History Main / CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/TopGun'', Tom Skerrit (Viper) and Creator/MichaelIronside (Jester) are Trope Codifiers.
* Ironside gets his chance to be the Captain Smooth in ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' to Creator/ClancyBrown's Sgt. Zim, who is the Sergeant Rough.
* Optimus Prime and Ironhide in the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries''.

* In ''Film/WeWereSoldiers'', Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore and [[OldSoldier Command Sergeant Major Plumley]] fit this trope.
* ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'''s Captain Miller (Creator/TomHanks) and Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore).

* In ''Film/TheThinRedLine'' Captain Staros is the smooth one and 1st Sgt. Welsh the rough.

** Averted in Literature/{{Eric}}, where the captain is TheNeidermeyer (his training being in composing victory odes and heroic poses) and the sergeant is SergeantRock (''his'' training consisted of 50+ years of fighting and not getting eaten by the various horrible creatures the Discworld has to offer).

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' gives us Captain Rex and Commander Cody, with Rex as the Sergeant Rough to Cody's Captain Smooth.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' has Ultra Magnus, a fair and ethical leader [[spoiler: for the most part.]] His second [[spoiler: and successor]] Sentinel Prime is a complete {{Jerkass}} who abuses his authority up, down and sideways.
** A more shining and optimistic example of this trope is Optimus (Captain Smooth) and Ratchet (Sergeant Rough) for the Autobot team stationed on Earth.

* ''Colonel'' Crumb and Sergeant Blast from ''Private Olive Oyl'' (a feature from the ''The All-New {{Popeye}} Hour'').

-->'''Hawkeye:''' And I'm a ''captain,'' buddy. Which means that if we blow up I'll go higher than you. Now '''''put it out!!'''''

* ''Literature/TheSecretOfSantaVittoria'': Von Prem and Traub, the leaders of the soldiers sent to seize the villages wine. Von Prem is a polite, restrained ConsumnateProfessional, while Traub is a bit of a swaggering thug. Although by the end of the story, after being thoroughly outwitted by the villagers, Von Prem is a lot less smooth and Traub has slightly softened.

* ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' has Sergeant Zim and Captain Frankel. "Zim did everything with precision and style, as if he were on parade; Captain Frankel did the same thing with dash and gusto, as if it were a game. The results were about the same and it never turned out to be as easy as Captain Frankel made it look."[[/folder]]

In villainous organisations, a BigBad who is WickedCultured, AffablyEvil or otherwise [[NonActionBigBad physically non-threatening]] is likely to have a more aggressive and in-your-face {{Dragon}} to put [[VillainousDemotivator the fear of god]] into his {{Mooks}} and the good guys alike; see TheHeavy.

** Sharpe and Harper in though Sharpe is somewhat less refined than most officers.
** Sharpe himself fulfils this role for a couple of his commanders, notably [=McCandless=], Lawford and Wellington himself.
** The India Trilogy also give us the Heel version in Captain Morris and Sgt. Hakeswill. They're both devious, conniving villains, but Morris is a suave social climber who uses Hakeswill, a horrible thug, to do his dirty work. Hakeswill later returns as a sidekick for Wyndham, although Wyndham is a genuinely decent officer who only sees Hakeswill as a model sergeant and isn't aware of what he's up to.

* The Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'' has [[EnsignNewbie Lieutenant Blouse]] as the soft, inexperienced "Rupert" with [[SergeantRock Sergeant Jackrum]] as the experienced, conniving, shouty NCO who [[ChessmasterSidekick actually makes the decisions]].
** In the Night Watch, the roles are reversed. People tend to respect Commander Vimes, but everyone seems to genuinely ''like'' his second-in-command, Captain Carrot.
** Averted in Eric, where the captain is TheNeidermeyer (his training being in composing victory odes and heroic poses) and the sergeant is SergeantRock (''his'' training consisted of 50+ years of fighting and not getting eaten by the various horrible creatures the Discworld has to offer).

* Contrast the relatively soft-spoken Cpt. Delaney with the more rough-and-tumble Sgt. Miller in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty2BigRedOne.''

* in RWBY Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch have this dynamic

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' has Sergeant Zim and Captain Frankel. "Zim did everything with precision and style, as if he were on parade; Captain Frankel did the same thing with dash and gusto, as if it were a game. The results were about the same and it never turned out to be as easy as Captain Frankel made it look[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/StarshipTroopers has Sergeant Zim and Captain Frankel. "Zim did everything with precision and style, as if he were on parade; Captain Frankel did the same thing with dash and gusto, as if it were a game. The results were about the same and it never turned out to be as easy as Captain Frankel made it look[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcanimations]]

* Contrast the relatively soft-spoken Cpt. Delaney with the more rough-and-tumble Sgt. Miller in ''VideoGame/CallofDuty2:BigRedOne.''

