Tom Clancy/YMMV: Difference between revisions

* [[Acceptable Ethnic Targets]]: Clancy doesn't pull any punches in the novels, but the film adaptation of ''The Sum of All Fears'' conveniently replaces the Arab terrorists with Neo-Nazis. Also see [[Yellow Peril]] below.

** That being said, he also treats ethnic groups, especially traditionally vilified ones, with a great deal of respect. He makes it pretty clear that it's just the extremes of each groups that tend to be problematic. This he even applies to his own countrymen.

** Similarly, [[Executive Meddling]] forced the film version of ''The Sum of all Fears'' to feature {{spoiler|Neo-Nazis as the antagonists rather than Arabs}}, as they thought {{spoiler|Arab terrorists}} wouldn't be able to pull off something that dramatic.

** There is a bio-terrorism subplot in ''Executive Orders'', years before the Anthrax scares, and a similar one in ''Rainbow Six''.

** China is portrayed in ''The Bear and the Dragon'' as a backwards country that doesn't understand economics or capitalism, with only its strong army to rely on. Fast forward ten years, and they've proven themselves to be better capitalists than the US...

** ''Debt of Honor'' has a major international crisis caused by faulty gas tanks in Japanese cars. In 2010, we have the Toyota safety issues.

** Likewise, Patriot Games dealt with America's vulnerability to foreign terrorist groups long before any actually operated over there.

* [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]: In ''Locked On'', Jack Jr discovers that terrorist cells are sending information via data embedded in pornographic images. It has been recently been revealed that Al Qaeda has been hiding information by digitally embedding it into pornographic videos.

* [[Ho Yay]]: Apparently, President J. Robert Fowler and his Chief of Staff Arnie Van Damm have a 'history', according to the in-house newspaper for the White House. When Liz Elliot gives Fowler a call regarding something 'potentially damaging', Fowler comments that "It's not the rumor that we're...", at which point, Liz cuts him off saying, "No sir, not that. I'm not kidding."

* [[Idiot Plot]]: ''The Bear And The Dragon'' revolves around this to an absurd degree. The Chinese government (with the exception of one [[Only Sane Man]] with no real power and one bright but amoral [[Pragmatic Villainy|pragmatic villain]] who also has a degree of sanity and ability to contemplate his actions yet has a tenous grip on power) are portrayed as backwards, corrupt and incompetent, relying on the rule of arms to make sure their people stay in line (disregarding the Internet as something they need to regulate to maintain this, which IRL China has addressed). They also launch a war of aggression in much the same way as the Soviets did in [[Red Storm Rising]] with even less foreplanning, are so inept at security they don't even notice a hacking scheme any reasonably effective hacker could unravel is handing the USA a copypasta of their Politburo meeting minutes, thus allowing America to read their every move, and as the cherry on top, they prove unable to show any intelligence regarding international relations, and this idiocy puts their world trade in the shitter because they can't do something as simple as apologize for the murder of a diplomat and a missionary even when objective reality explicitly demands it.

** Anne Pretloe, a doctor who helped to treat John Kelly{{spoiler|/Clark}} in ''Without Remorse'', and a girl who was kidnapped and murdered by {{spoiler|Horizon Corporation's Project}} in ''Rainbow Six''.

** Dmitriy A. Popov, a Soviet diplomat present during the Middle East peace agreement in ''Sum of All Fears'', and a former KGB terrorist liaison in ''Rainbow Six''.

** This is evident in both small examples like redundant dialog tags ("Hello," he said, greeting Jack Ryan) and larger ones, like the significant percentage of ''Executive Orders'' and ''The Bear and The Dragon'' devoted to President Ryan grunting, grumbling, and grousing about what a gilded cage the White House is.

* [[Straw Character]]: Several media pundits (usually liberals) are portrayed as this. Ed Kealty, widely regarded as being a [[Take That]] directed against Ted Kennedy is a very Democratic one, although this may be a subversion: Arnie Van Damm notes that Kealty has no real principles, holds liberal views only in order to get himself elected, and would "fuck a snake," in order to get what he wants.

** [[Truth in Television]] to a point; the military knows that [[Poor Communication Kills]], and if time permits will gladly throw a lot of redundancy into staff meetings just to make sure everybody's still on the same page.

* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: In ''Teeth of the Tiger'', Dominic says this to his twin Brian:

** Cue the recent [[Pedophile Priest|clerical sex scandals.]]

 

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[[Category:YMMV]]