I’ve realized that the more diverse a cast is, the easier it is to spot the racist fans. They won’t ship a white main character with the black girl who’s his love interest because it’s “heteronormative” (it isn’t) and they want more “gay representation”. But then when his best friend is also a person of color they don’t ship them together because they just “don’t see them that way”. But then they’ll headcanon a Tragic Whiteboy Backstory for the kid that said literally 8 words to the main character. That kid will be their favorite character, their sweet little “cinnamon roll”and there’ll be 40,230 m/m fics of him and the main character. “Representation”. My ass.
it’s okay, you can say Star Wars: The Force Awakens
“black *girl*”
“and there’ll be 40,230 *m/m* fics of him and
the *main character*.”
I don’t remember Rey being Black.
I don’t remember Rey being Male.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t The Force Awakens you’re talking about, but let’s
pretend it is.
(There’s a fair amount of text here and since I know some people can’t be bothered, here’s
the most most important part:
Here are the numbers from fanfiction.net
37, 700 fics involving the Finn/Poe pairing
37, 400 fics involving the Rey/Kylo pairing
37, 800 fics involving the Rey/Finn pairing
Yeah, seriously, go to fanfiction.net right now and check.)
Okay, on to some analysis, and opinions.
Rey describes Finn as her “Friend”, and while that certainly doesn’t mean it
Can’t Ever Happen, it is evidence against Rey having romantic interest in Finn (she’s probably never had friends before so that’s way more important to her
right now).
“But then they’ll headcanon a Tragic Whiteboy
Backstory for the kid that said literally 8 words to the main character.”
What exactly is a Tragic Whiteboy Backstory in the SW universe? What does that
mean?
It’s true we don’t know much about Kylo, but – I mean, he descends from the Skywalkers,
so yeah it’s really not much of a stretch to assume his backstory is tragic.
And from what little we see of him, he’s a reasonably complex character with
huge ramifications for the entire concept of the Light and the Dark and the
nature of the Force.
There are overtly sexual overtones between Rey and Kylo, Disney has basically
taken the classic/dated presentation of sexual awakening (see: Death and the Maiden.
[Better yet, see this massive in-depth analysis that I’m frankly still in awe
of https://ohtze.tumblr.com/post/137735730948/death-and-the-maiden]), and used
it, rather brilliantly in my opinion, as an allegory.
It’s not a sexual Awakening that Kylo
provides Rey, but The Force Awakens likes to present it that way and poke fun at the
whole concept. Maybe Kylo and Rey will get together at some point maybe not,
but the way their relationship is presented in the film makes that conclusion difficult
not to reach.
It’s entirely possible the only reason it’s being presented this way is for the
sake of parodying that sort of story, but regardless of the intent – it’s
there, and I don’t understand why anyone is surprised or offended that it’s a
very very popular ship. And yes, Kylo is a bad dude, but SW is all about redemption,
in case you hadn’t noticed.
Lots of people ship Finn and Poe, actually.
There are certainly people who don’t, and a lot of those people are likely homo
‘phobic’ bigots, but some are just people who legitimately “don’t see them that
way”, and that’s fine.
That being said, yep, the Star Wars fandom is full of racists and sexists and
other terrible people, like most fandoms, just – much bigger and older.
Typically I find the works that teach the best morals have the worst fans. Star
Wars, My Little Pony, Steven Universe, Christianity, etc. The more the core
message is Love, the more likely people will be to completely miss the point and spread hatred in its name.
But I digress.
Anyways, the point is: Rey/Finn is evidently the most popular ship so relax.
Rey/Kylo is fine. Kylo has the potential to be an incredible character.
Finn/Poe is doing well too.
People have different ships and that’s okay.
Not *everyone* who disagrees with any of these ships is a bad person, even
though some definitely are.
Oh yes, I remember this! This is actually a really cool experience assuming you’ve seen each film many many times and basically know what’s happening in all of them at any given moment. Otherwise, I assume, it’s just madness. What I found most interesting is that Chancellor Palpatine’s “I love democracy” speech [II], Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s “THE FIRST GALACTIC EMPIRE” speech [III], and Emperor Palpatine’s “you will witness the final destruction of the Alliance" speech [VI] all occur at ~1h34m into the films. It’s quite doubtful George planned that, but it makes for nice juxtaposition.
The LEGO Star Wars shows are so underrated honestly. They’re absolutely hilarious, the voice acting is great, the jokes are clever, the action is imaginative and well-directed, and they utilize a surprising amount of lore from the books. They’re just really high-quality shows that are more knowledgeable of the Star Wars mythos than the ‘actual’ SW shows such as The Clone Wars and Rebels, and they make fun of the sillier aspects of George’s work but they’re never disrespectful to the SW legacy.
dark Star Wars show me a woman who’s not a white brunette
As I recall, the Queen of Naboo after Padme was named Queen Jamillia, and (though its not immediately obvious due to the Naboo make-up) she was played by Indian actress Ayesha Dharker.
Still though, it seems every woman featured in the SW films has dark hair, so that’s something. [Unless you count Phasma as being blonde?] I also feel I should note that, as always, the Expanded Universe and now the New Canon are leagues ahead of the films as far as representation is concerned (and in general tbh). But yes, the SW films are still bizarrely unadventurous in the diversity of their female characters and that needs to change.
JainaSolo1994 