Rooting for the bad guys

[370999]

I aalways root for the Empire in Star Wars. Liked the humans in Avatar, Always liked the human government when it was evil in the X-men series.

 

[Astoria]

I was rooting for Palpatine throughout Epidode 3 of Star Wars mostly because the jedi were so arrogant. I wanted Magneto to win too in X men because in the end he was right about everything really.

 

[Leninv3l]

Definitely Avatar.
Heck, when they started crying after the tree gets blown up I actually laughed because of the way they cry; it looks and sound so hilarious.

"THEY'RE GONNA HIT HOME TREE!!!!"
Lol... I'd have to say that I was rooting for Tony Montana to prevail. He was a bad guy, right?

Yeah. He was a bad guy.

 

[Thyunda]

LoTR. I do not root for the good guys or the bad guys. I find the entire series fun to watch or read but utterly retarded at the same time. Hundreds of years of constant war? HOW HAVE YOU NOT INVENTED ANYTHING MORE COMPLEX THAN A CROSSBOW.

To be fair, it took us 1600 years of constant war in Europe to develop anything more complex than a crossbow.

Ok, fair point. However the situation is slightly different. The wars in Europe were not wars of survival. I mean, the states involved were fighting for power, glory and the continuation of the lineage. Gondor is fighting for THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY.

Finally...

I cannot find the exact amount of time LoTR has been in technology stasis. Aragorn is part of the 39th generation following Isildurs death. The war has been going on for that long, without a break, in Gondor. We started the first world war with tanks. We ended it with nukes. That was within 4 years. Ok, different times, Technology was already advancing at a rather alarming rate.

But in 39 generations of war, 39 generations of a war for your very SURVIVAL, they have not made a single discovery. Not one.

Although my main problem with the films and books is the amount of times they are being shot at but get lucky. Seriously. Not one of them thinks to carry a shield. And, bar Boromir, NONE OF THEM PAY FOR IT.

You do have a fair point with your second paragraph. As in, a very fair point. I remember, when reading the Lord of the Rings, being completely unable to comprehend the vast time differences between historic events and current ones. If the Second Era had ended with more primitive weaponry (as in, chainmail and iron swords) it'd be more believable. But the fact that Anduril is as valid a sword in Aragorn's time as it was in Isildur's time makes absolutely no sense.

It's not even as if they were totally broke and unable to afford weapon-development. Maybe they just trusted in magic? By the time of LOTR, at least, Denethor was pretty delusional, so maybe he would have forbidden it?

I don't know why I'm trying to rationalise it. Put simply, it doesn't actually make much sense. But it DOES explain why the shambolic hordes of Mordor were so effective. THEY made advancements in weaponry and armour, and even machinery. Saruman's Uruk-hai employed explosive devices when assaulting Helm's Deep. They wore plate armour and carried specialised blades.

But...then...Isengard was destroyed by the trees. THAT must be why. Every time they try to get anywhere significant, the bloody environmentalists fight back.

And...I don't think we employed nuclear weaponry in the First World War. Tanks and fighter aircraft were the major advancements back then - and not even 'tank' tanks. No cannons...well, no turret. The male tanks had two cannons, two machine-guns. The females four machineguns. What was I talking about?

Oh. One last thing. Boromir was the only person to carry a shield. And he was the only one taken down by arrows.
Though it makes sense in context. Four Hobbits - the shield is about their height. That is not a sensible piece of equipment to be carrying. Legolas and Aragorn are archers. The only reasonable shield for them would be a buckler, which wouldn't be much help against arrows. Gimli's a heavily armoured dwarf. Shield is pretty much unnecessary. Boromir, as we know, carried a shield. I'm missing somebody. Who the hell am I missing?
Gandalf? Was he part of the Fellowship? Yes. I suppose he was. For a while, anyway. Gandalf is a wizard. He don't need no shield.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The whalers in Whale Wars.

Go get 'm, boys! Kill some whales and ram some boats.

 

[WolfThomas]

Is it bad that I want to see a movie about the Gruber brothers when they're younger? Pulling off some elaborate heist disguised as something else.

 

[standokan]

I did in each and everyone one of those Home Alone movies, god I hate those smug little bastards.

