Antagonists Versus Heroes
STAR WARS: People like me rooted more for Darth Vader than for Han Solo. The latter is a deadbeat who has a price on his head so big that whomever kills him can buy their own planet, the former tools around the galaxy with a ship the size of New York City and he can even strangle you over a Skype call. I can't understand why people choose those rebel hobos over law and order.......Even Alderaan wasn't that pristine, if the Old Republic MMO is to be believed......so I don't have a problem with Vader doing what he did and aside from the deaths of innocents, letting Grand Moff Tarkin vaporize that mudball full of haughty nobles into space dust wasn't as evil as people first think it is, especially when Tarkin was doing it to STOP A WAR.
I mean, if we take Disney canon into this matter, that idealistic ending at the end of Return of the Jedi got turned into shit. Han turns back into a smuggler, leaves Leia, right after their son become a homicidal maniac. Now isn't that the dutiful husband? Not only does Han leave Leia at her time of need, not only does he go back to smuggling, but instead of smuggling for the needy or at the very least, helping her wife's military operation, HE SMUGGLES KILLER TENTACLE HENTAI MONSTERS FOR CROOKS. And people root for guys like that over people like Vader, who actually represents law and order.
Granted, I don't agree with everything Vader did. The slaughter of the Jedi could have easily been substituted with capture considering phirk electrostaffs and stun blasters exist, and Jedi are better off alive and serving than dead and one with the Force, especially if you are a man of the Dark Side. An army of repurposed Jedi could have done wonders in supporting the troops and raising morale, especially if former Jedi come out in support of the New Order. But Vader and Palpatine did replace a system where internal warfare was common with a system where a massive military stops wars before they begin. Also, said military is a meritocracy. If you got to the higher ranks through nepotism and favors, expect Vader to pay you a visit when you inevitably fuck up. However, those who prove themselves get promoted, no matter where they came from, so long as they are loyal.
For the average citizen, this is more advantageous than letting factions fight wars then having the Jedi come in and clean them up. By the time that happens, people will have died. The mess is already done. The Jedi don't stop wars, they clean up after them. And people like Han Solo profit off of them via smuggling things like spice (which is used to give income to warlords like Jabba the Hutt) or killer monsters(which are given to crooks). So yeah, I am going to root for the guy who restores law and order over the idiots that probably contribute to disorder and who only come to clean up AFTER the damage has been done. The most the Jedi do to prevent wars is negotiate. And we’ve seen from Episode I how ineffective that was.
GAME OF THRONES: The good guys were the Starks, Targaryens, and Baratheons, the former being dumb as all hell and getting killed by their own vassals, the second being led by a naive queen with zero governing experience, and the third squandering their power in an internal struggle and getting their asses kicked in battle. The bad guys, the Lannisters and the Boltons, have Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton. Roose is half the reason why Robb Stark won his battles, and Tywin is a strong patriarch of a man who is both a tactical genius and a political savant who ran the country during a golden age.
Roose Bolton is the tactical genius behind Robb Stark. To compensate for Robb's inexperience, Roose rises to the challenge as his version of the Hand of the King. Roose keeps things practical while at the same time, giving harsh, but effective advice to Robb Stark. Had Roose not been there, Robb would have retreated back North to Winterfell when Theon took it, and every inch of land he took from the Lannisters would have been lost.
But of course, Robb ignores his advice at almost every turn, along with getting himself more interested in boning his wetnurse of a wife, and with the Tyrells joining the Lannisters, Roose had to save his skin and the skins of the Northmen from getting peeled by the likes of Randyll Tarly and the larger enemy host down south, and he did so by joining Walder Frey in slaughtering the Starks. Quite a harsh, bloody, and risky move. Not a move I'd agree with, but I can see why he did it-self preservation for the North was paramount. It would do the North and Riverlands no good if the armies of the Reach and the Lannisters torched them both in a war of attrition.
And Tywin Lannister-dear God, Tywin Lannister. This guy was the reason I watched Game of Thrones in the first place. Just a few videos of him being a general badass and forcing King Joffrey to heel made me an instant fan of the show. Tywin governed the country and led it into its last golden age, right before Robert’s Rebellion and the War of Five Kings. He was the true power behind the Realm’s success and behind the years of peace under both King Aerys II and King Robert Baratheon. Without him, both kings would be useless. One would be a madman, the other, a drunk.
