Thing I saw on Tumblr recently, reacting to a great picture of Mark Hamill hugging Lupita Nyong’o: “I love that Mark Hamill has just unilaterally decided Luke is everybody’s father, and also gay. :D”
To which I can only say this…
It’s even better than that.
If you check out Hamill’s full quote, here’s what you’ll read:
“Fans are writing and ask all these questions, ‘I’m bullied in school…I’m afraid to come out. Could Luke be gay?’ I’d say it is meant to be interpreted by the viewer. If you think Luke is gay, of course he is.”
And, of course, that works for more than just gay. Gay, straight, bi, pan, ace, demi, trans, cis…anything at all. If you think Luke is, of course Luke is.
Even things you might not be able to think Luke is, Star Wars finds a way. Is it possible for Luke Skywalker to be a cis woman? Sounds like a stretch, I have to imagine. But then…as many people have established, in early drafts of the screenplay, the character occupying Luke’s place was a woman. Who’s to say that isn’t as much “Luke” as anything else?
The one thing Luke always is, through everything, is the one we look up to. That’s why it’s so important to the people writing in to Hamill. “If Luke can be gay,” they are saying, “it can be OK. I can face my fear. I can see Luke as someone to emulate, to be like. Luke can give me strength.”
No matter what you are, Luke can be you.
And that’s when you realize what Luke really is. And of course it’s what Luke is. What Luke always was, from the beginning.
We’ve got your Death Star plans right here, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to realize just how much the plot of your favorite movie hinges on the actions of one woman (accompanied by a team full of dudes anyway). I guess it’s kind of like realizing that the name of your men’s rights movement is wholesale stolen from a movie written by two trans women. Oh, the irony. But I digress.
You see, we’ve got more than just your Death Star plans. What we have is this realization that these worlds—these rich, fantastic fantasy/sci-fi/everything worlds—don’t just belong to you anymore. They never really only belonged to you. They belonged to all of us, and always have, despite how hard you’ve tried to erase us from the narrative.
Poe one hundred percent has a space Instagram that’s nothing but pictures of BB-8 with captions like “bb can’t get up the stairs!!!!!!!😂😂😂😂”
“😞bb forgot to ⚡️recharge⚡️so they’re 😴😴 today”
“round bb!!!!!⚪️ today it’s more like round baby!!!👶🏻 because they’re very cute and they kept me up all night w the noises. new rule, no late night beeps”
“🐝🐝8️⃣”
It’s the third most popular Instagram in the Resistance. The second is Leia’s official account which she uses almost entirely to post VINTAGE pics of the Resistance leaders: space poncho Luke napping in the Falcon, C-3PO braiding Leia’s hair, Han on the beach looking suspiciously post-coital (Ben, when he was still Ben, just commented on this, “MOM”).
The first most popular is Chewbacca’s. It’s nothing but selfies. The Wookie knows his best angles.
