History Main / RomanticismVersusEnlightenment

* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'' and ''ComicBook/SubMariner'' are an AlternateCompanyEquivalent to one another and occupy opposite sides of the Romanticism vs Enlightenment spectrum. Aquaman is Enlightenment and was originally conceived as a human adapted to underwater life via scientific means, and while his origins have changed since, he more often than not showcases the beauty and wonder of the sea and its inhabitants, with Atlanteans being humans adapted to living undersea. Namor, by contrast, was a HalfHumanHybrid and a VillainProtagonist from the start, his Atlanteans were merpeople hostile to outsiders, and he represents the lurking terror and unknown quantity of the sea, functioning as Romantic. This also extends to their personalities, with Aquaman being written as a curious bookworm and trickster who did things for the sake of it, while Namor was a hot-tempered ByronicHero who did things out of duty or because he'd been crossed.

* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'' and ''ComicBook/SubMariner'' are an AlternateCompanyEquivalent to one another and occupy opposite sides of the Romanticism vs Enlightenment spectrum. Aquaman is Enlightenment and was originally conceived as a human adapted to underwater life via scientific means, and while his origins have changed since, he more often than not showcases the beauty and wonder of the sea and its inhabitants, with Atlanteans being humans adapted to living undersea. Namor, by contrast, was a HalfHumanHybrid and a VillainProtagonist from the start, his Atlanteans were merpeople hostile to outsiders, and he represents the lurking terror and unknown quantity of the sea, functioning as Romantic.

Some Eighteenth century people believed that reason and science are good and therefore things would just go on improving forever. This optimism characterized a period that came to be known as [[UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment the Age of Enlightenment]]. At the end of this period, mass movements in America and France, and the UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution in England, changed the world forever, making people realize that society in the 19th Century was the first that could conceive itself to be radically different from the past. This led to a sense of disillusionment and alienation began to spread, and the {{Romanticis|m}}t movement rose up as a backlash. Romanticists believed that the advances made by UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment were creating an [[{{Dystopia}} oppressive and conformist society]] --and that science and rationality could never hope to truly understand the world and the human personality and that the modern world's progress came at the price of [[YeGoodeOldeDays cherished values from the distant past]] which was slowly dying out. Though the Enlightenment and Romanticist movements are long gone, the general ideas behind each --the dialectic, if you will-- survives to this present day.

Note that 'enlightened' used in such context, is sometimes a loaded word, often used to indicate a higher or better state or level of understanding. In this context the 'enlightened' approach isn't intrinsically better, just as it isn't intrinsically worse --it's a different way of approaching a concept that utilizes different methods and produces different results. Romanticism and Enlightenment are also tied to the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Dionysian (wild, visceral, ornate) and Apollonian (restrained, cerebral, classicist)]] ideals of aesthetics in the arts. Compare the Apollonian/Enlightenment style of Neo-Classicism with the Dionysian/Romantic neo-Gothic revival, or, say, the Apollonian/Enlightenment style of Creator/StanleyKubrick with the Dionysian/Romantic style of Creator/StevenSpielberg.

* LivingIsMoreThanSurviving: It is not enough to survive using practical skills; there are other things that we should live for as well.

* LonersAreFreaks: Both the Enlightenment and Romanticism note that society is alienating and artificial.

Romantic and Enlightened themes are very common in fiction. For example, Enlightenment-flavored science fiction might portray the future as a world of progress, [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship]], brotherhood and CrystalSpiresAndTogas, with [[ChaoticEvil barbaric forces]] threatening the new {{utopia}} (e.g. Franchise/StarTrek). Romanticist-themed science fiction might portray the future as an unpleasant CrapsackWorld, with high technology but low social quality, full of depression, dehumanization and alienation (e.g. everything {{Cyberpunk}}) with the happy souls being those who escaped to [[{{Arcadia}} the countryside]], if possible (like in ''Literature/{{We}}'' and ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'').

* LivingForeverIsAwesome: While this is not a universal belief among Enlightenment-leaning authors, they are likely to regard immortality as yet another achievement of science, and therefore welcome it. This branch is also vital for the [[{{Transhuman}} Transhumanist]] philosophy, desiring the right for all to live as long as they like without the burden of aging, and everyone is allowed the right of euthanasia.

* RousseauWasRight: Predominantly among the Continental schools of Enlightenment thought, historically.[[note]] Though it's worth noting that Creator/JeanJacquesRousseau is also something of a Proto-[[{{Romanticism}} Romanticist]], and thus this trope can show up in Romanticist leaning works (e.g. ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'')[[/note]]

* WhiteAndGreyMorality: Since {{Rousseau Was Right}}, the enlightened heroes are motivated by a desire to [[ForHappiness bring as much good as possible]], and the villains that they encounter are humanized in some way, along with having logical reasons for their antagonistic upbringing. The heroes believe that the villains can be [[HeelFaceTurn redeemed]], especially if said villains are [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-meaning but misguided]], and the heroes can teach the redeemed villains how to contribute to good without hurting others.

