ST Rey....The dark side

There may be other options than violence. But I think we really don't know enough about the situation to judge her.

 

Yeah remember how it took Luke 5 minutes to deflect blasters blindfolded with no training? Oh yeah..... not to mention making an impossible torpedo shot with no targeting computer and again with no training.

In any case I find these "Star Wars RPG" arguments really tiresome. Like you have to be a level 8 Jedi wizard to do mind trick and a level 12 Jedi wizard to block blasters. None of this is EVER stated in any film and it's just people projecting there own baseless assumptions and complaining that Rey hasn't earned enough experience points yet.. We have no idea of how powerful Rey is or whether she has much control over her abilities. For all we know she got lucky with the mind trick and during the fight. (she really barely uses the force at all during the movies, and she has to try more than once to do the mind-trick). I have no idea why people are assuming that she can call on the force at will like a trained Jedi when that is clearly not shown during the movie.

IOW - it's very possible that she "feels the force, but can not control it" to paraphrase a famous line. I actually think it appeared the Kylo Ren might be in the same boat; he seemed very powerful, but his control also seemed uneven/unsteady at times.

 

That was my impression as well. It's time for someone to turn from the dark side to the light, not the other way around.

 

Anger, fear, horror. Some kind of combination of all of those, which gives way to focus through the force mid battle.

 

Personally, I feel Rey may be the least susceptible character to the Dark Side since Obi-Wan, but that's just me. I agree 100%, let's see the reverse struggle.

 

I also noticed Rey does like to take the more aggressive, violent path, which makes sense for someone who has been as isolated as she is.

Kylo, seems to have the opposite problem in that he's more passive (even with this temper).

 

He trains for an entire film before we see him doing so in real combat.

It is clearly established in the Rebellion meeting that Luke is confident he can make the shot.."it's just like shooting womp rats in his T-16."

 

Unless shooting womp rats involve Force nudging two missiles 90 degrees into a tiny ventilation shaft (most things that move fast can't simultaneously turn on a dime) I'm pretty sure Luke was full of ****.

 

lmaaoo he might have been...but that scene at least gives the audience the impression that it's something he is confident with and can be done possibly against the odds. The Force augmented his already decent piloting skills and he's able to accomplish it. Against the odds. He didn't just tap into the Force and all of a sudden out-fly Darth Vader.

 

I've seen the film four times and in the battle with Ren I agree with others here that once he is on the ground, she looks at him for long moments. She considers striking a final blow but decides not to do it.

One of the most powerful moments is when she extinguishes his light saber by overpowering him. The Star Wars force/Luke theme is thunderous then. She doesn't kill him but destroys his dark-force weapon instead.

I think in the next film what might be the most interesting way to go is for Rey to struggle with finding out how Ren was tempted to the dark side through Snoke's lies to Ren about Han, Luke, and Leia. Snoke, if he captures her, might try the same lies on her, about how her father Luke abandoned her or was weak. Snoke evidently told Ren that the resistance were cheaters, etc. "that you call friends." That they lacked integrity. Driver has said Ren believes he's morally right. But I can see this same line tried by Snoke with an emphasis on where Rey is particularly emotionally vulnerable. She might be confused for a time (or not), but she's inherently kind and is very strong with the light side, which will prevail with Luke's guidance and help. And perhaps Leia's as well.

The difference between turning to the dark or light is one of composing yourself and choosing how to act, it seems to me. Ren is out of control and cannot stop his actions. Rey, being more naturally gifted with the force (which I think she is) controls her darkest impulses.

 

Agree, we need a character to show you can go from Dark to light rather then from light to dark. We've had that on screen with Vader, let's see the reverse of that.

In regard to Rey's abilities, she's about the same level luke was at ANH. Luke only saw Obi wan do the mind trick once, and then, bang he can do it really easy come RotJ. Ezra on rebels see Kanan do it once and then he does it too. Rey probably pulled images from Ben of doing it as well, and she's probably heard stories about it. Jedi Mind trick might have been a joke on Jakku that were used at various places and she may have seen old holos of it, given that she's living in an imperial place. We know that Finn knows about the past as well, and Rey knows about Han Solo being a smuggler, doesn't take too much of a leap to figure that she saw or heard someone use this before and fail, and tried it herself.

Her fight with Kylo showed her going calm and then coming back with determination, not anger. She was trying to calm herself, and probably heard something inside her that we didn't hear. She very much reminded me of how Luke looked when he made the shot in ANH. He was listening to Obi-wan's voice, and focusing, she was probably doing the same thing. Throw in what Kylo said, "The longer she's allowed to move about the more dangerous she becomes," to me it means she's getting memories back.

 

Rey has, when given a choice, the tendency to choose violence over peace. On Takodana, she had already decided to run away, and BB-8 was following her. She notices that the First Order were coming, presumably to find BB-8 (she even acknowledges this by saying to him "You're too important!"). But, instead of trying to avoid capture by hiding in the forest - keeping in mind that no-one except BB-8 had noticed she was gone otherwise they would have went looking for her - she decides that the best course of action is to kill three stormtroopers who had no idea that she was there, thereby giving up her location (and therefore BB-8s) and allowing Kylo Ren to capture her.

