Line #13 RootingForTheEmpire/Literature


1	!!RealLife Examples:
2	* Creator/StephenKing:
3	** His very first novel, ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', gets this a lot, especially courtesy of its film adaptations. Carrie White is portrayed as an extremely sympathetic AntiVillain, a MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold who is horribly abused by her [[TheFundamentalist religious]] fanatic [[MyBelovedSmother mother]] and by [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer her classmates]], with at least ''three'' supporting characters -- the aforementioned mother, the AlphaBitch Chris Hargensen, and her {{Greaser Delinquent\|s}} boyfriend Billy Nolan -- all portrayed as the real villains for having pushed her to the breaking point. At the same time... she committed a mass murder spree to dwarf UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}, Sandy Hook, and Parkland combined. It helps that the various film adaptations softened the nature of her actions, portraying her as having suffered a [[HeroicBSOD psychotic break]] while the original novel depicted her as being in full control of what she was doing and clearly enjoying every second of it, while also (save for the 2002 version) limiting the scope of her rampage as opposed to having her burn down her entire town. (The AdaptationalAttractiveness [[BeautyEqualsGoodness doesn't hurt either]].) Many fans will admit to outright cheering for Carrie as she slaughters her classmates at the prom.
4	** In ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'', the Good Man, John Farson, while presented to be the bad guy (and actually turns out to be [[spoiler:Randal Flagg]] at one point -- [[CanonDiscontinuity and then, in later books, not]]) is shown to be leading a proletariat rebellion for democracy against the clearly Feudalistic system Roland and the other gunslingers seem to be rooting for. This is partly a side-effect of Farson being TheGhost in the novels, so we don't really learn a whole lot about him. The comic book prequels go out of their way to subvert this and when we finally meet Farson he is power-hungry but happens to be a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity popular and charismatic leader]], and his free and democratic society is really shaping up to be TheDictatorship with himself as dictator.
5	* Some folks actually wouldn't have minded seeing ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' actually beat the main characters. The book goes out of its way to make vampirism seem like the worst thing in the world, but outside the inhuman hunger for blood, receiving the powers of the night and immortality didn't seem like a bad trade-off. Well, at least for themselves; other people ''might'' not be so happy with the "being drained of blood" thing. Although the book heavily implies that vampires are essentially corpses possessed by demons that are holding the person's soul hostage, as even Dracula himself smiles when he's finally killed.
6	** There have been a number of works riffing off this to the point of making Dracula the hero, such as Creator/FredSaberhagen's ''Dracula Tapes''.
7	* Many people find that [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastard, Senna Wales]] of ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' is more entertaining a character than the heroes.
8	* Many fans of the book ''Literature/{{Fallen}}'' wanted Cam to win and hated main characters Daniel and Luce.
9	* ''Literature/{{Gone}}'': Sociopath BigBad Caine, {{Manipulative B\|astard}}itch Diana and AxCrazy sadist Drake all have legions of fans. Hardly anyone likes Sam, TheHero.
10	* Literature/FuManchu is a very easy character to root for, in spite of (or, really, ''because'' of) him being essentially the embodiment of the YellowPeril archetype. Far fewer people recall the names of the actual hero of the novels (Sir Nayland Smith, for the record). A chunk of this is down to ValuesDissonance, as Fu Manchu is, at his core, an anti-colonialist character whose first priority is to kick the British out of his homeland--as one blogger put it, "like, what, a step below 'reviving a family member out of love' as maybe the most sympathetic goal you could possibly give a supervillain"--but even back in the day, he was clearly far more popular, likeable, and interesting than any of the good guys. A particular case of this is ''The Drums of Fu Manchu'', where his goal is to bump off a number of Western dictators in 1939, with one of his successful targets being the Chancellor of Germany--that's right, he ''killed Hitler'' (well, [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed "Rudolf Adlon"]], anyway), and the heroes are still out to stop him.
11	* This seems to be the general case for certain books of the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' series. If the protagonist tends to be either incredibly querulous, annoying, and just plain unsympathetic, the reader would end up favoring the villains over them. Case in point, ''Monster Blood'' (as well as the three sequels that follow it) and ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'' each have an [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic unlikable protagonist]] and a far more [[UnintentionallySympathetic sympathetic villain]].
12	* ''Franchise/HannibalLecter'' of the books just wants to stop [[SurroundedByIdiots the plague of cruel assholes ruining things for everyone.]] Commendable, except for his methods (and the innocent folks who are maimed or die simply for getting in his way).
