Republic Commando Series

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
War Is Hell unless you have a Badass Family


There have been several spinoff novels and short stories from the computer game Star Wars: Republic Commando, known as the Republic Commando Series. Although there is a degree of intertextuality between these stories, they can be split into several defined story arcs that can be read individually from each other. While clone commandos appear in many stories, such as Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader and Jedi Trial, this list only deals with direct spinoffs from the Republic Commando franchise.

The Science Fiction book club released an edition of the first two Republic Commando books in an omnibus hardcover. There are five books total:

  • Hard Contact
  • Triple Zero
  • True Colors
  • Order 66
  • 501st
Tropes used in Republic Commando Series include:
  • Action Girl: Etain. Rav Bralor is implied to be one. Also, Ny.
  • Adrenaline Makeover: Etain in Hard Contact. She goes from a poorly-focused Padawan with a dead Master to a badass (albeit scrawny) Jedi.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Etain and the Jedi Knights.
  • Arc Words: Vode an -- Mandalorian for Brothers All.
  • Armor Is Useless: Averted heavily. In one short story, Fi fires a Verpine shattergun -- the EU version of armor-piercing rounds -- at Atin purposely and the armor deflects it. The commandos are appreciative of their armor's durability and it helps them survive many a firefight. In the same short story, Fi is able to jump on a grenade and come out badly rattled, but alive.
    • When things are looking bad on Haurgab, Darman considers taking off his armor so he can die quickly.
  • Ascended Extra: Ny.
  • Asexual: Vau, possibly.
  • The Atoner: Skirata. He sees raising the clones as his redemption for all the foul things he has done in his past.
  • Badass: Every single Mandalorian in the series, and most of the other named characters, too.
  • Badass Adorable: Kad Skirata. He's a baby, but he's the son of an elite solider and a Jedi and is Force-sensitive. In the Legacy of the Force series, he's grown up to be an awesome Mandalorian wearing a hodgepodge of armor from all of the others.
  • Badass Army: The GAR (Grand Army of the Republic). Or Skirata's clan.
  • Badass and Child Duo: Skirata and his grandson, Kad. Woe betide anyone who ruffles a hair on the kid's curly head.
  • Badass Bookworm: Jusik, and, surprisingly Maze
  • Badass Creed: Mandalorian Tenants. Even their marriage vows sound Badass.
  • Badass Driver: Bardan Jusik. He makes Ordo worry.
  • Badass Family: the Skiratas. You do not mess with them. They will pwn your shebs any day of the week. Even the baby.
  • Badass Grandpa: Skirata quite literally, from True Colors onwards
  • Badass Long Hair: Jusik
  • Badass Longcoat: Skirata's bantha hide jacket
  • Badass Native: the Mandalorians are the Star Wars EU equivalent of this
  • Badass Normal: Rede
    • To clarify, Rede is a clone trooper who was flash trained, meaning he was trained in only one year and is technically still a year old when he becomes a commando. Yet during the second mission he goes on with Darmand and Niner, he single handedly takes out a Jedi Master in close combat. He rushes in, punches the Jedi, then when the Jedi is down, he executes him, all in one move. And let me remind you, this guy is a year old, not even as well trained as a regular mook, yet he goes hand to hand with a badass who has been learning for decades and is a master in close quarters combat.
  • Badass Teacher: Skirata, Vau, Gilamar, Bralor, Jango Fett, etc.
  • Berserk Button: Do NOT insult any clones in front of Kal Skirata EVER!!!!!!!
    • Likewise, do NOT insult Kal'buir in front of Ordo EVER!!!!!!! .... As Ensign Luszgoti found out in a Crowning Moment of Funny.
    • Don't refer to any commando as "clone", either, especially one that's been all but trained to buck any authority they don't like, such as Skirata and Vau's pods.
