Everything Luke can do, Rey can do better, Rey can do everything better than Han
One more thing I have to get off my chest.
So, Ye Olde Internet is raging with the question, Is Rey a Mary Sue? The clear answer to that is: possibly. It’s hard to say, because it’s hard to know for sure what a Mary Sue is. There are so many definitions around that it can be stretched to apply almost anywhere. However, most people, at least most fanfic readers, will recognize a Mary Sue instinctively. Whatever else a Mary Sue may or may not be, whether she is a true author self-insert or merely a character the author got carried away with, she is certainly one thing: intrusive. A Mary Sue dominates a story in a way that warps the rules of her world and diminishes other characters. In fanfic, a Mary Sue steals the limelight from the canon characters and that’s how we recognize her.
The Force Awakens is not a fanfic, but it finds itself in a structurally similar position: It is the continuation of a well-established story in a well-established fictional universe, done by someone other than the original creator, and introducing new characters. Therefore the Mary Sue question is justifiably raised. There is no absolutely right or wrong answer to this question, but there is, as always in such matters, the issue of textual evidence.
What is the textual evidence in this case? Many people have pointed out that Rey can do too much, too perfectly, but I think that is not the core of the matter. The crucial point is this: Rey, in true Mary Sue style, takes away from the original characters. In this step-by-step rehash of A New Hope, Rey plays the role of Luke, but she tops him on all counts. “Everything Luke can do, Rey can do better.” She even outdoes him in terms of angsty past. While both do not know their parents, at least Luke was brought up in a caring foster family, but Poor!Rey has been abandoned (and never seems to have made any friends, I wonder why…). Luke entered the universe with a wide-eyed naivety and relied heavily on guidance from Obiwan and Yoda, but Independent!Rey don't need nobody. Luke was exceptionally gifted in the Force, but he needed at least some training, while Jedi!Rey achieves instant Obiwan level. Luke needs to be rescued by Obiwan, by Leia, by Han, even by the droids (from the trash compactor) but Awesome!Rey rescues herself every time. Even at the end when the Millennium Falcon arrives, it’s not a real rescue but more a case of, Oh, here’s my lift. She takes away from Han and Chewey when she bests them at handling the Falcon, which they have flown all their lives, a few minutes after she first sets foot on it. She takes away from Leia when she goes on the mission to find Luke, which should by right have been Leia's. Let's not have his beloved twin sister go, let's send a total stranger, because she is MysteriouslyMissingDaughter!Rey. She even takes away from the Millennium Falcon - it’s something like a running joke in the original trilogy that while pretty much everyone who rides on it tinkers with it at some point, nobody actually seems to know how to repair it. The Falcon has a mind of its own - until Supermechanic!Rey comes along. On account of this habit of diminishing the original characters, I will call her a Mary Sue.
There is one scene that illustrates this issue perfectly. Towards the end of the movie, the survivors return to the rebel base and are met by Leia. Leia, undoubtedly, has already received the news that a) the new death star has been destroyed (again…) and b) Han has been killed. Now four named characters have returned:
Do you see how ludicrous this is? She should have hugged Chewey! Obviously she should have hugged Chewey. These two will have to console each other over Han’s death. But Rey gets Chewey’s hug. Chewey is completely sidelined, he doesn’t even appear on the screen as far as I recall. Now the Rey apologists will undoubtedly have some excuse like that Chewey was away to the toilet or something, but that is irrelevant: The script writers chose not to have Chewey in this scene. They chose Rey instead. It was the wrong choice. It’s not about whether or not Rey is “too awesome” or unrealistically competent. It has nothing to do with whether we can cope with “strong” female characters. It is the fact that Rey gets to steal an interaction which by the internal logic of the story belonged to another character. And the same goes for Rey, not Leia, setting out to find Luke.
Yes, yes, Rey apologists, you’re going to say Leia felt through the Force that Rey is her long-lost niece. If that be so, if Leia and by extension Luke know about Rey’s existence, how in the galaxy did they not search for her? Oh, you say they were told she was dead? And they didn’t feel through the Force that - oh, never mind, any excuse will do for Rey. Leia is going to love Rey. I find it particularly galling that the death of Han is handled in such a casual manner, and that Rey falls into Leia’s arms, filling the place Han vacated before he set out on the mission. The movie tells us on all channels that we no longer need Han now we have Rey. As if Rey could ever take Han’s place.
