Today, I posted to facebook my thoughts on Star Wars and Star Trek. I spoke about a few things that aren’t new revelations for me, but they were ones I wanted to share, like how Princess Leia wasn’t a pushover female lead and how ethnically diverse the original Star Trek cast was, and the type of progress I liked to believe that both made for their respective times, especially for their respective times. Those of you on facebook will probably have seen by the time I click publish on this.
And then, as I was about to hit post, it hit me just how profound an impact these series have had on me and how they have actually nudged me to be as diverse with my writing as I possibly can. As much as I attribute Star Ocean: Till the End of Time for the inspirational source behind Portal to Gaming, I realized that, without Star Wars and Star Trek, Star Ocean wouldn’t have been possible and neither would have Portal to Gaming. I mean, Portal has a gay guy as a main character with two straight guys as his best friends set in a distant, idyllic future. They have no judgements of him due to his sexual orientation. They just don’t care. Fen Willows is a person who has thoughts and feelings of his own and his own autonomy, just like they do. Yeah, Fen has a major angst-fest throughout the book. In some ways, he isn’t properly socialized (much like the woman who wrote him), but he tries. And his best friends care enough about him that they’re willing to do something brash, risky, and stupid just to keep him from getting hurt again. Those are very real human emotions, much like how siblings will react when one is moping and in need of cheering up.
All of this can be traced back to one television series from the 1960s and a movie series that started in 1977. It truly warms my heart to know that I’m doing something by focusing on the character that I have, these underdog types – women, gays, deviants, and peoples of ethnic origins – and it makes me very glad that I am. With the turbulence in today’s current economic, religious, political, and social atmosphere, it’s good to remember that people were dreaming of strong female leads and had no problems about casting black people and other ethnic groups during similar times.
It reminds me that there is hope, and, where there is hope, there is inspiration.
Enchanted Realms 