I have thought about how in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the Soviet Union officials are the villains, but they are shown to be acting in reaction to existing United States weaponry and technology that is threatening their country and government. RedLetterMedia does good job of explaining this in their review of the movie.
However, their main goal is to use the titular skull for mind control against Earth's population.
the netflix transformers war for cybertron series is a wild one. the entire transformers great war is about the control of energon, the food and power source for transformers and their technology. the idea of primes is literally divine right to rule.
takes place just before the autobots leave cybertron, and after megatron already murdered the last Prime, overthrowing the Prime monarchy that has existed literally since the beginning of time. megatron is trying to find the allspark, which is just the classic MacGuffin trope. its a magical piece of tech that does whatever the fiction wants it to.
through out the show optimus prime frequently accuses megatron of being a tyrant who owns slaves (no slaves are ever seen). megatron is seen telling one of his decepticons to STOP torturing an autobot they captured. there are tons of random bots cheering for megatron when he makes his speech (obv that can happen under fascism too but hear me out).
theres a scene where one decepticon defects to the autobots, and the autobots don't trust him, which makes sense. the former decepticon offers to have a brain bomb inserted into his head (i guess like suicide squad). a couple of autobots are like hmmm wait whats that? and then they mention that the brain bombs were used to MASS MURDER PRISONERS BECAUSE PRISONS WERE BEING OVERFILLED
as soon as i heard that, instantly i wanna know how anyone can justify being an autobot??? lol. megatron murdered the last prime because of the lack of energon that the average bot was getting, and i imagine he had a problem with that many prisoners getting killed too. i feel like if you have so many prisoners that you have to murder them to make room, then its your own goddamn laws that are the problem lol
yes megatron murdered a lot of people, but he didn't mass murder people in prison lol. the autobots are trying to uphold that weird monarchy for whatever reason. its insanity!!
eventually optimus manages to find the allspark, and him and most of the autobots leave cybertron with it. unfortunately by taking the allspark, energon becomes EVEN HARDER to find on cybertron. season 2 is an extreme energon shortage. megatron has resorted to draining the remaining autobots of energon, so he can find optimus, get the allspark and restore cybertron
NOTHING about the autobots in the netflix show seems well thought out. they are so fucking stupid lol.
extremely critical support to comrade megatron who wants equality for all robots on cybertron without upholding a genocidal monarchy
I was never interested in Transformers, now you made me intrigued.
In a society built around a grand Cybertronian taxonomy that is obsessively revised and reinterpreted, the one thing that never changes—the one that must never change—is the system itself. Every revision, every reinterpretation takes place within a rigid framework of social stratification. Nothing must threaten the Functionists’ core philosophy: utility as an organizing principle.
If you could step outside the system you would recognize it for what it is: a prison. Worse that that, it is a prison full of willing prisoners. And not only are you a prisoner within the system, you are a prisoner within your own body. Whether you were born or made, forged or constructed cold, you are trapped inside your alt mode. The Functionists built the lock and the Senate holds the key; but most of are unaware that we are locked in.
Make no mistake: your life is mapped out in front of you are, as clear as the grooves in your transformation cog. You can no more choose to change jobs than Cybertron can choose to stop orbiting the Sun. You can no more acquire a skill unrelated to your vocation than the sky can acquire a conscience.
In denying you the ability to reject your alt mode—in preventing you from pursuing a path of your own choosing—both the Senate and the Council say they are acting in your best interests. They have a responsibility, they say, to ensure that you make best use of your god-given form. If you turn into a drill, that is because Primus knows that Cybertron needs drills. To deviate from your function is to risk invoking the wrath of god and brings the world to its knees.
In truth, it is about control. Multi-skilled population is an empowered population. And if you reject your alt mode, what next? Could you reject your class? Would you reject your government?
