Okay, I just got back from my second viewing. I also watched star trek 2009 because I remembered someone mentioning that it and the force awakens are essentially the same movie, which I don't really see now that I compare them side by side, but that's a thread for another day.
For today, I wanted to settle things once and for all. The whole "mary sue" issue and the final fight with Ren.
Black Holes and Mary Sues.
There's been a lot of back and forth over whether Rey is a Mary Sue. I maintain what I said earlier: Mary Sue is a shitty label that everyone interprets differently. It has only one constant, and that is the end result: The viewer is disbelieving that the character can achieve what they have been presented as achieving. People have posited that Rey is a Mary Sue because she doesn't ever fail in the movie and/or has no flaws. I'll address that question in a moment, but first I want to talk about Bella Swan from Twilight.
As I said, there is no set definition for the term Mary Sue because everyone thinks it means something else. Some people think that it means the author has inserted theirselves into the story via an avatar (which is an odd thing to complain about given that so many authors go on and on about how they place pieces of themselves in ALL their characters, which makes sense as they're the ones making them so where else would they come from?), other people think it means that a person who has no flaws (which is an odd thing to say as there is no such thing as an objective flaw, so the character is dependent to like a particular personality aspect or not. I don't think the definition should be so subjective) or limitations on their power, there are people who think it's a blank slate character that people can latch onto, and there are even people who use as flippant a definition as "Character I don't like". There are more, but you get my point.
What's great about Bella Swan is that she is just about the only character that the vast majority of people know AND agree is a "Mary Sue", because she embodies every definition that I've heard. She's an self insert, blank slate, with every character saying she's perfect except those who are villains and thus can be dismissed, and few people like her. And you know what? She fucking sucks. I'm serious, the narrative goes out of it's way to describe how comically clumsy she is, how her looks are plain. She's dismissive of friends who are going out of their way to help her, she's disrespectful of her father who gave her a truck, and is apathetic to the vampire council's crimes against humanity (the end of the second book she sees people who are terrified and obviously walking to be eaten alive and does not react at all.) She has no powers nor any ability to defend herself, which drives the vast majority of the book's plot as it relates to things outside the romance, and indeed almost never tries. She has all these deficiencies in her character and more. How is it that Bella can be a Mary Sue when she just flat out sucks this hard? How can anyone, author or reader, willfully place themselves onto such a character of such inability?
Because Bella Swan is the center of the twilight universe. The things that happen in the story are a result entirely of her presence. The most justification we ever get from Edward for why he likes Bella is because she is somehow immune to his mind reading powers (which we never get an explanation for why that is, nor is it something that greatly affects their interactions), her friends go out of their way for her despite that she seems condescending to them, atleast in her head, and their efforts don't mean anything because Bella wants to be sad and sucidal for Edward, so she is. Jacob's love is similarly unexplained. The vampire council takes an abnormal interest in her, the cullens love her, she's never challenged or punished except by obvious villains who can be dismissed, etc.
Bella Swan is, iirc, what made me realize why Mary Sue isn't a good term for the kind of character they're describing. What they're talking about is a Black Hole character. It's not about the in-universe power they hold, because they could easily hold no power at all. It's about the narrative power. These characters basically just have other characters drop the lives they have going on around them, so that those character's paths are defined by this singularity of a character. One of the most fundamental truths of the world is that every person out there has their own lives going on, and they are connected as well, so when your present in another person's life, it has an affect, but it equally has an effect on you. We all have our own stories, and we're our own protagonists. The kind of character that many people mislabel as Mary Sue destroys that by making slaves of the characters around them. Edward and Jacob and her dad, and her friends, and the entire frikken Vampire council have their lives stop as soon as Bella Swan walks into their worlds, because after that, it's all about her.
And all those other definitions suddenly make sense, because in each of them, you can see how it would be tempting to lead to that sort of result. If you're writing yourself inserted into a story, you will feel the urge to make it all about you as a self empowerment fantasy. If yo want the audience to implant themselves on a blank character, then it's probably for the purposes of giving that empowerment fantasy to them. If you make a character that's 'without flaws or limitations', then it's all too easy to just have them be the agent that engages with all the worlds conflicts. Anecdotally, I've read stories wherein a character was either clearly a self insert or a blank character or really powerful or whatever. It's possible to do any one of those things and still come away with a good product. What I've never seen is a character who acts as an active detriment to the agency of those around them and come out alright....well, not unless the author is aware of it and takes steps to keep such an influence in check in some way, anyway.
