Here's how I view Rey and it's kind of a more elaborate bit of my Tweets that Darb mentioned...
Rey, Finn, they're kids who've only experienced the OT as a fairy tale. Especially in their respective forms of seclusion. The title of the film, the behavior of the characters (new ones), is all about this awakening. For Finn it's a moral awakening (assuming he's not forcy), and for Rey, it's the series of events that lead her to "THE Han Solo", someone she's only heard of in stories, and who she seems to revere in some fashion. To them though, things like the Force and the previous wars, they're tales... Not real even, in some cases, but Han sets them straight. I feel that's the first "awakening" of the Force in Rey, but it goes further on to her interaction with Maz and the Saber, then her ultimate initial meeting with Kylo Ren (someone she may or may not have a strong link to, in one way or another).
I really feel like he unlocks something in her when he tries probing her mind... That obviously goes to ****, for him, and she fights back... how does that happen? Who knows. She "feels it"? Whatever, she feels an ability to resist, and she does. She's been told the force is true, and she's now feeling the force within her, in her ability to resist Kylo Ren's interrogation stuff.
She's possibly heard of the mind tricks, and things, that these fabled people were able to do... She's seen she can resist Kylo when she tries. Why not try something else? She even has a "holy crap that worked!?" look after she tricked the trooper. Abrams couldn't make this stuff more obvious to the viewer if he'd diagrammed it.
OK, so flash forward... She's in the woods, she immediately loses her first attempt at fighting Kylo, and loses bad. Finn tries, loses. He has the physical ability to fight. He's trained to fight (Rey's seemingly learned how to do that in her years spent on Jakku as well), and Finn bests Kylo slightly because Ren seems to view him as worthless, but ultimately pisses him off and loses to him.
OK, Rey's waking up... she sees someone she's grown to care about and love. She's someone who's been abandoned and doesn't take relationships lightly I imagine, and she sees Finn lying there possibly dead. The force awakens, but what finally opens it completely? Not something good. It gives her strength, she fights Kylo, it's relatively evenly matched but like was said, Kylo is arrogant, he's ignorant, and he loses ultimately. People seem to be willingly ignoring that Kylo Ren is apparently powerful but he's still a newbie too. That's even confirmed when he's requested to be brought back for his training to be completed.
So there's Rey, she "wins", but it's an emotion-filled, uncontrolled one. It's Luke when he goes from farmboy, to sniper, after seeing Kenobi cut down. He'd have stayed, and likely died at the hands of Vader, had he not listened to the spirit in his head. She wins, but it's not like she knows what she's doing. She knows she doesn't know what she's doing. I think the argument could even be made that it's the "will of the force" that the planet cracked open at that moment and separated them at the end.
OK, so putting aside the entire "I hate girls, and don't like when they're allowed to play in Star Wars" side bull**** that sparked all this, the only actual discussion going on about the movie here is why does/doesn't JTA blow as a film... Trying to distance the topic from misogynistic overtones that have no place int he conversation, I feel then that the argument that Rey is a "Mary Sue" (I have no idea WTF that even means or what that comes from. I'm old?) is as easily arguable/debatable as pointing out that Luke is the same level of ability without training. Likewise, so is Anakin.
So is almost any origin story of any force-sensitive character in any media format in Star Wars lore. It's fiction, who the hell cares, right? Right. You can't "force wrong". There isn't some black/white definition that this is how this works and it works exactly the same for everyone. That's dumb. And Disney bought this not to make films of the books from the 90s, so get over that ****, it's a ship that has sailed.
I don't have daughters. My girlfriend is only passively interested in Star Wars at all, and it doesn't really matter to me about the character being a girl or a boy. If having it be a girl opens Star Wars to more people, and makes it more inclusive, I can't see how that would upset you. Likewise, I think all the arguments being made to why Rey isn't a good character are stupid beyond belief, and she's every bit as good or believable a character as Luke or Anakin were... To me, that argument implies you're either blind to how much you actually should hate the other two trilogies, or you're being a dick because she's a girl. She's doing nothing more expertly or quickly than the aforementioned have done. Luke blocking lasers like a ninja to Anakin being a 9 y/o Wunderkind. On top of all this, there are two more movies to "explain" stuff too, which aren't even out yet. Good lord.
Regarding how much he believes his own bull**** over yonder?
I don't have a clue there... He does sometimes strike me as a talking head who says outrageous **** because he knows it gets him attention. He's also catering to a distinct audience that agrees with him though, so it's not hard for me to accept that he's totally believing the stupidity he spews forth. There are ample supporters in his echo chamber of sanctimony.
I can't say I care if you like TFA or not. It made $. It continues to make $. 8 will make $. 9 will make $. I didn't like a lot about the PT but still enjoyed them I guess, and I don't care who likes Star Wars or not. Quite frankly if less people did it'd make going to the movies easier for me, haha. I thought Rogue One might be a smaller crowd and opening, but it was just as nuts.
One thing I will say though, there do seem to be a LOT of Star Wars "fans" who are only happy when it rains. I'd rather escape politics and life when I'm watching a movie, not inherently go into it hating Disney, and thus hating Star Wars now. The fact that there is a Star Wars facet to discuss here is the only thing that really interests me. The whole woman-hating thing is just gross to see.
BTW, a woman character was leading the Death Troopers on Rebels Monday... I can almost hear the triggered rage across the state.
