While Rey is a pilot, she'd still need to buy a ship, rent one or gain passage, which isn't easy for someone who barely earns enough to eat, information that is conveyed in what I consider the sequel trilogy's triumphant example of Show Dont Tell. It's clear that Rey's life on Jakku is not very pleasant, even worse than Luke's life on Tatooine, and the belief that her parents would come back for her was one of the few things keeping her going.
As a bit of friendly advice from someone who's made the same mistake (unless you happen to know already), TV Tropes doesn't enforce the character limit when you first submit a review, which is why you were able to submit a review that is 6,671 characters, more than twice as long as the limit. As such, it's entirely possible to write a review that's too long without realizing it, and only be informed when you go back to edit it.
Length aside, the review tends to talk a bit too much about what direction you think the film should have taken on one plot thread, rather than the direction it did actually take. While it does raise some valid points about an important part of the story, most viewers aren't solely concerned about Rey's parentage, and the filmmakers aren't going to look here for advice on how to improve, so the review isn't very helpful.
I think it would be unrealistic if she didn\'t care at all to learn about her parents, given the character\'s personality and situation there. That doesn\'t mean it couldn\'t have been handled better.
You say that you felt "meh" about the ideas in TLJ regarding Rey's parentage. That's legit, and I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong, but I did want to add my perspective.
The idea in TLJ wasn't "you don't have to come from a powerful bloodline to be a Jedi;" as you said in your review, there were LOTS of Jedi in the Clone Wars who were not necessarily from any kind of bloodline. No, the idea in TLJ was "you don't have to come from a powerful bloodline to be important to the plot."
And TROS nixed that by basically saying you can only be important to the plot if you come from a powerful bloodline.
@thekeyofe When you go meta on something that doesn\'t make sense in-universe, you are bound for failure. I had no hope for TROS because TLJ destroyed Rey\'s character arc with nonsensical obsession over nobodies, no actual bond between Rey and Luke, and what appears to Reylo-pandering scenes. When you take away Rey\'s potential of being Skywalker, you demote her to a side-character... supporting Kylo Ren\'s story arc.
And that\'s why they made her into a Palpatine just to put her back on the spotlight. And even then, it somehow ends up being ultimately Kylo Ren\'s story.
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The Handling of “Rey’s parents plot” has done a serious damage to the Sequel Trilogy
I really do not understand why Abrams actually created that plot as of The Force Awakens in the first place. How could THAT be so important? Why would Rey be so obsessed in finding her parents? Try to see it like this: She has been surviving by herself for YEARS. Sure, she has been lonely for so long, but hey she had a pretty decent life. Lonely, but decent life. She had problems with Unkar Plutt being abusive to her, so what? She already has piloting that could have taken her anywhere away from Jakku if she was actually willing to leave. All in all, her life was not as bad and lonely as she made it out to be. Now, TFA was clearly trying to be “realistic” Star Wars movie by making the characters act like how real-life people would act if they were in Star Wars universe. This is pretty apparent especially compared to horribly emotionless or emotionally dissonant characters in the Prequels. By that logic, shouldn’t it be more realistic if Rey didn't actually care and was more like: “If I could ever be reunited with my parents, cool. If I couldn't, well, I have been living on my own pretty well for years. So what if they never returned?” This is why her obsession to learn and find her parents is actually really annoying and wasted too much time throughout the Sequel Trilogy.
Then, TLJ went with “Rey was a nobody.” I was like, okay.... because when you think about it, LUKE freaking SKYWALKER was actually kind of nobody before learning that Darth Vader is his father. Think about this: Yeah he was told that his father Anakin was the famous Jedi hero of Clone Wars, but so what? He really didn’t know ANYTHING about his father at the time. Even if some people in Rebel Alliance knew about Anakin, they either wouldn’t believe that Luke was actually Anakin’s son or they wouldn’t know anything about Anakin at all. That is why I’m considering that, before Luke learned that Vader is his father, Luke was actually kind of nobody himself. He WAS a freaking farm boy, for the Force’s sake, he’s not a royalty like Leia was. TLJ depicted Rey had Changeling Fantasy about who her parents might be, and might be fantasizing about one of her parents being none other than one of the Original Trilogy Power Trio. But THEN AGAIN, Luke also more or less created Changeling Fantasy himself about what his father’s heroism throughout Clone Wars could be, and that’s why he’s so shocked when he learned that his father, the great war hero he had been fantasizing about, actually was THE VILLAIN.
