Titus

Why the Empire?
 
Eli Vanto honestly. 

I dunno, I liked it but I don't think it was as good as any of the other original films, or even TFA. Initially I thought Hobo Luke might work - we saw Yoda living like a hermit in a fairly unpleasant way, and Obi Wan was a bit of a desert rat as well, so there's a grand tradition amongst elder Jedi of being a bit... weird. I genuinely thought Luke was doing a Yoda - trying to test Rey's patience before revealing his true nature, but then I realised the whole thing was serious. We did get to see Rey being cool and patient and serious about getting Luke's help but we didn't get the right payoff. Seeing Yoda was cool though, but I think his character was a bit weird. Very much stuck on the 'crazy old man' act he was putting on in Episode V rather than the sage wise Jedi he actually turned out to be.
 
I think my - and many fans' - problem with the concept of the Jedi not being the be all and end all of the Force is that we've seen it before and done far better. In The Clone Wars we saw the Jedi order being portrayed as inefficient and decadent, and in Rebels we had Ahsoka who properly eschewed the Jedi Order to do things in a different way. Luke's way of doing it just wasn't very interesting, and it would have been better, I think, to have Rey realise the Jedi had to end on her own. That avoids a belovéd character being turned into something he really isn't, and gets the same message across.
 
I don't really mind killing Snoke off - he was far too much a Surrogate Palpatine, and it's good to move past that with a younger man at the helm and a different master-apprentice dynamic between Kylo and Hux. The casino scene as trencher mentioned seemed... a bit superfluous, but the ending battle scene was good fun. Don't get all the Rose hate, frankly, and Phasma could have had a better send off. 
 
This turned into a slightly longer post than intended... sorry chaps...

I think the funniest to me as a staff officer was "Vader's bodyguard". Like Vader needs someone to protect him , not to mention I do not have the physique to be one lol.
 
Then the biggest face palm to me was at a con where I wore the R1 poncho. One of the people I took a picture with hashtagged me on IG with #generalhux . Though no no complaints there, I got a promotion!

I must say, as I've gotten older, and having read some of the newer books (especially Catalyst), I've found it increasingly difficult to relate to the Empire in the same way as I did when I was younger. I used to genuinely think that the Empire was a fairly decent organisation - the Thrawn quote in my signature being the basis of that - and I was able to separate the sort of overzealous mystical Dark Side stuff from the day-to-day business of Imperial government; my thought procedure was very much that Palpatine was clearly insane and cartoonishly evil, which made it easier for me to isolate him from people like Piett and others, who just seemed to be doing their jobs by protecting the Empire from the war. I just read Catalyst and it became slightly clearer that the overzealous mystical Dark Side stuff was kind of inseparable and inherent to the Empire; the Death Star, formerly another cartoonishly evil object that was so unrealistic that it had no bearing on my imagination, became so much more real with Catalyst; the Empire ravaging 'Legacy' worlds and pillaging entire planets for industry sort of hit quite close to home.
 
I think that's part of my reason for choosing an IOC costume. The officers are rarely shown to be over-the-top in their villainy; they're portrayed very differently to Vader and the Emperor. They represent order and honour and duty rather than the slightly less savoury aspects of the Sith. They also have really really cool uniforms!

I must say, as I've gotten older, and having read some of the newer books (especially Catalyst), I've found it increasingly difficult to relate to the Empire in the same way as I did when I was younger. I used to genuinely think that the Empire was a fairly decent organisation - the Thrawn quote in my signature being the basis of that - and I was able to separate the sort of overzealous mystical Dark Side stuff from the day-to-day business of Imperial government; my thought procedure was very much that Palpatine was clearly insane and cartoonishly evil, which made it easier for me to isolate him from people like Piett and others, who just seemed to be doing their jobs by protecting the Empire from the war. I just read Catalyst and it became slightly clearer that the overzealous mystical Dark Side stuff was kind of inseparable and inherent to the Empire; the Death Star, formerly another cartoonishly evil object that was so unrealistic that it had no bearing on my imagination, became so much more real with Catalyst; the Empire ravaging 'Legacy' worlds and pillaging entire planets for industry sort of hit quite close to home.
 
I think that's part of my reason for choosing an IOC costume. The officers are rarely shown to be over-the-top in their villainy; they're portrayed very differently to Vader and the Emperor. They represent order and honour and duty rather than the slightly less savoury aspects of the Sith. They also have really really cool uniforms!

