History Main / TheSpartanWay

* This is the preferred training method of every single one of Tsuna's tutors in ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'', most of whom are more rough than the person before them. Colonello is actually outright called "more Spartan than Reborn" in his training methods, and he's nothing compared to Lal Mirch (who trained Colonello) and Future Hibari, the latter of whom outright gambles Tsuna's life with no intention to save him if Tsuna can't get out of one of Hibari's tricks before the training even officially started. It MakesSenseInContext that they'd all be that way, since they're Mafiosi.

--->'''Demitra:''' ''({{glasses pull}})'' "...looks like everything has to be settled through competition]] in this school."

* Heavily deconstructed in ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos''. Cosmo's race tried to turn the ten year-old [[spoiler: Tsali]] into the "Ultimate Weapon" by replacing every single body part with robotics (without anesthesia), infusing his mechanical body with [[TheCorruption Dark Chaos Energy]] abilities, and putting him through TrainingFromHell that would make a Space Marine wince. [[TheDogBitesBack It]] [[CameBackWrong backfired]] ''[[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters horribly]]''; by the time it was over, [[spoiler: Tsali]] was nothing more than a bloodthirsty AxCrazy berserker -- he promptly committed genocide upon the entire Seedrian race in revenge the instant he escaped.

** Literature/GreyKnights' training, on the other hand, would make even him proud. On top of all the physical training a normal Space Marine goes through, and on top of all the extra mental training a Space Marine ''[[PsychicPowers psyker]]'' goes through, they must endure [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]] [[MindRape mental and spiritual tortures]] to ensure that the survivors are [[IncorruptiblePurePureness utterly incorruptible]] [[DemonSlaying daemon hunters]].

* ''LightNovel/YoujoSenki'': This is how Tanya "trains" her personal battalion of elite mages. First day? She wakes them up in the early morning and subjects them to a 36 hour artillery bombardment with no time for preparation (with a few live rounds mixed in with the dummy shells to keep them on their toes), and immediately after orders them to hike several dozen kilometers within 48 hours while being hunted by military forces with air support and tracking dogs. Through the snowy mountains. With nothing but the clothes on their backs (and one shovel). What is waiting for them at the end of the hike? Counter-interrogation training, ie outright torture. Within a couple of months, her mages are among the most elite soldiers in the whole Empire. Of course, her real intent was not to produce super soldiers, but to scare the recruits into giving up... which failed utterly.

* The Greek text ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deipnosophistae Deipnosophistae]]'' ("the dinner philosophers") features an example of TheSpartanWay as applied to table manners: A Spartan was invited to a seafood banquet featuring urchins. Not being familiar with how they're eaten (and not about to ask one of those pansy-ass Athenians), he ''puts one in his mouth and starts chewing''.

* The ''Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries'' books of the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' describe the training of the original Clone trooper army as including live fire exercises at around age 4-5 and a course called the sickener designed to make the troops wash out. There's also the matter of groups of soldiers going missing if their accuracy is as low as 95%. While there was also the whole cloned issue that led to them being effective, there was definitely more than a little of TheSpartanWay involved.

* ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'', a setting for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', is so ridiculously harsh that simply living there has effectively indoctrinated every living creature on the planet, sentient and otherwise, in TheSpartanWay. Drained of life by the native version of magic, something like 90% of the planet is desert -- even the seas have been boiled dry and their beds filled with silt, and a given locale is lucky to see a meager shower of rain once a year. Metal is so rare that bone, rock and chitin are the accepted standard for weapons and armor (not that anyone wears armor, it's just too hot). Temperatures range from 110 degrees in the morning to 150 degrees by late afternoon. Just about everything smarter than a rock has some degree of psychic power, and every plant and animal, even the ones that don't eat flesh, is capable of killing you. The Githyanki, a xenophobic, egotistical, psychic ProudWarriorRace that happily crosses blades with every nasty the multiverse has to offer, invaded Athas '''once'''. And promptly ran away with their tails tucked between their legs, then sealed up the portal and told everybody else to stay the ''hell'' away from this crazy place. "[[Franchise/{{Dune}} God made Athas to test the faithful]]" would be a good analogy if Athas ''had'' any deities (in ''AD&D'' it was unknown whether it'd ever had any, while in 4th edition they'd been killed or driven away by elemental spirits known as primordials), with the closest thing its priests serve being elemental powers. Or to put it succinctly, during the ''AD&D'' era, ''Dark Sun'' was the only published setting to start characters at 3rd level, while "encouraging" players to have back-up characters ready.

** Training pretty much WAS TheSpartanWay prior to 31.01; casualty rates for sparring were brutally high, and the only way to safely train was to already '''be''' a legendary soldier. Now soldiers can train individually and have access to wooden training weapons, but you can always give them [[VideogameCrueltyPotential steel ones]]...

** Thucydides describes the ''real'' Sparta (as opposed to Plato's idealized Sparta) as a thoroughly corrupt military dictatorship in his ''History of the Peloponnesian War'', so perhaps TheSpartanWay is more or less a zig-zag of this trope.

* Surprisingly, GDI's (the good guys') commando program in ''CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'', with a 22% fatality rate among the recruits and a 95% failure rate among the survivors, with the Commandoes starting off as the best the world has to offer.. Sounds bad until you [[FridgeBrilliance realize]] these commandos are ''always'' in training, there is no such thing as graduation, so it's literally the 5% of the troops who are still actively serving as a Commando.

