Oh, I guess I am supposed to say “spoilers” Star Wars
Episode, bla bla whatever…
Ok, so who is this girl who has waltzed into that galaxy far
far away, and stole our hearts and our childhood?
Well the logical thing to do is list all reasonable possibilities
and then examine the pros and cons. So let’s do that.
1. 1. She is Luke’s daughter
2. 2. She is Han and Leia’s daughter
3. 3. She is the daughter of some other person who happens to be strong in the force, perhaps a Jedi perhaps not.
4. 4. She is the product of one of those sith black magic – life from raw force power- experiments.
Let’s start with number four. Some have floated the Idea
that she may be a clone of Anakin, I would consider this to be basically the same
as the “Force-life” experiment but less plausible. Although it is possible to
get a female clone from a male specimen it is still trickier, and why bother –
what would be the advantage of having a female? On the other hand, a female
result from the Force-life experiment is much more likely, indeed it is still a
mystery where Anakin’s y cromazone came from.
I guess the pros would be that she has an uncanny knack for fixing
things rather like Anakin which Luke and Lea did not seem to develop, but then
that could certainly skip a generation. The cons would be, it was really lame
the first time and would be lame to the Nth to the googol to the Nth to do it
again.
What about her being the descendent
of some random person who just happened to be strong in the Force? Well the
pros would be, that has many possibilities – hay, there is a whole galaxy out
there. The cons would be, having a main
protagonist that has no connection to the existing story would turn the
previous six movies into prequels about where Rey’s antagonist came from. Think
about it, the only character of the new generation that is unambiguously
connected to the existing story is the villain…that’s not the way to revive a
franchise. She could be from one of the previous Jedi, perhaps; Quigon, Obi Wan,
Mace or Dukoo. This would connect her to the existing story but requires a lot
of backtracking. First, none of the candidates had a known mate, but more
important, would not Obi Wan and Yoda have nurtured such a line, if it existed,
as much as they did the Skywalkers? The idea that such a line could be what
Yoda was referring to when he said “no, there is another” is beyond intriguing,
but I just do not see how you get there.
So how about Han and Leia? They are thoroughly entrenched in
the existing story and are a known couple. Certainly I must confess that when Rey
started flying the Falcon and then crawling all over the luvial dampers to fix
the reverse power flux coupler I said to myself “she has got to be Han’s
daughter” or, we are meant to think she is. However, Ben’s “father you never
had” taunt was a bit much. The real con
though is Leia; although being her daughter would explain her string in the
Force it is actually that strength that would seem to betray her. I think we
can all agree that Lea would know it if she had a daughter. So if said daughter
went missing say fifteen- twenty years ago, why have they not been scouring the
galaxy looking for her? Maybe they thought she was dead. But Leia knew Luke was
alive after the deathstar exploded, surely her bond with a child she bore would
be at least as great, and would she not have recognized her Force signature when
she saw her face to face? or at the very least be suspicious enough to search her
feelings and grab a stray hair. But perhaps she knew and just did not tell her?
But if not now, when? How could she send her long lost daughter on some damn
fool idealistic quest to take an old fossil his light saber…Chewbacca could do
it! Granted this is treating her more as a real person in a real world not an
iconic character in a mythic saga, but still, how could she not know and
knowing how could she not tell her?
So that brings us to Luke. Let’s start with the “like father
like daughter” motifs; Luke has a model T-16/Rey has a pilot doll then there
is the helmet – powerful, then of course there is Han Solo challenging her ability as pilot, being schooled in the Force
by Han Solo, being schooled in the dangers of hyperspace travel by Han Solo,
being offered a job by Han Solo and of course Rey can take care of herself wile
Luke is “ready for anything”, etc. These motifs may merely be meant to connect
protagonist to protagonist and not necessarily parent to progeny, but this is
just the beginning.