I have seen people accuse others of misogyny for calling Rey a Mary Sue. “Oh, you terrible sexists, you cannot abide it when a female character is awesome.” Oh, poppycock. I have feminist credentials from here to Endor. I have no issue with her being “too awesome.” I have an issue with her role being unduly dominant. One of the things that makes Rey’s dominance in the film so annoying is that in many respects she isn’t really all that awesome, she only gets to seem awesome courtesy of the script writers’ cheating. She benefits way too much from lucky coincidences and all the way through the film she merely responds to circumstances; she never has a plan but always comes out smelling of roses. Take a moment to compare her to a truly awesome female character, Firefly’s Zoe Washburne. Zoe is kick-ass awesome both in a gun fight and in a fist fight, she has more brains and better sense than her captain, she can make incredibly difficult decisions on the spot, she takes charge when she needs to, she has nerves of steel, she can keep a cool head in the face of the most heart-breaking personal tragedy and she is, as a bonus, exquisitely beautiful, comfortable with her sexuality and happily married to a regular nice dude. But she does not take over the franchise. She can fly a shuttle, but she doesn’t out-pilot Wash. She can do some emergency surgery, but she doesn’t out-doctor Simon. She knows what’s what on the ship, but she doesn’t out-mechanic Kaylee. She has sex appeal, but she doesn’t out-sex-appeal Inara. She is a bona fide awesome strong female character who is part of a team. She is in the series to do Zoe-things while the other characters do other-character-things.
A Mary Sue on the other hand is a character who, like a Black Hole, draws in all the attention and gives nothing back, delegating the rest of the team to the role of cheerleaders or backup singers. Is Rey one? Opinions may differ, but to dismiss the notion out of hand is to dismiss the textual evidence - and in many cases replace it with non-canonical speculation about what may explain all that awesomeness. Rey may not draw in everything, but she draws in way more than what is her due, she does Rey-things, and Luke-things, and Han-things, and Chewey-things, and Obiwan-things, and Leia-things and all that’s left to do for the others is to watch with their mouths open. I’m left feeling that Han, Leia and Luke are all portrayed as failures just so that Rey can shine. Whether we want to call that a Mary Sue or not, it sure is annoying.
So, Ye Olde Internet is raging with the question, Is Rey a Mary Sue? The clear answer to that is: possibly. It’s hard to say, because it’s hard to know for sure what a Mary Sue is. There are so many definitions around that it can be stretched to apply almost anywhere. However, most people, at least most fanfic readers, will recognize a Mary Sue instinctively. Whatever else a Mary Sue may or may not be, whether she is a true author self-insert or merely a character the author got carried away with, she is certainly one thing: intrusive. A Mary Sue dominates a story in a way that warps the rules of her world and diminishes other characters. In fanfic, a Mary Sue steals the limelight from the canon characters and that’s how we recognize her.
The Force Awakens is not a fanfic, but it finds itself in a structurally similar position: It is the continuation of a well-established story in a well-established fictional universe, done by someone other than the original creator, and introducing new characters. Therefore the Mary Sue question is justifiably raised. There is no absolutely right or wrong answer to this question, but there is, as always in such matters, the issue of textual evidence.
What is the textual evidence in this case? Many people have pointed out that Rey can do too much, too perfectly, but I think that is not the core of the matter. The crucial point is this: Rey, in true Mary Sue style, takes away from the original characters. In this step-by-step rehash of A New Hope, Rey plays the role of Luke, but she tops him on all counts. “Everything Luke can do, Rey can do better.” She even outdoes him in terms of angsty past. While both do not know their parents, at least Luke was brought up in a caring foster family, but Poor!Rey has been abandoned (and never seems to have made any friends, I wonder why…). Luke entered the universe with a wide-eyed naivety and relied heavily on guidance from Obiwan and Yoda, but Independent!Rey don't need nobody. Luke was exceptionally gifted in the Force, but he needed at least some training, while Jedi!Rey achieves instant Obiwan level. Luke needs to be rescued by Obiwan, by Leia, by Han, even by the droids (from the trash compactor) but Awesome!Rey rescues herself every time. Even at the end when the Millennium Falcon arrives, it’s not a real rescue but more a case of, Oh, here’s my lift. She takes away from Han and Chewey when she bests them at handling the Falcon, which they have flown all their lives, a few minutes after she first sets foot on it. She takes away from Leia when she goes on the mission to find Luke, which should by right have been Leia's. Let's not have his beloved twin sister go, let's send a total stranger, because she is MysteriouslyMissingDaughter!Rey. She even takes away from the Millennium Falcon - it’s something like a running joke in the original trilogy that while pretty much everyone who rides on it tinkers with it at some point, nobody actually seems to know how to repair it. The Falcon has a mind of its own - until Supermechanic!Rey comes along. On account of this habit of diminishing the original characters, I will call her a Mary Sue.
