In a universe already populated by diverse beings from various worlds, the ‘Star Wars’ reality is about to get even more diverse. In the upcoming book ‘Lords of the Sith’ by Paul S. Kemp, which will be released on April 28th, 2015, readers will meet Moff Mors, a lesbian who is described as an “incredibly capable leader and spends much of the book working hard to prevent absolute failure.”
Shelly Shapiro, the editor of the ‘Star Wars’ books explains, “This is certainly the first character in canon, but there was a gay Mandalorian couple, so it’s not brand new. It’s not something I really think about, it just makes sense. There’s a lot of diversity–there should be diversity in ‘Star Wars.’ You have all these different species and it would be silly to not also recognize that there’s a lot of diversity in humans. If there’s any message at all, it’s simply that ‘Star Wars’ is as diverse (or more so because they have alien species) as humanity is in real life and we don’t want to pretend it’s not. It just felt perfectly natural.”
The gay Mandalorian couple she mentions are Goran Beviin and Medrit Vasur from the ‘Legacy of the Force’ books, but those are not considered canon and their relationship was ambiguous, not overt. In addition, gamers are capable of playing gay characters in the pc game ‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.’ (Also, seriously can we discuss C-3PO?)
To be honest, sexuality doesn’t play a huge part in ‘Star Wars’ anyway. Han Solo and Princess Leia and Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidalla are really the only romantic couples in the movies. Readers will have to wait until ‘Lords of the Sith’ to see how major a role Moff Mors’ sexuality plays in the book.
‘Lords of the Sith’ kicks off a new series of books that, as stated, take place within the same continuity as the movies.
To preorder the book from Amazon (also available in Kindle format), click here.
Source: Big Shiny Robot
