SPECULATION Do Rey's Parents Matter?

RJ failed to capture the essence of Star Wars. The movie was ok for what it was but it is like the having a puzzle peace that belongs to a different puzzle.

 

No they dont matter I disagree RJ did capture the essence of Star Wars

 

Maybe Rey’s parents may end up mattering after all. But at this point I don’t see what purpose it would serve the story other than pleasing some fans. I thought the reveal in TLJ worked very well for Rey’s character arch. Learning that Rey’s parents are important would be like learning that Vader is not really Luke’s father in ROTJ.

 

I wonder if her parents will turn out to be drunks we were told they were.
Perhaps, the connection is purely force based in the sense that Rey was born with this incredible power because of the Skywalker's.
She was born when Ben Solo was 10 and likely spiralling down the dark path. The Force reacted to this and created Ben's counter, in Rey.
Now, like with Anakin, you don't have a super powerful Force child and not know about. But perhaps it went further than that?
Perhaps Rey was so powerful, it made her parents life difficult? Perhaps she caused them to lose everything? Or perhaps they travelled the galaxy seeking answers for their daughter? That's what might've brought them to Jakku and they didn't abandon her for drink money - but something else happened that Rey could believe was her fault...

Another poster hinted that Kylo's big issue is that he was born in the first place. Essentially, he was born with this great power and the Skywalker name (and history) and it burdened him from birth. Gave him great conflict that he was bitter about. It would be a very interesting idea if Rey was also burdened by essentially the same issue - Ben existence and pull to the Dark Side.

It could be then that Rey's connection to the Skywalker's is a metaphor for the family's (and the saga story) effect on the galaxy as a whole.
The Skywalker's are at the heart of the story (obv) - from their "creation" to their demise. Rey represents the galaxy as a whole, in effect the balance of the Force itself - and how the Skywalker family impacts upon it.

 

It would be cool if Rey's parents (who where dark side users in some degree) were scared of their own daughter and thus as soon as they couldn't control her anymore, they ditched her on Jakku.

I always wanted this for Anakin. He was the chosen one and this should have burdened him or made him cocky. Unfortunately we never got that. Maybe there is still hope with Kylo though.

 

Rey's parents may have been drunks.. but they are still a mystery despite what Kylo said to Rey.

I get that if Rey had parents that were drunk and essentially tossed her away.. that she would be in denial for many years about it - even to the point of telling people (in TFA's case - BB8) that she was waiting for her parents.. that they will return one day. that's classic denial.
what i can't swallow is Rey's cave scene.. she thought she was going to see who her parents were. she didn't know.

the big question for me is - what influence did Snoke have over both Rey and Kylo?
Rey saw within Kylo that he would turn back to the light.. which Snoke later took credit for as a way of pulling her into his trap.
Rey got upset as Kylo told her that her parents were crappy junk traders.. as though she did know really, but is that because she did know deep down? or was it that she believed him because of the bond they have? believed that if that's what he is seeing it must be true?

i'm not pulling for any outcome here.. i'm more concerned about Ben's fate in this saga than Rey's at this point. i feel that is where i've been led to in the 2 movies so far. Rey's ok.. she's strong. Ben is in a big fat ugly world of pain and confusion.

JJ setup the Rey's parents mystery in TFA, and i don't buy the 'nobody junk traders' meal that we were spoon fed in TLJ. whether the outcome is important or not is one thing (and it's not important to me anymore) but i do think that there will be a different outcome to the mystery in ep9.

and i'm willing to wager on that @master_shaitan and anyone else wanting to part with credits

 

I feel that Kylo cannot be let get away with saying: “They were nothing, you’re nothing” to Rey. Such a snob! I think that her parents, in spite of being poor, drunks, probably dead, should have some significance in the story and the fate of the galaxy. If only to make Kylo swallow his words...

 

Not sure that'd be the best way to "win". The point is that Ren shows how off the mark he is by saying this. He puts too much importance on lineage rather than who you are and what you can be. Rey may come from "nowhere", but she's twice the person he is and will end up being more successful. Rey need to learn (if she hasn't already) not to be wounded by these vacuous insults (sticks and stones) and become her own person. Meanwhile, Ren needs to quickly realise that he will become nothing and achieve nothing if he doesn't follow Rey's example. So I think Ren being beaten by the nobody is a stronger message than Ren being beaten by some other heir to the Skywalker throne.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 16, 2018, Original Post Date: Oct 16, 2018 ---

At this point, I wouldn't even know what I was betting on!

But let me put it this way: I wouldn't believe for one second that "Mr Mystery Box JJ" isn't going to make something of Rey's parentage. It was the biggest mystery of TFA and still dominates the ST discussion. He'd be fool not to strain a little more juice out of it.

 

most of the audience will no longer be looking for a Rey twist. no way in a million years did JJ setup the Rey mystery simply for the middle movie to answer it with 'nobody'.

it's that simple JJ?


classic rope-a-dope.

 

Why are people looking for twists from the get go? Star Wars was NEVER about twists! Today a lot of people think a good movie needs a twist. I disagree.

 

i agree with you.. no twist is needed.

the fact remains however that JJ intentionally sowed the parentage mystery into the trilogy. whether there's a big twist or a twist that there's no twist.. there's a twist! lol

i got lost somewhere there among the twists, so that may make no sense

i'm not sure that we can so easily say that Star Wars was never about twists. If a big chunk of people were asked what the biggest twist in movie history was.. some would say the Vader father scene from Empire. 2 of the first 3 movies had huge reveals.

perhaps JJ is playing on that.. and Rey is a nobody. that's fine if it is.. i'm down with that.
I just don't think it's the case here.