That's not to say that she is inherently bad. In the Star Wars universe, it is made clear that falling to the dark side isn't just a simple matter of being angry, fearful or any of the darker emotions. It's when you combine a conscious use of them with the Force that the dark side comes into play. "I sense much fear in you Skywalker," says Count Dooku in ROTS. "You have anger, you have hate...but you do not use them."

In the interrogation room, turning back a dark side power of reading someone else's mind back on Kylo Ren was the second hint we had that Rey is taking the low road rather than the high one. Using her anger at her thoughts being read and then feeding off of that to do the same to Kylo, when she could have easily just resisted and left it at that - which is what a Jedi would have done. Look at what Vader said about Leia: "Her resistance to the mind probe is considerable, it will be some time before we can extract any information from her." Leia was also resistant to having her thoughts read like Rey, but unlike Rey she didn't consider the possibility of turning it back against Vader (even though we find out later that she probably could have - the reason why she didn't was because 'Alderaan is peaceful, we have no weapons...')

But the biggest clue as to what side of the coin Rey falls on, at least for the moment, is this - when Obi-Wan senses the destruction of Alderaan, he says "I felt a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror...then were suddenly silenced." Destruction and murder are dark side actions - it is as if Obi-Wan could feel something akin to a 'solar flare' from the dark side leap into the light and cause a ripple effect before retreating back. Then, when Palpatine contacts Vader in ESB: "There has been a great disturbance in the Force." "I have felt it, my master." "We have a new enemy. Luke Skywalker." Again, the training of a potential Jedi - a light side entity - would cause a ripple effect to be felt on the dark side.

However, when Snoke and Ren are speaking, they don't say "There has been a disturbance" but rather, "An awakening". Like as if they felt someone else starting to use their side of the Force.

Does this mean she is going to turn into Darth Rey? Not at all. In fact, it could just mean that she has an internal struggle throughout the trilogy against taking the quick and easy path, making her journey more three dimensional than it is at the moment, before finally triumphing over her darker tendencies in a way that Anakin could not. But anyone who couldn't see that she was batting for team black when she used the Force on at least two occasions was ignoring the previous 6 movies and the established lore, IMO.

 

After seeing it a fourth time, I really expect some heavy flirting with the Dark Side or something in her past related to the Dark Side.

 

I totally disagree with this characterization of the scene. Rey doesn't come across as particularly vengeful in this scene. In fact, she *defeats* (not sure if this the right word) Kylo after collecting herself, and finding inner serenity in the midst of the duel.

 

I thought Episodes I-III was all about one's descent into darkness. I don't want to see it again with Rey, and don't think we will.

 

If Rey is good for goodness sake, then where is the conflict?

 

I get conflict, Luke wasn't immune to temptation either. I just don't want to see her give in to it, that's all I'm saying.

 

Luke did give in to it. Vader lost a hand to it.

Personally I think it's a hell of a twist if she fell even for a bit. Everyone expecting her to be the ultimate heroine. Be pretty bad a $$ if they did a 180.

 

Okay, maybe momentarily. He obviously realized the danger and rejected it, unlike Dear Old Dad. I don't want to see her fall all the way down--all I'm saying. We've seen it already, and seeing it again (this time for the sake of shock value) doesn't interest me.

 

Whoa...this a stretch...but someones post just made this idea click in my head..

What if Rey's past has to do with the dark side?
What if her memories that were suppressed, involves training or history/family ties with the dark side?

It never made sense that Luke or a Jedi would leave her on Jakku, but it makes way more sense if someone from the dark side did. Maybe she was powerful with the force at a young age but was a good person, so they didn't take her in? Maybe her parents were in tune with the dark side and left her because of that?
Maybe Snoke knows her ... "If what you say about the girl is true, then bring her to me .. " And was mentioned to Kylo in training before, which is why in the novel, he says "It IS you"
Also ... A huge stretch ... but if Snoke turns out to be Plagueis, that would explain how she has his staff ... He gave it to her at a young age and that's why she always keeps it on her ..
This would be a story about someone leaving the dark ... Would definitely be different

 

What if Rey has Skywalker blood and Palpatine blood pumping through her veins? That's a lot of darkside that needs resisting.
Would also mean she has a shed load of midichlorians. If Luke count = Anakin count, then Anakin count + Palpatine count = Rey count?

 

I think the initial plan was for her to struggle with the Dark Side, to be a much more ruthless person in general. She's much more fatalistic and nihilistic in the novel, focused on death. She sold BB-8 outright to Plutt, after negotiating nearly double what he initially offered, and only went back on the deal because it made Plutt too happy. Then she hides what happened from BB-8!

But almost all her darker moments were taken out of the film. I think she's going to be fully committed to the light, in contrast with Ren's darkness and indecision.

 

My impression while watching the movie was that Rey recognized the dark-side but didn't let it consume her.
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes to concentrate and then let it pass through her -- perhaps even gaining strength for defeating the temptation.
Wanting to kill Kylo wasn't necessarily a dark-side action, it's common sense in my opinion.

I'm curious if this was some suppressed early training from Luke -- a little trick he learned while fighting with Vader and the Emperor.

 

Yes. Mace and Yoda are dead set on killing the Sith, no discussion.

Jedi are not pacifists. They are knights and guardians, not hippies. Their symbol is the sword.

In no way would it depart from Jedi orthodoxy for Rey to cut Kylo's head clean off.

 

The poster has her staff covering Kylo's red sword. There has to be a reason that they set the image up like that.