Confused about what is canon and what isn't. Help?

Clearly that’s not how you approach it but i think it’s unkind to equate those saying they’d have preferred some separation to those saying “it ruined my childhood” about movies such as the phantom Menace which were clearly written with the intent of being in the same continuity. I think when we talked about how the wing commander movie bugged us neither of us were talking about quality, i certainly was specifically referring to integrating it into the games.
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This wasn't the debate in 1999 but it absolutely is today; the biggest, dumbest parts of the internet today are all about screaming at each other whether "new Trek" or "Disney Star Wars" are "canon". (Okay, the parts that aren't about politics!)

I always thought this design was poor, as were the many continuity issues in WC3.

I guess I should read the script carefully to come to a real conclusion, but my impression so far is that WC3 has some "this seems cool, so let's write it this way" storylines.
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I don't think that's quite fair. It's not a story I love but it's also not some thoughtless addition to the story... Wing Commander III is structured all around having you think about who the traitor is... and convincing you to decide to rule out Hobbes yourself. It does a great job of playing with your ego right from the start, making you defend Hobbes when there's absolutely no hard evidence. It's disappointing to anyone who loved Hobbes in Wing Commander II and I think they underestimated how that part of the audience would react... or they specifically wanted to split from the 'friendly' tone of WC2.

An interesting discussion would be to look at it from the opposite perspective: in a timeline where Wing Commander III is roughly the same (same cast of characters, have to hit the same basic story beats, etc.) then who else would've worked as the traitor?
 
Bandit LOAF said:
It does a great job of playing with your ego right from the start, making you defend Hobbes when there's absolutely no hard evidence.
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This is the problem. Freedom Flight uses direct psychological descriptions to tell the readers that Ralgha is hostile to Thrakhath and the Emperor, and even wants to take revenge on them.
Bandit LOAF said:
or they specifically wanted to split from the 'friendly' tone of WC2.
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I'm afraid that's the key to the problem. From the treatment of Angel in the WC3 story, the WC2 leading lady, to the symbolism of Thrakhath's character, and even some of Paladin's actions, hint at this problem.

I don't like this approach. If the creators want to change the tone of the story, then they can depict another battlefield and another group of people.

I actually feel the same way about WC Movie. The story didn't even need to happen on the Tiger Claw. The main characters could have been a different group of people altogether, such as TCS Liberty, and Hawk was there, not Hunter. The story could end with a rescue team of Blair and CR's guest appearance.
 
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I have a feeling that one of the major reasons why I found the script of WC2 outstanding is that although it says "find the traitor and clear yourself" on the bright side, the core of the script actually makes people think: What is traitor?

Jazz and Minx are traitors, no problem.

But are all traitors necessarily evil?

Ralgha and Ghorah Khar's resistance are technically traitors to the Empire, and are they evil to the Kilrathi race?

Those soldiers accused of mutiny, who simply refused to fire on civilians on Ghorah Khar who did not want to join the Confederation. Are these soldiers traitors? Are those Kilrathi who want to return to the Empire traitors to Ghorah Khar?

Many of the characters I saw in this story, they were concrete people, not faceted dramatic symbols. This reminds me of Gundam 0079, where even a pilot of Zeon who appeared in the first episode and took it upon himself to launch an attack that resulted in civilian casualties, was also very concrete in character, and was also scared in the combat.
 
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i just think wing commander 3 constantly starts threads and doesnt follow through especially on character arcs. Cobra is a prime example, she is set up beautifully but it just ends in disaster without a satisfying payoff to me. She thinks all kilrathi are evil and is proven right, bc of the Manchurian Candidate angle. That would be like watching american history x and ed norton never changes and is murdered by a black character, and then movie ends. Radio rollins is set up to be an interesting conspiracy nut, but then he like so many characters fade into the background. Instead we focus on a romance subplot, leaving angel in the dust. Cherry on top wc4 the game acts like whatever romance you chose, never happened.


to answer the other question, i would not have done another traitor subplot after wc2 to begin with.

Saying all that wc3 is still a great game, i love a lot about it, i just think it is the weakest of the first 4 games.
 
Jdawg said:
i just think wing commander 3 constantly starts threads and doesnt follow through especially on character arcs. Cobra is a prime example, she is set up beautifully but it just ends in disaster without a satisfying payoff to me. She thinks all kilrathi are evil and is proven right, bc of the Manchurian Candidate angle. That would be like watching american history x and ed norton never changes and is murdered by a black character, and then movie ends. Radio rollins is set up to be an interesting conspiracy nut, but then he like so many characters fade into the background. Instead we focus on a romance subplot, leaving angel in the dust. Cherry on top wc4 the game acts like whatever romance you chose, never happened.


to answer the other question, i would not have done another traitor subplot after wc2 to begin with.

Saying all that wc3 is still a great game, i love a lot about it, i just think it is the weakest of the first 4 games.
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My feeling is, what did the authors want to convey to the readers or players through this story?

Is there a reflection on war in the story of WC3?
 
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