* TheSparkOfGenius: Romanticism often portrays all creative activity as something defying all rational explanation - and science is no exception (when scientists are not portrayed as [[StrawVulcan Straw Vulcans]]).

* AllLovingHero: Both Romantic and Enlightened works on the idealistic end of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism have heroes with this belief. The difference is in how their beliefs are handled. The Romantic may assert that human nature of love must triumph over "[[TotalitarianUtilitarian totalitarian]]" rationality of utilitarianism, while the Enlightened hero ''embraces'' rationalism and utilitarianism and proves his or her love and compassion for other beings through them.

* CreatingLifeIsAwesome: Enlightenment works are theoretically okay with this, skeptical in practise, whereas Romantics argue against playing God. The very first science-fiction, Literature/{{Frankenstein}} tackled this very concept, and it was a romantic work. It must be noted that Enlightenment-inspired revolutions, especially the French and the Russian one, had the idea of creating "a new man" which they meant to be a citizen with values and references entirely different from the past, but which in the eyes of critics amounted to be similar to treating man as tabula rasa with new values inserted like a program given to a robot. Mary Shelley's book argued that in taking the role of God, man is likely to repeat the same mistakes to his creations and the consequences it creates.

** [[invoked]] The smartest person in the room would not face opposition in any story if authority or the people saw their ideas as reasonable. An Enlightened figure, either a critic of government, a scientist, a reformer, will be seen as an extremist until VindicatedByHistory. Creator/HenrikIbsen's Theatre/AnEnemyOfThePeople plays it straight, Creator/BertoltBrecht's ''Galileo'' is a parody.

** The Enlightenment invented realism; works by Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Jane Austen created an appetite in the public for the novel of contemporary life. There were also genres such as the philosophical parable and satire (Creator/JonathanSwift, Creator/{{Voltaire}}) and the Gothic horror and romance by Walpole and Ann Radcliffe. Before Romanticism, the idea was to use classical and Biblical myth (Literature/ParadiseLost and most of Shakespeare's plays) as source material for plots, characters and themes. Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's ''Werther'' and ''Wilhelm Meister'' became bestsellers of its day and put across the idea of youth as protagonists, TragicHero and the bildungsroman as genres.

** The Romantic school argued that humans were capable of being monstrous but [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this might not be such a bad thing]]. After all, civilization is hypocritical and deluded about how noble it is, and ignorant and blind of the harm it unleashes in the name of "progress" (for the very few). Self-proclaimed goody two shoes are [[GoodIsBoring boring]], usually [[SourPrudes prudish]] and [[LousyLoversAreLosers lousy in bed]], and actually not really all that good once you get down to it. People who are monstrous or bad [[AtLeastIAdmitIt at least admit it]]. This was the theme of Creator/MaryShelley's ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' and it was partly as a result of this trope that VillainProtagonist and ByronicHero as in Literature/WutheringHeights' Heathcliff came to be prominent and influential. It also underpinned Creator/FriedrichNietzsche's criticism of conventional morality and a restricted view of human nature as "good" and "evil".

** This occasionally leads to some FandomRivalry between the two, particularly SF readers (and writers, most notably including Creator/DavidBrin) who perceive fantasy as inherently reactionary. Seen historically, the first work of ScienceFiction, Literature/{{Frankenstein}}, was [[{{Irony}} very much a romantic work]]. Mary Shelley's work had tropes like NobleSavage, the ByronicHero (she was living in a house with the original--who, incidentally, had knocked up her stepsister--when she wrote ''Frankenstein'', and her husband fit the trope too) and angst over man becoming God in creating life, and scientific endeavor as an exercise in hubris. Likewise, a work that heavily influence fantasy fiction, Creator/LewisCarroll's ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'', was very much about math, word puzzles, and LogicBomb, while William Morris' MedievalEuropeanFantasy romances used a ConstructedWorld to put in social criticisms.

** Enlightenment figures from the British tradition tend to assume absolute cynicism--HumansAreFlawed animals and [[MachiavelliWasWrong Machiavelli Was Right]], in their opinion--and then proceed to create institutions that guide that cynicism to public benefit (think of UsefulNotes/EthicalHedonism, [[HobbesWasRight Hobbes]] and Lord Mandeville's ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fable_of_the_Bees The Fable of the Bees]]''). In other words, it's a position that transcends the Sliding Scale: they're idealistic about the big picture (society) ''because'' they're cynical about the small one (the individual). Though in regard to Romanticism, a case could be made that it can be idealist, though in an [[BlueAndOrangeMorality anti-rationally different way]] than how an Enlightenment leaning individual would define Idealism.

