Star Wars: The Last Jedi is going to cause a lot of trouble come December. Why? Because the franchise is trying to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to the fan pairing of Finn and Poe (AKA “Stormpilot,” or the more straightforward “Finnpoe”).
Let’s set the scene, shall we? During the Star Wars Celebration in Orlando in April, the big news was, of course, the new trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The trailer itself is exciting, positioning Rey’s journey with a jaded Luke Skywalker as the center of the film; the arcs of the other characters—including Finn—orbit around Rey’s interactions with the former Jedi master. In the trailer, we see Finn recovering (hopefully) in a sickbed/stasis pod of some sort. The very next shot we see is Poe frantically running to his starfighter only to have the ship blow up before he can get to it. For many fans online, those two brief scenes, buttressed against one another, were enough to re-cement the popularity and potential canonization of Stormpilot.
To make matters more intense, John Boyega (who plays Finn in the series) has done a bang-up job of giving the most diehard Stormpilot fans plenty of fodder to work with statements like: “Poe’s my boy, that’s my dude…the love is potent.” This kind of recognition and tacit approval of the fan response can only encourage the Stormpilot fanbase. (Boyega also admitted that fans had been sending him some rather steamy Stormpilot fanworks, which could be the start of a whole different post about ethics and respecting the boundaries and personhood of a celebrity, but I’ll get back to the topic at hand.) In the wake of the star’s openness to the possibility of a Finnpoe relationship, it’s safe to say that many fans would be sorely disappointed to find out that their favorite ship might remain forever stuck out in the fringes of fandom.
Enter Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, who stated in an interview with Ecartelera that a Finn and Poe romance isn’t in the works—at least not in The Last Jedi:
We’ve talked about it, but I think you’re not going to see it in The Last Jedi,” she said. “In the next six or eight months we will have some meetings about the stories that we will develop next… After 40 years of adventures, people have a lot of information and a lot of theories about the path these stories can take, and sometimes those theories that come up are new ideas for us to listen to, read and pay attention to.
Now, to be fair, this is hardly an out-and-out evil villainess’s response by any stretch, although it was treated as such by at least a few fans on Tumblr after Kennedy’s interview first appeared. But, as far as The Last Jedi is concerned, it’s a definite “no” on a Stormpilot romance in The Last Jedi, and that means that if we were in Fandom Supreme Court, we’d have the grounds to argue that the film’s marketing strategy (including celebrity interviews) has, up until now, been engaging in queerbaiting.
Let’s break down the charges. Stormpilot is, first and foremost, an invention of the internet. It’s something that, if Lucasfilm really wanted to, the people behind the film could ignore or dismiss by saying that this particular fan theory/interpretation is not part of the stories they want to tell with the new Star Wars movies, regardless of how big the Stormpilot frenzy has gotten (which includes major coverage from sites like E! Online, Buzzfeed, Hypable, Vanity Fair, USA Today, Metro, Pink News, Comic Book Resources, The Mary Sue, Bleeding Cool, and MoviePilot, among other outlets). If they had simply done this from the beginning, I don’t think anyone would have their hopes or expectations set on seeing a broader scope of representation or anything startlingly progressive to come from this new series of films.
However, Lucasfilm has failed to prevent its contractors—its stars, directors, producers, etc.—from fanning the hopes and expectations of fans when it comes to not just Stormpilot, but gay representation in general. Likely encouraged, at first, by how big of a splash the fan-based Stormpilot craze made with the mainstream media, plus the realization of the extent that online fandom was driving the conversation surrounding the new Star Wars films, other members of the Star Wars family soon started sharing their two cents about Stormpilot and wading into the larger discussion about the lack of gay representation in the franchise as a whole.
