Ranma/Star Wars X-Wing cross

[bissek]

The energy absorption trick is fairly rare. There's no evidence that Luke has it. Corran does, but he didn't know the trick existed until Luke looked it up in I, Jedi after Corran pulled it off. Tyria probably does, and has subconsious control over it - before any other around at the time even knew of it (And after Ranma sees Tyria walk out of an incinerator unscorched - during the raid on Saffalore in 'Solo Command'- he WILL want to know how she does it).
It's been proven that the trick works on electricity, heat, fire, and possibly blasters and force energy techniques (Yoda may have used it to block Dooku's force lightning in episode II, Luke believed that Vader used it on blaster fire). Using it on a Moko Takabisha has one problem - everything else used is a natural force, the MT is emotion based, which could cause emotions to leak into the Jedi absorbing it, affecting their mental state, which could alter the course of the battle.
The only anime I know of that explicitly states that the hero can predict moves via chi senses is Rurouni Kenshin, not Ranma (Kenshin couldn't beat Soujiro when the boy's emotion were repressed, but when they started to leak out, Kenshin could block attacks that were coming so fast he couldn't see them), so whether or not Ranma has the trick is up to the author. A Jedi's ability to predict his opponents moves is part precog, part spatial awareness, and part reading intentions straight from their enemies minds. The problem is how well can the Jedi focus on Force senses while fighting. Battle is a major distraction for most people.

[Sauron of Mordor]

I had a long and painfully detailed rant about how Ranma vs Jedi is hardly off topic in this thread, but my computer decided to enforce a modicum of good manners and I lost my post. Thus, I will only make a few short constructive comments.
-Even if not up to Jedi standards, Ranma is superhumanly durable, fast and strong, not to mention highly skilled. Even better, all this is something that can be gained with some effort. The Alliance really should have some interest in this for its special forces and ground combat units.
-Ranma is neither a good teamplayer, nor a good leader or good underling. While not exactly a lone wolf, his personality is going to clash big time with the military mindset.
-At this point, the Alliance is already a large, professional military that doesn't hand starfighters to anyone who asks to join them. If the wish ensures that Ranma ends under the wing of one of the Heroes of Yavin, you can solve this problem without much trouble.
-Isard is a bloody incompetent idiot, but the real threats (Palpatine at Byss and Thrawn) are still out there. If Saotome has enough of an impact, Palpatine might actually develop an interest and, perhaps, send some agent to test the waters. The Sith can always use another powerful servant.

[bissek]

Isard is an intelligence specialist, not a fleet tactician. The problem she had was that after Tycho's trial ended, she was working in an environment where her skills weren't what was needed, and her ego didn't allow her to call in outside experts. Intelligence gathering and dirty tricks won't help you against a warfleet.
Due to Ranma's mindset, the brilliant and devious bunch of screwballs known as Wraith Squadron are probably the only place he'd fit in. I can easily see him getting promoted for some heroic action and then getting demoted a couple weeks later for insubordination (That happened to Falynn Sandskimmer of Wraith Squadron-twice).
According to the first Wraith Squadron novel, if a N.R. soldier captures an enemy vessel for the fleet, that soldier can, with a little paperwork, be given a transfer to the appropriate service branch that vessel would be assigned to and be given a brevet promotion to a rank entitling him/her to command it. If the officer then proves they are capable of commanding that vessel competently in some low-priority missions afterward, that brevet promotion is made permanent and the officer remains in command of the ship (Failure would bring about cancellation of the brevet promotion, loss of command, and possible transfer back to the original branch of service). Piggy had the option of doing this when he captured the Night Caller, but declined. Given this, it wouldn't be too implausible for Ranma to capture a squadron of fighters in a commando raid before they could launch, then transfer to Starfighter Command and be allowed to keep one of them as his personal fighter (Unless he proved himself as a pilot, however, the Republic would NOT pay to replace it if it was destroyed). Given how after the destruction of the Implacable the Wraiths were flying a mix of X-wings, TIE fighters and TIE Interceptors, it wouldn't even need to be captured X-wings (Though Isard apparently had some cached in various places for use in intrusion missions, which the N.R. captured and assigned to Wraith Squadron).
As Ranma in this story isn't a Jedi, Palpatine would probably not consider him worthy of notice. Thrawn, on the other hand, would. At that point in the story the Wraiths (Except Donos and Janson) were all transferred from Starfighter Command to Intelligence, so it would make getting info on Ranma harder, but not impossible. If Thrawn learns of those skills, he'd probably send out a team of Noghri to capture Ranma and bring him in for interrogation (great potential fight there), then copy all his knowledge on fighting and ki into the next batch of cloned stormtroopers.
The problem with that is that I'm not sure if the downloaded skills could be separated from Ranma's personality matrix. If not, then all the imprinted clones would be unlikely to take orders from the Empire. Given that Thrawn never tried grabbing any of the N.R.'s top people to do this, it may not be possible. Thrawn would know better than to try to turn Ranma using physical or chemical coercion, nor would he trust implanted subliminals during the cloning, and it would be very hard for him to figure out what makes Ranma tick, as a person from another reality leaves very little in the way of a background to check, and the only person in any of Antilles' Squadrons that Thrawn knows the art preferences of (His preferred means of psychoanalysis) is Corran Horn (Thrawn, disguised as Jodo Kast, has a discussion with Corran on the works of Venthan Chassu in the short story 'Side Trip' in "Tales from the Empire"), which wouldn't help him understand Ranma. As such, he'd have trouble making Ranma a loyal Imperial.

