SPECULATION Do Rey's Parents Matter?

No, they do not. Same goes for unnecessary backstories. Stories are told in present time not in the past.

It doesn't matter what she learns because it's already too late to affect the story by this knowledge. Furthermore a character isn't determinded through his/her parents but his/her actions.

 

For me, no.

But being a Force Deus Ex Machina isn't good either.

 

Can we move on from this topic, please (not saying it to you, I'm saying it in the context of the films?) There are more interesting things to explore than genealogy. We're not living in medieval Europe, where people were differentiated by their fathers.

 

We have Kylo Ren who has killed his own father, and destroyed heart of his mother, in fact destroyed his entire family.
Our beloved Rey is different. I think that even if her parents were monsters, she will rise above the stadards of treatment that Kylo Ren has offered to his parents.
Rey is positive superhero, I think it is necessary for her to also offer piety to her parents, whomever they were, aven if monsters.She is above Kylo.
If her partents sold her, she should not sold them to oblivion.Because this is than not Rey, our hero.
In my opinion, for Rey to be plausible superhero and morally Superior enough to forgive and redeem Kylo, she should firstly remember, find, and forgive and, wait for it, redeem her own parents trough forgiveness.

 

Rey's parents only matter if prequels about "Rey's family" are made. It's similar to ANH, when Luke's parents were ignored until Luke's father was revealed in TESB. Only one reference to Luke's mother was ever made in ROTJ, but explained in the I-III prequels.

Perhaps a revelation about Rey's true parentage in IX could be the reason for the planned future trilogy, which hypothetically could be set in the 30 year time period between ROTJ and TFA?

 

Family history matters to most of us (there's a reason why there's an industry build on tracking down your family history) and right or wrong, people are always curious about a person's history once they become "great". If nothing else, we might want to see if there was something the parents did that aided in that greatness (it could be something positive or negative) or gave reason for certain decisions they make.

Rey is naïve and kind and caring (almost to a fault). Is this from her time with her parents, her upbringing on Jakku, or is it somehow genetic or a combination. Even if her parents are "normal", is she emulating how they cared about her (normal parents can do that too)? Does she have siblings, half siblings, foster siblings? Does she have aunts, uncles, cousins... if she does, are they as ordinary as her, where was her family during the time of the OT? Were there any hints to her greatness and access to the force as a child? Did her care givers foster that, or try and have her block it? If the force did manifest itself in her, was it sporadic, could it be specified to her or just shrugged off as odd coincidence? Did she know something was different about her?

None of those questions need to be answered, but there could be some interesting stories in there. Necessary, probably not, but it's a part of SW that hasn't been explored much (Anakin, as the chosen one is an exception), and for that I'm sure many fans would be curious to find out.

So it does not need to be necessary to the story (unless the writers want it to be) but it could make compelling books or cartoons (please no prequel movies unless it's something truly original though).

 

Well, Rey's arc in TLJ *explicitly* indicates that they're not important. Period. Even Maz suggests that in TFA. I get why some people would like to retcon them as somebody important, but it definitely makes no sense to somehow link them to Rey's future. That would be a massive step backwards.

I guess now that Rey has learned she has to define herself by her own actions and not her lineage or supposed predestination, they can technically reveal that the parents were in fact somebody. At this point it (hopefully) wouldn't be a crucial factor in Rey's development, so the moral of her story in TLJ would still stand. But that would be just a glaring retcon and fan service aimed at disappointed "Star Wars theorists."

 

No. It's only because of "no, I am your father". Do people want that connective tissue. The important family here that matters is the Skywalkers.

 

At this point, I don’t think it matters after TLJ. They need to move on with the narrative in Episode 9 and not revisit Rey’s heritage or Snoke.

 

It matters that she has a last name at some point.

 

Maybe her parents are (were) scholars specialized in the ancient Jedi. Not great themselves, but they may have (alive or in writing) knowledge that could help Rey start a Jedi Academy, or even help her stop Kylo and the KoR, or just give her insight into what Kylo might be up to in EPIX (Force super weapon). Scholars could after all be drunks, and yet, they might have stumbled on knowledge that seemed so important (and dangerous) that leaving Rey back on Jakku seemed prudent and the stakes high enough to put their parental duties aside. So add a little Indiana Jones in SW lol.

Just one half brained theory off the top of my head, but at this point there's so little about her parents that it could literally be anything or nothing.

 

Her last name could be Nothing. Literally her name could be Rey Nothing.

 

Toy

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 8, 2018, Original Post Date: Apr 8, 2018 ---

Welcome to Star Wars where this is literally the entire point of the force through 8 movies.

 

Rey's parents matter to people it matters too.

The facts are:
It mattered enough to Rey to inform TFA's story.
It still mattered enough to Rey by TLJ to inform that story too.

It's certainly been an interesting side-note for those of us who like to discuss everything SW.
For a time there it was our greatest weakness too.
(@master_shaitan 's 600 page thread attests to that!)

I think Rey's parents particularly matter to fans who think lineage is or should be as important to Rey's story as it is to Kylo's.
Many became fixated on the question between official story installments due to the above facts ↑.

Always in motion the future is...



Your focus determines your reality...

Will her parentage matter to Rey in IX and continue to inform the story?
We'll see. My guess is only if the writers saw fit to do so because

1. the story was written with the importance of her parents in mind,
   
2. it added real drama and the story would be noticeably lacking in an area without it (upped stakes or a well-executed twist)
3. and works with their themes.

Do they matter to me?
Meh! Only really if it a feature of IX I guess.

Personally I'm a bit over it at the moment!

 

I totally get what you're saying, but it all depends on what lineage should she be from? If you're telling me she is from a Jedi Lineage that isn't a Skywalker/Solo, then I'm OK with that in Episode 9. But if they shoehorn that she is Luke's daughter, Han/Leia's kid, Obiwan's Granddaughter, then it will just come of odd because all of those main players are dead and the reveal will be anti-climatic.

 

Yeah I can't think of a way TPTB could include a powerful Jedi lineage for Rey without sabotaging their inclusive themes and undercutting some of the chemistry in Rey and Kylo's dynamic.
(That's not to say good writers couldn't do so of course!)
To me it's their differences in upbringing and lineage in contrast with their shared feelings that contribute to making their connection so interesting and special.

It seems like that for sure.
What's interesting about your questions is one could have been forgiven for assuming her parentage would matter less after the events of TFA.

• She's told they're never coming back.
• She find's a new family - Finn and co.

Instead her identity crisis not only continued but proved a major theme of the film and her greatest weakness.

There's still that hurdle about people reading ST themes that challenge/balance the earlier saga narrative of Force royalty and parental lines.
The counter of course is that, with JJ's mystery boxes and rampant fan speculation, the lineage issue has become a meta ST theme.
Even if TPTB ignored it we'd probably read it into the story anyway!