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Rey in The Force Awakens (Possible Spoilers)

TFA shows that. Given that it is basically a rehash of ANH, I don't think I would like as much if it was just another Luke in it. Since it passes the torch to somebody else, I can re-experience the story excited that another person in the galaxy is now going on the same journey. And changing who that person obscures the fact it is just a rehash. Given that every story told is a rehash of something, diversity helps.
I agree. And I think this is the main reason why I relaxed from my initial keyboard-pounding overreaction. Rey/Ridley is so likeable and refreshing that, at the end of the day, I'm forced to shrug an okay and move on.

Had it been another guy, I think I'd probably still be hitting the nerd rage sauce pretty hard.
 
if one of her parents is Luke, I will be quite upset. I have strong feelings about someone just abandoning their child on a blasted desert planet, so there better be a very good explanation. If Luke is her dad, I will lose a measure of respect for him, as was the case with Obi-Wan after the PT.

Yeah, it's a fictional character relationship. But, that's something that I feel strongly about.

Maybe Luke doesn't know he has a daughter. Rey's mother could have left him before he ever knew he was going to be a dad.
 
Perhaps all the divergent ideas on Rey's parentage can be combined... why can't Rey be the descendant of both Luke and Palpatine?

Perhaps Luke is Rey's father, and Rey's mother was Palpatine's long-lost daughter, who was training to be a Jedi at Luke's new academy but left to escape Kylo's Dark Side-induced hissy fit and left Rey on Jakku for safety.

Or perhaps Rey's mother was Plagueis' daughter or granddaughter.

And perhaps Snoke is Plagueis. Or Palpatine's brother.

But seriously, not everybody needs to be the son/daughter/niece/nephew/cousin of existing characters. :rolleyes:

Kor
 
Sure, they don't have to be, but they played up the mystery of Rey's parentage so much that it's pretty clear there is some significance to who they are.
 
I thought it was pretty damn likely she was/is Luke's kid, given: (a) the Force vision when she first encounters his lightsaber; (b) a natural bond with that lightsaber; (c) the apparent awakening of R2 when she shows up at the resistance base; (d) her natural pilot skills (just like Luke and Anakin); (e) some of the musical callbacks to the original film when she was onscreen.

As for why Luke would have left her, as others have noted, perhaps he didnt know what happened to her (he might have believed she was safe with her mother) or maybe he never even realized he had a daughter.
 
I thought it was pretty damn likely she was/is Luke's kid, given: (a) the Force vision when she first encounters his lightsaber; (b) a natural bond with that lightsaber;

As for (a), couldn't that be more about the lightsaber than about her? Kind of a psychometry thing, like Quinlan Vos? And as for (b), I don't know what you mean.
 
Some were putting out that she might be a Kenobi instead, but then someone else pointed out she could be both a Kenobi and a Skywalker. If Obi-wan has a daughter and somehow that daughter found Luke and had Rey.

But then we'd probably need a story about were that daughter came from. But there have been rumors of a Kenobi Anthology movie with Ewan McGregor. If they really wanted to pull that one, that would be the opportunity to link everything together.
 
As for (a), couldn't that be more about the lightsaber than about her? Kind of a psychometry thing, like Quinlan Vos?

It's possible, but the thing called to her and gave her a specific vision about Luke, not unlike how the Tree on Dagobah gave Luke a specific vision about Vader (his father).

And as for (b), I don't know what you mean.

It flew into her hand. She handled it like a natural. Compare how she used it and how much better she wielded it than Finn (a trained professional warrior in an army that [as we saw in at least one scene]) used staff like weapons at times. It just reminded me of how Luke seemed to have a connection to his original (father's) father's lightsaber.
 
...if one of her parents is Luke, I will be quite upset. I have strong feelings about someone just abandoning their child on a blasted desert planet, so there better be a very good explanation. If Luke is her dad, I will lose a measure of respect for him, as was the case with Obi-Wan after the PT.

Yeah, it's a fictional character relationship. But, that's something that I feel strongly about.

If she was dropped off as a last ditch effort to save her by her mom, who was then killed before telling Luke where she went, then that's a pretty good out for that particular problem.