[Pale Wolf]

Given this, it wouldn't be too implausible for Ranma to capture a squadron of fighters in a commando raid before they could launch, then transfer to Starfighter Command and be allowed to keep one of them as his personal fighter (Unless he proved himself as a pilot, however, the Republic would NOT pay to replace it if it was destroyed).

That's true. Face bought his first few fighters, after all.

(Thrawn, disguised as Jodo Kast, has a discussion with Corran on the works of Venthan Chassu in the short story 'Side Trip' in "Tales from the Empire")

Seriously?! How the hell did I miss that? (Either that or forget)
... Geez, maybe I shouldn't read that when I'm twelve...

[Light02]

hadn't thought of that way but what would Ranma do with a stolen TIE fighter those are as bout as usless as paper at times though if got his hands on a TIE Defender the Star Fighter Comand would be drooling at that prospect, though personally I want Ranma to stick with X-Wings though ironically with Ranma in there either Wes or Wedge will have to do the comand business and not fly but with Lara Nostal the Wraiths have flown with 13 fighters so it can go either way.
Edit: I need to make note to check out tales of the empire I have the one from Jabba's palace and Mos Eisley's Cantina.

[Pale Wolf]

hadn't thought of that way but what would Ranma do with a stolen TIE fighter those are as bout as usless as paper at times

Eh, if you're a good enough pilot you're just fine with those things. The Empire's problem is that they toss out half-trained conscripts in disposable fighters - if they put some effort into their training period, they could've created a dozen Fels. They put quantity over quality.

though if got his hands on a TIE Defender the Star Fighter Comand would be drooling at that prospect,

Did SFC even know that the Defender existed at that point? I remember Wedge's boys as getting rather boggled by the Defenders when they first saw 'em in Isard's Revenge.

though personally I want Ranma to stick with X-Wings though ironically with Ranma in there either Wes or Wedge will have to do the comand business and not fly but with Lara Nostal the Wraiths have flown with 13 fighters so it can go either way.

It'd be best if you could twitch the numbers around - after all, who's better for lucky number 13 than the Imperial agent? If he went in as a combat replacement for Jesmin or someone, Wedge and Janson wouldn't have to get relegated to a desk, but then you'd lose out on the chance to keep him from the start. Depends on what you're willing to sacrifice.

[Light02]

Did SFC even know that the Defender existed at that point? I remember Wedge's boys as getting rather boggled by the Defenders when they first saw 'em in Isard's Revenge.

no Star Fighter Comand didn't know about the Defender, but acording to the back ground on the fighter it started production near the Battle of Endor so there is bound to be more than just at that one base in Isard's Revenge

It'd be best if you could twitch the numbers around - after all, who's better for lucky number 13 than the Imperial agent? If he went in as a combat replacement for Jesmin or someone, Wedge and Janson wouldn't have to get relegated to a desk, but then you'd lose out on the chance to keep him from the start. Depends on what you're willing to sacrifice.

