One Riot, One Ranger: Difference between revisions

{{quote| '''Franklin Pierce Holland''' (Mayor of Dallas, Texas): We're done for. I asked for a whole company and they've sent me one Ranger.<br />

[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Ranger_Division:Texas Ranger Division#.22One_Riot22One Riot.2C_One_Ranger2C One Ranger.22 |Texas Rangers are]] [[Chuck Norris|tough.]]

This trope is basically when the government is [[Genre Savvy]] about a [[One -Man Army]].

This trope is most often seen in [[First -Person Shooter]] video games, though it's sometimes often seen in movies and television shows. Basically, it goes like this: A huge threat has raised its evil head. This threat is a danger to the entire nation/planet/galactic empire, and has already done a lot of damage. However, the government doesn't do the obvious thing to fight this oncoming hazard (that is, rally the troops, send out the Marines, and use its full resources to destroy the threat once and for all). Rather, they send in one man.

Now, the man might be a highly trained [[Badass]], but he is [[Just One Man|still only one man]].<ref>(The ability to create clones or duplicates and summon monsters doesn't count)</ref>. And no one questions the government's choice in sending out one special guy, either. This is not a desperation move, as in ''[[Halo]]'', where [[Redshirt Army|one guy is basically all the government has left]]... no, in cases like this, the choice is usually "send the entire fleet" or "send Joe the [[Badass]]".

Related to [[ItsIt's Up to You]] and [[The Only One]]. Can involve liberal [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]].

* Happened once in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''. What reinforcement should the Mahora mages send against a force that easily defeated the Kyoto Magic Association and is about to release a [[Cosmic Horror|Demon God]]? Their [[Redshirt Army|entire mage reserve]], that would probably be too slow and too weak to make a difference, as well as leaving Mahora unguarded? [[Genre Savvy|No way]]. Send [[Person of Mass Destruction|Evangeline]] [[Sealed Badass in Aa Can|instead]].

* Similarly invoked at times in ''[[Hellsing]]''; [[Alucard]] is the most obvious example, but certainly not the only one. That series runneth over with [[Badass|Badasses]]es.

** Points to Alucard for actually being a [[One -Man Army]]. {{spoiler|At full release of his [[Restraining Bolt]] system, Alucard can spawn an entire army consisting of EVERYONE HE'S EVER EATEN. Suffice to say, that's a lot of minions. And he could already fight hundreds of enemies, other freakishly powerful vampires, and reform from grotesque dismemberment and decapitation.}}

** [[Sociopathic Hero|Rorschach]] managed to quell the riots in his neighbourhood just by appearing.

** The Comedian....did his own thing. By that, see how [[Invader Zim]] handles fires.

** But Bond first has to investigate the situation, which is a task better suited to a spy. On several occasions he's backed up by an attack force for the [[Storming the Castle]] scene -- neverscene—never the SAS, but then again an army of modern ninjas looks more 'James Bondish'.

* The first ''[[X XxXXX]]'' movie is a perfect example. The US government knew where the terrorists were, knew who they were, and had a good idea what they were doing, but rather than send in several highly trained multi-man strike teams, they send in Vin Diesel.

* In ''[[Escape Fromfrom New York]],'' the government sends in Snake as a last resort, but in ''[[Escape From LAL.A.]],'' the president consciously utilizes the trope.

* The ''[[Resident Evil]]'' movie ''Degeneration'' shows the government's wised up since the events of RE4. When the [[The Virus|T-Virus]] breaks out in an airport, who do they send in to rescue survivors trapped inside? A "Specialist" by the name of [[One -Man Army|Leon Kennedy]].

* In ''[[The Fifth Element]]'', [[Action Girl]] [[Overly Long Name|Leeloo Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat]] is all that stands between the Earth and its Doom. Of course, as far as the government of Earth is concerned, [[Badass|Korben Dallas]] is all that stands between Earth and its Doom, so this movie uses this trope ''twice''. Would that make it [[One Riot One Ranger|One Riot Two Rangers]]?

