Fan Art Friday

I've been noticing some really nice Poe fan art recently. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Just glorious:

By artist 800PoundProductions

And just the cutest:

By artist Baan00

And because I can't resist a good Poe pun.... okay, okay, and also because I am trash:

By artist Kami (super NSFW Stormpilot art, FYI)

"Poe has a lot of love to give."

Submitted for your consideration: a short interview of Oscar Isaac from Collider at a premiere of X-Men: Apocalypse, and his answer at 1:00 about the rumors of Poe's romantic entanglements in Star Wars. It's either some very charm-soaked poemosexual affirmation or some really evil baiting.

But even if it's baiting, it's easy to forgive if you pretend, when he looks directly into the camera, that he's winking and flirting with me. I mean, with you. As in, with a hypothetical audience member. 

Nevermind, he's definitely flirting with me.

Setting a Course for the Malin System

As a life long Star Wars fan, I've always gotten a special thrill the handful of times I've been to Star Wars filming locations. Like when I went for my first hike in the Marin redwood forest after moving to the Bay Area, all I could do was picture Rebel commandos sneaking through the underbrush (and yes, perhaps regrettably, Ewoks). I also completely geeked out on a ferry trip across Lake Como where we could see the Villa del Balbianello, which served as the filming location for Padme's home in the Naboo Lake Country.

OMG Padme's summer home. Also, please note that Lake Como is drop-dead gorgeous.

It turns out that I've made another filming location pilgrimage, but only in retrospect...

As reported by the BBC, Star Wars fans in Ireland are currently freaking out as filming begins on the very northernmost tip of the island, near the village of Malin Head. And we were in the Malin area last July: I was in the exact place where Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, and Adam Driver are filming right now! Obviously, we had no inside knowledge when we toured the area that the coastline along Banba's Crown would be an active Star Wars filming location just 10 months hence. I guess the Force was with us!

The explanation of why my husband and I were in that remote region of Ireland is kind of a long, convoluted backstory that involves a friend's really epic globetrotting 40th birthday party and legendary Irish hospitality.

Friend's birthday party, private home on the tidal inlet just south of Malin.

We seized the opportunity to visit Ireland when we received the invitation, especially when it involved visiting a part of the country that we likely would have no occasion to ever visit in the future. So we took advantage of our time there, visiting the handful of tourist destinations, like the Doagh Famine Village (yes, it's as sad and campy/weird as it sounds), hiking around Banba's Crown, and a pint and a meal at The Seaview Tavern.

The beautiful coastline off of Banba's Crown.

Little did we know that in May 2016, Malin would become an epicenter for Episode VIII hype as what appeared to be a Millennium Falcon set appeared on the coastline about a mile from Banba's Crown.

I am so thankful that we were invited to that birthday party, that we were able to attend, and that I'm just now getting that special thrill of treading the same earth as denizens of a galaxy far, far away.

"Eire." Rock graffiti near Banba's Crown.

MTV Movie Awards: The Force Is with TFA

The MTV Movie Awards delivered some major recognition to The Force Awakens over the weekend, bringing some eleventh-hour vindication for an otherwise disappointing awards season for Episode VII. JJ Abrams and Daisy Ridley were there to accept the award for Best Movie, which I previously thought was sort of a long shot given the very crowded field of nominees. As it turned out, the Best True Story category and the Generation Award gave fans an opportunity to express support for the high profile casualties of #OscarsSoWhite, Straight Outta Compton and Will Smith. And the other awards were nicely distributed without any one film making a total sweep (I'm looking at you, Ms. Furiosa), so the awards presentations felt much more democratic and diverse than the Oscars.

Adam Driver did not attend the boisterous MTV awards ceremony to accept his award for Best Villain. But Daisy Ridley was her charming, sincere self as she accepted her very well-deserved Best Breakthrough Performance award. Her acceptance speech was divine:

"It feels especially amazing to be part of a film that represents people of all genders--two genders--all races, and all ages in such a positive and aspirational way."

I love that she clarified with a wink that Ep. VII portrays only two genders, correcting herself to acknowledge that even such an inclusive cast of characters still has room to grow when it comes to gender identity.

Awards aside, Sunday's broadcast was otherwise a major event for geekdom. Jared Leto, Margot Robie, Will Smith, and Cara Delevingne introduced a premiere of the newest Suicide Squad trailer, which was eeppppicccccc.

If anything can justify the dark and gritty tone that DC has established for its film universe, this can. As a long-time fan of Super Friends: fingers crossed.

And--YAY!--Harley Quinn has her hammer!

We also were treated to exclusive footage from Captain America: Civil War, introduced by my other husband, Chris Evans. The Avengers have assembled and are kicking ass as a well-oiled machine in this clip. Looks like Black Widow's and Cap's training that began in the closing shots of Age of Ultron has borne some very explosive and telekinetic fruit: "Just like we practiced."

The evening was wrapped up with the world premiere of the teaser trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. I'm not much of a Harry Potter fan, but with the glorious Eddie Redmayne starring, I might have to check it out.

Throw in a bunch of the Deadpool dancers, Chris Pratt being gracious and adorable accepting an award for the action sequence in Jurassic World, and a pantsless Alexander Skarsgard, and it was a spectacle that was right up my gay fanboy alley. The recognition for The Force Awakens as the fans' pick for the year's Best Movie was a crowning moment for this awards season.

Did I mention the pantsless Alexander Skarsgard? Because that definitely happened.

X-Men A-Poe-calypse Trailer

Today's new X-Men trailer shows the scope of Apocalypse's power and it is gorgeous.

My first reaction was: Rejoice! We get to glimpse Oscar Isaac looking normal (i.e., hawt), at least for a few moments!

Beautiful dreamer, amirite?

Unfortunately, he then undergoes some kind of evil ancient Egyptian spa treatment that leaves his skin looking really dewy and moisturized but super ashen:

I hope he did not tip the aesthetician, because that simply does not look right.


