They also claim ‘there were no LGBT characters in any of the Star Wars movies.’ I don’t know which wacky re-cut version of Star Wars they’ve been watching, but I saw the original when I was about six years old and even then I was struck by how outrageously camp C-3PO is. He was a gilded John Inman in space.
And what about Luke Skywalker? Apart from briefly kissing his own sister, he shows no interest in women whatsoever. The first film is a tender gay parable in which Luke falls in love with Alec Guinness and gradually “comes out” as a Jedi. The final scene oozes symbolism: having penetrated the Death Star’s trench in his phallic spacecraft, he closes his eyes, submits to his true inner instinct and triumphantly blasts his X-Wing’s seed into an anus-like aperture, causing an orgasmic eruption that changes his universe for ever. It’s hard to see how they could make Star Wars any gayer, unless they gave the Millennium Falcon a handlebar mustache.”
—Writer Charles Brooker, zapping gamers complaining about gay storylines in new releases like Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic, in The Guardian.
Shofixti
Camp isn’t a sexuality.
Red Meat
Luke Skywalker is totally gay, he obviously can’t have kids because Princess Leia and Han Solo’s most-likely-son is the would be protagonist of the yet to be made squeal.
Snownova
@Red Meat: Sorry Red Meat, Luke married a woman and had a son in the extended universe: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Skywalker_family
but I do agree that if you limit your sources to just the original trilogy, he could be interpreted as gay.
FYI
@ Snownova… That’s one version of course. Actually, Luke later grew tired of his beard/wife, especially after he found out that C-3PO was actually the real father of his son (being a metro-sexual robot with an English accent — who knew), and the fact that his son was born with a gold grid in his mouth. So, Luke ran off and married Chewbacca (Luke was really into hairy guys — a classic bear-chaser) and they lived happily ever after on the Forest Moon of Endor after adopting twelve orphan baby Ewoks whose original parents all fell out of trees.
That’s the real story.
jason
Charles Brooker is an idiot. I know he’s probably trying to make a point but he’s using faulty logic and misleading notions to make it.
As I’ve said a million times previously, camp is NOT a sexuality. Camp is a form of behavior. Anybody can do camp. I know a straight-identifying guy who does camp better than most gay guys I know.
Martin
I always fancied Luke Skywalker. He was just supersexy as a jedi-trainee with dirt on his muscular arms… Mmmm nice!
Riker
@FYI: Erm no, Chewbacca also married, had a child, and then he died. Along with one of the Organa-Solo children.
StPeteInk
Wow talk about making something out of absolutely nothing… I’m sorry, but in the stories written by George Lucas himself, Luke marries a woman and has children. It is the way of the New Jedi Order. The reason Luke “has no interest” in girls throughout the movies is because He was under the training of the Old republic Jedi who banned love within the order(hense why Anakin and Padme never showed their relationship). If you’re going to make comments please be educated. I have a very healthy social life, a wonderful boyfriend of over 10 years, but i do enjoy a well written sci-fi novel. So I’m not some geek behind a computer. But It is an insult for anyone to make sexual comments about one of the greatest movies who portrays love as love and does not need to rely on the chance of seeing a side boob in a pointless sex scene thrown in to get people’s attention.
FYI
@Riker who wrote: “Erm no, Chewbacca also married, had a child, and then he died. Along with one of the Organa-Solo children.”
Actually no, that was Chewbacca’s twin brother. Yes, while it is true that Chewbacca was “engaged” to be married, his brother took his place (with the consent of his fiancee’) because after realizing Chewbacca’s love for Luke (and fear that his tribe might not approve — being born-again Chewbaptists and all) that was the only way that he and Luke could be together through this deception, and still preserve his family’s honor.
From all accounts, Luke and Chewbacca are still happily married and have set up tree-house keeping on the Forest Moon of Endor with their twelve adopted Ewok children.
…There is another story involving Yoda and his spurned lover, the evil Emperor Palpatine –but that is a “tail” for another time.
:p
Chris
It’s also kind of pointless as there are plenty of good examples of real gay people in quality SF.
Jeff
StPeteNik-none of those stories were written by ‘George Lucas himself’. Kathy Tyers, Timothy Zahn, Karen Traviss to name a few. The ONLY Star Wars novel to be attributed to George Lucas is the novelization of the original Star Wars, because he wrote the script for the movie. “If you’re going to make comments please be educated.” A simple google search for ‘Star Wars authors’ is educational. Try it! You seem to be sort of hostile to sci-fi geeks, and a little defensive, too. No one is saying you have to be a ‘geek behind a computer’ to be a Star Wars fan. I know a lot of gay geeks who are proud to be so.
