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- #401
I'm with Kenico on this one. If Rey just had Force powers I would be fine. But pile on scavenging,
How is this bizarre for her? You spend a lifetime on Jakku salvaging stuff, eventually you learn which parts are more valuable. It's not that complicated.
mechanics
Comes with, y'know, dismantling starships for a living. You learn how the inside bits work after a while.
multilingualism
Shall I reference Han's multilingual skills? How about Anakins? Obi-wans? Luke's?
Maybe most people in a galaxy of diverse cultures are raised to be slightly multilingual? Maybe this is especially important in the Outer Rim, because there's no centralized government with an official language?
Maybe Common isn't quite as universal as we've been led to believe?
bo staff skills
Did anyone on Jakku even own a blaster? Seems to me like Jakku is about as far out on the fringe as you can possibly get, where blaster or other firearms are a luxury most people can't even get their hands on, even if they could afford it.
Seems to me like out there, having some form of self-defence skills wouldn't just be important, they'd pretty much be required to survive for as long as Rey has. If she couldn't fight, she'd be dead. Jakku doesn't seem like the kind of place to really allow for much wiggle room in that regard.
piloting
I must have seen a different sequence to you, because it looked pretty clear to me that Rey was pretty much entirely unfamiliar with the idea of actually flying a ship. She understood how the Falcon worked, sure, but that doesn't make her a pilot - in fact she crashes the ship several times, stalls the engines more than once and consistently tries to pull maneuvres that even Han would realize are beyond the Falcon's capabilities.
In short, Rey's trying to fly based on the knowledge she's gained throughout her lifetime as a scavenger. That doesn't make her a pilot.
lightsaber talent
Keep in mind, that lightsaber was calling to her through the Force. This is important, because we're not talking about a youngling using a standardized training saber here, we're talking about a far deeper connection here. Just like Rey isn't just any old individual strong in the Force, neither is her weapon any old lightsaber either. This is the weapon of Anakin Skywalker. It then became the weapon of Luke Skywalker. And then, it reached out through the Force to Rey. That should tell you something about how destiny - and the Force are strong in Anakin's lightsaber, and that in it is arguably all the power that Kylo Ren seeks to find in Vader's ashen remains.
Not just anyone could pick up a lightsaber and weild it properly, but the connection between Rey and Anakin's lightsaber are shown throughout the movie, and it's why she was able to call it to her instead of Kylo Ren - she has an intense connection with it that even a trained Force user cannot deny, and it's what allowed her to be capable enough to hold her own against Kylo Ren.
Force talent?
This is the only one I really agree with you on (to an extent) but if we look at Rebels, we can see that the Force doesn't quite require the years of meditation that was previously stated to be the case. Though, to be fair, Legends never really adhered to that idea either, so the whole 'the Force is haaaard' thing is more of a misconception than anything. By all accounts the Force is actually relatively easy. But it's the mastery, finesse and above all else, self restraint of when and where to use it responsibly that seems to be the true learning process of being a Jedi.
If anything, the criticism here is that TFA basically canonized the way everyone's been accidentally writing the Force to begin with, and is somehow recieving flak for it.
It's not just OP to me, but I think it actually brings down her character. Now all her amazing feats and insight can be chalked up to "Force!" Not talent or skill.
So basically, in summary, I feel like you either weren't paying enough attention, or jumped to conclusions that...shouldn't have been leapt to. And that's my rebuttal. :)
EDIT: Apologies if I come across overly harsh. >.>
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