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"Everything you do, everywhere you go, you have the hope of a galaxy with you." ―Leia Organa, to Rey [src]

Rey Skywalker, once known only as Rey, was a human female Jedi who fought on the side of the Resistance in the war against the First Order. A former scavenger from the planet Jakku, her life was changed by the tumultuous events of the last days of the New Republic Era. Her decision to help the droid BB-8 would set Rey on a course to discovering the Force that awakened within her, leading her to seek out Jedi Master Luke Skywalker for training. Yet despite her commitment to the Jedi Order and the light side of the Force, Rey felt the pull to the dark side due to her anger and the adversarial relationship she had with Ben Solo, a fallen Jedi whom she knew as the dark warrior Kylo Ren. The unique Force-bond between them was a result of their nature as a dyad in the Force.

Rey was born in 15 ABY during the rise of the New Republic. Her father was a bioengineered Strand-Cast cloned from the genetic template of Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord who ruled the Galactic Empire as Emperor Palpatine. The clone and Rey's mother chose to live as simple junk traders in order to hide their daughter, who inherited Sidious' connection to the Force, from his followers. After the deaths of her parents, Rey was forced to survive on her own in the Jakku desert, and became a skilled mechanic, pilot and combatant in the process. Her isolated life was disrupted shortly before war broke out across the galaxy in 34 ABY. Determined to help the Resistance, Rey gained several new allies including Finn, a renegade stormtrooper, as well as the veterans Han Solo and Chewbacca. In the course of their journey, she discovered her latent Force powers and sought guidance under Skywalker, who taught her the art of the Force despite his decision to end the Jedi legacy. After Skywalker sacrificed himself to save the Resistance, Rey assumed his mantle as the last Jedi and became the apprentice of General Leia Organa.

With the return of Darth Sidious in 35 ABY, Rey set out to find the dark world of Exegol and prevent the Sith from being reborn. It was through Kylo Ren that Rey discovered her origins as the Dark Lord's granddaughter, and upon confronting Sidious in person, she was nearly swayed to the dark side of the Force. However, Rey was saved by Ben Solo after he renounced his dark alter ego. Aided by the spirits of all the Jedi, Rey died vanquishing her grandfather, causing Solo to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring Rey back to life. The two embraced and shared a kiss as Solo peacefully vanished in Rey's arms. Although Solo was the last of the Skywalker bloodline, Rey assumed the name "Skywalker" to honor their memory, repudiating her own heritage as a Palpatine.

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Biography

Pre-birth

"We will see each other again. I believe that." ―Rey's voice, as heard by Ezra Bridger [src]

In 0 BBY, during the Galactic Civil War and more than a decade before Rey's birth, her voice was heard by Padawan Ezra Bridger during his brief visit to the World Between Worlds—a place that existed beyond time and space.[12]

Together Rey and Ben Solo would be the culmination of a prophesied[5] Force dyad as well as the Rule of Two. Under the Rule of Two, the knowledge of the Sith passed from a Master to a more powerful apprentice, though its ultimate goal was to create a dyad between two Sith Lords. Darth Plagueis tried to create a dyad with his apprentice, Darth Sidious, who, in turn, tried to create one with Solo's grandfather, Anakin Skywalker. Despite years of searching, the Sith never found a way to form a dyad on their own. The Rule of Two was a pale imitation of the power that the Sith coveted. Sidious regarded it as an unworthy but necessary successor to the older, purer doctrine of the dyad that would be ultimately fulfilled by Solo and Rey.[13]

Early life

"They were nobody."

"They were filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money. They're dead in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. You have no place in this story. You come from nothing. You're nothing." ―Rey and Kylo Ren, on the former's parents [src]

Rey was born in 15 ABY. At a young age, her family left her on Jakku, a desert planet in the Western Reaches, for reasons unknown to her. She believed it was a mistake and that they would one day return to bring her home[7] as she recalled a voice calling her sweetheart and promising to return for her. Rey believed that the voice belonged to her parents, though she was never able to figure out if the voice belonged to her mother or father, or even both.[10] She admitted to herself that her parents had sold her to Jakku's economy for drinking money,[9] but later learned that she was the granddaughter of the fallen Galactic Emperor, Darth Sidious, through his son, and that her parents had left her on Jakku to protect her from her grandfather. Later, her parents were killed by one of her grandfather's assassins, Ochi, after refusing to give him their daughter's location.[8]

Throughout her life on Jakku, she would sometimes see off-worlders in Niima Outpost, a chief trade outpost on the planet, who she thought might have arrived on Jakku accidentally, unaware of the harsh realities of the desert world. Rey wondered if she was left behind under similar circumstances, if her family had come to Jakku by accident and she was left behind as a result of their misfortune.[14] Whatever the reasons were, she held out hope that her family would return for her one day, though she began to realize that they would never come back. She proved unwilling to admit this even to herself for a long time.[7]

The scavenger

In order to survive on Jakku, Rey became a scavenger in the employ of Unkar Plutt, trawling through the junk fields of the Starship Graveyard which was littered with the remains of starships and other military technology[7] from the Battle of Jakku. At first, she worked for other scavengers, bringing them the loot she found in crashed New Republic and Galactic Empire vessels that were downed during the battle. She heard local stories about what happened during the battle: that it was the last stand of the once-powerful Empire during the Galactic Civil War, that the Empire locked onto Republic ships during the fighting and dragged them down to the surface together, and more. The battle had left the ships trapped in the sand in varying conditions, and finding working parts became essential in order to earn food portions, the only thing that was up for trade in Niima Outpost. The trades were made by Plutt, who traded leftover Republic and Imperial rations in exchange for whatever Rey and other scavengers were able to recover. Rey learned that parts that could be repurposed were the most important; anything that could not be put into another ship was worthless to Plutt.[14]

Some of the scavengers that Rey worked for were kind to her, such as Ivano Troade and Mashra. Others, whose names she refused to speak, were not kind, and even viewed her as their property. As Rey's skills as a scavenger grew, she came to realize that while other scavengers needed her, she did not need them. She struck out on her own, utilizing the skills she had to scavenge and survive, but no one took her seriously at first. She was aided by Plutt himself, who told other scavengers to leave Rey alone and would send his thugs after those who did not. Rey did not want his help, and the help was not out of generosity. Rather, Rey was the best scavenger Plutt had and he wanted to continue utilizing her as a source of acquisitions. Rey gained a reputation in Niima Outpost for using her quarterstaff to defend herself, which also kept most people from bothering her—save for the occasional new scavenger who did not know about her, or were so desperate for supplies that they did not care.[14]

Life on a backwater world

At some point in her youth, Rey made her home in a downed Imperial All Terrain Armored Transport, Hellhound Two, left over from the Battle of Jakku. When she first found it, Rey did not believe that she could live there, as the Goazon Badlands where the AT-AT was located was a barren wasteland in which nothing seemed to grow. When she inspected the walker, though, she found a small green spinebarrel flower growing out of a few millimeters of sand that had poured into the walker. Rey realized that if such a tiny flower could survive there, so could she, and that life always found a way to survive on Jakku. Rey would go on to collect flowers like that, as a reminder that beauty could be found anywhere, even on Jakku.[14]

Once she settled into the walker, Rey salvaged working parts of the AT-AT for trade. She mostly just used one room in the walker, for a variety of reasons. She would often bring her salvages to the walker before bringing them to Plutt, as Plutt deducted portions one could receive from a salvage if they used his washing and repair stations. The walker also contained scratches she made to mark the passage of time, to remind her how far she had come and to count down the days until her family returned for her. Outside of the walker was where she would go on to keep the speeder she built for herself, which gave her a degree of independence as she made her way back and forth from the Starship Graveyard.[14]

By the time Rey was ten years old,[15] she had acquired a Rebel Alliance flight helmet that once belonged to Captain Dosmit Ræh of the starfighter squadron Tierfon Yellow Aces, which she found while scavenging in the Starship Graveyard. She enjoyed making up stories about Ræh's adventures during the war, which was why Rey made a doll out of a flight uniform she found in a cargo container. She often enjoyed wearing the helmet and playing with the doll, pretending she was helping Ræh explore the AT-AT and the sands outside. Together, their pretend adventures saw them find lost Rebels and return them to their ships. When Rey was older, she no longer played with the doll but kept it and the helmet, which she sometimes wore anyway, to remind her how far she had come on Jakku.[14]

Inside the walker, Rey also had a computer display from an old BTL-A4 Y-wing assault starfighter/bomber that she used to learn alien languages, study the schematics of Republic and Imperial starships, and run flight simulations in order to hone her skills as a pilot. Her ability to understand alien languages, including the binary language of droids, helped her when off-worlders came to Niima Outpost. Two such off-worlders were Wookiees, who regaled her with the stories of the famed Wookiee smuggler-turned-Rebel fighter Chewbacca. She learned of Chewbacca's exploits, as well as those of his friend and fellow smuggler Han Solo. Studying schematics to learn how ships worked was also an important part of her survival on Jakku. She recognized almost all of the Republic and Imperial vessels that could be found in the Graveyard, including what roles they played in combat, the types of weapons they were armed with, their models and classes, and how many crew members each one had. She learned this not just through studying schematics on her computer, but also by climbing through and exploring the ships and tinkering with their systems. This let her know what each part was, what it could do, whether it worked, and, most importantly, whether it would carry any value in Niima Outpost.[14]

Growing up on Jakku meant Rey not only learned how the ships that littered its wastelands worked, but also about the dangers that lurked on Jakku itself. Rey saw firsthand the hardship it could inflict. Rumors of an Imperial base on Carbon Ridge once compelled Plutt to mount an expedition there. Knowing her skills as a mechanic, Plutt brought Rey a flyer to fix. She did so by unclogging one of its turbojets and rebuilding the other out of scrap from the front of an airspeeder. Plutt and six of his thugs used it to try to find the rumored base, but he only returned with a collection of stormtrooper armor—and two of his men were killed. That led other scavengers to avoid Carbon Ridge. The creatures of Jakku were also dangerous. A fellow scavenger named Teng Malar once accidentally broke open a hatch on a ship beneath a colony of steelpeckers, ferocious avian creatures with razor-sharp beaks and strong talons. Within ten minutes, Teng was ripped to shreds and Rey watched helplessly as she was unable to do anything to stop the creatures. The Graveyard itself was also a reminder of the realities of war, with bodies and skeletons littering the sands. Rey once discovered a deceased TIE fighter pilot still in the cockpit of his TIE fighter ejector seat. Rey scavenged his helmet, sidearm, and comlink before giving the pilot a proper burial.[14]