Last year, the director of The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson, gave his seal of approval to a piece of Stormpilot fan art on Twitter by giving it a retweet. The Force Awakens director and The Last Jedi producer J.J. Abrams also said last year that there’s a plan in place to include gay characters in the Star Wars cinematic universe. “To me, the fun of Star Wars is the glory of possibility,” he said. “So, it seems insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world.” Boyega, again, entered the fray, changing his initial interpretation of the characters’ chemistry (in which he described Finn and Poe as having a brotherly relationship) to one of infinite possibility when it comes to where Finn and Poe’s relationship might actually end up. “As far as I’m concerned, when J.J. [Abrams] sat down to go through the script, it was a bromance… But now I’m learning what Mark Hammill said before when he didn’t know that Darth Vader was Luke’s father: you never know what they’re going to pull,” he told Radio Times. “I’m looking at the director Rian [Johnson] closely so he can get me involved early, so I can prepare myself. So, who knows?”
Some of what has been said, like Abrams’ statements about including gay representation in the franchise as a whole, are par for the course nowadays, and knowing Abrams’ track record, I’m sure he can deliver on this macro-promise, especially since it doesn’t necessarily pertain specifically to Poe or Finn. But as for retweeting fan art dedicated to the pairing and giving coy, will-they-won’t-they answers, those are acts that could be seen as queerbaiting, willingly raising a group’s hopes of being included, only to let down at the end of the day. Seeing as how there won’t be any Finn and Poe romance in The Last Jedi, it would seem that the letdown is coming, and when it finally hits, the franchise is going to have, as the characters in Fantastic Mr. Fox would say, a real cluster-cuss of a problem.
The only way I can see to avoid the ill effects of fan disappointment and potential backlash is for the creators to actually address the issue, beyond simply dropping hints and off-screen speculation, in the upcoming third film (or beyond, if this particular series is going to utilize the characters of Finn and Poe in additional movies). Kennedy says that the Lucasfilm team are going to discuss the possibilities of other storylines including Finn and Poe’s relationship, right? So if that’s the case, they need to decide carefully what they’re going to do—otherwise they could stand to alienate a portion of their audience: the same portion that has been so effective at drumming up support and interest in The Force Awakens and its sequels from the very beginning.
Alienating your audience in this manner generally results not only in a loss of online support and momentum but in the former fans’ money being used for things other than purchasing Star Wars tickets or merchandise. Of course, the argument can be made that this group of avid Finn/Poe shippers is a small subset of Star Wars fans, but even if that’s true, the fact remains that there’s a whole population of gay Star Wars fans who would like to see themselves represented on screen, in general. I don’t have any official Lucasfilm numbers in front of me, but I would wager that the amount of gay Star Wars fans who trek to the films’ releases is pretty high—so high, in fact, that Mark Hamill has spoken about the kinds of questions he fields from fans, and their evident desire to see their own experience reflected in the character of Luke Skywalker: “…[F]ans are writing and ask all these questions, ‘I’m bullied in school…I’m afraid to come out.’ They say to me, ‘Could Luke be gay?’” he said to The Sun. “I’d say it is meant to be interpreted by the viewer…If you think Luke is gay, of course he is. You should not be ashamed of it. Judge Luke by his character, not by who he loves.”
I think that the same powerful hope motivating these questions, this same impulse and need on the part of fans is something the Lucasfilm think tank will have to reckon with, sooner rather than later. Could Finn and Poe be gay? Could Rey be gay, or bisexual, or asexual? Could there be other characters, established or otherwise, on the LGBT spectrum? Of course. The crucial question is this: could Star Wars be the mainstream franchise that finally breaks the glass ceiling for LGBT characters in a blockbuster? Definitely. The opportunity is as ripe as it will ever be.
As Yoda himself has said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” For Lucasfilm, they’re now faced with the decision to either do something positive—to make fans happy, make them feel included in the stories they love, which could also lead to higher ticket and merchandise sales—or, once again, do not.
Monique Jones is an entertainment journalist, blogger, and founder of JUST ADD COLOR, a multicultural pop culture site. Jones has acted as a consultant for Magic: The Gathering and her writing has been featured on Ebony.com, Comic Book Resources, Entertainment Weekly’s Community Blog, The Miami New Times, and more.
