J.J. Abrams Addresses Lack of Rey in The Force Awakens Merchandise

[Rebel_Raven]

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending- Rey will be added this year

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/star-wars-monopoly-game-to-add-piece-based-on-rey-after-8-year-olds-note/article28056819/

Dunno why they would limit themselves to four game pieces. Doesn't most Monopoly games come with 6 pieces?

There's been a deluxe edition since 2008 that had a whopping 12 tokens.

I was playing with at least 7 tokens decades ago with the battleship, car, boot, top hat, dog, wheel barrel, thimble. Apparently a cat was added later on coz I saw it in a let's play.

I'm as baffled as you are as to why they went down to 4 tokens, even if they're larger than normal. I mean it's obscenely rare to have them all in one spot beyond starting the game, and even then not every piece has to be on the board then since pieces for players later in the order can always put their piece on later.

Like I said before, I hope people who've already bought the game don't have to buy a whole new one. Besides, it could be more lucrative to have just the tokens bought after the fact.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

snip

Sorry post would've been too long

You make good points with Luke and can't really argue them

Solo on the other hand.
Tracked Luke in a snowstorm, he shouldn't be able to see 3 meters in front of him forget tracking. Not to mention he's not where his ship landed as he got dragged off so that general location is no good at all.
We have completely different interpretations of the Han chased Stormtroopers scenes so not much to say there, though of we did go with yours, he still scared off 5 of them using nothing more then his voice, and then when vastly outnumbered killed one (or two, I forgot) of them before escaping.
Also he is the archetype of a loveable rogue/jerk with a heart of gold and not much else.
It'd be hard to introduce a character to audiences who is a loveable rouge? Have you a Marvel film recently, barring Captian America that describes a lot, if not all, the male protags, or Kingsman's Eggsy (Spelling?) Or any Tom Cruise protag. In fact I'm having trouble thinking of male protags who aren't loveable rouges (in action/adventure/comedys)

Spoiler

As for Rey not having flaws
Immediately attacks someone for wearing a jacket not wasn't originally his, on planet full of scavengers.
Every force power see displays barring the mind trick (which is an extention of mind reading) she learnt from Kylo Ren doing it and copying so she isn't just picking it up out of no where.
Almost gets everyone killed by tentacle monsters because of overconfidence.
Runs away from her gift and friends to cry cause of some mild visions (vs the mind fuck Luke gets in the swamp) and gets captured with ease.

And keep in mind this is the first film, she's got another two films to accumulate as many screw ups as Solo who barring getting captured by the Death Star (which he then escaped from after resucing a princess) never really messed up in his first.

Edit: Never considered myself a Star wars fan, spends two hours arguing about on Internet. Make myself laugh sometimes.

Edit 2: In case someone replys with a counterargument I just want say my original point wasn't meant to be so much X or Y is a Mary Sue, but that the term itself is vague, and that you could ARGUE that the majority of protags are Mary Sues, whether they are or not isn't my point, it's that the term has all but been rendered meaningless by it appliance to strong, whether it physically or emotionally, characters whom someone takes a disliking to (for want may or may not be good perfectly good reasons)

 

[runic knight]

Am I the only one who recognized from even the early trailers that merchandising would be centered around 2 characters predominantly? Neither was Fin or Rey. They would be the cool dark sith guy with the weird red lightsaber everyone was talking about, and the new cute and funny droid ball. Honestly, I am surprised BB was lacking in the monopoly, but given they picked two heros and two villians, not too shocked. Vader and luke were inevitable there as the most iconic aspects of starwars itself, (hell, vader is dead from the 6th movie, so the inclusion is solely because of the iconic nature of his character), as was the film's main villain since they were popular pre-movie and were a fitting "evil" character to add alongside vader. Only thing left is to pick the other hero, a choice between the two new protagonists. Between the two, I got to say Fin is the more central one, given the arc he goes through and how that arc itself impacts the plot because of how his character changing affected events. Rey's arc is a bit smaller, and while it is actually there, it doesn't actually impact the plot. Now, if we were talking about the stuff in the third act, yes, that is certainly plot important, but it is less her as a character, and more her as the avatar of the plot itself.

Honestly, given things like this here, I am not envious their choice, as they were picking between a black man or a white woman in a climate where regardless their pick, they'd get backlash. They picked one, people complained about the lack of the other. If they picked the other, you can bet your ass this same thread would exist about the lack of Fin.

Should they have more characters? Well yes, but if I recall right, this is not the first time they made the game with only 4 player tokens on release, saving the others for the re-release to make more money. Still, they complaints about them only having a few tokens is generally unrelated to those complaining about the lack of rey.

