Obstructive Bureaucrat: Difference between revisions

<!-- %% Please fill out forms 3A through 87BC and 1D10T via 192A to return form 42B. -->

<!-- %% -->

 

This guy is the ultimate pencil pusher from a government agency, and he creates the red tape that normal citizens hate. He's an unlikeable [[Punch Clock Villain]] with a bad temper and a sizable streak of callousness. Works for any and all bureaucracies, including [[Department of Child Disservices]], [[Morally-Bankrupt Banker|banks]] and possibly even your own [[Celestial Bureaucracy|afterlife]].

=== Anime and Manga ===

* Very early in ''[[Banner of the Stars]]'', Jinto takes a requisition form to the quartermaster's office. The bureaucrat engages him in office gossip (which serves as [[exposition]]), then tells Jinto that he has run out of time to make his requisition and refuses to take the form.

 

=== Comic Books ===

* The bureaucrat from the Disney comic [http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+95200 "Cosmic Confrontation"] originally sneaked up aboard Gyro's rocket to check how many laws it violated, but when the rocket came face-to-face with a squad of giant alien constructor workers out to destroy Earth to make room for a space highway, he proceeds to use his bureaucracy to drive them away and save Earth.

* In ''[[Judge Dredd]]'', Mega-City One has the Bureau of Creative Bureaucracy. It's motto is "Saving the city's money by making life difficult for you!"... which is surprisingly honest for a bureaucracy.

 

* The "Mystery of Magic" in ''[[My Immortal]]''. They were most likely ''supposed'' to be serious, [[Narm|but]] [[So Bad It's Good|given]] [[Rouge Angles of Satin|how]] [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|it's]] [[Mind Screw|written]]...

 

=== Film ===

* The [[Tim Burton]] film ''[[Beetlejuice]]'', which explored the question: [[Celestial Bureaucracy|What if the afterlife were a bureaucracy]]?

{{quote|"This thing reads like stereo instructions!"}}

** In a deleted scene, as Gozer the Gozerian was wreaking havoc, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man was smashing up the city and the End Of The World was quite seriously nigh, Peck's response was to grab a fleeing police officer and order him to go up to arrest the Ghostbusters for "going too far". Said officer's response, not unreasonably, was "''You'' go and arrest them!"

** Atherton played the part to such perfection that he had a serious problem with being typecast for a while afterward; not that no one thought he could play anything other than an Obstructive Bureaucrat, but that ''no one liked him, period.'' He does, fittingly, reprise the role in ''Ghostbusters: The Videogame,'' which suggests that {{spoiler|Peck is actually a subversion, a Gozer cultist who knows full-well how absurd his behavior is, and is doing it intentionally to stop the Ghostbusters from opposing Gozer. Though by the end, this is revealed to be a [[Red Herring]], as he's just an [[Unwitting Pawn]].}}

* Secretary of Defense Albert Nimziki in ''[[Independence Day]]''. He knowingly concealed the fact that the aliens had visited Earth before, even after they became hostile and any information would have been immensely helpful. He only admits it after the first failed attack and David's father draws attention to the supposed "myth" of the Roswell crash. He wants to continue nuking the aliens even after the first attempt proves that their shields can resist the bombs. Then he has the call to insist that David's plan, which he had demonstrated could actually work, is a bad idea and tries to talk the president out of it. At this point, the president gets tired of his crap and fires him.

* Gilbert Huph, Insuricare Middle Manager from ''[[The Incredibles]]''. His job is explicitly to see that '''Every. Single. Claim.''', no matter how valid or dire that is made against Insuricare is denied. He sees his clients as his stockholders, openly chafes at laws that protect policyholders, and mocks a man Bob sees getting mugged and beaten. He's such a loathsome character that it's a minor [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when Bob hurls him through several walls.

* The Vogons from ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' are a [[Planet of Hats]] of Obstructive Bureaucrats. The Guide describes them by saying "A Vogon would not lift a finger to save his own grandmother from the Ravenous Bug-blatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, lost, found, queried, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighter."

** [[The Movie]] plays it up when the ''[[Cool Ship|Heart of Gold]]'' makes a [[Hyperspeed Escape]] from the Vogon armada. Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz turns to a subordinate and asks if the criminals they're pursuing filled out the proper paperwork to do this. The subordinate is shocked to find out that they did not. Later on, Arthur, Ford, and Zaphod fill out a release form for Trillian, who is about to be executed, only to be told that, since Zaphod is the President of the Galaxy, he has to submit a Presidential Release Form. Jeltz, who is all too eager to execute Trillian is instantly pacified when he receives the release form and orders her freed.

** And even worse, he unleashes Dolores Umbridge on Hogwarts, a ''[[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]'' who all Potter fans (rightfully) love to hate.

