SPECULATION The Official Rey's Parents in Ep. IX Thread

I find it disrespectful to human intelligence that Rey Solo is still classified as a theory.

She's a nobody, (well not anymore) as she was always meant to be.

 

I think they're a couple of drunkards lying dead in a Jakku grave.

 

I’m going with dead drunkards. At this point there is no need to change it. The story needs to continue to move forward. By going back and readdressing her parents, it will be moving backward not forward. Daisy has stated that what Rey becomes is more important than where she comes from. IX will be about what she ultimately becomes.

 

In the flashback we see her yelling "come back!" at the ship with her parents leaving.

- Did they leave Jakku, only to come back there for some reason to die? They're "burried in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert" after all.
- Did Kylo lie and/or embellish the truth?
- Or is this a plot hole?

 

so the big question that we literally beat to death for over 2 years was answered by Ben telling Rey that her parents were deadbeat nobodies.

so it's answered.. that's it right?

despite the fact that i had wanted Luke to have children in this saga, with him now gone.. the big fanfare sized happy ending i had in mind for the nine films has gone. I still think that her past has more to it... than a pair of crappy parents who abandoned her, but i'd be more than ok with the subject not coming up again now there is only one film left.

I wouldn't put it past JJ to attempt to surprise us with a Rey revelation though. he would see it as a classic rope-a-dope, now we think we know.

I'm also bound to mention that Snoke told Rey and Ben that he had been manipulating both of them.. so it's possible that Snoke had put the idea into their heads that her parents were nobodies. it's also possible that because of Ben's issues with his parents... that he wanted Rey to think that they shared that past, and that he was manipulating her.

i went 'other', because i plain and simply don't like the idea that after all the secrecy about it... that her parents were horrid nobodies not worth talking about again.

i'm more interested in Rey's future now, and what direction Ben will go in.

 

Hold the bus- was there a Mrs. Palpatine? Sheev seemed like the 'married to his job' type.

 

Didn't they fly away in that nice ship? Can a ship double as a poppers grave? I still say she's a clone of SOMETHING.

 

I’m really torn on this, more than anything because JJ Abrams is the one responsible for Episode IX.

At this point, it seems obvious that Rey is a nobody, and to be honest, it makes perfect sense. I mean, they practically spelled it out for us this whole time and we were all so insistent that she was related to someone else. And from a storytelling standpoint, if Episode IX marks the end of the Skywalker saga—which, it does in JJ’s mind (he said so himself)—Rey is the perfect protagonist for this trilogy. She embodies everything we loved about Luke, Leia, and Han, and has even literally inherited Han’s ship and Luke’s lightsaber. Considering Kylo Ren is presumably the last living Skywalker in Episode IX, his death (which, whether he’s redeemed or not, seems inevitable) allows the protagonist to live but also allows the Skywalker saga to die with her.

That being said, JJ Abrams also willingly opened up the mystery box question of “who are Rey’s parents?” in The Force Awakens. The only thing that really can’t be explained—sans Rey and Leia’s weird connection that, I guess, will continue to be ignored—is that Rey and Kylo Ren continue to have a Force connection after Snoke’s death. (Prior to them, Luke and Leia were the only two people that we saw have this kind of connection, and as we all know, they are brother and sister.) I could see JJ turning what Rian did on its head and saying, “Kylo lied, Rey is actually a Solo.” (I really don’t see how she could be Luke’s daughter at this point.)

You’ve basically got two options. Rey either represents the end of the Skywalker story and the rise of a new Jedi order, or she represents the continuation of the Skywalker story. I’d be happy either way as long as it’s done right, but if she ends up being related to someone important after all, I wish they wouldn’t have straight up told us she was a nobody in The Last Jedi.

 

Rey's parents were only interesting because TFA built them up to be something. If TFA never did it, then it wouldn't be as interesting as it was. Now TLJ has officially destroyed all that mystery so I don't think people care much for this issue anymore.

 

dead drunkards. Rey admits it and Ben has zero reason to lie.

and like Ben now, Rey needs to stand on her own merits, build her own future.
both of them need to put the past behind them in order to move forward.

 

4, 5, 6, 7 or 9 would be acceptable to me. I voted Luke, but a Kenobi or Palpatine would be great too.

 

I voted that her parents were nobodies, but that they weren’t drunkards. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Rey admits that she’s a nobody, but she doesn’t admit that her parents were drunkards.

As for Ben having zero reason to lie, I disagree. Throughout the film, his mantra is to let the past die to, effectively, fulfill your destiny, or at least what you believe and want to be your destiny. Ben believes that due to his heritage and power that he is entitled to rule the galaxy, and he was clearly surprised in TFA that Rey came out of nowhere and was just as powerful as he was, if not even more so.

If he wanted to usurp Snoke, he had to do something about Rey. TFA showed that taking Rey head-on was a foolish mistake, especially in his fragile condition - emotionally and physically - at the time, so the option of trying to enlist her made more sense than attempting to take her head-on and possibly being defeated again. Notice too how in TFA he offers to become her teacher, but in TLJ he has come to see her as an equal and offers her a place by his side, supposedly as rulers of the galaxy.

