Harsh Life Revelation Aesop

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Plenty of media, especially for children, have lessons about being a kind person, doing your best, and that life rewards the underdogs.

Then you get to the other kind of Aesop. While the lessons about kindness may work in tandem, they don't contradict some shocking statements that, upon examination, are true. One example is Life Isn't Fair. We don't like hearing or seeing it, but we know that sometimes life sucks.

The Harsh Life Revelation Aesop is when a work has An Aesop that isn't a bed of roses. It has a character in media facing a truth about the world and having it affect their story or perspective. Characters also respond to the Aesop in-universe, by either accepting or rejecting it.

This is the sister trope to Family-Unfriendly Aesop, with the difference being that A Harsh Life Revelation is not YMMV and doesn't change due to Values Dissonance. The lesson remains relevant. Compare Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped.

Examples of Harsh Life Revelation Aesop include:

Advertising

• Many anti-drug PSAs focus on how drugs can literally kill you or upend your life.
  • One shows that you'll be lucky if you're zonked on a couch at a party and so-called friends draw on your face.
• "Just Stay Focused on the Positive" is a musical number that is about how corporations, including Big Tobacco, will use Bread and Circuses distractions to hide their wrongdoings. The executives imply they use PR spin and Blatant Lies, with no regards for the consequences or human cost.

Anime and Manga

• Pokémon:
  • The first season with the Kanto tournament shows that simply being a Determinator that befriends your Pokémon is not enough. You have to put in the work to roll with any punches, and even then you may fail due to extremely bad luck:
    • While Ash earns two badges by sheer dumb luck -- Brock accompanies Ash on his journey while Misty's sisters give Ash a badge-- he gets two Wake Up Call Bosses in Giovanni, whose Raichu proceeds to curbstomp Pikachu, as well as with the Fire Gym leader Blaine whose Magmar nearly roasts Pikachu alive. Ash has to take a step back, figure out what he did wrong, and try again with Giovanni; Blaine won't even give him that chance because he wants Ash to be worthy of another battle first. Blaine outright says that battles require caring for your Pokémon's well-being and knowing when to quit. And even then, Ash only defeats Blaine fairly because Charizard gets off his ass and decides to fight Magmar.
    • Ash does fairly well in the tournament despite his inconsistent training -- and even then we see he was busy doing other stuff like stopping two giant Pokémon from battling to the death-- to the point that he outranks Gary. Then, thanks to Team Rocket kidnapping him the day he fights Richie, he has fewer Pokémon to switch out in the battle, leading to Richie beating him. He knows it's not Richie's fault and gets even with Team Rocket in the next episode, but spends a few days moping that he didn't even get a fair chance. When Misty tries to cheer him up, she finally snaps at him that Life Isn't Fair and he can't spend his whole life in bed. The fight allows Ash to feel some catharsis, and he's able to accept an honorary trophy for his participation at the end of the episode.
  • One episode that goes into Jessie's backstory shows that she wanted to be a nurse despite lacking the qualifications for regular nursing school. She opted to go to a school where Clefairies are taught instead, and put in the work. Jessie even helps out other students like Gloria with tightening bandages and caring for Pokémon. Unfortunately, despite Jessie's hard work, she still fails out because of one problem -- Clefairy songs put her to sleep and they're needed to heal patients. Cue her teacher getting mad at Jessie for falling asleep in class. As a result, Jessie acknowledges that her hard work isn't enough to fulfill her dream and decides to leave school to find another path.

Comic Books

• Craig Thompson's memoir Blankets discusses how your faith always can't save you. He was a devout Christian, going to camp and trying to please his parents despite his desires to learn how to draw and find true love. Then his relationship with a girl he loved fell apart, after she broke up with him to focus on her schooling and family. Craig started questioning inconsistencies in the Bible, eventually leaving it behind when he moved cities to go to college.