* This trope applies to the Black Guard of the [[OurElvesAreBetter Dark Elves]] in ''TabletopGame/{{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 [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder murdering one another]], this being [[KlingonPromotion 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 [[DeadlyDecadentCourt increases one's life expectancy]]. They're an interesting lot.

* Coast Guard rescue swimmers as taught by Creator/KevinCostner in ''Film/TheGuardian.''

** The infamous community's version of Dwarven "Child Care". "It's like regular childcare, except with more dogs, and less care." The basic version is dumping children in small pits with irritable, semi-feral dogs and food, though more dementedly sophisticated methods have been dreamed up in the forums to instill physical toughness and psychological numbness.

* In ''Manga/{{Touch}}'', Coach Kashiwaba's training methods are cruel and even outright criminal. But they work, whether he likes it or not.

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* The Saiyans in ''Franchise/DragonBall'' pretty much exemplify the Spartans to a T, as a warrior race that believed in constant training and one's strength as the ultimate virtue. They even sent their infants to conquer planets whose inhabitants are weak enough for a baby Saiyan to slaughter.
* The Karlstein Institute in ''Anime/ValvraveTheLiberator'' trains agents this way from the time they're children. Their names are taken from them, and they are given letter-number code names (with German numbers) - L-elf, A-drei, X-eins, etc. In the second season, when the action is moved to the base of this institute, young trainees are shown to be willing and able to kill without hesitation, and flashbacks show that the main AntiVillain team of graduates had to kill one of their friends when they were in training there, because he was loyal to the overthrown regime.
* Ninja in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' begin their training at their village's ninja academy at a very young age; even during peacetime, ninja generally graduate and become active duty genin by age ''twelve''. Not every genin survives the yearly examination/[[TournamentArc martial arts tournament]] needed to become a chunin, and only a small percentage actually passes the test each year.
** At least in the Hidden Leaf Village, the academy is shown to be more of a basic skills course that focuses at least as much on academia as it does on combat skills. Though the main cast all decide to take the chunin exams early in their careers, the average genin will usually first spend at least a few more ''years'' building up his/her skills by performing low-risk missions and receiving personal instruction from an elite ninja assigned as his/her team's mentor. It's still worth noting, if Sakura is any indication, that even a newly-minted genin with comparatively poor combat ability is still capable of throwing kunai accurately enough to pin a falling person to a tree without drawing blood.
** The Hidden Mist plays this straight; you graduate the academy by killing your classmates. It seems to be somewhat counterproductive; Mist's population is fairly small compared with the other great villages, and its ninja seem to have a tendency to be disloyal. The Leaf may be (relatively) soft, but it has the largest population, a highly-regarded shinobi corps, and its washouts survive to diversify the city's economic base....
*** In fact, it's implied that the Mist's training practices were deliberately meant to harm the village; the former Mizukage largely responsible for them (who is not remembered fondly) was [[spoiler:actually under the control of the BigBad]]. The current Mizukage, who wishes to distance the village from its reputation as "The Bloody Mist", has likely abolished such practices.
* Inverted in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' 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.
* Harsh training methods are common for all trying to become a warrior of Athena in ''Manga/SaintSeiya''. Some aspiring Saints get off lucky, and get to train one-on-one with a benevolent (or, at worst, indifferent) master such as [[OldMaster Libra Dohko]], Eagle Marin, or the [[AnIcePerson Crystal Saint]]. But the vast, ''vast'' majority are sent to training camps where they must compete for the right to don the sacred Cloth... if not for their very ''lives''. Andromeda Island and especially Athena's Sanctuary have {{Death Course}}s where battalions of trainees must survive both daily combat as well as environmental hazards (and the occasional murderous master.) And even they are easily overshadowed by Death Queen Island training methods.

