SPOILERS BELOW. You have been warned.Please note that this page covers all of the media in the franchise, not just the games, as all of it is officially part of the universe.
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Humans
Christopher "Maverick" Blair
This list is alphabetical, but it's appropriate that Blair be its first entry, as he is the Player Character for most of the franchise's entries and one of its most central figures overall. Heroic, earnest and originally nameless, he was portrayed by Freddie Prinze Jr. in The Movie, and by Mark Hamill in the later games and the animated series.
Call to Agriculture: Blair retired to become a farmer after Wing Commander III. He wasn't much good at it, however, and couldn't turn down the call to return to active duty in the next game.
Custom Uniform: In Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV, Blair has his last name on the name tag on his uniform, while all other pilots have their callsign on the name tag.
Four Star Badass: Upgraded from Colonel Badass to this in Prophecy, where he even flies a mission on your wing before getting captured by the Nephilim.
Got Volunteered: Spirit of all people does this during a rescue mission briefing.
Leeroy Jenkins: In the second game, he disobeys orders to rescue Stingray and to attack the Kilrathi starbase at the end. In Wing Commander III, he can go out after Hobbes, but this indirectly leads to Vaquero's death. (As per the novelization, this is the canon path.)
Military Maverick: "Maverick" is an Ironic Nickname, as Word Of God claims he got his call sign as a sarcastic reference to his by-the-book flying style. However, on occasion (as noted in the Leeroy Jenkins entry), he has fit the trope in a non-ironic sense.
You Are in Command Now: In Wing Commander IV, Blair is given command of the Intrepid when Eisen departs for Earth. Subverted in the novelization, in that a Navy lieutenant is the one to actually give the exact commands to carry out Blair's orders, but is too junior to be made Captain himself.
Though Blair was already the CAG by Wing Commander 3, and was shown to have some command-experience from Wing Commander Academy so he wasn't quite as ill-prepared for command as is typical for this trope.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: As a result of the limited color palette available to VGA displays of the time the first game came out, the Player Character was given blue hair. When the series went to FMV, this resulted in the last name of the character becoming "Blair".
Jason "Bear" Bondarevski
Originally appearing in an Expansion Pack to Wing Commander II, Bondarevski was adopted by author William Forstchen as the main character of his Expanded Universe novels. Bear, like Blair, eventually reaches flag rank and helps to strike a number of devastating blows against the Kilrathi war machine.
Running Gag: His name. Many attempt to say it, most botch it badly.
Unusual User Interface: In the novel False Colors, he's offered the chance to have his cybernetic replacement arm (mentioned above) wired so he's directly connected to his fighter's controls. He declines the offer.
Grayson Burroughs
A mercenary out on the fringes of Confederation society, and thanks to an alien artifact a player in the Gemini Sector, in Privateer and its add-on Righteous Fire.
The Other Darrin: not voiced by Petrarca in Secret Ops. (The credits are sparse enough that we're not sure who took over the role.)
Right Behind Me: He starts bad-mouthing Commodore Blair, who inevitably appears. After being made aware of Blair's presence, he goes into full "recruit greeting a senior officer" mode.
Casey: "I must have heard everything about Blair." (lists off Blair's famous achievements, then pauses when he sees his audience stand at attention) "Except that he was onboard the Midway..." (muttered)
A wingman from the first game, Casey was killed in action not long after his son Lance was born. He was a very good pilot: generally, you'd fly four or five missions with each wingman, with the best ones saved for the late-game adventures. Iceman was second-to-last.
Badass: So very much. His badassitude is recognized in universe where the other pilots are in awe and sometimes a little afraid of him, and Colonel Halcyon gets disappointed if he returns from a mission with no kills.
Danger Deadpan: Iceman is described in the manual for the first game as being the calm, cool, collected pilot, and the one on top of the scoreboard when you start the game. A fellow pilot notes that everyone else shouts in combat, but you sometimes have to strain to hear Iceman, because he's pretty much whispering in terse, two-or-three-word sentences.
Dead Little Sister: Some unnamed members of his family were killed by the Kilrathi on Vega IX. He was pissed.
A pilot introduced in the original game's first expansion pack, Colson is more notable for being The Mole, the first perpetrator of the "secret defector" subplot which the franchise seemed to love.
