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

After The Last Jedi I simply don't care about Rey's parents. They're no longer important to the story or to Rey. I suspect we'll never learn if they were drunks, but they did abandon her to a live a scavenging. Rey's future is in front of her. It's not behind. I

 

I couldn't help voting "Luke Skywalker and his child bride". But seriously, what is that all about?

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Probably nobodies, but not nobodies for no reason. "It's the worst thing that Rey could hear at that particular moment: it's her greatest fear". That is beautifully written by Rian Johnson. I'd even be okay if they would never resolve it, but if the movie would end with her on Jakku standing at her parents grave that would be very poetic. Rey needs to accept that the past, whatever past, is an integral part of who she is.

"Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you’re waiting for on Jakku… they’re never coming back…"

They are dead in all likelyhood (as Kylo and Rey both aknowledge) That is something Rey does know. However we don't know exactly who they are or why they handed Rey over to Unkar. We don't know the conditions or context in which she was 'sold off'. She's waiting for her family, they'll come back one day....

But then Rey has a different family now. It is all about belonging. It's Rey's most fundamental ontological question (where and with whom do I belong?) which is ultimately related to another burning question:

Who am I and what is my place in all this?

It's a question Luke asks Rey (who are you? What makes you so special?), it's a question Rey asks Luke (I need someone to show me my place in all this). Last, it is a question to which Kylo at Rey's most vulnerable moment tries to answer in an effort to make Rey find her belonging with him:

"You have no role in this story... you come from nothing, you're no one. But not to me. Rey, join me. Please."

It's a very sad story and it makes me empathize a lot with Rey.

 

Rey is very special. Not for who she's related to, but just for being Rey.

 

This is what I *WISH* we'd see in Episode IX. You'll see the "twist" pretty early on, but please read the entire thing before you roll your eyes at me. Any feedback, good or bad, is appreciated. Here we go...

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EPISODE IX
Rey is haunted by the revelation about her parents. She has sad and painful visions and dreams that reveal memories she had forgotten, like the faces of her mother and father. But in these dreams and visions there is someone else. No name. No face. But someone else.

Rey feels compelled to confront her past on Jakku. She finds Unkar Plutt. She demands information about her parents. He refuses. He denies knowing anything about them. Rey knows he's lying and searches his mind. (Just as Kylo Ren and Snoke had done to her.) Plutt’s mind reveals the face of the nameless someone. It’s the face of Lor San Tekka. She finds his burned and abandoned home. Inside, hidden & buried, she finds a hologram. The hologram is actually intended for Luke, and begins with an apology that he has been keeping a secret for decades...

Immediately after ESB, Leia contacts Lor San Tekka and asks him to retrieve Luke’s lightsaber from the Cloud City of Bespin. He arrives as Vader departs. He meets with Lobot who directs him where to go. Lor San Tekka finds the lightsaber (AND LUKE'S SEVERED HAND), then returns it to Leia, Luke, and Lando. (BUT HE DOESN'T TELL THEM ABOUT LUKE'S HAND. HE KEEPS IT FOR HIMSELF)

From there, San Tekka visits a rundown, barely functioning, medical facility. (THIS IS WHERE HE TAKES LUKE'S HAND)

Years go by. (THE MEDICAL FACILITY IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. AND THE WORK BEING DONE IS COMPLICATED)

When Leia is giving birth to Ben Solo, Lor San Tekka is there. Shortly after the birth, he returns to the rundown medical facility, which is run by a familiar race of beings we have seen in the past. (AT BEN'S BIRTH, TEKKA WAS ABLE TO ACQUIRE GENETIC MATERIAL FROM LEIA. THE MEDICAL FACILITY IS RUN BY KAMINOANS. AND NOW YOU KNOW WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS)

More time goes by. (ATTEMPTS TO CLONE LUKE FAILED. ATTEMPTS TO CLONE LEIA FAILED. BUT COMBINING LUKE & LEIA'S DNA WAS A SUCCESS. SIMILAR TO WHAT HAPPENED IN JURASSIC PARK, IN WHICH REPTILE DNA HAD TO BE ADDED FOR SUCCESS.)

