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My Master, Right or Wrong
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The liege orders, "Slaughter these peasants who raise against me as I'm working them to death."
The vassal answers, "They're asking for more food...perhaps they could work better if Your Greatness gave them some."''
"No."
"I like being harsh, hurry up, take the army and mow them down!"
"Certainly, my lord." He answers, nauseated, and he goes and does it.
This is when a leader is cruel and, perhaps, incompetent, and the underling obeys him out of adhererance to some ideal, while hating every minute of it.
The trope is mostly used in vaguely medieval settings. In feudalistic structures, more than in others, someone might feel a deep but forced obligation to a certain leader. The underling usually is a minor noble of a warrior caste, a knight or Samurai or such.
To make certain that the public understands that this character disagrees, he will get a lot of Pet the Dog moments, appeal to his liege to overthink a decision, beg for the lives of others, angst visibly when he's alone, and try to twist his orders a little if possible. He often doesn't even consider the heroes his enemy and is an honorable opponent. Also, he might be seen as suffering as much under his lord as the next subject, for sympathy points.
These types tend to be The Fettered who have sworn an oath to unreliable leaders and refuse to break their word. Such characters are prone to Heel Face Turn because all they need is to broaden their ethic horizon a bit. It's also popular for some Deliberate Values Dissonance, presenting feudal ideals and showing the modern public how an obviously compassionate man can be made to freely follow obviously cruel orders.
Some old European knightly codes had a proper procedure for a knight resigning his oath because his liege lord was on the Wrong side. He had to do it to his liege lord's face. If he survived, he could then join the Right side. A samurai only had the choice of outright killing himself demonstratively as a way of disagreeing and staying honorable. These, hm, options can get ignored due to the Rule of Drama. On the other hand, playing them out makes for great drama too.
This deals with such questions as: What is an oath worth? What are wrong and right, personal mercy or abstract principles? What is honor? The liege is evil, how evil is the vassal?
Liege and vassal are great foil for each other and for the relationship of a leading hero and his followers.
Especially tragic when the vassal is also more competent than the liege. Very similar to My Country, Right Or Wrong, only more personal. A common characterization of The Dragon. Contrast Rebellious Rebel, Mook Face Turn, Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal, Secret Test of Character.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Benawi of Utawarerumono hates his orders, and yet stays loyal until the end. The heroes surround the castle, and before he lets them kill his lord, he first urges him to commit Seppuku, and when the lord doesn't, he kills him himself. Not out of his clear contempt, anger, or hate, but as his second.
- In Digimon Adventure 02, Wormon has this approach to the Digimon Emperor. Unusually for this trope, the Digimon Emperor has nothing but contempt for him, but when he sacrifices himself to save the Emperor's life, it prompts a Heel Realization.
- Renamon from Digimon Tamers seems to hover somewhere between this trope and Extreme Doormat in the early part of the series, while being treated as a soulless fighting machine by her Tamer.
- Played for Laughs with the (Anime only) character of Sasuke in Ranma 1/2, who serves the Kunou's every whim, no matter how deranged or unpleasant.
- Done several times in Saint Seiya. One such instance occurred with the Leo Saint realizing that his master was not acting in the interest of Athena but actually against her and deciding to confront him before being brainwashed back into his service. Of course, the main example of the series comes with the Sagittarius Saint, who went rogue and broke into the Sanctuary to saving baby Athena from being killed by the Pope, the ruler of the Sanctuary.
- It also happens the other way around in the Asgard arc, in which, no matter if their princess is right or wrong, her warriors decide to fight for her until their death, even if they do acknowledge that she has changed. Yet in another variation, near the end of this arc, Siegfried disobeyed his princess' orders when he realized that the ones he was fighting against were not the real enemies and were, in fact, trying to free his princess from the mind control ring she was subjected to. He actually gave them the last MacGuffin required to free her and sacrificed himself by turning on the emissary of his true enemy. In this case, he refused to serve his Lady for her own good in spite of the consequence, his death.
- Happens quite a bit in Lone Wolf and Cub, for differing values of Lords.
