That's Captain Brienne To You, Nerf Herder

May the Fourth be with you, kittens. Yes, having already endured “It’s Gonna Be May,” the meme-iest month of the year continues with Star Wars Day. This one I’ve got somewhat more affection for given that that galaxy far, far away was totally my jam growing up. Anyway, in honor of the big day and the new movie here’s badass “Game of Thrones” actress Gwendoline Christie (that’s Brienne of Tarth to you) as the newly revealed Captain Phasma. Yep, she’s a baddie – probably. If Gwendoline makes a career of playing strong women in suits of armor I’m totally OK with that.

But what’s most exciting about this character reveal (and more details about Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Lupita Nyong’o’s new CGI character Maz) is that poor Princess Leia (and, in the prequels, her mom) are no longer the only girls in the universe. For too long major franchises have created token female characters that standalone in a sea of maleness. (Same can be said for minority representation – and should.) Sure, these singular female roles might be great characters, but each one was given the task of shouldering her gender’s representation alone. And that’s stupid because that’s not how the world works.

Anyway. So cheers to Captain Phasma. I hope to see a lot more of her behind that suit of armor. And I mean that mostly not in a dirty way. Mostly.