Warning: Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers Ahead!
It was one of the major questions we were left with at the end of The Force Awakens: just who are the parents of Rey?
There were fan theories ranging from the believable to down-right bizarre, but now we have the conclusive answer to the question plaguing both Rey and us fans.
We thought Rey could have been a Kenobi, a Skywalker or even a Solo, but it turns out the real answer is actually even better.
Seriously, if you’re still reading this and you haven’t seen The Last Jedi, high thee to your nearest cinema and get it in your eye holes.
In one of the better moments of the film, Rey and Kylo discuss just who actually left Rey on Jakku without a word, and it gave rise to a lovely thematic moment.
Kylo’s sneering revelation about the fact that Rey’s parents were nobodies who probably sold her off for drinking money is the perfect double bluff which plays on the expectations of the audience.
The initial feeling of disappointment that Rey is in fact not a Kenobi is very very swiftly replaced with the admiration of the moment and the realisation of just what it means for the Star Wars universe.
It proves anyone can be a Jedi, and the power of the force is not only reserved for those whose lineage gives them that power.
It’s a theme which is revisited at the end of the film, when the young stable boy uses the force to pick up his little broom before he looks to the sky,
The Star Wars universe is genuinely huge, and it has always felt a little odd that everything of consequence which happened in that universe centred around the Skywalker family.
George Lucas was never afraid to say the saga was the story of the Skywalker family, but the new possibilities which this revelation affords the universe are hard to ignore.
The whole revelation serves as the perfect example of just how much The Last Jedi moves the universe forward, both in terms of story and in terms of wider thematics within the series.
Rey embodies the future, she is a walking example of where the franchise is going, and at the same time, she takes Star Wars back to its roots.
She refuses to accept Kylo’s invitation to let the past die, but she still has a lot of freedom to move forward as a character in the final film, and for that reason, the revelation of Rey’s Star Wars lineage is the defining moment of The Last Jedi, and it’s perfect.
