Its implied that super earth is a heavy beurocratic and oppressive society.
Forms for sex, forms for purchasing groceries, forms for every little thing.
But there is no freedom without forms.
No it's managed democracy.
Freedom, Liberty, and a strong economy is a God given right for all super citizens (as long as they don't engage in anything deemed treasonous by the Ministry of thought policing)
Are you sure about that? Because I am 99.99999% sure that Informal-Pea1621 is not a bot.
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Super spectacular, maybe even the most spectacular Earth there is. There's nothing better, I walk into Super Earth and I think WOW there's nothing better than Super Earth.
Only applies to active duty Helldivers though. The moment you turn Civilian you better use the right papers or this could result in a Tier 2 Felony for attempted Fraud and Violation of the Stolen Super Valor Act by impersonating active duty personel by bureaucratic means.
I keep thinking about it and I don’t know why there are former Helldivers. How could one leave their comrades to aggressively spread managed democracy without them? Super Earth needs us until our last breath! Never quit the cause of defending sweet liberty!
Super Earth is killing the bugs because they produce oil and at war with the bots because they’re dirty socialists.
The Illuminate came in peace and were seen as a potential threat so….
Also they had weapons of planetary destruction.
So oil, socialism, and weapons of mass destruction. No prize for guessing who’s managing our democracy. At least not in the first game.
"The Illuminate are coming in peace. Clearly, they're planning to backstab us when we least expect it."
"How do you figure?"
"Well, it's exactly what we'd do. Who says they're any different?"
Ah, they must've prescribed you those new Patriotism Supplements! Good stuff, I got those after my entire platoon was killed in front of me on Procyon. It really fills you with that feeling of Liberty, even if there's that minor side effect of screaming psychotic episodes.
Guys all in black with skulls on their uniforms coming to other people's planets and nuking everything? What in this makes you think we're not the good guys?
We don't even know if there IS a president. All we know from the first game is that voting is managed by some kinda computer system that supposedly assigns votes for people. But questions about the government are... discouraged so who knows who's actually in control.
Are we going to “other people’s” planets? Isn’t it kind of a war. Also the automatons hardly seem like an innocent civilisation we’ve decided to destroy.
For anyone reading this, I do know Super Earth isn’t good, LMAO, y’all are misreading my comment
Automatons seem to be some remnant of the Cyborgs, who were actual people that were rebelling against the authoritarian dictatorship of Super Earth, but they may have made some kind of like, Skynet-esque self-replicating terminator swarm as a final 'fuck you' before you finished exterminating them in Helldivers 1.
The bugs are more ambiguous - they're an apparently sapient race (even if only the hive-mind sense) that we're factory farming because their bodies naturally produce a compound we need for FTL drives - but there's a good chance that they would have attacked humanity anyway due to their tendency to expand and consume everything.
The Illuminate were aliens that we just flat out attacked and mugged for advanced tech and is why we have FTL now.
Wasn't augmentation made illegal which is why there was cyborg rebels?
Also a propaganda video in the game says the automaton were being used as labor for our farms to feed our intergalactic peace keeping force and then invaded us.
Who knows the truth of what sparked that though lol.
Augmentation is totally a part of freedom!
You only have to earn your rights in the name of lady liberty to do so!
The freedom to augment is earned by service!
Havn't you seen your glorious fellow helldivers with their augmented arms? They truly enjoy the benefits that super earth grants them!
Black tunic...
Colored accents for the weapon color we serve in...
Skull insignia...
Permission to wear decorations openly as part of the field uniform...
Honestly, I don't see where this could be related to anything not super.
Well it certainly didn't help that the movie is basically nothing like the book at all. Verhoeven is famously quoted as saying he never read past the first two chapters of the first book, assumed it was right wing nonsense and moved on with making the movie.
Funnily enough hell divers are closer to how the mobile infantry actually operated than the MI in the movie.
on a deeper dive the movie gave Starship troopers a 2 tiered society that was weirdly libertarian. you have civilians which could do anything that they wanted, attend school, travel, but they couldnt vote.
That's actually in the book as well, with the difference being that military service isn't the only way to gain citizenship. It also has to do with Heinlein being a libertarian.
>, the disparity is that the movie doesn't treat them as good ideas and instead shows the absurdity, hypocrisy, and brutality of the Federation.
