I’ve been thinking some more about Rey’s backstory, and particularly what we want it to communicate. I think the reason TLJ’s revelation was so interesting was because it established that Rey was truly nobody, which meant that she had literally no connection to Palpatine or Skywalker at all. It removed a lot of the convenience of TFA if Rey was a nobody, though some questions still remained, and it was just a breath of fresh air. So here’s a story that comports with that idea and with the ideas in TROS:
Rey was born on a poor, distant ocean world and lived there with her parents for years. Eventually, when her parents learned that she was Force sensitive, they began searching for a way to have her trained as a Jedi. They had gone to Jakku because they had heard that Unkar Plutt had recently purchased the Millennium Falcon and they hoped that this ship would lead them to Luke via his famous friends. Rey was even learning Wookiee in preparation for this meeting, as a precocious Force sensitive child would.
Meanwhile, Ochi and his Jedi hunters were looking for Force sensitive children on the orders of a Sith cult. Palpatine desired to destroy as many children as possible to prevent a new Jedi Order from arising, and as a side effect he would spare the life of the most promising child and train this child as his heir.
Ochi and his hunters were on Jakku when Rey and her parents landed, already searching for this child. Thinking fast, Rey’s parents sold her to Unkar Plutt to protect her from Ochi and with the hope that someday Luke and his friends would find the Falcon and take Rey to be trained by Luke. To protect Rey’s location from Ochi, her parents left the planet on their ship, but were boarded and killed by Ochi and his hunters before they could escape into Hyperspace. Ochi searched for the child on Jakku and on many other worlds, but could never find her and eventually was killed in the desert of Pasanna.
And here’s how some of that could be communicated:
“Rey….wherever you are…You are hard to find.
“You are hard to get rid of.”
“I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it…I needed you to see it…who you are. I know the rest of your story. Rey…”
“You’re lying.”
“You were right…your parents were no one. Scrap merchants from the outer rim.”
“Don’t!”
“But you were strong in the Force, so they went looking for Luke.”
“I don’t want this!”
“They found my father’s ship on Jakku.”
“No!”
“But Palpatine’s assassin was close behind.”
(Rey sees the vision of her parents and her abandonment.)
“My Love…be brave.”
“You’ll be safe here…I promise.”
“Come back! Nooo!”
“They paid for your protection…in more than one way.”
“Stop talking.”
(Cutaway to heroes capture)
“Rey, I know what happened to them. Tell me where you are…you don’t know the whole story. It was Palpatine who had your parents taken. He was looking for you. But they wouldn’t say where you were…so he gave the order.”
(Rey sees her parents get killed.)
“So that’s where you are. You know why the Emperor’s always wanted you dead. I’ll come tell you.”
…
In the hangar, Kylo continues:
“Why did the Emperor come for me? Why did he want to kill a child? Tell me.”
“He wanted to kill every child with the Force, Rey. To stop Luke from rebuilding the Jedi Order. And he almost succeeded.”
“Palpatine had foreseen that a child would survive, one strong with the Dark Side. He told me that this child would become his heir, destroying him and taking the throne of the Sith. We can kill him, Rey…together.”
(Removes his helmet)
“You know what you need to do. You know.”
“I know.”
…
This actually changes fewer lines than my previous attempt, and explains away basically every convenient aspect of Jakku in TFA. It also handily gives some explanation for why Luke was delayed for so long in beginning a new Jedi Order.