History Main / WarISHell

* ''Fanfic/DumbledoresArmyAndTheYearOfDarkness'' is another prime example, depicting the horrific ordeal the members of the eponymous insurgency go through to keep the darkness at bay as best they could, culminating in a final battle (the Battle of Hogwarts from [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the book]], retold from their perspective) in which [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll almost everyone dies.]]]] Unfortunately, it fumbles that ball badly, as the vast majority of the DA ''want'' to fight, have embraced the fact most of them will die, and when someone tries to convince them ''not'' to fight, he's portrayed as being in the wrong. The themes clash so badly that the entire story is tainted.

* Even appears in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' episode, "[[CourtroomEpisode The Trial]]." In it, [[GrumpyBear Spinelli]] is accused of throwing a rock in a dirt clod war, and [[GentleGiant Mikey]] presents his view on the matter. In Mikey's narrative, the dirt clod war landscape resembles UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, with the kids falling injured and Spinelli [[PetTheDog calling a time-out to tend to the wounded]]. It was then when Randall threw a dirt clod at Spinelli anyway and angered her. Although Mikey didn't actually see Randall get hit with the rock, he concludes that "war is not a game." [[spoiler: The truth of the matter is that Randall hit himself in the head with the rock.]]

* The UrExample of this trope may be the Geoffrey de Charny's manual for young knights from 1346, which describes the life of knight in a very cruel ways. The book, about the life of a knight, included the psychological consequences of being a knight – and they strongly resemble the symptoms of the post-traumatic stress disorder. In his book, de Charny advises knights on how to relate to the fact that they must kill people when they are at war. He also mentions some of the hardships knights face: poor sleep, hunger, and a feeling that even nature is going against them. His picture of knights shows they are very remote from the violent psychopaths that we picture them as.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has both this trope, as espoused by Garnet and Greg, and WarIsGlorious, as espoused by Pearl. Pearl enthusiastically recounts the courageous actions Rose Quartz and the other Crystal Gems undertook to save Earth, while Garnet stoically points out that every weapon they're walking past is one of a gem who died in the fighting. But Greg reluctantly explains it to his son in the plainest terms: that to prevent the destruction of Earth and all life on it, Rose and the Crystal Gems were forced to [[DefectorFromDecadence turn their backs on their own kind]] and fight a bloody intergalactic war.

%%* ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'': The village scene, complete with EmpathyDollShot. Well, for the Chinese at least; it's pretty obvious that [[BloodKnight Shan Yu]] and the other Huns [[RapePillageAndBurn had a blast.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' might just as well be the full extent of this trope in tabletop game form. Especially its DarkerAndEdgier[=/=]UpToEleven[=/=]RecycledInSpace form, ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. See their own pages for the awful details. "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war", indeed.

* WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender's fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Embers}}'' explores this trope even more than the original cartoon. It's clearly shown what losing their loved ones and constantly fighting for survival does to the characters, especially ChildSoldiers. Zuko has more issuses than just being extremely paranoid, Katara snaps after years of repressing herself emotionally over the loss of her mother and getting PromotionToParent, Aang lives in denial and it's the only thing protecting him from the same fate. The only two well-adjusted characters in the main cast seem to be Toph and Sokka, but considering the theme of this fic, their issues are yet to be shown.

* ''ComicBook/{{Cossacks}}'' is set in early 17th century UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}}. The protagonist, a young Lithuanian Hussar of the Polish army, gets plenty of nightmares from the slaughters of the battles he fought in ([[JointheArmyTheySaid after being convinced to enlist on much glamorous promises]] by his ruthless officer, in addition to fulfilling his ReplacementSibling duty). He has enough, deserts and joins a UsefulNotes/{{Cossack|s}} tribe.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'', there is a sequence where the titular insects go to war with a neighbouring termite nest. The termites are presented as [[NightmareFuel terrifying]] [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorph-esque]] creatures, five times the size of the ants and able to shoot acid from their foreheads, and the ants have to rely on ZergRush to beat them. The battle is dangerous and horrifying; ants die in droves against the termites and a few are shown dying messily from termite acid on-screen. [[SceneryGorn The aftermath is even worse]], as both insect armies were wiped out with massive losses, and Barbatus, the friendly soldier ant who looked out for the protagonist Z in the battle, is later found [[LosingYourHead sans his body]] (pictured).

* [[WarIsHell/AnimatedFilms Films — Animated]]

[[folder:Fanfic]]

* Prominently featured in the first issues of ''ComicBook/NthManTheUltimateNinja'', which takes place in eastern Russia during WorldWarIII.

* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': In life Duane was able to find honor, glory and rightousness in his memories of battle, but his clear memories straight from the khert after his soul is bound to his corpse do not allow him such comfort and he's horrified by the cruelty and violence he finds in memories he once spun into heroic tales.

While not required, this theme is more common in wars set in recent history with the advent of the modern industrial age. Certainly war was never pretty or fun in the past, but with the creation of weapons capable of killing thousands of individual men and women in a matter of hours or weapons of mass destruction capable of wiping out whole cities at once, battlefields went from merely looking like places where people fought and died to ruined wastelands littered with corpses. More modern wars are also where the practice of total war, war on a whole country where even non-combatants aren't spared, became prevalent and the idea that a war wasn't finished until you completely ruined the enemy's ability to fight back.

May overlap with, but JustForFun/NotToBeConfusedWith, HellIsWar. Contrast WarIsGlorious, which is not mutually exclusive with this trope,[[note]]Sometimes, War Is Hell can be seen as a DeconstructedTrope of WarIsGlorious.[[/note]] especially when the audience [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing gets a kick out of seeing people kill each other, no matter how ugly or condemning the work is]] -- or, more altruistically, when soldiers are painted as heroes specifically because they've volunteered to fight in order to keep the horrors of war away from their loved ones. See also ArmiesAreEvil (highly negative takes on the military).

* Often turns up in ''ComicBook/RogueTrooper'' to offset [[WarIsGlorious the exciting adventures]]. Many a story ends something like this:
-->'''Helm:''' Wow, that was harsh.\\
'''Rogue:''' Yeah, but you know what's harsher? War in general.
* ''Comicbook/SgtRock'' had this as a regular theme. The most brutal punishment he could think of for one recurring German officer whom he defeated in personal combat was to let him live: "You'll suffer through this war like I have to."
* Also a regular theme of Creator/DCComics' ''Comicbook/EnemyAce''.
* Prominently featured in the first issues of ''ComicBook/NthManTheUltimateNinja'', which takes place in eastern Russia during WorldWarIII.
* ''ComicBook/SinCity'': Invoked in dialogue -- from Wallace, mostly. Marv briefly mentions being in a war and how horrible that experience was. The VillainProtagonist in ''Rats'' also vaguely refers to a war. Since it's heavily implied that he's a Nazi war-criminal, it's obvious [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII which one]] it was.

* IDW has taken the time to explore this a few times in their run of The Transformers:
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'' runs on this trope, as a {{deconstruction}} of a franchise that usually takes a RuleOfCool approach to its central CivilWar theme.
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMonstrosity'': Focuses on the bleakness of war. The Autobots realize that they're going to be in this for the long run, and the entire planet has to pick a side, and many want to leave, not wanting to die or trust anyone. The Autobots and Decepticons also realize that ideals, ruthlessness and compassion will not win the war, resources will, and that they may have damned themselves with what little is left on the planet.
** Quite a bit of ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise'' and ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' has been an exploration of just what it means for individuals to have been locked in a brutal war for literally millions of years and the effects that has had on those individuals. Some of the characters were ChildSoldiers who were turned on, given a very brief education (basically, here's how to walk, talk, and hold a gun, took about fifteen minutes) and thrust immediately into combat. Many of the characters have serious psychological issues caused by the violence they've endured.
* ''ComicBook/TransformersWingsOfHonor'' also uses this trope, though near the end. For most of the first story, it's more of an action-adventure approach to the war, with the Elite Guard members having fun adventures with quirky or [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villains]], bar a few instances like when one of the scientists is gunned down, or when the Decepticon leaders have a war meeting, and they're all killed by an unwitting suicide bomber. Then the SuddenDownerEnding hits, where the Special Ops team goes rogue, kills almost all the extras and a good chunk of the main cast, and the base is destroyed with very few survivors. In the sequel, the survivors try to take a victory, and though the BigBad and the traitors are defeated, a new Warlord takes his place, and restarts the war, possibly killing TheHero, and the story ends with the Autobots having to leave the planet as it cannot support them.

