Basic Trope: Mooks, elite or otherwise, geared for maximum imtimidation.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz' footsoldiers all wear gas masks, black trenchcoats, Stahlhelms and/or Pickelhauben, jackboots, carry machetes instead of knives, and wield bullpup knockoffs of AK-47s loaded with incendiary ammunition.
- Exaggerated: In addition to above, Evulz' soldiers all have red Glowing Eyes of Doom, their gasmasks are shaped like skulls, their insignia is literally a boot stomping on a human face, and the commanding officers forego modern military looks for armour that wouldn't look out of place on Sauron.
- Downplayed: The uniforms of Evulz' soldiers are mostly practical, but some details, such as opaque sunglasses and jackboots, give them a foreboding look anyway.
- Justified:
- Emperor Evulz has designed the uniforms himself to be as intimidating as possible.
- Doom troops are demons or undead that "naturally" look intimidating.
- Sun Tzu says: "The ultimate strategy is to eliminate the enemy's will to fight." Some generals use cunning; others make their soldiers so damn scary the enemy's too busy changing their underwear to resist.
- Inverted:
- "Salvation Troops", the good guy force that has designed its every aspect to bring hope to their allies, with wing motifs, capes, and bright, heroic colors.
- The Doom troops dress in black leather, shiny black helmets, Spikes of Villainy, have skull motifs, and wear gas masks, but they spend their time conducting humanitarian aid, locating and apprehending terrorists, and defending their country's towns from invading armies. Their kit is actually armored hazmat gear, the spikes are to deter an endemic monster that fights primarily with bear-hugs, and the black/skull motif is a Cultural Thing TM.
- Subverted: The heroes encounter Doom Troops, but the first one they talk to reveals they're actually good guys who want the evildoers to fear them.
- Double Subverted: He was lying; Doom Troops are villains with good publicity.
- Parodied:
- Doom Troops are feared because of their proficency in waiting for the enemies to split up, sneaking up behind them, and going "BOO!"
- Evulz's troops are just as scary and faceless as he wants them to be, marching in chilling formation in loud stomps, but the moment they see the opposing soldiers, they drop their weapons and run away screaming.
- Emperor Evulz and the Doom Troops is actually not any sort of military force, but the name of a Doom Metal band where our Big Bad plays bass on weekends.
- Zig Zagged: The once-great Empire of Evulz has fallen apart, and its resources - both soldiers and military equipment - are now in the hands of many, many different factions. Accordingly, you can't tell if people wearing their uniforms are good or bad just by looking at them.
- Averted: Evulz' soldiers wear standard military gear and don't concern themselves with intimidation much.
- Enforced: The work in question is "military horror", and so The Enemy is designed to be very threatening.
- Lampshaded: "Attention everyone! The Enemy is here!" "They're here?! Ohcrapohcrapohcrap..."
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz wants his enemies to fear him more than anything else, and has designed his troops' uniforms to facilitate that.
- Exploited: A small squad of mooks is surrounded by the forces of good, but they manage to use intimidation to weasel their way out.
- Defied: Evulz doesn't want to have a disadvantage of being Obviously Evil, so he molds his army accordingly.
- Discussed: "So... why do you fear this 'Enemy' anyway?" "New around here, huh? Their mere look is enough to scare some into retreat."
- Conversed: "Those Doom Troops sure live up to their reputation, huh?" "Exactly... and I guess it's fitting for them as Evulz' soldiers, too."
- Implied: The Doom Troops are never actually shown on-screen, being an artifact of a dark past, but the contemporary accounts of them portray them as utterly terrifying and using many of the villainous costume tropes to massive effect.
- Deconstructed:
- Evulz' soldiers become not only feared, but also hated by the general population, and the resistance efforts against them quickly gain ground.
- Doom Troops prove a failure, with their look too effective at dehumanizing them. Ordinarily it is quite difficult to get the average rag-tag militia to aim and shoot to kill another human and requires extensive training. However, with the enemies being so menacing, even rebels who haven't spilled any blood can shoot as effectively against them as pop-up shooting range targets.
- General Daniel is able to point out all of the weaknesses caused by the design as PaperTigers leaving the Doom Troops both disadvantaged and their fear disarmed.
- Reconstructed:
- This is exactly the kind of effect Evulz was going for.
- Which the Doom Troops welcome with open arms, since their ideology embraces the idea of "in war, it's kill or be killed!"
- Played For Laughs: Doom Troops have a fearsome reputation and a terrifying military look to match... except whenever the heroes can catch them unaware, there's a good chance they will be goofing off in hilarious ways, be it dancing in full combat gear, dynamite-fishing with high explosives, smoking cannabis through their gas masks, smashing watermelons, or any other numerous, silly things, utterly deflating their scary image.
- Played For Drama: Instead of casting the Doom Troops as a distant, inhuman menace that the audience only ever sees down the sights of a rifle, the story casts them as Villain Protagonists - and not the "cartoonishly evil" type, either.
- Played For Horror: Doom Troops are a fearsome, villainous military force that wins battles through sheer intimidation and shows no mercy... but as the unlucky protagonists find out, this is what Emperor Evulz and his soldiers consider A Form You Are Comfortable With, and what Doom Troops actually are is so terrifying as to be beyond description.
Now go back to Doom Troops... If you dare.
