OP by Number 9 Robotic

Buckle up, there's a lot to talk about here, haha...

This is a continuation of a long series of discussions in the forums over the last several months. To summarize: An Aesop has foundational problems in terms of the definition of what it actually covers, and this is an issue that's been bleeding into its many derivative tropes, especially more subjective tropes and those discussing controversy like Broken Aesop and Clueless Aesop. Both of those were queued up for discussion on the TRS much earlier, but have been iceboxed due to disagreements on what an "aesop" actually is, let alone what counts as a "broken" or "clueless" one.

"Aesop" is generally used on this wiki to describe a "moral lesson", but there have been significant schisms in whether they're "an explicit moral lesson directly spelled out in the text of a given work", or "a theme or motif based around morality derived and interpreted by the user from a specific work". This immediately presents many problems: if it's the former, the wiki is infested with thousands of examples that do not fit the criteria in documenting explicit sources, and if it's the latter, we have problems of subjectivity and determining veracity — there's no way to verify whether or not a listed moral lesson or theme is something that's actually intended or even relevant to the work at hand, as well as whether or not it's an analysis shared by more people than just the one editor, and often I'm seeing it become a magnet for individual proselytizing.

I've done several wick checks on aesop tropes; here's the most relevant wick check for An Aesop itself. I strongly suggest giving this a read-through because while the encompassing trends are important, there's also a lot of individual issues regarding the actual quality of these entries in terms of determining veracity and applicability to the work they're a part of.

• Moral message is explicitly presented as a moral message (3/104) (3%)
• Moral theme acknowledged/discussed in-story (4/104) (4%)
• Gives some, but not enough context to specify that's what the story was going for (14/104) (13%)
• "Aesop" used synonymously with in-universe "lesson", not huge theme (4/104) (4%)
• ZCE (Gives NO context in specifying that the "aesop" is what the story was going for) (63/104 (61%)
• ZCE (doesn't even mention what the "aesop" is to begin with) (11/104) (10%)
• Other (misuse or misc. potholing) (5/104) (5%)

Over half of the wicks I checked simply state a moral and provide zero context whatsoever on the story/narrative itself that explains why it's relevant, and even those that do provide a modicum of context usually don't provide enough to tie in with them actually being what the work in question was going for.

This phenomenon is significant to other "problematic" aesop tropes as well; in my Clueless Aesop wick check, I only found one entry that uses the trope correctly based on its description (when an "aesop"/moral lesson is rendered moot due to self-bowdlerization or the nature of the work itself); many entries are ZCEs based on derisive potholing and complaining about interpretations of elements in stories that the troper didn't like, and those that do present seemingly relevant problems in their works and their morals almost never explain what the actual intended moral lesson was supposed to be to begin with. Same thing with Broken Aesop: loads of complaining and what are usually only tenuous attempts at contextualizing why the problems they're complaining about have anything to do with how the themes and stories are told.

An Aesop also has issues of being a Super-Trope — go to its page right now and there seems to be a lotta inconsistency on how it categorizes tropes, some being tropes on individual, specific themes and moral lessons (Green Aesop, Honesty Aesop, Trend Aesop, etc.) and some based around elements of storytelling and the conveyance of moral lessons (Aesop Amnesia, Special Aesop Victim, Long-Lost Uncle Aesop, etc.) and some directly based on outside analysis beyond the domain of the work itself (Anvilicious, Broken Aesop, Lost Aesop, etc.). These are all very disorganized, with some lumping main page tropes with audience reaction tropes together, and the fact that we also have a separate page for Stock Aesops should make that one sub-folder for "Specific Aesops" totally redundant (hell, it even potholes directly to Stock Aesops). This also ties back in by the wider misinterpretations of "aesop" as not being a "moral lesson", but just a "theme" or "motif" — while I believe those concepts can overlap, they shouldn't be interchangeable. For example, a story featuring widespread imagery of environmental destruction isn't necessarily a story promoting environmentalism, but that doesn't stop a lot of entries of Green Aesop just saying "this story features pollution."

There have been many talks about how to approach An Aesop that come down to the fact that defining "moral lessons" appears to be way more of a subjective matter than originally thought. It's extremely difficult to "objectively" prove that a particular given moral lesson "exists" within a work, because even if you have Word of God explicitly confirming or denying their placement, and even if you have the characters outright going "You know, I learned something today" as categorized by And Knowing Is Half the Battle or Script Wank, there's always a chance things are going to be interpreted differently to that of the author or just outright interpreted incorrectly; see Accidental Aesop and Alternate Aesop Interpretation for that (which are kind of redundant in my eyes but bear with me for a bit). Because of that, I also doubt that a requirement for "requires relevance and citation" that was added to stuff like Foil is going to be helpful, because I think some bad-faith editors are going to use that requirement to ramble on even more in contriving reasons to moralize without actually tying into whether they actually meaningfully relate with the story at hand.

After much discussion in the forums and sharing around opinions, I synthesized a proposal for a few things that we can do to fix An Aesop as a trope and improve wiki health without completely upending the nature in which it and other tropes should be codified in the wiki:

• Make An Aesop itself a definition-only page and revise the definition to a more clear "a moral lesson provided by the work", with an understanding that what counts as a "lesson" can be subjective and hard to define and prove.
  • Related is that with any entries of An Aesop that can be disambiguated into a different Stock Aesop should be done so (i.e., if an entry listed in An Aesop is "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished", just make that a new No Good Deed Goes Unpunished entry).
• Transfer all the "Specific Aesops" on the page into the Stock Aesops index and keep that as its own sub-page.
• Rearrange the index on the An Aesop page and categorize its sub-tropes based on the USAGE of aesops: main page tropes devoted to functional narrative means of conveying moral lessons, and YMMV audience reactions based on analyzing the integrity of a work via how they handle the moral.

For that last one, I did a check on which tropes should be shifted where, with the "tropes on the metatextual handling of aesops" being more subject to issues on subjectivity than others, with some I'm categorizing as being more appropriate for main page inclusion because they actually seem like intended functions (Aesop Amnesia, Scare 'Em Straight, Morality Ballad, etc.), and others much closer to YMMV (Anvilicious and Captain Obvious Aesop is already there, but the likes of Broken Aesop and Space Whale Aesop also probably belong there). There are also a handful of tropes that seem to occupy a grey area (Golden Moment seems like a specific variant of Script Wank meant to make fun of how schmaltzy and glurge-y it is), as well as other more problematic tropes that collide with this solidified definition of tropes on moral lessons (again, Accidental Aesop and Alternate Aesop Interpretation suffer because it's already hard to define the "objective" "existence" of lessons as they are, and both Author Filibuster and Author Tract have issues of not only being subjective and YMMV, but colliding with Anvilicious in terms of function).

So far it seems like folks are on board with this proposal and the logic for it, but given just how huge and ingrained Aesop tropes are within this wiki, decisions made on (what are still necessary) overhauls to the base An Aesop trope are not to be made lightly. Should my proposal go through or do we have any other good approaches for this pickle? Bear in mind that even with addressing An Aesop, we still have other derivative tropes that need addressing for their own issues that need their own time and attention, but just for now, should An Aesop be reworked in this way or nah?

• Beauty And The Beast / Tropes A to D: Lampshaded by the Enchantress via the Narrator. Do not be deceived by appearances for beauty is found within. Doesn't really give any actual context.
• Comic Book / Kingdom Come: The Novelization gives a potent one during the Dénouement: when Clark attends Norman's sermon, the latter talks about the origins of citrus fruit, and ending it with the fact that we can make things better for ourselves, and we don't need to aim for absolute perfection to get it.
• Recap / Buffy the Vampire Slayer S1E4 "Teacher's Pet": Buffy's is, "You do your homework, you learn stuff." No real context for where this quote comes from.