Film

• Aladdin:
  • As Aladdin himself learns, changing your clothes doesn't change who you are on the inside, and pretending otherwise will make you a laughingstock. His attempts to court Jasmine as "Prince Ali Ababua" go south because she sees him as no different from the other arrogant suitors with his attitude. The genie says as much, that Aladdin's real personality and the truth is more likely to win Jasmine over. While Aladdin resists telling Jasmine that he is a "street rat" who got lucky until Jafar forces the truth out of him, he comes to his senses at the end of the movie. He apologizes to Jasmine for lying to her and the Sultan, frees the genie as promised rather than become a prince again, and prepares to return to his humble roots. It's only because the Sultan interferes that he gets a happy ending.
  • Sometimes rules are in place for a reason. Jasmine tells her father that she doesn't want to spend her whole life in the palace while one "chump prince" after another comes to court her. The stage version even has her sing a song about how she wants to go outside the walls once. He reiterates that it's the only place where she can be safe, because there's a lot that she doesn't know about the world and he won't be around forever to protect her. Jasmine runs away that night...only to learn that her father is right. In the marketplace, she nearly loses her hand due to not knowing about money and the guards care little about her status when they arrest Aladdin and she reveals herself to save him. Jasmine acknowledges while crying to Rajah about it that she was at fault. During the spinoff TV series, Jasmine is much more cautious when going to the market either in peasant garb or her princess clothes, making sure to carry money and go along with her friends.
• Aladdin and the King of Thieves has Aladdin realize that some people won't change, even when given the best opportunity to turn a new leaf. The movie has him reuniting with his father Kasim, who thought Aladdin was dead after leaving him with his mother in Agrabah to seek his fortune. When Kasim explains that he went hungry for years trying to find an income for his family, Aladdin's disappointment in Kasim becomes understanding as he went through the same thing. He invites Kasim to his wedding, with a proper invitation, as himself and not as the King of Thieves. Kasim and Iago take the opportunity to attempt to steal the Oracle despite no longer needing to do so with his son marrying into the royal family of Agrabah. They get caught, and Aladdin is disappointed that his father would do such a thing. Thanks to circumstances, the duo's life sentence is commuted to exile, and they are allowed to stay for the wedding before riding into the night.
• The Little Mermaid
  • Grimsby tells Eric that there is no such thing as a perfect romantic partner when encouraging him to settle down with a girl, a real one who is right before his eyes and not an idyllic dream. In this case, he's referring to the mute Ariel, who showed up on the beaches of Eric's palace wearing a tattered sail for clothing. Eric keeps saying that he doesn't want just anyone, he wants someone who he knows will be right for him, and thinks it's the mysterious girl who rescued him from drowning. Over the course of their courtship, Eric and Ariel each learn the other is not perfect; Ariel has No Social Skills while combing her hair with a fork, and Eric remains oblivious to the hints that Ariel is the girl who saved him, but they learn to communicate and accept each other's flaws.
  • As Ursula puts it, "Life is full of tough choices, innit?" Ariel even nods reluctantly at this statement. For Ariel to get what she wants -- to be with Eric-- she would need to become human. But becoming human means no more living with her father and sisters, who she loves dearly. While she enjoys two luxurious days above the surface in Eric's palace and trying to woo him with her friend's help, Triton is organizing search parties throughout the ocean, wracked with guilt that his temper drove Ariel and Sebastian away. They end up reconciling by the end of the movie, but Triton making Ariel a human permanently is acknowledged as a Bittersweet Ending for him.
• Disney's animated Cinderella has two:
  • Cinderella sings in "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" that she dreams so much because it's the one thing that her wicked stepfamily can't control. She holds it close as she has to do excess chores daily and is denied even the basic shred of happiness.
  • As Cinderella tells Bruno, sometimes you have to get alone with people --or cats in this case-- that you don't like when they control their living situation. She reminds Bruno that Lady Tremaine can kick him out any time if she gets wind of Bruno wanting to chase Lucifer the cat, and it's in Bruno's best interests to not act on those dreams.
• Pinocchio has some harsh ones as well:
  • Be Careful What You Wish For as the Blue Fairy puts it; she grants Gepetto's wish to turn his marionette Pinocchio into a real boy halfway, by bringing the marionette to life. She says that for Pinocchio to become real, he has to prove himself worthy. Turns out she had the right idea; Gepetto is now a father and is clearly out of his depth with how Pinocchio doesn't fear fire despite being made of wood, and thinks that his one-day old son is ready to go to school. If not for Pinocchio being a puppet, he likely would have been permanently transformed into a donkey on Pleasure Island.
  • There are cruel people in the world that will exploit naïve boys For the Evulz or out of sheer greed. Part of Pinocchio's trouble is that he gets waylaid by conmen that want to use him for money.

