Mildly Military: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"We do not prop ourselves up on ceremony in the Corps, whatever you may have been used to in the Navy."''|'''Lt. John Granby''', ''[[Temeraire|His Majesty's Dragon]]''}}

* The military of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' is highly undisciplined. Hikaru and other pilots regularly talk back to their superior officers, even going so far as to insult them after being given simple orders. In addition Roy Focker openly carries on an romantic relationship with a superior officer throughout the series. Hikaru especially commits all sorts of insubordinationsinsubordination including deserting his post to watch a beauty contest. No one is ever reprimanded for this behavior.

* Although it appears this way on the surface in ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]: Stand Alone Complex]]'', it's actually mostly subverted hard. Section Nine are [[True Companions]], and will joke around sometimes, but there is a definite pecking order. The Major can and will pull rank whenever she feels her natural leadership abilities aren't enough, and the other members will always comply, though sometimes grudgingly. And ''nobody'' argues with Aramaki, not ever. On the rare occasion this trope is played straight, it's justified in that Section Nine is a small black ops team and gets a lot more leeway than the regular military.

** As to Aramaki, he doesn't really appear to have any kind of military chain-of-command type control over Section 9, he himself has stated hes nothing more than a politician. That being said he is the one who had the idea to create Section 9 in the first place, is implied to have more political power than the Prime Minister (the supposed head of the Japanese government in [[Git S]]GitS), is shown to be very capable in his own right in a messy situation, and has earned the fierce loyalty of the Section 9 members he has brought together by returning it in kind. And then add in the fact that everyone is pants-shittingly '''TERRIFIED''' of the man... there are reasons everyone calls him the "Old Ape."

*** In a Japan as corrupt as in ''Ghost in the Shell'' having more power than the prime minister isn't that impressive.

** Similarly averted in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory]]'', where Kou Uraki is court -martialed for his theft of the GP-03 (no matter how much one thinks it might be justified, that's just the way it is) and is released because Captain Synapse committed suicide to take responsibility for it.

* Justified in ''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]''. His lack of, well, any sense of pride, dignity, or responsibility is responsible for causing half the crew to nearly descend into insanity. At one point, a GHOST''ghost'' becomes disgusted with him, and leaves. Death is mercy compared to living with Tylor.

* On a similar note to the above ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' has a crew with... very [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|peculiar character traits]]. Justified on two levels, however. The first is that they are officially working for a heavy arms company, not the military (though they ally with military, who itself is pretty mild on the military scale). The second is that the company wanted to build the best crew possible for their ship, ignoring all character flaws.

* The Time/Space Administrative Bureau in ''[[Lyrical Nanoha|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' is organized rather informally. Not that they aren't fairly loose even for this, but they act more like a ''police force'' with expensive toys all the way up to a sizable fleet than they do a conventional military. Their interests seem to be solely in capturing criminals, peacekeeping, and disaster prevention/rescue, never in taking or holding territory.

** This is given a nice lampshade in ''[[NanohaMagical StrikerGirl Lyrical Nanoha S|StrikerS]]'', where during a conversation Hayate had with Major Nakajima, it's mentioned that while ace mages (such as Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate herself) tend to get promoted ''very'' quickly, the ranks are really there for show more than anything else. It's made obvious what is meant by that during the same scene; Hayate is a Lieutenant Colonel, and thus technically Nakajima's superior, but both of them act like Nakajima's the one in charge.

** Near the end of Episode 6 of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS|Striker SStrikerS]]'', Vita complains that Nanoha should be drilling the forwards on walking and greeting, like they were when they first entered. Nanoha responds that if there's time to do that, there's more time for sparring instruction, which suggests that part of this is pragmatically focusing on actual performance rather than etiquette. This is made clear in a later episode, when Teana violates safety regulations in an attempt to score a win against Nanoha, and is slapped down ''hard''; informality is acceptable, endangering the unit is not.

* The [[Ninja]] organizations in ''[[Naruto]]'', which amount to the setting's military forces. The creator has said that one of his inspirations for the village of Konoha was a military base located nearby his childhood home. Many ninja are...[[Bunny Ears Lawyer|odd]], [[Child Soldiers|there are plenty of 12twelve-year -old ninja]] (although [[Tyke Bomb|Naruto and Gaara]] at least are both power equivalents to nuclear weapons even ''before'' much training on their part), and of all the teen main characters, roughly two of them actually wear their village's uniform.