In that moment, he’s declared his intentions to let old things die - Snoke, Skywalker; the Sith, the Jedi; the Rebels - and he completely expects Rey to join him. When she asks him to not walk down this path, he becomes infuriated and then goes on to try to manipulate her emotions so that she joins him: he says that she’s a nobody, with no place in the story, and that her parents weren’t only nobodies, but they were drunkards who sold her for drinking money.

He very clearly had a reason to lie, and the truth about Rey’s parents is something that he’d been holding over her. Kylo expects that once Rey has severed the loose thread that is her family, she can move on and fulfill her destiny, which fits with his mantra perfectly.

I think an important question about Ren’s statement about who, exactly, Rey’s parents are, is it’s validity: how would he know this?

One might suggest that their Force connection offered him this truth, but I don’t think that could be the case. When they touch, Rey says that she saw Ben’s future and thinks that he will turn against Snoke and not kneel before him: he does turn against Snoke. Likewise, Ben says that he sees that Rey will be the one to turn and stand by him: which she does, against Snoke, from a certain point of view. My point is that these truths are far too vague for it to be considered that Ben could possibly have deduced that Rey’s parents were drunkards who sold her for drinking money and are buried in a pauper’s grave in Jakku through their connection. His statement is just far too deliberately detailed for us to reasonably conclude that he was telling the truth, and whilst there are other ways he might have known this, such suggestions would only open up another can of worms.

Truth be told, whilst Rey does admit that her parents are nobodies, I think it could certainly be argued that even taking this admission at face value could be a mistake. She supposedly hasn’t seen her parents in a long time, and not since a young age, so whilst they might not be a Skywalker or a Solo, etc., so it does seem strange to take her admission at face value. There is also the case of what happens in the cave on Ahch-To: why is Rey’s reflection seen when she asked to see her parents? Does it confirm that they are dead/nobodies, or, seeing as it is a cave aligned with the Dark Side, is it possible that Snoke and/or Ren, or some other figure, is influencing what she experienced in that cave much like how Dooku and Palpatine influence what Yoda experiences on Korriban in the final arc of The Clone Wars?

Honestly, I don’t think that she’s related, by blood, to any of the big players in the GFFA, but the ambiguity that TLJ leaves over who exactly her parents are suggests to me that this thread could still be picked up by JJ in IX.

I currently lean towards her parents having lost her (believing her to be dead, them dying, etc.; they’re out of the picture) and her being picked up by scavengers/bounty hunters/pirates/etc. before being sold on Jakku (if that really did happen). Depending on her age, Rey might have thought that those people who sold her were her parents, so she wouldn’t be able to question Ben’s statement if that was indeed the case.

I think it would interesting if they ended up representing an ideal which we find evident in Rey’s character, such as them being members of the Church of the Force (teaching her that the well-being of others is very important, and other positive attributes, etc., which gives her great resolve and a love for the greater good), warriors (who taught Rey to have a rigorous morning routine), or perhaps even Imperials/Rebels (or one of each) to represent the inner conflict we sometimes see her being portrayed as having.

 

for me the obvious, least complicated answer is probably the right one. when i saw TFA, i figured her parents were Imperials or otherwise nefarious losers who abandoned her while on the run. this, in direct contrast to Ben's hero parents who loved him despite how he felt likewise abandoned. it looks like that was the case. it's straightforward and makes thematic sense with the narrative.

as for Ben, he's spent years being manipulated and petted by Snoke. he knows exactly what that feels like and looks like. if he merely wanted to manipulate Rey, he could have flattered her rather than throwing a horrible truth in her face. but he's not interested in that because he believes they're connected/meant to be. they have seen each other in the Force (that's how he knows--and how she knows he knows). while his confidence is misplaced and his behavior smackingly dunder-headed, again, i see no cause for him to lie to her.

yes, Abrams could pick this up, but both TFA and TLJ hammer home the notion that Rey's belonging is ahead, not behind her.
so there seems little point in continuing to tread this water in terms of the story. Rey has confronted her "nobodyness" and chose wisely (in the same way that Ben still needs to deal with his "somebodyness" and likewise choose wisely).
ultimately Rey is who she is in spite of her family (just like Ben). that's all that matters narratively.

 

Kylo’s mantra is to “let the past die and become what you were meant to be.” If the question of Rey’s parents is a burden that might stay with and distract Rey, stopping her from fulfilling her destiny - which he believes to be by his side - why would he not try to take that lingering question out of the equation? By answering the question of who her parents are, he’s killed that train of thought (i.e. “let the past die”), which he has every right to think is the thing standing between her and her destiny.

As for manipulation, telling her that she’s no-one to anyone - making her feel worthless - but him (making her feel valued, and making Ben sound like a better guy - is manipulation by all means. Him telling her that she’s a nobody to everyone but him is a lie and a form of manipulation, so i don’t think that we should count out him lying about her parents.