  • Beta Couple: Quite a few if Darman and Etain are the official couple:
    • Ny and Skirata
    • Fi and Parja
    • Atin and Laseema
    • Corr and Jilka
    • Ordo and Besany
    • Cov and Ruu
    • Gilamar and Uthan
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Both Etain and Bardan get this treatment. All of the commandos are surprised at how they're able to handle themselves, and Skirata is caught off guard after Vau and Atin start fighting, causing Bardan to burst into the room, push them apart with the Force, then hold them against the walls while yelling at them that the hating will stop now.
    • Scorch as well, when he went temporarily insane following a base attack on Haurgab.
  • BFG: Etain has one.
  • Big Eater: All of the clones. They especially like candy or other sweets.
  • Blood Knight: The Nulls. Kal Skirata. In fact, virtually every Mandalorian in the series.
  • Bloodless Carnage: sharply subverted.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: Order 66, with Etain dead, Darman catatonic, and Niner a broken spine, not to mention the unbeatable Delta Squad finally separated.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Skirata, Gilamar, Mereel, and Jaing are shining examples of this trope.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Really, Hokan? Really? Did you need to go finish off your enemy with a knife vibroblade?
  • Bounty Hunter: If a male protagonist does not begin as a bounty hunter, he soon will be.
  • Brown Eyes: The clones all have them.
  • Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: While they don't outrank each other, Vau and Skirata are very much this trope.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: All the clones before battle, especially Fi and Corr.
  • The Cavalry: The LAAT/i "larty" gunships that Maze sends in on Haurgab.
  • Children Are Innocent: Played to the hilt and then subverted on the same page when Kal Skirata first meets the Null Arcs. At the time they appeared four year old innocent and helpless children in desperate need of Kal's protection from the diabolical Kaminoans...until they stole Kal's holdout blaster to defend themselves.
    • Early in the series, all clones qualified for this. Etain first sensed Darman as a 'child' through the Force, rather than a soldier. As the series progresses, this becomes less true as the clones grow up mentally.
  • The Clan: the Skiratas.
  • Cloning Blues: Surprisingly averted. The clones don't care. They're even proud of their heritage, because they were bred to be whupass on every other "randomely conceived being" in the galaxy.
  • Cold Sniper: played straight with Sev, subverted hard with Fi .
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Used with their armor colors -- Skirata and Gilimar are gold, while Atin is purply, Sev and Ordo are red, Boss is orange, Fixer is green, Scorch is yellow, Fi is grey/red, Mereel is blue, Jaing is grey, and Vau is black.
  • Combat Medic: Gilamar. He claims he's only a simple country doctor, but his dialogue suggests something far more involved, maybe even formal training. Granted, being Mando'ad, he's also a badass killer. Also, Fi is the designated medic for Omega Squad, and he's far from sitting back and letting his brothers do the dirty work.
  • Contract on the Hitman: the Nulls, Skirata, Vau, and other defectors after Order 66.
    • Any clones that defect, actually. Look at what almost happened to Sull.
  • Cool Old Guy: Kal Skirata. And Walon Vau. And Mij Gilamar. And Arligan Zey.
  • Cool Old Lady: Ny.
  • Crazy Prepared: Skirata when planning his escape (and his sons' defection) from the GAR. He'd been planning it practically from the start.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Etain in Hard Contact
  • Cultured Badass: Vau. He's a disinherited Irmenu aristocrat, so he was raised with the manners, but then he joined the Mandalorians, making him an instant Badass.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Implied between Atin and Vau.
  • Dare To You WILL Be Badass: Walon Vau, patron saint of tough love:

Vau: You have to know the limits of your physical and mental endurance, so you can recognize them and pass beyond them. This is why I will push you beyond any suffering you can imagine. You will not give up and die like lesser men; you will not crack up like lesser men; you will not lose heart in the direst circumstances like lesser men. You will carry on beyond your imagined limits. And you will be the last men standing, when the weaklings have opted to do the easy thing and die.

Sev: (After dropping a box containing Ko Sai's head onto his desk and Zey looks inside) I think she's dead, sir.
Zey: Do you now? You should take up medicine, my boy.

