ST Rey Skywalker/Daisy Ridley Discussion Thread

I'd argue that the idea of the Force being unique to certain individuals was heavily implied before RoTJ. In ESB Obi Wan describes Luke as the Rebellion's last hope and Yoda infers that "there is another". It wasn't as if Yoda was suggesting that anyone could train to be a Jedi if Luke failed. They needed another unique individual with sufficient potential to confront Vader (in this case, Leia). Picking up a random kid and training him or her wasn't going to cut it. The idea that the Jedi were individuals with a unique ability has been pretty well established since the beginning. Even if midichlorians aren't mentioned, the OT seems pretty consistent on this issue.

The fact that Rey was one of the most powerful Force users in the franchise made her backstory seem important because it's been pretty well established that not just anyone can use the force. There needed to be a reason for Rey's incredible abilities. Rey was not only one of the most powerful Force users in history, she was also able to use most of her abilities without any formal training. Rey nobody felt out of place. She needed a backstory that made her abilities feel natural. I think this is one place that the Last Jedi feels inconsistent with the rest of the franchise. I'm not a fan of Rey Palpatine but I do believe it at least partially explains her latent abilities. I would have preferred her to actually be Rey Skywalker and to discover that Luke lied to her to keep her and Kylo from confronting each other but Rey Palpatine was still a step above Rey nobody.

 

I would say that the significance here is that Luke and Leia were Vader’s children who, it is later implied “would be a threat” to the Emperor.

 

Rey Nobody was a possibility in TLJ, from Kylo and Rey and Snoke's POV. And that's what is made explicit. Those POVs.

But other perspectives are being offered in that film, and they are as justifiable as Rey Nobody, if not more.

For example, Snoke talks about Rey as Kylo's equal in the light. That equal would rise at some point.

What point?

'Too much Vader in him'. Ben was 11. Rey was born that year. Darkness rises and light to meet it.

Before that scene above, Luke's first lesson. 'Death and decay that feeds new life'.

We see those green seeds sprouting.
The last jedi was Luke. But also Rey. 'Skywalker. The seed of the jedi order, lives', says Snoke. 'Seed' again. Luke the last jedi was a seed, Rey was also a seed.
Was that word, 'seed', innocent? JJ talked in interviews about the 'bad seed' in Ben Solo as a boy. This was before TLJ.

And then we see the dyad in TROS. 'A power like life itself'. That's how Palpatine defines it. Darkness rises and light to meet it. Death and decay>life.

'You could think of me as your father', says Palpatine to Anakin in ROTS (those lines were discarded) 'Long have I waited for my grandchild to come home', he says to Rey.

 

The way I see it, anyone can tap into the Force and learn to use it. However, there is a genetic component when it comes to natural abilities that simply need discipline rather than development. It’s very much like artists IRL. It’s been said you can train your whole life and still not be able to write like Shakespeare or compose like Mozart (or John Williams ). It took a specific natural ability to face Palpatine and that’s why Luke was one of very, very few candidates. Palpatine...ahem...”surprised” all the other ones.

 

The good news is that we can see Daisy perform in a reality TV show and her new movie with Tom Holland and our own Mads Mikkelsen.

Honestly, I've talked about this for over a year. I don't blame Daisy or Adam for the mess we got with Rey and Kylo. I think Abrams and Johnson should have had other script-writers come in. Larry Kasdan would be a good choice, but also some of the writers (male and female) from the Harley Quinn show could have come up with a better script. Sure, it would have been more of a dark comedy that way. But the Rey-v-Kylo situation is pretty absurd due its vagaries and lack of context. Whether you like it or you don't, it's not a well-written drama. I can see why someone would like it and say, "Awe, it's sweet that she helped redeem this lost man," but I can also see why it was an unhealthy, toxic relationship.

George Lucas got a ton of heat for years for writing the Anakin-Padme relationship too vaguely. But Lucas' redeeming quality was that he wanted to show Padme as this politician who stood up for sentient rights and democracy. She obviously picked the wrong dude. Anakin was never a true Jedi. He was more of a knight who was not cognizant of how he was enthralled to Sidious Palpatine. He should have known better, and Padme knew that. Plus, I like various aspects pertaining to the music and visuals of AOTC, but it doesn't make much sense as to why Anakin or Padme would fall in love with each other in that film. It's not as vague as the latter two Sequel Trilogy films, but there is still a lack of context. These people don't know each other fundamentally yet, and they rushed into a marriage without thinking about it.

