ptdebate wrote: It's not unreasonable that she'd know a thing or two about their operation. She knows the Falcon because guess what? Her master Unkar Plutt is it's owner! She knows it well enough to know what an unreliable piece of "garbage" it is. She knew that Unkar Plutt had installed a compressor on the hyperdrive, but didn't realize why that was a bad idea until speaking with Han.
I know it's a movie so I give it some leeway but try taking your Saab in to a guy who only works on domestics. Being familiar with a specific set a vehicles is way different than being an expert on all of them especially a modified one. That she can fix stuff isn't that annoying or out of character. She might even be familiar with the Falcon. It isn't shown in the film. All we see is that she knows of it. Not that shes flown it/fixed it/examined it. Hey it
could have happened but it isn't in the movie. The more annoying thing is having to let her explain to Han. The movie was written by writers. We have to ask ourselves why they chose to write it in that way. Its written deliberately that way so he can be like "Wow you know your stuff", and the audience can know just how cool, and smart Rey is. She gets to have a little Wesley Crusher moment. This in and of itself is not too bad.(See final comments)
ptdebate wrote:Now for the subject of force use. Did anyone call Luke a Mary Sue because he could pick up a lightsaber and deflect lasers blindfolded after only a few tries? That he could achieve superhuman feats like hitting a small opening hundreds of meters away with no assistance from his ship's targeting system? What about Anakin, who completely ignorant of his force powers was already able to "see things before they happen" and race pods, something no other human was capable of.
Luke blocks two training blasts blindfolded after receiving
instruction from Obi-Wan for a while. He manages to hit a small target once, after being spoken to by Kenobis force ghost. Rey, at no time in the actual film, receives instruction from anyone on how to do anything. She mind controls a trooper, pulls the saber, resists Rens Jedi mind meld while somehow using that to steal his info(or so the fans tell me). Comparing her to Luke is ludicrous.
For starters Luke can't be a Mary Sue because hes basically a wimp most of the movie and most of the other characters are decidedly un-impressed by Luke. Only Obi-Wan thinks he can do more. He only manages one
really impressive feat the entire time. Yeah, he's a chosen one character but he is not in any way shape or form good at everything. Or even most things.......or even several things. Like I said, she does almost everything Luke manages to
train himself to do with the force over three movies. It's not satisfying development of a character/character abilities. This is where the fanfic-y feel of Rey comes from. Rey is like Luke, except the writer wants to show much cooler the new character is so her force powers go to
eleven.
Don't expect me to be defending Anakin. Watching him accidentally take off in a starfighter to go win a battle was absolutely unbearable.
ptdebate wrote:Lastly, the confrontation with Kylo Ren. There are a few reasons why you read that scene incorrectly, but the most glaring one is Chewie's bowcaster, which throughout the entire movie is highlighted for its awesome power. In one scene where Chewie shoots a stormtrooper with it, the blowback throws the stormtrooper like 20 feet. THAT's what Kylo Ren is hit with right before he fights Rey.
......
Rey's intentions are pure and her head is clear when she fights Kylo, which is why it's such a satisfying moment for her to defeat him. Nevertheless, she is about to be slain herself when she realized that she needs to tap into the force while fighting. That's when things begin to turn around for her. She succeeds in her awkward lunges because she's reading Kylo's mind. She knows how he's going to move next and his able to anticipate him and strike first. Kylo, full of unchecked pride and self-confidence & badly injured, is downed by the headstrong Jedi-to-be.
No one missed Chewies bowcaster. They all but had Han turn to the audience and exclaim "Now with 300% more lasers" That Kylo is injured isn't actually very important to the discussion of Rey. Injured or not, the audience is told hes still a big bad ass because he can easily beat Finn, the guy who incidentally probably should know something about combat(....or janitoring
) The intention of the scene is to show how awesome Rey is. If they wanted Kylo beaten by bad luck, or fate, a tree could have just fallen over on him. Rey getting to pull the saber with the force before he can, and as you say read his mind(another amazing Jedi trick I would think needs some honing) is the important part. The way Rey is written and presented to the audience counts for a lot. Abrams doesn't want to waste time building her up like they did with Luke. This not new to him. It's kind of his thing actually.
I, believe it or not, actually like Rey more than his other fate driven chosen one in Chris Pine's Kirk.
ptdebate wrote: Is she good at everything? No. But she happens to be really good at fighting and spaceships for well-established reasons, and is almost if not equally as force-capable as Luke was in ANH.
She is not almost if not equally as force capable. She is clearly, and obviously more force capable. It's a fairer fight to argue whether Luke in RotJ is as force capable as Rey in TFA. The force has always been a nebulous catch all explanation for not entirely plausible things in the movies. You gotta draw the line somewherethough. This is like a movie series having crazy car races, so now I'm supposed to accept Vin Diesel being shot out of a car door over a bridge to catch a woman in mid air........yeah crap that made a bajillion dollars too. Anywho, at some point the disbelief stops suspending. For me, watching Rey instruct the Trooper to leave was my audible "You have got be kidding me" moment.
ptdebate wrote:In conclusion, you're calling Rey a Mary Sue because she is female.
I'd be lost without people to tell my why I do the things I do.
Explaining away every one of her awesome abilities is of course doable. It misses that the totality of things she is good at is both implausible, and
unsatisfying. I personally think we're going to find out why shes just so super awesome with the force in the next movie, but it isn't here in this movie, and that matters. Rey isn't the worst character ever committed to screen. I don't want to be hyperbolic. She just isn't anything exciting, or interesting for me.
VideoGameCritic wrote: a few critics took exception (and suffered the wrath of readers).
Man you ain't kidding. The confluence of a rabid fanbase and identity politics seems to turn every criticism of the movie into a terrifying shit storm. I've suffered enough of that wrath myself in some other places that I'm pretty turned off of discussing or even watching another Star Wars movie. I think I'm going to take another decade off from it.
It's cool people like it but it should be cool that some people don't. Put down the pitchforks potential readers, remember I did say it was
ok. I'll even go so far as to say it was better than Jurassic World, and possibly JJ Abrams best film