Rules within the SW universe.

I think many of the rules we're used to are because of the Jedi Order and the Sith, not the force. That's what I like about the Sequels. They are introducing ideas that haven't been seen before. It opens the world up while adding to the myth. I also believe the force can choose how to guide events for it's own purpose.
All the stuff about Master, Knight, etc. It's all artificial constructs by the Jedi meant to limit ones power. I believe Palpatine was right when he says the Jedi were afraid of losing their power...their power to control their members.

 

Personally I think Rey is an anomaly. Force Adept would be the best bucket to put her in currently though. I wonder if her birth coincides with Snoke started to turn Ben Solo. I believe it’s canon that Snoke was working on Ben at a young age, which is why Leia got concerned and sent him to Luke.

Knowing that JJ is writing 9, I don’t think we will get anything too crazy.

 

A fantasy game has set rules at the beginning before you play.
The movies never had that.
The Force (specifically) does whatever the story needs it to.

Need to get by Imperial troops with wanted droids? It can do that.
Need to make an impossible shot computers can't even hit? Yep. It can do that too.
Need to pull an object from far away? Yep that counts.
Need to choke someone? Does that too.
Need to do insane jumps and flips etc? Got you covered.

The force is a mystical thing that has no set rules because then it can't be the force.
If the force was written with hard defined rules in 1977 who knows what we don't get from 80 on forward.

So that's why the force can do whatever it does in the films.

As for Rey.
She really does nothing no other lead protagonist in Star Wars couldn't do with as little training.
Anakin at 9 was doing the impossible. Nothing Rey does is any more incredible than what Anakin does.
Luke was foolhardy and not listening to Obi-Wan like he should and it slowed his progression. You saw this with Yoda as well.

She is the light rising to meet Ren's dark.
Meaning the force is basically willing her to be better simply because she HAS TO BE. It's working on a self balance.

And we don't really have "levels" to certain things. We've more or less made those up for games and head canons.

She can force pull - Luke did it no big deal.
She did a mind trick on the most gullible lackeys in film history outside of a Bond film - meh. If she pulled it on Jabba or Watto...different story.

In the end, I think you are allowing a non-canon board game to dictate too much of the movies and thus deterring your enjoyment.
Those things make sense for a game. They really do. Leveling etc.
But that's not how life actually works.
You don't have to be a certain level to learn a certain move in combat sports.
That's mostly just done to keep you coming back.
Only way you need to do that is if it's an extension of a move you need to learn first.
But I digress.

If you have the physical and mental aptitude (to absorb that much info) you can learn every wrestling move there is in a hurry.

Rey shows an openness and willingness to use the force. She allows the force to flow. Luke fought it.

 

Such arguments can certainly be abused. When people point out that SW is in part fantasy they general thrust should be that it isn't intending to follow hard rules of science. Hence explosions in space, sound in space, magic and such yada yada.

Now your second point in regarding needing to understand the progression of Rey or other characters I see where you are coming from but It doesn't bother me for several reasons.
1- I think that the "Mary Sueness" of Rey is ridiculously overplayed. That's not to say she isn't powerful but that her power is raw and untrained.
2- There are a number of subtle canon and events from the films that explain her powers. First as we saw in TPM those who are strong in the Force exhibit flashes of insight even untrained which appear to be fast reflexes because they are unknowingly responding to future events. Why is she such a capable fighter well she has had to be scrapper and she has an edge because of the Force. Second there are things that Rey learned through being targeted by those abilities. When Kylo attempted to push his way into her mind and take what he wanted via instinct and unconscious response powered by the force she pushed back. Forcing your way into minds and taking what you want is an extension of the classic Jedi mind trick.
3- The ST has shown a sense of providence to the Force moving the platitude "May the Force be With Us" to an actual possibility. Hence there is an obvious "sense of destiny to things," wild animal stampedes go in the direction of waiting ships, foxes lead people out of caves and so on.

 

Lol This seems relevant.

 

As a fan of SW for 40 years, let me give you the secret to the rules of the SW Universe.

Rule #1 - There are no rules.

Rule #2 - See Rule #1

Carry on!!!

 

I agree with you that her abilities warrant more than a simple off hand remark from Snoke "darkness rises and light to meet it". I don't think there's necessarily something wrong with her being a new breed of Force User such that that training that was necessary before wasn't. Things evolved in SW prior to TLJ. We see that explicitly in the machinery and equipment (like the evolution of X-Wings and TIEs). Even the LS have evolved, so I think it's ok if there are more Force abilities introduced as time goes on, but with the previous abilities we have accumulated knowledge passed on via holocrons, academies, text, or just mentoring. Not giving Rey one of these as her launchpad to using those powers has made her uniquely susceptible to charges of Mary Suedom and the character deserves better. Strength in the force doesn't necessarily require an explanation, it is what it is. But the ability to use specialized techniques without instruction of any kind I think does.

