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alternative title(s): Moral Amnesia
Aesop Amnesia
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"Lying is wrong! I'd know that if only I'd paid attention to anything that's ever happened to me before!"
Some characters have a particular trait or mannerism that's come to be viewed as an overall part of them. Maybe they're stingy, or abrasive, or just like using a lot of profanity. Along comes an episode with An Aesop, and a character learns how good it is to be generous, or friendly, or that they don't need curse words to make themselves known.
Then, by two episodes later at the most, they're back to hoarding their money, snapping at people, or cursing like a sailor. They've just run into Aesop Amnesia.
Aesop Amnesia is a sort of Snap Back that assures that Status Quo is God from a character development point of view. After all, if you change something about the character that fans find enjoyable or defining about them, they're not going to be happy; and if that character trait provided a valuable foil for other characters, neither will the writers that come after. (Thus, you're much more likely to run into it on a series where writing duties are handled by a rotating set of writers and guest writers.)
And, of course, it allows the character to learn the same lesson all over again later!
In more recent series, this may eventually be Lampshaded, especially if the show has a strong comedy element. In dramatic series, not so much.
A secondary sort is where the same series keeps trying to teach the same moral over and over again. This is slightly different than when the show has a certain theme or Aesop as their underlying premise, but rather where a show with a broad premise just keeps hammering home that one particular one until the viewer wants to shout "I get it already!"
A standard of cartoons, especially those aimed at fairly young children (or where the writers think anyone under thirty is a dope).
This is Truth in Television to some extent. People do not always overcome their flaws as quickly as fiction sometimes would like them to. Contrast Epiphany Therapy, where characters resolve long-standing issues and flaws too quickly. Compare Ignored Epiphany.
Examples
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Anime
- In what's probably a record for "fastest personality reset", after seeing a job well done, the members of the Student Council in Seitokai no Ichizon promise to stop being lazy and actually do the jobs they were elected for. One scene later, everything is back to the status quo.
- In Slayers Revolution, Rezo the Red Priest is resurrected and basically the same crap with the Dark Lord Shabranigdo unfolds due to his obsession with gaining sight, which he was supposed to have gotten over in his Death Equals Redemption of the first series.
- In Detective Conan, during the episodes in which Ran suspects Conan is secretly Shinichi, she treats him with more respect, runs interference for him to investigate, and just generally pays more attention to what he has to say. But let him convince her the resemblance was all in her imagination, and she is back to scolding him for "interfering" in Kogoro's investigations again.
- That is partly due to Ran already treated Shinichi as a legitimate detective, while she still considered Conan as a Snooping Little Kid.
- At one point Kogoro is told by the doctor to stop drinking so much—and for a few episodes he actually does. But not long afterward, he is back to boozing as heavily as usual.
- Happens in the third arc of Bakemonogatari. The Aesop of the second arc was that Senjogouhara needs to be honest with Araragi about what's actually going on, or they're unlikely to make any significant progress in their relationship. But then in the third arc, Araragi lies to Senjogouhara about how he was beaten and mangled by Kanbaru. He then proceeds to keep her uninformed as he takes Kanbaru to Oshino to cure her affliction, even though Senjougahara is the whole reason why Kanbaru attacked him in the first place. Senjougahara calls him out on this in the climax after Oshino explains to her what's going on.
- Kujo of the Gosick anime seems to experience this regularly. He regularly questions whether Victorique really cares for him, agonizes over it, and then comes to the conclusion she does care... only to forget the next mini-arc.
- Inverted with Naruto. A key lesson he learned from Haku was that it was fighting for somebody you care about that makes you truly strong. This belief, and his decision to follow his own path, defined his character. He promptly forgot the very things that defined him when confronted with Gaara; it was only after remembering the forgotten aesop that he regained his will to fight.
- A particularly egregious example is in play in the anime's most recent filler arc. Naruto spent most of the last arc realizing that revenge is bad and destroys people, thereby solidifying his determination to rescue Sasuke from himself. However, at least half of the filler episodes have Naruto happily forgetting that revenge turned his best friend into an Omnicidal Maniac and actually helping other people get revenge. At one point, he even takes the initiative to avenge an island, despite the fact that there was no one left to benefit from destroying the oppressors. Somehow, it seems that the entire anime staff has missed the numerous falling anvils
- Happens more then once in DigimonXrosWars. Especially to Kiriha who will be a changed man actually more then once in the series. Most obvious when Deckerdramon dies and everyone is talking some sense into him. Two episodes later he is acting the same as before. But even to the maincharacter Taiki who has to accept the fact later on that he might not be able to save everyone and he might has to kill some friends, who are revived after all. But he gets back into the old patterns very soon.
