Why are Some Fans So Fixated on Rey Skywalker?

We talk about Rey Skywalker all the time, and sometimes we even start to wonder why some fans are so fixated on the idea of Rey being related to the Skywalker line despite all the information that is now out there debunking various Reylation theories:

"I think the amazing thing about [Episode VII] is that Finn and Rey don’t come from anywhere, and they find a place. So to me, it’s funny that people think it’s so important because I don’t really think it is.” - Daisy Ridley on Rey's parents

"Rey's parents are not in Episode VII." - JJ Abrams. Followed-up by obvious damage-control.

"None of the kids - the heroes - are Skywalkers or Solos." - MSW













+ Much, much, MUCH more. Many of us see that Rey Skywalker has been debunked by various production members since the film's release, but there still seems to be an interest in Rey being a Skywalker regardless of how much evidence points to the contrary. It begs the question: will believers ever not believe, or will it take VIII and IX to really change their minds? Why do fans care so much about Rey being related to Luke Skywalker?

I think I'll move my post from the other thread here, just because:

I think Reywalker persists because accepting the alternative would mean accepting:

(a) That this isn't a story about a woman as a carrier of a male legacy and a male bloodline. Instead, the story quite likely takes a traditionally feminine type of story - a female-centric romance, where the heroine triumphs in the end and is united to the male of her choice (often a "legacy" male of some kind - a prince, an earl, or some rich industrialist's son, whatever) - and subverts its tropes. Or at least, I thought TFA did a pretty good job of subverting romance tropes but still using them effectively enough to make a large number of us utterly obsessed, and I hope that continues to be the case.

The crux of the matter: the heroine is rewarded with true love. That means she ultimately gets what she wants and needs. This type of story isn't about a patriarch getting the perfect daughter he deserves, or the nicest of nice guys getting the perfect bride of his dreams. It's about the girl herself getting a love story that's larger than life in some way. The heroine's romance is there mainly for the female audience's enjoyment, and that's what galls.

Which is not to say that this is all the ST and the Force plot would be about, of course: far from it. Just that the heroine's relation to the Skywalkers would be a story told on the female audience's terms. And it only galls if you're unaccustomed or unwilling to read/watch stories told from a female point of view. I might add that most female readers/viewers are perfectly capable of enjoying stories of male heroes getting what they want and need, but males are generally less willing to read about female characters; studies have shown this time and again.

Reywalker lives because a female central character would be "allowed" as long as the story itself isn't female-centric and/or geared towards female interests and female fantasies. (Jyn Erso seems to be a perfect female central character in this regard: from the looks of it, she just happens to be a central female in an otherwise overwhelmingly masculine story.) Reylo gets contemptuosly compared to the likes of Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey not because the plots and characters actually have anything in common, but because the people making the comparison recognise the genre and the female-centricism of Reylo, that makes them uneasy, and they spit out the least flattering comparison they can think of.

(b) That Kylo is the real male lead.

Really, (b) follows from (a). Not only is Kylo the Skywalker in a Skywalker saga, but if he's the main heroine's love interest in a story that's modelled on a female-centric romance, that makes him automatically the most important man in the story. That doesn't mean the other men in the story are unimportant, but really: from (a) it follows that the heroine's developing desires drive the story, and the object of those desires is the mystery to be solved, the problem to be resolved. Can't have that, can we.

Of course, people have different reasons for objecting to (b). Many just hate Kylo's guts for killing Han, and especially on Tumblr there seems to be a baffling number of young people who don't want any shades of grey in their fictional characters; either they're perfect cinnamon rolls or totally evil, nothing in between. I'm sure there are as many reasons as there are people objecting.

Nonetheless, (a) and (b) go hand in hand... object to one, and you must object to both. Therefore, she must be Rey Skywalker.

I'm not sure how articulate my response will be here, but in my view, it's because there are fundamental disagreements on what type of story is being told in this trilogy. Which is understandable, given that we only have the first piece.

Because Star Wars has long been considered a family saga, and the two previous protagonists were father and son, most people have felt it logical to assume that Rey is Luke's daughter. They see that she grew up in a desert, has incredible force powers, is desperate to find her family, and think wouldn't it be perfect if at the end of TFA she was reunited with her father.