In 28 ABY, Ben Solo was falling further into the dark side of the Force as he dueled "Ren" on the Minemoon, which was felt across the galaxy by people who were connected to him in the Force. One of these people being Rey, who was connected to him by a Force Dyad. Plutt and her were traveling across the dunes of Jakku when Rey felt a cold sensation come over her body, asking Plutt if he felt it too. Unknown to her, this feeling was because of Solo's descent into darkness.[16]

The happabore hazard

"I can't move this ship with you here. And Unkar knew that, didn't he?" ―Rey to a Happabore [src]

Rey traveled to Niima Outpost, where she took the job of hauling a pile of scrap heap to Plutt, who offered her ten portions. Plutt reluctantly gave her the coordinates but placed a collateral on Rey's speeder if she were to fail the errand. Rey responded by placing a bet of twenty portions since she was risking her speeder.[17]

Rey traveled on her speeder to the site, which turned out to be a wrecked quadjumper. She found a happabore lying beside the spacetug. Realizing that Plutt had set her up to fail, Rey tried to get the creature to move. After trying to push it, Rey realized that the happabore was having trouble breathing because something was blocking its nose. Steeling herself, Rey dug into the creature's nose and retrieved a piece of machinery that was obstructing its nasal passage.[17]

After shaking off the happabore's goo, Rey tried to tow the spacetug back to Niima Outpost with her speeder but the machine was too heavy. Fortunately for Rey, the grateful happabore helped her push it back to Niima Outpost where Unkar Plutt angrily gave Rey the 20 portions.[17]

Repairing the Ghtroc 690

At some point, Rey was salvaging a battle cruiser when a sandstorm forced her to retreat to the Hellhound Two, where she decided to wait out the storm by practicing on her flight simulator. The next day, after trading with Plutt for rations at the Concession Stand, she took her speeder out to the Starship Graveyard, where she decided to climb the Spike, the keel of an Imperial ship that had crashed into what would become the Crackle. From her perch, she spotted a ship that, upon closer inspection, she realized to be a reasonably intact Ghtroc 690 light freighter.[18]

Deciding to look inside the ship for salvage, she discovered food, and more importantly, that the reactor core was still functioning. Realizing that the whole repaired ship was worth more to Plutt than its salvageable parts, she decided to work on it so she could sell it, discovering panels inside that she could use to hide her ship from other scavengers. As it had become dark outside, Rey opted to spend the night in the ship.[18]

Repairing the ship proved difficult, as it meant using parts she could have traded for food to repair the ship instead, making her go hungry more often than usual. Her decision to not give some parts to Plutt eventually attracted the attention of the scavengers Devi and Strunk, who asked her about it. She refused to tell them anything, and they told her that they might not have been the only ones to notice Rey's unusual behavior.[18]

Ten days later, the duo trailed Rey and discovered what she was working on, and offered to help her repair it in exchange for passage off of Jakku with her once it was finished. After Rey explained that she was going to sell the freighter to Plutt once it was complete, Devi and Strunk brokered a deal with her: they would help her repair the ship, and they would split whatever Plutt gave them.[18]

While Rey was wary of the others at first, she came to think of them as friends as they proved their trustworthiness by keeping watch over the ship at night, and helping to protect it from a group of Teedos. Together the three scavengers restored the ship to working order, and Rey was able to pilot the craft over the desert with the skills she had learned from her flight simulator program. Once the ship was complete, Rey flew it to Niima Outpost with the others. However, as soon as she stepped out of it to barter with Plutt, Devi and Strunk stole the ship and fled the planet, leaving Rey with nothing to show for her work. Later that night, Rey punched the lenses out of a battered stormtrooper helmet before turning back to testing her skills on her flight simulator.[18]

Rescuing a Teedo

"Give me that…I did just save your life." ―Rey, to Teedo [src]

Sometime later, Rey had fashioned the lenses from the stormtrooper helmet into a pair of goggles. She used it when she entered a Star Destroyer which was notably in danger of falling apart. After finding a room with some scattered components she was sure would be useful, she noticed a component still attached to the ship. Upon attempting to detach it however, the room and the whole ship began to show signs of stress. She then opted to leave it but was cornered by Teedo who held Rey at gunpoint. He ordered her to turn over her stash, before noticing the valuable component attached to the ship. Rey attempted to warn him off but Teedo was not to be dissuaded. After successfully prying the component from the ship, the room began to destabilize, knocking out Teedo in the process. Rey picked up all of her belongings including the detached component and began to run out. Pulled back by Teedo's sounds of distress however, she quickly ran back, picked him up and proceeded to sprint towards the outside. She made use of a torn piece of the ship to slide her and Teedo away to safety from the collapsing Star Destroyer. Teedo then woke up and gleefully claimed Rey's stash as his own. But Rey demanded it back, pointing out that she had just saved his life and thus was initiating a fair trade. Teedo begrudgingly gave it back, and thus Rey sped away on her speeder.[19]

Rescuing Unkar Plutt

Rey was searching for scrap in an old ship but she only found a couple of comlinks. She then heard a sound and realized she wasn't alone in this ship. Two people surrounded her and demanded that she give them her comlinks. Rey declined and instead attacked the two persons. Rey by mistake then set off a chain reaction and the ship started to blow up. Just as everyone managed to escape, the ship exploded together with the mysterious person's speeder bike. Rey took her speeder away from the ship, leaving the two persons stranded. When she came back to Niima Outpost she realized that something was wrong. She asked Crusher and he revealed that an off-worlder called Zool Zendiat and his gang had taken Plutt. Rey asked Constable Zuvio why and he answered that the rumor was that Zendiat was looking for an old J9 droid that Rey had sold to Plutt, two weeks prior. The Gabdorin Krynodd then appeared, stating that he was the new junkboss in Nimma Outpost and that his boys were the law now, instead of Zuvio. When Bobbajo walked past Krynodd, the Gabdorin hit him and said that he needed to show some respect. Rey helped the old man capture his creatures who were running away. As thanks she received a few corn-clusters. Realizing that Krynodd would be even worse than Plutt, she decided that she had to rescue him. She returned to her home and took a look at the head of the J9 droid which she had kept so that she could clean it and sell it later for more portions. She then headed out into the night to find Plutt. When out, she heard ripper-raptors in the Kelvin Ravine and decided to go there to see if that was the location of Plutt.[20]

Rey found Plutt strapped to the ground, surrounded by Zendiat's gang. She then used one of the comlinks she had brought with her to make the sound of a bloggin. Rey attacked and managed to beat all except Zendiat. She then attempted to remove the restraints holding Plutt. Instead she got an electric shock. Surrounded by Zendiat's gang, Rey pulled out the head of the J9 droid, which had been the very droid that had gotten Plutt captured in the first place. Rey proposed that they let her and Plutt go and she would give them the head. Zendiat then asked why he shouldn't just kill them and take the droid but Rey then threw the droid's head up in the sky to show him why. In the meantime she freed Plutt but he pushed her away and grabbed the droid's head. Plutt then took Rey's corn-clusters and threw them on Zendiat's gang so that the ripper-raptors would attack them. As Rey and Plutt escaped the scavenger threw the head of the droid back to Zendiat's gang.[21]

Plutt angrily asked why as he had heard that it contained a treasure map but Rey told him that she had already checked its memory and that it was wiped clean. They drove back to Niima Outpost on Rey's speeder and she told Plutt that Krynodd had taken over his business. When arriving, Plutt stormed away without thanking Rey. The following day when Rey woke up, she found a crate with at least 30 portions outside of her home, leading Rey to consider that Plutt was not as rude as she thought.[21]

Awakening the Force

Escape from Jakku

"We need a pilot!"

"We've got one!" ―Finn and Rey, while escaping from Niima Outpost [src]

One of the vessels that Rey scavenged from was the Inflictor, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer[7] that crashed after its commanding officer, Captain Ciena Ree, scuttled the ship to prevent it from falling into the hands of the New Republic.[22] Rey climbed throughout the massive vessel and brought parts back to Niima Outpost, where she cleaned them up and brought them to Plutt. The materials she brought him on this particular day earned her one quarter portion of food, which she brought back to her home. After eating, she heard the noises of an astromech droid and rushed to find that the source of the noise, BB-8, had been captured by a Teedo scavenger, also named Teedo. Rey rescued the tiny droid and learned that it was on a classified mission[7]—it managed to escape the clutches of the First Order during an attack on the spiritual village of Tuanul, an attack that Rey had heard rumors of.[14] Rey repaired BB-8's antenna, and pointed the droids towards Niima Outpost. After some convincing by BB-8, Rey allowed the droid to return home with her for one night, before it went on its way the next morning.[7] On their way to Rey's home that evening, Rey and BB-8 were attacked by a nightwatcher worm, which was hungry and wanted to eat BB-8. Rey saved BB-8 from the worm, made it safely to Rey's, and fed the worm a hunk of scrap.[23]

