J.J. Abrams Says Gay Characters Are Coming to Star Wars
- Thread starter PatrickJS
- Start date
It's the "openly" gay part that has me worried.
If they do something like "Look at me, I am a gay character that is oppressed", then I say nay. As Abrams said, it's dumb that anyone in the Star Wars galaxy would have a problem with a gay person. And if they shove it in our face, nay as well. Because then that would just be their only character dimension.
But asides from that, yey? I guess?
I just hope its not Poe and Fin, because holy crap have I seen enough of that Rule 34 shit...
If they do something like "Look at me, I am a gay character that is oppressed", then I say nay. As Abrams said, it's dumb that anyone in the Star Wars galaxy would have a problem with a gay person. And if they shove it in our face, nay as well. Because then that would just be their only character dimension.
But asides from that, yey? I guess?
I just hope its not Poe and Fin, because holy crap have I seen enough of that Rule 34 shit...
Nice, now i never have to spend money on a Starwars ticket again!
Turns out all of my worrying about The Force Awakens was misplaced.
Turns out all of my worrying about The Force Awakens was misplaced.
Oh for fucks sake... please please please dont make it another flamboyant "my only character trait is being gay" stereotype..
Seriously, star wars was never good at handling relationships and the anakin x padme stuff was atrociously cringeworthy... star wars is not about sexual relationships! Its bad at them!
And "openly gay"? Why do i get bad vibes when a hollywood regiseur uses these words?
HAVE YOU EVEN CONSULTED ACTUAL NORMAL GAY PEOPLE?
The last thing "normal" gays want is to rub their sexuality all up in your face! Contrary to popular hollywood belief your typical gay people are NOT christopher street day goers who are. They simply want to be treated like everyone else! They want to lead normal lives without being persecuted for their sexuality. Other then that the overwhelming majority of gay people is by all accounts really not that outstanding in social behavior.
What do i mean with normal gays? Neil patrick Harrison for crying out loud! Hes funny, great guy, he doesnt hide the fact that hes gay, but he doesnt bludgeon you over the head with it either! He simply acts like a normal decent human being. Infact chances are you wouldnt even realize that he was gay if his partner wasnt around, because he behaves like EVERYONE ELSE!
So please.. for the sake of the upcomming movies... dont make the gay characters defining characteristic be that hes gay... just give him or her a same sex partner, show them hugging or something and then drop it because they are involved in an intergalactic fucking war!
Or hey.. how about a gay villain for a change? Again not someone karicature but a real villain with real motivations and character who also happens to be gay? No?
Ah who am i kidding... this is hollywood.. hollywood cant do subtle if it jumped up and bit them in the face.
Seriously, star wars was never good at handling relationships and the anakin x padme stuff was atrociously cringeworthy... star wars is not about sexual relationships! Its bad at them!
And "openly gay"? Why do i get bad vibes when a hollywood regiseur uses these words?
HAVE YOU EVEN CONSULTED ACTUAL NORMAL GAY PEOPLE?
The last thing "normal" gays want is to rub their sexuality all up in your face! Contrary to popular hollywood belief your typical gay people are NOT christopher street day goers who are. They simply want to be treated like everyone else! They want to lead normal lives without being persecuted for their sexuality. Other then that the overwhelming majority of gay people is by all accounts really not that outstanding in social behavior.
What do i mean with normal gays? Neil patrick Harrison for crying out loud! Hes funny, great guy, he doesnt hide the fact that hes gay, but he doesnt bludgeon you over the head with it either! He simply acts like a normal decent human being. Infact chances are you wouldnt even realize that he was gay if his partner wasnt around, because he behaves like EVERYONE ELSE!
So please.. for the sake of the upcomming movies... dont make the gay characters defining characteristic be that hes gay... just give him or her a same sex partner, show them hugging or something and then drop it because they are involved in an intergalactic fucking war!
Or hey.. how about a gay villain for a change? Again not someone karicature but a real villain with real motivations and character who also happens to be gay? No?
Ah who am i kidding... this is hollywood.. hollywood cant do subtle if it jumped up and bit them in the face.
This is bullshit. They existed in the extended universe. Just because you decided those stories and characters are no longer cannon doesn't actually cause them to no longer exist in the fabric of reality. They are still there, and they had gay characters first. No, J.J., you don't get to claim to be the first creative mind to do this in star wars; you can't arrive late the the party and then claim you were there first just because you kicked the other guests out.
Also, why is J.J. acting like he has George Lucas levels of control over star wars? I thought he was done after Episode VII, since VIII is being helmed by a different director? Did I miss something?
Also, why is J.J. acting like he has George Lucas levels of control over star wars? I thought he was done after Episode VII, since VIII is being helmed by a different director? Did I miss something?
Is this being publicised as a "selling point", though? Or was Abrams just answering a question about the future of the series?Soviet Heavy said:
Given Star Wars is owned by Disney, and given the very straight, white and male focus of the [film] franchise going back decades, I'd say it's wholly understandable why this would be a talking point. Should it? Not really, but when you have decades of a global franchise not doing something and then they do it (whilst still being owned by a company with an insanely puritanical past), well, human nature dictates it's going to be discussed, and I don't see why that's a bad thing. Even if no one involved in making the films mentioned anyone's sexuality (or ethnicity, or gender), then you can be damned sure the press/groups/people-of-teh-internetz will.
