Spiritual Antithesis: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}} |
{{trope}} |
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[[Spiritual Successor]]'s [[Evil Twin]], |
[[Spiritual Successor]]'s [[Evil Twin]], '''Spiritual Antithesis''' is referencing an earlier work by using similar characters and themes, but going in a completely different direction. Often set at the opposite end of [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]. May serve as a [[Deconstruction]] (or [[Reconstruction]] if the original work was a deconstruction itself) or [[Stealth Parody]] of the original work. |
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Generally seen as a [[Take That]] against the original work, and closely related to [[Satire]]. May involve [[Whole-Plot Reference]]. |
Generally seen as a [[Take That]] against the original work, and closely related to [[Satire]]. May involve [[Whole-Plot Reference]]. |
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Of course, nothing prevents a work from being the |
Of course, nothing prevents a work from being the '''Spiritual Antithesis''' of one work and the [[Spiritual Successor]] of another at the same time, which may often result in said work being [[X Meets Y]] or [[This Is Your Premise on Drugs]]. |
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Genres that play this role to each other: |
Genres that play this role to each other: |
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* [[Cosmic Horror Story]] and [[Lovecraft Lite]] |
* [[Cosmic Horror Story]] and [[Lovecraft Lite]] |
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* [[Heroic Fantasy]] & [[High Fantasy]] and [[Low Fantasy]] |
* [[Heroic Fantasy]] & [[High Fantasy]] and [[Low Fantasy]] |
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* [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] and [[New Weird]] |
* [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] and [[New Weird]] |
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* [[Cyberpunk]] & [[Post Cyber Punk]] and a little-known [[Punk Punk]] genre actually called "Punk Punk" that has more realistic technology and characters loyally working for the sorts of corporations that [[Cyberpunk]] and [[Post Cyber Punk]] protagonists rebel against. |
* [[Cyberpunk]] & [[Post Cyber Punk]] and a little-known [[Punk Punk]] genre actually called "Punk Punk" that has more realistic technology and characters loyally working for the sorts of corporations that [[Cyberpunk]] and [[Post Cyber Punk]] protagonists rebel against. |
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* [[Deconstruction]] and [[Reconstruction]] |
* [[Deconstruction]] and [[Reconstruction]] |
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== Anime and Manga == |
== Anime and Manga == |
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⚫ | * ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' might be this for ''[[Darker than Black]]'' - both are takes on [[Superhero]] genre that have superhumans glowing blue while using their powers, but former has much more idealistic take than latter, which is much more cynical and prefers [[Not Wearing Tights]] and [[Anti-Hero|antiheroic]] variety. Neither works go into extremes - just like [[Darker than Black]] stays on the cynical side but acknowledges existence of idealism, [[Tiger and Bunny]] is very optimistic, but has few shades of cynicism on it. |
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⚫ | * ''[[Code Geass]]'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'' are this towards ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED|Gundam SEED]]'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny|Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' - directors of both didn't liked how SEED and Destiny turned out and dedicated their series to deconstruct several elements that annoyed them. |
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⚫ | * [[Tiger and Bunny]] might be this for [[Darker |
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⚫ | * ''[[ |
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⚫ | * [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]] likes to follow up his dark and depressing series with their opposites - [[Zambot 3]] was followed by [[Daitarn 3]], ''[[ |
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** ''[[The Place Promised in Our Early Days]]'' and ''[[Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below]]'' - former says that love can prevail and unite people against all odds, but latter reminds you that there is one barrier that nothing can break - death. |
** ''[[The Place Promised in Our Early Days]]'' and ''[[Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below]]'' - former says that love can prevail and unite people against all odds, but latter reminds you that there is one barrier that nothing can break - death. |
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** ''[[Your Name]]'' in turn affirms the optimistic views and rejects the pessimistic ones; love will come through in the end, and distance, {{spoiler|time and death}} will not stop it. Emphasising this are two scenes of Mitsuha and Taki passing each other that are clearly meant to remind longtime fans of how ''Centimeters'' ended, only this time things actually work out. |
