Playing With / Armies Are Evil

3 Following

Basic Trope: Armies are portrayed as evil.

• Straight: The Tropelandic armed forces are made up of extremist warmongers and Sociopathic Soldiers, and the rest of the government are powerless to reign them in. Troops are given a blank check by their superiors to terrorize civilians, damage property, etc. without fear of punishment.
• Exaggerated:
  • The Tropelandic armed forces are both unambiguously and universally evil. The recruitment process consists of If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!, and basic training is mainly focused on puppy-kicking.
  • The Tropelandic armed forces have been irredeemably, consistently vicious bastards since their childhood. They willingly crossed the line and unconditionally revel in their great evil. They are beyond sociopathic, and they intentionally commit war crimes twelve times before dawn and avoid being caught by constantly blackmailing innocent people to not expose these secrets on pain of gratuitous, disproportionate death.
  • Not only the Tropelandic military puts the Werewolves Legion to shame with their vileness and cruelty, those who slighted them in any way usually end up enlisting to the Werewolves if they want to live another day. The public opinion steadily becomes more favorable towards the Werewolves while the army loses what little support they had before.
• Downplayed:
  • Army of Thieves and Whores, of the Unscrupulous Hero or Nominal Hero flavor.
  • The Tropelandic armed forces are devoted to protecting their country, but occasionally use very morally ambiguous methods.
  • The soldiers of the Tropelandic armed forces are portrayed with pity as Shell Shocked Veterans who, conscripted or deceived by propaganda, have done such terrible things to survive that they often lose their humanity in the process.
• Justified:
  • General Bob has realized that now that he controls the army, he can easily take over his own country.
  • General Bob is a man constantly looking to have fun… and the only way he knows how is through bloody combat.
  • Tropeland used to have a good military, but now that they're at war, manpower shortages led to Lowered Recruiting Standards. The draft offices resort to enlisting criminals, along with anyone willing to join — even if they wouldn't be let in the army during peacetime for extremely valid reasons. Expecting due respect for human rights from this kind of soldiers would be... unreasonable.
  • The norm of the day is that armies are paid for in plunder and rape. Anyone who signs up for that is rightfully judged as evil — including those who, while not doing it themselves, enabled it through killing the opposition and then let those atrocities happen.
• Inverted:
  • The Wikistani civilian government is a corrupt, decadent dictatorship in which the best people are Obstructive Bureaucrats or Sleazy Politicians, while the worst are moles, sellouts, egocentrists with severe Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, all overseen by a President Evil or The Caligula with delusional megalomania. General Bob is trying to force reform and clean up the governmental act by invoking Emergency Authority but he is too closely monitored by the State Sec to simply stage a coup.
  • The Wikistani Armed Forces, normally a peaceful and friendly organization from which nothing worse than an occasional Bar Brawl could be expected, prepare for a preemptive strike on an allegedly Always Chaotic Evil nation preparing an invasion to Wikistan — only to be stopped by the Straw Civilian government believing in Suicidal Pacifism and the 'never-strke-first' policy. Soon after, however, the army command is proven horribly right.
• Subverted:
  • Wikistani civilians live in terror of the Tropelandic military because of their... really bad tipping.
  • While there are some pretty violent bad eggs, the Tropelandic army is showcased to be pretty lawful...
• Double Subverted:
  • ...and the fact that anyone who complains about their tipping is going to be viciously beaten and have their home trashed, or worse.
  • ...Because General Bob is the kind of insane man that wants his sociopaths to carry themselves with political correctness as they take over the country. After all, just because they will kill everybody, it doesn't mean that they have to be overly cruel about it.
• Parodied: Basic training includes instructions in proper form for kicking puppies and stealing candy from babies.
• Zig Zagged:
  • The portrayal of the military is dependent on its commander: the unit of the resident General Ripper will predictably turn into a band of deranged murderers posing a grave danger for anyone in their line of sight, while the one under an Officer and a Gentleman would be generally decent fellows.
  • It is only professional offensive-focused armies who are evil. Peasant and city militias are more or less decent. At worst they will loot corpses or kill captive soldiers out of a desire to avenge their loved ones slain by the invaders. Except for slave cities who raid others for captives — when it comes to them, even fortune seekers raiding them back for profit are heroic.
• Averted: The army is not evil.
• Lampshaded: "Good lord, is this an army or a pack of criminals whom they couldn't send to a prison?"
• Invoked:
  • General Bob takes control of the Tropelandic armed forces and plots to stage a coup.
  • General Bob encourages sadism among his troops, hoping it will terrify their enemies.
• Exploited: Sadistic troops are free to indulge their darker interests knowing that their superiors approve.
• Defied:
  • Alice, newly voted president of the Republic of Tropeland, limits the power of the military to keep it from taking over.
  • General Goodman is renowned for maintaining strict discipline among his troops; they are expected to act ethically at all times, even minor conduct violations are harshly punished, and he frequently lectures them on honorable behavior for a soldier.
• Discussed: "Holy crap, do all armed forces there consist of psychopaths!? Don't they have any recruitment standards other than 'two hands strong enough to hold a rifle, two legs able to march wherever needed, two eyes that can see an enemy, and a brain just coherent enough to follow basic commands'?"
• Conversed: "Well, I know you're a hardline pacifist and to-the-bone anti-militarist, but the fact that in all your books, everyone in any and all armed forces is either a deluded warhawk, a psychotic murderer, or both... isn't it too much?"
• Implied: Bob mentions that he's going to join the Army, and his family is universally shocked, horrified, and ashamed.
  Bob: Mum, Dad, I met the recruiter today… Now I'm packing up to leave tomorrow for the Army.
  (everyone stares at him in Stunned Silence for a few seconds as a jar slips out from the hands of Bob's mother)
  Ben (Bob's father): WHAAAT? What in the-
  Belle (Bob's mother): HEAVENS NO! Why did I get such a disgrace of a child?!
  Bill (Bob's brother): Bob, be honest, you're joking.
  Bob: No, I'm serious.
  Ben: Well, it looks like you're not my son anymore.
• Deconstructed:
  • Because petty and sadistic behavior is tolerated among the rank and file, discipline starts to break down, with the Tropelandic military rapidly degrading into an Army of Thieves and Whores. The next time Tropeland has a real war, the army falls apart, and invaders easily take over.
  • The Tropelandic military's evil acts drive Wikistan and other surrounding nations to put aside their differences and unite to wipe Tropeland off the face of earth once and for all.
  • The Tropelandic army is so evil, even to its own people, that the citizens welcome the eventual invasion from Wikistan with open arms and willing support. Wikistanis may be invading, and may not seem like Big Damn Heroes, but they can't possibly be worse than the Tropelandic army, at worst qualifying as a Terrifying Rescuer.
• Reconstructed: The Tropelandic army has such a horrifying reputation for war crimes that many armies are unwilling to face them in the field. In wars with Tropeland, most cities prefer to surrender immediately rather than risk angering the invaders by staging a long siege and 'provoke' them into unleashing utter destruction and mayhem on the population in retaliation.
• Played For Laughs: The Tropelandic Army is a Card-Carrying Villain army that can be easily fooled and defeated because it's Stupid Evil.
• Played For Drama: The actions of the Tropelandic Army tend to leave behind a lot of collateral damage and dead, mutilated bodies.
• Played For Horror: The Tropelandic army re-enacts Kristallnacht all day, every day.