Star Wars is adding an LGBT character to it’s expanded universe of characters, the first in the series history. One would think that that there are plenty of examples of same sex relationships throughout the different alien cultures in the galaxy, but the human characters have seen little in the way of diversity.
All of that is about to change via the new book Star Wars: Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp and published by Penguin/ Random House. Here’s how the company is describing this the new character. From NPR:
“Moff Delian Mors is a supporting character in Star Wars: Lords of the Sith. She was a promising officer of the Empire, who was assigned to an undesirable post at the far end of the galaxy. At nearly the same point in her life, her wife was killed in a transport accident, and the weight of these burdens led to Delian becoming lax in her duties, and left her personal life in disarray. The events of Star Wars: Lords of the Sith occur a few years after her loss.”
As NPR notes, this is not the first time that Star Wars has dabbled in same sex territory. Games like Knights of the Old Republic and expanded universe fiction from before the Episode VIII creative purge alluded to same sex relationships, but this is the first time it has been officially added to the canon. It’s a pretty big deal for folks who have been searching for that in their fandom. Editor Shelly Shapiro expanded on the decision on the Full of Sith Podcast:
“It’s not something I really think about, it just makes sense. There should be diversity in Star Wars. You have all these different species and it would be silly to not also recognize that there’s a lot of diversity in humans. If there’s any message at all, it’s simply that Star Wars is as diverse (or more so because they have alien species) as humanity is in real life and we don’t want to pretend it’s not. It just felt perfectly natural.”
I think it’s pretty cool. It’s the last thing I’ve thought about as a fan of Star Wars, but it’s nice to see any stride being made for folks. It might not be in the movies, but it’s official and that’s going to mean something.
(Via NPR / Boing Boing)