@@trentn1127 You forget that in the canon, it's not a supposed to appear as a take over, instead it's a 'reorganisation' of the Republic, and so it makes sense to me that the flag that would change only slightly
Yes, Empire was basically a "improved and more safe Republic" in the minds of the Imperials. So this design, improved and more firm that the Republican design, was perfect. Rupture, but continuity, perfect. Also, in a viewer/reader perspective, the color swap symbolizes the complete 180° turn of the regime. More simply "the good guys are became the bad guys", "The Republic has fallen to the Dark Side".
Also, I'm always amazed how the influence of the Sith are always hidden (less or more) in the designs...even if it's a bit weird to not see the characters reacts to these^^ Sith six-branch symbol, Galactic Empire symbol, CSI symbol and First Order symbol pretty much shares heavy similarities. Just make a test: draw each symbol on one another, and you'll see ;)
"Yes, I work for Hydra. My uniform is solid evil and every few weeks we have to report for mandatory evil speech meetings, but the healthcare is killer."
Hydra isn't real it's a fake organization from the marvel universe if it did exist the United nations would hunt them down knowingly they'd be a major threat
Never understood why Austria and Hugary had separate arms. The Habsburgd rule over both. Combine the same way like how the Plantagenets ruled England and also claimed France and combined the arms of both kingdoms.
@@JBGARINGAN Very simlpe, the Austrians didn't do anything to protect Hungary from turkish attacks, using them as a living shield. At least, that is what my hungarian grandma says.
@@JBGARINGAN From 1848 to 1849 there was a revolt in hungary, which was beaten down by the habsburgs with the help of the russians. After this, the hungarians turned to "passive resistance", nőt working governmant jobs, not paying taxes, etc. In 1867 the habsburgs were in a tight spot, because of the war with prussia. To prevent an other rebbelion, the habsburgs made up with the hungarians, and made a country relativly simular to the US. Thats why both of the Flag of both hungary and Austria is represented in the Austro- Hungarian flag.
I hated the Blood Pack symbol from Mass Effect 2. It's a HUMAN fist and a HUMAN skull on a backdrop of red which is the colour of HUMAN blood, belonging to a mercenary group comprised almost exclusively of KROGANS with the only other species within it being Vorcha.
its retarded af... blood pact (w40k) >>>>>>>>>> blood pack (ME) non of those aliens have red blood yet they are using red colour as a symbol... ME has cool lore but this is fail
@@cromcruach5035 Many Krogan are on the contrary very much cool with humans as they introduced themselves to the Galaxy by going to war against the Turians and then managing to hold their own against Batarian Terrorism
theFairyDongMother compared to some fictional flags and even other real ones (see about half of the US state flags), Mexico looks like the old flag of Libya from ‘77
The Imperium of Mankind symbol also has some, more obscure, and I have to admit, surprisingly deep symbolism for being WH40k. One eye is closed, marking how mankind chooses to ignore/forget their past, the other is open, indicating instead how it chooses to only look at the future. This is kind of a smart reference to the Emperor original goals, which was creating a new humanity detached from the past and only looking to create a prosperous future.
Another element to the symbol of the aquila was introduced in the Gaunt's Ghosts novels by Dan Abnett. A number of times in the novels characters are mentioned making the sign of the aquila as a symbol of devotion or to call on the Emperor's blessing, much like a Christian might cross themselves. It's a simple gesture to make - place your hands one atop the other with palms facing towards the chest, and hook your thumbs together. The palms and fingers form the body and the wings of the aquila, with the ends of the hooked thumbs forming the two heads o the aquila. The fact that such a simple gesture can make such a resemblance to the symbol of the Imperium speaks to the depth of the symbol of the aquila.
That one eye is closed because the first time it was used in a lead casting the material stuck and filled it in. At least so I was told back when GW-US was based in Baltimore. I worked there in Trade Sales and Mail Order from 1998 through 2000. Wether or not it’s true I couldn’t say. But considering the quality of some of the mold forms the UK sent us I wouldn’t be surprised.
The real world has plenty of nations and organizations who have no clue about good flag design. Fictional nations and organizations are no different. Maybe their poor flag design can even be taken as a clue to be read. For example, the Alliance design from Firefly/Serenity. Seems like just the sort of awful flag that would be designed by a committee with broken ideas of what will get people to rally around it and unify. It SHOULD be a bad design within the context of the show and even change a lot to reflect their actual LACK of unity and cohesiveness, although you're right that as a flag design in and of itself it seriously sucks.
duanevp yeah, they make sense in the context of the world, but he’s talking about the quality of the FLAGS. In real world, you can still make fun of flags, even if there’s a reason why they suck.
I was gonna say this too! The Anglo-Sino Alliance is a bureaucratic mess that has allowed bad ideas to flourish. A well-designed flag would not suit them. Contrast the Indepenants' flag: if follows all the visual rules, and its colors make it quite easy to read as symbolizing a variety of values contrary to the Alliance's mix of conformity and bureaucratic neglect. It's always reminded me of some Carribean and African flags or color schemes, which suits the parallels to those 20th century "third-world" nations attempts not to be pawns of the major powers... Now if only Joss had been smart enough to lean into THAT more...
I wonder if Hydra has some sort of PR-friendly logo that they can use? Like the tentacles are replaced by little olive branches nesting underneath a smiley face or something like that.
A TED talk gave one good rule for a flag: Show it to a 3 year old for a few seconds and then make it draw it from memory. If the kids fails, so does your flag.
@@richardroxburgh2984 after looking at the Parade of Athletes/Nations from this years Olympics proves a lot of flags have some detail more than others.
I always thought the squadron emblems of Ace Combat were fantastic. Of course they are often incredibly complicated compared to the flags, but the aircraft in the story-significant squadrons usually have a signature paint scheme or tail marking to go along with it.
I think it should also be noted that the "confusion" of the Star Wars Imperial emblem and the Republic Army is intentional. They didn't exist at the same time and are extensions of the other. The Republic Army emblem became the Imperial logo that in turn inspired the First Order emblem.
I definitely would not have picked the First Order as an example of good symbol design from Star Wars. To be honest, I found the symbol to not really pop in the least. From 20 yards away it would look like a black circle. Iconic. No, what I would have actually picked for good design in Star Wars would be the symbol of the Rebel Alliance, with a runner-up to the symbol of the Jedi Order. The symbol of the Rebel Alliance was canonically intentionally chosen to evoke the symbol of the Jedi Order, who the Rebels idolize. It follows every single rule you've set at the outset- it is simple, regularly shown in just a single color (in flag form it only uses red, black, and white) no lettering or complex seals, distinctive, and meaningful symbolism. The Rebel Alliance symbol is in fact so iconic that it is not only a good symbol IN-UNIVERSE but is also a fitting and well-recognized symbol IN THE REAL WORLD, being an instantly recognizable symbol of the Star Wars franchise.
First Order symbol looks like a tunnel into the darkness. It looks about as evil as the Hydra symbol if you ask me - so really, the argument about the evil lifestyle he used for the Hydra symbol applies equally to the First Order. I disagree about it being not distinctive enough, though. If I didn't hate the new Disney Star Wars canon, thus making me biased against pretty much everything from within it, I think I'd really, _really_ like the First Order symbol.
@@ptre21 Personally I like the Old Republic one the best from swtor, the white and blue background invokes the idea of a nation that is ultimately peaceful, hence it's connection to the jedi order, while the wings represent a idea of unity in the nation.
One of the most interesting things about the Aquila is its history. It's a development of the Double-Headed Eagle, one of the oldest symbols used by mankind, the earliest examples being a thousands-of-years old icon in central Anatolia, where the Emperor of Mankind is usually said to originate from. But as well, the Double-Headed eagle has almost always symbolized the concept of Empire, making it very suitable for the Imperium of Man
About Hydra, remember that during ww2, SS was a thing. They put skulls on everything and yet, countless people worked for them. You kind of underestimate the human psyche here.
Also I think HYDRA is supposed to be a runaway offshoot of the SS that kinda went rouge and decided to do the world dominion themselves, so doing an even more obviously evil symbol makes sense.
i personally like the greater nazi reich flag, its simple and fits for the place that uses it since its kind of a puppet state, so they get to kinda keep their original flag but it still reminds them of who the real leaders are
@@zoneofendless. I actually think the 45 degree angle is a good choice. The original American flag has the stars to prevent the flag from just being a series of rectangles at right angles to each other. Plus the 45 degree angle makes it stand out and impose itself over the rest of the old American flag even more, emphasizing the symbolism they're clearly going for.
Now that i think about it, fascism defining trait is unity under one flag. So instead of recognising the 50 autonomy of each states, the flag only recognises the one true government that will accept the existing culture until they are properly "educated"
I can’t believe after watching the Alien movies literally weekly since I was 7 years old with my dad that I only just saw the Y behind the W in the Wayland-Yutanai symbol
The "Man in the High Castle" flag was basically perfect. I get the simple thinking, BUT, the purpose in-universe was to influence Americans to accept Nazi rule with as little resistance as possible. Keeping almost the same flag goes to that end. The alternate flag you offered was simply an effort to be different. It would serve no useful in-universe purpose, and in fact would be counterproductive. Think of it this way: In "Philadelphia Experiment 2," the Nazi propagandist rejects a music video of German opera in favor of a Country/Bluegrass band looking like it's on the Opry. The vid kept as much "America" as possible, while still pushing the, "We won, you lost--live with it" message.
6:01 Fun fact, if what I was told is true, the double headed eagle was meant to show Rome's expansion and was looking over it's territories from Rome to Constantinople. Take that however you wish to the Imperium's territory.
Agreed. The double headed Eagle is to show the might and vastness of an empire. My example will be the Russian Empire’s coats of arms. The double headed eagle symbolizes that the empire rules east and west, the knight slaying a dragon is the original coats of arms of Muscovy, where the empire began as a (Grand) Duchy (later evolved to Tsardom and Empire). With how Russia has lands in both Europe and Asia, it stands to reason of a double headed eagle.
And in 8th Edition, it is starting to becoming the equivalent as Imperium is split in half due to Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade (fortunately, his "army" disintegrated into marauding warbands to launch offensive towards Terra after finishing off Cadia and opening up Warp Storms). Earth is okay, but Guilliman's Ultramar is becoming a new capital now.