Also, as observed by the Nerdist breakdown, the stinger after the Days of Future Past credits suggested that Apocalypse was born with gray skin, so Oscar Isaac's transformation may be a bit of a retcon.

I also really like that we are now squarely in the 1980's, and that the movie seems to capitalize on the fear of nuclear annihilation that, back then, we all expected to happen at any given moment. I cannot begin to tell you how many bad dreams I had as a kid about nuclear wars and nuclear winters and nuclear anything/everything. I'm really looking forward to seeing whether the all-encompassing paranoia is effectively worked into the plot of the newest X-Men film.

My last observation is that Oscar Isaac really is an actor's actor, isn't he? From small premium cable films to Coen brothers to epic blockbusters filled with CGI and make-up; hero to villain to everything nuanced in between. It's been so much fun seeing his career take off like this. Moar plz.

Super Poe-wered Romance

The music video for Coheed and Cambria's "Island" is just the best. I can't stop watching it!

Oh the (In)Humanity: Joey Gutierrez Benched on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Is it hot in here or is he just melting metal
with his mind?

Sadly, last night's episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed to diminish expectations that its muy caliente first openly gay character, Joey Gutierrez, would be a major player in the series going forward.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced Joey in last fall's Season 3 premiere. We didn't really find out that Joey is gay until a few episodes later, when a former boyfriend came up in dialogue. And when we did find out, I was really excited that it was revealed (as it should be) as simply a trait of a three-dimensional character with realistic flaws and authentic motivations. A non-exploitive gay hero in a mainstream franchise, yay!

Up through the mid-season haitus, Joey played minor but key roles in the narrative as one of the many new Inhumans that were transformed by the release of Terrigen into the world's oceans at the end of Season 2. The evolution of Joey's initial ambivalence regarding his new powers into growing acceptance was a nicely done story line, with an overt parallel drawn to the process of coming out and the freedom and power of self-actualization. In the mid-season finale, Joey surprised even himself by risking his own life to save Daisy, and a hero was born. I was really excited see his further growth when the season resumed last night.

Unfortunately, last night's mid-season premiere put a damper on those hopes when Joey was given an Apple watch with a S.H.I.E.L.D. screen background and sent home to have dinner with his mother. Or something. It's a plan cooked up by Daisy and Director Mack to give Joey and the other Inhuman Secret Warriors some generous telecommuting benefits and allow them to carry on their former lives while still being on call as S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives.

The upshot is that I expect large gaps in Joey's onscreen time while he's away eating his mother's home cooking. I hope I'm wrong, but we might not see the MCU's single gay character again until closer to the Season 3 climax. Free Joey!

Poe-wning The MTV Movie Award Nominations

As announced on MTV.com today, The Force Awakens cleaned up with 11 nominations for MTV Movie Awards. Deadpool had the second most nominations with 8. These much more populist awards reflect achievements that are geared towards fan favorites from a younger demographic than the stuffier Academy Awards. Nevertheless, I'm glad that The Force Awakens is finally getting some bigger recognition this awards season.

TFA is up for Movie of the Year, but it is a crowded field with geek culture heavy-hitters (Deadpool, Age of Ultron, and the massively successful Jurassic World, but weirdly no Mad Max). And with Creed and Straight Outta Compton in the running too, it seems like the MTV awards might compensate for the Hollywood diversity crisis that dogged the Oscars. I would be (pleasantly) surprised if TFA took this category.

I see better odds for the many performances categories: Adam Driver (Best Villain), John Boyega (Breakthrough Performance and Best Action Performance), Daisy Ridley (Best Female, Best Hero, and Breakthrough Performance), and Andy Serkis and Lupita Nyong'o (Best Virtual Performance). With the sheer number of individual performance nominations, chances seem good. And come on, Daisy Ridley was basically the Best Hero ever, so...

No nominations for Oscar Isaac, but with so little screen time, not surprising. Although if Finn and Poe had greeted each other with more than just that leaping embrace, Best Kiss would've been theirs to lose!

At any rate, Isaac deserves a great deal of the credit for the infectious and extraordinary cast chemistry that earned TFA a best Ensemble Cast nomination. This will be the category where I really root for them.

Don't forget to vote and tune in on April 10!

You Need a Pilot: Gay Male Heroes IRL

To recap: gay characters in mainstream pop culture, especially in geek culture, are generally either psychopathic villains or buffoonish clowns who provide comic relief. These tropes have become so entrenched that many audience members react strongly and negatively when challenged with LGBT characters in other roles.

And especially when it comes to gay male heroes: all the stereotypes about gay male effeminacy and mental disorder tend to fuel misguided assumptions that homosexuality--and especially homosexuality in men--is incongruent with the kind of charismatic heroism that central protagonist roles usually demand. I believe that this is a big part of the resistance to Poe being gay: audiences just can't reconcile a gay male heroic character with societal stereotypes of gay men as sissies and wimps.

So I thought it was worth a little primer (or reminder) on a few real-life gay men who challenged the poisonous misconceptions that homosexuality somehow prevents a man from cutting a heroic figure. This is just a tiny sample of gay men whose high-profile selfless acts of heroism saved lives--often at the expense of their own.

Sipple (left) saves the life of Pres. Ford by
grabbing Sarah Jane Moore

Oliver Sipple was a gay man who served as a Marine in the Vietnam War. On September 22, 1975, Sipple thwarted an assassination attempt of President Gerald Ford in San Francisco by grabbing the arm of the would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, as she raised her gun to fire. The bullet missed the President and struck an innocent bystander, who suffered only minor wounds. Sipple was declared a hero for his bravery and quick action.

