History Comicbook / XWingSeries

** 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.

Two more novels were released, one each by Stackpole and Allston. '''Isard's Revenge''' takes place directly after TheThrawnTrilogy and concerns the efforts of Rogue Squadron to bring justice to Stackpole's BigBad, who escaped -- twice -- despite her defeat in the Bacta War, and ties a few loose ends left after the end of the comics. '''Starfighters Of Adumar''', though marketed as a Rogue Squadron novel, is really about Wedge himself; this is essentially his [[ADayInTheLimelight Day In The Limelight]], focusing on his life, career, friends and love life (or lack thereof) during a diplomatic mission in which he attempts to bring the planet Adumar into the New Republic by winning a flying-duel-based popularity contest.

The Rogues and Wraiths also appeared in the NewJediOrder and LegacyOfTheForce, and another Wraith Squadron novel, '''Mercy Kill''', written by Allston, has been scheduled for release in August 2012. It will take place primarily during FateOfTheJedi, but will fill in the time from the end of the Wraith Squadron books up to the "present."

--> '''Kell:''' "I don't ''have'' to blow up everything I see. I just like to."

---> '''Myn Donos:''' "Pretty. What do we blow up first?"

-->'''Wedge''' "I still have to figure out what sort of reason to give them for simulated duels. Something they'll accept within the parameters of their [[ProudWarriorRace honor code]]."\\
'''Hobbie:''' "Oh, that's simple. Do to them what you do to us at times like that."\\
'''Wedge:''' ::frowns:: "What do you mean?"\\
'''Hobbie:''' "Tell them ''what'' you're doing but not ''why''. Then let them speculate. Listen to them as they speculate. When they come up with an idea you really, really like, tell them 'You finally guessed right. That was my reasoning all along.'"\\
'''Wedge:''' "I don't do that. Much."\\
'''Hobbie:''' "All the time, boss."
* SyntheticPlague: Krytos, tailor-made by the Empire to kill non-humans in impressively squicky fashion.

* ThirdPersonPerson: Ooryl. Apparently, among Gands using the first person makes the arrogant assumption that you're [[FamedInStory so famous]] that ''anyone'' ought to know your name.

* UnwinnableTrainingSimulation: The first book starts with the pilots running [[ThatOneLevel the infamous Redemption scenario]][[note]]This is based on a mission from ''{{X-Wing}}'' [[ThatOneLevel notorious for its difficulty]][[/note]], and the strategies described are, in fact, the recommended tactics for that mission (also called ''Requiem'', for obvious reasons). Corran Horn legitimately manages to win the level, an impressive feat on it's own.

** 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.
* VillainousBreakdown: Watch Zsinj be informed that [[EvilutionaryBiologist Dr.]] [[HeKnowsTooMuch Gast]] has been kidnapped. Watch Zsinj ''flip the fuck out''.

** The "''Redemption'' Scenario" in ''Rogue Squadron'' is based on an [[ThatOneLevel infamous level]] in the [[{{VideoGame/X-Wing}} PC game]].

** In a nice subversion, or at least LampshadeHanging, quite a bit of detail is put on how many people were TOO messed up for this trope. Props goes to the pilot accused of stealing, who is sure things will turn out okay. Wedge notices his family portrait is missing as the guy walks out.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Bail Antilles, the Alderaanian captain killed by Lord Vader in ''ANewHope'', 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 ''StarWars'' 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).

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Hobbie is called Derek Klivian, but not many people actually call him that. Wraith Squardon also gives us Face, Piggy, Runt, and Grinder.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Wedge, while a career military man, tends to be relaxed with his pilots. This means that when he suddenly starts invoking rank with Castin Donn after the latter has told Wedge (in front of the whole squadron, and without even a WithDueRespect) that he thinks Wedge is wrong, everyone in the room realizes that Castin has dug himself a shallow grave.

** The "''Redemption'' Scenario" in ''Rogue Squadron'' is based on an [[ThatOneLevel infamous level]] in the [[VideoGame/X-Wing PC game]].

** The "''Redemption'' Scenario" in ''Rogue Squadron'' is based on an [[ThatOneLevel infamous level]] in the [[VideoGame/X-Wing]] game for PC.

** The "''Redemption'' Scenario" in ''Rogue Squadron'' is based on an [[ThatOneLevel infamous level]] in the N64 ''VideoGame/RogueSquadron'' game.

--> (GilliganCut to narration) "It was a Super Star Destroyer, by name ''Iron Fist''..."

** Wedge, during his attack run on the Star Destroyer ''Corrupter'', has one when an Alderaanian War Frigate appears directly in front of him. He is immensely relieved to learn that the frigate in on his side.

* MacrossMissileMassacre: How you take down an -long 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.

** 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 RefugeInAudacity 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!

* 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 pair of automated frigates to serve as escorts. The intention was that Alderaan could call the cruiser back if the planet ever needed to rearm, until 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''.]]

* ComicallySmallBribe: Face offers an imperial guard ''an entire credit'' while [[ObfuscatingStupidity pretending to be an Agamarian stereotype.]]

* SmallNameBigEgo: Wedge remarks on this to another officer about the Bothans, who have a smug sense of superiority about so many Rebel Bothans dying to get the information on the second Death Star, yet conveniently point out that they were ''meant'' to get the plans and the Rebel fleet was nearly destroyed because of it, but the Bothans wear that deception "Like a badge of honor".

* MythologyGag: At the start of ''Isard's Revenge'', which shows the Battle of Bilbringi from ''TheThrawnTrilogy'' 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.

->''[[CrazyAwesome "Pretty. What do we blow up first?"]]''

* XanatosGambit: 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.
** Another one would be Emtrey. Alliance Intelligence already knew about Emtrey's "special" programming and deliberately assigned him to Rogue Squadron. This was to find out if Tycho was really a sleeper agent or not, since Emtrey would have been the perfect droid for a spy to exploit.

** 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; Wedge notes the AccidentalNightmareFuel of the setup.) [[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.]]

** 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.]]

** 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 EjectionSeat malfunctioned and ''he achieved escape velocity''. He was stuck with the moniker "Ejector Darpen" for the rest of his career.

*** Unlike most examples...he's still made pretty awesome. He's just not awesome at his 'niche'.