Dork Side of the Force
Fansided

Star Wars VIII: The shared fate of Rey’s parentage and Kylo Ren’s allegiances

By Jacob Chatfield

facebooktwitterreddit

Rey’s parentage and Kylo Ren’s destiny seem like they wouldn’t be dependent on each other. But after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, one reveal could prophesize the direction of the other.

One of the bigger revelations from Star Wars: The Last Jedi was that, according to Kylo Ren, Rey’s parents were “nobodies”. They were low-lives that abandoned her on Jakku for more drinking money. Kylo claims to know as much from a vision he had.

But Rey had a vision, too. While Kylo’s was about the past, Rey’s vision was about the future. Rey saw Kylo turning on the First Order and to the light side of the force.

These visions apparently happened simultaneously. Rey’s was about Kylo and Kylo’s about Rey. So it isn’t unreasonable to assign both visions the same level of credibility on the surface. But as pesky prophecies in fiction tend to be, there’s likely more to it than that.

More from Dork Side of the Force

Kylo could’ve been lying

Kylo’s vision of his and Rey’s actions after defeating Snoke and his guards were immediately different from Rey’s. Maybe he thought tearing Rey down by fulfilling her worst fears would convince her to abandon the rebellion and establish a new regime by using a galactic form of negging.

Or maybe Kylo saw something else entirely. His vision could have showed him that Rey’s parents were actually Jedi themselves, which might further push Rey to the rebel cause. If Kylo did see that, he would know telling her that would serve against his interests of getting Rey to join his newfound mission.

But for now, it’s probably safer to assume Kylo’s vision was what he said it was until Episode IX has a chance to contradict it.

Rey may have already seen her vision in reality

This is the more plausible interpretation to me, given how the sequence unfolds. First, Rey tells Kylo in the elevator she saw him turn to the light side. In the next scene, Kylo kills Snoke. That could’ve been where Rey’s vision begun and ended. After all, she clearly expected Kylo to be invested in the rebel cause after slaying Snoke.

Next: 5 Star Wars characters improved by TV shows, books, and comics

From there, assuming the prophecy Rey saw has just been fulfilled, Kylo’s vision has all the credibility in the world. And he said he saw Rey’s parents were “nobodies”.

Obviously, this would mean Rey’s vision was broken. Kylo didn’t kill Snoke to help the rebels; he did to create his own empire. But Star Wars has had broken or misleading prophecies before. Anakin alone played into two misleading prophecies; he was the chosen one, but he ended up bringing balance to the force by betraying the Jedi. He saw a prophecy that Padme would die from giving birth, but it was his anger that killed Padme.

We may never hear more about Rey’s parentage and we might not see Kylo turn to the light side. But now, those two revelations are connected and if we see one, we may know more about the other.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is currently streaming on Netflix.

Home/Editorial