This week, I’d like to take a deep dive into the iconography of the All Worlds Ultimate Swoop Rally, one of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s recurring events which is active in the game as I post this article. The Swoop Event remains a favorite of mine; I appreciate that characters of most levels regardless of their gear can fully participate in the event. Completing the races is not especially challenging at their most basic level, but finishing off a course and all of its bonus objectives does require extra attention, and I still cheer when I manage to beat the Horizon Razor’s course bonus timer objective on Dantooine.
The Swoop Event consists of completing rally courses on three planets for three different swoop teams. The courses each have their own objectives and obstacles and each team’s speeder has their own special abilities for players to use on the course.
Likewise each team has their own personality and flavor, and this is best embodied in their team logos which can be seen emblazoned on their banners, jackets and speeders. So let’s take a moment to look at these logos and explore their connections both inside and outside the Star Wars universe. Even though there is no text to translate, I have also attempted to re-contextualize these symbols in a way that might make them more familiar to people from our own galaxy.
The Blatant Beks
Although apparently not directly connected to their namesakes “The Hidden Beks” with whom Revan teamed up during Knights of the Old Republic, the Blatant Beks were perhaps named by their founder Bangcap with aspirations that this team would be as famous as the one from ages past, but with even more explosive power. Clearly subtlety was not one of his goals.
The most prominent feature of the Bek’s logo is the targeting reticle, and, during their rallies, the objective is to detonate as many eplosives as possible along the way. The crosshairs are framed by a roughly triangular shape. Within SWTOR this shape has at least two meanings that spring to mind.
First and perhaps most obviously to myself and regular readers of this blog, the triangular shape closely resembles the Aurebesh letter “X”. I don’t know if it was meant to be taken this way, but overlaying crosshairs with an X marking the spot feels like a neat connection. However, this shape is more commonly seen in the game as part of warning signs and holographic indicators for explosive devices or spots for players to place explosives during their adventures around the galaxy. In this case, I definitely think the association is intended.
Finally, the Bek’s shield-like shape might also remind us of one of the most iconic super-hero logos in pop-culture. To bring home this comparison, I thought I’d add Superman’s colors to the Bek’s symbol, and I think it works quite nicely.
The Pit Screamers
Next up we have the Pit Screamers, a team focused on coming out of pit stops with sound and fury to show off their skill as they maneuver through slalom-like courses filled with hoops and gates and huge jumps. The Pit Screamers logo is the most abstract of all three team’s symbols. At first glance I thought the hook shaped curves that make up their logo shared more than a passing resemblance to the letters of the Huttese or Outer Rim Basic “language”, and it makes sense that the Pit Screamers’ logo would share a design aesthetic with text and glyphs used by the podracing teams first seen during the Boonta Eve Classic in The Phantom Menace.
But I don’t think these shapes are meant to be taken literally or can be translated. Rather, I think we can look at the symbol in a context more familiar to us as players. All it takes is a dash of fiery colors or some gleaming chrome and this symbol would look right at home on the hood and side panels of a hot rod from American Graffiti or a souped up street racer from any of The Fast and the Furious movies. I am certain the Pit Screamers would appreciate either association.
The Horizon Razors
Finally, let’s take a look at the logo of the Horizon Razor’s whose name tells you everything you need to know about them: they want to slash across the sky. The strength of their logo is that it can be interpreted in many ways, any of which feel appropriate to the team.
The symbol could be the wings of a bird in flight, it could be streaks of clouds moving quickly across a wide open sky, it could be the contrails of dust and exhaust left in the wake of their swoops, it could be the tails of a rider’s scarf fluttering in the wind behind them as they race across the landscape, or it could be quite literally a zoomed in view of a pair of razor blades. It’s cool to me that such a simple shape can be credibly read in so many different ways.
In addition the Horizon Razor’s symbol shares similarities that I believe are intentional to a pair of logos from both within the lore of the Star Wars universe and around the people who bring it to life.
To me, the pair of sweeping speed-lines recalls the logo used by Skywalker Sound, the division of Lucasfilm responsible for sound and music effects and design and recording. Iconic sounds from the hum of lightsabers, the howls of TIE Fighters to the sonic booms of Seismic Charges to BB-8’s beeps and chirps all came to life thanks to the talented artists at Skywalker sound.
Although the Skywalker Sound logo seen here has since been updated, I think it’s fair to say that the Horizon Razor’s icon takes some inspiration from it. However, the symbol within Star Wars lore that shares the most DNA with the Skywalker Sound logo is the one seen on the back of Ezra Bridger’s jacket in the early seasons of Star Wars: Rebels. The wing shapes and bounding arc from the original are clearly transposed onto Ezra’s version.
That said, I’ve never quite been able to interpret Ezra’s logo. Is it a bird lifting off to the left or a ram leaning down and charging to the right or something else altogether? I really can’t say. In my research, I’ve seen it most commonly referred to as a “starbird” which is vague enough to not really mean anything if you ask me. If you know what this logo symbolizes, please let me know in the comments below. I’d love to see this mystery solved!
Blazing out of the Gate!
If you have not yet tried out the All World Ultimate Swoop Rally event, I encourage you to give it a shot. To make it worth your time, there are many fun rewards including decorations, mounts and SWTOR’s only non-combat Tactical items usable by characters of any level.
I hope that the Broadsword team expands this event one day. There is room in the pits for another team, maybe one inspired by the Mods from The Book of Boba Fett or perhaps the teams could establish rally courses on other planets around the galaxy: Taris seems like an historically appropriate choice, but I can also imagine it might be fun to race over the shark infested waters of Manaan or leap across Ruhnuc’s yawning canyons. The sky’s the limit!