Comic Books
- Gotham City Sirens manages to impressively forget an Aesop on the same page! Harley Quinn has finally decided to stop pining after the Joker, since her experiences with another former sidekick has taught her that the Joker really does not care about those people he works with, and she has seen first-hand how pathetic and depressing such obsessions truly are. She knows he will never change, and for her own good and the good of her friends she should just move on...of course, he still might change... This is, of course, a major part of Harley's characterization, and a testament to how screwed up she is.
- Batman has learned to be more open and caring to his children (especially Nightwing) so often that this might as well be called A Batman Family Aesop. Of course, that will happen with seventy-odd years of having been published. One of the things that really pisses off Batman fans (who have dubbed the phenomenon "Batdickery"), is that since the mid-'90s, Batman's character has been stuck in a cycle that goes 1) Batman acts like a paranoid asshole. 2) Horrible things happen. 3) Batman realizes he shouldn't act like such a paranoid asshole. 4) Batman acts like a paranoid asshole.
- Likewise, Nightwing and Robin take turns learning not to be Batman when it comes to their friends and teammates, although Nightwing tends to be better at it: at least he has a few people he can respect.
- It seems every new author wants to write the story where Iceman finally stops being immature. The Human Torch also gets similar treatment.
- Also from the Fantastic Four, the Thing learns several times over that looking like a monster isn't so bad when your friends still love you. However, this is played more realistically than most other instances of this trope, as the universe keeps trying to prove, in a variety of different ways, that actually, no, having friends who love you even though you're a monster doesn't help all that much, because humans in the Marvel universe are colossal dicks. (Plus, the FF were meant from the start to be a bunch of dysfunctional fuck-ups, so this quality of his was supposed to be a flaw.)
- Spider-Man repeatedly wants to ditch super heroics to be a normal guy with a normal family, only to have it drilled into him again that "Great power equals great responsibility". (Of course, a fair portion of his family's now been retconned out of existence and it's illegal for him to have his power, so it's unclear what the point of his existing is.)
- In Green Lantern the Guardians of the Universe once created the Manhunters, a robotic army built to maintain order in the universe. These then went crazy and started slaughtering people, necessitating the creation of the Green Lanterns to replace them. Then, they created the Alpha Lanterns, implanting Green Lanterns with Manhunter programming, and gave them infallible authority over the other Lanterns. Thus far they're shown major Knight Templar tendencies and one of them was possessed by an evil New God, demonstrating they were totally wrong about the whole "incorruptible police force" idea. So...nothing that bad has happened yet, but it's generally considered only a matter of time.
- Turns out they're being controlled by Hank Henshaw. Good job Guardians.
- Pretty much the entire Marvel Civil War was this for the Pro-Reg side. The Super Registration Act might have provoked a nuanced, thoughtful, balanced debate....if the entire flipping Marvel Universe hadn't been telling civilians for the past several decades that treating supers/mutants and normals differently was morally wrong, dangerous, pointless, and comparable to segregation and Nazism. Now, suddenly, everybody thinks it's some sort of valid option, just so a fat juicy Conflict Ball could be thrown into the ring. The biggest Face Palm, however, has got to go to Reed Richards, who once spent an entire issue delivering an Aesop to Congress on why an SHRA was a racist, unenforceable, and moronic idea. (And no, he didn't have any character development that showed him changing his mind.)
Film
Literature
Live Action TV
- In Arrested Development, Michael has habit of using his son George-Michael as an excuse for why he shouldn't move on from his dead wife and start dating again. Someone then tells him to stop hiding behind his son. Michael agrees and decides to move on only to forget the lessons he learned a few episodes later and have to learn it again and again...
- In Roseanne, Jackie and her mother Bev have a strained, broken relationship throughout most of the show, Bev having driven Jackie into therapy with her constant criticisms and insults. But in an episode in one of the later seasons, the two share a teary heart-to-heart and seem to finally resolve their differences and repair their relationship as a mother and daughter. But of course, by their next appearance together, they go back to butting heads.
