Sandbox / Alternate Aesop Interpretation Wick Check

• (9/50, 18%) Used as YMMV entry, describes the "intended" aesop for context
• (9/50, 18%) Used as YMMV entry, does NOT describe the "intended" aesop
• (3/50, 6%) Used as a pothole to complain
• (9/50, 18%) In-universe examples
• (16/50, 32%) Other forms of ZCE
• (4/50, 8%) Other forms of misuse

Used as YMMV entry, describes the "intended" aesop for context (9/50)

• A Separate Peace: Some people view the book's aesop as "hurting other people is okay so long as you become a better person for it afterwards." It should be noted that this is the exact opposite of the aesop as it is generally interpreted, which is that there are no true enemies in the world, and we create enemies for ourselves due to ignorance. Thus, we hurt others only because of a flaw within ourselves, and we should promote pacifism rather than violence. John Knowles clarifies this in an interview:
  John Knowles: [Knocking Finny out of the tree is the beginning] of facing up to [Gene's] own nature. The enemy he kills, of course, is his own self-ignorance, not Phineas.
• Bedazzled (2000): The moral about Elliot using his wishes to make himself more successful and earn Allison's love never worked because the Devil is a Jackass Genie who gives him what he wants and then contrives a reason for him to lose Allison that he overlooked. While the film's moral regarding Allison doesn't hold water, it does still present an important message. No matter what Elliot wished for, no matter how carefully he thought it through, and no matter how well it turned out in some regards, he always ended up losing Allison and revoked the wish solely for that reason. The film thus presents the aesop that everyone has flaws and problems in their lives, no matter how successful or happy they may seem. Having a genie (or Devil) who can grant wishes is nice, but it comes down to how you deal with your flaws and problems, and you should work to improve the things you can change and learn to accept the things you can't. Just because you can't have the perfect life you want doesn't mean you can't have a happy life. The initial description of the "intended" moral is a bit skimmed over and the entry does seem unnecessarily critical of the work for it, while also going a bit into detail of what its alternate interpretation is. Technically this entry uses the trope more or less correctly, but still feels problematic.
• Hounddog: Word of God is that the movie is about Lewellen "overcoming" her rape, but the effect is not that. Rather, she becomes a much more wholesome character (including not being fixated on her body anymore) and generally looks like a better person, making it come off as Rape Portrayed as Redemption. Still reads as misuse because 1) it goes in criticizing the intended moral (and without explaining directly why), and the conclusion it comes to barely reads as an "aesop" as much as just a general observation of how the story is portrayed.
• mother! (2017): A number of critics don't see the movie as a neo-Biblical allegory about environmentalism, as Darren Aronofsky insists, but as a symbolic take on how artists commit Muse Abuse for their art, and are trapped in cycles of exploiting their world for material for their art.
  Richard Brody: Aronofsky has long strained after art of a vast mythopoetic magnitude. In "Mother!," he achieves it—but not at all in the way that he thinks. This morning, on Twitter, someone asked me, "What was the point of the biblical references if the movie is basically about how much it sucks to be in a relationship with a male artist?," to which my response was, "Exactly." In other words, "mother!" isn't an allegory except by directorial decree.:
• Pocahontas: Both of these takes do sound valid, but not only are there some context issues for the first point, I don't think they're at all mutually exclusive from the "main" Green Aesop. The first point in particular reads more like Applicability.
  • Better With Bob? suggests that an alternate moral besides the Green Aesop was giving up the appropriation of the real Pocahontas as a symbol for white supremacy and the suppression of Native American culture (as she was used in the colonial periods) - and reimagining her as a symbol that teaches younger viewers about the culture.
  • One could also interpret an Aesop about the dangers of doing things in the heat of the moment. Both Kocoum and Thomas act rashly when discovering Pocahontas and John kissing - Kocoum attacked John out of blind rage and left himself open to attack (not to mention lashing out at Pocahontas, too). Thomas likewise shot first (Pocahontas was pulling Kocoum off John and probably would have had the situation handled in a moment) and that had disastrous results. Finally, Pocahontas has to warn her father that a furious public execution will kick off a battle and lead to more bloodshed.
• Requiem for a Dream: Since the worst consequences of the main characters’ drug addictions come at the hands of others, especially institutions like prisons and mental hospitals, it can be argued that the movie is a message on less how drugs are the problem and more on how the legal system and society at large need to treat drug addicts like people in need of help instead of criminals/lunatics in need of brute force solutions.
• Santa Claus: The Movie: The failures of Patch's attempts to modernize production are treated like a lesson on Good Old Ways. However, they are consistently shown to fail due to him and his (untrained) operators not anticipating the need to inspect and maintain equipment, exacerbated by a complete lack of quality assurance testing. It's like the Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket part of a manufacturing training video. A bit derisively phrased, but I do think there might be somewhere there on "accidentally highlights a lesson on safety."
• Slaughterhouse-Five: It's still debated whether Vonnegut intended the novel to be an argument for or against fatalism, as seen on the Headscratchers page of this very wiki. Vonnegut notes in the first chapter that writing an antiwar novel is like writing an anti-glacier novel – there will always be wars, the argument goes, and they are as easy to stop as glaciers. Yet Vonnegut still wrote his antiwar novel. The narrative itself, from Billy Pilgrim's perspective, comes down solidly on the You Can't Fight Fate side, and a number of critics, including well-known writers such as Anthony Burgess, have argued that Vonnegut himself sides with it. However, one can also make a strong case that he does not sympathise with it - for instance, if we are to take Pilgrim's account of his death at face value, he does nothing to avert it, despite knowing what inaction would lead to, and the Tralfamadorians, according to Pilgrim's narrative, end up destroying the universe through their negligence.
• The Poisonwood Bible: The Book's intended message is a criticism of colonialism, but since it spends a lot more time talking about missionary work and the clashing of three different cultures (that of the Congoese, that of 50's America, and that of the Bible's various authors), there is an equally strong theme of criticizing religious fundamentalism. Nathan never once stops to think about how maybe he should tailor his message differently to better suit a different audience. He also subscribes to a literal translation of the Bible and his unyielding devotion to it is what ultimately wrecks his life, not colonialism in and of itself. Again, these themes don't seem mutually exclusive, though otherwise, the entry uses this more or less correctly.

