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A question I amost asked but didn't because I figured it out

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:40 pm
by Giovanni Schwartz
Yes, the typo in the title was intentional so that all the letters could fit. But here's my question: "In all the movies and suchlike, why do the bad guys always wear gray?" but then I decided that it must be because the Confederates wore gray. Is this the right answer?


P.S. If you didn't even notice the typo in the title, then I must've picked a good word to typo-ify.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:58 pm
by Portia
I would have preferred that you replace "because" w/ "b/c." :P Sometimes I try to find threads again, and it's nigh unto impossible if someone spells something wrong.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:27 am
by Tao
'fraid I didn't notice the typo, but couldn't in all honesty say if your supposition is the correct answer or not. I could see the argument either way. Perhaps once others decide to disagree or defend you, I will have a have a point to advocate devilishly.

Re: A question I amost asked but didn't because I figured it

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:44 am
by Katya
Giovanni Schwartz wrote:But here's my question: "In all the movies and suchlike, why do the bad guys always wear gray?" but then I decided that it must be because the Confederates wore gray. Is this the right answer?
Cite examples, please. (Otherwise, it's way too easy to shoot this question down by providing a counterexample.)

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:39 pm
by Giovanni Schwartz
I wasn't necesarrily saying it was the onlyl answer, but it was the one I thought of. What other answers are possible? I couldn't think of any. Oh, and for those who didn't get what Portia was saying about b/c instead of because, it was because at first I had spelled because bcause, but then I changed it to spelling almost amost.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:54 pm
by Katya
Giovanni Schwartz wrote:I wasn't necesarrily saying it was the onlyl answer, but it was the one I thought of. What other answers are possible? I couldn't think of any. Oh, and for those who didn't get what Portia was saying about b/c instead of because, it was because at first I had spelled because bcause, but then I changed it to spelling almost amost.
No, I mean, can you give me examples of movies where the bad guys wear gray? Because (1) I can think of a lot of movies where the bad guys wear white or black or another color and (2) if I have specific examples to work with, I can see if those specific movies are likely to have been influenced by the Civil War.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:19 pm
by Giovanni Schwartz
Star Wars. The Empire goons wear grey. Firefly. The Alliance goons wear gray. (Great show, by the way.)

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:53 pm
by Fredjikrang
Some empire goons wear grey in Star wars. Other wear black (fighter pilots, among others, such as the guy behind Darth Vader), red (imperial guard), white (storm troopers), green/brown (Not sure, but one of those two. See Grand Moff Tarkin.) and so on. I would also point out that grey is a fairly common color for uniforms, though in my opinion it is the minority in Star Wars.

I haven't seen firefly, so I can't comment on that one.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:26 pm
by Giovanni Schwartz
Naw, Fred. I'm talking about the guys on the ships that report to Darth Vader. I'm not talking about stormtroopers or any other guys that don't look human.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:52 pm
by Fredjikrang
Well, yeah. But I don't see how you can logically separate them from the rest of the empires "goons." There are obviously a number of "human looking" people who do not wear grey, such as the officer I pointed out that was standing behind Darth Vader, and Grand Moff whats-his-face. I don't have the original three movies with me, so I can't verify it, but it seems like much of the rebellion crew in Episode VI was wearing grey as well. In fact you can see quite a few rebellion members wearing grey uniforms in this video from Episode IV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSZB0NjRqzc

Well, after watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K31BGvIn ... re=related it looks like most of the rebellion crew is wearing a dirty green color, but I would direct your attention to about 5:10 into the video. This scene shows the bridge crew of the super star destroyer. As far as I can tell, they are all wearing either green or black.

In short, I see absolutely no connection, and think that you are illogically constricting your definition of "goon."

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:57 pm
by Giovanni Schwartz
Okay, how about this: "The people in Star Wars who dress in traditional human military uniforms that are on the side of the Empire wear gray, more often than not."

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:17 pm
by Nanti-SARRMM
Giovanni Schwartz wrote:Okay, how about this: "The people in Star Wars who dress in traditional human military uniforms that are on the side of the Empire wear gray, more often than not."
it is only these guys though.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:42 pm
by Portia
Both this and this website claim that villains wear black, which makes sense to me, given the connotations of black in Western culture.

Gray, to me, has the connotation of a "gray area," or a mix of good and evil, so maybe characters whose personalities are also ambiguous might wear gray.

I highly doubt it has anything to do with the Confederacy, unless the film was made or set in 1863.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:47 pm
by Fredjikrang
Giovanni Schwartz wrote:Okay, how about this: "The people in Star Wars who dress in traditional human military uniforms that are on the side of the Empire wear gray, more often than not."
That may be correct, but it doesn't support your original hypothesis.