"The Problem With Rey"
"THE PROBLEM WITH REY"
I suspect that many do not want to hear or read this. But I have to say something. I feel that Lucasfilm and J.J. Abrams had went TOO FAR in their creation of Rey for the 2015 movie, "STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS". She is a Mary Sue. She is too perfect. And I am not afraid to admit it.
Why is it that STAR WARS fans demand that the saga’s leading women characters should be written as ideal or perfect? That is not a good idea for a well written character. A well written character should have a balance of flaws and virtues. Rey is ALL VIRTUES. She has no flaws. Not really. In a short space of time, she had learned to fly a spacecraft - the Millennium Falcon - in a short space of time and tap into the Force in order to use the Jedi Mind Trick and use a lightsaber to defeat an opponent already trained with the ways of the Force - namely Kylo Ren aka Ben Solo. If it were not for her interactions with the former stormtrooper Finn, I would have found her completely boring.
Matters did not improve in the 2017 movie, "STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII - THE LAST JEDI". Write-director Rian Johnson's script had Rey pay a visit to Jedi Master Luke Skywalker on the planet Ahch-To. Rey was there to receive more lessons in the ways of the Force. Unfortunately, Rey's lessons barely lasted a day before she left, following a quarrel with Luke over his nephew, Kylo Ren. Unfortunately, Rey's Mary Sue qualities had reared its ugly head when she and Kylo engaged in a major lightsaber duel against Snoke's Praetorian Guards. Once again, Rey managed to effectively fight against Snoke's martial artists, trained to combat Force users, despite her lack of training. She was also able to destroy Luke's old lightsaber before Kylo Ren could get his hands on it.
In my review of the 1983 movie, "STAR WARS: EPISODE VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI", I had criticized the level of Luke's skills as a Force user. I pointed out that I found his skills with the lightsaber and other Force abilities unrealistic, due to his limited training with Yoda and the year he spent using Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi texts to continue his knowledge of the Force. Instead of resuming his training with Yoda, Luke resorted to texts to continue his Jedi training. While very few people had complained about this, I did. I found it unrealistic that Luke could learn more about the Force and increasing his skills without a hands-on mentor or teacher. With Luke dying at the end of "THE LAST JEDI", I had feared Rey would follow in his footsteps. Fortunately, the last Sequel Trilogy movie established that during the year between "THE LAST JEDI" and "STAR WARS: EPISODE IX - RISE OF SKYWALKER", Rey had received hands on Jedi training from Leia Organa.
This is why I prefer a character like Bathsheba Everdene from Thomas Hardy’s 1874 novel, "Far From the Madding Crowd". As a character, Bathsheba was an interesting mixture of virtues and flaws. She was a better written character than someone like Rey. Even STAR WARS characters like Leia Organa and Padme Amidala managed to be better written, due to the fact that the two characters possessed both virtues and flaws - despite fandom’s demand that they be regarded as ideal.
As for Rey, I believe her potential now in ruins. Before the release of "STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII - THE LAST JEDI", I had hoped and prayed that Rian Johnson would make her character more complex. Ambiguous. But he failed. J.J. Abrams had returned to serve as the talent behind the last Sequel Trilogy movie, "STAR WARS: EPISODE IX - RISE OF THE SKYWALKER". And aside from establishing Rey's Jedi training, he pretty much ruined her character with an confusing and disturbing obsession with Kylo Ren and a terrible and badly written surprise about her bloodline. No last minute attempt at ambiguity for her did not save the character. I find this unsurprising. I also feel that the STAR WARS Sequel Trilogy is shot . . . like Rey.