History SugarWiki / AnvilsThatNeededToBeDropped

** "Comicbook/JudgmentDay" features an astronaut from Earth refusing to allow a planet of robots whose society is segregated along color lines to join a coalition of civilized species. The anvil is then hammered into the ground when the astronaut takes his helmet off and the reader discovers that [[spoiler:he is black]]. Its necessity was later proven by the ComicsCode Authority when the story was being anthologized, as they tried to tell EC editor Bill Gaines that the hero [[spoiler:''could not be black'']]. The story is available [[http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/54803.html here]].\\

** "Comicbook/MasterRace" us about a German immigrant to America after WorldWarII who is driven to near-madness because he believes he is being stalked by someone from the war. As the story unfolds, it is slowly revealed that [[spoiler:the man was a commander at Bergen-Belsen, and the man following him is a Jew he had tortured who had vowed revenge]]. The story is shot through with accurate descriptions and depictions of what occurred in the Nazi concentration camps, and was one of the first pieces in American popular culture to address the Holocaust at all. The complete story is [[https://cacb.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/ec-comics-master-race/ also available online.]]

* The 1947 film ''Film/GentlemansAgreement'' is a very anvil-heavy attack on anti-Semitism. Watching it nowadays, it's easy to miss just how controversial this was at the time - see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Agreement#Production the Other Wiki]].

** Very similarly, the first season ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Life Choice" in which ADA Ben Stone prosecutes religious pro-life zealot Rose Schwimmer for bombing an abortion clinic and killing several people -- including Mary Donovan, a teenage girl seeking an abortion who unwittingly carried the bomb into the clinic (having been working with Schwimmer's pro-life group, Schwimmer saw Donovan as a perfect patsy after learning she wanted an abortion). After Schwimmer proclaims on the stand that she believes murder is wrong and that abortion is a form of murder, Stone counters her ranting and raving with arguably the best line in the show's history: ''"If abortion is murder, then no matter how you feel about Mary Donovan, aren't you guilty of the murder of her unborn child?"'' Schwimmer's face goes from a confident smile to a look of pure "Oh, shit" as she realizes just how badly Stone owned her. It's one of the best episodes of the entire ''L&O'' franchise, one of the most controversial episodes, and show creator Dick Wolf's favorite episode out of the entire series.

** The lyrics and especially 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.

* Kenny Chesney's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9-r5qtq2hM The Good Stuff]].

* The Phil Collins solo effort "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2mbGP6vFI Another Day In Paradise]]".

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT33KXLQgZE "Waste"]] by Staind. While there are many anti-suicide songs out there, this one is by far one of the most brutal and honest expressions of the emotions one goes through when a friend kills themselves. Instead of going for the usual "It's going to be alright, there's so much to live for!" message that most songs of this type use, it instead says: "Suicide is a cheap way of running away from your problems, and when you die those problems don't just go away. The people you leave behind have to deal with them instead. Fuck you for not being strong enough." The message is arguably effective--notice that one of the commenters on the linked video says that this song stopped them from committing suicide.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXlB_Vk9VQ "You Say the Battle is Over"]] by John Denver. Damn that guy could sing.
-->Now the blame cannot fall
-->On the heads of a few
-->It's become such a part of the race
-->It's eternally tragic
-->That that which is magic
-->Be killed at the end of the glorious chase

-->From young seals to great whales
-->From waters to wood
-->They will fall just like weeds in the wind
-->With fur coats and perfumes
-->And trophies on walls
-->What a hell of a race to call men

* Band Aid's (the original one) [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5cX_ncZLls Do They Know It's Christmas]] drops a pretty effective anvil about not putting on blinders regarding poverty and needing to actually do something about it.

* Darryl Worley's song [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Geg6_-3jPzI Sounds Like Life to Me]] repeatedly hammers home that life isn't always easy, but that the hard times shouldn't prevent us from enjoying what we have, and doesn't even try to be subtle about it.
* Tim Minchin's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHRDfut2Vx0 Pope Song]] (warning: Very NSFW) does not mince words about his position on the child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

* "Slow Down Ghandi," by Sage Francis, full stop.

