Republic Commando Wasn’t Solely A Cult Basic–It Anticipated The Subsequent 20 Years Of Star Wars Players Area

Star Wars: Republic Commando is celebrating its 20-year anniversary immediately, March 1, 2025. Under, we take a look at how its give attention to navy fiction was an indication of issues to return to the Star Wars galaxy .

Once you boot up Star Wars: Republic Commando, the very first thing you see is the LucasArts brand, fuzzy like a jammed radio sign. It sparkles with the audio of muttered orders, of droid communicate. That is an concept taken from the unique Clone Wars cartoons (beginning in 2003), which additionally opens with a distorted broadcast, in that case of blaster fireplace and blaring lightsabers. In tandem, these aesthetic prospers symbolize a flip away from the science fantasy mythicism of Star Wars correct and a flip towards a grittier, although nonetheless exaggerated, navy fiction.

To be truthful, it isn’t as if these impulses weren’t in Star Wars to start with. Although A New Hope attracts on the science fiction golden age idealism of Flash Gordan serials, it’s a worn down future. Our heroes are would-be guerrilla militants, piloting buckets of bolts. Their fascist enemies reserve any futurist slickness. The combat of rebels is scrappy, hidden in bushes and sequestered in backwater planets.

Nonetheless, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker should not strange troopers, however heroes (nomenclature utilized by a Star Wars online game modern to Republic Commando: Battlefront 2). The unique trilogy, and to a big extent the prequels, take an analogous place to battle as The Lord of the Rings. Epic battles usually take the forefront, and each franchises are undoubtedly involved with battle. However the heroes should not boots-on-the-ground infantry and even navy commanders precisely, however kings and prodigal youngsters. They save the world, whereas rebels and fascists alike die within the grime.

Republic Commando represents one thing extra mundane: the on a regular basis lifetime of a soldier at battle. The sport’s apparent precept inspiration, exterior of Star Wars itself, is Halo. Like that FPS, Republic Commando goes to nice pains to make its titular characters particular boys, a reduce above the strange clones who make up the remainder of the Galactic Republic’s military. But additionally, the commandos cannot rise up to something too earth-shattering or else intrude with the movies their sport ties in with. In sensible phrases, the plot of Star Wars itself wouldn’t change if each one of many commandos died in a ditch. The impact is sort of a little bit of propaganda: You’re the heroes that protect the republic, though essentially, you might be simply extra our bodies to line the longer term Emperor’s checkbook.

The sport is conscious of this dynamic. Though it was launched earlier than Episode III revealed the looming menace of Order 66, the clone troopers had been nonetheless destined to develop into the Empire’s stormtroopers. (Sure, I am conscious the Empire swaps to a extra normal navy recruitment technique in its early days. To this criticism I’ve only one response: Shut up, nerd.) At sport’s finish, the commandos undergo a mindless lack of their sniper, Sev, just for their Jedi commanders to organize them to a brand new place, forcing the squad to depart their teammate behind. This isn’t the lack of some pawn with the identical visage and persona as each one among his brothers. That is a person lack of somebody with a soul of his personal, nevertheless cliched or simplistic.

All of this neatly anticipates Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars present, which grants entire platoons and battalions the identical consideration this sport supplied an elite squad. The sport’s commandos even seem in one episode, however in addition they are predecessors to a lot of The Clone Wars’ unique characters, particularly The Unhealthy Batch, who had been first conceptualized earlier than the sequence’ cancelation on Cartoon Community however re-appeared as a part of the sequence’ revitalization on Disney+ after which on their very own spin-off present. Just like the commandos, the Unhealthy Batch are a squad of specialised personalities outlined by their talent in battle. The Unhealthy Batch should not the primary of such characters to seem in The Clone Wars, however are a small unit, outlined by their relationships to one another, in a means that echoes Republic Commando.

However The Clone Wars’ sense of wartime tragedy is much more heightened. The Battle of Umbara arc follows Anakin Skywalker’s 501st clone battalion after he’s known as away on a particular mission. The overall who replaces him pushes the clones towards mindless losses for a secret agenda. The entire thing is the plight of the clones in miniature. They’re all dying for a trigger they’re incapable of truly selecting, that calls for they flip towards their buddies and comrades with the flick of a change.

The present’s closing run on Disney+ pushes this to its logical conclusion, dramatizing Order 66 itself. Anakin’s apprentice, Ahsoka, watches her buddies activate her and he or she saves her mentor, Captain Rex, however the remainder of the clones accompanying her die within the encounter. This could possibly be the substance of a Metallic Gear Stable backstory, because it explores the identical points: responsibility to your loyalties vs. the substance of your conscience, love on the battlefield or a bullet within the intestine. The plight of the clone is the plight of the idealized, fictional, unreal soldier.

Republic Commando is hardly a critical engagement with these themes, nevertheless it’s all there in uniformed shadows. Its affect is felt throughout the subsequent 20 years of Star Wars, from the generally strict navy fiction of Clone Wars to the guerrilla warfare drama of Andor to Dave Filoni’s partial stewardship of the franchise (although I will consider that Mandalorian film is occurring when I’m within the theater watching it). All these examples share the identical kinds of useless ends. Irrespective of how Republic Commandos dressed itself up in blaster fireplace and Halo-style heroics, all that awaits its heroes is dying. That is as true for them as it’s for Captain Rex as it’s for Andor or Anakin Skywalker.