History RootingForTheEmpire / Literature

** In ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'', the Good Man, John Farson, while presented to be the bad guy (and actually turns out to be [[spoiler:Randal Flagg]] at one point -- [[CanonDiscontinuity and then, in later books, not]]) is shown to be leading a proletariat rebellion for democracy against the clearly Feudalistic system Roland and the other gunslingers seem to be rooting for. This is partly a side-effect of Farson being TheGhost in the novels, so we don't really learn a whole lot about him. The comic book prequels go out of their way to subvert this and when we finally meet Farson he is power-hungry but happens to be a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity popular and charismatic leader]], and his free and democratic society is really shaping up to be a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny with himself as dictator.

** 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, which might indicate Rowling has some Rooting For The Empire of her own.

* 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.

* It’s hard not to root for the Defarges in ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'' considering A. The setting is the French Revolution, B. How awful we see most of the nobility act and C. Ernest and Therese are clearly reaching out to others who have had it as bad or worse. Yes both want to kill Charles Darnay just for being an aristocrat, but they have no way of knowing he despised his Marquis uncle’s actions just as much as the poor did. - This goes a step further as though Ernest is the WellIntentionedExtremist and Therese is the BloodKnight even then it’s quite clear that Therese is like this due to not only her hard life but what the Marque did to her sister, seemingly ForTheEvulz.
* 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.

* 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.

* 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 as 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.

* This seems to be the general case for certain books of the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' series. If the protagonist tends to be either incredibly querulous, annoying, and just plain unsympathetic, the reader would end up favoring the villains over them. Case in point, ''Monster Blood'' (as well as the three sequels that follow it) and ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'' each have an [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic unlikable protagonist]] and a far more [[UnintentionallySympathetic sympathetic villain]].

* Happens in-universe, sort of, in a couple of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books, particularly ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'' and ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum''. In both cases it's really only the witches who are willing and able to oppose the elves (in the first) and the Magpyrs (in the second), and even they occasionally struggle with the temptation; if Esme Weatherwax had a will made of some weaker material (like, say, iron) both books could have ended very differently.

* It’s hard not to root for the Defarges in ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'' considering A. The setting is the French Revolution, B. How awful we see most of the nobility act and C. Ernest and Therese are clearly reaching out to others who have had it as bad or worse. Yes both want to kill Charles Darnay just for being an aristocrat, but they have no way of knowing he despised his Marquis uncle’s actions just as much as the poor did.
This goes a step further as though Ernest is the WellIntentionedExtremist and Therese is the BloodKnight even then it’s quite clear that Therese is like this due to not only her hard life but what the Marque did to her sister, seemingly ForTheEvulz.

This goes a step further as though Ernest is the WellMeaningExtremist and Therese is the BloodKnight even then it’s quite clear that Therese is like this due to not only her hard life but what the Marque did to her sister, seemingly ForTheEvluz.

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' The Good Man, John Farson, while presented to be the bad guy (and actually turns out to be [[spoiler:Randal Flagg]] at one point- [[CanonDiscontinuity and then, in later books, not]]) is shown to be leading a proletariat rebellion for democracy against the clearly Feudalistic system Roland and the other gunslingers seem to be rooting for. This is partly a side-effect of Farson being TheGhost in the novels, so we don't really learn a whole lot about him. The comic book prequels go out of their way to subvert this and when we finally meet Farson he is power-hungry but happens to be a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity popular and charismatic leader]], and his free and democratic society is really shaping up to be a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny with himself as dictator.

* 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 hostile readers, and/or come across as a misogynist jerk.

* This seems to be the general case for certain books of the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' series. If the protagonist tends to be either incredibly querulous, annoying, and just plain unsympathetic, the reader would end up favoring the villains over them. Case in point, ''Monster Blood'' and ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'' each have an [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic unlikable protagonist]] and a far more [[UnintentionallySympathetic sympathetic villain]].

** The {{Hatedom}} has a slight tendency to do this with [[spoiler: the Solarian League]], partly as a counter-reaction to [[spoiler: the League's]] somewhat inconsistent characterization as either a very loose confederation or a nigh-totalitarian bureaucratic empire, and partly as a result just plain finding Manticore's constant development of new warfare-toys that revolutionizes warfare ''annoying'' by that point in the series.

