This is because the international treaties that establish The Laws and Customs of War explicitly forbid the usage of mercenaries in warfare. Note that although this trope description uses the terms "PMC" and "mercenaries" interchangeably, in Real Life the distinction between them is extremely Serious Business. Their parent company usually has a name based loosely or thematically on "Blackwater" in a No Celebrities Were Harmed Expy of that real-life PMC examples include "Blackriver", "Red River", "Blackthorne", "Murky water", "Starkwood", "Bluewater", "Black Mountain", "Silverpool", and "Merryweather". Unless the writer's bent on defying What Measure Is a Mook?, they will almost never be the "good guys" in recent years. If former military, many will have been dishonorably discharged. They are portrayed when anything more than Faceless Goons as amoral, ethically challenged, and professional but hardly ever inclined to argue with Corporate Headquarters. Corporate mercs are usually depicted as being up to no good, or are the hand-puppets of some shadowy organization which is itself up to no good. In stark contrast, the " corporate mercenary" is usually just a Mook or Red Shirt of some kind, and the "character" takes the form of the PMC corporation itself. They will typically have some attention given to their, quite possibly colorful, personalities. This character is usually played moderately sympathetic, or at least as an antihero. The traditional mercenary who hires himself out (or himself and a dozen of his best buddies) is seen as somewhat honest, with at least a personal code of honor of some kind (even if it's just "do the job, get paid") determined to accomplish the mission for which he has been paid and takes his reputation very seriously and is scrappy yet skilled. In recent years, there's come to be a distinction between a " mercenary company" and " corporate mercenaries", especially in Western (American) television and movies. And if their clients run out of money before the fighting's done, things will get ugly in short order in one or more of many ways. On the other hand, they do have to deal with the risk of their employers double-crossing them when the job's done. If they get too enthusiastic about their job, they may become Blood Knights and try to start a War for Fun and Profit. These characters can be depicted as anything from heroic to villainous in a conflict, they usually are allied with the richest party's faction, but sometimes have a strict honor code that prevents them from switching sides mid-battle.
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