Awakening

Ok, PSA time (and then soon my timeline will be less taken over by Star Wars): No one ever claimed Poe was canonically gay or bi or anything other than the proto-typically handsome, courageous and charismatic male co-star who is portrayed in the latest action-adventure installment of the Star Wars Movies. However, by the same token, to immediately cry pop-culture foul or adhere to some peculiar form of jaded and purposeful ignorance at the mere hint from the director/actors/creators that the nuance so many saw in Poe was quite possibly done with intention…for a reason that is unexpected…new…a surprise…is more than a bit disingenuous and puzzling to me both as a Geek and a Gay Geek.

So, in direct response to an earnest question I received from a Facebook friend about the behind the scenes stuff, let’s all learn a few things about Abrams, Oscar Isaac and Poe – SPOILERS:

-Isaac himself in various and sundry interviews during his career has stated, just for starters, that he believes sexuality to be fluid, not fixed, and has balked at interviewers assigning gender to a droid. To put it simply, this guy may have a mouth on him and does not shy away from playing around, but he THINKS about the stuff he does…and he does it with gusto…
-Isaac has taken roles that include: a) a down and out folk singer who gets an old flame pregnant and whose male singing partner at some point previously committed suicide leaving the lead character, one surmises, especially depressed and distraught ever since, and b) a quite sinister AI-inventing megalomaniac who is seen half the film bare armed or bare chested or otherwise half-robed and oddly fixated as much on his new genius male assistant as his fembots…
– Abrams has stated that Isaac lobbied hard for an expanded role in Star Wars and that after much discussion between the two, they decided there was a story after all that could be told with Poe…something important enough it would seem to essentially make him the third of our new heroic trio (…and with barely a word as yet exchanged on screen between him and Rey, because y’all, if ya didn’t notice…Finn IS the fulcrum of this particular trio, Poe being something of a balance to his development, perhaps, as is Rey…)
-In sundry expanded media surrounding the new Star Wars film (all considered canon) it has been established Poe’s mother was also one helluva x-wing pilot who knew Leia personally and participated in at least one, if not more, missions with Leia while picking up the pieces of the Republic, and that Poe himself idolizes Leia as one of his personal heroes. Just take that in for a moment.
-Due to Isaac’s Guatemalan heritage, it has also been stated by Isaac and then brought into canon through these surrounding materials that Poe was born and raised on Yavin 4. This was an idea from Isaac himself, not from the screenwriters, deemed worthy enough by the architects of the franchise to be made canon and thereafter inform his portrayal of the character. I wonder what else he’s got on his mind…?
-In the novelization of the film, Poe is said to have been patted down by the Stormtroopers who brought him to kneel in front of Kylo and upon completion of the patting down, Poe winks at the trooper and says “Good job…!” with as much bravado and devilish sarcasm as we saw in his reaction to Kylo himself. WTF, mate? (a few other choice descriptions of scenes involving Poe have turned up, in particular alongside Finn, but…ya get the idea…)

And so on. This was all just off the top of my head. And these are all examples taken strictly from the creators or created material surrounding the film…which is to say nothing of the filmed material that got so many viewers’ minds wandering in the first place. So, taken with the underlying affection (subtle as it was) and exuberant admiration that seemed so obviously to inform the relationship between Poe and Finn in just this FIRST of three films…I am guessing Oscar got to thinking again… None of this says that Poe is anything other than the dashing, straight as an arrow male-hero archetype we are all conditioned to accept from birth in this culture as the default Male Hero of lore. And if that does indeed turn out to be the case, well then I’ll still love all these characters as heroes and as the commentary on race and ethnicity and gender equality that they were all clearly meant to be as well. However, what all this DOES say is that there is plenty of room to grow, as characters or as an audience…and unlike some, Oscar himself seems to get that just fine…

On that note, I leave you with this adorkable little gem (of many, it turns out, from this man)…nothing to do with Star Wars…but I think pretty much encapsulates everything about the actor in 4 frames that I said in a hundred sentences:

Thoughts?