** To be fair, the 12 twelve-year -olds are normally expected to be relegated to D- and C- ranked missions; examples of each being trying to find a lost cat and guarding a grumpy old man from bandits respectively, neither of which are particularly dangerous to superhuman ninja in training, especially given that even when they are older and dealing with B- and A- ranked missions they are still usually led by a Jounin, a high level veteran <ref>The old man in question was actually being targeted by missing-nin, basically criminal ninja who in this case were working as professional assassins; however he hid that fact as he couldn't afford proper protection, and Kakashi notes that if they had known that it would have been at least a B-rank (sometime later he calls it an ''A-''rank) the kids wouldn't have been allowed near it.</ref> The few ninja that are given proper ninja tasks are the likes of Itachi and Kakashi, both prodigies and both promoted in wartime, and ninja from more brutal villages like the Bloody Mist.

** And the uniform thing came to an end during the Fourth Shinobi World War, when all those 12 twelve-year -olds who had previously worn whatever the hell they wanted are now 16 sixteen-year -olds who have to wear the uniform. But only during the actual war, apparently they can go back to whatever they want once it ends.

** Virtually everything in ''Strike Witches'' is justified at one point or another and this trope is averted in several cases. For one thing they're technically Special Forces with a very high success rate with a very limited recruitment pool, no expandability, and little to no time to properly train or discipline new recruits, and this is set in the 1940s. Despite that there is a clearly defined hierarchy (justifiably mixed with [[True Companions]] elements) which is followed and the Witches do spend most of their time drilling, training or doing maintenance work and menial tasks, some of their other fun activities actually happen during their allocated leave. Plus they're aces with a considerable amount of propaganda riding on them. Military law is carried too as Miyafuji was dishonorably discharged after her dereliction of duty, it's just that extreme circumstances had it revoked. Finally they use castles because are just 'there'. Air Wings and various military units during World War II would actually just set up base wherever tactically convenient. Notably other witches like the Ardor Witches and Storm Witches have more conventional bases relative to their location, the Ardor Witches are stationed in an actual military base with proper hangars while the Desert based Storm Witches live in tents by an Oasis.

* ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]''{{'}}s protagonists always seem to get away with ignoring their jobs and leaving their poor commanding officer [[Butt Monkey|Colonel Volcott]] to pick up the slack.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. NERV fulfills many of the same functions as an Air Force or Navy (mostly the former), and is run and organized much like both. However, NERV personnel are allowed to grow long hair and beards and keep pets in on-base housing, and dating a co-worker isn't viewed a problem: and what real-world military would ever entrust its most important weapons to a fourteen -year -old?

** Ones that are completely desperate given that EvasEVAs can only be piloted by a select few.

*** To be precise, the EvasEVAs can only be piloted by those born after the Second Impact. Seeing how that was only fifteen years ago and the Angels aren't going to wait around for those potential pilots to grow up...

** Not to mention gross insubordination, and (in the manga version) ''punching'' Gendo, who is technically his commander. If NERV waswere any more military, Shinji would be locked up.

*** When there are exactly three things standing between Humanity and a type 5 [[Apocalypse How|a type 5 extinction event]] you can't very well go about tossing the pilot of one of them in jail for anything short of aiding the enemy, especially when there is literally no one else who can pilot that specific device. You can get away with a ''lot'' if your services are both essential and unique.

** That can be excused ... NERV isn't a military organization - it's a hybrid of a scientific research project and a apocalyptic cult. Not to mention that the entire human race at this point hisis suffering from some pretty classic examples of PTSD. If ''any'' military organization is acting like a military organization at this point, they're [[Pod People]].

*** Worse yet, the necessary state of mind to sync with an Eva at optimum efficiency is '"borderline insanity'". There is a ''reason'' the pilots are all psych cases.

* Lieutenant Filicia Heideman of ''[[SoraSo noRa WotoNo Wo To]]'' runs her tank platoon [[Team Mom|as a family]] rather than as a military unit.