Rome (Pre-Split) Actually primarily used a Single-Headed Eagle however I personally think that the HRE (In the West) and the Seljuks (in the East) made the use of a double-headed eagle made it mainstream amongst european nations. Though there were ones that didn't use a double-headed Eagle like the Germans (1871-1919) and the French (1804-1815, 1848-1870)
The only thing I disagree on is the idea that the Republic and Empire symbols don't work. (To say nothing of the fact you didn't even mention the Rebel Alliance's symbolism laden "Starbird".) For one, the Empire was trying to subsume the Republic. Trying to seamlessly fill the power vacuum created by the end of the Clone Wars. They picked an emblem that looked at least vaguely like the Republic on purpose as a way to legitimize themselves. Secondly, you can tell them apart easily at a distance. The one with the white in the middle is Imperial and the one with black in the middle is Republic. Not that you'd ever even see them side by side even in legends as the New Republic in both timelines uses the Starbird. And as for the symbolism? Look closely at the republic logo. It's the senate as seen from above. And the totalitarian Empire directly subverting that by inverting the colors has a lot of in universe meaning. And even meta meaning. The Republic was well intentioned, but had a dark core that ate it from the inside out, and the Empire was outwardly evil, but the light of hope remained inside. You can even go deeper with that one saying the hope can either refer to the people who rebelled or even specifically the good still in Vader that Luke brought out. Great video, by the way. I hadn't thought about any of the Republic and Empire logo symbolism until you showed them in the video.
the Empire literally came from the Republic...... Palpatine declared the Republic an Empire meaning it was the same country just different government type. It is like how Rome multiple times went from a Republic and an Empire and back again mostly during times of great peril which require strong and centralized leadership.
I feel like the osean flag is similar to the US flag after independence. OSEA is essentially the US in the strangereal universe. The white and blue might represent the sky.. as it is ace combat.
The Galactic Empire is the Republic, just better - thats the point.It's like complaining that the BRD and the DDR flags lacked distinctiveness. The Empire is the successor of the Republic, and conflating both to some degree is intended. The one thing that fits less is that the Rebel Alliance and New Republic have completely different emblems.
I was thinking of pointing out the same thing. The fact that it is hard to tell the Galactic Empire and Republic symbols from far away is because they were designed to be so close intentionally. The only time both should be viewable is during the transition period until they all get updated.
they dont have totaly different Symbols, or do you call this vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/e/ed/New_Republic.png/revision/latest?cb=20160906195249 totaly different to the symbol of the Alliance to restore the Republic?(i agree its les similar (and bad) then the OLd canon version of the NR but still close
Adding to the pot, one may say whatever they want about Rogue One, but Rogue One did portray the Empire as a viable place to live in the cutscene about Jyn's childhood. Engineers building the Death Star are just having a party like all normal people do. Every tyranny portrays itself as The Good Guys, and people under tyrannic rule tend to believe in it, even if for they own's safety and sanity (I have a first hand experience, as you can guess by my name). So the symbols of a tyranny IRL are to be attractive. First order's banner, in this sense, is more fictional and serves the purpose of the narrative rather of world-building.
Project Aces really went all out creating a world so different from ours but still believable at the same time. Though I think we can all agree that the Erusean flag is the best.
I'm glad you included the Imperial Aquila. Its symbolism stands out a lot; one eye closed to the past (as it is too painful), one eye open to the future (striving to be stronger and more powerful). Edit: Would really love you guys at the Templin Institute to do something on Warhammer 40k even-though it is difficult.
The Holy Inquisition would just like to politely inform you that having skulls as emblems on flags or insignias is not symbolism that has anything to do with evil, such views may be deemed heretical. We also want to take this moment to inform you that 8 pointed stars has everything to do with evil and may be cause for your excummunication and termination. - Sincerely, The Emperor's Holy Inquisition.
I feel like that the closed eye represents blind justice On the right side the eagle features a claw with spikes or something while the left is a normal eagle claw , I believe that the ‘spiked’ claw is representative of the military and law and order so by extension the closed eye on the ‘militaristic side of the eagle symbolising the blind justice of the Imperium
"The Empire and the Republic both had very good designs individually, but when viewed side by side I think it's all to easy to confuse the two." Yeah, no shit. That's kind of the point. The Republic turned into the Empire after all and the emblem expresses that beautifully. The First Order emblem on the other hand, while on its own at least not bad, really has no reason for why it looks the way it does. What does it represent? Where does it come from? You say it incorporates details of the previous symbols of the Empire and the Republic and that would make sense as the Order was presumably formed from a remnant of the Empire, but it really doesn't do that at all. Other than having an overall hexagonal symmetry it has nothing in common with either of those emblems.
That's Low-Key the point though. The First Order was remarkably different from the Empire, and the Flag designer probably wanted to make sure this flag represented that. Rather than it being associated with the Failed regimes that preceded it, they wanted the Galaxy to think that it was progressive and better.
@@MD-rl9kr Except they absolutely don't. Because they openly claim to be the inheritors of the empire's territories and authority and rely on the aesthetics, tactics and even old resources of the empire literally everywhere else.
Ace Combat's Flags, and the fact they have an entire world covered in amazing flags with amazing stories, is one of the reasons it's my favourite game series, even compared to other games that I've put so much time and effort into.
11:43, I thought of it like how the U.S. flag was constantly changing, due to new stars being added to represent new states. There was a time in America's history when the flag changed ever one or two years.
US had a number of variations but at some point they stopped adding stars until a large amount of new states came a long since it is quite a pain to redesign and change the flags every time. There are a lot of states that were not included in to the flag until much later. There aren't 50 different US flags, which would be insane amount. Imagine changing that slither every 1 percent progress.
"There are a lot of states that were not included in to the flag until much later." That's not quite right, the idea was not started untill 1818(before that it was 15 bars and 15 stars), but after that it's always less then a year. Flag designs are always retired on July 3rd and the new one takes it's place on July 4th so you will get some 2-3 stars additions when states were added within the same year..
Meanwhile the EU flag has remained the same, even though there's about 3 times as many members now as when it was created. I guess if it sticks around long enough and actually stabilises, it might end up more like the US flag, since the symbolism is similar. (the stars on the EU flag represent the 12 countries that founded it. One of which, ironically enough I suppose is Brittain...) Similarly the stripes on the US flag have a similar meaning while the number of stars has kept changing over time. The EU flag hasn't gotten around to ever being revised though.
The number of stars on the flag of the European Union has nothing to do with the number of countries. In fact, there weren't even twelve countries that founded the European Union, but just six: France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and West Germany
I like that one as well but I guess it goes against one rule he set with it being a bit too complicated. Still, could have been mentioned in the last segment.
Forget about Gondor, White Hand of Saruman is where it's at. Iconic, easy to draw, works well in black and white (mostly because it already is in black and white), sinister symbolism and an iconic way to apply it to your troops too! Not even the cooler versions of Eye of Sauron compare.
Complicated design has mostly to do with, can you recognise it from a distance. And yes, you can. A child could draw it from memory too. Will it be a simplified version? Probably, but still recognisable. :) Designs that I really love are the symbols for the elements (and nations/tribes/kingdoms/nomads that go with them) in Avatar the last airbender. Especially the fire nation flag is very striking. :)
On the Ace Combat front, I think the Republic of Emmeria has a good flag and insignia. The what appears to be a star inside of a rhombus looks striking and distinctive. makes a good roundel, too.
I’ve decided to make crests for each kingdom in my fantasy world. The flags aren’t what’s important, it’s the crest that is on it. Each crest will have inspiration from one important symbol, usually an animal or creature. As an example, the Nation of Barcuvia’s national animal is the owl, as it represents knowledge, and strength. The wings fly horizontally, allowing the wind to flow above. The B of Barcuvia is embedded in the chest of the owl. And on the bottom of the crest is waves, representing the ocean.
I made a flag once with a gnarly, slightly charred tree in the middle with a broken axe on the ground next to it. Every time the nation conquered another one, I added a blackened stump to the background. How’s that for symbolism?
I have a simple red and gold design with a halberd wielding griffin for one of my nations, the triterian empire. The gold represents the wealth the nation holds and the red represents the blood shed to defend it. The griffin is a national icon, as they only live in the planes of tritirn in the empire’s heartland. Another is black and white with a “cross of the messiah” from dristhall, which bears the phrase “never forgive, never forget” referring to the death of their god. Galecia is probably the best design I’ve done, with a blade piercing a dragon’s skull in reference to their first king’s greatest deed.
Mass Effect's Alliance emblem "variant" with three starts is actually an emblem for the Alliance Navy, not the Alliance as a whole. And, IMHO, is as nice of a variation of the rather underworked Alliance emblem. There is also a third variation, one for Alliance Marines, as seen on James' t-shirt in ME3.
About the Osean Federation flag, my running theory is that the six stars represent six states within the federation, but that seventh, small star is the state of North Osea, formerly South Belka. Problem is, I'm not sure if there's any examples of the Osean flag from Ace Combat Zero prior to the war's end, so I don't know if we can find a version of the flag that didn't have the seventh star. In addition, it's worth mentioning that Oured, the capital of Osea, is split between six administrative districts, so the flag could be referring to Oured itself but then the seventh star wouldn't make much sense. Of course I'm an Ace Combat fan so I had to address the Ace Combat stuff for the most part, but I enjoyed the video overall! And yeah, HYDRA's emblem has always looked really cool.
It feels like I need to play Ace Combat Zero again. There's a briefing session which explains things about AWWNB, they display OSEAN, Belkan, and Yuktobanian flag at that briefing. I'll go ahead and check it out.
I've checked it. It was at mission 16, the flag that was displayed during the briefing was Belka, Sapin, and OSEA. The image was very small and unclear but I manage to spot the seventh small star.
Warhammer absolutely knows how to make cool emblems, flags and symbols. Each faction has an iconic and distinctive symbol that is used to identify it, from the harsh, jagged star of Chaos to the enduring, resilient form of the Imperial Aquila. Warhammer to me is the king of grand fantasy iconography. On the other hand, Ace Combat does have some really cool "realistic" flags that I could totally see flying alongside ones from nations in reality. I'm glad to see that series getting some attention. Star Wars has very few flags or symbols that I really like, aside from maybe the Mandalorian skull or the crest of the Rebel Alliance. I've always preferred it to Star Trek but I must admit Star Trek beats Star Wars out in the cool, well designed symbols game. I always thought the Helghast had a cool design too. Also, God damn are those Firefly flags ugly.
