History Main / TrainingThePeacefulVillagers

* In [[TheCloneWars Star Wars: The Clone Wars]], Obi Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka, along with a few bounty hunters, teach the farmers of a small village to fight pirates and protect their homes.
* The ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}} [=ThunderCats (2011)=]]]'' episode "Berbils" has Panthro and the Cats' teach Ro-Bear Bill and the cute and cuddly Ro-Bear Berbils how to defend themselves form those who would use them as slaves.
* {{Filmation}} liked this trope, using it in episodes of ''{{Bravestarr}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower.'' Although in both cases, it was more a matter of getting the villagers to work up the courage to defend themselves than actually training them.

** This was also done by the Soviets whose partisans were often quite effective against the German Army. In this case however they were usually Soviet citizens but not necessarily ethnic Russians.

* In TheDresdenFiles, the [=ParaNet=] is organized to protect minor talents from being abused by black wizards or other supernatural threats.

* GeorgeRRMartin short stories:

* In the CiaphasCain novel ''Death or Glory'', Cain creates a small army by having the PDF troops he had gathered train volunteers among the civilian refugees to supplement their ranks. The popular histories of that war claim that the bulk of the army was made of such volunteers (which was most definitely not true). In ''Cain's Last Stand'', Cain realizes that the understrength PDF on the same world doesn't have the manpower to repulse the incoming Chaos fleet, so he creates militia units across the planet using this trope. Subverted in that he had no illusions about the ability of the militia to repulse the invaders: He was simply hoping that they could pin enemy units down long enough for properly trained soldiers to show up (and as the retired Sister says, if the war was lost they'd be slaughtered anyways by Chaos cultists).

Either way, it's time to teach the villagers to stop being victims and [[FightingForSurvival learn how to defend themselves.]] Expect some complaining about "[[SuicidalPacifism losing their peaceful way of life.]]" If there's a WastelandElder around, expect them to back the hero and shush the young'in.

Either way, it's time to teach the villagers to [[DyingLikeAnimals stop being victims]] and [[FightingForSurvival learn how to defend themselves.]] Expect some complaining about "[[SuicidalPacifism losing their peaceful way of life.]]" If there's a WastelandElder around, expect them to back the hero and shush the young'in.

* Done in an issue of ''MarvelAdventures: Avengers'', where the Avengers have to train a village to fight off a warlord and his minions. The Avengers fight along with the villagers in versions of their costumes modified to look as if they're villagers themselves, to try and make sure that the warlord won't just regroup and come back the moment he thinks the Avengers have left.
** Even more, Cap couldn't train them because it would tip the warlord off - he had ''Wolverine'' train them. It was like a dream come true to him.

* [[TortallUniverse Kel]] does this with the occupants of her refugee camp in the final book of her quartet, because [[WithThisHerring she doesn't have enough guards to keep them safe.]]

* A key job of the British Special Operations Executive and the American Office of Strategic Services during WorldWarTwo was to organise and train operatives to go behind enemy lines and train / supply resistance groups. Given the nature of the job, it was often a one-way journey.

* In ''{{Traveller}}'', mercenaries are often hired to do this.
* Frighteningly prevalent with experienced players in [[DungeonsAndDragons D&D]].

* Though perhaps more frightening when done in ''{{Exalted}}''. [[TrainingFromHell Tiger Warrior Training]] can turn even the smallest peasant villager into a lethal combatant.

* Happens in one of the {{Pathfinder}} Society modules taking place in the Asian-inspired continent. A village holding the LostHeir to an artifact's power is annually attacked by bandits at harvest time. It is up to the [=PCs=] to train the villagers to defend themselves in the upcoming battle.

* One episode of ''SamuraiJack'' had Jack teaching a group of peaceful monkey-men to defend themselves from a thieving, bullying rival tribe, in exchange for their giving him some [[TrainingFromHell training]] to enhance his [[InASingleBound jumping abilities]].

* In ''[[Franchise/EvilDead Army of Darkness]]'', Ash is inexplicably seen teaching the medieval soldiers how to use a halberd.

* Done to a degree and lampshaded in ''{{Kingdom of Heaven}}.'' After Balian knights all of the men in the village as a group, the priest asks if making a man a knight will make him a better fighter, to which Balian simply responds "yes."

* A variation of this happens in ''Film/DeathWish III'', where Paul Kersey teaches the retirees how to fight back against the young hoodlums that have moved into their neighborhood.

* ''{{Cyborg 009}}'' uses the trope and ends the episode with a subtle but ominous picture of one of the formerly peaceful (not to mention god-like powerful) aliens callously trampling over a flower.

