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“	Someone wrote this... in 1999... and didn't realize that there would be... implications... Or worse, they did understand.	”
—--'Y Ruler Of Time on Black.

The media to which This Very Wiki is devoted generally exhibit greater sensitivity now than in the past, but sometimes something appears that... raises eyebrows. Even when authors are being careful with story elements, it is impossible for one or a couple of creators to really consider every perspective of the audience and just how certain tropes can be construed as troublesome. Especially when you consider just how diverse human beings are and that audiences that were ignored in the past now demand representation and respect.

This is a highly subjective Audience Reaction, and since in the past the page became bogged down in arguments about some tropers believing that concerns about such matters simply relate to political correctness rather than anything substantive, and other tropers seeing the entire "political correctness" argument as a plausibly deniable defense of racism and other types of outdated thinking, no example may be added without proof that it's not just one person thinking. Citations are done as follows:

• Blah Story Blah Blah Circumstance Blah Blah Implication Blah.

Contents 1 Example Website 2 Subjects susceptible to Unfortunate Implications include 3 Examples 3.1 Anime and Manga 3.2 Cartoons 3.3 Comic Books 3.4 Commercials 3.5 Literature 3.6 Movies 3.7 Music 3.8 Others 3.9 Remix Comics 3.10 TV 3.11 Tabletop Games 3.12 Theater 3.13 Video Games 3.14 Webcomics 3.15 Notes

Example Website Edit

Keep in mind that Unfortunate Implications are unintentional. An intended offensive message (for example, a piece of Nazi propaganda about Jews) does not belong here, nor does natter about the author's true intentions. Also, for something that may not be offensive to you personally but may offend others in a different culture or time period, see Values Dissonance.

If you came here looking for unfortunate implications of the Nightmare Fuel variety, rather than the hopefully accidental offenses with which this trope concerns itself, see Fridge Horror.

To avoid these pitfalls, please see So You Want To Avoid Unfortunate Implications.

Subjects susceptible to Unfortunate Implications include Edit

• Hot-button controversial topics such as war, abortion, and politics.
• Subject matter related to race, ethnicity and class.
• Most tropes that fit the pattern "All [group of people] are [insert characteristic here]."
• Stereotypes of any kind.
• Religious subject matter.
• Double Standards and sexism.
• Sexual orientation and transgendered related material, especially due to the Values Dissonance many people have regarding homosexuality and transgenderism.
• Parallels between science fiction works and the real world, especially with Fantasy Counterpart Cultures.
• Subject matter related to disabilities and handicapped people.
• Lifestyle choices such as being childless, single, or married.
• Anything cultural, especially when handled clumsily.

Examples Edit

Anime and Manga Edit

• Defied by Nobuhiro Watsuki in Rurouni Kenshin. The minor character Hannya had a featureless death-mask of a face beneath the mask he wears in battle. Watsuki noted in the liner notes to manga volume 4 that originally he planned Hannya to have been stepped on in the womb like the Elephant Man. After thinking it through, he realized Unfortunate Implications abounded with the idea ("the shape of one's face determines the shape of one's life", as he put it). To avoid this, Watsuki altered the backstory to Hannya having intentionally mutilated his own face into that death-mask so that he could easily disguise himself as just about anything.

Cartoons Edit

• Thomas The Tank Engine:
  • [Supposedly], subtle communist propaganda.
  • Or the ravings of an unapologetic [British imperialist].
• Parodied in The Simpsons with the "Krusty Komedy Klassic," which can also stand for Ku Klux Klan (at the Apollo Theater no less). This likewise resulted in the audience pelting things at him.

