Imperial Uniforms

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

Ok, I was going through my SWCCG cards today (looking for characters for the RPG) and I noticed some things. First, what the bloody hell did they do with the rank insignia in the first movie? There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the ranks, and people with the same rank have different insignia! They are also quite different from the insignia in the last two movies.

Also in the insignia topic, did anyone notice that in RoTJ ALL of the Imperial officers have the same rank! Even Piett and Jerjerrod are ranked as Commander (The only distinction between Commander and Lietenant-Commander is that LT has the rank insignia on his right rather than left side). There may be one or two sceens where this is different for Piett, but I didn't notice any.

 

The uniforms in ANH are strange too. There are those with green (not the blue/green of the last two, but a mossy green), which belong to the fleet officers, then there are the black uniforms for the TIE Pilot officers, then there is the uniform of Colonel Wullf Yularen. It's white! So, does the Imperial Security Bureau use the white uniform also? Or perhaps we should just disregard the uniforms from the first movie all together?

 

The only uniform that fits those from ESB and RoTJ is that of Grand Moff Tarkin. Any thoughts?

 

 

Here is Colonel Wullf Yularen:

http://galactic-voyage.com/images/Characters/Colonel%20Wullf%20Yularen.jpg

[Texas_Fett]

The Technical Commentaries covers a lot of what you're looking for, IIRC. The rank insignia is odd, at best, for the Imperials, while the insignia for the Rebellion is downright neurotic. But maybe that link will help clear things up for you.

[Mad78]

Frankly I think that in the film they where more there for "decoration" than realisme.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

I try to avoid the Technical Commentary. It may provide some interesting things, but all-in-all, it's just one person's view. A lot of the stuff on there is either off, or downright fictional (that is, not even close to the mark).

 

I think that you may be right about the decorative part, at least for the first movie. There was no rhyme or reason to each rank insignia. The last two movies made sense though, at least for the Empire. You just gained more blue squares as you got promoted. Eventually you had to re-arrange them, but it makes sense. I still can't figure out the Rebel's rank system.

 

What about the white uniform though? We've been lead to think the that uniform is restricted to the Grand Admirals. Perhaps it was more common than first believed?

[Mad78]

He would have to try and find examples in the films.

[DarkScipio]

As far as I know the ISB uses black uniforms. Maybe the white uniforms are for high rank officers with out a specifc command.

[BadSamaritan]

Maybe the white uniforms are for high rank officers with out a specifc command.

 

He may be on to something here. And welcome to the site man!

[Mad78]

Add to that that ESB was supposed to be a dark film.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

There were suppose to be some ISB officers somewhere in ESB, but there were no officers in black. Also, there were TIE Pilot Officers in the first movie, as well as naval officers (Commander Praji, Commander of the Devestator, despite what the technical commentaries say) who wear black uniforms.

[Mad78]

Maybe it depends on the flet they are affected to? Or Maybe they can choose the color.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

Aye, but that cahnges in RotJ. All of the TIE Pilots still have black uniforms, but no rank insignia. Everyone else has the blue/green uniforms.

[Mad78]

Fighters and gunners wear black and the reste wear green and brown.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

I have yet to see a brown uniform in the movies. There are pleanty in the games though.

[Mad78]

Didn't Ozzel wear one?

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

No, his was the winterfresh colour too.

 

http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/admiralozzel/img/movie_bg.jpg

 

There were some uniforms in the first movie that could pass off as brown.

[Mad78]

I have to watch ANH again.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

The uniforms there are really more green than brown, and there are now uniforms that look like those in the other two.

[Mad78]

I wonder why they made them brown in the games?

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

They were probably looking for a way to distinguish between enemy difficulties. In Jedi Outcast, all of the high-ranking officers wore black uniforms, the moderate difficulty officers wore the brown, and the easy officers wore the winterfresh uniforms.

[Mad78]

Like with the jedi robes.

[Valliet]

Officers are only forbidden to wear white uniforms with epaulets. These are reserved for the Grand Admirals only. ISB officers do wear white uniforms.

 

Examples:

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/zs/anh/dsofficer01.jpg

 

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/vidi7/whiteof1.jpg

 

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/cards/ccg/yularen.jpg

 

Every site I have been on clearly states this fact. In reference to the other uniforms, I suggest you view the Technical Commentaries which are licensed by George Lucas and are in no way ficticious to the Star Wars Universe.

[Lord_La_forge]

Welcome back Valliet!!!!

 

Great post here. I've never noticed this.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

There is, however, something else to consider. Thrawn didn't actually wear epaulets. That uniform was created by the designers of TIE Fighter (the game). Other distinctions with ISB officers that distinguish them from Grand Admirals it hte black hat, the rank insignia, and I believe that they wear black pants, rather than white.

[Valliet]

Thrawn shall forever be a mystery. Alot of the things he did might be considered unethical (no matter how effective), and choosing not to wear epaulets might be one of these little oddities. You could say the other Grand Admirals wore them because the creators thought Thrawn in TIE Fighter looked better in them, but these characters were made almost five years before TIE Fighter was released and therefore could not have been inspired to wear them. Two uniforms have been specified to include epaulets which are those of IGA Demetrius Zaarin and Warlord Zsinj, who both wore 'the complete uniform of a Grand Admiral...' (both their complete descriptions included the epaulets).

 

http://www.cswu.cz/characters/img/char/zaarin.jpg

Imposter Grand Admiral Zaarin

 

The epaulets were also used on all the Grand Admirals in the comics (excluding Thrawn) so I assume Thrawn is the one with the 'different' uniform.

 

P.S. I forgot to mention the ISB black pants and caps. Good call.