A form of {{phlebotinum}} with a moral component, which exists only so that the author can build AnAesop out of it. May or may not turn into a FantasticAesop. Can result in a PhlebotinumMuncher or MarySuetopia where YouFailEconomicsForever.

Sometimes works when the effect is of a fable or non-realistic tale and the metaphoric value is clear.

Compare with PoweredByAForsakenChild; sometimes these tropes overlap. Also overlaps with FantasticAesop.
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!!Examples

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[[folder: Anime ]]

* In ''SoukouNoStrain'' [[spoiler:the Strains are derived from research done on aliens that look exactly like [[{{Anvilicious}} little human girls]] and the research is supposed to continue ([[WhatHappenedToTheMouse though they don't really finish that plot thread]]) so they can achieve instantaneous communication and more with the further dissection and possible brain removal of said girls.]] [[DefectorFromDecadence Naturally, the bad guy didn't like this.]] [[FreakOut So]] [[FaceHeelTurn he decided]] [[OmnicidalManiac it would be best]] [[KillEmAll to punish humanity for this.]]

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* In the MarvelComics ''EarthX'', the Cosmic Consciousness grants omniscience, but due to a strange form of observer effect will slowly make those who have even a fraction of it kinder people.
* The [=~T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents~=]' Mento helmet gives its user telepathy, which lets Janus see [[RousseauWasRight the good in others]] and become more empathetic, leading him to [[HeelFaceTurn turn from evil to good]].

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[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''[[{{Firefly}} Serenity]]'', the chemical "Pax" was created by the Alliance to sedate the populace. In case that wasn't objectionable enough to the audience, its first wide-spread test failed spectacularly, resulting in [[spoiler: nearly the entire population of a planet developing severe amotivational disorder and simply sitting quietly until they starved to death. The survivors were rendered insane and horrifically violent, becoming the Reavers.]] This is a clear FantasticAesop, since the second part was completely unforeseeable.
** Of course. Because uncontrolled broad-spectrum experiments on unwitting subjects would [[{{Ptitle7xno8ayw}} never have unexpected consequences]].
* The movie world of ''LogansRun'' is [[{{Utopia}} utopic]], no hunger, want, or need to work. The catch? Everything is run by a [[MasterComputer Computer]], Children 0-7 years are raised in tubes, Youth 7-14 are set to run wild, and once you become 30 a gem on your palm (or Palm Flower) turns black and you're sent to compete to be "Renewed". Unfortunately, TheComputerIsACheatingBastard and kills all contestants for being "too old". Most of the people living there were for the arrangement, except for Runners, who want to escape to Sanctuary and live longer.
* The drug Prozium in ''{{Equilibrium}}'' subdues emotions to prevent such things as violence and war. This is helped along by the banning of anything with an Emotional Content rating of ten, which can include anything even remotely artistic, and anyone caught with such contraband is burned alive. Naturally, there's an underground resistance [[spoiler: that the main character eventually champions after he stops taking his meds]].
* ''RunningMan'' allows convicted criminals to compete against gladiators for their freedom. But those who win [[spoiler: are killed and left to rot while the network pretends they're [[ReleasedToElsewhere living in luxury in a tropical paradise]]]].
* In ''TheIsland'', a large group of people lives comfortably in a high-tech city doing safe, not especially taxing make-work. Every now and then, it's announced that one of the city's inhabitants has won a trip to the titular Island, which is portrayed as an idyllic retirement spot. The hero discovers, however, that [[spoiler:the inhabitants of the city are actually clones [[PhlebotinumMuncher being maintained to provide spare parts]] for their "originals", and that 'going to the Island' is actually a death sentence.]]
** The ''[[MysteryScienceTheater3000 Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' movie "Parts: The Clonus Horror" inspired this one.
*** "Inspired" as in "successful lawsuit for completely copying the plot." Well actually I think they settled.
**** A better film, though [[YourMileageMayVary mileage can definitely vary]]. It was intended to be a pastiche. It was almost challenged by [[PhilipKDick Tessa Dick]] and inadvertently killed the ''Logan's Run'' redux due to similarities. Saying ''The Island'' is derivative would be like saying ''Kill Bill'' is derivative.
* In ''GhostInTheShell Innocence'', the gynoids' sentience is due to their containing copies of the ghosts of abducted preteen girls. The ghost-copying procedure eventually kills the girls. Even more disturbingly, they were first brainwashed into near-robots so that the gynoids wouldn't be ''too'' human-like - and that they were intended to be [[{{Sexbot}} Sexbots]]. Despite all this, a surviving girl and her rescuer are actually chastised by the heroine, as she says that [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman the real victims were the robots]].

