It (Could Have) Started Out With a Kiss: What Rogue One Might Have Meant

I love Star Wars.

All the reasons why I love Star Wars are complex and often hard to describe, but I do. I think it’s important to start with the fact that this franchise is incredibly important to me on drastic, life-changing levels, in order to understand why I sometimes get so angry with it: a total lack of confirmed LGBT characters.

The day before I saw Rogue One, in December 2016, I posted that I would “cry my fucking eyes out in the cinema with happiness” if Baze and Chirrut (above, two of the Rogue team, and the only two who knew each other before the action started) were a confirmed couple in the film. To me and many others, the nature of their relationship was ambiguous from the trailers. “Imagine,” I wrote, a relationship between two men in a big-budget blockbuster — between two Chinese men, too (much of the existing LGBT representation is fixated on white people, which is, you know, not actually representative). Imagine Disney showing the world that in fact, it could be done, in the third most successful franchise of all time, and paving the way for more LGBT characters in the movies.

Unfortunately, I’m still having to imagine.

To me, it seems pretty simple. Gay and bi and trans people exist in life. Therefore gay and bi and trans people should exist in mainstream fiction. It’s an unfortunate by-product of our heteronormative society that seeing two men or women in love, or a trans person, on the big screen is so often considered a political statement.

But many do see it as such, and actively want to keep Star Wars straight. People argued specifically that Rogue One is a movie about war, and any romantic storyline would detract from the real message — that war is brutal and immoral. I agree that there should not have been a romantic storyline, and I was immensely relieved when Cassian and Jyn did not kiss on the beach, what with them having only known each other two days. It would have been easy for them to be romantic leads, but it would also have felt forced. However, having a romantic couple in the film would have been a very different thing.

To confirm Baze and Chirrut as a pre-existing couple in Rogue One would have easily slotted into the story. There would have been no unnecessary romantic storyline, as they would already be together. It could have even added to the tragedy of the final act, by giving us a happy couple to root for, who in the end are tossed aside by war like anyone else (although I admit, that could feed into the Bury Your Gays trope. I feel like it’s different when everyone else dies too, though).

To confirm them as a couple would also have been incredibly easy, which makes it all the more frustrating that it didn’t happen. A single kiss between Baze and Chirrut would have been enough, would have added no run-time. Either of them calling the other “husband” would have been enough (although I have no doubt that some, incredibly, would pass this off as platonic affection). For a pairing who can so easily be interpreted as an old married couple, referring to a wedding would be enough.

And by enough, I mean everything. A confirmed, happy gay couple consisting of Chinese men in Star Wars would mean everything to me, a bisexual, non-binary (transgender), white/Chinese fan, and would mean everything to thousands of other LGBT Star Wars fans. With the sequel trilogy and Rogue One, Black and Latinx and Asian fans can see themselves on screen, can see characters who look like them be brave and kind and badass. The female leads of Star Wars — Rey and Rose, Padme and Jyn and Leia — have inspired women and girls worldwide. To see LGBT characters in Star Wars would show us that we can be strong, and compassionate, and courageous, and happy, and angry, and important. In short, it would let us see that we can live the lives we want to.

Unfortunately, I don’t expect to see this happen in either The Last Jedi or the Han Solo anthology. In that same post I mentioned at the beginning, I wrote “They won’t. They won’t do it.” I was not suprised when they did not, and Baze instead clunkily referred to Chirrut as “my friend”. I have found that setting myself up for failure is the only way I can cope when it happens. I have been disappointed too many times to hope for anything now, with bad representation or none at all.

Therefore, as much as I am desperate for the relationships between the four leads in The Last Jedi to fall as Finn/Poe and Rose/Rey, I cannot expect it. Because when it does not happen, I will be beyond crushed.

But if it does, I will be overjoyed.