Caution: Star Wars Spoilers Abound!!!

Having been to see Star Wars VII twice this week, and having indulged in reading many many articles on various theories about the movie... I finally decided to indulge in writing my own theories. Obviously, spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen Star Wars. If you haven't, DON'T read this. Just don't. And go see the movie, unless you're one of those crazy people that really doesn't like Star Wars for some reason.

I mean, just look at this epicness:



Don't you want to see that?!?

So the big question on my mind (and many others) is... who the heck is Rey? The other characters all react to her as if she's very significant, but we never learn why. I fall into the camp that thinks she's likely Luke's daughter, but... I'm not totally sold on that either. All I know for sure is that Luke seems to recognize her when she shows up at the end.

With that said, let's dive into some of the clues in this movie. Seeing it the second time, I picked up on a lot more. I'm desperately wishing I had it on DVD already so I could rewatch some key scenes and make more headway in understanding who she is.

The evidence we have so far:

• Rey's appearance: Rey just looks like a Skywalker woman. Put her next to Amidala and Leia and she'd fit right in--a brunette who likes to tie her hair back in funky ways.
• Luke's voiceover in the trailer: "The force is strong in my family. My father had it. My sister has it. I have it. You have that power too..." because you're my daughter and therefore in my family. BOOM.
• Rey's ATAT: We see a brief shot of her home as she's eating dinner, and there's a crudely made doll on a shelf, designed to look like an X-Wing pilot. So, clearly Rey has seen X-Wing pilots before and she thinks highly of them. She's also got that helmet she keeps.
• The old dude who died at the beginning: Is it really a coincidence that a close friend of Leia's, someone who apparently holds the last missing piece of map to find Luke, lives so close by to Rey? Especially considering how well he knows Kylo Ren--it would seem that he knew Ben Solo before he fell to the dark side, and that he knows Kylo still feels the pull to the light, partially because of who his family is.
• "They were assisted by a girl..." The way Kylo Ren reacts to this suggests he knows who Rey is... and all he hears is that she's a girl on Jakku, who steals a freighter with Finn to help get BB-8 back to the Resistance. What does that mean? Is he the one who put her there? How did Rey end up at the same place as the stolen Millennium Falcon?
• Han Solo: At first, I was convinced Han and Leia were Rey's parents. It seemed set up that way, the way she was able to finish his sentences and what not. By the end of my first viewing, I had changed my mind, and the second viewing cemented it even more. If Han had a daughter out there somewhere... he would have recognized her when they first met (instead of planning to dump her and Finn on the nearest inhabited planet). But... and this is why I need to see it a third time! Sometime happens between him finding Rey and taking her to meet Maz, where I swear he realizes who she is. I'm not sure what could have triggered this.
• "I thought Luke Skywalker was just a myth!" A very weird thing for Rey to say if he is, in fact, her father. So not sure what to make of that.
• Han Solo part 2: As they land on Maz's planet (whatever that's called), Rey says something like, "I never knew there was so much green in the whole galaxy!" Han looks stricken when she says this. Sad for her, maybe even a little guilty... I don't know what's going on, but that line impacts him. Then they land on the planet, watch his eyes as he asks for her name... His eyes are so twitchy! Why? Is he figuring out who she is? Or is he just nervous to be offering a job? Is he doing it because of her mad skills and because he feels a little bad she's spent her life as a scavenger on Jakku, or is he reaching out to a long lost niece/daughter of a friend/etc etc? I swear he comes off as a little bit guilty there.
• Han and Maz: I might be inclined to think Han just liked Rey, no backstory required, if it weren't for his conversation with Maz. At Maz doesn't take much notice of Rey, but after Rey goes after Finn to try and convince him to stay with her, Maz asks Han, "Who's the girl?" And the scene cuts immediately. We don't know what he says, but it seems to be significant because the next time Maz sees Rey, she calls her by name and encourages her to take up Luke's light saber... the light saber that belonged to Luke and his father before him. The only thing we know Han told Maz for sure is that Rey wants to go back to Jakku, because (if I remember right) Maz says Han told her about that. She then counsels Rey not to go back, because the people who she is waiting for are never coming back. (Is that Maz being perceptive, or did Han say something? Rey hasn't told Han about her family, so... if he knows about them, he must know more about Rey's abandonment than she does). That next line confuses me... something along the lines of "They aren't coming back, but someone else could." "Luke Skywalker?" "Yes. The sense of belonging you seek lies not behind, but ahead of you." So... right there, Maz seems to imply that Luke is not Rey's family. She speaks of them separately.
