X-Wing Rogue Squadron: Difference between revisions

[[File:Wedge_XWingSaga.jpg|frame| This is Wedge Antilles, pilot and Rebel hero. Behind him are several Incom T-65B X-wing starfighters. Together, they are the two constants for the series.]]

 

 

 

 

 

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:

 

'''The Bacta War''' }}

 

Written by Stackpole starting in 1996, these novels are collectively [[Fan Nickname|and informally]] known as the Rogue Squadron series. It's a self-contained plot concerning members of Rogue Squadron, a starfighter formation famous for two things: achieving mission goals that are [[Beyond the Impossible]] and losing a lot of personnel in the process. [[Ascended Extra]] Wedge "Look at the size of that thing!" Antilles rebuilds the squadron from the ground up, bringing in pilots from all walks of life, including [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] Tycho Celchu and [[Canon Sue|untrained Jedi]] Corran Horn. They have a crucial role in the [[The Alliance|New Republic]] strike to retake the Imperial capital of Coruscant, or [[Insistent Terminology|Imperial Center]] as it is currently called. Their big enemy is [[The Chessmaster|Ysanne Isard]], head of Imperial Intelligence and current leader of the Empire, whose tactics include [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil|torturing/brainwashing people]] into becoming [[Manchurian Agent|Manchurian Agents]], using [[The Mole]], and [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|designing the Krytos Plague]] to induce a major case of [[Divided We Fall]].

 

'''Solo Command''' }}

 

Unlike later multiple-authored series, the X-Wing novels are somewhat [[Low Fantasy|smaller in scope]] and [[Interquel|fit into events established by other books and comics]], often retconning little things to make events more sensible. There are some references between the games, the comics, and the novels; ties are most obvious between later comics and Stackpole's novels. Stackpole is known for getting along well with [[Timothy Zahn]], and the two trade [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] with some frequency. Aaron Allston also incorporates characters and events from the series into his mainstream entries of the saga, such as Wedge and the Wraiths in the ''Enemy Lines'' duology, or Wedge's family in his ''Legacy of the Force'' volumes.

 

 

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* [[Ace Pilot]]: Just about every pilot character in the series is or becomes an ace. Or dies. Or both. Since Rogue Squadron is made up consistently of the absolute best pilots in the galaxy, this is almost required before joining.

** The Wraiths are less focused on flying, but they also have a few, like Kell Tainer, Face Loran, and Falynn Sandskimmer, who was already a Y-Wing ace before joining. A few other members also make ace in the course of the series.

* [[Aerith and Bob]]: As in the rest of the Expanded Universe, Tatooinians such as Gavin Darklighter are more likely to have real-life human names than the rest of the human characters.

* [[Airstrike Impossible]]: Regularly. It ''is'' about ''[[Star Wars]]'' fighter pilots, after all.

** Played with when Rogue Squadron personalizes their fighters' paint jobs. The human pilots opt for paint schemes that are personally meaningful or symbolic of their home planets. Ooryl Qrygg, as a Gand the least humanoid of Rogue Squadron's pilots, has a plain white fighter... to human eyes, anyway; the squadron's chief mechanic, a Verpine, assures his human colleagues that it is "a masterpiece" if you can see in the UV spectrum.

* [[All Nations Are Superpowers]]: Averted in ''Starfighters of Adumar''. The top power on Adumar is Cartann, which controls over half the planet. It's mentioned, however, that Cartann's power is partly because it controls several other smaller countries as puppet states. The opposition consists of a coalition of smaller states, led by the Yedagon Confederacy and Halbegardia -- and it's mentioned that the coalition's military power is ''still'' dwarfed by Cartann.

* [[And Now for Someone Completely Different]]: The first four books have Rogue Squadron, with Corran Horn sharing the limelight with Wedge. The next three have Wedge leaving the Rogues and founding a new squadron. The non-Wedge protagonist character in ''Wraith Squadron'' is undoubtedly Kell Tainer, but his character arc apparently ended early and the next two Wraith books have no single central character - Face, Gara/Lara and Wedge all share the spotlight about equally.

* [[And Now for Something Completely Different]]: The first four books are relatively straight military SF in Stackpole's [[Beige Prose]], which revolves pretty resolutely around Corran Horn; all other characters are secondary. The next three are along those lines, but Corran is absent and a good deal of humour and personal issues creep in. The eighth is another Corran book, but the ninth is almost entirely Wedge's personal story about duty versus doing the right thing, as well as having more jokes than any other book in the EU.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Except for Wedge. Or anyone else who made appearances in earlier books set chronologically later.

* [[Artificial Limbs]]: As a plot point -- {{spoiler|Nawara Ven}} gets an artificial limb that reduces his piloting skill enough to drop him out of the squadron. He still stays on as the Executive Officer, however. And, of course, there's Ton Phanan.

* [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]: The more badass Rogues quickly shoot up the ranks. Late in the series and in other EU books, old Rogue and Wraith squadron members later become Generals, Admirals, and other high ranking individuals.

* [[Awesomeness By Analysis]]: Face's Holmesian ability to determine someone's planet of origin and past just by the way they walk.

