Rey and the sad devolution of the female character

now I'm going to start this video out with a really quick story when I was 8 years old I saw the movie aliens in the theater and if you've ever seen that movie and I really hope you have since it's great you're probably thinking to yourself that movies a bit intense for someone that age to have watched and I have to agree with you because I do remember being just a bit scared while watching it however what I remember the most are the clearest about that first time watching it and yes I've seen it many times since then because it's one of my favorite movies of all time anyway what I remember most was just how tense and nervous the last part of that movie made me when Ripley after having essentially escaped in nightmare scenario goes back to save Newt young girl who was the sole survivor of a colony that had been wiped out by aliens and a safer Ripley must literally go alone into the alien Queens lair and she has to do all this in under 20 minutes because the whole station is about to be destroyed in a nuclear blast and even though on the surface that may sound like one of the most fantastic or unbelievable scenarios ever concocted in someone's imagination to this day it's still one of my favorite sequences in any movie ever and what makes it work what makes that whole movie work in fact is that you entirely buy into the character of Ripley she feels us real relatable and as human as the person sitting next to you in the theater and when she goes back to save Newt you don't roll your eyes and question it and think no one would actually do that you instead think to yourself yeah that's exactly what that character would do and not only that but you desperately want her to succeed you're afraid for her you truly care about what happens to her but you really don't know if she can pull this off because the movie hasn't presented her like some type of superhero rather it's portrait or is pretty much an average woman who finds herself in the craziest of predicaments who ultimately does the bravest thing I've ever seen in a movie or perhaps I should say it's the greatest yet most believable act of courage I've ever seen in a movie out of a character who feels 100% genuine because in reality the bravery and ultimate success of a character in a story is controlled entirely by the one writing the story but what a good movie or book does is make us forget about the person behind the curtain who's actually controlling and determining everything a good character and/or a good story do not feel like characters or stories veins that feel like real people experiencing real events in overcoming them because of their own actions and abilities even when those events are otherwise unbelievable like when Ripley faces down an alien queen and the thing is I've never thought of Ripley as a female character before or a strong female character which I know might sound insulting but my point is is that I've always just viewed or simply as a character no more no less I've never felt the need to label her as something special because I don't watch aliens and get the impression there was any type of agenda or any type of point they were trying to make about women with the character in other words I don't think they set out to make her an iconic character that I might represent something rather they just set out to make a believable character in a really good movie and ironically enough because of that approach they ended up making an iconic character and this is an approach I wish those writing the new Star Wars sequel trilogy could have understood because since day one since basically the announcement that a single trilogy was going to be made they have made a big deal out of the fact that the new main character was going to be a female witch look that's fine it's great even it makes perfect sense within the context of Star Wars where force sensitive beings have always been chosen at random by the force which means it's basically a 50/50 shot someone strong with the force is going to be a woman not to mention I think the assumption before any of the sequel trilogy movies came out was that Ray was going to be a Skywalker or solo so again there's a 50/50 chance either layer or Luke would have a daughter basically what I'm saying here is that no real star wars fan is going to have any sort of issue with a female lead it makes perfect sense not to mention there have been plenty of great female characters in Star Wars already especially for those who have followed the expanded universe and never once have I heard anyone complain about any of those female characters because more often than not they ended up being great well written characters that fans loved which is all people wanted out of Rey GP a good well-written character and had they done that people would love her right now - I guarantee it but the problem with Ray is that it was clear from the start that there was going to be an agenda for her beyond just being a good character in a Star Wars movie they wanted to make her a symbol an icon for women which isn't necessarily a bad thing don't get me wrong but it's still something you have to earn by actually a great character and telling a captivating story around her and the more you tell people ahead of time what you want her to be or represent outside of the story the more you ruin the illusion of that story when you finally watch it the more you can see the creators behind the curtain pulling the strings of the character having her do exactly what they want her to do to fit the real-life narrative and not to fit the narrative of the story which means nothing she does in the movie feels genuine like what she would really or actually do but rather feels like what the storyteller wants her to do to make their point going back to aliens again for a moment when Ripley risks her life to save Newt it feels like something the character would do the story has set that up perfectly however when rey rushes off to save kylo ren in the last Jedi it feels like what the story needs her or wants her to do there not like a decision rate would come to on her own because let's not forget she watched kylo Ren murder Han Solo literally days ago within the context of the story after talking to kylo Ren a few times for a couple minutes she's now going to place all her faith in him and turn herself in and what further compounds the unbelievable nature of this character is that Ray gets herself out of this problem all by herself she manages to best snoke's guards guards that are no doubt some of the best most elite warriors in the galaxy clearly trained to fight force sensitive beings since they have weapons to design to work against lightsabers not to mention they get the best of kylo Ren at one point which shows just how skilled they must be Rey however wielding a lightsaber for the second time in combat he's going toe-to-toe with them pretty well she only takes a small cut on the arm even though about a week ago she was fighting off thugs on jakku with a staff which mind you is completely believable since she no doubt would have learned some level of self-defense to survive on such a harsh planet but how self defense against thugs translates into besting the elite guards of the most powerful being in the galaxy just a week later is beyond me because this scene would have worked a lot better and I'll take some heat for saying this if kylo Ren had just essentially