I donāt agree, but I think I can put myself in Takeiās shoes enough to understand where heās coming from: he quietly asked Roddenberry about the possibility of a gay character, and while Gene was sympathetic, he was clear that it would get the show yanked off the air instantly, thus sabotaging the opportunity to touch on any of the issues they could get away with.
As a result Takei as an actor formed his own interpretation of who Sulu is, and that necessarily included him being a straight man, even if that side of him wasnāt really explored on-screen. Itās not just Geneās vision, but Georgeās too.
From that history, I can understand how it might seem that retconning him as gay suggests the Sulu Takei played was closeted much as George himself was, and that could indeed seem, as he himself said, unfortunate.
As I said initially, though, I donāt agree. From the perspective of a viewer who knows the character only through what I have been shown, I have the luxury of assuming that not only was Sulu gay all along, but that it never came up in TOS for the same reason people didnāt go around saying āhey, look, the comms officer is black and a womanā all the time. People in that universe are simply beyond that being in any way relevant, and based on what I know of Roddenberry (which is no doubt considerably less than Takei does I admit), itās the sort of perspective he would likely have been on board with 100%.
Hey, waitā¦ Tāpol and 7 of 9 were real people?
This was my instant reaction as wellāIt had to be the Asian guy? Hollywood has no overall problem with hetrosexual representation, obviously. East Asian men, thoughā¦ . Thatās walking right into an existing cultural problem spot.
Now that is something that needs a grant and research at the nearest pub/bar!
inserts appropriate laugh
A universe where different species can make babies also means a universe where so can gay people.
Of course. But it doesnāt follow that this character did. Itās a unique situation- most characters arenāt played by the same actor for decades who disagrees with this development & who is himself an international gay icon.
Mark Hamill - on the other hard - was right on board with Luke being gay & saw it as being who the character always was.
Either way - this Sulu isnāt Georgeās Sulu. Heās from an alternate timeline where Spock didnāt attend the Vulcan Science Academy, Kirk was a juvenile delinquent & Vulcan was blown up. Iām sure they all have differences from the central timeline characters.
Iād be happy to see Trans characters as well - and not presented as jokes like when Quark had Trans surgery. Maybe Whorf transitioned as a child in this new timeline
This might or might not be true, but the creation of a new ādaughterā character 25 years later doesnāt say anything about Takeiās sexuality in TOS.
None of it is true. I do however give some deference to the guy who portrayed him for fifty years & actually discussed the issue with Roddenberry.
Agreed. It smack of laziness.
If youāre going to make an existing character gay, why not choose, say, Scotty? Or did that not appeal to Simon Pegg for some reason?
I must commend your efforts to ignite a three-sided holy war. But you forgot about the time Dave Lister tricked the Centauri into crashing the Jupiter 2 into Gallifrey.
I thought Kirk was gay, no?
I think āomnisexualā would be the only appropriate category for Kirk.
āLetās have a black Supermanā
So true, and letās do a remake of Jesus Christ Superstar and make Judas white. I caught that 1973 film recently on TCM, itās been awhile since I first watched it and I forgot how racist the casting was . A BLACK JUDAS! Why does that not surprise me.
Ooh. Those must be incorporated!
Iāve also got Lord of the Rings in there, and The Game of Thrones of course takes place on the wreckage of the forest moon of Endor, right?
This is kind of a fun experiment 
I kind of felt that Judas is actually the hero of the film; seeing his fate and yet embracing it as part of some holy plan; that, and Carl Anderson absolutely nails the anguish and derision in his songs.
Where does the Discworld fit in?