** Even Isard's co-conspirators hold her in such contempt for such insanity that one of them (who's the POV character for the scene above, and has pretty well already decided to betray her) decides that he'll make sure the families in question remain safe despite not giving a damn whether they live or die, just because it'll annoy her.

** Her backstory in the comics and a mini-novel by Stackpole and [[Timothy Zahn]] makes it abundantly clear she's willing to [[Hold Your Hippogriffs|throw anyone to the rancors]] to advance her own agenda. {{spoiler|Including her own father, whom she has arrested for treason before taking over his post as Director of Imperial Intelligence.}}

* [[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''.

*** His defense against the false charge that got him in the Wraith selection pool -- striking a superior officer -- is that none of the people he ''did'' hit (during well-moderated challenge matches) were able to speak coherently within a half hour, the time it was filed.

** Wedge himself. He's a good guy with a sense of duty that outweighs everything else, he's very accepting of Imperial defectors, he has survivor's guilt and doesn't lessen his opinion of someone when they dislike a friend of his. But he can be pressed too far. Remember "The Phantom Affair" and "Mandatory Retirement"?

<br />

* [[Neck Lift]]* "[[Parenthetical Swearing|Don't make me go Vader on you]]. {{spoiler|Ibtisam}} was a pilot and a friend and she died to save your sorry hide." }}

** The Adumar situation even caused Hobbie ("The Dour One") to snap. When Wedge suggested that a pilot go ahead and ambush the Cartann pilots, Hobbie was astoundingly the first one to volunteer.

** 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.

* [[BFG]]: [[Character Name and the Noun Phrase|Voort "Piggy" saBinring and the two-meter-long starfighter's cannon]]. Now ''that's'' a title.

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

* [[Big Damn Gunship]]: While escorting a bacta convoy in the Alderaan Graveyard, Rogue Squadron is ambushed by a ''Victory''-class Star Destroyer and an Interdictor Cruiser. Suddenly, an ancient, automated Alderaanian frigate appears and starts blasting away at the Imperials, tipping the battle into the Rogues' favor.

* [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]: Ooryl Qrygg sees in the far-ultraviolet, 'talks' by vibrating his exoskeleton and, well. His race doesn't sleep much and can in fact "store" rest for later, and some Gand can also regenerate lost limbs, too. It's admitted that even the Rebel medics are just as surprised by all this as Ooryl's squadmates. He also kills a stormtrooper at one point by... punching him in the back through his armor. Ow.

'''Inyri Forge:''' What?<br />

'''Ooryl Qrygg:''' [...] Ooryl gets the metabolic ingredients Ooryl needs through ingestion, not respiration. [[Deadly Gas|Fex-M3d]] will not affect Ooryl. }}

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]: Plourr is a rare female example.

* [[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").

* [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp]]: As the books deal with everyday life more than most EU books, we get a lot of [[Star Wars]] terms for items. For example, refrigerators are 'conservators' and bathrooms are 'refreshers'.

** 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."

* [[Call Forward]]: Common in Stackpole's books to other [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] books written earlier but set chronologically later.

** Warlord Zsinj is a background villain in the first four books, and Leia's mission to the Hapans is mentioned (''[[The Courtship of Princess Leia]]'').

** In ''Rogue Squadron'' Corran bitterly reflects that the old Corellian Security Force of his youth has been turned into the [[Secret Police]] organisation called the Public Security Service, which will appear in [[The Corellian 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]].

* [[Captain's Log]]: Taken a few steps further in ''Wraith Squadron'', where the [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] captures the starship ''Night Caller'' and find that the [[Small Name, Big Ego]] Captain stores his Captain's Log in hologram form. We're talking ''hours'' of holo-footage here. There's so much of it that the Wraiths are able to use it cobble together a CGI Captain to mess around with the [[Big Bad]] of the novel in a rather delicious [[Indy Ploy]].

* [[The Chains of Commanding]]: Every time a pilot dies, Wedge has to write the letter to the family. [[It Never Gets Any Easier]]. On another note, his loyalty to the New Republic is such that if it's for the good of the Republic, he'll do it. No matter how he feels about being jerked around to serve. He has some survivor's guilt. By the last book, Wedge at least briefly ponders resigning his commission when asked to do something he views as unethical. (He [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]], however.)

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In ''Bacta War'', there is an offhand comment how Tycho decided to use an old Alderaanian IFF code for his fighter. Later in the novel, the squadron goes into the Alderaan debris field to escort some freighters. Tycho keeps receiving anomalous pings to his IFF, but just assumes it's some leftover satellite. {{spoiler|Then it turns out his Alderaanian IFF just summoned a Alderaanian War Frigate, which [[Gunship Rescue|arrives just in time to fend off an Imperial ambush]], and even starts using Tycho's targeting data to attack the Imperial ships.}}

* [[Clear Their Name]]: Tycho is framed for being an Imperial sleeper agent and causing the death of a teammate ({{spoiler|Corran}}). His friends have to track down the real evidence and defend him in court. {{spoiler|The murder trial, of course, is called off in short order when the supposed victim arrives to provide testimony.}}

* [[Comically Small Bribe]]: Face offers an imperial guard ''an entire credit'' while [[Obfuscating Stupidity|pretending to be an Agamarian stereotype.]]

