New Meat: Difference between revisions

← Older edit

New Meat (view source)

Revision as of 16:20, 25 November 2020

473 bytes added , 3 years ago

potholes, italics, BSG link

Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators

116,724

edits

Revision as of 12:36, 11 August 2014 (view source) Dai-Guard (talk \| contribs) m (update links) ← Older edit		Latest revision as of 16:20, 25 November 2020 (view source) Looney Toons (talk \| contribs) (potholes, italics, BSG link)
(8 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: {{trope}} {{quote\|<poem>'''Rex:''' Looks like we got ourselves a batch of Shinies here. '''Echo:''' Shinies, sir? '''Rex:''' That's right. Your armor. It's shiny and new. Just like you.</poem>\|''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'', "Rookies"}} Still wet behind the ears and fresh out of boot camp, [['''New Meat]]''' is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin\|exactly that]]. He may look like a soldier, but he lacks the combat experience to actually perform up to the fighting standard of [[The Squad]]. Generally young; some men may characterize him as [[Child Soldiers\|a child]]. He's a bit loathed by the rest of the men because he [[Naive Newcomer\|constantly asks questions]] or [[Leeroy Jenkins\|makes mistakes that hinder their progress]]. Prone not to appreciate [[A Father to His Men]]'s stern but necessary discipline. Some of the more seasoned members may even [[The Millstone\|consider his rookie status a risk]] and petition the [[Colonel Badass\|commander(s)]] to [[Just Eat Gilligan\|get rid of him]]. Usually, this is reconciled only by [['''New Meat]]''' doing something notably competent or heroic in battle, after which he's [[Fire-Forged Friends\|accepted as "one of the guys"]]. Then the next [['''New Meat]]''' comes along. Otherwise, [['''New Meat]]''' serves little function other than to [[Red Shirt\|get killed]] so that others can brood over his corpse about [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life\|what a waste his death was]] -- "the kid never had a chance". The [['''New Meat]]''' is also a writer's shortcut to introduce the characters of an already established team. Since they have been working together for so long, it is difficult to justify why they would talk about their past. The [['''New Meat]]''' character is introduced so that they can [[The Watson\|tell him the backstory]]. Often portrayed as skinny or physically smaller than the rest of [[The Squad]] members [[Foil\|to show he hasn't yet grown into the role of battle-hardened combat vet]]. Line 16: Used as a variant of the [[Red Shirt]] and killed off when the writers need to provide extra motivation for [[The Squad]] to disobey orders, kill innocents or act in other ways out of the ordinary. Ironically, the New Meat may be on the short list of survivors when the writer decides to [[Kill'Em All]], so their [[Older and Wiser]] self can welcome their own New Meat as a [[Book End]] to their story. See [[Ensign Newbie]] if the guy in question has a commission. May be [[Cannon Fodder]] if the higher-ups are sadistic or desperate. Also common in [[Police Procedural]] or other "action team" shows, where he/she will be a newcomer, fresh out of The Academy/recruitment. {{examples}} == Anime &and Manga ==▼ * Kakizaki from ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' (Ben Dixon in ''[[Robotech]]'').▼ ▲== Anime & Manga == * Sara in ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' is treated this way by [[All of the Other Reindeer\|the other Gambee pilots]] before she gets Ram-Dass, even though she's actually a better fighter and strategist than they ~~are -- they~~are—they just won't admit it.▼ ▲* Kakizaki from ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]''(Ben Dixon in ''[[Robotech]]''). * Subaru, Teana, Erio, and Caro in the first third of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS~~\|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S~~]]''. Nanoha's job as a Combat Instructor is to make sure that they become soldiers who are capable of completing missions without unnecessarily risking and killing themselves in the process.