* ''Anime/BurstAngel'' runs with this and then [[UpToEleven 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 [[Anime/{{Witchblade}} 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 [[SensualSpandex skintight]] "battlesuits".
* The military from ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. Their 3-year program is completely optional and people are allowed to drop out, or may be kicked out... but it is also noted that serious accidents or deaths are perfectly normal. The general attitude seems to be that anyone killed during training wouldn't have survived battling the [[HumanoidAbomination Titans]] anyway. The instructors are shown to force people to run until they collapse unconscious and during the induction ceremony, several recruits are struck for giving a wrong answer or not saluting properly. One trick used by instructors during 3-dimensional Maneuver Gear training is to [[SinkOrSwimMentor randomly cut]] safety lines, killing anyone unable to [[NervesOfSteel remain calm]] and react quickly enough. The minimum age for enlistment is [[ChildSoldiers twelve]], with society labeling anyone that doesn't enlist a coward. For many children, the military is their only option due to widespread poverty and food shortages.
** Taken to a greater extreme by [[spoiler: the Marleyan Warrior Program]]. Children between the ages of '''5 and 7''' are recruited from the ghettos and promised a better life for their families if they make the cut. Desperate families volunteer their children for military service, slowly whittling the candidates down to a handful of promising recruits. Children barely old enough to be attending school are forced to run marathons in the rain, carrying heavy military equipment while their instructors scream insults and threats at them. Besides the harsh physical training, their instructors also subject them to extensive indoctrination to mold them into fanatically-loyal soldiers. Should they step out of line or cause their superiors to doubt their loyalty, their entire family could be executed for treason. Those few that make it through the harsh selection process are expected to serve until their death, with the threat of being [[EatenAlive replaced]] always present. At one point, the audience is introduced to a batch of Candidates that are being tested....by being taken to the front lines and expected to serve as the vanguard of a major combat operation. The survivors get to return home with the dubious honor of being veterans at the tender age of 12.
* Tiger's Cave pupils in ''Manga/TigerMask'' are trained to become highly capable and merciless wrestlers with such exercises as fighting lions, panthers (with only their legs, to learn how to fight with them) and ''gorillas'', jumping from a rotating platform where a single error would mean landing on very deadly hazard including ''molten lead'' (the exercise is supposed to ensure the pupil learns how to decide fast), doing push-ups on the legs with weights attached to the head and a mat with poles under the butt (to strengthen the legs. There's a RealLife exercise that is exactly the same, only without the poles), being attached to a bridge ''head down'' (the series didn't specify the purpose), and being ''set on fire'' (more specifically, they are made wear sweaters drenched in fuel that are set on fire, and then they have to put the fire out by rolling on the ground. The exercise is to develop speed when forced to the ground), with the trainers ready to hit them with bullwhips if they slacked off. Many pupils die in the process, but the survivors can easily kill tigers and put in hospital the average wrestler, and out-foul heel wrestlers: Wrestling/DickTheBruiser, an infamous RealLife wrestler, faced the protagonist twice, and the first time was downed by a single foul that the referee failed to notice before he could even think a decent foul, while the second time his fouls were neutralized and used on him ''improved'' (he started by throwing fuel and a lit cigar at Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask took the fuel and the cigar on his cloak, applied his training to put the fire down enough to take the cloak off, and [[InfernalRetaliation hit Dick with the burning cloak while fanning the flames at the same time]]. At the end of the match, Dick was half-dead, strangled with the ring's rope).
* This is the preferred training method of every single one of Tsuna's tutors in ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'', most of whom are more rough than the person before them. Colonello is actually outright called "more Spartan than Reborn" in his training methods, and he's nothing compared to Lal Mirch (who trained Colonello) and Future Hibari, the latter of whom outright gambles Tsuna's life with no intention to save him if Tsuna can't get out of one of Hibari's tricks before the training even officially started. It MakesSenseInContext that they'd all be that way, since they're Mafiosi.
* ''LightNovel/YoujoSenki'': This is how Tanya "trains" her personal battalion of elite mages. First day? She wakes them up in the early morning and subjects them to a 36 hour artillery bombardment with no time for preparation (with a few live rounds mixed in with the dummy shells to keep them on their toes), and immediately after orders them to hike several dozen kilometers within 48 hours while being hunted by military forces with air support and tracking dogs. Through the snowy mountains. With nothing but the clothes on their backs (and one shovel). What is waiting for them at the end of the hike? Counter-interrogation training, ie outright torture. Within a couple of months, her mages are among the most elite soldiers in the whole Empire. Of course, her real intent was not to produce super soldiers, but to scare the recruits into giving up... which failed utterly.
* In ''Manga/{{Touch}}'', Coach Kashiwaba's training methods are cruel and even outright criminal. But they work, whether he likes it or not.

* In the Creator/MarvelComics AlternateContinuity ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'', 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. He and Shadowcat also actively go after them during training, to ensure that this is what happens. They only get away with it because ComicBook/{{Magneto}} is currently preoccupied with other matters, though.
* A similar situation arose when the mutant Morlocks were TrappedInAnotherWorld by a mad RealityWarper 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.
* The Franchise/DCUniverse:
** Doomsday was raised by Kryptonian scientists by [[spoiler:sending an infant into the cruel wilderness of Krypton, getting it killed, harvesting its DNA, cloning it so that it [[GeneticMemory kept the memory of how it was killed]], then repeating the cycle over and over and over and et cetera until it became one of the ultimate killing machines in the universe, able to beat Franchise/{{Superman}} ''to death'']]. (This blurs the line between this trope and just TrainingFromHell, depending on your view of CloningBlues.)
** Cassandra Cain, the second official [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl 2000}} 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 [[KickTheDog being shot in nonvital areas as punishment--with the threat of being shot again for crying out from the pain.]]
* Among the Toys/GIJoe 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. Range-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 [[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe comic]], Hama said: "Cobra has no ethical limitations on research and no lack of willing volunteers."

* [=GIs=] in ''ComicBook/RogueTrooper''.
* Judges in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', with the severity of the training varying by jurisdiction. In Mega-City One, training begins at the age of 5, and the cadets face live-fire exercises at 14.

* In ''Recap/AsterixAtTheOlympicGames'', a Spartan athlete says that, back home in Sparta, they only eat the stones from the olives and the gristle from the meat. Notably, however, this comes up because the Spartan in question is admitting to this before shouting about how he's sick of still eating this when the Romans nearby are currently engaging in orgies (since they've StoppedCaring at the knowledge that the Gauls have entered with their magic potion and are neglecting their training) and demands a "proper" meal, to which his companions agree.

* Heavily deconstructed in ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos''. Cosmo's race tried to turn the ten year-old [[spoiler: Tsali]] into the "Ultimate Weapon" by replacing every single body part with robotics (without anesthesia), infusing his mechanical body with [[TheCorruption Dark Chaos Energy]] abilities, and putting him through TrainingFromHell that would make a Space Marine wince. [[TheDogBitesBack It]] [[CameBackWrong backfired]] ''[[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters horribly]]''; by the time it was over, [[spoiler: Tsali]] was nothing more than a bloodthirsty AxCrazy berserker - he promptly committed genocide upon the entire Seedrian race in revenge the instant he escaped.

