Child Soldiers: Difference between revisions

 

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* Sousuke Sagara from ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]!''. By the start of the series, Sousuke's 16 years old and has been fighting for pretty much his whole life, having been raised as a mujaheddin in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion.

** This is apparently [[Truth in Television]], which is why many child soldiers are from the Middle East in anime. ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'' also uses this and ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' made a reference to it.

 

 

** I'd call a sidekick to a [[Super Soldier]] fighting in actual warzones a child soldier even before we add the [[Cloak and Dagger]] elements to his character.

* Arguably, all of [[Batman]]'s Robins. An eight-year-old Dick Grayson and ten-year-old Damian Wayne fit the description better than the others, however.

* Hell, ''any'' [[Kid Sidekick]] is arguably this.

* Hit Girl from ''[[Kick-Ass]]'' is a strange case, because not only is she aware of her status as this, but she's far more capable than the 16 year old title character. {{spoiler|After her father gets killed, Kick-Ass helps her track down her mother, and she goes back to a normal life like nothing bad ever happened.}}

** In [[Kick-Ass (film)|the movie]], {{spoiler|her mother is really dead, so she returns to a normal life - probably devoid of bullies, but that's a detail - with just Dave as a guardian.}}

** Metaphorically Marrow was also a child soldier. Being forced to kill fellow Morlocks in order to survive and being indoctrinated to hate normal humans for no apparent reason.

 

 

* A particularly ridiculous version is the ''[[Star Trek]]'' fanfiction series about [[Marissa Picard]], in which a twelve-year-old is given command of the Enterprise saucer section, and does so well with it that she is permanently promoted to Ensign (not acting, like Wesley Crusher at 16). She starts up a "Kids' Crew" organization that is basically a shadow government for starships, in which children, none of whom seem to be over 12, can take over the running of a ship if its senior crew are incapacitated. Their ranks are acting, but so long as they're still 'activated' they can tell any properly commissioned officer what to do. Few of the adults over whose heads they jump seem to mind, and those that do quite reasonably resent it are depicted as idiots.

** By way of comparison, in TNG, there was a "cadet crew" made up of some of the teens and older pre-teens, but their activities were realistically limited. The only time they actually did anything "for real" was during an exceptionally severe shipwide emergency where everyone available was needed. Even then, they were limited to doing what they'd actually learned.

 

 

* It was the plot of ''[[Toys (film)|Toys]]''. {{spoiler|What else was Leland going to do with the kids?}}

* Implied a bit in ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]''. Between mannerisms and personality, Bumblebee seems to be in the Cybertronian analogue of his mid-teens, and the Twins give the distinct impression of being the equivalent of twelve. They are, of course, probably older than most human civilizations, but they're young for their species.

 

 

* From ''[[Frasier]]'', on Frasier and Niles' Greek aunt Zora.

{{quote|'''Niles:''' Have you forgotten that when Hitler invaded Greece, she joined the partisans so she could strangle Nazis?

 

 

* The eponymous kid from the ''[[Ender's Game]]'' series.

** And, to an only slightly lesser extent, the majority of characters in that series (or at least the first book).

 

 

* The citizens of the planet Cadia in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' are trained from birth for combat, mainly due to the fact that their planet is parked riameght outside a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] that leads straight to hell, and frequently spews forth the [[Legions of Hell]]. The birth rate and recruitment rate is the same thing. Their soldiers enter combat as part of the youth army, the "Whiteshields," at age 13. They only get promoted to the full army by earning a medal. And they are ''badass''. A common saying is that any Cadian who can't field-strip his own lasgun by the age of ten was born on the wrong planet.

** [[Space Marine|Space Marines]], due to the requirements of their [[Applied Phlebotinum|implants]], are inducted into the chapter at around the onset of puberty, and the [[The Spartan Way|entry requirements]] make sure they must be well-versed in the act of war before they're even considered. Their transformation into full-fledged Space Marines isn't complete by the time they're seeing battle as part of the chapter's Scout Company.

 

 

* Latooni, Seolla, Arado, and Princess Shine from ''[[Super Robot Wars]]''. The first three are [[Tyke Bomb|Tykebombs]], while the fourth is a [[Everything's Better with Princesses|princess]] who isn't ''technically'' enlisted, and is simply allowed to fight alongside the other heroes to protect her [[The Kingdom|Kingdom]].

** Also, Mihiro Ardygun in ''[[Super Robot Wars W]]'', who co-pilots the Valhawk with her older brother (himself 16) at the age of 10. {{spoiler|During the [[Time Skip]], while her brother was missing, she took over piloting duties full-time.}} Though not a soldier ''officially'', she does fight on behalf of a government organization that does include several soldiers, including the aforementioned child soldiers from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing|Gundam Wing]]'' and ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]''.

