Star Wars: The Last Jedi is getting a lot of hate. And I'm here to find out why.
All I see on the Internet are vague reasons that seem like they should be mild annoyances at worst, as well as crazy senseless reasons that essentially boil down specific wants and expectations that weren't fulfilled.
So I am here to understand. And to defend an excellent film.
Firstly, it plays like an essay written without the draft. It goes on a tangent from the last film. The fans ask who Snoke is, and Disney goes "IDK, we're too lazy to write him a backstory, so we'll just kill him off". The fans ask who Rey's parents are... Disney hadn't planned that either, so they give us the whole drunk parent thing. THE HYPE IS REAL!
Seriously, someone wrote this the night before it was due. Contract a writer for the entire trilogy and at the very least you'll get consistent characters. What happened to the whole "everybody loves Rey square"? Stormboy, the Red Teletubbie and Manchild Ren all seemed to fancy Rey in JarJar's film. Now Stormboy likes Rose (a women who tied him up and stunned him), Red Teletubbie is too busy showing off to Leia and Purple Hair whilst Ren is trying too hard to be all conflicted and stuff. And then there is Luke. Mark Hamill is disgusted with Disney's treatment of Luke. Need I say more.
It's too drawn out because it's so dialogue heavy. What ever happened to show, don't tell? It's honestly the second thing you learn in story-telling. The first being character development. Something the "writers" (term used loosely) forgot.
It's also incredibly camp, far more camp than the originals. For instance, the Red Teletubbie in the X-Wing is just dumb. The multiple looks of awe the characters give is silly. Looking in awe isn't going to impress me. I'm not impressed that Miss Sue can lift a bunch of rocks.
HOPE, HOPE, HOPE, HOPE, HOPE. Yes we get it. There is no hope that the endless referrals to ANH will get older fans to like this film. It's having a laugh at those who loved the originals... And maybe even the prequels. We've been aged out of the 2.5 hour toy advertisements. I think I'll just stick to reading fanfictions, at least they admit that they're fanfictions.
However, the one good thing about this film is that I didn't pay to see it. Thank you for the popcorn McDonald's, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing my manager burst out laughing at the Yoda puppet who spent far too much time in Oscar the Grouch's bin. That's probably all I can say as I don't remember the finer points of the film... If there were any finer points.
Disney don’t need to do things just because you want them to. TFA never made Snoke need a backstory. They didn’t plan it because it is irrelevant.
No one “fancied Rey” in TFA. Disgusted is an exaggeration.
Firstly, it plays like an essay written without the draft. It goes on a tangent from the last film. The fans ask who Snoke is, and Disney goes "IDK, we're too lazy to write him a backstory, so we'll just kill him off". The fans ask who Rey's parents are... Disney hadn't planned that either, so they give us the whole drunk parent thing. THE HYPE IS REAL!
Seriously, someone wrote this the night before it was due. Contract a writer for the entire trilogy and at the very least you'll get consistent characters. What happened to the whole "everybody loves Rey square"? Stormboy, the Red Teletubbie and Manchild Ren all seemed to fancy Rey in JarJar's film. Now Stormboy likes Rose (a women who tied him up and stunned him), Red Teletubbie is too busy showing off to Leia and Purple Hair whilst Ren is trying too hard to be all conflicted and stuff. And then there is Luke. Mark Hamill is disgusted with Disney's treatment of Luke. Need I say more.
It's too drawn out because it's so dialogue heavy. What ever happened to show, don't tell? It's honestly the second thing you learn in story-telling. The first being character development. Something the "writers" (term used loosely) forgot.
It's also incredibly camp, far more camp than the originals. For instance, the Red Teletubbie in the X-Wing is just dumb. The multiple looks of awe the characters give is silly. Looking in awe isn't going to impress me. I'm not impressed that Miss Sue can lift a bunch of rocks.
HOPE, HOPE, HOPE, HOPE, HOPE. Yes we get it. There is no hope that the endless referrals to ANH will get older fans to like this film. It's having a laugh at those who loved the originals... And maybe even the prequels. We've been aged out of the 2.5 hour toy advertisements. I think I'll just stick to reading fanfictions, at least they admit that they're fanfictions.
However, the one good thing about this film is that I didn't pay to see it. Thank you for the popcorn McDonald's, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing my manager burst out laughing at the Yoda puppet who spent far too much time in Oscar the Grouch's bin. That's probably all I can say as I don't remember the finer points of the film... If there were any finer points.
