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this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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It would be really hard to make the movie today without making the main character MAGA and making the frustration of the main character far more of a farce than it was in the original movie.
Once you make the character MAGA, you're going to be seen as pushing an agenda no matter what you do.
He was proto-MAGA in the film. We just didn't have a name for it then. He was a engineer working for a defense contractor whose life fell apart because he was an asshole, and there was a peace dividend. Instead of embracing change, or reflecting on macro-level impacts, he goes apeshit and takes it out on fellow citizens who he views as being out of step with his vision of the world.
It's telling because my maga stepfather sees him as a hero. And I just have to wonder if he's ever seen the end of the film.
This is a shockingly common view of this movie. In fact, most media that features a villain protagonist tends to have this problem. Look at Breaking Bad, Fight Club, or American Psycho.
They present the reasons why the villain makes the decisions they do, in a way that is sympathetic to the audience, then it turns into a bit of a power fantasy before their fall at the end. A lot of people seem to look at the power fantasy portion as fighting against an unjust world, rather than an abuse of normal people.
Another less known (outside of Brazil) movie like that is Elite Squad (Tropa de elite). The protagonist is very clearly a bad guy, yet everyone and their grandma thought he was a hero.
This is why Friendship is my favorite portrayal of toxic masculinity in cinema. It's making the same points as a Fight Club, but the people who would normally identify with the protagonist craving a "macho" world are made to feel deeply uncomfortable instead.
I believe this was the point of Daenerys Targaryen, I think GRRM wanted to see at what point we would have to change our minds about her being good and righteous. There are many examples of redemption arcs, but she was the opposite.
The problem with Daenerys is that her turn wasn't well written, so it didn't feel earned.
In the TV-show, no, it was rushed and didn't make a lot of sense. In the books, I guess we will never know, but the foundation is there all the way back to "Skahaz, I have changed my mind. Question the man sharply." etc.
That's one angle. I could just as easily see him as a scratched-liberal. Someone akin to Bradley Whitford in Get Out, who brags about having voted for Obama (twice!) and spouts indignation at corporate greed and military policing. But as the movie progresses, he becomes increasingly callous towards equally put-upon neighbors, family, and his working-class peers.
By the end, he's demonstrating sneering contempt for a litany of people whom he blames for the current state of the nation - prideful gays, immigrants who won't assimilate properly, minorities he repeatedly accuses of being anti-white, ungrateful young people, worthless civil bureaucrats, the homeless who refuse to get a job, the middle managers who refuse to give him a job, the vile foreigners who are stealing all the jobs - until he's expressing all the same grievances as MAGA, but still reserving open contempt for anyone in a red hat.
A man driven to the point of ultimate alienation and self-destruction, because he cannot get off his high horse long enough to show compassion or comradery with anyone else.
So MAGA?
Eh. Think about how Ayn Rand hated Libertarians.