  • Death Course: Commando training on Kamino consisted partially of this.
  • December-December Romance: Ny and Skirata
  • Defector From Decadence: Barden Jusik. It's just he defected from the Jedi Order.
    • Vau. It is revealed in the beginning of True Colors that his father is a rich man. Vau hated him so much he ran off and joined the Mandalorians.
  • Den of Iniquity: Qibbu's Hut
  • Did Not Do the Research: The series author is infamous for this on many occasions.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: Notice how many times Jaing's grey, leathery gloves have been mentioned after Ko Sai hangs herself/the Nulls butcher her afterwards? If still you don't get it, this is why it's called Don't Explain the Joke.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Bardan. One of his unfortunate clone passengers says that he's insane after they have a car chase through Coruscant traffic while being pursued.
  • Easy Logistics: subverted repeatedly. One of the main problems the GAR faces is the area over which the clones are spread. Naturally, this makes for snarled supply transports and difficulty getting materials to the planet they need to be on, such as the beginning of Triple Zero, where Fi talks about how Procurement finally gave them the matte black combat armor that they wanted...just before they went to Fest, which is an ice world.
  • Education Through Pyrotechnics: Something else used on Kamino to make the clones more badass.
    • As if they need it.
  • Evil Me Scares Me: Darman after he beats the osik out of Skirata.
  • Extreme Melee Revenge: Darman on Skirata when he finds out that Kad is his son.
  • Faceless Goons: Inverted. Oh, shab. Another one of Kal Skirata's berserk buttons is when people think that the clones are automatons under the armor. In Triple Zero, Skirata has Ordo take off his helmet in public so that the civilians can see that their protectors are young men.
  • The Family That Slays Together: the Skiratas. All of them are mercenaries, and more than half of them are elite troops, bred and trained to be the best.
    • Also, Dr. Uthan wanted a family before she became The Evil Genius, and using that knowledge Fi and Skirata manage to sway her to their side.
    • Of course, for Mandalorians male success is family, too. Their society is based around clans and families, with both fatherhood and motherhood being highly prized.
  • A Father to His Men: Skirata, full stop. Eventually he becomes this in more than sentiment, formally adopting many of his clones.
  • Five-Bad Band: (in Hard Contact):
  • Five-Man Band: (only in Hard Contact):
  • Foil : Sev (the Cold Sniper) to Fi (The Heart)
  • The Force: Must I explain? Star Wars EU, hellooo ..
  • Freudian Trio:
  • Gallows Humor: Corr.
  • Good-Looking Privates: subjective, but if you agree, pretty much the entire Republic army.
  • Greasy Spoon: The diner that Skirata likes to frequent. Numerous times, attention is drawn to the fact that the food is excessively greasy and unhealthy, but that's apparently what makes it good.
  • Great Escape: subverted in freeing Ruu Skirata and Dr. Uthan. The breakouts are done quick, fast, and (from the characters' POV) easily.
    • Maybe to prove how badass Skirata's private army is and how rotten the Republic is simultaneously?
  • Groin Attack: Implied to happen to an official in the hostage situation short story. Skirata does something, but Darman isn't exactly clear of what it is. Etain also tries it on Darman in Hard Contact, but since he's wearing groin protection on his armor it only hurts her leg.
  • Hair of Gold: Besany
  • Handicapped Badass: Skirata with his shattered ankle.
  • Handsome Lech: Mereel
  • Hide Your Pregnancy: Etain does this on Qiilura, but savvy Commander Levett isn't fooled for an instant.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Skirata and the gang after Etain's death
  • Heroic BSOD: Darman after Etain's death.
  • Hello, Nurse!: Besany
  • Heroic Sociopath: The Nulls, who learned from the best, who is Kal Skirata.
    • Also, Vau and his trainees, who are tough even by fellow commando standards.
  • Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: The whitish-grey armor that Omega Squad had while fighting on the forest world of Qiilura. This is later repeated, when the black armor Omega Squad asks for is what they get ... while fighting on a snowy world.