And so the issue we have with Rey and Kylo Ren is similar. But it's based on the whole superhero romance dynamic. They both have powers...and no one else does...so why shouldn't they be together? That's a lazy form of writing. It's not a good thought process. TFA establishes them as very different personalities, and very different personalities like that are not automatically drawn to each other just because they had a lot of fights and one kidnapped the other. That's lazy, and honestly....I've seen vague, stereotypical stuff from the 1930s and 1940s that is better written than this. But I do comprehend both sides of the argument. I just agree with the critical interpretation and not the optimistic one. I prefer realism, not idealism. This was not written as a fairy tale. It's more like a bad soap opera out of the 1990s.

 

The fact that my boy Kylo brought Rey back from death... that's how you knew... he was a villain til the very end.

 

Well, I think that he should have treated her better before that. Ya know?

 

This is one of the things I cut Abrams some slack on; He didn't have the ego to think that he could do it all by his lonesome, unlike Johnson. He at least had a co-writer each time, which is admirable considering how large of an undertaking a SW film is, and it shows a willingness to collaborate that I'm not sure RJ had (I guess that would depend on how much say the Story Group had in things, since they seemed to like working with him).

Yeah, this sums up why I'm willing to tolerate Anakin/Padme in the PT. Regardless of its poor execution, the clear inspiration for it was Shakespearean tragedy, so you can at least see what the dude was going for.

Reylo is just total confusion from start to finish, and it really doesn't help that the trilogy's story is totally consumed by a dumb, angsty romance as the plot and worldbuilding falls to shambles. The PT and OT certainly didn't have that problem; the romance was merely one aspect of the larger adventure, so if you weren't feeling it, some other aspect would likely grab you.

 

I agree. It's dumb, simplistic, and angsty. Very immature writing. I don't say this to bash Johnson or Abrams per se. I expected more from them because they're [censored] 40 or 50 years old. This writing was not to my liking.

 

There's just...so many things that could've worked if they'd committed to them earlier or thought the idea through.

 

I believe that their was a working idea, especially since Abrams was supposed to be heavily involved, as to development of the character where Johnson took the character was developing.

Now whether you liked the direction is definitely in question but from what I’ve read here from lurking is most support the direction of the character AFTER Force Awakens, then AFTER TLJ it all depends on if you agreed with the handling of Luke Skywalker and how Rey’s story intertwined with it, THEN the ROS happened.

I think in general how perceive the character greatly depends on more than just her development and is directly associated with if you like the direction of TLJ. Which I feel is unfortunate on many levels.

 

True dat.

 

I think each film works on its on together not so much. They all have completely different themes for Rey.

 

Are you referring to my post? If so, I don't think you understood the joke.

 

To me, Rey’s “found powers” theme in TFA was much, much stronger than her “found family” theme as well as much more unique to her part of the overall saga. Whereas Luke’s powers in ANH weren’t as independently decisive (he needed a prodding from Obi-Wan to even remember that he had them and could use them), Rey’s in TFA were simply in-ignorable and actually became her problem. For Luke, his powers were always an aid to fulfilling his destiny as a Jedi’s son. For Rey, her resolutions about her heritage were an aid or would-be aid to finding a place for her powers.

Lucas had a goal and needed to gain the power to achieve it, whereas Kennedy had the power and needed a goal to use them for. I’m sorry, I meant Luke and Rey, not Lucas and Kennedy. Stupid autocorrect.

 

I agree that Rey had a great longing for family, but I don’t think finding/retaining/honoring family was her objective throughout TFA. It was more about assisting a cause she believed in. Even after her instincts about her parents never coming back are substantiated by Maz, with the promise that Luke could come back with her help, she clings to the view that her assistance is now complete and tries to distance herself. It’s only after her powers are forced to awaken, alone, with no Force ghost assistance, in order to overpower Kylo and the Craigtrooper does she realize she clearly has more to offer and stays with the Resistance. That Finn came back for her bonds her to him, but not necessarily to the cause. As far as she knew, neither Finn nor Han were currently active members of the Resistance (remember that Finn told her the truth before they parted ways) and she could have remained close to them without joining. Heck, Han even offered her a position on his smuggling crew that she turned down. She joined the Resistance because of her powers. Because it was a clear sign from the Force that she had much more to contribute. Her mission to Luke is an assignment from the Resistance, as well as specifically from Leia (which sets up her objective for TLJ).

