The Secret of Star Wars
Rey is NOT Luke Skywalker's long lost child. General Hux is. The general is indeed the biological son of the legendary Jedi Knight. But, as it happens, "Luke Junior" here gets totally jipped on jedi powers at birth/conception. Rey, like Ren, is also the child of Han and Leia. Episode 8 will try and trick you into thinking that Rey is Luke's daughter. But she isn't. It will say that Luke had a wife that died and a child that he lost long ago. They won't say if this child is a boy, or a girl, because Hux is a boy and Rey is a girl. Episodes seven through nine are pulling an old switch-a-aroo on you to mislead you. Who kid is whos will be the next great surprise for the new movies. The original Stars Wars had the great "I am your father" surprise. They are trying to give you that again but with the next generation.
Episode seven shows General Hux acting all crazy Hitler evil launching the super weapon. This new "Death Star" blows up all the Republic planets. This, in itself, should make you think that his guy is, indeed, son-of-Luke. (Remember Daddy Darth choking out the admirals in Empire.) See! That way it's an even bigger, and more shocking, surprise when the secret is finally revealed. Also this guy, General Hux, looks like Luke, he's the right age. But wait... this guy doesn't have force powers. Exactly... Luke Junior spends his whole life watching Han Junior (Ren/Ben) get all the jedi-magic in the galaxy while he gets swat. And we all know how the dark side loves Skywalker anger and hatred. And this Hitler wannabe has it here in spades.
After "Return of the Jedi" Luke gets married and has a son, who lacks force powers. Han and Leia also get married and have a son, near the same time Luke and his wife do. Ben Solo (L.K.A. Kylo Ren) gets born with crazy great force powers. Luke starts an Academy for Jedi younglings. Just like in the Old Republic. Luke pulls preschool-age children, from the Republic, who show to be force sensitive. (These other force-sensitive kiddies will later become "The Knights of Ren.") At this point the Republic is doing much better. The unending war with the Empire has died down. And the remnants of the Empire have dwindled. Also Nephew Ben is now Luke's star pupil. Unfortunately Luke Junior is left behind. (No force power. Sorry kid.) So post "ROTJ" things look pretty hunky-dory for about fifteen years. (Except for L.J.'s endless seething jealousy over his cousin Ben.)
Cousins Ben Solo, and Luke Junior, grow up together. Being that the boys are the same age, and the same gender, L.J. always feels like he's being compared to his jedi cousin and falling short. Several years go by. When the boy cousins are ten years old, Han and Leia have a second child. It's a girl and they name Padme after the grandmother. (Padme will later be known as Rey.) At birth the Solo daughter's midi-chlorians are tested. The count's off the charts. Padme, like her brother, is also born super powerful in the force. Unlike L.J., Ben couldn't be more pleased. L.J.'s quite displeased that he's watching yet another cousin launch into a jedi destiny he'll never know.
Snoke is Anakin Skywalker's father. I guess he must of rophy-raped Shmi or, more likely, used "the force" to wipe her memory or impregnate her. This bit is not my own theory but more inside intell I got off "BattleFrontUpdates." It said that Rey is Ren's sister. (Which I already figured out.) And that Snoke is Anakin's father, making him about 95. The whole bit about Anakin being conceived by Midi-chlorians was merely Qui-gon's theory. (At least that's the only part of the story that's officially canon.) I originally bought into the theory that Snoke is Darth Plagues but Plagues looks very "alien" looking and Snoke looks human. (Or like he "used-to-be" human.) I guess Snoke went through a Gollum-like transformation, making him less human looking, and more like a rotting, gashed-up zombie. This does match up with info from the "Visual Dictionary." There Snoke says he used to be quite handsome. (Maybe handsome enough to seduce Shmi!?) Of course any alien race might deem themselves handsome but think this is a clue to Snoke's origins.
Anyway my theory continued… Great Grand Dad Snoke is injured and cast away in some fashion. He is stirred into action by the brewing hatred in Luke Junionr. Snoke reaches out to L.J. in a vision. Snoke promises L.J. unlimited power and domination over the force. Longing for power, L.J. responses favorably to the vision and obeys Snoke's commands. First on the agenda is to destroy the jedi academy and convert all the younglings, therein, to the darkside. Snoke, through Hux, kidnaps all of Luke's pupils except for the Solo siblings, Ben and Padme. Snoke uses the darkside of the force to convert the powerful, and impressionable, younglings into the "Knights of Ren." Snoke knows he can't merely kidnap Ben to convert him to the darkside. At thirteen Ben is too old, and too powerful, to do this to him. And little Padme's under her brother's fierce protection. The other pupils at the academy are younger, and weaker in the force, than Ben. Snoke knows he must first cause great heartbreak in Ben to seduce him to the darkside.
Snoke conspires with L.J. to kidnap, nearly, all of Luke's younglings students. Luke Senior sets off in search for them, leaving the Solo family behind. Han and Leia get very scared. Almost all of the Jedi younglings have vanished. All except for the two most powerful jedi-potentials in the class, their own two children. Mr. and Mrs. Solo fear, "Will their kids be next?" So each parent grabs a kid and tries to hide them, for their own protection. Leia sends their son away to one end of the galaxy. And Han takes away their daughter to the other end of the galaxy. The parents figure that they shouldn't put all their eggs in one basket. Kinda like at the end of episode three. As newborns, Luke and Leia are sent to two different locations in the galaxy.
