Common methods of breaking An Aesop include:
- Non Sequiturs: Having the resolution rely on a Deus ex Machina, Space Whale Aesop or Karmic Twist Ending as opposed to the logical consequences of the lesson.
- Not practicing what you preach: The characters tell other characters and/or the audience not to do something, while doing it themselves.
- Commonly in RPGs and Westerns: a Thou Shalt Not Kill Aesop is followed by the next major battle having the characters kill something.
- Characters preach a strict anti-gun or anti-violence message, while using guns and/or violence to solve their problems.
- Characters learn not to do something, but go back to doing it in later instalments.
- Inconsistently applied morals:
- Distorting the moral into "It's only wrong if someone else does it" or "only if the bad guys do it."
- The character learns a lesson about how the thing he desires so much is not worth it, sometimes sacrificing what he wants for the right thing to do, but in the end, he gets what he wanted anyway. This is only true if the lesson was specifically about rejecting said thing.
- A character who's being put through unwarranted cruelty or annoyance by the supposed heroes of the work is punished for being mean back to their rivals, despite the fact that the rivals were meant to be in the right and they were mean for no sympathetic reason while the punished character was only standing up for themselves, even if they had to resort to more direct methods only to try to stop the other characters from ruining their day yet again. It's portrayed as okay to make someone's life hell, but it's not okay if they give their tormentor a taste of their own medicine because... because the writers said so, that's why!
- Trying to prove that everybody matters, but only once they achieve something which proves their value. So still only skilled or famous people are important, they just act in an alternative way.
- The story tries to teach the moral "Don't do X", but it shows a character doing X and the other characters teaching them not to by doing it back (e.g. a character learns not to hit by being hit). This distorts the moral into "Only do X if someone else did it first", which is not what the writer(s) had in mind. A variation is when the show teaches a lesson "Don't do X because it's rude", but the other characters punish the rude person in a way that's just as rude or ruder.
- A common one in kids' shows is teaching an Aesop about how adults know best, despite the show usually playing Adults Are Useless straight.
- Fallacious aesops:
- Trying to teach Be Careful What You Wish For by using a Literal or Jackass Genie who never actually gave you what you wished for.
- Saying anyone can do anything they set their mind to by their own resolve, when the character was born into royalty or privilege, born with some sort of superior genetic power, is just plain talented at what they do, has the Powers That Be on their side, or otherwise revealed to be from a powerful, significant bloodline or background explaining their greatness.
- Learning that you shouldn't be sorry for something that wasn't really your fault, when it was, or learning that you should take responsibilities and accept that it was your fault, when it wasn't.
- Learning about the folly of Revenge in a story where everyone the character wanted vengeance on gets punished or killed for their actions anyway.
- Trying to teach a Prejudice Aesop, when the "prejudice" is actually based on a rational fear (e.g. a mouse afraid of cats is seen as prejudiced), when most of the group being discriminated against are obnoxious or scary, just not this one particular one (common in My Species Doth Protest Too Much situations), or when another group (usually the ones being prejudiced) are portrayed as universally reprehensible/bigoted (since the existence of such a group would actually make prejudice logical under certain circumstances).