As much as FinnPoe would be cool with me, I’m just not seeing it happening in canon. Setting up Rey as the heroine of the trilogy was a pretty big hurdle for Disney; if you recall, they took a bit of heat from the usual suspects for that. So seeing FinnPoe in this trilogy is, to me, a bridge too far.
That said, I can see it happening in a future movie (not ep 9) as Disney learns they can take some calculated risks.
Poe was supposed to die in the first act of The Force Awakens, so whatever long-term planning they did for the trilogy didn’t include focusing on him. The chemistry of the actors is fueling everything, not the intentions of the filmmakers.
So far, the two new Star Wars films don’t have any romance at all, so I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were rooting for this pairing any time soon.
Also: queerbaiting? That sounds like an incredibly offensive word.
I think the big issue preventing Disney/LucasFilm from pursuing major characters as being gay onscreen is the Chinese market. Without that market, Disney can’t make the obscene amounts of money they anticipated getting when they paid trillions to Lucas for Star Wars (oh, and Indiana Jones, I guess). Since (last time I checked) portrayals of same-sex relationships isn’t allowed onscreen in China, that would make it difficult to work around (though, I suppose they could cut the footage depicting any gayness; but how the censors would treat the rest of the surrounding subtext is anybody’s guess). Additionally, Russia has a similar view. Alienating China and Russia would put Disney in a position of deciding between their signaled virtues versus their desire for moar money.
In the end, I think Disney will pick the one that maximizes income, as that seems to be their MO.
Here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry on queerbaiting, for anyone unfamiliar with the term, its history or usage (link added to the article, as well.) And here’s a recent discussion at The Mary Sue of the term and the way debates surrounding this issue tend to unfold, for those who are interested/would like further clarification.
I love the FinnPoe Memes, but I don’t see Disney/Lucas Films making that leap. I kind of have some doubts about that too, but more because “Finn is playing second fiddle to a female character, so OF COURSE he is gay. Can’t have a straight man following a woman. ” But even with that one worry, I’d still be okay with FinnPoe.
However, Luke Skywalker being gay is an amazing idea. Besides the uncertainty around Rey’s family and some weird scenes with Leia in a New Hope, his sexuality has never been defined. Hell, if he is Rey’s father, he still could be gay. In my mind that makes Luke a great candidate for coming out of the closet. He will be “Luke Skywalker who happens to like guys” instead of the “Gay Character.”
I definitely could understand how some of the actor/producer/director statements coming out of this could be seen as offering something that they may well not follow through on, and how that could be hurtful or disappointing. Definitely a handle-with-care situation. Maybe Disney needs to set some guidelines for the individuals involved in this project to avoid raising hopes where they don’t intend to follow through?
On the flip side, getting all worked up because the Finn and Poe segments were back-to-back in a two minute trailer is ridiculous. That’s not teasing marketing-that’s the marketing department having having to fit six or seven characters into two minutes! Reading anything into that is waaay overeager. I don’t have a real strong stake in the whole Finn/Poe thing. Shipping is not my game, and I also love a good platonic bromance. All fine by me. But people really invested should make sure to differentiate between what they want, and what the marketing is actually offering. Right now, Finn/Poe doesn’t seem to be on offer.
@5 – wonderandawe: And that’s where the “why didn’t they make a new character if they wanted a gay one?” whiners will come in. They don’t understand why it’s important to revise certain characters to make them gay or of a non-white ethnicity.
That said, even if the Legends fiction is no longer canon, I don’t see them making Luke gay based on the years of stories of him having relationships with women.
@6 – nageler: I agree with all of your post.
@3 Agreed the China issue is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to address. Lets be honest about it here though, let us be blunt and direct: China is the primary market for all blockbuster movies now.
That needs to sink into the heads’ of the American moviegoing public. I don’t think it has yet though.
