I am a lot more forgiving of diversity, women being able to do stuff that makes no sense because of Sci-Fi. It can all be explained away via futuristic tech, human expansion among the stars etc... As long as they abide by the rules of the physics they set up. Best and clear example I can point out is anything in Star Wars, but specifically Gina Carano's fight with The Mandalorian. She punches the Mandalorian in his helmet (made of Beskar Steel which is supposed to be able to stop Light Sabers), with a bare fist and knocks him down. No. Not buying it. Luke Skywalker couldn't pull that off without the Force. Girl Boss bullshit and even I like Gina Carano's character, but they break the rules of the universe in a way that is slap-stick nonsense.
Many such cases.
What I cannot get on board with is when they shoehorn modern sensibilities and ideology in what is supposed to be a futuristic aesthetic. This is most notable as the Porsche, Addidas and CD Roms being bandied about. I don't want to think about Earth in the past in this way as much as I want to think about the possibilities of the Human origin story on Planet Earth as we explore the stars in the search of ourselves. Even worse and something I will never get on board for is post-modern political identity bullshit. This is Naughty Dog and you are damned sure that will be a promise and a premise, right down to the behavior of the protagonist acting like a petulant victim being [oppression]-splained about something as they suck on their empty soda in protest; Modern Audiences. There will be intersectional messaging and it will stand out and I will point it out as it appears.
You are going to have to deal, too bad.
Nobody cares if a woman is a protagonist, but everyone understands the message today because the useful idiots have overplayed their hand and companies like Naughty Dog are happy to infuse slop at every level they can for their California Message. It is as stupid as Jennifer Lawrence putting her foot in her mouth when she made a controversial comment about "
nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie" during the filming of Hunger Games. She implied she was the first female action star, ignoring all that have come before her from Alien to Tomb Raider to the movies like "To Catch a Thief" from 1955 where Grace Kelly defied the supposed gender stereotypes the modern era decries, because she kept every bit of her femininity intact.
You can get away with a lot in Science-Fiction tales that you cannot in Fantasy. Sci-Fi is more forgiving, I am more forgiving in Science Fiction universes, unfortunately the powers that be know what they are doing, they are leaning into it, and there will be the pixel masturbators who will eat it up because colors and lights WAOW!, while the rest of us are rolling our eyes at the message that is all pervasive. What I find funny is how they finally got a modern era Car manufacture into the universe, as if Porsche would be the go to space barge people want instead of something a lot more creative and with it's own lore.
It's not as egregious as this:
But it still has that feeling, even in the future.