ST Wait...How did Rey know Leia?

Anybody seriously asking this question really needs to watch some other movies and see how they work: not everything has to be explicitly explained in a step by step format.

 

Totally. Watch a movie or TV that does that (constant exposition and explanation) sometime. It's poor filmmaking and quite insulting after a while.

 

To all who seem confused:
1. Rey was dropped off as a child by Leia. Up until meeting Leia she demand to return to her planet and when she sees Leia she looks relieved to have finally found her family. The reason Han did not know her face is that, as he stated, he was not around enough when Ben was younger and so he did not know her well.
2. Rey is Lukes daughter. This is why she had a vision a Skywalker trait) that had her witnessing Luke mourning at the scene of his wife's death, she sees this because she was there (this is the terrible thing Ben did when he tried to kill Luke and killed his wife instead). This is also why she was called to the light saber. Luke had not left a way for anyone but her to find him. That is why R2-D2 turns on only when she has landed on the planet he is on. He senses her signature and knows its time to give up his piece knowing she will have the smaller piece if all went correctly to his plan. He left the smaller piece with the Old man we see in the beginning and he is who is holding her arm when Rey is left on the planet as a child. Han does realize she is the Rey that is Luke's daughter when he suddenly offers her a job on his ship.
3. Rey also remembers her Jedi training as a child when she uses it the same way Obi Wan used it which Luke had showed her and when she fights KR (Ben) as he ask her to train under him she remembers her training and closes her eyes to concentrate.
4. Rey is also the only one chosen to go see Luke, not because she is pretty but because she is his daughter and Leia knows that is what was planned. There were only two pieces to the puzzle. One was left with Rey and the other with R2-D2 to give to her when she showed up.

 

It's part of the major hints that she is lukes kid, followed by Leia alone sending her off to see Luke on her own. Without any words but may the force be with you.
It is a very warm brief relationship, but not the relationship she is looking for. That's Luke.
It's clear that Leia knows who she is. Han knows for sure after maz.
Leia knows from the force as well.

It's hinted because every time they try and talk about Rey and who she is the either have the subject changed or they cut away from that conversation.
For example, Finn tells Leia about the girl, she says we know about her, we need to know what you know about the base, maz asks Han who the girl is, which is easily the more interesting question at the table, yet we spend time having maz explore Finn, then the camera cuts away just as Han is about to tell her about the girl, which is then followed by the saber, maz basically telling her to go find Luke, etc.

There are quite a few of these.

It's vague enough to not be obvious. But look at all the clues minor and major ones and you understand why Leia is looking at her, treating her the way she does.

It's her niece.

I just wish they would have said it in the film. I think that last scene would have been way more powerful. I fact the Leia scenes with Rey and the final scene is portrayed like we were told. It's what seems off to me. It's played like we know. But we don't.

To me the way the last few scenes were shot was like they just cut out the reveal, late in the process, it's shot so much like we should know what's going on.

 

Answer: the Force.

 

See my post below it might help you understand.

 

I think it may have to due with the fact Leia understood what Rey had just experienced: Being captured and tortured by a Dark Sider. Leia's son nonetheless.

People with shared traumatic experiences can connect pretty well without ever knowing each other before. PTSD, Support groups, people being trapped in a mine and hugging the first rescuer they see, etc.

The force makes people even more able to feel powerful emotions making that connection even stronger.

 

Leia knew who she was..

She said to Finn that she heard about his friend (Rey).

So once she finally appears with Millennium Falcon, Leia knows who she is.. And as she is older mommy she hugs her...
Since Rey knew who Luke and Han is she probably knows who Leia is

 

You get to this point, but you don't follow this train of thought to the logical conclusion: Most likely it was cut late in the process because they decided she wouldn't be Luke Skywalker's child after everyone in the world guessed that "twist" as soon as she was cast.

Put another way: If she were meant to be Luke Skywalker's child, there's really no reason not to explicitly reveal it in that final scene, or even have Leia tell Rey in the scene immediately preceding it, because "everyone" already sees it coming, so there's no point in playing coy about it. It'll end up being lame on-screen.

Unless of course they're following the Prequel tradition of the super-lame "mystery" ala "ZOMG Darth Sidious and Palpatine are the same person!!1!"

Though of course that didn't stop people from coming up with wild theories about that one, either....

 

Maybe Han pulled out a holopic of Leia...? I'm sure there must have been some "average, everyday" conversation between the characters we weren't privy to, right?

 

1. Completely unfounded speculation.

2. Unverified speculation. Other Jedi besides Skywalkers have visions. There is no mention, appearance, or even implication of "Luke's wife" in the film. Also, R2D2 came on for entirely different reasons. JJ Abrams made a statement on it, and it was NOT "because of Rey."

3. What jedi training as a child? Nothing in the film implies or shows Rey had Jedi training as a child. Pure fan-theory speculation.

4. She's the force-sensitive one and the one carrying the lightsaber. I'm sure Luke will be happy to go say Hi to Chewie later, but someone needed to watch the ship. R2-D2 having the map had nothing to do with Rey (see JJ Abrams' statement).

 

er. . . yeah , I must admit , it's a good question .

 

Besides it was in the Script! These characters always follow the script. It was in the Script! But yeah they could have easily avoided this by showing her talking to someone and then have that someone point out Leia for her. Good observation!

Almost as good as mine with Finn having no weapon at Maz Castle after Han just allowed him to Keep a gun. "Keep it kid!" two mintues later "I have no weapon!" and Maz hands him Luke's Lightsaber. Wha, wha, what happen to the huge gun he was just granted?

 

well they were both at the read-through , (altho I reckon Carrie's memory had to be jogged on the day of filming )

 

Leia knows Chewie well. He's preoccupied, and still angry and ashamed about Han's death. Had she tried to hug him, he would have lashed out, he's Chewie.

