History Main / BrokenAesop

* ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'':
** The story is ''supposedly'' saying that Beauty comes to see beyond the Beast's appearance and accept him for who he is... except that they're only able to live HappilyEverAfter when the curse is broken and he reverts to a perfect Handsome Prince (and thus comes off as "only beautiful people can love each other" instead... though this sort of neglects the fact that the transformation is the Beast's reward, not Belle's). In the versions where he is clearly some sort of animal or mix of animals, this cannot be avoided without getting too close to bestiality for most audience members' comfort, so for the writers this is a case of MortonsFork. Some versions mitigate this by Beauty rejecting the prince at first (the Soviet cartoon has her run away from the prince after the detransformation, while the Indonesian tale has him appear before her and offer to take her away from the Beast).
** The most well-known versions of this tale by Beaumont and Disney actually cut out the worst of the original Villeneuve story's broken aesop. Villeneuve's backstory for the Prince revealed him to have been cursed by a fairy who's explicitly described as "wicked" and "[[BeautyEqualsGoodness ugly]]", whereas the good fairy who helps him break the curse is described as strikingly beautiful. Not only that, but there's a second message that emerges when the Prince's mother [[ParentalMarriageVeto refuses to let him marry Beauty]] because she's a commoner; the Prince and good fairy both argue that Beauty's virtues should make her worthy of his hand on their own, but then the fairy explains that Beauty is actually the daughter of a fairy princess (it makes sense in context... sort of) and hence of royal birth after all, rendering that moral completely moot.
** In a story that is supposed to be about not judging people by their appearances, the most notable aspect of the heroine is her [[MeaningfulName beauty]]. It can make the story seem a bit less about looking beyond appearances and more [[UglyGuyHotWife beautiful women should be willing to settle for ugly men]]. Some variants avoid this by making Beauty's name at least partially ironic, but usually she is presented as [[BeautyEqualsGoodness the epitome of both physical and inner beauty]], while her less attractive sisters are just as ugly on the inside. Many variants also state ''explicitly'' that the Prince is not just handsome but the handsomest man Beauty has ever seen or even the handsomest one ''in the world''.

* ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1997680/REFLEXIA_Prototype_ver/ REFLEXIA Prototype ver.]]'', a visual novel on Steam that is a [[NoFourthWall meta-parody]] of DatingSim, is meant to be a [[SatireParodyPastiche satire]] on how visual novels trick people into caring about one-dimensional characters. This is taken so far as to [[TakeThatAudience insult the player for caring about fictional characters]]. However, the second half is devoted to [[spoiler: the character's emotional problems. So, the VN insults you for carrying about fictional characters then expects you to care about ''its'' fictional characters.]] The hypocrisy is never address despite it undermining the entire satire of the game.

** The story is ''supposedly'' saying that Beauty comes to see beyond the Beast's appearance and accept him for who he is... except that they're only able to live HappilyEverAfter when the curse is broken and he reverts to a perfect Handsome Prince (and thus comes off as "only beautiful people can love each other" instead... though this sort of neglects the fact that the transformation is the Beast's reward, not Belle's). In the versions where he is clearly some sort of animal or mix of animals, this cannot be avoided without getting too close to bestiality for most audience members' comfort, so for the writers this is a case of MortonsFork. Some versions mitigate this by Beauty rejecting the prince at first (the Soviet cartoon has her run away from the prince after thedetransformation, while the Indonesian tale has him appear before her and offer to take her away from the Beast).

** The story is ''supposedly'' saying that Beauty comes to see beyond the Beast's appearance and accept him for who he is... except that they're only able to live HappilyEverAfter when the curse is broken and he reverts to a perfect Handsome Prince (and thus comes off as "only beautiful people can love each other" instead... though this sort of neglects the fact that the transformation is the Beast's reward, not Belle's). In the versions where he is clearly some sort of animal or mix of animals, this cannot be avoided without getting too close to bestiality for most audience members' comfort, so for the writers this is a case of MortonsFork.

** There's a variant of "The Tortoise and the Hare" where the tortoise faces a deer, and rather than win through being "slow and steady", he gets some help by having some of his friends wait in hiding at several points during the race, which makes the deer think the tortoise is somehow overtaking him. Granted, the deer was cocky and deserved to be knocked off a peg, but winning through cheating doesn't make the tortoise better, especially when the deer, for all his attitude, ran the race fair and square.

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': In the episode "[[Recap/HelluvaBossS2E2SeeingStars Seeing Stars]]" Loona's speech to Octavia about parents not getting everything right when they try to be good parents rings hollow considering the show had never really shown Blitzo's failures as a father, always showing him as a over-doting and loving parent that gets a little too affectionate sometimes. On the flip side, Loona was the one who is always acting abrasive, having beaten the crap out of him for telling her to adjust her attitude with their clients at the beginning of the episode; after the speech, she kicks Blitzo in the groins when he tries to apologize and hug Loona for threatening to replace her. Even acknowledging her backstory revealed in this episode, Loona comes off as hypocritical telling Octavia to cut her dad some slack when she herself refuses to. It's also hard to say why Loona would extend this empathy towards Stolas, given they have never had a conversation and from her perspective it would be easy to conclude Stolas is sexually exploiting Blitzo in exchange for the book, but she can't extend the same understanding to Blitzo who she does know and he does care for her.

