Warning: I have no idea if I’ve stumbled on to something here or am just pounding sand, but IF I’m right you’d be depriving yourself of a hell of a twist by reading this. Also, I put this in the general TLJ tag because it’s speculation for that movie, but if you’re for or against particular parentage theories and/or ships read the tags before proceeding. There  is also a lot of death, violence, trauma and disturbing imagery in this post and a mention of pedophilia (not in support of it, obvs) so exercise caution.

I keep reading theories and headcanons about how Rey was abandoned on Jakku after the destruction of Luke’s school for Jedi, and I find it compelling except for the big glaring timeline problems outlined below. I still feel drawn to the idea, though, and I’ll try to show that this may, in fact, be what happened. I will also discuss some other problems this theory may solve (why Jakku? who left her there?) and how this might put an entirely new spin on Kylo’s and Rey’s stories. Buckle in.

The timeline problem with Rey being left on Jakku after the school’s destruction is that the destruction took place years after Rey’s abandonment. We know that Ben had not yet fallen as of Claudia Gray’s Bloodline, six years prior to the events of The Force Awakens, and the destruction of the school happened after the events of Bloodline when Ben learned of his heritage–that he was the grandson of Darth Vader. By then Rey would have been thirteen years old, far too old to be the child shouting “Come back!”

Right?

Let’s stop right here and unpack the assumptions we’ve made. Here are the facts we know, or think we know, about the destruction of Luke’s school:

Assumption #1: The destruction took place after Ben switched his allegiance and became Kylo Ren.

Assumption #2: Kylo Ren’s fall took place in or after 28 ABY, after the events of Bloodline.

Assumption #3: Kylo Ren killed the Jedi students and destroyed the school.

What if none of these assumptions is true, at least without heavy qualification? It would change quite a lot of what we think we know about the characters and their backgrounds, that’s for certain.

I want to make this very clear, what would not change is the fact that Kylo Ren is a fascist enforcer and mass murderer. This entire post can be summarized as “Cool motive, still murder.” I’m simply wondering if the motive might be so cool that it changes the entire game.

All right, let’s dive in below the cut.

Assumption #1: The destruction took place after Ben switched his allegiance and became Kylo Ren.

Let’s start with the first assumption, that the destruction of the school happened after Kylo Ren’s fall, that is after the events of Bloodline in 28 ABY.

Well, what if I told you it may have happened a lot sooner than that? Impossible, right? I mean, it’s laughable! Anyone who read Bloodline or has a passing familiarity with the new canon materials knows that Ben was traveling across the galaxy with his master Uncle Luke, frequently out of communication with Leia and Han. I mean, if he’d already destroyed the school by this point how could he… be traveling… all the time…

Wait a minute. Is there proof that the school existed at the time of Bloodline? Luke certainly wasn’t acting like most schoolmasters if he was incommunicado much of the time. Why was he traveling so much if he had a school to run?

I combed through my e-book copy of Bloodline for different search terms–”Luke,” “school,” “Jedi,” “Temple,” “Ben” and so on. And while the book said Luke was a Jedi, duh, there was no reference to other Jedi, or to a Jedi school or Jedi Temple in current existence. This itself seems odd, since this was nearly thirty years after the Battle of Yavin, twenty-three years since the war with the Empire ended. Shouldn’t there be a new generation of Jedi already?

The closest reference I could find to the existence of other Jedi and the possibility of a school was this passage:

[Luke] Skywalker had been so long away on his strange quest for the lore of the Jedi that he no longer had much influence outside his own acolytes. He was a figure of myth more than one of flesh and blood.

So Luke has “acolytes,” which seems to hint at followers and possible graduates of his academy. Still, does it strike anyone as odd that he has so little influence? If he left these acolytes in charge of the school in his absence, presumably he would have more influence through these teachers and their own pupils. Yet that doesn’t seem to be the case, as though there had been some disruption that broke that chain.

I also talked to @absolxguardian, who unlike me has actually finished the book (and for the record is against my madcap theory so don’t blame her), and she confirmed that she does not recall a direct reference to a school. If you’ve found any, please inform me and we can all have a good laugh at how I was obsessing over nothing.

For now, if you want to come deeper down the rabbit hole with me, you’ll have to accept that there is at least some basis to think that Luke’s school was destroyed before 28 ABY, say, a little less than a decade earlier? Maybe prompting Luke to go away on his strange quest and fade into legend? Without that premise none of what comes below works.

