Child Soldiers: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:g00childsoldiers.jpg|link=Mobile Suit Gundam 00|frame|''"We fight this battle not for ourselves, but for our children, and our children's children, which is why I'm forming a children's brigade."'' --[[Futurama|Zapp]] [[General Failure|Brannigan]]]]
{{quote|''"Children, you call them? They can pull a trigger just as well as veterans, and they have the spirit of a bull [[Hold Your Hippogriffs|narthax]]. Call them children if you wish. I call them troops. Good troops."''
|'''Colonel Marus Cullen''', ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''}}
They depend on us to defend them, but we're forcing them to defend us. Sometimes they have an actual talent to help them get through the war, which unfortunately may be the reason they were drafted to begin with, but often it's just tough luck. While the notion of [[Children Are Innocent|innocent childhood]] is a relatively modern adoption (thank the Victorians and their contemporaries), even the ancients still felt fairly queasy about the idea - and with good reason: warfare screws with kids heads, and they're rarely good for much else afterwards. Since the use of child soldiers forces the enemy to gun down children in self defense, it's a very strong contender for [[Moral Event Horizon|the most morally reprehensible war crime in existence]]. On a somewhat lighter side, there are also many stories, in fiction and real life, about boys ([[Sweet Polly Oliver|and girls]]) who lied about their ages in order to serve their countries.
This trope is great for an [[Dark and Troubled Past|angsty backstory]] while at the same time excusing [[Improbable Age]] with prior experience. It can be a result of [[Fielding Old Men and Boys|most of a country's men being dead or a severe numbers disadvantage]]. A staple of the shows which focus on violence but broadcast to kids, notably the more serious [[Mecha Show]]s. It's a good way to subvert [[Children Are Innocent]], particularly if a kid [[Creepy Child|creepily]] sees it [[Not a Game|as a game]], but sometimes the loss of innocence is played for as much drama as can be.
In fiction, this also has the convenience of explaining why [[Person of Mass Destruction|Persons Of Mass Destruction]] are obeying their weaker bosses and not actually running things, or at least not demanding wages and better job conditions. It doesn't occur to them; and even if they do rebel, they don't know how to do it properly.
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This trope blends imperceptibly with [[New Meat]]. Since even legal adults can be teenagers, old soldiers in particular may regard them as no more than children. This trope is [[Truth in Television]]; many armies in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have underaged troops. Furthermore, even Western countries such as Germany, Russia, and the United States have overlooked recruitment ages in major conflicts such as [[World War II]]. This was likely to happen before the late 20th century, because births were not as well documented and the recruiters took them at their word if they looked about the right age. Though it's frowned on by Western culture, there is a certain brutal logic to conscripting youth - everyone is under threat, so everyone fights. Sometimes the children are better off on the front lines than enduring [[War Is Hell|what would happen to them if the enemy takes their village]]. As a more pragmatic and ethical solution, many countries that feature soldiers in the 16-19 age range often utilize them in noncombat or support roles, and/or continue to train them until they're older, resulting in far better psychological health, effectiveness of personnel, and morale overall.
Some [[Super Soldier]]s probably started out early enough to be counted as this. The [[Tyke Bomb]] ([[Laser Guided Tykebomb|of all varieties]]) is what happens when this trope backfires. If a force is forced to recruit Child Soldiers due to a shortage of manpower, they're [[Fielding Old Men and Boys]].
Compare [[Little Miss Badass]], [[Creepy Child]], [[Cute Bruiser]], [[Enfante Terrible]], [[Kid Samurai]], [[New Meat]], [[Young Gun]], [[Recruit Teenagers with Attitude]]. [[Plucky Middie]]. The [[Shell Shocked Senior]] may actually be a high-school senior.
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{{examples}}
== Precociously Talented Type ==
=== Anime
* 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.
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** In the novels, it's mentioned that Gauron himself was one of these: he was fighting for the Khmer Rouge by at least age 12, and probably earlier.
** Sousuke's former comrade, Zaied is also an example, and unlike Sousuke, is played horribly straight, having grown up into an [[Empty Shell]] [[Sociopathic Soldier]], who seems to lack pretty much all social contact, drive and ambition. It makes him a dangerous antagonist and [[Evil Counterpart]] to Sousuke.
