Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
Well... one just can't tell over the internet at times...
Kantai Collection - Fanfic Idea and Recs
- Thread starter sasahara17
- Start date
Nicholas
No longer teaching battlethings on a battleship
- Location
- Ashore again
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[Advertising for my workplace]
For those who don't know, Iowa has a twitch account! Join us this Saturday from 3PM-4:30PM Pacific Time for a World of Warships stream where we will talk to one of our volunteers and coworkers about his experiences both as a volunteer on USS Iowa as well as a CIWS tech aboard USS New Jersey!
P.S. @theJMPer You should join us! We have Jersey! Your following even got me to say her catch phrase on our last stream.
Hope we see you all there!
[/shameless advertising]
For those who don't know, Iowa has a twitch account! Join us this Saturday from 3PM-4:30PM Pacific Time for a World of Warships stream where we will talk to one of our volunteers and coworkers about his experiences both as a volunteer on USS Iowa as well as a CIWS tech aboard USS New Jersey!
P.S. @theJMPer You should join us! We have Jersey! Your following even got me to say her catch phrase on our last stream.
Hope we see you all there!
[/shameless advertising]
Whiskey Golf
Being of Editing & Technical Assistance
- Location
- Chained to my desk
The fandom took Yamaprise a lot more seriously than I ever did, lol.
You do realise I still have the link to the SV thread for GG in my sig, right?I thought about replying in kind, just to post a link to the FFN copy of KCGG for Whiskey Golf additional shame, but in the end thought against it.
Even then, this is the ideas and recommendations thread. So I still could. But I won't.
And also links for the FFN and SB rehosts.
- Location
- 'Murica
What, "Fuck you, I do what I want?"
Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
I need a fucking pie?
- Location
- Barcelona, Catalunya, EU (for now)
Well, there is some appeal to the pairing of two former enemies, regardless of if they faced each other in battle or not. It also happens to Bismark and Hood, or Bismark and Royal Oak.
I do. But a lot of people tend to ignore cluttered sigs full of links. Posting explicitly a link in a post is a different thing.You do realise I still have the link to the SV thread for GG in my sig, right?
Humans are weird like that.
Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
Uh, you mean Ark Royal, right?
- Location
- Barcelona, Catalunya, EU (for now)
<facepalms> 
Yeah. I confused those two. Similar names, you know.
Yeah. I confused those two. Similar names, you know.
Nicholas
No longer teaching battlethings on a battleship
- Location
- Ashore again
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Inter-VersaLoli
Delusional Aspiring Writer
- Location
- Singapore
Another worldbuilding question that's been bugging me so far: The question of ranks. What sort of ranks would make the most sense for Kanmusu to hold?
So all dedicated warship girls are, at least until the end of the Abyssal War, members of the military, amirite? That means they must hold some kind of rank. At first, I was thinking that they must be pretty high up there, as they're directly commanded by an Admiral. Then again, considering how many of them behave, it might not be that wise to hand them officer-level authority.
I guess what got me thinking about this subject is that I idly remembered a small worldbuilding factoid from Strike Witches/World Witches. The Witches in that series all have officer ranks despite most of them being teenagers, which is explained as so that they aren't taken advantage of by the more mundane servicemen (can't remember where I read this from).
So all dedicated warship girls are, at least until the end of the Abyssal War, members of the military, amirite? That means they must hold some kind of rank. At first, I was thinking that they must be pretty high up there, as they're directly commanded by an Admiral. Then again, considering how many of them behave, it might not be that wise to hand them officer-level authority.
I guess what got me thinking about this subject is that I idly remembered a small worldbuilding factoid from Strike Witches/World Witches. The Witches in that series all have officer ranks despite most of them being teenagers, which is explained as so that they aren't taken advantage of by the more mundane servicemen (can't remember where I read this from).
ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I personally go with them being considered Captains by default. Captain and ship all in one package, so to speak. It seems to vary from story to story, though; I know BelBat had something else, and I think it came up in a couple others.
Whiskey Golf
Being of Editing & Technical Assistance
- Location
- Chained to my desk
It depends on the author and the setting and how you wanna do things. GG has the USN shipgirls as officers but they're all doing non-shipgirl things in officer billets. BelaBatt has BBs as officers and DD as enlisted. In the worldbuilding for Eternity, the Japanese don't have rank for their shipgirls, but the Americans do; the average American shipgirl is an enlisted sailor of some kind, with only a few shipgirls like Jersey or Charlie being officers, and the shipgirls selected for battlefield promotion to officer are shipgirls who are in a leadership position, such as Jersey who's the shipgirl OIC for San Diego's shipgirl det, with Charlie as her 2IC. Even then, Jersey's a Lieutenant and Charlie's a Lieutenant Junior Grade; they're never getting past O-3 because, like Hassan the Assassin from Starship Troopers, they don't have the military education necessary for them to advance higher.
In @XenaC 's A Sea of Stars, we see that Fubuki, Suzy, and Poi are junior military officers (IIRC Suzy is a JG while Poi and Buki are LTs), but Graf Spee meanwhile is a Captain. Otoh Graf is also a veteran who's been doing this a bit longer than the DDs, so that's another factor.
- Location
- Central Standard Time
Huh.
Watched.
In the world I'm slowly building, I think I'll go with making everyone midshipmen/junior officers or warrant officers.
- Location
- Little Red Dot
Ah, a rec - an honor.
