#military organization

[warfantasy]

Military Organization of Mordor

Armies of Mordor Issue of free will and discipline Orcs are sometimes believed to not have free will, but this appears to be incorrect. Witch-King commands with fear, which would be unnecessary if orcs had no free will at all: “His own folk quail at him, and they would slay themselves at his bidding.”. Even below Witch King, command appears to be based at least in part on physical strength and…

[courtoftheclueless]

we're watching SG1 again at home and I am once again reminded that my SI is introduced to the story by a half incoherent phone call to Jackson about how he's right there's alien technology in ancient ruind and she knows this because she accidentally "vaporized" her sister who was visiting her dig site

[elumish]

One thing I've noticed about a lot of organizations (e.g., monarchies, militaries) in fiction and especially fantasy is that they tend to have a Main Character issue--namely, that they're written and structured in such a way that, if the main character is removed from the equation, they fall apart.

Of course, this isn't inherently bad or even inherently unrealistic, but oftentimes they are presented as good (not in a moral sense but in an effectiveness sense) and long-lasting organizations that still somehow can't function without the main character, because the main character is The Smartest and The Strongest and The Royal-est and The Most Important.

In reality, one of the most important things for an effective and long-lasting organization is organizational resilience--the organization's ability to adapt to and survive disruptions, including the loss of key personnel. No single person's loss should stop the operations of the organization. Even the president has a line of succession for a reason.

There are whole professions around building and maintaining organizational resilience, and there's far too much to cover in any one post, but if you want to write an organization that's actually realistically effective/long-lasting, here are a few things to consider:

If a character falls in a hole (or is otherwise unreachable/unable to do their job), can someone else do the job? If not, why not (e.g., nobody else has the legal authority, nobody else has the ability, nobody else has the training, nobody else would be listened to in the same way)?

If something stops the organization from doing their job the normal way (e.g., the power is out, there's an earthquake, the sole person who can do it fell in a hole), is there another way for them to do that job?

Does the organization have plans, especially ones that cover what to do in case of emergency?

Are the strategists the same as the people putting themselves in harm's way?

This last one is a little different from the rest, but it's something I see in fantasy a lot--the main character is the one throwing themselves in harm's way but they're also the main strategist for whatever's going on. The problem with that is that, if something happens to them becuase they've thrown themselves in harm's way, the organization has now lost their strategist. Organizations need both tactitians and strategists, and they're generally not the same people.

These aren't the sum total of what make an organization resilient, but they are some things to think about if that's what the organization you're writing is supposed to be.

[janitorpostman]

people who are like "oh no they ruined Caitlyn she is on the bad side now" am I the only one glad that Caitlyn's character took this turn? She was the face of the enforcers to the viewers for such a long time. She was kind, compassionate and diligent, the perfect "good cop".

But that's not a fair representation of the enforcers now, is it.

Vi and Powder were orphaned by enforcers. Kind? No.

When in order to survive, they snuck into Piltover to steal goods to sell them, it was enforcers's job to catch and punish these kids, no questions about what kinda life drove these children to do that asked. Compassionate? No.

When Vi got kidnapped arrested. She was put in prison for 6+ years, I doubt there was ever a due court process to determine whether this child was really guilty and deserved imprisonment or not. Diligent? No.

[butchheffron]

spiers enamored with lip because lip can comfort the men of easy. because they can see him and listen to him and be put at ease which is something spiers can never do even if he wanted to because his reputation far precedes him. sure he can motivate easy when he has to but there’s always an element of fear. so when it turns out lip is not only willing to be around spiers but is in fact amazed by him… well…

[myymi]

tails when he makes it obvious who raised him >>>>

[tempesttamers]

Communication is so important to Javi, like Storm PAR jokingly calls him a helicopter dad because he has this almost-constant need to know where every person is at every moment in time (and maybe because he dabbled with helicopters in the military). Like every truck and most other pieces of their equipment have their own trackers connected to an app on their phones. And then before they separate for the night they have a brief meeting to go over the game plan for the next day, and then he’ll send a follow up text before going to bed that summarizes that discussion.

Javi also made sure that every member of his crew had wireless ear pieces to ensure that they stayed in constant communication with one another. It didn’t matter if you were in the same vehicle as someone else, it was a rule that every person must have their own in case anyone was separated. This meant when they inevitably leave the confines of their vehicles to deploy the radar equipment (or to seek shelter) they could still communicate.

[nukacourier]

Hmmm. Thinking

The way so many Fallout 4 fans baby Paladin Danse really gets under my skin for many reasons. I don't like it

[whump-in-the-night]

Something a little different from my usual fare today, but I want to talk about an interesting whump trope for team whump, military whump, cults, secret societies, etc: hazing, humiliating/painful initiation rituals, etc.

Since this is very much something that can happen irl (I was in greek life in uni; personally I was never hazed and my organization took that very seriously, but I did see a frat get shut down for hazing), I'm going to list trigger warnings at the top, right here: TW: hazing, humiliation, mentions of drugs and alcohol, mentions of nudity, mention of cults.

whumpee is a new member of a team/group/organization. To "prove" themselves "worthy" of being in the group by doing something dangerous or humiliating.

The hazing could involve use of drugs or alcohol, like making whumpee drink or do drugs.

Or they could make whumpee do something humiliating like making them dress in embarrassing/skimpy clothes or go nude

Maybe it's a small group of members who are facilitating the hazing. Maybe it's all of them. Maybe the leader is the one who is pushing the hazing

Justifying the hazing by claiming it promotes team/group bonding

This can work great for military squads initiating new soldiers

Or also. Consider. Secret society/cult having dangerous and/or humilating initiation rituals whumpee has to go through to join. Whumpee really wants to join, but are they willing to do the messed up stuff the whumpers want them to do?

Or, cults using hazing to keep members in line.

[verpineshatterrifle]

i fear for my sanity if i see one more post referring to the GAR when the op clearly means 'infantry'

[multiversal-pudding]

Enough fics of Sebastian’s lover/spouse going down and infiltrating/storming the facility to find him well actually not bc I love that s$&!

Do you know what I wanna see

I wanna see a fic where Sebastian’s MOTHER goes and raises hell looking for her long-dead son-

[redbean-nom]

the whole death watch/true mandalorians civil war is so weird in context because its like if a bunch of "good old days" religious conservatives got in a fistfight with 13th century crusade reenactors in the middle of an iowa cornfield

[odinsblog]

I am endlessly amused at deplorable Trump supporters who feign outrage when they’re called deplorable, and the garbage ass Trump supporters who get fake upset about being called garbage. They call everyone else all kinds of insulting names, but they suddenly become delicate little snowflakes when someone calls them out by their rightful names. Somewhere deep down inside they must know they’re all deplorable pieces of garbage.

[tomaturtles]

Coming up with some sonicverse lore for them for Art Fight.... Asuka is a child prodigy overachiever whose parents work at GUN who joined the Resistance during Forces, and Kaworu is a strange wet cat with weird powers she found at a test tube in an abandoned lab and brought back with her

[peachdues]

Me, researching for a fic and realizing that while blood transfusions have been around for centuries, blood typing wasn’t discovered until 1901 and its widespread use wasn’t until slightly later than when my fic is set

[rubbishraven]

🌀♻️🏵️

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