Basic Tropes: The Empire is openly helping its people while remaining an empire.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz rules with an iron fist, but the economy is good, the people aren't starving, and culture is allowed to thrive without oppression. The only thing that makes it a dictatorship is that Evulz wasn't voted into power.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz has permitted many civil rights, the economy is booming beyond its democratic counterparts, slavery and other criminal activities have been outlawed and prosecuted, the arts are thriving, and basic human rights are being enforced wholeheartedly. It has gotten to the point where all citizens approve of him and support his growing reign. And when Evulz takes over the world and rules with an iron fist, the people cheer.
- Downplayed: Repressive, but Efficient
- Justified:
- Emperor Evulz and his forces are Affably Evil Knight Templars, and conquer everyone because they want to spread benevolent rule.
- Evuls want to avert La Résistance, and so he makes the people content with his rule. That way, they'd be more supportive of him.
- Inverted:
- Fascist, but Inefficient
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized
- The Federation is very corrupt despite being democratic, and gets rich off of exploiting technically-autonomous third-world countries.
- The local People's Republic of Tyranny acts like it's one of the most progressive countries in the world. It isn't.
- Subverted: It's all an illusion to hide the truth of a cruel oppressive system...
- Doubly Subverted: but that's because the Empire is struggling to assist the population immediately, and Evuls's reign is better than most other regimes.
- Parodied:
- Evuls is barely an Emperor, or even evil. Despite the fact that he was never voted in and remains a ruler for his entire life, the people love him more than the local government they themselves elect.
- Averted: The Empire is openly oppressive and cruel towards its people.
- Enforced: The current La Résistance is slowly gaining power, thus the Empire thinks it's a good idea to introduce socioeconomic reforms to make the people more content woth the Empire and less willing to rebel.
- Lampshaded: "If the Empire is so bad, then why is it so benevolent to its people?"
- Invoked: Evulz wants to establish or maintain his power and authority to the masses. Using his powers to help people enforces loyalty in the populace.
- Exploited: The Revolutionary Front uses all the resources Evulz gives to the people to oppose Evulz.
- Defied: Evulz decided he shouldn't bother with being a benevolent ruler, and the Empire openly oppresses and slaughters its own people.
- Discussed: "Wow, Evulz is being a better ruler than anyone we could elect."
- Conversed:
- "Why would anyone want to oppose Evulz's reign when he is openly helping people?"
- "I think that's the point".
- Implied: Nothing is known of Evulz's government system, but considering that none of his subjects appears to be suffering and the people are living prosperous lives, Evulz is definitely doing something good for the people.
- Deconstructed:
- The people believe in Liberty Over Prosperity and revolt, knowing Evulz's benefits do not outweight the cost.
- Evulz accidentally uses too much resources on making life for his subjects better, meaning that there are not enough forces dedicated to stopping the heroes.
- Reconstructed:
- Until they get the freedom they wanted, and then they reinstate Evulz after realizing that his rule was a net positive.
- And then the heroes realize how happy the subjects are and decide to side with Evulz.
- Played for Drama: Alice and Bob want to stop Evulz's world-conquering schemes, but the many people under Evulz's imperial rule actually appreciate what Evulz does for them.
- Played for Horror: Evulz is creating a Crapsaccharine World where people will become so dependent on Evulz's handouts that they will never rebel against his increasingly-despotic regime.
