I don't mean this confrontationally, and I apologise if it comes across that way, but I have a question. If Air had such a strong brand identity, why did Merlin do away with it entirely when they added the VR? They could quite easily have just put the VR headsets on the ride, had them show a film to do with Air's original oasis theme and just added some kind of flashy moniker to the end of the name like a number of other parks did with their VR coasters in 2016/2017 (e.g. Kraken Unleashed at SeaWorld Orlando, The New Revolution VR Coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Linnunrata eXtra at Linnanmaki). This would have added the same VR gimmick to the ride and cost far less money, so if Merlin hadn't felt the need to retheme the whole brand identity into Galactica, why would they have spent the extra money on the new theming, soundtrack and such? They're a business; if they hadn't felt the need to shell out money on the new theme and brand, they wouldn't have done it.
Personally, I'd say that the ride has never had an overly strong brand identity in either of its iterations. As much as people on here have a lot of love for Air as a theme, I don't think it ever really cut through as a strong brand compared to some of the park's other greats from the Tussauds era, particularly Nemesis. I'd argue that a good indicator of brand identity strength is the amount of ride-specific merchandise, and you only have to cast your mind back to the contents of the former Air Shop to remember that Air didn't have a huge amount. Granted, it was quite a big shop, but from memory, it was mostly filled with completely generic stuff rather than much ride-specific merchandise. To my memory, it mostly consisted of things like TV show posters and generic t-shirts. Some of the newer coasters also have big shops, but in the case of Smiler and Wicker Man, they're much better utilised and are almost wholly filled with ride-specific merchandise.
Perhaps controversially, I don't see the benefit of reinstating the Air theme, as it was between 2002 and 2015 at least. Maybe I'm viewing it too obtusely, but for my money, it wouldn't alter the experience in much of a material way and wouldn't make the ride fit in any better with its surroundings. The ride now is a mostly unthemed turquoise flying coaster that goes through some tunnels and flies over some grass verges, and a reinstated Air would not significantly change that and would still not make the ride fit in with its surroundings. If anything, it would likely remove the little theming that the Galactica overhaul added. Yes, we can fantasise about the original Air theme being implemented in all its glory, but I think that would cost a lot of money for not a lot of return, and I don't think it's likely to happen. As much as I liked the thematic elements of the Galactica retheme (the less said about the VR itself the better), I accept that the Galactica theme has run its course, and a retheme of some description is probably the best thing for the ride now. However, I'd much prefer something new to a revival of Air; with how cohesive the rest of Forbidden Valley now appears following the opening of Nemesis Reborn, I'd love to see Galactica made to fit in with that theme in some capacity to really tie the whole area together.