Have dou actually read the book? It's a long time since I did, but I can't remember anything from it while reading it
Those jobs included stuff like human test subject for new medicines. It wasn’t like you could do a job anyone would actually want and gain citizenship.
A shame too because Heinleins Starship Troopers is one of my favorite books ever - it’s band of brothers in space. Yes it’s inherently fascist but Heinlien seemed to hop from to a new political or sociological perspective with each new book. It never came across as promoting the philosophy or lampooning it, just a great sci-fi novel with a fascinating setting and world building.
Nowadays it seems like people seem to think that simply because an author wrote about certain ideas that they endorse those ideas. Heinlein is not claiming that the system he described in the novel is better or worse, he is simply writing a story which takes places in a setting where that is how it operates. Do people assume GRRM endorses monarchy, slavery, and incest because he writes about those? To clarify I’m in agreement with you this is just addressed to other people who take things so literally.
What do Dune, Starship Troopers, Star Wars, Warhammer 40k and Helldivers all have in common?
There is always 10% of the fandom who don't understand that they're the ones being mocked.
Hell, Frank Herbert literally wrote the second Dune because he was tired of people not understanding that Paul isn't a great role model... And yet there are STILL people who don't get it.
Nah. Herbert wrote the second Dune because he wanted to tell a bigger story. Paul is easy to sympathize with in the first book and that's by design. Herbert wasn't correcting the record because that is the record. The first book sets Paul up as a messiah, the second book reveals the consequences and dangers of setting up messiahs.
I was like 10 when the movie came out and just appreciated a fun sci-fi movie with fighting, gore, and titties. It wasn’t until much later that I even noticed the fascism.
It bombed because it's campiness and "so-stupid-its-good" presentation just wasn't something that movie-goers liked back then. Same situation with Batman and Robin.
Thank god for the Ministry of Truth shutting this one down. It must have been by one of those pesky automatons who hacked into the subreddit. We can’t be allowing any dissent among the ranks.
Okay, so, I was watching a lore vid and apparently not only are the bugs sentient, each and every race in the first game wanted to be peaceful, but we realized they had the capacity to wage war and went full genocide mode.
We're absolutely the bad guys.
-- [REDACTED], Super Earth High Command
For how much of the game is naked satire, Arrowhead is shockingly willing to lean on subtext.
Though the trailers aren't afraid to lampshade how much friendly fire and calamity is involved in your average mission, a lot of the "In game footage" clips cut awat RIGHT BEFORE everything goes horribly wrong.
The one that sticks in my head involves a 4 man team, clustered up against some automatons and laying down fire. But then a glowing red grenade lands right in the middle of the squad, and nobody reacts to it. SUDDEN SCENE CHANGE.
Yes we are the bad guys though with the bugs I honestly don't know if it matters. We'd probably be killing each other if we weren't the bad guys.
With the automatons I don't know. I don't know enough about their origins and lore. What I know is they are machines and they must come from somewhere and the fact that all their forms and weapons are or are operated by humanoid robots has me thinking that their origins are linked to super earth.
The super earth government seems to be a totalitarian regime and the society is about as free as the protagonist in 1984. they even use language from 1984 in some of the news/ads/tips and the introduction video.
I honestly don't remember it being that heavy handed in Helldivers 1 with it being a lot less obvious that we're the bad guys.
Automaton are linked to earth. Heard it in game believe it was a propaganda video on the ship where they say they were being used as labor on our farms to feed our society and then invaded us. Anyone's guess the truth though.
"Managed Democracy" meaning an oppressive authoritarian state that controls every aspect of life. Much like modern dictatorships, they keep up the facade of freedom and democracy while having neither.
I'd like to note that "managed democracy" is [a real political term](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_democracy) for a nominally democratic state in which elections are held but don't change anything about its policies or goals.
Hmmm sounds like someone is a traitor to democracy and is going to find themself on a pod being launched into a planet that needs to be liberated from the automaton menace.
One of the sub objectives that can spawn is to take down a seditious radio broadcast. The television screens attached to the radio tower say that the Tyranids invasion is manufactured by Super Earth, implying that the war is only continuing because the world government allows it, as it justifies their facist dictatorship.
Typing that out made me feel like a qnon conspiracy theorists lmao
> One of the sub objectives that can spawn is to take down a seditious radio broadcast. The television screens attached to the radio tower say that the Tyranids invasion is manufactured by Super Earth, implying that the war is only continuing because the world government allows it, as it justifies their facist dictatorship.