** More common among the Enlightenment figures, but war involves the tragic deaths of the noble, the splitting of families by death or divided loyalties, and [[WorthyOpponent Worthy Opponents]] who could have been friends killing each other simply for being on opposite sides - all causes for misery for Romantics. In Enlightenment stories, the emphasis is on WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife and resources, due to war exacting a high cost on a nation's wealth and the civilian population.

** Shinji, who used to be in the extreme Romantic end of the spectrum, develops an [[UsefulNotes/{{Existentialism}} Existentialist]] philosophy in ''The End Of Evangelion''. [[spoiler:In the end he appreciates his depressing individual life in the Present despite his full knowledge that it's a CrapsackWorld and individuality is painful, culminating in him deciding to reject Instrumentality, a FalseUtopia made of the extreme combination of both Enlightenment (as a utopian Singularity) and Romanticism (as mankind reverted to primordial soup and forcefully assimilated back into the Mother of All Mankind).]]

** The ending of the original series could be described as "Romanticism respecting the Enlightenment". [[spoiler:Madoka reorders the universe with ThePowerOfLove]], transforming from a girl who hates herself to... [[spoiler:a happy girl who essentially kills herself and disembodies her spirit in order to create a new system where all [[MagicalGirl magical girls]] are saved while the Energy system is not compromised. Madoka letw the Incubators exist to prevent entropy and give humanity civilization, while eliminating the worst and unnecessary waste products of the Puella Magi system (witches). She simultaneously assists Kyubey in his goal of preventing the heat death of the universe, and gives up her old self to help fix the world. If Madoka straight-up wished that Kyubey didn't exist and accepted her life as "naked and living in caves" while the universe dies from entropy, the series would be fully Romanticist]].

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'' is heavily Romanticist. Japan is just a tool of manipulation by the Kakuzawas, who are Romanticist due to their motivations being based on folk bloodlines and history. The Kakuzawas try to wipe out and replace the human race with the genetically engineered Diclonius via spreading a virus that will result in its infectees siring Silpelit Diclonius. Even the Diclonius are Romanticist, as they rely solely on their emotions and instincts [[spoiler:(although most of the reason is due to the emotional and social abuse they experience, which results in their their biological survival instinct fusing with their psychosis, which insists that humans must be eradicated or they will eradicate Diclonii)]], plus the fact that civilizing them is near-impossible due to their lethal PsychicPowers, combined with the awakening of their powers occurring at a childhood age, where they cannot understand between right and wrong, effectively making them {{Noble Savage}}s at best and AlwaysChaoticEvil at worst [[spoiler:(with the exception being Nana).]] Interestingly enough, it's [[spoiler: Lucy]] who ultimately goes on the side of Enlightenment as [[spoiler:she reject the Kakuzawas' plans to supplant humanity with the Diclonius and even calls them out over their foolish ambitions being based on legends that ultimately were never true in the first place and saying that they are no more than just humans with atavism]].

* ''Anime/PsychoPass'' is complicated. The society built around the Sibyl System is an Enlightened TotalitarianUtilitarian state where people are imprisoned or killed based on their likelihood of committing crimes rather than on anything that they do, but the system generally seems to work pretty well (except where it doesn't), to the point where people are more likely to die from ''too little stress in their lives'' than from criminal activity. By contrast, the Romanticist villain Makeshima wants to bring down this system and release humans to follow their natures; he and all of his minions, however, are [[SerialKiller Serial Killers]], and he in particular is a complete sociopath. [[BlackAndGrayMorality Neither side is good]], [[spoiler: but Akane, the protagonist, turns out to be very strongly Enlightened indeed. In the ending, she decides that she'll work with the Sibyl System, but [[TheFutureWillBeBetter someday humans will come up with a better solution and pull the plug on it]].]]

* ComicBook/TheAuthority: Strongly Pro-Enlightenment. This is typically expressed in that they tend to have a strong degree of cynicism along the lines of British tradition, but it is born of their disappointment towards society failing to meet their Ideals. Team Romanticism is usually represented by Marvel Comics [[CaptainErsatz ersatzes]] [[TakeThat who get thoroughly beaten]].

* Broadly the difference between Creator/AlanMoore's ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} and Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''. Watchmen is on the Enlightenment side, exploring superheroes WartsAndAll but ultimately criticizing WhatMeasureIsANonSuper and Deconstructing the idea of superheroes as power fantasies. Miller is Romantic, believing that even in a modern post-apocalyptic Reaganite America, Batman can have a great deal of appeal as an anti-Establishment myth and figure despite the changing sociopolitical landscape.

