My Country, Right or Wrong/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character doesn't like the policies of their nation's government, but fights for it anyway.

  • Straight: John remains a soldier of Country X, even though he detests the expansionist wars his government instigated.
  • Exaggerated: John continues to serve in Country X's military after its corrupt government has slaughtered everyone else in the world.
  • Justified: John escaped from a horrible existence in Country Z, so he is grateful to his adopted country, where he isn't starving to death.
  • Inverted: John wholeheartedly supports his government's abhorrent actions, and may even enjoy carrying them out.
    • Alternatively, John is a raging activist against his government's policies and publicly states that he hates his country.
  • Subverted: At first, John seems content to serve his people while disliking his government, until he finally quits the military and becomes an activist against his government's actions.
  • Double Subverted: ...then John's country passes a conscription act, forcing him to serve in the military.
  • Parodied: John remains a noble servant of his people, even after his government orders its military to visit another country and eat all their pie.
  • Deconstructed: John remains a soldier of Country X and ultimately must obey orders given to exterminate his own family and friends. John cannot live with himself after this, and takes his own life.
  • Reconstructed: John never doubts himself, even when ordered to exterminate everyone he loves. He is that loyal.
    • Or, John dislikes his goverment's policies but remains in the military, deciding that the best way he can change the system is from within it.
  • Zig Zagged: John is fighting an internal struggle between his duty for Country X and his abhorrence towards their policies and actions. He goes back and forth trying to decide whether he will continue fighting or finally give it all up.
  • Averted: John never mentions his political feelings toward his country.
    • John is loyal to his country, but still chooses to do what's right.
  • Enforced: The writers and producers of this film are heavily anti-military and trying to show how John's twisted sense of duty solves nothing.
  • Lampshaded: "John would do anything for his country, even if that "anything" isn't exactly moral."
  • Invoked: John is a soldier that can't stand to watch his country invade all its neighbors and slaughter their people, but signs up for more action, because it's the only thing he knows how to do.
  • Defied: John is a soldier that can't stand to watch his country's actions, so he decides to quit the military and immigrate somewhere else.
  • Discussed: "John don't like what the government is doing. I asked him why he doesn't just quit the military, and he said that he doesn't fight for the government, but his country."
  • Conversed: "Why does John keep fighting for his country even though they ordered mass killings of civilians last episode?"
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