Star Wars Gets Its First Canonical LGBT Character

[x EvilErmine x]

So she's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender all at the same time? Wow that's quite an achievement for one person.

 

[TallanKhan]

I'm all for diversity but to be honest, this feels like shoehorning. Is this really StarWars first LGBT character? How would we know, seeing as how 99% of the hundreds of characters we were introduced to never had their sexual orientation explored?

Think about it, from the films Han and Leia become an item, Anakin and Padme become another, and I think maybe Lando commented on Leia being hot or something so at a push you could count that. That is a grand total of five characters whos sexual orientation we can begin to guess at (and we still don't know definitively, any of them could be Bi). Moreover, it says something about the mind-sets at work here which is clearly to assume that any character who hasn't had their sexuality explicitly explored is automatically straight.

Moreover what we do know (or assume) about the sexuality of various characters we learned as a result of organic character development, not someone standing up and shouting "I am straight because I like to sleep with people of the opposite sex!" and unless the relationship Moff Mors has is equally organic and meaningful to the story then it will just be pandering.

 

[EyeReaper]

Honestly, I find this all a bit silly. I wonder if this headline will be one of those "Back of the book cover blurbs." Apparently it's not too surprising in story, or else they just spoiled it.

Like a few other comments I've seen, Headlines like these always make me wonder "what about every other character that hadn't hinted at their sexuality before? I guess now everyone else has been retroactively forced to be straight."

Speaking of minorities, That whole "not enough black people" always bothered me in series with multicolored fantasy races. If you can have people with blue, green, or purple skin, slug monsters and anthropomorphous turtles and pigs, then why is it only 'diversity' if there's different shades of human? Can we not count someone with dark fur as a black person, strictly because they are a different species? Is Daffy Duck not technically black?

I guess what I'm trying to say is, lack of inclusivity does not equal exclusivity. If there isn't a confirmation on a character's sexuality, that just leaves it open to speculation, which I consider a good thing. Look at Persona 4, they did that shit right.

 

[Haerthan]

I'm all for diversity but to be honest, this feels like shoehorning. Is this really StarWars first LGBT character? How would we know, seeing as how 99% of the hundreds of characters we were introduced to never had their sexual orientation explored?

Think about it, from the films Han and Leia become an item, Anakin and Padme become another, and I think maybe Lando commented on Leia being hot or something so at a push you could count that. That is a grand total of five characters whos sexual orientation we can begin to guess at (and we still don't know definitively, any of them could be Bi). Moreover, it says something about the mind-sets at work here which is clearly to assume that any character who hasn't had their sexuality explicitly explored is automatically straight.

Moreover what we do know (or assume) about the sexuality of various characters we learned as a result of organic character development, not someone standing up and shouting "I am straight because I like to sleep with people of the opposite sex!" and unless the relationship Moff Mors has is equally organic and meaningful to the story then it will just be pandering.

Before the old canon was taken to the back of the shed and put down like a sick dog (damned Disney) there were only 2 homosexual couples to my knowledge: Goran Bevin and his husband from the Mando clans (pops up in the Second Galactic Civil War) and Juhani from KOTOR. THat is it. Why do people keep complaining that one character is gay? Read the book before you make a judgement, the news being only advertisements to attract the largest amount of readership possible.

Captcha: Hit the hay. Sorry Captcha I dont roll that way. I am a dude and I only prefer ladies, especially if they are Romanian.

Edit: the reason we haven't had it explored is because
1) Bioware didnt work on it except for KOTOR and SWTOR
2) The default is supposed to be heterosexual, so we assume they are as such.
3) Outside of erotic fanfiction, they don't exactly make too many books or comics that deal with sexuality.

 

[Haerthan]

id like to think the character will actually be well written and not be some stupid pandering

id like to, but nothing ive seen so far of this film gives me any hope it will be good

Source: via Polygon LMAO no kidding they're the only ones to care about this crap for their stupid agenda.

"Wah WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH I am not being pandered to. I order you to pander to me." That is how you sound right now you know that? You aren't the only consumer of Star Wars books, comics, games and other media.

hey hey dude, dont assume LGBT like this, do you seriously think every time i see a heterosexual character i think "man im really liking this, i feel so identified!"

thats some silly line of thinking

No what I am sure you would be thinking is NOTHING if they were heterosexual. But the minute a news story pops up like this the whole lot of you decide to cry because of "diversity being shoehorned in", as if that is a bad thing, considering that in the old canon I can only count 3 LGBT characters. 3 out of fucking quadrillions. Think on that. Hence my strawman of a crying nerd.

ANd I am not assuming anything beyond the fact that nerds start bawling their eyes out the minute their "sacred space" gets invaded with "outsiders".

This is not meant as a hostile post, just so you know.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

Think on that. Hence my strawman of a crying nerd.
(..)