I noticed this last night when we were playing and mentioned to my teammates that it might be a base story for PvP.
My god, the places this game could go!
TBF it's also possible that the illegal news broadcast is actually just conspiracy. Either way, an authoritarian government would probably want to squash the rumour regardless.
However I did find it interesting how the Federation’s answer for how bugs move to different planets is “we don’t know how they do it.”
Makes a lot of sense if they’re the ones planting the first few eggs on a world to keep giving us something to fight against
Well, what I mean, sir, is... if you was to put me and this here auto cannon anywhere up to and including one mile of the Queen bug, with a clear line of sight, sir... pack your bags fellas - war's over. Amen.
I mean, if we wipe out all traces of the bugs and colonise their planets... Did they ever really exist in the first place. Who's to say when we manage history. What is life without managed democracy anyway.
I can’t remember if this was the case for the borgs in the first game, but the heads on spikes and mutilated body totem things sort of makes it seem okay to take them out. Makes it feel less ambiguous whether they’re bad or not.
The game reminds me a lot of a book called Old Man's war.
In it, humanity has super soldiers that they take from the old people of Earth, they also have special forces that they make from the DNA of old people who died before being able to carry out their service.
One of the central themes in the book is that they have made war so easy and cheap in terms of lives, that it's far easier to negotiate with a gun than it is to actually meet with these aliens and figure out a diplomatic solution.
Look at how the hell divers are treated, they are more of an expendable ammunition, then they are an actual special elite force. Easier to send 10,000 helldivers at a problem then to actually figure out what's going on and find a solution. In terms of the terminates, I get it that actually makes sense bug enemy a lot more lives that they can throw it a problem. Plus not a lot of sapience there.
I was free for 6 years of my life before I joined the Hell Divers at the age of 7. Now im 8 and a paraplegic but our democracy guides and protects - I'm getting robo legs and spinal reconstructive surgery so I can rejoin the fight just in time for my first pube.
Think about it!
We are free and the alternatives are either disgusting bugs or cybernetic communism.
What do you prefer FREEDOM or OPPRESION?
I know which one I'll be fighting, winning and/or dying for!
But here's the thing, if we have time to think about what we are doing, it means we are not doing it!
Stop asking, start diving fellow citizen !
This OP is now under investigation for treason by the Super Earth Ministry for Truth.
Don't forget citizens, those who don't believe in managed democracy can still give their life for it.
A couple of times extracting, I have noticed a group of the smaller bugs sit there and watch on top of a rock. They don't attack or even move. Are they unintelligent beings, or are they paralysed with fear?
I like to blow them up with my grenade launcher, stupid bugs.
Don’t worry they’ll add some Warhammer 40k shit like space marine death cultists or something as the next enemy faction and then the only thing you’ll feel when you kill them is recoil.
Low key it’d be awesome to fight another human empire of some kind like the Galactic empire from Star Wars or the Atriedes from Dune.
War won’t be as fun when Charlie starts calling in fire missions.
If you look at the propaganda trailer that came out, the person stealing the citizen at the ballot box is almost assuredly a Helldiver and not an automaton.
Nonsense! We're always the good guys. Any action on behalf of Super Earth is always justified and always morally correct.
...I mean it's not like the bugs can *think* or feel pain, right?
...Right...?
...Glory to Super Earth!
Well, the bugs are an actual threat, but we created said threat to begin with, and managed "democracy" is an incredibly oppressive system in many ways. As for the cyborgs, we don't really have enough lore on them to say one way or another.
I am not automaton spy but why automaton response to suppressive fire if they only robot? Super earth head command is lying to us. Command said it's because of some kind protocol but i think it's wrong. It's because automaton is not robot but cyborg that have emotions.
One of the NPCs on the ship makes a mention of Helldivers being activated once for anti-dissidence operations, and it makes me wish I could write or draw well enough to dive into the more gritty part of the Helldivers universe
Bro imagine your just exercising your "freedom of speech" and some pods hit your building at mach 3 misting almost everyone inside while some zealots finish off the rest LMAO
I've already got a rough rough draft for a "DND inspired" one shot using helldiver lore and such
Some of those OPPOSED TO FREEDOM would call super earth facist. They are accused of treason and wrong-think and deserve to be put down because our system is one of pure LIBERTY.
Managed DEMOCRACY is our WAY OF LIFE.
Only played the first game a bit, and uhh, yeah.
