“Allies” and “Coalition” are generally considered terms for alliances made up of good guys; “Axis” is a villainous-sounding term. “Empire” usually sounds bad (think Star Wars,) but it isn’t an alliance; it’s a single entity. What are some more good-guy and bad-guy names for alliances?
Brotherhoods are bad guy alliances while sisterhoods are good guy alliances.
**NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
Warsaw Pact (Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance)
Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (Japanese: 大東亜共栄圏 Hepburn: Dai Tōa Kyōeiken) **
CONTROL for the good guys, CHAOS for the bad.
Nitpick – KAOS for the Bad Guys
They were so Bad, they didn’t even come up with whatever KAOS was supposed to be an acronym for.
Really? I would think CONTROL has Borg-like connotations, or Big Brother.
THRUSH - Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity.
UNCLE - United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.
SHIELD - Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division.
AIM - Advanced Idea Mechanics (they were bad guys).
APE - Agency to Prevent Evil
CHUMP - Criminal Headquarters for the Underworld’s Master Plan
SPECTRE - Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion
No corresponding good guy acronym, just the British Secret Service
THUNDER - The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserve
SPIDER - Secret People’s International Directorate for Extralegal Revenue
Regards,
Shodan
Nitpick: The current incarnation of SHIELD is “Secure Homeland Initiative, Enforcement and Logistics Division”.
But yeah, the comic-book villain groups tend to proclaim themselves villains in their names (see also Magneto’s “Brotherhood of Evil Mutants”, though they mostly didn’t use an acronym). The real-world Axis and similar organizations never described themselves as “criminal” or “terrorist”.
“World Crime League” sorta speaks for itself. “Blue Blaze Irregulars” less so.
Marvel Comics also has ULTIMATUM–The Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind.
“Federation” is usually the good guys, isn’t it?
The Venture Brothers has the Guild of Calamitous Intent.
The 1985 cartoon and toyline M.A.S.K. had the mundane and misspelled “Mobile Armored Strike Kommand” in the title as the good guys. The bad guys hilariously tripled up the explicit badness with V.E.N.O.M. for “Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem” (“Mayhem” was also their leader’s surname). There was no subtlety on Saturday Mornings.
Excellent list! And nice pull from Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp! (Y’know, there was a time when I had thought I was the only one who remembered that show at all - that it might have been a fever-dream from watching Get Smart and a Planet of the Apes marathon in one day.)
That would be Strategic, but yeah.
Yeah, but what fun is that? If you gonna be a bear, Be A Grizzly!
See Blake’s 7.
“Dominion”, meanwhile, to me evokes mostly-good guys (at least, by comparison with who they’re fighting), but with a dark side.
Good guys belong to Leagues. Bad guys belong to Directives.
Cabal, conclave, syndicate, and pact tend to have negative connotations. And while “family” has wholesome connotations, when you talk about “the Five Families of New York,” better watch your ass.
C.A.P.E.R.
the Civilian Authority for the Protection of Everybody, Regardless!
In one episode, the Kids from C.A.P.E.R. were brainwashed by a mad scientist and turned into the Kids from H.Y.D.E, but I don’t remember what H.Y.D.E. stood for.
Not if you’re on the wrong side of colonisation. Then, just bad.
Come to think of it, the Terran Dominion in the later Starcraft games weren’t my idea of good guys, either.
Whereas “Domination” evokes evil racist Mary-Sues (although they also started as a Dominion first)…
What about wars between leagues?
Thanks ! I’d forgotten what THRUSH and UNCLE actually stood for, initial-letters-wise.
When the series The Man from UNCLE was regularly showing on television; myself and brother (then late teens / young kid) dreamed up a parody of it, with similar-but-different names for the outfits involved. The bad guys, we called FIELDFARE (after a European bird of the thrush family) – Foul Incredibly Evil League Dedicated For All Reprehensible Ends. For the “goodies”, we had some lengthy and convoluted family-relationship title – something like BROTHER-IN-LAW; but after many decades, I forget both what exact expression, and what the letters stood for.
Hideous Yetis Dominating Earth?