Besides the fact that Tolwyn is badmouthing my role character, I never thought it was logical for him to pin the blame on Blair. He had proven himself over and over, and when things all went to hell the Admiral decides to make a scapegoat outta him and forget all his previous accomplishments for the Confed.
I think the Wing Commander Academy animated series certainly tries to explain that Tolwyn simply didn't like Blair -- we see Tolwyn trying to be a mentor to Blair in the series (grooming him -- picking him to lead one of the teams specifically in Red & Blue, instructing him in command in Chain of Command)... and then Blair responding by standing up to him several times (spying on him for Adm. Bergstrom, refusing to accept the medal in the finale).
BTW...does anyone have an official list of the Tiger's Claw survivors? I can think of Spirit, Angel, Hunter, Paladin, and Maniac (not including Doomsday and Jazz since technically they flew off the Austin.)
I suppose it depends what you mean by survivors, since, Spirit, Angel, Hunter and Jazz are all killed off eventually.
As for people who serve on the Tiger's Claw at any point who are still alive after 2656.056, we can add to that list Vanderman (referenced earlier in the thread), Sparks (who filled in off the Austin for a time during FF), Hawk (who was a technician on the 'Claw before going off to OCS), Iceman (who survived the attack) and Tolwyn (who commanded the ship on occasion).
There's also an interesting reference to Shotglass in Victory Streak - saying that he gave the writer a set of wings 'after K'Tithrak Mang'. Make what you will of that.
Of these characters, the only ones who ultimately survive are Vanderman (well, who knows) and Sparks.
unfortunately, later continuity told the tale of hunter's death just before the battle of earth. the way to fit this retcon into the game's events is:
a) he's onboard the concordia and when doomsday says "here we are", he means "...on the concordia", not "...in the room" (as is everyone else)
b) jazz simply forgot about him in his vengeance list (that has consumed the last 10 years)
and c) we never see or hear from him during the entire game. not even after blair's been cleared.
now on the other hand, gwynedd (losing track) 3 has "How many deaths are you responsible for, Colson? Specialist McGuffin, General Halcyon, Iceman, Knight, Hunter, everyone else on the Tiger’s Claw… And Mariko… And you think I’ll let you live, bastard?"
this line has its own problems, since of course the retreat to gwynedd never happened, but it shows that to the best of blair's knowledge at this time, hunter is dead.
I think you're on the right track with your first answer -- then just expand it a bit... perhaps the difference in dialogue is specifically because Hunter is killed at some point during the losing missions? Wing Commander II has an incredibly spread-out timeline... with Blair on the Concordia for three years.
Also, there is another reference to Hunter on the 'winning path'... Spirit and Angel talk about how he'd play practical jokes on Maniac just after Shadow's funeral. It's certainly not a clear indication that he's alive -- but "hey, remember how great your dead friend was?" isn't a very good way to lift Blair's spirits.
Yeah, that's a little iffy. Iceman, of course, is killed by the Cats in B'shriss, or however the heck you spell that (as told by Hawk in Prophecy). Do we know exactly when this occurred? Apparently, Blair brought in the pod with Casey's body, but I've heard tell this occurs after the Claw's destruction and Blair's posting to Caernavon, so...
Iceman does survive the destruction of the Tiger's Claw, and is killed by the Kilrathi later.
As for Hunter, it's probably safe to assume Blair didn't know he was still alive. I mean, they weren't exactly close friends (RE: the movie). Also, in Fleet Action, Hunter sees Vanderman and says something akin to "Damn, but I thought you bought it when the Claw went down." He goes 13 years without knowing Vanderman was alive, so it's reasonable to assume Blair thinks the same thing. Perhaps Hunter isn't assigned to the Concordia until after Vukar Tag (maybe the Munroe missions are some of his first--and last--aboard the Concordia).
Blair did know that Hunter was still alive after the loss of the Tiger's Claw - Hunter sends him a letter of support after the court martial (which is published in the Kilrathi Saga manual).
AFAIK Hunter didn't serve on the Concordia. Not just because we would've seen him in WC2 -- for all practical purposes, we were supposed to assume that Hunter was dead at the beginning of WC2. But since there wasn't any real evidence that he HAD bought it (except for that one line by Blair in Gwynedd 3), Forstchen was able to get away with his explanation of how he survived in Fleet Action. Like Dralthi5 said, if Vanderman didn't know Hunter was still alive then it's safe to say that everyone, including Jazz and Blair, assumed he was dead when the Claw went down as well. Hence Blair's comments to the begging Jazz floating in his ejection pod.
Well, he certainly served on the Concordia eventually -- he's flying a Broadsword off the Concordia in the first chapter of Fleet Action (which means Blair was his Wing Commander).
In Jazz's statement "I swore I'd kill everyone on that ship" he's talking about everyone, not just those on that flight wing in Sivar. How does he know who was actually flying that mission and who wasn't? His anger was so consuming that he took it out on the entire ship : "The Claw was supposed to protect those people...but YOU (Tiger's Claw) detoured to destroy an enemy troopship!" which refers to the SM1 Dorkir (or Lumbardi, can't remember) mission right before Goddard gets wasted. Bitter guy.
There's no actual enemy troopship mission in SM1 -- it was supposed to have happened earlier (you do run into a Lumbari tanker in the first mission, but that's while you're in the process of escorting relief ships to Goddard). Jazz is referring to everyone who was on the ship during Operation Thor's Hammer (which is what the earlier poster meant by the Sivar mission). He probably *isn't* referring to everyone who was ever on the 'Claw... since that'd include a bunch of people who had nothing to do with anything, like Tolwyn and Hawk.