ARCHIVE: Discussion: Podcasts - 2

@Darth Dingbat

Not to mention that it's Classic Tragedy 101: try to avoid a prophecy, and you end up causing it yourself.

That's what Snoke's doing. he wants to avoid "if Skywalker returns, the new Jedi will rise" by sending Kylo to deal with it, which means that he'll cause Skywalker (Ben) to return and new Jedi to rise. "You cannot deny the truth that is your family" = Skywalker returns (Luke's too obvious so there's going to be a surprise) "First order rose from the Dark Side, you did not" = "the new Jedi will rise" notice the use of word rise in both sentences, never a coincidence.

FrolickingFizzgig wrote:

Lily Snape wrote:

FrolickingFizzgig wrote:@Lily Snape
I think it's pretty clear that if MSW knows anything at this stage in the game it's that Rey isn't a Skywalker/Solo. There's a reason they've been so convinced for so long, and it's not just because of the timeline or Bloodline. No doubt the other podcast groups had to eventually accept the truth no matter how difficult. Even Jason's wife had trouble if I recall. She was (and maybe still is) convinced that Rey was a Solo until late-game changes to the story. When Bloodline was released she kept saying "it doesn't make any sense" and "why would they write it this way?"

I'm curious... why do you think Reywalker is "entirely possible?" I don't think I could make the theory work at this point without serious character assassinations, retcon and a beyond convoluted background explanation for why Rey was already on Jakku 8 years before everything went sour for the Skywalker family. In short, terrible, confusing writing - most hardcore Reywalkers will even admit this. No mention of a lost cousin or daughter, no memory loss, Ben, Luke, Han and Leia all doing their own thing in the years leading up to Ben's fall. The creative decisions tell us that this was not the direction they ever planned to go in. If it were the story would be completely different.

@FrolickingFizzgig

Eh, just me preparing myself for disappointment. I think it's highly unlikely. No mention of a lost niece, a lost wife of Luke, etc. No one recognizing her. Luke as a deadbeat dad? = please, no. And total rehash of the OT. Not to mention that Kylo's behavior toward Rey would make no sense at all if looked at in retrospect as the interaction of long-lost cousins-- he's so obviously taken with her.

Also, I screwed up the quote boxes up there. I should edit that just fix it, since most of those words aren't mine.

So, no, I don't think it's likely. But I have this "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst" mindset-- and yes, that would be the worst.

@Lily Snape
I guess I tend to take more of a "assume the writers know what they're doing until proven otherwise" mindset. I look at these creative decisions and see a story about a young woman coming-of-age, confronting her shadow, finding her place in the galaxy and Force and integrating with an incredibly influential family by being the light that guides their youngest member back on the right path.

@FrolickingFizzgig

I agree-- I think the story is about Rey, and that if she's Rey Skywalker, it's more about her family and less about who she is. Who her parents are matter less and less to me the more I get into the story-- and I'm out there on FB with my Star Wars VIII predictions stating that Finn will be a bad-a**, Luke and Rey will struggle with the dark side, Kylo will be lighter than expected and I expect a turn to the light by the end of VIII, and also something like "Kylo thinks he wants revenge. What he actually wants is Rey. They're not related, and he's got it bad." This led to a brief and fun debate with my brother and a friend, both of whom are of the Reywalker + Kylo will redeem himself and die theory. But it also got a bunch of "likes".

I wanted to revisit the "Finn is getting a set of books" rumor from a week ago or so.

I'm listening to the Rogue Won podcast right now where Jason talks about this. He gave some more details around what he knew than what we'd talked about here previously. Here's a rundown:

• It's a set of children's books that will take place during Episode VIII, covering Finn's adventures. He compared them to the children's adaptation books for TFA that only covered a chunk or two of the story.
  
• These will be adaptations of Finn's VIII storyline, not new adventures. So, these won't be like the Poe comics.
  
• This adds further support to the belief that Finn and Rey will be on separate storylines for the bulk of, if not all of, VIII. Jason reiterated that he doesn't know of anything concrete to support that Luke and Rey leave Ahch-To at any point during the movie.

I know that there was some speculation on this thread that these books would be indicative that there'd be a time jump at some point during VIII, but it really doesn't sound like that's the case. (I mean, there might be a time jump, but there's nothing about these books that would point to that.) I think that it's only indicative that Finn will have an exciting storyline that's separate from Rey's.

ISeeAnIsland wrote:I wanted to revisit the "Finn is getting a set of books" rumor from a week ago or so.