13	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
14	** Some fans bash the main characters, and Gryffindor House in general, because of the author's (or at least the viewpoint character's) supposed prejudice against [[AmbitionIsEvil Slytherin House]], who they view as cultured and urbane in comparison to the [[JerkJock crude, bullying Gryffindor jocks.]] In a slightly different perspective, they recognize most of Slytherin is evil, but criticize the author for making them so, especially considering their defining trait is "ambition", which any normal eleven-year-old would have oodles of ("I wanna be a ninja/astronaut/actor/doctor/lawyer!"). So, to rebel, they reinterpret Slytherin in the fandom to make a more realistic picture of cunning and ambition. In an interview on Mugglenet Rowling defended Slytherin and said "they are literally not all bad [people]". The problem is that they are never ''shown'' in the actual books to be anything other than {{Jerk Ass}}es and Voldemort supporters ([[TokenGoodTeammate except Slughorn]]).
15	** Individually, fans started to dislike Harry's [[{{Wangst}} irritable nature]] more and more after ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''. This contributed to increased favouritism of Draco, which JK Rowling admitted to disliking; she was a bit disturbed that people didn't like the hero and preferred Draco. She even admitted to punishing/exaggerating Draco and the Slytherins where she could to counteract it (which [[MisaimedFandom naturally just increased resentment that led some readers to prefer the villains in the first place]]).
16	** Some people just genuinely wanted the Death Eaters to win the war. Perhaps because they deemed the dark characters to be more interesting, or because the ideology seemed rational, or because they might believe the whole series had an annoyingly BlackAndWhiteMorality and was a tad too {{Anvilicious}}. Or simply because EvilIsCool.
17	** Dumbledore starts out as Harry's kind, grandfatherly, somewhat [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} kooky]] mentor, but in the later books, more things about his past and his agenda regarding Harry and the war are revealed, which leaves him more in the ManipulativeBastard category. It also doesn't help that it's hard to read the books without seeing him as either massively incompetent or plain evil, though admittedly pretty much everyone in the Wizarding World suffers from a severe lack of logic and common sense. This has left a lot of fans in the somewhat awkward position of liking ''Harry'' just fine and rooting for him, while simultaneously greatly preferring Voldemort over Dumbledore.
18	* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
19	** The Kingdom becomes TheEmpire, but are really now TheFederation with feudal trappings. The Republic of Haven goes the entire gamut though, from The Empire by any other name to PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny under a ReignOfTerror to the Restored Republic, giving viewpoint characters to root for and against the entire time. Noticeable in that few civil foes in Manticore get a full viewpoint, while all Haven viewpoint characters, no matter where on the moral line, are given a full viewpoint including motivations. This may have been intentional, as Haven has undergone a slow HeelFaceTurn for some time now. Now that [[spoiler:Haven and Manticore have allied against Mesa, Haven are officially the good guys, and rooting for them is expected.]]
20	** This is also partly due to the authors particular writing style. As a professional military historian he is always careful to portray the tragedy of the war by humanizing both sides, which leads to over all GreyAndGrayMorality and sympathetic enemies. When portraying the domestic politics of Manticore, however, he tends to write it as full of straw men for his main character to beat up, causing the Star Kingdom to come off as less sympathetic than the balanced and nuanced Peoples Republic. This only really starts to change around book ten, when readers are introduced to Catherine Montaigne (the first good Liberal we've ever met) and Michael Oversteegen (the first good Conservative we've ever met). From that point on, both parties, which are in opposition to the heroine's Centrist party (and the Crown Loyalists, who are basically ''de facto'' Centrists because the Queen is), become much more well-rounded, and the heroine herself is able to recognize and respect the validity of many of their points while still disagreeing with them on certain matters.
21	** The detractors have a slight tendency to do this with [[spoiler: the Solarian League]], partly as a counter-reaction to [[spoiler: the League's]] somewhat inconsistent characterization as either a very loose confederation or a nigh-totalitarian bureaucratic empire, and partly as a result just plain finding Manticore's constant development of new warfare-toys that revolutionizes warfare ''annoying'' by that point in the series.
22	** An example occurs in the novel ''Shadow Of Saganami'' when the Kingdom of Manticore is in the process of the Empire of Manticore by the (voluntary) annexation of the Talbott Cluster. Local resistance groups are opposed to it, and the most developed are essentially the quasi-libertarian space-cowboys from the [[SarcasmMode subtly-named planet of Montana]]. The reader is supposed to root for the Empire in this case because resistance, although composed of well-meaning people, aren't aware the people they're resisting are actually the heroes in the setting, and that their resistance is being "assisted" by actual sociopathic terrorists and secretly supported by the [[BigBad Mesan Alignment]], neither of whom give a crap about the well-being of the population.
