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| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings! |
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| 7 | ->''"[The story] kind of bought into the greatest lie that fascists ever told: that it is strong. That it is orderly. That it is might and power and deference ''to'' might and power. For the longest time, the popular belief about Nazi Germany was that it was an efficient war machine that took a broken people and almost conquered the world. The truth is, the methods they used were inefficient, corrupt, and ultimately self-defeating. They cared more about propaganda and pushing out an image of fortitude than actually doing anything that would truly help themselves. They used scapegoats, bigotry, anything they could to try to get people on board with the programs, even while they suffered under them."'' |
| 8 | -->-- '''Creator/{{Linkara}}''' in his review of ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'', ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' |
| 9 | |
| 10 | ThoseWackyNazis. Sure, they might be brutal, genocidal, monstrously evil, and ruled by [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler an insane tyrannical megalomaniac]]. But at least they can [[NoDelaysForTheWicked make trains run on time]] and all that good stuff. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Or so it's said. But in truth, the Nazis couldn't even do ''that'' right. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | UsefulNotes/NaziGermany was one of the ''least'' efficient states in history -- and that's not even accounting for the gross amount of corruption. Surprisingly, this was the result of deliberate design. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis intentionally created a multitude of redundant agencies and government departments with overlapping responsibilities. The goal, per their [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist beliefs]], was for agencies to compete against each other, the theory being that the strongest agency would rise to the top. The result was complete chaos. Agencies and departments [[InterserviceRivalry refused to work with each other]] because they saw each other as rivals in a competition rather than partners working towards a common goal. Historical evidence even suggests that, at times, some agencies of the Nazi government were so bogged down in spying, plotting, and undermining one another that carrying out the function they were actually supposed to do became secondary to trying to one-up everybody else. This was ''also'' by design -- Hitler was an extremely paranoid man who feared any challenge to his authority, and having the bureaucracy constantly infighting kept them focused on each other rather than him. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | In RealLife, the only thing efficient about dictatorships and fascist states like Nazi Germany is their total control of the media, which they use to portray themselves as being extremely efficient and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity benevolent]]. This is despite their crippling [[EnemyCivilWar factional in-fighting]], [[CorruptPolitician endemic corruption]], and brainwashing their communities into [[CrapsackWorld hellholes]]. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | In fiction, the administrative incompetence of authoritarian regimes is often taken to comedic extremes. They'll enforce laws in a haphazard manner -- [[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife extreme draconian punishment for jaywalkers]], but anyone with enough sense to wear a PaperThinDisguise slips right under the radar. It appears that in their respective universes, fascism is controlled by a series of {{obstructive bureaucrat}}s, who aren't really interested in things working so much as they are in seriously inconveniencing people. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | This trope isn't just limited to fascism, but authoritarianism in general. DirtyCommunists, [[EvilColonialist colonial imperialists]], capitalistic [[OneNationUnderCopyright One Nations Under Copyright]], and even good ol' fashioned non-ideological tyrants, most notoriously {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s and [[BananaRepublic military dictatorships]], can fit under this trope. In fact, the trope runs a wide gamut of malice and effectiveness. This kind of government can actually be run by LawfulGood characters whose haphazard enforcement of the law usually keeps the heroes from doing their job. LaResistance may operate under the auspice of a mildly incompetent evil government, such that their activities go unnoticed. Other such governments are just [[SelectiveObliviousness willfully ignorant]] of certain lawbreakers for whatever reason, be it prejudice, corruption, or plain old laziness. A distinct possibility is that the boss ''really is'' SurroundedByIdiots just as he's been saying all along. Of course, the people living under such a regime will still ''talk'' in public about how efficient the Fascist, But Inefficient government is... because if they don't, they stand a good chance of getting arrested and executed. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | This is TruthInTelevision; it's usually hard to oppress people, try to TakeOverTheWorld and run a functioning government at the same time. And indeed, there have been a number of real life cases of such empires falling under this trope. But such things are beyond the scope of this website. Because of the inherent FlameBait of calling any government entity a fascist state, the only RealLife example we will allow on this page is the preceding one about Nazi Germany. Other than that, Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Compare DystopiaIsHard and CapitalismIsBad. Contrast RepressiveButEfficient. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[noreallife]] |
| 27 | |
| 28 | ---- |
| 29 | !!Examples: |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 34 | * ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Britannia enforces ethnic inequality. The Japanese get 20 years for going on a drug binge, there are public mass executions, ''etc.'' Britannian gangsters, by contrast, live in huge buildings visible to everyone and don't seem to fear any legal repercussions whatsoever. One gangster nearly kills a (Britannian) student to protect his reputation as a chess player and is only stopped by a sudden attack from Zero's Black Knights. They also act more or less with impunity. But what do they expect when the Emperor openly approves of murder and theft in his public speeches as [[TheSocialDarwinist strength overcoming weakness]]? |
| 35 | * The World of Mana in ''Anime/CrossAnge'' may be home to the most excessively fascist and evil society known to man. However, they're equally as incompetent and idiotic. Their methods of execution are more of [[ColdBloodedTorture tormenting the oppressed Norma]] than efficiently killing them. The leadership wastes time bickering over one another rather than getting things done themselves, and anything that ''does'' get done is through the help of [[BigBad Embryo]]. And the lack of war resulted in generations of complacency which means that once a war does come into their society, they have no means of fighting back. |
| 36 | * ''Franchise/KerberosSaga'': The fascist Japanese government could write a book on being inefficient. With their heavily armoured Panzer Cops, you'd think they have it all figured out, but surprise, surprise, leftist revolts are popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm, all thanks to their genius economic policies. What's a government to do? Call in the Panzer Cops, of course! But their reputation for brutality doesn't exactly win hearts and minds. Plus, they can't even keep their own government agencies from bickering like schoolyard rivals. So yeah, the whole operation was a hot mess, and it's no wonder the Panzers got the boot. Nice try, guys. |
| 37 | * ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'': The Principality of Zeon really take this trope to a whole new level. They just can't resist the allure of shiny, expensive superweapons that always seem to backfire spectacularly. Sure, Mobile Suits are cool and all, but invest in some basic strategy. And don't get us started on the Zabi family – they are basically a soap opera set in space, with constant infighting that would make even the most conniving reality TV stars blush. If you ever wanted a masterclass on how not to run a totalitarian regime, Zeon's got you covered. |
| 38 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'': The country of [[{{Wutai}} Wano]] is suffering a terrible famine under the tyrannical rule of the shogun Orochi. Everywhere outside of the Flower Capital is a lawless wasteland poisoned by industrial runoff where little grows and anyone can be executed on sight for simply speaking ill of the shogun (or for no real reason at all). Most of the country's population lives in extreme poverty where entire villages may die of starvation. Meanwhile, Orochi and his closest associates in the Flower Capital endlessly indulge in disgustingly wasteful decadence. [[spoiler:We find out it's so inefficient ''[[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans on purpose]]'' because Orochi is deliberately turning Wano into a hellhole and causing mass suffering of its populace as revenge for treating his family line like dirt for so long.]] |
| 39 | * Ostania in ''Manga/SPYxFAMILY'' has a very oppressive SecretPolice [[PuttingOnTheReich reminiscent of the Schutzstaffel]] who arrest people for things such as publishing magazines that tarnish the country's reputation or even ''rumors'' of people cheating on their spouses. They're also far less competent than their Westalis counterparts, to the point a diplomat from there was better protected from assassination by his own nation's spy network than local security. |
| 40 | [[/folder]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[folder:Blogs]] |
| 43 | * ''Blog/HamstersParadise'': The Purebloods are a civilization of tundra harmsters obsessed with maintaining cultural and genetic purity in front of the other harmster civilizations developing very divergent cultures and interbreeding with the other harmster species. As a result, they ruthlessly police themselves for any deviation from their ancestral culture and cull any member of their kind who shows any mutation or genetic impurity. This ultimately cripples their civilization, as their obsession with purity leaves them vulnerable to inbreeding and lacking in genetic diversity needed to resist disease, while their enforcement of "pure" culture also prevents them from developing any real technological advancement and allows the more advanced factions to devastate them when war breaks out. |
| 44 | [[/folder]] |
| 45 | |
| 46 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 47 | * ''ComicBook/{{Empire}}'' revolves around a superhero setting where the BigBad and his legion of supervillains [[TheBadGuyWins actually managed to win]] and took over the world. The resulting government is ''exactly'' as corrupt, decadent, and inefficient as you’d expect a society run by nutjob super-criminals to be, with said Big Bad having to constantly stamp out infighting and betrayal attempts, while barely anything gets done. [[spoiler:By the end of the story, the Empire is obviously starting to come apart at the seams, and even Golgoth himself privately admits that [[KeystoneArmy it will almost certainly collapse the second anything happens to him]].]] |
| 48 | * ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'': The Adversary's Empire does a ruthlessly efficient job of conquering the Homelands, but once firmly in control they become paranoid and often execute advisors and magicians after they're done being useful; the Emperor himself notes that by focusing so much on possible threats from within, they've become extraordinarily vulnerable to threats from without. Boy Blue is able to do tremendous damage to the government armed with just the vorpal sword and the witching cloak. |
| 49 | * ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Mega-City One has a ludicrous number of laws and the Judges act as JudgeJuryAndExecutioner by definition. Is it any wonder that the crime rate is through the roof and the vast majority of its citizenry live in poverty and why [[OmnicidalManiac Judge Death]] keeps coming back? |
| 50 | * ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': |
| 51 | ** The nation of Borduria. When Tintin and Captain Haddock sneak into the country to rescue the kidnapped Professor Calculus, they repeatedly manage to evade the Bordurian army, police force, and secret service, to the point where they manage to get rid of the Bordurian agents sent to tail them by getting them drunk. Humorously, it was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Herge himself, who named the agents Kronik and Klumsi. |
| 52 | *** When Tintin & Co. escape the country in a stolen Bordurian tank, Tintin doesn't notice until too late that the Bordurian troops have laid anti-tank mines right in their path - and the tank drives right over them, leaving the troops to rant that the factory sent them a crate of duds. |
| 53 | ** Same goes for San Theodoros, where the two dictators, General Alcazar and General Tapioca, are both so ineffective [[FullCircleRevolution they constantly overthrow each other in the blink of an eye]]. |
| 54 | * ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' |
| 55 | ** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'': |
| 56 | *** Zigzagged in the backstory of the original IDW ''Transformers'' comics. At their peak, the Decepticons had an actual star-spanning empire with massive fleets, engaging in titanic battles with the Autobots across the galaxy. By the time the Transformers get involved on Earth, both sides are fielding, at best, a mere dozen or so combatants per world to take over planets relying on infiltration tactics. The Decepticons still have Fascist tendencies, but the Cybertronian race has been so whittled down by millions of years of war and wasted resources that they have no choice but to be more efficient. |
| 57 | *** Also in the backstory, Autobot leader Zeta Prime took increasingly draconian and then outright monstrous actions in his attempts to stop the Decepticons. This wound up turning Orion Pax (aka the future Optimus Prime) against him, along with many others. At first Orion was a firm supporter, but the more fascistic Zeta became the more people began to turn against the Autobots, and once Zeta unveiled his Vampiric Dampners (weapons designed to leech the very energy out of a Cybertronian to use against them), Orion and like-minded Autobots rebelled. |