* ''Anime/SamuraiSeven'', being a ''SevenSamurai'' adaptation.
* ''{{Drifters}}''

* Pretty much the backbone of the plot of ''Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}}'''s series 7, with the primary focus being Buffy training potential slayers to be as close to her abilities as they can without the actual supernatural element having taken effect yet. This is in order to defeat not just an evil force or being, but, literally, ''the very concept of evil itself, in the immortal guise of the first evil to ever enter existence''. Granted, each one of them is potentially the most deadly woman on the planet in any fight that doesn't involve weapons of mass destruction being deployed, but until [[spoiler: Buffy decides to go against the thousands of years of established, supposedly irrevocable tradition]] they're just ordinary girls.
** ...which makes their training at least five times harder than almost any other example on this page. With, literally, their lives at stake, pointing all the potentials in a single direction for more than one episode is like herding cats. Much of the season's drama comes from many of the girls choosing to follow Faith's example, others Kennedy's. Most follow Buffy at first, until she begins proving unequal to the task and [[spoiler: rashly leads them into an ambush, killing several]]. With all the ''LordOfTheFlies''-type bickering going on, the only real training shown on screen is Kennedy leading the potentials through a martial arts kata in the back yard, yelling at one girl who screws up like a DrillSergeantNasty.

* {{Filmation}} liked this trope, using it in episodes of ''{{Bravestarr}}'' and ''SheRaPrincessOfPower.'' Although in both cases, it was more a matter of getting the villagers to work up the courage to defend themselves than actually training them.

* An ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' episode has Dylan arrive to train a tribe of peaceful locals to fight off-world pirates armed with guns. Dylan brings a crate-load of force lances (extendable pikes that double as guns with guided ammo), but a religious fanatic destroys them, refusing to allow Dylan to corrupt the locals. Instead, Dylan has them build fortifications and trains them to throw spears from the walls. [[RockBeatsLaser They win]].

* This trope shows up in the GeorgeRRMartin short story "And Seven Times Never Kill Man". The fanatical [[HumanityIsSuperior Steel Angels]] create a colony on the world of Corlos, and begin systematically wiping out the native, simian jaenshi whenever they feel the need to expand their territory. The overweight, amiable, and formerly pacifistic trader Arik neKrol takes it upon himself to organize a jaenshi resistance. [[spoiler: The story subverts the trope. Very few of the jaenshi gravitate to his plan, all are half-wild survivors of previous Steel Angel attacks on villages who did not join other existing clans, only one of the group has any kind of discipline, and Arik is killed in their first and only skirmish. But then it's double-subverted, because it turns out that the jaenshi didn't really need an armed resistance at all. They apparently concoct a ruse (the how of which is deliberately left vague) using the mysterious pyramids their villages are based around, that plays on the Steel Angel's fanatical religious beliefs. The only thing Arik's resistance ends up accomplishing is killing the one Steel Angel officer that suspected the jaenshi were somehow deceiving them.]]

* The Semai people had no violence, or even any ''words'' for violence. When they were taught to fight when the area became a war zone, they surprised their "teachers" by becoming frenzied and intoxicated with the bloodshed, since they didn't fully understand the effects of their actions. They are still extant, and returned to their non-violent ways following the conflict ending.

* A variation of this happens in ''Film/DeathWishIII'', where Paul Kersey teaches the retirees how to fight back against the young hoodlums that have moved into their neighborhood.

* If Shepard has the 'War Hero' background in ''MassEffect'', s/he (at 22 years old) rallied the civilian colonists of Elysium against a slaver attack. When the defenses fell, Shepard single-handedly held a position for several hours until reinforcements arrived.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' did this in the original Dalek story, only rather than being ignorant the Thalls where instead morally opposed to violence due to the wars of their past.

* {{Filmation}} liked this trope, using it in episodes of ''{{Bravestarr}}'' and ''{{SheRaPrincessOfPower}}.'' Although in both cases, it was more a matter of getting the villagers to work up the courage to defend themselves than actually training them.

!!Examples

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* The [[UrExample Ur-film example]]: ''SevenSamurai''. Most of the examples below are homages if not outright rip-offs.
* ''TheMagnificentSeven'', for instance, is a direct western adaptation of Kurosawa's film.

** And ''[[SamuraiSeven Samurai 7]]'', the Recycled With HumongousMecha version.

* The Ant Colony from ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife''. Even the grasshoppers recognize the Ants' potential threat (They outnumber the grasshoppers, 100 to 1), but the Ants don't... until it is expressly spelled out for them.

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