23	* The Seeker in ''Literature/TheHost2008''. The Seeker is merely doing their job as the 'front-liner', among the first wave of souls to be implanted into the world's habitants and to smooth the way for more souls to take over, being sometimes forced to use violent ways to achieve this goal, for the sake of keeping the souls save and prospering. The Seeker also took the fact that Wanderer was having difficult subdueing her host Melanie as a potential danger, as a previous incident had happened where a host took control over their body again and severely injured several souls, before the soul inhabiting said body could be rescued and put into another body, the rogue host being disposed of. So the Seeker is quite aware of ''how'' dangerous the humans can be, even if they are a small percentage compared to the souls inhabiting the world at the time. Yet Seeker gets repeatedly shunned, insulted and mocked by several characters, the most prominent being Fords and Wanderer/Melanie herself. Given the fact that Wanderer would not have even ''gotten'' Melanie's body, had the Seeker not done her job, it not only makes the protagonist seem like an UngratefulBastard, but just makes the Seeker more sympathetic to the reader.
24	* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' fandom has no shortage of fans who prefer the Career tributes to Katniss and Peeta, finding them equally sympathetic (or even more so), considering that they have been brainwashed and bred since birth to kill other kids in a horrific child murder reality show.
25	* In the ''Literature/HushHush'' series, the archangels are written as being extremely unfair, because they threaten to throw Patch into Hell if he pursues a relationship with Nora. The trouble is, Patch is written as an arrogant idiot who spends his days gambling and groping Nora, not showing the slightest inclination to actually ''do his job''. As a result, the archangels come across as trying to get Patch to shoulder some responsibility. Add in the fact that Patch spent almost all of the first book stalking and assaulting Nora and the idea of him facing serious punishment sounds rather nice.
26	* Incredibly common in the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle''. The book concedes that most of the people living in TheEmpire are happy and at peace, giving the impression that if [[LaResistance the Varden]] would just stop fighting everyone would be fine. And though the emperor is a douche, his evil actions all seem to be about fighting the Varden so, again, his rule would probably be much less tyrannical if the Varden didn't keep going at him. It doesn't help matters that the main character is widely considered to be a DesignatedHero with a lot of KickTheDog moments. Ultimately, the case seems to be more about an AntiHero being treated as TheHero, and about the setting's apparent GreyAndGrayMorality being treated as BlackAndWhiteMorality. For every morally questionable deed which the EvilOverlord commits, TheHero commits one in return. TheEmpire slaughters villages? Well, so does LaResistance, around Feinster. The BigBad uses conscription? Well, LaResistance whips their own soldiers for doing the right thing, to such an extent that BadassNormal Roran seriously thought that a weaker man would ''die''. TheEmpire tortures people and uses "true names" to force its soldiers to be loyal to it? Well, LaResistance wields ''chemical weapons''.
27	* ''Literature/{{Jaws}}'': Given how unsympathetic the main protagonists are and how real-life sharks face endangerment from humans, it's not hard to see the [[ThreateningShark great white shark]] as the true hero of the story. Creator/StevenSpielberg admitted that when he read the book, he disliked the characters so much [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3400291.stm he wanted the shark to win]]. It's one of the reasons he applied some AdaptationalSympathy for the human characters in the [[Film/{{Jaws}} film adaptation]] just so audience would have a reason to root against the shark.
28	* Many readers of the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series see the heroes as complete jerkasses, God as a psychopath and Nicolae as, at worst, an IneffectualSympatheticVillain.
29	* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
30	** [[http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/theories/gandolt.htm Alternate interpretations]] have the series as a highly biased account given by the real bad guys: the exiled Gondor and Elvish aristocracy, Spartanesque Rohan, and Hobbit mercenaries who destroyed the egalitarian revolutionary Sauron who united the oppressed peoples of Middle-earth. ([[http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/theories/arag_arw.htm "Of course, history does not record the savage suppression of the 'Steward's Rebellion' in Ithilien in the early Fourth Age..."]]) The Orcs ''do'' resemble those offensive caricatures of trade union workers in early 20th century propaganda... One writer on [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18417_9-famous-movie-villains-who-were-right-all-along_p2.html cracked.com]] claimed Sauron was actually a good guy who never actually did anything bad in the Trilogy, and that the Orcs joined him willingly due to racism. These ideas ignore the fact at the beginning it is explicitly said Sauron wanted to conquer Middle-Earth brainwashing men into his undead slaves to do so and that the Orcs are clearly enslaved.
