History Main / OverrankedSoldier

** Garrus Vakarian holds an unspecified rank in the Turian Hierarchy but is saluted by Generals and advises the Primarch due to being one of a handful of people in the galaxy with actual experience vs Reapers. The meritocracy of the Turian Heirarchy was previously noted to allow for very rapid promotion and its implied that Garrus is very close to being the next Primarch.

** While not exactly a soldier, [[spoiler:Buggy should obviously not be one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. He's one of the weakest pirate captains in the series, and the only reason he gets the position is pure dumb luck, having been a former member of Pirate King Gol D. Roger's crew who'd recruited several dangerous prisoners while breaking out of Impel Down.]]

* '''The character is too young''': ImprobableAge as it applies to the military. Quite simply, it'd be impossible for the character to possess the rank at such a young age. Even the most prodigious soldier still needs a certain time in service to possess certain ranks, and some ranks are only attainable after a lifetime of service and excellence. Oh, and the character being an EnsignNewbie does NOT justify this. After all, it's ENSIGN Newbie, not ADMIRAL Newbie. Note, however, that this reasoning mainly works in times of peace. During high-intensity wars, many of the high-ranked officers who aren't SoldiersAtTheRear tend to die on the battlefield, [[AnyoneCanDie even Generals]], creating huge opportunities for promotion. Due to the very ''existence'' of the chain of command, even [[YouAreInCommandNow an inexperienced commander]] is better than no commander at all. See the below example of Napoleon Bonaparte who became a Major General at 25, because Revolutionary France needed commanders at all costs.

* The titular character of ''Literature/TheSagaOfTanyaTheEvil'' is a frighteningly competent twelve-year-old girl holding down a battalion command in a magitech World War One.

** Almost immediately after joining the Rebel Alliance, Luke is made a fighter pilot despite almost zero combat experience (this was explicitly his reward for saving Leia and the plans plus one of Red Squadron's pilots was out sick), by the time of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' he's a commander, and a general a year after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' in ''Legends''(in the current canon he never made that rank); not bad for someone who's canonically 25 by the time of ''Return of the Jedi'' (though it does help that [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership he's a Jedi]] and has [[InTheBlood his father's]] AcePilot skills). Plus he achived one the Rebellion's greatest victories by destroying the Death Star.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'': Lieutenant Zac is gee-whiz young and inexperienced, and golly, he's going on his first Viper patrol, ever, with Big Brother Captain Apollo! He comes off as about 19, although Rick Springfield was actually about 29 at the time. If he's that young and inexperienced, even in war, at his first patrol he should have been one or two ranks lower in grade... At least if the Colonial space forces actually ''have'' a lower rank for commissioned officers with flight status; in some real-life militaries the rank of Lieutenant j/g or Ensign is only given to non-pilot aircrew or ground support personnel, at least in peacetime.
** The "if they have a lower rank" caveat is important, as ''Galactica'' has never had a rank system which aligns with any RealLife western military (for instance, at least in the US military, a Colonel would almost never work for a Commander, as Colonel is an O-6 rank, and Commander is an O-5 rank in ''a totally different service branch''). That said, in all US armed services except the Navy and Coast Guard, Lieutenant (more specifically: ''Second'' Lieutenant) is literally the lowest rank a commissioned officer can hold, being equivalent to an Ensign.

* In ''Film/JusticeLeague'', when Barry Allen presents his (fake) ID to the guards at the Kryptonian ship, the disparity between his looks and the rank on the ID (Air Force Master Seargant) cause them to check the ID more closely. Luckily, Cyborg is able to hack the system and validate it before it's flagged.

* In ''Film/JusticeLeague'', when Barry Allen presents his (fake) ID to the guards at the Kryptonian ship, the disparagy between his looks and the rank on the ID (Air Force Master Seargant) cause them to check the ID more closely. Luckily, Cyborg is able to hack the system and validate it before it's flagged.