Literature

• Unlike in the film adaptation, Coraline has her say outright that getting what you want isn't that great when you get it. Sure, her parents are boring and ignore her, but that doesn't mean the Other Mother can sway her with a world filled with excitement, her favorite food, cool clothes, and constant shows. She says, rather Wise Beyond Her Years, that no one actually wants to get what they wish for, especially when it has no meaning. The novel ends with her rescued parents having not changed at all; her father being a Cordon Bleugh Chef makes a pizza with strange toppings, while her mother is still working on a book. Coraline eats every bit of the pizza, relieved that her family is safe.
• Likewise, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book has Nobody Owens and his adoptive family state that the dead can't hurt you, but the living very well can. Most of the ghosts and creatures that Bod encounters while growing up are Ambiguously Evil at worst, with the Sleer seeking a Master to protect and the ghouls genuinely thinking that taking Bod to their land will give him a better life. It's the living humans in the town and school that pose a bigger thread, from the pawnshop owner that tries to kidnap Bod when he attempts to sell some artifacts to buy Liza Hempstock a headstone, to the bullies that force kids to shoplift CDs and blackmail them. That's not even to mention the Man Jack, the knife man who killed Bod's family and wants to finish the job with Bod himself.
• Roald Dahl's books have a few of these:
  • Matilda has the opening chapter outright state that some parents are plain terrible. The Wormwoods neglect their younger daughter Matilda, ignore her polite requests to buy a book, and deny that she's a genius. Matilda fights back by playing pranks, and eventually begs her grade school teacher Miss Honey to adopt her when the Wormwoods have to flee the country. The book, movie, and musical adaptation all depict this as a happy ending.
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has a few:
    • As Grandpa Joe narrates, there are some chocolatiers like Mr. Wonka who care more about the wonder of making sweets and feeding people. Then there are others like Slugworth, Prodnose and Ficklegruber, who only care about making money by any means possible. They actually do drive Mr. Wonka briefly out of business by stealing his recipes, and put thousands of good employees out of a job. While Mr. Wonka does reopen, he is much more cynical, hiring Oompa-Loompas and keeping them in the factory while swearing all of the kids to secrecy. Business can corrupt the most ideal person.
    • Money makes a difference. When the Golden Ticket contest starts, Charlie muses it would be nice to win one and visit Mr. Wonka's factory. Out of all the adults, Grandpa George is the most cynical. He says that the kids most likely to win are the ones who can buy candy bars every day. The Buckets can only afford to give Charlie one bar of chocolate a year, which Charlie makes sure to last for a month. Sure enough, all the other kids who get a ticket are fairly wealthy or competitive, able to buy at least a few bars a day, and adults also get in on the search. While Grandpa Joe gives Charlie a dime he stored for emergencies to give him another chance, it takes a literal miracle for Charlie to get the last Golden Ticket. The stage versions in West End and Broadway outright imply if not show that Mr. Wonka manufactures circumstances to get the ticket in Charlie's hands.
• Dr. Seuss's more cynical works tend to carry these:
  • The Butter Battle Book shows that serious wars can break out from the silliest disagreements. As the Yook narrator tells his grandson, the Yooks and the Zooks started an arms race because no one can agree what is the "right" side on which to butter bread. After a series of ever-increasingly ridiculous inventions, the grandfather is tasked to take a "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo" that can level the Zooks' country to the ground. One one problem; the Zooks have also invented one and are prepared to drop it on the Yooks! Grandfather and General Van Itch stand, each prepared to launch their Boomeroos, but both hesitating. Oh, and the grandchild is there asking, "Will you drop it or will he?" and will get caught in the blast zone regardless of who loosens their Boomeroo first. The story ends there, as Grandfather hesitates.
  • Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose and Horton Hatches the Egg outright state that some people will take advantage of generosity and it's not always rewarded. In the former, lots of animals take refuge in Thidwick's antlers, not caring that they are literally weighing him down and inconvenience him. They even tell him he can't migrate with his herd. Thidwick gets a happy ending when he finally sheds his antlers and the freeloaders, running to join his family. Meanwhile in Horton's story, he gets suckered into sitting on Mayzie's nest while she goes on vacation. As a result his so-called friends laugh at him, hunters put him in a zoo, and Mayzie comes to claim credit after realizing that he kept his word and the egg is about to hatch. Fortunately, Horton accidentally imprints on the egg, which reveals an elephant-bird that loves Horton and wants nothing to do with its mother. Horton and his child can return home, while Mayzie is left with nothing.
  • As the Onceler tells the boy who comes to visit him in The Lorax, when no one cares about others, there are dire consequences. Or, as he puts it, "Unless someone like you cares an awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not." The titular character tried to convince the Onceler to not cut down the Truffula trees to make Thneeds because it would hurt the wildlife, including the Humming Fish that choke from the factory fumes. In the TV adaptation, the Onceler keeps saying what is the harm in cutting down one tree, and later justifies that he has to keep making Thneeds so his employees will still have work. Eventually there are no more Truffula trees, the Lorax leaves, and the Onceler's fortune goes up in smoke as his family leaves and he has to shut down the factory. The Onceler was able to save one Truffula seed and gives it to the child, asking him to care and rebuild the forest. It won't be easy, given the TV adaptation states it will take ten years for the seed to sprout and ten more for it to become a sapling, and one tree by itself can't become a grove. But someone has to try.