- Home Improvement, Tim Taylor learns that constantly being a male chauvinist is going to cost him. Of course he doesn't learn, that's the premise of the show. Honestly, why does Wilson even bother?
- On the opposite end, Jill also learned several times that Tim's feelings weren't meaningless or baseless just because they were based in masculine behavior, and that she should try to be more understanding. Semi-separate of Tim, she also learned (repeatedly) not to try and psychoanalyze people with her still-amateur psychiatric abilities because she didn't have the experience and complete knowledge necessary to do so (and that she probably shouldn't analyze people she hadn't met yet). Or that she shouldn't meddle in peoples' relationships because she was as likely to cause a breakup as heal any difficulties. None of these stuck.
- In one episode, Wilson also used a saying that he learned from Tim. Once Tim is proud enough to bring back the saying on Tool Time, he asks Al if he knows who made that quote. "Of course, I told you that last year."
- After a spine-tingling moral epiphany at the end of the The West Wing episode "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet", neither the President not anyone else keeps the staff revved up with the their collective pledges after the end of the season. They're great human beings already, so this doesn't actually ruin anything — it's just a really huge missed opportunity.
- Seeing how Supernatural is the king of It Got Worse, this tends to happen a lot. Dean's unwillingness to talk about his problems is a good example. Despite all the emotional trauma Dean has experienced and all the "Chick Flick Moments" he's instigated, by the season 3 finale he still brushes off Sam's attempt at a heartfelt goodbye.
- The two finally seem to be getting better at this in season 4. They've learned not to keep things from each other, and Dean has become more lenient in regards to Sam using his powers in desperate situations, as well as trying hard to accept Ruby after learning what she did for Sam.
- And even that went to hell. Obviously.
- Although as of the 100th episode, they have made the decision to actively try not to fall into these destructive habits.
- "Family is all we've got". Great. You two wanna stop breaking up with each other and spending episodes away from one another learning this again?
- Dexter had this problem majorly in Season 6. Supposedly, Dexter learns from Trinity murdering Rita two seasons earlier that becoming too involved with other serial killers can be dangerous for his family. Yet within the space of what is supposed to be about a year, he has all but forgotten this lesson. This leads to his son Harrison getting kidnapped and held at knife point. Other lessons he's forgotten include:
- Be more careful about leaving a trail (Seasons 2, 5, and 6); do not mercifully free your victims (Seasons 1 and 6); Harry was fallible and he should be his own person (every single season).
- M*A*S*H was king of this trope. Margaret learned at least three times to be kinder and more respectful to her nurses. Charles learned the value of the common man several times. Same for Hawkeye and his womanizing, his drinking, and his disrespect for authority. Though perhaps the crowning moment was when BJ went on a long rant about how it was so easy for him and Hawkeye to sit around, relatively far from the real fighting, considering themselves so high and mighty as they snarked and sneered at the war and complained about how bad they had it, while soldiers were actually fighting and dying on the front lines. By the next episode, they were back to snarking and sneering as usual.
- The rant in question is one of the only times anyone questions Hawkeye's position that he is morally superior to the Army, which was vital to the status quo. Hawkeye doesn't even get the Aesop in the first place, and seems to chalk the rant up to BJ being hysterical with guilt. Apparently the writers did too.
- Frank never learned that fabricating stories about Hawkeye would get him in trouble, despite doing this several times. This may be because the actual lesson he learned was that he could make up anything he wanted, even charges that would carry a death sentence, but it was all okay when Hawkeye was found not-guilty.
- Klinger continued to dress as a woman, his best effort for getting kicked out of the Army, even after he was offered the chance to get out, and he was informed that his record would say he was a transvestite and a homosexual.
- Will and Grace used this a lot with all the characters, but mostly Karen and Jack. Karen would often learn that being shallow and nasty to everyone wasn't quite as fun as she usually thought it was, or Jack would learn something similar. The show would occasionally actually have an episode of the characters still having learned their lesson as a We Want Our Jerk Back episode.
