The Man in the High Castle : Are the writers trying to generate sympathy for John Smith & Joe Blake?

Not gonna happen, at least for me.

These two men are traitors, they're collaborators, they're child killers, they're mass murderers, they're pedophiles, and they deserve every bad thing that happens to them.

Aw heck, Even Luke saw the goodness in his father Anakin!

Brevity is the soul of wit.

So apparently you're just as heartless as the Nazis, you just require a different excuse for disregarding their suffering.

The premise of the show is that love saves people.

The reason why there was no fictional WWIII in the show? Because of Juliana's compassion and love for Smith's child.

Why did Joe listen to Smith? Because he loved Juliana. He changed his mind on Smith's warning as soon as her name was mentioned.

Why did Smith vouch for Juliana's asylum, not only because she was useful but because Joe loved her and he wanted to see who she was as a person.

What inspired Tagomi to go back and save his world? Alt Juliana who believed in him, even when his other self shunned her.

It's all about the love.

VERY well said!!

Excellent points.

its trying to show that its not clear cut that the Nazis and Japs are the bad guys or the resistance are the good ones.

I think that is part of what makes the show great. We can sympathize with characters from both sides. Not everyone is 'bad' or 'good', but maybe gray. There is no way that you can say Joe is a bad guy. Also, we have seen Resistance members falling into the same evil line of thinking as what they are fighting against.

GO SIXERS!!!
Phillies
Fly Eagles Fly

I have to agree with what you said here. We all tend to think of things as black and white (does today's political climate demonstrate that?) but good in many cases is a matter of perspective. For example, many believe the woman's rights to choose is right, and for the good of woman. Yet, many others (including many woman) believe that there is a right to life. There are many who sit in the middle, who do not believe in abortion, yet feel they shouldn't push their beliefs onto others. This is the gray area. When faced in a situation where a person has to survive, provide for their family, what decisions would you make? What decisions could you make? Would you kill someone to protect your family? Does John Smith feel that by doing his job, he is providing and protecting his family.

You forgot one, LET'S GO, FLYERS!

I don't think that the writers are trying to generate sympathy for them nearly as much as show that people who do evil things (a) generally have reasons that they think justify the evil that they do (such that they themselves either don't consider it evil at all or at least consider it the lesser of evils), and (b) don't continuously do evil things 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which tends to relate back to point (a) the non-evil things these people do inform their choices to commit evil acts.