| 58 | ** ''ComicBook/TransformersShatteredGlass'': Unlike many examples, the Autobot Imperium actually seems to function reasonably well despite a) being extremely fascistic, b) subscribing to such an extreme vision of MightMakesRight that ''hospitals'' are decried as "coddling", and c) their leader Optimus Prime being rightfully described as insane. Optimus also develops two superweapons over the course of the storyline: the heavily-armed Ark and the sentient super robot Omega Doom. In both cases, he would've won if not for [[OutsideContextProblem things he couldn't have reasonably predicted]]. In the Ark's case, he added so many weapons that the Ark's launch pad was strained (which he'd accepted). He couldn't have expected that a heroic Cliffjumper (from [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel the Marvel Comics Transformers series]]) would arrive and share the schematics to glass gas with the Decepticons, allowing them to make the launchpad so brittle it collapsed under the weight of the Ark. In Omega Doom's case, Omega was defeated by Nexus Prime, one of the Thirteen Primes and a literal demigod. The reason why the Imperium is doing pretty well is that Optimus is extremely [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic]]. For example, despite their derision for hospitals, there are still hospitals because Optimus recognizes that even the best warriors can get banged up, and because "treatment" can also overlap with "punishment". He will certainly pull a YouHaveFailedMe, but it's possible to talk him out of it (the way Grimlock did). And to Cliffjumper's confusion and horror, Optimus averts NeverRecycleYourSchemes. When he decides to launch the Ark a second time, he reinforces the launch pad with stone, which is [[NoSell immune to glass gas]]. He's even a kind of BenevolentBoss to his most loyal followers, even promising Ironhide his own ''star system'' to rule once the Autobot conquest of the galaxy began in earnest. |
| 59 | * Gary "the Smiler" Callahan from ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' is a MisanthropeSupreme who hates people so much he wants to be the President of United States solely to turn USA into a fascist dictatorship. [[MotiveRant In his own words]] he wants to make everyone "shut up and do things properly". However, in the series finale, Spider takes great pleasure in pointing out that, once he got the seat, all his focus was on stopping people from taking it away from him. Despite being in power for months, he didn't even get to ''begin'' building his new order before Spider took him down. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 63 | * ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'': It was already well-established that TCB!Equestria (aka, the [[TheEmpire Solar Empire]]) is a CrapsaccharineWorld, but it's not until the ''Calm Before the Storm'' side story comes along and shows just how bad it all really is. First off, the truly ''massive'' number of newfoals coming into Equestria has overstretched their resources to the breaking point. Making things worse is that the barrier vaporizes ''everything'' in its path (agriculture, infrastructure, buildings, materials, and information about how to create these things), leaving the conquered lands useless to the Imperials; in short, the barrier may be the only thing truly giving the Solar Empire an edge against humanity (as it's clear the war would've been over a lot sooner without it) but they're also [[HoistByHisOwnPetard screwing themselves over]] as they're destroying the very resources they could've used to more easily shoulder their explosive population growth and colonize Earth. Moreover, the [[HopelessWar war has gone on for so long and has been so brutal]] that morale is at an all-time low, with only fanaticism and terror being able to hold their heads above the water, and even that is coming apart at the seams. |
| 64 | * ''Fanfic/{{Cultstuck}}'' has the twelve canonical trolls running rings around the threshcutioner trainees sent to kill Karkat and anyone who knows him. The sequel, ''Earthbent'', has a chapter that makes it clear why this was possible: nearly everyone involved in the investigation was either spectacularly incompetent or focusing on their personal drama rather than the task at hand, if not both. And because they expected the subordinates they sent to investigate for them to [[HeKnowsTooMuch see too much]], they sent either disposable pawns or people they actively wanted dead... none of which contributes to getting an accurate report back. It's implied that this is, in fact, completely normal for Alternia. By the end of the chapter, it's somewhat surprising that anyone actually noticed the replica Lance of the Summoner purposefully left in Karkat's hive for what it is... even though pictures of it have already been forwarded to one investigator's potential avenger ''and'' posted anonymously on the troll equivalent of the Internet. |
| 65 | * When Oshehant, the capital city of the planet Virmok, is visited by the Third Doctor and Sara Kingdom in [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9868669/27/Game-of-Doctors Game of Doctors Chapter 27]] most of the officials are shown as very incompetent and factional, scheming against each other. The guy in charge of the City's Security is suspicious of the Doctor and Sara but lets them into a building of intelligence reports when they are recommended by a rival commander, in the hope that if they are spies his rival [[SkewedPriorities will get in trouble]]. The woman in charge of the Intelligence Building is implied to be having an affair with her deputy, her dim-witted [[KissingCousins second cousin]] and dislikes the only competent officer that appears in the story, partially due to being a FemaleMisogynist and due to [[FeudingFamilies an apparent family feud]]. |
| 66 | * ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'': This is what has become of Prince Phobos' regime, in that he's too [[TheCaligula self-centered]] to realize that the people rebelling against him have justified reasons to and that the nobility and his own men are attempting to distance whatever authority they can get away from him. His guards even make it a point to protect the people first and not him. That being said, there are still good people in his army who will fight the rebels, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized who have committed crimes that must be punished]]. |
| 67 | * ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheLackOfLambSauce'': According to Narcissa Malfoy, by the time Easter of 1998 rolls around, less than a year after the Ministry coup, the Death Eater-controlled Ministry is in shambles and about to fall apart by the seams. |
| 68 | -->'''Narcissa:''' Then there's the running of the Ministry itself… it's completely falling apart! All of the promotions Pius Thicknesse arranged have only come back to bite him, as each position was selected based on political loyalties and blood status as opposed to merit or experience. Diagon Alley has become so unsafe that just about every store has closed their doors. Obliviators are quitting in droves because of how much they've been overworked with no additional pay. Funds have been slashed for the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures so as to support other projects, and as a result dragons and giants are running amok in the countryside. Not to mention the whole mess with the Quidditch World Cup… |
| 69 | * Much like the Ministry of Magic in-canon, the Ministry in ''FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheNightmaresOfFuturesPast'' is presented this way as well. When Harry [[spoiler:has Peter Pettigrew arrested by ministry officials, providing unavoidable proof of Sirius' innocence]], they completely change guards and wardens at Azkaban and deny visitation rights to them, trying to [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment starve Sirius]] to death in his cell and pretend nothing has changed rather than admit that the Ministry made a mistake. Harry later lampshades this corruption in his interview with Rita. |
| 70 | * Some of the segments in the ''Anime/MacrossDelta'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12079838/1/How-Roid-s-Plan-Could-Have-Backfired-Horribly How Roid's Plan Could Have Backfired Horribly]]'' are based on the question of just how Windermere, a planet with an almost completely agrarian economy and completely dependant on [[ArmsDealer Epsilon Foundation]] for their military hardware, that they paid for with rare fold quartz, could maintain a military capable of conquering and occupying a whole sector of space, even a backwater one. The answer is by starving their population, resulting in the presence of a continued NUN-loyalist [[LaResistance resistance movement]] and, on a few occasions, armed insurrections-something they should have seen coming, as stated by Berger, the Epsilon Foundation representative, in a very annoyed TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: |
| 71 | -->"[[CripplingOverspecialization Windermere has an agrarian economy! That and the fold quartz exports]]! You always had it, before and after first contact, and before and after independence! [[BeliefMakesYouStupid Temple guardians like you and elders had the kings prevent the creation of a decent infrastructure and an industrial economy! And the result?! You were an economic drain for the UN government]] and [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores only got the dregs as garrison, dregs that did stupid things and got into fights with the civilians]]! [[CripplingOverspecialization When fold quartz exports fell after the]] [[Anime/MacrossFrontier Macross Galaxy Rebellion]] [[CripplingOverspecialization you got hit by the worst planetary depression]] since [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross Space War I]], and that one had a [[ApocalypseHow CLASS 1 APOCALYPSE]]!\ |
| 72 | "[[PyrrhicVictory And then, after you rebelled and the Unified Forces wrecked your military and the transportation system before withdrawing]], we stepped in to rebuild, with you paying with fold crystals because you had nothing else of value to export… And instead of following our advice, [[PragmaticVillainy that would have created a working economy and netted us long-term profits]], you got Gramia to make only the minimal repairs to the transportation before building up for this war, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome leaving half the population starving and without medicines while we milked you for all you were worth because we couldn't get the better option]]! [[SuddenlyShouting AND YOU STILL HAVE TO ASK WHY THERE'S A]] ''[[SuddenlyShouting REVOLUTION]]'' [[SuddenlyShouting ON YOUR PLANET]]! In fact, [[DefectorFromDecadence how many of your six aces among the Aerial Knights are still fighting for you]]?" |
| 73 | * ''Fanfic/ARabbitAmongWolves'': Adam's brutal and violent methods may have made the White Fang feared, but they weren't attracting recruits nor funding. [[BadBoss His harsh means of governing]] and [[{{Jerkass}} wretched behavior]] [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating weren't winning him any favors]]. The Vale branch of the White Fang is reduced to living in a sewer by the time Jaune finds them. By contrast, Sienna Kahn's use of the "carrot and stick" has given her a reasonable following in Menagerie, and Jaune's use of velvet gloves and inclusion wins his branch more supporters. |
| 74 | * ''Fanfic/WilhuffTarkinHeroOfTheRebellion'': |
| 75 | ** Tarkin regularly argues against the Empire's more brutal actions, citing their inefficiency. While his actual reasons are EveryoneHasStandards, his arguments gain even the notoriously cruel Emperor's agreement, who asks a general that ordered the population of an entire planet to be killed with Ion Disruptors (that is, ''anti-tank weapons'') if he thinks Darth Vader has [[WesternAnimation/RobotChicken an ATM built into his torso]]. |
| 76 | --->'''Tarkin:''' You ordered to use anti-material weapons on EVERYTHING! Not just barricades or vehicles, but enemy soldiers, civilians, ELDERS AND CHILDREN! You are torturing to death the entire population of a whole planet, and on top of that for the price of the tibanna you are burning one could build a whole flotilla of Consular diplomatic cruisers from the ground up, fully equip them to house Senator Orn Free Taa and his entire entourage for a year each, and then convert them into fully-equipped and fueled Chargers! You little Tapani warrior wannabe, did you trip and hit your head too many times when playing saber rake as a teen?! Or maybe you were spiced?! You did something GRIEVOUS wouldn't have done from how wasteful it was! And he had a Brainrot Plague strain engineered to target only humans just to TICK THE REPUBLIC OFF! Since you obviously don't care of the morality of your action, give me a reason, one reason, I shouldn't have you reassigned to the Fondor shipyards -- AS AN ACCOUNTANT! |
| 77 | ** In addition to the above, the Empire has efficiency experts... Who, among other things, have deprived infantry squads of their integral [[MoreDakka repeating blasters]] and deleted flak cannons from many warships in the name of supposed efficiency... Thus heavily reducing the firepower of infantry squads until the Imperial Army brass used the increased casualty rate to reintroduce the repeating blasters (that they're ''still'' resisting) and making warships [[PointDefenseless extremely vulnerable to starfighters with proton weapons]]. The military ''loathes'' them, and Tarkin is openly surprised when the one he's being forced to work with turns out to actually know what he's talking about. |
| 78 | * In ''Fanfic/WishCarefully'', Harry Potter decides to strike a deal with Voldemort and the Death Eaters with a MagicallyBindingContract wherein he and the other Light-aligned wizards will leave Britain and make sure that the dark side will never have to deal with Muggles, muggleborns, or anyone else they don't like ever again. It isn't long after the Light-sided magicals exit the nation that the Death Eaters realize that they gave [[DidntThinkThisThrough zero consideration]] into how to actually run a nation by themselves and their ideology has utterly screwed them over, leaving them with a society that is thoroughly and steadily falling apart via DeathOfAThousandCuts. Lucius Malfoy bitterly notes how the Light exiles had played them so thoroughly, leaving them to suffer in the IronicHell they made for themselves and [[MakeAnExampleOfThem show the rest of the global magical community]] what a load of bullcrap Pureblood Supremacy is, but also [[SuccessAsRevenge build their own flourishing society]]. |
