ST Rey's Lineage / Parentage / Name

Rey coming from a family that never understood her, abandoned her out of fear, was powerful but was killed, and any number of emotional situations where her parents were not that important OR were important but aren't in the picture (like an Anastasia scenario) all make for great stories that have tremendous emotional potential.

However, there's a problem. If any of the above were true, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to hide it. There's even less reason to hide any of those and also give hints and clues that she's strongly (as in somehow blood related) to the Skywalkers. You can't really spin the events in TFA to make her not seem to most people that she is related to Luke in some way, even if it's not as daughter. If that were the case, they should have done what they did with Finn and have Rey say that she never knew her family and leave it at that. But the lightsaber, the visions that featured Luke, the visualization of the island planet, the parallels between Rey and both Luke and Anakin...too many similarities for there not to be a familial connection in some way.

They put themselves in a bind with TFA. On one hand, the connections I mentioned above make it clear that Rey is strongly connected and suggest she's directly blood related. On the other hand, those connections (in my opinion) seem to have been overdone and almost in-your-face kind of connections as if to dummy it down. So if the reveal happens and she IS related to Luke, accusations that JJ made it too obvious and therefore anti-climatic could follow. But if the reveal tells us she's not related, the whole thing seems like a dirty trick and all of the symbolism in TFA meant nothing. So what do they do?

The only thing that seems to make sense is to make the reveal itself unexpected. Instead of the classic "I am your father" moment or the casual "your father-Han Solo" moment, have it delivered in an unexpected way through someone we'd never expect. How that could take place I have not quite figured out yet.

I don't think the visions in TFA are literal but more symbolic. There was a terrible event at a Jedi temple that left Luke very distraught. .There's something going on that seems to indicate that Kylo Ren killed someone who MAY have been approaching Rey.

As for the junior novelization and the voices (or was that the novel itself), was it male? Could it have been that Rey is indeed Luke's daughter and, when she was very very young, Luke went away a lot and told her that he'd be back. However, during one trip, the temple where his family stayed was brutally attacked and Luke came back to rubble, assuming his family was killed while Rey was actually taken to safety secretly? As if someone who betrayed Luke could not have the heart to kill Rey but wanted to make sure Rey NEVER came to power and NEVER found Luke?

 

What if we the viewers learn Rey's parentage, but Rey herself never does?

The novels never specified the gender of the voice and Rey never saw the person in her dream. The mystery speaker's telling her they'd come back for her was clearly when she was first left on Jakku, since the novelization uses that for her Force vision. While that element of the Force vision is non canon, since in the movie she just sees the ship flying away and her younger self begging it to return, the "I'll come back" moment was in that recurring dream Rey was said to have, so the intent of it's meaning and that Rey was experiencing that is canon.

It hasn't been set yet, but the rumors I'm hearing are that Kylo Ren's betrayal happened years after Rey was left on Jakku, so I'm starting to think that any connection between Rey's parents and the attack are less and less likely.

I would agree that if Luke is indeed Rey's father, then having him believe she had been killed under some kind of circumstances would be the best way to explain why he never tried to find her.

I'm not sure that the people who left Rey on Jakku were doing it because they wanted her gone but didn't have the nerve to kill her. First off all, the dialogue their given and the tone of voice described in the books pretty much says that whoever it was genuinely loved Rey (it's either got to be a parent or someone who loved her as if she was their own kid) and were sincere about coming back. Since the dream is strongly implied to be from the Force, I'm trusting that it's accurate.

 

JabbatheHumanBeing

Do we want to torture Rey like that?

 

Well, it depends on the circumstances. If Rey makes her peace with not knowing her past (like Wolverine did in X2), I'd be fine with it. If it's something that she really wants to know, even despite the surrogate family she found in TFA, then I'd say that she should learn. Either way, we the viewers will be finding out, so the question is if we'll like the answer and if it'll be worth the suspense we were put through.

 

If I had 2 decide (assuming if the writers make Rey less perfect and have a flirts with the dark chapter) what will make her feel the dark side I'd write finding out who put her on Jakku over say the death of Finn or Luke.

