For all intents and purposes
Just wanted to say
THANK YOU for saying that correctly. The internet has drastically shortened my patience-fuse with misquotations and such. Every time I see "for all intensive purposes" I want to put someone's head through a wall. >_>
(Oh, also, as I said the first time you brought it up some time and several threads ago, Kathleen never worked for Disney, wasn't vetted by Disney, had no working relationship with Disney beyond her and her husband's production company being involved in a couple movies Disney distributed. If, as you say, you know this to be true, why do you keep saying she was "sent in by Disney"?)
As for Lando's proclivities... I see no "agenda" here. Captain Jack Harkness already blazed that trail in the geek/mainstream cultural zeitgeist. And David Bowie preceded
him out here in Reality-Land. I prefer "sapiosexual" or other similar terms -- one who is attracted to the
person, regardless of the flesh they happen to be wearing. Or maybe not "regardless". I mean, appearance matters (you're lying if you say it 100% doesn't), but I mean being less or not at all fussed about "boy bits" or "girl bits" or hair or no hair or tentacles or whatever.
Nothing has been "changed" about Lando's portrayal in Empire and Jedi. Just "added to". We knew from how he was distracted by Leia that he liked girls. Now we know he also likes other options. How many people have had a guy friend who they find out one day is gay, and they never suspected? Heck, there's still an attitude amongst a lot of people in both the hetero and **** camps who feel bi people are "indecisive" or "fence-sitters" -- just, they can't wrap their heads around the idea that, just maybe, some people are attracted to
both. I can
totally see Han and Lando's relationship maturing over this period, now, from personal experience. A guy getting along with a guy he just met, suddenly the other guy hits on them, first guy says "sorry, not my thing", other guy says "it's cool", and they eventually become friends. This also happens with girls. And with guys
and girls. I personally find people who utterly ghost someone after they find out they're not gonna get in their pants to be shallow, self-absorbed [jerks -- RPF won't let me say what I really mean here]. We already know Lando isn't, from his arc in Empire alone. So this totally jibes, IMO.
I was having a conversation a while back with my friend at work, (pre Black Panther) and we were talking about how they plan on recasting both the Spiderman and James Bond rolls with black actors. She said that her, being an African American, is insulted that they can't come up with a new strong black character that can stand on their own feet, and that they feel they have to use the weight of an already existing character to make it work. I wonder if any pansexuals would feel the same?
I'm meh about the James Bond thing. It's too messy to wade into, the whole "are they supposed to be the same person? is it a fictitious persona people adopt as part of the job? But then what about Bond's parents and family home in Skyfall?" morass. It's a superficial enough franchise, I'm fine with them casting any actor who can fill the role.
As for Spider-Man, it's not recasting Peter Parker with a black actor, a la Fox's FantFourStic. Miles Morales is a different Spider-Man, who lives in the same universe (heck, same city and borough) as Peter Parker. Other-gendered and -ethnicitied versions of established characters goes back more than half a century. Supergirl? Batgirl? Ms. Marvel? She-Hulk? John Stewart's Green Lantern? They haven't been
that character, but a way of looking at how a person of another race or sex would respond to getting those abilities. Miles has a distinct personality and approach to his Spider-Man-ing from Peter. I like them both for who they are, since they're distinct individuals and not carbon copies.
It's been an awkward transition from decades ago with, say, "let's do a female Spider-Man" to today's gradually-increasing "let's do a Spider-Man who happens to be female". A black James Bond and the new Ghostbusters fall more in the former end of the scale, while Miles Morales and Cassie Lang are good examples of the latter.