[quote=@BrokenPromise] It's been a while since I've seen the prequals, but I don't remember it ever being explicitly said that Anakin used the force to podrace. I didn't really take issue with Rey being able to use the force without training, but she was able to reverse Kylo's mind control back on him, Someone who had been trained by two different masters of the force. That among other things, like being able to beat a trained storm trooper (Finn) or being able to fix the millennium falcon better than its owner can. Because she's a scavenger? I dunno fam. I mean sure, Ray gets to win fights because she's the protag and everything, but it was just all so easy for her. I can't think of a single good trilogy where the first act is a breeze for the protagonist. [/quote] Qui-Gon: He has special powers. He can see things before they happen. That's why he appears to have such quick reflexes. It's a Jedi trait. Anakin is also the only human who can podrace and it's specifically because he's using innate Force reflexes. Finn was a janitor and the mission on Jakku was his first mission. Rey has been surviving alone on Jakku since a young age. Finn was tired, defenseless while Rey carries a weapon at all times to survive - why shouldn't she have beaten someone like Finn who had all but stumbled his way through the desert? The only reason Rey can 'fix the Millennium Falcon better than its owner' is because Rey was there when the junk dealer Unkar Plutt installed the device that made the Falcon fly weirdly. Rey's abilities pre-Force are all shown and justified within the movie itself either verbally or through visual story telling. [quote=@Crimson Paladin] Compare Rey to Luke, or Anakin for that matter. They were also chosen ones, but they required actual training to use the Force. Prior to being taught by Obi-Wan, the only abilities they could tap into by themselves were supernaturally good reflexes and perhaps a bit of a sixth sense. True, Luke could pull his lightsaber to him on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back, but that's partially explained by a midquel novel [i]Heir to the Jedi[/i] (in a bit of trivia, it was originally intended for the previous EU, but was folded into Disney canon, so its intentions apply to both canons) which details Luke's attempt to learn to harness the Force without Obi-Wan, and also has him try and fail to use a mind trick.[/quote] So a novel written decades after the movie came out retroactively makes it okay that Luke pulls his lightsaber to him? Alright if we're allowing novels as canon then here you go: [quote]“Kylo had retreated at finding Rey in his head – had practically fled from her. But that had not been the end of that strange, sudden connection. She had seen more – far more. Somehow, almost instinctually, she knew how he accessed some of the powers at his commend – even though she didn’t understand them. It was as if his training had become hers, unlocking and flinging open door after door in her mind.”[/quote] If we can believe Anakin can instinctually use Jedi reflexes then we have to believe that Rey, being chosen by the Force to be Kylo's equal in the light, can instinctually cheat off of Kylo's test answers to resist and subsequently mind trick James Bond. [quote]And then she does herself one better by figuring out how to force heal by herself...somehow.[/quote] At this point she has had training both from Leia and the ancient texts of the Jedi. There's more support for her knowing how to force heal than Baby Yoda. [quote]Rey basically gains her powers on her own with minimal lead up and no training, just because The Force wills it for some reason.[/quote] Yes, this is how The Force will seek to balance itself by having the equal to the Dark/Light rise/awaken/whatever. [quote]The real reason is that Disney wanted a strong poster girl but didn't want to have to take the time developing her into it like was the case with Luke, who spent most of the OT being little more than a farmboy who could barely use his powers, struggling constantly and having to be rescued repeatedly. The more cynical explanation is that they simply wanted someone who was straight up superior to the Jedi hero of the OT.[/quote] I'd argue that Rey was plenty developed in two of the three movies. Her development was just the antithesis to Luke's heroic journey archetype because for the first two movies she's refusing to accept her role in the events. There's a reason we're introduced to Rey in TFA by going through a day in her life. Rey's struggles are less physical and more internal but that doesn't mean she doesn't struggle or develop over the course of 7 and 8. It's only when 9 came around to ruin its own characterization that, well, ruined it. The hard truth of the Star Wars movies is that apart from the two minutes in A New Hope and the, like, six minutes of Empire Strikes Back, across the prequels and the original trilogy we never [i]actually[/i] see the protagonists train much at all because movies aren't serials and dedicating precious runtime to lengthy training arcs is meaningless. All of Anakin's training happens off screen to the point where the Anakin in TPM and the Anakin in AOTC might as well be different characters. Yes, we can infer that Luke went to Yoda for a bit in the brief time between ESB and ROTJ but Luke at the start of Jedi is announcing himself as a Jedi Knight to Jabba as if he took the community college jedi course. It only became an issue that the protagonist didn't train in the first movie because suddenly it was unacceptable that the main character, mentioned by the antagonist to be, quote "[she's] strong with the Force, untrained, but stronger than she knows. In the movie itself, before Rey is captured, before the interrogation, before the mind trick, Maz tells Rey: "I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes. Feel it. The light. It's always been there. It will guide you." The notes of the film's script say: [i]Kylo Ren nearly TOUCHES HER FACE...THEY'RE BOTH SURPRISED: they react to a feeling that passes between them -- AN ENERGY THEY RECOGNIZE IN EACH OTHER.[/i] [i]He peers into her eyes intensely. She meets his gaze -- DESPITE THE PAIN SHE IS STRONG. On Ren's face as HIS CONFIDENCE BEGINS TO MELT AWAY. He has slammed up against a barrier in her mind. He looks less certain by the moment as Rey seems to GROW IN STRENGTH. The FEROCITY of confrontation builds until it hits critical mass[/i] [i]SLOW PUSH IN ON REY, shackled, mind still racing over what's happened between her and Kylo Ren. She is flooded with emotions, feeling her potential, her strength, that in this moment of being restrained, perhaps anything is possible. The Trooper Guard DROPS HIS WEAPON without turning back -- Rey HEARS the gun fall. She's incredulous. The guard has LEFT THE CELL, ITS DOOR OPEN. REY, in ABSOLUTE DISBELIEF, MOVES QUICKLY OUT OF FRAME![/i] There's textual evidence in the film itself AND the script and even the novelization of the next movie that all justify and explain Rey's seemingly sudden ability to use a damn mind trick.