Mildly Military: Difference between revisions
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Sometimes, this is justified by having [[Organization Index|the organization]] in question not be a real military, or a combined military/civilian organization. Most of the time, it appears to be the result of lack of experience on the part of the writers on how the military actually operates.
And sometimes, the apparent lack of discipline is the [[Justified Trope|whole point]]: some military organizations in fiction land are not disciplined because they ''do not need'' discipline to begin with. Either the members are [[The Squad|competent]] or simply [[Badass Crew|badass]] enough so that "normal" discipline is not necessary anymore, or the common cause they are fighting for and/or the charisma of their leader is enough to ensure their efficiency when it is time to get serious; in such cases, the
{{examples}}
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** Averted in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team]]'' where military law is in full effect and {{spoiler|Shiro}} barely escapes his court-martial, along with his (likely) execution.
** 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.
** For some reason, in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]'' the crew allow prepubescent children to remain on board even when the ships are about to go into battle.<ref>
** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'' features the A-LAWS, whose senior members sometimes carry "[[One-Man Army]]" Licenses, which is pretty much the authority to do whatever the hell they want, regardless of the commander's wishes or battle plans.
* 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 becomes disgusted with him, and leaves. Death is mercy compared to living with Tylor.
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** Near the end of Episode 6 of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS|Striker S]]'', 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 12-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 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>
** And the uniform thing came to an end during the Fourth Shinobi World War, when all those 12 year olds who had previously worn whatever the hell they wanted are now 16 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.
** They're more akin to special forces units than actual militia at any rate, and it's rare that they'll group in much more than a dozen for any given mission. Current war excepted of course.
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== Film ==
* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films, Darth Vader has an ill-defined position in the military. As of ''[[A New Hope]]'' he seemed to reluctantly obey Tarkin (though it's possible this is more a case of Tarkin being the only person aside from the Emperor that Vader would back down for), flew a custom starfighter with wingmen, and led the boarding party on the Tantive IV. Obsessive [[Fan Wank]] aside, Vader's character was ''very'' loosely based on real-life Henry Kissinger, so one might consider Vader like Palpatine's foreign
** Vader was on Tarkin's station - he had to follow Tarkin's orders. The US Navy has a rule about that, themselves: If an Admiral is on a Captain's ship, the Captain doesn't have to follow orders given by the Admiral. On Tarkin's station, Tarkin is in charge.
*** Which is completely irrelevant because, firstly, the movie is set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, [[We All Live in America|NOT]] in modern United States, and secondly, in TESB Vader is clearly able to order around captains and admirals while being on their station.
*** Plus, Tarkin's [[Its All There in the Manual|back story]] shows he is [[Complete Monster|a scary dude]]. For instance, it was he who came up with the idea of ruling the Galaxy by fear. It's possible that even Vader is intimidated by Tarkin.
*** When ''A New Hope'' was first developed, the [[All There in the Manual|Journal of the Whills]] had it that the Emperor was a puppet of the bureaucracy and governors like Tarkin. Tarkin would have the clout to "work with" the Emperor's muscle-in-chief from a position of superiority.
** Historical precedent exists for this, and in one of the things the Empire was specifically modeled
* James Cameron has admitted that the [[Space Marine
* In ''[[Top Gun]]'', Maverick commits cashier-worthy violations ''over and over'' and ends up getting sent to the eponymous school for it. And not just things that are strictly military rules, but rules that are there for the safety of everyone, such as not buzzing the tower. These actions would get him grounded and [[Reassigned to Antarctica|transferred somewhere that's not as nice as an elite school.]]
** Furthemore, a pilot who 'turns in his wings' will never again be placed on flight status, and yet Maverick was.
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*** Not even that. He was officially given a ''medical'' discharge and retained all his pension and veteran's benefits.
** Shortly after meeting her, Aral Vorkosigan tells his future wife Captain Cordelia Naismith, of the Betan Astronomical Survey, that near as he can tell, ranks within the BAS doesn't seem to indicate much more than pay-grade.
*** The BAS is explicitly not a military
** Cordelia never saw a Betan Expeditionary Force uniform until ''after'' the war was over, and was amused to see everyone wearing them in the theatrical reenactment.
* The way the Global Defense Initiative is represented in the terrible official [[Novelization]] of ''[[Command & Conquer]]: Tiberium Wars'' is appalling. Among other things, it had a Private being promoted to Sergeant ''on his first day'' out of boot camp, when he showed no exceptional skill or capability worth promoting him.
