Her rigging involves a flight deck modeled on the Thompson submachine gun (though it should not be tagged as such), with a waist-mounted 'deck' holding twin-cannonturrets. She carries drum magazines for a Thompson under her dress and additional box magazines on a garter holster, both emblazoned with the pre-1942 US military aircraft roundel.
Saratoga later gains her first remodel (post #2546456), wherein her white dress becomes black with a white underskirt, the flight decks on her gun and rigging change color from orange to gray (and no longer bear the letters "SARA"), and the roundels on the magazines are modified to their 1942-43 form. Her 8-inch gun turrets are replaced with 5-inch dual-purpose guns, and she receives additional anti-aircraft armament. Saratoga is thus the first Allied girl with a remodeled form. This remodel reflects the upgrades the historical Saratoga received during her 1942 repairs.
Saratoga later becomes the first Allied girl to gain a second remodel (post #2852915). Her neckwear becomes black with an anchor attached, the skirt part of her white dress gains stripes, and she now wears black fingerless gloves. She also has a Mod.2 form where she switches to a full black dress (post #3226144). In both forms, her flight deck now bears the number 3 and the roundels on the magazines are now also modified to the form the US Air Force currently uses since 1944. In the game, she also gains the ability to engage in night battle cut-ins (referencing her last combat stint in Iwo Jima as a dedicated night carrier), with her Mod.2 form converting her into an armored carrier. However, she requires a prototype catapult for her second remodel on account of the real-life fact that her original catapults were removed in 1936 and did not receive newer ones until 1944.
Personality
'Sister' Sara is portrayed as having an "onee-san" personality, with a relatively elegant manner of speech, and speaking with a motherly tone regarding her aircraft, and is especially genial towards other ships, with in-game lines referencing friendly relations especially to Akagi, Kaga, and Iowa. Following in Warspite's mold, her in-game lines use significantly better English than Iowa, though she uses it less often.
During this time, Saratoga received damage numerous times from IJN submarines and kamikaze attacks, forcing long stretches of repair or refit time. This includes one torpedo from the I-26. By the end of the war, she had been refit to be a dedicated night carrier, but after another round of damage from kamikaze attacks at Iwo Jima, was relegated to permanent training carrier duty. Ultimately, she was considered too obsolete, and was destroyed as a nuclear test target in Operation Crossroads. She was awarded 8 battle stars for her service.
Trivia
Her namesake is the Battle of Saratoga of the American Revolutionary War. She was the fifth of six US ships named Saratoga. Her crew nicknames were Sister Sara and Sara Maru.