But that's what I feel is the heart of the issue most people talk about. It's not Mary Sueness. It's characters that are black holes, sucking in the narrative power of every other character around them.
So. Finally getting around to my point. Rey. Is she a black hole character? Obviously not. Han Solo likes her, but he maintains his narrative focus of being on a journey to return to his younger days, which means both being a smuggler and trying to redeem his son. Finn is probably the one whose life Rey has affected most. He was actually willing to leave Rey out of fear in the middle of the movie. He wanted her to come with, but his fear overrode his love for her, until she was actually placed in danger. But while you can't at this moment seperate his love for her from his overcoming his fear, it has to be noted that he's turning into the resistance leader he is because of his own will as well. He left before he ever met Rey, and now he's going to continue becoming a braver character within the resistance without her. And Kylo Ren's narrative is not related to her at all except at the very end, wherein he seeks her validation for his choices, but he would have sought anyone's at that point.
The Force Awaken's is Rey's story, perhaps more than others, but it's also Finn's, Han's and Ren's. She affects them all, but they also affect hers, and moreover, they affect each others. She has no affect on Han's struggle to return to his old life and save his son, and she has nothing to do with Finn's and Poe's relationship. The movie depicts people going on with their own lives before, during, and after Rey's presence. If she were what others were accusing her of being, that just wouldn't happen.
But perhaps your not convinced of this line of reasoning and still consider her problematic for her lack of flaws. She is said to overcome any challenge and has no flaws. In my second viewing, I specifically watched out for these aspects, and....well, I honestly don't know how to answer because I don't know what 'flaws' are to people, so instead, here are the problems Rey faces.
Flaws and Conflicts
First, there are the obvious external problems. she is a scavenger, and that means living is hard. She works for a scumbag that pays her less than minimum wage. After the First Order arrives, her next external challenge is hostility from the stormtroopers. After that, it's the freighter boarders (that turn out to be Han Solo) and then the tentacle monsters. Then she got to the rebel base where the stormstroopers arrived, and fought with Kylo Ren. Then she had that mind battle, then she snuck around, reunited with her friends, and watched Han Solo die. Then she fought Kylo Ren, and then escaped the exploding base.
So, with the scavenging, she was by all accounts at the bottom of the pole in terms of social class if she was allowed to be so easily screwed out of her portions like she was and couldn't do anything about it. She didn't beat that conflict except by stealing the Falcon from her boss, and she did that unwillingly, and I am pretty sure it wasn't all that great a loss to him. She escaped the storm troopers, but it has to be noted that she only did so because Finn was an extraordinarily good shot and would have been dead without him on the guns. She didn't 'win' the freighter incident, she just survived it, with her greatest victory being that she could close the doors on the monster in time so that Finn wouldn't be eaten. Otherwise, all she could do was get in the falcon and GTFO with Han (though she admittedly helped by pointing out the compression issue, but even then, Han would have spotted that a second later). She flat out lost in the storm trooper invasion on the rebel base, and the few victories she did get were against stormtroopers, and those weren't well placed shots. That's one thing Rey is undoubtedly less talented in than any other fighter, she flat out sucks at blasters. Not to the point that she can't take down stormtroopers, but you should pay attention to the wild shots she is taking when Kylo Ren stomps in. Then she won the mind battle, and successfully sneaked about, lost and wandering, until Han and Finn spotted her. Otherwise, what would she have done exactly? Ren suspected that she'd steal a ship, so he immediately ordered to put the harbors on lock down, so she was screwed there. She couldn't do anything to save Han. She was on the run for most of the fight with Kylo Ren (i'll get into the particulars of that fight in a moment) and then found a ship to steal away from the base afterwards.
She definitely has some wins in there and she isn't utterly helpless in any of them. But this does not seem like an overwhelming win chart to me. She's always good enough to get by, but the fact is that she's subject to the forces that move the world. She can't just take over that colony or whatever she's at in the beginning, she had no recourse except to GTFO against the tentacle monsters, and she didn't fight back the whole base when she was running around. She can't take on the world.
