go crazy and attempt to destroy the Earth. Sonic is able to stop him, but it's too late for Emerl... his final programming was set so if the weapon ever went out of control, it would terminate itself.

** Tails hammers the point home:

{{quote| Someday... If this world finally knows true peace... If this world no longer needs weapons or wars... If we can make this world a truly peaceful place when we're older... If we can make a world where there's only laughter... Do you think we'll be able to play with Emerl again?}}

{{quote|Someday... If this world finally knows true peace... If this world no longer needs weapons or wars... If we can make this world a truly peaceful place when we're older... If we can make a world where there's only laughter... Do you think we'll be able to play with Emerl again?}}

* ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'' finally drops that anvil, in a good way: (spoiler alert)

{{quote| '''Giro''': Don't tell me you forgot your promise already. You did mean it, right?~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Giro''': Don't tell me you forgot your promise already. You did mean it, right?

'''Aile''': Giro!? But, [[In the Blood|the blood that flows in me...]]

'''Giro''': Is just blood. Are you going to let some man you don't even know decide your destiny for you? Destiny is not something that is given to us by others. Destiny comes from the concept of "destine," or directing something towards a given end. Be the one doing the directing. Only you can decide your destiny.

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'''Giro''': Yes. Forget the past. It means nothing. The power you contain within is the key to creating your future. }}

*** There is also this:

{{quote| '''Model Z''': Face your destiny and carve out a new future for yourself. That's the struggle that you and every living thing on the planet must cope with.}}

{{quote|'''Model Z''': Face your destiny and carve out a new future for yourself. That's the struggle that you and every living thing on the planet must cope with.}}

** ''Advent'' stays true and faithful to the Aesop:

{{quote| '''Aile''': I decided to become a Mega Man because I wanted to help people. You're fighting because you're trying to find out who you are, but don't forget. Only you can decide your own destiny. No matter what anyone says you are. The power you contain within is the key to creating your future. That's what a special person said to me.~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Aile''': I decided to become a Mega Man because I wanted to help people. You're fighting because you're trying to find out who you are, but don't forget. Only you can decide your own destiny. No matter what anyone says you are. The power you contain within is the key to creating your future. That's what a special person said to me.

'''Grey''': My destiny... My future. }}

** There's also this. Not even an [[A God Am I|insanely-powerful madman]] could decide your own destiny: (spoiler alert)

{{quote| '''Grey''': Yeah, you're right, I am Defective. I'm just a person named Grey. You couldn't even change the destiny of a regular boy like me. This is the destiny that I've chosen... To live together with the people of this world!~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Grey''': Yeah, you're right, I am Defective. I'm just a person named Grey. You couldn't even change the destiny of a regular boy like me. This is the destiny that I've chosen... To live together with the people of this world!

{{spoiler|'''Albert'''}}: Is that what the "other me" would have said...? Goodbye, ultimate Defective! You can have your gentle peace... and leisurely rot in it! }}

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' 9/10: if you destroy a country and abuse the people, you are going to find yourself with [[La Résistance|terrorists]] on your minds. Today's saviours may be tomorrow's tyrants. Also, justifying [[I Did What I Had to Do|everything you do]] as [[My Country, Right or Wrong|patriotism]] leads to horror.

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* [[Something Positive]] has a [http://somethingpositive.net/sp04032006.shtml comic] that really drives home the point of how absurd racism is.

** ''Many'' anvils are dropped in the arc involving Davan's dad and a "Hell House" - a [http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp10042006.shtml Haunted House aimed at scaring people into accepting Christianity.] And yes - they are real. The quote on the last page is especially Anvilicious

{{quote| R.K. Milholland's Dad: Never confuse the faith with the supposedly faithful.}}

{{quote|R.K. Milholland's Dad: Never confuse the faith with the supposedly faithful.}}

* Winston Rowntree, author of [[Subnormality]], often deals with Aesops and Anvils with the subtlety of a falling stack of bricks. While he can get awfully heavy-handed with his messages in his webcomic, he occasionally pulls off an incredibly effective, powerful Anvil. This is exemplified in [http://www.viruscomix.com/page474.html The Line], a fan favorite which illustrates a chilling, much-needed moral about conformity.

