Am I the only one who sees Jebediah and Valentina as rivals rather than a pair?

[Wallygator]

Rivals, Pair??? Huh? There is no game documentation to support any position - its a personal fiction.

Am I the only one who feels this thread belongs in the KSP Fan Works section?

[Dewirix]

Jebediah and Valentina, rivals?..

Who cares, they're dead anyway.

A bit more callous than I'd have been, but this pretty much sums up their contribution to my current career save. Jeb died during the rentry of my first sub-orbital flight (1.0, before I figured out I could use parachutes as indestructible airbrakes) while Val died when her pod collided with debris during an abort procedure.

My current pilots - Gemthy and Vernua - are too professional for such things.

[Chruschtschow]

I always think of them as professional rivals. You don't become a kerbonaut, if you aren't ambitious. But you don't become a kerbonaut, if your are too ambitious either, because at some point people have to consider your behaviour if they put you into a tiny can for weeks with a few other kerbonauts. Not helpful if you are an obnoxious jerk.

Therefore they are both my premier pilots, one gets the first suborbital (Val), the other the first orbit (Jeb), first Mun flyby (Jeb), first Minmus landing (Val) etc.

[McFarnsworth]

that third time is a frequent nightmare for me. I normally don't notice until I have warped out to the edge of the SOI

He did it again, but on a Munar orbital station. At least he managed a spectacular rescue himself by deorbiting the station over Kerbin, firing up the tiny engine to slow down as much as possible before crashing (because who puts parachutes or large engines on a space station?) and stepping off just before impact, because that totally works in real life.

The entire station was vaporized, but Jeb walked away unharmed. I call that a good landing.

[cicatrix]

In my case they are rivals. I try to balance them out but Valya still has more ribbons in her Final Frontier profile than Jeb. I'm sending both to Duna now (first interplanetary flight in this career), I'm sure they will sort these things out between them during the transfer.

[Tex]

Eh, I see them as any other pilot in my rosters. They're on their own missions and they do admirably during them, and that's all I could hope for. My personal Kerbal fiction is that they're all peaceful little green creatures that love working together in order to get to space. Sort of like humans should be.

[michaelsteele3]

Yes...

[Idrryl]

Never really thought about this, but I guess they are romantic rivals?

Doesn't matter really, Val was first to the Mun, Jeb was first to Minmus, but Natalee Kerman was the first to Duna

[TheMoonRover]

Personally I think Jeb, Bill and Bob are brothers who founded the space agency. I've not decided on Val yet though. Is she Jeb's friend, daughter, lover, rival or sister?

In my career mode, Jeb was the first to space, the first to reach orbit, and then he took Bill and Bob to the Mun and back. Jeb got to plant the flag. Meanwhile, Val was in charge of the "aircraft" division, flying rather rudimentary planes around to complete survey contracts. Since Jeb was busy flying home from the Mun, Val got to rescue three kerbals from orbit, before realising she had way too much fuel and used a Mun slingshot to reach Minmus. As soon as Jeb got back, he decided to go to Minmus as well. Val landed first and planted the flag, but Jeb got to show off by landing less than 100m from the other ship. That was how they first met. As the only two pilots out of seven kerbals, they had to go back seperately. So they don't really know each other yet. They'll both be going to the Duna system at the next transfer window though.

[vixr]

She is always fourth in the IVA list, and when I click the arrow on the right, she has this insane huge smile on her face! Rivals?, I'm guessing no...but she sure is fearless, much more so than Jeb.

[undercoveryankee]

The part descriptions that mention Jeb lead me to imagine a pilot trained in the old barnstorming tradition. Learned to fly aircraft that didn't really have modern flight instruments, so he's used to relying on feel and calibrated instinct. Wears his excitement on his sleeve whether in the cockpit or out.

So since the announcement I've mentally cast Val as the opposite of that. Where Jeb gets excited by "bigger, faster, louder," Val's idea of beauty is "More precise. More efficient. Nothing left to take away." On the ground they're friends. They tease each other about their different styles and about whose record is more impressive, but they'd both rather be teased by the other than not see each other.

Jeb flirts - like he does with anything female and breathing. Val finds it cute, but thinks it would be unprofessional to show any interest in return. I don't think either one of them has ever thought about what they would want if they didn't have to be professional - Jeb likes to live in the moment and Val figures there will be plenty of time to think about alternate scenarios if they ever happen.

If you tried to assign one of them to command the other, their opposite command styles would probably end with one, the other, or both on strike. Gene thinks the only thing that could get them to work together would be a life-and-death mission that only the two best pilots in the program have the skills to pull off.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Interesting consensus here. So I'm not alone in my opinion after all.

