Haha don’t think I’ve ever seen that done before in this conversation. Good job? I guess?
I wish the debate would die. With the Mary Sue thing, I feel like I’ve said this waaay too many times, but the thing is that with the term there are misogynistic implications. Hypothetically that kind of criticism could be thrown against characters of any gender, but they rarely do. When people specifically mention her gender when talking about how implausible her abilities are, that’s when the unfortunate implications become clear.
Ultimately, the term is just downright lazy. If people actually had well reasoned and thought out arguments about Rey’s characterization and how it affected the story/drama, I’d be more willing to engage with them. But if they’re just going to skip to name calling, that’s where I’ll brush them aside. If you’re just going to regurgitate something someone else has said on the internet, there’s no point in wasting my time.
Mary Sue in this instance is usually less “I have an issue with women” and more “shorthand for the numerous times she does things without earning them, perhaps in comparison to Luke”.
For instance, Luke had to see Kenobi do a mind trick- Rey somehow just knows the technique. Luke had Kenobi tell him to use the force in the trench run- Rey just gets a power-up in the forest by closing her eyes and remembering the force- both Luke and Rey had people tell the them about the force earlier in the movie (Kenobi and orange Yoda), but only Rey somehow just remembered the sage’s words and level’d up.
etc.