Ben does as he's told and leaves for the opposite end of the galaxy, the Eastern Reaches. All the while the young-jedi-apprentice fears for his little sister's safety. Ben wishes he were aboard the Falcon himself to ensure Padme's return.
In episode seven Ren says, "Your son was foolish and weak like his father." Ren says this because he doesn't just blame Han for Rey's disappearance. Ren also blames himself for failing to protect her.
Han, and Chewy, take little Padme on board the Millennium Falcon and head for the Western Reaches. The smugglers figure the falcon can get them anywhere in the galaxy in a hurry. Han's on the rim dealing with fellow smugglers, trying to find a good place to hide Padme. Han's ship gets boarded by an enemy gang. Fearing for Padme's safety, Han hides his daughter under the floorboards of the ship. Han and Chewy get dragged away at gunpoint. Little Padme's left behind, still hiding under the floorboards. The ship gets stolen, and passed around, from one smuggler to another. The problem is, is that, the ship, and it's original owner, are famous. Every smuggler in the galaxy makes a beeline for the ship the second it hits outer space, in gangster territory. Then the last set of smugglers get their hands on the ship. They wisely decide to dump it in the middle of nowhere, and sell it to the first buyer they can find. Han and Chewy are held captive, momentarily, while their ship, and it's precious cargo, are taken any away to God knows where. Soon after, the two smugglers, get the drop on their captures and make their escape. But they make their escape minus a ship and one little girl.
The Millennium Falcon whines up on the dust bowl of Jakku, in hands of Unkar, the wholesaler. (Unkar's the big fat-fleshy alien that was doling out "the portions" to Rey in episode seven.) Unkar Plutt's a hulking Crolute and the junk boss of the planet. Unkar, realizes that the ship's famous. So he covers it up in rags and leaves it in his junk yard. He installs a compressor in the wall, of the ship, which puts too much stress of the hyperdrive. This disables the ship from from flying out of his fat greedy hands. While tinkering with the ship Unkar hears whimpering cries coming from underneath the floorboards.
Unkar pulls back the floorboards.
As the grates are lifted little Padme call outs, "Da-da!"
In episode seven the skywalker lightsaber calls to Rey while she's in Maaz's castle. Rey's three-year-old self can be heard saying faintly, and briefly, "Da-da!"
To Unkar's surprise he finds a cowering little girl, hiding in the corner. The Crolute knows who the ship belongs to and who the little girl must be. But wanting to wreak a tidy profit, the wholesaler raises/enslaves Padme to scavenge for ship parts in exchange for food, the portions. The wholesaler renames the little girl Rey and feeds her a bunch of bull that she needs to wait on Jakku for forever and wait for her family to come back.
There's a scene in episode seven that shows Rey, Fin and BB-8 all flying off in the Millennium Falcon.
You then see Unkar, the wholesaler yelling out, "That's mine!"
The wholesaler's not referring to the ship. He's referring to the girl. The ships been collecting dust for twenty years. And he's not been pillaging it for parts either. (Notice how it's in full working order when it flies off the ground.) He's not been turning a profit off the ship. He's been turning a profit off the girl. He again feed Rey a bunch of bull and told her that her Dad's ship was "garbage." (Not that she knew it was her Dad's ship.) He told her it wasn't worth pillaging for parts. The wholesaler knows his shit. He knows his ships. He taught Rey everything he knows about ship parts. Not to help her, but to keep her hungry and working for him. He hoped this little arrangement would last the rest her life. Believe me, he's well aware of the ship that, "ran the kessel run in 12 parsecs." And who's it's rightful owner is. He just covered the rusty ship up in rags and told his little slave that it was worthless.
Like I said, the wholesaler knows exactly who Rey, and her father, are. When adult Rey's on the ship with Han they discus the "compressor" that mucks up the hyperdrive. Unkar put in the compressor. The compressor is symbolic. It refers to Unkar "repressing" Rey on Jakku. It's said that the compressor "puts too much stress on the hyperdrive." This is also symbolic. Unkar suppression of Rey inhibits her from blasting off to freedom and her rightful destiny. When Rey "bi-passes the compressor" this is exactly when Han realizes the truth, that Rey is his long lost daughter. When Rey blast off with the ship is when the bad-guys feel the "awakening in the force." The "awakening " is happening within Rey. And the bad guys sense this.
Now back twenty years earlier. Han has to return back home to his family, minus a three-year-old. In his efforts to hide, and protect, his daughter, Padme, he loses her. And he does so on the ass end of the galaxy. And, by the way, to a bunch of smugglers now doing God knows what to her. Ben, as well as L.J., are 13-years-old at the time. Ben comes straight back home from wherever his mother sent him. Ben knows exactly who he is, where he's from, and, unlike his little sister, certainly doesn't get lost out there.
Ben finds out that Han lost little Rey. Ben explodes in rage and tries to kill his father. Ben's Jedi teacher, Luke, steps in between Han and Ben.
Uncle and nephew have a feverish duel. Luke narrowly bests his nephew in the fight, but only due to his age, and experience, over Ben. Ben's raw talent, and rage, prove a dangerous combination. Luke realizes that when his nephew grows up he won't be able to defeat him. In a huff Ben leaves forever, vowing revenge on his father. Cousin L.J. follows Ben out the door. L.J. introduces Ben to Snoke. Snoke promises Ben unlimited power and to free him of his pain. Like L.J., Ben falls under the influence of Snoke. Snoke helps Ben "find" Luke's lost younglings. (Snoke, and L.J., kidnapped the younglings to begin with.) Ben renames himself Ren and dubs his himself master over his former classmates. Luke's former younglings are renamed "The Knights of Ren." L.J. renames himself Hux. Both cousins turn to the dark side to ease their pain and accomplish their goals.
