When have you Rooted For the Empire?

Fellow Tropers, when have you actually Rooted For the Empire?

It doesn't have to be supporting the villainous faction, but rather finding them more interesting to watch in contrast to the heroes.

Crest Of The Stars

Every. Single. Film. With only a few exceptions. Bad guys are just more interesting to me in every concievable way.

My most blatant examples (where I genuinely wanted to see them win) are probably in Code Geass, Baccano, and Avatar.

edited 2nd Aug '11 9:11:16 PM by gingerninja666

"Contests fought between two masters are decided instantly. An invisible battle is now raging between the two of them." Lulu vs Schneizel

Man. it really sucks to be the good guys huh? People always wanting to see the villains beat you. And it's not even because you're a loser or an asshole sometime. Sometimes, they just like the bad guy more despite what you do.

As for me, I always root for Godzilla. There is no good or evil in that case, only the big ass lizard.

edited 2nd Aug '11 9:37:14 PM by HandsomeRob

One Strip! One Strip!

Avatar.

But then, I have a better grasp of the power of modern firearms than them.

Nous restons ici.

I haven't seen Avatar, but if I did, I probably would.

For a while in Final Fantasy VII, I did support SHINRA and dislike the actions of the protagonists. That's when SHINRA try to stop the approaching comet by sending up a rocket with Huge Materia, and the heroes decide to steal the Huge Materia. So let me get this straight. The bad guys are at least doing something to try to stop the end of the world (it's quite possible it wouldn't work, but as far as I know, the game never says so), whereas the good guys are trying to foil that plan for... some sort of soppy, mystical reason that boils down to "Aerith wanted us to".

I didn't do this in Harry Potter, but I did feel that Rowling made the bad guys as despicable and uninteresting as possible just to make sure that the readers didn't like them more than the protagonists.

True dat. Though I disagree with you a little. Since I LOVED Umbridge, and thought she was the best part of the 5th film

"Contests fought between two masters are decided instantly. An invisible battle is now raging between the two of them." Lulu vs Schneizel

It depends, really. I rooted for the Trope Namer in Star Wars because I preferred the standardized, regimented feel of the Empire, and I was rather sad that they were losing for silly reasons even though they were supposed to be all ultra-competent and whatnot. The uniforms help, too. Mostly it was the aesthetic, however.

It just bothers me when an author makes the bad guys incompetent to have the heroes win, but then gives them the Informed Attribute of supposedly being awesome. No. This is fail.

Oh, and I rooted for the empire in Avatar because because I sympathized with them more, and because Screw You, Elves!.

I am now known as Flyboy.

Let's be honest here: most people rooted for the empire in Avatar

"Contests fought between two masters are decided instantly. An invisible battle is now raging between the two of them." Lulu vs Schneizel

And by most, you mean EVERYONE.

One Strip! One Strip!

I was going to say that, but I didn't want to risk the flaming I might've gotten

edited 3rd Aug '11 3:44:54 PM by gingerninja666

"Contests fought between two masters are decided instantly. An invisible battle is now raging between the two of them." Lulu vs Schneizel

But how much was Screw You, Elves!, and how much was RDA's resident Colonel Badass?

All your safe space are belong to Trump

eh, the ratio was about 3:7 in my case

edited 3rd Aug '11 4:25:20 PM by gingerninja666

"Contests fought between two masters are decided instantly. An invisible battle is now raging between the two of them." Lulu vs Schneizel

Wait, there were clearly-defined good guys and bad guys in Baccano?

Personally, must admit that I found myself rooting for the Sleeves in Gundam Unicorn (compelling cause, cool suits, and the Federation really didn't introduce themselves well), the... people who weren't Celestial Being in Season 1 of Gundam 00 (because they had all the fun characters), the Orcs in The Lord Of The Rings (I found their grumbling about their undeniably awful lot in life rather endearing), and Hans Landa, the Jew Hunter of all people, in Inglourious Basterds.

I'd mention Warhammer 40,000, but I'm not sure who the 'good guys' are supposed to be...

What's precedent ever done for us?

I sided with Ladd, and was dying to see him beat Claire. (or at least punch him) He's just such a simple man, I find it impossible to ignore just how much the man loves doing what he does.

"Contests fought between two masters are decided instantly. An invisible battle is now raging between the two of them." Lulu vs Schneizel

Well for me....

• While it's not to the extent as Misaimed Fandom, in almost every Gundam series, I prefer the antagonist faction over the protagonist faction, despite quite a few of them Putting on the Reich. So in that sense, I find the various Zeon factions and the Titans more interesting to watch than The Federation, Londo Bell and AEUG. Reason for that is because of they have cooler mobile suits and cool uniforms, as well as badass pilots.
• In Fallout3, I wanted to join the Enclave as an evil character, and specifically created one to do so and they looked cooler than the Brotherhood. Alas I can't. And the battle with the Enclave felt unfair as we've got Liberty Prime!
  • The fact that a bunch of Enclave Remnants were to appear in Fallout New Vegas, also hyped me up...............and it turns out that they were a bunch of old guys who you have to do a quest for, not a small group(as in size of a Zeon remnant) in a secret encampment/bunker who you could recruit for the Wild Card ending(you can still recruit them through). Through I like the fact that they are portrayed as Anti-Villains, adds a more grey area to the subject. Luckily you could join Caesar's Legion, and I generally found their Roman atheistic cool to watch.
• And like almost all of you, I rooted for the humans in Avatar, simply because the RDF have cooler gear and the Na'vi aren't that much better, so I rooted for the RDF just cause I didn't like the Na'vi that much.
• For Warhammer 40K, I don't know if this was Games Workshop's intention.............but in the case it isn't I find the Imperium the heroes of the setting in contrast to the Eldar and the Tau. In our standards they are the most brutal Empire imaginable...........it's a Evil vs. Evil Grimdark Crapsack World after all, but given their reasons for their behaviour, and the fact that the average Imperial Guard is a decent folk, as well as the fact that a couple of major Space Marine chapters, more specifically Ultramarines and Space Wolves are nicer(but still pretty Overzealous) compared to it's Darker aspects.
  • But then again, for a more literal example, I find Chaos cool as well, and sometimes want Chaos to win certain battles so yeah it goes both ways!

