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[QuantumZebra]

This is why I find Rey to be such a compelling character.

She isn't wielding the Force in alignment with the calcified us-vs-them dogma of one side or the other. She's simply "letting it in," to use the language from the trailer.

Yet we see that "letting it in" doesn't include some kind of balanced mastery of light and dark. It simply means letting the Force use you in a way that transcends what you'd be capable of on your own.

She doesn't strike down Kylo Ren, even though she has the chance to and that's what wielding the dark side would lead her to do (out of anger). She summons the Force to do what is necessary to stop him in that moment, and then when her anger pushes her to do more, she pulls back. The film gives her the moral high ground by placing her on the literal right side of the chasm that erupts between them.

In the end, maybe she doesn't need Jedi teaching after all. Maybe the Jedi teaching will get in the way of the natural, raw guidance of the Force.

Precisely.


That's why I'm so excited to see Rian Johnson's take on things. He is the last director/writer I would think would ascribe to dogmatic black and white views on spirituality. I think we will see a completely new interpretation of the Force and Force users (Grey Jedi to use a term from the old EU).

 

[BreezyLimbo]

This is why I find Rey to be such a compelling character.

She isn't wielding the Force in alignment with the calcified us-vs-them dogma of one side or the other. She's simply "letting it in," to use the language from the trailer. That's the extent of the guidance she's gotten from experienced Force users over the entire course of the film.

Yet we see that "letting it in" doesn't include some kind of balanced mastery of light and dark. It simply means letting the Force use you in a way that transcends what you'd be capable of on your own.

She doesn't strike down Kylo Ren, even though she has the chance to and that's what wielding the dark side would lead her to do (out of anger). She summons the Force to do what is necessary to stop him in that moment, and then when her anger pushes her to do more, she pulls back. The film gives her the moral high ground by placing her on the literal right side of the chasm that erupts between them.

In the end, maybe she doesn't need Jedi teaching after all. Maybe the Jedi teaching will get in the way of the natural, raw guidance of the Force.

This is what I was arguing in the spoiler thread, why it would be interesting to see Rey dabble in 'both sides' of the Force(That is, the neutrality and the emotional aspects of it) and mastering both of them in a way Luke, Vader, even Kylo never did.

Just let it all in. The good and the bad. Like Bob Ross said. You can't have light without the dark, can't have the good without the bad. Sometimes those little happy trees have to be covered. Jedi taught themselves to essentially 'block' one aspect of the force. The Sith drown themselves in that aspect while ignoring the other. Rey 'kinda going dark' as we see it, because we're viewing the Force as a black and white aspect instead of a muddy grey thing, would probably be bombastic to some people, but really it's using all of the force. All of it.