Tywin’s speeches on the realities of power and politics are illuminating to those who have not studied the topic, and to those who are students of politics and history like myself, his speeches mark him as the kind of man who is fit to bear the world on his shoulders, even though he had no crown. Heck, he made sure that those who wore crowns, from Queen Cersei to King Joffrey, learned their place. There was even that adorable scene with him and Tommen, where he rightfully points out to the young king-to-be that Joffrey was a bad king and that wisdom is what a good king needs to rule well. Yes, Tywin can be a sadistic bastard-ask his son Tyrion. Yes, Tywin can be bloodthirsty and cold, just ask Elia Martel, her kids, or the Reynes of Castamere. But he did indeed bring his A-game to the royal court, and had he lived to work with Tommen after the latter became king, he would have brought the kingdom to another golden age before he finally kicks the bucket.
I mean, who else should I root for? Daenerys has no political experience for the realm, and she’s way too naive to understand things like slavery and politics. Stannis was ruined by the show, and Baelish turned from the most smooth player of the Game of Thrones into a pedophile crushing over Sansa Stark, who clearly doesn’t want him. And of course, his son Tyrion is a big disappointment even though he’s adept at the game of politics. He’s far too trusting of people who would either A) backstab him (Shae) or B) have little to no actual governing experience. (Daenerys) So yeah, Tywin and Roose are the ones to root for, lest we add Book Stannis and the good bits of Show Stannis, who is somewhat capable of competing with these two. But aside from that, Tywin and Roose come out as the strong, patriarchial leaders who are the best examples of leadership in Westeros.........
HALO: The bad guys are a powerful alliance of alien species known as the Covenant, who have superior technology and a meritocratic power structure where the guy who kicks the most ass rules. They get supported by the Prometheans, a race of robots with teleportation powers and guns that disintegrate people, led by a Forerunner named the Didact, who has mastered the art of war for over millennia. The good guys are the UNSC, a human military organization that while starting off as badass in the Bungie Halo games, has fallen prey to conspiracies and nepotism come Halos 4 and 5. Even back then, they were always running away from the Covenant, and all the Spartan super soldiers can do is slow the Covenant down. It took one half of the Covenant joining the humans to end the war, and the ones who contributed the most are the Spartan super-soldiers.
And even after all their contributions in saving mankind, the Spartans merely continue to serve, while idiot politicians and greedy intelligence officers are the ones calling the shots. Instead of, you know, those with a track record of saving mankind's ass multiple times. For example, the human intelligence organization known as the Office of Naval Intelligence dominates the UNSC and turns it into an Orwellian nightmare while they conspire to gas human insurgents and weaken even their own Covenant allies, as well as ordering hits against human civilians. Then we have captains like Andrew Del Rio commanding the strongest human warship at the time while having the tactical adaptability of a Mexican jumping bean.
I mean, really, Del Rio? A "blowthrough op" against a pair of cannons that can one-shot your ship with no recon, no intel? And you thank the Master Chief for blowing through those cannons by trying to arrest him and dispose of his AI companion, while leaving a powerful threat behind even though it was just rendered defenseless? You’re lucky Chief didn’t snap your neck like the way Vader does to incompetent officers. And this guy became a senator after all this? The only just reward this man should have received for his actions is a dishonorable discharge or a firing squad, not a place of power in the government.
This isn’t even the worst. We have the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, for short, doing all sorts of crap that would make GI Joe’s Cobra Commander look like Mother Theresa. ONI funded the Covenant insurgents to weaken the Arbiter, the Sangheili ruler who is the ALLY of humanity, just on the off-chance he could be a future threat, despite the fact that this guy has sent his men to die defending pro-human interests in Covenant space. This soon led to the foundation of the renewed Covenant under Jul ‘Mdama, who was once a member of the Swords of Abiding Truth, the Sangheili rebel group that ONI funded. So yeah, every human son-of-a-gun who died in Halo 4 died because ONI funded a rebel terrorist group trying to oust a legitimate ruler of an alien species that was ALLIED TO MANKIND. They could have gone the Pinochet route of funding the ally, but no, that would be too honorable and straight. To ONI, it’s not good enough unless it’s so subversive, it hurts your allies so that you can hold him by the balls.
Then, ONI holds Catherine Halsey and accuses her of inhumane activity regarding Spartan Program research, which is hilarious considering that ONI itself ordered that research in the first place, and they just used Halsey as a tool. That’s like Hitler’s SS putting Josef Mengele on trial for charges of crimes against humanity. Jar Jar Binks is less of a joke than this, because at least he was an honest fool when he voted in more power for Chancellor Palpatine. And of course, when she gets loose, ONI calls for her death, despite that being something that Master Chief would not be okay with. But wait! There’s more!