| 79 | ** The economy was the first major thing to be gutted in the Light's exile. The Death Eaters' membership was comprised mainly of either the [[BlueBlood wealthy aristocratic bloodlines]] (such as the Malfoys) or the criminal underclass (Dolohov and his ilk) whereas the middle and working classes primarily were comprised of muggleborns and Light supporters; with those people gone, there's no one around to run businesses, produce goods, or maintain vital infrastructure. The Death Eaters are thus forced to import the majority of their goods and food and rely on expensive goblin artificers to fix up any structural issues that they didn't have the skills or knowledge to do themselves. Most of the remaining Dark-supporting purebloods convinced themselves that the economy would sort itself out into something smaller and more efficient. By the time Lucius is an elderly man, they ''still'' haven't recovered. |
| 80 | ** The pureblood supremacists' [[FantasticRacism obsession with blood and cultural purity]] in the name of [[DarwinistDesire keeping their magic strong]] and exclusion of everyone but a select few have led to a much smaller gene pool after the exile, with increasing rates of inbreeding that is resulting in worsening GenerationalMagicDecline. Each succeeding generation is turning out more [[MuggleBornOfMages Squibs]] than the last while the few children who do have powers are so magically weak that they can barely complete the traditional seventh-year Hogwarts courses, their intellectual capabilities are greatly reduced (with [[DumbMuscle Crabbe and Goyle]] being the [[HarbingerOfImpendingDoom preview of what was to come]]), and [[DyingRace their numbers are declining on the whole]] due to their tendency to have small families. After finding themselves unable to get even {{Mail Order Bride}}s, the Death Eaters resort to kidnapping a bunch of magically strong young witches from different areas around the world to use as {{Breeding Slave}}s, a band-aid solution that only manages to give the Dark-aligned purebloods at the most a few more generations to hold off the inevitable. |
| 81 | ** While this is going on, Voldemort has increasingly become TheCaligula, with the Death Eaters being [[AloneWithThePsycho the only ones around available]] for Voldemort to [[BadBoss enact his sadistic whims]] on since they're completely forbidden from interacting with Muggles lest they [[BroughtDownToNormal be permanently stripped of their magic]], and [[ControlFreak obsessed with introducing draconian laws controlling every aspect of people's lives]]. Thus, Magical Britain can't get any immigrants to fill out any gaps in the workforce or add to their population, further exacerbating those aforementioned issues. By the time Lucius is narrating the story, [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating everyone has come to hate Voldemort so much]], the Malfoys and several other Death Eaters are gathering together to either kill Voldemort themselves or subdue him and to deliver him to Harry Potter so that he can kill him for them. |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:Film -- Animation]] |
| 85 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' has Scar allude in his VillainSong to the tremendous injustice he suffered when Mufasa became king instead of him, and implies that he's been [[TheEvilPrince scheming to take the throne for years]]. Scar proves to be an expert [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] in murdering [[CainAndAbel Mufasa]] and manipulating Simba into running away, but when he finally obtains the power he craves he proves to be utterly incompetent at actually wielding it. [[FisherKing Under his leadership]], he indulges the hyenas' greed (forcing the prey to leave), his subjects starve, and the hyenas who form his power base are grumbling long before Simba ever comes back, admitting Scar's brother was better at ruling than him. For some reason, he thinks the grumbling is because he hasn't secured the succession, rather than the fact that everyone's starving. [[spoiler:Finally, his inefficiency and trying to blame the hyenas leads to them eating him.]] |
| 86 | [[/folder]] |
| 87 | |
| 88 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 89 | * ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' takes place in a fascist dystopia where Byzantine bureaucracy and malfunctioning SchizoTech have made the government both extremely repressive and incredibly incompetent. The plot is triggered when someone arrests Buttle (shoemaker) thinking he's Tuttle (a renegade plumber) because of a typo. And Tuttle is a renegade plumber because the government cannot fulfill requests for plumbing repairs, yet outlaws anyone else from doing it. |
| 90 | * In ''Film/CharlieChan at the Olympics'', much play is made mocking the bewilderment of the "ruthlessly efficient" German police detective facing an international murder-and-espionage plot ("Such things do not happen in Berlin!"). The film was made in ''1936''. |
| 91 | * The WickedStepmother of ''Film/ACinderellaStory'' is utterly incompetent at running the diner she inherits: she constantly belittles its workers, eventually forcing them to quit ''en masse'', and the only reason it still has any customers is because of [[VetinariJobSecurity Rhonda]]'s exceptional people skills. The only reason ''Rhonda'' stays is to protect her surrogate daughter from the stepmother's abuse. |
| 92 | * ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin'' gives a variant. It's obviously about totalitarian ''communism'', rather than fascism, but in spite of the ideological difference, the end result is a government that is both simultaneously horrifically brutal and laughably inefficient and corrupt. Stalin himself comes across as a small-minded thug, and when he dies with no clear protocol for the transfer of power, his cabinet quickly turns to political infighting and opportunism in trying to fill the power vacuum. |
| 93 | * ''Film/TheRunningMan'' has this in spades. The totalitarian society's enforcers are distracted by their own BreadAndCircuses. We hear the guards making small talk about how they never miss an episode of the ''Running Man'', the network's jingle writer Amber Mendez excuses her purchases of black market clothing (when the protagonist Ben Richards discovers them) by saying "C'mon, everyone does it!" and the unedited footage she later discovers and retrieves that exposes all the regime's lies about him may well have been retained through sheer laziness, i.e. the TV station's bureaucrats never throw anything away. |
| 94 | * ''Film/{{Stargate}}'': Ra doesn't use Jaffa soldiers, preferring to rely on humans (in a meta sense, it's justified, as the Jaffa [[Series/StargateSG1 hadn't been thought of yet]], but in-universe, it was ludicrously stupid) and he doesn't seem to have brought more than two death gliders, that pretty much are only used for intimidation tactic. No wonder you were taken down by a ragtag group of Earth military and primitive natives. |
| 95 | * In ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', the military of the Federation ([[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny which is a federation in name only]]) is shown to be spectacularly arrogant, incompetent, and disorganised to the point of being MildlyMilitary: fraternisation between soldiers and MilitaryMaverick behaviour is ''encouraged'' by the senior officers, a planetary invasion quickly turns into a panicked rout after only very light casualties, at one point a unit ''throws a frat party in the middle of enemy territory'', and a rookie flight officer on her first field mission isn't so much as ''reprimanded'' for nearly crashing a giant starship in trying to show off her piloting skills. |
| 96 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 97 | ** {{Downplayed|Trope}} with the original Galactic Empire within the films. The leadership chain as seen in ''Film/RogueOne'' can be likened to a squabbling pissing contest, the commanders are incompetent fodder for Darth Vader in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', and in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' Vader has to personally whip the crew back on schedule, but are efficient enough to nearly complete two planet-destroying superweapons in three years' time and get the upper hand in combat several times. |
| 98 | ** [[TheRemnant The First Order]] of ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' and doubly so by ''Film/TheLastJedi'' in a rather startling contrast to their intimidating and authoritarian predecessors the [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]]. The First Order continually shows themselves to have [[ManChild incompetent leadership]] that are not respected or feared by their adversaries, and despite a propensity to make space stations and ships bigger and more grandiose than the empire before, they never show any great ability at using them. |
| 99 | ** The Expanded Universe and ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' both reveal that the faults in both the Empire and the First Order were deliberate designs of Emperor Palpatine, who felt entitled to be the galaxy's only ruler. Everyone and everything requires the Emperor's firm guidance to function whatsoever. Either he would achieve immortality and rule the galaxy forever, or everything could just burn. |
| 100 | * Possibly the most Nazi line of all time, in ''Film/TheTrain'': "I'm tired of your inefficiency, Dietrich!" Which is said when Dietrich says that he can't do something for the simple reason that it's ''impossible'' with the resources they have at hand. |
| 101 | * ''Film/TheWave1981'': Double-subverted. The students who become members of "[[ANaziByAnyOtherName The Wave]]" decide to increase their organization as a collective, but the school's sports team continues to suck overall. The double subversion [[GoneHorriblyWrong becomes worse]] when the movement devolves into an "us vs. them" mentality with the rest of the school's students. |
| 102 | [[/folder]] |
| 103 | |
| 104 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 105 | * ''Literature/EightySixEightySix'': Even before the Giadian Empire invaded, the Republic of San Magnolia was a corrupt, racist oligarchy pretending to be a liberal democracy, and the war caused them to double down on their worst and most self-destructive traits. After their military proved inadequate for the task of defeating the Legion, they didn't start taking it seriously and band together as a nation to deal with an existential threat, but turned the war into an excuse for genocide-by-proxy while letting their privileged elite hide from reality within a bubble of propaganda. |
| 106 | * The government of "looters" in ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' started out with relatively minor regulations to the economy and ended up with Directive 10-289, which basically overrides the economic freedoms of everybody in the nation. Resource shortages, societal collapse, starvation, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking trains not running on time]] ensue. The fact that John Galt is withdrawing as many productive people from society as he can also helped in the deterioration. |
| 107 | * Played with in ''Literature/{{Caliphate}}''. Most superpowers are [[CrapsackWorld fascist regimes]] such as America and China, but at least they are more technologically advanced and [[ALighterShadeOfBlack only liberal by comparison]] to the titular caliphate, which is considered extremely backwards and decayed. For one thing, their economy is very fragile, reliant completely on non-Muslims paying the taxes and ''only'' them, and they are running out of slaves fast with their increasing persecution. They are culturally stagnant, due to a fierce ChurchPolice declaring even ''drawings'' illegal -- a Chinese agent comments the only thing they produce of note is [[TheFundamentalist fanaticism]]. It speaks something when they are reliant on renegade scientists to [[spoiler:create a biochemical weapon to destroy all their enemies at once because their military performance is too poor]]. |
| 108 | * Tom Rob Smith's novel ''Child Forty-Four'' is set in Stalin's Russia in the early 1950s. The hero is a relatively honest policeman living in a nightmarishly totalitarian Moscow, the capital of a corrupt and inefficient state. He comes to realise that there is a psychopathic child murderer operating in town and that his crimes have gone unnoticed and even ignored because, in the Communist society, there is no crime, as socialism has made it obsolete. Serial murder is an aberration of capitalism, comrade. Now do your duty and arrest enemies of the State. The honest copper realises that far from protecting the people, he is an instrument of terror, arresting innocent people on the flimsiest of pretexts and handing them over for torture. While in the meantime, a killer has murdered over forty children and is getting away with it, as the police force is not geared up to fight crime the State says is not happening... |
| 109 | * ''Literature/TheDaevabadTrilogy'': The [[OurGeniesAreDifferent djinn]] king Ghassan enforces his rule with [[OneDroprule brutal persecution of the part-djinn]] ''shafit'' who make up a third of his capital city, [[FantasticRacism deliberate alienation]] of another third, and [[AndYourLittleDogToo horrifically excessive]] punishments for any perceived insubordination. By the second book, it's such a FailedState that he can't properly equip his own armies or even clear garbage from the streets of the capital. [[spoiler:His own son rebels against him in disgust.]] |
| 110 | * ''Literature/DeathStar'' is riddled with moments of these on board the Death Star as it's built and becomes operational. A lot of problems during the building are solved by throwing money at them because the budget for this project was ridiculous, but Teela has to deal with how the spaces alotted to individual builders, who need to be housed while building the thing, amounted to claustrophobic slots smaller than beds. When she discovers a weird redundant exhaust port on the blueprints she [[BeenThereShapedHistory deletes it]], but a communications breakdown, and most of those workers being angry slaves, leads to it being built anyway. Ordered to submit to a medical screening days after arriving, Memah complains that if she'd been a [[TyphoidMary Sangi Fever Sal]] she would have infected hundreds by now and anyway she'd been examined before getting on the shuttle. Later, Dr. Uli puts in a query for information about a patient's high midichlorian count and forgets about it until months later, when it's processed and he's arrested for illegal medical research. |
| 111 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Ankh-Morpork under Homicidal Lord Winder in ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'' is portrayed as one of these, due to Winder's paranoia, and the excessive power he has therefore given his StateSec, the Cable Street Particulars, whose captain is a firm believer in judging a man's character by the shape of his face. As a result, the entire city is an illustration of the fact that a powerful man who believes he has enemies everywhere will eventually be correct. |