Batman Gambit: His aim was to kill the pilots of the Tiger Claw. Spirit was one of the pilots. He attempts to blackmail her into not attacking a space station her fiancée was held hostage on. Her solution, for anyone who knew her, would have been a Foregone Conclusion.
Frameup: He destroyed evidence to make Blair get blamed for the destruction of the Tiger's Claw.
Failure-to-Save Murder: See below, to the point where he collaborates with the people responsible for the incident they failed to save his brother from.
Freudian Excuse: He blames his brother being killed at Goddard on the Tiger's Claw being delayed from responding to the colony's distress signal by an attack on a Kilrathi transport. Vengeance of the Kilrathi portrayed him as working with the Kilrathi to get his revenge on the crew of the Claw, however Special Operations 2 suggests he is a full blown collaborator without needing revenge for motivation.
Smug Snake: For sheer irritating smugness he gives Mr. Morden a run for his money. Even in the Secret Missions expansion to the first game, before he does anything actually evil, he has a smug, douchey smirk on his face all the time.
Rachel Coriolis
A technician in the third and fifth games who leads the ground crews that service fighter craft. Played by renowned porn star Ginger Lynn Allen in her first "dramatic" role.
Originally introduced as a studious, somewhat nerdy Belgian in the first game, Angel was promoted ahead of Blair, serving as his squadron commander when Blair is assigned to the Claw as per The Movie. In between the second and third she serves under him in a different fashion. Played by Saffron Burrows in the movie, and Yolanda Jilot in Wing Commander III.
Right in Front of Me: From the movie: "I'm Commander Devereaux, Lieutenant. Your wing commander."
Stuffed into the Fridge: She gets killed off as soon as she's introduced in Wing Commander III, although the player doesn't learn of her death until much later, and this sets up the last mission as being one for revenge.
That's An Order: She uses several versions of the trope phrase in the movie.
Captain William Eisen
The Captain of the TCS Victory and then of the Lexington, the carriers out of which the third and fourth games take place, Eisen is a no-nonsense captain who treats Blair with respect (but is not above chewing him out if he screws up royally, or ejects unnecessarially). In the fourth game he defects to the Union of Border Worlds, convincing several of his best pilots to do the same, and is eventually elected captain of their carrier, the Intrepid.
Real Life Writes the Plot: probably would've shown up in Prophecy, but Jason Bernard passed away in '96. His final film, Jim Carrey's Liar Liar, is dedicated to him, and Prophecy has a carrier in his honor as well as the Real Life Barnard's Star renamed on the galaxy map that shipped with some versions of Prophecy.
You Are in Command Now: leaves the Intrepid for further espionage later in the game. The novelization elaborates that Blair is assigned a Navy Lieutenant to whisper in his ear; that character is captain in all but rank.
Mitchell "Vaquero" Lopez
A music-minded pilot from the third game who dreams of opening a cantina when he retires. Played by Julian Reyes.
A pilot from the fourth and fifth games. In the fourth, he's a retired Confed colonel who has taken up arms with the Border Worlds, becoming one of Blair's most trusted wingmen and providing a war-minded Spock to the McCoy of Tamara "Panther" Farnsworth. He returns in much the same vein in Prophecy, being one of several Mentors to Casey.
One of the first wingmen you fly with in Wing Commander I. He's Blair's rival from the Academy, scoring second in their graduating class, and is also something of a Foil, the Red Oni to our Bluehair. Played by Tom Wilson in the later games and animated show, and Matthew Lillard in the movie.
The Ace: He's almost as good as his Boisterous Bruiser ego says he is (while serving up a large slice of ham, particularly when Tom Wilson steps into the role in Wing Commander III). Maniac has the 14th highest kill score in the entire Kilrathi War, behind Blair's 11th Place spot. (All the others in the Top 20 are dead.)
And then subverted in how he's next to useless when you fly with him, almost never follows orders and runs away at the earliest opportunity. He's quite the match when he challenges Blair to a duel though.
Born Lucky: How Maniac has managed to survive for so long, according to Blair. He goes on to tell Catscratch that "there's one on every ship, but only one".
Glory Hound: Generally with realistic consequences.
Guile Hero: one of his most fabled exploits was in coming across two Kilrathi destroyers whilst flying a dinky little patrol fighter. Through judicious taunts and dazzling flying alone, he was able to convince the two ships to smash into each other, with all hands lost.