Except, as I said, them seeing each other in the Force doesn’t seem to offer either of them such detailed answers, because, as I said, they both come out of it with vague answers which lead both to believe that the other will turn (which they do, to a certain point of view). There’s nothing in their interactions which suggest that their Force connection offers any answers as detailed as who Rey’s parents are, exactly.

And I do strongly believe that Ben does have a reason to lie to her. Like I said, he makes clear his intentions to take Snoke’s place at the head of the FO and become ruler of the galaxy, which Rey asks him not to do. He tells her that she’s still holding on and not letting go, and very clearly believes that revealing who her parents are will allow her to let go.

Whether he was being truthful is entirely up for debate, in my opinion, and I’m not saying that JJ should make the truth about her parents the most important arc in IX. I’m saying that the truth about her parents could still play into the story to some extent, even if it’s only a small part and has little effect on her arc in IX, such as learning that her parents are out in the Unknown Regions or Wild Space at the end of IX, and heading off to find them.

 

i honestly just don't see it. he's clumsy, not deliberately cruel in this moment.
he has no idea how to talk to her. it's part of the whole "growing up" theme. he's still stuck in ugly-duck adolescence.
we've seen what he looks like when he's deliberately being cruel. he's not subtle about it.

and i acknowledge that.
he's telling her the truth he's seen in her own head.
if there are further truths/secrets, she's the one hiding/guarding them.
i don't think she is. just as she saw his pain and loneliness and conflict, he saw hers.
yes, it's up for interpretation, but it goes back to the simplest answer often being the best one.
there's no compelling story reason to make this more complicated.
they have enough strife in the present.

 

I loved both TFA and TLJ individually, but I do think this overall trilogy was hurt by the decision not to map any of the overarching story out before hand. They could have given Rey a last name, and had her remember her parents faces - that would have preserved her character arc, while preventing all the false expectations.

I agree with what @Julius Fett said - the motivation for Kylo Ren to lie to Rey is clear and immediate. Rian Johnson has said that is his mind Kylo is telling her the truth, but he also acknowledges that Kylo is using that information to manipulate her. So whether the information turns out to be true, the intention is the same.

For me, I hope JJ leaves her as the child of drunkards unless there is a really good reason not to. Changing it in the final film, just because it upset some of the fan base is a terrible move. Not only is it pandering, but structurally it would look like the films were playing tug-o-war with the narrative rather than forming one cohesive story-line.

Certainly there is an opening to change it if JJ wants to - we already know that Snoke manipulated the contact between Rey and Ben, and that not everything they saw turned out to be true. But to me at least, it's far more interesting to juxtapose Ben using his parents' lack of attention to justify his turn to the dark side, against Rey choosing the light despite being literally abandoned by her parents.

Though I do think it would be cool if Rey took the Skywalker surname at the end of EP9.

 

I don't like the way the story of Ray's parents developed, but after TLJ I don't trust the current generation of people behind Star Wars to handle big plot twists. Additionally, doing so would make TLJ look like an aberration that needed fixing and would annoy the fans who enjoyed the story. Reunifying the community by making everyone pissed isn't an improvement. So, unfortunately, I hope they just move on and develop other stories.

 

That’s entirely fair. This is just how I interpret that scene a few weeks after the film’s release, and after seeing the film five times, I don’t think that Ben can be seen as the most trustworthy source of this information as Vader couldn’t be seen as the most trustworthy source at the end of TESB, even if it did turn out that he was telling the truth.

He could be telling the truth. I think that he does have enough reason to lie in that moment, given what’s at stake, and if he is telling the truth, then it could certainly be the case that it is a subjective one.

I respect your opinion, and i liked your point about them coming from opposite familial systems (loved and cared for vs. not). As I alluded to, I’m sure that my own opinion will evolve in the upcoming months.

 

it does, in fact (to a certain degree). when they are in the elevator he says he saw it in her head. they are sharing what they saw and how they interpret it and her parents is part of that. and again, i have repeatedly said how they interpret it is subjective, but what it is seems fairly objective. neither of them are wrong about turning; it's just the follow through that's murky. she's not wrong about his conflict. he's probably not wrong about her parents.

again, i don't see any reason for Ben to make it something it's not.
he wants her. if he's going to lie to her to get her, he's going to tell her what she wants to hear, not what he believes is the truth (whether he's right or wrong).

he may yet turn out to be more capable of duplicity than i've given him credit (he certainly lied with relative ease to Hux--which is the first time he's outright done so otherwise). he's had moments of lying to himself ("he means nothing to me", etc.), but to me that's a different kind of lie: it's self-delusion (fake it til you make it kind of thinking).

but at the end of the day i think this Rey's parentage thing is a dead end that really doesn't need any further flogging.
could be totally wrong. just don't see any narrative use for it now that they are both "on their own" so to speak.