Why doesn't Rey know who her parents are in TLJ?

she does know who they were. she says so in TLJ.
what she doesn't want is to admit that they didn't love or want her and were never coming back for her (which Maz also told her in TFA).

 

Trauma of their cruel abandonment made her give them unhealthy excuses in her mind, that they left her for a good reason and would one day come back for her. She had a mental block stopping her from facing the truth of it. So when Kylo helpfully screams at her get over it and forces her to, she does.

 

Except they were drunkards buried in a shallow grave in the desert.

Why not just say the were drunkards and left you on jacko.

TFA awakens, while not great, at least setup some plot points for the next two movies. This one just said screw that we are just trolling all of you.

 

Her abondement played a pretty big part in little Rey's development. She knew the truth, but couldn't believe it. She was in denial the whole time. Who could blame her for that?
She has so much in common with Ben Solo. Both were betrayed.

 

But they did come back at some point, right? Unless Ren was lying about them being buried in pauper graves on Jakku.

 

they could have just flown to the next outpost. just because they were in a ship doesn't necessarily mean they left the planet.

 

Honestly at that age, that is a very long time to remember any vivid images. You may remember silhouettes, etc, but it is not hard to believe that capturing that "vivid" image of her parents is all but impossible. What was she, like age 8 tops in that video--maybe younger so...

 

True. I've just always thought of them leaving the planet.

 

Its an extra twist in their cruelty. It means they were on Jakku again at some point, but still never came to see or rescue their little girl.

 

Sadly you are completely right, that whole dialogue with Kylo was terrible writing and just meant for the audience.
Why would Rey think her parents are anything but nobodies from Jakku? Or why would she care? She just wanted them back, only we the audience were speculating who her parents were.

 

Exactly. So there would be two years of speculation. Is she a Solo, a Skywalker, a Kenobi. Hey maybe Obi Wan was hanging at Maz's Outpost with the codebreaker.

Another way for this trilogy to say ha gotcha

 

So is it bad writing because they didn't answer these questions in this movie???

It is not bad writing. What is misunderstood now, I totally believe will be answered either in the next episode or maybe the book.

Jeez, why is always the equation, they didn't answer all of the burning questions = bad writing?
So because you didn't like how it was done, it is bad writing?

Sith always deal in absolutes...

 

Another possibility is that Rian transformed that ship scene to a plothole.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 18, 2017, Original Post Date: Dec 18, 2017 ---

The dialouge DID answer the questions. Read his post again.

 

the point is so that the audience knows now that they are both deluded about their families.
he believed his parents were bad and she believed her parents were good.
they are both wrong.

it's part of the mirroring between the two character that demonstrates that they are yin and yang in the Force.
their lives are opposite and parallel (and in some ways extreme).
it's reinforcing that balance is what they both need.

 

because she was a child and she needed to protect herself from the pain of it.
just as Ben is trying to protect himself now by destroying everything.
it's what children do: retreat into fantasy.
and it's also because she embodies the message of Star Wars for the last 41 years: hope.