Salutes! (March 20, 2025)

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Vagabond says that we have better things to do than practice our salutes... but we don't have better things to do than collect salutes! We went through the games to pick out as many salutes as we could find--and they make great reaction images online! Can you find any of the ones we missed? Let us know and we'll add them to the collection!

Wing Commander I & II

In Wing Commander I you and Colonel Halcyon salute at medal ceremonies and funerals. Wing Commander II just has the wide shot at funerals.





Wing Commander III

WC3 has plenty of salutes, typically when characters are arriving or leaving the Victory.





... Blair also salutes in all 39 briefing videos, too. Eisen usually does as well, athough if he's annoyed he makes a point of not doing it. Blair salutes Tolwyn throughout the game but Tolwyn only retruns the salute once, before the Behemoth is destroyed. And then Rollins joins in only in the last missions off the Victory, either before Kilrah or Earth.





Wing Commander IV

Wing Commander IV is full of dramatic salutes, from the drunk in the bar on Nephele to Tolwyn leaving the Intrepid.





There are endless salutes during the transitions, too!





Wing Commander Prophecy

Like the original game, most of Wing Commander Prophecy's salutes are related to medal ceremonies.





Wing Commander Academy





Wing Commander

Finally, there are plenty of salutes in the movie! One scene even has Blair saluting Captain Sansky twice.




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Original update published on March 20, 2025
 
In most scenes, the actors perform the military salute incorrectly. A proper salute should not show the palm of the hand, but several actors—most notably Mark Hamill—frequently make this mistake. Instead of angling the hand correctly, he often raises it with the palm too visible, which is not how a real military salute is executed. This suggests that the production likely lacked a military advisor to ensure authenticity in such details. While it doesn’t affect the gameplay, it’s a noticeable oversight that stands out to anyone familiar with proper military protocol.

One of the worst examples of Hamill’s incorrect salute can be seen here:
 
Junta said:
In most scenes, the actors perform the military salute incorrectly. A proper salute should not show the palm of the hand, but several actors—most notably Mark Hamill—frequently make this mistake. Instead of angling the hand correctly, he often raises it with the palm too visible, which is not how a real military salute is executed. This suggests that the production likely lacked a military advisor to ensure authenticity in such details. While it doesn’t affect the gameplay, it’s a noticeable oversight that stands out to anyone familiar with proper military protocol.

One of the worst examples of Hamill’s incorrect salute can be seen here:
Click to expand...

I remember him being dragged for this on the Usenet when the games first came out!
 
Could this have been intentional? We know how Maverick got his ironic callsign, but after so many years in space maybe he is not a big fan of formalities like Vagabond? 🤔🤔
 
Sounds like they really scrutinized WC4!

Also it is high time we recognized that Internet historian is or at least will be in the near future a valid profession.
 
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