Used as YMMV entry, does NOT describe the "intended" aesop (9/50)

• Akkan Baby:
  • Proper sex education is important for teens. Given the comedic nature of Yuki and Shigeru having unprotected sex in the first volume and their road to parenthood being relatively light-hearted, it's likely that the manga did not mean to make this a major point. Nevertheless, the entire premise of the manga could have been avoided and everyone's reaction to Yuki and Shigeru's complete ignorance on how condoms work is pretty telling.
  • Make sure you know what your children are doing and who they're hanging out with. When Yuki meets Shigeru's parents for the first time, they're shocked to find out he's actually a boy despite his name. Once the real reason comes out for why he's visiting, Shigeru's mother admits that she deserves some blame for Shigeru's pregnancy — if she had bothered to ask her daughter more about her friend she'd probably be less open to Shigeru spending the night at Yuki's place so frequently.
• Apocalypse Now: Kurtz's philosophy combines with this and Alternate Aesop Interpretation. Kurtz makes a lot of statements about how they just have to abandon all restraint to destroy the enemy but everything Willard encountered so far doesn't show the United States showing any restraint. Also, Colonel Kurtz isn't making any positive inroads in fighting the Viet Cong because he's fighting in Cambodia (which famously was a major strategic error of the war). A decent argument is victory comes at too high a price and the only way to "win" is to stop fighting.
• Death in Venice: One young homosexual man wrote to Thomas Mann in some anxiety after reading the book, asking if Mann had intended in it to condemn homosexuality. Mann wrote back that this had not been his intention, that he respected homosexual feeling and that it was far from alien to his own experience.
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: On the other hand for its story themes, the most popular being centered around the meaningless futility of revenge, the story also has some aspects of unreliable narrator that hints that Pizza Batt is not entirely innocent themselves, and that you have to clean up the messes you've started. The former is especially pronounced in that corporate gentrification has long been opposed as public opinion, which was the whole point of the first game's Pizza Butt assassination missions, there is some definitely skeazy black market criminal business activities going on in Santa Destroy that is growing rather prominent due to Pizza Batt also being a front for the New Mafia which is acting on a global scale, and that Jasper Batt Jr. is much more of a dishonorable power abusing douchebag who never takes his revenge on his own terms, and instead takes it out on society by being a criminal mastermind. "On the other hand" from what? I think a part of this entry is missing.
• Not Okay: The fact that Danni's story totally unravels once Harper looks at it with any scrutiny (given that Danni got basic details like the weather at the time of the attack and whether or not the tourist attractions she visited were open at the time wrong) could be seen as a commentary on the responsibility of the media to verify claims before spreading them, and how often they fail to uphold that responsibility. Just like Danni, many grifters get a platform because they have a compelling story or seem charming and draw in an audience. While they're responsible for their own actions and how their lies hurt people, the media outlets supporting them also hold some blame for not properly verifying their claims or presenting them critically. (Compare to the case of Belle Gibson, a wellness influencer who infamously faked having cancer and parlayed that into a fitness app and later-cancelled memoir. When the scandal broke, it came out that her publisher had been informed by a whistleblower months prior that Belle was lying, but they did nothing to try and verify her claims and continued forward with the deal anyway.)
• Paranoiac: Arguably, one of the main Aesops of the game is that running away from or ignoring problems doesn't make them go away or hurt you any less. You have to face your problems head on and acknowledge them before you can be free of them. Case in point: if Miki chooses to believe the monster isn't real she winds up dead, apparently killed by the monster. Whereas if Miki chooses to continue believing the monster is real she discovers the monster is actually her aunt and finally comes to terms with her death, she is diagnosed with schizophrenia - meaning she can get the psychological help she needs to live a normal, happy life - and the monster disappears. The entry can't determine if this is an "alternate" aesop — to be honest, I think this example more highlights less the issues of this trope and more the issues of An Aesop being really subjective to begin with.
