Basic Trope: Domestic armed extremist groups on the far right wing of the political spectrum are presented as villains.
- Straight: The Vanguard is a homegrown, ultra-nationalist paramilitary outfit of Private Military Contractors that aims to overthrow the US government and install one in line with their ideals, which include xenophobia, conspiracy theories, a rural-oriented mindset and a basket of populist economic ideas of varying sanity.
- Exaggerated: The Vanguard is an Evil Colonialist N.G.O. Superpower that engages in ethnic cleansing against non-whites and clashes with the US military in vicious and destructive combined arms warfare. Even worse, a a large segment of the populace supports the Vanguard's goals, and they have informants and sympathizers planted throughout the government, armed forces, and media.
- Downplayed:
- The Vanguard is a very small group barely qualifying as a terror cell.
- The Vanguard is right-wing and some of their tenants are off-putting to the protagonists, but not all of their ideas are insane and the more moderate members become helpful allies on occasion.
- Most Vanguard members are right-wing and suspicious of the government and political correctness, and some may have bigoted views, but they're decent people who would never hurt innocents, and the militia is more of an excuse to meet up and shoot guns.
- Justified:
- In this setting, America's unstable political climate and lax law enforcement enable radical militias to do a lot of damage.
- Or the exact opposite, America has become oppressive and ruled by Politically Correct Villains. The anti-gun, anti-free speech, anti-capitalist policies of the government don’t sit well with the Vanguard, who see themselves as the new revolutionaries.
- Inverted:
- The United People's Revolutionary Socialist Front is a vicious far left-wing, anti-capitalist terrorist organization behind several deadly attacks, mostly targeted at white people, males, and Christians.
- The Vanguard are the heroes as they are the only ones capable of standing up against the brutal Police State formed after a Military Coup. Even with their flaws they are still miles ahead of the state.
- Subverted:
- The Vanguard is really just a few loudmouth gun owners who don't have the guts to put their ideals into action.
- The Vanguard is a pacifistic emergency preparedness organization that only believes in violence in self-defense, but has been lumped in with the nuts by association.
- The Vanguard turn out to be an actual militia group made up of reservists. While prepared for a ground invasion they mostly are involved in disaster relief.
- The Vanguard appears to be Far Right on the surface, but closer examination reveals they hold a number of beliefs that are generally considered left wing; making their actual ideology difficult to label precisely.
- The Vanguard is a False Flag Operation controlled and maintained by the CIA
- Double Subverted:
- Only that was just one group. The other guys, the Freedom Front, actually walk the walk, and are far more dangerous.
- They are loudmouths with guns, but push them hard enough and they are still going to get someone killed.
- Until it becomes personal.
- They begin as heroic, life-saving reservists. Then Abraham (who is as charismatic as he is loutish — and he has lout to spare for the entirety of the Southern United States — and is a firm believer of the things revolutionaries tend to do) takes over and uses the Vanguard to rule over the town with an iron fist.
- The Vanguard decides that, if they are going to be maligned alongside the evil militias, they may as well start walking the walk.
- Unfortunately for the CIA, the people they hire to pretend to be the Vanguard include a few true zealots (or they become over time) who take over the operation and exploit the resources and training the Company gave them to do some serious damage. The result is the CIA being forced to cut them off and waste resources fighting them, hopefully without anybody ever making the connection.
- Parodied:
- The Vanguard's targets are a ridiculously petty list of people and businesses, such as the pizzeria for putting anchovies on their pie or the record store for selling that bestial Gangsta Rap. And when they try to take action, they can't even get that part right.
- The Vanguard are just a bunch of anonymous trolls online that post offensive memes online and insult politicians on social media. The FBI, CIA, and ATF consider them worse than Hitler.
- Zig Zagged: The Vanguard appear to be a group of rightwing paranoids. Then it turns out despite appearances they are a legitimate militia and perfectly in line. Except for the conspiracy to use them for a coup due to not liking election results. Except that the coup was actually organized by the far-left. However most of the soldiers are far-right being used as pawns.
- Averted: In an environment where government, law and order have collapsed, right-wing militia terrorists don't crop up, and all the terrorists are left-wing.
- Enforced: The producer demanded another terrorist group opposite of the eco-terrorists to prevent the appearance of an Author Tract.
- Lampshaded: "Camouflage, survivalism, pick up trucks full of explosives and firearms? They must be choir boys, for sure!"
- Invoked: A foreign intelligence agency sets up a False Flag Operation attack, posing as The Vanguard to pin the blame on them.
- Exploited: With The Vanguard the focus of the government's counter-subversion efforts, the extreme-left group People's Front have more space to plot their own actions.
- Defied: The Vanguard makes a point of purging those members who are inclined to terrorism and radicalism in order to maintain their respectability.
- Discussed: Alice: "Groups like The Vanguard pose a threat, so obsessed with the enemy that they're becoming the enemy."
- Conversed: Alice and Bob talk about right wing militia fanatics, listing various groups by name.
- Implied: While their political views aren't confirmed they at least bare resemblance to this trope. The only difference between the more generic foes is that their missions are based in the woods ,they favor shotguns and rifles instead of pistols and molotovs, and also wear gray.
- Deconstructed: The Vanguard's propensity for violence and racism alienates those who would normally sympathize with their anti-government aims. The more moderate members either leave the group or become informants for law enforcement, and the group falls apart under a wave of arrests, shootouts and bad publicity.
- Reconstructed:
- As the moderates abandon the Vanguard, it shrinks down to the hardcore fringe. Freed of the inhibitions of those not committed to "the revolution", they engage on a spree of violence.
- As time goes on, the moderates are exposed to more of the extremist rhetoric & slowly become radicalised themselves, becoming desensitised to the Vanguard's worse elements.
- Plotted A Good Waste: The Vanguard has everything in place to be prim and proper Monster of the Week material in Alice and Bob: The Series - unfortunately, they are not only a Red Herring, the true villain of the week is a lot more vile and destructive than some idiots who believe a little too much in the Second Amendment.
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