History Comicbook / XWingSeries

* DowntimeDowngrade: ''Adumar'''s first scene consists of Qwi Xux breaking up with Wedge, freeing him up to [[spoiler:finally have a RelationshipUpgrade with Corran's former partner Iella Wessiri about two-thirds of the way into the book]]. This seems pretty much entirely a TakeThat from ''X-Wing'' to the ... ''[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement controversial]]'' ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy''.

* FoldSpindleMutilation: In''The Krytos Trap'', the Rogues launch an attack on a space station in the Yag'Dhul system. The station manager's office suffers a hull breach during the battle and the manager gets sucked out into space through a hole smaller than he was.

** In one novel, the Wraiths play a prank that convinces a cantina-full of people that [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Falynn_Sandskimmer Falynn]] was married to [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Voort_saBinring Piggy]]. Piggy [[WhatTheHellHero asks]] an ''extremely'' pissed-off Falynn if she would have been so upset if it were, say, her and Face? Surprisingly for this trope, she realizes she's being kind of an unwitting dick to Piggy, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming apologizes, and they agree to walk out of the bar holding hands]].

** 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 TearJerker death. Then there's [[TearJerker his last message]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming to Face]], and his will, which forces Face to acknowledge that he doesn't have to be TheAtoner for the rest of his life because of what he did as a child]]. Face notes that within a couple of days of meeting Phanan, they were best friends to the point of completing each other's sentences.

** How you take down a Super Star Destroyer if all you have is snubfighters, a 30-year-old frigate and some freighters? (That and a CrowningMomentOfAwesome when the ''Lusankya's'' SmugSnake 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: starfighter missiles can damage capital ships in large numbers, but the turbolasers on most capital ships are too big and fire too slow to effectively target individual fighters.

** Janson challenges an Adumari to a blastsword duel, quickly disarms his opponent, discards his own weapon, and proceeds to treat the royal court to a display of down-and-dirty knuckle-brawling, ending with [[CherryTapping a humiliating bitch-slap]]. Janson being Janson, he also works a [[CrowningMomentOfFunny CMOF]] into this [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome CMOA]] by drawing stick-figures in the air with his weapon beforehand.

* EmotionalTorque: Allston's writing is composed primarily of [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Funny]], [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Awesome]], {{Tearjerker}}s, and [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Heartwarming]]. It borders on MoodWhiplash 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.

** Lieutenant Kettch, the fake Ewok pilot. This becomes something of an AscendedMeme or {{Defictionalization}} InUniverse: 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 [[CrowningMomentOfFunny 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...

* AssInAmbassador: When Wedge is sent to try and convince the Adumari to join the New Republic, he doesn't follow the Adumari's strongest traditions. In fact, he barely makes secret his revulsion towards them. Of course, this is because these traditions are all about [[ProudWarriorRace killing opponents for honor]], and [[TheHero Wedge does not kill for honor]]. The diplomatic liaison in the same book is worse, as when Wedge finally says that he refuses to work to bring the planet into the Republic any longer, the guy ''tries to have them killed'' by saying that Wedge and the other Rogues want to die. Thankfully he's found out and arrested, and the court defense that he's undoubtedly plotting oh-so-carefully is already shot full of holes by an audio/holo recording that Iella had gotten hold of.

* HigherTechSpecies: The Empire and the Republic, compared to the terrestrial nation-states of Adumar. Red Flight's X-Wings are significantly faster and more maneuverable than Adumari Blades, and have DeflectorShields. They're also far more spaceworthy and have their own hyperdrives (a rarity on Adumar). Imperial TIE Interceptors are even faster than the X-Wings, though lack shields and hyperdrive... [[spoiler:which is rectified when the surviving Imperial {{Ace Pilot}}s return in TIE Defenders]].

* InventedLinguisticDistinction: The eponymous Lost Colony speaks a dialect of Galactic Basic with slightly different pronunciation: "Rad Flat" is heard in an early scene, referring to Wedge Antilles's Red Flight. Later, he greets another officer, who responds with an accent described in Wedge's Internal Monologue as "clipped, precise, Imperial", and Wedge recognizes him as being from the Imperial Remnant. (The latter references the Star Wars films' use of Evil Brit.)

* PlanetaryNation: Subverted with Adumar, which contains several competing alliances of nation-states.

* ProxyWar: The Adumar mission turns into a world war between Cartann's coalition, backed by the Empire and egged on by a rogue New Republic ambassador, and the Yedagon-Halbegardian coalition, backed by Wedge and Red Flight. [[spoiler:Despite the overwhelming numerical mismatch, Wedge wins, mainly by requiring his side to fly like the mission-oriented New Republic pilots he's used to commanding instead of being {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s.]]

** 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 is the only world in the galaxy that can cost-effectively produce the best medicine in the galaxy... 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.

