MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) Discussion > Fixing Rey

Fixing Rey

posted 7 years ago by mxpowers43 (367)
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Okay I usually focus on how much I despise the character. So for this thread i am going to suggest what I think would fix the character and still allow her to do nearly everything she does in TFA itself, most of this is going to involve her 'introduction' scene and it would be vastly different but for the rest of the film post meeting Finn the story could be exaclty the same including her being dropped off on Jakuu as a child and no need for her to have a force training background that was wiped out.

First, show her doing more than being a loner and only scavenging. Instead have her doing things like show her socializing in jobs as a pilot in between camps with scavenged goods. She is both socially 'normal' and a great pilot so they should do things to show why she is like that. Maybe show her have a few friends while on piloting jobs for Unkaar and quick little social exchanges. Like she gets back from scavenging and Unkaar only gives her 1/4 portion and says 'if you want the rest fly the parts to "Y" camp and collect payment'. Then show her doing that instead of the wasted time with a 'pilots' helmet eating by herself and staring at an old lady 'dreading' her own future. Show that she is too busy to dread anything and that is why she doesn't leave on her own. Too busy to think about leaving would make more sense than what we got, of course it would make her less sympathetic to millennials.

Next, show her doing a fighting pit for money(food). Show that she willing participates and is competent in an fighting arena; maybe even with multiple weapons. This would suggest she has being it for some time and would make her later battle prowess not only acceptable but cool. Again this would likely make her less of a sympathetic character. What is the key part of the sympathetic - pathetic.

Third, show her having some exchanges with the Church of the force or suggest she knew them and was sad to hear they were all killed. Maybe Finn could tell her that is where he was escaping from and she is saddened by this and he gets a chance to consul her, which would humanize her and give their relationship and chance to develop naturally. Also it would help making Finn look less pathetic. Also it would explain her ability to pick up the force if she had heard more stories about it previously. This does not even need to be fixed elsewhere in the film because they could suggest that though she was friends with the church of the force she did not actually believe them until Han confirms it's the truth. This would totally fix her rapid force learning. Because she would already be aware of the powers and just need to believe it and 'try' it.

Literally nothing else in the film would need to be changed. She could pilot the falcon, escape with Finn, Kick ass with a lightsaber and staff (fighting pits shows her using both), develope force abilities unusually rapidly, have well adjusted social skills, etc. I mean you could even have her fighting a Wookie in the fighting pits and talking with it showing they were rivals or something, so when she speaks to Chewie it makes sense that she would know Wookie. Story people, story is more important than lazily contrived sympathetic imagery (like the wasted marking on the wall scene). If they wanted to include those they could have. I would have been fine with the film being 10 minutes longer if they had actually fleshed out the character. And I would have been less annoyed with other lazy parts of the film because she would have been such an interesting character.

Now, even though I give fixes that would undoubtedly make her character even more 'bad ass' queue the accusations of sexism and of me having 'fragile male ego'.

[–] Martoto (4355) 7 years ago

Star Wars only needs to be simple enough for children to understand.

Not tediously spoon fed to dullards, degenerates and dunces who need their hands held through they whole thing.

[–] mxpowers43 (367) 7 years ago

Yes because exposition is not required, backgrounds not given and only intelligentsia are enlightened enough to 'get it'. I love that anytime someone points out that a characters behavior or ability does not match their background someone claims that 'you just aren't getting it' and 'not everything needs to be spoon fed'.

So tell me, if it is so obvious, why is Rey socially well adjusted when she is depicted as a loner in the first 15 minutes of the film? Why does she even bother to rescue BB-8 if she turns around and sends him alone into danger? Why is she so annoyed with BB-8 being with her, turns around tries to sell him, turns around again and decides not to? And that is just the beginning of her character. Lets get into why is she a pilot? what in her background demonstrates that would have been a required skill for her? what jobs was she doing 'flying around on the planet'?

This is not just a need for the audience to be spoon fed, this is direct contradiction in her presentation and also contradiction with the continuity of the the original story. In order for the character to work at all one needs to make a large number of assumption about her background that are in no way signified by the film itself.

For example, in order to accept that she is a competent fighter one has to assume Jakuu is a harsh environment in which she fights regularly. But this is not what the film actually suggest. The film suggest they have a relatively peaceful civilization. There is no fighting until BB-8 arrives. There is one brief argument between Rey and the other scrap collector but this is solved , inexplicably, without violence. How does one not acknowledge that she has radical mind changes without much prompt? instead of acknowledging faulty writing you immediate write of criticism as coming from "dullards, degenerates and dunces". Can't even make a single supporting argument instead you immediately go to ad hominems to discredit the critic.