Rey Kenobi Skywalker? The Generations of Kenobis interwoven with the Generations of Skywalkers

Rey Kenobi Skywalker?



It's possible that our new friend, Rey 
has a lineage completely new to our saga.
It's possible that we've never seen 
the family that she's waiting for.

We never saw Han Solo's family
before he was introduced in A New Hope.
So, it wouldn't be the first time a wild card 
without a pedigree was introduced 
to the Journal of the Whills

But, based on the type of stories
that have been at the heart of  Star Wars,
I, like most fans (I think) believe there is foreshadowing 
throughout Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens, 
that Rey's family tree will be filled 
with familiar faces and names.

But which faces and which names?

Rey Skywalker?

Daughter of Luke?
Cousin to Kylo Ren, the Son of Leia?

Probably.
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Or Rey Solo? 

Daughter of Leia?
Twin Sister of Ben Solo...Kylo Ren

Nope.  They were born about ten years apart.

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Or could she be related to Palpatine?

A secret Granddaughter?  A clone?



Perhaps.
That WOULD satisfy the trope of
Skywalker (Kylo Ren) versus Palaptine (Rey)
which ripples throughout the entire saga.
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But what about Rey Kenobi? 
Or perhaps...Rey Kenobi Skywalker?

Daughter of Luke Skywalker and the daughter of Obi-wan's...daughter?
Rey...Granddaughter of BOTH Darth Vader AND Obi-wan Kenobi?
Granddaughter of the man who was like a brother to Anakin?
Granddaughter of the man who is linked forever
to Anakin's fall to the Dark Side?

Now...this...just...got...interesting.

And...if Obi-wan had a child
...who was the mother?

How could Kenobi have had a family?

And how could a descendant have ended up alone on Jakku? 

A key to this mystery could (should) lie with the Tusken Raiders.  

The Sand People.  You heard me.

I know that this theory sounds crazy, at first.  
(Actually...it pretty much continues to sound crazy.)

But hear me out...it gets pretty cool and really fun!!  

And it does turn the character Obi-wan Kenobi on it's head.  If true, it would mean that much of what we thought we knew about Obi-wan Kenobi is wrong.  But it would be a stellar example that
many of the truths that we cling to depend greatly upon our point of view.  And also that Obi-wan doesn't always tell the whole story...in an effort to protect the innocent.

Here is the quick and dirty summary of my "Rey Kenobi Skywalker Theory":

• Between Episode 3 and 4, while living as a hermit on Tatooine, Obi-wan meets, falls in love with and marries the sole survivor of the Tuskan Raider village that Anakin had destroyed in Episode 2.  
• They have a daughter, but Obi-wan and the mom agree that the child should grow up with other Sand People.   Obi-wan can not go with them because he must still focus on watching over Luke.
• The mom is killed when the Imperials destroy her new Tusken Raider village.  The imperials need to leave false evidence to cover-up their involvement on their deceptive attack on the Jawas during their hunt for the stolen Death Star plans during Episode 4.  The mother's sacrifices allows her daughter to get away.
• She is now alone on Tatooine, just as her mother had been.  Having no where else to go, she travels to her father's home in Jundland Wastes for shelter.  She arrives to find it empty.  She would not know that the very same Imperial danger that disrupted her life also disrupted that of her father, Obi-wan.  She did not know that he would not return because he had traveled to Mos Eisley to find passage to leave Tatooine to travel to Alderaan...a journey he would never return from.  There she would remain.
• After the First Death Star is destroyed, Luke returns to looking for somewhere to meditate and seek knowledge, he travels to the home of Obi-wan Kenobi.   (See Marvel Comics)  Obi-wan's daughter stays hidden from this stranger, but Luke senses her presence.  He thinks he is feeling is a lingering feeling of his old Mentor even though it's slightly different.  Luke is tracked there by Boba Fett and the house is destroyed.  Obi-wan's daughter becomes a hermit nomad like her parents.  She travels the surface of Tatooine aimlessly scavenging and struggling to survive.
• After the Second Death Star is destroyed in Episode 6, Luke senses that the Darkness that he thwarted on the massive battle station still lingers in the Galaxy.  He begins a quest to vanquish the Darkness once and for all and he starts a new Jedi Academy.  Eventually, he decides to use the Force to reach out an feel others who are sensitive to the Force to begin a new Jedi Academy.  In his meditations, he realizes that the Force sensation he got back on Tatooine wasn't Obi-wan, but another.  The strength in Ben's daughter is strong, so when Luke returns to Tatooine, one last time, he finally finds her.  He invites her to be a member of his nascent Jedi Academy.  She is hesitant, but she senses the goodness in Luke and accepts.  
• While at the Academy, she and Luke fall in love.  Much like her father, Obi-wan, she finds comfort and understanding with another lonely survivor.  They marry and their daughter, Rey, is born at the Academy. 
• Luke continues to sense the ever growing Darkness in the Galaxy and he and his wife agree that she should take Rey away from the Academy for her own protection.  They return to her home on Jakku.
• After Snoke and Kylo Ren destroy the academy, Obi-wan's daughter, who has sensed the disaster, in a panic, rushes to do what she can to protect Luke.  She makes sure the Lor San Tekka can look after her.  But since his Church of the Force would be a target of Dark Forces, Rey can not stay with him.  She leaves Rey with Unkar Plutt out of desperation.  It is only meant to be a short time.  When Obi-wan's daughter leaves, Lor San Tekka records the Lightspeed Jump trajectory, which will later be a necessary starting reference point to later find Luke with the other information on Luke's location with Leia in Artoo.
• Obi-wan's daughter gets killed when she returns to the Academy.  Luke flees with her body and eventually buries her at the First Jedi Temple.  He knows that even though her life would be harsh, it would be too dangerous to return to Jakku for Rey.  He knows she is strong enough to survive.  He can feel it.
• Rey grows up.  She (the granddaughter of Obi-wan Kenobi, child of Luke Skywalker) and Kylo Ren (child of a princess and a scoundrel) who fight at first will eventually join forces and discover that balancing between the Light and the Dark is the only way to defeat Snoke and to bring balance to the Force.