Going forward I think it's safe to assume Rey will learn more from the Jedi text and no further explanation will be necessary. As for her use of the Jedi Mind Trick, I think the franchise will just blow past that one and not revisit or explain.

 

..umm ...
SEE This Post.

Yep !

 

"There has been an awakening... have you felt it?" - Rey is the Awakening.
"The scavenger... resisted you?" Snoke shocked at this revelation of power.
"She is strong with the Force." Kylo Ren admitted how strong she is to Snoke
"That lightsaber was Luke's, and his father's before him, and now, it calls to you." People got caught up in her DNA when it's her power that's special. During her first lesson she scares Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. I think people were looking at the wrong things.

 

With all due respect, please never let Star Wars movies conform to table top gaming rules. I loved KotOR and played the old Star Wars RPG but if anyone involved with the movies talked about adhering to the games I would think they'd gone off the deep end.

Lucas gave us no explanation for how the Force worked in A New Hope and the haziest of clarifications in Ep5 and 6. The prequel trilogy really only served to muddy the waters even more. Lucas LITERALLY was making it up as he went along in order to serve the story. And this is how it should be. The story is everything to Star Wars.

You may disagree with that statement, clearly there's a vocal subset of SW fandom to whom "the rules" are important. But if Star Wars is about the rules, it simply becomes DragonBall Z.

 

What you say makes total logical sense. People need teachers, or at least practice, in order to develop skills. It's one of my only problems with TLJ actually - I wish she received more training from Luke. In fact I hope she gets training from him in Ep 9.

The thing is, in the SW movies this is actually not how it works. Anakin walked on the scene and was able to fly a starship and win a war basically by randomly pressing buttons. Luke learned to use a lightsaber without ever having been taught to swing it. He blew up the death star with virtually zero training.

Rey's illogical powers actually seem consistent with previous movies to me. Maybe that's a shortcoming of Star Wars in general, but I'm willing to let it slide.

 

Ok. Here's an explanation. We know from multiple canon sources that Luke Skywalker has entered into common myth, and legend at this point in history. So much so that Rey exclaims upon hearing about the map from Finn, "Luke Skywalker!? I thought he was a myth!" This immediately indicates that she's heard tales of the great hero, Luke Skywalker.

Furthermore, we know from "The Legends of Luke Skywalker," that these tales range across Luke's history, and that the most popular ones with the most retellings are the ones we are also familiar with. Aka: The Original Trilogy.

We know that Rey knows these tales rather well, including more obscure parts, from TLJ, "You redeemed Darth Vader, the most evil man in the Galaxy, but you saw good in him!" Therefore, it can be plausible that she's also heard of the two times that the Jedi mind trick was used during these stories. The first when Obi-Wan used it to trick the Stormtroopers, and then when Luke uses it on Bib Fortuna and attempts it on Jabba.

However, we also know, from the other movies, that the Jedi Mind trick is one of the most common force abilities known by the denizens of the Galaxy. Both Jabba, and more importantly Watto, of all people, know about the Force power. This indicates that knowledge of this power is rather widespread throughout the Galaxy even going back to the Prequel, and Original trilogies.

 

Can't wait for Rey to levitate in Ep 9 and hear ya'll scream "SHE'S JUST THAT GOOD"

 

Yeah....maybe we can get a flashback scene of Rey.....she can be 9 yrs old and jump into a Naboo Starfighter and start punching buttons at random, then end up about 5 minutes later blowing up a First Order Stardestroyer.....yeah that would be so cool!!!

 

I honestly don't think people were looking for the wrong things, they just weren't there, and I think some people are more forgiving that they aren't there than others. FWIW I don't think they're going to explain it now, we're 2 Episodes in already; the focus will be on telling the end of the story than explaining. 1st Story introduces, 2nd story explains, 3rd story concludes. Her use of the Jedi Mind trick will be one amongst a number of anomalies/inconsistencies that exist across all the Episodes that we just move on from because it's not going to be addressed.

 

There's a rule. There's no crying in baseball, but it happens.

Rey flows with the force easily. You know why? Because she doesn't follow rules and wasn't taught this or that. She just does. Pretty much a positive charge vessel for the force to flow through.