 

On the other hand, since she badly wanted to find them again despite being left there on the first place, it's hard to say how that subject could push her over the edge (unless the people who left her were trying to get rid of her, but that conflicts with the canonical novelizations).

 

If whomever put her there (be they her parents, or one of her parents, or her guardians of some kind, etc) were planning on coming back, but were prevented from doing so on account of something awful happening to them, then I could see her struggling with that. Since TFA showed that she is NOT perfect, clearly, and has some inner "anger issues," it's not out of the realm of possibility.

I don't think that she'll full-on fall. But struggling with her anger/grief, yeah I could see that.

 

Er...what post of mine are you responding to?

 

Pablo Hidalgo said the voice telling Rey they'll come back is male

 

But is it more symbolic than literal? Is it something inside of Rey telling her that she will be reunited with a male family member? Was it Luke telling his daughter that he'd be back as he goes away on one of his Jedi master trips?

And yet the original film back in 1977 mentioned cloning. Cloning is actually far harder to understand than IVF, particularly given we still don't have human cloning. IVF is such a common medical procedure, its barely even science anymore. Surrogate pregnancy isn't possible without IVF. In fact, if you really want to get out there, um.. who says Rey got implanted back into Jyn? Hoho... Maz Kanata took her to term! Now there would be a funny swerve.

Ben may have started being influenced years before and he kept it hidden. We still don't know that. And that also doesn't mean that there wasn't an attack many years earlier.

 

If Rey truly is supposed to be a random, she didn't even need to be dropped off on jakku. It could have been as simple as she was an orphan , born on jakku to parents who had been killed in an accident, and she was left to fend for herself from an early age. There didn't need to be a convoluted back story about someone leaving her there and promising to return. Because of the way Rey is presented in TFA, and because it would have the most and best connection to the prior films, as well as the most emotional impact on the characters, ray should be a skywalker. If she isn't, I think the filmmakers wasted a golden opportunity to tell a really great story.

 

To me that provides more evidence that Rey is a Skywalker. If Rey were random or unrelated to the Skywalkers, a voice she'd hear would more likely have been female.

 

Cool. So, I'm thinking that Luke being the father is less and less likely; I can't think of any other reason that he'd have left Rey on Jakku while going into self-exile unless he though she was already dead. If he'd known her last location was Jakku, you'd think he'd have least went back to confirm, find out the details, and make last visitation and burial or cremation arrangements.

Did Hidalgo say if that's what the "official" verdict is, or if it's just his personal theory? I know that in some franchises, the creators will sometimes answer questions or offer explanations, but some of them will go out of their way to make it clear that they regard it as a theory only and not the be all end all answer.

Why?

 

Here are his tweets:

 

Rey's parents are a mystery. She longs for them. When you first think of a young girl being separated from her parents, the girl's longing for her mother seems to come to mind first. A voice saying "I'll be right back sweetheart" would automatically be connected to a female, presumably the mother, first. If you were to ask someone who didn't know anything else about the situation to describe the voice that says that, they'd likely describe a female's voice. Something powerful about daughter and mother. Since this is a male, one would assume it's the father instead. Therefore, whatever reason, the father in this situation takes precedence over the mother. So if one assumes that Rey's parent(s) are important, we'd be looking for a male figure who is important. It's obviously not Obi-Wan since he would never ever have known Rey. So the only other option available that we know is Luke, the one to which Rey was shown to have connections anyway.

But once again, it COULD be random, but also once again that would be the producers making effort to lead us down the wrong path.

One can say that those wishing Rey to be Skywalker are forcing clues and hints in TFA to make it seem that way. But boy are these hints and clues don't have to be forced. They surely seem to have been written to make the viewer think it's true.

 

What you're saying right here is basically "it's a male voice, so it's gotta be Luke". Come on, you can do better than that.

 

About her not knowing her family EVER.

