This is Rank (July 5, 2017)

[Bandit LOAF]

Ever wonder how much thought goes into something as simple as the rank insignias characters wear? Today, you can examine the original 'pitch' for ranks in Wing Commander III made as the plan for the game's full motion video was being established. Many of these are familiar from the game itself, such as Captain Eisen's solid gold Captain's bar. Still others, like the Lieutenant Commander, Commander and most of the flag ranks, were changed in later games (you can see all of the known canon insignia here.) Others, like Ensign and Ensign, 2nd Class, have never been used 'in lore'! The accompanying document was eventually turned into the GIF on ranks included in Victory Streak. This seems to be the origin of one long-running error: having Major General listed as above Lieutenant General (while a Major is above a Lieutenant, the general officer titles are revesed in real life.)






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Original update published on July 5, 2017

 

[Mace]

Commodore was introduced after this was done?

 

[Quarto]

Fun. Looks like this is the only time they actually attempted to explain how naval and space force ranks coexist within a single unified structure (...or, for that matter, the fact that it is a single structure). It's interesting that the descriptive elements of this document never made it into Victory Streak or anywhere else, even just the internal bible. I guess for the Victory Streak, it would have been very hard material to insert ("hey, officers, you've been serving in the military for years, but... have you ever wondered what determines whether you're navy or space force? Oh, you learned that in first year of the academy. Oh, well, we'll tell you anyway"), and then it probably just sorta fell by the wayside when they put the bible together, as most other in-progress development documents did.

The question is, even if the document was forgotten, did they still stick to this convention internally? I guess the first time this convention was contradicted would be in the Kilrathi Saga manual, where Blair and Angel in the WC2 section of Blair's scrapbook are presented with naval ranks. Or, I suppose Action Stations might have been first (with Tolwyn as a fighter-flying ensign), but that one could actually be argued as dating back to a very different time in the Confed forces.