Burbin, I agree with most of what you’re saying, and it is definitely a more interesting take to have Rey be a nobody who comes from nowhere. Unfortunately, as Jar Jar said, it just can’t be done without changing a lot of the original film. And that’s fine, there’s a Rey Nobody version sitting alongside the Rey Palpatine version of Ascendant. But as much as I wish it were true, I don’t think that the two versions can be reconciled or that most people would be happy with a version that excises the core of TROS’s plot revelation and supporting structure.

But the nice thing about having two edits of the film is that we don’t have to reconcile these contradictory visions. Heck, I’ve offered suggestions for Rey Palpatine and Rey Nobody edits in this thread on the same day. It’s confusing, and frustrating, and because of this dumb movie everything is going to be a compromised salvage effort from the outset.

I do like your idea about Rey being a nobody who nevertheless is chosen to fulfill the saga’s prophecy. That’s a really strong concept, but not for a Rey Palpatine edit. So all I’m saying is that we need to be clear what vision of the story we’re working with, because from what I can tell is that we’re arguing about what are essentially two different films at this point.