KLAMarine said:
Did the Falcon crash? No. Okay, I can buy that. What I cannot buy is that the Falcon would be able to outmaneuver multiple fighters considering its larger relative mass. That's like a cargo van outmaneuvering a race car or a B28 bomber outmaneuvering a fighter. The Falcon was meant for smuggling, not maneuvering but in the hands of Rey, it can do anything.
Like I said, if you don't like the adjective then Rey is overly competent to the point that credibility in her character and tension in the film are both destroyed.
Are you suggesting that in the act of liking/trusting Rey, the other characters break the fourth wall?
I'm expecting the cast to be neutral to her, not to dislike her much like how to Han, Luke was just talking cargo and to Leia, Luke was a means to escape. Even after all was said and done near the end of ANH, Han wanted to leave and Leia was getting back to work fighting the Empire. All Luke's connections got him was joining with other X-Wing fighters in a daring attack on the Death Star. Compare that to Finn who devoted himself to Rey or Rey getting a critical lone mission to find Luke. Rather than the rebels sending a delegation to meet Luke in this vital mission, they send a newcomer on her own. Compare that to Kylo who is trying to recruit her to his side. Vader was aiming to kill Luke in ANH.
No, I'm suggesting a wounded Kylo Ren should be able to at least render helpless a novice Rey who just recently discovered the force and just recently wielded a saber. Instead, she wins and the tension in the scene is destroyed. Kylo Ren's threat level is destroyed. I'm not invested anymore because Rey just keeps showing she always comes out on top no matter the circumstance. Is it so much to ask for that the protagonist get his/her ass kicked a bit and lose here and there much like with Luke? Give the opposition a bit of a threat level rather than removing it.
Rey is overly competent to the point that credibility in her character and tension in the film are both destroyed. How's that?
This bears repeating btw: I think there's an angle you're not seeing here. I'm sure you could provide reasons [at least one of us can] as to why Rey always seems to have the upper hand in whatever situation she finds herself but this doesn't change the fact that she always has an upper hand. No feat seems impossible to her. This is a problem for storytelling: things like building tension and helping the viewer to suspend their disbelief are done by not only making a character believable but also making the antagonist threatening. Rey being good at so many things at some point becomes unbelievable. I think everyone here would agree that they're good at some things and bad at other things. I'm good at math and science but I'm terrible at reading Shakespeare. That stuff is not modern-day English. Even people really good at one thing are not so good at another: Michael Jordan was a great basketball player but a mediocre baseball player. Being able to fix things, speak droid, fight well, and even overcome Kylo's mind probe and turn it against him runs counter to building tension because at some point, I just expect Rey to always win. Rey being good at everything isn't gonna make me wonder if she'll be able to overcome the next obstacle, I'll just get used to expecting it. That's boring: tension dies and suspension of disbelief is shattered. It's what happens when you turn on god mode in a game: fun at first but it gets boring quickly. Without risk, where's the fun? Where's the challenge? Would a game that was won by pressing a 'press to win' button be fun? No, it wouldn't be fun. To add to all this, this latest Star Wars trilogy does not exist in a vacuum and neither does Rey's character: Luke Skywalker exists in this universe and he had to get his ass kicked before becoming the capable Luke Skywalker in episode 6. He got his ass handed to him by cantina thugs, tusken raiders, Darth Vader, and even the emperor rendered him helpless with lightning. Thankfully for Luke, he had people to help him: Obi-Wan rescued him from cantina thugs and tusken raiders, R2 and 3PO saved him from getting squashed, Han Solo saved him from getting shot down in ANH and freezing to death in ESB, Leia saved him when he was close to plunging to his death in ESB, Darth Vader saved him from the emperor in RotJ. Rey saved herself when in the same film, Poe needed help from Finn and Finn needed help from Rey. Doesn't seem terribly balanced. |
I think this post unwillingly highlights why you have a problem, and that is you've come to codify the specific beat of the original trilogy as being "how you make good movies", and have come to resent any deviation from those.
Kylo Ren is not Darth Vader: as an antagonist he is not scary because he can win, but paradoxically, because he can lose. He is the closest we've seen a character struggle with Light and Dark side. Portraying, such as was the case with Vader, as an immutable, undefeatable villain would have undermined this point. He can be defeated, he can be reasoned with, explain himself and his actions. However he is wrong, and that's why he is a threat.
Furthermore, for Rey to have a foible such as Vader would also not make sense. Her arc, unlike Luke's, is not based in wanting to be part of a larger world, but in being afraid that she's not worthy of living among the legends she grew up idolizing.
Luke's struggle (see ESB) is that he could become Vader; Rey's struggle is that she could become Kylo.
