History VideoGame / WingCommander

** The Temblor Bomb's destruction of Kilrah at the conclusion of ''Wing Commander III'' qualifies as ApocalypseHow/{{Class 6}}. The core and mantle of the planet is still there, but the crust has pretty much been rendered into one giant asteroid belt.

* AwesomeYetPractical: The Flashpak. Functionally, it destroy's any capital ship or starbase with one unit. Useful. How does it do this? By superheating the interior and [[IncendiaryExponent igniting the atmosphere.]]

'''''Break and Attack!'''''

* ScrewThePooch: Hawk, to Maniac:
--> To be the one they string up when your squadron screws the pooch on a mission?

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Behemoth. Yeah, it's a PlanetKiller, and that's [[EarthShatteringKaboom always awesome]]. But, [[TimTaylorTechnology 500,000,000 gigawatts]]? An [[AttackItsWeakPoint easily targeted vulnerable spot]]? [[FlyingBrick Slow as mollases]]? No wonder this thing only managed a test fire.
** The Temblor Bomb had elements of this. It took up a whole six missile hardpoints on the Excalibur fighter, was only viable due to Kilrah's unstable tectonics, was extremely difficult to develop, and had to be fired with incredible precision. Despite this, it was successfully used.

** ''Wing Commander III'' gives us, on the [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] side, the Dreadnought, a huge (22 km long) warship equipped with a full fighter wing and numerous weapons including anti-ship missiles.

* CallAHumanAMeatbag: The [[CatFolk felinoid Kilrathi]] refer to the humans as "hairless apes" and similar terms.

* CliffHanger: ''Wing Commander II'' ended with [[TheDragon Prince Thrakhath]] bragging to the [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] Emperor about the utter destruction of the Confederation's 6th fleet in Deneb Sector, with the last words on the screen being "To be continued in Wing Commander III".

* CouldntFindAPen: In ''Wing Commander Prophecy'', it's not shown, but in a discussion between Zero, Dallas, and Hawk in the pilot's lounge, it's mentioned that the [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] aboard the kat fleet that got wasted earlier in the game used their blood to write "Knathrak", roughly equivalent of Ragnarok for them.

* TheEmpire: The [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] Empire, naturally.

* HumanityIsSuperior: Subverted in ''Wing Commander IV'', in that [[spoiler:Tolwyn]] didn't believe it was, without genetic manipulation and changing to a warrior society like the [[CatFolk Kilrathi]].

** The TCS ''Midway'' in ''Prophecy'' gets this later in the game, in the form of a [[WaveMotionGun fleet-killer plasma cannon]]. See also the human [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking devices]], which are derived in part from captured [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] devices.

* AMillionIsAStatistic: In ''Wing Commander III'', with one bomb Blair (the PlayerCharacter) [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroys a planet]], killing billions of [[CatFolk Kilrathi]], but except in the {{novelization}} of the sequel it's not even mentioned (and only hinted at with a brief shot of the Emperor's chambers collapsing), unlike the deaths of [[spoiler:Jeanette "Angel" Devereaux]], [[spoiler:Mitchell "Vaquero" Lopez]], [[spoiler:Laurel "Cobra" Buckley]], or the fate of [[spoiler:Locanda IV, homeworld of Robin "Flint" Peters]].

* PunctuationShaker: Many [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] names make use apostrophes, although just as many do not.

** In ''Wing Commander III'', in the final [[WaveMotionGun Behemoth]] defense mission, [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] fighters respawn infinitely until [[spoiler:the Behemoth is destroyed]].

** In the [[ExpansionPack add-on]] "Operation Thor's Hammer", for the original ''Wing Commander'', they provide the force that assassinates the [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] priestess conducting the Sivar Eshrad ceremony on Firekka.

