Statutes & organization: Statutes

Although described as a paramilitary organization, the exact nature of the Antarian Rangers organization is difficult to grasp precisely.

In order to assess its nature, catchall terms such as “group”, “organization” or “member” have been discarded from the analysis as those are too generic to inform on the legal status of the Antarian Rangers.

Traviss depicts the Antarian Rangers as one of the Sector Rangers groups, and jumbles them in a broad category including “all sorts of Sector Rangers”; she goes as far as lending them the Sector Ranger motto: what others abandon we protect. In her view, they are “ordinary law enforcement officers”, “civvie cops”, or simply “cops”. This depiction of Antarian Rangers as operating on behalf of a public authority is made worse in The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide which uses the term “soldier” – whose etymology relates to taxpayers’ money (unlike “warrior”). The soldier is the employ of a legitimate government that pays its wage.

Yet, Hero’s Guide mentions that Kaskutal “[created] an organization” therefore giving the Antarian Rangers organization a private status, regardless of it being a business, a non-governmental organization or a religious association. In light of this private sector status, Antarian Rangers are, by definition, civilians. So, how could opposing sources be reconciled?

Listing all the relevant information enables the formulation of a tentative explanation:

Privately owned company;
Counted among the Sector Rangers;
Using a wide array of weaponry (light armament to explosive);
For a wide spectrum of missions from law-enforcement (bounties) to military (covert ops / battles);
With, at times, government backing (soldier, cop);
Lacking a specific uniform;
With a military-like hierarchy and discipline;

Where, the Antarian Rangers Organization would most likely be a private military company with a public mandate from the Judicial branch (to which the Jedi Order technically belongs and given their status as Sector Rangers) to operate as a law-enforcement organization insofar as its actions are in accordance to the Jedi’s missions and during times of crisis to operate within the Republic military chain of command (in order to support the Jedi on the battlefield). This interpretation would thus provide the necessary legal covers if Antarian Rangers use their weapons or violate private property when assisting Jedi.

Although convoluted, this hypothesis could also provide an explanation to the existing “branches”, “divisions” and “local chapter houses” of the Antarian Rangers. Assuming that they face similar limitations than Sector Rangers – whose employ is spatially restricted to a specific sector, Antarian Rangers may have had to create “branches” in order to operate beyond certain sectors.

Sources: Hero’s Guide (p.76), The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide, Imperial Commando 501st (p.68, 87, 379)