OH NOES! Will somebody please think of the children. The end days are upon us. THE GAY AGENDA IS TAKING STAR WARS FROM US!
As long as the movies are good I'm a happy camper. But this does give the movie another problem that it needs to solve in order to be good. The only thing that concerns me is how it's handled. Because if you get a sense that any aspect of the movie is forced just for the sake of some other agenda (in this case inclusion) then it affects the whole movie. It ends up being that thing that was there for sociopolitical reasons instead of story reasons. And it sticks out like a sore thumb. And that would be bad movie making.
But if it's done in a way that feels natural then it's perfectly fine. Why wouldn't it be? It's 2016.
As long as the movies are good I'm a happy camper. But this does give the movie another problem that it needs to solve in order to be good. The only thing that concerns me is how it's handled. Because if you get a sense that any aspect of the movie is forced just for the sake of some other agenda (in this case inclusion) then it affects the whole movie. It ends up being that thing that was there for sociopolitical reasons instead of story reasons. And it sticks out like a sore thumb. And that would be bad movie making.
But if it's done in a way that feels natural then it's perfectly fine. Why wouldn't it be? It's 2016.
Oh please let it be an interesting character that just happens to be gay, and not some one-dimensional posterchild who only serves to remind that he/she is gay.
Please let it be this
Rufus Gifford, the US American ambassador in Denmark, and yes, he is gay. He was even married here in Denmark
And not this
Please let it be this
Rufus Gifford, the US American ambassador in Denmark, and yes, he is gay. He was even married here in Denmark
And not this
Yes and no. Old Republic apparently maintains a contract via the MMO that makes them canon. A few other bits come to light such as the "Rule of Two" (One Apprentice, One Master) started by Darth Bane which in turn references Darth Revan. The broad strokes of the Old Republic (which is forgotten by the time of the movies) are in no real danger. I can't remember where I read this, but I seem to recall the question was brought up fairly early on due the huge amount of money EA paid for things like licensing. This put them in a different position from the EU writers. When I say "broad strokes" what I mean is the basic plotlines and things that you see through the "Old Republic" series, Revan for example is a dude as opposed to being able to be a girl like you could decide in the video games, your specific heroes in the MMO have no real bearing on what happened, but the same sweeping events largely took place in the distant past.008Zulu said:
At least that's how I've heard it, that might very well change if the MMO closes down. What it reminds me of is how for a while due to contract disputes "Shadows Of The Empire" was considered part of the canon. That gets complicated and goes back to fights over ownership between Dark Horse comics and Lucas (it can be argued that Lucas actually sold the rights to Star Wars and it's canon at least twice and then legally finagled to get them returned to him). Basically if EA loses the liscence and then Disney decides it wants it's own prequel universe... But until then EA spent millions of dollars on these rights, and I believe that included the right to canon within the set time period.
George Lucas and his notes/writing were supposed to have been involved in the development of the SECOND KoToR game as well, which means that it could be considered as canon as say "Splinter Of The Minds Eye" and "Han Solo At Star's End" which I believe also survived the canon purge.
The point here is that Juhani can truly be argued to be the first "canon" homosexual character in the series.
I'm not going to get into a brawl over this, this is simply the information I have on the subject. J.J. putting a homosexual into the movies (if he even has that kind of swing) would be a first and I'm sure that's what he means. Right now there have been two areas of speculation on this:
1. Boba Fett's sexuality was never determined and for the sake of doing this with an iconic character he will be defined as gay in the upcoming "Rogue 1" (I hope not).
2. Either Finn or Rey will be revealed to be gay in the upcoming sequels when they gain love interests. Apparently before the movie was even released it was mentioned that they are not going to be a couple and we'd have to see who they wind up with. In light of J.J.'s comments this means either could be on the table.
That said JJ isn't going to be involved anymore from some things I read, his intentions and what he's heard aside, I'm not sure if Disney is going to go through with this in what is being presented as a child-friendly universe. All comments about more progressive Disney characters aside, them experimenting in a billion dollar franchise like Star Wars seems unlikely. If they were going to do that, I'd imagine they would use their canon bi-sexual character already, that's Black Widow incidently, it's been a while but I seem to remember her getting into some girl on girl in her background during an adult-imprinted series years ago. She's also a B lister and allegedly her lack of toys was justified as her underperforming in merch, so if they needed to axe a character due to an outcry that would be the one.
That said, we'll see what happens in the long run.
While, yes, this shouldn't need to be announced, in that it shouldn't be a big deal, unfortunately in our present society, it still very much is.
Hell, remember when it was a big deal to have a black stormtrooper? Asking "why is this important?" strikes me as a bit naive.
Hell, remember when it was a big deal to have a black stormtrooper? Asking "why is this important?" strikes me as a bit naive.
