ST Rey Skywalker/Daisy Ridley Discussion Thread

Luke's strategy was clear and rational. It had a very specific purpose. Rey's plan was nothing more than a vague assumption that turning Kylo could help them win. And for Rey, strategy came second. She bonded with Kylo first, for no good personal reason at all, and the bonding disregarded the personal interactions between her and Kylo that were negative.

Look, the OT told a certain type of story very very well. That doesn't mean that what some feel is a bad copycat must be viewed as equivalent. Rey's plan wasn't identical. She wasn't saving a mission by leading Kylo away from the heroes. Nobody acknowledged that she was undertaking extreme personal risk. She never acknowledged that she would very likely die, so what's the back up plan. And finally, very very unlike Luke, she had no reason whatsoever to believe that she was the key to Kylo's soul, particularly in light of it being two days after she watched Kylo gut his father for doing what she decided to do.

 

The killer issue with Rey's actions was adding the romantic element into the story. She was framed in what was IMO a clearly romantic context BEFORE she ever saw a vision: wet with blanket draped over shoulders next to a fire as a "romantic" soundtrack plays, all the while confiding in Kylo and touching his hands. At this point, her actions are pointedly not strategic. So, we already see her being completely non-strategic in her actions towards Kylo, but now I am supposed to believe that her motivations are purely strategic and "for the resistance"? That doesn't work for me, given that RJ continues to frame them in that same romantic light for their following interactions. Her reaction to a vision prompting her to "save" Kylo should lead to at least a smidgen of conflict, doubt, or anger. "Should I believe this vision I saw?" or maybe "This freaking sucks. Why should I have to go to this man who has caused me and my friends so much harm? I'm angry, but I have to do it." No strategy is shown. Instead, her immediate reaction is to attack Luke in Kylo's defense, throw a coat of makeup on, and get as close to him as possible in the elevator while gazing adoringly into his eyes and calling him "Ben" in a soft voice. Continuing this line of thought on... It's all strategy? Then let's see her conflict when she wakes up and Kylo is passed out. She knows she is wrong about him now. What should she do, strategically? I'm not saying she should choose to kill him. I'm just saying - let's see her think about it. She should at least be weighing the choices of kill, capture, disarm, SOMETHING. Instead, we see nothing, because ultimately Rey's motivations don't really matter to the story that RJ is trying to tell. He didn't take the time to put himself in his protagonist's shoes. Instead, he promoted the person that he did relate to to co-protagonist so he could tell his story.

 

If Luke just runs away the only person that helps is himself. “Sorry guys, I know the fate of the galaxy is at stake here but you’re on your own for this one. Oh, and Vader probably knows you’re here because of me so good luck with that.” In Luke’s plan the best case scenario is Vader defects rather than sending his son to a terrible fate and maybe even tells that officer “nah it was just Luke I’m sure. Don’t bother searching.” Unlikely of course but as Luke says, “I have to try”. The second part is really just a pipe dream because Luke’s probably already screwed that up so he can’t really make it worse at that point. However worst case scenario where Vader does take him to the Emperor he’s still a valuable distraction that will hopefully allow the Rebels to complete the mission even if Luke pays the ultimate price. As demonstrated in the first two movies the “normal” Rebels aren’t really a match for Vader in either ground or space combat whichever he chooses to participate in. However Vader is personally invested in turning Luke so that’s where his focus is, and since they need Luke alive for this that gives Luke the ability to stall for time the longer he is able to resist. Basically him being a prisoner on the Death Star strongly increases the chances that both Vader and the Emperor remain on the station until the Rebels’ attack succeeds. Now of course what this plan doesn’t take into account is that the whole thing has been a trap from the beginning because Luke doesn’t know that. To sum up: Luke’s plan is “based on my experience on Bespin I think there’s a legitimate chance I can save Anakin and the galaxy so I have to risk it, but even if Vader is a lost cause I can still save the galaxy separately by sacrificing myself.” and Rey’s plan is “I’m 100% screwed if Kylo doesn’t help me but I’m 100% confident that he will even though Luke told me this wasn’t going to go the way I think.” In the end though Kylo does help her kill Snoke and the guards and she gets away fine so I guess she made a good decision and Luke was wrong to be worried.

