Even if you decide that TOS Sulu was gay just like nuSulu, it would still not make sense for him to be showing interest in other men. He's married and committed to his partner.
HUGE Mr Sulu Spoiler
- Thread starter Danlav05
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Even if you decide that TOS Sulu was gay just like nuSulu, it would still not make sense for him to be showing interest in other men. He's married and committed to his partner.
Who we also never heard of or seen in all those numerous episodes and movies. And was Sulu already married back in TOS times to begin with? If memory alpha is right about Demora Sulu's birth year, she was born after the five year mission. No one has to agree with Takei, but I don't see so far a sign, that he doesn't understand what he is speaking about like you thought.
Me personally I don't really care if they turn a character gay, I think it was even long overdue. But I think using Sulu for it was a chicken move, just to create buzz. And the timing of the reveal just right before the worldwide movie release, is also a sign of that.
Sulu was the most minor main character in the last two movies. I think he got even less to do than Chekov overall. And he will likely get only one or two little scenes about it, which won't really affect the movie in other ways. So easy for some of the homophobic countries in the world to cut and still show the movie in the cinemas. And for the other countries it is unlikely that it will be too much for the homophobic science fiction lovers to repel them from Beyond. So a lot of buzz, while risking as little as possible.
There is also the confluence with the original Sulu actor being famously gay. I bet TPTB thought of it, too, when they chose Sulu. They likely thought that will increase the acceptance of it among the audience. I bet when they planned it they even speculated on Takei helping with positive publicity. I mean the first articles which came out stated, that Pegg and Lin intended it as a tribute to Takei. Only Takei didn't keep still like I guess they hoped or changed his mind from before. But even when Takei speaks negative about that decision, he still helps the movie with getting attention, which Pegg and Lin will have known.
A bold move would have been, if they would have taken a more prominent character or two and make him/them bi or gay. Spock and Uhura are in a relationship, but why not Kirk, McCoy and/or Scotty? And then give that character or those character a bit more screen time about it. Something more than a blink and you miss it moment, like I suspect we will get with Sulu.
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McCoy had a wife and is still bitter about the divorce, Kirk is hetero/furry/player yadda yadda already. Scotty is pushing a charicature as it is.
That only leaves the two at the helm. And lets really not go down the route of bringing Carol back just to make her a lesbian after the Into Darkness underwear nerdrage.
That only leaves the two at the helm. And lets really not go down the route of bringing Carol back just to make her a lesbian after the Into Darkness underwear nerdrage.
I sort of want her and McCoy to get together in that timeline. Not pushing it but...hey. Why not?
I can't believe all this back and forth about this. We knew it was going to happen sooner or later...I was a bit surprised because I expecting to see it in the TV series first but whatever. It's done. All this talk about what Gene would have wanted and who and what Prime Sulu did or didn't do isn't going to change anything.
I'm still waiting for Starfleet's first Breen...patiently waiting .....
Oh come on. So basically some are homophobes and some aren't but since they have the same argument and we can't identity which is homophobic let's lump them together. Cheap way to nullify an argument.
I don't think that Scotty is a caricature, at least not more than any of the others characters. And even if he would be, that would have given them an opportunity to make him less so. Give him a personal life.
And time has passed since the last movie in the new universe. I think 2-3 years or something. Enough time to get over a divorce. And in McCoy's and Kirk's case, you obviously would make them bi and not gay. Having seen Kirk with women, doesn't mean that he didn't have sex with men off screen before. The same is true for McCoy. Hey, if they didn't want to create a new bi/gay character, like they said in interviews, Lin/Pegg could have even put Kirk and McCoy together. From friends to boyfriends. Or they could have added a friends with benefit phase between that. After all it can get lonely out there is space.
Either way any other choice would have been less cowardly. Sulu was really the most gutless choice. Even Chekov would have been bolder. Then they couldn't have sold it as a tribute to the original actor. And homophobes likely have also less problems with turning a character gay, which was played previously by a gay actor than with a character previously played by a straight actor. They are stupid that way. And with Russia's recent law against the promotion of homosexuality towards minors, and the movie is aimed not only at adults, but also teenagers, Russia's reaction would have been even more interesting with Chekov being gay.
It's exciting to see so much discussion over what has proven to be a two second scene with an arm around a guy who could well be his brother, cousin or best mate taking place in the first five minutes of the film. I can't wait to discuss the other 120-odd minutes with you all.
Neither of those things are gay, but I have to admit, seeing that scene as a wee gayling likely had a big part in making me the rice queen I am today.
NuSulu is a great exception, and things are starting to turn around, but Hollywood does have a long history of, not necessarily feminizing, but de-masculinizing, usually by de-sexing and de-eroticizing, male Asian characters.
I remember the first time I found out some fans were just assholes. It was a letter to the editor of DC Comics (Bob Greenberger) that blasted the relationship shown between Scotty and Uhura in The Final Frontier.
It was sobering. Certain segments of fandom have never let me down since with their overreactions to changes in what they consider "normal". The bellyaching over Sulu is just more of the same.
It was sobering. Certain segments of fandom have never let me down since with their overreactions to changes in what they consider "normal". The bellyaching over Sulu is just more of the same.
If we even see his significant other at all. It might just be the picture scene of his daughter and a mere mention of a husband. Easy to cut for certain countries. Those using dubbing might just turn his husband into his wife. And Paramount will be happy about it as they can still sell their movie in those countries this way.
Everyone knows that only men and women can have babies. The stork won't deliver to same-sex couples. Homophobic bastard!
I think it's time for the Onion to do a new video on Beyond and Trek fans.
Did I say, "let's lump the two together"? I said that homophobes are using this argument to hide behind and that's a fact. If they weren't, they wouldn't be so fixated on this one retcon while ignoring the 100 other retcons in nuTrek.
Regardless of one's view on homosexuality this IS pandering. They are doing it just because of Takei's RL lifestyle choice, and even he said this is not what the character is. He told them not to, yet they do it anyway.....It is completely unnecessary.
We don't know, which is why they are free to make up his backstory.
So they shouldn't make Sulu gay unless he has a major storyline that revolves around him being gay? Or they shouldn't make anybody gay because people will "buzz" about it? What are you advocating?
It doesn't have to be Kirk, McCoy, or Scotty to still constitute a significant choice, as is clear by the strong reactions within the fandom. And XIV is already confirmed; for all we know they may expand on Sulu's family in the future. .
"Lifestyle choice"? GTFO with that bigoted crap.
Was it pandering to include a black female character and an Asian character in important positions on a 60's-era television show? Or was it boldly going where no show had gone before?
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