* John Prine's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl9ZkYViEIs 'Sam Stone']], an anvil that needed to be dropped about soldiers' addictions after coming home from Vietnam. 'There's a hole in Daddy's arm where the money goes/ Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose.' Subtle? Not exactly. Beautiful and effective? Very.
* JohnLennon's "Imagine."

%%

* TomRobinson'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''.

* SimonAndGarfunkel. Several songs, but notably The Sun is Burning, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BNL9aKf5XE]], which is all the more horrifying because it sounds so ''[[LyricalDissonance happy]].'' Also, Richard Corey [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwqwAy85CgY]].
* According to 30SecondsToMars [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLqHDhF-O28&ob=av2e Closer to the Edge]], you should never regret anything that happens in your life. Even the bad parts make you the person you are now.

* On the radio show ''TheSaint'', during the episode "Author of Murder", VincentPrice (the voice of Simon Templar) delivered [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrMCqOmsMB4 this unsubtle yet eloquent message on the evils of prejudice and racism.]]

* Winston Rowntree, author of Webcomic/{{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 arguably best exemplified in [[http://www.viruscomix.com/page474.html The Line]], a fan favorite which illustrates a chilling, much-needed moral about conformity.

* [[http://pamikoo.deviantart.com/art/I-am-a-good-person-104579954 This comic]] features [[HarmfulToMinors adorable, sobbing cartoon schoolchildren]] in the last panel, but it features a message that some people are remarkably thick-skulled about.

* ''ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'': [[http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/862 This strip]], regarding [[VideoGame/FinalFight Poison]] and the fact that she's Transsexual, and how what's in anybody's pants doesn't matter unless you want to get in them. CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming for Commander Badass.

* ''SequentialArt'' has [[http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=176 this]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming particularly sweet]] anvil:

* [[http://www.heartless-bitches.com/rants/niceguys/niceguys.shtml This article]] points out the horribleness of being a BitchInSheepsClothing and how insecure nice gus are the worst material for boyfriends.
* [[http://insomnia.ac/commentary/on_the_genealogy_of_art_games/ This incomplete article]] on the way the term art has been missused in videogames and the degeneration of society in general.
* [[http://valentine-beach.livejournal.com/23201.html This]] makes a number of points about rape, starting with the title of ''Have You Tried *Not* Being a Rapist?'', and proceeding to cut directly to the argument that instead of teaching people how not to get raped, society ought to teach people how not to be rapists. The article is blunt, minces no words, and is beautifully direct. It was followed up with [[http://valentine-beach.livejournal.com/23485.html another article]], this one on the all-too-often ignored topic of how men suffer rape just as much as women. Finally, there is [[http://valentine-beach.livejournal.com/24236.html A Message to Rape Survivors]], which is powerful, comforting, and hopeful.

** "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 [[JustifiedTrope 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 arguably counts as a {{Reconstruction}}.

* ''ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'': [[http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/862 This strip]], regarding [[FinalFight Poison]] and the fact that she's Transsexual, and how what's in anybody's pants doesn't matter unless you want to get in them. CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming for Commander Badass.

* Seriously people, {{Courageous}}'s "Be a better dad" Aseop is something you don't hear in a lot of movies these days.

** Despite this, there are still people who say that the actor portraying [=McCarthy=] was too over-the-top to be believable. Those who fail to learn from history...

* You can pretty much sum ''DeathNote'' up with two words: "Power corrupts". Or four: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely".

--> 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.

** Despite this, there are still people who say that the actor portraying McCarthy was too over-the-top to be believable. Those who fail to learn from history...

