History Main / ConceptsAreCheap

* If the documentary ''MichaelJackson's This Is It'' is anything to go by "It's all for love" was a mantra of his while he was working on his concert comeback, but what ''it'' and ''love'' specifically mean is never explained, much less how putting on concerts relates to them.

* [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Back in the day]] ''{{Superman}}'' spent a lot of time demolishing substandard ghetto housing, exposing political corruption and standing up for the rights of immigrants and the little guy. He was a New Deal superhero! But politics is bad for sales - even corrupt politicians buy comic books, after all. So Superman started to fight for the magnificent generality of 'truth, justice and the American way', and so long as he restrains himself to hitting supervillains in the jaw, it doesn't matter. No two people can agree on what Superman 'really stands for' anymore, but they all agree it's ''very heroic''. "The American way" part is also often dropped in modern stories, although it's usually [[CaptainObvious only Americans who complain about this.]]

** Not too long ago (right after the above happened) during a team up, Stark calls out Peter for wasting his genius. Peter retorts that he can't exploit it because then his villains will be able to come after his loved ones. He's saying this while standing in the ruins of Stark's company which was destroyed by a super-villain to get back at Stark, which Stark chose to allow in order to save his employees. So you can see Peter's point.

* The films ''ThePatriot'' (with Mel Gibson, not Steven Segal) and ''KingArthur'' (2004) threw the word "freedom" around, which just made the weak scripts all the more apparent. Even ''{{Braveheart}}'' nearly fell into this, were it not for at least a couple of lines giving context they were fighting for ("beg forgiveness for [[DidNotDoTheResearch a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder]]"[[hottip:* :The thirteenth century was a fairly peaceful one for Anglo-Scots relations; shortly prior to the war, there had even been talks of uniting the two countries via royal marriage- 300 years before James VI and I. A few unfortunate deaths in the Scottish royal family changed that, though.]]). Although movie-Wallace's crusade just started out as an act of personal revenge against the man who killed his wife, then somehow morphed into "Freedom for Scotland".

** Spinning off from Prometheus comes the mini-series "CryForJustice" where, suddenly, every single major character becomes this. They spend the entire series demanding "justice" without ever bothering to define what it means or how it's different from what the other heroes are already doing.

* If the documentary ''MichaelJackson's This Is It'' is anything to go by, "It's all for love" was a mantra of his while he was working on his concert comeback, but what ''it'' and ''love'' specifically mean is never explained.

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* ''{{NineteenEightyFour}}'' is full of these. The "Ministry of Love" is responsible for torture, the "Ministry of Peace" controls warfare, and the "Ministry of Truth" spreads lies. The motto of the whole operation? "WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."
** Not the best example, because this seeming WordSaladPhilosophy is actually explained and the methods by which it is applied to Oceania's society (and perhaps even the entire planet) horrifically expounded upon for the reader. Not that the concepts of Peace or Freedom are what motivate the Party; for them "Power" is both a means and an end which justifies itself. The above slogan is just the underlying philosophy by which they maintain and increase that power.

** Not the best example, because this seeming WordSaladPhilosophy is actually explained and the methods by which it is applied to Oceania's society (and perhaps even the entire planet) horrifically expounded upon for the reader. Not that the concepts of Peace or Freedom are what motivates the Party, for them "Power" is both a means and an end which justifies itself. The above slogan is just the underlying philosophy by which they maintain and increase that power.

* While "heart", "light", and "darkness" have always been main concepts in the ''KingdomHearts'' series, ''KingdomHeartsBirthbySleep'' spams them throughout the script so often theat they start to lose their meaning as time goes on.

* Played with in ''WildARMs3''. Idealist Virginia is constantly harassed by GoldfishPoopGang leader Maya Schroedinger, who demands to know why she keeps traveling and fighting. Although Maya ostensibly is only motivated by greed and jewels, in the end she claims that that ideal also includes the planet she lives on - a blue-green jewel.
** Similarly, in the original ''WildARMs'', Calamity Jane refuses to accept that Cecelia and friends are fighting for some vague "save the world" mishmash and demands they solidify their reasons.

* Parodied in ''GrandTheftAutoIII'' on the [[GTARadio Chatterbox radio station]]. A guy by the name of "Jeff" calls in, advertising a rally at Liberty City Park. However, when the show's host asks what the rally's actually about, Jeff responds with an escalation of otherwise meaningless phrases and appeals, including "for justice" "for the future", and "for hope". The host continues asking, only to be met with more cheap concepts and pleas for attendance, until it turns out the guy doesn't know what it's about.