{{quote| '''Judge Dredd''': [''standing tall amidst random fire''] What are you doing down there, Judge Hershey?<br />

'''Judge Hershey''': [''crouched''] Waiting for back-up.<br />

* Remo Williams, the hero of the ''[[Destroyer]]'' series of action novels is a tongue-in-cheek [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche|satire]] of the [[One -Man Army]] genre of adventure fiction, but he's also a perfect example of this trope. The authors even [[Hangs a Lampshade|lampshades]] it in the several of the novels of the long-running series by having everyone note how ridiculous it is to only send one man out to stop the latest menace.

* [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' novel ''[[Brothers of the Snake]]'' starts this way -- withway—with a single [[Space Marine]] sent to clear an ''entire province'' of evil sadist space elves.

* The ''[[RangersRanger's Apprentice]]'' novel series actually uses this phrase to describe the kingdom's group of elite archers, spies, and tacticians. It's not exactly wrong, considering this happens several times during the series.

* At the end of the fourth book in [[Leo Frankowski]]'s [[The Cross Time Engineer (Literature)|Conrad Stargard]] series, ''The Flying Warlord'', Conrad suggests this trope. The actual reason he was there alone was [[Trapped in Thethe Past|slightly different]].

* [[David Drake]]'s ''Northworld'' trilogy. The Consensus sent a fleet to investigate the '''disappearance''' of the newly colonized planet Northworld. The fleet vanished too, so they sent another one, and then a third when the second was lost -- andlost—and of course, number three disappeared as well. And then they got serious and sent Nils Hansen, a police special operations officer. Subverted, because as of the end of the trilogy, '''he''' hasn't returned to the Consensus either. However, he '''has''' become a [[Physical God|god]].

* [[Doctor Who (TV)|The Doctor]] is called an army by River in the 'Time of Angels' Serial.

* ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'' skirts this trope. Even though Jack Bauer is backed by the CTU and an entire brigade of government agents that ought to be out there backing him up, somehow he always ends up going it alone. Sometimes at the direction of his superiors.

* The series premiere of ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' was called "One Riot, One Ranger." However, in practice, Walker's almost always backed up by Trivette, and for larger operations a full assortment of law enforcement units help out. However, there are quite a few episodes where he does it alone because no one but [[Chuck Norris]] can do it.

** Although the show could be considered a subversion, as it's often pointed out that the only reason Buffy has been the most successful and long-lived Slayer is that ''she's not alone.'' By working with a team, she is much more powerful than just a lone Slayer.

* ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'' has this philosophy for the Rangers. It doesn't always work, and they have back-up, but it's mentioned in one spin-off. "One crisis, one ranger."

** The specific crisis? One ranger sacrificed his life to give everyone else key intelligence.

{{quote| It was the local police who made the call.<br />

* Sure, sure, they ''say'' "[[One Riot, One Ranger]]", but the Texas Rangers in ''[[Deadlands]]'' [[Averted Trope|frequently hire]]...ahem...[[Unusual Euphemism|troubleshooters]]. Like, say, the [[Player Party|posse]]. Generally speaking, though, operating alone in ''[[Deadlands]]'' is a [[Never Split the Party|bad idea]]. Rangers may be brave, ''[[Gratuitous Spanish|hombre]]'', but they ain't stupid.

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is all about this trope. There's even a pretty well-supported in-game explanation for it, too. The Citadel Council can't send their battlefleet to stop [[The Dragon]] because it would spark a galaxy-wide war, so they hand the problem over to their [[One -Man Army]]. They don't even provide a ship and crew, the Alliance has to step in and give Shepard their new [[Super Prototype]] stealth frigate.

** All Spectres are One Rangers -- literallyRangers—literally; you don't get selected unless you're that sort of omni-competent badass and leader of men. The Council was [[Genre Savvy|savvy]] enough to stay on the lookout for those sort of people, give them a special designation, and use them appropriately. As force responses go, sending a single Spectre is considered one step below an entire warfleet.

* In many games, the player can respawn at the beginning of the level when they die. When the player is also a [[AFGNCAAPFeatureless Protagonist|generic soldier]], this allows for the interpretation that they're not really a One Man Army at all - just an endless ''series'' of expendable grunts. This is explicitly the case in the side-scroller ''[[Prinny]]''.

* Mobius One from ''[[Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies]]'' had well proven his [[One -Man Army|One Man Air Force]] credentials, so in the Operation Katina of ''[[Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War]]'', when a resurgent Erusean military tries to attack, he alone (and AWACS SkyEye, but he never fires a shot and so doesn't count) is sent to fight them off.