The next morning, Rey and BB-8 set up for Niima Outpost. On their way, they were attacked by three bandits who were attempted to steal BB-8. Rey was able to force two of the bandits to crash into each other on their speeder bikes, and tricked Teedo into having his bike eaten by a nightwatcher worm.[24] Rey and BB-8 continued to Niima Outpost, where she handed more salvage material over to Plutt. He offered her one half portion for everything, a collection that Rey reminded him was worth one half portion for each item only a week before. Though Plutt was unmoved, he did offer to give her sixty portions for BB-8. Rey was almost quick to take the offer, but she soon told Plutt that BB-8 was not for sale. Undeterred, Plutt sent his thugs after Rey to try to take the droid by force—this proved to be useless, however, as Rey made short work of her would be attackers. During the fight, BB-8 caught a glimpse of Finn, a stormtrooper who defected from the First Order, wearing the jacket that belonged to BB-8's master, Poe Dameron. BB-8 alerted Rey and a brief chase ensued. Rey managed to catch the young man, and accused him of thievery. Finn explained that the jacket belonged to Poe Dameron and that he was the one who helped the Resistance fighter escape from the Finalizer, an escape that cost Poe his life. He also explained that he too was a Resistance fighter, sent to help Poe retrieve a map that would lead to Luke Skywalker, a legendary Jedi Master who Rey assumed was only a myth. Rey accepted Finn's story that he was actually a member of the Resistance, while BB-8 lamented Finn's news of Dameron.[7]

The trio was spotted by a small group of stormtroopers who were sent to recover the droid from Jakku. Rey and Finn attempted to flee their attackers after being fired upon by TIE fighters. Rey led Finn and BB-8 towards a shipyard attempting to commandeer a quadjumper moments before it was destroyed. With no other option, Rey led the two towards an old freighter (which she described as "garbage") that had not flown for years, which happened to be the Millennium Falcon, which had fallen into Unkar Plutt's ownership after being stolen from a number of other owners. Rey took the pilot's seat while Finn manned one of the quad laser cannons. Despite a shaky start, Rey piloted the ship out of the outpost and, on Finn's suggestion, remained at a low altitude in order to confuse the scanners on the TIE fighters. She led the fighters on a chase into the Starship Graveyard, where she was able to use the downed war vessels to her advantage. One TIE fighter crashed after Finn scored a direct hit, while the other followed Rey into the bowels of a Super Star Destroyer. The Falcon suffered damage and the turret was locked into one position, so, after flying out of the Super Star Destroyer, Rey moved the freighter into position where Finn could fire a direct shot. With the last TIE fighter destroyed, Rey flew the ship off of Jakku and into open space.[7]

Enlisting Han Solo's help

"The Jedi were real?"

"I used to wonder that myself. Thought it was a bunch of mumbo-jumbo—magical power holding together good, evil, the dark side and the light. Crazy thing is, it's true. The Force, the Jedi, all of it. It's all true." ―Rey and Han Solo [src]

With the ship in the clear, Rey and Finn left their posts and congratulated one another on their hard-fought escape. They finally introduced themselves to one another, having not learned each other's name in the commotion of escaping the desert world, but their joy soon turned to more urgent matters as the propulsion system began to leak[7] when an energy flux in the hyperdrive motivator caused a fuel backup.[14] Rey started working to fix the problem, which risked flooding the ship with poisonous gas and killing them. While working on the propulsion system, Rey asked Finn for the location of the Resistance base. Unknown to her was that he and BB-8, as she worked, argued about revealing the location; Finn did not actually know its location and had to convince BB-8 to share it with Rey. BB-8 ultimately revealed that the base was in the Ileenium system, so Rey told them she would drop them off before returning to Jakku, much to Finn's annoyance.[7]

Suddenly, the ship began to lose power and the two realized that they were caught in a tractor beam. The Falcon was pulled into the cargo bay of a large freighter[7] called the Eravana,[25] which Finn mistook as a First Order ship. The trio hid in a compartment beneath the floor and Rey planned to release the poisonous gas into the ship to kill what she assumed would be stormtroopers, but in reality it was two smugglers, and the original owners of the Falcon: the famed Han Solo and his First Mate, Chewbacca. Solo found the three fugitives in the compartment and Rey revealed they were the only ones aboard, and that she was the pilot. Solo asked where they got the ship, and Rey told him that it belonged to Unkar Plutt, who stole it from the Irving Boys, who stole it from Gannis Ducain—who, as Solo revealed, stole it from him. It was then that he revealed himself as Han Solo. Rey and Finn realized that meant the ship was the Millennium Falcon, the ship that Rey believed had made the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs, to which Solo corrected her saying it was only twelve. The two correctly deduced that Solo was indeed the famous smuggler who became a General for the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Solo inspected the ship and talked to Rey about the modifications that Plutt had made on it, including a compressor on the ignition line, which they both knew put too much stress on the hyperdrive. Rey also told him about their mission to bring BB-8 to the Resistance, a mission that caught Solo's attention once he realized that the droid carried a map to his old friend and brother-in-law Luke Skywalker.[7]

The Eravana was soon boarded by the both Guavian Death Gang and Kanjiklub, two criminal organizations that Solo had swindled into loaning him money so he could smuggle rathtars to King Prana. Rey and Finn hid in the corridors beneath the floors as Solo unsuccessfully tried to talk his way out of the situation, and his predicament gave Rey the idea to shut all of the doors between the Corellian smuggler and the two gangs. She accessed the wrong door controls, however, and accidentally unleashed the monstrous rathtars, which ran loose across the ship. As Rey and Finn ran from the beasts, one of them grabbed Finn and carried him away. Rey found a control panel that allowed her to close a door onto the tentacles of the monster, severing the limbs and allowing Finn to escape. They reunited with Solo at the Millennium Falcon and escaped onto the ship. With Chewbacca injured in the fight against the gangs, Rey took the co-pilot's chair as Solo prepared the ship for launch. Though Rey questioned him on his ensuing plan, Solo jumped the ship into hyperspace from inside the Eravana, and they successfully escaped. Bala-Tik of the Guavian Death Gang, who had seen BB-8 and realized Rey and Finn were aboard, then had his men contact the First Order to let them know that the fugitives were aboard the Millennium Falcon.[7]

Rey and Solo contended with even more damage to the ship once they were in hyperspace. There was an electrical overload and a coolant leak, so Rey suggested transferring auxiliary power to the secondary tank, which Solo had also come to the conclusion to do. Finally, Rey bypassed the compressor that Plutt had installed, solving the problem and ending their imminent danger as well as impressing Solo. The group gathered in the ship's common area and BB-8 showed Solo the holographic map fragment that was in the droid's databanks. Solo, who pointed out that the map was not complete, explained the story of why Skywalker had disappeared in the first place. An apprentice—Ben Solo—turned against the Jedi Master and destroyed Skywalker's attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order. Afterward, Skywalker vanished from the galaxy without a trace. Rumors floated around about where he had gone,[7] but those closest to him correctly[26] guessed that he went off in search of the first Jedi Temple. Rey was surprised to hear that the Jedi were real, but Solo, who had once been skeptical of the existence of the Jedi himself, told her that the stories about the Jedi and the existence of the Force were all true.[7]

The Force within

"That lightsaber was Luke's. And his father's before him and now, it calls to you!" ―Maz Kanata, to Rey [src]

Solo, the estranged husband of Resistance General Leia Organa, did not plan to bring BB-8 to the Resistance base himself, so he set course for the planet Takodana, where he intended to enlist the help of Maz Kanata, a pirate and collector who had operated a pirate castle on the planet for a thousand years. As the ship approached the castle, Rey was taken aback by the lush green world[7] that reminded her of the planets she saw in her dreams as a child,[14] having never known that there was so much green in the entire galaxy. When they landed, the group exited the ship, where Rey looked out at the stunning vista that stood before her. Solo handed her an NN-14 blaster pistol, knowing she would be able to defend herself with it, and asked her what her name was. With the two formally introduced, Solo said he was considering bringing on a new crew member. Impressed with Rey's piloting and repair abilities, he said he would consider offering her a job as a second mate aboard the Falcon. Rey was flattered by the offer, and briefly excited by the prospect, but she turned it down because she had to return to Jakku to wait for her family, claiming that she'd already been away for too long already.[7]

Solo led Rey, Finn, and BB-8 to the castle while Chewbacca stayed behind to watch over the ship. Solo explained that Kanata had the ability and the connections to get BB-8 to the Resistance. Once inside, their arrival prompted the attention of informants for both the First Order and the Resistance, alerting the respective groups that the fugitives were on Takodana. Rey and the others met with the diminutive pirate and told her about the map to Luke Skywalker. Kanata said she would not bring the droid to the Resistance because she believed Solo should, as he had been running from the fight for too long. Rey asked what fight she was referring to, and Kanata told her it was the fight against the dark side of the Force, one that had given rise to the Sith, the Galactic Empire, and ultimately the First Order. To Rey's surprise, Finn told Kanata that they could not win the fight against the First Order. Kanata sensed his fear, and Finn finally said that he could not bring the droid to the Resistance. He left to speak to two pirates,[7] Sidon Ithano and Quiggold,[15] about exchanging work for passage to the Outer Rim Territories and, when Rey confronted him, he admitted that he was a former stormtrooper and not a member of the Resistance. She pleaded with him not to go, but he chose to leave the castle and head to the Outer Rim.[7]

As Finn departed, Rey felt something drawing her towards the lower levels of the castle. She made her way down the steps with BB-8 and found a collection of ancient artifacts. One box in particular called to her, and she opened it to find a lightsaber. Upon touching it, she was immediately confronted with a vision of events both past and present she did not understand. Rey first found herself in the halls of Cloud City, where Skywalker had once fought Darth Vader before learning Vader was his father. She heard Skywalker screaming in disbelief at the revelation, as well as the words of the late Jedi Master Yoda speaking about the energies of the Force. Rey then saw Skywalker himself kneeling before a burning temple alongside his astromech droid, R2-D2, before the vision shifted to one of death: Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren killing many people. The vision then transported her to Jakku, where Rey saw herself as a young girl screaming for her family to return as they departed in a starship. Finally, she found herself in the middle of a snowy forest, where Ren ignited his lightsaber and stalked towards her. The vision came to an end, she fell to the floor, and she heard the voice of the long-deceased Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi telling her that these were her first steps.[7]

