History Main / NoPlaceForAWarrior

* ''VideoGame/FateSamuraiRemnant'': The warlike UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod has just ended and been replaced by the peaceful Edo Period. Miyamoto Iori, who was raised and trained by the now deceased Miyamoto Musashi, dreams of becoming a master swordsman, but finds it hard when there are no battles to fight and most civilians don't respect swordsmen anymore, only seeing them as useful for taking on criminals and bandits. [[spoiler:In the Entreat the Darkness bad ending, Iori pulls a FaceHeelTurn and attempts to use the Waxing Moon Ritual to wish to plunge Japan into a ForeverWar so that he can truly become a warrior like his father, but Saber kills him.]]

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E3ATownCalledMercy "A Town Called Mercy"]], The Gunslinger, an [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot alien cyborg soldier-turned-assassin]], describes himself as a "creature of war" and wonders what purpose he can serve in a peaceful world once his purpose is fulfilled. The Doctor convinces him that he can still be a protector and preserver of peace, and he takes on the role of Sheriff of a Wild West town.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Discussed in the ''[[WebAnimation/ExtraCredits Extra History]]'' mini-series on the UsefulNotes/SengokuJidai, when, after ending the centuries-long Japanese civil wars, UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi has to deal with hundreds of thousands of unemployed armed men whose only marketable skill is fighting battles.
* Parodied in ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'' Issue 10, where a miniature samurai leaps out of a plate of corn, proclaiming "Corn is no place for a mighty warrior!" The gag repeats later, with the same samurai appearing from a bowl of corn ''chips''--at which point he LATHE's Whats's Her Face.
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Closely related to StrangerInAFamiliarLand and TheWarJustBefore. Subtrope of NoPlaceForMeThere. Compare AndThenWhat, BornInTheWrongCentury, KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect, OutdatedHeroVsImprovedSociety, SoWhatDoWeDoNow, VictoryIsBoring, WonTheWarLostThePeace, PrefersRocksToPillows, FormerRegimePersonnel, and of course GloryDays. Can lead to a soldier going FromCamouflageToCriminal. May be experienced by the ReturningWarVet or ColonelKilgore. Compare OppressedMinorityVeteran, when the veteran is mistreated because of their identity status.

* David Madsen in ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' is a war veteran-turned-school security officer. Years in combat (as well as the loss of a dear friend, as revealed in the prequel ''Before the Storm'') has left him struggling to fit into civilian life, and is distrustful of practically everyone he meets, often demanding respect where none is earned and barking orders drill-sergeant-style. This is partly why his relationship with his rebellious stepdaughter Chloe is so strained, and why his relationship with his wife Joyce is so important to him--during the hard transition into small-town life, she was the most sympathetic to his problems.

* ''Videogame/{{Littlewood}}'': The game is about what happens in the standard fantasy RPG plot after the FinalBoss has been defeated. One of the residents of the town the Hero is rebuilding moves in because he's a knight by trade and the disappearance of the Dark Wizard's monsters has left him out of a job. The man is quick to point out that this trope applies to the Hero and their battle companions, as well.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': Mercy's short story "Valkyrie" has a discussion of this when she and Ana are talking about Overwatch's role after the Omnic Crisis, how its leaders were soldiers who only really knew how to wage war, not govern in peace.
-->'''Ana''': The war hero. Compassionate, brave, confident, political. But at the end of the day: a soldier. And all soldiers only know one way to live. We aren’t meant to change the world, just to save it. [...] We never knew how to let the ones who followed us take up the struggle. We aren’t made for peace.
* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', [[spoiler:''[[HumansAreWarriors the entire human race]]'' ends up being subjected to this. Humanity solved most if not all of the big societal problems and there's no longer any war or conflict of any kind, and as a result [[VictoryIsBoring everyone's bored out of their minds]]. To remedy this, they decided to take [[Franchise/{{Danganronpa}} a popular series of murder mystery visual novels]] and adapt it into a [[ImmoralRealityShow reality TV show]] where actual teenagers kill each other for the world's amusement, and the teenagers themselves happily sign up for it]].
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': Referenced when Cloud tells Tifa that he and many others joined the Wutai War in an attempt to become heroes, but once the war ended, the world has no more room for heroes. Most of the former fighters like himself can only get jobs as security guards or mercenaries.

