ST Daisy Ridley (Rey) in the ST

YES lol. Nobody has to like fiction. I have no idea where this sense of entitlement comes to with respect to this movie. If people watch a movie and think a thing, especially a large portion of the audience, that's on the movie.

@Martoto77 ~ that's exactly what I see when people say things like it's the audience's fault for misreading TFA blah blah blah. I have never seen this kind of critique on the audience for any other movie or book. People got what they got from TFA, and that's because of TFA.

 

That dialogue doesn't state that though. It states that Luke looked and saw what Ben will become and what he will do.

The ambiguity is based on how he perceives. Not what he perceives. He did see what Ben will become. But his focus, and the circumstances, determined the reality he was perceptive of.

By the way. Luke's vision in ESB was accurate. But his focus did not allow him to see the outcome of what he saw, or appreciate the circumstances of his prescience.

In TLJ. His vision is accurate but his focus blinded him to the pivotal moment that would set those future outcomes. And that, tragically, was that very same fleeting moment when Luke was gripped with fear of those consequences.

 

Is it truly that the narrative flew over the audience. Or is there a subset of the audience that was so convinced heading into the ST that Rey was already a Solo or a Skywalker. I for one went into the first viewing of TFA absolutely convinced that Rey was Rey Solo and that we would get this reveal. When it didn't happen, I stopped believing that.

But are others (and I don't mean anyone here, I'm using it as in "other viewers not other wise specified" where it is not a matter of missing what the narrative was setting out but rather refuse to believe what the narrative set out.

When I was nine, I was absolutely convinced that Darth Vader was lying and we were being fed a false narrative that he was Luke's father. I believed that for 3 years and would not be swayed otherwise. I was convinced it was a tall tale, and there would be an mystery revealed with the truth in ROTJ

It wasn't that I didn't hear the words myself, or read it in the tie-in novel (which is probably the one novel I have read more times than any other one in my life). I heard it, Luke I am your father.

I just refused to believe or acknowledge it for three years.

And then it was true, and no denial about the storyline put forth in ESB and ROTJ made that narrative false.

 

Yeah, I was just about to point that out: a massive portion of the audience went into TFA already convinced Rey was going to be a Skywalker or a Solo, and when the movie didn't directly disprove either of those theories, they continued to believe in them. Myself included!

It's less that TFA itself created a parentage mystery and more that people had already created one in their minds.

 

@Deerborne And it certainly didn't help that some of those first spoilers we were getting referenced Rey as a Solo. For me that is what had me convinced going into the film that she was a lost legacy child.

 

Either or. I presumed. Seemed like the "easy" thing to do.

 

It does say that. From the subs:

“I'd sensed it building in him. I'd seen it in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, [he’s holding his hand out, as Kylo did when reading Rey’s mind] and it was beyond what I ever imagined [at this point there’s the man’s yell and woman’s scream]. Snoke had already turned his heart.”

He said looked inside Ben’s mind. Not “And I saw a vision...” And his hand gesture matches Kylo’s when he tried to read Rey’s mind.

There ya go.

 

Ha. You're right about that!

On a side note if TFA really didn't include anything to suggest that Rey was related to somebody in the OT then it's truly bizarre that there has been a worldwide phenomena where millions of people from all walks of life, all ages, from numerous countries all around the globe all went and saw TFA and many of those people left the theater thinking that Rey was very possibly related to somebody in the OT even though there was supposedly no evidence to suggest that in the TFA. All those people coincidentally thought she might be related based on nothing?

 

@JoJoPenelli Kylo repeatedly boasts about the images of the island etc that he can see when he looks into her mind.

Kylo would have to have been thinking about all the things in the future that come to pass if Luke only "read" his thoughts.

Let's agree to disagree on that point and maybe discuss how it affects our assessment of how Luke misconceiving/misinterpreting/presuming Ben's future influences their stories in an appropriate thread. If you like.

 

Okay, and an absurd amount of people thought Snoke was Plagueis or some other Legends character despite there being no evidence pointing towards that whatsoever.

A lot of what fans perceived to be signs pointing to Rey Skywalker, Rey Solo, Rey Kenobi, and what have you were ultimately innocuous.

Rey paralleled Luke and Anakin because JJ wanted to follow in what he considers the "essence" and "fundamental tenets" of Star Wars, which includes a lonely kid dressed in light clothes on a backwater desert planet. It's classic Star Wars imagery, not a hint at her lineage.