There was enough controversy over the brief implication of Sulu having a same sex partner in a blink and you’ll miss it ambiguous and easily cut scene from Star Trek Beyond, and then the eruption of homophobic outrage over Beauty and the Beast even though as a villainous character Le Fou(spelling?) is technically allowed to be gay under Chinese censorship rules. LucasfilmDisney would be risking having the movie banned in China even if they provided a Chinese Market Edition with all the cuts needed. It would 100% be banned in China having heroic characters be gay without them being “punished” in some way (that is code for getting killed brutally and graphically in a humiliating way). As China is the primary market, there is no way DisneyLucasfilm is going to do it no matter how many writing campaigns and protests there are, because we in the west are no longer the primary consumer and we need to get used to that fact.
I do disagree strongly with your use of a variation of the phrase virtue signalling. That is such a discredited concept now, it undercuts your whole argument there. I can’t support the idea that introducing gay characters is this strawman thing that the phrase implies. It would be a good thing to do, and it matters not a whit why they did it if they did.
@8 Leveraging the commonly held definition for the term, I believe I used it correctly. Disney publicly expresses progressive opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate their good character or moral correctness of their position on particular issues. However, digging deeper into these expressions, one finds that they ultimately ring hollow, or at the very least, play second fiddle to that of profitability.
It’s my belief that were racial insensitivity still socially acceptable (and profitable), Disney would be making films more akin to Song of the South. They’re not making films that portray progressive ideas because they want to help shape our social future (aside from it including Mickey Mouse), but rather because they believe that if they throw out enough bones, they’ll (if I may mix metaphors) make it rain harder.
At the end of the day, Disney is not anybody’s friend. They’re a corporation. They won’t do anything unless it has (big) downstream effects.
Why can’t they just be bros? In the last few months I’ve seen several articles that discuss that it’s becoming more and more difficult for men to build and maintain healthy friendships with other men. It’s lead to higher rates of depression and suicide for men.
Finn and Poe could be a great example of two guys who are close friends, are not competing over the same girls, and support each other. That’s something that I feel is lacking in media today.
I guess… I understand and respect that people want to, and absolutely should be, represented. However, I don’t agree that Finn and Poe are, or should be, gay together. That’s my interpretation of the characters. That said, I think that Luke being gay could definitely work. For instance, I could absolutely see him with a longstanding crush on Biggs Darklighter, whether it was reciprocated or not.
Thank you for reading my comment. I sincerely hope that you have an excellent week. I know I will (GotG2 and FCBD!!)
Haven’t we gone through this same thing with Captain America and Buckey? It seems as if any time there are same-sex characters on screen that have a strong friendship that there is some kind of demand to make them gay. I understand there is a desire to be represented on screen. But why does seemingly every on screen relationship have to be defined by sexuality?
I think the point Mark Hamill was making seemed to fit. Luke Skywalker wasn’t about his sexuality, it was about his character. So anyone could identify with him. Could Finn and/or Poe be gay? It’s certainly possible. Could they be straight? Sure. Could they be gay without being lovers, and just have the Bromance that Boyega originally described? Sure. But specifically defining them now alienates those who aren’t the same and keeps them from identifying with the characters.
Too often the masses are focused on “representation” and not on the story being told. The reason The Force Awakens was so enjoyable to me was not because it had a strong female lead or because anyone was “straight” or “gay.” It was because it was a fun story that hearken enough back to the originals to make for a nostalgia watch in a brand new package.
@9 It dont matter if you used the term correctly or not, it is that you used it at all. Using it is a quick way to invalidate your entire point because it has a toxic association with the alt-right (whom should all be punched) and is one of their dog whistle terms. Find another way to say doing the right thing for the wrong reason, which is all the term is.
Moving forward.