* ''FanFic/TheConversionBureau'' can go both ways. In one way, it's the HighFantasy-oriented ponies with their [[SugarBowl sing-song idealism]], magic and value-based society that may seem like the Romanticist faction opposing the advanced, [[CrapsackWorld yet environmentally decrepit and immoral]] TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture Enlightened humanity, but the variation comes at a second glance when the humans try to defend their own [[GoodIsOldFashioned idealistic, though conservative]] [[HonourBeforeReason and debatably outdated values]] against the progressive but [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans terribly]] [[KnightTemplar pragmatic]] [[AssimilationPlot process of ponification]].

* The conflict between The Emperor (Enlightenment) and the citizens of Equestria (Romanticism) in the ''[[FanFic/TheEquestriaChronicles Legends of Equestria]]'' continuity is clearly one of these. The Emperor favors a completely technology-driven society, built on the principles of mechanization and a rigid social structure. The inherent ideals of the ponies instead favor a more communal and friendly society.

** In the Franchise/StarWarsLegends continuity, Luke decides that BothSidesHaveAPoint, and seeks to unite both Enlightenment reason and Romantic emotion into the New Jedi Order, most notably by lifting the old Order's ban on romantic love.

* ''Film/FightClub'' is Romanticist, as befits anything based on the heavily [[Creator/FriedrichNietzsche Nietzschean]]-influenced work of Creator/ChuckPalahniuk. Palahniuk's novels often uses a CrapsackWorld to show the flaws of Team Enlightenment, have some Team Romantic protagonists show up and reject it, then break the protagonists into bits by the end of the novel. This certainly happened to the narrator of ''Film/FightClub'', everyone in Literature/Haunted2005, and the protagonists of ''Choke'' and ''Invisible Monsters''. In both the film and book of ''Literature/FightClub'', the narrator ultimately rejects Tyler Durden's hyper-romantic goals, though the denouement is radically different in the film and movie.

* ZigZaggingTrope in ''Film/BrotherhoodOfTheWolf''. [[spoiler:The titular Brotherhood are Catholic aristocrats using the Beast of Gévaudan as a way of putting the fear of God back into the French populace and increasing the power of the Church over the King. TheHero, Grégoire de Fronsac, is a naturalist fighting for Enlightenment principles, and is able to deduce [[ScoobyDooHoax the real nature of the Beast]] early on. However his sidekick Mani is a legitimate MagicalNativeAmerican whose healing powers turn out to be [[RealAfterAll real]], and the Brotherhood ends up being brought down by the Vatican itself. The {{Bookends}} also shows an older Marquis d'Apcher about to be guillotined by a mob during the ReignOfTerror brought about by those same Enlightenment ideas. He accepts his fate with fatalism as a casualty of the death of the old world that TheConspiracy tried to preserve.]]

* Creator/DavidBrin, of course, is one of the most vocal critics of Romanticism (or [[http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2011/11/pining-for-feudalism-as-antidote-for.html "Pining for Feudalism"]]) in the SF&F community, with harsh criticisms of Franchise/StarWars (Romanticist) in comparison with Franchise/StarTrek (Enlightenment).

* The main character of [[Series/MacGyver1985 MacGyver]] straddles the line.
** On the Enlightenment side, he's the ultimate ScienceHero, to the point that he not only refuses to carry a gun but genuinely never needs one: between his scientific knowledge (not just in theory but as it applies to everyday items) and his ability to think on his feet, he can jury-rig an escape from just about any situation imaginable. He's also a firm rationalist, to a degree that borders on [[FlatEarthAtheist Flat Earth Atheism]] (since the show would often leave the door open to supernatural explanations that Mac himself refused to accept).

* HeavyMetal tends to be Romantic, with its [[LargeHam dramatic style]], over-the-top {{EpicRiff}}s, and lyrics about dark, emotionally-charged topics, including [[HorribleHistoryMetal history]] and [[HeavyMithril fantasy/folklore]].

Ironically the Arthurian Legends have also been an inspiration for the Romanticist movement, of which it derives its name from the Medieval Romances, and also brought about a revival in interest in the Arthurian Mythos starting in the Nineteenth Century. Though that is arguably due to the fact that the Romances did not have to address the same issues earlier authors.

