What if Rey’s real purpose in the universe is to bring balance to the Force by ending the Skywalker lineage? That’s the crux of a new Star Wars: Episode IX fan theory that essentially labels her the Antichrist, but not in the satanic sense.
On Thursday, redditor u/McSlever posted a complex new Star Wars theory to the r/FanTheories subreddit titled “Rey the Anti-Christ (Star Wars Theory)”. McSlever fuses together a smattering of theories we’ve heard before: Snoke is Darth Plagueis, Anakin was immaculately conceived, Rey has no real parents, etc. It relies heavily on Palpatine’s quote from Revenge of the Sith: “Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the Midi-chlorians to create … life.” The assumption is that before even the prequel trilogy, Darth Plagueis created Anakin as a Christ-like figure to eradicate the Jedi and the Sith.
“Snoke would reveal that he was Darth Plagueis, and Anakin’s creator,” McSlever theorizes. “Plagueis discovers the true nature of the Force, and creates Anakin in order to return it back into balance, by destroying the Jedi and the Sith.”
Palpatine chatting up Anakin.
Palpatine, of course, is actually Darth Sidious and supposedly the one that killed Darth Plagueis in his sleep. Eventually, Plagueis is able to use his powers to resurrect himself as Snoke, which is why Snoke looks so scarred and decrepit. “He quickly finds Ben Solo, the grandson of his creation, and wants to have his own Darth Vader,” McSlever writes. “However, this all changes when he encounters Rey.”
Why?
The logic here is that Darth Plagueis manufactured Anakin Skywalker to destroy the Jedi and Sith, but rather than bring balance to the Force, his artificial creation created an unnatural imbalance. This eventually compelled the Force itself to respond by creating Rey.
“In the cave in *The Last Jedi,” McSlever writes, “Rey looks to see where she comes from and only sees herself … because she is the first of her lineage.” In essence, she’s the natural child of the Force sent to correct Anakin, who may or may not be some kind of Dark Side abomination.
In The Last Jedi, Snoke did say, “Darkness rises, and light to meet it,” when analyzing Rey, adding, “I warned my young apprentice that as he grew stronger, his equal in the light would rise.”
So in the current trilogy, despite their romantic tension, Rey and Kylo Ren are diametrically opposed. At the very least, the Force imbues Rey with more power because the Light Side doesn’t have anybody to balance it out.
But what if the Force actually created Rey for the very purpose of eliminating the Skywalker lineage and restoring true balance to the Force? Maybe Rey is what Yoda meant all those years ago when he said, “There is another.”
If Anakin is the Christ figure, born of immaculate conception, then that makes Rey the anti-Christ. Her destiny is to end him and the entire Skywalker line.
Kylo Ren battles Rey in 'The Force Awakens.'
Interestingly enough, if this were the case then it would simultaneously confirm the revelation in The Last Jedi about Rey’s parentage while also making her lineage really important. Her “parents” could still be nobody in the literal sense, but her legacy in this story is perhaps the most important of all as the real Chosen One.
Rian Johnson’s future Star Wars trilogy has been billed as “separate from the episodic Skywalker saga” since it was first announced in November 2017, so perhaps Episode IX will truly close out the Skywalker saga for good.
All the Skywalkers have ever done is throw the Force out of balance in one way or the other, and if The Last Jedi taught us anything, it’s that the Jedi and the Sith need to end for a more egalitarian future that finds a truer balance in the Force.
Star Wars: Episode IX is scheduled for release in theaters on December 20, 2019.
