AbbathTheGrim said:
1) I see where you are coming from an I agree. Rey starts reading Kylo's mind and emotions, she uses that technique, but I can excuse it with the argument that she is strong with the Force and that Kylo had just used that very interrogation technique on her, so she must have gotten the gist of it or perhaps the idea that she can also do that back to him. BUT... ... then she comes up with the Jedi trick of using her mind to control a Stormtrooper so that he would release her. Where did she get the idea from? Where did she learn to do that? Seems like JJ and Co. just wanted to make "old fans" or Star Wars fans see that technique in the movie no matter what and paid no attention on whether it made sense she would be able to do that at that point and even worse yet that begs the question of: what is the need of Jedi training when you have a character that can spit techniques with no training? This is why Rey's parentage was so important and I would say not necessarily her parentage but what she experienced as a child. I am completely fine with the idea that her parents were nobodies, but the idea that she received some form of Jedi/Sith training could have justified her knowledge of the Force. 2) Yes, the problem here, it seems, is that the writers come off more concerned about making a female character look "good" instead of grounding her in the Star Wars mythos. A female main character should give "little girls" the idea that they can be the protagonists of a story and that stories can be about them, not about causing the delusion that by virtue of gender they can do anything and accomplish everything, because that isn't even true for men. |
Her parentage is important to an extent. That would have made her more prone to being able to use the Force. However, it doesn't matter if her father was Space Jesus himself, being more prone to use the Force doesn't mean you can master it with no training. And like I said above, her having a couple years of it in childhood still wouldn't explain it, because she wouldn't have been moving onto the much more difficult training at such a young age and so quickly. Every Jedi master we have seen has had to go through several years, even decades, of training to get to where they are, even Space Jesus Anakin and Kylo, who Luke alludes to being as powerful as Rey, even though the films have him weaker.
Of course, I think most would still have forgiven it if in the 2nd film they 1) made her the daughter of someone special and 2) had Luke put her through some actual training on the island. It would have basically been what Lucas did with Anakin. In TPM, Anakin is clearly on the Gary Stu path. Overpowered (though, admittedly not in everything, like Rey) with no real good reason, and pretty much everyone liked him. However, in the sequels he was corrected to being a character, with flaws and actually having to go through training to achieve his power. Instead, she was born of no one special and received no training, yet got even stronger in power.
Yea, writers seemed to be on this kick of "girls can do whatever men can do, girl power," good writing be damned. No one would have a problem with a woman being the most powerful character, or on the same level as the most powerful male, but they HAVE TO EARN IT. When you just copy/paste other character's powers on to them when its convenient, instead of having them have to go through the same trials to amass those powers, it makes for a weak character. And it really doesn't help women, it hurts them. It's like they are saying that women couldn't stand or identify with a flawed character, or one that starts out weak and grows, or God forbid, is trained by a man. Nope, they have to start out competent in pretty much everything, gain powers when needed, and be almost 100% flawless or those two dimensional women won't like the character/film.
