SPECULATION Is Luke Rey's Father? - The Evidence For and Against

It actually doesn't make it telling at all since GL say he is and his opinion is all that really matters on the subject.

Because saying she is just a producer limits her role which is far greater than that like GL's role was before her.

Yes I'm stubborn when I know I'm right.

Fair enough. Let's move on to other things.



Just some thoughts…



The scene with Maz and Rey has become a corner stone used by many as evidence to either prove their theory or disprove someone else’s theory. I thought it was time for a careful and detailed examination of what we know Maz knows about Rey, what she doesn’t know and what she may or may not think the light saber calling to Rey means.



Let’s start with what she knows about Rey:

1) She’s a scavenger who wants to return to Jakku.

2) The Skywalker Saber called out to her.

3) She knows the Saber calling out to Rey means she’s important.

That’s it. That’s all we know she knows for certain. I agree with @master_shaitan that Maz doesn’t know who Rey is and that, if she did, she would have told Rey. Also we know Maz senses that Rey is waiting for something or someone on Jakku but doesn’t know for certain what or who it is.



Now there are those who think that, since Maz doesn’t know who Rey is, she must be thinking that the saber could call to a non-Skywalker and therefore the saber calling to Rey can’t be considered evidence that Rey is a Skywalker. There is some logic in that conclusion but there is also logic in taking the fact that the Skywalker saber called to Rey as a possible hint in the story that Rey could be a Skywalker and more specifically Luke’s daughter.



However, there is nothing in that scene or elsewhere in the movie that tells us what Maz actually thinks it means so we can only guess. The thing is, I think everyone, including myself, have been looking at this too narrowly and we need to broaden our perspective on this issue. Let start with the saber calling to Rey:



A light saber calling to someone isn’t a common event. In fact, this the first time it’s happened in the known canon. We haven’t had a light saber calling to someone in either of the first two trilogies nor the Clone War or Rebels TV shows that I’m aware of or any of the books. That makes it a very significant event. Also, we don’t know what this event means in universe. That is what do the people of the GFFA think an event like this means. More specifically what does Maz really think it means on a galactic level. Has it ever happen before? If so, when and how many times?



We’re told that Maz has been running her establishment for a thousand years. She is therefore someone who has seen or heard about a lot of significant events in all that time. If it’s happened before, she’s likely heard about it and probably also found out why it happened or at least why it was thought to have happened. That would likely inform whatever conclusion she came to.



If, however, that was the first time an event like that had ever happened, Maz would only be able to guess why it happened. At the very least, she would likely look at Rey as someone of extreme importance to the galaxy perhaps on par with or even surpassing Luke Skywalker in importance.



There is also how Maz came into possession of the saber. We don’t know how she acquired it but I think it’s safe to assume it didn’t go directly from Bespin to Maz. Kylo recognized the saber when he saw Finn with it indicating he’d seen it before. That tells me that the saber was likely returned to Luke at some point but was lost again and ended up with Maz. That story could be connected to Rey’s identity and also have factored in to Maz’s conclusions.





Now let’s look at what Maz may or may not know beyond Rey and the light saber. TFA makes it pretty clear that Maz is likely an information broker as much as a bar matron. She likely knows a whole lot about the goings on in the galaxy including the history of the Skywalker/Solo family. She would likely know if either Luke or Leia had a kidnapped/missing/presumed dead daughter or not. Again, that would likely have factored into whatever conclusion she came to. Given all of the knowledge Maz must have had at the time, it’s very likely that Maz, at least, had an educated guess as to who Rey really is even if she didn’t know for certain. The point is that the saber calling to Rey is far more complicated than whether or not the saber can call to a non-Skywalker.

 

Interesting post.

FWIW I think the Kyber crystal inside is calling/resonating with her as was standard operating procedure for trainee Jedi in "The Gathering" ritual. As far as I know the vision may be a unique event.

Maybe due to a scarcity of Kyber crystals in the vicinity and/or the lack of official channels for Jedi trainees The Force/crystal is "choosing" Rey to indicate a connection with an eye toward a potential Jedi path.

