Republic Commando Wasn’t Only A Cult Classic–It Anticipated The Next 20 Years Of Star Wars

Star Wars: Republic Commando is celebrating its 20-year anniversary at present, March 1, 2025. Beneath, we have a look at how its deal with navy fiction was an indication of issues to come back to the Star Wars galaxy .

Whenever you boot up Star Wars: Republic Commando, the very first thing you see is the LucasArts brand, fuzzy like a jammed radio sign. It glints with the audio of muttered orders, of droid communicate. That is an thought taken from the unique Clone Wars cartoons (beginning in 2003), which additionally opens with a distorted broadcast, in that case of blaster hearth and blaring lightsabers. In tandem, these aesthetic prospers characterize 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 timber and sequestered in backwater planets.

Nonetheless, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker usually are not odd 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 identical place to battle as The Lord of the Rings. Epic battles typically take the forefront, and each franchises are undoubtedly involved with battle. However the heroes usually are not boots-on-the-ground infantry and even navy commanders precisely, however kings and prodigal kids. They save the world, whereas rebels and fascists alike die within the filth.

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 minimize above the odd 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 intervene 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 if truth be told, you might be simply extra our bodies to line the longer term Emperor’s checkbook.

The sport is conscious of this dynamic. Regardless that 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 customary 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 go away their teammate behind. This isn’t the lack of some pawn with the identical visage and character as each one in every of his brothers. That is a person lack of somebody with a soul of his personal, nonetheless cliched or simplistic.

All of this neatly anticipates Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars present, which grants complete platoons and battalions the identical consideration this sport offered an elite squad. The sport’s commandos even seem in one episode, however additionally they are predecessors to a lot of The Clone Wars’ unique characters, particularly The Dangerous Batch, who had been first conceptualized earlier than the collection’ cancelation on Cartoon Community however re-appeared as a part of the collection’ revitalization on Disney+ after which on their very own spin-off present. Just like the commandos, the Dangerous Batch are a squad of specialised personalities outlined by their talent in battle. The Dangerous Batch usually are 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 normal who replaces him pushes the clones towards mindless losses for a secret agenda. The complete factor 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 associates and comrades with the flick of a swap.

The present’s closing run on Disney+ pushes this to its logical conclusion, dramatizing Order 66 itself. Anakin’s apprentice, Ahsoka, watches her associates activate her and he or she saves her mentor, Captain Rex, however the remainder of the clones accompanying her die within the encounter. This may very well be the substance of a Steel Gear Strong 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 severe engagement with these themes, but it surely’s all there in uniformed shadows. Its affect is felt throughout the following 20 years of Star Wars, from the typically strict navy fiction of Clone Wars to the guerrilla warfare drama of Andor to Dave Filoni’s partial stewardship of the franchise (although I am going to consider that Mandalorian film is going on when I’m within the theater watching it). All these examples share the identical types of lifeless ends. Regardless of how Republic Commandos dressed itself up in blaster hearth 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.