History RootingForTheEmpire / Literature

* In ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', the fascist LadyLand Azania sometimes gets this, especially from readers who disagree with the author's conservative politics. While their actions soundly establish them as villains, the Azanians' ideology of progress through science and championing of women's issues and LGBT rights looks more sympathetic and inspiring to some than the heroes' own over-the-top right-wing libertarian utopia, and furthermore they have the advantage of cool aesthetics and technology, as well as [[GirlOnGirlIsHot sundry other factors]]. It also helps that the main POV character on the good side can easily look like a hypocrite to some readers, and/or come across as a misogynist jerk.

* ''Literature/{{Jaws}}'': Given how unsympathetic the main protagonists are and how real-life sharks face endangerment from humans, it's not hard to see the [[ThreateningShark great white shark]] as the true hero of the story. Creator/StevenSpielberg admitted that when he read the book, he disliked the characters so much [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3400291.stm he wanted the shark to win]]. It's one of the reasons he applied some AdaptationSympathy for the human characters in the [[Film/{{Jaws}} film adaptation]] just so audience would have a reason to root against the shark.

* ''Literature/{{Jaws}}: Given how unsympathetic the main protagonists are and how real-life sharks face endangerment from humans, it's not hard to see the [[ThreateningShark great white shark]] as the true hero of the story. Creator/StevenSpielberg admitted that when he read the book, he disliked the characters so much [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3400291.stm he wanted the shark to win]]. It's one of the reasons he applied some AdaptationSympathy for the human characters in the [[Film/{{Jaws}} film adaptation]] just so audience would have a reason to root against the shark.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':

* ''Literature/PhantomOfTheOpera'': The Phantom is a SerialKiller, a stalker, and a kidnapper, but has a tragic FreudianExcuse that [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds makes his contempt for society seem pretty understandable]], and is a borderline ImpossibleGenius with [[EvilIsCool a staggering array of awesome inventions]]. Meanwhile, the hero, Raoul, is [[TheScrappy one of the most universally-disliked protagonists in literary history]], due to being an idiot who acts as TheLoad to the Persian throughout the book, and is also a borderline stalker in his own right. It's not hard to find fans who find the Phantom to be the more likeable of the two and wish he had been the one to get with Christine in the end.

** Some fans bash the main characters, and Gryffindor House in general, because of the author's (or at least the viewpoint character's) supposed prejudice against [[AmbitionIsEvil Slytherin House]], who they view as cultured and urbane in comparison to the [[JerkJock crude, bullying Gryffindor jocks.]] In a slightly different perspective, they recognize most of Slytherin is evil, but criticize the author for making them so, especially considering their defining trait is "ambition", which any normal eleven-year-old would have oodles of ("I wanna be a ninja/astronaut/actor/doctor/lawyer!"). So, to rebel, they reinterpret Slytherin in the fandom to make a more realistic picture of cunning and ambition. In an interview on Mugglenet Rowling defended Slytherin and said "they are literally not all bad [people]". The problem is that they are never ''shown'' in the actual books to be anything other than {{Jerk Ass}}es and Voldemort supporters ([[TokenGoodTeammate except Slughorn]]), which might indicate Rowling has some Rooting For The Empire of her own.

** Individually, fans started to dislike Harry's [[{{Wangst}} irritable nature]] more and more after ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''. This contributed to increased favouritism of Draco, which JK Rowling admitted to disliking; she was a bit disturbed that people didn't like the hero and preferred Draco. She even admitted to punishing/exaggerating Draco and the Slytherins where she could to counteract it (which [[MisaimedFandomnaturally just increased resentment that led some readers to prefer the villains in the first place]]).

** Individually, fans started to dislike Harry's [[{{Wangst}} irritable nature]] more and more after ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''. This contributed to increased favouritism of Draco, which JK Rowling admitted to disliking; she was a bit disturbed that people didn't like the hero and preferred Draco. She even admitted to punishing/exaggerating Draco and the Slytherins where she could to counteract it (which [[NiceJobBreakingItHero naturally just increased resentment that led some readers to prefer the villains in the first place]]).

** A lot of fans bash the main characters, and Gryffindor House in general, because of the author's (or at least the viewpoint character's) prejudice against [[AmbitionIsEvil Slytherin House]], who they view as cultured and urbane in comparison to the [[JerkJock crude, bullying Gryffindor jocks.]] In a slightly different perspective, they recognize most of Slytherin is evil, but criticize the author for making them so, especially considering their defining trait is "ambition", which any normal eleven-year-old would have oodles of ("I wanna be a ninja/astronaut/actor/doctor/lawyer!"). So, to rebel, they reinterpret Slytherin in the fandom to make a more realistic picture of cunning and ambition. In an interview on Mugglenet Rowling defended Slytherin and said "they are literally not all bad [people]". The problem is that they are never ''shown'' in the actual books to be anything other than {{Jerk Ass}}es and Voldemort supporters ([[TokenGoodTeammate except Slughorn]]), which might indicate Rowling has some Rooting For The Empire of her own.

