Content – Page 3 – Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy

Hidden Gems: G. Palmer

Over the years, I’ve seen easily thousands of Star Wars costumers come across my various feeds. While there are plenty of folks with screen-accurate face character outfits in the Legions, the ‘OC’ section of the community can be a little more…hit-or-miss. In this recurring feature, I’ll be sharing my interviews with several stand-out examples of the foundation of what we aspire to do here – accurately portraying the common galactic citizen. I hope that these individuals can help illustrate what Star Wars ‘reenacting’—or at the very least, high-quality in-universe costuming—looks like, and provide some insights into their methods of character creation.

In our first entry, we’re spotlighting G. Palmer, who has put together a first-rate impression of a common droid mechanic:

SWLH: What was your initial inspiration for this character design?
GP: I was inspired by the kinds of background characters that are seen for a few seconds and then disappear around a corner or through a doorway.

Interview continues in-depth within

What’s the deal with Tatooine currency?

In Episode I, Anakin Skywalker wins the Boonta Eve Classic podrace, which we’ve discussed before. Following the race, he and Qui-Gon sell his podracer, go home to mom, and Ani exclaims, “look at all the money we have!” Here’s the thing – the money Anakin hands her appears to be a stack of Republic credits.

On his way out of town (in a deleted scene), he also gives his old friend Jira her own stack of Republic credits:

We all remember Republic credits, right?

Attention! Your input is needed!

Hello there, folks! We don’t have a regular post for you this week, but believe me that next week will more than make up for it (a triple-header, in fact)!

As I was reflecting recently, I’ve been a maker of Star Wars clothing, costumes, props, and gear for over 20 years! After building and growing my skills for so long, I’ve been thinking it might be time to try and turn my hobby into a small business. So…

To help identify my market and see what potential products people might be interested in, I’ve created a short, anonymous survey, which you can find HERE. Your participation will be greatly appreciated – thank you!

Han Solo’s magic shirt

I’ve never seen this mentioned before, but I don’t know how nobody’s ever noticed this gaffe.

When he’s put into carbon-freeze, Han Solo is wearing the same double-breasted shirt he’s been wearing for the entirety of Episode V.

When he’s unfrozen a year later in Episode VI, he’s still wearing the double-breasted shirt.

What gives? I don’t see anything wrong…

Hiding in plain sight

I talk a lot on this blog about the idea of ‘reenactorisms’ – inaccuracies that get unknowingly (or knowingly!) perpetuated because someone didn’t do their research. Usually when discussing these blunders we’re talking about individuals making them, but I wanted to point out two examples to day that prove the big players are not immune to making sloppy mistakes either!
Following the release of Episode III in 2005, LA’s FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) hosted the exhibit Dressing a Galaxy, which featured 100 screen-used costumes from Episodes I through VI. From the pictures I’ve seen online it was an absolutely incredible presentation.
However, one tableau of costumes held a glaring mistake for all to see:

If you can’t spot it, maybe we’d better check the references:

Programming Update: we’re back!

Hello there! After six months in the woods, I’m happy to announce that our 2021 Appalachian Trail southbound thruhike is successfully completed! Believe me when I say that it was one helluva adventure (and a pretty sweet honeymoon, to boot)! Now that we’re back in civilization I’m very much looking forward to getting back to active blogging here at Star Wars Living History…2022 is shaping up to be a big year with big things in the works!

the trail’s southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Georgia is wayyyyy more anticlimactic than Katahdin in Maine

A thruhike by the numbers:
Total length: 2193.1 miles
Total days: 182 (7 June to 5 December)
Zeroes (non-hiking days): 22 (+4 for a wedding off-trail)
Hostels visited: 24
Days hiked in the rain: 29
Night hikes: 27
Longest day: 23.7 miles
Average distance hiked per day: 12.9 miles
Weight lost: ~10 lbs
My pack (HMG 3400 Windrider) base weight: 20 lbs +-2
My pack loaded for a five-day section: 32 lbs+-1
Packets of ramen and/or tuna eaten: too damn many
Pints of ice cream eaten: not nearly enough!

If you’d like to see more pictures from our adventure, I did my best to keep up my Instagram from the trail (though I now realize it’s mostly landscapes, sunsets, and amphibians)…my photogenic wife’s IG gives a much better impression of the journey! If you’re thinking about planning your own thruhike or long-distance trip, I’m always happy to talk shop and answer any questions you might have. When there’s nothing to do but hike and think, I spent a good chunk of the last six months in a Star Wars-y headspace, and hopefully, at least a couple of the insights I had during my time on the AT will work their way into some future posts here! If there’s a topic you’d like to see discussed, please drop a comment down below!

Programming Announcement

Hello readers! I wanted to give a heads-up that the next few months will see a slight change in the posts being published here at the Star Wars Living History blog. At the time this post goes live, my wife and I are on our way to Mt. Katahdin, Maine, and as of 7 June 2021 will be southbound on the Appalachian Trail, hiking 2,200 miles to Springer Mountain, Georgia…which will make it very difficult to keep up with writing and maintaining a blog! (I’ll be checking in along the trail on my facebook page and my Instagram feed, so be sure to ‘Follow’ for those who want to keep tabs on our progress vicariously!)

