You Are in Command Now: Difference between revisions

A character, working in the military, is suddenly forced into duties that by all rights ought to belong to someone of much higher rank; everyone who ought to be doing those duties has unexpectedly found themselves [[Everybody's Dead, Dave|dead]], indisposed, or unavailable.

 

 

 

Often this requires them to press [[Field Promotion|juniors]] and otherwise [[Closest Thing We Got|unsuitable people]] into roles as their subordinates. Occasionally, the promotee subsequently becomes [[Drunk with Power]].

 

 

Usually the "promotion" involved is strictly temporary. Either the people who are supposed to do the job will return from whatever made them unavailable in the first place, or a replacement will eventually appear. On the other hand, in a continuing series, a stint of '''You Are in Command Now''' is not exactly a hindrance to [[Rank Up|promotion]], since it shows [[Leader]]ship.

== Advertising ==

* In a 1990s radio campaign for a Vancouver RV dealership called Fraser Way, the owner of a competing dealership needed ideas on how to beat Fraser Way's deals, so every employee became the Sales Manager for a few seconds.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** In the movie ''The Diamond Dust Rebellion'', Rangiku has to take temporary command of Squad 10 after Captain Hitsugaya turns up missing. She does a damn good job of it, too.

** In canon, Lieutenants Izuru Kira and Shuuhei Hisagi take command of their squads after {{spoiler|their Captains, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tousen, turn traitor}}. Momo Hinamori would've done the same due to {{spoiler|her Captain, [[Big Bad|Sousuke Aizen]] also being revealed as a traitor}}, but she was both physically and emotionally unfit for duty at the time.

 

== Film ==

** In ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]'', Pellaeon is revealed to not have been a full captain at Endor, receiving a [[You Are in Command Now]] promotion when his captain was killed... and that he, as the survivor with the highest rank, was the one who [[Know When to Fold'Em|sounded the retreat]]. Due to various [[retcon]]s, Pellaeon now ''was'' a full captain at Endor; it's just that his ship was commanded by an admiral, so he was still second in command until said admiral was killed.

** At the end of the trilogy, when Thrawn dies, Pellaeon takes command of the fleet, and several books set later have him reporting to or working with various high-ranking Imperial [[Villain of the Week|villains of the book]]; he always survives their inevitable deaths, and since he's actually very competent he becomes Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet by the ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'' duology. That's somewhere between Thrawn's and Vader's level of authority. That's right, Pellaeon becomes the most powerful man in the Empire, or [[Vestigial Empire|what's left of it]], by being unspectacularly good at his job and surviving ''everyone'' who outranked him. It does take years and years of work — he's in his 60s in the Thrawn trilogy.

* In ''[[Valiant]]'', Michael Jan Friedman has a certain Second Officer Jean-Luc Picard (who would have held the rank of Lt. Commander at the time) on board the Stargazer. Captain Daithan Ruhalter and First Officer Stephen Leach are killed and critically injured, respectively, suddenly forcing Picard into the position of temporary CO. He doesn't exactly have an easy time of it, but since future canon has him as the Captain of the Stargazer, he eventually gets a two-grade jump to Captain.

* In [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''After Doomsday'', Lieutenant Howard after the captain and first officer are killed. He's so ineffectual that Donnan, by acting as [[The Leader]], takes over.

* By the beginning of season five, in the episode "Holoship", [[Red Dwarf]]'s Rimmer states that he has been in command of Red Dwarf since Lister was revived.

 

* If you choose the Lawful story arc in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'', your character goes from new recruit city watchman, to lieutenant, to squire, to Captain of Crossroad Keep, to ''Knight''-Captain of Crossroad Keep in under a week, due to the death by burnt-down-headquarters of the former holder of the first post and the suddenly increased importance of the fortress in the second post. It also helps that by that point you practically single-handedly rein in crime in the city and win Neverwinter a war.

* ''[[Gears of War]]'' has the soldier Marcus, convicted of abandoning this post and branded a traitor, getting a field promotion when the commanding officer dies. This is a case of practicality: Marcus is chosen because, despite his treason, he is still hands down the best, most qualified soldier in the squad, despite being absolutely hated by the Gear commander. Dominic, Baird and Cole all follow Marcus not because he's in charge, but because he ''knows what he's doing''. Baird initially puts up some resistance, but even he comes to see the wisdom of having Marcus in command.

* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: [[Strange Journey]]'', ''you'' are summarily promoted to mission commander when {{spoiler|Commander Gore is killed in action. His last act is to entrust completion of the mission to you and,}} from that point on, all crewmen will follow your lead. Even Arthur, your ship's artificial intelligence, will only issue missions to you and advise you as best as he can based on his role as mission analyst, but doesn't actually have any authority over you. It gets to the point when {{spoiler|Gore is resuscitated, and he briefly returns to your ship, but he only challenges your decisions (on an unofficial level) if you, personally, prove to be a threat to humanity}}.

 

* In ''[[Outsider]]'', Ensign Alexander Jardin finds himself in [http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider061.html command of his ship] due to being the [[Sole Survivor]].

{{quote|'''Tempo''': ... further, in consideration of your status as commander of a foreign vessel, I recognise you as military attaché for your mission, with the right to be addressed as captain.

* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Sym-Bionic Titan]]'' does this after killing the alien when he has a [[You Have Failed Me...]] moment.

* In the ''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series]]'' episode "The Lorelei Signal", all the male members of the crew are incapacitated. Uhura takes command of the ship and leads a landing party to rescue the male senior officers with Nurse Chapel as Chief Medical Officer and second-in-command. Uhura is never actually ''given'' command, and her commandeering the ship is technically mutinous (and she justifies this in the ship's log), but her superiors commend her actions once she rescues them. She also gets left in command in "Bem" when Kirk, Spock, Scotty and Sulu are all part of a landing party.

 

== Real Life ==

* During the Battle of Inkerman in the [[Crimean War]], the poor visibility, difficult terrain, over-extension of forces, and officer casualties led to some groups of men in the British military being commanded by ''Privates''.

 

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[[Category:Authority Tropes]]

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]