SPECULATION Rey was born and raised on Jakku.

IMO it wouldn't make sense for her family to suddenly leave. It's best to look at it from a kid's perspective where you'd remember st least bits and pieces about growing up on Jammu. It's more likely it was done or of safety after what Anakin did to the Jedi temple during order 66.

 

I believe you are 100% correct....Except maybe her parents (her mother) didn't give her away in exchange for something. Maybe she was forced to leave her.... But she might have sold her after all, who knows.

 

I've been on this train of thought as well, or at least she lived there as long as she remembered ( like Luke who was brought to Tatooine an infant).

 

It's funny you said that as I too used to think about that - I wonder if they could possibly provide a clue that Rey hasn't been on Jakku perhaps quite as long as she thinks she has, i.e. is it possible that that "memory" we see of her family leaving is actually a planted memory rather than genuine?

I'm interested as to why you'd quote this as evidence supporting that she'd been raised, and always on Jakku? I agree that this pretty much confirms that she's never known her father, but take this as a fairly decent indicator of an unknown, and unknowing father from off-world...

 

I had thought the same about Rey having always been on Jakku, but there are some remarks out there by Hidalgo which seem to indicate she was brought there and then abandoned. I think she and her family were on the run from someone. They went to Jakku looking for something (hence their dealing with Plutt), and were caught up to by their pursuer. The family knew they were goners so they left Rey behind.

 

Yes, more than likely that is the case - just interesting to speculate, especially given the amount of comments I've read where people think she's had her "mind wiped". Having additionally been given a false memory isn't going much further in that particular direction.

 

It's always been a bit off to me that the Empire had secret labs/bases on Jakku that were likely destroyed through the tactics used in the Battle of Jakku (falling Star Destroyers pulling New Republic ships down with them through the use of a tractor beam to destroy whatever research was left on the planet and such - writing this just gave me the thought that Gallius Rax is pulling a Revan of sorts and attempting to awaken whatever is in Jakku/Unknown Regions by offering thousands of lives).

Considering the position of Jakku in relation to the Unknown Regions (and therefore the First Order Fleet) it wouldn't surprise me if Rey was either a created Force child (through the Force or science) abandoned due to the threat she imposed, or her parents were Imperials and just got the call to jump into the Unknown.

Still, though, I'm finding it hard to see as her anything but a Skywalker at the moment.

 

I think it is possible she was born and raised on Jakku. She doesn't seem to have ever known anything different and was appropriately dressed for the planet when we see her being left behind!

If she was from jakku I imagine her parents had something to do with the imperial research facility/ancient Sith site and fled the planet - perhaps thinking Rey had been killed or they tried to lure away whoever was after them. I'd then propose that Rey's power comes from whatever the hell was going on on Jakku - Force trees, force draining or whatever.

If she isn't from Jakku then I suggest she is a Kenobi. She may have been the product of Kenobi and Satine's potential child. After rots, Kenobi discovers he has a child and that he/she is in danger. He sends him or her (with their partner) to ahch-to (described as a possible sanctuary for Jedi in tfa novel). Kenobi then erases the map from the Empire archives. He left a clue to his child and where they were which Luke finds later. Luke has been seeking Kenobi's family but when he arrived on ahch to they were gone. Perhaps after having Rey the Kenobi's leave ahch to but run into problems on Jakku - are persued by the KoR who discovered the truth about them. They have to leave Rey on Jakku and try and get away. The Kenobi's are killed by the KoR but Rey is left on jakku where Plutt takes her. A map to ahch to remains on ahch to which Tekka later discovers.

I prefer the first idea but if she is related to any legends and doesn't "come from the Empire/dark
Side" then I'd probably go with Rey kenobi - certainly over Luke being daddy.

 

I think this makes a lot of sense, actually.

• She's never seen anything green, so either she has only ever been to desert planets, or has never left Jakku.
• Her clothing as a child was already scavenger-like, so she'd likely been there a while before her family left.
• She never says they abandoned her there, just that she's waiting for them to come back.