 

Still, Rey and Kylo are much better explained that all those other instances where someone is trusted for no reason other than to advance the plot. Why Holdo likes Poe after his embarrassing behavior? Why Leia and resitance trust Finn immediately?Why Poe trusts him? He could have been an inflitrator sent to retreive BB8. Why BB8 covers up for him? Why Han? Why Finn has no sympathy for his Storm troopers? Everyone in ST is too trusting because it moves the plot forward. Or, like in Finn's case, isn't sympathetic because that moves the plot forward too, or at least allows more pew pew and splosions. So not hard to pick any of this apart but since all of it is so inconsequential hardly anyone bothers. It's like "I know I know lets talk about something that matters." Which is the topic at hand.

 

I’m talking about Rey because this is the Rey thread. I used to mention some of those other things in the “development of the ST” thread but that one’s currently on vacation.

 

Because unlike Rey to Kylo, Holdo has reason to trust Poe and the Resistance has reason to trust Finn. For example, Poe blew up SKB. This gives him a certain amount of credibility automatically. Finn helped them blow up SKB. Where BB8 is concerned, Finn literally just helped him escape the FO. Actions have consequences, and by that I mean, helping people naturally leads to being trusted. What's Kylo's background at that point? Slaughtering Luke's Jedi, fighting for team SKB, murdering Han before Rey's eyes, and terrorizing Rey specifically as well as Finn. As for Finn against STs, every time he fights them, he's fighting for his life or fighting for the galaxy. Everyone in the narrative should have cared that STs were slaves, not only Finn, but in the middle of battle isn't the time.

None of it is remotely as easy to pick apart as Rey's non-existent motivations toward a stranger that she only knows through terror.

 

No they don't. One could ahve been an inflitrator and the other got 400 people kiled plus tried a mutiny. Not good reasons to trust. And because of easy peesy trust, we got such flat characters and relationships. Noone earned anything. They just got a pass becasue lets get to the next action scene. But fair enough, this is a Rey thread though her and Finn insta friendship falls into the same category. She should have been weary of strangers. Point being, nobody acted like their profession. Scavenger in a cutthroat world of Nima Outpost shouldn't be easily trusting. But we have to move the plot forward. Resistance pilot on a secret mission shouldn't have been easily trusting and blabbing about BB8 to a supposed escaped Storp trooper. But we have to move the plot forward. It was all dumb convenience that backfired in the long run because nothing was earned. Serves them right.

 

Yes, blowing up SKB is a phenomenal reason to trust someone. All this paragraph does is completely ignore that.

Let's reiterate. On the one hand, you have characters that blew up SKB. On the other hand, you have a horrible monster that hasn't done anything but terrorize the heroes and fight for Team Genocide.

Rey trusted Finn only after they helped each other while running for their lives. Unlike Kylo, Finn earned her trust.

 

No my paragraph doesn't even talk about TLJ but about TFA. Nobody blew up any SKB when Leia immediately trusted Finn's story. Everyone just knew that he was a great guy and not an inflitrator. Point being, that's not how these people should have behaved. And that kind of insta trust led to TLJ because insta agreeable is death of dramatic tension. So we got reshuffling in order to put characters out of their comfort zone (where they were from the start of TFA). otherwise there would be no reason for uncomfortable reshuffling.

Moreover, how did Finn earn rey's trust 3 seconds after she beat him up into submission? She trusted him isntantly because he said she should. That's not earned. His coming back for her happen way after she already trusted him. Remember, she didn't even blink when he admitted to have lied. There was never any dramatic tension so no wonder their "relationship" ended up being his yelling after her. There was no foundation at any point. Just, let have them get along til she meets people who are actually important for her character journey.once she was with other people, his usefulness evaporated.

 

In TFA, Finn ran to Han to explain what SKB was. What Finn told Han was confirmed by Leia's pilot. They also knew the FO was hunting for him, and he broke Poe out of captivity. Again, there were reasons. It wasn't like they picked up a stray that was just killing them and randomly decided to trust that person.

Finn earned Rey's trust when he warned her that a TIE was about to explode the hut they were in and got her out. He earned her trust when he helped her defeat the TIE fighters that were chasing them both by giving her strategy on how to fly and by shooting them. He admitted he lied after he saved her life multiple times. Saving her life is a hell of a lot more persuasive than a naked confession based on affection that he never had to make. Saving her life = foundation. Abducting, torturing and stalking her =/= foundation.

 

Just how many Dark Side users does Rey know? At the time period of The Last Jedi, she knows one, and has heard of one other (of which she mentions)

She doesn't have the knowledge of a pool of Dark Side users from which to make such an analysis. If anything, the fact that Vader was saved is more likely to spur her on with the only other Dark Side user she knows.