I do not think this trilogy is about a parent and child dynamic. I think that will be part of it - but the family tension is Ben Solo's, not necessarily Rey's. The type of story we seem to be getting for Rey is within the ATU 425 group of fairytales. These are heroine journeys focused on the girl's journey into adulthood, of confronting and accepting the darkness in her as well as the light. And that darkness/impulsivity/fear is, in these stories, typically manifested in a male character who we could consider the shadow and animus. That is clearly Kylo Ren in the ST.

There is another type of fairytale that is in this vein, but flows the other way and has a different message. These are like Bluebeard - or maybe Phantom of the Opera for a gothic parallel - cautionary tales for women to mind their sexuality and to allow a hero to come in at the end and rescue the maiden from the evil monster. The thing about those stories is that they don't fit the trajectory of what TFA gave us. Rey thinks that Kylo Ren is a monster now. So the journey will be reversed, from rejection to acceptance. They played with this idea a little with Finn coming to rescue Rey from SKB, but we saw the trope subverted when she rejected Kylo herself and saved Finn.

All of this rambling is to try and say that I don't think fans are being sexist, or consciously paternalistic or whatever when they say Rey has to be a Skywalker. They're just going on what they consider to be an essential for Star Wars. They don't want Kylo Ren to be this generation's Skywalker because that raises the stakes, and also changes the story. It means that Rey and Ben Solo have to reach an acceptance in each other, and most fans don't consider that a possibility because of what he has done to his father. But it really does look like that's the kind of story we're getting.

@Darth Dingbat
I love that post so much. Seriously, GREAT stuff. I could not agree more, and it's fascinating to see what happens when a major Hollywood production attempts to go against the norm a little by following a very female-centric narrative archetype! It makes it clear how many out there simply aren't ready for a female heroine - for a Buffy - in a major Hollywood blockbuster. If it's in a known female-centric narrative, then fine, they can just not watch it (like Pride and Prejudice, Buffy, Xena, every classic fairytale ever, name-your-Greek-myth, etc.) As much as Harry Potter is loved worldwide by all ages and genders, I think even it is considered somewhat female-centric (because children's stories in general are considered "for girls"! It's mind-boggling!

SW is a coming-of-age fairytale. It's all about young characters making the metaphorical and physical journey from childhood to adulthood. And that's exactly what the ST is going to be.

@BastilaBey
Yes, the Bluebeard archetype is one I didn't go into in my own "meta" for that reason. TFA doesn't fit it. I like to differentiate between the "true" beast and the "cursed" beast, because they are very different. Kylo is clearly in the latter category. If he was meant to be a "true" beast he would 1) Not be the legacy boy, 2) Would likely be much older, 3) Would not be sympathetic at all, 4) I could go on forever, 5) It would be an entirely different story.

@BastilaBey, that was a perfectly articulate summary I agree on all of it.

Also, I wonder about folk tales of the "Tam Lin" type - I'm pretty sure that type had a specific name, but I can't remember it right now; other cultures have similar tales as well. Tales where the heroic female wins or rescues her prospective husband through performing heroic deeds. I suppose Cupid and Psyche is similar in type... but in the Tam Lin type, the heroine rescues her love interest from a curse, evil fairies, and so on.

Anyway, that type of tale hasn't really made much of a breakthrough in pop culture, has it? It doesn't seem to be a particularly widespread type in female-centric romantic fiction either. Which is curious as this folk tale type does have a rich and varied history, and its focus is on female heroism AND romance, which should be a double whammy for a typically female audience.

BastilaBey wrote:I'm not sure how articulate my response will be here, but in my view, it's because there are fundamental disagreements on what type of story is being told in this trilogy. Which is understandable, given that we only have the first piece.

Because Star Wars has long been considered a family saga, and the two previous protagonists were father and son, most people have felt it logical to assume that Rey is Luke's daughter. They see that she grew up in a desert, has incredible force powers, is desperate to find her family, and think wouldn't it be perfect if at the end of TFA she was reunited with her father.

