Galactic Style Guide – the Post-Disney era (part 1)

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, the series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’!
And now, for something completely different. If you’ve been following this site, you may have noticed that the majority of my references come from live-action sources of the Lucas era. However, as we inexorably continue further from the boundary between that period and the current one, it becomes clear that not only did this modern era come with a new continuity, but a noticeable shift in visual aesthetics as well, and I want to explore elements of this shift as they relate to our pursuits here (recreating the Star Wars galaxy in ‘reenacting’ form!). In this post (and at least one more!), we’re looking specifically at some elements which I (coming from a relatively outside perspective) have identified as either clear deviations from what existed before, or which originate firmly in the post-Disney era. You’ll see what I mean.
I’m not doing this ‘countdown’ style, but when it comes to something we got along without perfectly fine and was unequivocally not present in the pre-Disney days, #1 at the top of the list has to be the presence of the tempering rainbow on the muzzles, emitters, or tips of blasters, lightsabers, or tools:

The way I’ve always understood them, lightsaber blades don’t produce heat, so there’s little reason for their emitters to look like this. And speaking as someone with a background in blacksmithing, a rainbow effect this clear isn’t a simple sign of use – it’s a sign of abuse. I often see Mandalorian costumers include this effect on their blasters while simultaneously claiming that ‘weapons are part of their religion’, which doesn’t seem to jive…if you let your weapons get to this point, you’re not treating them well at all! Your average properly-maintained blaster pistol might get hot after use, but it probably shouldn’t be experiencing the kinds of prolonged applied high temperatures that produce the tempering rainbow effect; a rapid-fire heavy repeater, on the other hand….maybe?

The funniest thing to me is that the rainbow seems to be present on items from a variety of character demographics in the modern titles, and I have a hard time believing that really high-status individuals like ‘Orson Krennic’ have ever fired their blasters enough times to have built up a solid ‘heat burn’ effect.  As this rainbow is a result of overheating, if there’s one character class for whom this look would seem visually appropriate, however, it’d have to be the seedy underworld of bandits, thugs, and general riff-raff (more on them later!).

#2: Next up, another recent trend I’ve noticed is that of characters with pint-sized helpful sidekicks (often riding around on their shoulder):

The only pre-Disney example I could think of was Z-58-0 (Zeeo), the droid from 2006’s Lethal Alliance (a game that’s been practically forgotten), who merely hovered near the player when not helping out. Are there any other EU examples I’ve overlooked?

#3: Another key divergence from the aesthetics of the Lucas era is something of a redesign of the Twi’lek species, making males and females appear much more similar. The first post-Disney Twi’lek we saw spotlighted was ‘Hera Syndulla’, whose chunky, shoulder-width lekku in the stylized animation style of Rebels appear to have laid the groundwork for most of those (both females and males) that followed in live-action. We can compare the size and shape of her lekku to those of the OG Oola and some examples from the Prequels to see the difference:

And since we’re on the subject…while I believe they originated in the 3D Clone Wars series, Twi’leks of both sexes commonly wearing ‘underwear’-style headdresses is one design choice the modern era has really doubled down on. As the sequels apparently refused to include any ‘legacy’ aliens, Twi’leks only show up in the streaming shows, which seem to have the budget for large prosthetic lekku…but not the budget to apply them without resorting to lekku underwear; it’s odd enough to see male Twi’leks wearing headdresses at all, let alone this style (in the Lucas era, headdresses were worn by females only and were always simple ‘headband’-style).
From the stills I’ve seen, the lekku of Jessica Beals’ character in Book of Boba Fett are much closer to the Lucas-era style, at least in portrait orientation. In profile, they’re still a little funny. But on the bright side, it’s great to see the modern era embracing the original concept of female Twi’leks having actual ears instead of cones!

#4: Another introduction I’ve noticed: in the Lucas era, when technology showed up on clothing (if it was present at all), the devices were always rectangular. However, in the modern era we’ve started to see circular clothing-hardware appear (are there others I’ve missed?):

The lower left example comes from a Galaxy’s Edge VR game apparently popular with the Batuu crowd, and if you look closely you’ll see that it features three of these round greebs, a visible Zipper, And some factional (corporate?) branding. Needless to say, I’m a big fan. /s
Ms. Outlaws‘ jacket greeb, while similar sized to others here, is puzzling…I simply can’t imagine what it’s for. It looks more like a pressure seal or vent or something (and nothing like a communication device or transponder as has been theorized most clothing greebs are), but this is the kind of hardware we would expect to see on a pilot or spacer’s spacesuit, not an scruffy outlaw’s leather jacket; it doesn’t fit the character, and the garment would look 100% better simply omitting the device. Alas, in the era of 3D printers and creator-consumer fluidity (more on that in a future post, perhaps), it seems every character is obligated to include details such as these.

#5: As illustrated by the typical aesthetics of popular spring-powered foam-dart guns, the best way to make something weapon-shaped instantly look less threatening is to make it colorful, and this, sadly, is precisely what we see on blasters starting in the post-Disney era.

The ‘First Order’ stormtrooper blasters have pretty much the highest-contrast color scheme one can do, which just makes them look like modern Nerf guns….I just can’t take them seriously – this is doubly true at the Disney parks, where the cast troopers are constantly ‘patrolling’ with their blasters pointed nonthreateningly straight in the air! The final sequel apparently has them come in these extra-plastic-y looking black and red varieties as well– because *eViL* (The lack of wear & tear really doesn’t help).

Whew! I think that’s enough for now but I have plenty more to unpack, so we hope you’ll stick around as we continue parsing out these stylistic changes. Anyone want to take bets on what will come up in our next entry? Let me know your predictions in a comment below, and find out next time!

Have you noticed any other changes to the galactic style introduced in the last decade’s titles? Come discuss with us at the SWLH facebook group. Thanks for reading!

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