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', [[spoiler:''[[HumansAreWarriors the entire human race]]'' ends up being subjected to this. Humanity solved most if not all of the big societal problems and there's no longer any war or conflict of any kind, and as a result [[VictoryIsBoring everyone's bored out of their minds]]. To remedy this, they started a SadisticGameShow where they'd [[DeadlyGame watch teenagers kill each other]] for their entertainment.]]

** OldSoldier Curnden Craw thinks throughout the novel how much he wants to retire from fighting (his {{catchphrase}} is actually "I'm too old for this") and become a carpenter, the job he was supposed to become in youth, but then got called up to fight. At the end of the novel, the war has ended and Craw is making a dismal effort at carpentry when he's approached to join the surviving members of his crew as military advisers for the new regime, and he [[JumpedAtTheCall jumps at the call]]/gladly abandons civilian life.

* The Creator/SpiderRobinson short story "Not Fade Away" is a very touching piece about the very last warrior anywhere ever, alone and useless in a universe finally at peace with itself.

Closely related to StrangerInAFamiliarLand and TheWarJustBefore. Subtrope of NoPlaceForMeThere. Compare AndThenWhat, BornInTheWrongCentury, OutdatedHeroVsImprovedSociety, SoWhatDoWeDoNow, VictoryIsBoring, WonTheWarLostThePeace, PrefersRocksToPillows, FormerRegimePersonnel, and of course GloryDays. Can lead to a soldier going FromCamouflageToCriminal. May be experienced by the ReturningWarVet or ColonelKilgore. Compare OppressedMinorityVeteran, when the veteran is mistreated because of their identity status.

[[WellThisIsNotThatTrope Not in this case.]] For the professional soldier or sailor, peace means they're suddenly out of a job and have to find their way in a world that may have changed dramatically while they were away fighting. They may lack salable skills (that is, ones other than fighting) and struggle to keep food on the table.[[note]]Although in the US, [[https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/09/veteran-households-in-u-s-are-economically-better-off-than-those-of-non-veterans/ veteran households actually make significantly more money than non-veteran ones]]. This effect is especially noticeable in black and Latino veterans, which are relatively impoverished ethnic groups overall, making the effect even more prominent in reducing poverty.[[/note]] They may also be dealing with [[ShellShockedVeteran the aftereffects of their war experiences]]. Perhaps they will go looking for another war and become mercenaries or get involved in extremist politics. Or they will find a hardscrabble job or end up as beggars. They're likely to be found in the LegionOfLostSouls. Naturally they may be a ShellShockedVeteran. On the flip side, the civilians may find that the loved ones who come back from the war are not the same people as the ones who left.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', this is a common characterization element of the warforged. A race of MechanicalLifeforms created to fight in [[TheWarJustBefore The Last War]], they have only recently been [[AndroidsArePeopleToo granted status as persons rather than military hardware]]. In many cases war is ''literally'' all they have ever known, causing them to feel lost and confused without it. It doesn't help that peacetime has also introduced the warforged to FantasticRacism: not only are they large and intimidating in appearance, but their ability to work without rest leads many to see them as {{Job Stealing Robot}}s. Needless to say, when TheRemnant appears in Eberron it's almost always composed of warforged.
%%* The Ex-Special Forces archetype from ''TabletopGame/FengShui'' and ''Feng Shui 2'' is based on this kind of character.

* The backstory of ''LightNovel/ICouldntBecomeAHeroSoIReluctantlyDecidedToGetAJob'' involves this. Raul was training to be a heroic knight to fight the demon lord. Once that path is cut short as the same demon lord is defeated, he isn't able to find a job where his considerable fighting skills are seen as a plus, and he doesn't have any practical business skills, forcing him to settle for an entry-level position at an electronics store. Several of Raul's former comrades cannot cope with a world that doesn't need heroes and try to reignite the war so they can be heroes again. Raul rebukes them and points out they are not acting like heroes.