I do not think this trilogy is about a parent and child dynamic. I think that will be part of it - but the family tension is Ben Solo's, not necessarily Rey's. The type of story we seem to be getting for Rey is within the ATU 425 group of fairytales. These are heroine journeys focused on the girl's journey into adulthood, of confronting and accepting the darkness in her as well as the light. And that darkness/impulsivity/fear is, in these stories, typically manifested in a male character who we could consider the shadow and animus. That is clearly Kylo Ren in the ST.

There is another type of fairytale that is in this vein, but flows the other way and has a different message. These are like Bluebeard - or maybe Phantom of the Opera for a gothic parallel - cautionary tales for women to mind their sexuality and to allow a hero to come in at the end and rescue the maiden from the evil monster. The thing about those stories is that they don't fit the trajectory of what TFA gave us. Rey thinks that Kylo Ren is a monster now. So the journey will be reversed, from rejection to acceptance. They played with this idea a little with Finn coming to rescue Rey from SKB, but we saw the trope subverted when she rejected Kylo herself and saved Finn.

All of this rambling is to try and say that I don't think fans are being sexist, or consciously paternalistic or whatever when they say Rey has to be a Skywalker. They're just going on what they consider to be an essential for Star Wars. They don't want Kylo Ren to be this generation's Skywalker because that raises the stakes, and also changes the story. It means that Rey and Ben Solo have to reach an acceptance in each other, and most fans don't consider that a possibility because of what he has done to his father. But it really does look like that's the kind of story we're getting.

@BastilaBey

Your response has been very articulated. Especially the bolded part.

Not much to add, really. However I can speak for my generations of fanboys and fangirls.
When ROTJ came out in 1983 it brought a happy end to a trilogy we have been growing with. (btw I think that the thread about the reasons why SW provoke such devotion among the fans would be very interesting)
Everything was great: Luke was a Jedi, Darth Vader redeemed, Emperor dead, Han and Leia in love.
A perfect fairy tale ending for kids of the beginning of the eighties. (I do not speak about the actual quality of the ROTJ because my adult view on that topic has been changed of course over the years - but the notion of something great and something I have loved so much pretty much have remained the same .)

However not every individual is alike, some people can accept the change with no problem, some can not, and some never will.

With TFA a perfect image that ROTJ left was broken. Here we have Kylo Ren, a son of beloved couple killing his father, a hero Luke in exile.
I do really think, that no matter how much we are adults now, and how much we try to look and we do look at things with different, grown up eyes, a bit of a child who witnessed the triumph in ROTJ remained intact in every and each old fan.
I think that Reywalker theory is the product of all of above, a kind of comfort, a remedy to the broken image of OT.
I think as well it is very difficult to explain it on conscious level of things. And it is very, very individual.

As well, I would definitely add here J.J.s Mistery Box as a device which left door opened to Reywalker theory to flourish.
Now I know it looks really silly, after months of analyzing it- but I ll always admit I was not so sure after I watched TFA for the first time.

As well, I really do not have a bad opinion on Reywalkers, unless they are aggressive and rude.

@Darth_Awakened
That's a great way to put it, and I absolutely agree! Reywalker is a safety net for OT fans who don't want the OT generation to be defiled and left in ruin. Kylo is basically the thing that ruined the ending of Return of the Jedi. Rather than make a perfect legacy kid like Rey Skywalker, they made one who is all levels of f***ed up, and while that is better from a narrative standpoint, I can understand why it might be hard to swallow for a lot of fans who were so entranced by the happy ending of Return of the Jedi. There are a slew of complex psychological backings for Reywalker, but the problem is you have to separate yourself from all that. You have to look at this as its own story, just like the PT and the OT. It has to have its own unique narrative, and Kylo Ren was the best idea in that regard. Tear apart the OT trio, separate the Skywalkers, then introduce them to a character who will bring them together again: the heroine, Rey.