* ''ComicBook/{{Sturmtruppen}}'' is a satiric comic set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. And once you get past the BlackComedy, you see these soldiers deal with food that goes from barely edible to containing cholera, a [[DrillSergeantNasty sergeant who won't hesitate to torture you for fun]], incompetent officers ruining the work of their more competent colleagues and getting subordinates killed while getting away with it due to {{Nepotism}}, logistic officers embezzling the much needed food and clothes or (in one occasion) burning them to hide the lack of winter clothes... And the soldiers are so desensitised to all of this they ''treat it as normal'', and even joke about the new guy who thought that WarIsGlorious [[AndIMustScream being blown up on a minefield he himself set up and surviving without arms, legs, his five senses and the ability to call the doctors whenever he wets himself]].
* In one ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' story taking place when Usagi was a KidSamurai in training, Usagi is out with his master going about how he's going to fight in an awesome war and be all badass. His master shows him the sight of a recent battle to explain just what war results in: a field of decaying corpses and rusting armor. They meet a surviving soldier from the losing army, who recalls just how horrible it all was. This has an impact on Usagi, who wonders that if it's so bad, why do people say WarIsGlorious?
* {{Invoked| trope}} by Dmitri Romanov in ''Comicbook/{{Nikolai Dante}}'' - he scoffs at old-fashioned ideas like 'smart weaponry' and 'surgical strikes', believing that wars should have massive casualties, including many civilians, so that people never forget that war is horrendous. He leaves unsaid that fear of such terrors will discourage people from going to war against. He says this when the story is a year into a {{civil war}} which he intentionally started.
* ''ComicBook/{{Uber}}'' takes place in an AlternateHistory World War II where Nazi Germany was able to create superhuman soldiers during the last days of the war. Though they are able to save the Nazis' from the brink of defeat during the Battle of Berlin, the most destructive conflict in human history soon turns ''even worse'', as the Allies gain the ability to create their own Ubers which escalates the fighting to even more catastrophic proportions. A German general goes as far as [[AteHisGun committing suicide]] when he realizes the Ubers will only prolong the war and even more people will die as result. To cap it all off, its stated that its too late for the Nazis to win (as they were left too debilitated following the fighting), but at least they can make sure everyone else ''loses''.
* ''ComicBook/{{Birthright}}'': This trope features heavily in the backstory as the fantastic world of Terrenos is locked into a ForeverWar against an EvilOverlord that wants to spread his control further and beyond. The fighting took its toll on Terrenos' greatest heroes, who realizing that they were not making any progress in defeating their enemy, they chose to flee to Earth and place a protective barrier on Terrenos to contain him instead. Without its protectors, the people grew desperate and ended up kidnapping a teenager from our world (the main protagonist) who was supposedly fated as TheChosenOne to save them. He ''too'' hit the DespairEventHorizon after witnessing so many horrors, but unlike his predecessors, [[FallenHero he]] [[DealWithTheDevil stroke a deal]] with the BigBad to become his [[TheDragon Dragon]] and return to Earth to help him merge it with Terrenos. It's also implied that [[spoiler:the war is taking a toll on the BigBad too and he might not be as evil as we are lead to believe]]. In short: war makes monsters out of all of us.
* French graphic novel ''Une Aventure Rocambolesque De Vincent Van Gogh La Ligne De Front'' ("A Fantastic Adventure of Vincent van Gogh: The Front Line") has a [[SurrealHorror disturbingly literal]] take on the trope. Soldiers quietly turn into [[SoullessShell blank eyed husks]] while nobody is watching, [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate amoral scientists]] find themselves transforming into their own explosives, and our protagonist eventually encounters the "Mother of Grenades", a CreepyChild whose true form is a... vaguely human ''thing'' made out of corpses and trench mud.
* Downplayed in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'', which makes it clear that during the [[VideoGame/SonicForces war between the Resistance and Eggman]], people ''did'' die.
* [[ComicBook/TheUltimates Ultimate Captain America]]. As much as he identifies himself as a war hero, he actually admits he despises people who glorify war and battle, calling it a horrible experience that he made himself proficient in so he could end it as quickly as possible.
* While a comedic series, ''[[ComicBook/RatMan1989 Rat-Man]]'' was devastatingly efficient in the "Ratto" two-parter (a ''Rambo'' parody): set in the country of [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Euthanesia]], it's locked in the middle of a civil war that has devastated so much of the country that the only remaining source of income is to ''lure foreign tourists to see the devastation'', with the tourists being warned to stay away from the areas where the fighting is still going around or the guerilla fighters ''will'' cut their heads and use them to play soccer (something that happens on-page). To make everything worse, it's explained that the war is in the end nothing more than an exaggerated ''[[SillyReasonForWar condo dispute]]'': a family from an ethnic group lived in an apartment under a family from a different tribe that would always wear clogs even late in the night, the first family protested with the manager, and from that it degenerated in a genocidal war between the two populations that devastated the entire country as collateral damage.