* The commandos in the film ''Film/{{Soldier}}'' are raised brutally from birth and treated brutally thereafter, only to be replaced by a new generation of genetically engineered soldiers.
* The movie ''Film/NakedWeapon'' features a wide variety of pubescent girls being kidnapped from around the world and sent to a tropical island. After immediately killing anybody who says 'Yes, I wanna go home!', they spend the next six years in a nonstop boot camp teaching the girls everything there is to know about firearms, human anatomy, unarmed combat, and social interaction, honing them into the world's finest assassins. As a penultimate final exam, they are assembled in their barracks and told that they have two minutes to kill half their number or they will all die. In the actual final exam, they are forced to compete in a gladiator-style tournament until only one remains. However, their "performance" is so great that the Madam allows three to survive instead. They get drugged and raped on their graduation, just to drive home that their bodies are not their own.

* Exaggerated to parody during the tour of Royalton Industries in the ''Film/SpeedRacer'' movie: Royalton racers need to be able to eat noodles with chopsticks on a centrifuge, pass an eye exam on a vibrating chair, and take a jet turbine's worth of freezing air to the ''face''.
* Coast Guard rescue swimmers as taught by Creator/KevinCostner in ''Film/TheGuardian.''

%%* The Zulus in ''{{Film/Zulu}}''.

%%* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': Implied with District 2.

* In ''Film/TheDeserter'', Kaleb subjects the squad to some brutal training methods while teaching to think and act like Apaches. He makes them strip off and train under the full heat of the desert sun so they will understand just how hot it gets, and appreciate the luxury of wearing clothes. When {{Fighting Irish}}man O'Toole falls to his death during a climbing exercise, Kaleb complains that he screamed while he fell instead of remaining silent.

* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': The blood-guard, the StateSec of Calvaria, are trained in this fashion. Only ten percent of the children selected to serve in the order survive the process.

* The Unsullied in George R. R. Martin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' are trained from birth, not only to be superior warriors, but also to be unswervingly loyal. This training involves raising a puppy from birth as their only friend, and then ''personally strangling it'' to prove they can follow orders. They're also said to be able to stand until they collapse of starvation and are fed a mixture that dulls and eventually eliminates their sense of pain. To demonstrate this, a slaver ''hacks the nipple'' off one of the Unsullied, who doesn't even flinch.
** That one is drawn from propaganda about SS officer candidate school in Nazi Germany requiring cadets to do the same thing. ''Probably'' propaganda.
** 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.]]
* The ''Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries'' books of the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' describe the training of the original Clone trooper army as including live fire exercises at around age 4-5 and a course called the sickener designed to make the troops wash out. There's also the matter of groups of soldiers going missing if their accuracy is as low as 95%. While there was also the whole cloned issue that led to them being effective, there was definitely more than a little of TheSpartanWay involved.
* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' book series ''Literature/StarTrekKlingonEmpire'' establishes this as the way the Klingon Empire trains their soldiers. One task has the soldier dropped off on an ice sheet on [[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry Rura Penthe]] with no supplies or weapons and told to walk to the base at the north pole. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption One that doesn't actually exist.]] This is in addition to any training Klingons receive from the own families, which likely include some very harsh parenting techniques.
* 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.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Wolfbreed}}'' series, which is an ''Manga/ElfenLied'' homage, UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights do this to a bunch of werewolf children in an attempt to create [[SuperSoldier Super Soldiers.]] Results were... mixed.
* The Blood Lords, from Creator/JohnRingo's ''Literature/CouncilWars'' 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 ''Literature/BlackDaggerBrotherhood'' 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.
* In ''Brotherhood of the Rose'' the CIA assassin protagonists are recruited as boys from a government orphanage (whose boys were already being groomed as patriotic cannon fodder for the US military) and then raised to be killing machines, to the point where disguised CIA agents were sent to mug the boys and beat them humiliatingly so as to make them ''really want'' to learn martial arts. As one of them puts it: "The way we were raised, I don't think we were ever kids."
* [[BigBad Falcone's]] method of raising his TykeBomb soldiers in the ''Literature/WarchildSeries''. Any child unlucky enough to be designated one of his protégés faced tough physical exercises and early instruction in gambling, sex, and weaponry. It's also implied at least a few of those children are [[{{Squick}} raped]] as preparation for using sex as a weapon against people (the goal here to produce Super Assassin/Pirates rather than Super Soldiers).
* Literature/TheDraka self-consciously mirror the training regimen of ancient Sparta, even calling their militaristic boarding school program the ''Agoge''. Unlike in Sparta, both boys and girls are trained this way. While the Spartans had the [[SlaveRace Helots]] to keep in line, the Draka have ''[[TakeOverTheWorld everyone on Earth who is not them]]''.
* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series, [=ShadowClan=]'s training while Brokenstar is the leader - even [[ChildSoldiers kits]] are forced to train in the brutal battle training, and many end up dying. Dark Forest training also counts.
* ''Literature/TrappedOnDraconica'': The lifestyle of all Leonidans is intense physical training from the age of five. There is enough evidence to call it ''[[TropeMaker the original]]'' spartan way.
* ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'': In boot camp, less than ''10%'' of all recruits get through boot camp and their officers are always soldiers with previous combat experience (you go through boot and go into battle, and if you excel, you may be snapped up for OCS). Somewhat a deconstruction because they constantly suffer manpower problems during the Bug War. It's worth noting that of the 90% that didn't pass boot, less than 1% died, and the training the first weeks is designed to weed out those who don't want the citizenship completed military service grants badly enough, and the surviving washouts can reapply in a few years.
* The Pyrrans in Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/{{Deathworld}}'' have to do this just to survive their planet, where EverythingTryingToKillYou is the only constant. The weather, tides, and tectonic activity are unpredictable, radiation is high, and the native lifeforms are even worse. The only thing on their minds (literally) is to kill all humans. The plants and animals are constantly mutating thanks to the radiation and the brutal fight for survival. The human settlers have to constantly look for new ways to protect themselves. Children are taught to fight and survive as soon as they can speak, and are expected to be fully independent by the time they are 6. Thanks to [[HeavyWorlder double gravity]], even a Pyrran child can defeat a non-Pyrran in unarmed combat. All Pyrrans train from childhood to be crack shots. Unlike a typical example of this trope, the Pyrrans themselves don't subject their children to extremely-harsh training. The training is fair for the situation. It's the environment that weeds out those who are unfit. Even adults have to undergo re-training after going off-world for a few days.
* Kiril Island in ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' efficiently serves the purpose of being a place to train infantry and a place to dump people TheEmperor is [[ReassignedToAntarctica unhappy with.]] In other words Barrayaran infantry get sent to their counterpart of Siberia just to get trained.
* In ''The Defense of Hill 781'' soldiers who get sent to Purgatory find it just like the [[HellIsWar US Army National Training Center]]. In other words either the army needed something really nasty and modeled the NTC on Purgatory. Or the afterlife needed something really purgatorial and used the NTC as the closest example on Earth.

