Rey is introduced as a 19-year-old woman in The Force Awakens (although always referred to as a "girl").[31] Rey is stubborn, headstrong, brave and maintains fierce loyalty to her friends. Some critics have noted similar backstories and personality traits between Rey and the two leading males of the original trilogy, Han and Luke, leading to speculation that she could share relation with the Skywalker-Solo family tree,[32][33] either being Luke Skywalker's daughter, or the daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia. She could also be the granddaughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Fans have likewise speculated about Rey's descent.[34] In comparison to Luke, Matthew Yglesias of Vox notes that "Rey is considerably less callow than Luke."[35][36]
Megan Garber of The Atlantic notes that Rey "proves herself to be, in extremely short order, extremely adept as a fighter."[37] Rey is highly Force-sensitive, which is revealed when she is presented with the lightsaber first owned by Anakin Skywalker, then his son Luke Skywalker.[38] Without training she is able to use advanced Jedi abilities and even defeat Kylo Ren in a duel, though he was already injured.[39]
Adam Howard of MSNBC noted that "one of the most pleasant surprises of the film has been the strength of its lead female character," adding that some have likened Rey to a "new feminist icon."[40] Relatedly, Emily Rome of HitFix claimed that Rey is "everything we wanted in a Star Wars female character," praising her for being a character that is "independent, skilled, scrappy, tough, and doesn't need saving."[41] However, Rome went on to write "the speed with which Rey mastered Jedi mind tricks and lightsaber fighting with zero training is the stuff of fan fiction. Rey is geek feminist wish-fulfillment."[41] Tasha Robinson of The Verge noted that Rey "keeps falling into standard-issue damsel-in-distress situations, then capably rescuing herself."[42]