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

[Inverurie Jones]

I reckon they're very close friends, as are all the orange-suited instructor cadre, all of whom are veterans of the first Mun project. They are not just pilots, but Kerbonaut flying instructors and thus could never make a romantic involvement last; there's just no room in a couple for two egos of that size.

[Just Jim]

I don't see them as rivals or a couple or anything like that.  But I do use them as if they had different personalities.

Val is my daredevil, my test pilot, and my explorer.  Whenever I test a new vehicle, or go to a new moon or planet, Val will be the pilot, usually teamed with Bill and Bob.  Val is also very, very good at landing on buildings and such.

Jeb, on the other hand, is my rock.  He says behind and makes sure everything runs smoothly at home.  When I have a new crew member(s) getting ready to go into orbit the first time, or being assigned to a station or base, Jeb will be their pilot and mentor.

[HoloYolo]

I see them as a Sampa-Xannari relationship. I feel bad when I can't return one of them to be honest. Like when Jeb dies trying to ascend from Eve his grill lost him and that's sad regardless if it's a video game and fake.

[RocketSquid]

I think of Jeb as a reckless, badS test pilot, and of Val as a composed (but not at all calm), badS command pilot. They're only rivals when piloting SSTOs in the upper atmosphere, where they can't agree on who should be in charge.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

For the AddictionAerospace (New name, yay) company:

 

Jeb: Brave, reckless, and goofy pilot who will risk himself and the ship even if only to reassure a stranded compratriot. Strives to help others above his own life.

 

Val: Same.

 

Both: I think they're friends, but haven't friendzoned each other, if ya know what I mean.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Jeb is my rocket pilot, Val is my plane pilot.

In my opinion they wouldn't have two redundant pilots. They each have their specialty and work in different areas of the space program.

I will admit it does get annoying to have to manually drop Val in every time I want to fly a plane...

[pandaman]

I never really thought of this to be honest.  I imagine all the kerbonauts as a close professional team sharing a dangerous (as in often fatal) occupation they all love, with all the 'banter' and in jokes that go with it, especially between the professions (what do you call a failed engineer? A pilot).

Naturally they will have their own friendships and personal differences. I imagine Jeb and Val, being very similar, have a very close, non romantic, friendship.

[Vermil]

In my pre-v1.0 game, there was an intense hostility between Bill and Kenbus. They couldn't stand each other. But Kenbus is not around any longer. We'll see if he pops up on the rooster one day.

In my post-v1.0 game, second and current game, there are no particular frictions between the various astronauts. Bob nurtures some mistrust against Mission Control, and takes a keen interest in overseeing and second-guessing everything. I think that's probably good for safety. Mission Control should be mistrusted. Jebediah is very keen to experiment with new technology, and often needs to be physically evicted from the cockpit, to protect his life against too dangerous vehicles. Jebediah is the natural leader for the first 3-man team. Valentina is the natural leader of the second team, an all female one. There is some friendly rivalry, of course there is, and Val is always keen to get to do something similar or equal to what Jeb and the boys have done. But I sense that she fully understands she has the second team, and that they always go next, afterwards. Tandan seem to be the leader of the third team. They're very keen to be recognized as also part of the veterans, and distinct from and above the fourth and fifth team. The fourth and fifth don't seem to involve themselves with issues of prestige.

Mission Control is currently considering a reorganization that will spread experience around in new, bigger 4-man teams. The old hands would be spread around as new leaders of these. There is however a great deal of resistance to this from most of the astronauts. In Val's team and the newer teams they have formed very strong bonds of friendship, and they don't want to be split up. J. B & B is the only team reacting 'professionally' to this new proposal. We'll see what happens.

 

[Overland]

There was a time every train had a mixed crew..

the females mostly engineers were adept at walking under trains between the couplings for tyre repairs and KAS/KIS duties...val herself in sandbox mode replaced jeb and bob who were moved to the passenger cars with jeb as an observer\fireman in the 44 class locos that were then primary mainline units of KTP

 

Val and her sisters even looked rather nice in high vis

She quickly displaced most male kerbals as 4408 mk2s official driver

 

Until one fateful day on some even flowing ground..the cab camera was engaged..

 

What followed was the stuff of nightmares 

 

 

JUST NO!! 

 

The locos engines slowed to idle with her detriot engines rudely interupted from full warcry.. 

Something had to be done..

 

Vals face insulted everything that is honourable about kerbal train program with hundreds of real world hours driving and nursing trains across kerbin

 

She was promptly kicked out..got made to sit on the last wagon then flicked away under speed as 4408 mk2 laboured to climb a steep grade and regain her honour

 

Rivalry? There is none..

And everyones happy once again

Just like these happy people proud to serve on the KTP..

Edited December 14, 2015 by Overland

[astovall321]

why not both? like Iceman and Maverick.

[steuben]

probably a duplicate opinion, but... in my head-canon (pending canon from the devs):

Jeb is _the_ best pilot in the KSP. He's the guy you want on the stick when the wheels have come off, and the wings are about to. If he can't fly it, better slap wheels on it and call it car. It's probably not attributable to him, but this phrase seems to embody his approach to flying, "chrome steel and coconuts."

Val is ... one of the top ten pilots in the KSP. To claim anything else has led to all KSP staffers to be banned from 6 establishments, restricted at 15, closely monitored at 37 others, and grounds for buying a house round (10k$¹ pitchers on Tuesdays and 3k$ shots on Saturdays are excluded) at "The Liquid Fuel Plant" (the on facility establishment). She's the one you want in the big chair when there's smoke where there shouldn't be smoke and fire at the seams. She doesn't have Freon in her veins... probably the next best thing though, at least when she's on the job. Bob thinks it might be a ferrous halocarbon.

