A sort of Fridge Brilliance / Fridge Horror hybrid: Later on in the game, the NRF use Trinity on their own forces on Moscow when they start losing the battle. The brilliance comes from the fact that this happened before in Ace Combats 5 and Zero, but the horror is that the NRF, a rebel group that intended to get Russia back on its feet, were willing to use their own weapons on their own forces just because they could.
Another case of Fridge Brilliance: In the second Miami mission, Bishop takes a hit over the stadium, and his wingmen check on him to see if he is okay. He responds by saying he's dealt with this before. Why is this? Bishop is now facing his nightmare in real life, except he now has the courage to deal with Markov.
In one mission Guts says "This isn't Ace Combat!" Remember, since this is the twenty minutes in the future Real World Earth, the Ace Combat series exists there, and he and Bishop both probably played the series.
At the end of the game, Col. Bishop (the player character) says to the viewer, "I saw my death in my dreams many times." But the only time the viewer officially sees this is during the tutorial mission, when Bishop dies over Miami in his nightmare. When did all the other nightmares happen? Whenever the player died throughout the game!
