This is probably the millionth Star Wars article on the internet about Rey and either how she’s not a “Mary Sue” or how important her character is for a new generation of fans. Why we also decided to write about her is because from a young perspective, we wanted to share the impact Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in particular Rey’s character, has made on us. We were born after the original trilogy was released. We were very young when the prequel trilogy hit the big screen. We knew the iconic phrases and plot twists before we ever watched them. We didn’t have the full experience of Star Wars… until now.
When Rey first pops on screen, tilting her head inquisitively with those huge goggles, it’s hard not to have fallen a little in love right then and there. When she wields a light saber and fiercely battles Kylo Ren at the end, I found it incredibly hard to not stand up and cheer each of the three times I saw it in theaters.
Having a female character lead the biggest movie franchise in the history of cinema is a big step forward, and I asked some of my fellow staff writers to share just how monumental it is for Star Wars to give both fans new and old a character like Rey.
Bri Lockhart writes:
I spent a good portion of my first viewing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens grinning like an idiot. Every time one of the members of the latest Star Wars trio entered the scene, they proved themselves incredibly endearing — Poe, the best pilot in the galaxy; Finn, the runaway storm trooper; and Rey, the scavenger with a destiny bigger than she ever imagined. However, Rey was the one who truly had my undivided attention; I was enthralled by how her gender is simultaneously completely irrelevant to the story and the most important thing about her. She’s not treated differently than any of the boys, and even ends up being the one wielding the Force on the side of good — something unheard of on screen by a named female character in the previous six movies. She’s incredibly capable, ruthless when she needs to be and incredibly kind. Rey’s journey as a protagonist, as a lady Jedi and a hero serves to let little girls know that they’re just as important and visible as boys in this universe.
Allyson Johnson writes:
I didn’t watch Star Wars growing up (and really only saw the trilogy for the first time in the past two years or so). I was more of a DC Animation type of kid and was drawn to characters such as Hawkgirl, Artemis and Raven. Even then, without being able to put words to contextualize what I was doing, I was being drawn to these powerful, nuanced and female characters, of whom there were few on television, particularly in television geared towards the younger crowd.
All of this is what made Star Wars: The Force Awakens not only fun to watch, but monumental. While there is no need to diminish Princess Leia’s role in the original series, she was, at the end of the day, a supporting character. Rey is our leading lady and the person who the story revolves around. She’s a scrapper, who has taught herself how to fight, how to survive, all the while not losing sight of her untouched basic kindness. She is everything that you want your heroine to be and so rarely get.
Beyond my own excitement of simply getting a character such as Rey onscreen, I am more excited for the young girls around the world, a generation of them who get to grow up with Rey as a role model, in the ways that boys have had the likes of Peter Parker for decades now. Little girls need to see themselves represented, and to have that representation come in the form of arguably one of the biggest films ever released, is amazing (and the same can be said of John Boyega and Oscar Isaac’s casting). Representation matters, having role models matter, especially ones such as Rey that teach you that you can survive and learn and be curious and that those are commendable actions.
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Rey isn’t a cure all for popular culture (nerd culture, specifically) and its want to be a “boys club” first, but it’s a hell of a start, and I’m thrilled by the notion that little girls everywhere are going to look up onscreen, see Rey, and think “I can be that.”
Alana Jane Chase writes:
I saw my first Star Wars film 13 years ago. I was eight and fascinated, buzzing with that wonder unique to the young and innocent. I wanted to be a Jedi. I wanted to be strong with the Force, take down the Stormtroopers and defend the galaxy. I would often pull my long hair up into a tight bun, leaving down a small section to be braided à la Anakin Skywalker. My brother and I would duel with our toy light sabers — mine was always blue — and claim we were Padawans. For my 13th birthday, I asked for a Star Wars Lego set and built the entire Imperial Star Destroyer in one weekend. My neighborhood friends — mostly boys, as I grew up with my brother — told me, “Star Wars isn’t for girls,” that there was no place in that universe for a saber-swinging heroine, that I wasn’t allowed to be a Jedi like the boys could be. It was their world, and as a child, I was starting to believe I had to take “no girls allowed” as a final answer.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens broke new ground. It was the film I wished I could have seen when I was young. The lovely Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) were fantastic additions, both of whose backstories I want to know more about. But there was something so momentous about Rey (Daisy Ridley) that I found myself beaming while witnessing her moments of triumph. Like the male leads I had seen before, Rey is headstrong, independent, supremely talented and a Force-sensitive fighter. But she’s also compassionate, good-natured and slightly vulnerable. She’s everything I wanted to see in a lead character as a young girl, the hero my eight-year-old self needed and a symbol of new hope for the franchise. Episode VII truly feels like my own, a world in which I could belong.
