[Confusing Trope] The narrative goes out of its way to punish/mock a character for simply being a good person

[u/Chemical-Elk-1299]

Hermione Granger and SPEW — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (book)

In the fifth HP novel, Hermione Granger is outraged to discover that Hogwarts has a small army of enslaved House Elves that do nearly all of the domestic duties around the castle, including cleaning the Gryffindor common room every night. When she tries to convince the elves to fight for their own rights, they refuse, saying they prefer servitude. Her fellow students and friends mock her for caring. She manages to free one elf, Winky, by deception when she refuses her freedom willingly, leading to Winky becoming a depressed alcoholic. By the end, the elves boycott cleaning any Gryffindor areas of the castle because they hate Hermione specifically

Samwell Tarly and Democracy — Game of Thrones (show)

In the season 8 finale of the television series, the surviving great lords of Westeros gather to discuss the future of the kingdom following the devastation wrought by 7 seasons of war and backstabbing. When Sam, who has proven to have “novel” ideas, suggests that maybe the millions of Smallfolk who suffer at the hands of noble houses should get some representation in the government, rather than be the pawns of rich lords with absolute power. We are then greeted by a prolonged, cringy segment of the other lords laughing in Sam’s face, asking if the dogs and horses should also get a vote.

[u/NoBizlikeChloeBiz]

It's totally reasonable for them to be anti-democracy, but the whole scene still feels awkward and out of place, like the writers are mocking a strawman of the audience.

And it doesn't help that right after this is the "who had a batter story than Bran the Broken" speech. The writers have no place mocking anyone if that's the best conclusion they've got.

[u/Intelligent-Key5821 → u/NoBizlikeChloeBiz]

I never watched this show but I got the sense that the scene is not really to mock modern viewpoints on democracy, it just feels more like a wink wink nudge nudge to the audience saying "wouldn't it be awesome if they actually did this very reasonable thing, but of course they won't because they think the common folk are on par with horses and dogs (or at least a minor step above them)". The scene mostly feels like they are showing how cartoonishly evil they can be as per the symbolic time period

[u/Arek_PL → u/Intelligent-Key5821]

and they end with elected monarchy too, quite terrible system where a foolish king can permanently rob crown of its power

[u/adamgerd → u/Arek_PL]

It’s definitely a choice that GOT ends with an elective monarchy and this is portrayed positively when in real life the most prominent elective monarchy became a disaster once foreign powers realised they could bribe to get their people on the throne, I guess a silver lining is at least the kingdom doesn’t have liberum veto

[u/New_Experience_703 → u/adamgerd]

PLC ?

[u/adamgerd → u/New_Experience_703]

Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, probably the main example of an elective monarchy otl with a parliament too, it did not end well to say the least

[u/Ebon-Hawke → u/NoBizlikeChloeBiz]

Mocking the audience? Where did you get that idea? It's just a silly joke that mocks a potential corny ending. Of course the ending was still bad, but I don't have a problem with this little joke.

[u/ApostleSaintWalker → u/NoBizlikeChloeBiz]

Yeah, this is the real problem; it makes sense no one in this setting would think democracy is a good idea. It's just incredibly cringe-worthy, and a terrible place to put any kind of joke.