You made a fair point about the dangers of designs for fictional cultures and organizations being reliant upon a knowledge of the English language and/or Latin alphabet. Especially if those symbols and flags are meant to represent the entire population of _this_ planet.
That's why it's best not to have single letters or acronyms. Words are a bad idea too but can at least sometimes be translated appropriately. Single letters and acronyms on the other hand can't.
Mmmh. That's also why corporate flags can get away with it. Most corporations, no matter how large, started out small and in a specific place. McDonalds is American in origin no matter how far into the future you go and how much the world changes. (assuming the company survives of course.) Similarly Toyota will forever be Japanese. Whether 5 years from now or 500. Wayland Yutani (to use the fictional example in the video) sounds like the result of a corporate merger between a Japanese Company and a western one. (probably American, but could be a couple of places.) Which isn't surprising really since that was popular in films during a certain period. (look at Back to the Future 2, Robocop 3, and a bunch of other films from around the same period...) Associating a corporation with a specific language makes far more sense than associating an entire planet or worse, interstellar empire with one... (or even worse, an alliance composed of different planets and species.)
And both of them are close minded fools who don't like it when others use their "power" and desperately consolidate it without thinking about the consequences.
eh they may both be close minded but the bos are bigger dicks after all the jedi never sent anyone on a suicide mission just to get rid of them because they found being asked about the mutant army caused by there own neglect annoying.
Hey thanks for this video, pal! I really love how you give examples and how they are more prominent and distinguish from the others, even showed the simplicity of their designs showed a symbolism about what they're represented. This truly helped me on how I make my flags, emblems, and insignias for my comic I've been making, this was truly an inspiration for me
I’m a writer, and I’ve gotten a language penned and am working on the second, still working on a set of tunes for the first, but I’m thinking about the flags. I’ve done heraldry for most of the houses already, but the flags are important and difficult to describe just in the text, so this was also useful for me. In things like this, a picture really is worth 1,000 words. Good luck on your comic!
I love the emblem of the Tribunal Temple in Morrowind. It's an inverted triangle with a stylized right hand in the center and the Daedric letters A, S, and V at the corners. The triangle represents the three gods, 3 being a numerical motif that appears everywhere in Tribunal iconography and writing. The hand is like that of a stern but loving parent guiding their child to a better future. Despite breaking the rules, the letters work here in my opinion. In the religion, the gods are often referred to by their Daedric initial rather than their actual names, so the letters serve as stand-ins fire the gods themselves. I could go on more, but I should probably stop. :P
Yep. That's a nice bit. One thing Elder Scrolls does well is icons. Azura's star. The Dragon Emperors. And the Tribunal. You know what each represents at a glance. Like most of ES, Skyrim watered that down.
The Osea Federation flag does appear to have its stars representing the Federal States of the nation. If you look closely, you can see one more, small, almost tiny star just outside the main circle. It is likely that star represents North Osea, ex-South Belka, that Osea gained after the Strangereal universe 1995 Belkan War. Interestingly, I've heard two different stories about North Osea, with one being that North Osea had originally been Osean territory, but was taken by the Belkans in the Strangereal 1940s Osean War while the other, more common statement is that North Osea/South Belka had always been a buffer area between Belka proper and its enemies, though in this case, that would only be Osea by geography. So there is some interesting argument to the symbolism of the North Osea Star on the Osean Federation Flag.
I guess the latter is more correct as South Belkan cities surrendered to the Allied forces during the war. Maybe there's been strife or disagreement between North and South Belka that made them unwilling to support Belka's war effort
ZOCOM logo from C&C3: Kane's Wrath is one of my favorites. At first, it seemed as cool stylized GDI eagle with two lightning strikes but then I realized it also resembles skull with wings -I was blown away. Brilliantly fitting for the subfaction.
The design works because the show and the flag are parody, yeah. It's a simple way of expressing a silly idea from a good satire show. The idea that in 1000 years, American culture and values will have consumed the entire planet is funny in and of itself, but that the planet Earth rallies under such an old symbol of such is also a silly thought. the ideas are so laughable, but because of all the zaniness of the satire that is Futurama, it fits and works in it's world. *read in Zoidberg voice* "I love that show!"
I gotta say I love the Imperial flag from the elder scrolls - super clean, recognizable, and easily transferred onto a flag, banner, broach, sigil, or anything else (so long as it's not oriented in landscape)
I agree with everything except your judgment on the flag of the man in the high castle. That flag works well and is iconic, and, in the least nazi way possible, I have to say that the swastika goes well with almost everything, the american flag included. Its just a really cool looking symbol, and it honestly sucks that it stands for hatred in its purest form. Im not a nazi, I just think they had some great imagery.
Brotherhood of Nod in original C&C was specifically nice for Russian speaking players as NOD is a common Russian military-political acronym - "Народно Освободительное Движение" meaning National Liberation Movement. And Brotherhood in C&C was actually described as a network of organizations fighting against tyrannical western oppression of 3rd world countries
The recognition of Ace Combat in worldbuilding only confirmed my initial suspicion that some of the inspiration behind your opening sequence was in part, based off of Ace Combat. Came for the Game of Thrones videos, stayed for everything else.
I don't think colour or design would really matter when dealing with interstellar empires. After all, different colours may mean totally different things to an alien than it does to a Human. Even the U.N. flag could be see as aggressive by someone not from Earth. The blue being the colour of the aliens blood, the inclusion of every nation on the design symbolising a planet wide empire and the olive wreath could resemble a plant on the alien world that's traditionally presented to diplomats to signify a declaration of war. This is the problem with symbolism and Sci-Fi, it's very subjective.
The bird symbol from Infamous Second Son is one of my favorites, and how either bird overpowers the other depending on your actions is visually stunning
I agree with the iconic simple nature of the OCP logo, but the OCP logo from the later Robocop movies is better than the first. The first movie, the design of the initials is all messed up, like the designers didnt' know what the company was going to be called at the time of the symbol's construction (from a movie production standpoint, highly likely). the later movies cleaned it up. Compare: vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/robocop/images/8/82/OCP.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/168?cb=20101115221812 vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/robocop/images/2/2e/Ocp.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100730163941 the second image, equally as striking, puts the company's initials in proper recognizability. The first carries the point, but is kind of a mess.
I think you kind of snubbed Avatar The Last Airbender here, though the most notable one I'm talking about is the Water Tribe. The Fire Nation has a decent flag, but the black flame on a red background is just a little too stylistic for me. But the Water Tribe has good symbolism, with the flow of the water and the crescent moon, which is the origin of their power.
A flag should be recognizable at a great distance, a flag is a designation of allegiance and it serves the function of allowing soldiers to identify friends from foes in a battle when things get more than a little hectic.
This was highly interesting. Its really fun to figure out the meanings of flags in any genre. Flags really give a lot of meaning to whatever they may represent. Thinks for making this video on a topic that almost no one has really covered.
I like your videos and I appreciate this one, but saying "medieval flags and emblems are simple and the same things over and over" is to grossly underapreciate, misunderstand and repudiate heraldry in its entirety. Also, when you say " a wolf, a bear, a castle, a dragon", you're quoting maybe the least common heraldic devices ever. You could have said "an eagle, an eagle, an eagle" and I'd have given you your point, but it seems you're only talking about Game of Thrones heraldry. Real world heraldry is way more diverse, deep, symbolic, cohesive and interesting than anything devised in GoT, just like real history is much more complex than GoT itself, even if GoT is a quite complex take on fantasy tropes and a reinterpretation of several historical events. Now that we're on it, your comment on the flag of the Klingons makes sense from a narrative point of view. You want to convey meaning through a flag or symbol. But, as noted at the end of the video, most countries don't set their flags and symbols on "we're evil". Most want "good" symbols, kinda like the Soviet Union. Also, it has a lot of narrative potential; the creepiness of an evil genocidal empire whose flag shows something good and pure, like a child holding an open book from which sunrays spring. It's like a killer clown or a deformed baby, cognitive dissonance. It upsets us. Anyway, good video. Anything that sparks debate is good.
Hey, thanks for this, you make some great points. I think you're completely right about medieval heraldry, it's been long enough since I recorded this that I can't remember my original thought process, maybe I meant that fictional medieval emblems tend to be kinda simple and boring? We're in the process of setting up a Discord channel that can accommodate more in-depth discussion like this. If you'd like to join us there while we beta test it, follow this link: discord.gg/Ct9mEAq
Fictional heraldry is generally flat and boring, you're absolutely right there. Real life heraldry, on the other hand, is a fascinating look into the whys and hows and whats of ever-chaging symbolism. Every choice of device, color and shape has one (or several, depending when) meaning, and that's just great!
Ennio444 I was surprised, when I started looking into heraldry, how it shifts so swiftly. Adding in elements from each device when people get married and adding signifiers of service done to the crown or powers, when women can use the family coat of arms, the specific circumstances that would allow that. It’s so interesting to me. Now in writing it’s so fun to notice those details more. It’s stuff most people would just skim over, “oh a rampant lion on a quartered argent field with a square in the corner, how nice for them,” but I understand more context because of it now. It’s like a little shout out to heraldry nerds. I love it! 😁
I think Gondor has one of the best flags/emblems in fiction. The white tree of the capital city Minas Tirith being a perfect symbol for the Patriotic and ever defensive Gondorians. it's versatile (in that it works on many different shapes of flags, as well as can be easily made more simplistic or more complex) only two colors, blue often considered the color of peace, and white reflecting the white marble of virtually all Gondorian cities, or possibly even purity in the face of Mordor. It's also striking, and is extremely distinct from the other flags and symbols of Middle-earth. Honestly I don't think it could have been done better.
One of my favourite symbols is the starbird of the Rebel Alliance. It has an impressive presence, is easily recognizable and can be easily drawn somewhere to bring a political message across. I especially liked how it was first the symbol of a loose resistance group and later became the official symbol of the New Republic. That being sad, the legends version of the New Republic starbird is much cooler than the new canon version. I can not imagine that thing on the side of a New Republic spaceship. It just looks silly. I guess that would have been the perfect example for what you were talking about.
That was a nice video and I'm glad you chose Ace Combat flags, the worldbuilding in the series is amazing. Though I think the Futurama flags works a bit better because of the parodic nature of the series.
I have an idea: A Union of alien races, each of them allowed to use their own flags. To make them all similiar, and in consideration of some races seeing colors differently, they all use white and black. Each flag shows stars from home systems of all other members of the union, as seen from the perspective of a person observing the sky from their homeworld. All flags very different, but at the same time very similiar in design. If you read this, feel free to use this idea in your own sci-fi universe.
