What Measure Is a Non-Human?/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

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* [[Transformers|Optimus Prime]] has a very clear opinion on this, with his famous "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" motto. The series, though, have sometimes defined sentience in an unsatisfying way - [[Our Souls Are Different|not having a spark]] renders you a 'drone' even if said 'drone' clearly thinks and feels. In a non-canon series of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' comics (with a few [[Out of Character]] moments, though mostly confined to Megatron being generically evil instead of a [[Magnificent Bastard]]) Bumblebee is told by Optimus not to mourn for {{spoiler|Afterburn}} because he was a sparkless drone, and it's not clear who is right ( {{spoiler|Afterburn}} appears to think and feel, and Bumblebee cared about him and it sure seems a [[Jerkass]] move to callously tell him that the friend he just saw torn in half was just a drone and thus not worth any worry, but he ''was'' a {{spoiler|Decepticon infiltrator, only pretending to be friends with Bee or ''anybody,'' was killed by Megatron in a [[You Have Failed Me...]] moment, and could ''well'' have been acting according to the "make nice with the mark" programming you'd expect an advanced but nonsentient infiltration-bot to have. And since whether he was real or not, any friendship he had with the Autobots clearly wasn't, he kinda ''isn't'' worth crying over either way.}} Still, be nice to [[The Woobie|poor Bee]], huh?)

* Human characters who don't regard ''[[Transformers]]'' as sentient beings are, in general, not treated sympathetically by any series in the franchise. However, it's apparently okay for younger viewers to see a Transformer die, even in a time slot where killing off a human character would bring down the wrath of the [[Media Watchdog|Media Watchdogs]] upon all involved. This may be more of a method of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]].

'''Danny''': Fine! Destroy ghosts! But can you really take part in destroying a ''human''? }}

** Also called up in Danielle's premiere episode- Vlad became [[Moral Event Horizon|fully irredeemable]] when he treated her as less than human in the climax-

*** Also played straight in the same episode when both Danny and Danielle had no qualms seeing the perfect clone die in their hands. Considering said clone is a step above Danielle and clearly shows conscience as he dies, this is a rather jarring matter.

* ''[[Megas XLR]]'' will never kill off humans, and will only very rarely have any kind of organic being die. The giant robots that are frequently the enemies though, are cannon fodder, regardless of their level of sentience. One particularly extreme example is when Coop accidentally blows up ''a planet'' of sentient robots (although they ''were'' [[Ax Crazy]] and sort of fascist). If they could get away with it, the writers would also have plenty of ''humans'' killed to (and a few still are).

* ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' has the same problems with battledroids and sometimes Clone Troopers as shown in the films, but the show went to absurdly lengths with the Geonosians from Attack of the Clones. Like in the film they get casually sliced in halves by Jedi and Clones even use Flamethrowers to set them on fire with them even screaming and running away, all of it ON SCREEN. It is never explained why they get so brutally treatment in comparison to like every other species. You see Jedi cutting off heads and arms of clone troopers in Revenge of the Sith, but nowhere they explain why they have to slice Geonosians whole body VERTICALLY.

** At least they got zombiefied in the last two episodes of the Geonosis arc, but it still is no excuse for before.

* Played sadly straight in [[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]. Although no one, not even her creator, questions the fact that Jenny is a sentient robot teenager deserving of love and respect, most episodes have her killing or pummeling non human looking robots such as the villain robot's insect-like minions. Note that the main villain herself looks like a very alluring, feminine robot who's usually allowed to get away from harm with hardly a life-threatening scratch. The fact that Jenny usually has her own body blown to smithereens is [[Played for Laughs]].

* When Buster from ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' fantasizes about himself as a superhero named Cat Saver, he encounters a villain with some... ''unconventional'' [[Mook|mooks]]. He prefaces his fight with a disclaimer to the audience: "Kids, [[Don't Try This At Home|hitting and punching people is wrong.]]" ''But that's no person! It's a giant ham!"''

{{quote|'''Brian:''' ''"That joke's not in bad taste, right?"''

'''Stewie:''' ''"Who cares? He's a cheeseburger."'' }}