History Fanfic / DeathKorpsOfJustice

* DisproportionateRetribution: Krieg brutalizes a man simply for getting drunk in a bar and causing a ruckus. Ordinarily, what he does counts as KickTheSonOfABitch, but this was a bit much.

It currently stands at 46 chapters.

** Ironically, all of Krieg's interactions with others (which lead to virtually every other example of this trope in the story) deconstruct the image of the Imperial Guard both as a BadassNormal BadassArmy and as RedShirtArmy. In a setting where they are outclassed by virtually every other force in the galaxy and regularly fight armies that want to rape, eat, kill, enslave, or damn them to eternal suffering, and not necessarily in that order, they evoke sympathy both for desperately fighting on against those horrors and winning against all odds. In the ''Young Justice'' universe, where the threats Krieg faces are enemies that the Guard could more easily defeat, the more negative traits of the Imperium (using ChildSoldiers, rampant ActivistFundamentalistAntics, BurnTheWitch, KillEmAll, FantasticRacism, and so on) are given focus. In particular, while the League totally fail to connect with Krieg, all signs suggest that if they he revealed the true nature of the Imperium to them, they would be utterly repulsed. Miss Martian, in particular, is ''horrified'' when she sees that the Drill Sergeants who taught Krieg outright ''killed'' trainees if they made mistakes or [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished tried to help each other]] -- actions that would barely get a notice in the Imperium.

* NominalHero: Krieg explicitly refers to himself as a "soldier" instead of a "hero", and it shows -- he's a [[ColdBloodedTorture torture happy]], AbsoluteXenophobe [[TheFundamentalist fundamentist]] {{Child Soldier|s}} who's solution to supervillains is to KillEmAll. In any other universe, and ''even in his home one''[[note]][[WordOfGod Games Workshop has explicitly stated that the Imperium is a]] VillainProtagonist[[/note]], he'd be a villain of the highest order.

* NoSympathy: Being taken hostage by a villain who is being faced down by Krieg will not leave you with a good chance at being rescued, as security guard Rex Mason can testify. Oh, wait...

It currently stands at 45 chapters.

** The Justice League decides to force Krieg to attend therapy sessions in the hopes that it will make him open up. Instead of hiring an ''actual'' therapist, they give the task to Black Canary, someone with no formal training in the subject and whom Krieg personally detests. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Unsurprisingly, he treats their sessions with open contempt and stonewalls her efforts to establish a rapport with him.]]

* NominalHero: Krieg explicitly refers to himself as a "soldier" instead of a "hero", and it shows -- he's a [[ColdBloodedTorture torture happy]], AbsoluteXenophobe [[TheFundamentalist fundamentist]] {{Child Soldier|s}} who's solution to supervillains is to KillEmAll. In any other universe, and ''even in his home one''[[note]][[WordOfGod Games Workshop has explicitly stated that the Imperium is a VillainProtagonist]][[/note]], he'd be a villain of the highest order.

* OutsideContextProblem: The Chaos forces are this for the Justice League - they're a ''Darkseid''-level threat that have functionally endless reserves and who regularly destroy planets and civilizations, while hailing from an entirely different universe. Additionally, unlike most of the other villains that the Justice League has faced, Chaos employs MoreThanMindControl to ensure that its pawns serve willingly.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Luthor is taken aback when Krieg announces his lack of ill will towards him.

* VirtueIsAWeakness: Krieg's main reason for being unable to understand why the League shows mercy toward their enemies and tolerance/outright acceptance toward non-humans is because the Imperium actively views these as detrimental to survival... [[TheExtremistWasRight and they usually are right there]].

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: [[AlliterativeName G. Gordon Godfrey]] insists on getting up close and personal during a fight between the Justice League and some terrorists. This almost gets him killed, as the terrorists notice him and attempt to shoot him, though Krieg saves him at the last second.

* RealityEnsues:
** The Justice League believe themselves capable of undoing 16 years of brutal physical and mental conditioning in an incredibly short amount of time via surrounding the subject of said conditioning with ''everything'' he has been taught to hate while giving (what he perceives as) utterly pathetic excuses for why he should practice what they preach. [[spoiler:Predictably, it doesn't work--after having his buttons pushed one too many times, Krieg decides he's had enough and defies everything they stand for at the end of Chapter 33]].
*** One specific method they like to use is forcing him to have "therapy" sessions with Black Canary. This backfires for two reasons: first, Black Canary is ''not'' a licensed therapist, so she really has no business trying to act like one; and second, the two are acquainted, and since Krief has a personal animosity towards her, he is just as likely to fuck up their sessions out of spite as he is out of genuine belief that she's wrong.
** As Krieg points out to a civilian in Chapter 38, no matter how good they are, the Justice League barely consists of 20 people & even they can't save everyone, especially under a world wide attack. Do keep in mind that this conflicts a bit with canon, where the League is shown to be significantly larger than 20 people (but still small).