** Wedge and Wes Janson, to a degree. They've been friends longer than any of the other pilots, having been pilot/gunner together at the Battle of Hoth as well as being first-generation Rouge Squadron veterans. Wedge eagerly brings Wes along when he forms Wraith Squadron, and then brings him to Adumar when told he can choose 3 other pilots out of the entire New Republic military.

** Wedge at one point says "I get the hologram" rather than "I get the picture".

** 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 CrazyAwesome improvised tactics. This skill is {{Lampshaded}} by one of their superiors.

* InterspeciesRomance: 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 and it was confirmed in ''The Essential Guide to Alien Species''). 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 (Corran's sweat was acidic enough to irritate Chertyl's skin, and he was mildly allergic to her fur) and they parted amicably. One arc that's poorly regarded for different reasons has very strong hints of more temporary human/Bothan encounters.

** Taken {{Up To Eleven}} with the second generation Wraiths who include Turman the shapeshifting Clawdite, a species that can mimic most humanoid species and Scut, a [[spoiler: Yuuzhan Vong]].

* PrettyPrincessPowerhouse: [[spoiler:Plourr Illo]], a [[PrincessClassic fictional]] [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses princess]] who embodies the textbook pop culture image...of a ''[[SpaceMarine space]]'' ''[[SemperFi marine]]''. [[note]]which she is close to literally ''being'', given that Starfighter Command is a branch of the New Republic Navy that uses army-style ranks and the Rogues do an unusual amount of special operations-type work for fighter pilots...[[/note]]

-->'''Gyr Keela:''' We had that scorched patch of ground to remind us to stay - [[VerbalTic tsi!]] - out of the politics. Now, we know it's impossible! You can't stay out of politics. Tsi! You can only choose the path which feels right! ...And we have a new patch to remind us of that!

-->''Gyr Keela'': "We had that scorched patch of ground to remind us to stay - [[VerbalTic tsi!]] - out of the politics. Now, we know it's impossible! You can't stay out of politics. Tsi! You can only choose the path which feels right! ...And we have a new patch to remind us of that!"

-->''Gyr Keela'': "We had that scorched patch of ground to remind us to stay - [[SpeechTic tsi!]] - out of the politics. Now, we know it's impossible! You can't stay out of politics. Tsi! You can only choose the path which feels right! ...And we have a new patch to remind us of that!"

* ChekhovsGun: All the time. For example, in ''Wraith Squadron'' Face tells a creepy story about how as a child star on Coruscant, he was due to be presented to the Emperor but, as Palpatine was called away, ended up sitting in Imperial Intelligence Director Ysanne Isard's lap instead. Towards the end of the book, he makes a mistake in his impersonation of an Imperial Intelligence-trained captain that almost rouses Admiral Trigit's suspicions, but is able to smooth it over due to his knowledge of Isard's perfume from this incident.

** Also Iella Wessiri. Not a pilot, but a police officer turned intelligence agent, who helps the Rogues [[spoiler: take Coruscant]] and partners up with the aforementioned Plourr to run guerrilla cells on Thyferra. She's also the one who ultimately gets to [[spoiler: kill Isard]].

* [[NoEndorHolocaust No Coruscant Holocaust]]: The scenes of ''Mercy Kill'' set on Coruscant make no mention of the utter devastation brought upon the planet by Abeloth (earthquakes, volcanoes and toxic gases that killed ''billions'') [[FateOfTheJedi no more than a few months earlier]]. (On the other hand, as noted in one of the ''New Jedi Order'' novels, if you assume a hundred billion people were killed when the Vong took Coruscant, ''there were still nine hundred billion alive''. Billions dead is no small number, but as far as total populace concerned, it's a drop in the bucket.)

* BadassPrincess: [[spoiler:Plourr Illo]], a [[PrincessClassic fictional]] [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses princess]] who embodies the textbook pop culture image...of a ''[[SpaceMarine space]]'' ''[[SemperFi marine]]''. [[note]]which she is close to literally ''being'', given that Starfighter Command is a branch of the New Republic Navy that uses army-style ranks and the Rogues do an unusual amount of special operations-type work for fighter pilots...[[/note]]

* SyntheticPlague: Krytos, tailor-made by the Empire to kill non-humans in an impressively squicky fashion.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: (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 ''Literature/TheCourtshipOfPrincessLeia'' as cardboard cutout Imperial villains, are given a NotSoHarmlessVillain upgrade with Allston showing that this stereotypical villainy is just an elaborate act to make their enemies underestimate them. That, each is a LargeHam who ''enjoys'' playing the part of a stereotypical villain.

** It's also mentioned in Face's past: a fellow cadet stole his clothes and locked him out of his quarters. Subsequently, while running around trying to find something to cover up with, he runs into a superior officer and explains himself by saluting and saying "Major, I regret to report only partial success with the Personal Cloaking Device." The major, despite being described as having "the same sense of humor as a Wookie with a rash", is amused enough not to punish him for being naked in the halls. Even Myn Donos, who was still suffering from PTSD after the loss of his previous squadron at this point, has a faint smile on his face during the story.