  • Historical In-Joke: Gilamar pulls one on Nenilin when he compares the scientist to Demagol. Nenilin thinks he's being flattered .... but Gilamar and Skirata both know that Demagol was a psychopathic monster of a Mandalorian scientist who did horrific experiments on children.
  • Hollywood Healing: subverted. After Atin's fight with Vau he still has scars all over his body.
  • Honor Among Thieves: the Mandalorians, except the evil ones. Goes along with Traviss' Mandalorian Mary Suetopia.
  • Impossible Mission Collapse: The end of Hard Contact.
  • Impressive Pyrotechnics: Also at the end of Hard Contact.
  • Instrument of Murder: Wad'e Tay'haai's beskar flute.
  • Invulnerable Knuckles: Inverted after Darman's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Skirata. His knuckles are scratched, bleeding, and generally wrecked.
  • Jurisdiction Friction: Between the GAR and Coruscant law enforcement during Triple Zero
  • Just a Kid: subverted with Kal Skirata's beginnings.
  • Knife Nut: Skirata's three-sided blade keeps coming up over and over and over again. It is his close-ranged weapon of choice and he keeps it on him at all times. We discover in Order 66 that it used to belong to his biological father.
  • Large Ham: Skirata has his moments
  • Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: subverted every time.
  • Loveable Rogue: Mereel, Corr, Skirata, and Fi, but Jaing has shades of it as well.
  • Magnetic Hero: Kal Skirata. He's a Marty Stu on this scale.
  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: Played straight with the clones. All of them end up with girlfriends.
  • Man On Fire: Darman he survives with little damage but plenty of nightmares.
  • Mangst: Kal Skirata again. Ordo to a lesser extent. Darman all the way especially during 501st
  • Mary Suetopia: How many view Karen Traviss' Mandalorians
    • Somewhat justified. Sadly Traviss rage-quit when she was just about to subject her own creation to some very well deserved scrutiny. There was much foreshadowing in 501st that even the "safe harbor" on Mandalore (the planet) may not come free and without attachments. Mand'alore (the ruler) is just as political as the rest of the galaxy and would use the clones for his own "patriotic" purposes.
  • May-December Romance: rare gender-flipped example in which Ruu is much older than her clone companion Cov.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Lord Mirdalan literally means Lord Smarts/Intelligence in Mando'a
    • Ordo means "order" in Latin
  • The Meddling Kids Are Useless: The whole arc so far.
  • Military Maverick: Skirata, after he is recommissioned into the GAR.
    • And the Nulls, who are more or less under Skirata's control.
  • Mission Briefing: Used frequently.
  • Morality Pet: Aww, Lord Mirdalan .... But be warned. That Morality Pet can chew you into gihaal.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Mandalorians in general. Subverted in Bardan's case, where he left the Jedi because he couldn't stand the fact that clones aren't treated with any respect, even when the Jedi are supposed to value all life.
  • My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: Boba Fett says this to Ordo (Ordo's father being Kal Skirata). It does not end well ....
    • Fi: "Ordo shoved his head down a fresher for bragging his dad could wipe the floor with Kal'buir."
  • Nitro Express: Used in Hard Contact but nothing bad happens.
  • No One Gets Left Behind: Atin frequently tries to talk Niner out of this in Hard Contact. It is later tragically subverted with Delta Squad leaving Sev behind on Kashyyyk.
  • No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Dr. Uthan's clone-killing virus
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Atin on Vau in Triple Zero. Jusik breaks them up before they can actually kill each other.
  • Not in This For Your Revolution: Skirata. He holds a rank in the Army of the Rublic but he's in it for his sons, not the glory or money.
  • Not So Stoic: For a Badass Mando, Skirata really wears his heart on his sleeve, crying multiple times.
  • Pregnant Badass: Etain
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: None when Kal Skirata is motivated.
  • OhShab: Plenty of times, especially during the scene on Haurgab and the fight on Coruscant.
  • Old Shame: Skirata, on being formally disowned by his sons.
