Fair enough... how about Bossman being dead.
I thought he never existed.
In all honesty, it's the single thing that still bugs me about the movie... but many people, myself included, have outlined stories through which he could have survived.
Paladin's scottish accent was a put on, too, according to the Wing Commander IV novelization - part of his covert operative role.
Angel being... well not French.
Angel was never French, for one thing... she's Belgian. The problem here is that the *actress* who played her wasn't French. The actress who played Flint wasn't from Locanda, either...
Seriously, though, legitimate theater has had British people playing Frenchmen forever - look at Captain Picard, a French character played with an English accent by an Englishman.
Also, consider that when French people become fluent in English they generally do speak with a British accent - because they learn the language in that part of the world.
I know we've freeze-framed this one - it's not clear whether he was killed or not.
Rapiers being old and "beat to hell."
Different fighters - CF-117 Rapiers versus the later F-44 Rapier IIs. Completely unrelated, like the P-47 Thunderbolt and the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Broadswords being on the Tiger's Claw.
The Broadsword entered service in 2634-5; they first appeared on the Tiger's Claw in the Wing Commander Academy series (2654).
Iceman being nowhere to be found even though he says hes been on the TC for years.
That's sort of weak - there's a *lot* of pilots we don't see in the movie.
Paladin transfering to Combat pilot status on the TC, then going BACK to Covert Opps.
Later stories (including Freedom Flight) already introduced the idea that Taggart was involved with Covert Ops (well, Naval Intelligence) before SM2.
Yes I do know that the broadsword has been around since pre-war times. I just didn't think there were any present aboard the Tiger's Claw. I would have thought that such a tough bomber would have made an appearance when there were several oppertunities that it could have been used.
Actually, we rarely attacked anything large in the original Wing Commander - we didn't even see an enemy carrier until Secret Missions 2.
Broadswords seem to have existed in limited numbers - in both Wing Commander Academy and the Wing Commander movie ordinary fighter squadrons seem to have included sone specific class (Rapiers in the movie, Scimitars in the show) and then a pair of Broadswords.
Such a question:
How are we supposed to explain "glad to meet ya" said by Maniac in WC1, while in all the later WC's we are told the were classmates?
Throw away WC1?
Or ignore this mismatch with later WC's ?
Maybe he's making fun of Blair's having changed his callsign thrice in the immediately preceding Wing Commander movie novel trilogy.
Seriously, though, this has always been a mistake - Claw Marks itself tells you that Maniac graduated in the same class as Blair, and every single later story has continued that plot point.