Live-Action TV

• Malcolm in the Middle: The theme song ends with "life is unfair" for a reason.
  • Sometimes, you are just wrong. Lois gets arrested for allegedly making an illegal turn and cutting off another car, with Francis having accumulated thousands in unpaid parking tickets. She thinks the cop had it out for her and prepares to fight back. Malcolm tries to clear her name, only to find evidence from her workplace's CCTV that implicates her. Hal convinces Lois to back down and admit she was wrong after Malcolm shows her the footage, because it's not worth getting into a fight with a police officer. While Craig reveals that the other car was at fault thanks to getting footage from the store across the street, the family destroys the evidence because Lois getting a dose of humility gives them a break for a short while and she rarely acknowledges she is wrong.
  • "If Boys Were Girls": No child is easy to raise, regardless of gender. When a pregnant Lois is feeling ill from morning sickness and swollen feet on a day where the boys are unrulier than usual, she has a prolonged Imagine Spot about raising four girls instead. At first she thinks that she will get along with her daughters and see them resolving conflict peacefully, with "Renee" and "Daisy" talking things out with "Mallory" and planning a relaxing shopping trip. Then the fantasy crumbles: Mallory is self-centered Insufferable Genius who takes diet pills to deal with a lower metabolism while manipulating Hal to get makeup, Renee is lying about band practice and has gotten knocked up with a boy that Mallory likes out of spite, and Daisy gleefully outs the girls' secrets. When "Frances" comes, she basically has Francis's life problems but is in a worse spot: her husband is controlling and way older than her, and she's working at Hooters. Lois says girls are supposed to be easy, but Daisy outright says that girls know how to manipulate their mothers.
  • Generally, Malcolm has no freedom under his mother's thumb. Lois making him get a job at the pharmacy where she works only exacerbates her control issues, and she writes him up for defying him. When Malcolm finds out she is breaking store rules as well and threatens to retaliate, Lois points out calmly that at the end of the day, he still lives under her roof and she outranks him as his mother. Until he's independent, he has to conform to her rules. Malcolm is forced to concede this point.
  • We get another one, aimed at Lois no less, in the episode where she insists on going with Malcolm to college visits. A petty argument over candy with the floor's RA Control Freak escalates, and he gives Lois a The Reason You Suck Speech for how she's living vicariously through Malcolm because she has nothing else going on in her life. (Even Malcolm says, "I don't know who to root for!") He says she can try to control everything, but she's a coward who can't let go of the one thing she can claim as a success. If she were a sane parent, she'd allow Malcolm to make his own decisions especially since no other mother accompanied the other kids visiting. Lois is so stunned, she actually lets Malcolm decide how to handle the RA.
• Scrubs:
  • Dr. Kelso, Dr. Cox and J.D. repeatedly demonstrate that when you are in charge, you can't be nice. Reasonable sure, but you have to know when to be firm and lay down the line.
    • A season 3 episode has J.D. let his interns walk all over him. Both Elliott's boyfriend of the time Sean, a marine mammal trainer, and Turk note this. Turk bluntly says that J.D. needs to have limits, or the interns won't learn. J.D. shapes up and in season 8 is a better leader.
    • While Dr. Kelso denies patients that lack insurance and cuts costs, that's because it's his job. As J.D. muses in "My Jiggly Ball", he wouldn't like to be in the Chief of Medicine's shoes when making hard decisions like putting a rich man in a program for experimental treatments over a poor man who doesn't have the insurance. A season 4 episode shows that Dr. Kelso does try to be nice once in a while, but he has to go back on it because everyone does their job better when they hate him. Without a bad guy, they endanger the patients.
  • "My Big Bird": Don't let your personal hang-ups prevent you from doing your job. Dr. Cox and Dr. Kelso conduct a Morbidity and Mortality Conference when J.D., Turk, Elliott and Carla are held responsible for a patient's death. J.D. was Mr. Foster's main physician, Turk and Elliott were on call, and Carla rallied all the nurses into buying lotto tickets. While Doug clears the four by revealing that Mr. Foster's radiologist failed to diagnose a fatal embolism, Dr. Cox tells them later that they got lucky, and any of them could have been responsible.
  • Ed's season 7 arc shows that you can't coast on your smarts forever as a doctor. Dr. Cox dislikes how Ed is lazy, while doing "better than most" compared to the other interns. Eventually, Ed does fall behind because the other interns are actually studying while he chills in the coffeeshop. Dr. Cox issues Ed an ultimatum: read a basic medical textbook for two days and prepare to answer any questions about it, or get lost. Ed fails, and Dr. Cox fires him.
  • Denise gets the opposite in "My Cookie Pants": J.D. hates how she seems to lack empathy for patients, only to apologize when a painful procedure she ordered saves a man's life. When Denise argues that she doesn't want an apology, she wants J.D. to be hard on her because doctors need a better bedside manner and she knows she has little empathy, J.D. is firm. He says that he can't make Denise a better doctor or a kinder one; she has to find that on her own. But he trusts that she can do it. Sure enough, Denise tentatively offers sympathy to the man in question regarding his cancer diagnosis.

Newspaper Comics

• Calvin and Hobbes has so many, you can make a drinking game out of it:
  • Life Isn't Fair. Sure, Calvin may have legitimate points calling out his dad's Misery Builds Character or the amount of littering and construction around his neighborhood, but he is only six years old. As a result, he doesn't have the power to change as much as he wants. The rules also exist for a reason: he has to take baths because kids get dirty, going to school means getting an education, and early bedtimes mean he isn't cranky (or crankier) in the morning.
  • One Sunday strip has Calvin and Hobbes talking about what they would wish for; Hobbes says that he would want a sandwich. Calvin goes that's the Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard because he would want wealth and power. The strip ends with Hobbes happily munching a sandwich and pointing out he got his wish. Calvin scowls, refusing to acknowledge the lesson.
  • In another, Hobbes suggests that some philosophers suggest a life of virtue provides more happiness than living normally. Calvin tries it out for a few hours: much to his parents' shock, he does his chores and homework, gives his mother a nice card, and behaves. Then the urge to hit Susie with a snowball overpowers him, so he does so and walks away smiling. Hobbes remarks that "Virtue needs cheaper thrills." As Bill Watterson himself put it in the tenth anniversary comic, humans are wired to seek cheap thrills, and acknowledging this tendency is better than repressing it.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

• The Book of Job: Sometimes God will screw you over, and you won't know why. When Job begs God for answers on why his children were killed and what did they do to deserve this, God challenged him about questioning God's ways.