Rey was left shaken by the vision. Kanata found her scrambling away from the collection room, and Rey asked her what happened. She told the young woman that the lightsaber once belonged to Luke and Anakin Skywalker, and that it was calling out to her. Rey, overwhelmed, told Kanata that she had to return to Jakku, but the old pirate helped Rey finally admit what she knew all along: whoever left her on Jakku was never coming back, however, there was someone who still could. Upon hearing this, Rey replied to her: Luke. Kanata, who was Force-sensitive in her own right despite not being a proper Jedi, tried to guide Rey towards embracing the Force and letting the light guide her, as well as to take the lightsaber. Rey rejected it, however, and said she wanted no part in this cosmic destiny. She instead fled the castle, in tears, running into the heavy woods that stood just outside of it to be alone. BB-8 followed her and Rey told the droid to go back so Solo could help, but it was too late. Rey looked up and saw First Order transports and TIE fighters soaring through the sky.[7]

Capture and escape

"She's just beginning to test her powers. The longer it takes to find her, the more dangerous she becomes." ―Kylo Ren [src]

Rey and BB-8 returned to the castle, where they saw it under heavy bombardment from the First Order. She noticed stormtroopers approaching her position and fired on them, hitting two stormtroopers before running back into the forest. Rey told BB-8 to go on without her so she could fight them off, and she told the droid that she hoped to see it again. Rey continued through the woods until she heard the sound of a lightsaber coming to life. She was soon confronted by Kylo Ren, who used his lightsaber to deflect every shot that she fired at him. After several shots from the blaster, Ren used the Force to freeze Rey in place, threatening her with his lightsaber while demanding to know where the droid was. He probed her mind with the Force and realized that she had seen the map, and that he would not need the droid—he could instead just interrogate her to find out what she had seen. Ren used the Force to render Rey unconscious and carried her to his command shuttle, which he used to escape as Resistance X-wing fighters—which had arrived to find BB-8—fended off the TIE fighters.[7]

Rey was taken to Starkiller Base, a First Order stronghold and a superweapon, built into the icy planet, that was capable of destroying entire star systems—a power it unleashed when Rey was on Takodana, using it to destroy the Hosnian system and deliver a crippling blow to the New Republic's government and starfleet. Rey woke up in a holding cell and found Ren inside of it. She asked him what happened to Solo and Finn, though Ren did not know—which he suggested was a sign of relief for her, as he had not heard if they perished. Rey treated the dark warrior with scorn, calling him a "creature in a mask," and he removed his mask to reveal that he was a young human man with no disfigurements. He asked about the droid once again and Rey responded only with its technical specifications. Because she refused to reply, Ren used the Force to access her mind and her memories. Through connecting their minds, Ren unknowingly formed the prophesied dyad in the Force between the two Force-sensitive beings. He saw that she was lonely but also afraid to leave Jakku, and that she saw an island on an ocean in her dreams. He also saw that she was fond of Solo and that she felt like he was the father she never had, though Ren said that he would only leave her disappointed—what Rey did not know was that Ren's true name was Ben Solo, and that he was the son of Solo and General Organa. After more probing, Rey began to use the Force to push back and resist, keeping Ren from seeing any more of her memories. She turned the attack around on him and saw into his mind, finding that he was afraid that he would never be as powerful as his grandfather, Darth Vader. Ren withdrew, rattled by the experience, and left the holding cell.[7]

Only one stormtrooper was left to guard Rey's cell. Testing out her newfound Force abilities, Rey attempted to use a mind trick on the trooper in order to influence him to remove the restraints and leave the cell with the door open. The trooper was confused at first and, after her second attempt, said he would instead tighten the restraints. The third time she tried, however, Rey was successful. The trooper removed the restraints and began to leave the cell. He also dropped his weapon after Rey told him to, allowing her to leave the cell while armed with a blaster rifle. Rey made her way through the base, while Ren discovered that she was missing and ordered the First Order troops to be on high alert—the longer Rey went undiscovered while testing her abilities, the more powerful and more dangerous she would become to the First Order. Her intention, ultimately, was to commandeer a ship and escape from Starkiller Base, so she made her way towards a hangar where she found TIE fighters that she could steal. She was approached by several stormtroopers before she could get to the fighters, so she climbed down a chasm in the hangar to hide. Careful not to fall to her death, Rey opened a service hatch, climbed inside, and closed it behind her so she could make her way back through the base.[7]

Deeper into the base, Rey found Solo, Chewbacca, and Finn—who did not flee to the Outer Rim after all—after they had arrived on Starkiller Base in order to rescue her and to disable its shields so Resistance starfighters could destroy it. Rey embraced Finn when Chewbacca said the rescue was his idea, and she thanked him for coming back for her. With the shields already disabled as a result of Finn and Solo's actions, the group left the base to return to the Millennium Falcon, but they saw that the Resistance fighters were being cut to shreds and had been unable to destroy the thermal oscillator, which stored the energy that the weapon drained from stars. The group decided to stay behind to help destroy the oscillator. Rey accessed a terminal that allowed her to open a door, giving Solo and Chewbacca the opportunity to enter the oscillator and plant charges. Rey and Finn made their way towards their companions and found themselves overlooking a bridge, where Solo—who, along with Chewbacca, had already planted charges—found and confronted his son. Though Solo pleaded with Ren to turn back to the light, the dark warrior stabbed his father through the torso. Rey let out a horrified scream upon witnessing this, but could only watch as the famed smuggled fell to his death in the chasm below. Chewbacca, enraged over the loss of his friend, opened fire on Ren, managing to hit him in the leg, and set off the charges, damaging the oscillator and giving the Resistance the opening it needed to destroy the base.[7]

Rey and Finn ran through the snowy forests towards the Millennium Falcon, but they were confronted by Ren who told them that they had unfinished business that Solo couldn't save them from, with Rey denouncing the dark warrior as a monster for his act of patricide. Rey attempted to fire at Ren with her blaster, but the dark warrior used the Force to toss her against a tree, temporarily knocking her out. Finn, who was given Skywalker's lightsaber by Maz Kanata on Takodana, engaged Ren in a lightsaber duel, but he was bested by the Knight of Ren and left critically injured. Ren, who sought the lightsaber for himself, attempted to call the saber into his hands through the Force, but Rey called it into hers and ignited it. She engaged Ren in combat and spent part of the duel in retreat, defending herself against Ren's advances. The two locked sabers and Ren told her he could train her in the ways of the Force. Rey, remembering what Kanata told her, drew upon the powers of the Force and moved onto the offensive, delivering several blows against Ren until she finally disarmed him and slashed him across the face, ultimately defeating him. A deep chasm formed between them, born out of the imminent destruction of the planet after the Resistance destroyed the oscillator, so Rey left Ren behind and returned to the injured Finn. Chewbacca soon arrived aboard the Falcon and carried Finn aboard, as Rey followed behind. The ship took off as the ground crumbled beneath it, and the Falcon and the Resistance fighters retreated from Starkiller Base as the planet imploded and became a star from all of the thermal energy the weapon had collected.[7]

Finding the Last Jedi

Time on D'Qar

"I'd like you to tell me what happened. With Han. With Ben." ―Leia Organa, to Rey [src]

The Millennium Falcon then returned to the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar, where Finn was treated for his wounds. She was greeted at the base by General Organa, and the two embraced in a long hug. The Resistance forces celebrated their victory over the First Order, though Rey was left with a feeling of sadness. The events that had unfolded awakened R2-D2, who had been in low power mode ever since Skywalker disappeared and the droid combined the information contained within his databanks with the map that BB-8 carried to show a completed map to where Skywalker had gone. She also said goodbye to the unconscious Finn, kissing her friend on the forehead and stating that "they would see each other again someday."[7]

Later, Rey sat down and had a conversation with Organa about the latter's husband and son. She told Organa about Solo's confrontation with Ren, and how it ended in an act of patricide. Remembering how Solo neither cried out nor fought back, but only reached out to touch his son's face, Rey wished that Solo had run away instead. Organa, however, was aware that her late husband knew there was a time to run and a time to make a stand.[27]

Rey asked Organa how she led the Resistance when everything seemed hopeless, to which the general replied that even the instinct to run can be used as motivation to keep fighting. Rey felt as though they were isolated in their fight against Ren and the First Order, though Organa assured her that neither of them were alone, and that they were part of a cause much larger than themselves.[27] Organa told her that she was proud of what Rey was about to do. Rey felt the general's fear, however, knowing that Organa blamed herself for sending her son away to be with her brother only for Ben Solo to turn to the dark side. Nevertheless, Organa had confidence in Rey, believing she would not share in her son's fate. Before parting ways, Organa provided Rey with a beacon in order to find her way back to the Resistance. The two embraced in a long hug, and Rey left to find Skywalker.[28]

Adventure on Necropolis

While in hyperspace, the Falcon shuddered and alarms went off. The systems were overloading. Fire and smoke erupted, setting Chewbacca on fire. It was the compressor again. They pulled out of hyperspace, but they needed to find a planet to get the Falcon fixed. Luckily, there was one near. It was known as Necropolis, a junk planet. As they prepared to land on Necropolis, a ship hailed them and told them that they needed a scavenging license. When they landed inside the ship, they met an alien known Ara-Nea, who was overseer of Necropolis, Ara-Nea asked if they had come to pick up the bones of the fallen or simply put, junk. Ara-Nea then informed Rey that she had to pay 500 credits if she wished to scavenge, and Chewie and R2 had to stay on the Falcon which had to be clamped. Rey, though reluctant, accepted these terms and went to scavenge.[27]

As Rey scavenged, she discovered a neat array of ships. Too neat. She then heard a rumble, which led her to activate the lightsaber and go further. Suddenly, a massive creature came out of the junk and attacked her. But Rey was able to fend it off, get in a ship, and make it back to the base. She realized that the whole Necropolis was a trap crafted by Ara-Nea to swindle people out of their money, then kill them. Right as a furious Ara-Nea was going to kill her, Rey used the classic mind trick on Ara-Nea and made the alien surrender to his slaves and be willing to be imprisoned. After completing repairs to the Falcon, she continued on her journey to Ahch-To.[27]

Discovery of Skywalker

"Rey. May the Force be with you." ―Leia Organa [src]

After landing on one of the planet's small islands, Rey ventured throughout the island's ancient ruins and found the old Jedi Master in seclusion.[7] Skywalker, clearly haunted by the past, said nothing as Rey handed him his father's lightsaber, a symbol of the only hope the galaxy had left[28]—the return of the Jedi.[7]

Upon offering Skywalker his old lightsaber, Rey was shocked to see him discard the weapon after briefly examining it,[9] as he hoped to lose it once again,[29] and immediately leaving the plateau. The entire way down, Rey desperately tried to recruit Skywalker to help the remaining members of the Resistance, but he blatantly refused. After recovering the lightsaber from some porgs, Rey discovered Skywalker's X-wing starfighter within a shallow bay and learned that he had stranded himself on the planet. She continued to follow him across the island, despite being ordered to leave. Eventually, she stumbled upon an old tree containing some of the last recorded Jedi texts from the very beginning of the Jedi Order, claiming the location was familiar to her. An intrigued Skywalker asked Rey to elaborate, but she continued to press him to come out of hiding and help fight the First Order. Skywalker once more refused, explaining that he did not come to the planet to hide but to die where the Jedi Order first started. Later, when Skywalker arrived at the Millennium Falcon, Rey and Chewbacca informed him that Han Solo had been murdered, shocking Skywalker. Afterward, the old Jedi Master pressed Rey for her true motives for coming to Ahch-To. Rey explained that she had a power inside of her that she did not understand and was frightened of; she also sought a mentor to help her discover her place in the galaxy. That night, Rey woke to see Skywalker staring at her; he agreed to give Rey no more than three lessons of the Jedi Order and that they would start at dawn.[9]

Training and revelations

"What do you know about the Force?"