Also, it's Graf Zeppelin - the carrier, not the pocket battleship. That said, they're not quite as far apart in practice as they once may have been. Carrier doctrine no longer lives on in a pre-starfighter spacefaring age and will not be revived till they become any more than very selectively viable. Which is why she's got some sick guns thrown on in addition to having a complement of Shipgirl Magick Planes (TM).
===
And as to ranks and the rationale behind them...ultimately, three major questions require answering in relation to shipgirls and ranks:
- What sort of authority do such ranks hold in the military context of your story world?
- What are the requirements and responsibilities associated with said levels of authority?
- What role do the military authorities of that world and time envision shipgirls taking on?
Assuming you do wish to justify this, as long as you have a internally consistent answer to that question and put that across decently enough to your readers, you should be fine.
Kyte
Never quacked for this
I recall posting about this in the SB mirror.
Imo, for a contemporary type military, and assuming shipgirls don't magically get knowledge from the people that crewed them: open a job type (rating, MOS, whatever is appropriate to the organization) that matches what they do (namely, command a single full fledged combat vessel, aka themselves) and start them as NCOs on E-4.
There's better ways to deal with rank abuse than making them officers. Being an officer means having a capacity to lead and take decisions that shipgirls wouldn't have on account of a lack of education on the subject. They can earn those ranks same way as anyone else.
Whiskey Golf
Being of Editing & Technical Assistance
- Location
- Chained to my desk
Coming back to this, I think you've gotten this mixed up with nurses in WW1 and WW2. Army nurses in the US Army were commissioned as officers to avoid fraternisation with enlisted soldiers.
Given that officers and enlisted aren't supposed to fraternise, making the strike witches officers has that barrier of sorts.
....the lazier explanation is that they just get the same ranks their historical counterparts get. Note Adolfina Gallard, a General before she's 20, because Adolf Gallard IRL ended the war as a General. Not also that not everybody's an officer - Lynne is a Sergeant, and Miyafujo is a Petty Officer.
Anyhow, if American ship girls have rank and a rating, even if they're enlisted instead of officers, they're still going to be under the legal protections and obligations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
.... Which also means any ship girl carrying on with her admiral is at least an Article 32 hearing before moving to court martial.
CompassJimbo
Where’s Your North?
- Location
- The former Rubber Capital of the World
Well, unless the setting justifies it somehow, but I can definitely see the resulting scandal blowing up quite spectacularly..... Which also means any ship girl carrying on with her admiral is at least an Article 32 hearing before moving to court martial.
- Location
- Barcelona, Catalunya, EU (for now)
Fusou-chaaaaaan! Someone's talking about us!.... Which also means any ship girl carrying on with her admiral is at least an Article 32 hearing before moving to court martial.
"How nice. And what do they say, Admiral?"
Errr... Something that ends in "court martial"...
"Oh."
Whiskey Golf
Being of Editing & Technical Assistance
- Location
- Chained to my desk
Doesn't matter, UCMJ is very clear: no officer/enlisted relationships, no relationships between a superior officer and subordinate in the same chain of command. You can skate somewhat if the relationship is prior to joining up - guy I knew was a Marine infantry officer, his wife was an Army Nurse Sergeant. They'd gotten married before she enlisted.What if their rating specifically nulls those rules.
Pyeknu
Cross-Dimensional Magical Sith Lady
- Location
- Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
That's why I have "pay ranks" in 7SG. Shipgirls don't have command responsibilities concerning anyone other than other shipgirls unless so delegated by the human admiral in charge of them. In the Commonwealth navies (Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), all shipgirls have equivalent "pay ranks" according to what their captains held when they were ships (CVs, BBs, CLs as captains [navy], DDs as commanders, FFs, SS's and CVEs as lieutenant-commanders and PCs and PCMs as lieutenants [navy]).
Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
So in other words, you want shipgirls to be paid complete and utter crap for risking their lives. E1-E2 earn less then $2,000 a month in the USN. It's not until you reach E7 that you start seeing one earn close to $50,000. On the Officer side, a LT earns between $48,850 and $79,000.
But hey, if you want to pay those actually doing the fighting almost no money, go right on ahead, dude.
Well, they at least worth rank of specialist simply because what they are. Shooting big guns with little expenditure of ammo and food wasn't something that can be learned by anyone.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Given their status as extremely valuable combat units, I think a large amount of leeway would be granted. A happy shipgirl is a motivated fighter..... Which also means any ship girl carrying on with her admiral is at least an Article 32 hearing before moving to court martial.
Some key parts here to consider: the big thing is 'same chain of command'. An enlisted and officer can be married without any problems as long as they're in separate units and have no influence over each other. Within, they better be a pre-existing relationship, and the US makes strong efforts to make sure they are never in the same chain. Admittedly, someone 'crossing the fence' like that will get some eyebrows unless they're pretty far apart.
There's also the route I suggested and the OP ran with for Gale: Warrant Officer. Not an enlisted sailor, and not in the chain of command, but ranked and recognized for special expertise and job slots. In the age of sail, Warrants were things like the ship's Doctor or chief Carpenter, skilled trades that were certainly not common enlisted tasks, but not in the chain of command at all. Make the shipgirls Warrants, and you sidestep a lot of things.
You're not quite on the right scale. I was making north of $60k a year as an E-6 thanks to things like Housing Pay (another $1000/month in my area). And that's in straight pay. You also get full health coverage for your entire family, which is worth another $10k a year easily.