Military Brat: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

A '''Military Brat''' is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what the name implies]]: someone who grew up with at least [[Dad the Veteran|one parent in the military]]. Sometimes both parents. Tends to crop up a lot in [[Yanks With Tanks|American]] series and works of fiction.

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Quintessential anime example: Misa Hayase from [[Macross]], as well as her counterpart Lisa Hayes from [[Robotech]].

* Misaki from ''[[Divergence Eve]]''. After her father dies in battle she joins to find out what he found in the military.

** Suzanna also joins to follow the family tradition.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Ninja Joan Driscoll from ''[[Amelia Rules]]''

 

* In the ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5841057/1/Operation_FRAGMENT Operation:FRAGMENT] Patton Drilovsky (AKA Numbuh Sixty) and Rachel McKenzie (AKA Numbuh Three Sixty-two) both have a background as military brats, which have made them [[Platonic Life Partners|close friends]] after their decommisioning.

{{quote|It was the reason Rachel and Patton got along so well. Few people at school understood the life. Their childhoods spent moving from place to place, their fathers being away for long periods of time, having to readjust when their fathers, men they didn't really know, were at home.}}

* Francisco from the Halo fanfic [[The Life]] grew up as one.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* Lt. Dan Taylor of ''[[Forrest Gump]].'' Notable for his family having served continuously since the American Revolution, and having the patriarch of the family get killed in every major war the United States had fought. He doesn't take it well when Forrest breaks the line by saving his life in Vietnam.

* In ''[[In Harm's Way]]'', admiral Rockwell Torrey is third generation Navy.

 

== Literature ==

* Several examples in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series of books, most notably including Admiral Harrington herself (her father being a retired Navy surgeon).

** Ensign Helen Zilwicki is the daughter of two Naval officers. Her father retired from Naval Intelligence as a Captain and now works for his second (adoptive) daughter, Queen Berry of Torch, as a spymaster. Her mother was a starship captain, who [[Heroic Sacrifice|gave her life]] in battle against a larger force protecting a convoy whose passengers [[Tear Jerker|included her husband and daughter.]]

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* Sam Carter of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''.

* Both Tyler and Wendy in ''[[The Middleman]]''.

* Angela Moore in ''[[Boy Meets World]]''.

* The sitcom [[Major Dad]] was more-or-less based around this trope, with the titular Major having to adjust to his new lifestyle after marrying a woman with three daughters.

 

* In ''[[The Wall]]'' Pink is a Military Brat. Which is not surprising as Pink is largely based on band member Roger Waters, whose father died as a soldier in [[World War II]].

 

* The protagonist of ''[[Sentimental Graffiti]]'' met the girls he did because his father was in the military and moved him around a lot as a result.

* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', one may choose this background for the player's character, Commander Shepard. Not only is it the only background choice where Shepard isn't an outright orphan, but the background specific sidequest involves making a call to Shepard's mother, who is still active-duty and the XO aboard an Alliance capital ship. By the second game, she's a captain, having turned down a promotion to Admiral that she dismissed as a political ploy.

** Kazuhira/McDonnel Benedict Miller was also revealed to be one (well, kind of. He was basically [[Heroic Bastard|conceived]] when his father, a GHQ officer under Whitney, ended up sleeping with a Japanese woman who had to undergo prostitution in order to survive, and his father left before he was even born.)

* [[The Sims]] 2 features a pre-made playable family called Grunt, which has not only three Military Brats (two teen and one elementary-school-age) but a training facility in the backyard.

 

* Captain Tagon of ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]''.

* In ''Anti-Heroes'', the backstory of Aldran, one of the main characters, is revealed in a strip entitled... Military Brat.

* [[Order of the Stick|Miko Miyazaki]] has been mentioned by [[Word of God|Burlew]] to be a product of her upbringing, which was a paladin-flavored variant on this trope. We can probably infer that her parents weren't a great deal better than she was, because even the other paladins can't stand her.

* In the Modern Arc of ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'', Arthur's foster-father Ector is an ex-serviceman (who gets called back up for Iraq), and both his son Kay and other foster-child Bedivere follow in his footsteps. Arthur ''doesn't'', possibly because he's been influenced just as much by his [[Hippy Teacher]], Merlin (and also because Ector knows he has a Destiny). (Although Ector doesn't appear to be unusually strict or conservative, it's implied Uther was, and the only [[Flash Back]] to Contemporary!Uther shows him in military uniform, making Arthur an Army|Brat ''twice''.)

 

== Western Animation ==

** Spinelli's mother was also implied to be a military brat (Spinelli, when learning that her parents also embarrassed her all the time, expressed shock because her maternal grandpa was a Navy SEAL).

* Trixie from ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'', both her parents are pilots. Her father military, her mother commercial airliner.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In v2-v4 of ''[[Open Blue]]'', [[Enfant Terrible|freshly graduated]] [[Tyke Bomb|Espartanos]] are frequently assigned to a "parent", and pretend to be Military Brats accompanying said "parents" on a tour of duty in the New World. As of v5, the tykebomb concept has been recycled and they now accompany corporate executives instead.

* Hank Declan (Lancer) from the [[Whateley Universe]].

 

== Real Life ==

* NBA Center Shaquille O'Neal.

* [[Shawn Michaels]].

* LeVar Burton (born in Germany)

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]