I can
hardly explain how well Rey works for me.
She’s smart, tough, capable, complicated, in over her head but still
getting by, and even though she could easily seem over-the-top or too good to
be true, she just comes off so well. With
her in the foreground, I think the Star
Wars franchise is in fine hands (a few Rey-related spoilers for The Force Awakens.)
As with
the other two members of the new trio (more on them some other time,) Rey bears
a distinct resemblance to those who came before. While the guys both take on some Han-ish
qualities, Rey is definitely
reminiscent of Luke. I mean, come on – a
young person of uncertain parentage with itchy feet stuck on a desert
planet? A talent for ships and flying, a
natural flair with droids, and strong Force sensitivity that she hasn’t
discovered yet? She’s so Luke.
But at
the same time, she’s not, and I like that.
Rey is more remote, more guarded, than Luke. She doesn’t push people away exactly – in
fact, she seems to fall pretty easily into friendships – but she’s incredibly
self-sufficient, and she sort of wears that self-sufficiency around her like
armor. It’s like, she’s more than happy
to have others around her and work together with her, but it’s important that
they know she’d be fine on her own if necessary. When Finn first meets her and (badly) tries
to come to her rescue, she’s a little annoyed that he felt the need to
try.
This is
informed, like so many of Rey’s traits, by her abandonment at a young age. For such a long time, it’s been just Rey and
she’s learned to make do with that, and so it weirds her out a bit when people
act like she needs their help.
Incidentally, though, this same abandonment probably plays a big part in
her compassion and her own inclination toward helping others, and in a way,
that’s her “in” to letting others get close to her. From almost the moment she crosses paths with
BB-8, she’s determined to help the droid and even leaves her planet – which
she’s clung to in the hopes that those who left her there will one day come
back for her – to do so. This means that
Finn, and later Han and Chewy, become people who can similarly help BB-8, and that’s why she tells them to stay with
her. Even as it feels pretty obvious
that she at least subconsciously craves a reprieve from the fairly solitary
life she’s been living (she and Finn quickly fall in like old friends, and she
probably sees something of a father in Han,) the official reasons she gives
them are all about getting BB-8 back to the resistance.
And,
also due in part to her years of fending for herself, Rey can get crap
done. She explores and investigates, she
fights well with a staff and is a quick study with a light saber, and she both
pilots and repairs unfamiliar ships with innate aptitude. As she starts understanding her affinity with
the Force, she soon learns to use it to her advantage. All these skills likely have some calling her
character a Mary Sue, but for me, it works.
Her abilities mostly feel earned, and I think they’re balanced out by
her very human fears. By all accounts,
she can rock just about anything, but when she is first told about her true
potential, it completely freaks her out.
She doesn’t want to be powerful or chosen or anyone’s great hope – it’s
too large, too much to take in at once, and like so many heroes before her, she
initially runs away from the call. The Force Awakens shows her beginning to
find her way back to it, and I’m excited to see where she goes next.
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