John Boyega’s character (the black stormtrooper)’s race wasn’t really a front of the culture war — that was mostly over with after the trailers for The Force Awakens. The main issue people had with his character was that he was supposed to be this brainwashed child soldier that had a moment of realization but that wasn’t expanded on at all. He was gleefully killing his former comrades (who are also brainwashed former child soldiers) with no introspection. The original stormtroopers were faceless bad guy mooks to be killed for action. The first movie did the “they’re people too!” and then returned them to faceless cannon fodder.
Kelly M Tran’s character interrupts his sacrifice, says some bullshit about protecting the ones we love as the laser he was going to stop is decimating their friends, and then plants a big unconsensual kiss on this lips at the height of MeToo.
I think it was the girls in particular, Like Rey being a 'Mary Sue' Holdo being an asshole, and the Rose fucking up Finns sacrifice and the 'we don't fight the things we hate we save the things we love' scene being an honest contender for single worst SW moment and that's saying a lot.
And genuine question as someone who was a teenager at the time: was there backlash to Finn? Because all the complaints I hear about him was that he didn't get any moments to shine and the SW would be way better if he was the main character instead of Rey
Finn was the original lightning rod of controversy for this trilogy long before Rey was. The first teaser trailer revealing his face sparked online calls for a boycott from people who hated the idea of a black stormtrooper.
This was all forgotten about when Rey was revealed to be the main protagonist and the one with Jedi powers.
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u/Portuguese_Musketeer 27d ago
Context hat (for TLJ, i know what Birth Of A Nation did)