First Steps – Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy

Drawing on history

Back in 2015, a museum exhibit in Belarus showed off a set of reconstructed costumes from early medieval (8th-12th centuries CE) Baltic cultures. Shortly afterwards, the outfits began making the rounds online, eventually getting shared to a Middle-earth reenactment group I’m a part of. We all thought they were very impressive: inspiring examples of what culturally-cohesive outfits can look like. Then, a year or two ago, I saw the exact same pictures again—but this time in a Batuu-bounding group on facebook! There, they were prefaced with a message like, “check these out – wouldn’t these make great bounding outfits?!”

While they are still great outfits, as-is, I had to disagree with the idea that they would be appropriate for GFFA use. As Doug Chiang pointed out in a recent interview, the thing that makes Star Wars feel so authentic as a setting is the eclectic use of mix-and-matched historical inspirations* (thanks largely to John Mollo’s foundational designs)—not merely using unmodified, straight-up historical ensembles! [As it’s pure gold, I’ve included Doug’s full quote at the end of this post, so keep reading.]
However, I could definitely see the appeal, especially in the outfits’ silhouettes, and challenged myself to apply a GFFA lens to the Baltic costumes and see if I couldn’t bring them nearer to the Star Wars aesthetic. I challenge you to try the same thing with other historical styles you may be inspired to use in your own outfit!

Let’s start with the red kit first. My main method used was to try and find an in-universe equivalent to each item:

An Introduction to Galactic Glamping: laid-back camping in a galaxy far far away

Hello there! Instead of a fresh entry in the Diamonds in the Rough series, this week I’m happy to present a guest post, courtesy of Anders of DT Blasterworks. Be sure to read to the end to learn about an exciting upcoming Star Wars reenacting event!

The intent of “Galactic Glamping” is to have a fun, relaxed, car-camping experience while enjoying the Star Wars aesthetic: it’s another way to enjoy cosplay outside of the confines of a hotel or convention center and really get in touch with the way the characters interact with their environment. In this primer, we’ll go over the look of the gear and equipment you should be using, some good in-universe food and snack ideas, and general recommendations. The most important thing about this is comfort and convenience—by not having to carry everything in on your back, and instead letting your “speeder” carry your gear, you aren’t limited to lightweight, small items. You can bring that heavy tent, use hard-sided containers like footlockers and coolers to transport your stuff, and cook a good meal out there!

Luke may have been “roughing it”, but his campsite is a great example of what this activity can look like!

Learn more about galactic glamping within!

Guest Post: Is a blaster right for you?

[This submitted post comes from ‘Kantis Nolef’ of the SWLH facebook community.]

“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” – Han Solo, Episode IV.

When most people start thinking of props and accessories, they tend to think of blasters first. Blasters in the Star Wars universe seem to be as common cell phones in ours, and with myriad shapes and sizes, there’s something for every species. But does your character need one? Sure, if you’re in the Outer Rim on an inhospitable planet, it’s a matter of survival…but what if you’re not? Would it be necessary for a musician on Corellia to have a rifle slung across their back? Does a cook on Sullust need a pair of Westars?

Whichever career path you choose, I can’t stop you from arming yourself. That being said, I hope I can help you get the best blaster for your persona.

Back to Basics – How?

This is the second half of our Back to Basics miniseries, a primer on the whats, hows, and whys of living history in the Galaxy Far, Far Away setting.
Like cosplay, reenacting is fairly straightforward; it generally does not go beyond ‘looking good’ through the creation of an ‘outer persona’. Since contemporary life is noticeably lacking in FTL spacecraft, energy weapons, antigravity vehicles, etc., true Star Wars reenacting is well out of reach.
On the other hand, living history—while requiring more diligent research—is actually much more achievable for the galactic setting. Because it usually involves educational interactions with the pubic, you should try to build your persona as accurately as possible, and whether you’re pursuing First-, Second-, or Third-Person interpretation, you’ll want to have at least a decent understanding of life in the Galaxy, as well as being familiar with your specific subject, trade, or activity.

So today, I want you to ask yourself two questions:
What am I good at? and What can I use those Skills to interpret or teach others?

17 ideas for in-universe interpretation after the jump!

Back to Basics-What and Why?

