Yeah, imperialism (particularly in a fictional context rather than a historic one) is one of those subjects where is isn't that much grey to begin with. It's also one of those subjects where I'm quite happy to not go looking for grey and just revel in disliking the bad guys.

That is a good point about humour. My female character thing is just me railing against the prevalence of the idea at the moment that all women are humourless harpies, and I'm staring to wonder if some screen writers have ever actually met a woman. Judd Apatow comedies seems to be among the worst offenders.

But yeah, humour does seem to occur naturally in life even during bad times, and the good writing both notices and acknowledge it.