"It's a power that Jedi have that lets them control people… and make things float."

"Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong." ―Luke Skywalker and Rey [src]

On the first day of her training with Skywalker, Rey awoke to find Kylo Ren sitting across from her.[9] She instinctively aimed her blaster at him and fired, only to blow a hole through her stone hut. She could not harm him, yet neither could Ren use his powers to reach into her mind due to the actual distance between them. Rey was both terrified and infuriated to see the dark warlord, but decided to keep this new development between them from Skywalker, fearing that she would lose the Jedi Master's trust if he mistook her and Ren's newfound connection as a betrayal.[30] She followed him to the first Jedi Temple where he described the Force as an energy that bound everything together, including the light and the darkness. After some miscommunication, Rey reached out into the Force with her senses and felt drawn to a cavern immersed in dark side energy.[9] Having been effortlessly drawn to the darkness despite Skywalker's warnings, Skywalker backed away in fear as Rey's raw strength in the Force reminded him of another gifted prodigy—his nephew and fallen apprentice, Ben Solo.[30] At the same time, Rey sensed nothing from the Jedi exile and came to realize that Skywalker had blocked himself off from the Force.[9]

For her next lesson, Rey was made to listen to Skywalker's interpretation of the history of the Jedi Order, which he saw as an example of hubris and failure. He further credited his former mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, as the Jedi Master responsible for the training of Darth Vader and also blamed the Jedi for failing to stop Darth Sidious' rise to power. In spite of his arguments, Rey was adamant that the return of the Jedi Order was the galaxy's last hope against the rising power of the First Order. She also countered Skywalker's views by exclaiming how it was Skywalker himself who saw the light in Vader and fought to redeem him. Yet despite her assertions to the contrary, Skywalker felt responsible for his nephew's fall to the dark side, lamenting how he had once hoped to pass on his lessons to Solo and a new generation of Jedi. It was then that Rey learned about the night of Solo's betrayal as explained from Skywalker's point of view.[9]

As her training with Skywalker continued,[9] her connection with Ren became stronger[31] and resulted in more frequent interactions between them.[9] At first, Rey was inconvenienced by the fact that she was bonded with a man whom she regarded as a murderer and a monster.[30] To her surprise, however, Ren no longer tried to hide his feelings of pain[31] and misery[30] from Rey.[31] At one point she inquired—while distracted by the sight of Ren stripped to the waist—as to how he could kill his own father, to which Ren replied by comparing Rey's experience with abandonment to his own. His knowledge of Rey's parents confounded her, as well as reminded her that the first contact between their minds had allowed them to access each other's memories. Ren then took the opportunity to share his recollection of the night he destroyed his uncle's temple, revealing to Rey that Skywalker had made an attempt on his life while he slept. She wanted to believe that Ren was lying, but her feelings told her that he was telling the truth.[30]

Determined to see her parents once again after so many years, Rey followed the pull to the dark side which led her to a cave filled with numerous mirror versions of herself. Staring into a clouded mirror of polished stone, she beseeched the Force to reveal her parents but was only met by her own reflection. Having failed to find the answers she sought, either with her parents or Skywalker, Rey began to despair as years of isolation began to weigh upon her. As a result, she turned to the one person whom she felt could relate to her sense of solitude and loss: Kylo Ren. The dark warrior listened intently as Rey recalled her experience in the cave, and he insisted she was not alone despite her sense of loneliness. Rey returned his gesture, in kind, and came to hope that it was not too late for him to return to the light.[30]

By then, their bond had reached an unprecedented level in strength and raw power[32] to the extent that Rey compared it to touching a live wire. She tentatively raised her hand to touch him, although she expected their hands to simply pass through each other. When their fingers actually touched, Rey grasped Ren's hand. At that moment, however, Skywalker—now reconnected with the Force—witnessed their bond with his own eyes and proceeded to interrupt the connection. Confronting the Jedi Master, Rey demanded to know if he tried to murder Ren. The two fought until Skywalker admitted that he had contemplated killing his nephew after sensing the darkness within him. Unlike Skywalker, Rey did not believe that Ren was fully committed to the dark side as there was still much conflict within him. She therefore set out to confront him, in spite of Skywalker's warnings, under the belief that Ben Solo's redemption was the key to saving the galaxy.[30] Unknown to Skywalker, Rey took the sacred Jedi texts with her aboard the Falcon before leaving Ahch-To. Upon returning to the beleaguered Resistance fleet, Rey ordered Chewbacca to launch her from an escape pod toward Snoke's flagship, the Supremacy, where Ren awaited her arrival.[9]

Showdown on the Supremacy

"Rey. I want you to join me. We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy."

"Don't do this, Ben. Please don't go this way." ―Kylo Ren and Rey [src]

As they approached Snoke's throne room, Rey reminded Ren that he still had a chance to redeem himself. Snoke welcomed Rey and removed her handcuffs. He then Force-pulled her lightsaber to him and set it on the arm of his chair. Snoke gleefully remarked on the former scavenger and used the Force to pull her towards him, claiming he had created the Force link between Rey and Ren in order to find Luke Skywalker. When Snoke directly pried her for Skywalker's location, Rey boldly refused and tried to summon her lightsaber; Instead, Snoke merely redirected the weapon, hitting her in the back of the head.[9]

Amused with her spunk, Snoke brought her before a holo-projector showing the remaining members of the Resistance being destroyed and vowed she would join them. Rather than lose hope, however, the sight drove Rey to summon Ren's lightsaber and defiantly igniting it to challenge Snoke once more, promptly earning the Supreme Leader's respect as he compliments her for her courage, while finally acknowledging her as a genuine threat to his reign. Restraining Rey once more, Snoke returned Ren's lightsaber to him and ordered him to execute her, confident his apprentice would do so. Instead, Ren subtly used the Force to turn Rey's lightsaber and activated it, carving Snoke in two. Freed from the Supreme Leader's control and her saber back in hand, Rey suddenly found herself in a temporary truce with Ren as they engaged and killed all the guards in the throne room.[9]

With Snoke's personal guards dead, Ren offered Rey the chance to join him and "let old things die" and bring a new order to the galaxy, but when she pleaded with him to join the Resistance, Ren revealed what he thought was the truth about her parents; they were both junk dealers who traded her away for money and died on Jakku, buried in an unmarked grave. Ren once more offered her a place by his side to reshape the galaxy in their image. As on Starkiller Base, Rey once again refused and attempted to pull her lightsaber back to her. The pressure of the Force from both users proved to be too much and split the weapon in two, knocking them unconscious. Coming to first, Rey recovered both halves of the lightsaber.[9] Before she left the bridge, she looked over at the unconscious form of Ren and briefly considered killing him with his own lightsaber. Ultimately, Rey decided that it was not her place to take Ren's life and that the Force would ultimately decide his fate. She then proceeded to fly away on Snoke's escape shuttle, using the craft's low profile and countermeasures to avoid detection.[30]

Almost immediately after setting the shuttle's autopilot, Rey blacked out. Sometime later, a voice from her past made its presence felt in a dream, reiterating its plea for her to stay and its promise of how they would one day come back to return for her. Upon hearing those words, Rey awoke, finding her shuttle drifting among the ruins of the First Order fleet. Within minutes she was in contact with the Millennium Falcon, who soon docked with her ship, allowing Rey to escape and reunite with Chewbacca and R2-D2 aboard the Millennium Falcon, whilst leaving Snoke's escape shuttle adrift.[33]

Rescue on Crait

"How do we build a rebellion from this?"

"We have everything we need." ―Rey and Leia Organa [src]

From there, she regrouped with the Resistance fighters on the nearby planet Crait, who were holding out in an old Rebel Alliance base. They arrived right as the Resistance was taking heavy losses from the First Order's assault; with Rey manning the Falcon's turrets, Chewbacca was able to lure the attacking TIE Fighters away from the battle through the planet's crystallized caverns.[9]

Despite Rey's successful diversion of the First Order's air support, the Resistance was still ultimately pushed back by the Order's sheer firepower. As Skywalker delayed the First Order's final assault via a Force projection, the Resistance sought to escape through a network of tunnels behind their base.[9]

Following Organa's two-way beacon, Rey and Chewbacca landed near a back entrance to the old Rebel base covered with boulders. Trusting in the Force, she accepted her destiny as a Jedi and proceeded to clear away the boulders from the exit, allowing the surviving Resistance members to escape; here she reunited with Finn, and embraced him. As she was about to close the Falcon's doors once the Resistance was all aboard, she shared one more interaction through the Force with Ren,[9] but she closed the connection[30] and left on the Falcon. Safely in hyperspace, Rey reunited with BB-8 and took notice of the droid's new antenna. Upon reuniting with most members of the Resistance, Rey met Dameron and was warmly reunited with Organa. Both were able to sense that Luke had become one with the Force, but that he had finally found peace, and Organa assured her that the Resistance, and hope, would survive.[9]

Aboard the Falcon

"Ya know, Rey… If things had gone a little differently, we'd have met a long time ago. Probably sitting right here, long while back, all four of us, headed to bring that Jedi map to Leia."