Next, we see Lor San Tekka he is on Jakku. He is meeting with a man who appears down on his luck. He hands the man money. Over time he continues to assist the man, who has a wife and young daughter. (THE BEST PLACE TO HIDE THE CHILD (REY) WAS IN THE WORST POSSIBLE PLACE, WITH THE WORST POSSIBLE PEOPLE. TEKKA PAID REY'S PARENTS TOP DOLLAR TO RAISE HER AS THEIR OWN) Until one day, he returns to the man’s home and finds them gone. (REY'S PARENTS SAVED ENOUGH TO FINALLY LEAVE JAKKU, THEN SOLD HER TO UNKAR PLUTT. THEY BETRAYED BOTH TEKKA AND REY) He searches the city and eventually passes by Unkar Plutt, who has a young child with him. The child is Rey. From that point on, Lor San Tekka watches Rey from afar. Just as Obi Wan had looked after Luke.

Years go by. (THE PLAN WAS TO HIDE REY FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. JUST AS LUKE (AND LEIA) HAD REMAINED HIDDEN FOR 2 DECADES-ISH)

Shortly before TFA, Tekka records the hologram and hides it. (TEKKA'S HOLOGRAM ENDS WITH INSTRUCTIONS ON WHERE TO FIND REY ON JAKKU. IMAGINE THE LOOK ON HER FACE!)
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Here's what I like about this idea -
*Rey IS a Skywalker. However, what Kylo said (and she believed) about her parents (they were nobodies) is also true. As is her vision of them leaving in TFA.
*Unlike Luke, Leia, or Kylo/Ben, she is 100% Skywalker. This explains why Rey has been such a Mary Sue.
*It resolves what happened to Luke's lightsaber, and creates an (implied) chain of ownership - Luke, Tekka, Luke/Leia/Lando, Maz.
*It ties in elements from the PT, the OT, and the ST. (Kaminoans, ESB, TFA, TLJ)
*It is possible within "movie canon".
*Lor San Tekka is no longer a wasted character. (You thought he was a wasted character in TFA, but in the end you find out how important he actually was)
*It avoids cloning an established character. I am opposed to bringing back established characters via cloning. This seems like a reasonable compromise.

What I don't like about this idea -
*I don't like the idea of clones. However, this establishes the idea that cloning a Force user is very hard, and it's not cloning an established character.
*There's a lot of backstory that would need to be conveyed in a quick but understandable way. But I think that's possible in the hands of a good writer and/or director.

I know this is nothing but fan fiction, and this will never happen in Episode IX. But I'd still like your feedback. Good or bad. Or if you have any questions.

 

@Ruralfarmboy - Maybe you'll hate it, maybe you'll love it, maybe neither. But there it is!

 

Rey having ded parents is like watching a snail move.

 

Could be worse. Could be Snoke's backstory

 

The closing scene in 9 is Rey returning to Jakku to visit the graves of her parents. She approaches the tombstones and falls to her knees. The camera pans across the tombstones. They are inscribed "Here lies ____ & ____ Kenobi". Fade to black

 

Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and Aya Glon.

Extraordinary powers require extraordinary explanation.

 

Better than being nobodies, that's for sure. I personally feel she needs to be a Skywalker. But the Kenobi theories I've seen definitely have some merit.

 

Drunkards needs revision.

 

Anyway I am objecting OP call Aya Glon, which could be a mother of Rey , a child- bride theory (though, it appears this is main argument against theory,) its simply not fair since Aya Glon was described as Force sensitive grown woman when she has gone to find Luke , about the age as Rey's is. (Legends of Luke Skywalker canon novel.)

I think its not fair call the most progressive theory using argument Aya is child bride, in the same time advocating ReyLo connection despite Rey is almost 11 years younger than Kylo(Ben).​

 

Even if the basic story KR tells is true, it's pretty clear that he's giving it a heartless dark side slant. Not necessarily because he's lying, more likely just because of the assumptions he makes.

I think the easiest and most obvious mini-twist would be that her parents loved her and were forced to sell her to keep her (and perhaps their other children) alive. On a desert planet "drinking money" could mean water rather than alcohol. We've been to Jakku. We didn't see a load of drunks hanging around, but we did see Rey desperately banging her flask to eke out the last drops of water.