That is why when Rian Johnson made a big deal about Rey being nobody and supposedly for inclusivity’s sake to the audiences, it really wasn’t that special for me and eventually I only said “Meh.” Especially because in The Clone Wars, we’ve already seen plenty of Jedi whose backgrounds we didn’t even know, not even they care about it. The revelation about Rey being nobody was only a big deal because of Rey’s obsession to find her, because of her Changeling Fantasy, and because it shocked her so much to know that her parents are complete losers. Again, it wouldn’t shocked her so bad if she was never so OBSESSED in finding her parents since the beginning. So, in the end, her obsession is merely annoying instead of intriguing.
I mostly blamed Abrams about this. If he never made Rey being obsessed in finding her parents since TFA, the Sequels wouldn’t be too plagued with it. Seriously when you think about it, it’s annoying that TFA ends with Rey being hopeful in finding her parents, then TLJ went with telling her that they are nobody, and then TROS went with telling her that her grandfather actually is THE VILLAIN.
Of course, I wouldn’t just give the critics and I would try to be more constructive by giving out my opinion about how this plot should’ve been handled so it could be more somewhat tolerable. Here is my opinion: Rey shouldn’t care about her parents AT FIRST because for all she knew, they might have abandoned her and she already had pretty decent life on her own in Jakku. So, it’s really not that important to find out where they might be unless she thought they’re in some kind of danger. However when Kylo Ren mind-probed her, it SERIOUSLY broke her and made her realized she’s never felt more lonely in her entire life. And THIS is where her Break the Cutie made her snap that she is suddenly obsessed to find them. The rest is pretty much the same with what happened in TLJ and TROS, but I believe the impact would’ve been stronger because the plotline would’ve been like this: 1) She’s content with her lonely life and didn’t care much if her parents were still alive 2) Kylo Ren’s mind probe broke her psychologically. She snapped and as the result, she suddenly becomes obsessed to find her parents 3) She tried to consult with Leia about this, but Leia (who may already knew since the beginning that Rey is a Palpatine) tried to convince her that she already has new family in Resistance and that she’s like a daughter to her. But this dissatisfies Rey in a somewhat similar way to when Anakin was disatisfied with Obi-Wan in AOTC, so she decides to find her parents without help 4) She found they’re nobody. She’s broken at first, but then laugh at herself and wondering why she suddenly cared about them, as she never truly cared about them until Kylo Ren messed with her mind 5) She eventually cleared her mind and is content with her past, now she’s trying to make a new life by having Jedi training under Leia, whom she started to regard as her own mother. 6) THEN she found out she’s actually granddaughter of Palpatine, the biggest bad of the galaxy. At this point, Rey has officially become Cosmic Plaything and she crossed Despair Event Horizon while running away to Achto to exile herself would’ve been more hurtful to watch, and even Luke (as Force-Ghost) would take some time to snap her back to reality.
Yeah, that’s pretty much my idea about what I think how the plot involving Rey’s parents should’ve been handled. I actually kind of agree to Abrams when he said “I completely understand 'you're nobody' is a devastating thing, to me the more painful, the more shocking thing was the idea that you're from the worst possible place. And is that thing that you feel that you know is part of you somehow, that you're haunted by, is that your destiny? And the idea that there are things more powerful than blood, as Luke says, that thing was a really important thing to convey for us.” Yeah, I don’t actually mind about Rey being a Palpatine. What I REALLY don’t like is how the plot is handled, as it plagued the Sequel Trilogy and becomes painfully clear that Abrams and Johnson were Writing by the Seat of Your Pants.