** The Ministrel was once a normal family man who was drafted into a war, only to eventually be released because he simply wasn't a good soldier. When he returned home, he found his city destroyed by the war and his family missing. It wasnt until years later he found his daughter again.

* In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', this is PlayedWith - Asgard has a very martial culture, but is also aware of the messier aspects, as is pretty much everyone else with even the slightest bit of experience of combat.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fics of Creator/AAPessimal, students at the Guild of Assassins are taught that it is better to kill a handful of people at the right time (if a suitable contract exists) than to let those people live to start a war that causes political instability, economic havoc with a detrimental effect on wealth and wellbeing, and which might incidentally result in the lives of thousands being lost. Thus you might be credited for bringing about a greater good - and you still get to claim the contract fee. So steel yourself to committing the correct inhumation at the apposite time, and show no pity. Be professional. ''Nil mortifi sine lucre.''

* ''Fanfic/WinterWar''. Aizen won, Gin [[TyrantTakesTheHelm has control of Seireitei]], and the few surviving shinigami form a very weak [[LaResistance Resistance]]... those that Aizen hasn't captured and [[FateWorseThanDeath experimented on]]. The survivors have had to abandon most of their pre-war honor codes- they've given up on the one-on-one duels that they insist on in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' canon, and when a minor character begins [[DeadlyDoctor using healing kidou to kill in very messy ways]] the characters let him, even though in peacetime they would be horrified. The fic is not shy about the physical and mental costs of fighting a war, either. [[spoiler: TheMole]] Hisagi in particular is well on his way to being a ShellShockedVeteran, despite the war not being over.
** There's also the fact that the shinigami aren't able/willing to do their jobs of keeping souls in balance and sending the dead from the human world to Soul Society. This means that the entire structure - Soul Society, the human world and the Hollow world of Hueco Mundo - is in danger of collapsing in the not-too distant future. So even if the war goes in favour of the increasingly damaged Resistance, it could yet be for nothing.

* After basically sleeping in their laurels for around fifteen hundred years, ever since the end of the Krogan Rebellions, the Turians in ''FanFic/MythosEffect'' receive a rude awakening to the realities of war. Choosing to go alone against the NEF, dragging only their client states, they discover to their horror how vicious, creative and powerful humanity can be - especially a hardened, unified human race that has triumphed over the horrors of the Mythos and isn't going to take the Turian bullshit lying down.

** [[GreatOffscreenWar The Last Great Time War]] is said to be this. By the end, it turned the Time Lords into something just as bad as the Daleks, the war itself being described as a kind of Lovecraftian nightmare, forcing the Doctor to kill both sides, Daleks and Time Lords alike — all of them[[note]][[spoiler:[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor sort of]]]][[/note]]. Its effects on the Doctor reverberate through the new series.

* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' season 2 which is set in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

** Renly invokes this trope after he becomes disgusted with his brother Robert's reminiscing about "the good old days" of the war. Renly borderline shouts at the King that for the loads of lesser men killed, the women raped, and the bastard or orphaned children — pretty much everyone who is not part of the ruling class actually finds war pretty awful. Of course, this makes him a bit of a hypocrite considering that later he decides to start a war to usurp the crown rather then help Ned make sure the throne passes to Stannis with as little bloodshed as possible.

* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' provides a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids disturbingly]] realistic portait of civil war breaking out between three city states. It doesn't matter that the focus is mostly on people in PoweredArmor[='s=] fighting each other, monsters and robots. The story question violence, dehumanization and [[SocialDarwinist social darwinism]] through them. Also, we meet Kazumi Sawatari, who has this as half of his life philosophy [[note]] The other half is the importance of friendship, family and kindness [[/note]] . Unless he has a good reason not to, he will react in a violent manner to anyone, who doesn't understand or acknowledge that War Is Hell.
* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': Portrayed generals as bloodthirsty buffoons and emphasised the enemy soldiers' humanity. The military medical setting is ideal for exploring what modern weapons do to human bodies. The doctors themselves are not at home providing medical care, they are overseas working themselves into the ground patching up an endless line of casualties. The doctors at times serve as mouthpieces for the author's and actor's anti-war views.

