Redshirt Army: Difference between revisions

* The battle in the next-to-the-last ''[[Animorphs]]'' book involves a [[Redshirt Army]] who survives. The US army launches a military force consisting, essentially, of hundreds of soldiers accompanied by a couple dozen [[Sixth Ranger|Sixth Rangers]]. And this military force's goal is a suicide mission worthy of the best of them: to launch an attack, in plain view, against a spaceship that "could blow asteroids out of the sky." Ordinarily a [[Sixth Ranger]] ranks much higher on the [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality]] than the [[Redshirt Army]]. But in this case, Visser One orders the Sixth Rangers killed first, because he takes them more seriously in both a strategic and a [[It's Personal|personal]] sense. And the Animorphs manage to sabotage his ship too late to save the Sixth Rangers, but in time for the ordinary soldiers to survive. When the [[Redshirt Army]] are the survivors, and some kids with superpowers are the casualties, it's a clear example of a plot that thwarts the usual laws of the [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality]].

* The Martian army in [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''[[The Sirens of Titan]]'' are deliberately constructed to be utterly wiped out on the moment of contact, in order that the course of human society can be changed by making them feel guilty for slaughtering the poor bastards.

* Each of the ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' HERO OF THE IMPERIUM novels will inevitably feature a part where Cain is forced to enter the jaws of hell, usually accompanied only by his [[Sidekick]] and a [[Redshirt Army]] (possibly with a few [[Mauve Shirt|Mauve Shirts]] thrown in). The trope is however subverted as often as it's played straight, to the end that you can usually never tell if the book's [[Redshirt Army]] will survive or not: Several Mauve Shirts in the series actually came from Cain's (more successful) escort missions.

* Partially subverted in the novel ''[[Gods Demon]]''. The character [[Noble Demon|Sargatanas]] increases the ranks of his military with an army of souls, which are normally either [[Nightmare Fuel|mounted as artwork]] or [[Fate Worse Than Death|turned into bricks]] by the demons (and only doing this because the soul [[Meaningful Name|Hani]] offered to form it after [[Exposition Beam|restoring the memories of his former life]]. The subversion comes in the form of this never having been done before (meaning the soul army has a partial element of surprise), as well as the souls using one of their [[Beneath Notice|common fates]] to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|get behind the enemy army and attack the flanks]].

* In [[Paradox Interactive]] games, you can make your own Red Shirt armies--just focus on sheer weight of numbers while ignoring technological advantages or leadership. You can also be on the other end: an advanced, disciplined army will usually kill dozens to hundreds times more soldiers than it will lose.

* In ''[[Kane and Lynch]]'', your named teammates (Lynch, Thapa, Rific and Shelly) are surprisingly ''not'' a Red Shirt Army. You'll rely on them a lot, and they can take a lot of fire before they go down. However, in the civil war level 'Freedom Fighters', Lynch, Thapa, Rific and Shelly each get their OWN squad of four men to command, which all die after one shot.

* ''[[Ace Combat]]'' regularly has the PC flying alongside allied squadrons, but while they do get the occasional kill in they still are considerably less capable than you are. Averted in [[Ace Combat]] 6, where your allies will actually attack the enemies to great effect if you order them to.

* Bravo Team in ''[[Doom]] 3'' gets wiped out before you even find them. Except for one, who is picked off by a Wraith shortly after you meet him.