* YouNukeEm: In the [[ExpansionPack add-on]] ''Secret Operations 2'', for ''Wing Commander II'', Maniac makes a big deal about the Mace missile mounted by the Morningstar fighter, a tactical nuclear missile that can one-shot smaller capships, or be used to take out a cluster of fighters via splash damage. Oddly, no such deal is made of regular torpedoes, which utilize matter/antimatter warheads that are even more powerful during the war with the [[CatFolk Kilrathi]].[[hottip:*:Post-war torps are less powerful, primarily for cost-cutting purposes]]

*** Technically, since Captain Thorn was an UnseenCharacter in ''Wing Commander'' and Admiral Tolwyn acted as if he was in command of the ''Concordia'' in ''Wing Commander II'' (to the point that we never even knew the captain's ''name''), Captain Eisen was the first carrier captain seen in the series, period.

* PressStartToGameOver: The first game starts with your ship blowing up and a GameOver screen. Fortunately, it's FissionMailed -- you've been playing the UniwinnableTrainingSimulation.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Behemoth. Yeah, it's a PlanetKiller, an that's [[EarthShatteringKaboom always awesome]]. But, [[TimTaylorTechnology 500,000,000 gigawatts]]? An [[AttackItsWeakPoint easily targeted vulnerable spots]]? [[FlyingBring Slow as mollases]]? No wonder this thing only managed a test fire.

** In Wing Commander IV, if you repeatedly screw up your early missions, say, by immediately ejecting on launch for every mission you get, Tolwyn hands you your pink slip in a hysterically dark cut scene.

* WrenchWench: Rachel Coriolis from WCIII.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Behemoth. Yeah, it's a PlanetKiller, an that's [[EarthShatteringKaboom always awesome]]. But, 500,000,000 gigawatts? An [[AttackItsWeakSpot easily targeted vulnerable point]]? [[FlyingBring Slow as mollases]]? No wonder this thing only managed a test fire.

** Heaven's Gate is a heavily armored space station that Confed thinks will stand up even to bombers. Spirit has a rather unorthodox TearJerker - but effective - solution... given the NationalStereotypes, you can probably guess what it is.

* WrenchWench: Rachel Coriolis.

* MacrossMissileMassacre: In ''Wing Commander Prophecy'' and it's sequel, ''Wing Commander Secret Ops'', the player on occasion has access to the Wasp interceptor. One of it's weapons is the Swarmer, a launcher that with each shot fires eight missiles that track your locked target--as long as you keep your target within your front view (otherwise the Swarmers will lose lock and fly off aimlessly. If you possess the piloting skills to keep your target in your view (often not possible without jettisoning the Wasp's booster), it's a one-shot kill. See also the Tracker, mentioned in ClusterMissile.

* MilitaryMaverick: Maniac. One of the game manuals suggests that Maniac is best utilized like a hand grenade. Throw him into the midst of the enemy, and then go in after him to clean up.

* MisGuidedMissile - several examples, including in the novel ''End Run'' (of the HeroicSacrifice variety), and the intro scene for ''Privateer''
** In the first game Angel refers to a missile that Maniac fired that missed its intended target and took out a friendly ship. Later, in ''Wing Commander IV'', Maniac suggests deliberately missing his first few missiles to Catscratch. (As per Maniac's usual track record, this fails miserably when Catscratch tries it, leading to a failed mission, a destroyed fighter, and - depending on the player's choices - Catscratch's death.)

* NoFairCheating: In the compilation ''Kilrathi Saga'' (1-3), the launcher program gives you the option of making yourself invincible, in the first two games, akin to the old "origin -k" command line switch, but changes your callsign to "CHEATER".

* NonMammalMammaries: Wing Commander seems to be a little confused about this. In the ''Secret Missions 1'' [[ExpansionPack add-on]] to the original Wing Commander, the Kilrathi priestess is shown with a multi-part bra covering three sets of human-style breasts, while the ''Wing Commander Academy'' cartoon showed the relatively few females that were seen as being somewhat flat-chested. The intro to Wing Commander Prophecy, however, has a wall drawing of a nude Kilrathi female with one pair of human-style breasts.