Comic Books Edit

• It seems like there's not an element of Freedom Ring's death that wasn't an unfortunate implication. Less than a month after Marvel cites him as a positive example of a gay male character in Marvel Comics, he's killed off in a graphic and somewhat suggestive manner. And then his powers end up in the hands of his decidedly straight friend and sidekick (who turned out to be a Skrull too).
• X Men: Siryin's dad Banshee was drawn with a rather Gonkish face that resembled nothing so much as the apish 19th century caricatures of Irish people.
• The now-infamous [Avengers issue # 200], in which Carol Danvers suddenly becomes pregnant and gives birth at impossible rate of speed, only to learn that her baby is in fact his own father, having used "subtle boosts" from mind control machines to impregnate her in another dimension, an encounter which she has no memory of. And the Avengers are just peachy with this, even allowing her to go back to the other dimension with him despite it being clear the mind control is in effect again. The fact that this entire story was presented as a happy ending for Carol when it was published only made it a thousand times worse.
  • Later writers seemed to recognize this: When Carol next met the Avengers, Carol treated them to an epic What The Hell Hero rant.
  • Unfortunately, it got a much less tasteful handling some years later, that can basically be summed up as "Hey, Carol, tell my babydaddy and anyone else in earshot all about that horribly traumatic thing that happened to you in order to justify my neurotic fear that my baby might be a monster. Haha, man, wasn't that the weirdest time?" While being in labor isn't the best of times to care about appropriateness, holy crap.
  • Movie Bob does a two-part series on this topic alone.

Commercials Edit

• [It's been noted] several times that even clothing brands that market to plus-sized people tend to use extremely thin models to show their clothes, which has several effects: First, plus-sized clothing on your typical model looks enormous since it is not meant for their body type, meaning that the people who want to order it are unsure what it will look like on them, and it further stigmatizes plus-sized people because it implies that no one will want to look at them, not even other plus-sized people looking for clothing that will fit them. Several companies have caught on and now consciously try to avert this, including Kiyonna, which honestly makes an effort to have its models be people who would actually wear their clothing in their everyday lives.
  • Even plus-size (if you will) models are altered, which can seem unnatural, but it's more noticeable here.
• While not "clothing" per-se, a series of Huggies adverts for diapers in a denim jean pattern had a baby strutting around on a sidewalk with the intention of looking "sexy". The tagline " My diaper is full of..CHIC!" probably did not help. After it caught a lot of flack it got banned, despite being edited twice.
• UK mobile phone network "Phones4U" has recently embarked on an advertising campaign where they show a particular group of people (scout masters, yo-yo specialists) then claim that their phone rates would be wasted on such people because they have no friends (unlike their target demographic, one would assume). [Said groups weren't amused.]
• Any commercial that markets food to parents by either having the parents hide the fact that the food is good for kids or in some cases flat out lie to the kids about what's in it. Because it's much better to lie to your kids instead of teaching them about good nutrition so they grow up with healthy habits! This blog post outlines the pros and cons of this sort of behavior, and most nutrition experts seem to come down on the side of it being harmful to the kids in the long run, and probably helps explain why so many people gain the "Freshman 15" when they enter college since they've never been taught how to properly feed themselves!
• An ad campaign from The Economist aimed at women used its traditional brand of quirky humor when it said on the front, "Why should women read The Economist? They shouldn't." Then, on the inside, it said "Accomplished and intelligent people should read it." Even some women who made it to the punchline on the inside [got offended], taking it to mean that a female point of view (the magazine's staff is mostly male) was invalid.
• Complaints were brought against a 2012 campaign in Atlanta, GA that used such slogans as "It's hard to be a little girl if you're not." Childhood obesity is a genuine problem in the U.S., but so far it seems to be an impossible one to sensitively address.
• Commentators picked up on misogyny as one of the predominant themes of the 2010 Super Bowl ad crop.
  • 2011 and 2012 weren't much better. In fact, there was a Twitter hashtag (#NotBuyingIt) in anticipation of the rampant misogyny, with the "woman is actually a car" Fiat ad receiving the brunt of it.
• This page of old politically incorrect ads is chock-full of Unfortunate Implications, some of which probably were pretty intentional, while others perhaps were not.
• In the UK, Persil ran an ad which showed (among similar images) a dalmatian shaking off its black spots and a white horse breaking away from a group of black horses. There was a small-scale press outcry after viewer complaints that these were racist metaphors, but [after a formal investigation by a regulatory body, the complaints weren't upheld.]
• The Metropolitan Police in London has come under fire for several campaigns encouraging the public to report terrorism, suggesting that the most innocuous of activities could be a possible sign of a terrorist. In particular, one radio ad was banned for implying that closing curtains or not speaking to neighbours is suspicious enough activity to merit reporting someone to the police.

