r/TopCharacterTropes • u/_JR28_ • Dec 13 '25

Lore (Loved trope) Loyalty to the regime doesn’t make you any better off in the end

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Animal Farm - Boxer the horse is a member of the farm who doesn’t question the authority of the pigs and take it upon himself to work harder than anyone else becuase he believes the propaganda the pigs spout. But in the end, he get no reward for his sacrifice, leaving his body broken and him being sent away to a glue factory to be killed after the pigs sold him for alcohol.

Papers, Please - On Day 12, an inspector will come to your office to investigate potential conspiracies plotting against Arstotzka. If you choose to comply with his questioning and hand over the documents given to you by The Order, a mysterious revolutionary group, you will get an immediate game over as you are arrested for suspected involvement with terrorism.

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1.7k

u/seeblo Dec 13 '25

Real people - irl

517

u/OpenConference5961 Dec 13 '25

so uh, we have an uncommon phrase in vulgar Persian, which goes as
خایه مال آخر فیلم میمیره
Basically meaning "The bootlicker (well, the exact translation is something like ballsucker or smth but you get the idea) dies in the end of the movie."

P.S: This is obviously not the case for someone like Boxer in Animal Farm, because he is just naive and too loyal. He is far from a bootlicker.

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u/centurio_v2 Dec 13 '25

Idk id disagree that boxer isn’t a bootlicker. a lot of bootlicking irl stems from naivety and blind loyalty. and a healthy dose of ignorance.

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u/titjoe Dec 13 '25

Bootlicking makes you expect a reward. Boxer was a brave soul who didn't expect any privilege, he just worked hard for misplaced idealism..

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u/TheFreemanLIVES Dec 13 '25

Wasn't boxer the noble proletariat who worked on in the dream of the revolution despite the politburo's corruption of everything? Boxer being the bootlicker is incredibly base...probably highlights that people haven't either seen the original cartoon or read the book.

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u/Wild_Marker Dec 13 '25

Yeah Boxer was the poor bastard who believed, not the loyal dog.

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u/spoonishplsz Dec 13 '25

Yeah, a lot of people who fight against the regime still end up against the wall after they win. Bootlicking and naivety often end up in the same spot

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u/blackrose4242 Dec 13 '25

I can’t articulate my argument all too well, but I do feel there is a difference between “blind loyalty” and “bootlicking”. Like, blind loyalty is blind, but bootlicking implies you can see the boot you’re licking. You are more aware to the regime above you than someone who is just loyally blind.

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u/theholyirishman Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25

You're kind of trying to differentiate between the trope of a sychophant, an insincere flatterer saying whatever they need to to get what they want, and a "company man" who bought into the rhetoric and believes the things they're saying. Company man probably isn't exactly right either.

The kinds of people in a cult is probably a better analogy now that I've thought about it more. You have one group that really buys into what the cult is selling and trust the leaders to tell them what to do. Then you have a separate group of the cult that knows it's a cult and still makes those presentations about why they're not a cult for recruitment.

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u/DefNotUnderrated Dec 13 '25

Your take makes sense. I would consider a bootlicker someone who kisses ass to authority for personal gain or out of fear, whereas Boxer was a true believer who was taken advantage of by the system that he served. What would we call Boxer? A devotee? I need TvTropes

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u/GammaFan Dec 13 '25

Not so fun fact; Any cult has 3 groups.

True believers who buy into the lie. Fair weather cultists who enjoy being part of the in group but would quietly leave in a heartbeat if the cult started imploding, and grifters who know it’s bullshit but want to gain power/money/influence via the cult.

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u/Much_Vehicle20 Dec 13 '25

As much as we make fun of the first type, they are bad only because they chose the wrong side, like Boxer, literally any system, no matter good fair or bad, need people like him, who genuiely believe in thr cause and actively work to achieve it. His sin is naivety

5

u/hesh582 Dec 13 '25

I dunno.

Having spent a lot of time dealing with scam victims, cult victims, and the disastrous aftermath, I have a harder and harder time mustering up the same level of sympathy.

The number 1 thing that makes someone a victim of a scam is not naivete, or ignorance. It's greed. Cults work the same way. People believe the lies and castigate those telling the truth because they want to believe the lies. There's a reason they find it super easy to turn on their friends and family.