I'm listening to the Rogue Won podcast right now where Jason talks about this. He gave some more details around what he knew than what we'd talked about here previously. Here's a rundown:

• It's a set of children's books that will take place during Episode VIII, covering Finn's adventures. He compared them to the children's adaptation books for TFA that only covered a chunk or two of the story.
  
• These will be adaptations of Finn's VIII storyline, not new adventures. So, these won't be like the Poe comics.
  
• This adds further support to the belief that Finn and Rey will be on separate storylines for the bulk of, if not all of, VIII. Jason reiterated that he doesn't know of anything concrete to support that Luke and Rey leave Ahch-To at any point during the movie.

I know that there was some speculation on this thread that these books would be indicative that there'd be a time jump at some point during VIII, but it really doesn't sound like that's the case. (I mean, there might be a time jump, but there's nothing about these books that would point to that.) I think that it's only indicative that Finn will have an exciting storyline that's separate from Rey's.

@ISeeAnIsland

I just LOVE how we're consistently proven right about our predictions (like Finn having his own plot separate from Rey). Even though people would scoff at us in other areas of the fandom and call us "blinded by Reylo" and "anti-Finn" (which makes no sense anyways, how is suggesting Finn have his own storyline anti-Finn?)

I can't wait to see everyone knocked upside the head with Reylo when it happens too!

ISeeAnIsland wrote:I wanted to revisit the "Finn is getting a set of books" rumor from a week ago or so.

I'm listening to the Rogue Won podcast right now where Jason talks about this. He gave some more details around what he knew than what we'd talked about here previously. Here's a rundown:

• It's a set of children's books that will take place during Episode VIII, covering Finn's adventures. He compared them to the children's adaptation books for TFA that only covered a chunk or two of the story.
  
• These will be adaptations of Finn's VIII storyline, not new adventures. So, these won't be like the Poe comics.
  
• This adds further support to the belief that Finn and Rey will be on separate storylines for the bulk of, if not all of, VIII. Jason reiterated that he doesn't know of anything concrete to support that Luke and Rey leave Ahch-To at any point during the movie.

I know that there was some speculation on this thread that these books would be indicative that there'd be a time jump at some point during VIII, but it really doesn't sound like that's the case. (I mean, there might be a time jump, but there's nothing about these books that would point to that.) I think that it's only indicative that Finn will have an exciting storyline that's separate from Rey's.

@ISeeAnIsland

Regarding the bolded, if the books they're talking about aren't necessarily new Finn adventures, but an adaption of his Episode VIII adventures, isn't it to be expected that both Finn and Rey will get story books? They did something like it with TFA: Rey's Story and Finn's Story.

However, it makes sense to me that Finn's adventures are something that will probably appeal more to kids than Rey's Force plot (generally speaking). I think Finn's storyline will probably have lots of action, some comedy, aliens and KMT. It pretty much confirms Finn is getting his own storyline.

Kessel89 wrote:

ISeeAnIsland wrote:I wanted to revisit the "Finn is getting a set of books" rumor from a week ago or so.

I'm listening to the Rogue Won podcast right now where Jason talks about this. He gave some more details around what he knew than what we'd talked about here previously. Here's a rundown:

• It's a set of children's books that will take place during Episode VIII, covering Finn's adventures. He compared them to the children's adaptation books for TFA that only covered a chunk or two of the story.
  
• These will be adaptations of Finn's VIII storyline, not new adventures. So, these won't be like the Poe comics.
  
• This adds further support to the belief that Finn and Rey will be on separate storylines for the bulk of, if not all of, VIII. Jason reiterated that he doesn't know of anything concrete to support that Luke and Rey leave Ahch-To at any point during the movie.

I know that there was some speculation on this thread that these books would be indicative that there'd be a time jump at some point during VIII, but it really doesn't sound like that's the case. (I mean, there might be a time jump, but there's nothing about these books that would point to that.) I think that it's only indicative that Finn will have an exciting storyline that's separate from Rey's.

@ISeeAnIsland

Regarding the bolded, if the books they're talking about aren't necessarily new Finn adventures, but an adaption of his Episode VIII adventures, isn't it to be expected that both Finn and Rey will get story books? They did something like it with TFA: Rey's Story and Finn's Story.

However, it makes sense to me that Finn's adventures are something that will probably appeal more to kids than Rey's Force plot (generally speaking). I think Finn's storyline will probably have lots of action, some comedy, aliens and KMT. It pretty much confirms Finn is getting his own storyline.