This shocking twist is solidly within the tradition of great fiction and of the history of Star Wars, in particular.  A great twist is one that takes all of the narrative presented up to that point and give the audience a totally new perspective.  It is a reason to re-think everything you thought you knew.  And the best twists are the one's you weren't expecting, but once revealed become so apparent that you can't imagine the story any way other than with that twist.

In Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope, Obi-wan reveals to Luke that his father, Anakin Skywalker, was formerly a Jedi Knight who fought in the Clone Wars, and not a navigator on a spice freighter.  This completely re-write's Luke's understanding of who his own father was and what path that means for himself.  All of the actions of Luke's father's absence as he had grown up are given a new context.

In Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, with one simple revelation, Darth Vader turns Luke's world around again...now Luke learning that his father was not the hero he imagined, but, was in fact, the very evil that Luke was fighting against...in the memory of what he thought was his father.

In Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Luke learns that Leia, one of his most trusted and closest friends is more than that.  She is family.  A twin sister.  His relationship with her changes in an instant.  And their interactions up to that point take on new meaning.

The greatest twists are the ones that you did not see coming, but once revealed feel that there is no other way the narrative could have unfolded.

But we'll get back to the details of the "Rey Kenobi Skywalker Theory" in just a moment...  

First, some credit where credit is due.  At the bottom of this essay, I list a few links to other fans with other Rey Theories.  They are worth checking out in their own right.

And don't get me wrong...it is entirely possible that Rey may have no family ties at all to anyone we've encountered in the saga.  That leads to interesting plots regarding the nature of The Force and what makes a hero.  But I just doubt that story is the story that is being told here.

The idea of the daughter of Luke facing off against the son of Leia, the twins of Anakin Skywalker...Darth Vader has a certain poetry.  A certain symmetry.  It rhymes.   Anakin's internal struggle between Good and Evil played out with his role as first, a Jedi Knight, and then as The Dark Lord of the Sith.  So too, is that same internal struggle being played out within Ben Solo...Kylo Ren.  He is the only character who has the dual name structure that is so familiar with the Sith in Episodes 1 to 6.  But what of Rey?  If she is Luke's daughter then there will be an external facet to this internal conflict.  

But herein lies the major problem.  While the struggle of Anakin/Vader was internal, Anakin/Vader was always in an external struggle, as well.  In the Prequels, this struggle culminated with the final climactic battle where Vader was forced to reveal his fall when enclosed in his own tomb.  Anakin chose to become twisted and evil...to become Vader, but it was Obi-wan who made him the physical monster that he became.  More machine than man.  Twisted and Evil.  And in the Original Trilogy, it was Anakin's son...trained by Kenobi, who was able to help Anakin to choose the path of the Light.

So if Rey is the granddaughter of Obi-wan, just as Kylo Ren is the grandson of Anakin, then the saga becomes an epic poem with a larger symmetry...a larger rhyme.  The clash between Rey and Anakin shifts from a mirror of the internal struggle within Anakin to the external struggle between good and evil...between Obi-wan Kenobi and Darth Vader.  It begins with the first struggle...the first light saber battle we saw in Episode IV.  A connection born on the dying wishes of Qui-Gonn Jin in Episode I.  And would likely end with true balance of the Force at the climax of Episode IX.

