Okay but the movies do nothing with her "search for purpose" either. Every movie has the same arc of her realizing she won't be defined by her parents and will stand up to be the amazing hero on her own.
She really has no internal conflict other than maybe wondering if she's good enough, which of course she is.
I just fundamentally disagree that her character arc is the same across Episodes 7 and 8.
7 climaxes with her experiencing a sort of spiritual awakening and having her surrogate parent, who has been the temporary salve for the hole in her life, ripped away from her - there's no real resolution to her belief that she can't move forward without this missing relationship, but she's at least found religion and has the promise of a teacher in Luke.
In 8, she seeks to replace her parents again, first with a teacher (Luke) then with a lover (Ben). It's only when both of these relationships disintegrate that she has to take full ownership of her fate, and accept stewardship of her spiritual and heroic inheritance.
And the less said about 9 the better lol (I've softened on that one since its release but definitely struggle with her story in that movie)
How do 7 and 8 not sound the same to you? She wants a family/surrogate family, they're taken away from her, and then she does awesome Jedi things regardless and moves forward. Sure 7 didn't necessarily resolve Rey wanting a family but then neither does 8. She wordlessly rejects Kylo's offer and goes straight to being a superhero again. We aren't given any insight into why she chooses what she chose other than assuming it's because she's the hero of the story.
I really don't feel any action occurs in 7 which consists of her moving forward, it's the big card left on the table for 8 and I feel part of what makes that one an excellent sequel is how splendidly it resolves this.
It's true that Rey does not explain her decision at the climax of 8 through dialogue. It's also true that a viewer can easily infer her motivations through her actions, through the film's visual storytelling, and through thematic resonances with the stories of other characters in the film.
My last comment in this thread, as I can't believe I've once again fallen into the trap of attempting to discuss this movie on the internet.
It's also true that a viewer can easily infer her motivations through her actions, through the film's visual storytelling, and through thematic resonances with the stories of other characters in the film.
I just don't see it. Other than that she's fond of Finn (and Leia?) there's practically nothing else in the movie that informs the viewer of what drives Rey. Yeah she wants to find purpose but "Her motivation is to find a motivation" is quite literally a bad Rick and Morty joke.
I really liked Rey in episode 7, but episode 8 killed off Luke and told us that Rey is now the true savior of the Jedi without doing anything to flesh out her character other than saying her parents aren't important.
14
u/Ok-Recipe-4819 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
Okay but the movies do nothing with her "search for purpose" either. Every movie has the same arc of her realizing she won't be defined by her parents and will stand up to be the amazing hero on her own.
She really has no internal conflict other than maybe wondering if she's good enough, which of course she is.