Fan theories about Star Wars: The Force Awakens are a dime a dozen at this point, but, after many hours spent discussing ideas with the other GeekDads and my recent third viewing, I have a new theory about Rey.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
My theory does not necessarily have anything to do with Rey’s lineage (though I do believe she is related to the Skywalkers but that’s not part of this theory). My theory is that Han, Leia, Luke, and to some extent Kylo Ren know who she is and were involved in her being left on Jakku because she is, possibly, the new “chosen one” or the new trilogy equivalent. I think Han, Leia, and Luke all took part in hiding her away once Ren started killing off Jedi. I present my evidence below.
- When Kylo Ren hears that Finn and BB-8 have escaped Jakku, he throws his first temper tantrum and destroys a console. When he then hears that “a girl” escaped with them, he loses his $h!t even more. Why would a girl being with them make any difference to him?
- When Ren and Rey first meet, Ren says, “So you’re the girl I’ve heard so much about.” At this point, Ren has literally heard nothing about her from anyone in the film. I believe he has heard a lot about her from Luke before turning.
- When Ren is trying to read Rey’s mind he says, “I know. I feel it too. Don’t be afraid.” This is one of the few things that seems evidence that they are connected, and perhaps even related–and when their minds touch, they both get that feeling which is also why he hesitates killing her at the end of the movie and instead offers to train her despite his mission being extermination of the Jedi.
- Supreme Leader Snoke tells Ren, “If what you say about the girl is true, bring her to me.” This may just be a reference to her being very strong but untrained in the Force, but I think it references whatever Ren thinks he felt and discovered about who she is.
- Although I don’t think Han knows who Rey is on sight, I think he quickly figures it out. When she says the line about not knowing there was “this much green in the whole galaxy,” Han is very obviously saddened by it and perhaps even guilty about having been involved in her being “banished” to Jakku.
- Maz also realizes that Han knows more about her than he is letting on and asks him to tell her “all about this girl” which, of course, we do not get to hear.
- Han very quickly jumps to wanting to “hire” Rey on and keep her close to him, I think because he knows who she is and doesn’t want her going back to Jakku.
- Although Luke and Rey have no dialog, the look Luke gives Rey, to me, was much more than a “thanks for bringing me my lightsaber.” He was on the verge of tears and seemed to be both sorry for having sent her away and overjoyed with finally seeing her again (though she obviously does not recall ever having met him.)
- I’ve heard a lot of talk around Leia and Rey hugging at the end of the movie instead of Leia and Chewie and that it is a possible indication of them being related. However, up until this point in the movie, Leia and Rey have never seen each other, have never met, and would have no reason to even know who each other are on sight, but they see each other and embrace like long-lost friends, if not family. I think Leia and Rey have met before and Leia, if not one of the people who physically left her on Jakku as a child, was involved in the process of hiding her away. I feel very strongly that they recognize each other and she is one of the people Maz was referring to.
So, what do you think? I’m a crazy? Does my theory hold any water?
[12/30/15] Edit: It seems that the novelization of The Force Awakens supports at least part of my theory as evidenced by this quote:
Rey appeared equally shocked that her reach for the device had exceeded his. She gazed down at the weapon now resting in her grip.
“It is you,” Ren murmured.
His words unsettled her: Not for the first time, he seemed to know more about her than she did about herself.
If Rey is Luke’s daughter, then she’s Kylo Ren’s cousin and Leia and Han’s niece. We know that, if you let it, the Force will let you feel a connection between you and your relatives.
To me, it seemed like Leia was hugging Rey partially because they shared mourning over Han — but more because she was Leia’s aunt, and, whether they’d previously met or not, they would both feel that.
I think it would be great if Rey were NO RELATION TO ANYONE WE’VE MET BEFORE, showing us (and lots of hopeful kids) that anyone can be a Jedi, but this is Star Wars, so that’s unlikely. Wouldn’t it be nice if she were Ben Kenobi’s granddaughter? That would make up for Han & Leia’s kid being named “Ben.” WTHey was that about? Obiwan was neither’s mentor. Did we ever find out who Darth Vader’s father was, or was he immaculately conceived? Rey could be a relative/descendant of him. I do NOT want Rey to be Luke’s kid. Don’t particularly want her to be Ben’s sister, either. (Don’t like that it’s been hinted that Leia’s love life ended after she and Han broke up. Why couldn’t she have married again, had a few other kids, etc? Does her life revolve around Han?) Why haven’t Rey’s parents/relatives been looking for her through these years, or at least looking out for her from afar? (And Luke better have a REALLY GOOD explanation as to why he hasn’t been doing anything for so many years. He’s a Jedi. He’s a Legend; he should have been an important force in Making Things Right in his galaxy. As it it now, he seems to be wallowing in defeat, boo hoo pftth. Good Jedi do this not. There’d better be one heck of a great story about what he’s been up to.)
Good Jedi do this not?
The Jedi that would have said that did exactly that. Went into exile in Dagobah.
Exactly, Tron. Look what happened to things.
“Did we ever find out who Darth Vader’s father was, or was he immaculately conceived?”
Yes. Anakin was a result of a wrong experiment with midichlorians by Sidious and Plagueis. No father, sadly =(
So shouldn’t Darth have then been born a female? Annie indeed! 😀
It would be nice if she wasn’t related but I agree they probably won’t make that leap.
I need somebody to explain to me why Rey has a British accent. (Ben Kenobi hint hint)
It is strange that all the other British actors hid their accent. But maybe Daisy just isn’t good at an American accent.
I think it’s possible that Rey is Kylo Ren’s twin sister. Han and Leia hid her away on Jakku to protect her from her brother.
I’m going with the twin theory myself. One of the teasers/trailers I saw has Luke doing a voice-over about how the force is strong in his family, but no one else talks during it, so it’s impossible to know who he is taking to… and then that dialogue doesn’t even get said in the movie.
