Rooting for the bad guys

[TheIronRuler]

Did you ever root for the bad guys when you were watching/playing a movie/show/game. If so, why did you root for them? Personally I always went for the bad guys when I was a kid. I think it was because of just how powerful they were compared to the protagonist.

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Law Abiding Citizen.
Why did he had to lose? The only fleshed out and worthy character with the most interesting story is the villain.... why can't he win? Why does the law has to always win???

 

[Da Orky Man]

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.

If James Cameron has any sense of reality left, this is the only way Avatar's sequel could look like. Why they didn't do this as they were retreating i'll never know.

 

[Seagoon]

Did you ever root for the bad guys when you were watching/playing a movie/show/game. If so, why did you root for them? Personally I always went for the bad guys when I was a kid. I think it was because of just how powerful they were compared to the protagonist.

I always love a pretty awesome bad guy! Chris Genovese (or DeMico, depending on the book or the film) from kick Ass was epic! In Troy, I got the feeling I was supposed to be on the side of the Troy, but I still was rooting for bad guys!

 

[SD-Fiend]

Avatar: It's not that I wanted the Navi to lose I just think it's stupid how the humans lost

Chase cartoons(tom and jerry, Wile.E coyote,ETC)especially sincein most of them the bad guy's just trying to get food...

 

[Da Orky Man]

The bad guys winning opens up more interesting plots for sequels. I would love to play an FPS where you know you are going to lose. Say a resistance game like "Saboteur" but in the climax the mission fails and you see everything you know and love get destroyed.

Halo Reach kinda fits in there. Anyone who played much Halo before knew that Reach was screwed before, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise. Sure, you get the whole 'noble sacrifice for one last chance' stuff, but it's still done pretty well.

I myself was on the side of the Empire in Star Wars. If you look a bit further on in canon, basically, the entire galaxy get slaughtered by extra-galactical aliens. If the had never been a Rebel Alliance, if the Empire had remained as it was, then maybe trillions wouldn't have died.

 

[Professor Idle]

Ok, I'm not cross, I just saw Avatar when I was rather tired and may have missed a few points here:

The Na'vi live in their own world and have come up with their own way of life and are content, the humans invade cos they want some special sort of fuel and we're supposed to feel bad for the humans?

The other point was that people don't like the Na'vi cos they look different? Is this just the internet being hateful or do people in general just follow the philosophy that if something looks different, it's ok to exploit/attack it?

I mean, sure, the whole Na'vi way of life might have been seen as pretentious and maybe it was forcing a little too much encouragement on us to support them, but enough for us to decide that their way of life should end, even though it was none of the humans' business?

 

[AkaDad]

I was rooting for the bad guys in Battle L.A. They need water to survive, so they put on their alien bootstraps and took it from an inferior species. Some of those aliens were bad-asses too.

 

[Snowblindblitz]

Afro Samurai.

The main character is the bad guy. He is motivated solely by revenge, and kills anyone to get to his goal. Friends, even those he considered his brother, he has and continues to cut down. The good guys are always full of tragedy, because Afro inflicts it on everyone in his path.

 

[The]

The bad guys in The Taking of Pelham 123. The original one of course. I didn't watch the remake.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Voldermort.

He has every fucking right to kill the one person who can stop him!

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Yes, everyone should more often too. Modern media has become to soft and kid friendly. I hate it so much.

I'm going with the crowd and say Avatar. I can't stand those blue cat people. I all but cheered when one of them died. Also, Stephen Lang is badass incarnate. Its impossible to not like someone like that.

Here's what confused me after the movie. Ok so they win and drive the people off the planet........but.....can't they just nuke them from orbit? I mean, they use bows and arrows, how could they possible think it was a long term victory over the humans? And becoming a terrorist to your ENTIRE SPECIES for a piece of ass is a dick move, no matter how you try to defend it.

I'm hoping for a sequel, Avatar II: Orbital Bombardment

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Ok, I'm not cross, I just saw Avatar when I was rather tired and may have missed a few points here:

The Na'vi live in their own world and have come up with their own way of life and are content, the humans invade cos they want some special sort of fuel and we're supposed to feel bad for the humans?

The other point was that people don't like the Na'vi cos they look different? Is this just the internet being hateful or do people in general just follow the philosophy that if something looks different, it's ok to exploit/attack it?

I mean, sure, the whole Na'vi way of life might have been seen as pretentious and maybe it was forcing a little too much encouragement on us to support them, but enough for us to decide that their way of life should end, even though it was none of the humans' business?

It was more that I felt like the movie was talking down to me. The Na'vi couldn't have been more obvious if they walked around with signs that said: "I AM AN ALLEGORY FOR THE NATIVE AMERICANS". There was no moral ambiguity. The humans represented colonists and early America and the Na'vi were the Native Americans who were treated horribly by them. The humans are cartoonishly evil to the point that I couldn't take the movie seriously. The writing had no depth.

 

[ccggenius12]

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.

The fact that a master-crafted magic sword is still a valid weapon, after being recently reforged by the elves a few days prior to the conflict, confuses you?

I cannot find the exact amount of time LoTR has been in technology stasis. Aragorn is part of the 39th generation following Isildurs death.

Don't forget, Aragorn is a direct descendant of the men of Numenor. They have lifespans that far exceed those of a normal human, as in, for every generation of them, 3-5 generations of regular humans happen.

