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

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What Measure Is a Non-Human?/Western Animation (view source)

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** The Dinobots in ''[[Transformers Animated|Animated]]''. After the incident that gives them the ability to function on their own, Prowl is the only one to suspect that they're truly alive. They are huge, lumbering, and destructive, and Prowl is shocked when, after their defeat, Optimus Prime agrees with the decision to melt them down. {{spoiler|So he and Bulkhead sneak out in the middle of the night and transport the Dinobots to a forested island where, concealed by holograms, they can live peacefully.}} Later, [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Porter C. Powell]] argued that since Transformers have no legal status, it's not a crime to do anything to them. (He's a villain, and we're not meant to agree with him.) Later they use their lack of legal status to threaten (and eat) him with impunity. (Don't worry, Grimlock spits him back out unharmed; these are the ''Autobots'' we're talking about.)
*** It has more to do with the fact that Grimlock has good taste, and with all the hair product necessary to keep his rockin' mullet in place, Porter C. Powell probably tastes horrible.
* Darkheart is a demon and the [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Care Bears Movie IIA New Generation (Film)|Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation]]''. From scene one, there's absolutely no doubt that he is profoundly evil, as he tries to kill off all the Care Bears when they are ''babies''. During the course of the movie, not only has he added further attempts to kill the Bears to his evil resume, he has also turned a campground full of children into a den of evil and bound the little girl Christie to a [[Deal Withwith the Devil|Faustian bargain]]; he'll make her a [[Born Winner]] if she aids him in his evil plans. About halfway through the film, Darkheart joins Christie in a rowboat shortly after capturing a significant number of the good characters with her help. Darkheart falls out of the boat and Christie ''rescues him'', leading to the quote above. {{spoiler|The incident messes with Darkheart's head as well, and later on, when he hurts Christie, he vows to be a good guy (probably the fastest [[Heel Face Turn]] ever) if the Bears will save her.}}
** The "Care Bears Family" series had a [[Big Bad]] named No-Heart (creative writers, these) who was darn near identical to Darkheart. The thing is, ''nobody'' questioned whether or not he had a good side.
*** Well, he was named ''No''-Heart.
* In ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' [[Mecha -Mooks|expendable robots]] have variable intelligence, so despite Jack meeting all kinds of bizarre races the audience doesn't feel bad for them. A significant portion of the enemies faced by Jack appear to be completely organic, sometimes more so than actual organic beings, and only prove to be robotic when sliced open.
** A [[Deconstructed Trope|strange and very bleak exception]] is one late [[Film Noir]] episode featuring a troubled but sympathetic robot-turned-hitman who conveniently gets an [[Emotion Chip]], building up to the inevitable but stark ending where {{spoiler|he fails and gets dispatched by Jack - who isn't even aware of it.}}
*** {{spoiler|There's a fantastic moment at the end of the episode when, with his last breath, X9 asks Jack to take care of his dog. Jack looks back over his shoulder and a brief look of doubt crosses his face.}}
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** Still, the extent of carnage and violence Tartakovsky indulged in under sole excuse of this trope is unsettling. It's not just that robots can be killed on-screen - they can be killed in ''horrifying'' ways on-screen. They are burned, dissolved in acid, disemboweled in slow-mo, cannibalised and ''devoured alive by a huge monster''. At this they sometimes clearly express emotions, namely pain and horror, and other times they look exactly like living beings right until the moment of death.
* In the penultimate episode of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', this issue became a plot point in more ways than one since the subject in question is both a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] ''and'' a clone:
{{quote| '''Danny''': She's not just a ghost, she's also a ''girl''. And if Vlad [[Never Say "Die"|destroys]] the ghost half, the human half is destroyed along with it.<br />
'''Valerie''': No, that's not my problem. She ''is'' a ghost, and I destroy ghosts!<br />
'''Danny''': Fine! Destroy ghosts! But can you really take part in destroying a ''human''? }}
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*** 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).
* ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'' is ''horrible'' about this. You can accurately predict how much violence is inflicted on an enemy based on how humanlike they are. Actual humans are merely subdued and non-humanoids are dismembered, exploded, or something else particularly deadly. This becomes especially awkward when you realize that, thanks to the very nature of the powers of the Omnitrix, Ben himself isn't human half the time!
** A rather jarring example occurs in an episode where an alien bride at a marriage between a pair of [[Star-Crossed Lovers]] has to ''help Ben kill her parents'' so she can marry her human groom. She makes a disturbingly nonchalant joke right afterwards. As if to bring the thing home, she [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|assumes a form]] that looks [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|far more humanoid]] than the evil members of her family.
*** It is mentioned that her race are incredibly tough and difficult to kill with the implication that the parents will be fine until the ceremony is over.
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** Mix [[Carnivore Confusion]] into the issue, and you've got yourself ''The Problem With Popplers'' episode.
* [[Pixar]] seems to like this trope. To wit:
** ''[[Toy Story (Animation)|Toy Story]]'' has Woody react this way when he sees what Sid did to the other toys. Especially when they drag a wounded Buzz off ...
** Jessie's song in ''Toy Story 2''
** Remy the rat has to fight hard for respect in ''[[Ratatouille (Animation)|Ratatouille]]''.
** ''[[WALL-E (Animation)|WALL-E]]''. End of discussion.
*** Actually, no. The inhabitants of the Axiom generally treat the robots as cruise crew (which is understandable given that they're on a cruise) or as video game characters (which... is a product of lazy ignorance more then anything). This is probably a general [[Bn L]] stance; convenience before ethics. However, [[Mc Crea]] gets a major wake up call {{spoiler|in the form of the A113 recording, and from that point on treats robots as people. It's shown at the end that ALL the humans are genuinely shocked and dismayed at WALL-E's mangled form, so...}}
*** [[Continuation]] [[Fan Fics]] generally have a lot of deep probing questions about this trope; whether a robot is considered criminal, defective, or insane, how robot marriages would work, the exact question of robot children, should robots and humans even live together...
* In the ''[[WITCH (Animationanimation)|WITCH]]'' episode "H is for Hunted", Will is brought to tears after unknowingly trying to absorb an Astral Drop (normally soulless) that Nerissa has transformed into a living, feeling Altamere.
* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'': Brock Sampson has a code against killing women and children. He was curious if there were any circumstances in which that would be dismissed. Eventually, his mentor accepted "Lady Dracula", as undead don't count.
** And in the two-part Season 3 finale, "The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together" (Part 1, to be specific) once The Monarch has infiltrated the Venture Compound, he reviews the plan with his team. # 24's part is to "Subdue the Venture robot" to which Monarch replies, "Subdue? You can ''kill'' the robot, it's a ''robot''."
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** The [[And I Must Scream]] with Monkeyfist. Not fully human, thus [[Acceptable Target]]. (More [[Karmic Transformation]], really.)
* The way this applies to giant monsters is partially subverted in ''[[Invader Zim]]'', when Zim transforms a hamster into a giant monster. Even though it's on a rampage, people still stop to gawk at how cute it is.
* ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'' [[Moral Event Horizon|feeds]] [[Nightmare Fuel|a talking worm]] to his adopted baby scallop.
{{quote| '''Spongebob:''' All we have left is this apple! [a worm emerges from it] <br />
'''Worm:''' Hello sea creatures! I bring you greetings from Apple World! [the scallop approves and jumps up for it] <br />
'''Spongebob:''' Of course! Scallops love worms! [picks up the worms] <br />
'''Worm:''' Huh, wait! We will bury yooooou! [drops it in the scallop’s mouth and it eats it] }}
* The original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'' animated series gave the Turtles a chance to actually use their weapons as forces of deadliness by turning Shredder's foot soldiers into robots.
** Possibly the most [[Moral Dissonance|WTF]] example of this is the episode "Donatello's Duplicate", where Donatello creates a clone of himself specifically to have it do his chores for him, and treats the duplicate as his slave. When the clone turns against him and becomes evil, it gets wiped out of existence. And it's apparently perfectly okay by all the others. You know, the ''good'' guys.
