X-Wing Rogue Squadron: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''[[Crazy Awesome|"Pretty. What do we blow up first?"]]''|Wraith Squadron motto}}

 

 

 

The books are written by [[Michael Stackpole]] and [[Aaron Allston]]. Most of those run directly from the end of one book to the beginning of the next, but ''Isard's Revenge'' starts just after the last book of the [[The Thrawn Trilogy]], and ''Starfighters of Adumar'' is set years later. Each book is prefaced with "Star Wars: X-Wing", but we're trying not to develop [[Colon Cancer]] here. The books are:

These novels, written by Allston, concern a second squadron founded by Wedge, and are informally called the Wraith Squadron series. Starting just after the end of ''The Bacta War'', this series keeps Wedge and X-Wings but takes on [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|an entirely new squadron]]. Literally -- Wedge forms it in the first book, looking back on the most successful Rogue rosters and realizing that they were fundamentally composed of pilots with commando skills, then mixing that idea with the odd [[Career-Building Blunder]] and amping it up as part of a gambit to avoid being promoted to General and becoming a [[Desk Jockey|Desk Officer]]. The Wraiths are a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]], commandos with flying skills, formed exclusively of pilots who are on the [[Last Second Chance|verge of being kicked out of service]] due to their [[Dysfunction Junction|various dysfunctions]]; their long-term opponent is the [[Large Ham]] Warlord Zsinj, who uses a [[Harmless Villain]] facade as [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]. This series is known for being much more focused on characters and humor than Stackpole's novels, but isn't without deeper themes. The end of ''Solo Command'' leads right up into the earlier-written ''[[The Courtship of Princess Leia]]''.

 

 

 

Half mention also goes to '''[[Jedi Academy Trilogy|I, Jedi]]''', written by Stackpole and starring Corran Horn.

* [[Badass Crew]]: Both the Rogues and the Wraiths, naturally, which is par for the course for squadrons captained by Wedge Antilles. The four pilots of Red Flight from ''Starfighters of Adumar'' are also quite badass. They're the four Rogues that were there since before Hoth, and they know what they're doing.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Other EU focuses on Jedi, or Han Solo, or clone commandos trained from birth by [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|elite Mandalorian mercenaries]]. This series? ''Pilots''.

* [[Bar Brawl]]: Used twice in ''Iron Fist'', and both times they are deceptions. Both also open with [[Ironic Echo|almost word-for-word identical descriptions]].

** And once in the comic series, as well. [[Lady of War|Xarcce Huwla]] makes short work of the thugs.

** In ''Wraith Squadron'', after the titular group was ambushed by a group of pilots that Zsinj was trying to ally himself with (resulting in the {{spoiler|death of Jesmin Ackbar and a [[Heroic BSOD]] for Donos}}), he walks in on the pirates with a terrifying glare on his face. The pirate leader tries to bluff him by saying the battle had taken place in an unclaimed star system and so there were no laws there and they had the right to defend themselves. Wedge agrees and says in that case they were free to go -- but of course if there were no laws that also meant there were no laws against the Wraiths killing all the pirates and looting their supplies. The pirate leader changes his mind about if there were any laws in the star system.

** Tyria Sarkin. Apparently the most stable member of Wraith Squadron. Nice lady, mild manners. Punched three hells out of Eurrsk "Grinder" Thriag when a proposition he made in jest was taken too seriously.

* [[Big Bad]]: Ysanne Isard, natch.

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: "Mind if we crash your party, Wedge?"

* [[Book Safe]]: During his escape from the ''Lusankya'', Corran Horn discovers a blaster hidden in the purported casing of ''The Complete History of Corvis Minor'', in a reference to ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]''.

* [[Brick Joke]]: The series in general is fond of them. Some even span entirely separate series. For example, in ''Wraith Squadron'' Kell tells off Grinder for calling him "Demolition Boy" ("That's 'Demolition Boy Sir'") while by the time of the New Jedi Order books the Wraiths are using nicknames of this type as standard code names (Face is "Poster Boy", Kell is "Explosions Boy", Bhindi is "Circuitry Girl").