* Creator/TimothyZahn's novel ''Literature/{{Cobra}}'', as a {{deconstruction}} of the SuperSoldier concept, spends only a couple chapters on the Dominion-Troft War with the rest of the book following the Cobras when they return to civilian life. They have serious trouble reintegrating: protagonist Jonny Moreau is ostracized by friends and neighbors fearful of his cybernetic enhancements, then accidentally[[note]]in that his cybernetics automatically shot up their car in self-defense, without his input[[/note]] kills a couple teenagers who tried to run him down with a car. The Dominion government finally repurposes the Cobras as guardsmen on new colony worlds.

* This becomes a major concern for Sousuke as ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' progresses. Sousuke begins entertaining thoughts of living in Japan with Kaname indefinitely as his [[DefrostingIceQueen "mental permafrost" starts melting]]; but at the same time, he's developing just enough social awareness to realize how difficult it would be for a ShellShockedVeteran who SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining such as himself to actually live a civilian life for real.

[[caption-width-right:350:JoinTheArmyTheySaid. Never said nothing about what you do after you ''leave''...]]

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Galadriel became so consumed with her quest of seeking Sauron that she turned into a KnightTemplar after centuries spend in faraway lands searching to bring an end to the evil that her bother from her. When Elrond confront her refusing to lay her sword down and heal her wounded soul in Valinor, She quickly states that she is nothing without her sword.

[[folder:Light Novels]]
* This becomes a major concern for Sousuke as ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' progresses. Sousuke begins entertaining thoughts of living in Japan with Kaname indefinitely as his [[DefrostingIceQueen "mental permafrost" starts melting]]; but at the same time, he's developing just enough social awareness to realize how difficult it would be for a ShellShockedVeteran who SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining such as himself to actually live a civilian life for real.
* The backstory of ''LightNovel/ICouldntBecomeAHeroSoIReluctantlyDecidedToGetAJob'' involves this. Raul was training to be a heroic knight to fight the demon lord. Once that path is cut short as the same demon lord is defeated, he isn't able to find a job where his considerable fighting skills are seen as a plus, and he doesn't have any practical business skills, forcing him to settle for an entry-level position at an electronics store. Several of Raul's former comrades cannot cope with a world that doesn't need heroes and try to reignite the war so they can be heroes again. Raul rebukes them and points out they are not acting like heroes.
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** The expanded universe also deconstructs this in its lengthy and detailed backstory. Westeros is a society where the two main routes for social advancement are [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority proving one's self in war]], or [[ArrangedMarriage an advantageous marriage]]. So when there are lots of warriors without a war, war tends to be created. Probably the most infamous example is the Blackfyre Rebellion. Generations of Westerosi under Targaryen rule had tried to conquer the neighboring kingdom of Dorne until King Daeron II put an end to that by putting together a couple of {{Arranged Marriage}}s between his family and the royal family of Dorne and making a few fairly minor concessions to the Dornish in the peace treaty. All the WarHawk lords who had been fighting in the wars with Dorne were suddenly warriors without a war and they ''hated'' it, so many of them promptly supported the King's half-brother, the WarriorPrince Daemon Blackfyre, when he led a rebellion and attempted to claim the throne, knowing Daemon would favor war instead of diplomacy.

* A recurring theme in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'', where ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'''s concept of "{{ninja}}" as a social class is becoming increasingly redundant - not only is the world largely at peace but {{Magitek}} is slowly being developed which allows anyone to use ninja-like abilities without training. Even children born to ninja families after the war's end are impacted by this, with some of them deciding that the "age of heroes" their parents lived through was much better than the present day and that the only way to make the world fair again is to plunge it into war once more.

* In ''Anime/PumpkinScissors'', a devastating war ended abruptly, leaving numerous soldiers on the ice, including one of the main characters.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E3ATownCalledMercy "A Town Called Mercy"]], The Gunslinger, an [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot alien cyborg soldier-turned-assassin]], describes itself as a "creature of war" and wonders what purpose it can serve in a peaceful world once its purpose is fulfilled. The Doctor convinces it that it can still be a protector and preserver of peace, and it takes on the role of Sheriff of a Wild West town.

* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', Ultron claims Steve Rogers defines himself completely as a soldier and as such secretly doesn't even want a world at peace, because such a world would have no place for him. [[VillainHasAPoint This is supported by]] [[spoiler: Steve's hallucination under Wanda's influence, where his ''worst fear'' appears to be a world at peace where he has nothing to fight and so can be with Peggy - though it's also made abundantly clear that he's got [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]].]] [[CharacterDevelopment He gets better.]]
* Ultimately the plot of ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'' is Simon Gruber trying to steal $150 billion in gold with former communist soldiers and agents (mostly East German) intended to infiltrate US and British agencies [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell who were left jobless after the Berlin Wall fell]]. Described as "an army without a country".
* ''Film/FirstBlood'' is about John Rambo, a Vietnam vet struggling with severe PTSD issues, who makes the mistake of drifting through a small town where the sheriff doesn't like drifters. The entire situation is best summed up in one line:
-->'''Rambo''': Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank. I was in charge of million-dollar equipment. [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand Back here]] I can't even hold a job '''PARKING CARS'''!

--> '''General Decker:''' The fighting is no longer done on the battlefield, Payne. Now all the blood is shed in the halls of Congress. [[EndOfAnAge Warriors like us are becoming dinosaurs.]]
--> '''Major Payne:''' (with a begging undertone) There gotta ''somebody'' that needs some killing.
--> '''General Decker:''' Sorry, Major. There's no one left. You've killed them all.

* ''Film/{{Patton}}''. General Patton is a superb leader of men and warrior, but he constantly makes mistakes in the diplomatic side of his duties, saying things that infuriate people. After the war in Europe ends, a comment he makes causes him to be removed from command of the Third Army and denied a combat command in the Pacific.
-->'''Capt. Oskar Steiger''': [re: Patton] The absence of war will destroy him.
-->'''Patton''': There's only one proper way for a professional soldier to die: the last bullet of the last battle of the last war.
* Defied in ''Film/ThePrinceAndThePagodaBoy'': Long Dinh, the titular "prince" (though now king) knows that he would have WonTheWarLostThePeace because his barbaric ways are only suited to wartime. As such, he opts to keep the nation in a state of perpetual war so that he will remain in power.
* In ''Film/{{Ronin}}'' the soldiers of fortune are all ex-Cold War operatives from both sides of the "recent unpleasantness" trying to make few bucks now that peace has arrived.

* This is strongly implied to be part of the backstory of [[TheNeidermeyer Colonel Tall]] in ''Film/TheThinRedLine''. At several points his lines indicate that he had been actively hoping for the chance to lead men into battle, only to be forced to wait decades for it until the United States became involved in World War II.
-->'''Lt. Colonel Tall:''' I've waited all my life for this! I've eaten untold buckets of shit to have this opportunity, and I don't intend to give it up now. ... You don't know what it feels like to be passed over. You're young. You're just out of the Academy. You've got your war. This is my first war!

* Some of AgathaChristie's works set in the GenteelInterbellumSetting feature the kind of daredevil young men who been quite at home carrying out commando raids during the war and are now utterly purposeless. One character is quite sympathetic to them (in a way oddly prescient of the way Vietnam soldiers would feel disenfranchised) and feels the government gave them a raw deal.

[[WellThisIsNotThatTrope Not in this case.]] For the professional soldier or sailor, peace means they're suddenly out of a job and have to find their way in a world that may have changed dramatically while they were away fighting. They may lack salable skills (that is, ones other than fighting) and struggle to keep food on the table, and may also be dealing with [[ShellShockedVeteran the aftereffects of their war experiences]]. Perhaps they will go looking for another war and become mercenaries or get involved in extremist politics. Or they will find a hardscrabble job or end up as beggars. They're likely to be found in the LegionOfLostSouls. Naturally they may be a ShellShockedVeteran. On the flip side, the civilians may find that the loved ones who come back from the war are not the same people as the ones who left.

* 'Mad Jack' Churchill, who went to WWII with sword and longbow, and complained afterwards that the war had ended far too soon.