I did not at any point argue that the demand for strong female characters had been satisfied, that's a completely subjective topic that I did not argue.
For it to subjective, it would have to be far far less obvious a problem than it presently is.
It is a 'problem' for people who want a certain number of fictional characters in media to be a certain way. But that is a subjective issue, as I said. Saying that the reasoning behind your opinion is obvious does not also make it objective. It's an understandable opinion to be sure.

Maybe the extent to which fair portrayal should eventually go is subjective, but the fact that presently it is glaringly absent is not.

Again, what you call 'fair portrayal' is based entirely on what you think is fair, and I have no argument against that point, nor have I made one.

It will get subjective somewhere around the time we start arguing whether female miners should average 50% in films depicting set in mines

Subjective opinions do not transform into objective facts when you play with the percentages. Your proposed 50% woman miners in movies is a perfectly valid desire, but it's not a solution to an actual industry problem, it is just wish fulfillment. Now if you can give me information showing that woman miners are banned or censored in the media, that would be an objectively bad thing I could back you up on.

(if we get there, be aware that dead female dwarfs in the mines of Moria don't count).
Don't count? As what, people? If you want to argue objectivity, you have to use precise terms and explain what you're talking about. I'm guessing this means you didn't like those characters. Fine by me, I thought they were pretty neat though.

But no, we are still at the point where there's a question of whether we should have a strong female lead at all. Yes, the system literally tried to prevent it.

And failed, thus proving my point, thanks. A very uplifting article. To repeat my point for about the 3rd time: The sexist portions of society are failing, and people are successfully standing up against them. Thusly, their power is fading. Thusly I am pleased. I have not and will not say that there is no sexism. So people can stop arguing that point now.

It's so blunt there's nothing subjective about it. If you think there is, mentally do what the post you quoted suggested. You will surprise yourself. :)
I have no doubt there are more male leads, I haven't disagreed with that either. Here again, two completely different points are becoming intermingled. The desire for characters which pander to certain people, and the notion that there is a system in place which actually stops real artists from doing what they want. Like I said, bring out statistics about the 2nd & I'm on board. The 1st is just preference.

I am probably sexist and egoistic enough to care first and foremost by my personal satisfaction when seeing a film, and yet it still manages to bother me.
Please don't put yourself down like that.

It's so bad it, among other things, decreases the entertainment value of a work – it is fun and exciting to see different people you haven't seen before take on the same old roles. You don't even have to care about fairness in depiction to note that the way it works in most films makes them less fun.
Fairness is something which comes from people standing up successfully for themselves, which your article is an example of. Fun is entirely subjective. There's no argument to be made here, ymmv.

TFA shows that. Given that it is basically a rehash of ANH, I don't think I would like as much if it was just another Luke in it. Since it passes the torch to somebody else, I can re-experience the story excited that another person in the galaxy is now going on the same journey. And changing who that person obscures the fact it is just a rehash. Given that every story told is a rehash of something, diversity helps.

Well that's great that it works for you, and it's certainly better than nothing, but it seems like skin-deep diversity is being used as a patch to cover over the far more pressing problem - a lack of diverse ideas. It's still Death Star v3.0.

not everybody needs to be the son/daughter/niece/nephew/cousin of existing characters.

Kor

Maybe not EVERYBODY but I kind of want the main numbered series to be a very cohesive story & making it about a certain family is a neat way to do it. This would give a good justification to why Episode 1 is the 1st episode: The story starts with the first force-sensitive Skywalker.

Also, Shmi totally is the exwife of Palpatine & she is a big fat liar! Palpatine is Vader's father!
 
I thought it was pretty damn likely she was/is Luke's kid, given: (a) the Force vision when she first encounters his lightsaber; (b) a natural bond with that lightsaber; (c) the apparent awakening of R2 when she shows up at the resistance base; (d) her natural pilot skills (just like Luke and Anakin); (e) some of the musical callbacks to the original film when she was onscreen.

Also, you'll notice that Rey has that doll-like figure of a Republic pilot, which I assume she made herself. If Luke is her father, I doubt she knows it anymore than he does, but she probably senses something about it via her Force connection.
 