* [[Continuity Nod]]: Mostly in the Stackpole books, which have lots of bits referring to characters and situations from the comics. ''Wedge's Gamble'' also has two nods to Timothy Zahn's [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Thrawn Trilogy]], with Winter Celchu being code-named Targeter and mention of ''[[Punctuation Shaker|ch'hala]]'' trees on Imperial Center/Coruscant. For those who've read Zahn's trilogy it also explains some of how Isard knows Rogue Squadron is on planet.

** And there's the hold-out blaster [[Book Safe|found in the datacard file]] for Corvis Minor, which also started as a Zahn thing. The two authors have collaborated together and don't come to blows in person, so perhaps it's not surprising. Some fans like it, some find these Zahn nods to be unnecessary or contradictory (for example, Winter was supposed to use the Targeter codename only while with one cell on a single planet, and it wasn't for the taking of Coruscant).

** Zahn later repaid the favour by giving several of Stackpole's characters substantial roles in his ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'' duology.

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Basically the entire Xucphra bacta cartel ''Bacta War''. During the ''Wraith Squadron'' arc, Zsinj has secret deals with a number of corporations in unaligned and even Republic controlled systems in order to supply his fleet.

* [[Crazy Cultural Comparison]]: Discussed in ''Starfighters of Adumar:''

'''Janson:''' Well, what if their usual greeting for visiting dignitaries was to throw paint? }}

** In the same book, Wedge hopes a handshake is an appropriate response to an outstretched hand and they don't expect him to "kneel on the floor and put the hand on his head" or something.

* [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|Cybernetics Eat Your Future]]: Oh, Phanan...

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Many, many examples among the Rogues and Wraiths. Most notably Hobbie, Janson, Face, Phanan, and Wedge himself.

* [[Defictionalization]]: An in-universe example - the Ewok pilot Lieutenant Kettch started out as a [[Running Gag]] among the pilots in ''Wraith Squadron'', then in ''Iron Fist'' Face claims to Zsinj that he's real and Wedge has to fly his TIE interceptor with an Ewok puppet in his lap. (Wedge wears a black flight suit to blend in with the cockpit's black background, so that only people who looked in the cockpit very closely would notice that the "Ewok" was sitting on somebody.) Finally, in ''Solo Command'', Lara discovers that Zsinj has an actual Ewok pilot called Kolot. (Which he had created after hearing about Kettch from Face)

* [[Ejection Seat]]: Used frequently.

** In ''Starfighters of Adumar'', it even makes it into an anecdote about the 'official' ambassador to the Adumari, a former Rebel Alliance pilot named Tomer Darpen. Apparently when he crash-landed on a low-gravity planetoid, his [[Ejection Seat]] malfunctioned and ''he achieved escape velocity''. He was stuck with the moniker "Ejector Darpen" for the rest of his career.

* [[Emotional Torque]]: Allston's writing is composed primarily of [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Funny]], [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Awesome]], [[Tear Jerker|Tearjerkers]], and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Heartwarming.]] It borders on [[Mood Whiplash]] sometimes. In the later books the emotional torque itself is a large part of the plot. Since so many bad things keep happening, Wedge is constantly trying to find ways to keep the mood and morale up, but Zsinj or just his own pilots keep on bringing it down.

* [[Enemy Mine]]: In the Allston books, Han and an Imperial commander hatch a secret plan to combine forces against Zsinj. Then there's ''Isard's Revenge'', in which several Rogues die and the others end up having to work with an old enemy.

* [[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]].

** One of the members of the resistance was [[Interspecies Romance|Asyr Sei'lar]], and she decides to kill her future boyfriend as a speciesist because he won't stop plotting in order to dance with her. Misjudged a little there, Asyr.

** Castin Donn is mentioned to have been in one of the few anti-Imperial groups which were equally anti-alien. This leads to... friction.

* [[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.)

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

** In one instance in ''Wraith Squadron'' where two of the Wraiths actually beat two A-Wings [[Airstrike Impossible|in an impromptu race]], the A-Wing pilots laugh it off with this line:

** Tycho Celchu, having a background in TIE fighters and A-wings, uses this kind of piloting style. When they were stuck in big, slow Blade fighters on Adumar, Hobbie beat him in a simulated dogfight (it's usually the other way around). Even regular TIE fighters are this in the hands of good pilots, as seen for instance in ''Starfighters of Adumar'' where Tycho, despite being an excellent pilot, is unable to shake one that's on his tail.

* [[Former Child Star]]: Garik "Face" Loran used to be a child actor in Imperial propaganda holodramas. [[The Atoner|He regrets his involvement]], and now uses his piloting skills and considerable acting ability to help the New Republic.

* [[Gambit Roulette]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|When Corran returns from the ''Lusankya'' with information exonerating Tycho, someone wonders if the information could have been planted to keep the accused Imperial sleeper in place. This is casually dismissed, as it would have required an absurd level of planning and foreknowledge of completely random events.}}

* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Voort is a [[Pig Man|Gammorrean]] whose brain chemistry was altered, making him intelligent and stable enough to become a very good pilot. And he has a habit of being able to knock out any human in one punch.

