User blog:DylanTBest/(SPOILERS) Defending The Force Awakens Part 1

This blog was originally going to touch on most of the criticism of The Force Awakens but I decided the "It's too similar to A New Hope" is too big of a topic to be put in a small section.

One of the hugest things The Force Awakens is catching flack over is the fact it borrows too much from the original films, specifically A New Hope. Many people argue the very basic plot is nearly an exact remake of A New Hope:

"After a group of rebels are attacked by an army of stormtroopers, a droid must escape the battle and deliver data regarding one of the last jedi masters. The droid's journey is interrupted when a person on a desert planet finds him and joins them on their quest. Meanwhile, the antagonists are building a giant star system that can destroy planets."

They're right, you can literally take this synopsis and both movies would seem exactly alike. But that's where the comparison ends. The only other similarities are either really small or vague. In this blog I'm going to take a moment to tell you why saying "it's too similar to A New Hope" is a dumb reason to not like The Force Awakens

Keep in mind I'm not taking into consideration the rest of the trilogy so I'm only using information revealed in A New Hope (ex: I'm not acknowledging the fact Vader is Luke's father).

Comparing the Main Characters
The main characters in The Force Awakens were Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Han Solo, and Kylo Ren.

The main characters of A New Hope were Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Vader.

If you look at Finn and the characters from A New Hope, it's very, very hard to find a character who's anything like him. In fact this is why he's my favorite character in this movie, he's like nothing we've ever seen in the Star Wars movies. That being said I'm not focusing on him since no one is comparing him to anyone in the first place.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker both played key roles as the last surviving Jedi in these movies. While their roles as "mysterious Jedi masters" are obvious and one of the resistance/rebel's goals is finding them, they are both very different characters

Rey & Luke Skywalker
Rey is a lone scavenger living by herself in a destroyed AT-AT. She has no family or friends and her only interactions with people are most likely between some of the nefarious aliens living on Jakku.

Even though the harsh world of Jakku may leave anyone cynical, her generosity lead her to save a droid from being abducted and sold. This isn't the first time she saves BB-8, or the first time she does something simply out of the kindness of her heart.

Ironically, when the junkboss Unkar Plutt offers a large amount of cash in exchange for BB8, she takes a small amount of time to consider whether or not she should sell the droid and take the money or do the right thing. Rey decides against her selfish thoughts and ultimately does the right thing. This hints that Rey herself might not be a "hero who does nothing wrong" like most protagonists. We see this side of Rey again when she comes across Han Solo, instead of recognizing him for destroying the empire, she knows and praises him for being the greatest smuggler of all time.

Once she finds out BB8's affiliation with the Resistance and the fact he's carrying a map to Luke Skywalker, Rey instantly becomes eager to help the droid get back to the resistance. While it may seem like she dreams to join the resistance similar to Luke and the rebels in A New Hope, it's much different. Rey doesn't want to join the resistance, she wants to return her home on Jakku once she is finished.

Rey doesn't want to return to Jakku because it's a good planet, obviously. She wants to go back because she believes whoever left her their, possibly her family, will one day come back for her. At Maz's castle when she finds the Skywalker's legendary lightsaber, the vision she has helps her realizes whoever let her might not come back for her, but Luke may be the one who can answer all of her questions. This inspires her to continue helping the resistance and help them find Luke Skywalker. It's heavily implied she is in fact Luke's daughter and is in fact in tuned with the force.

Unfortunately she's sidetracked when she's kidnapped by Kylo Ren and the First Order. Originally, Kylo was going to steal the map to Luke, but he realizes his location is in her head, whether she knows it or not. This isn't the first time it's implied Kylo knows who she is.

She is taken to Starkiller Base and interrogated by Kylo himself. Using the force, Kylo tries to search through her mind and find what he's looking for. But Rey herself learns (or remembers) how to use the force and stop him from finding what he wants.

To escape, Rey uses a jedi mind trick to make a stormtrooper release her. Intitially, her attempt fails, but she tries again and it works.

Flashing forward to the final battle between her and Kylo, let's look at what Kylo has done: He killed Han, possibly the only thing close to a father figure she ever had), seriously injured her best friend Finn, destroyed the New Republic, and may be the one to be responsible for her past being a mystery. She should kill her, in fact, in the novelization it's hinted Leia used the force to tell her to kill her. She gets the chance, but she doesn't. She lets him live. Was it simply because she was above it, or is there a deeper reason? We don't know yet.

TO BE CONTINUED