* Dr Pepper made an ad campaign based on individuality and "I gotta be me"... but the commercials had most everyone wearing near-identical red shirts with white text. While all of the text was different, in most crowd scenes everyone looked the same. They [[SubvertedTrope sorta fixed this]] when you could buy your own customized shirt... but then they went around ''[[DoubleSubversion giving people pre-made shirts]]''. I guess I don't gotta be me, I just gotta be my shirt (and drink Dr Pepper).

** ''BrokenAesop/{{Danganronpa}}''

* ''[[https://arden.itch.io/kindness-coins Kindness Coin]]'' is a satire of [[DatingSim Dating Sims]] with the ultimate moral of women do not exist to fulfill men's romantic fantasies. However, the visual novel randomly introduces a female character with no other purpose than [[DoubleStandard to fulfill the romantic fantasies of the female main character]].

* ''Kindness Coin'' is a satire of [[DatingSim Dating Sims]] with the ultimate moral of women do not exist to fulfill men's romantic fantasies. However, the visual novel randomly introduces a female character with no other purpose than [[DoubleStandard to fulfill the romantic fantasies of the female main character]].
* ''REFLEXIA Prototype ver.'', a visual novel on Steam that is a [[NoFourthWall meta-parody]] of DatingSim, is meant to be a [[SatireParodyPastiche satire]] on how visual novels trick people into caring about one-dimensional characters. This is taken so far as to [[TakeThatAudience insult the player for caring about fictional characters]]. However, the second half is devoted to [[spoiler: the character's emotional problems. So, the VN insults you for carrying about fictional characters then expects you to care about ''its'' fictional characters.]] The hypocrisy is never address despite it undermining the entire satire of the game.

* ''Kindness Coin'' is a satire of [[DatingSim Dating Sims]] with the ultimate moral of women do not exist to fulfill men's romantic fantasies. However, the visual novel randomly introduces a female character with no other purpose than to fulfill the romantic fantasies of the [[DoubleStandard female main character]].

* ''Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses'':

** ''BrokenAesop/TheSimpsons''

* E.C. Segar's ''Thimble Theater'', where ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} first appeared, sometimes had an AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment in which Popeye would teach morals. In one of them Popeye seriously teaches kids not to be lazy with their language and mispronounce words ("sumpin' for "something", for instance). It was originally used as an occasional gag, but after Segar's untimely demise other writers sometimes forgot that it was supposed to be ironic.

* E.C. Segar's ''Thimble Theater'', where ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} first appeared, sometimes had an AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment in which Popeye would teach morals. In one of them Popeye seriously teaches kids [[DoubleStandard not to be lazy with their language and mispronounce words]] ("sumpin' for "something", for instance). It was originally used as an occasional gag, but after Segar's untimely demise other writers sometimes forgot that it was supposed to be ironic.

* ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'' in its various tellings usually ends up having a Broken Aesop (especially in modern versions) that is an inversion of the complaint many people have about ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}''. It's believed that the story was originally told to girls who were in {{arranged marriage}}s to men they didn't care for, so ValuesDissonance may be involved.
** The story is ''supposedly'' saying that Beauty comes to see beyond the Beast's appearance and accept him for who he is... except that they're only able to live HappilyEverAfter when the curse is broken and he reverts to a perfect Handsome Prince (and thus comes off as "only beautiful people can love each other" instead... though this sort of neglects the fact that the transformation is the ''Beast's'' reward, not Belle's). In the versions where he is clearly some sort of animal or mix of animals, this "broken Aesop" cannot be avoided without getting too close to bestiality for most audience members' comfort, so for the writers this is a case of MortonsFork.
** The most well-known versions of this tale by Beaumont and Disney actually cut out the worst of the original Villeneuve story's broken aesop. Villeneuve's backstory for the Prince revealed him to have been cursed by a fairy who's explicitly described as "wicked" and "[[BeautyEqualsGoodness ugly]]", whereas the good fairy who helps him break the curse is described as strikingly beautiful. Not only that, but there's a ''second'' Broken Aesop that emerges when the Prince's mother [[ParentalMarriageVeto refuses to let him marry Beauty]] because she's a commoner; the Prince and good fairy both argue that Beauty's virtues should make her worthy of his hand on their own, but then the fairy explains that Beauty is actually the daughter of a fairy princess (it makes sense in context... sort of) and hence of royal birth after all, rendering that moral completely moot.
** There's also the broken aesop that comes from the fact that in a story that is supposed to be about not judging people by their appearances, the most notable aspect of the heroine is her [[MeaningfulName beauty]]. It can make the story seem a bit less about looking beyond appearances and more [[UglyGuyHotWife beautiful women should be willing to settle for ugly men]]. Some variants avoid this by making Beauty's name at least partially ironic, but usually she is presented as [[BeautyEqualsGoodness the epitome of both physical and inner beauty]], while her less attractive sisters are just as ugly on the inside. Many variants also state ''explicitly'' that the Prince is not just handsome but the handsomest man Beauty has ever seen or even the handsomest one ''in the world''.
** Christian novelist Karen Kingsbury's ''Unlocked'' inadvertently showed up some of the problems with this story by using it as a metaphor for ''autism''. The novel has a beautiful, popular high school senior named Ella (re)befriending a boy, Holden, who has HollywoodAutism and is completely noncommunicative -- a situation triggered when he wants to sit in on rehearsals for a SchoolPlay of the Disney adaptation of this story as he's drawn to the music. She's playing Belle, and Holden is a metaphorical Beast figure in that he's "cursed" with autism. The whole story is about how music, friendship, and God "break" this "curse" and get him out of his shell, suggesting that autistic people cannot be appreciated for their inner qualities and have fulfilling lives unless others help them become more "normal". If the intended Aesop were being followed, the other characters would be happy with him as he is -- after all, it isn't something that he can help or brought upon himself -- if still helping him to have a more-rounded out life. As well, he's as physically attractive as Ella, and while the author tries to couch this as a reflection of his inner beauty, it again suggests that the hero ''has'' to be incredibly handsome to be worthy of the beautiful heroine... and ''especially'' if he's disabled.
* Literature/{{Bluebeard}} by Charles Perrault seems to be going for the moral of "curiosity killed the cat." The heroine disobeys her husband's order to never open a certain door of his house, and discovers his secret: Bluebeard is a SerialKiller, and the forbidden room contains the bodies of his previous wives. Bluebeard learns of her intrusion, and tries to kill her. However, the moral falls apart when one considers that she would never have found out about her husband's dark secret if she had been obedient, and in most versions of the story, she manages to get away from him and ends up marrying a less-murderous guy instead, a much better fate than the other wives'. If she hadn't looked in the forbidden room, she probably would have wound up getting on Bluebeard's bad side when her sister and brothers hadn't been around. The true moral should be ''please'' be curious. Or, "Be curious and not clumsy."
* The fairy tale of ''Literature/DonkeySkin''. It's not enough that the prince loves the beautiful mystery girl who is found hiding as a scullery maid; she has to be outed as a runaway princess before the marriage is acceptable. Even though her hard work, intelligence, and bravery [[note]]and sneakiness[[/note]] show her to be an amazing young woman.
* There are countless legends (as well as other types of works) that feature the story of a young princess who is in love with a commoner but cannot marry him because he is not of noble blood. Different stories end differently, but in the majority of cases, this "commoner" will be revealed to have noble blood by the end of the story. The often spontaneous discovery that the commoner is a prince will [[SuddenlySuitableSuitor suddenly lift all boundaries]], put a satisfied smile on the king's previously-angry face, and be followed by the sound of wedding bells. In other words, while the intended Aesop is usually that "[[ThePowerOfLove true love conquers all]]", it is in fact social status that conquers all, and must be properly matched before true love can do its magic. Now, this may have been fine in the days when most societies on Earth had a strict class structure - even commoners held the misconception that the nobles were somehow innately more elevated than they were, and thus should look after their bloodlines.
* One of Aesop's fables, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', is about a satyr who meets a poor traveler lost in the woods, and invites him to his home. He notices the peasant first blowing on his hands to warm them, then blowing on a bowl of soup to cool it off. The Satyr immediately kicks his guest out, declaring that "a man who blows hot and cold in the same breath can't be trusted", metaphorically meaning that someone who frequently changes his mind to avoid committing to a conclusion or to align himself with both sides of a conflict. The problem is, obviously, that the man ''isn't'' blowing hot and cold in the same breath, his breath is the same temperature every time! It's just that his breath is warmer than his cold hands and cooler than his hot soup, meaning he was [[TakeAThirdOption actually]] being consistently ''moderate''.
