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Post #1278770

Author
NeverarGreat
Parent topic
Can't be Bothered: justifying Rey's power vs Luke's
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1278770/action/topic#1278770
Date created
25-Apr-2019, 4:29 PM

yotsuya said:

We don’t know what experience either of them have, but they both obviously have quite a bit. We only see either of them using speeders and are told that Luke has used a Skyhopper before. So Rey does a much worse job than Luke at the start and they both fair about the same not too long later (Luke successfully dogfights with highly trained Imperial pilots who in the end take out 27 of the 30 rebel craft).

The difference, though I don’t know why I must reiterate Luke’s characterization in ANH, is that Luke is established in multiple instances to be a good pilot before we see him pilot a fighter. Ben compliments his ability, He boasts of it to Han, and his best friend says that he’s basically an ace pilot. Before he becomes a Jedi it’s his most defining skill. With Rey we are only given a brief mention that she is a pilot moments before boarding the Falcon, then a brief garbled justification after she has flown the Falcon, at which point it’s too late to justify for many in the audience. In short, ANH does the work of cultivating audience expectation and TFA simply does not.

Now if she did everything perfect the first time and didn’t have to try a few times, their might be a point, but she does struggle as much as Luke did learning any particular skill.

Um, what? She clearly learned a more long-distance levitation than Luke on the first try, and learns in a few minutes the mind trick that Luke doesn’t even attempt until the third movie.