Discussion Main / CaptainObviousAesop

This happens in the Thomas episode with the boulder when Sir Topham Hatt said "we should've left this part of the island alone"

Moving this one here:

• Easy A: Posing as a floozy to make yourself popular is a bad idea.

Even by the standards of YMMV, this one's a bit debatable; it's been a while since I've seen it, but I seem to remember that the movie was more about how double standards around male and female sexual conduct are actually kind of shitty.

Removed:

• It happens quite often in Doctor Who, as well. One of the more obvious examples is the 2008 episode "Planet of the Ood" which appears to have the message "Slavery is a bad thing." How many of the audience didn't already know that is unclear. An alternative one, only slightly less obvious (but in some quarters probably still necessary) might be: "Even if a people doesn't look like you, and seems more primitive than you, that gives you no right to exploit them." It seems to have been a deliberate attempt at amends for the Fridge Horror of the Doctor basically saying "okie dokie" when he discovered the Ood slaves in "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" and left them to die at the end of the episode. This is the main reason they made Planet of The Ood, to address that fact. It's even lampshaded when Donna points out how uncharacteristic it is for the Doctor to not help the Ood, the Doctor points out he was battling Satan at the time.
  
  There's a slightly more subtle Aesop at work as well. At one point when Donna's railing against the institutionalised slavery represented by the Ood, the Doctor points out that most of the clothes she's wearing at that very moment were manufactured in sweatshops by people living only a few steps above slavery. It suggests that although people in the west intellectually know slavery is bad and wouldn't tolerate it when they're directly exposed to it, if it's out of sight and they benefit from it they're likely to not give it much thought. Although that seems to be something of a Lost Aesop, since Donna is offended by the comment, asking the Doctor if he only travels with humans so he can take cheap shots at them, and the Doctor apologises.

This example is two lengthy paragraphs that can't decide whether the episode is an example of an obvious aesop, a course correction for a previous episode, a subtle examination of the issue, or a Lost Aesop. A more brief and focused write-up is needed.

I'm not up for this at the moment, but someone needs to go through the examples and possibly the description with napalm.

Many of the examples seem to be along the lines of "this Aesop is ridiculously obvious." But the tone is rarely noted unless it's a Spoof Aesop, which is not this by definition.