"If there's one thing I'm beginning to learn, Poe, it's that you can't dwell on changing the past. Concentrate on the present. Work with what you have."

"Oh, I know. Just… Could've avoided a lot of heartache, you know. Considering everything we just been through, it's hard to not to think about different paths." ―Poe Dameron and Rey [src]

After barely escaping the First Order aboard the Falcon, Rey accompanied by Finn, BB-8, and Poe commented about their past experiences, leading Rey to tell him that she had learned they can't dwell on changing the past, rather to concentrate on the present. After Finn brought up Poe's questionable survival during their TIE fighter escape both Rey and Finn listened to his story and explanation to what lead to his survival.[34] Afterwards, Rey used C-3PO to translate some of the writing in the sacred Jedi texts.[35]

Knowing that Kylo Ren was the son of Leia Organa, Rey pressed the Resistance general for information about Ren's past, hoping to learn the reasons behind his fall from grace. Although she recalled Ren's account about his fall out with Skywalker, Rey did not understand why he chose the dark side in spite of his beginnings in the light. She recounted Ren's entreaty, that they could rule the galaxy together, to Organa who saw the pain etched in Rey's face as she thought about Ben Solo. Organa realized that Rey cared about Solo, and his decision to seize absolute power instead of redemption had disappointed Rey. They both agreed that no one was capable of saving Solo except himself, but Rey was still hurt due to the hope she had for him.[36]

Adventure on Mon Cala

"Oh yeah? Let's see how you could hold up against the power of the Force." ―Rey, to an Anoatian pit beast [src]

Sometime later, Rey went scavenging for spare generator parts while she stayed at the Resistance Camp on Anoat. She started a fight with a massive Anoatian pit beast. When fighting it, she tried to concentrate and use the Force to tame the beast, but to no avail. Eventually, she was saved by the Millennium Falcon with Leia, Chewie, and Tico on board, where they proceeded to go to Mon Cala[37]

While on Mon Cala, she fought some of Nossor Ri's men with her staff before Aftab Ackbar intervened.[38]

As a result of the fracas, the Resistance agents were brought before King Ech-Char for judgement. Chadkol Gee suggested the Ancient Rite of Challenge to settle it, and Rey agreed, in order to save her friends. She then fought Arkay-Nine. After Tico intervened, they were exiled off the planet in accord with the laws. However, a Quarren sabotaged their ship.[39]

Rey ran after the Quarren, and with Tico's help, captured him. They then brought him before the king again, they were able to convince him to lend the Mon Calamari's support. At the same time, a Star Destroyer fleet led by General Hux arrived.[40]

Mission to Minfar

Sometime later, after the mission to Mon Cala, the new crew of the Millennium Falcon were sent to Fermic to pick up supplies. Dameron offered Rey to pilot, but she wanted to fly the vessel. As they were finishing loading, they received a distress call from Minfar, prompting them to head over to assist. Upon arriving, they were ambushed by the forces of a First Order light cruiser.[41]

After landing, the crew explored the jungle, soon falling into a series of tunnels where the Zixon lived. They were met by Lim, who took them to her village. Needing parts, the locals took them to the Forbidden Lands, which were old Imperial laboratories. The Zixon were then enthralled by the Echo Horn taken by First Order Commander Branwayne Spiftz. The First Order forces escaped, leaving the Resistance to come up with a new way to free the Zixon, assisted by the spy Glenna Kip. They went back to the Falcon to strafe the camp with Rey piloting, while Dameron infiltrated their cruiser the Ladara Vex and destroyed it and the Echo Horn. A call to the Resistance then allowed for reinforcements to arrive.[41]

On Batuu

"The Resistance is not one place. It's alive. It's everywhere. We will rise against you!"

"No! Against me, you will fall." ―Rey confronts Kylo Ren on Batuu

Sometime after leaving Crait, Rey made her way to the Outer Rim world of Batuu. There, she led a recruitment effort based out of a Resistance encampment near the ancient ruins outside of Black Spire Outpost, alongside Chewbacca and other Resistance members.[42] At one point during Rey's time in Black Spire, Ren confronted Resistance spy Vi Moradi in sector 3. She refused to tell Ren where their new base was, but, before the Supreme Leader could harm her, Rey emerged and told Ren that the Resistance was more than one location, alive, everywhere, and would rise against him. Ren claimed those who fought against him would fall, and the two began dueling, where Ren claimed the Resistance was a hopeless cause. Rey responded that they fought with hope, which she believed would allow the rebellion to win. After Chewbacca joined the battle against First Order forces, Ren gained the upper hand and asked why, despite the Resistance having nothing in his viewpoint, they would risk everything, causing Rey to tell him that they would risk everything for what they would win. Rey then knocked the Supreme Leader's lightsaber back and fled from him, and Ren was forced to leave, as a stormtrooper informed him of an "incident" on a destroyer. Now safe, Rey and her allies left for General Organa, who was waiting for them.[43]

Before an Intersystem Transport Ship took off from the encampment on a mission, Rey communicated with those on board through a holographic message delivered by BB-8. Once appearing, she informed BB-8 that he should be in flight prep who then promptly left. She then turned over to speak to the new Resistance recruits on Batuu, thanking them for joining the cause. She then informed them that a covert Resistance team had infiltrated the Finalzer which was now headed to Batuu. Knowing Batuu was no longer safe to harbor a Resistance base, she informed them that they were readying transports to take them to their new base on Pacara. She then informed them that they desperately needed their help in the fight against the First Order before informing them that they must keep the location of their new base a secret. Trusting them, she informed them that Lieutenant Bek would be captaining the transport that would take them to Pacara. After a short message from Bek, she welcomed them to the Resistance and hoped that the Force would be with them before ending her transmission.[44][45]

The way of the Jedi

"Rey, never be afraid of who you are." ―Leia Organa, to Rey [src]

Following their near destruction at the Battle of Crait, the Resistance regrouped under General Organa's leadership. Rey's presence among their ranks aided recruitment efforts, as word spread that the last Jedi was fighting for the Resistance cause.[5] Rey had embraced the way of the Jedi, though she also honored her roots by wearing garments inspired by her past on Jakku.[11] As a result of Luke Skywalker's death, it fell to his sister Organa to oversee Rey's training. It was a path that Organa had taken thirty years earlier,[5] having briefly learned the Jedi arts under her brother's mentorship,[8] before deciding that her future lay in a different direction. Organa therefore served as a mentor to Rey, whose compassionate nature and admiration for inner strength caused her to revere the general.[5]

Rey's training continued in the jungles of Ajan Kloss, a safehaven for the Resistance and the same planet where Organa took her first steps into the Force. The primeval rainforests formed a natural obstacle course to challenge Rey's physical and mental skills. She also utilized Skywalker's old tools that Organa once used while honing her own Force abilities—training helmets and practice remotes that had lain unused for years.[5]

A typical training regime concocted by Organa involved Rey capturing colored ribbons tied to trees that were defended by a trio of color-coded remotes. These training remotes tested Rey's evasion and deflection skills by flying about her on repulsorfields, firing sting-beams to distract her. The red remote was the most persistent, and therefore the most challenging to Rey's temper.[5] At this point, Rey successfully repaired the Skywalker lightsaber, though she also felt that she had not yet earned the right to wield it as her own weapon.[8] The repaired saber featured weld marks as well as Rey's wrist strap which had been repurposed to bind the broken shaft. The kyber crystal inside had been healed using techniques that Rey learned from Jedi scripture.[5]

Quest to find Exegol

"Find the wayfinder, get to Exegol… And bring an end to this conflict once and for all." ―Rey, quoting Luke Skywalker's writings [src]

A year after the Battle of Crait, a mysterious message was broadcasted across the galaxy, announcing the return of the long dead Sith Lord Darth Sidious.[8] When word of Kylo Ren's journey to Exegol reached the Resistance, courtesy of a spy within the First Order ranks, it became instantly clear to Rey how the Supreme Leader undertook the voyage to find the ancient Sith redoubt. She had read about the Sith wayfinders in the pages of the Jedi texts, specifically the red-covered Rammahgon, which had been annotated by Luke Skywalker. The Jedi Master had chronicled his efforts to find the Emperor's wayfinder, while tracking down fleeting mentions of Exegol during his explorations of the galaxy. Studying Skywalker's notes, Rey learned that a wayfinder would have to be used at least once to find a chartable path through the Unknown Regions to Exegol; the route could then be saved within a standard navicomputer for future use.[5]

Determined to finish what Skywalker began, Rey would set out on a quest to find a wayfinder and reach Exegol, where the former Emperor was readying an armada of Xyston-class Star Destroyers, armed with planet-killer weaponry, for deployment. Though she intended to travel alone, believing the mission was too dangerous for her friends, they nonetheless decided to accompany Rey on her quest.[8]

Mission to Pasaana

"Do you still count the days since your parents left? Such pain in you. Such anger. I don't wanna have to kill you. I'm going to find you and I'm going to turn you to the Dark Side. When I offer you my hand again, you'll take it."

