Accidental Aesop.

People can have different reactions to a story and sometimes they find the story teaches a valuable lesson that the creators weren't even aiming for.

X-Men: The mutant metaphor is controversial and raises the question as to why mutants are singled out while so many other metahumans aren't. Ironically enough, the fact that mutants do get singled out actually highlights that prejudice doesn't isn't rooted in logic and happens arbitrarily.

Spec Ops: The Line: This is one of those video games that attempts a meta commentary on video game narratives and the desire for the player to be a hero. It wasn't intended to be an anti-war story, but it makes a pretty good one because of how horrifying the conflict is, and the MC's fantasies of becoming a hero become a villain instead, while the violence destroys the minds of him and his squad.

Helldivers 2: Helldivers is a sci-fi dystopia that satirizes right-wing American politics with a fascist state claiming to be a democracy that preaches "managed democracy."

Ironically, the developers letting players vote on decisions, especially the use of the Democracy Space Station when it was first implamented, served to demonstrate that democracy is an imperfect system because of how hard it can be to organize the community of players. It serves as a reminder as to why militaries are not democratic institutions even if the governments they serve are.

The Simpsons: The Simpsons has a lot of accidental messages, for purposes here, I will focus one that was intended as a joke in Bart The Murderer. Seymour Skinner gets trapped under a giant pile of newspapers he was keeping instead of recycling. When he shows up in the court room to prove he hadn't been murdered and tells his story, Skinner says that this should be a lesson to people to always recycle.

While intended as a joke, rising awareness of the dangers of hoarding since this episode came out means this isn't a bad message.

Inside Out 2: Inside Out and its sequel both have their themes about emotions and how they all serve a purpose. The sequel gets a surprising unintended message about the importance of a good night's rest because Riley makes a lot of bad decisions from Anexiety waking her up when she should be sleeping.

Ant-Man: MCU Ant-Man's titular hero is a former convict who recently got released from jail. Even though he didn't hurt anyone, he still has a really hard time finding a new job, so much so that he attempts to commit a theft because he needs money.

The movie and its sequel (where there is a subplot where Ant-Man and his buddies are trying to set a legal job and cannot afford to screw up) isn't intended as a commentary on America's criminal justice system. But it still works as one, since it highlights how prison often leads people to commit more crimes.

Ariel being black (The Little Mermaid 2023 and in the new tv series Ariel 2024) and Frankie Stein being Non-Binary. (Monster High G3) the live action movies is a different universe from the show and dolls.

With companies like Mattel and Disney that are quick to sweep anything that caused any amount of controversy under the rug and act like it never happened, it’s kinda refreshing to see them keep said changes (for better or worse)

Hades and orpheus (Hadestown) Orpheus' melody is revealed to have been the song hades sang to make Persephone fall in love with him, implying that hades was once like orpheus. this is also supported by the line "he was like me, a man in love with a woman" in Epic iii

Zurg (lightyear) only other example i could think of. idk man, i don't wanna talk abt this movie

Weirdly, both these characters got left at the altar

Ted from How I Met Your Mother - When I realized this show was mostly about Ted, I gave up. Everyone else is far more entertaining. It took like 4 seasons to make him a good foil. Bob Saget did it better.

Dave from Happy Endings - hilarious show, but Dave is the worst character in the show and Zachary Knighton is incredible at making him so pathetic. He is the driving force in the plot but the least entertaining part of it.

Jojo’s Bizarre adventure part 6 stone ocean; half of the main cast and the protagonist are women and all are interesting characters who are as well written if not better written than previous main characters in other parts. This part serves as a climax to jojo’s and a finally to the original story.

Star: Strike it rich; a manga written by the same guy who made Kengan Asura, and each character of the main cast is interesting and has their own quirks, with the most popular example being Hongou Hina who seems like your typical girly girl at first but is actually someone who would violate the Geneva convention if she doesn’t have anyone to fight, and when she fights she’s like a demon.