What about internal problems though? Well, other than when Kylo Ren is trying to get at her, she's her own worst enemy. The internal drama that drives her character arc is the fact that she can't let go of Jakku, which she actually hates, but that's where she believes her family will come for her. And this actually prevents her from doing what she wants. This is most obvious after the freighter incident. At first, she was getting away from Jakku for personal safety, but then they actually get away, and she is simply stunned by the forest planet they find. And then they get out, and Han offers her a job. This might be the most giddy she gets, and that's important. You can see she wants to do this so badly. And then you see her crest-fallen. She can't. She needs to go back to wait for her family that she knows she is never going to come back.
Like I said, flaw is a subjective word. It's not as bad a term as Mary Sue, but I still feel asking what Rey's conflict is more applicable than asking what her flaw is. But, gun to my head? If I had to give if a definition, "flaw" in narrative typically denotes a character aspect that prevents a character from achieving what they want. Her flaw is her inability to let go of the past and embrace the new life she has set before her. Han offers her a job, and she runs away. She feels the connection with the lightsaber, and she runs away. She is plagued by self inflicted loneliness. You can see her harshly try to turn away any allies, from BB-8 to Han to Finn helping her out, trying to keep an emphasis of self reliance. Her character journey is coming to the decision of moving on, and embracing her connection with the force, which is done as of the end of the movie. Perhaps that's why some people feel she has no flaws. Because by the end, the focal character drama she has is resolved. Which, of course, doesn't mean it's gone. We can fully expect that her family will play a part in the future movies. But she now has a new path in life, and she embraces (literally) Finn as an undyingly loyal friend and comrade. Her loneliness and attachment to her past life have been alleviated and her 'flaw' has been dealt with for the nonce.
Still, regarding the external challenges she faces once again, some people feel she gets off too easy. I will admit, those ship maneuvers are pretty impressive for someone who has never gone off world, and she is a pretty quick study with the force. So lets look at some of her conflicts a little more in depth.
Kylo Ren's Fuck Ups
Up until she gets captured, her greatest feat was her flying against the storm troopers. This one is actually acknowledged to be inexplicable by her. She was outwardly confident to Finn, but in the pilots seat, both of them are muttering "I can do this, I can do this." Then, afterwards, during their mutual contradulatory moment, one of the things that Finn asks is "how did you do that" to which she replies "I have no idea". And it is afterwards that we get a scene of Kylo Ren muttering "There has been an awakening." So, I think we are meant to infer that this is her first contact with the force, or recontact as the case may be. Her confusion at her flash backs imply that she doesn't remember all of her past, and whatever is in her past, may have either been training to fly that well, or else she used the force to make all the right moves ala Luke in ANH, except unwittingly. Similarly, she could actually just be that good, because all she said was she never gone off world, but might have practiced flying at some point as she was staying there. She certainly has a great deal of understanding of ships on a technical level. So, yeah, this particular feat is unexplained, but it's implied there is an explanation, possibly more than one.
After that, she's just a regular action survivor until she gets captured by Ren, wherein she has her mind battle. I already stated that I think willpower has a great amount to do with whether Ren's mind reading abilities work. Perhaps that's why he did it on Poe only after the stormtroopers had taken a turn torturing him first. At that point, his will must have been weak.In addition to not being a force sensitive, Poe had no chance. Meanwhile, Rey has no training. However, what she has is second hand knowledge. This is one great difference between her and Luke. Luke was someone who was naturally unbelieving of the Jedi lore. When faced with training tasks by both Yoda and Ben that he had trouble with, he immediately defaulted to disbelief. There was no way he could hit the laser if he couldn't see it, no way he could lift the x-wing out. He had to see it to believe it. Belief isn't an issue with Rey. She already fantasized about Jedi abilities, and when she got Han's confirmation, that was all she needed. And she has certainty in herself. Keep in mind, Ren won MOST of the mind battle. He found out about her loneliness, her desire to see Han as a father figure, her desires leave, the fact taht she had the map coordinates....the only thing he didn't find out is what those coordinates were. And the reason he broke off is because he got in close enough that she was able to read a little of his mind, and pressed on the fact that he was scared and uncertain of his place in the force. And the reason I believe in this interpretation is how she acted with the storm trooper afterwards. She had never seen the jedi mind trick, but she heard about it. So she tries once. Twice. And then nails it on the third try. It's not instant mastery, but the fact that she believes she can do it lends itself more to her ability to do it than a technical instruction book on how to do it would. The force by nature is instinctive and passive, so she just learns by experience. The important part is that she believes in her ability to do it.