saved Rey by going force unleashed on the Praetorian guards while Rey did all she could just to defend herself and to survive this then would have also set up just how powerful jool is or can be when he embraces the dark side foley and hal ray has a lot to learn yet that her went over him in the force awakens when Kyla was injured was mostly just a fluke or him wanting to train her instead of just killed her which means he held back against her and what this also does is set up tension for the last movie because we now realize just how great of a threat kylo Ren truly is that if he lets himself go he could probably easily best ray in a fight either that or after kylo saves ray here she actually joins him because he's willing to train her whereas Luke was not and this plays off the one weakness ray seems to have which is a strong desire for belonging anywhere and so now the movie ends with kylo proving how badass he is Rey utterly failing and Luke still being around to redeem himself in the end problem is none of that fits in with the narrative they've been constructing outside of the sequel trilogy where they've been telling us since before the movies ever even started coming out that Ray was going to be a strong female character and something girls of all ages could look up to and aspire to be like and he can't have an icon that fails and makes terrible choices right I mean who could ever relate to someone who fails and has vulnerabilities why would we want anyone girls were boys to think that sometimes we might make costly mistakes but what makes us a hero is picking ourselves up after we fail and finding our way again and I know what you might want to say to that because pretty much everyone in the last should I does fail for better or worse that's the point of the movie and yes even Rey fails to save kylo Ren and maybe it'd be easier to believe that truly had an impact on her if ten minutes later she wasn't all smiles in the Millennium Falcon as she's blowing up Tie Fighters saying I like this or if the movie didn't end with the dozen or so people left in the resistance being all smiles after losing all the ships and several hundred of their comrades however what is truly ironic about the character of Rey is that though her creators wanted her to be some type of iconic symbol of strength to women she has instead resurrected a label that quite honestly I had never heard of in all my years of reading and watching movies and let me tell you I have read a lot of books and seen a lot of movies in my life and never had I heard the term Mary Sue until after the force awakens and though a debate can be had about whether or not she fits the original criteria for what a Mary Sue is the thing is thanks to Ray the term has basically been redefined to mean a female character that's inserted into a story that is perfect for the sake of being perfect in insinuating that all women can and should be strong which is absurd because everyone men and women alike have strengths and weaknesses and it's not perfect characters that always win that we relate to and learn from it's imperfect ones that manage to overcome after they've failed and of course the real problem with all this is that a good portion of the fan base has outright rejected ray they've rejected this character that was meant to be by her creators an icon and this rejection is being interpreted as a rejection of all female characters in general and mostly by men which is both sad and ridiculous because for one there are plenty of women out there who also don't like Ray Plus a vast vast majority of men not only have no problem with good female characters they actually love them because I'm far from the only guy out there that thinks that Ripley is one of the greatest characters anywhere ever and she's only one example of a great many strong female characters that men absolutely love and to keep it real with you what's frustrating Star Wars fans right now and why so many are turning away is because they've been told there is something wrong with the franchise they love and it's always been wrong that it just doesn't have enough strong female characters even though again there have been several great ones in the past not to mention the EU was tucked full of great female characters anyway not only do they at Lucasfilm insist there's been something wrong with Star Wars all along and by association the people who have loved it but they're going to now fix it by giving us the character of Rey and then they sit there and pat themselves on the back for saving Star Wars from a problem that didn't exist and when we tell them we think there are legitimate problems with the character that have nothing to do with their gender they continue to insist it's something wrong with us and what this is all done is caused a ripple effect we're now some tend to question the purpose of other female characters in upcoming movies a prime example of this is Captain Marvel set to come out next March because there are already some preparing to boy this movie because they think it'll be the start of an sjw movement within the Marvel Cinematic Universe I'm not saying they're right and I'm not saying they're wrong just that this is a belief held by some thanks in large part to a trend that maybe wasn't started by the force awakens but was certainly brought to the forefront by it which is a true shame because if a ray had been handled right as I said before I fully believe she would be a beloved character embraced by a vast majority of the fans who would be rooting for her going into episode 9 now she could have easily been the next icon of Star Wars and they just thought about the best way to make her a part of the story not about what she could mean for women and in turn much like Ripley and aliens she would have become a symbol of strength and courage not only to women but to any and all Star Wars fans men and women alike well that's all I've got for you this time now it's your turn to tell me what you think has Hollywood done more harm than good as of late have they created problems where none existed before let me know what you think in the comments below and let's talk some Star Wars and until next time thanks for watching

Channel: Thor Skywalker

Views: 1,736,967

Rating: 4.7185764 out of 5

Keywords: Star, wars, rey, kennedy, the force awakens, the last jedi, skywalker, anakin, darth vader, luke, leia, ahsoka, prequels, the force, lucasfilm, captain marvel, sjw

Id: uEjkWb2mqdE

Length: 12min 13sec (733 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 25 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

How could a character with as much psychological baggage as Rey possibly be considered a Mary Sue?

[u/carlosbarsa]

This is what happens when the only thing you care about are power levels. Thematically and through conflict, she is undeniably an interesting character.

[u/yosemite78atreddit]

Okay, how about we get actual women to comment on female leads in sci-fi? Or is it too much to ask because he has never met a woman other than his mom?

[u/RabidSpaceFruit]

Strong female characters = bad female characters

^{Why don't women approach me?}

[u/TheRidiculousOtaku]

more like

low hanging arguments and the sad devolution of the film criticism.

[u/MrBrightside618]

Luke blowing up the Death Star after one day of practice with an old dude ✅

Rey, an experienced staff user, beating someone with little practice in a sword fight ❌