▼ ▲* Sara in ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' is treated this way by [[All of the Other Reindeer\|the other Gambee pilots]] before she gets Ram-Dass, even though she's actually a better fighter and strategist than they are -- they just won't admit it. ▲* Subaru, Teana, Erio, and Caro in the first third of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS\|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S]]''. Nanoha's job as a Combat Instructor is to make sure that they become soldiers who are capable of completing missions without unnecessarily risking and killing themselves in the process. * ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]''. Togusa is constantly referred to as "the rookie" by fellow Section 9 member Bateau, though by Solid State Society he's shaken off the label and become the field commander of Section 9. Ironically Bateau is referred to as "the rookie" in a flashback episode showing him serving under Kusanagi for the first time during a war in South America. * Bernie Wiseman, the protagonist of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket~~\|Gundam 0080~~]]'', is a relatively fresh ensign who's only been in one battle (where his Zaku was shot down) before he's assigned to the Cyclops Team. Garcia and Misha are pretty open in their dislike of Bernie, especially since they lost a man a few days before and see the new kid as a [[Replacement Scrappy]]. * In the manga ''[[Saga of Tanya the Evil]]'', during Visha's baptism, Tanya chastises Visha for freaking out when she realized the warm and sticky fluid she on the surface she was leaning against was blood. Or maybe Visha freaked out because she saw a couple of bodies (one of which was unambiguously departed). After the battle Tanya praised Visha for being alive around the time Visha was on her hands and knees spilling her most recent meal onto the trench floor. == Comic ~~books~~Books == * Subverted in the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' comic books when a new character, codename Scoop, was introduced. He's well qualified for most millitary positions but he's new meat for the types of insanity the Joes get up to. In his first mission, everything goes to hell, the mission is a bust and it's a race back to the copter just to ''live''. Scoop gains the respect of the veterans by [[No One Gets Left Behind\|helping a dazed and confused fellow soldier get to safety]]. * A very common story hook for ''[[Sgt. Rock]]'', in just about every variation. However, since life's never easy in Easy Company, they don't have what you'd call a stellar track record for survival. == Film == * Private Jones from the latter half of ''[[28 Days Later]]''. He's young, gawky and a bit of a coward, but hell, he's one of the last ten sane men in England. They ''have'' to keep him around. He basically exists to spur on the plot point of {{spoiler\|[[Mars Needs Women\|"Manchester needs women!"]] and to briefly wear a frilly pink apron before dying horribly}}. * Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) of ''[[Platoon]]'', which is essentially a film about this trope. * 'The Kid' from the uh, slightly predictable ''[[Doom]]'' movie. Proves to be {{spoiler\|a heroic ~~Redshirt~~[[Red Shirt]], when he refuses the crazed Sarge's order to slaughter innocent people and receives a bullet for it.}} * Manning's squad in ''[[When Trumpets Fade]]'' is composed entirely of this. * Corporal Upham, the translator brought along in ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]''. Not because he's new to the Army, but because his primary duties keep him away from the front lines and he's never fired his weapon since basic training. Which totally justifies his [[Heroic BSOD]]. ** {{spoiler\|Ends up avenging Cpt. Miller's death, as well as being one of only two members from the original team to survive the mission.}} * Used quite a bit in ''[[Starship Troopers]]''. A common phrase used to refer to new recruits is "fresh meat for the grinder". Quite funny, in a horrible sort of way. In the sequel a soldier says "Grow up big and strong, we need fresh meat for the grinder" to a newly-born child ''in the arms of its mother''. Upon receiving new arrivals at the end of the first one (earily reminiscent of [[World War II]] footage of the Nazis throwing in [[Child Soldiers]] by the end of the war), Rico asks "Who are all these kids?", the reply being "we just got 'reinforced'". Upon this he quips that they ([[Dawson Casting\|20-year old soldiers]]) are the "old men" now before proceeding to give them the exact same speech the unit commander he replaced did when he, Ace, and Dizzy joined the unit. * PFC Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) in ''[[Casualties of War]]'' is the newbie in this film, but in something like three weeks, he treats another newbie like new meat. * Private Charlie Shakespeare in ''[[Deathwatch (2002 film)\|Deathwatch]]'' lied about his age to enlist, so he's very new meat indeed. * One such guy almost gets assigned the callsign "New Guy" by his squadronmates in ''[[Flight of the Intruder (film)\|Flight Of The Intruder]]''. They instead decide to call him Razor, because he looked too young to be shaving yet. <ref> Later on, when he proves to be very [[Papa Wolf\|bloodthirsty]] when protecting downed aviators, he is renamed "Straight Razor".