- In Samurai Champloo, one such samurai has the misfortune of serving a lord who has hired a Mad Scientist to revive her daughter. Said scientist tries to accomplish this by kidnapping beautiful young maidens and chopping up their parts to create a flesh golem.
- Abelia towards King Hamdo in Now and Then, Here and There. She gets better.
- Entei to Molly in the third Pokémon movie, Spell of the Unown. He actually says, "Whether it is right or wrong, I will do as she wishes!"
- In the Pokémon episode Island of the Giant Pokémon, Jessie's Ekans and James's Koffing explain to Meowth that they're not necessarily bad Pokémon, and even go so far as to assert that no Pokémon is truly bad; Ekans and Koffing, for example, just do what Jessie and James tell them to do. Granted, trained Pokémon in general seem to follow this trope, since the entire point of capturing a Pokémon is to gain a faithful companion.
- In an episode of the Battle Frontier saga, Ash gets possessed by an ancient spirit right before battling Pyramid King Brandon. He orders Sceptile to use some questionable tactics during the fight, and while Sceptile is clearly shocked by each command, it still follows them.
- Arguably, Souseiseki in Rozen Maiden is subject to the trope, both in the manga and anime. She is loyal to her original master, and does whatever he asks of her, no matter how heinous, but it is pretty clear that she doesn't like doing such acts and only does it to help her master become a better person.
- Chachamaru of Mahou Sensei Negima! is fully loyal to Evangeline (and, to a lesser extent, her co-creators, Chao and Hakase). It never really becomes much of an issue after Eva's one token attempt at forcing her way to freedom, though, as Eva turns out to be a Noble Demon at worst, and she usually allows Chachamaru a degree of freedom.
- Haku from Naruto is this to Zabuza. A rather strange example, in that he hates every moment he's hurting people, but is still loyal, actually likes Zabuza, and not a subversion.
- Kimimaro is a better example, I think. He serves the Mad Scientist Orochimaru loyally, even on his death bed, because Orochimaru gave him a purpose - being his next body. It doesn't matter how evil Orochimaru is, he gave him a purpose.
- Even further, I'll bet many unnamed shinobi have been forced to do things for their village that they thought were immoral, like slaughter another, smaller village's people in an enemy land. But as a ninja, you are no longer in control of your free will. Like soldiers, you are trained to do what your masters tell you to do, and to do it well. Emotions just get in the way, which is why the ninjas are taught over and over throughout the anime and manga to be emotionless and cold and to not feel anything for their victims (which is something the above-mentioned Haku sorely lacks).
- There are also Danzo's ROOT, who have at least in theory had theory ability to 'care'' whether their master is right or wrong trained out of them. Sai at least regains it, due to the Naruto factor.
- Uchiha Itachi (we don't have to spoiler tag this anymore, do we? He was outed half a decade ago) turned out to be an interesting variation on this. He was one of Danzo's, but (as the heir to a great house and all) he didn't have as heavy an indoctrination as ROOT members, and it wasn't his loyalty to Danzo specifically that was played on, but to his village; he was also laboring under the expectations of his clan and a split sense of duty along with apparently a kind heart, and got used into to ground. In this case, though, he actively chose one loyalty over another when 'both'' were demanding this of him, though since our information is largely third-hand it's unclear whether the deciding factor was that he felt the Uchiha were more wrong than the village or that siding with the Uchiha would just cause more casualties.
- It's also unclear how much arm-twisting via threats to Sasuke if he didn't comply was involved, though these wouldn't have worked if he'd really felt the Uchiha rebellion was viable, so it may have come down to practicality. And being way overtrained as a killer and having an outsize sense of personal responsibility for any thirteen-year-old boy.
- Anyway, he's more an exploration of the tropes associated with this one than this trope itself. An installment in a dialogue initiated by Haku.
- Bleach: In the Bount arc, Big Bad Kariya has Maki Ichinose (who is a shinigami) working for him. Ichinose in question embodies this trope so well that Kenpachi compares him to a vine that can't grow without something to cling to.
- Stark, while extremely powerful, does not enjoy fighting or hurting others. He admits that he dislikes what Aizen orders him to do, but he obeys him out of eternal gratitude for ending his loneliness.
