Nev and RogueLeader,

Those are great points.

It is absolutely over-simplication to boil Luke and Rey down into “good people.” I think I did that for brevity. The point was to show where they were the same, rather than their unique qualities.

As RL pointed out, both were motivated by different altruistic drives. I think it’s those drives that make us like them in the first place, and what makes for a typical protagonist in this genre.

I do think you could argue Rey’s decision to not join Kylo-Ren is a bit dishonest. Rey’s path down the dark side had real momentum. I think maybe the filmmakers wrote themselves to this point, but were afraid to make that final leap because of how challenging it would have been (for audiences and the writers) to continue with Rey and Kylo-Ren together.

At the same time, I think RL gives good reasons for why Rey makes the choice she does. It’s not simply about goodness, it’s about belonging, something that the film devotes a decent amount of time to. Her training is bungled to nearly disastrous consequences thanks to Snoke’s manipulation, but she’s able to seize upon some of her core qualities to overcome it.

Whichever direction the film should have gone, the point I was hoping to make is that Rey is no “Mary Sue”. She’s a flawed character navigating difficult choices and making mistakes along the way.