How I grew to love Rey “Palpatine”
It’s been more than a year since the release of a very controversial movie called The Rise of Skywalker. Just like a lot of other fans, my relationship with this episode was complicated, mostly because of the narratives choice made towards my favorite character of the franchise: Rey. I never made theories about her origins, so The Last Jedi brought a very interesting answer to me: She was not born in any famous bloodline. She was simply Rey and I thought the mystery ended there. But as Kylo Ren once said: “You don’t know the whole story.”
I had such a hard time accepting the idea of Rey being a Palpatine by blood. When the reveal happened, I understood how the fans who didn’t like the fact Luke tossed the lightsaber away felt. I could imagine someone tossing the lightsaber away in the moment Ren tells she was only powerful in the Force because of an evil guy. I still rooted for her during the climax, but it was just not the same thing: It was not my character anymore.
So I fell. This bothered me more than the guy complaining next to me throughout the whole film (And he bothered me a lot). When The Duel of Fates script leaked and Rey was still someone who didn’t descend from a famous character, I ragefully cried. Because not only I was missing the character, I was missing a last third of her story I could accept.
The negative feelings were consuming me, like they do with everyone who chooses the dark side. I knew what I had to do, but I didn’t know if I had the strength to do it: I had to rewatch the movie. So I did and then I did it again and again. By my fourth rewatch, I was ready to do what a Jedi does: Let go. I let go of the ideas I had. I unlearned what I have learned and gained a new perspective towards Rey.
First, I questioned myself why did I like the “Nobody” answer. It couldn’t be just because she is not related to a hero or villain, could it? I chose to look deeper and I realized what made this decision was not simply not be related to A or B, but the fact it highlighted Reys parents, the people she had been waiting for 13 years of her life, as bad and indifferent people. This is the real reason why it was special.
Once I figured out why I truly loved it, I moved on to the next question: Would it work on The Rise of Skywalker? The answer was both yes and no. You could argue the movie wouldn’t change with she was not a Palpatine (We know they made her one during the reshoots) but I beg to differ. I do believe Abrams and Terrio realized if her parents were good people and the Emperor was just a dude who ruined her childhood, they would erase an entire relevant narrative about abandonment and replace for nothing.
How they solved this issue was particularly brilliant to me: They transformed a story about abandonment into a story about how relatives tries to rule your life. What others sees as retcon, I see now as guilt’s transference from two blood relatives to just one. In the end, from a certain point of view, it is still someone related to Rey who ruins her life and this is completely fine to me. The narrative about escaping from a toxic family is as relevant as the previous one.
It kind of bothers me when I hear Rey defeating Palpatine was just a fight without any kind of meaning. There was meaning. What we’ve witnessed was not just a hero beating the villain, but a young woman rejecting her blood family, becoming untouchable to him through her choice and heart that lies beyond what he had planned for her. This is how I’ve been seeing since I let go of my preconceptions.
The Rise of Skywalker might not be a masterpiece, but it has a valuable message if you just stop focusing at the absence or the presence of bloodlines. They don’t matter. The challenge behind those answers is what truly matters and I believe Rey truly overcame them all. It doesn’t matter if she inherited power or not from someone, what really mattered was her choice: The choice to be a good person, to become a Jedi, to find her new family and to honor her mentors, who guided her. As Kanan Jarrus once said: “In the heart of a Jedi lis her strength.” Rey’s heart is her true strength.