* Another Aesop's fables, ''Literature/TheTortoiseAndTheHare'', is usually quoted with the moral of "slow and steady wins the race". Except, that's not what happened. The Hare only lost the race because he got overconfident and took a nap during the race. The real moral could have been "don't underestimate your opponent and get cocky." From the point of view of the tortoise, it's more that "slow and ''steady'' wins the race if your opponent is fast but ''unsteady'' enough in his progress that you can catch up". Or, [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3485 it's a fable about small sample sizes.]] Some adaptations ''do'' attempt to fix this aesop by either pointing out it was the Hare's fault he lost; or by having the hare pass out from exhaustion because they overexerted themselves which adds ''another'' layer to the moral.
* Aesop's tale of [[BlowYouAway Boreas]] and [[ThePowerOfTheSun Helios]] is often used to promote the moral that gentleness wins over harshness. Except it doesn't work, because the reasons for Helios' victory and Boreas' loss are inherent to the characters. No matter how gentle wind would blow, you'd still cling on to your cloak, while you wouldn't really have any choice but to take it off if the sun suddenly flared. Also, making someone all hot and sweaty isn't really "gentle".
* Another fable, "The Cock and the Jewel", is the very short tale of a rooster who goes scratching in the yard to find himself and his hens some food, and turns up a gemstone that someone lost from a piece of jewelry. He says that if its owner had found it, the owner would take it and put it back in its setting because it's obviously a very precious stone, but since he's a rooster and has no use for them, he'd rather have a single piece of corn than all the jewels in the world. The moral is often interpreted as "be content with your own lot", but the rooster clearly understands that a jewel has material worth to others ''and he can talk''. The jewel could have bought him plenty of corn and nothing about his situation would have changed, except he would have succeeded in providing for his family. (Medieval interpretations of this fable tend to make it into a religious allegory and represent the cock as foolish: the jewel, in these versions, represents the word of God and the cock represents people who ignore spiritual matters in favor of material concerns.)
* An older (or alternate) version of the HonestAxe fable apparently had the moral of "a river does not always bring axes"--that is to say, "people and circumstances aren't static, so don't always expect the same results, and what works for one person might not work for another." While it's a pretty good message, it's fallen by the wayside for [[HonestyIsTheBestPolicy the more well-known interpretation]], because it doesn't really jibe with the story's events. The second woodcutter doesn't fail where the first woodcutter succeeded because of an outside circumstance or a change in terms or bad luck, he fails because he lied out of greed while his neighbor stayed truthful.
* "The Dog and the Wolf" has a starving wolf reject a dog's offer to work on his farm, knowing he'll starve to death, because he equates the dog being chained up for safety by a collar to slavery [[FridgeLogic despite the fact that the dog is free enough to talk to a wolf in the woods without fearing for his life]]. The moral fails because the wolf had just found a source of food: a farm guarded by a dog stupid enough to approach a starving wolf in the wild and offer him a job. It may be better to choose death over slavery, but the way the story presents the situation, that's not the choice the wolf is making. He's choosing death over slavery and ''stealing from his foolish enemies'', something that most fables present as the mark of a clever person.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'': "RIP Calvin", according to WordOfGod, was supposed to teach that [[spoiler:"[[WeAllDieSomeday no one is immortal.]]"]] However, [[spoiler:the cast in said episode [[DisneyDeath are revived via time travel]]]].
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'':
** From the start, it says that Pure-blood extremists and HYDRA are wrong and that heritage doesn't matter and anyone can be great if they try. But the story does not follow that format at all, with apparently everyone significant having special heritage, including Lily, brilliant muggleborn witch, who's related to Jean Grey (Harry's second cousin). Also, Hermione, other brilliant muggleborn witch? No, she's actually the daughter of the Scarlet Witch, daughter of Magneto and potential Sorceress Supreme, and John Constantine. Same with [[spoiler: Carol Danvers - courageous BadassNormal (pre-powers - though as of 2019, in the comics she was always part Kree) who succeeded through wit and skill? Actually related to Captain America]].
** Then there's the explanation that most Kryptonians have only the Golden Age power-set under a yellow sun, and only a 'Child of the Thirteen' (Krypton's ruling oligarchy) has the full set. However, this is regarded as suspicious InUniverse - [[LampshadeHanging why only those thirteen families?]] It's eventually explained in chapter 59 of the sequel as being a complete accident: [[spoiler: ''all'' Kryptonians had/have that potential, but it was artificially limited for whatever reason. The only reason the Thirteen unlocked it was because their ancestors made diplomatic marriages with those few non-Kryptonian species they felt were worthy allies and could breed true with, and the hybrids replaced the genes that limited their potential]]. Exactly ''why'' this was done in the first place is unclear.
** It is also made clear that all those power-sets/inheritances were engineered by the series' MagnificentBastard in chief, Doctor Strange, as part of his plan to stop Thanos. He explains that it isn't so much power that counts, but personality, how the possessor ''chooses'' to use it. He explicitly says that he could have given ''anyone'' powers and all, but it takes a special person to be TheHero, and like Dr Erskine with Steve, he picked Harry because he was a hero ''in spite'' of all he had/could do, not because of it.
* ''Fanfic/FantasiaTimes'' has three major themes running through it that get brought up repeatedly; all of them are subjected to this.
** "Don't judge others based on who they are at first glance." A decent message, except the protagonists constantly belittle both Purebloods and Royals for nothing more than being...well, Purebloods and Royals. Main character Andi also engages in FantasticRacism against some ''other'' species (anthro tigers and vampires) that was caused by a single member of each species, and she refuses to see other members of those species as anything but the same as her tormentors.
** Another Aesop constantly espoused by Andi is that bullying is wrong and should be prevented at every opportunity...except she herself is guilty of constantly bullying the Royals as well as anyone else who so much as disagrees with her.
** Andi also believes wholeheartedly in rejecting destiny and following one's own path, and often berates those who think otherwise. This is heavily contradicted by two things: 1) the RedStringOfFate is alive and well in this series, as several characters are fated to be together; and 2) a major story arc involves her preparing her friends for ''their'' destinies, and they apparently have no way out of this. "The Sword of Ghostinya!" is a good example of how bad this gets; Danny repeatedly says he doesn't want to rule a kingdom, but is given no say in the matter when he's chosen as the next ruler of the titular kingdom.
* ''Fanfic/ForgedDestiny'':