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** ''[[Weathering with You]]'' then proceeds to flip the script on its immediate predecessor. A number of beats are similar, including the main premise of having a Tokyo-based and a rural lead, the latter who wants to run away to Tokyo but finds the big city not as glamorous as hoped. However, things get twisted as the action rises; Taki falls in love not only with Mitsuha but also Itomori and its people, and therefore {{spoiler|tries to save everyone from the impact event instead of merely taking those closest to her and running.}} Hodaka, meanwhile, has no love for the city that is apathetic at best towards him and Hina, and chooses to {{spoiler|let Tokyo get flooded to get her back.}} |
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== [[Comic Books]] == |
== [[Comic Books]] == |
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⚫ | * ''[[Switchblade Honey]]'' is this to ''[[Star Trek]]'' - it shows a future where the exploration of space is handled by a bunch of insane egomaniacs, which leads to a war with a much more powerful enemy, which humanity is losing. Heroic idealists, who would become great heroes of Starfleet in ''[[Star Trek]]'', here end up in prison for opposing the corrupted system. |
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⚫ | * [[Warren Ellis]] [[Word of God|in the afterword of]] ''[[Black Summer]]'' contrasted it with [[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]], saying that [[Mark Millar]]'s event shows watered down version of superheroes coming in conflict with the government, while he wanted to show in ''Black Summer'' what he thinks would really happen. |
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⚫ | * [[Warren Ellis]] must love this trope - when [[Kurt Busiek]] and [[Alex Ross]] created ''[[Marvels]]'', [[Deconstruction|deconstructing]] but still idealistic portrayal of [[Marvel Universe]], Ellis wrote ''Ruins'' - depressing [[Alternate Universe]] where everything that could go wrong,worse that you can imagine - that is generally seen as [[Fan Nickname|Marvels' Evil Twin]]. When Busiek made sequel to ''Marvels'', Ellis respond with ''Ghost Boxes'' - compilation of alternate Universes where [[X-Men]] failed to stop the threat from his ''Astonishing X-Men'' series, each more depressing that previous one. |
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* ''[[Marvel Adventures]]'' and ''[[Ultimate Marvel]]'' were both [[Turn of the Millennium]] [[Alternate Continuity]] [[Adaptation Distillation]] Imprints of [[Marvel Comics]] aimed at [[Old Guard Versus New Blood|The New Blood]] that reimagine classic Marvel characters and story lines. However, ''[[Marvel Adventures]]'' is [[Lighter and Softer]] and plays [[Status Quo Is God]] more straight, and most of the origins of the heroes and villains are the same for the most part and keep the [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] nature of the main continuity intact. The tone is similar to many [[Animated Adaptation|Marvel Animated Adaptations]], and the line is aimed at 6 to 10 year olds. ''[[Ultimate Marvel]]'', on the other hand, is [[Darker and Edgier]] (not to mention [[Bloodier and Gorier]] and [[Hotter and Sexier]]), has a [[Meta Origin]] for most of its Superheroes, and has more of an ongoing continuity with more crossovers. The tone is similar to many [[Live Action Adaptation|Live Action Film Adaptations]], and the line is aimed at teenagers and young adults. |
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⚫ | * ''[[Switchblade Honey]]'' is this to ''[[Star Trek]]'' - it shows a future where the exploration of space is handled by a bunch of insane egomaniacs, which leads to a war with a much more powerful enemy, which humanity is losing. Heroic idealists, who would become great heroes of Starfleet in ''[[Star Trek]]'', here end up in prison for opposing the corrupted system. |
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⚫ | * [[Warren Ellis]] [[Word of God|in the afterword of]] ''[[Black Summer]]'' contrasted it with [[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]], saying that [[Mark Millar]]'s event shows watered down version of superheroes coming in conflict with the |
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⚫ | * [[Warren Ellis]] must love this trope - when [[Kurt Busiek]] and [[Alex Ross]] created [[Marvels]], [[Deconstruction|deconstructing]] but still idealistic |
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== Film == |
== Film == |
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== Literature == |
== Literature == |
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* ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' is this to [[Narnia]]. Pullman isn't trying to hide his hate for Lewis' series, so it was probably intentional. |
* ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' is this to ''[[Narnia]]''. Pullman isn't trying to hide his hate for Lewis' series, so it was probably intentional. |
