Leaving aside for a minute all the other things that concern me about the Force Awakens. (Those other concerns wouldn't really be disappointments to me because I never felt I was promised otherwise, which I suppose is sad in and of itself.)
The one thing that I always liked was that Daisy Ridley seemed from very early on to be the lead. Her very look implied she was Han and Leia's daughter and thus the one who will be carrying on the Skywalker legacy. Having a female Jedi as the lead this time was the one thing I felt would be truly refreshing.
When we started seeing all that stuff with Finn having a Blue Lightsaber, the thought I might have been misled briefly entered my mind, but there is no reason Rey can't be a Jedi also. The Prequels had two Jedi per movie.
One theory that popped into my head then was about Rey's staff, which became prominent in promotional material about the same time. That parts of it would detach to reveal a Lightside version of the double bladed Lightsaber. It's be a great symbolic way to show the new Jedi aren't as stagmatic and stuffy as the old PT order that needed to be destroyed to bring balance to the force.
The mystique around Rey's character had me thinking she was already trained in the force, but for some reason was rejecting it. That she was Han and Leia's daughter but had been in training with Luke. And the events of this movie will force her to bring out her Lightsaber. And untill I noticed something I missed I felt the full Trailer had strengthened that.
The Trailer has that line about "There are stories about what happened" and I liked that, the idea that things had fallen in legend. But then I realized it was Rey who said it, which effectively killed the above theory. If she is a Skywalker/Solo she doesn't know she is.
And I heard a Podcast recently saying even if she is a Solo that doesn't necessarily mean she becomes a Jedi, she could be like Leia in the OT. And that is exactly what I was excited we were NOT getting again, that it wasn't gonna be a third round of the female lead only being the Politically important character/love interest like Padme and Leia were.
Getting a Black Jedi does not make up for being denied a female Jedi. The PT gave us Mace Windu, the most prominent female Jedi they gave us was the one who gets killed without a fight on the planet with the glowing flowers. And yes I know Clone Wars and the EU have more, but the Films are what's truly Canon.
Boyega being in the main 3 on it's own is more then Black characters had gotten before. And as I said I'm fine with him being a Jedi so long as Rey is one too.
A female Jedi is what Star Wars needs right now. What the world needs, and anything I might dislike about TFA I could forgive if it gives me that.
The second teaser showed a Lightsaber being handed to a female, the voice over had people thinking it was Leia but the hands looked too young to be Fisher's to me. Right now that is my only remaining hope that Rey will be a Jedi.
If I finish the movie and it seems firmly settled with Finn as the only Jedi, I will not be bothering with Episodes VIII or IX. Yes I suppose one of the new characters in those could be a female Jedi or Sith/Knight of Ren, but I'd have to see them actually use a Lightsaber in the trailers or Posters in order for that to sucker me in again.
In-spite of my misgivings, I've decided if I can afford it I will see TFA this December, if for no other reason just to spite those idiot racists threatening to boycott over Boyega.
I suppose there is a chance I'm setting myself up to be a hypocrite, to become exactly what the PT haters were, whining that I didn't get exactly what I expected/wanted.
No matter how I feel about Episode VII, even if, and this is a really big stretch, I wind up hating it even more then I hate Superman Returns. I will never begrudge those who like it, I will express my opinion, but I will never tell people who like it they are part of what's wrong with society for being so easily pleased. In the past I had been a dick to SR fans, I was a hypocrite then, but I grew out of that.
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