* Private Steve Rogers in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' is promoted directly to captain in the U.S. Army after the SuperSoldier testing project is shut down. This is ''entirely'' a political appointment; he needs to be a captain because "Captain America" is a propaganda symbol and an ad for war bonds. Also, "Private America" sounds [[AtrociousAlias less like a superhero]] and more like [[ICallHimMisterHappy something else]]. In fact, he gets slapped down the time or two he actually tries to use his rank in the first half of the movie. He uses it as a BadassBoast during his first rescue, stating that he was Captain America and had punched out Hitler several times (he only did so on the staged shows). After his rescue of the men from the Hydra weapons factory, he earned the respect of the men and seems to have formally recognized as a Captain, even being given his own commando unit (given that he is a one-man army and had single-handedly saved 2-3 ''companies'' worth of soldiers on his first "mission", exceptions were to be made).

* There are certain jobs in the military that someone initially joining will get advanced rank.
** Among enlisted soldiers, some can start at E-4. Such a person will usually be in a highly technical field (such as advanced medical or nuclear power). Typically, the person will attend basic training ("boot camp") with the rank of E-1 (recruit) along with all the others within the training platoon. This is so everyone going through boot camp is the same rank. However, upon graduation from basic, the person will be allowed to place the advanced rank on their uniform for graduation, and will receive a "catch-up" payment, which is equal to the amount the person would have received from day one, thereby the person does not lose any money.

* The United States Marine Band and Air Force Band immediately promote new members to E-6 upon joining. This is in recognition that they are already experienced professionals who almost always hold a college degree in music (often from elite conservatories) before even being granted an audition. This is a rank that typically takes at least a decade to reach if you begin at E-1.[[note]]The professional musicians who serve in these bands are non-combatants who spend their entire enlistments with the bands, meaning they'll never be in a position to give orders to, or take them from, regular servicemembers. These bands are also different from military field bands, which traditionally also acted as generals' bodyguards and are still expected to act as such if necessary. So, field musicians start from the lowest enlisted ranks and have to be combat ready on top of their music duties.[[/note]]

* In Simon Scarow's ''Literature/{{Eagle}}'' series of novels about the Roman Army, the two heroes are a hard-bitten centurion called Macro, who has risen to officer rank purely through merit and experience. And Quintus Licinius Cato, a youth who has grown up as an emancipated slave in the Emperor's palace. Macro is told by the imperial legate Vespasian that like it or not, Cato is on an unprecedented accelerated promotion through ther legion's ranks. He must, therefore, act as mentor to a young man who goes from recruit to Legionary to the junior officer rank of Optio in an incredibly short time, assisted by Vespasian's patronage. At first a man with no discernible military skills, Cato grows through the books into a very capable officer and soon outranks his friend Macro. And the manipulative future emperor Vespasian guards them and steers their missions for reasons all of his own...

* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', ''Admiral'' Grimitz is in direct command of ''Seaman'' Donald Duck, a difference of well over a dozen ranks. He also commands an aircraft carrier, conducts personal inspections of equipment, and supervises routine training maneuvers, all jobs for lower ranks. About the only thing he does in the series that ''is'' appropriate is meet with a civilian military contractor to negotiate the purchase of top secret materiel -- and he does ''that'' while in port in a hostile country instead of in a secure facility ashore.

** Officers who obtained advanced degrees prior to joining the service, usually medical degrees or law degrees, will join as [=O-3s=] with the caveat that their authority is limited to their professional fields.

* There are certain jobs in the military that someone initially joining will get advanced rank, some all the way up to E-4. Such a person will usually be in a highly technical field (such as advanced medical or nuclear power). Typically, the person will attend basic training ("boot camp") with the rank of E-1 (recruit) along with all the others within the training platoon. This is so everyone going through boot camp is the same rank. However, upon graduation from basic, the person will be allowed to place the advanced rank on their uniform for graduation, and will receive a "catch-up" payment, which is equal to the amount the person would have received from day one, thereby the person does not lose any money.