* In Jeramey Kraatz's ''Literature/TheCloakSociety'', the Betas' training. They start off with a run and if they don't run fast enough to please him, Barrage sends explosions to their feet; he had, in the past, sent all but one of them to the infirmary with injuries. In ''Villains Rising'', the milder methods that Gage devises for training surprise the Junior Rangers; the Rangers had used much less serious, and then the Betas tell them how their training was conducted.

* The Greek text ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deipnosophistae Deipnosophistae]]'' ("the dinner philosophers") features an example of TheSpartanWay as applied to table manners: A Spartan was invited to a seafood banquet featuring urchins. Not being familiar with how they're eaten (and not about to ask one of those pansy-ass Athenians), he ''puts one in his mouth and starts chewing''.
--> "What detestable food! [[MasochistsMeal I will not now be so effeminate as to eject it]], but I will never take it again."

* Creator/TomKratman's ''Literature/CarrerasLegions'' features the titular mercenary outfit, which makes the training for its infantry super-harsh (as in, ''training'' casualties amounting to about one per cent of full strength). It's even worse for officers: they have to go through infantry training, and ''then'' their equivalent of Ranger School.

* The Peacekeepers of ''Series/{{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 [[TheStoic stoic]], [[TykeBomb obedient]] [[PunchClockVillain 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, AntiVillain 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.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' implies that what the [[SchoolForScheming Academy]] was doing to River and the other test subjects is a small-scale, prototype version of this, intended to create [[SuperSoldier psychic killing machines.]]
* On ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'', 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. [[HollywoodHistory The accuracy of these claims varies from case to case.]]
* ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'': [[spoiler:Most of Lauren Shiba's life after being hidden can be summed up as this: Train, Exercise, Practice the Sealing Symbol.]]
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': Garrett's idea of training [[spoiler: Ward]] is to abandon him in the woods for six months with nothing but the clothes on his back and a hunting dog for companionship. It's actually quite similar to the actual Spartan training regimen, in that [[spoiler: Ward]] doesn't just learn to be tough; he learns to be smart and sneaky, stealing what he needs to survive just as much as he hunts and kills it. Since this training is to get him ready to become a deep-cover operative (called on to befriend and betray fellow agents), when Garret finally returns he orders him to literally ShootTheDog to prove that emotional attachment and the bonds of friendship won't deter him.
* Invoked by ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' when the crew rescues five male teenagers from a Talarian "basic training" ship, one of whom turns out to be a human boy raised by Talarians. The Talarians (at least, the males, as Talarians and their military are highly patriarchal) are depicted as a warrior society where male children are essentially raised by their military. The human boy, Jono AKA Jeremiah, even calls his adoptive father, Endar, his "Captain," and the crew assumes Endar abuses him because Dr. Crusher's medical exam shows a history of broken bones. However, when Endar shows up to get his son back, it's evident that, although Talarian society expects macho warrior behavior from Jono and his peers, Endar clearly loves Jono and is affectionate toward him in ways that are appropriate in their culture. He even threatens to start a war over the kid, despite his squadron of warships being significantly outgunned by the ''Enterprise''. It's not played completely straight because the crew spend a lot of time assuming that Endar must be some kind of monster, even though Jono's medical history is fairly typical for a boy raised by Talarians who encourage males to be physically competitive and participate in high-risk sporting events, in a NotSoDifferent way from high school athletes. But the existence of underage teens in military uniforms aboard a military training vessel being typical of (male) Talarian child-rearing is this trope.