31	** Nûmenor. The lightbearer of the Humanity and Civilization, who crushed the Evil Empire of Sauron and broke the fetters of Valar and showed the Eldar where they can shove their immortality. [[DeusExMachina Until Eru came]] and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero spoiled it all]]. Of course, the Nûmenorans had begun enslaving much of Middle-Earth at this time, which is why so many people hated the Kingdoms created by the refugees.
32	* A combination of the author’s hypocrisy and criminal acts coming to light and the complete inability of [[IdiotBall the heroes to be sensible]] or [[DesignatedHero ethical]] and [[OffstageVillainy the villains to be brutal]] or [[DesignatedVillain mean]] causes readers of ''Literature/TheMistsOfAvalon'' to despise the Avalonian protagonists and view them as worse than the Christian antagonists. Blog/DasSporking in particular came to view Viviane as a sociopathic DiabolicalMastermind and Morgaine as a whiny [[ManChild woman-child]] with an entitlement complex while seeing Gwenhwyfar as a kind, put-upon woman whom everyone irrationally hates because of her developmental disabilities, and the Christian leaders as only slightly morally gray antiheroes trying to stop a [[ReligionOfEvil pedophile cult]] that bears no resemblance to historical Celtic paganism whatsoever. About the only thing to be concerned about is the decline of women's rights, and it isn’t like [[InformedAttribute any woman in Avalon other than the leader even has those]].
33	* In ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', the designated heroes, the Shadowhunters, are descended from the angel Raziel--and pretty damn proud of it. They see themselves as above the very people they're supposed to protect: Downworlders (your werewolves, faeries, vampires, and such) and humans, otherwise known to Shadowhunters as Mundanes (or Mundies, if you want to get really ugly). Honestly, with this sort of FantasticRacism, you'd probably get more love and respect from a demon disemboweling you and dragging your soul straight to Hell; at least demons are ''supposed'' to be cruel. To be fair, the Shadowhunters are called out on this ''all the time'' by everyone who isn't a Shadowhunter. The moral of the first 3 books is that the Downworlders aren't inherently evil and the Shadowhunters aren't inherently good and that they could save a lot more lives if they got over their differences and helped each other. [[spoiler:Indeed, ''City of Glass'' ends with the Downworlders agreeing to help the Shadowhunters defeat [[BigBad Valentine]] in return for the Downworlders getting representation in the Shadowhunter's council]].
34	* {{Satan}} from Milton's ''Literature/ParadiseLost'', and the biggest reason why SatanIsGood exists in Western media. A case of MisaimedFandom, as Milton was trying to make Satan a self-centred JerkAss with charming but hollow self-justifications for his behaviour, which really stemmed from him being an egotistical bastard too proud to accept how badly he screwed himself over. Part of it is that he never gave any reason that defying the wishes of God is ''bad'', assuming his audience would give Him an OmniscientMoralityLicense. The closest he comes is that He is simply unbeatable so rebellion is a waste of time, even though more angels than not joined the rebels.
35	* Looking at the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' as a whole, despite the various books that portray the Empire as fundamentally evil, there are also books that show that not ''all'' of its members are pure evil, and the Republic/Alliance as not all good (especially with all the DemocracyIsBad, LawfulStupid and/or {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s going around). Creator/TimothyZahn is the most notable of the authors who do this; [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]], while he is decidedly [[KickTheDog not a good person]], is still portrayed as [[PragmaticVillainy somewhat better]] than his predecessors (which is not that great an accomplishment), and there are fans who think the galaxy might have been better off with him alive. In the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology, the Supreme Commander was reluctantly seeking peace with the New Republic, and by that point Pellaeon really couldn't be called one of the bad guys. Eventually, he became more or less completely lawful and good, leading his [[TheRemnant Imperial Remnant]] into the Galactic Alliance, the government that succeeded the New Republic after the Yuuzhan Vong killed it. He even became supreme commander of their fleet. [[MoodWhiplash Which itself eventually became evil]] and a copy, more or less, of Palpatine's Empire, though Pellaeon realized this before it was too late, but a [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge fell on him]] before he could do anything about it (not that he didn't try).
