Basic Trope: A person is passed over for promotion, or even demoted, because they stick to their principles.
- Straight: General Stoneblood refuses to promote Sergeant Jackson because he refuses to send his men on a suicide mission.
- Exaggerated: General Stoneblood demotes Sergeant Jackson to Private for only killing half of the native village.
- Downplayed: General Stoneblood mentions that Sergeant Jackson better be ready to wait for a promotion with that attitude, but adds "Not that quality is something you can really rush".
- Justified: Sergeant Jackson's refusal to send his men on the suicide mission means that far more people will die as a result.
- Inverted:
- Sergeant Jackson is a unrepentant Yes-Man who neglects his duties to curry favor with the general.
- Sergeant Jackson is a bumbling buffoon of a soldier, barely competent even to remain in the force, and eventually gets "promoted" to a Sergeant-Major... in some distant unit and a dull position.
- Subverted:
- General Stoneblood refuses to promote Sergeant Jackson because he refuses to send his men on a suicide mission... but then Jackson's men all go on to even greater heroics, and Stoneblood recants.
- Sergeant Jackson is both The Neidermeyer and a Small Name, Big Ego type who believes he's forgotten more about war than anyone else will ever know, and he only thinks his assignment is a suicide mission. His constant insubordination and flouting of orders in favor of his own path seriously endanger his men and damage the army's war effort. He thinks he's a man of principles and integrity, but he's actually an incompetent buffoon who his superiors deliberately avoid promoting so he doesn't cause any more harm.
- Double Subverted: ... and posts the newly promoted Sergeant-Major Jackson to a base in the middle of nowhere.
- Parodied: Sergeant Jackson is demoted, abused, and an assassination order is placed against him... because he refused to make General Stoneblood some coffee.
- Zig Zagged: Sergeant Jackson gets passed over for promotion repeatedly. Each time it's a different reason with about half of them being General Stoneblood disliking his morality and half being positions he legitimately would do poorly at and he only went for them after being passed over so much.
- Averted: General Stoneblood gives Sergeant Jackson the promotion without a second thought.
- Enforced: Limited Advancement Opportunities.
- Lampshaded: "Hey, Jackson — can you try not to anger the general this time?"
- Invoked: Sergeant Riley both has doubts about Jackson and is going after the position himself so he arranges encounters that would put Jackson's morals on full display for the upper brass.
- Exploited: Sergeant Jackson is a spy for the enemy, and to avoid being forced into choosing between attacking his own people or being caught as a spy, he uses claims of moral dissatisfaction with Stoneblood’s tactics to provide a convenient smokescreen for his identity, turn the men under him to his side, and undermine Stoneblood’s credibility.
- Defied: General Stoneblood gets sick of Sergeant Jackson’s refusal to follow orders and has him court martialed for stalling the war effort.
- Discussed: "Ten years and he's still a Sergeant? What, did he not lick enough boots or something?" "Yes."
- Conversed: "Some days I wonder how far he would rise if he ever learned to keep his mouth shut now and ask for forgiveness later."
- Deconstructed:
- Sergeant Jackson brings harm to the members of his unit because of his incapacity to treat his superiors with respect.
- Jackson is legitimately a good leader and soldier but the prevailing mentality among the higher ranks is the more the subordinates resoect you the more likely they are to mess up. Despite legitimately respecting Sergeant Jackson he never gets promoted and, like many in similar shoes around him, loses all morale slowly as the lack of acknowledgement is felt.
- Reconstructed: But when the unit's superiors are a bundle of incompetent blood-thirsty General Ripper-types that would make even 'more harm to the unit if they just blindly follow orders, then the unit eventually warms up to Jackson and make sure to toss him a bone if any of them make it to the top (because Jackson surely won't do it by himself).
Back to The Last DJ