Taking that into consideration with how sad Han was and the various other bits of dialogue and her vision when she touched the lightsaber, I’d say it’s a pretty strong case for them to be siblings.
Oh, and also the fact, as Han pointed out, the planet was just a bigger Death Star… I could totally see them reusing the whole “separating the twins to protect them” plot twist angle.
It could be that the Luke dialog was meant to reference Ben Solo who is his nephew. It would be something Luke could have said to him when he started his training.
That dialogue is from Return of the Jedi when Luke tells Leia they’re twins.
This is more or less what I think as well, with Rey being Luke’s daughter. Based on what was not said by Kylo, Han and Leia, I think it would be pretty weak if Rey was Leia and Han’s daughter, so if not Luke’s daughter, then at least someone very close in the circle of Jedi that were killed off.
You mean Rey Kenobi?
Will, you are spot on with the notion that everyone knows of Rey, but whether they know her personally remains to be seen.
The question of Rey’s parentage is going to be up for debate. If she is a Skywalker, a Solo, or a Kenobi will be dissected for the next year and a half at least (could be we still don’t get that question answered in the next one.)
If they go with Rey and Kylo Ren as siblings, they don’t need to be twins. An age disparity might make for an interesting dynamic. The gifted younger sibling that becomes Luke’s favorite might push Kylo away and start his journey towards the Dark Side.
Another direction would be that she is Luke’s daughter, but then the question of who is mom becomes a central focus and would need to be explained. This would make Kylo and Rey cousins which could be fitting with there obvious connection. Rey’s mom would need to be a powerful Force user in her own right to make sense of Rey’s quick use of her powers. In this instance, maybe Kylo was in love with Rey’s mom, but she was into Luke. That, however, seems a little too tween-drama-y.
With respect to her being a Kenobi, there are tons of things that point to that direct. Mr. Sunday Movies did a great video that breaks these down over on YouTube. The other subtile connection (mentioned above) is Rey’s accent. She is not American, so that would make her related to Kenobi. As silly as it sounds, movie audiences don’t want to think about the dynamics of dialect acquisition, so making the connection to Kenobi would be easy to pallet.
The great thing about Rey being a Kenobi means it doesn’t preclude her from also being a Skywalker. As I mentioned, Rey’s mother would need to be fleshed out and that could mean any number of directions, which includes Obi-Wan’s daughter being Rey’s mother.
Boom! Star Wars is back!
Here’s a thought: Maybe she is Luke’s daughter and the grand daughter of an ex-patriot from the rebellion. I didn’t catch the name of the old guy who was talking to Poe but what if he was an ex-patriot of the rebellion and in his travels Luke comes to visit him. He has a daughter and she and Luke fall in love.
Let’s say he moves off and starts his Jedi academy and finds out he has a daughter. (Jedi don’t marry).
Luke brings Mom, daughter and his daughters grandfather to his academy to keep an eye on his daughter. Han and Leia and Ben know about this but Han and Leia never meet this other family of Luke’s daughter. When Ben becomes Kylo, Luke decides to send his daughter and her mother elsewhere to keep them safe. But before this happens an apparent accident seems to take all their lives.
However, grandfather and daughter somehow survive, Kylo doesn’t know this, and he devises a plan to keep Rey safe. He sends her to Jakku so that Kylo can’t get to her and sends her grandfather before her to set them both up. He then brings her to Jakku and force wipes her memory (which would account for the flashbacks)and leaves her with her grandfather. She sees that they are leaving her and even though she doesn’t know why, she freaks, as if something is telling her this is her family.
This is my theory as lame as it sounds.
There are a lot of theories out there, but I think that Rey’s a creation of medichlorians from Luke. She is the Force. That’s why she got good, so fast.
Palpatine once told the story of Darth Plagueis to Anakin, how he was so well versed in the Dark side of the Force that he could control the medichlorians and therefore, live forever. (Let’s all agree that Supreme Leader Snoke is Darth Plagueis reborn)
Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda, ObiWan also know how to control them, that’s how they are able to come back as etheareal entities, so it’s not impossible to think that Luke knows how to control them. But he has succeeded where others have failed. Luke, being the chosen One, was able to create life from the medichlorians and Rey was born. When Kylo turned dark, Luke or someone else, have hidden Rey on Jakku to keep her out of danger, until she was ready.
I also had another thought. What if Rey is Ren’s sister.
Here’s another theory:
Lets say Ren had a little sister that his parents gave over to Luke as a little child.When Ren as Ben started to turn and he totally freaked about it and took his little sister to Jakku to keep himself from hurting her and he changed her name to keep her from being found….Or
Lets say Ren had a little sister that his parents gave over to Luke as a little child. And Ren was so jealous of her attention that when he started to turn he took her to Jakku and sold her and he changed her name to keep her from being found.
At five your mind is pliable and a child told long enough that their name is something else will start to believe it.
And then of course she told everyone she was dead, that would explain no one recognizing her and would also explain the fondness everyone feels towards her.
“He” told everyone she was dead.
Anakin’s ‘father’ – as stated in TPM he was immaculately conceived.
Can ‘anyone’ be a Jedi? It’s shown in Star Wars The Clone Wars (animated series) that any youngling can be trained as a Jedi, provided they’re force-sensitive. No previous Jedi ancestry required. Also, as stated in the prequels Jedi aren’t supposed to marry, etc, so technically being Jedi “parents” would be a big no-no in the Star Wars universe.
Han and Leia naming their son Ben – WTH not? Wasn’t Obiwan her “only hope” in ANH? Han knew him too. What were they going to do, name him Anakin, lol. 😉
Pretty sure they explained in TFA why Luke went into hiding.