#THEORYWATCH2017 -- A STAR WARS THEORY

Rey, much like the denizens of Starkiller Base, wondering if #TheoryWatch2017 will ever end

I know, I know... yet another Star Wars theory. More than anything, though, the following research is mainly meant to provide some insight and possibly disprove some of the more common theories floating around. 

A prevailing fan theory regarding Rey and Kylo Ren goes something like this -- Kylo destroys the academy, murders the new generation of Jedi in training, and kidnaps Rey, wiping her mind and leaving her behind on Jakku, because he couldn't bring himself to kill her, but needed to hide her away... or something.

Most people assume she's probably Luke's kid; this is why she says she's waiting for her "family" to come back, as it could mean either her cousin (Kylo) or her father (Luke). It also explains Luke's state of seeming despondence, if he thought she was dead or corrupted.

Another common belief is that Lor San Tekka was there on Jakku to watch over Rey... It's a nice story, but unfortunately, it's just not the case. Lemme explain...

Here's what we definitively know from TFA (and the novelization, and new canon novels, comics, visual dictionary, etc), which takes place 30 years after the original trilogy:

(note: instead of using the standard "ABY" for 'after battle of Yavin', I will use "AOT" for 'after original trilogy', to make these dates easier to grasp)

-- Kylo Ren is 29 (born 1 year AOT)

-- he was sent to Luke's Jedi academy around age 9 (10 years AOT)

-- he finally learned of his lineage at age 23 and soon after fell to the dark side (24 years AOT)

-- this was due to Leia was being outed as Vader's daughter, and disgraced in the senate

-- Kylo Ren betrayed Luke and went to the dark side 5-6 years ago, around age 23/24

-- so Luke's Jedi academy was destroyed 5-6 years ago, as well

-- Luke went into exile some time after

-- Rey is 19 (born 11 years AOT -- one year after Ben joined Luke's academy)

-- she was left behind on Jakku by her 'family' around age 5 (16 years AOT)

-- so Rey was abandoned 8-9 years BEFORE Luke's Jedi academy fell

-- and 8-9 years before Ben Solo ever turned to the dark side

-- Ben would have only been 15 when Rey was abandoned

-- Rey doesn't remember her life before Jakku at all

-- Lor San Tekka had been close to Luke, Leia, Han (and Ben) for over 30 years

-- he's a member of the Church of the Force, and as such, firmly believes in the Jedi

-- Lor San Tekka's life was partially devoted to the preservation of Jedi artifacts

-- the empire tried to find and destroy all Jedi temples during their 23 yr reign

-- Lor San Tekka stole the location of the temple on Ahch-To at some point

-- R2-D2 has the rest of the map, taken from the death star in ANH

-- R2-D2 has been in low-power mode sifting through the data

-- Poe was sent on a mission to find Lor San Tekka, which took him all over the place

-- Leia did not know where Tekka was but believed he held a clue to Luke's location

-- Kylo Ren and the first order were concurrently searching for Tekka

logical conclusions --

-- Lor San Tekka stole the map fragment before ANH, otherwise R2 would've had a complete map

-- Lor San Tekka gave it to Luke in the last 5-6 years, so he could find the original Jedi temple

-- there's no reason why Luke would've sent Rey away at age 5 when things were just fine

-- so Kylo Ren and Rey have almost certainly never met, nor Luke and Rey

key quotes and passages from TFA --

"I've traveled too far and see too much to ignore the despair in the galaxy"

"Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the force"-- Lor San Tekka

--> LST initially agreed to keep Luke's location a secret but could stay silent no longer

"look how old you've become" -- Kylo Ren

"something far worse has happened to you -- LST

--> LST and Kylo Ren have known each other a long time, since before Ben went away at age 9

Everything so far is just connecting the dots of things that are factual. Now I get into some additional observations and conjecture, what I feel can be reasonably inferred from watching TFA, and paying close attention to the nuances of Harrison Ford's performance -- and everything from this point forward assumes a measure of intent from the filmmakers, otherwise... who knows.

-- Han Solo realizes exactly who Rey is, though he didn't know her name or who she was at first

-- related side-note -- Rey is almost certainly a name she adopted for herself, not her given name

-- the helmet she wears on Jakku belonged to a pilot named Dosmit Raeh (it says in Aurebesh)

-- the critical moment for Han is when she fixes the hyperdrive, he realizes who she really is

-- from this point on, Han does everything in his power to keep from her the resistance (and even before that --"you tell him Han Solo just stole back the Millennium Falcon for good")

-- why? well, because he clearly made a promise at some point to keep her out of it

evidence:

-- once they look at the map on the Millennium Falcon, Han plots a course for Takodana

"she'll get your DROID home" -- Han Solo, referring to Maz Kanata

-- and then later, "Maz, I need you to get this DROID to Leia" -- Han Solo

-- and moments later, "who's the girl?" -- Maz to Han, followed by a very convenient cutaway

-- the next time we see Maz, Han has already told her the big secret about Rey

-- the lightsaber calling to Rey confirms to Maz whatever Han just told her

"that lightsaber was Luke's, and his father's before him, and now it calls to YOU" -- Maz

-- so then, why would Han tell Maz about Rey if he's trying to keep her 'out of the mess'?