So, how do we blend the internal struggle of the Skywalker clan with the external struggle of Dark versus Light?

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A missing family tree.  

Lost in the Jundland Wastes.  

A Love born from the 

Wrath of Anakin Skywalker

So, how does a lone former Jedi Knight, in exile in a vast desert wasteland become the grandfather of a lone scavenger (future Jedi Knight?), in exile in a vast desert wasteland on the other side of the Galaxy?

We learned from the Prequels that Jedi Knights must forgo romantic entanglements.  We see the struggles this causes to Obi-wan since before and during the Clone Wars with his intense unrequited romantic connections to Satine Kryze, the Duchess of Mandalore.  But in Episode IV, Obi-wan does not tell Luke that he IS a Jedi Knight.  He says, "I was once a Jedi Knight, the same as your father."  That means that by the time we meet Obi-wan, who years ago was a General in the Clone Wars...he is no longer a Jedi Knight.  He is still sensitive to the Force.  He is still committed to protecting Luke and training him some day...but the vows that he took when he became a Jedi Knight no longer apply in his new secret life as "Ben" Kenobi.

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So...what if between Episodes III & IV, Obi-wan, in his solitude in the Jundland Wastes of Tatooine, met another sole hermit.   This hermit is a woman, just a few years younger than he.  She is a Tusken Raider. A sand person.  She was just a young child when she became the only survivor of a Tusken Raider village not too far from the Lars Family moisture farm.  Years earlier, her entire village...men, women and children had been destroyed by what she believed to be demon. A demon with a fiery blade. But not glowing yellow or orange like the holy suns that burned during the day nor the feast fires at night.  This was an unnatural glowing blue blade. This demon wiped out every living thing in her village as punishment for their kidnapping and murder of his own mother.  But she hid and somehow survived.  And she has been on her own ever since.

When she and Ben meet years later, they are instantly kindred spirits.  He can feel her loss...and she can read his loss on his drying crackly face.  They each discover that they are both the last (or nearly last) of their respective tribes.  They both are surrounded by immeasurable loss and danger.  And they both find comfort in one another...two lost souls in an seemingly uncaring universe.  Over the years, they grow closer and eventually become close friends dedicated to their own mutual protection.  Eventually, they fall in love and marry.  Obi-wan has taken the only survivor of Anakin's massacre of the Sand People who had killed his mother as his bride.

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Time passes and they have a child.  A girl.  As the child grows, Ben and his bride realize that their isolation is unhealthy and unfair to their child.  The child should be a part of community.  The child needs a chance for a real life.  But Obi-wan can not give him this community.  Even if he could join his bride and their child when they re-enter the world of the Tusken Raiders...a feat their xenophobic culture would never allow, it would mean giving up his duty to protect Luke.  So, his wife and child return to their nomadic life, and Obi-Wan...Ben is left, once again alone on Tatooine. A crazy old hermit, who becomes so reclusive that most just think he is dead.

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Time passes and Ben Kenobi's bride and daughter joins a tribe of Sandpeople, who still travel not too far from the Jundland Wastes.  Not too far from the Lars Family moisture farm.  Ben still reaches out with The Force to keep watch over them...but he never sees them again.  When Vader returns to the skies above Tatooine, Ben must focus all of his attention on Luke and keeping him safe and keeping him hidden.  He can do nothing when Vader comes down to the planet to personally lead the hunt for the stolen plans.  

And Ben can do nothing when that hunt leads to a Tusken Raider village.  The village is inconsequential, in and of itself.  It is a minor sacrifice to hide the evil machinations of a tyrannical government that must not reveal any weakness.  Vader knows Tatooine and orders the village slaughtered, so their equipment and clothing can be used to mask a raid on a Jawa Sandcrawler that is suspected of having collected the two missing droids.  And it is this tribe of Sand People who are wiped out by a demon, but this one with a red blade. Vader.  He and his elite stormtroopers make quick work of the nomads.

Through the massacre, Ben's bride recalls her horror from so long ago.  She sees another demon.  She sees a familiar weapon, but realizes that although the blade is different on the outside...on the inside it is the same.  And she concludes that the demon stands before her must be the same one who slaughtered her village as a child has finally returned to complete his work.  He, like his weapon is the same inside...just different on the outside.  She thinks that the only way to break the curse is to allow herself to be sacrificed to this demon.  This would be the only way for her child to survive.  She can distract the demon while her child can flee.  Flee as far away as possible. 