* Except for Pluto, all of the Sol senshi in ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' are in junior high when they show up—all of the Inner team are fourteen when they begin, and Venus begins even earlier as Sailor V. Even Uranus and Neptune, shown to be a bit older than the Inner team, are still no more than a year older and thus only fifteen or so. Even worse, Sailor
* ''[[Divergence Eve]]'' has Kotoko-01, though since she's an android it may or may not count.
* ''[[Gundam]]'', even discounting judicious use of [[Falling Into the Cockpit]], has a lot of this, starting with 16-year-old Amuro Ray.
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** Mangaka Masashi Kishimoto is queasy about actually killing off members of his young protagonist set outright (aside from [[Disney Death|feints]], [[Death by Flashback|flashbacks]], and [[Christmas Cake|characters over 25]]), but has no such qualms about having enemy shinobi bite the dust. Fair enough... [[Fridge Logic|up until you realize]] that all of Orochimaru's non-filler Quirky Miniboss Squads, minus Kabuto, are no older than the junior-high-aged protagonists when they die horribly.
** Some characters start even younger, as Kakashi graduated at the age of 5, became a Chunin at 6, and by 13, was a Jonin who would have died on several occasions if not for his teammate Rin's medical ninjutsu.
* The armed forces of the Space-Time Administration Bureau from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' doesn't seem to have a minimum age requirement. Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate become active members at the age of nine and proceed to sky-rocket through its ranks. Unlike most examples, the child soldiers of the series all join out of their own volition. (However, there's unfortunate implications that this is a [[Boxed Crook]] arrangement for everyone except Nanoha, as these tend to be the opponents of previous seasons; and anyone ''not'' working for the TSAB is still in prison or at least confined to a frontier world.) In crossover fanfic it's not unusual for others to find this disconcerting.
** Played more darkly in Runessa Magnus' backstory in ''[[StrikerS Sound Stage X]]''. She fought in wars on her homeworld of Orussia, but was rescued by an NGO after being severely wounded at the age of 9.
** The TSAB looks more like a police/firefighter force. The characters' job is to arrest bad guys, avoiding lethal force as much as possible, and to rescue people from disasters. Definitely a dangerous job, but far less scarring than a "job" where you have to kill or be killed. But even that is darker in SSX, where we're reminded that working in Disaster Relief means that when you fail, you see people die.
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* The oldest member of the [[So Ra No Wo To|1121st Helvetian Tank Platoon]] is 18 years old. The youngest is 14.
* ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'' has the titular team fighting against a terrorist organization, despite the fact that most of them are teenagers and [[Kid Appeal Character|Jinpei]] is only about 10 or 11.
=== Comic Books ===
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===
* 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.
* In ''[[Exoria]]'', Hylian Joint Intelligence is revealed to have hijacked the Spencer Welfare Program, an initiative designed to raise and educate orphaned children so they can serve the government when then grow up. Joint Intelligence keeps tabs on the program to search for candidates for the intelligence agency, and provide them underage military training covertly. Agent Link became an exceedingly young agent of Joint Intelligence this way. On one hand, Link doesn't seem to be too badly off with this upbringing, but Princess Zelda clearly disapproves, and, given the story's narrative slant, it's too early to tell how this will come back to bite Link in the ass.
* In ''[[The Mad Scientist Wars]]'', Commander Primary Xerox, head of [[The Men in Black]]-style organization '''M''' is somewhere between the two types. {{spoiler|Up until the age of ten he was trained along with other children to be an assassin, and sent to kill Mad Scientists.}} On one hand, he has amazing reflexes and a great deal of weapon training, but on the other hand {{spoiler|The guilt of his only ''mostly'' repressed memories has haunted his adult life, and he's never really recovered from the emotional stress. And he has the ''body'' of a Jaded Vet to go along with his mentality.}}
* ''[[DC Nation
* Tabitha, as portrayed in the ''[[
* Brutally Deconstructed during the ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]''
{{quote|''"What am I supposed to do now?" Henry whispered. His body let go of itself and Henry fell right next to the immense rookie Digimon.''
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''"Of course! If the kids do it, it's because it's easy, right?"''}}
* Again, this is a major premise of ''Naruto'', so it naturally comes up in the ''Naruto/Justice League'' [[Crossover]] ''[[Connecting the Dots]]''. The principled Justice League is horrified to discover there is a whole dimension of child assassins, even though Flash points out that the League employs plenty of teenagers.
