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Basic Trope: A general leads the army on the front lines.

  • Straight: General Adams doesn't sit around waiting for battle to come to him. He's out in a tank leading the charge.
  • Exaggerated:
    • General Adams charges into battle with nothing more than his service pistol and combat knife.
    • General Adams singlehandedly kills the entire enemy army.
    • General Adams pilots a ridiculously powerful combat machine to battle alone, and all his subordinates are rearline maintenance personnel for his machine.
  • Downplayed: General Adams likes to get up to the front, but prefers to stay back at his headquarters.
  • Justified:
    • General Adams' headquarters is under attack, and to boost morale, he leads troops against the enemy.
    • Admiral Smith is on her flagship as it engages the enemy fleet.
    • General Adams believes it greatly improves the morale and fighting spirit of his soldiers to see their commander being willing to take the same risks as they do, and makes it a point to always be deployed as closely to the front as possible.
    • General Adams' forces got their communications crippled, leaving the general no other choice but to be on the frontline just to get info on what's going on in the battlefield.
    • General Adams is the biggest badass in the army.
    • General Graz'koth comes from a futuristic/alien civilization with a culture which promotes the troops based upon combat prowess, and/or possesses a technology or telepathic ability which allows him to command a large army and fight at the same time.
    • Rebel Leader Jones's guerrilla troops are low on personnel and need every warm body they can get.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted:
  • Double Subverted:
    • ...then she hops in a fighter and leads a squadron to the battle.
    • Then the real Prince Robert shows up to attack the enemy from the rear, having flanked them while they were busy dealing with the fake.
  • Parodied: Adams recklessly charges into battle at every chance he gets, and has no real combat experience to back it up.
  • Zig Zagged: General Adams frequently visits the front to inspire his men, but spends most of his time at the Octagon.
  • Averted: General Adams is an Armchair General, leading the battle from the comfort and safety of his headquarters.
  • Enforced: The setting is pre-modern warfare, in which it was common for generals to be in the thick of things.
  • Lampshaded: "What kind of strategy are they planning by putting their generals in the frontline?"
  • Invoked: The Troperian Army Chief of Staff wants to dispose of General Adams by ordering him to lead from the front.
  • Exploited: The enemy commander knows that Admiral Smith is on the flagship, and is able to draw her into a trap.
  • Defied: General Adams tries to lead his men himself, but his superiors (i.e. Army Chief of Staff) orders him to back down.
  • Discussed: "Did you hear? Our tanks are going to smash the enemy's defenses tomorrow, and Adams will be the tip of the spear."
  • Conversed: "This strategy game seems interesting because the player character can be deployed in battle."
  • Implied: Files concerning a battle from 2 years ago state that General Adams had ten confirmed kills. Adams has been a General since 5 years ago.
  • Deconstructed:
    • General Adams is too busy fighting at the front line to actually command and control his army, which crumbles without orders from higher command.
    • General Adams leads the charge and gets killed, and the army routs without leadership.
  • Reconstructed:
  • Played For Drama: The fact that the General has to personally be in the battlefield shows how many losses the army has already taken and how dire things have become.

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