Literature Edit

• Some critics have claimed Tolkien was racist because of his description of Orcs in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: "... they are (or were) squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes; in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types." Other critics have noted Tolkien's modifier "(to Europeans)" meant he recognized different cultures have different standards of beauty (being that Mongolians are the "least lovely" to Europeans). The statement isn't "Orcs are Mongolians" but "Orcs look like degraded and repulsive versions of to-us-unpretty Mongolic physical shape." But any way you slice it, that statement isn't Politically Correct by modern standards.
  • In The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author once compared his Dwarves to Jews - "at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue." In a radio interview, he said the Dwarf language was modeled to be Semitic. Though he was speaking in specific terms, as a Jewish Journal article has noted, Unfortunate Implications are there for those who want to see them - the Dwarves' main weakness as a race is their lust for riches. However, Tolkien is on record as having praised the Jewish people in a spectacular Take That against Hitler-era German publishers seeking to publish The Hobbit, when they inquired whether he was of Aryan descent: "I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by 'arisch'. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. ... But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people..."
• Sixth Column, which describes the Unites States under occupation by Pan- Asians (real-world mutual enemies Japan and China), also has some issues. The heroes save the day by creating a race-selective weapon that kills all yellow people. However, that story idea was from John W Campbell, and Heinlein supposedly tried to tone down the racism. He was still unhappy with the lingering racist themes.
• The young adult novel Save The Pearls has had controversy surrounding its treatment of racism. The plot revolves around a post-apocalyptic scenario where white people ("Pearls") are the minority, and black people ("Coals") are the majority and the more "privileged". As part of this, the main "Pearl" character essentially wears Black Face as an attempt to pass, and generally it ends up indulging in stereotypes about African-Americans. This is a book with an anti racism Aesop.

Movies Edit

• Consider the creepy paedophilic themes in Phantom Of The Opera version, due to casting younger actors than usual in the roles. Erik poses as Christine's father's ghost, starting when she arrives at the opera house at a very young age -- and continues posing as her father's ghost after attempting a romantic relationship with her. The stage version never specifically says when Christine came to the Opera and the Phantom started hanging around her (and it is generally assumed that, as in the original novel, she was a young woman by that point). The massive Electra complex overtones remain, though...As Phantom of the Opera in 15 Minutes says, "Daddy issues ahoy!"
• Roger Ebert criticized Twilight ["New Moon"] for its portrayal of Native Americans as werewolves because it seemed to imply that they were savage animals who don't like to wear clothes.
• Although hardly the only flaw in Uwe Boll's series of Blood Rayne movies, this article points out how Boll seemingly has "nothing but contempt" for the aggressive, sexually charged female lead character. The review points out how Rayne herself is trumped at every turn in the fight scenes by original characters, and how she is the more submissive partner in the inevitable sex scene.

  It's not that Boll didn't put competent female characters in the movie. He just didn't make Rayne one of them.

• The movie Christmas With The Kranks has the protagonists decide not to celebrate Christmas. The reaction this gets is pretty insane to say the least, with the neighbors harassing the Kranks endlessly to celebrate it and put up decorations like the rest of the neighborhood. They finally give in when their young adult daughter decides to come home to visit. The very fact that not celebrating Christmas is seen to be some kind of unforgivable sin is bad enough, but then the film hammers home the idea that fighting against the established conformity--no matter how much you disagree with it--will get you nowhere and you should do never do otherwise. Roger Ebert [noticed].
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi had the Ewoks that defeated the Empire with little technological advancement, which led to some hatred among viewers. It gets worse years later, when George Lucas reveals that he based the Ewoks on the Viet Cong. [Bill Whittle] on PJTV noted that this meant that the evil Galactic Empire was in fact supposed to represent America (Note, the film was made in America, and thus the majority of its audience was for Americans at the time).
• In Universe example with Tropic Thunder. One of the actor characters, Kirk Lazarus, who is an expy of Heath Ledger, was cast the role of Sergeant Osiris. Because of this, he had to undergo extensive surgeries to appear as African American and adopt an accent similar to ebonics to sell the effect, which led to the only other major African American character in the film, rapper Alpa Chino, to criticize him frequently for the action, as well as a news report noting the controversy.
• [Nick's Flick Picks gives The Green Mile a D-], not because of the acting or film making - which he admits are fine - but because the film doesn't seem aware of the problem with a story set in the 1930s South, in which an innocent black man is shuttled around to absorb the pain of white people before being executed as a mercy. A mercy for the pain he feels. That he absorbed from white people.