** Spoofed in the game-within-a-game ''Wing-O'' in ''System Shock II''. In one solo mission, you meet a new class of enemy fighter, but no-one believes you because you left the lens cap on your flight recorder.
*** That also(?) happened with the Tri-Lackey fighters in the game-in-a-game in 'System Shock'.

* OralFixationFixation: Captain Ian "Hunter" St. John and his cigar.

* PleasurePlanet: An entire class of planet in ''Privateer''. Pleasure planets will buy food, and almost any luxury goods (legal or otherwise). The only products they produce are movies.

* PointDefenseless: Averted in ''Armada'', where quite accurate flak cannons will rip the dogsnot out of even heavy fighters in a few hits. Played straight pretty much everywhere else, where anti-fighter weaponry generally tends to just be a relatively minor annoyance.

* ProudWarriorRace: As a predatory species evolved from an unusually dangerous homeworld, the Kilrathi are disproportionately geared toward war and conquest. In a slight twist, they actually approve of deception and stealth as opposed to "honorable" combat (probably stemming from their feline evolutionary path: as any cat owner will tell you, deception and stealth are part of what cats ''do'').
** (Fortunately, the Kilrathi speak non-mangled English.)

** See also the movie, in the several scenes they're trying to hide from the [[CatFolk Kilrathi]], with varying degrees of success.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: The "bad" ending from ''Wing Commander III'', in the Sol System mission series. Similarly, in the novel ''Fleet Action'' one of the Hakaga supercarriers is crippled but not destroyed when rammed by a destroyer.

* RedBaron: The Kilrathi Aces in the games have a few of these. Bhurak Starkiller, Khajja the Fang/The Machine, Dahkhath (translates to 'Deathstroke'), and Bahktosh Redclaw.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The series as a whole was never all that clear on what units of distance to use, depending on the game, but pretty much all of them were ludicrously '''wrong'''. Less than 100km between planets in a system (Privateer)? Um, no. Just... no.

* ScrewThePooch
-->'''Hawk, to Maniac''': To be the one they string up when your squadron screws the pooch on a mission?

* SpaceMarine: SpaceMarines get little mention in the Wing Commander game series as a whole, [[CaptainObvious given the focus of the genre]], but they are seen in several of them, playing a relatively minor but still important part in the plot.

* SplashDamage: ''Wing Commander II'' and ''Wing Commander IV'' have the Mace, a tactical nuclear missile that can be used to take out groups of sufficiently close targets, detonated either by shooting the missile ([=WC2=] or on command ([=WC4=]).

* StoryDrivenInvulnerability: Starting with ''Wing Commander II'', downed friendly {{NPC}}s could eject, to become available in the next mission... until [[PlotlineDeath the plot called for them to die]].
** Zigzagged starting with ''Wing4'' by supplying death-able pilots ''in addition to'' the plot-critical always-ejecting supporting characters. (Even better, the redshirts sometimes eject.)
* StoryToGameplayRatio: The prevalence of plot and cutscenes increased from ''Wing1'', which didn't have much at all, to ''Wing4'', which shipped on [[{{Doorstopper}} 6 CD-ROMs]]. (For context, ''HalfLife2'' takes 5.) Thereafter it receded sharply.

* SubsystemDamage: Available for the PlayerCharacter ship since the very first game, where you could lose subsystems that hamper your performance but don't kill you outright; some of the damage can be repaired by auto-repair systems if given sufficient time... unless that, too, was destroyed, in which case you were hosed. Losing a gun, though, wasn't fixed until after you returned to base.