Ben Solo wants the dark power to free himself of his past life. And to, therefore, free himself of the pain and guilt of losing Rey. Snoke counsels Ren to emulate his grandfather, Darth Vader, and transcend into a new person. The mask/helmet helps keep Ren at a distance from people and to always keep himself in warrior mode. Unlike Han, Ren isn't looking for Rey. But Ren can't think Rey's dead because he would of sense her death through the force. But Ren may, unconsciously, sense the "pain" of Rey's loneliness and this may just help fuel his ongoing rage. They illustrate through action and dialog Ren's state of denial/disconnect. This also explains why Ren treats Rey with "kid-gloves." But yet he doesn't, consciously, realize it's because she's his "kid-sister."
In the movie it's said that Han and Leia break up. And so, therefore, Leia goes back to what she's good at, being a rebellion/resistance leader. And so, therefore, Han goes back to what he's good at, being a smuggler. This is not exactly true as to why they each went off in these separate directions. Han and Leia are still in love and want to be together. But Han has been spending the last twenty years trying to find their daughter Padme. (Who is later known as Rey.) Han's consumed with guilt over losing Rey. So it's now Han's, and therefore Chewy's, life's mission to find Rey somewhere out in the galaxy. They search the whole galaxy for the lost ship. Because if you find the ship, this will lead to the girl.
In episode seven, Han's seen making deals with fellow smugglers like:
Han says, "Okay, in exchange for money, I'll get you those giant ball-monster-things with the tentacles."
But then Han's shown screwing over fellow smugglers. Like Han doesn't deliver on money, and cargo, he promises them. Hans isn't just being a dirty-backstabbing scoundrel. He's just using that money to try and find his daughter. Han finally finds the Millennium Falcon. At first he thinks nothing of Rey, upon meeting her. Never did Han dream, that his own little girl, would still be hiding underneath the very same floorboards where he initially left her, so long ago. But there she is, with Fin and BB-8.
While they're all aboard the Millennium Falcon, Han finally puts the pieces together. Rey is his daughter. It's implied that Rey is Luke's daughter. But she's not. The clues are all in the facial expressions, not in what's said aloud. The best example is between Hux and Ren, near the beginning of the movie. Ren has just interrogated Poe and gotten the information they need. Ren walks out of the interrogation room and has an interesting exchange with his cousin, Hux(L.J.)
Ren basically says to Hux, "Well Cuz I just did my Jedi-magic-thingy that only I can do. The rest of work is for you non-magic folk to take care of." It's like Ren's practically muttering under his breath about Luke Junior, "Crown Prince my ass." (Being that Hux is the only direct descent of the legendary Jedi Knight.)
Cousin Hux is seen visible snarling with jealousy and bitterness. See! Uh! It's all in the facial expressions! Re-watch and look!
"The truth is in the facial expressions," is also true about Han and Rey being father and daughter. While aboard the Millennium Falcon they are having some ship malfunctions.
Rey pulls out a piece of gadgetry out of the wall. She happily shows Han her good work and says, "I just bypassed the compressor."
Han has a non-plus reaction like, "uhh... great..." and then walks away from Rey.
Rey makes a face like, "Why did he react like that and walk away?"
In that moment Han finally realizes that this is his daughter. I bet he ran over to tell Chewy, "Oh geez, I think Rey is my long lost daughter."
They hit land and Rey's staring out over the greenery. Han then passes on his own little "Excalibur" in his old blaster onto his daughter, Rey. Han shows Rey how to used it, symbolizing his own little "light-saber" training for his daughter. He then invites Rey to work for him.
In the castle Maaz asks Han, "Who's the girl?"
You don't hear the rest of that conversation.
What you didn't hear is Han telling Maaz, "That girl is my long lost daughter that I've been looking for for the past twenty years. But Maaz, Rey says she can't leave Jakku. What should I do? Tell her the truth?"
Soon after that the skywalker lightsaber calls out to Rey and she reaches out to it. Upon touching the saber Rey gets psychic flashes from the future, and the past. The most prolific of these visions is the one of Ren. In the vision, Ren's shown impaling another swordsman that was about to kill Rey from behind. You then are shown the "Knights of Ren" on a dark rainy night. The camera pan away to reveal, that "The Knights," are surrounded by endless slain bodies. This a symbolic vision, rather than, an actual event. It symbolizes how Ren has killed an infinite number of people all for Rey's sake or because of the loss of her.
Maaz gives Rey her family's old lightsaber saying, "This belonged to Luke Skywalker, and to his father before him, and now it calls to you."
All of this is said in front of Han. This implies that Rey is Luke's daughter. But you know...
Later Han and Leia reunite. Han tells Leia about how he, "I saw him. I saw our son, Ben(Kylo Ren.)"
Again you don't hear the rest of this conversation either. The rest of the conversation goes as follows:
Han then says, to the effect of, "Oh geez Leia. You'll never believe who I saw our son carrying away in his own two arms. It was our long lost daughter Padme/Rey. Oh fudge! Our son gonna either kill his own sister or turn her to the darkside of the force."
Later on in the film Fin starts talking about Rey. You hear Leia say, "Han told me about the girl." This is another indication, that another conversation, took place about Rey off camera. Just like when Maaz says to Han, "Tell me about the girl."