** Captain Keyes and Sergeant Johnson in ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved''. Johnson later also has this dynamic with Keyes's daughter Commander Miranda Keyes.
** The UNSC ''Infinity'' has this dynamic with Captain Lasky and [[SuperSoldier Spartan-IV]] Sarah Palmer; Lasky is something of a gentleman, while Palmer is sarcastic and sharp-tempered.

* At the end of the 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' movie, the roles are flipped. [[TheKirk Kirk]], a former JerkWithAHeartOfGold and MilitaryMaverick, is in the command chair with cool, collected [[TheSpock Spock]] as his first officer. Note the original Kirk was not rough around the edges in any sense, but was an OfficerAndAGentleman despite sharing certain traits (such as womanizing and hubris) with his AU counterpart.

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' has the mother-like Captain Takamachi Nanoha and the gruff FieryRedhead Vice-Captain Vita. However, do not try to push your luck with Nanoha. [[MilitaryMaverick Risk the safety of the team by ignoring her advice and orders enough times]] and you will learn why [[FanNickname fans call her]] [[GoodIsNotSoft the White Devil]]. Their partnership proves so successful, in fact, that they seem to have made it a permanent arrangement in ''[[Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaViVid ViVid]]'' and ''[[Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce Force]]''.

* ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}''--and ''The Killer Angels'', the book it was based on--features Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and his sergeant Buster Kilrain. Chamberlain is [[BadassBookworm an academic and a professor]], Kilrain is a rough, sarcastic, out-and-out career soldier. Between them they keep the 20th Maine up and running for its CrowningMomentOfAwesome at Little Round Top.

* ''{{Sharpe}}''

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': In the reimagined series, Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh. [[AFatherToHisMen Adama]] knows the name and face of every single member of his crew by heart, has demonstrated that he will go to war over every last one of them, and has a DeathGlare with [[http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Adama_Glare its own page on the Battlestar Wiki]]. [[ColonelBadass Tigh]], on the other hand, openly states in the pilot miniseries "If the crew doesn't hate the XO, he's not doing his job" and does no small amount of ball-busting to enact Adama's orders.

* Sharpe and Harper in ''{{Sharpe}}'', though Sharpe is somewhat less refined than most officers.

** The first two (chronological) novels also give us the Heel version in Captain Morris and Sgt. Hakeswill. They're both devious, conniving villains, but Morris is a suave social climber who uses Hakeswill, a horrible thug, to do his dirty work. Hakeswill later returns as a sidekick for Wyndham, although Wyndham is a genuinely decent officer who only sees Hakeswill as a model sergeant and isn't aware of what he's up to.

* Captain Sisko and Major Kira of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Sisko is rather more polite and refined about his orders. Kira is ''not'' refined, nor does she pretend to be. Her preferred manner of dealing with problems is to yell at them until they go away and/or resolve themselves. If this doesn't work, she resorts to fists.
* Captain Picard and Commander Riker in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' - Picard is the diplomatic and distant leader, while Riker leads the away missions and is usually the one to get into the rough-and-tumble situations. Riker is also the one who deals with most of the crew discipline and assignments.

* ''Manga/CellsAtWork'': Helper T Cell is a relatively laid-back desk jockey who reports on the goings-on of pathogens from behind his desk, while the Killer T Cell Commander is a stern and scrappy front-line fighter who bosses around his subordinates, especially the rookie Naive T Cells.

* ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' features a paramilitary group variation--this is [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesProfessorCharlesXavier Professor X]]'s and Mystique's dynamic with the X-Men in the final scene. Xavier is AFatherToHisMen who looks after his protégés as individuals, while it's Raven's duty as the SergeantRock to discipline the team so that it functions smoothly as a unit. It suits not only their roles, but their personalities as well: Charles is very sentimental and enjoys being affectionate, whereas Mystique was influenced by Magneto and she had adopted his mindset that the successful completion of a mission is much more important than sentiment.

* ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' features a paramilitary group variation--this is Professor X's and Mystique's dynamic with the X-Men in the final scene. Xavier is AFatherToHisMen who looks after his protégés as individuals, while it's Raven's duty as the SergeantRock to discipline the team so that it functions smoothly as a unit. It suits not only their roles, but their personalities as well: Charles is very sentimental and enjoys being affectionate, whereas Mystique was influenced by Magneto and she had adopted his mindset that the successful completion of a mission is much more important than sentiment.