This meme was made by someone who didn’t serve in the military. Many times did I salute someone who i shouldn’t have because their rank insignia was too small to see at a distance or too similar to another branch’s rank insignia. Having it everywhere makes sense.
And the rank on the back? Genius. I’d know that person was a captain so i could sneak off to buffer time while they weren't looking as opposed to having to go in front of them to rank check for 21st century uniforms.
You literally can't! Or underthink it, lol. If that's the meaning you take from the work, that's what it means to you.
More or better evidence of the meaning might strengthen your position but viewer response as an idea is inherently individualistic.
Does that mean that, say, Starship Troopers is just about squashing bugs? Well, not really, but it doesn't mean those people didn't enjoy an simple action movie, no notes.
You’re the quartermaster and a snarky engineer from 800 years ago is complaining that she likes to wear her jacket open. Do you get into a long drawn out fight you’re probably going to lose, or go, “Right Commander Reno, let me go ahead and replicate the J rank variant for you.”
In the 32rd century, people still need visual cues in order to know who is who and what rank they are? Inside a ship they spend all their time in with 300 other people?
You'd think by then people would be more intellectually developed to know the difference. And if they didn't, there would be mobile miniature holo emitters or visual displays that would tell you if you weren't sure. Or some kind of targeted audio alarm that only you could hear that would tell you to stand straight, salute and stay at attention because you're talking to the captain.
Maybe it could be for the psychological benefit of the person wearing the uniform? Like, if youve got a post scarcity utopian society where people dont need to work, but youve got some job that needs doing that can be a bit dangerous or tedious at times and therefore might be inherently unattractive to many, like ship's crew, and you cant just pay people a bunch to do it because you've done away with money, one incentive you might have to offer is social status and a sense of personal achievement. In which case, you might use bright flashy displays of rank, because it gives the person that has attained it a bright flashy reminder of "hey look at you, you've achieved this fancy rank that everyone that didnt join the fleet or didnt get as far as you yet doesnt have", and gives any regular civilian that sees you a blatant reminder of "hey, this could be you, if you're willing to put in the work for it"
The earlier gray version of these uniforms reminded me of the so-called bellhop uniforms from the B5 follow-up Crusade. (The episodes that were filmed first but aired later.) I wasn’t a fan of them then, and they didn’t grow on me.
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