Puppet Shows

• The Puzzle Place: One episode has the other kids throwing a Mexican-themed birthday party for Kiki, who is Mexican-American and speaks fluent Spanish. They ask her mother for recommendations on which music to play, and go with a guy named Javier. When Kiki hears the music, she turns it off and goes "Yuck!" Kiki tells her friends that she appreciates their good intentions, but her being Mexican-American doesn't mean she likes everything Mexican.
• Sesame Street
  • One early episode had an anonymous harasser on the Hooper Store phone threaten Gina and Savin for being friends because Gina is white and Savin is black. While Gina and Savin reassure the kids that they aren't going to let one jerk end their friendship, they are both shaken by the end of the episode but decide to walk home together anyway.
  • "Farewell Mr. Hooper" has one that marked Growing the Beard for the show: as Gordon puts it to Big Bird, "When people die, they don't come back." The adults while crying have to explain that Mr. Hooper died and won't come back, which leads to Big Bird crying as well. Talking it out and the adults saying it's okay to be sad allows Big Bird to accept this big loss, as well as a Group Hug.
  • The wildly memed Rocco episode has one for Zoe. She spends the whole afternoon using her pet rock Rocco to boss Elmo around and make him sing an apology song every time she claims that he made Rocco cry. Eventually Elmo hits his Rage Breaking Point when Zoe doesn't let him say the number of the day after he asked, delivers a The Reason You Suck Speech, and stalks off to play alone. Gina spots Zoe moping in guilt; when she hears what happened, Gina says that Zoe may have been pretending, but her pretending went too far and hurt Elmo's feelings. You need to know when to stop. Zoe takes this to heart and makes peace with Elmo by singing him an apology song.
  • The special Elmo Saves Christmas has Santa deliver one to Elmo: "Every day can't be Christmas." For context, he gave Elmo a snow globe that grants three wishes, and Elmo used his second wish to ask for it to be Christmas everyday. Elmo doesn't see what the problem is, because everyone is happy on Christmas. Santa shows him using a time-traveling reindeer named Lightning: everyone on Sesame Street gets tired of exchanging presents and eating turkey every day, the adults run out of money and have to close their businesses, and those who traveled for the holiday can't come back. Elmo is shocked that Sesame Street becomes a wasteland, and quickly strives to fix things.

Theatre

• Avenue Q is all about these harsh life revelations:
  • "It Sucks To Be Me": Everyone has problems. Comparing them will only make you feel worse. When the cast argues whose life sucks the most, they each say theirs is the worst, until Gary Coleman comes onstage and they agree he "wins" due to his parents stealing all his money as a Former Child Star.
  • "Everyone Is A Little Bit Racist": Every person and monster has preconceived biases and will express them at the worst time. Some may be innocent, like Brian calling his Japanese wife "Oriental" while defending her broken English.
  • "Schadenfreude": Everyone will laugh at others' miseries. A homeless Nicky protests this when Gary Coleman is mocking him, only to acknowledge that he also does the same thing.
• Chicago: The whole musical is about how anyone can get away with murder by manipulating people's desire for a sob story and drama:
  • On the other side of the coin, thanks to these theatrics, legitimately innocent people get the short end of the stick. Poor Amos gets suckered into paying for his wife's legal bills even though she cheated on him and got arrested for shooting her lover. The Hunyak, who only speaks a bit of broken English and incomprehensible Hungarian, insists that she is innocent while being accused of helping her famous lover chop off her husband's head. Despite Mama Morton's best efforts to help the Hunyak, she loses her case and appeal, getting hung shortly before Roxie's trial. Roxie and Velma are horrified because they know that Katarina, as we find out her real name, was genuinely innocent.
  • Billy Flynn demonstrates during "Razzle Dazzle" that if you have enough flair and pizzazz, you can make anyone a star. Sure enough, the play ends with him getting Roxie and Velma off the hook, though they are undoubtedly guilty and remorseless for their murders.
• Wicked:
  • As Glinda sings to Elphaba after a Heel Realization, every great leader in history became that way due to popularity and looks, not their intellect or competence. The play ends with Glinda as the de facto leader of Oz, all the while knowing she hasn't earned it.
  • "Wonderful": The Wizard explains to Elphaba that he made Talking Animals the scapegoat for Oz and altered history because it's what the locals wanted: in politics, history is Written by the Winners and everyone wants someone to blame for their problems. When Elphaba tries to save the Talking Animals, including the Flying Monkeys, she's easily scapegoated in turn and realizes she can't do a thing about that.
  • "No Good Deed" shows Elphaba's Sanity Slippage on realizing that no matter how much good she intended, her actions ended in disaster: Doctor Dillamond still got fired and stripped of his speech despite Elphaba's resolution to ask the Wizard to save the Animals, the flying monkeys received a Painful Transformation when she was showing off magic as a test for the Wizard, Boq wants her dead for turning him into a tin man (to save his life), Nessarose died as part of a trap for Elphaba, and Fiyero as far as she knows is dead in a cornfield after the Oz soldiers tortured him. She realizes that you can have the best intentions but "no good deed goes unpunished".

