X-Wing Rogue Squadron/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Wait, Aaaron Allston is writing a new Wraith Squadron book in 2012?!? YES!
  • Continuity Porn: Stackpole likes the Continuity Nod, but the first book Rogue Squadron qualifies for this trope, as it manages to reference just about every single other EU book published at the time.
  • Crazy Awesome: What the Wraiths come up with when they're working together (for example, the Lunatic plan, which gets them from floating helplessly in deep space to hijacking an Imperial warship). Lampshaded numerous times by Wedge.

Wedge: Wes, they're doing it to me again.
Janson: Yub, yub, Commander.

  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Oh, yeah.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: Flip to a random page in an Aaron Allston book, and you'll probably find one. Seriously, there are too many examples to list.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Tycho Celchu. Stackpole did not know he would become so popular when he created him. And in a way, Wedge Antilles, who has a small but devoted set of fans. There's also Wes Janson, who was offscreen for the first four books, reached this status incredibly quickly when he replaced Tycho as Wedge's "on-screen" second-in-command and brought the funny with him.

Janson: "Performing a puppet show while flying is a felony on some worlds."

  • Harsher in Hindsight: Isard's Revenge (published 1999) has several rather eerie parallels with the Iraq War: a highly controversial invasion of a neutral power to depose a dictator for political reasons, publically spurred on by supposed evidence of a bogus superweapon.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: (Well, "historical" in the sense that Zsinj's character had been invented by another author a few years earlier). Warlord Zsinj and his lieutenant General Melvar, who previously appeared in The Courtship of Princess Leia as cardboard cutout Imperial villains, are given a Not-So-Harmless Villain upgrade with Allston showing that this stereotypical villainy is just an elaborate act to make their enemies underestimate them. That, each is a Large Ham who enjoys playing the part of a stereotypical villain.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Ysanne Isard has her moments... when she's not being a Complete Monster.
    • Wedge proves he can be one, when he teaches Falynn a valuable lesson about respecting her superior officers, and when he plays an epic prank on Janson involving the entire crew of the Mon Remonda.
    • Throughout Solo Command we get to watch the plan unfold that makes one of these out of Nawara Ven.
    • Airen Cracken, too, given his scheme in the first three books to try and prove whether Tycho is a sleeper agent or not by giving him Emtrey and allowing him to discover the droid has functions that would be useful to a spy. Not surprising considering the Imperials consider him to be Isard's Rebel counterpart.
  • Marth Debuted in Smash Bros: This can sometimes happen due to the Star Wars Expanded Universe not coming out in chronological order. The "ugly" kitbashed starfighters first appeared in The Corellian Trilogy. The X-wing "snoopscoot" first appeared in The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The story of the colossally fucked up Prince Harrandatha Estillo, a Creepy Child described as "a thing from the deepest pit of the Sith". The picture of him playing toy spaceships with Darth Vader is kind of awesome, though.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Warlord Zsinj (see Retcon).
  • The Scrappy: Inevitable in a series with as many characters as this one. In particular, Castin is probably one of the most unlikeable pilots in the series.
  • Tear Jerker: Aaron Allston is really good with these.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Only counting the novels, the Rogue Squadron survival rate for male human pilots is 10 out of 10, for female humans 2 out of 4 and for nonhuman pilots 6 out of 11 (plus one career ending injury and one faked death).
    • Borsk Fey'lya even notes this during Isard's Revenge, and attempts to use the frankly staggering amount of nonhuman casualties in Rogue Squadron for political advantage. Which causes him to be the victim of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Booster Terik. Considering that Fey'lya is the resident Obstructive Bureaucrat of the series, he deserved it.
    • In the comics, if you're a human female you're likely to honorably leave the squadron for other pursuits, though you may return. If you are a human male and you survive the arc after your addition to the cast, you're in for the long run and might get injured now and again, but you'll be fine. If you're nonhuman, you've got a comparatively high chance of being killed. If you are a male Sullustan, you will die after being captured and tortured by an enemy.
    • On the plus side, at least a good few of deaths in the comics die with a Heroic Sacrifice. This is helped by the lower amount of members in the comics, so there's comparatively less 'filler' characters.
  • Woolseyism: Arguable, but Russian versions of novels have a lot of text, that wasn't in the original - it really debeigifies Stackpole's books, making them much more entertaining to read.
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