However, this shouldn’t mean a lack of content for our readers and subscribers: In addition to some guest pieces contributed by members of the SWLH facebook community, I’ve scheduled new installments of the Galactic Style Guide to continue to drop on the last Saturday of the month, with other articles rolling out on a bi-monthly instead of weekly basis. In other words, excepting August (AUREBESH MONTH!!!), expect two posts per month instead of four.

While I wish our hike could be done with more GFFA style, old-school canvas backpacks are heavy and don’t hold nearly enough stuff for a thru-hiker, while most modern ultralight gear is way too colorful to match the galactic aesthetic. But we will see. I’ve been kicking ideas around with a couple of high-caliber galactic ‘reenactors’ about the possibility of organizing a Star Wars ‘ruck’ hike. I would love to do a true long-distance trek using Star Wars gear, or for more of a challenge, with my Middle-earth kit (all organic, handmade, and essentially Iron Age), but I figure I should get thru-hike #1 under my belt first 🙂
Nonetheless, as you can see above, I’ve still tried to inject at least a little GFFA style into my daily hiking outfit: Alderaanian fleet trooper with Donovian Rainman footwear, and I’ll be rocking a moisture farmer bucket hat for at least the first leg of our journey!
I even made a point of choosing a shirt without proper buttons 😉

Wish us luck, MTFBWY, and I’ll see you (Force willing) in December!

Thoughts on ‘The Rescue’

Aaaand just like that, I think I’m done. Erm, I meant…Welcome back to my commentary series on Season 2 of The Mandalorian; for this installment we’re breaking down the Season 2 finale, Chapter 16 ‘ The Rescue’.

We open with Slave 1 chasing a Lambda-class shuttle, and wasn’t it nice to hear those high-pitched lasers again? We see the inside of the shuttle, and it was amazing how much more open the cockpit feels versus what we saw in Episode VI—is it something to do with being widescreen, depth of field, or is the set here just twice as big? It just feels like we’re seeing two totally different ships to me.

Thoughts on ‘The Believer’

Welcome back to my commentary series on Season 2 of The Mandalorian; for this installment we’re breaking down Chapter 15 ‘The Believer’. Aside from the first episode, I haven’t been too especially fond of any of this season’s installments; after the on-rails themepark ride of ‘The Siege’, the poor direction of ‘The Jedi’, and the mindless action of ‘The Tragedy’, I had low hopes for the next episode. As we will see, having lowered expectations meant I was able to be pleasantly surprised.

The episode opens with a scruffy-looking Mayfeld on a New Republic prison work detail, where he’s busting up wrecked TIEs. Right off the bat, I’m onboard, because while Star Wars might refer to prisons from time to time, we almost never get to actually see people in prison, much less doing menial labor – it’s a nice bit of worldbuilding. (Off the top of my head, all I can think of is the Jedi Knight novella which saw Alphonso Obata incarcerated by the NR on Milagro, jackhammering a city glassed by orbital bombardment).

In this opening we see Boba has repainted his armor, and it looks…Not At All Star Wars-y. While one could easily make the argument that ‘Everything was new once’, seeing him with a refreshed paintjob and how weird it looks really underlines how key the ‘Used Universe’ look is to the Galaxy Far Far Away. If you, dear reader, have just finished assembling and painting your own Star Wars kit, don’t stop now! It may feel wrong to intentionally ‘mess up’ something you’ve spent a lot of time and effort on, but if you really want to do right by the aesthetic, you need to bite the bullet and do some weathering and aging to really sell the look.

Also, is this the first time we’ve seen a light-up identification doodad? I can guess what all the fancy propmakers and Batuu-bounders will be upgrading to this winter…

Thoughts on ‘The Tragedy’

Welcome back to my breakdown series on The Mandalorian Season Two. I’m about a week behind, but we’re looking at Chapter 14 ‘The Tragedy’ this time around.

Boba Fett (played by Temuera Morrison, nice continuity!) has somehow tracked our Lone Wolf and Cub to Tython. I really have to wonder…HOW? Last we saw Boba, he was watching the Titular Mandalorian swooping into the sunset on Tatooine. After walking back to Mos Eisley, they went sublight with Lady Gecko to Spidery Ice Planet, then to Fish Planet, took a detour back to Navarro, then to Dead Forest Planet before heading to Tython. We know the ship has been tracked since Navarro due to Gideon’s spy, but how would Boba be able to follow that convoluted-ass trail?

Anyway, Boba shows up and I’ll be damned if he isn’t packing around the longest gaderffii I’ve ever seen…over five feet by my calculations, so literally as long as his long-ass Tusken rifle! Also, as this hobby includes an element of approaching on-screen things through a realism-and-practicality lens, I have to ask: just how is that gaffi staying on his back? (Note that we never see Boba take it off his back, he just magically has it in his hands in a different shot.) His rifle has a sling, but the gaderffii just seems to hover on his back, which is silly and purely just for ‘cool points’, to give a ‘Hollywood swordsman’ silhouette.