Video Games

• Undertale:
  • Asgore's story shows how your anger can destroy everything. When the humans killed Asriel, Asgore and Toriel's son, shortly after they lost their adopted human child, Asgore in a fit of grief declared that all humans who come to the Underground will be killed and their souls forfeit to open the barrier. This ends up driving Toriel away to the Ruins, and soon a few bodies pile up, much to Asgore's horror. He can't rescind the policy, however, because the Underground needs the hope that they will be free.
  • As the Golden Ending shows, some mistakes are plain unforgivable, something that Toriel states. She's still mad at Asgore for declaring the "Kill All Humans" policy but not having the courage to go to the surface and kill six more humans, which would have saved decades of imprisonment for everyone. Toriel would have preferred to stay Underground and find another way. Though Toriel doesn't believe her ex deserves to die, she turns down his efforts to reconcile with her and spends most of her game time glaring at him.
• The companion game Deltarune ends the first chapter on one: while Ralsei believes in being pacifist and showing mercy, Susie points out that not everyone is going to let them defeat them politely and steamrolls her way through various monsters and bosses. In the end, when the Spade King sucker-punches everyone after Ralsei heals him out of goodwill, Ralsei acknowledges that Susie is right: not everyone will respond to kindness with kindness in turn. Sometimes you do have to fight to protect your friends. Susie in turn notes that if you spend your whole time attacking everyone, you never get the chance to make friends that will return that kindness.

Visual Novels

• Syntherapy:
  • As Dr. Park acknowledges in one optional conversation, therapists are not bastions of perfection or free from trauma. She has her baggage, something that her patient the A.I. Willow notes. That baggage won't go away overnight or even over a couple of years. But as she tells Willow, trauma being a part of her life doesn't mean she isn't happy. She fights for that happiness, and bears the ups and downs.
  • Willow keeps asserting that they want to live independently even if they aren't emotionally ready for that step, let alone trusting another person to watch them. Acquiescing to Willow's wishes leads to them being unable to function and becoming wiped a a result. The best ending in this route is going against Willow's wishes and recommending that they continue therapy with Dr. Park, and the epilogue has Dr. Park note that it's tough to balance patient autonomy with medical recommendations.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner:
  • One Strong Bad Email asks how Homestar and Strong Bad met. It details they entered a race over an egg, later revealed to be The Cheat. Though Homestar won, Strong Bad was awarded the egg, leading Strong Bad to conclude in the present that you don't have to put in your full effort to get what you want.
  • As "Virus" puts it at the end, sometimes a person needs to destroy personal property to right a wrong. Strong Bad accidentally downloads a virus which causes the world to break and enter a Mind Screw; Bubbs has to shoot the computer to save the world. When Strong Bad screams in horror, Bubbs points out everyone's faces were misaligned.
• Helluva Boss: "Unhappy Campers" has Blitzo's sister Barbie reject all his efforts to check on her and catch up after she's checked out of rehab. She says that she has no obligation to mend her relationship with her brother no matter how sorry he is. Blitzo is forced to accept this and ends the episode with a sour attitude.

Web Comics

• Check, Please! has the third volume state that two people can seem perfect for each other on paper and still not work out. Jack and Kent were teammates and did used to be a couple, but they broke up shortly after Jack recovered from an overdose that stymied his hockey career, checked himself into rehab, and decided to start over at university. Both parties, long after the fact, admitted they made mistakes: Kent tells Bitty over pie that was seriously in love with Jack and did want the best for him, but could not understand that Jack was burnt out from drug addiction and thought he needed more willpower. Jack tells Bitty that the reason he broke up with Kent was that to stay clean, he had to cut out bits of his life that were driving him to drugs, such as Kent being an overachiever who was Born Lucky.