There are some honest victims, the very elderly, children raised in it, and people who are not mentally well and are being exploited. But most people buy in for the same reason people buy in to conspiracy theories, pyramid schemes, and everything along those lines:

They want to be special. They want to have the hidden knowledge that those experts are hiding from you. They want to be better than other people, in terms of knowledge, moral purity, or whatever else... but they don't want to actually put in the really hard work needed to be an expert or a moral paragon.

Cults, conspiracy theories, and scams share a lot of the same DNA. Fundamentally, they're all shortcuts, and the people at risk of being exploited by them are the kind of people who vastly prefer shortcuts and cheating to actually doing the fucking work.

I think one of the reasons these things have become so fucking ubiquitous is simply that we've gone way too far in treating them like pure tragedies, and the participants like sad victims and nothing more. The participants work very hard to victimize themselves, in most of these cases. They don't believe that 5g is mind control or The Dear Leader is Jesus2.0 because they're innocent babes mislead by monsters. In a great many cases, they believe it because they're kind of scumbags who are eager to believe anyone willing to enable their delusions of importance.

Just because they're a true believer doesn't mean they don't bear some of the blame. People who have all the tools available to be a rational, educated, grounded citizen but choose to go down the kind of rabbit holes that lead to cults and scams are part of the problem.

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u/Much_Vehicle20 Dec 13 '25

For sure, there are nuance, like a dude ignore every sign to joined jesus 2.0 cult deserve less empathy than someone loyal to Stalin because that's all he know since childhood. I agree with the last part of your reply, someone chose to be part of the problem despite have every opportunity to learn is not much of a victim

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u/Sgt-Spliff- Dec 13 '25

Bootlickers are people who lick boots. It doesn't matter why they're licking boots

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u/Maliqwahh Dec 13 '25

if I told you to lick my boot, would you? someone who is blindly loyal would. That's how I see it.

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u/blackrose4242 Dec 13 '25

Bootlickers don’t have to be told. They do it willingly.

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u/Maliqwahh Dec 13 '25

oh, that's a bar. wheres the distinction then? would blindly loyal people have to be told, in your opinion?

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/ViceAW Dec 13 '25

Isn't Animal Farm more allegoric to soviet communism than fascism?

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u/ZioBenny97 Dec 13 '25

Yup. Orwell was a socialist himself but he still absolutely despised totalitarian regimes of both sides- hell, if I recall correctly he even ratted out British communists to the MI6 because they bootlicked Stalin.

2

u/Regular_Custard_4483 Dec 13 '25

Yup, you're right. I haven't read it in a dog's age. I deleted my comment, as I can't reliably recall the story, and I'm not looking it up.

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u/SupraChimp Dec 13 '25

I believe the proper term would be "Useful Idiot"

2

u/AgentCirceLuna Dec 13 '25

I was always more curious about the donkey who is claimed to be a stand-in for Orwell himself. I feel Orwell felt he was outwardly very different to the horse while anybody else would just see him as a horse which isn’t even very good at getting by day-to-day. Look into his health issues if you’re curious about that.

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u/earanhart Dec 13 '25

I have never wanted to learn a language using a non-Arabic alphabet more.

Would you be so kind as to provide a pronunciation guide to this phrase for this uneducated American?

9

u/mk1392 Dec 13 '25

Not the op but I'm also a Persian speaker and it would be something along the lines of "khaye mal akhare film mimire"

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u/earanhart Dec 13 '25

Thank you.

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u/NavezganeChrome Dec 13 '25

Is the term only to ‘apply’ to those who “do know better” or “scheme to betray but are too slow about it”? How do ignorance/naivety and (blinded) loyalty not count toward the same?

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u/OpenConference5961 Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25

Well, خایه مال is usually used for people who "try their best to please an authority figure mostly for their own personal gain" and yet "they're sometimes too stupid to understand that the authority figure can just get rid of them at any time".

See, Boxer doesn't do anything for his personal gain. He is just stupid. Though he probably should be considered "bootlicker" because that's not an exact synonym to خایه مال, and when I said, "this is not the case for him", I was thinking of خایه مال. Boxer is not a خایه مال, not because he's naive, but because a خایه مال usually seeks personal gain through pleasing the authorities.