FrolickingFizzgig wrote:@Darth_Awakened
That's a great way to put it, and I absolutely agree! Reywalker is a safety net for OT fans who don't want the OT generation to be defiled and left in ruin. Kylo is basically the thing that ruined the ending of Return of the Jedi. Rather than make a perfect legacy kid like Rey Skywalker, they made one who is all levels of f***ed up, and while that is better from a narrative standpoint, I can understand why it might be hard to swallow for a lot of fans who were so entranced by the happy ending of Return of the Jedi. There are a slew of complex psychological backings for Reywalker, but the problem is you have to separate yourself from all that. You have to look at this as its own story, just like the PT and the OT. It has to have its own unique narrative, and Kylo Ren was the best idea in that regard. Tear apart the OT trio, separate the Skywalkers, then introduce them to a character who will bring them together again: the heroine, Rey.

@FrolickingFizzgig

Indeed. Rey is a perfect heroine to bring Skywalkers back and on track so to speak. And it will make a great story.
However it was not so visible at first glance for many.
Rey Skywalker was easier way and most logical solution without a deeper analysis.
How many times Lukes said the following in OT: I can not bring myself to kill my own father? Around 100 times. LOL
And that thing was kind a clue for many of the fans that Kylo is a total mess and  unredeemable.
But Luke was a hero of the eightees, when things in the world/life consequently in the movie were still much in black/white dynamics.
The things have changed since. Kylo is the (anti)hero of our time. Grey, vulnerable and flawed - the contemporary young man - as have been emphasized in almost every interview with KK or JJ.

Darth Dingbat wrote:@BastilaBey, that was a perfectly articulate summary I agree on all of it.

Also, I wonder about folk tales of the "Tam Lin" type - I'm pretty sure that type had a specific name, but I can't remember it right now; other cultures have similar tales as well. Tales where the heroic female wins or rescues her prospective husband through performing heroic deeds. I suppose Cupid and Psyche is similar in type... but in the Tam Lin type, the heroine rescues her love interest from a curse, evil fairies, and so on.

Anyway, that type of tale hasn't really made much of a breakthrough in pop culture, has it? It doesn't seem to be a particularly widespread type in female-centric romantic fiction either. Which is curious as this folk tale type does have a rich and varied history, and its focus is on female heroism AND romance, which should be a double whammy for a typically female audience.

@Darth Dingbat

Yes, Tam Lin is a good example of the heroine taking on a more active role within the narrative. East of the Sun and West of the Moon is another. They are still in the BatB family, but it follows her on a quest to free the 'prince' from the clutches of evil. And really, Beauty and the Beast can be written as passively or actively as the writer likes, it's just the framework. In Cocteau's version, Belle is very different from the Disney animation and even prefers the beast to be 'beastly'. That's a truer acceptance of the shadow, in my opinion.

This also fits well with the clever playing of Hades and Persephone imagery that some of us noticed in TFA. On the surface, Kylo is Hades, abducting Rey in the forest and taking her to the Underworld. But what if he is really Persephone and Leia is Demeter? I guess we'll know more as his backstory is revealed, and how that changes things for Rey.

Bottom line is: the st is a new story in its own right, even as it connects with the two existing trilogies. "This will begin to make things right" is about making things right for the Skywalker family just as much as balancing the force and Rey finding her belonging. It all fits together.

Eta: 2 recent responses I got when discussing the ST elsewhere were along the lines of "Rey doesn't need to go on a journey" and "They clearly wrote the character as a boy and then cast a girl to make it politically correct". This type of thing really shows me that some people aren't well-versed in the importance of gender and age dynamics in fairytales, even if tropes are subverted as we see in TFA. That this is a heroine's journey as opposed to a hero's, is relevant. That Rey is 19 when we meet her - the same age Luke was at the beginning of his own coming-of-age - is significant too. If people think Rey isn't going on a journey to adulthood, they must think Finn is the true protagonist of the trilogy. And he will be, in his own plot, but not in Rey's.

a lot of it seems to have to do with wish fulfillment. rey doesn't need to go on a jounrey is ... unrealistic for a story. it just is. and fans deciding her place is with luke and the rebellistance, well, you don't ge to decide these things. it's also incredibly conservative in terms of how a woman in a narrative should behave.

I think a lot of them simply don't like Kylo - they don't want to accept that the 'last Skywalker' is a 'baddie', or an 'emo trash baby', or, to be truthful, a damaged soul, not a perfect, noble hero. They want someone pure and saintly.