 

Actually it is quite that simple. Not saying it HAS to be Luke's voice, but the fact that a male says it could be used by some to point to Luke being her dad. Like I said, one can follow some logic in using that line of reasoning:
(1) Rey's parents are a mystery but are clearly important to the overall story. It's very difficult to deny or argue that.
(2) Rey is strongly connected to the lightsaber and seems to be strongly connected to Luke and the family line. Maz even said it or at least highly suggested it. It would be hard to deny or argue that point also.
(3) Rey hears a voice that says something like "I'll come back to you sweetheart". That seems to suggest that it's a parent saying that or at least someone who loves her very much. Can't really argue with that. A teacher/mentor wouldn't call her "sweetheart".
(4) So if Rey's parents are important and she hears a male voice, once could make a reasonable deduction that the male voice is someone important. We have Han (pretty much eliminated), Lando (no-probably not), Obi-Wan (would never have known Rey since he died at least 10-15 years before Rey was born) or Luke (already theorized by many).
(5) Could be Kylo Ren, but, well, not likely at all.
(6) Could be a random male, but why? What would be the point in that? Why not just have a mother's voice say it if that were the case?

So instead of "it's a male voice so it's gotta be Luke" I assume you mean "It's a male voice so it's a logical deduction that it is Luke over any other male in the saga". Is that really so unreasonable?

 

So your theory is that the line was said to Rey somewhere other than Jakku? Or do you think Luke abandoned his own daughter there?

 

Just go back a few pages on this thread. This is y I'm so happy w/ Rouge One. "Pope" Pablo has already shot down the Jyn is Rey mom theory so its just a straightforward war movie with slight mystery (who's in the bacta tank?).

I'm sick of this lineage game JJ & co. is playing on us till 2019. And if yall think the reveal is in 8. tough luck.

 

Yeah, I still feel that leaves room for that scene to be a memory. You can remember waking up in a strange place but not remember how or why you got there. It's how I see that scene. It’s no big deal or anything, just something that seemed to make sense to me.

 

I actually do think it was said somewhere other than Jakuu. That or it's symbolic as if a voice were speaking to Rey saying that a male parent would be returning to her life.

But I imagined a specific scene. Luke always goes away on jedi trips and leaves his family behind, mostly to recruit new Jedi padawans. However, he never really trains his daugther. Tiny little Rey wants to come with him but Luke says "no sweetheart. Stay here, I will come back to you". But one time when Luke returns, the temple has been destroyed and he thinks his family is dead also. Trying to bury his feelings, he starts a Jedi academy and Ben is his most loyal student. However, Luke is weakened by tragedy and through his weakened blindness, becomes betrayed by Ben/Kylo. Years later Luke, having buried years of sadness about his family and later betrayal, is shocked to see his daughter ALIVE and holding out his old lightsaber to him.

But that part is all created in my mind of course lol.

But I will say that if Rey's parents loved her (several official sources now say they did) then having her NEVER knowing them or forgetting them would be terribly sad.

Maybe she's the SW version of Batman but at least BM knew his parents.

 

It is the perfect way of keeping her completely out of the way on Jakku. Make her believe that people who genuinely love her are sincere about coming back.

There is something highly unusual about her total lack of memory of anything at all pre-Jakku. Children that age know an awful lot about the world but she is a completely blank slate. I think it is hard to believe her memory has not been tampered with in some way.

Quite apart from all the clues in the movie, Kathleen Kennedy has all but confirmed she is a Skywalker.

I could maybe stretch my imagination to believe that Luke would give up his daughter to protect her, but no way would you put your child in a situation like that. Especially if you then do not come back and get her.
To me the “wanting her gone” motive fits the all the circumstances much better than any of the other scenarios.
There are no great cognitive jumps required to make it work.
She is a young Skywalker. We don’t need to make up new plot twists. We already have characters who would be highly motivated to want her out of the way.
Happy to take other ideas on board, but still not seeing anything that ticks as many boxes as cleanly or as simply.

 

I watched an Episode of Long Lost Family. Two sisters who at the age of 4 & 5 (around Jakku Drop Off Rey's age) were taken away from there dad. They remembered him but u think they will remember that most traumatic day. Well they didn't. But the father did. He said they were yelling, crying, kicking & screaming. Sometimes the mind subconsciously 4 gets things.

 

Yeah but it is not only that day, she specifically does not remember a single thing from that point back. Zero memory of her family or anything.