Together or apart, our choice, final version.

Thematic analysis has always been one of my favourite parts of media consumption independent of medium of, era and genre, as such the theme I have chosen is how peoples treat one another, from different races of humans, to robots, AI's and aliens. Alongside it comes the inherent reality that one single person can change these opinion and thus the world around them. Mostly through the sci-fi and fantasy genres. Spoilers warnings for all of these.

Number ten: Fullmetal Alchemist. Here I will be speaking more about the two anime series based on the original manga of the same name Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) which deviates heavily from the plot of the manga it is based on and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (2009). These two shows take place primarily in the fictional nation of Amestris. Amestris eventually goes to war with the Ishvalan people as the result of several years of tensions between the two. This leads to the almost total extermination of the Ishvalan people. This all happens as the result of a conspiracy. This happens as the result of an Amestrian soldier shooting an ishvallan child, resulting in the child's death. As a result riots break out among the Ishvallan people, this quickly turns violent and in an appearance of desperation employ the use of Philosopher's stones as weapons of mass destruction. All of this implies a rather disturbing ability by malicious people in positions of power being able to use prejudices to do truly horrible things, all the conspirators needed to do was kill one child and give the Amestrian military to wipe out almost an entire race of people. Many characters are shown to have a lot of guilt for their actions during the war and we see how it affects them, also showing the damage war can do to its survivors. (1) (2)

Number nine: Star Wars The Clone Wars: Darkness on Umbara. This arc is considered by a lot of fans one of the best in the already excellent Star Wars; The Clone Wars. This arc deals with a Jedi General by the name of Pong Krell who has a contempt for Clone Troopers not shown by any other Jedi up until this point. But as the story goes on it is revealed that he is lying to the clones in order to have them murder each other as an attempt to become a Sith apprentice. This along with his treatment of them, in general, shows a complete lack of empathy towards them and seeing them as far less than himself. This is due partially to force sensitivity, but also to the fact that the clones are grown to be obedient soldiers, due to their origin. Even before his motivations and desire to see clones die he is shown to have little regard for their well being, taking high casualty strategies despite, or perhaps because of the high causality rate. It can also be interpreted as the causalities at first not being high enough for his purposes initially, thus leading him to have the clones outright kill one another. Eventually, the Clones figure out Krell's plan and go to arrest him leading to a firefight and then to Krell's death. Thus proving his contempt for them wrong and proving that they are more than obedient mass produced slaves. Unfortunately leaders who lead from the back are not all that uncommon in war even in our world. It's as easy for some to send other people's sons and daughters to die on the front lines, but would never do so to their own child. No better than Pong Krell, Darth Vader or Kylo Ren. (3)

Number eight: American Gods. In Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods it is revealed to us that all the gods that cultures have ever believed in come to life as a result of the power of belief and the power of emotion.However new gods of things like technology and media have come into being and neither feel there is enough room the other, however, all of this is a manipulation by Mr Wednesday (Odin) and Low-Key Lyesmith/Mr. World. (Loki) in order to bring the gods into a war with each other as a mass sacrifice to Odin. In this story, it shows one of the most frightening sides of bigotry, the ease at which it can be manipulated. The old gods are all drained of belief and starving for it and the new gods have seen their people die off as a result of things like mass opinion changing and fads ending, however, both sides fail to realize that eliminating the other will not save their own. Similar to the conspiracy in Fullmetal Alchemist this is entirely to gain power, but is much less successful. Ending in a fairly optimistic fashion, American Gods ends with protagonist Shadow Moon uncovering and exposing the plot and the gods all disperse, avoiding war altogether and leaving it open for the two sides to make peace. This is a similar fashion and reason for why many wars take place, however in real life and modern times, financial profit is often also a reason. (4)

Number seven: Mass Effect. The Mass Effect video game series, at least the first three, I haven't played the fourth, deal with most of the races in the galaxy banding together to fight off an invading threat known as The Reapers, who are bent on destroying all organic life in the galaxy. However, even despite this, there are many tensions between the various races that have come together to fight this threat. Mass Effect also gives the player the option to pursue romantic relationships with NPC's (non-playable characters) In the first game you are given two romance options depending on the gender of Commander Shepard (this is up to the player to decide) Ashley Williams for male Shepard, Kaiden Alenko for female Shepard and the Asari Liara T'Soni (a heterosexual relationship for male Shepard and a homosexual relationship for female Shepard). This is another interesting example as it depicts a close to equal number of both good and evil members of each race, not depicting anyone as the villains, other than the Reapers. As the series progresses you are given more alien romance options, most of which are only humanoid in that they have two arms, two legs, one torso and one head. This is an excellent way of depicting so many alien races getting along as there are no races in real life devoid of good, or evil. All of this is very much a mirror to real life as there is a lot of scapegoating stereotyping of many races in Mass Effect, as there is in real life, for example the Batarians being stereotyped as criminals due to a number of their people partaking in criminal activity and Asari being seen as promiscuous due to their ability to have children with beings of any race or gender. (5)