* This trope applies to the Black Guard of the [[OurElvesAreBetter Dark Elves]] in ''TabletopGame/{{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 [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder murdering one another]], this being [[KlingonPromotion 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 [[DeadlyDecadentCourt increases one's life expectancy]]. They're an interesting lot.
* The Clan Warriors in ''TabletopGame/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 die or earn a "Bloodname" before the age of 35 are considered washed up.
** Of course, the "Common, low-born" [=MechWarriors=] of the Inner Sphere still keep winning in all the PC games made around the franchise. The downside to the Clan Warrior training: enemies that ''don't'' follow the Clan Warrior rules are very difficult to deal with.
** This is about the only way to explain the opening cinematic of the first ''VideoGame/MechCommander'' game. Clanner that forgets that Spheroids are back-shooting, dogpiling CombatPragmatist stravags, so lets himself get shot in the back not once but TWICE, and tunnels on the latest opponent to shoot at him.
** The first wave of the clan invasion was very strict, but the second and onwards were known to play fast and loose with the honour rules up to the point of using "headhunter stars" - small groups of power armoured infantry dropped on areas believed to contain enemy commanders. Finally do something sufficiently disgraceful and the rules will get thrown out the window...
*** The strictness is also analogous to the Napoleonic era 'rules' of both armies having to fight by standing directly across from one another then firing. ANY other form of combat is going to wreck that army's day, since they're overly specialised in handling a single format.
** Clan warrior caste also use "trials" of various types ranging from fistfights to fully armed mech combat to determine everything from rights to particular appointments to ones guilt and innocence in treason charges.
** The resident DeadpanSnarker in ''[[VideoGame/MechWarrior MechWarrior III]]'', after noticing one clan commander's willingness to sacrifice his own to defeat the player, quipped "Whatever happened to that old Clan ideal of 'honorable combat'?"
** To put numbers to it, Clan Warriors are usually grown in "Sibkos" of 100, on average about 20 make it to warriorhood. Roughly half are washed out and get assigned to other castes, the rest aren't so lucky. Though this varies from Clan to Clan, too: strict Clans like the Smoke Jaguars and Jade Falcons will kick someone out of the program for the first screw-up, but others like the Ghost Bears and Hell's Horses are known for offering someone who screwed up a chance to transfer to a different branch of Warrior training and try again. For example, someone who fails to meet the requirements to be a mechwarrior could go into tank or aerospace fighter training and try again. Failing the second time still sees them permanently lose their chance at warriorhood, though.
* One of the (many) reasons the 3E ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' supplement ''Champions of Darkness'' is the object of massive fan derision is that it claimed Strahd von Zarovich trains his spellcasting minions this way, by trapping them in a hellish prison surrounded by toxic vapors, and leaving them there until they either die or gain enough levels to teleport out.
* The ''[[TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} 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."

* ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'', a setting for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', is so ridiculously harsh that simply living there has effectively indoctrinated every living creature on the planet, sentient and otherwise, in TheSpartanWay. Drained of life by the native version of magic, something like 90% of the planet is desert -- even the seas have been boiled dry and their beds filled with silt, and a given locale is lucky to see a meager shower of rain once a year. Metal is so rare that bone, rock and chitin are the accepted standard for weapons and armor (not that anyone wears armor, it's just too hot). Temperatures range from 110 degrees in the morning to 150 degrees by late afternoon. Just about everything smarter than a rock has some degree of psychic power, and every plant and animal, even the ones that don't eat flesh, is capable of killing you. The Githyanki, a xenophobic, egotistical, psychic ProudWarriorRace that happily crosses blades with every nasty the multiverse has to offer, invaded Athas '''once'''. And promptly ran away with their tails tucked between their legs, then sealed up the portal and told everybody else to stay the ''hell'' away from this crazy place. "[[Franchise/{{Dune}} God made Athas to test the faithful]]" would be a good analogy if Athas ''had'' any deities (in ''AD&D'' it was unknown whether it'd ever had any, while in 4th edition they'd been killed or driven away by elemental spirits known as primordials), with the closest thing its priests serve being elemental powers. Or to put it succinctly, during the ''AD&D'' era, ''Dark Sun'' was the only published setting to start characters at 3rd level, while "encouraging" players to have back-up characters ready.
* The Maduri caste of ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'''s Mars traditionally form its entire military force. They live incredibly hard lives from a very young age and continue to do so, despite being one of the higher castes in traditional society.
* Inquisitors, especially the High ones (those that have supernatural powers) in ''TabletopGame/AnimaBeyondFantasy'', are said to suffer since childhood a training so hard, including of course religious indoctrination, that few survive the ordeal -those less worthy end up as guards of the place-

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'', has one option in the player's character creation being a survival course with a "21.2% mortality rate". This actually seems quite low, considering it takes place on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_%28moon%29#Volcanism Io, the moon with 400 volcanoes]].

* The Silencer Corps of the ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'' series of games ''likely'' have something like this; the alternative is that they are vat-born and come preprogrammed with the requisite skills. This is implied to be true for the latest generation of Silencers; the older ones are indicated to be "old-fashioned".
* ''VideoGame/FieldCommander'' does this with both sides, while A.T.L.A.S is a more humane "You need a Medal of Honor and some sort of task that makes you a damn badass" to become a grunt, Shadow Nation's training of their appropriately named fodder is rather inhumane, cooped up in tiny cells being fed food devoid of nutrients, it turns their men to insane bloodthirsty beasts as a result, and their division commanders do not treat their men well even after they are sent out to the field.

