First thoughts on ‘The High Republic’

While I try to avoid association with the post-Disney canon, I feel like the recent announcement of the-project-formerly-known-as-Luminous could prove very intriguing, and I wanted to share my observations and initial thoughts as they relate to our pursuit of the ‘costume arts’ and authentic reenacting in the Star Wars setting. As has been mentioned by many, the idea of a multimedia publishing campaign is nothing new for Star Wars; it’s somewhat reminiscent of the ‘movie without a movie’ approach of the Shadows of the Empire project in the mid-Nineties (games, a comic miniseries, toys, novel, soundtrack). But while SotE filled in the gap between 3-4ABY, the High Republic has a much bigger sandbox to play in…

Pro: the 200s BBY setting is a ‘blank space’ that thus far hasn’t really been dealt with at all, and could use some fleshing out. As a result, there’s very little from the EU that this material would conflict with…we know The Jedi Path would’ve been in circulation at the time, but the Stark Hyperspace War is about the earliest event of the Prequel era, and it doesn’t come in until 44 BBY!

Con: from what we’ve seen, the High Republic project seems almost entirely Jedi-focused. While it will be interesting to see the differences between the Prequel-era Jedi and Jedi in their heyday, in the interest of ‘keeping it common’, I feel like we’re pretty well saturated with galactic elites. Let’s see a story about a farmer caught up in a local sector conflict with pirates or something!
Speaking of farmers, I did really like the looks of this earthy-looking civilian seen in the trailer:
Pro: the announcement video also says “But SW isn’t just about Jedi, and we will tell stories…” Go on!
Con: “…of new smugglers, new scoundrels, new bounty hunters.” Oh. 😦 Like, I know these are the ‘player classes’ that the casual audience think of when they hear ‘Star Wars’, but that field is not going to expand unless someone gets the ball rolling first!

Pro: I like the idea of ‘Arthurian’ Jedi!
Pro: Outfits are subtly different from what we’ve seen before. Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of armored elements in addition to ‘Arthurian’ garb, and these pieces seem fairly subdued, instead of white plastoid clone armor most people now think of when they hear ‘armored Jedi’. At least it’s not as ostentatious as some fan-crafted leather armor I’ve seen:

Pros: this project should give a much larger sample from which to extrapolate a general style and motif elements. I’ve already noticed several of their outfits utilize a Republic crest symbol; it will be interesting to see what methods costumers use to accomplish such details.
A few other observations on outfits, and how the HR ‘look’ diverges from the more familiar Prequel aesthetic:
-thankfully the two-piece Prequel belt is gone, and instead we have simpler belts with plate buckles, more similar to the Classic Trilogy style
-The majority of Jedi forego the obi sash and wear a belt only.
-Lots of sleeveless outer tunics and surcoat-type garments, which tend to be knee-length or longer.
-the big, brown, hooded ‘bathrobe’ seems rare, opting instead for a Bocksten-style cloak closed at the throat, which leaves the arms better unencumbered for swordplay.
-for costuming purposes, it’s worth underlining the color scheme. Of the 34 Jedi I count here, all are clothed in natural colors; the central blonde female’s tunic appears to be the biggest outlier, and it’s only a very light gray, possibly with just a hint of blue-green:

Con: Similar to the post-The Mandalorian bump, I foresee every Jedi cosplay for the next little while will be going for a High Republic style. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I hope that folks take their time and please do their research at least! Anyone can put together a “Custom Generic Jedi”, but now that we have multiple eras of Jedi to interpret, portraying a “High Republic Jedi” will require sticking to this era’s unique aesthetic (the importance of basing one’s impression at a definite point in time will be a topic for a future discussion).

Pro: If Jedi are going to be overrepresented in public, at least it’s from a period where they are presumably more numerous in the Galaxy than at other documented periods (their ranks numbered approximately 10,000 at the beginning of the Prequel era (Ep1 Visual Dictionary).
Double pro: at least we won’t have have to deal with constant straining-of-believability Order 66 survivors! 😉

Are you looking forward to the High Republic project? Are there any observations I didn’t mention? Leave a comment below, or join the conversation on the SWLH Facebook group!