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One Riot, One Ranger: Difference between revisions
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This trope is basically when the government is [[Genre Savvy]] about a [[One-Man Army]].
This trope is most often seen in [[First
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]]".
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A common handwave/justification for this trope is that a full military assault would draw unwanted attention to the operation. As in, if we send an army to [[Storming the Castle|attack the secret base]], the villain will just use his superweapon, and game over. But if we send Joe the Badass, the villain won't react so intensely, and we can get past his guard. More realistically, the entire army may be needed just to hold the villain's army at bay, or at least slow them down long enough to give Joe the Badass time to stop the villain. Of course, this depends on the bad guy being completely [[Genre Blind]]... If Joe makes a habit of succeeding at these missions he'll get a reputation for [[Doing the Impossible]].
Related to [[
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* 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 A 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]].
** Points to Alucard for actually being a [[One
** Additionally, following a certain incident at the manor, {{spoiler|the Hellsing Organization loses most of its rank and file soldiers and resort to hiring mercenaries. The mercenaries are also wiped out to the last man by the end of the manga. Basically, if a character in this series isn't a complete [[Badass]], he's a [[Red Shirt]].}}
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', a major part of [[Knight Templar|Rob Lucci's]] backstory involves an instance where pirates invaded a kingdom, taking their several-hundred man army as hostages, and demanded control. [[The Government|The World Government]] sent only Rob Lucci, who was only [[Tyke Bomb|thirteen years old at the time]], to deal with the situation. [[Atop a Mountain of Corpses|Turns out that was kinda overkill.]]
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* In ''[[Escape From New York]],'' the government sends in Snake as a last resort, but in ''[[Escape From LA]],'' the president consciously utilizes the trope.
* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films, Jedi Knights are sent out alone (or, occasionally, with their apprentice) to handle whatever problem happens to be occurring at the time. Of course, if the Jedi in question aren't the main characters, [[Red Shirt|this is usually ineffective]].
* 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
* 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]]?
** Nope! [[The Federation|The Federated Territories]] sends Korben Dallas, the [[Starfish Aliens|Mondoshawan]] sends Leeloo. They just turned out to be a [[Battle Couple]] [[Love At First Sight|At First Sight]].
* John Rambo in probably the entire film series.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Remo Williams, the hero of the ''[[Destroyer]]'' series of action novels is a tongue-in-cheek [[Satire Parody Pastiche|satire]] of the [[One
** Although this may also be the result of Remo being so top-secret that only the President gets to know that he exists, or at least originally being so.
** It's actually explained in the first book of the series. The secret organization CURE is allowed to lie, cheat, and steal, but not to kill. This is because the President is worried about creating an agency that could be a threat to the country. CURE finally persuades the President to agree to one man. When one CURE member laments that one man is not enough, the head of CURE replies that's all they are going to get, so he better be a [[Badass]]. Luckily for CURE, he is.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* 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.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Spartans in ''[[Halo]]'' are treated more as tactical weapons than normal soldiers. This is lampshaded in ''Halo 2'' by a comment from one of the marine superiors.
** The Arbiter is the Covenant's version of the trope. Because of the [[Proud Warrior Race|lack of honour]] involved, they tend to use it as a [[Uriah Gambit]].
* ''[[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
** All Spectres are One Rangers -- 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.
** On the other hand, other than Shepard him/herself every Spectre encountered in the game was either actively working against the council or corrupt. The council gives them no oversight whatsoever, and would actively prefer ''not'' knowing what they're up to.
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* In general, any FPS game will have this situation, either by design ("We're sending in Joe the [[Badass]]"), or by happenstance ("We're sending in a squad of marines, but they'll [[Redshirt Army|all be killed]] except for Joe the [[Badass]]").
* In many games, the player can respawn at the beginning of the level when they die. When the player is also a [[AFGNCAAP|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
* Lampshaded in ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' when Breen notes Gordon Freeman's tendency to plow through enemy forces like a weedwhacker. At the moment of his apparent defeat, he reveals he's aware that ''somebody'' wanted Gordon to be there, and to do what he did.
** Whether this trope actually applies is still an open question. Yes, the G-Man sent Gordon in alone to take down the Combine (presumably), but his perspective and resources are, well... ''unusual'', to say the least.
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* ''[[Dawn of War]] II''. The recruiting worlds of the Blood Ravens are under attack from a huge Ork horde. The defenders are Davian Thule, about 5 squads of [[Space Marine|SpaceMarines]] and 30 or so raw initiates. They need reinforcements. They get one guy. It's enough.
* The backstory for the ''[[Fallout]]'' games explains that [[Power Armor|Power Armored]] 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.
*** And subverted too, exploring Vault 3 you run into a Ranger sent to kill the feinds there, after killing a few dozen sneaking in there he gets careless and suffers a leg wound form a trap, while he still gets out fine (able his leg needed to be treated) but its stated sending him alone was a bad ideal.
*** Of course, the ranger sent into Vault 3 was simply a standard NCR Ranger, who are tough but generally serve the purpose of being the Redshirts of the Ranger corps. The Veteran Rangers wear a [[Badass Longcoat]] for a reason: They're the elite of the elite.
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