Movies Remastered said:
There’s a lot to catch up on but changing Rey using a mind trick on the stormtrooper to escape and eliminating most of the fight with Kylo, leaving it to just one force/lucky/rage blow and having the ground open up straight away taking away her standing over a “defeated” Kylo removes any “mary sue” feel she has, imo.

Exactly. To have a villain have gravitas and be a threat in this sort of straightforward good vs bad story, he can’t be defeated in the opening act like that. If anything, edits should somehow make Kylo win that first fight.

Imagine if ep 4 had ended with Luke completely beating up Vader. The scary imposing monster is now weakly crippled on the ground, breathing heavily, sparking armor: totally defeated. Take the ROTJ ending and put it into ep. 4.

There wouldn’t have been an Empire Strikes Back. Or, rather, there wouldn’t have been a Darth Vader cultural icon as the image of the unstoppable, overwhelming, intimidating villain that carried the franchise. The image of him being defeated would be the final imagery that the audience remembered when they finished watching, and the hero’s journey is over. The bad guy has been beaten. He’s not interesting anymore.

Rey’s journey was crippled by having her win too early. There was no threat of Kylo beyond that point. If TFA was the ONLY movie and had zero movies before it or after, it could’ve worked as a self-contained hero’s journey. But as the opening act? That was a terrible writing decision that had ripple effects in the other movies; it should be noted she doesn’t lose the other 2 climactic fights with Kylo, either. TLJ: Kylo knocked out and she leaves. ROS: she stabs him and leaves.

I like Rey as a character fine, but I totally understand why her protagonist status did not resonate with audiences.