[three characters looking awfully bland] The protagonists:
- Annoying goody two shoes leader who's a paragon of virtue
- Nerdy scientist with no backstory who keeps doing poor puns
- Super bland dude who's an obvious self insert for the writer
- People die because they're "good" and refuse to break the rules
- They win battles through plot armor and the power of friendship
[a cool looking grizzled character smokes a cigar in a spaceship interior, a foot up on the controls, while a spaceship blasts a mega laser outside in space] The super evil antagonist:
- Played by the most charismatic actor available on the market
- Keeps doing the coolest looking things (but you must hate it)
- Has the coolest secret lair and his henchmen love him
- Is named Adolf McMurder and genocides with a smile
- Says an awesome one liner before murdering an orphan
[a nerdy dude in flannel points at a storyboard of the two previous images] The naive screenwriter:
- At least this time he's not writing women, phew
- Has too much trust in his audience's media literacy - About to give the super evil antagonist yet another zingy one liner
- Surely if we show him killing an orphan the audience will hate him
- Right, guys?… Right??…
Warhammer 40k effect.
Games Workshop Writers: "Hey let's make a universe where it's extremely clear that all factions are representations of the worst aspects of human society at their most extreme and how they each contribute to creating a world of unending war that justifies itself by feeding into the cycle of violence."
Warhammer Fandom: "For the Emperor! The Imperium are the good guys! Space Marines are so cool!"
(I say this after beating Space Marines 2, having absolutely reveled in the power fantasy of stomping out xenos scum)
I am firm believer that many people don't have media literacy skills. People assume protagonist = hero. What does GW do? Humans and Space Marines are the protagonist of the story; look at all the cool shit they do. Pew! Pew Pew! Bam! Boom!
In reality, the Protagonist is just the main character of the story. The Protagonist can be the hero or the villain of the story.
Fair assumption. Generally, most people never engage with the world around them on anything more than a superficial level because they have no need or immediately beneficial incentive to do so.
You honestly give them too much credit. Most don't even bother to even think in terms of "protagonist/antagonist".
Terms like "protagonist/antagonist" aren't even part of the equation and, if they are, they actually do understand that "protagonist=main character" but that thought is then followed by the assumption that "main character=good guy".
To them, stories are just entertainment, nothing more. There are no allegories or themes or political commentary. Just Michael Bay explosions and spectacle. Any messaging presented are just assumed to align with their internal worldview and, if it can't be reconciled even with leaps of logic, then they just write off the piece as being bad or poorly executed.
The fact that being a human in 40k is, no matter what who or where, a fucking nightmare does help illustrate their angle though
I mean, it's a fucking nightmare no matter what race you are. That's kinda the whole schtick.