| 112 | * The Elkis Republic in ''Literature/TheFallenWorld'' bearly holds itself together through propaganda as its corrupt Senators are more concerned with lining their own pockets than improving the nation. They have repeatedly attacked their neighbors to expand their borders but in recent years have gotten beaten back and even lost territory. Now they can't afford to lose a newly built town and its newborn dungeon or else they will be seen as weak in the eyes of the people and invite a rebellion. |
| 113 | * ''Literature/GorkyPark'' shows the KGB to be incompetent compared to the regular police when it tries to do such simple tasks as taking crime scene photos. |
| 114 | * ''Literature/TheGraceOfKings'': [[TheEmperor Emperor]] Mapidéré's grand {{vision|aryVillain}} fell apart because he didn't understand that his Empire was made up of human beings who can't work on massive public works projects if they're dead or starving. When citizens are deprived of their basic needs and subjected to [[AllCrimesAreEqual draconian punishments for any shortcoming]], they rebel simply because it brings a slightly greater chance of survival. |
| 115 | * This appears to be the main function of the Ministry of Magic in ''Literature/HarryPotter''. It didn't start out totally fascist (the incumbent Minister of Magic comes off as a very unflattering {{Expy}} of UsefulNotes/TonyBlair more than anything), but it surely didn't come off as very democratic. For example: |
| 116 | ** The main wizarding prison is located at [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban]], which is staffed by Dementors, evil creatures who suck the joy out of people. A place which by all accounts is AFateWorseThanDeath. There are apparently no other Wizarding prisons, so you get sent there [[AllCrimesAreEqual whether you were convicted of murder or insurance fraud.]] It doesn't seem to bother any of the authorities that such an extreme punishment is guaranteed to turn anyone sentenced there either insane or evil (usually both) within a few weeks, not to mention driving criminals to ''extreme'' methods to avoid imprisonment; knowing this was in store for them, no wizard would ever surrender to the authorities. Additionally, since Dementors are AlwaysChaoticEvil, Dumbledore repeatedly warns the Ministry of the folly of using them as wardens, as Voldemort could make them all defect without a second thought simply by providing them with more opportunities to fill their bellies -- simultaneously adding a legion of dark creatures to his followers and effortlessly releasing all the Death Eaters imprisoned in Azkaban. All this would be bad enough if everyone sentenced to Azkaban was actually guilty, but... well, see below. |
| 117 | ** According to the Pensieve, [[KangarooCourt trials seem to be decided more on the personal opinions of the judiciary]] (by simple majority vote) than on any actual consideration of evidence. Hagrid and Sirius weren't even afforded the luxury of a trial in the first place! |
| 118 | ** The practice of being an [[VoluntaryShapeshifter Animagus]] requires [[SuperRegistrationAct government registration]]. We see how well this works because over the course of the books we know of at least four characters (James Potter, [[spoiler:Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Rita Skeeter]]) who are illegal practicing Animagi. The relative ease with which they acquired their powers seems to indicate that this isn't really a magic type that can be easily regulated. |
| 119 | ** Once Voldemort is exposed, the Ministry of Magic spends most of their time trying to pretend he doesn't exist. At one point this goes so far as to accuse Harry of lying when they detect him using powerful magic in the presence of a Muggle. Harry does this because he's being attacked by Dementors, and the Ministry at no point bothers to offer an alternate explanation as to why Harry would cast a spell whose only use is repelling dementors, in violation of a wizarding law which he was well aware of -- apparently he was just doing it to aggravate the Ministry. (In fairness, the Patronus does have some uses outside of Dementor-stopping, being able to repel certain other Dark creatures and send messages, but he's got owls for the latter and the former wouldn't change anything.) Nor do they bother trying to answer the question of why he was attacked by Dementors in the first place -- and then it turns out that [[spoiler:one of their own (Dolores Umbridge) sent them to attack Harry]]. |
| 120 | ** Voldemort's faction were this before ''and'' after they took power. When Voldemort accidentally did himself in attacking Harry, basically all of his followers either deserted him, got killed, or were sent to Azkaban. He only returned because Peter Pettigrew was desperate; Voldemort is very well aware that Peter wouldn't be there if he hadn't burned all his other bridges. Afterwards, even though the Death Eaters were in complete control of the Ministry, they spent more time enforcing their anti-muggleborn regulations and committing random acts of cruelty against muggles than actually hunting down LaResistance (which isn't helped by Voldemort's obsession with something mostly unrelated). |
| 121 | ** The ministry might have the right to imprison lawbreakers indefinitely with no reason given, but the law is so incomprehensible, absolutely no one seems to follow it. Driven home by how one of the few sympathetic Ministry workers we see, Arthur Weasley, is so hopelessly in violation of the laws against enchanting Muggle technology, he'd "have to drag himself before the tribunal if he ever raided [his own] home" (and that's after deliberately writing loopholes into the regulations). It's also heavily implied that rich and influential families flout the few consistently enforced laws with "political donations". |
| 122 | ** Not to mention how hindered they are by their FantasticRacism against the muggles. The muggle and wizarding governments ''are'' apparently aware of each other, but only if you count the Minister for Magic occasionally popping into the Prime Minister's office without warning to give him vague updates on the magical world. One has to imagine that if they'd maybe ''asked'' muggles for some help, things like security cameras or guns would have given them a real leg up against the Death Eaters (though it's hard to say for sure, as some technologies tend to go haywire around too much magic, assuming they work at all). |
| 123 | * The [=WW2=] novels by Creator/SvenHassel have the supposedly efficient war machine and civil administration of the Nazis actually be corrupt and massively wasteful of resources and human lives. Wholly TruthInTelevision. |
| 124 | * In the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series, King Ancar of Hardorn basically treated his entire country as a machine to build and supply armies that he could use to conquer his neighbors. Which might have been a workable economic model, if only he'd been ''able'' to conquer any of his neighbors. By the time he was assassinated (for trying to conquer Valdemar -- for the third time), he had looted his own country of so many people and resources that some places didn't have enough able-bodied people left behind to keep enough farms running to feed ''themselves'', much less supply the armies. |
| 125 | * In Primo Levi's memoir of Auschwitz, ''Literature/IfThisIsAMan'', the author notes with some sarcasm that, for all that the camp was a highly efficient death machine, the Buna factory he was assigned to never produced a pound of synthetic rubber. That is to say, the process of creation as opposed to destruction was apparently beyond the capabilities of the camp administration. |
| 126 | * In Creator/SinclairLewis' ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'', the [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica Buzz Windrip administration]] is very efficient when it comes to suppressing and punishing dissent. It's grossly ''inefficient'' when it comes to educating the next generation or formulating sound economic policies. Several years after Windrip seizes power, the educational system is a bad joke and poverty abounds. [[spoiler:The regime is taken down not by LaResistance, but one of Windrip's own disaffected generals launching a coup, and at the end, the US is heading towards [[SecondAmericanCivilWar a second Civil War]].]] |
| 127 | * ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': The chapter ''The scouring of the Shire'' shows us that Otho and then Sharkey, with their army of men had seized power over the Shire, destroying the government, changing the Hobbit's institutions to spy on them, and arresting those who oppose them, looting under the excuse of "fair distribution", giving a lot of stupid rules, building ugly buildings and destroying all of the forest and polluting the rivers. And the army of men is nothing but bandits that are defeated relatively easily when four Hobbits rally the people against them. This is intentional, meant to show the VillainDecay of [[spoiler:Saruman, who had plans to take control of Middle-Earth, but ends up just bullying Hobbits largely out of spite]]. |
| 128 | * ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'': The Hexarchate is a totalitarian GalacticSuperpower whose greatest enemy is its own people -- it devotes more military and police power to stamp out "heretics", who are tortured to death en masse on holidays, than to any external threat, which only encourages more rebellion ''and'' broadens the definition of "heresy". |
| 129 | * In ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'', the fact that there are multiple factions within the Nazi establishment -- notably the Abwehr and the SD -- whose remits overlap and who hate each other's guts, proves to be highly significant to the plot. |
| 130 | * The Final Empire in ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' has elements of this; [[GodEmperor the Lord Ruler]] is concerned with the survival of humanity, but is largely detached from directly ruling it, leaving control of his government primarily to the [[CorruptChurch Obligators]] and [[AristocratsAreEvil nobility]]. ''These'' groups are more interested in backstabbing each other than they are in running a productive empire. Of course, the whole system turns out to be good for two things -- perpetuating itself and terrorizing the lower classes (having an immortal PhysicalGod at its head helps) so it ''still'' takes a ridiculous amount of work to overthrow. {{Justified|Trope}} since [[spoiler:the Lord Ruler's only two real concerns were hoarding [[FantasyMetals atium]] for the purpose of weakening [[GreaterScopeVillain Ruin]], and preventing total human extinction long enough for him to AscendToAHigherPlaneOFExistence and fix everything he messed up the last time. Beyond that, he really didn't care what happened unless somebody either broke into his palace or called him out personally]]. |
| 131 | * ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': While the government of Oceania as it appears in the original text by Orwell is most decidedly ''not'' this[[note]]it's an absolute crap show in terms of living conditions, but said hellish living conditions are one more tool of oppression, so the government is [[InvincibleVillain horrifyingly efficient]] in the one thing they give a damn about: being a boot on humanity's face[[/note]], a parodic short story by Alan Coren titled "Owing To Circumstances Beyond Our Control, 1984 Has Been Unavoidably Detained" plays it straight: it took so long to get Winston because telescreens are breaking down and informants are idiots, and when Winston is dragged to Room101 the Ministry of Love is out of budget and lacking implements to torture him with (the famous scene of torturing him with a rat does not happens because winter wiped them out). |
| 132 | * ''Literature/TheProteusOperation'': It is repeatedly commented on that the Nazi system is both inefficient and unable to create new things. Research into how the Nazis of the 1975 timeline got a nuclear bomb shows that their researchers were floundering, and then suddenly there was a bomb because it was given to them from the future. |
| 133 | * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': |
| 134 | ** Cleon "TheButcher King" (so named because he used to be a butcher, though he fits this title in both ways) becomes King of Astapor after Daenerys eliminates the "Good Masters", the tyrannical ruling class of the city. Cleon tries to make his own Unsullied (eunuch soldiers who are renowned as among the best fighters in the world due to a brutal training regime) by just castrating youths from the former ruling Houses. However, the new regime starts collapsing under Cleon, leading to his murder, several rulers who quickly die themselves, and the untrained Unsullied quickly being slaughtered by the sellswords hired by the city of Yunkai. |
| 135 | ** The Yunkai'i, another city of slavers, is run by the Wise Masters, who are some of the most laughably incompetent villains in the series. Their various armed forces include a group of slaves who are chained together to stop them from running away and men standing on stilts. Despite the poor quality of Cleon's Unsullied the Yunkai'i are almost defeated anyway, having to be saved by the sellswords they look down on. However, to the sellswords the Wise Masters are a laughing stock, being given names such as Lord Wobblecheeks, the Little Pigeon, and the Drunken Conqueror. When their General "The Yellow Whale" dies they decide to rearrange command daily, leading to chaos as their military plans keep changing. |
| 136 | * In ''Franchise/StarWars'' TheEmpire can build massive superweapons and send tons of {{Mooks}} [[WeHaveReserves into the proverbial meat-grinder]], but the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse loves to show that the government was a cesspit of backstabbing, in-fighting, nepotism, bribery, and lost paperwork. As flawed as the Republic can be it managed to stand for 25,000 years, and the Empire lasting 38 years from Palpatine's coup to the peace treaty with the New Republic was a statistical eyeblink. However, the New Republic that followed/coexisted with it didn't do much better; the main reason the Republic lasted so long despite its rampant corruption was that it didn't do much actual ''governing'', being more of a political and economic alliance between sovereign worlds than anything. |
| 137 | * OlderThanSteam: In ''Literature/{{Utopia}}'', Thomas More explored the various problems with despotism and tried to offer solutions. Here, he describes the utter folly of AllCrimesAreEqual. |