@Kessel89

They didn't say anything about Rey getting her own books, but yeah, they compared them to things like the Rey's Story/Finn's Story. One of us should email Jason for the pod people segment of NTIP and see if he knows anything.

It does seem like Rey's storyline is probably likely to be a lot "heavier" than Finn's, which would make Finn's storyline more of an ideal choice to adapt to children's books. Although if they do some sort of a RotLA-inspired relic hunt or something inside the Jedi temple, I could see that being a good candidate for adaptation as an adventure story.

FWIW, I think that Finn, in general, is more appealing of a character to little kids. My daughter adores him--he's her favorite TFA character after BB-8.

@ISeeAnIsland Oh you bet that they did market research for age groups and demos and know who is most popular with which demo, etc. Also, they are saving some stuff for after movies come out. I bet that they are going to fast-track "Luke and Ben" and the Solo family books, comics, etc as soon as VIII reveals what happened to Ben. That's going to be very lucrative.

the new episode of rebel grrrl has them discussing the thing daisy said about rey getting 'emotionally injured' in episode viii.

At 1 hour 11 minutes, they start talking about the spoiler of Luke telling her they have to kill Kylo and her not wanting to. They phrase it like she has to choose between the other two characters, which is interesting. Tracey thinks that Luke could 'hurt her' because he's probably 'gone off the rails'. This fits with what a lot of us have been theorizing about a darker Luke than we saw at the end of RotJ.

http://makingstarwars.net/2016/09/episode-46-makingstarwars-nets-rebel-grrrl/

Ok, as I have long suspected, Tracey seems to reveal herself as a reylo shipper. Around 1 hour 21 minutes, they talk about what might happen in viii and ix, and she says she thought 'rey awakened' the conflict in him, when they 'made that weird eye contact'. But they both seem to be worried that fan reception will somehow affect the outcome of the story. I wish people would have more faith in the fact that the overall direction of the trilogy must have been laid out before TFA even hit cinemas.

BastilaBey wrote:the new episode of rebel grrrl has them discussing the thing daisy said about rey getting 'emotionally injured' in episode viii.

At 1 hour 11 minutes, they start talking about the spoiler of Luke telling her they have to kill Kylo and her not wanting to. They phrase it like she has to choose between the other two characters, which is interesting. Tracey thinks that Luke could 'hurt her' because he's probably 'gone off the rails'. This fits with what a lot of us have been theorizing about a darker Luke than we saw at the end of RotJ.

http://makingstarwars.net/2016/09/episode-46-makingstarwars-nets-rebel-grrrl/

@BastilaBey

That discussion sounds interesting. I'm curious what they mean about having to choose between the two characters (Luke and Kylo)? I also wonder why they think it would be a choice like that. I'll admit though, I'm still a little confused by that rumor that Luke tells Rey she has to kill Kylo because it sounds out of character for Luke...to loose all hope and put Rey in a position like that. Although I'll admit it's been 30 years since we've seen Luke so I'm sure he's changed and we don't know everything he's been through.

I don't expect Luke to be "dark," but maybe we'll see a somewhat troubled Luke. I know Mark would do a great job with it.

BastilaBey wrote:the new episode of rebel grrrl has them discussing the thing daisy said about rey getting 'emotionally injured' in episode viii.

At 1 hour 11 minutes, they start talking about the spoiler of Luke telling her they have to kill Kylo and her not wanting to. They phrase it like she has to choose between the other two characters, which is interesting. Tracey thinks that Luke could 'hurt her' because he's probably 'gone off the rails'. This fits with what a lot of us have been theorizing about a darker Luke than we saw at the end of RotJ.

http://makingstarwars.net/2016/09/episode-46-makingstarwars-nets-rebel-grrrl/

Ok, as I have long suspected, Tracey seems to reveal herself as a reylo shipper. Around 1 hour 21 minutes, they talk about what might happen in viii and ix, and she says she thought 'rey awakened' the conflict in him, when they 'made that weird eye contact'. But they both seem to be worried that fan reception will somehow affect the outcome of the story. I wish people would have more faith in the fact that the overall direction of the trilogy must have been laid out before TFA even hit cinemas.

@BastilaBey What did they say exactly? I do have faith and I know Pablo has said that fan influence won't affect most of the story, but I have to admit, I do wonder what would've happened if fan reception did have a big influence on the handling of the rest of the trilogy. Considering the reception of Reylo in some corners of the fandom and the overwhelming need for Reywalker for some fans, I wonder if that would've had an impact if Rian Johnson was writing the script now instead of during the filming of TFA.