@11 Oh god the Stuckey stuff was embarrassing. I have a friend who went deep down that rabbit hole and was genuinely protesting in a way usually reserved for human and civil rights matters that Captain America was given a girlfriend simply as a heterosexual slap in the face to the shippers The shippers are very embarrassing. I don’t care whether or not he has a girlfriend, a boyfriend, or both, as long as the story moves forward and hangs together.
Just the way they went about protesting and being completely blind to the fact that it was never going to be a primary factor in any storydeveloper’s mind. By all means keep pressing for better representation, heaven knows so many groups including all LGBT folks need it, but don’t confuse your fanfic with the canon product unless you are a head writer. Even then, please don’t do it because that is a major reason why Steven Moffat made Doctor Who unwatchable for the previous two seasons.
As for making Luke Skywalker gay. I kinda hope not. Mainly because I just don’t want to have to sit through the inevitable fanwar and unfortunate implications of him obviously having had a major first crush, first kiss, and whatever happened in the Splinter of the Minds Eye book, with Leia and her turning out to be his sister having scared him gay. We all know that wank is coming, it has been floated around tumblr and some of the comms. People are looking forward to getting in on that one. I don’t want to sit through it. If LucasDisney does decide to say screw China and make Poe and Finn sexual partners then fine though, as long as it makes sense within the story and it doesn’t slow the story down any more than Han and Leia’s romance did.
If there was more homosexual relationships on screen, there would be less of a tendency to see same sex platonic relationships in a romantic light. Fans are grasping at straws because there is nothing for them.
There is a bigger and more fervent group of shippers than Stormpilot fans, though that would be a great twist. The really devoted shippers are those who want Reylo, a romance between Kylo Ren and Rey and ultimately, Kylo’ s redemption. For many, Kylo dying still committed to the Dark Side and hatred would be heart-breaking and senseless considering his pull to the Light. There are many of us (on both sides of the issue) who are dreading TLJ.
The first time I saw Ep7 I saw Poe as at least bi and attracted to Finn, but Finn seemed pretty desperately hung up on Rey, with the way he screamed (and screamed) after her. Internet fandoms have a long history of reading way too much into innocuous things, and in this case it’s probably just an odd editing choice that’s causing people to see what they want to see. It’s no different than Ancient Aliens or “proof” of the Illuminati. But it’s easy to accuse a big corporation of nefarious motives. And let’s be honest, say we did have a Stormpilot, or a gay Luke, or a Stormpilot AND a gay Luke, it wouldn’t stop there. “What about trans representation?” “Where’s a main character played by an Asian?” “Where’s the bisexual blind Indian wheelchair-bound short person, because that’s what I am, and I demand representation?” It will never end. Just how many boxes are there to check off? Besides, as far as I’m concerned, we’ve always had a gay couple in C-3P0 and R2-D2.
@10
So much this! Why can’t they just be bros?
Obligatory disclaimer: I’m gay. Despite this, I’m growing tired of this trend of reading all strong friendships between male characters as romantic or sexual. Gay people can have same-sex friends too, you know.
As a historian, it baffles me how the expressions of male friendship has been culturally toned down to the point when men hugging on screen gets interpreted as homosexual. Bros used to be able to hold hands in public – no they can’t even make eye contact fr more than 2 seconds in a movie without people demanding that the writers have to bring them out of the closet. More worryingly, it seems to be that the majority of this pressure doesn’t come from gay men at all.
As for the term queerbaiting, I’m not so sure it’s any different from the general romance baiting of the “will they or won’t they” variety that has been used in TV and literature for ages.
What’s the deal with trying to sexualize everything? Their friendship is obviously meant to be that of the philo (brotherly) type of love, rather than eros (romantic). Pushing hard against the grain only demonstrates an agenda and will lead to resentment and mistrust. The token gay characters cropping up in media, just for the sake of doing it rather than a natural grass roots inject that adds to the story, is just making these stories feel disjointed and won’t be doing anyone any favors.
