On the march for authenticity, appreciation and creative amusement, the 501st Legion is closing in on Prince George.
The region's chapter of the Star Wars villain cos-play (costumed player) group - the Lower Mainland-based Outer Rim Garrison - will be on maneuvers at Northern FanCon when the event proceeds in May. A forward team of costumed Sith-sided soldiers will take up positions at CN Centre and the Kin Centre.
The 501st Legion was founded by a couple of buddies in South Carolina in 1997. Albin Johnson and Tom Crews enjoyed role playing in their own homemade costumes based on the Star Wars franchise, especially the bad guy garb. After all, stormtroopers were visually striking and got to take part in some of the most interesting fiction the silver screen has ever produced.
Johnson and Crews suspected a few others might want to join them in their pursuit of making screen-authentic gear and showing it off in public. But they needed a cool name - an imperial name.
According to Johnson, the number 501 was chosen mostly for its indication of a sizable force and its phonetics when said out loud. There is no direct connection to any Star Wars references (or Levis Jeans either).
After they had the digits they liked, Johnson said they set about picking the name for the group itself - something that paid homage to the allied military from the Second World War. Squad? Brigade? Squadron?
"When I re-watched Return Of The Jedi and noticed that Palpatine mentioned two of his 'finest legions' were on Endor, I knew we had something that had roots in the Star Wars universe. Problem solved," he said in an online statement.
The internet then was relatively new but effective. In only a few weeks, a call for peers in their area became a full-scale invasion. Johnson said it only took a few calls in from the outer rim to realize this was bigger than two guys in a basement. They were quick to form a structure for marshaling the interest.
"Squads were resurrected as units of very local orientation. And the term detachments (lifted from Vader's speech aboard the Tantive IV) was used to describe theme-based groups within the club," said Johnson. "Since the detachment Vader sent to the surface of Tatooine probably consisted primarily of desert troopers, it made sense that a detachment would have a specialized orientation. Outposts made sense for remote areas. The outpost on Dantooine was referred to in A New Hope as well, so again we lucked out with a term from the trilogy."
The 501st Legion goes deeper into the Star Wars franchise than merely fans playing dress-up at their own events. A charity component was added to give their appearances more community value, and they were soon being called into action for causes in their respective areas. They were also commissioned for public events and fan conventions of all sorts.
"There is nothing quite like a group of stormtroopers to bring attention to an event," said a 501st Legion statement. "Unlike individual entertainers, the 501st Legion functions as a group creating a true science-fiction/fantasy ambience with a wide range of professional-grade costumes and props. Our costumes are the result of careful research, fabrication and a lot of hard work. The majority of our costume components are hand built and assembled in our spare time."
All the likenesses they are recreating are owned by the artists and creators within Lucasfilm. That company's lawyers may have staged an insurrection, but instead they took it as a compliment. In fact, they helped arm the faction. Many subsequent Lucasfilm products like books, toys and video games have reverse engineered the 501st Legion into actual existence within the Star Wars world. George Lucas himself, founder of the Star Wars empire, has attended their events.
There are now units of the 501st Legion all over Europe, South America, Asia, in Africa and the South Pacific, many regions of the United States and several wings in Canada. There are also special interest units like snowtroopers, the speeder-bike squad, bounty hunters, and many others.
For the first time in galactic history, some of these cos-play soldiers will conduct a campaign in this city. They will be on the floor of FanCon and there might be some surprise community appearances as well.
