ST Daisy Ridley (Rey) in Episode IX

In RJ's interview on the Slashfilm podcast he Johnson basically shrugs off questions about the Holdo maneuver and didn't seem like it was important for the movie to answer questions that the maneuver raises. It makes me wonder if some of the questions that we've kicked around about Rey might similarly be shrugged off by JJ Abrams?

Why is Rey as powerful as she is despite her lack of training and despite that she's seemingly not related to the Skywalkers? JJ's answer might be, "meh...just because".
Why did the Force specifically pick Rey? JJ's answer might be, "meh...just because".

 

Take comments like this to the Sanctuary. That's why it exists. Don't turn the Rey thread into a proxy for venting your frustrations about Luke's treatment.

 

Why did the Force specifically pick Shmi to birth Anakin?

This is why I bring up destiny. Anakin needed to converge with Qui-gon for one--the only Jedi who thought he should be trained. It wasn't enough that he was powerful, he needed to be thrust into the center of things, and in particular ways. His background needed to be one that would shape him in particular ways.

This is like asking why God chooses some people in the Bible. God can see in 4D--can see time, can see the fabric of possibility. On the level God sees things, everything that will be has already happened.

But the Force isn't a player in the way God is. It simply arises and manifests in different places, like plants sprouting out of the Earth. Rey IS the Force--a particular glowing manifestation of it.

 

Watch it again, he uses the force to not fall into the mud.

 

Frankly if Luke had kicked Rey's *** to dominate her into submission, I would have a problem with him. As is, it was clear Luke *could* have done that but he very obviously didn't want to. Instead, he was concerned about her. He had no interest in harming her, not even in defeating her. He did have some interest in helping her.

He already won when he disarmed her, but then she took stick fighting to the next level. Luke went passive to avoid escalating things.

 

I hear what you're saying but I want there to be more to Rey than "it was her destiny". On a certain level that doesn't feel much different than saying, "because reasons"!

 

I don't get why there is such macho-man score keeping going on with this scene. Neither of them were aiming to seriously hurt each other during this confrontation.

 

And no Porgs were harmed during this scene!

 

Hahahaha...true!

 

TLJ already gave a little with Snoke's line.

 

True enough. I guess I have mixed feelings about the Force actively picking people as counter weights to fight dark side users as Snoke states. I guess that's how its always worked on some level but to hear it verbalized as Snoke did makes it feel like the Force is basically picking team members like a high school gym coach.

The Force is all, "Uh oh it looks like the dark side is going to be on the rise in a few years. Who do we have on the bench? Ah I see that a drunk lady on Jakku just got pregnant by her drunk boyfriend. Let's give their baby superpowers so that she can fight the dark side in twenty years."

 

well then that doesnt make sense since he was still cut off from the force at that point in the film.

 

He was not. His re connection with the force and reaching out to Leia scene came right before Rey's journey into the dark side cave.

 

Wait so Luke's standoff at the end of TLJ inspired people across the galaxy, specifically Force sensitive people like Broom Boy. So did his actions at the end of ROTJ also do the same? If so where are those people? Is TLJ suggesting that Luke's actions in ROTJ Jedi only inspired a dozen people, (Luke's students) and half of them were killed by the other half?

There's a big time gap between ROTJ and when Luke started training his students. Why didn't the Force pick somebody or various somebodies to rise to power between ROTJ and Luke's training sessions? In other words why don't we see a Force sensitive person like Rey come forward before Rey herself? I suppose it's because Rey only came to power to counter Kylo but we know that's not the only way that Force sensitive people are activated so to speak. Broom Boy shows us that he's motivated by Luke not by the Force tapping him to counter Kylo or any other dark side user.

Also why didn't Luke's lightsaber call out to other Force users before Rey? If Rey's a random than she doesn't have any greater connection to the Skywalker saber than Broom Boy or Luke's students or any other Force sensitive person that ostensibly should've come to power in the wake of ROTJ just like Broom Boy did. And yet the saber only called out to Rey. Why? Dumb luck, and right place and the right time?

On a side note are future Force sensitive people going to be as powerful as Rey regardless of training? If so, why? Has something changed in the Force where new Force users have jacked up powers right from the get go or is it that anybody that is a good person that has lived a hard life on a dumpy planet gets Force powers on the level that Rey has?

 

Also why haven't we seen this in the past? Why wasn't Luke as powerful as Vader right out of the gate? Why did every Jedi but Rey need training to get super Force skills?

There could be a cool lore explanation for this but as for now I'm sticking with my two original theories: 1) any explanation of Rey's jacked powers could smell of medichlorians and the powers that be don't want to go down that unpopular road again, and 2) the powers that be wanted to deliver the spectacle of a Jedi like character in TFA and since Luke wasn't going to be in the film they decided to jack Rey's powers up and hope to hand wave it all away by saying "the Force works in mysterious ways".