Music Edit

• Co-writer/performer Michael Jackson wrote a song of this sort, "What More Can I Give". [His premiere of it via an awards show] in 2003 -- after a year-plus delay -- has the same narcissism issues, starting with the title; the segment linked to ends with Beyonce presenting him with a newly-created humanitarian award. Narcissism and the Charity Motivation Song often go hand in hand, as The Onion's A.V. Club Inventory ["We Care a Lot"] -- which discusses this song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?", and more obscure efforts -- doesn't hesitate to point out.
• Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" music video has plenty of these, a great many of which get called out in the Literal Music Video [parody] of it.
  • The last line, "Who needs feminism?" only just begins to scratch the surface. Among other lessons viewers can pick up from it are:
    • Dress slutty to get your guy; girls who dress more conservatively are nerds and nobody really likes them anyway.
    • If your guy already has a girlfriend, harass and physically assault her to get her out of the way; she deserves to have her date with him wrecked because you're the heroine of this romantic "comedy" and she's in the way.
    • Other girls, be sure to go along with your Queen Bee on this; that nerdy rival for her chosen guy's affections deserves to be bullied and ostracized.
    • As for guys, if a slutty bimbo beats the crap out of your girlfriend and wrecks your date, your girlfriend really has no reason to be so upset about it. Act surprised and hurt when she gets mad at you for not sticking up for her.
    • Also, this thoroughly unjustifiable fit of rage from your nerdy girlfriend is the perfect excuse to dump her for the aggressive slut. What did you ever see in ol' what's-her-name, that goody-two-shoes, in the first place?
    • An aggressive slut is the best girlfriend for you because she puts out on the first date and, like all guys, you do all your thinking with your testicles. Now make out with her aggressively in gratitude for opening your eyes to this fact and ridding you of your former squeeze. You two deserve each other!
  • Also, the very confusing clash of two polar opposite "styles" - on one hand she portrays the (then in fashion) emo girl stereotype but in the performance scenes she portrays a more popular style complete with short shorts and long blonde hair. Ask any emo or prep in real life and, trust me, neither would be caught dead looking like the opposing stereotype. The video seems to be implying that it's OK to dress gothic or somewhat androgynous as long as, at some point, you appear stereotypically feminine and pretty.
• This Listverse entry that purports to highlight the ten most "intellectual" rappers plays the Mighty Whitey trope incredibly straight.
• Taylor Swift songs can come off as incredibly slut-shaming and sex-negative sometimes (in Fifteen it's implied that her friend's virginity was all she had, and in Revenge it's implied that the person's it's addressed to stole her boyfriend via being better at sex, just for two). See this article for a much longer explanation.

Others Edit

For Troper Tales, use Troper Tales/Unfortunate Implications.

• The Las Vegas Sun's review of Criss Angel Believe points out that in the original (subsequently retooled) story "[T]here's a continual struggle over [Criss's] usually shirtless bod between his stage assistants, Kayala, an angelic ever-receding woman in white and Crimson, a devouring, demonic black woman. (Not even going there.)"
• Typographical example: Anytime the Neuland or Lithos typefaces are used in reference to African or other foreign cultures, which are virtually their only appearances since the turn of the century. The use of those two is done to evoke a "primitive" or "uncultured" feel, regardless of the true situation. More info on the topic.
• The blog Sociological Images points out unfortunate implications in other media.
• Elementary schools in Gwinnett County, Georgia apparently asked kids some rather offensive math word problems. The questions include such gems as "Each tree has 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?", "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?" and yet another asks how much cotton Fredrick picks in a day. The school district claims it's to teach kids history, but if so, it's very poorly handled.

Remix Comics Edit

• This remix of Penny Arcade remix shows Gabe going insane and becoming a Brony after seeing the MLP:FIM cast on his front lawn. Now, Gabe is bi and frisky, and he apparently lives in Equestria, so imagine what would happen next.
  • It got worse with this one, which practically confirmed these implications.
  • Then that got worse when real-life Bronies looked at it.