I’m expecting them to leave it open-ended through to the end of the trilogy, where different interpretations can still continue to be made and the shipping can continue as people see fit. It’s the only way to (semi-)please everyone.
I can see how the romance would be exciting to the LGBT community, but I feel it would ruin the story. At this point, the relationship would feel like a political agenda bring pushed. If the original plan was there, it could work, but at this point it would feel forced.
If I was Disney, I would just focus on the story and not have any romance aspect to the movies at all. That way everyone can be happy.
I don’t get this at all. I would not care if the characters were gay, but it never even crossed my mind when I watched the movie. If anything I felt like Finn was attracted to Ray, but whatever. I guess it means nothing to me either way. It’s a Star Wars movie. I want space ships and light sabers. I don’t really pay attention to the social commentary. I guess if I did I’d wonder why droids are slaves.
Agreeing with @10 @11 @12 and @19 here. I find it extremely funny and strange how most of these friendships turned gay shipping comes from female audiences. For some reason they tend to romanticize homosexual relationships between men. I find this curious because as a straight man I have many friends with whom I share a loving fraternal friendship, just as the one Poe and Finn/ Bucky and Steve, among many others share. I say it’s curious because in my experience I have met very few women who have these kind of relationships with their female friends, and most of them don’t seem to understand it.
I’m guessing it’s hard to be able to distinguish fraternal love/strong friendship between guys from erotical/homosexual attraction if you haven’t experienced it yourself. I have plenty gay friends and I don’t consider myself to be homophobic in any way, but I must confess not only did I not feel any kind of romance between Poe and Finn, it’s also kind of annoying when people ship characters together.
That being said, I don’t know if I agree with @13 that more representation might end this “grasping at straws.” Because of what I’ve stated earlier. Most of these ships don’t come from the groups of people “not represented” but others. (As an example in anime, More women watch Yaoi than gay men do, and they tend to romanticize these homosexual relationships more) Also, as a Latino, I’m don’t agree with the representation agenda fully, because I feel it can affect the story negatively sometimes. Representing everyone is not what’s important, telling good stories is, and when representation becomes the primary objective, we get the “token black guy” “token latino” and “token gay friend” that we all hate. Let stories be stories.
One point worth making, people are talking about Disney as if it’s a single monolithic entity, but it’s actually made up of many people, with their own opinions.
I guarantee that there are people working for Disney who are absolutely trying to get more diversity into their many products purely because they think that’s a good thing. (The opposite is almost certainly true).
The main question is what do the people who have authority over the content of the next Star Wars film think about the idea?
My guess? They won’t make StormPilot a reality, but this has probably made it more likely we’ll see a gay relationship, or at least openly gay characters, in the future.
I would caution anybody about using a trailer as support for any theory, shipping or otherwise. My sister worked for the company that cut trailers for all Disney properties a few years ago, so I can tell you that they’re not done ‘in house”. The studio farms out the trailers to production houses that specialize in that. The studio has final approval, of course, but the trailers are cut together by people who had nothing to do with the production, and quite often just from a library of clips they’re given.
@28 Yeah, the days of trailers actually telling us anything about the movie other than its title are long gone. I miss the trailers which gave a potted synopsis of the plotline; tickets cost too much money to just take on faith I’ll like the movie, I need more than that before I cough up my cash. That applies even for major franchises.
@26, More women watch yaoi because yaoi is created by women for women in a society where women are held to be lesser than men. It’s not intended to be realistic or appealing to men, but rather to portray a relationship wherein a woman can see herself as male, removing the boundaries that she may experience in real life. It was started in a time when this was more of an issue than today, but it’s still an issue as it is most places.
Ah, the obligatory – I’m a gay guy and blah, blah, blah.
