"No one condemning you – lined up like lemmings
You led to the water
Why can’t they see what I see? Why can’t they hear the lies?
Maybe the fee’s too pricey for them to realize..."
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
—Patrick Henry
Our brave heroes infiltrate the
Evil Overlord's realm to stop his latest plot, surely they can
train the villagers in this tyrant's land into a
La Resistance?
Cue a short trip to the dungeon. These
Gullible Lemmings are more of a Vlad Țepes constituency, they not only
believe the villain but
actively try to help him when he says
the heroes are evil. They'll act in his interest by doing things like turning in the heroes for spies or trying to capture them. They aren't
Mooks or
Les Collaborateurs, just regular citizens being what they think is a
Heroic Bystander. Maybe he's only a cold blooded murderer abroad, perhaps he's a genuinely kind
Anti Villain at home whose earned his subjects' affections. Maybe they've been bought off with
Bread And Circuses and will continue to vote him into office as long as they get theirs. Or maybe he's just
mind controlled everyone into happy loyal citizens with too little brains to give him a
Zero Percent Approval Rating.
This is not limited to rulers;
Corrupt Corporate Executives, the
Well Intentioned Extremist, or
any villain(s) who slave away to get good publicity can benefit from the
Gullible Lemmings' loyalty.
To break the Overlords hold on his people, he must be revealed as a
Straw Hypocrite.
A subtrope of
Dying Like Animals. Generally facilitate the existence of the
Easily Conquered World. See also
Good All Along.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- In Death Note, there are interviews of the "man on the street" indicating widespread public support of the Knight Templar protagonists and their extreme "tough on crime attitude". This is in spite of the fact that in both cases the templars in question suggest that they plan on broadening their list of targets once they get rid of the truly evil people.
- This was used as a humanizing move in the Hades arc of Saint Seiya. It's revealed that the Spectres in Hades' believe he is trying to bring about a Utopia Justifies The Means for all humanity... the "Great Eclipse" being the means. Of course, Hades just has a vague and nebulous all consuming contempt towards humanity and the living, and wants all existence to be in an orderly dead state.
Comic Books
- The citizens of Latveria are usually portrayed as genuinely fond of Doctor Doom, and willing to stand up for him against the likes of Captain America or the Fantastic Four. With good reason, he's responsible for freeing them from an unpopular dictator and subverting Reed Richards Is Useless by making Latveria one of the most prosperous countries in... Europe? All he asks for is the unconditional loyalty of his citizens.
- Some citizens are aware they will be killed horribly if they screw around. Depending On The Writer for both of these of course
- Following Marvel's Civil War, most of the US population is perfectly willing to acclaim psychotic murderers like Norman Osborn and Mac Gargan as heroes.
- Which implies that Nohamotyo applies in full effect to the people of the Marvel Universe, given that Norman has been found guilty of being the Green Goblin, and consequently is a known lunatic and mass murderer. How do you get Villain With Good Publicity status after that?
- "Everyone deserves a second chance" combined with psychologists that actually work, or at least, look like they do.
- Also, it helps that he stopped an alien invasion. (Well, not really, but it looked like he did and that's all that matters.)
- Also-also, a whole lot of the Avengers have been reformed criminals over the years, starting with Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch. How is the public supposed to distinguish the good former bad guys from the bad former bad guys?
Literature
- You could perhaps find this trope, if turned on its head, in the novel The Hunchback Of Notre Dame: Quasimodo, our "hero," believes that Frollo's guards are the good guys and the gypsies are the bad guys. The actual situation is that Frollo's guards are trying to kill Esmeralda (the woman Quasi is trying to protect) while the gypsies are trying to save her. So you have Quasi systematically thwarting the efforts of the gypsies while making every attempt to help the guards. This troper found it one of the most vivid and heart-wrenching setups imaginable, and it has stuck with her as an example of how to make good use of miscommunication.
- Trollslayer has Gotrek and Felix encounter a village that helps an evil sorcerer who is holding their children hostage. The heroes don't find out that he's mutated them all into his personal army until after they've killed them all.
Real Life
- Truth In Television: In 2008, Alaska senator Ted Stevens was found guilty of seven corruption charges just before the election. The election is too close to call as of this writing, but enough voters are appreciative enough about the Federal funding he brings into the state to ignore the fact that he is a convicted felon.
- When all the votes were counted, he lost. And several months later, his conviction was overturned when it later emerged that the prosecution had repeatedly lied in court [1]
This makes the case of Ted Stevens pretty much the reverse of Gullible Lemmings: a (legally) innocent politician who lost an election for the appearance of corruption.
- If we're counting that, how about the real-life case of Marion Barry? Years after being caught on TAPE smoking up crack, he is re-elected to the Mayor of D.C. Astonishing.
- Well, is he a good Mayor?
Tabletop Games
Theater
- The citizens of Oz are like this in Wicked, eating up everything the Wizard and Morrible say about Animals, and later about Elphaba. After trying to fight the propaganda and failing, Elphie turns this to her advantage when the rumor that "her soul is so unclean/pure water can melt her!" is put to the test.
Video Games
- In The Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past, a number of villagers believe Link to be a criminal who has kidnapped the Princess due to propaganda disseminated by Agahnim, who has deposed the king. One will even call the guards to attack Link if she sees him.
- Two, actually: The old lady and the housewife.
- In Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the grunts from Team Galactic fit this description. They believe Galactic is a natural energy company, and only battle the protagonist because they were promised rare Pokemon in return. Little did they know they're evil leader's main ambition was to destroy this world and create a new universe he could rule. Brilliant, guys.
Web Original
- As quoted above, Dr. Horrible's Arch Nemesis is a Villain With Good Publicity, and the masses mindlessly practically worship him even while he (unwittingly?) insults them and the homeless- at the opening of the new homeless shelter.
- It's always possible that Dr. Horrible is an unreliable narrator and that we, the audience, are the true lemmings.
Western Animation
- The citizens of the Fire Nation are portrayed as pretty much exactly the same as the citizens of the Earth Nation, with the main difference that they're completely dedicated to The Empire after swallowing about a hundred years worth of propaganda, and having information about various acts of war kept from them. While this could be attributed to any groups of citizens during the rule of a power others would call tyrannical, this really gets shown for what it is when the new Fire Lord, Zuko, takes power and instantly ends the war, at which point every fire nation citizen shown is completely behind him. Looks like they might just love their rulers too much.
