Still kind of have the issue where her good parents chose Unkar Plutt of all people to protect(?) their daughter.
Perhaps they kidnapped Rey from Palpatine to try and ransom her for even more money/influence and things went south? Maybe Ochi was wanting to do the same thing too, so Rey ended up lost due to everyone’s greed?
Regardless, I feel like these ideas have 2 issues. 1) They feel very exposition-heavy. Kylo just delivers A LOT of backstory that we mostly don’t see. Is it really compelling?
2) These last two versions both still contradict TLJ. I know Hal’s version of TLJ cut some of these lines but to reiterate:
“They were filthy junk traders, who sold you for drinking money. Dead, in a pauper’s grave in the Jakku desert.”
If you show the flashbacks of her “good” parents, it directly contradicts the idea that her parents sold her for drinking money, which is stated in the text of the previous film, and it is never addressed why Kylo said this despite it not being true. Did Snoke/Palpatine deceive him? If you’re gonna directly contradict what was stated in TLJ, I feel like it should be directly addressed, not left for assumption. Or edit TLJ so it isn’t stated. But if your someone who likes that reveal in TLJ, that wouldn’t be really satisfying.
Just throwing out another option, if you wanted to go with an idea that doesn’t contradict TLJ at all, I think I would cut the parent flashbacks in TROS, and make Rey’s whole dilemma be revolve her natural power vs her ability to control it. Throughout the film she hurts, or almost hurts, people she cares about because she loses control of her powers. Maybe her Jedi training isn’t enough to control her dark side. So Palpatine/Kylo can offer her mastery of her power, to protect her friends, and she struggles with the choice she has to make.
Here is a version of the Force bond duel and the hangar with this in mind.
Kylo: Wherever you are, you’re hard to find.
Rey: You’re hard to get rid of.
Kylo: I pushed you in the desert because you needed to see it. You have power, but can’t control it. Not without me. Rey.
Rey: You’re lying.
Kylo: You know it’s true. Your friends aren’t safe around you.
Rey: Don’t.
Kylo: You know what will happen to them. I’ve been in your head.
Rey: I don’t want this!
Kylo: Search your feelings!
Rey: No!
Kylo: Don’t deny it! Accept it!
Kylo: If you can’t control the dark side-
Rey: Stop talking!
Kylo: -it will control you.
Kylo: Tell me where you are, I’ll help you.
Kylo: If you face Palpatine on your own, without embracing who you are, you will not succeed. And your friends will all be destroyed.
Rey: No!
Kylo: So that’s where you are.
Kylo: You know what will happen if you face him alone.
Rey: No.
Kylo: I’ll come tell you.
Kylo: Rey, I saw what you will become. I know the rest of your story.
Rey: Tell me.
Kylo: He’ll offer you the power to save the ones you love, and you’ll sell your soul to protect them. You will join Palpatine, and take the throne. But it isn’t too late. I feel the pull to the light. And you, the darkness. We’re a dyad in the Force, Rey. Two that are one. We’ll bring true balance, together. You know it’s the only way. You know.
So really you’re playing a similar angle that Palpatine played with Anakin and with Luke in the other films, but it is built on the foundation of the insecurities that have been established for Rey. And I think this angle is the most believable as far as if the audience even partially believes it could happen. Palpatine used the same “save the ones you love” argument with Anakin, and it worked.
Another benefit to this is it actually contradicts canon the least out of any option we could go with. Rey could still be a Palpatine for all we know. That potential backstory is just simply never brought up. The identity of Palpatine’s granddaughter died with Ochi, basically. If you still want to believe that. And as far as the Ochi’s ship issue goes, you can either ignore it, change the ship in the TFA vision to a different ship or different shot, or recontextualize it as a vision of Ochi’s ship in the future (associated with her friends/future family) rather than her parent’s ship.
Maybe this reveal isn’t as big of a reveal as some other options, but it’s possible we could also edit the hangar scene to feel less like a “big reveal” moment if it felt necessary.
Whenever I mess with TROS again myself, I may just try to rebuild the SFX for the Force bond duel and the hangar scene and share them. That way, we could just have a version of those scenes so anyone can insert whatever dialogue they want into those scenes, trim it however they want, etc.
Might be the best way to test some of these ideas out.