36	* In his ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' book series, Creator/TerryGoodkind tries to avert this by making villains as repulsively evil as possible so that the {{Designated Hero}}es' tendency to ShootTheDog doesn't make the audience turn on him. On the one hand, it means that the villains have all the odious habits that the heroes do, including the [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans self-righteousness,]] and with extra {{rape\|AsDrama}} (the only crime the heroes are ''not'' at some point guilty of) piled on top, but on the other hand, the heroes are the ones whose KickTheDog moments we always get to see up close, while the villains' are usually just reported from afar.
37	* It’s hard not to root for the Defarges in ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'' considering A. The setting is the French Revolution, B. How awful we see most of the nobility act and C. Ernest and Therese are clearly reaching out to others who have had it as bad or worse. Yes both want to kill Charles Darnay just for being an aristocrat, but they have no way of knowing he despised his Marquis uncle’s actions just as much as the poor did. - This goes a step further as though Ernest is the WellIntentionedExtremist and Therese is the BloodKnight even then it’s quite clear that Therese is like this due to not only her hard life but what the Marque did to her sister, seemingly ForTheEvulz.
38	* ''Literature/TreasureIsland'': Wait, what do you mean we're not supposed to root for [[MagnificentBastard Long John Silver]]? The charismatic pirate is by far the most popular character in the book, and despite his lying, swindling ways, it can be easy to root for him against the incompetent and racist Squire Trelawney and the stuffy Captain Smollett. It doesn't help that ''the heroes themselves'' spend much of the book hyping up how badass and intelligent Silver is. Add in the fact that he's a HandicappedBadass and in a happy interracial marriage, and it's hard to see why we shouldn't be wanting him to get the treasure. Of course, that may have been Stevenson's intention all along...
39	* ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'':
40	** The three tracker vampires who are trying to kill Bella, which is seen by some as a sympathetic aim. Each is an EnsembleDarkhorse in their own right.
41	** The books put a lot of emphasis on the Volturi being a power-hungry dictatorship that ruthlessly oppresses the vampire world. The trouble is, the only restriction they apparently put on the vampires is to not be noticed by humans, which is given a reasonable justification (human technology could kill vampires) and very lightly limits the ability for a vampire to kidnap or kill a human. WordOfGod and the series also show that vampires are more or less animals if left to their own devices, so while their methods may not be lily-white, it makes it difficult to see the Volturi as the dictators the story wants them to be instead of a group of people who are trying to get some sort of order or structure to their world. Meyer tries to make the Volturi corruptness really apparent in ''Breaking Dawn'' when it's hammered in that they'll arrive to kill Renesmee and in no way listen to reason... only for them to bring witnesses, reasonably listen to evidence, and leave without killing anyone.
42	* The Dark Court of ''Literature/WickedLovely'', while not completely evil, is far more loved than any of the others.
43	* In ''Literature/VictoriaANovelOf4thGenerationWar'', the fascist LadyLand Azania sometimes gets this, especially from readers who disagree with the author's conservative politics. While their actions soundly establish them as villains, the Azanians' ideology of progress through science and championing of women's issues and LGBT rights looks more sympathetic and inspiring to some than the heroes' own over-the-top right-wing libertarian utopia, and furthermore they have the advantage of cool aesthetics and technology, as well as [[GirlOnGirlIsHot sundry other factors]]. It also helps that the main POV character on the good side can easily look like a hypocrite to some readers, and/or come across as a misogynist jerk.
44	* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'': The Phantom is a SerialKiller, a stalker, and a kidnapper, but has a tragic FreudianExcuse that [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds makes his contempt for society seem pretty understandable]], and is a borderline ImpossibleGenius with [[EvilIsCool a staggering array of awesome inventions]]. Meanwhile, the hero, Raoul, is [[TheScrappy one of the most universally-disliked protagonists in literary history]], due to being an idiot who acts as TheLoad to the Persian throughout the book, and is also a borderline stalker in his own right. It's not hard to find fans who find the Phantom to be the more likeable of the two and wish he had been the one to get with Christine in the end.
45
46	!!InUniverse Examples:
47	* Happens in-universe, sort of, in a couple of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books, particularly ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' and ''Literature/CarpeJugulum''. In both cases it's really only the witches who are willing and able to oppose the elves (in the first) and the Magpyrs (in the second), and even they occasionally struggle with the temptation; if Esme Weatherwax had a will made of some weaker material (like, say, iron) both books could have ended very differently.

Context RootingForTheEmpire / Literature