* ''[[Discworld]]''

*** So well that at the end of the book he {{spoiler|joins the Watch}}. Pessimal is also an interesting case, as it's clear from the beginning that he's not being an Obstructive Bureaucrat out of peevishness or a sense of power, he just simply and sincerely believes in efficiency.

** Thief of Time and Hogfather both feature a group of entities known as "The Auditors." The Auditors are in charge of ensuring that rocks fall in accordance with the laws of gravity, and that light does not travel any faster than it is supposed to. They love neat, predictable objects. They despise sentient life because it is inherently unpredictable and disorderly. Thus, Thief and Hogfather both focus on plots by the Auditors to destroy humanity to keep the paperwork neat.

* Frank Herbert's ''[[Con Sentiency]]'' universe has the "Bureau of Sabotage", whose job is to create or destroy red tape. However, BuSab obstructs the government to protect individual rights (when governments become ''too'' efficient, bad stuff occurs). Instead of paper work, the Bureau employs some rather humorous sabotage to get the job done. Jorj X. McKie, saboteur extraordinary and protagonist, subverts the trope by speeding up a meeting in one story. Also, he's a specialist in dealing with the alien mindsets (and in ''Con Sentiency'' they are ''[[Starfish Aliens|really alien]]'') standing out even in mixed-species team of BuSab, and solved more than one crisis of "go comprehend the incomprehensible before everything goes down in flames" sort.

* In Nickelodeon's TV show ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]'', the younger Pete befriends Clothing Inspector #27, who proceeds to make the entire neighborhood rule mongers equal to himself. {{spoiler|Finally defeated when Pete challenges him to an eating contest of barbeque chicken. Inspector 27 finishes every bit of meat on his chicken without getting a bit of sauce on his hands or clothes. Only to be reminded by Dad "You're supposed to get dirty eating chicken." Causing Clothing Inspector 27 to realize the error of his ways, and not be such a perfectionist.}}

* Dean and Sam from ''[[Supernatural]]'' meet quite a few of these in their [[Monster of the Week]] scenarios, but are very, very good at getting round them. Mostly because they have a seemingly limitless supply of fake identification.

** As a matter of fact, pretty much the entire British civil service is portrayed as such in those series.

*** On the other hand, you do see their perspective on things—though the writer clearly disagrees, the Civil Service seems to genuinely believe that it knows what's best for the country, and Humphrey himself is hardly a one-dimensional character. He actually gets a fair number of sympathetic moments in. In the end, you see that they're still Obstructive Bureaucrats, but also see that there's a kind of twisted method to their obstructiveness. And the (very) few times when the goals of the politicians matched theirs, their efficiency is deadly.

** Shepard can threaten to get Illium's own obstructive bureaucracy involved in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' when trying to convince a Synthetic Insights representative to buy a contract for an [[Insistent Terminology|"indentured servant"]]. The representative is ''extremely'' quick to take up the contract because they ''don't'' want the bureaucracy to get involved.

** Councilor [[No Mere Windmill|"We have dismissed that claim"]] Sparatus.

 

* Protocol Officer Quine of ''[[Starslip]]'' is a humorous examination of the default characterization of these characters: when he's introduced, he sounds like a typical regulations lawyer who is [[Red Shirt|unceremoniously killed in his first away mission]]. Then we are introduced to his personal resurrection machine (that creates a clone of him and transfers his consciousness to it whenever he dies) and he gradually starts morphing into a [[Butt Monkey]] who is just trying to do his job surrounded by people who openly insult him for no reason other than the fact that he's the only guy willing to apply regulations on what is ostensibly a ''military vessel'' and often getting killed in the process. The pinnacle of this was a recent storyline where he used his machine to "single handedly" (in other words, going through ''a lot'' of dead clones) to take back the ''Paradigm'' from hijackers and saving the lives of the rest of the crew...only for Vanderbeam to berate him for taking too long and giving all the credit to his dead clones. [[The Woobie|Poor guy.]]

** He ultimately turns out to be a good guy when he is confronted with just how corrupt the government really is. Even then, he is slightly conflicted about breaking laws. Then {{spoiler|his wife}} points out that the government's leadership is betraying the founding principles of the government, so Quine's "insubordination" is actually nothing of the sort.

* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]:'' on [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Butane]], the planet of [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons,]] Legate [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Zippobic]] seems to be this, although he views himself as a [[Beleaguered Bureaucrat]].

* [[Daisy Owl]] [http://daisyowl.com/comic/2009-07-20 And she's pleasant, and agrees that the fees are unreasonable, to add insult to injury.]

