I went to the premiere of Star Wars and felt like I was 12 again, in awe of this children's hero adventure story. And then I got home at 2 a.m. and woke up the next morning with an awful headache and a sore throat and remembered that staying up late is not as easy as it used to be.
The question that the movie leaves everyone with, however, is, who is Rey? She's an awesome main character, but her family background is unknown. She doesn't have memories before a certain point in childhood, but she simply believes that her family is coming back to the desert planet where she scavenges parts from crashed Star Destroyers.
There's all these hints throughout the movie as to whose daughter she is. In the first half, it seems to be pointing to Han Solo being her father and Leia being her mother, and there's several reasons to think this:
- He seems to recognize her once she says her name, they get along great, which is interesting because at first he thinks she's stolen his favorite spaceship.
- She's a whiz at fixing the Millenium Falcon, no small feat considering that an entire movie was driven by its mechanical failures.
- When Kylo Ren is interrogating her with the Force, he says, "You feel like Han Solo is the father you never had."
- She touches Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, and has a vision of what appears to be Luke's memories.
- When she's getting interrogated by Kylo Ren, he says she keeps seeing an island on a huge ocean, which is, indeed, where she finds Luke Skywalker at the end of the movie, implying a connection.
- When she takes the lightsaber to fight with Kylo Ren, John Williams' amazing score overlays Rey's theme on top of Luke's theme.
- R2-D2 perks up at the end and displays the remainder of the map only when Rey is at the Resistance base, making you think that he has recognized her.
So, which is it?
I think, neither. I contend that both are Red Herrings. I think Rey was a student in Luke's Skywalker's Jedi academy at the time of the massacre, and the memories that were conjured up by touching the lightsaber were actually hers. The connection between Luke and Rey is teacher-student. Her parents were likely not major characters we have seen before, they're probably dead, and Luke likely used the Force to suppress her memories as he dropped her off on his way to exile. Maybe at the time of the massacre, she did something Dark to save Luke and prevent complete destruction, and Luke thought that wiping her memories was the only way to keep her from developing on the Dark side.
Here's why I think this:
- Given her skills with the lightsaber and using Jedi mind tricks, she must have had some training, she just doesn't remember getting them. Not even Anakin and Luke were that good with the Force before meeting other Jedis.
- When Leia hugs her at the end, it's warm, I think she recognizes Rey, but she most definitely does not look like a mother seeing her long-lost daughter. Or niece, for that matter. And, I really don't see Leia leaving a relative isolated like that.
- I just don't see Luke violating the Jedi rule of celibacy.
- The parent-child thing has been used twice in the series already, and it's been pretty good, but I don't see it working well a third time.
- Kylo Ren seemed to recognize her, too, but didn't have quite the family-complicated-issues attitude he had with Han, which makes me think they were classmates.
Unrelated complaint: Being suckered in by the marketing juggernaut that is Star Wars, I ordered the John Williams soundtrack on Amazon to come to my house. Which it did. But my absolute favorite musical moment from the movie, which I mentioned above, was not on it. Track 20, "The Ways of the Force," does include the music from that last lightsaber battle, but not the part where Rey takes the lightsaber and her theme is overlaid on top of Luke's theme, which was awesome. ARRRGH! The rest of the soundtrack is awesome, but I think I deserve at least $.50 of my $13.99 back for that.
p.p.s. The part where James Bond is fooled by a Jedi mind trick was awesome.
6 comments:
Okay, based on the books I have read and what Grant has told me from the books I have not read here is what I know -- Luke marries a bounty hunter who is initially out to kill him (Mara Jade), they have a son named Ben. When Han dies (cue my water works) he says, "Ben." SO. . . this breaks from the books just a bit. In the books I have read Han and Leia have twins who are very strong in the force.
Also the hug Leia gives Rey when she comes off the ship just about broke me. Darn you John Williams and your talented musical placement.
I thought R2 came awake before Rey was near him, so I'm not sure it wasn't just plot coincidence.
So . . . Rey and Ben could be siblings, or they could also be cousins IF the writers have taken anything from the books.
Personally I am not with you on the teacher/student track, but these movies might prove me wrong.
