The Spartan Way: Difference between revisions

** 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.

* It's become a joke among fans that [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha|Nanoha Takamachi's]] method of parenting is all about the Spartan Way.

** 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.

** 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.}}

** The Space Wolves' homeworld is deliberately kept in a primitive technological state, analogous to real-world viking culture. Inter-tribal warfare is encouraged. Those who demonstrate their bravery by valiantly dying in battle are recovered, healed, and inducted. That's right, ''death'' is a prerequisite for joining. Then begins the usual battery of physical tests, psychic examinations, extensive training, exposure to the elements, and combat against vicious monsters. The final exam is having the Space Wolf geneseed implant. As the Marine adapts to his new organs, they are engaged in a psychic struggle against their bestial inner nature. Those who fail transform into a canine abomination. Then they become Blood Claws, assault troops whose sole purpose is to charge the enemy in close combat and seize enough glory to be promoted.

** Also holds true for the Catachans. Their method of training, however, is quite simple: [[Death World|survive to adulthood on Catachan.]]

** Grey Knights training, on the other hand, would make even him proud. Grey Knights basically have to go through all the things a regular Space Marine must, plus endure a nonstop gauntlet of 666 different physical, mental and spiritual tortures and other trials. The survival rate is rather slim, to put it mildly.

** ''[[The Last Chancers]]'' has training that could compare to the Space Marines, significant in that it's the only penal legion described to do it such. Colonel Schaeffer takes the best of the best from the worst of the worst (thousands upon thousands of military criminals who he thinks might be useful for whatever mission might be handed him) and this would, in any other setting already give you [[Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder]], but here he takes them through one hellish battlefield after another to separate the "elite" from the "fodder", and the survivors get to join him in undertaking really important suicide missions given by the Inquisition which any sane commander would have sent Death Watch or Grey Knights to do instead.

* 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.

** [[Dune|God made Athas to test the faithful]].

** 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.

** 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.

* 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]]