Military Maverick: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Iella''': "If occasionally reinterpreting them rather thoroughly."|''[[X Wing Series|Starfighters of Adumar]]''}}

 

** Lampshade Hung in ''Plan of Attack'', where General Gary Houser claims that McLanahan has been "pulling shit that should have landed you in prison for a hundred years".

* Wedge Antilles, in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], is a major one of these. He's led Rogue Squadron into defecting (temporarily) from the New Republic itself. He was ready to leave again during ''Starfighters of Adumar'', when faced with the choice of doing what was ordered or what was right. But he and the Rogues are the best of the best, delivering the impossible, and they do get called on their behavior. Wedge created [[X Wing Series|Wraith Squadron]], an entire squadron of misfits specifically organized for unconventional warfare after seeing how the fleet had become hamstrung by being forced into the role of legitimate government (see the Space section)--and, though not even thirty, found himself feeling like a tired old man when confronted with their antics and tactics.

** The Rogues tended to be pilots with secondary commando skills whose missions meant those skills became important very, very often; the Wraiths were picked as commandos who could pilot snubfighters. The Wraiths were eventually transferred out of the military's Starfighter Command to New Republic Intelligence.

** In the [[New Jedi Order]], Jaina Solo, leader of Twin Suns Squadron, disobeys orders to save one of her pilots. General Antilles wants to reprimand her, but his nephew - the pilot Jaina saved - talks him down. It's not that hard. Wedge is asked when was the first time ''he'' disobeyed an order for similar reasons, and says it was when he was twenty, the first time he had a superior officer.

== Literature ==

* [[Lois McMaster Bujold|Bujold's]] Lt. Miles Naismith (Lord) [[Vorkosigan Saga|Vorkosigan]], Barrayaran Imperial Security. He is assigned directly to Simon Illyan, the head of ImpSec, because while he succeeds in absurd situations, he repeatedly drives his commanding officers nuts.

"Thanks," said Illyan dryly. }}

** It helps that Illyan knows Miles literally ''since birth'', being his father's long-term aide and then principal political ally.

** Miles' operating philosophy can be best summed up by this quote, from ''Brothers in Arms:''

** He also counts on the "seniority lets you get away with more" front; when he is first admitted to the Imperial Service Academy, his father admits that "I think he will make a terrible ensign... but he might make a fine Chief of Staff one day." Miles is such an insubordinate ensign that Illyan ''has'' to either dismiss him, or shorten his chain of command so he has fewer people to disobey.

 

 

== Literature ==

* Inverted in [[Jack Campbell]]'s ''[[The Lost Fleet]]''. Captain Geary is thought of as crazy ''because'' he uses reasonable and not particularly noteworthy tactics. Which baffles his fleet, who are used to simply rushing into the enemy and counting how many ships are left over to determine a victory.

* Willard Phule of ''[[Phule's Company]]''. He gets ''promoted'' as a result of accidentally strafing a peace conference after the war had already ended. It [[Blessed with Suck|wasn't a reward]]. He was only not fired because the Space Legion never fires anyone, wasn't demoted only because of politics, and winds up in command of an "Omega Company", a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|dumping ground for troublemakers too stubborn to quit]].

** Vader is definitely a maverick within the Empire's military (proper court-martial? what's that?), but he's ''Vader'' and more or less an extension of the actual Emperor. His lieutenants can't complain (literally). Then again, he and not the Emperor held the rank of Supreme Commander of the Imperial Forces...

** In the [[X Wing Series|Wrath Squadron trilogy]], General Han Solo, commanding the anti-Zsinj task force, discovers one downside to being a [[Military Maverick]]:

'''Wedge''': Yes, sir, I was sort of counting on that. }}

* Sister Miriya from James Swallow's [[Warhammer 40000]] novel ''Faith & Fire'' regularly pisses of her Canoness for her "creative" interpretations of instructions given to her, although she usually doesn't disobey the direct orders of a superior and usually gets good results. However, with her actions in the course of the book included {{spoiler|discharging her weapon in a library, disobeying direct orders, postponing the arrest of a psyker to go find a deacon and killing that deacon}}, so it's a miracle she wasn't executed on the spot, this being [[Crapsack World|40k]] and all. As it turns out, {{spoiler|there was an assassin in the library, the psyker helped them uncover a conspiracy (and was killed later) and the deacon was hoarding psykers for an experiment [[What Measure Is a Non Super|to try to turn all the humans of the Imperium into psykers]]}}, so in recognition of that, she was just demoted into a line Battle Sister and reassigned to another Canoness.