 

[Rowan93]

Since everybody's already mentioned Avatar, I'll just add Die Hard 3 - the bad guy basically won, and got away with it, and the scene at the end where he gets his comeuppance feels completely tacked on.

 

[Insanity72]

I've had a recent love for the Sith in Star wars for some reason.

 

[York_Beckett]

Have you ever seen The River Wild? I have, and I routed for Kevin Bacon's character most of the time. I don't really know why.

 

[370999]

LoTR. I do not root for the good guys or the bad guys. I find the entire series fun to watch or read but utterly retarded at the same time. Hundreds of years of constant war? HOW HAVE YOU NOT INVENTED ANYTHING MORE COMPLEX THAN A CROSSBOW.

To be fair, it took us 1600 years of constant war in Europe to develop anything more complex than a crossbow.

Ok, fair point. However the situation is slightly different. The wars in Europe were not wars of survival. I mean, the states involved were fighting for power, glory and the continuation of the lineage. Gondor is fighting for THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY.

Finally...

I cannot find the exact amount of time LoTR has been in technology stasis. Aragorn is part of the 39th generation following Isildurs death. The war has been going on for that long, without a break, in Gondor. We started the first world war with tanks. We ended it with nukes. That was within 4 years. Ok, different times, Technology was already advancing at a rather alarming rate.

But in 39 generations of war, 39 generations of a war for your very SURVIVAL, they have not made a single discovery. Not one.

Although my main problem with the films and books is the amount of times they are being shot at but get lucky. Seriously. Not one of them thinks to carry a shield. And, bar Boromir, NONE OF THEM PAY FOR IT.

You do have a fair point with your second paragraph. As in, a very fair point. I remember, when reading the Lord of the Rings, being completely unable to comprehend the vast time differences between historic events and current ones. If the Second Era had ended with more primitive weaponry (as in, chainmail and iron swords) it'd be more believable. But the fact that Anduril is as valid a sword in Aragorn's time as it was in Isildur's time makes absolutely no sense.

It's not even as if they were totally broke and unable to afford weapon-development. Maybe they just trusted in magic? By the time of LOTR, at least, Denethor was pretty delusional, so maybe he would have forbidden it?

I don't know why I'm trying to rationalise it. Put simply, it doesn't actually make much sense. But it DOES explain why the shambolic hordes of Mordor were so effective. THEY made advancements in weaponry and armour, and even machinery. Saruman's Uruk-hai employed explosive devices when assaulting Helm's Deep. They wore plate armour and carried specialised blades.

But...then...Isengard was destroyed by the trees. THAT must be why. Every time they try to get anywhere significant, the bloody environmentalists fight back.

And...I don't think we employed nuclear weaponry in the First World War. Tanks and fighter aircraft were the major advancements back then - and not even 'tank' tanks. No cannons...well, no turret. The male tanks had two cannons, two machine-guns. The females four machineguns. What was I talking about?

Oh. One last thing. Boromir was the only person to carry a shield. And he was the only one taken down by arrows.
Though it makes sense in context. Four Hobbits - the shield is about their height. That is not a sensible piece of equipment to be carrying. Legolas and Aragorn are archers. The only reasonable shield for them would be a buckler, which wouldn't be much help against arrows. Gimli's a heavily armoured dwarf. Shield is pretty much unnecessary. Boromir, as we know, carried a shield. I'm missing somebody. Who the hell am I missing?
Gandalf? Was he part of the Fellowship? Yes. I suppose he was. For a while, anyway. Gandalf is a wizard. He don't need no shield.

In fairness isn't that a deliberate chocie, that only is technology not getting betteer, it's getting worse. Think of it from the viewpoint of Someone in Dark Ages Europe, the Roman Empire has gone and all this stuff from aqeducts and roads are not being built anymore, heck most people don't know how to build them.

Noww Lord of the rings does this throw the idea of the civiilisations of Numernor and the various elfen ones. Society seems to be in regressionf or these people because it is. Noone has the wealth to make these huge giant statues, refine steel and the like.

