The Spartan Way: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

An ultra-hardass military training regimen that produces ultra-hardass soldiers by methods that would drive every human rights activist on the planet into a rage if they hadn't already been used for target practice. May involve live-fire exercises with real missiles, survival training that consists of getting dumped naked into the wilderness a hundred miles away, all the while being screamed at by [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]], anything to keep the casualty percentage in the double digits. [[Genre Blind|One wonders how they've calculated the point where the gain in quality stops being worth the loss in numbers.]]

 

If you hear the term "[[Super Soldier]]", it will usually involve this. This will often result in a [[Badass Army]] if done properly and taken to the proper level. May result in [[Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training]] if the soldiers aren't given a balanced education outside of warfare. When the training is actually simply a way of living, you get [[HAD to Be Sharp]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]? Fumoffu'', Sousuke subjects his high school rugby team to this, in a not-so-subtle [[Shout-Out]] to ''Full Metal Jacket''.

** Recent information suggests that such practices are no longer in use, as they were largely a result of the previous Mizukage (who is not remembered fondly {{spoiler|and was actually under the control of the [[Big Bad]]}}).

* Inverted in [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]] in that Setsuna and the other Krugis holy warriors were trained to go beyond Janissary levels of fanaticism (to the point they killed their own parents) and to fight to their own destruction by Ali al Saachez, a cynical rat bastard who had no faith in or love for anything or anyone except war for its own sake. When the trainer is that much of a hypocrite, the entire endeavor is a mockery. Setsuna himself goes from fanatic Muslim to frequently insisting there is no God in any of the situations he finds himself in.

** Don't forget the actual training. Considering the fact that {{spoiler|Subaru is a [[Hollywood Cyborg]]}} and Teana is a [[Badass Normal]] whose magic levels exceed that of the standard TSAB mooks, and they look like they can barely stand after training, I fear for the lives of Nanoha's new pupils.

* ''[[Burst Angel]]'' runs with this and then [[Up to Eleven|goes above and beyond]] by having only 3 surviving candidates of the supersoldier training program...and one would later go crazy and the other would betray the organization. Yeah, uh, not the most successful final training exercise... (and the one who remained loyal was the first of the final 3 to get beaten in the flashback by the other two, also the first major enemy encountered and defeated by the traitor early on, and the one who went crazy [[Witchblade (anime)|shares her name]] with another anime supersoldier who went crazy.) The fact 3 survive may be a subtle reference to Naked Weapon mentioned below, considering their final exam is similar and also they are wearing [[Sensual Spandex|skintight]] 'battlesuits'.

* In the Marvelcomics [[Alternate Continuity]] ''[[Age of Apocalypse]]'', Colossus is shown training young mutants for the fight against Apocalypse, expecting them to kill each other to ensure that only the very best remain.

* A similar situation arose when the mutant Morlocks were [[Trapped in Another World]] by a mad [[Reality Warper]] Mikael Rasputin; they fought their way up "The Hill", and those tough enough to survive found favor with Rasputin and became the fanatical Gene Nation.

* Also from the [[DC Universe]] is Cassandra Cain, the second offical [[Batman|Batgirl]]. She was trained to read human movement as her only language and become an unparalleled assassin in a classical Spartan way, up to and including [[Kick the Dog|being shot in nonvital areas as punishment--with the threat of being shot again for crying out from the pain.]]

* Among the [[G.I. Joe]] action figures (whose backgrounds and file cards were written by Larry Hama, primary author of the comic series), most Cobra soldier types from the Strato-Viper onward were given intense training. Alley-Vipers (urban troopers) had to take a full burst of automatic fire across their body armour and run down a gas-filled corridor without a gas-mask. Night-Vipers were raised from a young age in unlit, windowless bunkers. Rage-Vipers (jungle troopers) were not given any supplies or rations and had to live off the land and steal ammunition from enemy ammo dumps. Night Vultures (aerial recon troopers) were given no formal training before being dropped over shark infested waters with their hang gliders at least five miles from land. Most Cobra Vipers also received some form of physiological augmentation. When questioned in the letters pages of the [[G.I. Joe]] comic, Hama said: "Cobra has no ethical limitations on research and no lack of willing volunteers."

 

 

* Divine Assassin training in ''[[The Open Door]]''. It starts with a five-kilometre run on hot asphalt immediately followed by a two-kilometre swim across the Aegean sea, with burnt feet still smarting, and the four-year training includes torture and a week-long [[Mind Rape]] session at the hands of an [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Complete Monster]]. The end result kills 37 excessively gung-ho trainees out of the 120 volunteers, with the rest washed out to less intense courses, which admittedly does not look very severe. Space Marine trained inherited from canon!40k most likely follows the old vein too.