** The very core of the story about ‘Jaune forging his own destiny’ is this, as the actual events see [[spoiler: he’s constantly being involved in events due to the urging and machinations of other people (particularly Ozpin), and that his very ability to become a Hero was due to [[ContrivedCoincidence conveniently]] having a wish granted by Salem, [[PlotHole despite never actually meeting her]], as part of her intent to kill him by throwing Jaune into danger she believed he couldn’t survive]]. Thus despite the core theme or various [[WordOfGod statements by the author]], the story sees Jaune mostly being thrown into things by others with him just going along.
*** Gets especially egregious in the final arc where [[spoiler: both Jaune and Ruby are guilted and politically arm twisted to become King and Queen of Vale to discourage another war with Mistral, with their only act of self-determination being taking the positions but not being actually married]].
** When Ruby finally reveals the details of her Class to the rest of the guild and is then easily accepted by them, Jaune ruminates that [[spoiler:the rest of the guild might have been just as accepting of him had he not "chose not to take the plunge Ruby had" and instead [[ThePowerOfFriendship trusted his friends with his secret]]]]. The problems with this assessment are numerous. For one, Ruby was only revealing the details of her Class because the situation necessitated that she do so to effectively face [[spoiler:Raven]] and would have preferred never explaining them to the rest of the Hunters at all. Secondly, Jaune's secret was of entirely greater severity than Ruby's as the revelation of his true Class could have led to his permanent incarceration or execution while Ruby's [[spoiler:had been sanctioned by the King himself]]. Additionally, Pyrrha even admitted that had [[spoiler:Jaune revealed the truth of his Class at any point before the quest to Mistral, then she would have turned him over to the authorities, and that she would have still distrusted him had he done so at a later time]]. Lastly, Ruby reveals the details of her Class not only with the support of Jaune and Yang, but also after [[spoiler:the rest of the Hunters have already had time to learn from the atrocious actions they performed when Jaune's true nature was revealed]]. And this doesn't even address the issue that being a Reaper [[spoiler:is a new and unknown Class, and thus the whole point is to see whether or not it's appropriate for the Hero Caste, negating many of the similarities to Jaune's situation, which has a more obvious niche in society]].
** Another one comes at Salem and Jaune's confrontation in Book 8. After [[spoiler:Raven wishes to bring Salem down from an EldritchAbomination and into an immensely powerful but now kill-able RPG being]], Salem gives a rather long-winded diatribe about the inherent pettiness of humanity and how despite constantly summoning her to grant their desires, no one who makes a wish either expects to sacrifice anything nor shows any gratitude for having their dreams come true; effectively trying to give TheReasonYouSuck speech. This is a pretty nonsensical argument when one remembers that the entire story showcases how to get Salem to appear, one has to commit horrific acts deserving of death (with the few exceptions being ones the author pointedly never elaborates how they came about), and that Salem usually goes about making the wish in a way that harms more people than just the wish maker. Worse is the fact WordOfGod has constantly explained that Salem MUST grant a wish, and it MUST be in a way that results in death, thus removing any agency in Salem's actions, and indeed making her inner-character entirely irrelevant. Thus she's not only undeserving of any gratitude, one can say Salem is less of the BigBad that the characters fight, than the author's system of how her wish granting plays out as being the true evil in the story.
* ''FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'' is principally about how great "rationality" is and how it makes you a better person. But far more often, Harry's successes are found less through intelligent and logical reasoning or research, and more through pure emotional appeals, the narrative bending the rules of magic in his favor, or blind luck.
* The ''Toys/EverAfterHigh'' fic ''Fanfic/KnightsOfTheOtherworld'' supposedly supports the original show's general message of "girls, you don't have to wait around for Prince Charming, you can take control of your own destiny." Unfortunately, it does this while making the fic about a bunch of (mostly male) superheroes who are the only ones who can do anything about monsters invading the kingdom. So the fic encourages the subjects of the fairytale kingdom to be free to choose their own futures, while making them completely dependent on the author's much more powerful characters. This makes the story into exactly the kind of standard plot about male heroes and damsels in distress that ''Ever After High'' was subverting. The attempted reboot has gotten even worse about this, making the people of the fairytale kingdom unable to understand the danger the invading monsters pose to them, [[MightyWhitey requiring teens from Earth to come and look after them]].
* ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'' has [[BrokenAesop/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic its own page]].
* Discussed in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' FanFic ''[[FanFic/PonyPermutationProject Twilight Switch]]''. After witnessing Applejack losing a large harvest of apples, Twilight feels guilty about not being able to help and tries to figure out a spell to fix it. Applejack eventually explains that she'd lost the apples due to her own hard-headedness; if Twilight just magicked up a solution, it'd be like a "get out of stubbornness free" card and she wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of her actions, effectively ruining a hard-learned lesson.
* ''Fanfic/ThePrayerWarriors'' keeps emphasizing that women are weak [[StayInTheKitchen and should be subservient to men]]. However, in ''[[Franchise/HarryPotter Battle with the Witches]]'', it's Ebony who does most of the work in gathering the keys to bring down Dumbledore; in ''Threat of Satanic Commonism'', it's Mary who kills "[[Music/TheBeatles John Lennon]]"; and in ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Evil Gods Part Two]]'', it's Ebony (again) who can capture {{Creator/Socrates}}. These examples, as well as several other cases of female Prayer Warriors fighting multiple enemies at once, makes one have to wonder just how weak and useless the women are.
* The ''Manga/ElfenLied'' fanfic ''FanFic/RoboBando'' goes on and on about how pedophiles are complete scum and need to die, yet one of the later main 'heroes' is the Pedobear.
* ''Fanfic/SonicXDarkChaos'' emphasizes with the Angels that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are bad. [[AndThatsTerrible Really, really bad.]] However, compared with the Demons, they were portrayed as the more honorable and nicer faction overall. The rewrite fixes this somewhat by making the Angels [[BlackAndGrayMorality far more morally gray than the original]], even with some of more sympathetic Angel characters like Jesus. It also makes the Demons more gray too, to emphasize the fact that both sides are flawed and similar.
[[/folder]]

