What happened to Blair?

B

bartreligion

Spaceman
What happened to Blair after WCP?

(sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm new here and didn't find the answer on the first 10 pages or so)

He was mentioned a few times in WCP the extra mission in the website text files in some memorial. But other than that nothing?

Any fan fiction about that?
 
The bugs had him once before and decided to let him go for whatever buggy reason, so there's always hope that he survived. That is of course if he didn't go down with the tower.
 
I think Blair is listed as MIA on the WCSO fiction. He was unable to get to the Marine LC and was the tower when it went down, and was never found.
 
My version is that he escaped the tower. But decided to not return to the fleet and also decided continue his retirement.
 
I think the bugs were all "RAWR!" and Blair was all "BOOM BOOM!", then the bugs went all "HMM...", then Blair went all "AAAAGGGGHHHH!", and now Blair's all like "GGGRRAAAWWWWRRRRR!" and the bugs are all "YES, MASTER!"

But that's just me.
 
I think it was left open at the end, and falls into the realm of "things we don't really know for sure." Though LOAF is still the king when it comes to bringing up the actual quotes and references, I believe the parts about Blair being listed as MIA and a memorial service held in his honor shortly afterwards are true.

Also, though I know I was on these boards years back and have yet to produce anything, I'm still working on my own little fan-fiction trilogy follow-up to the events of Wing Commander Prophecy for any who are interested. I was roughly halfway through the first, that had weighed in at 360-some-odd pages when I figured I just needed to stop, and start over from scratch to condense the thing. My current intent is to be able to wrap it up in about 150 pages, 12-point font in Word. The storyline will follow Casey & crew, draw in many main characters from Wing Commander Prophecy and surviving fan favorites from earlier games all while introducing a new group that will be central and essential to the storyline progression, go more into detail on Kilrathi lore regarding the Prophecy, explain what the Aligned is and introduce other never-before-seen races that are grouped with the Nephilim under this title (not really so much until the second story), go over the Nephilim hierarchy more clearly and show what the Mother Creature really is eventually...all while attempting to draw on some of the other things I've read on these boards over the years or references that LOAF tossed my way years back that suggest other slants that "might" happen.

As soon as I have the first story done, I'll throw it up on my own webpage somewhere, and provide a link to it in the fan fiction section here on this page. Depending on the community response to it, I'll either continue running with the trilogy, or I'll put a fork in it at that point (if people are displeased with what I've done and feel that I'm too horribly perverting the whole Wing Commander genre and feel). The first will be written specifically so that it could serve as its own stand-alone thing and be the end of my contribution, or alternatively be a good foundation to build the second and third stories on (2 & 3 will pretty much go together, as 2 will be the darkest of the trilogy, and 3 will be the resolution, for better or worse).

- Falc ~};^
 
Blair, Blair, Blair... this topic used to be one of the biggest, most heated and least supported arguments Wing Commander fans could engage in. Those days seem to have passed, and so it seems reasonable to revisit the subject. While I do remember that I was once vehement about one side or another, I honestly cannot remember which one or why. The fire of my youth has, apparently, worn down. What follows, therefore, is primarily a set of talking points from which you can make up your own mind about the man.

* The artist who rendered the last scene (the wormhole explosion and the Devestator flyby) was not asked to have one tower 'fall in' to Nephilim space. He opted to include this on his own, meaning that there was no conscious 'long term' plan on the part of the people in charge of the series to resurrect Blair -- at least, there were no clues intentionally placed in Prophecy towards this end.

* I have heard it repeated in less intelligent forums that the 'sequel' to Prophecy was to be called 'Resurrection', and that this implies that Blair would be brought back to life. An intriguing piece of evidence, if true... however, iit is wholly false. The Downing-era (pre-Secret Ops) placeholder names for the rest of the 'Prophecy Trilogy' were "Redemption" and "Revelation" (in that order). Neither of these stories was actually scripted.