</ref> * ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'': Willard comments that the members of the boat transporting him are this : {{quote\|'''Willard''' : The crew were mostly just kids. Rock 'n' rollers with one foot in their graves}} == Literature == * Somewhat common in [[Warhammer ~~40000~~40,000]] literature... In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''Straight Silver'', many of the Ghosts are struck with how young their allies are. Kolea talks for a bit about "the kids" and how young they are; Criid, thinking for a moment that he meant her children, realizes that he meant the [[New Meat]] and that his memory was not healing. * In ''His Last Command'', Ludd must get the Dev Hetra, a unit of [[New Meat]], into battle. Through a combination of encouragement, threats, and [[Talk to the Fist]], he succeeds; the commander asks him to stay with them, to lead him the benefit of his experience, which lets him stay so cool under fire, because he must remember his first battle. Ludd, who is, in fact, in his first battle, says that, yes, you do remember it. Subverted in [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Eisenhorn]]'' novel ''Xenos''. Eisenhorn rescues some green soldiers from a "tetrascape", where [[Alien Geometries]] reign. Later, he chooses them over experienced soldiers to go into one. Wise of him: the green soldiers had actually seen a tetrascape before, and the experienced ones hadn't. As a result, the "greens" manage to shoot and kill dozens of enemies, but the elite Deathwatch Space Marine attached to Eisenhower's squad can't hit ''anything'' thanks to the effect the twisted geometries have on ballistics. In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' novel ''For The Emperor'', the PDF unit that tries to stop them from escorting the tau to their compound consists of young soldiers. They have to be massacred to the last man to prevent the word getting out, and Cain, and his soldiers, find it [[Dirty Business]]. * In ''Cain's Last Stand'', Cain's review of the new PDV forces inspires more cynical thoughts. * ''Duty Calls'' notes that Valhallans have a term for new meat: "FNG", or "fung" - short for "frakking new guy". One Valhallan unit known for its [[Leeroy Jenkins]] tendencies even has higher morale than would be associated with their usual losses, since these losses are mostly fungs. * The term "FNG" is used in real militaries, in either a ~~wierd~~weird kind of [[Truth in Television]] or as a shout out by the author; of course, here in the [[Real Life\|real world]] it stands for "[[Precision F-Strike\|fucking new guy]]" In William King's ''[[Warhammer ~~40000~~40,000]] [[Space Wolf]]'' novel ''Grey Hunter'', Ragnor presses into battle with young Marines. The sight of them makes him wonder whether he had ever looked as green to his ~~superiors -- and~~superiors—and conclude that he had. (Though a long time ago.) ** ''Fifteen Hours'' by Mitchel Scanlon is about an Imperial Guard recruit whose troopship ends up landing on the wrong planet. They were supposed to be going to put down a rebellion, but they literally fall right into the middle of an ongoing war between the Guard and an Ork Waaagh(!). Annoyingly, the main character gets referred to as 'new fish' at least once every other page. By the way, the title of the work refers to the projected survival time for a fresh Guardsman in a warzone. {{spoiler\|He beats the odds but not by very much...}} * Poor, poor ''[[Havemercy]]''{{'}}s Balfour, who has been subject to the other Airmen's harsh treatment, especially [[Jerk Jock\|Rook's]], even ''after'' he became an integral part of their ranks. * In ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'', the new recruits are almost useless, because they have no knowledge about trench warfare. The narrator says: "A man would like to spank them, they are so stupid, and to take them by the arm and lead them away from here where they have no business to be." * Any novice [[The Guardians\|Guardian]] is regarded as this. Jake's role as the [[New Meat]] is one of the subplots of ''Demon Night''. ** Bit character Pinter is referred as the FNG: the Fucking New Guy. * ''[[Codex Alera]]'' refers to new legionnaires as fish, since all they do is "flop around." The legion is question has enough that they're able to make an entire company out of them, unofficially dubbed the Knights Pisces. Then they [[Took a Level Inin Badass\|take a level in badass]] at about the same time Tavi pulls out the sharks. [[Appropriated Appellation\|They take the name with pride]], and use a shark silhouette as their emblem. == Live -Action TV == * Tina Hanlon from ''[[The Shield]]'' ** Julian is the New Meat in the early seasons, but {{spoiler\|gains the respect of the other cops by beating the hell out of a prisoner who tried to give his partner HIV}}. He is the one who trains Tina in the later seasons, so the same character gets to experience the trope from both sides. * The "nuggets", especially Hot Dog, Kat, and a gaggle of others from [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)\|the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica ~~Reimagined]]~~'']]. Hot Dog and Kat don't remain [[New Meat]] long, though; ''Battlestar Galactica'' wasn't a show where [[Status Quo Is God]]. While {{spoiler\|the rest of the newbie pilots are killed soon after, Kat becomes an experienced pilot that rivals Starbuck in terms of skill and attitude by the time of her death.}} Likewise, of the initial recruits, Hot Dog is {{spoiler\|the only one to survives the ending of the series. By that time, he is one of ''Galactica''{{'}}s most experienced and respected pilots. He even leads the Viper wing during the assault on the Colony.}} * Gwen Cooper in ''[[Torchwood]]''. * Worf's son Alexander Rozhenko serves this role in an episode of ''[[Star Trek]]: [[Deep Space Nine]]''. He's less fortunate than the average [[New Meat]]; the crew of a Klingon vessel accepts him, but only as the ship's resident [[Chew Toy]]. He seems to be a bit of an unlucky klutz, so they figure he's drawing any misfortune the ship and crew might suffer onto himself. Most of the time, said misfortune is more humiliating than harmful. * Holly Gribbs in the ''[[CSI]]'' [[Pilot]] fits the trope to a T: fresh out of the academy, visits each cast member in turn to introduce them to the audience, is given a pep-talk (by Catherine, who would later regret it) about the job, and is killed in her very first case when the suspect returns to the scene of the crime. This causes Grissom to be promoted to shift supervisor (and Brass is demoted back to Homicide,), whereupon he summons Sara Sidle to fill the vacant role. * In the [[Truth in Television\|ultra-realistic]] WWII drama ''[[Band of Brothers (TV series)\|Band of Brothers]]'', some replacements survive and become integrated into the unit... [[Red Shirt\|others don't]]. Veterans are bitterly hostile towards them; people depending on green recruits get killed. There is a fear of getting to know them that comes out as hate: "Two days later, there they are with their blood and guts hanging out and they're screaming for a medic, begging for their goddamn mother. You dumb fucks don't even know you're dead yet." The opening episodes show the entire company as [[New Meat]] since none of them have combat experience when they are sent into battle on D-Day. The viewpoint characters quickly learn how easy it is for a soldier to die when you are learning on the job. A later episode had a veteran return to the unit after spending a fair bit of time in the hospital recovering from a wound. He missed the harrowing experience of the Battle of the Bulge and his shell shocked comrades cannot relate to him anymore. They start treating him like [[New Meat]] which makes him quite angry since he was a veteran of D-Day and Operation Market Garden. ** Another episode set near the end of the war has a [[New Meat]] soldier assigned guard duty alongside a veteran who chews him out for his over-eagerness for battle. To the veteran, an "easy" post with warm meals and a bed to sleep in every night is the best thing to ever happen to him throughout the whole war. Later, the same veteran does show comfort to the [[New Meat]] when they find {{spoiler\|the concentration camps and the sights inside.}} * ''[[NYC 22]]'' follows six rookie officers from their first day at work. == Theater == * ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'': Christian obviously lacks combat experience and is bullied by the rest of the cadets. Fortunately for him, [[Fire-Forged Friends\|Cyrano helps him to be accepted after Christian demonstrates his valor]] [[Bullying a Dragon\|bullying Cyrano]] with a cool [[Hurricane of Puns]]. And then [[Red Shirt\|he dies in combat.]] His friend Ligniere (who is not even a warrior) realizes this and lampshades Christian’s status when Christian wants to defy Viscount de Valvert: {{quote\|'''LIGNIERE:''' Have a care! It is ''he who will kill you.''