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Notes -
Honestly? I've never really had a soft spot for female action heroes. I say this being a comic book nerd who did actually enjoy Storm, Wanda and Barbara Gordon's arcs in Lifedeath, House of M and Oracle: Year One respectively. But female power was not something I found "fascinating", it certainly hasn't been a novelty for as long as I've lived. It always felt like artificially imposed social pressure rather than organic interest. Also never liked the idea - long before it became an industry mandate - of established male led action franchises handing over the symbolic and narrative center to a female successor either, well before that became an industry mandate. I noped out of TFA once that bait and switch happened, way before TLJ (in)famously dialled it up to 11. Now we can certainly argue which trilogy probably handled narrative execution, pacing, directorial vision, dialogue beats, subplots and cinematography better than the other.
But none of these "safe critiques" address the foundational rewrite at the heart of the Sequels, that Star Wars was a boys' IP. Boys loved it because it centred on what boys disproportionately enjoy: spacefaring civilisation, starcrafts, galactic battles, trench runs, lightsaber combats, training hierarchies, rivalry, sacrifice, and a classical male hero growing into responsibility and status. The Original Trilogy understood what young boys (their prime audience) aspired to be, that is why it is so timeless. Over a decade into the culture shift that's thoroughly penalised every instance of male heroism and ambition as "moral crimes" to be corrected, I think it's totally fair to just sit back, crack a beer and say, "I'm tired, boss".
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