* ReversePolarity: Admiral Rogriss does this in ''Solo Command'' to prevent his Interdictor Cruiser crashing into a Victory Star Destroyer (see GameOfChicken). He reverses the polarity of the gravity well projectors to make them repel rather than attract, and pushes off against the VSD, propelling both ships away from each other. Solo's bridge crew note that this [[GravityScrew probably wreaked havoc with the gravity on the Interdictor's decks]].

* TrapIsTheOnlyOption: During the final battle of ''Solo Command'', Zsinj inexplicable sends the 181st Fighter Group, his most elite unit, away from the battle to start strafing an already-destroyed colony on Selaggis' moon. Despite it being ridiculously implausible that any of the colonists could have survived when a few years earlier Zsinj had subjected it to ''orbital bombardment by his Super Star Destroyer'', Wedge decides they can't ignore even an infinitesimal chance that innocent people are being slaughtered and sends the Rogues and Wraiths to investigate. Exactly as expected, it's a trap to draw him away from the Iron Fist.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Isard responds to the repeated Rogue Squadron pirate attacks on her bacta convoys by sending a ''Victory''-class Star Destroyer to a defenseless colony whose "crime" had been to accept the stolen bacta from the Rogues (in order to cure a plague) since, like a lot of people, they couldn't afford the ridiculously high prices set by Isard and her allies. Isard decides that if the bacta can't be reclaimed, that's because it's given the colonists life; therefore, if she can't take the bacta, she'll take all of their lives.

** ''Isard''. When one of her ship captain minions [[HeelFaceTurn betrays her]], her response is to order not just his death, but the death of his girlfriend's ''entire family''; a calmly delivered, easily missable line reveals that she started killing the families of all the ship's crew hours ago. Her management style was mocked in one of the later Wraith Squadron books by a more AffablyEvil villain, who noted that anyone who worked for a capricious psycho like Isard only had one of two things to look forward to: YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness, or YouHaveFailedMe.[[note]]Of course, Admiral Trigit, the Imp in question, is not much better. He's a BenevolentBoss as long as this are running smoothly, but when the chips are down, he's perfectly willing to sacrifice his Star Destroyer and everyone aboard to [[ItsAllAboutMe save his own sorry ass]].[[/note]]

** In one novel, the Wraiths play a prank that convinces a cantina-full of people that [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Falynn_Sandskimmer Falynn]] was married to [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Voort_saBinring Piggy]]. Piggy [[WhatTheHellHero asks]] an ''extremely'' pissed-off Falynn if she would have been so upset if it were, say, her and Face? Surprisingly for this trope, she realizes she's being kind of an unwitting dick to Piggy, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming apologizes, and they agree walk out of the bar holding hands]].

** Allston also fixes (with LampshadeHanging) a slight continuity error on Stackpole's part, where Corran Horn meets Han Solo for the first time in ''[[Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy I Jedi]]'', despite having served on his ship during the Zsinj campaign several years earlier. Allston has the pilots have an InUniverse RunningGag that Horn and Solo are the same person, despite being completely diffent physically, because thanks to several coincidences they are never seen at the same time in the same room.

** In ''Wedge's Gamble'', after the initial plan to deactivate Coruscant's shields by taking control of the computer system ends in failure, the Rogues are trying to figure out another way before the invasion has to be called off. When it's mentioned that taking the planet by storm (ie a direct assault in which the shield is broken via orbital bombardment) would be a bloodbath and also leave it difficult at best to ''hold'' the planet afterward, Gavin responds with "That's it! We take the world by storm!" As in, create a giant thunderstorm that will knock out the shields from the inside.

** Stackpole also namedrops a lot of species, events, and places established in other novels. Black Sun from ShadowsOfTheEmpire has a role, for example.

--->After reviewing Tycho's flying history (training originally in [=TIEs=], moving to A-wings and X-wings when he moved to the Rebel Alliance) and his performance in ''Literature/IJedi'', I concluded that Tycho's strengths as a pilot might not translate so well to less maneuverable spacecraft. In short, Blades, Y-wings and the lot can't really keep up with the speed of his own physical reactions.

* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: Shortly before they went fully pacifist, the Alderaanians loaded all of their weapons into a cruiser called the ''Another Chance'', crewed it with droids, and sent it off into space with a trio of automated frigates to serve as escorts. The intention was that Alderaan could call the cruiser back if the planet ever needed to rearm. Then the planet got blown up. The Alliance eventually found the ''Another Chance'' and one of the frigates around the time of ''TheEmpireStrikesBack''. [[spoiler:The third frigate had become separated from them and returned to Alderaan, where it saved the Rogues' bacon in ''The Bacta War'']].