* This seems to be the general case for certain books of the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' series. If the protagonist tends to be either incredibly querulous, annoying, and just plain sympathetic, the reader would end up favoring the villains over them. Case in point, ''Monster Blood'' and ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'' each have an [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic unlikable protagonist]] and a far more [[UnintentionallySympathetic sympathetic villain]].

** A lot of fans bash the main characters, and Gryffindor House in general, because of the author'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, which might indicate Rowling has some Rooting For The Empire of her own.

** 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. 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.

** A lot of fans bash the main characters, and Gryffindor House in general, because of the author'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 generally ignore the fact that Slytherin sucks, and reinterpret them 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, which might indicate Rowling has some Rooting For The Empire of her own.

** TheKingdom becomes TheEmpire, but are really now TheFederation with feudal trappings. The Republic of Haven goes the entire gamut though, from The Empire by any other name to PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny under a ReignOfTerror to the Restored Republic, giving viewpoint characters to root for and against the entire time. Noticeable in that few civil foes in Manticore get a full viewpoint, while all Haven viewpoint characters, no matter where on the moral line, are given a full viewpoint including motivations. This may have been intentional, as Haven has undergone a slow HeelFaceTurn for some time now. Now that [[spoiler:Haven and Manticore have allied against Mesa, Haven are officially the good guys, and rooting for them is expected.]]

** An example occurs in the novel ''Shadow Of Saganami'' when the Kingdom of Manticore is in the process of the Empire of Manticore by the (voluntary) annexation of the Talbott Cluster. Local resistance groups are opposed to it, and the most developed are essentially the quasi-libertarian space-cowboys from the [[SarcasmMode subtly-named planet of Montana]]. The reader is supposed to RootForTheEmpire in this case because resistance, although composed of well-meaning people, aren't aware the people they're resisting are actually TheBigDamnHeroes and that their resistance is being "assisted" by actual sociopathic terrorists and secretly supported by the [[BigBad Mesan Alignment]].

* Many people find that [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastard, Senna Wales]] of ''{{Everworld}}'' is more entertaining a character than the heroes.

* 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.

* In ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', the designated heroes, the Shadowhunters, are descended from the angel Raziel--and pretty damn proud of it. They see themselves as above the very people they're supposed to protect: Downworlders (your werewolves, faeries, vampires, and such) and humans, otherwise known to Shadowhunters as Mundanes (or Mundies, if you want to get really ugly). Honestly, with this sort of FantasticRacism, you'd probably get more love and respect from a demon disemboweling you and dragging your soul straight to Hell; at least demons are ''supposed'' to be cruel. To be fair, the Shadowhunters are called out on this ''all the time'' by everyone who isn't a Shadowhunter. The moral of the first 3 books is that the Downworlders aren't inherently evil and the Shadowhunters aren't inherently good and that they could save a lot more lives if they got over their differences and helped each other. [[spoiler:Indeed, ''City of Glass'' ends with the Downworlders agreeing to help the Shadowhunters defeat [[BigBad Valentine]] in return for the Downworlders getting representation in the Shadowhunter's council.]] Not that this makes their snotty attitudes any more pleasant to read about.

* In ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', the designated heroes, the Shadowhunters, are descended from the angel Raziel--and pretty damn proud of it. They see themselves as above the very people they're supposed to protect: Downworlders (your werewolves, faeries, vampires, and such) and humans, otherwise known to Shadowhunters as Mundanes (or Mundies, if you want to get really ugly). Honestly, with this sort of FantasticRacism, you'd probably get more love and respect from a demon disemboweling you and dragging your soul straight to Hell; at least demons are ''supposed'' to be cruel. To be fair, the Shadowhunters are called out on this ''all the time'' by everyone who isn't a Shadowhunter. The moral of the first 3 books is that the Downworlders aren't inherently evil and the Shadowhunters aren't inherently good and that they could save a lot more lives if they got over their differences and helped each other. [[spoiler:Indeed, ''City of Glass'' ends with the Downworlders agreeing to help the Shadowhunters defeat [[BigBad Valentine]] in return for the Downworlders getting representation in the Shadowhunter's council.]]