| 138 | -->I think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished; for if a robber sees that his danger is the same if he is convicted of theft as if he were guilty of murder, this will naturally incite him to kill the person whom otherwise he would only have robbed; since, if the punishment is the same, there is more security, and less danger of discovery, when he that can best make it is put out of the way; so that terrifying thieves too much provokes them to cruelty. |
| 139 | * Zig-zagged in ''Literature/VictoriaANovelOf4thGenerationWar'', with the protagonists' faction being highly efficient fascists, but the Republic of Azania, a LadyLand inhabiting a CrapsackWorld that is one of the setting's most scientifically and technologically advanced nations, with a working industrial economy in a largely post-apocalyptic future America, and able to equip their troops accordingly. On the other hand, its critical personnel shortage forces them to have badly trained pilots fly their advanced fighters, which significantly dents their advantage in the air. |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 143 | * ''Series/{{Andor}}'': Nemik is a firm believer that the Imperial's attempts at brutal subjugation are a self defeating effort to enforce their weak control, with fear rather than true power keeping them afloat, as he puts it ''"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear."'' This policy on a smaller scale at a massive Imperial prison complex allows Cassian to lead a succesful revolt fairly easily. |
| 144 | * ''Series/BlakesSeven''. The Terran Federation seems remarkably efficient at the job of repression, yet has no shortage of [[PunchClockVillain lackluster or corrupt functionaries]] and [[NoBudget shoddy equipment]]. The implication is that as long as those in power stay there, they don't care if things run efficiently or not. The main reason why Blake wasn't more successful than he was could be attributed partially to the fact that most of his comrades were criminals more than dedicated revolutionaries. And some of them didn't have their heart fully in Blake's cause, realizing that the Federation's corruption and inefficiency is actually beneficial for people who choose to be criminals. Avon's tenure as de facto leader of the Seven was more in keeping with the mentality of acting purely in self interest by exploiting an inefficient system.[[note]] It got worse after the war with the Andromedans and even more so after Servalan was deposed. The Federation seemed to forget about either Blake or Avon and their crew. Then there is the fact that Servalan, who was at the time a higher priority wanted fugitive than the Seven, was able to hide among the Federation under an alias, without bothering to change her appearance and voice. [[/note]] |
| 145 | * ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'' has Homelander, who for being [[SuperpowerLottery rich in powers]] while [[TheSociopath weak in morals]] is an imposing SuperSupremacist who manages to pull off a few atrocities and even convince the military to add superpowered people on the armed forces. But he's not omnipotent, given the fact of being a SlaveToPR who can't fathom the possibility of the general public turning on him makes Homelander give up on certain things that could favor him, while also suffering a VillainousBreakdown once it's clear some of his former supporters are disillusioned with him. |
| 146 | * In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol The Happiness Patrol]]", the oppressive society of Terra Alpha ([[HappinessIsMandatory where everyone is forced to be happy]]) is clearly falling apart even before the Doctor arrives to take the oppressive society down, but he acts as the necessary impetus to finally push it over the edge into chaos and open rebellion. One particularly beautiful example, however; a militia is set up to "disappear" a group of protesters deliberately acting sad in protest over the laws, only to find when they get there that the Doctor has persuaded them to act happy, meaning that they are now obeying the law and can't be arrested or killed. And to add insult to injury, the first wave is so confused, glum, and indecisive about what to do that when a second wave turns up to help, they end up ignoring the protesters and arresting the first wave for breaking the same laws they'd been intending to arrest the protesters over. |
| 147 | * ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The Alliance tries to be totalitarian, but doesn't have the ability to enforce its authority throughout its borders. It's essentially a dystopian version of 19th-century America, with wealthy and civilized communities close to the government run by corrupt and wealthy criminals, while communities in the far frontier are lawless and run by thugs. The design of Alliance cruisers is meant to communicate the government's vast power and inefficiency. They are massive ships that resemble several skyscrapers on the same foundation, with engines thrusting them perpendicularly. Likewise, the resources that go into building one might lead to a ship that is overwhelmingly powerful, capable of launching and supporting dozens of [[SpaceFighter smaller craft]] but is so large and slow it cannot possibly effectively patrol the vast territory of TheVerse without huge gaps. In the second episode, it is also shown that the Alliance is unwilling to enforce their own laws and to protect medicine shipments to towns on planets under their control, even when said medicine gets stolen right under their own noses. |
| 148 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': House Bolton. While Roose Bolton is more intelligent than most of them, their reliance on pure brutality to take the North backfires horribly. For instance, due to their tendency to have very {{sociopathic soldier}}s, they have very little support among commoners and their high-value hostages tend to lose value after being tortured by their men. Combatants who have become aware of their reputation are now also reluctant to surrender to them, making their wars more difficult than they need to be. Indeed, this forces Roose to enter into a risky alliance with Littlefinger and engage Ramsay to Sansa, a known fugitive persecuted by his Lannister patrons, to get whatever little legitimacy as he can claim. Roose is eventually assassinated by his own son Ramsay, who felt slighted by Roose when daddy goes off and sires a proper born-legitimate son. [[BastardBastard He turns out to be even more barbaric than his father]]. In the end, Ramsay's barbarity becomes his undoing; while savoring the brutality of slaughtering Jon Snow's assembled troops, he gets blindsided by the Knights of the Vale (foreshadowed earlier elsewhere by Jamie and Bronn's commentary about picket lines) and House Bolton is effectively extinct after, in an example of karmic justice, Sansa feeds Ramsay to his own starved hounds. |
| 149 | * ''Series/HogansHeroes'': Even halfway competent officers like Burkhalter and Hochstetter get the run around from Hogan and his men when they're not stomping on each other's toes or trying to ally with the Heroes in an attempted EnemyMine. This was Enforced by a number of their actors (several of whom were victims of Nazi persecution in real life), who asked that the Germans be portrayed as bumbling losers as part of their contracts rather than lend credence to the regime that harmed them in the first place. It was explicitly stated several times that everyone knew the camp leaders were incompetent nincompoops, but as the only camp with a perfect "no prisoner escapes" record they were willing to put up with it. |
| 150 | * In ''Series/{{Misfits}}'', time travel causes the Nazis to have won the war, and Shaun is the head of the Wertham precinct. He is still, however, [[TheSlacker Shaun]]. |
| 151 | * The Goa'uld in ''Series/StargateSG1'' are as fascist and inefficient as you can get, which is why the heroes lasted as long as they did; for all their technology and power the [[PuppeteerParasite snake heads]] were more interested in using it to [[AGodAmI bolster their ego]] and [[EnemyCivilWar fight amongst themselves]], the sole exceptions being [[OmnicidalManiac Anubis]] and [[MagnificentBastard Baal]]. In this case, it's because the fascism and inefficiency were inseparable, as the Goa'uld are AlwaysChaoticEvil and sought power purely for power's sake, and did things like randomly killing some of their cowering slaves or [[WeHaveReserves throwing away valuable troops in pointless slaughters]] not because it might accomplish something, but because [[ForTheEvulz being needlessly evil]] was the goal in itself. Justified, as the Goa'uld primarily only fight each other and primitive civilizations. Their weapons are mostly meant to be intimidating and impressive. No need for efficiency when you're a god. |
| 152 | * Specifically invoked in the "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce Patterns of Force]]" episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': John Gill, a noted historian, is sent by TheFederation to observe a primitive planet, only to break the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]] and set up a Nazi-like government on the planet to tame it. He directly states that he wanted to use the efficiency of the Nazis to bring order to the world without bringing the malice associated with it in as well, and for a while, it actually worked. However, it wasn't efficient enough to stop his [[TheStarscream second in command]] from drugging him and seizing power, leaving him as a comatose figurehead as his new government fell back into the atrocities of Nazi Germany. |
| 153 | * The Cardassians from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine.'' They are explicitly fascist, and yet are the only major power of the Alpha Quadrant to suffer from resource shortages, compared to the post-scarcity Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Star Empire--the latter two of which are authoritarian regimes themselves. Cardassians make extensive use of slave labor that is primitive by the standards of ''today'', to say nothing of the 24th century. The workers are basically equipped with pick axes and buckets to mine with like they're in ancient Egypt. Keep in mind that Cardassians are a warp-capable civilization. There's basically no real reason they should rely on this as much as they do other than the fact they enjoy oppressing species perceived as "lesser". Even Terok Nor, a space station, was reliant on slaves doing back-breaking labor for its ore processing when the Cardassians could've easily automated much of the process. It's made worse because it is mentioned several times that yields and productivity were a concern, but at no point did the Cardassians ever consider moving to more efficient methods because [[SkewedPriorities it would mean not making Bajorans suffer]]. Worse, their brutality requires them to constantly divert resources to put down resistance and insurgency, which contributed to the liberation of Bajor since the occupation of that planet became completely untenable. Their government exists in a similarly precarious state: while the Central Command holds the most power in Cardassian society, it is ultimately illegitimate and is dependent on the Obsidian Order to maintain control over the general population. The Order in turn is fully willing to wield its authority against Central Command too if it's to their benefit. [[spoiler:When the Obsidian Order is LuredIntoATrap by the Founders and promptly decimated, it doesn't take long for Central Command to implode and the Detapa Council to sideline them, oh-so-briefly restoring Cardassia's democracy... before [[Characters/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineGulDukat Gul Dukat]], who perhaps should have been forced to resign given his involvement in the occupation of Bajor, sells the Cardassian Union out to the Dominion.]] Then of course, there's their species' hat of ComplexityAddiction. Throughout TNG and [=DS9=], the Cardassians repeatedly indulge in convoluted plots intended to discredit the Federation... which generally tend to blow up in their faces. Despite this, Cardassians are quick to flaunt their values of order and present a veneer of efficiency that brings to mind many a similar claim made by real life fascists. |
| 154 | [[/folder]] |
| 155 | |
| 156 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 157 | * ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': |
| 158 | ** This is just one of the problems with the rule of Romano Liao. Taking over from her father, who had simultaneously been driven mad and gone senile by a brilliant long-con by their hated enemy Hanse Davion, she was able to rally her shattered realm by virtue of rampant authoritarianism and unflinching cruelty. However, in so doing, she also kneecapped the Capellan Confederation's development for decades as a result due to a mixture of widespread unrest and looming existential dread among its citizens, given how any of them could now expect to be executed for even the most minor of missteps. When the Clans came calling to conquer the Inner Sphere, she proved to be about as useful as a balloon animal in a cactus farm and pulled out of the defensive effort altogether. It takes her eventual assassination to give her much more rational and [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic]] son Sun Tzu Liao the opportunity to take over the realm and steer it in a healthier direction. |
| 159 | ** This problem also follows Stefan Amaris. A manipulative bastard, firm believer in police state authoritarianism, and unblinking sociopath, Stefan's policies were always built on control and oppression. While this meant he could ''conquer'' the heart of the Star League, he couldn't ''rule'' it because his sadistic directives led to constant outbreaks of rebellion and the entire Star League Defense Force coming for him. His overwhelming cruelty eventually led to him being captured on Earth... and within a bare thirty minutes of said capture, being put to a wall and shot on the spot for his crimes against the state and human decency in general. |
| 160 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 161 | ** This is very explicit that the Drow's ChronicBackstabbingDisorder-based society is completely untenable. They spend most of their energy fighting each other instead of the various horrible abominations that also inhabit the Underdark, being sneaky and backstabby doesn't ''actually'' translate into running things well, but ''does'' translate into killing off all the actually competent drow, and their abusive matriarchy means that half their population can't advance and are prone to being killed off for no reason. It's basically explicit that the sole reason the drow remain active is that their goddess Lolth micromanages their civilization while encouraging the self-destructive behaviour that makes her divine assistance necessary, in a particularly grand (and occasionally literal) PoisonAndCureGambit. |
