Wolfsburg
Master Member
I genuinely think a major part of the problem with TROS was that JJ was trying to squeeze his vision of Ep 8 and 9 into one movie after RJ went totally off the rails with his Ep 8 and seemed to forget his movie was supposed to be just one part of a whole. He totally ignored or subverted a great many of the threads that had been started with the first movie. And coupled with Carrie Fisher’s untimely death, the odds were stacked against TROS being anything more than adquate at best. It was just hobbled from the start.
As for Rey, in my mind there was a way to have their cake and eat it too. She could still be a nobody with no famous pedigree but still have something odd going on with her.
Wasn’t Jakku established as the home of a secret Imperial facility in one of the books? Why not make Rey be the last remnant of a biological Force-sensitive experiment instigated by the Empire? Not necessarily a clone of any one indivdual but one of many girls genetically engineered from the ground up and grown in a test tube to do the Empire’s bidding. Think an army of Mara Jades. All identical and all dangerous. Engineered from the ground up to be an elite and efficient cadre of Force users to do the Empire’s will. Upon the Empire’s collapse, the girls were exterminated but one survived through whatever means. Maybe a sympathetic engineer managed to smuggle her out but was later killed. Or maybe they had to leave her behind. I dunno. Rey’s visions of being abandoned by her parents could either be false or otherwise explained away as not what it seemed.
It would give more weight to Kylo Ren’s dismay in the first movie when he receives the report of a girl escaping in the Falcon (“what girl?!”). To me it always seemed like there was more there to that line. Maybe the FO knew one of the girls was unaccounted for. It would also make Rey’s vision in TLJ where she’s in the “hall of mirrors” with dozens of other Reys have a deeper meaning along with when she looks to see her parents in the glass or whatever it was, she only sees herself (because there literally are no parents).
Anyway, this all would be the big reveal to Rey, that to her horror, she was simply a biological weapon designed by the Empire years ago, with no heritage and no family, and it would explain her uncanny abilities. It would’ve made her unusual and noteworthy without having her related to anyone famous. Perhaps still cheesy but still better than the notion she’s Palpatine’s grand daughter imo.
As for Rey, in my mind there was a way to have their cake and eat it too. She could still be a nobody with no famous pedigree but still have something odd going on with her.
Wasn’t Jakku established as the home of a secret Imperial facility in one of the books? Why not make Rey be the last remnant of a biological Force-sensitive experiment instigated by the Empire? Not necessarily a clone of any one indivdual but one of many girls genetically engineered from the ground up and grown in a test tube to do the Empire’s bidding. Think an army of Mara Jades. All identical and all dangerous. Engineered from the ground up to be an elite and efficient cadre of Force users to do the Empire’s will. Upon the Empire’s collapse, the girls were exterminated but one survived through whatever means. Maybe a sympathetic engineer managed to smuggle her out but was later killed. Or maybe they had to leave her behind. I dunno. Rey’s visions of being abandoned by her parents could either be false or otherwise explained away as not what it seemed.
It would give more weight to Kylo Ren’s dismay in the first movie when he receives the report of a girl escaping in the Falcon (“what girl?!”). To me it always seemed like there was more there to that line. Maybe the FO knew one of the girls was unaccounted for. It would also make Rey’s vision in TLJ where she’s in the “hall of mirrors” with dozens of other Reys have a deeper meaning along with when she looks to see her parents in the glass or whatever it was, she only sees herself (because there literally are no parents).
Anyway, this all would be the big reveal to Rey, that to her horror, she was simply a biological weapon designed by the Empire years ago, with no heritage and no family, and it would explain her uncanny abilities. It would’ve made her unusual and noteworthy without having her related to anyone famous. Perhaps still cheesy but still better than the notion she’s Palpatine’s grand daughter imo.
