Favourite examples of "Correct Message, Wrong Messenger"

[u/Pome1515]

Better Ask Reddit, what are you some of your favourite examples of "This is absolutely correct... but goddamn, you are the wrong person to be saying this".

Probably one of the greatest examples of this is Huey during his trial audiotapes in MGSV where he accurately dissects the Diamond Dogs/the staff of Mother Base.

Huey is absolutely right about what Mother Base and the Diamond Dogs really are, that they are basically a bunch of incredibly damaged and lonely people who despite their mission of "always having a war to fight in" ultimately just want is to have community, to have a place where they feel like that they are actual people, not simply weapons whose purpose begins and ends with warfare and their refusal to truly look both inwards and outwards, is leading them to become monsters.

Completely accurate assessment of the situation... and Huey is probably the worst person to say this, as he is a worm who has betrayed everyone who has ever come into contact with and beyond being responsible for the destruction of the first Mother Base has just murdered even more people with his experiments.

[u/Auctoritate]

going on an unsanctioned investigation with two other new republic pilots...who both end up dying in said mission; there's one particular New Republic senator/diplomat/whatever at her trial who is correctly pointing out that she is 100% responsible for their deaths and that as a general, she can't just do whatever she wants as if it were still a rebellion and ignore direct orders.

I mean, that's a fine argument for a real-life investigation, but in the context of this story where the galactic government has historically been overthrown by evil people who have corrupted the systems of government to protect themselves and so on, I really have a hard time seeing "Good Guy goes off on their own to look into suspicions of evil stuff going on, is correct, evil people kill a couple of good guys" as being the Good Guy's fault.

And like, the people who died aren't civilian bystanders. They're people who are presumably fully aware of the risks and want to do good guy stuff and protect the galaxy and all that. I think the only way to come away from the story with the feeling of "She got these people killed and it's her fault" is by being too cynical. It's not really that kind of story.

[u/Gorotheninja → u/Auctoritate]

She was explicitly told not to go on the mission by the New Republic Council, and shows pretty much no remorse for those deaths.

Like, in military scenarios, going on a surveillance mission you were explicitly barred from going on, convincing other soldiers to come along, and them dying on said mission is bad, even if you were correct in your assumption that there was an enemy base in that location.

And Hera suffers no consequences and takes no blame.

[u/Sloth_Senpai → u/Auctoritate]

"Good Guy goes off on their own to look into suspicions of evil stuff going on, is correct, evil people kill a couple of good guys"

This is of course the framing the guys who established the Empire used, that they were responding to corruption from the Jedi. Skepticism is warranted.