** While she's grown up now, Riven's backstory indicates that she was a fanatical child soldier for Noxus.

 

* The title character in ''[[Terinu]]'' was raised by [[Space Pirate]] Mavra Chan to be an assassin, starting at the tender age of nine. His best friend Matt was sold ''by his own father'' to Chan to serve as a cook's mate on the same ship at the age of eleven. It's a sufficiently [[Crapsack World]] that in Matt's case this was distinct improvement over his previous situation.

* Karcharoth of [[Cry Havoc]] was conscripted at the age of six, and has been fighting in one army or another for fifteen years. Understandably he has a rather distorted view of life. He was recruited due to his minor, but growing, psychic powers.

 

 

* [[Proud Warrior Race|Sirene]] from the [[Play-By-Post Games|forum RP]] ''[[Open Blue]]'' is a highly militarised country that drafts children as young as 12 for a four-year service, with the exception of children qualified for technical schooling instead. Not even royals are exempt.

* Zero Takaichi of [[Tasakeru]] joined with the Militia and became a samurai at age 13, as is the custom for males of his species.

 

 

* Occasionally implied in the [[Transformers]] metaseries with the younger-minded characters. Done outright in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' with Sari {{spoiler|especially after she turns out to be a [[Robot Girl]]}} and is pushed into the front lines in season 3.

** The episode "Human Error" {{spoiler|(where the main 'bots are shown in analogous human bodies)}} shows that Bumblebee is the Cybertronian equivalent of [[Toy Ship|roughly her age]].

 

 

* [[Now and Then Here and There]] deals with this trope in an almost unwatchably brutal manner.

* The various groups employing Contractors in ''[[Darker Than Black]]'' don't really care much about issues like "age." As such, kids who manifest powers tend to be [[The Corps Is Mother|grabbed up immediately]], [[Unperson|Unpersoned]], and trained as assassins or other special agents. Additionally, Hei {{spoiler|was a [[Badass Normal]] one; he fought in Heaven's War to protect his Contractor little sister}}, and one flashback makes it clear he wasn't more than about 16 when he first got involved.

 

 

* In ''[[Justice Society of America|The Last Days of the Justice Society]]'', [[The Flash]] is shot and killed by a child soldier during the fall of Berlin.

* Mariane Satrapi's ''[[Persepolis]]'' featured a portrayal of the real life Iranian unit of children, who were walked into the minefields to detonate them ahead of the troops.

 

 

* As Evangelion fics, ''[[Aeon Natum Engel]]'' and ''[[Aeon Entelechy Evangelion]]'' both fall under this. Since they are based in the ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'' setting and written by Earth Scorpion, it gets lampshaded a lot and criticized by the proper military of NEG. Played differently with Asuka, who is irritated that many things that she thinks will improve her piloting are restricted from her because of her age (like cybernization).

* [[Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness|Dumbledore's Army.]] At least half of the members die horribly, and a good amount are crippled or killed in the sequel. However, the fic tends to glorify the hardened child soldiers in comparison to Harry, who hasn't embraced the military mindset.

 

 

* ''[[Blood Diamond]]'' shows the kidnapping and indoctrination of the son of one of the main characters. Includes the real-life practice of giving kids amphetamines to kill any feeling of fear or guilt -- and killing their relatives so they can't go back. Also features children killing children with AK-47s.

* Glimpsed in ''The Two Towers'' in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.

 

 

* The midshipmen in ''[[Master and Commander]]'' books, tragically a case of [[Truth in Television]].

** ''[[Aubrey-Maturin]]'' is not the only example -- middies in Napoleonic naval fiction are commonly in action. Richard Bolitho destroys a pirate ship at sixteen, while [[Horatio Hornblower]] captured a French privateer at seventeen. Lord Ramage took to sea at thirteen. The minimum age in the Royal Navy was twelve for midshipmen, and eighteen for lieutenants. These restrictions were commonly relaxed, especially for members of prominent families.

* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'', one of the laws in the warrior code is that kits must be six moons old (the feline equivalent of about age 10) to begin training, and even then they don't see battle until they're more experienced. This rule stemmed from too many kits being trained at too young an age; it took their mothers refusing to fight in a battle to make the Clan leaders see sense. This law has been broken once during the books: Brokenstar trained ShadowClan kits to fight when they were barely weaned from their mothers, and as a result many of the Clan's kits died in battle.