* The Spartan faction in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''. Not only are they ''named'' after the Spartans, their leader's big quote is ''"Superior training and superior weaponry have, when taken together, a geometric effect on overall military strength. Well-trained, well-equipped troops can stand up to many more times their lesser brethren than linear arithmetic would seem to indicate."'' Naturally, their training methods are revealed to be quite brutal, as yet ''another'' quote tells about a Spartan training officer breaking a recruit's arm to make him relearn his sloppy combat techniques.
** 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 [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong mind worms]].
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', brutal as it is, has some examples:
** Training pretty much WAS TheSpartanWay prior to 31.01; casualty rates for sparring were brutally high, and the only way to safely train was to already '''be''' a legendary soldier. Now soldiers can train individually and have access to wooden training weapons, but you can always give them [[VideogameCrueltyPotential steel ones]]...
** The infamous community's version of Dwarven "Child Care". "It's like regular childcare, except with more dogs, and less care." The basic version is dumping children in small pits with irritable, semi-feral dogs and food, though more dementedly sophisticated methods have been dreamed up in the forums to instill physical toughness and psychological numbness.

* The Ravens of the ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'' series are trained in this manner as well. Although the initial stages of the training are unknown, all applicants have prior combat experience as [[{{CannonFodder}} MT pilots]] and the final stage involves a literal do-or-die test against several opponents.
* The ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' has one of the most literal examples of this trope. The protagonist Kratos is a Spartan himself, and although he rarely holds full discussions with anyone, he does make mentions of the exceptionally tough and hardy training of his own people. Flashbacks in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarGhostOfSparta'' show Kratos applying this training on his own brother (by repeatedly beating the ever living shit out of him while scolding him), whereas he is shown in [[VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4 the most recent title]] to continue the tradition by scolding his son for not beating the living shit out of his enemies nearly hard enough. Not to mention that brief time when Kratos [[VideoGame/GodOfWarII actually took on divine functions]] as titular God of War, meaning his people were not only taught the Spartan Way, but were also taught by an exceptionally angry, gigantic deity.
* Unsurprisingly, this shows up in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' as the main character is Spartan and part of the plot takes place in Sparta. However, the main character is given the option [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch call them out]] on the unnecessary brutality and waste it produces, should you desire.

* ''WebComic/MagickChicks'': Artemis Academy is [[AllGirlSchool an all girl military school]] [[DemonSlaying for monster hunters]] in training. As such, their curriculum includes full-contact combat exams where anything is allowed: even [[http://www.magickchicks.com/strips-mc/a_flashy_spell use of summons.]] They consider [[http://www.magickchicks.com/strips-mc/cheatin_powers defending their school]] from the boys at Apollo Academy to be a recreational sport. And according to their rules: the penalty for being caught tresspassing, during a [[PantyThief breastplate raid]], is [[http://www.magickchicks.com/strips-mc/school_protocol a broken appendage.]]
* In ''Webcomic/BlueYonder'', [[http://www.blueyondercomic.net/comics/1684749/interlude-2-the-black-dog-page-2/ the training starts by pushing you off the mountainside.]]

** Scholars have noted that Sparta eventually suffered CripplingOverspecialization; they lived for warfare and nothing else, so it was a {{Dystopia}} for everyone who wasn't a free citizen--their slaves were known to be harshly abused [[UpToEleven even by the standards of other Greeks.]] Their logistics and diplomacy were also terrible, since logistics means [[BoringButPractical working on food and transportation instead of the literal act of warfare,]] and they cared nothing for making friends or at least NOT-OFFENDING their allies.

** Some of the exercises done to trainees during SERE school would be considered ''violations of the Geneva Conventions'' if done to enemy prisoners - understandable, since not everyone who might take them prisoner is going to respect the Geneva Convention, and since many of the missions rely on the ability to plausibly claim that the people involved are not combatants from your country, a technicality that the Convention recognizes.

** Should also mention the USAF's Special Operations Weather Technicians. All three Air Force Special Tactics operators are well-respected in the military community as badasses. Before they even begin their job training, ALL Special Tactics hopefuls complete BMT, then a six week Indoctrination course. Called "Indoc" it is the most grueling ordeal most trainees have ever been through--including such novel practices as performing calisthenics while wearing diving masks. Filled with water. Indoc washes out a great deal of candidates due to the harsh training. And then it gets worse.

* 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 [[MadeOfIron 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."]])

** Japanese training might have been brutal, but that doesn't mean it was particularly good. The Japanese Army took casualties at the same rate (averaged for the entire war) as the Red Army in 1941. The Kwangtung Army in Manchuria was no match for the experienced and highly mechanized Red Army--the Soviet offensive sliced through the Japanese and achieved military victory in just over a week.

*** These are more accurately called Far East divisions - from the border with Japan, where the one Soviet peacetime front existed, and the so called peace had a good portion of battles of all scales thrown in - for about two decades.

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

** Although it should be noted that NATO takes a Ned Stark-esque view of these events, and generally does not send its best, whilst China does.

** Scholars have noted that Sparta eventually suffered CripplingOverspecialization since they lived for the act of warfare, and it was a Dystopia for everyone who wasn't a free citizen--their slaves were known to be harshly abused [[UpToEleven even by the standards of other Greeks.]] Their logistics and diplomacy were also terrible, since logistics means [[BoringButPractical working on food and transportation instead of the literal act of warfare,]] and they cared nothing for making friends or at least NOT-OFFENDING their allies.