 

=== Western Animation ===

** In the same novel, the Ghosts were barred from using their flamers by the planetary government. This was partly because most of the city was built out of wood, but mostly because the use of flamers was reserved for their own elite forces.

** It's ''The Guns of Tanith'' that takes this [[Up to Eleven]] as the book opens to a pair of Ghost sergeants trying to requisition the proper ammo, since the lagsun packs they were issued were the wrong size, but the munitorum adept's only response is "Size 5 is the standard pattern". The exchange ends with one of the Ghosts threatening to kill the adept if he says "standard pattern" one more time.

* ''The Small Back Room'' the novel (later film) by Nigel Balchin details the internal struggles of a team of [[World War II]] scientists/public servants who are the embodiment of this trope. The team spends its time working on an anti-tank weapon that is theoretically efficient but has little practical field value. The protagonist is a decent yet weak man who fails to take the tough steps needed to improve matters, while his [[Manipulative Bastard]] friend delights in deposing those whom he's deemed incompetent, but ends up putting an even more incompetent man in charge of the team.

* Vice-Chancellor Nesselrode is portrayed as this in [[The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar]]; he seems more funny at first, but his decisions, based on the high political considerations of avoiding all and any possible turbulence, could easily be fatal for some of his subordinates ( {{spoiler|and end up being fatal for the Russian mission in Persia}}).

* Cornelius Fudge of ''[[Harry Potter]]'' proves to be this. He primarily acts as headpiece for the Ministry with recommendations from Malfoy and other respected individuals deciding his actions rather than his own opinions. However, unlike his Undersecretary who is decidedly evil, Fudge simply wants to stay in control, and he seems to know that any disturbance in the peace would see him quickly ousted. As such, he refused to review the case of Sirius Black or accept Voldemort's return in order to maintain the status quo.

* As with in the humorous section, the New Testament of the Bible frequently painted the Pharisees as antagonists in this vein. It seems that one of Jesus's main purposes in coming back, aside from His sacrifice, was to clarify some very literal and twisted interpretations of Old Testament commandments. The Pharisees tried several times to catch Him in a logical contradiction using Hebraic code.

 

 

== Examples of the dark version ==

* Captain William Sutherland, a member of the Earth Forces' General Staff in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED]]''. During his initial appearances he interrogates the crew of the ''Archangel'' about the alleged improprieties in voyage, transfers the crewmembers he views as politically reliable to other assignments, than puts in motion a plan that will get not only the remaining ''Archangel'' crew, but also most of the Earth Forces' Eurasian allies killed off. He's later revealed to be [[The Dragon]] to [[Fantastic Racism|Blue Cosmos]] leader [[Complete Monster|Muruta Azrael]], and in his own banal, pencil-pushing way, a major mover and shaker behind the plan to [[Final Solution|exterminate]] all of the [[Gattaca Babies|Coordinators]]. A truly reprehensible, if dull personality.

 

=== Comic Books ===

** Unfortunately they gave him a parachute first.

*** An often overlooked small detail: American soldiers just dumped the ''President's National Security Advisor'' in the middle of the desert. Yes, I'm sure the fact that the guy was a douche perfectly justifies leaving him in a position to be easily captured by god knows who and thus endanger the entire country. They couldn't just bind and gag him, if they ''had'' to do something that insubordinate?

**** More seriously, he is acting outside of his authority. The National Security Advisor is not normally in the direct line of command (he can of course be temporarily placed there by Presidential order, but the same would be true for a three-legged dog), and a decision of this magnitude would be above his pay grade anyway as only the President ''himself'' gets to make this kind of call, and nobody watching the movie heard the President say anything or even saw the NSA report to him. Furthermore, he's making manifestly the wrong decision; the Earth is within an hour of being destroyed by an enemy that has already made it plain it is absolutely uninterested in negotiating, and if the soldiers follow his plan then the entire human race will be extinct before sunrise tomorrow.

***** So basically yes, they were [[Moral Event Horizon|completely justified]] and the twit was lucky they didn't [[Just Shoot Him]].

*** Death has been shown as being the only remaining thing at the end of the universe, and then waiting for another one to inevitably form. His job is safe.

**** By the end of Reaper Man, he makes it clear that he cares, first by asking the Ultimate Death, "What can the harvest hope for if not the care of the Reaper Man?", and, later, having installed fields of corn in his deathly estate, proceeds to carefully notice that they are ''not'' all alike, but are individuals each worth caring for. Of course, his waiting for a new universe occurs in an earlier book (he started out as an [[Omnicidal Maniac]]) and this was his [[Character Development]] book.

* [[Harry Potter/Characters|Dolores Umbridge]] in ''[[Harry Potter|Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'' is a [[Smug Snake]] who, initially appointed as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, gradually works her way to a [[Tyrant Takes the Helm|position of supreme power]] at Hogwarts ... and eventually, assumes a great deal of control over the wizard government. Percy Weasley also became one of these, though he managed to [[Heel Face Turn|redeem himself]] at the end.

