History WesternAnimation / WingCommanderAcademy

** Also {{inverted}} in the episode "The Chain of Command", where Tolwyn has Maverick stay aboard the ''Claw'' and supervise from the bridge while the rest of the fighter wing goes to fight the Kilrathi, in order to teach the cadet what it [[AnAesop means to be in command]], knowing that [[TheChainsOfCommanding others might die following your orders]].

* AuthorityGrantsAsskicking: Commodore Tolwyn. See BackInTheSaddle below.

** In one episode, the ''[[TheBattlestar Tiger's Claw]]'' is attacked while most of her fighter wing is away. Because his remaining pilots are badly outnumbered, Commodore Tolwyn decides to climb into a fighter to [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking personally take part in the fighting]].

* HeroesWantRedheads: Blair towards [=McEaddens=]. And the redhead definitely wants him back.

* StandardFemaleGrabArea: Inverted. When an argument between Maniac and Blair is about to escalate to Maniac throwing a punch, [[TheChick Archer]] restrains ''Maniac'' this way. Before ''[[SheFu throwing him]]'' across the room. Worth noting, Maniac is pretty much the biggest human character on the show, appearing to be close to twice Archer's mass and considerably taller than her. After he lands, he snarkily comments that she must be fun on a date.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The Kilrathi.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Commodore Tolwyn. See BackInTheSaddle below.

* GenreBlind: The Dolosians.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* IncomingHam: ''"Hey Maverick!"''

* RedOniBlueOni: Payback and Archer (Red and Blue), as well as Maniac and Maverick to a lesser degree.

** In the series finale, Maverick decides to press an attack on the Dreadnought's hangar bay, and [[TrueCompanions several other characters take his wing]] to provide cover for him.

* StandardFemaleGrabArea: Inverted. When an argument between Maniac and Blair is about to escalate to Maniac throwing a punch, [[TheChick Archer]] restrains ''Maniac'' this way. Before ''[[SheFu throwing him]]'' across the room. Worth noting, Maniac is pretty much the biggest human character on the show, appearing to be close to twice Archer's mass and considerably taller than her. After he lands, he snarkily comments that [[FoeYay she must be fun on a date.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Daimon Karnes acknowledges Maniac as a WorthyOpponent after Maniac stays on his tail during a dogfight, but says he was more like Blair in the old days.

* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: In "The Last One Left", after being captured by SpacePirates, Maniac and Blair are brought in to dine with their leader Daimon Karnes, a former PropagandaHero of the Federation, where he explains why he went renegade.

* DramaticSpaceDrifting: "The Last One Standing" focuses on a pilot who went renegade and his squad. The squad gets wiped out towards the end of the episode, leaving shattered wreckage floating in space, including a destroyed helmet.

* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: In "The Last One Standing", Maniac and Blair are brought in to dine with [[spoiler:Daimon Karnes]], where he explains why he went renegade.
* NotSoDifferent: The renegade pilot acknowledges Maniac as a WorthyOpponent after Maniac stays on his tail during a dogfight, but says he was more like Blair in the old days.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: TheMole in the {{premiere}} episode "Red and Blue" leaks information to his Kilrathi contact and is killed by him moments later. [[PlayingWithATrope The Kilrathi wasn't necessarily offended by the treason]], but [[DisappointedByTheMotive because said mole]] [[ItsAllAboutMe was just spiteful over supposedly being underappreciated]].

* ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld: Daimon Karnes, in "The Last One Standing", to Blair. The two kinds of people in the galaxy, according to him, are those who fly in order to get somewhere, and those who love to fly.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the episode "Invisible Enemy", Maniac is on the outs with the rest of the crew because they think he abandoned his wingman in favor of racking up more kills. In the mess hall, he complains to Maverick that it "Seems like I'm about as popular around here as chipped beef on toast." This dish is more commonly known as ''shit on a shingle''.

** Ship designs were close enough to the in-game ones that you could recognize Hellcats, Broadswords, Scimitars, and Dralthi fighters. Arrows, Longbows, Sabers, and numerous other ships used in minor roles, giving the idea of a military that used a wide variety of ships rather than the small handful the heroes appear to be checked out on. The Kilrathi similarly use a wide variety of fighters from the games, with the Dralthi (AKA the "[[InSeriesNickname Flying Pancakes]]") being only the most easily recognized.