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* ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' is this towards the children's book ''Coral Island''. ''Coral Island'' has young boys living on an island after their ship's catastrophe and working together to fight "the savages". Godling, having an issue with racist undertones and savagery being presented as an outside threat and not something that lies in human nature, wrote a book in which young boys end up abandoning their civilized ways and trying to kill each other. Ironically, another writer, [[Robert A. Heinlein]], took issue with that portrayal and wrote ''Tunnel In The Sky'', which served as an opposite to ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' - boys end up on an alien world and work together for their survival. Some try to go the same way as characters from Golding's book, but end up quickly killed. ''Insu-Pu'' is another spiritual opposite to [[Lord of the Flies]]. |
* ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' is this towards the children's book ''Coral Island''. ''Coral Island'' has young boys living on an island after their ship's catastrophe and working together to fight "the savages". Godling, having an issue with racist undertones and savagery being presented as an outside threat and not something that lies in human nature, wrote a book in which young boys end up abandoning their civilized ways and trying to kill each other. Ironically, another writer, [[Robert A. Heinlein]], took issue with that portrayal and wrote ''Tunnel In The Sky'', which served as an opposite to ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' - boys end up on an alien world and work together for their survival. Some try to go the same way as characters from Golding's book, but end up quickly killed. ''Insu-Pu'' is another spiritual opposite to [[Lord of the Flies]]. |
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* Chinua Achebe wrote ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'' in response to the old classic, ''[[Heart of Darkness]]''. He found the latter to be one of the most racist things he'd ever read and wanted to show that native Africans were not, as previously believed, total savages. |
* Chinua Achebe wrote ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'' in response to the old classic, ''[[Heart of Darkness]]''. He found the latter to be one of the most racist things he'd ever read and wanted to show that native Africans were not, as previously believed, total savages. |
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* [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] wrote ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None'' as an opposite philosophical story to [[The Bible|the New Testament]]. |
* [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] wrote ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None'' as an opposite philosophical story to [[The Bible|the New Testament]]. |
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* [[The Black Company]] is this for [[High Fantasy]] genre - if one assumes that typical works of [[High Fantasy]] are propaganda of the winners, then this is closer to how those events really looked like. |
* ''[[The Black Company]]'' is this for [[High Fantasy]] genre - if one assumes that typical works of [[High Fantasy]] are the propaganda of the winners, then this is closer to how those events really looked like. |
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* ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' |
* ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]'' gets this treatment a lot, especially in the 1970s and 80s, with works like Haldemann's ''Forever War'' and Steakley's ''Armor'' being the two most blatant. Even Drake's ''Hammer's Slammers'' could probably be listed. |
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** And ''[[Ender's Game]]'' by [[Orson Scott Card]]. |
** And ''[[Ender's Game]]'' by [[Orson Scott Card]]. |
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* [[John Sladek]]'s satirical ''Roderick'' series features a robot who views a corrupt world through innocent eyes. Sladek then turned the idea on its head in the novel ''Tik-Tok'': the world is just as corrupt, so its robot [[Anti-Hero]] decides to exploit it by being even more corrupt. |
* [[John Sladek]]'s satirical ''Roderick'' series features a robot who views a corrupt world through innocent eyes. Sladek then turned the idea on its head in the novel ''Tik-Tok'': the world is just as corrupt, so its robot [[Anti-Hero]] decides to exploit it by being even more corrupt. |
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* [[Richard K Morgan]] intends ''[[A Land Fit for Heroes]]'' to be this to ''[[ |
* [[Richard K. Morgan]] intends ''[[A Land Fit for Heroes]]'' to be this to ''[[The Lord of the Rings]].'' |
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== [[Live Action TV]] == |
== [[Live Action TV]] == |
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* ''[[Blake's |
* ''[[Blake's 7]]'' was meant to be ''[[Star Trek]]'' turned on its head: the symbol of the fascist Terran Federation was even the symbol of the Federation Starfleet turned 90 degrees to the right. |
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** ''[[ |
