Mr. X wrote:So let's break down the arguments defending Rey.
WHERE is the bad-assery? How is this character NOT a Mary Sue? Handed power. No real accomplishment. No strife attaining abilities. How is this not merely being born pretty or privileged?
First of all a character can be a bad ass AND a Mary Sue. I'm not sure where that idea comes from that low levels of badassdom are somehow indicators that a character is a Mary Sue or if that's even what you were implying. In fact, more often than not being the Bad Ass of a group makes someone the most generic part of an action film. Action heroes in general are not a diverse bunch. They're one lining, gun firing pop culture machines.
Second, there can be no argument that Rey was born privileged in comparison with the genre. Pretty sure, but privileged is a no go. She was privileged with the FORCE yes, and nothing else. Just like the rest of the Star Wars heroes. So you can't argue that Rey was somehow better off in life than Luke or Anakin were at the start of their respective trilogies. She was definitely worse off than Luke, and it's difficult to tell just how much being a slave really weighed on Anakin when we meet him the first time cause the prequels suck at storytelling.
See the biggest issue I think you've got here is that you're trying to find some kind of all encompassing logic in a sci-fi fantay story when you rarely find that kind of certainty even in films that are SUPPOSED to be hyper realistic. The whole Dark Knight trilogy lost all semblance of reality by the end of the third film and that was a series marketed on its groundbreaking realism for a superhero series.
The medium is called fantasy for a reason. Space magic, destined heroes, magic weapons, they are all often inherently similar entities that once you start to pick apart start to look similar in a mechanical structure. Everyone KNOWS that Star Wars is a little ridiculous. We love Star Wars anyway. Hell most of us big fans stuck it out even through the prequels we love it so much. If you LOVE Star Wars, it doesn't help you to dwell on all the little things that are wrong with it unless you believe they are MAJOR. Every genre has their gimmicks and failings, and either you can suspend your disbelief or you can't. Everything wrong with Rey in TFA are static concepts that have always existed in the fantasy genre. If you can't stand Rey but you CAN stand Luke, you might want to really examine the reasons why as they both are prime examples of the Heroes Journey. Rey just has only started hers. Luke's is finished.
We aren't really here to discuss if she's a great Star Wars hero though as much as the argument seems to have swung that way. We're here to discuss the Mary Sue. Rey is no different from her fellow Star Wars heroes, except in that she is female. That Gary Stu He-Men and Supermen, etc. don't GET called out is because to do so hampers their fans enjoyment. Rey gets called out by the people who would RATHER she be Luke Skywalker version 2 with a slightly different name and background. The only really notable instantaneous gut instinctive difference between Rey and the rest of the Star Wars headliners is, perhaps not in your case, and certainly not in everyone's case, but unfortunately commonly pointed out is that she is a female. Nothing else matters to many MANY people. The instant she was announced as the lead there were already 'SJW' slurs flinging left and right without a fuck given to give it a chance first. We see this all the time. We're seeing it in the Rogue One trailer over in the Youtube comments. Nobody there, for instance, can make any sort of legitimate arguments that they are ready and willing to give EVERYONE male/female white or otherwise a fair and equal chance until proven guilty if the merest indication of a female lead makes the film a SJW pandering puff piece in their brain right off the bat with nothing else to go by.
As for me. I don't personally consider Luke a Gary Stu anymore than I consider Rey to be. I am a fan of Star Wars, and the fantasy genre in general, so dwelling to much on the tribbles of the genre are only deterrents to my enjoyment of the series that don't serve much value unless I want to be depressed about my choices in geeking. The thing to remember is, no matter where you chose to put your interests, there will always be quibbles. The killjoys are just the ones that just HAVE to point it all out, and I'm not picking on you here, we've all been a killjoy here because anyone reading this dispute will almost certainly wish they hadn't. Human beings are depressive animals in that way.
As to the simple question of WHY I don't agree with you about this, it's because Rey is a different enough character from Luke not to feel like I'm watching the same character over again. She has her own internal struggles (Which is really the only place where Star Wars heroes get to differentiate themselves in my opinion) that are different from Luke, she has her own hangups and fears. It's enough, to me, and she feels like a unique enough character to me that she doesn't fit the TRUE definition of Mary Sue, and I had no trouble at all believing that from the background we are presented for her, that she could do the things that she did in the film thus exonerating her, in as much as one can exonerate ANY fantasy hero who was ever invented, from the pop culture definition of Mary Sue.
Clearly it wasn't for you. Clearly you needed something more. I'm sorry that's the case and that you couldn't enjoy what I thought was a push in the right direction for the series post Prequel catastrophe.
If you want to ask me what I believe TFA's BIGGEST most glaringly huge problem is.... it's that it is essentially centered around yet another Death Star.
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