Imperial Officer Ranks: Single And Double Rows Explained
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Explains imperial rank plaques and the difference between single-row ranking plaques and double-row plaques. and explores a rank plaques chart to be found on Reddit, which displays single and double-row rank plaques and the details given around the difference between them both for imperial officer ranks. Long live the Empire!
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![ALL Imperial Ranks Of The Galactic Empire [Canon] Star Wars Explained](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vzkH-Xo2ZrA/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Best General of the Galactic Empire [Legends]](/img/n.gif)
I think that the real world inconsistencies have to do with costume designers designing the rank system. I'm sure that nobody in 1975 though that nearly 50 years later people would be geeking out about Imperial rank plaques and code cylinders. If they were really concerned about consistency, they would have consulted military officers about how to design a logical rank system and made sure that the costume and continuity people stuck to it.
I do understand your point and l partially agree too.
However, this is science fiction space opera and l suppose the ranks don't need to match real life ranks
What is important to me is attempting align and make some sense of the ranks to the actual storyline and SW lore
john mollo was also a military historian he knew very well what he was doing; the problem was more about other sources that came after that didnt think about consistency and just used ESB, ESB was basically done to make the ranking more easy to understand - more squares = higher rank in ANH the system was understandable but more complex in nature. but since nobody cared to talk to mollo about them when he was still alive it is not really possible to understand his system and sadly the new canon charts are half baked and arent really that consistent; they didnt even get ersos rank right....
@@heAd3rwhy do you say that Erso’s rank was incorrect?
because in the movie (flashback scene) Erso wore YYYYR and not YYYYYR as the chart claimes therefore the chart is far from being correct besides other obvious mistakes@@auggie2295
@@auggie2295He’s one rank higher than the one he wears
it's my rank chart :p It is still a work in progress. As with moth models, we find the ones that best explain what we are seeing, and this one seems to fit the best.
Well l thought it was great 👍 but l suppose it's still working progress. As l mentioned, l liked the way you aligned the plaques with SW productions. However, l wondered where your notes came from?
Can I get a link to the rank chart?
@@timothybrandriff6499 www.reddit.com/r/MawInstallation/comments/xx5uq4/imperial_officer_ranks_based_off_of_system_used/
Aren't you that guy from star wars books? 😮 an Imperial Officer working with Darth Vader? 😮
I've always been frustrated by the inconsistency. Long live the empire!
I worked at West End Games in the late 80s through the mid 90s, before leaving to join Decipher. I did not get to work on the rank plaques in The Imperial Sourcebook, which actually had Surface Marshals, High Colonels, Commodores, & Line Captains in the sourcebook but no corresponding rank plaques. I did take part in the creation of the very detailed ranking system found in the Star Wars Technical Commentaries which can be found online.
That's interesting stuff - I've read through loads of the West End Games Sourcebooks and there is very little on actual rank plaques at all from what I could see. However, they are packed with loads of great detail which I enjoy reading.
@@ImperialsExplained The Imperial Sourcebook goes into quite detailed accounts of the ISB, the Inquisitorius, and is a wealth of information for Imperial Capital ships & fighters.
@@imperialadvisor4880 I shall take a look, thanks for the info 👍
@@ImperialsExplained another great source for imperial stuff is WEGs old Death Star Technical Companion!
would you say that the new canon used your system as a reference?
Great vid as always
I’ve seen sources saying that double row plaques are often used in place of singular row plaques to show a senior position, like a Star Destroyer captain, or Academy Commandant, or Task Force commander in order to display the officer’s importance over other officer staff
I am interested to know where these sources are you mentioned. All the sources I have found to date don't point to any of those ranks with double rows.
@@ImperialsExplained based on the following, I also understood double rows to be command positions as oppossed to normal rank...the obvious error being the two Gozanti Freighter (sp?) pilots in Mandolorian: The Heiress i.imgur.com/F8m6IPE.png
@@overweightkenobi8353 Because the Mandalorian is set in 9 ABY, their double rown rank are in line with my video.
This is the chart that has been used and updated in the costuming community for years and years (created and maintained by Robert as seen in his comment chain above). I have always been partial to this sector vs. non-sector style
Cool video!
I like the idea that the ranking system changed during a time where civil war was happening and more and more people were joining or forced to join the imperial military requiring new ranks for the war time effort
Well, that is the narrative given by the expanded universe source material from West End Games in the 1990s. But it does make sense given that Death Star centralized most of the top officers. So, when it was destroyed, a huge rank system vacuum was created, meaning the system had to be changed 👍
Such fine elaboration.
RotJ really didn't help by giving every officer the same rank plaque
Agreed 👍
Wasn't there a Legends explanation that they were trying to hide numbers ir something?
Thank you for your explanation
The Bad Batch should not be considered when looking at the Empire, because it is a direct contradiction to when Imperial uniforms were created, since Tarkin's appearance in Revenge of the Sith happens after his appearance in the Bad Batch, and we have confirmation that there was no default Imperial uniform until shortly after Jedi Fallen Order (hence why no uniformed officers are ever seen in the game). Dave Filoni has been known to disregard any other sources and blindly follow his own desires to make extremely flawed stories which require higher and higher budgets to make any good.
Interesting point and l can see that the Bad Batch was out of kilter with the order of SW. I didn't particularly like the series either myself.
