Today brought two great pieces on Rey and how she represents a whole new kind of Star Wars heroine. First up, Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post on how Rey’s role tweaks one of the core concepts of the franchise. Then there’s Megan Garber at The Atlantic, who takes a look at Rey as Star Wars’ first truly modern feminist protagonist.
And while not so much an exploration of Rey’s character but the reaction to her, io9’s Charlie Jane Anders drops the mic on the asinine Mary Sue nonsense that’s been plaguing Twitter recently.
I get why people are saying that she reads like a fan fiction characters, because she does to a point–She’s a great pilot and mechanic, a natural with a Lightsaber, and Han and Leia instantly like her–but she has just enough realism in her character to keep her from becoming a Mary Sue. She thinks about selling BB-8 for food, she’s afraid of her future, and often her victories are based more on luck than raw skill. I think putting her in the desert with a staff and a job as a scavenger made her toughness, mechanical skills and fighting prowess believable enough. The fact that Han likes her so quickly…well, this is a movie after all : )