History VideoGame / WingCommanderTheKilrathiSaga

** "Lose" certain missions in ''Wing Commander III", and your carrier jumps to the Proxima system, where your job is to hold off the Kilrathi from reaching a jump point to the Sol System. But no matter how many ships you shoot down, the TCS Victory calls and says that the [[ItsAWonderfulFailure Kilrathi are too powerful and they will try to hold off the Kilrathi at Earth's orbit, which after waves of fighters and corvettes, you face off against]] [[CoolStarship the huge Kilrathi dreadnought]] which [[DeathOfAThousandCuts is able to be destroyed]] but you will keep facing endless fighters and corvettes (even on Godmode) until you eject and see the bad ending cutscenes. Which means when you see your carrier jumping to the Proxima system, you should go back and replay the mission you failed that got to the bad ending mission tree. Interestingly if you fail an early mission, Orsini 3, and accept [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Flash's]] challenge to fight him in the flight simulator after winning Tamayo 2, you go onto the failure path to Proxima (no matter if you beat Flash or not); but if you decline to challenge him, you go onto the next winning path mission to Locanda.

* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: In ''Wing Commander II'', the ''Confederation'' class dreadnoughts (including the player home ship, the TCS ''Concordia'') had the [[WaveMotionGun Phase Transit Cannon]] as an integral part of the design's keel. The Kilrathi design from which the PTC was copied, the Sivar dreadnought from ''The Secret Missions'' that used its gun to destroy the Confederation's Goddard colony, was also a fixed mount. As the latter wasn't of any use against anything smaller than planetoids, maneuverability of the platform wasn't an issue.

* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: The ''Concordia's'' Phase-Transit Cannon in ''Wing Commander II'' broke down every time a Kilrathi corvette was in the area for no reason other than to let the corvette pretend to be a threat to the ''Concordia''... never mind the antimatter guns that the ''Concordia'' had and the corvette didn't.
* HopelessBossFight: In ''Wing Commander III'', the plot called for was for you to lose your wingmen in battle with an enemy ace and make the final attack alone: however, this was achieved by having the ace magically [[RespawningEnemies respawn]] for so long as any wingmen not lost prior to that point were present. This lead to a surreal battle in which you might shoot him down a dozen times in a row, using up all of your missiles and countermeasures, and have no way of knowing what [[GuideDangIt obscure action]] would cause things to proceed.\\
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This was fixed in later versions, where wingmen ''vanish'' when autopiloting through the previous waypoints, regardless of whether they were still alive. Arguably even weirder.\\
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Similarly, forgetting to use a certain technology could also lead to a constant stream of respawning wingmen. Finally, if you fail a critical mission and end up in the losing path, the final mission involves a confrontation with a unique Kilrathi capital ship which is almost impossible to kill. The expectation appeared to be for the player character to die trying so that the Bad Ending could roll. While that ship ''can'' actually be destroyed with [[DeathOfAThousandCuts sufficient effort]], as you were not meant to destroy it, the game has no idea what to do when you beat it so just leaves you hanging in space.

* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: In ''Wing Commander II'', the ''Confederation'' class dreadnoughts (including the player home ship, the TCS ''Concordia'') had the [[WaveMotionGun Phase Transit Cannon]] as an integral part of the design's keel. The Kilrathi design from which the PTC was copied, aboard the Sivar dreadnought from ''The Secret Missions'' that used its gun to destroy the Confederation's Goddard colony was also a fixed mount. As the latter wasn't of any use against anything smaller than planetoids, maneuverability of the platform wasn't an issue.

* NationalStereotypes: The first games plays up your Japanese, Chinese, Australian, Belgian, African and American pilots quite a bit. From the second game we still have your 26th century samurai and EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench ColonelBadass, but the trope gets toned down in later games. Spirit's "Japanese-ness" is also a bit played down in ''Wing 2'' compared to ''Wing 1'', where it could occasionally be a bit overbearing.
* NonMammalMammaries: ''Wing Commander'' seems to be a little confused about this. In the ''Secret Missions 1'' [[ExpansionPack add-on]] to the original ''Wing Commander'', the Kilrathi priestess is shown with a multi-part bra covering three sets of human-style breasts. The intro to ''Prophecy'', however, has a wall drawing of a nude Kilrathi female with one pair of human-style breasts.
* NotSoImaginaryFriend: In ''Wing Commander II'', every now and then you're assigned a solo mission. Invariably, you run up against the Kilrathi's stealth fighters on these missions, and when you return to base you discover that your flight recorder has malfunctioned. Add in the fact that your character claimed to see stealth fighters ten years prior when your carrier from the first game was destroyed - a claim that was never verified and is still in fact ridiculed - and it's not terribly hard to see why nobody believes you.