Hannah Atkins writes:
I wasn’t much of a Star Wars fan in my childhood — I watched some of the original trilogy as a young kid when it was shown on TV, but it didn’t particularly excite me. However, it was impossible not to be caught up in the hype for The Force Awakens and I ended up taking my younger (male) cousin to watch the movie, since he really wanted to go.
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When we left the cinema, I think my grin was double the size of his. I loved it. I was so incredibly entertained. It had some glorious banter, great action sequences, plenty of homage to the original films and most importantly, some brilliant new characters.
There’s really not much I can say about Rey in particular that hasn’t already been said. The poor woman has been dissected and discussed every which way across the interwebs.
What I will say is this: Rey is strong, capable, compassionate and competent.
Indeed, her competency throughout the movie has been criticized as “unrealistic.” And I will counter with the fact that we’ve seen countless upon countless movies where the male protagonist has magically been able to acquire new skills and defeat the baddies without breaking a sweat, and somehow his prowess is never the subject of discussion. Also, might I add that the “realism” argument is slightly irrelevant in a film dealing with aliens, interplanetary travel and mystical powers.
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But I digress.
Women make up half the world’s population. One hundred years into filmmaking, it’s about damn time that we get to see ourselves represented on the big screen, and not as a damsel in distress, or to further the male protagonist’s story or to be the sexy heroine in spandex, but as a woman on her own mission, as her own person, with her own agency and back story and plot.
Representation matters.
I leave you with two quotes that capture the nuances of the situation far better than I can:
“The people who are upset that the faces of fiction are changing are right to worry. It’s a fundamental challenge to a worldview that’s been too comfortable for too long. The part of our cultural imagination that places white Western men at the center of every story is the same part that legitimises racism and sexism. The part of our collective mythos that encourages every girl and brown boy to identify and empathise with white male heroes is the same part that reacts with rage when white boys are asked to imagine themselves in anyone else’s shoes.” [Laurie Penny]
and
“Science fiction is about possibilities; it’s about imagining alternative futures and envisioning worlds that transcend the constraints of current reality. In many of the futures portrayed in science fiction, film and television people achieve extraordinary feats of accomplishment…maintaining racial diversity in science fiction film and television is about more than just being “politically correct,” it is about showing people of all races shaping and participating in the future in meaningful ways, as important characters, contributing to the advancement and accomplishments of humanity.” [Alexis Charles]
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Michael Fairbanks writes:
While I happen to enjoy a great deal of the blockbusters being produced by Hollywood, especially the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” that arguably filled the void of Star Wars for our generation before this comeback, there is one thing that is sorely apparent. They’re all movies about handsome, charismatic white dudes who save the day with the help of other white dudes. That’s not to discredit the work of people like Robert Downey Jr. or Chris Evans, as they fill the roles well. However, after awhile all of our heroes seem similar, because they all look the same and come from the same crop. You know the personality of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang before you even sit down to watch Ant-Man and that makes the ensuing film a lot less exciting.
So here comes our new Star Wars, staring Daisy Ridley as the capable, soulful and complex Rey, coupled with co-star John Boyega as the equally fascinating Finn. These aren’t token characters wedged in to please every demographic, but rich, well developed people with conviction and personality. Rey in particular is likely to become iconic, even if what creates that iconography is not completely on the page. The mere idea of a woman on her own adventure, whose choices are going to determine the fate of the universe is much rarer than it should be in 2016, and that idea will spread like wildfire through the under-represented female fans.