Assumption #2: Kylo Ren’s fall took place in or after 28 ABY, after the events of Bloodline.

Let’s move on to Assumption #2, that Kylo Ren’s fall took place on or after 28 ABY, presumably after he learned that Vader was his granddad. You can see how grabbing and shaking Assumption #1 weakens Assumption #2 as well. If the school was destroyed long before 28 ABY and Ben had something to do with it, then clearly it wasn’t just the extra branch in the family tree that sent him over the edge. He had already gone over, or was at least hovering around the edge, for some time now.

But wait, it was Ben who was accompanying Luke on his travels to esoteric holy places. If the timeline went as I proposed above, how could he have fooled his uncle, a Jedi, so completely?

Jedi have been fooled before, though. That was pretty much the plot of the prequel trilogy. Maybe Ben was a manipulator on par with Palpatine or he wasn’t (he wasn’t), but he may have had a master manipulator on his side. That’s right. Snoke, the guy Leia says was watching Ben from the shadows and manipulating him.

One excellent way for Ben to be in his uncle’s good graces and not fall under suspicion was to bond over their shared tragedy, the destruction of the Jedi school–remember, acceptance is the price of entry to this rabbit hole!–and their status as traumatized survivors. What an act! Why, he must be as good an actor as Adam Driver to pull that off!

But what if it wasn’t all an act? Which brings me to the third assumption…

Assumption #3: Kylo Ren killed the Jedi students and destroyed the school.

This is the part that is going to get me anons, and possibly a defamation suit if I’m wrong and fictional characters can sue. Here’s where the cool motive part comes in, and may unravel all the pesky details of Rey’s abandonment that have been troubling me. Step deeper down the hole with me.

What if it wasn’t Ben who killed the students.

What if it was Rey.

Yes, tiny, maybe five-year-old Rey, with skinny arms and her piping child’s voice. That Rey. I told you this would get me anons.

I mean, why would she? Not out of malice, obviously. I don’t believe for a second Rey is a murderer, but rather a weapon. I haven’t worked out the exact mechanics, but much like my earlier Rey Solo theory, I think Snoke may have turned her raw power against the students, killing them. Maybe she was a student, maybe she was a visitor, but whatever she was there for that day, things turned deadly and it became a day of indelible tragedy.

Now that we’re far enough down the rabbit hole and know what we’re working with here, let’s take a freefall down Headcanon Shaft. It’s quickest, and hopefully entertaining, to tell it in fic form without all the qualifications and hedging, so bear with me. Just remember that I’m not telling a definitive version of this theory, simply presenting one way it could work.

A note on the relationship between Ben/Kylo and Rey: This theory works best with Rey Solo as Ben’s sister, but could also work for Rey Skywalker. It might even work with Rey Kenobi, Rey Random etc., though with a big dose of “why?” (One particular part of the headcanon only works if Rey is Vader’s granddaughter, but the theory could work without that part.) I will use the name “Rey” for the purpose of this headcanon, though as a theorist I prefer “Breha.”

I hope it will become clear, though, that even with Kylo and Rey being unrelated this version of events pretty much closes out the possibility of romance between them.

“One boy, an apprentice turned against him, destroyed it all.”

Rey is unconscious, having spent even her incredible powers. She looks so small among the wreckage and the other children and the adults who tried to defend them, with one difference–her chest rises and falls, where the others’ never will again.

Ben knows. He has gone from body to body, checking, searching, hoping. Now he kneels by Rey’s side, among the fragments of the world they used to inhabit.

But one thing is clear through the fog of shock and sorrow. This wasn’t Rey’s fault, and he has to protect her by any means necessary.

It’s at this point that his trusty advisor, this wondrous man who’s been teaching him so many secrets of the Force, whispers through their link that she can never live a normal life now, that the vengeful surviving Jedi will come for her and lock her away forever. She has to be hidden in a place where she can’t hurt others or attract attention.

But where? Ben asks, sobbing, cradling Rey’s tiny body in his arms. Her clothes, her skin, her hair are stained with the blood of other children, which he tries to wipe away only to smear it around.

Jakku, comes the answer, and Ben’s heart tries to both sink and lift at once. It is a place powerful in concentrated Force energies that will tamp down on Rey’s powers, keeping her and others safe. But it is so remote and far away, it’ll be just like losing her.

There is also no other choice if he wants to keep her free and others safe at the same time. He swears to her that he will clear her name, make the galaxy a safe place for her so that he can bring her back and she can once again live in her own name.

