I like your Jar Jar/Ewok examples Shopping Maul, but I also don’t think it is fair to equate issues of gender with “anti-comedy” or “anti-wildlife”.
I understand fans wanting Rey to be more flawed/vulnerable. While I don’t think Rey is badly written, I do think the male writers might’ve been a little afraid to emphasize Rey as a flawed individual more than they did. Maybe Kennedy or Hart were able to give some input on her character? I don’t know.
I mean, I think it was there. For example, the TFA deleted scene where Unkar Plutt confronts Rey in Maz’s Castle. She tries to attack Unkar, forgets the gun’s safety, and is pretty defenseless until she is rescued by Chewie.
But I think things like Rey’s combat and piloting skills are set up based off what we are shown and told in the first act of TFA, having to survive on her own and her telling us she is a pilot.
I think Kylo Ren’s loss at the end of TFA is set up fairly well, showing Kylo Ren being heavily injured and him not wanting to kill Rey.
I felt Rey barely scathed through the Praetorian guard fight, barely managing to kill two guards, while Kylo killed four and at one point took on three at once. Rey’s super sweaty at the end of that fight, haha!
I do get some things, like Rey lifting all of those rocks at the end of TLJ, but I also think our sense of how the Force works has been warped overtime, and they way a lot of people see the Force, even myself, hasn’t been an accurate interpretation.
I don’t think Thor is a bad person, and I don’t think he is sexist. I know a lot of people do, but I don’t equate every person who criticizes Rey is sexist. I think that can go both ways though, where a defender might try to point out a person’s unintentional biases, and that person reacting because they think they’re being called sexist.
But I do think his videos are clickbait, even if he isn’t the worst offender when it comes to this type of content. To me the thumbnail is the standard controversial attention grabber.
Which this kind of stuff, to me, perpetuates the discussion devolving from a fair debate into vitriol.
It just feels like none of these YouTuber’s feel responsible for the atmospheres they generate.
Also, I do think Dom makes a good point. I think the divide has put a lot of people into stubborn positions. With a lot of Reylo’s, they are so adamant on their theories on the Saga’s conclusion that I could imagine the love/hate positions flipping if Rey killed Kylo in the end or something like that. Because at this point they are set on what they think Star Wars should be, much like how a lot of predominantly male fans have been since this trilogy started.
Again, not saying either position is right or wrong, just wish discussions had a little bit more nuance. I think it is fair to say Rey isn’t a perfectly written character while also still being able to enjoy her character and her story so far.