edited 3rd Aug '11 7:27:23 PM by xie323

I'd say in WH 40 K the Tau are the "good guys." Their only major problem is that they have an oppressive hereditary caste system of the sort that Gandhi, Ambedkar, etc, thought was the chief evil within the Hindu religion. They're still reactionaries by our standards, but in the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, they're practically utopian. Games Workshop, last time I checked, seemed to encourage Rooting for the Empire, steering newbies toward the Space Marines and such.

Initially, in The Matrix, I thought that the human resistance was pretty silly, and that staying in the Matrix was much more rational. What's their plan? Free everyone from the Matrix so that... what? They can eek out an existence on a blasted ruin of a planet with no sunlight? Later on, it seemed more like they just wanted to empower humans within the matrix, which seemed like a far more sensible plan. After Matrix: Revolutions and such, I frankly can't remember what the plan was, if I ever knew in the first place. I remember The Oracle and The Architect talked about it, but it all seemed vague and incomprehensible.

edited 4th Aug '11 8:35:47 PM by Maklodes

BUT IT'S REAL!! WHO CARES ABOUT QUALITY OF LIFE, WHEN IT ISN'T REAL?!! what a bunch-a-idiots.

"Contests fought between two masters are decided instantly. An invisible battle is now raging between the two of them." Lulu vs Schneizel

IMO, Games Workshop literally LIVES on this trope, despite everyone being "evil" in our standards in WH 40 K, they are all presented as cool and awesome-looking in a way.

And oh they don't just direct noobs to Space Marines, they more specifically direct them to Ultramarines, one of the "nicer" chapters.

edited 5th Aug '11 7:18:52 AM by xie323

Which is a terrible thing, since they ought to be directing them to a chapter that's actually gotten crap done and is composed of nice guys, like the Salamanders.

Nous restons ici.

->Mufasa: Don't turn your back on me, Scar. ->Scar: Then perhaps you shouldn't turn your back on me. ->Mufasa: IS THAT A CHALLENGE? ->Scar: Temper, temper, I wouldn't dream of challenging you. As far as brains go, I got the lion's share, but when it comes to brute strength, well, I'm at the shallow end of the gene pool. —>- The Lion King

If I recall correctly, I think first time watching TLK that scene got me rooting for Scar until he murdered Mufasa. Him being a brainy weakling was something I identified with, and refusing to respect something as medieval as a hereditary monarchy was something I thought was a good thing. Scar's wittiness also helped.

Frankly, it struck me as snobby of Mufasa to treat the slightest comparison between respect for the king and respect from the king as a "challenge" anyway.

...

Anyway, as for Avatar, I know I didn't root for the RDA, and I don't think many people in the theatre I saw it in did either. *

I remember telling my sister that a lot of people online said they were rooting for Quaritch, and she shook her head indignantly.

[EDITED IN: Why isn't that indenting thing working right?]

edited 5th Aug '11 11:05:18 AM by HiddenFacedMatt

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

The smurf-shooters in Avatar.

The Nazis German soldiers in Inglourious Basterds. Hans Landa was a Love to Hate, but Sgt. Rachmann and Staff Sergeant Wilhelm were awesome and pretty much good guys. (I've said it before and I'll say it again, it takes talent to make a racist slur into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome, but Tarantino pulled it off.)

Whenever a story sets up a large faction as "in tune with nature," I wind up hating that faction by the end of the story. I'm not against the idea in and of itself, but authors who're inclined to use it tend to have a painfully sanitized concept of nature, leaving out all the means of death and suffering that we use science and technology to stave off.

edited 6th Aug '11 6:36:44 PM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

Yeah, an in tune one is more likely to be a bunch of blood thirsty ruthless dirtbags, rather than hippies.

Fight smart, not fair.

This is a little off-topic, but FWIW, I think the "nature red in tooth and claw" concept of "natural" is just as incomplete and subjective as the "nature beautiful and nurturing." I think that the best approach is to just say "this is the aspect/interpretation of nature that I'm focusing on" — you could even different people focus on different aspects in one universe, like the druidic sects of Eberron. Hippies, savages, and others could all fit if done well.

In Avatar, I think that I sided with the Na'vi given a binary choice, but overall I thought that the RDA was criminally stupid in their whole approach starting around the time of Sully's arrival *

. Okay, maybe not criminally stupid, but at least civilly stupid — I know that if I were a big shareholder I'd sue the board, the CEO, the chief of operations on Pandora, and anyone else I could for breach of fiduciary duty. There are so many times that it seems like they could have taken a third option and just wasted it to have a big confrontation.

BTW, would thinking that Jennifer Connelly should have taken David Bowie's deal in Labyrinth count as rooting for the empire?

edited 6th Aug '11 9:52:37 PM by Maklodes