** Scholars have noted that Sparta eventually suffered CripplingOverspecialization since they lived for the act of warfare, and it was a Dystopia for everyone who wasn't a free citizen--their slaves were known to be harshly abused [[UpToEleven even by the standards of other Greeks.]] Many Spartan nobles considered anything that HINTED at a job or manual labor to be beneath them, even the prettied-up hobbies of other aristocrats, so they were quite literally IdleRich (but with a taste for blood). Their logistics and diplomacy were also terrible, since logistics means [[BoringButPractical working on food and transportation,]] and they cared nothing for making friends or at least NOT-OFFENDING their allies.

** Sparta gives rise to various expressions in the Japanese language that means "tough, harsh training". Some [[LostInTranslation poor translators]] might fail to account for that and that just literally translate it to "spartan."

* ''{{Disney/Mulan}}'' has a mild version of this. ''"Let's get down to business..."''

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': The hero license exam uses the "selection" variant. Every year, only fifty percent of applicants are expected to pass. They want only the best to become professional heroes. When the main characters take the test, due to [[spoiler:All Might's recent retirement]], requirements have been made even more strict--out of over a thousand applicants, only ''one hundred'' will be allowed to pass. Yes, less than one percent. The first part of the test is a massive battle royale that pits all the applicants against each other, and the second part a simulated rescue test. The first is testing skill and speed, while the second is testing adaptability and teamwork. Out of the hundred who pass the first part, a number fail the second, though those people just have to take a remedial course.

** Doomsday was raised by Kryptonian scientists by [[spoiler:sending an infant into the cruel wilderness of Krypton, getting it killed, harvesting its DNA, cloning it so that it [[GeneticMemory kept the memory of how it was killed]], then repeating the cycle over and over and over and et cetera until it became one of the ultimate killing machines in the universe, able to beat {{Superman}} ''to death'']]. (This blurs the line between this trope and just TrainingFromHell, depending on your view of CloningBlues.)

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': The hero license exam uses the "selection" variant. Every year, only fifty percent of applicants are expected to pass. They want only the best to become professional heroes. When the main characters take the test, due to [[spoiler:All Might recent retirement]], requirements have been made even more strict--out of over a thousand applicants, only ''one hundred'' will be allowed to pass. Yes, less than one percent. The first part of the test is a massive battle royale that pits all the applicants against each other, and the second part a simulated rescue test. The first is testing skill and speed, while the second is testing adaptability and teamwork. Out of the hundred who pass the first part, a number fail the second, though those people just have to take a remedial course.

* In ''Recap/AsterixAtTheOlympicGames'', a Spartan athlete says that, back home in Sparta, they only eat the stones from the olives and the gristle from the meat.

** 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.
*** These are more accurately called Far East divisions - from the border with Japan, where the one Soviet peacetime front existed, and the so called peace had a good portion of battles of all scales thrown in - for about two decades.

*** In addition to not being able to spare some, the Japanese outright did not have a system for the veterans to train the newbies. The Americans did it on a systematic level while the Japanese Aces did it on a personal level if at all. The famous Zero fighter being a FragileSpeedster[[note]]And in the longer term, not even a speedster. From the Hellcat on, American planes could outrun the Zero, outturn it at ''high'' speed when its controls virtually locked up, and in general fight only when they felt like it and bug out when they didn't. The Chance-Vought Corsair had a kill:loss ratio of 11:1 against Japan[[/note]] that is prone to ''[[OneHitPointWonder burst in flames after being hit once]]'' doesn't help either.

* ''VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands'' has Carl Bookhart, a former Army Ranger whose methods of training Santa Blanca's sicarios fall into this with live ammo and eat knives during combat drills. Those that manage to survive are elite soldiers for the cartel.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ThreeHundred https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_spartan_way2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[SarcasmMode So easy, a child could do it!]]]]

** Any guy that wants to date any of the female students better be prepared to [[http://www.mangatown.com/manga/maken_ki/c003/18.html fight for it]], because they'll have to [[BestHerToBedHer prove their worth]] first.
** Lampshaded by Demitra in chapter 10, when Usui drafted a petition for co-ed swim classes and proposed they settle it [[http://www.mangatown.com/manga/maken_ki/c010/28.html with a water polo match.]]
-->'''Demitra:''' ''({{glasses pull}})'' "...looks like [[http://www.mangatown.com/manga/maken_ki/c010/6.html everything has to be settled through competition]] in this school."

* [[SemperFi U.S. Marine]] boot camp makes ''all'' trainees pass through ordeals that would compare to special operations training in some other countries. It culminates in a three-day ordeal called "The Crucible," which tests all the basic skills they were supposed to have learned up to that point.

* Among the GIJoe 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. Range-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 [[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe comic]], Hama said: "Cobra has no ethical limitations on research and no lack of willing volunteers."

* The ''VideoGame/GodOfWarSeries'' has one of the most literal examples of this trope. The protagonist Kratos is a Spartan himself, and although he rarely holds full discussions with anyone, he does make mentions of the exceptionally tough and hardy training of his own people. Flashbacks in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarGhostOfSparta'' show Kratos applying this training on his own brother (by repeatedly beating the ever living shit out of him while scolding him), whereas he is shown in [[VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4 the most recent title]] to continue the tradition by scolding his son for not beating the living shit out of his enemies nearly hard enough. Not to mention that brief time when Kratos [[VideoGame/GodOfWarII actually took on divine functions]] as titular God of War, meaning his people were not only taught the Spartan Way, but were also taught by an exceptionally angry, gigantic deity.