** Allston pulls off a brilliant 'bilingual' pun with the latter one in ''Starfighters of Adumar'' when Tomer Darpen mentions the local ablution facilities are a bit more primitive than what they're used to and they may need teaching how to use them. Hobbie immediately quips "A refresher course."

*** Janson is SO angry he couldn't make that joke.

** Isard mentions Thrawn is still out in the Unknown Regions ([[The Thrawn Trilogy]]).

** In ''Wedge's Gamble'' the Rebels recruit troublemakers from Moruth Doole's prison camp on Kessel, while in ''The Bacta War'' Isard gets assistance from the Imperial warlords Teradoc and Harrsk ([[Jedi Academy Trilogy]]).

* [[Captain Crash]]: Hobbie and his much joked about tendency to spend long periods of time in Bacta tanks after spectacular crashes. Despite this, he's unquestionably an [[Ace Pilot]].

{{quote| "The ground and I get along so well we sometimes get together a little too vigorously."}}

* [[Escalating War]]: The prank war in the Wraith Squadron books. The moral of the story: Wedge doesn't have a particular love or knack for practical jokes, but he does have resources.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Happens a lot, particularly to Isard. Uwlla Iillor, captain of the Interdictor Cruiser ''Black Asp'' decides she's though putting up with Isard's [[Bad Boss]] tendencies {{spoiler|and defects with her ship}}. Kirtan Loor decides [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child|bombing a school]] is beneath him. Gara Petothel dislikes [[Senseless Waste of Human Life|senseless sacrifices]]. Fliry Vorru is more [[Pragmatic Villainy|practical]] -- he hates having to pander to Isard's [[Revenge Before Reason]].

* [[Evil Counterpart]] / [[Shadow Archetype]]: The Allston books sometimes portray Warlord Zsinj as being one to Han Solo.

* [[Evilutionary Biologist]]: General Derricote, creator of the Krytos Virus, and Dr. Gast, in charge of Zsinj's Frankensteinian experiments on various non-human species.

* [[Expecting Someone Taller]]: Poor Wedge.

** Also Corran on occasion. According to other books, it's a Horn family trait.

* [[Five-Token Band]]: In "Rogue Squadron" Wedge complains that the New Republic is trying to turn Rogue Squadron into one to act as a propaganda symbol, meaning he's having to accept pilots based on political considerations rather than absolute skill. The most absurd case is that the New Republic wants Thyferra on side because it produces bacta, but Thyferra is ruled by a corporate cartel duopoly of two big companies who hate each other, so Wedge has to take on ''two'' Thyferran pilots, one from each side.

* [[Fix Fic]]: The Allston books to ''[[The Courtship of Princess Leia]]'' (see [[Historical Villain Upgrade]] below.)

*** This is also justified in-universe, as Horn's father was a Corellian Security officer who unsuccessfully tried to catch Solo when he was a smuggler, so it's natural the two would want to avoid the awkwardness of this matter being raised.

* [[Four-Temperament Ensemble]]: Wedge, Tycho, Wes, and Hobbie, especially in ''Starfighters of Adumar.'' May also qualify as a [[Power Trio]], with Wedge and Tycho splitting Ego.

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: A-wing fighters; most of their pilots are consequently speed-obsessed.

* [[Golden Mean Fallacy]]: Specifically called the "Gray Fallacy" -- one person says white, one says black, everyone assumes gray.

* [[Good Feels Good]]: Along with realizing just how bad her side was, this is the big reason for Lara's [[Heel Face Turn]]. "The one thing Lara understood was the expressions turned on her. They were the eyes of a group to whom she belonged. Not since her parents' loss had she seen that expression."

** This is also the "hat" of the Givin race who live on Yag'Dhul, though we don't really see any evidence of it until the New Jedi Order books.

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Captain Uwlla Iillor in the first two books goes from being an Imperial Interdictor commander to defecting to the Rebels, mainly due to being mistreated by Isard and her subordinates; she and her ship are then instrumental in the conquest of Coruscant.

** Face notes that within a couple of days of meeting Phanan, they were best friends to the point of completing each other's sentences.

