Granted this is the first story where the protagonist doesn’t have a family of any kind to raise her, but that seems like a good reason to focus the story away from the location aspect and onto the lack of parents aspect.
Yup, and the fact that Palpy’s the one that killed them serves 2 purposes:
- It lines up with what he does to groom his followers - he isolates them and those closest to them always seem to die (Dooku - Qui-Gon, Anakin - Shmi, etc.) He is then able to swoop in to fill the void.
- Most importantly, it gives Rey a tangible reason to hate the Emperor, which is essential for his ritual at the end.