ST Rey Skywalker/Daisy Ridley Discussion Thread

It's really weird how in TFA, they have Rey (as a Kenobi descendant) taking on one half of Anakin's legacy with her accepting the saber and the call to action that she has with the vision versus Kylo and him talking to the burnt out Mask. I suspect whoever developed these scenes (maybe Arndt who might have had more exposure to GL) might have had a different origin for Rey (like maybe being a Skywalker/Solo scion) instead of Rey Kenobi, which probably was Abrams's idea imo especially since everyone working on the ST had a different origin for her.

 

I know I, and others, have said this before - but it truly is astonishing, when you consider the stakes involved in a SW sequel trilogy, all the money riding on it (not just the movies themselves, but all the merchandise, the theme park tie ins, all of it), that the powers that be didn't have a clear three story outline in mind, with the major themes, plot twists, relationships, and character arcs worked out. That it doesn't look like they had Rey figured out, among other things. Can good things come from a situation like that? Yeah, sure - if you get lucky. But it's a huge, and unnecessary, roll of the dice that invites trouble. It amazes me that Disney allowed that to happen.

I also think that the first movie raised questions that any audience was going to expect to have answered, and for the answers to have significance. I know some above are discussing whether answers can be predictable and still be satisfying, which is a fair enough discussion point. However, if you make the audience ask certain things, if you go out of your way to make the audience ask certain things, I don't think you can then be surprised when...what do you know ...the audience expects those answers and expects them to be meaningful and satisfying. Rey seems to have nearly (literally?) unprecedentedly powerful and quick-manifesting Force abilities - why and how? Gee, this movie clearly wants me to focus on who Rey's parents were, for some reason - I guess that's important to the story, I wonder why.... The audience was set up to speculate and wonder about these things, with dubious payoff. (To be clear - I have no problem with Rey's parentage not being important...she could have been just an abandoned orphan and the story works just fine. In fact, it tells you something about why she is the way she is. However, when the movie keeps nudging you and practically begging you to speculate on her parentage......)

As I've also said before, I like Rey despite feeling she was very badly treated by the writing. I;ll credit some of that to Daisy Ridley, and some of it to script elements that, if better handled, could have really had something -- I love her optimistic determination, her inspirational refusal to give in to pessimism and self-destructive wallowing in past failures. I think at times she was a refreshing antidote to the "The Jedi suck and all the bad stuff that happened is their fault" mindset that had taken traction in a certain element of the fandom. However, I think the failure to have her well thought out on several key fronts led to issues we are still discussing, and probably will be for a long time.

 

If Luke Skywalker in OT=Jedi Order then Sidious with a number of his aprentice Siths=organization. Moreso because Sith had more advanced logistics, research/cloninglabs and army governing Empire and FO.

Kylo is the drive force of all important characters, his mother, his father, his uncle and his lover. Like it or not, the plot of ST revolves around him.

One thing I'm curious is that you bring Kylo into every discussion. Are you not able to stand your ground without involving him? Is every argument really based in this is true for this character because kylo is or isn't this or that? Or is that just a confirmation that he is the driving force for all the characters? I don't agree with such lack of agency for all other characters, and I am a Kylo fan, lol.

Rey's legitimacy as a main protagonist in a triad of movies called Skywalker saga is and always will be questionable if she is not a Skywalker. And she isn't. She is a Palpatine

 

The Jedi Order in the OT = Obi - Wan and Yoda that we see on screen as well as Luke your also obfuscating my response to your questions. If we take into account what we know from canon as well as what we know from Legends the Jedi Order defeated the Sith as an organization multiple times until Darth Bane instituted the rule of two. The Sith defeated the Jedi Order once and it took them hundreds if not thousands of years to do it finally after repeated defeats. Luke is the last of the Jedi Knights a remnant of the former organization and was supposed to be the first of the new. It's quite clear in the OT that there is no Jedi order they were destroyed and it's said so in the first film. The Jedi won't be an organization again until Luke rebuilds them.

The Sith are two people and not an organization sure one person may have control over large amounts of other resources but those aren't shared resources if Palpatine died Vader wouldn't have been the next Emperor. Since the rule of two was instituted by Darth Bane after whatever iteration of the Sith order was destroyed it's hard to call them an organization more of a religion than anything else especially with the adversarial relationship between Master and apprentice. Sidious really just used and discarded all of his apprentices then weren't valued members of his organization they were more like tools than anything else.

 

Kylo isn't the main driving force for Rey for the majority of the movies. His mom barely showcases a drive for him. Han and Luke are driven by him, but they're, Leia even as well, in mentor roles and die in the movies where their characters are driven in (except Leia).

 

lol, you are confusing to me...
what then, 2 force ghosts plus human worth more than 2 sith (1 master sith 1 discarded aprentice), organizationwise?

Put aside Kylo for a secobd and please give me an argument why Rey not-Skywalker should be a legitimate protagonist of a Skywalker saga if she isn't a Skywalker. I don't see any.

