Basic Trope: Armies are portrayed as evil.
- Straight: The Troperian armed forces are made up of extremist warmongers and Sociopathic Soldiers, and the rest of the government are powerless to reign them in. Troops are given a blank check by their superiors to terrorize civilians, damage property, etc. without fear of punishment.
- Exaggerated:
- The Troperian armed forces are both unambiguously and universally evil. The recruitment process consists of If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!, and basic training is mainly focused on puppy-kicking.
- The Troperian armed forces have been irredeemably, consistently vicious bastards since their childhood. They willingly crossed the line and unconditionally revel in their great evil. They are beyond sociopathic, and they intentionally commit war crimes twelve times before dawn and avoid being caught by constantly blackmailing innocent people to not expose these secrets with gratuitous, disproportionate death.
- Not only the Troperian military puts the Werewolves Legion to shame with their vileness and cruelty, those who slighted them in any way usually end up enlisting to the Werewolves if they want to live another day. The public opinion steadily becomes more favorable towards the Werewolves while the army loses what little support they had before.
- Downplayed:
- The Troperian armed forces are devoted to protecting their country, but occasionally use very morally ambiguous methods.
- Army of Thieves and Whores, of the Unscrupulous Hero or Nominal Hero flavor.
- The soldiers of the Troperian armed forces are portrayed with pity as Shell Shocked Veterans who, conscripted or deceived by propaganda, have done such terrible things to survive that they often lose their humanity in the process.
- Justified:
- General Bob has realized that now that he controls the army, he can easily take over his own country.
- General Bob is is a man constantly looking to have fun... and the only way he knows how is through bloody combat.
- Troperia used to have a good military, but now that they're at war, they had to lower recruiting standards and resort to enlisting criminals (and anyone willing), and these guys aren't usually the ones with due respect for human rights.
- The norm of the day is that armies are paid for in plunder and rape. Anyone who signs up for that is rightfully judged as evil — including those who, while not doing it themselves, enabled it through killing the opposition and then let those atrocities happen.
- Inverted:
- The Troperian civilian government is a corrupt, decadent, deluded dictatorship in which the best people are Obstructive Bureaucrats or Sleazy Politicians, while the worst are moles, sellouts or egocentrists with severe Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, all this overseen by a President Evil or The Caligula. General Bob is trying to force reform by invoking Emergency Authority but he is too closely monitored to simply stage a coup.
- The Troperian Armed Forces, normally a peaceful and friendly organization from which nothing worse than an occasional Bar Brawl could be expected, prepare for a preemptive strike on an allegedly Always Chaotic Evil nation preparing an invasion to Troperia — only to be stopped by the Straw Civilian government believing in Suicidal Pacifism and the 'never-strke-first' policy. Soon after, however, the army command is proven horribly right.
- Subverted:
- Troperian civilians live in terror of the Troperian military because of their... really bad tipping.
- While there are some pretty violent bad eggs, the Troperian army is showcased to be pretty lawful...
- Double Subverted:
- ...and the fact that anyone who complains about their tipping is going to be viciously beaten and have their home trashed, or worse.
- ...Because General Bob is the kind of insane man that wants his sociopaths to carry themselves with political correctness as they take over the country. After all, just because they will kill everybody, it doesn't mean that they have to be overly cruel about it.
- Parodied: Basic training includes instructions in proper form for kicking puppies and stealing candy from babies.
- Zig Zagged: There are several generals in charge of the military. Each runs their part differently.
- It is only professional offensive armies who are evil. Peasant and city militias are more or less decent. At worst they will loot corpses or kill captive soldiers out of a desire for vengence. Except for slave cities who raid others for captives. Then even fortune seekers raiding them back for profit are heroic.
- Averted: The army is not evil.
- Enforced:
- The story has an anti-war theme, showing that war is evil and that by definition everyone involved in it is as well.
- The film is a B-Movie. "Military project ordered by war-wacky extremists" is a time-proven Hand Wave for monster (or absurd disaster) backstories and human villain motivations.
- Lampshaded: "Good lord, is this an army or a pack of criminals whom they couldn't send to a prison?"
- Invoked:
- Bob takes control of the Troperian armed forces.
- Bob encourages sadism among his troops, hoping it will terrify their enemies.
- Exploited: Sadistic troops are free to indulge their darker interests knowing that their superiors approve.
- Defied:
- Alice, leader of Troperia, limits the power of the military to keep it from taking over.
- General Bob is renowned for maintaining strict discipline among his troops; they are expected to act ethically at all times, even minor conduct violations are harshly punished, and he frequently lectures them on honorable behavior for a soldier.
- Discussed: "Holy crap, do all armed forces there consist of psychopaths!? Don't they have any recruitment standards other than 'two hands strong enough to hold a rifle, two legs able to march wherever needed, two eyes that can see an enemy, and a brain just coherent enough to follow basic commands'?"
- Conversed: "Well I know you're a hardline pacifist and to-the-bone anti-militarist, but the fact that in all your books, everyone in any and all armed forces is either a deluded warhawk, a psychotic murderer, or both... isn't it too much?"
- Implied: Bob mentions that he's going to join the Army, and his family is universally shocked, horrified, and ashamed.Bob: Mum, Dad, I met the recruiter today... Now I'm packing up to leave tomorrow for the Army.
(cue gasps and a few seconds of Stunned Silence, then a Big "WHAT?!" followed by Big "NO!", with maybe a Dramatic Drop or You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! as icing on the cake). - Deconstructed:
- Because petty and sadistic behavior is tolerated among the rank and file, discipline starts to break down, so Troperian military rapidly degrades into an Army of Thieves and Whores. The next time Troperia has a real war, the army falls apart, and invaders easily take over.
- The Troperian military's evil acts drive the surrounding nations to put aside their differences and unite to erase Troperia once and for all.
- The Troperian army is so evil, even to its own people, that when Troperia is invaded its citizens welcome the invaders with open arms and willing support; they may be invading, and they may not seem like Big Damn Heroes, but they can't possibly be worse than the Troperian army, at worst qualifying as a Terrifying Rescuer.
- Reconstructed: The Troperian army has such a horrifying reputation for war crimes that many armies are unwilling to face them in the field, and most cities prefer to surrender immediately rather than risk angering the Troperians by making them wage a long siege and thus making Rape, Pillage, and Burn even more likely as an outcome.
- Played For Laughs: The Troperian Army is a Card-Carrying Villain army that can be easily fooled and defeated because it's Stupid Evil.
- Played For Drama: The actions of the Troperian Army tend to leave behind a lot of collateral damage and dead bodies.
- Played For Horror: The Troperian Army re-enacts Kristallnacht all day, every day.
Back to Armies Are Evil, for we are an abominable group of excessively sociopathic soldiers who don't care how many lines they crossed, and will not stop by morality alone. We also deliberately cause senseless wars.