* AllOrNothing: Twice! In ''Wing Commander III'', you seem to be fighting regular missions that will determine the fate of how the war is progressing against the Kilrathi, but then Admiral Tolwyn pops back into the story midway to tell you that Confed is losing and your new mission is no longer defending Confed controlled systems nor attacking Kilrathi systems, but instead defending a [[{{BFG}} planet killer known as the TCS Behemoth]] that is poised to end the war in one shot. Downplayed in that a traitor exposes the existence and weaknesses of the Behemoth to the Kilrathi, where it spectacularly gets destroyed before completing its mission of destroying Kilrah. Later Paladin comes back into the story to tell you how Confed Intelligence also had a last ditch plan to destroy Kilrah, though the scientist they planned to create the T-Bomb got captured by Kilrathi and needs to be rescued first, before going on the final missions to destroy Kilrah. Makes the first couple of missions you flew almost seem pointless, since the Kilrathi are building a large fleet around their home planet that will overwhelm the Terran Confederation once launched, no matter how well you did previously. The size of the Kilrathi fleet under construction at Kilrah are shown [[ItsAWonderfulFailure if you screw up enough to be placed on the losing path missions]].

* YouGotSpunk: At the end of a mission briefing for a mission in ''Wing Commander III'', after Blair enthusiastically says to consider an enemy transport convoy destroyed and leaves to go to his fighter, Captain Eisen comments to [[CommunicationsOfficer "Radio" Rollins]], "God I love that boy's spunk!" The sound clip is also used for the sound test, when configuring the original DOS version of the game for digital sound.

* AirstrikeImpossible: The final mission of ''Wing Commander III'' was supposed to be this, with staying in the canyons on the way to the fault target to avoid attracting the attention of infinitely respawning Ekapshii, but a glitch in the transition from the space leg of the mission to the atmosphere leg allowed the "one time" cloak to be used again, making it trivially easy to get there, by cloaking and flying above the mountains in a straight line. (And, heck, even if you don't use the cloak, so long as you're in good condition at the start and have plenty of afterburner fuel left, the engine can only throw two Ekapshii at you at a time, so it's ''easier'' to just burn straight for the target rather than try to navigate the canyon.)

* TakeAThirdOption: In ''Wing Commander III'', at one point you're given a choice between kissing [[WrenchWench Rachel]] or Flint, which would make the one not chosen mad at you (and thus unavailable, leaving you to either fly short a wingman or configure your own ship loadout if you don't want to launch without missiles, respectively). However, you can choose to not kiss either of them by bypassing the decision scene entirely, and have both still available. Both will be unhappy with you, but only for Flint does that really matter, as lowered morale makes her flying less effective.

* CrusadingWidower: [[spoiler: Blair becomes one of these after the death of Angel.]]

* WingedHumanoid: The Firekkans from the add-on ''The Secret Missions 2: Crusade'' are only seen in cutscenes, but are pictured as winged humans with avian traits, like beaks and talon-like hands.

* MoralDissonance: In Wing Commander III, the main character tells one of his pilots that what sets their side apart from the Kilrathi is that they don't kill innocents. Later the same game, you [[spoiler:destroy the Kilrathi homeworld]] without a second thought, killing countless innocents (some of which Blair figures will likely escape).

* {{Tuckerization}}: Because the third game has live actors, this meant that the main character, a previously FeaturelessProtagonist (other than his [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue hair]]), who could be [[HelloInsertNameHere given any callsign the player wants]], had to have both a canon name, and a canon callsign. He was eventually given the name "Christopher Blair", after Chris Roberts (the original creator) with "Blair" as a shortened version of his previous internal nickname "Bluehair".[[note]]His callsign "Maverick" is a ShoutOut to Creator/TomCruise's character from ''Film/TopGun''.[[/note]]

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: In the winning cutscan of Wing Commander III, Melek ''nar'' Kiranka mentions, "A new millennium lies ahead." The game was released in 1994 when the approaching millennium of 2000 was on everyone's minds.

