Most humans picked the Empire side. Many, in fact, fell for the Empire's human high culture propaganda. While the Rebellion could barely number in the millions or billions, the Empire's version of the Hitler Youth were in the trillions.
Maybe as a proportion but that seems to be the case for the galaxy as a whole. Humans are well more than half the galactic population and exotics the rest. Another sign of human supremacy rightly recognized by the Empire
The greatness is recognized by the aliens as well; most of them who did fight in the Galactic Civil War chose the Empire, mostly because the Empire pays better. Sure, the Stormtroopers won't let aliens join them, and they probably think the aliens stink like shit, but they're willing to fork over a fortune to have aliens fighting for them. Hell, even long after Endor, you had no shortage of alien mercenaries fighting for the Empire, as Galactic Battlegrounds, Jedi Knight, Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Academy showed.
I think in the old EU the Empire Remnant at least under Daala would also allow aliens and women join the Stormtrooper Corps, and I think generally the Remnant was more open for non-humans post Palpatine.
Fel Empire blew the gates wide open; you had alien Stormtroopers and admirals all over the place.
Top Gun Maverick is a very B+, maybe B- film. Its shot and scripted in a way that doesn't make you hate yourself, but it offers very little in the way of elevating itself above base competence still milks the og film for cheap memberberries (but atleast understands how to milk them properly).
Tom Cruise is a nutjob but by all accounts he was the one who wanted to make a by-the-numbers "base competence" action blockbuster and wouldn't budge from that. It is the most important mainstream film of the last ~5 years because it demonstrated that Hollywood can still make a competent mainstream movie if someone powerful enough in the industry is wholly dedicated to tardwrangling the production, and it made a mountain of money doing so
also that china can go suck a nut and a film doesn't need to kowtow to the CCP to be successful by keeping the Taiwan flag on the jacket.
They're still ass-mad that their "subversive" SW movie got ass-whooped by the fans and led to Disney Star Wars desperately fan-pandering to the point they moved in the opposite direction.
Don't be sad Star Wars is lame and gay, be happy JJ Abrams was publicly revealed as the talentless hack he is.
Honestly in retrospect I can't blame Rian Johnson when Abrams literally gave him nothing to work with, and ending the first movie of a new trilogy on a cliffhanger was extremely stupid.
"It's like Breaking Bad but in Star Wars!" - Disney PR. Maul died when Kenobi cut him in half. Fuck you, Furloni.
"Ok I brutally killed 30 underlings because they didn't accomplish the impossible task I set for them, sure. But atleast I didn't misgender someone."
He had a blank canvas, so I actually disagree with him on having nothing to work with personally. He could have done anything with those empty boxes, having a sort of freedom in that regard. He essentially was given full control on how the story would enter its conclusion and set the stakes. However I fully understand him choosing violence.
I think its too shallow because we have already seen this shit done better.
