Rey - Background Explained (my theory)

Rey is 19 years old in TFA. (source: "Star Wars TFA Visual Dictionary"). As she was left on Jakku aged 5, we can say she has been on Jakku for 14 years. (This could also mean R2-D2 was asleep for 14 years too!)

Buy "Before The Awakening" book and you'll read why Rey is so good at building, repairing and piloting ships. A very good book which also has two other chapters devoted to Finn and Poe origins and back-stories.

Rey can fly a ship because she has rebuilt and flown one, a small freighter! But it was stolen before she could sell it. Rey also has a computer inside her AT-AT home which has a flight sim program which was scavenged from crashed ships. She uses the computer for education and entertainment,

Learned a little more about Rey today, "Rey" might actually be a false name used as a disguise! Remember the scene where she's had dinner outside her AT-AT home wearing an X-Wing pilot helmet? On the side of the helmet is written the name of the previous owner, a Captain Raeh (written in Aurebesh). Rey is clearly fan-girling and has also made a Rebel pilot doll who I presume is of Captain Raeh. This information is available to read in the "Star Wars TFA Visual Dictionary"

 

Possible problem with your theory: if Luke found the first Jedi temple so soon after Kylo's betrayal, why would he have remained in hiding for 10-15 years after that? Any thoughts?

 

Great theory

I think this your only flaw though^

 

I've an alternative theory. She's the daughter of the grandson of Qui Gon Jinn and the daughter of Corran Horn, so her full name is Rey Jinn Horn.

 

Rey Fay Wray. She stars in the King Kong with the practical effects.

 

Rey is another Anakin. When she was a little girl she started showing signs of force sensitivity and this scared her parents. Parents were influenced by the anti Jedi propaganda. They ditched her on Jakku. As she grew up she started to convince herself that one day they would return. She also suppressed her force sensitivity. It's a natural response for a force sensitive child abandoned by parents for being force sensitive.
Deep down she knows her parents are never coming back and this is why she breaks down in tears when Maz talks to her after The Force Awakens inside her.
It's not a case of Rey "learning" to use the Force, it's a case of Rey "letting the Force in". She has suppressed it for almost 15 years.
Her natural bond with the Force is stronger than any character we have seen. The most powerful display of Force power we see is not the duel or the mind trick, it is the force vision upon touching the lightsabre. This force vision shows just how strong Rey's natural bond with the Force truly is. It is overwhelming because it is the first time her powers have expressed themselves to their full extent without being suppressed.
After this moment she still tries to suppress it all, but gradually that suppressed mental state starts to evaporate. She can do a Jedi mind trick, but she is suppressing it, takes a while to fully let go when you have been suppressing something for 15 years. Then same thing at the end. Once she let's the Force in at the end she goes to town on Kylo, an apprentice that is badly injured has no chance. A Jedi's strength flow from the Force - Yoda. Her existing fighting ability is amplified massively once the Force becomes her ally.
Why is she so naturally strong with the Force? I think the Force itself has chosen her. Once all 12 movies are complete we will see the full story. It will end with Rey destroying Snoke and Kylo Ren. I believe that Snoke is Plagueis and so the end of the saga will be Rey destroying the evil mastermind and the final Skywalker that came as a result of this evil mastermind's meddling in the darkside. Once this happens the story is over. The Force through Rey ends the destructive conflict that has plagued the galaxy for decades.
When Rey and Luke meet at the end it is epic on many levels. From Rey's perspective, a child abandoned by hateful ignorant parents, she is now with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. He is the father she deserved, he is the belonging she seeks.
Rey was not at the Jedi academy, she is a complete outsider who has been surviving on Jakku as a nobody. Someone who I believe was at the academy is Snoke. Snoke destroyed Luke's academy from within. This is how he seduced Kylo to the darkside and explains how Han and Leia know Snoke. Once the academy failed, Snoke took some of the Jedi Knights including Kylo and was able to take over the remnants of the old Empire and form the First Order. The Jedi Knights who turned away from Luke and followed Snoke dropped Jedi and became Knights of Ren.
Luke's academy failed because of Plagueis, not because of Luke.

 

I want to like this twice

 

I'm doubtful. The movie *hints* there is connection with Luke, but the novelization tells that Luke disappeared 20 years ago (I read in a review, though myself I couldn't find a reference on this). If this is true, however, this would make it impossible for Rey to remember Luke. She could be his daughter, by stretch... for example, let's say his wife has a child, and she is merely few months old toddler, and Luke gives her away for foster parents, who then ditch her on Jakku. That might work.

But it would be a huge stretch.

 

It sounds like you're assuming that the first Jedi temple is on D'Qar (the planet Rey finds Luke at). But what if it isn't? What if Rey visited D'Qar when she was a child?

Or, what if seeing D'Qar (the sea, the island) was just one of the aspects of Rey's vision that weren't directly from her own memories? After all she did see a corridor from Luke's battle with Vader in ESB, and she hadn't even been born at that point. And, she saw a vision of her own future (her encounter in the forest with Kylo Ren)...

 

When Rey seas the island in the sea, it is the future she sees. The Force not only shows the past but also the future. Example - Luke once saw Han and Leia in a city in the clouds during TESB, even though the Falcon had not yet journeyed to Bespin yet.

 

We also have no reason to think that Luke has actually found the temple yet. And it doesn't seem so crazy to me to think he found it and went elsewhere: what's plausible and what isn't, it seems to me, depends on what the temple is, what Luke wanted to do there, whether he accomplished his task, and so on. It will be fun exploring speculations along all of these lines...

 

If I recall correctly, it does. Rey is 19 years old.

Hmm... I'm not so sure of that. There was a map that was left behind, showing a pathway to a hidden location; Kylo Ren also tells to Rey that they have missing pieces that they gathered from archives of the Empire but that they miss one piece: the one that Luke has. In the new canonization the Emperor had been collecting information about Jedi temples and artifacts having them destroyed/tested in his laboratories. To me it is relatively clear that Luke has seaked sanctuary in that temple, and that is where Rey finds him.

 

Ah yes, it makes sense that the information in the Empire's archives would have been for the temple. After all, how would those archives contained information on where Luke happened to flee to decades after the Empire's fall?

But then, that leaves the following question: why wouldn't Emperor Palpatine have destroyed such a thing, if the Empire knew of its existence? Wasn't his mission to wipe out all vestiges of the Jedi? If I remember correctly, this comes up in Rebels: when Kanan and Ezra discover a lost Jedi temple, I believe Kanan says that the Empire had destroyed the ones they knew about. The mystery only increases...at least, I hope it's an intentionally crafted mystery, rather than a continuity error...

 

Rey's Force vision. She heard the voice of Jedi Master Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. But no Anakin. Why wouldn't "her grandfather" speak to Rey in the vision?

Rey has an English accent, not the US accents of the Skywalker's or the Organa-Solo's.

Luke's voice-over in the trailer said "The Force is strong in MY family. My father had it, I have it, my sister has it. YOU have that power too". Luke doesn't seem to imply or confirm Rey is part of his family, he just says "you have that power too".

She said "I have a big secret" to BB-8 during TFA. That secret could be her real name. The Visual Dictionary confirms Rey's X-Wing helmet has the name "Raeh" written on it, the name of Captain Dosmit Raeh who wore it during the Battle Of Jakku. Rey is fan-girling the pilot by using his name as an alias and keeps a doll of him too.

So I'm predicting Rey is not a Skywalker, not an Organa and not a Solo. Obi-Wan Kenobi spoke to her, he has an English accent and Rey does too, so I'm predicting Rey is a relative of Obi-Wan Kenobi.