She should've her arm chopped off or an eye burned, or something, to show that no, she isn't up there and has paid dearly for her weakness. George Lucas at least knew in both trilogies the "reality ensues" implications of messing around with lightsabers and powerful foes.

I'll give you well acted, but a definite no on the well written.  No Mary Sue is a well written character.  And you obviously didn't watch the OG trilogy if you think Luke crushes all enemies after his training, which took days, not hours.  He gets his ass handed to him by Darth Vader after his training.  Vader even cuts off his hand.  And even after years of training off screen, he gets his ass handed to him by the Emperor and must be saved by his father.  What does Rey do the second she gets her hands on a lightsaber?  Defeats Kylo in not only dueling, but also using the Force to grab said lightsaber, even though he has had a decade or more of training in dueling and using the Force.

This is the problem I have with these new movies, aside from the poor writing.  "Fans" of the OG trilogy shitting all over it to feebly try to find some excuse to defend the new ones.  Rey is a Mary Sue, Luke is not.

Unfortunately, I think he feels that all of those "haters" who have legit criticism of the film are classified as undeserved hate.  At least that's the feeling I got from debating him in my thread on TLJ.

Personally, I'm not accepting any explanation for her power level, now.  Not when it comes off as an obvious retcon.  It also will never explain away how she got so powerful without going through training.  Nothing explains that.

As for Kylo, my problem is people are just reaching for excuses for why he could have been beaten.  The problem is they are just that, excuses.  Not legit reasons.  Now, we could say it was because he was injured, only the movie showed he was moving and fighting perfectly fine dispite that.  We could say it is because he is unbalanced or conflicted, but, again, the movie doesn't even hint at this.  He just got done killing his father and was supposed to have killed off his good side.  Sure, that may not have worked and he may not be exactly trying to kill her, but neither is he trying to lose the fight.  She isn't trying to kill him, either.  In the end, there is no legit reason he should have lost that battle.  Not how the film presented it.  She just got a lightsaber in her hand and became a master duelist within seconds.  Just like she became a master shot after having a blaster for a matter of seconds.

And the 2nd fight is referring to trying to grab the lightsaber.  It is a battle in the Force, something that, again, she should have had not shot of winning when she has had no training in it.  Of course, she still wins.  Sure, the lightsaber explodes.  However, Kylo is knocked out for half an hour, but she gets up immediately and is fine.  I count that as a win for her.

One of my favorite TLJ videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXNc-5X6xpw

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't create this ridiculous graphic.

It remains unclear how much training each of Luke and Rey received, but empirically the evidence we have suggests Rey received more instruction from Luke than Luke received from Yoda. Yoda himself appeared to state that Rey's training was sufficient.

Rey's knowledge, thus far, of mind probing and telekinesis pale's in comparison to Luke's in RotJ. She successfully tricked one stormtropper after initially failing. Luke was capable of mind tricking anyone except a Hutt or another force wielder.

Rey proved incapable of easily repelling the dark side in the cave, her initial efforts to adopt telekinesis failed, she was manipulated easily and obviously by Snoke at great distances. Indeed, only Kylo demonstrated any ability to deceive or defeat Snoke.

Rey was left alone as a child on a desert planet full of slavers. She survived as an athletic scavenger as a lone, young girl in that environment. If 'competent pilot from flying and and shooting his T-16 counts' then Rey's experiences should too. We have no knowledge of whether she'd flown previously, but its strongly suggested she had. As a force user, she picked up the quirks of the Falcon quickly, like every other jedi in the Galaxy.

TL:DR This totallist argument that Rey is a Mary Sue, somehow distinct from Luke, requires lists like the above to be reasonable. Clearly they can be picked apart ad nausuem. One reason so much of this hate seems to be motivated by something other than a genuine attempt to engage with the franchise is this clear refusal to acknowledge any information that conflicts with a pre-determined view of Disney's Star Wars films.

Don't like the latest movies? Thats your right. By the only two metrics available to us (reviews and box office receipts), you're in a very loud, small minority.

"It remains unclear how much training each of Luke and Rey received, but empirically the evidence we have suggests Rey received more instruction from Luke than Luke received from Yoda. Yoda himself appeared to state that Rey's training was sufficient."

>What evidence do we have?

"Rey's knowledge, thus far, of mind probing and telekinesis pale's in comparison to Luke's in RotJ. She successfully tricked one stormtropper after initially failing. Luke was capable of mind tricking anyone except a Hutt or another force wielder."

>Luke's mind probing happened in episode six, his third movie. Rey's mind probing happened in episode seven, her first movie.

See how they're not comparable? Rey's awfully quick.

"Rey proved incapable of easily repelling the dark side in the cave, her initial efforts to adopt telekinesis failed, she was manipulated easily and obviously by Snoke at great distances. Indeed, only Kylo demonstrated any ability to deceive or defeat Snoke."

>She's not as bad in TLJ as she is in TFA, I'll give her that.