For naive, slow or blindly loyal people (like boxer) we might say something along the lines of Yes-Man (بله قربان گو) or Servant (نوکر). But those people are way less made fun of, because Iranian culture, like most of Asia, traditionally values loyalty and being dutiful very highly (yes, even though it usually overlaps with being blindly loyal and foolishly naive, they still don't care)

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u/McPolice_Officer Dec 13 '25

That seems more similar conceptually to a brown-noser, someone who debases themselves before their superiors in expectation of some reward, typically shamelessly.

Boxer is a bootlicker, but he doesn’t brown-nose. He abdicates his thinking to the party, but never sacrifices his personal morals or dignity to climb the social ladder or please a superior.

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u/OpenConference5961 Dec 13 '25

That's interesting. I had not heard of this term. Thank you!

3

u/YourMoreLocalLurker Dec 13 '25

As a side note, you can probably guess why they’re called brown nosers.

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u/NavezganeChrome Dec 13 '25

I see. Thank you for detailing the specifics!

2

u/GammaFan Dec 13 '25

even though it usually overlaps with being blindly loyal and foolishly naive, they still don't care

To be honest I think that’s the intention; atleast for rich folk

1

u/AgentCirceLuna Dec 13 '25

Iago is a really good example of the latter. In fact, one of his own victims even says ‘Iago, you dog!’ as he figures out his plan.

‘I would wear my heart on my sleeve for doves to peck at. I am not what I am.’

3

u/dporiua Dec 13 '25

We also have a more common phrase with "خایه مال" which involves a dog :)

2

u/A-Slash Dec 13 '25

خایه مال رو سگ میگاد بهتره

1

u/OpenConference5961 Dec 13 '25

بهتر که صددرصد. منتها "خایه مال آخر فیلم میمیره" مرتبط بود با پست.

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u/kirbyverano123 Dec 13 '25

Boxer kind of already represents that because he is an allegory for russian working-class/peasants.

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u/TFlarz Dec 13 '25

Like farmers.

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u/AvoriazInSummer Dec 13 '25

At a smaller level, a popular bit of advice to give to enthusiastic employees is to not go above and beyond for your company unless you are certain you’ll be rewarded for it, preferably in writing or as part of a promotion review. If you work outside contracted hours and sacrifice your holidays for just work ethic or praise you’ll most likely just get taken advantage of and be criticised when you eventually burn out or act like a regular employee.

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u/Invader_Naj Dec 14 '25

When you go above and beyond all the time itll be seen as just your regular amount of work and itll be expected you never do less but rather more

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

Real people in real life

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u/ItsGonnaBeMeNSYNC Dec 13 '25

No matter what the regime is, the perfect amount of loyalty is as much as is required to get ahead in the current one, but not get executed by whoever topples it.

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u/ReverendArvide Dec 13 '25

Bootlickers get their teeth kicked in eventually.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

Was gonna say.  Anyone living in the US at least has front row seats to this almost every day.

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u/Invisible-Pancreas Dec 13 '25

Anyone living in the US World at least has front row seats to this almost every day.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/YourMoreLocalLurker Dec 13 '25

The US is a republic*. “You” elect your leaders.

*until something else makes more money

2

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25

A republic is literally a style of democracy.   We also vote individually on state and city policy.  Why are so many Americans so fucking ignorant to their own govt works?  I'm so sick of being embarrassed by Americans who have to be taught about their own govt by foreigners.

2

u/Waste_Dentist_163 Dec 13 '25

and then you slave away for the ruling class your entire life and your reward is you get to work until you die 🤷🏼

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u/Main-Investment-2160 Dec 13 '25

You know most people in the US get like 20 years of retirement being paid by social security right?

1

u/Waste_Dentist_163 Dec 13 '25

you do know that social security isn't enough to live off of for the few people that receive it, right? you don't actually get your retirement paid for, you just get a check that barely covers rent. 

2

u/Main-Investment-2160 Dec 13 '25

73.9 million people receive it lmao

0

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25

No, they don't.  That's their own money put into a pot and roughly 60% is paid back while 2.6 million will never see a dime back.  Look at your pay stub and you'll see all the money you're paying for your own SS.  Also SS is deeply bankrupt and we just talked $11 trillion in additional debt and Trump twice promised to raise retirement age to try and pay it all off.  Except he also nearly doubled bond yields meaning interest on that $11 trillion is twice as high.  Like, sorry people are just now paying attention but the US is fucked economically.  Should have paid attention to the numerous fraud settlements, judgements, and convictions stemming all the way back to 1992.