Between the unfinished Han-Maaz conversation, and the unfinished Han-Leia conversation, is exactly where a rather "interesting" encounter happens between brother and sister, Ren and Rey.
In the beginning of the movie we see Ren capturing Poe. Later in the movie we see Ren capturing Rey. Beat for beat these two incidents parallel each other showing how "terrible" Ren treats Poe and how "nice" Ren treats Rey. Both incidents go down with Ren trying to gets the missing map piece information leading to Luke Skywalker. Both with Poe, and Rey, Ren freezes them both with the force, stopping them both from shooting and killing him. Ren then captures and interrogates them both. But both incidents go down way differently though. Basically Ren treats Poe way worse. Ren treats Rey way better. And it's not because she's a chick. They even show how evil Ren is when he tells the stormtroopers to "Kill all the villagers."
Lets look at how mean Ren treats Poe. (And the differences in these kidnappings.) Poe's one blasts gets frozen mid-air by Ren. Poe, himself, is also frozen by the force. The stormtroopers punch, and kick, Poe, dragging Poe to his knees before Ren. Poe taunts Ren about wearing the mask. Ren, of course, doesn't take the mask off as per his prisoner's request. Why would he? Ren tells the stormtroopers to drag Poe onto his ship. You later see Poe trapped to an interrogation board. Poe is all bloody and weary. Ren swaggers up to the prisoner all casual.
Ren says, "I'm impressed. No one's been able to get a thing from you."
You get the impression that it takes A LOT to impress Ren. The stormtroopers must of performed a rather INTENSE torture-interrogation.
With little foreplay Ren then proceeds to painfully rip the information he needs straight out of Poe's head while Poe screams in agony.
Ren then casually saunters out of the room, having what he came for.
Now let's look at how Ren treats his OTHER captive Rey. There's such a huge scary build up to brother and sister meeting for the first time. While in the castle Rey has a scary, and mind blowing, psychic flash session, involving a mash up of future and past events. Soon after that, Rey runs off all scared into the forest. (Note that she initially running away from her own lightsaber destiny.) While in the forest, she hears spooky, and mysterious sounds, and looks around herself all paranoid. Ren then starts coming after Rey. (Rey was already running away. But who can't she run away from, Ren.) Rey endlessly shoots their father's blaster at her brother. Rey shakes, cries, and backs away as all her useless blasting doesn't keep Ren from coming after her.
Ren freezes Rey with the force. Ren says, "Oh, so you're the girl everyone's talking about." Like there's been an huge build up to the two of them finally meeting.
He threatens her with his sword and scans her brain. He then proceeds to wave his hand over her head like he's casting a spell on her. He's being all like, "Oh, go to sleep little princess." Then carries her away in his own two arms. Wait, couldn't Ren at least hand her body over to a stormtrooper to carry? What a nice kidnapper! Uh?
Also Ren says that he doesn't need to stay, to get the BB-8 bot, because now he has the girl. Ren's incredible eager to carry off Rey. Why not stay and get the bot just in case? Why not call in reinforcements and crush the resistance there and then? Hux even points this out to Snoke, that Ren left without the bot. And that this error in judgement caused the bot to fall into enemy hands.
Rey later wakes up strapped to the very same interrogation board that Poe was strapped to. She wakes up to find Ren staring at her while he's crouched down on the floor. And check out the weird-ass way Ren's "crouched" down there too. It's like he's "kneeling before her." Poe was always kept at low position to Ren. Rey's always kept at a high position to Ren. Why? Is it symbolic or something? Also, it's being implied, that Ren's been staring at Rey the whole time. So I guess no stormtrooper torture for her. What? Why not?
Mystified Ren says to Rey, "You still wanna kill me."
Uh? Of course she STILL wants to kill you. She shot at you over a dozen times back in the forest. You threatened her with your sword, kidnapped her and strapped her to a board. What exactly transpired between now and then to make her NOT wanna kill you?
Rey asks about her friends in the Resistance. Ren says, "You'll be relieved to know I have no idea where they are." And that's true, of course, because Ren, for no logical reason, let them all get away. So why did you do this? And why are you telling your captive this? Is it to ease her mind because you're so concerned about her?
Rey says, basically, that she doesn't like Ren's mask. She doesn't exactly ask him to remove it but the second she voices displeasure with it off the mask comes. With Han, and Poe, you see how much Ren hates taking the mask off. Even when Ren's alone, talking to the Darth Vader mask, he keeps his own mask on. So does this nut bag go to sleep, and take a crap, with it on too? Uh?
Okay, so then Ren proceeds to scan Rey's brain and not for the information he needs. Initially, he just reads her own personal thoughts and feelings. I guess he's curious about her?
Ren distresses, "Oh no. You're lonely. So afraid to leave. You can't sleep at night." He acts like he's so concerned about her unhappiness. Uh? You're evil and are helping to blow-up about half dozen planets of innocent people. And you're concerned that your captive needs some prozac? Okay?
Ren also says, "Han woulda disappointed you as a father." Isn't Ren more "disappointing" to Rey, and everyone else, with all the evil shit he's doing? Again, oddly, Ren's acting like Rey should be loyal to him over and above her friends in the Resistance.
Rey then distresses, "Get out of my head!"
The second she says this Ren stops reading her personal thoughts as per requested. How nice of you. Uh?
Ren then scans Rey's brain for the information he needs. Ren says to her, "Don't be afraid. I feel it too."