Hidden Depths: He's genuinely rattled by Vagabound's death, and surprisingly points out that certain actions that you can take in WC 4 might not be entirely moral.
Jerkass: Crops up in Freedom Flight, Wing Commander III, and especially Prophecy. Blair may call him out on it in Wing Commander IV, depending on an earlier choice by the player.
Military Maverick: He's a Dirty Harry-style Deconstruction, with similar fatality rates among his wingmen and dazzled worshipers. He's so irresponsible he never keeps any promotions past Major.
Right Behind Me: Maniac falls for this in Wing Commander III in a discussion with Flint, going off at first Flash and then Blair, not realizing Blair is right behind him.
Maniac: The Colonel is a spineless...
Blair: I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you, Major.
Everybody seems to hate him (both in real life and in-universe)... Except for the writing staff, since of all of the cast members who get Killed Off for Real, Maniac — the most likely candidate given his rank, status, and reckless behavior — isn't one of them.
But then, it seems like his Scrappiness is deliberate. After all, he's played by Biff Tannen.
Tom Wilson's interpretation of Maniac (in Wing Commander III, Wing Commander IV, and Prophecy), actually did a lot to redeem him, at least within the context of the FMV footage. He steals all his scenes and is a lot of fun to watch.
He's even something of a Chew Toy in The Price of Freedom, where Maniac's constant snipes fail to get a rise out of Blair—but Marshall falls for Blair's prods every time.
[Blair and Maniac have just defected from Confed and Blair is trying to cheer Maniac up]
Maniac: At least when I go, I'll be in a cockpit.
Blair: Come on, cheer up! I still say it'll be friendly fire that gets you.
Maniac: I don't know. The side we picked to be on has a long, hard road ahead.
Blair: Will you look on the bright side? At least now you won't have to deal with that Confed promotion that finally came through.
Maniac: My promotion came?! MY PROMOTION—! <claps> ... Confed, that's—that's not right ...
Shout Out: Pulls one as an alternate ending to his scene with Blair and Flint.
Suicidal Overconfidence: He tends to get killed a lot for blindly charging at the enemy in the original game. Once he gets Plot Armor, this becomes a justified trope: he's just that good. The problem, again, is that nobody else is.
Worthy Opponent: Maniac sees himself as this to Blair. To his credit, while he's obsessed with one-upping Blair, he absolutely insists that it must happen in a completely fair fight.
Janet "Sparks" McCullough
Introduced in the second game in the same role Rachel was later given in Wing Commander III, she eventually transferred to the Expanded Universe novelizations along with Bondarevski.
Ascended Extra: After only a brief showing in the games, she becomes significant character in the non-novelization novels.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: Her name is mentioned in dialog, but much of the time she was addressed by her nickname.
Doomsday: Now all we need is Maniac, so we can all die together. Spirit: What an uplifting sentiment.
The Eeyore: Almost every comm message he ever sends you is about his impending death. ("Yay, we killed everyone. I bet I'm going to die now.")
Irony: He is one of the few pilots from the original game to survive the war, and still flying combat missions (as a mercenary) in Arena, set in 2701.
Elizabeth "Shadow" Norwood
At the beginning of the second game, Blair is court-martialled for allowing the Tiger's Claw to be destroyed and Reassigned to Antarctica, if by "Antarctica" we mean "The Coast Guard IN SPACE," where he is expected to live out his career in obscurity and shame. Shadow is one of the few friends he makes there.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: One would think Blair would remember one of his only post-Claw friends a bit more.
Smug Snake: For all his talk about being superior and his zero tolerance to failure, he falls rather quickly in battle (probably because he doesn't have the advantage of technology anymore).
Ian "Hunter" St. John
A "loose cannon" on the decks of the Claw, Hunter is the final wingman of the first game. He also figures a couple of the Expanded Universe novels.
Younger than They Look: The manual says he's in his late twenties. His sprite looks around forty.
Robert "Pliers" Sykes
Another spaceplane-maintainer, this time working for the Border Worlds. He's grandfatherly and channels a little bit of the inventive spirit.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: His name is mentioned in dialog, but it was used only once, the rest of the time he was addressed by his nickname.
Percussive Maintenance: When he first finds a flash pak (a mine that cooks any ship from the inside out) he tries to work out what it is by dropping it on the ground, before resigning himself to actual work when it doesn't go bang.
