Failure to distinguish between different branches of the military - army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, possibly a "space force".Media in general uses the Imperial ranks unless they specifically feature the Self-Defense Forces. Thus, a tai-i without prefix could refer to either an army captain or a navy lieutenant (NATO OF-2). Both the Imperial Japanese Forces and the Japan Self-Defense Forces use unified rank structures, with the only difference between ranks of the same grade but different services being a prefix or a single kanji to indicate the branch in question, which is typically dropped when context isn't needed. Japanese media have a special example here.Confusing ranks between service branches, such as naming a navy non-commissioned officer a sergeant instead of a petty officer.There's also no such thing as a Do-Anything Soldier, especially because different skillsets take years of training to reach. You're not going to see a general actively leading a platoon in the field unless something has gone very wrong. But they might not accurately depict what their jobs are, leading to soldiers who seem to be ranked too high or too low. Generally, works will know that the Four-Star Badass outranks the Colonel Badass, who outranks the Sergeant Rock, and they will know the basic Military Rank Names (if not the obscenely complicated NATO classifications). See also Hollywood Tactics and Mildly Military.Ĭommon errors in depictions of the military: Because of this, the only time you'll really see a work make an effort to avert this trope is if it's Backed by the Pentagon - in which case, a real-world military wants to show itself off to the public. Indeed, military films festooned with these errors are often more popular with military members than with the general public. Some military fanatics will bristle at these incorrect depictions, but most actual current and former members of the military find them more funny than annoying. You shouldn't see a liberal democracy treat its soldiers more callously than the World War II-era Red Army, or a very hierarchical and repressive culture with very Mildly Military armed forces.Īs with most Hollywood Style tropes, common media portrayals of the military tend to influence public perception and lead to people believing myths about the military.
But it can also happen in entirely imaginary cultures, if the work establishes one thing and depicts another. Generally, this trope applies to depictions of real-world militaries. That leads to the most common reason for incorrect depictions - they just don't really care enough. But actually portraying the military accurately is surprisingly difficult, as each country has its own military with its own service branches, which each have their own ranks, rules, scope, and traditions. Other times, it's a matter of Rule of Cool (or Rule of Funny) - the military is just a backdrop for a character to do something awesome (or hilarious).
Sometimes it's just a matter of not knowing the minutiae, like which branches use which ranks. Militaries are often incorrectly portrayed in media. Submarine Captain, The Adventures of Dr.