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*** Wedge has a moment in ''Wraith Squadron'' when he ponders this very thought. Falynn Starskimmer has been reprimanded multiple times for insubordination, but Wedge thinks that her attitude would have been fine during the days of the Rebel Alliance. The implication seems to be that when they were the Rebel Alliance, everything was distinctly unmilitary, as most of the time they were fighting a guerrilla war, or were civilians drafted in (like Messrs Skywalker, Solo and Calrissian until they accepted ranks and discipline). When they become the New Republic, everyone wants to start adapting a more formal military style. This is explicitly the reason Wedge forms Wraith Squadron, so that the Republic keeps coming up with new tactics instead of stagnating like the Empire.
** Though even the Wraiths do have ''some'' military discipline. When Tyria attacks another Wraith, Wedge formally reprimands her and doesn't let her fly. Public displays of affection are only allowed in off hours or during light duty. One of his new pilots, when asking to see him, slouches and Wedge reflects that he'd take that from someone who'd flown with him for a while but not from a newbie. And there are other incidents. But he can and will bend regulations when he sees the need. At one point, to allow Tyria to save face, he decides to lie about an incident, though he won't commit perjury. But he thinks it won't get that far.
* The ''[[Phule's Company]]'' series, to a degree at least. The protagonist, Willard Phule Jr., is put in charge of the Space Legion's Omega Unit - the unit where "discipline problems" and other misfits are sent.<ref>
* The Night's Watch in [[A Song of Ice and Fire]], once you get to know them. Their numbers are, barely, kept adequate only through prisoners being sent their as a punishment in exchange for avoiding death, so this isn't a great surprise that many that even the volunteers and disciplined things are looser in certain areas.
* Britain's Aerial Corps in the [[Temeraire]] series. Almost all of it is justified by [[Our Dragons Are Different|the nature of the series' dragons]]. Dragon riders are too rare and valuable to be court-martialed for anything short of treason. Dueling is prohibited for the same reason. One particularly useful breed of dragon will only choose female companions, so by the era the story is set in, women can and often do hold high rank and leadership positions in the Aerial Corps. Dragons generally refuse to serve with any human but a companion who was present at their hatching but some can be convinced to work with children of their original companion, so officers, even female officers, are encouraged to have children. The constantly rumpled, disheveled appearance of the aviators, though, is just because dragon riders tend to pack in a hurry.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Starfleet is both a military and an exploration and research organization, also acting as [[wikipedia:Gendarmerie|top-level]] [[Space Police|law enforcement]] and the [[Gunboat Diplomacy|advance scouts and bodyguards]] of [[The Federation]]'s diplomatic corps and intelligence network. It is a conglomeration of the US Navy, the USMC, the FBI, the CIA, [[NASA]] and a few research universities; a captain may need to think like Colin Powell or like Jacques
** Prior to ''[[Star Trek]]'', Roddenberry had served on the Los Angeles Police Department (a real-life example of the not-quite-military, especially in the 1950's). No doubt this experience had an influence on Starfleet as Roddenberry imagined it.
** 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'').
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*** In the end, that hardly ever happened, possibly because the stardrive section looked unimpressive on its own, possibly because with the special effects available at the time this was a time-consuming and expensive process. Neither did the ship ever really feel like an isolated outpost; to the viewer, [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|it never took more than 15 or 20 minutes]] to get from wherever you were to [[Traveling At the Speed of Plot|where the plot wanted you next]], while it was a matter of only hours to weeks for the characters. The only real result, beside the presence of families and civilian staff, was that some crew members clearly considered the ship a permanent home.
** Later producers admitted that the ''Galaxy''-class starship, with its families of the crew on board, left a bad taste in their mouths when they considered things like Picard ordering his ship toward the Neutral Zone or other peril. They also admitted that it was an experiment that didn't pan out, and stated that the later examples of ''Galaxy''-class ships didn't have the crews' families aboard. Still, in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' where Starfleet planned to raid the Dominion to rescue Sisko, the Admiral in command had to be reminded to leave the civilian passengers back on the station before going into a likely combat zone.
*** The final result, not just of absent-mindedness and writer disagreement, but also of deliberate influence from [[Horatio Hornblower]] and other sea stories, has been more like a gentlemanly version of the [[Age Of Sail]] than any military force of modern times. Yes, that includes provisional crew signed on with little regard to age or official credentials, officers' families on some ships, and duels ashore (although as far as I know no sailor in the days of [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]] ever dueled a ''head of state''). To an extent, it stands to
*** Speaking of heads of state and duels there is an apocryphal tale that Gustavus Adolphus after insulting an officer in anger, offered him a chance at a duel and the officer was so touched by the humility that he refused the chance and returned to Adolphus' service.
** The specific level of discipline also seems to depend on the CO. Kirk was simply on the loose end of normal as long as things ran properly, but God help you if you crossed him; Picard trusted his senior officers implicitly to be honorable and know what they were doing, but if you disappointed him, you'd prefer the brig to meeting his eyes; Sisko was somewhere between the two (although he had a reputation as a hardass when the series began); and Janeway was a frank hardass in comparison to any of the above. Anyone more by-the-book was pretty much [[The Neidermeyer]].