** The ForeverWar between the Sword Worlders and the Darrians is a [[PlanetOfHats war of hats]] of Romanticism versus Enlightenment, as the Sword Worlders are a ProudWarriorRace and the Darrians are ForScience. Each thinks the other [[FantasticRacism barely sane]]. The Third Imperium is more enlightened in it's ideology on the whole, it is feudal on the interstellar level but only because it is too large to expect anyone to climb to the top in one lifetime, individual planets are largely left to themselves and can have any local government from democracy to dictatorship.

** Creator/{{Sophocles}} is generally Romantic, emphasizing the cruel workings of fate as in Theatre/OedipusRex, emphasizing that the pursuit of knowledge can be destructive. His ''Antigone'' likewise is a tragedy of a young woman choosing the laws of family and blood over that of the state and custom.

** The English Enlightenment-era theaters in England and the Continent emphasized the perfection of the language, and would recut and restage his works to better reflect Aristotle's Rules of Drama. Later Enlightenment writers such as Creator/SamuelJohnson in England and German Idealists however regarded Shakespeare as a true original for his violation of the unities. The Enlightenment critics generally, but not exclusively, favoured the history plays, the tragedies but neglected and/or rejected the "problem plays" such as Theatre/TheTempest which didn't fit in as either comic or tragic.
** The Romantics heightened the aspects of passion, horror, and raging emotion to be found in the plays and latched on to those "problem plays". They also regarded Theatre/{{Hamlet}} as Shakespeare's masterpiece, a judgment that has generally held up and admired Theatre/{{Othello}}, Theatre/KingLear (which before them was generally seen as a controversial play).
** The Henriad has been especially susceptible to this. The prevailing interpretations before the 20th Century was that it was a ComingOfAge Hero's Journey (avant-la-lettre) of a dissolute Prince who tags alongside a Corrupt Knight Falstaff who gradually comes to fulfill his Kingly father's ambitions and eventually becomes a great Warrior King (Romantic). Creator/OrsonWelles' Film/ChimesAtMidnight sees Falstaff as a LovableCoward who represents the EndOfAnAge (Merrie England of Rogues, Taverns and Minions of the Moon) while seeing Prince Hal as a machiavellian ManipulativeBastard who uses Falstaff and gradually becomes a warmongering tyrant. (Enlightened)

** A good example is to compare the highly problematic anti-semitic masterpieces of Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice and Theatre/TheJewOfMalta. The former play presents a Jewish stereotype who has sympathetic motivations and voices them in eloquent speeches but ultimately remains the villain to be sidelined by the pious Christian heroine (Portia) who appeals to the mercy and the spirit of the law rather than its harsh letter. The latter play presents a Jewish stereotype as VillainProtagonist in an EvilVersusEvil situation where every other authority (Christian and Muslim) are amoral backstabbers who use "religion as a childish toy" and who eloquently argues that all his evil actions come out because SocietyIsToBlame and nobody can claim any idea to be inherently merciful.
** Shakespeare's history plays and tragedies (Theatre/RichardIII, Theatre/MacBeth) tend to be highly individualistic character pieces with some amount of moral commentary about OrderVersusChaos and usually ends with the RightfulKingReturns (Romantic). Marlowe's Theatre/EdwardII on the other hand is a HyperlinkStory with many characters that shows feudalism to be inherently chaotic, filled with ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, good characters dying unheroically in piteous circumstances, villains dying nobly, and the rightful boy king (Edward III) left cold, alone and LonelyAtTheTop while lamenting his loss of innocence.(Enlightened)
** Theatre/DoctorFaustus likewise is a much darker and colder look at the occult and the supernatural than Shakespeare's Theatre/TheTempest and Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream. Marlowe realistically shows what a thinking person would react to the existence and arrival of the supernatural, the loss of faith and finally even hints at a CosmicHorrorStory that Hell could simply be the world we live in.
* Creator/HenrikIbsen was Enlightened, emphasizing social criticisms, problems with traditional roles of women and family and difficulties faced by reformers in works like Theatre/HeddaGabbler and ''An Enemy of the People''. August Strindberg however was Romantic, dealing with dreams, difficult and painful relationships and self-destructive individuals.

* ''Videogame/{{Touhou}}'' is weird about this. The {{youkai}} that make up the vast majority of the cast literally depend on romanticism to survive, needing to be believed in and gaining power from the natural order being observed, [[spoiler:but were originally created using SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic by an advanced civilization of [[HumanAliens moon people]]]]. And there's a general trend of an ordered society forming, and one of the major factions is working to increase the technological level of the area. The fairies ''should'' be on the side of Romanticism, yet more often than not use their abilities to play pranks and freeze frogs than do anything to preserve the nature they rely on to exist.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Webcomic/{{xkcd}} is Enlightened. As [[NoNameGiven the Existentialist]] says, "The future's pretty cool!"