Honestly, yeah, Rey, Phasa and BB should have been tossed in at the very least. But the lack of Rey in a 4 token choice where 3 were already filled, and the competition in choice of the 4th was also the main character of the movie, well, not surprised they made the choice they did, but it isn't significant of anything other than the company's decision to limit the game's first release to sell it again to you later.

 

[PhantomEcho]

So, on the one side, we have a bunch of idiots who can't figure out that they didn't include Rey because they didn't want to give away the whole 'She's the Jedi of this movie' thing and want to fight about how sexist monopoly has suddenly become. You know, because we had people actually threatening to commit physical violence against anyone spoiling even the smallest details of the movie just last week... but we'll just conveniently forget about the insanity going on in the Fandom that Internet Built to make a half-assed statement about the unfair treatment of female characters in merchandising. Newsflash... merchandising is the whoring-out of an audience's emotional attachment to an intellectual property. If you're buying this gimmicky shit at all, you're already part of the problem, whether the toy you bought is a girl or not.

Then on the other side we've got the idiots who can't seem to figure out that EVERY CHARACTER ever designed for Star Wars has basically been a two-dimensional fantasy archetype converted for use into a sci-fi adventure film set a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I've seen more originality come out of D&D players than what has ever existed in Star Wars and I say this as someone who really fucking LOVES Star Wars.

So all-in-all, it's just another typical day on the internet. Carry on.

 

[Spider RedNight]

Newsflash... merchandising is the whoring-out of an audience's emotional attachment to an intellectual property. If you're buying this gimmicky shit at all, you're already part of the problem, whether the toy you bought is a girl or not.

*dramatic gasp* My vinyl pop Finn bobblehead is OFFENDED by your statement.

Then on the other side we've got the idiots who can't seem to figure out that EVERY CHARACTER ever designed for Star Wars has basically been a two-dimensional fantasy archetype converted for use into a sci-fi adventure film set a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I've seen more originality come out of D&D players than what has ever existed in Star Wars and I say this as someone who really fucking LOVES Star Wars.

I agree with this, however; I'm not sure whether I find it more amusing that people are up in arms about Rey's "unfair treatment" or the whole "meh meh this story's just A New Hope rehashed". Like... it's Star Wars. What do you EXPECT. I'm not complaining, either. I like a New Hope.

But ah well. Rey's a Sue, Kylo Ren's a big baby, it was a long long time ago [in a galaxy far, far away] so everyone's dead anyway by our time anyway. Nihilism!

 

[Lodgem]

I wonder if the people responsible for the merchandising didn't know much about what was actually in the movie. The impression the trailer seems to give is that Kylo Ren is the villain and Fin is a jedi. This would explain why those two were in the Monopoly set.

While I tend to agree with the criticisms of Rey leaving her out of the merchandising doesn't make sense to me unless those making the decisions had little idea what was actually in the movie.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Maybe Disney just hate women? I mean as far as merchandising goes, they have final say.

 

[Kajin]

Spoiler

and her winning the fight against Kylo was literally "because reasons". One could argue he was injured but his kicking Finn's ass showed his injuries where not bad enough to allow for a first time novice to win.

Spoiler

One can DEFINITELY argue that it was because he was injured. Finn isn't shown to have very much in the way of force sensitivity. Further, not once does he show the least bit of talent for melee combat. It's not something he was trained for. Kylo Ren effortlessly mops the floor with him as a result. There was a little back and forth at the beginning, but that was Kylo Ren's arrogance taking the forefront. Once he loses his patience, Kylo Ren makes short work of him. Then Rey comes along, who is very nearly as force sensitive as he is. This gives her a massive leg up that Finn didn't have. She's also shown some basic competence with melee weapons and brawls. Even if it doesn't translate entirely to lightsaber combat, this still gives her some small advantage. They start the fight and Rey leads him on a long chase through very harsh terrain in the bitter, freezing cold while he's in the process of bleeding out. At this point a force sensitive TODDLER could probably take Kylo Ren on and come out on top. All the advantages are stacked against him. There was no way he could have won. This shouldn't be an argument at all.

 

[halisme]

Both Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are more Mary Sues then Rey. Or Kirk from Trek. Or Ripley from Alien.

My point being the popular characters in the most Sci-Fi films are all Mary Sues to the same (or a larger) degree as Rey.
Just loooked the term up to see if I missed anything, and apparently Mary Sues are also Self-Insertion characters for the author, I don't think JJ Abrams or Geroge Lucas see themselves as teenage girls.

