User:SOCL/Commentaries & Analysis of Imperial Rank Insignia

This page is dedicated to trying to understand the rank insignia of the officers in the Galactic Empire's military in the time following the Battle of Yavin. That is to say, it will document those insignia made famous in the film A New Hope, seen aboard the Star Destroyer Devastator, and also seen aboard the first Death Star, as well as make inroads and allusions to earlier insignia, such as that seen at the conclusion of Revenge of the Sith and in parts of The Clone Wars television series, but will concentrate mainly on trying to understand the pattern and hierarchy of the insignia in the time following the original first film. Examples of this aesthetic system revolve around the rank insignia of Imperial officers seen in The Empire Strikes Back. This article is not meant for publication as fact, but should instead be understood as notes written in a researched-essay format. It is hoped that once this "study" of sorts is concluded, some of the information may be used to enrich and inform the work already presented in certain articles on this wiki, in particular the article Rank insignia of the Galactic Empire. This page is written from an out-of-universe perspective using purely in-universe/canon information. Read on for more details.

Introduction
Following the Battle of Yavin, the report compiled by Rebel espionage known simply as The Imperial Sourcebook provides for the reader a window into the workings of the New Order with particular interest to the way it functioned following the destruction of the first Death Star. Aboard that battlestation and in the periphery units assigned or otherwise tasked to its security, construction, and completion, a number of Imperial officers can be seen with a system of rank insignia little understood due its seemingly chaotic and perhaps even random pattern. Such examples include Stormtrooper Commander Praji, Lieutenant Daine Jir, High General Tagge, Admiral Motti, Grand Moff Tarkin, to name a few of the most notable individuals. With the exception of Tarkin, all of these officers carry on the left breast of their uniform tunics are rank plaque consisting of a single line of colored square tabs with a varying number of rank code cylinders to either side in small pen-sized pockets. In this system, one finds themselves hard pressed to visually identify an individual of high and low rank with the exception of those with fewer tabs who are understood to be of lower rank. Following the destruction of the Death Star, however, The Imperial Sourcebook attests to a shakeup and reorganization of Imperial forces, during which time an interim form of insignia is used.

IN PROGRESS