ST Rey Skywalker/Daisy Ridley Discussion Thread

When all is said and done, all that Rey turned out to be was a female version of Luke.
Raised on a harsh desert world.
Rescues a droid which starts her on an adventure
Turns out to have a powerful affinity for the Force
Descended from a terrifyingly bad villain

But where Luke had to suffer and work hard for everything he achieved, where we watched Luke gradually mature over time to a resilient young man from callow youth, where we watched him struggle with the dark and finally overcome it....Rey had everything handed to her on a plate. Example: it wasn't until ROTJ that Luke finally leaned to use a Jedi mind trick. Rey mastered it in the first film with zero training.
I also notice that Rey is so 'awesome' that in TROS she revives a dying Kylo Ren without breaking a sweat....but at the end of the film Kylo revives a dying Rey ( DLF later confirmed she wasn't dead because her body didn't disappear) and it kills him.

I'm sorry because I really liked the character at first but Abrams obviously had a huge crush on her to the extent he turned her into uber Force woman - and it is completely impossible to relate to someone who is so incredibly perfect.

 

@sian1965 I think it far more likely that the studio wanted its first live-action SW “Disney princess” (not literally but serving that purpose merch-wise) to be as vanilla and inoffensive as possible.

 

Yup... that's about the size of it.

 

The thing is, is that typically the antagonist mirrors the protagonist is some way. The journeys reflect one another. By learning more about one of them, we should have gained greater understanding of the other.

That didn't happen. They tried to cheat at it and say they were a dyad, or how Luke has seen Rey's power before (in Ben). But none of that really works on a character/personality level. Nothing about Rey's supposed journey makes you think she's going to become like Kylo, or follow in his steps – much like you could have wondered about Luke becoming Vader because they were very much alike. (beside just being father and son). We also don't know why Ben fell to the dark side. There's got to be a reason why he hates them - and he does - despite trying to convince Rey that he doesn't. He thinks they make him weak for some reason. Why? We don't know. There's also some EU business about perhaps blaming his parents a bit too much, and that's not necessary or explanatory either.

To fix this they could have done something like:

Ben wasn't born a bad kid. He tagged along with his loving, well-intentioned, but busy working parents, from base to base, planet to planet, never really having a home, and would often get into trouble pulling pranks or doing whatever it took to get their attention. He also mastered the art of using his Skywalker name to get out that trouble too. Ben was a bit of a cynic, like his old man. But even as a kid, he was also a natural leader like his mom. Many times the other kids on base would end up following him on whatever adventures he decided to have. For a long time, Leia tried to raise him to take her spot one day. She didn't really want him following in Luke's steps, or her father's. She thought Ben might lead the Republic one day. That was her dream for him. But soon she realized Ben was force sensitive, and to give him the guidance they thought he needed, they sent him to his Uncle to focus his powers and become trained as a Jedi. Ben was very much the opposite of the hopeful, idealistic Luke. They butted heads often. And Luke's teachings were constantly tested by his head-strong nephew - who didn't see eye to eye on the patient way Luke was rebuilding the Jedi Order. But being trained as a Jedi didn't help Ben either, and he grew more resentful of his parents. He didn't see them trying to help, he just saw them ditching him. That resentment, that fear of not being loved, grew into a deep seated anger, and soon Ben was on a darker path. In time, Ben began to believe that instead of leading the Republic, he'd end up leading the Jedi. But something was holding him back. He wasn't as strong as he knew he could be. Luke knew that his resentments were the issue, but instead of looking inward and letting go, Ben hung on to that anger. And then one day he got into a big fight with Luke, and half the academy burned to the ground. He left with about 6 other students, who followed him out the door. Ben then adopts the name Kylo Ren, ditches his Skywalker/Solo heritage forever, believes that family just makes you weak in this world, and he doesn't want to be weak or a "Skywalker" anymore.

Rey wasn't born a bad kid, but after being ditched by her parents on Jakku, she's lived a tough life. She's cynical and resents her parents for leaving her there. She's a bit more ruthless, and selfish even. She's had to be just to survive here. She doesn't have family or loved ones here, as that kind of stuff just make you vulnerable on Jakku. She's a scavenger working for a crime boss and is really good and mechanics and rebuilding old parts into something new. When she comes across a broken BB8, she repairs the droid and immediately springs to life yelling about some mission to find Luke Skywalker. Normally she'd ignore the call to adventure, but today she decides to help the little droid. She then bumps into Finn - a recently defected stormtrooper who also didn't have parents around, who only knew was the harsh world of the Imperial Remnant. He's annoying and way too friendly for her liking. She doesn't have time for friends, and then somehow both come across Han Solo, who's looking for that damn droid for Leia. Han takes both under his wing and suddenly - reluctantly - she begins to see Han as a father figure. One she never had. Over the course of the movie, Rey realizes she has the force and begins to hope that maybe she could leave Jakku forever.

And then Rey and Kylo's paths cross in TFA. Both had similar childhoods, similar backgrounds, both have massive resentments, and anger. But where one goes right, the other goes left. Where one ditches his family name, the other picks it up and adopts it by choice. Where one loses hope, the other gains it. Where one breaks Luke, the other rebuilds him.

And Rey's test - her arc - is either becoming like Kylo, who's angry, cynical, and hopeless, or like Luke, who once had it, and picks up the hope baton to rebuild the Jedi.

 

And ironically she did turn out to be a princess - as an Emperor's granddaughter!

