The Neidermeyer: Difference between revisions

If he is [[Authority Equals Asskicking|too tough to frag]], though, the (un)lucky survivor of his tirades will become either a [[Yes-Man]] with no more backbone than he started off with a sense of "loyalty" to him, or [[The Dragon]] who seeks to become his successor when he dies/moves on. In a best case scenario, the successor may show much competence and merely view the man as a [[Cynical Mentor]] or [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]], but not always. In this case, the other troops will remain as spiteful as ever, but find that the converted will easily take care of any sort of mutiny they try to pull off.

 

 

See also [[Miles Gloriosus]] for a more general application of this trope.

 

 

Named after the infamous blowhard ROTC commander Doug Neidermeyer from the movie ''[[Animal House]]''. In the epilogue, it's revealed that he ended up being shot by his own troops in Vietnam. In the John Landis-directed segment of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' movie, we even meet the soldiers who shot him.

*** The official metric goes something like this: First, both sides throw their men at each other. Then, you subtract ''your'' casualties from ''their'' casualties, and "if the answer is a positive sum, it was a glorious victory".

* The ''[[Sharpe]]'' books were full of these. Some of them learned their lesson (kind of), some of them just ceased to be Sharpe's problem, and some were mercilessly bayoneted by their own troops.

* Captain Styles of the [[Star Trek|USS Excelsior]] is this in the [[Novelization]] of ''Star Trek III''. We don't see very much of him in the movie, but the characterization is plausible from what we do see.

** Given the rate of promotion in the [[Star Trek]] universe, could this be Lieutenant Styles from the Original Series episode "Balance of Terror"? If so, [[Fantastic Racism|he wasn't a very nice person back then, either]].

** Averted by Shagrat, who cares about his men and is actually shown to be fairly noble. He even gets a good death.

* Captains von Pader and Meier from the novels by [[Sven Hassel]], not to mention quite a few other Nazi officers.

** The man responsible for this [[Unfriendly Fire]] then goes on to do a [[Redemption Equals Death]] when he learns that the Captain's orders weren't really suicidally stupid (Though this was due to chance, not any hidden genius on the late Captain's part).

* Two characters that are likened to each other in ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'': the psychotic, sadistic drill sergeant that the main characters train under, and the high school teacher that coerced all of his students into joining the military.

* Lieutenant Weems from the first ''[[Doom]]'' novel. He was so incompetent and cowardly that he ordered his men to fire on a bunch of harmless monks protesting their war efforts mistaking them for suicide bombers even after one of his subordinates told him they were harmless. Flynn decked him for that, and that's why Flynn is stuck on suspension in the cafeteria on Phobos when everything goes to Hell. Throughout the novel Flynn has unflattering thoughts about Weems and thinks that Weems was the kind of guy who would side with the alien invaders if it meant saving his own skin. {{spoiler|When Flynn finds the dead bodies of Weems and another officer who had entered a suicide pact after the aliens trapped them in a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] by ''fusing their heads together'', he feels too much pity to hate the man anymore.}}

* Lieutenant Bennett from ''[[The Cruel Sea]]''. A lazy bully. Instead of being shot by his own men, he fakes illness to get out of the war.

** If this troper remembers correctly, said misfired missile had actually exploded and was tumbling back towards the launcher - keeping the other launch cells closed was a prudent thing to do; keeping on firing might have risked BOTH ships.

 

'''Captain America:''' Move into position! [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|Engage! ENGAGE!]] }}

** It's worth noting the HBO adaptation of ''Generation Kill'', discussed above, for how its portrayal of Captain America is a flagrant (but accounting for production times, probably coincidental) [[Expy]] of Captain Bannon from ''[[World in Conflict]]'', below. Though it isn't saying much, Encino Man loses the tiny amount of sympathy he ''may'' have had in the book, with the actor playing him nailing the concept of the nickname perfectly; a man who's problem isn't lack of experience so much as lack of basic common sense.

*** In the final episode, Sixta {{spoiler|reveals that his psychotic obsession with the men's grooming standards was a [[Genghis Gambit]] to give them an outlet for their stress.}}

* ''[[Band of Brothers]]'' had two real-life examples.

'''Rimmer''': You make it sound so negative Lister. Don't you see? The deranged menace that once threatened this world is vanquished!

'''Lister''': No it isn't pal, you're still here! }}

{{quote|'''Rimmer''': Chef? You want to become a chef?

'''Lister''': Not really. I just want to become your superior.

*** It is also part of Troi's character development; at the beginning, she was a psycholgist/social worker practicing on a starship, but after that point she was a Starfleet Officer whose specialty happened to be applied behavioral sciences. (It was shortly after that she takes the exam for promotion to full Commander, and is called "Commander Troi" quite as often as she is called "Counsellor Troi."

* ''[[North and South US]]'' (the US one). Elkanah Bent treats Orry and George like scum. He gets Orry crippled by Mexican artillery. Orry cripples him, he murders Orry then George hangs him.

** Subverted entirely later on, when it's revealed that {{spoiler|Lucian Alliance brainwashing is largely responsible for his behavior}}.

** No he doesn't, after that his suggestions get ignored and the people on the Destiny won't trust him anymore.

* Gordon Ramsay follows this trope in ''[[Hell's Kitchen]]'', and any of his American-produced shows. ''However'', Ramsay's behavior on the UK original of "Kitchen Nightmares" puts him much more in the ''[[Sergeant Rock]]'' personality trope. He may be harsh on the incompetent or misguided cooks, but he's doing it so the diners get the best experience and the cooks realize their own potential.

