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

To be perfectly honest, there is something about the new title that now leads me to believe that the plan actually is to end the Skywalker Saga at IX. I mean, how weird would it be to continue telling stories about "Jedi" afterwards, when you have already declared someone (whether it is Luke, Rey, or Kylo...) to be the "Last Jedi." You can't exactly have someone declared as the "Last Jedi" and then have something created or continued afterwards that is akin to the New Jedi Order.

So, I am starting to question whether or not Luke will actually "pass the torch" to the next generation... perhaps he believes the old Jedi vs. Sith conflict was really at the heart of all galactic conflict and must finally end... or maybe he has something else in mind like a completely new organization or group that does not call themselves "Jedi"...

 

I didn't get it.

 

Unless you think of the Skywalker Saga as being about the birth of whatever replaces the Jedi. The first Skywalker destroys the old Jedi, his son creates whatever comes next and the successive generations grow it.

But honestly I have a hard time believing that Luke will be the last Jedi - even in name. The word "Jedi" is a valuable trademark and part of the Star Wars brand. Even people that don't know what Star Wars is about have some idea what you're talking about when you say "Jedi".

I'm a proponent of doing away with the PT Jedi Code, and evolving the concept of a Jedi - so ending the Jedi and replacing it with something new is an exciting idea to me - but I don't believe for a minute that Luke (or Rey) will be the very last Jedi in the Star Wars timeline. As long as there is Star Wars, there will be light-side Force wielders. And from a marketing standpoint it makes too much sense to call them Jedi.

 

Just like Leia wouldn't hug her old friend and Hans best friend after Han die........oh wait.

You're assuming just because we didn't see it, it didn't happen.

 

For me it's more like Luke had short relationship with someone who left before telling him she was pregnant (maybe because she didn't want her daughter raised in that world). Then later someone discovers who Rey is, and in a desperate act while being pursued, Rey's mother drops little Rey on Jakku, and then dies rather then tell her pursuer (Snoke?) where Rye is. Or something to that effect.

 

And this is supposed to be deeply satisfying ?

 

So, you are moving away from the 'Luke being her father would be way too obvious' argument you have said many times in this thread? BTW; everyone I know and have talked to about TFA came away from the theater think she was Luke's daughter and all of them are casual fans and not super fans like me. Every article I've read on this subject says Luke is the obvious choice. Clearly the movie points towards Luke being her father to both casual AND super fans.

This brings back memories of our conversations about this line.

The thing is, your interpretation is based on two lines in the movie; Maz's line and Rey's earlier line where she tells BB8 she is waiting for her family. That's a very limited context and ignores nearly everything we do know about Rey's origins. We know she watched the ships and the people arriving on Jakku while growing up wondering if any of them might be there for her. Clearly, she has no clue who she's waiting for and if Maz doesn't know who she or her family is then Maz can't know if they are dead. Rey has been waiting for someone to come for her for 14 years. It would be obvious to anyone and especially to someone like Maz that no one is going to go looking for her on Jakku if they haven't after all that time.

Obviously, Rey needed to let go of the belief that someone was coming for her and realize that she was wasting her time and her life by going back to Jakku. That line could just as easily be meant to separate her real family (Luke) from the imaginary one she's been clinging to and waiting for to cope with her hard and lonely life on Jakku. Personally I don't think Han knew anything more than we, the audience, did about Rey if even that much. Now what Maz actually knew is not really revealed in the movie but she can't 'know' that Rey's parents are dead but 'not know' who Rey is. She either knows both or doesn't know either. I think the story of how Maz got the light saber is going to tie in to how Rey ended up on Jakku.

 

Well said, @Shadrac! I agree with you wholeheartedly and believe this is a much more believable interpretation of the Maz scene and Rey's prior conversation with BB8 than simply concluding her parents are dead. There is a reason no one has ever, on screen or otherwise, used the word "dead" when describing Rey's parents. The word "dead" would be the much more logical and obvious word to use if that was the case. Spot on!

 

Yes, you read "dead" where the word "dead" is never used, but would be the most logical and obvious word to use in that situation if her parents were dead. I don't see her parents being "dead" as obvious... at all. In fact, far from it, as it is more logical to me from the dialogue that they are not dead. Language never lies. If you mean "dead," you say "dead." If you mean "never coming back" you say "never coming back."

No one is coming back for Rey on Jakku because she has sadly wasted her life there and that is not where her future lies. Her future lies with her family (including, arguably, at least one parent...) ahead, not behind. That's all Maz ever tells her.

 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people are busting out the "jump to conclusion" pad based on a pretty generic title. The first film in this trilogy was about finding Luke. The second film is going to be about Luke. We already know he's the last living Jedi. I suspect this is where the Jedi rise again. That's Snoke's fear. It would be odd for a film to have the villain's fears not come to pass. Luke will pass on what he has learned. The Jedi will rise again. This is the fulfillment of the New Hope. The first 6 films were about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. Luke has redeemed his father and now rebuilds the Jedi Order. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

 

Well, not for you of course. But then there's not such thing as deeply satisfying for everyone - especially for anyone rooting for one side or the other (there will be people that are upset because it didn't turn out exactly the way they wanted).

Whether the majority of people find Rey's background deeply satisfying or not will likely be determined by how it's presented, rather than what the answer is.

 

Ep9 - Star Wars: Rise of the New Jedi

 

All Lucas has definitively stated over the years in regards to Luke's "love life" is that he never gets married. This doesn't rule out him actually having a child.

Rise of the Jedi sounds better.