There are multiple curious things about this statement. First of all, to what is he referring to exactly. The fact that he feels that they both have the force? Or the fact that he feels some mysterious connection to her he can't explain? And, of course, since this is Star Wars, you both still can't tell you're closely related even when scanning each other's brains with the force. Well atleast that's consistent. Also, you're evil, and are interrogating her for information she doesn't want to give up. Why are you telling her not to be afraid? Isn't fear a method of intimidation in these kinds of proceedings? Uh?
Anyway, Rey reverses the brain scan and Ren runs crying from the room like a bitch. Ren's so frazzled by the encounter he leaves just one incompetent guard guarding his treasured prisoner. Austin Powers anyone? Also Ren's so disarmed by the incident that he even runs all the way down to Snoke with his helmet in his hands, not on his head.
*Here I wanna give a shout to one really amusing scene in episode seven. It happens when Ren scoops up Rey and brings to her to his sinister ship. Han, their father, gets an eye full of this going on. He sees his now "evil" son taking off with his daughter. Now remember Han spent the past twenty years searching the galaxy for Rey, his long lost little three-year-old. Han FINALLY finds her. And then "Oh-no!" look who's carry her away.
Fin's then seen chasing after Ren and Rey.
Fin's yelling out after them, "Reeey! Reeey!"
Fin then runs up to Han all breathless and terrified saying, "Did you see? Did you see?"
Then Han all just dismissively saying, "Ya-ya I saw."
Han non-plus reaction with Fin is just priceless. I love it!*
By the end of episode 7 Han, Leia and Luke all know the truth about Rey's true parentage but don't tell her. (Well Han dead at this point, but anyway...) It's been established that Ren can read Rey's, and anyone else's, brain like it ain't no thang. And they all just watched Ren kill his own father.
Luke and Leia think, "Oh geez. Ren just killed his own father. What would Ren do to his own sister? Kill her? Turn her to the darkside?"
So Luke, and Leia, wisely decide not to tell Rey the truth about who she really is, seeing how Ren can read her brain.
What Luke, and Leia, don't realize is the truth of why Ren killed his own father. It was because he was mad at Dad for losing Rey. Basically the whole Ren "going-evil" thing was all for Rey's benefit.
There's another part in the movie where Ren's treating Rey with kid gloves. The siblings duel at the end of the movie. But right before that Ren duels Fin. And, of course, Ren treats Rey way better than he treats Fin. In the Ren/Fin sword fight there's a scene where the two men cross swords. The two of them are close together and it's like they're "facing each other off." Ren then proceeds to burn Fin's shoulder with the crossguard part of the his wonky red saber. Fin screams in agony.
With the Ren/Rey sword fight there's a similar scene. Again Ren's besting his opponent, but here Ren doesn't hurt Rey. Instead he just says, "You need a teacher. I could show you the way of the force." So Ren decides that this is a great time to invite his sister to the dark side. You know, while in the middle of trying to murder each other.
It's not really until this very duel do I finally get what I always wanted, a female Jedi. And there's quite the build up to Rey ultimately excepting her own lightsaber destiny. Like with the saber unexpectedly flying into her hand. A female Jedi's something that's been toyed with since the originals. And something that we didn't really get in the prequels. I feel so jerked around. But finally... here's Rey. She even pauses before she turns the lightsaber on. I've waited so long...
As a chic fan of this junk, I've been waiting to see a lady Jedi, in the flesh, for quite a while. The prequels have a very ahh... "Interesting" way of handling female Jedi. There are NO prominent female Jedi in any of the episodes one through three. And it's not just that. You hardly ever even see a female Jedi ever.
Well you get two minor female Jedi characters, Shaak Ti and Ayala Secura. Shaak Ti's is red-faced alien woman with the friggin' hair. Ayala a sexy blue alien that looks like Jabba's original dancer. You never see either of these women swinging a "turned-on" light saber. It's never even directly indicated that Shaak's even a Jedi. There's like just one scene of her. She's shown passively kneeling before a bad guy's feet while he caresses her head. And then she immediately dies, being impaled by a light saber. But unlike Ayala, you at least hear her speak.
And let's look at Ayala. There are no lines of dialog for this lady jedi. But she's at least shown with a light saber. Like she'll be seen off to side with the saber on her sexy hip. At the end of episode three she's killed off by order 66. Right before she's shot down, Ayala finally takes the saber off her hip to defend herself. She shot down the second before she's able to finally turn the darn thing on.
In the prequels whenever a women gets near a turned on light saber she dies. Like there are a handful of shots of women holding light sabers. But when these shots are shown the women are shown dying from them. The younglings are shown with the sabers and training remotes. Some of the younglings are females and Ankin later kills them. There's the arena battle scene in "Attack of the clones." There are brief scenes of women holding and swinging light sabers, deflecting blasts and the like, in the background. One singular, and brief, shot of female Jedi shows a woman falling face forward dead.
Is this on purpose? It just seems weird. But, in a way, I like it. Because then it makes Rey turning on the saber so much more dramatic. There's now has been such a big build-up to it finally happening. I'm into it.
This is also why, I especially love, cheating Luke Junior out of his jedi powers. It's a great twist in the story that the only direct descendent to Luke doesn't get any power at all. And it's a male, father to son, descendent at that. Dating all the way back to "A New Hope" there was always that element of the "baton" being passed from father to son. That theme's even reiterated in the dialog they choose in episode seven. Like Maaz says, "This saber belonged to Luke, and his father before him, now it calls to... " Now, ironically, in episode seven, the traditional father-to-son way-of-inheritance isn't happening.
