As part of the research that yielded my Service Corps insignia patch, I came upon a detail that has led me to a dilemma.
In Part 2 of Daniel Wallace’s The Jedi Path, the various paths that a Jedi initiate may take are outlined: whether to go on to become a Padawan apprentice, to ‘wash out’ and join the Service Corps, or to leave the Order entirely and rejoin the ‘civilian’ galactic community.
In addition to the text, this is illustrated visually:
From this depiction, it appears that the Service Corps (center bottom) is differentiated by use of less layers of clothing (forgoing the tabards in favor of a tunic—with contrasting collar!—only)? My question is: How representative or stylized is this image?.…The token AgriCorps guy with the Mohawk also looks to be going with a simple tunic-only outfit.
The Jedi Path, as an in-universe textbook, is supposedly dated to 115 BBY… BUT, the comic series Act on Instinct—set during the Clone Wars—depicts a young AgriCorps member, Sanya, who does appear to wear tabards:
In fact, her outfit looks like a regular Prequel Jedi, just in navy blue, and with wrapped forearms. Additionally, this character would be about the same age as Silo, and so might be seen as the closest analogue to my persona?
However… Continue reading “Downsides to Research: Accuracy vs Recognition”
Tag: common
Rebel propaganda project: ‘Liberty for All’
Back about the time last year when I started entertaining the idea of starting a dedicated Rebel persona, I was also thinking about potential outlets and activities I could do. The one that I kept coming back to— inspired by a childhood spent surrounded by living history types at Civil War battlefields—was a public ‘recruitment drive’ for the Rebel Alliance. In brainstorming such an event, I thought that having some propaganda to display would be a good way to add atmosphere.
And so, I started looking to see what was out there. Unsurprisingly, there is a metric ton of Star Wars-themed propaganda on the internet, but not much of it is ‘official’. I wanted something I could talk about in-universe if questioned, and I sure didn’t want to have to tell people that the artwork came from DeviantArt user ‘L314_Forever’ or something.
Luckily, I came across reference to a book recently published, containing a multitude of in-universe artwork: Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy. While some of the pieces seemed a little lackluster or Photoshop-y, I really liked this one (by ‘Tavris Bahzel’): Continue reading “Rebel propaganda project: ‘Liberty for All’”
Building the Jedi Persona: 4.1 – Canteens
As promised earlier, I’ll begin with a quick writeup on the mysterious canteen which DK has put to triple use as a GFFA prop-base.
Dimensions: approximately 6 x 8 x 2 inches.
Capacity: approximately 1250 milliliters, which is about 250 more than most of my other canteens (my WW2 Russians, US, and UK are all just a hair over or under a liter), which is pretty nice. However, getting this maximum capacity involves getting any air out of the top section next to the spout. I wonder if–based on the similar shape of my vintage icepack–this canteen was meant for cold weather use?, as the top section might allow for extra expansion during freezing?
My canteens are both clearly marked ‘US’ in a recessed area (on the other side of the props), and ‘1 US 1993 H.T.P.’ on the bottom. Continue reading “Building the Jedi Persona: 4.1 – Canteens”
Research Pays Off: the Sulon-style Henley
As I continue to refine my personas, further recent research has turned up what I believe represents true Sulon local style for my Rebel impression. Per the live-action cutscenes in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, we know that a Henley style shirt was worn by both Kyle and Morgan Katarn!:
The hologram in question commemorates Kyle’s departure for the Imperial Academy, c. 4 BBY, and he also wears a roughly similar style nine years later in 5 ABY, possibly as a throwback or in recognition of his Sulon upbringing? Continue reading “Research Pays Off: the Sulon-style Henley”
Building the ‘Outer Persona’: Backpack
If you want to get some authentic ‘woods time’ in your GFFA pursuits, you’re eventually going to need something to haul your gear around. I’ve had this trusty 1950 pack (made, as far as I can tell, by Bergan’s of Norway?) for seven years now, and I’ve been tweaking it here and there almost since I bought it.
I thought it would be a good idea to share all the various mods and justifications I’ve made over the years to make it roughly fit the GFFA commoner’s ‘aesthetic’. Continue reading “Building the ‘Outer Persona’: Backpack”
Building the Sulon Rebel – 4: Soft kit
What follows is a breakdown of the practical kit I eventually assembled for a Rebel ‘partizan’ persona, based on Sulon around 4-5 years ABY.
I. Soft Kit:
When starting to plan out what clothes a Rebel partisan on Sulon would wear, I didn’t have a lot of reference material to build from; the three Dark Forces novellas are each illustrated by three different artists with wildly different styles, and as typical Star Wars media, tend not to focus on the mundane minutiae of everyday citizens.
This gave me a certain amount of freedom, but I still wanted to keep things fairly conservative while starting out (a wise approach to take while reenacting in general!) Continue reading “Building the Sulon Rebel – 4: Soft kit”
Developing the Rebel Persona – 3: Naming
When creating a new living history persona, I find that using a name similar to my own given name is a great way to strengthen my connection to the persona. In my main Middle-earth impression, I use the Gothic translation of my name, which isn’t too far off. While there are plenty of ‘Earth names’ present in the GFFA, I felt that mine probably wouldn’t be a good fit; in which case, I was stuck until I could come up with an appropriate in-universe name.
While there are a ton of ‘Star Wars Name Generators’ out there, most of them are pretty arbitrary, and usually come up with a list of names that uncreatively follow the ‘Obi-Wan’ pattern. They also never take cultural naming conventions into account—Rodian names are distinct from Twi’leks, who are distinct from Hutts, who are distinct from Corellian Humans, who are different from Naboo humans, who are…you get the point. Continue reading “Developing the Rebel Persona – 3: Naming”
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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Your contribution is greatly appreciated and will help me continue to keep this blog ad-free!
(Alternately, you can support my work via ko-fi as well.)
Step 7 – The Inner Persona
Hopefully you’ve now had a chance to take some time to Reflect and inhabit your impression. Ask your persona questions, and try to answer as they would. You may be surprised at what you learn!—people in the GFFA may hold different opinions than you!
I have found that persona-building questions such as those below are very useful tools to help more fully flesh out an impression. Hopefully you’ve followed best practices in living history and kept your persona ‘common’, but these will help fill in some blanks. Continue reading “Step 7 – The Inner Persona”
Step 3 – Who Are You? (Personas 101)
Folks who are new to living history (or the ‘costumed arts’ in general) may be surprised to see that Step Three isn’t ‘Go Out And Buy A Bunch Of Stuff’ or ‘Time to Start Sewing!’. Many reenactors have done that very thing, only to find that what they wound up with was A Bunch Of Stuff they didn’t really need once they got more involved in the hobby. At this point, you should simply take a deep breath, and read on!
Now that we have thought about the opportunities that exist around you (or ones you can create!)—the What—it is time to think about Who will be doing the What. It is time to pick a persona. What do we mean when we speak of a Persona? Simply, this is the individual that one ‘portrays’ in one’s ‘impression’ (this step is very similar to the character-creation process at the start of a role-playing game). Continue reading “Step 3 – Who Are You? (Personas 101)”
Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy 