# ''"Why is this producer who was criticized for not paying their employees enough for even rent telling me I should treat my employees decently?"''

* Another Aesop's fables, ''Literature/TheTortoiseAndTheHare'', is usually quoted with the moral of "slow and steady wins the race". Except, that's not what happened. The Hare only lost the race because he got overconfident and took a nap during the race. The real moral could have been "don't underestimate your opponent and get cocky." From the point of view of the tortoise, it's more that "slow and ''steady'' wins the race if your opponent is fast but ''unsteady'' enough in his progress that you can catch up". Or, [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3485 it's a fable about small sample sizes.]] Some adaptations ''do'' attempt to [[AuthorsSavingThrow fix this aesop]] by either pointing out it was the Hare's fault he lost; or by having the hare pass out from exhaustion because they overexerted themselves which adds ''another'' layer to the moral.

* Values.com sponsors the "Pass It On" series of [=PSAs=], one of which is about [[http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/128-Dishes listening]]. Its last scene shows a woman silently washing the dishes while her husband is on his cell phone. He drops it into the sink and has to fish it out, scrambling to pick his call back up, only to have his wife (still silently) take it out of his hands and smugly drop it ''back into the sink''. [[WomenAreWiser Instead of being pissed that his wife just drowned a hundred-dollar smartphone, he smiles contentedly and realizes the error of his ways]], and goes on to focus on listening to her. The moral breaks because the story is about ''listening'', and the wife pulls this stunt ''while her husband was on the phone'' and ''saying nothing out loud herself''. What was he supposed to be listening to, if not the person with whom ''he was already speaking''? Keep in mind as well, that's not the entirety of the commercial, as there are other scenes wherein the husband does want to talk and it's the ''wife'' who won't listen - [[DoubleStandard maybe that's okay somehow?]]

* Believe it or not, Subway Restaurants of all people had this happen on a few occasions:

** Another ad featuring a popular character acting as a spokesman for the restaurant. The problem there is that the spokesman in question was [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Peter Griffin]] - you know, [[FatBastard a morbidly obese borderline sociopath]]. Even if he did appear in the short-lived ads for purely an ironic sense, both fans and detractors of the show alike voiced their displeasure with the hypocrisy of the ads, with concerns ranging from accusing the show of selling out to confusion over why a fat guy is a spokesman for a restaurant that (supposedly) encourages a healthier lifestyle.

* One Advertising/{{Protegent}} ad begins with the message that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPucEYts5kQ parents need to be able to trust teachers]]. The ad itself is about a teacher noticing that [[TheInternetIsForPorn someone has been looking at pornography on one of her class's computers]], but being unable to find out who it was. Thanks to Protegent's monitoring functions, she finally manages to catch the culprit... and decides that she will not tell his parents about what he's been doing. Because teachers who keep secrets about something as big as this from their students' parents are totally trustworthy.

* ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'' in its various tellings usually ends up having a Broken Aesop (especially in modern versions) that is naturally an inversion of the complaint about ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}''. It's believed that the story was originally told to girls who were in {{arranged marriage}}s to men they didn't care for, so ValuesDissonance may be involved.

** There's also the broken aesop that comes from the fact that in a story that is supposed to be about not judging people by their appearances, the most notable aspect of the heroine is her [[MeaningfulName beauty]]. It can make the story seem a bit less about looking beyond appearances and more [[UglyGuyHotWife beautiful women should be willing to settle for ugly men]]. Some variants avoid this by making Beauty's name at least partially ironic, but usually she is presented as [[BeautyEqualsGoodness the epitome of both physical and inner beauty]], while her less attractive sisters are just as ugly on the inside. Not to mention how many variants ''explicitly'' state that the Prince is not just handsome but the handsomest man Beauty has ever seen or even the handsomest one ''in the world''.

* "The Dog and the Wolf" has a starving wolf reject a dog's offer to work on his farm, knowing he'll starve to death, because he equates the dog being chained up for safety by a collar to slavery [[FridgeLogic despite the fact that the dog is free enough to talk to a wolf in the woods without fearing for his life]]. The moral fails because the wolf literally just found a source of food: a farm guarded by a dog stupid enough to approach a starving wolf in the wild and offer him a job. It may be better to choose death over slavery, but the way the story presents the situation, that's not the choice the wolf is making. He's choosing death over slavery and ''stealing from his foolish enemies'', something that most fables present as the mark of a clever person.

** Then there's the explanation that most Kryptonians have only the Golden Age power-set under a yellow sun, and only a 'Child of the Thirteen' (Krypton's ruling oligarchy) has the full set. However, this is regarded as suspicious InUniverse - [[LampshadeHanging why only those thirteen families?]] It's eventually explained in chapter 59 of the sequel as being a complete accident: [[spoiler: ''all'' Kryptonians had/have that potential, but it was artificially limited for whatever reason. The only reason the Thirteen unlocked it was because their ancestors made diplomatic marriages with those few non-Kryptonian species they felt were worthy allies and could breed true with, and the hybrids essentially replaced the genes that limited their potential]]. Exactly ''why'' this was done in the first place is unclear.