In a way I'm thinking that hoping for a good explanation for Rey's superpowers is as unlikely as getting an explanation for why the Rebels/Resistance never figured out a way to use lightspeed technology as a battering ram until the Holdo maneuver.

 

I assumed that there was now some sort of Force hierarchy. Kylo and Rey were the embodiment of the dark and the light or at the apex if you will. Gosh, I sincerely hope that there a canon explanation. Maybe all we are going to get is powerful light, powerful darkness and darkness rises and light to meet it. What I really want is Rey to delve into the Jedi Text and share with the audience.

 

I would've had a problem with him dominating her too. He was specifically choosing to NOT fight her. Seemed perfectly appropriate to me, given where he was emotionally at the time. In fact, if anything it made HER look more naiive really, since he knows better. That's the impression I got when I saw that scene. It really reminded me of the scene where he yells at Yoda in ESB "you want the impossible!" That mentor dealing defensively with the naiive and overreacting student kind of thing. And finally, him using the Force to hold himself up from the mud was a nice way to remind us of all that IMO-like he could've done something like that at any moment, but was purposely not.

As far as all this talk about Rey having all these powers and abilities with no training, I don't see anything different about that from how the OT portrayed Luke. In the OT, Luke was able to do all these amazing things too, with only his strength in the force and no (or very little) training. Different individual circumstances, sure, but in terms of ability-still the same kind of thing in my eyes.

 

Oh I disagree. I wanted to see Luke disarm Rey after she sucker punched him, he'd send his saber flying in the air away from them and he force pushes her off of attacking him and to the ground, and Luke says something like "Is this what you want? Is this what you think a Jedi is? To attack in anger and frustration and fear? This is what will happen to you if you face Ben and his new master. You are not ready."

 

DARTH BELO OT Luke doesn't do anything even remotely on the level of what Rey's doing now until ROTJ, when he had had years of training. Rey just found out that that The Force was real like a week ago, and is already more powerful. Specific examples:

-Luke doesn't use the Jedi Mind Trick until ROTJ, after he's been trained and had seen Obi Wan use it before. Rey uses it in TFA when neither of those things.

-Luke needed Han to come back and save him in ANH, not so Rey.

-Luke had to concentrate to lift some small rocks and utterly failed to lift an X-Wing in ESB. Rey lifts half a mountain in TLJ and is almost bored by how easy it is.

-Luke is utterly defeated in pretty much every way by Vader and suffers permanent physical injuries. Rey, has like five seconds of sadness, then goes right back to being awesome and comes out of the film with only a small bruise on her head.

-Han and Luke together have to work to destroy four TIE's, and even then it was made clear that Vader and Tarkin were going easy on them because of the tracker. Rey takes out multiple TIE's, despite having never used the MF's gun turrets before, and one shot kills THREE of them at the same time.

-Han saving Luke in the Falcon is the culmination of a character arc for him. Rey does it, because she's just that awesome I guess.

-Etc.

No, Rey is clearly being set up as being stronger and better than Luke in every way already, and unlike him doesn't have to work or struggle for it at all. And the explanation of "oh The Force chose her because, balance or whatever" is just not interesting to me. It feels like a really underwhelming way to justify her quick power-up. It turns The Force into a Deus Ex Machina super-power and wow is that not as interesting.

 

Rey is just an A-Streamer to Luke's can-try-harder. Even Yoda was still mocking his intelligence during the tree burning scene.

 

This.

Lets not forget about Anakin, the actual chosen one, who was literally born from the force.

He wasnt so great and awesome either.

He trained for years to become a jedi and still struggled in fights and failed constantly.

Oh and his grandson too, Kylo is trained by Luke for years as a jedi and then by Snoke as a dark sider but he still struggled and lost.

I am starting to think they are not interested in showing Rey's struggles at all.

She is just a plot device in Kylo's story.
We are shown Kylo's struggles, conflicts, feelings constantly not Rey's.

Thats why people are rooting for Kylo not Rey.

 

Maybe it's not so much that Rey is over powered but rather that Luke wasn't that strong a Jedi? I kid.

It really does look like Rey is as accomplished as she is because the Force says so, i.e. the powers that be wanted to skip all the boring training stuff so they could have fun writing a powerful Jedi character.

 

OT Luke pulled a lightsaber from the snow with no one indicating to him such a thing was possible, and with no training how to do it.

OT Luke had no combat experience but was able to light saber duel with Vader in ESB.

Suddenly in ROTJ, Luke could use mind control.

The OT didn't explain any of it!

 

The lightsaber pulling is all fine.
Luke trained with the most powerful and wise Jedi ever for maybe a month, and faced a Vader severely limited in physical combat ever since he was constrained to his suit.
ROTJ took place after a long time jump.