They killed Blair's father...

TheFraix

TheFraix

Vice Admiral
I was reading to the earlier script drafts of the Wing Commander movie.
In the first two drafts, Christopher Blair's father was named Arthur Blair, and was depicted to be alive and well in the Agadez colony.
The third, his name was inexplicably changed to Arnold Blair who was still living in Earth, and was a historian.

Now, the Christopher Blair's character bio in the Wing Commander Academy (tv series) states this: Maverick's grandmother is a member of the Confederation Council, while his father is the chairman of StarPeace, an organization dedicated to promoting understanding among the inhabited worlds of the galaxy.

Now for some inexplicable reason, the final, shooting draft of the movie (and its following novelization and Confederation Handbook) changed Arnold Blair to a dead hero.

Why would that be? Is it because of the 'Top Gun complex' the writers were trying to add to Blair's characterization?
 
TheFraix said:
I was reading to the earlier script drafts of the Wing Commander movie.
In the first two drafts, Christopher Blair's father was named Arthur Blair, and was depicted to be alive and well in the Agadez colony.
The third, his name was inexplicably changed to Arnold Blair who was still living in Earth, and was a historian.

Now, the Christopher Blair's character bio in the Wing Commander Academy (tv series) states this: Maverick's grandmother is a member of the Confederation Council, while his father is the chairman of StarPeace, an organization dedicated to promoting understanding among the inhabited worlds of the galaxy.

Now for some inexplicable reason, the final, shooting draft of the movie (and its following novelization and Confederation Handbook) changed Arnold Blair to a dead hero.

Why would that be? Is it because of the 'Top Gun complex' the writers were trying to add to Blair's characterization?
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Offically the leader of Starpeace was the uncle who raised him not his father.
 
The idea is that Blair's aunt and uncle are his adoptive parents. According to the movie, his parents were killed in the Peron Massacre before he as 5, so he would only vaguely remember them, if at all. However, I am sure he was told abot them while growing up, so he understands that his aunt and uncle are not his biological parents, but since they raised him he still considers them his parents.

Undeniably, however, the "ghost" of Blair's father that shows up periodically in Academy is definitely Blair's biological father.
 
RogueBanshee said:
Offically the leader of Starpeace was the uncle who raised him not his father.
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Oh dear sweet Jesus...

ANOTHER Star Wars/Luke Skywalker reference! I like Star Wars as much as the next supernerd, but this shit has got to stop somewhere. If WC VI should ever be made Blair better not come back with an energy sword and superpowers....
 
Heh, I must admit i find all those star wars references pretty annoying too. "OMG, a guy is also in a sci-fi movie so I must make infinite crappy jokes about it for no reason!!1!11!"

Of course, there might be something totally awesome about Star Wars jokes I just don't get.
 
Gamer8585 said:
ANOTHER Star Wars/Luke Skywalker reference! I like Star Wars as much as the next supernerd, but this shit has got to stop somewhere.
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Its not exactly the same. Where as Luke was a mythic hero archtype that Joeseph Campbell generated from years of research, Blair lost his father during the Peron massacre in an attempt to rescue Blair's mother, a Pilgrim.

Despite the fact that it was Blair's aunt and uncle that raised him, Blair called him "Dad", since Blair had no memory of his father. If anything, this is the total opposite of Star Wars - since once Blair's father is out of the picture, thats the end of him and there is no redemption plot.
 
LeHah said:
If anything, this is the total opposite of Star Wars - since once Blair's father is out of the picture, thats the end of him and there is no redemption plot.
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Unless EA pulls something like: The Corpse of Blair's father was found by the Nephilim, and using advanced technology, made him into a cyborg that now serves as one of the Aligned People's highest (and most feared) officers.

And don't tell me they won't at least be tempted to do that.
 
Gamer8585 said:
Unless EA pulls something like: The Corps of Blair's father was found by the Nephilim, and using advanced technology, made him into a cyborg that now serves as one of the Aligned People's highest (and most feared) officers.

And don't tell me they won't at least be tempted to do that.
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So, let me get this straight: They're going to find an entire military unit founded/patterned after the elder Blair, and transform them all into one giant cyborg?
 
Gamer8585 said:
Unless EA pulls something like: The Corps of Blair's father was found by the Nephilim, and using advanced technology, made him into a cyborg that now serves as one of the Aligned People's highest (and most feared) officers.

And don't tell me they won't at least be tempted to do that.
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You really are an idiot. All your doing is trying to piss people off. I think we all know Wing Commander has tons of Star Wars References or similarities but still its a lot different in many ways. That last comment is just stupid, EA would never do this, on just because I don't think EA has given the idea of Blair's father even a second guess, they don't care enought too, no offense to WC. Still your statements is a little funny.
 
Max Gene said:
So, let me get this straight: They're going to find an entire military unit founded/patterned after the elder Blair, and transform them all into one giant cyborg?
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Damn stupid typo making fingers! I meant Corpse (dead body)

Although, I would find that a rather interesting Sci-Fi twist.

Kilrathikiller said:
You really are an idiot. All your doing is trying to piss people off. I think we all know Wing Commander has tons of Star Wars References or similarities but still its a lot different in many ways. That last comment is just stupid, EA would never do this, on just because I don't think EA has given the idea of Blair's father even a second guess, they don't care enought too, no offense to WC. Still your statements is a little funny.
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I'm neither an idiot nor trying to piss people off. I'm not saying that WC as a whole is a rip-off of SW. Just that Blair and Skywalker have an unusually large (and growing) list of similarities (right down to them both being portrayed by Mark Hamil).