 

If Rey were just open to saving any and all dark siders just because that's grade-A strategy, she would have tried to appeal to Snoke and Sheev's humanity. Sheev in particular, because unlike with Kylo, he was actually family. Her relationship with Sheev far more mirrored Luke and Vader than her relationship with Kylo.

 

The point of my reply to @anakinfansince1983 was to highlight that she doesn't know any dark side users apart from Kylo Ren at the time of The Last Jedi, so it is illogical to assert that her default setting would be, and I quote "thinking anyone and everyone would turn back"

She doesn't know enough Dark Side users to draw that conclusion, she only knows, and only tries it with one.

 

Abduction is foundation for dramatic tension and stories live and die on dramatic tension. So that was bound to get further development and it did. OTOH, where there's no dramatic tension, there's no story. That's why Finn usefulness as Rey's companion fizzled the moment Han entered the picture. Rey was meeting characters who would provide dramatic tension that Finn never could because he was made her insta trusting buddy. And that's why TROS had all those tagalongs dragged into Rey's quest for truth about her family that had nothing to do with them, and that reduced them to "wow, she can heal giant snakes? "wow, she can shoot lightening from her fingers?" "wow she can trick minds?",etc. They couldn't contribute dramatically because there was never anything but we go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da ding dong. There was no way to advance the relationships and characters when they were already set as insta buddies. Same goes for Finn and Poe. No dramatic tension whatsoever because of insta trust at the start of TFA. So the result was painfully unnecessary filler with lightspeed skipping that most fans feel should have been left on the cutting floor. It didn't advance the relationships. It didn't advance the characters. it didn't even act like Chekhov's Gun. So why was it bloating the screen time? It didn't even inspire online chatter unlike Holdo maneuver even though it was clearly designed to be an answer to it.

 

Yes, but the thing your missing (or forgetting) is the Rey did'nt think Kylo would reject her - she thought him turning was 100 percent a certainity; a would, not a maybe.

Rey did'nt think she was the "best woman for the job" and it was'nt about saving Ben's soul* - she had a vision were she saw her present while he turned and went to fufille that vision, and not to save his soul but becuse she needed (or rather belived she needed) a powerful force-sensative to turn the tide of the war and Luke, her first, best and perferred choice, had refused her repeatedly.

*Rey never said she was interested in saving Ben's soul and makes it clear her motivation is strategic and she wants to use Ben agianst the FO to win the war. In fact she cares so little about Ben's soul that she seems fairly content to drop the entire mission if only Luke gave her an alternative by joining her instead.

They were both shocked becuse the visions they had both received (Rey's of Kylo's turning and Kylo's of Rey joining him) were faked by Snoke.

Of course you can have it both ways - the Force visions they had were fake but the other things they sensed and saw in other, such as Rey seeing the good and conflict in Kylo and Kylo seeing into Rey's memories, were real.

Probobly not, but guess what?

I'm not Rey.

You deflecting these points with "well, I don't think it seems to bug him" does'nt change the fact that they all happen; Luke has more reason to hate Vader then Rey has to hate Kylo, and yet Luke is still able to believe their is good in Vader.

It's implied, but even if he did'nt he still captured the other three and used them as pawns to manipulate Luke. And yes, Han lived, but for all Luke and Vader knew Jabba was going to kill him when he shipped him to Tatooine, and even though he did'nt Vader still froze the man alive and shipped him off into harms way.

His mentor and his best freind

Obi-Wan was his mentor, Biggs was his best friend. Vader killed them both - and both right before Luke's eyes.

It is a reactionary moment - but it's also clearly a display of a temper; you can act violently reactionarily, you know that, right?

She still flips out and goes from fustrated to restorting to commiting a violent assualt agianst an unarmed man who had his back turned to her in less time then it takes to blink, then starts going at him and ultimatly pulls out a deadly weapon; she has a temper.

Rey never ever shows any fear of Kylo even when their face to face and she knows he can hurt her - hell, even when he has her defenseless and strapped down to a table she's not afraid of him.

Okay, so she was suprised to see him and was acting reactionarly. She still acted reactionarly in an angry and violent way.

It's like you think suprise and reactionary actions are mutually exculsive to having a temper and acting violently.

Becuse by that point the two of them are freinds who trust each other and have devoloped a rapport.

