The anti-“woke” complaints surrounding Star Wars games have reached a point of absurdity where critics are condemning foundational elements of storytelling that have defined the franchise for decades.
The Steam discussion around Star Wars: Zero Company exposes something rotten in gaming discourse. Players are condemning a game they know nothing about because it might contain diversity. They’re treating the inclusion of non-white human characters and female protagonists as ideological contamination, apparently forgetting that Star Wars has featured both since 1977.
This represents a fundamental confusion about what Star Wars has always been. The franchise built its reputation on stories about diverse coalitions fighting authoritarian regimes. Princess Leia commanded military operations and executed rescue missions. The Rebel Alliance included multiple species working together against human supremacist Imperials. The expanded universe spent decades exploring non-human perspectives and complex political scenarios across hundreds of books and games.
Zero Company features a Tognath Jedi Padawan, a Mandalorian gunslinger, an Umbaran sniper, and a clone trooper working together during the Clone Wars. This roster would fit comfortably in any Star Wars story from the past forty years. Complaining about this character selection requires either complete ignorance of Star Wars lore or deliberate bad faith argumentation.
The Manufactured Crisis
The Steam thread demonstrates how anti-diversity sentiment operates on pure speculation. The original poster admits conducting no research beyond checking corporate ownership structures. They condemn EA and Disney for supporting diversity initiatives, then extrapolate this into proof that any associated game must be propaganda. This is delusional conspiracy thinking dressed up as media criticism.
Multiple users in the thread acknowledge they haven’t seen gameplay footage, character details, or story information. They’re upset about theoretical diversity based on shareholder analysis. This approach treats any representation beyond white male humans as inherently political, while considering white male representation as neutral default. The double standard is obvious and tiresome.
When confronted with Star Wars’ historical diversity, these critics shift goalposts constantly. First diversity itself is the problem, then it’s “forced” diversity, then it’s “modern” diversity, then it’s about timing or implementation or corporate motivations. The complaints evolve to avoid engaging with evidence, suggesting the real issue isn’t storytelling quality but the presence of non-traditional protagonists.
The Historical Record
Star Wars has never been subtle about its political themes. George Lucas explicitly modelled the Empire on Nazi Germany and the Vietnam-era American government. He cast the Rebellion as an underdog coalition fighting institutional oppression. The original trilogy features torture, genocide, religious persecution, and political resistance as central plot elements. Anyone surprised by political themes in Star Wars hasn’t been paying attention.
The diversity was there from the beginning. Princess Leia led diplomatic missions, planned military operations, and executed rescue attempts while most male characters stood around looking confused. Chewbacca served as Han Solo’s co-pilot and mechanical expert, demolishing any notion that the rebellion was human-exclusive. Yoda, the most powerful Jedi Master in the galaxy, was a two-foot-tall green alien who spoke in inverted syntax. These weren’t token inclusions but central characters driving major plot developments.
The Empire Strikes Back introduced Lando Calrissian specifically because Lucas recognized the need for greater racial diversity. Return of the Jedi expanded this with Admiral Ackbar commanding the rebel fleet and multiple alien pilots flying combat missions against the Death Star. The cantina scene in the original film showcased dozens of alien species coexisting in a single location, establishing the galaxy’s multi-species nature as fundamental worldbuilding.
The prequel trilogy doubled down on this approach. Queen Amidala ruled Naboo as a teenage elected monarch who negotiated treaties, commanded armies, and fought on front lines. The Galactic Senate featured representatives from hundreds of species, with major political roles filled by non-humans like Senator Jar Jar Binks and various alien council members. Mace Windu sat on the Jedi Council as one of the most respected masters in the order. The Clone Wars depicted conflicts between multi-species coalitions with complex political motivations.
The expanded universe reinforced these patterns across thousands of stories. Female Jedi like Mara Jade and Jaina Solo commanded respect as complex protagonists. Alien perspectives dominated series like X-Wing and New Jedi Order. Political intrigue drove major storylines in books like Thrawn and Darth Plagueis. The franchise has always treated diversity and political complexity as features, not bugs.
Claiming Star Wars “died in 2012” when Disney acquired it ignores the prequel trilogy’s diverse casting and explicit political commentary. Those films featured a multi-species senate, strong female characters like Padmé Amidala, and direct parallels between fictional and real-world authoritarian tactics. The political themes were so obvious that critics complained about them being heavy-handed. Pretending they didn’t exist requires selective memory.
The Quality Question
The legitimate criticism buried under anti-diversity hysteria concerns storytelling quality. Players care whether characters feel authentic, whether plots make sense, and whether games function properly. These are valid concerns that deserve serious discussion. Unfortunately, they get lost when debates focus on character demographics instead of character development.
Zero Company might have excellent writing that makes its diverse cast feel natural and compelling. It might have terrible writing that reduces characters to demographic checkboxes. We won’t know until we play it. Prejudging the quality based on the mere presence of non-human or female characters prevents any meaningful evaluation of what the game actually offers.
The Steam discussion reveals how diversity panic undermines legitimate criticism. When players announce they’ll boycott games based purely on character demographics, they remove themselves from conversations about gameplay mechanics, narrative structure, or technical implementation. This self-removal by extremists creates space for more thoughtful critics to engage meaningfully with the content. Fewer bad-faith actors shouting about demographics means more room for legitimate criticism about gameplay, story structure, and technical quality.
The Real Stakes
This manufactured controversy damages both gaming discourse and the broader cultural conversation around representation. When every inclusion of diverse characters gets labelled as ideological warfare, creators face pressure to avoid representation entirely or to include it defensively. Both approaches produce worse storytelling than treating diversity as a normal aspect of character creation.
Star Wars works best when it embraces its foundational themes about diverse coalitions resisting oppression. Games like Knights of the Old Republic and Republic Commando succeeded by exploring these themes through compelling characters and situations. Zero Company has the potential to continue this tradition, but only if discussions focus on execution quality instead of demographic paranoia.
The gaming community deserves better than pre-emptive boycotts based on corporate ownership charts. Players who genuinely care about Star Wars should evaluate games based on how well they capture the franchise’s spirit, not whether they include enough or too few characters from specific demographic categories. The current discourse serves neither good storytelling nor meaningful criticism.
The absurdity of condemning Star Wars for being “woke” when diversity has defined the franchise for forty years reveals how far gaming discourse has drifted from substance. Zero Company will succeed or fail based on its writing, mechanics, and execution – the same standards that should apply to every game. The real question isn’t whether it features diverse characters, but whether those characters serve compelling stories worth telling. That conversation is worth having, but only after we move past manufactured outrage about representation that’s been core to Star Wars since the beginning.