Apropos of nothing, I feel like it's relevant to mention that the Holy Trilogy has a grand total of three named female characters in it. THREE.

/Shrug. It's a war story, first and foremost. Star... Wars. Wars have always, and will for the foreseeable future, be fought almost entirely by men, just based on the simple facts of biology and cultural norms that have persisted for thousands of years.

I see no reason to disinclude female pilots from the game. Certainly the realm of piloting diminishes the physical differences to a significant degree. My next door neighbor is a female former Marine aviator. But it's silly to pretend that they still won't always end up as the minority among a fighting force, and not simply because most of the writers are straight white dudes.

I always find these discussions fairly humorous, though usually I have the better sense not to participate in them. Literally, the card images are tiny space ships, and more than half the names are indiscernible as male or female. Unless you read thirty-year-old comic books or played a card game 15 years ago, what the heck is a Gemmer Sojan or a Captain Jonus? Or a Backstabber for that matter. Would anybody have any reason to know that Ten Numb was a pancake-faced space-mouse unless they had read comic books? The game is played with a tiny toy space ship, and a pilot card that is a picture of that space ship. That gender even gets brought up in discussions of this game is fairly silly. It isn't like a game such as 40K, where the individual models clearly depict the gender of the person it is representing. It's literally a tiny space ship, and the pilot exists solely in your imagination.

If you find yourself sitting there finding any reason to ponder the gender or race of the cards you're playing, it's a good sign you're massively overthinking this game, and probably much of life in general. If having girl pilots helps encourage your wife or girlfriend to play with you, when she asks who the pilots are, do the smart thing: Tell them that it's whoever they want them to be.

What about Mara Jade with a different ability? She was always embedded in one crime syndicate or another until becoming Mrs. Skywalker.

Mara Jade should be available in all three factions.

Scum and Imperial aren't doing bad, it's Rebels that are behind.

Rebels have Leia and Jan Ors vs Scum 0. Rebels have been around a lot longer though. Of course there are also the non faction exclusive female crew like recon specialist etc.

Apropos of nothing, I feel like it's relevant to mention that the Holy Trilogy has a grand total of three named female characters in it. THREE.

/Shrug. It's a war story, first and foremost. Star... Wars. Wars have always, and will for the foreseeable future, be fought almost entirely by men, just based on the simple facts of biology and cultural norms that have persisted for thousands of years.

I see no reason to disinclude female pilots from the game. Certainly the realm of piloting diminishes the physical differences to a significant degree. My next door neighbor is a female former Marine aviator. But it's silly to pretend that they still won't always end up as the minority among a fighting force, and not simply because most of the writers are straight white dudes. I always find these discussions fairly humorous, though usually I have the better sense not to participate in them. Literally, the card images are tiny space ships, and more than half the names are indiscernible as male or female. Unless you read thirty-year-old comic books or played a card game 15 years ago, what the heck is a Gemmer Sojan or a Captain Jonus? Or a Backstabber for that matter. Would anybody have any reason to know that Ten Numb was a pancake-faced space-mouse unless they had read comic books? The game is played with a tiny toy space ship, and a pilot card that is a picture of that space ship. That gender even gets brought up in discussions of this game is fairly silly. It isn't like a game such as 40K, where the individual models clearly depict the gender of the person it is representing. It's literally a tiny space ship, and the pilot exists solely in your imagination. If you find yourself sitting there finding any reason to ponder the gender or race of the cards you're playing, it's a good sign you're massively overthinking this game, and probably much of life in general. If having girl pilots helps encourage your wife or girlfriend to play with you, when she asks who the pilots are, do the smart thing: Tell them that it's whoever they want them to be.

I mean, you read the first post, right? The one that was specifically asking about CREW cards not pilots? You know, the cards that have actual pictures of the actual characters on them?

Those crackshot weequays might be female. Same with the wookie gunner? Hard to tell with these aliens

I totally understand the OP's position. I've lead my wife through quite a few games, and she always wants to play the female characters or droids

It's funny because she played a tie build the other night with some named pilots. She was like " this is my girl squad." I was like " No honey. Backstabber and so and so are actually dudes, but you can play Howlrunner and some academy/obsidian pilots if that's what your going for, haha." I know those are pilots and my op is about crew upgrades, but I think you can see what I mean.