I agree that using the K I S S principle works every time. A study of the heraldic symbology used in European , Arabic and Asian cultures shows what can be done if guidelines are followed and executed. There are very few in currant use that break these standards and survive. The most familiar is the Vatican City flag and the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusader period. The flag of Vatican City State is made up of two fields, vertically divided in half: the yellow half flies alongside the flagpole, while the white half bears the papal tiara and crossed keys. The Crusaders flag/arms of Jerusalem that became known in heraldry simply as Jerusalem Cross has 5 crosses: one large cross potent and 4 cross-lets, the crosses are yellow and the field is white. One thing the flag is famous for is breaking the "no metal on metal" rule. Both these flags/banners break the rule of a metal on metal (yellow/gold on white/silver) but have been resilient over time and are the acceptation and not the rule.
That's heraldry, not vexillogy. Although the two often overlap. But I can think of more flags that break the "rule of tincture" (that's the official name): - Cyprus with yellow on white; - the current flag of Myanmar with the white star overlaping the yellow stripe; - Argentina: yellow sun on white stripe; - Uruguay: yellow sun on white square in the corner; ...
Personally I like Erusea’s Flag more. Mainly because it’s much more distinctive than just about every other flag in Strangereal. I also like the Ouroboros Emblem although it could definitely be tuned to look more like the traditional ouroboros.
I made a flag once for a school project. It had a white background, and a slightly charred tree in the middle with a broken axe laying on the ground next to it. Every time the nation conquered another one, I added a blackened stump in the background. It definitely sent a clear message: “don’t f-- with us. We don’t f-- around”
I love seeing Ace Combat's flags getting some love. Strangereal is the only fantasy-eqsue world I can think of with enough modern geo-political detail to include flags that I could imagine actually being real life flags. Also, in terms of the Human System Alliance's flag from ME, the original one that is, I don't think its as big as a sin to not represent every country in the world. Granted I'm not as familiar with Earth's geo-political situation, but once you get to the point where you have dozens if not 100s of planets in your domain, I think its there to represent the planet earth, the birth place of humanity, more then any other country, with the America's just being a very distinct shape.
Yeah I did like the Earth Alliance one compared to the other major races but as you point out it wasn't very representative of earth or it's colonies, though I suppose maybe ignoring its colonial history was intentional considering the Mars story lines and the way the EA seemed to deal with colonies as 2nd class. Keep up the good work though I seriously love this channel!
I never did like the Earth Alliance symbol. Too boring for my taste, especially since I don't like balloon lettering that reminds me of graffiti. The Interstellar Alliance symbol is awesome, on par with the United Federation of Planets symbol.
10:55 To be fair, the flag of the Mars Congressional Republic is the best of the three in the expanse. The United Nations flag is too complex, contains a world map (good for an organisation, bad for a nation) and sometimes has letters, while the Outer Planets Alliance is just text (a forbidden rule).
Assuming which OPA. And I think the text was justifiable to an extent since many of them are political groups--many of them not that well-educated in case of Dawes and Free Navy--than a nation-state. On the other hand, their navy flag had a better design.
I actually don't mind the point about the being like a 'charity goal-tracker thermometer', I mean, it's basically the same as the United States' flag in that regard? And terraforming would happen over such a long time that I imagine it wouldn't be like the flag would change significantly in your lifetime.
This was a really cool video! Though I completely disagree with your "improved" Greater Reich flag from "Man in the High Castle", I felt the new design was too busy and far less visibly striking. Besides that it was great! :) What did you think of Babylon 5's "Psi Corp" emblem?
Thanks for the kind words. I should note that the Klingon emblem was created by Star Trek original series art director Walter "Matt" Jefferies.
Michael Okuda sweet okudagram
Oh, hey mike!
Walter Jefferies
The man, the myth, that one guy they named the crawlspace tubes after...
7:00 Gonna have to disagree way to "busy" looking the traditional flag for Baratheon or the Renley Baratheon flag is far superior.
Oh damn. Are you real Okuda?
"It's too easy to confuse the two"
That's kind of the point, the Empire was a reorganized Republic, a direct successor state.
They look like torx head fasteners. Or line head female tamper fasteners. Or really any hexalobular fasteners.
@@trentn1127 Why is a colour swap so bizarre? I don't see the issue here.
@@trentn1127 You forget that in the canon, it's not a supposed to appear as a take over, instead it's a 'reorganisation' of the Republic, and so it makes sense to me that the flag that would change only slightly
Yes, Empire was basically a "improved and more safe Republic" in the minds of the Imperials. So this design, improved and more firm that the Republican design, was perfect. Rupture, but continuity, perfect.
Also, in a viewer/reader perspective, the color swap symbolizes the complete 180° turn of the regime. More simply "the good guys are became the bad guys", "The Republic has fallen to the Dark Side".
Also, I'm always amazed how the influence of the Sith are always hidden (less or more) in the designs...even if it's a bit weird to not see the characters reacts to these^^
Sith six-branch symbol, Galactic Empire symbol, CSI symbol and First Order symbol pretty much shares heavy similarities.
Just make a test: draw each symbol on one another, and you'll see ;)
This is the hardest part of Stellaris
you speak the truth my empires take more time on the flags then the whole rest of their identity
Spent so much time figuring out the flag and name of my empire...
TheSkyShaft I’m usually dissatisfied at the end anyway!
Second hardest part, the hardest being what to name my empire.....especially after watching Templin's video on naming a nation.
Chose a sword with wings
"Yes, I work for Hydra. My uniform is solid evil and every few weeks we have to report for mandatory evil speech meetings, but the healthcare is killer."
🤣🤣🤣🤣 love it
Hydra isn't real it's a fake organization from the marvel universe if it did exist the United nations would hunt them down knowingly they'd be a major threat
@@kennyfox7055 I hope you're joking
@@kennyfox7055 the UN would HUNT the Hydra?🤣🤣
😂
"Yet, what is a nation?"
- Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage
That name lol
Its to be expected of nobility
@@fulcrum2951 wait until you see Charles V of HRE name
Pixy entered the chat.
“Combining the symbolism of two flags ruins the symbolism of both”
Laughs in Austro-Hungarian
And look where it got them. It was a complete sh*tshow.
Asto-Hungarian should have the ő umlaut on the ä of german
Never understood why Austria and Hugary had separate arms. The Habsburgd rule over both. Combine the same way like how the Plantagenets ruled England and also claimed France and combined the arms of both kingdoms.
@@JBGARINGAN Very simlpe, the Austrians didn't do anything to protect Hungary from turkish attacks, using them as a living shield. At least, that is what my hungarian grandma says.
@@JBGARINGAN From 1848 to 1849 there was a revolt in hungary, which was beaten down by the habsburgs with the help of the russians. After this, the hungarians turned to "passive resistance", nőt working governmant jobs, not paying taxes, etc. In 1867 the habsburgs were in a tight spot, because of the war with prussia. To prevent an other rebbelion, the habsburgs made up with the hungarians, and made a country relativly simular to the US. Thats why both of the Flag of both hungary and Austria is represented in the Austro- Hungarian flag.
I hated the Blood Pack symbol from Mass Effect 2. It's a HUMAN fist and a HUMAN skull on a backdrop of red which is the colour of HUMAN blood, belonging to a mercenary group comprised almost exclusively of KROGANS with the only other species within it being Vorcha.
It could be interpreted as a fist striking a human skull, though.
Krogans don't have any particular animosity towards humans though, at least not compared to the species involved in the genophage.
its retarded af... blood pact (w40k) >>>>>>>>>> blood pack (ME) non of those aliens have red blood yet they are using red colour as a symbol... ME has cool lore but this is fail
@@cromcruach5035 Many Krogan are on the contrary very much cool with humans as they introduced themselves to the Galaxy by going to war against the Turians and then managing to hold their own against Batarian Terrorism
Call it the influence of human culture on the galaxy.
"No overcomplex seals"
Mexico wants to know your location
I think I know some other countris with complex seals over there …
theFairyDongMother compared to some fictional flags and even other real ones (see about half of the US state flags), Mexico looks like the old flag of Libya from ‘77
Sri Lanka
Brazil and almost every US State as well
Its not overcomplex...
Templin: * Mentions Ace Combat *
Every Ace Combat player in the comments: *
ITS TIME
Mobius 1,engage!
Here comes the snow!
thats what v2 is for
@@VeeTOHFan can you see any borders from here? What has borders given us?
Uh... Books
The Imperium of Mankind symbol also has some, more obscure, and I have to admit, surprisingly deep symbolism for being WH40k.
One eye is closed, marking how mankind chooses to ignore/forget their past, the other is open, indicating instead how it chooses to only look at the future.
This is kind of a smart reference to the Emperor original goals, which was creating a new humanity detached from the past and only looking to create a prosperous future.
Suprisingly?
Another element to the symbol of the aquila was introduced in the Gaunt's Ghosts novels by Dan Abnett. A number of times in the novels characters are mentioned making the sign of the aquila as a symbol of devotion or to call on the Emperor's blessing, much like a Christian might cross themselves. It's a simple gesture to make - place your hands one atop the other with palms facing towards the chest, and hook your thumbs together. The palms and fingers form the body and the wings of the aquila, with the ends of the hooked thumbs forming the two heads o the aquila. The fact that such a simple gesture can make such a resemblance to the symbol of the Imperium speaks to the depth of the symbol of the aquila.
The emperor literally chose the Aquila because it’s humanity’s ancient symbol and he grew up with it on ancient terra
That one eye is closed because the first time it was used in a lead casting the material stuck and filled it in.
At least so I was told back when GW-US was based in Baltimore. I worked there in Trade Sales and Mail Order from 1998 through 2000. Wether or not it’s true I couldn’t say. But considering the quality of some of the mold forms the UK sent us I wouldn’t be surprised.
@@daniel_f4050 So to make up for that, they made that small piece of lore
I'm so glad Ace Combat is getting attention on something for once.
Yea man I love those games
The real world has plenty of nations and organizations who have no clue about good flag design. Fictional nations and organizations are no different. Maybe their poor flag design can even be taken as a clue to be read. For example, the Alliance design from Firefly/Serenity. Seems like just the sort of awful flag that would be designed by a committee with broken ideas of what will get people to rally around it and unify. It SHOULD be a bad design within the context of the show and even change a lot to reflect their actual LACK of unity and cohesiveness, although you're right that as a flag design in and of itself it seriously sucks.
duanevp yeah, they make sense in the context of the world, but he’s talking about the quality of the FLAGS. In real world, you can still make fun of flags, even if there’s a reason why they suck.
