Clone Wars – Page 2 – Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy

Galactic Style Guide – Shoulders I

Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to create a more authentic ‘outer persona’!
Ever since the days of Ming the Merciless, sci-fi designers have been using a wide-shouldered silhouette to let the audience know a setting is exotic or non-Earthy, and Star Wars has been no different. While I’ve found no specific mention of this design point in comments from costume designer John Mollo, his original designs for ‘girl Luke Starkiller’ show a mantled hood that may have planted the seed that eventually became this prevalent costume element:
DIGITAL CAMERA It’s worth pointing out that even though the very first onscreen SW character (C-3PO) could be said to display a form of this style, it really didn’t kick into full gear until Return of the Jedi, and by the time the Prequels rolled around, giant collars, mantles, and shoulder pads were in full force!

shoulders Ep1 Naboo — **Wide shoulders on pre-Clone Wars Naboo:** Amidala, Sabe; NSF Palace guards, Sio Bibble, Phylo Gandish; Unidentified Theed civilian, unidentified advisor, Hugo Eckener, Horace Vacil, TC-14; civilian prisoners. Note that the entire Naboo Royal Advisory Council and Theed nobles dress pretty much alike.

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My worry for The Mandalorian Season 2

(Don’t worry folks, your regularly-scheduled Saturday post is still coming, but since everyone and their mother is watching DisneyPlus today, I had to get this out there and off my chest)

After first approaching it with caution, by the end of its first season, I was 90% on-board with The Mandalorian…all the way up until the last shot with that stupid ‘darksaber’ (Pete the Retailer agrees). Then earlier this year, I started seeing second season rumour-mill headlines that Lucasfilm was bringing in Temuera Morrison to play Boba Fett, while all signs were pointing towards Rosario Dawson (of all people) playing a live-action Ahsoka Tano. A few weeks later, a rumour that they were also looking for a live-action ‘Ezra Bridger’ (whose SWarsy naming-game I’ve always thought was amazingly weak) from Rebels. WHY?

More galactic whittling – Republic cruiser

I was always intrigued by the Radiant VII, the first starship we see on-screen in the Prequels.

radiant7 — The obvious Corellian Engineering Corporation design elements to connect it with the *Tantive IV*, the red paintjob, and that sweet, sweet Ben Burtt engine sound – what’s not to like?

I was reminded recently that MicroMachines included this craft—technically a Consular-class cruiser—as part of the Action Fleet line back in ’99, but they’re way out of my budget on eBay, so I opted to while away a few hours of quarantine in a galactic-folksy way and make my own! 20200814_130147 Continue reading “More galactic whittling – Republic cruiser”

Galaxy’s Edge merch: Jedi Field Gear

If you’re tired of having empty resin boxes on your Prequel Jedi utility belt, I guess this is the package for you. This set sells for $30 and contains a Qui-Gon style Imagecaster, Hush 98-style comlink, and Jedi macrobinoculars. Having seen some unboxing reviews, I think 2 of the 3 might make this worth buying. Which ones?
SWGE Jedigear1 Continue reading “Galaxy’s Edge merch: Jedi Field Gear”

Project: Wookiee battle shield (part 1)

While (yet again) leafing through the Complete Visual Dictionary, looking at artifacts, I happened upon a particularly fascinating example. I was attracted to its vaguely Polynesian(?) design—kinda like a giant pouwhenua—as well as the stylized tiki-style iconography. I actually vaguely remember seeing the prop in person at Celebration 3 back in 2005(!), and being pretty impressed. As I’ve been building up my woodcarving skillset over the years, I thought it might be time for some large-scale work—and what’s larger scale than an heirloom Wookiee shield from the Battle of Kachirho?:
wookieeshield
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Event Debrief: 29 June 2017

In 2017, I was very glad to be invited back to the Frazier International History Museum for a second set of summer camp presentations.

Like last year, I would give a short talk on survival needs in the Galaxy, teach cordage with raffia, and then have Q&A time. This time around, however, I would present on different days to smaller groups. For this first session, my audience were 8-10 younglings in 4^th-6^th grade.
A year’s worth of research and refinements meant that I had a more detailed persona (Silo the on-the-run Jedi washout), and the event was highly successful thanks largely to my commitment to the First Person approach.
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Image Analysis: Clone Wars Playtime

One feature I’ve been wanting to implement here is a series in which I take a close look at individual images, something along the lines of Townsend’s Sifting the Past blog. And here, I think, is the perfect example to start with!

This picture comes from Wizards of the Coast’s Galactic Campaign Guide (2003), p. 113. The book is a great source for our purposes, as it includes (among many other juicy details) an excellent section on species-specific naming conventions, and many similar world-building vignette scenes.

Looking at this image with an anthropologist’s discerning eye, several details leap out at me.
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Artifact ID: Boba Fett’s toy airspeeder

Boba's_airspeeder_model Appearing (as far as I know) only in the Episode II Visual Dictionary (p. 43) (and of course, subsequent frequent reprints by DK), Boba Fett’s airspeeder model is one of those items where one just has to scratch their head and wonder. Continue reading “Artifact ID: Boba Fett’s toy airspeeder”

Artifact ID: Donovian Rainmen

The ‘Donovian Rainmen’ are a pretty deep cut, never appearing (as far as I know) on-screen in their film, but only in a DK reference book, a behind-the-scenes documentary (“A Twinkle Beyond Pluto”) on the Episode II DVD, and one frame of Dark Horse’s Republic #80.
rainmen1_AotCVD

However, they have always intrigued me, given their specific ‘occupational’ identity. Continue reading “Artifact ID: Donovian Rainmen”

Artifact ID: Neimoidian Silver Cups

As this post goes live on January 1st (by Gregorian Reckoning), I thought it would be nice to have something that would tie in with celebratory toast-making and libations.
This was a pretty simple artifact to identify, and like the refugee water bottle from a few weeks ago, the actual items are fairly plentiful, easy to find, useful, and SHINY.

The scene: Year 3 after the Great ReSynchronization (32 BBY), aboard the Trade Federation battleship Saak’ak (Profiteer). The Neimoidians, stalling for time before they deal with the Chancellor’s negotiators, send a protocol droid into the conference room. The droid enters bearing a tray of refreshments; our Jedi heroes accept the cups and sip politely…until the Neimoidians pump toxic gas into the room and everything goes to hell.
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