 

** Unsullied training actually has worse aspects, including having no permanent name and having to kill an infant.

** {{spoiler|Notably, they don't appear to appreciate the training, with orders for the more inhumane methods to cease quickly earning their loyalty.}}

* Micheal Z. Williamson's "The Weapon" has the Freehold's special forces Operatives undergo similar training, to the point that {{spoiler|One hundred or so of them with minimal support pretty much destroy the UN ruled Earth, killing billions in the the process.}}

** Before anyone's suspension of disbelief entirely implodes, some points: {{spoiler|the Operatives required years of preparation, their acts of sabotage included the use of tacnukes, bioweapons, thermobaric attack on city infrastructure, sabotaging arcologies, and nerve gas, and there were very few Operatives who survived the massive Earth-wide manhunt for them after their attack and that being aided by good fortune bordering on divine providence. It also helps the commando tactics were backed up by a conventional attack afterwards.}}

{{quote|He turned to Hauptfeldwebel Hoffman. "Two hours special drill in the river. Anyone who kills a comrade gets three weeks leave. Every tenth cartridge and every twentieth grenade will be live. I want to see at least one broken arm. Otherwise, four hours extra drill."

Then began one of Mike's usual exercises. We hated him because of them, but they made us hard and inhuman. If you are to be a good soldier, you have to be able to hate. You have to kill a man as if he were a louse. }}

* The Blood Lords, from [[John Ringo]]'s ''[[Council War]]'' series. Somewhat of a necessity given that, just a few months prior to the titular conflict kicking off, the people in it had been members of a post-scarcity survivor. They wouldn't have stood a chance against the numerically superior opposition otherwise.

* The war camp run by the Bloodletter in [[Black Dagger Brotherhood]] qualifies for this trope. And unlike the real Spartans, who started training at age seven, his trainees started at age three. Made worse by the fact that winners of sparring bouts were encouraged to rape the losers. Alumni of this camp include Darius and Vishous.

* The Peacekeepers of ''[[Farscape]]'' are usually raised this way. In most cases, procreation is assigned, parental love is frowned upon if not outright illegal, and children are trained from birth to be [[The Stoic|stoic]], [[Tyke Bomb|obedient]] [[Punch Clock Villain|goons]], with emotional attachment seen as an unforgivable weakness. Heroine Aeryn Sun's entire character arc is about overcoming the mindset this loveless, violent upbringing has given her. In an interesting subversion, [[Anti-Villain]] Crais was drafted as a boy along with his doomed younger brother - he was actually raised on a farming colony, by a clearly loving father.

* It could be argued Dean and Sam Winchester of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' were raised this way after their mother's death when Dean was four and Sam six months old.

* On ''[[Deadliest Warrior]]'', most of the subjects are claimed to have gone through something like this, having fought since childhood and/or been trained harder than anyone else. [[Hollywood History|The accuracy of these claims varies from case to case.]]

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* This trope applies to the Black Guard of the [[Our Elves Are Better|Dark Elves]] in [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. They are taken from their mothers at birth so they don't form any attachment to their families, then as soon as they are old enough, they are forced to fight each other to the death so that only the strongest survive. Those who live are somewhat prone to [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|murdering one another]], this being [[Klingon Promotion|a recognised way of rising through the ranks]]. If they make it through two hundred years of service - and it is implied many don't - they can look forward to a high position at the Witch King's court, not that such a position [[Deadly Decadent Court|increases one's life expectancy]]. They're an interesting lot.

* The Clan Warriors in ''[[BattleTech]]'': eugenically selected, 'birthed' in artificial wombs, raised for their specific missions from childhood, then pitted against each other in live-fire conflicts to determine their fitness, and any who don't earn a "Bloodname" before the age of 35 are considered washed up.

* The ''[[GURPS]]'' Black Ops sourcebook has the Academy, the hidden training center where the Company sends it's recruits to make Black Ops out of them. The training program is ridiculously intensive, requires the equivalent of ''at least'' two doctorate degrees in book learning, learning ''at least'' two additional languages, mastery of martial arts, qualification with virtually every known weapon (the combat specialists are required to learn everything up to and including nuclear weapons engineering) as well as expert social and infiltration skills. The physical drills include the standard "dropped naked in the wilderness" test (nicknamed "Summer Camp"), exercises (simulated torture, and occasionally not-so-simulated torture) to test a cadet's resistance to mental stress, and a team-building exercise in which a squad of cadets are attached to a six-foot log via a steel chain, which they must learn to maneuver around hallway corners, through doorways, and up and down stairwells ''while being fired at with live ammo''. There's also things like spending six days escorting around a poorly-sealed box full of poisonous spiders while dodging robot snipers, or being forced to stage a firefight with live ammo in a warehouse, without being told that all the crates are full of glass bottles full of benzene and rolled-up newspapers. (And you're ''not allowed to leave the warehouse until you've finished the exercise''... even if it ''is'' on fire.) Usually, only about half of the recruits make it through all five years of training with their lives and sanity intact. The general effect of this is that most Black Ops can face impossible challenges and unspeakable horrors, and go "I've been through worse."