I would say Luke’s dramatic goal throughout ANH is to honor his father’s memory and Rey’s dramatic goal throughout TFA is to maximize her help to a great cause. Luke is provoked by his adopted family’s murder, and Rey is provoked by her realizing BB8’s value to the cause.

 

This. This right here. They do that for Rey most of all. But for almost all the characters, they feel out of sync with each other when you watch them in order. This even applies to minor characters like Maz, Poe, Snoke, Hux, or Phasma. These writers were juggling a trilogy, not writing anything consistent.

 

I don't think Rey desired just for a family. Rey wanted her family. aka her parents. she grew up waiting for them. and in that respect her parents seemed to be a huge mystery to her. why did they leave? who Rey is was the mystery. the idea of wanting to create a family isn't really the idea in any of these movies.

 

In the Force Awakens, Rey is not preoccupied with the identity of her parents or their reason for leaving. She is centered on a want - a need - to be wanted. She has effectively put her life on hold for the child-like fantasy that it'll turn out that she wasn't abandoned and her parents were always planning to come back for her.

Over the course of the film, Rey recognizes the sad truth that she already knew: she was abandoned and that her parents are not coming back for her. However, she also realizes that she has found people who do care about her and would never abandon her. Rey moves forward with her life, no longer keeping it on standby.

The script notes the significance of Finn and the others coming to her aid aboard Starkiller Base. That same part also shows that Rey didn't specifically want her parents - they were the cause of her trauma and so she fixated on them and never realized that she didn't need them to have a family. She could find that elsewhere. What Rey wanted was for someone to care enough about her to come back for her.

FINN: What happened -- did he hurt you?
REY: Finn. What are you doing here?!
FINN: We came back for you.
She is speechless -- this is all she's ever wanted anyone to do.

It's also no coincidence that the choice of words that make up Finn's line ("We came back for you") connects to the words that Rey used when she established her situation.

REY: Don't give up. He still might show up. Whoever it is you're waiting for. Classified. I know all about waiting.
BB-8 BEEPTALKS a question.
REY: For my family. They'll be back. One day. Come on. She tries to force a smile, but can't, really. She heads off. BB-8 BEEPS... then heads after her.

The film positions Finn (and the others) as the answer to Rey's longing.

Rey's arc in the Force Awakens is about recognizing the truth about her own abandonment and no longer allowing it to keep her from living her life. At the end of her arc, she doesn't go back to the place of her trauma to live a fantasy that means she doesn't have to acknowledge that it happened. Instead, she moves onward and dares to walk a new and unknown path.

That's one of the primary reasons why Rey's character end up more or less spinning in place after the Force Awakens for the rest of the trilogy; the point of Rey's arc is lost: the other two films are too preoccupied with repeating the lesson that was already learned and with settling the mystery of Rey's parentage and whether her family name was of some significance or not and what that means for Rey when that was never what was important to Rey's character or to Rey personally in the first place.

At no point during the Force Awakens is Rey occupied with the question of who her parents were or what their reason for abandoning her was.

Instead of continuing onward from the end of her character arc in the first film, the second and third film keeps dragging her back to square one and it's not even the same square one that she started on.

 

Its still the family she wanted. because its the family that would stay with a child growing up. a child will always feel less alone with even the thought of their own parents. as parents feel more emotionally connected too you as they are the ones that created you and there probably can never be a closer emotional connection than that. thats why she was waiting on the planet. even if someone told her they ain't coming back, the question of why would always be there. did they just not want you? did they leave for a purpose? those questions would stick with you. and with no answers there would always be a reluctance to accept they are gone. which is likely why she would have gone right back to jakku. someone coming along as saying Hi I'm your friend would never be able to replace or even have made moving on any easier.