Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The Force has awoken within its hero, Rey.
She is indeed a feminist triumph, even more so considering we now have a "strong female" hero in a story where other characters don't consider her strengths peculiar because of her gender. That trope is beyond outdated. Instead, we have a multilayered and complex heroine at the forefront of the action, who serves as the heart of the storyline, not relegated to being a "sideshow badass" as too many female characters in action and science fiction cinema have been.
The Star Wars saga and The Force Awakens' visionaries J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan have simply given us an inspirational champion for fangirls and fanboys of all ages.
Played to triumphant effect by brilliant newcomer Daisy Ridley, Rey is compassionate, sympathetic, technically brilliant and, on top of all that, extraordinarily gifted with the Force. Indeed, the title The Force Awakens refers to the titular power awakening inside her. The film initially presents her with little to no clue on her background. The sublime theme John Williams wrote for her reflects this, with the oboe, flute, and metal percussion at the start of the piece highlighting her mystery by playing a lightly fluttering melody.
"We have a multilayered and complex heroine at the forefront of the action, who serves as the heart of the storyline, not relegated to being a 'sideshow badass'..."
As the theme continues, the entire orchestra gradually joins in to reflect the call to adventure and her decision to accept it. The jovial, triumphant finish by the brass section is followed quickly by the return of the flute's and the metal percussion's initial melody to end the piece. This indicates that Rey's mystery will continue, and obviously it will as the film leaves us with no direct answer about her origins.
Alex Ross in The New Yorker notes that Rey's theme is "a minor-key melody that seems related to Williams's Force motif," fitting given her strong connection the mystical energy field. As with the mystery surrounding the Force, there is much to uncover about Rey.
Unfortunately, some have claimed she is a "Mary Sue": an overtly "perfect" character whose arc serves as an idealized wish fulfillment for audience members. These critics ignore her grounded flaws, like her stubbornness, over-attachment to the past, and initial fear and reluctance to embrace her Force power. We see her deal with these issues, overcome them, and are still left at the beginning of her journey at the end of the film. There's still so much to learn about her and how she'll develop in her training. We'll learn from her journey as we've learned from Luke's.
However, Rey is unlike Luke in that she questions her role and her path throughout the majority of the film. It was only after Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were murdered early on in A New Hope that Luke decided to "take his first steps into a larger world." Rey's situation with her own family is different -- she only accepts that they will likely not come back for her in the latter half of the movie, after struggling with the call to adventure for a much longer period.
More stories of heroism today have protagonists express significant doubts about going on their journeys. Rey is no exception. She only wants to stay on the journey long enough to deliver BB-8 to the Resistance and then get straight back to Jakku to wait for her family. It is only when she confronts Kylo Ren for the evil he's done to her new family that she takes the next step in the Hero's Journey.
And it is Kylo Ren's heinous actions that indirectly influence her taking up the Jedi mantle. Her resistance to him results in his defeat, which is a great relief considering what he'd done; I'm not referring only to the murder he commits. From the first scene on Jakku, his interactions with his victims have disturbing parallels with predatory assault, and perhaps even rape. This is illustrated in the interrogation scenes, where he callously and ruthlessly invades the minds of his captives for information.
While he is presented as an emotionally conflicted individual, his tendencies are sociopathic at best. The telepathy he uses on his captives is visually brutal and painful, unlike any display of this power in past Star Wars media. Poe Dameron, with no Force sensitivity, could not resist the interrogation, and was clearly subjected to torture. Rey, however, is no victim in need of rescuing. She comes at the right moment, ironically in her own capture and escape, to put Kylo Ren in his place.
"We don't have to consider it 'surprising' or 'novel' that a female-led film can be outstanding, shatter the box office, or be adored by every type of audience."
She resists his telepathic invasion with her own power, and turns the tables on her captor, exposing his insecurity and fear of not being as powerful as his idol, Darth Vader. It's a triumphant moment that subtly exposes the soft belly of tyrants and evildoers everywhere-the dark side is driven fundamentally by fear and insecurity.
Rey, acting almost like a personification of the light side, calms herself in the face of evil and reminds the dark-sider that he stands on very shaky ground. Some claim that her subsequent actions, using a Jedi mind trick to escape and defeating Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel, would require years of training and thus don't make sense for her to use. However, they forget that a mind trick is a famous skill of Jedi, known to beings across the galaxy. So it is not a stretch to think that Rey has heard of the skill as well, and realizing she was Force sensitive, attempted to use it and succeeded.
An alternative explanation is that she was, as many have speculated, a disciple of Luke's at his Jedi academy, and learned about the technique there. As for her fight with Kylo, they also forget that she was well trained with a staff for her entire life on Jakku, giving her more than sufficient melee experience to defend herself against the wounded Dark Jedi.
Her duel with Kylo embodies everything we love about and relate to in Star Wars. An inexperienced but talented protagonist (representing all of us) is faced with overwhelming evil (representing the challenges we all face) as she defends her loved ones. It is through her perseverance, guidance from others like Han and Maz Kanata, and tremendous willpower that she is able to center herself towards the end of the duel and defeat the villain with the light side.
Perhaps seeing Kylo for what he is, alone, insecure, and extremely unstable, she was able to fend off any potential calls to the dark side. Instead, she focused simply on defending herself and her friends. In this she is an admirable, noble, and inspirational protagonist, a more-than-worthy successor to Han, Luke and Leia.
And we now have a female lead in one of the highest grossing films of all time, whose gender is fundamentally an afterthought, at least in the film itself. Rey represents, perhaps, a peak in the normalization of female heroes -- we don't have to consider it "surprising" or "novel" that a female-led film can be outstanding, shatter the box office, or be adored by every type of audience. Subsequent generations of cinema-goers worldwide will see her, admire her, and emulate her.
More exciting is that she is only at the start of her journey, and at the film's (beautifully shot) conclusion, we're left wanting so much more. Everything we are waiting for in Episode VIII centers on Rey's next steps and her new adventure.