*** Speaking of Janeway as hardass, an interesting aversion occurs in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'', where Paris is actually stripped of his rank and thrown into the brig for several episodes for his conduct. He gets his rank back later (which must have really pissed off eternal Ensign Harry Kim) but it's one of the few situations where disobeying a superior officer actually had real repercussions in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe.
** The broad role does cause confusion even in-
*** Civilians, though, may have a clearer perspective. In ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'', David Marcus disdainfully referred to Starfleet as "the military" when he thought they were trying to steal Genesis (it was actually Khan, of course). This might be due to it being one of Nicholas Meyer's films.
**** David Marcus is explicitly a hardcore anti-anything-that-remotely-smells-of-militarism bigot as a character trait, so using him as an example of more accurate perspective might not work.
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* The 4077th ''[[MASH]]''. 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]].
** [[Lampshade Hanging]] during an episode when a general who felt he'd been poorly treated (having to wait until critical cases were attended to before his minor wound was dressed) assigned an undercover operative to gather dirt on how Colonel Potter ran the unit without adhering to strict military protocol. When the man was found out and observed that "From a military standpoint, things are pretty loose around here," Potter shot back "Maybe. But from a ''human'' standpoint, they're plenty tight."
*** Ironically, the thing that originally offended the general ''was'' proper military
* [[Stargate SG-1|Stargate Command]] and the [[Stargate Atlantis|Atlantis Expedition]] are relatively restrained versions of this trope. But make no mistake they are very
** In SG-1's case, it helps that the O'Neill a full colonel, which is an awful lot of officer for one 4-person team. He has enough legitimate authority to justify a lot.
** There's also the further justification that SG-1 has saved the Earth a few dozen times over, so they earn more slack as the seasons go on. On top of that, O'Neill was pulled out of retirement to lead SG-1, while Hammond was heading towards it when he got the SGC dropped on him, so that can explain their willingness to play more loosely with regulations - they both were about to retire, and if the powers that be want them to stick around...
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*** The appearance of ''Pegasus'' with its tough-as-nails discipline also contrasts with the milding conditions of ''Galactica''.
** It's also worth noting that even before the Cylon attack, things were loose on Galatica, in some ways even looser than they would be during the first two seasons of the show. Galatica 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.
* ''[[NCIS]]''. Compare/contrast with their real-life organization of the same name. Note, however, that NCIS is a civilian law enforcement agency, which manifests itself in the show- Tony is an ex-cop and Kate was Secret Service. One episode [[Lampshade
* The Military Channel's ''Special Forces: Untold Stories'' shows re-enactments of operations conducted by real special forces soldiers. These are supposed to be the best of the best, but whenever they're on screen, they look and act like they've never carried weapons and behave in ways that makes them look more like new recruits than special forces soldiers. For example. any time two or more of them are together, they clump together like Cheerios, creating an easy target. This is probably not only the actors' inexperience, but also because the director is trying to get them all into the camera's view.
* In a second-season episode of ''Wonder Woman'', Sergeant Diana Prince approaches a controlled area. The male lieutenant that's guarding it asks her if she's authorized to be there. During the exchange, a female captain (who has never met Diana Prince) yells at the lieutenant and accuses him of pulling rank. The lieutenant apologizes and lets both women go. The problem with this is that no one involved realizes that the lieutenant was doing his job and the female captain was pulling rank, violating security procedures in the process.
* The Initiative from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. The soldiers lacked military haircuts and proper uniforms, and were entirely willing to let a civilian look around their entire secret operation. They're a secret government organization that probably isn't ''technically'' part of the military, but still...
** As to the haircuts and uniform, the agents were maintaining cover identities as [[Ordinary High School Student|Perfectly Ordinary College Students]]. The relative merits of that cover are up for debate, but having chosen it, being more than
*** Unless the school had an ROTC program.
**** Although someone being under cover and pretending not to be in the military would likely be better off not affiliating with the ROTC, either.
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* [[Traveller]] : The IISS is famous through the Imperium for it's studied informality. Justified in that it is not a military organization as such(though it takes part in warfare) but an exploratory, intelligence, and scientific institution. Zig-zagged back in that the IISS maintains militaristic [[Space Police|Space Swat Teams]] for various peculiar duties associated with their missions(say extracting an agent in danger, or recovering equipment that it would be inconvenient if the natives find it).
** The IISS S-3 teams are more intended for a law enforcement role than a military
== Video Games ==
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** ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is somewhat of a special case here anyway in that you can snap your subordinates into line at any time, although this tends to lock out dialogue options. It also tends to be a Renegade action and Shepard is rarely nice about it. The option is there, though.
