It’s when a character is given the markers of a group affiliation that the character cannot actually have or is not explicitly stated to have. An example of the former is Sebastian from The Little Mermaid having a Trinidadian accent and being from Jamaica. A crab cannot be Jamaican (or Trinidadian), but he was coded as being from the Caribbean. A leading case of the latter is queer coding using stereotypical gay/queer traits, especially for villains.
I never knew that. Isn’t that technically what the characters from Steve universe are? Their not technically woman, but they are…I think.
I’m not going in that fandom.
So why is Kylo called a coded character?
Yeah they could be seen as examples of female-coded or nonbinary-coded characters, seeing how they’re aliens who come from a culture without gender. (If there’s any gender I’d say Pearls are coded as the pliant, objectified, subservient women.) The show is very queer, and recently they decided to take things way outside coding territory and make it explicit with a wedding scene and a big kiss. I agree it’s a good idea not to go anywhere near SU fandom, though, and I lost a lot of interest in it myself for other reasons. Still plan to watch it with my son, though.
If Kylo is coded as anything he’s coded neo-Nazi lmao. There’s even Word of God on this from JJ. There is a joke about him being “dumbass-coded” (link via @thehungryvortigaunt) but that’s not coding, he just is a dumbass.
L.J.'s Obsessions 