Just to share my perspective on your thoughts:
“Rey leaves Ahch-To the same as when she arrived, only more deflated.”
- No. She leaves with the conviction that while everyone else is giving up on Ben, who is her equal in the Force, she can still do something about it and right the wrongs other people made. She is not more deflated. She is in a position of naivete and hope, like Luke when he left Dagoba, or when he tried to convince Vader to leave the Emperor.
“If Luke won’t help, then Ben is the last hope for the galaxy. Not Rey. Ben.”
- Exactly. She is silly to not realize the hope of the galaxy is her. It has been her from the start. That’s what she has to learn and accept by the end of the film.
“Episode IX can make a liar of Kylo Ren”
- Kylo didn’t lie to her. He coaxed the truth out of her. It’s a common misunderstanding about the movie. Also, it’s more powerful to have her recognize her own “nothingness” than making her the bastard child of a legendary character like Obi Wan or Luke. *That* would have stripped her from gaining her own value. She would just be “Rey, the daughter of / grandchild of…[insert name of white male character we already know here]”
“Instead, Chewbacca becomes the heroic pilot while Rey is reduced to the gunner.”
- Luke was also the gunner in the O.T. Does that mean he’s less of a hero because of it? She is taking action and she’s taking the fight in her own hands.
“You could wipe Rey from Episode IX with little fallout to the narrative. Another Force user could step in to take her place; either another lost Jedi such as Mace Windu or Ahsoka Tano or another “nobody” with Force powers.”
But there isn’t another Force user that can match Kylo. Not yet. It’s her and only her, as shown in the last act of the film. The Force chose her as one of its vessels. But one as strong as the antagonist. And by the end she understands that she shouldn’t depend on Luke, or Ben, or anyone else but herself, because as Leia tells her: “they already have what they need”.
If anything, the entire film empowers her by taking away the possibility of relying on a mythical figure, or the grandson of a legendary warrior, or her parents…to save the day. They are not the answer. *She* is.