"We'll see." ―Kylo Ren and Rey, through the Force [src]

Accompanied by her friends Finn, Dameron, and Chewbacca, as well as the droids BB-8 and C-3PO, Rey followed Skywalker's path to finding Exegol, which ended on the planet Pasaana.[8] She welcomed the sense of calm that Pasaana gave her, still feeling most comfortable on desert worlds. In contrast to her desolate homeworld of Jakku, however, Rey found Pasaana teeming with culture.[5] Her arrival coincided with the Festival of the Ancestors; as Rey wandered through the festival, her bond with Kylo Ren reconnected the two Force users, allowing them to see and hear each other across the stars.[8]

Ren told Rey that the Emperor wanted her dead; when she accused him of serving at another master's bidding, Ren denied it,[8] having sacrificed too much to be subservient.[5] He did not want to kill her, though he also wanted to know why Rey had refused his offer, when he knew that she wanted to accept. Instead of answering Ren's question, Rey asked him why he saved her life instead of killing her when he had the chance. Knowing the full story behind Rey's lineage, Ren was certain that if he made the same offer again, Rey would accept it if she knew the truth. Before their connection ended, Ren seized possession of a husk necklace, causing it to teleport to his location through the bond.[8] The necklace had been gifted to Rey by the Aki-Aki reveler Nambi Ghima[5] and as such the First Order discovered that Rey was on Pasaana.[8]

While attempting to avoid First Order troops, Rey and her companions were found by Landonis Balthazar Calrissian, whom Organa had reached out to for help. Having accompanied Skywalker on his search for Exegol, Calrissian pointed the group in the direction of the Bestoon Legacy, an abandoned starship that belonged to the Sith assassin Ochi.[8]

As they traveled to the ship, they were ambushed by several First Order jet troopers but they managed to defeat them. Approaching the ship, they were caught by the Shifting Mires and they began to sink; Rey heard Finn call out to her but they all sank underground within the muck, dropping into an underground cave system. After regrouping, Rey asked Finn what he tried to say to her but it was brushed aside "for another time." They discovered Ochi's bones alongside an old dagger that had several Sith runes inscribed into the blade, and, although C-3PO was capable of translating it, he could not due to his programming restriction on speaking the language. A large reptile known as a vexis suddenly appeared. Though the snake appeared hostile, Rey, seeing the animal was injured, used the Force to heal its wounds, thus taming and calming the creature and causing it to reveal a way out of the tunnels the beast had created under the sand.[8]

Rey agreed that they should extract the data from C-3PO and, anticipating the First Order had taken the Millennium Falcon, prepared to leave aboard Ochi's ship; however, she sensed the arrival of Kylo Ren and left the group to confront him. Rey waited for Ren to attack in his TIE whisper, and subsequently destroyed it by slashing its wing with her lightsaber while leaping over to avoid being hit. After disabling Kylo's fighter, Rey discovered that Chewbacca and the dagger had been captured by the Knights of Ren and taken by troopers aboard an AAL-1971/9.1 Troop Transport. Rushing to help, Rey attempted to stop the transport carrying Chewbacca and the stolen Sith dagger using the Force. Kylo Ren tugged back, and the subsequent struggle resulted in Rey destroying the ship with a sudden burst of Force lightning, greatly shocking them both. Horrified by what she had done and thinking she had killed Chewbacca, Rey barely managed to escape in time.[8]

Dark lineage

"You don't just have power. You have his power. You're his granddaughter. You are a Palpatine. My mother was the daughter of Vader. Your father was the son of the Emperor. What Palpatine doesn't know is that we're a dyad in the Force, Rey. Two that are one." ―Kylo Ren, to Rey [src]

Rey followed Finn and Poe to Kijimi to get C-3PO to read the message inscribed on the dagger. However, the group was stopped by Zorii Bliss, a local spice runner who formerly worked with Poe and recognized him. When Zorii threatened to capture the team, Rey attacked the woman with her staff and held her lightsaber against Zorii's throat. Zorii told Rey that although Rey probably didn't care, she thought she was okay, to which Rey told her that she did care. Zorii led the group to Babu Frik, where in his workshop, he successfully completed the procedure on C-3PO, wiping the protocol droid's memory in the process. When the First Order arrived at Kijimi, Rey sensed where Kylo Ren was and learned that Chewbacca was alive, initially believing he died on Pasaana.[8]

Arriving on the Star Destroyer to rescue Chewbacca, Rey confused two stormtroopers with a Jedi mind trick and joined Finn and Poe in finding the captive Chewbacca, but is drawn away by the presence of the dagger, telling the others that she knew that they needed it somehow. As Rey made her way to Kylo Ren's quarters, she encountered the mask that once belonged to the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Seeing the dagger along with Chewbacca's bowcaster and bandolier, she went over to retrieve them. When Rey grabbed the dagger, it induced another vision; this time of what happened to her parents. Ochi, who was to find and recover Rey, killed her parents as they got in his way. A short duel against Kylo ensued as he and Rey connected through the Force dyad. Their bond allowed them to see and fight physically even from afar, eventually revealing her presence in his quarters when their fight caused his table of ashes holding Darth Vader's helmet to fall in front of him. When Kylo realized where Rey was, Rey grabbed the dagger and Chewbacca's things before running towards the hangar.[8]

When she made it to the hangar, she found that Finn, Poe, and Chewbacca had not returned. She saw Kylo land and told BB-8, C-3PO, and D-O to locate them. As stormtroopers surrounded them, Rey confronted Ren in the hangar bay. She asked him why Palpatine wanted to kill her. Ren replied by saying she had his power, revealing to her that her father was the son of the Emperor, just as Ren's mother was the daughter of Vader. Ren also revealed that he and Rey were a dyad in the force, two Force-sensitive beings that were paired to become one in the Force, and together they could defeat Palpatine and take the Throne of the Sith for themselves. As Ren prompted her to make a decision, Rey said that she already did as the Falcon arrived. Rey jumped out of the hangar bay towards Finn on the Falcon's ramp, and the Resistance made their escape.[8]

Kef Bir

"What-what is that?"

"It's the Death Star. It's a bad place, from an old war." ―D-O and Rey [src]

Rey followed the group to Kef Bir, meeting a group of former stormtroopers led by one who called herself Jannah. Using the Blade of Ochi of Bestoon against the silhouette of the DS-2 Death Star wreckage, Rey located the area where the Sith wayfinder should be located. She wanted to leave right away, but Jannah warned them that the seas were too dangerous and that they would leave in the morning. Unbeknownst to her companions, Rey impatiently piloted a sea skiff to the ruins. She walked and climbed her way through the dilapidated hallways and chasms of the wrecked Death Star, and eventually entered the Emperor's Throne Room, the place where Luke defeated his father and where Anakin fulfilled the prophecy. She approached the throne of her grandfather. Just then, a door beside the throne opened. Rey walked through the door as it closed behind her. Exploring the vault, she discovered the wayfinder. Once she grabbed it, she encountered the dark side version of herself. The dark vision told her not to be afraid of who she was, echoing the words of her master. Her dark side activated her saber staff, and they engaged in a duel. She was no match for her inner darkness, and she tumbled out the vault and dropped the wayfinder. Ren was there, and caught it in his hands.[8]

Rise of Skywalker

"I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand." ―Rey, to Ben Solo [src]

Ren had come to Rey without his mask. The scavenger had a feeling that he would never wear it for her again. His voice betrayed feelings of contempt as he noted Rey's desperation to prove herself as a Jedi to his mother. But in embracing her darker emotions, Ren believed that Rey had become as isolated as he was, and that she was no longer able to return to Organa any more than he could. Yet Rey continued to defy him, confusing the Supreme Leader. He was surprised that she could still resist, but continued to provoke her nonetheless, asserting that the dark side was in their nature. He urged her to surrender to it. Rey ordered Ren to give back the wayfinder, even pushing with the Force, but her attempted mind trick had no effect on Ren. She panicked as she sensed his next move. Ren declared that she would never find Exegol unless she joined him, and with that he shattered the wayfinder in his hand.[13]

Infuriated, Rey lashed out with her lightsaber and attacked Ren. Rather than igniting his own lightsaber, Ren leapt out of the way of Rey's blow, ducked under the next attack, and whirled away from her. The fact that he was not fighting back further enraged Rey, who had all but lost herself to her own fury. Bringing his own lightsaber to bear, he began blocking Rey's blade while she continued to swipe, slam and stab her weapon at him. He eventually gave ground, dropping into a shaft with Rey leaping after him without a second thought. Leaving the throne room, the Dyad dueled ferociously along the watery trenches of the Death Star ruins. During the duel, Rey sensed Finn nearby, attempting to bring her back. Alarmed by his presence, Rey was overcome by an instinct to protect her friend from Ren. With no thought at all, she pushed Finn with the Force, sending him flying away in the opposite direction toward Jannah. During their lightsaber duel, the two sparred telepathically, with Ren reminding Rey that he knew her in ways that no one else could. The longer they fought, the clearer it became that Ren was physically stronger than Rey. Ren dominated most of their fight, and Rey eventually was knocked down to her knees by his attacks.[13]

Ren loomed over Rey, who stared at him as he raised his lightsaber. In that moment, Rey was convinced that she would die on the wreck of a space station, accepting that she may not be fast enough to dodge his next attack. But as she readied herself for death, Ren froze where he stood, his lightsaber held high. His gaze suddenly became distant; across the galaxy, his mother called out his birth name with her dying breath. Ren dropped his lightsaber, sensing her mother's death through the Force while Rey, exulting at the prospect of victory, caught the Supreme Leader's weapon and pierced his abdomen, running him through with the stolen blade. Having felt Leia's death, Rey began to mourn, and realized she attempted to slay Ren in an act of rage. Regretting her actions, Rey reached out, putting her hand on Ren's chest. Drawing on all of her energy as well as the life force around her, she gave much of it to Ren. As a result, his wound was completely healed, disappearing altogether along with his facial scar. Rey sensed Ren's astonishment and his unasked questions, and explained that he had been right. She did want to join him, but only the side of him who was Ben Solo, not Kylo Ren. Disillusioned by her ordeal, Rey commandeered Ren's TIE whisper and left Kef Bir, allowing instinct to dictate her next move out of desperation to escape the galactic conflict.[8]

Return to Ahch-To

"Rey, some things are stronger than blood. Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi. Your destiny." ―The spirit of Luke Skywalker, to Rey [src]

