Basic Trope: The protagonist characters do not tolerate rape from their own soldiers
- Straight: Lord Commander Bob declares that rape is forbidden for those serving under him. He places a standing order that everyone caught committing the crime under his watch is to be immediately arrested, subjected to a court martial, and dishonorably discharged at a minimum, with the door left open for even worse punishments depending on the severity of the crime, up to and including execution.
- Exaggerated:
- Any soldier caught committing rape will be tortured to death in front of Bob's entire regiment.
- Any soldier caught committing rape is declared an Un-person tied up and given to the victim's family to do with as they please.
- Any soldier caught committing rape is shot on sight and the victim is offered the soldier's war pension as compensation.
- Even making a gross comment about a woman gets a strict punishment.
- Downplayed: Committing rape gets the soldier a mean look from Bob.
- Justified:
- The laws of war for his time and place already prohibit war rape, Bob is simply enforcing the rules.
- Bob wants to cultivate a good relationship with the civilians. He knows that mistreating them could provoke them into commiting insurgency or even rise up in open rebellion against his forces, and that would make his life difficult.
- Bob is fully aware of STDs and what it would do to his army if he doesn't keep a lid on raping.
- Inverted: All soldiers are required to rape captive women in enemy settlements.
- Subverted: Bob prohibits war rape because he wants all the captive women to himself.
- Double Subverted: It turns out all he wanted was the pleasure of their company; any sex will be consensual on their part.
- Parodied: Recruits are shown a video educating them about the problem of sexual harassment on the battlefield.
- Zig Zagged: Bob forbids his soldiers to rape the women of Town A, but only because it's a town in his own territory; he has no issue with his soldiers raping the women of Town B across the border. In fact, he sees it as a useful form of psychological warfare.
- Averted: Bob doesn't care much one way or the other about the conduct of his soldiers.
- Enforced: Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil, and whatever else he does, we can't have our hero crossing the Moral Event Horizon.
- Lampshaded: "What, so we can Pillage and Burn, kill women and children, and deliberately introduce dysentery to the enemy water supply, but at that you draw the line? Seems a bit arbitrary, boss..."
- Invoked: Bob stages a war crime in a public place specifically so that he can arrive just in time to stop it and execute the perpetrator.
- Exploited: Bob and his second-in-command Adam use their reputation for this to portray themselves and everyone under them as heroic liberators instead of malevolent conquerors to gain the trust and cooperation of anyone they conquer. After all, which do you think a village would rather have to rule them: Bob and Adam, who refuse to do something as utterly and intolerably heinous as forcing themselves on women and similarly execute any soldier who does so, or Charlie the Marauder whose troops have a policy of raping women and children wherever they go?
- Defied: Bob is perfectly willing to resort to whatever dirty tactics the enemy uses, including war rape.
- Discussed: "Bob's a real Knight in Shining Armor type, so I don't expect he'll tolerate rape in his regiment."
- Conversed: "I think it's sort of lame how the protagonists are the only men in this show who aren't committing rape in every single episode. It doesn't make them seem noble, just kinda... low-expectations picture-perfect narcissists.
- Implied: When Charlie the Marauder's troops come into town, nearly all the women hide or arm themselves. When Commander Bob's troops come into town, the women come out, greet them, and go about their normal business.
- Deconstructed: Despite his admirable intentions, Bob is unable to stop his men from raping enemy women. In fact, he is unpopular with the troops for trying to ruin their 'fun.'
- None of Bob’s soldiers rape women... because every last one of them is a Depraved Homosexual who rapes male civilians instead.
- Bob’s soldiers don’t rape women and treat them with all the dignity of their male counterparts... which translates into using them as slave labor, and directly torturing/executing them for sport.
- Reconstructed:
- Although unable to stop it entirely, soldiers serving under Bob are among the most well-behaved in this conflict, and even foes regard him as a Worthy Opponent.
- Even with disgruntled troops, Bob's effort to prevent rape is paid back by the support of the local populace. This means Bob fights with the advantage of better local intel, volunteers, freely given supplies, moral high ground, and more. Advantages that easily let Bob curb-stomp Charlie the Marauder's army because nobody but Charlie's rapist troops actually like Charlie the Marauder.
- Played for Laughs: The women hear Commander Bob's decree... and let out a disappointed groan. Their husbands have been off fighting for months, they're climbing up the walls in here...
- Played For Drama: A soldier serving under Commander Bob rapes a woman, causing her immeasurable psychological distress. Bob, who happens to be her friend, is severely troubled by the fact he was unable to protect her, kills the soldier in rage rather than consulting with his officers to determine if the man is guilty and deserves to be executed and eventually becomes incapable of continuing to command his army because he doubts himself and distrusts his men.
- Gender Inverted: A village elder's sons are captured by a band of Amazons they've been warring with over land rights. "Don't worry." the woman guarding the boys assures them. "We won't force ourselves on you."
Don't worry, we'll tuck you away all safe and sound when you go back to The Women Are Safe with Us.
