Let's Talk Star Wars, Rey, Mary Sues & Gary Stus

Let's talk "Star Wars", and I wanted shy away from discussing the topic but seeing as how the entertainment news cycle (at least the entertainment news that I give a crap about it) is slow, let's talk about this. What is the "this" I'm referring to? This discussion of Rey as a Mary Sue. I don't have a stake in this discussion as I'm of the opinion that WE STILL HAVE 2 MOVIES to get through so let's chill on the "Mary Sue" talk for now. But nonetheless, enough people have re-stated this opinion over and over and I really wanted to sit down and discuss my thoughts on the topic at hand. So let's dive in.

Is Rey a Mary Sue? In my opinion, not at the moment, not without Luke Skywalker being a Gary Stu. Let me break down my thoughts and then go deeper. Rey is touted as a Mary Sue because of her sudden knowledge of everything and hype competence thus making the other characters useless. If Rey is a Mary Sue, Luke is a Gary Stu, my argument is for starters Luke Skywalker is a farmer boy and being generous with the timeline he goes from being a farm boy to saving a literal princess, becoming a pilot in one of the Rebellion's most important missions (despite having no referenced piloting skills) and despite several members of The Rebellion getting picked off clean (people who've been with the Rebellion for YEARS, we're talking trained pilots) Luke manages to not only survive but completes the mission by successfully blowing up The Death Star and gets a medal in the end. I'm sorry but Rey isn't nearly as accomplished as Luke...and being generous with the timeline this is all in the span of...let's say a few days?

Started from the bottom, now we're here! Started from the bottom, now the whole team f*ckin' here!

Being fair to George Lucas, sequels were not as promised back then as they are now, so with "Star Wars" had it just been a single movie addressed all the points that needed to be addressed, The princess was saved, the villain's big scary weapon was gone and the hero saved the day and was rewarded in the end. Pretty standard fantasy story stuff from beginning to end, with a few dangling threads (the fate of Darth Vader, The Empire as a whole, The Emperor himself) left for a sequel hook.

Okay, So Rey as a Mary Sue, this is mostly because of her sudden exhibition of Force abilities (without any known training), her besting Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel (despite the fact that she merely threw an already wounded Kylo Ren off balance, and spent the majority of the battle running from him) and her competency in everything going so far as to tell Han Solo about The Falcon, a ship he's piloted for YEARS! Here's a few points I want to address but let me back up for a second and talk in a broader sense about Star Wars lore in general...more specifically "The Force". The Prequels have ruined The Force GREATLY with the introduction of midi-chlorians. This made The Force into a genetic inclination rather than a mystical force. The Original Trilogy treated The Force as a mystical force hence by saying "May The Force be with you."...according to The Prequels the only way The Force could be "with you" is if you were born with a high midi-chlorian count.

BRUH!!

Unfortunately we can't dismiss midi-chlorians since they're now officially cannon BUT with the way The Force is treated, it's still treated as a mystical force therefore I'll treat it like one until it's actually presented as purely genetic. Treating The Force as a mystical force, let's then look at the title "The Force AWAKENS". If we treat The Force as a mystical force (which has been shown to be somewhat sentient, in a sense that it's capable of guiding one's actions and imparting insight on something that someone might now have known, reference being Luke using The Force to sense that Leia was his sister and Leia being able to find Luke in Cloud City without having ANY way to communicate with each other). "The Force Awakens" implies that The Force has been asleep and is awakening, after all Supreme Leader Snoke states pointblank that "There has been an awakening.". What happens when The Force Awakens? From what I see from the film, it looks like The Force is reaching out to force sensitive people (people with a high midi-chlorian count) in order to "awaken".

Also notice when Kylo Ren reads Rey's mind he mentions "You imagine an ocean. I see it...I see the island." Except what island on Jakku? What ocean? He saw a Force Vision, a vision Rey was unaware she's been having (context clues, Kylo Ren said "you imagine an ocean." past tense, she's thought of this before.) because Luke turned out to be where...on an island! Clearly, The Force awakened in Rey and drew her into the conflict. Same way Luke was drawn in. After all it wasn't chance that Luke just so happened to be willing to become a Jedi knight, just so happened to find the droids The Empire wanted. If you believe in The Force nothing is happenstance.

There's been an awakening...someone took a blood test and their midi-cholrians is mad crazy, son!

This next part is conjecture but educated conjecture, if this "awakening" was strong enough for Snoke to feel it, I'm imagining that this awakening is pretty seismic. Star Wars has a habit of taking characters from humble beginnings and turning them into great heroes or villains, Anakin was a slave, Luke was a farm boy and Rey is a lowly scavenger so in terms of hero status, Rey falls perfectly in line with the main characters before her. But perhaps that's not entirely by accident. The Force seems to be drawn to people who have nothing and who aren't proud (Han Solo openly mocks The Force along with one of Darth Vader's commanders) therefore making their trust in The Force more honest and faithful than someone who simply mentions it. Every member of The Rebellion said "May The Force be with you." but only one of them was a Jedi. It's the same difference between someone simply saying "Bless you." because it's polite as a opposed to someone believing there is an actual God who is capable of bestowing blessings.

