Learning from Failure: Is it too late to challenge Rey?

yes, but as i said, it doesn't matter because 1.) that's not the fight we're given in either TFA nor TLJ, and 2.) Rey is perfectly capable of holding her own against not-Kylo Ren, so nothing she does is really all that extraordinary. i know people complain about the Praetorian fight, but the problem isn't that they're so good they should be able to wipe the floor with her, the problem is that there's so many Ren can't take them all out by himself. it's only because they work together that either of them have a fighting chance in that melee and he's the one who takes out the majority of them.

which, to get back on topic, to me it is a fair challenge for her in context of the story. this is her first real to-the-death combat fight.
yes, she wins it with only one wound, but she could have never won it by herself and she's still not ready to do so at the end of it.

 

The lead characters motivations were off. Rey didn't show much concern about the force. She didn't know how it worked, but she didn't care about it either. She only used the force to save her friend and herself.

Rose treats him like garbage, and the script treats him as such. A man coming out of a coma that is recovering from a major injury to his spine is treated like a joke the moment he wakes up. First hitting his head, and then having him fall out of the pod? He took the biggest risks and has paid a high cost for it. Rose tasering him is another point where RJ wanted to minimize the impact Finn's actions have caused not only to him, but to also show how far he was willing to go to protect Rey. There is no way he would go through that again for anyone else. The fact that he was bull ******* should tell you he doesn't believe in the Resistance. There is no fighting the FO. They will slaughter us. Throughout TLJ it was shown the Resistance could be slaughtered. Why is he willing to fight now? He was right the whole time. Having him do the same thing for the Resistance was an attempt to minimize his relationship with Rey. Even to the point of making sure they don't share a single line of dialogue.

The force bond was a reaction to the chemistry and team work that was shown between Rey and Finn throughout TFA. He turned a girl who accepted her place in the story into one who was searching for her parents. Once she established her bond with Finn. That was no longer a concern. If it wasn't for Finn, do you really think Rey would have had the courage to go see Luke? She was ready to go back to Jakku. Until Kylo took her to SKB. He was her reason for going forward. Attempting to create something more between Rey and Kylo was way too premature. He doesn't fit into the arc of her character.

 

Rey has definitely been challenged. She just deals with it differently.

Her entire life on Jakku was a challenge just to survive. Luke had an aunt and uncle with a home, food, and jobs, and he had friends. He even had a Jedi master watching over him, waiting to take him under his wing. Even though Anakin was a slave, he still had Shmi and even Watto seemed to treat him decently. He even had his own racer.

Rey was left alone by her parents, got captured by the First Order, mind probed by Kylo Ren, watched her friend Han get impaled on a lightsaber, and her other friend Finn get his back sliced. Luke was negative about training her. She felt helpless as the First Order targeted resistance escape ships and Kylo refused to call them off.

Rey has had plenty of reasons to give up but she simply just does not quit. I love Luke Skywalker, but he was very whiny. Anakin was too. Rey just sucks it up and gets it done. She makes it looks easy because instead of complaining, she gets straight to solving the problem. I don't think Luke or Anakin would have survived long on Jakku alone with their attitudes. If you dropped a young Rey, Luke, and Anakin into the middle of a zombie apocalypse, I'd put my money on Rey being the one who survives and probably becomes the leader.

She has character, and is strong willed and determined, and that goes a long way.

 

Rian Johnson chose psychological challenges — including easier path temptations — for most of the characters, including Rey.

Her setback was in realizing that for all her life she’s convinced herself naively that people who probably aren’t going to come back and change their ways will. It’s been a coping mechanism for her and in some ways a strength that allowed her to have hope but here the biggest benefactor of that was Kylo Ren and the biggest negative consequence was that she left Luke — her primary goal — behind without a ship, forcing him to help a different way.

I think IX will need to begin with sort of the IX equivalent of the ROTJ Kenobi and Luke chat but this time between Luke and Rey where Rey expresses regret for being so impatient and foolish and believing Ben could change and apologize to him for leaving him and telling him that he was right and that it didn’t go the way she thought. Luke then tells her that hope can be a powerful ally and that he has learned from the past too. Allow them to work it out a little more so that in IX they develop a relationship after their setbacks.