History PlayingWith / GoodRepublicEvilEmpire

* '''Inverted''': TheGoodKingdom vs the PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny

* '''Straight''': [[TheRepublic The Voterton Republic]] and [[TheEmpire The Crownburg Empire]] are at war. The former is a democratically elected republic, the latter is a hereditary feudal monarchy. The author expects you to root for the republic.

* '''Exaggerate''': [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Without exception]], every Emperor-King to ever rule Crownburg has been an EvilOverlord and everyone who supports the monarchy is AlwaysChaoticEvil, while everyone who doesn't support the monarchy is an oppressed citizen who hates their government and [[JumpedAtTheCall jumps to work for Voterton]] at the first opportunity. Meanwhile, [[{{Utopia}} almost every official and citizen in Voterton]] is AlwaysLawfulGood, and anyone who is not eventually defects to Crownburg and/or is TheMole for them.

* '''Exaggerate''': [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Without exception]], every Emperor-King to ever rule Crownburg has been an EvilOverlord and everyone who supports the monarchy is AlwaysChaoticEvil, while everyone who doesn't support the monarchy is an oppressed citizen who hates their government and [[JumpedAtTheCall jumps to work for Voterton]] at the first opportunity. Meanwhile, [[MarySuetopia almost every official and citizen in Voterton]] is AlwaysLawfulGood, and anyone who is not eventually defects to Crownburg and/or is TheMole for them.

* '''Downplayed''': Despite being shown to be imperialistic and more prone to arrogance, [[RepressiveButEfficient Crownburg still abides by a form of gentlemanly honor and]], [[WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs like the Romans]], does stuff for people. Likewise, Voterton is shown to have some {{corrupt politician}}s, of their own, and are not able to get infrastructure done because of party-politics and corporate influence. Voterton is ALighterShadeOfGray, but Crownburg isn't entirely unsympathetic.

** The so-called republic is in fact an oligarchy with limited suffrage and deep inequality, it supports and advocates slavery ('[[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord reparations]]'), practices segregation ('diversity'), and is warmongering and expansionist (in the name of '[[YouKeepUsingThatWord liberation]]'), while the Empire is ruled by an Enlightened Monarch with a centralized bureaucracy that protects minorities from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority the Tyranny of the Majority]].

* '''Downplayed''': Despite being shown to be imperialistic and more prone to arrogance, [[RepressiveButEfficient Crownburg still abides by a form of gentlemanly honor and]], [[WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs like the Romans]], does stuff for people. Likewise, Voterton is shown to have some {{corrupt politician}}s, of their own, and are not able to get infrastructure done because of party-politics and corporate influence. The Republic is still ALighterShadeOfGray.

* '''Downplayed''': GrayAndGreyMorality. Despite being shown to be imperialistic and more prone to arrogance, [[RepressiveButEfficient Crownburg still abides by a form of gentlemanly honor and]], [[WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs like the Romans]], does stuff for people. Likewise, Voterton is shown to have some {{corrupt politician}}s, of their own, and are not able to get infrastructure done because of party-politics and corporate influence.

* '''Exaggerate''': [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Without exception]], every Emperor-King to ever rule Crownburg has been an EvilOverlord and everyone who supports the monarchy is AlwaysChaoticEvil, while everyone who doesn't support the monarchy is an oppressed citizen who hates their government. Meanwhile, [[MarySuetopia almost every official and citizen in Voterton]] is AlwaysLawfulGood, and anyone who is not eventually defects to Crownburg and/or is TheMole for them.

* '''Downplayed''': GrayAndGreyMorality. Despite being shown to be imperialistic and more prone to arrogance, Crownburg still abides by a form of gentlemanly honor and, [[WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs like the Romans]], does stuff for people. Likewise, Voterton is shown to have some {{corrupt politician}}s, of their own, and are not able to get infrastructure done because of party-politics and corporate influence.

** The Republic is Good (i.e. people inside are happy and it has a better human rights record), the Empire is Bad (i.e. rulers are bad and it has a poor human rights record) but the Republic has consistently violated treaties and international obligations and starts a WarForFunAndProfit that oppresses the lives of the Empire, far worse than the Empire does.

* '''Double Subverted''': It is revealed that the "Republic" is actually a dictatorship (there are technically elections... but voting for anyone other than the incumbent results in getting thrown in a work camp) while the "Empire" has a freely elected Parliament and a Monarch who only fills a figurehead role.

* '''Inverted''': TheGoodKingdom of Crownburg is fighting a defensive war against [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny The People's Democratic Republic of Voterton]]. While the former and [[KnightInShiningArmor its armies]] at least follows through with it's treaties and abides by The Laws and Customs of War (or at the very least an old form of Chivalry), the latter commits war-crimes like it's going out of style and violates treaties while conquering other nations under the guise of "liberation".

* '''Exaggerate''': [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Without exception]], every Emperor-King to ever rule Crownburg has been an EvilOverlord and everyone who supports the monarchy is AlwaysChaoticEvil, while everyone who doesn't support the monarchy is an oppressed citizen who hates thier government. Meanwhile, [[MarySuetopia almost every official and citizen in Voterton]] is AlwaysLawfulGood, and anyone who is not eventually defects to Crownburg and/or is TheMole for them.

** The so-called republic is in fact an oligarchy with limited suffrage and deep inequality, it supports and advocates slavery ('[[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord reparations]]'), practices segregation ('diversity'), and is warmongering and expansionist (in the name of '[[YouKeepUsingThatWord liberation]]'), while the Empire is ruled by an Enlightened Monarch with a centralized bureaucracy that protects minorties from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority the Tyranny of the Majority]].

* '''Zig Zagged''': Everyone thinks that the Republic is "good" now, but it wasn't always so. For nearly a century after the first revolution, the actions taken by radicals were so controversial that moderates made compromises with reactionaries to back-down from the original scope of the revolt. After that, there were restorations of monarchies/coups/failed revolts, and some Republicans co-operated with conservatives to stiffle the radical ones who wanted to do crazy stuff like give every man the vote or *gasp* possibly women, and this led to that election where the people "voted" for the Emperor because they didn't see any difference between them and the moderates. It's only recently that the original national anthem in the first revolution has become consensual and everyone agrees that the Republic is truly better than the Empire, and even now you have people whining about how the Empire had better art, better music while the Republic has no culture.

* '''Exploited''': "Enlist and Buy War Bonds! Save Voterton from The Tyrant Kings!"

* '''Deconstructed''': The conflict between Voterton and Crownburg initially seems to be about values as to which is the better government; but then it turns out that Crownburg was once a democracy that was toppled by Voterton, who installed the present Emperor as a puppet dictatorship because the Crownburg revolutionaries wanted to nationalize its industry [[CapitalismIsBad and negotiate equal trade with]] Voterton. Voterton itself was not always as free and equal, [[{{Hypocrite}} as it believes itself to be and likewise internally promotes reform and gradual change while denying Empires and moderate reformers inside the Empire, the right to change gradually]]; and while there is freedom of dissent, powerful people are protected by several LoopholeAbuse and a corporate-financed propaganda campaign indistuinghishable from the propaganda put out by the Empire. In other words, it’s a MoralityKitchenSink where nobody disputes that a Republic is the better form of government, but they dispute the context and background in which the trope is employed and the justification of this trope for nationalist bickering.
* '''Reconstructed''': Voterton is reformer into a true Republic where people are happy and free, while the supporters of the old regime take control of Crownburg and declare war on the new government.

%%* '''Implied''': ???