Star Wars Novel Suggests New Character Is LGBTQ, Some Fans Angry About It
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With less than 100 days to go until Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the marketing push for the film is in full force, including the release of a novel which hints that a new character in the film is bisexual or pansexual.
This would mark a first for the films, though there have been recent LGBTQ characters in the Star Wars novels. But some fans of the universe are annoyed by this revelation, which is a curious thing since science-fiction/fantasy fans are not those you’d expect to have backwards-thinking attitudes about inclusivity.
The “controversy,” such as it is, comes from the new YA novel Leia: Princess of Alderaan and serves as the first introduction to the character of Amilyn Holdo, who will be played by Laura Dern in TLJ. The book is written by Claudia Gray who wrote the other Leia-centric novel Bloodline (which helped contextualize elements of The Force Awakens) and the YA novel Lost Stars about characters who only exist in the “extended universe” of the franchise.
The relevant excerpt reads:
“A pair of pretty dark eyes.” Then Amilyn thought about that for a moment. “Or more than a pair, if you’re into Grans. Or Aqualish, or Talz. Or even — ”
“That’s all right! Leia said through laughter. “It’s just humanoid males for me.”
“Really? That feels so limiting.”
“Thank goodness it’s a big galaxy.”
All that’s really certain is that Holdo appears open to the idea of dating males and females, to say nothing of other species. Of course, inter-species relationships in science fiction are not out of the norm at all, but they typically conform to the male-female dynamic. For example, in Star Trek the character of Spock is the product of a human mother and vulcan father, and later series also introduced human-klingon hybrids.
In fact, one could conceivably argue that in terms of representation this is barely an effort. I mean, if Hollywood is all about the liberal/godless/gay agenda, they really screwed the wookie on this one. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference in a YA novel for a supporting character in the film who will likely just serve as a friendly foil to Leia? That seems, to me, like J.K. Rowling revealing Dumbledore was gay after-the-fact or the momentary acknowledgement that the character of Sulu in the new Stark Trek continuity is married to a man.
Still, in private and anonymous online forums dedicated to Star Wars (which I peruse strictly for research like this and definitely not to argue about Snoke theories) the comments on the articles written about this were remarkably hostile.
There were overtly homophobic comments calling it “disgusting” (again, not because this fictional character would possibly fuck a sexy Jawa, but rather because the sexy Jawa in question might be a female) and touting conspiracy theories that Disney was using Star Wars to make the world gay. (When they’ve been using the princesses to do that the whole time!) People were genuinely angry about this in a way that was surprising, at least among a group of people fanatical about a series whose heroes’ guiding philosophy is that we are all luminous beings (not this crude matter) who deserve to be free.
What’s interesting about Star Wars is that unlike Star Trek, it attracts fans from all sorts of political and ideological backgrounds. It has religion (because what is the “light” and “dark” sides of the Force if not the bullet-point version of all major religious concepts of good and evil?), it has politics (the taxation of trade routes to Naboo!), and it has fun characters like space cowboys and murderbears. It attracts people of all political persuasions.
Star Wars is inherently about attacking “the system,” and thus it’s message can appeal to everyone who feels like “the system” doesn’t work for them. Libertarians, for example, love Star Wars because Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Boba Fett are the heroes the galactic free market needs. To them, the world of Star Trek is basically the same as the Empire, with the story told from the perspective of the Imperial military leaders.
Yet, for some of these fans, they have no idea that’s why the films appeal to them. When these folks were challenged by fans more receptive to this news, there argument was that Star Wars is not a place for “politics.” A series of movies, cartoons, and books that are literally about the fall of one system of government and then the violent overthrow of its replacement is, to these folks, not a story about politics. It boggles the mind.
The other group of vocal opponents to this small detail about a minor character in this universe are the ones who think merely mentioning the new character might be interested romantically in dudes, aliens, and also ladies, is just too “forced.”
When these folks were challenged, many of them would make the argument that there was nothing inherently wrong with including LGBT characters. They argued that the character should be both written that way from the beginning and should be relevant to the story. In other words, the character shouldn’t be LGBTQ just to check a “diversity box.” Ironically, this is correct. GLAAD created “the Russo test” to provide guidelines to what this looks like. Essentially, the test says that any identifiable LGBT character should not be defined primarily by their sexuality or gender, and their story should “matter” in terms of the plot.
It would inevitably be pointed out to these hesitant fans that since she is an original character she is “written that way” and since Laura Dern is a rather prominent actor it’s not likely a small role. Holdo meets their qualifications. Suddenly, they’d start to argue a different point, which is that Star Wars is not really a place for romance. To be fair, romance is less important to its core story than say the Twilight series, but romance (and, yes, sex) is as much a part of Star Wars as politics.
The central figure in the series, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (uh, spoilers?) falls in love with a woman but can’t get married because he is a Jedi. He marries her anyway, and then turns into a child-murdering evildoer because this woman may die in childbirth (she does, lol). Later, that couple’s kids meet up, kinda have the hots for each other, but then the girl falls for a handsome pirate. They have a kid, who idolizes granddad’s more murdery tendencies and kicks off the drama in this new series of films.
So this argument is more confusing than that of the overt homophobes. While I don’t understand why anyone would hate LGBTQ people, I do understand why and how people can grow to hate others (arguably yet another Star Wars theme that these dopes appear to be missing). What I have a harder time understanding is why people would say that they don’t object to LGBTQ characters, but just don’t want them in this particular story that they happen to fanatically love.
Part of the enduring allure of Star Wars, and the fandoms/franchises that have followed its example, is that like all good stories it’s about more than the bullet points of the plot. It is based on a classic mythical structure, and myths have always entertaining, epic stories that also taught important moral and metaphysical truths. Yet many of these fans seem to be missing a crucial point.
The villains in Star Wars have at least one thing in common: they are selfish people who will do whatever they can to impose their will on others. Whether a Dark Lord of the Sith or Jabba the Hutt, the thing they fear and hate the most is the idea that the people they see as beneath them would have the freedom to do as they please. The heroes, on the other hand, want people to be able to live their lives free of oppression and be allowed to make their own decisions. These are very simple concepts, and that’s why children are able to understand the stakes in the films and cartoons.
In the real world, LGBT people are being oppressed and even slaughtered to this day. In the United States, especially, all LGBT Americans are asking for are the same rights as everyone else (which the Constitution provides for). Not to diminish the seriousness of the problem, but it’s easy to see how LGBT people are asking for precisely what every Star Wars fan should be able to recognize as the desire of their heroes: the right to exist and live free.
