History Main / MachiavelliWasWrong

** The kicker? Alderaan was a Core World known for artisans, philosophers, rich traditions, was respected by many interplanetary governments across the Galaxy, and was one of the founding worlds of the previous Galactic Republic and a prominent member of the Galactic Empire. [[MoralEventHorizon Tarkin's destruction of Alderaan definitely sealed the Empire's fate]]. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Palpatine was shocked when he heard of what Tarkin did]]; he had agreed to have the Death Star's Superlaser fired upon '''''a''''' world [[PragmaticVillainy as a demonstration of its destructive power]], but he didn't think that Tarkin would use it on such an important Core World. Anger over the atrocity sent a ''lot'' of neutral worlds and a fair number of Imperial worlds over to the Rebel Alliance. Nascent rebellions on other worlds, instead of being cowed into fear, figured [[DoNotGoGentle "Screw it! If we're dead anyway, might as well die for a reason!"]] The fragmented rebellion [[RememberTheAlamo now had an atrocity to rally behind and unite them]], and a ''ton'' of [[HeelFaceTurn Ex-Imperial officers]] and ''[[GenocideBackfire pissed-off Alderaanian expats]]'' automatically signed up, looking to avenge their lost world and families. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Nice Job Breaking It, Tarkin]]! Even better; [[spoiler:one of those Alderaanians was the head gunner of the Death Star's main weapon]]. As Leia says in the ''Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas'':

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderPrincessAzula Azula]] believes "fear is the only reliable way" to control people, and it always works for her. Then Mai turns around and [[EtTuBrute betrays her]] because she loves Zuko. Ten seconds later, Ty Lee also betrays her to save Mai from Azula's retribution. Azula considered both Mai and Ty Lee to be her "best friends" (read: the ones most under her control), and their betrayal out of love for others leads directly to her VillainousBreakdown.

* In ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Eddy tries to "rule" the cul-de-sac with respect, but on occasion, he's resorted to fear (see: the episode where he lies and tells everyone that his brother's coming home). It doesn't really work because everyone knows he's a greedy {{Jerkass}}, which results in him (as well as the other Eds) being the local punching bags. [[spoiler:Eddy's brother is much more successful at this, as shown in the previously mentioned episode, though he's an astronomical Jerkass far beyond anything Eddy ever did. This trope kicks in during [[WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddysBigPictureShow the movie]] when the kids see how badly Eddy's brother treats him, as well as Eddy apologizing for acting like a jerk, which finally wins him the respect of the other children and sees his brother getting some well-deserved comeuppance.]]

* In the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', [[spoiler:this trope is played very straight when [[Characters/SamuraiJackAku Aku]] tries to crush the hopes of any would-be resistance by broadcasting Jack's execution on television. It has the opposite result he intended, with an ''army'' of Jack's allies assaulting his palace in a RoaringRampageOfRescue. That said, because only Jack's sword can harm him, Aku is still a OneManArmy against them.]]

** The kicker? Alderaan was a Core World known for artisans, philosophers, rich traditions, was respected by many interplanetary governments across the Galaxy, and was one of the founding worlds of the previous Galactic Republic and a prominent member of the Galactic Empire. [[MoralEventHorizon Tarkins' destruction of Alderaan definitely sealed the Empire's fate.]] [[EvenEvilHasStandards Palpatine was shocked when he heard of what Tarkin did,]] he had agreed to have the Death Stars' Superlaser fired upon '''''a''''' world [[PragmaticVillainy as a demonstration of its destructive power]]; but he didn't think that Tarkin would use it on such an important Core World. Anger over the atrocity sent a ''lot'' of neutral worlds and a fair number of Imperial worlds over to the Rebel Alliance. Nascent rebellions on other worlds, instead of being cowed into fear, figured [[DoNotGoGentle "Screw it! If we're dead anyway, might as well die for a reason!"]] The fragmented rebellion [[RememberTheAlamo now had an atrocity to rally behind and unite them]], and a ''ton'' of [[HeelFaceTurn Ex-Imperial officers]] and ''[[GenocideBackfire pissed-off Alderaanian expats]]'' automatically signed up; looking to avenge their lost world and families. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Nice Job Breaking It, Tarkin]]! Even better; [[spoiler:one of those Alderaanians was the head gunner of the Death Star's main weapon]]. As Leia says in the ''Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas'':

** In this case, it's a subversion of an invocation. The Empire has the trope written into their laws, but the Empire fell, so it's a subversion. However, Machiavelli's ''real'' statement was right, as fear of the Death Star might've worked, except it was destroyed, so the fear of the weapon turned to hate about the atrocity, and "in any event it is vital to avoid being ''[[ZeroPercentApprovalRating hated]]'', since if you are hated people will be willing to suffer just to oppose you" (or if you prefer, "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering"). This perfectly describes how this starts to bite the Empire in the rear, and this leads to a parallel two episodes later. Before the Death Star 1, they have a few squadrons of fighters opposing them; when they try to rebuild the Death Star a few years later in Episode VI, they find an entire armada waiting.

* {{Deconstructed}} in ''Literature/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom''. Protagonist Souma Kazuya was a humanities undergrad before being TrappedInAnotherWorld as the King of Elfrieden--previously ruled by a king who was likable but no great master of rulership, before he betrothed the summoned hero Souma to his daughter and abdicated--and has extensively studied ''Literature/ThePrince'' among other historical texts. His narration often quotes Machiavelli directly, including explaining the popular misunderstandings of its various theses and why Souma's actions are TruerToTheText and what makes them superior courses of action. In essence, this series argues that ''Literature/ThePrince'' is a very ''good'' guide to rulership ''if'' you study it well enough to actually understand it properly: for example, "cruelties" are a useful tool, but you ''must'' wield them precisely, decisively, and ''rarely'', [[spoiler:as Souma does when he concludes the CivilWar arc by having a remaining cabal of nobles who conspired against him extrajudicially killed by his secret service]].

* In ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'', this is why the [[WesternTerrorists Rebel Army]] are so fanatically loyal to their boss, [[BigBad General Morden]], and why they keep fighting even after getting slaughtered countless times by the Peregrine Falcons. As he was AFatherToHisMen during his days in the Regular Army as a Vice Admiral, they all followed him out of sheer loyalty when he defected from the army over [[spoiler:the death of his son]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'': The Autobots show concern and reverence for [[AFatherToHisMen Optimus Prime]] even in his dying moments when he’s a liability to them. This is contrasted with [[BadBoss Megatron]] who when wounded, has to [[AintTooProudToBeg beg]] [[TheDragon his second in command]] Soundwave just not to leave him behind. When his Decepticon minions realize they could [[ColdEquation jettison the wounded]] on [[AutomatedAutomobiles AstroTrain]] to make him go faster, Megatron is ThrownOutTheAirlock despite his pleas, no one lifting a finger to help him.