I don’t see how Rey overcoming family dark side baggage is any different than Luke doing the same. Especially redundant because that’s part of the reason why we are to believe that Ben is Kylo (the Vader in him).
Rey Nobody is compelling because she is forced to determine her own path. It’s uncharted territory which is what makes it so interesting. Kylo/Ben is a compelling character because he has always struggled with the pull between the light and dark. Vader was an inherently different character because he was pure evil before his son managed to pull him back. There were a number of different ways they could have taken either of their stories (and how they’re intertwined) but the result they came up with is purely unimaginative, plain and simple. There is more to characters, their journeys, and their choices than just what “team” they’re on.
The idea of her being Nobody is compelling but does it make for a good movie? If I play out that scenario to it’s conclusion what do we have? She decides to be good or evil based on…what exactly? With a natural proclivity to be evil supposedly I see it as more heroic or meaningful that she decides to kill Palpartine…now, if she decides to be evil without that…now that would be interesting.
Exactly. Although the ST is a muddled mess of two director’s visions, the one unifying theme I’ve noticed is Rey forming a family not with her past but with her future.
This theme is not present in the OT. There Luke was trying to redeem Vader while not falling to the dark side himself. The question of whether Luke would fall to the dark side was a legitimate one, but I think the bigger question was whether Vader could be redeemed.
Furthermore, what does Luke say when he refuses Palpatine? “I’m a Jedi, like my father before me.”
Rey doesn’t have that luxury. Her past is firmly rooted with darkness and the Sith. If she were to follow the OT’s footsteps, she might be able to switch sides for a while but will ultimately return to her family… in this case, evil. By rejecting Palpatine, Rey is finally letting go of her haunted past, and accepting her family with the Resistance: Finn, Poe, and all the other friends she’s made this trilogy.
It’s literally the name of the movie.
Yeah, I do see her struggle as different from Luke’s. If the big problem is everyone is related then there are different ways to do that but it doesn’t sway me tbh.