Instead of "Rey Nobody" or "Rey Palpatine" it could have been different...

[Jackalope89]

Rey Kenobi.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...072232263.html

Which, in the pre-Disney EU, Obi Wan did have a brother named "Ben", hence his alias. I don't know about her being his granddaughter/great-granddaughter, but a niece?

[Celgress]

Anything would have been better than "Rey Palpatine" (puke) so I'd have been cool with the above, although "Rey Nobody" is still my default position (I feel it would have been the best option possible for a fresh start by playing down the dynastic aspect of the old movies).

[whitecrown]

Rey Kenobi is equally as problematic if not worse because there's no story potential for conflict there. It's just making her related to a legacy character for the sake of it. Rey Palpatine, as badly executed as it was, at least brings up some sort of struggle and has deeper parallels with Kylo and the Dyad. However Rey Nobody is still superior.

[BeastieRunner]

1. Rey Palpatine
2. Rey Skywalker or Kenobi
3. Rey Nobody

Offered the most story potential.

Skywalker and Kenobi are very problematic unless the opening of TLJ with Luke was ... "You're alive!?" And that Kylo caused some kind of Force trauma to Luke to cripple him.

Nobody to me was the laziest but opened the doors to widen Star Wars.

Palpatine was the most inspired of those. I enjoyed what we got but do wish they telegraphed more of it. There was loads of potential there.

[Sacred Knight]

Any of these would have been fine if they had just decided earlier on which it was and went with it. Its the indecision till the 11th hour of the trilogy that made it land with an overall thud. I'm all for being loose with telling a story. The original trilogy worked the same way. But there's some things that still need adequate planning to some degree. For example, their change in regards to Vader's ultimate identity was something that happened in the middle, not at the end. So it still worked even if it wasn't the way it was internally in the first film. Things that big you just gotta work out earlier on. Not keep flip flopping till the journey's almost over. She was going to be a Kenobi in the first part, a nobody in the second, then by the third they'd decided she was a Palpatine. That lack of structural building shows.

[godisawesome]

Skywalker would have still been superior as it would have smothered any Reylo nonsense in the crib, and prevented Kylo Ren from being a concept that singlehandedly screwed over the Skywalker story.

[Pinsir]

The thing with the Palpatine stuff is that it would was at least addressed in the film, so it had some relevance. Kenobi is long dead, he can't have any relevance to the plot. It would just be pure fan service. Not to mention, it still reinforces the 'bloodlines matter' theme.

[SuperiorIronman]

Rey Palpatine does address things just fine. The novel is what makes it more complicated than what it ever needed to be.

Rey Kenobi means that Obi Wan had to have had a kid during the Clone Wars he just ignored or during his time on Tatooine he hit it and quit it. I'm sure it would've made Prequel Memes happy if they brought Satine's "nephew" back but basically amounts to Obi Wan looking after Luke because he's literally more important.

[godisawesome]

The thing with the Palpatine stuff is that it would was at least addressed in the film, so it had some relevance. Kenobi is long dead, he can't have any relevance to the plot. It would just be pure fan service. Not to mention, it still reinforces the 'bloodlines matter' theme.

Any attempt at fighting that “theme” died when LFL decided Kylo’s bloodline mattered more than Rey’s reaction to him or John Boyega being hired for the male lead role... so it ironically died in TLJ, the very film trying to argue bloodlines shouldn’t matter, and you can even clock it’s time of death to that point where you realize that the film doesn’t want Finn, the already confirmed “nobody” character, to do anything productive, and is going to banish Rey from the spotlight so Kylo and Luke can be the main attraction of the climax.

You give the dipshit Neo-Nazi special treatment just because of who his mommy and daddy are, in spite of him killing daddy and trying to kill mommy, and argue he should mean more to the film and the main heroine than a dude like Finn who’s on screen more, has three times as much depth, and better showcases his actor’s abilities, while simultaneously hollowing out the female heroine so she can crush on the dipshit...

...you’ve lost any right to claim egalitarianism as a theme.

