- "TAKA JAMOREESA PILOT EXTRAORDINAIRE THEIR COURAGE AND SPEED KNOW NO BOUNDS THEY HAVE ACED EVERY PILOT IN THIS ROOM AND ARE WANTED IN ABOUT EIGHTEEN GALAXIES THEY NEED NO INTRODUCTION THE OTHER PILOTS DON'T EVEN TALK TO TAKA THAT'S HOW SERIOUS THIS IS"
- ―Text of Taka Jamoreesa's business card
Taka Jamoreesa[1] was a non-binary[3] Alderaanian human pilot and aspiring scoundrel. About two years after the Battle of Jakku, Jamoreesa was in a crew with Han Solo and Lando Calrissian trying to thwart Fyzen Gor's plot to take over the galaxy using the Phylanx Redux Transmitter. Jamoreesa lost both of their parents in the destruction of Alderaan and acted as a New Republic agent under Leia Organa. They were a fan of the musical group Snograth and the Mogwars.[1]
At some point after the establishment of the Resistance, which was formed by Organa[5] in 28 ABY[6] to counter the growing threat of the First Order,[5] Jamoreesa joined the Resistance and piloted a troop transport through the Starship Graveyard of[4] the Inner Rim planet[7] Jakku.[4]
Behind the scenes[]
- "Taka Jamoreesa, the greatest pilot in the galaxy, uses they/them pronouns"
- ―Daniel José Older
Taka Jamoreesa first appeared in the 2018 novel Last Shot by Daniel José Older.[1] Jamoreesa is notable as the second named and third overall non-binary[9] character in the current Star Wars canon, preceded in 2016 by Eleodie Maracavanya[10] from Chuck Wendig's Aftermath: Life Debt[11] and an unidentified Black Sun agent[12] in Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston.[13] Although Older had intentionally indicated Jamoreesa's gender by utilizing the gender-neutral singular they as their correct pronouns, controversy arose when the French,[14] Polish,[3] and German[15] language editions of Last Shot incorrectly used masculine pronouns to refer to them. Author Daniel José Older expressed his displeasure at the change on his Twitter and considered the misgendering of Jamoreesa unacceptable[14] and erasure of a type of character rarely seen in Star Wars.[16] The French publisher Pocket Imaginaire ultimately posted a statement explaining their reasoning for the translation, though not issuing an apology.[17] Sandy Julien, the book's French translator, also reached out directly to Older on Twitter and explained that he suggested "iel" as an alternate pronoun for Jamoreesa which was not approved by the book's editor and personally apologized for the change, vowing the push harder to use accurate pronouns, should the situation arise again.[18] He later commented further on the subject in a personal blog post.[19]
Appearances[]
- Last Shot (First appearance, simultaneous with audiobook)
- Last Shot audiobook
Sources[]
Hot Shots and Aces II Resistance Pilots Overview on Atomic Mass Games' official website (backup link)- Star Wars: Timelines
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Last Shot
- ↑ Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of Last Shot to 7 ABY. As Last Shot establishes Taka Jamoreesa is twenty-one years old, they must have been born around 14 BBY.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2
Daniel José Older (@djolder) on Twitter: "Thread on nonbinary Star Wars characters and how Polish versions have failed them. There are a lot of things open to interpretation in translation; gender is not one of them. If you're misgendering a character, it is both incorrect and a violent erasure. Find a way." (backup link)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Hot Shots and Aces II Resistance Pilots Overview (November 16, 2022) on Atomic Mass Games' official website (backup link)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bloodline
- ↑ Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of Bloodline to 28 ABY.
- ↑ Poe Dameron: Flight Log
- ↑ Daniel José Older (@djolder) on Twitter (April 16, 2018) (backup link)
- ↑ Daniel José Older] (@djolder) on Twitter: "TAKA JAMOREESA THEY NEED NO INTRODUCTION but here's one anyway plus some thoughts on writing this particular non-binary character #StarWars vm.tiktok.com/ZMJv6vKQb/" (backup link)
- ↑ Daniel José Older (@djolder) on Twitter: "Thank you! I believe the first nonbinary Star Wars canon character is the great pirate Eleodie Maracavanya from @ChuckWendig's AFTERMATH series but proud to add Taka to the growing list #LastShot" (screenshot)
- ↑ Aftermath: Life Debt
- ↑ E. K. Johnston (@ek_johnston) on Twitter: "AHSOKA has Kaeden Larte as queer and a non-binary Black Sun agent." (backup link)
- ↑ Ahsoka
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Daniel José Older (@djolder) on Twitter: "I believe this tweet is saying that the @Pocket_Editions French translation of Last Shot misgendered Taka. I don't know much about French or how they/them pronouns are generally handled, but as the author, this is not okay with me." (screenshot)
- ↑ Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) on Twitter: "I've had people contact me about other versions too – and I had a long email chain with German SW editors and they said they'd be trying to find a solution but no follow up answered that." (backup link)
- ↑ Daniel José Older (@djolder) on Twitter: "it's incorrect and erases a needed truth about a character that isn't represented enough in SW" (screenshot)
- ↑
Pocket Imaginaire (@PocketImaginaire) on Facebook: French publisher's statement (September 18, 2018): "Petit message :) "Lors d'échanges récents sur twitter à propos du livre Baroud d'honneur, des internautes ont regretté l'emploi du masculin pour un personnage non binaire, Taka. Il est important de rappeler que si en anglais l'usage du pronom « they » est établi depuis longtemps pour les situations où l'on ne connait pas le genre du personnage, le français quant à lui ne propose que le recours au neutre masculin." (backup link)
- ↑ Sandy Julien (@Sendoshi) on Twitter: "I offered the pronoun "iel" (which comes from the "écriture inclusive" method) but...It didn't work for the editor, who thought it may be difficult to understand for french readers." (screenshot)
- ↑ Baroud d'honneur – Le cas Taka by Sandy Julien on sandyjulien.com (September 19, 2018) (archived from the original on October 2, 2022)
