ST Rey parentage discussion (post TLJ)

Figured I would start up this thread again since a lot of people have a massive interest in it. Figure that there won't be nearly as much disagreeing after watching TLJ since we have a much firmer grasp of the answer.

Well we still don't have actual names (I'm assuming that is going to be something they are going to allow the books and comics to fill in) but nobody was the answer (lol infact they even said nobody in the film).

Filthy junk traders who sold her for drinking money was what Kylo said. It's pretty clear with this answer which direction Disney is taking Star Wars from now on. This is no longer strictly a Skywalker saga. From now on anybody will have the potential to become really special. Which is really the direction the saga needs to go if they want to be making Star Wars movies for the next fifty years.

Not sure how much interest there will be in discussing this topic anymore since Rey's parents obviously aren't going to be any legacy characters. But figured I would open up a new thread so people could talk about their feelings on the matter again.

I'll just say this regarding all the theories that were out there. None of them were right and none of them were wrong prior to TLJ. TFA created a situation where anything could have worked. They just ended up chosing to go with the fact that her parents were likely just Jakku locals.

 

For what it's worth, that isn't 100% confirmation that she's Rey Random. Could very well be a lie to try convincing her to join him.
And I think Kylo/Ben is just as much a main character as Rey herself. Both entries in the ST so far have been just as much his movie as hers, which I very much like and find unique

 

Yeah, I believe Kylo was just saying that to turn her.

 

I'll wait until Episode 9 to see if she's really a random. Kylo really could have been just been saying that. Heck he could have been talking about his own parents.

 

No we won't have a 100% confirmation that she is Random until we actually see her parents in canon. However there is probably a 99% probability that her parents are going to be junkyard traders.

 

Not to be melodramatic but the whole "Who are Reys parents?" ride (if she is actually random) was just cruel! It wasn't something they needed to hide...

 

Not to be melodramatic but the whole "Who are Reys parents?" ride (if she is actually random) was just cruel! It wasn't something they needed to hide...

 

Rey said they were nobody. They were nobody.

 

Rey Random is canon as far as I'm concerned. There is really no need to drag this crap out for another 2 years.

 

Rey Random is canon as far as I'm concerned. There is really no need to drag this crap out for another 2 years.

 

The idea that she was just abandoned/sold is presumably a fear of Rey's. Ben is tapping into this fear to break her. There's very little reason to accept the suggestion in TLJ yet.

 

Rey Solo without a slither of doubt now.

Two reasons;

Firstly in the cave, two shadows came to the other side of that crystal wall. A tall man and a short woman; one with a hair-do like Leias. Sure, a piece cracked off to reveal Rey's face, but for me the two shadows were Han and Leia.

Secondly, in Snoke's throne room when the two battle for that lightsaber, neither could pull the saber to them. They have the same RAW power and the saber ends up splitting into two equal parts. I think that is pretty symbolic.

I think Kylo was telling some porky pies to Rey to get her to side with him. Abit of mental manipulation. Because when he talks of a "junk trader", I think he is referring to Han; especially as he tells his gunners to blow that hunk of junk (The Falcon) out of the sky.

The movie posters, parts in TFA, parts in the TFA novel points the way to Rey Solo. I am now a firm believer.

This is my interpretation of things.

 

If that was true - Wouldn't the "I am your older brother" card trump the "You are a nobody" card if he were trying to get her to join him??

 

She's Rey Random.

The whole point of her being no connection to anyone, and the slave boy at the end, shows that force users are born without any force sensitive parentage. It's a good way to take the story going forward.

 

Absolutely. Rey's desperate for family and connections - joining her "brother" or even "cousin" Ben would be a greater motivation than "hot age appropriate FS dude" ... and I doubt that Kylo would not use this to lure her.

She's Rey Random though to be fair, since Rian's been quoted as saying that "nothing was set after TFA" as far as plot goes, implying that he could take things as he saw fit (which he very thoroughly has), it is possible that JJ saw her in a different light.

 

Not with Leia still alive it wouldn't

 

I still think (hope) Luke is Rey's father.
Maybe she had her memories blocked and was left in Jakku for protection (so the First Order couldn't get to her) or something, idk
But it was hinted all over TFA:

• she has a strong Force connection;
• natural piloting skills (further improved by her Force sensitivity);
• FO Officer tells Kylo that BB-8 was accompained by a girl on Jakku, Kylo's "What girl?" overreaction;
• when Maz asks Han "Who's the girl?" (scene cuts);
• she had a vision of Vader facing Luke on Bespin then of Kylo Ren killing the Jedi -- all of them Skywalkers;
• Maz: "This was Luke's lightsaber. And his father's before him. Now it calls to you.";
• Maz: "You already know the truth. Whoever you're waiting for on Jakku... They're not coming back. But there is someone that could." Rey: "Luke." Maz: "What you're searching for is not on the past, but lies ahead" (or something like that);
• when the FO trooper says he saw BB-8 heading north during Maz Castle's raid and adds "along with the girl", Kylo turns to chase;
• Anakin's saber "chooses" to go to Rey instead of Kylo. The novel states he "recognizes her";

As for the mirror scene, when she wants to know who her parents are: Luke is cut off from the Force. That's well estabilished on the previous scene where she is meditating and feeling her surrounding but states she felt nothing at all from Luke and that would be why she couldn't see him.
It didn't even need to be a big twist or surprise. Idk, I just think Rey Random after all that was hinted is pretty dumb (not worse than Rey Kenobi or Rey Palpatine, though).

The more I think about it, the more it seems to me like they planned on her being a Skywalker and set it up during TFA, but then during TLJ RJ just went "naah".

 

I still think its a misdirection and that her parentage is still gonna be a bigger deal then what they are trying to convince you of.

If it turns out its not then it falls flat because yeah maybe there is an on the nose kinda we think we are clever by setting up a surprise but then going aaaah fooled you! but in term of her place in the saga i still think it makes sense there is more to her then meets the eye.

 

I really like Rey Random. I didn't even think about that as a possibility*, but in a franchise where the central character's role is often defined because of their lineage (Luke's father was Anakin, Anakin was conceived by the midichlorians, Jyn's father helped with the Death Star, Kylo is conflicted with his grandfather's legacy and of course the bridge scene, and even the Clone Wars movie was about someone being kidnapped because Jabba was their father) having this character who doesn't know who their parents are, and then turns out that they are really no-one of note. Bit unsure whether this made sense with regard to established facts seeing as adult Rey doesn't seem to be owned by Unkar Plutt (I only saw TLJ at midnight release so need to again) but thematically I feel this is something the Star Wars Saga needed.

Time may tell whether this was the best move, but other than Rey herself being conceived by the midichlorians, I can't align myself with any option other than Rey Random.

In response to the OP's point about 'a Skywalker saga', I really wonder, especially considering the tragic passing Carrie Fisher last year, whether this might be the start of the end of the Skywalker line started by Shimi and whether the Skywalker Saga as a whole will end definitively by the end of Episode IX.

*Okay, I heard one speculation, but that was more in the context of randomers who were killed by Snoke or he had imprisoned, that or First Order officers, which still counts in my mind cos it's not Rey Kenobi or Rey Palpatine. But never in the way it was done in the film.

 

I think Rey's parents are truly no one, so it doesn't disminish her efforts by being the daughter of Luke, Leia, Snoke, Obi-Wan, etc.

She is special because she is Rey. Not anyone else. The message is that anybody can be special. I like it.

 

I really doubt this was mean to be anything other than a definitive answer. Really interesting how the question took on a meta sense within the universe. I really ended up liking it, though I can see why others wouldn't.

 

I think Rey's parents are truly no one, so it doesn't disminish her efforts by being the daughter of Luke, Leia, Snoke, Obi-Wan, etc.

She is special because she is Rey. Not anyone else. The message is that anybody can be special. I like it.

 

Exactly. It wasn't just Kylo saying it. Rey says that she knows they were nobody important. She admits that she was in denial.

Then why try to visually tie her to the Skywalkers in TFA? They clearly thought they needed that tie-in to make people care more about her. They played it up and used it. They should have just went random from the beginning

 

AS a Rey Random advocate..... I'm still not 100% convinced. As others mentioned, Snoke was playing on her fears, and so was Kylo. I think it's LIKELY true, and that she has now let that go. But there is a whisp of doubt for me.

 

That's a great point. I was kind of thinking it was BS, but I like this idea much better.

 

Rey is a random, the movie paints her as knowing this but simply denying it. I don't get why people wanted or needed her to be a Solo or Skywalker or even Kenobi, plenty of people in Disney and in Legends continuity outside the Skywalker/Solo clan can and have become extremely powerful Force users. Revan was just a dude and he became a legend, Exar Kun was also just a guy, became extremely powerful, Yoda was also just another member of his species and he was the strongest Jedi for a thousand years.

It also pisses off the many Rey parentage conspiracy theorists which is an automatic win for me.

 

I still don't think we need the "anyone can be special" message with the main character in the Skywalker Saga. I mean, I still think the plot makes a whole lot more sense if she's related but if random is the way they want to go.... Okay.... But I don't think focusing on the Skywalkers limits the potential for others to be special in other movies. It just is focusing on the main family at hand. I never got the impression from the films that one had to be a Skywalker to succeed; look at all the other Jedi in the prequels.

But I still don't understand, and probably never really will, why marketing played up the parentage debate if a random is what we were getting. They could have just simply said "she is unrelated to any character we've meant before" and moved on since it is a bit of a lackluster reveal.

 

the mirrors scene made me think 'oh she's a clone' , but maybe that was a deliberate misdirection .

tbh - I think they've fudged this now , so is her conclusion the right one ? Is it resolved now ?

 

Daisy, herself, has always been puzzled with the fans fascination with who her parents were. It is the fans, who honestly decided it was important. As I've said plenty of times, there was nothing in TFA that suggested her heritage was significant.

The disappointment can be squarely left in the hands of a minority of the fan base.