Slash in Star Wars

[owl]

I just don't see the point. In both of the trilogies we have a trio of main characters, two men and a woman. In both, one of the men is in a canonical relationship with the woman. And yet we have Obi/Ani and Han/Luke slash. It's not just a question of 'This character is canonically straight' (and the rejoinder to that is 'Ever heard of bisexuals?'), but, 'this character is canonically in a relationship with someone else'. It's irrelevant whether Anakin or Han like men as well as women, because they've each chosen a particular woman. I'd be equally annoyed if someone put them in a relationship with a Mary Sue female.
And Obi-Wan/Anakin annoys me the most, I think. Both of them see their relationship as familial, and, frankly, I can't see Obi-Wan having sex with anyone, let alone his Padawan. Making it merely about sex (ugh) would flatten out the interesting relationship as it actually is: Anakin trying to treat Obi-Wan as his father-figure while Obi sees him as a brother; fernwithy brought this to my attention the other day. Their differing expectations are part of the problem with them. Anakin needs someone to fill the dad-shaped space, and guess who's all ready to step up? Yup, Palpatine.

Comments

[angua9.livejournal.com]

frankly, I can't see Obi-Wan having sex with anyone :o

But... what about with meeeeeee....?

[leeflower.livejournal.com]

Totally, completly, 100% agree with you.

I pretty much just hate all kinds of slash, and it's got nothing to do with homophobia. It's that I hate watching people bend established characterization into a pretzel just because they want to see two characters in bed together. It's one thing if it's a cannon relationship, or if both characters are cannonically not straight and not otherwise involved. But taking two characters clearly intended to be straight (or taken) and sticking them in bed together just for the sake of the smut is obnoxious. It's disrespectful of the universe, it's disrespectful of the characters, and frankly, it's disrespectful of the queer community. I know slashers claim that they're the gay advocates and anyone who hates slash is a homophobe, but no one yet has been able to explain to me how treating sexual minorities as nothing more than sex objects put on this earth for the entertainment of the opposite gender is anything but degrading.

That, and I think anyone who types any version of "OMG OB1/ANIKIN SO HAWT !!1!" when not mocking someone should have their keyboard perminantly removed from their house and given to a more deserving individual.

[miana-dude.livejournal.com]

LOL. It sickens me that people can actually write that stuff.

There was this long thread in the JC about whether or not Obi-Wan died a virgin. Quite funny, actually. But yeah, I honestly don't see it happening (unless he got bored on Tatooine).

[snarkel.livejournal.com]

People writing SW slash has never bothered me, since I don't read it. That's the nature of shipping, sometimes - look at Harry/Hermoine. I don't see where people get that at all. Some people see 'subtext', some don't. And I can sorta see where you could get that in both trilogies, even if it's not a theory I subscribe to myself.

But remember, you get the 'just for the sex' crowd in het ships, too. Slashers are far, far from the only ones doing it, and I have no doubt that there are serious slash writers who honestly see subtext and write fully-realized relationships, just as you have het shippers who write nothing but PWPs.

Count me in as another member of the Obi-Wan's A Virgin club, though.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Word.

I can appreciate on a completely shallow level the appeal of Obi-Wan/Anakin (I admit to minorly squeeing over the pretty visual of Ewan pecking Hayden hello at some RotS premiere), though I'll never read or write it. Two pretty men in an angsty, tension-filled relationship. But it is the SW slash ship that bugs me most. For the points you mentioned: Anakin having already long since chosen a woman and Obi-Wan's choosing no one but the Jedi. These are such long-standing foundations of their characters that to remove or rewrite them... well, you may as well be writing OCs.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Han/Luke strikes me as rather incestuous, to be honest.

I think you're right. There's no slashy subtext in SW at all, and I do see slashy subtext in some relationships in HP and other fandoms. But I can't think of a single m/m or f/f SW relationship that has sexual undertones.

[shallanelprin.livejournal.com]

Only one thing to say: Amen!

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I dislike slash as a genre and it seems to be especially ridiculous in SW where you have firmly established relationships without ambiguities. The idea that Han Solo, who spends a lot of time and energy trying to get Leia, would all of a sudden have eyes for Luke is absurd (Han has to be the most flaming heterosexual ever). And Anakin, who has clearly loved Padmé since a child, risks everything for her, and turns to the Dark Side to save her, would get into an almost incestuous homosexual relationship? It doesn't make any sense.

I've long thought about the whole appeal of slash and I think it comes down to two things. On a superficial level, it appeals to women who find the idea of two otherwise straight-acting attractive men being sexual with one another a big turn on. But on a deeper level, it's really about turning men into women. Sure you have f/f fan fic nowadays but lesbian slash is still dwarfed by m/m fic and the overwhelming majority of it is by...women. How else to explain bizarre subgenres like mpregs or how a manly man in canon is so feminized in these stories (usually the younger, smaller man is the more girly of the two)?

[living-force.livejournal.com]

I have no understanding (other than people projecting Ewan onto Obi-Wan) how Obi-Wan ended up in so much erotic fanfic, slash or het. Frankly, he seems like something of an emotional eunuch to me. It's just so entirely ooc for him to be hopping from bed to bed.

[birgitriddle]

I was randomly wandering around and I saw this and I must say:

Thank you

And ditto on not seeing Obi-wan having sex with anyone.