I totally agree. Also Im pretty sure the Yoda in the last Jedi doesnt even count as a force ghost as he wasnt even see through and was more like a luminous muppet character or something radioactivly charged. I also dont think it was the original puppet. As well what really anoyed me about the film was that Han wasnt given a proper funeral and that Luke and Leia hardly aknowledged his death other than that weird handing Leia the golden dice scene. Perhaps Luke thought they might bring Leia some luck if she wanted wanted to drown her sorrows in a little bit of light gambling on canto bight. Those dice might as well of been the Falcons incense card on a string for all the audience knows about that object yet, though I feel they may have been the dice used by Han to win the Falcon from Lando
Problem?
They couldn’t have a funeral as they were busy being chased by the First Order.
I totally agree. Also Im pretty sure the Yoda in the last Jedi doesnt even count as a force ghost as he wasnt even see through and was more like a luminous muppet character or something radioactivly charged. I also dont think it was the original puppet. As well what really anoyed me about the film was that Han wasnt given a proper funeral and that Luke and Leia hardly aknowledged his death other than that weird handing Leia the golden dice scene. Perhaps Luke thought they might bring Leia some luck if she wanted wanted to drown her sorrows in a little bit of light gambling on canto bight. Those dice might as well of been the Falcons incense card on a string for all the audience knows about that object yet, though I feel they may have been the dice used by Han to win the Falcon from Lando
It's not the original. The original was used in Episode I but it looked like trash after all these years, so they CGIed it. This one is based on the original but was filmed digitally and not on analog film, so it looks all wrong. Probably news to some, but its only recently that digital technology "caught up" to analog film. Thus, a lot of films are still filmed in analog. Analog is also more like what the human eye sees.
Yeah, that's true. They kinda just glossed over that. Isn't this film supposed to occur directly after the last? Surely there would be a funeral or some sort of mourning period for their fallen hero.
Directly after the last, the First Order sent the fleet to blow up the Resistance. They couldn’t exactly wait for several hours to have a funeral.
I'm not here to rant or force my beliefs on others. So I am just going to leave my grievances here:
1. TFA too closely mirrors A New Hope. This isn't something I'm particularly mad about, but it's still disappointing.
2. Han Solo dies in the first movie.
3. Kylo Ren is really just an angsty teenager who has no business being the story's main antagonist.
4. Luke dies... and the movie manipulates your emotions as it goes about killing him. First of all: he shows up on salt-hoth to seemingly sacrifice himself to Kylo a-la Obi-Wan. Just when it is revealed he wasn't in real danger (because he was creating a force-projection), we relax for a moment, glad that he wasn't actually going to let Kylo kill him... except, apparently, he just disappears after having over-exerted himself... no. Just no. Besides -- if he could do that why not actually show up in person and unleash a much more destructive force-power? You know, actually end the conflict. Oh right, we still haven't done episode IX. Which is a good Segway into point V
5. TLJ uses scenes that would've worked well in IX, particularly the scene where Kylo betrays Snoke, and then fails to hit the story beats those scenes should have lead to, all for the sake of being 'subversive'.
6. Literally the only original character they don't kill off (not counting the ones they won't give proper screentime to, such as R2 and Chewbacca) is Leia... and as has been mentioned in this topic before, the actress who played her is gone, so... why preserve a character who won't be able to feature in the next movie, but also kill the one people actually wanted to see again?
7. The Rey's parents debacle is a blatant violation of the Chekov's gun principle.
8. We are led to believe that Luke, the same person who redeemed Darth Vader: almost went through with killing his own nephew just because he was showing signs of turning to the dark side. This is absurdly out of character for Luke, and is apparently the entire BASIS for the reason conflict exists in the first place.
I don't intend to push my thoughts on the movie on anyone else... but this topic does ask "why the hate?" and this is my answer to that question.
1. I’m not even going to argue with this.
2. Yes, he did.
3. He is 30 years old.
4. I don’t see a problem.
5. It subverts our expectations, which is apparently a bad thing now.
6. Because Carrie Fisher was done with the movie when she died.
7. If we go by Chekhov’s Gun then half of this movie would not be there.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is getting a lot of hate. And I'm here to find out why.