 

Chewie's the big hairy one , Rey's the skinny girl one .

 

I got the impression that Leia recognized Rey...very likely if Rey is Luke's daughter, and thus Leia searched her out of the crowd...then due to the situation alone Rey would know that this had to be General Leia and Han's wife.

It fit perfectly imo, not weak at all.

 

Why does Chewie and Leia not embrace? Easy, chewie never got over being called walking carpet.

 

Also some off screen conversation between Han and Maz. Right when Maz asks Han "who's the girl" they conveniently cut away. Right after Rey's vision, Maz tells Rey that the lightsaber was Anakin Skywalker's, then Luke's...now it calls to Rey.

Maz knows from Han that Rey is Luke's daughter.

 

It's best to give a wookie space when grieving or angry. He also hugged her before when he first saw her again after years.

The question of Rey's true identity, Luke should have looked confused as to say. And you are? If she's nobody. Also having her be nobody is not a reveal, so why not actually state it clearly.

 

1. Agree I saw nothing to suggest Leia dropped her off. I think Kylo dropped her off, he didn't have the heart to kill her as a child.

2. I think this is logical speculation. There are too many parallels with Rey and Anakin/Luke. Her not being a Skywalker to mirror Kylo at this point would be a mistake IMO. The first time seeing the film I immediately came away thinking it was obvious Rey was Lukes daughter. Upon a second and third viewing I think all the signs and pieces are there so audiences can reach that conclusion on their own while still leaving it not a 100% certainty leaving something to talk about until May 2017.

3. This isn't fan speculation. The vision seems to show her as a child on whatever planet the Knight of Ren attack and kill the other Jedi. One of the knights of ren tries to kill her and Kylo stabs him in the back to stop him. So yes the movie heavily implies she was at least exposed to the force as a child whether she received any substantial training is another story.

4. Luke reaction also seemed to imply he recognizes her. Both become very emotional to the point of nearly crying. This doesn't happen unless they are family IMO.

 

This is not an oversight. At some point Kasdan and Abrams sat down and wrote "Rey leaves the Falcon and embraces Leia" or words to that effect. In one of the final scenes. In a film where Abrams has been notoriously control freaky about the details.

They left out the exposition on purpose because they want the speculation to bubble over to VIII. At that point we'll learn that Rey's memories returned in full during the Kylo duel, and that Leia sensed her brother's presence when Rey walked out of the Falcon.

 

She's a general, a leader. She obviously knew about her from what Finn, Han or BB8 had already told her while laying low at the rebel base. On top of that, it's quite clear that Rey is related to Luke or Obi Wan. Leia may even know exactly who she is, what she's been through, etc. She saw and recognized this traumatized, yet powerful girl and as a general, a force sensitive leader and a mother, she embraced her. It all makes even more sense when Leia says to her "May to force be with you" and sends her on possibly the most important mission she, as a general of the resistance, has sent anybody.

Leia saw and felt through the force, her story, lineage and potential as soon as the Falcon arrived.

 

2. Star Wars generally isn't that subtle. Given that it seems like deliberate clues that would point further in that direction were actually cut from the final film, I'm betting on "They decided she's NOT a Skywalker" which quite frankly is vastly more interesting than yet another example of the Skywalkers being the only people that matter in the galaxy or can ever be really strong in the Force.

3. That's a heavily slanted interpretation of the Vision, we don't yet fully know //what// that vision entailed or whether Rey was revisiting her own memories or seeing through someone else's eyes.

4. Or Luke's reaction could be a combination of having felt his best friends' death at the hands of his nephew. Mourning for both his friend and the "loss" of his nephew. Couple that with the pile of emotions seeing that lightsaber probably evokes in him and there's plenty of reasons Luke might get a little teary-eyed.It's absolutely open for interpretation either way.

As I've said many times: It's entirely possible Rey is Luke's daughter, but it cannot be stated with a certainty. All the available evidence can certainly be read in different ways than "clearly she's Luke's kid."

My personal opinion is that it would be unbelievably lazy storytelling, make for a lame reveal, make the Galaxy seem smaller (again), and provide yet another (unnecessary) mirroring of the OT, and turn Luke Skywalker into a Galactic-Class Deadbeat Dad with a side of nonsensical storytelling (Leia can sense Han die but Luke can't sense his own force-sensitive daughter is alive?). Let her just be a force-gifted girl. Open up the Galaxy a little more.

 

I don't know why people waste time saying things like unfounded. If you don't like what I suggest than write your own post of what you think. I have foundational info to support my interpretation, just because you don't agree does not make it unfounded. It just makes it what you don't like to hear. If my claim to her family status is correct and Luke left town with a big target on his back Leia is a logical conclusion to my analysis. I take Rey's look at Leia when they see each other combined with Leia ignoring Chewy as a sign of significance and representation of story going in this direction. Also the JJ Abrams interview said what things were going on during R2 turning on and he specifically did not say it was unrelated to Rey. I never said I was stating fact this is a discussion forum. There are rules here. If something is official then you stamp it that way. I just posted my thoughts like everyone else.

I also think saying something is so easy to figure out is lazy storytelling is stupid. It's Star Wars. The entire storyline up until now has been far from complex or sophisticated. By the way, I have seen the movie 16 times. You may not agree with me on what I think but I'm sure I have seen it well enough to make some arguments. I guessed the Vader Father plot when I saw Star Wars, the prequels were not even a challenge, and this one is too easy. JJ Abrams did an interview in the very beginning where is said Lucas was right Star Wars is essentially a family Soap Opera about the Skywalkers. Six movies so far have stuck to that ideal, now suddenly you think it changed to something else.