• Actual Pacifist: Story From North America: Pacifism is the overall moral of the first video. The son tries to get his father to kill a spider because he's afraid of it. The father teaches the son that the spider is just part of nature, that just because the spider is unfamiliar to the son doesn't mean it's evil or trying to hurt him. When the son realizes the error of his ways, he agrees that the spider should be released safely. The father takes the spider outside and lets it go.
• Forgetful Jones: This is the main trait of Lily the fox on Timothy Goes to School. It's not played for comedy, though, so much as An Aesop that she is working to get better about it. For example, one episode had her take care of the class pet (A fish) which Doris thinks isn't a good idea. Lily always remembers what to do with her pet fish and proves it in that episode. She can also be seen wearing a string around her hand to remember things and would talk to herself to remind herself.
• Calvin And Hobbes / Tropes A to C: Consumerism won't make you happy. Calvin's dad, in particular, rails against the modern age quite frequently while riding on his bike (as well as other times) and Hobbes snarks about how Calvin buying into it makes him a dream come true for people wanting to take his money.
• Manga / My Dress-Up Darling: In the first chapter, Gojo is plagued by a childhood memory where a girl close to him calls him weird and gross for liking hina dolls as a boy. This memory scarred him so badly that he's largely become a social recluse not interacting with anyone but his grandpa. In the second chapter, Kitagawa tells him that gender doesn't/shouldn't matter when it comes to the things you like (since she herself is a fan of H-games, which are typically aimed at straight men), which moves Gojo enough for him to excitedly agree to help her.

• "Brave the Ride" Plot: One first-season episode of Modern Family features Manny Playing Sick in an early scene. It turns out that one of his friends is having a birthday party at an amusement park soon, and he doesn't want to go because he's scared of roller coasters. Gloria takes him and Jay on a seemingly-innocuous walk, but actually leads them to a carnival on a pier for a practice ride. Manny is reluctant, and so is Jay; Gloria shames them by handing them her purse and "big, floppy hat" to hold while she experiences the coaster herself. The two eventually get on, lending to the episode's message about the necessity of facing one's fears. They face their fears, but no context given on the specific message of "necessity" of doing so.
• First Law of Resurrection: * Inuyasha:
  • Rin's life was taken on two occasions as a plot point to teach the initially villainous Sesshoumaru An Aesop about the value of a compassionate heart. He restored her life the first time in a plot point that made him accept he was the true master of the Healing Shiv he hated, but also to give him an A God Am I complex about being able to avoid death. The second time was to cure him of this complex. Rin was restored to life the second time because getting her killed to teach Sesshoumaru a lesson would have defied the point of the lesson, which was to make him understand that people with his kind of power have to protect life.
• [[Achievements in Ignorance/Literature Achievements In Ignorance/Literature]]: In Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, Milo is told, in the end, that The Quest he accomplished was, in fact, impossible. This is, in fact, the Aesop of The Phantom Tollbooth: anything is possible, provided you don't know it's impossible.
• Advertising / I Saw Your Willy:
  • For children (and everyone else, really): be careful what you share online, because once you put something on the Internet, it can get into anyone's hands.
  • For parents: talk to your children about Internet safety before they do something stupid.
• American Dad / Tropes A to E: "American Dad After School Special" shows that eating disorders aren't just something that affect teenaged girls, as anyone (boys, men, women, etc.) can become just as obsessed with their bodies and their weight to the point of becoming bulimic and/or anorexic—even though the eating disorder counselor doesn't realize this, as he still refers to Stan as a teenaged girl and thinks the fact that Stan doesn't have his period is from anorexia drying up his ovaries like tobacco in the sun. The cause-and-effect is there, but I'm not necessarily sure if that's what the story is specifically about given how it doesn't really explain a resolution.
• Animation / Doby & Disy: Season 1 episode 4's plot is kicked off by Caesar eating poisonous mushrooms, causing him to black out and sending Doby and Disy into action to get him to the hospital. The lesson is never to eat mushrooms you find in the wild since they might be poisonous.
• Anime / Jewelpet Twinkle☆: Episode 13 has a very good one regarding Akari dropping out of the manga competition due to not being able to come up with an ending: even if you lose an opportunity to fulfill your dream, it's not the end of the world. You have all the time in the world to fulfill it. There are many other opportunities and alternatives in the future.
• Anime / Valvrave the Liberator: Telling lies and keeping secrets, however well-intentioned, is never sustainable: one way or another, the truth will come out eventually. All the work the Magius put into their conspiracy ultimately crumbles and leads to their genocide when the populace discover their manipulations, while Haruto's martyr complex and efforts to keep others out of what he sees as his problems cost him his relationship with Shouko, the trust and support of Module 77's people, his memories, and his life, along with the lives of many of his friends who could have been spared if he'd been honest and asked for help.
• Avengers Endgame / Tropes A to C:
  • Thor learns that the measure of a true hero isn't living up to the expectations of others, but by doing your best being a decent person that is true to yourself.
  • Also, after loss comes second chances: whether it be a chance to take back what you lost, or build something new out of what you have left. Ultimately, the Avengers realize this and use this to their advantage (such as when Steve and Tony, after losing their chance to gain the Tesseract, stay determined and resourceful and find another way) which ultimately ensures their victory; while Thanos, who is given a second chance to achieve a permanent victory in his world (by learning from the Avengers' actions and doubling-down on his plan to erase 100% of the universe rather than just 50%), instead goes for the much more brash and careless option and ultimately ensures his own demise.
  • Being a hero requires being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. The Avengers spend most of Infinity War trying to find a way to extract the mind stone from Vision without killing him because to quote Steve, "they don't trade lives". They run out of time and ultimately Wanda has to do what they've been putting off the whole movie. However Thanos is able to use the time stone to rewind his destruction and complete the gauntlet, leading to the snap. This time around no one hestitates to lay down a life to stop Thanos. Clint and Natasha are both willing to throw themselves off the cliff to get the soul stone, Bruce wears the gauntlet to snap everyone back despite not knowing exactly what it will do to him, and then Tony also uses the gauntlet knowing it will kill him.
• Bio Shock Infinite / Tropes A-H: Most of these are ZCEs.
  • A society built on racism is unsustainable. If things do not change, it will eventually catch fire.
  • A revolution being against an oppressive regime does not automatically mean that the revolutionaries have a moral high ground.
  • Revolutions have a high tendency to become the very thing they’re fighting against (if not worse).
  • There are no shortcuts to atoning your past mistakes. Booker, while not a good person, took responsibility for his crimes which is the biggest thing separating him from Comstock (an alternate version of himself).
  • Hiding behind religion and believing it makes you right by default is a very slippery slope. Comstock took a single baptism and believed that it made him incapable of ever doing anything wrong. This led him to double down on his actions and commit even greater atrocities than the one he accepted the baptism to wash himself clean from in the first place.
• Breaking Bad / Tropes A to B: A simple one. Pride is a deadly sin, and will blind you if you cannot control it.
  • Walter turned down Gretchen and Elliot's offer of a well paying, legitimate job that would pay for his cancer treatment and provide for his family, because of his Pride.
  • He then took it a step further, cussing out Gretchen, his former friend, for showing concern over Walter's unwillingness to accept her and Elliot's offer.
  • In Season 5, when Walter comes to Mike asking for the names of his incarcerated colleagues, Mike calls out Walter for exactly what he is, Claiming that his Pride and Ego is what caused his entire operation to collapse, and that if he had simply known his place working for Gus, he could've made all the money he wanted. Walter gets so offended by this he kills Mike in a blind rage.
  • In the second to last Episode, when Walter is prepared to turn himself in, he watches Gretchen and Elliot on TV diminish his accomplishments in Grey Matter. Walter's Pride is again slated and he sets off to seek revenge, dooming him to his violent death (but not before securing his family's future, saving his protege, and taking down the people who stole his empire.
• Film / The Sons of Katie Elder: The movie makes multiple criticisms of gun-usage; John Elder is criticized for wearing his gun, Deputy Latta is criticized for thinking about holding off a mob using a guns rather than talking them down like Sheriff Billy would have, and the Big Bad of the movie runs a gun store.
• Mass Effect / Tropes A to D: The series as a whole goes to a lot of trouble to point out that old saw about how it is the destiny of every generation to overthrow their parents. Basically, you should be good to your children if you don't want them to kill you. This comes out in various ways, but the primary examples are the Geth program that left the Quarians without a home and Shepard's option to kill off the Reapers. This only barely comes out of being a ZCE by account of that last section, and eleven that doesn't really provide much info.
• Pokemon / Tropes A to I:
  • The entire series looks at the conflict between human civilization and nature, and examines the idea that one should be sacrificed for the sake of the other, and the difficulties and struggles needed so both can flourish. It's been around since Gen I with Team Rocket abusing Pokémon for profit and the existence of artificial Pokémon like Grimer and Koffing as a result of human pollution, and has come into the spotlight since Gen V with the villainous teams (aside from Team Skull) pursuing goals rooted in the idea that humans and Pokémon shouldn't co-exist.
  • Pokemon games, especially Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Black and White, have morals about taking care of your Pokémon and treating them like friends, rather than tools.

• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: In "Death Race!" in Tales of the Unexpected #102 a jockey who was sent to another planet was challenged to a race on beasts called "gartoos." If he lost he died, but if he won the aliens were permitted to attack Earth. The entire setup was actually An Aesop-heavy dream sequence designed to encourage him to make the right choice in a parallel situation in reality where if he lost that day's race the syndicate would give him $100,000 but if he won they'd kill him.
• Better Living Through Evil: Law & Order: SVU has an episode in which a young man makes deliveries for the Big Bad. When confronted, he explains that back in China, his father was a teacher, but in the United States he works at a Chinese restaurant. The detectives ask him why he believed his father would work that job, presumably to deliver an anvilicious aesop. The boy interrupts them and answers that his father tells him all the time: "For you, so you can have a better life." He finishes by saying that this is exactly what he's trying to do. By working for the leader of a prostitution and trafficking ring, he got the respect and money he craved and couldn't obtain honestly.
• Anime / Cross Ange: Throwing Off the Disability: Ange's sister Sylvia injured herself in a horse-riding accident when she was young, and as a result is paraplegic. In the final episodes, however, Ange guesses that the disability isn't physical and that Sylvia's used her injury as an excuse to rely on others, and gets her sister to start walking again to tie into An Aesop about standing on your own two feet. The thing is, she does this by threatening her sister's life, forcing her to walk out of sheer terror that she was about to be killed. Also, it's glossed over how her legs would be capable of supporting her if she hadn't used them in years.
• Cuphead / Tropes A to E:
  • When you get yourself into trouble, it's up to you to put in your blood, sweat, and tears to get yourself out of trouble. Also, whenever you decide to gamble, it's important to know when to stop. This particular entry has zero context.
  • The endings present another one: Don't condemn others for their sins, for you too are a sinner. Cuphead and Mugman handing over the soul contracts to the Devil rather than saving his debtors results in them becoming evil themselves and becoming loyal minions of the Devil, while saving them results in a happy ending where everyone is freed. Condemning the debtors does not make you the good guy, showing them mercy does.

• Dirty Communists: The Mike Hammer story One Lonely Night. It even admits that the commies are drawn to resemble a red-baiting editorial cartoon of the day. Still, there is An Aesop about America not needing to stoop to the Reds' level.
• Animation / Burka Avenger: The show never hesitates to drive home the importance of education.
• Animation / The Donkey King:
  • Although Democracy is flawed, it is still much better than a monarchial system.
  • Everyone's vote counts.
• Animation / Where Is Anne Frank:
  • People who sympathise or idolise victims are not above completely missing the point, like this depiction of Dutch society elevating Anne Frank to impossible heights yet discriminating against Middle Eastern immigrants and Roma.