The Functionists don’t rely solely on the theology when rebutting arguments for change. Working outside your alt mode would be confusing, they say. Imagine being treated by a medic with tank treads; you would question their competence. And they extend the same question to the minors. “Would you feel comfortable working alongside a microscope?” And to the military: “Would you put your life in the hands of a soldier who turns into a data slug?”
And it is true. People would be unnerved—at first. But the Functionists—enabled by the Senate—have created the conditions that have given rise to the culture of suspicion; and they have done so deliberately, because it reinforces the status quo. Moreover, it fosters division, and division is another means why which they can control the population. The more walls you can put up between people, the easier it is to contain them, and the stronger the structural integrity of the system.
And that is why when you see a stranger you don’t think, “What are they like?” You think, “What are they for?” You don’t think, “What are their hopes, dreams, aspirations?” You think, “What do they do?” and then you think, “Where are they positioned in relation to me? Do they sit above, alongside, or below? Are they better than me, or I them?”
Even if you believe in the grand Cybertronian taxonomy, ask yourself this: who decides on that order? And then: why should there be an order? And that is the question the Senate and the Functionists fear the most, because they know that their world would collapse if people arrived at the answer. Why should there be an order? I’ll tell you: there shouldn’t be.
Be happy in your work, they say, for it enriches you. Be grateful for your alt mode, for it defines you. Be thankful for the system—it protects you. Be mindful of your betters—they think for you. I say enough. Reject your work. Reject your alt mode. Resist the system. And your “betters”? You have none. We are all equal. And we have a right to decide how to live our lives.
- Megatron, Towards Peace
True Lies is awesome because its the ultimate "end of history" movie. The most ripped and handsome man in the world (who is also the son of a Nazi police officer in real life) is a spy for the only superpower in the world yet he thinks he's getting cucked by a second hand car dealership guy. And the bad guys are morally right and show more restraint than the US would and Arnold annihilates them with the most expensive and pointless fighter jet ever built.
Dave Anthony (or Josh Olson, I have trouble telling them apart) of the West Wing Thing is a Hollywood writer. He explained that if a writer wants to talk about an idea he agrees with but knows the studio won't like it, they'll give it to the villain. And this is the reason so many Hollywood villains make so many decent arguments. He was talking about Black Panther in particular.
That's interesting.
However, I think the average viewer will just associate whatever ideology the villain has with it being bad.
Anastasia:
Rasputin plotting the Russian Revolution was cool and good, solid praxis. Actually I'm not even sure what his bad acts are supposed to be other than attempting to eliminate a claimant to the Russian throne, which is good actually, but liberals love their reactionary autocracies as long as they wear pretty dresses.
Anastasia is so good. I love the animation and the songs but the movie is literally just pure propaganda.
It's just straight up like "evil magic made people want to kill the Romanovs" and it doesn't even care.
It also casts Rasputin as the villain even though he was literally friends with the Tsar and his family. He was there to look after Alexei.
I feel that. Learn to do it is such a bop. It's a shame the actual contents of the movie are severely lacking
Yeah, it's kinda boring. Bluth didn't always hit but this always felt like him just making a Disney movie and it just falls flat.
I think Journey to the Past is one the best "I want" songs though.
Critical support to comrade Anakin and his struggle against the cops of the jedi order and their bourgeois enablers in the senate.
I actually really like the themes of the prequels. It's an example of a liberal democracy in decay that gives way to fascism, and about how liberals create tools later to be used by fascists (the Clones, for example.)
One would assume that the Jedi's only real goal in the Old Republic was stopping a Sith from doing like, exactly what happened in the prequels. Funny how only one movie even bothered to ask like "uhhhh are the Jedi's even worth resurrecting? they kinda sucked lol"
The Last Jedi had so many amazing ideas and never followed through on any of them. It sucked not because it broke the Star Wars formula but because it didn't break it enough.
The new "Falcon and the Winter Soldier" is leaning into this trope so hard.