Unfortunately, this unwanted fame thrust him into a spotlight that outed him to his family and society, leaving him alienated and embittered until his death in 1989. But Harvey Milk, a San Francisco city supervisor and the first openly gay elected official in the U.S., knew Sipple and wanted people to know that Sipple was gay. Milk is quoted as saying, "For once we can show that gays do heroic things."

Staff Sergeant Eric Alva was the first American Marine to be wounded in Iraq in 2003, and the Iraq War's first recipient of the Purple Heart. On the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Alva stepped on a landmine and sustained injuries that required amputation of his leg.

After his injury, Alva worked to improve the opportunities of other gay people who wanted to serve, and he became a spokesperson against the U.S. military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy until it was finally repealed in 2011. Alva is quoted as saying: "I joined the military because I wanted to serve. I was patriotic, idealistic; I was also gay."

....Hm. Latino, patriotic, idealistic, gay. He reminds me of someone... I can't quite put my finger on it... Oh, and if you're having a hard time imagining what a dashing, decorated, gay military fighter pilot might look like in real life, behold: Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach.

Not so bad, right?

Allan Fonseca was a Macy's employee who was working the day of the Clackamas, Oregon mall shooting in 2012. When Fonseca heard the gunfire, he led a customer out of the store, then had the stones to go back in--TWICE--to help more customers and coworkers evacuate.

So gay heroes are not just soldiers. They're civilians too. And sometimes they have gorgeous skin and work at the Lancome counter. Deal with it.

Tori Johnson was another civilian hero that helped others survive a crazed gunman in Sydney in December 2014. The gunman took a dozen people hostage in a cafe and used them as human shields during an hours-long standoff with authorities.

Eventually, Johnson, a gay man and the manager of the cafe, charged the gunman and tried to wrestle away the weapon. Johnson was fatally shot, but his selfless actions distracted the gunman long enough for the others to escape, and the gunfire brought in the police, who killed the gunman. The entire country of Australia remembers him as a hero.

The horrible events of September 11, 2001, marked some of our country's darkest hours. But on that terrible day, the heroism of emergency responders and of everyday people inspired the country and captured our imaginations. Two of the most widely-known heroes of September 11 were gay men.

Father Mychal Judge, known as the Saint of 9/11, was a Franciscan Chaplain to the New York Fire Department and had the dubious honor of being the first victim of the September 11 terrorist attacks when he was killed by falling debris. His heroism and bravery at the World Trade Center were extraordinary, but his full story as an out, gay, recovering alcoholic Irish-Catholic priest is nothing short of legendary. Judge's spirit, kindness, and charisma touched hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. His was a terrible loss, but like all heroes, he made his sacrifice with courage and selflessness and he was a credit to all Americans.

Mark Bingham was an entrepreneur, a skilled rugby player, and a gay man from the Bay Area who found himself on board United Flight 93 en route to San Francisco on September 11. When the flight was hijacked, Bingham was one of the passengers who stormed the cockpit to prevent the terrorists from completing their attack, sacrificing themselves in the ensuing crash to save countless other lives. His and the other Flight 93 passengers' stirring tale of heroism is memorialized in numerous films and documentaries. Bingham is remembered by the Bay Area and the broader gay community as one of the largest-looming heroes of 9/11.

These men (and countless other LGBT people, men and women alike) are exactly the type of hero that has never--ever--been portrayed in a sci fi or action film as a main protagonist, even though their heroics capture the selflessness and bravery that we all admire in a character like Poe.

And the next time someone scoffs at the idea of Poe (or any central protagonist) being LGBT, with the implication that someone as heroic, charismatic, and virtuous as Poe couldn't possibly be gay, keep these men and their stories in mind.

Shake That Moneymaker: Deadpool's Poe-sterior

Vanity Fair published a terrific article describing how Deadpool's box office success puts it in a great position to eventually introduce--in the greenlit sequel--the first openly male LGBT hero in a comic book film.

The initiative and willingness from the creative side is definitely there. The comic books have numerous references to Deadpool's omnisexual flirtations, which make it harder for closed-minded audiences to burden a queer film adaptation with the whole "diversity for diversity's sake" garbage. And more specifically, Tim Miller, the film's director, described Deadpool as pansexual, and Ryan Reynolds has previously remarked that depicting Deadpool in the future with a boyfriend "would be great."

But more importantly, the dollar signs are there. As mentioned previously, one of the major studio concerns with LGBT central protagonists is China's restrictive cultural policies that censor or ban positive images of LGBT people in media. China is a huge consumer of U.S. films, so jeopardizing a film's success there with an LGBT main character makes major studios skittish.

Deadpool was banned in China for violence and sexuality, but Fox still made PILES OF MONEY in opening weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, Deadpool had a staggering $150 million opening four day domestic weekend, with a $264.8 million worldwide debut as of last Sunday. This makes Deadpool Fox's biggest opening weekend ever (beating second best Episode III: Revenge of the Sith's domestic opening by about $25 million).

So basically? China's anti-gay media policies can suck it.

I really hope this emboldens Fox to make Deadpool's bisexuality a more meaningful character trait in the sequel, as opposed to just making it a part of the humor. And if that happens, we would have the first cinematic LGBT hero in a comic book film. And in turn, I hope that Disney/Lucasfilm is emboldened to consider an LGBT heroic main character for the cinematic Star Wars franchise.

Remembering Battlestar Gay-lactica

When a former co-worker shows up at the office holiday party to stir shit.

Battlestar Galactica, that stalwart old ship, has been cruising into fandom's consciousness quite a bit in the past week or so, with an announcement of movement towards a cinematic adaptation at Universal and Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Felix Gaeta from SyFy's rebooted BSG) popping up on the new X-Files series. So although I've been thinking a lot about BSG in relation to LGBT characters in sci-fi the past couple of months, this seemed like a good time to write about it.

