Military training strips down individuality then creates teams. All you have in battle are those few soldiers right beside you. Some fellow warriors are people you might not like at all in regular life, but you are bonded by the necessity of collaboration for survival.
Shared intense experiences create strong common bonds that can last a lifetime.
How it serves us now
The tools of war have gotten more sophisticated and allow people to fight from safer distances. There’s not very much warrior bonding going on between drone pilots sitting in cool cubicles on a military base in Arizona. In the hills of Afghanistan, yes.
Heroic events also happen without being shot at. Actions for the greater good must be involved while facing a large danger such as natural disasters or hostile groups of people. Police seldom deploy in more than groups of two, sometimes these days just one, but SWAT teams and bomb squads have more potential for warrior bonding. Firefighters typically protect just a portion of a city and are usually working to save property and rescue people. This shouldn’t make firefighters seem less than. Certainly the firefighters who ran into the WTC, up scores of flights of stairs, and died to save others did it willingly and on the fly. Those who survived are no doubt bonded forever with each other. The TV series Rescue Me centers on the loving bond between those firefighters.
On a smaller scale non-warriors can experience some aspects of this Warrior Love when they share stressful situations that demand teamwork, a common cause, and personal sacrifice such as in team sports.
The Warrior Archetype has been weakened of late by fighting unwinnable wars, imperialist actions for extraction capitalism, and co-opting the term “warrior” for such ignoble causes as holiday shopping and business travel. Regardless, the Warrior Bonding can still occur.
Do keep in mind that old saying of Honour Among Thieves – even your bad guys can share Warrior Love.
Examples in Myth and Legend
The Arthurian cycle of myths centering on the Knights of the Round Table. Tennyson’s Idylls of the King is one of the best sources for these stories.
Jason and the Argonauts – some of the guys on this quest for the Golden Fleece were already closely knit by familial or romantic ties, but the dangers of the journey forged strong bonds among them all, except for a few who strayed off and one who was left behind because he was sick and smelled bad. Tomboy Atalanta was also on the quest and bested the guys in most warrior skills.
In the Iliad it’s more individuals out for themselves and the Greeks are particularly fractious, but the relationship between the hero Achilles and his beloved cousin Patroclus was especially close and was the trigger for a major turning point in the story. Achilles was pouting in his tent and his absence from the battlefield allowed the Trojans to gain ground. Patroclus put on Achilles armor, rallied the troops, and went up against the Trojan hero Hector. But Hector killed him and took the armor for himself. Wracked by grief, Achilles took the field again to avenge his beloved warrior-cousin-friend: This roused the Greeks, who ultimately won the war. Achilles slayed Hector, then died himself, to be re-united in Hades with Patroclus.
The Amazon warrior women were bound to each other by philosophy and their unusual cultural set-up – they only used men to make babies and were said to have let the male babies die. Men were the enemy and no quarter was given. Except in a few instances they all lived to regret, including Hercules and Theseus who infiltrated and seduced away some of the women and Belerophon who conquered them.
The Norse Valkyries were war goddesses bonded in their mission to pluck dying warriors from the battlefields and carry them lovingly up to Valhalla, the warrior heaven where they ate, drank, and partied for eternity.
Examples in History and Current Events
Alexander the Great inspired such strong loyalties among his soldiers that they followed him all the way from Macedonia to India and back.
Julius Caesar and Marc Antony were battle buddies and then empire builders together until separated by love for the same woman, Cleopatra Queen of Egypt.
We typically think of warrior bonding between males. But what about women and women? Or women and men?
Boedicea was queen of the Britons who led her people to victory against the invading Roman Empire.
As our current day military begins to become more inclusive there will be more warrior bonding between men and women.
Doctors and nurses in war zones, like the warriors, form strong bonds from shared danger and serving a higher cause. The TV series M*A*S*H* and China Beach poignantly tell many of those stories.
Examples in Media
Spock and Kirk in Star Trek Into Darkness. Both of them defy regulations to save each other. The telling scene is when they place their hands against either side of the window of the radiation decompression chamber and hold a pure, loving look. Both now know they would always be there for each other, no matter what.
Battlestar Galactica has some of the best Warrior Love ever on many levels betwen many characters. Babylon 5 is also rich with that special type of love.
Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus in HBO’s Rome.
Sharpe’s Rifles and Game of Thrones both feature Sean Bean and are both rich with Warrior Bonding.
Check out Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort for a really hot look between endangered National Guard warriors Powers Booth and Keith Carradine.
In Zulu, a small group of British soldiers fights Zulu tribesmen in South Africa and a number of them survive, even winning the respect of their enemy for being such worthy opponents.
In the first three Star Wars movies Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2D2 and C3P0 are Warrior-bonded in their fight against Darth Vader, the Emperor, and the evil Empire.
The characters in Courage Under Fire exhibit warrior bonding, but after Captain Walden’s (Meg Ryan) death, the group mentality dissolves into every man covering his own ass.