Kessel89 wrote:

BastilaBey wrote:the new episode of rebel grrrl has them discussing the thing daisy said about rey getting 'emotionally injured' in episode viii.

At 1 hour 11 minutes, they start talking about the spoiler of Luke telling her they have to kill Kylo and her not wanting to. They phrase it like she has to choose between the other two characters, which is interesting. Tracey thinks that Luke could 'hurt her' because he's probably 'gone off the rails'. This fits with what a lot of us have been theorizing about a darker Luke than we saw at the end of RotJ.

http://makingstarwars.net/2016/09/episode-46-makingstarwars-nets-rebel-grrrl/

@BastilaBey

That discussion sounds interesting. I'm curious what they mean about having to choose between the two characters (Luke and Kylo)? I also wonder why they think it would be a choice like that. I'll admit though, I'm still a little confused by that rumor that Luke tells Rey she has to kill Kylo because it sounds out of character for Luke...to loose all hope and put Rey in a position like that. Although I'll admit it's been 30 years since we've seen Luke so I'm sure he's changed and we don't know everything he's been through.

I don't expect Luke to be "dark," but maybe we'll see a somewhat troubled Luke. I know Mark would do a great job with it.

@Kessel89

Very interesting!

I could see a scenario where a more cynical Luke things that Kylo went Anakin 2.0 and slaughtered his padawans (I feel like every bit of information that we're getting about the temple massacre points to Luke either not being present at all or walking in when nearly everyone was already dead). After hearing what Kylo did to Han, perhaps Luke thinks that there's no hope for Kylo at this point.

Perhaps, then, Rey has her vision early on in VIII and sees what actually happened at the temple...and it's a situation where Kylo wasn't entirely to blame (as many of us have speculated). It would certainly make sense that Rey wouldn't want to kill him then, especially if the situation at the temple was particularly tragic.

BastilaBey wrote:the new episode of rebel grrrl has them discussing the thing daisy said about rey getting 'emotionally injured' in episode viii.

At 1 hour 11 minutes, they start talking about the spoiler of Luke telling her they have to kill Kylo and her not wanting to. They phrase it like she has to choose between the other two characters, which is interesting. Tracey thinks that Luke could 'hurt her' because he's probably 'gone off the rails'. This fits with what a lot of us have been theorizing about a darker Luke than we saw at the end of RotJ.

http://makingstarwars.net/2016/09/episode-46-makingstarwars-nets-rebel-grrrl/

Ok, as I have long suspected, Tracey seems to reveal herself as a reylo shipper. Around 1 hour 21 minutes, they talk about what might happen in viii and ix, and she says she thought 'rey awakened' the conflict in him, when they 'made that weird eye contact'. But they both seem to be worried that fan reception will somehow affect the outcome of the story. I wish people would have more faith in the fact that the overall direction of the trilogy must have been laid out before TFA even hit cinemas.

@BastilaBey

Reywalker is the only thing getting in the way as I see it. It's really clouding people's perceptions of the story so no wonder people think Reylo seems ridiculous and have such knee-jerk reactions to it, but once Reywalker's out of the way people won't care what happens as long as its done well. That's the key, good execution.
The folks crying 'abuse' are such a tiny vocal minority who constantly fight to get their voices heard, but I bet Rian or KK or JJ don't care, they've planned this trilogy from start to finish and now all that's left is to tell the story.

@AppleCrumble122 They seemed to think that fan reception of Kylo would determine whether he survives the trilogy or not. Can't remember the exact wording. They've said before that they think Rey was a Solo during production and then it changed at some point, so clearly believe that things are very much in flux. I tend to err on the side of thinking Kathleen Kennedy would have had to give the green light to these overarching themes and outcomes before TFA even wrapped. If the trilogy is going to be cohesive storytelling, that should have been the case.

@ISeeAnIsland I agree, everything that's been coming out makes it look like Luke was not present at the massacre. Then he arrived and that's the moment we see in the vision where he's 'saying goodbye' to R2. It's interesting to think about whether Han and Leia would have even heard from him before he left, and how that might affect what they know about what really went down.

