Star Wars, and the problem with Rey

ray is [ __ ] ruin in Star Wars there I said I know this is gonna make me unpopular with certain people but like an embarrassingly large turd this is something that needs to be flushed down the toilet bowl the internet so we can all breathe a little easier before I go any further let me preface this by acknowledging the OL entertainment is inherently boils down to nothing more than people's subjective personal opinions there's no right or wrong points of view here and if you personally like Trane think the last Jedi was a masterpiece of cinema you still [ __ ] wrong and I'm gonna tell you why the character of Ray and her progression through the last two Star Wars movies is [ __ ] killing the storytelling capability of this series she is literally writing them into a corner this is happening for a number of reasons but for the sake of brevity I'm gonna boil down to three big ones I'm also going to include my own theories and why I think this is happening and what can possibly be done to fix it at this point ready good let's flush this turd reason one razor Mary Sue I know you don't want to hear this I know it's easy to label anyone who agrees with me as a sexist the misogynist the gynecologist or any other estan to the son but the fact remains that's exactly what she is what the [ __ ] do I know about it well I'm a professional author who sold over two million dollars worth of books in the past five years and yeah I know this makes me an arrogant [ __ ] but shut up and trying to make a point here and my point is that I know a thing or two about storytelling plot pacing and character development more importantly and know what Mary Sue is why they happen and how to avoid them the issues started in the force awakens where we learned pretty quickly that Ray's good at things a lot of things [Music] you get the point is first Syrian force awakens has an unusual amount of skills and abilities that are either with her at the start of the movie or come to her uncharacteristically easily she also has no real character flaws Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy was whiny impetuous hot-headed and impatient and sure he was a typical [ __ ] teenager who thought he knew better than everyone else and he often suffered for it and the Empire Strikes Back he constantly questions the wisdom that Yoda tries to give him fails to listen to his warnings about the dangers of the dark side and ultimately leaves to fight Darth Vader before he's ready he falls victim to arrogance and hubris the path to the dark side and well I think we know how that turned out Rey never has any of this she's always upbeat stoic resourceful compassionate and strong you know it's funny how that's the word that people always use to describe her it's almost as if they can't think of anything else to describe her actual personality or character arc but unfortunately strong doesn't equal interesting strong doesn't equal likable or lit relatable it's just one characteristic that's supposed to sit amongst many don't get me wrong she was at least given enough sass and funny moments to make her likable in the force awakens her humble upbringing as an anonymous junk scavenger her wistful gazes at the partn spaceships her collection of dusty rebel memorabilia made her a bit more human and likable she was a penniless orphan living on some backward dust ball at the end of nowhere desperate to escape and still cling to the hope of reuniting with her parents but good foundations to build a character on when she visits a new planet and sees trees and lakes for the first time we share in her sense of wonder and exhilaration and when she's taken under the wing of Han Solo she begins to see him as the father she never had and she develops a real bond with him which makes it feel significant when she loses him like I say these are good elements they help to give her character difficulties to grapple with but they never really come to anything and they have no lasting implications for her things get even worse in the last Jedi in that movie she's like a black hole of fun and charisma that drags the whole movie down stripped of the naive optimism youthful energy charm and humility the meter tolerable in the force awakens she's somber serious and flat and it just kills the enjoyment she goes on no juror encounters new adversity doesn't develop at all and learns nothing of value her entire plot arc in that movie is that she's trapped don't Luke Skywalker to remote planet where he's been hiding for the past ten years and she's trying to recruit him to join the resistance and help her understand her force powers now I thought this would be an interest in setup what wisdom would an older and more experienced Luke give to this young woman what trials and training would he put her through would he give her a harsh reality check about the limitations of her powers and help her understand that being a Jedi take years of working discipline nope looks not interested he doesn't train her he gives her no real understanding of the force or what she should do with her newfound powers he's just a grumpy old man who keeps telling her to leave so she beats him up and leaves I'm not even close to kidding on this one this is not character development if he learns nothing goes nowhere and is stronger than everyone around her what's the [ __ ] point in her character she's just an empty vessel that says things the script needs her to say does what the plot needs her to do and beats anyone who stands in her way which leads me to my next point reason number two Rey never loses nothing ever challenges Rey in these movies at least not enough to be a credible threat and certainly never enough to put her in real danger this is a problem if there's no danger there's no drama and if there's no drama then nothing that happens in the movie has any meaning or consequence I didn't care one bit about Rey in the last Jedi because I knew by this point that nothing bad was ever gonna happen to her in a new hope young Luke was constantly getting into scrapes that other people had to help them out of first with the sandpeople then those two [ __ ] in the cantina then the escape from the Death Star with Princess Leia why because he really wasn't ready for any of this stuff yeah he was brave and willing to take risks but he wasn't a fighter or an adventurer he was just a dumb farm boy in over his head surrounded by people far more dangerous and competent than him