• Anime / Gankutsuou:
  • Revenge will consume your soul. Love and forgiveness will redeem your soul.
  • "A life of simplicity and togetherness is better than a superficial life of luxury and crippling loneliness."
  • Stay away from creepy people who live on the moon.
• Anime / Kill la Kill:
  • Having True Companions, versus simply using people, as demonstrated by Ryuko and Senketsu, Ryuko and Mako, as well as Satsuki and the Elite Four, who play the trope straight, vs. Satsuki and Junketsu, who seem to actually be fighting each other for dominance.
  • That power corrupts, as demonstrated time and time again, notably by Ragyo Kiryuin, the berserk Ryuko/Senketsu hybrid in Episode 12, and Ryuko and Junketsu in Episode 20, though more notably averted by Satsuki Kiryuin.
  • Individuality, as batshit crazy as it can be, is what makes us human.
  • Clothes do not make the man.
  • Clothing is not to be seen as a shield for your shame against the rest of the world, nor used as a visual tool to mark out and enact subjugation or repression against distinct groups of people.
• Anime / Lupin III vs. Detective Conan:
  Conan: (To Lupin) Stealing is bad, mister.
• Anime / Pokémon 3:
  • It is better to live in the real world than live in a delusion.
  • Also: Be Careful What You Wish For and Evil Is Not a Toy.
• Anime / Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva: The message of the movie is that death is a fate that all people share and there's no way to truly come back from it, but people can continue to "live on" as long as you remember them.
• Anime / SSSS.GRIDMAN: Take care of yourself. With the help of those around you, you have the power to save yourself from the destructive path you may be walking on. This message is even emphasized by a tweet Studio Trigger posted after the airing of the final episode.
  • No matter how bad a person you think you might be, no matter how much bad you might have done in the past, don't give into despair and recede into self-destruction. There are people who care about you and want you to get better, regardless of whether they know or don't know about your past.
• Anime / The Cat Returns: "Always believe in yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear." See Lost Aesop for a few others that aren't so explicit. Referring to other entry indirectly.
• Anime / Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: Appreciate what you have now, because who knows how long you'll have them.
• Uta∽Kata: People and the world around them can change day by day, and trying to judge the world or a person as irredeemable and corrupt even as they continue to grow is an incredibly myopic and flawed thing to do.
• Anime / Whisper of the Heart: Following your dream is more important than following convention (Seiji) but sometimes the best way to follow your dream is by following convention (Shizuku).
• Attack On Titan / Tropes A to F:
  • Fascism is only sustainable through the violent subjugation of entire peoples, and though it may outwardly seem beneficial for the populace (and "cool" to an extent) it always leads to extreme suffering.
  • Oppression will never stop on its own. If you want to be free, you need to fight. At the same time, people who benefit from the status quo will fight to defend it, and you need to be prepared to face adversity if you wish to liberate yourself.
  • Humans are not inherently evil or good — people are capable of doing bad things for good reasons, and vice versa.
  • The Cycle of Revenge is extremely difficult to break, especially when it's one based on historical events that neither party was personally alive for. Plus, it's wrong to judge people based on the actions of their ancestors.
  • When the oppressed overthrow the system oppressing them, they must be careful not to become the oppressors themselves, thus perpetuating the very same system of oppresion they fought to overthrow.
• Blog / Ask The New Hope's Peak:
  • One reoccurring message is that it's OK to cry, and that there's no shame in doing so.
  • Another point that is often stressed is that the characters aren't perfect, they won't always know how to solve problems completely, but they still try their best.
• Blog / Planned All Along: Don't half-ass games. Also, games that rely too much on luck are not good games.
• Comic Book / A Walk Through Hell: Evil truly wins when we normalize it.
• Comic Book / American Born Chinese: It is pointless to hate yourself for what you were born as, deny that it is part of you, or struggle against it. It's best to Be Yourself.
• Comic Book / Cerebus the Aardvark: The Victor Reid subplot in Reads delivers one about how artists shouldn't "sell out".
• Comic Book / Democracy: Always seek out the truth. Even if it turns out that you hate it. It's better than staying in the dark.
• Comic Book/ Disney Kingdoms: Besides the stock "Face your fears" one for Danny, there is also one about not letting anger, hatred and greed consume your life and afterlife when the Hatbox Ghost explains the character flaws of the Captain and Constance and their inability to move on.
  • The death of a relative is a hard thing to get over, but that doesn't mean you have to shut your living ones out and try to deal with your grief alone. Danny realises this after mending fences with his parents.
• Comic Book / Dog Man (Dav Pilkey): In Book Em, Dog Man, the moral is that reading makes you smart.
• Comic Book / Flight: Amy Kim Ganter's "Food From the Sea:" pointless competition is bad.
• Comic Book / Thorgal: The second book focusing on Kriss has three lessons: rape is bad, and so are pedophilia and incest.
• Comic Strip / The Perry Bible Fellowship: "Deeply Held Beliefs" points out how when it comes to personal beliefs, acting like a Tautological Templar does not translate well in reality, no matter the topic. Harassing people and treating them as evil monsters over their opinions not only makes them recalcitrant to your point of view, but it also alienates neutral parties and makes them reluctant to take your side because you look like such a vicious, unreasonable Jerkass.
• Comic Strip / Phoebe and Her Unicorn: Never explicitly stated, but the general theme is "Appreciate your friends for who they are, not what they can do for you."
• Courage The Cowardly Dog / Tropes A to M: If there's any message in this show, it's that "courage" isn't necessarily synonymous with "fearlessness". Courage at least means being willing to challenge one's own fears instead of running away, and doing the right thing no matter how difficult it may seem.
  • "The Tree of Nowhere" is a perfect example of courage in the face of utter demise.
  • Also in the final episode "Perfect", Courage has to learn to accept his personal imperfections.
• Cyberpunk 2077 / Tropes A to B: NONE of these have context to how they connect with the narrative.
  • Even under an oppressive system, you can still lead a meaningful and impactful life. Stay true to yourself, uplift other people and find small joys in life and you'll be able to say that you've had a decent run.
  • Dying for a vague ideal just isn't worth it. Risking your life to save/protect your loved ones, who are tangible people, is.
  • No matter how noble the goal you might be fighting for is, it doesn't excuse being abusive and toxic to people who are closest to you.
  • Change is good and a sign and a part of life. Clinging to what you know at all cost will lead to losing your humanity and can be compared to death.
  • Bonds with other people is what makes life worth living and they should never be underestimated.
  • Accept death and mortality, your own and your loved ones. You will grieve, but time will help, and you should keep living your best life to honor your departed loved ones.
  • Eternal life at the cost of your own humanity isn't worth it.
  • Pursuit of fame and glory will only make you want more and more. You will never be satisfied with what you have.
  • You have more people looking out for you and caring for your well-being than you likely think.
  • Even if you won't become well-known or remembered by the whole world, you can still inspire others around you to change their lifes for the better, which is just as, if not more, valuable.
• Infinity Train: Court of Cyclamen: You should never set a bar to compare yourself to others; other people will excel at things, but that doesn't mean what you do is meaningless.
• Fanfic / I don't want to forget: Loving someone is worth the pain of bad times with them, ripping them out of your memory is a lot more trouble and pain than remembering them, and even against the odds its possible to find a way to solve even the most difficult problems, like the Hedgehog's dilemma.
• Fanfic / Last One Standing: No matter what we'll face on the other side, love and friendship are what make life worth going through.
• Fanfic / The Karma of Lies: It’s not the responsibility of victims to make life easier for those who hurt them, and acting like it is only enables the people doing the harm.
• Film / A Clockwork Orange: Human goodness must come from free will; as such it is intrinsically wrong to deny even the vilest of individuals their capacity for moral choice.
• Film / Red Tails: Put your duties and responsibilities to others before your own desires. Also, the more obvious aesops about the need to overcome racial prejudice and overcoming adversity.
• Film / The Time Machine (2002): Accept the things you cannot change, and move on, no matter how painful it is.
• Film / Titanic (1943): Greed is bad! Capitalism is bad! Stock speculation is bad! And the British are bad! The closing title card calls the sinking "an eternal condemnation of England's endless quest for profit." The image of Britain as a land of greedy plutocrats was a frequent staple of Nazi propaganda films.
• Film / Tomorrowland: "Feed the right wolf." In other words, look for solutions and refuse to give up rather than surrender to despair and hopelessness.
• Literature / Cry, the Beloved Country: Don't rely solely on prayer for help in life. Physically take action sometimes.
• Human Resources (2018): "Sweet Tooth" and "Vestibulum Horridus" are both Sci-Fi Horror allegories about the objectification of women. "Les Amoureux" is arguably also an aesop about expecting relationships to solve all of your problems.
• Literature / Jackie and Craig: Life is full of tragedy, which is just what makes the few bright spots so much more precious. Also, in the face of the universe's cold, senseless indifference, we must cherish our few connections with others and accept them for their flaws.
• Literature / Wonder (2012): "Be Yourself" and "Don't judge a book by its cover".
• Manga / Tokyo Babylon:
  • The main theme of the series is that no one knows what's in people's heart, and no one has the right to judge others' pain and suffering.
  • The manga also tackles a few difficult subjects in Japan (at the time the manga was written), specifically addressing how Japanese society handles bullying, the mentally ill, rape victims, older people, and immigrants. They don't propose solutions all of the time, but the idea is put out there. '''This also counts as a "What aesop?" ZCE because there isn't an intended message other than "these things exist."
• Music / Loco Loco: The world is bigger than you think. There is so much to see and do.
  • "I Catched a Cold in Scotland". Make sure you are prepared and try to stay well.
• Music / Quatermass: "Post War, Saturday Echo". Aside from the obvious anti-materialistic statements, the title evokes the sort of comparatively trivial societal plagues that were non-issues to those living in wartime, but which have come to flourish in peacetime. Roger Waters would, presumably, very much approve.
• Music / Sugarland: "Stay" - A relationship with someone who doesn't appreciate you isn't worth it. You're better than begging.
• Music / The Now Now: "Humility" is about how people need each other and the damaging effects of isolation, pride be damned.
• Recap / Are You Afraid Of The Dark Season 6 The Tale Of The Forever Game: Stick to the trail, don’t split up, and in event of lightning, keep beneath the shorter trees.
• Arthur S16 E5 - "Night of the Tibble" / "Read and Flumberghast": Not everything is as bad as it seems.
• Arthur S22 E3 - 'Muffy's House Guests' / 'Binky Can't Always Get What He Wants': earning about a topic makes it less scary.
• Arthur S 3 E 2 DW All Fired Up Id Rather Read It Myself: A fear is just a fear. You can combat it with apt preparation.
• Recap / Arthur S 5 E 5 The World Record The Cave: Not every record can be broken.
• Recap / Bluey Featherwand: There will be times where you'll have to miss out on something fun, but you can make your own fun.
• Recap / Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command E 1 The Adventure Begins: Everyone sometimes needs help.
• Recap / Elena Of Avalor S 2 E 8 Shapeshifters: Leave the job to someone who is trained to do it. Otherwise, you risk causing damage to yourself, others, and worsening the situation.
• Recap / Elena Of Avalor S 3 E 20 Shooting Stars: Nobody is born a scientist. You have to study, learn, and practice.
• Recap / How I Met Your Mother (And How I Met Your Father) Intimacy Arc Chapter Two: Makoto’s Punishment?: Respect other people's privacy.
• Recap / I Carly S 02 Ep 14 I Make Sam Girlier: Don't pretend to be something you're not. Just be yourself. The right person will like you the way you are.
• Recap / Lilo & Stitch: The Series S1 E17 "Elastico": Never take your friends for granted, or you may make them feel unwanted.
• Recap / Lu And The Bally Bunch S 1 E 9 Elevator Play Date: If something is scaring you, speak up about it before it becomes too late. True friends will always respect your boundaries.
• Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S5 E10 "Princess Spike": Even the smallest and tiniest bit of contributions can add up to something big and great.
• Recap / My Little Pony Tales S 1 E 5 Stand By Me:
  • Don't make accusations against people you don't like without sufficient evidence.
  • It's okay to accept help.
  • Stand up for what you believe in, regardless of who's with you.
• Video Game / Kena: Bridge of Spirits: Change is a necessary part of life, and holding on to what is lost can be self-destructive.

