The Cortex

I did a fairly broad google search for ‘Browncoats’ ‘Firefly’ ‘Serenity’ ‘The verse’ both alone and in combination with words like ‘blog’ and ‘costume’ and such. I have a fairly formidable list of Firefly related links now. I intend to add to it as this blog rolls along because lets face it, trying to eyeball a butt-ton of google searches is pretty ridiculous. If I’m missing a good one, and I'm sure I'm missing plenty, let me know.

The Independents Patch, Prelude

As first order of business I've decided to tackle the Independent's patch issue. Even today the argument rages back and forth between fans and merchants. Star up or star down? Triangle up or down? It makes me drool sad brain numbing tongue tears that whenever I see a thread on the patch the only thing people bother talking about is up or down. Why does it make me angry? Because there's an answer directly from the costumers. Mal's patch was sewn on upside down. The star was supposed to be up. On the dead LT in Serenity the patch was star point up. The authorization codes were printed on it in such a way that they would be upside down if the patch was sewn on the way it was for Mal. To be honest as I dig I see an absurd level of variation between Browncoats dress, moreso than I'd anticipated. Point up or down can be chalked up to unit preference. Canon is King though. Both ways appear on screen. Which, for now, means as far as the Shadow Irregulars are concerned both ways are acceptable. What I want to know, what no one bothers to discuss, is who wore what kind of patch and when? We know that it is a rank insignia because the visual companion labels a picture of them as so.

So I'm going to go through Serenity's battle scene as well as The Message's. We'll see if we can't find any answers to some of those questions through trends in costume on screen. And holy crap is that tedious! And it is only step one. What follows is enlarging and cleaning up the images in photoshop to bring out details. I'm not sure I mind, but I'm not even half way through being half way near done.

I want to also go through any scene inside Mal's cabin on Serenity to see if he has Independent paraphialia on his walls such as a flyer or flag. Besides the film, Objects in Space, and Our Mrs. Reynolds I cannot think of a scene in his cabin. Which episodes am I missing?

Uniform vs. Uniformity

It is important to understand the difference between a uniform, and uniformity of dress. Though we call it a 'military dress uniform' what we are really thinking of is uniformity of military dress. It's a subtle but important distinction, especially in reference to cosplay. A uniform is simply the manner of dress worn by people of a similar organization. It can be said that both the member of the 501st in full gear and a person in jedi regalia are both, despite their marked differences in appearance, wearing a 'Star Wars Fan' uniform. The way they look attaches themselves to a particular organization or culture. Uniformity on the other hand references multiple things (or people) being identical or unvarying, such as in appearance. AR 670-1, the US Army's book on uniform and appearance, is 350 someodd pages long. Three and a half hundred pages on how to wear, what's authorized to wear, when it's authorized to wear, etc.

From both a sociological and a logistical point of view I cannot believe that the rigid uniformity of military dress as we understand it from our modern military (and, by extension, the Alliance Forces) was present in the Independent Army. According to the Firefly Wikia the Independent minded border and rim planets could barely cooperate on anything except ensuring the delivery of the mail. They were independent planets with independent governments focused on the problems of their own populace. The desire to not come under the Alliance's heel was the only unifying force that created anything akin to a cohesive military force. The nature of the planets what independent, as the name inplies, so too could it be assumed that the individual units were likewise fairly autonomous, with Colonels and Generals appointed from within instead of from above for the sole purpose of performing the logistical and stragegic functions necessary when fighting a war that spans multiple solar systems.

So when cosplaying an Independent Soldier it is counterproductive to get hung up on the details in a way that one would when putting together a Stormtrooper or Purplebelly costume. Though attention to detail is important, and we'll be discussing some seemingly petty or minute details in the futue, the spirit of the uniform is far more important than the specific number of buttonholes on the shirt. I doubt there was a central issue facility giving out 'GI Independents' socks. The uniform exists in the same capacity as heraldry did in medieval times, to mitigate friendly fire and instil a sense of belonging to a cause. As we research in greater detail the individual pieces of the uniform we must keep that ever in my mind for fear of losing the forest for the trees.

How does this apply to us as cosplayers? Well, mostly it boils down to finance. If it didn't cost so much in time, expertise, or money the number of cosplays out there that look excellent would be exponentially higher. The beauty of the Independents is that you don't need a specific narrow list of accepted or 'authorized' purchase items to look good. You can look just right, and be accepted by the greater Browncoat community, by bringing together what you have or can afford. When you have an army of ranch hands and rim worlders how can you expect pressed and perfect uniforms? Browncoats should look motley, the Independents shouldn't strive for strict uniformity. Though there are some universals, every Independent soldier on screen looks a little bit different, looks unique, looks like a free man standing with other free men to fight for what's right. It would be an injustice to ruin that by encouraging excessive uniformity.

Who Are These Shadow Irregulars?

The Shadow Irregulars, sounds kind of like a video game enemy cult that you end up realizing was behind the whole thing in the end. In fact it’s homage to both my favorite character of the Firefly series, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, and the civil war itself. Mal was born and raised on the planet Shadow, a Rim planet that sided with the Independents in the Unification War. As most of you already know it was also bombed into oblivion by the Alliance, burnt to the point that it could never be inhabitable again. Though we have, gloriously, gotten a Big Damn Movie out of the wreckage of the cancellation of Firefly the show after a decade we have to admit that perhaps Fox did manage to do what the Alliance did to Shadow. When Shadow fell the war didn’t end, and as we all know the Independent spirit is still strong in much of the ‘Verse. It’s a comforting corollary to the Browncoat Nation that keeps Firefly alive, but can never go home to the comforting world of waiting for the next new episode next week.

As for Irregulars, well I don’t think I have to explain to you the parallels between the fictional war from the show and the not so fabricated American Civil War. Just like the real war, it cannot be expected that the Rim and Border worlds had a standing army ready when it came down to making the succession decision. The fact that a regular Independent Army developed, just as the Confederate Army did, is not under dispute but in the beginning (and through most of the war) the Independents were a rag tag group of individuals willing to fight together to protect their way of life. Extending that logical progression it has to be assumed that militias and irregular units dominated the beginning of the war. And that’s a big key to what I intend to do here, take what we know from canon story, visual realities from screen captures, and add the seldom used logical rationalization to make the costume not just accurate but realistic. Well, as realistic as being a space rebel can be.

Just like Confederate Irregulars is it reasonable that every poor farmer kid had the money or wherewithal to purchase the exact uniform down to the correct style boots? Did the burgeoning Independent command, what with fighting an already lopsided war, have the funds to equip everyone down to the underpants or were major military equipment provided and the rest left up to mothers and wives to seamstress? Though the series leaves us with precious minutes of screen time in Independent uniform, it also shows a beautiful variation and variety of accoutrement that all follow a basic uniform without being strictly uniform. I think that’s important. You may not be able to tell one purple belly from the other because they are outfitted by ‘The Man.’ But the Independents were made up of individuals and to try to regiment that too strictly would visually diminish the spirit of the Browncoats.

Joss and the design team were brilliant enough to understand that and I think we, as cosplayers, owe it to him to get on board with the culture of the costume and not just rote adherence to screen captures. So I don’t want to just discuss and understand the costumes as they are, but also how they logically would have been in all their variety and glory.