A college of mages is hinted. But, Bar Gandalf and Saruman, Name a mage/wizard/magical person in the books.

Tom Bombadil, Elrond, Radaghast the Brown.

Although whether the delusional leader makes any sense in reality is also questionable. Think Isreal, it does not matter who gets into power because the nation is under constant threat and the army rules. Now, to a degree Denethor did rule both the state and the army but... Was the person before him mental as well? Does the entire nation of Gondor have ONE general? Are there no other influencing parties involved?

Like Aragorn, Denethor is descended from the men of Numenor. The fact that he's been alive longer than anyone else in Gondor, as well as the fact that he's still far more physically imposing in his advanced age than any normal human lead to a lot of reverence. Also, Gondor really didn't start going to shit until Sauruman snuck Wormtongue in and started mentally weakening the guy. As for why they don't have better weapons, the weapons of the higher ups are all elvencraft. Humans can't ever hope to rival that. And the random grunts probably can't afford anything better. The fact that that still means they're running around in full armor with swords is a testament to the wealth and prestige of Gondor.

Or, to make another argument (Although I think we are derailing the thread... slightly) The Elves. Thousands of years old. Plenty of time to sit around and think. Also, trying to stop their race from having to flee middle earth once and for all. They have time and money on their hands to develop weapons. They are the finest scholars in middle earth. If Saruman, a pretty smart guy, can develop gunpowder in his lifetime of, say... 80 years? how has Elrond not yet invented the bloody machine gun in his lifetime of several thousand years (Again, cannot find exact dates, but he was there in the time of Isildur and before). Or just think about the wood elves. Xenophobic assholes surrounded by people who hate them, again, immortal and with time to kill. But no technological advances there.

Actually, Saruman and Gandalf are both Maiar. They're the Tolkien equivelent of Angels, and helped build the world. Elves may have been the first race (not so)commonly seen on Middle Earth, but Saruman had been kicking around for millenia before that.

Finally, before I go and eat lunch...

The Dwarves.

Amazing metal workers, miners, able to construct halls of stone that are mind-boggolingly huge. In all of their history of mining (They live till stupidly old too, I believe) they never invented gunpowder to make it easier? (TNT was developed for the mining industry) They never invented some form of explosive to help with shifting rocks? They do not even have the "But they have magic they do not need technology" thing to support them.

They do however have the "created by the god of earth" thing going for them. They don't WANT higher mining technology because they are one with the rock. Any technology would reduce that closeness.

I'd recommend reading the Silmarillion if you haven't. Honestly, Sauron is a chump. He was created by Morgoth(the Lucifer allegory). Morgoth created the Orcs by corrupting elves, and it took the combined might of all of the races, plus the assistance of other gods to take him down. Accounting for that, the weapons on display in LotR ARE the equivalent of a Dark Age technology regression.

To contribute something of my own to this discussion, I root for Team Rocket. They're the only characters in that show with more depth than a piece of paper. I like to think that they're the protagonists of the show, and the kids are such antagonists, that they steal the majority of the screen time.

It was hard to see the Easterlings as 'Evil Men' when they wore eyeliner.

But.. everyone knows that the most evil people always wear eyeliner...(ex. Labyrinth)

 

[Rallus]

I rooted for the aliens in War of The Worlds (The one with Tom Cruise in it). Mainly because of that stupid girl with her constant screaming! Gah! I wish they had just killed her off in the beginning because that entire movie was ruined by the whole "family" thing. I went to see that movie to see aliens fuck the world up. What do I get? Five minutes of that and then an hour of that girl shrieking in the main character's ear because he hasn't had the balls to smack her across the chops.

 

[ToxicOranges]

Generally... yeah, I do root for the bad guy, but only up until he /she /it becomes as incompetent in decision making as the good guy.

 

[Soushi]

I have always, always ,always cheered for the Empire in star wars. Sure they are massive dicks, but look at this super star tag team lineup:
- Storm troopers (say what you will, that Armour is awesome!)
- the 801st Legion
- Force Lightening
- The Sheer Balls to blow up one of the Core Worlds
- Death star
- Darth -fuckmothering- Vader
- Grand Admiral Thrawn
- Grand Admiral Daala
- Captain Palleon
- TIE Interceptor / Advances/ Defenders
- Star Destroyers (The most badass looking ships in the universe, save one)
- Super Star Destroyers (And here's the one)
- Eclipse Class Super Star Destroyers (Possibly the only exception to the above rule)
- RED star destroyers (Yet another possible exception to the above rule)
- ATAT Walkers
- ATST Walkers
- Their Theme Music
- Red Lightsabers
- They have the balls to stick unbelievable space horrors in their trash compactors
- When the Yuuzhan Vong were blowing the ever loving shit out of the New Republic, a bunch of Star Destroyers showed up and simply cleaned their clocks

'Nuff said.

 

[Thomas Rembrandt]

I prefer it when the good guy, after beating the big bad, takes some of the evil powers to fuel his own and goes on to basicly replace the villain ("Face Heel Turn" - tvtropes). Examples are as mentioned Arthas from Warcraft3 and to a degree Liara from Mass Effect 2.

I would have liked Avatar a little bit more if Jake Sully at some point figured out, how evil and arrogant the Navi really are and changed sides(again) at the last moment. Would have made a cool and unexpected twist.

Fucking political correctness in mainstream movies...