To me the Mary Sue argument/accusation in pretty much any context seems a way to dismiss a film or character without having to point out anything specifically wrong with them.

The term Mary Sue, while technically inaccurate due to not be self insert, is accurate. And Luke isn't a Mary Sue, he has his ass kicked by Tuskan Raiders. He then almost has his ass kicked by Darth Vader if not for Han Solo's help. Han Solo, while borderline Mary Sue, has some dodgy morals to balance him out.

The best comparison I can make to explain it is, Han and Luke are noticed when they're on the death star, without any prior knowledge, but they are disguised. Rey manages to sneak around Star Killer base without a disguise or any prior knowledge, and not get caught. Bit of an imbalance.

The moment that best shows her being a 'Mary Sue' is the fight with Ben, where she manages to have a stronger force pull than he does, despite him having training and her only starting to use the force that day.

 

[Karadalis]

Rey isnt being ignored by manufacturers because she is female. She is being ignored because she is a boring, Mary Sue character who doesnt inspire female nor male children. The more time passes, the more people will get over the buzz, and realize Rey isnt really a Star Wars-worthy character.

That is nonsense. As if a toy manufacturer would care for such a reason... infact toy manufacturers are the least caring entities on the market.

What thy are interest in is NUMBERS and only NUMBERS. If it sells then they will make it.

Female action figures have comparatively sold worse then their male counterparts for AGES... thats the sad truth. Turns out the main buyers for action figures are still boys (or boys parents) and boys... no matter what some tumblrina SJWs want to shout into your brain till you actually believe it, are still boys that like to play with toys for boys. When it comes to the likes and dont likes of little kids i rather lean on the side of the giant toy manufarcturer corporations that have been around for more of a century then some special snowflake that wants to make me believe that gender is only a "social construct" (as if that holds any meaning whatsoever, "rights" and "freedoms" are also just "social constructs" after all) and thus not relevant for some alien backwards regressive reason.

The companies will sell what will sell in their eyes... theres no sexism or racism involved in any of their motivations...

Now.. was it stupid to not include rey into that monopoly game? Perhaps.. but only because the number of pieces is so low to begin with.. why do we need darth vader in there? Hes friggin dead... and when hes included.. wheres the emperor? Wheres hand, leya and chewy? Wheres yoda while we are at it? Sounds to me like a bad monopoly version for four players anyways.

So they choose the black guy instead...

Nowadays deciding wich characters to include into a fucking board game seems to be SJW russian roulette. Cant ignore the girl... or youre a mysoginist... cant ignore the black dude... or youre a racist.

No matter what you do.. you lose.

Now.. that ALL being said:

There should be more Rey toys... for better or for worse shes the main protagonist of the new movie and should be a big part of the toy line for that reason to begin with. They cant simply ignore her like leia for most of the time. (besides killing jabba what has she actually done? Most of the time the character was just dragged around and shot some stormtroopers)

 

[Often]

The moment that best shows her being a 'Mary Sue' is the fight with Ben, where she manages to have a stronger force pull than he does, despite him having training and her only starting to use the force that day.

Uhhh, no. Do you always use your full strength when you pick something up if no one's opposing you for it? When you pick up a can of soda, does it crumple under the force of your grip because you go around constantly using your full strength for no reason?

Kylo had absolutely no reason to USE his full strength when he pulled the lightsaber to him, because he didn't know anyone else was trying to get it. It's no different than if you bent down to casually pick up a broom off the floor yourself, only to have someone you didn't know was there snatch it out of your hand. Neither is any indicator of who is stronger.

 

[halisme]

Uhhh, no. Do you always use your full strength when you pick something up if no one's opposing you for it? When you pick up a can of soda, does it crumple under the force of your grip because you go around constantly using your full strength for no reason?

Kylo had absolutely no reason to USE his full strength when he pulled the lightsaber to him, because he didn't know anyone else was trying to get it. It's no different than if you bent down to casually pick up a broom off the floor yourself, only to have someone you didn't know was there snatch it out of your hand. Neither is any indicator of who is stronger.

If someone's in a fight and their weapon is knocked away from them, are they not going to try their hardest to recover it? Secondly, he's a sith, he's wounded and he knew Rey was force sensitive. Those are three reasons for him over do it, and be desperate enough to try anything. His fighting style is based around overdoing it, heavy blows with little control.

 

[halisme]

Double post, my bad.

 

[VoidWanderer]

eh, this is still dumb. Well, complaining about a lack of characters is fine, it's the accusations of sexism that are dumb.