 

[ToMegaTherion]

Star Wars(Emperor Palpatine is Awesome, and the Jedi's are just... The sith is more humane to me. They don't try to supress emotion, and I hate supression of emotion

Friday the 13th: Jason is the most likable charachter in those movies. Poor thing just misses his mommy

Saw. Jigsaw makes some good points

All Excorsism movies ever. I just want Satan to win over GodxD

Bram Stokers Dracula: Van Helsing is awesome in that movie, but he's sort of a maniac

Hellraiser: The cenobites just trying to do their work

Hercules: Hades is a better charachter than hercules, and he is the god of death. Which is awesome

Allmost every movie ever actaully...

 

[Racecar1994]

A game example for me would probably be Gears of War 3 more than any other. Mainly for the end sequence, which strangely made the locust seem more sympathetic than the humans (which is a colossal failure in the writing department). Seriously, the only likeable humans for me after that were Baird, Anya, and Adam Fenix. They were the only ones seriously considering the ramifications of their actions...

But who seriously plays Gear of War for the story, anyway?

 

[Furyaki12]

Off the top of my head, I liked Ghirahim from Skyward Sword, simply because he's the most hilarious and, it must be said, FABULOUS character I've seen from a Zelda game.

Pirates of the Caribbean (any of them,except possibly the 4th) - I don't know, the officers were kinda stuffy while the pirates were colorful and funny, but...they're pirates. Looting, plundering, killing, and all that. I guess I'd be lying if I said I didn't want Jack Sparrow to walk, though.

 

[Alex Tom]

I wanted the humans in Avatar to win so badly. Mainly because I was sick of the "white guilt" stuff and Stephen Lang was hilariously badass.

Don't worry... with the massive amount of money to be made from Pandora the humans will be back with more than just a handful of mercenaries. The blue monkeys will get bombarded from orbit

I actually hated that it is getting a sequel. That was my own ending I made for it. The humans come back with an army and blow them to hell from orbit, the end.

Its good to know im not the only one who wanted the humans to win in Avatar.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

I know this doesn't really count, but I cannot fucking stand the ATF woman agent in the first season of Sons of Anarchy. Her attitude where she thinks she's charismatic but really just fucking annoying makes me hate her.

Otto just smashed her face in the last episode I saw, and it was awesome

Edit:

Spoiler: Spoilerrifick for Boardwalk Empire

When Nucky throws basically any chance of becoming a good guy and kills Darmody and becomes full on evil. Which is weird for me to say, because I actually thought the Darmody had made a pretty sweet transformation after his wife was killed. (and the fact that Micheal Pitt would have played a very good drug addict)

He became perfectly evil. "I never asked for your forgiveness Jimmy....". Nucky is a piece of shit in the very best way, and now it's gonna leave room for other characters. I have a feeling that Richard (two face guy), is gonna get some serious character development this next season

I don't know. That whole 4 or 5 minute scene was intense. You saw them all get out and it dawned on you that there was no way out of this.

 

[Muspelheim]

I tend to root for the communists in all the classic post-WW2 war-flicks. While Red Dawn was more like a comedy for me, being as silly as it is, I must say that I felt rather bad for the Russians getting their butts kicked by some children in an unusually militant kids-club.

I imagined it was their "special" battalion that were sent to pacify that area. It's more like the scenes in Downfall when the Hitlerjugend-kids and Volksturm-pensioners are all pwned en masse to no avail. You just feel sorry for them.

 

[The_Waspman]

Its easier to root for the bad guy because he is under THREAT. The Hero is essentially immortal. No matter what the bad guy has at his disposal he is still the underdog. Because he does not have magic bullet/arrow/sword dodging abilities.

This. If you look at most films of this nature (good vs bad) then the protagonist/antagonist roles are actually reversed. The protagonist is actually the bad guy. Because it is the bad guy who has a goal that they are striving for, and it is the good guy who is always providing the obstacle for that goal, which makes him the antagonist.

Personally, I'm not someone who always gets behind the bad guy in films, what bothers me more is that we live in a culture where we demand that the bad guy always loses. There's no surprise any more. You go to a film/play a game/read a book whatever, and 99% of the time you know that the good guys are going to win. Sure, there may be sacrifices along the way, some losses, but white hats get their victory, black hats see their lives/empires crumble around them.

We need to redress this balance! We need more media where the black hats win for a change!