They can't accept that Han and Leia didn't do a very good job as parents, despite all the signs being there - a woman who put her political beliefs first and foremost all her life and a man who lived for adventure just weren't cut out to be doting mum and dad! They also can't accept that Luke might have made mistakes despite one of the best aspects of Luke Skywalker was that he wasn't Sir Galahad, he was a normal human being who triumphed over his flaws - but that didn't mean he would never make another mistake.

Most of all, I suspect they don't want Kylo Ren to undergo any kind of redemption - they want this broken young man, very possibly a victim of abduction and forced brainwashing, at least definitely a psychologically abused child, this unhappy kid who under all his faux arrogance just desperately wants to be loved and understood, to meet a bad ending.

And what a sad fate it would be for the OC to know they had irrevocably lost someone they all loved, when instead they could be comforted that he'd been saved, and his father's last act of love and sacrifice wasn't in vain.

#1) Because they are anti-Kylo Ren, and don't see a redemption happening which leaves them unsatisfied to say the least.
#2) They're not really open for discussion, as Pablo already says in his tweets - they have their opinion and will stand by it no matter what.

Fortunately, even if their Reywalker beliefs survive a reylo ending of his trilogy, they'd become accepting of it since Star Wars already had an incest moment with Luke and Leia kissing, so they just expect more bad writing like this to be part of future movies.

Rey Skywalker makes no sense. People just want her to be a Skywalker because she 'has' to be a Skywalker, even though it makes zero sense in the context of the story.

I'm fine with her being a Kenobi, or even a descendant of Palpatine, but I'd rather like Rey to be a 'nobody' - yes, we had the Skywalkers in Luke, Leia and Anakin in the OT but we also had 'wild cards' like Han and Lando.

guardienne wrote:a lot of it seems to have to do with wish fulfillment. rey doesn't need to go on a jounrey is ... unrealistic for a story. it just is. and fans deciding her place is with luke and the rebellistance, well, you don't ge to decide these things. it's also incredibly conservative in terms of how a woman in a narrative should behave.

@guardienne
It's also because people just genuinely want the OT trio and Rey to be happy, so they think: "Wouldn't it be great if Rey was actually a member of their family all along? They wouldn't have to be sad about Kylo anymore." There's a strange notion that Rey can replace Kylo in the Skywalker family. Maybe it comes from the fact that TFA itself played with this a little, with Rey inheriting Ben's "legacy" items, being liked by his father, hugged by his mother and now potentially about to be taught by his teacher. But to me, that's meant to represent Rey's ties with the Skywalker family through Kylo and show that she can't just pick up where Kylo left off.

IMO all of this stems from people not being able to separate fantasy from reality. You wouldn't be hearing "Rey doesn't have to go on a journey" otherwise. Like... lolwat? It's a story. Yes, she has to go on a journey. Yes, she has to develop and face challenges. No, it can't be an easy reunion with everything she's ever dreamed of after one film. Why bother to tell a story about her otherwise? Might as well retire Rey as the heroine because that is going to be one yawwwwwn of a grand SW adventure.

The coming-of-age journey is so prevalent in fiction because people genuinely love it. It's one of those things humans write again and again and again. We can all relate to it, whether it's set in a wizarding school, a land inhabited by hobbits, a hidden Shinobi village or a galaxy far, far away. Yet I've actually heard people say Rey is already an adult and doesn't need to go on on a coming-of-age journey. L.M.A.O. Guys, we've got no competition.

i've never thought of her as a skywalker, so i can't really understand the attachment to the theory. and i don't find worrying about her lineage to be very interesting. she is very clearly her own person and she is clearly doing things independent of whatever traits she inherited. in that way it makes for a much more interesting contrast with kylo ren. he is burdened with what and who he is supposed to be.

in summary i think the reywalkers lack imagination.

guardienne wrote:i've never thought of her as a skywalker, so i can't really understand the attachment to the theory. and i don't find worrying about her lineage to be very interesting. she is very clearly her own person and she is clearly doing things independent of whatever traits she inherited. in that way it makes for a much more interesting contrast with kylo ren. he is burdened with what and who he is supposed to be.

in summary i think the reywalkers lack imagination.