| 162 | ** Devils were portrayed as this in 2nd edition, particularly in the ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' setting. As beings that are the epitome of LawfulEvil, they embody every negative trait about bureaucracies, ''especially'' when it comes to following rules that are detrimental to everyone. Starting with the 3rd Edition supplement ''Fiendish Codex 2: Tyrants of the Nine Hells'', this trope has been almost entirely lost in favor as portraying them as being RepressiveButEfficient to the point of being {{Villain Sue}}s. |
| 163 | * The Realm in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' is this by design. The Scarlet Empress made sure there were several redundant agencies for every area (so that they couldn't get anything done without her to mediate between them), and her armies were constantly conquering and losing territory at the edge of the empire [[ForeverWar without ever winning any permanent victories]] (thus keeping the soldiers well-trained and providing a handy, distant conflict to send over-ambitious people off to die in). Her disappearance and the resulting in-fighting between the Houses has only made things worse. |
| 164 | * Depending on the GameMaster, Alpha Complex, the setting of ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', can range from a well-oiled totalitarian machine to a dysfunctional cesspit of inefficiency, incompetence, and intrigue. The game manual also recommends that when dealing with very high-ranking antagonists, the GM should play them as [[RepressiveButEfficient fascist and efficient]], and play their efficiency for as much horror value as the rampant inefficiency of the lower levels. Waiting for a meeting with your secret society contact? He was arrested because he wasn't supposed to be there. |
| 165 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' has the Skaven, a seemingly insignificant race of ChaoticEvil ratmen -- insignificant only in their inability to cooperate when they're the most powerful and overwhelming force on the planet. The core of all Skaven is fear -- they fear their enemies, they fear each other, they even worship their unloving and monstrous god by constantly fearing that he will materialize and start eating titanic handfuls of screaming rats because he was bored. Which he has done on occasion. As a result, their society is one unending Fascist state with every citizen enslaving at least one other Skaven and other Skaven enslaving them, all the way to the top, where the twelve big rats squabble and argue on a giant magnet about Skaven policies and how they can write the rules to serve their ends. Despite the sheer difference in both population and technology between the Skaven and every other race on the planet, Chaos included, the constant infighting, backstabbing, and enslaving means that the Skaven are incapable of dominating a single surface outpost without some (easily killed) chieftain rat to herd them like cattle, hence the reason why they are so obscure that the Empire has deemed them a heretical myth. This is also why even most of those in the Empire who do know about the Skaven do nothing to correct the misconception: If the world knew about the Skaven and tried doing something about them, they might form an EnemyMine and actually be a serious threat. As things stand, if you leave them to their own devices, nine out of ten Skaven plots will be thwarted by other Skaven before they get off the ground. |
| 166 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has His Divine Majesty's Imperium of Mankind, probably the most {{exaggerated|Trope}} in fiction. It's deliberately the most oppressive {{crapsack|World}} government imaginable, but all the different factions that run it ([[VastBureaucracy Administratum]], [[CorruptChurch Ecclesiarchy]], [[MachineWorship Mechanicus]], [[RedshirtArmy Imperial Guard,]] [[SpaceNavy Imperial Navy]], [[SuperSoldier Astartes]], [[StateSec Inquisition]], and [[PoliceBrutality Arbites]]) distrust each other at best, regularly hoard information and resources, will often refuse to help another faction unless it can benefit them, and on occasion will outright go to war with each other; more than one Imperial endeavor has been dismantled solely because of infighting. And that's before considering all the sub-factions (and ''sub''-sub-factions) ''and'' all the local departments that run individual planets/systems. Turns out that this is ''better'' than the alternative, as any time someone gains control of multiple departments at once they soon turn the Imperium's brutally up even further ([[SatanicArchetype Horus]] in the Horus Heresy and [[TheCaligula Goge Vandire]] in the Age of Apostasy). It doesn't help that the only one who could feasibly remove the "Inefficient" part is the Emperor of Mankind, and he's a barely alive husk trapped in failing life support. |
| 167 | [[/folder]] |
| 168 | |
| 169 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 170 | * ''ComicBook/BeastWarsUprising:'' The Cybertron of the 24th century is run by the Builders, who are so ludicrously energy-inefficient they've actually ground to a halt. Rather than do the sensible thing, like downsize or fund research into more energy-efficient technologies, they spend their time enforcing idiotically strict laws on the Maximals and Predacons or forcing them into lethal deathmatches out of sheer spite. By the time of the first story, this means pretty much all of Cybertron is a decaying husk, with most cities just standing wrecks. |
| 171 | [[/folder]] |
| 172 | |
| 173 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 174 | * The Templars of ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' tend to function as such. Due to their belief in keeping the populace weak as part of their interpretation of Order, whenever they tend to control territories they tend to run it to the ground as seen in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood''. The Renaissance is considered a "Dark Age" of sorts for Templars as members were out solely for personal gain rather than forwarding their goals, but the modern-day or Altair-era Templars don't seem much better. Sure, they're not openly stabbing each other in the back in the name of personal power, but despite apparently having been in a position of control over just about ''everything'' except the minds of the populace itself [[spoiler:hence the need for the Apple,]] the Assassins still exist and still manage to repeatedly yank the rug out from under the Templars, while the rest of the world appears to be in slightly worse shape than real life. |
| 175 | * In ''VideoGame/Beholder2'': One sidequest has you investigate why window 101 is closed, it turns out the clerk at the window died at his workstation a week ago and no one noticed before you did. |
| 176 | * ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' has the city of Opportunity, built by Handsome Jack as his vision of utopia. In reality, it's a fascist dictatorship that's more or less a glorified monument to himself. It has elements of BreadAndCircuses (people are paid to live there and gain a sizeable tax refund for listening to BlatantLies about how he unlocked the Vault of the first game) as well as having death penalties for crimes such as littering and "verbal littering" (criticizing any of Opportunity's laws). It also doesn't help the fact that since it's located in the middle of [[DeathWorld Pandora]], no sane person would want to move their family there in the first place. When the latter is pointed out to him by an employee, [[BadBoss Jack has said employee's kids killed]]. |
| 177 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' I and II, despotism has large losses to corruption, waste, and reduced production output for tiles producing more than 2 of a resource. Communism and Fundamentalism are aversions, having very low corruption loss, despite being thematically similar to despotism. |
| 178 | ** ''Civilization III'' splits Fascism from Despotism, where its corruption amount is comparable to Republic, but has other penalties that reduce city size and limitation of culture if a city has more foreign nationals than your nationals. |
| 179 | ** In ''Civilization V'', being a military-focused civ means not only is your economy going to suffer (building and maintaining an army is VERY expensive) but you also will most likely miss out on building Wonders (which give great bonuses to your civ; admittedly, conquering somebody else's Wonder can be just as good as building it yourself), and get penalties to your culture. Being a warmonger pretty much paints a target on your back, as the other civilizations in the game will turn hostile against you (effectively shutting down any trade negotiations you may have had with them). |
| 180 | ** In the ''VideoGame/CivilizationCallToPower'' series, Tyranny is the starting government and is extremely poor in almost all areas. Later in the game, Fascism and Communism supply good production and strong military support, but with weaker economies and can support fewer cities than Democracy, the other government at about the same position on the tech tree. (Technocracy is an aversion, however. This government is pretty much ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', but is a highly efficient government, although with slightly different bonuses to other late-game ones.) |
| 181 | * ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': Arasaka is one of the richest and most powerful corporations in the world. It is also the defacto government of both Japan as well as Night City. Conversations with Goro, though, indicate that Japan is actually no better off than Night City in terms of poverty and violence (and Night City is a WretchedHive). Indeed, Night City is in large part such a hellish city ''because'' of Arasaka's prominence. Arasaka sucks its locations dry and makes them much worse. |
| 182 | * ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': The Illuminati present a facade of efficiency, but show extreme difficulty both in keeping citizens in basic sanitary conditions, and unable to handle a technologically-inferior terrorist group. Graft is common, biomilitary funding has laughably poor quarantining procedure, and it's noteworthy when a field agent refuses to kill so he can interrogate survivors. This problem proves systemic when, faced with rogue agents, the Illuminati field obsolete technology and outclassed operatives. When pressed to finally dispatch a top-of-the-line soldier finally to engage, he proves so PowerfulButIncompetent that he can only attempt to counter direct confrontations, but fails miserably at even slowing down a stealthy opponent. |
| 183 | * ''Franchise/DragonAge'': |
| 184 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': After [[UriahGambit leaving King Cailan to die in battle]], Teyrn Loghain declares himself [[RegentForLife Regent]] to the widowed queen, his daughter Anora, and tries to rule Ferelden with an iron fist. He also employs the ruthless Arl [[HateSink Rendon Howe]] as his right hand, due to a mistaken belief that Howe's ruthlessness belies political cunning and willingness to do what's needed to keep the nobles in line. This backfires horribly: Loghain's bald-faced power grab and iron fist cause an outright civil war, and Howe's attempt to keep the nobility in line with kidnappings, torture, assassinations, and so on [[NiceJobFixingItVillain just drives more nobles into resisting and destroys any credibility Loghain had]]. It doesn't help that this is going on while Ferelden is being invaded by a [[WorldWreckingWave Blight]], so trade, commerce, and travel all across the country has ground to a halt, and with any military force that could oppose them locked in civil war, the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent darkspawn]] have free rein to run rampant and lay waste to half of Ferelden. Finally, Loghain's unwillingness to address the country's problems in favor of [[SkewedPriorities "securing their border" with Orlais]] eventually leads to the PlayerCharacter [[spoiler:routing his public support as the only way to defeat the Blight with their own army and defeating him politically in a Landsmeet]]. |
| 185 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'': [[TautologicalTemplar Knight-Commander]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist Meredith]] is the de facto authority figure of the medieval city-kingdom of Kirkwall, due to the Viscount Dumar being an AuthorityInNameOnly and the casually corrupt and incompetent nobility being unconcerned with anything besides their money. Kirkwall is also a SoiledCityOnAHill and a WretchedHive of poverty, crime, and corruption -- partly because Meredith is unconcerned with anything not related to hunting down and imprisoning [[AntiMagicalFaction apostate mages]]. After Viscount Dumar is [[spoiler:publicly executed by the invading Arishok]] at the end of Act 2, Meredith fills the power vacuum and turns Kirkwall into an authoritarian dictatorship. This just caused Kirkwall to turn into an even ''bigger'' WretchedHive, and her hard-nosed policy against mages just causes more and more of them to turn to BloodMagic and DemonicPossession out of fear and desperation to escape her iron grip. Her increased paranoia and madness also just cause more mage-related incidents, and her desire to compensate by having the Templars seize more and more control over the city just causes it to become even more dysfunctional than ever, [[spoiler:eventually destroying the city in an all-out civil war]]. |
| 186 | * In ''VideoGame/FableIII'', Logan ends up running his parents' kingdom to the ground [[spoiler:in an attempt to prepare Albion against an EldritchAbomination]] and generally kicking the dog in order to teach you, his younger sibling, to be equally prepared. However he keeps kicking the dog even when it does nothing but makes things worse, and when you usurp the throne it turns out that much like [[VideoGame/FableII your parent before you]], making obscene amounts of money without being a jerkass is just a case of investing and maintaining real estate. |
| 187 | * [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] by Caesar's Legion in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. It's noted by several characters, possibly including the PlayerCharacter in the endgame, that the Legion's economy is sustained primarily by pillaging others and won't last long against the NCR, who have a more diversified economy and will win a war of attrition, hands down. It's also commonly noted that the Legion will fall into infighting once Caesar dies and/or they run out of enemies to fight. But on the other hand, it is Caesar's full intention to take over New Vegas and turn the Legion into a self-sustaining empire -- he freely admits the Legion in its current state is closer to "the hordes of Gaul" than the Roman Empire he seeks to emulate. The Legion is also far more able to keep the peace and protect their subjects than the NCR, which is badly overextended and divided by political infighting. |
