"[T]he rift between the Settlers and the Anasazi tribes had begun to heal. Certainly there was still tension, animosity, and yes blatant prejudice, but for the most part the relationship between the two communities moved on to something approaching cordiality rather than open animosity... There were exceptions, though. There were still Anasazi who would still never trust anything to do with the Settlers and avoided all unnecessary contact... Some Settlers did not and would not see Anasazi as anything but a lower species, a subhuman mix of man and dog, and the more their hatreds become socially distasteful, the more they clutched them to their breasts and polished them like precious pearls."
Changing society can be tough. Fantastic Racism and Fantastic Caste System often form deeply held beliefs that aren't easily uprooted (even when abolished), and decades of brainwashing and bigotry under The Empire can take years to Deprogram. For this reason, even when good faith policies or leadership changes try to address these conflicts, it often isn't enough to undo the damage on its own.
This trope describes settings that have pivoted in an attempt to course-correct their values or heal social division — but are undermined by societal inertia and the past not being as easy to move on from as hoped (whether because of personal baggage, or more subtle continuing institutional problems). Years of conflict can bury itself in a society — and if murder, slavery or betrayal was involved, factions are going to hold a grudge. Good intentions can only get you so far, and getting legal rights or an official peace agreement aren't magic bullets that make everyone instantly get along. Nor can they always undo larger systemic problems that are leading to conflict.
Naturally this comes up a lot in sequels that explore what happens after a dramatic political or legal victory. This sometimes results in a bit of Happy Ending Override, when we see that that the apparent peace that was won is actually quite fragile and imperfect, and still requires a lot of continued work and diplomacy by all parties.
Whether that work succeeds depends. With luck, the bitterness and resentment between factions may slowly fade away and the bad blood will get forgotten by the next generation. However, conflict just as easily could boil over into open contempt or riots by those who refuse to coexist. Coups and civil wars are generally the worst-case scenario here, which is when one side chooses to outright destroy the nominal peace and resume political hostilities.
While this is Truth in Television, No Real Life Examples, Please!
Super-Trope to The Remnant and Still Fighting the Civil War.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Naruto: After Hashirama and Madara struck a peace alliance to build the Hidden Leaf village, the resentment between the Senju and Uchiha never fully went away. This ultimately led to the Uchiha becoming ghettoized and the target of constant suspicion by those in power.
Fan Works
- Create Your Own Fate: Bajor became a full member of the Federation in the 2390s in Star Trek Online, but the story shows that this didn't solve all their problems. Many Bajorans are still very suspicious of the Federation, to the point where Kanril Eleya notes that missteps by Earth could lead to the secessionists gaining steam, and the middle chunk of the story deals with a brief armed uprising by the Circle (roughly the Bajoran equivalent of neo-Nazis), though this is quickly put down by local Bajoran Militia forces.
- In both Kage and its Recursive Fanfiction Shadows over Meridian, there's still tension between the victorious rebels and the soldiers who used to serve Phobos, even those who voluntarily switched sides prior to his defeat. By the time of the latter story, things are coming close to coming to blows.
- A Thing of Vikings: After the Pecheneg Civil War, Drago grants amnesty to the surviving rebels if they bend the knee to him. However, the forces who stayed loyal to him the whole time are distrustful of the former rebels, and he understands that only his presence is keeping them from each other's throats.
- The Victors Project: The indigenous Anasazi and the Settlers of District 10 had a fierce longstanding hatred for each other, but after Elena, an Anasazi woman, saved the life of Danny, a Settler man, and the two fell in love (all of which was revealed when Elena was reaped for the 34th Hunger Games), the rift between the communities began to heal. But not between everyone, as the page quote lays out. This was especially true of Roan Tully, District 10 tribute and victor of the 58th Hunger Games.
Film — Animated
- This is the premise of Zootopia. Predators and prey have learned to co-exist in the same society, but many prey are quite untrusting towards predators due to certain stereotypes. That is why Judy wants to help bridge the gap between predators and prey even further to prevent this racism. Things go downhill when it's revealed that predators are going savage, which divides the gap between predator and prey even further. Eventually, though, the predators are found innocent, as the only reason they were going savage was due to it being at the hands of a Politically Incorrect Villain who happens to be prey. Even though there is still tension between the two animal groups when everything is said and done, the prey are still struggling to accept predators. However, they are on the right track for making it work.
Film — Live-Action
- Barbie: In the conclusion, the Barbies agree to try to integrate the Kens properly into their society, but concede it will take years of slow work to achieve.
