New Star Wars Reference Book Features Trans Clone Trooper
If you thought Star Wars, or anything else Disney owns, was really going to walk away from identity politics, you’ve got another thing coming. To be fair, this particular instance was something that started two years ago. While developing the Star Wars book Queen’s Hope (the final installment in a trilogy about Padmé Amidala that takes place in between the prequel films); the first two are called Queen’s Shadow and Queen’s Peril), author E.K. Johnston created the character Sister, who is a transgender clone trooper. Sister was given her name by her fellow clones, who are all called “Brother,” to signify their acceptance of her, and while only appearing briefly in the novel, she has a heart-to-heart scene with Anakin Skywalker. (He may be capable of killing innocent people and blowing up planets, but he’s not a transphobe, for God’s sake!) Before Queen’s Hope, Sister appeared in a novel called Brotherhood, written by Mike Chen, after Johnston requested Sister be featured in Chen’s book.
Sure, you may think, but that was in the (recent) past, at the height of Disney’s woke mania; now, we’ve had Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, the rumors of Marvel shifting directions, and Bob Iger’s six or seven promises of dialing back the identity politics in Disney’s output. Yesterday, however, Lucasfilm, via publisher Insight Designs, released a reference book called Star Wars: The Secrets of the Clone Troopers, written by Marc Sumerak. It’s a collection of “ thrilling secrets from the history of beloved clone troopers.” The book is being advertised with characters like Captain Rex and the Bad Batch, with promises of tales about Order 66 and the creation of the clones. Sounds like fun, if you’re into prequel-era Star Wars. (Well, maybe; at $27.99 for 32 pages, it sounds more like a ripoff to me.) But X user Star Wars Holycron reveals that it also features a “first look” at Sister:
THE SECRETS OF THE CLONE TROOPERS includes a first look at Sister, a trans woman clone trooper ️⚧️
Rex’s description of Sister in the book reads: “When one of our kind expressed her gender identity differently than her fellow troopers, she featured she’d have to hide who she… pic.twitter.com/AaL6g2urtu
— Star Wars Holocron (@sw_holocron) October 9, 2024
I’ve said this before, but my favorite definition of the word “woke,” and the one I use when defining it for myself, comes from Breitbart writer John Nolte, who says, “Woke breaks the spell.” That means that something is woke not simply if it’s political or sociopolitical, but if it takes you out of the story. A trans clone trooper fits the bill, and then some. Whatever your opinion of the trans movement, this is a very recent phenomenon; there were no trans cave people or Egyptian pharaohs or anything. So to have this turn up in Star Wars, which is supposed to be set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” takes you out of the fantasy world you’re trying to invest in. It brings the story to a halt and lets you know whoever is writing this is trying to tell you something about the modern world without using any kind of subtlety to allow you to come to the conclusion on your own. It’s an in-your-face message, and it’s the epitome of being woke.
What’s more, the authors of these books seem to know that. When talking about Sister’s role in Queen’s Hope, Johnston said that the character didn’t “have a huge part in the book, so we didn’t want to use her existence as promo.” Similarly, none of the promotional material for Star Wars: The Secrets of the Clone Troopers reveals that one of them is transgender. To be honest, it could very well be that Sister is such a minor character in books few Star Wars fans have probably read, so it made sense not to mention the character in advertising. But Disney has a history of trying to hide this type of content from parents, and both Queen’s Hope and Star Wars: The Secrets of the Clone Troopers are targeted at kids – Queen’s Hope is labeled a young adult novel, and Secrets of the Clone Troopers, as noted by Jonas J. Campbell, is recommended to children. Once again, we find that parents can’t trust their kids around Disney.
Disney just released a Star Wars Clone Wars book featuring male trooper called “Sister” who uses she/her pronouns, with ️⚧️ painted armor.
The desc. says the book is for “Young fans” and children. pic.twitter.com/sltB1IzFNu
— Jonas J. Campbell (@JonasJCampbell) October 9, 2024
Let us know what you think of Star Wars literature including a trans clone trooper in the comments!
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