this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 3 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (5 children)

"Presentation" gives me goosebumps every time. Such a great scene

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[–] [email protected] 86 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Magneto in the 90s. He even built an asteroid as a refuge for any mutant.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

The older I get, more I agree with Magneto.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago

More like, the older the character gets, the more they update his backstory to be something the audience can sympathize with. Because a villain for villain's sake gets old fast.

[–] FreakinSteve 18 points 3 months ago

Magneto ftw. Xavier is a naive little bitch.

"You're always sorry, Charles ...and there's always a speech!....but nobody cares."

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A Bioshock-like game set on Asteroid M would be, if you will excuse the parlance, baller.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 months ago (8 children)

In the third season of the legend of korra, a group of people try to get rid of a monarchy (which is long established as especially unequal and oppressive) in favor of self government. They also try to get rid of the avatar, because she is an infallible being with incredibly outsized power. I love the avatar universe and get how they needed to fight them, but the group wasn’t wrong

[–] [email protected] 54 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Even the first season had Amon, the guy that wanted equality between benders and non-benders. At one point we're even shown that power was cut to a predominantly non-bender neighborhood, and when people went outside to protest to get their power turned back on, they were all rounded up and arrested. Afterwards, when Korra goes and tries to get the people that were arrested set free, she's told

All equalist suspects are being detained indefinitely. They'll be freed if and when the task force deems them no longer a threat.

Just in case it wasn't clear enough by that point that non-benders were treated as second class citizens.

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[–] paultimate14 18 points 3 months ago

I've been meaning to re-watch Korra, but I remember even the first time I watched it being a bit disappointed in the "enlightened centrism" where they are trying to paint every conflict as pacifists vs extremists.

I think it's similar to looking at BioShock 1 and BioShock Infinite. There's a lot of writers out there who just use politics and ideology as a setting for the conflict rather than actually being central to their message. It's simply a solid formula to make a villain: take any sort of stance and push it to violent extremes. Comstock is a religious zealot, Andrew Ryan I don't think ever even mentions spirituality if I remember. Ken Levine's message in the two games is not about religion, but extremes.

There are benefits. It makes the villains more nuanced and relatable. It gives the protagonist room for doubt and allows for some of the "good" guys to take on antagonistic roles. But Korra also ends up supporting an oppressive regime, and Booker DeWitt gets shoehorned into fights against the people rebelling against his enemy because... Reasons?

[–] VaultBoyNewVegas 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)

If you're talking about Kuvira you should read the comics that take place after the show. My feelings on Kuvira became much more mixed as I ended up sympathizing with her after finishing them.

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[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 55 points 3 months ago (11 children)
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[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Watch 'The Wire' - the good guys are bad guys, bad guys are good guys. It's all mixed up!

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[–] rustyfish 40 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Voyager kinda fucks with my ability to set spoiler tags, so here is your Spoiler Warning.

The Cabin in the Woods (even tho the organisation is run by complete assholes, they also happen to postpone the end of the word)

Mass Effect series (the Geth are actually ok having peace with everyone. They just happen to be in a civil war with Reaper worshippers)

Witcher 2 (Letho turns out to be the good guy)

Wanted (the father turns out to be the good guy)

Battlestar Galactica 2004 series (yes, the Cylons enacted the nuclear holocaust on humanity, but there is a case to be made that the vast majority of them have been manipulated by a faction of ancient Cylons, which leads to a civil war later in the show)

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

Cylons being manipulated by other cylons doesn't absolve them of guilt.

BSG did have a few instances of the reverse of OP's question tho -- where the "good guys" turned out to be bad" -- trying to say this without spoilers; it's a 20 year old show but ffs of you haven't seen it, go see it now.

  • the (temporary) new admiral
  • several main characters during the part where they live on the dirty planet
  • a very specific set of seven main characters (wink wink) ... .and more,..

And there's one specific example of the full 360 -- a character that starts good, turns bad, but turns out they were actually good all along. I won't give the name, but they were passing messages to the resistance.

That show was awesome.

One note tho, on the topic generally: flipping character alignments is a frequent pre-shark-jump thing, and is often bad writing. In BSG, tho, all of the "flips" are pre-planned, or at least 100% true to their character (eg the 360 example above).

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[–] paultimate14 38 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Rose is trying to move the country off of fossil fuels and onto sustainable green energy. Somehow Gamefreak manages to portray this as being a terrorist and extremist. How dare he try to move Galar away from coal?

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Does Dr Doom count for this? He believes he's seen humanity perish in every reality except the one where he becomes the absolute ruler.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Not exactly a story. I just watched Babylon 5, and it's fascinating how the good guys are the bad guys are the good guys are the bad guys...

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (9 children)

Every story of Tom and Jerry.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Does Snape count?

What about Loki(marvel)?

[–] daddyjones 40 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Snape was never a good guy though. Very brave, yes and he had some good qualities. He was also vindictive and a bully - willing to put his petty dislikes above the quality of his teaching.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 months ago (3 children)

He was also vindictive and a bully

I formed the impression that James Potter and his gang were the real bullies, and Snape is a tragic character traumatized by their bullying.

[–] candybrie 53 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Yes, but then he went on to be an adult bullying children.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The book strongly implies that Snape turns into a horrible person as a direct consequence of James Potter's bullying. He seems to be a nice kid before that.

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[–] SkyezOpen 14 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Tragic and also an asshole.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago

Snape was a good guy, in a sense of oposing the bad guy.

He was however not a good guy in a sense of being at least a decent human being.

[–] Illuminostro 24 points 3 months ago

Falling Down. Prendergrass is the good guy.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Can't believe it's not mentioned yet, but Alan Moore's Watchmen

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (6 children)

I cant see Ozymandias as a good guy. At all. None of the "heroes" are, but Oz was the worst of them.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nah ozymandies was kind of an ass regardless . Did he solve a big problem ? Yes . Was he a good guy ? Far from it.

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[–] LouNeko 23 points 3 months ago (3 children)
  • Evangelion, sort of.
  • Tom and Jerry
  • Metal Gear Solid 3
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[–] Donebrach 22 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Kill la Kill, at least with the primary antagonist as the main villain isn’t really introduced until pretty late in the story.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Game of Thrones, everyone is basically a villain but some of them are actually alright (like the Hound and Jamie).

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think Jaime becomes a good guy. He starts out as a bad guy but he had a redemption arc.

[–] Zahille7 13 points 3 months ago

He starts out as a nepo-baby and then has to actually do shit throughout the show.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

God Emperor Of Dune. Leto II needs his bath time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

The French version of La Femme Nikita, although it's more of a redemption arc than "villain turning out to be a good guy." She starts out as a junkie petty crook who murders a cop in cold blood, spends most of the film assassinating people for the government, and in the end seems to have gotten her life together.

But she starts out as a very not-nice person.

[–] SendMePhotos 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Does borderlands count?

!handsome jack started off as an honorable person with morals, but was repeatedly stabbed in the back and jaded over time. He still has the mindset of a good guy but the chaotic planning of a bad guy due to the experiences that he's had.!<

[–] Adramis 13 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Looks like your spoilers aren't working - spoilers on lemmy are three : on either side of the spoiler.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban comes to mind.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Interview With the Vampire's Lestat was a bloodthirsty murderer. The Vampire Lestat's Lestat was a bloodthirsty murderer ... with a conscience.

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[–] cheese_greater 12 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Peter Pan. Something, something, Pan's a little fuck

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[–] impudentmortal 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)
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