Luna Loud

Luna is a 15-year-old (16-year-old season 5 onward and The Really Loud House) girl, and third child of the Loud family. She is the roommate of her younger sister Luan. She is a musician who owns and plays various instruments, including her signature instrument, a purple Dean ML electric guitar. She was described as a loud, boisterous and freewheeling sister. Luna was named after a pet dachshund Chris Savino's mother-in-law owned. Early in development, Luna alongside her family was going to be depicted as a humanoid rabbits, but this was terminated when an executive, Jenna Boyd, suggested Savino to make them human. According to an interview, she was Savino's favorite character in the series. The episode "White Hare" revisited the abandoned concept of the Loud family being rabbits, with Luna going on to influence two characters; her love of music became the defining personality trait of Barbara (also voiced by Futterman), while her love of British culture became the defining personality trait of Bippa (voiced by Cristina Pucelli). as Luna Loud in The Really Loud House Luna was voiced by Nika Futterman, and portrayed by Sophia Woodward in A Loud House Christmas, The Really Loud House, and A Really Haunted Loud House. When auditions for A Loud House Christmas opened, actress Sophia Woodward was not very familiar with The Loud House since she was seventeen years old at the time and therefore outside the series' target demographic, but had heard about it prior, so she heavily researched the series to develop her own characterization of Luna. She also took inspiration from singer Joan Jett to pour human inspiration into the character, and even sang her hit single "Bad Reputation" at her audition. Woodward has considered Luna's love for music as a perk that appealed to her, She has gone on to say that Luna has a unique layer study possessed by no other character in the series due to her musicality, which makes her stand out as a more complex character compared to the rest of the main cast. For the role, Woodward was asked to cut her hair so she could sport Luna's signature pixie cut, which she bravely did for the first time in her life. Woodward was open to reprising her role as Luna when The Really Loud House was green lit due to the relationships she had developed with the cast and crew of the film, (which was also a new genre to the actress), commercial jingles, and country, but ultimately kept her "true to her classic rock roots", according to Woodward. In order to positively establish that Luna is a member of the LGBTQ community, the writers laid out three principles for her (and Sam's) characterization in the episode: to give her crush a gender-neutral name to make it less obvious that her crush was female, to include a male musician in all shots featuring Sam to hide the surprise that Sam was female until the end of the episode, and that whenever Luna mentions Sam to her family, they know that she is referring to a girl and do not have any issues with it. Entertainment Weekly writer Nick Romano interview with Michael Rubiner, the showrunner of the series who plans to continue the relationship between Luna and Sam, but he doesn’t have any end point in mind for the two but "with 10 girls in the family", he felt natural "to explore one of them being LGBTQ." As of the episode "Racing Hearts", Luna and Sam are officially dating, and Luna would later go on to refer to Sam as her girlfriend in the episode "Undercover Mom". == Reception ==

A 2017 study by the University of Turku concluded that based on questionnaires handed out to six adult men at the average age of 21.2 years, Luna was the most popular character among the periphery demographic, but less so one of the series' more relatable characters. Following the introduction of Luna as LGBTQ, some fans of the series theorized that she was bisexual, due to a previous episode depicting her as attracted to a young man named Hugh. However, others have refused to give her an explicit label, with the main deal being more so that Sam won't reciprocate her feelings than that she is straight. Luna's queer orientation has widely been well-received by viewers, especially those who themselves are queer and/or did not grow up with similar representation. The fan base has christened her and Sam with the couple name "Saluna", which the series' crew has acknowledged, and they have declared the fandom's overall positive response to them as a couple to be emotional to them. Other viewers have also praised the decision not to push her relationship with Sam into the background because of how well it defines her as an active LGBTQ character. The episode "Racing Hearts", which delved deeper into Luna's relationship with Sam, was praised for how it portrayed them as a casual couple without drawing attention to the fact that they are both homosexual, as the plot could have played out just the same way with a heterosexual couple in the spotlight. Screen Rant marked The Loud House as one of their top ten children's shows with LGBTQ representation, with Luna's alignment being one of the major contributing factors. In 2017, Nika Futterman was nominated for a Behind the Voice Actors Award in the category of Voice Actress of the Year, with her role as Luna being one of the key factors, and won another BTVA Award that year in the category of Best Vocal Ensemble in a New Television Series, which was shared with the rest of the series' main cast. She would also go on to be nominated for another BTVA Award in 2018 in the category of Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series, again shared with the rest of the main cast, due to her role as Luna. The way Luna and Sam's relationship is handled (along with that of Howard and Harold) has played a role in the series getting nominated at the 29th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 35th, and 36th GLAAD Media Awards, the latter of which also had The Really Loud House nominated for the episode "Louds in Love", which featured Luna's relationship with Sam as a supporting plot element. == See also ==