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

Yeah.

J. J. Abrams: "[Rey] needed to be vulnerable and tough, sweet and terrified." (April 1, 2016)

J. J. Abrams: "Star Wars is many things. At the core, it’s this family saga. It’s a family drama. It is about finding your own strength and finding connections with people you wouldn’t anticipate knowing. It’s about secrets and causes and joining something larger than yourself. Good and evil." (Star Wars Insider magazine #162 January 2016 issue – released: December 22, 2015)

http://www.sleightsofmind.com/

 

Stilling wondering how all these quotes from Abrams suggest the reveal will be Rey Solo, rather than something else.

Simply copying and pasting dozens of quotes about a different character whose mom ain't no Leia and whose dad was known and involved in her life from childhood isn't itself a theory or an argument.

 

Abrams is not the architect of the ST--RJ is. Johnson had input on TFA, is writing and directing TLJ and is writing the treatment for IX.

Whatever stories Abrams has written in the past have little bearing on matters since a) Star Wars is not Alias, Lost or anything else, and b) TFA had to be adapted to suit Johnson's plans for the ST. Even if Abrams wrote Rey initially as a Solo/Skywalker/Ackbar/whatever, she will end up being whatever Johnson's film needed her to be.

 

Well 90% of the respondents here fell the magic trick Abrams set up. Instead of congratulating them I think it's done more harm than good because a lot of people are gonna be PO'ed when the time comes.

 

Ironically, I think the only people who will be truly PO'd (assuming the execution is decent - and bar the normal percentage of people who will think any new SW film is the worst thing since Herpes) are those who point blank refuse to consider any other possibility but their own personal preference that they insist on hammering any bit of evidence to fit, whether it does or not. I don't think Solo is that likely, but if that's who she is, and they pull it off and I look like a chump, brilliant.

 

Do you mean the 90% who didn't vote "Han and Leia's daughter" will be upset when she's revealed to be a Solo? Or that the 10% who did vote for that option will be upset if Johnson reworks the direction of the story?

 

Look, let's face it - none of us know that we're right. You don't know Rey is a Solo. You're clearly a firm believer in that theory, but you don't know that it's the truth. I really think this whole thread would be way more fun if we all just stopped acting like we knew exactly how things are going to play out.

And the magic trick might well not be hiding the rabbit you're expecting.

 

well I know for a fact that I'm right to say that Rey has parents.

 

Quite. Anything could end up being the case. None of us knows for sure.

 

Ah, so you're denying the clone theory!

 

did someone say anything? I swear I read something about Jango. Although not sure what it has to do with Rey.

 

Ah, but I'm partial to the 'Rey hatched from an egg' theory, myself. We can't dare to make assumptions!

 

I just want to know if the Jakku Research Facility has anything to do with Rey.

 

I'll still love SW regardless of Rey's lineage. No secret I have some preferences with regards to the new characters, but ultimately the writing and acting trump all of that.

 

I think Magnar is trying to point out that the character of Rey overall is based on Sydney. J.J described Sydney as "a girl with a secret",which is what Rey is. And given that parentage reveals play a big part in Alias, we can expect one for Rey too. You have to take other things into account to make the Solo connection.

 

Totally speculating here, but I don't think KK left Rey's lineage to JJ or RJ. I think she told them to write a trilogy about *Rey Whoever, and wished them luck. SW is, as everyone from GL to JJ to KK say, a family soap opera. They started with what family they were describing, and built from there. I personally just can't see them writing out outlines and scenes and then after that being like, hmmm, so how should we answer this mystery box we have built? Well, actually, I could see JJ doing that for sure, but not LF.

 

This bears repeating.

And I won't be upset by any reveal, as long as it's handled well. It's probably a good idea for everyone to think of their least favourite outcomes and make peace with them before December.

 

But what if that secret is that she's a Skywalker? Or a clone? Or a freakin' baboon? How does it suggest a Solo?

The only evidence I can see for Rey Solo is that she looks a bit like Jaina and would have a dark-sider as her brother.

 

By "other things" I meant other things we have discussed in this thread. Leias_Left_Bun has made a few great posts on it, for example.

 

It's not so much necessarily a matter of, "Eh, we'll just wing it," so much as the development process revealing a story perhaps different from the one they started with initially. That's why prequels are so hard to get right--you've got these fixed bits of plot and character that have to be written around; in the case of the ST, however, Rey will become whomever the story demands at the time, just as how Vader was Luke's father from ESB onwards and Leia was Luke's twin from ROTJ onwards.

 

I get what you're saying, I just am inclined to think that is not how they view it. I think it was more, the story would be what Rey Whoever needed it to be to be a good story. JJ has said he was told to write the story of a girl jedi. I think he probably was told not just that the star has to be a girl, but also who she is. I think the family aspect of SW is the number one most important part in the eyes of LF.

 

Taking the various hints and multiple interpretations of them into consideration, I think it would be safe to say that they have a general outline of the story that they want to tell. It could change at any time, but I doubt that Rey's parentage wasn't narrowed down during the TFA writing sessions.

 

Er I'm pretty sure neither Abrams or Johnson are the ones who got to decide Rey's identity, at least - all indications are that came from Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy most likely had the final say on what they used from Lucas' ideas. What would be up to Abrams and Johnson is how the story unfolds around the character that KK handed them, and on the character's motives, personality, etc. I would bet anything neither Abrams or Johnson had the power at any point to drastically change Rey's core identity.

And Abrams certainly had plenty of sway over the story of TFA and by necessity that shaped the future direction of the series. Because like, RJ came in when filming had already started, and he had input on various things, but to suggest he could have flipped everyone's initial plans on their head seems crazy to me. He was given the keys and he can go where he wants, sure, but he can't switch vehicles, to use a bad analogy lol. I think yes ultimately the trilogy will reflect his ideas more than Abrams because he will have had more creative control over 2 out of 3 films instead of just 1. But I don't believe for a second that he could do something like change Rey from being a Skywalker to a non-Skywalker, or to have switched Skywalker parents, or trash a previous existing Random backstory to create his own.

I also don't see how you can say an author's previous work doesn't have bearing on something else they wrote considering this is the case for pretty much... all writers. All writers recycle their own ideas. Some are better than others at making recycled ideas seem fresh but they all do it.