- The title character of House seems to inflict Aesop Amnesia on himself. Not only does he avoid learning a lesson, even if he does he announces he doesn't give a crap and continues to be the same Jerk Ass as ever. Though some of his supporting cast seem to have difficulty learning from experience, let alone keeping hold of the episode's message.
- Of course, he learned to visit patients rather quickly.
- A consistent trope on the earlier seasons of Nip/Tuck, where the character of Dr. Christian Troy would learn how much harm his selfish, reckless lifestyle causes and makes amends by the end of the episode, only to consistently go back to being an ever worse asshole by next week.
- At Black Hole High, the science club seems incapable of remembering that it's a good idea to talk about your issues with each other instead of just assuming the worst and keeping it bottled up, even after talking out your problems turns out to be the cure for: molecular friction; taking on the characteristics of various elements in periodic-table order; attack by anthropomorphic Venus flytrap; and abnormal sponge growth.
- Also, they seem unable to learn the Aesop "Don't use the bits of weird Pearadyne phlebotinum stored in the school basement in your various get-rich-quick schemes" even after sticking their chips into various things caused: Instant A.I., Just Add Water; a cellphone to gain the power to enforce emoticons on its owner; a radio to receive messages from the future; the common cold to jump species from human to computer to building.
- The radio that received the broadcasts from the future actually ended up saving the day though didn't it?
- Entourage spent the first two seasons using Johnny 'Drama' Chase (presented as a Hollywood has-been) as a running gag machine on this trope. Drama would haughtily 'advise' Vince on Hollywood lifestyle, only to have E or Turtle point out how short-lived, illusionary, feeble or otherwise pathetic his acting career was in the 90's. It happened about once an episode. You'd think Drama would learn to keep his trap shut, but....
- Similarly, the course of the show has shown that anytime it's Eric vs. Vince in a difference of professional opinion E's almost always proven right. Vince makes few-to-no good decisions on his own. He could make a wrong turn in a cul-de-sac. You'd think that if Vince hadn't learned this by now, at least Drama, Turtle and Ari would remind him that E was right about Matterhorn, QB, Aquaman, Mandy More, Dom, Amanda, and Medellian, where Vince's instincts were way off (except for QB). Let E do your thinking for you Vince, it's his skill, not yours.
- Community ended "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" with the line "Pierce Hawthorne saved the life of Fat Neil, while learning very, very little."
- Leave It To Beaver is one of the archetypal examples here. Of particular note is the last episode, which has themes of how fast the children are growing up, counterpointed by hints that they're still as childish as ever, with what may be a clever subversion of the whole deal: It's a Clip Show, allowing them to run through the events of about half a dozen episodes in a row, touching on several morals at once and then ending the series before anybody can forget them again.
- It was even lampshaded in a TV Land commercial for the show. It explained that the moral of the episode would enter one ear, float around his skull without making contact his brain, then exit out the other side.
- Scrubs, Scrubs, Scrubs, Scrubs, Scrubs, Scrubs. It's safe to say that thanks to a combination of this and Flanderisation, not one character in Scrubs has any significant or meaningful character development. The most blatant examples:
- Turk learns to see his patients as people instead of emotionally detaching himself. He learns the same lesson twice in two different, unconnected episodes. And still says that, "I work best when I'm emotionally detached".
- Carla's "best moment in medicine" is when the doctors actually listen to her. She spends every other episode pushing her advice on everyone and everything. In one episode, it leads to disaster and she "learns" that in the hospital, the doctors are in charge because they are ultimately responsible for the lives of their patients.
- JD learns that he needs to "grow up" (despite the fact that his frustration is caused by stress over how utterly crappy his life has become due to a combination of bad circumstances and no-one giving a damn about him) in one episode. This is the guy who acts like a joking, immature fool in every single episode. In another episode, Turk "teaches" him that trying to become more serious and mature is bad; you should instead never forget your "inner child" and continue to goof off.
- The Turk scene was actually a mere episode or two after JD got the whole "be mature" lesson. Turk basically explains that being mature is knowing when you don't have to be mature.
- As well as JD needing to learn to stop being so emotionally needy, grow a backbone, and realize that people would respect him more as a doctor if he let his ability speak for itself. This was taken to insane levels in the Med School Spin-Off.
- Dr. Cox learns to be gracious and accept help from other people in order to advance professionally. He learns this three times, in three unconnected episodes. And still continues to act like an ass to his boss and make all the wrong moves.