** "Don't judge others based on who they are at first glance." A decent message, except the protagonists constantly belittle both Purebloods and Royals for nothing more than being...well, Purebloods and Royals. Not to mention that main character Andi engages in FantasticRacism against some ''other'' species (anthro tigers and vampires) that was caused by a single member of each species, and she refuses to see other members of those species as anything but the same as her tormentors.

** When Ruby finally reveals the details of her Class to the rest of the guild and is then easily accepted by them, Jaune ruminates that [[spoiler:the rest of the guild might have been just as accepting of him had he not "chose not to take the plunge Ruby had" and instead [[ThePowerOfFriendship trusted his friends with his secret]]]]. The problems with this assessment are numerous. For one, Ruby was only revealing the details of her Class because the situation necessitated that she do so to effectively face [[spoiler:Raven]] and would have preferred never explaining them to the rest of the Hunters at all. Secondly, Jaune's secret was of entirely greater severity than Ruby's as the revelation of his true Class could have led to his permanent incarceration or execution while Ruby's [[spoiler:had been sanctioned by the King himself]]. Additionally, Pyrrha even admitted that had [[spoiler:Jaune revealed the truth of his Class at any point before the quest to Mistral, then she would have turned him over to the authorities, and that she would have still distrusted him had he done so at a later time]]. Lastly, Ruby reveals the details of her Class not only with the support of Jaune and Yang, but also after [[spoiler:the rest of the Hunters have already had time to learn from the atrocious actions they performed when Jaune's true nature was revealed]]. And this doesn't even address the issue that being a Reaper [[spoiler:is an entirely new and unknown Class, and thus the whole point is to see whether or not it's appropriate for the Hero Caste, negating many of the similarities to Jaune's situation, which has a more obvious niche in society]].
** Another one comes at Salem and Jaune's confrontation in Book 8. After [[spoiler:Raven wishes to bring Salem down from an EldritchAbomination and into an immensely powerful but now kill-able RPG being]], Salem gives a rather long-winded diatribe about the inherent pettiness of humanity and how despite constantly summoning her to grant their desires, no one who makes a wish either expects to sacrifice anything nor shows any gratitude for having their dreams come true; effectively trying to give TheReasonYouSuck speech. This is of course a pretty nonsensical argument when one remembers that the entire story showcases how to get Salem to appear, one has to commit horrific acts deserving of death (with the few exceptions being ones the author pointedly never elaborates how they came about), and that Salem usually goes about making the wish in a way that harms more people than just the wish maker. Worse is the fact WordOfGod has constantly explained that Salem MUST grant a wish, and it MUST be in a way that results in death, thus removing any agency in Salem's actions, and indeed making her inner-character entirely irrelevant. Thus she's not only undeserving of any gratitude, one can say Salem is less of the BigBad that the characters fight, than the author's system of how her wish granting plays out as being the true evil in the story.

** "All About That Bass" by promotes the {{Aesop}} that you are beautiful and your body is fine the way it is, but then refers to "skinny bitches", which naturally generated a lot of criticism for undermining its message and stereotyping women based on their weight. This generally ignores the second half of the verse, which acknowledges that thin women can also be insecure about their bodies and that they are perfect from the bottom to the top too. Some other lines also imply that beauty is based on others' opinions. It's also worth noting that the heavyset male dancer in the music video is portrayed as effeminate, campy, and humorous, while the actor playing Meghan's boyfriend is slender. Plenty of men/boys have issues with Body Image, and presenting such a Double Standard doesn't help. It becomes HarsherInHindsight after she told ''People'' magazine that she tried to go "anorexic" (she really just tried dieting), which was pretty insensitive towards people who actually have eating disorders. Plus, despite promoting [[YouGoGirl "girl power"]], she claims that she's ''not'' a feminist because she thinks it carries a [[StrawFeminist negative connotation]], which makes most of her songs seem like Broken Aesops. There's a Bowdlerized version of "All About That Bass" which changes the line "boys like a little more booty to hold at night" to "boys like their girls for the beauty they hold inside"... which completely contradicts the intended message about body positivity.

* A little more understandable but still troublesome is Wrestling/JohnCena's "Rise Above Hate" slogan. Of course, Wrestling/{{Kane}} was ''[[EnforcedTrope deliberately]]'' trying to get Cena to break this Aesop and "Embrace the Hate"... but if you examine the two characters of John Cena and Kane carefully, you'll see that a problem has existed there from the very beginning. After all, Cena is hardly brave for refusing to surrender to feelings of hate when he is world-famous, absurdly successful, fabulously wealthy, and is loved by at least a bare majority of the WWE Universe - and thus, has no reason in the world to experience hate. Conversely, is Kane really such a monster for being so full of hate when [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds he was nearly burned to death as a child, suffered years of psychological trauma that left him unable to speak for a long time, accidentally killed his high school sweetheart in a car crash (and had this revealed on live television, along with the lie that he killed the girl on purpose and then had sexual intercourse with her corpse), lost the unborn child he fathered and was betrayed by his wife, was tricked into causing the death of his father, and in general is loathed and ignored by the better part of the human race]]?