** His very first novel, ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', gets this a lot, especially courtesy of its film adaptations. Carrie White is portrayed as an extremely sympathetic AntiVillain, a MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold who is horribly abused by her [[TheFundamentalist religious fanatic]] [[MyBelovedSmother mother]] and by [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer her classmates]], with at least ''three'' supporting characters -- the aforementioned mother, the AlphaBitch Chris Hargensen, and her {{Greaser Delinquent|s}} boyfriend Billy Nolan -- all portrayed as the real villains for having pushed her to the breaking point. At the same time... she committed a mass murder spree to dwarf UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}, Sandy Hook, and Parkland combined. It helps that the [[Film/Carrie1976 various]] [[Film/Carrie2002 film]] [[Film/Carrie2013 adaptations]] softened the nature of her actions, portraying her as having suffered a [[HeroicBSOD psychotic break]] while the original novel depicted her as being in full control of what she was doing and clearly enjoying every second of it, while also (save for the 2002 version) limiting the scope of her rampage as opposed to having her burn down her entire town. (The AdaptationalAttractiveness [[BeautyEqualsGoodness doesn't hurt either]].) Many fans will admit to outright cheering for Carrie as she slaughters her classmates at the prom.

** Nûmenor. The lightbearer of the Humanity and Civilization, who crushed the Evil Empire of Sauron and broke the fetters of Valar and showed the Eldar where they can shove their immortality. [[DeusExMachina Until Eru came]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero and spoiled it all]]. Of course, the Nûmenorans had begun enslaving much of Middle-Earth at this time, which is why so many people hated the Kingdoms created by the refugees.
* A combination of [[UnderminedByReality the author’s hypocrisy and criminal acts coming to light]] and the complete inability of [[IdiotBall the heroes to be sensible]] [[DesignatedHero or ethical]] and [[OffstageVillainy the villains to be brutal]] [[DesignatedVillain or mean]] causes readers of ''Literature/TheMistsOfAvalon'' to despise the Avalonian protagonists and view them as worse than the Christian antagonists. Blog/DasSporking in particular came to view Viviane as a sociopathic DiabolicalMastermind and Morgaine as a whiny [[ManChild woman-child]] with an entitlement complex while seeing Gwenhwyfar as a kind, put-upon woman whom everyone irrationally hates because of her developmental disabilities, and the Christian leaders as only slightly morally gray antiheroes trying to stop a [[ReligionOfEvil pedophile cult]] that bears no resemblance to historical Celtic paganism whatsoever. About the only thing to be concerned about is the decline of women's rights, and it isn’t like [[InformedAttribute any woman in Avalon other than the leader even has those]].

* Looking at the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' as a whole, despite the various books that portray the Empire as fundamentally evil, there are also books that show that not ''all'' of its members are pure evil, and the Republic/Alliance as not all good (especially with all the DemocracyIsBad, LawfulStupid and/or {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s going around). Creator/TimothyZahn is the most notable of the authors who do this; [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]], while he is decidedly [[KickTheDog not a good person]], is still portrayed as [[PragmaticVillainy somewhat]] [[MagnificentBastard better]] than his predecessors (which is not that great an accomplishment), and there are fans who think the galaxy might have been better off with him alive. In the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology, the Supreme Commander was reluctantly seeking peace with the New Republic, and by that point Pellaeon really couldn't be called one of the bad guys. Eventually, he became more or less completely lawful and good, leading his [[TheRemnant Imperial Remnant]] into the Galactic Alliance, the government that succeeded the New Republic after the Yuuzhan Vong killed it. He even became supreme commander of their fleet. [[MoodWhiplash Which itself eventually became evil]] and a copy, more or less, of Palpatine's Empire, though Pellaeon realized this before it was too late, but a [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge fell on him]] before he could do anything about it (not that he didn't try).

** Dumbledore starts out as Harry's kind, grandfatherly, somewhat [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} kooky]] mentor, but in the later books, more things about his past and his agenda regarding Harry and the war are revealed, which leaves him more in the ManipulativeBastard category. It also doesn't help that, given how many of the entries on [[WhatAnIdiot/HarryPotter this page]] are about him, it's hard to read the books without seeing him as either massively incompetent or plain evil, though admittedly pretty much everyone in the Wizarding World suffers from a severe lack of logic and common sense. This has left a lot of fans in the somewhat awkward position of liking ''Harry'' just fine and rooting for him, while simultaneously greatly preferring Voldemort over Dumbledore.

