History ComicBook / LesTuniquesBleues

** In other, untranslated albums, this is a frequent occurrence. Often the soldiers on both sides find out that the other side is actually NotSoDifferent. This often leads to SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments.

* NotSoDifferent: All in all, soldiers in grey or in blue just want to live another day in a war where they only serve as cannon fodder.

* TheAlcatraz: Robertsonville Prison. It is inspired by the actual Andersonville Prison which was much ''worse'' in reality.

* ArmchairMilitary: General Alexander is reasonably competent but has shade of this. The worst offender is Captain Stilman, who never leaves his armchair. On one occasion, he suggested waiting after the battle to pay the troops, expecting to save money due to high losses. Though he later develops as [[TheSmartGuy the smartest among the high command]].

** When a photographer starts making increasingly outlandish pictures falsely painting the soldier life as a neverending merriment, with full authority from Washington to do as he pleases, everyone from the soldiers to the high command is horrified by the prospect of thousand of youngsters taking the arms thinking its all flowers and laughter while it is NOT. To the point that General Alexander secretly orders Blutch to put an end to this charade. Chesterfied, who went along despite Blutch's goading out of boot-licking and the prospect of a rise in rank, ends up joining his efforts when even he can no longer take it.

** In other, untranslated albums, this is a frequent occurrence. Often the soldiers on both sides find out that the other side is actually NotSoDifferent. This often leads to heart warming moments. At one point, Chesterfield and Blutch are assigned to a battalion who had taken their women and kids with them. A group of Confederate soldiers have shown up to fight. Because Chesterfield has to help a woman with her birth giving (long story) the soldiers decided to wait with the fight after finding out what was going on until he is done. At the end, Chesterfield comes to negotiate telling the soldiers on the other side he and his guys don't want to shoot them up anymore. The Confederate Officer answer his guys aren't looking forward to it neither.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: Neither side is shown as having the moral upper hand. Alexander even admits that abolishing slavery is a very secondary reason for the war compared to taking back the South's natural resources.
* HateSink: Major [[MeaningfulName Ransack]] is an utter bastard who makes [[ArmchairMilitary Generals Alexander and Stilman]] and [[ColonelKilgore Captain Stark]] look good by comparison. The guy treats his men like expandable pawns, forcing them to work until exhaustion. He's condescendant towards everyone and a textbook EntitledBastard. He's also a war criminal, who plunders the houses of the families of the Confederates and even kills women and children.

* IdenticalStranger: In ''Les Bleus en Folie'', Blutch meets a middle-aged soldier who has a son, Barnaby, who looks exactly like him. Barnaby lost his mind after being exposed to an explosion and was sent to an asylum, where he became a shut-in only able to salute and say "Yes Sir"
* ImprobableInfantSurvival: [[spoiler:The kid in Drummer Boy is found out and sent to jail to await execution by firing squad. As no-one in high command really wants to be the one who ordered a pre-teenager's execution, Blutch arranges for the boy's Confederate brother to mount a rescue mission, beating seven kinds of crap out of Chesterfield in the process.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Chesterfield is overbearing, abrasive and a bit too sycophantic towards superiors, but count on him to do the right thing at the end. While nicer, Blutch can display shades of this.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: "Stark would rather get cut to pieces than retreat before the enemy, but he won't argue when there's a wildfire."

* TheNeidermeyer: Some albums feature high-ranking officers so inept, obnoxious and self-aggrandizing that Stilman at his worst is a model in comparison. Their troops often have a derisive nickname for them. General {{McClellan}} and Major Ransack being the most despicable. There is even an album in which General Grant is trying to dismiss an entire group of them. [[spoiler: They all end up decimated by the AxCrazy of the bunch.]]

* NotSoDifferent: All in all, soldiers in grey or in blue just want to live another day in a war that is but a power grab among the high-ranking government officials from wich they only serve as cannon fodder.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: General Alexander might be an Armchair Military, but he ''does'' care about his troops. He is always greatly dismayed to see how bad things are turning out or how many have died in each battles, and many an album focuses on his attempts to ease things around for his troops. He does have several ''very'' dickish moves, but most of the time he is quite fond of Blutch and Chesterfied and has saved their hide more than once. The rest of his high command is the same, even Stilman deep, deep, deep down.

** When a photographer starts making increasingly outlandish pictures falsely painting the soldier life as a neverending laugh, with full authority from Washington to do as he pleases, everyone from the soldiers to the high command is horrified by the prospect of thousand of youngsters taking the arms thinking its all flowers and laughs while it is NOT. To the point that General Alexander secretly orders Blutch to put an end to this charade. Chesterfied, who went along despite Blutch's goading out of boot-licking and the prospect of a rise in rank, ends up joining his efforts when even he can no longer take it.

* OnlyOneName: Corporal Blutch never recieves a first name.

* TheSmartGuy: Despite never getting closer than a mile from the battlefield, Captain Stilman is definitely this in the high command, coming out with many a clever plan or a good suggestion. He is even the one who recognizes Blutch and Chesterfield [[ItMakesSenseInContext disguised as siamese twins for hiding]] and unmasks them. There has to be a reason why he is in said high command in the first place after all...