*** The first scene with [[PlayerCharacter Blair]] also shows him investigating the wreckage of the TCS ''Concordia''.
** ''Wing Commander IV'' - Vagabond is killed a short way into the game.
*** {{Averted}}, however, by the TCS ''Victory'', which is said by Maniac to have been converted into a museum ship after the conclusion of the Kilrathi War.
** ''Wing Commander Prophecy'' - Christopher Blair is missing in action/presumed dead by the end of the first act, but then recovered, only to be missing in action/presumed dead again by the end of the game.
*** And Hawk is killed, a little after halfway through.
* TakeAThirdOption: In ''Wing Commander III'', at one point you're given a choice between kissing [[WrenchWench Rachel]] or Flint, which would make the one not chosen mad at you (and thus unavailable, leaving you to either fly short a wingman or configure your own ship loadout if you don't want to launch without missiles, respectively). However, you can choose to not kiss either of them, by bypassing the decision scene entirely, and have both still available. Both will be unhappy with you, but only for Flint does that really matter, as lowered morale makes her flying less effective.
** Note that {{canon}}ically (as revealed in the game {{novelization}}s; the ''Wing Commander IV'' {{novelization}}'s prologue covering it is reproduced in that game's manual), [[spoiler:Blair chooses Rachel, and Flint dies during the mission to Kilrah]].

* TechnologyMarchesOn: the Javelin HS ("Heat-Seeking") missile is a "rear-aspect" weapon: it can only achieve or maintain lock if the target's tailpipe is pointing towards its nose, and is susceptible to the HighSpeedMissileDodge. Real world infrared-homing missiles have been all-aspect (and thus trope-proof) since [[TheSeventies 1978]]. (Not to mention that a fighter's heat signature would show up like a Christmas tree.

* UnitsNotToScale: Prior to ''Armada'' the animated sprites had no particular scaling in mind. An external view of your fighter beside your home carrier would leave one scratching their head at how a hundred or more fighters could fit in such a rinky-dink ship. In ''Armada'', ''Wing Commander III'', and ''Wing Commander IV'', they used three separate scales ("fighter", "capship" and "starbase"), which were accurate within their own domain but not so outside of it. With the introduction of ''Prophecy'', everything was brought into scale with everything else.
** Mind you, even with the release of ''Prophecy'', the ''speed units'' tended to vary, so a "klick" wasn't the same thing as a kilometer, the variation being a [[RuleOfFun gameplay]] issue. If "klicks" really were equal to kilometers, typical fighter engines would be creating several hundred ''thousand'' G's of thrust. Visual targeting would also be impossible if you were really going that fast, negating the entire focus of the series[[hottip:*:{{Ace pilot}}s kicking ass and taking names; [[ChewBubblegum chewing bubblegum]] optional]].

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: The first game allowed you to kill your wingman without retribution [[hottip:*:in fact, Colonel Halcyon ''encourages'' you to do so to Maniac if he refuses to listen to your orders too much; it's a major point of debate as to just how much he was joking]]. Later games made the wingmen start fighting back if it was obvious you were trying to nail them, and from ''Wing Commander III'' onward, you get ''[[NonStandardGameOver court-martialed]]'' if you return to base after shooting down your wingman... unless you eject afterwards, in which case the game forgets that you did the killing.

** Except for the rear turret on the aforementioned Triton transport. However, this isn't because the turret itself is powerful, but rather it's invulnerable from most angles due to weird nuances in the transport's shields.
*** And its annoying tendency to shoot down torpedoes aimed at the engine with more success than any other point defense system in the entire franchise.

* WhatTheHellPlayer: In the Wing Commander series, you get called on accidentally shooting your wingmen. However, in the first game you don't get punished for it in any way, even if you shoot them down. Colonel Halcyon wasn't kidding when he said you could shoot Maniac down if you want. Later games, however, would take more than a few hits on a wingman's fighter as a sign of turning against your friends, [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment and will act in self-defense]].

* YouNukeEm: In the [[ExpansionPack add-on]] ''Secret Operations 2'', for ''Wing Commander II'', Maniac makes a big deal about the Mace missile mounted by the Morningstar fighter, a tactical nuclear missile that can one-shot smaller capships, or be used to take out a cluster of fighters via splash damage. Oddly, no such deal is made of regular torpedoes, which utilize matter/antimatter warheads that are even more powerful during the war with the [[CatFolk Kilrathi]][[hottip:*:post-war torps are less powerful, primarily for cost-cutting purposes]].