An "aggressive way of dealing with a situation" that involves chasing a random person down, beating them up with a metal stick and yelling at them is a display of a temper.

She did'nt have much of a realtionship (see no realtionship at all) with Finn when she attacked him, and she did have a realtionship with Finn when she assualted him in TROS to keep him from getting invovled in her fight and snapped at him for trying to be a nice friend to her on the Falcon. She also has a relationship with Poe, who she constantly bickers with in TROS.

A person who has a temper can soften easily.

Agian, where not discussion whose plan makes more sense, were discussing whether or not it makes sense for them to sympathize with these peaple to begin with.

If Luke was'nt motivated mainly by saving Vader he could have gone anywhere else; their is no reason to surrender himself to Vader unless its to try and turn him.

And Rey was'nt appealing to Kylo - she though he was going to turn full-stop and belived that he would was set in stone. She thought it was - go to the Supremacy, Kylo turns.

For all we know Chewie and R2 did say something. Even if they did'nt though why does Rey need their permission or their blessing?

It's a good thing Rey does'nt belive that all bad people can be fixed - hell, she does'nt even care that much about fixing Kylo and is motivated by her desire to turn the tide of the war, not by a want to save his soul, despite many peaple trying to frame her view as being such.

(I'm not sure why you use the term "Pollyanna" like its an insult, becuse its not, it just a discriptor. It also discribes Rey fairly well anyway - she has an optimistic outlook on life and bias towards positivity - so in your attempt to dismiss her all you've ended up doing is acknowledging her characterization)

Rey's a grown woman; she can do what she wants, Chewie and Artoo are'nt her parents, lol.

 

She meets Snoke in TLJ. He's dark sider number two. Apparently the only thing she thinks at this point a Jedi is good for is redeeming a dark sider. She was right there with Snoke. He touched her face while force freezing her and he painfully read her mind. I'm pretty sure in TLJ logic, this is a path to an emotional bond between them. Kinda heartless that Rey only thinks Kylo is deserving of an attempt to be saved.

 

That doesn`t remotely work for me. As pretty much nothing else did in that movie.

 

I don't think I'm missing or forgetting that if you read my very next sentence after what you bolded. I just think that makes either Rey dumb or Luke incompetent because somehow the message didn't get through to her. But even that is assuming that she made a mistake in the first place, which I believe we're supposed to interpret that she did but only good things came out of it so did she really? (I know you and I have discussed that aspect previously but I remain convinced that the First Order is less dangerous with Kylo as Supreme Leader than it is with Snoke alive and leading and Kylo following him. Of course, it all starts making even less sense if you try and fit TROS and the "Final Order" into it.)

 

Rey isn't naive about bad people in TFA. She's super cautious about them. She doesn't trust Teedo or try to save him. She doesn't trust Unkar or try to save him. She doesn't trust Kylo or try to save him. The only people Rey comes to trust in TFA are people that she is thrust into life or death situations with and they help her survive and vice versa. That's earned trust, and it's the opposite of what she was written to do in TLJ.

She isn't a "Pollyanna" in TFA. What she was is steadfast in a belief that she was separated from her family by mistake, and if she left Jakku they'd never be able to find her. There's naivety there in refusing to believe that they might have died or something, but at no point is Rey so desperate for undeserved affection that she goes searching for it in bad people. This supports the notion that Rey was correct, not delusional, in her belief that her family was separated from her by mistake. She doesn't see good in bad people in TFA. Her positive belief in people there is based on positive experience.

 

Unfortunaly, your probobly right; I would'nt be suprised if it was one day revealed that, while writing Rey, they were motivated primarly by making a character who "checked all the boxes" in terms of late-2000s female fantasy hero.

Just a guess, but I'd say your hope is going to granted sooner rather then later

Though personally I'm more excited for Finn then I am for Rey, if only becuse I'm worried that Rey, now being a Palpatine and Skywalker, is always going to get dragged down by those legecies and none of her achievements will ever truly be "her own."

Just becuse you and some other peaple are hell-bent on seeing romance in every little thing Rey and Kylo do does'nt mean their was actually a romantic element to the story.

Rey all but flat-out states that what she's doing she's doing for a strategic purpose, so yes it pointedly is strategic.

Rey did'nt put makeup on. Daisy Ridley was wearing makeup becuse, you know, she's an actor in a movie and they wear makeup in every single scene.