True hadn't thought of it that way, meaning he'd be droped in on the relentless mention sometime after the Blood Nest debocal.

[bissek]

According to WookiePedia, the TIE Defender existed as an experimental model at the time of Endor. By the time of Thrawn they were just getting into mass production. A part of the reason for their slow production rate might be that the Admiral in charge of their development attempted a coup and was thoroughly stomped by Thrawn (possibly wrecking the production infrastructure and some of the design plans in the process).
A more plausible fighter might be the TIE Avenger, the predecessor of the TIE Defender, which was never built in large numbers because the Navy decided that Interceptors had similar speed and handling characteristics, and were cheaper (Even though the Defender's light shields - weaker than an Avenger's - and concussion missle launchers made it more dangerous, plus it had a hyperdrive). Starfighter Command would likely not have known about those either, as not very many were produced. One problem with that idea is that putting ONE fighter that uses concussion missles in a squadron where everything else uses proton torpedos causes a logistical mess, unless some tech decides to swap out the launchers.
See http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE/ad_starfighter for more information.
While a squadron is supposed to have twelve pilots, as Corran once put it "A squadron is a rounding error for bookkeepers". Gara Petothel/Chyan Mezzine/Lara Notsil/Kirney Slane/possibly other AKAs as well was brought into the Wraiths to increase the number of fighters in the squadron, even though they had a full squadron's worth of pilots.
Oh, and Wolf, while it's likely that Thrawn knew that the CorSec officer he had a discussion of art with before they dismantled Zekka Thyne's Black Sun cell on Corellia later became an officer with Rogue Squadron, it is known that Corran didn't know that the bounty hunter claiming to be 'Jodo Kast' has actually Thrawn until long after Thrawn was dead, if ever.

[Pale Wolf]

Oh, and Wolf, while it's likely that Thrawn knew that the CorSec officer he had a discussion of art with before they dismantled Zekka Thyne's Black Sun cell on Corellia later became an officer with Rogue Squadron, it is known that Corran didn't know that the bounty hunter claiming to be 'Jodo Kast' has actually Thrawn until long after Thrawn was dead, if ever.

That puts his 'I'd like to meet him, shake his hand' comment in IR in a whole new light
So how the heck does the reader know?

[bissek]

In Side Trip, parts one and four, 'Jodo Kast' removes his helmet in the presense of Imperial Captain Nimitz and reveals himself to be Thrawn (The story claims he was already a Grand Admiral, other materials suggest he should only have been a Vice Admiral at that time). The only person other than Thrawn and Nimitz who knew that the bounty hunter who subtly set Black Sun Corellia up for destruction wasn't really Jodo Kast was Darth Vader - who comissioned the job in exchange for the services of the Noghri.
One possible problem with Ranma as infiltrator - while the curse grants him a second identity, he can't reliable control when he changes identities, which could cause strange incidents.
If Thrawn cloned Ranma, would the copies have the curse? Or would you need a second tissue sample to clone Ranko?

[Pale Wolf]

In Side Trip, parts one and four, 'Jodo Kast' removes his helmet in the presense of Imperial Captain Nimitz and reveals himself to be Thrawn

... Clearly I forgot that

If Thrawn cloned Ranma, would the copies have the curse? Or would you need a second tissue sample to clone Ranko?

Depends. What does the cloning equipment copy, and is the curse embedded within the material copied? Ie if it's in the DNA, even the most restrictive vision of the cloning gear will get it. Largely up to the author, I'd say. Although the fact that clones can maintain Force ability sure suggests that the curse would stay as well.

[Mitchell]

Remember in the prequel trilogy that force ability is caused by tiny, sybiots living in the cells of the force-strong individual. Therefore a proper cloning with good equipment would get the force. However we have no proof that the Curse is actually in his dna or cells.