** Also, Tyria.

** And in ''Iron Fist'', after Castin's plan to sneak aboard Zsinj's ship gets shot down by Wedge, the Wraiths going on the mission are savvy enough to check their ship for a stowaway. {{spoiler|Too bad they don't look hard enough...}}

* [[Gentle Giant]]: ''Wraith Squadron'' had a Talz try out for the squadron. He did well during the simulation (a replay of the Battle of Endor) but his adrenaline and heart rate were skyrocketing all the way through, showing that he wasn't comfortable even against simulated targets.

* [[Gilligan Cut]]: Wedge's escape plan in ''Starfights of Adumar''.

'''Hobbie:''' Boss, please tell me you're not putting us in women's clothing.<br />

'''Wedge:''' Very well. [[Blatant Lies|I'm not putting us in women's clothing]].<br />

* [[Good with Numbers]]: Voort "Piggy" saBinring.

** 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.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]:

** Donos starts ''Wraith Squadron'' with his sanity hanging by a thread, loses it twice during his time with his new squadron (slipping into an [[Angst Coma]] in one case), and comes perilously close an additional time. Near the end of ''Solo Command'', he thinks he's about to lose it again... {{spoiler|but realizes the truth in time to save most of his fellow pilots from a dangerous trap.}}

** Kell gets a couple of smaller examples during ''Wraith Squadron'', especially after failing to save Jesmin. Nothing quite up to Donos standards.

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Face and Phanan. {{spoiler|Phanan, who has no family, made Face his emergency contact and the beneficiary of his will. We learn this ''after'' his [[Tear Jerker]] death. Then there's [[Tear Jerker|his last message]] [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|to Face]], and his will, which forces Face to acknowledge that he doesn't have to be [[The Atoner]] for the rest of his life because of what he did as a child.}}

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: Part of the Rogues' [[Crazy Awesome]] plan for disabling the Coruscant shield network involves hijacking a giant construction robot and rampaging around a section of the city.

* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: Talking to a documentarian with a camera <s>in the shape</s> made out of a droid's head:

Wedge looked at them, appalled. }}

** You know something's too good to resist when [[The Stoic|Tycho Celchu]] gets in on that action.

* [[I Like Those Odds]]:

'''Wes''': Not too bad. }}

* [[Impossibly Cool Weapon]]: On Adumar, Red Flight is introduced to blastswords, [[Sword Beam|dueling weapons that deliver an energy blast upon hitting with the tip]].

'''Tycho:''' Don't give him a new kind of weapon. It would be like giving a lightsaber to a two-year-old. }}

* [[Improbable Piloting Skills]]: Rogue Squadron is made up on some of the best pilots in the galaxy including several Force Users. The Wraiths are merely pretty good, but they make up for it in other ways, most importantly their [[Crazy Awesome]] improvised tactics. This skill is [[Lampshaded]] by one of their superiors.

** Crespin and his A-Wings count as well, even being referenced in-universe. Given that A-Wings are the [[Fragile Speedster]] type -- not quite as bad as [[Zerg Rush|TIE Fighters]], but still pretty dinky -- his wing's pilots must be very good to keep consistent numbers (though the battle in which both units see action for the first time ends with five dead and several wounded in Crespin's Blue Squadron where Wedge's Wraith Squadron only sports a few scratches -- both squads technically aren't operational, so that's no excuse).

* [[The Infiltration]]: Many, many times in many, many disguises.

** The top example is the entirety of the ''Wraith Squadron'' book, where the Wraiths maintain a disguise as Imperial operatives for several weeks without even being suspected, despite having their cover blown fully during a battle. They manage to keep the information from leaving the battlefield. It reaches [[Refuge in Audacity]] levels. Their cover is blown during a battle, so they take out everyone else on the other side, and turn around and tell the boss that they were ambushed and escaped, the only survivors, and the enemy BUYS it!

** Long story short, as Hobbie explains after the first test fight in Blade-32s, Tycho's a [[Fragile Speedster]] pilot stuck in [[Mighty Glacier]] hardware. This also may fall under [[Worf Effect]].

** Second, and perhaps even more minor, example of this is Kell from Wraith Squadron. He does relatively little on-screen with bombs, despite being demolitions. His best example was slapping charges into place to damage structures, and slapping a charge onto a probe droid. However, he DOES do a good bit of off-screen bomb defusal, puts together some small explosive charges for Shalla's infiltration of the ''Razor's Kiss'', and manages to design a bomb in his head. He's on the border, but it's interesting.

*** Kell actually does manage to show off his bomb making expertise in the preview for ''Mercy Kill'', where he manages to build a bomb that looks like a priceless gem, is powerful enough take out several city blocks, and is programmed to detonate when it reaches a certain depth below ground. He considers the bomb a work of art and gets ''highly'' offended when somebody suggests otherwise.

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Gavin and Asyr, Nawara and Rhysati, Face and Dia. In the comics, Ibitsam and Nrin, neither of them human (the romance wasn't outright stated, but the implication could hardly be more obvious). Corran tells a story about a brief relationship with a Selonian that dealt with some of the issues of such a romance; their personal chemistry was fine, but their ''bio''chemistry was incompatible and they parted amicably. One arc that's poorly regarded for different reasons has very strong hints of more temporary human/Bothan encounters.

