WC Universe's Controversial Plot Holes, Discrepacies, Continuity Problems, etc

V

Viper61

Spaceman
The older CIC hands are gonna hate me for this but since we have alot of new people (I guess new is a relative word, I've only been here a little less than a year), I thought it would be helpful. I've seen alot of posts lately where discrepancy arguements have been made in little bits and pieces, so I thought I'd try and bring most of them into one place (maybe put a permanent link to it after it's finished or make a FAQ Discrepancies page). I'm not doing this to be sadistic to the members who know this stuff and what kindof a headache I'm unleashing on them, but I genuinely like hearing (reading) the intricate weaving story lines involved in the explainations for even the smallest gaps in the WC history.

I'll set a couple of ground rules, which will probably be ignored 3 posts later. Arguments are encouraged but you can't just keep posting over and over again that something is not right unless you have some info to back it up. Some people probably won't like some of the explainations given, and that's fine, but they are explainations and it's ten times harder to come up with an original idea (explaination) than it is to shoot down someone elses work, if you can come up with a better one so be it. That's not enough rules, but as I said they would just be ignored later anyway. I just don't want this post degenerating into a flaming match that will only get it shut down. It takes a bit of imagination to get from point A to point B in the WC universe, it's just amazing to me how crooked and intricate some of those lines are :).

I've already seen tons of discrepancies brought up and explained on subjects as diverse as movie/game ship problems to the "ever ready to put a crimp in timeline continuity" WCA, so I'm going to start off with an easy one that has just come up to my attention-

What happened to Maniac Marshall between the novel adaptation of WC4 where he is promoted to Colonel n the end to WC:P where he is a Major again?
 
Being honest? That fool probably got demoted again; he has a knack for pissing off his superiors to the point where he's only JUST able to keep flying. :D
 
Personally, I never understodd how Maniac got to be in charge of the Morningstar Prototype project. I mean the guy was a PSYCHO. We don't hand over our most sophisticated weapons to lunatics, do we?:rolleyes: I've always wondered what (or who) did Maniac do to get that squadron?:D
 
Well, Maniac was a good pilot, despite his other flaws... maybe they wanted somebody who could push the morningstar to it's limits... not just the usual tests.... and hey, maniac was crazy enough to do it! LOL:)
 
By the time Maniac was in charge of the Morningstar Project, it had been roughly ten years since his mental collapse. Sure, it was undoubtedly on his file, but ten years is plenty of time for a problem like that to be diagnosed and treated, and for the patient to have had enough therapy to probably put it behind them. I don't think its stated anywhere what exactly led to the collapse, so we have no way of knowing how likely it was to happen again. It is worth noting, however, that Maniac has been in many high stress situations since then (including an attack directly against Kilrah, and his defection from Confed), and has not shown any overt signs of instability.
As far as his personality goes, he's very good at putting fighters through the paces. Give him a fighter, and you can be absolutely convinced that he'll come up with some hare-brained maneuver that will end up with the fighter doing something that no one else thought possible. He's maligned in the original WC for some of his stupidity, but he's also praised at least once for pulling an amazing maneuver against the Kilrathi in the middle of an asteroid field.
No one's ever disputed that he's an excellent pilot, and his kill record attests to this. His basic problem is that he's both impulsive not very good at following directions.
 
Originally posted by Hoops
That and the fact that Maniac is about 50 and shouldn't even be flying...
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history note there was a u.s. miltary officer (can't remember the branch think it was the army air corp or usmc) that was in ww1 as a fighter pilot and in ww2 made ace in both wars. he was in his mid 50's around dec 7. fought against japan in ww2.;)
it is passible that manic can still be in the fighter.
 
Originally posted by Excelsis
Personally, I never understodd how Maniac got to be in charge of the Morningstar Prototype project. I mean the guy was a PSYCHO. We don't hand over our most sophisticated weapons to lunatics, do we?:rolleyes: I've always wondered what (or who) did Maniac do to get that squadron?:D
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Very good Point. Maniac goes Psycho gets his own Squadron, Blair's homeship gets blown up which is not his own fault and is sent to a backwater sector. I guess the WC2 writers wanted Maniac back so they wrote that part in but still........having a nut access to prototypes tisk tisk.
 
