Additionally, for a supposedly controversy-avoidant franchise, Star Wars has featured villains clearly based on real world monsters, with the Imperial officers just a Swastika armband away from looking exactly like the Nazi high command. The Force Awakens made this analogy even more unavoidable with the clearly Triumph of the Will-inspired scene on Starkiller Base (also “the First Order” is the most neo-Nazi-ass name I’ve ever heard). It also addressed radicalization for the first time in the form of Kylo Ren. It’s very difficult not to look at Ren and his relationship with his parents and think of the young men who’ve joined ISIS, or mass shooters like Elliot Rodger or Dylann Roof.

So if Star Wars can depict touchy and controversial subjects like those above, why not the harmless relationship between two men or two women? Or someone choosing to live as the gender they identify as?

Escapist as Star Wars might be, it is as influenced by ideology as any other work of fiction. The Lord of the Rings has a very concrete environmental message. Die Hard is saying there is a specific way police should use force and handle terrorist scenarios. Batman is about a super-rich white man using his endless funds to make his city a better place (and/or beat up the mentally ill). You can’t tell a story without including some measure of ideology in it. Star Wars is no different.