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== '''Choices, Choices''' ==
 
There are a lot of different ways to go about writing a war story. In historical eras, the main choice is going to be between the Army and [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men|the Navy]]. Nowadays, assuming you're writing about the [[Yanks With Tanks|United States]], you've got [[The Army]], the [[Semper Fi|Marines]], [[Top Gun|Air Force]], [[Flaunting Your Fleets|the Navy,]] and the [[Coast Guard]]. What do you choose? The Army is going to be the most prone, at least in fiction, to a fairly standard story without anything unusually badass or exciting happening. The Marines is more likely to have some pretty badass stuff going on, especially if they are [[Space Marines]], doubly so if they are based on the real life USMC. The Air Force is likely going to either be about [[World War 2|great strategic bombing campaigns, dueling aces]], or [[The Ace|slick jet pilots competing to be top dog.]] The Navy isn't likely to feature too much stuff directly going on, except in the days of [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]]. In modern times, they're mostly there for artillery support or air support with occasional landings of Marines or their own elite badasses, the [[Badass Normal|S.E.A.L.'s]]. After that comes the question of officer or serviceman. Is the story about an enlisted grunt in the field going on patrols and living in foxholes, or is he [[An Officer and Aa Gentleman]]? Is there a [[Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough]] duo dynamic? Is the main character a [[Action Girl|woman]]? What if they aren't frontline combat personnel, or what if they're a medic? You can do [[Elites Are More Glamorous|special operations]], but be careful; a lot of stories don't do it well, or do the operators justice.
 
Also, one of the biggest choices you'll need to make is where your story lies on the [[War Is Hell]] / [[War Is Glorious]] scale. For every story about soldiers and warriors battling impossible odds and doing awesome things, there's a story about the horrific psychological effects that war and killing can have on human beings, especially in more modern works like ''[[The Deer Hunter]]'' and ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''. There's plenty of room for both of these tropes, particularly in the best war stories.
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* [[Mary Tzu]]: Very few real life generals have ever gone undefeated throughout their whole careers. Just as [[General Failure]] will quickly frustrate the audience and set expectations for what will happen whenever anything is done that has his name on it, [[Mary Tzu]] will quickly exhaust the shock and awe of her spectacular brilliance, and the story will lose any sense of tension.
* [[Purple Prose]]: Nothing sucks the energy out of a battle like forgetting the [[Law of Conservation of Detail]]. If you graphically describe the deaths of people a character kills, then the action grinds to a frustrating halt. Save the detailed death descriptions for executions and suicides.
* [[Rare Guns]]: There are reasons why the [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|rare guns]] are so rare. Typically, rare guns are that way because they were impractical, too expensive, not so good as the competition, absolutely dreadful weapons, or because their production was halted by either something better coming along, or because the country producing them was invaded.
* [[Redshirt Army]]. Unless it's professional soldiers versus a sub par adversary, this is not justified.
 
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** [[All Germans Are Nazis]]. If the work involves the Wehrmacht, then don't automatically assign them as German=Nazi=Evil. Beware [[Godwin's Law]]. The trope for the modern German military, called the Bundeswehr, is [[We Are Not the Wehrmacht]].
** [[Eagle Land]]. Both types, as type 1 can come off as jingoist and type 2 comes off as simply America bashing.
** [[Reds Withwith Rockets]], if combined with inherrently making them malevolent because they are Russian+/Communist.
** Arab Terrorists and any other sort of terrorist should be handled very carefully.
* [[Obligatory War Crime Scene]]. While war crimes are horrible, they happen a lot less frequently than Hollywood would have us believe (however they do happen within ''any'' armed force, even in this day and age) and those who perpetrate them are frequently brought to justice pretty quickly, don't just gloss over them. Be frank and real when dealing with them. As with all fiction writing, if it doesn't serve plot or character, then don't just [[Throw It In]] for the Wangst of it.
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* [[Mary Tzu]]. While a [[Mary Sue]] and vexing to encounter regularly, this trope is okay to play with for subversions and deconstructions. For example: what if a friendly Mary Tzu is so miraculously gifted because they're actually working for the [[Big Bad]]? Or possibly the unbeatable general becomes a [[Death Seeker|defeat seeker]], waging wars looking for an opponent who can best him. Sure, the general's great at fighting the enemy, but they're [[Gone Horribly Right|so good that the also fight everybody else.]]
* [[Super Soldiers]]. If any of these are every made in real life, they will likely be normal people wh are very well trained and conditioned while being given some sort of powered armor. How about instead of making a [[Super Soldier]] invincible, make them just insanely skilled and more physically fit than what normal people could attain, but make them just as fragile and vulnerable as everybody else. Look up Yahtzee's rant on supersoldiers. Also, the idea has been deconstructed to death already; the supersoldier is [[Badass Abnormal]], but at the cost of a short harsh life, never knowing love, being affected with [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|Post Traumatic Stress Disorder]], being treated like an animal, being unable to live without fighting, and being forced to fight no matter what their personal feelings are. A reconstruction of this could show that the [[Super Soldier]] is a [[Badass Abnormal]] who pays a high personal price for their martial prowess. Yes, they have all sorts of problems. Yes, the job is tough, thankless, and will claim their life, but they do it for thier country, for their comrades, so that others may live, because nobody else can, because they have people they care about, because others are counting on it, or maybe they really love being a soldier.
* [[War for Fun Andand Profit]]. Real wars are extremely expensive and are getting more and more expensive all the time as more advanced technologies are implemented. A war for profit, typically of a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], is very unlikely now to pay off. Most likely, he's going to end up ruined and convicted in international court. War for fun and profit only works wit very low cost low intensity conflicts such as gang wars, where controlling the sale of drugs more than compensates for the price paid in guns and members.
 
