The New Women of Star Wars
Disney’s Star Wars: Mandalorian has been raising the bar on their female characters and abolishing the image set by the last 3 “Episode Sequels” (no spoilers)
It’s been too long since “The Holdo Manuver” was the “Most heroic thing a woman could do was sacrifice herself for the greater good” or Leia stabbing herself to “get across to her son” with some “Jedi Seppuku” or Brienne of Tarth in Chrome falling down a hole after a total of 5 lines across 3 movies that gave us all a bad taste in our mouth for both of those films. However, enter The Mandalorian Season 2!
Actually, we had few strong woman character from Season 1 like Gina Carano’s ex-shock trooper and the Femme Mando “Armorer” but now we have Bo-Katan. A Mandolorian from a different sect whom aids our protagonist. Unlike other female character that are looking to “Sacrifice themselves” or “Run” from their problems ala “Rose Tiko ramming Fin out of the way of the Laser-Ram” we see a woman driven by more than fear and a desire to escape the harsh nature of the galaxy.
This is great! Finally, we can have a strong lady represented in media that isn’t a cobbled together peace-meal “Formula for normalization” that we’ve been seeing so frequently in entertainment media. Not only that but the content isn’t just made for children but adults too. However, not everyone is happy with the representation.
While Lucasfilm and Disney have made many missteps (including the “Galaxy’s Edge” additions to their theme parks) in the past few years this isn’t one of them. Not only is the character pivotal in the grand scheme of story progression for the Mandalorian but the fact that there is a whole other story on her end is a great way to prepare content centered on this character and her own storyline.
There have been a few detractors. We’re not going to give them any publicity.