- He's now Chief of Medicine. I guess those lessons helped a bit.
- He actually did loosen up after a while. He's just hard to teach, as any man with a big ego.
- Got lampshaded with The Todd, who was learned how to behave toward women by a shrink. The Shrink then explains to Carla that without long-term professional help, The Todd will change back to his old self within a week or so.
- Also lampshaded with Carla having to teach Elliot the same lesson twice within a few episodes, and the latter episode actually flashing back to the former.
Elliot: I ... don't recall that conversation.
- This was a big time plot point in My Lunch. When Jill dies of what appears to be a drug overdose, JD becomes depressed, but Dr. Cox tells him "the moment you start blaming yourself for deaths that aren't your fault, there's no going back". At the end of the episode, when it's revealed that Jill had rabies, all of the patients that she donated her organs to die. This sends Dr. Cox over the deep end and he blames himself for it, despite the fact that nobody could've seen it coming. JD calls him out on the Aesop Amnesia, citing exactly what Cox told him. But Cox accepts that there's no going back and leaves.
- An episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun involved Dick grappling with his overblown ego. Of course, that's one of his primary character traits. At the end of the episode, he stated what he'd learned thus: "There are times for a little humility. Fortunately, that time is now over."
- Played with in the episode where Dick dealt with his insensitivity. He went to Sensitivity Training and it successfully changed him into an ultra-sensitive guy. Only it turned out he was even worse that way and it all backfired, causing him to revert to his old ways before the end of the episode.
- Family Matters. Most episodes would have at least one character learning to be nicer to Steve Urkel, then promptly forget it the very next episode.
- This could be pretty bad in the episodes where Urkel would save their lives.
- True, but keep in mind this is because Steve never seemed to learn the lesson of not being an incredibly annoying twit. Yeah, when he helped them out and saved their lives they should be a little more tolerant and give him some more leeway, but it did not entitle him to irritate the crap out of everyone endlessly.
- In later seasons, Steve Urkel changed from embodying Be Yourself to learning that lesson once per season.
- Eddie tired of living by Carl's rules in Carl's house, so he moved out. Twice. And he got in trouble gambling. Thrice.
- Smallville. The best example of this was the relationship between Jonathan Kent and Lex Luthor. Despite all of Lex's attempts to show that he wasn't his father, and despite the fact that Jonathan acknowledged this almost every time that he was proven wrong, he was back to blaming Lex for everything that went wrong automatically by the next episode.
- To a lesser extent (and only lesser because he was on the show for less time) this happened with Pete Ross as well, although he was sometimes justified. But then again, Lex never saved Jonathan's life only to have Bo Kent come back and accuse him of random crap.
- The Lex/Jonathan thing was justified sometimes. There were several episodes where Lex actually had done something horrible, it just wasn't the exact horrible thing Jonathan suspected him of. For example, one episode of Season 1 had Lex suspected of murder before the start of the series. It turned out that he was innocent; Lex deliberately took the blame to cover for a friend, knowing that his father would buy a clean slate for him, but wouldn't bother to do the same for just some friend. That speaks well of Lex's generosity, sure, but (a) he was still rich and cold-blooded enough to cover up a murder, and (b) if he had been open about that with Clark, the hostage situation in the episode could have been prevented. By the end of the episode, you're left feeling sorry for Lex, but he's really no more trustworthy than before.
- Another example of Aesop Amnesia is that all the way up to Season 8, Clark has to repeatedly learn that not everything is his fault, his powers aren't a curse and that he should accept his destiny.
- David on Six Feet Under seems to spend an awful lot of episodes learning that it's okay to be gay. This may be justified somewhat by the realism of the show; you can know something intellectually but it takes some repetition to learn it on an emotional level.
- Everybody Loves Raymond was infested with this. Debra would confront Marie about her hostile behavior, Robert would confront Frank and Marie about their preferential treatment of Ray, Ray and/or Debra would confront Robert about his victim complex, Deborah would confront Ray about his selfish behavior, and other variations. Each time, it was treated as though these issues were finally being brought into the open after decades of repression, and now people were learning their lessons and would finally treat each other right. And each time the characters reverted to their same old neurotic selves straight away, and the audience groaned at the thought that the same issues would be "resolved" next year, and the year after that...
