Its how they do the female leads. They still have to be “hot,” of course. And in order to be “strong?” Well obviously masculinity is the strong gender, and OBVIOUSLY masculinity is toxic. So a “strong female character” is either just toxic masculinity with a pretty face pasted on, or a beige parody of stoicism.

Better a white female lead than a black male lead, amirite China? And Russia? And Saudi Arabia? …And Amerikkka?

If it didn’t demote Finn from a growing protagonist and lead love interest to a clown who gets to have the demeaning side plot so fans could have their emo boy instead, and if Rei’s barely-there character development didn’t fly into that brick wall, and if Poe’s moral of the story wasn’t to learn how to bow to authoritarianism, I might have agreed with you.

Classic Shell could have a comeback