Would she really stop playing me if there were no female crew upgrades? Most likely not. I doubt it, but I see no harm in adding a few for scum & villainy like the rebels and imps have. No harm in appeasing a small demographic, especially when it would have no overall negative impact on the game I guess.

Do you think s & v will incorporate any female crew members? My girlfriend sometimes likes to utilize female crew upgrades when playing as Imperials and such. I'd just like to maintain her interest as long as possible, jajaja. Can there be a case for a Latts Razzi or Manaroo crew card in the future? Or perhaps someone else?

Why not?

But you do know that all-girl-party is an Empire thing.

Who cares.

Seriously, I don't understand why anyone gives a hoot whatever mythical sex made up characters on little bits of card have.

Gonna take a stab in the dark here: You're a man?

I love when people fail to get the point and do it with a point of pride.

Possible scum female crew cards:

Aurra Sing

Manaroo

Kath Scarlett

Ketsu Onyo

Latts Razzi

Boussh Leia?

Q'anah

Aunt Beru

"Pirate queen" from the new ffg roleplay book.

Maz

That's all I got.

Who cares.

Seriously, I don't understand why anyone gives a hoot whatever mythical sex made up characters on little bits of card have.

Gonna take a stab in the dark here: You're a man?

You're probably right, but that doesn't really change the point.

If your litmus test for the state of gender equality is the ratio of male to female crew cards (ignore the pilots for some reason) of one faction of a silly game, then you need to refocus your attention. Their are more productive ways to pursue equality.

But the "sorry, your opinion doesn't count because you represent the status quo" approach is kind of an unfair way to end a conversation.

Those crackshot weequays might be female. Same with the wookie gunner? Hard to tell with these aliens

The wookie gunner could be black krrsantan before he got that scar.

Who cares.

Seriously, I don't understand why anyone gives a hoot whatever mythical sex made up characters on little bits of card have.

Gonna take a stab in the dark here: You're a man?

You're probably right, but that doesn't really change the point.

If your litmus test for the state of gender equality is the ratio of male to female crew cards (ignore the pilots for some reason) of one faction of a silly game, then you need to refocus your attention. Their are more productive ways to pursue equality.

But the "sorry, your opinion doesn't count because you represent the status quo" approach is kind of an unfair way to end a conversation.

No, I'm not trying to end the conversation. It's just that 9 times out of 10, the people who don't care about representation in media are the people who, funnily enough, are represented in media.

It's a question of empathy really. Most people can't comprehend what it would be like to not have a mirror of yourself in every form of media you consume.

Interestingly, the psychological concept of 'mirroring' to learn behaviors seen in children is much more effective if the behavior is being demonstrated by someone of the same sex/race etc.

I imagine this probably has something to do with it being easier to project yourself into their shoes, right? Probably because deep down, we've still got that reflex that separates people into Us/Them.

Now I'm rambling, but yeah: People find it easier to engage with things that are more like them.

While we are on the topic, what about Whisper and Echo? Are they male or female? Or even droids? I'm just wondering, and not even wookiepedia helped! But anyway, I think either Kath or Mara jade would be the next female scum crew card.

Apropos of nothing, I feel like it's relevant to mention that the Holy Trilogy has a grand total of three named female characters in it. THREE.

/Shrug. It's a war story, first and foremost. Star... Wars. Wars have always, and will for the foreseeable future, be fought almost entirely by men, just based on the simple facts of biology and cultural norms that have persisted for thousands of years.

"I demand "realism" in my story about laser-sword-toting space wizards."

"Anyone who cares about the gender of cards in this game is silly. I don't care so hard that I'm going to write a wall of text defending the status quo.

I think most mentions here would be welcome additions but I'll vote for Latts Razzi first, mainly because she has a little more character development behind her; being featured in the canon Clone Wars and the new Dark Disciple book. Lots of good mentions here though.

Apropos of nothing, I feel like it's relevant to mention that the Holy Trilogy has a grand total of three named female characters in it. THREE.