Also, I'm really sick of The Dark Side being full of hissy fits and tantrums. Young Darth goes off the deep end in the prequels and now Kylo Ren goes all pissed off at the computers/electronics behind him. SERIOUSLY?!?! I would use more colorful language but I'll refrain. . .
** I REALLY want them to follow some kind of plot lines from the books. I am sick of seeing these fast paced movies that don't really allow a lot of character growth and struggles. Make us feel like there is a real progression and aging.
*** Dear Mark Hamill -- awesome beard.
Hello cousin. (Cue ominous music.) The location of the parasol is still not settled in our family. :-)
Oh, yes, that was an awesome beard. I remember Mara Jade showing up in Timothy Zahn's trilogy that took place five years after Return of the Jedi, and at first she was trying to kill Luke, and then she became more helpful, but there wasn't any romance.
On Mara Jade - She and Luke got together in a later book by Timothy Zhan and got married. They did have a child. She was also force sensitive and ended up being a Jedi Master.
I feel like at this point if they added Mara Jade into this continuity at this point it would just be an omage to the EU, but they could do that.
Specifically on the question of Jedi Celibacy and vows. My understanding is that they didn't actually take an oath of celibacy, they just refrained from forming emotional attachments. "There is no Emotion, there is peace." As force powers are clearly partially hereditary it would be bad for them to take oaths of celibacy for future Jedi.
Also - as to Luke's specific Jedi oath, there are no Jedi to teach him the Jedi code and from what we saw in the movies, Ben and Yoda focused on teaching him more practical skills like using the force instead of a formal education. So I don't think he'd be specifically following the old code.
As noted in a previous comment, there is no specific code for celibacy in the Jedi Order. However, the Jedi at the time of the Clone Wars took on a strict code of not maintaining any relations like marriage, friendships, etc. to avoid attachments that could lead to the dark side of the Force. Mara Jade was the Emperor’s Hand being a force-sensitive warrior. She was basically a Dark Jedi doing the bidding of the Emperor. Under the new canon, the Emperor’s Hand are known as Sith Inquisitors. With the very original theatrical release of the trilogy, Mara Jade did not exist. She doesn’t exist until The Thrawn Trilogy novels comes out. She makes a brief film appearance in the special edition release of Return of the Jedi in Jabba’s Palace following in line to a reference in The Thrawn Trilogy. Mara Jade originally was to kill Luke, but doesn’t. She subsequently has an on-again/off-again relationship with him until they get married and have a son they named Ben Skywalker, a homage to Obi-Wan.
I am leaning towards Rey being the daughter of Luke Skywalker. Luke most likely was training her in secret. Therefore, Han, Leia and the rest wouldn’t know about Luke being married or having children. Otherwise, Luke would be doing a lot of mind wiping. Also, I believe he would keep the training secret to avoid the galaxy from knowing there is another descendant of Darth Vader. With such secrecy, Luke’s training of others would most likely be split and somewhat noticeable. Kylo would probably sense he wasn’t getting the full attention of his Master, therefore getting jealous. This would be the opening Snoke would need to get his grip on Kylo.
The dark and light side are probably very strong in Rey, like the Phoenix/ Dark Phoenix in the X-men universe. You could tell there was darkness wanting to come out from her during the latter half of lightsaber fight. Luke probably put in false memories in Rey (e.g. the young child being left by her parents) to give her a sense of hope after whatever happened at the massacre. Also, the island is probably where Luke taught Rey.
It is possible Rey could be a totally new character that is not family related. Having seen a lot of what JJ, Disney and Lucasfilm has done with usage of EU material framed differently in the new canon, I doubt this would be the case.
Brook, thanks for your perspectives. I had read the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn, but I haven't actually seen Episodes II and III of the movies because I wanted to retain my happy memories of Star Wars, so I hadn't known all those details from the Clone Wars period.
I did like how the ending left Luke looking surprised and sad -- was it because he didn't think he'd see Rey again, or because he didn't think he'd see his lightsaber again?
I definitely thought Rey was Luke's daughter, I expected a "Rey, I am your father" line at the end.
I don't broker the Kylo Ren twin theory.
My oldest tells me that some of the books are quasi-canon since the franchise was bought by Disney superceded by the movies, Clone Wars TV series, Rebels TV series, and books published since the purchase.
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