Just a Face and a Caption: Colonel Badass

It's got the badass down, but not the colonel. Honestly, he looks more like a grunt from the picture alone.

How about Colonel Roy Mustang? This picture [1]◊ clearly shows three stars on his epaulets, and, well, he looks like he's doing something badass.

This reasoning makes sense, especially the point about the three stars.

It does strike me that I think the typical Colonel Badass looks more like Quaritch than Mustang. The page also notes that one contribution to the trope is that colonels are the highest military rank deployable in the field, and Mustang looks a bit like he's wearing a dress/office uniform... Was auch immer. It's a minor consideration by comparison with non-illustrativeness.

Wouldn't Three Stars make him a Lieutenant General (Ergo Three-Star Badass) to most readers?

edited 5th Mar '13 11:01:35 AM by CobraPrime

Huh. Weird.

Despite being American I always associated Three Stars with colonel. How odd.

It'd be the case in Monaco, Italy, Greece, Columbia, Poland and Sweden.

(And he'd also be a Lt. general in Greece (Again), Hungary, Sweden (Again), Norway, Iran).

Colonel does have three stars in some countries. Like Sweden and Germany (though the German looks a little different).

In other words, it's a good suggestion.

edited 5th Mar '13 11:20:04 AM by AnotherDuck

The stars is a tiny part of the pic and their meaning is ambiguous.

and I have no idea what's happening in the pic.

And considering that Amestris from Full Metal Alchemist is based loosely off of Germany, the three stars would indicate a Colonel.

My main point is the three stars is not as indicative as people assume. And the German part requires one to have seen the work. (Plus Germans aren't known for their blue uniform so that comparison kinda fails).

You wouldn't know that from looking at the image, though.

I like the suggestion. I'm not well versed in military ranking, but the stars show that he's an officer, and the lack of other medals on his uniform shows that he's not a general.

edited 5th Mar '13 1:00:45 PM by videogmer314

The relatively fancy uniform does make him look more like a commissioned officer rather than a just a grunt. But I see your point that the three stars aren't anywhere near as indicative as I thought they were.

I don't think most people know how the ranks look anyway, even in their own military. He's clearly of some kind of decently ranked personnel, which I think is enough. The only clear way would be to write it out in plain text.

The one that everyone does know is Four-Star Badass, so it being less than that helps as well. It's apparent he's ranked but not a general, and the surrounded by fire helps the badass part, I think.

It's worth mentioning that Fullmetal Alchemist does not take place on Earth, and 3 stars is Colonel rank in the State Army there.

I don't think it's a big deal to mention the 3 star thing in a caption to go with the pic.

OP looks more like a General to me. Blue is generally associated with dress uniforms. Especially that shade of blue. (Field uniform blue tends to be Sky blue). So it doesn't scream "Field officer" to me - and this is a big part of the trope, that a colonel is a field officer.

The current one, while not perfect, at least paints him as a field officer.

I repeat: Fullmetal Alchemist doesn't take place on Earth. Therefor, it shouldn't be judged by Earthly standards of uniform and dress.

Blue is the default color of the ENTIRE MILITARY'S uniforms. No exceptions. Even Fuhrer Bradley wears the same color and style uniform as the lowest of new recruits.... albeit a bit more decorated.

I have no idea how to know what what colour symbolizes. So I am going to ignore the objection to the OP.

And the picture tells me that where? That's Fan Myopia. I shouldn't have to know this for the picture to make sense.

If you need a paragraph to explain to me how it makes sense in context, then your image sucks.

Even without knowing about color, the gold trim on the shoulder clearly looks like a RL Dress Uniform.

edited 5th Mar '13 3:26:26 PM by Ghilz

Are the stars going to be visible at wiki size?

Barely.

Alternate suggestion: Battle damaged and still ready to kick ass. 3 stars still visible... Visible enough anyway.

edited 5th Mar '13 4:07:00 PM by DRCEQ

Better since it at least show him on the field.

Not bad.

That is better.

@21 is my like.