 

It is not proof Luke is her father but Maz pretty much says Luke can come back to her...
Luke has been in her life before because he can still come back.
Luke could be her father and have had absolutely nothing to do with leaving her on Jakku or he could even have never known he had a child.

• Rey - "What was that? I shouldn't have gone in there"

• Maz - "That lightsaber was Luke's, and his father's before him and now it calls to you!"

• Rey - "I have to get back to Jakku"

• Maz - "Han told me" (they hold hands) "Dear child, I see your eyes - you already know the truth. Whomever you are waiting for on Jakku, they're never coming back" Rey cries "but, there's someone who still could"

• Rey - "Luke"

• Maz - "The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead. I am no jedi, but I know the force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes, feel it. The light. It's always been there. It will guide you. The sabre - take it."

• Rey - "I'm never touching that thing again, I don't want any part of this"

 

That's possible I suppose. I'm not familiar with the gathering ritual. What was that in?

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 28, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 28, 2017 ---

I think that's an interpretation that a lot of movie goers came to as well.

 

I believe it was an episode from the GL produced Clone Wars.

Spoiler: contains some "The Gathering" events

At an appropriate time in their training Yoda would take a group of younglings to a planet with hidden Kyber crystals. They would go their separate ways on a journey (with potentially life-threatening time constraints) to find an individual crystal that got their attention when they were "ready" (generally after overcoming personal challenges). Only after completing the ritual were they then ready to construct a light saber of their own.

Rey's experience is a unique one though with some parallels to this ritual and many differences - maybe circumstantial or maybe lineage related...hopefully we find out!

 

Not only does it seem the light saber came to Rey but it also resisted Kylo Ren.

 

While that is one way to interpret that sequence, it does not necessarily indicate that Rey has ever been connected to Luke in the past. Remember the whole point of the movie was to find Luke Skywalker. The crawl even starts out with Luke Skywalker has vanished. Maz's line can also be interpreted as telling Rey that she would be waisting her time going back to Jakku because those she is waiting for are not coming back and there still is a chance Luke will come back from wherever he as vanished to help her fulfill her destiny of becoming a Jedi. Add in the fact that she views Luke as a myth and you can argue she never has had any contact with Luke in the past.

 

I think it might be less interpretation than you think... granted the film was itself was never meant to give the whole story answer questions like this definitively. TFA is an Intro film that throws the viewer back into the GFFA x years after we left it, x approx. 33. Many things are unclear. at this point there is enough "evidence" to go either way. In my interpretation of this dialogue I would tend to think that it very close to a confirmation if not a confirmation. But I will concede that because of the the dialogue is constructed it is not definitive. I don't think there are that many ways to interpret this scene though,

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 28, 2017 ---

the only reason I would disagree is the specific line that Maz says. lets take a look.

"You know the truth. Whomever you you're waiting for, they are never coming back." this tells us that Rey is waiting for her family and they aren't returning. this could be for a number of reasons. she continues to say, "But there is still someone who could." She is saying that someone is still capable of coming to get get her. Now right after this Rey say "Luke." to which Maz responds, "The belong you seek is not behind it's ahead."

Call it an interpretation if you want, but to me the way this scene reads is as follows. For some reason or other Rey's parents aren't coming to get her. rather I should say the one she is waiting for is never returning, her mother. But someone still could could, her father Luke Skywalker. Now Maz tell her to use the lightsaber to find her father.

Furthermore in interviews Daisy Ridley said she though that Rey's parentage was pretty obvious. What is more obvious than Luke or Leia.

Also I would add that it is possible she believes Luke to be a myth because she doesn't know Luke is her father or even exists. This could for a number of reasons. to start Luke wasn't aware himself by chance that he had a daughter and never met her or had contact with her. Perhaps because of this Rey was raised by a single mother who ended up leaving her with Unkar while she tried to get some money for a crime syndicate like the black hand or something and was killed. Also its possible that Rey was taken by Snoke or some powerful force user that wiped her memory and planted false ones in her. Furthermore she was in the outer rim of the outer rim. She would have her legends of Luke Skywalker but maybe he was like King Arthur to her she always thought that it was a fairy tale whenever she heard stories. Or maybe she said myth because she is supposed to keep her identity a secret after all she did say to BB-8 that her family was classified information. but these are just a few.