Also-Jason-have you ever had a positive thought about anything? Or do you feel some sort of primal need to be a contrarian? Sure, camp is not a sexuality, but many Brits use it in place of gay. C-3PO was a big old gay droid.
Stark
@Shofixti: HAHAHA! Shofixti! Your name just made my day.
Adam
@FYI: I’d so watch that movie.
stevoj
this is the dumbest shit i’ve read in a while
ChknBisct
Are you serious? C’mon. For someone/thing to be gay there would have to be a sexual component to it. Last I checked, C3P0 is about as sexual as my toaster. Stop trying to make EVERYTHING gay. It’s actually a disservice to the community.
ChknBisct
For the record, it’s a disservice because it prescribes certain behaviors and stereotypes that don’t actually hold true for many individuals that are LGBT.
Clueless
Maybe some of you dicks should read the actual article rather than commenting on just this particular snippet – Brooker intended this for a much larger audience than just queers. Also, Queerty headline (once again) manages to completely miss the point, lacking both the original author’s subtlety and wit.
@Jason – No you’re the idiot. Camp is definitely part of queer culture.
ChknBisct
@Clueless: Camp maybe part of queer culture, but something that is camp is necessarily queer. Hip-Hop/Rap is a large part of Black urban culture but last I check that doesn’t make Astronautalis a black urbanite.
ChknBisct
@Clueless: **isn’t** necessarily queer
Geri
@Snownova: & @Red Meat Sir Alec Guiness married a woman and had a son too. However like many of our great thespians he was far from being totally straight.
Geri
@jason: The actor John Inman was a very camp man who married a gentleman called Ron. The actor Anthony Daniels, who plays C-3PO, is rather camp in real life and is married to a lady called Agnes.
I don’t think that means John was gay and Anthony is bi – but it is a possibility.
Charlie in Charge
Not only is C-3PO the best mo in Star Wars (long before Ziro the Hutt slithered onto the scene). You have 3PO the mincing busybody and then his tough as nails little boyfriend who has to fix everything, gets upstaged by his golden lad, and puts up with verbal abuse from the other half indulging only once by pushing him of a yacht. In C-3PO’s defense he does offer all his parts to save R2’s life.
Lumi Bast (@nugoyxi)
Sweet! I wouldn’t have bought this game even if I had a gaming PC until they added same sex romance options.
I’m a huge Star Wars nerd so thank you for adding them in! 😀
Super Repus
Meant to type this somewhere else about the same subject :X ^
But there was a bi character in KOTOR I believe
Lumi Bast (@nugoyxi)
Once again f*cked up, sorry
Dark Jedi
The homosexuality is strong in this one 😛
Bryan
I found the article very stupid, despite what it was trying to say.
Geri
@Bryan: It’s just a bit of satire that’s taking the piss out of some stupid people.
Jeff
Oh and btw, watch the scene in Empire where Han and Luke say goodbye on Hoth. You can cut that homosexual tension with a lightsaber!
Howard
The best part of people’s reactions to this obviously humorous editorial is that gay men apparently have lost their ability to accept a campy joke when it is delivered. Good job, men. Now, continue to expound upon how the author is clearly an uninformed for making a joke unsupported in the Star Wars lexicon.
Dirty Ole Man
@stevoj: Actually, this is the best shit I have ever read on Queerty!
BlackRockRitual
Gamers today are awful. Even more misogynist and awful than when I grew up with them in the nineties. Sure, back then there were the macho kids who only wanted to play games like Mortal Kombat and Duke Nukem. But for the most part, they were outweighed by kids like me who were just fine with playing female characters and cutesy games.
Now the market, in the West, at least, is dominated by homophobic teens obsessed with macho leads and military shooters, and yelling racist and heteronormative slurs over internet.
Sure, many people making criticisms about jRPGs are talking about linearity and things related to gameplay and the like. But just as often, I’m hearing people saying that jRPGs are inferior because jRPG characters “look gay”. Just like how I’ve seen plenty of reasonable criticism of Mass Effect 3, but I see just as much vapid gay bashing. I hate the gaming industry today, I miss the 90s, at least the 90s gaming industry.