With all of the tribe already slaughtered, she must stand firm against the demon.  Her wordless defiance stops Vader momentarily.  He does not understand the anger and darkness emanating from this final victim.  It is all consuming.  It blocks out any other feelings.  Through the Force, he realizes that standing before him is the last remainder of that tribe of animals that he thought he had exterminated so many years earlier.  Vader is flooded with feelings from the massacre from his youth...and the closure that her death would give him.  But all of this Darkness blinds him to her child fleeing to a new life.

She is now alone on Tatooine, just as her mother had been.  She flees deeper into the desert.  Alone and scared, she eventually decides to seek help from the only person in the world she knows, her father, Obi-wan Kenobi.  It has been years since she saw him, and she still does not understand why she and her mother had to go then, but she has nowhere else to go.  She arrives to find it empty.  She would not know that the very same Imperial danger that disrupted her life also disrupted that of her father, Obi-wan.  She did not know that he would not return because he had traveled to Mos Eisley to find passage to leave Tatooine to travel to Alderaan...a journey he would never return from.  After a few days, she would feel her father's death through the Force and realizes that she is alone in the Universe.  She begins living as a hermit nomad.  She travels the surface of Tatooine aimlessly scavenging and struggling to survive.


After the First Death Star is destroyed, Luke returns to looking for somewhere to meditate and seek knowledge, he travels to the home of Obi-wan Kenobi.   (See Marvel Comics - Star Wars #6)  Luke senses that a presence had been there.  He thinks he is feeling a lingering feeling of his old Mentor even though it's slightly different...without realizing it, he was sensing Ben's daughter.  Luke is tracked there by Boba Fett.  After surviving this battle, Luke uses Obi-wan's journal to help him continue on his education and growth.

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Time passes and after the second Death Star is destroyed, Luke Skywalker, the last of the Jedi and son of Anakin Skywalker senses that the Darkness that he thwarted on the massive battle station still lingers in the Galaxy. He begins a quest to vanquish the Darkness once and for all and he vows to start a new Jedi Academy.  Eventually, he decides to use the Force to reach out an feel others who are sensitive to the Force to begin a new Jedi Academy.  In his meditations, he realizes that the Force sensation he got back on Tatooine wasn't Obi-wan, but another.  The strength in Ben's daughter is strong, so when Luke returns to Tatooine, one last time, he finally finds her.  He invites her to be a member of his nascent Jedi Academy.  She is hesitant, but she senses the goodness in Luke and accepts.   And through the Force, for the first time since her mother died, she senses someone she can trust.

Obi-wan's daughter comes with Luke.  Soon that trust blossoms into love.  Like her mother, she is drawn to a kindred spirit.  Another lonely soul in the universe.  Luke takes Obi-wan's daughter as his bride and they have a child.   Rey.  (You've heard of her?)  Luke, of course, keeps his bride and child a secret from anyone outside of the Temple.  If his lineage is known, she would be in danger from the very darkness that has pursued his family.  This is a tragic mistake. When Kylo and Snoke conspire to destroy the new Jedi Order, there is but one survivor. A little girl. Rey.  Rey Kenobi Skywalker.

Luke's Jedi Academy has collected a small group of Force sensitive beings to restore the Jedi Order. He and Artoo  begin seeking out the location of the First Jedi Temple.  But Luke still senses an increased and impending darkness.  He knows that his wife and daughter will not be safe to stay with them.  So, Luke meditates on the Force and with the help of Lor San Tekka, a traveller he knows, they finds a distant backwater planet far away from the dangers of the Galaxy.  It is a desert world that Tekka knows of where she can thrive on, since she was able to survive on Tatooine.  Jakku.  And the distance from civilization and the harshness of the world will keep them from the eyes of the surviving Imperials and any resurgent Dark Force Acolytes.  They know it will be a difficult life, but at least they'll be safe.  Luke would watch over them from a distance, just as Obi-wan had watched over him.  And Rey must not know her lineage.  She must not learn the Force.  At least not yet.  If she were ever to become skilled in the Force, then the Dark Siders would be able to find her and kill her...or worse. Only Luke's students know of the existence of a wife and a daughter.  Students that include Ben Solo. But only Luke and Artoo know that Luke's wife and Rey went to Jakku.

Image of Luke's Shuttle (Courtesy of a tweet from @PabloHidalgo on April 11, 2016) (See link below):


Marked up by me (in other words...don't blame Pablo for my theory):


(Notice the similarity between the female Tuskan Raider seen here and the shape of the clothes that the figure on the right at the bottom of the entry ramp)

 Luke returns to the Jedi Academy to continue training his students, despite the danger to himself.  When Kylo Ren's uprising occurs at the Academy, Rey's mother feels the deaths and knows that Luke is in grave danger.  Desperate to help her husband, she is forced to leave Rey on Jakku.  She has no better option.  Lor San Tekka's Church of the Force would be a target if Dark Forces were resurging.  So, Rey wouldn't be safe there, either.  He can watch over her, but can not be a part of her life, for her own safety.