** Captain Anderson most likely gave Tali, Wrex and Garrus security clearance back when the Normandy was his ship, and he specifically asked for Ashley Williams' transfer. Once Spectre Shepard takes over s/he has commandeered the vessel and things are status quo. I doubt Shepard can officially grant or revoke clearance but no one except the Council can alter anything as long as s/he is in charge either. Liara might have been clearance by way of political pressure from the asari Councilperson.
*** All this is further justified in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''; Shepard is no longer working for the Alliance or the Council, but Cerberus, a private organization which is
*** "This is technically a civilian ship. I'm probably lucky you're still wearing pants."
** At one point you meet an Admiral on the Citadel who calls you on it and writes an annoyed report on the state of the ''Normandy'' (which has no in-game consequences), including aliens having free access to the ship and the lack of discipline. But well, he's a disgruntled old man who thinks the ''Normandy'' is a useless waste of Alliance money, so he'll [[Accentuate the Negative]] in just about everything.
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** ''Properly'' justified in ''Reconstruction'', where it's revealed that {{spoiler|Neither side was ever ''in'' the military, or derivatives thereof. It's all just simulations held by command for various reasons.}}
** The trope also gets averted whenever the main cast meet somebody from outside Blood Gulch. Apparently the other Red and Blue teams, as well as the Freelancers, all take their jobs rather seriously. This has lead to Caboose being tied up in a brig, and Simmons and Grif facing a firing squad.
** Even the Freelancers are fairly lax about things,
* Then there's the webcomic ''[[Gone With the Blastwave]]''. The leadership of the main characters' army is so lax they hand out promotions based solely upon killcount, and soldiers can cheerfully wander off, get lost, desert, or '''make coffee on a funeral pyre''' with no comeuppance. As one character put it: "Why haven't we lost this war yet?"
* [[Homestar Runner]] has several, all of whom have tables at the Strong Badia Vaguely Military Career Fair
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** The US Air Force's Auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol, is made up entirely of volunteers, many of whom use their own aircraft to support search and rescue, disaster relief, Air Force training exercises, etc. And although it is a auxiliary of the Air Force, it technically is only such when the aircraft is being used on a Air Force mission, otherwise it is a private, non-profit corporation.
** [[wikipedia:Military Affiliate Radio System|The Military Affiliate Radio System]], an all-volunteer group of amateur radio operators.
** Skippy of ''[[Skippy's List|Skippys List]]'' (according to his [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
*** He was an ''[[Insistent Terminology|Airborne]]'' Illustrator. He couldn't tell you why the Army felt they needed an illustrator to be airborne qualified though.
* The United States Lighthouse Board (1852-1910) was like this as well. It consisted of uniformed Army and Navy officers who oversaw lighthouses, but of course their expertise was primarily technical and logistical. The postings were often relatively comfortable, with each officer having his own house at the post, and allowed to have his family live with him.
* The Israeli Defence Forces tend to act like uniformed civilians when off duty because... well... that's what they are. Discipline is much more strict while actively serving, at least for combat units. Its just that in such a small country and with universal conscription, they get a lot of off time, usually to go home for a weekend or
* The United States Merchant Marine is arguably like this (as are most country's merchant navies). While in and of itself a civilian career, Merchant Marine cadets and officers must wear naval-style uniforms and abide by military custom and are obligated to become a part of the United States Navy Reserve.
* Paramilitary forces are usually like this, due to not being a proper military, and having laxer disciplinary standards. Some of the more professional ones defy this trope however, and are much more effective for it.
* The crew of the USS Enterprise (no, not [[Star Trek|that]] one, [http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/01/navy-enterprise-more-xo-videos-surface-010411w/ this] one).
** Actually, this is an example of the real military. This may be an example of reality being unrealistic, though. This sort of thing happens all the time in the military. The Tailhook incident is another good example. I wouldn't call either incident "mildly military." If so, every service member who breaks the rules is also "mildly military." What this is is an example of bad judgment.
*** To be honest, what I consider most
*** Not addressing the XO properly definitely qualifies.
** Frankly, the Navy as a whole is often considered this by Marines and Army types. The Navy at sea is more of a blue-collar industrial work station than what one thinks of as strictly "military." While not as much as the aforementioned Air Force, the Navy is a bit more lax about spit and polish and proper salutations and such. Which is somewhat ironic, considering that the Navy (and navies in general) was once the ''most'' spit and polish branch, because there were so many things that could go wrong on a ship, and almost every single one needed to work right or the ship was in major trouble. Strict discipline also helped to reduce the risk of mutiny (virtually unthinkable today). Today, everything is multiply redundant and/or automated, not to mention the fact that the workings of warships are so complicated that you need an engineering degree to maintain them, on the rare occasion anything major does break.
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