Musings about the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy and Concepts from Various Anime and Manga

(Things that probably won't happen but are fun to write about—I need to practice writing anyway. It gets crackier and crackier with each chapter.)

Rey is Literally Nobody

Were you disappointed when Rey's past wasn't elaborated upon in the movie The Last Jedi? A lot of people said that making Rey's parents nobodies was the film makers' way of reminding us that the Force didn't just reside in the Skywalkers. However, what if there was another way to explain this?

What if Rey was created by the Force in that moment when Ben attacks Luke in the Jedi Temple, signaling his turn to the Dark Side? The Force places her in Jakku, creates a wonky background story and memories for her and bides its time in awakening within her when the conditions are right. Cue in the story of Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Rey stitches the threads of Leia, Han and Ben Solo's stories back together. Cue in the story of Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. She paints Luke Skywalker back into the big picture that he tried to erase himself out of. She grows closer and closer to Kylo Ren, prompting him to re-evaluate his life choices and become more "Ben-like." All of these events happen and for what reason? Rey is actually Ben Solo. She is the embodiment of all the things Ben had to cut from himself in order to become Kylo Ren. From the point where she sprang into existence up to when the Force woke up in her, she grew and developed her own personality but she is Ben Solo, too. This can explain why Leia and Han seem to treat her like a daughter and why Luke sees the same raw power in her and Ben. Rey was created by the Force so that when the time was right, Ben Solo could be redeemed. Episode IX will be a story of redemption. We will be seeing how Rey will merge back into Ben Solo. This kind of resolution will answer how the members of the Resistance can accept Ben in spite of all of the atrocities Kylo Ren did. They will be able to do that because Rey lives in him.

Now before you all start castigating me for this silliness, this idea isn't really new. It's been done by CLAMP in their related material XXXholic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. My memory is faulty because I was not really a fan of the cartoons and comics but the basic story is that there's this witch with the ability to grant people wishes as long as those people agree to pay the witch's steep price. One day, someone made a very complicated wish with far-reaching, multi-dimension changing consequences. One of those consequences was the springing into existence of a character named Watanuki to fill in the gap caused by the disappearance of another character called Tsubasa from his dimension. Watanuki has parents and a past but these things fall apart when held up to close scrutiny. In the end, we find out that Watanuki and Tsubasa, though with different personalities, are the same person. One has to be erased in order for the other to survive. So for them to both go on living, Watanuki has to stay put in a place where time is meaningless while Tsubasa has to continually travel through various dimensions, never settling down anywhere. Since I am bound to make mistakes in my recollection of their story, and have probably made a mistake somewhere in my statements above, I won't say anything anymore. It was their story made me wonder, "What if Rey was sort of like Watanuki?"

Anyway, the chances of what I had just written in the first paragraph happening in Episode IX seem to be very low. Like what Han said, "That's not how the Force works!" It was fun to write this, though. Initially I was thinking of an ending similar to that of XXXholic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle where both Ben and Rey will be allowed to exist but one would have to be trapped in a place where time doesn't flow while the other has to continually travel but that kind of conclusion would be so problematic. So in the end, the idea I got from those anime and manga was Rey having been created out of nowhere to fill in the gap from Ben Solo's disappearance and Kylo Ren's rising.