#varko grey

[queer-starwars-bracket]

Queer Star Wars Characters (Round 1): Well Known Character Bracket Match 10

Ahsoka Tano | Identity: bisexual | Media: Established in Ahsoka

While there is strong romantic subtext between Ahsoka and Barris Offee, that isn’t the reason for her inclusion in this list. Rather, it is because that in the novel Ahsoka, E K Johnson got as close as she was allowed to- both by the constraints of the Story Group (since movie characters couldn’t yet be quietly established as queer in a book) and what made sense for the story- to establish that Ahsoka reciprocated the feelings that Kaeden Larte had for her.

Unfortunately, the Ahsoka novel has practically been erased by the Tales of the Jedi episode “Resolve”, where the basic outline that the novel was based on is told again, except without Kaeden. However, a recent reference book has established that these are two separate events that are coincidentally very similar. Ahsoka’s queerness barely crossed the line we set for counting as canon rather than subtext. 

Varko Grey | Identity: mlm | Media: Star Wars Squadrons

Varko Grey is one of the NPC squadmates for the Imperial story campaign in Star Wars Squadrons. He is the leader of the elite Titan Squadron, which was part of Rae Sloane’s imperial remnant. He was married to a man named Emory who worked for the Empire in Kuat. In the story campaign, he is involved in a series of missions under the command of Terisa Kerill, to counter the tactical assistance provided by imperial defector and Kerill’s former commander Lindon Javis. These missions brought them into opposition with the New Republic Vanguard Squadron and allowed them to set back, although not destroy, Project Starhawk. 

After this campaign, Titan Squadron was sent to the Unknown Regions on an unknown mission. Grey is the first gay/bi character in a new EU video game. 

[winterfieldfrontiers]

Meet "Mercenary Bode Akuna", a new companion of Cal Kestis

I will pre order because this man, CAL’S BOYFRIEND!!

Bode Akuna was a human ally of Cal Kestis. Akunda helped Kestis take down a scout trooper.

Cal: Thanks Bode

Bode: Part of the Job, Kestis.

PLEASE DOWN FOR HIM CAL, you could have both hand!!!

Good News 

Noshir supports gay fanfiction since Red Dead Redemption 2 to Sekiro: Shadow die twice, so this will be another!!!

oh he was in Star Wars: Squadrons as Gay Imperial TIE Pilot “Varko Grey”

Fruity right?

[theology101]

Who’s the Best Pilot?

In general, I tried to take someone's Force Talent into account and have that be somewhat weighed against them - Luke is probably equal to Wedge, Tycho and Sootnir (Which really should be the S Row, Vader alone in S+ cause the man was dogfighting at near lightspeed and everyone shifted down) but they're just humans were as he's a Jedi. Other times though, like the Force Users we do have at the top, they're just so overwhelmingly better then the people around them that they deserve to be that high up.

S+ —> Vader/Anakin, Wedge Antilles, Soontir Fel, Tycho Celchu

S —> Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Jaina Solo, Jagged Fel, Saesee Tiin, Corran Horn

A —> Hera Syndulla, Rey Skwaylker, Jacen Solo, Kylo Ren, Plo Koon, Poe Dameron, Kyp Durron, Pash Cracken, Ooryl Qyrgg

B —> Maarek Stele, Shea Hublin, Ventress, Ahsoka Tano, Gavin Darklighter, Bror Jace, Lowbacca, Din Djarin

C —> Tri-Fighters, Bo-Katan Kryze, Obi-Wan, Chirdaki, Che’ri, Biggs Darklighter, Shara Bey, Biggs Darklighter, Garven Dreis, Nien Nunb

D —> Clone Troopers, Ello Asty, Porkins, Jessika Pava, Varko Grey,  Inyri Forge, Aril Nunb, Rella Sol, Jake Farrel

F —> Vulture Droids, Cade Skywalker, Lujayne Forge, Eresi Delerit, Havina Vonreg

[queeruscant]

These Star Wars characters are canonically queer men! Links to each character profile will be added as they are posted.

Alak

Ariole Yu

Aytar

Baako Moradi

Casul Seedol

Caysin Bog

Chase Wilsorr

Cohmac Vitus

Conder Kyl

Dec Hansen

Emory

Er Dal

Fel Ix

Flix

Gojuni Motts-Danel

Gulu

Hackrack Bep

Hareck

Harmon

Jom Lariin

Jordan Smythe

Just Lucky

Kitrep Soh

Landonis Balthazar Calrissian

Ledaney

Leox Gyasi

Luu

Marlowe San Tekka

Monti Calay

Orka

Raf Thatchburn

Reyé Hollis

Sinjir Rath Velus

Sonogari

Tam Posla

Tantagru Motts-Danel

Tareesh

TK-421

Tyros

Varko Grey

Vellis San Tekka

Wilhuff Tarkin

Wyl Lark

Zian

[chimaeracrewandfriends]

What’s with all the Gay Imperials?