* ''Music/{{Rush|Band}}'': "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres", from the album ''Music/{{Hemispheres}}'', is about this conflict nearly tearing the Greco-Roman pantheon apart. The song argues that both are necessary for a healthy society; a purely emotional society will descend into hedonism and do dumb things like not storing food for the winter, but a purely logical society lacks social glue and is doomed to stagnate. The resolution of the story happens when [[spoiler:the explorer from "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage" appears out of nowhere, the eponymous UnrealisticBlackHole having ripped his soul out of his body, and advocates the coexistence of both, with Apollo and Dionysus tasking him to maintain this balance as Cygnus]].

* The ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' franchise in general remains on the Enlightened end of the spectrum and relatively idealistic - even in the worst of times.

* Marvel Comics was itself more Pro-Enlightenment than DC Comics. Marvel Comics had relatively more complex origins and villains, many of them lived in a real-life city like New York, whereas DC had simplistic stories, villains and EmpathicEnvironment like Metropolis (the Home of Superman, and so bright, cheerful and optimistic) and Gotham (the Home of Batman, so dark, dingy and pessimistic).

* Within DC, Superman is usually the embodiment of the Enlightenment (RousseauWasRight, HumansAreSpecial even if HumansAreFlawed) while Batman is the Romantic figure, a KnightInSourArmor protecting a WretchedHive and CrapsackWorld.

** Season 1's antagonists are the modern, technology-using Equalists.

** Season 3's antagonist is Zaheer, who, while an EnlightenedAntagonist, is actually Romanticist, an anarchist attempting bring back the era of true freedom before governments.
** Season 4's antagonist is Kuvira the Great Uniter. This one's more complicated; while Kuvira's position is largely Enlightened in her rejection of an obsolete monarchy in favor of a modern Empire, the series makes it clear that she's almost completely correct in her worldview, and her evil comes from [[AmbitionIsEvil the means she uses to take and keep power]].

* The message of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is ''decidedly'' romantic at first glance; emotions and friendship are important, and the Enlightened main character must learn that lesson repeatedly. However, it's not quite that simple; Twilight Sparkle's perspective is shown as having its flaws, but she's far from "[[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong always wrong]]," and her task-oriented character, intelligence and logical skills help save the day at least as often as they cause problems for her. The actual moral tends to be that [[{{Reconstruction}} the Enlightenment needs to give Romanticism its due, but that doesn't make it a bad thing]].

Bear in mind that contemporary invocations of the Enlightenment and Romanticist theme does not quite conform to the original Englightenment and Romanticist movements. The works of Rousseau, Voltaire, Locke, Hume, Gibbon, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelley have greater instances of continuity, UnbuiltTrope and nuance than the modern perception of that era. The general perception is that writers and artists gravitate towards Romanticism, while scientists and businessmen favor the Enlightenment. Politicians (in most places) favor the Enlightenment while appealing to Romantic sentiments of nationalism, traditions (real and invented) and culture. Seeing as MostWritersAreWriters, Romanticism is generally overrepresented in media, with the exception of ScienceFiction writers (and even there most well-known classics usually have a Romanticist message).

** Where the likes of Goethe would treat this alienation as tragic or the beginning of the path to knowledge (as in Werther and Wilhelm Meister), Romantics glorified the state of being [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority an outsider and rejected by society]], and some, namely Creator/FyodorDostoevsky, saw the ability of some individuals to refuse assimilation in a perfect society (as in Literature/NotesFromUnderground) as a heroic endeavor. Basically, both groups agree that HumansAreFlawed, but Enlightenment is about acknowledging and getting over it and being a better person, while Romanticism is about rejecting social conventions in favor of personal authenticity (cf, ByronicHero).

Some Eighteenth century people believed that reason and science are good and therefore things would just go on improving forever. This optimism characterized a period that came to be known as [[UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment the Age of Enlightenment]]. At the end of this period, mass movements in America and France, and the UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution in England, changed the world forever, making people realize that society in the 19th Century was the first that could conceive itself to be radically different from the past. This led to a sense of disillusionment and alienation began to spread, and the {{Romanticis|m}}t movement rose up as a backlash. Romanticists believed that the advances made by UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment were creating an [[{{Dystopia}} oppressive and conformist society]] - and that science and rationality could never hope to truly understand the world and the human personality and that the modern world's progress came at the price of [[YeGoodeOldeDays cherished values from the distant past]] which was slowly dying out. Though the Enlightenment and Romanticist movements are long gone, the general ideas behind each - the dialectic, if you will - survives to this present day.

