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Private Military Contractors: Difference between revisions
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In recent years, there's come to be a distinction between a "''mercenary company''" and "''corporate mercenaries''", especially in Western (American) television and movies. The traditional mercenary who hires ''himself'' out (or himself and [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|a dozen of his best buddies]]) is seen as somewhat honest, with at least a personal code of honor of some kind (even if it's just "do the job, get paid"); determined to accomplish the mission for which he has been paid and takes his reputation very seriously; and is scrappy yet skilled. This character is usually played moderately sympathetic, or at least as an [[Anti-Hero]]. They will typically have some attention given to their, quite possibly colorful, personalities.
In stark contrast, the "''corporate mercenary''" is usually just a [[Red Shirt]] of some kind, and the "character" takes the form of the PMC corporation itself. Corporate mercs are usually depicted as being up to no good, or are the hand-puppets of some shadowy organization which is itself up to no good. They are portrayed -- when anything more than [[Red Shirts]] -- as amoral, ethically-challenged, and professional but [[My Master, Right or Wrong|hardly ever inclined to argue with Corporate Headquarters]]. If former military, many will have been dishonorably discharged. They are almost never the "good guys" in recent years. Their parent company usually has a name based loosely or thematically on "Blackwater" in a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] [[Expy]] of that real-life PMC -- examples include "Blackriver", "Red River", "Blackthorne", and "Starkwood".
Note that while the trope description uses the terms "PMC" and "mercenaries" interchangeably, in the [[Real Life]] the distinction between them is very much a [[Serious Business]]. This is because the international treaties that establish [[The Laws and Customs of War]] explicitly ''forbid'' the usage of mercenaries in warfare. While true mercs might be tolerated in practice, legally they are neither lawful combatants, nor non-combatants, and thus aren't eligible for the protection and respectable treatment as per Geneva conventions, for example. When captured, they are treated as a criminal gang at best, and at worst as complete outlaws.
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* The Knight Sabers of ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' and ''[[Bubblegum Crisis 2040]]'' build their own [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?|Wonderful Toys]], but pay for the materials by contracting their services.
* SMS in ''[[Macross Frontier]]''.
* The Extra Order mercs from the first arc of ''[[Black Lagoon]]'', who are described as war-junkies and take things to [[Psycho for Hire]] levels at the Yellow Flag before Revy and the Lagoon Company take them down. They were probably a [[Shout
** The Lagoon Company itself might also qualify as mercenaries of the modern-day pirate persuasion.
** Lagoon Company functions more as a black market goods and personnel courier. Balalaika's personal branch of the Russian mob is more of a straight example, however.
* After most of the members of the titular ''[[Hellsing]]'' organization are killed, its leader Integra hires the mercenary group called the "Wild Geese", ([[Shout
* The PMC Trust in ''[[Gundam 00]]'', a massive coalition of dozens of PMC groups.
** It is worth noting that in the 00 verse, not only do PMCs exist, they have their own dedicated nation. The first season of 00 features two episodes to the Gundams tearing the place apart.
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* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Mana Tatsumiya explained that she was once a part of one of these named Kanbanurae. She traveled to so many battlefields across the far corners of the globe that main lead Negi questioned whether she could [[Older Than They Look|actually be 15 years of age]]. Keep in mind, at the time she was ''7-10''. Also, Nagi Springfield's group the Ala Rubra used this as a front for their work in the [[Muggles]] world.
* The organization Mithril in ''[[Full Metal Panic]]'' is one of these, and a large proportion of the show's characters, including one of the two main characters, are members.
* If you play through the original sound novels for ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni]]'', both the TIPS and Ange mention that along with the rest of [[Hot
* After the formation of the United Federation of Nations in ''[[Code Geass]]'', the Black Knights become this to them, with Zero as its CEO.
* ''[[Berserk]]'' has mercenaries as its primary characters, with its lead character Guts having been trained as one from childhood. The Golden Age arc of the manga, which the anime covers, follows a mercenary company called the Band of the Hawk that Guts was a part of, and in particular the events that would lead to its idealistic leader, Griffith, undergoing a nasty [[Face Heel Turn]] and becoming Guts's number one enemy.
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* In ''[[An Entry With a Bang (Fanfic)|An Entry With a Bang]]!'', several down-on-their-luck merc groups like the Buron Cavalry were dragooned into joining Vorax's expedition to Clancy-Earth and are [[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turned]]. At one point, Buron Cav head Major Staedele gets into a disagreement with Blackwater's CEO after noting how C-Earther PMCs are not up to snuff for the full-scale independent open warfare demanded of ''[[Battle Tech]]'' merc groups.
* Naruto: Soldiers of Fortune is a Naruto fan fic where ninjas working for villages are replaced with mercenaries that work for private military contractors. Still no guns though.
* ''[[Forward (Fanfic)|Forward]]'' features a mercenary firm called "Skyhawk Intervention" which directs a number of other mercenary companies across the 'Verse. One of the stories features a mercenary group called [[Shout
* Willard International Consulting in ''[[The Return (Fanfic)|The Return]]'', are PMC in theory, although in practice they come across more as an [[NGO Superpower]].
* ''[[Life Of The Legendaries]]'' depicts Silph Co. as owning Kanto's navy, army and air force.