• Rock: It's Your Decision: All except for the last point lack any reference to the "intended" moral, and most of these just seem to exist to complain.
  • Stay away from fundamentalist Christianity, or else you'll end up becoming a bigoted jerk and losing all your friends and loved ones in the process.
  • Be willing to question what your family and authority figures tell you, rather than just accepting it uncritically and adjusting your life around what they think you're supposed to be like. Grown-ups are wrong sometimes, and you making the same mistakes as them, far from making them right, makes you wrong too.
  • Talk to your kids about concerns you have, especially when it comes to the media they consume, and listen to them when they explain their views on the subject rather than being an authoritarian about it... or worse still, just pawning them off on someone else who might fill their heads with not-so-great ideas or accidentally get them to start acting in ways that aren't healthy.
  • For that matter, when people like Jeff already have Confirmation Bias towards something like Rock and Roll (and indeed, anything or anyone else that they go out of their way to hate), they will easily twist the meaning and interpretation of said thing to fit their own biased view points, even when it clearly is not the intended meaning. A fundamentalist will only ever see what they want to see, regardless of the actual facts.
  • Jeff loses all his friends as the movie progresses, and this movie wants to use it to show how Jeff is to be admired for sticking to his beliefs. The problem is, however, that the reason Jeff starts losing all of his friends in the first place is because he repeatedly tries to force his views onto people and jump on them when they don't share the same beliefs. Understandably, his friends get sick of his judgmental attitude and stop wanting anything to do with him. Instead of the movie making you admire Jeff for actively taking a stand against temptation, it can be used to show how when you just attack and vilify people for enjoying something you don't like, no sane person will tolerate what you are doing. If Jeff simply respected his friends' opinions instead of personally attacking them for their viewpoints, they would have done the same for him.
• Sponge Bob Square Pants S 1 E 2 Bubblestand Ripped Pants: Quinton Reviews ends up noting in his video "How Spongebob Predicted Meme Culture" that the episode is very resonant with the life cycle of memes; more specifically, how memes initially start off as funny, but overtime degrade because people either get sick of the joke, or the joke is slowly divorced from it's original intentions until it's just being repeated over and over without any proper context. It also highlights how these kinds of jokes and memes are only flashes in the pan in regards to popularity, and how Spongebob's fixation on trying to keep the stale joke relevant only ensured that no one would care for him in the long term. By contrast, his decision to sing his feelings is interpreted by Quinton as him showing that he can be relevant by showing genuine talent and long term abilities that aren't dependent on short-term amusement and one-note gags. Doesn't reference the initial moral and is a little too reliant on an internet critic's word.
• The Karma of Lies:
  • The Plot Parallel between how Miss Rossi was punished for exposing her cohort's corruption and how Marinette suffered for trying to warn everyone about Lila could be read as a Hard Truth Aesop that simply challenging evil is not enough without support. Marinette only manages to change the status quo by defeating Hawkmoth with the aid of trustworthy allies like Luka and Kagami, while Adrien refused to take his duties as Chat Noir seriously, dismissing the impact of Hawkmoth's terrorism exactly the same way he did the effect of Lila's lies.
  • Marinette's refusal to help Adrien and her classmates belatedly expose Lila could be seen as breaking the lesson about how "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing"... or it could be read as acknowledgement that it's too late at that point, and actually be a lesson in knowing when to recognize a lost cause. All of Marinette's efforts to help them up to that point had gone completely ignored and dismissed and now the damage is done; Adrien and the others are just refusing to accept reality and banking on the delusion that everything will be magically fixed if they can just get Marinette back onside working for their benefit. Evil has already triumphed because Adrien refused to act, and the only reason he's motivated now is because he doesn't want to deal with the consequences of his inaction. And even if she did help and somehow succeed in turning the tide, it's made clear most of the class intend to continue taking her for granted. This entry in specific reads as going in with bad faith by potholing the intended lesson as a Broken Aesop.

