The Neidermeyer: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

In more [[War Is Hell|cynical]] war movies there will be no escape from the petty and obnoxious brute, and the men simply grouse and wait for the day someone on the opposing side will get lucky and catch him in the crosshairs. The troops might even conspire to [[Unfriendly Fire|frag him]] if they get tired of waiting for the enemy to do the job.

 

 

The [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] is a Neidermeyer -- or [[Cynical Mentor|just acts like one]] -- with [[Training From Hell|the purpose of turning recruits into soldiers]]. A [[Sergeant Rock]] may ''act'' like the Neidermeyer but is nonetheless held in high regard because he wouldn't put his men through anything he isn't going through himself.

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.

'''Tall:''' Fine! Fine! Now what about those reinforcements!<br />

'''Staros:''' My company alone cannot take that position, sir.<br />

'''Tall:''' It's never necessary to tell me that you think I'm right. We'll just... assume it.<br />

'''Staros:''' We need some water... the men are passing out.<br />

** It doesn't help that he replaces [[Reasonable Authority Figure]] Captain Kaarna.

*** Lammio's men did not loathe him for his weaknesses. They hated him because he had no weaknesses and absolutely no social skills. He was also a cocky martinet. It did not help that he was completely fearless and excellent soldier.

* Captain Morton in ''[[Mister Roberts]]'' by James Heggen. Played in the 1955 movie by James Cagney, he is a tyrant, but the whole situation is mostly played for laughs.

* Averted in ''[[The War Against the Chtorr]]'' ("A Matter for Men"). The hero Jim McCarthy, having just been made an officer after killing a rampaging Chtorran; tries to bully [[Hot Scientist|Dr Fletcher]] out of some Chtorran specimans. First she takes him down a peg by showing McCarthy that the Chtorran he 'killed' is still very much alive. Then she points out that everyone wants to look up to their superiors, so an officer's job is to ''inspire'' people, not boss them about. She finishes by congratulating McCarthy on his shooting, and asks him to bring flowers next time. McCarthy is highly embarrassed, but learns from the experience. In "A Season for Slaughter" however, when pushed too far by incompetent Major Bellus, McCarthy doesn't educate this Neidermeyer, he demolishes him. On worldwide live television.

** Except perhaps Major --- De Coverley, he's more of a [[Memetic Badass]] with an awe-inspiring reputation and fearsome appearance, but no real authority beyond renting apartments. {{spoiler|Of course, like anyone who's not a complete bastard, he dies or disappears.}}

** And Major Major, who really just wants to be left alone.

* With the exception of the Paran siblings ([[The Hero|Ganoes]] and Tavore), every single noble-born military officer in the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' series. [[Anvilicious|Every one]].

* The ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' series is overflowing with these, including:

'''Captain America:''' Engage those buildings!<br />

'''Marine #4:''' Sir, that's more than 3,000 meters away. Range of my .50 is 1830.<br />

** 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.

** While Captain America embodies this trope in the HBO version, don't forget Sgt. Major John "Fucking" Sixta who has more power than either of them -- and uses it to continually insist on personal grooming standards while allowing the company to abandon their ammo supply truck in enemy territory.

** General George Hammond from ''[[Stargate SG 1]]'' was originally intended by such a character, as this was how most commanding officers/superiors were treated in other television shows at the time. After talking with a U.S. Air Force consultant -- who pointed out that a man who rose to Hammond's position wouldn't have got there if he had no respect for his inferiors, and vice versa -- he was rewritten to be the show's [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]. Multiple times he's shown bending the rules or outright breaking them to get the job done.

* Gordon Ramsay follows this trope in ''[[Hells 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.

* Dwight Schrute from [[The Office]] becomes the civilian equivalent whenever he is given even the slightest amount of authority.

* Lieutenant Charles Marimow in ''[[The Wire]]'' is referred to as "The Unit Killer" and a man who "does not toss away talent lightly. He heaves it with great force."