/Shrug. It's a war story, first and foremost. Star... Wars. Wars have always, and will for the foreseeable future, be fought almost entirely by men, just based on the simple facts of biology and cultural norms that have persisted for thousands of years.

You lost me with this one. Several militaries, including now the United States, have women in combat roles. So the idea that this would be the case "for the foreseeable future" seems rather short-sighted, considering technology mitigates most of those "facts of biology" you mention. For example, what "simple fact of biology" makes it so women aren't suited as fighter pilots? If anything, their generally smaller stature helps, as fighter cockpits are cramped places - there are actually height limits in the military for fighter pilots.

Really, though, for the people for whom it doesn't matter - then why do you care about the people for whom it does? If you are someone who doesn't care about representation, then why complain when the people who do care about it want to see more?

Funny how the people who supposedly don't care seem to want to belittle the people for whom it does matter. It makes me think it really does matter to them, but they don't want to admit their own prejudices. At least, that's the impression it gives me.

Per capita my friend. Per capita.

For example, what "simple fact of biology" makes it so women aren't suited as fighter pilots?

As far as the future disposition of the US military with the recent opening of combat roles to women, it's important to understand that demographically, the direct combat arms branches of the military (Army and Marines) are largely male (the Marines are less than 8% women, the Army is just under 13%). The Marines, even with volunteers who were given extra time to prepare, couldn't find a single female officer who could complete the infantry course (the course is designed to fail candidates) and most didn't even get past the first week, and got a less than 35% passing rate for female enlisted (compared to over 98% of enlisted males since, as opposed to the officer school, the program is designed to pass people), the best of whom tested out in the bottom 20% of performers and suffered injuries at more than 7 times the rate of their male colleagues. To the point where if 100 women attempted to join the infantry, statistically less than 10 of them would ever set foot on a foreign shore, having made it through both entry level and pre-deployment training. On paper, if we assume that the women joining the Marines would volunteer for the infantry at the same rate they volunteer for the Marine Corps in general, they would theoretically represent about 2.7% of the infantry, but effectively make up less than 1% when it came to operational strength. Literally there might be two or three women in a battalion of troops on a combat deployment, and if they are treated anything like the bottom performers of male infantrymen, they would be relegated to positions where they have the least responsibility. So yes, for the foreseeable future, combat will still be done almost entirely by men. Trust me. I used to be a part of the Marine Corps' TECOM (training and education command). I've seen the research and the numbers. It's almost as if I know what I am talking about. The Marine Corps didn't ask for an exemption because girls are icky. They asked for it because it was the most sensible way to not break what didn't need fixing. Gender integration into the infantry is literally a waste of time and money with the overwhelming majority of female recruits having to be retrained, and in a lot of cases, medically rehabilitated, while infantry units remain chronically understrength waiting for replacements for their replacements, in an era when taxpayers are asking the military to be more efficient with the way it spends taxpayer dollars.

Make no mistake, the political maneuvering of a few politicians eager to leave some historical mark will not greatly affect the gender distribution in ground combat units. In the end, ground combat is still mostly about raw strength and endurance. The ability to operate for extended amounts of time and still remain combat effective when you are exhausted and sore and hungry. People who typically like to point out "several militaries" are usually not very well researched on the topic. For example, Israel is often cited. However their mixed-gender infantry unit is actually just a glorified border patrol, military police-style, assigned to the fairly quiet border with Jordan, and isn't very highly regarded in the Israeli military in terms of its performance. It was not used in the 2006 invasion of Beiruit. It's an ongoing experiment, not an actual combat unit.

Returning to the topic of Star Wars, people forget that Star Wars shows mostly ground conflicts. Hoth, Endor, Stormtroopers, etc. Sure, we can imagine the crews of the larger capital ships have a closer balance of gender distribution, but even in the modern day, women are still only 14.9% of the US military, a number that has actually decreased slightly in recent years. Even at their highest distributions, they make up only 17.6% of the Navy and 18.7% of the Air Force. In an era when there are few, if any, barriers to women entering the military, they still choose not to. Why would Star Wars suddenly seem weird because there aren't many women in it? "Oh, but there could be!" Okay, sure. And?