Perhaps they thought Maniac was a expendable pilot. Why waste I stable pilot and risk his death when you can have the same results from a unstable pilot.
 
Originally posted by Valor NR


Very good Point. Maniac goes Psycho gets his own Squadron, Blair's homeship gets blown up which is not his own fault and is sent to a backwater sector. I guess the WC2 writers wanted Maniac back so they wrote that part in but still........having a nut access to prototypes tisk tisk.
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Its been TEN YEARS!!
Maniac was hardly rewarded with an assignment to the command of the test squadron. It came only after a lot of work on his part performing various assignments for Confed that were evidently well suited to his temperment.
And besides, mental collapses are cureable. Treason is not, and for all the world, it looked as if Blair let a wing of Kilrathi fighters go through his assigned patrol area without saying a word - which, incidentally, is exactly what happened.

The log of the Tiger's Claw evidently survived, as Confed was able to backtrack the incoming vector of the Kilrathi fighters. They traced them through Blair's patrol zone.
When Blair landed, Jazz stole Blair's flight data disc on the off chance that Blair had managed to get some sensor data on the stealth fighters. Confed figured that the reason that the flight disc was missing was because Blair was trying to hide evidence of his own incompetence or treason. The fact that Jazz kept the disc instead of destroying it was probably the single most important factor in getting Blair back into the regular navy (he was technically on loan from ISS until Jazz's treason was revealed, and if it hadn't been for the fact that Angel was in a position to speak for him, Tolwyn probably would have had him on garbage scow duty until a transfer could be arranged).
So you've got a wing of fighters that came right through your patrol areas, the guy assigned to that patrol area never said a word about the fighters, and his flight data disc is missing.
You'd have done the exact same thing that Tolwyn did, if not more.
 
Originally posted by Viper61
What happened to Maniac Marshall between the novel adaptation of WC4 where he is promoted to Colonel n the end to WC:P where he is a Major again?
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He either did something very stupid (quite possible... this is Maniac we're talking about) or maybe he just took a cut in grade to get command of a squadron (read: Wing)
 
Wouldn't it be better for a squadron to be under the command of a colonel. Not that there aren't majors that are squadron commanders. It just seems that a higher ranking officer shold be in command, unless it's Maniac. Then rank doesn't matter. He could be an admiral and not be in command of anything as far as I'm concerned
 
i remember a post once about the author of the WC4 book and it stated that he ended the book the way he did b/c he felt that it summed up the story well (the reason why there is no WCP book)... now sicne he doesn't get promoted in the game, maybe that's why he doesn't get promoted in WCP... i found the book to have a way different feel than the game but it was a great read...
 
Playa-Haterz Up in Here

Shame on all the negative vibes against Maniac!

He snapped once. Big freaking deal! Okay, so yeah- it's not exactly a great record to have in your PIF. Still, he must've shown incredible progress within the 10 years he wasn't in the spotlight.

He's a damn good pilot. Always has been. The man is a natural! His skills as a pilot are way too great to pass up. It made perfect sense to marry him to the Morningstar project. He probably got command because his ratings were probably highest and he was the highest-ranking individual to be selected for such a project. Plus, like it's been said, no one could push a spacecraft to its limits like the Maniac :cool:

The biggest discrepency I see with Maniac is him being a major for so long. There's a such thing as "high year of tenure!" In the *modern* military you're only allowed to be a single rank for so long before you either "move up or get out."

Oh yeah... that earring in WC2.... :confused:
 
IIRC, what influenced High Command to put Maniac in charge of his own squadron and the Morningstar Project was that supposedly brilliant tactic he used to cause two Ralatha to collide.
 
Don't believe the rumors. Maniac did it on his own. Maniac would never use autopilot in a situation like that. Maniac rulez.
 
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