One of the most loathsome things about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was the intensely irritating Jar Jar Binks, the badly dressed stupid alien who seems to have only been put there for fundamentalist Christians to have someone to identify with.

Something similar may well have happened in the latest installment of the series, Star Wars: Clone Wars, in which we spot one Ziro the Hutt- who is purple, has sky blue tattoos and what seems to be a peacock feather behind their ample forehead. And they also have a high pitched twang of a lisp. And, instead of dingy Tattooine, Ziro lives in faaaaaaaaabulous downtown Coruscant, capital of the Old Republic (and later, Galactic Empire).

But is this actually less than it seems? Ziro the Hutt is actually an asexual hermaphroditic mollusc, which means that s/he’s intersexed. I guess they do gender differently amongst Star Wars alien forms, but it’s certainly one sign that the Star Wars universe is changing.

Recommended:

“Is Ziro the Hutt A Derogatory Gay Character?”: http://www.afterelton.com/blog/lylemasaki/star-wars-clone-wars-ziro-the-hutt-gay-stereotype