History Main / RedshirtArmy

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearGhostBabel'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, Snake is meant to assisted by a platoon of Delta Force commandos. They (You've guessed it) are wiped out before you've got through the first stage.

** Surprisingly enough, ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' has somewhat of a subversion with it's [=GM=] expy, the Shiden -- while the suit fills most of the roles that the [=GM=] normally would have, although unlike the [=GM=], the amount destroyed is rather small in comparison[[note]]admittedly, Tekkaden is much smaller than the Earth Federation[[/note]]. Playing this straight, however, are the Grazes and Reginlazes in the faction loyal to [=McGillis=] Fareed, which much like the ones used by the villains, go down rather easily.

* Partially subverted in the novel ''Literature/GodsDemon''. The character [[NobleDemon Sargatanas]] increases the ranks of his military with an army of souls, which are normally either mounted as artwork or [[FateWorseThanDeath turned into bricks]] by the demons (and only doing this because the soul [[MeaningfulName Hani]] offered to form it after [[ExpositionBeam restoring the memories of his former life]]. The subversion comes in the form of this never having been done before (meaning the soul army has a partial element of surprise), as well as the souls using one of their [[BeneathNotice common fates]] to get behind the enemy army and attack the flanks.

* ''VideoGame/KidIcarus1986'': You can free warrior angels in the fortresses levels, and they will appear to help you fight the fortresses' respective bosses. Unfortunately, they're so laughably ineffective that it's hardly worth the effort to collect them.

* In the original ''VideoGame/KidIcarus'', you could free warrior angels in the boss fortresses, and they would appear to help you fight the boss. Unfortunately, they're so laughably ineffective that it's hardly worth the effort to collect them.

* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace''

* ''Dragon Age''

* A damn near literal example in ''VideoGame/FableIII'': When you're [[spoiler: fighting against Logan's army in the (first) Battle of Bowerstone, the guys on your side that aren't named are an army of guards wearing red shirts. They don't have names. They're just there to shoot the purple-coated guards and get killed]].
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has the Brotherhood of Steel Initiates play the part, justified, not just because they're initiates, (Usually initiates are born into the Brotherhood and are very efficient by adulthood) but because they're recruited from (presumably) radiation weakened Wastelanders, who are untrained, and can hardly hold their own against the mutated creatures of the waste, much less the [[spoiler: Pure strain, highly trained, descended from U.S. military Enclave soldiers]] Might be played straight with the more experienced Knights and Paladins depending on the difficulty level, and what kind of enemies they're fighting.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has the Commonwealth Minutemen: the Brotherhood from ''3'' return as the game's BadassArmy. Minutemen are stated to be citizen-soldiers who take up weapons to defend their small settlements from threats, and it shows from their equipment: they can be packing crude pipe guns and wearing rags and baseball gear for protection, to wielding Laser Muskets and clad in metal body armour, and anything in between. You can call in a squad of Minutemen reinforcements with the flare gun you receive from Preston Garvey early on, but because of their kitbashed equipment and low level, they usually just present something for your foes to shoot at other than you, and mostly die in droves. [[spoiler:Absolutely {{Averted|Trope}} if you lead them to victory against the Institute, as post-ending the Minutemen will start patrolling the roads and taking up positions in checkpoints as well as Diamond City, and they're ''much'' better trained and equipped: they'll mow down Gunners and Raiders with little trouble and can even give ''Deathclaws'' the fight of their lives.]]
* [=SeeD=] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. Understandable as, even though they're trained to be elite mercenaries contracted by governments, they're still teenagers with very little real combat experience. Fortunately, they're still able to protect their home base from an invasion by the current military superpower, and hold it off long enough for the protagonists to take down the enemy commanders.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' averts this trope by having wandering [=NPCs=] that can help you out in fighting monsters.
** Until you reach the Seeq hunters who randomly piss-off Garudas only to flee in terror until their inevitable deaths.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' green units, unless they're villagers or other non-fighting units, are suicidal. Come to think of it, most enemy units are suicidal too. Plus, in cut scenes, you frequently get to see the green units getting destroyed by fairly weak enemy units.

** If only more of them could be like the [[MemeticBadass 3-13 Archer]]...

* ''Mega Man''

* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' had an encounter between three Space Pirates and three Galactic Federation Marines. Two of the Marines get gunned down, and then the third activates his PED and owns the Space Pirates on his lonesome. He's not the only PED trooper; in the next room you see one wasting a Pirate who's focused on you, and another shoots down a pipe and kills two of them in one go. The GFM troopers remain fairly competent for the remainder of the game as well.
** Until the obligatory escort mission where they forget that their mission is to survive. Instead they throw themselves suicidally at enemy forces, despite knowing full well their bodyguard (you) could handle all the combat solo.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' the EliteMooks Blackwatch set up to have the marines be this, expecting them to be killed off by the thousands each week. Though in a GiveTheDogABone twist, they were given the full credit for saving the people of New York from the outbreak.