Hi everyone!

 So there’s this trend I’ve been noticing in some of the new “Canon” Star Wars stories we’ve gotten that I’ve been noodling around with in the back of my mind, and I figured that since it’s Pride Month, I’d try to vocalize it. As glad as I am that there are openly gay characters in Star Wars now (none of them from movies or TV of course, have to keep the mainstays of your franchise nice and clean), there is a somewhat unfortunate trend I’ve noticed, where the gay characters tend to be Imperial-aligned.

Below is a chart of all the characters confirmed to be non-straight as well as the stories where their same-sex attraction was referenced:

 Obviously, I haven’t read or played everything and there’s only so much Wookiepedia scouring you can do, so if I’ve missed out on anyone, please let me know. I’d love to get examples that prove me wrong. I’m sure there are probably one or two in the High Republic sub-franchise, but I’m so disinterested in that era, I wouldn’t know. Also, I’m only including characters whose same-sex attraction is explicitly referenced in the text/supported by authors’ comments. We can point out blatant homoeroticism and ship characters all day, but what I’m focusing on here is specifically the writers’ intentions. Cause… oh boy, what are their intentions?

So, diving into statistics, of the 12 characters I looked at, 8 of them are Imperial characters. Sinjir Rath Velus and Magna Tolvan are a little complicated as they later defected from the Empire, but even then, 50% Imperial is still not a figure I’m wholly comfortable with. I think that it goes without saying that having your gay characters be fascists (or at least indifferent to fascism) is not a great look. I’m not saying there absolutely shouldn’t be gay Imperials, but them being a majority is bad optics in my opinion. Furthermore, of these 12, I’d say only half of them have their sexuality impact their story. The rest are brief references that don’t really factor in. Which is fine, not every character needs to have a romance storyline, but it is part of this discussion. And to be clear, this just my analysis and opinions, it’s completely valid to disagree with me.

To start with non-Imperials with brief references, we have Sana Starros. She had a relationship with Dr. Aphra in college. That’s about it. And there’s also the (in)famous Amilyn Holdo. She’s one of many characters who makes this list by virtue of mentioning in passing that attraction to a single gender or species felt limiting on one occasion.

For more involved relationships, there’s Kaeden Larte, who was introduced in and has only directly appeared in Ahsoka’s eponymous novel as one of the former Jedi’s many semi-platonic female love interests. And Conder Kyl serves as the main love interest for major POV character Sinjir Rath Velus in the Aftermath trilogy and while their relationship was rocky, they ended up finding purpose in each other.

Despite the problems I have with the writing of the Aftermath trilogy, the alleged insertion of a “gay agenda” isn’t one of them. Rae Sloane mentions offhand that she never had time for relationships with men or women. At least she’s one of the more nuanced Imperials. Similarly, Varko Grey, from the Squadrons game, mentions that he has a husband in one of the many pre-flight npc conversations.

For characters with more focus on their sexuality, let’s start with Delian Mors, who easily could have been another “single throwaway line” character; it’s mentioned in her backstory that her wife died prior to Lords of the Sith. However, it’s also brought up a couple times that as the governor of Ryloth, she enjoys keeping green-skinned, Twi'lek women as servants, behavior that’s certainly imperialistic and fetishistic. After that we’ve got Chelli Loni Aphra and Magna Tolvan from the doctor’s eponymous comic series. Dr. Aphra was basically conceived as “evil Indiana Jones” and is an in-universe Darth Vader fangirl. As mentioned previously, she had a relationship with Sana Starros in the past and over the course of her own comic series she develops a homoerotic cat-and-mouse relationship with imperial Captain Magna Tolvan, who eventually joins the Rebel Alliance. Honestly, I’m fine with gay Imperials like these two, and both of them, specifically Aphra, are well-written. As is Sinjir Rath Velus, a former loyalty officer for the Empire, who later defected to the New Republic. There’s kind of “have your cake and eat it too” when it comes to Velus’s gayngst. Despite assurances that the GFFA isn’t intolerant towards non-heterosexual relationships, he still feels awkward telling a woman he isn’t interested because he’s gay and has trouble with public displays of affection with his boyfriend.