ANd I am not assuming anything beyond the fact that nerds start bawling their eyes out the minute their "sacred space" gets invaded with "outsiders".
This is not meant as a hostile post, just so you know.

Uhu. Totally not on the same level as starting a post with "I'm not trying to be racist, but".

No what I am sure you would be thinking is NOTHING if they were heterosexual.

Because, surprise surprise: most people in these hobbies care not a single bit about the sexuality of the characters to begin with.

But the minute a news story pops up like this the whole lot of you decide to cry because of "diversity being shoehorned in",

Because oftentimes, this is the case, and stories tend to be hampered by executive meddling most of the time more so than being helped by it. However, this is completely irrelevant.

as if that is a bad thing, considering that in the old canon I can only count 3 LGBT characters. 3 out of fucking quadrillions.

Technically not true, since the sample size is not the entire population of the extended universe but just the characters in the books whose sexuality is known, but I'll give you that they are, according to our standards, under-represented.



What I think of it: why should I care about this? It's fun to have a more diverse cast, sure, but this isn't more likely to make me read the book. I'm more so annoyed by this implicit painting of nerddom as being less inclusive than fiction in general, since apparently it is big news when a nerdy series includes a gay character (although I'll give you that this may also be a bias in the reporting due to the fact that we're on a website about nerdy stuff).
In short: I'll judge the book on its own merits, rather than just the sexuality of the characters in it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Fine. Let them make a diverse character cast.
If it doesn't get in the way of the story, then what's the bloody harm?

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

No what I am sure you would be thinking is NOTHING if they were heterosexual. But the minute a news story pops up like this the whole lot of you decide to cry because of "diversity being shoehorned in", as if that is a bad thing

it IS a bad thing, becuase you end up with shallow character that are, at best forgettable and at worst walking stereotypes

also, if the rest of the material released about this film had showed any hope, i probably wouldnt be thinking this is a lame pandering attempt to generate hype for the film, instead of a well thought character

to me the film feels empty, so im of course going to assume the characters in it are as empty as it gets

considering that in the old canon I can only count 3 LGBT characters. 3 out of fucking quadrillions. Think on that. Hence my strawman of a crying nerd.

well homosexual people are a minority, its only logical even in fiction, theres only a small number of them, it could be argue theres still too few, sure

but the answer to that problem is not say to the writer "you HAVE to be more diverse", i mean, havent we gone through this back in the 90s? with cartoons that portrayed people of every etnicity and every disability under the sun? and we know how bad that turned out

ANd I am not assuming anything beyond the fact that nerds start bawling their eyes out the minute their "sacred space" gets invaded with "outsiders".

This is not meant as a hostile post, just so you know.

well it absolutely sounds like one, for starters, you are assuming there are no gay nerds, and you are so horribly mistaken there, there are countless of examples of non-straight characters in fiction that "nerds" have liked because they feel they werent forced, thats the way to do it

 

[Kardsymalone]

Does anyone even know what is and isn't canon anymore?
I've always though discussing canon in the star wars universe is pointless since the universe seems to be perpetually retconning itself

 

[Islandbuffilo]

This is the first? Could of sworn I've read of others (specifically a lesbian) from the EU and there are homosexual characters in SWTOR which I believe is in the EU, speaking of which isn't the EU no longer cannon?

 

[Ukomba]

Does anyone even know what is and isn't canon anymore?
I've always though discussing canon in the star wars universe is pointless since the universe seems to be perpetually retconning itself

They removed all the old canon, and are releasing 20 books of new canon before the movie.

And they did all that to keep people from getting confused...

 

[ckam]

Tagged under Comics and Cosplay for some reason...

In any case, good for the community, I suppose. The biggest question is at this point: Is she hot? No, seriously Bro. How hot is she?

 

[DerangedHobo]

I always felt like the Star Wars franchise was this eldritch abomination, tied up to some sort of deranged hellraiser-esque milking machine, begging for death's embrace on a daily basis.

Seriously, why is this relevant? Its fucking Star Wars, truly the pinacle of social commentary and the series that we all turn to for moral guidance.

 

[Grabehn]

While I don't care about ANYTHING in this article, I always find this stuff really funny. And they all tend to sound a lot like

"Oh yeah, we making changes around here... Hey, HEEEEEY!!! We got a LESBIAN/GAY IN OUR NEW THING! ONE OF THEM LGBT PEOPLE TALK A LOT NOW! YOU BETTER READ/WATCH IT!".

So how does that affect anything at all in the storyline, and why couldn't they just keep it to themselves and let people figure it out while reading it?

Because if, by any chance, their only selling point is having a "gay" character in their book, it doesn't make think it's that good of a book to begin with.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Cool.