Personally, as that gay guy, who saw TFA with a gay male couple, one of whom is a huge SW fan and without his invite, I’d likely never have seen the movie until it’s DVD was available at my local library (haven’t yet seen whatever SW came out this past winter, for example), I can say that the crowd of us that watched the movie (all gay men) that none of us saw anything in Poe Finn and it wasn’t until I heard about it say four or five months later that I reviewed that lip bite for myself (haven’t re-watched the movie since that opening weekend and likely never will) and, personally, I still don’t see it. On the other hand, even though I streamed the first two seasons of Teen Wolf on Netflix before S3 (and then promptly lost interest in the show), and didn’t see anything other than plenty of hemoeroticism in the show, once I saw some of the well-cut Sterek trailers, I could certainly entertain the possibility of end-game Sterek and I find how things turned out with the show a perfect example of what can be called queer baiting. What we’re seeing here? Not so much, as others have stated.
I also think the market factors (not just China and Russia but toy makers, and yes, even the domestic and other markets) are in play with something like a large franchise. I think you are more likely to find more representation by Marvel in something like their Netflix or other shows than you ever will with say Steve and Bucky (and again, comments like ‘even when I had nothing, I had Bucky’ I think discount some of what #12 wrote). The problem with the romance in CA-Civil War wasn’t that it was Sharon and Steve ~ which after all exists in canon, but that it seemed tacked without any organic rationale, particularly given the Agent 13-Cap relationship in CA-TWS.
Finally, I’d like to add some comments about bromance and about male friendship. Personally, I think the way the MCU has been written up until that coda kiss between Steve and Sharon, Cap and Bucky’s relationship could fairly be viewed as more than just male friendship. It’s not an LGBT representation thing for #10, 19, 20, 22, 26 and whomever else danced around this. It is definitely more a women writing for women thing (although there are definitely gay people in the audience for slash). For example, I think all the Steve Tony stories are absurd even before CA-CW, because you could barely call their relationship on-screen a friendship. As a gay male with many strong male friendships, it’s pretty possible to just have a bromance or to simply enjoy a genuinely strong kinship; something like Chandler and Joey from Friends can genuinely exist without sexual overtones but I also know that straight guys have (without action from either of us) told me that IF they were ever going to try something with a guy it would have been me (at that stage in our life, before marriage in one case, for example, some 15+ years ago). Unfortunately, guys often have the Stand By Me experience – at that age or by or before college, perhaps in the army, but rarely afterwards. I disagree that women don’t have this intense closeness and, in fact, feel they seem more capable of having it as adults than the average man (gay or straight). I do think too many times slash confuses intensity (between females OR males) for sexuality, based on my own personal reading.
In any event, I don’t find myself queer baited by SW, I would expect Abrams will do the minimal blink and you miss it representation in some future unrelated sequel. And find the OP article much ado about nothing, although I do think the discussion about slash, representation, queer baiting, etc., are both good and helpful, not to mention necessary.
I never got the impression that Finn and Poe had any romantic feelings toward each other. However, I’ve noticed Finn’s romantic interest in Rey. In fact, it has been pretty obvious in both “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi”.
Why is the media and many movie and television viewers so adamant in portrayal minority men as gay? Especially when there is a threat of him being romantically involved with a white woman? Or . . . if the black man wasn’t gay, the only interracial relationship they will tolerate said black man to be involved with is another minority woman – whether she is of African descent, Asian descent, Native American descent, Latina or some other non-white ethnic group.
A prime example of this is the Star Wars character Finn, portrayed by John Boyega. Despite the fact that the first two Sequel Trilogy films portray Finn as being in love with Rey, the media and the fandom seem hellbent upon shipping him with another man, Damron Poe. And when “The Last Jedi” was released, some were beating the drum for Finn becoming romantically involved with Rose Tico, a character portrayed by American actress Kelly Marie Tran, who is of Vietnamese descent. Worse, there seemed to be a big push for Rey to become romantically involved with Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren, who is portrayed by Adam Drive, a white actor.
If you can remember Steve and Sharon’s interaction in “The Winter Soldier”, I cannot see how you can state that their relationship seemed “tacked without any organic rationale”. There is nothing rational about this comment to me.l