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Star Wars

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Verrrona

8 years ago

1 year ago

02 Jan 2016 13:45:51

By Ninja | On 02 January 2016 - 13:11 PM GMT

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.

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?

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.

The Platypus

13 years ago

1 year ago

1,784

02 Jan 2016 14:22:20

By Verrrona | On 02 January 2016 - 13:45 PM GMT

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.

How much was Luke trained before he pulled a lightsaber in Empire? Not much. Obi Wan put a helmet on his head and told him to feel the force. The Force is all about opening up and letting it in, which is what Maz Kanata told her to do. I get that some people find it bothersome, but I think with Rey we're looking at someone who's basically going to become one of the most powerful Jedi's of all time.

Also, I just don't think Carrie Fisher is a very good actress anymore. Too much alcohol and coke.

Ninja

14 years ago

7 years ago

5,341

02 Jan 2016 17:58:20

By Verrrona | On 02 January 2016 - 13:45 PM GMT

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.

In ANH Luke was able to use the force to guide missiles to blow the deathstar up because Obi Wan's force ghost said 'use the force'. In TPM Anakin was the fisrt ever human Pod Racer based purely off his ability with the force. Yoda said to Luke that the only limit to his ability was his own imagination. I don't really think there's anything in the Star Wars universe that says you have to be taught how to do everything. It just seemed to me that Rey realised she was in trouble and basically just trying stuff out of desperation, is being able to stop Ren from reading your mind to trying to control someone elses mind that big a jump? Is desperately needing a lightsaber and trying to use your mind to grab it that unreasonable?

All of the heroes in Star Wars have basically been virtually flawless in every way possible, thats just a part of Star Wars. But even then some of the criticisms are unfair, she clearly knew how to pilot stuff, and clearly had a knowledge of what changes had been made to the Millennium Falcon. She wasn't a better pilot than Han, she just knew the ship better than him, her job was scavenging parts of a spaceship and selling them. Is it that surprising that the 'best scavenger' of that weird Alien fuck knew what spaceship parts did?

She also wasn't 'immaculate' with a lightsaber. She spent most of the fight running from Ren, and basically got a good shot in when he decided to try and convert her and, again, Ren was weak as shit. Its not like the Luke fight vs Vader in ESB, it was two relatively inexperienced people. I thought the fact Finn could use it was far more jaring than Rey.

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.

Verrrona

8 years ago

1 year ago

02 Jan 2016 22:52:53

By Ninja | On 02 January 2016 - 17:58 PM GMT

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.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b153/BarryLegg/father-ted-careful-now.jpg

Ok well maybe I just don't understand Star Wars then. I've seen the Phantom Menace so I know Anakin was quite young and had a lot of mechanical sympathy from all that racing stuff so he had plenty of time to be trained right? Honestly I've only really seen the big parts of New Hope but I was under the impression that he spends a lot of time with Obi Wan getting trained? I guess I'm wrong there. I personally like flawed characters and can't really get behind the badass hero who can do everything on their own.

Didn't Carrie Fisher go mental on social media after the launch or something?
Just went on her twitter to look. Jesus. Is this real?

mr.SPANKY

17 years ago

10 months ago

1,755

03 Jan 2016 00:31:58

My thoughts on Rey after a second view.

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.

The Platypus

13 years ago

1 year ago

1,784

03 Jan 2016 01:57:37

By mr.SPANKY | On 03 January 2016 - 00:31 AM GMT

My thoughts on Rey after a second view.

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.

Expanded Universe isnt Canon anymore