A big deal was made of Kylo asking "what girl!?" when he finds out about Rey, but that's just because he wants to know who the hell is ruining his plans and causing him so much trouble. There's nothing to suggest it's a wink at the audience. We read too much into it.

Do I blame fans for taking any of these things the way they did? No, because, again, I did the same thing. But looking back I'm able to see where I may have just had a case of confirmation bias. It's not a question of who's "fault" it is. We were just wrong. That's all there is to it.

 

another point, this is star wars where this



happened.

So i think its natural to question who is the father/mother of new character without a last name. I would say, its innate for us star wars fans.

 

And this was reinforced with Spaceballs.



The idea of the secret relative has been propagated in pop culture since Vader uttered "I am your father."

And that expectation is hammered home in other sagas like Jon Snow's parentage reveal in Game of Thrones. This trope has played out so many times in other venues, that I suspect we all assumed it would play out in the ST.

But at the end of the day, Rey isn't related to the OT3. She is her own character with her own, albeit nebulous, family history.

 

But why would JJ surround Rey with OT imagery merely for the sake of capturing Star Wars essence when he should've known that doing so would also invite fans to think she might be related to somebody in the OT? In other words why would he risk wiping up fan speculation about Rey's parentage if he never intended Rey's parentage to be a mystery?

Seems like JJ could've come up with another way to capture the essence of Star Wars that would've completely sidestepped suggesting a mysterious backstory for Rey. I'm never going to believe that JJ spent months working on TFA and didn't think that his story and imagery was going to lead people to think she's related to the OT cast.

Also people have been capturing Star Wars essence in stories for decades without making their lead character a Luke-like Force user on a desert planet who has a special connection to Luke's lightsaber and has visions that have everything to do with the Skywalker family and nothing to personal do with herself.

 

The biggest red herring was that trailer for TFA with the Luke voice over on it.

Made it seem like the new character was a Skywalker

 

Exactly. Part of the TFA marketing was very overtly playing on the idea that one of the new characters was related to Luke. That's not something we imagined or read wrong. The powers that be very much wanted us to be speculating that one of these new characters was related to Luke.

 

Sure, it made it sound like he was talking to rey. But listen to the voice over again. It is the speech he gave leia in Return of the Jedi.

 

There is a new character that is related to Luke.

 

I can't recall what I thought about it at the time. But I imagine I'd have been taking a significant leap to conclude that the gir in the trailerl, whoever she is, is most likely related to Luke based only on that voice over. If I was taking a punt on it at the time, there's just as much likelihood that the masked figure that also appears in the trailer is the "family" being referred to.

 

If only he’d said those words to Rey in a film, followed by “because you’re my daughter/ niece”. But he didn’t. So, I guess film trumps whatever you want to read into the marketing everytime. She also says “I’m no one” in the marketing so there’s your get out clause if you need one. Or, you could have kept your mind open to all the options as TFA made zero cast iron promises and actively separated out Rey’s family from Luke Skywalker and also gave zero mentions whatsoever of a missing/ lost/ dead Solo girl.

 

As it should.

 

TBH - I always thought the marketing was speaking to you, the viewer.

It was an evocative thing imo.

Did it hint at familial revelations? Given the history of the saga, sure, I’d say that’s fair. But I think zero guarantees were given and if people on these boards were able to suggest that Random was a valid option then it was hardly an inconceivable impossibility.

 

They could've reused any line from Return of the Jedi and yet they very purposely picked THAT line to recontextualize so that audiences would speculate about the parentage of the new characters.

 

Interestingly enough, though, Mark recorded an “old Luke” echo for that voiceover.

Ifit’s directed to a character at all, it’s not Kylo. The ST isn’t primarily about Kylo.

@The Regular Mustache

Well, KK has literally stated (post-TFA, pre-TLJ) that it’s a mystery. An intentional one. I think that pretty much ends the argument of whether or not Rey’s parentage was intended to be a mystery or not.

 

Exactly. Han's "we're home" was meant for the audience, just like Luke's "you have that power" line. It was all about making the audience feeling the "magic" of Star Wars again.

 

What dictates that the line is directed at who the ST is primarily about, if anyone seen in the trailer?

And was the trailer supposed to nominate who the ST was primarily to be about in any case?