This thread has got me thinking about how boring and uninspired Blair's reenlistment in WC4 was. I mean, it would have made a lot more sense for Blair to come back reluctantly or perhaps in response to the attacks. Remember how tired and burnt out he was from the war in WC3? A cool intro would have had him somehow escape the Black Lance's testing of the flashpack (or something similar) and then applying for reinstatement.
You know, very often, the most obvious ideas are the worst. We have thousands of movie cliches sitting in our heads, and they are usually the first things to come up. In this case - the relucant hero re-enlists because he almost got killed? That's only been done a thousand times...
I think Blair's re-enlistment was actually done in a remarkably clever way. They didn't want to put any emphasis on Blair having age issues - that stuff (which does appear in the novel) would have been disasterous in a game. So, they brushed the issue aside, but they did it very smartly - by establishing right away that Blair himself is ready to make that step. It's a classic fish out of water scenario - but because that's not the focus of the story, they could not afford to spend the entire first act on Blair coming to realise that he's not where he should be. Instead, you can see it right away, and Blair can see it right away. And possibly the most brilliant thing about it is Maniac. Blair's "let's go" sounds so horribly self-confident, that the audience is just about to go "oh, please, who wrote this crap?"... and then Maniac apes Blair's line, and everyone breathes easy - if the characters themselves can see this issue, then there is no problem with the writing, it's just what Blair is like.
Consider also the context - this is a game, not a movie. Now, personally, I think that WC4 is the weakest game in the series (...because of the gameplay) - but it has to be said, the story, the writing, it's all brilliantly designed for a game. All too often in games, you'll see a scenario that just doesn't work - and then you'll realise that the author secretly wanted to write movies, and simply could not understand games. WC4 is actually written as a game, it takes into consideration all the issues that come with the territory. And this plays an important role when it comes to Blair's re-enlistment. If they made Blair a reluctant hero, who doesn't want to get back in the cockpit, there would be a huge, gaping disconnect between Blair and the player right from the start. It could be that Blair's character would be more interesting then, as a character to watch on the screen - but it just wouldn't be you. At that particular moment, you just bought the latest Wing Commander game, you waited a year for it, and you are absolutely eager to get back in the cockpit. Creating a story where your character wants exactly what you want - and it still makes good sense as a story - is pretty brilliant.
That's the key thing about WC4 - rather than merely telling you a story, it tried to draw you into the story. I mean, nobody actually wanted Blair to become an evil space nazi... and yet thousands of people ended up causing exactly that outcome. This is because throughout the game, the writers tried to imagine what the player might be thinking at a given point, and made sure that the story would follow logically from there, instead of the player having this feeling that no matter what he wants, Blair is still gonna do his own thing (as would be the case if Blair was a reluctant here). Mind you, there are a few moments where this breaks down, but it generally is done very well.