"FYI I find Rey a charming and engaging character, "
I really find this baffling a bit. since you're being polite I will try to be too. but what is engaging about her character, she is good at everything without effort and overcomes all obstacles easily. I would think most would find that boring. Why is she "charming"? I found her rather annoying and way too 'self-aware', but that was not just on her though; most actors around her were too self aware for their roles too. Like they all were acting like they knew they were on camera. I find that for most like you, they did not find the character charming and engaging; but the actress they found that way and they attributed the actresses characteristics into the character. This is why I think her performance was god awful. Unlike Adam Driver, whom (though I thought the character terrible) I found to be the only actor in the film that did an actual good job acting.
"not say what I think about the people who have made a hobby about hating on her (or saying she's "spotlight stealing" instead of accepting her as The Hero). "
You don't need to say anything, you "better than thou" comment you use here says it all. This suggest you see anyone that has any kind of criticism of the character, no matter how fair or legitamet is by default a 'hater' and thus inferior to you and your mighty opinion. for one claiming to be polite, you are doing a pretentiously bad job of it.
"Sure, some of the things she's done strain the bounds of believability, but pushing those particular boundaries has been part of Star Wars from the beginning, and is in fact part of the series' charm!"
She does not push boundaries though, the character ignores them. Star Wars is not about "believability" but the fantasy can only stretch so far before it becomes a mockery of itself. This would be absolutely fine if they gave a plausible explanation. But instead they leave it a mystery to be answer "at another time." Which makes her character totally unacceptable within the TFA film itself. This would be the equilivant to a new Matrix movie in which a character can do all the things Neo could do and more but without the background story being the one and without even going through the 'training' or even being unplugged form the matrix. Can you see how absurd that would be. That is what Rey does to the 'rules' of star wars.
"I hope they can maintain the things I like about Rey ..."
Sympathetic and likeable? I disagree. She was just too nice, charming, posh, agreeable, polite, civilized etc. for the background she was given. it made her unrealistic and hard to relate to. She in no way behaved like a "real person" given her upbringing and environment. She behaved like a person that had a family and good sheltered education until her late teens. That is not the background she was given though. Also, she was never really an 'underdog' outside her scavenging background she is never shown to struggle with anything she can't overcome with relative ease. She goes from zero to hero in a split second. again making her very hard to relate to or route for.
" I can't say Mark Hammill was 100% successful at staying relatable the original trilogy, but if I go into that then I'll get started on all the other flaws in ROTJ and nobody wants that All I can say now is that Ridley seems to be a good actress, so maybe she'll carry it off, but no young actor is so good they can overcome bad writing."
I don't know if I agree with you assessment of Mark Hammill in the OT. of the many flaws of ROTJ the character of Luke was not really one of them. I also do not agree with the claim that Ridley seems to be a good actress. granted the only thing I have seen her in is TFA, so outside this performance she may be good, but her performance her I thought was god awful. I found her facial expressions and body language often did not match the suggested mood of the character and came across and awkward. I found her too self aware, like she never forgot she was on camera (granted most other actors in TFA had this problem too). She seemed to switch from an odd 'bewildered look' to a 'deer in the head lights look'. The worse was some of her scenes with Han in which she just has some weird look to her face that in no way looked natural when listening to a 'legendary' mentor. Also She used the 'grit teeth' look that is becoming more and more common in actions scenes. Look at her action scenes again, the entire time she is bearing her teeth like a dog. Now go watch some actual fight or real battle footage and tell me if anyone looks like that.
Your last comment I do agree with though. It would be very unlikely, no matter how talented, a younger less experienced actor will overcome bad writing and TFA had a lot of that.
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