* AllThereInTheManual: Approximately 95% of ''Secret Ops''' plot was explained on the (also episodically updated) website, with literally ''none of this'' included in any subsequent re-releases, in part thanks to copyright concerns from EA Germany. Have fun with Alt-tab.

* {{Antimatter}}: Traditional capship power source, also used on the Excalibur and its descendant, the Dragon.

* AnyoneCanDie: In the very first game, you could lose any one of your wingmen. Solemn funeral scene ensued. Next installments featured more comprehensive plot, so NPC pilots learned to use their ejection buttons. Since then, all deaths were plot-driven (but included some major characters).

* ArtificialStupidity: Anyone who's had a wingman try to shoot ''through'' them to hit the ship they're targeting has gotten a demonstration of this trope. See also friendly {{NPC}}s trying to engage ''Triton'' transports in ''Prophecy'' without first taking out the turret guarding the engines. Also, your carrier in ''Secret Ops'', the ''Cerberus'', tended to use its BFG indiscriminately against any enemy craft nearby. This can result in various allied ships being accidentally destroyed because they wandered into the cannon's fire patterns, such as a) your wingmen, b) the subject of today's EscortMission, or c) you.

*** The solution is not to fire a torpedo from more than 500 m away from an enemy ship. Long-distance torpedo fire gives the enemy more time to shoot it down - and shoot ''you'' down - and you have a limited supply of both resources. (The 3rd and 4th games take it one step further by allowing you to fly ''inside'' a ship's docking bay and attack it from there.)
** In the first game, it's also entirely possible to come back from a mission (and it's inevitably the really hard ones where this will happen) only to have your wingman crash into the Tiger's Claw and die because they take formation flying a little too seriously. Very annoying if you're trying to keep everyone alive.
*** You could usually avoid that if you told your wingman to return to base. It was really bad when your ''wingman'' sank the Claw more than the ''Kilrathi'' did- something the {{SNES}} version of the first game was particularly prone to.
* TheAsteroidThicket: Crashing into an asteroid can (and often does) mean instant death. In some of the games they can also be shot with your cannons to sort of clear a path for you. There are also ''Mine Thickets'' in some sectors, and you do ''not'' want to shoot those.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: In ''Wing Commander III'', while the Kilrathi dreadnaught isn't totally invulnerable, it's ''much'' more prone to damage from shooting at it inside the hangar, where there the fast-recharging shields don't protect.

* BigNo: Kilrathi pilots in ''Wing Commander II'' sometimes do this when they get shot down.

* BodyCountCompetition: Several of the ''Wing Commander'' games had a scoreboard on the ship, showing the kills of all the pilots onboard. The wingmen would gain kills despite not going on missions with you, and some were much better at killing than others. Maniac would sometimes have more kills than you even if you didn't take him with you, ever, in the later games.
** Makes sense, just like a real-life carrier they have flight rotations and Blair isn't going on every single mission being conducted, so if you didn't take Maniac last time he's probably Flight Leader for the next patrol or whatever while Blair is getting chow/rack time.

* ButThouMust: In ''Wing Commander IV'', you're given two chances to defect to the Union of Border Worlds. If you don't take the second chance, infinite waves of [=UBW=] bombers spawn until your carrier is destroyed, ending the game.
** And if you eject, it's court martial. Thanks a lot!