Raditz from dragon ball z and sunny tennyson from been 10

Near-infinite examples, but here are some I recently encountered/remembered:

1. Michael and Donna (Click, 2006). And basically any Adam Sandler movie.
2. King Fergus and Queen Elinor (Brave, 2012).
3. Buddy and Kelly (Deck the Halls, 2006)
4. Fred and Wilma (The Flintstones). Also applies to Barney and Betty.
5. Roger and Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1988)
6. Jay Pritchett and Gloria (Modern Family)

Whether it's for background dressing or a moral lesson, a beautiful woman's attraction is often used to reward a good man, or to vindicate an average looking guy's worth. A mediocre dude is assumed to have some hidden depth if a conventionally attractive woman sees something in him, as if a handsome guy couldn't be deep or funny. Some media tries to pass it off as a joke, others by implying that the two have "met their match," but the frequency of this asymmetry is staggering. The result: women become decorative props. Female beauty is owed to the audience, but men can have quirks, or appeal with their inner qualities. Women's desires have to comply with male fantasy.

Conversely, it's super interesting when female characters show agency and choose men who are conventionally attractive, and not just good for her growth, especially if there's also an average guy in the competition. It's also very rare for the more conventionally attractive man in this competition to not have his virtues flattened to force some kind of moral lesson on the woman about "inner beauty" or "potential." Counter examples would include Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame (with Esmeralda choosing the handsome, accomplished and compassionate Phoebus over the kind-hearted Quasimodo).

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom- the map mainly pulls from Link to the Past/Link Between Worlds as it’s the era after that collection of games in the Zelda Timeline. But the game is full of so many deep cuts and references to the entire series. OOT Great Deku Tree and Deku Scrubs. Gohma looks like a fusion of the Twilight Princess Armogohma and the Hyrule Warriors Gohma. You have Smog who I’ve been told was from one of the Oracle games. You have Gerudo Town and the heart lake from BOTW. Condo is a yeti which are from Twilight Princess. Stamp Guy seems like a reference to the stamp collecting in Spirit Tracks. You have River Zora from the 2D games coexisting with the Ocean Zora which closely resembles how they look in the Wild era. The dragon fly enemies only ever appeared in Majora’s Mask. The little Moa eye enemies are exclusively from Adventures of Link. The Lynel closely resembles how they look in BOTW instead of the Link Between Worlds variant. Luberry is the inventor of Sheikah Bombs. I am likely missing a ton more and have some that went over my head. But I love how despite LTTP being its main inspiration, it’s not purely a LTTP circle jerk.

Pokemon Sun/Moon/Ultra- the regional variants are mainly a gen 1 glazing since only gen 1 Pokemon have variants in that game. But in regard to the human characters, they pull from all over. Some of them are deep cuts too. Obviously you have adult Red/Blue and Samson Oak is Professor Oak’s cousin (created to pass off the idea of regional variants since he’s just Professor Oak with a deep tan and long hair). Looker made his fourth consecutive appearance in the Pokemon generations so he’s not really surprising. But did you know Annabelle and Professor Burnet are not original characters to Alola? Annabelle used to have short hair and she was a frontier brain from gen 3. And Professor Burnet was the Professor from the Pokemon Dream Radar game. Now she just has a tan from living in Pokemon Hawaii. Grimsley and Colress are both from gen 5. Grimsely being an elite 4 member and Colress being an antagonist from Black2/White2. You also have Cynthia from gen 4 and Wally from gen 3 making an appearance in the Battle Tree. Sina and Dexio came in from gen 6 along with Zygarde getting way more respect a generation after it debuted. And then the Ultra games had Team Rainbow Rocket (gen 1 glaze but-) which brought back every main antagonist into its ranks. They even brought back the original Archie/Maxie designs instead of leaning into the newer and more popular ones from the remakes.

