History Main / CannonFodder

->''"I wonder why they put those weak droids in [[StarWars Star Wars]]. They never get a chance to hit."''
-->--A six year old's analysis of a comercial trailor for the Star Wars: Clone Wars specials.

* ''VideoGames/CannonFodder''. Eponymous trope, eponymous pixels. {{War Has Never Been So Much Fun}}!

The term Cannon Fodder itself originated in WorldWarI, where such high casualties were sustained for so little gain, that the infantrymen were [[BlackHumor joked]] to be nothing more then fodder (a term usually used to describe animal feed) for the artillery. [[WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife The soldiers of WWI knew the this trope well enough]].

->''Come on, [[SemperFi you sons of bitches!]] [[WhoWantsToLiveForever You wanta live forever?]]''
->-- '''Marine Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly''', During WorldWarOne.[[hottip:*: Echoing [[FrederickTheGreat King Frederick II of Prussia]] in the [[SevenYearsWar battle of Torgau]], 3 November, 1760: "Racker, wollt ihr ewig leben?" (Scoundrels, do you want to live forever?).]]

* Mobile Infantry from the first ''StarshipTroopers'' movie is easily the most recognizable example. The Mobile Infantry in the book are a bit more valuable and have better gear... but they still go in first and leave last.

* The ugly truth is that this has been the purpose of infantry since WWI. While some armies have embraced it and some haven't, ultimately the infantry's job is to go first and locate targets for the artillery, aircraft, and armored vehicles. That this is frequently accomplished by losing a few of them to fire from a concealed position is an unfortunate inevitability.

The term Cannon Fodder itself originated in the first world war, where such high casualties were sustained for so little gain, that the infantrymen were [[BlackHumor joked]] to be nothing more then fodder (a term usually used to describe animal feed) for the artillery. [[WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife The soldiers of WWI knew the this trope well enough]].

[[IThoughtItMeant For the classic video game named]] ''Cannon Fodder'', [[Game/CannonFodder see here]].

->-- '''Marine Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly''', During WorldWarOne.

->''Racker, wollt ihr ewig leben?''
->-- '''[[FrederickTheGreat Frederick II of Prussia]]''' in the [[SevenYearsWar battle of Torgau]], 3 November, 1760.

->-- '''Marine Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly''', During WorldWarOne.[[hottip:* Echoing [[FrederickTheGreat Frederick II of Prussia]] in the [[SevenYearsWar battle of Torgau]], 3 November, 1760: "Racker, wollt ihr ewig leben?"]]

->-- '''Marine Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly''', During WorldWarOne.[[hottip:*Echoing [[FrederickTheGreat Frederick II of Prussia]] in the [[SevenYearsWar battle of Torgau]], 3 November, 1760: "Racker, wollt ihr ewig leben?"]]

->-- '''Marine Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly''', During WorldWarOne.

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* The Monarch from TheVentureBrothers regards his henchmen as basically disposable pawns and often sends platoons of them to be butchered by Brock Samson while he directs them from the safety of his flying cocoon headquarters.

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->''"Come on, [[SemperFi you sons of bitches!]] [[WhoWantsToLiveForever You wanta live forever?"'']]
->-- Marine [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Daly Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly]], [[WorldWarOne 1918]]

->''"Come on, you sons of bitches! You wanta live forever?"''
->-- Marine [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Daly Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly]], 1918

For the classic video game named Cannon Fodder, see [[Game/CannonFodder here]].

** Umm, yeah. As normal, NeonGenesisEvangelion decides that this would be too nice. And actually makes the later-developed "Mass-Production Evas" have improvements over the others. [[spoiler:such as invincibility]] Hey looks like prototypes aren't the best. And the way they show this is [[NauseaFuel F*CKING]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel NIGHTMARE]] [[TearJerker FUEL]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice !!!!!!]]

* During WorldWarII, Japanese infantrymen were called 'senrin' by their officers, referring to the price of mailing a conscription notice: one sen, one rin, or about 1/99th of a yen.

* This is the role that mortals play in ''{{Exalted}}'', because their world just [[CrapsackWorld sucks that much]]. It's even codified in the rules: "extras" -- usually defined as anyone without an [[PowerLevels Essence rating]] -- have only three health levels where everyone else has at least seven. A FanNickname for mortals in Exalted combat is "Ablative People Shields".

* This is the role that mortals play in ''{{Exalted]}'', because their world just [[CrapsackWorld sucks that much]]. It's even codified in the rules: "extras" -- usually defined as anyone without an [[PowerLevels Essence rating]] -- have only three health levels where everyone else has at least seven. A FanNickname for mortals in Exalted combat is "Ablative People Shields".