Yes, it was about being gay or straight. Kelvin Sulu was given a husband in honor of George Takei… an honor he rebuked because he felt they only changed the character for cheap representation points. He insisted that even though he is gay, the Sulu he portrayed is straight. (In Generations, Sulu is married and has a daughter, Demora, who helmed the Enterprise-B.)
Personally, I feel like since John Cho’s Sulu is a different person in a different universe (and Cho himself is cool being a straight Korean playing a gay Japanese) Takei didn’t need to get so angry about it.
We do exist.
Please don’t assume that I thought otherwise just because I didn’t explicitly mention every potentiality in that one post.
He insisted that even though he is gay, the Sulu he portrayed is straight.
“Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.”
Takei was not into it, but I do feel like he was overselling just how much thought Roddenberry put into the side characters in Trek. Sulu didn’t even get a given name until “The Voyage Home”, a film Roddenberry had nothing to do with.
(In Generations, Sulu is married and has a daughter, Demora, who helmed the Enterprise-B.)
Demora is Sulu’s daughter, but there’s no mention that Sulu was married, or if he was that it was to a woman.
(and Cho himself is cool being a straight Korean playing a gay Japanese)
Funny you mention the character’s nationality, considering that Roddenberry envisioned Sulu as some pan-Asian character on indeterminate nationality. Sulu is not a Japanese name, and Roddenberry chose to name the character after the Sulu sea of the coast of the Philippians.
Please don’t assume that I thought otherwise just because I didn’t explicitly mention every potentiality in that one post.
That was not my assumption. I just can’t think of any reason to assume that Sulu is not bi or pan, given what we know about the various iterations of the character.
Yes, it was about being gay or straight. Kelvin Sulu was given a husband in honor of George Takei… an honor he rebuked because he felt they only changed the character for cheap representation points. He insisted that even though he is gay, the Sulu he portrayed is straight. (In Generations, Sulu is married and has a daughter, Demora, who helmed the Enterprise-B.)
Personally, I feel like since John Cho’s Sulu is a different person in a different universe (and Cho himself is cool being a straight Korean playing a gay Japanese) Takei didn’t need to get so angry about it.
Please don’t assume that I thought otherwise just because I didn’t explicitly mention every potentiality in that one post.
“Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.”
Takei was not into it, but I do feel like he was overselling just how much thought Roddenberry put into the side characters in Trek. Sulu didn’t even get a given name until “The Voyage Home”, a film Roddenberry had nothing to do with.
Demora is Sulu’s daughter, but there’s no mention that Sulu was married, or if he was that it was to a woman.
Funny you mention the character’s nationality, considering that Roddenberry envisioned Sulu as some pan-Asian character on indeterminate nationality. Sulu is not a Japanese name, and Roddenberry chose to name the character after the Sulu sea of the coast of the Philippians.
That was not my assumption. I just can’t think of any reason to assume that Sulu is not bi or pan, given what we know about the various iterations of the character.