Looking Back at the Taliban Sighting in the Kilrah Sector (August 17, 2021)

[ChrisReid]

The Taliban have unfortunately been all over the news this past week, and it's our duty to bring you the Wing Commander angle on all topics. Today's connection links to the G'wriss System in Wing Commander Prophecy. As the crew of the TCS Midway escapes from their initial encounters with the Nephilim in the H'rekkah System, they escape to G'wriss and find themselves low on supplies. The solution is to rendezvous with a Confed convoy en route to "the Taliban colony." Of course, the line carried no significance when it was first written back in '96/'97, but it seemed increasingly anachronistic when they were overthrown in the early 2000s. And now? Maybe not so much.

That's not where the story ends, though! When Prophecy was ported to the Gameboy Advance by Daylight back in 2003, the line really stood out! "Taliban" was replaced by "Eielitian" at the time.

LOAF: There’s a throwaway line in Wing Commander Prophecy about intercepting a supply convoy bound for “the Taliban colony”. No one thought about it in 1997 but in 2003 when we did the GBA port we were aghast and changed the name. Sad to think the original is possible again!

The replacement line for the Gameboy version was “the Eielitian colony” which I believe had the virtue of not referencing anything at all.

And that poor convoy? Quickly taken out by the bugs. Only the TCS Redeemer supply shuttle survived to rearm and refuel Lance Casey and his buddies.





Here's a playthrough by BCSBuster if you'd like to see the whole mission:

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Original update published on August 17, 2021

 

[Flashpoint]

"The Taliban have unfortunately been all over the news this past week, and it's our duty to bring you the Wing Commander angle on all topics."

It really isn't. This is pretty bad taste guys.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I think it’s pretty interesting, in 1997 no one thought twice about the name… and then in 2003 it was a giant red flag that had to be fixed for the port… that’s a good microcosm of how we’ve treated this whole situation.

 

[Flashpoint]

In of itself it is an interesting little fact, I agree. I just think it's poor timing.

It's like "See that looming humanitarian crisis there? Well look at this related fact in an old game we like!!". It feels a bit off. I've actually shown this to a couple of people without comment and their reaction was similar to mine, which is what prompted me to raise this in the first place.

I'm definitely not suggesting that anyone meant it in poor taste. I'm completely happy that this is just passionate people being passionate without maybe stepping outside their bubble and thinking a situation through.

I definitely don't think poorly on anyone for posting it. I just think it's a bad look and you might want to think about removing it, possibly posting it again when the Afghan situation is less, shall we say, current.

I'd also add that I'm not trying to be provocative, judgemental or plain old shitty. It felt uncomfortable to me the moment I read it and I'm just trying to convey to people that this might be a bad thing.

Feel free to ignore me of course.