Basic Trope: A Military Leader who insanely pursues a vendetta against the "enemy."
- Straight: Gen. Bludbath calls for war against the aliens, accusing them of aggression. This is despite no evidence of aggression even existing.
- Exaggerated: Gen. Bludbath calls for war against the whole galaxy despite no evidence of any aggression to the planet or that aliens even exist.
- Downplayed:
- Gen. Bludbath openly distrusts the aliens, but doesn't outright call for aggression against them.
- The aliens attack first and the humans gain the upper hand, but Gen. Bludbath wants to extend the war to punish the aliens further, possibly to the point of genocide.
- Justified:
- Gen. Bludbath knows something his fellow officers don't.
- Gen. Bludbath's vendetta is because It's Personal, but the rest of his side doesn't know that or refuses to believe it.
- Gen. Bludbath has been corrupted by the sufferings in war after serving the military for decades, and he will bury the aliens for killing everyone he loved.
- Bludbath hates the aliens because he hates the aliens. Whether his hatred has some solid basis or doesn't depends on the writer.
- Inverted:
- Gen. Bludbath pleas for peace with the Always Chaotic Evil aliens, accusing them of being misunderstood.
- General Bludbath may be a gung-ho Large Ham, but he still is reasonable about his strategies and only calls for aggression if the opposing force is aggressive themselves. President Reeson, however, is a madman willing to risk the extinction of mankind to get back at the (heavily armed, but otherwise peaceful) aliens for interrupting the Super Bowl and there is very little Bludbath can do to stem the tide because Reeson is way above him in the chain of command.
- Subverted:
- Gen. Bludbath's insane methods actually work ...
- Gen. Bludbath may seem crazy, but turns out to be completely reasonable, and does what he can to avoid war.
- Double Subverted:
- ...that is, until the aliens declare war directly because of Gen. Bludbath's aggression.
- Turns out that General Bludbath's reasonability is a Mask of Sanity. Once he's absolutely sure that he passed all scrutiny and he's in perfect position to strike, he triggers a coup and unleashes all of the nation's firepower onto his perceived enemies.
- Parodied:
- Gen. Bludbath calls for war against the aliens, accusing them of military aggression and cancelling Firefly.
- Gen. Bludbath is assassinated by the enemy forces. To cover for his absence, he is replaced with a cardboard cut-out and a tape recorder that regularly screams "Kill them all!". No one notices.
- "General Bludbath", a Phony Veteran, is a dog catcher who does his work with all the seriousness of a critical military campaign and blames all things that go wrong with his life on Communist spy dogs (in a work that has no "smart" animals of any kind, or espionage plots).
- Zig Zagged: Gen. Bludbath goes lenient one day, loony the next.
- Averted: Gen. Bludbath calls for war against the aliens, who proudly admit they were going to do the same.
- Enforced: "Your stable minded generals are too likable for this is an anti-war story! Bring in Gen. Bludbath!"
- Lampshaded: "I'm a madman, and proud of it!"
- Implied: General Bludbath is first seen coming out of a psychiatric hospital, in a dark and stormy night, with the main theme of Cape Fear playing in the background. We later find out that it's because he was a patient until recently...
- Invoked: The young man who will grow up to be Gen. Bludbath joins the army for the sole purpose of eventually getting the power to destroy his enemy.
- Exploited:
- A Sociopathic Soldier signs up for Bludbath's squad because he knows it's where he'll be allowed to do the most damage.
- President Reeson knows he's not Properly Paranoid enough, so he keeps Bludbath around (with hefty amounts of restraints) to be the devil's advocate in his intelligence circle.
- Defied: "You're far too insane to be leading this army, Bludbath, so I, Robert Reeson, will be taking your rank!"
- Discussed: "That Gen. Bludbath's a real loony warhawk!"
- Conversed: How do guys like Gen. Bludbath always end up in charge? You'd think someone clearly that unhinged would have been sent to the loony bin, not end up as a general.
- Deconstructed: Gen. Bludbath is an insane individual who trusts no one, thus compromising his ability to lead.
- Reconstructed: But at least he's on our side, doesn't hesitate to take it to the enemy, is completely incorruptible, and is never going to be accused of cowardice. We can figure out if he belongs in the mental ward once the war is over.
- Played For Laughs:
- It's a Running Gag that Bludbath is constantly telling people to declare war on whatever is pissing them off, driving them further up the wall.
- General Bludbath blames everything wrong in the world to Communism, even if it's 3225 and Russia has long since become a protectorate of the United States. Understandably, people treat him like he's insane.
- Played For Drama: Bludbath is the Big Bad, triggering a military coup and threatening to cause the end of the world as we know it because he needs to kill the enemy right now, consequences be damned.
- Played For Horror: Bludbath is perfectly okay with casually doing atrocities to his enemies that would make Kommandant Amon Leopold Goeth piss himself in horror (and that guy was, in fiction and Real Life, the textbook definition of "Complete Monster"), on top of the above application(s) of the trope.
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