I thought it was pretty damn likely she was/is Luke's kid, given: (a) the Force vision when she first encounters his lightsaber; (b) a natural bond with that lightsaber; (c) the apparent awakening of R2 when she shows up at the resistance base; (d) her natural pilot skills (just like Luke and Anakin); (e) some of the musical callbacks to the original film when she was onscreen.

Also, you'll notice that Rey has that doll-like figure of a Republic pilot, which I assume she made herself..

She also wore an old X wing pilot helmet at her camp in that one scene.
 
Luke seemed to have a connection to his original (father's) father's lightsaber.

That connection is just the one in his mind, due to having been told it was his father's lightsaber. Though I suppose there could be some cachet to carrying around "Luke Skywalker's lightsaber" no matter who you are...
 
For it to subjective, it would have to be far far less obvious a problem than it presently is.
It is a 'problem' for people who want a certain number of fictional characters in media to be a certain way. But that is a subjective issue, as I said.

Everything is subjective. How is that even a valid point? The thing is that women and minorities are tired of being marginalized in mainstream media and/or pushed into specific archetypes that aren't even remotely close to resembling fully-fledged characters.

Representation in media is actually important for every kind of social group because it shapes how people see the world and that group.

Do you really think that the way African Americans were portrayed in or often excluded from mainstream media did not have any effect on the consumers of said media?

Presence in media is some form of acknowledgement and representation that is important to people. Hiding minorities in media on the other hand is a form of social exclusion that has psychological effects on the minority and the majority.

A similar struggle is affecting homosexual and transsexual people who had to (and have to) fight for recognition in language, public discourse and media to make sure that people see their presence in society as "normal".

Yes, people want to feel represented in mainstream media and not feel that they are being reduced to archetypes and marginalization.

Saying that the reasoning behind your opinion is obvious does not also make it objective. It's an understandable opinion to be sure.

The fact that all this is "an opinion" makes no difference. It is a well-founded and well-reasoned opinion. There is no objective truth in anything, that doesn't mean there is no value in reasoning and inter-subjective discourse.

Saying "Hey, that's understandable but obviously not an objective truth" is intellectually lazy and pretty much saying nothing at all because it would apply to everything. In pluralistic societies "truth" is intersubjective and a product of discourse. There is no a priori objective truth.

I know I can't expect every trekbbs member to be an expert in constructivist epistemology, psychology or discourse theory but you could at least make an effort here.
 
I think though the course of the movie Rey goes from being a girl to a woman and that came from JJ Abrams.
 
I think though the course of the movie Rey goes from being a girl to a woman and that came from JJ Abrams.
Really, I'm not sure I agree. She seems to be a pretty tough, independant woman when we first meet her on Jakku. Sure, she learns a lot about herself in the course of the movie, but I don't really see her maturing to the point where I think she was a child in the beginning and grown up in the end.
 
I think though the course of the movie Rey goes from being a girl to a woman and that came from JJ Abrams.
Really, I'm not sure I agree. She seems to be a pretty tough, independant woman when we first meet her on Jakku. Sure, she learns a lot about herself in the course of the movie, but I don't really see her maturing to the point where I think she was a child in the beginning and grown up in the end.

Your point is well taken. However at the beginning of the movie she's "afraid" to leave her planet for good, desperately waiting for her parent to return. At the end she goes off to find Luke instead of going home, thereby accepting a certain amount of responsibility she previously eschewed. That could be interpreted as a form of passage into adulthood.
 
I think though the course of the movie Rey goes from being a girl to a woman and that came from JJ Abrams.
Really, I'm not sure I agree. She seems to be a pretty tough, independant woman when we first meet her on Jakku. Sure, she learns a lot about herself in the course of the movie, but I don't really see her maturing to the point where I think she was a child in the beginning and grown up in the end.

Like Luke before her once she accepts the lightsaber she accepts all that it means, she was previously afraid to touch it. She faces her fear and moves beyond it. Daisy Ridley also talked about overcoving her fears in playing the part, so there's something of a parallel there.
 
Accepting something new and moving on from the past is definitely growth. But I wouldn't call it growth from child to adult. Just character growth. ;)
 
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