Used as a pothole to complain (3/50)

• Familiar Faces: Like the Katie Kaboom episode above, his calling out of the MLP "Mysterious Mare Do Well" episode for including very valid and well thought out arguments of the ways he hated it. He also points out that the episode could have been the rest of the Mane 6 having their egos boosted by being MDW that all of them think they're the best MDW and all of them crash the award ceremony and have a big climax. He also gets a Tara Strong sound-alike to do a Twilight impression in a letter to Celestia. No context for intended aesop, used as pothole to accentuate an "Awesome Moments" entry that frankly just sounds complainy.
• SF Debris: During the "Fair Haven" review, he gives a long and devastating takedown of how the "Voyager" writers seemed to have completely skirted past a message about the possibilities of escapism and an audience's emotional identification with simulated entertainment it knows isn't real... on a sci-fi show in a veteran, fandom-heavy franchise. The argument presented (by the Doctor) is that Janeway's holographic boyfriend is "as real as I am," when in point of fact Fair Haven and the Doctor are radically different programs of radically different levels of sophistication and capability, especially since the Doctor has been modified by Voyager's crew (and been allowed to modify himself). Instead, if the episode had acknowledged that "of course he's not real, but does that make your feelings unreal or less valid?" the episode could have made a very salient point not just about its own fandom, but the phenomena of fandom in general. Another misuse for coverage of a media critic, this time used derisively to accuse the writers of misunderstanding their own work.
• Honest Trailers 2017 Episodes: The narrator's Alternate Aesop Interpretation teaches, "Don't text and drive, because you might end up turning into a wizard."

In-universe examples (9/50)