** Also, [http://www.viruscomix.com/page458.html A Coward's Tale]. What initially seems like a trivial, grade-school-level Anvil about courage and overcoming doubt suddenly hits painfully close to home, with its [[Tear Jerker]] story.

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* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' drops one with Justin - as a gay person with gender bending technology available, he could easily turn into a woman and continue to love men without intolerance. He continues to reject this idea because he is a man, homosexual or not, rejecting the [[Trans Equals Gay]] stereotype. There's also Susan's revelation that men aren't constantly horny pigs. In her notebook, she writes how she can no longer blame her father's adultery on his gender.

* ''[[Sequential Art]]'' [http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=176 in strip #176] has this particularly sweet anvil:

{{quote| '''Kate:''' So. Uh...d'you think Hilary looks... ''good''? As...as a pin-up, I mean.~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Kate:''' So. Uh...d'you think Hilary looks... ''good''? As...as a pin-up, I mean.

'''Art:''' Yep. She's got the curves, the saucy smile, the seductive eyes. She's the ''perfect'' pin-up. That said; I think she's a troll, with looks but neither the charm nor personality to back 'em up...Probably why she hates you so much. Terrible thing; envy. }}

* Though it mostly pokes fun at the comic industry, ''[[The Gutters]]'' really hits a homerun in this one about [http://www.the-gutters.com/comic/262-amy-mebberson same-sex relationships].

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** Even more awesomely, he did it while still being respectful of LGBT people.

* Ma-Ti in [[Kickassia]]

{{quote| '''Ma-Ti:''' Stop being a douchebag, it will totally backfire!}}

{{quote|'''Ma-Ti:''' Stop being a douchebag, it will totally backfire!}}

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s video on [[The Smurfette Principle]]. While suffering from the same flaws as the Critic's Nick Month did (as in, she probably didn't have time to look over the newer stuff properly), it was intelligent along with being funny and she never came off as a [[Straw Feminist]].

** Ditto for her brief commenting on whether a character is feminist or not. She makes several good points as to why you could or couldn't consider some characters feminist, and then says that the bottom line is how you look at it.

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** The Moulin Rogue review has "Even if I don't like the film, maybe you do, and neither of us are definitely wrong" as well as "[[Guilty Pleasures]] are nothing to be ashamed of."

* [[Todd in the Shadows]] review of ''Fifteen''

* ''[[Arby and Chief]]'' is a delicious and very relevant anvil on [[Fan Dumb]] and [[Hate Dumb]], even if delivered with crude humor, which is directed against the ''[[Halo]]'' fanbase but can be applied to everything. The episodes "Glitch" and "Panic" are a good point, because The Arbiter delivers a well-placed [[Reason You Suck Speech]] against an user named assassininja4827, who is 39 years old and freaking out because of the title glitch in the game. The moral is that there's nothing wrong with being an adult and playing computer game, but you also must act like one!

* [[Cracked]] gives us a good few:

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* The ''[[Gargoyles]]'' episode "Deadly Force" is anything but subtle about its message, but is generally considered one of the best episodes of the series for treating its subject matter with respect, and instead of using the easy [[Aesop]], "guns are bad," they opt for the more mature and reasonable, "Guns are dangerous, and need to be treated with respect." It's also notable in that the [[Aesop]] sticks with the two central characters: Broadway spends the rest of the series destroying any gun he comes across, and Elisa is shown putting it away when she has company, and locking up her gun rather than leaving it loaded and lying around.

** The show also lays it on thick about the pointlessness of revenge and how killing causes more problems than it solves. This is reinforced by David Xanatos. Why is he such a successful, well regarded, and enduring villain? Because he ''doesn't go in for revenge''. '''Ever'''. While villains in other cartoons inevitably [[Motive Decay|forget their original goals to seek revenge on the heroes]], Xanatos never even holds a grudge because, as he put it, "Revenge is a sucker's game." It's also reinforced by "City of Stone" and "Hunter's Moon."

{{quote| '''Goliath:''' No! Killing her (Demona) won't solve anything! Death never does!~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Goliath:''' No! Killing her (Demona) won't solve anything! Death never does!

'''Luna:''' He is right, Macbeth. Duncan was afraid that your father would make you king. [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy|Did your father's death stop you from becoming king?]]

'''Macbeth:''' [[You Can't Fight Fate|No!]]