I was gonna say this too! The Anglo-Sino Alliance is a bureaucratic mess that has allowed bad ideas to flourish. A well-designed flag would not suit them.
Contrast the Indepenants' flag: if follows all the visual rules, and its colors make it quite easy to read as symbolizing a variety of values contrary to the Alliance's mix of conformity and bureaucratic neglect.
It's always reminded me of some Carribean and African flags or color schemes, which suits the parallels to those 20th century "third-world" nations attempts not to be pawns of the major powers...
Now if only Joss had been smart enough to lean into THAT more...
I wonder if Hydra has some sort of PR-friendly logo that they can use? Like the tentacles are replaced by little olive branches nesting underneath a smiley face or something like that.
Military subgroups like to adopt intimidating imagery. American spy satellites were launched with "octopus grasping the planet" emblems on them.
*Laughs in SS-TV logo*
It has, it's called S.H.I.E.L.D.
I love Ace Combat. And yes, the series has some of the best national flags in all of fiction.
Ustios is my personaly favortie
@@theghostanihalater9391 you know, belka has two flags,
Let me list them,
:belka,
Ustio
Ustio is belkan after all
@Rafi Dwiputra Daniswara Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage would agree
Yus
@Rafi Dwiputra Daniswara
A TED talk gave one good rule for a flag:
Show it to a 3 year old for a few seconds and then make it draw it from memory.
If the kids fails, so does your flag.
Pe Ka I can't think of any exception to this - except for South Africas flag. Great point!
@@gracelandtoo6240 what about flags with symbols like rampant lions and two headed eagles
@@richardroxburgh2984 after looking at the Parade of Athletes/Nations from this years Olympics proves a lot of flags have some detail more than others.
Maybe a 5 year old. 3 year olds are abject morons.
As for Osea, OADF's roundell is also one of the most awesome fictional military insignias ever.
Do you mean that symbol that's a star with a smaller, more upside-down star inside it?
Cody Hines yes
@@JaelinBezel It's simple, but distinctive and it totally works. Osean flags and symbols are incredibly good, unlike some other states in Strangereal.
I also like the Erusean flower in AC7 quite well
I always thought the squadron emblems of Ace Combat were fantastic. Of course they are often incredibly complicated compared to the flags, but the aircraft in the story-significant squadrons usually have a signature paint scheme or tail marking to go along with it.
I think it should also be noted that the "confusion" of the Star Wars Imperial emblem and the Republic Army is intentional. They didn't exist at the same time and are extensions of the other. The Republic Army emblem became the Imperial logo that in turn inspired the First Order emblem.
I definitely would not have picked the First Order as an example of good symbol design from Star Wars. To be honest, I found the symbol to not really pop in the least. From 20 yards away it would look like a black circle. Iconic.
No, what I would have actually picked for good design in Star Wars would be the symbol of the Rebel Alliance, with a runner-up to the symbol of the Jedi Order. The symbol of the Rebel Alliance was canonically intentionally chosen to evoke the symbol of the Jedi Order, who the Rebels idolize. It follows every single rule you've set at the outset- it is simple, regularly shown in just a single color (in flag form it only uses red, black, and white) no lettering or complex seals, distinctive, and meaningful symbolism.
The Rebel Alliance symbol is in fact so iconic that it is not only a good symbol IN-UNIVERSE but is also a fitting and well-recognized symbol IN THE REAL WORLD, being an instantly recognizable symbol of the Star Wars franchise.
First Order symbol looks like a tunnel into the darkness. It looks about as evil as the Hydra symbol if you ask me - so really, the argument about the evil lifestyle he used for the Hydra symbol applies equally to the First Order.
I disagree about it being not distinctive enough, though. If I didn't hate the new Disney Star Wars canon, thus making me biased against pretty much everything from within it, I think I'd really, _really_ like the First Order symbol.
The rebel alliance sucks. Also if you showed the rebel symbol next to the empire symbol, most people would recognize the imperial symbol.
@@ptre21 Personally I like the Old Republic one the best from swtor, the white and blue background invokes the idea of a nation that is ultimately peaceful, hence it's connection to the jedi order, while the wings represent a idea of unity in the nation.
Yeah I disagree. This is the first time my attention was drawn to their symbol and I was like "Yep. Evil. Please don't make me touch it."
Plus it's unoriginal af
One of the most interesting things about the Aquila is its history. It's a development of the Double-Headed Eagle, one of the oldest symbols used by mankind, the earliest examples being a thousands-of-years old icon in central Anatolia, where the Emperor of Mankind is usually said to originate from. But as well, the Double-Headed eagle has almost always symbolized the concept of Empire, making it very suitable for the Imperium of Man
About Hydra, remember that during ww2, SS was a thing. They put skulls on everything and yet, countless people worked for them. You kind of underestimate the human psyche here.
I mean Skulls are commonly used by military organisations to
1. intimidate
2. represent that you don’t fear death
Also I think HYDRA is supposed to be a runaway offshoot of the SS that kinda went rouge and decided to do the world dominion themselves, so doing an even more obviously evil symbol makes sense.
Also, HYDRA is meant to be a secret group. The only people using the symbol are people who bought into the ideology completely.
i personally like the greater nazi reich flag, its simple and fits for the place that uses it since its kind of a puppet state, so they get to kinda keep their original flag but it still reminds them of who the real leaders are
but one criticism is that the swatstika should be rotated by 45 degrees because it fits better.
@@zoneofendless. I actually think the 45 degree angle is a good choice. The original American flag has the stars to prevent the flag from just being a series of rectangles at right angles to each other.
Plus the 45 degree angle makes it stand out and impose itself over the rest of the old American flag even more, emphasizing the symbolism they're clearly going for.
Now that i think about it, fascism defining trait is unity under one flag. So instead of recognising the 50 autonomy of each states, the flag only recognises the one true government that will accept the existing culture until they are properly "educated"
Fabricator General send his regards to the Institute. May the light of Omnissiah shine over this respected institution.
Galvars Those creepy machine people are talking again. By the Emperor.
Conspiracy: There is a flat-earther in the UN council
There is one Impostor among us.
The painful truth...
There is a south American nationalist
(Srsly why is South America so thicc)
@@phantomwraith1984 you're dead serious?
@@phantomwraith1984 The map on the UN flag is a real map of earth.
If we’re giving more love to strangereal, the flag and specially the roundel of Belka are really cool
don't stop there either! Erusea & Emmeria have pretty cool flags too
Erusea's flag is better than Belka's imo
Don't forget ISAF too
Ustio have a great flag too
I also try to base it of how good it would look in a patch worn by a solider so belkas flag 10/10 erusea 9/10 osea 8/10
The UEE Flag looks more like a sports team's logo
There's a football club here in México that has a similar flag (Club Toluca)
Looks like a white girl’s monogram
"the color of the sky which is the same for everyone on earth"
*china is typing*
Depends on where you are.
When I visited Beijing in 2014, the trees are fucking grey from the pollution.
"Does the color of the sky mean anything to you? It does to me. A hell of a lot."
-Avril Mead, Ace Combat 7
Huh U.S lately looks pretty red to me
@@unclecaramel California doesn't count, we don't like California.
@@old-worldghost3451 *we dont talk about california or portland*
See Ace Combat in the thumbnail, instant click.
I love flag designs, and love designing my own.
Sun_skimmer 89 thats the exact reason I CLICKED!! #OseanAces
I think the Ace Combat dev team logo works really well despite breaking the design rules. It is instantly recognizable.
Same
Agreed, though I'm more of a fan of the Erusean flag personally.
Same
I can’t believe after watching the Alien movies literally weekly since I was 7 years old with my dad that I only just saw the Y behind the W in the Wayland-Yutanai symbol
The "Man in the High Castle" flag was basically perfect. I get the simple thinking, BUT, the purpose in-universe was to influence Americans to accept Nazi rule with as little resistance as possible. Keeping almost the same flag goes to that end. The alternate flag you offered was simply an effort to be different. It would serve no useful in-universe purpose, and in fact would be counterproductive.
Think of it this way: In "Philadelphia Experiment 2," the Nazi propagandist rejects a music video of German opera in favor of a Country/Bluegrass band looking like it's on the Opry. The vid kept as much "America" as possible, while still pushing the, "We won, you lost--live with it" message.
"are we the baddies?" -Hydra Officer (circa 2020)
6:01
Fun fact, if what I was told is true, the double headed eagle was meant to show Rome's expansion and was looking over it's territories from Rome to Constantinople. Take that however you wish to the Imperium's territory.
Agreed.
The double headed Eagle is to show the might and vastness of an empire.
My example will be the Russian Empire’s coats of arms. The double headed eagle symbolizes that the empire rules east and west, the knight slaying a dragon is the original coats of arms of Muscovy, where the empire began as a (Grand) Duchy (later evolved to Tsardom and Empire). With how Russia has lands in both Europe and Asia, it stands to reason of a double headed eagle.
And in 8th Edition, it is starting to becoming the equivalent as Imperium is split in half due to Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade (fortunately, his "army" disintegrated into marauding warbands to launch offensive towards Terra after finishing off Cadia and opening up Warp Storms).
Earth is okay, but Guilliman's Ultramar is becoming a new capital now.
Rome (Pre-Split) Actually primarily used a Single-Headed Eagle however I personally think that the HRE (In the West) and the Seljuks (in the East) made the use of a double-headed eagle made it mainstream amongst european nations. Though there were ones that didn't use a double-headed Eagle like the Germans (1871-1919) and the French (1804-1815, 1848-1870)
To be fair medieval heraldry is highly symbolic and saying that "It's just a bear or dragon or whatever" doesn't really do it any justice.
Medieval flag design is complex enough to make a whole video. lol.
