I had some thoughts about Rey and her parents that I wanted to share with you guys. I know this has been discussed before but I thought I’d give another perspective.
Does Rey’s vision in TFA contradict what is revealed about her parents in 8? In TFA we’re given the impression that Rey’s parents left the planet on a ship, but in TLJ, Kylo Ren tells her that her parents sold her for drinking money and eventually died poor on Jakku.
So did Rey just change the last memory of her parents as a coping mechanism?
It’s possible, but it isn’t really satisfying. I love that she is a nobody, but it just seems like a complete contradiction rather than really a set up to that reveal.
It’s possible that Kylo also lied to her, or he didn’t see the whole truth (although his vision was very specific), I kind of doubt JJ will go 180 on Rey being a nobody.
We might want to wait and see if IX gives us any more info about Rey or her parents, but if nothing really changes, I would suggest doing two things. Either:
Remove the shot of the ship flying away in TFA to accommodate TLJ. (It would be nice if you could replace it with a new shot, like two silhouettes cresting a sand dune).
OR
Change Kylo Ren’s TLJ dialogue to accommodate TFA.
For example:
(…= cuts in dialogue)
Could change dialogue in TLJ to-
In elevator-
Kylo Ren: Rey, I saw…your parents…
In throne room-
Kylo Ren: They were filthy junk traders, who sold you off for…money. (or just “sold you” or “sold you off”)
You have no place in this story.
Maybe cut Rey’s “They were nobody”?
Someone made a point of how Rey’s motivation surrounding her parents changes between TFA and TLJ. In TFA, Rey doesn’t want to leave Jakku in hopes her parents would return, but she eventually accepts they aren’t coming back.
In TLJ, I think Rey tries to rationalize why her parents weren’t coming back. Surely something happened to them, or they left for a good reason. Maybe they had some purpose, and now Rey has to fulfill that purpose. But instead, they just abandoned her, so Rey has to find her own purpose. I like that.
But Kylo’s dialogue seems a little weird to me. “I know who your parents are.” I felt like the mystery surrounding her parents (at least for Rey) weren’t the identities of her parents, but where they were/what happened to them. Did Rey forget who her parents were? What they looked like? I suppose it is possible but…
I’m probably thinking too much about this. It just doesn’t seem very clear to me, and the inconsistencies regarding this plot point between TFA and TLJ seem unnecessarily deceptive. Like it was written in a way to do everything it could to make the audience think there was some big reveal.
But I guess the official explanation is that Rey just altered her memories as a coping mechanism. To me, though, it feels like a convenient way to write off the discrepancies rather than feeling really set up and earned. It feels more like an afterthought than well thought out.
I’d appreciate other thoughts/ideas on this.