Next year’s spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story continues this trend, with Felicity Jones in the lead, and such diverse faces as Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Donnie Yen and Forrest Whitaker in supporting roles. Star Wars has always been a window through which kids have fantasized about becoming the characters within it, but now it’s creating a universe that allows each of those kids heroes that they can closely identify with. It moves us towards an age where we’re not disappointed by the lack of Black Widow toys on store shelves or saddened when young women leave tentpole films dissatisfied by the boy’s club they have been in for decades. Everybody has always enjoyed Star Wars, but now, everyone is a part of Star Wars.
Caryn Welby-Solomon writes:
I’m a fairly new Star Wars fan, in that I’ve only gotten to see all the films in the last month and after a weekend of binge-watching all six films, I rewarded myself with The Force Awakens. Whereas I adored the original trilogy and tolerated the prequels, The Force Awakens truly ignited a fire within me. In many ways one can see how The Force Awakens would resonate with millennial audiences — there is a diverse cast, we get to see the story from different points of view, there are nostalgic elements and there are characters that are complex and interesting with a hint of mystery. Although I did wonder what it was about Rey and Finn and the rest of the motley crew that had me so gripped; perhaps because I felt that between the characters of Rey and Finn, there was a protagonist I could relate to, we have all been stuck between choosing to flee or fight, and they represented both sides of that. They also represented characters who chose their own fates, learn to separate from their past and overcome their biggest fears.
They are characters that we the audience see ourselves in and also what we admire. I remember being young and struggling to find main characters with whom I could relate to as a woman of color, especially in mainstream blockbusters, but the Finn and Rey generation are lucky to be able to watch big films like Star Wars, and see characters that look like them, or sound like them, but still face difficulties, challenge the system, make difficult decisions, become vulnerable and take charge. It might seem like insignificant changes with the diversification of the cast, but to women of color and to a whole new group of young people, it inspires us in a whole new way.
William Eguizabal writes:
Camille Espiritu writes:
I love how the Star Wars series introduced some awesome characters. Rey is a strong female character, who a lot of young girls can look up to. I asked my eight-year-old niece who her favorite was, and it comes as no surprise that she said Rey. Rey’s athletic and smart; so it’s nice that girls don’t have to resort to looking up to just Disney princesses. Even though Star Wars, in a Disney business standpoint, is meant to draw in a male demographic, they didn’t forget about the girls! Who wouldn’t like Rey? She can kick some serious ass.
Donald Strohman writes:
To me, Rey is the focal point of what makes the new Star Wars film so good. Not only does she have the most developed character of anyone in the film, but it’s a character you can completely get behind. The film throws so much at you in such subtle ways about what kind of person she is and what she’s going to become as the new trilogy rolls along. Take the scene where Finn kept trying to grab Rey’s hand to help her, but she kept preventing it. Some may argue this is just an odd quirk of her character, but I like to think it means a lot more than that. She’s been abandoned and self-reliant on this planet for a long time, and one could only imagine what she’s been through in trusting others. Likely they took advantage of her or just sought her help for their own gain, and Rey has gotten to the point where she can only trust herself. That’s all thrown in a blender when she’s thrust into an adventure with other people, shifting her entire goal away from finding her family. Despite Finn being a good character, I am much more satisfied when Rey’s story was the focus. In all honesty, if the next film just focused on Rey and BB-8 being unmitigated badasses, I’d be totally okay with that.
Gary Shannon writes:
For a lot of people, it’s the strength of the protagonist Rey that stands out, and for good reason. For me, it’s her personal setbacks that I find most compelling. Sure, she has her moments of adaptability and craftiness, displays strong acumen in intense predicaments, but it’s what limits these abilities that make her more relatable, more human. I find myself identifying with her moments of reluctance and low confidence because these are the vices that ultimately connect us, despite our skills. Hollywood tends to mistake skillful, intelligent and other virtues as what solely makes a strong character, male or female. Rey is intelligent but vulnerable, brave but reluctant, strong with the Force but sensitive to her emotions. Rey is a character I feel is worthy of the new generation’s admiration, but also a really good character in general.
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