If you re-watch "The Force Awakens" Rey doesn't exhibiting Force abilities until after her confrontation with Kylo Ren where he attempts to read her mind and she reads his. I think this triggered her force abilities, and the reason I say that is because it activated a fight or flight mechanism. What I'm saying is she didn't know she could fight Kylo Ren until she absolutely had to. She seems just as puzzled as he was when she managed to get under his skin about Darth Vader. What I'm saying is The Force was drawn to her and in a moment where she absolutely needed it, she mustered up strength (from The Force) to resist Kylo Ren. But that was a desperate situation, in a more lax situation (merely being guarded) it takes her 3 tries to use mind control on a Storm Trooper, she had to really concentrate.

Hey, Daniel Craig quit being a Storm Trooper and let me outta here!

What I'm saying is unlike Luke who was classically trained, Rey had to learn trial by fire style. And again, being a pauper made her more willing to accept and believe in The Force to protect her and it did. Once again, being fair, Luke trusted The Force during The Raid on the Death Star (disregarding his own aiming system) and shooting with pure faith. Both Luke & Rey trusted The Force to guide them at a time when it really counted and both of them were successful. Let's move on for a bit and talk about the fight between Rey & Kylo Ren and between Luke & Vader. Another complaint often cited for Rey's Mary Sue status is that she shouldn't have bested Kylo Ren in a battle because she wasn't formally trained. I'll concede and say I agree and say they fight shouldn't have taken place but again I'll remind you that Kylo Ren was physically wounded and she didn't actually beat him, she threw him off balance and the cracking ground separated them. For the majority of their fight Rey was blocking and running from him.

Not to mention the only reason she survived their first encounter was because she saw the map, if she hadn't she'd have been dead.

That being said, in the overall meaning of the narrative if Rey & Kylo Ren battle it doesn't mean much because these two aren't inherently linked like Vader & Luke. If Luke and Vader would have squared off in "A New Hope" with Luke as the victor that would've cheapened the curb stomp duel Vader had with Luke an "Empire Strikes Back". But they couldn't have that pay off in "A New Hope" because Vader is Luke's father and that seed was planted but that revelation was much heavier after having seen Vader physical maim Luke. However, Rey and Kylo have no such history and therefore a duel between them is fine AND for narrative purposes it did expose the fact that Kylo Ren hasn't completed his training, Snoke says this. This isn't to say Kylo Ren is untrained but how trained do you really have to be if you're the only guy in the galaxy that can freeze laser bolts? Maybe Kylo Ren needed training on learning how to challenge his rage? Maybe he needs training on composure? Whatever the case, Snoke made it clear that Kylo Ren needed to complete his training.

Because trusting The Force to guide you to victory has never worked for anyone...ever...

People take issue with Rey knowing how to fix The Falcon and for that I just point out the fact that Rey is a mechanic. Yes, she's a scavenger but do you honestly think she's going to sell something and not know what it is? Anyone who ever tried to get money from Game Stop should be completely offended by that idea. Of course, she's gonna know what she's selling and it's value! That's the whole point in being a scavenger! Likewise don't you think that if you're gonna sell something you would check and see if it still worked? Especially if whether or not you're gonna eat depended on it?

I have no clue what I just sold, LOOK AT ALL THESE PORTIONS!!

Besides, Han Solo never fancied himself a mechanic, sure he could probably do some pretty standard repairs on it but just because he piloted the thing doesn't mean he knows everything about it. And furthermore his reaction to Rey bypassing the compressor was more or less a "Huh?" as if to say "Probably wouldn't have thought of that.". I'm not a mechanic but when someone says "Huh?" to something that turns out to work that reaction is usually reserved for "that's so crazy it just might work." or the "probably wouldn't have thought of that" neither of these reactions really relay that Rey mastered The Falcon better than Han Solo, it just showed that she was willing to try something Han wouldn't. Even granting Han the ability of being completely knowledgeable of all things Falcon, there is a certain point where even mechanics get so bogged down in technical knowledge they won't try anything completely crazy.

You did what?

So is Rey a Mary Sue? Not without Luke being a Gary Stu. All things being fair here, Luke was whiny in "A New Hope" but that was only one scene, in "Empire Strikes Back" Luke showcased a feeling of defeatism & impatience with Yoda (early on). But Luke didn't have any flaws that hindered his character or held him back. All the mistakes he made in "Empire Strikes Back" came from a strong desire to do the right thing by his friends. This is what made "Return Of The Jedi" a bit of a drag for me, Luke had no flaws or inner darkness The Emperor could exploit, so there was no real motivation for Luke to turn to The Dark Side. Calling Rey a Mary Sue after ONE movie is incredibly disingenuous to the larger narrative we have yet to see. We know nothing of Rey's past (a lot of exploitation can happen there) and we know nothing of her future. So let's wait until "The Last Jedi" before we jump on the Mary Sue bandwagon.

Side note, I know everyone hates Starkiller Base, but to be completely logical, it makes total sense that this thing would exist. Seeing as how The Empire has all but been disbanded and disarmed, it'd make perfect sense that they'd build a weapon similar to The Death Star in order to keep rebellious systems in line. After all that was The Empire's leverage against The Rebellion. Logically, it'd make sense they'd build a bigger and badder weapon. This is a war and The Empire had an atomic bomb in The Death Star, do you honestly think after the explosion of The Death Star they'd just say "Oh well, that was a dud, time to do something else.". No, they're probably thinking The Death Star was just the beginning, and they've probably been working on Starkiller Base for YEARS! Once you've had a Death Star you can't go back to NOT having a Death Star. Yes, I know it's derivative but it makes sense. Anyway, that'll do it for me and I'll catch you guys later! Until then, May The Force be with you!