Note that 'enlightened' used in such context, is sometimes a loaded word, often used to indicate a higher or better state or level of understanding. In this context the 'enlightened' approach isn't intrinsically better, just as it isn't intrinsically worse - it's a different way of approaching a concept that utilizes different methods and produces different results. Romanticism and Enlightenment are also tied to the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Dionysian (wild, visceral, ornate) and Apollonian (restrained, cerebral, classicist)]] ideals of aesthetics in the arts. Compare the Apollonian/Enlightenment style of Neo-Classicism with the Dionysian/Romantic neo-Gothic revival, or, say, the Apollonian/Enlightenment style of Creator/StanleyKubrick with the Dionysian/Romantic style of Creator/StevenSpielberg.

* ShiningCity: Civilization, science and technology are good - therefore, an ideal society would look like this.

** The ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E23InspirationManifestation Inspiration Manifestation]]'' spell is waaaaaay on the side of romanticism, turning anyone that casts it into a VisionaryVillain. It [[AwesomeButImpractical slurps up any practicality in the vicinity and and transforms it in favor of flashy style.]] Think of [[ThisIndexIsHighlyImprobable any trope with the word "Improbable" in its title,]] and you have anything this spell makes. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Except it's ACTUALLY improbable.]] [[FridgeBrilliance So, it actually makes sense]] [[WeaksauceWeakness that a single sentence of]] BrutalHonesty would [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight snap the caster out of it]], since [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids the most loftiest of ideals are more easily subjective to someone pointing out their obvious faults.]]
*** [[{{Foreshadowing}} Foreshadowed]] by the opening, where Rarity makes a puppet stand and it's completely unusable by the very puppeteer it's made for. The following events are a series of that very formula [[SerialEscalation one-upping itself.]]

** University of Planet's main beliefs are that ScienceIsGood, {{Technocracy}} is the best form of government, [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions while religious fundamentalism is a dead end from a moral and social point of view]]. They are more than willing to take some risky experiments and [[EvilLuddite see the enemies of progress as the main threat]]. Moreover, they are ready to find answers to any question, [[LackOfEmpathy often sacrificing the ethico-emotional aspect]], if necessary.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' has elements of both, in a variety of characters. Lelouch seems to be a classic ByronicHero, and at first, he tries to be, but that ends up not going well for him - and he definitely had a lot of Enlightenment-style ideas and practices all along. Suzaku, on the other hand, gives himself over to Enlightenment-style logic, as a reaction/atonement for his emotional, self-propelled action of [[spoiler: killing his father]] when he was young. However, he doesn't quite understand logic and critical thinking enough to be truly an Enlightenment figure - he ''is'' working for TheEmpire - and he ends up denying his Romantic feelings too much (see the picture drama Turn 0.56). Emperor Charles, on the other hand, is something of an immature Romanticist masquerading as what Britannians see as an Enlightenment figure. He preaches imperial domination and all that - not a true Enlightenment view, but that's beside the point - but what he truly thinks and feels is just angst that he's far too old for, over the death of his mother when he was a child. Overall, the series is less concerned with promoting one view over the other than with depicting the interplay between the two.

* Cloneangst: Cloning is on the ScaleOfScientificSins, so it is bound to have some bad consequences in a Romanticist work.

* HumansNeedAliens: A Romanticist backlash against the Enlightenment's belief in HumanityIsSuperior, where humanity is instead powerless and insignificant and has to rely on out-of-planet beings to get by, ones that are fundamentally above mere humans.

* ''Franchise/JurassicPark''. The owner was a believer in Enlightenment reason with the cloned dinos, while the Romantic heroes sensibly pointed out the various problems in his park ([[DesignatedHero while causing all the problems in the first place]]). This is purely an invention of the films; in the books the owner had no apparent philisophical stance at all and the Enlightened heroes sensibly pointed out the various problems in his park.

* HumansNeedAliens: A Romanticist backlash against the Enlightenment's belief in HumansAreSuperior, where humanity is instead powerless and has to rely on out-of-planet beings to get by, ones that are fundamentally above mere humans.

Romantic and Enlightened themes are very common in fiction. For example, Enlightenment-flavored science fiction might portray the future as a world of progress, [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship]], brotherhood and CrystalSpiresAndTogas, with [[ChaoticEvil barbaric forces]] threatening the new {{utopia}} (e.g. Franchise/StarTrek). Romanticist-themed science fiction might portray the future as an unpleasant CrapsackWorld, with high technology but low social quality, full of depression, dehumanization and alienation (e.g. everything {{Cyberpunk}}) with the happy souls being those who escaped to the countryside, if possible (like in ''Literature/{{We}}'' and ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'').