This is probobly the dumbest and weakest argument in existence agianst Rey/in favor of Reylo, becuse by this same logic Rey was trying to seduce Luke becuse she was wearing makeup in every scene with him.

The only line of thought this contiues is that some of you are so hung up on romance you see it in every shadow and that the two characters can't so much as talk to each other without you guys getting all thirsty.

It's not going to work for everyone, but the fact remains that it is what happened and it is what the narrative presents. Dislike it all you want, but that's the way the story was written.

The movie presented what it presented, and it not working for you does'nt invalidate the point it's making.

She's dumb becuse she trusted something she had zero reason to distrust and every reason to trust?

Rey's plan was'nt to let Kylo take over though, it was to have him defect and join her, so irregardless of whether or not the FO is more or less dangerous with Snoke dead and Kylo in charge the point is Rey's mission still failed.

Yes, becuse every fictional protagonist every written is written to be 100 percent relatable to every person in the audience 100 percent of the time, and no fictional character has ever been written by someone according to how they wanted to write them as opposed to how random peaple in the audience would perfer them to be written

If you saying that "I don't understand why Rey would do what she did, so what she does is invalid and makes no sense" is okay, then so is me saying this - "I don't understand why you would view TLJ the way you do, so the fact that you dislike it is invalid and makes no sense."

See the problem?

Considering that Pollyanna only "played" the Glad Game to cope with how terrible her life was, I'd say that it fits with Rey fairly well. It's a very "when life gives you lemons..." philosophy.

And yet it did'nt; Rey, despite being rough around the edges and having lived a hard knock life, is super optimistic, personable and trusting from the moment we meet her in TFA.

And I'm sure if any of those bad peaple gave her a reason to trust or sympathize with them she would have; it's not like she blindly trusted and sympathized with Kylo immedatly, she had to gain a reason to do so - she's not going around thinking every evil person can be redeemed or is capable of good.

Becuse she has no reason to trust Teedo and every reason to dislike him.

Becuse she has no reason to trust Unkar and every reason to dislike him.

Becuse (as of yet) she has no reason to trust Kylo and every reason to dislike him.

Rey does'nt go to Kylo becuse she's desperate for undeserved affection, she goes to him becuse she wants to turn the tide of the war.

Becuse she has no reason to.

Just like it is in TLJ.

No, not an assumption - the information she had and was acting on led her to believe it was a certainity that he would turn and she had no reason to distrust that information. It was also motivated primarly by strategy, as she cared so little about Kylo's soul that she was willing to abandon the mission althoughter before even starting off on it if only Luke joined her.

Becuse she did'nt think she would.

Yes she did.

She had a vision that led her to belive Kylo would turn with 100 percent certainity as a matter of fact, and while that vision was false she did'nt know that and had no reason to think it was.

Holdo never trusted Kylo, let alone even met him, so I'm not sure why Holdo hypthoetically trusting Kylo over Poe and Finn has to do with anything.

And seeing into someones very soul also = foundation.

Not to you, maybe, but obviusly to Rey, who agian is A; not you and B; not a character you wrote.

Rey did'nt have a spiritual force-bond with Snoke or Sheev and neither of them had any sympathtic qualities or made any attempt to engage with her on a level beyond that of "I am your enemy."

Hahahaha. Yeah, no it did'nt.

Vader cared about Luke, wanted to protect him and ultimatly sacraficed his life for him. Palpatine did'nt give a crap about Rey on a personal level and her only value to him was as a vassel to host his spiritual essence.

If Luke was'nt motivated primarly by Vader he could have gone anywhere else - the only reason he went to the DS specificly is becuse Vader brough him their becuse he surrendered himself to Vader, and the only reason he did that was to try and turn him

LF did'nt write TLJ and neither did Disney - as for the lack of "plausible, respectable motivation," well we already know that you have a very specific personal expections for how Rey should have behaved, so any motivation that does'nt fit with your specific standards is somehow impluasible and disrespectable.

Rey did'nt have a mental link with Snoke and she did'nt have any reason to sympathize with him or think he could be saved or wanted to be saved. She had as much reason to try and make him turn as Luke did to try and make the Emperor turn in ROTJ.

Evidently not.

Considering Rey had a reason to think Kylo would turn and no reason to think Snoke was, and was'nt acting based on heart but rather strategy to begin with, I'd say it makes perfect sense.

 

I liked the callback to TFA with Rey sliding down the sand dune at the end. But not much else, really.