All I see on the Internet are vague reasons that seem like they should be mild annoyances at worst, as well as crazy senseless reasons that essentially boil down specific wants and expectations that weren't fulfilled.
So I am here to understand. And to defend an excellent film.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is getting a lot of hate. And I'm here to find out why.
All I see on the Internet are vague reasons that seem like they should be mild annoyances at worst, as well as crazy senseless reasons that essentially boil down specific wants and expectations that weren't fulfilled.
So I am here to understand. And to defend an excellent film.
I love it!
I think it's stupid for people to criticize a movie sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.
I'm not here to rant or force my beliefs on others. So I am just going to leave my grievances here:
1. TFA too closely mirrors A New Hope. This isn't something I'm particularly mad about, but it's still disappointing.
2. Han Solo dies in the first movie.
3. Kylo Ren is really just an angsty teenager who has no business being the story's main antagonist.
4. Luke dies... and the movie manipulates your emotions as it goes about killing him. First of all: he shows up on salt-hoth to seemingly sacrifice himself to Kylo a-la Obi-Wan. Just when it is revealed he wasn't in real danger (because he was creating a force-projection), we relax for a moment, glad that he wasn't actually going to let Kylo kill him... except, apparently, he just disappears after having over-exerted himself... no. Just no. Besides -- if he could do that why not actually show up in person and unleash a much more destructive force-power? You know, actually end the conflict. Oh right, we still haven't done episode IX. Which is a good Segway into point V
5. TLJ uses scenes that would've worked well in IX, particularly the scene where Kylo betrays Snoke, and then fails to hit the story beats those scenes should have lead to, all for the sake of being 'subversive'.
6. Literally the only original character they don't kill off (not counting the ones they won't give proper screentime to, such as R2 and Chewbacca) is Leia... and as has been mentioned in this topic before, the actress who played her is gone, so... why preserve a character who won't be able to feature in the next movie, but also kill the one people actually wanted to see again?
7. The Rey's parents debacle is a blatant violation of the Chekov's gun principle.
8. We are led to believe that Luke, the same person who redeemed Darth Vader: almost went through with killing his own nephew just because he was showing signs of turning to the dark side. This is absurdly out of character for Luke, and is apparently the entire BASIS for the reason conflict exists in the first place.
I don't intend to push my thoughts on the movie on anyone else... but this topic does ask "why the hate?" and this is my answer to that question.
1. I’m not even going to argue with this.
2. Yes, he did.
3. He is 30 years old.
4. I don’t see a problem.
5. It subverts our expectations, which is apparently a bad thing now.
6. Because Carrie Fisher was done with the movie when she died.
7. If we go by Chekhov’s Gun then half of this movie would not be there.
8. Luke is not perfect. No one is.
3. That does not change the inherent immaturity of the character, it actually makes it a much more glaring issue.
4. I mean, me personally, I was expecting the guy to do something impressive and meaningful.
5. To be fair, if anyone was going to 'subvert' the story, it should've been JJ Abrams. Having one mind butt in to the story somebody else was writing halfway and change everything only causes chaos for both the film studio and the moviegoers.
7. The Chekhov's Gun principle states that if you touch upon something in one part of the story, make sure there is a payoff later on. i.e. if you have Rey and Leia give a very meaningful hug (going as far as to describe it as motherly in the actual script) in one movie, then you must reveal what that meant in the next movie, otherwise, don't include it as it wastes screen time and manipulates the audience.
Similarly, in the case of Snoke, we are introduced to this new, ugly, scary villain, and... learn nothing about him before he is unceremoniously killed. We were introduced to this character, and expected to learn about him in the next movie. Instead he is cynically tossed aside in a scene that could have and probably should have been saved for Episode IX. He could have just as easily been killed pre-TFA and the story would be mostly the same.
8. Think about it this way:
Darth Vader was an INCREDIBLY dangerous, powerful, and quite evil foe. And yet, Luke, seeing a sliver of light in the midst of overwhelming darkness, insisted on not killing Vader, even when his own life at-stake.
In contrast, Luke: standing in front of Ben's bed, sees a sliver of darkness in the midst of mostly light, almost decided to kill Ben, even when no threat was being posed otherwise.
These two ideas of what Luke's character is morally capable of directly contradict each other.