• Rey's "Flashback": Okay, but now let's talk about what Rey sees when she touches Luke's light saber. First, she finds herself in the hallway where Luke and Darth Vader fought, immediately prior to Darth Vader's classic line "I am your father." This is also the scene where Luke loses the light saber. So, are we seeing the light saber's memories?!? Don't know. The next scene is Luke Skywalker, reaching out to touch R2D2. And... they are next to a fire!! Is it a Jedi funeral pyre? Then we flash to Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren, surrounded by dead bodies (presumably the other Jedi Luke was training)... and then we're in Rey's childhood, watching her be abandoned.
• So... what's going on here? I don't know. It's interesting, the sequence of events... I am curious, is it possible Rey was there when Kylo Ren did his slaughter? Did the slaughter lead to her abandonment? It's interesting that we see Luke and Kylo Ren in these "forcebacks"... more evidence that she is a Skywalker? I don't know. 
• Han again: The clincher for me on my first viewing that Rey couldn't be Han's daughter is how he reacts when Kylo Ren takes her. He freezes up, you can feel his pain at seeing his son... and that's his focus, not Rey. Compare his reaction to Finn running after her and screaming and trying to say her. (Although maybe Han just realizes it's already too late).
• Kylo Ren: He totally tries to seduce her to the dark side. No sibling vibe there... not even sure there's a cousin vibe. One of the most interesting developments at this point is that he reads her mind and sees that she puts herself to sleep by thinking of an ocean and an island... the very same place we find Luke at the end of the film. (Shauna caught that, not me.) Why is this? Does she remember that place? Has she been seeing Luke is force visions all her life? If that's how she goes to bed every night, it's not something she just picked up from touching the light saber. Also, he makes a comment that she views Han as the father she never knew. Rey never specifically talks about her parents, just about her family (I think, if I'm remembering right). Maybe she really never did know her father? And that's why she thought Luke was just a legend?
• Leia: Han and Leia talk about Rey off screen. We know this because when Finn runs up to her to ask for help rescuing Rey, she says, "I know, Han told me." They must have had this discussion while they were talking about Kylo Ren. What did he tell her? My theory is that it's something significant about her identity, which is why Leia greets her with a hug when they meet. Yes, they're both mourning Han, but they've never met. Why does Leia go to her instead of Chewy? It's because Han has told her who Rey really is...
• Poe: My friend Hayley pointed out that Poe and Rey never meet, which is sort of weird because typically in the first act, you want to introduce all the main characters. It may have just been cut for time, but I'm wondering if it was intentional. Would Poe recognize Rey? Does he know something about her that random old dude told him at the beginning of the film? Is their meeting going to be hugely significant? I'm very curious. If they just meet up and say "hi" in VIII, I will be disappointed.
• Going to Find Luke: Leia sends Rey instead of going herself. This seems like a big deal to me.
• Luke: We only get like two seconds of Luke and Rey together, but there's a bit to analyze. He knows someone's behind him, he turns around, and his eyes get big. It looks like he recognizes her and he's surprised to see her... and was it just me, or did he get a little bit teary? Even if she's not his daughter, I think he knows who she really is.

So... who knows? I'm hoping we learn more about Rey in episode VIII and they don't wait until IX to reveal her identity. It makes sense for them to tell us in the middle of the story, right? That will set the stakes for the conclusion of the story.

Someone else pointed out online that however they reveal Rey's identity, they will have to do it in a way that makes Episode VII just as captivating as it is now when we don't know. Like watching the original trilogy knowing all along Darth Vader is Luke's father. Even though we don't have the same shock and surprise as people watching back in the 80s... Darth Vader's true identity only adds to the story, knowing that he is Luke and Leia's father as he does all this horrible stuff to them. So... going back and rewatching knowing who she is should add all sorts of new intrigue and insight into her relationships with all the characters she meets in Episode VII. I hope that ends up being the case.

Who do you think Rey is? 