Literature
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades:
- A significant running conflict in the series deals with attempts to reform The Magocracy to treat nonmagicals and demihumans better. It's only been a few years since a few species of the latter were even granted citizenship, and the A-plot of volume 1 has the Sword Roses get caught between activists trying to expand on their previous successes and conservatives trying to turn back the clock — a consequence of Katie Aalto and her family being strongly pro-rights. Volume 5 also states that Posthumous Character Chloe Halford was also an activist, and suggests this may have partly motivated her murder in volume 1's prologue.
- Present Student Council President Alvin Godfrey got his start as a campus organizer trying to protect weaker and underprivileged students from bullies and rogue upperclassmen, where the former student council were a clique of Social Darwinists who mostly let them do as they pleased. As dangerous as Kimberly Magic Academy can be, Tim Linton says it was way worse before Godfrey got involved and started the Campus Watch, and a significant plot in volumes 6-10 revolves around the fact he's about to Graduate from the Story and the old council is hoping to make a comeback. Ultimately, Tim himself is elected as Godfrey's successor and appoints pro-rights candidate Vera Miligan as one of his council members, making it clear the reformists' forward progress is likely to continue for the near future.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: A huge part of Daenerys's story has to do with her realizing conquest is easy, but changing social norms and creating a lasting peace is hard. This comes up most prominently in her trying to end slavery in Essos while having the slave masters and their previous slavers live together in peace, which is a conflict she confesses might take a lifetime to heal.
- Trinity Blood: Terrans (humans who lived on Earth) and Methuselah (former Mars colonizers who got infected with the Bacillus virus which turned them into vampires) hate each other ever since the war that nearly brought destruction to the planet. The Vatican attempted to make peace with the Methuselah Empire for years with little success due to the lingering prejudice. The notes left by the late author revealed the relationship worsened due to the actions of the vampire terrorist group, the Rosenkreuz Orden. When Pope Alessandro and then, Empress Augusta Vradica (a.k.a. Seth Nightroad) are killed, both species wage war against each other.
Live-Action TV
- Snowpiercer: In the second season the train is ostensibly united after the various factions all came together to repel a brutal counter-revolution, but there's still a lot of bad blood. Namely, the Tailies are still bitter about the years of oppression they faced at Melanie Cavill's hands, and First Class being not at all happy about their loss of privileges over the Tailies. Further complicating things is that all the passengers now know that the train's owner, Mr. Wilford, who many of them view as a Physical God, was cast off the train before it departed, and that Melanie Cavill has been impersonating him for years.
- Star Trek: In The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, we see that, despite the Federation being in a time of peace with many of their former enemies, the peace is tenuous at best. The Klingons showcase this best as, despite the peace accords in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, their Proud Warrior Race Guy tendencies mean that they are ready to attack the Federation at a moment's notice, as seen in episodes such as "Yesterday's Enterprise" and "The Mind's Eye". The terrorist group the Maquis spawned out of this thanks to the Federation's decision to leave those in the Demilitarized Zone in the hands of the Cardassians. On the subject of the Cardassians, there's also the obvious tensions between the Bajorans and the Cardassians due to the occupation of the planet.
- Star Wars Expanded Universe: The official name of the Rebellion in the original trilogy was "the Alliance to Restore the Republic". Season 3 of The Mandalorian and Ahsoka show that, after overthrowing the Empire, the Rebels did exactly this, corrupt and ineffective government and all: like its predecessor, the New Republic abolished its regular military and is leaving the Outer Rim to fend for itself, and is doing a terrible job de-radicalizing Former Regime Personnel to boot, while Luke Skywalker uncritically repeats the personnel management mistakes of the prequel-era Jedi, setting the stage for their canonical fall to the First Order.
Podcasts
- Welcome to Night Vale: After Night Vale begins allowing Desert Bluff's people to immigrate, many citizens continue to treat them with distrust and suspicion.
Tabletop Games
- BattleTech: The Republic of the Sphere was rife with this issue. Created by worlds that were ceded from the Successor States' territories near Terra, the efforts to actually turn worlds that had belonged to five different nations were not great — Devlin Stone came up with the brilliant idea of simply ordering big chunks of the populations of each world to move to different Republic worlds. The idea was that this would force a melting pot that would cause everyone to abandon their previous national identities. The effect was that a lot of people were resentful of the fact that they'd been forced to leave their homes, many of which had been their family homes for centuries, and forced to go to other planets where the people already living there resented them for forcing out the other people who'd previously lived there. The end result was that the Republic of the Sphere had a significant amount of underlying social tension that was never dealt with and was part of the contributing factors in its eventual collapse after the HPG network stopped functioning.