Am I supposed to get angry now? Someone please tell me what I'm supposed to do or feel! >:C

 

[Darknacht]

This is the first? Could of sworn I've read of others (specifically a lesbian) from the EU and there are homosexual characters in SWTOR which I believe is in the EU, speaking of which isn't the EU no longer cannon?

The old EU and all the LGBT character in that are no longer cannon they were all thrown out last year. Only the new stuff published under Disney is cannon now. The first thing published in the new EU was released in September of last year, so the new cannon is only a few months old and have almost nothing in it.

 

[TallanKhan]

I'm all for diversity but to be honest, this feels like shoehorning. Is this really StarWars first LGBT character? How would we know, seeing as how 99% of the hundreds of characters we were introduced to never had their sexual orientation explored?

Think about it, from the films Han and Leia become an item, Anakin and Padme become another, and I think maybe Lando commented on Leia being hot or something so at a push you could count that. That is a grand total of five characters whos sexual orientation we can begin to guess at (and we still don't know definitively, any of them could be Bi). Moreover, it says something about the mind-sets at work here which is clearly to assume that any character who hasn't had their sexuality explicitly explored is automatically straight.

Moreover what we do know (or assume) about the sexuality of various characters we learned as a result of organic character development, not someone standing up and shouting "I am straight because I like to sleep with people of the opposite sex!" and unless the relationship Moff Mors has is equally organic and meaningful to the story then it will just be pandering.

Before the old canon was taken to the back of the shed and put down like a sick dog (damned Disney) there were only 2 homosexual couples to my knowledge: Goran Bevin and his husband from the Mando clans (pops up in the Second Galactic Civil War) and Juhani from KOTOR. THat is it. Why do people keep complaining that one character is gay? Read the book before you make a judgement, the news being only advertisements to attract the largest amount of readership possible.

Captcha: Hit the hay. Sorry Captcha I dont roll that way. I am a dude and I only prefer ladies, especially if they are Romanian.

Edit: the reason we haven't had it explored is because
1) Bioware didnt work on it except for KOTOR and SWTOR
2) The default is supposed to be heterosexual, so we assume they are as such.
3) Outside of erotic fanfiction, they don't exactly make too many books or comics that deal with sexuality.

Ok re-read my original post because it doesn't say what you seem to think it says. Also, your statement that:

The default is supposed to be heterosexual

Now I think this points to the root of the real problem here.

 

[Cecilo]

The only thing I have to say about this is if you are going to make a character be a LGBT or whatever else you want them to be, make the character, and add that as a tidbit, don't make the tidbit and then build the character around that tidbit. It is the same with any other character, because if you do make it a tidbit and then make the character around that tidbit, you are gonna get a lame, one-dimensional character that will be in scenes to pretty much just go "Hi, I am here to fill a quota and possibly bring in that group of sales." Or to avoid a push back by people who are angry that they aren't represented.

Specifically, if this character's sexual orientation isn't going to have much bearing on the story, then.. why would they announce it like it is a big part of it.

What I am trying to say is I thought LGBT people were the same as me, just different interests. I wasn't aware you had to be wound up or powered, or attuned by something to participate in an event, but the constant pointing out of your characters is begining to suggest otherwise.

Now, if the Main character is LGBT and it is a love story, or features a love plot. Sure let us know, that's fine, or if it is addressing something specific to their person like (This wouldn't fit in Star Wars generally), How Homosexual men have a higher rate of acquiring STDs (I think that is still accurate if it was debunked my apologies), or other such things, but those wouldn't really fit with a Fantasy Movie, maybe in the Christmas special reboot.

 

[PsiChaos]

If this wasn't such a blatant money grab for the so-called "diversity" crowd I'd be fine with it. But the sole fact that they feel the need to parade this character's sexual preference that they gave her makes me feel like this isn't an honest attempt at developing a good character who happens to be a lesbian, or her preferences somehow playing a part in that character's overall actions, but instead is just some token they wave around to appease the radical SJWs. Having token characters shouldn't be the diversity people should be driving for, as that will only lead to dull, uninteresting, and lazy characters.

I could be wrong, and she could turn out to be a very well-written character, but right now, What Disney is doing to Star Wars looks like a 90's Sat-AM cartoon with their token characters.

 

[Blitsie]

This is pretty darn cool.

She also just happens to be a lesbian, which from all descriptions this seems to be a minor aspect of her character - at least in terms of what the reader is exposed to.

Also sounds like a pretty tasteful way to go about it. I think it's silly when stories that are supposed to be set in the distant future make a big deal (in universe) about LGBT characters. It's a hot subject now, but I would hope it wouldn't be by that time.

That's good, one of my biggest gripes regarding this whole thing is whether they're doing it just for the sake of having such a character, or are genuinely creating a good character who just happens to be a lesbian.

I completely and utterly loathe it when a writer does the former.