SPECULATION IDEAS FOR OVERALL SAGA DIRECTION

I'm new to the forum, and a huge Star Wars fan who would like nothing better than for it to be regarded many years from now as a serious contender for, if not the best story ever told on film. Having watched VHS recordings of the original trilogy countless times since before I can remember, seeing the prequels in theaters as a child, and now revisiting my deep fascination with the series as a twenty-something, I can say no film(s) have played a larger role in my life. This is my "conflict of interest" statement. An obvious barrier to this achievement from many people's perspective is the quality of the prequels; in short, their deviation from what made the original Star Wars trilogy great. However, if we ignore the excessive CGI, obvious merchandising plugs (pod racing comes to mind), and Jar Jar (hard to do, I know) I think that the story of the prequels, together with that of the original and the direction I see them going with the sequel trilogy (which I will get to) position Star Wars for such high regard. Fortunately for me, since I was the target audience for the likes of Jar-Jar and other silly aspects of the originals, these did not bother me as much as they bothered many, and now I overlook them when considering Star Wars in a larger context of great mythology. I hope this thread can become a space for evidence/canon based speculation about what, looking back many years from now, would make Star Wars the greatest story ever told on screen. I'm an optimist so I believe it has that potential, especially after having seen TFA and the overwhelmingly positive response by both fans and critics alike. What follows are some hypotheses about the story that I haven't been able to find elsewhere, based on some of the best hypotheses I've read and come to on my own, that I think would contribute towards making Star Wars earn a place amongst the greatest stories ever told. And not just by geeks like me, but by future historians.

The following is only a suggested format to allow others to efficiently evaluate your speculation and can (and should) evolve. The sections are loosely based on a scientific manuscript, ignoring the introduction, because we all understand the importance of Star Wars fan theories! Which I think goes something like this:

Introduction: Star Wars fans enjoy speculating about where the story may take us, and reading the speculation of other fans. This process builds excitement and enhances the enjoyment of the series for all fans. Given fan enjoyment of the saga as one goal of the saga that perpetuates its ability to be enjoyed by each new generation of fans, speculation should continue. The author of this post hypothesizes that X would make for the best story, and thereby allow it to maximally fulfill its destiny, that is, to entertain, educate, and enthrall those who embrace its incredible story.

Please list the hypotheses forming the basis for further speculation and to which you may reference in your post. For me, these are:

1) Rey=Luke's daughter
2) Snoke=Darth Plagueis
3) Han=Force sensitive
4) Kylo saves Rey from the Knights of Ren

Methods: Watching Star Wars, reading other fan ideas. There are many great ideas out there already, use them as the basis for your contribution. "Stand on the shoulders of giants." ~Albert Einstein

Results: either provide links to threads where people can evaluate the basis for your hypotheses, or a brief list of the evidence you found to support what you will discuss. I will take the latter approach:

Evidence for 1)
a. Exceptionally gifted with the force
b. Parallel to both Luke's and Anakin's beginnings in Ep. 4 and 1, respectively
c. Excellent pilot and tinkerer
d. Luke's light-saber calls to her
e. She can see where Luke is (the island) in her dreams or while she's falling asleep
f. Luke's friend located on same planet (Lor San Tekka, watching from a distance? Rey's Obi-wan?) with map to Luke
g. R2D2 seems to recognize her and wake up upon her arrival, completing ability to locate Luke
h. Leia hugs her like family
i. "Chewie likes you" (just like he liked Luke)
j. Kylo, a Skywalker, seems aware of an important girl on Jakku, takes interest in her and offers to help train her.
k. She is left behind by someone important to her, likely her care-giver/parent, seemingly in a hurry.
l. The Millennium Falcon is owned by Unkar Plutt, the same person Rey gets her miracle-biscuit portions from and who she is left with in the force-back.
m. Snoke is more concerned with destroying anyones ability to find Luke, rather than specifically destroying Luke.

Evidence for 2)
a. Similarity of theme music (ep. 3 while Palpatine lectures Anakin and in 7 when we see Snoke)
b. Kylo refers to Snoke as "wise" (only sith referred to as wise in a movie that I know of)
c. Plagueis is described as basically having control over death and the ultimate goal of using the dark side to alter reality like a living god (Tarkin novel)
d. It is very Sith-like to sit back and manipulate others (Palpatine in this case) to do the dirty work (killing most Jedi, building the empire)
e. Seems ancient and disfigured (survived assassination? resurrection? essence transfer?)
f. Would tie together all three trilogies and add relevance to prequels
g. Described as slender and tall, exactly how Plagueis would be if he were as originally (now non-canon) planned.
h. "Strangely vulnerable" ~Andy Serkis, the "force can strike back" (concern expressed in Tarkin novel about meddling so deeply with the dark-side so as to achieve immortality)

Evidence for 3)
a. Ends up fathering children with Leia, the offspring of someone "conceived by the midi-chlorians" (sorry!)
b. Amazing pilot: navigates asteroid field and survives direct assault on imperial star destroyer despite overwhelming odds ("in my experience, there's no such thing as luck" ~Obi-wan), plays key role in destruction of the Death Star
c. Always has a "bad feeling about this"
d. Fires blindly, and perfectly, to save Lando from the Sarlacc
e. Fires blindly, again, in TFA to kill a storm trooper
f. Finds Luke in the middle of the night in a massive snow storm and emerges through the force ghost of Obi-Wan. Seems like he was guided by the force to me.
h. Dodges, and fires shortly after (or at the same time...) as Greedo in Mos Eisley Space Port

