Orson Scott Card's Empire/YMMV
- Acceptable Religious Targets: Islam in the second book.
- Anvilicious: Let's just say this book is not subtle in its execution and leave it at that.
- Broken Aesop: The book is purportedly about the evils of divisiveness in political discourse and extremism on both ends of the political spectrum. However, it is fatally undermined by the fact that all of the villains in the novel are either liberals or liberals disguised as conservatives.
- Broken Base: Fans of Shadow Complex tend to be liberals who resent the political elements while fans of Orson Scott Card resent the video game elements.
- Family-Unfriendly Aesop: A benevolent dictator who started a civil war to put himself into power can sometimes be the best man for the job.
- Magnificent Bastard: Averell Torrent
- Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The book's main theme is more and more relevant each year since it was written (2006), if the major political blogs and TV news shows are any indication.
- Values Resonance: Still young, but with increasing relevancy.
- Straw Man Has a Point: The Ax Crazy Progressive Restoration never actually says anything WRONG really, even if they all sort of are nuts.
- The Woobie: Cecily, poor Cecily.