Artists and entertainers who served in the military often carried a special popularity which we might well call Warrior Bonding between those on the stage and screen and their fellow military comrades out in the audience. When selecting a film to see, veterans may be more inclined to choose one starring a fellow veteran.
Musicians include: John Philip Sousa, Rudy Vallee, Glenn Miller, Dave Brubeck, Elvis Presley, Kris Kristofferson, Josephine Baker (served in the French Resistance), and many more.
Actors include Abbott and Costello, Eddie Albert, Alan Alda of the popular long-running M*A*S*H*, James Arness of Gunsmoke, Charles Durning, Gene Autry, Jimmy Stewart, Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny (Bugs was given an official service record in the U.S. Marine Corps), Bill Cosby, Buddy Ebsen (Coast Guard), Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, James Garner, Arthur Godfrey, Bob Hope, Lee Marvin, Ed McMahon, Audie Murphy (most decorated soldier of WWII), Tyrone Power, Jason Robards, George C. Scott (who later became Patton in the movie of the same name), James Whitmore, Montel Williams, Jonathan Winters, and many more.
Examples in Music
"American Soldier" – Toby Keith
“Angel Flight” - Radney Foster
“Ballad of the Green Berets” from the movie Green Berets
"Over the Hills and Far Away" – Sharpe’s Rifles TV series
"Panzerlied" – the Panzer Song, Battle of the Bulge [check out the further stanzas at end of this YouTube video]
Songs of the Spanish Civil War
Symbols
Swords
Flags
Crossed rifles
Clasped hands
Carrying a wounded comrade
Slogans
Huddled together under fire
Key Element – The Shining Moment
Facing the battle, the fire, the villain and proceeding forward anyway. Not alone, but with the “band of brothers”.
Pulling the comrade out of harm’s way, carrying her to safety.
Jumping in to take the hit and save others, as Woody Harrelson did in Thin Red Line.
&
nbsp; Comforting wounded and dying comrades.
A blood-brother oath where the individuals ritually cut themselves and mix their blood.
Written Descriptions
Use words such as: band, banded, band of brothers or sisters, groups, troup, company, come together, etc. to denote the unity of the inviduals.
Rather than listing the individual names all the time, in moments of emotion and action that embody the concept of Warrior Bonding, call them by the name of their group: Easy Company, Chosen Men, the Brotherhoods, 2/5, the club, the ladies, etc.
Tell us about the strength of the bonds. Is it “We always bring back our dead, we never leave a brother behind” or “Every man for himself”?
Use the group’s slogan because of the shared identity associated with it: “Remember the Alamo”, “Retreat, Hell”, “Gary Owen” (Irish regiments always shouted it as they were going over the wall). Look up the slogans of the Scottish clans, and of military regiments around the world. Slogans both reflect and add to the creation and refinement of the myth of group. The movie We Were Soldiers uses a lot of these to advance character development and to further illustrate the bonding between soldiers.
Have an outsider comment about the warriors. “When these men were young, they saved the world”, said President Bill Clinton in Normandy at a D-Day event honouring the men who stormed the beaches and helped end WWII, as portrayed in Saving Private Ryan.
Cinematic Techniques
Shooting from the deck in an up-angle to the group charging into the fray; this angle will increase the audience perception of your characters as being larger-than-life. This can denote them being on a higher (usually the Aspirational Solar Plexus) chakra with the commitment to each other and their cause, not just to sheer survival at the lower Root chakra. The head takes up most of the frame, the steep up-angle indicates their commitment -- “I’m going to go kill the enemy, save my fellow soldiers, and protect my country”.
Or as in Henry V, Independence Day, and Patton, place the person giving the inspiring speech up higher than the others. And show the reverse angle of the troops looking up at the speaker. This posture and angle promotes the worshipful attitude in many of the soldiers towards their leaders.
Show arms going over shoulders in a comradely way. A two-shot of soldiers cradling their wounded brothers as in Thin Red Line when Witt is a medic tending to bloodied soldiers in the river.
Wide angle of entire battlefield, then push in to small clusters of the group.
Conclusion
This kind of love can be the magnet that brings disparate people together and the glue that keeps them together in the face of overwhelming opposition.
Warrior Love can be the culmination of personal trials and character arcs taking someone to a higher level of commitment and sacrifice.
When you write about Warrior Bonding you are touching upon one of the strongest emotions humans experience. It is forged in the fires of danger and death. It is about loyalty, it is about sacrificing one’s self for the other and for the greater good.
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Exercise #1 – Awareness
What is the strongest instance of Warrior Love you can name from myth, history, media, or real life?
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Exercise #2 – Writing
Write an exchange of 5-6 lines of dialogue between a troubled warrior who cannot open up to a civilian loved one.
Re-write the scene with the troubled warrior opening up to a beloved fellow warrior.