Yikes...that's bizarre that the Rebel Grrl podcasters would think the story would be so in flux like that. I'm pretty sure they're wrong about important things like Kylo's arc/survival and Rey's parentage being up in the air like that.  Whether Kylo survives or not is a huge part of his story. I would hope the story is better planned than those podcasters seem to think it is. Also, leaving the choice of whether Kylo survives up to fans would mean there's no real meaning in any of the pivotal scenes we saw or will see going forward. Changing Rey from a Solo into unrelated completely changes the story and the dynamics between Rey and all the Skywalker characters. It doesn't seem like something that could logically be done when the first movie is already in production...

As for the massacre, I also think Luke arrived after the fact and didn't witness it, although he somehow knew Ben was involved. I also think the massacre likely did not occur the way we've been led to believe (especially since we're revisiting the scene), but I think Luke's (and Han and Leia's) perceptions of what happened were colored by their knowledge of Vader and they likely assumed Kylo did the same thing Vader did (i.e. Han's belief of "too much Vader in him"). I think Luke sent R2 to Leia with a message/recording of what happened and that's probably how she and Han initially learned of the "massacre."

BastilaBey wrote:@AppleCrumble122 They seemed to think that fan reception of Kylo would determine whether he survives the trilogy or not. Can't remember the exact wording. They've said before that they think Rey was a Solo during production and then it changed at some point, so clearly believe that things are very much in flux. I tend to err on the side of thinking Kathleen Kennedy would have had to give the green light to these overarching themes and outcomes before TFA even wrapped. If the trilogy is going to be cohesive storytelling, that should have been the case.

@ISeeAnIsland I agree, everything that's been coming out makes it look like Luke was not present at the massacre. Then he arrived and that's the moment we see in the vision where he's 'saying goodbye' to R2. It's interesting to think about whether Han and Leia would have even heard from him before he left, and how that might affect what they know about what really went down.

@BastilaBey

If it turns out that LF is willing to make the viewing public sit through two movies where the leads and their respective characters have no compelling chemistry, stilted dialogue, and an ham fisted story and then in turn make two subsequent movies where the leads and their respective characters have compelling chemistry, the potential for an original and moving story, and the director for Looper, but don't follow through with it because some viewers won't like it, then I'd be really disappointed in Kathleen Kennedy as a business/creative leader. The thing about TFA is that it feels like it's a story meant to expand the scope of viewers/fans to those of us outside the typical fandom boundaries. Going this particular (safe) route to satisfy market demand would be hugely disappointing and wasted opportunity.

Kessel89 wrote:

BastilaBey wrote:the new episode of rebel grrrl has them discussing the thing daisy said about rey getting 'emotionally injured' in episode viii.

At 1 hour 11 minutes, they start talking about the spoiler of Luke telling her they have to kill Kylo and her not wanting to. They phrase it like she has to choose between the other two characters, which is interesting. Tracey thinks that Luke could 'hurt her' because he's probably 'gone off the rails'. This fits with what a lot of us have been theorizing about a darker Luke than we saw at the end of RotJ.

http://makingstarwars.net/2016/09/episode-46-makingstarwars-nets-rebel-grrrl/

@BastilaBey

That discussion sounds interesting. I'm curious what they mean about having to choose between the two characters (Luke and Kylo)? I also wonder why they think it would be a choice like that. I'll admit though, I'm still a little confused by that rumor that Luke tells Rey she has to kill Kylo because it sounds out of character for Luke...to loose all hope and put Rey in a position like that. Although I'll admit it's been 30 years since we've seen Luke so I'm sure he's changed and we don't know everything he's been through.

I don't expect Luke to be "dark," but maybe we'll see a somewhat troubled Luke. I know Mark would do a great job with it.

@Kessel89

I was just reading Yoda and Obi-wan's statements to Luke in the OT and it is interesting that neither of them ever tells Luke to kill Vader... they specifically mention Luke facing him or confronting Vader (possibly to bring out his good side and make him complete bringing balance to the force)..... Luke is the one who mentions his reluctance to kill his father....makes me wonder if Luke inadvertently was dealing in absolutes, and it got more pronounced as time went on....maybe he is trying to take a similar stand as Obi-wan and Yoda but his mind is clouded by the anger and unhappiness at losing his students and the jedi order he worked so hard to build.

I would advise those who don't want to think that the story in the ST might be in flux not to read Pablo Hidalgo's Twitter feed right now...

Mrs Ben Solo wrote:I would advise those who don't want to think that the story in the ST might be in flux not to read Pablo Hidalgo's Twitter feed right now...

@Mrs Ben Solo

That's quite a conversation going on. Pablo likes talking to you.

"It's their time to waste" in response to people speculating on Rey's parentage has just become one of my favorite tweets of his!