** In the [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''The Caves of Ice'', there are ''two'' particular Obstructive Bureaucrats, the local heads of the Administratum and Adeptus Mechanicus. Their constant arguing over protocols and procedure affects not only the normal operation of the promethium-mining facility there, but also the efforts of the Valhallan 597th as it works to prepare defenses against an oncoming Ork onslaught. Fortunately, Cain is able to find some lower-level officials in both ranks who not only are on amicable working terms with one another (and the mining population), but also happen to be able to actually get things ''done'' despite their superiors' constant bickering. The "dark" element of this trope comes into play when it is learned that {{spoiler|1=the mine is built atop a Necron tomb; as later evidence proves, the site was intentionally chosen by the AdMech to give them easy access to the facility away from prying eyes should a way be found to investigate the tomb and recover its ancient technology.}}

*** Fortunately, Cain and his comrades are able to deal with the "obstructive" part of the problem by imposing martial law and threatening to shoot anyone who gets in their way.

*** The Valhallan 597th also owns some thanks to the Administratum, which still thinks they're two regiments, as such they are given twice as much supplies and recruits than most (also why the men/women ratio is always 50/50)

*** It wasn't so much [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] as it was Cain never seeing his skills as necessary before, and {{spoiler|Brasker}} never really having anything important to do before. The book is written from Cain's perspective, who would have had little interest in how competent {{spoiler|Brasker}} was at his job until the planet was being invaded and he had to ask for his help.

** There's also a subversion in the [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Necropolis''. When the government begins bickering over whether they should call the Imperial Guard to help, the ranking Administratum official goes over their heads and contacts the Imperium anyways. He justifies this by saying that the planet is crucial for its production of military equipment, so it is therefore the Imperium's problem, not a local one.

'''Akabar''': Anauroch is a desert, not a forest.

'''Lhaeo''': Well, now it is, yes. }}

* The Senators in the ''[[Codex Alera]]'' are ''bad'' about this. They tend to focus on irrelevant personal feuds and power plays in the face of such things as an invasion of 60,000 [[Big Badass Wolf]][[Wolf Man|men]] or a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]], and one of them, Arnos, turns out to be an incompetent [[Complete Monster]] [[General Ripper]] when he's actually put in charge of something. Cheers could be heard from the readers when High Lord Placidus bodily threw Senator Valerius out of a command meeting in the last book.<ref>(He'd been ranting about how Bernard was breaking the law by building the fortifications that were the last defense of the human race, for the curious.)</ref>

* The bureaucrats of the Solarian League in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' books. Unfortunately, they are the ones with the real decision-making power.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: A major plotline that develops is how Martine Connor becomes the first female President of the United States, and she is trying to secure pardons to the Vigilantes. It proves to be more difficult than it appears. Here's why: ''Deadly Deals'' reveals her chief of staff, Aaron Lowry, who is [[The Napoleon]], had been obstructing the presidential pardons, supposedly because it would be political suicide for the president to even try it. She ends up firing him as well as charging him in ''Game Over'', because he turns out to be in bed with Baron Bell, a lawyer and [[Villain with Good Publicity]] who had been selling babies! ''Game Over'' also has the president obstructed by her advisors, who are more interested in their own agendas than in being loyal to her. At the urging of Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, head of Global Securities, she ends up throwing out many more people, and he supposedly pulls strings to replace them with people 100% loyal to her. She also has the pardons signed, and she paves the way to make it easy for the Vigilantes to sneak in and snatch the pardons! It's hard to be president!

 

* Agent Mahone from ''[[Prison Break]]''.

* Too many in ''[[24]]'' to list.

** Special mention goes to people in charge of homicide, all the way to the top, being more obsessed with their crime stats than with actually finding the guilty parties and jaling them, going so far as to being willing to jail someone innocent of the crime on dodgy evidence or refusing to go looking for bodies for fear it will worsen their statistics.

 

 

=== Theatre ===

* Captain Perry in ''[[Heavy Rain]]''.

 

* Jack Noir of ''[[Homestuck]]'' was originally this, stating that he'd rather gut someone than do paperwork for them that he doesn't feel like. This is dropped when he later goes on to be the [[Big Bad]] of the series.

 

* [[BOFH]] regularly meets these, so there are plans for such a case.

{{quote|[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/18/bofh_2010_episode_7/ Risk 1:] A lifetime of filling out meaningless paperwork to appease some glory-hogging control freak. Contingency Plan:}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Authority Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Archetypal Character]]

[[Category:Politics Tropes]]