People's anger over changing characters is ridiculous. It usually goes something like this;
"Don't change our characters! I can't relate to this new design! Just make new characters for those groups!" *They make new characters* "Don't force diversity in you casts! Those characters were obvious just added to pander to those groups!" *Character is well received by everyone else* "The character actually is super poorly written and their story doesn't make sense and here is a 52 minute Youtube video telling you why they suck and the earlier characters were perfect"
When did they make 'new' characters that were panned?
Star Wars?
Let me rephrase - when did they make new characters that were panned for illegitimate reasons?
That's called moving the goal posts. The criticisms against Rey also work against Luke. They also are arguably even more applicable to Anakin.
Luke and Anakin actually learned to wield a lightsaber before their first duel, so no, they don't.
Oh, and they both LOST duels against masters of the art. When has Rey lost at literally anything, despite having literally no training in the Force whatsoever?
Luke had about ten minutes training from a geriatric jedi and Anakin literally blew up an entire capital ship, outclassing the entire space force of Naboo, mostly by accident, despite the fact that he was 12 and had never left Tattooine before.
Luke had far more than "ten minutes of training" before his first lightsaber duel (hint - that was at Cloud City). And the first lightsaber duel we see Anakin have was also at the end of the second movie his character was in.
Rey had never wielded a lightsaber IN HER LIFE before she pwned Ben. ---
'It's okay that those gangbangers stole all my personal belongings and cash at gunpoint, cuz they're building a rec center!' - OneTimeBen