 

i disagree. people saw what they wanted to see, on assumptions that Abrams was doing something sneaky. in TFA, Maz tells Rey that her parents aren't coming back and intimates that they're not important (the someone who could is who matters: the future, not the past). and Ridley was genuinely surprised anyone thought there was any mystery at all after the movie came out. later she got on the trolling bandwagon and twigged to the "game".

people who are still waiting for some big twist are just going to be disappointed. Rey saw no one in the cave because who her parents are don't matter.
and that's what she understood about what she saw as well, which is why Ren Ben makes her say it. when he tells her that he "saw something too" and that he knows who her parents are, that's him saying: i know what you're hiding, i know the truth (just as she knows the truth about what he's hiding).

she doesn't react to this information with questions or hope; she's actually repulsed.
she puts distance between them, her face is disgusted ~ because she realizes that Ben knows she's nurtured this hope/desire for no reason at all.
she feels exposed as a "fraud" who wants to be a big someone in the galaxy but knows she comes from nothing.

and then Ben does such a bang-up job trying to allay her fears on that score.
nobody can argue he's not a Solo with that stupid mouth on him. : o p

 

i guess we'll have to wait and see. i don't view the maz scene quite the same.. but i do concede that she 'might' have meant that.

as i've said before.. despite originally being quite desperate for Rey to be a Skywalker (i just wanted Luke to have a family after ROTJ), i like Rey just the way she is and i have no inner need for her to have an elaborate lineage.

if Star Wars has only had one message since the very beginning.. it's that anyone can make a difference.

i'll be pleasantly surprised if JJ doesn't re-visit this topic in episode 9. i think he will though.

but he might not..

 

You misunderstand me. I know many people think that just because Rey’s parents are not important people, they automatically have to become unimportant to her, to us and to the story... I do not necessarily agree with that. I don’t particularly want Rey to be a Skywalker or a Kenobi or whatever lineage there is in SW. I don’t want her to be hung up on the idea that her parents rejected her. Rey is awesome on her own. we don’t need connections or parentage to establish that. However, I would not mind Rey’s poor and horrid parents being utilise somehow in the story. Maybe there is something unexpected to be learn from them, maybe they were hard done by the FO, or the new republic, maybe they were privy to a political secret, maybe they had connections to the underworld (those people likely to help the resistance now), maybe there is a chance for these parents to be somehow redeemed... I wouldn’t shut the door on them. Not necessarily. Rey doesn’t need them to become a hero, for sure. But that doesn’t mean their posthumous presence is undesirable or completely superfluous to the drama.

As for Kylo, there is no reason why he could not be taught more than one lesson... First one, that Rey being a nobody doesn’t make her unimportant ( he already knows that I think. I feel he learnt that lesson in TLJ). Second one, that perhaps those junk traders who sold Rey for drinking money owe their degrading situation directly to him and his kind (the upper classes of the galaxy). Maybe they are important for Kylo to become a better person.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 16, 2018 ---

I never got the impression that Rey thought her parents were a big someone in TFA. I just felt she was waiting for her parents to come back. In the forceback it looked as if they had abandoned her and, yes, Maz told her what Rey already knew: “they were never coming back”.

In TLJ, I only got the impression she wanted to find out the identity of these parents who left her in Jakku, not if they were somebody... and I felt that Kylo crushed her because he confirmed what she already knew or strongly suspected: that her parents not only left her behind but also that they sold her to Unkar, and that they were dead... why Rey is aware of, or suspects, this last detail is something I personally would love to know.

 

A character's parents always matter because that's a huge part of how a character's yearning and psychological disposition are formed. If Rey's parents were criminals/losers who abandoned her, then that should have some effect on who she is and what she wants.

This could give her a motivation for wanting to be a Jedi -- she wants to be different from her parents. A heroine, not scoundrels.

This backstory would have been better revealed earlier, in E7 for instance, so we could pull for her to achieve her goals. Instead we sat around waiting for a mystery that was merely subversive, and it's not clear yet how being "no one" really benefits the overall Saga.

 

not that they are kings and dragon slayers, but that they matter. to her and for her.
the way the audience thinks they must matter in order for her powers to have meaning.

she sees Ben and he's got all this insane power and his parents are New Republic royalty/heroes and his Uncle is Luke arfin' Skywalker (whom she idolizes).
the realization of all that comes between TFA and TLJ (it's implied). you see it in her tentativeness/hopefulness with Luke, her connection with Ben, and ultimately, in how it breaks her heart to be put down as only worthy of merely tagging along at Ben's whims.

i think it will come up again too ~ even if only because it wasn't clearly enough put to rest in TLJ, apparently. XD
but i do absolutely agree with you: the central message is pure ~ everyone can have courage and be a hero. : D

 

I think we're missing the contrast between the multiple characters, though. Ben says he didn't hate his parents, but he's trying (1 for 1 thus far) in destroying his identification with them. He thinks by wiping them out, he can form his own identity, which is the exact opposite from what Luke ended up doing, and far from what Rey wants. Rey wants to know what happened to her parents because she, unlike Ben, wants to identify with them. She still longs for that connection. Ben's trying to escape it. Rey still longs for it, but in the end, like Luke, doesn't require identification with it. She won't let their legacy be hers, but she acknowledges who they are.

It's definitely a version of the hero's journey, and I think it's an interesting contrast between the two. That being said, there's no real necessity to continue exploring Rey's parents. How she acknowledges (which she already did) her relationship to them, and her relationship to her new family/tribe (which is what the ST is really about in a sense, for Rey, Finn and Poe) is more important. Ben and what he does is the other side of that. He's tried to be something opposite of his parents, but now has absolute power but still wasn't able to kill his mother, or end Luke the way he wanted to....lol, got punked. lol