ONI also created bioweapons against Sangheili and humans. Poisoned food to poison Sangheili, and a biological agent to kill humans. Of course, the latter got loose and killed every human on the ONI vessel, Argent Moon. But what’s a few friendly casualties for the safety of mankind, eh? At this point, ONI makes Cerberus from Mass Effect 2 look positively saintly. Cerberus funds colony rebuilding efforts and charities to look good. ONI sabotages their own allies based on a hunch that they might be a threat in the future.
At the very least, I can see why Jul ‘Mdama, the new Covenant leader, and the Didact, the leader of the Forerunner Prometheans, came from in terms of ideology and motivations. ‘Mdama feared human colonial expansion and his wife died at the hands of the Arbiter, a human ally. So he blames the humans for the loss of his wife, and his vendetta against the humans went from philosophical to personal. The Didact had a similar path, with many of his sons dying in the fight against an ancient, hi-tech version of the humans, which of course, led him to hate humanity. Both had good reasons to hate mankind, so at least they can be more sympathetic than Captain asshole or an intelligence division that makes Cobra look tame by comparison.
Heck, even the Prophets of the old Covenant can be explainable in their hatred for mankind-they lied to the rest of the Covenant and told them that the gods find humans to be disgusting and want them gone. (Turns out they were telling the truth all along about that.) They wanted to preserve the old Covenant and prevent the humans from becoming the heirs to the Forerunners, especially since Forerunner machinery tends to act like the humans are their owners, so the Prophets, to protect the Covenant and prevent it from being oppressed by humans, decided to eliminate the humans before they can ascend to the mantle of the Forerunners, who were gods among the Covenant. And considering the fact that the human leaders respond to insurrections by kidnapping kids and putting them through deadly experiments to create super-soldiers, the Covenant Prophets may have been onto something when describing the humans as a bunch of god-offending freaks who are a threat-something that can indeed be a threat to the great Empire that they have spent thousands of years growing and nurturing...........
Universal Century GUNDAM: The good guys are ruled by the Earth Federation, a corrupt, weak, and enfeebled government that doesn't inspire that much loyalty. The bad guys, meanwhile, have the Principality of Zeon, which is dominated by charismatic leaders like Gihren Zabi and later, Haman Karn, where they wage war against the larger Federation forces and nearly win each time if it hadn't been for the heroes who know they're fighting for a corrupt system.
Same case as with the Empire vs the Rebels/Republic, again, with charismatic leaders like Haman and Gihren, both are complete bastards, but at the very least, they give society something to rally behind. We have Zeon Deikun’s weird-as-fuck earth-worship philosophy on one side and a corrupt Federation government on the other. The latter wants less humans on Earth, and the former wants no humans on Earth. Sorry, but I think I’ll pick the dictators that actually want to fix the system to create a stable government. God knows that the Zanscare and Cosmo Babylonia came around later because of how weak both the Deikun philosophy and the Federation have left the Earth.
And even when the Earth grew a pair of balls and created a proactive military force in the form of the Titans, they also acted like fascist jackasses. At least Haman and Gihren are leaders that can inspire people, unlike Jamitov who was completely unlikable. Maybe Scirrocco could have been the charismatic leader for the Titans, but he gets axed off. But so do Haman and Gihren, which is just too bad. Gihren was a monster, but Haman had a softer side that could have been explored had the protagonist Judau not rejected all offers of love from her. I mean, come on Judau! The enemy leader wants to bone the living daylights out of you and share rulership over the whole solar system! She’s hot as hell and wants to share the cosmos with you! What’s not to like, you stupid kid!? Good Lord, the series could have ended with you having sex with the final boss and curing her anger and depression with the power of love!
CALL OF DUTY INFINITE WARFARE: Same modus operandi as Gundam, except the UNSA that's supposed to be the good guys allows politicians to control them while making tactical mistakes all over the place, sending only a token force to recover a very important WMD, while arranging their entire fleet over Geneva during Fleet Week, making it easy for the enemy to strike and sabotage them all. You might as well have painted a bullseye on your asses, guys…...
Meanwhile, the enemy force, the Settlement Defense Front, is a professional army, with everything about them being function over form, emphasizing efficiency and military strength over the UNSA's complacency and tactical errors, with even their commanders like Admiral Salen Kotch (Kit Harrington’s character) being ready to die just to achieve victory. Yeah, it's kinda easy to see why people side with the SDF, even though they commit war crimes every time they meet civilians whom they mercilessly gun down.
See? Good guys tend to suck nowadays, especially with SJW snowflake heroes that are sometimes even worse than bad guys. Let me put on the black robes and red lightsabers if it means I get to be me.
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