ST Why Rey is not a Mary Stu

Edit: Yes i know i screwed up the title lol


“A Mary Sue or, in case of a male, Gary Stu or Marty Stu is an idealized fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through extraordinary abilities. Often but not necessarily this character is recognized as an author insert and/or wish-fulfillment. “

Rey is not a Mary Stu as she does not singlehandedly save the day.

An easy way to see if she would save the day by herself in the movie is to take away all the other hero characters. You can take away any of the characters at any point in the movie to see if Rey saves the day.

So if Rey is by herself with no one to help her does she save the day? No.

-Without Finn to man the turret she is eventually gunned down by the tie fighters, none of them crashed by themselves.

-Without Han Solo she never meets maz Kanata and she never see’s the lightsaber and never knows about her potential future as a jedi.

-Without Finn, Han and Chewie she is eventually recaptured by Kylo Ren at Star Killer base and brought to snoke

-Without Finn, Han and Chewie the resistance x-wing squadron and Poe Dameron fail to stop Star Killer base, crushing the resistance and they now cannot find Luke Skywalker because r2 was on the base and the First Order now control the galaxy..... woopsies

-Without Finn to defend her as she is knocked out by Kylo Ren at star killer she is captured again and brought to Snoke.... woops

Is she a much more capable person that Luke was in ANH? Yes. Can you not like that? Yes
Is she a Mary Stu though? Hell no.

 

Mary Stu?

 

"A Mary Sue or, in case of a male, Gary Stu or Marty Stu is an idealized fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through extraordinary abilities. Often but not necessarily this character is recognized as an author insert and/or wish-fulfillment.[1]"

It doesn't say alone. You're shifting the goalposts by redefining the term on the fly.

 

Lol my bad

 

Yes but she doesn't save the day really, Han, Finn and Chewie along with Poe Dameron are the real heroes and saviors. The only thing Rey did was manage to defeat a weakened Kylo Ren which just saved her and Finn.

 

She really is a Mary Sue within the broad definition of it. However, how this influences the enjoyment of the film is down to the individual. I don't mind Rey at all, in fact she has the potential to be a great SW character. But the bit that seems problematic is the suddenness of her discovering her Jedi like abilities to the point that she can best Kylo Ren. I think if that had been established/ implemented better, we wouldn't be having this conversation... As it stands, I don't think anyone was that surprised in her having force abilities... it didn't really have any shock value, so I'm not sure what Abrams was trying to achieve in clouding it in unesersary mystery... which makes it a bit 'huh?'?

 

You're focusing on one thing. Let's make a list of all the things she does in the movie. Btw, any one thing is not out of the question, it's a track record for the entire story..

- Is attacked by the droid abductors, fights them off on her own. (Succeeds.)
- Flies a ship that she's unfamiliar with flying that hasn't flown in years, and even in battle with enemy pilots through insanely perilous stunts. (Succeeds.)
- Understands droid and wookiee languages like a pro. (Succeeds.)
- Fixes the Falcon quicker and faster than Han (Succeeds. I'll also point out that nothing is wrong with this, again, on its own, it's the aggregate evidence that stacks up.)
- Gets Han and Chewie out of a bad situation by releasing the rathtars. Even though she 'failed' in picking the wrong fuses, she succeeded in giving them all a chance to escape. This is what prevents this from being a clean 'failure'. (Succeeds.)
- Saves Finn from the rathtar. (Succeeds.)
- After an amusing moment forgetting to release the safety, and missing the first shot, she then deadshots three stormtroopers in a row. (Succeeds.)
- Captured by Kylo Ren. (Fails. It should be pointed out that she's outmatched by his Force powers and never really had a chance, but then...)
- Fights off Kylo Ren's mental attack, and then turns it back on him, despite having no formal training or experience using the Force. (Succeeds.)
- Having no formal training or even guidance, Rey draws on the force and performs a jedi mind trick. Yes the first two times she commanded it did not work, but failing for a few moments with no risk followed by a success literally seconds later doesn't really count as a failure in any story. (Succeeds.)
- Navigates the base without getting caught once, until meeting up with Han and crew. (Succeeds.)
- Calls on the Force again when she pulls the lightsaber into her hand, and then proceeds to defeat Kylo Ren in a duel, without any training. I get that she has some combat skills with her staff, but this entire time she's been succeeding at everything else, so suddenly calling upon the Plot Device... err, Force to change the tide of the battle doesn't provide any dramatic tension because she has yet to fail at anything she tried throughout the whole movie.

That's textbook Mary Sue.

Doesn't mean I don't love her character to death, though! Phenomenal movie, loved all the new and returning characters in it, but Rey is still a Mary Sue.

 

This is just the first chapter. There is a lot of unanswered questions about Rey. Her extraordinary force power development might be explained or might not in Episode 8. Rey is shown to be a good fighter and strong minded early in the film. If she was shown as helpless and weak then got strong all of a sudden then I would understand the complaint. In ANH it is implied Luke is a really good pilot but we never see it until the end. Luke used the force in a much more difficult situation. He had to fly in a coordinated attack with expert pilots who had a lot more experience and shoot a small target avoiding enemy fire during his first x wing flight. Rey already was shown to be a really good fighter with a staff. A staff or bo is not a easy weapon to handle and seeing her use a lightsaber is not a huge jump in logical progression. Her doing a mind trick and grabbing the lightsaber was either showing she is really powerful and don't know it or she was being guided. Either way the Mary Sue comments are silly IMO.

 

I don't think it's a problem that broke the movie by any means. It certainly doesn't hurt my enjoyment of it, but it is a valid criticism people have, and I'm hoping that we can humanize her a bit more in the sequels. Even with the lack of tension from her not failing in anything, the acting was superb, and the hints of her backstory made her very easy to root for and fall in love with. That's one thing the movie did extraordinarily well, was making me love all the characters, old and new, and eager to see where it goes next.

 

Do we have to have more than one thread for this topic? Seriously?

 

exactly. This should be in the Rey thread or the other current Mary Sue thread