Some further thoughts on in-universe branding

In an earlier post, I wrote that I like to play a little game whenever a ‘custom Mandalorian’ costumer comes across my feed. The game is called ‘how many mythosaurs will this costume have?, and which pieces of kit will they randomly adorn?’
Unlike the ur-Mandalorian example (Boba Fett) who bore a single small mythosaur on a pauldron, the ‘custom Mando’ crowd seemingly can’t help but slap them everywhere: side of the helmet, on their cape, covering their entire chest armor, on their blaster stocks, on their belt buckle…sometimes all of the above???
What does this have to do with a truck covered in bald eagles and American flags? I’m glad you asked!

As before, we can evaluate this practice via application, and comparison to something more familiar. Let’s say that I hypothetically stick the cultural symbol of my country—a Bald Eagle—on my laptop, phone case, rifle stock, rifle case, water bottle, backpack, and truck bed. What sort of person would I come across as? While among a certain segment of the American population it would just be seen as ‘really damn patriotic!’, to folks outside that culture it would be seen as a mix of tacky and threatening… announcing to everyone I meet that I’m probably an jingoistic, trigger-happy, macho-posturing, ‘Murican’.
_{(This makes me really want to see someone play with this idea and portray an oppressed-but-bootlicking Imperial citizen, who plasters their clothing and landspeeder with Imperial cogs and is nonetheless proud to be a citizen of the Empire because of its xenophobic platform 😉}

Ignoring the fact that they are comparatively rare in official visual sources, why then should in-universe symbols—of Mandalorian culture, Rebel Alliance affinity, or the Jedi Order, etc.—be any different? Just as with my country’s national bird, overuse of these symbols dilutes their significance and reduces them to pieces of flair embraced by those uninterested in authenticity.

Furthermore, we have multiple instances across varying sources where someone is identified as a spacer, Jedi, smuggler, etc. based on their clothes, equipment, posture, speech, or demeanor—but never because the character was conspicuously repping a faction!

Ignoring the precedent of like, 95% of pre-Disney Star Wars character designs being logo-and text-free, if you’re considering a ‘player class’ impression, consider this: in a pure visual-storytelling sense, any ‘faction-based’ (Jedi, Sith, Mandalorian, Rebel, Imperial) character should be able to be identified as such without also having to brand themselves even once (let alone multiple times). This means if someone feels the need to include multiple mythosaurs, or billboard ‘MANDO’ or ‘REBEL’ on their outfit or gear just so people know what kind of character they’re trying to portray…the rest of the outfit isn’t doing its job properly.

As I’ve discussed before, the real purpose served by much of this in-universe ‘factional branding’ is to make sure the viewer (online or in-person) knows what you’re dressed as—it’s the same reason so many ‘Order 66 survivor Jedi’ cosplayers always make sure to pose with a conspicuous lightsaber, even when that would be a suicidal idea in-universe.
However, such personalizers forget that it’s not always advantageous to publicly announce your affiliation with a particular culture or movement…a Galactic ‘Gray Man’ approach is much more survivable. Another application: considering the current political climate, if I went back to my rural Kentucky hometown with a big ol’ ‘ANTIFA’ patch embroidered on my jacket, I would likely get some dirty looks and maybe even roughed up (or worse) by some locals.

TL;DR: When the Empire is doing its best to paint the Rebel Alliance as terrorists, maaaybe having three conspicuous starbirds on your backpack isn’t the best idea?

A question for the hive-mind: aside from pilot helmets, do we see a single Starbird in the entire Original Trilogy? This seems to be because all the Rebel personnel we spend time with are High Command and uniformed, front-line ‘regular’ soldiers of the Alliance military. In comics and other visual media like RPG materials, starbirds show up somewhat more frequently (especially in more recent 20teens sources), but are usually decorating pieces of ‘hard kit’ (typically armor) used by independent Rebel cells. In addition to the visual-storytelling function to announce where a character’s sympathies lie, this may also be a way of helping legitimize their fight with the Empire in hopes that they will be seen as members of the organized Alliance—instead of random, non-uniformed insurgents or ‘unlawful combatants’. If you’re taking up arms against Imperials and you’re not a member of the Alliance Army or Navy, a starbird might be the difference between being summarily executed and being sent to a prison camp. However, if you’re just a Rebel-sympathetic civilian, the symbol only serves to attract unwanted Imperial attention.

What do you think? Let me know your thoughts below, or come discuss with us in the SWLH facebook community!

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