* The Get of Fenris in Werewolf the Apocalypse are this trope to a T. They actively terrorize young cubs and deliberately push them past their breaking point to force them to overcome their weaknesses. Very notably it is the tribe that probably has the most washouts who fail and join another tribe. The Blood Talons in ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' aren't ''quite'' as bad, but their initiation rites are deliberately designed to leave you badly scarred.

** More seriously, starting characters in Dark Sun began at 3rd level, at a time when no other published D&D setting in the universe would even remotely contemplate the idea of starting a new character at anything other than 1st level. And you're encouraged (read: all but ''ordered'') to have back-up characters.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** It is shown to be even ''more'' brutal than that in Michael Ely's ''Centauri Dawn'' novel, where children that were weaker than their peers were taken outside and had their throats cut by their teachers. The only exception ever made was for Victor Santiago, Colonel Corazon Santiago's son. By all rights he should've been killed as a boy, but his mother protected him (even though it went against their rules). Later, though, he manages to rally the Spartan troops in their hour of need to fight off the [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong|mind worms]].

* Dwarf Fortress plans for spartan training in a pit

** then there is Dwarven "Child Care",It's like regular childcare, except with more dogs, and less care. Just dump the children in a pit and add dogs and food from time to time.

* In the [[Half Life]] expansion Opposing Force, during part of the training, there's a line of three people on the opposite side of a field firing full-powered maching guns. It's not only possible to die during this part, it's kind of hard NOT to die on the first try. All this just to learn cover.

* ''[[Open Blue]]'' has ''several'' Spartan way regimens. [[Imperial Germany|Sirene]] puts volunteers from its already hardcore marines under additional training to make them [[Elite Mooks|Stormtroopers]] (no, not ''[[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|that]]'' kind). Additionally, the top 1% of these are given ''even more'' training to become the Royal Family's [[Praetorian Guard]]. [[Proud Merchant Race]] Remillia is no slouch either. Its most elite forces are known as Angels and are brutally trained from the age of three. They are then deployed into action at the age of [[Child Soldiers|thirteen]].

* The eponymous family/ethnic group/master race of [[Ynglinga Saga]].

* Parodied in ''[[The Insane Quest]]'' when Sir Rustynuts recounts his days training to be a knight:

{{quote|'''Rustynuts:''' "Well, let me tell you, whippersnappers, when I was your age, and I was in Ye Olde Armie, we woke up at 2:00 every morning and had to climb a mountain to get to our breakfast. And it was always cold by the time we got there! Then we had to swim up waterfalls for two hours, and chop down trees with our noses after that. After our afternoon breadstick, we had to dig holes using each other as shovels. When we had dug a satisfactory hole, we switched places and filled it back up. Then we ran around Boulder Canyon and smashed rocks and beat up grizzly bears. Then, for dinner, we had broccoli. After that, since it was too cold to go outside, we stayed inside and practiced our Shoryukens and Tatsumaki Senpukyakus. Then we had our AP Calculus tests at the same time as our Astrophysics tests. Finally, we went to sleep at 2:30 in the morning,"

** The Marines also lay claim to Force Recon (phasing out) and MARSOC as their elite level badasses.

* The US Navy SEALs have a period of intense, brutal training called "Hell Week" that trainees must endure before <s>becoming full fledged SEALs</s> they are allowed to begin the second third of SEAL training.

* Army Rangers. Trainees often die during training.

** Army Rangers may go on to complete Special Operations training and join Delta Force. Beyond that, it's all secret hush hush type stuff.

* The USAF's Combat Controllers. They have to maintain qualification as Air Traffic Controllers (which is probably the ''second'' most stressful job in the world, the first being ''soldier'').

** USAF Pararescue Training. They are the US military's Combat Search and Rescue specialists, and their pipeline is known as "Superman School".

* The British SAS are generally considered extremely tough also. The final stage of their 4-week Selection training is known as "Endurance", a forty mile march across the [[wikipedia:Brecon Beacons|Brecon Beacons]], completed in less than twenty hours carrying more than fifty-five pounds of weight, plus water, food and rifle. They then get to proceed to the six weeks in the Malaysian jungle. Then the survival training, then the interrogation training...and after all that, they are effectively on probation for a year, with many being returned to their parent unit in that time as unsuitable.