 

Right. So all of those things point to Rey not being naive or a Pollyanna. She doesn't trust bad people that she has no reason to trust. In TFA anyway.

It was an assumption. It's irrelevant how confident Rey was in her assumption as to whether it was an assumption. What it definitely wasn't was clear cut strategy, regardless of how confident Rey was in her assumption about Kylo.

She had endless reasons to distrust the vision. The biggest by far is she just watched Kylo murder Han two days ago when Han tried to save him. Why on earth is the random girl going to succeed where loving dad failed? Rey doesn't even have a theory on this one. Never comes up. Also, Kylo is a dark side manipulator that can get inside her head, which she has first hand experience with. Someone that is skeptical about trusting people she has no reason to trust should obviously question the source of this vision and whether it was placed there. She's new to all this psychic stuff, and Kylo has given zero reason for her to think the vision is a rational outcome for his soul. Also, the vision could mean any number of things, including that it was an inevitable outcome. From the next to nothing we know about it, there is no reason to assume she was obligated to ship her body off in a coffin to put herself in enemy hands for the vision to come to pass. All we know she saw is that supposedly Kylo wouldn't bow to Snoke at some point in the future (which was wrong anyway). Moreover, there's also the fact that Kylo's soul isn't Rey's responsibility in the first place. The force could tell her to go pick up Snoke's dry cleaning too, and I'd expect her to wonder why the hell that's her job when she would be better off strategizing with her own allies.

Giving Luke an ultimatum after attacking him while she lords over him in the mud isn't an indicator of her caring only a little bit about Kylo's soul. Luke was in the mud because she attacked him on yet another assumption that Kylo is all his fault. She is very quick to see the good in Kylo based on nothing in TLJ, and that's just another example of it.

Okay, so hence one story was good and one wasn't. Rey was very very stupid and that made it impossible for me to buy into her actions. She was unbelievably and unrelatably stupid.

That was a discussion of strategy, not whether a vision existed that Rey had no good reason to put 100% of her faith in without question. From a strategic standpoint, no Rey had no rational basis to conclude that she would have more luck reaching Kylo than his own father. They had no relationship upon which she could base such a conclusion. No history. No interpersonal indicators (besides romance, which you insist never even remotely exists between them). If the plan is to reach Kylo and save his soul, the natural step two in formulating that plan is to figure out what might have the ability to influence him and why, and in the context of Kylo, that determination needs to be made in light of Kylo murdering his own loving father for trying to reach him in exactly that way... two days ago.

That Rey isn't me isn't an argument. That I didn't write Rey isn't an argument. You aren't Rey either and you didn't write her either. In fact, none of us in this thread did, so it should I guess be shut down based on your logic because none of us are qualified to have any opinions on her story.

And no, it's not foundation when it's forced on Rey against her will both violently and painfully. That Kylo was forced into her mind against her will repeatedly and intimately is foundation for Rey to hate him and their connection and want to be free of it. Forced intimacy creates negative emotions, not positive emotions, generally speaking. People as a general rule want to be comfortable and have trust and choose who they share their private thoughts with and who's private thoughts they are exposed to.

Sure she did. Snoke mind assaulted her too. That was hella intimate.

From Rey's perspective of saving dark siders because Luke saved his father, not from the perspective of audience members who have seen the films, yes, there is more of a parallel with her own grandfather than with the DB that's been terrorizing her that she doesn't otherwise know.

This discussion has already been had, endlessly, in this thread. Luke going anywhere else would have just been about saving himself and running away. He went to the DS specifically because it occupied Vader and Sheev away from the Rebellion. It got them off their backs. While there, he could take a shot at turning Vader. Only Luke could occupy Vader and Sheev. He was the only Rebel that was a prize to them. So yes, the plan could only work because Vader is dad and Luke is the Chosen One's son. Still strategic.

She had less reason to sympathize with her own torturer that she just witnessed murdering and maiming her only friends over the last few days. By comparison, Snoke has been wonderful to her. All he did is torture her, but it was much quicker and at least he wasn't stalking her private lonely nights in bed as a teenage girl while he did it.

 

Not that stupid, seeing as she is still standing at the end. Not Snoke, nor Kylo Ren, nor Palpatine, nor Hux, nor the First Order. You can take the middle section of any story in isolation and denounce the actions in it as stupid if you like, but ultimately, when the full story was told, she had won out. So she's not so stupid is she?