While I started this blog back in 2017, I spent the first few weeks detailing the basic ideas behind the ‘Advanced Costumed Arts’ of reenacting and living history. Over the intervening three+ years this blog has been plugging away merrily, and those early posts—while still collected at the ^FIRST STEPS page^—are effectively buried for those who might find their way here and don’t want to endlessly scroll or use the search bar or Categories >>. Therefore, I wanted to put together a miniseries to lay out the underlying foundations for what it is we aspire to do here, why we do living history specifically, and how You can do it too!

WHAT are reenacting and living history?
(For a short but very complete general introduction to these activities, I recommend downloading F.L. Watkins’ The Reenactor’s Encyclopedia, from which I’ll be quoting here and there.) At their most basic, both reenacting and living history are activities in which participants seek to learn about and experience life in a non-contemporary time period. These activities usually involve the participant assembling a ‘kit’ (what you’ll often see referred to here as ‘the outer persona’) of “possessions…that might have been owned by his impression”; this should start with clothing, and then might extend to include tools, food, camp gear, sundries, and weapons.

what do reenacting and living history look like?

Finding Your Place in the Galaxy

I was recently sent this video of the ‘Mando march’ parade held at Star Wars Celebration ’17. Since social gatherings are now few and far between in these days of COVID, I wanted to share it with you here, not only as a visual aid for my points in this essay, but also just for a vicarious dose (albeit virtual) of the con experience for which many are currently in withdrawal.
After watching, I had two (okay, three) reactions:

1) Man, the Mando costuming community is bloody Inclusive. There are folks of ALL ages, abilities, body types, and (I’m guessing, since they’re all helmeted) races, genders, and sexual orientations on display in that parade, all with their love of all things Klingon Mandalorian proudly on display. Good on them! With that said, though… Continue reading “Finding Your Place in the Galaxy”

The issue of Original Characters

It’s been a while since I’ve done a ‘back to basics’ post, so we’re taking a break from the usual projects-and-research content and taking a turn for the nitty-gritty. The vexing issue this week is that of the ‘OC’, or ‘Original Character’ (differentiated from a recognizable ‘Face Character’). Stick around at the end for a list of character ideas to take your OC to the next level!

After hanging around a popular SW cosplay facebook group for the last few years, I have noticed a pattern that my historical-authenticity-focused mind finds quite aggravating: Continue reading “The issue of Original Characters”

The Cure for Temporal Headaches

Whenever you begin putting together a new persona (in any setting, fictional or historical), it always helps to firmly ground yourself in a specific time. This is simply Good Living History—the narrower the range, the more focused your research can be, contributing to a more accurate impression. If you’re portraying a ‘longhunter’ (an 18^th century market hunter), you don’t want to be drawing your ‘outer persona’ (aka clothing and accoutrements) from the 1720s or 1790s (even though they’re technically still in the 18^th century); rather, you would focus on the 1750s through 1770s, since that’s the period in which these folks operated. If you have enough information from primary or secondary sources, you can even pin your impression down to a specific year, month, or week (this becomes easier to do the closer to the present one gets, as the amount of raw information (and therefore, potential sources) increases exponentially).
Deciding on a specific span of time makes your persona more authentic, especially if you’ve done your research.
Continue reading “The Cure for Temporal Headaches”

Location, location, location!

I was re-watching Episode I on its 19^th anniversary the other day, and I happened to notice something. Do you see it?
beechTPM
That’s right, Naboo has Beech trees! I did some digging, and as it turns out a lot of the outdoor Naboo scenes were filmed in England right outside of Leavesden Studios. And it got me to thinking…
Continue reading “Location, location, location!”

Step 8 – refine refine refine!

Congratulations! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world! Now the real ~~work~~ fun begins–continued research, polishing, perfecting, and refining!
Ask more questions, have others ask questions of you, research answers, and improve!

Kids ask the darndest things, so bounce your persona off some younglings and learn what you need to fine-tune…they will quickly find any blind spots in your impression. At my last event, a young girl asked me what I ate…all I was able to come up with was “Errm…milk?…Errm, yeah, that’s right, blue milk!”…so, it is safe to say that I definitely need to research that topic!

Researching, compiling, and writing this site takes a lot of time and energy. If you’ve got this far and have enjoyed reading our First Steps series, have learned something, or will use it as inspiration when creating an impression of your own, please consider supporting my work with a small donation below! Thank you!

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