He must act quickly before the adults return. He burns the ruined school down so that Rey’s body will not be missed among the others, apologizing to the dead students and their families. The fire glints red off his tears.

Then he takes the Millennium Falcon, his father’s ship that his parents were using to visit, lays Rey in the back, and launches off. This time he apologizes to his father. He has a feeling he will be making a great many silent apologies in the years to come.

He uses a Force trick his friend teaches him to silence the memories from Rey’s mind. His heart aches again, but again he has no choice. If she remembers who she is she will try to make her way back, and all will be ruined. She could spend her life locked up, might hurt other people again.

Most of all, though, he doesn’t want her to have the memories he will carry for the rest of his days. Just sparing her that may be worth all of this.

She wakes up during the hyperspace jump and is confused but happy enough to chat perched in the copilot’s seat, though he can see she has no clear memory of him. He keeps her entertained by talking to her and distracting her with the old knick-knacks on the ship. He tells her they are taking a trip and will be home soon.

Once he lands on Jakku his will nearly gives out, but he has come too far and this is the only way. “Wait here,” he tells her, seized with the terror that she will wander away and he will never find her again. “I’ll come back for you! It will be all right.”

He exchanges the Millennium Falcon for a freighter with instructions to get rid of the ship, his heart bleeding at the thought of his father. He does not look back as he boards his new ship and leaves Jakku behind.

“Come back!” she screams, though he cannot possibly hear her at this distance through the hull of his ship. He makes the jump to hyperspace too soon, almost hoping to disintegrate. Her voice echoes through the Force for a long time.

He sends out a distress signal when he is safely away from Jakku. When found, he tells a story about how the school’s attackers kidnapped him and he managed to escape. He’s not sure how good it was. The adults, already ashen and dazed, likely do not have the heart to prod and have their world collapse on them once again. He knows what that feels like.

Over the years the secret expands inside him until it threatens to spew out every time he opens his mouth, so he stops talking. About anything that matters, anyway. Every time his mother goes expressionless and numb, every time his father travels away without word when he’ll be back, Ben grits his teeth and clamps down until his ears ring.

“I just never should have sent him away. That’s when I lost him.”

When Luke decides to seek the lore of the Jedi instead of rebuilding the school and asks whether Ben wants to come, he jumps at the chance. Home was becoming unbearable, and he has his own reasons to seek knowledge of the Force. Leia is hesitant but Ben persuades her to let him go. He needs to continue his training, he tells her, and Luke could use the backup. His father is all right with the idea. Ben doubts he even cares. He watches his mother spend her evenings alone and despises the man.

Ben has another reason to stay close to Luke’s side: He knows Luke wants answers about the night his school was massacred. That’s all right, though, with his friend to advise him Ben can find out ten times as much as Luke and stay ahead. And if Luke gets too close to the truth, Ben can kill him.

The first time the thought occurs to him it frightens Ben. Then it comes again, and again, and he grows used to it.

He often wonders during his travels whether Luke suspects anything. At night, when his uncle sometimes turns and cries out, he wonders if it wouldn’t be more merciful to end his misery. He certainly wishes someone would do him the same kindness.

He sleeps with a cloth stuffed in his mouth so he would not cry out something fatal in his sleep. He tries to picture Rey but cannot imagine what she might look like now.

“There was nothing we could’ve done. There was too much Vader in him.”

Almost a decade into their travels Ben is a man, and has learned a great deal but is no closer to solving Rey’s puzzle. Then Luke sits him down and tells him the truth about who he and his sister’s father was, throwing aside the lie they had been telling Ben, the galaxy, all these years.

Ben realizes at that moment that there will be no peace or freedom for Rey or for him. If the universe is to be made safe for Rey to reveal herself, there must be no Force users left to threaten her.

There is a way, his trusty friend tells him. Gentle and noxious as dust on the wind comes a name: The Knights of Ren.

It’s just as well. Once the killings begin they will think he was the Jedi Killer from the school, and it is no lie. That is what he will become, there was just a small time difference. It will make things better for Rey, and that is all that matters.

That night Ben leaves the camp. He looks back one more time at Luke’s sleeping face, troubled in the firelight. He toys with the idea of ending things here, but turns and leaves instead.

He might come to regret it, but regret has become an old, old friend. He is twenty-four years old.

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In which I deal with a torrent of objections

If you’re still with me, you probably hate me. Let me answer a few of the possible objections and go into how this theory helps fit some of the puzzle pieces together.