'''Granddad:''' My brother George was at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Passchendaele Passchendaele]]. Half a million allied troops died there, all for ''five miles of mud''! I was at Kings Cross Station when his regiment come home after the Armistice. Most of them was ''carried'' off the train. I saw men with limbs missing, blind men, men who couldn't breathe properly because their lungs had been ''shot to bits'' by mustard gas. While the nation celebrated, they was hidden away in big, grey buildings - far from the public gaze! ''(chokes back tears)'' I mean, courage like that could put you right off your victory tea, couldn't it? ''({{Beat}})'' '''They promised us homes fit for''' '''''heroes.''''' '''They give us''' '''''[[TearJerker heroes fit for homes.]]'''''

* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': The ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' franchise always describes the fight against the machines as a war but it was this show which really hammered this point home. Derek, Sarah, John, and [[EmotionlessGirl Cameron]] were starting to crack by season 2.

** Atton Rand primarily strove for realism in his later posts starting with the Adventurers' Island arc- which gradually came to be written with this line of thought. He even had the character of Kate Bishop- a young, innocent teenager really not cut out for working on the battlefield- and if anything is ultimately broken by the war.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' might just as well be the full extent of this trope in tabletop game form. Especially its DarkerAndEdgier[=/=]UpToEleven[=/=]RecycledInSpace form, ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. See their own pages for the awful details. "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war", indeed.
* Personified by Szuriel, Horseman of War, in ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''. Gorum represents the [[WarIsGlorious glory of war]], Torag [[TheStrategist strategy]], Iomedae [[ThePaladin just causes]], and Moloch [[LawfulEvil discipline]]. Szuriel, on the other hand, is war at its worst. Essentially a PsychoForHire with divine powers, she represents genocide, societal collapse, and war crimes on a grand scale, using war to traumatise mortals, harvest souls, and [[OmnicidalManiac hasten the apocalypse]].
* Most of the games in TabletopGame/TheWorldOfDarkness tend to glamorize violence, intentionally or not. ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'', on the other hand...doesn't. It really hammers home the horrific, pointless nature of war, and the two books dealing with the World Wars (''The Great War'' and '''especially''' ''Charnel Houses of Europe'') may be the bleakest things ever written by Creator/WhiteWolf.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Twilight 2000}}'', WorldWarIII has destroyed civilization while resolving nothing. The players are all soldiers who were in the last battles of the war, trying to survive and perhaps begin picking up the pieces.

* ''Webcomic/BrunoTheBandit'': During the ''Seven Deadly Sins'' arc, which partially served as commentary on the Iraq War, Bruno, during his time as king of Rothland, is uncertain about not going to war against the Monster Mountains because things like movies and video games (which exists in the setting due to it's AnachronismStew) [[WarIsGlorious always made war seem exciting and glorious]]. Fiona suggests they ask Carlin The Monk, who has actually been to war, to help Bruno know what war is really like.
--> '''Bruno''': *sitting in a muddy trench while arrows and fire fly over him* ''ALRIGHT, I GET THE POINT!!''
--> '''Fiona''': But we haven't dumped the corpses on you yet!
* ''Webcomic/{{Overcompensating}}'': Invoked when Jeffrey and Weedmaster P meets a homeless veteran (who is drawn like ComicStrip/BeetleBailey) who lost all his limbs in Iraq.
--> '''Jeff''': War Is Hell, isn't it, Weedmaster P?
--> '''Weedmaster P''': Don't you talk about Hell like that!

* Works by Stuart Slade, such as ''Literature/TheBigOne'' and ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'', make a point of portraying exactly how horrible modern military weapons technology can be, mostly as a reaction to how underestimated or cavalierly such weapons often get treated in much fiction. It helps that the author is a professional military analyst, and he [[ShownTheirWork shows his work]] by refusing to shy away from excruciatingly detailing exactly what modern weapons -- from the "lowly" assault rifle to weapons of mass destruction -- can do to people. In ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'': [[http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=118769&highlight= Armageddon]], for example, the forces of Hell learn first hand the horror of modern, mechanized total war. One of them even remarks that the battlefield they were fighting on was a human-made hell. Quite a rude awakening for the army in question, [[spoiler: especially as they were at bronze age levels of technology.]]
* In the sequel to ''The Salvation War'', ''Pantheocide'', we get "treated" to [[spoiler: the angelic army being hit with a nuclear initiation. The description of the results is chilling.]].

** [[WebVideo/TheGameHeroes 8 Bit Mickey]] takes to wearing a necklace made of human ears - despite there being no fatalities in the war.

