Running this argument by you guys to get some evaluations.
Rey has had to deal with a lot of criticism comparing her to the somewhat sexist and ill-defined “Mary Sue” fan fiction character type: a generally over-powered, too perfect, “black hole of attention” type character who seems defined more by plot-centered wish-fulfillment than actual characterization.
Personally, I find the accusation generally inapplicable to her in TFA and TLJ - TFA has enough nuance and humanity to rise above the designation, while I think TLJ’s issues are more along the lines of her being a plot tool for Luke and Kylo’s story. But, I do find Rey becoming more “fanfiction-y” in TROS, though alongside multiple other characters in that film... *especially* Ben Solo. Please note: I’m saying “Ben Solo” - not Kylo Ren.
In general, I think Ben Solo is a last minute “Original Character” introduced for people who don’t find Rey adequate as the main Force lead, Finn inadequate as the male lead, and Adam Driver “wasted” on as despicable a character as Kylo Ren.
Ben isn’t an evolution of Kylo Ren through redemption - there’s no dramatic depth in his redemption story beyond a magic trick and an AU-style replay of the TFA scene with Han (which also doesn’t have any good in-universe explanation). Ben also doesn’t display the dramatic depth that someone who’s done all the horrible things Kylo has done and seeks to atone for would have - he’s a clear improvisational take on what “Han Solo’s heroic son” would be in a story without Kylo. He’s exactly as overpowered as Rey is - she gets to beat Palpatine in a stupidly simple fashion, but he gets to practice necromancy. He’s also a character who the story twists around in an inelegant, illogical, and ungainly way - just like with Rey.
In fact, their time together in the final act of TROS is basically a competition between which character’s LFL-mandated needs Overriding whatever logic is already in the scene:
- LFL wants Ben’s arrival to help save the day, even though Rey’s already confronting Palpatine and Palpatine is both physically weak and has no reason to either weight for Rey or to play nice with her. So Palpatine suddenly unveils a brand new set of expositional lines that make it so Rey can’t kill him without losing, and needs help, so Ben can get there
- Ben then gets “fed” all of the Knight of Ren, who are suspiciously less capable and intimidating than Snoke’s bodyguards in the previous film’s big fight scene, and have done nothing and had nothing established about them throughout the entire movie - they’re there now to “big-up” Ben, and that’s *it.*
- Ben and Rey confront Palpatine, but now there’s a worry that the “bigged-up” Ben, with his Skywalker ancestry and his fan-service heavy characterization (seriously, everything about him is clearly meant to fulfill the desires for poeple who I’ve been calling Kylo “Ben” for two previous movies), might overshadow Rey, so down the hole he goes so it’s Rey’s moment alone.
- Rey then beats Palpatine, but we see two different fanfiction problems here: first, her defeat of Palpatine (especially father he”s been beefed up to a Force Storm ship-killer) is a clear send-up to Avenger’s Endgame’s portal scene that has a dumb ending where she just deflects Palpatine’s lightning... and because she dies for no good reason right after. The first problem is the result of having an OP character face a more OP villain and having to use a dumb OP ending for the scene... and the second problem is because we need to bring Ben back again.
- Rey is now “dead” and Ben suddenly rises from the hole to resurrect her and get kissed. Why? Because LFL feels that Ben needs to have Rey care about him and still want him to be the second most important character behind Rey. So Rey now pulls a Sleeping Beauty for no good reason (which *really* doesn’t work well with the progressive role model ideal they want heart to be), and Ben can survive a supposedly fatal fall and perform necromancy. And to cap it off, Rey kisses Ben for no good reason to try and elevate him that much further.
- Kylo then dies, because LFL still needs Rey to have pre-eminence. So, Kylo dies becaus she resurrected Rey - this leaves her as the unchallenged remaining focal character, but still means that he gets a heroic sacrifice to sell his redemption and importance as hard as possible given the circumstances.
The saving grace of everyone is the actors. But make no mistake, they screwed up the two characters they ultimately wanted to be central to the story in TROS.
...I would still say that just retconning Rey into a Skywalker and keeping Kylo as the main villain would have been more likely to avoid this problem, but I digress.