Traditionally, in a patriarchal society, everything is inherited from father to son. For example, a king's first born son is called, "Crown Prince," because he will inherit "The Crown." So therefore "Luke Junior" is Crown Prince to the Jedi power through Luke. Right? You might also guess, maybe, that Rey will still turn out to be Luke's kid anyway. Like she's Luke's "other" long lost child. Then that would make her Hux's sister. But then Rey would at least be "Crown Princess," to the throne. Right? Not even this is not the case.
Women, traditionally, are left completely out of the mix. The ladies inherit, and get, approximately jack and swat. Property, prestige, don't matter, it's a man's world. This is frequently used as a plot device in Jane Austen's novels. "Property is inherited from father to son, not father to daughter. That tis the law." In the original Star Wars (back in the seventies) it seemed a little sexiest. There's only one lady for all of the films. In the third act Leia's mentioned as part of the family tree but that possibility isn't really explored. Now, in the seventh installment, they're going to explore that chick-jedi possibility through Rey. As far as inheriting force power goes, forget inheriting from father to son, or even, from father to daughter. Now it's gonna from mother to son and mother to daughter. "Take that sexism!"
There are also many other reasons why they are specifically making Rey Ren's long lost little sister. Number one is that the brother-sister relationship mirrors Luke and Leia's relationship. In "Return of the Jedi," Luke loves his father but he also hates him for saying that he'd turn Leia to the darkside. Luke almost kills his father and therefore almost chooses "his hate" for his father over "his love" for his father. And that's Luke's pivotal decision in terms of turning to the darkside. Now, of course, history is repeating itself. Ren loves his father Han but he also hates him for losing Rey. But what decision does Ren make? He does what Luke didn't. He kills the old man.
A lot of the scenarios that were merely mentioned in the old movies are now being played-out in the new movies. Chief-of-which is the fates of Luke and Leia. Like with Luke almost "turning to the dark side" and the possibility of Leia "becoming a Jedi." Now with the new generation we get, Ren and Rey. Their destinies will run along the same path as the previous generation, but these two siblings will complete those journeys. That's why "The Force Awakens" is so reminiscent (or a complete rehash) of the original trilogy, e.g. desert planet, Death Star. It's the same story, but this time-around you get an eye-full of the events as they occur, not just an ear-full potential predicaments.
In the original movies, Leia's interrogatored and/or tortured by Darth Vader two times. But neither of these events are actual shown. In "A New Hope" Darth Vader says after-the-fact that, "Her (Leia's) resistance to the mind probe is impressive." In "Empire" it's implied that Darth Vader tortured Leia, along with Han. It's said that Leia's "in pain" and "made to suffer" like Han was. Either way, it looked like Han's torture affected him a lot more than hers did. Is this because, "the royal family knows the art of mind control?" It's just unclear. Now in the new movie we actual get to see a female protagonist being interrogated by her "evil" long lost relative.
In "Empire" Luke meditates with Yoda. Yoda tells Luke that he'll see, "the future, the past... " Now the movie's new star Jedi gets her own vision, but this time we gets a visual of it as it's going on. When Rey touches the saber we are treated to a mash-up of past and future events as she sees them.
*The novelization of "The Force Awakens" has an interesting detail, in that vision, that's left out in the movie. In Rey's vision there's a scene where, "Rey sees a boy at the end of a hallway. She calls out to the boy with hope, then the boy disappears." That unseen-boy is Rey's brother Ren. (Ben Solo) The scene's cut out of the movie because the appearance a tall, pale, teenage Ren, would be a dead giveaway as to who the-boy is. Ergo, one-of-the, "I am your father" type surprises, they're planning for down the line.*
*Another clipped scene from the novelization is when Chewy tears off the wholesaler arm. This happens when the wholesaler's coming after Rey, in order to "reacquire" her. The wholesaler enslaved Han's daughter for twenty years. We previously were treated to talk of how wookie's tear off arms. Now we finally have a good candidate for that treatment in the wholesaler.*
In "A New Hope" Alderaan's blown up. In "The Force Awaken" all of the Republic planets are blown up too. But this time we see the planet's inhabitants watch as their home explodes before their eyes. It's a beautiful shot, the inhabitants rush to balcony, the sky turns red, the music soars. Seeing all the previously "unseen" action is the "new thing" for the "new movies."
I've mentioned some sexism in the original movies. There's also a little racist too. In "A New Hope" there's no prominent black characters or even non-white humans. And the person in "black" Darth Vader is a bad guy. Even when he's turned good in the end he's shown to be quite pasty and pale. James Earl Jones certainly couldn't be "the man behind the mask" because he's suppose to be the father to Luke and Leia. It's kinda like how they used have white people be the face of black musicians and singers. Lando Calrissian is added to the mix but only after the first movie. And, of course, there were no non-white human jedi in the original movies. But Mace Windu certainly is a prominent jedi in the prequels. But now let's look at the new movies:
There are multiple reason why they made Fin, in particular, black. And it's not just to not be racist. Fin said, "Like the rest of them I taken from a family I'll never know." Like Rey, Fin doesn't know who his family is. It's also been implied that he could be force sensitive. He's shown wielding the Skywalker lightsaber. All of this might mislead the audience into thinking that Fin's a relation. But they already showed him having a little crush on Rey, "Do you have a boyfriend, a cute boyfriend?" Remember in "A New Hope" when they showed some boy having a crush on some girl. Remember how that worked out. Yuck! Now there's big racial warning flag. No incest this time! Good casting choice there J.J. Abrams. Two thumbs up.
