#arf troopers

[chancellor-tesalicious2]

I feel like we need to appreciate Thire more, so this is for you buddy (other commanders are mentioned bc they have to be)

Thire is 9 at the start of the clone wars and quickly rises the ranks

He is very temperamental but has developed a certain patience that makes him seem calm

He is fact not calm and has a short fuse; he just bottles it up and will make your life a living hell through mild annoyances

Think of a robber who steals your tv remotes batteries, except he steals all the batteries in the house and makes buying any more batteries horrible and trying experience

Many GAR commanders are afraid of him and those that aren’t should be

Of the commanders group he is the ‘angry asshole’

Fox is ‘tired/bitch/rude asshole’, thorn is the ‘nice asshole’, hound is ‘obnoxious asshole’, and stone is ‘quiet/creepy (he stares a lot to convey his displeasure) asshole’

Thire is in charge of Senator escorts, specializing with off world missions. He works closest to Thorn who oversees the senate and the least with Stone (oversees the prison)

He has the most contact with the Jedi and somehow became Yoda’s favorite, getting specific requests for him

He has mixed feelings bc Yoda’s not bad company but he’s used as a sort of chair the whole time?

Since he’s the youngest, the others are very protective of him and this does annoy him but he loves with it

Make no mistake, Thire will easily commit murder

Stones face is all kinds of messed up, he’s missing a cheek on his left side exposing the teeth from a mad Trandosian during a riot turned mass escape attempt (they failed)

He keeps his head shaved because of the patchy growth around scars

He’s got so many scratch marks and chunks missing from things like that

This also applies to the rest of the Prison Guard, they are the most scarred group of corries

The prison has ARC troopers on staff constantly to discourage (they have taken down many a prisoner and use unconvential weapons to do it) riots and escapes

Though they rotate, ARC Trooper Whip is the only ARC who is a permanent fixture

Like his name suggests, he uses whips and is *incredibly* skilled with them, they are also electro whips (he can control whether they use electricity or not)

Hound is very bad with people and is the kind of person who can like perfectly understand animals

Thire has a mean streak and finds scaring newbies and visitors incredibly hilarious

His favorite massif is Runt (an exotic breed that’s twice the size of a normal massif (about 6’ standing on his hind legs)) and twwith the handler Trigger (has a height defect, being 2.5 in smaller than standard)

Both are pretty chill and Runt is especially lazy so they are free to get his victims the most

Runt looks scary as his spines are much longer and sharper, with an extra row of teeth and darker skin

This includes using sleeping ARF and massiffs to do so. He did this by getting his victim to wake up an ARF trooper. However, they often sleep with massifs. Often with their spines toward outside for defense and the person against the wall to watch for enemies. If they smell you first, they will bite your hand. So, Thire watches as deep and angry growl comes from the darkness and the shriek that comes from his victim.

Thire has a problem with the CSF often coming in on MP matters or dumping non MP matters onto them

Once a bomb went off incredibly close to 79s, a hole was put in the wall and several were injured. A Guard Clone duo was blasted through the wall and the medics who had been drinking were pulled away into keeping them alive

CSF shows up and is like ‘not important, blah blah’. Everyone is obvi pissed and eventually Thire arrives to deal with it

He just straight up says ‘you’re impeding an military investigation of a terrorist bombing. Move or you will be arrested and criminal charges will be pressed.’

[alamogirl80]

Boil and the Force…

Too much Force!!

Boil is like catnip for Force butterflies and Waxer thinks it’s adorable. 😂

[cacodaemonia]

1st of all big fan, devoured RC!AU. It's fantastic

2nd of all, I could get lost in your sw resources tag that thing is awesome

3rd Do you have any references for Waxer and Boil's buckets? (Sorry in advance if you've already posted them, and thank u again for all the boxer content 💖)

Aw thanks! <3 I haven't written in the main RCAU for ages, but I'm still plugging away at the Open Skies sub-AU haha 😂

Ah I'm glad that's been helpful! I mostly tag for my own organizational purposes and I know there are some gems in there—especially from @gffa and @fox-trot! My 'sw refs' tag has a lot of overlap, but also includes a lot of image references for fanart or describing things in fics, so that one might be useful, too?

And yeah! I'm not sure if you want Phase I, Phase II, or their ARF helmets, haha, but I know I've got plenty of refs for all of those, so I'll toss them in here...