* The Cutie Mark Crusaders officially become ones in chapter 16 of ''[[Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]''. To their credit, they actually ''want'' to fight the griffins and they helped in defending Ponyville
* ''[[The Servants of Ungoliant
* Expressed and discussed in ''[[The Secret Return of Alex Mack]]''. Jack O'Neill can't help but see Alex and the other super-powered teens in his command as [[Child Soldiers]], and feels guilty about it. It comes to a head when eight-year-old Shar (who has unmatched [[Kill It with Fire|elemental fire powers]]) manages to get herself onto the battlefield against {{spoiler|Gojira}}; it doesn't matter that she's the one who actually took down the foe, Jack goes ballistic about a prepubescent combatant and she gets banned from even getting near to any future SRI operations.
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=== Tabletop Games ===
* The citizens of the planet Cadia in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' 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. While Whiteshields do have stats, the only official miniatures ever printed for them look like adults.
** [[Space Marine]]s, 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.
*** As in so many other things, [[Space Wolves]] are the exception. They take in valorous young men on the brink of death, usually in their twenties (leading the population of their planet Fenris to see their order as a [[Warrior Heaven]] in itself, but that is neither here nor there). Although we're never given figures on the success rate, the [[Honor Before Reason|wisdom]] of this is uncertain; when Leman Russ was found by the Emperor, his [[Band of Brothers|associates]] all volunteered to become Space Marines, and over half died from implant rejection. On the other hand, few of them were young in any way, and several were downright [[Badass Grandpa|elderly]].
* The premise of [[Bliss Stage]] is that the only people left who can fight the [[Alien Invasion]] are teenagers.
* A number of races in Warhammer Fantasy do this as well. Dark Elves begin training the moment they are strong enough to pick up a sword or spear. All Bretonian knights start off as a Knight Errant. Once the young knights have proven their worth in the field of battle, they are knighted and receive a small plot of land to rule.
=== Video Games ===
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** Kog'Maw, who's still an infant, but because he's an infant [[Eldritch Abomination]] who destroys everything in his path, no one minds.
** While she's grown up now, Riven's backstory indicates that she was a fanatical child soldier for Noxus.
* ''[[Blitter Boy]]'' is this, acording to [[Word of God]].
=== Web Comics ===
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===
* As ''[[Neon Genesis 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
* ''[[Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness
* The ''[[Firefly]]'' fanfic ''[[Forward]]'' has a reveal later on that some of [[School for Scheming|the Academy's]] test subjects are pre-teens. It is implied that one of them managed to kill several security guards when a training exercise went out of control.
* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' fanfic ''[[Poke Wars|Dawn of a New Era]]'' features the eponymous Pokémon coordinator as a badass but broken warrior.
=== Film ===
* ''[[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.
▲** Specifically, there is a scene where the soldiers suit up to defend Helm's Deep and we see a number of people being armed are ''very'' young boys needed to up their soldier count. Mercifully, we're never shown the kids doing any actually combat besides throwing stones at the besiegers from the wall.
▲*** Which is not to say that they aren't implied to having fought, we just don't see them die either. Judging by the heavy casualties suffered by the defenders, it is safe to say that most of these children will have been cut down by the Uruk-Hai.
* ''[[Downfall (film)|Downfall]]'' features a girl of about 12 'manning' an 88mm gun at the Battle of Berlin. When everything appears hopeless, her not-much-older comrade shoots her at her own request, then kills himself.
* Good lord, the [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] Pure Ones in ''[[Legend
* Sam Peckinpah's ''Cross of Iron'' features a Russian boy soldier who is captured by the German characters.
** He was later released by the protagonist, to promptly be shot by a passing Russian soldier. Cue [[Heroic BSOD|Protagonist BSOD]].
* In the 1959 German movie ''Die Brücke'' (''The Bridge''), a group of Hitler Youth tragically try to defend their hometown from American tanks.
** Even more tragic, the bridge had no strategic importance, their teacher had them send there in order to keep them away from actual fighting. Additional the bridge was meant to be destroyed anyway.