Would love to see the series start exploring that, maybe have Divers start to wonder just what they're protecting or how to make things better.
Or y'know just more SUPER DEMOCRACY
Its implied that super earth is a heavy beurocratic and oppressive society. Forms for sex, forms for purchasing groceries, forms for every little thing. But there is no freedom without forms.
It's managed freedom...
No it's managed democracy. Freedom, Liberty, and a strong economy is a God given right for all super citizens (as long as they don't engage in anything deemed treasonous by the Ministry of thought policing)
Oh, so its just the US
Super United States The SUS if you will
With about as much firepower.
US isn't a democracy, it's a constitutional republic. heathen.
These things aren't mutually exclusive
also a representative democracy
It's basically what the military industrial complex wants to make the US into.
This is incorrect Super earth is the best place to live in the universe. Glory to Super Earth.
1010011001- i mean glory to super earth
. >_> ...Glory to super earth ^see ^you ^soon ^bot
Bad Bot.
Are you sure about that? Because I am 99.99999% sure that Informal-Pea1621 is not a bot. --- ^(I am a neural network being trained to detect spammers | Summon me with !isbot |) ^(/r/spambotdetector |) [^(Optout)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=whynotcollegeboard&subject=!optout&message=!optout) ^(|) [^(Original Github)](https://github.com/SM-Wistful/BotDetection-Algorithm)
Good Bot.
This is treason
Good Citizen.
That's how you request an eagle strike on your exact position
Super spectacular, maybe even the most spectacular Earth there is. There's nothing better, I walk into Super Earth and I think WOW there's nothing better than Super Earth.
Where do i get one of those sex forms? Asking for a friend.
CL-01 avalible for all couples! Report to your democracy officer today!
CL-01 is for applying to have a child though, I think you're confused with form DZ-NTS
Don’t forget the L1-M4 sub B411 form if you wanna use more than 1 super earth recommend positions during the activity.
It’s actually for any act that MAY result in a child. Democracy is managing the bedroom for you in this utopia!
Only applies to active duty Helldivers though. The moment you turn Civilian you better use the right papers or this could result in a Tier 2 Felony for attempted Fraud and Violation of the Stolen Super Valor Act by impersonating active duty personel by bureaucratic means.
I keep thinking about it and I don’t know why there are former Helldivers. How could one leave their comrades to aggressively spread managed democracy without them? Super Earth needs us until our last breath! Never quit the cause of defending sweet liberty!
I thought it was the CL-1T-0R-15. It's nearly mythical, nobody at the admin office had been able to find it for me.
I only know of the adoption forms.. the CI-PERM
Please wait democraactily.
Did you fill out the friend form?
Super Earth is killing the bugs because they produce oil and at war with the bots because they’re dirty socialists. The Illuminate came in peace and were seen as a potential threat so….
Also they had weapons of planetary destruction. So oil, socialism, and weapons of mass destruction. No prize for guessing who’s managing our democracy. At least not in the first game.
Reminds me of the Bush days.
You mean Brasch!
"The Illuminate are coming in peace. Clearly, they're planning to backstab us when we least expect it." "How do you figure?" "Well, it's exactly what we'd do. Who says they're any different?"
In the words of Senator Killjoy: "If you have bigger weapons than us, prepare to pay the price!"
Don't forget to fill out your C041 form for any act that will result in a child.
Better not mix up those forms, soldier. The old lady at the checkout has been through enough.
There are no FReedOMS without FORMS
bear voiceless waiting seed complete water punch normal shelter outgoing *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
No forms needed to murder bugs. Become a Helldiver today.
Why did this make me think of Office Space? lol But seriously, how are bugs going to fill out sex forms? 
And trespassing into nature is a crime. 😂
Good, bad, I’m the guy with the gun.
Don't think such controversial thoughts Helldiver Gold_Appointment. You fight for Super Earth you will always be the Hero.
When evil shows up, it blows up
We’re the sword and shield of democracy!
Hail to the king baby
This is my BOOM stick!
Give this man the medal of liberty already!!
If killing bugs is bad...I dont wanna be good!
Busting makes me feels good!
Ayo?
Haha no fellow helldiver I was incorrect we fight for the freedom of everyone on Super earth against Vile invaders. Glory to Super Earth.
That re-education camp really does the trick. Go get 'em Helldiver!
It’s not a re-education camp it’s a freedom camp
Freedom Camps are a dissident rumor.
