The emblem that represents the Republic is pretty well known. The Galactic Roundel is a simple design that resembles some modern and historic emblems like the Sun Cross and the Buddhist Dharmachakra. There is a canonical flag of the Republic, seen in the last few episodes of TCW's fifth season at the Republic military headquarters on Coruscant. It's the Republic state emblem on a red field. Spoiler: Large Image I can't say I'm the biggest fan of it. The vexillophile in me is vexed by the faintness of the black emblem on the red field. However, it can be said to be a bit less... fascist than the version that appears in Legends. Spoiler: Large Images Sure, the resemblance to the flag of the Third Reich is somewhat appropriate for the period leading up to founding of the Galactic Empire. There's an increasingly autocratic leader overseeing a rapid militarisation and an undermining of democracy. The transition from Republic to Empire requires only a small push by the time of ROTS. The allusions to the rise of the Nazis are all there to see in the story. It's also more pleasing on the eye than the Canon flag. But this is meant to be the flag of the Galactic Republic, the democracy guarded over by the Jedi Order for millennia. The Republic is democratic almost to the end, as Mace Windu (optimistically?) declares in response to Palpatine's claim of being one and the same as the Senate. A Nazi-based flag for what is ultimately a benevolent yet ineffectual and increasingly oligarchic liberal democracy seems inappropriate. The Canon flag is better, IMO. I decided to make my own Fanon flags for the Galactic Republic, based on the flags of contemporary real world states. Version 1 Spoiler: Large Image Based on the flag of Canada. It has a 1:2 proportion and is a bicolour vertical triband of red, white and red in a 1:2:1 ratio with the black Republic state emblem charged in the centre. The red is the same colour as that in the United States flag. It's a nicely restrained hue like you'd see on Obi-Wan's starfighters. I find the emblem needs to be large, like the Canadian maple leaf in that flag, or else it seems off balance. The black already overpowers the red so it needs to hog quite a lot of the white central square in order to prevent it looking too small and the red bars on the side looking isolated. JMO. The idea came from seeing pictures of the Canadian maple leaf emblazoned on the side of Canadian Forces ships and as part of the Canadian government logo. The maple leaf is a distinctive, versatile design that's almost like a real-world equivalent of SW's iconic faction emblems: Republic, CIS, Empire, Alliance/NR, FO. You can put it on anything and people will instantly think, "Canada." Version 2 Spoiler: Large Image Based on the flag of India. It has a 2:3 proportion and is a bicolour horizontal triband of red, white and red in a 1:1:1 ratio with a black Republic state emblem charged in the centre. The emblem replaces the blue Ashoka Chakra of the Indian flag and is sized about the same. That is quite an intricate design that the Republic state emblem (still my personal favourite in SW) seems dull next to. Perhaps it's undersized? If the goal is avoidance of fascist connotations in a liberal democracy's flag, this might fail due to its vague resemblance to the Nazi Austrian flag. That's a bit obscure, though, and this could possibly be likened to the Argentine flag. The Argentine flag also has a radial star-related emblem in the centre. Version 3 Spoiler: Large Image Based on the flag of Ireland. It has a 1:2 proportion and is a bicolour vertical triband of red, white and red in a 1:1:1 ratio with a black Republic state emblem charged in the centre. There's nothing in the white band of the Irish flag but this does resemble the Mexican (due to the proportions) and Peruvian (due to the colours) flags. Like the eagle coat of arms in the Mexican flag, the Republic emblem can be quite small and still not throw the design off balance. However, it looks very Peruvian. This format of flag seems to emphasise the colours over anything that's charged or defaced in the central white band. *** Thoughts? Feel free to do what you wish with these. The Republic state emblem obviously belongs to Disney and the real world flags that they're based on are public domain.
