I’m going to start this by saying the fact that Rey is a woman has NOTHING to do with the critique of her CHARACTER. At least in my critique. If Rey were a man and nothing about his story arc or personality changed, I would still dislike him as a character.
The lead character of an adventure, fantasy story has to evolve in some way – whether they become stronger to defeat the evil or begin strong and are humbled by the end of the story. Something has to happen to test their resolve or else the story would never progress and they would be one-note bore to watch. Rey has no progression. She starts super strong and ends super strong. She never FAILS.
Comparing her to Anakin and Luke, the key difference here is that two of them have had progression, character growth. Rey hasn’t. And look, it’s not the character’s fault, obviously. It’s the fault of shitty writers. THAT’S the critique. Rey is a poorly written lead.
Anakin trained for years learning from Obi-Won. He went through the trials necessary to become a Jedi. His motivation for going Dark side, I admit, are pretty stupid, and that is when I feel like his character fails a bit. You could say it was his own arrogance that made him become dark but IMO it isn’t enough motivation to go dark and end up killing a bunch of people. Most people who are OG star wars fans hate the prequels and do not like Anakin. They like Darth Vader, who is a far more complex character than his former self Anakin.
Luke is beloved because he started out as a simple farm boy and showed so much progression throughout his story arc. He shows character growth.
The original Trilogy left the fans wanting more. It raised so many questions as to what Luke’s future beholds. Will he become a jedi master? Will he get stronger? He defeated his father, how will we cope with that going forward? All these questions and all this potential for new and exciting adventures with Luke and the gang..all to be ruined by the Luke we got in The Last Jedi. I’m no Star Wars fangirl or diehard Luke fan girl, but even I, as a casual SW fan and a storyteller, can see how they really fucked up Luke as a character. It doesn’t make sense for his character with how they have written his progression previously. So much happened between the Luke we know and love from Return of the Jedi and the Luke we see in TLJ. What happened? It’s so poorly executed, and it’s really unfortunate.
“She...hasn't done anything yet. The most significant thing she's done without any outside help is lift a bunch of rocks at the end of the second movie”
And you’re exactly right! She hasn’t done anything to earn her place. Yet.
Rey is a scavenger, a no body, much like Luke’s origins as a farmboy, but she never had any experience with the force before. Rey hadn’t even touched a light saber until the Force Awakens and by the end of that movie she had whooped the ass of the grandson of Luke Skywalker (Kylo Ren) who had been trained for years under the grandmaster Snoke and Luke. And her “training” in TLJ isn’t passable. I’ll admit they really screwed up her “training” in that movie.
“She's gotten lucky or had help in most of her fights (let's be real). She just started making her own choices in the second movie. Why not give her a break??”
Luck does not define a character, and it shouldn’t. If a lead character just “gets lucky” all the time, they are boring. So yes, you’re right, Rey is a conveniently a little too “lucky” for when the plot needs her to be.
I’ll end this with some positives and then conclusion. I like Rey’s personality and optimism. She’s bright and happy and her chemistry with the other characters is nice. I wish she was written more realistically. When I first saw The Force Awakens I really liked Rey. I saw potential for her character and was excited to see what she would learn with the force. Even when she beat Kylo Ren I was willing to let it slide because I thought maybe in the next movie she would get her ass whooped and then go train and come back a badass in the final showdown. But no. She wins…at everything.
It doesn’t feel earned. And I think that sends a bad message.
Any criticism of the new SW movies and of her character in particular is met with “Well you don’t like her because she’s a woman” or “just cause she’s a woman doesn’t mean she can’t be good at everything” and that’s just plain ignorant. It’s blatantly ignoring the point and purposefully imposing your feelings onto someone’s genuine critique of writing without caring what they truly have to say. Heaven forbid a female character is ACTUALLY written badly.