Star Wars in its current era has had a relationship with queer characters that comes in fits and starts. There are now of course plenty across the comics, books, and games, but the shows and movies are still playing catch-up (some of those better than others). But the latest little queer slice of the galaxy far, far away has a grimly funny origin story.
(Very minor spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor follow.)
Early on in Cal Kestis’ sophomore adventure in the new Star Wars gaming sequel Jedi Survivor, our hero journeys to the planet Koboh, where he runs across a community of prospectors working and living on the arid world. Among them is a familiar sight to Star Wars shitposters and lovers of obscure background weirdoes alike: a Trotadome. He’s named Gido; many people are familiar with the species thanks to the giant slug Klaud from The Rise of Skywalker.
Gido, a much older and grouchy slug-person than what little we saw of Klaud, is a minor character in the grand scheme of the game, hanging out in the Rambler’s Reach outpost hub next to similarly aged and grouchy human, Gulu. They have some ambient dialogue, and that’s about it. It’s just funny to see another Trotadome, because they’re not all that common Star Wars yet after their debut in Rise of Skywalker. But eventually, players can find a collectible that unlocks databank lore entry for Gulu and Gido as a pair — one that reveals the duo are in fact, a couple:
Gulu – a cantankerous old-timer – and his lifelong partner Gido – a cantankerous old-timer – spend all day, every day, lounging around in front of the local saloon. They roast, joke, and tease everyone and everything that dares cross into their field of view.
While there’s sure to be some people who see “lifelong partner” as more of a business relationship than a personal one, there’s something very funny about Star Wars having its own pair of catty queer elders who spend their space-retirement hanging outside a cantina roasting people. It’s just made even funnier by Gido himself, and the fact that before we even knew who he was, he was tied up in another bit of Star Wars shitposting history.
Already a very memeable movie for better or worse, one of the sillier internet gags to come from Rise of Skywalker was the Live Slug Reaction. It’s based on a viral 2022 tweet that erroneously stated that Rise’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it lesbian kiss, a first for the franchise at large, was immediately followed by an extended shot of Klaud the Trotadome staring blankly. And thus, Live Slug Reaction was born as a meme format — with a cropped image of Klaud’s blank stare being pasted over scenes of pretty much any LGBTQ or potentially-queer content. Klaud may have been the shitto-est of glup shittos, but he knew a homosexual when he saw one, apparently.
And now, a year later, we’ve come full circle, with Trotadome-recognises-Trotadome silliness giving us an actual queer space slug to celebrate.