instinctively you're rooted for him because he was the classic underdog and secretly you knew you'd be in the same boat if you were in this movie getting your ass kicked by sand people or having no plan on how to rescue the princess ray doesn't experience any of that she skillfully and competently fights her way out of every situation she finds her and overcomes every obstacle and always knows what to do her training with look in last Jedi consists a few brief scenes that tell us almost nothing about her there's no sense of her struggle to master difficult Jedi skills no frustration of being told the difficult path that promises greater wisdom and understanding later normally a conflict or fear that she might choose the easy route to power to be turned to the dark side everything she sets her mind to she accomplishes with ease and it's so [ __ ] boring to watch think back to Luke Skywalker's journey in the original trilogy his Jedi training under Yoda was a physical and spiritual ordeal that often threatened to overwhelm him he struggled to develop his force powers failed to heed Yoda's warnings about the dark side left before he was fully trained and ultimately as overconfidence also almost resulted in his death for the first time he faced Vader it was a brutal knockdown that forced him to grow and mature and we as the audience sympathized with him through his adversity Rey goes on no such journey and experiences no such setbacks so she doesn't grow or develop at all she's the same [ __ ] person through both movies her personality doesn't change because she doesn't really have one the first time she fights kylo Ren she taps into her force powers and easily gets the better of him when she confronts him again in last Jedi he's better prepared but still barely able to hold his own against her Jesus I almost find myself rooting for him instead a raid because he actually feels like he's going on a journey he's the one who's experienced a humiliating defeat and has to bounce back from her the only bad guy to pause any credible threat to her is Snoke who's supposed to be the big part of the entire series but kylo Ren [ __ ] murders him in a move that makes zero sense just as he's exerting his force powers on Rey yeah again Rey experiences no defeats at one point she even gets into a physical battle with look [ __ ] Skywalker himself and instead of taking a much-needed character-building defeat at the hands of the old Jedi Master she easily beats him - the message is clear Ray's in charge here and she don't need no man to show her the way even if he's the most powerful Jedi who ever lived you know the guy who redeemed Darth Vader and saved the entire galaxy [ __ ] this movie point number three Rey has no character arc there's nowhere left for rate to go as a character no the only untag Ernests left for her to face is kylo ren and we've already established that ray's stronger than him both with the force and with a lightsaber so where conflict and drama supposed to come from know think about every classic good versus evil movie you've seen in your life the antagonist starts out as a powerful unstoppable force that the hero host is hopelessly outmatched against they take them on get easily beat down and ensure a crisis of confidence ultimately they'll learn some lesson about themselves that helps them find their confidence again and they'll tackle their enemy with renewed determination usually winning through in the end this is called the hero's journey yeah it's formulaic but what do you want there are rules to storytellin and if you break too many of them then your movie starts to fall apart quicker than Maya will deliver enimies Schumer concert reign ever goes on this hero's journey because she never gets beaten she never gets injured and humiliate eaten experiences a crisis of confidence so she doesn't grow or develop as a person at all yeah her skills and abilities expand but that's not the same as actual character development how good Luke Skywalker became a swinging a lightsaber or left and stuff with the force was less important than how he developed as a person that was the real journey he grew and matured over the course of his three movies changing from an idealistic kid to an overconfident youth and finally told wise and compassionate man he learned the dangers of arrogance and given into anger and hatred the power of self-sacrifice and redemption and the wisdom of forgiveness that was what made him such a compelling character ray hasn't done any of this she hasn't learned any of these lessons and she's never had to struggle and fail or grow and mature she hasn't learned any of the skills or powers that she now has everything is just given to her she's already defeated the bad guy once so there's no credible threat left a challenger literally her only conflict and this movie boils down to what shall I do with all this awesome power I now have but the irony is that by building ray higher and higher they're undermining the very foundation of who she is ultimately pushing fans away from someone they find increasingly hard to relate to her victories against muted opponents feel hollow and cheap for all conquering power unearned and for that reason I believe Ray's [ __ ] ruin in Star Wars so why did this happen well it'd be easy for me to lay the blame at the feet of writer and director Rian Johnson a relatively unproven town with only a handful of feature films to his credit and it's a [ __ ] mystery why they gave this guy a creative blank check do whatever the hell he wanted with a multi-billion dollar franchise like Star Wars certainly he has to take a lot of the blame because there's no reason not to believe that this film was his creative vision that being said I don't fully blame Ryan for having [ __ ] ideas I've had some dumb [ __ ] ideas in my time but filmmaking is supposed to be a collaborative process there are supposed to be a system of checks and balances to prevent dumb ideas turning into terrible movies and I find it impossible to believe that nobody from a major studio like Lucasfilm or Disney just blindly trusted him no the person I think is mostly responsible for this nonsense is Kathleen Kennedy the president of Lucasfilm and effectively the most powerful person in the Star Wars universe know that George Lucas is [ __ ] off why do I think she's responsible for ray being an overpowered super woman and the general glut of super officially flawless female characters that have been awkwardly shoehorned into