Rey Skywalker: What Went Wrong

Rey Skywalker has not been particularly well received by the Star Wars fandom at large. Yes she has her fans, but she also has many detractors, and their numbers yet appear evenly matched. For years I have been analyzing the character, and at long last I can pinpoint what went wrong with Rey. Essentially, Rey had two conflicting character arcs, and this writing will explain it all.

First, as shocking as this may be to hear for some, Rey did, in fact, have a character arc. Rey’s character arc was simply more personal, and presented in a subtle fashion throughout the trilogy. When we first meet Rey, she’s a scavenger in the world of Jakku. She’s living on her own, waiting for her parents to come back for her. She learns to accept that they’re not, and that she’s better off living her own life going forward. In The Last Jedi, Rey’s having difficulties defining herself, so she seeks both Luke, and later Kylo Ren, for their help in defining who she is. She is rejected by Luke Skywalker, who only trains her begrudgingly. She is then offered a position of power by Kylo Ren, but she rejects it. At the end of the movie, she starts forming her own identity. In Rise of Skywalker, Rey is still forming her identity, and has to learn that family doesn’t define her. Her bloodline is the Palpatine bloodline, but she is as far from the Emperor as one can get; her spirit is more in tune with the Skywalkers. Hence, she chooses to be a Skywalker instead, honoring the family that saved the Galaxy by keeping their legacy alive.

So yes, Rey does have a character arc. But why is she accused of lacking one? And why is she called a Mary Sue, of all things? The answers to these questions may well be hard to accept.

We accept the notion that a character arc is the way a character changes from their first appearance, to their last. Under that definition, Rey certainly had a character arc: an emotional one. That’s the key word there, emotional. Rey’s arc is all about accepting not who she is, but DEFINING who she is. It’s about changing herself, becoming what she wants to become, which is someone worth having in life. It’s all very subtly done with dialogue and visual cues, and there’s nothing ENTIRELY wrong with that.

This personal character arc is tied to a Hero’s Journey story. Rey not only has to learn to accept herself, she also has to become a hero for the Resistance and stop the First Order; a conflict she never has a personal stake in until she gets kidnapped by Kylo Ren, which leads to the two becoming a Dyad. The Dyad between the two helps Rey become stronger, to the point that she’s capable of using Force powers far above her skill level. The Dyad also links her to Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, allowing the two to form a powerful emotional bond that culminates in a romantic entanglement.

But therein lays the first problem with Rey’s character: her arc is dependent on visual cues and quick, easy to miss lines of dialogue. An example would be her hair style; Rey’s hair in Force Awakens is precisely the same she had when she was a child. This is a visual cue for the audience that shows how Rey is still that little girl whose parents abandoned her; from this visual cue, the audience is expected to extrapolate that Rey hasn’t changed her hair in hopes that when her parents return, they’ll recognize her.

This isn’t the first time Star Wars has used visual storytelling; in fact, both the Original Trilogy AND the Prequel Trilogy have used visuals to tell their story. In the OT, we have THAT scene. You know the one:

In the Prequels, we have a quick scene of Anakin surveying the flaming world of Mustafar. His golden eyes are focused on, a demonstration that he is now fully in the Dark Side. He is surrounded by a hellish background, and in his eyes, tears fall freely down his stone cold face. A visual demonstration of Anakin’s (seemingly) irreversible fall. This is a GREAT shot, and in my opinion, one of Lucas’ best.

But the Sequels don’t actually follow this same line of logic; in Force Awakens, we only get brief glimpses of little Rey. Enough for us to see her hair, but not enough to actually appreciate what’s happening. Seconds later, we’re seeing the Knights of Ren; half a second after that, we’re hearing Obi-Wan telling Rey that these are her first steps. The constant whiplash of going from scene to scene doesn’t allow the audience time to truly take in what’s happening.

This is because Rey’s storyline is internal and personal, and such a story demands that the character be allowed time to introspect, express themselves and explore their feelings and thoughts. The ONLY movie that lets Rey be introspective is The Last Jedi, and even that’s done limitedly. Whenever Rey talks to Kylo Ren, he dominates the conversation. Hell, we find out about Rey’s parents from HIM, not her! In fact, Rey doesn’t talk about herself very often; she doesn’t even say what she wants, except when she asks to be told her place or when she asks Luke for help. And both are only done ONCE.

This is where we start talking about narrative theory. I’ve read that there are two types of character arcs: Masculine and Feminine. To avoid not-unwarranted accusations of sexism, let’s rename these Hard-Hearted and Soft-Hearted arcs. To put it simply, a Hard-Hearted arc is when a character learns to overcome an emotional, introspective problem by opening their self up to change. A Soft-Hearted arc is when the main character recognizes a flaw in themselves and strives to improve. Basically, an HH arc is when you go from Hard to Soft, and an SH arc is when you go from Soft to Hard.