* CarnivalOfKillers: One story has the pair recruit from a prison camp. They end up with a horsethief (and horse''eater''), a blind knifethrower and the accomplice who tells him where to aim, and a nutjob preacher who starts building his visionary cathedral anytime he's in the same place for more than five minutes.

* ArmchairMilitary: General Alexander, and especially General Stilman, who never leaves his armchair. On one occasion, he suggested waiting after the battle to pay the troops, expecting to save money due to high losses. Though this is subverted in one story where Blutch and Chesterfield join a circus (long story) and end up performing in front of the Union army, ''Stilman'' of all people recognizes Blutch's horse and fires a gun wildly yelling CHAAAAAARGE!!!!, causing the disguise to fall apart when the horse collapses and plays dead.

* EveryoneHasStandards: At the end of the album ''Black Face'', Captain Stilman, of all people, stands up to General Alexander when he wants to have Blutch and Chesterfield executed for transforming a false-flag operation into a farce. All of Alexander's officers think that they've taken that sordid operation too far, but Stilman is the only one who voices his objection.

** As mentioned, Blutch trained his mare Arabesque to play dead on hearing the order to charge. When Stillman recognizes the horse by doing exactly that, Blutch's disguise falls apart rather quickly.

* NativeGuide: Subverted. A prospector in Canada wants to send his fortune to the South, so Blutch and Chesterfield are sent to convince him not to. They hire a coureur des bois to take them to the prospector, only to discover that he's anything but. Once they finally reach the prospector, the Confederates are there as well, having hired the coureur's equally inept brother. The prospector learns of their efforts and dies of laughter, since it turned out the brothers had been lost in the forest for years and had just gotten out. In the end the six are rescued by natives before all the game is scared away by their antics.
* ObfuscatingDisability: When the pair dress up as a wheelchair-bound and a blind pair of veterans. They get caught when Blutch addresses the Confederate officer by rank when he's supposed to be blind.

* StagingTheEavesdrop: One story has a Southern teenager join the Union army as a spy and get caught. Blutch goes into the Rebel camp and arranges a plan with the kid's older brother. The brother is imprisoned in the Union camp (guarded by Blutch), then Chesterfield goes in to come up with an escape plan, '''LOUDLY REPEATING WHAT THEY'RE GOING TO NEED SUCH AS FILES AND HORSES''' for Blutch's benefit. The whole thing succeeds, not least of all because no one in the Union camp wanted to be part of a sixteen-year-old's execution.

* WardensAreEvil: The Prison of Robertsonville is guarded by a sadistic warden, Cancrelat (which means "Roach"). He shows up in ''Les Bleus en Folie'', having become lethargic and shut-in like most of the mentally injured soldiers. His presence makes Southern soldiers believe the asylum is run by the Confederates.

* TheAlcatraz: Robertsonville Prison.

* RedOniBlueOni

* AngryBlackMan: Black Face, who finds the Northerners not much better than the enslavin Southerners, and leads a Black riot.

* AnnoyingLaugh: Blutch

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler:The kid in Drummer Boy is found out and sent to jail to await execution by firing squad. As no-one in high command really wants to be the one who ordered a pre-teenager's execution, Blutch arranges for the boy's Confederate brother to mount a rescue mission, beating seven kinds of crap out of Chesterfield in the process.]]

* WarIsHell: It isn't dwelt on as much as it would be in some other works, but wounded and dead men are shown as a matter of course. An InUniverse example also occurs, when a photographer is hired to take pictures of the military to boost enlistment rates. The Washington ArmchairGeneral behind the operation is angry that most of the pictures are of dead bodies and awkwardly-posed men.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: Neither side is shown as having the moral upper hand.

** Confederate troops get ready to ambush a civilian camp guarded by Union soldiers, but when they hear a woman screaming, they charge thinking she's being tortured. Turns out Chesterfield was helping with a ScreamingChildbirth. The soldiers call a truce for everyone to get back in position, look awkwardly at each other, and both keep going their separate ways.
** When a fifteen-year-old drummer boy is discovered to be a Confederate spy (passing messages via his drum), the general staff all loook uncomfortably at each other as none of them want to be responsible for ordering his execution. Fortunately, Blutch is able to arrange his evasion via his older brother, on the promise that the kid stay away from the army.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: At the end of the album ''Black Face'', Captain Stilman, of all people, stands up to General Alexander when he wants to have Blutch and Chesterfield executed for transforming a false-flag operation into a farce. All of Alexander's officers think that they've taken that sordid operation too far, but Stilman is the only one who voices his objection.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Confederate troops gets ready to ambush a civilian camp guarded by Union soldiers, but when they hear a woman screaming, they charge thinking she's being tortured. Turns out Chesterfield was helping with a ScreamingChildbirth. The soldiers call a truce for everyone to get back in position, look awkwardly at each other, and both keep going their separate ways.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Chesterfield and Blutch are inseparable, for all their quarreling.

!!Tropes:

* BloodKnight: Captain Stark

* OnlySaneMan: Corporal Blutch