Star Wars: The Old Republic, the gay pla and the problem of the straight male gaze | Gam | The Guardian

Contents:

• STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC NOUNCED FOR GAY RELATNSHIPS
• STAR WARS BS: GEE LUS ENGAGED, GAY ROMANCE COMG TO 'THE OLD REPUBLIC,' EWAN MCGREGOR, W ANRSON AND A FEMALE LEAD?
• FANS UNHAPPY OVER “GAY PLA” “STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC”
• STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC, THE GAY PLA AND THE PROBLEM OF THE STRAIGHT MALE GAZE
• STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC AND S NEW ‘GAY PLA’

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC NOUNCED FOR GAY RELATNSHIPS

Rise of the Hutt Cartel troduced the game’s first LGBTQ+ characters wh Lemda Avta, a bi woman, and Lord Cytharat, a gay man.

It is very possible for a player to choose to leave Cytharat, the game’s only gay man, to die. Cytharat remas the game’s only gay man and there are no romanceable lbians.

STAR WARS BS: GEE LUS ENGAGED, GAY ROMANCE COMG TO 'THE OLD REPUBLIC,' EWAN MCGREGOR, W ANRSON AND A FEMALE LEAD?

Crisp’s young Han Solo trilogy, kept a mistrs to imprs his Imperial lleagu and to hi the fact that he was not terted women, leadg to fandom speculatn that the character was meant to be terpreted as gay.

But even if Juhani’s relatnship wh a female Revan was nsired non-non, her sexualy remaed unchanged: part of Juhani’s arc the first game impli that she prevly had a relatnship wh a childhood iend and fellow Jedi iate, Belaya, and briefly fell to the Dark Si part due to her ep feelgs for Belaya gog agast the Jedi Co of would take a few more years for Star Wars to receive s first gay character, but wh would e another important step the anchise’s history: the first queer married uple. Although Bevi and Vasur were Star Wars’ first gay uple, none of their appearanc the novels explicly noted that they were married. In 2009—years before TOR would release 2011—fom muny manager Sean Dahlberg was forced to apologize after fendg the choice for the game’s fan foms to filter “gay” and “lbian” as banned terms by argug that they are terms “that do not exist Star Wars.

FANS UNHAPPY OVER “GAY PLA” “STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC”

But many felt Makeb was beg treated as “the gay pla, ” and that players terted queer romanc and characters were not beg given equable all s false starts, TOR would eventually improve. Most notably, the trilogy add the “first non” gay characters, the form of ex-Imperial Sjir Rath Vel— who fected om the Empire after the battle of Endor and beme a major pot-of-view character the first book the seri—and his boyiend, a New Republic Slicer named Conr wasn’t jt the new, post-Return of the Jedi timele that the Disney age brought LGBTQ reprentatn to.

Abrams recently said that “of urse” gay characters would soon be seen  the “Star Wars” galaxy. And Mark Hal said that Le Skywalker uld be gay. Juhani (right), a lbian thar alien, was featured the vio game “Knights of the Old Republic” 2004, and was the first nfirmed and openly gay character Star Wars.

Lord Cytharat is a gay Sh troduced “Star Wars: The Old Republic” 2013, and was the first character the long-nng onle game who uld share a kiss wh a player character of the same is a bisexual woman troduced “Star Wars: The Old Republic” 2013.

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC, THE GAY PLA AND THE PROBLEM OF THE STRAIGHT MALE GAZE

BWare hasn't shied away om same-sex relatnships s role-playg gam the past, havg prevly factored homosexualy to s Dragon Age and Mass Effect anchis. In a statement posted to Fay Rearch Council's official webse, anizatn print Tony Perks nmn BWare's tentn to clu homosexualy SW:TOR. "The new vio game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, has add a special feature: gay relatnships.

Abrams went on a whirlwd prs tour to tout the first gay kiss all of Star Wars.

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC AND S NEW ‘GAY PLA’

Flix and Orka are a fully nonil gay uple.

The game’s 2009 release mak Juhani one of the first openly gay characters (that didn’t get retnned) the Star Wars universe. A regular human, Rath is the first openly gay character the seri. "It looks like EA is tryg to ph some sort of homosexual agenda and tryg to ga publicy by dog this, " one GameSpot menter said.