* ''{{Torchwood}} Children of Earth'' is about aliens trying to take 10% of the world's children. Now even though some specific population numbers are given, the show doesn't define anything like an age limit, or if the aliens want toddlers or teenagers. Plus TheReveal about why the aliens want them gives no biological reason for why they want human children over any other age group. Thus that show uses "children" as a cheap concept, to some degree (it at least explains that such a loss of population would cause some degree of worldwide chaos).
** Actually, they do specify it as "anyone who hasn't hit puberty". This is because the aliens use the children's hormones [[spoiler: as drugs]], so presumably they've worked out how many are of the correct age.

* DonQuixote is a deconstruction of this trope: In the first part of the novel, he wants to be an ErrantKnight ForGreatJustice. In reality, he is TheHedonist and all his efforts are really guided to live his dreams, but he doesn't accept it because he is an {{Hypocrite}} . In the second part of the novel, his motivation changes ForHappiness. But this time DonQuixote is an honest man that must admit at the end of the novel that [[ShaggyDogStory his efforts didn’t help anyone]] and her ChivalricRomance [[FanDisillusionment dreams were shallow]].

* Batman usually fights for an ill defined "Justice" like many of his contemporaries but in the current ''DarkKnightTrilogy'' much of the plot is about Bruce exploring, discovering and refining his concept of justice and his boundaries (for example, Lucius challenges him on his decision to implement an nigh-omnipresent security system throughout Gotham and Bruce decides to retire it after the current crisis.)

** It could be that [[FromACertainPointOfView that line]] is just an attempt to awkardly shoehorn in a CallBack to Obi-Wan's line in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'', with no thought to whether or not it made sense in the context of the dialogue.
** It could also be argued that [[StrawmanHasAPoint he does have a point]]. After all, he did catch Mace Windu attempting to kill what appeared to be a helpless old man. Not to mention the various unconstitutional and treasonous things the Jedi were forcing him to do in spying on the Chancellor. In fact, Palpatine doesn't tell a single outright lie during the entirety of the Prequels while the Jedi lie regularly.

* [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Back in the day]] ''{{Superman}}'' spent a lot of time demolishing substandard ghetto housing, exposing political corruption and standing up for the rights of immigrants and the little guy. He was a New Deal superhero! But politics is bad for sales - even corrupt politicians buy comic books, after all. So Superman started to fight for the magnificent generality of 'truth, justice and the American way', and so long as he restrains himself to hitting supervillains in the jaw, it doesn't matter. No two people can agree on what Superman 'really stands for' anymore, but they all agree it's ''very heroic''. "The American way" part is also often dropped in modern stories, although it's usually [[EagleLand only Americans who complain about this.]]

** I seem to recall hearing that it was ''originally'' only "truth and justice"; the "American way" bit was added to make him an [[RedScare anti-Communist]] superhero.
*** Kind of. Originally Superman fought for truth and justice and was in a constant battle against evil. The Truth, Justice and the American Way part came in in the 40s for the radio program and it was more of an anti Nazi thing than an anti commie thing. Though it definitely became anti communist.
*** Even his powers and costume were different during the early years from what the character has come to be known as. That doesn't make it any more sensible to deviate radically from what the character has been for most of seven decades.
**** Pre, Post, or Post-Post Crisis? Or Post-Zero Hour? Golden, Silver, Bronze, or Modern Age? They can't even agree on Superman's powers, why worry about what he stands for?
* [[{{ComicBook/Spider-Man}} Spider-Man]] fights crime for the grand glorious cause of Responsibility: he has the power to do it, so he has to do it. (It ''does'' spin out of his origin story, but still.) This may mean that he was doomed to become a superhero no matter what: he was introduced as a young genius almost on par with the other super scientists of the time like [[ButtMonkey Hank Pym]], [[FantasticFour Reed Richards]] and [[IronMan Tony Stark]]. Thus, he had great power, and thus, great responsibility.

** Or he just dies.
* The JusticeLeague villain Prometheus was designed as a sort of reverse Batman, whose parents were Bonnie and Clyde-like criminals gunned down by the police before his eyes. Why did he take on the Justice League? Because his parents death instilled in him a deep and abiding ''hatred of justice.'' It's entirely possible it was meant to be as trite as it sounds, but most writers (and readers) don't treat it that way.