But Ducain stole the Millennium Falcon from Han!

That’s what Han said. Who’s to say his information was accurate? In my version of this theory he and Unkar Plutt were told that story by the same person, Ben Solo.

But since there is evidently text in the incredible cross-sections book about Ducain refurbishing the gun turret while he had the Falcon, let me propose an alternate timeline: Ducain stole the Falcon from Plutt’s parking lot and kept it for a time, during which time he invested in the aforementioned enhancement. The Irving Boys stole it from him, and then Plutt stole it back. Han tracked the train of custody down as far as Ducain, so he assumed old Duc had stolen it directly from him.

Much as in my earlier Rey Solo theory, this version of events adds a layer of emotion and urgency to Han’s search for the Falcon. Since its disappearance is tied to the events at the school, Han would be looking for answers as well as the ship itself. It also explains why he seemed resigned but cool with (evidently) not having the Falcon in Bloodline but was super keen to find it in The Force Awakens: With the revelation of his son’s duplicity it became a much more urgent question for him.

So why didn’t Unkar Plutt get rid of the Falcon?

Does Unkar strike you as a good-faith kinda guy? Ben probably didn’t instruct him to keep Rey in a half-starved state of indentured servitude, either. Plutt also probably knew the ship and smelled a bigger payday down the road. (Anyone else getting a Cossette and the Thénardiers vibes?)

This theory is incredibly white-prioritizing, to have the entire plot and twists wrapped around these two characters and to creat this incredibly convoluted back story just to make Kylo seem sympathetic.

Yes, it is. Unfortunately, given the way Rian is talking I think that makes this theory or something like it all the likelier to happen.

It’s also sexist as fuck, to reduce Rey to an object to be used by Snoke and “saved” by Kylo Ren, and to inflict this undeserved trauma on her.

I completely agree. I hate it, actually, but it does seem to tie a lot of things together and… did I mention I hate it?

This is Reylo and I hate/love you for it!!

This is actually the most anti Reylo theory right up there with Rey Solo (which is likely to be true if something like this happens, because come on). Even if Ben did all this for a girl totally unrelated to him, which is unlikely, if this backstory results in a romance it would be the creepiest grooming bullshit of all time. It would be even worse than if Rey and Kylo had never met before TFA. It’s arguably abusive even without the romance aspect.

Speaking of which, JJ said Kylo and Rey never met!

So we’re into believing JJ now? Not only does he have a track record on this point, why the heck are you believing the cast and crew whose job (well, part of it) is to mislead you? He can always walk that comment back with “never met in this movie” and such.

There are a whole lot of other objections, but you’re too tired and on edge to think of them at the moment.

Correct. Have at ‘em in the asks, reblogs, comments etc. Keep your capslock on. We have to fill the time somehow until TLJ opens, right?

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So is this theory actually good for anything?

I should hope so, since I’m staying awake until an ungodly hour to type it up. Here are some of its advantages, as I see it.

1. It gives Kylo Ren the sympathetic back story we were promised, but doesn’t make him a puppet or a secret good guy. It also shows the depth of Snoke’s manipulation while also giving Kylo Ren agency.

2. It explains the Millennium Falcon’s presence within sight of Rey all these years, for as long as she can remember according to Rey’s Survival Guide.

3. It gives emotional depth to Rey’s fascination with pilot imagery, which was also a big part of my previous Rey Solo theory but which never quite fit because I couldn’t think of how to make it emotionally satisfying on a visceral level.

Rey knew that she was waiting for a pilot, hence her sense of comfort from wearing a pilot helmet, keeping a pilot doll, doing flight sims and so on. While it’s unlikely Ben was in a Rebel flight suit there was plenty of Rebel and Empire paraphernalia to be found from the ruins of battle, and she may have made the association. Something probably told her it wasn’t an Empire pilot she was waiting for because oh, the irony…

4. It explains why Rey had to be left on Jakku, which just happens to be a pivotal place in the new canon. absolxguardian’s excellent Rey Palpatine theory also addresses this.

5. “WHAT GIRL?” Kylo Ren heard “Corellian YT model freighter” and “girl” and immediately made the connection. Under this theory, he was probably thinking the whole time about where Rey was in relation to his location and later the location of the search parties.

And remember how pissy he got with Hux about the droid being recovered, not destroyed? I mean I bet he’d love to have a chat with Uncle Luke and all, but was he also trying to set limits on how destructive the mission could be (as in, no bombing from orbit)? Of course it turned out to be plenty dangerous for Rey anyway, but I think we’ve established by this point that Kylo Ren is a master of intellectual and moral laziness, seeing only what he wants to see.