- of course, nobody seems to listen or care about Robert, so it's somewhat understandable for him to keep griping.
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch was built on this trope. Nearly every episode ended with Sabrina learning not to use her magic carelessly, or selfishly, or to do morally questionable things. Which never stopped her from immediately resorting to elaborate and usually disastrous magical solutions to every tiny problem she encountered in her life. For seven seasons.
- Frasier and his brother Niles would constantly forget not to be so competitive, to stay out of other people's business, not to be so snooty etc etc etc. Occasionally the two would come to an epiphany about their behavior, only to change their minds about it in the same conversation.
- It's implied (and outright stated in the episode where they attend relationship counseling) that their character flaws are so deeply rooted in their psyches that they will never be able to overcome them.
- Niles also got better about learning his lessons in the later seasons, once he and Daphne were together with the nastiness of their last breakups behind them. Like in real life, it's apparently easier to learn from your experiences if your life doesn't suck.
- Boy Meets World lampshades this in an episode when Eric lands a role on the very similar "Kid Gets Acquainted with Universe," and during rehearsal the Cory/Ben Savage analogue stops when he realizes it's another Rory-learns-a-lesson episode, and starts shouting, "How can I learn so much and still be so stupid?!"
- Seems like Jenny on Gossip Girl has learned the "don't let the queen and her posse change who you are" lesson about five times by now, but it never sticks for more than a few episodes at a time.
- Subverted in Seinfeld, as none of the characters ever learned anything in the first place, despite the fact that the plots often gave the viewers implied Aesops based on logic (e.g., don't let the security guard do his job sitting down). In fact, the Finale implies that all four of them have remained exactly the same since the Pilot, nine years earlier.
- Well, three of them, anyway ... there was no Elaine Benes in the pilot episode.
- The show had a simple policy: "No Hugging, No Learning".
- Cleverly averted in a Friends episode. Once, Ross and Rachel were bitching at each other in Monica's living room, and the rest were locked in Monica's bedroom at the time. When a script called for a second fallout between R&R in the living room and the rest once again found themselves in Monica's bedroom without daring to go outside, Joey apparently had thought of this possible situation after the last occasion, and had put a box of food, comics and condoms (it's Joey after all), to pass the time if they ever got stuck in there again.
- Malcolm in the Middle has this sometimes, usually having the kids and Lois work things out and prefer getting along with each other before screwing it up on-screen in favor of Status Quo is God by the end of the episode. There is at least one circumstance where Malcolm's amnesia takes longer to set in, though: he learns in season six that no, he doesn't get music like Dewey does but that's okay because he's good at other things. Several episodes later, he is upset that he doesn't understand music like Dewey does. Interestingly subverted in that in the latter example he doesn't actually seem to learn a lesson by the end of the episode.
- Francis also seemed to become a bit more responsible when working at a Dude ranch in New Mexico. However, post Season Six, when he was fired from what was implied to be feeding the funds of the ranch to a food trough rather than an ATM, he seems to have gone back to the delinquent, psychotically irresponsible self, and it is hinted that the only real reason why he got a stable job in the series finale was so he could take entertainment in taunting his mother by lying about remaining unemployed.
- Glee. Although the characters go through impressive development, some characters often miss one important point of their hardships: popularity does not equal happiness. And Puck, despite his growing likability, is still Puck.
- How many times has Will learned to give solos out equally? He never seems to learn that part of Rachel is such a drama queen is because he keeps giving her solos!
- Mr. Schu doesn't even wait for the break between episodes during "Throwdown" in which the club splits up because Mr. Schu keeps picking stereotypically "white" pop songs and giving all the solos to Finn and Rachel Mr. Schu learns his lesson, accepts all the kids for their differences and then ends the show with...Finn and Rachel singing "Keep Holding On" a pop song by the very white Avril Lavigne.
- Quinn. During season one, she became pregnant, which caused her to fall from the top of the social hierarchy to the bottom. She gradually became more mature and began to reach out and form genuine friendships with people, namely Mercedes. Cue season two... and she's suddenly reverted back to being the shallow social climber she was in the very first episode.
