If you were a Star Wars fan in 2019, you know most fan theories centered around one thing: Who is Rey? The sequel trilogy’s heroine was described as coming “from nothing,” but before 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, it seemed like everyone had a different idea of who she really was, from Rey Skywalker to Rey Kenobi to Rey Palpatine.
In the end, two of those were kind of correct: Rey was born from a discarded Palpatine clone, making her something between a daughter and a granddaughter, depending on how you look at it. But in the movie’s last moments, she took on a new name: Rey Skywalker, adopted in honor of her mentors, Luke and Leia, who are seen as Force ghosts. The abruptness of the scene and her lack of serious connection to the Skywalker family made it controversial, to say the least, but a new look at the moment shows it from a different angle.
Marvel Comics has been running an adaptation of The Rise of Skywalker, and while most of the scenes are identical to what unfolded on screen, there are some pages where the comic book form allows moments to be heightened. For example, in the movie, when Palpatine says, “I am all the Sith,” Rey responds with, “I am all the Jedi.” In The Rise of Skywalker #5, Rey’s statement is accompanied by an army of familiar Force ghosts, including Yoda, Luke, Anakin, Mace, and even Ahsoka and Kanan Jarrus, which addresses some fan criticism of that scene.
In the comics’ final pages, we see the infamous “Rey Skywalker” scene again as Rey buries Anakin’s lightsaber in the sand. But this time, it’s accompanied by a stylized quote from Palpatine, “So falls the last Skywalker,” a line he taunted Rey with earlier in the film.
It’s a subtle callback, but one that provides more justification for the “Rey Skywalker” reveal. She’s not taking on the Skywalker name just to honor Luke and Leia. She’s also doing it to prove Palpatine wrong. He can’t end the Skywalker line, because family isn’t defined by genetics alone, something she proved by defying her Palpatine blood.
The Rise of Skywalker is already half a decade old, but it’s still the latest Star Wars movie, so it’s not too late to go back and show what could have been. Just as the novelization added more introspection to Rey’s character, the comic can show how this moment didn’t have to come from out of nowhere — it was foreshadowed in plain sight.