I must say, as I've gotten older, and having read some of the newer books (especially Catalyst), I've found it increasingly difficult to relate to the Empire in the same way as I did when I was younger. I used to genuinely think that the Empire was a fairly decent organisation - the Thrawn quote in my signature being the basis of that - and I was able to separate the sort of overzealous mystical Dark Side stuff from the day-to-day business of Imperial government; my thought procedure was very much that Palpatine was clearly insane and cartoonishly evil, which made it easier for me to isolate him from people like Piett and others, who just seemed to be doing their jobs by protecting the Empire from the war. I just read Catalyst and it became slightly clearer that the overzealous mystical Dark Side stuff was kind of inseparable and inherent to the Empire; the Death Star, formerly another cartoonishly evil object that was so unrealistic that it had no bearing on my imagination, became so much more real with Catalyst; the Empire ravaging 'Legacy' worlds and pillaging entire planets for industry sort of hit quite close to home.
 
I think that's part of my reason for choosing an IOC costume. The officers are rarely shown to be over-the-top in their villainy; they're portrayed very differently to Vader and the Emperor. They represent order and honour and duty rather than the slightly less savoury aspects of the Sith. They also have really really cool uniforms!

They have cookies

I'm planning on making cadet Eli Vanto for Awesomecon next month, and I know a few others are interested in it as well. Definitely something we can start working on!!

Doesn't anyone charge their phones anymore?
 
Anyway, I feel like you're right. This is an officer academy; Rebels was a Stormtrooper academy (or at least some kind of grunt academy). So they are different.
 
But thenI feel like the Rebels ones should maybe end up with one of the Stormtrooper detachments.

I read the comic and the cadets never wore a helmet. We could discuss wether it's something only army recruits wear, or it's special to a certain academy e.g. Coruscant without and Lothal with helmet. But in the end we have different sources with different results. I don't see any reason to give Rebels a preference and dump the Thrawn comic, especially when the optional helmet would allow both versions.

I also think the helmet should be optional. It might help to get more people interested in this costume. Not everybody likes to wear a helmet.

You both are a case for the ISB  

I mean, canonically speaking, I guess your uniform was modelled after Tarkin's... 

I definitely agree. 
 
With the new references seen here, we can see that the helmets are worn significantly less than they appear in Rebels. They don't actually appear at all in the comic, so it would make sense to move them to an optional accessory for the Cadet CRL as a whole.

A few IOC members from around the globe met up in London to celebrate the start of the year of the dog
 

The single blue rank tile for Eli is super interesting, I agree that I think it's for Cadet but I'm curious to see what they use for Ensign! I was originally going to do a crewman and switch to officer after reading Thrawn because I liked Eli so much tbh, so I'd like to match his Ensign rank bar. 
 
I am also very pleased they left Thrawn in his green uniform, it clashes just as badly as I imagined when I read the book lol. 
 
Also, re: Armada, the Chimaera expansion is absolutely gorgeous, they put a lot of effort into the details. 

Oh gosh, I forgot this was coming out! Really looking forward to seeing Vanto (I sort of fell in love with him in the book). Having looked at a single panel from the Polygon article I think the single blue tile is meant to be Cadet.

The wife clearly supports my nerd hobbies:

He's also a Lieutenant when he goes to the Academy.

I'm going to laugh if you find out he's wearing a different rank bar then you and you're forced to buy a new one.
 

I went from "forgetting fairly often that Solo was even happening" to "cautiously optimistic"!
I really enjoyed the apparent change of pace and tone, and the musical choices were very interesting! I also absolutely adore the casting decision for Lando, I think he's going to be perfect. Curious that I don't believe the Empire/Imperials to be the true villains of the piece, which actually makes something of a nice change? It's good to have some variety in the thing that we love.  Plus I don't have to sit and tolerate scruffy rebels/nerf herders blowing uniforms and white kitchen appliances apart and feeling sad about it.

I've been replaying KOTOR and I'd love to see Admiral Saul Karath's uniform done in real life. All those cords, ribbons, and golden embroidery!
 
I've also always like the Imperial Agent outfit from TOR.

Admiral Trench from the Clone Wars had a swagger-cum-walking stick thing, but he was a giant spider so perhaps he's not the best precedent.

Admiral Trench from the Clone Wars had a swagger-cum-walking stick thing, but he was a giant spider so perhaps he's not the best precedent.

Hux = "Space Weasley" or "General Weasley"
¯\_(ツ)_/¯