* In ''The Straight Story'' ([[David Lynch]]'s most logical film yet), one scene has Alvin Straight recounting [[Shell Shocked Senior|his experiences]] in [[WWII]], in which he had to kill a bunch of Hitler Youth.
* In USSR there were
** Heavily subverted in the film ''Till the first blood'' where a war game in summer camp begins to resemble an actual war more and more.
* Another Russian film series ''The Uncatchable Avengers'' features four teenagers (3 boys and 1 girl) fighting in the Russian Civil War(1918-1924).
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* In ''[[Doctor Zhivago (film)|Doctor Zhivago]],'' during the Russian Civil War, the Red Army unit in which Zhivago is serving as a medical officer comes under fire from a (presumably White) machine-gun nest in the distance. The Reds shoot all their attackers dead, then approach the nest and find that, while they are wearing some sort of uniform, they are only boys, except for one old man. One Red looks closer at a uniform and says, astonished, "St. Michael's Military School?!" To the dead old man: "You rotten bastard!"
* ''[[Lord of War]]'': West African dictator André Baptiste has a military unit composed entirely of child soldiers which he calls the "Kalashnikov Kids" and his "Boy Brigade".
* In ''[[Master and Commander (film)|Master and Commander: The Far Side of
* The whole Harry Potter series is about kids getting caught up in their elders' war and recruited/forced to fight in it in various capacities. This is an instance of "Precociously Talented Type" and "Just Plain Tragic Type" combined.
* In ''Taps'', cadets at a [[Military School]] find out that the [[Adults Are Useless|useless adults]] are planning to close the school and sell the land to condo developers. With the school's commander in the hospital, they decide that [[Saving the Orphanage|they will not allow this to happen]] and barricade themselves within its walls with weapons from the well-stocked armory. This leads to the inevitable standoff with the national guard.
* In ''[[The Horse Soldiers]]'', [[John Ford]] plays this for tears and laughs.
=== Literature ===
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** Thousands of children served in rebel militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the First (1996) and Second Congo War (1998). Trained to be cold-blooded killers by all sides.
** Sierra Leone Civil War (1991) in where else but, Sierra Leone. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) recruited/kidnapped thousands of children to serve in their armies by means of brainwashing, threats, and grooming. They were trained to massacre villages with machetes and machine guns, killing people indiscriminately. The government itself also wasn't against using children to fight the rebels.
***According to James Dunnigan, that sort of thing is a lot of what people find disgusting about the idea. It's not like the [[Master and Commander (film)]] ideal of a [[Plucky Middie]] being raised by reasonably civilized officers and comrades in arms, but more like the male counterpart to sex trafficking. The former could make men but the latter tends to make orcs. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on the point.
* Many 'developed' countries have soldiers who are 16 or 17 years old.
** In Sweden, career NCOs (i.e. corporals and sergeants) used to enlist straight after leaving primary school (i.e. 9th grade) at age 16 or 17. (That practice has since then been abolished, because those chaps were too uneducated to deal with the modern military environment.)
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* It is notable the prior to the 21st Century under age or child soldiers were very common.
** [[Values Dissonance|It had been acceptable up to a certain point]] to use very young volunteers or conscripts as long as there was a war emergency and manpower was short (explosive growth of world population became just after [[World War Two]]). The custom [[It Got Worse|backfired horribly]] when it became obvious that in some remote places of Africa or Southeast Asia, where education was poor from private to general officer, military discipline was even poorer and the youngsters grew into [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|little more than criminals and bandits]]. With [[Break the Cutie|no further posibility to integrate]] in a normal society.
* The [[Vietnam War|Viet Cong]] tended to assign them and anyone else not up to fighting to minelaying detail [[Combat Pragmatism|reasonably enough]] but there were exceptions and once in awhile one can hear a story from a [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] of waking up horrified to find he had killed a child in a nighttime firefight.
* The average Khmer Rouge soldier was younger than 20, some as young as 10 or 12 years old. Under Pol Pot's reign the Khmer Rouge commited genocide that killed 1/4 of Cambodia's population.
* Ghenghis Khan, and other historic military figures, were child soldiers (by modern standards, child labor laws did not exsist for most part before Steam). Which was fairly normal during his time as killing was a job that some did better than others. Tragic in the sense that he graduated from child soldier to lead the famous Mongol Horde and kill (conservatively) several million people.
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