I like things to make sense
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In episode three, Palpatine uses force lightning to kill the jedi trying to arrest him
But we never saw him learn force lightning or saw anyone teaching him how to do it
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I humbly propose that anyone seriously arguing that Rey’s ability to protect herself and make limited-but-growing use of her innate gift is “inexplicable” and somehow bad writing is
well, just being kind of a nincompoop
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Oh is it time to talk about Star Wars now?
REY IS NOT A MARY SUE
This is proven within the films themselves. LET’S BREAK THIS DOWN -
The Last Jedi pretty clearly showcases that Force Sensitives experiment with their talents even in lieu of any training (The kid at the end). Rey being able to Force Persuade a Stormtrooper after several attempts is her extrapolating the ability from both being able to force out a Dark Force Adept who was invading her mind, thus putting it into her head that “Hey…maybe I can do this kind of thing!” but also because, thanks to The Last Jedi, we can infer that SHE HAS DONE IT BEFORE.
“But she beat Kylo Ren in her first Lightsaber fight. That’s impossible!” I mean, ignoring the fact Kylo was BLEEDING OUT out a kidney wound by a gun that had previously been showcased to throw back Stormtroopers. And ignoring the fact that it was a running battle until Kylo had her cornered and he wasn’t going for a kill like with Finn but trying to win her over to the Dark Side. Taking that ALL OUT of the equation…
What does she do in The Last Jedi that could explain that victory? Luke spells it out for the audience: She goes for the Dark Side IMMEDIATELY. Rey beat Kylo because Kylo’s trying to tempt her to the Dark Side and she closes her eyes and fills herself up with DARK SIDE ENERGY. Kylo Ren, the Dark Side adept “tempted by the Light”, got blindsided by a fledgling sensitive who dove headfirst into a side of the Force he himself has to fight to tap into.
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Heh, guess I’m a bit of a nincompoop, then.
I think its not great writing, but its the same level of bad writing that they used to justify previous star wars trilogy protagonists Luke and Anakin. So its just business as usual.
I enjoy Star wars as a fun, adrenaline-pumping lightshow, but I’m aware that its very much a “don’t think too hard about it” power fantasy where you’re supposed to imagine yourself saving the galaxy with your innate, special gift from a nebulous magical “force”.
In the past two trilogies i didn’t have any trouble accepting how magically super special awesome the protagonists were, though I’m not a white male like them. I don’t have trouble accepting Rey either.
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The Force is a literal balance in the Star Wars universe. That is the reason why that Luke and Leia are both twins is to offset the imbalance created by Palpatine enticing Anakin to the dark side.
The literal balance of the universe dictates who wins and what happens. Skill, talent? It doesn’t matter if the universe is imbalanced.
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No, that actually didn’t apply to you. Becaaaauuuussseeeeee
What I’m really squinting at are people who, at the core of it, are just blatantly irritated about a woman occupying that space at all.
All of Rey’s strengths are explainable and, at their worst, are–as you say–the same sort of silliness that supports Luke or Anakin doing some of what they do. The nincompoop dig was not for you, don’t worry.
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I don’t think it’s nincompoopish to not like Rey or think it’s bad writing. I think it’s kind of nincompoopish to adopt a standard where power fantasies are judged as Good And Pure or Bad And Mary Sue-ish divided mostly down gender lines.
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I came to my awakening watching Aliens and having a major crush on Vasquez. So I personally have no problem with powerful women in fiction and media. I…kinda have a thing for that.
My problem with the Shadowlands cinematic is less Sylvanas beating Bolvar (Honestly I thought it was a good fight), and more with her just straight up breaking the Helm of Domination. I will keep badgering that point since it was so critical a point at the end of Wrath. There must always be a Lich King, and Sylvanas just unmakes the ability to have a Lich King. This is Situation Critical here…but no. No. Let’s go play in the Afterlife. IT’S FINE.
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I feel like my issues with it are rather similar. There wasn’t much in the way of tension because there’s no longer much in the way of stakes.
Sylvanas destroys the Helm of Domination and that somehow opens Shadowlands…and, uh, that’s bad. But Bolvar barely fights and we never really know through their battle how important that helm is supposed to be.
In many ways, it was quintessential WoW: something gorgeous, but lifeless, used to hurry along the story that turned characters into props in the process.
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A reminder that Star Wars has music that is called J!zz.
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Honestly, I’ll give Blizzard points for expectation subversion. When Bolvar went from fiery red to ice blue, I got the impression that Bolvar had been subsumed to the Lich King gestalt personality, and Sylvanas was actually a hero dealing with a threat returned that the rest of Azeroth had summarily ignored.
Then when she took the helm, I fully expected her to put it on. So her breaking it was surprising.
So while you are right in saying it was gorgeous but lifeless, at least Blizzard did subvert what I thought was going to happen twice over. The problem is the subversion causes bigger issues that from everything we’ve seen at Blizzcon, aren’t going to be addressed.
star war heehaa
I guess, to me, no expectations were subverted because I still view it going completely according to rote.
The Big Bad effortlessly won. The minions of the Big Bad are still rampaging, whether or not she put on the Helm. Breaking it instead of putting it on just sort of moved the pieces around, but the end result was still the same and the expansion has begun exactly the way it always did.
Hell, this is basically just an echo of Warlords of Draenor.
Corrupt Warchief replicates history, alters history, opens portal, launches attack from portal that causes us to follow in where we’ll be helped by heroes once thought lost.
I mean, Draka’s even showing up here. Again.
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oh no
you aren’t wrong
Oof, didn’t we all? 
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Mmmmhmmmm. Indeed.
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God remember when Aliens and Terminator were good?
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all of this is fiction sir, none of it has any meaningful requirements. it happens as the writers say it happens. that’s it.
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