* The Seeker in ''Literature/TheHost''. The Seeker is merely doing their job as the 'front-liner', among the first wave of souls to be implanted into the world's habitants and to smooth the way for more souls to take over, being sometimes forced to use violent ways to achieve this goal, for the sake of keeping the souls save and prospering. The Seeker also took the fact that Wanderer was having difficult subdueing her host Melanie as a potential danger, as a previous incident had happened where a host took control over their body again and severely injured several souls, before the soul inhabiting said body could be rescued and put into another body, the rogue host being disposed of. So the Seeker is quite aware of ''how'' dangerous the humans can be, even if they are a small percentage compared to the souls inhabiting the world at the time. Yet Seeker gets repeatedly shunned, insulted and mocked by several characters, the most prominent being Fords and Wanderer/Melanie herself. Given the fact that Wanderer would not have even ''gotten'' Melanie's body, had the Seeker not done her job, it not only makes the protagonist seem like an UngratefulBastard, but just makes the Seeker more sympathetic to the reader.

* Looking at the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' as a whole, despite the various books that portray the Empire as fundamentally evil, there are also books that show that not ''all'' of its members are pure evil, and the Republic/Alliance as not all good (especially with all the DemocracyIsBad, LawfulStupid and/or {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s going around). Creator/TimothyZahn is the most notable of the authors who do this; [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]], while he is decidedly [[KickTheDog not a good person]], is still portrayed as [[PragmaticVillainy somewhat]] [[MagnificentBastard better]] than his predecessors (which is not that great an accomplishment), and there are fans who think the galaxy might have been better off with him alive. In the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology, the Supreme Commander was reluctantly seeking peace with the New Republic, and by that point Pellaeon really couldn't be called one of the bad guys. Eventually, he became more or less completely LawfulGood, leading his [[TheRemnant Imperial Remnant]] into the Galactic Alliance, the government that succeeded the New Republic after the Yuuzhan Vong killed it. He even became supreme commander of their fleet. [[MoodWhiplash Which itself eventually became evil]] and a copy, more or less, of Palpatine's Empire, though Pellaeon realized this before it was too late, but a [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge fell on him]] before he could do anything about it (not that he didn't try).

* Literature/FuManchu is a very easy character to root for, in spite of (or, really, ''because'' of) him being essentially the embodiment of the YellowPeril archetype. Far fewer people recall the names of the actual hero of the novels (Sir Nayland Smith, for the record). A chunk of this is down to ValuesDissonance, as Fu Manchu is, at his core, an anti-colonialist character whose first priority is to kick the British out of his homeland--as one blogger put it, "like, what, a step below 'reviving a family member out of love' as maybe the most sympathetic goal you could possibly give a supervillain"--but even back in the day, he was clearly far more popular, likeable, and interesting than any of the good guys. A particular case of this is ''The Drums of Fu Manchu'', where his goal is to bump off a number of Western dictators in the 1940s, with one of his successful targets being the Chancellor of Germany--that's right, he ''killed Hitler'', and the heroes are still out to stop him.

* Literature/FuManchu is a very easy character to root for, in spite of (or, really, ''because'' of) him being essentially the embodiment of the YellowPeril archetype. Far fewer people recall the names of the actual hero of the novels (Sir Nayland Smith, for the record). A chunk of this is down to ValuesDissonance, as Fu Manchu is, at his core, an anti-colonialist character whose first priority is to kick the British out of his homeland--as one blogger put it, "like, what, a step below 'reviving a family member out of love' as maybe the most sympathetic goal you could possibly give a supervillain"--but even back in the day, he was clearly far more popular, likeable, and interesting than any of the good guys. A particular case of this is ''The Drums of Fu Manchu'', where his goal is to bump off a number of Western dictators in the 1940s--that's right, he tries to ''kill Hitler'', and the heroes set out to stop him.

* Some folks actually wouldn't have minded seeing ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' actually beat the main characters. The book goes out of it way to make vampirism seem like the worst thing in the world, but outside the inhuman hunger for blood, receiving the powers of the night and immortality didn't seem like a bad trade-off. Well, at least for themselves; other people ''might'' not be so happy with the "being drained of blood" thing. Although the book heavily implies that vampires are essentially corpses possessed by demons that are holding the person's soul hostage, as even Dracula himself smiles when he's finally killed.