ST Rey Skywalker/Daisy Ridley Discussion Thread

they can’t let Rey have anything original to herself can they? Yes I realize others have had Yellow savers, but now of course Luke has had one. Just another hammy down. Let Rey just be Rey!!!!

 

I didn't find anything wrong with Finn's attitude to Rose in TROS. He asked her if she wanted to come along, and she told him no because Leia asked her to do something. That's more than Poe or Rey said to her. At least Finn talked to her.

I think Rose should've been on the first mission, when they get the message from Boolio. She should've been fixing the ship instead of Klaud. Klaud doesn't even have hands, so I don't get why he was there fixing the ship.

As for the Luke comic, Rey is supposed to be the Luke Skywalker spiritual heir in the same way Ben Solo is supposed to be Darth Vader's, so is it really any surprise the creators are drawing comparisons between them? They obviously want her to be his kid, despite them not writing it. But the comics are so weird anyway.

 

Luke had a yellow saber in every Kenner toy up to Return of the Jedi. Then they finally gave him a blue one and only later made it green. I think that's part of why I like Rey's yellow saber at the end. But there are also other reasons.

 

Finn was never “smuggish” or whatever to Rose. Rose was in RoS for like 300 seconds. That isn’t time for anything between the two. What a ridiculous distraction in the Rey thread from a discussion of Rey’s treatment of her pal Finn, which occurred throughout the film. The substance of Finn and Rose’s interactions were in TLJ, and they weren’t great, though not because Finn treated Rose badly. It’s the opposite. Rose was terrible to Finn, and like with Rey to Finn in RoS and TLJ, the narrative wrote her as correct in treating Finn like garbage.

 

I got a father/daughter relationship between luke and Rey. I can see why people still thought she was his daughter even after Last Jedi.

 

I was still hoping for it but in the end the actual revelation was more dramatic and it made more sense, without completely erasing what she learned in the penultimate film.

Darth Buzz, I don't know how you feel, but comments like the one in that twitter post make me cringe. While I accept that Star Wars will have a really broad audience, to me someone who looks at it that way just really doesn't get it. They don't really care about Star Wars, they care about something else. Kind of like the people who were really mad that Rey Random wasn't true.

Star Wars has always been about preserving legacies, even before the Vader twist came along. Rey gets the honor of carrying on the tradition that Ben Kenobi passed down to Luke. It's what real fans (if I may use the term) have always wanted for her and it's the fulfillment of the highest calling she could have. It also goes some distance to rehabilitating and further honoring Luke as a character for his work to contribute further to her success. She also goes beyond him so it isn't as though she fails to bring something important to the table. I guess there will always be readings that make me roll my eyes among certain corners of the fandom. If you want to call it fandom.

If I have a complaint about the clip it is that the thing is crammed with spoilers. Come on, people!

 

I think it made less sense. I also think it was poorly revealed within the film. I liked the message that she was nobody and what it meant for her journey. This message still could have been conveyed until the very end, too.

Imo it would work better, if she was related to palpatine, that she be his own success at creating life.

 

She gets stripped of her identity in TROS as a result though. She takes there name, models her cloths after Leia, goes to their home that they hated. She has to earn the legacy saber all of a sudden after using it the first two movies. She doesn’t get to just be the Rey we had met in the first two movies. She becomes a plot device to make room for Palpatine and the Skywalker legacy.

 

To be clear, I think the Palpatine ancestry made more sense after TLJ than being Luke's daughter which had been my original hope. I never cared about the idea that she would be Ben's sister. That didn't seem right to me at all. Having her be "random" would be OK maybe, but it would make her another Force Baby, just like Anakin. I like it that she is a little different--not quite Luke, not quite Anakin, and of course taking after her grandfather only in a limited way. She's her own kind of hero and for me it works.

The notion of her being a "creation" of Darth Sidious doesn't ring for me. In part I guess it's because it makes everything depend on his return too directly, and because it is harder to explain how she got away seeing as he can't even leave Exegol. Instead we can figure his son went into hiding after the empire fell and soon learned that he couldn't just start a family because the Emperor's agents at least were still active and maybe he new his bad dad was somehow alive. That explains the desperate solution that put her on Jakku beholden to the worthless Unkar Plutt.

My other problem with the "Rey created" theory is that it takes away the mythic dimension and the theme I really like where she stands up to generational evil in her own family. It's similar to Luke confronting Vader but also different and it adds something new. And beyond that too I will just say to me it wouldn't feel right. This answer felt right, it riveted me to the film.

 

That is a very odd take for me. To me it emphasizes her capacity to forge her own identity and to choose her own path, and she chooses the most honorable future she can. There are people in real life too who choose their own names as well, I've heard of at least one case where this really spoke to such a person.

I don't think she is reduced to a plot device at all. She's the major hero of the new trilogy, and when she finds out the truth about her family it isn't easy. If anything it's a little sad to me that Luke has to pass the torch and someone else gets to take up the mantle. But she proves herself worthy of it.

EDIT: It's a minor point, but I never got this thing people say that her trip to the Lars homestead doesn't make sense or that this was a hated place for Luke...let alone Leia. That is Luke's actual home and it is natural that she would make a pilgrimage there. She also buries the sabers to honor and complete their legacy. Now she has her own saber of a new color. She will make a new Jedi order and correct the mistakes of the Jedi past. They helped her get there, and I appreciated that. I was anticipating her adopting the name and was really pleased when it actually happened.

 

We see very differently on this but that’s fine. I respect your opinion and think it’s great that people liked what they did with Rey. I wish I could say the same.

