Self defense is not the dark side.
This says to me you're like Luke in ESB and don't understand Yoda what was trying to communicate. Yoda is the strongest with the force, he was winning against the Emperor. If he continued the fight he would have killed him. But he had the insight that killing the Emperor wouldn't defeat the dark side, the cycle would just continue. So he ran away to learn more about the force. Now Luke has had the same insight, destroying Death Stars and the end of the Sith ultimately didn't help matters. There was no point him confronting Kylo when things went wrong again so him hiding away in TFA is him finally seeing sense and following Yoda's footsteps.
The OT establishes very clearly that the most important thing about the Force is knowing you can use it, and freeing yourself to do so. Luke didn't need an academy. He needed to believe in it, and himself.
You make it sound so simple. The whole point of the academy is to teach yourself to free yourself. Freeing yourself is the hard part. Seeing as how both the Darth and the Emperor defeated Luke he very much did need an academy.
This a fundamental misread of Rey's character, and it's one of the major reasons you didn't understand her arc in the film. She's highly intelligent and capable - mechanic, pilot, speaks multiple languages, street fighter. What she has are abandonment issues that hold her down, and her story is learning to overcome them.
A couple scenes later, Snoke is telling Ren about the "awakening" that they both felt. Rey's instinctual piloting of the Falcon was it. It's a critical piece of the film that you missed. That addresses your other issues about her being a good pilot.
She still has abandonment issues in full effect in the Cantina, then she's captured. Then she starts becoming a Jedi genius. There's no learning to overcome a lifetime's abandonment issues presented. People see psychologists for years because of abandonment issues. This would be as bad as Anakins turn to the darkside in RotS.
And like I said, if it's the force suddenly woke up then it's deus ex machina and feminism is back down to zero because she's just a puppet and all of her character, strong will and tenacity counts for nothing.
WHat in God's name is this post. Rey living like a tramp? Get the fuck outta here with that.
She was living in an abandoned AT-AT, so effectively homeless AKA tramp. She's an abandoned child on a tough planet so it doesn't reflect badly on her. She's at the start of her journey. But that's conducive to gradual development not a sudden shift to superwoman. I get it that the force awakens, but having an all powerful force taking the initiative then there's nothing for the characters to do, they're just puppets. There's no striving to improve or learning to overcome obstacles because as soon as things get difficult the force just does everything for them. There's nothing to relate to. All intrigue and mystery is taken away.