A brief description of Rey’s mental state at the end. She thought she was worthless because her parents abandoned her. But since that isn’t true anymore, she still thinks she is worthless because of how much evil her bloodline has caused. This means she thinks she has to prove herself all the more.
So this is a reference to the interpretation of Rey’s core belief?
Yes. Because I spent so much of the rest of the novel that came before honing in on the idea that Rey feels like she needs to prove herself, I realized that I could simply swap her feelings of self worthlessness at this moment from about her being abandoned to being a Palpatine. Thus, the message at the end still applies.
The glaring issue with this is of course that since her dad was seemingly a good person, it doesn’t make much sense that she thinks she’s screwed to turn out bad. I personally don’t have an issue with that, though. Irrational beliefs about oneself don’t have to make sense because… they’re irrational.
I’ll give the bad parents approach a whirl next, but I’m currently pretty satisfied with what I have on this particular approach. What I really like about what I have right now is that its gives Rey a convincing reason to join Kylo, since he claims they can stop families from being torn apart like hers was.