But to clarify, when I said "rivals", I meant, like some other users stated, friendly rivals, not inimical rivals.

[gom jabbarwocky]

In my mind, Val is the more professional pilot, and Jeb is more foolhardy and headstrong. As the program continues, they rub off on each other. They start off having a tense rivalry, which becomes grudging respect, then a friendly rivalry, and then friendship, buddy-cop style.

[Bill Phil]

My Val is dead...

But otherwise it depends on the save. If it's a rivalry, then it would be like Goku and Vegeta's rivalry.

[Soul]

They are totally rivals in my career mode... each vying for the next "Kerbal First" accomplishments...

Valentina -

First out of Atmo

First on Mun (but had to be rescued)

First to leave Kerbin SOI

Jeb -

First in Orbit

First on Minmus

First rescue mission (rescuing Val on the Mun)

First to land on both Mun and Minmus in one mission

They are currently in a very heated battle to see who will be the first Kerbal to have the very coveted "first" of setting foot on an alien planet!

hahaha... this game is great.

[Great General Kaboomsky]

Nope, you're not alone.

I totally play them as (mostly) friendly rivals. Jeb makes the first orbit of Kerbin. Val makes the first munar flyby. Jeb one-ups her by landing and leaves a "take that Valentina" message on his flag. Val completes a Kerbin 3 contract (orbit of Mun, Minimus and Kerbin) to stick it to Jeb. Jeb launches into Kerbol orbit and returns. Val lands on Minimus and carries out a 3-surface-observation contract, leaving taunting messages for Jeb on each flag. Etc.

Maybe I'll stick them together on an interplanetary mission soon. What could go wrong? ;-)

[boolybooly]

I think it may be something to do with having a sister but I am sure Val deliberately got Jeb into trouble by telling him it was his turn in the command pod when I distinctly told both of them to stay out so I could rescue Kany from orbit! Unless it was Jeb who lied about Valentina to get her into trouble and himself off the hook. Hard to tell who the good guys are sometimes.

[Red Dwarf]

For me, Jeb and Val don't compete because they do different things. Jeb is my mission pilot, going out on missions. Val is my test pilot, flying whatever insane contraptions I crank out. If I don't know if it'll even get off the ground, I send Val. Once she's proven it can work, I hand it over to Jeb.

[fredinno]

On May 11, 2015 at 11:53:04 PM, JellyCubes said:

I ship Jebediah x Bill x Bob.

The original three Kerbals, all alone out in space, missions lasting years at a time, all cramped up together in small pod, with nothing to do...

This is my headcanon.

"With nothing to do...." But go to the bedroom? Imagine what such a relationship would look like. I bet the people who make 'romance' (aka Rule 34) fanfiction must be drooling at the thoughts of it right now...

 

(Sorry guys, for ruining your day.)

On May 13, 2015 at 6:15:09 PM, gom jabbarwocky said:

In my mind, Val is the more professional pilot, and Jeb is more foolhardy and headstrong. As the program continues, they rub off on each other. They start off having a tense rivalry, which becomes grudging respect, then a friendly rivalry, and then friendship, buddy-cop style.

And then love .

[fredinno]

Jeb and Val are couples in my headcanon.

It was convenient for my "Inspiration Mars" KSP Simulation Mission.

 

They still haven't come back though- let's hope they don't go too far. (If you know what I mean)

[Temstar]

Anyone seen that formula one movie "Rush"?

I imagine Jeb as someone like James Hunt while Val is a more diplomatic Nikki Lauda.

[GoSlash27]

On 5/11/2015, 5:31:42, Commissioner Tadpole said:

 

...Despite that, the community appears to consider the two as a pair - if not romantic, then at least best friends...

I'm not sure that's accurate. Perhaps I'm just not visiting the right part of the forums, but I've never seen anyone speculate along these lines until just now.

Best,

-Slashy

[Ringkeeper]

i like both, but Jeb is still my favorite. Simple because he gets assigned to ships automatically while (if Jeb is already on his mission) Val is never automatically put into a rocket. There is alsways then Bill or Bob inside, depending who is avaible.

[Snarfster]

Jeb and Val are two members of my 26 kerbal space program.

And since one kerbal can only be in one place at one time. They rotate shifts with the "normal" pilots.

(Man, it's a pain to get those kerbals all trained, thank Kerbal for tourists to pay for it all.)

[Diskervery]

When I can get all four orange Kerbals in a Mk3 cockpit, I see them as commander and pilot as they would be on STS missions. 

As they are both very experienced, they are comfortable with either role.