This reminds me of my relatively new pet peeve when watching any military element in a movie. Every time they gather in a room, the soldiers arrange themselves

This reminds me of my relatively new pet peeve when watching any military element in a movie. Every time they gather in a room, the soldiers arrange themselves at attention as scenery. I get that it's mostly symbolic of how organized and dedicated they are, but having been in the military, the last thing a soldier is looking to do is stand at attention. Movie soldiery (wide term to include knights, personal bodyguards, etc...) have this innate knowledge on how to form ranks and break ranks in perfect unison with no commands. The professional military is relatively rare throughout history, but is somehow idealized and projected onto those factions which did well militarily. Realistically the Spartans only had to be a little better man for man than those around them in order to be the best in the world.