stealing the Skywalker name
What’s up with this idea? The ending scene of TROS clearly indicates she has chosen that name with Luke and Leia’s blessing. She hesitates and looks at their ghosts, who are smiling at her, before she says it. It’s not “without their say in the matter”. It’s essentially a post-mortem adoption, if you have to label it. Did Leia “steal” the name Organa? Sure, it’s silly fan service, but it’s not le evil Palpatine woman stealing God Emperor Luke’s holy surname.
Characterising Rey’s behaviour in TLJ in the way you did is also twisting it to the point of parody - you’d have to be completely closed off to what the movie is doing with Rey and Luke’s dynamic for you to think Rey is the one at fault on Ahch-To. “Stole his books”? You mean the ones he was planning to burn? And yes, Rey finding inner peace and acceptance is the main thrust of her journey. Internal emotional development is just as valid as like, levelling up her force powers to throw bigger rocks and pull Star Destroyers out of the sky!!!, or whatever.
TROS is a rough enough movie without people reading these weirdly malicious ideas into it.
“Malicious.”
You’re taking what I said far too seriously. Yes I’m aware she gets ‘approval’ and yes I’m aware there is more to their ‘dynamic,’ I was being facetious.
You’re also missing the point. I didn’t say it wasn’t valid, I said it wasn’t executed in a way that’s compelling. And considering the reception to the trilogy it’s not exactly a controversial opinion.
Internal emotional development is just as valid as like, levelling up her force powers to throw bigger rocks and pull Star Destroyers out of the sky!!!, or whatever.
And both Luke and Anakin manage to have a journey that covers both, which is considerably more compelling. That was my point.
If the absolute worst the protagonist has to endure is crying sometimes over her creepy space lunatic boyfriend and the director of the minute not being able to decide if she’s over her parents yet or not, and she gets rewarded with a Legacy name and untold abilities we’ve never seen before, with all her limbs intact and her friends (who she actually knew for more than two days) alive, I can’t say her journey was all too difficult in comparison to the protagonists of the previous two trilogies.
Yes you can read more into it and come up with your own theories, but most of these hot takes put more thought into the story than the filmmakers did.
The on paper concept for Rey in hindisght is actually pretty neat and had the stories been executed in a more cohesive manner with a bit more care involved it could’ve been really interesting. So I understand the desire to draw more from interpretation, but I’m yet to see any arguments that show Disney’s story didn’t undermine or pale in comparison to what was shown in I - VI, which is a massive issue considering these movies claimed to be the “conclusion to the saga.”