Boil:

Waxer (The second image shows the back of his Phase I helmet, which is hard to find shots of, in the background behind Boil being awkward 😂 So he had the little droid silhouette on his helmet back then, too):

And some shots of both of their helmets (Waxer is on the far right in the last image—you can see his tally marks):

Their ARF helmets seem to cause a lot of confusion, as I've even seen merch that doesn't show the little Numa painting on Waxer's helmet, and most people seem to mix up who is who in that Landing at Point Rain episode (probably because the writers seem to have done so, as well, since they gave Boil the more cheerful dialogue while having Waxer complain—but maybe he was just having a bad day! 🥺).

There's also the horizontal band of gold paint Boil has under his visor attachment to match the paint on his regular helmets, as well as a grey stripe along the top of the helmet that's lined up with the red triangle on his visor attachment. Waxer has his 'crest' stripe of gold paint, of course, and it continues under his visor attachment a little bit, too. Then he's got his tally marks and snoot triangle. :D

One thing that I only noticed recently is the very faded ship silhouette (or however you interpret the black design on his other helmets) on the left side of his ARF one. In the second-to-last image above, you can just barely see something on his left side, but the only way I knew it was more than just dirt was because I have a little figure with the shape painted on it. Which is also not very visible:

(Thankfully, I don't think I've actually done any images where you can see the left side of Boil's ARF helmet, so I shouldn't have to add that to any of them, haha. Hopefully I haven't mentioned anything about the lack of symbol in any of my fics, though... XD)

I'm still unclear what is going on with the paint on his and Waxer's spaulders in the ARF episode, because it's obviously faded/been scuffed in places, but sometimes, Waxer seems to have an unpainted right spaulder, and sometimes there's a stripe??? His little figurine is the opposite, though, with a striped right spaulder and an unpainted left one. Meanwhile, Boil's left spaulder looks like it could be all painted gold, like in the figure above, but other times, it seems to be a normal stripe??? Who even knows—I'm guessing that the texture for their models got messed up during the production of the episode, so they're inconsistent. Personally, I'm just sticking with 'matching stripes on both sides,' like the rest of their armor. 😂

Anyway, I hope that helps!

[chancellor-tesalicious2]

Coruscant Guard headcanons-ish (mostly focusing on Hound):

There aren’t just massiffs

Coruscant has a lot of smuggling, including animals. Not only that but the Senators give them their pets to take care of (that is not a pet but a wild animal wtf)

But they end up with an assortment of baby animals that CAN be domesticated and do something with them

Quinlan started it when he handed a baby Nexu to Fox and said they were trainable and loyal. Fox passed this on to Hohnd and nugget was a part of the family since

Ever since then they got two more Nexu, both sticking with new shinies under Hounds command

Surprisingly they have one Narglatch, though Blizzard (dubbed by Stone) is rarely used. Often used for chases in the lower levels, able to chase and weave easier through crowds than a speeder (think Horses in police forces)

At one point, some 501st and 212th troopers found what they thought to be a massiff and happily dropped it with the Guard,

It was not a massiff and Hound broke many laws to get it to the Jedi temple and out of his hands fast

See they had found an Albek, a force sensitive creature that looks like a massif but is VERY aggressive and BERY untrainable, last Hound heard was that it was set free and is very happy

Another of the larger creatures that is used far more often than the narglatch is the Varactyl

Somehow a shipment of young had been smuggled onto Coruscant and were taken in by the Guard

Their ability to climb vertical surfaces and calm nature and silliness to listen to their rider made them perfect in the club districts; the tall buildings were close enough to jump between and had many platforms for people to walk and dance

They could weave above crowds and act almost like helicopters when chasing criminals, but we’re able to go into the crowds; only problem is that people had to get out of the way or be trampled

Hound and his infinite luck ran across a hurt Rancor with a shiny one night. Though they could not take the Rancor in, they sent it to the Jedi temple where it receives lots of love and treats from the younglings and troopers who visit

The Rancor serves as a guardian of the wing dedicated to dangerous artifacts and texts, and is watched over by the Temple Guard

AND AND AND

Spark dragons

ARF troopers ride them but due to fear, they are used to guard the prisons. Occasionally, they are lent out to other battalions with their riders

They are dragons native to Kiffu and can easily get their charge from the static electricity created by genorators

They were found as young babies and trained by the ARF

Quinlan was absolutely ecstatic and adores them, they’ve made a special attachment with him but prefer their troopers

