History Main / LesCollaborateurs

%% Needs Context * Suzaku and Honorary Britannians in ''Anime/CodeGeass''.

-->-- '''Ken Jennings''' on ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', paraphrasing [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Kent Brockman]] after the Watson [[ArtificialBrilliance A.I.]] won

Living under the heel of a despotic EvilOverlord and his [[TheEmpire Empire]] is no picnic even for those [[{{Muggles}} blind to their tyranny.]] No surprise then that LaResistance does everything it can to make his reign difficult. Luckily, what La Resistance lacks in numbers it makes up for with loyal grassroots support from the oppressed people because TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified. No matter [[VillainWithGoodPublicity how good the tyrant's publicity]], only the foolish believe him and all the people that matter help La Resistance.

Except, of course, for Les Collaborateurs. Why fight against an [[DesignatedVillain occupying power]] [[EvilWelcomesDefectors which empowers your people, promotes your worldview]], is at least marginally more efficient at running your country than you are, [[WarComesHome was clearly strong enough to conquer your home in the first place]], [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry can't be ejected from your country now that said regime won that campaign]], [[PyrrhicVictory or can only be ejected at a price you're unwilling to pay?]] The [[{{UsefulNotes/France}} French State]] cited all of these reasons, and more, when defending their decisions to give UsefulNotes/NaziGermany a quarter of their GDP (including their entire armaments output) and most of their Jewish population[[note]] First priority for Collaborateurs was to give Jewish refugees from other countries. Many French Jews survived, not because Collaborateurs spared them but because while some Résistants blew up trains, other organised escape roads for Jews. French anti-Jewish hatred was actually rooted in cultural, not racial, posturing. European Catholic immigrants to France tended to assimilate into "superior" French culture fairly well (France had significant ethnic minorities of Celts, Basques, Italians, and Germans). But Jews tended to retain their religion and at least a few cultural trappings, something profoundly upsetting to the notion that French Culture and French Values had a universal and irresistible appeal (a major reason for their distrust of US culture in turn, which made similar claims). The "Dreyfus Affair" and the railing against PM Léon Blum (head of the Socialist-Communist Parliamentary Coalition of 1936) were pretty clear illustrations of the open anti-Jewish feeling that predominated in early C20th France -- though Blum's case is a little less clear-cut since he was a socialist in league with communists, which gave French people ''three'' reasons to hate his guts. [[/note]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. In most fictional media, of course, these kinds of people don't exist.

Then there are the perks,[[note]]such as the lucrative contracts offered to French automobile and aeroplane manufactures that resulted in them giving 92% and 100% of their 1941-44 output (respectively) to the Wehrmacht,[[/note]] which are of course your ''only'' reasons for collaborating in a work of fiction. Helping out can give you money, power, sex, and most important of all: revenge against all those pretty popular kids that just joined La Resistance! Les Collaborateurs can act as TheMole, spreading and gathering intelligence, as saboteurs within the resistance by undermining their own efforts, or as an agent of distrust and discord to break apart TheAlliance. Les Collaborateurs are only too happy to sell out their countrymen like animals to the slaughter, even if signs point to the villain having a penchant for [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness killing]] [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves collaborators.]]

Usually they're unctuously {{Smug Snake}}s, low grade {{Magnificent Bastard}}s, {{Evil Reactionar|y}}ies, or even {{Troll}}s. And no, these guys ''will not'' end up BecomingTheMask or doing a HeelFaceTurn -- they've [[TheDarkSide tasted power]] and [[EvilTastesGood found it sweet]]. You can, however, expect them to think that their utter betrayal will somehow make a hero insanely attracted to them (LoveMakesYouEvil meets GoGoEnslavement). Thankfully, the cosmic sense of justice ensures that all collaborators become {{Asshole Victim}}s meeting with particularly grisly {{Karmic Death}}s, because TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil.

It is also important to disgunish this trope from BlackShirt. The Black Shirt will be on board with the occupier's cause for purely ideological reasons, and he is likely to openly scuff at Les Collaborateurs, viewing them as nothing more than a bunch of oppotunistic poseurs. Meanwhile, Les Collaborateurs can be willing to turn against the occupiers if they sense the tide going against him (and might even claim that they never actually supported them in the first place, even if this claim is BlatantLies), where the Black Shirt is willing to go down fighting to the bitter end.

Compare TheRemnant and VoluntaryVassal. This trope is the villain opposite of LaResistance, and the government they collaborate with is TheEmpire. When they are on the battlefield (willingly or not), they are BattleThralls. If collaborators work for a superhuman/inhuman power with the hope of being uplifted to the same status themselves, see TranshumanTreachery and VampireVannabe.