* The United States Marine Band and Air Force Band immediately promote new members to E-6 upon joining. This is in recognition that they are already experienced professionals who almost always hold a college degree in music (often from elite conservatories) before even being granted an audition. This is a rank that typically takes at least a decade to reach if you begin at E-1.[[note]]The professional musicians who serve in these bands are non-combatants who spend their entire enlistments with the bands, meaning they'll never be in a position to give orders to, or take them from, regular servicemembers. These bands are also different from military field bands, which traditionally also acted as generals' bodyguards and are still expected to act as such if necessary. So, members start from the lowest enlisted ranks and have to be combat ready on top of their music duties.[[/note]]

* The United States Marine Band and Air Force Band immediately promote new members to E-6 upon joining. This is in recognition that they are already experienced professionals who almost always hold a college degree in music (often from elite conservatories) before even being granted an audition. This is a rank that typically takes at least a decade to reach if you begin at E-1.[[note]]The professional musicians who serve in these bands are non-combatants who spend their entire enlistments with the bands, meaning they'll never be in a position to give orders to, or take them from, regular servicemembers. These bands are also different from military field bands, which traditionally also acted as generals' bodyguards and are still expected to act as such if necessary, so members have to be combat ready on top of their music duties.[[/note]]

** The Air Force Band immediately promotes its members to E-6 upon joining, in recognition that they are already experienced professionals who almost always hold a college degree in music before even being granted an audition. This is a rank that typically takes at least a decade to reach if you begin at E-1.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'':

* '''The character is too incompetent''': Another character type that is common in military media is a soldier who is [[GeneralFailure high-ranked, yet is actually quite sucky at being a soldier or leader.]] Think of it as the military version of a PointyHairedBoss. In humorous media, this is all well and good, since it's just part of the absurdity of the setting, but in more serious fare, it makes the viewer wonder how the hell he got that far (but note that even military organizations are not immune to ThePeterPrinciple). This is aggravated by the fact that rank is partly merit-based, so a soldier that sucks at a low rank will STAY at a low rank (or in most modern militaries, dismissed from service for not making the promotion list).

** Meanwhile Han is first a captain and then a general in the same amount of time, despite not officially joining the Rebellion until ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', and spending the period between ''[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Empire]]'' and ''[[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Jedi]]'' in carbonite. Lando also gets made a general shortly after joining the Rebellion himself (though mention is made of him having previous command experience and we met him while he was profitably running a city of tens of thousands, which might explain why he was given the rank). It gets really silly during the Endor mission, where General Solo commands a squad of around ten people, including Luke (a commander) and Leia, whose rank is never really defined, but appears to be somewhere between a political leader and a flag officer. At the very least Lando's mission (leading the assault on the Death Star II) was appropriate to his rank.
** The Rebel Alliance does have the excuse of being massively outnumbered and outgunned by Empire so it's more than likely that people who prove they can get the job done are swiftly promoted because they are needed. They don't really have the luxury to play with regulations in a battle for the galaxy they could very well lose.
** The prequel trilogy is much the same: the [[WarriorMonk Jedi]] are all generals of the Clone Army, but inevitably end up fighting on the field. They clearly believe in [[FrontlineGeneral leading from the front]] in a galaxy far, far away. What makes it worse is that the apprentices are given the rank of Commander, but are often shown to outrank pretty much everyone but a higher ranking Jedi (up to and including admirals). In ''WesternAnimation/TheCloneWars'' series Anakin's 14 year old apprentice Ahsoka was shown to lead several battles personally, and the results varied from strategic genius to getting her own men killed in [[LeeroyJenkins over-enthusiatic attacks]] (occasionally in [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E19StormOverRyloth the same episode]]). FridgeBrilliance when you remember that it was set up by ''Palpatine'', for whom chaos and bad leadership were actually plusses, given his endgame.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' series really suffers from this. Almost immediately after joining the Rebel Alliance, Luke is made a fighter pilot despite almost zero combat experience (this was explicitly his reward for saving Leia and the plans), by the time of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' he's a commander, and a general by ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''; not bad for someone who's canonically 25 by the time of ''Return of the Jedi'' (though it does help that [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership he's a Jedi]] and has [[InTheBlood his father's]] AcePilot skills).
** Meanwhile Han is first a captain and then a general in the same amount of time, despite not officially joining the Rebellion until ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', and spending the period between ''[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Empire]]'' and ''[[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Jedi]]'' in carbonite. Lando also gets made a general shortly after joining the Rebellion himself (though mention is made of him having previous command experience and we met him while he was profitably running a city of tens of thousands, which might explain why he was given the rank). It gets really silly during the Endor mission, where General Solo commands a squad of around ten people, including Luke (another general) and Leia, whose rank is never really defined, but appears to be somewhere between a political leader and a flag officer. At the very least Lando's mission (leading the assault on the Death Star II) was appropriate to his rank.
** On the Imperial size of things, Admiral Ozzel decides to ignore Vader's plans to sneak-attack the Rebels on Hoth, instead favoring a surprise attack. This gives the Rebels time to defend themselves and evacuate, and Ozzel is [[YouHaveFailedMe summarily executed]] for his blunder [[YouAreInCommandNow so that another, actually competent officer can take command of the fleet]].

