Ever since Star Wars: Episode IX featured a hastily thrown in background shot of two women kissing, the series seems to have been inching towards more positive and genuine LGBTQ+ representation. Granted, most of the more substantial strides forward have been confined to books and comics, which isn't a bad thing by itself, but has left many fans to feel wanting as they hope to see more people like themselves on screen. Well, if one theory proposed by Inverse writer Dais Johnston proves to be true, Star Wars may have just taken a large step in that direction.
When Star Wars: The Bad Batch first premiered on May the 4th, it caught a large number of viewers off guard by introducing the first female clone of Jango Fett. The clone army, all created from the DNA of one bounty hunter, had been entirely comprised of men ever since its introduction in Star Wars: Episode II, so few ever expected such a development. The new clone, named Omega, is a young girl who ended up tagging along with Clone Force 99, the titular group of "different" clones, feeling a certain connection to them due to her own ingrained deviation from the norm. But after hearing a single line from a recent episode, some are speculating that there's more to her than a simple "defect" in the cloning process on the planet of Kamino, and that she's actually transgender. (Keep in mind that this is all just theorizing and not based on any hard evidence given, so it should be taken with a grain of salt.)
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The show's 2nd episode saw Hunter, the leader of the Bad Batch itself, Clone Force 99, speaking with a clone deserter named Cut. When the subject of Omega came up, Hunter referred to her as "a defective clone, like we are." But Cut seemed to have a different viewpoint, simply saying "The Kaminoans don't create without a purpose." Where Cut gets this hunch is unknown, but the way it's presented suggests that not only were the members of Clone Force 99 actually created as intended, but so was Omega. This would mean that her gender wasn't an unintended consequence of some flaw in the cloning tanks, but may have been far more complicated.
The idea here is that she wasn't technically created with a different physical gender than the other clones, but like with trans people in the real world, that doesn't mean she isn't what she says she is. Perhaps the Kaminoans aren't able to make such a physical change, so they made some tweaks in her mind like they did with the members of 99 to essentially make that change in every way except the outside. It may seem like a bit of a reach, but the idea of adding some real trans representation to the series would be an important step forward for Star Wars, whose fandom has had some issues with LGBTQ+ communities over the years.
The thing is, even if the theory about the cloning process is a dead end, it's still 100% possible for Omega to be trans. Even among all the identical clones seen throughout the Star Wars series, particularly in the Clone Wars animated TV show, each has their own unique identity and personality. If such a thing is possible, it's not farfetched to assume that one might turn out to be trans. Look at it this way: if it were easy or even just possible to make physically female clones by standard means, wouldn't there have been more than just Omega by now? In that way, the idea that she's trans kind of makes more sense than the alternatives.
Time will tell, though hopefully sooner than later. The LGBTQ+ community deserves more positive representation, particularly in such an impactful franchise like Star Wars that reaches countless fans around the world. Everyone should be able to see people like themselves in the media they consume, and it shouldn't require an in-depth search just to find such diversity.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch releases new episodes on Disney+ every Friday.
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Source: Inverse