Rey Solo

The Dark Side tells the truth. The truth is hard to hear. This is why so many believe the dark side lies. Vader told the truth to Luke. Dooku told Ben the truth. Snoke told the truth to Rey about Ben being weak.

 

Great point. The truth can be a powerful weapon.

 

I support this theory, Palpatine never told anyone he was the sith lord behind the war simply because nobody asked.
On the other hand the jedi have been known to manipulate people and blatantly lie, even inciting a young innocent boy to commit patricide.

 

Dooku told Ben?

 

Indeed. Sidious was a genius at this. He’d speak the truth - but it’d be a truth that he had manufactured. For instance, he twisted Anakin so that the Jedi didn’t trust him. And so when he says “the Jedi don’t trust you”, it was true.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 27, 2017, Original Post Date: Dec 27, 2017 ---

Old School Kenobi name

 

Kenobi...sorry was using his exiled name

 

It’s a name @Mr Hux has not heard in a long time...a long time.

 

JJ said specifically referring to TFA I am sure of. Beyond that I haven't heard that regarding the larger trilogy. But I think with the revelations that we received in TLJ it seems here parents are backstory.

Kids particularly traumatized ones do not have honest views of their parents. I work with them every day. Rey's false hope of the parents return is right on the money. Kylo's brutal truth was delivered once already more gently by Maz with only slightly less detail. "They aren't coming back you know it to be true."

The overall context of both films suggests that Rey needs to find her own place in the galaxy and this struggle. Kylo even captures this idea well. Rey saw Han as a tather, hoped Luke would be one, then she sought out Kylo hoping he would turn. He then offers her a place with him ruling the galaxy, you mean nothing but you mean something to me. This is brilliant. It sounds almost sweet until you realize he is offering to define her not doing so herself. (This is why Reylo and or ReyBen is dead).

You are also ignoring the fact that Rey doesn't reject the idea. She says nothing. Because she knows what he saw in her head through the connection.

"that answer" = that she is the secret special daughter of magic cool parents. We did not get that answer. Then "Not only that, but Kylo is going to use the fact . . . . " Meaning its the truth but Kylo will use it not in a Machiavellian lie but in a Machiavellian truth.

Reylo was not that widely accepted. It was a vocal group. Some are still vocal but they have split into those that recognize it ended with both characters going their separate directions because the both have risen to their destinies or those that think that we are due for a romance that leads to redemption.

I have been saying since I heard the idea of a romance floated that if there was a romance then the torture seen takes on a decidedly rapey vibe. And in hindsight it does. Not just because he uses the "I can take what I want" threat but because in the last 30 years of psychic connections on TV or cinema the actors and actresses describe it in sexual terms. Further I think there is a very dark tone in the offer Kylo gives Rey. "your nothing" but you mean something to me. He doesn't say she is important, he doesn't offer what he sees in her that he recognizes he offers that he has made her important. When its clear that he intends to rule the galaxy with an iron fist, she wants none of it. She sees that her future is against him not with him.

You can use the truth completely dishonestly. Sidious was also capable of ball faced lies, like when he told Anakin, "You killed her."

 

Just back from my third viewing and maybe I'm missing something (although not sure as I've checked the subtitle leak to cross reference what I remember) but Rey talks about her parents identify before Kylo. He just elaborates on it.

Kylo
Do you wanna know the truth about your parents? Or have you always known? And you've just hidden it away.
You know the truth. Say it. Say it.

Rey
They were nobody.

Kylo
They were filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money.

A bit confused why such emphasis is put on Kylo putting the idea in her head to trick her that she's not a Solo/Skywalker when she admits it first and he just elaborates on it by adding the filthy junk traders/drinking money bit.

 

Because then the story becomes about Rey mourning parents who loved her rather than feelings completely isolated and meaningless - that’s the reason for her being a no one. The story is about her discovering who she is as a person- giving herself an identity and not being defined by others (parents or Kylo Ren).

She just never wanted to confront this reality as she survived on the hope of her imaginary loving family returning for her. In the end, it wasn’t her parents that swept her away - but the light of the Force.

 

Who says she won't? Though it seems unnecessary. Parents shouldn't demand a child's love - they should earn it.
I don't understand why you struggle to believe the idea that her parents weren't nice people. Are you implying that the children of horrible parents are not lovely and cannot be goodhearted?

You need to understand where this story is heading. Rey's story is about a lonely, insignificant person, making a "new family" and finding herself in the process.
Rey having parents that were nice nobodies doesn't help this story. Them being heartless, does. It compounds on Rey's feelings of insignificance and loneliness. It is her Dark Side. It's why she is so tempted by Kylo Ren - she doesn't feel lonely with him because he "understands her".

