I can hardly explain how well Rey works for me. She’s smart, tough, capable, complicated, in over her head but still getting by, and even though she could easily seem over-the-top or too good to be true, she just comes off so well. With her in the foreground, I think the Star Wars franchise is in fine hands (a few Rey-related spoilers for The Force Awakens.)
As with the other two members of the new trio (more on them some other time,) Rey bears a distinct resemblance to those who came before. While the guys both take on some Han-ish qualities, Rey is definitelyreminiscent of Luke. I mean, come on – a young person of uncertain parentage with itchy feet stuck on a desert planet? A talent for ships and flying, a natural flair with droids, and strong Force sensitivity that she hasn’t discovered yet? She’s so Luke.
But at the same time, she’s not, and I like that. Rey is more remote, more guarded, than Luke. She doesn’t push people away exactly – in fact, she seems to fall pretty easily into friendships – but she’s incredibly self-sufficient, and she sort of wears that self-sufficiency around her like armor. It’s like, she’s more than happy to have others around her and work together with her, but it’s important that they know she’d be fine on her own if necessary. When Finn first meets her and (badly) tries to come to her rescue, she’s a little annoyed that he felt the need to try.
This is informed, like so many of Rey’s traits, by her abandonment at a young age. For such a long time, it’s been just Rey and she’s learned to make do with that, and so it weirds her out a bit when people act like she needs their help. Incidentally, though, this same abandonment probably plays a big part in her compassion and her own inclination toward helping others, and in a way, that’s her “in” to letting others get close to her. From almost the moment she crosses paths with BB-8, she’s determined to help the droid and even leaves her planet – which she’s clung to in the hopes that those who left her there will one day come back for her – to do so. This means that Finn, and later Han and Chewy, become people who can similarly help BB-8, and that’s why she tells them to stay with her. Even as it feels pretty obvious that she at least subconsciously craves a reprieve from the fairly solitary life she’s been living (she and Finn quickly fall in like old friends, and she probably sees something of a father in Han,) the official reasons she gives them are all about getting BB-8 back to the resistance.
And, also due in part to her years of fending for herself, Rey can get crap done. She explores and investigates, she fights well with a staff and is a quick study with a light saber, and she both pilots and repairs unfamiliar ships with innate aptitude. As she starts understanding her affinity with the Force, she soon learns to use it to her advantage. All these skills likely have some calling her character a Mary Sue, but for me, it works. Her abilities mostly feel earned, and I think they’re balanced out by her very human fears. By all accounts, she can rock just about anything, but when she is first told about her true potential, it completely freaks her out. She doesn’t want to be powerful or chosen or anyone’s great hope – it’s too large, too much to take in at once, and like so many heroes before her, she initially runs away from the call. The Force Awakens shows her beginning to find her way back to it, and I’m excited to see where she goes next.
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