Which leads us to the final confrontation, which is what is the greatest point of contention about this film. I feel the basics have been done to death at this point, so I'll mention them in brief. Kylo Ren is injured by the bowcaster shot and mentally anguished over the death of his father that he just been the agent of. But here's what I haven't seen: A point of comparison. Do you know who Kylo Ren fought with his lightsaber uninjured? First, he struck down a helpless old man. Then he fucked up a computer council. Then the torture chair that he strapped Rey into. Then his father. People have made a lot of contention about Kylo Ren not being 'visibily' slowed down. What visual comparison is being made here? All his opponents thus far have been inanimate, either by will or nature. He didn't actually get into a lightsaber fight until the end of the movie, and by then he was injured. We never saw Kylo Ren fight at full strength.
Still, even with the injuries, he was a better fighter in general than Rey. Yet, at the same time, Finn managed to get a hit on him (on his dominant arm no less, making it even clearer how he was unable to overpower Rey). How? People have argued that since the injury wasn't 'visibily' slowing him down, it must not be affecting him. That's kind of bullshit because it implies speed is all that's necessary to be an effective lightsaber fighter. What seemed obvious to me is that Ren's deficiency wasn't that he was weaker or slower, but that he was more reckless. His anger issues, his anguish and his injuries have made him weaker than what he would otherwise be (because that's what injuries do), but the real thing that all this stress has cost him is his ability to focus. Against a coordinated and calm fighter, Finn couldn't get a single hit in even though the dude was a storm trooper. But Ren's sloppiness meant he was open to getting hits in.
And yet, even with that, he still manages to beat Finn and then afterwards chase down Rey. This is an important thing, Rey is fucking terrified of Ren and most of the fight is her running away. He catches her in a blade lock, then proceeds to plead with her to join him to validate his decisions. Pay attention to his face in this scene next time you see him, and look how physically obvious it is that he's at the end of his rope. His face is sheening with sweat, his voice is desperate...This is Ren at his breaking point. Now, he's not even trying to kill her, he's trying to convince her to join him. I argued before that this was because he seeks validation, but now I also think he was realizing he might not be able to win this one. Then Rey taps into the force. I want to point out that the force doesn't just grant physical power, but the inexplicable knowledge of when and where to make the right move. When Luke first used the force, he didn't get 'stronger' he just knew where to place his blade so that the droid lasers wouldn't hit him. I think that's what Rey did, she didn't get 'stronger', she just knew where to swing the lightsaber....which in this case, was at his leg. At this point, Ren is physically limping and barely standing. So that's a third injury, in addition to Finn's hit on his dominant arm, bowcaster shot to the gut, and emotional distress. Here, he gets desperate and just tries to flat out grabble with Rey, but at this point, hes physically weak enough that Rey flat out overpowers him, forcing his lightsaber into the ground as she cuts either it or his arm (the shot doesn't make it clear).
People have called Rey's use of force a cheap power up, and I don't think I can disagree about anything except the cheap part. That's what the force is, an empowering aspect of the universe. Luke was empowered by it not because he 'mastered' it, but because he let it flow through him. His mastery of the force under Yoda's training is never about him controlling the force, but flowing with it. You don't get strong ON the force, you get strong WITH the force. And as I mentioned, Rey simply doesn't have the kind of hangups Luke had about the force because she has a different perspective on the whole thing that gives her an arguably easier time accessing it once she accepts it into her life (which incidentally was a problem Luke never had).
So yeah. Hopefully I've successfully convinced some of you who were on the edge. Mary sue is a shitty term and we should stop using it, but what most people mean by it: Rey isn't a mary sue. And holy fuck, did this end up being longer than I ever anticipate.
Fake Edit: I almost forgot. Ren considers the blue lightsaber to be his, probably by birthright and says as much. When he defeats Finn, he puts his red lightsaber away to try and take it via the force, leading to possibly the most classic moment of the film, where it's Rey that actually takes it, overpowering his force pull. Again, another indication of how out of it Ren is currently, but also another mental gut punch. He had his grandfather's lightsaber right there....and it moved to another, literally passing him by. That's got to sting.