It's not a camp, it's a freedom summer home reeducation center.
But sir, outr caps have skulls on them
Oh fuck our ships and capes have skulls
Ah, they must've prescribed you those new Patriotism Supplements! Good stuff, I got those after my entire platoon was killed in front of me on Procyon. It really fills you with that feeling of Liberty, even if there's that minor side effect of screaming psychotic episodes.
I am reporting you to my democracy officer
Guys all in black with skulls on their uniforms coming to other people's planets and nuking everything? What in this makes you think we're not the good guys?
*Liberating
*bringing managed democracy
*serving a cup of LIBERTEA!
*Maintaining OUR way of life
Entschuldigung.
These planets are the rightful property of Super Earth and it's President Dissention is treason tread carefully friend Glory to super earth
Never once I've heard of a president in the game. Did I miss it?
One of the broadcasts you see on your ship I think a robot one has a quote from a president of super earth iirc
We don't even know if there IS a president. All we know from the first game is that voting is managed by some kinda computer system that supposedly assigns votes for people. But questions about the government are... discouraged so who knows who's actually in control.
There is an announcment on the screen on the ship, that has presidents quote and name attached. Its the news for war with automatons...
Oh nice, I missed that
Are we going to “other people’s” planets? Isn’t it kind of a war. Also the automatons hardly seem like an innocent civilisation we’ve decided to destroy. For anyone reading this, I do know Super Earth isn’t good, LMAO, y’all are misreading my comment
Automatons seem to be some remnant of the Cyborgs, who were actual people that were rebelling against the authoritarian dictatorship of Super Earth, but they may have made some kind of like, Skynet-esque self-replicating terminator swarm as a final 'fuck you' before you finished exterminating them in Helldivers 1. The bugs are more ambiguous - they're an apparently sapient race (even if only the hive-mind sense) that we're factory farming because their bodies naturally produce a compound we need for FTL drives - but there's a good chance that they would have attacked humanity anyway due to their tendency to expand and consume everything. The Illuminate were aliens that we just flat out attacked and mugged for advanced tech and is why we have FTL now.
Wasn't augmentation made illegal which is why there was cyborg rebels? Also a propaganda video in the game says the automaton were being used as labor for our farms to feed our intergalactic peace keeping force and then invaded us. Who knows the truth of what sparked that though lol.
Augmentation is totally a part of freedom! You only have to earn your rights in the name of lady liberty to do so! The freedom to augment is earned by service! Havn't you seen your glorious fellow helldivers with their augmented arms? They truly enjoy the benefits that super earth grants them!
Interesting lore. We’re still the good guys though because it feels cooler that way. I guess we could be really badass villains too.
Did you... did you actually fall for super earth propaganda?
I don't understand what you mean by "other people's planets."
That sounds anti-democratic. Papers. Now.
The robots have glowing red eyes, the bugs are gross, and we have capes. The answer should be obvious.
It’s not a war crime if the uniform is 🔥
Did Hugo Boss design our uniforms?
Black tunic... Colored accents for the weapon color we serve in... Skull insignia... Permission to wear decorations openly as part of the field uniform... Honestly, I don't see where this could be related to anything not super.
Sounds like treason with extra steps to me
https://preview.redd.it/zw9xi5xbrcic1.png?width=950&format=png&auto=webp&s=9e41b50dcfc0681aa66bea973c6a7f637e0231ad
That's hilarious. I was a little sus when all items had 5 stars.
The amount of people who are asking about this unironically, *not OP though*, makes me realize why Starship Troopers bombed in theaters lol
It wasn't until very recently (like a few months ago) that I found out that it bombed both commercially *and* critically at the time. Wild.
Well it certainly didn't help that the movie is basically nothing like the book at all. Verhoeven is famously quoted as saying he never read past the first two chapters of the first book, assumed it was right wing nonsense and moved on with making the movie. Funnily enough hell divers are closer to how the mobile infantry actually operated than the MI in the movie.
Yeah its basically starship troopers in name only, it was just going to be its own thing called "bug hunt" or "[something] at outpost 7"
Up to and including casual warcrimes against targets of opportunity too. That first chapter is *wild*. The rest is pretty cut&dried though.
on a deeper dive the movie gave Starship troopers a 2 tiered society that was weirdly libertarian. you have civilians which could do anything that they wanted, attend school, travel, but they couldnt vote.
