common – Page 9 – Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy

Improve your Mandalorian cosplay with one easy trick!

Familiarity breeds contempt as they say, and once I notice a trend, it starts to bug me and becomes hard to unsee. Each week, I see scores of ‘Custom Mandalorian’ costumes, and like the diehard Disney fans who hide an obligatory ‘hidden Mickey’ in their props, whenever I see a Mando come across my feed, I like to guess how quickly this standard cockeyed, off-kilter, cracked-skull Mythosaur will show up: “Is it hiding in the first photo? Second photo? Third photo?”

A kit which turns out to be sans mythosaur, on the other hand, is always a pleasant, refreshing surprise! (One of the things I really appreciated in The Mandalorian was that—so far as I can tell—none of the non-Boba Fett character designs included this stock symbol.)

Building the Inner Persona: Curses and Interjections

In this installment of the Inner Persona miniseries, we’ll continue to expand our mental ‘word-hoard’ by adding some words and phrases from the Star Wars galaxy you can use to spice up your in-universe speech. If you’re portraying a character from the rougher side of the Galaxy, the saltier the better!

While we on modern Earth—depending on the decade—use words like swell, cool, awesome, or lit to express appreciation for something we like, the GFFA has “wizard” (Episode I), “rugged” (Rogue Planet), and “prime” (Galaxy of Fear)!

– “As stars live and die!”
– “Blast!”, “Blast it!” (can’t go wrong with this classic)
– “By all the souls of Alderaan!” (Rogue Squadron)
– “Chuba chips!”, “Chuba chunks!” and “Chuba lips” are all used by Ratts Tyerell in Jabba’s Game Galaxy
– “Emperor’s bones!” (Rogue Squadron #2)
– “Emperor’s black bones!”
– Flaming: as in, “this flaming coastline is full of coves,” (Last of the Jedi #4: Death on Naboo)
– “Force-forsaken” used as a replacement for Godforsaken; I’m not a fan.
– Frell, frelling (Republic Commando)
– Frip, fripping (often used in Death Star, all the way up to “un-fripping-believable!”

plenty more examples below!

Galactic Style Guide – Hats I

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! For this month’s installment, we’re taking things from the top and talking Hats!
Our main cast of characters tend to go hatless, but for secondary and background characters, hats are very commonplace. While certain styles tend to work better with certain settings, covering your head in some way is a great way to remind your audience that you are portraying an inhabitant of the Galaxy Far Far Away.
When I put a call out to the SWLH facebook group for style suggestions, the immediate first response was ‘Caps with flaps!’. As this type of hat is readily available as military surplus, such hats are a no-brainer way to make yourself quickly blend into the galactic populace:

Jedi Temple guards (3653 BBY), Grotto Werribee, Donovian ‘rainman’, tramper, Suu Lawquane concept; Pfilbee Jhorn, Alliance cold-weather troopers, Echo Base hangar technicians, Benedict Vidkun.

It’s worth pointing out that the hats of the Hoth hangar techs are essentially a WW2 US Navy deck hat, so if you’re handy with a sewing machine, stick around at the end for a free pattern.

On the subject of bounty hunting ‘trophies’

As I’ve talked about a few times before, when reenacting any setting (historic or fictional) one of the best ways to add depth to an impression is by including small details or items of ‘pocket trash’! One of the ideas I frequently see discussed in online Star Wars cosplay circles is the idea of ‘hunting trophies’, and a recent thread made me realize I definitely have some thoughts on the subject!

Whether it’s bones and claws from critters, crystals from Jedi lightsabers, battle droid fingers, or actual lightsabers, the notion that a bounty hunter or mercenary character should have a collection of tchotchkes taken from past kills dangling from their belt, blaster, or backpack is one of those trends that the costuming community has really latched onto. However, I submit that this type of decoration is A) actually an impediment to such work, and B) a fan reenactorism not seen in either primary or secondary sources. Be sure to stick around til the end for some ideas on how to more authentically portray these kinds of character in true ‘living history’ style!

Even more galactic whittling: Gozanti cruiser

Amazing what a transformation a coat of paint can accomplish!