* In ''Literature/{{Spectral Shadows}}'' we have Harrison James, who would wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares, resulting in all the horrors he witnessed as a soldier during Chikyu's [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second Great War]].

* Video essayist ''Hello Future Me'' has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmG1NgFTUR8 video]] discussing this trope in the context of the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "The Southern Raiders". As he sees it, war does not create heroes or villains, it does not bring glory or honor. War creates broken men and children hungry for vengeance. War makes us all ''less''.
-->''Because when we strip away the facades of war, when we take away the epic battles, the heroes, the villains, the statistics and faceless soldiers, all we are left with is the cycle of war. The pains of loss and grief. That dehumanizing anger. The confused concepts of justice and vengance. And the tears of a little girl who lost her mother.''

* In ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'', season two opens with sentient pistachio plants having taken over the world. When Milo and friends (accompanied by [[spoiler:WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb]]) go to rescue the people of Danville, the Pistachion leader [[TomTheDarkLord Derek]] sends a deploys a giant Pistachion to crush them. But when the creature looks at the carnage surrounding him, he realizes [[WhatHaveIBecome all his time locked away has made him nearly forget compassion]]. Over Derek's aggravated objections, the giant grabs a BindleStick and vows to WalkTheEarth. Notably, he's the [[TokenGoodTeammate only Pistachion to object in any way]] to their war with the humans.

* This trope appears in most episodes of ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'': the fight for Mobius is a CivilWar - [[EvilOverlord Robotnik]] used to be the King's War Minister, and his opposition includes [[RightfulKingReturns the King's daughter]]. Ben Hurst, [[WordofGod the main writer of the show]], ''[[EnforcedTrope insisted]]'' that [[https://youtu.be/t6Ck-tpj8wE?t=180 the heroes should suffer some losses in their fight for freedom]]: Sonic and Sally both lost their father figures [[note]]Though Uncle Chuck [[HeroicWillpower was eventually able to resist Robotnik's control]], the King can't exit the Void at all without [[TakenforGranite dying]][[/note]], Tails lost both his parents, and Bunnie [[{{Cyborg}} lost half of her body]] to the roboticizer. Several sympathetic characters are [[SacrificialLamb unceremoniously]] [[UnwillingRoboticisation roboticized]] or [[SealedRoomInTheMiddleofNowhere thrown into the Void]], never to be heard from again. Finally, the destructive aftermath of Robotnik's conquest [[SceneryGorn can be seen everywhere on the planet]].

--> '''Steven''': So, sh-she saved the world - that's good!

** ''WesternAnimation/WingCommanderAcademy'' - As much as could be portrayed in a [[TheNineties 1990s]] Saturday morning cartoon, the series is not at all shy about the death and occasional moral ambiguity of war, on both sides.

* Comes up poignantly in ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' of all places. In "The Russians Are Coming", Granddad gives a bitter speech to Del Boy after the latter seems to not take the threat of war seriously.

-->''Because when we strip away the facades of war, when we take away the epic battles, the heroes, the villains, the statistics and faceless soldiers, all we are left with is the cycle of war. The pains of loss and grief. That dehumanizing anger. The confused concepts of justice and vengance. And the tears of a little girl who lost her mother.

* While a comedic series, ''ComicBook/RatMan'' was devastatingly efficient in the "Ratto" two-parter (a ''Rambo'' parody): set in the country of [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Euthanesia]], it's locked in the middle of a civil war that has devastated so much of the country that the only remaining source of income is to ''lure foreign tourists to see the devastation'', with the tourists being warned to stay away from the areas where the fighting is still going around or the guerilla fighters ''will'' cut their heads and use them to play soccer (something that happens on-page). To make everything worse, it's explained that the war is in the end nothing more than an exaggerated ''[[SillyReasonForWar condo dispute]]'': a family from an ethnic group lived in an apartment under a family from a different tribe that would always wear clogs even late in the night, the first family protested with the manager, and from that it degenerated in a genocidal war between the two populations that devastated the entire country as collateral damage.

->''"I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. ''Suppress it!'' You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution two]] [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar wars]] and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, [[TropeNamers war is Hell]]!"''

->''"I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. ''Suppress it!'' You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!"''
-->-- TropeNamer '''UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman''' speaking to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy on June 19, 1879.[[note]]Sherman wrote about this at greater length when he told the residents of Atlanta [[http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/sherman/sherman-to-burn-atlanta.html why he was going to burn their city]] in 1864.[[/note]]