This is why I am never going to buy the 'rey is perfect' argument. Ignoring the inner narrative arc, there are numerous examples of her in moments of weakness. Where she's just a scared girl in the clutches of forces greater than her, be it Kylo Ren or those monsters in the freighter or being chased down by the tie fighters. She doesn't just walk in and win, she struggles for those individual victories through fear and doubt and panic.
I think what it ultimately boils down to is that people have this expectation that the Force is a thing that operates on skill, and that's why the Jedi and Sith are institutions based on Force training.
This couldn't be further from the truth.
The Force operates on faith. And that's why, consistently across both the OT and TFA,
you see Luke and Rey struggle the most when they run into doubt.
- Luke doubts he can block the remote's shots with the saber. Obi-Wan suggests he try it without using his vision, which is a signal to the audience that Luke wasn't trying to let the Force guide him to block the shots - he was trying to block them by sight. Once he no longer has that temptation and is forced to rely on Force instinct, he succeeds.
- Luke wants to use the targeting computer to make the shot. But as we saw with his squad leader, the targeting computer doesn't actually succeed at making the shot. Once he decides to let the Force guide him instead of relying on the targeting computer, he succeeds.
- Luke is frustrated that his ship sinks into the swamp in Dagobah. He doesn't believe he can lift it out with the Force; and lo and behold, he doesn't succeed. Yoda's instructions on why he failed basically boil down to it being because he didn't believe it was possible.
- When Rey first encounters Kylo, she's running from accepting the Force. So when Kylo overtakes her, he quickly overpowers her; she's rejecting the call of the Force, and so how in the world was it supposed to come to her aid? It's only when she lets go of that fear and decides to stand up to Kylo with everything she has that she is able to finally resist him.
- When Rey first tries out the mind trick, she sounds hesitant and afraid, and the mind trick fails. It's only when she becomes calm and composed and sure of herself that she succeeds.
- During the lightsaber duel with Kylo, we see Rey trying to fight him the way she fights with her staff - trying to fight in the way that gives her maximum range, using jabs instead of swings, etc. It's only when she realizes that she should rely on the Force - and retreats into Force meditation - that she comes back and wins the fight.