Web Original

• Night Mind features this in some of his videos:
  • In the music video "Mono" for Candy Bowl 2017, a crush on someone who is not interested is far from cute, regardless of people's genders. In fact, it can border on unhealthy obsession when the person signals "no" more than once. The cat interested in her bunny classmate ends the video skinning her crush and wearing her fur.
  • "How to Make A Webseries" has Nick repeatedly state that you can't do creative projects purely for the money. People will know when you are not putting genuine effort and heart into your works.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • "The Western Air Temple": As Zuko himself acknowledges, a simple apology for all of his terrible actions won't undo the harm he has caused to others. He has to show that he is sorry, and fails miserably at his first attempt because the Gaang brings up a List of Transgressions. (It doesn't help that he lets slip that he sent the Combustion Man assassin after the Gaang to make sure the Avatar was dead.) Even when the Gaang lets him join under probation after he helps fight off Combustion Man to call off the assassination, it takes several episodes for him to bond with them and show he truly has changed.
  • "The Southern Raiders": Zuko delivers it to Aang when the latter begs Katara not to give into a need for vengeance when Zuko, in an attempt to redeem himself to Katara, offers to help track down her mother's killer. Aang brings up He Who Fights Monsters using an analogy about a two-headed snake that keeps biting itself and getting poisoned. Zuko says nice moral, but they aren't in Airbending school, rather in the real world. Indeed, Aang acknowledges that Katara needs to find the man who killed her mother for closure, and says he trusts that she will do the right thing. Katara ends up not taking the man's life, but the quest does give her closure over the trauma.
  • The Series Finale deals with Aang's moral quandary as the Gaang, Zuko included, tell him that he has to kill Emperor Ozai, the Firelord, before he burns the Earth Kingdom to the ground. Aang is a Technical Pacifist who follows Thou Shall Not Kill teachings; he still has nightmares about the Avatar State going on a rampage in the book one finale when he was out of control. He protests that there has to be another way, pointing out that Ozai is a monster but he is still a human being, one who wasn't born evil. Eventually, his angst leads him to finding a mysterious island where his past selves tell him that no matter what he decides, he cannot hesitate. Aang does find a solution -- to strip Ozai of his bending-- and finds he has to commit wholly to it or he will die in the process.
• The Legend of Korra would follow this tradition:
  • As shown with Lin's arc in Book Three, Parental Hypocrisy will negatively affect the next generation. Toph Beifong was a Defector From Decadence, The Runaway and a rebel who hated cities as well as their rules as a child. It was thus a shock that she founded the Metalbending Police in Republic City, who are taught to use cables to apprehend their subjects, and a bigger shock that she had two girls while building her career. Lin tried to live by a strict life as a Metalbending police officer to please her mother, while her little sister Suyin acted out and committed crimes to get attention from Toph. This came to a head when Suyin scarred Lin when the latter caught her in the act as a getaway driver for thieves, yelled at her to stand down, and tried arresting her with the cables. Instead of showing sympathy for Lin's tough situation, Toph yelled at both the girls, destroyed Suyin's arrest warrant, and exiled her from the city. Lin was not impressed, pointing out that Toph is undermining the very law she sought to build. She later calls out Toph for this in Book 4, saying that Toph's flippant behavior and lack of empathy for her daughters is why they were estranged in the first place.
  • If an existing rule seems arbitrary or extreme, there is usually a reason for it. Korra grew up in a Gilded Cage compound where she was treated like a princess while protected from all harm, but as a result has No Social Skills. She resents this, especially when finding out all the Avatar training doesn't teach you about keeping money on hand for food or respecting local laws. Then book 3 happens, and she finds out from Zaheer during a truce meeting that he and the Red Lotus attempted to kidnap her when she was a toddler. Zaheer is quite upfront about the fact that they planned to turn Korra into an anti-Avatar to spread chaos and anarchy, and her uncle Unalaq was part of the plot. Though the kidnapping plot failed, Korra's father Tonraq was paranoid about anyone getting ideas and begged the White Lotus to protect his daughter. Korra gains understanding as Zaheer tells her this.
  • Book 4 has the new generation learn that trauma recovery is not linear: it has peaks and valleys. Korra spends two years physically recovering from Zaheer poisoning her with mercury, slamming her through several rock pillars, and attempting to suffocate her while she's in the Avatar State. Even though she's back to bending, her emotional state is a wreck, to the point she can't hold her own against sparring teachers owing to traumatic hallucinations. Korra goes into the Earth Kingdom to find out what she's lost, but even with Toph's help, she is nowhere near recovered. The journey is long and painful, and she admits at best she can feel whole about what happened.
• Hercules: The Animated Series has a few episodes that show this:
  • In one episode, Hercules fails to get a girl for the dance. He builds a woman out of clay and asks Aphrodite to bring her to life. Aphrodite, to teach him a lesson about autonomy, makes "Galatea" obsessed with Hercules, to the point that she attacks anyone that so much as insults Hercules pettily, and he can't control her. Hercules learns the lesson when Galatea gets turned into a baked clay statue and begs Aphrodite to save her; Aphrodite does, but gives Galatea free will and "a mind of her own" this time. Hercules apologizes for being shallow and properly asks Galatea to dance. She accepts the apology... but turns him down. Hercules realizes that he has to accept no for an answer sometimes, even if it hurts.
