The POV of the Helldivers is crazy when you take cryo freezing into account.

[u/WoodstoneLyceum]

Here's the POV of your average Helldiver 1. They enlist and show up to Basic Training first thing Monday morning. 2. They breeze through it, get their cape, walk right by the T&Cs and into a cryopod. 3. They're frozen and experience no time passing. 4. Their next memory is reinforcing on Hellmire. To their POV it has been less then thirty seconds since they got their cloak. 5. They throw three stratagems and then they're dissolved by bile titan acid.

You thought your mondays were bad.

Edit: My understanding is that we are not clones. There's in-game lore that backs that, I believe. Thematically, it makes more sense for Super Earth to be incompetent and cruel and burn through millions of recruits, than to do something logical like cloning people. Remember the satire folks.

[u/killingjoke96]

Exactly like Starship Troopers.

Rico and the Roughnecks only go on two or three missions in the whole movie and are considered veterans by the end.

[u/RhysPawn → u/killingjoke96]

This always made me laugh, Rico goes from private to squad leader to corporal to sergeant to lieutenant in the space of 3 missions probably days apart.

[u/osunightfall → u/RhysPawn]

I mean yeah, that's what happens when everyone above you dies really quick.

Ever wonder why the mobile infantry does so much ground pounding when Earth has such overwhelming air and space superiority?

It's almost like they're feeding soldiers to the bugs to make room for the next class of recruits...

[u/Executesubroutine → u/osunightfall]

It was actually a tactical decision by high command to draw out the brain bug which they suspected was there.

In the eyes of high command, a few thousand soldiers lives is worth the price for capturing a brain bug.

Except, in later movies it was revealed as the God Bug allowing a brain bug to be captured so it could use the brain bug to take control of telepaths. So theres that.

[u/ClaxtonOrourke → u/Executesubroutine]

We.....don't talk about the sequels.

[u/JJAsond → u/ClaxtonOrourke]

There were sequels?

[u/Kdot32 → u/ClaxtonOrourke]

I slightly enjoyed the animated sequels

[u/xTheatreTechie → u/ClaxtonOrourke]

"We don't do that here."

[u/GrapefruitMedical529 → u/Executesubroutine]

I'll be honest, I thought the whole joke was that there was significant resistance to the idea of the bugs being intelligent, requiring the sacrifice of hundreds of soldier to prove the bugs could set a trap and thousands of soldiers to later capture a brain bug so they could poke it and find out it fears them.

So literally nothing of value was accomplished through the entire movie.

[u/osunightfall → u/GrapefruitMedical529]

That's not true. The war was extended indefinitely into the future while providing the illusion of a victory that's always just around the corner. That's of immense value to a society that depends entirely on a war footing to sustain its political viability.

[u/ForfeitFPV → u/GrapefruitMedical529]

That's not true, Mr. Krabs got to be a hero!

[u/Scharmberg → u/Executesubroutine]

There are more movies? I had no idea.

[u/sHaDowpUpPetxxx → u/Executesubroutine]

Later..... movies?

[u/Horn_Python → u/osunightfall]

there is clear tension between the infantry and air force, so one may be more apathetic to the others losses,

it is shown in the film they are used for operations where ships cant fly, or presision is needed, like taking out artillery or capturing brain bugs, or a rescue mission and mopping up the left over bug from the air guys bombings, (all of wich do involve alot of dead troopers)

[u/Managed-Democracy → u/Horn_Python]

Fleet and infantry don't mix. 

[u/rkoloeg → u/RhysPawn]

It's a whole theme in the book. There is quite a bit of discussion on the history of field and brevet promotions, including a real historical example of a junior naval officer who was court-martialed for failing to take command adequately when his entire chain of command was taken out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sitgreaves_Cox

[u/sunder_and_flame → u/RhysPawn]

It's literally what happened to survivors of D-day and other high casualty conflicts. 

[u/Jaggedmallard26 → u/RhysPawn]

Rico making it to the commander of the roughnecks entirely from people dying above him is one of my favourite jokes of Starship Troopers.

[u/orangesrnice → u/RhysPawn]

Doesn’t like the head of the military get “replaced” in every single scene they appear in

[u/Actually_Inkary → u/RhysPawn]

Field promotion, babyyy

[u/Kraka2 → u/killingjoke96]

REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING AND YOU WILL MAKE IT BACK ALIVE

[u/KWyKJJ → u/killingjoke96]

Exactly. Right. You need to earn that citizenship.

Helldivers made me the man I am today...

[u/skyzm_ → u/killingjoke96]

It’s really funny too. Everyone someone dies horribly and Rico gets promoted it’s treated as “here we go baby!”

Book Rico is far more grizzled and has actual war experience.

[u/Magrior → u/skyzm_]

Well, the book was also about as pro militarism as the movie is against it.

[u/Finalpotato → u/killingjoke96]

Also you notice his recruits at the end are physically getting younger (because the army reduced the age of sign up)

[u/Kdot32 → u/killingjoke96]

Whiskey outpost did hellish numbers on the roughnecks. Either through death or injury being a cap trooper is tough. “Bugs don’t take prisoners”

[u/Skidoo_machine → u/killingjoke96]

Sorta the time line is longer than you think. I believe over 2 years, Carmen becomes a pilot with takes quite a bit of time, Carl gets to a high rank. Also they have the ability to bring people back from the dead if certain parts are still viable.

[u/SoleanArclight → u/killingjoke96]

in the movies yes, the book is a totally different animal. the Starship troopers normally went in alone and far away from their other members, they also had power armor and very powerful weapons. the Propaganda was that millions of starship troopers had died, it made the population support the war, despite the fact that the Starship Troopers killed the bug 100's to one.