* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Joachim Steuben. Is he an utterly depraved monster? Or is he a troubled individual unable to know when he goes too far?
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The series is Creator/DavidDrake's personal attempts to deal with PTSD from serving in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, and it shows. The Slammers are a bunch of war criminals who burn villages, kill civilians, and use nukes with great abandon, while off duty they're drug-abusing assholes. The people they fight are just as bad. It's very difficult to come up with a reason to want any side to win. This can reasonably be argued to be [[IntendedAudienceReaction deliberate]] on Drake's part. In some of his afterwards, he spells out his perspective on war very directly. Namely, that warfare does very dehumanizing things to people who fight in it, and that war and moral clarity do not go together. As a rule, neither Drake nor the Slammers themselves will try to tell you that the Slammers are "good guys" who objectively deserve to win, or that their enemies are "bad guys" who objectively deserve to lose.
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