Buckingham Palace: No One Stopped Us
Two Mandalorians at the Changing of the Guard. The King's Guard didn't blink. Ji'ana Fenix and HK7335 take their armor where it was never supposed to go. First stop: London.
FIELD NOTES
Armor Field Note: Buckingham Palace, London, England
The locals have their own warriors who stand motionless in red wool and bearskin hats.
Arrived during their changing of the guard ceremony, expecting to observe another culture's martial traditions. Instead found myself studying a curious form of performance art where trained soldiers pretend to be decorative. The King's Guards maintain perfect stillness while tourists wave phones inches from their faces, testing their discipline like children poking sleeping nexu.
Their Metropolitan Police officers carry actual weapons but spend most of their time directing foot traffic around barriers. One approached me with practiced courtesy, suggesting I might be "more comfortable" viewing from the designated tourist area. His tone remained diplomatically neutral when I declined to remove anything. Professional respect between warriors, even when one wears a silly hat.
The palace itself squats behind iron railings like a fortress designed by someone who'd never seen a siege. Seven hundred seventy-five rooms, the guidebook claims. Enough space to house a decent-sized clan, though the architecture suggests they prioritized ceremony over defensibility. The Victoria Memorial provides adequate sight lines, but any Mandalorian worth their beskar would have chosen higher ground.
Watched a small child in a plastic crown try to march alongside the guards, mimicking their precise steps. Her parents pulled her back behind the rope barriers, apologizing to officers who'd already returned to scanning the crowd for actual threats. The guards never broke formation. Credit where it's due – their discipline rivals our own, even if their tactical doctrine seems built around looking impressive while standing very still.
The strangest part wasn't wearing full battle armor to observe a ceremony about wearing ceremonial armor. It was realizing their warriors and mine serve the same function, just with different audiences.
Sometimes tradition makes less sense the closer you examine it.