 

The way you've worded this just isn't true - Maz specifically says "whomever" not "you know your family are never coming back"

Again, she separates "whomever" from Luke. Maz never specifically says Rey's family in reference to her link to Jakku.

This discussion must have been played out a million times by now on various message boards / threads but the fact is we can't say either way whether Maz's words confirm one thing or the other - and the reason for that is that they were obviously written specifically to have that ambiguity...

 

I don't think Rey is Luke daughter. I don't think that is the plot.

However, I take Kylo Ren's lines 'What Girl' 'You...(Dramatic Pause)...A Scavenger' and 'The girl i've heard so much about' and also 'Its Just us now' all to be lines that indicate that Kylo Ren knows more about Rey than we do. and more about her than she does. it also lines up with his fascination with her, over even BB8's maps to Skywalker.

Which, considering Ben Solo only destroyed the new Jedi quite recently, means that Luke might have some prior knowledge of Rey, or at least a girl who is force sensitive.

Again I don't think Rey will be Lukes daughter. I don't see how that would aid the plot. we're about to have 3 skywalkers in play in TLJ. and both Luke and Leia's roles are apparently expanded for this. so we have a Jedi skywalker. a Darkside skywalker and a Rebel general skywalker. The trilogy functions fine without Rey being a family member.

However I think she could easily be linked to Luke in some way.

As for the Maz speech. when I saw the movie I took it to mean that Rey wasn't a skywalker. I took it to be Maz telling the audience basically 'Shes not Lukes kid or Han's kid...don't wait for that reveal, however she's still gonna go find and train with Luke, so don't worry too much.'

But I can tell that the readings of that dialog are many and diverse. so I think it was written to puroposuly confirm whatever the audience we're hoping for be it Rey Skywalker or Rey Random.

Also- If we we're meant to suspect nothing, as in if she was a solid Rey Random they would have given her a surname:

Poe Dameron.

The Fact she is just Rey means we will assume she has a secret surname, so I think weather true or not, the audience are supposed to be suspicious of her origins.

-Extra thought-
What if when Luke learned that his father Anakin was created using the force he gave it a go himself and created Rey and left her (knowing the force would call to her) as a last hope against snoke?

 

I don't really understand why you put those Hidalgo quotes there? They don't say anything with reference to what I said - yes, they separate Luke from "whomever" but they certainly don't qualify "whomever" = family.

You've said it yourself - the only specific mention of family comes from Rey to BB-8. So yes, it's established that her "family", whatever that might actually mean, is who she's waiting for.

The problem is that Maz didn't magically teleport into that scene so therefore isn't connected with Rey saying "family". When she says "whomever" she says "whomever" no more, so to suggest she said anything further is moving into the realm of interpretation rather than fact.

And I guess you have to question why you need to do that - as per my previous post, Maz's line could quite easily have been written to say "family" and then there's no debate whatsoever.

 

I think the talk about her parenting is overshadowing the real question. It's not where she comes from but who she is.

Learning about her own identity will lead her to know her origins but you don't only define yourself by your parenting.

Being someone's daughter isn't enough to get yourself a strong identity.

 

Whatever Kennedy's role is we should be able to agree that she's not the new Lucas. There will never be another Lucas. He wielded total creative control. He wrote the scripts. The stories were his idea. Kennedy is the President of Lucasfilm. Ultimately she's the final decision maker, but the stories area much more collaborative process. Rogue One wasn't a Kennedy idea. Kennedy didn't dictate TFA. She's taking care of Lucas' baby. He chose her and she's using the people he trained to foster future stories.

Even though Lucas is out I believe his general wishes are still being honored.

 

But, it's not JJ's Star Wars. He was just hired to direct and help write TFA. RJ is writing the other two films and directing one of them. Ultimately though, Star Wars belongs to Disney who has given KK full control of the GFFA.