Hello there! Might be I shouldn’t said anything about this topic and I shall keep my opinion for myself but I think I can add something constructive to this discussion at the same time I invite to the dialogue. Ok, now, to the reason of this post: Dinluke, racism and other concerns.
First at all, I don’t have any authority in sw so, yes, you can ignore me and my opinion if you want to. Also, please, remember always be kind and polite and try to be opened to receive criticism. Viceversa, if you wanna make any contribution to this post, in favor or not, please keep it polite. Not personal attacks and don’t death wishes agains my persona (I have enough with my own death wishes, ok?)
Now, to address this issue, I gonna show to different postures. Yes, it will be long but, please, bare with me. The goal with this is to expose the phenomenon and you, as reader, creator or just occasional fan of dinluke, can take a decision with this information.
On one hand, we have the issue of dinluke by itself, not any other element add, being racism because it portrayed a man of color and a white man being together. This implication come for the idea of only seeing the POC as a sexual entity and an instrument for the white pleasure. The former implies the use of the stereotype of the Latino and Hispanic man in which the POC is impulsive, over sexual and misogynistic in this ship.
On the other hand, people in the fandom have expressed that this is not the case (myself included).The reasons behind this defense are the next ones:
1. The reason people started shipping Din and Luke because Luke is one of the favorite, also protagonist, of the Saga.
2. Follow the previos one, people has always wanted Luke being gay (shipping him with Lando, Han, Ezra, etc.) and they are starving for Luke content since the bad writing of the sequels.
3. Din is a good man (yes, he is a bounty hunter but he had a code) who is likable and who represented good masculinity. He respects women, love children and he also has complex personality as a result of his lifestyle, his culture and trauma. So, people wants his favorite character with another excellent one. (They also shared one minute in screen)
4. Also, the ships are the connection of two cultures (mandalorians and Jedis) that fan loves and they have seen together in the past as friendship or romantic relationships. The frienemies backstory of their cultures only attracts more fans.
5. They being together implies that Din would continue seeing Grogu and being happy with him.
6. They being together means that Grogu has two dads.
7. The mayor of the fandom, even if they recognize that Pedro Pascal is beautiful (because he is and you can fight me in this), he being Din is not the most Important thing in terms of racial identity of the actor and his person is not the center of the ship or the representation of the character in the ship. Din is mandalorian, Luke is jedi. Only in some modern AU, the hispanic element is used.
Now, the reason number 7 has brought us to another problem as currently Dark Din has became a popular prompt in the fandom. And we could use the logic of the statement 7 and say that it doesn’t have anything to do with him portrayed by a POC. That is because mandalorians are a culture of war and warriors or that people wants to make Luke suffered as a martyr. But, we cannot ignore that the reason we (Hispanic and brown people) like Din and his repercussions in POC representation was because it was the antithesis of the model of misogynistic Latino man.
In conclusion, I understand that you want to make drama and torture Luke but you need to analyzed if you using Dark Din characterization is because you just want to built melodrama or it has something more in the root. We cannot forget the importance of representation in these times and how damaging a bad stereotype could be. I am not saying you cannot write it but try to be self conscious and find out if the real reason behind your fascination for Dark Din has something to do with external aspects of the fictional world building or not, only you would know it.
I personally cannot write Dark Din because the reason I like the ship was because Din is represented as a good man. Although, I have to admit that I have read it. Will I continue reading it? Probably.
This ramble is not to change anyone mind. I am just expressing an opinion. You can act as you free will demands and participate in the fandom as you wish. Just be kind, ok? Bye, ER out.