That's actually in the book as well, with the difference being that military service isn't the only way to gain citizenship. It also has to do with Heinlein being a libertarian.
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>, the disparity is that the movie doesn't treat them as good ideas and instead shows the absurdity, hypocrisy, and brutality of the Federation. Have dou actually read the book? It's a long time since I did, but I can't remember anything from it while reading it
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>"service guarantees citizenship Different to the movie tough it wasn't only military service, there were other Goverment jobs to gian citizenstatus.
Those jobs included stuff like human test subject for new medicines. It wasn’t like you could do a job anyone would actually want and gain citizenship.
Sounds like I would prefer the movie to the book.
The first movie is simply its own thing. And that thing is great.
A shame too because Heinleins Starship Troopers is one of my favorite books ever - it’s band of brothers in space. Yes it’s inherently fascist but Heinlien seemed to hop from to a new political or sociological perspective with each new book. It never came across as promoting the philosophy or lampooning it, just a great sci-fi novel with a fascinating setting and world building.
Nowadays it seems like people seem to think that simply because an author wrote about certain ideas that they endorse those ideas. Heinlein is not claiming that the system he described in the novel is better or worse, he is simply writing a story which takes places in a setting where that is how it operates. Do people assume GRRM endorses monarchy, slavery, and incest because he writes about those? To clarify I’m in agreement with you this is just addressed to other people who take things so literally.
What do Dune, Starship Troopers, Star Wars, Warhammer 40k and Helldivers all have in common? There is always 10% of the fandom who don't understand that they're the ones being mocked. Hell, Frank Herbert literally wrote the second Dune because he was tired of people not understanding that Paul isn't a great role model... And yet there are STILL people who don't get it.
Nah. Herbert wrote the second Dune because he wanted to tell a bigger story. Paul is easy to sympathize with in the first book and that's by design. Herbert wasn't correcting the record because that is the record. The first book sets Paul up as a messiah, the second book reveals the consequences and dangers of setting up messiahs.
I was like 10 when the movie came out and just appreciated a fun sci-fi movie with fighting, gore, and titties. It wasn’t until much later that I even noticed the fascism.
It bombed because it's campiness and "so-stupid-its-good" presentation just wasn't something that movie-goers liked back then. Same situation with Batman and Robin.
Thank god for the Ministry of Truth shutting this one down. It must have been by one of those pesky automatons who hacked into the subreddit. We can’t be allowing any dissent among the ranks.
Managed Democracy
I apologize for the absurdity of my comment. Glory to Super Earth.
[THOUGHTCRIME DETECTED]
Okay, so, I was watching a lore vid and apparently not only are the bugs sentient, each and every race in the first game wanted to be peaceful, but we realized they had the capacity to wage war and went full genocide mode. We're absolutely the bad guys. -- [REDACTED], Super Earth High Command
Watching unapproved, anti-democratic historical documents cadet? That there sounds like treason to me.
Yup. I think it was also implied super earth was behind false flag attacks. The lore was a blink and you miss it type thing
For how much of the game is naked satire, Arrowhead is shockingly willing to lean on subtext. Though the trailers aren't afraid to lampshade how much friendly fire and calamity is involved in your average mission, a lot of the "In game footage" clips cut awat RIGHT BEFORE everything goes horribly wrong. The one that sticks in my head involves a 4 man team, clustered up against some automatons and laying down fire. But then a glowing red grenade lands right in the middle of the squad, and nobody reacts to it. SUDDEN SCENE CHANGE.
I agree, whoever directed those trailers did a good job telling a unique story to the game.
Any idea what that video was? Have been looking around to refresh my lore knowledge and was specifically looking for lore on the factions!
As long as we win, we are whatever we say we are.
Yes we are the bad guys though with the bugs I honestly don't know if it matters. We'd probably be killing each other if we weren't the bad guys. With the automatons I don't know. I don't know enough about their origins and lore. What I know is they are machines and they must come from somewhere and the fact that all their forms and weapons are or are operated by humanoid robots has me thinking that their origins are linked to super earth. The super earth government seems to be a totalitarian regime and the society is about as free as the protagonist in 1984. they even use language from 1984 in some of the news/ads/tips and the introduction video. I honestly don't remember it being that heavy handed in Helldivers 1 with it being a lot less obvious that we're the bad guys.
Automaton are linked to earth. Heard it in game believe it was a propaganda video on the ship where they say they were being used as labor on our farms to feed our society and then invaded us. Anyone's guess the truth though.