Ponderizing: Isaiah 41:10

A Little Credit

A few company Christmas parties ago, I caught a ride back to the airport with 2 of my coworkers. One of them, a man in his late 30s-early 40s we'll call Sam, started asking me for dating advice. He was wondering if it would be okay for him to pursue a younger woman, or if that would be creepy. I encouraged him to go for it. Age is just a number, right? Our other coworker argued strongly against big age gaps in relationships, but I stood firm that if two people are compatible, age isn't such a big deal. I reminded Sam that our company president is 20 years younger than her husband, yet the 2 of them are blissfully happy. More than anything, that seemed to resonate with him.

Not long thereafter, he started dating a younger woman in our company. They got married and they seem very happy together.

Sam brought his wife to our last Christmas party. She told all of us that she'd had a crush on Sam for a while before they dated, but she didn't think that anything could happen between them. Then one time, Sam came back from a company meeting and mentioned to her that the company president was 20 years younger than her husband, but the two of them were very happy together. And that's when Sam's wife knew things could change between them.

I'm taking this as evidence that my advice to Sam helped the two of them get together. :) It probably would have happened anyway, but that made me feel pretty good!

Star Trek Beyond

Yes, I'm going to go see the new Star Wars movie and I'm looking forward to it... But this is really what I want to see!



Which is kind of funny because I am a Star Trek purist and I don't like the new Star Trek movies that much... I've never quite forgiven J.J. Abrams for blowing up the planet Vulcan (THE MOST PEACEFUL planet in the franchise!) in the first one, and the second one is too much of a Wrath of Khan rehash...

Wrath of Khan is awesome, by the way. The Director had never seen Star Trek before. He dealt with its cheesiness and plot holes by deconstructing the franchise and making the characters face consequences for their actions... and it's brilliant. Almost universally hailed as the best Star Trek movie of all time. J.J. Abrams deals with the cheesiness and plot holes by playing them up in a way that's basically a parody.

But, even though the new Star Trek movies aren't my fave, I do like them. When I was a teeny little elementary school kid, I'd pretend that the characters were my age and that'd we'd play together. As an adult, it is kind of fun to see my favorite fictional characters changed to my own age. This time I hope they let Dr. McCoy have more screen time.

Goodbye Max

Today we had to say goodbye to Max.

There was an accident when I was in DC. He was accidentally run over by one of the family cars a couple nights ago. Dad and Shauna nursed him as best they could all that night and the next day. They waited for me to get home before taking him to the vet, because I think they knew already that'd we'd have to let go and that I'd want to say goodbye.

I stayed with him last night and we kept him as comfortable as we could. But he couldn't move his back legs, and occasionally he would cry out in pain.

By morning, I understood too that he needed a release from his pain and suffering. Since Dad was working, Shauna and I took him to the vet. I was still hoping maybe there would be a way to save him.

The vet told us Max's pelvis was fractured badly. It would require a very extensive surgery to reconstruct it, one that would take weeks of recovery, and there was no guarantee that he could ever use his legs again. At his age, it would be very rough on him. Or, we could let him go. He gave us some time to call our parents and make the decision.

So we called, and together as a family we decided to let him go. It was a hard decision, but I think it was kinder than him enduring the pain of such an extensive surgery. I was praying desperately for guidance, and when we made the decision, I felt a deep reassuring peace that we were making the right choice.

The vet was working two critical cases at the same time (one of them being Max) so he was gone a lot and we had time to pet Max and tell him we loved him for a long time, maybe as long as a half an hour. At first, he was frightened and moaning and trying desperately to drag himself off the table with his front legs. He doesn't like the vet's. I think he was scared to be there again, remembering past surgeries he'd had to endure, and having his humans sobbing (despite our best efforts!) just panicked him more. But soon he calmed down. He settled onto the exam table, wrapped in a blanket, and started to drift off to sleep, long before the doctor came to administer the sedative. First, the vet sedated him. Then he came back with the final injection. He warned us it would be quick, less than a minute. I was shocked that it was almost instantaneous.

But I felt peace, even in the sadness, and I know Max is better off where he is now. No more pain. He can walk again--for the past few months, even before the accident, that's been a struggle for him.

I'll miss him a lot. He was 15 and a half. I've had him for over half my life. I'm grateful that I moved back home when I did, so I could spend his last months pampering him and showing him how much I loved him. And I'm grateful that he didn't slip away last month--that we had the gift of one last month with him before he went.