%% * HumansNeedAliens

Compare to: BrainsVersusBrawn, CharacterAlignment, ClarkesLawForGirlsToys, MotherNatureFatherScience, ElvesVersusDwarves, EmotionsVsStoicism, HarmonyVersusDiscipline, MagicVersusScience, NatureVersusNurture, ScientistVsSoldier, SoldierVsWarrior, TechnicianVersusPerformer.

* ClonesArePeopleToo: To avert CloningBlues, The Enlightenment believes that clones deserve the same respect as other sentient life forms.

* CloningBlues: Cloning is on the ScaleOfScientificSins, so it is bound to have some bad consequences in a Romanticist work.

-->-- '''Creator/RandallMunroe''', for team Enlightenment

Bear in mind that contemporary invocations of the Enlightenment and Romanticist theme does not quite conform to the original Englightenment and Romanticist movements. The works of Rousseau, Voltaire, Locke, Hume, Gibbon, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelley have greater instances of continuity, UnbuiltTrope and nuance than the modern perception of that era. The general perception is that writers and artists gravitate towards Romanticism, while scientists favor the Enlightenment. Politicians (in most places) favor the Enlightenment while appealing to Romantic sentiments of nationalism, traditions (real and invented) and culture. Seeing as MostWritersAreWriters, Romanticism is generally overrepresented in media, with the exception of ScienceFiction writers (and even there most well-known classics usually have a Romanticist message).

** UN Peacekeepers are the most neutral in this regard. Their uncompromising commitment to the UN Charter signifies their readiness to remain faithful to the ideals of humanity (in their understanding) to the very end. [[TheFederation Therefore, they are the greatest adherents of democracy in the game]]. Due to the pluralism of opinions and an orientation solely to the UN Charter, Peacekeepers have almost no prejudices about economic issues, social values, or vision of the future (unlike other factions), so they can be more romantic in one game and more enlightened in another.

** Aslan, though are more Romanticist than the Imperium. Having much more in common with the Sword Worlders save that their social structures have barely progressed beyond tribal levels.

** In the Intersteller Wars the Terrans are mostly Enlightenment being ForScience and thinking GoodRepublicEvilEmpire. They do have some romantic traits like [[GlorySeeker glory seeking]] and SpaceCossacks. Vilani are harder to place; they are closer to strains of thought that existed long before either romanticism or enlightenment, resembling Confucianism in some ways.

** University of Planet's main beliefs are that ScienceIsGood, {{Technocracy}} is the best form of government, [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions while religious fundamentalism is a dead end from a moral and social point of view]]. They are more than willing to take some risky experiments and [[EvilLuddite see the enemies of progress as the main threat]]. Moreover, they are ready to find answers to any question, [[LackOfEmpathy often sacrificing the emotional aspect]], if necessary.

** Gaia's Stepdaughters are [[NatureHero environmentalists]] [[InHarmonyWithNature who seek an understanding with the nature of]] [[GeniusLoci Chiron]], [[AppealToNature accepting it as the only correct source of wisdom]]. If someone dares to challenge the Planet and threaten its ecosystem, [[GaiasVengeance they will be more than happy to become an incarnation of its revenge]]. With no apparent disregard for progress and technology, Stepdaughters' ideal society is something like {{Arcadia}}.

** Gaia's Stepdaughters are [[NatureHero environmentalists]] [[InHarmonyWithNature who seek understanding with the nature of]] [[GeniusLoci Chiron]], [[AppealToNature accepting it as the only correct source of wisdom]]. If someone dares to challenge the Planet and threaten its ecosystem, [[GaiasVengeance they will be more than happy to become an incarnation of its revenge]]. With no apparent disregard for progress and technology, Stepdaughters' ideal society is something like {{Arcadia}}.

** UN Peacekeepers are the most neutral in this regard. Their uncompromising commitment to the UN Charter signifies their readiness to remain faithful to the ideals of humanity (in their understanding) to the very end. [[TheFederation Therefore, they are the greatest adherents of democracy in the game]]. Due to the pluralism of opinions and an orientation solely to the UN Charter, Peacekeepers have almost no prejudices about economic issues, social values or vision of the future (unlike other factions), so they can be more romantic in one game and more enlightened in another.

* ZigZaggingTrope in ''Film/BrotherhoodOfTheWolf''. [[spoiler:The titular Brotherhood are Catholic aristocrats using the Beast of Gévaudan as a way of putting the fear of God back into the French populace and increasing the power of the Church over the King. TheHero, Grégoire de Fronsac, is a naturalist fighting for Enlightenment principles, and is able to deduce [[ScoobyDooHoax the real nature of the Beast]] early on. However his sidekick Mani is a legitimate MagicalNativeAmerican whose healing powers turn out to be [[RealAfterAll real]], and the Brotherhood ends up being brought down by the Vatican itself.]]