Well, we weren't convinced that it had been cleared up, because there's still this highly troubling vision that Rey had in Episode VII, which is the shop with her parents leaving the planet. Also, the events of The Last Jedi are literally just after the events of Episode VII—within 48 hours, Ray has had a force-back to her parents and then the very next day is told "your parents were no one and they were junk traders. None of that matters." And we thought in a way that would be too easy because of the idea that Rey had been longing for her parents for so many years. We just felt like there was something more going on.
Oh my godddd.
TFA sets up the mystery: Who are Rey's parents? And why did they leave her on Jakku, where she had to fend for herself since she was a child and was at constant risk of murder and starvation?
Rey is convinced that there MUST be a good reason her parents left, and that they will surely return for her, even though it's been years. Maz tells her that no, her family isn't coming back; Rey's tearful reaction tells us that deep down, she knows that this is probably true, but she still doesn't fully acknowledge it, and we still don't know why they left.
TLJ answers the mystery with the most PAINFUL truth possible: there is no good reason that her parents left. They weren't heroes on a mission, with some grand purpose for leaving her behind. They were just assholes. The two people who are meant to love her unconditionally just left her to die there because they didn't want her, and as the dark mirror on Ahch-To tells her, Rey's on her own. It's devastating for her. Then, despite how that must impact her feelings of self-worth, Rey has to move forward as the Jedi hero for the Resistance, with all the pressure that that brings.
How is that easy?!
God, then TROS fucks this all up -- her parents, in fact, DID love her! She got the answer she wanted! They left her in the worst situation "for her protection" (which is complete bullshit -- Jakku and Unkar Plutt were their only options?). But they DID want her; there WAS a grand reason for her being left there, and that actually makes it EASIER for her because it's the answer that she was looking for!
Forget all the potential character stuff about finding self-worth and belonging and overcoming feelings of abandonment (a big aspect in her and Kylo's dynamic, because they both had big parental issues). Nah, let's just give Rey a rushed, recycled "you're related to a bad guy" plot that we've already seen with Luke, and we were already seeing in this trilogy with Kylo.
And it's fucking Palpatine of all people. Like, has the "You're a Palpatine" landed well AT ALL with ANY audience? The hyped crowd I saw it with on opening night had zero reaction to it outside of a disbelieving "What the fuck?" from someone sitting near me. And even now, all I see from it are memes about Palps fucking and Rey taking on all kinds of silly last names.
But, I guess it's handy because now they get to explain where Rey's power comes from, since there's no plausible way she could've just been powerful on her own. And even at the end, she's gotta be Rey Skywalker because being JUST REY isn't enough I suppose.
JJ and Chris's takeaway from TLJ seemed to be that the big tragedy for Rey was that her parents were "nobodies". With that kind of mindset, yeah, being related to someone evil would be harder to deal with than being related to two randoms. But that's not the most tragic part; what's tragic is that her parents didn't fucking want her, and she has move forward on her own. THAT is what they should have focused on.
