I’m not talking about her gender, DominicCobb. I think it’s great she’s a woman and kicking butt in the movie, as long as it’s natural within the world of the story (which it was) and not some didactic stuff being shoved at us from the director (which it wasn’t). Rey being a strong and independent character was great as far I’m concerned. I loved her in the movie.
As far as her being a Mary Sue … what flaws or limitations did she have? And even if you give her flaws and limitations, but you come up with the excuse that she has some innate ability to overcome those limitations at the whim of the writer, then what is she exactly? This all gets back to how poorly thought out the plot was. Instead of creating a genuine, original story, we had JJ and Kathleen sitting in a room listening to some Disney execs tell them that THIS, and THIS, and THAT, and THAT, and these other 50 things all have to be in the movie to make the most money. That was a recipe for disaster. The plot wound up as an incoherent mess, and that’s really the only criticism I have of Rey’s character. She was basically given “liquid luck” (Harry Potter reference) for any scene in the movie the plot could use it.
You need a pilot? Here’s Rey. You need someone who can understand a droid? Here’s Rey. Finn is being dragged around the freighter by a CGI monster? Here’s Rey who happens to be standing next to video monitors and can instantly locate the button that will snap a door shut and cut off the tentacles of the monster to free Finn without killing him. You need to get Rey out of captivity? She’ll suddenly discover she has the ability to do a Jedi mind trick on her guard. You need this … well even if Rey doesn’t know how to do it, she must have been trained to do it by Luke and she’ll suddenly remember at the exact moment she needs to … ahh fuck it I hate this shit.
I loved her character but I would have certainly liked to see more vulnerability, more humanity. We saw that on Jakku but as the film moved along, she started to lose her individuality and assimilate more and more into whatever the plot needed. And this is all without getting into how absurd it was for her to nearly kill Kylo at the end.