* [[Justified]] in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', where a Navy SEAL team is sent into Big Shell and promptly slaughtered by one of the villains. {{spoiler|1=Even worse, the SEAL team was sent in as a decoy, so that Raiden would be able to infiltrate undetected. High Command didn't just know the SEALs were in danger, they purposely sent them to their deaths.}}

* Commandos in ''[[Command and& Conquer]]''. Made quite explicit in the [[FPS]] ''Renegade''.

** Not an exaggeration. In ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3'', the Federation is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to hold off its entire space armada while Samus forges ahead on her own twice: {{spoiler|The Space Pirate Homeworld first and then Phaaze immediately afterward}}. Even after the Federation's [[Took a Level Inin Badass|badass upgrade]], they're not stupid.

* ''[[Urban Chaos: Riot Response]]''. It's you, and, for the beginning mission, your superior. For the rest of the game, you get you, a riot shield, a gun, and if you're lucky, backup in the form of a beat cop, firefighter, or EMT.

* The opening sequence of ''[[Mega Man X Command Mission (Video Game)|Mega Man X Command Mission]]'' sees three Hunters being dispatched to quell a rebellion on a [[Floating Continent]]. While their mission is [[Justified Trope|explicitly stated]] to be infiltration, with the full-scale assault as plan B, the distinction rapidly fades as the game progresses.

* The backstory of ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]''. An [[Artifact of Doom]], granting its wearer insane magic powers, resides on an island bristling with dangerous wildlife. Several nations want this artifact, so they send entire squadrons of war robots to retrieve it and kill anything in the way. Meanwhile, some other, unknown party wants to prevent the artifact from falling into the wrong hands--optinghands—opting for [[Conservation of Ninjutsu|quality over quantity]], they send [[Battle Couple|a pair of robots]] to destroy the artifact. Said pair of 'bots succeeds (eventually), while the army robots all get destroyed. <ref>In the [[Fan Translation|Aeon Genesis translation]], at least. The Nicalis translation implies the opposite, that Miakid gaining the Crown was ''success'' for the army of killer robots.</ref>

* The ''[[Crusader: (VideoNo Game)Remorse|Crusader]]'' games have the Silencer sent in on missions it would normally take an entire team of rebels to pull off. He's not ''entirely'' alone, with fellow Rebels doing troubleshooting from the base or taking out security measures not reachable from the game map, but you get the impression if they hadn't sent him for the meat of the mission they'd have to send at least five or six guys. In the final mission of the first game, he's supposed to command a squad of rebels, but due to complications they don't show up. He of course pulls it off anyway.

* The backstory for the ''[[Fallout]]'' games explains that [[Power Armor|Power Armored]]ed soldiers weren't just good at fighting the Chinese, but also in subduing riots, with one being enough to pacify a small town.

** Likewise, the [[The Federation|NCR]] often takes a [[One Riot, One Ranger]] approach in its use of its [[Elite Mooks|NCR Rangers]]. Given that a single Veteran Ranger is easily the toughest human unit in the game, about on par with the player character or their NPC companions, this is quite justified.

** The player can develop this reputation throughout ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'': They may not be Rangers, and they may not ''technically'' be associated with any particular group, but that doesn't mean that people won't recognize the Courier's [[Badass]] status. Develop a high enough reputation with a particular group (especially the NCR), and rather than offering your services for hire, they'll beg you to help them out with their problems.

* The first mission in ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]''. NSF terrorists have raided and set up a command post on Liberty Island, the location of UNATCO Headquarters. There are UNATCO troops and security bots on the island, but they are ordered to pull back and let the protagonist, JC Denton, handle the situation as a test of his abilities.

* In each game of the ''[[Time Crisis]]'' series, one or two (for co-op play) agents with pistols are sent to fight wave after wave of terrorists and solve whatever [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|time-sensitive crisis]] is threatening the world that week.

* This trope was the promotional [[Tagline]] for ''[[Bravestarr (Animation)|Bravestarr]]''.

** Occasionally applied to one of its [[Space Western]] brothers, too. Some ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|Galaxy Rangers]]'' episodes only had a single one of the main characters present (the Supertrooper duology, featuring [[The Lancer]] Shane Gooseman, are the most prominent examples), and were usually split into teams of two.

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