* The ''StarWars'' prequels abused this a lot, which might be forgivable in a free-wheeling SpaceOpera story, except that they tried to hang a lot important plot points off it too. Anakin is introduced as a slave: we don't see his performing any slave duties (working in a shop could just be his job for how he's treated), or the effects of slavery on him, or any motivations as a result of his experience, but it earns the tyke sympathy points. Obi-Wan declares his loyalty not to any political party or leader, but to 'democracy'. The Sith are dangerous moral relativists, except when they're rigid moral absolutists, but in the end they only seem to be whatever term the story can hang off them to make then [[CardCarryingVillain eeeevil]]. It also goes to show you that a lot of fantasy and SpaceOpera backstories ''[[FridgeLogic do not make sense]]''.
** It's even worse when you consider the {{Narm}} line from Episode III during the Anakin/Obi-Wan: "Anakin the Chancellor is evil!" "From my point of view the Jedi are evil!" which is just randomly throwing moral relativism in there for some extra drama, not because it actually fit (since there wasn't an indication Anakin actually thought that before, aside from being ticked at how the council treated him).
** It could be that [[FromACertainPointOfView that line]] is just an attempt to awkardly shoehorn in a CallBack to Obi-Wan's line in ReturnOfTheJedi, with no thought to whether or not it made sense in the context of the dialogue.

* The films ''ThePatriot'' (with Mel Gibson, not Steven Segal) and ''KingArthur'' (2004) threw the word "freedom" around, which just made the weak scripts all the more apparent. Even ''{{Braveheart}}'' nearly fell into this, were it not for at least a couple of lines giving context they were fighting for ("beg forgiveness for [[DidNotDoTheResearch a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder]]"[[hottip:* :The thirteenth century was a fairly peaceful one for Anglo-Scots relations; shortly prior to the war, there had even been talks of uniting the two countries via royal marriage- 300 years before James VI and I. A few unfortunate deaths in the Scottish royal family changed that, though.]]). Although movie Wallace's crusade just started out as an act of personal revenge against the man who killed his wife, then somehow morphed into "Freedom for Scotland".
** Contrast the play and film [[SeventeenSeventySix 1776]], which made sure that not only did we know what kind of freedom the founding fathers sought, but that we even knew what it meant to them individually.

* Remarked on in [[{{Discworld}} Interesting Times]] when Rincewind explains why he doesn't support "worthy causes".
** Also see [[{{Discworld}} Night Watch]], wherein a rant by Sir Samuel results in the rebels fighting for truth, justice, freedom, [[strike:free]] reasonably-priced love...and a hard-boiled egg. The egg, at least, can be had by morning.

* The Tau of ''WH40k'' are the good guys. Why? Because they serve "The Greater Good". What's "The Greater Good"? It's what the good guys serve, of course! [[CircularReasoning So... Yeah]]. This is entirely in keeping with being good guys by [[BLackAndGreyMorality W40k standards]], mind-- nobody else even gives lip service to goodness, instead preferring to fight for things like [[FantasticRacism species supremacy]], [[BloodKnight the sake of the fight]], or just plain ForTheEvulz.
** They are the good guys because they offer the option of joining their Orwellian dictatorship instead of killing you and taking your stuff, or killing you and burning your stuff so that they aren't tainted by it.
* In third edition ''DungeonsAndDragons'', clerics can choose to devote themselves to some broad concepts rather than a deity. This allows the cleric to act pretty much however he or she wants as long it can be said to not violate the concept rather than worry about how his or her patron deity feels. Of course, some deity’s concepts can be just as cheap as those of patronless cleric, too.

** Eventually subverted by a bunch of different characters, albeit mostly in the supplemental material.
** They also {{lampshade}} this mercilessly.
* Parodied in ''GrandTheftAutoIII'' on the [[GTARadio Chatterbox radio station]]. A guy by the name of "Jeff" calls in, advertising a rally at Liberty City Park. However, when the show's host asks what the rally's actually about, Jeff responds with an escalation of otherwise meaningless phrases and appeals, including "for justice" "for the future," and "for hope." The host continues asking, only to be met with more cheap concepts and pleas for attendance, until it turns out the guy doesn't know what it's about.

* {{The Tick}} more-or-less {{Lampshades}} this trope. "Let's hang ten for Justice!"
* [[FairlyOddParents The Crimson Chin]] also uses Justice! as his vague but enthusiastic rallying cry.

** Roman writers noticed [[BreadAndCircuses and discussed]] it, making this trope OlderThanDirt.

* ''BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'''s version of Batman also loves making pithy one-liners about "justice". This usually fits the show's tone, though it was rather jarring in the "Tornado Tyrant" episode where Red Tornado tried to explain good and evil to his son, when he could have just said "Evil people like stealing trucks and talking about crime, good people like punching those people and talking about justice, the end."

* ''[[MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] that may or may not be intentional. The Boss uses the word "loyalty" several times in the game to mean very different things. The number of times she changes her mind about what loyalty is boggles the mind, and it confuses Snake, which seems to be her goal.

* "The Story Of Stuff" ends with various buzzwords thrown around, rather than actual solutions to the problems brought up in the video.