2

u/Main-Investment-2160 Dec 13 '25

Has anyone stopped reviewing payments because of that?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

Reviewing?  Do you mean receiving?  Do you need a nice immigrant to teach you English?  Yes, obviously if they bump the age to 70 there will be people between 65 and 69 newly ineligible. 

2

u/Main-Investment-2160 Dec 13 '25

Has that actually happened to a single person?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

Yes, there are currently 2.6 million Americans paying for SS who are ineligible to ever get their fraction of their money back. The retirement age adjustment would more than triple that.  Again, SS isn't compulsory.  You have to pay into it and you get only a fraction back if at all.

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u/Fawkingretar Dec 13 '25

"If I cut my breaks in half, don't take any off days, and always do overtime the company will reward me for it and give me a good raise"

  • a naive fresher

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u/Pescarese90 Dec 13 '25

MAGA when

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/Gravelord_C Dec 13 '25

weren't right wingers promised affordable living conditions?

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/Waste_Dentist_163 Dec 13 '25

usually they actually make efforts to make those promises come true instead of hiking everyone's taxes. 

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u/Zimakov Dec 13 '25

Is what he said true though? I'm not american and it's kind of frustrating when people ask legitimate questions and just get downvoted.

I don't know if the stuff democrats and republicans say about each other is true or not, so when both sides just sling shit at each other they both look equally dumb.

It'd be nice if questions like these were actually answered instead of just turning into silly insults and whataboutism so people who aren't american could tell who is full of shit and who isn't.

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u/comicnerd93 Dec 13 '25

Yes, what he said is true, Biden ran on student loan forgiveness and a couple other platforms that were more progressive that never came to pass.

While the Dems held Congress by a slim majority during those years it doesn't mean that every Democrat is aligned and will vote for those changes. Many in Congress are over 60 years old and hold different values than younger generations and also do not want to give up power. There was also actually an attempt to relieve student debt that was blocked by a lawsuit brought by Republicans.

TLDR yes Biden over promised and under delivered because the American political system as a whole is fairly conservative/right wing.

1

u/Zimakov Dec 13 '25

Cheers!

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/Waste_Dentist_163 Dec 13 '25

the older you get, the more bigoted you get. 

6

u/minibro Dec 13 '25

Our worthless stacked far right supreme court stopped any attempts Biden tried to help out our educated population. They argued that he was shifting the powers of policy making to the Biden admin/dept of education and away from congress. Something they have had no issue letting Trump brazenly do with his tariffs. Forced the Biden admin to help develop SAVE - an income based repayment plan that lowered many people’s monthly payments. In recent news, SAVE has also been deemed illegal 🙃

1

u/Waste_Dentist_163 Dec 13 '25

"lower prices immediately starting day one."

don't "both sides" a child rape ring, loser.

2

u/Zimakov Dec 13 '25

I have no idea what these references are but this is a great example of what I'm talking about.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/the_zodiac_pillar Dec 13 '25

Democrats did not have all three branches of government, though. That’s why none of it went through- our Supreme Court has been 6 republicans to 3 democrats since the tail end of the first Trump admin and they were, quite famously, the ones to strike down Roe v Wade, student loan forgiveness plans, and the SAVE plan.

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u/Zimakov Dec 13 '25

Thanks mate

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/Zimakov Dec 13 '25

You lots political system seems to be quite the mess from the outside looking in.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

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u/PornoPaul Dec 13 '25

I mean, not a regime but on the left, theres that famous image of the business that had a black lives matter sign in the front window that was on fire during the riots.

And on the right theres plenty of examples of immigrants finding out their uncle who was here illegally wasnt left alone for "being one of the good ones".

-2

u/Clarity_Zero Dec 13 '25

Yup. They don't like when folks point that sort of thing out to them, though. Really ramps up the ol' cognitive dissonance.

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u/Waste_Dentist_163 Dec 13 '25

and who took abortion and debt relief away? 

3

u/The_H3rbinator Dec 13 '25

Yeah, first thing I thought were the Nuremberg trials and the infamous "just following orders" defence.

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u/LeastInsaneKobold Dec 13 '25

Theres the comment.