Farbourne
Rear Admiral
I was just thinking about something. The mortality rate among pilots we see in the Wing Commander universe, especially in the Kilrathi war, is amazingly high. This post is necessarily going to contain game spoilers, so don't read if you don't want...
Think about all the pilots we meet in the Kilrathi War games, and what (canonically) happens to them...
Maniac - Shot down over Kilrah, but survives the war
Spirit - KIA during Second Enigma campaign
Knight - Fate unspecified, but strongly implied he is killed prior to Second Enigma campaign (maybe when the Claw is destroyed?)
Angel - Captured during a Covert Op, executed
Hunter - KIA just before the Battle of Earth
Bossman - KIA during the Battle of Firekka
Iceman - KIA sometime between the Battle of Firekka and the disaster at K'Tithrak Mang
Paladin - Survives the war
Jazz - Turns traitor, KIA during the Mandarin Incident
Doomsday - Fate unspecified (didn't he joint the FRL? Does he survive the war?)
Shadow - KIA during Second Enigma
Downtown - KIA during Second Enigma
Hobbes - Turns traitor, KIA just before Battle of Freya
Stingray - Fate unspecified
Bear - Fate unspecified (becomes captain of the Guadalcanal)
Vagabond - Shot down over Kilrah, but survives the war (later killed in BW conflict)
Vaquero - KIA just before Battle of Freya
Flash - KIA in the Ariel raid (?)
Cobra - Murdered by Hobbes
Flint - KIA over Kilrah
I think that is all the "major" pilots we meet with a name, in the course of the games played in the Kilrathi war.
Counting Blair as a survivor, that's 21 pilots. If we assume Knight dies in the war (which is strongly implied by the bar scene in WC2 where the pilot talk about who is left from the 'Claw), that makes:
14 killed during the war
4 survived the war (Blair, Maniac, Paladin, Vagabond)
3 fate unspecified (Stingray, Doomsday, Bear)
Treating these 21 pilots as a "random sample" that implies a mortality rate of at least 67% among pilots. That seems crazy high. Maybe one of our resident military historians could comment if any real wars had pilot survival rates so low (I know things were bad in WW1, but not if they were that bad).
Think about all the pilots we meet in the Kilrathi War games, and what (canonically) happens to them...
Maniac - Shot down over Kilrah, but survives the war
Spirit - KIA during Second Enigma campaign
Knight - Fate unspecified, but strongly implied he is killed prior to Second Enigma campaign (maybe when the Claw is destroyed?)
Angel - Captured during a Covert Op, executed
Hunter - KIA just before the Battle of Earth
Bossman - KIA during the Battle of Firekka
Iceman - KIA sometime between the Battle of Firekka and the disaster at K'Tithrak Mang
Paladin - Survives the war
Jazz - Turns traitor, KIA during the Mandarin Incident
Doomsday - Fate unspecified (didn't he joint the FRL? Does he survive the war?)
Shadow - KIA during Second Enigma
Downtown - KIA during Second Enigma
Hobbes - Turns traitor, KIA just before Battle of Freya
Stingray - Fate unspecified
Bear - Fate unspecified (becomes captain of the Guadalcanal)
Vagabond - Shot down over Kilrah, but survives the war (later killed in BW conflict)
Vaquero - KIA just before Battle of Freya
Flash - KIA in the Ariel raid (?)
Cobra - Murdered by Hobbes
Flint - KIA over Kilrah
I think that is all the "major" pilots we meet with a name, in the course of the games played in the Kilrathi war.
Counting Blair as a survivor, that's 21 pilots. If we assume Knight dies in the war (which is strongly implied by the bar scene in WC2 where the pilot talk about who is left from the 'Claw), that makes:
14 killed during the war
4 survived the war (Blair, Maniac, Paladin, Vagabond)
3 fate unspecified (Stingray, Doomsday, Bear)
Treating these 21 pilots as a "random sample" that implies a mortality rate of at least 67% among pilots. That seems crazy high. Maybe one of our resident military historians could comment if any real wars had pilot survival rates so low (I know things were bad in WW1, but not if they were that bad).