* In ''Anime/{{Endride}}'', the Truculent is a group made up five members of a race disadvantaged by King Delzaine's rule, but nonetheless on his payroll, whose job involves eliminating threats and undermining LaResistance. One of the team members is playing TheMole to La Resistance, but genuinely defects over time since La Resistance is actually fighting for their rights.

* ''[[Fanfic/TheEquestriaChronicles Sun & Moon: Ascending Star]]'' presents the so-called sham court: ponies that recognized Discord as the rightful King of Equestria in exchange for marginally better living conditions. Seeking his favor, they send spies throughout the population in an attempt to find the leaders of La Resistance.

* On Monday Night Raw, Wrestling/RobConway was confusingly referred to as a "French Sympathizer" when he joined La Resistance and even more confusingly, a "Quebec Sympathizer" when La Resistance suddenly became French Canadian.

** [[spoiler:Judith Mossman]] is either a redeemed Collaborateur or a double-agent of La Resistance.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfTianding'' is set in Japan-occupied Taiwan in the 1900s, with more than one of the villains being Taiwanese collaborators working for the other side. The first boss, "Piggy" Wang, is a FatBastard who runs a counterfeiting business for the Japanese and stomping on the peasants, and there's another local tycoon collaborating with the villains you need to steal an artifact from in a mission halfway through. As well as an AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs stage where the LaResistance hideout gets raided by Japanese soldiers, thanks to the resistance leader turning out to be TheMole.

** In the AlternateTimeline of ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', XCOM was defeated a few months into ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' with the aliens creating a VichyEarth in the aftermath. In the {{interquel}} novel ''Resurrection'', [[MissionControl Bradford]] explains that they didn't fail but after Earth surrendered TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness [[DirtyCoward sold them out]] because they feared that their resistance would lead to the aliens deciding to KillAllHumans if they pulled an ISurrenderSuckers.

** ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyWithin'': Subverted by the NebulousEvilOrganisation EXALT. While the Council initially theorized that they were this trope, they were worse than traitors trying to preemptively cozy up to the new regime; they were traitorous vultures trying to ''become'' the new regime themselves. EXALT was a [[TranshumanTreachery transhumanist cult]] seeking to use alien technology [[BioAugmentation and DNA]] to TakeOverTheWorld, but [[StupidEvil did nothing to stop the better-equipped aliens' efforts to do so themselves]] and actively ''hindered'' XCOM's efforts to preserve humanity.

** ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyWithin'': Subverted by the NebulousEvilOrganisation EXALT. While the Council initially theorized that they were this trope, they were worse than traitors trying to preemptively cozy up to the new regime; they were traitorous vultures trying to ''become'' the new regime themselves. EXALT was a {{transhuman}}ist cult seeking to use alien technology [[BioAugmentation and DNA]] to TakeOverTheWorld, but [[StupidEvil did nothing to stop the better-equipped aliens' efforts to do so themselves]] and actively ''hindered'' XCOM's efforts to preserve humanity.

* ''VideoGame/XComApocalypse'' has the {{Cult}} of Sirius, who worship the extradimensional alien invaders and do whatever they can to sabotage X-COM.
* In the AlternateTimeline of ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', XCOM was defeated a few months into ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' with the aliens creating a VichyEarth in the aftermath. In the {{interquel}} novel ''Resurrection'', [[MissionControl Bradford]] explains that they didn't fail but after Earth surrendered TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness [[DirtyCoward sold them out]] because they feared that their resistance would lead to the aliens deciding to KillAllHumans if they pulled an ISurrenderSuckers.

* ''VideoGame/TerraInvicta'': In two flavours. The Servants are a weird New Age [[LikeAGodToMe alien-worshipping]] {{Cult}} who want to facilitate the ongoing invasion of Earth and help it succeed [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans because they believe the aliens are going to be the saviours of humanity]]. The Protectorate are a GlobalConspiracy of bureaucrats and politicians who want to [[KnowWhenToFoldEm avoid a potentially unwinnable war with an interstellar species, and enforce mankind's dignified surrender to prevent its likely extinction]]. [[spoiler:In a spectacular case of {{Irony}}, the same crippling terms that the aliens offer and the Protectorate submit to without hesitation or question, [[EveryoneHasStandards the Servants deem too insulting to humanity and they successfully negotiate for better ones]].]]

* In the AlternateTimeline of ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', XCOM was defeated a few months into ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' with the aliens creating a VichyEarth in the aftermath. In the {{interquel}} novel ''Resurrection'', [[MissionControl Bradford]] explains that they didn't fail but TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness [[DirtyCoward sold them out]] because they feared that their resistance would lead to the aliens deciding to KillAllHumans (in spite of the fact that this seemed to be their plan from the get-go).

