Enter Rey: The Mary Sue and Genre Expectations In the previous review, Finn found himself marooned on a desert planet and had gone in search of a town. Now, clearly, he finds a town; otherwise, the movie would be over, and, in this town, he meets Rey, who is far and away the most controversial character in the franchise. Much has been said about her, but I intend to look at Rey from a writing perspective, using the criterion I described in the first article of this series. To keep immersion/suspension of disbelief, the writer tends to utilize a combination of rules, promises, and payoffs so the audience can understand the stakes. The moment an audience member begins asking undesired questions, the writer risks throwing that audience member out of immersion. This is very applicable to Rey, but to understand why, I must first address the Mary Sue issue. A Mary Sue is basically an overpowered character who is inexplicably admired by most, if not all, the cast. A female is referred to colloquially as a Mary Sue, and a …

Enter Finn, a Missed Opportunity Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer (Official) Last time, the First Order had slaughtered an entire village, even though the very map they’re looking for might be hidden within it. However, one soldier doesn’t fire. He lowers his rifle and stares at the slaughter in horror. His name is Finn. For some reason, no one notices Finn refusing to follow orders, but later in the scene, Kylo Ren stares at Finn for a long time. It’s almost like the force-sensitive villain senses something special inside the stormtrooper. This scene seems to be promising a particular plot point to the audience. What a shame the writers never do anything with this brief interaction. That’s what’s amazing about these movies. After coming back to this trilogy a decade later, one can really appreciate all the dropped plot points and missed opportunities. Looking back, it’s all too obvious that there was never a plan. But the writers worked very hard at promising that the movies were heading somewhere and that the payoff was going to be marvelous. After the …