The only thing I disagree on is the idea that the Republic and Empire symbols don't work. (To say nothing of the fact you didn't even mention the Rebel Alliance's symbolism laden "Starbird".) For one, the Empire was trying to subsume the Republic. Trying to seamlessly fill the power vacuum created by the end of the Clone Wars. They picked an emblem that looked at least vaguely like the Republic on purpose as a way to legitimize themselves. Secondly, you can tell them apart easily at a distance. The one with the white in the middle is Imperial and the one with black in the middle is Republic. Not that you'd ever even see them side by side even in legends as the New Republic in both timelines uses the Starbird. And as for the symbolism? Look closely at the republic logo. It's the senate as seen from above. And the totalitarian Empire directly subverting that by inverting the colors has a lot of in universe meaning. And even meta meaning. The Republic was well intentioned, but had a dark core that ate it from the inside out, and the Empire was outwardly evil, but the light of hope remained inside. You can even go deeper with that one saying the hope can either refer to the people who rebelled or even specifically the good still in Vader that Luke brought out. Great video, by the way. I hadn't thought about any of the Republic and Empire logo symbolism until you showed them in the video.
the Empire literally came from the Republic...... Palpatine declared the Republic an Empire meaning it was the same country just different government type. It is like how Rome multiple times went from a Republic and an Empire and back again mostly during times of great peril which require strong and centralized leadership.
You missed one of the most iconic and symbolism heavy, the White Tree of Gondor/Numenor
I feel like the osean flag is similar to the US flag after independence. OSEA is essentially the US in the strangereal universe. The white and blue might represent the sky.. as it is ace combat.
The Galactic Empire is the Republic, just better - thats the point.It's like complaining that the BRD and the DDR flags lacked distinctiveness. The Empire is the successor of the Republic, and conflating both to some degree is intended. The one thing that fits less is that the Rebel Alliance and New Republic have completely different emblems.
I was thinking of pointing out the same thing. The fact that it is hard to tell the Galactic Empire and Republic symbols from far away is because they were designed to be so close intentionally. The only time both should be viewable is during the transition period until they all get updated.
they dont have totaly different Symbols, or do you call this vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/e/ed/New_Republic.png/revision/latest?cb=20160906195249 totaly different to the symbol of the Alliance to restore the Republic?(i agree its les similar (and bad) then the OLd canon version of the NR but still close
I think what he/she means is that the symbols of the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic are completely different from the emblem of the Old Republic.
Adding to the pot, one may say whatever they want about Rogue One, but Rogue One did portray the Empire as a viable place to live in the cutscene about Jyn's childhood. Engineers building the Death Star are just having a party like all normal people do. Every tyranny portrays itself as The Good Guys, and people under tyrannic rule tend to believe in it, even if for they own's safety and sanity (I have a first hand experience, as you can guess by my name). So the symbols of a tyranny IRL are to be attractive. First order's banner, in this sense, is more fictional and serves the purpose of the narrative rather of world-building.
Oh, how I do love _Ace Combat's_ flags. There's such a believable element to them, only befitting of the "strange, real" setting.
But....what has borders given to us???? and yet, what is a nation????
Project Aces really went all out creating a world so different from ours but still believable at the same time. Though I think we can all agree that the Erusean flag is the best.
Yellow-13 home team eh
For me, Aurelia and Emmeria has both the best designs
Ustio's flag is also pretty neat, contrasts well on Pixy's wing
I'm glad you included the Imperial Aquila. Its symbolism stands out a lot; one eye closed to the past (as it is too painful), one eye open to the future (striving to be stronger and more powerful). Edit: Would really love you guys at the Templin Institute to do something on Warhammer 40k even-though it is difficult.
Your efforts have not gone unnoticed Primarch. 40k content is in the pipeline.
This is indeed good news. You guys at the Templin Institute are my favourite lore channel no matter what setting you cover.
The Holy Inquisition would just like to politely inform you that having skulls as emblems on flags or insignias is not symbolism that has anything to do with evil, such views may be deemed heretical. We also want to take this moment to inform you that 8 pointed stars has everything to do with evil and may be cause for your excummunication and termination.
- Sincerely, The Emperor's Holy Inquisition.
I feel like that the closed eye represents blind justice
On the right side the eagle features a claw with spikes or something while the left is a normal eagle claw , I believe that the ‘spiked’ claw is representative of the military and law and order so by extension the closed eye on the ‘militaristic side of the eagle symbolising the blind justice of the Imperium
Damocles 242 the symbolism is explained
"The Empire and the Republic both had very good designs individually, but when viewed side by side I think it's all to easy to confuse the two."
Yeah, no shit. That's kind of the point. The Republic turned into the Empire after all and the emblem expresses that beautifully.
The First Order emblem on the other hand, while on its own at least not bad, really has no reason for why it looks the way it does. What does it represent? Where does it come from? You say it incorporates details of the previous symbols of the Empire and the Republic and that would make sense as the Order was presumably formed from a remnant of the Empire, but it really doesn't do that at all. Other than having an overall hexagonal symmetry it has nothing in common with either of those emblems.
The Imperial flag could work a bit with the spacing in my opinion.
That's Low-Key the point though. The First Order was remarkably different from the Empire, and the Flag designer probably wanted to make sure this flag represented that. Rather than it being associated with the Failed regimes that preceded it, they wanted the Galaxy to think that it was progressive and better.
@@MD-rl9kr Except they absolutely don't. Because they openly claim to be the inheritors of the empire's territories and authority and rely on the aesthetics, tactics and even old resources of the empire literally everywhere else.
Ace Combat's Flags, and the fact they have an entire world covered in amazing flags with amazing stories, is one of the reasons it's my favourite game series, even compared to other games that I've put so much time and effort into.
11:43, I thought of it like how the U.S. flag was constantly changing, due to new stars being added to represent new states. There was a time in America's history when the flag changed ever one or two years.
US had a number of variations but at some point they stopped adding stars until a large amount of new states came a long since it is quite a pain to redesign and change the flags every time. There are a lot of states that were not included in to the flag until much later. There aren't 50 different US flags, which would be insane amount.
Imagine changing that slither every 1 percent progress.
I also see a US flag very similar to the Fallout US flag before the "Great War".
"There are a lot of states that were not included in to the flag until much later."
That's not quite right, the idea was not started untill 1818(before that it was 15 bars and 15 stars), but after that it's always less then a year. Flag designs are always retired on July 3rd and the new one takes it's place on July 4th so you will get some 2-3 stars additions when states were added within the same year..
Meanwhile the EU flag has remained the same, even though there's about 3 times as many members now as when it was created.
I guess if it sticks around long enough and actually stabilises, it might end up more like the US flag, since the symbolism is similar. (the stars on the EU flag represent the 12 countries that founded it. One of which, ironically enough I suppose is Brittain...)
Similarly the stripes on the US flag have a similar meaning while the number of stars has kept changing over time.
The EU flag hasn't gotten around to ever being revised though.
The number of stars on the flag of the European Union has nothing to do with the number of countries. In fact, there weren't even twelve countries that founded the European Union, but just six: France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and West Germany
The White Tree of Gondor from Lord of the Rings. Alot of symbolism there.
I like that one as well but I guess it goes against one rule he set with it being a bit too complicated. Still, could have been mentioned in the last segment.
Forget about Gondor, White Hand of Saruman is where it's at. Iconic, easy to draw, works well in black and white (mostly because it already is in black and white), sinister symbolism and an iconic way to apply it to your troops too! Not even the cooler versions of Eye of Sauron compare.
Complicated design has mostly to do with, can you recognise it from a distance. And yes, you can. A child could draw it from memory too. Will it be a simplified version? Probably, but still recognisable. :) Designs that I really love are the symbols for the elements (and nations/tribes/kingdoms/nomads that go with them) in Avatar the last airbender. Especially the fire nation flag is very striking. :)
Anneke Oosterink Yep. And is easily draw in most forms that people use.
G. Waldmeister Yeah I was super surprised that NONE of Tolkien’s flags or imagery were mentioned here.
On the Ace Combat front, I think the Republic of Emmeria has a good flag and insignia. The what appears to be a star inside of a rhombus looks striking and distinctive. makes a good roundel, too.
I’ve decided to make crests for each kingdom in my fantasy world. The flags aren’t what’s important, it’s the crest that is on it. Each crest will have inspiration from one important symbol, usually an animal or creature.
As an example, the Nation of Barcuvia’s national animal is the owl, as it represents knowledge, and strength. The wings fly horizontally, allowing the wind to flow above. The B of Barcuvia is embedded in the chest of the owl. And on the bottom of the crest is waves, representing the ocean.
So you want to tell me that they use the same letters as we?
@@MouldMadeMind It’s a DnD setting so yes
I made a flag once with a gnarly, slightly charred tree in the middle with a broken axe on the ground next to it. Every time the nation conquered another one, I added a blackened stump to the background.
How’s that for symbolism?
I have a simple red and gold design with a halberd wielding griffin for one of my nations, the triterian empire. The gold represents the wealth the nation holds and the red represents the blood shed to defend it. The griffin is a national icon, as they only live in the planes of tritirn in the empire’s heartland. Another is black and white with a “cross of the messiah” from dristhall, which bears the phrase “never forgive, never forget” referring to the death of their god. Galecia is probably the best design I’ve done, with a blade piercing a dragon’s skull in reference to their first king’s greatest deed.
1:40 that's racist against Antarcticans
Spearka You can't be racist to a race that doesn't exist...
*global warming intensifies*
Spearka Antarctica is just way to superior to be included in this flag
Not really, since "Antarcticans" would be a nation, not a race. EG China consists of Chinese which are predominantly Asian.
No one lives there.
Ethan Niles I live there...
Mass Effect's Alliance emblem "variant" with three starts is actually an emblem for the Alliance Navy, not the Alliance as a whole. And, IMHO, is as nice of a variation of the rather underworked Alliance emblem. There is also a third variation, one for Alliance Marines, as seen on James' t-shirt in ME3.
About the Osean Federation flag, my running theory is that the six stars represent six states within the federation, but that seventh, small star is the state of North Osea, formerly South Belka. Problem is, I'm not sure if there's any examples of the Osean flag from Ace Combat Zero prior to the war's end, so I don't know if we can find a version of the flag that didn't have the seventh star. In addition, it's worth mentioning that Oured, the capital of Osea, is split between six administrative districts, so the flag could be referring to Oured itself but then the seventh star wouldn't make much sense.
Of course I'm an Ace Combat fan so I had to address the Ace Combat stuff for the most part, but I enjoyed the video overall! And yeah, HYDRA's emblem has always looked really cool.
It feels like I need to play Ace Combat Zero again. There's a briefing session which explains things about AWWNB, they display OSEAN, Belkan, and Yuktobanian flag at that briefing. I'll go ahead and check it out.
