And what if your faction's leader orders you to betray your faction?
Then he is clearly unfit to lead, and the time is right for you to seize power! ^_^
And what if your faction's leader orders you to betray your faction?
That's true - and it's just as true in reality. It's precisely what World War II was all aboutAlso when deprived of the storyline almost all games come down to a bland "kill-everything-that's-shooting-at-you-until-they-either-stop-shooting-at-you-or-you-die." scenario.
I don't buy this. First up, Hobbes' betrayal was far more extensive than your typical double agent. A double agent pretends to betray his own side, but avoids doing anything that would directly hurt its interests. Hobbes is different - once the overlay was in place, he was able to truly betray the Kilrathi (note the word "able" - it is entirely conceivable that Hobbes, with the overlay, would not have changed sides. Even when ordered to do so, he still wasn't happy about it), and he absolutely and honestly did everything to hurt the Empire. He wanted the Confederation to win the war.With Hobbes there is one caveat though. He was a "genuine soldier of the Confederation" only as long a Thrakath wished him to be. IIRC Ralga knew what the personality overlay would do to him and he accepted the assignment for the express purpose of advancing the cause of the Empire of Kilrathi. IT wasn't double treason because Ralga nar Hallas was acting all along in the best interests of the Kilrathi empire. They wanted him to be accepted by the Confederation so the would have a mole inside to leak valuable intel when the time was right. They knew he would fight their side, but they wanted him to. They wanted him to become trusted and decorated. Thrakath essentially wrote off the deaths of all the other Kilrathi pilots as pawns to be sacrificed. You can't really betray your side when you're following your orders to the letter. Many of the Kilrathi did not know this about Ralga and assumed he was a traitor (which is why they tried to try to shoot him down).
That's true - and it's just as true in reality. It's precisely what World War II was all about
I don't buy this. First up, Hobbes' betrayal was far more extensive than your typical double agent. A double agent pretends to betray his own side, but avoids doing anything that would directly hurt its interests. Hobbes is different - once the overlay was in place, he was able to truly betray the Kilrathi (note the word "able" - it is entirely conceivable that Hobbes, with the overlay, would not have changed sides. Even when ordered to do so, he still wasn't happy about it), and he absolutely and honestly did everything to hurt the Empire. He wanted the Confederation to win the war.
You say that he was only a traitor as long as his Empire wished him to be. Well, that's the strangest thing of all - the impression we get is that his Empire forgot all about him. There was a time when the Empire was on the verge of defeat, and they didn't call upon Hobbes. Thrakhath only awakened him when the Confederation seemed to be just about beaten. The alternate paths in WC3 end with total defeat - even on the winning path, seconds before ultimate victory, Blair only needed to miss that one shot in order to give the Kilrathi total victory. Clearly, Hobbes was so important to the Kilrathi war plans, that they were quite content to win the war without making any use of him. You can end WC3 with Hobbes untriggered. Humanity could have lost in Fleet Action with Hobbes untriggered, too.
Incidentally, according to the Kilrathi Saga manual, Hobbes was around 15 years old when he defected. He spent 15 years serving the Confederation - that's literally half of his life.
Ultimately, during those 15 years, Hobbes was Hobbes. Ralgha literally did not exist. He had infinite opportunities to die fighting the Kilrathi as Hobbes. There were also a dozen opportunities for one side or the other to win the war with Hobbes still Hobbes. In order for Hobbes' defection to the Confederation to not be treason, we would have to be able to show that no matter what happened, he would have returned to the Kilrathi. But this, as it turns out, is very uncertain. And if his return is not a given, but actually just one, unlikely possibility, then he must be regarded as a genuine traitor, who could have lived the rest of his life out serving the Confederation.
(and as for his second betrayal... well, is there any doubt that, facing a Confed Court-Martial, he would have been convicted of treason? The complexity of his circumstances wouldn't have made a difference. You wouldn't have heard Confed judges patting Ralgha on the back for being loyal to the Empire all along)
(and as for his second betrayal... well, is there any doubt that, facing a Confed Court-Martial, he would have been convicted of treason?
That is to say, in the purest gameplay terms, when deprived of the storyline, Wing Commander comes down to the single-player gauntlet in WC Academy or WC Armada - the player stands alone against increasing odds.
I wonder if Hobbes would have faced trust issues trying to reintegrate into Kilrathi society had he lived long enough to do so.
I mean, if you have a friend who one day turns his back on you then some time later comes back to you saying he's your friend again, you might not trust him very much for a while.
Very few people probably liked Hobbes at that point.
Someone who killed as many Kilrathi as he did?
You say that he was only a traitor as long as his Empire wished him to be. Well, that's the strangest thing of all - the impression we get is that his Empire forgot all about him. There was a time when the Empire was on the verge of defeat, and they didn't call upon Hobbes.
KIS Sar'hrai's fighter wing .
Were the Kiralthi really told not to kill Hobbes? It sounds odd, as it could in theory be expected that an experienced pilot like Blair would figure that out eventually. It seemed to me that Thrakkath just assumed Hobbes was good enough of a pilot to surive on his own.
Also in Wc2 Angel talks about how Hobbes is considered too "valuable" to risk on combat missions. So maybe for a long while there was no need for Thrahkath to protect him as he wasn't put in much danger. Even when you get to the Victory Hobbes isn't on the flight roster (for apparently unrelated reasons). It seems as maybe Hobbes as a fighter pilot wasn't part of the original plan but something that had to be improvised around.
That's a good point -- Hobbes seems to find his way out of the cockpit when Blair isn't around.