Every Star Wars movie is special, but even though most fans prefer the original trilogy, the latest talk has mostly been around the sequels from Disney. With the latest movie being released just at the end of 2019, the nine-movie-long saga finally had its conclusion.
The Rise of Skywalker had both surprising and predictable moments, but by far the most awaited one was the reveal of Rey’s parentage. Here are 5 Reasons Why The Answer To Rey’s Bloodline Makes Sense (& 5 Why It Doesn’t).
Doesn’t Make Sense: Palpatine Is Still Alive
Let’s address the elephant in the room: how did Palpatine survive? Why is he still alive? It makes absolutely no sense considering that he fell down the shaft and then the Death Star was destroyed completely, so there was no chance he could have survived after so many injuries and an explosion.
We didn’t get an explanation for this in the latest movie and there is little hope we will get this question answered. The only reason why Rey was born – if you consider her age and Luke’s and Leia’s ages – is because he is alive. If he had conceived her before his fall, she would have been much older by now, so she should have been born after he was defeated.
Makes Sense: Rey Skywalker
At the end of The Rise of Skywalker, a woman on Tatooine asks Rey for her name and she replies that she is Rey Skywalker. Of course, this is not her actual last name and she is supposed to be Rey Palpatine, but the heroine decides to claim the Skywalker name as her own.
This seems logical because of how close she was to her two mentors who had that last name. Besides, one of the themes of the trilogy is Rey becoming who she wants rather than following in the footsteps of her parents, which is why she decides to forget her “evil” connection to Palpatine and tie her fate with the “good” name of the Skywalkers.
Doesn’t Make Sense: Mystery Box
That being said, one of the biggest problems of Disney’s Star Wars trilogy is the fact that it didn’t have smooth continuity. J.J. Abrams is notorious for including the so-called mystery boxes in his films, which is exactly what he did in The Force Awakens with Rey’s parents.
However, the issue was not that it was a mystery, but that Abrams himself didn’t know the answer to this question. This is why it felt so awkward when Rey Palpatine was confirmed and we found out that Rey’s father is the infamous Sith… who is also apparently alive.
Makes Sense: Rey and Kylo Are Related
Remember that Reylo kiss at the end of the movie? Well, Rey and Kylo are actually related which makes this incest. Kylo’s great-grandfather is Rey’s grandfather, which makes them related (maybe not by blood, but definitely by the dark side of the Force).
Nevertheless, every fan will probably remember the infamous kiss between Luke and Leia way back before they knew that they were, in fact, twins. It might be a coincidence, but it’s probably safe to say now that Star Wars does not shy away from incest, so the Reylo kiss kind of makes sense.
Doesn’t Make Sense: It’s A Headcanon
A headcanon is the way fans interpret certain aspects of a piece of entertainment such as the backstory of the character, the character’s relationships with other characters, their habits, and so on. Technically, fan theories fall into the category of headcanons until they are confirmed as canon.
Logically, Rey Palpatine – which was initially a fan theory – was a headcanon before it was confirmed in the last movie. It’s not necessarily bad that it was first something fans thought about, but it comes across as a cheap way to appease both regular viewers and hardcore fans.
Makes Sense: It’s The Ultimate Plan
Just like the arguments that Abrams didn’t know the answer to this question and that it was a headcanon initially, there is also the argument that revealing Rey’s parentage this way was the ultimate plan that the big bosses at Disney had from the very beginning.
It’s a slim and unlikely possibility, but there is still a chance that this was the course they were heading for from the start. After all, the showrunners of Game of Thrones did know Jon’s parentage from the beginning and knew that they wanted to kill off Daenerys.
Doesn’t Make Sense: Snoke Wants To Kill Rey
If we return to the point about the absence of continuity in the sequel trilogy, we will notice that one of the biggest problems it creates is the absence of logic in the actions of some characters. For example, why does Snoke want to kill Rey if he a subordinate of Palpatine?
Of course, Palpatine wants to kill Rey afterward too, but that happens only once he realizes that she has completely joined the light side instead of the dark side as he wanted her to. He could have at least ordered Snoke to bring her to him so he could use her power to restore his well-being before killing her.
Makes Sense: Palpatine Needs A Successor
Directly related to the previous point, it would make sense that Palpatine would eventually want a successor for himself. This means he would probably try finding one again after Anakin had betrayed him. This would, in turn, lead him to conceive Rey.
Undoubtedly, Palpatine would want to live for as long as it was humanly and inhumanly possible, but he would also die someday, so a loyal and dedicated successor with the powers the dark side gives him or her would be perfect for the role of a new emperor.
Doesn’t Make Sense: It’s Lazy Writing
One of the biggest arguments against this reveal you probably already saw on the Internet is that it’s simply lazy writing. As mentioned before, Rey Palpatine was initially just a fan theory which became canon despite being an obvious solution to an extent.
This was a thought-out move which was a part of the plan that had to appease fans as its main aim. The result was that neither the fans nor the critics liked the numerous explanations The Rise of Skywalker provided and the questions it answered so awkwardly that you wanted to forget it as quickly as possible.
Makes Sense: It’s Kind of Canon
This will sound controversial, but the Rey Palpatine headcanon… is kind of canon. You might have heard that the numerous Star Wars comics have been recently declared as no longer canon, but sequels actually took many story elements from these same de-canonized comics.
One of such is the story of how Palpatine used the Force to conceive Anakin Skywalker. What prevented him from doing the same thing with Rey’s mother after he recovered from his defeat a little bit? If this is the path he took, then it makes perfect sense how and why he is Rey’s father.