** ''One Piece'' does have a number of examples played straight, most notably Vice Admiral Garp, who actively and openly helps pirates, laughs at top-ranked Marines for their mistakes, and recruits from questionable places. He has been offered several promotions to Admiral. However, Fleet Admiral Sengoku does sometimes wonder to himself how Garp managed to climb up the ranks with the attitude he has. Then again, the Marines are (for the most part) based on AsskickingEqualsAuthority, and Garp is probably the strongest marine in the entire force next to Sengoku himself. Sengoku mentions that Garp would have become an Admiral, but he refused due to not wanting to take orders from the [[AristocratsAreEvil Celestial Dragons]], an act of insubordination that would have cost him his job if not for his accomplishments.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny'': Kira Yamato is an interesting example. He ''was'' promoted from Second Lieutenant[[note]]a rank which he inherited back from EFSF[[/note]] to Admiral at once, being ''eighteen'', but this was a) [[YouAreInCommandNow a wartime express promotion]], as Orb's forces were decimated at that point, b) he was [[AcePilot their best pilot anyway]], and was given that rank so that [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority his status would reflect this]], and c) because [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections he was the brother]] of a ruling monarch of one nation, and the boyfriend of a [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent democratically elected leader]] of the other. It may not mean much, given how MildlyMilitary the forces in that universe seem to be, and he didn't exercise his authority much as well, though when he did it, these were usually quite competent decisions.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' series really suffers from this. Almost immediately after joining the Rebel Alliance, Luke is made a fighter pilot despite almost zero combat experience (this was explicitly his reward for saving Leia and the plans), by the time of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' he's a commander, and a general by ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''; not bad for someone who's canonically 25 by the time of ''Return of the Jedi'' (though it does help that [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority he's a Jedi]] and has [[InTheBlood his father's]] AcePilot skills).

** Noel Vermillion is somewhat neurotic for her rank in the NOL, although it's stated to be a result of a combination of AsskickingEqualsAuthority and that as a member of the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil she was practically guaranteed a reasonable rank. There's also the fact that [[spoiler: [[LivingWeapon Noel]] is [[RobotGirl Mu-12]], and due to her importance got a higher rank than she really deserved (since [[BigBad Hazama]] would need a reason to get her where he needs her).]]

** In the Starfleet tutorial you go from a junior ensign (a fresh Academy graduate in the revamped version) to captain of your own ship in one battle. Justified in that the entire senior crew is dead so you have seniority. You retain your command seeing as you managed to pull off a victory that more experienced officers couldn't have. You do ''not'', however, get promoted to captain, just lieutenant (you get your own command, but it is a small, really old ship, so there's a certain logic in it). Captain is a mid-game rank, so there is a bit of work ahead before you actually become one. {{Downplayed}} with the other two factions: the Klingon Defense Force PC is introduced as second officer of a bird-of-prey (with a significantly more open-ended backstory) and takes command via KlingonPromotion (the Klingons have a much more AsskickingEqualsAuthority-based promotion system), and the Romulan PC is part of a rebel faction with a less formal command structure (and supplies their own ship).