** A peek at her [[Backstory]] does a [[Tear Jerker|pretty good job]] of explaining why she runs the platoon like this, establishing her as an [[Iron Woobie]] in the process. More specifically, {{spoiler|when she was younger her entire platoon (who it seems was just as close as her current one) was killed in battle, leaving her with a pretty serious case of [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|Post Traumatic Stress Disorder]].}}

* Surprisingly, the ''[[One Piece]]'' Marines tend to fall into this. Aokiji goes off on his own to track down Robin, with the Gorosei merely complaining that he should be mindful of his rank. Officers above Lieutenant (and even some lower ranking ones) are not required to wear the uniform, although the preferred uniform for higher-ranking offices is a suit with the "justice" coat, and there are no grooming standards to speak of. Discipline tends to vary between officers, as Garp doesn't seem to mind his men telling him to help fix the wall he broke while breaking in to surprise Luffy, while one soldier who objects to destroying a Marine battleship to kill Luffy immediately gets executed on the spot by Vice-Admiral Onigumo. Officers are sometimes referred to by name and "[[Japanese Honorifics|-san]]" rather than their rank. And these aren't even the [[Military Maverick|mavericks]] like Smoker or corrupt officers like Morgan.

* All of the military personnel in ''[[War GamesWarGames]]''. The only person who has anything that comes close to a military haircut is the four-star general. The rest of the members of the Air Force in the movie look like they haven't had a military haircut in months.

*** He might have gone from a 2nd lieutenant (O-1) to a 1st lieutenant (O-2), but a person can usually make 1st lieutenant by fogging glass for 18 months so that leaves at least 6.5 years without advancement.

*** It is just ''barely'' theoretically possible if he took the absolute longest time allowable to make 1st lieutenant (3 years) and then similarily blew his first opportunity at making captain, but he'd still be just a few months short of involuntary separation. (Under US army regs, an officer who fails twice for promotion after sufficient time-in-grade is to be discharged. Since time-in-grade for a 2nd lieutenant is 2 years, and for a 1st lieutenant is 4 years, and promotion boards are held annually, you can do the math).

* The Possiltum military seen in the early ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' novels is underfunded and undertrained, so it's [[Justified Trope|justified]] that they're insubordinate and incompetent. Later, though, an enormous and highly successful Mob-trained army is assimilated into Possiltum's, and we see it from the inside ... and the viewpoint character who infiltrates it is insubordinate, makes trouble with civilians, hires civilians to perform military duties without authorization, ignores paperwork and willfully violates orders. The result? ''Repeated promotions for "showing initiative."'' WTF?

** The result of this complex and conflicted process was a variety of offenses against seeming common sense, or at least expectation: [[Creator's Pet|making a civilian teenager a bridge officer on the basis that he might be the next Mozart...but for warp engineering]]; blatant fraternization between ranks; allowing Starfleet officers to pursue random personal quests (including, in one case, allowing one to honor a Klingon 'blood oath' and participate in murder and espionage as a result); and much screentime spent on the crews' recreation, such as learning to [[A Day in the Limelight|tap dance]] while an espionage plot lay in the background, or two command crews taking time out from a ''war'' to play baseball against each other (and treating it like [[Serious Business]], too). Some viewers found this particularly uncomfortable in the later seasons of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' when these same seemingly informally employed officers were subjected to the horrors of war (of course, by this point the writers were aware of public perception of Starfleet, and this was part of the ''point'').

***** So Starfleet's position on the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]] is conveniently [[ColourColor-Coded for Your Convenience]] by their uniform. [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle]].

* The 4077th ''[[MASHM*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]''. Giving civilian conscripts the rank of Army captain on arrival will do that (most Army MDs hold captain rank or higher, or did during the [[Korean War]]). Somewhat based on [[Real Life]], as military units based around specialist support instead of combat tend to become the military equivalent of a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]].

*** Ironically, the thing that originally offended the general ''was'' proper military procedure—priority of care is determined by seriousness of injury first, ''then'' by rank.

* Largely averted in [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'']], where you have lots of characters shouting about hierarchy and such. In fact, however, temporary insubordination or inappropriate behaviour are forgotten quickly because [[Status Quo Is God]]. This seems justified given the near total annihilation of humanity and their situation creating in them a sense of family more than anything else, not to mention having been forced to dip increasingly into the civilian population over time to replace losses. They simply cannot afford to be entirely strict on such matters as they used to be. Even on a bad day they are a lot more military than many on this page though.