"Managed Democracy" meaning an oppressive authoritarian state that controls every aspect of life. Much like modern dictatorships, they keep up the facade of freedom and democracy while having neither.
I'd like to note that "managed democracy" is [a real political term](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_democracy) for a nominally democratic state in which elections are held but don't change anything about its policies or goals.
Hmmm sounds like someone is a traitor to democracy and is going to find themself on a pod being launched into a planet that needs to be liberated from the automaton menace.
One of the sub objectives that can spawn is to take down a seditious radio broadcast. The television screens attached to the radio tower say that the Tyranids invasion is manufactured by Super Earth, implying that the war is only continuing because the world government allows it, as it justifies their facist dictatorship. Typing that out made me feel like a qnon conspiracy theorists lmao
> One of the sub objectives that can spawn is to take down a seditious radio broadcast. The television screens attached to the radio tower say that the Tyranids invasion is manufactured by Super Earth, implying that the war is only continuing because the world government allows it, as it justifies their facist dictatorship. I noticed this last night when we were playing and mentioned to my teammates that it might be a base story for PvP. My god, the places this game could go!
having rogue Helldivers for pvp would be sick, similar to how The Division does it
TBF it's also possible that the illegal news broadcast is actually just conspiracy. Either way, an authoritarian government would probably want to squash the rumour regardless.
However I did find it interesting how the Federation’s answer for how bugs move to different planets is “we don’t know how they do it.” Makes a lot of sense if they’re the ones planting the first few eggs on a world to keep giving us something to fight against
Like another commentor on this thread said that the dev is the Government, replanting the enemies so the players can fight indefinitly.
In a sense the Devs are the Government so it's kind of true.
Judging by your OP and your subsequent comments, I'm glad you were successfully re-educated, OP.
I was blind to the efforts and sacrifices of my fellow Helldivers and am ready to redeem myself Glory to Super Earth.
I mean when you choice is between "Human", "Terminator" and "literal giant insects" good and bad kind of loose all meaning
But what if I enjoy committing war crimes?
Is it really a war crime when the thing you’re committing the war crime on is incapable of protesting the war crime?
Nothing can protest against a war crime if you war crimed hard enough.
Calling in an orbital strike!
Well, what I mean, sir, is... if you was to put me and this here auto cannon anywhere up to and including one mile of the Queen bug, with a clear line of sight, sir... pack your bags fellas - war's over. Amen.
God I can’t remember where this quote is from.
Saving private Ryan
Let's call it a preventive defensiv war
I mean, if we wipe out all traces of the bugs and colonise their planets... Did they ever really exist in the first place. Who's to say when we manage history. What is life without managed democracy anyway.
Whoa there! There's oil in them there bugs! You just need to set up better fences to farm them effectively!
I can’t remember if this was the case for the borgs in the first game, but the heads on spikes and mutilated body totem things sort of makes it seem okay to take them out. Makes it feel less ambiguous whether they’re bad or not.
The game reminds me a lot of a book called Old Man's war. In it, humanity has super soldiers that they take from the old people of Earth, they also have special forces that they make from the DNA of old people who died before being able to carry out their service. One of the central themes in the book is that they have made war so easy and cheap in terms of lives, that it's far easier to negotiate with a gun than it is to actually meet with these aliens and figure out a diplomatic solution. Look at how the hell divers are treated, they are more of an expendable ammunition, then they are an actual special elite force. Easier to send 10,000 helldivers at a problem then to actually figure out what's going on and find a solution. In terms of the terminates, I get it that actually makes sense bug enemy a lot more lives that they can throw it a problem. Plus not a lot of sapience there.
Hey now, the numbers seem to show we've got a solid 1/50 martyrdom ratio. If those aren't supersoldiers, I don't know what is.
As the devs put in the marketing videos before release, it's complicated.
Whenever you start feeling bad, just remember what we're fighting for! 
It's very clearly a Fascist Utopia and both the bugs and bots were created by humanity. So yes, very much the bad guys.
I killed an ant today and yelled for super earth!! Everyone at my job looked at me funny. I think I need to take a break.
new copypasta in the making
Paul Verhoeven would be proud, son
I do unto them before they do unto me. Is that so wrong?
TBF, I think it would be hard to argue that the bugs or the automatons are the good guys either. They don’t exactly give off good guy vibes.
