Winter wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:16 pm
In regards to Rey's backstory one thing that bugs me is that it leaves
Very little in the for character development. Forget about the implications of Rey's parents being either people of importance or nobodies, in the end how does that effect
REY'S character development on a meta level and instead ask the question How will this effect Rey going forward.
There are really only two possible outcomes, either the film sticks to it's guns and her parents really are nobodies or it retcons Last's big reveal and instead goes with Her Parents Are Somebodies angle. Neither option really allows for that much character development or character depth.
If her parents are nobodies then Episode 9 will most likely have to ignore that point meaning we wasted two movies building up a mystery instead of developing her character. If E9 instead decides to go with her parents were someone of importance then it will mostly likely over ride her character arc instead of focusing on her.
I think what should have been done here, and this is Very much just my opinion, is that Rey isn't some nobody from nowhere but instead of asking the question of Who is Rey's parents the question is who is Rey. And we learn everything there is about her when she is confronted by Ren towards the end of Awaken. In the interrogation room things start off pretty much the same as it was in the movie right up until Ren removes his mask, upon seeing him Rey say, rather somberly, "
Hello Ben."
And after this we learn that Rey was, in fact, one of Luke's students and that she was also friends with Ren before he fell to the Dark Side. This then explains Everything, why is she so good with a Lightsaber, who is she so strong in the Force and you why she related with Finn and understood his reasons for wanting to run, because she did the same thing.
She did try to protect the school but got scared and ran and went for a place to hide, hence why she was on Jakku, (which in this version is more like the Junkyard planet that Lucas had originally envisioned instead of a Tatooine rip-off). You can keep most of her scenes completely intact with just a few changes in dialogue, all of which are related more to her parents.
And with this change Rey is given much more agency in her story and more of a personal drive as the story forces her to confront the traitor and makes her the one to find Luke all the more important. This would make Rey's story one of personal redemption as she, like Luke, is in a self imposed exile for her cowardness even though she is really the only one blaming herself for this mistake.
This also would allow Ren to be further fleshed out as while Rey blames herself for her cowardness she is the only one willing to call Ren out on his BS. Han, Leia and Luke all blamed Snoke for Ben's downfall but Rey sees it as his fault and that he was always a bit of a twat. This isn't presented as the true answer but rather just how Rey sees it, from her point of view, Ren gave into the Dark Side by his own free will. Whether this is true or not is left up to the viewer to decide but it does give Snoke less critic and also works as set up to Ren killing and usurping Snoke later.
This gives Rey more character depth and makes her journey throughout the films all the more personal for her as she finds that she cannot turn her back on the galaxy again and does what she can to stop the First Order and Ren himself. No one is blaming her for her running away except HERSELF and this means that facing Ren is her facing her personal demons.