There is one scene that illustrates this issue perfectly. Towards the end of the movie, the survivors return to the rebel base and are met by Leia. Leia, undoubtedly, has already received the news that a) the new death star has been destroyed (again…) and b) Han has been killed. Now four named characters have returned:
- Chewbacca, Han’s lifelong close friend with whom Leia herself has lived through many adventures and whom she has known since she was twenty.
- Poe, her best pilot, whom presumably she has known for some time, and who was instrumental in destroying the death star.
- Finn, the renegade storm trooper who has given her valuable information prior to this mission.
- Rey, a stranger.
Do you see how ludicrous this is? She should have hugged Chewey! Obviously she should have hugged Chewey. These two will have to console each other over Han’s death. But Rey gets Chewey’s hug. Chewey is completely sidelined, he doesn’t even appear on the screen as far as I recall. Now the Rey apologists will undoubtedly have some excuse like that Chewey was away to the toilet or something, but that is irrelevant: The script writers chose not to have Chewey in this scene. They chose Rey instead. It was the wrong choice. It’s not about whether or not Rey is “too awesome” or unrealistically competent. It has nothing to do with whether we can cope with “strong” female characters. It is the fact that Rey gets to steal an interaction which by the internal logic of the story belonged to another character. And the same goes for Rey, not Leia, setting out to find Luke.
Yes, yes, Rey apologists, you’re going to say Leia felt through the Force that Rey is her long-lost niece. If that be so, if Leia and by extension Luke know about Rey’s existence, how in the galaxy did they not search for her? Oh, you say they were told she was dead? And they didn’t feel through the Force that - oh, never mind, any excuse will do for Rey. Leia is going to love Rey. I find it particularly galling that the death of Han is handled in such a casual manner, and that Rey falls into Leia’s arms, filling the place Han vacated before he set out on the mission. The movie tells us on all channels that we no longer need Han now we have Rey. As if Rey could ever take Han’s place.
I have seen people accuse others of misogyny for calling Rey a Mary Sue. “Oh, you terrible sexists, you cannot abide it when a female character is awesome.” Oh, poppycock. I have feminist credentials from here to Endor. I have no issue with her being “too awesome.” I have an issue with her role being unduly dominant. One of the things that makes Rey’s dominance in the film so annoying is that in many respects she isn’t really all that awesome, she only gets to seem awesome courtesy of the script writers’ cheating. She benefits way too much from lucky coincidences and all the way through the film she merely responds to circumstances; she never has a plan but always comes out smelling of roses. Take a moment to compare her to a truly awesome female character, Firefly’s Zoe Washburne. Zoe is kick-ass awesome both in a gun fight and in a fist fight, she has more brains and better sense than her captain, she can make incredibly difficult decisions on the spot, she takes charge when she needs to, she has nerves of steel, she can keep a cool head in the face of the most heart-breaking personal tragedy and she is, as a bonus, exquisitely beautiful, comfortable with her sexuality and happily married to a regular nice dude. But she does not take over the franchise. She can fly a shuttle, but she doesn’t out-pilot Wash. She can do some emergency surgery, but she doesn’t out-doctor Simon. She knows what’s what on the ship, but she doesn’t out-mechanic Kaylee. She has sex appeal, but she doesn’t out-sex-appeal Inara. She is a bona fide awesome strong female character who is part of a team. She is in the series to do Zoe-things while the other characters do other-character-things.
A Mary Sue on the other hand is a character who, like a Black Hole, draws in all the attention and gives nothing back, delegating the rest of the team to the role of cheerleaders or backup singers. Is Rey one? Opinions may differ, but to dismiss the notion out of hand is to dismiss the textual evidence - and in many cases replace it with non-canonical speculation about what may explain all that awesomeness. Rey may not draw in everything, but she draws in way more than what is her due, she does Rey-things, and Luke-things, and Han-things, and Chewey-things, and Obiwan-things, and Leia-things and all that’s left to do for the others is to watch with their mouths open. I’m left feeling that Han, Leia and Luke are all portrayed as failures just so that Rey can shine. Whether we want to call that a Mary Sue or not, it sure is annoying.