** In another example from ''Solo Command'', Han and Warlord Zsinj each oversee work on a secret project, the ''Millennium Falsehood'' and the ''Second Death'' respectively, and both of them consider what they're looking at the "ugliest ship they'd ever seen". (This is [[Played for Laughs]] on Han's end, since the phrase is a [[Call Back]] regarding the actual ''Falcon'', but he thinks the fake looks nothing like the real one.) ''Wraith Squadron'' itself opens with what will become an [[Ironic Echo]], the "twelve snubfighters swooping down through the sky" appearing first as the newly-reinstated Rogue Squadron performing for Leia and the Provisional Council, then as Myn Donos's doomed Talon Squadron.

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

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Bror Jace of Rogue Squadron and Ton Phanan of Wraith Squadron both receive [[Character Development]] that turns them into this eventually. Castin Donn, too, although {{spoiler|his development came right before his death}}. Wraith Squadron's first slicer, Grinder, is just a relatively harmless [[Jerkass]], but gets a {{spoiler|[[Redemption Equals Death]]}} moment. Booster Terrik is a [[Jerkass]] in general (and to Corran Horn in particular), but is ''very'' protective of his daughter Mirax, and his adopted son Wedge.

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

* [[Kill Sat]]: Rogue Squadron remote-control-hijacks a solar mirror orbiting Imperial Centre. [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity]] ([[Stuff Blowing Up|and explosions]]) [[Hilarity Ensues|ensue]].

* [[La Résistance]]: The Ashern are a Vratix [[Badass Army|badass resistance group]] dedicated to freeing their fellow Vratix from virtual slavery under the bacta cartels. They're later joined by remnants of the Zaltin cartel after Xucphra stages a hostile takeover.

** Also, [[Small Name, Big Ego|Captain Darillian]] of the ''Night Caller''. Until they had to scrape him off the ceiling. And Face, especially when he's impersonating him.

** Zsinj and [[The Dragon|Melvar]]. Possibly a case of Obfuscating Ham-osity.

** Finally averted in ''Isard's Revenge'' and ''Starfighters of Adumar'' when they face enormous odds (six-to-one in the former case) and lose. In the first case, several Rogues are killed and the rest only survive due to being rescued by Imperials, while in the second Wedge's flight is forced down to the ground, although they do ''really'' well against the Adumari -- four against thirty, and they kill the thirty -- before the odds finally get them.

** Happens as early as the first novel.

* [[Limited Advancement Opportunities]]: Wedge repeatedly passes up promotion, preferring to be a Commander. Forming Wraith Squadron was actually part of a bet -- if he couldn't get them functioning as a full-fledged squadron within three months, he would be forced to accept promotion to General. He wins the bet, of course, but eventually he takes the promotion, mostly because his pilots have been refusing promotions too.

* [[Little No]]: Iella's use of this trope is what clues {{spoiler|Ysanne Isard}} into the fact that [[Villainous Breakdown|things are about to go to pot, quickly.]]

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: A squadron has twelve pilots, up to twelve potentially distinct (i.e. quirky) astromech droids, a lead mechanic and his team, a quartermaster, and a couple of superior officers. Main characters also have love interests, friends, and enemies. Pilots who die are replaced by new pilots, with new astromechs. There are two primary squadrons in the series, plus the occasional extra character for good measure. And that's just the ''good guys''... Allston is better at this. A lot of the members of Stackpole's cast tend to fade into the background.

* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: How you take down an 19-kilometer-long Super Star Destroyer if all you have is snubfighters, a 30-year-old frigate and some freighters? (That and a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when the ''Lusankya's'' [[Smug Snake]] captain is told that his ship has been painted with more than ''three hundred'' missile locks...) This is adopted throughout the books as a way for starfighters to take down capital ships. It is a sub-tactic of "Trench Run Disease," the tactics that killed both Death Stars.

** The Loran Spitball. In its first deployment, there were nine X-Wings in the bow hangar of a ship. The hangar opens while facing an enemy frigate, resulting in a full eighteen torpedos into the engines. The ship is literally split into two pieces after the barrage.

*** Yes.

*** I ''hate'' that!

* [[Master of Disguise]]: Face. It helps that he's a former child actor ... and a member of a people whose [[Planet of Hats|hat]] is communication and identification of body language.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: ''Rogue'' Squadron. As an adjective, one definition is "no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade." The squadron once leaves the New Republic.

** Invoked with ''Wraith Squadron'' where the name is picked to represent the squadron's (supposedly) stealthy nature.

'''Tyria:''' Something I heard about in my childhood. Dark things that come in the night for you. That's what I think we are. For the Empire, for the warlords, we're the phantoms under the bed, the monsters in the storage cubicles. }}

* [[Medal of Dishonor]]: The accidental kind, concerning Kell's Kalidor Crescent. He received it for pulling off a series of crazy maneuvers trying to save a fellow pilot's life, and he's disgusted with it because he failed. And in the comics, Fel is given an ugly one for following stupid orders.

** The Wraiths greet Piggy coming out of a bacta tank with talk about bacta-flavored cheese, bacta-flavored ale, and a manual entitled "How to Dodge".

* [[Mighty Glacier]]: B-wing bombers. Wedge once used one and said he felt less like a pilot and more like a ''driver'', but on the other hand they can both take and dish out vast amounts of punishment.