- A particularly disappointing one in Robin Hood. Episode six of series three marks the first time since the season premiere that Robin displays pangs of grief over the death of Marian. This leads to Robin breaking up with Isabella, basing it on a) his duty to the King and England, b) his acknowledgment that he's never going to get the chance to have a normal life, c) the danger that Isabella is in if she's known to be in league with Robin, and d) the fact that he still misses Marian too much. The episode ends with him looking wistfully at a happy family, knowing that it's a future he can never have...only for him to turn around and stare at team-mate Kate with a "oh yeah, she's got a crush on me too!" expression on his face, assisted by an uplifting musical cue as Kate smiles at him. It's direct foreshadowing for their hook-up two episodes later, a development that completely undermines all the poignancy of Robin's earlier epiphany. So Robin's Aesop doesn't even last to the end of the episode in which he learns it.
- C.C., Maxwell's business partner on The Nanny suffered this towards the end. Throughout the show's run, she was insanely envious of Maxwell's attraction towards Fran, and in "The Wedding", when Fran and Maxwell finally got hitched, she made one last attempt at cutting between them in the aisle, until Maxwell took her aside and assured her that even though he loves Fran, he'll always appreciate C.C.'s friendship. C.C. finally relented, but in the next episode, "Honeymoon's Overboard", when Fran and Maxwell get lost on their honeymoon, she was utterly indifferent to the fact that Fran had disappeared too:
C.C.: I have stuck by Maxwell through sixteen girlfriends and two dead wives. (Everyone looks at her) One dead wife. I will find Maxwell Sheffield!
Sylvia Fine (Fran's mother): And?...
C.C.: I'll bring him home.
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander learns that he has worth and should ignore those who say otherwise many, many times. The most egregious is after season 3's "The Zeppo", in which he saves the world by himself and doesn't tell anyone, and at the end of the episode, realizes just how ludicrously feeble and inconsequential Cordelia's insults are in the light of what he just went through.
- Buffy herself seems to learn that she doesn't have to fight alone in quite a few episodes - that in fact, she needs her friends and should let them help her. Not that this stops her from underappreciating/ignoring them all the way up to the end of Season 7.
- It's no wonder LazyTown needs a superhero; No matter how many times Sportacus teaches the kids the importance of eating healthy, exercising often and being kind to each other, they always revert back to their unhealthy, lazy, greedy and generally unpleasant ways.
- iCarly: Nevel in iPity Nevel. He spends an entire episode learning to be a better person after ending up on the internet insulting a little girl. At the end of the episode he does the exact same thing.
- iDate Sam & Freddie ends with Carly delivering the aesop to Sam and Freddie that they need to sort out their own problems or they shouldn't date. The very next episode iCan't Take It ends with Carly sorting out another Sam and Freddie problem so they can keep dating.
- On Amen, every time Thelma realized that she didn't need the Reverend to make her life complete, or that she could make her own way in the world without depending on him or her father, she went right back to chasing Reverend Gregory and/or being a whiny Daddy's Girl by the next episode. Even worse was her father, Ernie. He would learn to be honest, kind, and to share with others. Then he would go right back to being his old lying, cheating, greedy self. Sometimes this happened in the same episode!
- Modern Family In the Season 3 premiere, "Dude Ranch", Phil finally gets tired of Jay mistreating him and stands up to him. Despite Jay finally seeming to get it and this being a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Phil, he's immediately back to needing Jay's constant approval by the next episode.
- Star Trek: Enterprise: "Prime Directive" ends with the captain and Phlox deciding not to give a cure to a dying people they meet because of, well, all the usual justifications given for [[Alien Non-Interference Clause the prime directive]]. Later on, in "Observer Effect," an alien race refuses to give *them* the cure that would save their lives. They both cluelessly try to teach the aliens that the Aesop they had supposedly learned is all wrong.
- Over the course of Season 12 of The Amazing Race, Ron learned to control his temper, and not to be so abusive towards his daughter. When they came back for Season 18, Ron seemed to forget all those lessons, and reverted to his old self.
Newspaper Comics
Toys
- The first three years of BIONICLE gave us several character arcs of the Toa learning that only together can they hope to defeat evil. At first they simply didn't like each other, then they got reckless with their power-ups, then they just bickered for the hell of it, before finally realizing that they had already learned this lesson.