  • Icarus learns a similar lesson when his crush Cassandra gets with another boy, after she has turned Icarus down repeatedly. He poses as a cherub and steals arrows from Cupid to turn into "Loathe Arrows," so as to break up the couple. Then Hades gets his hands on the arrows, kidnaps the cherubs, and prepares to make all of the city hate each other. Cupid recruits Icarus and Hercules for help with his usual cherubs missing. To fix things, Icarus has to save Cassandra and her boyfriend from a Loathe Arrow, and accept that Cassandra has rejected him once and for all. We don't always get what we want in life, and it's not the end of the world.
• Teen Titans
  • The episode "X" has one: sometimes people won't forget your worst mistakes. Someone steals the Red X suit from Robin, briefly alarming the team when they think that Robin has another obsessive scheme up his sleeve. Starfire pokes Robin to make sure he's not a hologram, and Cyborg prepares to do an anal check to make sure he's not a robot double. While Robin reassures them that it's him before Cyborg can go that far, the team is still distrustful of him as they try to track down the real Red X and stop whatever plan he has. Robin spends the whole episode brooding about how he hurt his friends with his good intentions.
  • "Troq": You can't fix racism by being a good person. Starfire tolerates Val-Yor, who keeps calling her the title word; she later explains to Cyborg that it's a galactic slur that means "nothing". Though Starfire saves Val-Yor's life and he actually uses her name rather than "troq", he says that she must be one of the "good" Tamaraneans. The team is aghast, with Robin telling the guy to Get Out and get off their planet. Robin apologizes to Starfire for not protecting her, as Val-Yor flies off in a huff, but Starfire wisely says that it doesn't matter what Val-Tor thinks, only that she did the right thing.
• BoJack Horseman is full of harsh life revelations:
  • "Prickly Muffin" as Diane tells BoJack, you can only do your best to help someone who doesn't want to be helped. When BoJack takes in Sarah Lynn fresh off a breakup with Andrew Garfield and constantly high on drugs, the right thing to do would be to take Sarah Lynn directly to a hospital due to her stabbing herself with a bayonet, and rehab. Sarah Lynn refuses to go to either place, however, and guilts BoJack into letting her crash at his place. Coddling her doesn't work; nor does trying to lay down boundaries because Sarah Lynn reminds BoJack he's not her actual parent, he only played it on TV, which leads to them having sex. Finally, Sarah Lynn leaves when BoJack prepares to drive her to rehab, saying cheerfully that she's at the point where nothing can make her grow up and one day she'll die tragically young.
  • "Live Fast, Diane Nguyen" has two that BoJack imparts on Diane: you don't owe your shitty family anything, and closure is not something you receive in real life. Her family manipulates her into coming home to arrange her father's funeral, spending the whole time belittling her and bringing up childhood trauma. To top it all off, they steal her father's body, turn him into chum, and skip the funeral. Even BoJack realizes that Diane is on the verge of snapping, but his attempts to help cause her to snap, steal the chum bucket, and run off cursing out her family. When he finds her stargazing, BoJack tells her You Did the Right Thing and tells her it's dumb to try and seek approval from people who will never appreciate her.
  • "Hank After Dark": Pick your battles, especially when losing means you can't do any good. Diane gets involved in a campaign against Hank Hippopopalous, aka Uncle Hanky, when she offhandedly mentions allegations during her tour with BoJack. She has no evidence, however, and soon the news and public label her as a "hysterical woman" that has a grudge against an American celebrity. Rather than let it go, as BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter suggest, Diane doubles down and starts arguing with anyone on the street. Her attempts to get proof fail, as Hank lures her into a parking lot at night and asks her who she think she is that she can take him down. Diane is eventually forced to leave the country for a few months, mired in her failure.
  • "Yes And" features Wanda saying, "When you look through rose-tinted glasses, all the red flags just look like flags." She and BoJack break up after BoJack lashes out at her, and she realizes that he was never going to change and remain a bitter horse.
  • "Good Damage" has Diane realize that her childhood trauma meant nothing. She attempts to write a book of essays to process decades of emotional abuse and neglect from her parents, hoping that it will make other girls feel less alone. After a bad medication withdrawal and talking with Guy, who sees the pages of the new Ivy Tran novel that she started, Diane realizes that her damage was just "damage" and she got nothing out of it. Princess Carolyn comforts her, knowing what it's like to grow up with abusive parents, saying that Ivy Tran can make little girls feel less alone as a perky middle-school detective.
• Infinity Train
  • As Tulip recalls in "The Tape Car," while horrible memories suck, it's better to acknowledge them than pretend they didn't happen. She can't leave her tape until she recalls what really happened during certain events in her life, including the fights that led to her parents separating.
  • The season one finale has Tulip talking down Amelia after Tulip succeeds in healing Atticus and restoring One-One as the real conductor. She says that she doesn't know what it's like to lose a husband the way that Amelia, but empathizes about losing a past that seems idyllic. Tulip, however, reinforces that living in the past is not healthy, and Amelia's attempts to bring back Alrick have only harmed everyone on the Train, including herself.