History Main / ArmyOfThievesandWhores

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': In "[[Recap/DigimonAdventureE27VamdemonTheCastleOfDarkness The Gateway to Home]]", the forces [=DemiDevimon=] scrounges up for Myotismon's army are a ragtag band of "junk" Digimon -- Digimon that, in the games, evolve when the player fails to feed their digital pet, exercise them and clean up their... waste. The result is a loose band of slovenly, low-grade Digimon -- slug-like Numemon, shifty Vegiemon, a single turd-like Sukamon, and his Chuumon partner... and two of the heroes in [[PaperThinDisguise crude disguises]]. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome As can be expected from an army scrounged up from the literal leavings of society]], not one of them has the stomach for war and they mutiny ''en masse'' when the going gets tough.

** There was a more pragmatic reason for which both Heer and SS soldiers hated them: when drunk, hysterical or out of control (that is, most of the time they served), [[http://www.warsawuprising.com/witness/schenk.htm Dirlewanger's men robbed, beat or shot even other German troopers. Keeping them under control involved public hanging and shooting of the offenders]], sometimes by Dirlewanger's own hand.

** To add further depth, the French Army was made up of professional soldiers while the Prussians made use of conscripts, so the Army of Thieves and Whores in this situation was the opposite of who you might expect. Not to mention the French Army was equipped with much more modern weaponry. To any outside observers, it would appear that the Prussians managed to subvert this trope.

** Wellesley is also reputed to have said, "I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they terrify me."

-->"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers, and Methodists!"

* In ''VideoGame/AceCombat7'', the player character "Trigger" is part of one after [[spoiler: being framed for shooting down a transport carrying Ex-Osean President, Vincent Harling.]] This Penal Fighter Squadron is known as 444th AKA the Spare Squadron, and it comprises of criminals, whose planes are adorned with "sin lines" on their tails to denote the severity of their crime(s). They are often used as expendable pawns by the Osean Air Defense Force, being sent on suicide missions on a regular basis. [[HellholePrison Their home base/prison is a regular target for enemy bombing raids]]. Their commander, Commander [=McKinsey=] is a condescending GloryHound who believes that only he deserves to take credit for the squadron's deeds, not the pilots. And he will even send pilots to rot in solitary confinement if they even just look at him the wrong way. Even their assigned AWACS, AWACS Bandog shows little to no respect to the pilots he is assigned to, regularly tossing insults at the pilots while on mission.
* You can assemble one in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'', either by hiring them from the Saloon building or summoning them as mercenary group. For some reason, they are more expensive than conventional army. The Asian dynasties invert this, by hiring the [[TheAtoner Repentant]] version of them from Monasteries. They aren't any better or any worse than the ones summoned from Saloon, though.

* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'': [[spoiler:[[AloofAlly Br]][[BigGuy ick]]]], of all people, is the leader of such an army on Thousand Cuts, and the most likely to have the dirtiest, most bloodthirsty bandits with at least a common goal. He is obliged to [[WhatMeasureIsAMook let you kill them though]], because [[BrutalHonesty they're]] [[TooDumbToLive stupid]].

* Both sides in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar suffered from this, but a special mention goes out to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Tigers Wheat’s tigers,]] [[WretchedHive “The sweepings of New Orleans.”]] a unit that Jackson reputedly hid from international observers, not to prevent international observes forming a poor impression of his army, but to stop them getting robbed by the troops and their camp followers. Their reputation on the battlefield was, however, excellent.

** In the Third Act of the Wano Arc, the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance that attacks Kaido's stronghold on Onigashima consists of the [[DeckOfWildCards Straw Hat Pirates]], the Heart Pirates led by DeadlyDoctor Trafalgar Law, assembled fighters of Wano, which includes various bandits and gangsters, and the warriors of the [[BeastMen Mink Tribe]]. Helping the Alliance are the Kid Pirates led by the violence-prone Eustass Kid, Ex-Whitebeard Marco the Phoenix and [[spoiler:[[DefectorFromDecadence Kaido's]] [[TomboyPrincess "son"]] [[OverlordJr Yamato]]]].

