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Post #1267638

Author
Shopping Maul
Parent topic
Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD *
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1267638/action/topic#1267638
Date created
2-Feb-2019, 2:32 PM

yotsuya said:

In ANH and TESB, Luke had 1 failure using the force - lifting the X-wing. He did all the others the first time we see him try it (though not always on the first attempt, but that is the same with Rey). Luke stood his ground with Vader and several times drove him back. We didn’t really get to see the finish of Rey and Kylo’s first first fight because the breaking up of the planet separates them. The second time, they don’t actually fight, except while trying to grab the lightsaber, which breaks in two. So Rey hasn’t exactly had a string of unqualified successes. If you really watch both films, you can see her many failures. But if you are concentrating on her force use in saying she never failed, then you have to look at Luke and how he rarely ever failed either. At the end of TESB, Luke quickly goes from the horror of the revelation that Vader is his father to acceptance and then he gets a new hand and is smiling with Leia, who seems more upset than he is. At the end of TLJ, Rey, who was briefly elated by the success she and Chewy had in the air over Crait, is feeling dejected and wondering what the next step is. Luke is already executing a plan to rescue Han, but Rey has no plan. So yes, please delineate how Rey just has it so easy. I don’t see it that way and I fail to see how you can if you take into account all that we see on screen.

I don’t think doing a ‘tit for tat’ on Jedi abilities is fair for either side of the argument. The only Force ability on record (at the time of ANH) was ESP. Obi does a mind trick and senses the destruction of Alderaan. Luke learns a little ESP with the remote and then uses that technique at the film’s climax.

By this reading Rey is absolutely ‘fast-tracked’ in TFA. She gets Force visions, resists a mind-probe, does a mind trick, levitates a lightsaber, and finally defeats a veritable Sith Lord. Even in TESB Luke struggles to lift rocks and fails pretty much every test. In TLJ Rey kicks everyone’s ass (including Luke’s!) and levitates a mountainside.

That’s not the real problem here (given that the Force and associated abilities/powers evolved throughout the saga). The problem, for me and many others, is that the Force is/was depicted as having nuance and cost. Even Luke and Anakin had natural abilities - nothing like Rey’s massive portfolio but a similar principle - yet they still struggled greatly with the notion of Jedi attainment (which of course is the backbone of the saga). There were emotional and physical costs, the ever-looming threat of the Dark Side and the potential to fail and even bring more harm than good.

Rey has no struggle beyond being personally upset at some of the outcomes. Dark Side? No probs. Levitation? Got it. Kick mentor’s ass? You betcha! It’s just ‘Force on tap’ for this person.

Seriously, if Force abilities are so easily attained, shouldn’t Obi Wan have given Luke a crash course in Mind Tricks before he rushed off to deactivate the Tractor Beam?