Just a note on the Rey is a Mary Sue thing, I think that is hardly fair. Rey makes many, many mistakes. Her big weakness is her desire for her family, and that really blurs her view of things. In The Last Jedi she becomes so convinced Kylo will turn good that she is fighting with Luke. Then she almost dies by foolishly going to The First Order because she thinks she can turn Kylo.
In The Force Awakens she wasn't perfect either. She made little mistakes, remember it was Rey's fault the Rathtors got out. They almost killed her and all her friends. She also was not very knowledgeable about the Force in TLJ, as we could see, when Luke slapped her with a leaf.
Luke very slowly developed his force powers. In episode IV, he could barely deflect blaster bolts with a lightsaber, only managing to do so after being given good advice from his mentor. The extent of the force abilities Luke shows in episode IV are calming down, and allowing the force to guide his actions. Apart from this, he is completely inept.
In episode V, we see that he still lacks training, which shows in his struggle to pull his lightsaber out of the snow when he gets kidnapped by a wampa. Later in the episode, Luke gets extensive training from Yoda, who actually teaches him lessons. In spite of this training, however, Luke still fails in key areas, such as not being able to lift objects of certain size, and literally losing his duel with Vader, only escaping through luck.
Only in episode VI do we see Luke has learned from his mistakes and developed as a character. He has undergone failure, hardship, loss, and possible embarrassment, but has finally, at the end of the story, developed into a powerful force user, but only after having made plenty of mistakes along the way, and only after being given plenty of guidance.
On the flip side, Rey is able to do things that other characters would be much more qualified to do... without any sort of prior training or experience. By no means would any person suddenly figure out how to use force persuasion without having actually seen the technique before, heck -- there was barely anything prior to that scene that suggested to her she was even sufficiently force-sensitive for that sort of thing. In the process: she ends up devaluing Han-Solo's own relationship with the Millenium Falcon as well as Luke's journey to becoming a jedi.
I could go on... but the Mary Sue-ish stuff is there, you just have to look for it.
If Rey is really nobody, as everyone likes to talk about, why not? She could be stronger, as was indicated in The Last Jedi. Also, if you study her background you will get a better understanding. On Jakku Rey had a computer program where she would practice flying. She learned all the old stories from data tapes she would borrow from Unkar Plutt.
In Episode VII Rey took her first steps, like Luke. Luke blew up the Death Star, Rey did some basic force stuff. Her strengths and weaknesses are in different areas than Luke's.
In Episode VIII Rey makes tons of mistakes. If you watch the deleted scenes she made even more mistakes. She didn't know anything about this power she was dealing with. Luke knew what the Force was in Empire Strikes Back, Rey didn't know what it was in The Last Jedi. Her big weakness is her desire for a family, and her stubbornness that Kylo will turn. She almost got killed by going to The First Order! Kylo Ren saved her life. She couldn't turn him. All she really did was lift a bunch of rocks.
I think Rey's skills in TFA were meant to give an introduction to the character, what she can do. In The Last Jedi they focused on character development, what she can't do. I think in Episode IX Rey will have to learn a lot more. Nobody considers her a powerful Jedi.
5. It subverts our expectations, which is apparently a bad thing now.
6. Because Carrie Fisher was done with the movie when she died.
7. If we go by Chekhov’s Gun then half of this movie would not be there.
8. Luke is not perfect. No one is.
3. That does not change the inherent immaturity of the character, it actually makes it a much more glaring issue.
4. I mean, me personally, I was expecting the guy to do something impressive and meaningful.
5. To be fair, if anyone was going to 'subvert' the story, it should've been JJ Abrams. Having one mind butt in to the story somebody else was writing halfway and change everything only causes chaos for both the film studio and the moviegoers.
7. The Chekhov's Gun principle states that if you touch upon something in one part of the story, make sure there is a payoff later on. i.e. if you have Rey and Leia give a very meaningful hug (going as far as to describe it as motherly in the actual script) in one movie, then you must reveal what that meant in the next movie, otherwise, don't include it as it wastes screen time and manipulates the audience.
Similarly, in the case of Snoke, we are introduced to this new, ugly, scary villain, and... learn nothing about him before he is unceremoniously killed. We were introduced to this character, and expected to learn about him in the next movie. Instead he is cynically tossed aside in a scene that could have and probably should have been saved for Episode IX. He could have just as easily been killed pre-TFA and the story would be mostly the same.