* [[Mildly Military]]: Both Rogue and Wraith squadrons are noted to be far less rulebound than most squadrons, though the Rogues at least follow military discipline in-cockpit and during formal brief/debrief sessions. The Wraiths... [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|Not so much]].

* [[Military Maverick]]: Wedge is one of these, while in book four the Rogues go, well, ''rogue.'' The Wraiths, however, surpass them by several orders of magnitude.

** He really has no one but himself to blame, since this was why he put together the unit in the first place.

* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Erisi Dlarit}} in the first four, Lara Notsil in the next three. Lara starts out the series as a bad guy [[Mook]], is portrayed sympathetically, has ethical dilemmas about her role, and eventually makes a [[Heel Face Turn]]. The other is a perfect mole whose secret is kept from the characters and the reader until [[The Reveal|the end of the third book]].

* [[Mookmobile]]: TIE Fighters. Wedge absolutely ''loathes'' them because of this:

* [[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.

** And that's before considering the fact that [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sate_Pestage Sate Pestage], the Imperial in question, was a total scumbag (basically a less cool, non-Sith version of [[Complete Monster|Emperor Palpatine]]), and only defected to save his own hide. While Krennel's murder of Pestage's family counts as a [[Moral Event Horizon]], his murder of Pestage is, at the very worst, [[Kick the Son of a Bitch]]. Wedge notes that he was sorely tempted to kill Pestage himself, even though he was an unarmed prisoner at the time, because the man was so repulsive.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Ysanne Isard is nicknamed 'Iceheart' (similar to the pronunciation of her last name) by both her own subordinates and her Rebel enemies. Analogously, her Rebel counterpart Airen Cracken is nicknamed 'Kraken' by Imperials.

** And, as usual, the names of Imperial ships. Wedge has a discussion on the subject with Teren Rogriss in ''Starfighters of Adumar'':

* [[Never Found the Body]]: Even when Corran Horn is actually really dead, they won't find his body.

** In ''The Krytos Trap'', Wedge [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this by noting that every once in a while he half-expects dead squadmates to walk through the door because they [[Never Found the Body]]. (The body having gone up with their starfighter, admittedly.)

** Quietly subverted with Wedge. He jokes about it, but he actually ''does'' care about the odds.

* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]: Janson challenges an Adumari to a blastsword duel, quickly discards his weapon, and proceeds to treat the royal court to a display of down-and-dirty knuckle-brawling, ending with [[Cherry Tapping|a humiliating bitch-slap]]. Janson being Janson, he also works a [[Crowning Moment of Funny|CMOF]] into this [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|CMOA]] by drawing stick-figures in the air with his weapon beforehand.

* [[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.]]

* [[Not Quite Dead]]: No one ever comes back from ''actual'' death, but there are many times when a character is believed dead and isn't. Corran Horn is king of this. If you count the number of times his friends have thought him dead, his enemies have thought him dead, and the reader has thought him dead, it actually amounts to more times than he has appearances in the X-Wing series, if each novel featuring him counts as one appearance. This went noticed [[In-Universe]] and gave birth to a joke: the day Corran really dies, everyone will just assume [[He's Just Hiding|he's alive somewhere and will reappear soon]].

** Hallis Saper. Her initial stated reasons for wearing "Whitecap" (A 3PO droid's head with her holography equipment inside) were that 3PO droids were found to be reassuring to children. (Whitecap actually provoked other reactions in-universe.) {{spoiler|It turns out to be a cunning method of disguise; while she wore Whitecap, people paid attention to the droid head and not to Hallis's face. Hallis also had other, more covert methods of disguising her holography equipment, some of which were seen later on.}}

* [[Oh Crap]]: In ''Iron Fist'', when the Wraiths have been playing pirate against a nonaligned system to try and bring Zsinj in as their protector -- and succeed ''a little too well'', with a ship's silhouette appearing over the horizon:

([[Gilligan Cut]] to narration) "It was a Super Star Destroyer, by name ''Iron Fist''..." }}

** The look on Grinder's face when, after trying to cover up a fight that happened, Wedge tells him [[Genre Savvy|that he doesn't believe it was a 'boxing accident' that caused the injuries he sees.]]

** Wedge also does it in ''Rogue Squadron'' when an Imperial Lancer-class frigate, [[The Dreaded|a ship specifically designed to take on starfighters and with a fearful reputation]], appears.

* [[Old School Dogfighting]]: Both averted and played straight. Alliance pilots tend to initiate fights with their missiles and proton torpedoes to soften up the often numerically superior Imperials (it also helps that most TIE fighters are only armed with lasers). However, there are still many opportunities and situations for fighters to mix it up old school style.

* [[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).

** And a xenoarchaeologist named [[Indiana Jones|Henrietya "Corellia" Antilles]].

* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]: Hobbie is called Derek Klivian, but not many people actually call him that. Wraith Squardon also gives us Face, Piggy, Runt, and Grinder.

* [[Paparazzi]]: ''Starfighters of Adumar'' features Hallis Saper, now a documentarian and intelligence agent but who used to work in "sludgenews", the [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp|Star Wars term]] for shallow celebrity gossip news.

* [[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."