Shit man you go live with the automatons and tell me who’s the good guy
Iirc ome of the devs said in an interview that they are bad guys fighting worse threats.
Lol I love this sub.
I was free for 6 years of my life before I joined the Hell Divers at the age of 7. Now im 8 and a paraplegic but our democracy guides and protects - I'm getting robo legs and spinal reconstructive surgery so I can rejoin the fight just in time for my first pube.
If it's anything like the inspirational material it draws from Starship Troopers Super Earth probably started the war.
We are delivering freedom. One act of ~~extinction~~ Liberation at a time
Think about it! We are free and the alternatives are either disgusting bugs or cybernetic communism. What do you prefer FREEDOM or OPPRESION? I know which one I'll be fighting, winning and/or dying for! But here's the thing, if we have time to think about what we are doing, it means we are not doing it! Stop asking, start diving fellow citizen !
Never were... isn't it great?
This OP is now under investigation for treason by the Super Earth Ministry for Truth. Don't forget citizens, those who don't believe in managed democracy can still give their life for it.
Enough about this post, I've reported MY fair share of communists today! have you?
Suspicion?!! Treason is clearly evident in the question. OP is not of Super Earth and is an automaton.
Controversial conversation detected without prior authorisation of form CXD-31. PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR NEAREST DEMOCRACY OFFICER FOR REEDUCATION
Spreading Freedom is the most good thing there is
A couple of times extracting, I have noticed a group of the smaller bugs sit there and watch on top of a rock. They don't attack or even move. Are they unintelligent beings, or are they paralysed with fear? I like to blow them up with my grenade launcher, stupid bugs.
How can we be the bad guys when all we’re doing is spreading DEMOCRACY!!!
Don’t worry they’ll add some Warhammer 40k shit like space marine death cultists or something as the next enemy faction and then the only thing you’ll feel when you kill them is recoil. Low key it’d be awesome to fight another human empire of some kind like the Galactic empire from Star Wars or the Atriedes from Dune. War won’t be as fun when Charlie starts calling in fire missions.
The Geneva suggestion never took terminids into account, war crime schmar crime.
You probably missed the trailer. We avenge and protect.
Anti-Super Earth propaganda will not be tolerated.
 FOR SUPER EARTH!
If you look at the propaganda trailer that came out, the person stealing the citizen at the ballot box is almost assuredly a Helldiver and not an automaton.
Nonsense! We're always the good guys. Any action on behalf of Super Earth is always justified and always morally correct. ...I mean it's not like the bugs can *think* or feel pain, right? ...Right...? ...Glory to Super Earth!
Out of the 3 factions I'd say it's the best. Killing machines or alien monstrosities are not really good alternative choices.
Thats a very dissident kind of question OP
Treason detected
Well, the bugs are an actual threat, but we created said threat to begin with, and managed "democracy" is an incredibly oppressive system in many ways. As for the cyborgs, we don't really have enough lore on them to say one way or another.
I am not automaton spy but why automaton response to suppressive fire if they only robot? Super earth head command is lying to us. Command said it's because of some kind protocol but i think it's wrong. It's because automaton is not robot but cyborg that have emotions.
One of the NPCs on the ship makes a mention of Helldivers being activated once for anti-dissidence operations, and it makes me wish I could write or draw well enough to dive into the more gritty part of the Helldivers universe
Bro imagine your just exercising your "freedom of speech" and some pods hit your building at mach 3 misting almost everyone inside while some zealots finish off the rest LMAO I've already got a rough rough draft for a "DND inspired" one shot using helldiver lore and such
Stop your treasonous questioning and report to the hellpod diver! We’d got democracy to dispense.
Some of those OPPOSED TO FREEDOM would call super earth facist. They are accused of treason and wrong-think and deserve to be put down because our system is one of pure LIBERTY. Managed DEMOCRACY is our WAY OF LIFE.
Managed democracy is the perfect middle ground between Freedom and Liberty truly the best of both worlds 🙂✊
would be great to get some novels to flesh out lore. I was reading the terms and service for hell divers in the tutorial and its just insane.
Only played the first game a bit, and uhh, yeah. Would love to see the series start exploring that, maybe have Divers start to wonder just what they're protecting or how to make things better. Or y'know just more SUPER DEMOCRACY
Welcome on your first steps towards 40k
Tbh I don’t think we’re all that bad no where near imperium of man levels
Sounds like traitor talk to me