* During the development of Secret Ops, Origin's PR man for Wing Commander, Mike "Boomer" McCoy, posted a piece of "in universe" fiction to alt.games.wing-commander in response to someone's question about the game's setting. This caused quite a stir at Origin, as the fiction was not intended for release. It read, in part: "All intelligence analysis lead us to believe the Aliens entered in our system to look for some specific object or technology... reports clearly indicate that loss of life or equipment (to include capital ships) meant nothing to the hive. Of greater importance to the Aliens was the mission to locate the object. Further, post encounter analysis of their collective behavorial attributes indicate the location of the subject of their mission was indeed discovered. It is therefore expected we may be witnessing the emergence of a secondary wormhole likely constructed during (or prior) to the recent encounter to ensure the delivery of the artifact." Could the 'artifact' be Commodore Blair? Maybe, maybe not. On one hand, what little we know of the Nephilim (especially their taunts) tells us that they had a keen interest in Blair. Early material explained that they arrived in human space because they observed Kilrah being destroyed, and their various comments in the games refer to an interest in Blair and his role therein. Further, the game does literally end with a Nephilim warlord 'puncing' on Blair. On the other hand, they had him once and 'allowed' him to be rescued... and, strangely, this fiction never made it into Secret Ops in any form (either as a literal ICIS report or even as an element of the setting, save for the appearance of the second wormhole).

* Some years later, Mark Day explained that he and Adam Foshko had planned to have Blair survive in future games: "The bugs never wanted to kill Blair. They wanted Blair. The Bugs were never the main threat ....the Bugs were merely one of three races under the command of an entity. The entity was never well described or thought out because it wasn't necessary for WCP. The entity had become interested in the human race and it's natural abilities for killing death and destruction. Blair was a perfect specimen in its opinion. How many men have been responsible for wiping out an entire homeworld of a race? And imagine being Blair... Living with the guilt and memory of all that had been lost... ... and all that he had done. Actually he minded quite a bit (IMHO). Then Blair gets captured... and suddenly everything seems so clear. Suddenly someone tells him that its ok to be a Natural Born Killer. No more feeling alone... no more guilt. He didn't hang back at the end of Prophecy because he was being stupid. He hung back because he wanted to. .......the plan was to have Blair alive with the bad guys. Whether a prisoner or a member was unclear. But I had planned that he would return to the Border World to enlist new recruits. And become the third horseman......" This is very compelling, but is at the same time somewhat problematic, simply because very little of this background is established in Prophecy. The idea that the Nephilim are one of three races is suggested (they mention the Aligned Peoples and the Mother Creature), and Blair's guilt over Kilrah is also clear in the finished game. Very little is made of either reference, though, and you again run into the question of why he came back to the Midway in the middle of the game, if he'd decided to help the Nephilim. Mark left Electronic Arts before Secret Ops was developed, but Adam was in charge of that project. I can't think of any additional references to such a storyline included in Secret Ops.

* Mark Hamill, on the other hand, believed Prophecy to be his final appearance. He said in several interveiws at the time that he had expected Wing Commander IV to be his last game, but that he was pleased with the fact that the scriptwriters had come up with a story to allow him to 'pass the baton' to the next generation of space heroes (Casey and company).

* Everyone else I've ever spoken to who worked on the game (which was pretty much the entire team, including both Adam and Mark, oddly enough) has said at one time or another that there simply wasn't a plan for Blair at the time of Prophecy. It's possible that the quotations referenced above are something the two came up with on their own, or possibly something they planned much later (or that died with some particular iteration of the game).

* The idea of Prophecy was to introduce the new generation, not to create a storyline about Blair. Blair and Maniac were to be replaced by Casey and Maestro... that's the entire simple basis of the game. To have Prophecy as some kind of elaborate setup to bring back Blair doesn't necessarily make sense in that context -- it was all about Casey taking over.

* At the same time, Casey didn't entirely take over. The team involved all insists that the choice for the actor was a mistake and that Petraca would not be cast in the role again. This may be sour grapes, of course, since he refused to do the voice for Casey in Secret Ops (and they clearly did ask him there)... and, of course, that isn't the same thing as killing the character -- Casey has still been around in all sorts of potential Prophecy followups. The general consensus does seem to be that replacing Hamill as the player character was a mistake... but you'll hear the same thing about ending the war with the Kilrathi in WC3. Acknowledging that something should have been done differently isn't an intent to fix it.

* As referenced earlier, Secret Ops includes extensive references to Blair's memorial service. The intention there seems to be to suggest that the man is dead -- possibly a change in plan after the David Downing FMV plots fell through... possibly a red herring entirely.

* The extensive timeline and world background for the last attempt at Privateer Online includes a cult called the "Hearts of the Tiger" who claim to have been in contact with Blair some decades after Prophecy. The idea here was that one of the factions in the universe could make money "searching" for Blair (via subspace beacon-related missions), and that a future addition to the game could do a "Blair's return" story (which could end up being the real Blair or a false prophet).

