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Originally Posted by Itse
A couple of points on Rey.
First, not all characters need a real character arc. Indiana Jones doesn't have an arc in any of movies really, still a great character. James Bond didn't have an arc for a very long time. Most Batman movies don't have a character arc. If the character is fun and has an actor with sufficient charisma playing it, it's fine. Daisy Ridley has got it what it takes, and thus Rey is just fine.
Second, Rey is a street fighter with a lifetime of experience. This is pretty easily deductible from what we learn about her in TFA. (Grown up alone on a lawless planet, shown beating up two crooks with ease.) Kylo Ren is an impatient manchild born into privilege, with formal training. There's nothing to suggest Kylo has much real life combat experience. I don't care which weapons we're using, if you put an experienced street fighter against a formally trained fighter in an actual life or death battle, I'll absolutely bet on the street fighter.
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Indiana Jones was who he was right off the bat, he's not on some journey to find out who he is, gaining abilities along the way. In addition to that we saw scenes of him as an archeology professor. So while there may not have been an arc, there was adequate setup for the basic nature of the character and what he was motivated by, and what he was capable of.
Bond is the same. He may go through an arc in an individual film, but Bond films are separate adventures, and he is already established as a premier spy. We don't disbelieve his capabilities because its established from the beginning this is the world's coolest spy doing his thing. Its understood.
Rey is clearly on some kind of character development journey within a series. She isn't powerful with the force from the beginning of TFA, she is trying to find out who she is. I don't see her in any way comparable to Bond or Jones.
If the new trilogy had set up her character as a bad ass force wielding outcast from the beginning, and let us know these are her adventures, it would be more of a comparison. Instead they set up the hero's journey, fell flat with the development arc, broke a lot of people's understanding of how the universe works, and now people are bending over backwards to justify how hollow it is.