Having thoroughly spoiled myself prior to The Force Awakens’ release (thanks Making Star Wars!), one of the few mysteries I was eager to see resolved was the question of Rey’s parentage. In fact, I was so eager to see Rey’s parents revealed that the film’s failure to disclose that information actually soured my experience of watching it for the first time. Thankfully, I re-assessed things after my second viewing and now feel they were right to hold the mystery over. Though they damn well better answer the question in VIII. Let’s just say I’ll be seriously pissed if they still pussy foot around it at that point.

Rey, on account of her tragic and obscure backstory ™ and incredible strength in the Force, is very clearly a someone. While we can speculate on who she is exactly, the film is kind enough to present us with many clues. The most important things we can glean from The Force Awakens are as follows:

1. Han and Kylo both know - or at the very least suspect they know - who she is. There are scenes that show both characters about to launch into a discussion of her (Kylo with a First Order stooge, Han with Maz), but they are cut away from abruptly before we can witness what is actually said. In the novelisation, Kylo exclaims “it is you!” when Rey summons Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber through the Force - whatever his suspicions, they are confirmed in that moment.

2. It is heavily implied that Kylo knows Rey was left on Jakku. His response to hearing that a “girl” was involved with BB8 on the planet is violent and instantaneous, betraying clear - and vindicated - paranoia over Rey’s involvement.

3. Rey was left on Jakku with Unkar Plutt as a five-year-old, and grew up with the vague - and apparently untrue - story that her family would one day return for her.

4. While aware of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo as legendary figures, Rey demonstrates no prior familiarity with Han Solo upon meeting him.

5. Rey had some kind of involvement with Luke’s Jedi school, and her Force-induced vision implies she was present at the slaughter. While the imagery is obscure and non-definitive, it seems that Kylo may have killed one of his own men to protect Rey.

6. Rey has incredible strength in the Force, and a clear affinity with Luke’s lightsaber - it is intended for her, and its promise and power are only fulfilled when she wields it. She is also strongly implied to be drawing upon buried knowledge of the Force in the final act of the film (when she uses the Jedi mind trick, and during the duel).

7. R2D2, who had been dormant since Luke’s exile, comes alive again in Rey’s presence, revealing the missing part of the map needed to find Luke.

8. Rey and Leia embrace in a manner that suggests some kind of deep bond - their few brief interactions make little sense if they are strangers, and Leia’s conduct with Finn (civil, congratulatory but formal) should be contrasted with her conduct with Rey (warm, proud and affectionate).

9. When Rey and Luke face each other at the end of the film, their expressions betray some level of familiarity with the other person. Both are overcome with emotion, with Rey being particularly moved by the sight of him.

While I’m aware that this isn’t the answer many Reylo shippers want, all of this evidence leads me to strongly suspect that Rey is Luke’s lost daughter. All of the scattered ingredients set out above point to this, and it would also make the most sense in light of the repeated comments from Lucasfilm that the new films will continue the Skywalker saga. While Kylo has Skywalker blood, I don’t believe Disney would choose to have the legacy of the saga distilled into a character who murdered his own father in cold blood.

If I were to attempt to reconstruct Rey’s history, I’d say that she was the daughter of Luke Skywalker and an unknown female partner. Demonstrating incredible strength in the Force from her earliest infancy, her father began teaching her when she was very young, and she became one of his star pupils. Her incredible promise and power attracted the resentment of her already disaffected adolescent cousin Kylo, since he felt that he had been supplanted as the one true heir of the Skywalker dynasty. Snoke exploited this fear and jealousy, which eventually saw him turn to the dark side and commit himself to its cause.

Kylo hid his betrayal for some time, waiting until Luke was away from the academy before assembling a group willing to support him - the Knights of Ren - and wipe out the new Jedi order. With Luke away and almost all of the students younger and weaker than Kylo, the slaughter was quick and pitiless. Kylo was caught up in the thrill of the moment, the power of killing, until he heard Rey screaming. He follows the sound and finds one of his own men preparing to kill her - Rey’s mother lies dead beside her, with the child clutching at her body. Before the knight can deliver the killing blow, Kylo strikes him down (as seen in the vision). He is overcome with remorse and self-doubt upon looking the distraught child in the eyes, and starts to panic. He realises that he can’t leave Rey behind for her father to find, but also finds himself incapable of killing her. Instead, he opts to distort and suppress her memories and take her somewhere he believes she will never be traced to - the desert world of Jakku. He takes her to the first outpost he finds, paying off the scavenger Unkar Plutt to raise her in obscurity and ensure she remains entirely ignorant of her history.

I feel this explanation would work well, providing appropriate twists and shocks and making good sense of the information we have so far. It makes the most sense for Kylo to have left Rey behind with a despicable junk boss - I can’t see Luke, presumably a loving and doting father, doing that under any circumstances. It also makes sense of how Han, Kylo and Leia interact with her. Han suspects she is Luke’s daughter, the lost child who he had long believed dead at the hand of his own son. Kylo realises that she is his cousin, the little child who has always highlighted his own weakness grown up and empowered. Leia knows - intuitively, through the Force - that Rey is her blood relative, a girl robbed of her childhood who she is now dispatching to be reunited with her father.

In the novelisation, Rey hears a familiar voice tell her “I’ll come back, sweetheart. I promise.” I don’t believe those were the words of whoever abandoned her to a life of destitution and misery on Jakku. I instead believe those were the words of Luke Skywalker, comforting his daughter when saying goodbye, when he departed from his academy prior to the slaughter.

But those are just my thoughts! What’s your take on all of this?