Space Nazis Get Woke
The First Order are equal opportunity intergalactic fascists
I just saw The Rise of Skywalker and I didn’t like it. I didn’t expect to like it, but I figured I’d at least enjoy it to the extent one can enjoy eating from a trough of big-budget Hollywood slop. The visuals were decent enough. JJ Abrams, the animators and the cinematographers did a yeoman’s job of interpreting the classic Star Wars aesthetic in an exciting way, and that classic John Williams score makes my spine tingle a bit to this day.
Still, it’s hard for me to silence my inner pedant that wants to pick apart every little plot hole and inconsistency in a film—especially when there are oh so many loose threads to pull on. The Emperor used his dark Force powers to raise a fleet of mini Death Star Star Destroyers. Fine. Whatever. How the hell did he staff all of them?
But I found myself getting hung up on one thing in particular: It was just weird seeing the First Order cast as some kind of post-racial, sexually egalitarian fascist organization. There’s one scene where something like a board of directors is meeting, and about four out of 10 are women. One is a woman of color.
This doesn’t bug me for the same reason it bugs Youtube reactionaries like Stefan Molyneux or those white supremacist freaks who lost their shit over John…