* The Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide, written just before 'Blair' was the official name of the character, names the main character "Carl LaFong" (after a W.C. Fields movie joke). All of LaFong's backstory was transferred to Blair once the character was named... his conflict with Maniac, his Academy history, etc. Carl LaFong's memoires (the conceit of the official guide) are written by the man fifty years after the Vega Campaign... when he is 73 years old. If LaFong is Blair, then Blair survives Prophecy.

What do I think? I suppose I'm ultimately moved towards the suggestion that he is alive... but at the same time, I readily admit that we just don't know. What's more, I think the mystery itself has a significant affect on us all. It's an interesting discussion, but at the same time I think it detracts us from some possibilities. It's kind of like Wing Commander itself. Will we see another game? Some people know for sure... but most people have faith one way or another, and will argue to the end of the Earth over it. That's community building, for better or for worse.

I say this seriously: I would like to mourn Blair. I would like to be able to say that he went out a hero and celebrate his life. I'd like to be able to make a '2631-2681' gravestone in my head and think of all the effects he had on the Wing Commander universe... but it's too divisive an issue at this point. Prophecy left it too open -- someday, we'll get closure.
 
As I see it, the Blair issue could go either way all depending upon what the next Wing Commander dev team will plan. Because I find this issue so on the fence, I don't see any problem in a WC mod having him alive or dead or still unknown as all three possibilities remain for a future WC game and being considered a WC "alternate timeline" mod is certainly not a bad thing. Hell, I would actually like to see a mod or two that has the Kilrathi destroy/enslave Earth and humanity fighting for its survival in other areas like Gemini and the "Border Worlds".
 
I think that a well planned fan project needs a very, very compelling reason to use a main character for anything other than a sly cameo or a clever reference. Wing Commander left us with an impossibly large playground... we don't need to rerun the Blair show over and over, degrading the character further each time. Look at the Aces Club. They were a great, great fan club in 1995... but their legacy ended up incredibly tarnished because they spent so much time altering the universe for no reason and playing with the existing characters for no reason. Yes, it would be neat to invent a new war with the Kilrathi, or to destroy Earth or to kill Blair... but the first step towards a well done, professional production is to *avoid* that temptation.
 
Well, overall I was referring to WC mods having references to Blair in WC mods not the actually usage of that character for the main plot.
 
That was some interesting information.

I had no idea about that the artist making the tower go trough on his own. I guess WCSO played along somewhat with this, in the sense that Blair was never found.

The part about the Nephilim is really something, and gives a little insight into what the "mother creature" and the other "aligned people" are all about.

This view of Blair as a natural born killer is a bit odd, at least to me. There's the thing about "a warrior and a killer", "peace and honor", saving the Kilrathi convoy, giving a cup of coffee to the mercenary, and all that wise sage stuff on WCIV. On the other hand, when he has to, he does pull the trigger, and maybe that's what matters. He was the one to destroy Kilrah, and this probably has some meaning for the Nephilim we might not even be aware about.

The only thing I thought after WCP is that they decided to set up a new generation, and let go of Blair... but not totally. He was MIA, but, somehow, there could be this lingering idea that he could return. As such, he might end up as some kind of mythical figure on popular imagination, the Prester John of Wing Commander, if I may. The Hearts of the Tigers seems like a quasi-messianic group waiting for the return of the leader, some futuristic Sebastianism. Privateer 3 would've been awesome.

At the time, I thought it's really hard to let go of a character like Blair. Killing him is even harder, because he was the player for so long. Maybe it was easy to just let the players think he was still alive somehow if they wanted to. However, this doesn't allow the players to get some closure. Or maybe simply they wanted to leave a door open, just in case.

About Blair hanging back. This puzzles me. Why didn't he make a run for it. Just... run! You're inside a collapsing alien gate tower, you run. He told Dekker he'd meet him on the Midway, and was on his way out, anxiously looking at the Marince LC. I don't think he wanted to stay. But why was he so lethargic at that point? It makes me want to scream at the game.

"Blair! Space bug coming up right now! Shoot him in the head! You don't have time tell the computer to give you a running countdown! Shoot him! You don't need to load the marine rifle, they did that for you! Shot him in the head! Why are you chatting with Deker? Bugs in the room! Shoot him! His wing things are all open! He killed your friends! Shoot him in the head! Shoot him!"

I remember really disliking Petraca, but I'm not sure why. Lance Casey is fine with me, at least on WCSO.

