Paralels and differences between Anakin, Luke and Rey

I decided to make a summary of parallels and differences between the main heroes of three trilogies at the beginning of their respective journeys - Anakin, Luke and Rey – especially because some the elements of TFA want to make us believe that Rey is a Skywalker.

All three live on a desert planet – Anakin and Luke on Tatooine, Rey on Jakku.

The family situation:

Anakin lives with his mother, works for Watto and has friends.

Luke lives with aunt and uncle and has friends.

For all intentions and purposes, Rey is an orphan, works for Unkar Plutt, has no friends.

Mechanical and piloting abilities:

Anakin builds C3PO to help his mother. Learns working with the machines in Watto's shop. Learns to drive podracer and fly because he wants to improve mother's and his own life and wants to someday fly in space.

Luke learns to tinker with machines on the moisture farm, learns to pilot with Biggs for fun and because he wants to get into Imperial Academy.

Rey learns to work with the machines because working parts bring more food portions. Learns to fly in the flight simulator salvaged from downed ship, mainly for fun, increasing the difficulty of flight scenarios. She flies ships in the atmosphere (Before the Awakening).

Combat/physical/language abilities:

Anakin speaks with Watto, understands droid fluently. He is fit because he works for living. In combat, he is not really comparable because, in the beginning of his journey, he is just a kid and later receives full Jedi training.

Luke learned to shoot womp rats in Beggar’s Canyon. He is fit because he works on the farm. Understands basic droid, though not as well as Anakin (uses X-Wing terminal to speak to him).

Rey learns self-defense on Jakku with her staff, is fit because she works physically and is not very proficient with a blaster. Speaks several alien languages (speaks with Teedo, understands droid and Wookiee) presumably because she grows up in the melting pot that is Jakku (Aftermath – Interlude: Jakku - “Not many folks from here. Most folks…just end up here. Jettisoned like so much worthless cargo. Dropped like waste.”)

Latent Force powers:

Anakin’s latent powers manifest in his podracing and flying. He never finished a race and wins, destroys droid control ship although he never flied or even been in space.

We don’t know much about Luke’s latent powers prior ANH, but even with Obi-Wan’s meager training he makes ‘one in a million shot’ without targeting computer.

Rey dreams of an ocean and island in the middle of it. I don’t believe this is a coincidence – the Force is making itself known, but Rey doesn’t realize what it means. After a cringe-worthy start (How many of you closed your eyes while she was wrecking it?), flies Millennium Falcon like an ace.



Feel free to add parallels that I missed.