You're projecting on me. At no point did I "complain". I think you're mistaking your own emotional investment in the discussion for mine. You seem to think that I'm defending some ludicrous idea that women shouldn't be in Star Wars. I can't possibly care much less. Like I said, the best thing to do is to pretend that your pilots are whoever you want them to be. But if you're going to challenge the idea that Star Wars is displaying some sort of unfair exclusivity to white males, I'm going to look at the statistics, which show that the US military is just over 85% male, and between 60 and 72% white (depending on how Hispanics decide to categorize themselves since the military does not differentiate between white and non-white Hispanics who make up 11.6% of the military). The UK military's distribution is even more lopsided. I'm a realist, which means I just look at the numbers. People complain about Star Wars being mostly white, well, most of the original films' cast was from the UK, a country which, even today, is still over 87% white. The Hoth troopers were Norwegian extras, a country that is over 93% white still today. The Endor scenes used extras from the Oregon/California border area, again, predominantly white. I'm happy with the new films being more diverse, heck, I thought Samuel L Jackson as a Jedi was going to be awesome, but I don't look back at the originals with some send of confusion or outrage. They were showing a military that is overwhelmingly male, and casting from countries that were overwhelmingly white. So even if Star Wars is set in a galaxy where anything can happen, it's still filmed on Earth and thus largely based on Earth stories and demographics. It's even more obvious when you recognize the clear storytelling influences (movies like The Hidden Fortress (a samurai film) and The Dam Busters (a WW2 film)). It's not that I don't care about diversity because "I'm already represented". It's just that I recognize that there is no significant discrepancy in what Star Wars is depicting, so it isn't actually a problem. Like I said, if gender depiction in X-Wing, or Star Wars in general, is problematic for you, you are the one with the problem, not Star Wars. It doesn't mean I don't understand or empathize with your dissatisfaction, but I'm still going to expect you to remain objective about it.

The good news is, I'm sure your little friend will be along to complain about my wall of text, since I bothered to help you out with both statistical data and contextual representation of it. And you can pretend I'm "complaining" so you can dismiss what I said to maintain your confirmation bias.

I think most mentions here would be welcome additions but I'll vote for Latts Razzi first, mainly because she has a little more character development behind her; being featured in the canon Clone Wars and the new Dark Disciple book. Lots of good mentions here though.

She also has the fact that she's been depicted going for her, while Kath and Manaroo but have no official art released for them.

I'd like to see an Aurra Sing crew upgrade. Her ability could be that, when checking for targets, you may choose to treat one ship's maneuver template, of the maneuver it just executed, as part of the ship. In other words, you'd put down the template as a kind of tail and could choose to target that instead of the ship. Or perhaps something simpler, like being able to choose your target during the activation phase, maybe as an action. You would still perform the attack during the shooting phase, but would no longer need to check arc or range.

In the movies she's in only one scene, but she keeps a close eye on those podracers going by!

VaeVictis: "Blah blah blah *irrelevant sexist drivel* blah blah blah"

FYI, Disney's Rebels and Imperials are now egalitarian, pointless "real world" statistics aside.

Regardless of boring statistics it is in fact absolutely necessary that gender disparity in all forms of media is rectified.

I'm fairly sure George wanted to have the Rebels made up of lots of different Aliens and races and genders etc, whilst making the Empire all posh white British guys because subconsciously your brain would pick up on these sorts of things, and without having anyone explicitly say 'Woo we rebels love diversity eh?' (AKA prequelitis) you'd see the Rebels as the more progressive, free-er side. A storytelling device, basically.

Thank you VaeVictis for laying out that argument for me . I'll just quote a small snippet here, the one line that kinda sums up the post:

...if 100 women attempted to join the infantry, statistically less than 10 of them would ever set foot on a foreign shore...

Within those margins, and allowing a little extra fudge for creative license (plus a possibly different gender distro for alien species) there's still room for some of the characters suggested here to get onto crew cards. I certainly wouldn't complain

I'd love to see what sort of ability they came up with for a crew Kath Scarlett or Ltts Razzi.

We could do with more sneaky tricks