[ART][META] Senshi Flag - discussion & argument

[M Fnord]

So I got bored (and why is it that so much of the stuff I post starts out that way?)...



This is a prototype of a flag for the Crystal Millennium. Obviously it's a general ripoff of the Japanese flag in terms of overall design; I figure that's fitting since the Senshi are an anime-inspired faction. The mon in the center - the nine crescent moons - would be the symbol of House Serenity. In terms of coloration, I'm not happy with it. The blue is there mostly as a placeholder until I get a better idea of what the field should be.

I'm also kicking around ideas for the coat of arms for HRH Serenity I, Empress of Venus, Queen of Crystal Tokyo, etc. If anybody has any bright ideas on *that* lemmie know too.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

No matter which single colour you pick, somebody's going to complain that it isn't their favourite Senshi's colour. So you're going to have to use them all... probably in the crescent moons.

As for the field, what's wrong with white? (That would at the least provide some relief to the colours of the crescent moons, assuming we go that route.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

As for the field, what's wrong with white?

Well, I'm trying to not *completely* rip off the Japanese flag, so..

Edit: Oh, what the hell. Here's a multicolor mon w/ white background:


Edit 2: And here's a variant with a gold fringe around the edge of the flag. I admit I like this one more than the plain white:

Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Black Aeronaut]

I like it, but I can't help but think that some Senshi would want some hearts on there. You know, the whole love and justice thing. Other than that, I like it. (^_^)

[robkelk]

I like it, but I can't help but think that some Senshi would want some hearts on there. You know, the whole love and justice thing.

I would hope that the design committee would say "No, because then the Nanoha-fen Senshi would want a tulip design somewhere, and the Rayearth-fen Senshi would probably want a Mashin, and who knows what the Kim Possible fen Senshi would want?" One doesn't want a cluttered flag that's too difficult to make even with lithographic techniques.

And, yes, the white background doesn't really work. Would a http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040516.html]true-colour-Venus pale yellow work?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

Hmm.. maybe. How's this look?



And just for variety's sake, I slapped together a tricolor similar to the RGB Mars flag:


Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Star Ranger4]

Like the 'badge', still undecided about if I like the solid field or the tricolor, will have to cogitate on that for a bit

The arms for House Serenity to me feels like it should be the roundel as shown here, overlain with either the SM Crystal or a jeweled top scepter. This will tie together the 'national symbol' with the 'ruling house' thematicly, IMO
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Black Aeronaut]

Going out on a limb, here, but what about the good old Red-White-and-Blue for a tri-color background?

Red for Courage.

White for Purity.

Blue for Valor.

Sounds like Senshi values to me.

[Foxboy]

With, of course, the colors in opposite order from France... or perhaps diagonal along the Golden Mean? So that the Red and blue are 30-60-90 triangles flanking a white parallelogram?

This might make small-form flags 10 cm by 16.8 cm or so...Gimme a few moments in Inkscape...
ETA: Okay, done with a bit of wrangling... and this may need cleanup, a diagonal tricolor:

FWIW, I may have hosed over the proportions in my haste. I think that the white parallelogram is supposed to be a rhombus: IOW, the sides of the white quadrilateral are all supposed to be equal.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[ECSNorway]

I like the tricolor, but I think it's too busy with the colored crescents. Try the yellow/green/blue with white crescents?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[M Fnord]

OKAY THEN!

It looks like Yuku's de-shit itself on my end (hopefully), so if this goes through at the *end* of the fucking thread I'll be happy.

So to sum up the last few hours of hilarity, here's my renditions of Foxboy's tricolor ideas:





Personally I like the lozenge better, but I'm not sold on the red white and blue 'cause it's been done to death and reincarnation.

