Ranks in Star Wars

[Brask]

A few months before I became a member of this site I was very ill. My mother, in her kindness, let me have a week off school- unfortunately there is little other than reading and watching TV that can be done when bedridden. I therefore found myself watching the original trilogy over and over again, as well as reading EU books. And something has caused me huge anoyance since then.

What the heck is the Imperial rank system?

I have it sort of figured out from The Empire Strikes Back. All officers wear pairs of blue and red blocks on their uniforms:

6 pairs for an Admiral
4 pairs for a Captain
2 pairs for a lieutenant

But there are gaps- What about 5 pairs, 3 pairs and one pair. Does the empire have some aversion to odd numbers?

I am something of a naval fanatic so useing logic one would assume that the gaps are:

5= Vice Admiral
3= Commander
1= Ensign

But I could be wrong for a number of reasons. Soem navys have no rank like commander, nor do they have vice-admirals. Instead they have commodores. The problem is that both are used in SW books. But the main problem is this:

The stupid things keep changing!

Captain Needa wears 3 pairs. Admiral Piet wears only 4 pairs in ROJ. Vader refers to almost everyone as commander. In ANH the system only has single bars. The position of insignia shifts from left to right. The army seems to have a different set to the navy (rectangles instead of squares and the top rank have four). Authors seem to have no idea either. They just say "captains bars" etc.

As you can see I'm obsessive, confused and very, very annoyed. Does anyone have the answers?

[MasterPewter]

NO. but.... this sounds like a very good question for "ask the Jedi Council" on the star wars web site.

WWW.Starwars.com

I will look for it there and would also like to see the answer. in fact i would love to see them answer a question with " I have no idea either"

Good luck

[JMK]

There is an answer to this and its in my star wars technical journal. I'd get it, but its all the way upstairs and those 10 steps are way too far right now...

[Alpha]

http://www.theforce.net/swtc/insignia/

That might have somethin.

[Brask]

I haven't got an answer from Starwars.com yet but the sight that Alpha recommended is great! It all makes sense now.

It is a little complicated to explain all of it but some of the problems are solved:

The difference between insignia in ANH and ESB is because the officers are from different forces. These men are all members of Grand Moff Tarkin's fleet- which is regional. The insignia used in ESB is that of Vader's fleet, these a not part of the same force as those on the First Death Star.

The difference between ESB and ROJ is actually a blooper. They order all the insignia the same therefore Piet wears the weong insignia as does the Death Star Commander who is a Moff.

The difference between Captain Piet's insignia and Captain Needa's is because Piet is senior. The site suggests that when Piet is Captain of the Executor he also commands the ships which protect her, he would therefore be senior to Needa who only commands one ship.

There is a suggestion that officers with black uniforms and insignia are actuall INTEL or ISB officers. The writer has also suggested that (and I know that this is EU now) Grand Admiral Thrawn's insignia is from another force entirely. The insignia doesn't fit with either the regional or Death's Head Sqd. system- so it must be a different force. Perhaps this is the insignia of the High Command?

Any how:

I have the answers!!!

I suggest you check out http://www.theforce.net/swtc/insignia/