Star Wars

I've seen this criticism a lot round the internet and think its ridiculously unfair. And this is from someone who has problems with the film.

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Firstly, we don't really know anything about Rey at all. From the first films we know that force sensitive people get training from a really young age, younger than when she was abandoned on Jakku. In TPM Qui-Jon and Obi-Wan have a conversation about how Anakin may be too old at 9 years old.

One of the most popular theories is that Rey is herself a Skywalker, and theres certain similarities between the plot to this film and the KOTOR games which feature a force user who's had their mind wiped, both could explain whats either tremendous natural talent, or ingrained teaching. Perhaps a combination of the two, either way, until we know what the explanation for Rey's ability is then we don't know if its a plot problem or not.

As for Ren, I think he's just being ridiculously over-rated in terms of his power. He's the only force user other than Luke knocking around the Galaxy, so he's almost certainly not fought a lightsaber battle before in his life, was quite clearly injured, was very raw himself -as per Snokes comments about him needing further training- was emotionally unstable and is certainly not big or bad yet. Just a moody angsty teenager with potential. The biggest problem I have is that Finn was able to go toe to toe with him, but perhaps that was actually meant as a demonstration of how weak Ren was, rather than how strong Finn is?

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Well ok so let's say she's a Skywalker which I can believe. Luke was a Skywalker. He was THE Skywalker. He still had to train. And his dad was the one cutting about in a death star wrecking everyone. Can't come from much stronger stock than that. And how does explain how she knows how to do a jedi mind trick? A hunch? Or how she had the strength to pull a lightsaber towards her from pretty far away over someone more experienced in the force and closer to the saber? Or how she's some sort of immaculate sword fighter with no training? Or how she knew how to fly and maintain the Millennium Falcon expertly despite never having left her planet before, let alone while being the pilot?
The argument is that she has lots of natural talent right? So she has enough natural talent to make her as skilled as Luke and Han rolled into one? If it was one thing, it wouldn't bother me. But she was perfect at literally everything she did the whole film. For me, that makes the other characters look weaker which isn't a good thing.

Back to Carrie Fisher's performance, I get what you're saying. I think Leia is a difficult character to slot into this new era anyway. I can get behind them making her a strong general but in this film she was really just a cameo.

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Well ok so let's say she's a Skywalker which I can believe. Luke was a Skywalker. He was THE Skywalker. He still had to train. And his dad was the one cutting about in a death star wrecking everyone. Can't come from much stronger stock than that. And how does explain how she knows how to do a jedi mind trick? A hunch? Or how she had the strength to pull a lightsaber towards her from pretty far away over someone more experienced in the force and closer to the saber? Or how she's some sort of immaculate sword fighter with no training? Or how she knew how to fly and maintain the Millennium Falcon expertly despite never having left her planet before, let alone while being the pilot?

The argument is that she has lots of natural talent right? So she has enough natural talent to make her as skilled as Luke and Han rolled into one? If it was one thing, it wouldn't bother me. But she was perfect at literally everything she did the whole film. For me, that makes the other characters look weaker which isn't a good thing.

Back to Carrie Fisher's performance, I get what you're saying. I think Leia is a difficult character to slot into this new era anyway. I can get behind them making her a strong general but in this film she was really just a cameo.

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Most of the criticism towards Rey could be as equally directed towards Luke, or Anakin. It seems to be the strong female character provokes a stronger response than a strong male character.

My thoughts on Rey after a second view.

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I believe Rey is the daughter of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade who herself is force sensitive and if you read the expanded universes she was one of the inquisitors for Palpatine. Rey is a couple of years younger then Kylo Ren but bought up together, that would explain her knowledge of the Falcon. When Kylo goes all postal I reckon he killed Mara Jade and so to protect Rey Luke sends her off to Jakkuu and blocks her memories or something along those lines (can't be that far fetched can it).
Her weapon of choice is also a staff and she is pretty handy with it so the use of a lightsaber especially if she had some knowledge of how to use one would make sense.

Wow just wow what a movie