** ''[[Farscape]]'' is another anti-''Star Trek'' space opera - like ''[[Blake's 7|Blakes Seven]]'', it featured a group of scruffy fugitives as the main characters, alternately fighting or fleeing the clean, well-dressed military. |
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** Also, with the |
** Also, with [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the 2000s ''Battlestar Galactica'']], Ronald D. Moore was pretty much able to do everything he had ever wanted to do on ''[[Star Trek]]'' but wasn't allowed. |
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* The ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' episode "[[Who Shot JFK|Lee Harvey Oswald]]" (demonstrating that Oswald could have and most likely did act alone) was made in response to the [[Oliver Stone]] film ''JFK''. |
* The ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' episode "[[Who Shot JFK?|Lee Harvey Oswald]]" (demonstrating that Oswald could have and most likely did act alone) was made in response to the [[Oliver Stone]] film ''[[JFK (film)|JFK]]''. |
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* ''[[Firefly]]'''s setting is |
* ''[[Firefly]]''{{'}}s setting is a deliberate change of pace from the standard [[Space Western]] or [[Wagon Train to the Stars]] where the main characters are backed by [[The Federation]] or some other major organization. |
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== [[Tabletop Games]] == |
== [[Tabletop Games]] == |
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⚫ | * ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' is this for the idealistic [[Space Opera]] genre as a whole, especially ''[[Star Trek]]'', following the principle that [[Humans Are Special]] and showing them living peacefully with other races and defeating various space evils. In contrast, the Imperium of Man is utterly racist, and its position at the galactic power table was paid for with the blood of millions if not billions of humans and aliens. |
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⚫ | * ''[[Warhammer |
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== [[Video Games]] == |
== [[Video Games]] == |
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⚫ | * The Iranian students who made ''Rescue Nuke Scientist'' (in which the player controls Iranian soldiers rescuing captured nuclear engineers from Israel) said it was meant as a response to ''Assault On Iran'' (in which the player controls American soldiers attacking an Iranian nuclear weapons facility). The makers of ''Assault On Iran'' responded to ''that'' with ''Payback In Iraq'', which even includes characters and events from ''Rescue''. And said they hoped the makers of ''Rescue Nuke Scientist'' would respond again. |
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⚫ | * The Iranian students who made ''Rescue Nuke Scientist'' (in which the player controls Iranian soldiers rescuing captured nuclear engineers from Israel) said it was meant as a response to ''Assault On |
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{{reflist}} |
{{reflist}} |
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[[Category:Pages Needing Wicks]] |
[[Category:Pages Needing Wicks]] |
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[[Category:Derivative Works]] |
[[Category:Derivative Works]] |
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[[Category:Spiritual Antithesis]] |
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Latest revision as of 12:14, 21 August 2023
Spiritual Successor's Evil Twin, Spiritual Antithesis is referencing an earlier work by using similar characters and themes, but going in a completely different direction. Often set at the opposite end of Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. May serve as a Deconstruction (or Reconstruction if the original work was a deconstruction itself) or Stealth Parody of the original work.
Generally seen as a Take That against the original work, and closely related to Satire. May involve Whole-Plot Reference.
Of course, nothing prevents a work from being the Spiritual Antithesis of one work and the Spiritual Successor of another at the same time, which may often result in said work being X Meets Y or This Is Your Premise on Drugs.
Genres that play this role to each other:
- Cosmic Horror Story and Lovecraft Lite
- Heroic Fantasy & High Fantasy and Low Fantasy
- Standard Fantasy Setting and New Weird
- Cyberpunk & Post Cyber Punk and a little-known Punk Punk genre actually called "Punk Punk" that has more realistic technology and characters loyally working for the sorts of corporations that Cyberpunk and Post Cyber Punk protagonists rebel against.
- Deconstruction and Reconstruction
Anime and Manga
- Tiger and Bunny might be this for Darker than Black - both are takes on Superhero genre that have superhumans glowing blue while using their powers, but former has much more idealistic take than latter, which is much more cynical and prefers Not Wearing Tights and antiheroic variety. Neither works go into extremes - just like Darker than Black stays on the cynical side but acknowledges existence of idealism, Tiger and Bunny is very optimistic, but has few shades of cynicism on it.