As for EA not doing it, honestly I wouldn't put it past them. EA is a large corporation that makes expensive products (Video Games), they have to go with what is known to sell because the cost of failure is too great these days. In fact there have been no new WC games until WC: Arena, because flight-sims were thought of as not being "hot" enough sellers.

If EA believes that a not-very-subtle Darth Vader reference would sell games and allow them to milk the WC franchise for $$$$ they'll do it.
 
I still doubt they would do that because that would be silly and I doubt, especially because of the way they presented Arena that they would do that. EA is changing their ways. I know they of coarse are still in it for the money but they also want to be creative and original. So to create a blaitent rip off of Star Wars would not put a good stamp on the Wing Commander franchise especially with all the unblaitent similarities already.

It is a funny thought but in all reasoning I doubt they would do that. But it just seems to me that your just trying to think of some crazy things they can do with Wing Commander and this is not what is about. Its just about what happened to Blair and his father. If your seriously not trying to mess around, I apoligize, its always hard to tell how people are coming off when its typed.
 
I go away for a few days and you guys go all regular internet on me. Please enjoy some sarcasm:

Why would that be? Is it because of the 'Top Gun complex' the writers were trying to add to Blair's characterization?
Click to expand...

Yes, Top Gun is the only movie where people die.

ANOTHER Star Wars/Luke Skywalker reference! I like Star Wars as much as the next supernerd, but this shit has got to stop somewhere. If WC VI should ever be made Blair better not come back with an energy sword and superpowers....
Click to expand...

Yes, Star Wars is the only movie where people have brothers.

Now, lets talk seriously about Blair's family.

Fraix, I don't even know where to start. The reason for the change should be obvious: a character with a chip on his shoulder because his father is *dead* makes a lot more sense than a character with a chip on his shoulder because his father is a farmer or possibly a historian. It works better down to the very line - 'you don't have to worry, the people you're talking about are dead' is a much better rebuke than 'you don't have to worry, the people you are talking about are retired and living comfortably on another planet.'

Blair's parents still being alive would have been a big plot hole, too -- he wouldn't have needed to learn anything about what being a Pilgrim means from Paladin. That said, I think you can pretty well follow the thought process between the three drafts -- the first one is a geeky offhand WC reference, the second one is an attempt to make Blair seem more familiar to a general audience (an audience from Earth, one assumes) and the third one is the one that works best dramatically.

Now, to the fellow who's absolutely sure that EA is eating his dreams: Nomad Terror is right. The reference to Blair's uncle doesn't even come from EA... and, in fact, may be an especially small part of the least-publicized bit of Wing Commander continuity *ever*. It's part of the press kit put together by Universal Studios to promote the Wing Commander Academy television show. It's entirely irrelevant to any existing Wing Commander story at this point: the planned larger-scale 'political' storylines for the show never made it out (they would have been part of the second season) and so we never even got to meet Blair's anti-war uncle.

As someone else noted, though, you can see the original setup on the show: the "dad" Blair writes to is someone who 'disagreed with his decision to come to the Academy'... while the 'ghost' of Blair's dad is a Naval officer who explains that serving is part of the family's tradition (Blair also has a photograph of his real father in his quarters which shows up once or twice.)

If EA believes that a not-very-subtle Darth Vader reference would sell games and allow them to milk the WC franchise for $$$$ they'll do it.
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You're blaming the wrong person. Electronic Arts has absolutely nothing to do with the various elements of Star Wars borrowed by Wing Commander -- those started well before they owned Origin and crested well before they took any level of creative control over the series. Blair is played by Luke Skywalker and he flies a desparate trench run to end the game because Chris Roberts (and everyone who would play the game) love Star Wars - nothing more sinister than that.
 
Gamer8585 said:
Unless EA pulls something like:
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While I understand your fear, its not founded on anything.

Similarly, the day I find a hat made of twenty dollar bills and a never-ending supply of hamburgers is the day that I quit my job and live a life as a hamburger baron.

Kilrathikiller said:
You really are an idiot. All your doing is trying to piss people off.
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I disagree. While his fear is little more than jumping at shadows - we live in an internet culture is based on absolutely nothing more than pop culture references. This is what fuels awful, awful things like Family Guy, Robot Chicken and a bunch of other shows I go out of my way to avoid and/or hate. The fear is legit in that its what we've come to sustain on, sadly.
 
While I do not wish to drive the thread off topic, I must admit that I enjoy the occasional episode of Family Guy. I don't go out of my way to catch it, but it always manages to elicit a laugh or two from me - something hard to do.

Not sure I'd classify it so harshly.
 
ELTEE said:
Not sure I'd classify it so harshly.
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In all honesty, I pulled my punches in that last post and I refuse to use my full range of expression, which would be needed to color that awful show properly.

It is *much* worse than you think it is.
 
Allright, allright, don't dreadful up an already dreadful thread that could theoretically be undreaded with the proper attention...
 
LeHah I already apoligized and again I'm sorry if he was just being true.

Also Bandit LOAF. Its good to see ya again. Your Comments here have been hilarious and well put together.
 
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