Re: Genetic Infantry Names

HiEx · 12 August, 2002, 10:20:14 AM

Here's a question for the Rogue Trooper experts.

Were Gunner, Bagman & Helm, actually called Gunner, Bagman and Helm before they died in the Quartz massacre? Is so, why?

I can sorta understand Gunner's name as soldiers do get attached to their guns and Gunner is an obvious nickname for a crack marksman.

But what about Bagman, was he especially attached to his backpack or what?

And Helm.....erm....did he stay up late at nights polishing his helmet? Hmm....perhaps we shouldn't go there after all.

But seriously, it's a long time since I read original RT and my back progs are long consigned to the dustbin of history.

HiEx

DavidXBrunt · 12 August, 2002, 10:44:42 AM

It's just lucky for them that their names inspired Rogue to put their bio-chips in the relevant equipment.

He spent hours going through the corpses looking for troopers with cool names, rejecting all common place names that weren't easy to think of places their bio-chips could go, people such as Private Jones, Trooper Bloggs, and General Prince Albert.

Wood · 12 August, 2002, 02:31:10 PM

Gosh.

And there was me thinking that Gerry Finlay-Day had just come up with really hokey and daft names for them.

Art · 12 August, 2002, 04:20:18 PM

Your forgeting the unnamed GI who went to the effort of putting Major Magnum into a pistol...

JimBob · 12 August, 2002, 04:38:39 PM

Corporal Colostomy prayed every night that no one would save his biochip when the Norts finally got him.

Oddboy · 12 August, 2002, 05:28:24 PM

They got their names back on Milli-com when they were training & growing. The 'gene-genies' (clone doctors) named each clone with a letter. Each trooper wore a vest top with their letter & their year printed on it (ie when Gunnar was twelve, his vest read "G12"). The troopers named themselves/each other as & when nicknames became appropriate: Helm was (IIRC) a bit of a brainbox, Gunnar a top marksman etc. Rogue a bit of a loner (even though he was best friends with B, G & H). There was a hideous ammount of coincedences in RT stories.

Anyway: Are the new stories set before or after Gunnar got his telekenetic powers? I hope 'before' because I thought that was bloody daft.

Oddboy · 12 August, 2002, 05:29:54 PM

Just one more thing...

Why did Rogue never realise that EVERY SINGLE PERSON he EVER met on Nu Earth would betray him within the hour?

Art · 12 August, 2002, 05:40:02 PM

Anyway: Are the new stories set before or after Gunnar got his telekenetic powers? I hope 'before' because I thought that was bloody daft.

No, no, he aims using recoil... everyone knows that.

Presumable hitting Norty on the 3rd or 4th shot is worth using the first couple of shots to get him lined up...

Next question: Why does Gunnar have recoil if he's firing "Las-bolts"? Presumably these consit entirely of photons and have very little actual mass.

Oddboy · 12 August, 2002, 06:04:52 PM

No no... When Gunnar was re-gened he was given tk powers... & he kept these after he died again & was put back in his gun.
It meant Rogue's gun could fly into his hand from wherever he'd left it.

Trout · 12 August, 2002, 07:01:10 PM

"Why does Gunnar have recoil if he's firing "Las-bolts"? Presumably these consit entirely of photons and have very little actual mass."

Arthur, you're clearly thing about this far too much.

But I wonder why Bagman got his name? Maybe he was a bit camp?

- Trout

Art · 12 August, 2002, 07:03:25 PM

But he could aim and shoot oon his own BEFORE he was regened. Recoil aiming, i'm telling you...

Trout · 12 August, 2002, 07:12:18 PM

Yeah, I remember the recoil aiming. He took out a whole line of Norts with it at least once.

It's a fair point, though. Eventually, Gunnar was able to move about (at least for aiming) on little robot legs. He seems to have evolved a little.

Maybe the new RT strip will clear up points like that.

- Trout

W. R. Logan · 12 August, 2002, 08:04:20 PM

Although I always thought it was a major coincidence that Rogues Bio-Chips were fitted nicely into the equipment that they seemed to be named after I always tried to explain it away by imagining that the GI's were put into four man sections during training. We have an unknown number of GI's but if they were put into sections it could explain the way they were named.

In the nu-earth flashbacks we find out that Rogue, Helm, Bagman & Gunnar were 'friends' during their training years so it wouldn't be hard to imagine that the friendship came about by them being put together as a four man section. Rogue as the section leader, Helm as the intelligence/radio operator, Bagman as stores/acquisitions/equipment specialist, Gunnar as weapons expert. You would then have an unspecified number of sections that would come together under an officer, Like Major Magnum.

Well that?s how I always explained it to myself, and have probably given the topic way to much thought 8-)

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/index.php3?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=rogue" target="_blank">Rogue Trooper

http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/gallery/war.jpg">

Art · 12 August, 2002, 08:14:58 PM

I still maintain that Helm is just a fancy talking hat with sensors no better than Bagmans or Gunnars. All this nonsense about extra sensors and communications gear is just revisionism: In the original GFD version whenever rogue needed some kind of strategic information Bagman would dispense it to him as a digimap, where as Helm spent a lot of time asking Rogue what was going on.

Wake · 12 August, 2002, 08:17:22 PM

That was the (one) good thing about Friday. His bio-chip buddies had reasonable nicknames: Eightball, Top and Lucky.

I don't think I ever bothered to think of a rationale why Rogue's chips had such convenient names. It just wasn't that important to my enjoyment of the strip.

Wake