Doing right by (fictional) History

In historic reenacting circles online, rarely do I see anyone say, ‘Thinking about starting on a Fallschirmjager kit. Show me some FJ impressions for inspiration!’. The best and most authentic ‘inspo’ is not other reenactors’ kits, it’s the primary sources themselves!: wartime photography or film, military manuals, soldiers’ diaries, etc.
Reenacting/living history in the Star Wars setting is no different – if you want to build an authentic impression of x, you don’t look for what others have done (that’s how reenactorisms get spread), you look at the media where that impression comes from – the film, TV, book, video game, or comic book.

If one takes a quick scroll-through of facebook’s largest general reenacting group, Living History~ show your impressions (currently 19,000+ members), a pattern quickly emerges:
“Roman auxiliary, Teutoberg, Germania, Autumn 9 CE”
“Loyalist rat catcher, Philadelphia summer of 1781”
“Confederate widow in mourning, Richmond Virginia, early 1865”
“LIFE Magazine photographer attached to C Troop, 82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Armored Division in Autumn 1944.”
“Cpl Bradshaw, Automatic Rifleman of Dog Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, Pusan, Republic of Korea, August 3rd, 1950”

Even if it’s just a posed picture in the backyard or bedroom, the really quality impressions—the ones where you can tell people have done their research—are all titled pretty similarly.
(We can consider our last example a ‘persona’ more than an ‘impression’ as the reenactor went beyond simply assembling a kit, and has given a name to the impression, synthesizing a historical individual.)
While several of these are military impressions, I hope you notice the specificity reflected in each: every one of these reenactors has focused their research on a specific time and place (plus a specific unit for the military impressions). Once these have been identified, research becomes focused and is able to proceed quickly and productively.
Without the guardrails of time and place to keep you on-track and focused, historic reenacting can very quickly become historic costuming, which can just as quickly become SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) at best, or casual ‘closet cosplay’ at worst.
If the GFFA is to be seen as a legitimate setting for rigorous, believable, research-based reenacting, I believe we cannot afford such sloppiness.

Now, if we take another scroll-through, this time of facebook’s main Star Wars cosplay group (comparable size to the LH group above), you’d be lucky to count on one hand the users who include a date or place when showing off their finished outfits. As I’ve discussed in a previous post, non-elite impressions in the group are like searching for a quark in a mole of deuterium, but every now and then one will pop up. However…what’s more intriguing?:
“hey what do u guys think check out my custom clone armor” or…
“This is my impression of Corporal CT-3827 of Bacta Company 2nd Platoon, Hawkbat Battalion, 327th Star Corps. Felucia, 19 BBY. Constructive feedback welcome!”
Now, that might sound a little over the top, but in historic reenacting circles that would simply be Best Practices. If it seems ‘extra’ in the setting of Star Wars costuming, it’s only because nobody has risen to the challenge yet.

I also don’t believe clonetrooper impressions should be an excuse to paint up said white armor in the name of ‘creativity’…there are plenty of existing units with their own unique paint schemes – just do a little research and pick one whose operational history interests you…or at the very least that has colors you like.
The idea of a reenactor having to create an ‘original regiment’ (as many clonetrooper costumers I’ve seen do) would be egregious in a historic reenacting setting. If Timmy McFarberson (probably wearing M1943 fatigues and field gear, but wearing a neon green Vietnam-era M1 helmet and carrying a captured MG34) walked up to the 82^nd Airborne encampment at an event and says, ‘check it out bro this is my custom trooper from Battalion 420’, he’d be laughed out of town. Why then should the GFFA be any different? Treating a fictional setting as worthy of respect and doing it justice is what Star Wars living history is all about.

Even though we know it was (in the macro view) ultimately a giant Sith plot to destroy the Jedi Order, the Clone War as experienced by the soldiers of the GAR can still be worthy of respect, and if you want to properly honor those brothers-in-arms who fought and died, then treat it as you would any other historical conflict—with humility and respect—not just an opportunity to play dress-up in white armor.

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