Also I wanna say something about hair color and the use of hair dye. Usually in movies, and TV, they try to make families members look alike. They make them the same race. They dye everyone's hair the same color. Notice in episode six when Luke mysteriously goes from being a blonde to a burnette. That's because in the third act George Lucas suddenly decided, "Okay, so... you two are related as well as." Now Domhnall Gleeson is a redheaded actor playing General Hux, who I heavily contend is Luke Junior. Gleeson has a very light-colored complexion. This makes him looks reminiscent of Luke in "A New Hope." Also Gleeson has a boyish, handsome-ish, face. (Maybe a bit of a cleft chin going on there.) All of this, again, points him towards being son-of-Luke. Also he's young with pale skin, freckles, strawberry blonde hair. (I guess Mrs. Skywalker's a redhead like Mara Jade in the "Expanded Universe.") But wait... bad guys are usually old, or older, to make them look more sinister. Also their coloring tends to run on the darkside. Tarkin looks like Dracula. The Emperor's ghoulish looking. Since when do they make prominent "bad guys" be youthful, and glow-in-the-dark, like Gleeson. I know when. Since they make them be Luke Junior in disguise.
Now the ages of the actors is also very telling too. Both Adam Driver, and Domhnall Gleeson, were born in 1983. The actors are literally within six months of age of each other. That's because they're suppose to be cousins who grow up competitively close in age. Another possibility is that these two are fraternal twins. This is not the case either. They're made to look way too dissimilar. Driver has dark hair with strong features. (In fact it's been noted that Driver looks a little too dissimilar from all the people he's supposedly related to.) On the other hand, Bright and boyish, Gleeson almost lights up the night with his own complexion. Sort of how Luke's hair in "A New Hope" practically eclipsed the sun with it's brightness. And the whole image of Luke was originally designed to look and feel quite boyish. Plus denying the "Crown Prince" his powers is way too good a story. It triangles all the cousins in a interesting web of betrayal and despair.
Now let's look at Daisy Ridley's age. Now this young lass was born in 1992. She's almost a good ten years younger than the boys. This certainly explains why she doesn't know who she is or where she's from. In episode seven she looks about three when she's separated from her family, via a brief flashback scene. This would put the boys at about thirteen at the time of the flashback. This is when the families break up. Luke's pupils turned into "The Knights of Ren." Thirteen is also a great puberty age when you're prone to some bad decision making. Perhaps Ben Solo's jedi skills were just beginning to become really impressive. Maybe pubescent Ben was starting to give Uncle Luke a run for his money while dueling.
The aforementioned reasons tell me that Ren and Hux are cousins. But the list really goes on and on. Look at Ren and Hux at Snoke's feet during those conference calls. In "Empire" Darth Vader conference calls Palpatine. So Sith master and apprentice certainly have their little meetings. But wait... what the hell is Hux doing there? He doesn't have the force! And Hux doesn't pull a Tarkin and die at the end of the first movie. This is prominent ongoing character that is in-on all the "Sith meetings." At one point Snoke and Ren start talking about an awakening in the force. This awakening happens when Rey takes off in her father's spaceship. When the conversions becomes about "the awakening" Hux turns on his heel and leaves the room. Nothing is "awakening" in with this character.
I've also mentioned the feuding relationship between the cousins. It's collaborative, yet contentious. Han Junior and Luke Junior don't see eye to eye on many an issue. Even when Ren gets the info out of Poe, Hux acts super pissed. But why? Ren did his job well and got you the info you needed. Is Luke Junior having a little "lightsaber envy?"
It's well known that George Lucas wrote story treatments for episodes seven through nine. These story treatments were rejected. (I'm sure for good reason, e.g. "The Prequels.") But still it'd be nice to take a look at these treatments. Very little is known about. We're told that they involved younger characters. The original Star Wars trio is now quite elderly. So aging up their descendants makes sense. The original story treatments were said to be more family centric. We're told that they kept it family centric but decided to make the characters more fallible. This specifically refers to them making both Han Junior, and Luke Junior, bad guys. Even the one good little girl is lost out in space.
Gleeson and Driver are in their early thirties. Even at this age they're still very young to be playing prominent bad guys. Like they're both shown standing at Snoke's feet. In that position, the young cousins seem to look like Snoke's minion disciples. As we all know women are always cast younger. So, of course, Vader's only granddaughter was made to be much younger than the boys. Also Rey's also naive, neglected, and a prize to be had by everyone. Perfect.
I've already given a laundry list of reasons as to why Rey and Ren are brother and sister. But here's another. It's been long since suspected that Leia's major contribution to the force would be contributing her jedi eggs to Han's sperm... and does she ever. She double downs and produces two major characters. In the "Expanded Universe" Han and Leia have a boy and a girl. The boy turns bad and the girl turns good. The siblings duel in the end to determine the fate of the galaxy. It's assumed this might be what'll happens in episode nine. I heard how things went down in E.U., in the end. I liked it. It seemed a good way to end the story. It summed up the fates of the family members in a Shakespearean-tragedy type way. It's very "House of Usher." I wondered, "How did Han Junior turn evil? Does H.J. feel torn between being evil and killing his own sister and vice versa with the girl. But no. The whole thing blows. H.J. turns evil because he gets horribly, endlessly, tortured. Then when brother and sister do duel, they just endlessly bass each other up until the good girl kills the bad boy. Snooze...