  • One Riot, One Ranger: Niner mangsts about this during Hard Contact.
  • Open Says Me: With EXPLOSIVES!
  • Papa Wolf: YOU DO NOT MESS WITH KAL SKIRATA'S SONS!!
      • Lampshaded by Scorch: "if any barve so much as looked the wrong way at his precious little boys, Skirata would have his guts for garters."
    • Vau to a much lesser degree. He beats the osik out of his boys, but does care for them, enough so that he goes looking for Sev when he turns up missing. His trainees look up to him with a kind of respect, claiming that he made them stronger than any other commando group.
  • Patriotic Fervor: All Mandalorians, even the evil ones. Since Mandalore is a Mary Suetopia, all of them fall under Type One.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Every Mandalorian in the group.
  • The Purge: After Order 66.
  • The Quiet One: Fixer, in Delta Squad; Atin in Hard Contact
  • The Radio Dies First: Kind of. In Hard Contact, Omega Squad can't contact Darman because if they used long-distance communication, then their signals will be intercepted, and the enemy will know they are on Qiilura.
  • Rated "M" for Manly: There is so much badassery, violence, and bromance if you're a female you will go through a sex change.
  • A Real Man Is a Killer: The Mandalorians look down on politicians especially for not killing face-to-face, mano-a-mano. Hokan goes on about how he doesn't respect Dr. Uthan because she kills with germs, not with guns.
  • Redemption Demotion: Arguably Vau.
  • Retcon: This series does a number on the then-recent "History of the Mandalorians" article by Abel G. Pena. Instead of Spar being an insane, fanatical, and charasmatic Mandalore who becomes a Shell-Shocked Veteran, he's a cynical puppet warlord who's in it for the Money, Dear Boy, the Mandalorian Civil War was a minor affair that most Mandalorians ignored, and instead of only around 212 highly dangerous Mandalorians, we have an entire planet of them. Also, that totally awesome City of Bone from the Marvel Comics? Now a failed tourist trap.
    • Of course, with the 3rd-person character POV the reader's provided with, we never do get the entire picture of just what was going on with Spar. For all we really know—or at the ease of another writer to elaborate upon in the future—it's not so much an out-and-out retcon as an expansion, with Spar muddying the water with his snarky jerkass personality.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Both averted and played straight. The short story Odds is all about how the Clone Wars have allegedly vastly inflated numbers. Many fans argue that the 1,000,000 clones from Attack of the Clones could never fight a war across the entire galaxy. They, for some reason, picked a bone with her over this, even though the whole unit=clone concept was first established in the Attack of the Clones movie novelization, a G-canon (read: higher tier than her works) source that predated her by over two years.
    • Karen Traviss eventually introduces non-Kaminoan clones to compensate.
  • Screw You, Elves: Traviss's irrational hate of Jedi is astounding. It gets to the point that if your a Jedi and aren't openly critical of using the clones as a slave army then your a fool and not worth the time of the 'oh so proud' Mandalorians
    • ...not so irrational to others. The Jedi order did some *very* questionable things in the name of doing the *right* thing and Traviss is the first author to truly ponder these. The savage treatment of Fan Favorite, Designated Hero Jedi has lead to a Broken Base.
      • Untrue, The Cestus Deception by Steven Barnes came out almost four months prior covering many of the same bases as the Republic Commando series (including Clone humanity and the morality of the GAR) without being anywhere near as divisive despite the fact Alpha-98/Nate was as much a protagonist as Obi-Wan.
    • It all depends on point of view. To the Mandalorians themselves, who have strong familial bonds, the nature of the Jedi taking children away from their families, and raising them to live without strong emotional attachments would be abhorrent to the Mandalorians. To be perfectly honest, Traviss' writing could easily be depicted as simply the Mandalorian viewpoint of the Jedi Order.