Through the Force things you will see…
It seems pretty clear that it was the Force that led Rey to
Luke’s light saber, but then it had belonged to Anakin as well so that in and
of itself is not that significant. But the vision she has when she touches it
is decidedly Luke-centric. Lea is not featured and Anakin is present only by an
implied Darth Vader as a distant Luke screams NO! next we see a shot of Luke
grieving, possibly over Rey’s mother possibly over Ben, possibly the two are
connected. The shot of Ren and his goons is just to vague to be of much use one
way or the other – sibling, cousin, either one works. then there is the shot of
Rey being abandoned on Jakku.
Insignificant in itself, but her crying bookending the vision with
Luke’s “NO!” is very evocative. The shot of Ren coming after her is future and
does not belong with the rest of the vision, though it feels eerily similar to
Luke’s encounter with Vader in the cave, but with a different result.
Your father wanted you to have this…
When Finn falls to Ren after their rather uninspiring duel,
he drops the light saber, which lands pommel up in a snow bank (not one but two
King Arthur references in one shot, good one JJ). Ren having evoked a blood
clam to it – “that light saber belongs to me” – reaches out to Force pull it
into his hand. But low, it flies into Rey’s instead. You could take the view
that it was just a Force tug of war and she won. Um, her first attempt at the
Jedi mind trick did not work and that was on a storm trooper, yet with her
first attempt at telekinesis she beats a guy who habitually stops laser blasts?
He may have been somewhat fatigued but it is not like she was as fresh as a
daisy (no pun intended of course). But
if instead the Force is acting as arbiter of a blood claim there are two ways she
could win. she could be his older sibling. however, she looks younger than him.
Ok, perhaps she took really good care of herself on Jakku, where water is scarce
and both sun and wind pound day after day…well maybe. But birth order would not
matter if she was from the more primal blood line – that is Luke’s. Yes, I know this all sound more like
something from Dune than Star Wars, but if you are going to open your movie
with Dr. Kynes and call it The Sleeper Aw…I mean The Force Awakens…just say’n.
Why wish you become Jedi?
What little identity Rey had was contained in that long
series of marks on that wall on Jakku, but after her encounter with the old
wise woman even that is gone. She is now on a no holes barred identity quest. Of
course she took a brief hiatus from it to do the whole save the galaxy thing,
but after handing that off to the legendary Luke Skywalker, she can fallow her
own path on her quest for her identity…that is unless the two paths are
intertwined.
Your focus determines your reality.
After leaving the only two members of the quest who actually
knew what Luke Skywalker looked like behind with the Falcon (perhaps to finish
their long adjourned chess game) Rey climbs the mountain alone – because that
is the way she must do it – to find a clocked figure gazing out over the
ocean. As she extends to him his long
lost light saber he turns and looks toward her with an enigmatic gaze. Is he
looking at the light saber and thinking “its time, I need to get back in the
fight”, or is he looking at Rey and thinking “she sure looks like her mother”?
we then get a camera angle from Luke’s perspective, the light saber is unrecognizably out of focus, Rey’s face is perfectly in focus…I believe our
question has been answered.
Protocol? Why its my primary function…
If so obvious it is, why just tell us do they not? Well, for
one thing coming out with a Rey Skywalker action figure before the character
herself knows her identity would be somewhat, well, rude. Also, once it is
unambiguously stated that Luke is her father then there is the whole can of mynocks about what happened to her mother and how she ended up on Jakku to deal
with. These things certainly seem to me to be legitimate suspense for the next
movies.
Always in motion is the future.
But what if they are
planning some cheesy nonsense just to “surprise” us? Although one can never
rule out such a possibility – Attack of the Clones – I think this time it is
unlikely. Star Wars’ blue milk and full portions is repeat viewings, and a surprise
works exactly once. We do not watch A New Hope 173 times because we think on
the hundred and seventy third Luke might miss and everybody on Yavin dies…give
us what we know is coming and do it well and we will return again and again,
give us stupid tricks and nonsense and well…
But there is a force in Hollywood, and last I checked Disney is still
a few billion dollars in the hole for this franchise, so this time I think the
Force is with us.