** And there's also Metalhead, the robotic Ninja Turtle, who has no rights. For this to be more acceptable, it has a tendency to go berserk (or switch sides), thereby destroying the illusion that it has real sentience or "free will".
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** "They're not like you and me, which means they must be evil! We must sound the drums of war!"
*** Note, that those two lines are used by ''both'' sides, not just the Europeans or the Indians.
* The Disney Animated series of [[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]], in the episode "Garden of Evil" with the villain Arbutrus. He is a plant like creature that makes art by controlling and growing plants, and who voices his dislike of humans for destroying them. In the end {{spoiler|the killing of Arbutrus by Aladdin is played as a mistake and the flower cut from his body (which kills him) is replanted in the ground.}}
* Despite being completely sentient and regularly conversing with their humans, the trains in ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'' are thrown out in the scrap pile and essentially killed when they stop being useful. Some of the books and episodes even hint that managers of certain railways wouldn't blink an eye at scrapping an engine with lots of life left in it, if it helped their bottom line. Cue lots of [[Nightmare Fuel]]. Couldn't they make some kind of retirement home or something?
** In one book, a real engine comes from a heritage line in South East England to visit (the book was especially written to promote the line) and in another Thomas visits the National Railway Museum in York. Those could count as retirement homes.
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** It could be argued that Onimous survived his sinking into quicksand (but remained trapped there), Harpy (who was struck by a lightning bolt) was merely turned to stone through magic rather than death (and could be changed back with some magic spell), and Chiros's stone being destroyed (after he was imprisoned inside it) did not kill him but prevented him from ever being awakened again. As this is the last we ever see of them, there is no way to tell.
* In ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', Night of the Living Gelatin, while the monster is dying it calls out to it's master. And Doofenschmirts is upset at it dying and in fact chases after Perry when he is leaving.
* ''[[Star Wars: theThe 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.
* While [[Re Boot]] ''tries'' to treat the Bi-Nomes like actual people, the show falls victim to this trope. Whenever someone needs to die, Bi-Nome. Need victims for a lost game, Bi-Nomes. Need someone to play [[Red Shirt]] against Megabyte, Bi-Nome.
* Played sadly straight in [[My Life Asas 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 (Animationanimation)|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!"''
* In an episode of ''[[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|Young Justice]]'', Miss Martian "killed" the robotic mannequin controlling Mr Twister. The others complained that they didn't know he was a robot and once they did, they let the matter drop. It was ironic since one of their mentors Red Tornado is a robot and played a prominent role in the episode. It wasn't sapient like Red Tornado but Miss Martian didn't know that and she just assumed that [[Just a Machine|it wasn't.]]
** [[Played With]] in recent episodes, where Miss Martian is getting to be very comfortable with using [[Mind Rape]] as a solution to a problem, leaving her victims drooling, comatose, and with rolling eyes. And it's hinted that's what ruined her relationship with Superboy.
* Played with in [[Family Guy]]. Brian, along with a few other dogs in the series, is sentient, walks, talks, drives, and has romantic relationships with other humans. Despite this, he's still treated like a regular dog. This is referenced in a few episodes, one where he gets in a legal battle to prevent from being euthanized and to have the same rights as a human, and another where he accidentally hits a dog with his car and grows upset when he learns it isn't a crime to kill a dog.
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{{quote| '''Brian:''' ''"That joke's not in bad taste, right?"''<br />
'''Stewie:''' ''"Who cares? He's a cheeseburger."'' }}
* In the initial ark of [[Superman: theThe Animated Series]] a bunch of [[Starfish Aliens]] stumble upon [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Braniac's]] ship, reactivate him and get swiftly slaughtered for their troubles. Only their silhouettes are visible at that, but their [[Alien Blood|bodily fluids]] are spattered all over a wall. Nothing even remotedly as graphic ever befalls humans. Braniac himself, by the way, is also fair game for Sups to kill.
 
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