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* Most all of the serious magic in HarryPotter applies. The aesop is: be nice to yourself and to other people and don't tear your soul apart to make yourself immortal.
** But...''immortality.''
** Although the very ''title'' of the first book establishes that there is an alternative to Horcruxes if you want to gain immortality through magic. Thus, that particular instance could be interpreted as a more standard {{Aesop}} about choosing between what's easy and what's moral.
* The short story [[http://www.davidbrin.com/givingplague2.html The Giving Plague]] by DavidBrin features an especially [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregious]] example; it includes a microbe (Acquired Lavish Altruism Syndrome, or [[FunWithAcronyms ALAS]]) which makes one's blood feel "full", which, in turn, makes one want to go and donate blood in order to alleviate the feeling; the germ would then reproduce and spread among blood recipients. Then, apparently, feeling that one had to "justify" going to the blood bank, the person would start acting more altruistic.
* The central premise of [[UrsulaKLeGuin Ursula K. Le Guin's]] short story ''The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'' was a city whose [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans happiness depended]] upon the suffering of one innocent child.
* Subtly parodied (along with {{phlebotinum}} in general) in the novel ''GenerationDead'', as the proposals by scientists to "explain" the whole "teenagers suddenly coming back as zombies" phenomenon, which are mentioned in asides throughout the book, tend towards this. Choice examples include proposals that it was caused by "too much fast food", "too many FirstPersonShooter games", and -- thanks to the expansion of the book's accompanying CharacterBlog -- "too many generations eating microwaved food". Naturally, ''none'' of them is true.
* Norman Spinrad's 60s sci-fi novel ''BugJackBarron'' has an Evil Rich White Man gaining immortality from [[spoiler:[[PoweredByAForsakenChild the glands of irradiated-to-death children]]]], with the one we know about in the book being [[spoiler: African-American]]. Good book, {{anvilicious}} {{Aesop}}.
* Damon Knight's short story ''Rule Golden'' has an alien that spreads a special plague which induces tele-empathy. This means that prison guards become depressed from the sadness of their prisoners, somebody that strikes someone else will feel the pain from their blow, and somebody that kills someone else will suddenly drop dead (strangely, this even includes such acts from a distance, such as shooting someone, which just kills the shooter rather than everyone else within the same radius). The ostensible reason the alien does this is to make humans become peaceful before they invent interstellar travel, with a side benefit supposedly being the elimination of hierarchic governments (since "government is force"). For no particular reason, the plague affects all warm-blooded animals, not just humans. This means that all mammals and birds are now effectively vegetarians (unless their prey are insufficiently cuddly-looking), causing the extinction of [[CarnivoreConfusion larger beasts of prey]] all over the world.
** The aliens did offer help for the screwed up ecosystem that resulted. Birds that ate insects should be able to continue, just not mammal hunting ones.
** Also used in the TV series ''TheTomorrowPeople,'' where the main characters' telepathy makes them incapable of killing.
* Similarly, Stanislaw Lem's short story ''Highest Possible Level of Development'' had a drug, Altruzine, that caused tele-empathy, but the story is much more tongue-in-cheek. The results are still not altruistic, though: a man with a toothache has its painful tooth ripped out by nearby people who don't want to feel the pain, a newlywed couple is nearly mobbed outside their hotel where they consummate the marriage (and criticized on their poor performance), and depressed people are driven from towns rather than treated.
* ''The Giver''