And now we have to talk about Tarkin. Tbh, this one bites. To have arguably one of the most evil and authoritarian characters in the franchise in a same-sex relationship… problematic is a good word for it. Granted, it’s never explicitly stated it’s Tarkin in the story, but context clues indicate that’s who he’s supposed to be. (I haven’t listened to the audiobook, but apparently the voice actor does a Peter Cushing impression for the character.) Although, having read Of MSE-6 and Men, I understand the story potential there; to have someone as stuffy, aristocratic, and high-ranking as Tarkin in a secret relationship with a low-ranking stormtrooper is both comedy and drama gold (the story, as it stands, is merely okay in my opinion). And because there are no female Imperials in the OT, that relationship would have to be gay. (It’s not unlike what you see in fanshipping for media with male-dominated casts, predominant M/M ships are inevitable.) As for TK-421, see above. I will say, it’s somewhat intentionally hilarious that gay icon Luke Skywalker walks around the Death Star impersonating a gay man. Or maybe that was the implication all along.

Overall, I’ll just say I’m not entirely enthused that not only is the cast of characters slanted towards Imperial, but also the Imperials tend to have their sexuality be a bigger part of their characterizations. And I think you could make an argument that there is some inherent harm in having so many villainous gay characters and I’d probably agree with you. But I believe there’s a bit more to it than that. And again, maybe I’m missing a lot of data and there are more heroic gays in stories I haven’t read. I’ll fully admit I’ve read more Imperial-centric stories in the past several years, mostly because I enjoy villains and find Imperial politicking and bickering to be amusing. That and the similarities between the Empire and the U.S. are getting harder to ignore every day.

When concerning some of the more well-written gay relationships or ones with the potential to be narratively rich, it does pose the question “Should certain story developments, regardless of their quality, be avoided because of the unfortunate implications?” The simple answer is “yes” but a more nuanced one is “it depends on the context” which is… not exactly helpful. Because context and presentation are important. Even with a couple of the characters whose sexuality is more prominent, the writers fell into some easy traps vis-a-vis cliche negative stereotypes. As mentioned earlier, Delian Mors’ fetish for Twi'lek women plays into stereotypes about lesbians being predatory. She’s also a drug addict as a result of her wife’s death, which I honestly can’t tell if that’s supposed to make her sympathetic or not. The demonization of drug users is another topic entirely. Even Sinjir’s story hit a speed bump when Jas, who knows he’s gay, assumes that his interest in Temmin Wexley may be sexual, which, even as a passing joke, comes uncomfortably close to associating gay men with pedophilia. It’s these kinds of (hopefully) unconscious biases that can even seep into characters who the writers are putting genuine effort into.

On a related note, we’ve gotten a few transgender characters in Star Wars over the past few years, and as far as I know, none of them are Imperials. This does lend some credence to my theory that writers aren’t intentionally being malicious by having gay Imperial characters in their stories. After all, if their intentions were to make gays look like fascists, why not throw trans people under the bus as well? Based on the available evidence, I believe that some of these writers simply believe (or want to believe) that we live in a post-sexuality society, where it’s okay to have gay villains without there inherently being negative connotations with that association; that there’s no assumed correlation between sexuality and morality. And while that would be nice to think, I’m not so sure that’s where we’re at now.

There is a similar discussion about the prevalence of nonwhite Imperial characters over the past several years. And again, I think that comes from a belief that we live in a post-race society, which is not a new idea, the concept of being “colorblind” in this way started gaining relevance in the 90s. It’s good that we’re having these discussions now, because they’re important. And I think one of the reasons why there’s been more diversity among the Empire’s ranks as of late it that their casts are entirely human as opposed to the multi-species Rebellion and New Republic. So there’s some logistical reasons why, but that shouldn’t be a sole reason, ya’know?

If I wanted to be very, very generous, I could argue that the inclusion of nonwhite, nonmale, nonstraight Imperials does work well as it demonstrates that there will always be people in various marginalized groups that will still want to join and try to benefit from oppressive power structures. There may even be a writer or two that intends that, consciously or not. Because even with a more diverse Imperial cast, the high-ranking officials are still predominantly straight (presumably), white men. But… I think that’s a bit too nuanced of a view for the current crop of Star Wars writers to collectively hold at large.

And you may call me a hypocrite for shipping Thranto and writing slash fanfics with Imperial characters… and that’s not entirely unfair. But, please understand that there’s a big difference between me writing free stories in my little apartment and the published works of a multi-billion dollar media giant.