* DefiantToTheEnd: Two from ''Wing Commander III'':

** In the losing path if captured after failing to [[spoiler:destroy Kilrah]], the player is given the option for Blair to either give up and meekly accept defeat or to basically tell Thrakhath "screw you". [[spoiler:The former gets Blair disintegrated by guards behind him as not worthy of a "proper" Kilrathi death, while the latter earns him Angel's fate.]]

* SwissCheeseSecurity: In ''Wing Commander II'', a saboteur manages to disable flight operations twice on the Concordia by planting an IncrediblyObviousBomb on the flight deck on two separate occasions. Amazingly, the bombs are shown placed in the same position on the flight deck both times. That spot might has have a sign above it stating "plant bomb here".

* DummiedOut: The SNES version of The Secret Missions has a dummied out 9th series only reachable by using a Game Genie and secret entry code. It only has a conversation with Shotglass and a briefing, but they are... very unique. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALYjBwypsYY You can watch here]].

-->'''Tolwyn''': Blair! You have a lot to answer for, pilot! Disobeying orders, dereliction of duty, theft of Navy property, endangerment of personnel… Nice work… Colonel Blair. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m proud to serve with you on this ship, Maverick.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: In the winning cutscan of Wing Commander III, Melek ''nar'' Kiranka mentions, "A new millennium lies ahead." The game was released in 1994 when the upcoming millennium of 2000 was very much on the minds of the whole world.

* ReassignmentBackfire: At the beginning of ''Wing Commander II'' the main character has spent ten years on a space station in the backwater Gwynedd system, where he was assigned by an admiral who thinks he's a traitor, and hasn't flown a combat mission in all that time. Then, suddenly, the war comes to Gwynedd.

** The Behemoth from ''Wing Commander III'' is, like the Sivar cannon, a planet-killer, though using a {{Frickin Laser Beam|s}} instead of gravity manipulation to do the job. The functionality of the gun beyond its initial test firing in the Loki IV system is unknown, however, as it's destroyed before it can be put to use against Kilrah.

--> ''We're headed to Kilrah with that thing, aren't we?''
--> ''Well, what would ''you'' aim for if ''you'' had the biggest gun in the universe?''
--> -- Colonel '''Christopher "Maverick" Blair''' and Admiral '''Tolwyn''', discussing the [[WaveMotionGun TCS Behemoth]]

* MoralDissonance: In Wing Commander III, the main character tells one of his pilots that what sets their side apart from the Kilrathi is that they don't kill innocents. Later the same game, you [[spoiler:destroy the Kilrathi homeworld]] without a second thought, killing countless innocents (some of which Blair figures will likely escape_.

* LoadingScreen: ''Wing Commander III'' on a bare-minimum 486 PC is truly an exercise in patience, requiring at least several minutes as the game loads data from the CD, leaving you looking at the start-up checklist shown on a display screen for a long time.

* ChromaKey: ''Wing Commander III'' had absolutely no sets whatsoever: it was filmed completely on greenscreen, and the sets computer-generated. This beats films like ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' and ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', by at least half a decade.

* AMillionIsAStatistic: In ''Wing Commander III'', with one bomb Blair (the PlayerCharacter) [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroys a planet]], killing billions of Kilrathi, it's not focused on nearly as much as the deaths pilots like [[spoiler:Jeanette "Angel" Devereaux]], [[spoiler:Mitchell "Vaquero" Lopez]], [[spoiler:Laurel "Cobra" Buckley]], or the fate of [[spoiler:Locanda IV, homeworld of Robin "Flint" Peters]].
* MoralDissonance: In Wing Commander III, the main character tells one of his pilots that what sets their side apart from the Kilrathi is that they don't kill innocents. Later the same game, you [[spoiler:destroy the Kilrathi homeworld]] without a second thought, killing countless innocents.

** The Kilrathi consider Blair to be [[WorthyOpponent such a skilled pilot]] that they have named him Heart Of The Tiger.

* RecycledINSPACE: The Kilrathi war overall is very much the Pacific theater of UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 IN SPACE! There's focus on carriers and flight groups. The enemy culture revolves around warrior virtues, respect for strict hierarchy and is led by an emperor. The Behemoth and Temblor bomb can be viewed analogous to dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. The signing of the peace treaty between humans and Kilrathi is deliberately staged the same way as it was between Japan and USA.