I love "Star Wars."

I was young when I first saw "A New Hope" and I remember how I watched the prequel movies right before "Revenge of the Sith" was released in theaters. Yet, at the end of the day there were only two prominent female characters that (thankfully) managed to still be compelling: Princess Leia Organa and Padme Amidala (one of the few good things from the prequels), both of which played the roles of key political figures in the midst of intergalactic warfare.

Even so, both were still treated to objectification in their own ways. Leia with the infamous “slave” costume from "Return of the Jedi" and the simple fact that the former fourteen year-old Queen of Naboo was written a less than satisfactory death.

These two political forces from Star Wars will always be remarkable characters, but the introduction of Rey in "The Force Awakens: has opened so many doors for female characters in Star Wars and the sci-fi fantasy genre. That being said, her character has been criticized as a "Mary Sue" because of her abilities to: pilot the Millenium Falcon, be knowledgeable in a number of alien languages, quickly pick up on skills pertaining to the Force, and being able to fight.

This is not going to be an article about why Rey is not a "Mary Sue". It should already be clear from the number of articles that have covered that topic in great depth.

What I am going to discuss is the double standard of Star Wars characters that many of these articles have pointed out: if one is to say Rey is a "Mary Sue" for her abilities, then by that logic that would make Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker "Mary Sues" (or "Gary Stus").

If anything, Rey is considerably more interesting than Anakin and Luke because while Anakin was taken under the wing of the Jedi as a little boy and Luke was raised by his aunt and uncle, Rey had no one. She had to take care of herself so of course she had to pick up on those skills she possessed if she was determined to survive on Jakku. Yet, few people blink when little Anakin beats all the other pod racers after never having pod raced before in "The Phantom Menace!"

In short, Rey, Luke, and Anakin are in no way "Mary Sues/Gary Stus" (or perhaps the gender neutral "Terri Lou"?). At this point it seems the term "Mary Sue" now applies to female characters that are portrayed as having a lot of strengths (even when they are exhibited as flawed in other ways i.e. Rey being too stubborn to accept that her parents are never returning to Jakku).

But I think in terms of where this double standard comes from, I have come to consider that it has more to do with the fact that for a lot of “fanboys” Star Wars is “not the same”.Their Star Wars is limited by the standards developed from the original trilogy, which was excellent, but in no way a perfect film series.

There are many parts of the original trilogy that mark it as a product of its time of the 1970s-1980s.The sequel trilogy however is the product of the present where artists are given room to do anything with their characters, and that includes making way for leads that do not conform to the traditional leading man image.It is because of Rey that I have so much more love and appreciation for "Star Wars" than before. I could even go on for an eternity about the wonderful characterization of Finn the Stormtrooper turned Resistance fighter (and lets be honest, what’s not to like about John Boyega?) I look forward to seeing that continue when we see Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso this December in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."