a story that doesn't really need them oh I don't know Kathleen's made it clear in numerous interviews and publicity statements that she abused this new trilogy as being female centric the forces female as they say she wants to see as many strong female characters on screen as possible at all times no matter whether they're unlikable unbelievable or generally irrelevant to the plot just shove them in there any way you can guys well I'm certainly all in favor of strong female characters on screen there's a fine line of believability you have to walk when you're developing them and Ray falls victim not only to crossing this line but straighten several miles beyond it if you want to give us a female character we can root for then stop playing it's so bloody safe with her all the time don't be afraid to take risks let him get hurt and injured sometimes let her be frightened and vulnerable let her doubt herself let her make mistakes and need help from others those are things that humanize a character and they're horribly horribly lacking in Ray's case conclusions cannery and Star Wars be fixed or is it too late well we're two movies down though and there's only one to go so if Ray's character is going to be redeemed then we're gonna have to cram an awful lot of plot and character development into episode 9 and I'm not convinced that JJ Abrams is the guy to do it he's certainly a talented director but his strength really lies in fast paced action and great set pieces rather than mature character development still if I could give him some advice that say the following one Ray has to lose a fight sorry but there's no way around this Ray has dominated every confrontation she's been in so far and it has to stop needs a set by she needs to be hurt and beat down so she can grow and develop as a character my advice would be to have her become overconfident maybe feeling that she's mastered the force already only to come up against a stronger and more focused kylo Ren who totally kicks her ass and she has to be rescued by fin or pole then she has a period of recuperation for taking him on again at the climax of the movie is this formulaic yes it [ __ ] is but there's a reason we have formulas and movies they [ __ ] work to stop bashing man for some reason every male character in the last Jedi acts like a [ __ ] teenage girl they're Moody impulsive short-sighted jealous insecure and emotional strong female characters are great but if they're only made strong by reducing man to weak and ineffective morons then it's all for nothing because it means nothing it's not like a seesaw Cathleen both sides can go up at the same time three stop treating your fans like idiots and stop making Star Wars political I know it's 2018 and everyone has to have a political opinion on [ __ ] everything but people aren't stupid and they don't like being preached to when you're anti-capitalist anti-male anti white people social justice agenda takes priority over actual storytelling and characterization well they're gonna notice and they're not gonna like it more important they're not gonna pay a see it which is why your movie made 800 million dollars less than its predecessor for make kylo Ren a proper drag calorie to stop acting like a moody emo [ __ ] teenager and more like an all-conquering badass to reshape the galaxy in his image he's had his wobbles but it's time to stop [ __ ] about he's the supreme leader of the first order now so he should be focused and ruthless in his pursuit of domination he's the biggest remaining threat to our heroes and he's raised nemesis so you have to make us believe he can actually beat her if I bring back the real Luke Skywalker Luke's portrayal in last Jedi was nothing less than an all a character assassination and I'll do a separate video on that but given the Carrie Fisher is dead and Harrison Ford's unlikely to return to the franchise Luke Skywalker is the only original character you've got left bring him back as a force ghost so he can speak to red give her the Jedi training she didn't get in the last Jedi Ray needs a mentor she needs someone to guide her help her through tough moments and the inner strengths she needs to win again just because she's a woman and he's a man doesn't mean she has to be better than him everything all the time forever it's not a betrayal of womankind to give her someone to look up to and who maybe knows a thing or two that she doesn't she's young and naive and he's old and experienced that's the character die and I make that matters here use that and let ray learn something from Luke in conclusion then yes I do believe ray can be salvaged in the final movie of this trilogy it's gonna take a lot of work a bit of price swallowing and almost certainly a bit of red corn and of her personal history but I hope they do manage to do something interesting with her and give Star Wars the triumphant send-off that it deserves for better or worse this series is a massive part of modern pop culture the original trilogy are timeless classics that people can revisit again and again and I believe that our generation deserves something just as special [Music] you

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 1,197,325

Keywords: Star Wars, Rey, Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, Snoke, Rian Johnson, Kathleen Kennedy, mary sue, force awakens, Finn, SJW, Lucasfilm, return of the jedi, Disney, Han solo, Chewie, Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader, Annakin, C3P0, death star

Id: ruxcT6LEVzk

Length: 15min 54sec (954 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/CrazyPlan83]

I made this vid a while back but it seemed appropriate to share now. My thoughts on Rey and the problems her character causes in the ST.

[u/ADrunkGM]

Even if we buy into the idea that her backstory completely explains her skill set (which it doesn't), we still have the problem that it makes for a boring character with no development. And that's exactly what happens, we see a character that is more or less static throughout the movies and it is boring.

[u/ATATCHAT1357]

Couldn't disagree more but thats ok. She was abandoned at 5 years old on a planet to learn to fend for herself. Had to survive. We meet her 15 years later having become well adapted to her envirnment. Of course she is powerful and has skills with weapons. She has been defending herself since birth essentially. As well as raising herself.

The entire ST is about abandonment if you ask me and its repercussions.