| 188 | * The Garlean Empire in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' is an expansionist dictatorship primarily concerned with conquering lands to loot their resources and conscript their citizens to conquer more land. While higher-ups claim it is a unified meritocracy dedicated to eliminating the [[{{Tulpa}} Primals]] threat, every high ranking officer except one got their position through nepotism and care about nothing besides pursuing their own demented, selfish interests; while regular soldiers are bigoted thugs who denigrate everyone who is not a native Garlean, even those under their rule. And despite claims of trying to protect the world from Primals the Empire's attempts at conquest do as much damage to the planet as the Primals if not more so. |
| 189 | * ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'': the four main structures of government are an Imperial dictatorship and three different subsets of democracy. Imperial is ''massively'' less useful economically than the others, with the comparatively tiny benefit of not having to stage elections at semi-random intervals. |
| 190 | * The Combine Overwatch in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' don't seem to really care about the rebels operating a secret lab just blocks away from a major train station, and getting spies into [[StateSec Civil Protection]] seems to be as easy as joining Civil Protection, but once Gordon returns they waste no time going from oppressive to offensive, mobilising a massive manhunt to hunt Gordon down, and launching a huge raid on the entire canal system to clear out the rebel activity. When it's clear that Gordon is headed out of town, they begin mobilising the overwatch military to begin attacking outland settlements as well. Somehow, they never do find that lab, even though it does take battle damage and is abandoned in favor of a safer forest base around 2 weeks after the revolution begins. [[spoiler:Later series revelations suggest the Combine's efficiency problem is simply that it's too huge for any kind of fine-detail work - it's a multidimensional partial HiveMind civilisation with guiding intelligences that have difficulty thinking at the single-planetary level, let alone the neighbourhood level.]] |
| 191 | * In ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' mod ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysofEurope'', the Axis powers win UsefulNotes/WorldWarII through a combination of luck and the Allied powers constantly shooting themselves in the foot between 1920 and 1940. Unfortunately for them, SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs hard and all major axis powers find themselves on the brink of collapse in the 1960s. The Nazis' ambitious plans for Europe has left their economy in shambles and heading towards an inevitable civil war, the Italians have been liberalizing to save their economy, and Japan's infighting has left it paralyzed in the face of rebellious puppets in the Co-Prosperity Sphere and an increasingly bold United States. |
| 192 | ** Speer's path for the Reich plays with this trope. It ''is'' one of the most efficient paths available to Germany, and it is classified as Fascist, but this is because it represents a dialing down of the insanity of Nazism and reforming things in a more pragmatic, rational direction -- it isn't efficient so much as less inefficient. Fittingly, there is some implication that between the three paths Speer's Germany can go on at the end of current content, it is the (Authoritarian) Democrat path that repudiates Fascism [[spoiler:against Speer's wishes, with him reduced to a puppet of his reformist advisors]] that makes for the most efficient, working Germany. |
| 193 | ** This trope is especially prominent in countries following the ideology of Esoteric Nazism[[note]]better known by its pre-Toolbox Theory name, the Burgundian System[[/note]], which represents the most [[EvilerThanThou extreme]], [[OmnicidalManiac genocidal]], and [[{{Ghostapo}} insane]] forms that Hitler's ideology can take. ''None'' of the playable Esoteric Nazi countries can survive for more than a few years (with the sole exception of Burgundy, which is still bound to collapse in a decade or so), so destructive they are in their totalitarianism. |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/HorizonForbiddenWest'': The Quen are implied to suffer this issue in their homeland. In the ''Burning Shores'' expansion, Compliance officer Rheng[[note]] Basically Quen secret police[[/note]] puts a tail on a group of people that are looking to cause a rebellion, but conveniently ignores the fact that his fleet are in strange lands populated with dangerous machines and in a position where they can't afford to spare manpower. This winds up getting everyone but his tail killed, and even then, Aloy helps said tail break away from Rheng's hold, guaranteeing Rheng a place in the brig. |
| 195 | * ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}}'': The Helgasht's obsession with militarism and nationalism might look imposing, but it's like watching a bull try to China shop its way through interplanetary warfare. Their love for extravagant super weapons and iron fist rule? Yeah, that doesn't lead to victory parades. And their leaders can't seem to stop plotting against each other. It's like they took the fascist playbook and threw it in the trash compactor. But hey, at least they've got cool helmets, right? |
| 196 | * In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', ultranationalist CorruptPolitician and BigBad Masayoshi Shido was the head of a GovernmentConspiracy that initially appears to be an all-powerful force with members across various sectors of Tokyo. [[spoiler:But once the Phantom Thieves pull the wool over their eyes by faking [[PlayerCharacter Joker]]'s death, they prove surprisingly incompetent. They do a shoddy job in making sure Joker is actually dead, classifying him as dead ''without even bothering to check the body'', resulting in the Thieves breaking into the Palace unopposed and making it to the Treasure Room as they would any other, the conspiracy losing their OnlySaneMan Akechi (seemingly to ''Shido's cognition of him'', no less), and Joker's survival coming to light through the CallingCard, by which time it's too late to stop Shido's downfall.]] Not only that, Shido has [[YouHaveFailedMe a bad habit of offing those who either failed him or don't show enough loyalty to him]], and a close glance reveals that with the exception of [[spoiler:Akechi]], his followers are just a bunch of bootlickers and opportunists who are either too terrified to disagree with Shido or incompetent to do their jobs properly. Even more damagingly, his lackeys sometimes ''[[RightHandVersusLeftHand get in each other's way]]''; an example is [[spoiler:Kaneshiro's goons extorting Shujin Academy students, putting Principal Kobayakawa in a bind since he'll be murdered if he tells Kaneshiro that Shujin students are off limits but the situation is threatening to cause another PR disaster mere months after Kamoshida's downfall as well as possibly leading to him being fired by the school district for turning a blind eye to students in need. This utter mess ends up driving Makoto into the ranks of the Phantom Thieves and causing them to target Kaneshiro, costing the conspiracy a source of funds.]] In hindsight, the GreaterScopeVillain's external manipulation of the public [[StupidEvil was the only way this rabble of idiots could have got even slightly close to taking over Japan]]. |
| 197 | * Scenarios from ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheWhiteSun'' routinely make you the leader of [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors any given warlord clique in the 1920s China]] or at least make them a viable choice. Thus, your "default" is a militarised, right-wing dictatorship that's constantly boasting about unification by force, the glorious leader and how cool and awesome well-drilled and uniformed soldiers are. At the same time, you not only have to deal with the backward situation in China itself, with antiquated technology and ossified traditions, but your regime is in reality a ring of kleptomaniacs, thugs and power-hungry militarists that are too busy lining their own pockets and StealingFromTheTill in the process. And that's on a good day, because the infighting within the clique can and will lead to the ruin of the faction, while preventing it requires paying favours to people that are ''known'' for being disloyal thieves. Even when having a perfect play, players will still be affected by various standard inefficiencies of being a BananaRepublic dictatorship. |
| 198 | * In ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', the Police State government has a penalty to efficiency as a disadvantage. Combined with a planned economy for a full totalitarian government, and your faction will probably crash and burn from almost all income being lost to inefficiency. Subverted if you're playing as Yang, who is immune to inefficiency and thus has no downsides to running exactly this sort of government; his faction's philosophy is thoroughly deindividualizing and collectivist to the point of being almost inhuman, and so they can make this work. |
| 199 | * ''Franchise/StarCraft'': |
| 200 | ** Both Terran Governments we get to see are portrayed as fascist, dictatorial, and extremely ineffective; at the beginning of the game, the Confederation is clearly hated by almost everybody due to their policy of nuking rebellious planets, and it's quite clear the regime was already dying before Arcturus raised a rebel army of his own that destroyed it. Afterwards, his Terran Dominion seems ''slightly'' more effective, but just as oppressive, and ends up rather easily destroyed by [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression the UED]]. While he manages to rebuild it between the end of ''[[VideoGame/StarCraftI Brood War]]'' and ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'', it's implied the only reason he lasted so long was that Kerrigan [[CruelMercy didn't consider him worth killing]]. The very moment she decides to go on the warpath against him again, [[CurbStompBattle his Dominion is crushed]], and the drastic measures he attempts to save it only end up making things worse. |
| 201 | ** Mengsk also has one of the traits of RealLife fascist militaries down: his lust for enormous ego-stroking superweapons. At the height of the zerg invasion on the Dominion, he spends an enormous amount of resources to produce the Odin, a mammoth ''walking tank'' packed with every armament imaginable, up to and including ''nukes''. [[LaResistance Raynor's men]] steal it, and after having some fun with it, declare it useless as a practical weapon and discard it, [[spoiler:only for Mengsk to decide to bring it out again when the Zerg and Raiders launch a joint invasion of Korhal]]. |
| 202 | ** [[NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering The Protoss Conclave]] is shown to be utterly incompetent in defending Aiur against the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Zerg]] [[AlienInvasion invasion]] due to [[HonorBeforeReason their insistence of relying on traditional protoss tactics]] (which ''aren't'' at all effective against a ZergRush) and constant refusal to accept help from [[DarkIsNotEvil the Dark Templar]] for ideological reasons, [[TooDumbToLive even though the Dark Templars possess exactly what is needed to defeat the Zerg]]. They also refuse Terran help, again for "[[FantasticRacism ideological]]" reasons. Unsurprisingly, they are the first to get exterminated by the time of ''Brood War''. |
| 203 | ** Defied by [[HiveQueen Kerrigan]], of all people, in ''[[VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm Heart of the Swarm]]'' when she decides, despite [[TheSpock Abathur]]'s recommendations, to grant her Broodmothers more free will and individuality, as she feels the Swarm would be more effective if they are capable of thinking by themselves and taking initiative rather than being just mindless slaves. |
| 204 | * ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': |
| 205 | ** Even at the finest eras of the Sith Empire, the infrastructure is crumbling or nonexistent, and everyone from two-bit officials to the Sith theocracy is too busy [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbing each other]] or fearing their underling's constant attempts at invoking KlingonPromotion to accomplish ''anything''. Add an untenable [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture reliance on slave labor]] and a boatload of FantasticRacism against ''every'' non-human (or non-Sith) species, in a galaxy with ''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces over twenty million sentient species]]''. In the later storylines [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Darth Marr]] takes acts to try and fix this, enacting pro-alien policies as well as trying to curb some of the Empire's worse habits (particularly the rampant backstabbing/politicking). |
| 206 | ** Somewhat subverted with the Eternal Empire. While Valkorion was [[GodEmperor Immortal Emperor]], the empire had its golden age, making incredible progress in science and society, to the point that people actually got bored of how awesome everything was. If Valkorion kept the throne, it's unlikely that the Outlander would have the shadow of a chance. [[spoiler:His children, on the other hand, were so tyrannical that the Zakuulans were lining up to volunteer for the Alliance.]] |
| 207 | * ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': Slaves have a bonus to mineral and food production but are poor at producing energy (used as currency) or research. Which means that Authoritarian and especially Xenophobic empires tend towards financial trouble, especially when it comes to maintaining the armies needed to suppress slave revolts. |
| 208 | * ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'': According to WordOfGod, the Decepticon capital of Kaon is a dark, ramshackle place to mimic how the Decepticons (with their MightMakesRight thinking) just aren't interested in building a functional government. |