* In ''Chanda's Wars'' by Allan Stratton, Chanda's siblings are taken by a warlord in an [[Bulungi|unnamed Sub-Saharan African country]] to be soldiers.

 

 

* The series finale of ''[[JAG]]'' had one of the officers dealing with a marine who is actually only 16 years who lied about his age signing up. To resolve the situation, the lawyer talks the Marine Corps into making the kid an honorary Marine before he is sent home to his mother with a promise that they would be delighted to recruit him legally when the time is right.

* Dealt with in several later-season episodes of ''[[M*A*S*H|M* A* S* H]]''.

{{quote|'''Strax:''' It's all right. I've had a good life. I'm nearly twelve.}}

 

* Turns up several times in the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' universe, particularly in the [[All There in the Manual|supporting materials]]. The defence of Hive Hellsreach during the Second Battle for Armageddon is one of the more poignant examples.

{{quote|Evacuees will be restricted to those below the age of seven (plus one parent/guardian) and those above the age of ninety. Regrettably, there are not enough places for everyone, so each person eligible for evacuation will be assigned a number. [...] If you are not eligible for evacuation you will be immediately assigned to a hive defence unit - details of where to report will follow this announcement.}}

 

* The Wole Soyinka play ''Travel Club and Boy Soldier'' is about a military coup in an unspecified third-world nation, and the "Commandant" who's leading the whole thing is, well, the titular boy soldier. He's a teenager when the takeover happens, but he's been in the army for years by that point.

* ''[[Les Misérables (theatre)|Les Misérables]]'' features Gavroche, who tags along with the student revolutionaries (who are themselves implied in several songs to be at ''most'' in their early 20s) and {{spoiler|manages to take 2 bullets while collecting ammunition for the students before he is fatally shot in the head}}.

 

 

* ''[[Suikoden II]]'' is the ur-example of this trope. The story begins two friends who, during military training in a youth brigade, are attacked by their own country's forces dressed up as a neighboring nation's units, just to justify going to war with that nation. Many child soliders such as Pohl are ven killed (in his case, run through by Luca Blight).

* The protagonist of ''[[Planetarian]]'' is a former child soldier, and has [[Flashback Nightmare|Flashback Nightmares]] about the experience throughout the game.

 

 

* Cloud's mom, Ye Thuza, from ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'' was recently revealed to have been with Burmese rebels when she was only 16. While it hasn't been explored in much detail yet, it's certainly demonstrated a touch more seriously than the overall tone of the comic, [[Don't Explain the Joke|apart from being half of a punchline in which Ye Thuza remarks she's "always been a rebel" while comparing her life as an American housewife to her years in Burma]].

* [[Ruby's World]] uses this as the base of the conflict; the villains regularly use third world children as material for their cybernetic super-soldiers, and several of the young heroes have this blood-stained technology in their bodies.

 

 

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Aang--the only character who knows what it is to live in a time of peace (other than Bumi, who is at this point over a 100 years old)--is the last survivor of a genocide. Then you have [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Jet]], Sokka (who is basically put in charge of the defence of an entire village ''and'' an invasion), ''Zuko'' (the poster child for emotionally/physically scarred [[Child Soldiers]]), Katara (her childhood ended at ''nine'')... Heck, one of the main villains is a ''fourteen year old girl'' {{spoiler|who ends up having a [[Villainous Breakdown]]}}. It's even lampshaded a few times.

{{quote|'''Katara:''' I haven't done this since I was a kid!

 

 

* A celebrated moment of Mexican history eulogizes the last stand of the cadets who defended the Chapultepec castle against the U.S. Army and a storming part of U.S. Marines during the Mexican-American War. They are called "Los Niños Héroes" (The Child Heroes) making an allusion to their young age. They all existed and their names are real (despite many "revisionist" claims), however, one episode of high controversy is when one of the cadets, Juan Escutia or Juan de la Barrera (different cadets), threw himself to the abyss of the Grasshopper Hill rather than die at the hands of the enemy, while holding the Mexican Flag, which wrapped around his body during the fall. This, however is false. It may come from three episoes: one was when after the Battle of Molino del Rey, a soldier named Margarito Zuazo hid his batallion's flag wrapped around him below his uniform to avoid capture. The second one comes from Escutia's death: he was a sniper at the top of the castle, a bullet hit him and he fell to the abyss. Another one comes from a poem that said that another cadet, Agustín Melgar, "surrounded by enemies you shoot your weapon, and having no hope, rather than you surrendering, you wrap yourself in the flag and show your youthful bosom to the bullets of the invaders". These two made way for the popular myth that's still told in history classes.

** One of those cadets was 13 and another was 14, but the other four were 18, 19 and 20 years old.