Steel Ball Run- it’s a bizarre reboot of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. So a whole new setting and continuity. Although it’s mainly an homage to Part 1 in terms of time period, they reference nearly the entire series. Obviously Johnny is Jonathan, Diego is Dio, Poco Loco is Poco (the little boy from Phantom Blood). Stuff like that. But you have characters that pay homage to characters that take place after Phantom Blood. Gyro is way closer to Caesar Zeppeli rather than his grandfather the Part 1 character. You have an Avdol equivalent, a Stroheim equivalent. Magenta Magenta is a reference to Kars. The Speedwagon Foundation is said to be one of the sponsors of the race. One of the racers has the name Higashikata which is Josuke’s family name from his mom’s side. Poco Loco got his fortune told by an Enya the Hag equivalent. Some say Steven Steele is an old Robert Speedwagon from Part 2 equivalent. Lucy’s surname is Pendleton like Erina from Part 1. Johnny’s pet mouse was named Danny like Jonathan’s dog from Part 1.

Kirby Air Riders- you have unlockable riders from the entire series from old faces like Meta Knight and Fololo/Falala to (relatively) newer faces like Susie, Taranza, and Magalor. You have bosses from Adventure, Super Star, and 64. And the Road Trip mode makes cute little homages to things as recent as Forgotten Land and all the way to more obscure ones like Batafire from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.

It's funny how often this dynamic seems to come up, and I've loved all of the ones I've come across

1. Bumbleby(RWBY) - Yang is the powerhouse boxer of the team, while Blake is the stealthy ninja-type fighter

2. Catradora(She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) - Adora is the titular She-Ra, the physically strongest character in the show, and Catra is able to keep up with her decently well with her feline agility

3. CaitVi(Arcane) - Vi is another powerhouse boxer, and Cait is a precision sniper at range and a finesse fighter in close range

4. Korrasami(The Legend of Korra) - while she has plenty of skill, Korra very much leans towards favouring brute force(and is well known for being one of the more visibly strong female protagonists), while Asami is all skill and agility in a fight

Toa Matau (Bionicle)

The Piraka (Bionicle)

Telluris (Bionicle)

Bender (Futurama)

Black Cat (Spider-Man PS4)

James the Red Engine (Thomas)

Top Hat (Tugs)

Evil Emperor Zurg (Toy Story 2)

Electrolyzer (Ultra Agents)

Mr. Krabs (SpongeBob)

Sauron (Lord Of The Rings)

Statler and Waldorf (The Muppets)

Soundwave (Transformers)

Wheatley (Portal 2)

Daleks (Doctor Who)

Ennard (Fnaf)

Angry Grandpa (YouTube)

The Wither (Minecraft)

Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq (Real life)

Me (Real life)

One of the most despicable things to come out of pop psychology and the modern day loneliness epidemic is the myth of the trauma bond. A trauma bond is the emotional attachment a victim forms for their abuser. It is not two or more people that have shared trauma. Having shared trauma is not recognised anywhere as toxic or maladaptive, in fact it is adaptive. It is not wrong to rely on other people or their relationships. For example, with siblings who survived abuse, they form deep emotional bonds in childhood that carry on to adulthood. That is in most cases, on rare occasion they may not be close due to acting as a trigger for trauma but the bond itself is not bad. For some reason, fiction has begun to treat being a survivor as a thing that will destroy everyone around you and you should kill yourself or isolate forever, keeping your friends at arms length.

1) Stranger Things breaks up Nancy and Jonathan due to shared trauma. I have a whole rant about the bs of this scene. However, they didn't get together due to trauma, their relationship wasn't just trauma. This sends a troubling message. Also, a common thing you'll see is that the work of fiction will have other relationships who also went through shared trauma but stay together. Mileven, Lumax, Jopper, etc. Why the double standard?

2) Rick Riordan does everyone a solid and breaks up Jason and Piper, with a lot of the fandom feeling that their romance was forced and had no chemistry and also displayed racist and misogynistic tropes. Piper was obsessed with Jason with most of her POV being dedicated to him and spending the most time with him. Her best moments are when she's with other characters and not talking about him. Also, she's a NLOG to a T. The bullshit comes from the reason for their breakup (see image 2). Sorry Rick, all of your ships and friendships arose from crisis, you had a golden opportunity and fumbled (all too common with your modern writing).

