Plunder: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Sharpe]]'' devotes a fair bit of time to the loot and plunder that most of the British, French and Spanish armies get up to (not to mention the army wives, who worry even the [[Badass]] Richard Sharpe). Of particular note is the looting that occurs at the end of ''Sharpe's Honour'', a real incident where the retreating French baggage train was captured by British soldiers, and Sharpe and Harper (taking the place of some unknown soldiers) captured the Marshal of Vitoria's royal baton and King Joseph Bonaparte's royal jakespot.

** Sharpe actually gets into trouble in one book because some of the items he and his men took technically did not qualify as legitimate military plunder under the conventions of the time. For political reasons the army cannot just tell the lawyers to go to hell so he is sent to an out of the way output till the matter blows over.

{{quote| Now remember when you're 'ackin' round a gilded [[Did Not Do the Research|Burma god]]<br />

That 'is eyes is very often precious stones... }}

* Flashman's attempts to have a chapter on [[Unusual Euphemism|foraging and decorating]] included in the British Army Manual get nowhere.

* In the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' book ''The Crippled God'' a character alarmingly notices that the common soldiers in the Bonehunters army stopped caring about plunder. This signifies that the [[Badass Army]] is turning fanatical in their purpose.

* ''Citadel'' (AKA ''Run Between the Raindrops'') by [[Dale Dye]]. During the battle of Hue the protagonist (a combat reporter) goes to a camera store to find a Marine smashing up a box camera and complaining that the others stole all the good expensive Japanese cameras. The aghast protagonist points out he just smashed up a Hasselblad worth over a thousand dollars. In another scene some high-ranking US and Vietnamese officers complain that the Marines stole money from a bank vault and demand a court martial of those responsible. The Marine CO, who's got more sympathy for his men than these people, retrieves the money and claims they 'found' it. The Vietnamese officers promptly divide up the cash among themselves.

* ''[[Sid Meiers Pirates]]'': Every time a ship is captured, they show this quite deliciously.

* In a CD-ROM game based on the show ''[[Arthur]]'', if one succeeds in finding a treasure chest in the scuba diving minigame, a newspaper article with a picture of Arthur surrounded by the treasure will appear.

* A game play mechanic in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Thracia 776''. Since you get very little money on your own, the best way to get items and weapons are to Capture enemy units, strip them of their possessions and then release them.

* The average [[RPG]] has the gameplay mechanic of "When it's dead, loot it.". [[Moral Dissonance|The moral implications of]] [[Grave Robbing|robbing the dead]] [[Moral Dissonance|rarely come up,]] [[Rule of Fun|because getting cool new stuff is always fun.]]

* ''[[Servants of the Imperium]]''

** [http://www.servantsoftheimperium.com/comic/?comicid=32 "Krin, what is that you're holding" "Standard issue looting sack M'lord" "Of course it is, how silly of me"]

* [[Schlock Mercenary]]'s [[Big Book of War|Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Pirates]] addresses this issue in its very first Maxim: Pillage ''then'' burn.

== [[Real Life]] ==

{{quote| '''Croesus:''' What are your men doing?<br />

'''Cyrus:''' Burning your city and taking your treasure.<br />

** Indeed. And a lot of the country estates of [[Jane Austen]] s friends were "unwillingly subsidized " by France.

*** Though it wasn't quite a "reward". The Navy bought captured ships from the ships' crews that captured them, and the ships' crew split the money, according to ancient custom. It was cheaper and quicker for the Navy to get ships that way than to have them built.

* The British attack over the Rhine into Germany in World War II was named "Operation Plunder." While the pilfering was of a rather touristy kind (Cameras, choice wines, nice pictures) the British took the name of the operation as a rather tacit permission to go to town. Officers generally looked the other way.

** The British are generally quite good at this. See any Invasion of any kind by English, Scottish or Welsh troops.