• Dumbass Has a Point: Hannah Montana:
  • Another episode had a ditzy television host sum up the Aesop in a thoughtful and beautiful way... causing Hannah, her father, his co-host, and the entire audience to look at him shocked. 'Also equating "aesop" to "in-universe lesson"'.
• In an "On Deck" episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody this trope is played completly straight; Zack is made Hall Monitor in an effort to teach him responsibility. He ends up being far too zealous, even using a speed gun to trap walkers going too fast. He makes himself very unpopular throughout the ship. An Aesop is delivered in a very Anvilicious manner.
• Adventure Time / Tropes A to C: Sometimes subverted, e.g. in "Freak City" and "Witch's Garden"", but often played completely straight, albeit in weird ways. For example, Finn is taught not to break promises by being punished by the Gumball Guardians. Also uses "aesop" synonymously with an in-universe lesson, not a huge theme.
• Animation / 3000 Whys of Blue Cat: Every episode includes some kind of lesson about science. The lesson is often delivered as a short informational video in the middle of the story.
• Comic Book / Frank: Jim Woodring claims that every story has one. Some are more clear than others.
• Comic Book / Groo the Wanderer: Most Groo stories have a moral at the end, usually not very serious.
• Comic Book / Logicomix: Debatable. Christos suggests something along the lines of "we can't prove everything, but that's okay" and there's hints of "don't confuse the model and reality", but the story is pretty far from Anvilicious or even having a clear "moral". Breaks the Examples Are Not Arguable rule.
• Creator / Voltaire: In every single of his philosophical tales.
• Fanfic / Get Him: Each pony involved in the chase learns one on their respective Ending.
• Literature / How to Read Nancy: The analysis section of the book tops each of the 42note lessons with a "Moral" that sums up each lesson in a very short, consise message.
• Recap / Happy Tree Friends E 1 One Foot In The Grave: Combined with Insane Troll Logic, a "lesson" is shown at the end of every episode.

• Achilles in His Tent: Named for the famous incident in Homer's Iliad, which fits the formula almost perfectly, with an added touch. Agamemnon tries to coax Achilles back by meeting the demands he originally made before the new threat, but Achilles now refuses them. Also, in stark contrast to modern TV examples, Achilles does not learn An Aesop about teamwork or friendship. He re-enters battle out of pure blood rage, after his best friend and cousin (or likely, lover) Patroclus kicks the bucket, and winds up forming an Odd Friendship with the enemy king instead of with Agamemnon.
• Geodesic Cast: Revolutionary Girl Utena does this starting with its second story arc. Each character has their own corresponding temporary duelist counterpart, who all learn An Aesop when they try to enter into the duels. Utena and Anthy both get their own Spear Counterpart during this storyline, although Anthy's turns out to be Anthy in disguise. Kind of. Mind Screw ensues.
• Suspiciously Apropos Music: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids could be a mild inversion. Since the songs the junkyard gang played at the end of an episode were intended to drive home the plot/moral of the episode, there wasn't much suspicious about it. It was as obvious as the title character's considerable girth. This just reads as general misuse of the Suspiciously Apropos Music trope.
• House: Dr. House's father started out as just a harsh bastard who didn't see eye to eye with his son, but then, as is so often the case, more than a few nasty things popped up about him. He doesn't believe in unconditional love, he apparently never told his son that he was right or did the right thing, he made him sleep outside and take ice baths when he was a child (trust the writers to go for things that are considered torture in some places), refused to speak to him for two months when a 12-years-old Greg told him (truthfully) that Papa House wasn't his real father, and let him go without food if he was ever a tiny bit late for a meal. But, even after all this and in the last fifteen minutes of "Birthmarks", House (in his own guarded way) admits that his father's death has affected him more than he would care to admit. Greg House hated his dad so much, he convinced himself that he wasn't his biological son. Not only was he right, but he made the deduction based on red flags spotted when he was fourteen, something that impresses even Wilson. He even deduced his actual father, or so we're led to believe until Season 8. Whatever kind of lesson this gives is rather ambiguous. Does the story NEED to give a lesson? The last sentence reads like natter, tbh.
• Danny Phantom / Tropes A to G: Lampshaded. When Jazz freaks out about a ghost attack, Danny snarkily tells her that the plan is effectively to go try and beat up the bad guy, say a few clever quips, get beaten up yourself, run around for a while trying to fix things, finally beat the bad guy, and go home having learned a lesson about how the world works. Whoopie.

1. Film.The Day After Tomorrow: In the finale, the Vice President announces publicly how wrong humanity was to abuse petroleum.
2. Film.Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me: In an unusual moment for David Lynch, who is otherwise a master of the Shrug of God, he explicitly spells out — via subtitles — that the garmonbozia the Black Lodge denizens feed on represents pain and sorrow.
3. VideoGame.Once Ever After: The "Storyteller" of Ulfina's Tale repeatedly narrates the Tale as part of their railroading and explicitly states the Humans Are the Real Monsters Aesop more than once, and attempts to recover with a The Power of Love Aesop after initially being mad at Ingrid for "corrupting" Ulfina by engaging in lesbian sex with her until their continued defiance of railroading and their desire to escape the Tale tries the Storyteller's patience and they sic the townsfolk on Ingrid and Ulfina again to resume the original Humans Are the Real Monsters Aesop. In-universe, but fits.
4. Series.Incomplete Life: Geu-Rae's narration often tells the audience what he (and therefore us) is supposed to have learned during the episode, however it is rarely of the anvilicious kind. They tend more toward poetic contemplations.
5. Series.Neds Declassified School Survival Guide: Ned will recap the lessons from the episode at the end.
6. Series.The Weird Al Show: The start of every episode will declare "Today's lesson" in clear terms. Then through the episode the narrator will constantly repeat the moral while basically yelling at Al for not even trying to learn it. Furthermore, in many of the episodes The Hooded Avenger will show up and serve no other role in the plot but to repeat the moral directly to Al.
7. WebVideo.Persona 5 Abridged: Spoof Aesop: In episode 6.5, Ryuji tries to explain how he's learned an important lesson about friendship that Ren refutes.
   Ren: You know what, Ryuji? Just abstain entirely. Never reproduce, ever. That's what we learned.
8. WesternAnimation.Bluey: Defied in the episode "Magic Claw", in which Bandit cheats the magic claw game and goes back on his promise of bottomless ice cream. He starts to teach the girls the moral of the story before they cut him off with Tickle Torture. Later, when Chilli asks the girls if they learned anything, Bluey enthusiastically says "Nope!" as she digs into her ice cream.
9. WesternAnimation.Cat Dog: An in-universe example where Cat teaches Dog not to eat meat as animals are friends. It's a buildup point for the related Aesop to be subverted.
10. WesternAnimation.Teen Titans 2003: Lampshaded! After defeating Control Freak, Robin states that the lesson this week was to not watch too much TV... until he's reminded that they only won because Beast Boy watches too much TV, thereby deliberately smashing the Aesop into tiny little pieces.
11. WesternAnimation.Welcome To The Wayne: Saraline at the end of "Mail Those Cards, Boys!":
    You know? I think I learned something today. You can't force friendship. Sometimes you have to go to a post office, and fight robots, and... (inspirational music stops) Yeah, I learned nothing today.
12. Recap.Community S 4 E 07 Economics Of Marine Biology:
    I think we all learned today, that all human beings deserve dignity.
13. Recap.The Adventures Of Superman S 2 E 2 The Big Squeeze: An Aesop / Script Wank: Ex-cons should be given a second chance once they've paid their debt to society. While many Superman episodes have moral messages, this one is noteworthy for being delivered in lecture form by Clark, in the closest thing a half-hour show can get to a Character Filibuster.
14. BrokenAesop.Doctor Who: In the Script Wank at the end of "Planet of the Daleks", the Doctor delivers a heartfelt speech that the Thals must tell their people War Is Hell, and not to make it sound like their adventure was a 'fun game'. The story involves, amongst other things, them escaping fun, toyetic Always Chaotic Evil nasty pepperpot people by dressing up in purple fur coats and MacGyvering a hot air balloon. The reason for this discrepancy is because the scene was appended to the end by Terrance Dicks at the last minute because invokedthe script was underrunning.
15. EndingFatigue.Music: Eminem:
    • "Bad Guy" is a Murder Ballad about Eminem getting done in by a Loony Fan. He dies at just over the 5 minute mark, prompting a beat-switch and a Script Wank verse in which Slim Shady explains the moral of what had just happened for another two minutes over a backing with no drums. Even then, he carries on rapping over the fade-out. Note that fans often regard this verse as one of his greatest ever, and an emotional high point.
16. Bookends: This is extensively used in kids' shows to illustrate the characters applying the lesson they learned today, which happens to apply to the issue presented in the beginning. Ya'know, just in case they didn't catch it. In any work, bookends are a way to show if Character Development has occurred.
17. Tragic Dropout: Played for Laughs on Roundhouse, where Ivan decides to quit school so he can become a professional skateboarder. He learns his lesson when he boards the wrong train while about to head off for a big skateboarding competition, and later accepts a "Stupid People's Choice Award" from Tonya Harding and Anthony Hopkins.
    "Don't be a fool, stay in school! Reprise the theme song and roll the credits!"
18. SoYouWantTo.Write An Aesop: While you don't need to outright have a character say, "The lesson to be learned here is...", you actually need to communicate what's going on.
19. Funny.Outside Xbox Gameplay:
    • Another round featured Wheels outing himself as the impostor early in the round because he didn't realise that only one person can use the medbay scanner at a time. After the round, as an argument is breaking out over Andy's lack of respect for the Buddy System, Wheels defuses the situation:
      Wheels: I think we've all learned a valuable lesson today.
      Aoife: Yeah?
      Wheels: Only one person can use the medbay scanner at a time.
      Everyone cracks up
20. Funny.Oxenventure Part 2: Lynton looks like he's going to do the right thing in choosing to destroy the sword instead of killing Dob, then he runs to try and grab it before the trolley reaches it...so Egbert throws him away from it.
    Corazón: Lynton, I guess you've sort of learned something, maybe.
21. So Once Again, the Day Is Saved: Can overlap with Script Wank when used to spell out An Aesop.

