Good Republic, Evil Empire: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Kor:''' You of the Federation... you are [[Not So Different|much like us]].
'''Kirk:''' We're nothing like you! We're a democratic people.
'''Kor:''' Come now, I'm not referring to minor ideological differences. I mean that we are similar as a species. Here we are on a planet of sheep. Tigers, hunters, predators... killers. And it is precisely that which makes us great.|''[[Star Trek: The
{{quote|'''133: Last Rule of Politics:''' [[The Kingdom|Kingdoms are good]]. [[The Empire|Empires are evil]]. |''[[The Grand List of Console RPG Cliches]]''}}
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*** Though by the ''Legacy'' comics there's two Empires, the Fel Empire from the start allied with the Sith and overthrew the Galactic Alliance. But when that was done the Sith turned against the Fel Empire so they form a shakily alliance with the Galactic Alliance against the Sith.
* ''[[The Matrix]]'' has the humans being led by a council of elders and the machines by a single, huge AI.
** Granted, the [[Expanded Universe]] raises some questions regarding the matter of which side are the good guys. Before the machines took over, [[Humans Are
* An odd counterexample is ''[[300]]'', in which the protagonists ''are'' a constitutional monarchy, but the Senate are shown as corrupt and constraining on the heroic king, who [[Designated Hero|kills unarmed messengers when he gets angry]]. Women are granted some respect—in the film the Queen, at least, is not only allowed but encouraged to debate with men—because "Only Spartan women give birth to real men," which is a paraphrase of a real Spartan quote. By contrast, [[The Empire|The Persian Empire]] is a multiracial, decadent tyranny.
** Though this is a case of an unreliable narrator speaking to a group of soldiers before battle. Belittling the enemy as a bunch of wishy-washy pansies, praising your violent and decisive king, and mocking politicians is a good way to rile them up. Why would the narrator speak of anything positive regarding the Persians?
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* [[Inverted]] in ''[[Escape Velocity|EV Nova]]'', wherein it is ''the Federation'' that is [[The Empire]] (due to the elected government being suborned by one of its intelligence agencies), and the Auroran Empire is really [[The Alliance]] crossed with [[Proud Warrior Race]].
** One [[Game Mod]] contains a subversion. The primary antagonist of [[The Federation]] calls itself an empire, but in reality is a fairly democratic nation of [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]s (it's more akin to ancient Rome than anything else). Their only real beef with [[The Federation]] is that their current borders contain systems that belonged to the empire before it collapsed a couple thousand years ago, then rebuilt itself in the last millennium. The real [[The Empire|Empire]] of the setting is a [[People's Republic of Tyranny]].
* Played mildly straight in the [[X (video game)|X-Universe]]. The two Commonwealth races with democratic governments (Argon Federation and Boron Kingdom<ref>it's a constitutional monarchy comparable to Great Britain</ref>) are the good guys, and the two with absolutist governments (Split Dynasty and Paranid Empire) are the bad guys. But morality in the series is kind of gray, and the Commonwealth races will happily work together to deal with threats like the [[
** Really, the only thing making either side good or bad is that the Split and Paranid are usually the aggressors when their political rivalries get violent (reference [http://x3wiki.com/index.php/Boron_Campaign the Boron Campaign]). There's also the fact that the [[Player Character]] aligns himself with the Argon (them being [[Humans by Any Other Name]]) after becoming marooned in the X-Universe.
** Then we get the Terrans in ''X3: Terran Conflict'', whose government is canonically a democracy but has strong xenophobic and paranoid tendencies.
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* ''[[Tales of MU]]'' is set in the ''Imperial Republic'' of Magisteria, which can be seen as good or bad depending on who's asking.
** Apparently it's a fantasy version of the Roman empire and United States of America combined.
* Seems to be inverted in [[Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger]] by the end of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120619085838/http://www.rhjunior.com/QQSR/00044.html Star Trek parody], though it's not so much that the Federation is evil and the Empire of the Seven Systems is good as much as it's a rant about the author's views on socialism.
* [[HC Bailly]] often lampshades this in his [[Let's Play|Lets Plays]], particularly of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series.
{{quote|Because as we all know, Empires are bad, Kingdoms are good.}}
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