** The sister unit of the SAS, The SASR, better known as the Australian SAS, has similar methods. To date, more people have died in training for the SASR than they have for combat. Admittedly this includes 15 people dying in a helicoptor crash, but it still stands.

* The French Foreign Legion - in case none of the above is tough enough for you. With its methods based on sheer cruelty, and its diverse training grounds, ranging from the snow-laden slopes of the French Pyrenees through the rainforests of Guyane (aka "The Green Hell") to the dunes of the Sahara, it stands a pretty good chance of killing you. Motto: "March or die!" Women are not allowed to join. (Hear it from [[Made of Iron|Bear Grylls]] himself: [http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/E/escape_to_the_legion/recruits_bear.html "I hadn't expected it to be so tough, having spent several years in the SAS."])

** The Foriegn Legion is notorious for its high rate of ''suicide'' in training. Today it's only about .5% that can be proved, but historically suicides in training from those who simply can't take it anymore but won't wash out has run higher.

** After the Sacred Band were destroyed at the Battle of Chaeronea, with the remnants either fighting to the death or committing suicide, Philip II of Macedon reportedly said, "''Perish any man who suspects that these men either did or suffered anything unseemly''." According to [[Unreliable Narrator|Plutarch]], who was not a contemporary and who had an absolute hardon for the Sacred Band. Pinch of salt, please...

* Japanese military training during WWII and the "China incident" took this to an extreme. Not only was the training extremely brutal a Japanese soldier was not considered fully trained until he killed a prisoner of war with a sword or bayonet. Some units even went so far as to eat their victims. I wish I was making this up.

** Speaking of the "notoriously poorly trained" Red Army, this only held true for the vast number of troops mass-conscripted for the war. Many established Red Army divisions were decently trained, if badly organized. In line with this trope, however, were the Siberian divisions, who were practically "trained" to be effective in winter combat by the brutal Russian winters in the notoriously cold Siberian regions. Many of these Siberian units, once diverted to the Eastern Theater against the Germans, were instrumental in the counter-push that booted the Germans out of the USSR.

** Soviet stereotypes aside, Soviet forces in Manchuria were actually ''surprised'' and ''shocked'' to see the Japanese use human-wave attacks and men strapping explosives to themselves as suicide anti-tank weapons.

* Russian special forces (the Spetsnaz) are notorious for this, going through training that wouldn't be tolerated by human rights groups in any western country.

** Example, possibly apocryphal: during military training, adherence to NBC drill is tested in a room filled with CS gas, a non-lethal incapacitant. Rumour had it that Spetznaz NBC training is "live" - i.e. uses real, lethal nerve gas.

* The Mongols sort of subvert this. The most dangerous group of warriors in the pre-gunpowder era (arguably) didn't gain all of their prowess from much of special training, just [[HAD to Be Sharp|life in the Steppe]] and their own wars. While excellent light cavalry, the Mongols were deadly because they could keep their distance from European heavy cavalry and cut them to ribbons with their recurved bows; the only weapon in medieval times that had more pull-strength than the English yew longbow. To give an idea of how much pull they had, there are records of Mongol arrows being shot clean through a suit of plate armor (and the person inside) and embedding itself in the horse beneath.

* NORFORCE, the force responsible for defending the north of Australia includes in their training, dumping potential recruits into the rainforests in small groups equipped with knives and not much else to survive of what they can find. After a little while of this, and without giving them food or rest, they have whatever they've scavenged taken away, are lectured on important things they need to know, put into new groups, and they are dumped somewhere else. This happens two or there times. Apparently, the course is so popular, there's a several year waiting list.

** Not unknown for this kind of unit and not just for the sake of pride but also because of [[Genre Savvy]]. Few armies consider those kind of units as [[We Have Reserves|reserves]]

* Brazilian's BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is well known for their rigorous training, acting mostly on urban warfare. There is a movie focused on the group, [[The Elite Squad|"The Elite Squad"]], famous for its shock value. Their logo is a skull pierced by a knife and two guns on the background; their main vehicle is called "big skull".

** One Brazilian group, the Satere-Mawe, train to be warriors by intentionally stinging themselves by Bullet Ants. Bullet ants have the ''highest'' ranking on the Schmidt pain index, which he described as "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail grinding into your heel." It lasts ''almost 24 hours.'' They do it '''''20 times'''''.

[[Category:School Tropes]]

[[Category:Skills and Training Tropes]]