I did find it unfortunate that Rey begins the trilogy with no family, and her parents are dead. She ends the Saga with a new adopted family, but they are also all dead. Feels unfortunate for Rey.

 

It is definitely sad. Luke's ending is sad too. I don't expect everyone to agree with my appreciative attitude for the mirroring they did. My view might not be the dominant one. Like the main point of the end of this trilogy that bothers me is why couldn't the old woman be riding an eopie.

 

I don't see anything different about Rey's line and Kylo's "I will finish what you started" about Vader. Again, they have always been the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader of this trilogy. Just because Rey isn't a biological Skywalker doesn't mean she hasn't always been the Luke of the trilogy. It's why so many people thought she was going to be his daughter, because she's always been dripping with Luke symbolism. The same way Kylo was surrounded by Vader symbolism.

I'd forgotten about the Kenner figure. I love the Kenner toys, they're ridiculous. Speaking of Rey's lightsaber, I do love that it's yellow.

 

I see what your saying and it is a point to be made. The thing is though Kylo's actually makes sense with the films that had already happened. He wants to finish what Vader started, and we already know what Vader did on film so it works. With Rey wanting to finish what Luke started, we had no idea he was doing any of this stuff about looking for Wayfinders and finding Palpatine until TROS. It literally comes out of left field in the final movie. If we are looking at the previous films, what does Rey need to finish that Luke had already started? Luke had already achieved what he sought out to do in the OT. He has nothing to finish.

 

I think the line in the trailer is spliced with two different lines, so it's not even what Rey actually says in the movie. She's telling Leia that she'll pick up where Luke left off with regards to Ochi's ship. If you want to take it as the trailer is probably depicting it as, she's picking up his role as the last Jedi. I don't think she should've been in that role to begin with because I don't think Luke's entire temple of Jedi students should've been blown to pieces and ruined, leaving Luke with a legacy in ruins for Rey to have to "pick up after", but it's what this trilogy gave us.

 

Luke didn't finish what he was doing after Return of the Jedi though. That's where Rey is going to finish his greater missions. Unraveling the new source of dark side power and defeating it, on the one hand, and rebirthing the Jedi Order on the other. I really love the way she steps into his shoes.

Speaking of which, I will say something speculative which I hope will not offend too many people too much. But if Kylo had died on the dark side, and she failed to bring him back (TLJ being the same as it is, but ROS different) my suspicion is that many of the same people angry about her having a role in his repentance would denounce the movie anyway, and say it made her inferior to Luke because Luke turned Vader and she couldn't even turn Kylo. What I mean is that no matter what Rey did in the movie there would be people hating on the film and hating on the character saying that she is a bad role model or a bad embodiment of femininity or that her behavior shows how rotten and sick the filmmakers were. It's a level of pressure they took on by sticking to Lucas' intent for a new female Jedi protagonist. And some people would be angry at Lucas no matter what he did too.

 

This is Ben and Rey in TROS. The deeper emotional work went into that connection, across the trilogy, which ultimately made it more fulfilling. But to each his own.

 

Watched The Force Awakens again. So Rey Palpatine.... When we first see Rey she has a little light on the side of her goggles. When the Emperor was filmed for Return of the Jedi small eye lights were hidden in his hood very similar to the light on the side of Rey's head. The "Emperor's Slugs" were matting to cover up those lights in his hood.

 

What's so upsetting to me is how massively heartwarming and layered it is despite its simplicity. When I first watched that, I shrugged my shoulders and paid it no mind because I thought it was a typical reunion scene and the Starkiller Base plot was turning my brain into mush.

But that one hug is tied into all aspects of Rey's character throughout TFA, and the way she looked at him like she was gonna burst into tears and leaped into his arms just went to show that she never knew what it was like for someone to care that much about her. It was all she had wanted in her entire life, and she finally got it.

He left, but unlike her family, he came back for her. It sucks so much that their relationship actually regressed in the subsequent films.

 

The script even highlights this.

REY
Finn. What are you doing here?!

FINN
We came back for you.

She is speechless -- this is all she's ever wanted anyone to
do. Chewie TALKS -- and Rey's eyes nearly tear up.

FINN (CONT'D)
What'd he say?

REY
(shrugs, smiles, though nearly in tears)
... That it was your idea.

All Rey has wanted her entire life is for someone to come back for her, to show they cared about her. Finn is the first person to ever do this to her. Her connection to Luke and Kylo are important in terms of the Force plot aspect, but in terms of Rey, the scavenger on Jakku waiting for family to return? Finn is the family that Rey finds true belonging with, because he's the first one who came back for her.

 

She was an orphan who grew up on a desert planet and met a cute little robot chased by the bad guys over some map. Ended up on a ship she called ''piece a of junk''. Just Like Luke. She wore buns. Just like Leia. She ended up with Luke and Anakin's lightsaber. The line ''This lightsaber belonged to Luke and his father before him and now it calls to you'' underlined that she was gonna carry his legacy. All that happens in tfa.

She insisted on being trained by an exiled Jedi Master despite his hesitations. She leaves because she had a vision not before being warned about it by the Jedi Master. Just like Luke.
She thought she could help turn Kylo to the light because Luke did it with Darth Vader. She said so herself. She gets a parental reveal. Just like Luke. That was tlj.

I don't get how the first two movies she gets to be ''just Rey'' and tros changed that. When her arc, lines, style and lightsaber were borrowed from the Skywalkers from the start.

 

Don’t get me wrong I agree with some of your points. Just the way TLJ ended with Luke gone and the saber broke, I thought Episode 9 was going to feature more of Rey taking her own journey in all this. In TLJ she tells Luke that’s he’s wrong and then leaves him. I saw that as her also starting her own path.