• Fallout:
  • An in-universe example, the Brotherhood views the Codex and the teachings meant to be taken from it differently from chapter to chapter. Some stick to it to the letter, even if it violates common sense and practicality; others believe in the spirit of the Codex, that being the continuation of civilization through the preservation and responsible usage of advanced technology.
  • In-Universe; numerous sects and practicioners of Atom worship have different perspectives on how they should worship their god and practice their beliefs.
• Gravity Falls: Lost Legends: Invoked by Pacifica's mother. She retells the story of The Ugly Duckling and ends it by saying that the duckling was forever alone due to his looks. Telling Pacifica that people only want perfection and beauty. When Pacifica notices the remaining pages, Priscilla promptly tears them out.
• The Morrigan: In-Universe. Petra has grown up with stories where the message is that power corrupts and that wanting power is a bad thing. Lilique points out that an alternate way to phrase that is "be happy with what you have", which doesn't work when "what you have" is functionally nothing, and the people in power want to take what little you do have.
• Tropes A to D: Though all of these are more in a derisive manner a la review shows making fun of real-life works, no context for the original aesops.
  • Their analysis of The Notebook tells them...
    Narrator: Revisit the film that reminds you that no matter how much you love each other, you're both gonna grow old and die.
  • Their takeaway from The Little Mermaid (1989):
    Narrator: If you're not happy about a contract you signed without even reading, get your fiance to murder the person who outsmarted you.
  • The real lesson we should learn from Gone Girl?
    Narrator: Don't have sex with crazy people!
• RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant: invoked Ozpin never takes a story at face value, adding in additional morals he's heard and encouraging the reader to find more and think more critically. Many of his alternative Aesops hint at the truth behind the fairy tales and act as clues about the main show's plot or characters.
• Star Trek: The Fall: An In-Universe example - The Crimson Shadow is a Cardassian What If? novel where they conquer the Romulan Empire, the Klingon Empire and ultimately the Federation. Parmak sees it as a horrible book, full of the militaristic Cardassian jingoism that destroyed the Union. Garak believes it's a more thoughtful and subtle story, that ultimately presents the Cardassian domination of the Alpha Quadrant as a bad thing, and offers hope in the form of a Federation citizen who doesn't give in.
• Tropes A to F: In-universe, she sees The Christmas Shoes as a depressing tale about a little boy who can't come to grips with his mom dying, so he buries himself in the thought that shoes would matter. Also a derisive critic usage.
• Daredevil S1 E9 "Speak of the Devil": Called out In-Universe when Lantom quotes a bible verse at Matthew (Like a muddied spring or polluted fountain is the righteous man who gives way before the wicked) and Matthew gives the standard interpretation.
  Matt: Meaning righteous men have a duty to stand up to evil.
  Lantom: One interpretation. Another is that when the righteous succumb to sin, it is as harmful as if the public well were poisoned. Because the darkness of such an act... of taking a life... will spread to friends, neighbors... the entire community.
• The Nostalgia Critic Editorial 2: According to the Critic, the true lesson of the play was less about the doomed love affair of the titular couple as it is about the devastating effects of the hatred between their families, which includes turning their naive romance into a Forbidden Fruit and thus preventing it from maturing.

Other forms of ZCE (16/50)

• Bertolt Brecht: An Aesop: His plays drew their form on parables and fables. Certain plays, the "Lehrstücke"(Teaching Plays) were intended to serve as entirely didactic. Brecht being Brecht, the Aesop and the conclusions drawn at the end veer towards Spoof Aesop, invokedAlternate Aesop Interpretation, Space Whale Aesop and above all Hard Truth Aesop.
• Odd Squad S 3 E 14 Sample Of New York Its Not Easy Being Chill: Alternate Aesop Interpretation: At some points, the episode makes it seem like it wants its audience to learn moreso about New York City's history and its landmarks than about the actual Aesop of sample sizes, when the show's Aesops have never been history-oriented.
• Hong Gil Dong: In-Universe: Young Gil Dong misinterprets all of the lessons the monk Hae Myung tries to teach.
• God of War (PS4): Invoked when Mimir tells the story of Thrym, listing three lessons for each of the characters in the story. Neither the story itself nor its intended aesop are described.
  • For Thrym the lesson of the story is to focus on his priorities.
  • For Freya, the lesson is that doing good has a price.
  • For Thor, the lesson is that no object of power can make you what you are, and even if what you are is "The biggest butchering bastard in all the Nine Realms" nobody can take that away from you.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: Invoked. "The Tortoise And The Hare" is actually a fable about small sample sizes.
• Dragon Age II: Occurs in-universe at the end of Merrill's personal quest. Hawke can either tell her she was stupid for thinking she could ever use blood magic safely, or that everyone else was stupid for interfering with her life - especially Marethari.
• Far Cry 6: Anton Castillo was told by his father that a ruler should be both a lion and a lamb. Anton's mother believed this was a stupid philosophy and beat it into him that there were rulers and the ruled, lions and lambs. However, a lion and a lamb is a very good description of Dani. I think this was supposed to be an in-universe example, but either way, there's no context for what any of this actually means.
• Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Is Episode 8 about Haruka learning about the value of hard work (to an extent that ought to be considered unhealthy)? Or is it about Kirara having to trust Haruka in her capabilities? This might technically be correct because it is proposing different, potentially valid ideas for moral lessons, but this doesn't give context for either one.
• Love Live!: Depending on how you see it, the moral at the end of Season 1 could either be "be truthful to who you are" or "be selfish and you'll get anything you want if you're charismatic enough about it". There are quite a few arguments in favor of both sides. Again, potentially valid, but no context.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S2 E17 "Hearts and Hooves Day": "Fully read the instructions before doing anything so you don't do something stupid."
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S7 E7 "Parental Glideance":
  • Sometimes, people keep themselves distant from their parents for good reason.
  • If someone's behavior is bothering you and you don't want to hurt them, don't wait until it pushes you too far and let it all out in a bad way. Find a civil and productive way to let them know how you feel so no one's feelings get hurt.
• NF: Is the message of love from the song "If You Want Love" supposed to be a heartwarming tune of encouragement, especially when NF mentions hoping to tell his kids one day, or is it a cynical and bitter Anti-Love Song about what a person often resorts to doing to feel love?
• Orson Scott Card's Empire: One way to read the book is that the bad guys aren't "the Democrats" or "the Republicans." It's not the right or the left, it's a few people at the top on both sides, with extremist views, who could pull everyone else along with them into a second civil war. The rebels are liberals, but they have equally angry and irrational enemies on the right. (And the unanswered question posed by the ending is even creepier...)
• Philip K. Dick: Some of his works can be hard to figure out the real meaning of, with Androids being the most notable example.
• Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa: Just because something is personally important to you doesn't mean someone else is going to know, understand, or care about why.
• Red Dawn (1984): Also just a clumsily-formatted series of entries.
  • This Cracked article, which makes the movie a largely anti-war film.
  • Allegedly the original script was intended as an anti-war film, before it was sold to MGM and adjusted to be more gung-ho.
  • It's also shockingly easy to read the film as Marxist, as the heroes are essentially anti-colonialist revolutionaries, and are explicitly compared to the Vietcong.