| 209 | * In the AlternateHistory of ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'', the Nazis discovered a cache of LostTechnology, [[StupidJetpackHitler reverse-engineered what they could]] and used it to {{take over the world}} well into the [=1960s=]. The technological advances enabled some impressive engineering but didn't solve the issues caused by their oppressive government — mostly because the Nazis based their super-science exclusively on a handful of tech that [[BlackBox their scientists did not understand]]. While it gave them a military advantage, it disincentivized the Nazis from making a society that could function without repression; and they've become so dependent on that aging technology that their social and political development stagnated. Furthermore, despite monolithic aesthetics, their empire lacks a centralized government, with individual officers like Deathshead and Engel presiding over their own hazily-defined fiefdoms. Thus, when a revolution is kicked off in ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'', the Nazis quickly lose control over most of the planet. While they're still around in the 1980s, [[CreativeSterility their technological advantage has largely stagnated]] and their remaining territories in Europe are plagued by political infighting [[spoiler:after the death of Hitler]]. |
| 210 | [[/folder]] |
| 211 | |
| 212 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 213 | * Half the humor in ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' comes from highlighting the Imperium's problems. Of particular note is Short 7, where the Emperor and Rogal discuss the Imperial legal system that often takes generations to rule on a case. |
| 214 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': |
| 215 | ** Adam Taurus is a supporter of Faunus supremacy and seeks to TakeOverTheWorld to achieve it, going so far as to kill Sienna Khan so he can take over the White Fang and lead them into a war against humanity. Sadly, throughout Volume 5, it's proven that while Adam is an excellent warrior, he's a ''horrible'' leader; he's hot-tempered, spiteful, and petty, and makes incredibly stupid moves that blow up in his face. On top of pushing away valuable allies like Salem's faction out of petty spite and bigotry, he proceeds to order the assassination of Blake's parents just to spite and hurt her; the assassination fails and provides just the means for Blake to [[NeutralNoLonger rally the previously neutral citizens of Menagerie against him]]. When cornered at Haven, [[TakingYouWithMe Adam attempts to blow himself]] [[BadBoss and his troops up]] with everyone else instead of surrendering or risk trying to fight his way out, and when his troops are all subdued and arrested, he decides to simply [[VillainExitStageLeft make a break for it]]. Ilia predicts that no one in the White Fang will support or follow Adam after all of this, and come "Argus Limited," she's proven right; [[spoiler:when Adam returns to his headquarters, his remaining men block his access to his throne, mock his failure at Haven, and make it clear they won't follow his orders anymore, leading to Adam flying into a rage and slaughtering them all]]. |
| 216 | ** In Volume 8, fascism is represented by [[spoiler:General Ironwood, who has crossed the DespairEventHorizon and convinced himself that the only possible option to stop Salem is to declare martial law and use the artifact she's after to lift Atlas into the upper atmosphere, leaving behind thousands of people to die. As the heroes point out, even if this does work, it would still mean abandoning an entire city to be destroyed by Salem. The heroes, by contrast, use said artifact to evacuate the vast majority of the population to relative safety, letting Atlas be destroyed but saving the people]]. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 220 | * ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': |
| 221 | ** [[StateSec The Dai Li]], the ''de facto'' government of Ba Sing Se, was a group that was more interested in keeping the city peaceful by forbidding all discussion of the war and isolating the continuous flow of refugees than actually organizing much in the way of actual coordinated strategy or doing anything to improve the lot of the refugees. The conspiracy was ''so'' inefficient that their actions guaranteed the eventual defeat of the Earth Kingdom, leaving Ba Sing Se nearly defenseless against Fire Nation siege engines (at a time when the Fire Nation proves it is not in MedievalStasis) and the entire rest of the Kingdom is falling around them. Taken to something of its logical conclusion when [[spoiler:Azula (the princess of an ''actually'' efficient Fascist government) manages to bring the Dai Li under her control, seizing power over the city and effectively conquering the Earth Kingdom]]. |
| 222 | ** The Earth Kingdom stays completely incompetent in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', where the [[spoiler:secret airbender conscript training]] goes so far as to ''discourage'' teamwork and protecting your allies, apparently because Earth Kingdom culture reveres blundering idiocy or something. [[spoiler:Again, taken to its logical conclusion when the entire Kingdom falls apart in spectacular fashion once [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen the Earth Queen]] is assassinated and the walls separating the dirt-poor Lower Ring from the decadent and obscenely wealthy Upper and Middle Rings are brought down. And like in the previous series, the next regime was a fascist dictatorship that was NOT run by morons.]] |
| 223 | ** Even the [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheFireNation Fire Nation]] is not immune to this trope, and they were only efficient in relative terms. InterserviceRivalry is fairly common between army and navy, and commanding officers are corrupt and ambitious {{Glory Hound}}s who favor strong arm methods rather than precise tactics that they tend to kill their own soldiers quite frequently either by themselves or by just crushing the enemy with sheer force and numbers. It becomes rather telling that the military has been having trouble maintaining control over various Earth Kingdom provinces since Earth Kingdom citizens' greatest strength is their determination. Even within the mainland, resources are mostly dedicated to building its military usually at the expense of backwater villages that are unable to have access to food and water. And there are even towns that are rife with crime that {{Dirty Cop}}s are easily bribed and can't be bothered to deal with maintaining order. |
| 224 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': The court system seems to spend most of its time interrogating innocent people, then failing to protect them on the rare occasion they admit to knowing something and then losing the case due to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification jury nullification.]] This is the justification Huey offers for why the Black community seems to have an irrational aversion to snitching, though [[{{Hypocrite}} he doesn't seem to endorse the practice himself]]. |
| 225 | * The WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck WarTimeCartoon "WesternAnimation/DerFuehrersFace" took Nazism to an absurd extreme, including its inefficiency. This means Donald has only a single coffee bean (that he had hidden), a block of wood (or possibly a loaf of bread so hard it needed to be cut with a saw), and a spray bottle of bacon flavoring to eat. Donald's workflow is constantly interrupted by photos of Hitler (which must all be heiled to ''individually'' or a dozen guards would threaten to shoot Donald) also placed on the assembly line. Many shells went past Donald unscrewed as he just couldn't keep up with the constantly changing size of the shells, the speed of the conveyor belt, or the random photographs he has to heil instead of doing his actual job. |
| 226 | * ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has this PlayedForLaughs with the [[Characters/InvaderZimIrkenEmpire Irkens]] ''and'' the humans. Both societies are cruel, totalitarian, and run by incompetent egotists who react to any objections with brainwashing or death, despite having absolutely no idea what they're doing themselves. |
| 227 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': The closest thing to a functioning government the Boiling Isles has seems to be the Emperor and his coven acting as peacekeepers. There seems to be no instituted checks and balances in place and [[PoliceBrutality law-enforcement can be as brutal as they want]], Lilith's constant bending of the rules with no perceived demerits on her part implying that [[WhoWatchesTheWatchmen nobody can hold them accountable for any miscarriages of justice they could commit]]. All practitioners of magic are to join a Coven - which would [[MasterOfOneMagic cut them off from using any form of magic]] that is not their [[GangOfHats hat]] - or be branded a criminal. Any law-breakers, ranging from those who reject joining any covens like Eda or simply being "abnormal" (like making fanfiction or being a ConspiracyTheorist), are sent to [[HellholePrison the Conformatoriam]] where they will be imprisoned and tortured at the Warden's leisure. With this in mind, the Boiling Isles is still a lawless cesspit populated by demons who would kill you, eat you, enslave you, rip you off, and every other manner of horror with law enforcement either absent or apathetic to it. Just the fact that the Owl House seems to be an OpenSecret, yet it takes luring the Owl Lady to the Emperor's castle with Luz as bait in "Agony of the Witch" in order to capture her, is a sign that the Emperor's Coven only has a superficial grip on things. This could be {{Justified|Trope}} when it is revealed that the Emperor's reign has only existed for 50 years, meaning that while the Emperor's Coven has been around long enough to establish its authority, such authority has yet to sink in ideologically for all of its inhabitants and thus [[PoliceState his coven is prioritizing showing force over constructive order]]. [[spoiler:Of course, given Belos' ultimate goal is to kill everyone in the Demon Realm, it's possible he simply doesn't care enough to enforce any rules that don't directly contribute to his plan]]. |
| 228 | * ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' [[SamuraiJack/TropesSeason5 Season 5]]: The High Priestess' rearing of her daughters is a horrifically cruel reflection of Jack's own... and that cruelty is exactly what makes it a less efficient means of creating the WorldsBestWarrior than Jack's did. It not only leaves them utterly incapable of functioning outside their given mission and ignorant of the outside world to the point of not knowing what a deer even is, [[spoiler:rearing a group meant to fight as a unit to have a LackOfEmpathy and actively avoiding helping each other at all costs left a vulnerability Jack was able to exploit to directly kill one and defeat the group as a whole.]] Contrast with Jack, who was both the WorldsBestWarrior capable of fighting in near-any environment ''and'' a fairly well-adjusted human being ''because'' of the more benevolent parts of his rearing. |
| 229 | * The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is owned and run by C. Montgomery Burns, who has German roots and has, at various times, mentioned working for the Nazis during the Second World War. He likes to think that he rules his fiefdom with an iron fist and enjoys brutally exploiting his workers, cutting corners to the point of NoOSHACompliance, and thumbing his nose at government and regulatory oversight. However, he detests mingling with the riffraff so he isolates himself in his office and Smithers, his primary source of information about the plant's runnings, is a bootlicking lackey who doesn't want to upset Burns and his inner circle are all Yes Men so he doesn't have any real idea about what's going on. The rank and file, meanwhile, are a combination of corrupt and incompetent who harpor no real loyalty to Burns and slack off at every opportunity. |
| 230 | * [[Characters/StevenUniverseHomeworldGems The Gem Homeworld]] from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' operates on a HiveCasteSystem where one's role and position depends on one's gem-type, with the Diamonds acting as the highest of authorities. The Diamonds each have complete unchecked power over their Empire and are willing to enact harsh punishments at the slightest provocation, including instant death. Because of this, certain forms of efficiency are sacrificed in order for some gems to escape the Diamonds' wrath. Holly Blue Agate, for instance, does ''not'' inform Blue Diamond of the Crystal Gems' escape from the Human Zoo; as they escaped right under her nose, she'd almost certainly be subject to YouHaveFailedMe. They also have a taboo against fusion, fusions between the same gem-types only allowed during combat situations and inter-gem fusions like Garnet and Rhodonite (which are, as a rule, ''far'' [[YinYangBomb more powerful]]) considered criminal punishable by shattering, even though Garnet only first manifested by accident when Ruby saved Sapphire, the very thing that Ruby was assigned to do.\ |
| 231 | Furthermore, because the Diamonds have both unchecked absolute authority and egos the size of planets, it makes them unable to function pragmatically as leaders, which is vital to keeping their way of life going. Abandoning/time-bombing Earth instead of trying to salvage its resources have left them unable to make complete Gems with what they have[[note]]The Crystal Gem Peridot is "new", an Era-2 Peridot, meaning she doesn't have the powers a pre-rebellion Peridot should have, even standard ones like shapeshifting[[/note]], something Yellow Diamond openly trivializes when [[spoiler:Peridot]] suggests terminating the [[spoiler:Cluster]] project, proving that she's not the efficient, pragmatic leader Peridot initially presumed. When they corruption-bombed the planet to end the civil war, they didn't even bother to ensure that all of the loyalists had made it off-planet, since Centipeetle/Nephrite and her crew were ''not'' Crystal Gems. Most fatally, their insistence on blind obedience to the caste system ensured that they failed to recognize that [[spoiler:Pink Diamond, their fellow Diamond/little sister, didn't want to finish her colony and didn't even want to be a Diamond anymore, faking her death to fully assume her alter-ego as the rebellious Rose Quartz because she believed Blue and Yellow didn't care about her]]. |
| 232 | * ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' has the country of [[{{Ruritania}} Thembria]], where everything is accompanied by mountains of forms and paperwork, so a simple request or decision can take months to put into practice. The sole exception seems to be execution orders, which are rushed through in a few hours. The armament industry was so inefficient (or tied up in red tape) that the Thembrian Air Force [[RunningGag never had any bullets]] and would resort to throwing whatever they DID have at enemy planes, including furniture, ship anchors, and cuts of bologna. |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
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