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''StarTrek'' is fond of these. A recurring episode conflict involved the crew finding a (near) {{Utopia}} planet with a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans morally questionable requirement in its upkeep]]. Much [[ContemplateOurNavels navel gazing]] would take place, and they'd usually pass judgment on the planet as backwards, either leaving them to their luck or forcing them to change (Kirk prefered the change option).
** One episode had a planet with truly awesome technology -- but that technology damaged their ozone, allowing excess ultraviolet light to the surface, causing radiation damage and sterilizing the entire species.
** Subverted in the episode of ''[[StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' (starring James Cromwell) where a planet is a utopia -- after they banish all of their genetically engineered [[SuperSoldier super-soldiers]] that won them said utopia. The super-soldiers get out and plead with the Enterprise to help them, the "peaceful" members of society plead with the Enterprise to help them, etc. After much soul-searching (approx. 43 and one-half minutes worth), Picard finally remembers that this is exactly the case where the Prime Directive should be enforced, and bids a cheery adieu to the planet -- leaving the 'peaceful' population at the mercy of the people they had genetically fucked with and then kicked out.
** ''StarTrekEnterprise'' also gets in on the act with Trellium-D, used to insulate Enterprise from the harmful effects of the Expanse. Unfortunately it also degrades the neural pathways of Vulcans, causing loss of emotional control. T'Pol starts taking "carefully controlled" doses of Trellium-D in order to loosen up a bit and becomes addicted, permanently damaging her ability to control emotions. She also gets Pa'nar Syndrome, an allegory for AIDS, which also causes a loss of emotional control.
** The crew of the Equinox in ''StarTrekVoyager'' were built up as sympathetic and being more down on their luck than Voyager, when they did a FaceHeelTurn. Any audience sympathy they might have had was destroyed by the discovery that their improved warp drive runs on [[PoweredByAForsakenChild the corpses of sentient aliens]].
* Ditto ''{{Stargate SG-1}}''. This plot occurs with some variations in at least "The Broca Divide", "Brief Candle", "Learning Curve", "Beneath the Surface", "2001", "Cure", and "Revisions".
** In an unusual example where such a society is the future ''Earth'', the episode "2010" featured an alternate timeline where the Tau'ri (humans from Earth) allied with another human civilization called the Aschen and defeated the Goa'uld, and so, the Aschen gave the Tau'ri medical supplies, including an anti-aging vaccine [[spoiler:whose true purpose was to sterilize Tau'ri populations to reduce it to a tiny fraction of the original, allowing the Aschen to easily conquer Earth]].
* ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'', "Deathwalker": The Dilgar war criminal Jha'dur develops an anti-aging serum that can be used repeatedly to extend an individual's life indefinitely. The cost? It requires a non-synthesizable ingredient available only in [[PoweredByAForsakenChild other sentients]] (one treatment requires one sentient). Her intention was to disperse the knowledge of the serum to ''start'' genocidal wars as vengeance for her species dying. The Vorlons [[YouAreNotReady take it upon themselves]] to destroy the serum, Deathwalker and her ship to prevent that (and destroy any chance of researching the process to give the younger races true immortality and become rivals of the Vorlons).
* One ''GilligansIsland'' episode involves the castaways finding some seeds that when ingested, bestow on the consumer the ability to read other people's minds. Trouble is, everyone then becomes privy to every tiny little critical thought the others have about them, and the group is unable to stop fighting with each other. Gilligan solves the problem by burning the bush that produces the seeds, leading to the moral "Some things are better left unsaid" --even though [[FantasticAesop no one actually said them]].

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* {{Bioshock}} has ADAM, the substance giving the potential to alter genetic code to achieve new powers. It can also be seen as the game's way of telling the dangers of unrestricted economy, and morality-free experimentation.
** Actually, the aesop of {{Bioshock}} is that HumansAreFlawed and it is WordOfGod that the game is not meant to be interpreted as "free markets suck" or "Ayn Rand sucks" or anything of the sort. As additional evidence, look at the names ADAM and Eve. In the Bible story, Adam and Eve did something that ruined paradise. In {{BioShock}} ADAM and Eve ruined Rapture. Rapture is meant to be beautiful and the fall of Rapture is meant to be a tragic consequence of flawed human nature. ADAM itself is obviously [[AppliedPhlebotinum a plot enabler]] for BioShock, and the plot itself clearly aims to demonstrate an aesop (being "humans are too flawed to consistently practice a philosophy"). So whilst it can be argued that ADAM is {{Aesoptinum}}, it is for a different reason than above.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* One ''{{Ducktales}}'' episode features a "Pearl of Wisdom", which will grant whoever holds it at a certain point at sunrise temporary infinite wisdom. ''Every'' person who has ever stolen it and used it in this manner realizes the error of their ways during their "moment of wisdom," and voluntarily returns the pearl to the islanders from whom it was stolen. (This is, of course, why the islanders are never bent out of shape whenever the pearl ''is'' stolen -- they know it will eventually be brought back to them.)
* The original name for this trope, PoweredByAForsakenChild, came from an episode of ''TheVentureBros'' in which Doctor Venture used the heart of an orphan as the power source for a LotusEaterMachine, which, naturally enough, [[PhlebotinumBreakdown fails disastrously]], with the only hope coming from FunctionalMagic and [[ThePowerOfLove The Power of]]... ''*giggle*'' Sorry, I just couldn't finish that last part.
** That joke from the Venture Bros. is most likely a poke at the short story ''The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas'' in which [[spoiler: a Utopian society is literally only kept happy under the condition that one child is completely secluded and forsaken.]]

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