Image Analysis: Clone Wars Playtime

One feature I’ve been wanting to implement here is a series in which I take a close look at individual images, something along the lines of Townsend’s Sifting the Past blog. And here, I think, is the perfect example to start with!

This picture comes from Wizards of the Coast’s Galactic Campaign Guide (2003), p. 113. The book is a great source for our purposes, as it includes (among many other juicy details) an excellent section on species-specific naming conventions, and many similar world-building vignette scenes.

Looking at this image with an anthropologist’s discerning eye, several details leap out at me.
In terms of material culture:
First: this image shows us that, as in our own world, toy vehicles and action figures are known and popular among galactic younglings (corroborated by young Boba Fett’s airspeeder model which I identified and analyzed earlier this year).
Second: perhaps it is because I am more familiar with the later Galactic Civil War period, but it seems that the clothing of these younglings is much more colorful than those of the average adult citizen. The garments are certainly a far cry from this declaration from the making of Episode IV:

“The color scheme basically was the baddies would be black or gray, with the exception of the stormtroopers, and the goodies should be in earth colors—fawns and whites…Mollo tried to keep the colors muted wherever possible. Color is very, very difficult to use. Bright colors don’t work well on film, particularly reds and blues. George always goes for the authentic….and if it’s all garish color, it doesn’t work.” (Brandon Alinger: Star Wars Costumes – the Original Trilogy. (2014) p15.

Third: taken as a whole, one gets an idea of the kinds of design details that contribute to the ‘galactic aesthetic’ and differentiate from everyday Real World garments. We see (clockwise from top left) a decorative hem, kneepads, a keyhole neckline and integral epaulettes, and (in the humans) contrasting sleeves and shoulder, and contrasting collar/sleeve, neckline, shoulder seam, and/or cuffs. Sleeves range in length from full-length and rolled up, ¾, short sleeves above the elbow (comparatively rare in adults), to sleeveless.
Fourth: look at the right elbow of the blonde boy: adhesive bandages are known!

From a cultural standpoint, two things are apparent.
First:–perhaps most troubling considering that this scene takes place in the pre-Imperial era–the segregation between humans and non-humans. One would expect that in this more enlightened period there would be more mixing of species. Notice also that the redhead boy is blowing a raspberry and has just chucked a clonetrooper figure at the pink-clothed Rodian.
Second: there is a nice diversity among both humans (‘racially’, as well as 2 girls and 5 boys) and nonhumans (2 Rodians, 2-3 Duros (I’m assuming they’re not not Neimoidians), a Bothan(??), and an Ithorian.
Third: the non-humans are the ones playing with the CIS toys—the ‘Bad Guys’ of the Clone Wars.

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