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== Film ==
* ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]'' (2004). The Flying Legion, clearly inspired by the [
* ''[[The Dogs of War]]'' (1981), though the film removes much of the political points made by Forsyth about the links between big business and war.
* ''[[The Wild Geese]]'' (1978) depicts the recruitment of a mercenary force to free an imprisoned African leader, only for the force to be abandoned when their sponsors strike a deal with the current rulers of the country.
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* The ''[[Total War]]'' series often has mercenaries available for purchase. Particularly, in Medieval I and II and Rome. Justified given the time period and subject.
* In ''[[Assassin's Creed II (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed II]]'', Ezio can hire squads of ''condottieri'' troops to assist him in battle. They can't parkour around on rooftops, but they are very tough and carry heavy weapons, making them superior to most of the city guard. In addition, they allow Ezio to make flanking moves and attack enemy troops from behind, which are one-hit-kills.
** The majority of the enemies in both ''Assassin's Creed II'' and ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Video Game)|Brotherhood]]'' are also ''condotierri'' working for the Borgia family. There's also a distinct visual difference between the Borgia mercenaries and the ''condotierri'' working for Mario Auditore and Bartolomeo (and, by extension, the Assassins).
* In ''[[Strike Commander (Video Game)|Strike Commander]]'', PMCs have become quite powerful, and operate their own armoured and airborne vehicles. They work for different nations to augment armies and carry out percision strikes. The player belongs to one such unit that specializes in F-16 fighter jets. The game takes you all around the world as your squad assists in other countries' wars. Stocking inventory for your squad means buying Sidewinder missiles and laser-guided bombs, among other things.
* In ''[[Red Faction]]'', once the player character and his comrades have killed most of the Ultor security guards, Ultor brings in "mercenaries" for backup. It's mostly an excuse for the Mooks to get tougher, and to start dropping cooler guns when you kill them.
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== Truth In Television ==
* [[The Other Wiki]] has a [
** A well-known example is the private firm [
** UK firm [
** [
* Mercenary armies were used during the [
* After [[World War I]], lots of discharged and out-of-work German soldiers formed [[PM Cs]] called ''Freikorps''. They were frequently employed as [[Hired Guns]] to put down leftist uprisings in postwar Germany and would later go on to form the core of the Nazi ''Sturmabteilung'' (storm troopers), with many high-ranking officers of the Third Reich getting their start as ''Freikorps'' commanders.
** It is important to note that the Nazi party were not the only ones to hire the ''Freikorps,'' and one of the more notable examples of an opposing political movement which took on ''Freikorps'' personnel was the ''Stahlhelm'' ("Steel Helmets").
*** The Freikorps don't fit this trope particularly well. They were more like an extremely, EXTREMELY dark take on [[Eagle Squadron]], and most of the units involved were held together by ideology rather than money.
**** For many of the rank and file members, it was simply that they had no roots in civilian life. They would have been soldiers for most, or all, of their adult lives.
* This is exactly what the [
** The only true old-school mercenary band perhaps. There were almost certainly individual soldiers fighting in foreign armies under the [[War for Fun And Profit|traditional terms]]. Furthermore it was still known in faraway places to hire locals as ad-hoc security, notably the Mongol cavalry that guarded US weather stations in the area.
** Though in various important ways, this mercenary company was [[Backed By the Pentagon|Backed By The Government]], including most of its members being serving US servicemembers who were permitted to separate from the US military without suffering any of the usual penalties of leaving the military before your term is up. The means by which they were able to procure a sizable number of for-the-time modern warplanes is noteworthy.
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** [[George Macdonald Fraser]], in ''Quartered Safe Out Here'', tells of a British officer who recruited local tribesmen to harass the Japanese. Similar types were generally known in the partisan war and espionage game as they always have been.
* In ancient times, mercenaries were actually more common then nationally affiliated professional soldiers. Even most standing armies of the day (few in number, but with some noteable exceptions like the Roman Legions) were sell-swords to an extent, working more for their salary than for national pride. The mercenaries' level of reliability varies greatly depending on a wide range of factors (mostly pay, morale, origin, and the presence of other armed forces), but they were some of the best soldiers around when they did choose to stand and fight--a fellow that made war his career choice is going to be a lot more experienced than some farm boy conscript that knows more about feeding armies than fighting for one.
* Modern standing armies were originally collections of mercenary units under permanent contract to a given ruler(not always mercenaries strictly speaking; most were [[My Master, Right or Wrong|lawful subjects]] of said ruler but they served under the same terms). They were usually raised privately by a local noble often from his neighbors (a [[Proud Warrior Race]] like Highland Scots had advantages in this regard; a clan just became a regiment and a chief became a colonel). The British army still retains memories of this in it's folklore.
* For several hundred years, Swiss mercenaries were considered to be the finest soldiers in Europe. They even wore garish outfits so that everyone on the battlefield would know who they were. This is why the Vatican has the Swiss Guard, and why they wear such funny uniforms.
* Another famous Renaissance-era group of mercenaries were the German Landsknechts, who were modeled after and considered the primary rivals of Swiss mercenaries and arguably the best mercenary group in Europe. While the Swiss used hand-to-hand combat almost exclusively, the Landsknechts used a combination of blades, early firearms and artillery. They were also famous for the ''zweihander'', [[BFS|a sword that could be as long as six feet]] designed for lopping the tips off of long pikes.
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[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:Private Military Contractors]]
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