'Rise of Skywalker' Theory: Is Rey's Big Twist Ripped From Star Wars Game?

Some Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker plot rumors from May 2018 had distinct Knights of the Old Republic vibes, but one new fan theory about the truth behind Rey’s identity would steal a huge twist from the beloved Star Wars video game. Did someone use the Force to tamper with Rey’s memory?

Warning! Possible spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ahead.

Redditor u/neptultra shared this theory to the r/StarWarsSpeculation subreddit on Monday about how The Rise of Skywalker could borrow a big twist about Rey’s identity from Knights of the Old Republic that would make her a figure that resembles Darth Revan in some fashion. This isn’t technically canon these days, but thousands of years before the Star Wars movie take place, Darth Revan was a Jedi who defied the Jedi Council and went to war for the Republic. He eventually turned to the Dark Side and became a Sith Lord. Then, a group of Jedi heroes defeated him in combat and the Council wiped his memories.

You play as Revan in Kotor, but the game begins with your character as an amnesiac blank slate, allowing him to turn back to the Light or Dark (his secret identity is the big twist revealed later in the game). So is it possible that Rey experienced similar mind tampering before the events of The Force Awakens?

This theory notes various “thematic and stylistic callbacks” in the new trilogy that resonate with KOTOR, namely the archaic look of Kylo Ren’s armor and lightsaber, along with the Knights of Ren designs.

“She perhaps was trained as a Darksider and was placed on Jakku with false memories, believing she had been there her whole life when she was only there a couple years or something,” they write. “Something is definitely up with her sense of time and who she really is.”

The Force Awakens presented Rey as a random scavenger who, without training, developed a miraculous natural affinity for using Force powers. The Last Jedi had Kylo Ren tell Rey that she was a “nobody.” And yet, actress Daisy Ridley (who plays Rey) has already confirmed that we’ll learn more about Rey’s lineage in The Rise of Skywalker.

There’s definitely some kind of narrative disconnect here that feels like a plot hole. While that may just be due to creative differences between J.J. Abrams — director of The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker — and The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, it could also be because they’re collectively building towards a big reveal just like this in Episode IX. Theorizing that at least one of her parents was a Skywalker, Solo, or Kenobi has been popular for years now, but there’s another potential explanation about what makes Rey so special. Whether or not she was trained in the Dark or Light side of the Force, she may have had minimal training before having her memory wiped.

Rey was born 15 years after the Battle of Yavin and abandoned on Jakku at the age of five, so that’s around 20 ABY. We don’t know when exactly Luke founded his new academy at the Jedi Temple, but certain details from the canon Star Wars novel Bloodline imply that Ben Solo began his Jedi training around this same time, when he was a teenager. Within the timeline, it’s possible that Luke discovered Rey as a young Force-sensitive girl but detected something special about her that led him to hide her on Jakku rather than train her. Ben Solo didn’t turn on Luke and become Kylo Ren until sometime in 28 ABY or later.

This theory about Rey’s memory being tampered with could relate to any number of popular Rise of Skywalker fan theories out there. Is Rey a Palpatine clone? What if she’s secretly a weapon created by the Dark Side and Luke Skywalker wiped her memory to give her a chance at moving towards the Light?

One recent leak posits some kind of connection between Keri Russell’s Zorri Bliss and Luke Skywalker’s Force Ghost, but this remains unconfirmed. The ship that Rey remembers in her Force Vision from The Force Awakens, the one that left her on Jakku, resembles the new ship flown by Zorri Bliss in The Rise of Skywalker footage so far. If all of this is true, then Luke Skywalker may have worked with Zorri Bliss before the new trilogy to hide the young Rey on Jakku.

All of this is pure speculation, but for The Rise of Skywalker to borrow the biggest twist from Knights of the Old Republic would be a great way to reconcile Rey’s identity in a way that could probably appease any Star Wars fan.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released December 20, 2019.