STAR WARS: A CHARACTER STUDY OF REY

It is very difficult to accept the cold, hard truth about oneself, especially coming from an enemy. However, Kylo Ren nails Rey’s greatest weakness directly on the head. She wastes most of her young life waiting for parents who never return or clinging to any parental figure who comes along.

She must learn to rely upon herself. However, she struggles to accept the hard truth that Kylo Ren tactlessly teaches her. She doesn’t need her parents. She never needed her parents, She never will need her parents.

The Last Jedi is Rey’s coming of age story. She is a strong, independent survivor and a promising Jedi. However, she will not be able to be the galaxy’s salvation in Episode IX unless she learns to believe in herself. She must cast away her emotional dependency on parental figures: Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and even Kylo Ren.

Foolishly, she believes that turning Kylo Ren to the light would be the galaxy’s magical solution. He could be the last Jedi and the hero. All she would have to do is go and fetch him. Of course, nothing is that easy. Instead, she lands herself into a fatal trap and her final test: the temptation of the darkness.

She learns during her confrontation with Snoke that Luke Skywalker is never meant to be the hero of this story. The Force chooses Rey as the powerful light to rise against the powerful dark. Only when she accepts her mighty purpose does the Resistance/Rebellion have hope to defeat the First Order.

Rey alone is that beacon of hope, but she does not realize that until the end of her journey on Ach-To. Han Solo’s death and Luke Skywalker’s rejection, are crucial stepping stones in her hero’s journey. Kylo Ren’s dark proposal serves as her final test. Accepting him would indicate failure. By rejecting the dark, she emerges from her journey a victor.

Thus, she joins the battle of Crait where she shoots down every Tie fighter, provide an escape route for the dwindling rebels, and escorts them to safety. Without her, the resistance would have been annihilated in that Rebellion mine, and the galaxy would once again fall into darkness.

Come Episode IX, Rey will become a stronger and wiser woman ready to confront Kylo Ren once again, Whether she redeems or defeats him remains a mystery to us. Given the incredible amount intimacy they share, she will hopefully continue to guide him to redemption. She is the only person in the galaxy with the capability to redeem him. It would be a wasted opportunity if she didn’t at least try again, (See more on Kylo’s redemption.)

Whichever path she chooses, she will have the insight and strength to finish the story and complete the Skywalker saga.

Without the events of this highly controversial film, The Last Jedi, Rey could not be the galaxy’s hero, the Rebellion’s hope, and the mother of the new Jedi Order. Big events are yet to come.