** In the Third Act of the Wano Arc, the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance that attacks Kaido's stronghold on Onigashima consists of the [[DeckOfWildCards Straw Hat Pirates]], the Heart Pirates led by DeadlyDoctor Trafalgar Law, assembled fighters of Wano, which includes various bandits and gangsters, and the warriors of the [[BeastMen Mink Tribe]]. Helping the Alliance are the Kid Pirates led by the violence-prone Eustass Kid, and Ex-Whitebeard Marco the Phoenix.

** As of 11/02/2022, Vladimir Putin has signed a decree making legal and even encouraging the recruitment of convicts of serious crimes, including rapists and murderers.

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': All Demigods have their own Lordsworn troops, but due to MookDepletion during the Shattering they have to make do with whoever they can get as replacements. Godrick and Rykard have it the worst; Godrick has been forced to conscript civilians, hire mercenaries, and utilize exiled knights and soldiers from penal colonies, while Rykard has ''no'' Lordsworn to his name and uses serpentine monsters, the Abductor Virgin war constructs, and the few Recusants who've promised to assassinate Tarnished for him.

** Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Russian paramilitary group Wagner [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/15/russia-war-mercenearies-prisons-recruit/ has tried to recruit convicted criminals to compensate for its manpower shortage]]. If they survive a six month term, they get a pardon from the government.

* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' features numerous examples of this trope. Captain White's filibuster expedition and the Glanton Gang are the most obvious examples but there are others as well, such as the [[{{Bandito}} Mexican bandits]] that [[KidsAreCruel The Kid]] and [[MauveShirt Sproule]] encounter or [[TheSavageIndian the Comanche warband]] that wipes out White's filibuster

* The main characters of ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChroniclesIII''. The Nameless includes repeat arsonist, convicted murderer, brothel madame, con artist, draft-dodger, sadistic dominatrix, trigger-happy alcoholic, and money-grubbing mechanic. [[ClearMyName The leader is charged with treason]]. What a merry band of undesirables! This is just one of the many, many way the game is DarkerAndEdgier compared to its earlier installments.

* Reynard ends up leading a literal one in ''Literature/TheReynardCycle''. By the third installment in the series, it has become an EliteArmy.
* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', the vampeze get around their strict refusal to use projectile weapons by hiring human thugs and cutthroats. Debbie and Alice eventually come up with the idea for the vampires to join forces with humans for the same purpose. Those humans mostly end up being homeless people. It's justified because those are the people the vampeze are feeding off of, so they're only too happy to have a shot for revenge.
* Much of the British Army in the Peninsula as seen in ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}''--hence Wellington's quote below under RealLife.
* The Night's Watch in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' used to be a universally highly regarded [[TheOrder order]] that was erected to defend Westeros against [[GreaterScopeVillain the]] [[ZombieApocalypse Others]] but nowadays, it involves this trope to a large degree. While there are second/third sons and highborn illegitimate sons from noble houses who still join for the sake of duty and honor, many ''other'' members are criminals whose crimes were pardoned in return for joining and some willing volunteers are misfits of some sort. Other than the North, where the Night’s Watch is still considered a noble calling, most other realms see the Watch as essentially a joke [[SealedEvilInACan because the ancient threat of the Others is believed to be long-gone]] and few believe [[TheCassandra it actually has returned]]. Consequently, the Night's Watch has become ridiculously underfunded, to the point that of the nineteen forts manning the Wall, they can barely garrison three of them by the time the story begins. In ''A Storm of Swords'', some local prostitutes help the Night Watch fight off a wildling onslaught, making this a quite literal example of the trope. Granted, many of the Northern houses still know that the Watch is important and [[AncientTradition look at taking the Black as an honorable thing]] but the southern realms of Westeros don’t.
** In ''A Dance With Dragons'', Jon adds [[spoiler: wildling warriors and [[ActionGirl spearwives]]]] to the mix in an effort to build up their ranks and help defend humanity (Westeros and wildlings alike) against the ever-approaching threat of [[ZombieApocalypse the Others]].
** This world also has the Brave Companions, a.k.a. the Bloody Mummers, a mercenary company formed from those the rest of the sellsword community rejected. From what we've seen, they accept psychos, creeps, disgraced pedophile priests, mad doctors, and common bandits from all Westeros and Essos. Their commander openly delights in their reputation as their current employer's pet psychopaths.
* In one of the ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' novels, the communist dragon Falameezar rallies the world's [[ButtMonkey rats and mice]] to rise up against oppression.
* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' this becomes the fate of the [[CannonFodder bridge crews]]. Being sent to the Bridge Crews are often regarded as a {{Fate Worse than Death}}, a punishment restricted to only the biggest outcasts and criminals of the Alethi Army. ''Literature/TheWayOfKings'' follows [[BrokenAce Kaladin]] who takes up the mantle to train [[BadassCrew Bridge 4]] in the ways of combat with hope that they'll ultimately escape when the time is ripe. When the time comes in the form of a gambit pulled off by their superiors in leaving a rival army to die in haste, Bridge 4 sacrifices their chance at freedom in order to [[BigDamnHeroes save said army,]] ultimately putting them in favor of the general, who frees not only Bridge 4, but every other bridge crew in thanks. He offers them all a job as body-guards to protect his family and the king in addition, outright looking over their various criminal pasts.