      • There is also Pong Krell from Star Wars: the Clone Wars. Retroactively, he is EVERYTHING that Karen Traviss depicted Jedi as being from the Mandalorian viewpoint: an arrogant individual that treated Clone troopers as Cannon Fodder, and no better than droids... Only for us to find that he was Evil All Along, sabotaging the battle on purpose. The (non-mandalorian) clone troopers get praised for mutinying against him in The Carnage of Krell by the real Jedi. The Krell arc of The Clone Wars seems to have been written as a response to these criticisms.
  • Secret Police: Palpatine's secret hit squad that hunts down AWOL clones.
  • Sergeant Rock: Skirata is this trope to a T.
  • Ship Tease: Between Darman and Etain in Hard Contact before their relationship became canon in Triple Zero. There is also plenty of subtext between Ny and Skirata.
  • Shoot the Fuel Tank
  • Shout-Out: True Colors and 501st contain appearances by "data bounty hunters" Gaib and TK-0.
    • Also, "So easy a caveman Weequay could do it."
  • Small Girl, Big Gun: Etain's LJ-50 is mentioned several times to be at least her height.
  • So Beautiful It's a Curse: Poor Besany Wennen. So blonde and beautiful not even Ordo knows what to do with her when they first meet. They must have figured something out, because they marry in Order 66. Aww ...
  • So Proud of You: Skirata to his boys, on multiple occasions. Usually before he starts crying ... again.
  • Sole Survivor: Atin
  • Space Marine: The commandos
  • The Squad: The commandos again. They are even referred to as this: Omega Squad, Delta Squad, Yayax Squad, etc.
  • Stupid Sacrifice: Etain sacrifices herself to save a clone from a Jedi padawan during Order 66.
  • Super Soldier: The commandos.
  • Sword and Gun: Etain with her lightsaber and LJ-50.
  • Team Pet: Mird fulfils this function, despite being strictly Vau's pet. Mird is actually quite useful, seeing as it is an intelligent killing machine that can fly.
  • Tear Jerker: Etain's death and the scenes that immediately follow at Kyrimorut. Also, Delta Squad leaving Sev behind.
  • Thicker Than Water: Skirata, always, but he really proves this when he aids his sons (who have formally disowned him in finding his missing daughter/their missing sister, Ruusaan, who he hasn't talked to in over thirty years.
    • Also subverted: When Skirate also adopts Bardan Jusik. Family is family and you just never turn your back on them, blood is the least of it, since Mando frequently adopt orphans... or stray Jedi with daddy issues.
  • Three Faces of Eve: In order ...
    • Etain
    • Besany
    • Laseema
  • Took a Level in Badass: Laseema, Besany, Etain, Uthan ...
    • Notice, all women
      • It should be noted that with the exception of Laseema—who was either a Hutt slave or terribly mistreated Hutt employee—the others are all competent, capable, professional women in their own right. In a normal setting, they would be plenty "badass" on their own. However, when placed within a general military science-fiction action series, alongside life-long warriors and borderline super soldiers, there's something of a need for them to step it up. Which they do. Magnificently.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Apparently something that happens often with Skirata. Who knew the old guy with a limp could be such a Badass Papa Wolf?
  • Violence Is the Only Option: Oh, HELL YES IT IS!
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: All Vau's men want this out of him. Vau, of course, never says a thing.
  • What Could Have Been: Mostly an out of universe version. The storyline takes place during the same time period as the Mandalorian Protectors are supposed to be rampaging through the galaxy, even launching an attack on the clone's homeworld of Kamino. Do we get to see some more Mandalorian versus clone action? Nope. Do we even get a cursory run-through of the campaign? Nope. And by the last books, our protagonists are regularly teaming up with the last survivors of the Protectors without any tension about the whole "attacking our little brothers," or "wiping out almost everyone we fought alongside."
  • Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Hokan, you moron.
  • World of Badass: Mandalore. That is all.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Subverted, seeing as the commandos have no trouble shooting anyone at all.
  • Wrench Wench: Parja
  • Your Mileage May Vary: On just about every book after the first one, Hard Contact. The series is beloved by some, loathed by others. It's that kind of series.
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