I was six years old when the original BSG aired on television, and I was smitten. It was like Star Wars, but it was on TV every week so I could regularly get my fix of cool ships, weird aliens, and soapy space drama. I admittedly had a little schoolboy crush on Dirk Benedict's Starbuck, but mostly I was just there for the Viper dogfights and the shiny kick-ass Cylons.

When SyFy reimagined BSG in 2004, it quickly became apparent that BSG had grown up in the intervening quarter century. The stories were profoundly political, philosophical, complicated, and ambivalent. The design was gorgeous and the cinematography revolutionized that photojournalistic zoom-in style we now see in all sorts of sci-fi today (see, e.g., The Expanse). The performances were uniformly terrific, and sometimes just brilliant--every moment in the romance between Mary McDonnell's President Roslin and Edward James Olmos's Admiral Adama was understated, soaring, heartbreaking, and simply glorious.

Unfortunately, the series finale was pretty infuriating, and, like Lost, did not do justice to the nuance and ambiguity of the series. I remember people referring to it as "Bible-star Galactica": seriously, the implication that Starbuck was a goddamn angel made all of us at our viewing party lunge for the same coffee table to flip. Outrageous.

And speaking of ambivalence, the other aspect of SyFy's BSG that continues to perplex and confound me is its inclusion of LGBT characters.

In general, the humanoid Cylon models (at least the female ones) were sort of pansexual, especially the Sixes, played by Tricia Helfer. There was a threeway reference in Season 3 involving one of those randy Sixes, a Three (played by lesbian super-icon Lucy Lawless), and Gaius Baltar. But while this indicates the fluid sexuality of the Cylons, it was basically gratuitous set decoration.

The Pegasus was capable of FTL (Faster Than Lesbianism) speed.

The TV movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor achieved a deeper exploration of gay main characters when it revealed that the captain of the Battlestar Pegasus, Admiral Helena Cain, was in a relationship with a Number Six model named Gina. The destruction of the colonies drives Admiral Cain mad with vengeance, and when Cain discovers that Gina is a Cylon, things do not end well. What follows is a classic BSG meditation on the ironic/tragic way that leaders obliterate life and humanity to protect life and humanity. Unfortunately, the story doesn't really break any new ground for LGBT characters. Cain becomes a psychopathic villain who is ultimately destroyed, a very well-trod cautionary tale story line for LGBT characters in sci-fi and otherwise.

That look: I'm getting multiple GAY-DIS contacts, sir.

Then, in the midseason break of the final season, Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy was released as a series of short webisodes with long-time central character, Felix Gaeta (Gay-ta? come on), as its main protagonist. In the first webisode of The Face of the Enemy, we see Gaeta share an on-screen kiss and a very sweet moment with Louis Hoshi--and it seemed like BSG was going to give us a gay male hero who could have his own side-adventure and get his guy, too!

Alas, four major issues ultimately left The Face of the Enemy as a less-than-ideal introduction of an LGBT hero:

1. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Gaeta was romantically involved with an Eight, a Cylon female model. So Gaeta is technically bi, which is great (and kind of even hotter). But a part of me can't help but wonder if that was some sort of assurance from the writers to the straight audience members who might not appreciate bisexuality as a legitimate thing that, yes, Gaeta was gay with Hoshi, but he wasn't that gay, only kind of gay sometimes, so he could still be taken seriously as a male protagonist. The romantic entanglement with the female Eight, while important to the plot and certainly not gratuitous, still feels to me a little like a concession.
2. The only mention that Gaeta is LGBT is in those 33 minutes of webisodes; it never came up at all before or after in any of the SyFy broadcast episodes. Casual viewers of the TV series could have gone the entire show without ever knowing that Gaeta was LGBT. There was suspiciously little audience reaction, which suggests that this canon content slipped by pretty much under everyone's DRADIS. So Gaeta is not exactly the out and proud LGBT hero we're looking for, and it leaves an impression of classic LGBT tokenism in sci-fi content: "Aren't we edgy for having a gay male protagonist in a mainstream sci fi property?! But to be safe we'll just do it over here in this little non-essential side project and shh don't tell anyone, 'kay?" Meh.
3. Gaeta's and Hoshi's romantic storyline goes out with a whimper. Hoshi spends his on-screen time doing awesome boyfriend stuff for Gaeta--smuggling him drugs, persuading Tigh to authorize a fool's errand of a search-and-rescue mission, actually volunteering for said fool's errand search-and-rescue mission, sweetly assuring Gaeta that "Baby, you're good!" when they finally find him, and later holding Gaeta's hand as Gaeta is wheeled away on a gurney to receive medical attention, never leaving his side. So how does Gaeta repay all this concern and devotion? As soon as he's back on his one good foot, he promptly dumps Hoshi. I mean... dude. I know the events on the Raptor were traumatizing but the relationship seems unnaturally easy for Gaeta to simply terminate--he assures Hoshi that he will try to protect him because Hoshi searched for and saved him, but not because they've been fraking each other for gods' sake. Gaeta treats it like some sort of debt, and not even a debt of any particular gratitude. It's a really unsatisfying moment and feels like a contrived way to avoid having to carry the relationship through to the televised episodes.
4. Although largely an enigmatic everyman throughout the series, Gaeta was consistently moral and steadfast, which was why I was so pleased to have him introduced as LGBT. But the events that unfold while Gaeta is stranded in the Raptor with the treacherous Eight leave Gaeta in a very dark place of self-revulsion and regret, and spark his motivation to mutiny against Adama and his alliance with the Cylons in the subsequent SyFy episodes. And in the morally murky BSG universe, consistent convictions get people into serious trouble, so Gaeta's unwavering beliefs lead him to an untimely demise several episodes from the series finale. So... yep. The story manages to turn Gaeta into yet another LGBT antagonist who gets killed before the end. *sigh*

Don't get me wrong here. SyFy's BSG is one of my favorite sci-fi TV series ever. And I really enjoyed The Face of the Enemy--it won Streamy awards in 2009 for Best Dramatic Series, Best Male Actor/Dramatic, and Best Writing/Dramatic, so it was kind of a big deal in terms of web-exclusive quality and impact. Kudos to the BSG producers, writers, and cast for finally showing a gay protagonist in a sci-fi series at all, especially a protagonist as (mostly) heroic and nuanced and sustained as Gaeta was.