*** This realization, long before it was voiced by Lee, as well as the influx of civilians onto the ship and into the military likely explain why Galactica gets more and more mild as time goes by. In S3 they even open a bar on the ship. Which, with the destruciondestruction of ''Cloud Nine'', might be the only bar left in existence.

** It's also worth noting that even before the Cylon attack, things were loose on Galatica''Galactica'', in some ways even looser than they would be during the first two seasons of the show. Galatica''Galactica'' was in the process of being decommissioned, so a blind eye was turned to some things that wouldn't be tolerated at another post. Colonel Tigh explicitly states this when he calls out Boomer for fraternizing with an enlisted man.

* ''[[Combat Hospital]]'': Much like the ''[[MASH]]M*A*S*H'' example above, actually military protocol in a day-to-day situation is treated relatively casually in the hospital. However the chains of command are still followed, and Colonel Marks on occasion will dress down officers for not following their responsibilities with regards to rank and uniform.

== MMORPGNew Media ==

** Except ''[httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20210305125111/http://privatemurphy.com/ Private Murphy's Law]'', which was drawn by an US Army NCO, published in Army Times, and generally follows military protocol in its humor.

*** Tali isand aLiara are civilian technical specialistspecialists hired because shethey hashave mission-essential skills that are not available in the standard TO&E, Wrex is a private military contractor, and Garrus is an officer in an ally nation's para-military force. Procedures exist in real-world militaries for working with all three and/or giving them clearance if necessary to do their jobs.

* Although they are frequently called an army, most sets of units the player assembles in ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' are just an atypically large [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]. Most of the series justifesjustifies this, as these groups are rebelionsrebellions (2, 2nd half of 4, 5, parts of 10), working for in-exile governments for most of the game (1/11, 8) mercanarymercenary companies (9 and parts of 10) or not actually an army, just a search team (early 4, 7), 3/12 and 6 don't have good reasons, but employ a greater precentage of professional soilders/mercanaries compared to the civilian heavy "armies" of most games. 13 just plain old doesn't care.

* The Terran armies in ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'', both games. Then again, given that most of the line troops consist of repurposed criminals, this is hardly surprising.

* ''[[Call of Duty]]'' isn't perfect either. In ''[[Modern Warfare]]'', Soap's first day in the SAS consists of two minutes in the firing range, a quick CQB exercise, and then he's off on his first mission, ''as a Sergeant.'' In the real SAS, which you can only join after serving in another regiment, you immediately lose your rank and start at the bottom, and spend weeks going through [[Training Fromfrom Hell|Selection]].

** Soap is mentioned in dialogue as just having come ''out of'' Selection. He's just ''had'' the weeks of Training From Hell—thisThis is his first day meeting the operational team he's been assigned to, not his first day in the SAS period. The purpose of the 'brief CQB drill' is as a team-building exercise; new guy has to start learning how to mesh with his new squad, and his new squad wants to see whether or not he can at least walk and chew gum at the same time.

* An awful lot of special ops units can look like this to the casual observer - generally because anyone who can pass selection is self -disciplined and -motivated enough that they don't need to be ragged about by spit-and-polish NCOs. The key here is that special forces are, for all practical purposes, [[Ninja]], and don't operate in the massed ranks like other soldiers and around which most protocol is designed, so they have their own rules that are more relevant to their unique situation.

** Skippy of ''[[Skippy's List|Skippys List]]'' (according to his [https://web.archive.org/web/20110908171132/http://skippyslist.com/about/ about page]) was in PSYOPS, mostly as an illustrator. Basically, he drew propaganda posters for the Army (in post-[[The Yugoslav Wars|war]] Bosnia, apparently). So yeah, more or less Mildly Military.

* The crew of the USS Enterprise (no, not [[Star Trek|that]] one, [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20190929022524/https://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/01/navy-enterprise-more-xo-videos-surface-010411w/ this] one).

*** If we exempted every military unit whose troops did stupid things while in downtime and unsupervised, literally no military unit in the world would qualify as 'properly military'. Let's face it, shore leave is when even the sharpest troops often turn into complete assclowns. That's arguably the point of having it - decompression.

* Russia entered World War I with more soldiers than guns (not to mention other war equipment). The stopgap measures meant soldiers all had wildly different equipment.