@guardienne
Indeed, lacking imagination is a good way to put it. And I'll bring it a step further. Just as they don't want Rey to be challenged, they themselves don't want to be challenged. This trilogy has the potential break down huge barriers in fiction by integrating what @Darth Dingbat described as a female-centric romance into a major Hollywood blockbuster. We may even have Finn's more traditional male-centric romance to balance it out, Luke acting as the overbearing elder--and HELLO, it's still SW, which means it'll still focus on intergalactic warfare, ancient mysteries, powerful villains and bad*** space-wizard powers. If that one part of the story isn't for them, so be it. Look at everything else this trilogy is probably going to have to offer. The sense of entitlement is unreal.

And yeah, that sense of entitlement. I think that's a big deciding factor in how obsessive people still are about Reywalker (to the extent that they're willing to say they will "abandon" SW is Rey isn't a Skywalker, that they'll have no reason to care about her, that they won't be watching the ST, that it'll "ruin their childhoods", whatever). The major film franchise is not written specificaly with the feelings of OT fanboys in mind. They had to let all of that go, and they even modelled Kylo to be a representative of those pesky fans who are always whining about change! It's just so damn ironic. Kylo is their Avatar in the new trilogy, and BIG SHOCK, they hate him more than anything! xD

I have been a self confessed Star Wars addict all my life.

And I love the new direction.Embrace it folks. This is one of those rare incidences when they've improved on the original.

I agree with everything you're saying @FrolickingFizzgig. It just astounds me how some fans are so entrenched in the idea that Rey must be a Skywalker or this story is unacceptable to them.

It's like many of them don't even want a real story, they just want an epilogue to the OT. They're upset the happy ending of ROTJ was destroyed  (but how else could a new story be made?) so they want this trilogy to be about Rey Skywalker finding her dad and discovering she's the good Skywalker who along with her dad (and her loyal friends Finn and Poe) will save the family legacy by defeating her evil cousin. Clean and easy. No real conflict because the minute her identity is revealed as a Reywalker (or Rey Solo), there's no real emotional stakes because there's no need to worry about the Skywalkers (or Rey) anymore. They'll be fine now that Rey has been found. Who cares that Kylo has gone to the dark side, there is another! It's such a toothless story.

I'm amused by the irony that Kylo is modeled after the stereotypical old school SW fan who wants SW to remain in a very specific way, yet it's a lot of these kind of fans who don't want to see Kylo redeemed because 1.) he killed Han/ruined Luke's legacy and 2.) they think he's a "emo" Vader wannabe or a "wuss" (which I think says a lot more about them than Kylo). So they want this trilogy to be about Rey (and Luke) getting revenge on Kylo. What these fans ignore is that Kylo is not just some Vader wannabe. There's so much more to him than that. He's important to the story and the OT trio, he's their legacy and they love him (I assume Luke still does, although we don't definitively know). We know Leia still wants Kylo back after the Jedi purge and Han died wishing his son would forgive him. I really hope this trilogy makes these fans face a lot of their own issues and perceptions with fandom through Kylo. Kylo dying unredeemed is not how that would be accomplished.

BastilaBey wrote:I'm not sure how articulate my response will be here, but in my view, it's because there are fundamental disagreements on what type of story is being told in this trilogy. Which is understandable, given that we only have the first piece.

Because Star Wars has long been considered a family saga, and the two previous protagonists were father and son, most people have felt it logical to assume that Rey is Luke's daughter. They see that she grew up in a desert, has incredible force powers, is desperate to find her family, and think wouldn't it be perfect if at the end of TFA she was reunited with her father.

@BastilaBey

Agree with the bolded 100%.

The simplest reason IMO is that people automatically assume that, in a family saga about the Skywalkers, the main protagonist must be a Skywalker. There's also a lot of Luke-centrism involved; I once saw a post on another forum where the author was wondering what the central relationship or heart of this trilogy was going to be, and that it was likely to be the relationship of Luke and Rey. There just seems to be this unspoken reluctance to speculate on the dynamic between Rey and Kylo, as if he didn't exist or was only in the story as a one-dimensional baddie. I've only seen one video where the reviewer guys predicted that the end game is Rey redeeming Kylo - they still believe that Rey is Luke's daughter but at least they actually consider the possibility that Kylo and Rey's stories might actually *gasp* have something to do with each other outside of "good Rey defeats bad Kylo".

