The Force Continues To Awaken: Rey Kenobi? Skywalker? Solo? Debate Over Who Rey’s Father Is Continues To Rage

As the 2015 holiday movie season slides to a screeching halt, like the Millennium Falcon toward an icy cliff, it’s time to push those New Year’s resolutions aside and get back to some things that are really important, like continuing to speculate and theorize who Rey’s parents are, and how did she come to be the center of the Star Wars universe as the force awakened?

As if The Force Awakens should still require SPOILER ALERTS, but if you have yet to see the stunning, breathtaking, cinematic happening of the millennium, featuring Rey, the most stunning female protagonist since Clarice Starling or Mary Poppins, you may wish to read no further.

That said, since The Force Awakens opened, the subject of who Rey is and who Rey’s parents and/or father are have been questions subject to heated debate.

Now with a few weeks for the Rey-debate to percolate, with details of Rey’s The Force Awakens interactions with General Leia, Han Solo, Maz Kanata, Luke’s lightsaber, R2-D2, and ultimately Luke Skywalker himself, being closely examined and interpreted, the question of who Rey’s mother and father actually are has emerged with some leading conclusions.

While the question of who is Rey’s father obviously won’t be definitively answered until a future Star Wars episode, if it were a horse race, the consensus currently seems to be Luke Skywalker leading down the backstretch, closely followed by Han Solo, with Obi Wan Kenobi, contending as Rey’s grandfather, making a strong break around the outside.

Luke Skywalker being Rey’s father seems the obvious choice for many, with several parallels between Rey and Luke, but could Luke really be Rey’s dad? And why would Luke ditch daughter Rey on some backwater desert planet where she’s obviously going to struggle for survival while he, a failed jedi and now father, goes and sulks alone on a faraway island of some other planet?

Well, evidence pointing to Luke being Rey’s father revolves around a few things.

For instance, when Rey finds Luke’s lightsaber, so states the Luke-is-Rey’s-father theory, it “speaks out to her.” Also, while searching Rey’s mind/torturing her, Kylo Ren sees thoughts of an island which end up very much reflecting the one where Luke is ultimately found to reside. This island is also where Rey presents the lightsaber to Luke, her possible father. Finally, R2-D2 suddenly popping to life when Rey arrives at the resistance base makes Rey being a Skywalker, with Luke as father, almost a no-brainer for many.

However, another parallel between Rey and Luke that some argue points more toward Luke being Rey’s uncle rather than her dad, include Rey’s conversation with Maz Kanata, while Rey is still in the throes of the horrific visions/memories she experiences after finding Luke’s lightsaber.

“Dear child, I see your eyes; you already know the truth. Whomever you’re waiting for on Jakku, they’re never coming back,” Maz says to Rey. “But there’s someone who still could.”

“Luke,” Rey replies.

“The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead,” says Maz. “I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes… feel it. The light… it’s always been there, it will guide you. The saber, take it.”

Rey, of course, runs off at this point, saying she wants no part of the lightsaber, the Force, Luke as father, or the whole situation. But what is clear is that certainly no parents, or father specifically, are coming back for Rey on Jakku, just maybe “someone/Luke.” In fact, there’s nothing left for Rey back on Jakku, the place where she keeps saying she must return. Interestingly, this is how it was for young (perhaps uncle) Luke, who had no reason to return to his own desert planet of Tatooine, where his Uncle and Aunt were killed and burned by Stormtroopers.

Are Han Solo and General Leia Rey’s long lost folks? The mother and father who left young Rey as a desert orphan?

Sure doesn’t seem like it, if flickers of familiarity are to be a guide, neither Han nor Leia throwing their arms wide when first meeting Rey and screaming, “Oh, Sweetie, we missed you!”

But more subtle evidence than Rey hollering “Father, father!” has been cited, however, that might support Rey being the offspring of Leia with Han as father.

After all, Rey seems inexplicably familiar with the Millennium Falcon and could very easily be a chip off the old block of Han Solo. Mix in a little bit of Leia’s powers of the Force and voila: Rey! Kylo Ren also teases Rey that Han is the father she never had, and in the end, after Han Solo is killed, Leia walks right past Chewbacca to hug Rey. Wouldn’t she have stopped to console Chewy, Han’s longtime BFF, first? Not if she was Rey’s long lost mom and knew Rey just lost her father, contend some.

But Rey being an offshoot of a so-far-unseen Obi-Wan Kenobi family also has its supporters. In fact, despite being a dark horse, some of the most compelling arguments support Rey being a descendant of Obi-Wan.

For instance Obi-Wan’s voice speaks to Rey when she initially freaks out after finding Luke’s lightsaber, Rey has Kenobi’s accent, she climbs around the Starkiller to sabotage it just like Obi-Wan did on the Deathstar, and many say her lightsaber fighting style mirrors that of Kenobi.

But could Rey really be a Kenobi? The presentation below provides more compelling evidence.

Among the other theories of who Rey is and where she came from is that she’s Anakin Skywalker reincarnated, though this idea has been shot down because Anakin of course appeared as a happy ghost, along with Obi-Wan and Yoda, at the end of Return of the Jedi, confirming he was all good with the Force and had no need for further redemption by reincarnating as Rey.

In the end, the answer to who Rey’s parents are for sure will have to wait to be revealed in a future Star Wars movie. But whoever they are, they better have a darn good reason for leaving such a lovely and talented kid such as Rey behind on an old desert rock.

[Images, Aaron Lim, Catwalker, via Shutterstock]