And here's a render of Norway's suggestion of the gold-green-blue tricolor with a monochromatic mon:



I like this one a bit more, but I do think it's missing out without the colors in the crescents. YMMV, of course.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[ECSNorway]

Try the lozenge with the green and yellow.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[M Fnord]

Keep the lozenge white? Or go with another color?
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Foxboy]

The white serves to make the colored crescents less... Busy? Iunno.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[M Fnord]

Well, in that case, here's the lozenge in green and yellow with colored & uncolored mon:




...and for something *completely* different, here's an alternate gold/green flag. This one's based on a fiendishly clever flag somebody did on AH.com for the Kingdom of Northumbria:



(This one's not *really* a serious contender, I just like it 'cause I like the idea of tartan on a flag. )
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[firvulag]

I agree that the coloured mon is the way to go, though I have to say my favorite so far is the white with gold edging.
--
"OK, so it's not really thermite. It uses Mg++ instead of Al+++. I suppose they
figured that having the entire box disappear in a lake of molten iron wouldn't
make it easy to eat."
-- Shalom Septimus on a self-heating meal

[Bob Schroeck]

I'm finding I like the green and yellow and white lozenge field with colored mon design, myself.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[ECSNorway]

I can't quite tell because of the way color fools the eye, but are the specific green and yellow used in the quartering repeated among the crescent moons?

If so, there should be a symbolic reason for it. Yellow for Venus is obvious, Green for.... who?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Foxboy]

The Desaturated Gold and Green really sell the Spectrum in the mon, too.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[robkelk]

I'm finding I like the green and yellow and white lozenge field with colored mon design, myself.

Likewise.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

I can't quite tell because of the way color fools the eye, but are the specific green and yellow used in the quartering repeated among the crescent moons?

They aren't. The green and yellow in the mon are brighter and a little deeper than the colors used in the quartering.

If so, there should be a symbolic reason for it. Yellow for Venus is obvious, Green for.... who?

The colors in the mon represent the Senshi in general; I'm pretty sure all the canonical Senshi except Chibi-Moon are covered by those nine colors.

As for the quartering, the light gold/tan/yellow/whatever on the fly represents Venus as it is (Rob's idea), and the green at the hoist represents Venus as it will be post-VTP (my idea, based on the Mars RGB flag).
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Star Ranger4]

Colored mon on the green n gold 'lozenge' gets my vote.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[M Fnord]

Well, since the technicolor mon on the white lozenge seems to be the consensus, I've updated the Crystal Millennium page to reflect that.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[M Fnord]

Bumping this thread with a little far-future speculation. Remember that nothing here is fixed; the future is always uncertain. --Mal

---

In 2111 the Crystal Millennium suffered a severe constitutional crisis. The then-queen of Venus, Serenity III, died in a shuttle accident while returning from Convention. Officially, the throne then went to the crown princess; unfortunately Princess Alicia (who would eventually take the regnal name Serenity IV) was just under a year old and therefore unable to handle monarchial duties. As the Venusian monarchy was not a purely symbolic one, this presented a serious problem.

The Senshi Council met once the official mourning period had passed to debate what to do. A regency council was proposed, then abandoned in favor of electing a single regent to hand duties until the princess came of age. After several weeks of debate, the Council elected the second-oldest Named Senshi[1] as Regent.

So it was that Stellvia Corporation president Yayoi Fujisawa, Sailor Stellvia, became regent of the Crystal Millennium from 2111 to 2128. Though Yayoi never held a title higher than "Princess Regent," popular history has come to refer to her as Queen Yayoi. This status was reinforced when Serenity IV's granddaughter took the regnal name Yayoi II in honor of the regent.


Fig. 1: The Venusian flag under the Stellvian Regency

As the house of Serenity was considered in abeyance until the crown princess was old enough to take the throne, the flag of Venus was changed to represent the new House ruling the roost. The Regency crest - which stood for House Fujisawa, House Scott-Fujisawa or House Stellvia, depending on point of view - was designed to keep the Stellvia Corporation logo off the flag and official documents.

[1]An early attempt to elect Sailor Mars as regent failed when said Sailor, who had only joined the Council meeting under duress, fled Crystal Tokyo for Ragnarok. She stayed there as a guest of the Chairwoman of the Central Committee until 2115.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Very pretty, but I thought we went with the elected Ruler for the Senshi? (I'll admit I stole this idea from the Star Wars prequels.)

And anyway, I very much doubt A.C. actually joined the Senshi or allowed herself to be offically Sailor Mars so I suspect what she did was politely but forcefully (and very publically) remind the council of this, then point out that attempting to force her into the role could be easily construed as a violation of the Laws of The Convention.

Then she'd leave the Solar System, taking the Forge with her, to do research on Ragnarok as a guest of the Chairwoman of the Central Committee, so she'd be out of the way for the arguments to follow.