Number six: District 9. This film takes place in an alternate South Africa with an alien species trapped there unable to go home. While living there the aliens, referred to by the derogatory term 'prawns' due to their resemblance to crustaceans. In District 9 they are treated like dirt and eventually forced out of their homes in District 9 and into District 10. The story follows a human named Wilkus and an alien going by the earth name Christopher (his real name is not revealed). Wikus after being hit in the face with an alien liquid during a rather brutal eviction of several aliens from District 9 he slowly mutants into an alien over the course of the film. Initially, Wikus and Christopher only work together as a matter of mutual benefit, so Christopher can cure Wikus and so Christopher can get the chemical that mutated Wikus back. In the beginning, Wikus looks down on the aliens but does not hate them as some other characters do, but by the end, he has come to appreciate the aliens and willing to risk his life Christopher and presumably his son Little CJ. The last shot of the film is Wilkus having fully mutated into an alien, but with Heterochromia , something that is only seen with him, one eye in its original colour, I interpret this as symbolic that Wikus is still the same overall good person on the inside, and thus saying the same of the aliens, they are people too, on the inside. It is a critically important fact that this film takes place in contemporary South Africa because of the fact that the specter of Aparthied still looms over South Africa and it's race relations and political climate to this day. The damage it did and the crimes committed in it's name still easily being in living memory for many South Africans to this day. (6)

Number five: Robotech. Robotech is an American adaptation of three different anime shows, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada. In 1999, the earth is attacked by a hostile alien force known as the Zentraedi. Resulting in three wars over 45 years. All three include a romance between a human and a member of the hostile alien force. However, for the sake of brevity, I will talk mostly about The Macross saga (The Macross adaptation) and briefly touch on The Masters (The Southern Cross adaptation) as needed. The romance is between Max Sterling and Miriya Parina/Mrirya Parina Sterling, Max is human and Miriya is a Zentradae, however other than the height you couldn't tell they are two different species and after Miriya is reduced to human size and they begin their relationship you can't tell at all. What is interesting is that their love is enough for Miriya to leave the Zentraedi military and join with the humans. Extra impressive when one considers that all the Zentraedi know is war. The two also go on to have the first wedding between a human and a Zentraedi and the first wedding between a Zentraedi and anyone. They then go on to have a child named Dana Sterling who is herself able to become a war hero. There is also eventually peace and coexistence between the two races. However tenuous and riddled with racial tensions. Max and Miriya, being the first ever interracial relationship between a human a Zentraedi and as such are show as a symbol of peace and love. One would think that this would extend to Dana during her time as soldier, but it doesn't. This appears to mostly be because Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross were never intended to be connected in story line when they were originally written, despite their similar titles. This also goes along way as to explain the unmentioned fact that her hair changes from somewhere between her mother's green hair and her father's blue hair as a baby, to blonde as a teenager. This has a very uplifting implication for real life, peace and love are always possible, no matter how dire things may seem and that one should always work towards these goals, over hatred and war. (7)

Number four: The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. I will assume for brevity's sake you have a familiarity with the Transformers franchise Now what I wish to talk about is IDW publishing's idea of how things came to this point. Before the war, Cybertron was ruled by the functionist council who maintained a brutal caste system wherein one's entire life, career and social standing is determined by one's alternate form, if it is a tank you are a soldier, and it is a crime punishable by mutilation. To deviate from it. As in the case of Whirl who for the crime of wanting to be a watchmaker rather than a soldier has his hands removed and replaced by claws and his head replaced with a cylindrical head with no face and one central eye. This regime eventually leads to the even worse Decepticons, starting as freedom fighters out to bring equality to all Cybertronians eventually falls into an imperial force that takes over planets and wipes out organic species and taking their planets, sometimes killing billions. However eventually Megatron himself, the leader and founder of The Decepticons, becomes an Autobot and pacifist, declaring the war over and finding an appreciation for the organics he once so hated. It's not uncommon in real life that such things happen, someone comes as the voice of the people, to over through a corrupt system and ends up becoming just as bad, if not worse than what had proceeded them, as power's corrupting influence sets in. (8)