But that's not to say that we can't do better. BSG got close, but there's more we can do in terms of decoupling the seemingly inevitable association of homosexual characters with disease, tragedy, and misery in sci-fi portrayals.

*cough* Poe *cough*

And now, here's some of my favorite BSG eye candy because I'm a sharer.

Jamie Bamber. He sure knows how to ride a Viper.

Michael Trucco. "Space athlete" pretty much checks all the boxes, amirite ladies?

Musical Com-Poe-sition

Just a quick disclaimer: The point of this blog is not really to ship Finn/Poe, although that's naturally going to come up if we're discussing the possibility of the first gay hero in the Star Wars cinematic universe. It's cool if Finn is not straight too, I just didn't get it from Finn's character in the movie the same way you see it in Poe. Finn is so desperate and panicked throughout TFA, romance does not really seem like it's on his radar at all. 

A full-on LGBT relationship would be amazing, but I would be happy if Poe were gay, with or without a romance. Okay, that said:

I found faerielion's tumblr, and there's a post from January 4 that does a side-by-side comparison of how the Han and Leia theme plays over the Finn/Poe reunion scene. And since Han and Leia are the central romantic pair from the OT, their theme is basically the Star Wars love theme.

Here's how it works:

*heart eyes*
fan art by rngrn

Step 1: Play the Han and Leia theme, and note the lovely woodwind melody at about 1:55 that is repeated with horns at 2:15.

Step 2: Now watch the scene where Finn and Poe are reunited. That same woodwind theme from the Han and Leia orchestration starts at about 0:24 seconds when Poe is greeting BB-8, and (OMG) the horn theme swells just as Poe and Finn are jumping into each other's arms. 

Step 3: Feel all the feels.

Now, by TFA, Han and Leia are no longer romantically in love, and I imagine that when Williams was composing this piece for the TFA soundtrack, he was thinking of a very mature relationship--powerful feelings, for sure, but not sexy-fun-times. So I'm not sure that using that melody from the Han and Leia theme was necessarily meant to suggest romance, as much as just a very warm and emotional moment for the characters of Poe and Finn.

At the same time, wow. Those are some very intense emotions for two guys to have for each other after probably no more than an hour together during their escape. And it all goes downhill moments later with the lip bite...

Prêt à Poe-ter Part Deux

That's my jacket... I wish.

Mon Dieu mes amis! As reported by Nerdist.com today, Matchless, a UK-based designer outerwear retailer, has thrown in on the Finn/Poe jacket game with this offering, and it is gorgeous.

I'm not wild about the branding on the breast pocket, but the buckle is so much better than the cheap black plastic one on the Film Jackets version (yuck). I wish they had an image with a model wearing it; it looks like it might be cut a little longer than the film version, but hard to tell.

Anyone have an extra $1,750.00 to spare?

Yep, it's that much. Nice though, right? They have a bunch of other high-end jackets inspired by other Star Wars icons too, if Poe is not your thing (and if that's the case, what kind of a monster are you?).

"Poe to Inflate"

I love this. Cinema Blend has reported that intrepid/detail-oriented Tumblr user @youneedapilot unlocked the secret message printed on Poe's flight vest.

I'm sorry but it's just so hard to focus on anything but that look....

Most text in Star Wars is in Aurebesh, the written form of Galactic Basic. But translating this little blurb on Poe's vest was weirdly difficult because none of the characters matched the Aurebesh alphabet. The chances seemed good that this was some sort of funny/cool hidden message, especially given the silly Beastie Boys call-out in Aurebesh on Ello Asty's helmet.

But alas, the message doesn't quite live up to the hype: @youneedapilot eventually realized that the text is printed upside down so the vest's wearer can read it when looking down at it. Once that was sorted out, it was easy to translate the Aurebesh.

It says: "Pull to inflate."

Safety first, Poe!

To nerd out a minute here, it seemed like the similar X-Wing pilot vests from the original trilogy were more like flak vests--at least, that's how various cosplay groups, like the Rebel Legion, conceived of them--and not flotation devices. But perhaps X-Wing pilots have different vests for different terrains? The image above is right after the dramatic over-water assault on Takodana, so maybe it was mission-specific gear?

In any event, the fact that some person was so troubled by the mystery of Poe's vest makes me incredibly happy. It's sort of a bummer that it wasn't more of a cool Easter egg (something like "Tell that to Kanjiklub" or "Stormpilot 4ever"), but the effort and thought that went into decoding it is what being a fan is all about. Nicely done.

Movie Poe-sters

Geek & Sundry posted some clever remade movie posters for TFA-inspired rip-offs of Oscar-nominated films. Of course, my favorite:

So. Perfect. 

What's New Poe-ssycat?

This fan art from SpaceSharkz on Deviant Art will make your Monday a little fuzzier and cuter.

Poe, BB-8, cats. It really checks all the (litter)boxes for me.

Sucker Poe-nch

Let's get back to Oscar Isaac, shall we?

In 2011, he was featured in Sucker Punch, a mostly-ghastly Zack Snyder film. I am a sucker (lol) for visual design, cartoonish violence, and tawdry sexualization, so I enjoy a little Zack Snyder from time to time. And while Sucker Punch really delivered in the art direction and combat choreography departments, the movie's overall cracked-out incoherence was just too much for even my questionable taste.

