Fantastic Aesop: Difference between revisions

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

=== Video Games ===

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

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

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