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Basic Trope: The overall boss is An Officer and a Gentleman, his subordinate is Sergeant Rock.
- Straight: Capt. Smooth and Sgt. Rough are a Good Cop, Bad Cop double act.
- Exaggerated: Smooth is a meek, polite Ensign Newbie Desk Jockey, Rough is a loud, sadistic Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Downplayed: Smooth is often softer-spoken and friendlier than Rough, but both are capable and respected.
- Justified: Capt. Smooth is in charge of strategising and relaying commands to the sergeant. Rough is in charge of keeping an entire squad of soldiers disciplined and doing what they're supposed to.
- Inverted: Captain Smooth is a bloodthirsty, foul-mouthed brute who earned his command via Field Promotion. The sarge is a likeable Father to His Men.
- Subverted:
- The neat, softly-spoken captain relates his orders to the sergeant, who... turns out to be even smoother.
- Once you get to know them, the captain is a Soft Spoken Sadist while the sergeant is a Boisterous Bruiser.
- Double Subverted: In front of Captain Smooth, Sgt. Rough emulates his calm captain, but as soon as he's gone it turns out the sarge is just another Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Parodied: In a montage where each officer passes on a piece of bad news to his superior, we see that the Rough-Smooth-Rough-Smooth juxtaposition repeats itself all the way up the chain of command.
- Deconstructed: The men resent the sergeant all the more for seeing their captain as such a Reasonable Authority Figure, and the resentment builds to an incident of Unfriendly Fire. The captain, for whom this trope is a favoured mode of command, simply appoints Sergeant Tough to take his place.
- Reconstructed: Sergeant Tough is better at keeping his brash treatment of the men to limits that won't cause them to hate him. He's still unpolished and comes down harshly on insubordination, but he's also affable and fair.
- Zig Zagged: At first the captain is the rough one and the sergeant the kind one, but after the sergeant blackmails the captain into being compliant, the sergeant's sadistic urges go unchecked. Ultimately, the sergeant discovers that his original method produced better results and returns to it.
- Enforced: "We want the Captain to be An Officer and a Gentleman, but that doesn't really work in the Training From Hell scenes, and might come across as ineffectuality in action sequences. Let's make his underling more in-your-face."
- Lampshaded: Upon meeting the sergeant, one of the unfortunate soldiers complains, "Why is it that all the good captains have such scary sergeants?"
- Invoked: The captain thinks the men will be more inclined to obey their orders if they see a cool, collected, aloof "brain" handing them down and a loud, scary "mouth" dishing them out.
- Exploited: A private jumps at an opportunity to work directly for the captain, hoping he'll have to spend less time in the presence of the sergeant.
- Defied: "If any of you little worms have got a problem with my leadership style... If any of you think me and the cap are playing Good Cop, Bad Cop with you, you should know... I'm the nice one!
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs: The officers are essentially a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.
"Sergeant, direct the men back to Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough, if you'd be so kind."
"You heard the Captain! Now saddle up, you maggots! Double time! Move it move it move it!"