 

how about because she literally is the protagonist, just because her story wasn’t well thought out or written well doesn’t mean she wasn’t actually the protagonist

 

We follow Rey's journey from beginning to end. Once Kylo dies he is not mentioned again. Poof.

 

Rey isn't Kylo's lover, first of all. To reduce her role to that is gross. Second of all, the story devotes and focuses its time on Rey's relationship with Han, Leia and Luke far more than it does with Kylo and the OT3. Kylo and the OT3 is all "tell, no show". The movie actually develops and builds Rey's relationships with the OT3 (even her and Luke, which could've been far better, is still shown to us). And that's not to forget that Rey also builds relationships with the Resistance (Finn, Poe, Chewie, the droids), and has a strong connection to the main villain (Palpatine).

Rey is the clearly the protagonist of these films by the way the story revolves and centers around her.

 

Then I will be clearer in the OT the order has 2 members left at this point I wouldn't say that they Qualify as an organization any more than the Sith do. The order however survived for a thousand generations in power while the sith were brought down multiple times until the rule of two which essentially destroyed them as an organization and turned them into something else

 

Glad Daisy was happy with TROS, at least?? Nice to see she doesn't seem to think Rey is mourning Ben Solo deeply, lol.

 

I'm hopeful with the lego special doing post TROS so soon we might more Rey stories in either books, comics or more animation. clone wars kind of show that uses GL ideas of rebuilding and dealing with gangsters and their power. just have Rey and this new goverment take Luke's place in his ideas and use a dark sider in the gangs to replace Darth Talon and Maul. They can use stories of the great rebuilding of the galaxy.

 

Yep. Kylo's status as a Skywalker being important is directly at odds with the idea of Rey's "blood doesn't matter" arc. The contrast between arrogant Kylo and the "lowly" heroes in TFA is what made that movie work thematically, but the more they coddled and babied Kylo, the more they pissed on the idea of "blood doesn't matter".

Lucasfilm never believed that, nor did TLJ fans who praise the idea of "Rey Nobody" from the mountaintops while simultaneously demanding guaranteed redemption for Kylo because he's "The Last Skywalker, Son of Han and Leia".

Man, I hate the sequels so much, I have no idea why I keep subjecting myself to this cancerous garbage because all it does is upset me.

 

Even if she wasn't happy, as if she's going to say anything else. What's she going to do, piss off some of the most powerful people and organisations in Hollywood by saying that they turned her character into a container for hollow fanboy nostalgia by finishing her story with a depressing burial for some props on a planet that meant absolutely nothing to her, after caving to dumb fan caterwauling that she's not allowed to be powerful unless she has a last name that the fans have already heard before?

Colin Trevorrow had the good sense to finish her story where it belonged - on a green planet, surrounded by students and happiness. Not a metaphorical graveyard being questioned by TROS' inexplicable What's Your Last Name Police.

What an incredible ending for Rey. I loved it when she saw this beautiful image in the Tatooine desert. So touching, meant so much.

 

I liked Rey's ending (thematically) as an adopted Skywalker but I vehemently disagree with the way she got there.

 

I've never liked the 'adoption' framing of the ending. She's a grown woman, not a child, and her 'parents' in this case are siblings who are also dead. Rey Skywalker, to the extent that it works, is her honoring her mentors, not wanting to be actually adopted by them.

(Apologies if I am reading too much into your use of 'adopted' in this context, though).

 

That's part of why I disagree with "how she got there." Thematically the only way I can accept the ST as part of the saga is if I reluctantly accept that Rey was destined to be a Skywalker just like Anakin and Luke.

Anakin created the Skywalker Legacy and was the "founder" of the legacy so to speak. He was the Chosen One by the Force to bring balance.

Luke was born into the legacy and brought it full-circle. He was chosen by the Force to redeem Anakin so he could finish what he started. He had to deal with the burden of Anakin's choices (Being a Skywalker and both the good and bad that came with that) and the end of the Jedi.

Rey was "adopted" into the Skywalker legacy and was chosen by the Force when Palpatine found a way to return. She became a Skywalker because the Force needed a new champion and Luke had vanished, Leia chose another path, and Ben Solo was turned. Rey was chosen to deal with the legacy of the Skywalkers.

It's a lot to unpack and really only works if you view the ST as an epilogue to the rest of the Saga.

 

But that just complicates the whole idea. Anakin wasn't the chosen one because his name was "Skywalker". the name is a family name. taking the name and saying well that name is now whoever the force chooses to have it is just silly.

I don't like the way they went about giving Rey the name. i think they did it in a really messy way. it doesn't make a heck load of sense and the method she got there doesn't seem like adoption and more like I CHRISTEN MYSELF! SKYWALKER *Poors tatooin sand on head*

Which you will always have half the audience happy for Rey and another half saying are you kidding me?