* CompilationRerelease: ''Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga''. The first three games, re-released for Windows 95 and adjusted to run at the correct speeds on a modern computer. Also included remastered audio and music, as well as an expanded manual and a calendar listing many important dates in the Wing Commander universe. After it went out of print, it was known to reliably sell for over $100 on EBay. At least one copy sold for over ''three hundred dollars''. The release of DOSBox allowing the original games (which usually sell for $20 or less on EBay) to run on modern computers has since lessened the need for ''The Kilrathi Saga'', but it still often sells for above its original retail price on EBay.
** On a slightly lesser scale, ''Prophecy'' and ''Secret Ops'' were combined into ''Wing Commander Prophecy Gold'', with a new manual that combined material from the manuals of the individual games into one book, and added some details not seen previously.
*** [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes ...but did not include]] the [[AllThereInTheManual online material that provided the meat of the plot for Secret Ops]] after it was taken offline from EA's website.

** Also seen piloting the utility ship tractoring in Blair's out-of-gas Rapier at the end of TheMovie.

* CutscenePowerToTheMax - The ''Privateer'' intro exemplifies this trope, with one laser doing more damage than the best fighter available to the player having four of the most powerful guns in the game, among other feats not possible in gameplay.

* DeathCryEcho: The Wing Commander games would have both friendly and enemy pilots scream over the radio at you if they were destroyed. Apparently when their ship is breaking up, they only have the presence of mind to hit the communicator and yell [[BigNo "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"]], rather than the eject button.
** {{Handwaved}} in the ''Prophecy'' strategy guide, which claims that [[WeHaveReserves neither of the badguy species bother putting ejection seats in their fighters]].
** Before they coded in the actual dialogue for the speech pack for ''Wing Commander II'', they had placeholder sound files, such as "forming on your wing" or "attacking" in a complete deadpan.[[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensued]] the first time the player lost a wingman, who calmly stated, "I'm dead."

* DifficultyLevels: From ''Wing Commander III'' onwards, you could select a difficulty level, from the options screen. AI in the higher levels use decoys to distract your missiles more frequently, and will use their own missiles more freely - and effectively. Given the deadly nature of missiles in all but the easiest difficulties, this becomes a nasty case of RealityEnsues.

* DramaticSpaceDrifting: On rare occasion, after shooting down a ship in ''Privateer'', you can see a body part (often a hand or booted foot) floating in space.

* EarthShatteringKaboom: the ''Wing Commander III'' Temblor Bomb, which ends the Kilrathi war by blowing up their seismically-unstable homeworld. Weirdly, Luke Skywalker is the one who drops the bomb - after being "required to maneuver straight down this trench and skim the surface to ''this point''"...

* EjectEjectEject: Followed by a ride in an EjectionSeat if you actually do punch out. Better hope Kilrathi ace Dakhath nar Sihkag, from the first game, isn't around though. He [[InformedAbility likes using ejection seats for target practice]].

* EjectionSeat: Ejecting means that you just failed every remaining objective (because your wingman [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou Can't Go On Without You]]), but it can occasionally be a wise move, especially if you don't like SaveScumming.

** In the cartoon, the ejection was via an enclosed pod, not just one's seat.

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt - In the games, the Locanda missions from ''Wing Commander III''. [[WellIntentionedExtremist Admiral Tolwyn]], in ''Wing Commander IV'', believed this to be the fate of humanity without his plan, but in the {{novelization}} realized the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Black Lance]] could have served an unmodified humanity to the same effect, just before he killed himself. See also the fate of the Sirius colony in the novel ''Fleet Action'', and almost the fate of Earth until Max Krueger's {{big damn heroes}} moment.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: In addition to most pilots usually being referred to by their callsign only, the first game had a bartender named "Shotglass" (his callsign from his pilot days) and the second and fourth games had mechanics named "Sparks" and "Pliers" respectively. (The latter two ''did'' have spoken-on-screen names - Janet [=McCullough=] and Robert Sykes - but nobody ever used them.)

* FantasticSlurs: "Hairless ape" is used by Kilrathi on Terrans, along with other simian-related insults. Terrans call the Kilrathi "furballs" usually, with occasional feline-related comments (including, for example, a reference to the taunt target being made into kitty litter, from ''Armada'').

