Why So Many Rebel Named Alternate Art Cards?

By GrumpyMuffin, in X-Wing

Does it seem odd (and slightly unfair to the Imperials) that the majority of the named alternate art cards are on the Rebel side? Sure, the Imperials got Colonel Jendon, Boba Fett and Mauler Mithel but the Rebels have Ten Numb, Luke, Biggs, Wedge, Chewie, Lando and now Han. There are also the generic pilot cards but again, the Rebel side rules - Forgive me if a missed a few.

We all know that its been "Rebel rules" when it comes to the huge ships (hurry up Gen-Con, and hope for Imperials) but this whole Rebel favoritism - if it can be called that - seems like it's starting to become a trend.

Respectfully,

An Imperial-Faithful Player

Quick, give me FIVE Imperial Characters NAMED in the movie that we see flying ships.

Now how many named Rebel characters can you give me?

This should explain a large part of the reason you may see more alternative art Rebel ships than Imperial ships.

So here is a list that I "Borrowed" from a post from another website:

- Han Solo

- Chewbacca

- Wedge Antilles
- Luke Skywalker
- Ten Numb
- Lando Calrissian
- Dagger Squadron Pilot
- Gold Squadron Pilot

- Bandit Squadron Pilot

- Boba Fett
- Mauler Mithel
- Colonel Jendon
- Black Squadron Pilot

- Academy Pilot

- Scimitar Squadron Pilot

I think there are a few I have missed but it certainly swayed in favor of rebels, but I think as someone else pointed out there weren't many movie shots of the other imperial fighter pilots (mainly star destroyer admirals etc)

Edited by Mace Windu

Quick, give me FIVE Imperial Characters NAMED in the movie that we see flying ships.

Let's see...well, Darth Vader is an easy one.

In A New Hope, there's "One". In their escape from the Death Star, Luke says, "I got One! I got One!" Then Han tells him, "Don't get Cocky." So that's another named pilot.

In Return of the Jedi Han tells Luke, "Don't get Jittery." There's another one. Also in that movie, Lando instructs his Rebel compatriots to try to get "Somovthem" to follow them to the surface of the second Death Star.

So there's five.

...oh, and I believe that Nien Nunb also spouted off a few more TIE pilot names to Lando. Pretty sure that's what he was saying.

You're a cheeky git. I like you.

Actually you have alternate art cards for every single TIE ship in the game – in all their incarnations.

Just get a bunch of Mauler Mithel cards, cut them in half and glue it to the top part of any TIE pilot. Voilà. New alt art card.

mauler-mithel.png

Actually you have alternate art cards for every single TIE ship in the game – in all their incarnations.

Just get a bunch of Mauler Mithel cards, cut them in half and glue it to the top part of any TIE pilot. Voilà. New alt art card.

mauler-mithel.png

I don't know who they're trying to fool, anyway. That's clearly not Mauler Mithel!

Actually, it is. You can be definite about this.

[Geek Obsessive] Because his pilot serial number, DS-61-2 is in aurebesh on the brow of his helmet between the two imperial symbols [/Geek Obsessive]

Agree there are less named pilots, but generic pilots are there aplenty. Didn't realise there'd been a black squadron one, to be honest.

****. Now I need to try and get a full squadron's worth of them.

soontir1.jpg
Soontir Fel maybe?

Those serial numbers don't look like any Aurebesh I've seen. Maybe it's Southern Aurebesh?

800px-TIEpilot_anh1080hd.pnggalbasic_table.gif

Really makes you wonder what they're holding onto the Darth Vader alt art card for...

I've never seen the Aurebesh alphabet before (never even heard the term Aurebesh before I came on the forums).

But what strikes me is:

Why do they use a pair of underpants for an asterisk?

And more importantly:

Have galaxies far, far away invented underpants? If not, they're depriving millions of school children (and less mature adults such as myself) a wealth of comedy gold.

And even more importantly:

Do named tie pilots have lucky underpants? It would explain how they live so long...

Something for us all to ponder there I think. Perhaps the art cards could be pictures of their respective lucky underwear?

Really makes you wonder what they're holding onto the Darth Vader alt art card for...

Maybe after a buff to TIE advance.

Well considering there are only four different TIE Pilot helmet variants seen in the movies, and so few scenes with the TIE Pilots. They are kind of limited. I'd say that's why most of the cards show a fighter not a Pilot.

That picture of Fel was such a crappy photoshop job by Decipher for the CCG. Fel deserved better than that. Let's just slap red stripes on a screen grab from ANH, no one will notice!

The Aurebesh in the old movies doesn't translate to anything readable. It was just there for looks, but in the newer movies they actually did make the aurebesh translate into actual words.

Soontir Fel

ce1.jpg

You have to consider that Star Wars is an work of the 70's and 80's, so the whole "a society relying on technology is dehumanizing it's members"-theme popular at the time is in full swing here. Add to that the use some pseudo-facist or militaristic imagery to mark out that the bad guys are an evil, oppressive force (which in turn implies dehumanisation).

Hence the Empire is represented mostly by barely characterized (often unnamed) persons in the grey, white or black uniforms or persons whose uniform completely obscures the face, which is usually the most reckognizable feature of a person, and thus making them indistinct for another

(Except for Tarkin and Vader no Imperial is named on screen in ANH; in ESB Imperial officers are named but mostly only to distingish them from another in the bridge scenes or to make it more impactful when Vader kills them; in RotJ not even the Emperor gets a name on screen!)

This carries over with the opposite mold for the Rebellion; note how almost every Rebel-character (even the nameless-extras) in the movies never has their faces obscured? (just compare the flight attire of the pilots) The dear freedom fighters are all required to show at least a hint of individualism and are humanitized to greater degree by simply allowing us to see their faces; add on top of that in RotJ the Rebellion upgrades from "having the token Wookie around" to being a full-fledged colation of multiple speices which had to be displayed visually.

As such there is much more visual varietly in the Rebellion and so more material to work with for limited run cards.

The Star Wars are propaganda films for the Rebel Alliance, glorifying the unsanctioned actions against a legitimate government. They try to dehumanize hard-working men and women who put on their uniform everyday to bring peace to a galaxy that has seen years and years of war. They do that by turning the enlisted of the Empire into faceless, helmeted pieces of cannon fodder.

There were cooks, janitors and nurses on that Death Star.

Let's see...well, Darth Vader is an easy one.

In A New Hope, there's "One". In their escape from the Death Star, Luke says, "I got One! I got One!" Then Han tells him, "Don't get Cocky." So that's another named pilot.

In Return of the Jedi Han tells Luke, "Don't get Jittery." There's another one. Also in that movie, Lando instructs his Rebel compatriots to try to get "Somovthem" to follow them to the surface of the second Death Star.

So there's five.

You forgot "Toomanyofthem" from Episode VI. (Actually, he might be a relative of "Someofthem") He's so famous, that even though the rebels were swarmed one of their pilots managed to spot him right on!

Edited by Farlander

Hi! Sorry I'm apparently late to the party, but when was an alt-art Han announced?

Well mostly of the players prefer the Unique good guys and a generic bad guys, so it only follow the natural flow of stuff, greettings