* [[Hold Your Hippogriffs]]: Wedge at one point says "I get the hologram" rather than "I get the picture".

* [[Ho Yay]]: The part in ''Starfighters of Adumar'' where Wedge reflects on how good-looking his fellow pilots are.

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: The Adumari have this practically as [[Planet of Hats|their hat]], due to them actually telling someone that they want to kill them and then following the most prestigious pilot and ignoring everyone else. Wedge points this out to them, and is disgusted by the way that the Adumari take no consideration into the fact that the Imperial delegation that's on the same planet is killing dozens of people and no one is sickened by it. Before the big battle at the end of the book it leads to a [[Beware the Nice Ones]] moment for Wedge, as he threatens to shoot down anyone that flies for glory instead of to accomplish their objective.

* [[It Never Gets Any Easier]]: Observed during a funeral in ''[[Rogue Squadron]]''.

{{quote| "No, and it never should. If it ever does, that means we've become the enemy."}}

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Zsinj and his crony General Melvar are entertaining, but we're not allowed to forget that they're the bad guys.

** Also, after Corran had caught Bossk (who had been responsible for his father's murder), Kirtan Loor managed to appeal it as collateral damage and got Bossk released. It's outright revealed that he did this ''[[Evil Is Petty|just to spite Corran.]]''

{{quote| No [[Deflector Shields|shields]]. No [[Ejection Seat]]. TIE Fighters were disposable attack vehicles for [[Red Shirt|disposable pilots]], and Wedge never cared to feel disposable.}}

* [[Moral Dissonance]]: The New Republic picking a fight with the neutral (if admittedly pro-Imperial) Ciutric Hegemony in ''Isard's Revenge''. Prince-Admiral Krennel is obviously not a nice man, but the best pretext the New Republic can come up with for starting the war is Krennel's execution of a defecting Imperial several years previously, during the comics, before Krennel himself left the Empire, a cynical justification which even the Rogues admit is "pretty thin". Even the generally saintly Admiral Ackbar more or less confesses that going after Krennel is as much about New Republic sabre-rattling to frighten bigger warlords like Teradoc as it about "liberating" the people under his rule.

* [[Multinational Team]]: Both Rogue and Wraith squadrons had members from a whole slew of planets. And half of Rogue Squadron's initial roster were political appointees, which annoyed Wedge intensely.

* [[Mythology Gag]]: At the start of ''Isard's Revenge'', which shows the Battle of Bilbringi from ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]'' from Corran's perspective, Corran muses that he'd like to meet Thrawn and shake his hand. (And then kill him, of course.) In the short story ''Side Trip'' co-written by Zahn and Stackpole and set years earlier, Corran indeed met Thrawn and shook his hand -- while Thrawn was disguised as the bounty hunter Jodo Kast.

{{quote| "Your orders are simple. I punch, you suffer. Got it?"}}

* [[Noodle Implements]]: The notorious [http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/7309/swrsmr413.jpg lanvarok]. All the books mention is that it's a weapon, it's built by the [[Complete Monster|Sith]], and it's a distinct advantage to be left-handed when using it. [[Squick|Draw your own conclusions]]. [[Don't Explain the Joke|Sadly, other sources ruined it by explaining exactly what it is.]]

* [[Obfuscating Disability]]: At two points, Wedge Antilles disguises himself as Colonel Roat, an Imperial pilot who was badly wounded and given clumsy, poorly-functioning prosthetics. Imperials are biased against cyborgs, generally thinking that only someone very clumsy or unlucky can be injured so badly as to need cybernetics, and so no one managed to connect him to the second most famous Rebel pilot.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Warlord Zsinj, who in an earlier book was just a dullwitted [[Fat Bastard|fat sadist]] with a love of theatrics who somehow had enough ships to threaten the New Republic. The X-Wing novels retcon him into a very smart fat sadist with a love of theatrics who had the ships and tactics to threaten the New Republic. It's mentioned that a lot of the people he works with see through his facade, but he [[Large Ham|enjoys playing to an audience]].