Obi-wan's daughter would need to leave Rey among the regular population.  Her least worst option was to leave her with in the charge of a local leader, Unkar Plutt, who, at a minimum, could make sure Rey would have a chance to survive.  Lor San Tekka who helped Luke find the First Jedi Temple knows that if things go poorly at the Academy, then that is where Luke would go.

Meanwhile, back at the Jedi Temple, things go poorly.  Luke is in the midst of a desperate battle with Kylo Ren and his Knights of Ren.  In the frey, Luke was not able to save his wife.  Luke knew that if he returned for Rey, she would be in danger, too.  So, Rey waited on Jakku for a family who could never come for her.

Luke, meanwhile, was able to escape the Jedi Academy and fled to the First Jedi Temple.  He took his wife's body with him and buried her with a simple nondescript rock marking the grave.  To the uninformed, her grave stone would appear, incorrectly, to be just a rock.

Eventually back on Jakku, when her family failed to return, Unkar knew that they were probably dead.  He had been willing to watch her until her parents got back, but he didn't want the burden of raising some filthy orphan.  As soon as she was old enough, Unkar forced her to start pulling her own weight.  She lived by scavenging the ruins of a forgotten time...just as her ancestors had done scavenging the Jundland Wastes.

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Time passes and she waited, alone on Jakku, until an adorkable little round droid rolled into her life and called her to action.  This droid contained  with the only clue to finding the last hope for goodness in the Galaxy, and it led her to a mentor, Han Solo.  He felt like family...like a lost uncle.  While with this mentor, she became the guardian of an ancient weapon from a more civilized time.  A weapon that had been used for unspeakable horror but also to bring Light from the Darkness.  But she still did not believe that she could make a difference.

She watched her Mentor (her Uncle Han) die for what he believed was right.  Changed by this sacrifice, inspired to ensure that Darkness could not extinguish the Light, she accepted her role as protector of an ancient tradition.  A tradition she thought was a myth.  A story.  But with the mentor's help realized that the universe is vast and mysterious and ready to be discovered.  

She becomes the protector of this tradition and seeks out the man who was once a new hope...her father  She, just like her grandfather, needed to inspire him to return to that damn-fool crusade that he began a lifetime earlier.  She reminds him that he can not run from the larger world anymore. He must face his destiny.  But this time, he will not face it alone.

Obi-wan Kenobi was the maker of Darth Vader from the ashes of Anakin Skywalker.  The granddaughter of Kenobi will be the savoir of Ben Solo from the madness of Kylo Ren.  A family shattered long ago.  Made whole.  But that's another story.  From a certain point of view.

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If Palpatine is just a pawn of the Dark Side of the Force, then Snoke could be it's next vassel.  Who knows...Snoke could be a descendant of or the next incarnation of Plagueis or even Plagueis himself.  We only have Palpatine's word that his old Master is dead.  Maybe Palpatine even believes it to be true.  And Plagueis, himself, could be a vassel of an even more ancient evil.

But assuming that the thematic repetitious poetry of the saga is continued into the Trilogy Saga, then the climax of Episode 9 would have Snoke, the embodiment of the Dark Side being defeated by the joint power of Kylo and Rey, who from their intertwined lineage would conclude the feud between Palpatine and Skywalker.  Between Darkness and Light.  Bringing Balance to the Force.

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References and other theories:

Here's a nice vid by Vincent Vendetta on that basis of his theory that Rey is a Palpatine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jjA6ZL0Z_k

Many bloggers have laid out their case for why Kenobi should be a consideration for Rey's lineage when speculating on her origins and place in Star Wars.  Ben Ostrower wrote an excellent essay on what clues abound in Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens.    I highly recommend you check it out here: https://medium.com/@benostrower/rey-is-a-kenobi-362b5af09849.  It's chock full of easter egg goodness that really makes the case for Rey Kenobi.

The close-up photo of Luke's ship comes from a Tweet from THE Pablo Hidalgo from April 2016: https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/719637449983533058.

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/reys-parents-ship-sure-looks-familiar-has-star-wars-force-awakens-mystery-finally-526522

Great little video by some nice kid from England who found the Hidalgo's tweet:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZU8rfJig0M

Luke's Shuttle was first seen in Star Wars, Issue #89 (1984) Marvel Comics http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Luke_Skywalker's_shuttle