Generation Kill: Difference between revisions

* [[Cultured Warrior]]: Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert and Sgt. Antonio "Poke" Espera are this to some degree, but Sgt. Rudy Reyes is the unchallenged king of Bravo Company.

* [[Cunning Linguist]]: Meesh is an overweight, nineteen-year old Kuwaiti who wears a Grateful Dead shirt underneath his chemical-and-biological-weapons protection, is a serious dope smoker, and happens to be the entire Battalion's translator.

* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: The Marines start calling Trombley "Whopper Jr", which is a roundabout way of calling him Baby Killer<ref>Whopper Jr ---> Burger King ---> BK ---> Baby Killer</ref>. The name is used affectionately.

* [[Dramatic Gun Cock]]: "Gentlemen, from now on we're gonna have to earn our stories."

* [[Heroic Sociopath]]: A strangely literal case in the form of Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley, who joined the Marines specifically to shoot people, showed an unnatural desire to see the results of his kills even from a civilian boy he accidentally shot, and who said that combat was far less nerve-wracking to him than watching game shows at home.

{{quote| '''Person:''' "That's 'cause he's a psycho. But at least he's our psycho."}}

** Person needs [[Twilight|Emmet Cullen]] move the fucking Humvee.

* [[Hollywood Tactics]]: Completely averted.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdaQHTWT_ZI "Always run in a serpentine fashion!"]

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: Everyone in the platoon feel sore at Trombley for an incident where he shot a pair of civilians {{spoiler|who turned out to be unarmed children.}} At the same time, they respect Trombley's skill because he only fired a few shots but still managed to hit both of his targets multiple times center mass at over 200 meters ''from a moving vehicle.'' In the book, Wright relates his mixed feeling about the shooting; he's dismayed by the child's injury, but admits that when Trombley was on the gun, he couldn't help feeling a little safer.

** In an interview, Wright confessed that he wasn't so much concerned about shooting a civilian as he was about causing all the Marines to shoot at something that wasn't a target (his potentially accidental gunshot setting off a full-fire from the rest of the platoon). Apparently he never even kept his finger near the trigger to avoid it.

** There's also the old man at the end of a refugee column who gets killed when a Marine fires off a 40mm smoke grenade to warn off a passing car, only for the grenade to ricochet off the pavement and into the back of his head so hard it looks worse than a gunshot wound.

* [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]: In contrast to the hyper-competent shooting of the Marines, the Iraqis can't seem to hit the ground with their hat. Probably explained by the fact that most of the regular army had retreated or deserted, and the fighters the Marines encountered were [[We Have Reserves|little more than cannon-fodder]].

* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Brad Colbert has shades of this trope, usually condemning religion and the desire to have children, he has a [[Freudian Excuse]] though

{{quote| '''Lt. Fick''': We don't have anything to worry about. Captain America is using the [[What an Idiot!|wrong authorization codes and the wrong grid coordinates.]]}}

* [[Kicked Upstairs]]: Sort of happens to Encino Man and Captain America, the resident Niedermeyers. They get removed from frontline duty and placed into desk jobs so that the Marines can get competent officers who are actually damn good at commanding troops in battle.

** Turns out that Person was on Ripped Fuel (heavily laced with stimulants and technically banned in the Marine Corps) for the entire invasion, making him a weeeeee bit crazy. When they eventually settle in Baghdad and Person crashes from going cold turkey, Wright specifically points out that he's a completely different person, and even ''more'' competent.

** In the novel's new afterword after the HBO series, he was completely polite after the actors took him out to dinner... and then, shortly after they left, reverted to his old persona and called them pussies and morons for "getting PTSD from filming."<ref>The actors talked about how hard it was to readjust to civilian life after filming.</ref>

* [[Power Trio]]: First Recon's command staff, consisting of Lt. Col. Ferrando, Sgt. Maj. Sixta, and Maj. Todd Eckloff.

* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: The Marines expected--[[Worthy Opponent|and possibly anticipated]]--the well-trained, well-equipped and presumably well-disciplined Fedayeen. Instead, they mostly encountered press-ganged farmers and duped foreign jihadis, who were little more than [[Red Shirt|speed bumps]] to slow down the American advance while the more valuable soldiers got away.

* [[Throw It In]]: An interesting case. The actor who was slated to play Sgt. Rudy Reyes became unavailable. In a stroke of genius, they hired one of their military advisers to play the role... Rudy Reyes himself.

* [[True Companions]]: The men of First Recon seem to be this, even accepting the reporter as part of their team. The reporter is a subversion; this type of character is usually the [[Butt Monkey]] to the far more badass troops he's around. This is how it ''starts,'' but it quickly switches around when he mentions having written for ''Hustler'', and his status in the close-knit group is further cemented when he stays after his first time being shot at instead of leaving immediately thereafter. In the book, Wright notes that he thought everyone hated him as early as Camp Matilda when Marines would start ambushing him around corners and poking him in the side with their knives; when he saw them doing it to each other as a way of passing the time, he realized it meant they were actually starting to like him.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: Do ''not'' bring Charms candy into any Marine vehicle. It's ''bad luck''<ref> The book mentions an incident when Trombley quickly and surreptitiously eats a bag of Charms candy, telling the reporter not to tell anyone. Nothing bad happens</ref>.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: The Marines acknowledge the fact that many of the Iraqi, feyadeen, and foreign troops who do stand and fight them have to be brave and disciplined men.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Turn of the Millennium/Live Action TV]]

[[Category:Military and Warfare Television]]

[[Category:American Series]]