* [[Once For Yes, Twice For No]]: During ''Wraith Squadron'', Piggy's translator breaks, and his grunts aren't understandable, so when asking if he's okay, his squadronmates resort to this.

* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted. Bail Antilles, the Alderaanian captain killed by Lord Vader in ''[[A New Hope]]'', happened to be the superior officer of the Wraith's quartermaster. He's pleased to be serving another of the same name, though they aren't related. It's implied that "Antilles" in ''[[Star Wars]]'' is like "Smith", a rather popular last name. For example, there's a Jedi named Jon Antilles (his real name is unknown, with the alias being chosen apparently to be as generic as possible).

* [[Orgy of Evidence]]: Tycho Celchu is accused of being a sleeper agent, as well as for murdering Corran Horn. His lawyer is quick to point out to the military tribunal that there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that proves Tycho's guilt, but that someone has been actively destroying anything that could exonerate Tycho. In the end, Tycho is found {{spoiler|not guilty}} after other clues come up, like the fact that {{spoiler|like Corran himself walks into the room and declares that Tycho didn't kill him.}}

* [[Paranoia Fuel]]: An in-universe example with the [[Manchurian Agent|Manchurian Agents]].

** Zsinj is able to command a dazzling array of invective in multiple languages, considerably impressing his nemesis Han Solo. [[Pass the Popcorn|Han actually has the ten minutes of cursing directed at him recorded, so that all the insults can be translated later.]]

*** This is also a [[Call Forward]] to a brief passage in ''[[The Courtship of Princess Leia|Courtship of Princess Leia]]''. "Did you know he really is a genius? He can swear fluently in sixty languages."

* [[Rummage Sale Reject]]: Some [[Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist|truly hideous tourist clothes]] worn by the Wraiths during an infiltration, as well as Hobbie's outfit on Adumar:

{{quote| "There are three types of dress clothing. The kind that offends the wearer, the kind that offends the viewers, and the kind that offends everybody. I'm going for the third type. Fair is fair."}}

* [[Screaming Warrior]]: Runt was like this when he first joined the squad due to his warrior personality taking over. He finally stops when his wingman, Kell Tainer, gets his attention by locking a torpedo on his ass.

* [[Self-Made Orphan]]: Loka Hask, the Imperial [[Psycho for Hire]] who murdered Wedge's parents, comments that Wedge should thank him for it. He then remarks that he wishes someone had done the same for him when he was that age, but ''no'', he had to do it himself.

* [[Sherlock Scan]]: Garik "Face" Loran was an actor and spent some years on Lorrd, whose [[Planet of Hats|hat]] is body language and the reading of such. As a result, he's enough of an expert that he can identify your planet of origin (unless you've managed to train it out through, say, military service. And then he can tell you ''which planet you trained on'') and the condition of your legs by seeing you walk a few paces. Not 100% reliable, no, but he's very good. This skill is a [[Chekhov's Gun]] from time to time - it saves the Wraiths from an ambush and {{spoiler|leads to Lara's identity being outed.}}

* [[Shoot Your Mate]]: In ''Iron Fist''.

** Elassar Targon's name references two ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' characters... Elessar is, of course, Aragorn's other name (Elessar being the Wraiths' new medic, Aragorn being a ranger and king with healing skills and powers), and Targon is the [[Genius Bonus|blink-and-you'll-miss-him armorer]] in ''The Return of the King''.

** Possible in Iron Fist. A stormtrooper begins to ask Castin "What's your-- (operating number, presumably)" but Castin just starts blasting his way out straight away.

** The name ''Lusankya'' is inspired by Lubyanka, the infamous KGB prison in which similar activities went on.

* [[Sincerity Mode]]: "Honesty to On."

* [[Smug Snake]]: While there are a few of them, Kirtan Loor is by far the most notable.

* [[Space Is Cold]]: Used quite often. The magnetic containment ("mag-con") fields around ejected pilots and covering open launch bays explicitly keep atmosphere in, but the heat tends to escape. It comes up pretty often, what with all the holes getting punched in spaceships and pilots having to punch out of them (i.e., eject).

