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.

Examples of Harsh Life Revelation Aesop include:

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.

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.

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.

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".

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 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.
• 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.