Yup. It's a reflection of modern culture, sadly enough.
Every woman has to be a "boss babe" or a "strong, independent woman" with no flaws or development. It's ingrained into these writers' and directors' minds because they either genuinely believe in it or are spineless for going along with a narrative.
Let's not go into the sexual aspect of it all, too (e.g. being a cum-dumpster is to be celebrated; why men are avoiding deluded women who think they're a ten-ten when they're Jabba the Hutt's sister, Jabba the Slut, et cetera).
Another good example? The recent Predator movie, Prey.
The protagonist is
already a strong, independent 'waman' who is
already a good hunter; who wants to be a leader of her tribe; who wants to do this, and that, and thensome; who is scorning the "patriarchy" of her tribe. In reality, back then a woman trying these things would literally have the
shit slapped out of her and told to go make the teepee already. That's just how the culture was at that time.
They could have done some great development with her as a character. They could have had her as the stereotypical homeworker which was the norm at the time, but have her rise above the challenges, develop as a person/character, and overcome the final obstacle (the Yautja).
Imagine a sister who is maternal and feminine. Imagine her seeing her brother and others mercilessly killed by the Predator one day near their village, as she's preparing the home. She's ignored as she's a woman and unarmed (the Predator code). Her brother's and their kins' skulls are taken as they're literally torn from their corpses in front of her, spraying her with blood. Imagine her emotionally hardening and becoming like steel over the course of the film as she trains and develops herself, ala the Hero's Journey.
And at the end, imagine seeing all that pay off -- a now battle-hardened woman standing tall over the defeated Predator... who then sadly buries all of her brother and their kin so that their spirits may finally rest in peace (yes, that's a bit of a stereotype, but it works), and then she leads the remainder of her tribe out of necessity/preparation for more possible Predators to arrive.
Even with the fucking Predator himself they could've done so much more:
- A youngblood looking to prove himself, so he only drops with his wrist-blades, and has to make do with his mask and whatever he can craft using local materials (it could even be a female Yautja, which would've added more depth) -- we see him being given a warm send-off by his clanmates as he jumps or walks off the ramp of their ship
- An aging elder going on a hunt with the bare essentials, and we see him being given a respectful send-off by his clan-mates at the start as he disembarks
- A disgraced Yautja being exiled or a task to redeem himself; we see him being stripped of his armaments and equipment by his clanmates at the start in disgrace, before being marched off the ship (see Predator: Concrete Jungle as an example)
Minor character development could be implied in visual cues; for example, when he sees the main character, instead of outright killing her, he seemingly just considers it by looking at her through his mask's vision before walking off (a good example of this non-communicative development is, amusingly enough, in Doom and Doom: Eternal, with the Slayer's actions in-game).
Instead? "lolnope another primitive subspecies to excuse it using bows and arrows and other crude shit than the plasma guns and high-tech hunting gear seen before".
Anyway, we've seen this with Ellen Ripley and, as a more poignant example, Sarah Connor in Terminators 1, 2, and Chronicles (not Genyflop, though that can be excused as she was raised from a kid off-screen to be like that [excused doesn't mean good, however]). Hell, even in Woke Fate we saw her at the (bad end) of her journey in being a bitter, old woman (from being a youthful, naive waitress) -- paradoxically, we see the opposite in the woke shit examples of an androgynous protector and a Mary Sue illegal migrant John Connor replacement, lol.
They worked out fucking great, and they're hailed as idols of being strong women in fiction.
But anyway, I digress: what sounds better? The above example of a woman rising above challenges, learning, and overcoming the final obstacle... or the modern day interjection we received in Prey?
But, nope; "lol modern woman strong", and this is interjected into almost all media now, including Star Wars. Ahsoka pissed on
all of that, and that's why she's hated.