But then, the light side is there for Rey. Not just the Force - but her new family of Finn, Leia and now Poe etc. They're there to remind her that she isn't alone and she doesn't need Kylo Ren - he is just playing on her fears. And they needed there to be conflict for Rey. This is what we were always talking about in the "Luke father thread". There needed to be conflict for Rey, and Luke or the Solo's being her parents didn't provide that. Instead it would've eliminated the only conflict in Rey's life - who were her parents and what happened to them.

The interesting question is now: where does this story go? It appears that at the end of TLJ Rey has accepted who her parents were and rejected Kylo Ren (not Ben, but Kylo). So where is her conflict? You might be right that the story behind her parents will be fleshed out further. But it makes no sense for it to be the case that Ren was lying. That'd just mean that her parents were good people and that Ren lied - it wouldn't add any extra conflict.

For me, the fact that the connection still exists between Rey and Ren is telling. The shutting the door on him, to many, indicated that she has rejected him fully. I didn't see it like that. In my view it shows that she is still connected with him and is trying to cut him out/deny the connection - but a steel Falcon door won't keep him out. And this connection will continue to be alarming for an inexperienced Rey. And the time will come where she either decides to give into it or try and change/destroy Ren. No doubt that her "new family" will struggle with her relationship to Ben and her desire to "save him" and this could push her away further.

But the point is, the story of her deadbeat parents makes perfect sense - and has done since 2015. It makes no sense story-wise to go back on that. And there is absolutely no chance she is a secret Solo or Skywalker.

 

I find the idea within the Bible that one should "honor thy parents", very challenging. Should a child honour a parent that abuses them? No.
But alas, TLJ doesn't destroy family values - it highlights the very best of them. It tells us what is really important about family - not blood, but love.

Anyway, just looking back at some quotes from a couple of years ago. JJ and co. told the truth to those willing to hear it (and it wasn't changed by RJ):

To me Star Wars was never about science fiction — it was a spiritual story. And it was more of a fairytale in that regard. For me when I heard Obi-Wan say that the Force surrounds us and binds us all together, there was no judgement about who you were. This was something that we could all access. Being strong with the force didn’t mean something scientific, it meant something spiritual. It meant someone who could believe, someone who could reach down to the depths of your feelings and follow this primal energy that was flowing through all of us. I mean, that's what was said in that first film! And there I am sitting in the theater at almost 11 years old and that was a powerful notion. And I think this is what your point was, we would like to believe that when blast gets serious, that you could harness that Force I was told surrounds not just some of us but every living thing. And so, I really feel like the assumption that any character needs to have inherited a certain number of midi-chlorians or needs to be part of a bloodline, it’s not that I don’t believe that as part of the canon, I’m just saying that at 11 years old, that wasn’t where my heart was. And so I respect and adhere to the canon but I also say that the Force has always seemed to me to be more inclusive and stronger than that. - JJ Abrams

-----


Q: one last thing (sorry).. people regularly using the words "dropped off" on Jakku about Rey. Presuming too much? "Left" better?
PH: "Abandoned" seems to fit best if that vision is any indicator.

Q: But didn't they say they were coming back? Was the abandonment unintentional then?
PH: did they say so or did Rey hope so?

Q: A voice says so in the novelization ("I'll come back, sweetheart."), I guess she could've imagined it...?
PH: she seemed very young. But I guess we'll find out in time.

Q: in the book "Rey's Story" she claims to have no memory of her parents or why she's in Jakku. could she have been mind wiped?
PH: Or just have been young. And repressing. Several options there.


-----


J.J. Abrams knows the answer to the secret of Rey's parentage.

The Star Wars director, appearing at TCA to promote his and Cameron Crowe's TV show Roadies, talked about the mysterious heroine, saying, "I know quite a bit."

He continued: "Obviously it’s not for me to talk about in this moment because this is Rian’s story to continue now. The last thing I’m going to do is reveal something that he would be upset about. I want to make sure that Rian gets the courtesy that he showed me."


-----


“Rey’s parents are not in Episode VII. So I can’t possibly in this moment tell you who they are. This is all I will say: It’s something that Rey thinks about too.”


-----


"I think the amazing thing about [Episode VII] is that Finn and Rey don't come from anywhere, and they find a place, so to me, it's funny that people think it's so important because I don't really think it is."


-----


"What I found funny is that I was the child. and I'm like people were so presumptuous and like your Han Solo's daughter and I'm like; How do you know? Have you seen the film? Clearly not, because I wasn't. That was a funny one."

 

Okay, so RJ is insistent that it was up to him who Rey was. Well worth listening to his reasoning though. Chimes exactly what most of us Rey Randomers thought...

 

Why?