As LOAF pointed out, Prophecy and WCSO didn’t give enough to get closure on Blair. Finding Blair’s body on the Kilrah system or arriving to the conclusion that the space bug killed him before he went trough the gate would be most unsatisfying. So I guess that we might hear from Blair again after all.
 
I would to have loved Blair to have have been rescued in some post-Prophecy game, or escape the bugs and return with new allies at a time when teh bugs managed to threaten Earth (if you tried to integrate the Pilgrims from the movieverse have him return with the pilgrims as a high-ranker or leader of some kind) ... maybe with Blair dying in the process as a sort of last great hero act or something.

All in all though, you have to remember, Blair born in 2631, and by his apparent death in 2681 he'd be in his 50's, so other than some kind of miracle breakthrough in reversing aging or life expansion or the like he'd be simply too old to come back and return as a pilot for another 2 to 10 year war with the bugs.

Blair's apparent death at the end of WC Prophecy is good, but I would have preferred something with a bit more to it... maybe like the marines get the shield down but there's no torpedos left so Blair takes out the final tower by ramming it, or he survives the mission but is fatally wounded and dies after returning to the carrier (like Roy Fokker in Robotech).. then there's a far greater "he lived a hero and died to save us all" feel, complete with Terrans and Kilrathi showing up at his grave to honor him type thing.
 
rapierdragon said:
Blair's apparent death at the end of WC Prophecy is good, but I would have preferred something with a bit more to it... maybe like the marines get the shield down but there's no torpedos left so Blair takes out the final tower by ramming it, or he survives the mission but is fatally wounded and dies after returning to the carrier (like Roy Fokker in Robotech).. then there's a far greater "he lived a hero and died to save us all" feel, complete with Terrans and Kilrathi showing up at his grave to honor him type thing.
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You know, I think comments like this always bothered me much more than the actual question of whether Blair died in WCP or not. Why does everyone want him to die a hero's death? Could there possibly be a more cliche way of handling a lead character's retirement?
 
I'd like to see Blair retire peacefully, and I don't think it should be necessary to either kill him or send him into the unknown. Speaking of cliché, he goes to the belly of the beast twice in WCP - once to experience a dreamlike scene, and the other to confront his ultimate enemy. If the hero theme keeps up, he should return, because the story is not supposed to end there. At least in theory, he was not the hero of WCP, but the mentor, but it seems that the transition doesn't occur completely.
 
If he was the mentor, then with the "standard" theme, he would have died after his first capture in WCP.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I say this seriously: I would like to mourn Blair.
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I have to disagree with you on this. Blair's fate remaining ambiguous is one of the (many) reasons people remember Wing Commander. I think his fate being left unknown allows us to discuss and argue (not flame) years after the game has come out. It's a good thing to keep the community going.
 
if you tried to integrate the Pilgrims from the movieverse have him return with the pilgrims as a high-ranker or leader of some kind
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1) The Wing Commander movie is the same continuity as the Wing Commander games.

2) Let me appeal to the thinking people of the world: please, please, please, please, please, please stop pretending that 'verse' is some kind of acceptable suffix. It's just uncomfortable.
 
Spoiler Warning - References to a lot of movies ahead, all from 2005 or older. Yes, I know about the spoiler tag, but using it would make this post sillier than it already probably is.

Blair dead, Blair alive - it's a cliché in itself, a plot device to keep the audience's interest until the next installment, or at least until the commercial break is over. To "kill" one of the good guys is as common as Obi-Wan, Dumbledore or Gandalf (all mentor figures), just as common as bringing them back in some form or another (we will have to see about that in one or two cases).
The trick is to evoke emotional stress in the audience, and to relieve it later on to create a pleasureable experience.

Blair's disappearance is something that leaves options, it's not an intentional death for plot reasons, as Bambi's mother dying. It's also not the sort of cliffhanger like the assassination attempt on Galactica's Adama (which one? pick one.) - it keeps up tension for some situation of closure in the future. And it does just what it should, as LOAF says: It keeps the community going.

All that somehow reminds me of the closing scenes of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang":
Harry: I hate it too. In movies where the studio gets all paranoid about a downer ending so the guy shows up, he's magically alive on crutches, I hate that. I mean shit, why not bring them all back.
[All formerly shot villains start to file into the room, followed by Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis.. - but are ushered out by a nurse]
But the point is in this case, this time, it really happened. Perry, like, lived. Yeah, it's a dumb movie thing, but what do you want me to do, lie about it?
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