History Literature / XWingSeries

* ZanyScheme: Minimum one per book. Especially prevalent in the Wraith Squadron series. I mean, just look at how many times it's referenced on this very page!

* BloodBrothers: Voort speaks of [[spoiler: the late Runt]] as this, despite the fact that they barely interacted with each other in the other books featuring the Wraiths. This likely stemmed from a) the two of them and Face being the last of the original Wraiths (as all the others eventually all died or left to pursue other interests), and b) them having a lot of adventures together, most of them offscreen, in their almost twenty-one years in the squad.

* PottyEmergency: Jesmin Tainer needs to access the auxiliary bridge of a small imperial warship. She does so by using the Force to give the whole crew an urgent need to pee.

* JustPlaneWrong: Averted in one key respect that is usually ignored in ''Franchise/StarWars''. The novels note on a number of occasions that New Republic starfighters are much more capable than Imperial TIE designs while fighting in atmosphere because of their superior aerodynamics. In space, [=TIEs=] other than bombers are generally faster and more maneuverable than anything but an A-Wing, but in aerial combat, the more airplane-like design of an X-Wing allows it to pull off maneuvers a TIE couldn't hope to match.

** Wedge noticeably allows mildly military behaviour if and only if it's beneficial. Wacky hijinks and harmless jokes like Kettch that improve moral are tolerated; insubordination like Falynn's or Castin's is shut down.

** In ''Wraith Squadron'', Cubber looks at a hastily-cobbled-together ship he just out built of a smuggling compartment ripped from a shuttle and the ejection seat boosters from a crippled fighter, he says it's the second most hazardous thing he's ever made. The ''most'' hazardous was his first still.

* TheSquadette: The series was perhaps the first piece of ''Star Wars'' fiction to show female grunts to any major degree (if ace fighter pilots can be called 'grunts'). Interestingly, reading the series suddenly makes you realise how odd the absence of female pilots in the films is, especially all the Rebel pilots who went against the Death Stars. (It's doubly so if you've seen the stills from deleted scenes of female pilots at the Battle of Endor...)

* TrainingFromHell: Played with. Training for the Rogues and Wraiths isn't shown to be physically demanding. Likewise, while the debut novels for each unit do depict one or more candidates washing out, Wedge's intentions are less about eliminating all but the most elite pilots and more teaching those who do make his units that however skilled they are, they still need to work as a team if they hope to accomplish their missions and live to tell about it. While he isn't above throwing the occasional UnwinnableTrainingSimulation his pilots' way, overall his methods reflect this: feeding the rest of Rogue Squadron Corran's targeting data behind his back so their scores will all eclipse his, having pairs of fighters suffer complementary system failures so their pilots are forced to work together to destroy a target, scoring protocols where pilots are directly responsible for their wingmate's success and vice versa (which causes Kell Tainer to be credited with no kills, while his wingman who went LeeroyJenkins and was shot down two minutes in gets Kell's actual five), etc.

** 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 fighter that appears plain white to human eyes; the squadron's chief mechanic, a Verpine, assures his colleagues that it is "a masterpiece" if you can see in the UV spectrum.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The various weird spellings of Klivian, lampshaded by the man himself.

* CloningBlues: There turns out to be a clone of [[spoiler: Ysanne Isard]] who believes [[spoiler: she]] is the original. When confronted with evidence that this is not the case via comm, the clone lets out a scream suggesting a major VillainousBreakdown.

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Inyri and Lujayne Forge, respectively. The latter became a Rogue Squadron pilot, brave and intelligent, a good friend to Corran Horn who provides him with the wake-up call he needed to know he was too distant and isolated from the other pilots... and then dies senselessly during a stormtrooper infiltration on Talasea. Inyri, now suddenly put under the pressure to step into her sister's footprints and make a good name for the family, but always living in Lujayne's martyred shadow and blaming the Rogues (and by extension the New Republic) for her death, rebels by abandoning her family and joining Zekka Thyne as his girlfriend and co-conspirator.

** Tycho is probably the second-best X-wing pilot in the New Republic, behind Wedge, and is in command of Rogue Squadron by the time of ''Starfighters of Adumar''. And yet, in said book, he gets shot down ''three times''. Allston [[http://www.aaronallston.com/factpages/faq_starwars.html mentions why]] in his FAQ. Part of the fairly long answer about why Tycho didn't do so well:

* KarmaHoudini: The other nations of Adumar consider former ''perator'' Pekaelic ke Teldan of Cartaan to be one, avoiding prosecution "for his poor judgement and autocratic politics", but his son and the new ''perator'' of Cartaan insists as a condition of their joining the Adumari Union. In practice though, it's subverted -- he may have avoided legal prosecution, but he ''did'' see his forces trounced, lost his throne and authority, and is quite embarrassed and furious at having been hoodwinked by a New Republic Intelligence agent who was willing to use dirty tactics to manipulate him into trying to have Wedge and his fellow pilots killed because they'd stood by their own code of ethics rather than falling for the manipulations of said agent.

* ProtectivePressure: The Imperial labs on Coruscant that were developing the Krytos Virus were designed this way as a precaution against a mutation that caused it to become airborne or to affect humans -- the negative air pressure ensures that the virus won't be carried out of the lab on a draft.

* ProudMerchantRace: The Twi'leks are generally perceived like this, but they have an increasingly vocal minority who resent the stereotype as they would rather be a ProudWarriorRace. This first shows up in ''The Krytos Trap'' and is later exploited by Zsinj in ''Solo Command'' (see below)

* ProtectivePressure: The Imperial labs on Coruscant that were developing the Krytos Virus were designed this way as a precaution against a mutation that caused it to become airborne or to affect humans -- the negative air pressure ensures that the virus won't be carried out of the lab on a draft.

* EjectionSeat: Used frequently.

* ClearTheirName: 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. Since Tycho's lawyer was absent at the time, there was no opportunity for "The defense calls Corran Horn," unfortunately]]. And the charges of treason and espionage are cleared away immediately afterwards with evidence provided by [[spoiler: Corran]], Wedge Antilles, and General Cracken.

** Apparently, in the Twi'lek language the meaning of a phrase can be radically altered by shuffling syllables between "words". It's sometimes done even to a fellow Twi'lek's name, for the opposite reason: twisting the pronunciation into something insulting. It is also specifically used to denote that a particular Twi'lek is a dishonourable individual -- Jabba the Hutt's henchman Bib Fortuna is subjected to this treatment.

** 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 Wookiee 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.

** 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.

** In ''The Krytos Trap'', Rogue Squadron goes on a vital mission in a civilian-filled area. Wedge acknowledges that collateral damage is unavoidable, but tells the Rogues to pick their shots to minimize the casualties. Later in that same book,[[spoiler:the ''Lusankya'' unearths itself from the planet ''and'' shoots down a skyhook in the process. Causalties are in the ''millions''.]]