JGPRIME25

You have no idea how much this article means to me. Thank you so much for articulating my thoughts about the character. Rey is my favorite Star Wars character since I was 13 and I only found out why I relate to her so much and it all comes down to “I’ll earn your brother’s saber one day.” Just like Rey, I always felt unworthy of everything: Compliments, my intelligence, my grades and even unworthy of going to a college.

Different of Rey, I always had a very supportive family so I’m still trying to understand, but in the meanwhile, I have this character who gets me. TROS is a very criticized step of her journey, but it’s the one I like the most because it’s the one that reinforces Maz Kanata’s line from TFA: “The light… it’s always been there.” Some people interpret this scene and the film as if it’s telling Rey she has to earn something when it’s actually telling you she is already worthy, she always was and it shows you through so many different ways:

1- Leia handing her the lightsaber before she goes to the mission.

Minutes after Rey says she is unworthy of the blade and that despite not wanting to, she will go to Exegol without Leia’s blessing, she receives her Master’s (and adoptive mother’s) approval by handing her back the lightsaber. This is the first sign Leia trusts Rey deeply and don’t believe she needs to prove herself. Leia already knows Rey is a Jedi in her heart.

2 - Luke tells his sister wanted Rey to wield her blade and finish her journey.

This is one the most vital to me. Rey, who already felt unworthy throughout two films and a half, learns, during a moment of her life she is angry and seeking for revenge against her parents murder, that she is the heir to the Sith, the opposite of her ideal-self, the Jedi, but beyond that, an enemy of her adoptive mother. After comitting mistakes and feels like she is being driven rather than drive herself due to this revelation, she exiles herself.

I like to say she will neither face what she fears or become what she fears. Luke arriving and telling her Leia knew about her bloodline and only cared about who she was a person, gives her a sense of relief, but beyond knowing Leia always believed in her, finding out Leia trusted Rey to finish her spiritual journey solidificates the belief that Leia not only believed, but also trusted her all along.

She is worthy.

3 - Talking to the Jedi.

Rey starts the film saying the voices of the Jedi are not with her, but after knowing Leia loves and trusts her, Rey believes in herself. She is no longer afraid. Palpatine tempts her, gives a whole speech about how he is a cool grandad and how she has to be a cool grandaughter and she only replies with: “I’m here to end the Sith.”

Where she saw blood as a defining trait, she now sees heart.

And this is why when Rey calls to the Jedi, they hear her. Not because they were never there. One of the voices, Yoda, says something that contradicts Rey’s belief in the beginning: “Alone never have you been her.” The voices were always there for her, but she could only hear them when she embraced herself as the heroine of the story. She is All the Jedi and that makes me emotional.

About Rey taking on the Skywalker name…

Different of many people, I didn’t see it as Rey being devoid of self worth. On the contrary.

When the woman asks her name, she proudly answers: “I’m Rey.” Then after being asked her surname, Luke and Leia’s Force Spirits appear on the horizon and to me, this is not them saying who she is, this is an offer of their heritage. I see it as the opposite of Han’s offer in TFA.

In TFA, Rey declines the offer because she was waiting for her parents, although she really wanted to accept it. In TROS, Rey allows herself to accept to carry on the legacy of her mentors because she knows she is worthy. She always has been.

I hope one day I can be brave as her. She is a big inspiration to me 😃