- Code Geass and Gundam 00 are this towards Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny - directors of both didn't liked how SEED and Destiny turned out and dedicated their series to deconstruct several elements that annoyed them.
- Yoshiyuki Tomino likes to follow up his dark and depressing series with their opposites - Zambot 3 was followed by Daitarn 3, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam by Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, and Space Runaway Ideon by Combat Mecha Xabungle.
- Gurren Lagann was this to Neon Genesis Evangelion (bonus points for being made by the same people) and its own Spiritual Predecessor Space Runaway Ideon.
- FLCL is another Spiritual Antithesis to Evangelion, also created by the same people - according to rumors, many people who just finished working on End of Evangelion felt down and wanted to create something crazy and optimistic to cheer themselves up.
- You may also say that GaoGaiGar, the first reconstruction of the Super Robot genre after Evangelion, was another one of these for it - it celebrated and embraced the same tropes Evangelion criticized or outright rejected.
- Some of Makoto Shinkai's works have strong contrast with previous ones:
- Voices of a Distant Star and 5 Centimeters Per Second - while former is about love, that survives despite great (as in, cosmic) distance between two people, latter says that not every love can be that strong and sometimes separated people grow apart from each other.
- The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below - former says that love can prevail and unite people against all odds, but latter reminds you that there is one barrier that nothing can break - death.
- Your Name in turn affirms the optimistic views and rejects the pessimistic ones; love will come through in the end, and distance, time and death will not stop it. Emphasising this are two scenes of Mitsuha and Taki passing each other that are clearly meant to remind longtime fans of how Centimeters ended, only this time things actually work out.
- Weathering with You then proceeds to flip the script on its immediate predecessor. A number of beats are similar, including the main premise of having a Tokyo-based and a rural lead, the latter who wants to run away to Tokyo but finds the big city not as glamorous as hoped. However, things get twisted as the action rises; Taki falls in love not only with Mitsuha but also Itomori and its people, and therefore tries to save everyone from the impact event instead of merely taking those closest to her and running. Hodaka, meanwhile, has no love for the city that is apathetic at best towards him and Hina, and chooses to let Tokyo get flooded to get her back.
Comic Books
- Switchblade Honey is this to Star Trek - it shows a future where the exploration of space is handled by a bunch of insane egomaniacs, which leads to a war with a much more powerful enemy, which humanity is losing. Heroic idealists, who would become great heroes of Starfleet in Star Trek, here end up in prison for opposing the corrupted system.
- Warren Ellis in the afterword of Black Summer contrasted it with Civil War, saying that Mark Millar's event shows watered down version of superheroes coming in conflict with the government, while he wanted to show in Black Summer what he thinks would really happen.
- Warren Ellis must love this trope - when Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross created Marvels, deconstructing but still idealistic portrayal of Marvel Universe, Ellis wrote Ruins - depressing Alternate Universe where everything that could go wrong,worse that you can imagine - that is generally seen as Marvels' Evil Twin. When Busiek made sequel to Marvels, Ellis respond with Ghost Boxes - compilation of alternate Universes where X-Men failed to stop the threat from his Astonishing X-Men series, each more depressing that previous one.
- Marvel Adventures and Ultimate Marvel were both Turn of the Millennium Alternate Continuity Adaptation Distillation Imprints of Marvel Comics aimed at The New Blood that reimagine classic Marvel characters and story lines. However, Marvel Adventures is Lighter and Softer and plays Status Quo Is God more straight, and most of the origins of the heroes and villains are the same for the most part and keep the Fantasy Kitchen Sink nature of the main continuity intact. The tone is similar to many Marvel Animated Adaptations, and the line is aimed at 6 to 10 year olds. Ultimate Marvel, on the other hand, is Darker and Edgier (not to mention Bloodier and Gorier and Hotter and Sexier), has a Meta Origin for most of its Superheroes, and has more of an ongoing continuity with more crossovers. The tone is similar to many Live Action Film Adaptations, and the line is aimed at teenagers and young adults.