Mrs Ben Solo wrote:I would advise those who don't want to think that the story in the ST might be in flux not to read Pablo Hidalgo's Twitter feed right now...

@Mrs Ben Solo

I took a quick look at it. Well then, I guess stuff can change. Uh...okay.

I mean, we know some things changed during TFA, but I always figured that major things like Rey's history/parentage and Kylo's ultimate arc were set out and it was the details that change. I guess I can just hope the story isn't totally in the air and that fan's influences don't factor into what happens to characters....

So, according to Pablo, we're all kind of wasting our time...LOL. Maybe we should all just wait to get interested in the ST only when Epsidoe IX comes out.. (I'm just kidding of course).

Kessel89 wrote:

Mrs Ben Solo wrote:I would advise those who don't want to think that the story in the ST might be in flux not to read Pablo Hidalgo's Twitter feed right now...

@Mrs Ben Solo

I took a quick look at it. Well then, I guess stuff can change. Uh...okay.

I mean, we know some things changed during TFA, but I always figured that major things like Rey's history/parentage and Kylo's ultimate arc were set out and it was the details that change. I guess I can just hope the story isn't totally in the air and that fan's influences don't factor into what happens to characters....

So, according to Pablo, we're all kind of wasting our time...LOL. Maybe we should all just wait to get interested in the ST only when Epsidoe IX comes out..

@Kessel89

Yeah... I have to believe there will be some coherence overall to this trilogy when viewed in retrospect. But perhaps we've been over confident in certain aspects that might be up for an OT type retcon... Who knows?

@Mrs Ben Solo Oh wow, I just saw him reference Luke and Leia being made siblings and nobody being able to guess that from ANH. So...they are cool with retconning stuff as big as that, still? Okay.

I mean I know things change during production. You play around with a scene, some things work better than you thought they might, others you have to rethink. But at a fundamental level, changing who someone is or isn't related to after that first film? After you've established interactions with other characters? I really hope that's not what's going on.

BastilaBey wrote:@Mrs Ben Solo Oh wow, I just saw him reference Luke and Leia being made siblings and nobody being able to guess that from ANH. So...they are cool with retconning stuff as big as that, still? Okay.

I mean I know things change during production. You play around with a scene, some things work better than you thought they might, others you have to rethink. But at a fundamental level, changing who someone is or isn't related to after that first film? After you've established interactions with other characters? I really hope that's not what's going on.

@BastilaBey

Yeah... That's worrying. It will certainly add grist to the Reywalker and Co's mill!

Guys..there's no way Rey is or will ever be a Skywalker...

Mana wrote:Guys..there's no way Rey is or will ever be a Skywalker...

@Mana

Exactly... it would make NO sense given what we know from the film and novels.

I see no reason to worry. We've heard numerous times that future content is planned years ahead (unlike the OT). The story has been written already. It's literally impossible to make any major changes this late in the game, especially to fundamental plot points like Rey's origins, Kylo's journey/redemption or their connection (all three of which are largely dependent on each other). No random fan demands do or should play a role in a project of this magnitude (or any work of art for that matter). RJ certainly doesn't seem to be in favour of fan service. Besides, we know he worked on the script for VIII long before TFA was released. What I get from the tweets is the simple message that stories and characters evolve during the creative process and that's perfectly natural. Characters can change dramatically from early concepts as is the case with Kylo, for example. This whole process carries on from the rough outline to the final script to the final cut of the movie. Multiple adjustments are made all the way through to release to achieve the best possible results. I'm pretty sure they don't necessarily have every single detail mapped out, but a competent writer must know where the story is ultimately going even though how you get there may vary (e.g. Luke was meant to have more screen time in TFA, but they thought it would shift the focus from where it should be, i.e. on the new characters, so they decided to save this storyline for VIII).

The whole story would have to be rewritten for Rey Skywalker/Solo to work. It doesn't make any sense based on the narrative setup in TFA and the related cannon material. All creative decisions point in a very different direction and it would just be extremely pointless and foolish if the writers decide to ruin what they themselves established. They would never repeat the Luke and Leia scenario if they want to have any viewers. We should be more confident because the writing backs up our predictions. The Reywalkers believe in this convoluted mess of a theory even if they have no convincing arguments. We've got everything on our side and a few tweets are enough to plant the seed of doubt? I personally choose to believe that the writers behind the new trilogy are competent enough and will deliver a compelling story with the central focus being the heroine/anti-villain dynamic we saw in TFA.