If it's ancient Greece, wouldn't it be set before Origins? Since Origins is set in Ptolomaic Egypt and the most well known periods of Greece are significantly before.
You don't need to defend Rey from being called a Mary Sue, it isn't necessarily a dirty word. She is a Mary Sue, it is what it is. The only issue I have with that is that she single-handedly ruins the notion that 'this force stuff is kinda difficult' that the canon had established, from padawans needing to be trained from childhood to Luke being terrible at everything, flunking every step of his Jedi training, and needing people to save him in almost every encounter he is in. He wins in Return of the Jedi by losing, for crying out loud. Child Anakin in episode 1 is a Gary Sue as well. It is what it is, but at least there was a force Jesus plot device and it was slammed down your throat he was impossibly special. We know Rey is good at the things she was good at because the movie wanted to hammer it home she has the Skywalker gene without saying it out loud, they didn't need to be so heavy handed with it IMO.
It was a fun movie, it just had some questionable characterization and inconsistent acting at spots.
There is a lot hinting at a deeper backstory for Rey and before we know what it is, I think it's way too early to pass judgment like this. She could have had jedi training before, and she is just reconnecting with it in this movie. She is being set up at being a natural at everything so far, but this movie is very much about her discovering her power, and there is still two more movies to go, where all kinds of developments could happen.
Well to be fair having training doesn't make a character not a Mary Sue. I mean Batman has literally had all the training and yet he's still the biggest Mary Sue ever.
I just think this whole Mary Sue thing is narrowing people's view of this. I never heard the term before, and I've never heard Batman being critizised for being one either. It seems to come from a place of annoyance, that her character is powerful for the sake of it, some even suggesting it's because she is female. And the main criticism seems to be that she learns her powers too quickly.
But there are hints of Rey's (re?)connection to the Force being significant in some way. The conversation between Snoke and Kylo "There's been an awakening. Have you felt it?" - no other Force sensitive character has ever had their connection to the Force described as something that could be felt by other characters. It's described as "an awakening", which is a strange, maybe significant choice of words.This coupled with the title of the movie "The Force" Awakens. What does that mean exactly? It's obviously connected to Rey but it seems to hint at more than she is just a normal Force user discovering her power. It make it seem like there is something special about Rey and that maybe her relationship with the Force is special or that the Force act through her more directly than in other Jedi/Sith characters.
There just seems to be a lot of possibilities that her fast learning isn't bad writing but quite deliberate, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until where see where the rest of the story goes.
You don't need to defend Rey from being called a Mary Sue, it isn't necessarily a dirty word. She is a Mary Sue, it is what it is. The only issue I have with that is that she single-handedly ruins the notion that 'this force stuff is kinda difficult' that the canon had established, from padawans needing to be trained from childhood to Luke being terrible at everything, flunking every step of his Jedi training, and needing people to save him in almost every encounter he is in. He wins in Return of the Jedi by losing, for crying out loud. Child Anakin in episode 1 is a Gary Sue as well. It is what it is, but at least there was a force Jesus plot device and it was slammed down your throat he was impossibly special. We know Rey is good at the things she was good at because the movie wanted to hammer it home she has the Skywalker gene without saying it out loud, they didn't need to be so heavy handed with it IMO.
It was a fun movie, it just had some questionable characterization and inconsistent acting at spots.
There is a lot hinting at a deeper backstory for Rey and before we know what it is, I think it's way too early to pass judgment like this. She could have had jedi training before, and she is just reconnecting with it in this movie. She is being set up at being a natural at everything so far, but this movie is very much about her discovering her power, and there is still two more movies to go, where all kinds of developments could happen.
Why is both the Max von Sydow character with the map (the old man in the beginning) and Rey on Jakku? It seems like too much of a coincidence. Maybe the old man is tasked by Luke to watch over Rey like Obi-Wan watched over him on Tatooine. Maybe to give her the map when she is old enough. Only, then why would he give it to Po?
@rasmoss: That was the same issue I have with the Ren character.
I think the character works a lot better if we remove the laser freezing scene in the first part. My theory is that they wanted to show him doing something menacing and cool before the reveal, and update the force powers to the next generation (think Starkiller crashlanding a Star Destroyer in Force Unleashed), but didn't realize that conflicts with the rest of the movie.
In other words: the moment the character open his mouth, he is portraited as nothing but a kid with anger issues, a lot to learn, a big inferiority complex about Darth Vader and an urge to prove himself; which conflicts with the way he is first introduced, as a force user above and beyond the level of any other force user shown to date, including Anakin/Vader.
In the United States it takes around 15-20 weeks on average to become a police officer. Here in Denmark, we just cut the police officer education down from 3 to 2 years, and there was an uproar about it. Combine that with the fact that the US has liberal gun laws and we don't.
The more I think about it, the more I think the Kylo Ren character just doesn't add up. On one hand, he shows force powers that no one else have shown before, like stopping the blaster blot midflight, on the other, he is very easily defeated. He is at the same time a bit of a clown, for trying to live up to the image of Vader, he is apparently mentally unstable, he has trouble containing his light side, he has been seduced by Snookie for reasons we are never shown, and he hates his parents for reasons we are never shown. It's never clear if he has genuine qualms about killing his father or if he is playing with him all along. I can't get a real grasp on his character, much of it seems to point in different directions and a lot of it isn't explained properly.
Log in to comment