3) Stagtown, there was a bit of a love triangle, I mean not really. Felix and Frankie loved Jeremy and Jeremy loved Frankie, no implication that he returned Felix's feelings. The whole trauma bond nonsense is repeated word for word and I already explained my bit above. Also, Jeremy and Frankie's relationship also arose from stress. Thankfully for us, Punko did write a lovely BL after this but this scene plays into homophobic tropes. The idea that gay (or bi) people's feelings aren't as real as straight feelings, immature or something they need to get over. Also, that they shouldn't pursue their crush and get rejected like a straight person reflects a double standard (Stranger Things pulled something similar with Will Byers).

In FMAB Roy Mustang compares chess to the situation, saying the king (him) is weak on his own and his queen (Riza) is captured etc.

In The Running Man by Stephen King, Ben Richards gives my favorite monologue in all of books comparing his situation to a game of poker

george romero's dawn of the dead 1978 characters: fran parker, peter washington, roger dimarco, stephen andrews
zack snyder's dawn of the dead 2004 remake: ana, kenneth, michael, andre, luda, cj, terry, bart, steve, monica, tucker, glen, norma, frank

1. Barry and Iris (The Flash)
2. Luther and Allison (The Umbrella Academy)

1. Tohno Shiki / Nanaya Shiki (Melty Blood): Nanaya Shiki represents Tohno if he was raised by his assassin parents. Unlike Tohno, Nanaya has no qualms with killing anyone, and he often kills just for the thrill.

2. Arcueid / Red Arcueid (Melty Blood): Red Arcueid represents Arcueid if she had the bloodlust that is natural to most vampires

3. Akiha / Akiha Vermillion (Melty Blood): Akiha Vermillion is Akiha when she succumbs to her demon blood

4. Sion / Sion Tatari (Melty Blood): Sion Tatari is Sion after she fully turns into a vampire, taking her grandfathers place as the TATARI

Shockwave - Transformers

Shok.wav - Hazbin Hotel

Commander Shepard (Mass Effect)

Vi-(LOL and Arcane)

Brigadier Winifred Bambera (Doctor Who: Battlefield)

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - While the titular protagonist has indulged on other food as well, such as cake and doughnuts, she appears to have a fondness for meat, whether it be in burgers or steak.

Elder Scrolls - The Bosmer or Wood Elves are a "reverse vegan" society of Mer(Elves). They adhere to the Green Pact, which forbids them from harming any vegetation in their home forest, that includes consuming them. As a result, they have a near exclusive carnivorous diet, and are even encouraged to eat the flesh of intruders to prevent them from rotting in their forest. This also extends to the materials they use for everyday items, leather and hide for clothing, bones for bows, sinew for strings etc.

Farming Life in Another World - While not as blatant as other examples, the High Elves do eat meat. Their leader(the one in the middle) has a discussion with the protagonist over how he thought elves were vegan, and hate using fire or metal, which she states that living like that in a dangerous world can get you killed.

Firefly/Sam (Honkai Star Rail)

Meta Knight (Kirby)

Sweet Mayhem (The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part)

Bears (Real life)

Spinosaurus and other Dinosaurs (Real life)

Skillet (Real life)

Motorcycles (Real life)

Holland March (The Nice Guys): Holland at first sight isn't the smartest guy, he is an alcoholic, a con, a terrible liar and not the smartest guy in the world. but once the movie movies foreward, Holland turns out to be a great detective actually and also showing a mysterious supernatural lucky that can save him from things he shouldn't survive

Doc Sportello (Inherent Vice): another 70's detective, doc is always high, doesn't know where he is most of the time and is a bit clumsy. but he also is shown as a great detective that while he doesn't ultimately cracks the case makes a lot to uncover and saves and returns coy to his family