* In ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' friendly camps occasionally spawn units of your own troops to defend them from enemy {{mooks}}. They're even ''less'' useful than said mooks as they'll automatically lose against [[NominalImportance anyone with a name]], including enemy mooks with a named squad leader, and won't even damage enemy bosses if they show up to the boss fight.

* G.U.N. in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' and ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog''. On one hand, you got the basic robotic mooks, easily taken down by spin attacks. On the other, you have the actual humans who are competent enough to capture the world's (naturally) fastest hedgehog ''twice''. In ''Shadow'', though, it's not uncommon for the UltimateLifeform to have to go save a few along the way, and that is if you decide to help them.
* ''Starcraft''
** Also used in the story of ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft|I}}'': Arcturus Mengsk sends Sarah Kerrigan and a large group of soldiers to a suicide mission to cover his ass. Jim Raynor spends the rest of the franchise on a vendetta for what Mengsk did to Kerrigan, and none of the redshirts with her are ever mentioned.

* Mostly averted in the last levels of ''Franchise/StarWars: [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Outcast]]'' and ''Jedi Academy''. In order to show how much less disciplined the [[{{Mooks}} Reborn]] are compared to real Jedi, real Jedi fight and kill them. They still require [[PlayerCharacter Kyle Katarn's/Jaden Korr's]] help to actually make any progress, though.

** The Clone Troopers in the Utapau and Jedi Temple levels in ''VideoGame/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'' are ridiculously weak and inaccurate, so will nearly always get killed only a few seconds in. Their only saving grace is that more constantly spawn to replace them, but never more then two or three at a time. What makes this particularly frustrating is when you have to fight ''against'' the clones after Order 66 comes down, not only are they suddenly a lot tougher, more accurate with their weapons and come at you with dozens of men at a time but you will also have to battle [[EliteMooks even tougher variants of the Clones]], such as the Flame Troopers and the [[NinjaMook Clone Assassins.]] Makes you wonder why they didn't send those guys with you to fight Grevious in the first place.

* In ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron'', both the Autobot and Decepticon factions have endless waves of generic unnamed members whose sole purpose seems to be to get slaughtered by the dozens by the named (usually playable) characters on the other faction. There are several times in both games where you are accompanied by whole squads of redshirts from the faction you're currently playing who almost invariably fail to survive until the end of that level.
** When playing as a 'con you get to kill droves of Protectobots, and when playing as a 'bot you get to see droves of them already dead while passing through most levels. ''Most of them are painted in red.'' And if that seems like a coincidence, the strongest basic soldiers come in blue and gold.

* A mission in ''VideoGame/WarCraftIII: The Frozen Throne'' has Kael defending a Draenei village from Fel Orcs. The Draenei return the favor by allying with Kael.

* In the ''[[VideoGame/{{XCOM}} X-COM]]'' games, you start out with a team of these. Expect casualties.

** Naturally, in ''X-Com's'' Main/SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}'', it's happening again!

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* Actually averted in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', where Zuko voices out against sending in a team of right out of training cadets into battle to be used as a diversion in the war. However it was this action that prompted his father to scar his face and banish him in the first place. Played straight almost all the time, to show the heroes/villains as prodigies, or tougher than the norm. The Heroes commonly go off against greater odds (like the earth kingdom palace guard) and come out on top, the entire Earth Kingdom army failed to stop the Fire Nation Invasion, and an elite team all went down against Ty Lee. During the Seige of the North Pole, this trope was combined with mooks, during the day, the (sun-empowered) Fire-Nation began defeating Water Benders left and right, during the night, the (moon-empowered) water benders beat them with ease.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'': When Anakin Skywalker takes off alone to chase an enemy Force-user, Obi-Wan orders a squadron of clone troopers to follow him and save him from getting himself killed. When the clones arrive, they proceed to [[LetsSplitUpGang split up]] and get wiped out over the course of about three minutes, without ever seeing the enemy. Amusingly enough, clone troopers are the predecessors of [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy storm troopers]], perhaps indicating that the trope is inheritable.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Phoenix Squadron, introduced in Season 2. First appearing in "The Siege of Lothal", the Squadron is shown to do pretty well against average TIE fighter squadrons, but near the end, find themselves on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle from Darth Vader, with only a small number of them surviving. Afterward, they usually have at least one unnamed pilot getting killed whenever they get a space battle scene.

[[quoteright:346:[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/STrek9_9018.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:346: [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} "I won't lie to you, men; none of you but me will be coming back from this mission alive."]]]]

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' The OSI's grunts are stunningly effective at slaughtering villainous henchmen. In fact, they seem to enjoy it a little ''too'' much.

** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': We get to see the quardian flotilla's marines on four separate occasions. In the first occasion, we see them get [[CurbStompBattle unceremoniously slaughtered]] by a heavy mech after [[LeeroyJenkins disobeying their commander and rushing at it.]] In the second, we see them get overrun by a huge geth force and slaughtered (except [[Creator/AdamBaldwin Kal'Reegar]], who's more like a MauveShirt). In the third occasion, a group of what's explicitly stated to be their "best marines", get massacred by minor enemies off-screen... This is actually a plot point, because the flotilla's politicians want to go to war with the geth. Kal'Reegar says that the only way for them to win, would be to fight from orbit, taking full advantage of quarian tech expertise, because a front-line conflict would be such a slaughter. On the fourth occasion (in an optional side mission), a squad crash lands on an uncharted planet, and all but one of them (who Shepared rescues) get slaughtered by ''varren'' (wolves [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]]).

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo''. The Japanese Self Defense Force is actually so competent, it shocks the heroes. There's a reason for this….

** The [[CloningBlues clone troopers]] from the prequel trilogy generally are this. While competent, [[ExpendableClone they are definitely expendable]], [[RedShirt and die all the time.]]

* Invoked and hilariously subverted in ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''; a US GeneralRipper intends to use all of the black men as a massive HumanShield to save them from the Canadians' gunfire. Chef, the leader of the group, is ''very'' against this plan and, when the time comes, orders his men to ''duck''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', the Imperial army, led by Shang's father, stakes out at a village in a mountain pass they expect Shan Yu and the Huns to take to the Imperial City. Unfortunately, thanks a doll from the village providing the Huns with GPSEvidence, the entire army ends up getting KilledOffscreen, with the recruit army discovering the aftermath. It helps to demonstrate how vicious the Huns are.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': A side effect of the PlotArmor the main characters have, only the Numenorian warriors and nameless villagers are killed by the he pyroclastic flow of Orodruin.

* The Spartans in ''Film/ThreeHundred'' are a Red Cape Army, a very capable one, but one nonetheless.

** Played straight ''and'' averted in the John Woo movie ''Film/HardBoiled''. In the tea house shootout, anyone other than Tequila and his partner is just another red shirt. The undercover cops and the SWAT team in the big hospital shootout later on, however, do hold their own quite satisfactorily despite losing a good portion of their number and get the hostages out while Tequila and Alan kick serious ass.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Rambo}}''; the mercenary team sent along with the titular character is actually [[GondorCallsForAid quite competent and most of it survives the movie]].

* This happened to the army that the dwarves raised to fight Evil Incarnate in ''Film/TimeBandits''.

* Averted hardcore in the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries''. When the special forces unit calls in the cavalry, the cavalry actually manages to kill or drive off the giant alien robots. They're even more effective in the sequel, managing to support a handful of Autobots in holding off a small army of Decepticons. There are cases when it's played straight. The first scene after the introduction has a US military base completely wiped out by a ''single'' Decepticon. The beginning of the sequel also shows many human NEST soldiers being killed off-hand. It's really the extensive training in killing Cybertronians that the soldiers receive from Autobots that allows them to hold their own (despite massive casualties) in the second and third films.

* The Lithuanian and Polish soldiers from the German point of view in ''Literature/TheOutlaws''.

* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'':
** The fanfic presents a surprising {{inversion}}, a rare occasion in a story focused on action and [[WarArc warfare]]. One would reasonably expect that an army without a main or plot-important character would be immediately [[TheWorfEffect worfed]], for the purpose of building up some major antagonist. Such a circumstance does not happen AT ALL. Replenishing and preserving manpower are often of utmost importance InUniverse, because sustaining heavy losses are, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome well]], [[AndThatsTerrible bad]]. Troops on the good guys' side are generally portrayed as [[MenOfSherwood competent]] -- while not as badass as [[BadassCrew Kyril and his apprentices]], their true strength lies in superior tactics (HollywoodTactics? Nah), as well as the ability to strike at multiple places at once (they flank the enemy ''all the time'') with their numbers. Of course, causalties ''are'' expected in warfare, but it's not portrayed in an egregious manner (as in, the whole army gets wiped out or something like that).
** [[DefiedTrope Defied]] in Chapter 16 of the original. Wanting to minimise the influence that EvilSorcerer Shamuhaza has on his troops, which would lead to a fight on two fronts and hence more casualties, Kyril decides to press on with his apprentices towards the hornet's nest, leaving his troops at the less problematic outskirts.

* Bravo Team in ''VideoGame/Doom3'' gets wiped out before you even find them. Except for one, who is picked off by a Wraith shortly after you meet him.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played straight]] in ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' (1897). The British Army is wiped out by the Martian tripods wielding heat beams and poison gas. Only artillery is effective against the machines, but the guns rarely got a first shot, let alone a second. The Martians themselves are red-shirted, courtesy of Terran microbes.

** In the music video for "Hootsforce", the good guys' space submarines keep being blown up by Zargothrax's ships until Angus McFife XIII personally knocks him out with the Hammer of Glory.