-- for starters, Han clearly didn't know that Maz had Luke's lightsaber

"where did you get that?" -- Han to Maz re: lightsaber

btw side-theory -- Maz stated moments earlier that she'd had (the lightsaber) "for ages"...

in the third 'resistance rises' lego star wars short, Lando Calrissian visit's Maz in her castle

now those shorts aren't canon, but they're not exactly NOT canon, either. (canon-adjacent)

Lando's also mentioned in the book Empire's End as wanting to restore cloud city

so could Lando have given her the saber at some point years before?

another key quote from Maz --

"whoever you're waiting for on Jakku, you already know they're not coming back... but there's someone ELSE who could" -- Maz, to which Rey responds, "Luke."

-- this would clearly imply that Luke did NOT leave her there on Jakku

-- so at this point, one obvious question is, is it just a coincidence Rey and the Millennium Falcon wound up in the same place?? and that Han found them so easily the *instant* they left Jakku, and that he seems to know who she is?

-- of course not -- I believe that Han was complicit in hiding Rey on Jakku, and the price of Unkar Plutt's cooperation was the falcon, but did Han actually leave her there himself? No, I don't believe so... so who would Han possibly give the falcon to for such a purpose?

THE MOTHER OF LUKE'S KID -- in other words, Rey IS in fact Luke's daughter, but he never even knew she existed. Whoever it was that Luke got pregnant (Mara Jade analogue?), she clearly wanted their child to have nothing to do with Jedi and Sith and all the baggage that goes with it.

Still, Han has regrets over the role he played. Think about it -- there's palpable guilt on Han's face when Rey says, "I didn't think there was this much green in the entire galaxy."

 

And once they land, Han offers her a job, which is totally uncharacteristic. This is out of guilt AND wanting to keep her 'out of the mess', but he seems to genuinely only learn her (new, self-chosen) name at this point in time.

Another thing to keep in mind about that visit to Maz and wanting to keep Rey away from Leia and the resistance --

-- Han says that they need a "clean ship", as that the MF is easily tracked and would lead the first order to the resistance

-- but once Rey is kidnapped anyway, Han *immediately* takes the MF right to the resistance!

-- also, that is NOT how the First Order finds them -- they tracked a "resistance recon ship"

So ultimately, there are really just two possibilities regarding Rey --

a) Rey is a nobody, and is only introduced into the larger star wars story by finding BB-8, crossing paths with Finn, and stealing the MF
b) Rey is somebody, and the Millenium Falcon's presence there isn't a coincidence

Because asking us to believe that 1) Rey is left behind by someone important, 2) the MF is there,

3) Lor San Tekka, and by extension Poe and Finn are all there, that that's all just a confluence of

random happenings? No way in hell.

Besides, it seems (reasonably) apparent to me that Han told Leia off-screen in TFA that Rey is their niece, which is why their share such an instant connection, despite having never met before. (Above and beyond just mutual sadness at Han's passing)

random musings:

--> Snoke simply fears Luke's return and the map being located, while Kylo actively WANTS the map to Luke... why? simply unfinished business? or is it because he wants Vader's kyber crystal, currently hanging around Luke's neck?

-- Snoke was influencing ben solo even as a young boy, which is why Leia and Han sent him away to Luke's academy (deleted scenes from TFA would've implied this)

-- is it possible Rey was placed on Jakku because Snoke wouldn't be able to find her there? (the planet is unusually strong in the light side)

-- Ben was sent away around age 9, Rey was born ONE YEAR LATER... is it actually possible that Rey is Han and Leia's second child, and Han was tasked with giving her away?? pretty unlikely, though conceivable. would play into the Han guilt thing.

-- given how much of Han's 30 year history after the Battle of Endor is actually known, the fact we DON'T KNOW when or how he lost the falcon is pretty suspect

-- compare the shots of the Knights of Ren in TFA vs the shots of Luke/R2 in TLJ trailer-- I believe that's the same place in the background, viewed from a different angle

If you turn up the brightness on the Knights of Ren flashback, you can see Kylo Ren is clearly holding either Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber, or Luke's green lighsaber. Given that Pablo Hidalgo suspiciously asked people on twitter what they think ever happened to Obi-Wan's saber, I'd guess the former.

Now let's breakdown Rey's force vision or "forceback". There's a critical thing to keep in mind here...

-- EVERYTHING REY SEES OR HEARS HAPPENED IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO LUKE/ANAKIN'S LIGHTSABER, that's the whole idea

-- this is absolutely vital to figuring this out, but this is all-too-often ignored

-- the first flashback of the vision is of cloud city -- the lightsaber was, of course, there

-- the second flashback is Luke and R2 watching the Jedi temple burn -- lightsaber?

-- the third flashback is the clan leader being killed by Kylo and the Knights of Ren -- lightsaber?

-- the fourth flashback is rey being left on Jakku as the ship flies away -- lightsaber?

-- the fifth flashback is rey in the forest, seeing kylo ren -- WITH HIS HELMET, curiously, since he's not wearing it later in the actual scene -- lightsaber is present

Now if we assume Luke recovered his old lightsaber at some point, then it's pretty easy to place it in the second vision. The Clan massacre could have featured the blue saber (is this where Maz acquired it?) or perhaps it's a vision of things to come in TLJ, since these scenes are chronological.

Or was Luke present at the clan massacre? Did Kylo and the Knights confront him?

And lastly, how did R2 get back to the resistance after Luke peaced out?

We may never know... but presumably The Last Jedi will mercifully offer some answers... And thus, #TheoryWatch2017 is ended, my friends... let the countdown to #TheoryWatch2018 begin!