They aren't rivals just because they have different professional goals. They have conflicted, sometime spectacularly, but usually over correct but different approaches to the same problem. They respect each other and won't avoid each other at office parties. But their personalities are almost orthogonal instead of opposing.

 

The quick description would be like Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters with more off screen camaraderie.

 

1 Roots... since I can't get that ASCII symbol to work. Assuming roots are the right currency scale/unit.

[Gojira1000]

In career and science modes, Jeb flies all the rockets and Val all the spaceplanes. And they argue constantly over who has the most bad455 job. (I suspect it's Val, given the number of aborted flights she's walked away from)

[m_sporkboy]

I've got a half-planned story in my head that has Val fuming to herself about Jebediah F'ing Kerman and that ridiculous grin he's always got and so of course that means she's got to grin like an idiot too and how they make her keep her hair up in that bun that is always clipping through her helmet and ...

[Mister Dilsby]

For me they're complementary: Jeb is the nutjob test pilot, specializing in atmospheric craft. Val can certainly drive a ship with the best of them, but her real talent is for command--making the team better together than they would be individually. They've argued in the past, notably during atmospheric operations, when inter-service protocols required them to share command. (and yet again, on Kerbin re-entry) But I wouldn't call them rivals, as neither is really seeking personal glory. 

Things are easier now that Val outranks Jeb. Of course there was that one time she had to arrest him, but I don't think he holds that against her  

[BaconOnARock]

for some reason i imagine bill and val to be more of a couple than jeb and val, thats just me tho.

[Musil]

Just today I had an idea for a mod that would let them run separate space programs (in career), competing for the glory. 

Someone please make me that mod. Pleeeeease. 

Edited January 21, 2016 by Musil

[Jim DiGriz]

On 5/11/2015 at 4:38 PM, Veldez said:

For whatever strange reason, in my universe, they are siblings...... lol. For that matter, so are Bob and Bill.

In my universe they kinda fight like siblings

[magnemoe]

6 hours ago, Musil said:

Just today I had an idea for a mod that would let them run separate space programs (in career), competing for the glory. 

Someone please make me that mod. Pleeeeease. 

I tend to use them as officers a step higher than the rest so they tend to lead flagship missions and fly orion spaceship. 
Their paths seldom cross but its some rivalry. No Jeb taking the ship far inside Moho orbit from Duna and using 3 million worth of nuclear bombs to beat Valerian back from Eve is not acceptable. 
The Jool mission is not cleared for go anyway. 

[Andem]

In my personal lore, the two are married. 

Spoiler

HOWEVER!

 

In my War! save, the two are bitter enemies who would fly into the sun if it would mean the other would die. So, usually no, but occasionally Definitely!

 

[Edax]

For me in my career playthrough, Jeb represents the old Kerbal Space Program, he's all for rocketry and rockets.  Valentina is the new blood, a huge advocate for spaceplanes and SSTOs.  Between them; a great rivalry over how space should be explored, through powerful, disposable rockets or through a reusable spaceplane fleet supported by orbital fueling stations.

[Madrias]

In my space program, they're not rivals, but each has a task they perform 'best'.

Jeb is my spaceplane and test pilot.  His wild and rather reckless nature gives him an edge in surviving some of the worst situations.

Val, however, is my serious missions pilot.  If something needs to be done right the first time, and mistakes would be expensive and costly, she's the kerbal for the job.

 

Currently, Jeb has the prestige of being the first kerbal to touch the edge of the atmosphere in an airplane, but Val took over when we pierced through the atmosphere.  She was the first to land on the Mun, and the two of them flew a shared mission to Minmus.

[Musil]

Since this post resurfaced, I will shamelessly advertise myself: I made a comic about a Jeb - Val rivalry. Check it out! 

 http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/130968-a-divide-in-the-sky-%E2%80%94graphic-novel-chapter-2/

[loch.ness]

The last mission report I did they were friends who egged eachother on to better things.  There was some rivalry over who would get the Mun landing (Jeb was suppose to get it but Bill had a panic attack and aborted Apollo 10.  Val got it with Bob on Apollo 11... Jeb went on to save the day for Apollo 13... I don't think he ever did get on the Mun on that save).

 

I'm thinking about doing a new thread like that (lost all my old stuff so would have to start over anway) with Jeb as the lead pilot of KASE (NASA analog) and Val as the head pilot of KOSMO (USSR space program analog) since Russia actually had female pilots as early as Vostok.  They'd be defacto rivals with great mutual respect.

 

It depends on my save. Their personalities change each time I start a save file.  Sometimes Jeb is Kaptin Kirk, sometimes he's Maverik, and sometimes he's a bit more Zap Branagin.

Sometimes Bill is a control freak and perfectionist, sometimes he's the visionary leader, sometimes he's DaVinci.

Sometimes Bob is a Sci-Fi junkie who wants to make his dreams come true.  Sometimes he's the Feynman of my program, tweaking the SRBs to keep the engineer's awake.  Sometimes he's gone frankenstein (Well, someone built mechjeb back when I still used that for information readouts).

Sometimes Val is the cooler, more responsible Jeb - having needed to work harder than he has to get where she is.  Sometimes she's a daredevil whose pushed the limit to many times she just doesn't believe Death is coming for her.  Sometimes she's the bones to Bob's spock - all heart and passion.

 

I haven't decided on who they'll be next time.  If I do start a "Space Race" themed report set (Sputnik through Apollo-Soyuz docking and then beyond ... ) The idea I have in mind would mean they effectively retire by the end of the Apollo/Soyuz program.

[chrisb2e9]

All Kerbals are my own personal cannon fodder. These two are no different.