Video Games
Web Original
- Mackenzie of Tales of MU never learns her lesson about... well... anything. Steff is bad, too. Actually, none of the main characters (except Two) really develop in a meaningful fashion. Keep in mind we're still not through the first two months of the first semester at MU. Two, being a creation without a childhood starts with No Social Skills and has the most social catching-up to do, and could possibly catch up quickly enough to balance out within the first five weeks of class.
Steff has bad moments. After stabbing herself with a knife she knew nothing about until it tore out half her soul, she spent several days resting and scared everyone close to her and almost died. Immediately after she was handed another magic item by Dee, a character who herself needs to learn to stop handing out magic no one but her is familiar with. She was told not to use it without lots of physical and mental preparation, and only then carefully. Her decision? Chug the whole thing the moment she's alone. Tales Of Mu could probably fill up its own wall banger page rather quickly.
- Same for Solange of the Whateley Universe, who still thinks her money can buy her out of anything.
- Probably because she's not been a focus character since Jade beat her, badly. She DID learn not to screw with Team Kimba directly, however. She was given an option on learning that she wasn't a good Queen, but thanks to incidents with Ayla, Murphy, and Loophole, she's now out of the Alphas. Her current Aesop is probably closer to 'how to be sneaky and cruel'. Averted with the Don, who HAS learned said lesson, as well as Hekate. Whateley villains in general get most dangerous the more they get beaten.
- Chou, however, definitely qualifies. How many times has she learned to accept being a girl, accept that the Tao is always right, accept that she has to kill sometimes, accept...She HAS learned how to handle romance, though. Except Molly has some summons that might not be nice...
- From the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, the heroic Robotman learned that he can still be human even if he's a Brain in a Jar. Then his original player left, the character was taken over by another player, and the "my God, what have I become" back all over again.
- Even though his behavior led him directly to prison time, Corrupt Corporate Executive Lexington Cargill never seemed to learn that being a billionaire wasn't an automatic Get Out of Jail Free card.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd frequently learns to appreciate his video games rather than complain about them all the time, only to forget about that next episode or sooner. Of course, since the entire premise hinges on him complaining about video games, Status Quo is God is pretty much mandatory in this case.
- The Nostalgia Critic will never learn that he's worth more than what he thinks he is.
- The Nostalgia Chick will never stop mistreating people, Nella isn't ever going to fully stand up for herself and Dr. Tease won't learn ethics.
- In The Fantastic Favio Bros, LeTony discovers at the end of the first film that alcohol is bad after it nearly kills him and he makes peace with the heroes. In later movies this aesop is completely ignored, as LeTony goes on to try to addict people to more harmful substances and continues drinking. This is justified by Rule of Funny, though, with explicit references to when they made peace.
- In Agents of Cracked Dan constantly forgets that Swaim is dangerously insane and going along with any plan he comes up with will end badly. Despite this he does remember the previous episodes well enough that he objects to the plans at the start.
Western Animation
Real Life
- It's not uncommon in bad debates to encounter people who repeat the same arguments after they've already been soundly disproven.
- This can lead to hilarity on online forums. An argument will be made and refuted soundly on one page, only for it to be made again, often by the same person, a page or two later. Of course, whether this is hilarious or depressing varies.
- Particularly egregious trolls will do this openly, going so far as to quote the debunking of their nonsense and respond with the exact same nonsense, often word for word.
- Anyone who attends any twelve-step recovery program for any significant length of time (six months or more) will hear dozens of life stories about people falling for the same addictions and abusive relationships over and over again, and will hear about people falling off the wagon repeatedly. Addiction is like that.
- It is also because the twelve steps instruct people to believe that they are powerless against their addiction, never mention not to drink (or not to indulge in one's addiction) anymore, redefine the word "sober" as "someone who follows the twelve steps" (so someone could still be drinking, but follow the twelve steps religiously, including the one that says he is powerless against his addiction, and be called "sober") and slander those who avoid drinking without following the twelve steps with the disparaging term "dry drunks".
- It isn't so much that people forget the aesop, it's more like it's extremely hard to change their ways, if someones' behaviour becomes too extreme and then they 'learn their lesson', there's a good chance they'll repeat the behaviour even though they know the danger, becuase it's in total opposition to their personality to not do it. For example, if someone has an addictive personality, it's in their nature to be addicted to something.
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