I just think it's funny that the Japanese have had love robots for years, even longer in terms of their anime, but when SW gets in the mix that's the last straw.
Or Blade Runner, or Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica...
I doubt there is any physical robot sex even suggested in the movie, or even anything to suggest the Star Wars universe is expanded to include robot sex in some dark and seedy underbelly. I don't think I would want to see that sort of thing in Star Wars either.
If anything, I would expect something more in line with the 2013 movie Her. Lando has an emotional relationship with L3, that crosses some romantic quasi-sexual line.
However, maybe an interesting way to look at this is to look at all the examples of artificial intelligence/robot/human love/sex, throughout science fiction and space fantasy, and realize that these are all examples, on some level, of pansexuality. All those characters would be pansexuals, in this same context. Any human character who had some level of sexual/emotional relationship with an AI or robot was a pansexual, in this same context.
And, if they previously had relations with humans, or went on to continue having relations with humans after their relations with the AI/robot, then this would be an example of sexual fluidity.
Tasha Yar was a pansexual, and an example of sexual fluidity. Data doesn't have a choice other than pansexual, but if he consistently sticks to human females, I guess he's not very fluid. Unless he thinks or fantasizes about it at some point, for 0.3492 nanoseconds.
Rick Deckard... I guess it depends if he really is a replicant or not, or does it?
If the RPF had been around back then, would people have cried foul about these scenarios, or only if there were web articles talking about it, and throwing terms like "pansexual" and "fluidity" in to the mix with regard to Blade Runner or ST:TNG?
Like I said. My bet is Lando might show some fun and (not so really) surprising sides to his established flamboyant sexy lover persona, here as a younger man, at most. I don't think it will be anything that contradicts anything previously established. Personally, I'm hoping a bit for the scenario where Lando and L3 have some interesting relationship and dynamic, that plays into the stories we are clearly interested in seeing play out in the movie. I already spelled out a possible scenario that would fit that bill well, at least for me.
Let me elaborate on that some more, and flesh out the character a little more than what we got in the OT, without retconning or contradicting anything previously established, like I would hope for from the writers:
Maybe the more fledgling gambler, smuggler, and con-man we meet here, obviously with plenty to prove, and maybe even overcompensating with his squeaky-clean pimped out freighter with a cape closet, has a tendency to put on more of a front persona at this stage in his life. He likes to keep everybody guessing about him. It plays well with his sabacc game. He lies, cheats, steals, and does whatever it takes to win. Indeed, everything you've heard about him is true, or at least that is what he wants people to believe. These are all part of the same skills that will eventually mature into his Administrator of Cloud City persona.
Lando can flirt with anybody, and use it to manipulate, and even confuse his opponents. Sizing up this new Han Solo kid, he can't help but mess with him a little bit, especially as soon as he sees L3 acting jealous. L3 can be difficult, but Lando knows just how to push her buttons, and get what he wants out of her. He's happy to make a scene of it too. Keep them all guessing...
This complex relationship between Lando and L3 factors into how the Kessel Run plays out. Lando uses this side of their relationship to manipulate L3 into going along with a crazy plan, that only she can help them navigate through, but it ultimately ends in the loss of L3. On L3's side, she ends up sacrificing herself, to save the man of her dreams, that she can never truly have anyway.
After the loss of L3, however, we see a different side of Lando after all. It wasn't all just a bunch of suave manipulation. He actually deeply cared for that droid, more than he would ever care to admit. He feels guilty, and it effects him, and sends him down a different path, that we know eventually leads to the responsible Administrator Lando that we first met on Cloud City in ESB.
There you go. Lando is fluidly pansexual here, in a sub-textual and not explicitly sexual way, that does not contradict anything previously established about the character. It serves the story, on an emotional level, and fleshes out and connects the dots with it to tell the stories of the < 12 parsec Kessel Run of lore, and also the story of how Lando's Millennium Falcon came to be Han Solo's Millennium Falcon as we first saw it.
Would this theoretical synopsis upset anybody if it turned out to be the case, or similar to it? I'm honestly curious.
And if it doesn't actually retcon anything previously established about the characters, and does serve the story, then what is the controversy really about? What makes people sick about this?
Does it fall back to the conspiracy theory, where the heads of Lucasfilm are in cahoots with the media to spin this story, with the ultimate goal of starting controversy that outs all the bigots, while being good PR for Disney and Lucasfilm for everybody else? Because if that's it... I got nothing for ya. Their plan worked, and I bet most of you all go see the movie. And then complain about it, and buy the eventual video release, and complain more about it again, maybe even with a new slant, depending on which way the tides have turned.
I know I will do all those things too. I'm just hoping it is complaining about how the cape room wouldn't actually fit in the volume of the space it is supposed to occupy, if you extrapolate where the actual hull is underneath all the crap Lando tacked on to his Falcon, or something like that. That's the RPF I've always loved. Not this hate and intolerance, or any of the political fear-mongering about agendas. I don't want that in my Star Wars, or my RPF.