* [[Space Pirates]]: The majority of ''Iron Fist'' involves the Wraiths setting themselves up as space pirates to capture Zsinj's attention.

* [[Split Personality]]: "Runt" Ekwesh of the Wraiths is a Thakwaash, a species whose [[Planet of Hats|Hat]] (apart from looking like a Wookiee with a horse's head) is that they naturally form multiple specialised personalities and flip between them as the situation demands. While his primary 'social' personality is erudite and quiet, his 'pilot' mode is practically [[Ax Crazy]], resulting in him washing into the Wraith hiring process.

** Interestingly, when members of his race ''don't'' have multiple personalities, this is correspondingly considered a mental disorder. When Donos has his [[Heroic BSOD]], Runt treats it as an example of this and tries to help him 'switch to a less damaged mind'.

** This one actually becomes Wraith Squardon's motto:

{{quote| '''Myn Donos:''' "Pretty. What do we blow up first?"}}

* [[Suicide Mission]]: This is Rogue Squadron's bread and butter, and because they're elite, they always manage to make it out alive (minus the [[Red Shirts]] and [[Mauve Shirt|Mauve Shirts]] in the squadron). Lampshaded by Xarcce Huwla; she was given the honor of being assigned to Rogue Squadron, and immediately asked for a transfer. When Wedge asked her why, she stated that the death toll of the squadron was far too high for her liking.

* [[Super-Persistent Predator]]: The Storini Crystal Deceiver. A notable subversion in that {{spoiler|it's not real}}.

** Emtrey has "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!" activate some ultimately-benign hidden programming, while telling him to 'scrounge something' causes him to [[Split Personality|flip]] from fussy beauraucrat to [[The Scrounger|expert barterer]].

* [[Turned Against Their Masters]]: Gara/Lara's astromech droid manages to hack the ''Iron Fist'''s army of toaster-sized maintenance and utility droids and use them to sabotage the ship's systems. The result is a hilarious version of a [[Robot War]] where the crew is running around smashing any rogue droid they see. Mostly by stomping and kicking them to pieces with their boots.

** Donos' new squadron is ambushed at the beginning of Book 5, and only he escapes. This becomes a notoriously difficult training simulation for the Rogues and Wraiths later.

** Subverted with Kell's first training scenario: The given objectives are failed before you start...the ACTUAL objective is simply to escape alive. It's a nice baitandswitch mission.

* [[We Can Rebuild Him]]: Ton Phanan is "allergic to bacta" and has to get cybernetic replacements for any and all damaged parts. He has a ''lot'' of damaged parts. A huge plot point for him, since he deeply resents this side of himself, leading to much very uncomedic angst.

* [[We Have Reserves]]: Admiral Trigit. [[Even Evil Has Standards|Revulsion over this]] is what drives Gara Petothel's [[Heel Face Turn|defection to the Republic]] in ''Wraith Squadron'', after Trigit decides to sacrifice the tens of thousands of crew members to keep his Star Destroyer out of Republic hands. Trigit's boss Zsinj, though, is a little more canny -- in ''Iron Fist'' he decides to hire a fleet full of mercenaries and pirates to get shot at in lieu of his troops during a major attack.

* [[The World Is Just Awesome]]: Done a few times in the Stackpole books with Coruscant -- although, as Coruscant is a city world, the wonders are artificial in nature.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Imperial Admiral Teren Rogriss, although most of the time we see him he's actually cooperating with the Rebels against their mutual enemy Zsinj.

* [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]: Skated around -- most of the characters wouldn't care if the enemy was female, but this trope still comes up when lesser villain Atton Repness hits Lara. It's a [[Kick the Dog|rather shocking moment]].

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: Loads of them, many but by no means all of them Isard's doing.

** The biggest of all has to be the titular Krytos Trap of the third book - Isard ''wanted'' the Rebels to conquer Coruscant, as she had infected its alien population with a disease that the Republic would be hard-pressed to cure and then all the bad publicity would land on the Republic's doorstep. However, halfway through the book it's revealed that Coruscant fell two weeks earlier than Isard wanted (thanks to the Rogues), with the result that the plague was nowhere near as bad as it should have been.