- Fried, from Fairy Tail, is willing to do whatever Laxus Dreyar tells him to, up to and including killing members of Fairy Tail. This doesn't stop him from questioning Laxus, which usually doesn't go well. Fortunately, Mirajane stops him before there's any fatalities.
- Later, Azuma does whatever Hades tells him to do and points out that he dislikes it.
- More or less, Crona to Medusa, his/her mother. She tells him/her to spy on the DWMA after he/she had made friends with them...and he/she reluctantly agrees.
- Excel Saga. The titular character, Excel, and her sidekick.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Odion was a top ranked member of his master Marik's Rare Hunters, even though he knew Marik's plans were evil. Odion stayed by his side because he was the only one who could keep Marik's darker side at bay.
Comic Books
- In Fables, it turns out that Faithful John's master is working for the Big Bad and, since his fable is all about loyalty, he has no choice but to be The Mole.
- Two amazons in the widely reviled Amazons Attack spent a lot of time discussing Hippolyta's insane actions and how they should stop her. They ended up doing nothing.
- Captain Torame in Usagi Yojimbo lives this axiom. In "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy", Usagi infiltrates the army of a lord planning a coup against the Shogun, who has Torame as an honorable second in command. In the climax of the story, when Usagi reveals his hand and fights to stop the lord, he confronts Torame who refuses to switch sides. Usagi admits that he understands, considering that he never abandoned his own lord (albeit a good guy) when the odds went hopeless against him.
- Seems to be the case with Espio in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic. He's obediently followed orders ever since the Iron Queen took control of his clan, even though he doesn't seem to want to since he has to attack his former friends.
- Though he does explain a lot of things we already know while holding his friend at knife-point by his dreadlocks over the edge of a floating island. I wonder what tricky situations he has in store for everyone else.
- As we eventually find out, while Espio's loyalty was still to his clan, his clan only served the Iron Dominion out of fear. When they eventually turned against the Dominion - a decision Espio himself helped the clan leader to reach - Espio was allowed to side with his friends once more. Notably, while he's shown to still be haunted by the guilt of his previous actions, his friends have forgiven him.
- The UK Transformers comic story "State Games" both subverts and plays this trope straight; the last Autobot Overlord, an old and enfeebled robot, and his compatriots are pinned down by a battalion of mechs that he had personally pissed off by trying to curb their civil war with a neighboring city with gladiatorial bloodsport. His comrades' only chance of survival is to ditch him and make a run for it, since his geriatric skidplate would only slow them down. One of the Overlord's two bodyguards sacrifices himself in a kamikaze run against the battalion instead of breaking his pact to protect the guy to the end. The other bodyguard, though, leaves the Overlord to rust, allying himself with a then little-known soldier accompanying them as a better choice of leadership of the planet. The latter bodyguard would go on to pull his own version of this trope during a Beast Wars storyline. His name? Ravage.
- The Shi'Ar Empire has had some real prizes on the Imperial Throne...D'Ken, Deathbird, and Vulcan, among others. Through it all, Gladiator, Praetor of the Imperial Guard, remained loyal to whomever was in charge...until he wasn't. This is something of a recurring theme in Shi'Ar storylines.
Fanfic
- Shinji and Warhammer 40 K: subverted. Shinji is extremely kind and compassionate, as befits his station. Doesn't mean that Rei wouldn't do anything, including grand larceny or cold-blooded murder, at the snap of his finger.
- In A New Chance at Life, Lance's Dragonite sees the shortsightedness in trying to attack and take Latios, but goes with his trainer's plan anyway. He even apologizes to Latios before attacking him.
Film
- General Glozelle in Prince Caspian (the film, maybe in the book too, but my memory is hazy). Throughout the film, he's got this squeamish but helpless look, has some dialogue with Lord Sopesian to the effect of "watch your butt, or Miraz'll kill you", and looks utterly devastated when King Miraz orders him to kill some of his soldiers to make it look like Caspian is bloodthirsty...which he does. He seems relieved when Aslan offers the Telmarines a fresh start someplace else.
