Official Rey Episode VIII thread

This is being passed off as new information, but this is very much in line with what we speculated in the run up to TLJ. JJ and RJ were aligned on Rey question during the production of TFA. So that's how Daisy knew the answer.

Many of us thought that the original plan was for Rey to be a lost daughter of Han/Leia, but that was abandoned very early in the TFA production.

Remember, Daisy was surprised that people were debating this after TFA. JJ may have had an idea, but he left the question open. Then he made TFA knowing the real answer.

 

I frequently run into Rey fans who say some variation of “I liked her in VII but in VIII she is less likeable.” To that I say that VIII was setup as the 2nd act setback chapter of the trilogy where all of the characters hit low points in the mid section of the film before rising and learning.

I’m going to try and lay out here why I believe Rey ends up on the Supremacy because I think that contrary some... the film gives us plenty of reasons beyond only attraction.

1) As powerful as Rey is presented with the Force in this ST... she’s also been presented as someone who has serious abandonment issues inside and as someone who is naive. She bought Finn’s line that he was with the resistance immediately. Rey is also Force naive. She’s slowly trying to see herself as an instrument of the force because she saw the island as a kid and was drawn to the saber and later the books. The mind bridge with Kylo Ren and vision of the future both deceive her. She thinks it’s more of the Force guiding her to her destiny.

2) She knows that the leader of the resistance wants her son back. She also knows that Han was willing to go behind enemy lines and do a number of crazy things to try and bring him back and may want to help their family after being unable to save her own.

3) Luke’s state of mind initially allows her to walk in a pre-turned Ben Solo’s shoes more. She hears Luke had sensed his powers growing and loomed over him as he slept. She then wakes up to him looming over her as she sleeps. Luke likens her to Ben. He tells her he’s only seem this kind of raw strength once before in Ben Solo and that it didn’t scare him then but does now. She walks a little in Ben’s shoes before he turned and can better imagine Luke turning on her. So that when he does so to speak to that by breaking the hut... she’s also angry without realizing it.

4) Maz told her that those junkers weren’t coming back but someone might. She took it to be Luke but as Luke seems more and more like an immovable object she starts to wonder if this someone who may come back could be Ben Solo. He wanted the saber. Luke tossed it away. He offered to teach her. Luke didn’t want to. This and the mind bridge make her think this could be her Destiny. She senses that Ben likes her.

5) She hits an emotional low after the Dark Side cave. In writing trope terms they call this kind of moment a sex for solace moment. It’s usually in a scene where the character has faced a lot of stress and frustration and sits at the bar and drinks and meets someone and the next thing you know the camera is cutting to them in a hotel room. This is the PG13 version of that because when she needed someone to lean on who understood the Force he told her she wasn’t alone with the Force and she appreciated that.

6) She was described as lonely and in VIII we learn the loneliness is a little like mutant lonliness that teens have in X-men. She’s had this thing inside her forever but now it’s awake and she doesn’t know what to do and wants help. She has friends now but she still feels strange as a Force user. Kylo Ren being closer in age and also a Force user seems to take away some of that Force loneliness she feels because she knows he has that same thing inside.

7) She is willing to risk it all to help her side win. She would have preferred Luke be the one and even offers the saber one last time. When he doesn’t take it she says then Ben is their last hope.

8) She doesn’t yet know that ROTJ great power comes great responsibility and doesn’t see herself yet as a hero. She’s looking for others to be the hero.

9) She may be attracted to Ben Solo.

10) The vision of the future is likely her and Ben with Snoke dead. She says “when the moment comes I know you’ll turn” and so I think she’s seen Snoke’s death and when they rise it’s deja vu for her. We’ve seen many people act on visions before. It’s part of Star Wars.

11) She is more forgiving and more pragmatic in being willing to make a deal to end the war than we perhaps thought.

It’s hard to know the prioritization of these that motivated her but I believe all did in some way.

 

You know I've been reflecting a lot on Rey's change in TROS, and how she comes across as much more mature, less naive and more pragmatic and more calm. She seems to be much more comfortable in her own skin and comfortable with who she is as a person--in total. Not just a girl who had learned to survive and take care of herself after being abandoned. Sure she has demons but she no longer seems to be as shackled to her past as she was.



I think one thing she learned from Luke in earlier encounter with him. Is that heroes don't always behave like heroes. Villains don't always behave like villains. And adults don't always behave as adults should. I think that from accessing Luke's and Ren's behaviour. Also in meeting Han, Leia, Finn and other members of the Resistance. People who showed her that they liked and respected her and would be there for her. That she was actually okay as a person, she did not have to hold to binary/black and white thinking that she must have internalized that if her parents abandoned her she must be a bad person and people

When people mistreat us or behave badly or make bad choices, that's on them not on us. And in learning and accepting this we get a great measure of freedom.

 

I disagree. In TROS she was much more impatient (the first scene of Rey was her being angry about not being able to talk to the Jedi of the past), naive and aggressive (just look at how fast she gets mad with Poe, Finn and Kylo). In TROS her character development even made a step backwards. In TLJ it was established she doesn't need her parents anymore. Her search came to an end. In TROS it's a topic again.