Video Games
- The Elder Scrolls: Between the events of Morrowind and Oblivion, Morrowind's King Helseth abolishes the nation's long-time practice of slavery, particularly of the Argonians and Khajiit. Despite this, between Oblivion and Skyrim, it is revealed that (at the encouragement of Thalmor (Altmeri Fascist leadership) Agent Provocateurs and with Morrowind having already been devastated by the Red Year), the Argonians invaded Morrowind in part for revenge at their people's thousands of years of enslavement, raiding and capturing territory as far north as Morrowind's capital of Mournhold before being driven out (though still holding some southern areas).
- Final Fantasy XIV: “The Dragonsong War” story arc deals with this trope. Following the revelation of what Archbishop Thordan and his Heaven’s Ward had done and the truth about the start of the war, Aymeric and his allies attempt to push Ishgard away from the troubled and antiquated theocratic ruling system and bring peace with the dragons. However, the church wants to retain power and the social order and many of the citizens can’t imagine being friendly with dragons after the war took their loved ones. And, of course, there’s Nidhogg, whose bloodlust has him refusing any sort of peace offering. The storyline deals with putting these problems away.
- Genshin Impact: In the past, the serpent god Orobashi and the Watatsumi Island he ruled over waged war against the rest of Inazuma and its ruler, the Raiden Shogun, allegedly to answer the plea of his people to get more lands for living and plantation. After a fierce battle, the Shogun slayed Orobashi, and the island then went under the Shogun's rule and country's jurisdiction; while she was generous enough to let them posthumously worship their late god, Watatsumi islanders held a deep-seated grudge against her since then.
- Overwatch: The setting takes place a few decades following the Omnic Crisis, where Omnics around the world suddenly turned on humanity, which was quelled thanks to the formation of the titular Heroes "R" Us. Much of the remaining Omnic population has become content with peace and coexisting with mankind, with the general attitude of peaceful integration as equals becoming increasingly accepted, but it's not perfect as fresh scars still remain. Many characters — even some largely heroic ones like Zarya and Torbjörn — remain distrustful of Omnics on principle, and many countries are more accepting than others — Numbani is an egalitarian Shining City in Africa where human and omnic successfully coexist in harmony, but King's Row in England (home of the Series Mascot and All-Loving Hero Tracer) remains a social hotbed where Omnics are treated as slaves and are visibly not happy about it. Ramattra originally sought spiritual enlightenment and harmony following the Crisis, but the seeming lack of meaningful progress shattered his faith, leading him to believe based on humanity's continued cruelty towards his race that they can never truly coexist, and thus started the violent revolutionary group Null Sector to grant omnickind the world they deserve by force.
- Tales of Arise: The Downloadable Content campaign "Beyond the Dawn" shows the state of the world one year after the main game's ending, revealing that even with the defeat of the Renan Lords, freedom of the Dahnans, and the reunification of the two worlds, the centuries of Fantastic Racism will still be hard to overcome, even if progress has been made. Even places like Elde Menancia where co-existence is being practiced is seeing issues, namely from hordes of people fleeing from regions with high racial tensions leading to resource issues, and having to be on alert for radicals trying to set up shop in the area for the purpose of deliberately inflaming tensions.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: In the episodes building up to "The Three Armies", Anne and her allies travel throughout Amphibia persuading various factions to join the fight against King Andrias. In the episode itself, the Newt, Toad, and Frog factions come together to begin strategizing, but the tensions between them threaten to destroy the alliance before it can even begin, as Newts and Frogs view Toads as violent brutes, Frogs and Toads see Newts as snobbish elitist intellectuals, and Newts and Toads see Frogs as weak peasants. After Anne's attempts to get the three groups to work together through a series of team-building exercises fail, she tells them that she can't force them to resolve their centuries-old differences, but that they will have to find a way to get over them on their own if they're to have any hope for victory, shaming the three groups into finally listening to each other.
- The Dragon Prince: After King Ezran comes to power and drops all hostilities with Xadia, a member of the court turns traitor. A similar thing happens when the Sunfire Elves attempt to reconcile peace with the humans and a sacred ceremony to them is disrespected by their new human neighbours, inciting the Sunfire prince into drastic action against his sister, the Queen.
- Star Trek: Prodigy reveals that there may still be tensions between the Federation and the Klingons, as the Klingons are still the "villain" in the Kobayashi Maru training test, although given the fact that Klingons are the Proud Warrior Race Guy they may still be flattered to be considered a serious threat.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Eclipsa tries to institute reforms across Mewnie to undo the prejudiced treatment of monsters, but it mostly just leads her to have terrible approval ratings and eventually leads to a coup.
- Steven Universe: Future: Downplayed. For the most part, Homeworld and Earth are living in peace, but Jasper, Eyeball, and Aquamarine continue hostilities due to bad blood.