** NeilYoung, who wrote the song, abandoned subtlety again in 2006 with the ''Living with War'' album. Dissent against Pres. Bush was discouraged, even [[http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2006/07/playing_the_tre.html labeled "treason"]] whether spoken in the press or by fellow politicians. Young apparently decided enough was enough and wrote songs with titles like "Let's Impeach The President". The title track includes the line "I never bow to the laws of the [[SecretPolice Thought Police]]." The album was so Anvilicious that it rated a satirical promo on ''SaturdayNightLive'' in which Young was credited with an album called ''I Do Not Agree With Many Of This Administration's Policies''.

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

* TerryPratchett's ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' drops the anvil that humans need to learn stories when they're young -- that they ''need'' to believe in silly things like SantaClaus and the tooth fairy, so that when they get older, they can believe in other things that don't exist without people believing in them and acting on them -- like Justice, Mercy, Duty, and that sort of thing.

* TerryPratchett's YoungAdult {{Discworld}} novels drop anvils labeled "take personal responsibility" so often you think you're being attacked by an anvil-wielding 82nd Airborne. But it works.

* 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, with the two shining trees and the gods walking the Earth ended and would never happen againg and neither would the Age of the Elves that gave way to the Age of Men at the end of the War of the Ring. The whole race of the elves is a testament to this, as their inmortality leaves them as ghosts mourning for past times if they stay on Middle-Earth enough and the mortality of men is portrayed as a ''good thing'' as men are not as prone to spend their days yearning for the past.\\
\\
It's most obvious on the abridged version of TheLordOfTheRings that appears on the ending of TheSilmarillion, where Gandalf is revealed to be the holder of the Elvish Ring of Fire and all the last ringbearers leave Middle-Earth because the power of the Elvish Rings (which was to preserve beauty and magic) depended on the One Ring and would fade eventually, giving thus the end of Lothlorien and Rivendell. But it is also persistant all towards TheSilmarillion and even TheHobbit.

--> '''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.''

** 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:
--> ''"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.

* ''Literature/AllQuietOnTheWesternFront'': The people on the other side of war are just as human as you are.
** For the original audience it was WarIsHell.

---> "[[ZeroPunctuation It was an unflinching and effective statement that cheered me up immensely.]]"

* ''Film/{{District 9}}'' has plenty of messages about racism: Refugees and minorities deserve respect, racism is ''bad'', the Apartheid is ''monstrous'', and racist people are capable of finding enough humanity within themselves to find redemption.

* It's strange that ''{{Psychonauts}}'' isn't a children's game, because it has the perfect {{Aesop}} for one: "Parents are people too. And you know what? Sometimes the stuff they say is 'for your own good' really ''is'' for your own good, and they ''do'' make mistakes, but you know what? ''They still love you.''"

* ''The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance'' pre-emptively drops quite a few anvils in favor of granting sentient machines civil rights. Comparisons are made to other civil rights struggles, like the Amistad, ThoseWackyNazis, the Chinese democracy movement, and even ''[[TheBible Exodus]]''.

* [[TheBible The New Testament]]. Jesus wasn't all parables and allegories. He said some pretty blunt things about hypocrisy and following the commandments. (The scene where he bowled over the businessmen's tables in the Temple comes to mind.)

* The 1939 short ''PeaceOnEarth'' is a Christmastime story. In it, {{Funny Animal}}s discuss a not-so-funny topic; that is, how "men" went extinct due to warfare (WorldWarII 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 "[[TheBible humans' book of rules]]" and express disappointment that the humans had some good rules (e.g. ThouShaltNotKill) but weren't able follow them.

* TheBible is, pretty much by definition, preachy (especially when used by preachers), but some messages like "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." is about as blunt as you can get, but it's hard to argue against love for others. {{Jesus}} used plenty of parables, metaphors, and symbolic language, but there were times when something needed to be stated in simple and plain English (well, Aramaic).

* ToddInTheShadows review of ''Fifteen''

* The growing campaign against drinking and driving (especially the commercials) are rather over-the-top, but if it gets more drunk people to stay off the road, more power to them.

* Some schools will show the consequences of things like Marijuana with vivid, [[NauseaFuel disgusting]], [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel terrifying]] detail. While sometimes annoying, it gets the point across.