Basic Trope Description: A character works for a dystopian government.
- Straight: Alice is a secret agent for the State Sec of the People's Republic of Tyranny.
- Exaggerated: Every named and not-named character works at the State Sec.
- Downplayed: Alice is a menial worker who repairs cameras. She is sometimes called to repair the cameras used for the surveillance of the people.
- Justified:
- The State Sec offers power, and Alice wants to have at least a little.
- Alice lives in an environment where a person's worth is measured by their degree of loyalty to the state. In her opinion, working for the State Sec seems most loyal.
- Alice was raised in a family of State Sec officials and is following the tradition.
- Alice is The Sociopath and loves torturing people - what she can do to enemies of the state at the State Sec.
- Inverted:
- Alice works for the government of The Republic or The Good Kingdom.
- Alice is a member of the most downtrodden and powerless caste in the People's Republic of Tyranny.
- Subverted:
- Alice seems to be a State Sec agent, but only uses this as a front to recruit captured rebels for La Résistance.
- Alice starts off as a State Sec agent, but leaves after her Heel Realization.
- Double Subverted: This gets to her superiors. After some torture, she is their most zealous agent.
- Enforced: The author thinks that Alice can give some nice insights into the world-building by working for the dystopia.
- Averted:
- Nobody works for a governmental organization.
- The People's Republic of Tyranny is ruled by an AI, so there isn't any need for employing humans.
- Zigzagged: Alice is a psychology instructor. One day, she teaches young State Sec agents and assists in hearings of enemies of the state, and another day, she gives a normal course to students at a university. In the latter, she has to teach them sometimes that disliking the state is a severe mental disorder, but usually only follows science.
- Parodied: While every other State Sec official is Putting on the Reich, Alice is an over-the-top Granola Girl.
- Invoked: Alice's parents, both State Sec officials, send her to a boarding school with the goal of raising the next generation's State Sec.
- Exploited:
- Defied: "Sorry, mum and dad, but I won't take the same job as you. I will go to medical school and become a doctor."
- Lampshaded: "And once again some innocents go to torture prison...freshly arrested by my dear colleagues..."
- Discussed: Alice and Bob are two teenagers from the People's Republic of Tyranny who are both at least a little critical of the regime. They discuss their future career and whether it should be at places like The Government or the State Sec.
- Conversed: "Really, Alice. It's wrong to stay there, just leave."
- Implied: Alice is always wearing a State Sec badge.
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