Where they're taking the story in the movies is much better than E.U. E.U. is zillions of books detailing every year of the next generation's lives. The new trilogy is leaping ahead a generation, just as the prequels did. And, like before, it's now a guessing game as to who's related to who. It's also pivotal to the story as to who inherits the family force power and destiny and who doesn't, e.g. Luke Junior.
*In E.U. there's one amusing detail I'd like to note. It's when Leia's pregnant with the twins. That's when she's having the boy/girl twins Jacen, and Jaina, Solo. Later Jacen Solo turns into Darth Caedus. And then, in the end, his twin sister Jaina kills him. While pregnant with the kids Leia's heard pondering, "Wait... if I have kids won't they turn to the darkside." It's like: Why does this keep happening?! I guess Han shoulda used some space condoms while banging the Skywalker chick. But I guess force destiny woulda made them break anyway.*
In episodes seven through nine, H.J./Ren turns evil because he's upset that Han loses Rey. In the movies, not the E.U., a character turns evil for personal emotional reasons. Like they're upset about losing a loved one and/or they want the dark power to save a loved one. This is true of the original movies. It's true of the prequels. And it's now also true of the new movies. Except Hux turns evil for force-envy reasons.
Now all the main characters have their own background motivations as for why they do what they do. This will have a fun effect on how the story plays out. Hux has already bitched that Ren might choose his family loyalty over Snoke's orders. Hux has also bitched about how Ren's chasing Rey rather than following the mission. Hux is like the bad guy's bad guy. He set all these terrible events into motion, to manipulate Ren. Unlike Ren, Hux doesn't feel torn between family loyalty and evilness. Because he's just super pissed about not getting the force. It's like Luke Junior here has the opposite motivations that his cousin Rey does. Like how Rey initially resisted her own force destiny, and only cared about her family. And Ren only cares about losing Rey. So pretty much everyone in the new generation isn't getting what they want.
I have many predictions about the upcoming movies. Like how LUKE MUST DIE in episode 8. Luke won't want to train Rey on that island. (Because all of Luke's previous training-attempts ended so tragically.) But Luke won't have a choice because Ren's hunting down Rey. (Like how Vader hunted down Luke in "Empire.") Whether Luke helps, or not, this sibling duel's going down, eventually. Luke will try to protect Rey by dueling Ren himself. It'll be like in "Highlander" with Sean Connery. 007 was all like, "You're too late I already trained him." And then 007 got his sword half way through the bad guy's neck. Rey will get to watch Ren kill her uncle, and new mentor, Luke. But, in the process, Luke will slice Ren nearly in half. Ren'll lose part of his face, ear, arm, shoulder and part of his hip and leg.
The truth about Rey's, and Hux's, true parentage won't be discovered until episode 9. That's because the whole camouflage covering both secrets lies in the misleading ploy of, "Luke being Rey's father." Also, in episode 9, force ghost Luke will encourage Rey to forgive Ren, but that's the last thing she'll wanna do. In episode 9 Ren will walk with an affected gate. Like he'll be staggering after Rey, still trying to make her his apprentice. Luke Senior and Luke Junior will have to like "a moment" between to two of them. That's where Skywalker father and son will be reunited and will resolve their issues. This will wrap things up and give emotionally closure to the Skywalker clan. But Luke Senior will be dead at this point, and Luke Junior doesn't have the force, so he can't see his father's force ghost. So Cousin Ren, and/or Rey, will have to translate like Whoopie Goldberg in the movie "Ghost." Or maybe Luke Junior will finally see his father's force ghost. Like Ren and Rey will both hold Hux's hands enabling him to see his force ghost father, Luke Senior. This will then motivate Luke Junior to sacrifice himself and to, therefore, redeem himself. Han Junior will redeem himself and live. Luke Junior will redeem himself and die. Anyway their fates have to be intertwined, in some way, where only the "cool bad guy" survives. Them's the rules. In fact I'm gonna totally go with the whole "cousins holding hands" ending. That's how "Guardians of the Galaxy" ended. And that's also how, I believe, "Care Bears" the movie ended. In "Care Bears" the movie 1 through 10 anyway. That way "Star Wars" can have an ending just dripping with forgiveness and just gushing heart-warming goodness.
Now in episodes 10, 11 and 12 the next, upcoming, generation will be young teenagers like in George Lucas's original story treatments. That way they can still use the actors from episodes 7, 8 and 9 without the need to age them up too much. Disney will take a few years off between trilogies. Rey, Poe, Fin and Ren will all be coming back. Han, Luke and Leia will be put out to pasture by then. Well Luke, and possibly Leia, could come back as force ghosts, but the focus will simply be off them at that point. Though, what happens with Ren, at the end of episode 9, will be a real question mark. I just don't see the formerly-evil Ren, metaphorically, dancing around an ewok campfire with "The Resistance" survivors. You know, like him being all reunited with his "remaining" family members and sworn enemies. Probably at the end of episode 9 Ren will simply walks off "Incredibly Hulk" style into the distance. Then in episode 10 through 12 he'll then be seen across enemy lines, in someway. Or he'll be working as an independent party, that's separate from either "the-goodies" or "the-baddies" at that point. Like Ren will probably pop out of nowhere when "the-goodies" are in distress and need him the most.