8. Think about it this way:
Darth Vader was an INCREDIBLY dangerous, powerful, and quite evil foe. And yet, Luke, seeing a sliver of light in the midst of overwhelming darkness, insisted on not killing Vader, even when his own life at-stake.
In contrast, Luke: standing in front of Ben's bed, sees a sliver of darkness in the midst of mostly light, almost decided to kill Ben, even when no threat was being posed otherwise.
These two ideas of what Luke's character is morally capable of directly contradict each other.
3. Example.
4. He did. He saved the Resistance, inspired hope in the Rebellion, and went out like a hero.
5. If we knew what was going to happen, it would be boring.
7. The Chekhov’s Gun principle states that nothing should be there if it does not affect the story. If we applied that to TLJ, then almost nothing would be there.
Snoke did not need a backstory. All we know it he is an alien, he is probably a Sith, and he leads the FO. Sounds uninteresting.
8. He saw much more darkness in him. Luke is a human being. We all have flaws.
Luke very slowly developed his force powers. In episode IV, he could barely deflect blaster bolts with a lightsaber, only managing to do so after being given good advice from his mentor. The extent of the force abilities Luke shows in episode IV are calming down, and allowing the force to guide his actions. Apart from this, he is completely inept.
In episode V, we see that he still lacks training, which shows in his struggle to pull his lightsaber out of the snow when he gets kidnapped by a wampa. Later in the episode, Luke gets extensive training from Yoda, who actually teaches him lessons. In spite of this training, however, Luke still fails in key areas, such as not being able to lift objects of certain size, and literally losing his duel with Vader, only escaping through luck.
Only in episode VI do we see Luke has learned from his mistakes and developed as a character. He has undergone failure, hardship, loss, and possible embarrassment, but has finally, at the end of the story, developed into a powerful force user, but only after having made plenty of mistakes along the way, and only after being given plenty of guidance.
On the flip side, Rey is able to do things that other characters would be much more qualified to do... without any sort of prior training or experience. By no means would any person suddenly figure out how to use force persuasion without having actually seen the technique before, heck -- there was barely anything prior to that scene that suggested to her she was even sufficiently force-sensitive for that sort of thing. In the process: she ends up devaluing Han-Solo's own relationship with the Millenium Falcon as well as Luke's journey to becoming a jedi.
I could go on... but the Mary Sue-ish stuff is there, you just have to look for it.
If Rey is really nobody, as everyone likes to talk about, why not? She could be stronger, as was indicated in The Last Jedi. Also, if you study her background you will get a better understanding. On Jakku Rey had a computer program where she would practice flying. She learned all the old stories from data tapes she would borrow from Unkar Plutt.
In Episode VII Rey took her first steps, like Luke. Luke blew up the Death Star, Rey did some basic force stuff. Her strengths and weaknesses are in different areas than Luke's.
In Episode VIII Rey makes tons of mistakes. If you watch the deleted scenes she made even more mistakes. She didn't know anything about this power she was dealing with. Luke knew what the Force was in Empire Strikes Back, Rey didn't know what it was in The Last Jedi. Her big weakness is her desire for a family, and her stubbornness that Kylo will turn. She almost got killed by going to The First Order! Kylo Ren saved her life. She couldn't turn him. All she really did was lift a bunch of rocks.
I think Rey's skills in TFA were meant to give an introduction to the character, what she can do. In The Last Jedi they focused on character development, what she can't do. I think in Episode IX Rey will have to learn a lot more. Nobody considers her a powerful Jedi.
I assume you are quoting books. And I will assert that if you have to write a book in order to put a Band-Aid on a plothole, the movie has still failed to make Rey not be a Mary Sue.
Look -- I like Rey. There's great potential there. She has, or rather, had, an intriguing backstory. However, the fact remains that she steps on some of the other character's toes with the abilities she has shown... but never earned. Not on-screen at least. All I'm saying is that she's not as well written as she could've been.
3. That does not change the inherent immaturity of the character, it actually makes it a much more glaring issue.
4. I mean, me personally, I was expecting the guy to do something impressive and meaningful.
5. To be fair, if anyone was going to 'subvert' the story, it should've been JJ Abrams. Having one mind butt in to the story somebody else was writing halfway and change everything only causes chaos for both the film studio and the moviegoers.