Other forms of misuse (4/50)

• I Am Cuba: I Am Cuba was a Propaganda Piece meant to portray the cruelty of the capitalist Batista regime and to celebrate the revolution that swept Fidel Castro into power. As a socialist film, it was less than successful. Cubans did not care for the stereotypical portrayal of the Cuban people, and the Soviets felt that it was too arty and not ideological enough. (The Soviets also felt that the portrayal of life in Batista-era Havana might have seemed too much fun.) Consequently, the film was barely released in the USSR and Cuba in 1964, and was not seen at all in the West. Thirty years later it was Vindicated by History when it was re-released, and celebrated mainly for its jaw-dropping camera work that features many, many Epic Tracking Shots and swooping crane shots. Just a weird use of a YMMV trope in the work's description.
• Harry Brown: Harry walking down the now clean and well-lit underpass, with no hoodlums in sight. In the DVD commentary, the director offers a rather different possible interpretation for the scene: he explains that he painstakingly removed all passing cars and people from the background of that scene to suggest that Harry may have found peace through death instead. This is technically more of a ZCE issue, but I get a feeling even if there was context, this would still be a misused meta-troping.
• Live-Action TV: "A Matter of Honor" puts Commander Riker (as part of an "Officer Exchange Program") on a Klingon vessel. Long story short, because of space barnacles (again, they used fancier terms), the Klingon captain thinks the Enterprise is out to destroy them and demands that Riker tell them anything that could be used to help destroy the Enterprise. Riker refuses, citing his oath to Starfleet, as well as his oath to Captain Picard. The Klingon captain (after several seconds of bristling anger) points out that, if Riker had said anything, he would be considered both a traitor (to Starfleet) and too cowardly to serve on the vessel, and thus promptly killed. Moral lesson: never volunteer for the Klingon Officer Exchange Program.
• Live-Action TV: Community: '''Refers to an Alternate Aesop Interpretation Entry that does not exist.
  • It's also gender-inverted by Jeff and Britta. Both of them are shown to be quite promiscuous, but Jeff is more shamed for this than Britta. ^note See: Alternate Aesop Interpretation. Britta is sometimes judged by the extremely Christian Shirley and extremely sexist Pierce, but the rest of the study group are non-judgemental about it.