Oral Fixation Fixation: Rarely seen without a wad of dip (chewing tobacco) in his mouth, especially in the novelization. This presents some difficulty to him while he's aboard the TCS Princeton, as he couldn't indulge in his normal habit of spitting out tobacco juice onto the deck without messing up the nice clean carrier.
James "Paladin" Taggart
Another franchise-long mainstay, Paladin is a pilot on the Claw who later transfers into Black Ops, particularly helping set up the Temblor Project which helps end the war. From the fourth game onward, he's been elected as a Senator.
Eyepatch of Power: In Super Wing Commander, released for the Macintosh and 3DO, Paladin has an eye patch. However, given his displayed abilities in the game, one might question how much "power" there actually is in that scrap of cloth. "Ach! He caught me with me kilt down!", indeed.
A quiet Japanese woman aboard the Claw, Spirit is one of Blair's oldest friends, staying loyal to him even after his court-martial.
Bilingual Bonus: Spirit's last words to Blair, before her Heroic Sacrifice. It's not, however, much of a bonus since your character translates it for you during the mission debriefing.
Colonel Badass: A Lieutenant Colonel, but has enough badass to qualify.
Good Is Not Soft: Probably the nicest character in all seven or eight games, but pragmatic to the point where she goes Taking You with Meon her fiance, who was a prisoner for ten years and may or may not have been on the space station she blew up.
Got Volunteered: She pulls this on Maverick when told of a Confed ship that needs rescuing. It kind of backfires when it turns out to be a captured Confed ship that lures would be rescuers into a trap.
Heroic Sacrifice: Lampshaded in The Secret Missions, but averted ("Anything I sacrifice today will bear fur and whiskers"). Then in Wing Commander II when her bomber is crippled...guess.
Japanese Honorifics: Being Japanese, she often calls Maverick "Blair-san", and her commanding officer as "Colonel-sama" in the first game. This stops in the second game.
Me Love You Long Time: A decade's worth actually, Spirit is this to her fiance Philip, to the point where the traitor attempts to blackmail her with his life. She reacts about as well as you might expect.
Poirot Speak: Her dialogue is painfully stereotypical in the first game. Fortunately they fixed this in Wing Commander II.
Ramming Always Works: Heaven's Gate is a heavily armored space station that Confed thinks will stand up even to bombers. Spirit has a rather unorthodox, Tear Jerker, but effective solution, given that her ship is too damaged to survive a return to base, thanks to sabotage by Jazz.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She'll mention having fantasies of this after her fiance is taken. It doesn't quite happen.
Stuffed into the Fridge: In Wing Commander II, she makes a Heroic Sacrifice when her fighter is damaged and rather than eject, she kamikazes into the Heaven's Gate station. Her death is not brought up afterward, except in a passing reference by Jazz, who wanted revenge on the Tiger's Claw crew for the death of his brother, and her death seems to exist to facilitate Maverick and Angel getting together.
First introduced in Wing Commander II as a weird combination of Obstructive Bureaucrat and Insane Admiral, Tolwyn appears to have something of a vendetta against Blair, believing wholeheartedly in the cowardist propaganda spread against him and resenting the need to take Blair aboard his flagship, the Concordia. Then the third game rolled around and Malcolm McDowell stepped into the role...
A Nazi by Any Other Name: He seeks to weed out humans who are not fit to fight through horrendous means and seeks dominance over the Boarder Worlds and the Kilrathi. Yep, that sounds familiar.
Four Star Badass: In episode 6 of Wing Commander Academy, he runs a blockade by playing chicken with a Kilrathi ship, and again in episode 8 he makes a badass quote before climbing into a fighter himself.
He Who Fights Monsters: The near-destruction of humanity during the Kilrathi War led him to conclude that Humanity must evolve into a warrior race via the horrific culling of the weak and near-constant warfare.
Knights Templar: Above all, he ultimately wants to save the human race. What hewilltodoso make him almost as great a threat to humanity as the Kilrathi were. Almost.
Military Maverick: He is described as tactically brilliant but untrustworthy, too intent on fighting his own war to make a truly effective tool of Confed.