 

== Machinima ==

** Or he would be if he wasn't so funny. The best order he's ever given was "Scream like a woman!"

*** I don't know. Operation Meatshield certainly had its merits.

* Zaeed Massani of ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' was apparently this, considering the fact that all his stories usually end with getting all of his men killed and info discovered in [[DLC|Lair of the Shadow Broker]] reveals that {{spoiler|a major element for his betrayal by the Blue Suns}} was his inability to ensure loyalty. {{spoiler|In fact, he's actually a poor choice for an end-game Fire Team/Distraction Leader.}}

* Due to the open ended nature of the story, it is entirely possible that both brothers in ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' count as this. All of the mercs on both teams start haphazardly next to the other side, and can just run to battle in about 4 seconds, and everybody should die at least once. Given that the announcer seemed to be looking for this setup, it may be the brothers were intended to both become "the Neidermeyer".

 

 

'''The Emperor:''' Yet you did nothing to punish them for this?<br />

'''Bleen soldier:''' Um... Excuse me? We were... I dunno, occupied.<br />

'''Bleen soldier:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|Screaming? Praying? ...fighting over the escape pods? The usual.]] }}

 

** Patton himself has been accused of being more than a little of a martinet, far too concerned with the dress code in a combat zone (including the fact he demanded, and may even have gotten, front-line infantry to wear their ties), attacking Metz and the Vauban forts without proper preparation and demanding the attack continue after it became clear it was not going to succeed, and finally culminating late in the war with his famous tirade against a soldier who had been shot in the foot for cowardice (said soldier had already won a Silver Star for valor).

*** With regard to the slapping incident, the soldier in question was away from his unit without permission and legally Patton could have had him executed for desertion. What Patton did was the better option, albeit not the best one available.

 

* Most recently, [http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969602,00.html this officer].

* Captain Bligh had a reputation for this, but it's not really deserved: Yes, he flogged his men, but it was only because flogging was the mandatory punishment in the British Navy at the time. In fact, he was considered ''lenient'' compared to the other officers in the Navy. Yes, conditions were overcrowded on the Bounty, but only because Bligh couldn't say no to friends and relatives who needed jobs for their friends and relatives. And when they finally got to Otaheite (later Tahiti), Bligh let his men run around and do whatever they wanted for the five months they remained. The conditions that led to the famous mutiny were largely made out of a desperate need to get his by-now rather lax crew into some semblance of order and competency. In short, the supposed tyrant's greatest crime was being too accommodating.

** Plus, after their mutiny, the crew returned to Tahiti and began treating the natives little better than slaves. Eventually the natives rebelled and killed nearly all of them.

* 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.

* Virtually every officer in the [[Imperial Japan|Imperial Japanese]] military, in large part due to their brutal discipline and rigid stratification between enlisted and officer ranks. Imperial officers and NCOs were literally supposed to make their men fear them more than they feared the enemy. This tended to backfire in the Air services because the more experienced enlisted pilots would simply abandon officers that they didn't like; actual fragging was normally unnecessary since being alone in a dogfight usually meant you were dead meat. According to one surviving enlisted pilot unpopular officers "often failed to come back."

* Virtually every officer in the [[Imperial Russia|Imperial Russian]] military, because of the brutal means of discipline and strict social class differences. Almost all officers came from the privileged nobility, while the enlisted men were almost all [[Slave Mook|force-levied conscripts]]. One particular example was Lieutenant Ippolit Giliarovsky on pre-dreadnought battleship ''Potemkin'', whose uppity, cocky and bullyish behaviour sparked the mutiny onboard immortalized on Sergei Eisenstein's [[Battleship Potemkin]].

* 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.

* Second Lieutenant William Calley, commanding officer of the platoon that perpetrated the [[Vietnam War|My Lai massacre]], was regarded as incompetent and there had been discussions already within the platoon of fragging him.

[[Category:The Squad]]

[[Category:The Neidermeyer]]