Rebel command insignia/Legends

The rank insignia of the Rebel Alliance were badges of military rank used by officers of the Rebel Alliance armed forces. The badges utilized by the Alliance around the time of the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Hoth consisted of a series of one to five colored dots raised from the surface of a square chrome plaque. These badges were worn over the right breast of the service uniform.

By the time of the Battle of Endor, certain officers in the Rebel military wore a different style of rank badges. In contrast to the earlier, colorful badges, these badges were dull, gray and metallic.

The older version of the insignia was not made obselete, however, even after the formation of the New Republic. As head of New Republic Intelligence, Airen Cracken wore both styles of rank badge on his uniform.

Behind the scenes
The primary sources for the "domino" style of Rebel insignia are Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

A comparative table of these Rebel insignia is tabulated in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook published by West End Games. This source has several problems: it contains only four "Army designations" (General, Colonel, Major, and Lieutenant), and two "Navy designations" (Commander and Captain.) It also implies that in the Rebel Fleet, commanders outrank captains, although the opposite is true in real-world navies. Some rank badges seen on screen are omitted from this table, while others are not seen on film.

The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook also says that rank badges with red pips were exclusive to army ranks, while blue pips were used to denote fleet ranks. However, Vanden Willard wears a plaque with four red pips and one blue pip in the center in A New Hope.

Other explanations of the rank badges of the Rebel Alliance are popular among fans. Most of these extrapolate between the badges seen on screen to create new badges which have not been seen in any canonical source, and assume that fleet and surface officers may wear badges with blue pips, red pips, or both. They also generally assume that the fleet and surface ranks in the Rebel Alliance are the same as in contemporary armies and navies. Curtis Saxton's Star Wars Technical Commentaries website is one such fan-produced scheme. Another is listed in the following table. Those badge shown below which are not from the movies are conjectural extrapolations.

By the time of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the Alliance appears to have changed to a new system insignia, consisting of purely gray metallic badges with various geometrical shapes attached. Star Wars Technical Commentaries speculates that the earlier, colorful badges were derived from Alderaan's military traditions, and were designed to be easily recognized by Humans. On the other hand, the new style may be derived from the Mon Calamari forces, and thus designed to be easily distinguishable by their vision. No source has attempted to systematically explain these badges, though the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook identifies the squared horseshoe-shaped badges worn on the collar by Lando Calrissian and Crix Madine as "General's Collar Insignia."

However, several sources set after Return of the Jedi, including the Rogue Squadron comics, show domino-style rank insignia still in use by the New Republic military.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi