ST The Rey Parentage Thread (with new poll; see notes on page 2447)

It's stated on his twitter bio: www.twitter.com/missingwords "Lover of all things Star Wars. Fan of fandom. Comic junkie. Pop culture fiend. Disneyland citizen. Hockey player. Creative Executive, Lucasfilm Story Group."

Here he is w/ other Story Group members: https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/817952983723876352

 

What for??

 

That's OK. You've just heard of him and he's not as well-known as Pablo.

It's on his social media profiles, which are linked on his official SW page, that he's in the story group.

I don't think they're trying to stop speculation, it seems they try to answer what they can, and fans can decide for themselves to take it or leave it.

An unrelated character could always become part of a family through other means such as adoption, marriage, etc. It might not make much sense now but hey, there's still two films to go...

 

That doesn't sound like a girl power move. Depriving Rey Random of her own identity and bringing her into the Skywalker family and justifying it that way sounds pretty convoluted to me. If she's Random, given the build up, I'd much prefer the story to focus on her history and her family and her destiny. I definitely don't care to see our new girl hero become defined by marriage and by her husband (massive eye roll on that one).

Rey's identity is what matters in Rey's story. We are one third of the way into her story and the mystery box is who is she, not what family is going to replace her non-existent identity. Anything can happen, but to me that would be weak and it still doesn't mean that random LF employee's tweets on the matter close the discussion (the way it was initially implied).

 

Pablo Hidalgo had a very interesting response on Rey's clothing on Jakku in the Forceback sequence:

https://mobile.twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/823709608690626560

Basically implying many are simply assuming that was the moment she was dropped off but that's strictly an assumption. My interpretation is that it wasn't when she was dropped off and that we can seriously open up theories without the constraints of imagining somebody leaving her in that moment with Plutt.

 

Oh, I like this very much.

My theory has been, for some time now, that her family is from Jakku and she wasn't merely dropped off there.

 

Ender_and_Bean i did really like your idea that every time a ship lands little rey goes running out hoping it's her family. so sad and it makes a lot of sense. and you're right, it could be she was born on jakku (if that's one of your points) and her family flew away. any ship taking off; maybe it would take her to her family. where do all the ships go? why don't any of the incoming ones bring her family.

and even more sad, by the time we see her in TFA she's not even trying to leave anymore. she sees ships come and go. she sits by that old woman looking at her future, but it's like she's not as freaked out as she could be. (coping mechanisms)

 

I say: created in a lab, descendant of Palpatine or of Padme's sister. Take it from me. This is 100% guaranteed <alt facts, of course>

 

admittedly, rey as a palpatine has always intrigued me...

 

His replies amount to 'huh? what? I don't get what you're saying?'

 

That's certainly a fair interpretation as well.

It's pretty clear that scene has served as an effective misdirect for many. Let's be real. He's never going to spoil anything firmly and definitively but I took his response of "what are you assuming?" to the question of "Why are her clothes tattered and dirty and ready for life on Jakku if she just got off that ship?" to be like a teacher coaching us to find something he's unwilling to state outright. "What assumption are we making?" That she was first left on Jakku in that moment."

It's an assumption that may prove to be incorrect.

 

I don't think her clothes have anything to do with anything... This twitter conversation just seems to be a very roundabout convoluted way of asking Hidalgo if Rey was born on Jakku or not. I mean, man, just spit it out in the question!

 

You know Pablo. He'd never answer that. He's smarter than that. You have to think like a lawyer when speaking with him and bring everything back to his actual role at Lucasfilm. His role isn't to spoil or confirm theories. It's to address questions of consistency, continuity, accuracy and EU specifics. So long as you give him an out and make it more about those areas and something that's happened and is now part of canon but is causing debate and make it less about theory or a big story point he's shown he's willing to toss the occasional bone to the hard core fan who has put in the effort to frame the question correctly in a way where it feels like his job to answer. Even then it will always be subtle.

 

I'm sorry but the idea that Lucasfilm isn't releasing post-ROTJ material for Luke simply because they don't think there's much demand for it is absurd, especially when you look at how they're promoting Episode VIII. Luke is the first character we see in the production teaser. Rian spent more time talking about Luke than even Rey in his first interview about VIII. The freaking title of the movie is The Last Jedi. Luke was also the only OT character to make it onto last year's SWC poster - even Vader was left off, despite the emphasis on Rogue One. So if focus really does determine reality, I'd say Rey Skywalker fans have plenty of reasons to feel optimistic.

 

Maybe the fact that there are no EU stories about Luke yet is because what he's being doing post-ROTJ is so important it has to be covered in the actual film and not EU material which is ancillary at best.

If anything now we know that Luke and Rey's relationship and Luke's history are key aspects of the film, and the title is basically Episode VIII: A Luke Skywalker story, they're banking on "fan interest" in Luke to be pretty high. The point of #where'sluke was to build to this point, not shunt him away because no one cares about him anymore.

 

makes all the sense that Luke and Rey's past are connected to each other and the relationship is an expansion of that.

it would be weird that Rey's backstory gets explained while also separately going over Luke's backstory and both of these are unrelated.

 

And it's not very good mystery box story telling either. It's not so much telling a story, more an advert to get people to tune in next time. It's basically about drawing in the numbers. JJ probably doesn't even know the answer or even care about having one. That's not what it's about.

To be frank I think JJ is a bit of a vulture. He goes into other people's franchises and squeezes as much cash as he can get from them before leaving and moving on to the next.

 

Whether PH answered the question or not, it's a legitimate observation that builds on PH's tweet to remind us Rey's vision is impressionistic. Therefore, I think the easiest way to remove the knot most lineage theories have ("what jerk would leave Rey with Plutt?") is to rethink what we're seeing. Why aren't we speculating more about that? The vision may not be saying she was left/ ditched/abandoned/handed off/traded with Plutt, but she ENDED UP with Plutt...like she had already been on Jakku for a while, or always.

I really like that idea of little Rey running out to ships, thinking it's her family. Again. (Didnt we get notions of this from TFA concept art?) It would make perfect sense that Unkar keeps dragging her off the tarmac. Again. All this manifesting itself in older Rey still thinking her family's coming back...And, perhaps, little Rey tells Unkar Luke Skywalker will save her someday (because she's heard that name ) and Unkar keeps telling her to drop it. That guy's a myth.

 

as long as rey palp isn't her as a weird clone or something though star wars is sci-fi, this would be to sci-fi for me for star wars. rey palp could be very very interesting though I believe with everything she is a skywalker its plain and clear.

 

Now, I don't think that's entirely fair. I do find it interesting that Rey wore the same type of outfit (and haircut) when she was dropped off as she has her whole time on Jakku. Whoever dropped her off clearly geared her up for a life in the desert.

 

The clothes are deliberate. They're the slight of hand many missed. She wasn't dropped off in that moment. She came to lose whomever her parents are before that and has been on Jakku some time before. The Forceback simply showed her a painful memory. One where she's longed for family over and over and never found it.

We have already had one Forceback moment that everyone thought was some key turning point turn out to be a misdirect. Remember everyone swearing that Rey was in Luke's Temple and that that the scene of her in the mud was her facing the Knights of Ren as they slaughtered the other young Jedi? All of that is wrong. Bloodline confirmed the timeline as wrong and puts Rey on Jakku well before Ben turns on the temple. The script also called the man killed a "Clan leader."

The novelization of TFA also added that Rey heard the sounds of warfare and a voice saying they'd be right back sweetie. That last bit is what we'll find out more of later on.

 

While that's a possibility, we dont really know for sure.

 

maybe Rey is the last Jedi and descendant of the 1st Jedi.
but that doesn't answer the question of who her parents are.