of_Kaiburr_and_Whills said:
I’ve come to view Rey’s training and quickly acquired skills in the Force as a representational thing, corresponding with her storyline of moving forward in life. Its more symbolic in a sense. The issue for me arises in reconciling that way of seeing the Force with the more discipline/training approach we’ve seen prior, where yes there is a symbolic aspect, but there is certainly a more proper generational tradition of knowledge and training. For Rey, its not so much learning to feel the Force and swordfight, rather its about how to control her powers and how to use them for good(?)To me, there’s a clear difference in how both characters skills in the Force are presented and what they mean for their respective stories. The Force itself operates a little bit different between either trilogy, though certain principles may carry over. Honestly, I will always prefer Luke’s story here, but with more refinement I think this approach for Rey could have been equally interesting. And lets be honest, I may be looking too far into this lol.
I think the issue comes down to an aspect of Star Wars that’s just always going to affect future entries. For years before TFA… Star Wars was done. Yes there was the EU but in terms of the movie franchise and TV shows? It was over with most of the projects we’d get often taking place in periods in-between the movies with the games, comics and novels being left to explore outside of it. Generally speaking, if Lucas was involved? It was not gonna be placed timeline-wise after the films. But as a result, many fans have had more than enough time to dwell on the Force and how it was represented in those years to come which led to very skewed interpretations, especially after the prequels and what they showed with the Force.
The thing about the Force and the way the ST shows it is that it’s not exclusively about discipline and training at least in the same way as other skills are learned. The Force is a mystical energy that binds every living being together, it’s present within every living being with most likely not even knowing that it’s there though everyone has great potential to use it and like any skill? It’s possible to be naturally gifted in it, especially if the person in-question already knows about the Force beforehand. I always think to for instance how Luke’s training in ESB played out. The physical training aspect is him running and jumping around Dagobah which could be considered at least in terms of these movies basic exercise but for the majority of it? It’s about clearing his mind, focusing and learning to accept this new line of thinking. The famous “Judge me by my size do you?” exchange especially shows this because in that scene, Luke is doubting himself since to him, moving a ship is impossible because he knows he physically can’t move it himself so he thinks the same principle applies to moving it with the Force and as Yoda shows… it doesn’t work like that. If Luke believed in himself and let those doubts be brushed aside? He could’ve done what Yoda asked.
Rey has grown up in a world where Luke has saved the galaxy already and thus stories of the Jedi and Force are seemingly more widely spread. TFA shows us she has been on Jakku for years and that it’s a trading outpost meaning she has likely heard over the years many talks about the Jedi from people coming there. We also see from her home and how she plays around with the pilot helmet she’s surrounded by remnants of the old war and has an interest in it and so she’s more easily able to accept the Force’s concepts like being able to move objects and mentally influence the weak-minded. What she doesn’t get is that the Force is not only more than that but that it’s also not so cut-and-dry. She also lacks confidence in the sense that she sees herself as just a scavenger girl who’s not made for adventure while Luke desired something more which limited her on what she could do. To me, it’s why I think it’s understandable that Jedi with permission take children to the temple to train them not just because they recognize the potential on display but that also with them being children? They can take to certain concepts better though what they say requires rigid training and skill they might’ve gotten wrong since in life we always have to revise our understanding of certain concepts.
Like to me with the whole discussion about Rey, I ask one thing… is she Starkiller? Is she Kyle Katarn? Is she Revan? What I mean by that is that those three and others are examples of what I think when the topic of broken Star Wars characters come to mind because in the games they hail from, they can become absolute murderbosses and when they were taken out of the game and thrown into other media? What was done to nerf them was basically take away their ability to eat laser blasts and then heal with either regenerating health or health packs and lightsabers are not just baseball bats because there’s no lifebar so they can’t take a hit from those either. Otherwise? They’re still insanely powerful and highly skilled to the point where what they do borders on the ridiculous. Like people think Rey moving rocks is far-fetched? Starkiller moved a whole Star Destroyer and it doesn’t matter what version of the story you’re consuming, it’s made very clear he did that. People say Rey’s combat skills are absurd? Kyle Katarn is a master of every single lightsaber fighting style and is shown on many occasions to be John Wick-levels of competent. Rey defeating a weakened Kylo is too mu-did we see the same game where Starkiller full-on beats down Darth Vader and beats the Emperor. Granted the latter was likely holding back to a degree but still, that happened and Starkiller still did things to the Emperor that should’ve killed him with the only thing saving him is that ANH hasn’t happened yet so he has to be prevented from killing them since this is a canon story when from the looks of things? He could’ve solved the problem right then and there.