On one occasion two were sent out with the Marine Corps, who were afraid as hell. Those troopers had a lovely time and many stores of scaring the ‘hardcore’ troopers

[chancellor-tesalicious2]

Sergeant Hound hcs:

He got his name before Grizzer appeared in his life

He was trained as a scout trooper on Kamino and was the top of the class, setting several records that are still intact

His name was given by the Mandalorian training him because once he was on the trail, he wouldn't lose it similar to a Bloodhound

Though he is seen as the least serious of the Coruscant Guard Commanders and loves to makes jokes, annoying the other commanders, and gossips with Quinlan when he finds the Jedi in a dumpster

He can be very serious and dedicated when the time calls for it

He is a CC and hasn't been promoted because of his behavior, and the fact that he would be much less effective as the head scout

He is often present in meetings and gives his opinions on matters

Nevertheless, his first job is tracking and Massiff Handling/breeding

He also monitors the other animals in his care, though he often leaves those responibilities to the animals handlers

He, similar to Thire and Stone, go off world often to escort senators and to assist other battalions

However, being the best Massiff handler in the whole GAR and the best tracker by himself, he is often taken by different GAR battalions/legions with Grizzer and other handlers to track criminals stuck on a world

Grizzer is a chaser, tracking people on the go and attacking/catching them

She can also do detect certain drugs however this skill is not often used

Massiffs are big and Grizzer is larger than average. When on her four legs, she’s at hip height, when standing she’s about as tall as a clone

She is a very good girl who always listens to Hound, bets are off tho if anyone else tries to handle her (she’s picky)

Tho massiff are classified as one of those dog breeds thats very loving and protective of family but can be dangerous to strangers, think like a Cane Corso or Neapolitan Mastiff

It is not uncommon to see massiff and handlers sleeping together, even less uncommon for them to be roaming their barracks off leash

The ARF troopers have separate barracks close to the kennels so it isn't a stretch for them to sleep with their massiffs

Massiffs get along pretty well with the other animals but prefer to be left alone, especially with the younger animals

During the 'winter' months of Coruscant some of the animals have coats if needed and the Narglatch, Blizzard, gets a cooler kennel during the summer

The Kiffu Spark Dragons (coming from the tropical regions of Kiffu) have to gets lots of water for their scales to keep their flex and strength

All the animals wear harnesses and leashes of some sort but they aren't necessary, they're trained to respond to all commands and are very skilled

The animals don’t entirely like the GAR troopers, since they smell like blaster fire and grime (usually associated with their chases)

It doesn’t help that their handlers scent has unease in it

They tolerate the Marines because their handlers don’t smell of unease while talking and they usually have treats for their handlers

The animals are okay with Jedi, though they don’t like Anakin much

[cacodaemonia]

Hi Caco! Do you think the clones (or a subset of them) would've been trained in something like rock climbing or bouldering? I know there are scenes where clones climb but how hard would their training have gone for something like that? Would ARFs or ARCs (or whoever got those qualifications) have gone deeper into that?

Hey you! :D

Haha, it's funny you should mention that, because I just finished a scene where a couple of ARFs you might be familiar with do some scrambling/not-quite-bouldering. :3

That's such a good question, though! I mean, I guess it would make sense for all clones to know the basics of how to efficiently use your body to climb, how to use ascension cables, repel, etc. But I would think that ARFs, especially, would benefit from being familiar with bouldering. Actual climbing, with ropes and such, requires more equipment than would probably be feasible to carry for long periods, but I suppose ascension cables would solve that issue to a degree? Training to be able to do all that in armor, though - oof, that sounds intense. :|

I dunno about ARCs, though! I mean, what they do seems so vague - basically it's just, 'be really bad ass,' haha. XD But whether it's climbing in nature or climbing a building in enemy territory, I suppose a lot of the same principles apply?

I've tried bouldering and have had friends who are climbers, but I'm not deeply familiar with either, so this is all just speculation, really. Such a great question, though! Did you have any ideas? I love thinking about this stuff. :D

[fox-trot]

Clone Facts

Source: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia (2009)

[posstrophe]

Camouflage ARF--scouts for your enjoyment! They're Clone Trooper OCs Dak and Luka (again, because I can't stop thinking about them in my little possum brain) in an Alternate Universe where they're part of the 41st Ranger Platoon instead of the Guard.