History Main / LostAesop

Has nothing to do with the Creator/{{ABC}} LiveActionTV show ''Series/{{Lost}}''. (We're [[MindScrew still trying to figure out]] [[GainaxEnding what, if any, Aesops that show had]].)

* In the children's book ''Literature/NotQuiteNarwhal'', a unicorn named Kelp is raised by narwhals and thinks he is one. He then meets some unicorns and realises he's a unicorn and when he tells the narwhals, they already know. He has trouble deciding whether to live with the unicorns or the narwhals, but then eventually they all decide to live on/near the beach. Taken at face value, this could mean "You can live in two places at once", but obviously you can't, so maybe it's an allegory-- but for what? It could be adoption but he's stated to be born underwater and dislike narwhal food. It could be being LGBT+, but he doesn't like unicorns (equivalent to being [[GayAesop gay]] or bi) or feel like he's trapped in the body of another species (equivalent to being trans) and the narwhals knew he was a unicorn from day one, so the real meaning of the story is a mystery.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': "Buster's Dino Dilemma" sees Buster taking an interest in dinosaurs. When the class goes to a dig site to look for fossils, they are told that they can't take anything with them. Buster is offended and smuggles the fossil under his hat. This bothers Buster, as he [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone feels guilty]] about stealing, which makes it seem like the moral is not to steal. When he caves in and gives it back, however, he gets ''rewarded'' with the park ranger calling him a "genius" and displaying his fossil with a nameplate saying he discovered it. As such, it's hard to tell if it was a [[BrokenAesop broken]] anti-stealing Aesop, an Aesop about how telling the truth doesn't always affect you negatively, or if there wasn't even any Aesop.

* ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'' seems to be trying to prove ''something'' but neither the viewers or the movie itself seem to grasp just what that message is. At first it may seem like it's trying to say that a person should never compromise their morals, where Nomi is shown refusing to put ice cubes on her breasts to make her nipples stand up and refuses to do something that's implied to be prostitution... But this would only work if the character were a legitimate [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Stripper With a Heart of Gold]], in that stripping was the worst thing she did. She had no problems pushing the lead dancer down the stairs to injure her, sleeping with her boss to get higher in the position to be said dancer's understudy. She seemed to be very happy with the idea of doing ''extremely'' graphic things on the stage of the old strip club. So "don't compromise your morals" can't work because the character's morals are borderline psychotic. Her interactions with other characters seem to indicate that the message is something about how Nomi really ''is'' a bad person at heart, that Cristal was right and Nomi really was a whore, who while at first denied it, began to accept it willingly or not. But then every other character in the entire movie acts as if Nomi is an absolute saint, no matter what she does. Even the girl she pushed down the stairs calls her a whore as if it were a compliment.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': The Tunguska Sanctuary event tries to have some kind of Aesop about nature and humanity, but what the message is gets lost by the end. It seems to be trying to say HumansAreFlawed and cause destruction, complete with overt [[AllegoricalCharacter allegorical monsters]] that are basically walking and living guns, but the BigBad of the chapter is revealed to have actually been born from all the animals that died during the Tunguska incident, which is something even in the ''Fate'' universe that had nothing to do with humans, and was just a freak accident. Due to this, and the BigBad being a cruel and harsh threat to humanity while acknowledging that humans weren't responsible for the Tunguska incident, the intended message goes from HumansAreFlawed to some kind of confused and unclear attempt at saying "HumansAreFlawed but are part of nature" message, before getting lost in the attempt to resolve the conflict.

* Because the Marvel ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' crossover was written by multiple authors, most of whom didn't agree with the direction Marvel was going, the moral behind the story seems to jump from book to book. One of the reasons for it is that while the entire conflict ostensibly hinged around being for and against a broad SuperRegistrationAct, none of the writers were on on board with what said act even entailed (some writers believed it called for mere bureaucratic registration for heroes to tie their identities to the government, but some writers thought it was about {{conscription}} and militarization) which isn't exactly conducive to a stable, comprehensive moral direction.