* [[Pass the Popcorn]]: In ''Wraith Squadron'' Wedge asserts his authority over Falynn by challenging her to a race in creaky old ore haulers. The other pilots watch via a screen and, after a while, start taking bets on the outcome.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: In ''The Bacta War'', the captain of a Star Destroyer with the unfortunate name of Sair Yonka (the captain, not his Impstar) fusses over which outfit his lover would prefer to see him in, and has a gift for her, not knowing about her Rebel sympathies. The Rogues bribe him into switching sides.

** Agamar is seen as the planet of stupid hicks, though that's really just a stereotype (although it is a [[Single Biome Planet|mostly agricultural world]]). At one point, three Wraiths plan to go undercover as Agamarians and ask the captain of their ship, who actually ''is'' from Agamar, to help them flesh out the stereotypes. {{spoiler|Said Captain is a [[Mauve Shirt]]...he doesn't make it}}

** Adumar appears to be the planet of blood sport, pilot-worship, and melodrama, but as it turns out only one country is that obsessed, and its people can be coaxed into seeing the problems with how they're thinking. Alderaan was always labeled as the planet of pacifists, and in the comics Tycho liked to respond to hearing that by [[Berserk Button|swinging a punch]] at whoever had spoken. Worth noting is that the mentioned planets are human-populated, so it's less a species thing and more of a culture or perceived culture thing.

** The Twi'leks are thought of as a race of merchants and smugglers, which tends to piss off their warriors, as seen in ''The Krytos Trap''. Zsinj then takes advantage of this in ''Solo Command'' - it's become common knowledge that there are touchy Twi'lek [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] around, so people will take his using Twi'leks as killer [[Manchurian Agent|Manchurian Agents]] as being a real radical-militant development in the race.

** Lorrd, Face's homeworld, is a relatively straight example of this trope (it was introduced in earlier books). Lorrd's hat is observation and control of body language, but this is [[Justified Trope|justified]] by backstory - the planet was once enslaved by aliens who forbade verbal communication, so the Lorrdians were forced to develop complex body and sign language instead.

* [[Proud Warrior Race]]: The people of Adumar have this in spades, and it's [[Deconstructed]] a little by Wedge. Some of the X-Wing pilots may also be part of one.

** The first part of one of Zsinj's plans hinges largely on Gotals and Twi'leks being viewed like this, so when brainwashed agents begin to act on his schemes, the overall plan is to foment distrust of these two races precisely because of their Proud Warrior [[Buffy-Speak|Raceishness]]. And because he's just proven that they can be converted very quickly into [[Manchurian Agent|Manchurian Agents]].

** And while the pilots brought in to make up the numbers don't seem to have issues, it is quickly found that all of them are just as screwed up. Also, the actual real life implications of having such a team are [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]/discussed by Wedge and Wes in a pretty serious moment.

'''Wes:''' It's true. Wedge, you asked for misfits. You had to know that even with the ones who made the grade, they were going to takes losses that were heavier than in a normal unit. }}

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Wedge and at least some of his superiors, including Admiral Ackbar.

** Another example is from ''Iron Fist'', where Allston managed to come up with a plausible explanation for how the titular vessel had been blown up... twice... in a later-set, but earlier-written, novel.

** Also in ''Iron Fist'', Allston had to modify Warlord Zsinj's personality in ''[[The Courtship of Princess Leia]]'' of being a generic frothing-at-the-mouth-when-things-go-bad Imperial into a character with actual panache that could pull of victory after victory against the New Republic for novels at a time. He does this by making Zsinj into a skilled actor who pretends to be overly evil and angry on occasion either to impress and mislead his viewers or for his own amusement. The only disadvantage to this otherwise very successful reinvention is that it makes Zsinj's final defeat in the chronologically later ''Courtship'' seem very dissappointing in retrospect, considering he is barely even a character in that novel.

* [[Running Gag]]: Lieutenant Kettch, the fake Ewok pilot. This becomes something of an [[Ascended Meme]] or [[Defictionalization]] [[In-Universe]]: after their enemies/employers overhear the Wraiths' comm chatter, in which Wedge's voice was modified to sound like an Ewok, some ad-libbing and improvisation culminated in [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Wedge having to fight a battle with a stuffed Ewok in his lap]] to keep up the illusion that Kettch was real. To say nothing of Kolot...

** And an in-universe example: During the Wraith books, despite both serving on the ''Mon Remonda'', Corran Horn and Han Solo are never seen at the same place at the same time (including one moment when Han leaves the pilots' lounge, and Corran enters moments later--then wonders why everyone's laughing), which naturally leads the rest of the pilots to conclude that, despite a significant difference in age and appearance, they must be the same person. (This particular joke goes metastatic in ''I, Jedi''--in which Corran and Han actually ''do'' meet, multiple times. One of those times, Han jokes that he once had a Horn, Corran's father Hal, chasing him. Later, Corran goes undercover with the false name of a man Hal had once pursued, who hadn't been seen anywhere for more than a decade, and not even Corran's [[Knowledge Broker]] grandfather knew where he'd gone: [[Significant Anagram|Jenos]] [[Indiana Jones|Idanian]]. This also doubles as a [[Call Back]] to the ''Han Solo Trilogy''.)

* [[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''.

