With the new trailer debuting for The Rise of Skywalker, many questions begin to surface. Where are the Knights of Ren? What is Palpatine’s role in this story? Even, who really is Rey? Rey’s origin has been a bit of a contentious issue among the Star Wars community and fanbase. The Last Jedi had described her as essentially nothing, yet in The Force Awakens, the Skywalker lightsaber called out to her. This surely can’t be for no reason. How could this legendary artifact, one from a family crucial to the universe, have any reason to call out to a nobody? It’s simple really. Rey is a product of the Midichlorians, first mentioned in The Phantom Menace, and was created by The Emperor himself. It would make sense of why the lightsaber called out to her, how she’s attached to the Skywalkers, and why she doesn’t have an exact origin.
In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn and Shmi Skywalker have a conversation over the origins of her son, Anakin. As he works on his podracer, Jinn turns to his mother and asks about “the boy’s father.” To everyone’s shock, Shmi goes on to state that he doesn’t have one. She was never with anybody when she became pregnant with Anakin. Simply put, she woke up the next morning and was pregnant. Qui-Gon had no real understanding of this and believed it to essentially be a miracle. Shmi would later go on to give birth and raise her child as if she had always known about it. At the end of the day, it was her baby but where did it come from?
Sheev Palpatine, better known as The Emperor, has been known to be able to manipulate the force to his will. This includes creating life out of it. Palpatine’s master, Darth Plagueis The Wise, was said to have been able to influence the midichlorians to create life which is something only achievable by the dark side. As Plagueis’ apprentice, Palpatine was able to learn all of these “unnatural” abilities and would later go on to kill his master. All of these were explained during Revenge of the Sith, and the exact conversation between Anakin and Palpating can be seen below:
“Palpatine: Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise?
Anakin: No?
Palpatine: I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life… He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.
Anakin: He could actually save people from death?
Palpatine: The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.
Anakin: What happened to him?
Palpatine: He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.
Anakin: Is it possible to learn this power?
Palpatine: Not from a Jedi.”
Many have thought to believe that this may be alluding to Darth Plagueis being the father of Anakin Skywalker. However, if this were true, he would thus resemble Darth Plagueis, at least to some extent. Anakin is distinctively human while Plagueis is a Munn, who although has human features, is definitely not human. He would have to have an elongated head, a lack of hair, or any other feature that a Munn carries. The Emperor, on the other hand, is human and resembles Anakin more than anything else. Both are charismatic, excellent swordsmen and extremely powerful. Not only this but in a recent Revenge of the Sith comic, there are three panels that showcase Palpatine as Anakin’s true father. Here, you can see Palpatine manipulating the force in order to place Anakin into Shmi.
This brings us to Rey. Rey in The Last Jedi was said to be a nobody. She has parents but they didn’t care for her and left her on Jakku to fend for herself as a young child. Here, she is able to use her whits and grow up, seemingly unscathed. It’s not until Finn and Poe Dameron crash land on the planet that she is able to join the resistance and become enthralled into the world of Star Wars. Throughout the films, she’s extremely powerful, a very well-liked person, and is able to use a lightsaber and her spear exceptionally well. This echoes that of both Anakin and The Emperor.
At the end of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader throws the Emperor into the Death Star which seemingly kills him. It’s not unlikely that he survived the fall. In the Legends series, he actually survived and was able to find ways to live. Although that isn’t considered canon anymore, it isn’t unlikely that Palpatine continued to research how to overcome death during his lifetime. In the “tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise” quote, it ends with him saying that “he could save others from death but not himself.” Sheev is clearly stronger than his master and could have easily figured out how to also save himself in the result of an untimely death, even if this death took some time to overcome.
While back into the physical world, much time had passed and there was no strong apprentice, as was seen with Darth Vader. So, Emperor Palpatine could have been forced to create a new apprentice from scratch which leads us back to Rey. She could be the answer he was looking for in continuing to rule the galaxy. This may explain this still from the recent trailer that debuted. Palpatine is looking down at Rey and may just be explaining why and how he was able to create her and cheat death.
All of this would explain why she is incredibly strong. It also explains why she and Kylo Ren share a force bond between each other. If she was made by Palpatine, that makes her of the same blood as Anakin, Luke, Leia, and even Ben Solo. She is a child of The Force. This is why Anakin’s lightsaber called out to her, why Ben is so intimidated by her, and explains how she can truly bring a balance to the force in the upcoming movie. Time will tell whether this theory becomes a reality, yet it’s hard to deny its existence when it would explain a numerous amount of story points in the trilogy so far.