TK and its meaning.

[BigSlimJimmy]

"TK-421 why aren't you at your post? TK-421, do you copy?"

 

A phrase last uttered to one of the first MIA Stormtroopers in the Galactic Civil War. To this day every Stormtrooper wears the title "TK" with pride, but what does the acronym "TK" truly mean? The other various tags in the 501st Legion have reasonable meanings assuming that the "T" stands for trooper you have TD for Trooper Desert; SL for Sith Lord and so on. But what does the K in "TK" stand for? I am new here and want to know what the FISD's possible meaning for K is. I think it should be "Krieger" from the German word for "Warrior.

 

Thanks,

Jimmy

[Storm_Knight1[TK]]

Excellent question Jimmy. I'm pretty curious to hear others' thoughts on this myself. I've heard that it doesn't have a real meaning or designation, but could be wrong. For what it's worth, I always thought it would be cool if "TK" stood for Trooper Knight, but that's just a personal wish/preference, no more. Anybody have any historical info about the designation?

[SCTrooper[TK]]

Teras Kasi

[TD-4395[501st]]

I read somewhere that the "K" could stand for the german version of corps "korps"

so it would read trooper korps

not sure if its offical or not but would make since to me

[Locitus[Admin]]

There are several threads (or well, I know of at least 1 more) about this.

 

It's also known that "Teras Kasi" is a Extended Universe martial art. So it can't be why they are called TK in a movie made some 25 years earlier than EU has existed.

 

Simply put there are no proof what it means. Everything is either speculation of invented afterwards to give something a meaning where there is none.

 

I'm personally inclined to think of "Trooper Korps" as dante says. It's widely known that a lot of SW was inspired by WW2 Germany. And "Trooper Korps" is German.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Locitus

[BigSlimJimmy]

Teras Kasi is actually a Expanded Universe Martial art apparently. I though Krieger would be appropriate because the original Empire in ANH was loosely based off of the Nazi-German Regime. Just a thought . I suppose Teras Kasi is the accepted meaning though. korps is actually a good Meaning too

Edited February 15, 2012 by BigSlimJimmy

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

it has been established that the term is indeed Trooper Korps.

[BigSlimJimmy]

Trooper Korps it is!

[Darth Hilarious]

Although it's been established since, there might be no real reason Uncle George chose those letters. After all, why R2? Why 3PO? Why THX-1138? Hell, why OB-1? (hehe)

 

If you play the Battlefront games, all troops have names made of two random letters and random numbers (QJ-384, UE-709, whatevs). They also gave Clones a similar thing (with Greek letters instead, ie Alpha-479).

 

It may have never been intended to be a desigantion at all, but actually that trooper's ID, or even his name.

 

Who knows, it's all buried in mystery and retcons...

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

battlefront is not really following the naming convention for tk's so I'd consider it a flaw in the game design, much like 1/2 of a thermal detonator.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Alas, it's one of the many things that had no meaning when he wrote the script, but people always try to add meaning to post-fact. Heck, Luke & Leia weren't intended to be siblings when he wrote ANH either.

 

I mean, there were over 1000 TK's, so it's not like TK-xxx could cover all of them. Since it's all for fun - you're just as free to make up your own interpretation.

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

so true!

[BigSlimJimmy]

I agree. The thermal dets in BF2 were not 501st/TK dets. They were ROTJ dets. (Way to go Lucas fArts). Trooper Korps fits the best to me, though!

[BigSlimJimmy]

I agree. The thermal dets in BF2 were not 501st/TK dets. They were ROTJ dets. (Way to go Lucas fArts). Trooper Korps fits the best to me, though!

[bjsavage7[TK]]

Since the written language of the Empire is Aurebesh, It's really not clear that their K is the same as a K in the English language. Numbers seem to be the same, but letters? It could be anything. I always thought that TK could just be a certain batch of troopers, or a certain kind of small group, maybe pertaining to the perticular battalion that trooper is in.

There would have to possibly be at least several hundred millions of stormtroopers by ANH, so just TK and 4 numbers after that couldn't possibly name them all. Maybe it's like the last 4 of a social. Trooper Korps IS pretty cool though.

[BigSlimJimmy]

Trooper Korps sounds the best!

[BactaReality]

So where was this "established" exactly?

[BigSlimJimmy]

Right here if you want!

[Griffin-X[TK]]

I had the pleasure of re-watching the "Star Wars Holiday Special" recently. There's a scene where a TK onsite at Chewbacca's home is trashing his son Lumpy's room. He and Han get into a tussle and he bites the dust and falls off a tree. Well, he gets a call from CMD but is missing. The officer is looking for a "B-4711..." rather than "TK-4711". Remember, this was filmed right after ANH, before ESB. Thought it was interesting...it's @ 1:42:00...

 

 

I like Trooper Korps...but always thought of it as "Trooper Killers".

Edited February 15, 2012 by Griffin-X

[lmr]

And here I was thinking it meant "Totally Kool"

[BigSlimJimmy]

Haha I like it.

[john danter]

I'm sure I read somewhere it doesn't stand for anything

It just sounded good.....?

[BigSlimJimmy]

Might as well put a meaning behind it haha. Trooper Korps seems to fit best though

[Griffin-X[TK]]

I like Trooper Korps...very cool.

[PGHtrooper21]

R2 D2 meaning is "Reel 2, Dialog 2" I read somewhere that George was cutting a movie with someone and asked for "R2 D2...Reel 2 Dialog 2". and George liked the name and wrote it down and the rest was history.

 

Andy