Fan Works
- Party of None is a reconstruction of Cupcakes, in that it actively avoids using excessive violence to make a point that dark fics don't need it to be scary.
Film
- D.W. Griffith was accused of racism in The Birth of a Nation, so he made the anti-racism movie Intolerance afterwards.
- Steven Spielberg produced Poltergeist at the same time as he was making E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to contrast each other. He described ET as the Suburban Dream... while Poltergeist was the Suburban Nightmare.
Literature
- His Dark Materials is this to Narnia. Pullman isn't trying to hide his hate for Lewis' series, so it was probably intentional.
- Lord of the Flies is this towards the children's book Coral Island. Coral Island has young boys living on an island after their ship's catastrophe and working together to fight "the savages". Godling, having an issue with racist undertones and savagery being presented as an outside threat and not something that lies in human nature, wrote a book in which young boys end up abandoning their civilized ways and trying to kill each other. Ironically, another writer, Robert A. Heinlein, took issue with that portrayal and wrote Tunnel In The Sky, which served as an opposite to Lord of the Flies - boys end up on an alien world and work together for their survival. Some try to go the same way as characters from Golding's book, but end up quickly killed. Insu-Pu is another spiritual opposite to Lord of the Flies.
- Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in response to the old classic, Heart of Darkness. He found the latter to be one of the most racist things he'd ever read and wanted to show that native Africans were not, as previously believed, total savages.
- Friedrich Nietzsche wrote Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None as an opposite philosophical story to the New Testament.
- The Black Company is this for High Fantasy genre - if one assumes that typical works of High Fantasy are the propaganda of the winners, then this is closer to how those events really looked like.
- Starship Troopers gets this treatment a lot, especially in the 1970s and 80s, with works like Haldemann's Forever War and Steakley's Armor being the two most blatant. Even Drake's Hammer's Slammers could probably be listed.
- And Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
- John Sladek's satirical Roderick series features a robot who views a corrupt world through innocent eyes. Sladek then turned the idea on its head in the novel Tik-Tok: the world is just as corrupt, so its robot Anti-Hero decides to exploit it by being even more corrupt.
- Richard K. Morgan intends A Land Fit for Heroes to be this to The Lord of the Rings.
Live Action TV
- Blake's 7 was meant to be Star Trek turned on its head: the symbol of the fascist Terran Federation was even the symbol of the Federation Starfleet turned 90 degrees to the right.
- Farscape is another anti-Star Trek space opera - like Blakes Seven, it featured a group of scruffy fugitives as the main characters, alternately fighting or fleeing the clean, well-dressed military.
- Also, with the 2000s Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore was pretty much able to do everything he had ever wanted to do on Star Trek but wasn't allowed.
- The Quantum Leap episode "Lee Harvey Oswald" (demonstrating that Oswald could have and most likely did act alone) was made in response to the Oliver Stone film JFK.
- Firefly's setting is a deliberate change of pace from the standard Space Western or Wagon Train to the Stars where the main characters are backed by The Federation or some other major organization.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40,000 is this for the idealistic Space Opera genre as a whole, especially Star Trek, following the principle that Humans Are Special and showing them living peacefully with other races and defeating various space evils. In contrast, the Imperium of Man is utterly racist, and its position at the galactic power table was paid for with the blood of millions if not billions of humans and aliens.
- Paranoia is this for the more common type of game in which the PCs are generally expected to work together toward common goals.
Video Games
- The Iranian students who made Rescue Nuke Scientist (in which the player controls Iranian soldiers rescuing captured nuclear engineers from Israel) said it was meant as a response to Assault On Iran (in which the player controls American soldiers attacking an Iranian nuclear weapons facility). The makers of Assault On Iran responded to that with Payback In Iraq, which even includes characters and events from Rescue. And said they hoped the makers of Rescue Nuke Scientist would respond again.
- Gears of War and Call of Duty are different ways of taking the shooter genre (Gears being about taking cover and COD making both sides weak to bullets), seemingly as a counterpart to the radical influence of Halo.