That said, my actual pet theory is that she doesn't have biological parents in the normal sense. The cave showed her herself as her parent. Why would it not have shown the faces of her nobody parents if they existed? Why would a dark side cave soften the blow of her parentage by passing on a positive moral message about Rey being a self-made person in the more normal sense. Why wouldn't the cave show her the sordid reality?

 

This post shows how they were leading us in this direction all along. There were many who have argued this ever since TFA. Daisy made numerous comments about her future being more important than her past. It just happens that a large part of the fandom either failed or refused to see it. Now there backlash. JJ could change it if he chooses but I don’t it would serve the story moving forward. If he does, he is only caving to the backlash.

 

And also take into account that Rey is role in the story is intentionally confused: "you have no place in this story, you're nothing, you're no one......but not to me". "I need someone to show me my place in all this". It mirrors the confusion of a teenager and adolescant before he or she enters the world of adult life: who am I? Where do I come from? Am I like my parents? Who are my parents? What defines who I am? Who should I trust? What should I believe in? What role is there for me in this world? What skills do I have and how can I make these relevant for myself and others?"

If her narrative trajectory would have been focused she and in extension you as an audience member would know who to trust. There would be no conflict. Now just like Rey, you as an audience member, are confused. Who should I trust? Luke or Kylo?

Star Wars always revolves around these sort of psychological struggles marking the transition from from adolescance to adulthood.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 11, 2018, Original Post Date: Jan 11, 2018 ---

lol. Well I do think that will actually be the one of the final scenes (I think it will actually end with Rey at her old AT-AT looking up at ships going off planet, like in TFA), I don't think they will be Kenobis. "Here lies Obi Wan's son, Jeremy Kenobi, he liked Trainspotting more than Star Wars and that's how he died"

 

Listen to Yoda, you must!

When he describes the Dagobah cave to Luke, he's says it contains "only what you take with you" - Luke has a disturbing vision because he took his weapon with him.

Rey describes to Kylo Ren that she wasn't afraid, even though she suspected she should have been. So there's nothing for the cave to exploit. Her tone is hopeful, but seemingly resigned, as Kylo says later, she already knows the truth, however painful it may be. That's what makes her different from Luke, who was cynical of Yoda and that obviously bears out later in his life.

So I think Rey's biological parents are set in stone.

 

In her narration Rey emphasises that the cave would show her her parents. Either Rey was wrong about that so the cave is irrelevant or she was right and the answer to her question is a mirror image. Seems to me the question is still very much open.

Skywalker, Solo, Kenobi etc theories may have been killed off, but I think the question of who or what her parents really were remains open.

I’d be very surprised if we don’t do back to Jakku in IX to find out. I suppose we’ll know as soon as we get reports they are filming in Abu Dhabi.

 

"Dead drunkards" is a very simplistic way of seeing people. Alcoholism is regarded as an illness rather than a moral failing these days. It makes sense for Kylo Ren to put it that way, but I don't see why we should just accept it. In Star Wars terms it's a very dark side view of the universe that would lead to people being written off so damningly. Even Darth Vader turned out to be good deep down.

I agree that dead drunkards was the right move to hit Rey with in this movie, but think her character will need something even more unsettling in IX. I also agree with you though that the next film will have to include at least some possibility of Rey being led to the dark side. We've already had Luke expressing surprise that she went straight to the dark when reaching out to feel the force. At the moment though Rey is unquestioningly good. Something will have to change before it is credible that she could turn dark.

My guess is that it will turn out that Rey's origins aren't just disappointing, they're downright horrific. And that her origins will suggest that she ought to be dark in the same way that Kylo Ren ought to be light.

 

i don't know if it's the drunkard part that's supposed to be damning.
it's the fact that they sold her for petty money. that's what's really despicable.
it's also the point of which Ben thinks he and Rey are "alike"; that they were both discarded (he's wrong, but that's how he feels).

nothing more Rey could find out about her parents will change her because she's already on her own trajectory as a result of that incriminating act.
they're powerful ex-Jedi descendants? who cares?
they're runaway Imperial holdouts? who cares?

what matters is that Rey understands that they do not define her.
that's the lesson Ben hasn't learned. he's still trying to live up to the legacy of his family.