SPECULATION What the "Force Awakens" means for Rey

I think you are in the majority opinion. That's for sure.

I will counter with pablo hidalgo's twitter comments...
He specifically stated that the jedi massacre was "more recent" than 14-15 years ago.
People have ignored this important piece of data, it seems.

It essentially nullifies that Rey could have benn present at the massacre.
She was stashed on jakku 14-15 years ago.

So, she was stashed away before the massacre.
That doesn't mean those events have nothing to do with it.
Just saying...

Some twitter user asked pablo hiddalgo, cleverly baiting him i guess, if the massacre occured 14-15 years ago. And he said, "no. It was more recent than that."
We can't keep propelling the version of events where rey was present at the massacre.
Sure, it pops as a story, but we'll get a different story i think...

 

It may be more recent than that but it's not as recent as 5 years either, because in the novelization it says "For the first time Han saw the face of his son as a grown man". So OP suggestion of "at least 10 years" makes sense.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 30, 2015, Original Post Date: Dec 30, 2015 ---

Rey is canonically 19 years old because it says so in the Visual Dictionary. Kylo Ren is 29/30 years old according to what Pablo Hidalgo said on his twitter (but he also says not to quote his twitter as canon information).

 

I don't recall the source. May have been hidalgo, but i read that kylo is 29-30.
And i think the visual dictionary says rey is 19.

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Oops. Already answered.

 

I get the theory...my thoughts were if Rey really is Luke's daughter, he may have stashed her on Jaaku and hid her form Kylo, knowing full-well that he was a danger. The council saw that Anakin was a danger. Yoda saw that Luke was a potential danger, all because of age. They start young, yes, but it would be safer to keep her away and summon her at the right age. If Ben was troubled, Luke may have believed that he could show him the light and prevent the turn...and failed. His failure, especially to this extent, having consciously made the decision to keep him around in high hopes, caused the death of all the rest of his padawans...in which made him lose hope, flee, and never summon Rey to be trained...to live in solitude....knowing that if he were to start over, summon Rey, and continue training, he would be found.

A friend and I keep hoping she is unrelated...break the Skywalker clan..but we know they have stated this trilogy will focus on the Skywalker Clan...so we figure the cousin or sister theories are probably more true than false...and we'll enjoy it all the same.

(On a side note...I am even still sometimes batting on the Lando:Finn theory...but a bit refined...he was taken at a young age...maybe they used the force or some form of manipulation so the FO Stormstrooper 'programming' would never take. Because my question I hope to see revealed is...why would one out of MILLIONS be so good at the training, yet fail to be 'programmed'?)

 

Hang in there. I think you can have your cake and eat it too.
The story still has Luke, Leia, and Ben Solo.
And, if my theory holds up in 18 months, the story has a solitary person in Rey, who will come to accept Luke as family.

We are not being lied to.
We are being shown different meanings of family.
To anyone who has ever adopted, or was adopted, it is an incredibly powerful notion.
And, strangely, is seldomly portrayed as such in film...

I think it is with extreme intention, by the filmmakers, that Kylo tells Rey "Han Solo. You see him as the father you never had." This is foreshadowing.
It is with extreme intention that Maz tells Rey her belonging is ahead of her, not behind.
No one understands this for what it means, i am afraid --- If Luke is truly her biological father, then Maz Kanata does not know the truth either. Or, luke does not know he has a daughter.
Those are the only explanations as to why Rey is being told to let go of one family and embrace a new one.

If She has come to see Finn and Han and Chewie as family, even in a short period of time, what will her relationship with a true mentor be like? For some reason people can't seem to get excited about this like i can. (Well, and you and a couple others)

 

Exactly. Some people argue that since the Skywalker lineage is on the hands of Kylo Ren and he's the villain, then there has to be another Skywalker to continue the family (since Luke and Leia are old now). But I think bottom line the question is: is it more likely that Ben will be redeemed or that Rey will turn out to be Luke's daughter or that Disney will drop the Skywalker name? Honestly right now I think it's more likely they'll redeem Ben, as much as I would hate this, because there were a lot of emphasis on his struggle and how he was only being tricked/used by Snoke. While to have Rey turn out to be Luke's daughter after what we got in this movie it's imo a bit tricky and might have to involve mind wipe (like how nobody recognizes her and stuff like that). Not that redeeming Kylo wouldn't be tricky (and make me hate this trilogy), but still.