1. ComicBook.Green Lantern The Lost Army: Kilowog attempts to deliver a relatable Aesop while he and Guy easily fight the lightsmiths imprisoned in the same light pirate cell as they, but Guy pointedly cuts him off with another far less relatable one which applies much better to the situation they've found themselves in:
   Gardener: Look at these guys. They're mean, they're angry, but without their light they're pushovers!
   Kilowog: There's a lesson to be learned there. Rely too much on the rings and you—
   Gardener: You destroy the universe?
2. It's Not Porn, It's an Index: Something that's outright said to the audience after being implied. Does not mention it has to be a moral specifically.
3. Plot Parallel: Doctor Who:
   • "Robot" has an A-plot about an insane, childlike, potentially dangerous but by nature benevolent robot being forced to kill its creator and go against its basic peaceful, humanitarian nature by a rigorous, militaristic unit obsessed with science and reason, which drives it Axe-Crazy and leaves it convinced it needs to kill all of humanity apart from Sarah Jane. The B-plot is about the Doctor, who has recently regenerated into an insane, childlike, potentially dangerous but by nature benevolent personality, who attempts to abandon his friend Sarah in his confusion, and is forced to go against his basic freedom-loving nature by the rigorous, militaristic unit who use him as a scientific advisor. The Doctor happily (if a bit flakily) helps defeat the robot, but in the Script Wank scene at the end he convinces Sarah that he won't, won't, won't behave like the refined and social person UNIT needs him to be and it's time for he and she to run off and explore the universe.
4. Characters.Eminem: (Stan Mitchell & Mathew Mitchell)
   • Matthew represents an entire litany of Eminem's sins, as the Script Wank at the end of the song explains, but also the former fans who turned on Eminem for the rotten social politics in his early work.
5. Canon Immigrant: Doctor Who:
   • In "The Day of the Doctor", the Eleventh Doctor meets a character called the Curator, strongly implied to be a far-future regeneration of the Doctor, played by an elderly Tom Baker (who played the Fourth Doctor in the 1970s). The character originates from the odd pseudo-Framing Device used in the official reconstructions of Development Hell serial "Shada", which were narrated by an old Tom Baker, dressed in a suit and describing the missing scenes while showing the viewer around an art gallery. He also referred to the Doctor in the third person, but prominently used the Fourth Doctor's mannerisms and Character Tics, and performed the unfilmed Script Wank scene where the Doctor announced that maybe someday he'd retire and everyone would think that he was just a nice old man with the Fourth Doctor's signature Cheshire Cat Grin.

1. Film.Mulan 2020: In an early scene, Mulan rides alongside two running rabbits before going home and excitedly telling her parents how she thinks one is male and another is female, but she couldn't tell when they are both running fast. This is a direct reference to the last few lines of the original ballad, but many Chinese audiences complained that it was taken too literally and ended up feeling clumsy.
2. Literature.Magic By The Numbers: The prime weakness of the series is that the characters generally end by explaining what they learned over the course of their (mis)adventures.
3. Literature.Shadow Of The Conqueror: Ahrek and Cueseg have an extremely Anvilicious conversation about the Defiled Forever trope, repeatedly saying how terrible it is without the slightest trace of subtlety.
4. Ride.Disney Theme Parks: Ellen's Energy Adventure. The original Universe of Energy spent a lot of time discussing alternate energy sources, such as the solar panels on the attraction itself. The 1996—2017 version may well have been titled I Love Fossil Fuels.
5. Did Not Do the Bloody Research:
   • However, the term Fan Wank often has a more literal meaning when used by Brits. In the Doctor Who fandom, for instance, Fan Wank is used to mean "Continuity references put in the script to get the fans off", as if the writers were tossing the fanbase off. This is closer in spirit to Script Wank, which is as if the writers are tossing themselves off.
6. Viewers Are Morons: The creator explicitly spells out a work's message because they don't trust the audience to pick up on the subtext, goes hand in hand with...
7. Dead Horse Trope: These are almost never used anymore, as it's generally understood that audiences really don't need to have An Aesop spelled out for them at the end of the story. Most of the time it's lampshaded, subverted or parodied in modern works.
8. YMMV.Silent Hill: Unreliable Canon:
   • Common fanon is restricted to the first three or four games, which were produced by Team Silent and present a more or less consistent idea of what the town is and how it works. Though SH4 continues to divide the fanbase over its experimental nature and the uninvolvement of certain prominent members of Team Silent in its production, fans overwhelmingly refuse to consider the Western-developed games canon. This is primarily because of each's vastly different iteration of the town and its workings or history, in addition to conspicuous fanservice in a franchise built on subtlety; the near-complete overhaul of development teams from KCET or even the previous game's developers; and Konami's substantial cuts to the productions' budgets and development times, starting with Origins. Since much of these outcomes seem to stem from The Problem with Licensed Games (and Silent Hill is far from their only intellectual property to have suffered them over the past decade or two), Konami has since become a public enemy of many of their franchises' fandoms.
9. Characters.The Annotated Series: (Third Band) Berserk Button: Is quick to rant and pick apart Plot Induced Stupidity moments, and despises Sonya Blade with a burning passion. Also hates Aesops that devolve into Script Wank.