== '''Writers' Lounge''' ==
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* [[The Squad]], possibly subdivided into a [[Five-Man Band]]. On the extreme side of the small scale, you may focus on a fire team or a sniper-spotter pair. Maybe they're [[Heterosexual Life Partners]].
** If you do go the way of the [[Five-Man Band]], then here's the general rule
*** [[The Hero]]= squad leader, usually a [[Sergeant Rock|sergeant]] or a low ranking officer, if the officer is not a [[Naive Newcomer]] or [[The Neidermeyer]]. Usage and playing with the [[Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough]] and the [[An Officer and Aa Gentleman]] tropes is possible.
*** [[The Lancer]]= the second in command of [[The Squad]]. If [[The Hero]] is an officer, then chances are that [[The Lancer]] will be a sergeant of some type. If the leader is a sergeant, then [[The Lancer]] may be of the same rank, or a bit below them. Chances are that they will be the team's best fighter.
*** [[The Smart Guy]]= a specialist in something, like EOD, demolitions, heavy weapons, or [[Sniper Index|long range marksmanship.]] They might also be a hacker, information officer, or the radio operator. It is common for this archetype to be the team's [[Friendly Sniper|Designated Marksman.]]
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* Townsfolk, who may or may not welcome the occupation force.
** Maybe have some of the soldiers fall for local girls, or some of the women soldiers can fall for local boys. Depending on where the work lies on the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]], this can be played for romance, [[Played for Drama|drama]], angst, [[Played for Laughs|comedy]], [[Squee]], or used [[Friend Versus Lover|to set up]] [[Star-Crossed Lovers|a hopeless relationship.]]
*** Characters could get intimate with the townsfolk, but only for a fling, or brief affair. Have a [[Hooker Withwith a Heart of Gold]] on hand for some [[Platonic Prostitution]], or to give the [[Fresh Meat]] [[Naive Newcomer]] his first taste of sex [[You Don't Want to Die Aa Virgin, Do You?|before he goes off to battle.]]
* A girl, friend, or family member back home works to create some depth to a character, especially if they have to hear the news about what happened to their son.
* News Reporters may be used to provide framing for the conflict.
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== '''Extra Credits''' ==
== ''The Greats'' ==
* [[Band of Brothers (TV series)|Band of Brothers]] is a very realistic [[World War Two]] story that has great [[Real Life Writes the Plot|writing, plot]], characterization, and music. If you want to know how to really pull of a great story, then this is the series to watch.
* [[Full Metal Jacket]] is antiwar movie [[Deconstruction]] at its finest. It features the [[Trope Codifier]] for the [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] [[Unbuilt Trope|(which gets]] [[Subverted Trope|subverted- hard!)]] and it also does a great job of showing its [[War Is Hell]] theme. It has status of a fountain of memes, such as [[Me Love You Long Time]], just about everything from [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Gunnery Sergeant Hartman]], especially the part about steers and queers.
* [[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (Anime)|Victory Gundam]] is in many ways like the Gundam version of [[Full Metal Jacket]].
* ''[[All Quiet On the Western Front (Literature)|All Quiet Onon the Western Front]]'' may be close to required reading. Warning: it is one hell of a [[Tear Jerker]].
* [[To Hell and Back]] is the true story of Audie Murphy, the most decorated and [[Badass]] soldier in American history. If you only watch [[The Film of the Book|the film]], then be aware that they toned down or removed some of his actions [[Reality Is Unrealistic|because they were too unbelievable!]] [[Beyond the Impossible|The book still have them all.]] And to cap it all off, the man was [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse|rather small, only standing at 5'5".]]
* [[Battle of the Bulge]] is great despite its liberties with history and geography. THE ARDENNES DOES NOT LOOK LIKE CENTRAL SPAIN! NO! NO! NO!
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* [[John Wayne|John Wayne's]] [[The Green Berets]] is known for being the only traditional war movie about [[The Vietnam War|Vietnam]] and it is a damn good one.
* ''[[Literature/The Illiad|The Illiad]]'', and it may even be the [[Ur Example]].
* ''[[The Aeneid (Literature)|The Aeneid]]'' has a back half that tells of a pretty awesome war story. Such a shame with the [[What the Hell, Hero?]] [[Gainax Ending]].
* [[Objective Burma]] although this is somewhat controversial.
* [[Black Hawk Down]] is definitely one of these.
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== '''The [[Epic Fail|Epic Fails]]''' ==
* [[Haze]] is [[Anvilicious]] to the extreme, featuring terrible dialogue, plot, and [[Broken Aesop|Broken Aesops]] everywhere. It doesn't redeem itself as a fun game either.
* The [[Far Cry]] film, even appearing in Film Brain's [[Bad Movie Beatdown (Web Video)|Bad Movie Beatdown]]
* [[Blacksite Area 51]]
 
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