I get people wanting Rey, but I come on, there's only 4 playable pieces, and it's already split between 1 from each trilogy and 1 from each faction. There was literally one piece that could be swapped out for Rey in that model, and then we'd just be left with accusations of racism instead.

The only reasonable complaint is that only having 4 pieces is shit to begin with. Should have been at least 8, or new trilogy only characters if they really wanted to stick with 4.

In any case, perfect opportunity for them to capitalize on expansion sets of characters.

Wait, racism? For cutting out Darth Vader?

 

[Dead Metal]

The Monopoly game came out months ago, back when the advertisement tried to convince us that Finn was the new main good guy Jedi. It is also not a Force Awakens Monompoly, but simply a Star Wars one.
Plus, this is a licensed collector orientated Monopoly, with only four pieces, guess what's going to happen, they'll release the same version with different pieces every couple of months. They did the same with the Transformers Monopoly, each version with a different set of characters so you had to get all if you wanted all of the (actually really nicely done pieces). The next set will contain Rey, and three other characters, and the set after that will contain others characters again, it's how this works.

As for the amount of Rey action figures, she gets the same amount as anyone else (save main Stormtroopers, toy collectors love army building which means cash money!), she was part of trying to conceal spoilers for the movie though. A guy got sued because he found and bought a Rey action figure that was put out before its street date, he posted a photo of it and got his ass sued. The action figure was of Rey with the Anakin Lightsaber.

As for missing in action figure sets, she can't be in all, and it's extremely difficult in this case, the one that gets pointed out the most contains three figures of each side, Keylo Ren (the main bad guy who's the face of the toy packaging, they're trying to make this the new Darth Vader) Two different Troopers (army building is fun and troopers are the easiest to make with the most profit), Chewbacca (important beloved legacy retro character, to justify people buying the set), Finn (the advertisements "main character", excluding him would have resulted in accusations of racism), and Poe (excluding him would also lead to accusations of racism, what the white girl is included, but not the Latin guy?). Seriously they can't win here.
BB8 is so prevalent because he's designed to be the kid appeal character, he's a cute, funny little R2D2 like robot that makes cute funny noises, so he gets lots of merch.

As for playsets, guess what, Hasbro wants you to buy all of the playsets, which is why you won't find every character, even important ones in all of them. Yes, she's missing from the Millenium Falcon, but so is Han Solo, the owner and most iconic character associated with that ship. She's already available in a set featuring her speeder thing.

But yes, she gets just as many figures as everyone else, she is present in every product range of the toy line, save for the giant Darth Vader ones. I know, I spend hours looking through all of them trying to find R2D2 an C3P0, they only had a shitty two pack.

And to those comparing this to the Black Widow thing from Age of Ultron, you know why she had so little toys in that movie? It was because the Black Widow figures for the first Avengers movie sold so badly that they were still taking up shelf space when Age of Ultron came around. She was a commercial failure for the first toy line, so she was reduced in the second basically just there because she was an important part of the movie and had to be done.

 

[Often]

If someone's in a fight and their weapon is knocked away from them, are they not going to try their hardest to recover it? Secondly, he's a sith, he's wounded and he knew Rey was force sensitive. Those are three reasons for him over do it, and be desperate enough to try anything. His fighting style is based around overdoing it, heavy blows with little control.

He still had his weapon, and as far as he was concerned at that point, the fight was already over. He was over confident and fucked up. That was sort of the entire point of his existence in the movie.

 

[eberhart]

Welp, it seems Hasbro is combining Monopoly with DLC.

Combine that with pursuing fans of different movies. There's exactly zero reasons for them to include more than 4 figures. For now.

The rest looks like trying to reach the most profitable demographic first. Big deal.

 

[Kingjackl]

See, I was happy with the trailers downplaying Rey's importance, because it made the reveal of her picking up the lightsaber in the final battle all the more awesome. That being said, we're starting to see the double-edged side of that.

Even so, it doesn't make a lot of sense. It's not like she was omitted from the marketing material; she's front and centre on the poster, she's obviously an important character. What reason could they possibly have for not merchandising her apart from old view, sexist "girls don't like Star Wars" thinking, which has always been horse-shit?

 

[Therumancer]

Interesting about that Monopoly game and all, but I haven't noticed a lack of Rey merchandise in general. I for example have the action figure pictured here, along with several others in the set, but haven't been able to find Poe or Finn, I doubtlessly will eventually (or order them online) but Rey was one of the first figures I was able to find.