Basic Trope: Those who abandon their post are not only evil, but also extremely dangerous.
- Straight: Bob was a soldier in the army of The Good Kingdom, but he abandoned his post. Now he will resort to any crime to survive as he will be killed on sight if caught.
- Exaggerated: Several deserters are encountered throughout the story; ALL of them turn Ax-Crazy Rapists and baby stranglers. "Deserter" is used in the story as a shorthand for "Evil".
- Downplayed: Deserters are just people trying to survive, but they are considered dishonorable for putting their fellow soldiers and their kingdom in harms way.
- Justified:
- The Good Kingdom is fighting for the survival of The Human Race. Deserting is the same as condemning your species to extinction.
- Desertion is punishable by death and so deserters feel they have nothing else to lose.
- Inverted: The deserters are portrayed as heroic, and the loyalists are portrayed as evil.
- Subverted:
- Alice encounters a deserter named Bob, and despite being warned not to trust deserters she finds Bob to be very kind and affable.
- Bob had very good reasons for his desertion. He was conscripted when he was only ten years old, the recruitment officer forced Bob to kill his friend so he wouldn't have a home to go back to, Bob had to kill others throughout the rest of his childhood, and if Bob stayed with the army any longer then he would have been forced to participate in a massacre.
- The Good Kingdom turns out to be hiding a dark secret, and Bob ended up finding it out. He was forced to desert so he wouldn't be executed.
- Alice meets a deserter named Bob, who attacks her, but it turns out that he only attacked her because other people have tried to kill him for deserting before and he thought she was also after him. The two of them talk things out and Bob turns out to be a pretty nice guy.
- Alice meets a deserter named Bob, who attacks her, but she escapes. She meets him again and he apologises for attacking her, and explains that he mistook her for an assassin.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob's kindness is just a ploy. He tries to rape Alice later on, but gets killed.
- "Enough of your excuses Bob! You're going to die like a deserter deserves!"
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: Deserters are all over the map from heroic individuals who refused to take part of evil, those who were just sick of an overly long war to those out to save their own skin, and complete monsters.
- Averted: Nobody deserts, or those who do desert are not treated differently than any other criminal.
- Enforced: The story came from a culture where loyalty was more important than anything else.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: Charles planned on becoming a bandit but didn't have the weapons or training. He joined up just to desert and become a terror.
- Exploited: Charles is a smuggler who specializes in getting deserters to countries where they won't be extradited ... for a fee, of course.
- Defied:
- Even after Deserting, Bob still holds onto his morality and remains unwilling to commit capital offenses.
- The Good Kingdom has lenient laws regarding deserters. If captured, a deserter will only be publicly flogged before being sent back to the front.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Drama: Most of the Deserters are Child Soldiers, so war and death are all they will ever know.
Back to Dangerous Deserter
