Discussion Your country is the bad guy

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Jojo775, Apr 28, 2021.

  1. Jojo775

    Jojo775 Honorary Algae Knight

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    I just had a thought how some countries are repeatedly bad guys in fiction. If you are of that nationality how does it affect your reading/watching experience. You don't care, you care but tolerate it, don't tolerate it at all?
    Do we have any Russians, Chinese, Germans, Middle Easterners to share? What other countries are negatively portrayed?
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2021
  2. Bad Storm

    Bad Storm no thought, head empty

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    My country is a bit low-key and not mentioned much in novels. But I don't think it affects reading experience. Most of the times, other countries are just cannon fodder anyway.
     
  3. anon

    anon Well-Known Member

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    I am tired of my home country latveria always being portrayed negatively
     
  4. Deleted member 41274

    Deleted member 41274 Guest

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    England in Code Geass, maybe because they were the biggest colonial country
     
  5. Jojo775

    Jojo775 Honorary Algae Knight

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    I like your leader though.
     
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  6. shiro3001

    shiro3001 Well-Known Member

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    its feel bitter imo
     
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  7. simak

    simak Well-Known Member

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    (Trigger warnng: Spoilers ahead.)

    That's one reason why I like Stein's Gate, which skipped all of the usual suspects and went for CERN. Vision of Escaflowne also had a physicist supervillain.
     
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  8. DabbieQing

    DabbieQing Active Member

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    I do not care it most of the time. I try to be a level-headed person and not to be kidnapped by so-called nationalism. Unfortunately, lots of people here don't think so.
     
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  9. IrregularPerson

    IrregularPerson Well-Known Member

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    I don’t like it in general, I’m a little flighty and can get engrossed. Like must it be a real world country? One of the points in fiction is to separate and escape from reality! Hmmpf. I don’t like it when a country is stereotypically portrayed as rude, loud, etc.
    Racism aside, it doesn’t affect the quality of my reading.
     
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  10. Tangshu

    Tangshu Lady Of The Wind ☁️

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    Honestly, it feels bad. I don't care if a country itself is portrayed negatively but what I hate is when a country is used to stereotype all citizens from that specific country as something untrue. Not all people are going to be the same, not all people are going to have the same likes and dislikes.
     
  11. Jojo775

    Jojo775 Honorary Algae Knight

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    Depends on what are you reading. Most fiction uses real world as a template, it can all be mundane after all. The amount of research and work to make up a country, let alone continents is insane. Even so, it's very popular to see modern world we're familiar with that has hidden supernatural or alien side.
     
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  12. ExcitableFoci

    ExcitableFoci Well-Known Member

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    We might have done some subjugation, conquered a bunch of countries, and started a few holy crusades. But as it's been literally centuries since then, people generally don't care.

    Then again we were too busy killing each other in a civil war during the 20th century. Which is pretty much as long into the past most people care to remember.
     
  13. endel

    endel Well-Known Member

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    I'm from Germany. honestly, I don't really care about german villains in movies/novels? bc I actually enjoy the trope and I'm so used to it by now idk.
     
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  14. Jojo775

    Jojo775 Honorary Algae Knight

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    Hollywood loves making USA look great vs Nazis and others, I'd appreciate the irony if Germany was a person and told USA look who's racist now lol. That's because USA just sent soldiers while countries like France truly integrated anti fascism in their culture.
     
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  15. Recouer

    Recouer Well-Known Member

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    and what about people that works there, they could be offended !! :blobangery:
     
  16. pkhyber

    pkhyber Well-Known Member

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    It does sting a little bit. Especially if gods are put in the wrong light. But I am not so religious myself so I usually don't care.
     
  17. UnGrave

    UnGrave ななひ~^^

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    As a Canadian I'm just happy when we get mentioned in someone else's media. Whether it's criticism or praise, I don't really distinguish.
     
  18. Shiki

    Shiki Well-Known Member

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    Pass. racism is just a big no-no for me. Not japanese, but when the china FTW or South Korea FTW began in novel, it's a sign for me to stop reading.

    Isekai is the best, but since people are made into caricature of themselves that cannot be redeemed, I dropped it too. It's rare to see where both sides have arguments why they're right,
     
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  19. Jojo775

    Jojo775 Honorary Algae Knight

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    Most I see is when Americans mock Canadians as being friendly and civilians not having guns. How is that a bad thing by the way?
    I did read a fanfic where Canada got the Stargate and went FTW, it was awesome, Project Artic Cirle on SB I think.
    Most of us learned that lesson in I'm Really a Superstar and God and Devil World, I can tell you my hate boner was impressive.
     
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  20. ANonMouse

    ANonMouse Well-Known Member

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    ah yes, IRAS. Memorable as my first really racist/nationalistic novel here on novel updates. It's like your first NTR story, you can't forget it even if you want to.

    I do have to say though that racism and nationalism probably aren't the right terms here. Probably the better colloquial term would be jingoism : "excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others". It's nationalism to say "I love my country and my country is the best", but it's jingoistic when it also degrades other nations' people as being subhumans. A nasty jiingoistic saying from my country's history is :"My Country, Right or Wrong", aka my nation can do no wrong, screw everyone else. Thankfully most of that sentiment isn't around anymore.
     
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