Rey’s character arc is Hard Hearted; she starts off emotionally closed off and unwilling to move on with her life until her parents return to her. A story of emotional growth requires small scenes, by which I mean scenes that slow down the overall plot but help grow the characters. It’s scenes like characters enjoying each other’s company, laughing, sharing stories. Think of the noodle dinner scene in Kung Fu Panda; on the outside it’s just a scene of the Furious Five just eating, joking around, until Master Shifu interrupts them with news that Tai Lung has escaped. But a CLOSER look shows us this is the moment Po starts bonding with the Five, truly helping to bridge Po the Fanboy with Po the Dragon Warrior.

And actually, the comparison to Kung Fu Panda is the most apt, because this children’s movie did what the Sequels should have done: slow down the plot for Rey. Rey needed scenes of introspection, of talking to friends and sharing life experiences. But there weren’t any, because the plot didn’t have time to slow down.

Why couldn’t the plot slow down? For the second reason why Rey’s arc is something of a failure: the three movies are more focused on action than character. This is most prevalent in Rise of Skywalker, where every other scene is either a battle or a chase; there’s no time to talk feelings out, no time to sit down and think, no time to do ANYTHING. Even when circumstances would allow for something like that, the plot HAS to shove something to happen. This then leaves only a small handful of throw-away lines and seconds-long visual cues for Rey’s personal character arc to develop and conclude.

The Force Awakens is also guilty of this; every other scene has something plot relevant happen. Finn finds Rey, she attacks him for supposedly stealing a jacket, the the First Order arrives on TIE Fighters, then they find the Millennium Falcon, then they leave Jakku on said ship. ALL THIS happens within three minutes of screen time. In comparison, the Original Trilogy slowed the plot down considerably in order to properly explore characters.

This time I point to the scene in which Han Solo gets confronted by Greedo. Does the scene advance the plot? No. But it DOES inform the audience about who Han Solo is. Han Solo’s got gun pointed at him, but he doesn’t panic; in fact he’s not just keeping his cool, he’s slyly going for his own gun, and Greedo doesn’t even notice. Once he has the chance to do so, Han shoots Greedo right in the head, killing the criminal. Then he tosses a coin at the bartender, says “sorry about the mess,” and goes back to his ship. The plot took a one minute break so the audience could get to know this character better, and that makes the movie all the more memorable.

Another great moment in the OT where the plot slows down is in Empire Strikes Back, when Luke is in Yoda’s little hut. We see Luke act rather fidgety, impatiently trying to get the little green guy to take him to Yoda. He keeps bumping into things, a further demonstration of the consequences of his impatience. This is visual storytelling, and it’s damn effective at showing us Luke’s fatal flaw in Empire: he’s so eager, he’s willing to cut corners to get where he wants to be. It is this over eagerness that leads Luke to his confrontation with Vader, where the young man loses his hand and lightsaber.

Again, the ONLY movie to slow down enough for characters to be introspective is The Last Jedi, and even this movie wastes these opportunities in favor of either gags or pointless action scenes. One such scene is that of Rey practicing her lightsaber strikes. Ignoring the fact that her technique and form are both awful (look up Shadiversity’s video on that for more information), this scene is only a setup for a gag wherein Rey accidentally strikes the rock, sending it crashing down and destroying a Caretaker’s wheelbarrow. A moment that would otherwise serve to demonstrate Rey’s gumption and refusal to wait for someone to teach her a skill she found vital, was wasted as the setup for a JOKE!

This is actually part of the bigger overall problem with The Last Jedi and its overuse of Bathos, but that’s a discussion for another time.

To understand the third reason why Rey’s arc doesn’t work, we again have to discuss Soft Heart and Hard Heart character arcs. Soft Heart arcs are all about becoming stronger, while Hard Heart arcs are all about softening up and accepting truths about yourself. Rey’s character arc is, unquestionably, a Hard Heart arc, but it also has Soft Heart story beats. Unfortunately, these story beats often don’t synchronize quite well with one another.

This leads to the third major flaw in Rey’s characterization: Rey’s characterization does not leave much room for the growth that is expected out of a Hero’s story. Rey is ALREADY a capable fighter, a top notch pilot, and mechanical wiz when we meet her. As the movie progresses, we discover her abilities in the Force, and we see her get stronger and stronger…because plot. We don’t see her train much, and by the time we DO see her train, it’s redundant. Yeah, it’s great to see Rey train with Leia in Rise of Skywalker, but last movie we saw her EFFORTLESSLY lift hundreds of big boulders using the Force. Ignoring the fact that this is the first time we’ve ever seen the Force used at this caliber with such minimal training, there’s still the fact that Rey demonstrates advanced Force abilities without being taught!

