As soon as those women appeared onscreen I knew, instinctively, that at some point, someone associated with Skywalker must already have hinted at the film’s “LGBT representation” early in its press cycle. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker-the ninth film in the storied Star Wars saga, and a sure-fire box office hit, per Mickey Mouse’s grand design-was Google “star wars gay kiss.” Not because I needed to verify that the moment in question really happened-I’d seen it for myself: a brief flash of two women kissing late in the movie, among a crowd of characters, humanoid and not, all of them hugging, kissing, and cheering away. Another hit movie, another crumb of gay pandering, another round of the usual complaints.