They could of said something like the single rows were originally outer rim to mid rim sectors, minus moffs, Grand moffs, Grand Admirals & Grand Generals. Double Rows being the core, colony & expansion regions of the galaxy. Then the Battle of Yavin disaster screwed everthing up and you had fleets & armies going everywhere.
@@TheMrPeteChannel possibly
I know it's a costume error in Return of The Jedi where the officers are awearing the same rank insignia.
But a real world example of offficers, NCOs, and enlisted all wearing the same rank insignia is the Soviet Army honour guard uniform.
On that uniform, regardless of rank, they wear generic СА(Cyrillic abbreviation for Soviet Army) shoulder rank insignia which would otherwise be what an private/soldat would normally wear.
Continuing with my own analysis of the Imperial ranking system I have correlated colors Blue/Red/Yellow the number of tabs and the placements of this color tabs on the placard. The logical conclusion is that the Imperial ranking system applies a two tone color system to determines True rank and level of Operational Authority. If we examine the Imperial Army and Navy and the rank placards of Grand Moff Tarkin / Grand Admiral Thrawn and Grand General Tagge the Blue colored tabs come off as the predominant and the ISB a paramilitary organization seems to primarily use Blue tabs as well. Yellow tabs seem to also correlate to True military rank as Colonal Petigar and General Romodi primarily have yellow tabs. Red tabs seem to correlate to operational authority the example would be one red tab would represent the authority over platoon size formation two would represent the authority over a company size formation. It would be fair and reasonable for one to ask why not just have one color and why do the two-tone system a real world military example would be the United states army an officer of the rank captain commands a company the company will have an executive officer who will be a first Lieutenant who will also command the platoon the company will be comprised of three to five platoons. Platoons are generally commanded by second lieutenants if there are five platoons in the company one of them is commanded by a first Lieutenant who is also the executive officer there may be another first Lieutenant who only commands a platoon out of the five platoons using the imperial system having a visualization for lower and superior officers to know who had greater authority within the company structure out of the two first lieutenants one first Lieutenant would have one red tap the executive officer would have 2 red tabs. I also believe it's worth noting that once an officer reaches a certain rank in the system the red tabs have to be scaled up the example would be instead of platoon one red tab would represent regiment level authority 2 would represent a legion three would represent a division.
Long live the Empire indeed.
Is there a link to this Maw Installation post? This sounds like a really cool chart (I've been wanting to track)
I will put a link in the description.
Short addition, possible correction, the imperial Uniforms are, to my knowledge, based not on Nazi German, but imperial German uniforms - precisely the "Ulanka" Ulan (cavalry) uniform jackets from WW1. If you google Ulanka, you will immediately see what I mean, especially compared to the button-down Wehrmacht jackets of WW2. Von Richthofen aka the Red Baron is usually photographed in one of them.
Very good video 👍
Thank you my friend. Good to see you back 👍
I said that i would make Lego Rank Insignias, well i made a Grand Moff, General, Commander and Captain. Im sorry i cant show you the images. Long Live the Empire!
I’m more confused about Ramparts rank because he’s suppose to be a admiral but has a brigadier general plaque.
Rampart has the same rank plaque as Admiral Antonio Motti from A New Hope who sat on the Joint Chiefs. It appears to me that this is what Rampart was trying to achieve prior to his demise.
@@ImperialsExplained ok, so it must have changed over time then.
It would be pretty simple if Lucasfilm would make navy doubles and other branches singles
Maybe they change to double cause it was hard to count the ammount of rectangle on a long rank
I’m still confused as to why Tarkin is called a Grand Moff yet some people still call him Governor and then you have Pryce who is a Governor but she and Tarkin have the exact same plaque and she calls him Governor as well he even though he is a Grand Moff I don’t get it
In essence, they are both Governors just of differing jurisdictions. A Moff controls a sector and a Grand Moff controls an Oversector but are governing those parts of the galaxy.
There are planetary governors, sector governors and overserctor governors.
@@alberto2141Yes Planetary Governors also came into it too.
@@ImperialsExplained Now that I think about it, Imperials like Grotton were given the Governor position even with a lower rank as shown by Grotton Lieutenant's plaque.
@@alberto2141 That's correct, the planetary governors were lower in rank than a Moff. They could be any officer rank as long they were appointed by their superiors. The Prefect was a title used by officers as a small-scale governor.
Whats the link to the chart?
Here is the link for you - www.flickr.com/photos/28215341@N07/51869019845/
the in universe elplaination is as good as any, after battle of yavin the empire changed some stuff, and the rank plaques was one the things changed
I can’t find the website, could somebody send it 😢?
I know legends is vague but no major general or lieutenant general while verrs was a major general an army General holds 4 spaced red over 4 Blue tiles with 2 code cylinders also no sector or High General
Listen it’s all about how many day quail and nuquil u got on your chest. And how many pens and how many pockets. Tracked that from anh
Of course Rebels isn't consistent, pretty much everything in that Show was not realy thought out and the the Shwo has limited Quality in General
Yes SW Rebels does appear totally out of line with most explanations of imperial rank plaques, however, I think it might be that Disney used double-row plaques for Sector or Fleet command.
way to explain it without explaining it!
What didn't l explain about this content that you wanted to know?