** 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.

** Subtle one in ''Isard's Revenge''. Wedge, in disguise as Colonel Roat and pretending to be a standard Imperial racist, complains that the "wait-beasts" serving him on another planet once tried to serve him red wine with fish, very similar to a line from the ''James Bond'' movie ''[[From Russia with Love]]'' in which a spy pretending to be an officer of culture drinks red wine with fish, which Bond notes as suspicious.

** ''Wedge's Gamble'' has one of the squadron's pilots tell a stormtrooper, "[[A New Hope|You don't need to see her identification,]]" while offering him a bribe. {{spoiler|It works.}} ''The Bacta War'' has untrained Jedi Corran Horn mind trick another stormtrooper with the words, "I can go about my business." {{spoiler|It fails horribly.}}

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

** Dr. Edda Gast. There's not a scene in the entire novel ''Solo Command'' where you don't want to give her a smack upside the head. At least. Her little "I'm human so I'm better than you" rant in ''Solo Command'' might make you want to punch her. Saying that to ''Nawara Ven'' of all people, who is most likely one of the most diplomatic people in Rogue Squadron and should ''not'' be talked to that way... The [[Laser-Guided Karma]] is one of the best parts of the book.

* [[Stop Having Fun Guy]]: What Grinder claims to be, when commenting on the 'immaturity' of the pranks going on in ''Wraith Squadron''. {{spoiler|Turns out he's actually [[Not So Above It All]], except he deflects people's suspicions with his [[Hypocrite|claims]] of [[Serious Business]]. [[The Dog Is the Mastermind|Which is why no one suspects him of actually being the culprit]].}}

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]

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

* [[Suicide by Cop]]: In ''Solo Command'', a brainwashed {{spoiler|Tal'dira}} intentionally lowers his shields just before being able to complete his mission of killing Wedge Antilles. This enables Corran Horn ([[Fridge Brilliance|who used to be a cop]]) to place a killing blow, thus saving Wedge.

* [[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}}.

* [[Sure Why Not]]: An in-universe version of this is used in ''Starfighters of Adumar''.

'''Hobbie:''' "Oh, that's simple. Do to them what you do to us at times like that."<br />

'''Wedge:''' ::frowns:: "What do you mean?"<br />

* [[Tactful Translation]]: A [[Universal Translator|translator droid]] that Wedge uses to communicate with Chewbacca removes Chewie's... ''colorful'' language. Chewie (who can understand but not speak Basic due to physiology) is not pleased with this.

* [[That Man Is Dead|That Twi'lek Is Dead]]: During ''Iron Fist''.

* [[Trigger Phrase]]: "Those Wookies are dancing in the parlor again."

** "Wedge Antilles hops on one transparisteel leg."

* [[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.

* [[2-D Space]]: Averted, even in capital ship combat.

** 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.

** Then there's the last moments of {{spoiler|''Lusankya's'' captain's}} life. He promotes himself to Grand Admiral, threatens to [[Apocalypse How|crash the ''Lusankya'' into Thyferra]], {{spoiler|and is then [[Shoot the Dog|shot by his First Officer]], who surrenders the ship.}}

* [[Visual Pun]]: The marquee of the Headquarters, a bar on Coruscant that Corran finds his way to in ''Wedge's Gamble''. It features a stormtrooper's helmet being torn into four pieces.

* [[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.

* [[You Can't Go Home Again]]: Some pilots in Rogue and Wraith squadron can't return to their home planets due to various reasons. Wedge and Tycho's homes were blown up, and Corran is (falsely) accused of murder in Corellia. The most tragic example, however, would be Tyria's home planet. Her people helped pass along the Death Star plans to the Alliance, and as punishment, the Empire bombed their planet to the Stone Age and enslaved the survivors.

* [[You Don't Want to Catch This]]: The Wraiths, undercover posing as the crew of one of Zsinj's ships, have to figure out how to swap cargo with genuine Zsinj counterparts without the latter noticing anything is amiss. Someone suggests using this trope so they'd all be in containment suits, but it's pointed out that Zsinj is suspicious and would investigate something like that. So instead they concoct a [[Zany Scheme]] to infect the ''other'' ship with a disease, inverting the trope.

* [[You Killed My Father]]: Wes Janson was forced to shoot Kell's father during a mission. This makes things very awkward when they're on the same squadron.

** Averted once by her in the first novel (Before we ''really'' get to know her, possibly?). When someone he's interrogating dies before giving up the information he needs, Kirtan Loor is summoned back to Imperial Center by Isard, Empress in all but name. All along the way, even while [[The World Is Just Awesome|marveling at the view]], he's sweating and expecting her to kill him. She doesn't -- not at that point in time -- but she does make her displeasure at his poor thinking clear, and wants him to perform better.

** Zsinj goes back and forth on this trope. On the one hand, he has had a number of subordinates killed - some for major things (losing a highly valuable Ewok test subject, then lying about it), and some for not-so-major things (slacking off on the bridge one time too many). On the other hand, he knows when to shut up and let people do their jobs, as in ''Solo Command'' when fighting off {{spoiler|Lara's}} sabotage-bots -- even giving the chief engineer a bonus for fixing his ship early (he approves of efficiency).

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Military Science Fiction]]

[[Category:X Wing Series]]