Did you know the gibberish used in Star Wars in lieu of English is an actual written language? Known as Aurebesh, the 34 letter alphabet can be extrapolated onto any piece of Star Wars lore to translate into English.
So of course when I came across a high-resolution image of Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) from “The Force Awakens” on an end cap at my local big box, I snapped a photo and proceeded to get down to deciphering!
What should”ve been a quick task quickly took on Herculean proportions as the letters made no damn sense. While the letters on the helmet quickly revealed their secret – it spells “HAL” – the vest was perplexing. No matter what I did or how I cross-referenced, I couldn”t make heads or tales of it. Even the trust “horizontal flip” in case they”d reversed Isaac”s stance while Photoshopping him into the group photo didn”t work.
But then in a bid of desperation I flipped the “horizontal flip” upside-down. Lo and behold, suddenly the words were visible. You had ONE JOB, costume designer*! In the end, was this quest worth all the effort? Only if you like emergency instructions.
“PULL
INFLA”
What? Oh right. Part of the letting is obscured by the angle. In other photos, you can clearly see more words though the font is too tiny to read.
So with a little extrapolation, Dameron”s vest reads “PULL TO INFLATE.”
Safety first! Even in a galaxy far, far away.
*Okay so the words might be upside-down to the person wearing the flight suit can read it in case of emergency. Sorry I yelled at you, anonymous costume designer.