For my latest ‘galactic folk art’ adventure, I decided to make a civilian-model Gozanti cruiser, partially inspired by the post-Disney Imperial incarnation featured in ‘The Heiress’. This ship has been around since at least 32 BBY (its first appearance was taking off outside Mos Espa in Episode I), so it’s a solid fit for any of my personas to carry in a pocket:

Whenever I’m feeling stressed out, in a funk, or down on myself (usually after spending too much time on social media and comparing my own slow progress and accomplishments with other folks’ flashy projects!), I find a great coping mechanism is to pick up some small project that can be completed with short turnaround. Whittling is a great choice for these kinds of projects, as I find the act of whittling by itself to be very grounding and meditative. However, the ‘in the flow’ quality of the work means that I always forget to take in-progress pictures, reinforcing my FOMO of not keeping up with the social media Joneses! (Aaahh, what difficult-to-navigate times we live in. 😉

Galactic Style Guide – Shoulders II

Happy Boxing Day, and welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! For our final installment of 2020, we’re wrapping up our look at the archetypal exotic space-fantasy ‘wide-shouldered’ look.

We’ll begin by teasing out some examples of armor-based wide shoulders from the earlier phases of galactic history (pre-1000 BBY):

shoulders-armor-Ancient — Naga Sadow, Freedon Nadd, Exar Kun Ulic Quel-Droma, Arca Jeth, Gav Daragon; Vitiate, Arcann, Darth Vindican Satele Shan, Darth Malgus; Lord Hoth, Valentyne Farfalla, Army of Light

I don’t have a ton of interest in (or access to) much material from this period, so it’s totally possible I’ve overlooked some key figure. Is there anyone I’ve missed? Please let me know!
As we’ll see, more modern characters from the Clone Wars all the way into the Legacy era have also worn armor that widens the upper body: Continue reading “Galactic Style Guide – Shoulders II”

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.

Continue reading “Galactic Style Guide – Shoulders I”

In defense of ‘close enough’

Let’s talk about fish-lady sweaters for a second.
When a Mon Calamari showed up in The Mandalorian Chapter 11 wearing an off-the-rack fisherman’s sweater, the community lost no time in memeifying it before hopping on Amazon to snatch up one or two for themselves. I find it encouraging that people are interested in costuming a common civilian for once (instead of the rare-in-universe but over-represented-in-cosplay Jedi/Sith/Mando/bounty hunter ‘player classes’)…but if I was looking to put together a GFFA dockworker impression, I definitely wouldn’t go out and buy the exact onscreen sweater—and not just because they’re probably now very scarce! Here’s why.

Thoughts on ‘The Heiress’

Welcome back to my breakdown of The Mandalorian Season 2 episodes, this time Chapter 11 ‘The Heiress’. I guess I should start disclaiming at the top:
YAR, HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. READERS, YE BE WARNED.
When I watched the episode the first time, I was definitely subconsciously picking up on the Apollo 13 reentry sequence vibes…that film is too imprinted on my brain for me to not notice, but I didn’t make the connection for the reason behind it – this chapter was directed by Ron Howard’s daughter. Well then, of course it makes sense she would pay homage to her father’s masterpiece! Some of my friends have also picked up on the Firefly/Serenity vibe of a falling-apart spaceship slowly shedding parts. Seeing as we’ll never get more Firefly, having Firefly stuff in other properties works fine for me.
As the ship is trying to set down on the landing pad, I noticed the sound of the Razor Crest’s engines ‘coughing’ and trying to turn over is the same as Anakin’s podracer in Episode I doing the same thing, which is some nice continuity.

In general, I really like the nautical feeling of this whole chapter. The synopsis was something like “Mando braves danger on the high seas” so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when he arrived at what was essentially a seaport town, it started to make sense, and the latter half of the episode is essentially ‘Mando turns pirate!’ I love all the Mon Calamari and Quarren dock workers, with their waders and knit fisherman’s sweaters! It’s so refreshing to include a location so geared towards the ‘common’, especially as it creates a great opportunity for a ‘GFFA living historian’ to interpret some seaside skills (rope splicing? lobster pot baiting?) in an authentic manner.

Building the Inner Persona: Galactic Proverbs

In this installment of the Inner Persona miniseries, we’ll continue to expand our mental ‘word-hoard’ by adding some proverbs from the Star Wars galaxy- phrases that express a basic truth which may be applied to common situations.
We may take such phrases for granted in our everyday life, but they can really help sell the illusion when speaking in-character!

“If one guy calls you a Hutt, ignore him. If a second calls you a Hutt, begin to wonder. If a third calls you a Hutt, buy a drool bucket and start stockpiling spice.” – CorSec saying (I, Jedi, ch26)

“If the wind no longer calls to you, it is time to see if you have forgotten your name.” – Caamasi saying (I, Jedi, chapter 40)
Continue reading “Building the Inner Persona: Galactic Proverbs”