* By the end of the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar, every army involved. While they were always well-trained and equipped by contemporary standards, military service in the era was extremely lethal (the ''average'' attrition rate in Baroque Europe was that 1/4 of an army would die per year) and as a result the various armies had a hard time finding new recruits. They solved this by press-ganging poor residents from the streets or by offering clemency to bandits and convicts in exchange for military service.

[[quoteright:349:[[Film/FleshAndBlood https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mv5bmjazotu2mzy5n15bml5banbnxkftztcwote4njczna_v1.png]]]]

* ''Film/FleshAndBlood'', features a mercenary band led by Martin (Rutger Hauer), as well as Celine (Susan Tyrell) and Polly (Marina Saura), two camp followers.

In RealLife, this has often been the makeup of armies throughout history. Military life in the ranks was just too distasteful for someone to volunteer for it that didn't find civilian life just as hard unless he was motivated by ideology. When there was no ideological reason and no BarbarianTribe nearby to recruit from, this is what you are going to end up with. The pay was simply not good enough to attract respectable people unless they were from [[OfficerAndAGentleman nobility]]; which sometimes had ''ancestors'' who were part of one of these. On the other hand, assembling them into a [[TrainingFromHell properly trained army]] was a rather hard task not only for reasons of literacy or discipline but also due to the spread of chronic disease in a population with poor or no access to medical care and proper feeding and living conditions. A recruit from the poorest class in the [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian Era]] could be expected to have either latent [[VictorianNovelDisease tuberculosis]], syphilis, gonorrhea, bone diseases, or, worse, [[UpToEleven all of them together]], and in crowded military camps germs are easily spread. (The ordinary peasant recruit of the State army was not much healthier either. The British Army Medical Corps [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer_Wars#Controversy_and_significance found out in 1899]] ''the majority'' of recruits were unfit for combat, even by the low standards of the time.)

* The [[VillainProtagonist Nightmare Pirates]] of ''Fanfic/TheButcherBird'' basically consist of this, being pirates and drawing most of their ranks from smugglers, murderers, criminals, and the various scum of society. [[spoiler: They also end up being part of an even [[UpToEleven larger]] example of this trope by forming a massive pirate alliance.]]

* By the end of the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar, every army involved.

** The Black Widow Company, especially in its earliest incarnations, was this. It was populated largely by discipline cases from the rest of Wolf's Dragoons, including at least one member under a suspended death sentence, another threatened with exile from the Inner Sphere due to embezzlement and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking one condemned to the unit for daring to ask for the hand of his CO's daughter in marraige.]]