TV Edit

• True Blood: As This article shows the series has a tendency to downplay rape with sentences such as "I was almost raped in Dallas, but this is so much worse." Women are very often victimized and their safety tends to depend on the men.
• Doctor Who: Susan Foreman was [not originally intended to be the Doctor's granddaughter], but a writer created the family tie because of the connotations of an older man travelling around with an attractive young woman.

Tabletop Games Edit

• Warhammer 40000 Depending On The Writer (or artist) can crop up from time to time in regards to the setting's handling of women.
  • Only in 40K can The Smurfette Principle be turned Up To Eleven. Out of all the Warhammer fiction released there has been one book where a woman was the protagonist and viewpoint character for the entire series. Though that one attempt did show the character as incredibly professional and badass so they are trying.
• The Ciaphas Cain novels have plenty of female Imperial Guards (one of whom rises to the highest rank in the Guard, though it's noted that she's the only woman to do so) a number of female PDF soldiers, government figures, a tech-priest and a psyker, plus a female inquisitor who is the single most powerful character in the series, but she only appears in person sporadically.)
  • According to Xenology, the Orks' scientific name is Orkus negra. While there is a non-racist reason (In Warhammer, Black Orcs with darker green skin are the biggest and most professionally dangerous Orcs), it still rankles.
    • To make matters worse, White Dwarf's "Battle for Ork's Drift" display had the orks facing off against the red-coated, pith helmeted Praetorian Guard...
  • The Salamanders were originally white, but were early retconned into being black and remained that way for much of the game's history. However, they were recently retconned again so that the black skin was a genetic defect.
    • To be perfectly fair, the retcon also changed the skin colour from 'African-America black' to 'coal black with red eyes'.
  • It is, essentially, an entire universe in which fascism, intolerance, and mass murder is necessary.

Theater Edit

• Seussical also runs into trouble through the fact that many of Seuss's stories, along with their morals, are now displayed without context. For example, the army from "The Butter Battle Book" is displayed, a book Seuss wrote as his criticism of the Cold War. However, the play lacks that context, making it feel as though it's condemning every war as frivolous, when in fact, Seuss, a former political cartoonist, could be VERY pro-war depending on the issue.

Video Games Edit

• Metroid Other M: The reviewer for X-Play, among others, was accused of hating the game simply because she was "a feminist". Yes, and? Why would that be pejorative?
  • Other critics argue that the game's sexism and bizarre incompetency on Samus' part are merely parts of a greater whole: a romanticized abusive relationship between an otherwise capable bounty hunter and her surrogate father figure.
• Mass Effect attracted criticism for a lack of same-sex romance options for a male Shepard, while female Shepards could begin a relationship with a member of a One Gender Race or a bisexual woman. They seem to be trying to rectify this with the third installment, which will finally have a male homosexual romance option, though only adding it to the third one has its own issues. It's completely possible to have played a male Shepard as gay throughout ME1 and ME2, he'd just also be a Celibate Hero on top of being gay, but that just falls into this again.
• NCAA Football 11 (sister franchise to Madden N F L) included some Bribing Your Way To Victory DLC like coaching advisors and such. Unfortunately this also includes the choice of outright buying 5 Star Recruits with real money. Someone probably should have reminded EA that [buying] [college football] [recruits] is heavily frowned upon.
• In the World Of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria beta, Jii Firepaw, leader of the Horde-allied Pandaren, would compliment your strength if you're playing a male Pandaren, and your attractiveness if you're playing a female one. This sparked a controversy, with people complaining about, among other things, the focus on a female's appearance rather than competence in her chosen class. This ultimately led to the dialogue getting removed from the game.

Webcomics Edit

• Shortpacked! lampshades this trope in this strip
• This was invoked purposefully on one occasion by Eight Bit Theater. When Bahamut decides that Red Mage and Black Mage are Fighter's slaves, and Fighter starts referring to Red Mage as Red Slave, Black Mage points out that this would make him black sla[GOOD NIGHT, EVERYBODY!]
• Menage A3: Zii has a habit of tossing people into sexual situations, violating people, and otherwise violates personal boundaries willy-nilly. The audience is supposed to be on her side, and she's never punished for it. In fact, [she doesn't even think she'd be]. This is in addition to the rest of the fanservice and stereotypes in the comic. For more, see the comic's YMMV page, and this review, and this review.

Notes Edit

This page uses content from TV Tropes.org. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of this article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.

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