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@pursuewisdom It’s funny that you share that video because several of us on staff had a discussion about that very video a couple months back. xD I actually don’t mind the character of Rey in the new trilogy and would hesitate to call her a Mary Sue as the Youtuber does. I would agree with him, though, that her character is rather mishandled and doesn’t have a clear, defining arc. (Some accuse her of learning the Force/the use of her lightsaber too quickly, but the same could be said of Luke in the original trilogy. So I don’t think it has to do with her as much as with the SW franchise in general. :P) From a thematic perspective, she really seems like the weak link in both tFA and tLJ. Which… is not really where you want a main character to be. So I agree that she’s an unfortunate drag on the story.

Part of my desire for Rey turning bad and Ren turning good is because I really like crossing character arcs. The other aspect is that I wanted Rey to have an interesting arc and she’s currently lacking that. Turning her evil would make her more complex, engaging, and interesting as a character, and Ren’s (probably?) on the path to the light side anyways (though I’m not completely sure after tLJ).

I agree with a large number of Weiland’s structural critiques. Most of the reason why I like tLJ is because it’s ambitious. Not many other blockbuster films try to tackle those sorts of themes with that sort of complexity IMO. So while I think tLJ messes up, I’m a bit more forgiving of it since it’s messing up in the pursuit of the right direction more than anything else.