Oscar Isaac had a whole number, however--Roxy Music's Love Is the Drug--and his performance is dreamy. Check it out:

Sinjir Rath Velus: Poe-totype LGBT Star Wars Hero

Don't judge me too harshly, but I just recently finished Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Aftermath (tagline: The War Is Not Poe-ver). As everyone obviously already knows, this book is a big deal because it introduces us to the first gay male hero in Star Wars: Sinjir Rath Velus.

Just so I get this timeline right--the first LGBT Star Wars character was technically Juhani from BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic, and she appeared well over a decade ago. Juhani was a lesbian Cathar who had an optional romance subplot with female player-characters.

(And I guess if I'm talking about that, I should also mention that same-gender romances were available in later expansions of BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. My Sith Marauder was so Force-grabby with that Theron Shan! Made me blush, honestly.)

Then, lesbian Imperial Moff Delian Mors turned up as a villainous antagonist in Paul S. Kemp's novel, Lords of the Sith, released in April 2015 (and no, I haven't yet read that but I intend to... someday?).

Finally, last fall, Wendig went big with LGBT characters in Aftermath. In addition to Sinjir, there's a fleeting but heartbreaking mention of a war orphan's deceased gay dads in a side-story interlude set on Naboo. And another main character, Norra, has a lesbian sister, Esmelle. She and her wife, Shireen, share several scenes with the protagonists and are well-conceived characters in their own right, although not really central to the plot.

Dead-on Sinjir fan art by makeramidying

But Aftermath really makes a big gay jump to rainbow-streaming lightspeed with Sinjir Rath Velus, the Imperial defector. No question, a cinematic version of Sinjir would pass the Vito Russo test as an overtly gay three-dimensional character who is integral to the narrative: he is our first LGBT hero in Star Wars storytelling media.

...Sort of.

Sinjir has serious substance abuse issues. He is an Imperial deserter who kind of remorselessly admits to being "a bad man." In his prior life as an Imperial Loyalty Officer, he was responsible for conducting witch hunts to ferret out un-Imperial conduct in the Empire's ranks. The novel is pretty explicit about Sinjir's chilling ruthlessness in capturing, interrogating, torturing, and punishing offenders. He is unapologetic in his self-interest and, for most of the novel, it appears likely that he will somehow betray his comrades. He is judgmental, narcissistic, and largely indifferent to suffering.

But Sinjir works as a compelling protagonist because Wendig balances those dire character flaws with interesting and authentic positive attributes. Sinjir realistically struggles with a profound crisis of conscience, not unlike Finn's at the beginning of TFA. Sinjir seems sincere when he hints at wanting to "do better," and when his loyalty is ultimately tested, Sinjir's nascent better nature prevails. Not to mention, when it comes to action sequences, Sinjir is a fucking ninja (which is obviously the finest attribute a character can have, as far as I'm concerned).

To sum up, Sinjir is not really our first LGBT Star Wars hero. Sinjir is our first LGBT Star Wars antihero.

I had mixed reactions to Sinjir being so complicated and messy. A part of me was disappointed, and was like, "Really? The one gay guy has to be a raging alcoholic and a treacherous war criminal?" It's almost as if portraying Sinjir as a classic hero was too far-fetched--he had to be seriously flawed so he would "make sense" to a straight audience who would view homosexuality as entirely incompatible with heroic virtue.

My other reaction was, well, why not? Aren't antiheroes more interesting and more fun as characters anyway? But more importantly, I started to see this as a evolutionary arc, as if Lucasfilm is priming the pump for the inevitable widening inclusion of gay people in Star Wars stories--maybe even movies. Stick with me here:

1. They started off pandering to the all-too-familiar trope of the villainous homosexual with Moff Mors. Plus, Mors is a lesbian, and therefore is less threatening to straight men's concepts of masculinity. Thus, Moff Mors is well within the audience's comfort zone. 
2. Then, the franchise ramps up the challenge to introduce Sinjir, a gay male protagonist, but who still retains the trappings of the familiar homosexual villain. In that sense, Sinjir is like a transition phase for a homophobic audience, blending comfortable stereotypes with a preview of what's in store.
3. The final step in the process would be Poe. As a gay male, he would be a more direct and serious challenge to cultural assumptions of masculinity. And he would be a no-holds-barred virtuous hero whose sexual orientation exists harmoniously with his goodness and valor. 

I know. I can't even take seriously my own suggestion that Lucasfilm producers have some secret blueprint for gradually introducing gay Star Wars characters. But at the same time, as Chuck Wendig heroically and hilariously ranted on his blog in response to the vile reactions to Sinjir, TFA, and anything else not white and straight and male in Star Wars:

Nice thing with Star Wars is, it is happening. Look at the protagonists of The Force Awakens. Look at Lucasfilm. They’re openly committing to finding a woman director for Star Wars. Kathleen Kennedy notes: “Fifty percent of our executive team are women. Six out of eight of the people in my Story Group are women. I think it’s making a huge difference in the kind of stories we’re trying to tell.” Some of the story group are also people of color. It’s a start. Especially when it’s starting in one of the biggest SFF franchises ever. Perfect? No. Nothing is. But it’s nice to see changes happening. It’s nice to see some equity there between the audience that consumes this stuff and the people who make it. Stories matter to people. Characters matter. Creation matters. Nobody should be excluded. Inclusion is awesome.

And if you oppose that — you know, hey, fuck you. Go on and throw pebbles at mountains. Go on and boycott the sun. Let me know how that works out for you.

Meanwhile, I’m gonna be over here enjoying what’s to come. I suggest trying it. Loving stuff instead of hating it. Accepting the world as it is, not the world as you mistakenly hope it will be.

Sinjir has grown on me. He is a terrific LGBT antihero and I can't wait to see what he does in Wendig's sequels to Aftermath. I am thrilled to have him in the Star Wars universe--it is much better (and much much sassier) for his inclusion.

And if they weren't separated by a generation, I'd totally ship SinPoe. Right? Opposites attract!