No but that's later when AWWNB happens. I'm talking about *before* the war ends, before the Osean flag might have been modified.
I've checked it. It was at mission 16, the flag that was displayed during the briefing was Belka, Sapin, and OSEA. The image was very small and unclear but I manage to spot the seventh small star.
Oh, before the war altogether you mean? Hmm... Yeah, no reference for that.
I'd say the 7th star represents a capital region like Washington DC in the USA, with how it is smaller and how Osea is based on the US.
Warhammer absolutely knows how to make cool emblems, flags and symbols. Each faction has an iconic and distinctive symbol that is used to identify it, from the harsh, jagged star of Chaos to the enduring, resilient form of the Imperial Aquila. Warhammer to me is the king of grand fantasy iconography.
On the other hand, Ace Combat does have some really cool "realistic" flags that I could totally see flying alongside ones from nations in reality. I'm glad to see that series getting some attention. Star Wars has very few flags or symbols that I really like, aside from maybe the Mandalorian skull or the crest of the Rebel Alliance. I've always preferred it to Star Trek but I must admit Star Trek beats Star Wars out in the cool, well designed symbols game. I always thought the Helghast had a cool design too.
Also, God damn are those Firefly flags ugly.
Me: “Don’t say it don’t say it”
My mind: “The natzi flag fits every point in flag design”
I mean, it's true. It's partly why the flag has endured so long as a hate symbol. It's a really strong, striking design.
@@tbotalpha8133 don't you hate how the bad guys get the cool stuff? The confederate flag is also fly af.
@@Zeliegrim Blank white isn't too interesting imo, but it's alright
You made a fair point about the dangers of designs for fictional cultures and organizations being reliant upon a knowledge of the English language and/or Latin alphabet. Especially if those symbols and flags are meant to represent the entire population of _this_ planet.
That's why it's best not to have single letters or acronyms. Words are a bad idea too but can at least sometimes be translated appropriately. Single letters and acronyms on the other hand can't.
On the other hand, that isn't a problem if your setting has a universal language.
Depends on the lore, if the world was united by conquest it makes complete sense
The best use of words on a flag are as a motto. That way, the words aren't critical to understanding.
Mmmh. That's also why corporate flags can get away with it.
Most corporations, no matter how large, started out small and in a specific place.
McDonalds is American in origin no matter how far into the future you go and how much the world changes. (assuming the company survives of course.)
Similarly Toyota will forever be Japanese. Whether 5 years from now or 500.
Wayland Yutani (to use the fictional example in the video) sounds like the result of a corporate merger between a Japanese Company and a western one. (probably American, but could be a couple of places.)
Which isn't surprising really since that was popular in films during a certain period.
(look at Back to the Future 2, Robocop 3, and a bunch of other films from around the same period...)
Associating a corporation with a specific language makes far more sense than associating an entire planet or worse, interstellar empire with one...
(or even worse, an alliance composed of different planets and species.)
I love the Brotherhood of Steel emblem, they're like the Jedi Order, but their "force" is the technology.
Im a big fan of both of them, I find the jedi order emblem to very eloquent and both are very fitting for there respective organizations
And both of them are close minded fools who don't like it when others use their "power" and desperately consolidate it without thinking about the consequences.
like a proto adeptus mechanicus
The Brotherhood emblem is pretty good, it's one of my favorites. Also the Enclave, since it is simplistic, yet captures what the Enclave is about.
eh they may both be close minded but the bos are bigger dicks after all the jedi never sent anyone on a suicide mission just to get rid of them because they found being asked about the mutant army caused by there own neglect annoying.
2:12. New Zealand is at the top. All will cower before mighty New Zealand!
Technically not at all. Russia and Canada are at the top
*In Russian accent* What did you say?
Except the Emu's . They will kick the Kiwi's arse just like they did the Aussie's . All Hail the mighty Emu's ! ! ;-) TSS
Praise thw bob semple tank!
@@betterrightthanleft2981 Doubt that.
12:02
You should also include the alteration of the flag that was made by Amos as a joke after the destruction of Deimos.
Hydra employees be like, "Ahem...I work at a um...octopus processing factory..."
fun stuff, using 6 armed *OCTO* pus ....
4:56 I think that makes sense in-universe. They're more closely related to each other politically than the First Order is to either of them.
Hey thanks for this video, pal! I really love how you give examples and how they are more prominent and distinguish from the others, even showed the simplicity of their designs showed a symbolism about what they're represented. This truly helped me on how I make my flags, emblems, and insignias for my comic I've been making, this was truly an inspiration for me
Also, I love put ace combat as an example for this video, I loved ace combat for it was my childhood, man!
I’m a writer, and I’ve gotten a language penned and am working on the second, still working on a set of tunes for the first, but I’m thinking about the flags. I’ve done heraldry for most of the houses already, but the flags are important and difficult to describe just in the text, so this was also useful for me. In things like this, a picture really is worth 1,000 words. Good luck on your comic!
I love the emblem of the Tribunal Temple in Morrowind. It's an inverted triangle with a stylized right hand in the center and the Daedric letters A, S, and V at the corners.
The triangle represents the three gods, 3 being a numerical motif that appears everywhere in Tribunal iconography and writing. The hand is like that of a stern but loving parent guiding their child to a better future. Despite breaking the rules, the letters work here in my opinion. In the religion, the gods are often referred to by their Daedric initial rather than their actual names, so the letters serve as stand-ins fire the gods themselves.
I could go on more, but I should probably stop. :P
Yep. That's a nice bit. One thing Elder Scrolls does well is icons. Azura's star. The Dragon Emperors. And the Tribunal. You know what each represents at a glance. Like most of ES, Skyrim watered that down.
For the osean flag I thinnk the small star represents south belka.
S Sifr that’s exactly what I was thinking
Ps: Belka did nothing wrong
@@Xwing-te2lm Except Raze Hofnung to the ground and nuke seven of their cities.
Im sure the Principality of Belka isnt a fan of that star
*North Osea
I think it represents the capital city of Oured tbh
The Osea Federation flag does appear to have its stars representing the Federal States of the nation. If you look closely, you can see one more, small, almost tiny star just outside the main circle. It is likely that star represents North Osea, ex-South Belka, that Osea gained after the Strangereal universe 1995 Belkan War.
Interestingly, I've heard two different stories about North Osea, with one being that North Osea had originally been Osean territory, but was taken by the Belkans in the Strangereal 1940s Osean War while the other, more common statement is that North Osea/South Belka had always been a buffer area between Belka proper and its enemies, though in this case, that would only be Osea by geography.
So there is some interesting argument to the symbolism of the North Osea Star on the Osean Federation Flag.
I think the small star represents the capital city of Oured though, not South Belka.
I guess the latter is more correct as South Belkan cities surrendered to the Allied forces during the war. Maybe there's been strife or disagreement between North and South Belka that made them unwilling to support Belka's war effort
ZOCOM logo from C&C3: Kane's Wrath is one of my favorites. At first, it seemed as cool stylized GDI eagle with two lightning strikes but then I realized it also resembles skull with wings -I was blown away. Brilliantly fitting for the subfaction.
C&C Had a lot of really good and recognizable emblems for their factions.
Haha! You used my vector render of Ole Freebie! That's awesome! What a nice surprise while watching a random video on TH-cam.
She's a'wavin' proud around the world, From Dallas to Ft. Worth!
The "Flag of Earth" flag form Futurama was supposed to be like that. It's supposed to symbolise how basically at that time the "USA" *was* the Earth.
The design works because the show and the flag are parody, yeah. It's a simple way of expressing a silly idea from a good satire show. The idea that in 1000 years, American culture and values will have consumed the entire planet is funny in and of itself, but that the planet Earth rallies under such an old symbol of such is also a silly thought. the ideas are so laughable, but because of all the zaniness of the satire that is Futurama, it fits and works in it's world. *read in Zoidberg voice* "I love that show!"
That's what he said in the video, you fucking idiot.
The only true world
“Combining the symbolism of two flags ruins the symbolism of both”
The Commonwealth: I don't have such weaknesess
"The sky is blue everywhere" *Scoffs under the skies of Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing
Tokyo is actually a very clean city, for its size it ranks around 21st of the most polluted cities in the world
I gotta say I love the Imperial flag from the elder scrolls - super clean, recognizable, and easily transferred onto a flag, banner, broach, sigil, or anything else (so long as it's not oriented in landscape)
I agree with everything except your judgment on the flag of the man in the high castle. That flag works well and is iconic, and, in the least nazi way possible, I have to say that the swastika goes well with almost everything, the american flag included. Its just a really cool looking symbol, and it honestly sucks that it stands for hatred in its purest form. Im not a nazi, I just think they had some great imagery.
ThatFighterGuy I was better known as a peace symbol before the Nazis so...
Merritt Animation That is true it was a prominent symbol of peace in Buddhist and asian cultures.
Your profile pic looks pretty good
Of course they had good imagery, they pilfered it all from other people.
The eagle, the lightning rune, the totenkopf, the swastika - every nazi symbol of note was stolen from someone else.
I have a weakness for the Brotherhood of Nod from command and Conquer personally
Olivia Williams yay :D
Brotherhood of Nod in original C&C was specifically nice for Russian speaking players as NOD is a common Russian military-political acronym - "Народно Освободительное Движение" meaning National Liberation Movement. And Brotherhood in C&C was actually described as a network of organizations fighting against tyrannical western oppression of 3rd world countries
Brotherhood. Unity. Peace.
Peace through power
@@Tsorevitch Ah, I see. It was a nod to reality.
Ace Combats world building is really good, albeit really hard to follow if you’re new to the franchise and don’t know all the backstory
The recognition of Ace Combat in worldbuilding only confirmed my initial suspicion that some of the inspiration behind your opening sequence was in part, based off of Ace Combat. Came for the Game of Thrones videos, stayed for everything else.
The Venture Bros also nails all of it's logos. The League of Calamitous Intent, Sphinx, Venture Industries, to name a few.
Oh, nostaliga.
I don't think colour or design would really matter when dealing with interstellar empires. After all, different colours may mean totally different things to an alien than it does to a Human. Even the U.N. flag could be see as aggressive by someone not from Earth. The blue being the colour of the aliens blood, the inclusion of every nation on the design symbolising a planet wide empire and the olive wreath could resemble a plant on the alien world that's traditionally presented to diplomats to signify a declaration of war.
This is the problem with symbolism and Sci-Fi, it's very subjective.