Being this multi-talented can, and has, led to accusations of the character being a “Mary Sue,” a concept whose polysemantic nature makes using such a term to describe Rey an exercise in futility. These accusations are born from the perception that Rey doesn’t “earn” her victories in a way that an audience can readily accept it.

The accusation that Rey’s skills are inexplicable are not unfounded; there’s no explicit explanation, like how Luke can use the Force due to his training or how Anakin is so strong in the Force because he’s the Chosen One. However, there is ONE line in The Last Jedi that defenders of Rey will point to as an explanation regarding her powers: Snoke’s “Darkness rises, and Light to meet it.” Basically, Rey is the Force balancing out Ben Solo’s Dark Side powers.

Let’s ignore the fact that this isn’t how the Force has been portrayed for the previous forty years of the franchise; this explanation is further proof of the fact that Rey doesn’t “earn” her power, because she didn’t train for it. It was given to her by the Force itself. An unfortunate truth is that audiences don’t really respond well to these types of characters, the kind who are given everything they need for victory just because. This is especially true in Star Wars, where self improvement via training had always been a staple on how the Jedi work.

In fact, part of the fun of the Hero’s Story is seeing the hero grow, and this growth is measured by the skills and abilities they gain through their hard work and determination. Again, Kung Fu Panda is used as an example: once Shifu learns to accept that he needs to train Po differently, the panda becomes a far more effective Kung Fu master. Further, once Po learns to accept that what makes him special isn’t some scroll, but his own hard work, he defeats Tai Lung in battle rather easily.

There’s always that point, usually near the climax, where the sum of everything the Hero has gone through adds up and it allows the Hero the power and ability to overcome the major obstacle to their Final Victory. It’s the climax!

So what’s Rey’s big climax? Getting a pep talk from the Jedi of old, claiming herself to be “All the Jedi” after Palpatine calls himself “All the Sith,” while using two lightsabers to bounce his lightning back at him. It sounds ridiculous on paper, I know, but it worked for some people.

I’ll be honest when I say it didn’t work on me; I was simply not as invested on what happened. It’s ridiculously hard to become invested in a character when you either don’t have the opportunity to get to know them better. And I think, for much of the audience, we were expecting a very different story.

Thus we get to the core problem with Rey: her story is mishandled. If you look at the core of Rey’s character, you will find the building blocks to create possibly one of the most fascinating characters in Sci-Fi and Fantasy history. Rey had ALL the elements to create a perfect hybrid of Hero’s Story mixed with Coming of Age; unfortunately, the people in charge didn’t have any respect for the art and science of story craft. Only money is what mattered to them.

I wanted to love Rey, I really did. And make no mistake, I am more than well aware of what she means to many Star Wars fans; I know many girls love her, and with good reason.

But we gotta be honest here: Rey was created as a cynical cash grab by a company that views progressivism as a means of gaining more money, nothing more. She wasn’t created by someone who wanted to tell a story about a strong character; she was made a strong female character because that’s what was in vogue at the time. And then she was surrounded by non-white characters because that’s what was in vogue at the time. And said non-whites got reduced to negative stereotypes and one-dimensional characters precisely because they weren’t written with respect in mind.

It’s like John Boyega said: “they knew what to do with Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley, but they didn’t know what to do with Kelly Marie Tran or John Boyega.”

Let me be real here: when creative decisions are made by people who don’t know the first thing about creativity, you end up with trash. Rey Skywalker’s story could have been so much better if only the people in charge of making it had sufficient respect for what they were in charge of. And no, I don’t mean Star Wars; I mean they were in charge of creating a story that young girls would grow up to love.

The Star Wars Sequels weren’t crafted to create a story for the ages, they were crafted to cash in on the brand. The main character was then made a girl to attract a wider audience that pats itself on the back for being so “progressive.” Meanwhile, those of us who actually take these matters seriously, are thoroughly disgusted with Disney and Lucasfilm. We see through their bullshit and we’re calling it out without stopping. Those who disagree with us call us “sexists” and “racists” because they’re not comfortable with their own compliance to the cynical sanitization Disney applies to progressivism.

Rey wasn’t created to be a hero for girls to look up to, she was created for girls to buy Star Wars toys. THAT is what went wrong with Rey Skywalker. Everyone deserved better. Rey Skywalker deserved way better.