# 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:** 16
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/41 "2019-06-20T17:36:24Z")
Also, I have never heard of “Bloc” being used to describe any alliance that was good or positive.
---
### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/42 "2019-06-20T17:51:19Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> Also, I have never heard of “Bloc” being used to describe any alliance that was good or positive.
The Our Ukraine Bloc in the Orange Revolution was generally good and positive.
---
### Author:  [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/43 "2019-06-20T20:19:55Z")
In the Manix and later Doomlord series in the 1980’s British comic Eagle there was a terrorist organisation bent on world domination which went under the acronym of SMOG…Society for the Militant Overthrow of all Governments.
[https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale\_medium/10/109303/2080496-eagle\_307.jpg](https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_medium/10/109303/2080496-eagle_307.jpg)
---
### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/44 "2019-06-20T20:58:42Z")
In the TSR reboot of Buck Rogers the good guys were called NEO (New Earth Organization) and the bad guys were called RAM (Russo American Mercantile). RAM was an Evil Corporation that controlled Mars…in fact “Corporation” is probably a good entry for this list. They are always evil in stories.
---
### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/45 "2019-06-21T02:31:03Z")
“Covenant” really got it’s foot in the “bad guy” door, this generation.
Actually, MOST names with a religious connotation end up being “bad guy” organizations, I think, with the exception being groups that hunt vampires. (I don’t pity the poor guys just trying to run the Counter Vampire Islamic Jihad Brigade. “Please, I swear, we’re not terrorists—we only hunt undead! Vampires and zombies! Most of us are Sufis!”)
For a more specific (and personal favorite) example, there’s the name of the conspiratorial supervillain organization from the cartoon “Young Justice”…which called itself “The Light.” (Everyone’s the hero of their own story, right? 😃 )
Plus, it’s an allusion to [_another_ secret society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati)…
---
### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/46 "2019-06-21T15:04:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Nitpick: The current incarnation of SHIELD is “Secure Homeland Initiative, Enforcement and Logistics Division”.
Wait, Enforcement and Logistics are in the same division? I’m trying hard to think of two more dissimilar functions to group together. Government Liaison and Applied Research maybe?
I can only assume there’s also a Secure Homeland Initiative, Animals Drawn With a Camelhair Brush Division, and a Secure Homeland Initiative, Activities included in this Division Division.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/47 "2019-06-21T15:18:18Z")
Like Agent Ward said, someone _really_ wanted their initials to spell “Shield”.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/48 "2019-06-21T17:05:28Z")
[Star Control 3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_3) gave us The Hegemonic Crux–they were pretty much dicks, predictably.
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/49 "2019-06-21T17:48:08Z")
In the _Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers_ underground comics “Idiots Abroad” series, the International Brotherhood of Colonels mounts a global military coup. Why they didn’t all then promote themselves to generals or marshals is never explained; maybe they just didn’t want to pay for new business cards.
> [@mbh](#):
>
> 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.
I have no hesitation in calling SMERSH the bad guys, and they certainly were as fictionalized in Ian Fleming’s James Bond books (including _Live and Let Die_, which I’m reading now): [SMERSH - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMERSH)
---
### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/50 "2019-06-21T18:26:30Z")
> [@Quimby](#):
>
> In the TSR reboot of Buck Rogers the good guys were called NEO (New Earth Organization) and the bad guys were called RAM (Russo American Mercantile). RAM was an Evil Corporation that controlled Mars…in fact “Corporation” is probably a good entry for this list. They are always evil in stories.
In the early comic strips, the basic political unit was the Organization, or “Org”. States and provinces had been replaced by “orgzones”, and North America was governed by the “Orgzone Federation”. The bad guys, the Red Mongols, were ruled by an emperor, so they were presumably an Empire.
---
### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/51 "2019-06-21T19:39:52Z")
There’s also the Coalition to Liberate Itinerant Tree-dwellers, plus Liberate Apes Before Imprisoning Apes.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/52 "2019-06-21T20:16:21Z")
nm
---
### Author:  [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/53 "2019-06-21T21:41:45Z")
> [@Lemur866](#):
>
> There’s also the Coalition to Liberate Itinerant Tree-dwellers, plus Liberate Apes Before Imprisoning Apes.
Are they allied with The Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society?
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/54 "2019-06-22T04:31:33Z")
I heard they’re bitter rivals with the Pan-Human Alliance for Liberty, Logistics and Ultimate Supremacy.
---
### Author:  [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/55 "2019-06-24T19:28:03Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> I heard they’re bitter rivals with the Pan-Human Alliance for Liberty, Logistics and Ultimate Supremacy.
This is why I think the SD needs a ‘like’ system, I’ve nothing really to add to this comment but it needs to be appreciated. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699/56 "2019-06-25T14:36:28Z")
:: bows ::
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-guy-and-villainous-names-for-alliances/835699.md?page=2)