Seriously though, this scene. WHY DID THEY DELETE THIS SCENE?
And as they went away with Luke letting Han’s hand trail out of his, I thought, “…as though millions of Han/Luke shipper voices suddenly cried out and were silenced.”
In all my days I’ve never shipped this till…
Welp, if I didn’t ship it before…
True story from ancient fandom corner: people did ship it, and that shit was stomped on harder than any slash has ever been stomped on. There were lawsuits. SW slash went WAY underground–even in the days when all slash was underground. There were ‘zines, but they were precious as carbuncles and basically if you had one or wrote in one you were like a fucking badass slash bandit.
I may have reblogged this before but I am compelled to do so again.
True fact: Lucas films actually sued fans in the 70’ for publishing slash and gen fiction. I remember fanzines in the 80’s-90s would not touch Star wars with a fifty pole.
No fan was ever sued. But there were stern letters sent.
“…At the time of the first movie’s release in 1977, Star Wars fandom grew rapidly, with fan clubs, zines, and fan-run conventions…… [Fan] Clubs were not restricted to the United States: both the Moons of Yavin Fan club in England [2] and Maikel Das’s Northern German Star Wars group [3] located in Hamburg [4] sprang into existence and operated for many years, producing both fanzines and art. ….
…… the editors of the Star Trek fanzine Sol Plus advertised for new submissions, saying: “…and please, Star Trek only, no Star Wars!” This showed that Star Trek fans were increasingly writing Star Wars material, and sending it to Star Trek editors for publication. [7]By 1979, however, Star Wars was being recognized at fan run conventions and the first FanQ awards were given to Star Wars fans: Maggie Nowakowska for her Star Wars stories the Thousandworlds Collected series, and Martynn, who illustrated Star Wars stories.[8]In 1980, the annual convention for fanzine producers and readers moved from Michigan to New York for one year. “The name, Mos’ Eastly Con, showed the growing influence of Star Wars. Organizers evenly split the panels between Star Trek and Star Wars; the remaining panels covered general topics (such as "the art of editing”).“ [9]Star Wars fanzines and other fan works continued to be published through the 1980s and 1990s, with interest in the fandom waxing and waning over the years, often timed to the release of a new movie. “