The Vito Russo Test: How Film Studios Fail Poemosexual Fans

As you might know, the Bechdel test was developed in the 1980's as a way of assessing a film's treatment of its female characters. To pass the Bechdel test, a movie must have at least two female characters (preferably named) who have a conversation about something other than a male. This seems like a really low bar, but only a small handful of major studio films pass every year. Basically, the Bechdel test shows us that mainstream films continue to hew to a long misogynist tradition in popular culture to marginalize the female experience.

Since Poemosexuality has become a thing, I've been thinking a lot about gay characters in media, and specifically in sci-fi/action films--and whether anyone tracks the treatment of LGBT characters along criteria like those of the Bechdel test.

I discovered that GLAAD does an annual Studio Responsibility Index (SRI), which surveys and inventories major film studio releases. For purposes of the SRI, GLAAD groups films into 5 categories: comedy, genre (sci-fi, action, and fantasy), animated/family, drama, and documentary. The SRI then identifies as "inclusive" any film that has LGBT characters of any stripe, major or minor. Next, as part of their evaluation, GLAAD applies the Vito Russo test, inspired by the Bechdel test, to assess an inclusive film's treatment of its gay character(s). Under this standard, a movie includes a meaningful LGBT character if the following are true:

• The film contains a character that is identifiably LGBT.
• That character must not be predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity. This refers to the depth of the character: flimsy two-dimensional stereotypes vs. actual characters who have personality and attributes beyond just their gayness.
• The LGBT character plays a meaningful role in the narrative. In other words, the character is not window dressing to provide commentary or situational humor, like gross-out or gay-panic jokes. Rather, the character must be significant enough to the plot that the character's removal would noticeably alter the story.

I was gratified to see that the gay characters in Cloud Atlas passed the Vito Russo test a few years ago. I know that the Wachowskis' films have not been great since The Matrix, but at least they're doing LGBT representation in film right!

Aside from that, the 2015 SRI, which reviewed films released in 2014, reveals what I've been bitching about all along: 

1. Other than documentaries, genre films had by far the lowest percentage of inclusive films out of the other categories: just 6.5%, which means that only 3 out of 46 genre films released in 2014 had LGBT characters in them at all. And it's not getting better. In 2013, GLAAD counted 43 major release films in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and 4 (or 9.3%) had LGBT characters. 
2. It's not so easy to discern from GLAAD's summary exactly which 2014 films it counted as the 3 inclusive genre films. (Maybe Exodus: Gods and Kings? ...Not sure what the others were.) But as far as I can tell, no sci-fi films passed GLAAD's Vito Russo test in 2014. That means there were zero characters of substance in any major studio sci-fi film the entire year. Zero.

[gratuitous fan art]

I understand that people might dispute whether Oscar Isaac's lip bite and his other acting choices are enough to substantiate Poe's character as canonically gay. What I don't get is people who think that LGBT representation in modern pop culture is just fine, and that we gay fans are somehow being too greedy in wishing/hoping that Poe is gay, and that we should just be satisfied with comedies and dreary awards-focused dramas that include LGBT characters. But as the surge of the Poemosexual Agenda has demonstrated, we fans of sci-fi/fantasy in general and Star Wars in particular are clearly not satisfied that there are no LGBT protagonists in a major studio genre film. 

I really want the first to be Poe, because Star Wars has been my jam since 1977 and it would mean the galaxy to me as a gay fan to be able to say that Star Wars broke that ground. If he was just "identifiably gay" in a way that didn't rely purely on innuendo or code, he would clearly satisfy the other two criteria of the Vito Russo test, and we would have our first heroic LGBT protagonist in a major studio sci-fi/fantasy film.

I, Poe-bot

As previously mentioned, The Force Awakens is up against another Oscar Isaac feature, Ex Machina, for the Visual Effects Academy Award. Ex Machina, in terms of effects and composition, is basically the exact opposite of TFA: where the Star Wars effects are all majesty and scale, Ex Machina's visual effects are intricate and precise--tiny moving parts and glimmering spider-threads of lights that quietly whir and buzz beneath the transparent synthetic skin of Ava, the Clockwork Girl. The visual effects of Ex Machina are truly arresting, and while I don't necessarily expect it to get the award, it is definitely a memorable work of art.

You can tell by now that I love Ex Machina. It's a claustrophobic, paranoid, and contemplative film about artificial intelligence and human emotion and the uncharted tidal waters where the two bleed into each other. Alex Garland wrote and directed Ex Machina, and it had the same old-school classic sci-fi thriller feel of 2007's Sunshine, which he also wrote and which I also loved.

The tiny cast of Ex Machina is amazing. Alicia Vikander is so great as Ava, a cunning artificial intelligence who has a chilling agenda of her own--or maybe she just thinks it's her own? General Hux plays the hapless subject of a Turing test that is not at all what it seems.

Our boy Oscar Isaac stars as an odious and narcissistic tech bro demon-god... and manages to make casual sleaze, pathetic self-destruction, and pathological self-aggrandizement hopelessly sexy. I hate myself for finding the character so attractive, but just look at him:

More like SEX Machina, amirite?

THOSE MOVES. Not fair, Mr. Isaac, not fair at all.

Probably goes without saying that the film has no LGBT characters. But when you think about it, the entire plot is based upon the work of an LGBT icon, Alan Turing. As you'll recall, Turing basically invented computers and was the subject of the biopic The Imitation Game, which won last year's Academy Award for writing and was nominated in a slew of other categories. The story is a tragic one, ultimately, as Turing's reward for revolutionizing technology and human experience was chemical castration, his sentence for the crime of being gay. But through it all, Turing's unfailing devotion to the memory of a childhood crush, who he memorialized/deified as a computer, was beautifully played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

And Ex Machina examines the questions that Turing's own longing and creativity raised: What is it about creating thinking machines that we find so irresistible? Why are we so drawn to the idea of artificial constructs that we can love or lust after? Maybe it's the idea that we can love them while closely controlling them to eliminate the risk of heartbreak, rejection, disappointment, or loss? Why do we aspire so greedily to create an intelligence that can fool us into thinking it's human, but then not be willing to extend to the intelligence the humanity we so desperately want it to emulate?