- Not the book. They were both utter scheming bastards in the book, who knew they were smarter than Miraz and manipulated him into agreeing to single combat (with Peter) because as far as they were concerned they had nothing to lose—Miraz was the only thing really at risk, and they don't view him as a strategic asset. Rather the opposite, which was why they took the opportunity to stab him in the back and blame it on Peter.
- The 47 Ronin.
- The Man in the Iron Mask (The Movie) has one of the musketeers be blindly loyal to Louis, despite his evil and capricious nature, because he is Louis' father. Eventually, he comes around to the other musketeers' viewpoint that he's gotta go, when he learns that their look-alike for the king is his twin brother.
- Darth Vader displays traits of this with his master Palpatine...when he's not actively trying to subvert him.
- Quintus in Gladiator is in charge of the Praetorian Guard and obeys Caesar's order to have Maximus, his friend and respected General, killed along with his family. In his words, "I'm a soldier. I obey." Maximus (a career soldier in his own right) understands, but later manages to talk Quintus into a Heel Face Turn for the final battle.
- Hanbei from 13 Assassins knows that his master is probably the most evil person in Japan, but thinks that a samurai must always stay loyal to their lord. He and the hero have a Worthy Opponent thing going, since they're both only doing what they think is right.
Literature
Live Action TV
- It's implied that Teal'c was like this before his Heel Face Turn in the first episode of Stargate SG-1. He did terrible things, and hated himself for them, but he was ordered to by, well, his god. When O'Neill gives him the chance of freedom from Apophis, he jumps at the chance.
- Oshu, First Prime to Lord Yu, is a more extreme example. Not only does he know that Yu is not a god, but he knows that he's going senile. Despite this, he remains loyal to Yu until both are killed by Replicarter.
- Arguably, Arthur is this to Uther Pendragon in Merlin. Increasingly through Character Development as he comes to realize how many things Uther does that are wrong; on the other hand, he also goes against his father's express orders sometimes, generally by sneaking out condemned persons he doesn't believe deserve it. Though come to think of it, it rarely occurs to Uther to specifically say, "Arthur, don't release my prisoners from the dungeon."
- In the Burn Notice episode "Comrades", the team capture a Russian Mobster who, among his many amiable qualities, was an enforcer, a murderer, and a sex-slaver. They subject him to intense Perp Sweating which involves trying to convince him that his world has collapsed, that he is all alone surrounded by M.I.B., and that he is quite likely to be subjected to the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique. And yet he never yields and has to be deceived into thinking that he has escaped so he can be followed. In a curious sort of way, you have to admire him.
- His master does not; just having been interrogated is unforgivable. Paranoia trumps gratitude, apparently.
- You get the feeling that Thomas Cromwell is this in The Tudors, and Charles Brandon almost certainly is. Though Brandon is also Henry's friend, so it may go beyond this trope.
- Lucius Vorenus on Rome. Once he swears loyalty to someone, he remains loyal until that person relieves him of his promise or dies, no matter how much he hates it or how morally wrong he feels his master is behaving.
- You'd think he'd learn to choose more carefully to whom he swears.
- Vir to Londo in Babylon 5 .
- The staff of The West Wing can occasionally be this towards President Bartlet. However, they never really become full-blown examples because a) Bartlet always does the right thing in the end, and b) Leo explicitly rejects this trope, despite his Undying Loyalty to Bartlet in all other matters.
- In the 2000 TV version of Arabian Nights, one of Scheherazade's stories concerns a capricious Sultan with a taste for cruel practical jokes; his courtiers don't like him or his jokes, but they always assist him when ordered. They're quite relieved when one of his jokes backfires on him fatally and they end up with a sane and competent replacement.
Mythology
- "The Tale of the Loyal Samurai" comes up quite often in, obviously, Samurai stories. The gist of it is that loyalty is the most important tenet of Bushido, even if you're loyal to a wicked master. Even if your lord went headlong past the Moral Event Horizon, to rebel would be an unpardonable loss of honour.