7. The Chekhov's Gun principle states that if you touch upon something in one part of the story, make sure there is a payoff later on. i.e. if you have Rey and Leia give a very meaningful hug (going as far as to describe it as motherly in the actual script) in one movie, then you must reveal what that meant in the next movie, otherwise, don't include it as it wastes screen time and manipulates the audience.
Similarly, in the case of Snoke, we are introduced to this new, ugly, scary villain, and... learn nothing about him before he is unceremoniously killed. We were introduced to this character, and expected to learn about him in the next movie. Instead he is cynically tossed aside in a scene that could have and probably should have been saved for Episode IX. He could have just as easily been killed pre-TFA and the story would be mostly the same.
8. Think about it this way:
Darth Vader was an INCREDIBLY dangerous, powerful, and quite evil foe. And yet, Luke, seeing a sliver of light in the midst of overwhelming darkness, insisted on not killing Vader, even when his own life at-stake.
In contrast, Luke: standing in front of Ben's bed, sees a sliver of darkness in the midst of mostly light, almost decided to kill Ben, even when no threat was being posed otherwise.
These two ideas of what Luke's character is morally capable of directly contradict each other.
3. Example.
4. He did. He saved the Resistance, inspired hope in the Rebellion, and went out like a hero.
5. If we knew what was going to happen, it would be boring.
7. The Chekhov’s Gun principle states that nothing should be there if it does not affect the story. If we applied that to TLJ, then almost nothing would be there.
Snoke did not need a backstory. All we know it he is an alien, he is probably a Sith, and he leads the FO. Sounds uninteresting.
8. He saw much more darkness in him. Luke is a human being. We all have flaws.
I'd drop a Luke quote on you from TLJ but that'd be a bit rude you probably know the one, though.
4. He did. He saved the Resistance, inspired hope in the Rebellion, and went out like a hero.
5. If we knew what was going to happen, it would be boring.
7. The Chekhov’s Gun principle states that nothing should be there if it does not affect the story. If we applied that to TLJ, then almost nothing would be there.
Snoke did not need a backstory. All we know it he is an alien, he is probably a Sith, and he leads the FO. Sounds uninteresting.
8. He saw much more darkness in him. Luke is a human being. We all have flaws.
I'd drop a Luke quote on you from TLJ but that'd be a bit rude you probably know the one, though.
“Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong.”?
If Rey is really nobody, as everyone likes to talk about, why not? She could be stronger, as was indicated in The Last Jedi. Also, if you study her background you will get a better understanding. On Jakku Rey had a computer program where she would practice flying. She learned all the old stories from data tapes she would borrow from Unkar Plutt.
In Episode VII Rey took her first steps, like Luke. Luke blew up the Death Star, Rey did some basic force stuff. Her strengths and weaknesses are in different areas than Luke's.
In Episode VIII Rey makes tons of mistakes. If you watch the deleted scenes she made even more mistakes. She didn't know anything about this power she was dealing with. Luke knew what the Force was in Empire Strikes Back, Rey didn't know what it was in The Last Jedi. Her big weakness is her desire for a family, and her stubbornness that Kylo will turn. She almost got killed by going to The First Order! Kylo Ren saved her life. She couldn't turn him. All she really did was lift a bunch of rocks.
I think Rey's skills in TFA were meant to give an introduction to the character, what she can do. In The Last Jedi they focused on character development, what she can't do. I think in Episode IX Rey will have to learn a lot more. Nobody considers her a powerful Jedi.
I assume you are quoting books. And I will assert that if you have to write a book in order to put a Band-Aid on a plothole, the movie has still failed to make Rey not be a Mary Sue.
Look -- I like Rey. There's great potential there. She has, or rather, had, an intriguing backstory. However, the fact remains that she steps on some of the other character's toes with the abilities she has shown... but never earned. Not on-screen at least. All I'm saying is that she's not as well written as she could've been.
The books were not written to explain her knowledge, they simply inform the details. I think they sort of embellish Rey's scavenger life, they show what her interests were, how she entertained herself, etc.
She isn't perfect....that's one of the greatest things about Rey. She is so good in some ways, but so bad in others. I like the idea of a scavenger from the middle of nowhere becoming a powerful Jedi and discovering the skills she has. I don't believe in self-empowerment... But I don't think that is exactly what it is all about. I think the theme was also touched on at the very end of TLJ with the kid and the broom. Anyone can have the force.