Like all good sci-fi, Ex Machina is thought-provoking in addition to being fun to watch. Support this film--we need more like it.

Avatar 2: Also Post-Poe-ned!

What is happening this week? When Star Wars moved the Ep. VIII release date back to December 2017, it set up a big epic box office battle with Avatar 2, which will be the first in a sequel trilogy to 2009's Avatar, and which was also set for December 2017.

Turns out that Avatar 2 has been delayed... indefinitely. The studio did not comment on the cause of the delay, but Cameron has repeatedly referenced the monumental complexity in designing and plotting all three films of the trilogy at once. Yadda yadda, welcome to being an egomaniacal perfectionist, Jim.

Between us girls, I was not a huge fan of Avatar. It was gorgeous, but it just didn't have any heart. What it did have was Sam Worthington, who I will never get enough of, and who I wished was not CGI-morphed into a big blue alien for most of the film.

I'll take the drumsticks, please.

I know Sam Worthington is occasionally kind of a douche, but he's just so dreamy. His bare thighs draped in that hot little utili-kilt were the only two things that made the Clash of the Titans remake watchable. The sequel, Wrath of the Titans, did not have nearly as many lingering shots of those gams, sadly. Would not recommend.

Episode VIII: Post-Poe-ned!

Starwars.com announced yesterday that Episode VIII will be released on December 15, 2017--seven months after its previously-announced release date of May 2017.

The Starwars.com announcement did not provide an explanation, but, and this is huge, the speculation is that the script is being revised.

Weren't we just talking about script revisions to accommodate a certain character's sexual orientation? Could it be that Rian Johnson is adjusting the story to fit Isaac's gayed-up Poe-trayal of the Resistance's most daring pilot? Is Disney preparing to thumb its nose at China and its restrictive media policies?

Comics Alliance: The Trouble With Character Ev-poe-lution

Phil Noto: Wedding Photographer

This passage from today's Comics Alliance article by Andrew Wheeler is just spot on:

Still, I cross my fingers and wish for a gay hero like Poe Dameron; for the kids he could inspire, and even the adults who never had that, and whose confidence could use a boost. But wishing won’t make it happen. It’s up to companies like Marvel and Lucasfilm, and their parent company Disney, to acknowledge and accept that same-sex relationships deserve to exist in their worlds. 

Maybe this time it’s real, and we exist, and we matter. Maybe Poe Dameron is our hero.

Wheeler makes the fair point that Poe was not originally scripted to survive TFA's first act, much less be gay. Nevertheless, the synergy between Isaac's charismatic performance and the surge of positive fan response could be capitalized upon and incorporated into Ep. VIII script revisions...

... if it wasn't for the Poe Dameron comic that comes out in just a couple of months. *sad trombone*

If it's true that Poe was not originally conceived as a gay character, is there reference to Poe's orientation built into the comic plot? If so, can Marvel feasibly accommodate a shift in Poe's character from straight to gay? Would they even if they could?

It'd be a shame if there was a consensus between the fans and the creative team to change Poe's character, but timelines and production schedules made it impracticable.

Dead-poe-l

I don't get why China might be offended.

The Hollywood Reporter announced today that the R-rated Deadpool has been banned by China's media regulator. Although film studios often edit films to accommodate China's policies, apparently Deadpool is just too sexy and bloody to edit out the offending material without altering the plot (yay! :D ). There are no plans to adjust the film to screen it for audiences in China.

I find this really interesting. Marvel is owned, just like you and me, by Disney, and 20th Century Fox produced Deadpool. In effect, this is the exact same media/entertainment team that brings us the Star Wars franchise.

Remember The Telegraph article that discussed the big financial stakes involved if China, the world's second largest film market, bans a film, say, for containing a gay character that is portrayed in a positive light? Maybe this is an indication that Disney and Fox will not necessarily put the breaks on a major property film just because it won't play in China.

Also, get this. The Force Awakens opened two weeks ago in China on January 9, but it was only the 20th biggest opening weekend box office for a film in China, as opposed the number 1 biggest opening weekend film in the U.S. Also, in the U.S., the box office dropped 33% after the first week, and another 51% after the New Year. In China? The box office dropped 61.3% after just one week.

So Star Wars, while still huge in China, certainly doesn't have the same momentum there as other cinematic classics like Transformers: Age of Extinction (lol wut?). The box office takings would be diminished by China banning Episode VIII, no doubt, but would it really be enough to not tell a good story that's worth telling? Let's see what happens with the Deadpool numbers.

I'm no box office analyst, but if I was a studio exec deciding whether to take a risk on including content that might get a Star Wars film banned in China, I might say, "Fuck it, make that helluva pilot a helluva homo!"

Poe-cial Media

Check out @GayHotDameron on Twitter. It's Poe tweeting about his misadventures in flirting into and out of trouble, sorting through his powerful but confusing feelings for his "buddy" Finn, and generally being a well-intentioned knucklehead. Very cute.

I’m not a pin-up boy. Sure I do pictures for the Resistance but a guy’s gotta earn a living, right? And I am hot. It would be a waste not to

— Poe Hot Dameron (@GayHotDameron) January 10, 2016

Is it wrong that getting manhandled by stormtroopers was just a tiny bit exciting? Like not in a weird way. Lol. Just adrenaline I guess…

— Poe Hot Dameron (@GayHotDameron) January 9, 2016

BB-8 told Finn I sing in the shower. Finn was cool about it. He said he did sometimes too. I suggested we duet. He laughed. I was serious.

— Poe Hot Dameron (@GayHotDameron) January 8, 2016