Video Games
- Gray Fox in Metal Gear 2 was loyal to Big Boss even with the latter's Blood Knight tendencies and dreams of a Warrior Heaven. Justified in that Big Boss had saved him twice (three to four times counting the events of Portable Ops and depending on whether Big Boss was still involved in saving Gray Fox's hide in Vietnam). It also had something to do with the fact that he needs the battlefield.
- Elliot from Jagged Alliance 2. He works for an evil queen, and must realize that she's a cruel dictator after she keeps threatening her own citizenry. She slaps him around and bloodies his face every time he brings bad news, eventually becoming angry enough to shoot him in the head (he survives). And yet, he's still willing to pull out a gun and start firing at your team when you finally confront him.
- Knightman.EXE from Mega Man Battle Network 2 exhibits this trait, up to his deletion.
- And also Protoman.EXE from Battle Network 1, until Lan and Megaman.EXE defeats him in a net battle, that is. After that, he asks Megaman what Lan means to him. Megaman's response is that Lan is his best friend, and Protoman becomes nicer. Chaud, on the other hand, takes a bit longer to get through to.
- Cecil and Kain in Final Fantasy IV both struggle with this, though more visibly so with Cecil, since he's the viewpoint character. It takes the burning of a peaceful village and the implied order to kill a child to get the pair to disobey the king. Turns out, the king really was a noble and decent human being, but he was killed and replaced by a monster sometime prior to the start of the game
- General Leo of Final Fantasy VI is seen as an honorable and fair figure to both The Empire and the Returners, whereas Celes is first encountered being held captive due to her wavering allegiance, and the first Kefka sighting involves ordering a brainwashed Terra to vaporize his own men (followed by setting Castle Figaro on fire and poisoning everyone in Doma Castle, including Imperial prisoners). Leo is trying his hardest to follow his emperor's orders with minimal casualties and suffering. Leo cannot bring himself to quit working for The Empire until the Thamasa mission, where Kefka starts killing espers left and right, prompting Leo to try to stop him.
- Beatrix in Final Fantasy IX turns on Queen Brahne halfway through the game, after the Queen uses Odin to destroy Cleyra, and then proceeds to order Princess Garnet's death. The party still has to fight her one more time after she starts doubting her liege, though.
- Fire Emblem has a few people in its own right. In Fire Emblem Jugdral, Eltosian knows the crimes King Shagaal has caused, and yet he saves him from death, as he is "all that Augustria has left". Unfortunately, Shagaal had him killed anyway. Likewise, many of the lords oppose the child hunts in the second half of the game, including Emperor Alvis himself, by this point little more than a figurehead for Prince Yurius/Loptous and the prince's girlfriend, Ishtar, and while they try to stop them behind the scenes, none of them ever turns on the Empire. And in Fire Emblem 8, Selena knows that what Vigarde was doing was not just, but she loves him and fights Ephraim's army anyways. What she doesn't know is that Vigarde was Dead All Along and was merely a puppet of the Demon King-possessed Prince Lyon.
- Captain Saladin and the other Guard Dogs in King's Quest VI are fiercely loyal to whoever is currently ruling the Land of the Green Isles. Unfortunately, the current ruler happens to be the Evil Vizier. Needless to say, they are not on your side.
- Visas in Knights of the Old Republic 2 serves Darth Nihilus out of gratitude for him sparing her when he destroyed every other living being on her homeworld, and out of despair that no one will ever be able to defeat him. When she is defeated by the PC, however, she gains a flicker of hope that Nihilus might meet his match, and promptly turns to your side.
- In Final Fantasy XII, Judge Zargabaath followed the orders of Lord Vayne. He repeatedly begged him to spare lives and lamented how, in his own words, "The empires debts grow legion". But when Vayne invariably ignored or rejected his pleas, Zargabaath followed the orders anyway.
- The poster child for this trope has to be Ser Cauthrien, the knight who serves Loghain Mac Tir in Dragon Age: Origins. She knows full well that he has committed terrible acts "in the service of Ferelden", but continues to serve him.
- Alistair will continue to follow you even if you do things he disapproves of, due to wanting to end the Blight above all else. The only way he'll leave for good is if you recruit Loghain.
