Just wanted to lay out a few of the options I’ve heard floating around regarding Rey’s story in the movie, as well as share some bigger thoughts regarding Ascendent.
So, these are some of alternative reveal options I’ve heard so far:
- Rey Palpatine (Original)
- Rey Nobody, Palpatine saw her future and ordered to have her killed/taken.
- Not Palpatine’s biological grandchild, but created her through the dark side, like an anti-Chosen One.
- Rey Nobody, but she killed her parents. (Remove connection with Ochi).
- Rey Nobody, but Kylo killed her parents.
- Rey Nobody, and the main conflict deals with destiny and visions of her future.
A 7th option might be worth trying with initial edits is to just try and cut everything necessary to remove the Rey Palpatine connection, and don’t try to set up some kind of dramatic reveal. At this point we’re all trying to replace the Rey Palpatine reveal with something else, but the challenge with that will be to create new shots and dialogue that fit these alternative narratives. Something like this idea would mostly require making Rey and Kylo’s Kijimi/Destroyer and hangar interactions more action-focused and brief, as well as cutting other brief lines throughout the film.
So basically, the objective could be to collaborate on making only the most necessary changes to remove Rey Palpatine, and make other popular changes, basically as an edit that addresses the major gripes people had with the movie, without becoming too radically different from what we got.
The thing is, at least from my perspective, option 2 and option 7 are essentially the same thing. Option 2 is what you get when you cut out Palpatine being Rey’s grandfather but leave everything else. If you wanted to also remove Palpatine seeing her future and ordering her to be killed, you’d end up with a more drastic/radical edit than option 2, because you’d in effect be removing everything from Kylo and Rey’s star destroyer interactions rather than just some of it.
Maybe I’m biased because it’s the option I’m going with, but the reason it’s the option I’m going with is that it seems like the absolute easiest way to do it.
Yes, I suppose that is true. One of the stronger arguments to keep that connection is the fact we see Ochi’s ship in TFA, and if you removed the connection between Rey’s parents and Ochi, you would also have to remove the shot of that ship in the TFA vision. It also has similarities to Option 6, but with the additional backstory, right? Because basically your idea was that Palpatine saw her become powerful in the dark side, and essentially a rival, which is why he wants her killed. Option 6 basically has that as more of a recent vision, whereas Option 2 would make it something Palpatine foresaw many years before.
Like you said, the two best things Option 2 has going for it is that is a simple way to remove Rey’s familial relationship to Palpatine, and it also requires the least amount of changes for the movie. Although I do think it is an improvement over Rey Palpatine, it stills hurts Rey’s characterization in two ways: One, it makes Rey predestined for something special even before her journey begins, which I feel slightly comprises the Rey Nobody narrative we’re trying to preserve. Secondly, it retcons the idea that Rey’s parents threw her away like garbage, and we find out that they actually loved her very dearly and “sold her to protect her”. Rey having shitty parents was something I felt some fans likely related to, so I think it is a bit unfortunate to turn that around and basically give her the Harry Potter origin of loving parents dying to protect their child.
So yes, I do think you’re right that it is probably the idea that requires the least amount of changes, but I feel like it still comes with its own set of problems.