 

honestly step back and assess what it would mean for the next film.

If she is luke's daughter, then it is incredibly complex. And will be incredibly hard for the next filmmakers.

it almost goes without saying that we will be shown this reveal on screen. It will not be implied or covered in exposition or flashback. Period. Not in star wars, anyway.

You see, TFA leaves rian johnson some huge problems to overcome. TFA leaves off at luke/rey's first encounter - which is wordless - and then episode 8 will, in keeping with star wars saga, drop us back in the action about 2 years later.
There will be a time jump. Almost guaranteed.

So.... Theorists, please tell me how 2 years will have passed, and magically Rey still doesn't freakin' know that luke is her daddy. Just so we the audience can witness it.

You think TFA caught hell for being derivative?
Just wait til episode 8 copies the biggest cinematic reveal ever.
It's gonna be a hoot. You guys are gonna love it. -- dig this -- Luke says, and i quote, "Rey, i am your father."



Look. The multitudinous impediments to the Luke's daughter theory just keep piling up, left and right.
And people just keep whistling and walking past them.
Because it's what they want to happen.

If Someone around here can convince, with a sound and solid theory, fine.
But they are gonna have to drop some mad knowledge to overcome all the things in the film which seem to preclude this outcome.

Come on guys.

 

A real twist really would be if Luke says:

Rey, i'm your mother

 

Mark Hamill also said Luke has been in hiding only about ten years.
And Daisy said Rey was 5 when she was left on Jakku.

Before TFA, with a little fudge factor regarding both those numbers and a lot of wishful thinking, I could work it out to where she was a Vader grandkid. But I don't think so anymore. In TFA, Rey is clearly no older than 5 when she was left on Jakku.

It's true that KK said this is the Skywalker family story, but there are still three Skywalkers in it. And GL himself said he wanted it to be about the Vader grandkids but "they decided to go in a different direction."

But I'd also say, there are so many things about this movie that don't make logical sense that they could make her be anyone's kid and explain it after the fact in movie VIII. JJ was all about restoring the look and feel of Star Wars. Many of the artistic things fans cite as being evidence that Rey is or isn't someone's kid comes down to those kinds of stylistic choices. I'm not sure any of that means what we think it means.

Having her parentage be unresolved may end up being a brilliant choice. It puts the focus back on the Force and less on family dynamics. In the end, we don't want her to just be Vader's grand kid. We want her to be Rey, whomever that happens to be.

 

Isn't the question really the Skywalker name itself?
What it means. And how we understand names, in our world.
And how they are passed on.

There's already TONS of lame-brains around here saying that Kylo is not a skywalker and so that doesn't satisfy KK's statement that this is a skywalker story. This is the unfortunate result of how limited our view of family and names can be...

I am of the opinion that disney sees the inevitable thing coming... That the skywalker name eventually dies off. Whether luke had kids or not.

It eventually dies off, unless he has a boy, who has a boy....
And guess what? Our first "possible" skywalker is a girl.

Boom, Right out of the gate, we "accept" that Rey really would be the last skywalker, even if she's luke's biological daughter. because her children would take their father's name.

Disney are not idiots. They see all this coming. And didn't "speed up" the extinction of the skywalker name by making rey a girl.

I think they've done something more profound -- they Are going to allow the skywalker name to pass into a greater kind of meaning...
What that is, we will have to wait until episode 8.

 

force in rey is awaken.

 

If it turns out that Rey isn't related....but happens to be adopted into the Skywalker clan...I'd be okay with that. Looking at my own life, I was adopted by my real mother's older sister even though I have a different last name than the one I was original born with.