It's increasingly obvious that she is not a Skywalker. They may be trying to do a ANH/TESB reversal on us, but it's never even implied that she could be Luke's daughter (she thinks he's a myth!) and her meetings with Leia and Han don't seem to hint at anything beyond, at most, that they know who she is. But not that she's related to them.

The idea that Snoke and Kylo Ren seem to know who this "girl" is points more to some sort of prophecy. Maybe they believe she is some sort of "chosen" one because they prophesized one existing, and they need that "chosen" one to achieve their ends.

JJ et al. were emphasizing that TFA was something they created "for then fans", and stated that they diverged from George's initial outlines to suit that vision. I can't imagine anything more relatable to the fans than Rey being a complete random, whose deadbeat family abandoned her for whatever reason, never realizing that she has more inherent potential as a Force user than even the most 'mythic' Jedi.

 

In the "fake" script (which I continue to doubt that it's a fake, so I'm gonna put the spoiler alert tag...) it's written that:

Spoiler: possible spoiler

Rey is born on Jakku, lived always there, and when she was 5 during a rebel strike their parents were preparing to leave the planet in a hurry with the intention to bring her with them obviously, but they ultimately believed she died when their house and those around it were destroyed with a missile during the strike while they where off in the city station to prepare themselves for leaving; however Rey wasn't at home because some minutes before she got out to help a friend of her (that remains killed instead) but they didn't know and didn't imagine it because she was not allowed to get out if I understand it correctly. They left the planet with a transport then, believing she died; she tried to reach them before the transport lift off but Unkar Plutt grabbed her and then the scene we saw in the forceback happened (where she cried 'Come Back!' , etc).

Fake or not, I believe it's a plausible explanation of her past and what happened just before the Forceback scene, and as Bluemilk has pointed out it's highly probable Rey lived all her life before TFA on Jakku, or at least from when she was an infant

 

Yeah, fake or not that is a very compelling story.
The idea of a rebel strike would be interesting as it would give Rey motivation to dislike the Resistance - however the timeline doesn't work out on that one.
The Battle of Jakku occurred 10 years before Rey was born.

However, the reasoning stands. I think she was either presumed dead for whatever reason and left there or her parents were being hunted and acted as a decoy to lead away their assailants and keep Rey safe. My instincts are that the KoR have a role in this. Though my instincts have known to be wrong...from time to time.

 

This is a fascinating topic. It made thread of the week! Keep up the fabulous conversation, everyone!

 

I find that business of Rey thinking Luke was a "myth" very odd...

I appreciate the outpost on Jakku might not quite have been on a par with Mos Eisley size-wise, but we do see that it's certainly not so remote that there's no presence of off-planet ships. Surely some gossip must flow - e.g. that the entire First Order is looking for Luke Skywalker! Plus, as a hero of the rebellion, who's sister was still serving the new Republic, and someone who'd only disappeared relatively recently, how could he be possibly be thought a myth?

Plus you've got Lor San Tekka, an old ally of his sister, and member of the church of the force, also on Jakku, living practically on her doorstep! It seems very strange she could have such strong feelings to consider him a myth, rather than maybe thinking he'd died or was missing.

 

Sometimes the easiest solution is waiting right in front of you, yet you do not notice it. This is one of such cases.

 

The question of why some believe Luke Skywalker is a myth may be relatively simple... based on the propaganda the Empire put out there. We know that for a time, the Empire denied that Emperor Palpatine was even killed. I suspect that the Empire, both during its heyday after the destruction of the first Death Star, and as a remnant after the Battle of Endor, put out plenty of misinformation, disinformation, etc. calling into question the existence of this "Luke Skywalker" who supposedly brought things down single-handedly.

That is the reason why I think many view Luke Skywalker as a myth. Whispers of a mythical hero, who may or may not have really existed, based on substantial propaganda by those who could control information best.