}} == Video Games == * Chitose fills this role in ''[[Galaxy Angel (video game)\|Galaxy Angel: Moonlit Lovers]]''. * Elena of the Turks in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', also a [[Naive Newcomer]] of the third person kind. She's dedicated to the job, but tries too hard, and is often mocked by the lazier members of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]]. * He's not quite the ''new'' kid, but no one's going to single out a [[Super Soldier\|Silencer]] for hazing, so the [[La Résistance\|Resistance fighter]] Private "Taxman" Andrews (he used to be from the equivalent of the ~~IRS--strike~~IRS—strike two) of ''[[Crusader: No Remorse\|Crusader]]'' pretty much fulfills the requirements of the [[Red Shirt]]. * The Rookie in ''Halo'' ODST. He's not ''exactly'' green, seeing as how he's a veteran in the Regular Marines, but in the eyes of the veteran Hell Jumpers he's an unproven FNG. ** Actually, he isn't new to being an ~~ODST--just~~ODST—just to the Squad. Same concept, though. * Every squad has a brave soldier who has to open the UFO doors and take a ton of reaction fire when you're raiding crashed alien ships in ''[[X-COM]]\|X-COM: UFO Defense]]''. ''This'' is that soldier. The rest are likely of a rank no lower than Sergeant. In all the ''X-com'' games, every soldier starts off as [[New Meat]], and usually not very good [[New Meat]]. The few soldiers that manage to survive the first few missions (in which they are completely unarmoured and wielding peashooters) generally ascend to godhood in terms of ability by the end of the game. * Except that, due to variable overflow, any stat growing over 255 will be lowered to (X-255). That means your god-like unit having 2 movement points, or fainting from low stamina. * ''[[Ace Combat]] 04'''s player character Mobius One is this at first, as the first mission in the campaign is his first mission. [[Ace Pilot\|By the end, though]]... ** Airman First Class Hans "Archer" Grimm from ''Ace Combat 5'' is introduced during an air raid on the player's air base with one of your wingmen incredulously reminding him he hasn't finished combat training yet, but he takes off anyway. Inverted in that while his later appearance in cutscenes shows us he is obviously at least five years younger and built smaller than the rest of [[The Squad]] (who were all [[New Meat]] themselves only a few missions ago), he's [[Ace Pilot\|good enough]] to contribute to the base defense, and is soon considered an ace by his peers once inexperience is no longer an issue. Later some rookie pilots show up who help very slightly for a few minutes before dying because they apparently couldn't point their nose at the sky for two or three seconds. * Benjamin Carmine in ''[[Gears of War]] 2'', who actually ends up {{spoiler\|surviving a lot longer than his (presumably more experienced) brother Anthony did in the first game}}. * Pretty much the new recruits in the ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' series. They join the party with no items equipped, no abilities mastered, and may be underleveled depending on the party's average level. By ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'', new recruits come with basic armor and a basic weapon that teaches them their first ability for their job. * Initiate Reddins in [[Fallout]] 3, who made the tragic mistake of not realizing that when several heavy, explosion-like sounds go off right next to you, you should probably move. Periphary text within the game notes that her funeral got canceled. Harsh. Line 103 ⟶ 102: '''Captain Price:''' Just another day at the office. And the bad news? '''Gaz:''' We got a new guy, fresh out of Selection. His name's Soap. }} ** Interestingly, in real life, Selection is a brutally difficult training and weeding-out process, and soldiers that get through it are considered by the rest of the world military ''incredibly'' [[Badass]]. That Price and Gaz think so low of Soap, despite the fact that he passed said [[Nintendo Hard]] [[Training ~~From~~from Hell]], shows exactly how ''good'' they are. * Yorito Nagai starts out as this in ''[[Siren (video game)\|Siren]] 2]]''. [[Took a Level Inin Badass\|He gets better]]. * Reinforcing troops in ''[[Company of Heroes]]'' often gets this sort of response, especially from Wehrmacht Grenadiers. {{quote\|'''Grenadier:''' Hey new guy, hope you got your shit together. '''Grenadier:''' Hey new guy, try not to fuck it up! }} Line 117 ⟶ 116: == Western Animation == * Alice Noretti in ''[[Exo Squad]]'' is a bit of a subversion. Her death actually has an impact on the main character that shows up well into the second season, even more so when the bad guys clone her... * Protesting out loud against the sacrificing of [[New Meat]] as a [[We Have Reserves\|mere diversion]] is what lead to Prince Zuko receiving his scar in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. {{reflist}} Line 123 ⟶ 122: [[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]] [[Category:The Squad]] [[Category:~~New Meat~~{{PAGENAME}}]]