Just Following Orders: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'All right. All right. I don't like it any more than you, but I told you. I can't disod- disoy - not do what I'm told. 'M'a'nangel.'}} |
{{quote|'All right. All right. I don't like it any more than you, but I told you. I can't disod- disoy - not do what I'm told. 'M'a'nangel.'}} |
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** Ironically, near the end of the book it's ''Aziraphale'' who points out, while trying to convince Crowley not to leave the mortals to confront Satan alone, "Lots of people in history have only done their jobs, and look at the trouble ''they'' caused." |
** Ironically, near the end of the book it's ''Aziraphale'' who points out, while trying to convince Crowley not to leave the mortals to confront Satan alone, "Lots of people in history have only done their jobs, and look at the trouble ''they'' caused." |
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* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], Tenn Graneet |
* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], Tenn Graneet – the head gunner on the [[Death Star]] – while gripped by the [[Being Evil Sucks|enormity]] of [[My God, What Have I Done?|what he did]], can't justify it in any way, even if justifications flick through his mind. Following orders to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroy an inhabited planet]], even if refusing just would have meant they killed him and got a new gunner to do his job, is [[Moral Event Horizon|unforgivable]] to the rest of the galaxy... and to him. |
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** He does, however, inadvertently save the Rebellion by not firing immediately after ordered. He says "Stand by" twice before Luke's torpedoes hit the reactor. |
** He does, however, inadvertently save the Rebellion by not firing immediately after ordered. He says "Stand by" twice before Luke's torpedoes hit the reactor. |
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** Since the Empire [[Putting on the Reich|resembles Nazi Germany]], sympathetic Imperials wrestle with this trope a lot in the Expanded Universe. |
** Since the Empire [[Putting on the Reich|resembles Nazi Germany]], sympathetic Imperials wrestle with this trope a lot in the Expanded Universe. |
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* Ranga Sanga in the [[Belisarius Series]] both plays this straight and subverts it. He ''fights'' for the bad guys because of his [[I Gave My Word|feudal duties]] but doesn't commit atrocities for them and turns on them when they [[Berserk Button|go too far]]. |
* Ranga Sanga in the [[Belisarius Series]] both plays this straight and subverts it. He ''fights'' for the bad guys because of his [[I Gave My Word|feudal duties]] but doesn't commit atrocities for them and turns on them when they [[Berserk Button|go too far]]. |
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** Belisarius himself, goes out of his way to order his men not to commit [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]] on random civilians and in fact harshly punishes those who do such things. Those are of course good orders. |
** Belisarius himself, goes out of his way to order his men not to commit [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]] on random civilians and in fact harshly punishes those who do such things. Those are of course good orders. |
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* In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's play |
* In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's play ''[[Judas Maccabeus]]'', Jason, King Antiochus' [[Les Collaborateurs|appointed]] High Priest, pleads that he was just following orders. Judah Maccabee basically tells him [[The Reason You Suck Speech|no dice]], the King used him to do dirty work because he is a dirty person – and then orders him exiled from Israel. The whole conversation could have taken place at [[World War II|Nuremberg]]. |
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* In Bernhard Schlink's ''[[The Reader]]'', Hanna is prosecuted as a war criminal when she is found to have been a concentration camp guard who oversaw a forced prisoner march. The guards were ordered not to lose any prisoners, and so locked them inside a church on an overnight stop. When the church caught fire, the guards chose to leave the doors chained rather than risk that any might escape, and all 300 prisoners died. When questioned about this, she points to her orders, and asks the judge naively, "What would you have done?" |
* In Bernhard Schlink's ''[[The Reader]]'', Hanna is prosecuted as a war criminal when she is found to have been a concentration camp guard who oversaw a forced prisoner march. The guards were ordered not to lose any prisoners, and so locked them inside a church on an overnight stop. When the church caught fire, the guards chose to leave the doors chained rather than risk that any might escape, and all 300 prisoners died. When questioned about this, she points to her orders, and asks the judge naively, "What would you have done?" |
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* Referenced in [[World War Z]]. A unit of the German army has been ordered to retreat to a more defensible location and abandon the civilians they have been defending to the zombies. Despite the fact that he understands the awful necessity of it -their position was in imminent danger of being overrun and to stay would be a futile gesture- the officer being interviewed is appalled that the theatre commander was capable of giving this order, for everyone who enlists in the German military has it impressed on them that their first and most important duty is to their conscience. |
* Referenced in [[World War Z]]. A unit of the German army has been ordered to retreat to a more defensible location and abandon the civilians they have been defending to the zombies. Despite the fact that he understands the awful necessity of it -their position was in imminent danger of being overrun and to stay would be a futile gesture- the officer being interviewed is appalled that the theatre commander was capable of giving this order, for everyone who enlists in the German military has it impressed on them that their first and most important duty is to their conscience. |
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