As we reported earlier this week, there have been updates to the StarWars databank entries for Rey and Kylo Ren indicating “a mysterious connection linking” them. Let’s take a look at what this could possibly mean.
Way back before The Force Awakens came out, spent a lot of time thinking about the possible connections between Rey and Kylo Ren. We put together an article after the movie came out. Let’s revisit a few of those connections and see where things are going.
Let’s make a list of the similarities between Rey and Kylo Ren.
- Both have powerful telekinetic ability
- Both have mind reading ability, at least with each other
- Both ultimately seek out Luke Skywalker
- Both have excellent lightsaber ability
- Both are pilots (we didn’t see Kylo fly in TFA, but he has skills as a pilot, and rumored to pilot a ship in The Last Jedi
- Both “offered” a lightsaber to someone (Kylo to Han, Rey to Luke)
That last one will be all the sweeter if it does indeed turn out that Rey is Luke’s daughter (both lightsaber offerings will be to their fathers). That is of course debatable, but we’ll find out one way or another soon enough. There are a couple of other things that made me think there were parallels about them.
When we got the poster for TFA, we were surprised to see that Rey and Ren’s weapons are perfectly parallel in the poster. This was one of our first clues of a connection. This, of course, was just the beginning:
Perhaps more subtle is the fact that both Rey and Ren have a love of artifacts from the war between the Empire and the Rebellion. In two different scenes, both Rey and Ren are shown keeping a helmet from the days of the Empire and Rebellion, and they both seem to derive some sort of power from it.
Rey puts on the helmet toward the beginning. Fans have pointed out that the Aurebesh on the side of helment says “Raeh”, and many have taken this to suggest that this is where she gets the name. You might say that Rey doesn’t really derive power from her helmet artifact, but in fact it was meant to suggest that she does! From the digital video version of TFA’s documentary, we hear JJ telling Rey that she gets some sort of good feeling (light side power) from her helmet.
Similarly, we have a scene with Ren and Vader’s helmet. Ren asks the helmet, or the spirit of his grandfather, Darth Vader, to show him the darkside of the Force. So Ren kind of derives some sort of Dark side power from it.
When Kylo Ren first hears that a girl is with FN2187, he pulls the officer toward him and asks “What girl?” while choking the guy. Something about hearing about a girl caught Kylo’s attention, as if he knew something about it. Kylo saw something in Rey. He ultimately offered to train her.
Darth Vader
In a way, both Rey and Kylo are connected via Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Rey is clearly connected to Anakin’s saber, as it “called to her” and gave her the Force vision. Meanwhile, Kylo has Vader’s helmet and it “showed him the power of the dark side”. When Rey was able to read Kylo’s mind, she saw his fear about not being as powerful as Darth Vader. The verdict is still out whether Anakin also provides the “last common ancestor” of both Rey and Kylo, but there is certainly something that goes back to him connecting the two.
With that said, it is notable that Anakin and Vader don’t speak to Rey during her Force vision. Yoda does. Obi Wan does. There is even some words from Palpatine in there, but no Anakin. This is perhaps surprising because Anakin is one of the three Jedi Force ghosts that we know of (not counting Qui-gon).
Brought to you by @davestrrr. Stay tuned to spoiledbluemilk.com for updates!