Basic Trope: The overall boss is an Officer and a Gentleman, his subordinate is Sergeant Rock.
- Straight: Capt. Smooth and Sgt. Rough are a Good Cop/Bad Cop double act.
- Exaggerated: Smooth is a meek, polite Ensign Newbie Desk Jockey, Rough is a loud, sadistic Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Downplayed: Smooth is often softer-spoken and friendlier than Rough, but both are capable and respected.
- Justified: Capt. Smooth is in charge of strategizing and relaying commands to the sergeant. Rough is in charge of keeping an entire squad of soldiers disciplined and doing what they're supposed to.
- Inverted:
- Captain Rough is a bloodthirsty, foul-mouthed brute who earned his command via Klingon Promotion. Sergeant Smooth is a likable Father to His Men.
- Aloof Leader, Affable Subordinate
- Subverted:
- The neat, softly-spoken captain relates his orders to the sergeant, who... turns out to be even smoother.
- Once you get to know them, the captain is a Soft-Spoken Sadist while the sergeant is a Boisterous Bruiser.
- Double Subverted: In front of Captain Smooth, Sgt. Rough emulates his calm captain, but as soon as he's gone it turns out the sarge is just another Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Parodied:
- In a montage where each officer passes on a piece of bad news to his superior, we see that the Rough-Smooth-Rough-Smooth juxtaposition repeats itself all the way up the chain of command.
- Rough gets a promotion to a higher rank and immediately acts like a soft-spoken gentleman, while Private Tough, who's pretty likable, turns into a Drill Sergeant Nasty the second he gets promoted.
- Zig Zagged: At first the captain is the rough one and the sergeant the kind one, but after the sergeant blackmails the captain into being compliant, the sergeant's sadistic urges go unchecked. Ultimately, the sergeant discovers that his original method produced better results and returns to it.
- Averted: They are equally as polite or rude as each other.
- Enforced: "We want the Captain to be an Officer and a Gentleman, but that doesn't really work in the Training from Hell scenes, and might come across as ineffectual in action sequences. Let's make his underling more in-your-face."
- Lampshaded: Upon meeting the sergeant, one of the unfortunate soldiers complains, "Why is it that all the good captains have such scary sergeants?"
- Invoked: The captain thinks the men will be more inclined to obey their orders if they see a cool, collected, aloof "brain" handing them down and a loud, scary "mouth" dishing them out.
- Exploited: A private jumps at an opportunity to work directly for the captain, hoping he'll have to spend less time in the presence of the sergeant.
- Defied: "If any of you little worms have got a problem with my leadership style... If any of you think me and the cap are playing Good Cop/Bad Cop with you, you should know... I'm the nice one!"
- Discussed: "Captains always kind, sergeants always mean. I've been under four sergeants and two captains, and it's been the same every time. This is getting ridiculous!"
- Conversed: Alice and Bob are watching a TV show with a military setting. As Sgt. Rough berates Newbie Meat for the third time in ten minutes, Alice complains about how all the shows like this have mean sergeants and kind captains. "What happened back when Smooth was a sergeant, I'd like to know?"
- Implied: The soldiers get visibly nervous when they see Sergeant Rough coming, but they're calmer near Captain Smooth.
- Deconstructed: The men resent the sergeant all the more for seeing their captain as such a Reasonable Authority Figure, and the resentment builds to an incident of Unfriendly Fire. The captain, for whom this trope is a favored mode of command, simply appoints Sergeant Tough to take his place.
- Reconstructed: Sergeant Tough is better at keeping his brash treatment of the men to limits that won't cause them to hate him. He's still unpolished and comes down harshly on insubordination, but he's also affable and fair.
- Played For Laughs: The officers are essentially a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.
- Played For Drama:
- Sergeant Rough starts abusing his authority over the soldiers, completely compromising the unit's effectiveness. When Captain Smooth tries to discipline him, it turns out that Rough no longer respects the captain, and the chain of command collapses.
- Captain Smooth is very much aware of how brutal Sergeant Rough is, and delegates such tasks to him, because dirty work is beneath him.
"Sergeant, direct the men back to Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough, if you'd be so kind."
"You heard the Captain! Now saddle up, you maggots! Double time! Move it move it move it!"