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The first three Wing Commander games are the Pacific theater of World War II [[AC:[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]]] Confed are [[{{Eagleland}} the United States]], while the Kilrathi are ImperialJapan, complete with godlike emperor, warrior codes, scheming henchmen, inability to understand surrender, the whole nine yards.

* FasterThanLightTravel: via "jump points", which have ill-defined properties. In the games, a SwirlyEnergyThingy opens and the ship goes through. In TheMovie, it involves sort of gravimetric slingshot, though none of the jumps shown are conventional ones.

* FriendOrFoe: In ''Privateer'', it's trivially easy to fall afoul of this with the starting radar, which doesn't give target types any color coding; the militia forces fly the same ships (with different color schemes that are hard to notice until you're right next to them) as the [[SpacePirates pirates]] and [[SpaceAmish Retros]], further compounding the problem. More advanced radar models color-code contacts, making it much easier to determine who is or isn't a legitimate target.

* GameMod: Hackers & programmers using ''Prophecy'''s VISION Engine have managed to produce their own campaigns. Others have employed the ''{{Freespace}} 2'' engine, ''VegaStrike'', or even built their own.

* GuyInBack: Technically, the option exists for any craft in the series with a rear turret to have a gunner, but for the most part they go unnamed. The games allow you to switch to that turret and operate it, but while doing so you can't control the rest of the ship.

* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: Captain Wilford, in ''Prophecy'', on the WaveMotionGun that was mounted on the TCS ''Midway'':
-->"...a fire-and-forget weapon: we fired it once, and now we can forget about firing it again."
** It was, however, salvaged from a spaceship that comes from ''another dimension''. The fact that they got ''one'' shot out of it without PhlebotinumOverload is pretty impressive. (Plus, in a "You Lose" cutscene, they ''do'' try firing it again. It just explodes.)

** Taken to extremes in the ExpandedUniverse novel ''Fleet Action'', when the Cats fake a peace treaty in order to come out kicking with a power level of OverNineThousand. They are literally in Earth orbit nuking cities before they're turned back by [[BigDamnHeroes forces from the Landreich]].
* HomeGuard: The Border Worlds Militia in 'Wing Commander IV'' started off as one of these. They are essentially a small modern navy when the game takes place, in contrast to the novelization, where they have whatever ships they could scrounge up, often decades out of date.
* HopelessBossFight: In ''Wing Commander III'', the plot called for was for you to lose your wingmen in battle with an enemy ace and make the final attack alone: however, this was achieved by having the ace magically [[RespawningEnemies respawn]] for so long as any wingmen not lost prior to that point were present. This lead to a surreal battle in which you might shoot him down a dozen times in a row, using up all of your missiles and countermeasures, and have no way of knowing what [[GuideDangIt obscure action]] would cause things to proceed.
** This was apparently fixed in later versions, where wingmen ''vanish'' when autopiloting through the previous waypoints, regardless of whether they were still alive. Arguably even weirder.
*** Similarly, forgetting to use a certain technology could also lead to a constant stream of respawning wingmen. Finally, if you fail a critical mission and end up in the losing path, the final mission involves a confrontation with a unique Kilrathi capital ship which is almost impossible to kill. The expectation appeared to be for the player character to die trying so that the Bad Ending could roll. While that ship ''can'' actually be destroyed with [[DeathOfAThousandCuts sufficient effort]], as you were not meant to destroy it, the game has no idea what to do when you beat it so just leaves you hanging in space.
* HumansAreWhite: Averted in the first game. Although a majority of your crewmates on the Tiger's Claw are white, it's not by a large margin. Among the main characters, besides the white ones, are a black man, a Japanese woman, and a Taiwanese man. [[AndZoidberg And Maniac]].

** This trope is played straight, however, in the theatrical release, with only two non-Caucasian actors in the main cast, and one of them barely present (Mr. Obutu is part of the Claw's bridge personnel, and often somewhat in the background).

* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: The TCS ''Midway'' in ''Prophecy'' gets this later in the game, in the form of a [[WaveMotionGun fleet-killer plasma cannon]]. See also the human [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking devices]], which are derived in part from captured [[CatFolk Kilrathi]] devices.

* InertialDampening: One of many components in your fighter that can fail as you take damage, though the games don't model any actual effects of its loss. In the novels, it's noted to react quickly, but not instantaneously.
** IIRC, when it's broken a collision is lethal, but that's all -- no major maneuverability loss.

* InterfaceScrew: How ''Wing Commander III'' handles the mission after the DrowningMySorrows moment mentioned above, with your controls randomly reversing. Fortunately, your only real goal for that mission is to survive until your carrier is about to bug out. [[spoiler: There's no saving the Behemoth]].
** ''Wing Commander IV'' has a few missions where the odds are against you due to a jamming ship that pretty much screws over most of your instruments, including your shields and your missiles, which will not lock. What makes it even more of a kick to the face is that the enemy fighters are not affected at all by the jamming due to [[{{handwavium}} frequency-agile avionics and tempesting]] (as per the {{novelization}}), so they have working shields, and missiles that lock.
*** On the upside, though, [[MacrossMissileMassacre salvo-firing off all of your "dumbfire" unguided missiles]] will put a quick end to the jammer ship, once you locate it.

* InvisibilityCloak: Kilrathi "Strakha" stealth fighters have them; they figure strongly into the plot of the second game, in that they blew up the ''Claw'' and cost Blair his career in doing so because no one else has ever seen them before. (Pretend you're a jury, listening to a pilot claim he was paying attention but sneaky impossible ships blew up his carrier anyway. ''You'' do the math.) Then, in a RunningGag, every time you fight them in the second game, your flight recorder is blown out, so you ''still'' can't prove they exist.

** One particular level early in ''Wing Commander III'' also features a "Skipper" stealth torpedo. If it hits the carrier you're trying to escort, the mission fails.
*** Later, said torpedoes are used again, loaded with enough bioweapons to kill umpteen-million humans and then launched against a human colony. In the {{novelization}}, the missiles' Strakha escort distracts Blair's pilots long enough for the missiles to slip by. So, no, according to {{canon}}, they ''won't'' be naming babies after you on Locanda IV.

* ItsAWonderfulFailure: Every ''Wing Commander'' game has an ending depicting the results of losing the campaign. For instance, the losing ending of ''Wing Commander III'' shows the Kilrathi landing on a ruined Earth.
** In ''Wing Commander IV'', if you fail during the final sequence (which is entirely conversational) you end up shown being put before a firing line, to be executed for treason.
*** Fail several times in the first few mission sets, they'll show Blair back at the bar in Nephele after he's been booted from the service, watching a newscast of a declaration of war against the UBW.

* KilledMidSentence: Happens quite regularly in games in the series that have speech, with taunts being cut off by the speaker's ship becoming a rapidly expanding ball of plasma, courtesy of your guns.

* LittleNo: If you get caught by Confed in Wing Commander IV. Blair utters a quiet but defiant "no" when asked if he wants to be blindfolded for his execution.

** InUniverse Example - is Hobbes (your resident Kilrathi wingman) named for a [[CalvinAndHobbes plush toy from a comic strip?]] Yeah, he just might be.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: the Javelin HS ("Heat-Seeking") missile is a "rear-aspect" weapon: it can only achieve or maintain lock if the target's tailpipe is pointing towards its nose, and is susceptible to the HighSpeedMissileDodge. Real world infrared-homing missiles have been all-aspect (and thus trope-proof) since [[TheSeventies 1978]]. (Not to mention that a fighter's heat signature would show up like a Christmas tree. [[FridgeLogic What kind of crappy sensors is Confed using]]??)

* GameMod: Hackers & programmers using ''Prophecy'''s VISION Engine have managed to produce their own campaigns. Others have employed the ''{{Freespace}} 2'' engine or even built their own.