 

To be fair, the issue of Luke's family was addressed in ROTJ to. To me, Rey in the throne room showed, ironically a lot anger and then Ben did. Ben acted way more like a Jedi then Rey did.

 

Because it was important to the plot. Furthermore confirming Vader being Luke's dad was in the movie because people didn't believe it after TESB.

But you're right about Ben being more calm in TLJ.

 

Anyone else think that the Rey cave scene reminds you of when Diavolo faces Golden Experience Requiem (the second most overpowered stand in JJBA)?

Diavolo

Rey

 

Dosen't RJ clame 2 b a Anime fan?

 

Thread bump.

I was rewatching TLJ last night, and I noticed something that takes on an interesting note of importance in light of The Rise of Skywalker's revelations about her and the people she's connected to:

Both Luke and Snoke know her name without her (or Kylo, in the case of Snoke) saying it.

Since Snoke is literally a puppet of Palpatine, it makes sense that he'd know her name and recognize her since she's Palpatine's granddaughter, but there's no way for Luke to have known her name unless he already did know who she was despite pretending not to, which adds a new wrinkle to his initial dismissal of her because it means that there's more to his attitude than just being a bitter old man who felt he'd failed and wanted to remove himself from the galactic stage and he's rejecting her specifically.

 

I thought Luke asked her name during their discussion inside the tree.

"Rey from where?" "Jakku"

Something like that, I don't remember exactly.

 

Yes but there are a few ways to interpret that beyond the obvious. But also keep in mind that at the time, that was probably just an honest question, this only becomes something more because of the revelations in TROS.

It could've been a test, Luke sensed it all along so he asks Rey those questions and then based on her answers he can deduce whether or not she's telling the truth.

This is one of those times where I feel like a lack of proper cohesion works to the advantage of the story, because you can interpret it in so many different ways. There isn't a right or wrong way.

 

Having just watched the movie, at no point does Rey actually say her name to Luke before he agrees to train her and calls her "Rey from nowhere".

He asks her who she is, she tells him she's from the Resistance, they have a repeated conversation about why she's there, they talk about her being from Jakku (AKA "nowhere"), he tells her that the Jedi need to end, they both go do their own thing for a bit, and then he agrees to train her and they have the conversation in which he says her name.

 

Luke and Lando chased Ochi's ship many years before TLJ/TROS.

Now, that deleted 3rd lesson seems to be related to that. In his lesson, the caretakers and the raiding tribe look like the KOR and the Clan from the original leaks. Luke even quotes the 'greater numbers' line from ANH. The Tusken raiders. Rey's parents belonged to the Clan.

So, if you learn from experience, then lessons are experiences in some way. So this lesson would be more like Luke trying to make sense out of something from the past.

'They will be back', says Luke. The raiders. 'Will you be here next month'?

Maybe 'you' wasn't there. 'This is not a lesson', says Rey to Luke.

Cliegg, to Anakin: 'she's been gone a month'.

 

That's actually pretty incredible and I'm surprised more people haven't noticed. I can't imagine that's just an oversight.

 

When TLJ premiered, there was no reason for viewers to notice that Rey never actually tells Luke her name, but now that we have the ability to analyze that film in relation to the greater context about Rey that we learn in TRoS, we can reinterpret certain things in ways that wouldn't have been apparent before.

Many fans were angry that Luke didn't seem like he reacted the way that a vaunted "hero of the Jedi" would, but when we go back and look at the things we know about his personal history and what he was doing for the majority of the time between RotJ and his choice to exile himself on Ach-To, it becomes clearer and clearer that he didn't reject Rey solely because he was acting like a grumpy old man who felt he'd failed; the way he chose to reject her was also tied to who she was.

If Leia had sent someone else or even chosen to go find Luke herself, he likely would not have been as short and abrasive as he was.

He probably still would've initially refused the call to get involved based on his personal sense of failure, but things would've been less 'layered'.

 

'You' is both Rey and Leia. 'Someone' is 'you'. Luke, TLJ:

This was Luke not getting it. And maybe 'you' was lost before being found:

 

^ The first bit of dialogue you cited was created specifically for marketing purposes and doesn't have any relevance to TLJ itself.

 

Yeah just thought I would reply after watching them both recently. After TLJ and TROS, I did notice Rey never tells Luke her name. I thought in the past it was just a bad edit and perhaps it was, however, I think this is going to be a retcon. After all in TROS Luke say's, why because your a palpatine and Leia knew it too. So from that it's obvious both new there was a little Palpatine running around. It may also factor into Kylo saying 'what girl'. I think Rey was known to the Skywalkers but whether Rey actively knew them is a different matter. I think when Lando and Luke were chasing after the way finder and Ochi they must have learned about Rey. Also Luke refusing to train Rey in TLJ would make far more sense than depressed, suicidal Luke. I do wonder what Luke would have thought about another Palpatine, would he feel anger, which we know in the past he's had issues with, would he leave her dumped on a planet and never think of her again, did he care? It would be interesting to explore this.

 

He did.
"Who are you"
"Rey."

Luke did not know Rey. At all. Which is why I got so annoyed at how this was retconned in TROS.

 

Rey really needs to go Dark and become the big bad. Put a helmet on her and she can be new Darth Vader. That way Daisey’s hesitation to come back won’t matter as the Dark side will disfigure her face can use any actress.