* Crashdown in ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' attempts to lead a squad on a hostile planet surface. [[Hilarity Ensues|Things go wrong]]. {{spoiler|He gets two of the squad killed then is shot ''by Gaius Baltar'' when attempting to force a needless suicide mission.}}

== Music ==

* Titular character in [[Running Wild (band)|Running Wild]]'s "Evil Spirit" who is referred to as a guardian and as a tormentor. After he is swept overboard from his vessel, [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|rejoicement ensues]].

 

 

*** And it got worse when {{spoiler|he became acting leader of the Autobots. How did that happen?}}

*** [[Word of God|The head writer]] stated that his portrayal was meant to be evocative of the afformentioned [[MASH|Major Frank Burns.]]

** Many sub-commanders within the Decepticons fit into this trope, but none moreso than Motormaster, leader of the Stunticons. His team is a big ball of crazy, and he loves to do things like order the silence-fearing Wildrider to remain quiet on missions. The intense loathing that the rest of the Stunticons have for Motormaster causes their [[Combining Mecha|combined form Menasor]] to be utterly uncontrollable as ''none'' of his component minds are able to work with their leader's.

* In ''[[Invader Zim]]'', Zim is shown to be this type of leader in the episode Hobo-13 in that he needlessly sacrifices his squadmates so that he himself can get to the end of the obstacle course, including using his last remaining soldier as a battering ram to open a door. The Drill Sergeant (ironically played by [[R. Lee Ermey]]) who meets him at the end chooses to fail Zim due to his horrendous leadership skills and challenges him into combat in order to pass (which Zim does by cheating).

* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Principal Skinner was shot in the back when he was a sergeant in Vietnam when trying to get Joey Heatherton to ''put some pants on''. The depiction of his army career is basically the same as his current one, just with soldiers replacing Willy. That's of course you assume he's telling the truth in any of his flash backs, what with him {{spoiler|not really being Seymour Skinner}}.

* Capt Marcus of ''[[Exo Squad]]'' is the worse example. He's both a [[General Ripper]] and [[General Failure]] all roled into one. His battleplans usually end up getting ambushed and outgunned by the enemy.

* Hermann Goering, by 1945, was called the most hated man in Germany beccause of his obsession with fame, glory, [[Bling of War]] and rampant egomania. Given [[Those Wacky Nazis|the competition]] at the time, it's quite an achievement.

** Göring was a perfect example of [[The Peter Principle]]. A brilliant [[Ace Pilot]] (22 victories and Blue Max) and a competent wing commander, he found his level of [[General Failure|total incompetentness]] as Reichsmarschall.

** To say 'strategic blunders' doesn't quite cover it entirely. After the defeat in Stalingrad (a defeat that occured purely due to Hitler's personal strategic intervention) Hitler went from "makes unreasonable demands and interferes in well made plans" to "totally detached from reality". The famous stories from his war room are that he would regularly issue orders to units that no longer existed or were so undermanned they might as well not exist, then when his plans didn't work out, would blame the subordinate who was "responsible". Most Generals were lucky enough that they would simply be demoted or put somewhere out of the way (Legendary General Guderian was one example), however some were not so lucky and would be executed for cowardice or "defying orders".

** One well-known story from the war is that when the D-Day invasion began, Panzer groups sat idly by while the Allies invaded. The reason? Because they needed Adolf's ordered permission to get into the battle. He did not until late in the day, because ''he was asleep''. And ''nobody'' wanted to be the one to wake him up and tell him the bad news.

** A common problem with former military ''is'' [[Stranger in a Familiar Land|re-socializing to the civilian world]]. Once you spend a long enough time in, it takes time to get used to the less formal (in appearance) environment of the civilian workforce. There are reasons why former military are often seen in jobs with known chains of command.

** People who've worked for Jobs and left tend to have this view on him, considering his high standards. But since he's led Apple from nearly dead in the water to having more liquid assets than the US government in 10 years, people skirt by this.

** The Soviet military fared no better, largely due to the culture of ''dedovschina'' (literally, 'rule of the grandfathers') where senior conscripts were encouraged by the hierarchy to inflict extremely brutal hazing and bullying upon junior conscripts. The practice is responsible for as many as 3,000 deaths per year, although the Russian Defense Ministry classifies most of those as 'suicides'. The practice was partly responsible for the ''[[wikipedia:Strozhevoi mutiny|Strozhevoi]]'' Mutiny, the attempted defection of a Soviet frigate to Sweden in 1975. Lowering the mandatory service period to three years from five has eased the problem somewhat, but it still remains endemic to the Russian military even in the post-Soviet era.

* Soviet General Grigory Kulik had a reputation of being erratic and a murderous buffoon. His personal command motto was: "Jail, or Medal." People under his command who he favored would receive (undeserved) honors, while those he didn't would be arrested for whatever reason he could think of. He would then shout his motto at his 'favored' subordinates to intimidate them if they were starting to displease him. Not only this, he was a stupendously inept officer who had no understanding of tactics and resisted all military innovations (such as tanks, rocket artillery, minefields, and sub-machine guns, all of which were effective). The only reason he survived for so long when other much more competent generals did not was because he himself had the personal favor of Stalin. He finally lost it after the end of WWII, when he was overheard criticizing Stalin. He was soon arrested, and eventually executed.