Evidence for 4)
a. He is a Skywalker who, until he kills Han, have a demonstrated inability to kill family as we see in the original and prequel trilogies in Anakin and Luke (this would then also be evidence for 1)
b. During the Padawan massacre, he stabs someone who appears, at least to me, to be attacking Rey
c. He seems aware and interested in a girl from Jakku
d. He knows she will become more powerful the longer she is loose. If she was trained at Luke's Jedi school, Kylo would know of her, and this would explain why she seems to be remembering how to use the force, rather than learning it for the first time
e. He is being "torn apart" and "called to the light."
f. Adds significance to his test facing, and killing, Han: it is the first time he is able to kill family after failing to do so with Rey…
g. …which explains why Snoke says Kylo is ready to complete his training at the end of TFA.

Discussion:

If Snoke/Plagueis created Anakin, it was either accidental or intentional. In the first case, in his efforts to attain immortality, Anakin's immaculate conception could have been the Force's response to the imbalance created by Plagueis, and thus make Snoke "strangely vulnerable" (2h), i.e. vulnerable to Skywalkers. Assuming his, like other Sith's, goal is to have total control of the galaxy and force as is alluded to in the novel Tarkin, Snoke's goal is to not only exert control over the galaxy but the the Force itself, and its ability to respond to his dark-side meddling, and thus forever tip the scales in favor of the dark side. If he created Anakin intentionally, he would have done so with the goal of destroying his powerful apprentice, Palpatine, by manipulating Palpatine into thinking his assassination attempt was successful and that Anakin is the key to controlling the galaxy. In Snoke's ultimate goal of creating permanent imbalance in the force, that is, perpetual darkness and god-like power for himself, he needs to i) destroy Palpatine and ii) eliminate Skywalkers. With the knowledge that Skywalker's are the Force's response to his immortality, he knows their destiny is to destroy him and other Sith to restore balance (as suggested by the Jedi prophecy about the chosen one). This aligns with goal i) but is in direct opposition to goal ii). So after Palpatine is gone, he knows the only way he can eliminate the Skywalker's is if he manages to get Kylo and Rey, Skywalker cousins in this scenario, to destroy each other. Luke knows this, and so he helps hide Rey after (4) to preserve hope for balance i.e. destruction of Snoke. Snoke doesn't fully trust Kylo, since Kylo (4a). But after Kylo kills Han, Snoke believes Kylo is strong enough with the dark side to eventually achieve goal ii) i.e. Rey and Kylo's mutual destruction. Aside, Han seems at peace with the good and evil in his life and filled with love when Kylo kills him, these are the conditions as far as I understand them for becoming a force ghost. If he is force sensitive (3), it is not unreasonable to imagine that he, like Qui-gon, could achieve partial preservation in the Force i.e. have his voice become one with the force upon death. We would then be hearing more from Han/Harrison Ford in future movies. To further support this new hypothesis, I think Harrison Ford would be willing to offer his voice in future movies more so than acting in them. Whether Han realized he would become one with the force after death is up for debate (as well as this whole hypothesis, obviously!) but if he is unknowingly force sensitive, it is certainly possible he could unknowingly achieve what Qui-gon did: someone else who didn't fully understand the force ghosting technique upon death but because of force sensitivity and being at peace had their voice become one with the force and somewhat of a spirit guide. This would make the overall story have more potential in my eyes since, well, among other things, Harrison Ford/Han Solo is such an awesome piece of the Star Wars universe.

Another hypothesis I came across that would make for a great story for me is that Rey's mother dropped her off in a hurry, perhaps because she was being followed (and ultimately killed) by the Knights of Ren. If Kylo acted briefly out of compassion/light-side, he would have turned Rey over to either Luke or Rey's mother. I am going to assume it was the mother. After his moment of "weakness" (from dark side perspective), the Knights of Ren could have caught up with Rey's mother and killed her in the proximity of Jakku, thus explaining Kylo's familiarity with a girl from Jakku (4c). I wonder if part of what turned Kylo to the dark side was jealousy of Rey. We see potential evidence for this when he claims Luke's light-saber as belonging to him. If Rey were favored by Luke, this would only fuel Kylo's jealousy, which we all know is a path to the dark side. Jakku, and Unkar Plutt, seems too terrible a circumstance to leave a child if not in a hurry. Perhaps Unkar Plutt was tasked to watch Rey in exchange for the Falcon, or he was trusted with watching Rey and the Falcon until Rey was ready to leave Jakku.

I wonder if part of Luke's exile is that he realizes he became an agent of evil by abandoning his training early (look what happened to his apprentice, Kylo), albeit unknowingly. He also paved the way for Snoke by destroying Palpatine. I could see him hiding Rey to preserve hope for the galaxy to resist a total fall into darkness, but also with the hope that his own daughter would not have to be the one to face whatever horrors Rey will face in the coming episodes as she tries to defeat Snoke. Since Leia never trained as a Jedi and doesn't' seem to have potential to destroy Snoke, I wonder if when Yoda said, "No, there is another," he was actually referring to Rey, not Leia as everyone assumed at the time (perhaps rightfully so given Lucas seeming to make things up as he goes along). I can't wait to find out!

Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading your responses!