At least before TLJ screwed over Rey and Finn for Kylo, you could have tried a “Rey Random” story and just bit the bullet on the Skywalkers being screwed by Kylo’s existence. Afterwards... honestly, the basically made the Trilogy Kylo’s, and Abrams made her Palpatine to try and get her *something* back, even though making her a Skywalker and straight up Geoff-Johns-ing TLJ was probably the only way to put characters back in their place.

[whitecrown]

The thing with the Palpatine stuff is that it would was at least addressed in the film, so it had some relevance. Kenobi is long dead, he can't have any relevance to the plot. It would just be pure fan service. Not to mention, it still reinforces the 'bloodlines matter' theme.

Agreed. It sounds like Kenobi was only an idea that JJ considered for TFA, especially as concept art for TLJ shows that Rian briefly considered pursuing this, but I can't imagine JJ would have ever gone this route for TROS. Especially since the whole premise of the film was Palpatine's return so at least there's a logical link to making Rey connected to him. Shoehorning a connection with a legacy character who hasn't been relevant in this entire trilogy, nor even name-dropped, would have made no sense. At least TLJ had Luke mention Sidious by name. Obi-Wan is only referred to as the Jedi Master responsible for Darth Vader.

[Anthony W]

So Disney had no plan? Guess I'll add it to the list.

List of things I was chastised for saying about the Disney Trilogy that turned out to be right.

They had no plan.
Everything came too easy for Rey.
Finn was handled poorly.
Holdo's reason for withholding her plan from everyone was stupid.
Hyperspace ramming breaks Star Wars.
Leia should have died when she was sucked out of the airlock.
Rian Johnson will not direct another Star Wars movie.
Palpatine was never meant to come back.
The Last Jedi damaged the trilogy, you just didn't notice because it was riding the goodwill The Force Awakens generated. It left no coattails for The Rise Of Skywalker to ride and actively turned some fans off Star Wars.
Rose was a poorly thought out character.
They should have let Finn sacrifice himself in The Last Jedi. You may think he wouldn't have succeeded but you are In the minority because all the casual movie viewers believed he would have succeeded.
Maz was a terrible character.
Luke was handled poorly.
Kylo was a poor villain and his look was ripped off from Revan.

[Godzilla2099]

So Disney had no plan? Guess I'll add it to the list.

List of things I was chastised for saying about the Disney Trilogy that turned out to be right.

They had no plan.
Everything came too easy for Rey.
Finn was handled poorly.
Holdo's reason for withholding her plan from everyone was stupid.
Hyperspace ramming breaks Star Wars.
Leia should have died when she was sucked out of the airlock.
Rian Johnson will not direct another Star Wars movie.
Palpatine was never meant to come back.
The Last Jedi damaged the trilogy, you just didn't notice because it was riding the goodwill The Force Awakens generated. It left no coattails for The Rise Of Skywalker to ride and actively turned some fans off Star Wars.
Rose was a poorly thought out character.
They should have let Finn sacrifice himself in The Last Jedi. You may think he wouldn't have succeeded but you are In the minority because all the casual movie viewers believed he would have succeeded.
Maz was a terrible character.
Luke was handled poorly.
Kylo was a poor villain and his look was ripped off from Revan.

Yep.

Rey's Identity would impact maybe 10 vocal fans defending her. Overall, it'd have made zero difference. Her character was stale and the story (Hell, I still don't know what that new trilogy was about) was one hot mess.

It's beyond obvious Kathleen Kennedy should be fired.

[Anthony W]

Yep.

Rey's Identity would impact maybe 10 vocal fans defending her. Overall, it'd have made zero difference. Her character was stale and the story (Hell, I still don't know what that new trilogy was about) was one hot mess.

It's beyond obvious Kathleen Kennedy should be fired.

Oh, that reminds me of I left her off the list...

Kathleen Kennedy will not have her contract renewed.

[Tofali]

The thing with the Palpatine stuff is that it would was at least addressed in the film, so it had some relevance. Kenobi is long dead, he can't have any relevance to the plot. It would just be pure fan service. Not to mention, it still reinforces the 'bloodlines matter' theme.

I agree about being a Kenobi would have been pure fan service however turning Rey in to a Palpatine also reinforced the theme that bloodline matter.

[Celgress]

I agree about being a Kenobi would have been pure fan service however turning Rey in to a Palpatine also reinforced the theme that bloodline matter.

It sure did.