"The Flag Smashers want a world without borders. They want this because, uh, well it's somehow related to genociding half the planet, therefore anarchy bad."
It's amazing how ridiculous of a strawman caricature of a revolutionary org you need to create in order to make the US military look like the good guys.
The Rock with Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage trying to stop a bunch of CIA supersoldiers who are mad their buddies died for a government that refuses to recognize them or pay their widows.
I have never seen the movie, but, as I understand, Ed Harris (the villain) has justifiable motives, but he kills and/or orders the murder of innocent people.
he threatens to, i can't remember if he was bluffing or not. his motives are mostly justifiable, probably, but less so when you're explaining them to communists lol
checkered- the incredibles has a kind of eugenics-based society, if syndrome weren't such an elon musk type he probably would have been onto something.
"Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary"
-Syndrome
If it wasn't for the false flag attack, Syndrome's evil plan is exactly the same as Iron Man's. Sell his tech, but keep the best stuff for himself. Dirty capitalist.
yeah its more complicated than him simply being more "moral", but this is a society where the alternative is "super" supremacy. I haven't seen the boys yet but thats kind of where its headed
The hardline faction leaders in The Expanse are an example. Anderson Dawes and Marcos Inaros articulate an anti-imperialist freedom-fighting that squares up pretty well with things like Fannon's writings, but they are characterized as vaguely evil. The "good" characters never have any kind of concrete ideology, so they kinda float around trying to do their best with no plan and a very lib-brained "just make good decisions" vibe.
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___Oh except Marcos throwing a bunch of asteroids and killing millions of people probably wasn't great, but up until then he, like Dawes, were bad because the good characters said so.
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To be fair, it didn't seem like they had a lot of accuracy with the asteroids, half of them missed and that one burnt up orbiting the sun. Still, their ships were way better than anyone else's and they could have just rolled the blockade (which they did).
Didn't they also do the asteroid thing to get Earth to reveal the location of their defenses too? Or was that not stated.
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Marcos is presented as an absolute sociopath that only uses ideology to further his own goals, and is otherwise abusive and shitty. Beside him the OPA are kinda sympathetic
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Fred Johnson and Klaes Ashford were the best OPA leaders, too bad they dead and Marco "Pol Pot" Inaros is in charge
Air Force One pits an anti-revisionist soviet communist against a US President whose only stated policy position is, "America hasn't been imperialist enough".
Of course they make the communist say how excited he is to commit genocide.
I always sorta rooted for Raoul Silva in Skyfall. Dude blows up the MI6 building and kills M? Critical support to the man and his struggle against the British secret intelligence.
Other than that I don't really remember that movie but I remember sort of rooting for him when I watched it a long time ago.
Even the libbest of libs cheered on Zaheer killing the Earth Queen
He was coded as anarchist the entire time, but his character got rewritten like three episodes from the end when they realized he was 100% right. Uncritical support for first half of the season Zaheer.
Amon's arc pissed me off so much.
"Hey, a lot of the city is joining this movement and attending these rallies talking about how non-benders get treated like second class citizens, this must be a message that is resonating with people and speaks to a legitimate problem. People are literally signing up to fight and die for this cause."
"Yeah, but the leader was a bender, so he's a hypocrite. As long as we punch the figurehead for this movement really hard, we don't have to think about the broader social commentary anymore."
Side note: when I met my wife and we started dating we bonded by complaining about how shitty the politics of season 1 was.
Also guilty of the inverse. Has characters with bad ideologies (monarchists, fascists) perform good actions to justify the system.
Batman? The one Graeber wrote that essay about. A lot of superhero movies?
Finally that essay is getting the recognition it deserves.
Check out the book it comes at the end of - Utopia of Rules. Good theory about bureaucracy and social stratification and often overshadowed by his bigger books.
Spyro the Dragon 1 features you playing a counter-revolutionary trying to take back your hoard of treasure from a proletarian-coded freedom fighter