That's a thing on our planet alone
Ace combat baby!
I see that Osean thumbnail. Show belka some love why don't ya
The bird symbol from Infamous Second Son is one of my favorites, and how either bird overpowers the other depending on your actions is visually stunning
I think the С&C(1 and TibSun) GDI and NOD flags are great, as well as UN Spacy logo in Macross. How about the OCP logo from the good old Robocop?
Love the Brotherhood of Nod emblem. Definitely conveys their view of power and aggression.
Peace through power!
The scorpion tail though... "Are we the baddies?" springs to mind, much like the Hydra emblem.
stylesrj Nah. The Scorpion shows how we have to fight. Strike hard, fast, and fade into the night.
I agree with the iconic simple nature of the OCP logo, but the OCP logo from the later Robocop movies is better than the first. The first movie, the design of the initials is all messed up, like the designers didnt' know what the company was going to be called at the time of the symbol's construction (from a movie production standpoint, highly likely). the later movies cleaned it up. Compare:
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/robocop/images/8/82/OCP.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/168?cb=20101115221812
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/robocop/images/2/2e/Ocp.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100730163941
the second image, equally as striking, puts the company's initials in proper recognizability. The first carries the point, but is kind of a mess.
That is actual "fun with flags"!
You missed the Emblem from "The Templin Institute" from TH-cam!
Those hack frauds?!
The Templin Institute you guys try so hard. I love your account so much!!
ok sysly, was the Templin Institute emblem inspired from Supreme Commander's UEF XD?
9:58 OH MY GOD.
Also that Firefly emblem is highly reminiscent of Char Aznable's personal emblem from Mobile Suit Gundam.
I think you kind of snubbed Avatar The Last Airbender here, though the most notable one I'm talking about is the Water Tribe. The Fire Nation has a decent flag, but the black flame on a red background is just a little too stylistic for me. But the Water Tribe has good symbolism, with the flow of the water and the crescent moon, which is the origin of their power.
A flag should be recognizable at a great distance, a flag is a designation of allegiance and it serves the function of allowing soldiers to identify friends from foes in a battle when things get more than a little hectic.
so a poland vs indonesia war would be a nightmare?
This was highly interesting. Its really fun to figure out the meanings of flags in any genre. Flags really give a lot of meaning to whatever they may represent.
Thinks for making this video on a topic that almost no one has really covered.
I like your videos and I appreciate this one, but saying "medieval flags and emblems are simple and the same things over and over" is to grossly underapreciate, misunderstand and repudiate heraldry in its entirety.
Also, when you say " a wolf, a bear, a castle, a dragon", you're quoting maybe the least common heraldic devices ever. You could have said "an eagle, an eagle, an eagle" and I'd have given you your point, but it seems you're only talking about Game of Thrones heraldry. Real world heraldry is way more diverse, deep, symbolic, cohesive and interesting than anything devised in GoT, just like real history is much more complex than GoT itself, even if GoT is a quite complex take on fantasy tropes and a reinterpretation of several historical events.
Now that we're on it, your comment on the flag of the Klingons makes sense from a narrative point of view. You want to convey meaning through a flag or symbol. But, as noted at the end of the video, most countries don't set their flags and symbols on "we're evil". Most want "good" symbols, kinda like the Soviet Union. Also, it has a lot of narrative potential; the creepiness of an evil genocidal empire whose flag shows something good and pure, like a child holding an open book from which sunrays spring. It's like a killer clown or a deformed baby, cognitive dissonance. It upsets us.
Anyway, good video. Anything that sparks debate is good.
Hey, thanks for this, you make some great points. I think you're completely right about medieval heraldry, it's been long enough since I recorded this that I can't remember my original thought process, maybe I meant that fictional medieval emblems tend to be kinda simple and boring? We're in the process of setting up a Discord channel that can accommodate more in-depth discussion like this. If you'd like to join us there while we beta test it, follow this link: discord.gg/Ct9mEAq
Fictional heraldry is generally flat and boring, you're absolutely right there.
Real life heraldry, on the other hand, is a fascinating look into the whys and hows and whats of ever-chaging symbolism. Every choice of device, color and shape has one (or several, depending when) meaning, and that's just great!
Ennio444 I was surprised, when I started looking into heraldry, how it shifts so swiftly. Adding in elements from each device when people get married and adding signifiers of service done to the crown or powers, when women can use the family coat of arms, the specific circumstances that would allow that. It’s so interesting to me. Now in writing it’s so fun to notice those details more. It’s stuff most people would just skim over, “oh a rampant lion on a quartered argent field with a square in the corner, how nice for them,” but I understand more context because of it now. It’s like a little shout out to heraldry nerds. I love it! 😁
I think Gondor has one of the best flags/emblems in fiction. The white tree of the capital city Minas Tirith being a perfect symbol for the Patriotic and ever defensive Gondorians. it's versatile (in that it works on many different shapes of flags, as well as can be easily made more simplistic or more complex) only two colors, blue often considered the color of peace, and white reflecting the white marble of virtually all Gondorian cities, or possibly even purity in the face of Mordor. It's also striking, and is extremely distinct from the other flags and symbols of Middle-earth. Honestly I don't think it could have been done better.
I'm just a simple man. When I see the Osean flag, I click.
Im a mix but yes
Same brother
One of my favourite symbols is the starbird of the Rebel Alliance. It has an impressive presence, is easily recognizable and can be easily drawn somewhere to bring a political message across. I especially liked how it was first the symbol of a loose resistance group and later became the official symbol of the New Republic. That being sad, the legends version of the New Republic starbird is much cooler than the new canon version. I can not imagine that thing on the side of a New Republic spaceship. It just looks silly. I guess that would have been the perfect example for what you were talking about.
I actually thought it was a Phoenix, as in a reborn Republic rising from the ashes.
I'm actually not familiar with Ace Combat, but I cant help bot LOVE that flag!
You should see the Aurelian flag.
And Erusea and ISAF flag
I'm pretty sure the blue sliver is meant to be a sun rise/set. They're blue on mars.
That was a nice video and I'm glad you chose Ace Combat flags, the worldbuilding in the series is amazing. Though I think the Futurama flags works a bit better because of the parodic nature of the series.
I have an idea:
A Union of alien races, each of them allowed to use their own flags. To make them all similiar, and in consideration of some races seeing colors differently, they all use white and black.
Each flag shows stars from home systems of all other members of the union, as seen from the perspective of a person observing the sky from their homeworld.
All flags very different, but at the same time very similiar in design.
If you read this, feel free to use this idea in your own sci-fi universe.
Stealing this for the Crystalos coalition!
I agree that using the K I S S principle works every time. A study of the heraldic symbology used in European , Arabic and Asian cultures shows what can be done if guidelines are followed and executed. There are very few in currant use that break these standards and survive. The most familiar is the Vatican City flag and the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusader period. The flag of Vatican City State is made up of two fields, vertically divided in half: the yellow half flies alongside the flagpole, while the white half bears the papal tiara and crossed keys. The Crusaders flag/arms of Jerusalem that became known in heraldry simply as Jerusalem Cross has 5 crosses: one large cross potent and 4 cross-lets, the crosses are yellow and the field is white. One thing the flag is famous for is breaking the "no metal on metal" rule. Both these flags/banners break the rule of a metal on metal (yellow/gold on white/silver) but have been resilient over time and are the acceptation and not the rule.
That's heraldry, not vexillogy. Although the two often overlap.
But I can think of more flags that break the "rule of tincture" (that's the official name):
- Cyprus with yellow on white;
- the current flag of Myanmar with the white star overlaping the yellow stripe;
- Argentina: yellow sun on white stripe;
- Uruguay: yellow sun on white square in the corner;
...
Personally I like Erusea’s Flag more. Mainly because it’s much more distinctive than just about every other flag in Strangereal. I also like the Ouroboros Emblem although it could definitely be tuned to look more like the traditional ouroboros.
I made a flag once for a school project. It had a white background, and a slightly charred tree in the middle with a broken axe laying on the ground next to it. Every time the nation conquered another one, I added a blackened stump in the background. It definitely sent a clear message: “don’t f-- with us. We don’t f-- around”
I'm a simple man. I see an Ace Combat flag, I click.
I love seeing Ace Combat's flags getting some love. Strangereal is the only fantasy-eqsue world I can think of with enough modern geo-political detail to include flags that I could imagine actually being real life flags.
Also, in terms of the Human System Alliance's flag from ME, the original one that is, I don't think its as big as a sin to not represent every country in the world. Granted I'm not as familiar with Earth's geo-political situation, but once you get to the point where you have dozens if not 100s of planets in your domain, I think its there to represent the planet earth, the birth place of humanity, more then any other country, with the America's just being a very distinct shape.
The regimental war banner of Cadia from 40k is pretty good.
That "That Mitchell and Webb" still! I'm still laughing, that was a brilliant choice!
Yeah I did like the Earth Alliance one compared to the other major races but as you point out it wasn't very representative of earth or it's colonies, though I suppose maybe ignoring its colonial history was intentional considering the Mars story lines and the way the EA seemed to deal with colonies as 2nd class. Keep up the good work though I seriously love this channel!
Barry Bend Babylon 5
I never did like the Earth Alliance symbol. Too boring for my taste, especially since I don't like balloon lettering that reminds me of graffiti. The Interstellar Alliance symbol is awesome, on par with the United Federation of Planets symbol.
I like the EA letters, but not the seal.
You could make an entire series on the Ace Combat Flags. Strangreals Lore is so in depth...
10:55 To be fair, the flag of the Mars Congressional Republic is the best of the three in the expanse. The United Nations flag is too complex, contains a world map (good for an organisation, bad for a nation) and sometimes has letters, while the Outer Planets Alliance is just text (a forbidden rule).
Assuming which OPA.
And I think the text was justifiable to an extent since many of them are political groups--many of them not that well-educated in case of Dawes and Free Navy--than a nation-state.
On the other hand, their navy flag had a better design.
I actually don't mind the point about the being like a 'charity goal-tracker thermometer', I mean, it's basically the same as the United States' flag in that regard? And terraforming would happen over such a long time that I imagine it wouldn't be like the flag would change significantly in your lifetime.
This was a really cool video! Though I completely disagree with your "improved" Greater Reich flag from "Man in the High Castle", I felt the new design was too busy and far less visibly striking. Besides that it was great! :)
What did you think of Babylon 5's "Psi Corp" emblem?