Brigadier General Fessler from Fullmetal Alchemist might have set a record in shortest time between showing up and being offed by his own troops: a few pages, or a few minutes in-story time.And when opportunity presents itself, he'll show his extreme racist tendencies by shooting actually harmless Brahmins. He mostly hides behind his soldiers or Daimos itself from danger. Miwa Sakimori from Daimos is this, and a General Ripper.Named after the infamous blowhard ROTC commander Doug Neidermeyer from the movie Animal House.įun fact: "Neider" in German means "Envier", making Neidermeyer's name a Meaningful Name.Ĭompletely unrelated to the founding editor of. The Sister Trope - a low-ranking leader, such as a non-commissioned officer, lacking in authority or hated by his men is Gung Holier Than Thou. If the Neidermeyer is a temporary replacement for the usual Reasonable Authority Figure, it may also be a Tyrant Takes the Helm story. In many cases, a General Failure is basically a Neidermeyer with greater rank and thus even more scope for causing damage. There is also the Veteran Instructor, an instructor who has distinguished himself in battle and now is teaching new recruits, fully cognizant and respectful of the realities of war and training, which typically earns considerable respect from his trainees. The polar opposite of this trope is " A Father to His Men" (into which the Neidermeyer may well evolve). This trope goes often goes hand in hand with The Peter Principle: the leader has simply advanced or been promoted to a level too high for his capabilities.Īlso goes hand in hand with Weakness Is Just a State of Mind, where the leader thinks that someone's lack of drive is a deliberate decision, rather than a medical problem or depletion of strength. See also Miles Gloriosus for a broader application of this trope. If he's a crusty, tough-as-nails long-term veteran commanding officer who has lost touch with reality and is filled with irrational hatred and paranoia against a specific foe, he's a General Ripper. The Neidermeyer may believe he is either or both. A Sergeant Rock may act like one but is nonetheless held in high regard because he wouldn't put his men through anything he wouldn't go through himself. In this case, the other troops will remain as spiteful as ever, but find that the converted will easily take care of any sort of mutiny they try to pull off.Ī Drill Sergeant Nasty just acts like one, with the purpose of turning recruits into soldiers. In a best-case scenario, the successor may show much competence and merely view the man as a Cynical Mentor or Drill Sergeant Nasty, but not always. If he is too tough to frag, though, the (un)lucky survivor of his tirades will become either a Yes-Man with no more backbone than he started off with, with a sense of "loyalty" to him, or The Dragon who seeks to become his successor when he dies/moves on. The troops might even conspire to frag him themselves if they get tired of waiting for the enemy to do the job. In some cases, he'll usually be the villain of the story. In more cynical war movies, there will be no escape from this petty and obnoxious brute, and the men simply grouse and wait for the day someone on the opposing side will get lucky and catch him in the crosshairs. In these cases, this character is portrayed sympathetically. In more upbeat war shows, he's usually forced to learn An Aesop about his awful command style and adjust his behavior in a way that either changes him into a likable officer or results in his resignation, demotion, or transfer to a more suitable post. As a result, his authority is resented by the men in the trenches, and his orders are only obeyed because chain-of-command says so. He clearly, and often egregiously, displays incompetence, cowardice, inexperience, willingness to sacrifice his men for his own glory while keeping himself safely out of harm's way, an obsessive desire to get promoted, or is just a psychotic-level hardass. The military equivalent of the Sadist Teacher.Ī commanding officer with zero respect for his troops, and probably plenty for himself.
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