My Star Wars theory on Rey’s parents
It seems like every Star Wars fan has his or her own theory on any number of thing from The Force Awakens. I had not really given a lot of thought to possibilities of Rey’s parents…at least not until recently. I had hoped that she, like Ezra Bridger from Star Wars Rebels, would develop force powers independently rather than through genetics. To me, this would give people hope (there’s that word again) that there could always be new Jedi popping up to take on the bad guys. (Although, I guess that means there could be new Sith too.)
Anyway, while I was flying home from Anime Boston earlier this month, I randomly started thinking about it and a theory quickly came to me. Upon viewing the movie (again) on my phone, everything seemed to fall into place almost too perfectly.
Here’s my theory.
Spoiler alert?
Can theories be spoilers?
Whatever, this is your last warning.
Rey knows her last name and it is Organa.
I’m certain I’m not the first person to come up with this theory, but I’m not going to bother Googling it because I have better things to do than parse dumb theories on various clickbaity fan sites. (Why are you even still reading my theory?)
Anyway, here’s the details on my theory and the evidence that supports my theory. In December, we can all laugh at how wrong I was.
Rey was born a few months after Han left Leia. Without Han around and raised by Leia, her last name was Organa. Han ultimately didn’t even know he had a daughter named Rey. This is why he and Chewbacca don’t recognize her name. (Sure, “Rey” could be a common name, but I’d think he’d have at least said, “I had a daughter named Rey. I haven’t seen her since she was left on Jakku. Hey, wait a minute!“) Rey has grown up a lot since she was left on Jakku, so I don’t expect anyone to recognize her on sight…even if she does have the same hairstyle after over a decade.
I’m not sure why she was left on Jakku, but I suspect it was to hide and protect her. (Honestly, I can’t think of any good reason that any parent would leave her with Unkar Plutt. Perhaps she was kidnapped?)
When Rey meets Han on board the Millennium Falcon, she says, “You’re Han Solo?” Finn asks if he’s the Rebellion general and she replies, “No, the smuggler”. If she knew Han Solo was her father or even shared the same last name, she would have said so here. “You’re my father!” It’s pretty clear she doesn’t know him at all.
So, yeah… Han doesn’t know Rey is his daughter, but she does seem to have a natural knack for fixing and flying the Falcon and Han bonds with her fairly quickly.
At Maz’s totally-not-a-cantina place, Maz asks Han, “Who’s the girl?” and it cuts away. We may never know how he responded. If Han does know, he didn’t act like it before they landed. Maybe he just has suspicions? Maybe he just figured it out?
Meanwhile, Rey is attracted to Luke’s lightsaber. I know a lot of people are interpreting this as a sign that she is somehow Luke’s daughter. However, consider that the lightsaber was in the possession of Anakin Skywalker far longer than Luke ever had it. Anakin lost it when Obi-wan took it as a souvenir on Mustafar. He then held onto it for 19 years until he gave it to Luke in the original film. Luke proceeded to lose it after 2 movies when Vader (who is SPOILER ALERT his father) chops his hand off on Cloud City. In Rey’s vision, we see Skywalker-related stuff because it’s her grandfather’s weapon. We hear Obi-wan because he held onto it for a while and has a close connection to the family.
If Rey was a Skywalker (and certainly if that was her last name), I suspect she’d have reacted differently when she learned BB-8 had a map to Luke Skywalker. Also, when Finn tells Han that BB-8 has the map, there’s still no indication of any known relation by Rey.
I know there are also theories that she’s Obi-wan’s daughter, but that’s ridiculous. Obi-wan would have had to have somehow had a daughter sometime after he died in order for Rey’s age to work out right. As for being his granddaughter, there was absolutely no indication that he went against the Jedi Order and fathered a child before The Clone Wars ended with Order 66…and I doubt he was going into Anchorhead on Tatooine to pick up women.
After the destruction of Maz’s Bar & Grill, Kylo takes Rey to Starkiller Base. They leave right before Leia arrives. Kylo doesn’t recognize Rey as his younger sister because he doesn’t know he has a sister. (Wait for the inevitable “Han Solo never told you what happened to your sister. I am your sister!” moment in The Last Jedi.) If they are siblings, that sets up some typical classic Star Wars family issues and a potential epic lightsaber battle between brother and sister which seems like a better fit than a battle between cousins or perfect strangers.
After the destruction of Starkiller Base, Rey travels to the Resistance base for the first time. Chewbacca takes Finn off the Falcon for medical treatment and leaves Leia to meet Rey. Watch the hug. No words are spoken. On your first viewing of the film, you may think that they’re grieving over the death of Han, but how would Rey know that this was Han’s wife and not just some random woman slowly walking toward her? Why would Leia be walking toward this girl she had never seen before instead of seeking out her friend and Han’s longtime companion, Chewbacca? Watch this again seeing a mother and daughter reunited for the first time in over a decade. This scene takes on a whole new meaning. (Also, considering the loss of Carrie Fisher, it’s quite sad and you may need a tissue handy.)
After Rey says goodbye to the injured Finn, she’s seen outside the Falcon with Leia. They have clearly just said their own goodbyes. Again, if they had never met before, their scenes together are a little odd because of how close they act. However, if they are mother and daughter, they make perfect sense.
Rey heads out in the Millennium Falcon in Han’s seat with Chewbacca by her side. She has essentially inherited her father’s ship and is off to find her uncle to save the galaxy.
The prequel trilogy is about one generation of the Skywalker family and tells the story of Anakin Skywalker with Padme Amadala. The original trilogy is about the second generation of the Skywalker family, Luke and Leia. This new trilogy is about the third generation of Skywalkers, Ben “Kylo Ren” Solo and Rey Organa. …and Padme, Leia, and Rey all have funky space hairdos. It fits perfectly.
Re-watch The Force Awakens with my theory in mind and I think you’ll be surprised at how well it fits. In fact, if this theory isn’t true, I may actually be disappointed when I see The Last Jedi.
If there’s one thing that annoys me about JJ Abrams stories is that he puts a big mystery box front and center and challenges you to figure out what’s inside. He did this in Lost repeatedly. Sometimes the mysteries turned out to be rewarding (like finding out there was a guy pressing a button living in The Hatch) and sometimes they were disappointing (like most of the other stuff in Lost). I’d actually have preferred it if we didn’t even know there was a mystery box. We didn’t spend all of Star Wars wondering who Luke’s father was only to have it revealed in The Empire Strikes Back. It was just sprung on us in one of the biggest unexpected surprises in any movie ever. …but now we’ve all been wondering about Rey’s parents since December 2015. It will be two years of wondering and theories before we find out. That’s not nearly as fun. If only Rey’s parents weren’t presented as such a mystery so we could have been surprised when it’s actually revealed as the answer to a question we didn’t even know we had.