Saracene wrote:

BastilaBey wrote:I'm not sure how articulate my response will be here, but in my view, it's because there are fundamental disagreements on what type of story is being told in this trilogy. Which is understandable, given that we only have the first piece.

Because Star Wars has long been considered a family saga, and the two previous protagonists were father and son, most people have felt it logical to assume that Rey is Luke's daughter. They see that she grew up in a desert, has incredible force powers, is desperate to find her family, and think wouldn't it be perfect if at the end of TFA she was reunited with her father.

@BastilaBey

Agree with the bolded 100%.

The simplest reason IMO is that people automatically assume that, in a family saga about the Skywalkers, the main protagonist must be a Skywalker. There's also a lot of Luke-centrism involved; I once saw a post on another forum where the author was wondering what the central relationship or heart of this trilogy was going to be, and that it was likely to be the relationship of Luke and Rey. There just seems to be this unspoken reluctance to speculate on the dynamic between Rey and Kylo, as if he didn't exist or was only in the story as a one-dimensional baddie. I've only seen one video where the reviewer guys predicted that the end game is Rey redeeming Kylo - they still believe that Rey is Luke's daughter but at least they actually consider the possibility that Kylo and Rey's stories might actually *gasp* have something to do with each other outside of "good Rey defeats bad Kylo".

@Saracene

I don't think Luke is going to be a central figure in this to be honest - Mark Hamill himself said he might not be in Episode IX; I suspect he will take the same kind of role as Alec Guiness in ANH, only his interaction with Rey I think will be very different. Han has bowed out and Leia's role in VIII is rumoured to be minor.

I really think the crux of the story is going to boil down to Rey and Kylo, with Finn, Poe and Kelly supporting them - not that they'll be unimportant, but look at the promotional posters for TFA. They feature Rey and Kylo in the predominant images.

In the EU Luke married and had a child.  I think some fans who read those books and felt very invested in them have a hard time accepting that Luke may end his life single and childless in the ST.

Sacrebleu wrote:In the EU Luke married and had a child.  I think some fans who read those books and felt very invested in them have a hard time accepting that Luke may end his life single and childless in the ST.

@Sacrebleu

it's a small minority, if they are convinced that she's Luke's kid doesn't mean the majority want her to be.

Sacrebleu wrote:In the EU Luke married and had a child.  I think some fans who read those books and felt very invested in them have a hard time accepting that Luke may end his life single and childless in the ST.

@Sacrebleu
Indeed, even though it makes perfect sense not to tell the exact same story twice. Luke has a wife and children, and you can go read about them any time you want without any waiting for new films to release. But let's be real, even if they had given Luke a wife I guarantee all we would see are comparisons like "Mara Jade was 100x better than Wife X" and "Disney just ripped off the story from the EU, laaaazyyyy."

It's better this way all around. New characters, new timeline, new adventures.

FrolickingFizzgig wrote:

Sacrebleu wrote:In the EU Luke married and had a child.  I think some fans who read those books and felt very invested in them have a hard time accepting that Luke may end his life single and childless in the ST.

@Sacrebleu
Indeed, even though it makes perfect sense not to tell the exact same story twice. Luke has a wife and children, and you can go read about them any time you want without any waiting for new films to release. But let's be real, even if they had given Luke a wife I guarantee all we would see are comparisons like "Mara Jade was 100x better than Wife X" and "Disney just ripped off the story from the EU, laaaazyyyy."

It's better this way all around. New characters, new timeline, new adventures.

@FrolickingFizzgig

Absolutely.  I'm glad now that I never dabbled in the EU because that meant I had nothing to let go of and could see Force Awakens with fresh eyes.  I think the EU did color the experience for some fans.

ETA: Also, I think there's a story in the EU where a female Skywalker grandchild kills an evil male Skywalker grandchild. Once again, they're looking for what they know from the EU.