* In the AlternateTimeline of ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', XCOM was defeated a few months into ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' with the aliens creating a VichyEarth in the aftermath. In the {{interquel}} novel ''Resurrection'', [[MissionControl Bradford]] explains that they didn't fail but the TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness [[DirtyCoward sold them out]] because they feared that their resistance would lead to the aliens deciding to KillAllHumans (in spite of the fact that this seemed to be their plan from the get-go).

* ''VideoGame/XCom'':
** ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'': The ''Enemy Within'' ExpansionPack added EXALT collaborator cells that must be rooted out with special missions. They engage in sabotage, and make up for their operative's lower toughness than the invading aliens with [[ZergRush sheer numbers.]]
** In ''VideoGame/{{XCOM 2}}'', ADVENT Troopers are enemy {{Mooks}}, humans who volunteered to fight for the alien regime and offered [[NightmareFace some rather extreme genetic modifications]]. A prequel novel has a resistance fighter point out that he never once met someone who actually knew a collaborator. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Then it turns out]] there never were any volunteers; ADVENT Troopers are ''grown''.]]

%% ZCE * [[spoiler: Count Germont]] in ''Manga/HonooNoAlpenRose''.

It is also important to disgunish this trope from BlackShirt. The Black Shirt will on board with the occupier's cause for purely idealogical reasons, and he is likely to openly scuff at Les Collaborateurs, viewing them as nothing more than a bunch of oppotunistic poseurs. Meanwhile, Les Collaborateurs can be willing to turn against the occupiers if they sense the tide going against him (and might even claim that they never actually supported them in the first place, even if this claim is BlatantLies), where the Black Shirt is willing to go down fighting to the bitter end.

It is also important to disgunish this trope from BlackShirt. The Black Shirt will on board with the occupier's cause for purely idealogical reasons, and he is likely to openly scuff at Les Collaborateurs, viewing them as nothing more than a bunch of oppotunistic poseurs. Meanwhile, Les Collaborateurs can be willing to turn against the occupiers if they sense the tide going against him (and might even claim that they never actually supported them in the first place, even if this claim is BalantLies), where the Black Shirt is willing to go down fighting to the bitter end.

** Just don't imply that Odo was a collaborator in front of Kira. [[BerserkButton It won't go over well.]]

* In the ''Film/{{Blade}}'' film series, humans who know about vampires but choose to serve them against their own kind are called "familiars". They are easily identified by their glyph tattoos.

In RealLife, it's often a murkier picture. Ordinary, upstanding citizens across the world "collaborated" to greater and lesser extents with Axis occupation, for instance, and many of them didn't really agree with Fascist/Nazi/Greater East Asia ideology or the policies they helped implement; they were just trying to survive. Others were maligned for simply fraternizing with the invaders to any extent. And then there were the peoples who had been denied (sometimes forcibly) their right to self-determination, so they didn't consider the existing nation-states their own even prior to German invasion. After the war, it was common practice in France to [[TraumaticHaircut shave the heads of women]] who loved and/or had sex with Germans (whether as wives, lovers, or prostitutes) so ordinary people who didn't know them personally could help pitch in and team up to make their lives hell for their [[CategoryTraitor perceived 'treachery']] and (supposed) sexual promiscuity. While there were a good twenty thousand illegal/informal/impromptu executions of collaborators during the Liberation of France, and most collaborationist captains of industry had their assets nationalised or were formally tried and executed, French collaborators in positions of authority were virtually all unpunished. Even François Darlan, second-in-command to Marshall Pétain, switched sides without consequence before he was assassinated by Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle
, a French Resistance member. Maurice Papon, organiser of the Holocaust in Bordeaux, went on to have a long and distinguished career organising [[{{UsefulNotes/Algeria}} the killing of yet more 'anti-French' elements in French North Africa]] and Metropolitan France before finally being tried for his role in the Holocaust in the 1980s.

* ''Fanfic/AYoungGirlsGuerillaWar'':

* A major plot point was this in the third season of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', where a number of humans volunteer as security officers to enforce Cylon rule over the human survivors. Gaius Baltar becomes the Cylons' [[TheQuisling Quisling]], though he literally has a gun to his head.

!!Example subpages:

* LesCollaborateurs/LiveActionTV

!!Other examples:

* Suzaku and Honorary Britannians in ''Anime/CodeGeass''.
** The Irregulars in ''Manga/CodeGeassNightmareOfNunnally'' fit, mostly war orphans chosen against their will. They are SuperSoldiers who are effectively enslaved by implanting DNA of C.C into their bodies.

* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': Just about any occupied nation shows signs of this, though they're not necessarily ''happy'' about it. But a few really stand out:

* [[spoiler: Count Germont]] in ''Manga/HonooNoAlpenRose''.