"Rey was left alone as a child on a desert planet full of slavers. She survived as an athletic scavenger as a lone, young girl in that environment. If 'competent pilot from flying and and shooting his T-16 counts' then Rey's experiences should too. We have no knowledge of whether she'd flown previously, but its strongly suggested she had. As a force user, she picked up the quirks of the Falcon quickly, like every other jedi in the Galaxy."

>These explanations are nice and all but at the end of the day, she's still hyper-competent to the detriment of the film's tension or sense of danger. I'm trying to recall any instance in TFA wherein she was saved by someone else and I cannot come up with anything. Luke needed other people to come to his aid in his first movie, Rey saves herself in her first film.

TL:DR This totallist argument that Rey is a Mary Sue, somehow distinct from Luke, requires lists like the above to be reasonable. Clearly they can be picked apart ad nausuem. One reason so much of this hate seems to be motivated by something other than a genuine attempt to engage with the franchise is this clear refusal to acknowledge any information that conflicts with a pre-determined view of Disney's Star Wars films.

Don't like the latest movies? Thats your right. By the only two metrics available to us (reviews and box office receipts), you're in a very loud, small minority."

User reviews don't seem to look kindly to TLJ. Over half of 200k ratings disliked TLJ.

And a ticket purchase doesn't mean someone liked the film. Plenty of YouTube videos with people who paid to see the films hating on the new films.

It's a Star Wars movie.

I really really hate the title though. Pretty sure there have already been multiple Skywalkers rising, you can't just name a movie that. That would be like calling multiple games in a series Final Fantasy.

You only find it ridiculous because it completely destroys your narrative.  She is a Mary Sue.  

Evidence points that Rey received more training than Luke? Come on, man, that's just laughable. Luke was obviously there for days. We see several different lessons he goes through. What do we see of Rey's? Luke gives her one quick lesson and calls it quits, fearing her awesome Mary Sue power. The rest she learns herself apparently. We also have the years in between ROTJ and ESB where Luke has obviously gone through more training.

Also, Luke was actually trained to become a Jedi. Mind control would have been one of those lessons. He also at least witnessed Obi-Wan demonstrate it. Where did Rey even learn about that power? Oh, right, she pulled it out of her ass, because she was never taught that or even knew Jedi could do that. The script called for her to be able to do it, so she could. Hmm, MaRey Sue?

Yoda approving of her so quickly, without barely any training, even though she demonstrated a lack of patience, is even more evidence of her Mary Sue status. Luke also demonstrated that lack of patience, which Yoda disapproved of. He also said that his friends may need to perish so that he could train to be strong enough to take on Vader and the Emperor. Not Rey, though. Instant approval from Yoda. In fact, he seemingly destroys some sacred tree and the Jedi tomes, something he mocks, to illustrate that she has all she needs. Something past Yoda would have never done.

And I'll ask you the same question I asked another, what movie did watch? Didn't repel the Dark Side? She easily repelled the Dark Side like no one before her. Sure, she confronted it, but there was no corruption. She wasn't enticed by its power. She confronted it and easily repelled it. Hell, later when Kylo suggests they take a grey path, she isn't enticed by it. She refuses because that's not the 100% good thing to do.

The problem isn't that she picks things up quickly. It's that she does it too quickly to even be considered realistic within established lore. Anything she does takes her mere seconds/minutes to master. Even without any proper training or knowledge she can perform such tasks.

TL:DR 

You don't like the Mary Sue arguments because you know you have no real defense against them. It's so blatantly obvious, so instead of actually arguing against them, you just to label a beloved character as a Mary Sue, too. So, your defence isn't really that she's not one, just that Luke is one, too (even though he isn't), so we should just except everything she can do, regardless of how little sense it makes.

Also, I wouldn't point out the BO, because that actually favors us. TLJ was supposed to make $750M+ at the domestic box office, which would have been about $1.7B WW. And that was the "safe bet," with higher end of the range being $800M+ DBO and $1.8B+ WW.  Even after the huge drop in its second weekend, analysts still projected it to hit $1.6B WW. Instead, it made $620M DBO and $1.33B WW, underperforming the safe bet by almost $400M. Black Panther beat it. It had worst legs than Rogue One, a spin-off, in the last half of its release. It led to a big decrease in merch sales.  Sure, not a flop, but it greatly underperformed.

I never understood why people want luke to be a "Mary Sue". Even at the height of his powers on the og trilogy, he got immediately captured, shot in the robo-hand, captured by ewoks, crashed his speeder bike, wrecked by the emperor. There was never a time when I wasn't worried about him--which was a good thing.

Saving Han was a team effort. Taking out the sheild generator was a team effort. Taking out the Death Star was a team effort. Taking on Vader was a solo effort and Luke almost totally fucked it up and had to be saved by Vader.

Luke needed his friends. Rey doesn't need anyone. She never does.

Luke was written as an apprentice becoming a samurai.

Rey is written as a superheroine discovering her innate power.

Nothing wrong with either of those approaches. The problem arises because for 6+ movies, we have been told that Jedi function like samurai, and then Rey comes and functions as a superheroine.

Literally Rey's entire purpose in life is finding her identity and who she belongs with...