# Good-guy and villainous names for alliances
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 18, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699 "2019-06-18T18:14:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/21 "2019-06-19T12:58:38Z")
The Amalgamated Regional Militias (ARM).
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/22 "2019-06-19T13:56:27Z")
> **[Category:Fictional intelligence agencies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fictional_intelligence_agencies)**
>
> Articles relating to fictional intelligence agencies, government agencies responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives.
> Where possible, try and include this infobox: {{Infobox fictional organisation}}.
> This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
> The following 58 pages are in this category, out of 58 total. This list may not reflect recent ...
James Coburn played Derek Flint, an agent of Z.O.W.I.E. (Zonal Organization for World Intelligence and Espionage).
DC Comics has H.I.V.E. (Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination).
from Marvel’s _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._
> [@](#):
>
> Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?
>
> Grant Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
>
> Maria Hill: And what does that mean to you?
>
> Grant Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out “S.H.I.E.L.D.”
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/23 "2019-06-19T14:18:03Z")
It occurs to me that while you probably don’t want to trust an Empire, an Imperium is just absolutely no-questions-asked Bad News.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/24 "2019-06-19T14:20:49Z")
Hey, the Imperium of Man is basically as close as its universe gets to good guys.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/25 "2019-06-19T15:12:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> an Imperium is just absolutely no-questions-asked Bad News.
Heresy to the Emperor!
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/26 "2019-06-19T15:16:04Z")
The Traveller Third Imperium seems OK.
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#):
>
> Hey, the Imperium of Man is basically as close as its universe gets to good guys.
You misspelled “Tau Empire”.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/27 "2019-06-19T15:40:30Z")
Cleve Cartmill’s “Deadline,” from _Astounding Science-Fiction_, the story that got the FBI to investigate a leak in atomic secrets, used “Sixa” and “Seilla.”
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/28 "2019-06-19T15:52:52Z")
An “Alliance” is usually the good guys in fiction, but it definitely wasn’t from the perspective of the protagonists of _Firefly/Serenity_.
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> “Dominion”, meanwhile, to me evokes mostly-good guys (at least, by comparison with who they’re fighting), but with a dark side.
The Dominion was unquestionably the bad guys in the later seasons of _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine._
In _The End of All Things_, for the moment at least the last of John Scalzi’s excellent _Old Man’s War_ books, there is a shadowy group of aliens called the Equilibrium which is clearly up to no good. One character, who is kidnapped and badly treated by them, writes, “I thought it was a stupid name. But they weren’t giving me a vote. And if they did I would probably name it ‘The League of Assholes,’ so I don’t think they would mind not having my input.”
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### Author:  [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/29 "2019-06-19T15:57:03Z")
Oscar Goldman and Col Steve Austin worked for the OSI which was the Office of Scientific Intelligence. (The Six Million Dollar Man)
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### Author:  [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/30 "2019-06-19T17:47:09Z")
What about
SMERSH- Death to Spys
Good guys or bad guys?
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### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/31 "2019-06-19T18:30:52Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#):
>
> Oscar Goldman and Col Steve Austin worked for the OSI which was the Office of Scientific Intelligence. (The Six Million Dollar Man)
The Office of Strategic Intelligence was the predecessor of the CIA.
Nazi: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
KGB: Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti
I love that one cartoon with the bumbling supervillians who called themselves The Legion Of Super Evil.
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### Author:  [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/32 "2019-06-19T18:38:33Z")
In _The Destroyer_ series, Remo Williams is “recruited” by an organization called CURE. Although it’s always spelled out in caps, there was never a explanation of what it stood for.
In the indie comic _normalman_, there was a parody of SHIELD centering around “Sgt. Fluffy, Agent of SCHMUCK.” After every instance of the acronym, there’d be the usual asterisk for the standard footnote at the bottom of the panel. However, it would invariably say “Stands for nothing in particular.” Thing was, even after the first couple instances of this gag, the writer kept doing it, because he _knew_ the readers would keep looking at the footnotes, thinking _eventually_ an explanation of what SCHMUCK stood for would sneak in. 🆒
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### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/33 "2019-06-19T18:40:24Z")
LOVEMUFFIN
> **[LOVE-MUFFIN-phineas-and-ferb-wiki-9397880-400-225 - Roblox](https://www.roblox.com/library/59478492/LOVE-MUFFIN-phineas-and-ferb-wiki-9397880-400-225)**
>
> Roblox is a global platform that brings people together through play.
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### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/34 "2019-06-19T19:56:06Z")
Trek Bad Guys are often Empires but they are also Unions (Cardassians) Hegemonies (the Gorn) and Alliances (the Ferengi).
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/35 "2019-06-19T20:14:16Z")
There’s the Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2019, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/36 "2019-06-19T21:14:51Z")
Oh, yeah, Hegemonies are pretty bad, too. Peter Wiggin might have had good intentions, but he was still a monster.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/37 "2019-06-20T00:03:27Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> “Allies” and “Coalition” are generally considered terms for alliances made up of good guys;
Ever since 2003, I associate “coalition” with massive breaches of international law.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2019, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/38 "2019-06-20T05:22:55Z")
> [@furryman](#):
>
> The Office of Strategic Intelligence was the predecessor of the CIA…
Not quite: [Office of Strategic Services - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services)
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### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/39 "2019-06-20T17:26:01Z")
The Hanna-Barbera “Super Friends” were essentially the Justice League, though I don’t recall whether they called themselves that on the show.
While “Justice League” has a noble and somewhat powerful ring to it, “Super Friends” just sounds kind of silly.
However, their rival organization, the “Legion of Doom,” certainly weren’t screwing around when they came up with that name.
(By the way, I originally read the last word of the thread title as “appliances,” which was rather confusing. My refrigerator is evil and I’ve given it a name!)
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/40 "2019-06-20T17:34:58Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#):
>
> What about
>
> SMERSH- Death to Spys
>
> Good guys or bad guys?
Interesting dilemma.
On the one hand, SMERSH’s primary target was Nazi Germany.
On the other hand, by the end of his life, Stalin killed more human beings than Hitler.
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