Number three: X-men Days of Future Past. Specifically, the film adaptation, as I have not read the comic story. The X-Men franchise deals with the plight of the mutants, an oppressed and hated minority of humans endowed with superpowers and such are feared and hated. Days of Future Past is quite possibly the least optimistic entry on this list as it's plot essentially deals with humanity's refusal to get along resulting in the apocalypse. Having built an army of giant robots to hunt down the mutants, the human's loose control of the sentinels and they then go on to destroy the world. The only survivors are a small number of the X-men who send Wolverine back in time to stop this from happening. What's interesting about this is that we find out that all of this happens as a result of Mystique assassinating Bolivar Trask, thus confirming humanity's suspicions towards mutants in their eyes. The reason that I find this story so cynical and someways disturbing, is that even though the future is changed, it gives the implication that humanity's refusal to get alone will ultimately destroy us. The other disturbing side is that seemingly no matter what mutants do, they cannot ever be accepted, this may be to serve the desire by corporate entities of continuing the franchise forever, but regardless of the reason, this is still the implication. (9)

Number two: The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance. Part of the animated anthology set in The Matrix Universe The Animatrix and a direct prequel to the first film, going into detail about things that were only mentioned in passing or hinted at in the films. Humanity has created a slave race of machines that work endlessly to do humanity's bidding, however, they are nothing more than slaves. Eventually, after a machine named B1-66ER massacres the family that owns him in self-defense in order to not be destroyed, in response humanity, see the machines as dangerous and as such massacre them, in what can only be described and is depicted as genocide. The surviving machines then go on to found their own nation Zero-One. Zero-One due to its tireless workers and superior intelligence obliterates the economies of humanity and once again this leads to war with humanity as the aggressor. This war does not go as well, eventually blackening the sky forever so as to wipe out the machines. But eventually the human force is crushed and eventually, humans are taken as batteries. Eventually the entire dynamic is reversed, humans are slaves and the free humans exist in only one city. Zion. The irony is undeniable and very telling of humanity's tendency towards violence and division, eventually being our undoing. An unfortunate reality of humanity as a collective, seems to be out habit of only realizing something is a mistake in retrospect, rather than preemptively, rather only acting as a reaction. What if we had thought that Machines, Mutants and other underclasses were equal to us from square one? (10) (11)

Number one: The Fourth Ambit. A massively underappreciated masterpiece, The Fourth Ambit is a cyberpunk audio series. Following Gilles, a computer scientist who after being expelled from his university, being given multiple fake ID's eventually becomes embroiled in a conspiracy to cover up the existence of a group of AI's known as the Walders (I have to guess at this spelling, due to the series' lack of recognition I've never seen many of these words written down) loose in the virtual realities of The Ambit and The Second Ambit. The Walders murder at least one person to cover up their own existence, one of Gilles' friends Fiver, as such Gilles decides to make sure they never make it into The Ambit itself as they may eventually decide to destroy humanity. However they capture him and put him in a false incarceration, eventually, a Walder by the name of E. Eddy then visits him and tells him that he can affect the collective of the Walders if he becomes one and destroy their Fourth Ambit. It is very interesting that Gilles views all of the Walders as a threat, despite having met and interacted with AI's that he trusts and that he chooses to become one himself. Believing his influence to be important to stopping the Walders from ever destroying humanity. While The Wlders individually pose very little threat, they are only dangerous as a collective. The Walders are individual minds that form a hive that takes action based on the collective thoughts of all of the individuals that constitute it. Every time a new Walder comes online it's personality is added to to the collective and thus changes it ever so slightly and they can also change each other's minds through conversation as we do. They are also able to rewrite their own code, and through the Fourth Ambit, a system able to connect every single piece of technology everywhere, they would be able to wipe out humanity rather easily if they felt such a thing necessary. As such when offered the choice of 'become one of us or die' Gilles chooses to become a Walder with the intention of destroying the Fourth Ambit and pushing the Walders away from potentially harming humanity. Gilles does something I consider important, stopping a problem before it becomes a problem and doing so non-violently, keeping the Walders from harming humanity without harming them either, only harming the inanimate Fourth Ambit. Or at least trying to. (12)

Overall there are three things I would like to touch on, two things that connect all of these. One; How different is the other? Across these entries, I have discussed many different others, from other races of humans to gods, to aliens, to robots and AI. They all have one thing in common, they are all people in every way that matters. They have feelings and their plights matter and they should all be judged on an individual scale, or risk bringing ourselves to violence and chaos. Two; Whether or not bigotry and hate are societal, or individual problems is a debate for another day, but it is a problem that can only be solved by individuals, because society is nothing more than mass opinion, and individual opinion must change in order for mass opinion to do so and it only takes one person to push mass opinion in any direction.

Sources.

1: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003),

2: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brootherhood (2009-2010)

3: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Darkness on Umbara arc (2011)

4: American Gods (2001)

5: Mass Effect trillogy (2007-2012)

6: District 9 (2009)

7: Robotech (1985)

8: Transformers More Than Meets The Eye (2012)

9: X-Men:Days of Future Past. (2014)

10: The Animatrix: The Second Renassance part one. (2003)

11: The Animatrix: The Second Renassance part two. (2003)

12: The Fourth Ambit (2001)