Hi, everyone! This semester, I’ll be stepping away from television and into the wonderful world of nerd culture. 2016 will be a wild and exciting year for all of us, with the release of movies such as “Captain America: Civil War” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” So, to kick off this new column, I thought I’d do what I do best: theorize about “Star Wars.” More specifically, about the new saga’s protagonist, Rey.
**SPOILERS FOR “THE FORCE AWAKENS” BELOW!**
Before the release of “The Force Awakens,” [I theorized that Rey was a Solo and she and Kylo Ren were siblings](http://move.themaneater.com/stories/2015/12/8/star-wars-theories-can-deceive-you-dont-trust-them/). In a way, I was right. In “The Force Awakens,” Kylo Ren is revealed to be the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia. Rey’s story, however, took a bit of a turn. But I think I’ve got it figured out. Maybe.
The movie doesn’t come out until May 2017 and I’ll probably be proven wrong. But then again, I got this far, and I have a good feeling about these theories.
So, let’s get to figuring out Rey, shall we?
Rey’s past is shrouded in mystery. Classified, in her own words. All we know about her is that she was left behind on Jakku over a decade before “The Force Awakens.” The novelization reveals a bit more about her abandonment.
“Stay here. I’ll come back for you. I’ll come back for you, sweetheart, I promise,” says a mystery voice in Rey’s vision upon touching Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber for the first time.
I’ll come back to this shortly.
“That lightsaber was Luke’s. And his father’s before him and now, it calls to you,” Lupita N’yongo’s Maz Kanata says to Rey after the aforementioned vision.
The Force is clearly very strong in Rey. A lot of people have (wrongly) claimed that she is too powerful, but the answer to all of their doubts is simple:
The girl is a Skywalker.
The hints are scattered throughout the movie. Rey is drawn to the lightsaber wielded by both Skywalker men (and, quite morbidly, the lightsaber that massacred younglings in “Revenge of the Sith”). She keeps a doll of an X-Wing pilot in her small home on Jakku. She’s a gifted pilot. Even her beautiful theme, written by John Williams, harmonizes with “The Ways of the Force,” the music theme most associated with Luke Skywalker. During her interrogation by Kylo Ren, it is revealed that Rey has visions of oceans and an island: the exact description of where she eventually finds Luke at the film’s conclusion.
Another line in the movie’s novelization by Alan Dean Foster, published on Dec. 18, that was left out of the movie also hints at Rey’s parentage. When Luke’s lightsaber flies into Rey’s waiting hand before her climactic duel with Kylo Ren, the Sith acolyte says, “It is you.”
How could he know her? How can Rey be so strong in the Force? Here’s how I believe her story goes.
Rey is born to Luke and an unknown woman (possibly Felicity Jones’ “Rogue One” hero). She is briefly trained in the ways of the Force, but when she is roughly 5 years old, her cousin turns to the Dark Side and massacres everyone training under Luke (hence why she sees the burning temple and Knights of Ren in her vision).
How does she get to Jakku? I have two theories: either one of her parents take her there to protect her, or Kylo Ren takes her there himself.
Bear with me.
Kylo Ren has a struggle with the Light. Perhaps during the massacre, he could not bring himself to kill his little cousin and chose to make her father think her dead by hiding her away on Jakku. This theory is supported by yet another shot from Rey’s vision of Kylo seemingly saving her from a warrior at the massacre.
Like I said, this is only my personal theory. I love the idea of Rey Skywalker, and an epic struggle between two cousins who embody the Dark and the Light. We’ll see if the Force is with me, hopefully, when “Episode VIII” opens on May 26, 2017.