* The Creator/TeamStarKid show ''Theatre/{{Firebringer}}'' had an entire subplot that claims religion is deluded and evil (the tribe shaman's belief in an all-powerful duck that made the world in seven "quacks" feels awfully specific). It feels very awkward, however, when the big message that "there is no God" is delivered by one of the AncientAstronauts from the species that created life on earth.
* ''Theater/TheGingerbreadHouseInTheForest'' has Johann chastising Gretel for assuming Nada is a witch just because she [[SinisterSchnoz is ugly]]. Of course, Nada ''is'' a witch.

** For people who spend the whole time talking about love and loving life, the circle of friends seems to have a lot of cheating, poor communication, and emotional sniping at each other - no one is enjoying themselves very much, or following Angel's lauded example. And, for that matter, Collins, who spends his time loving Angel and loving life with Angel ends up pretty much broken because of Angel's death.

* Glasnost The Game is a TabletopGame/{{Risk}} clone that requires you to disarm all your territories to win the game in an anti-war aesop. Of course, you need to first build arms so you can conquer territories.

* Chutes and Ladders is a children's board game (with very ancient roots) which purports to teach the consequences of good and evil deeds. But the game is entirely driven by the random spinner, and the players have no opportunity to make any strategic or moral choices at all[[note]]In Moksha Patam, the ancient Hindu original, this was [[ValuesDissonance a deliberate feature]] as a lesson in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Hinduism karma]][[/note]].

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': In the episode "[[Recap/HelluvaBossS2E2SeeingStars Seeing Stars]]" Loona's speech to Octavia about parents not getting everything right when they try to be good parents rings hollow considering the show had never really shown Blitzo's failures as a father, always showing him as a over-doting and loving parent that gets a little too affectionate sometimes. On the flip side, Loona was the one who is always acting abrasive, having beaten the crap out of him for telling her to adjust her attitude with their clients at the beginning of the episode and even after the speech, she proceeded to kick Blitzo in the groins when he tried to apologize and hug Loona for threatening to replace her. Even acknowledging her backstory revealed in this episode, Loona comes off as hypocritical telling Octavia to cut her dad some slack when she herself refuses to. It's also hard to say why Loona would extend this empathy towards Stolas, given they have never had a conversation and from her perspective it would be easy to conclude Stolas is sexually exploiting Blitzo in exchange for the book, but she can't extend the same understanding to Blitzo who she does know and he does care for her.

** This has the added bonus of making the angels complicit in pretty much everything Drip does, since they only refrain from saving any of his victims because "it has to be his choice". Central is later shown to have murdered Bob and Lisa specifically to prevent them from turning away from their life of sin, meaning that actually, choice doesn't matter at all. The correct course of action is the one that generates [[AuthorAppeal the most rape scenes.]]
** And then there's the part where furries have replaced humanity, but for some reason, are repeating human history exactly, so we still have events like the Vietnam War re-enacted by furries. This means that we still get furry UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and furry Jeffrey Dahmer, too. And that would be fine, except that God is deliberately enforcing the re-enactment ''and is sending billions of furries to Hell for their part in it''. This means that God not only deprived every living furry of free will, she also had full and absolute knowledge of what she was forcing them into doing to themselves and each other ''and what Satan would do in response'', but did absolutely nothing to stop it. In other words, she condemned countless innocent people to eternal suffering to punish them for something she forced them to do. The entire comic is about choice and personal responsibility, but the only character who has unquestionable free will is God herself, and there are no consequences for anything she does, ever, because she's in charge of the entire universe while everyone else can literally just go to Hell.

* ''WebComic/{{xkcd}}'', [[https://xkcd.com/1576/ "I Could Care Less"]]: The author dislikes GrammarNazis. In this strip, one character corrects the form of what the other just said. The other goes on a long explanation about ambiguity and language and human connection and ends with: "I assume you're giving me tips on how to interpret words because you want me to feel less alone. If so, then thank you. That means a lot. But if you're just running my sentences past some mental checklist so you can show off how well you know it, then I could care less." So basically the moral is that you shouldn't criticize the way others say things, because of all these things that are more important about communication -- but the character who talked about this was really only invoking these deep issues to make the first character feel bad about what ''she'' said[[note]]at least provided the first character had the wrong kind of motive in saying it, but that "I assume..." doesn't sound very sincere in the light of what follows[[/note]]. (It is, of course, also a FalseDichotomy, but that's another issue.)

** Characters preach an anti-gun or anti-violence message, while using guns and/or violence to solve their problems.
** Characters learn not to do something, but [[StatusQuoIsGod go back to doing it in later installments]].

* Another Aesop's fables, ''Literature/TheTortoiseAndTheHare'', is usually quoted with the moral of "slow and steady wins the race". Except, that's not what happened. The Hare only lost the race because he got overconfident and took a nap during the race. The real moral could have been "don't underestimate your opponent and get cocky." From the point of view of the tortoise, it's more that "slow and ''steady'' wins the race if your opponent is fast but ''unsteady'' enough in his progress that you can catch up". Or, [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3485 it's a fable about small sample sizes.]]

# ''"Why is this producer who was criticized for not paying their employees enough for even rent telling me about the importance of treating my employees decently?"''
# ''Why is this book arguing that political activism shouldn't be targeted towards kids when the book itself has a political and is written for children?"''