 

Thats kinda what makes Rey a palpatine quite a big deal. the fact that she technically is related Emporer Palpatine. she is kinda royalty and she could be put in a position where she could take over the galaxy as impress if turned the dark side. personally i think that concept could have been interesting.

 

I fully expected Rey to have to come to terms with the fact that she would eventually have to destroy Kylo, but she couldn't do it out of hatred. I thought they were going to twist her "victory" over Kylo in TFA into more of the way that Luke claimed "victory" over the Darth Vader apparition in the Dagobah cave. Yeah, you won the fight, but it was the wrong fight.

Luke was afraid of Vader in TESB and had to conquer that fear. I expected Rey to have to learn to let go of her anger toward Kylo, but still have to ultimately conquer him as her foe in IX. But instead they became buddies... for some reason.

I once heard ANH described as a really good D&D campaign where everyone gets to bounce back and forth, using all their abilities to finally win the day and TFA was that same campaign, but the DM's girlfriend was playing. I've never played D&D so I don't know how much truth there is to that.

 

Or maybe she walks out of the Sith Temple as Empress, and tells the FO to all stand down. The war is over. She's now in charge. The saga starts with a Queen, who becomes a Skywalker, and ends with an Empress who becomes ... a Skywalker.

 

Where is the edge in that? being Empress would mean she takes after Palpatine. so it would make sense for that to come with a negative.

 

Who says? Why is a good Empress not an edge? She uses her heritage - being a Palpatine - for good and not evil. She has the power to end it all with one stroke. That almost sounds like...one of those — snaps fingers — subverted expectation-y things that’s all the rage these days.

 

I think Rey becoming empress would rather undermine the theme of democracy being a more ideal form of government than a dictatorship, though I do like the “full circle” aspect of it.

 

I have never played D&D, and I can only speak of my own opinions on Rey, but she's just too much for me. When we see her fighting off those two guys who are trying to steal BB-8... Does it make sense that she can fight them off? Yes. Does it make sense that she's a natural pilot? Considering she can touch upon the force, yes. A lot of what she can do does make sense, but at a certain point you need a more flawed character or else you're ending up in Removed territory. The "bypassed the compressor" scene was when I had had enough of her. I was like, I get it, she's the protagonist.

I think that's where the DM's girlfriend comparison comes from. You take all these examples individually and it's not that bad, but you start to add them up and you've got issues. Imagine if Luke had taken on the sand people by himself and then was able to fight back when the drunks attacked him in the Mos Eisley cantina. And then if Luke started knowing more about the Falcon than Han did. That wouldn't be doing Luke any favors and I don't think it did Rey any favors either.

 

Sorry about that.

I found the way Wonder Woman was written in the movie of the same name to be much better handled than Rey ever was. WW was able to show flaws even though she was essentially a powerhouse.

I also felt like Rey (and other characters) were just doing things because they are the types of things that those types of characters do. Rey wanting to keep BB-8... why does she care? They meet and then nothing. Why doesn't she sell the droid? Did they share a moment off screen? Is she lonely? Just because a person is secluded doesn't mean they're lonely. Seems like Rey could live closer to other people if she wanted to. So why does she keep BB-8? It seems to be because that's the type of decision that her type of character would make in this kind of film, but not because of anything directly linked to her as a person.

Actually, I'll be honest. A lot of things about Jakku make no sense to me, but that's not really specific to Rey.

 

Whilst making Rey a ‘blood’ Skywalker i.e. Luke’s daughter, would have been a very obvious direction (some may say too obvious) to take for the ST, it does substantially reduce all those issues (pertaining to Rey) I talked about before re. character motivation and the emotional connection between characters. Making Rey Luke’s daughter would have automatically created the motivation required for Rey to join the fight... and of course the Kylo dynamic then becomes a lot more personal.

 

If they could wedge in a long lost Rey Palpatine they could have done a Rey Skywalker thing too. I mean, the ST is now at the point where Palpatine had a secret family, he hated, or cloned children, he hated, for the purpose of ... whatever who knows ... and yet chose to speak to Anakin's grandchild to seduce him or something, but never actually did the same with his own grandchild who he said he had been waiting a long time for her to come visit him in the old sith retirement home.

If this insanity is your solution for Rey, you could have done a "Luke had a wife and kid, and they were also killed that night at the Temple. Or so he thought. Rey was a little girl, and her mom instead kidnapped her and fled to some safe planet cuz this was all getting too much. Luke didn't have time to mention in TLJ, but now that he's a force ghost he sees what happens. When Kylo tells Rey this truth, she heads to Ahch-to to see 'dad'.

 

That would undermine the retconning of Rey Nobody by replacing a disappointing heritage with a more desirable one (Skywalker) instead of a more terrifying one (Palpatine).


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There’s nothing terrifying about Rey being Sheev’s grandchild. Nothing. Rey is nothing like her grandpa in any way shape or form, to make the audience question whether she may follow in his footsteps and become evil.

Rey Palpatine is without any drama. At least Rey Skywalker - real Skywalker - has some narrative cohesiveness and makes sense character wise.

 

That’s because they added in the Palpatine aspect 3 weeks before the films release or something crazy like that.... How someone wasn’t fired for letting the whole ‘Rey’ business go on that long is crazy to me

 

I liked Rey ‘Nobody’, because it feels contrived to me to keep making everybody be related to somebody else. Makes the Galaxy feel smaller.