** The cadets flew Scimitar medium fighters. At first this would seem an odd choice. Shouldn't cadets get light fighters or even dedicated training craft to fly? But many who have played Wing Commander believe that the Scimitar was by far the worst fighter in the game, so most in-universe pilots would probably spurn them, making them the only fighter in plentiful supply for cadets to train in.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: The fate of TheMole in the {{premiere}} episode, "Red and Blue". In a subversion, the "reward" isn't because he was a traitor, but the reason for the betrayal not being "noble" by Kilrathi standards, as mentioned below.

* TheAnimeOfTheGame

* TheBrigadier: Commodore Tolwyn, also a FourStarBadass

* DeadStarWalking: [[spoiler: Blizzard, Ragitika as well.]]

* {{Irony}}: Pretty much the ''only'' time Archer doesn't hesitate to kill a Kilrathi pilot [[spoiler: was when she unknowingly killed [[DefectorFromDecadence Bokh Nar Ragitika]], who Blair was on the verge of turning to the Confederation. The only Kilrathi she faced that she ''shouldn't'' have killed.]]

* LargeHam: Maniac.

-->"A man without honor has no reason to live."

* ThrownOutTheAirlock: [spoiler:Prince Thrakhath does this to TheMole, as such a dishonorable person is not fit to live.]]

* TheyCalledMeMad: TheMole states his reason for treason was he washed out of the academy after failing a psych evaluation for being "unstable". He rants and raves and really gives the impression his evaluators were on to something when he admits this.

* ThrownOutTheAirlock: What happened to [[spoiler:TheMole, above.]]

''Wing Commander Academy'' was an American animated series produced by Creator/{{Universal}} Cartoon Studios in [[TheNineties 1996]] as part of the Creator/USANetwork's SaturdayMorningCartoon lineup. Based on the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series of video games, it featured several of the games' characters, most of them played by the actors who portrayed them in the later games(including Creator/MarkHamill and Creator/MalcolmMcDowell), and filling in backstory on The Kilrathi and Admiral Tolwyn. The plot centers around a group of [[PluckyMiddie cadets]] going on their final cruise before graduating from the MilitaryAcademy.

* ShoutOut: A space pilot character played by MarkHamill, captured by primitives, spending some time hanging by his arms and legs from a pole, then convincing the primitives to join the fight against the bad guys? [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Hmm...]]?

''Wing Commander Academy'' was an American animated series produced by Creator/{{Universal}} Cartoon Studios in [[TheNineties 1996]] as part of the Creator/USANetwork's SaturdayMorningCartoon lineup. Based on the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series of video games, it featured several of the games' characters, most of them played by the actor who portrayed them in the later games, and filling in backstory on The Kilrathi and Admiral Tolwyn. The plot centers around a group of [[PluckyMiddie cadets]] going on their final cruise before graduating from the MilitaryAcademy.

''Wing Commander Academy'' was an American animated series produced by Creator/{{Universal}} Cartoon Studios in [[TheNineties 1996]] as part of the USANetwork's SaturdayMorningCartoon lineup. Based on the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series of video games, it featured several of the games' characters, most of them played by the actor who portrayed them in the later games, and filling in backstory on The Kilrathi and Admiral Tolwyn. The plot centers around a group of [[PluckyMiddie cadets]] going on their final cruise before graduating from the MilitaryAcademy.

''Wing Commander Academy'' was an American animated series released in [[TheNineties 1996]] as part of the USANetwork's SaturdayMorningCartoon lineup. Based on the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series of video games, it featured several of the games' characters, most of them played by the actor who portrayed them in the later games, and filling in backstory on The Kilrathi and Admiral Tolwyn. The plot centers around a group of [[PluckyMiddie cadets]] going on their final cruise before graduating from the MilitaryAcademy.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: Karnes.

* GenreSavvy: Grunt.
-->'''Grunt:''' If there's one thing I learned in the Marines, it's never to volunteer for anything!\\
'''Tolwyn:''' Spoken like a true veteran.\\
'''Grunt:''' Thank you, sir!

** The major characters were played by their original actors, when getting some unknown soundalikes would have been cheaper and even almost expected in WesternAnimation.