I Can't Believe I'm Asking This, But is Rey a "Mary Sue"?

Thnx. Yours are great too

You might wanna get fat...then you'll have room for ALL the tattoos you want!

Im thinking about my next one already!

 

Oh man. Busted.

 

Oki doki.....but....I can tottally connect this to Rey not beeing a Mary Sue

 

Oh Dude! Why does that pic make me think that that story isn't heading anywhere nice!

 

outside of her force sensitivity, her abilities and strengths are all explained by supplemental material and her harsh living on a desert planet. ever her proficiency at piloting is explained by her having access to simulation programs (i read this on the wikia somewhere). after all she's spent something like a decade on her own so i don't think it's that unreasonable she's learned to fend for herself. i find her force face-offs with kylo a little corny but it's not that difficult to understand why she was able to pull of those tricks, even i saw she learned them when kylo did them to her. as to being able to stand up to kylo in a fight, he got shot by chewy and just got finished fighting finn when he took rey on. not that hard to understand how rey beat him especially since this isn't her first fight (first lightsaber fight, but you know what i mean).
her force proficiency is a bit of an enigma but i assume it will be made clear in xii. as far as we know she's not anymore powerful than anakin, but we may never know until someone counts her force amoebas . she's continuing the tradition of scrappy force-sensitive protags.

 

The Force conceived a child....like...impregnated a human. The Force is said by multiple characters in different sects to have a 'will'.

To state that it could not imbue an adult with the power that a demonstrated 9 year old kid had, is to be dismissive of the Force as a major plot element (its like.....the point of the saga and the deux ex machina that is expanded daily by canon content).

P.S. Don't give me the whole 'But Anakin is the Chosen One' thing. Nobody has ever articulated what that actually meant in specifics or breadth, or what character (Sith, Jedi, Nightsister, Ordu Aspectu, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Jar-Jar) actually prophesied it, and Yoda even said it was likely misinterpreted anyway.

 

Most of you have very good points about why Rey isn't a Mary Sue. So I'm gonna try to prove a different thing.

While some people may think that Rey is a Mary Sue, I think most of the "controversy" is because of one thing: the Internet.

Clickbait and extreme opinions rule our daily rutine, I mean, nowadays everything is either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever.

A lot of websites and youtubers gain visits thanks to controversy. "Why (insert something universally loved or hated) is (insert the opposite)" stuff.

For example:

"The Force Awakens is the Worst Movie Ever" (real thing). I mean, it can be your opinion, but, seriously?

Now, (sorry for the little off-topic, but is to prove my point) imagine if The Phantom Menace was released this year and were the first SW movie since the OT. Could you imagine the hate?

Anakin would be in a same position as Rey. "Unbelievable" "Too overpowered" "I can't relate".

Imagine if RoJ came today. "A second Death Star? How unoriginal. It's a copy"

The thing is...most of the general audience probably doesn't even care about "Rey being a mary sue"(which isn't true imo). And, to be honest, neither do I.

She's a strong, independent character, and I can't wait to see more of her.

 

This reply is wonderful! I couldn't have said it better myself!

 

The question is though;
- Was Anakin a strong independent character in TPM? Or even AOTC?
- Was Luke a strong independent character in ANH?

Rey may not be a Mary-Sue simply because of the fantastical setting in the Star Wars universe where there's something called the Force, but I think the main issue people have with her character is that the movie constantly tells us how independent, strong and capable she is, without possessing any kind of visible flaws. The only thing we're supposed to root for about her is her troubled past. She is shown as being fully capable of leaving Jakku if she wanted to - She's a skilled pilot and knows how to repair and fix stuff, plus she is an excellent fighter. Also she's not a slave, so she could easily use her skills to find a job and escape the planet. But she chooses to stay behind because she's waiting for her family to come back? If she was a slave for Unkar Plutt, or tended for at least someone else on Jakku - like Lor San Tekka for example - She would've been a much more interesting character. Now she's just this superindependent person living by herself as a loner, and yet she's very social and gets along well with other people in the film? I think it's pretty obvious that the writers were afraid of portraying a woman as flawed or unlikeable, that's why people complain about her character. I also think she was supposed to have a connection to Lor San Tekka in one of the earlier drafts, but it was scrapped since it would make her appear less independent (this is just my speculation though). And to be fair, I think most male fans just like her because they think she's hot and "it's so cool to have a female Jedi". I've seen plenty of male Rey fans and all they talk about is how beautiful Rey is.

 

among other things like a bad temper, overconfidence, and the inability to take off without wrecking half of Niima outpost. [shrug]

 

It is most definitely a flaw in its own right. However it's also stretch, and certainly a flaw that you'd find only after making some form of analysis. In contrast to, for example Anakin, you don't need to make an analysis to find out that he's a slave because its given to you in the film. If we're talking about visible flaws its much more difficult to find ones for Rey.

Also to respond to above poster, I don't think wrecking something while being shot at is a flaw. That's a huge stretch in order to find flaws.

I believe that if you need to make stretches in order to find flaws, it's pretty obvious that the character isn't that flawed to begin with.

 

Because the visible and presented flaws are what essentially personifies a character. It's how a character is introduced to an audience for the first time, and it's how they will be perceived afterwards.

 

Still, I'd like to make these comparisons:
- Was Anakin a strong independent character in TPM? Or even AOTC?
- Was Luke a strong independent character in ANH?

When people defend Rey by making comparisons to Anakin and Luke, they always neglect Anakin and Luke's flaws, mistakes and hard work, and how they constantly had to be guided and held back in their first 2 movies.

Also, while Rey beating Kylo doesn't necessarily mean she is a Mary-Sue, it's pretty boring to have the main character beat the villain in the first movie of what is a 3-part story - regardless of who the main character is. You could argue that Kylo will get his revenge and beat her in TLJ, but do you honestly think that's really going to happen?

 

I don't think she's any more of a "magical female character" than Leia, who was a powerful member of the Alliance at just 19 years old. The accusation just seems to come from the fact we really don't know much about her yet; I'm guessing a lot of folks will be eating crow by the time the trilogy is done.

 

Then almost getting killed by the Chosen One in a DS trench also isn't a flaw.