1. Anime.Transformers Armada: On occasion.
2. Film.Sixty Five: After the first act of the film plays with no title, "65" appears on screen as an establishing shot of Earth, before a brief Opening Scroll that re-establishes the premise.
3. Music.Frank Zappa: Parodied in "Billy the Mountain", where the moral is a (intentionally) Space Whale Aesop.
4. Radio.Adventures In Odyssey (Trope name and nothing else)
5. WebVideo.A Trailer For Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever: "Explicitly summing up the moral of the story."
6. Series.Dog With A Blog: Stan does this in some episodes.
7. Series.Legend Of The Seeker: The ending of the episode "Cursed," particularly Kahlan's conversation with Cora about the episode's Be Yourself message.
8. Series.Scrubs: Lampshaded at one point.
9. Recap.Futurama S 3 E 20 Godfellas: The aesop is repeated at the end.
10. Recap.Futurama S 4 E 6 Bender Should Not Be Allowed On Television: Aesop Amnesia: At the end after the Professor repeats the Aesop just learned, everybody still doesn't want to turn off the TV.
11. CalvinAndHobbs.Tropes Q To Z:
    Calvin: Well, at least I learned a valuable lesson from this duplicator mess.
    Hobbes: Which is?
    (beat)
    Calvin: Okay, so I didn't learn any big lessons. Sue me.
    • Watterson plays it straight, though, when Calvin delivers a Green Aesop.
12. Every Episode Ending: Every episode of Riget sees series creator, Lars von Trier, showing up during the end credits to deliver a closing monologue, during which he usually cracks some dry jokes about the plot of the episode and delivers a bit of invoked Script Wank. He then always finishes his monologue by wishing the viewers a pleasant evening, and reminds them and reminding them, in case they wish to spend more time with the series, they should be prepared to "Take the Good, with the Bad," as he first does the sign of the cross followed by the sign of the horns.
13. Fauxlosophic Narration: During the ending credits of each episode of Riget, show creator Lars von Trier gives a Script Wank speech with bizarre rants about the evil and the good. He delivers it with a smirk grin, as if he's parodying this very trope.
14. WebVideo.Brat: Green Aesop / Space Whale Aesop: A bit of a Script Wank one about the dangers of fracking, the implication being that vampires will come out of the ground if corporations keep drilling holes.
15. Padding.Live Action TV: Doctor Who:

    • The Script Wank scene at the end of "Planet of the Daleks" was added by Terrance Dicks at the last minute to extend the episode, which is why it's a Broken Aesop that doesn't fit with the rest of the story.

• Recap.Adventure Time S 3 E 10 What Was Missing: Hilariously subverted, when the Door Lord points out that his actions made the gang realise how much they mean to each other, we cut to a badly beaten and trussed up Door Lord with the others reclaiming their stolen items.
• Recap.Family Guy S 2 E 2 Holy Crap:
  • Parodied throughout the episode, where Peter envisions having "one of those father-son moments like on TV where we hug and the music goes 'La la laaaa'", complete with his own accompanying orchestra.
  • The end of the episode provides a quasi-sincere instance of this as he confronts Francis for the last time, only for Francis to admit that despite him loving Peter, he still doesn't like him. After a brief moment of hesitation, Peter asks the band to keep playing anyway, because that's as good as they're gonna get.
• Recap.Phineas And Ferb Spa Day: Parodied; when Candace tries to give an apologetic monologue with a Sentimental Music Cue, Stacy interrupts her by saying "You sound like one of those TV shows we like to make fun of."

• Film.Max Keebles Big Move: With the janitor. "Any kid can make a mess. It takes a MAN to clean it up!" ZCE.An Aesop
• HoYay.Live Action TV: Betty and Amanda on Series.Ugly Betty. Amanda has often made jokingly bisexual remarks to Betty as part of her sex-obsessed personally, but now that they've moved in together the Les Yay is getting harder to shrug off as a joke. Their heartwarming Golden Moments show a lot more chemistry than Betty has had with most of her Standard Betty Boyfriends. In the online Webisode, Amanda even told Marc that she had a sex dream about Betty. ZCE Pothole
• Radio.Adventures In Odyssey: Usually executed quite well. This never stops Chris. ZCE
• Recap.Buffy The Vampire Slayer S 1 E 11 Out Of Mind Out Of Sight: Averted; Cordelia is thanking the Scoobies for their help when Mitch comes up to her and asks why she's hanging around these losers. Cordy quickly makes herself scarce.
  Xander: Where's an invisible girl when you need one?
• Recap.Buffy The Vampire Slayer S 2 E 10 Whats My Line Part 2: Has the required Aesop, but...
  Kendra: I don't hug.
  Buffy: Right. No. Good. Hate hugs. ZCE
• Recap.Buffy The Vampire Slayer S 3 E 5 Homecoming:
  • Bait-and-Switch: The tie... which turns out not to be Buffy and Cordelia sharing the Homecoming Queen crown and engaging in a Golden Moment, but rather the other two contestants. ZCE
• Recap.Buffy The Vampire Slayer S 6 E 15 As You Were: Though everyone but Buffy hugs Riley. ZCE
• Recap.I Zombie S 3 E 2 Zombie Knows Best: Parodied to Hell and back when Ravi gets some fatherly advice from Dad Brains Liv. ZCE
• Recap.SMG 4 If Mario Was In Friday Night Funkin 2:
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Mommy Mearest is devastated to find that her husband is comatose following his defeat, and when she too is defeated later, they share a Golden Moment together. ZCE
• Recap.SMG 4 Mario Harms The Environment:
  • Moment Killer: The Lorax threatening to break the viewers' knees if they harm his trees comes right after Tari and Meggy's Golden Moment. Downplayed in that it didn't seem like he was trying to impede on their moment, since he spoke this way the entire episode, and the episode ends before they could react anyway. Not sure, this is the only mention of a Golden Moment on the page
• Seinfeld.Tropes A To H: Averted at all costs. ZCE
• Series.Community: Played straight and subverted frequently. ZCE
• Series.Lizzie Mc Guire: Sometimes occurs in the more Anvilicious episodes. ZCE
• Series.The Brothers Garcia: At the end of every episode, Larry ending his narration with "everything for the family" in Spanish. ZCE
• Series.The Odd Couple 1970: Many episodes end with Felix and Oscar quickly resolving the argument they had by admitting their faults. It never really lasted, though.
• WebVideo.Dont Hug Me Im Scared:
  • Breather Episode: The third episode. The only gore comes from the food at the picnic and the scrubby of Yellow Guy's brain, and is relatively low-key, a much longer time is spent on things being perfectly fine and happy before it gets dark, and it's All Just a Dream, ending with a heartwarming Golden Moment. ZCE pothole
• BreatherEpisode.Web Original:
  • The third episode of WebVideo.Dont Hug Me Im Scared. The only gore comes from the food at the picnic and the scrubby of Yellow Guy's brain, and is relatively low-key, a much longer time is spent on things being perfectly fine and happy before it gets dark, and it's All Just a Dream, ending with a heartwarming Golden Moment which in this series, is a very rare sight.
• Characters.Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas Sanctuary
  • The Power of Friendship: Her speech after Tenma finds out that Youma is his father and had been a part of his plan before he was born. It is the Golden Moment of that part. What part?
• Recap.Angel S 03 E 14 Couplet: Again spoofed when Groo confesses that Angel was the real champion who saved them from the tree demon. Cordelia is touched... that Groo would hand over the credit like that.
• Recap.As Told By Ginger S 2 E 17 And She Was Gone: Lois and Ginger have one, where the former reassures her daughter that she can always confide her feelings in her. Not enough context
• Recap.Fraggle Rock S 4 E 9 A Brush With Jealousy: When Mokey rediscovers painting for the joy of it, she shares the Aesop of the episode with Red and Wembley. '''Ambiguous
  Wembley: [admiring the picture Mokey's started painting with her tail] Boy, that's already starting to look terrific!
  Red: Yeah, better than anything Pedley ever did!
  Wembley: Oh, yes, yes, yes!
  Mokey: Oh... oh, Red, I don't even care about that anymore, you know? I'm just loving painting it!
  [The brush comes unstuck, and the three share a group hug.]
• Recap.My Little Pony Tales S 1 E 5 Stand By Me: While the simple, soothing version of the theme song plays in the background:
  Miss Hackney: Well, ponies, this has been quite an important day! Can anyone tell me what we've learned?
  Sweetheart: Well, I've learned to stand up for what I believe in, even when no one agrees with me.
  Melody: I learned... I'd better know the whole story before I give somebody a bum rap.
  Miss Hackney: What about you, Teddy? What did you learn?
  Teddy: I guess... that... that friends can be important. Uh... uh... if you need 'em. Which I don't—(yelps as he falls into the lost and found box) Sweetheart! H-help me! Quotes are not examples
• Recap.My Little Pony Tales S 1 E 9 The Plays The Thing: The simpler, softer version of the theme song accompanies this speech from Melody:
  A play can never work with just the star. Let me bring out all my friends and hard workers from backstage! (the curtains part to reveal the other six girls) They're the ones who really made this show happen! Again, quotes aren't examples
• Series.Arrested Development: Occurs almost entirely with Michael and George Michael, his son. Lampshaded when while making snacks with his father at the end of an episode George Michael remarks that he doesn't need his dad to stay out of his life, he's the biggest part of his life. Michael states, referring to the snack they are making, "That's a little cornball, son."
• Series.The Odd Couple 1970: Many episodes end with Felix and Oscar quickly resolving the argument they had by admitting their faults. It never really lasted, though.
• Funny.Fire Blogger
  • Referring to Sentimental Music Cue, Golden Moment, and Sickeningly Sweet in one sentence. No context, this makes no sense
• Funny.I Zombie
  • Liv actually has a Golden Moment with Ravi. Complete with the Full House Music. It almost sounds correct but there's still little context.