Narrative Profanity Filter: In the novel Fleet Action, when the Kilrathi Baron Jugaka demanded humanity's surrender, Admiral Tolwyn said, "Direct your inquiry to President Quinson. I'm sure he will tell you to go perform a certain impossible anatomical act." When the baron specified he wanted the fleet's surrender, Tolwyn "replied with what he assumed the President would have said."
Well-Intentioned Extremist: in Wing Commander IV, albeit zigzagged between the game and the novelization. The game makes it clear that Tolwyn crossed the Moral Event Horizon, but the novel has characters wondering (after his death, to boot) if the ends didn't justify the means.
Kevin "Lone Wolf" Tolwyn
The nephew of the famous admiral, Tolwyn is a novel-only character (though they flirted with the idea of including him in one of the games). He starts out pretty much a Spoiled Brat, but after a bit of Break the Haughty (and surviving one of the toughest missions in the war) he matures into a capable and outstanding pilot.
Glory Hound: He starts out as this in End Run, until it's pointed out that his seeking to kill a fighter, in End Run, left a wounded bomber open to an ambush, killing one of the bomber's crew members in the process.
Peter Halcyon
The Commander Air Group of the Tiger's Claw.
Custom Uniform: His uniform is a different color from all the other Confed personnel in the first game and he has a hat while everyone else does not. (Ironically, it's very similar to the uniforms everyone would start wearing in Wing III.)
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Although, as per the Wing Commander IIInovelization, commanders of carrier wings aren't required to fly missions, the briefings, debriefings, and the odd ceremony (medals or funerals) are the only things the player ever sees Colonel Halcyon do.
Unfriendly Fire: He suggests this as a way to deal with Maniac if he becomes recalcitrant in a briefing
Dirk "Stingray" Wright
Jerkass: He gets somewhat better over time, but he's 'quite abrasive at first.
Ungrateful Bastard: Even when thanking Blair (to an extent) for saving him, he brings up Blair's failure to save the Tiger's Claw.
Kilrathi
Ralgha "Hobbes" nar Hhallas
A defector from the Kilrathi empire, Ralgha nar Hhallas joins the Confederation and is even accepted into the Space Forces, eventually achieving the rank of Colonel. Of course, since he's a Cat, a lot of people mistrust him; as such it doesn't hurt him to be loyal to Blair despite his disgrace in the second game, but since the Kilrathi are a Proud Warrior Race, Hobbes' trust means something. In the third game he gets an even bigger role.
Worthy Opponent: After being outed, leaves behind a recording for Blair indicating his respect for him and regret that, in order to remain loyal to the Kilrathi, he must betray him.
Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka
The Darth Vader of the franchise, Thrakhath is Crown Prince of the Kilrathi Empire and the favorite son of The Emperor. He and Blair tangle quite frequently over the course of the franchise, and it is he who bestows on Blair his Kilrathi warrior name, "The Heart of the Tiger."
The Dragon: In both Venegance of the Kilrathi and Heart of the Tiger, to the Emperor himself (who is never fought directly).
Dragon-in-Chief: He appears to lead a significant portion of The Empire's forces, possibly all of them by Heart of the Tiger.
General Failure: To the point that, in the Expanded Universe novels, it's stated that the only reason he hasn't been assassinated is because he's the Emperor's heir.
And not for lack of trying either. Thrakhath is Dangerously Genre Savvy enough to assign those most likely to betray him to missions where they are most likely to die in battle.
Lampshaded by Khasra, who questions why he is still in command.
In Fleet Action, it's mentioned in passing that he has been unable to conceive an heir of his own, implying that he may be sterile, in addition to merely being impotent on the battlefield.
The Starscream: Betrays Thrakhath in Special Ops 1, leading to his capture by Paladin and Blair.
Melek
Thrakhath's toady—you know how every villain needs to have someone to talk to, in order to have Character Development? That's Melek, Prince Thrakhath's senior adviser. After the destruction of Kilrah, he assumes control of the Empire and formally surrenders to Blair; he returns in the fourth game in much the same office.
Friendly Enemies: with Blair, whom he considers a Worthy Opponent. Some Kilrathi certainly go on feeling the shame of losing to the "hairless apes," but Melek is not one of them.
You Are in Command Now: With the death of the immediate royal family, Melek takes the reins of the Kilrathi Empire... only to wind up in a seven-way Enemy Civil War with other Kilrathi nobles and warlords who lay claim to the imperial throne.
