History Main / DangerousDeserter

* In an issue of the ''ComicBook/InfinityInc'' comic, a Doctor Midnight (a black woman) is captured and [[AttemptedRape almost raped]] by a group of [[FishOutOfTemporalWater time-tossed]] deserters from the Confederate Army (it is made clear that they were already deserters before they got lost in time).
* In ''ComicBook/LadyMechanika: The Tablet of Destinies'' #4, Mechanika and Winifred are captured by a deserter from the British army who now leads a gang of slavers.
* Overlord, the BigBad of ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'', is an AxCrazy PersonOfMassDestruction working for the Decepticons, happy to stay at a lower level in the hierarchy as long as he gets to slaughter as many living beings as he can. Then Megatron tried to rein him in and reserve his power for the final stage of invasions. Overlord refused, and is possibly the only Decepticon deserter who actually scares Megatron.
* ''ComicBook/RogueTrooper'' will help out his former comrades in the Southern Army when it suits him, but good luck trying to arrest him for desertion.
* In an issue of the Far West French Bande Dessinée Red Dust, the Ruhmann gang has been swelled by massive desertions to battalion size. Inverted in a later issue: Snake is a deserter but also a DirtyCoward ready to sell his boss and his gang the minute things look bad.
* ''ComicBook/TheWarlordDC'': Travis Morgan's RivalTurnedEvil Dan Maddox deserted from the US Army (Morgan's actions had already caused him to be discharged from the Air Force) while serving in Vietnam and defected to the Soviets.

* Deserters in peacetime in the UK's RAF were ignored. When they turned up again (they usually gave themselves up to the police), they were put in military prison for 'not turning up for work' (usually only a few days extra duties), then discharged from the RAF with loss of back pay and reported to the civilian police as deserters. UK police have wide discretionary powers, depending on how the deserter has behaved while 'out'. All of this was explained exhaustively to new recruits, some of whom desert immediately. One guesses it rids the armed forces of the really unwilling ones.

* In ''VideoGame/HorizonForbiddenWest'', the Tenakth Marshal Regalla leads a rebellion that is comprised of these; the Tenakth Chief, Hekarro, seeks peace with the new Carja regime after the previous one led by a mad warmongering sun-king was toppled by his son, now Sun-King Avad. Regalla lost her whole family violently in the Mad Sun-King's Red Raids, and could not abide peace; as such, after challenging Chief Hekarro in a TrialByCombat and losing, her hate festered into open rebellion. Deserters from all corners of the Tenakth followed suit, and those who remain loyal to Hekarro's regime consider them this. One random banter between tribals has one mention he encountered his father wearing Rebel [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience colors]]; he had killed his own squad in his act of desertion, and the son effectively disowns him. Regalla's rebellion only succeeds in killing a relative handful of Carja at a diplomatic meeting between the tribes; pretty much everyone else killed by the Rebels have been their own fellow tribesfolk.

* In ''Film/BootCamp'', Logan, the sadistic head of security at Camp Serenity, is a military deserter. His employer Dr. Hail keeps him in line by threatening to tell the U.S. Army his current whereabouts.

* ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'': When Spectra discovers her professor has been [[spoiler:harboring an imperial deserter under her classroom]], the professor cites this stereotype as the reason she doesn't confide what she's doing to the university. Spectra herself has to grapple with her own fears about this once she finds out, only overcoming it by deciding she won't [[TheChainOfHarm perpetuate the cycle of distrust]] she'd experienced all-too-often from the other side due to her changeling heritage.

* ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'': When Spectra discovers her professor has been [[spoiler:harboring an imperial deserter under her classroom]], the professor cites this stereotype as the reason she doesn't confide what she's doing to the university. Spectra herself has to grapple with her own fears about this once she finds out, only overcoming it by deciding she won't [[TheChainOfHarm perpetuate the cycle of distrust]] she'd experienced all-too-often from the other side thanks to her changeling heritage.

* ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'': When Spectra discovers her professor has been [[spoiler:harboring an imperial deserter under her classroom]], she cites this stereotype as the reason she doesn't confide what she's doing to the university. Spectra herself has to grapple with her own fears about this once she finds out, only overcoming it by deciding she won't [[TheChainOfHarm perpetuate the cycle of distrust]] she'd experienced all-too-often from the other side thanks to her changeling heritage.

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', shinigami can't ''retire''. [[spoiler:Quitters are separated and watched by the 2nd division, and it's revealed that Urahara Kisuke was part of this. Mayuri Kurotsuchi was one of them.]] Although he didn't actually try to leave. They considered him potentially dangerous so they held him without charge.

* Averted in ''Literature/TheEyesOfTheDragon'' where two deserters are in line for execution, despite having only deserted to help their families survive an unusually harsh winter, then returned to their posts. Queen Sasha manages to persuade her husband to pardon them, unknowingly earning the ire of court magician Flagg, who wanted the men executed for his own political reason. This incident leads Flagg to have her murdered, disguised as death by childbirth. Flagg also happens to be another incarnation of Stephen King's recurring villain [[Literature/TheStand Randall]] [[Literature/TheDarkTower Flagg]].

** A random event taking place after the [[RedShirtArmy National Soldiers]] first engages the Insurgents in combat, and said combat goes poorly, involves high desertion rates among them. You can either spend additional funds for better training and bonus pay (which stops desertions altogether, and actually increases their strength from the better training provided), threaten to make desertion an act of Treason (which always gives recruitment bonuses to the Insurgents, as deserters have nowhere else to go), or just replace have Coalition personnel replace the losses from desertion (which requires to have Coalition troops ready), reducing the efficiency of Coalition troops, but not causing any trouble beyond that. Thus, deserters are only dangerous if you [[CorneredRattlesnake give them no other option]].

* You can encounter a few in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' in Primm, attempting to start a protection racket and attacking you if try to turn them in. They're survivors from a outpost that was overrun by [[TheEmpire Caesar's Legion]], and think the [=NCR=] will be defeated by them soon.

*** You'll also fight several small bands of Tal-Vashoth, deserters from the Qunari army and way of life. Since Qunari only learn one skill or trade in their lifetime, those who have been training as soldiers since they were twelve have no way to make a living ''except'' as mercenaries and bandits, making them desperate and dangerous to almost anyone.

Many people take a dim view of abandoning a military post. Even works that [[ArmiesAreEvil disapprove of warfare on general principles]] won't approve if it took place "in the heat" of battle (thus leaving more loyal soldiers hanging). So those who say ScrewThisImOuttaHere to a legitimate group tend to be [[VillainByDefault bad people]].

* In an issue of the Far West French Bande Dessinée Red Dust, the Ruhmann gang has been swelled by massive desertions to battalion size.
** Inverted in a later issue: Snake is a deserter but also a DirtyCoward ready to sell his boss and his gang the minute things look bad.
* In ''ComicBook/TheWarlord'', Travis Morgan's RivalTurnedEvil Dan Maddox deserted from the US Army (Morgan's actions had already caused him to be discharged from the Air Force) while serving in Vietnam and defected to the Soviets.

Most such deserters are rank-and-filed soldiers or petty officers, and typically become bandits, thieves, or other thugs of limited scope after desertion. Occasionally, a higher-ranking officer may decided to go rogue as well, in which case they're likely to bring along a larger number of underlings and set themselves up as TheWarlord over a likely-looking piece of land.

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* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In the season nine episode "Shifting Sands" a Navy petty officer believed to be lost since the first UsefulNotes/GulfWar is found in Iraq, married to a Bedouin sheikh. It turns out that she’s provided intelligence to Saddam’s regime through the years.