* In ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 2'', your character goes from being a mechwarrior (the lowest warrior rank in Clan society) to potentially reach the rank of Galaxy Commander (the second highest, after Khan) over the course of the Refusal War, which happened in the span of about one year. Even though AsskickingEqualsAuthority in Clan society, your character's rank should have been capped at Star Captain due to lacking a Bloodname and never having the chance to compete for one during the game. And it usually takes several years of leading a Binary or Trinary as a Star Captain before one is judged worthy of competing for promotion to Star Colonel, and an even longer time before being promoted to Galaxy Commander. This is, however, justified due to the sheer devastation suffered by both Clans that participated in the Refusal War to their touman: several canon characters received similarly quick promotions in rank during the war.

* The entire Philippine military in the historical movies ''Film/HeneralLuna'' and ''Film/GoyoAngBatangHeneral'' is filled with these, largely because it was hurriedly created as an ad-hoc [[LaResistance rebel army]] [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry fighting first the Spanish and then the American colonisers]]. General Jose Alejandrino in the second movie discusses how he doesn't think there is a single proper soldier in the ranks, bar the first film's General Antonio Luna who actually has a military education and knows what he's doing (though in RealLife it was apparently still considered short of serious military training, being more of a hurried crash-course—not to mention when he first joined the Revolution in 1898, Luna, who started out a ''civilian scientist'', had almost none of the combat experience many officers under him had already amassed since 1896—and even longer if they had jumped ship from the colonial military), as they're either political appointees or capable but generally out of their league. For example, General Gregorio Del Pilar in the sequel has his rank at the age of ''24'' and is given command over an entire province with his detractors saying that this appointment is because he's the president's loyal attack dog. (In RealLife the Revolutionary Army had even younger generals—Manuel Tinio was promoted to that ''at 20'', and still he survived the entire Revolution and Philippine-American War ''and'' lived far longer than del Pilar.)

* The entire Philippine military in the historical movies ''Film/HeneralLuna'' and ''Film/GoyoAngBatangHeneral'' is filled with these, largely because it was hurriedly created as an ad-hoc [[LaResistance rebel army]] [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry fighting first the Spanish and then the American colonisers]]. General Jose Alejandrino in the second movie discusses how he doesn't think there is a single proper soldier in the ranks, bar the first film's General Antonio Luna who actually has a military education and knows what he's doing (though in RealLife it was apparently still considered short of serious military training, being more of a hurried crash-course—not to mention when he first joined the Revolution in 1898, Luna, who started out a ''civilian scientist'', had almost none of the combat experience many officers under him had already amassed since 1896), as they're either political appointees or capable but generally out of their league. For example, General Gregorio Del Pilar in the sequel has his rank at the age of ''24'' and is given command over an entire province with his detractors saying that this appointment is because he's the president's loyal attack dog. (In RealLife the Revolutionary Army had even younger generals—Manuel Tinio was promoted to that ''at 20'', and still he survived the entire Revolution and Philippine-American War ''and'' lived far longer than del Pilar.)

* The entire Philippine military in the historical movies ''Film/HeneralLuna'' and ''Film/GoyoAngBatangHeneral'' is filled with these, largely because it was hurriedly created as an ad-hoc [[LaResistance rebel army]] [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry fighting first the Spanish and then the American colonisers]]. General Jose Alejandrino in the second movie discusses how he doesn't think there is a single proper soldier in the ranks, bar the first film's General Antonio Luna who actually has a military education and knows what he's doing (though in RealLife it was apparently still considered short of serious military training, being more of a hurried crash-course—not to mention when he first joined the Revolution in 1898, Luna had almost none of the combat experience many officers under him had already amassed since 1896), as they're either political appointees or capable but generally out of their league. For example, General Gregorio Del Pilar in the sequel has his rank at the age of ''24'' and is given command over an entire province with his detractors saying that this appointment is because he's the president's loyal attack dog. (In RealLife the Revolutionary Army had even younger generals—Manuel Tinio was promoted to that ''at 20'', and still he survived the entire Revolution and Philippine-American War ''and'' lived far longer than del Pilar.)