• Away in a Manger:
  • Series.Scrubs has Turk delivering a baby of a teenage runaway late on Christmas Eve, but who escapes the hospital just before going into labour - Turk finds her by following a star, and after the birth, everyone gathers round for a nice Christmas carol. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww... Sinkhole
• The Philosopher:
  • One of the most magnificent scenes in anime displays one of this in Anime.Hellsing Ultimate. Captain Bernadotte's late grandfather displays not just a magnificently directed and executed speech in his brief scene of origin, but in the same time showers tropes with everything it touches on; Grandpa is a philosopher who probably set the entirety of Bernadotte's life expectations down in a Golden Moment of many levels. Grandba is being painfully truthful with his grandson, and tells him why eight generations of their family were mercenaries, and also, why will he be one as well. With his speech Grandpa also turns out to be, and describes himself and the family, as the scum of society, while foreshadows the same for Bernadotte. Grandpa goes over a whole range of moral dilemmas that could probably give him and the family an excuse, but then throws all of those out, deeming any people acting based on any of the mentioned morals as just a bunch of clueless folks who would be okay with chump change that could give them basic comfort, thus averting them from killing each other. At this point, being honest about only fighting for money already seems like an almost positive feat, but at least it elevates the mercenary family and company out of the clueless masses. But Grandpa tops everything off by stating, deliberately choosing their profession and sticking to it, is understandably frowned upon by others, so Bernadotte is left alone to deal with the peer pressure in either direction but calmly, and seemingly comfortably claims the inevitable. Not an example, also this is a giant, near-unreadable wall of text.
• AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted.Western Animation:
  • WesternAnimation.Sponge Bob Square Pants:
    • Providing the image for the main page is the episode "Porous Pockets", where SpongeBob and Patrick find a giant pearl, which they sell for ludicrous amounts of money. Somehow SpongeBob ends up with all of the money, buys a mansion, and gives the rest away to his house guests. Soon as they find out he has no money left, they leave and SpongeBob realizes he shouldn't have neglected Patrick because he had money. Misuse
• Characters.Teen Titans 2003 Core Team
  • Sidekick Glass Ceiling: The episode "The Beast Within" lets Animorphism-powered Beast Boy get more Beast and less Boy. Even while it lasts, his suggestions that his name be changed to Beast Man fall on deaf ears.
  Raven: We're having a moment here, don't ruin it.
  Beast Boy: ... Beast Dude? Sinkhole
• Funny.Family Guy Seasons 4 To 8
  • The carjacking scene.
  Stewie: Get out of the fucking car! Get out of the fucking car right now man! Do it or I'll fucking kill you! Get the fuck out of the fucking car!
  seconds later
  Brian: Did we just carjack that guy?
  Stewie: We sure did, Brian. We sure did.
  (cue credits) Sinkhole
• Funny.Party Of Five
  • At the start of a season 1 episode Claudia tries to set Ross up with a waitress from the restaurant but he reveals he is gay and Claudia spends the whole episode learning An Aesop. At the end Ross finds Claudia back in the restaurant and you're expecting a sort of Golden Moment coming...but instead Claudia brings over a waiter to introduce to him. Ross is normally nice and composed, and bursts into giggles at the idea that his twelve-year-old student is that determined to set him up.
• Manga.Ah My Goddess: On at least two occasions in the manga, and one in Flights Of Fancy, when Belldandy feels like less of a goddess (like the Shiho Sakakibara chapter.episode), Keiichi is usually there to comfort her and justify her feelings. Isn't this supposed to be about when there's a sappy scene where the characters learn a lesson?
• MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic.Tropes E To K: The first four seasons' episodes all ended with one of the main cast narrating a summation of the episode's moral. This was dropped by the start of Season 5, as even the writers were growing tired of having to stop an episode to explain the lesson that most anyone with a brain would already have picked up on. Script wank
• Recap.Sabrina The Teenage Witch S 1 E 5 A Halloween Story [sic]: The Stinger has Sabrina breaking the fourth wall to tell the audience about the true meaning of Halloween. That doesn't sound like an example
• Series.Barney And Friends: Sometimes, just before leaving, a child will take a moment alone with Barney to thank him for his help, or to just be affectionate with him. Misuse

• Children Raise You
• Funny.All Grown Up
  • The Golden Moment at the end of "Bad Kimi" has Kimi forgiving Chuckie and the boys for spying on her. Z's dad brings them into a group hug... only for them to be interrupted by Phil arriving with the police.
  Cop: Stop hugging and put your hands up!
  Kimi: to Chuckie You didn't!
  Chuckie: Nope, Phil did. But only because he cares. Like us, remember?
• Recap.South Park S 22 E 4 Tegridy Farms
  • Combat Pragmatism: The vape executive has no qualms about punching Randy while he's having a Golden Moment with his son.
• Recap.South Park S 8 E 7 Goobacks
  • Good Is Boring: After Stan has his Golden Moment, the town begins to focus on clean energy and repairing the environment in order to make the future decent enough for the Goobacks to not have a reason to go back in time. While it proves to work, Stan decides that the act of doing so is "even gayer than the gay orgy" idea, which they quickly fall back on.
• Series.The Cosby Show: In most important respects, The Cosby Show was one of the most successful examples of the genre, dominating the ratings in the '80s (it was the top-rated show for five years in a row). It was heartwarming and likely to end in An Aesop^note Sometimes fair, sometimes not. if not a full-on Golden Moment.
• TearJerker.Bo Jack Horseman:

  Wanda: Uh, this is network television. So, resolving everything cleanly in a half-hour is kind of what we do. You wanna host a game-show where everyone feels bad at the end? You can get in your little car and drive to Santa Monica and pitch it to Creator.AMC. But these people want resolution, okay? So you get your little butt back on that stage, and you resolve.

• Trivia.Full House
  • Life Imitates Art: Among similar shows, the cast became particularly famous for how close they became off-set. They regularly had "family" reunions, and were always guests for each other's various weddings and birthdays. Candace Cameron and Andrea Barber mentioned a house party where Andrea drank too much and Candace took her keys and had her lie down, remarking how it was so similar to a Golden Moment from the show. Even when Bob Saget tragically died in 2022, the surviving cast members reunited for his homegoing service. John Stamos and Dave Coulier served as his pallbearers.
• YMMV.Sabrina The Teenage Witch
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • The first Halloween Episode has a stinger where Sabrina and Salem give a Golden Moment speech about the true meaning of Halloween. Not only is this one of the only times Sabrina herself breaks the fourth wall, the show normally avoids delivering Aesops like this. Salem breaks the fourth wall in the Season 3 and 4 Halloween episodes however.
• YMMV.The Brothers Garcia
  • It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars: Years later, the cast described the series as one that wouldn't have viewers hooked with Cliff Hangers, plot twists or Drama Bombs - but would merely give them a nice feeling by the end with the Golden Moment.
• YMMV.Fuller House:
  • Growing the Beard: Compared to the cheesiness of the first season, the second season seems to have addressed the chief concerns from critics: the jokes are much less cheesy, the Narm is toned down substantially, and the show looks and is structure much more like a modern sitcom (additional meta jokes like Fernando's pixelation, use of single camera shots, more cynical sense of humor and an episode may wrap up without the mandatory Golden Moment). The end result is a show that doesn't pander strictly to the fans, but still retains the charm of the series.

• An Aesop Index