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Further Reading
Art of War, The by Sun Tzu - Samuel B. Griffith
Awakened Warrior, The - Rick Fields, Editor
Book of Five Rings, The - Miyamoto Musashi / Victor Harris
Campaigns of Alexander, The - Arrian
Civil War, The - Julius Caesar
Descartes’ Error - Antonio R. Damasio
Dictionary of Military Terms – Arcos
Don Juan, The series - Carlos Castenada
Heroines - Norma Lorre Goodrich
Infantry Attacks - General Erwin Rommel
Killer Angels, The - Michael Shaara
Leadership and the New Science - Margaret J. Wheatley
Lincoln on Leadership - Donald T. Phillips
Mysteries of Mithras, The - Franz Cumont
Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bi-cameral Mind, The - Julian Jaynes
General George S. Patton, Jr. - books by and about
Red Team, Green Team, etc. – Richard “Demo Dicky” Marcinko
Roots of Strategy - Brig. General T.R. Phillips
Shamballa, Sacred Path of the Warrior - Chogyam Trungpa
Super Faculties and their Culture - Manly P. Hall
Warriors’ Words, Quotations - Peter G. Tsourus
Women Warriors, A History - David E. Jones
Further Viewing
Apocalypse Now
Backdraft
Band of Brothers
Battle of Los Angeles
Born on the 4th of July
Braveheart
Brothers – Danish film
Coming Home
Deerhunter
Dune - especially the Fremen
Full Metal Jacket
G.I. Jane
Galaxy Quest
Henry V
Hercules – TV series starring Kevin Sorbo
Hurt Locker, The
Mulan
Platoon
Private Benjamin
Purple Heart
Red Dawn
Saving Private Ryan
Star Trek(s)
Starship Troopers
Stripes
The Best Years of Our Lives
Tropic Thunder
We Were Soldiers
Xena: Warrior Princess
Zero Dark Thirty
Zulu
Web links
Alpha Babe Academy http://alphababeacademy.com/
First Earth Battalion http://www.firstearthbattalion.com/
Joseph Campbell Foundation www.jcf.org
MYTHWORKS www.mythworks.net
Air War College http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/
Army War College http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/about/aboutUs.cfm
National War College http://www.ndu.edu/nwc/index.cfm
National Defense University http://www.ndu.edu/
Navy War College http://www.usnwc.edu/
Royal Military Academy, England http://www.army.mod.uk/training_education/training/17057.aspx
West Point Military Academy http://www.usma.edu/SitePages/Home.aspx
CHAPTER FIVE
LOVE FOR ANIMALS
Out of the earth
I sing for them
a Horse nation...
I sing for them
Out of the earth
I sing for them
the animals...
I sing for them.
Teton Souix Indians
Awwww, isn’t it precious!
Some of the purest love on the planet is for and from our pets. Except for cats, who obviously consider humans fortunate if the cat pays it any attention at all.
Some of the most unconditional love some humans can bestow is upon their pets. Which is sad as those people often only seem able to relate to animals, not to other humans.
Pets are often thought of as members of the family. Depending on the family in your story, the pets may be more affectionate and loyal than some of the humans.
You know the saying that people and their dogs look alike? What kind of dog would your Protagonist have? Your Antagonist?
As opposed to pure animals, humans-as-animals such as werewolves and mermaids is a different kind of love and will be touched upon in a later Lesson.
The Defining Myth
In The Odyssey, when Odysseus returns home from Troy to Ithaca after a twenty year absence it is only his faithful old dog Argo who recognizes his much older, travel-worn master. Argo wags his tail, limps over and licks Odysseus’s calloused hand, t
hen dies, content that they had at last been reunited.
Exemplar Movie
The Jungle Book
Why it exists (evolutionary back-story)
The domestication of animals is one of the biggest leaps in cultural development in the history of humanoids, going way back to Cro-Magnon and Neanderthals at least.
Most humans must interact somehow with the local fauna. Depending on the ferocity, timidity, and taste of those animals, they were feared, became friends or food.
While a number of mythologies give humans dominion over animals, it is relatively few animal species that have ever been tamed. We still share the planet with thousands of species that could care less about humans and who basically ignore us, until our actions affect their well-being.
Animals in the wild do exhibit unique characteristics which have become examples in folklore on how to understand humanity. The hive-mind of bees is like the mob-mind of rampaging humans. Human predation from the sexual to the financial reflects the prey-predator symbiosis of lions and wildebeest.
The pack hierarchy of wolves and other canines is relfected in the structure of many societies, militaries, and businesses.
How it works (physiology & psychology)
Most animals are downright adorable in their youth. Just like with human babies, it’s part of Nature’s way to ensure we don’t just toss out the mewling, crying, messy little things in a fit of fatigue or pique. The sense of protecting and nurturing a vulnerable creature plugs into our need to be needed.
Show Me the Love! Page 5