6. It explains Lor San Tekka and the Church of the Force’s presence on Jakku so near Rey in a “correlation is not causation” kind of way. They were there for the same reasons, Jakku’s being some kind of important Force spot. Rey’s presence did not cause San Tekka to be there, but it was also not a coincidence that they were there at the same time.

7. Speaking of which, “There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it?” This line was spoken after Rey left Jakku.

8. Then there’s this part of a deleted scene of Kylo searching the Falcon:

[Image description: Kylo Ren stands in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, hunched over and clutching the backs of the pilot’s and copilot’s seats]

See how he’s gripping the copilot’s seat closer with his right arm bent more than the left, almost like he has an arm around someone’s shoulders? Is he remembering the last time he saw little Rey in this chair? I always thought he looked like he was in some sort of pain here, and with my theory goggles on I the pain might have been even sharper and more immediate than I thought at first.

At the end of this cut he says to himself, “Han Solo.” But why? Did he really need to grab the seats to feel his father’s presence? Dude, I don’t have the Force and I could have told you it was Han just by looking at the damned ship. It’s the Millennium Falcon! That crashed through an impregnable shield! How much surer can you get, sniff the seats for Essence du Ford?

No, I don’t think the “Han Solo” line was him feeling his father’s presence. I think he was steeling himself for what he had to do. Yes, I’m going there. Yes, I do believe…

9. This theory explains why Kylo Ren “had” to kill Han. Again, this works best with Rey Solo, but could fit Rey Skywalker, Rey Random etc.

Think about it. He knew from early on from Snoke, in the “There’s been an awakening” scene, that Han was with Rey. Han had talked to her. He could have recognized her, especially if she was his daughter. Rey’s entire cover, the whole reason for Kylo’s existence for the past 15 years, was about to be blown.

Doesn’t that put Snoke’s comment in the earlier scene, that this was going to be a test such as Kylo had never faced, in a whole new context? Kylo knew it then, and he’s realizing it anew: It’s too soon for Rey to be known. Han has to go.

“I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” Kylo’s words to his father. If killing Han is for Rey’s protection, the idea that he “has” to do it takes on a whole new gutwrenching meaning.

The “Thank you” at the end might well have been genuine–thank you for dying to protect her. I won’t forget this.

And when Han touched his son’s face before he fell? He may well have realized the truth he may have suspected, what his son had been carrying all these years. It was monstrous, it was unthinkable, and yet he understood.

Because Han might have done the same.

10. From the novelization, when Rey catches the lightsaber: “It is you.”

11. “I’ve seen this raw strength only once before.”

What if it wasn’t Ben that Luke was talking about here, but Rey?

012. “Something inside me has always been there. But now it’s awake, and I need help.”

She sounds thrilled about what’s awakening in her, doesn’t she? Why is Rey so terrified of the Force, anyway?

13. “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you’re meant to be.”

Hmmmm

14. “Fulfill… your… destiny!”

HMMMMMMM

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“This isn’t going to go the way you think!”

I really don’t think Rey’s parentage is going to be the SHOCKING REVEAL we’ve been promised, not like Luke’s parentage in The Empire Strikes Back. The “I am your father!” line was shocking because we weren’t thinking about it and nobody saw it coming. If his parentage had been left as an open loop that fans had been given three years to obsess over, someone would have come up with Vader as the father because that’s dramatically appropriate. Or, you know, because everyone would have been Luke’s father by the time ESB rolled around.

With Rey, the parentage was teased from the first and fans have already come up with every theory under the sun and from where the sun don’t shine. That’s not a shocking reveal, it has to be handled for maximum emotional satisfaction and not for shocks.

The twist has to be something we’re not looking at, and we should be looking at Kylo Ren. The amount he has been talked up, the gushing about what a relatable villain he is, cannot be a coincidence even if it’s distasteful to me. 

In this post I’ve presented several assumptions that fans have been holding without question, much like Luke’s father being a) dead and b) killed by Darth Vader. I showed how they can be twisted within the bounds of known canon. Whether I’m right or wrong about this theory, the actual twist is going to do something similar by tackling our unexamined assumptions and totally blindsiding us.

I hope you’ve found this exercise entertaining, whatever the twist turns out to be. Hopefully we’ll all find something to enjoy in The Last Jedi.