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** "The Painted Lady" had a point: Although all the miracles are blessings, you shouldn't just believe that circumstances will eventually improve, but ''act'' to make things better. It didn't matter if the Painted Lady was real or not -- the fact that they thought that she was acting for them was enough to turn things around and get people hopeful again.

** Another anvil is dropped in "The Avatar and The Firelord," by Aang (they did a lot of these in the third season). What's interesting is that it brought all the random, seemingly unconnected plots of the previous episodes, where the Gaang had been laying low in the Fire Nation and interacting with the locals in disguise, and united them under a common theme, simultaneously subverting the [[Bad Powers, Bad People]] viewpoint that had been prominent in the other two seasons:

{{quote| '''Aang''': Roku was just as much Fire Nation as Sozin was, right?? If anything, their story proves anyone's capable of great good ''and'' great evil. Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation, have to be treated like they're worth giving a chance.}}

{{quote|'''Aang''': Roku was just as much Fire Nation as Sozin was, right?? If anything, their story proves anyone's capable of great good ''and'' great evil. Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation, have to be treated like they're worth giving a chance.}}

** "The Southern Raiders" takes [[Forgiveness]], an aesop commonly found in children's shows (most of which [[Narm|don't handle it very well]]), and completely [[Justified Trope|justifies]] it. Interesting in that Katara doesn't forgive the man who killed her mother, but she ''does'' forgive Zuko. It was an intelligent way of handling the aesop that counts as a [[Reconstruction]].

** "Zuko Alone" has two: Even the 'good' side in a war can be morally ambiguous, and it's unrealistic to expect long-lasting enmity to be smoothed over by a single act.

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** "It's okay if you've made mistakes - it's never too late to do the right thing", as shown with Zuko's {{spoiler|[[Heel Face Turn]]}}, ''especially'' after it had been subverted (he had made the wrong choice) in the season 2 finale.

** The central plot of the entire series is that [[White Man's Burden|forcing one's way of life upon others]] - the Fire Nation's conquest of the world - is '''''[[Moral Event Horizon|the most monstrous act imaginable]]'''''.

{{quote| '''Zuko''': ''Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history and somehow, the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was! The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation! They don’t see our greatness - they hate us! And we deserve it. We’ve created an era of fear in the world. And if we don’t want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.''}}

{{quote|'''Zuko''': ''Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history and somehow, the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was! The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation! They don’t see our greatness - they hate us! And we deserve it. We’ve created an era of fear in the world. And if we don’t want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.''}}

** Also, the show isn't a one-shot Anvilicious allegory that's tailor made to hammer in a bunch of talking points about the current political situation, The Fire Nation is Britain, Rome, Nazi Germany, and (especially) Imperial Japan. ATLA is believable precisely because it follows broad themes that run throughout history rather than the current zeitgeist.

* The 1939 short ''[[Peace on Earth]]'' is a Christmastime story. In it, [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]] discuss a not-so-funny topic; that is, how "men" went extinct due to warfare ([[World War II]] was clearly on the horizon at the time... and this was ''before'' nuclear weapons were developed, mind you). We see some of the horrors of warfare depicted WWI-style. And when the men had gone, the animals afterwards read the "[[The Bible|humans' book of rules]]" and express disappointment that the humans had some good rules (e.g. [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]) but weren't able follow them.

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** "Your way of doing things is not inherently better than my way just because of tradition."

* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' had [[Villain of the Week]] Calendar Girl, who was once a renowned model but was fired for being unable to compete with younger models. She eventually decides to extract revenge on all the companies and networks who had fired her and ruined her career. Throughout the episode, she always wears a full-face mask since she had so much plastic surgery done before turning evil. But when the police unmask her, she begins to scream and writhe on the ground, horrified that they see her "ugly" face. She is in her late-thirties and just as attractive as the other models seen.

{{quote| '''Batgirl''': She's beautiful.~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Batgirl''': She's beautiful.

'''Batman''': She can't see that anymore. All she can see are the flaws. }}

* Each episode of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' contains a lesson on friendship, but the episode is not written by the lesson, but the lesson by the episode. One fan of the show speculates that these lessons [http://zephyrfiction.deviantart.com/art/Bronic-Confessions-206286661 are the reasons why the show is liked so much].