So after going through all this, I’m going to have to say I’m not opposed to there being gay Imperials, but it would be nice to see some changes. Namely, writers should try to avoid negative stereotypes and write more non-Imperial gay characters, especially ones whose sexuality is more than just a passing reference. Writers should ask themselves “What is the context of this character’s sexuality and what kind of message does it convey?” And, as I said, given that we haven’t seen any transgender Imperials, I think the writers do have the degree of self-awareness to do better. And who knows? Maybe in earlier drafts of stories, there were more heroic gays and they got straight-washed during the editing process, so proportionally more gay Imperials make the final cut. That’s the line I’m taking, writing less gay Imperial characters isn’t as important as writing more gay non-Imperial characters. But at the same time, it shouldn’t just be about hitting some quota. Again, I would like to see a greater level of awareness and consideration of the implications of what they’re writing, which would fundamentally lead to stronger long-lasting change. If the writers truly are well-meaning, this would result in characters whose sexualities are better incorporated into the narrative and would hypothetically lead to more good guy gays because the underlying issues of the creative process have been addressed. I hope that’s not too big of an ask.

Sinjir/Conder and Aphra/Tolvan are great canon gay pairings that we’ve gotten and it would have been a shame to have never gotten them at all because of a complete ban on gay Imperial characters. But it would also be cool to continue to see more couples with that quality of writing, ideally more heroic ones, so I’m not going to put my foot down and say absolutely no gay Imperials. That shouldn’t be the focus, is my main takeaway. The problem isn’t that there are gay Imperials at all, it’s the naivety and unexamined bias (and likely homophobic editors) that led to there being a greater number of gay Imperials. And who knows, I believe starting sometime soon, Star Wars novels will be released under a new publishing house instead of Del Ray. Perhaps they’ll have more progressive editors. Fingers crossed.

[kyber-heart]

I'M SORRY HIS WHAT ?!?!

[z0uz]

so i've read this article from the official star wars website and i don't know what the saddest part is :

is it the fact that all of the characters mentioned are never shown in a star wars movie or series? when you talk about star wars, it's more the movies that will come to people's minds, so they affect a wider audience than comics and video games... like, the only lgbt+ representation we had in a star wars movie is a one second kiss between two characters we don't know the name of...

there's only 8 characters?? you're telling that in a galaxy where people of different species fuck each other there's not more people that aren't straight/cis?

the fact that two of these eight characters are linked to a third one is weirdly sad to me. it's a small world after all?

they forgot my girl amilyn holdo, who legit admitted to leia she's pan

we know lando and luke and many more characters are queer, don't be shy disney

[jacensolodjo]

Imperial Pilot Captain Varko Grey in the Star Wars Squadrons “Hunted” trailer 

[victoria-daydreams]

I've only known them for a day and a half, but if anything happened to them, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.

(That includes my Imperial and New Republic pilot who are not pictured. )

[starwarsyeahboi]

This is what I like to see! Imperial characters who aren’t just black and white! They also wrestle with their thoughts on the empire. Hopefully we’ll see this more in the story mode.

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

Star Wars: Squadrons said “here’s a canonical singleplayer game with Rae Sloane, Alphabet Squadron tie-ins and a hot gay TIE fighter dude” to make dumb bitches get into Star Wars again and you know what? It worked. I’m dumb bitches.

[theviolentidealist]

Next time I get asked this question I'd like to refer to this post.

There are three types of men that I would consider 'my type':

Big soft cuddly Daddy

Soft spoken until they're excited puppy dog

Sexy philosophical topknot wearing mentor type with a dark past that they want to turn into a bright future

This has been my confession.

[queeruscant]

These Star Wars characters are canonically queer during the Imperial era! Links to each character profile will be added as they are posted.

Ackmena

Amara Kel, aka Shadow

Ariole Yu

Brene

Chelli Lona Aphra

Chellwinark Frethylrin

Cinta Kaz

Delian Mors

Detta Yao

Domina Tagge

Ela Radodan

Emory

Eron

Esmelle

Eustacia Okka

Hareck

Howlrunner (Theta Squadron)

Irei

Isabalia

Jordan Smythe

Joy Iya

Just Lucky

Kaeden Larte

Kalandra

Keo Venzee

Kho Phon Farrus

Kiren

Lapin Tagge

Luu

Magna Tolvan

Merrin

Murra Mors

Rae Sloane

Rhee

Sabé

Sorschi

T'onga

Tal Veridian

Tans

TK-421

Varko Grey

Vel Sartha

Vukorah

Wilhuff Tarkin

[corelliaxdreaming]

Everyone like me who hasn’t read the Squadrons-related Databank entries yet: Varko Grey, the TIE pilot from the CG short that was just released, has a husband, and I am stoked!!

[theycallmespider]

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT

VARKO GREY HAS A HUSBAND

VARKO GREY HAS A HUSBAND

AHHHH THE REPRESENTATION IN THIS CHILI’S TONIGHT IS AMAZING

[lilac-vode]

VARKO GREY HUh!!!!!!!!!