** in the Skypiea Arc, the White Berets agree to work for the usurper "God" Enel in the hopes that they could protect the people of Skypiea by doing so. This proves futile when Enel revealed that he had planned to destroy Skypiea and kill everyone before he set off to Fairy Vearth.(Which is the Moon)

* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' has a story involving Icabod Crane and Cinderella, who're both secretly collaborators for the Adversary. Except Cinderella is actually [[TheMole a mole]] for Bigby Wolf, sent to ferret out Crane's treachery. When caught, Crane tries ineffectively to claim that he was also pretending to collaborate in order to ferret out traitors. It doesn't work.
** [[spoiler: Trusty John]] from the same series is another example, although he was forced to do so by his oath to his master, now a vassal for the Adversary. After death he becomes a faithful servant to Flycatcher, however, in contrast to [[spoiler: Shere Khan and Bluebeard]], who try to sell out Haven to the Adversary.

* ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau'': the [[MutagenicGoo ponification serum]] was developed with the help of human scientists. In addition, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on which story you're reading]], the world's leaders have ''zero'' interest in stopping them.
** And then there's the PER (Ponification for Earth's Rebirth), who, while not official collaborators, have forsaken their humanity and will ponify any humans that haven't converted yet. [[ForcedTransformation Sometimes by force.]]
* Great House Hlaalu is often seen as being these in ''Fanfic/DariaInMorrowind''.

* In ''Film/HotelRwanda'' one of Paul's hotel employees is a virulent Hutu partisan who tells the militia about the location of the Tutsi refugees.

* In ''Film/{{Red Dawn|2012}}'' a couple of out-of-town and would-be members of the Wolverines decide to become North Korean collaborators purely out of spite against the Wolverines because they didn't like the war-experienced Iraqi veteran telling them how to handle a gun. They get killed without a second thought in the Wolverine's first major operation.
* ''Film/RyansDaughter'', the climax of which involves the titular character [[spoiler: wrongly, as it turns out]] having her head shaved for tipping off the British about the weapons drop.

* Dylan Gould (among others) in ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon''.

* The voluntary controllers in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''.

* Teguina in Creator/DaleBrown's ''Sky Masters''.

* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', many humans snapped from the stress of the ''ZombieApocalypse'' and began to act like zombies. The survivors called them "[[TheQuisling Quislings]]" after the head of the Nazi collaborationist government of Norway. It didn't fool the real zombies, however...

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has the rogue Spectre, Saren, who willingly chose to ally himself with, [[AbusivePrecursors The Reapers]], a race of [[AIIsACrapshoot ancient machines]] who aim to kill all advanced life in the galaxy, as he believed that those who served them would be spared. [[spoiler: It's confirmed later in the game that Saren had been {{Brainwashed}} by the Reapers, and was even forcibly turned into a {{Cyborg}} to quash any rebellious thoughts. If you have enough persuasion points as either Paragon or Renegade, you can convince him to redeem himself by committing suicide before the Reapers can use him to bring about the apocalypse. Although his body still ends up being possessed by them to act as a FinalBoss.]]
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda''
** [[spoiler:A portion of the salarian Ark's leadership sells their ship and crew out to the kett, figuring that it was better to give up and study the kett methodology from the inside rather than try and fight them. Problem is, doing so would've left them in no fit state to actually pass on that information.]]
** Ryder encounters one angara who sells out his species' most beloved figure to the kett. A later off-hand comment by angaran teammate Jaal suggests collaborators are not unheard of, but don't last long if found out by the angaran resistance.

* ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'': The ''Enemy Within'' ExpansionPack added EXALT collaborator cells that must be rooted out with special missions. They engage in sabotage, and make up for their operative's lower toughness than the invading aliens with [[ZergRush sheer numbers.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{XCOM 2}}'', ADVENT Troopers are enemy {{Mooks}}, humans who volunteered to fight for the alien regime and offered [[NightmareFace some rather extreme genetic modifications]]. A prequel novel has a resistance fighter point out that he never once met someone who actually knew a collaborator. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Then it turns out]] there never were any volunteers; ADVENT Troopers are ''grown''.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', after the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Galactic Federation]] turned the planet into a VichyEarth, Jerry blindly defends their occupation and GovernmentDrugEnforcement solely because they gave him a job when nobody else would. It's unclear what his position exactly was, but he's given frequent promotions possibly as a reward for Rick giving him the credit for his capture. Ironically the promotions didn't even matter since under the Federation humans were paid in basic resources rather than actual currency, so all they really amounted to was stroking his ego. Some [[EpilepticTrees fans theorize]] that his open support of their oppressive government contributed to his [[RunningGag perpetual unemployment]] following its collapse, as he's being RewardedAsATraitorDeserves by potential employers.