- You can become this kind of Master in Mass Effect 2 to Samara, who swears an oath to serve you even if you commit horrific crimes. However, it's slightly subverted in that she knows she's doing evil in your name, and tells you upfront that she intends to kill you once the terms of her oath are fulfilled.
- The Knights in Sonic and the Black Knight. Lancelot (Shadow) is convinced that whatever King Arthur orders is right, because the King ordered it and therefore it must be right, while Gawain and Percival (Knuckles and Blaze) follow orders on the basis that it's their job, but don't necessarily agree with them.
- Galahad from Atelier Iris 2 The Azoth Of Destiny. He despises Consul Theovore and his policies, but he is a servant of the Emperor, and Theovore is the Emperor's representative in Slaith, so he has to obey. Later on, Theovore ends up firing Galahad, thus releasing him from the constraints of his honor. Big mistake.
- Appears repeatedly in Touhou: Sakuya towards Remilia, Youmu towards Yuyuko, Ran towards Yukari, Reisen towards Eirin, Eirin towards Kaguya...It helps that none of them do anything particularly bad (with the possible exception of Youmu). However, it is clear that though they will never disobey their respective masters, they would much rather not be performing whatever absurd task they have planned this time.
- The Four Guardians in Mega Man Zero are all fiercely loyal to Copy-X, a Knight Templar who persecutes innocent Reploids in the name of building a utopia for humans. But after Copy-X dies, they quickly transfer their loyalty to the real X (even Phantom, who tried to defend "Master X" with a suicide attack).
- Inverted in Aveyond 3. Yemite the darkling doesn't understand why her mistress Mel doesn't want to Take Over the World and encourages her to become a Dark Messiah, but she follows Mel's orders to bring a rescue party anyway.
- Charon, a potential companion in Fallout 3, is brainwashed to obey anyone who owns his contract, regardless of alignment (although he refuses certain actions and turns hostile if you attack him). If you purchase the contract, he will pointedly take a moment to have a "private conversation" with his former owner...
- In Breath of Fire II, Ray (the guy we've been led to believe is The Dragon to this point) has just witnessed first hand his leader and adopted father Habaraku (who is the real Dragon) publicly and brutally murder a helpless prisoner (and the man who tried to save her). And he brainwashed an entire church full of witnesses into watching the whole thing and cheering. Yet immediately afterwards, he makes a Last Stand to keep the protagonists away from Habaraku out of a sense of both duty (to his church) and loyalty (to the man who raised and trained him). It doesn't end well for him.
- The Shadow Triad acts as this toward Ghetsis in Pokémon Black and White. Even when Ghetsis's real plan comes out at the end of the main storyline and everyone in Team Plasma, including the other 6 sages, turns against him, the Triad stays loyal to him, because he saved their lives long ago.
Visual Novels
- Lancer in Fate Stay Night and Lancer in Fate/zero. It doesn't end well either time, but in at least one case, it ends in a spectacularly awesome fashion.
Webcomics
- Florence Ambrose of Freefall invokes the fable of the Loyal Samurai (above) in explaining why she continues to work for a known kleptomaniac and all-around antisocial alien.
- Aside from technically being Florence's CO, Sam might qualify thanks to his Blue and Orange Morality - many of the traits that make Florence adhere to this trope in serving Sam are actually considered virtues in Sam's culture (on account of the fact that they're a society of scavengers who don't know where their next meal is coming from, let alone anything else), while the honesty, altruism, and integrity she tries to teach him are considered foolish quirks at best and suicidal liabilities at worst.
- The Dreamland Chronicles: the king of the dwarves is loyal to the king of Dreamland.
- Izor, from Dubious Company, is torn between this and My Country, Right Or Wrong. Even when he reveals his plot, he needs serious convincing by Future High Priestess Sal to assassinate the Emperor instead of using him as a Puppet King.
- Played for laughs with the royal guards of the Elven Kingdom. When the King and Queen order each other's arrest, it leads the guards to obeying whoever spoke last until they collapse from exhaustion.
Western Animation
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