Shaken by her Sith lineage and multiple instances of dark side rage, Rey returned to Ahch-To on Kylo's ship, with the intent to go into exile like her first master Skywalker had. She burned the ship that brought her there, but just when she threw the Skywalker lightsaber into the burning wreckage, the Force spirit of Luke Skywalker appeared to her and caught it. After a long discussion, Skywalker convinced her to face her grandfather, Darth Sidious, as he did his father, Darth Vader, telling her that confronting fear was the destiny of a Jedi. He bestowed her with Leia Organa's lightsaber and his old X-wing, both of which Rey took to Exegol, navigating with the Wayfinder she found in the wreckage of Kylo's ship.[8]

Battle against Darth Sidious

"Long have I waited for my grandchild to come home. I never wanted you dead. I wanted you here, Empress Palpatine. You will take the throne. It is your birthright to rule here. It is in your blood. Our blood." ―Darth Sidious, to Rey [src]

Rey traveled along a safe route to Exegol in Luke Skywalker's X-wing, Red Five, using Kylo Ren's wayfinder and transmitted her plotted course to the Resistance, allowing them to travel along her passage. Rey arrived at Exegol and proceeded to face Darth Sidious within the Sith Citadel. Before the Throne of the Sith, the frail and immobile Dark Lord of the Sith let fall the chamber ceiling, uncovering the battle above, showing a greatly outnumbered and outgunned Resistance failing against the might of the Sith Eternal fleet in battle. Exploiting the imminent extermination of the entirety of the Resistance, Sidious commanded that she strike him down with hatred lest her "newfound family" be annihilated, intending to transfer his own spirit into the young and strong body of Rey.[13] Rey had been stalling for time after sensing that Kylo Ren―now redeemed and going by his birth name, Ben Solo, was on Exegol. She nearly succumbed to the temptations of absolute power and the dark side of the Force, but Solo's presence was shining bright with the light within her mind. Knowing that he had come to help her, she feigned defeat and acceptance while shielding her true intentions from the Emperor, a skill that she had honed through practice with Ren.[13]

Solo, realizing that he could not defeat all six Knights of Ren with only a blaster, received a telepathic message from Rey through their bond, and he knew what she intended to do. Rey lowered her weapon behind her back, as if preparing to strike down her grandfather, who leaned forward with gleeful anticipation, but when she raised her hand it was empty. She had projected her weapon away, and with horror the Emperor realized his mistake in allowing Rey and Solo to come together. Their bond had been refined in the fire of mutual searching, shared grief, rage and hate, but also compassion and empathy, and it was the one thing that Sidious had not foreseen. Rey ignited her spare lightsaber, the lightsaber that once belonged to Leia, as a cohort of Sovereign Protectors surrounded her. As before on Pasaana and Kijimi, they were separate but also together, with Rey battling the crimson-robed guards and Solo confronting his former comrades. This time, however, they were drawing on each other for strength, becoming even more powerful as one instead of two. Ren sprinted toward the throne room where Rey had defeated all of the guards save one, whom Solo tossed aside using the Force. They stood facing each other, together at last. Rey observed how different Solo was from Ren, and wondered how she never noticed the resemblance between him and his parents until then. They raised their lightsabers as one, dropping into a fighting stance before Sidious.[13]

Sidious snarled at his would-be heirs, exclaiming that they would die together as he raised his rotting hand and impaled them with the Force. Their lightsabers dropped to the ground, and the Emperor pulled them toward himself. They were helpless against his power. As a side effect, however, their combined life force began to heal the clone vessel. Sidious gasped, watching as his hands began stitching themselves back together, bones re-growing, and pale flesh closing over them. He was astonished to discover that his granddaughter and Vader's grandson were a dyad in the Force, and their bond the equivalent of the power of life. Realizing that their powers combined would allow him to fully return to life, Sidious used the Force to drain the life energy of both Rey and Solo to restore himself to the form he had before his first death at the hands of Anakin Skywalker during the Battle of Endor. Drained of their powers, Rey and Solo fell to the floor. Having no further use of Solo, Sidious, exclaiming revenge for his first death, flung him into a nearby abyss to an apparent death.[13]

Sidious, having been fully restored to his former self, told his Sith loyalists to not fear the attack of the Resistance as no one will stop the Sith's return. He then proceeded to ignite a powerful display of Force lightning into the air, which disabled all Resistance ships up to the size of Nebulon B frigates, including those of Finn, Poe, and the galaxy fleet, and sending them plummeting toward the ground, including the legendary Tantive IV. Weakened and seemingly defeated, Rey heard the voices of past Jedi, including her former Master Luke Skywalker, his father Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, Ahsoka Tano, Mace Windu, Luminara Unduli, Aayla Secura, Kanan Jarrus, and Adi Gallia encouraging her and lending her the strength to carry on against the Sith Lord.[8]

Rey then stood up, with her new courage received from the Jedi before her. Sidious, noticing this, ceased his Force Lightning attack on the Resistance fleet. Telling Rey that her death will be the Rebellion's final word, Sidious launched a barrage of Force lightning at Rey. Rey then attempted to block it with Leia's lightsaber, but Sidious told Rey that he cannot be stopped and that he is "All the Sith." However, Rey replied that she is "All the Jedi," calling back the Skywalker lightsaber and igniting it, using the two lightsabers to deflect Sidious' lightning back at him. Unable to take the strain of the immense energy reflected back at him, Sidious screamed in agony and horror as he was disintegrated under his own energy. In an explosion that decimated the entire arena, all of the Sith Eternal gathered inside and Darth Sidious himself were destroyed. This prevented the rebirth of the Sith Order and ended the ancient conflict between the Sith and the Jedi.[8]

Rey died from the sheer amount of power required to utterly destroy Sidious, an event felt by Finn, and her body collapsed to the ground. However, Solo had survived the earlier ordeal with Sidious, and climbed up the cliff from the Abyss, running back to Rey as he realized she sacrificed herself to kill the Emperor. Finding Rey dead, Solo mourned her and cradled her in his arms. Unable to accept her death, Solo made the decision to sacrifice himself so Rey could live again. He put his hand on her and poured his own life force into her body. Upon waking up, Rey covered his hand on her belly with hers and stared at him, becoming aware of what transpired. He expected her rejection again, but after a moment of confusion, Rey’s eyes lit up and she whispered his name, actually glad to see him. Surprising Solo even more, instead of letting him go, Rey filled his heart as she reached for his face and leaned forward kissing him. She shared with him a kiss of gratitude, acknowledging their connection for the first time, as they were both overwhelmed with joy, celebrating that they had truly found each other at last. But Rey soon became concerned as she felt him growing colder, and as she drew back to look at him, Solo smiled at her. Still with him in her arms, Rey clasped his hand and watched Solo collapse in the ground with no regrets after bringing her back to the galaxy, the Force reached for him in welcome. Rey stood at the place she just saw Solo vanish and cried staring at his empty tunic.[13]

As much as she didn’t want to mourn Kylo Ren, Rey was filled with sorrow thinking on the missed opportunity to have known Ben Solo, whom just sacrificed everything for her. She felt like her other half was ripped from her. After all the years of loneliness in Jakku, she had just found that she was part of a connection, a dyad, but as that was taken from her, she was devasted. But upon hearing Solo’s voice through the Force trying to comfort her, reassuring that he would always be with her, Rey smiled with the realization that he was not truly gone.[13]

The next step

"I'm Rey."

"Rey who?"

"Rey Skywalker." ―Rey and a local on Tatooine [src]

Rey returned to Ajan Kloss to celebrate the victory with the Resistance where she reunited with Dameron and Finn again. Moved to see them, she shared an embrace with her friends. Afterwards, she traveled to the Lars moisture farm on Tatooine, where she laid both Leia's lightsaber and the Skywalker lightsaber to rest, but after crafting her own lightsaber in which she was able to ensure it worked. When a local asked for her name, she renounced her Palpatine lineage, renaming herself "Rey Skywalker" with the blessing of the Force spirits of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa.[8] She kept her origins as a Palpatine a secret, uncertain about what her allies would think if they knew the truth, or if they cared about bloodlines at all.[13]

Personality and traits

"I know all about waiting. For my family. They'll be back, one day." ―Rey [src]

Rey was a human female who stood at 1.7 meters[4] and weighed 54 kilograms.[6] She had brown hair, hazel eyes, and light skin[4] that adapted to the extreme ultraviolet radiation emanated by the sun that shone down on the desert world of Jakku. The harsh realities of such a world could have easily made a person cynical or guarded against sympathy and weaknesses, but not Rey. Despite eking out a meager existence in the scorching heat of the Western Reaches planet, Rey possessed a heart full of generosity and a willingness to help other people in need.[15] It was this willingness that led her to not only help BB-8 be free of Teedo's interference and Plutt's attempts to acquire the droid but also led her to help BB-8 in its mission to return the star map it carried to the Resistance. Though she never wanted to leave Jakku for fear that she would not be there when her family returned for her,[7] she believed in the importance of the Resistance and its fight against the First Order enough that it gave her strength to continue on BB-8's mission to find Luke Skywalker and defeat the First Order.[15]

She had a stubborn, private, and self-reliant side, distrustful of fellow scavengers Devi and Strunk when they offered her help in repairing the Ghtroc 690 freighter she'd found.[18] It was difficult to change her mind once she'd made a decision, impatiently stealing a skiff speeder to reach the remains of the Death Star on Kef Bir instead of waiting for the tides to subside, against Jannah's advice to wait.[8] She had a tendency to try to do things alone, both out of a desire to protect her friends and her stubborn nature. Still, her friends were incredibly important to her; she considered them her newfound family. Her teachings from Organa and Skywalker guided her in her journey in the Force, and it was only when Palpatine threatened to kill her friends that she considered going along with his plans.[8]

Her duel with Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base and the other events of that time had exposed Rey to fear, aggression, and anger. These emotions could easily bring one to the dark side of the Force. Rey needed guidance, and Skywalker was the only Jedi Master in the galaxy.[29] However, by the end of their time together, Rey had grown furious with Skywalker due to his rejection of the Jedi and his refusal to explain his role in Ben Solo's fall to the dark side. She believed that the galaxy needed the Jedi Order and was dismayed by Skywalker's rejection of his mandate as the last Jedi. As difficult as it was for Rey reconcile the legendary Jedi Master with the defeated old hermit who wanted the Jedi to end, she remained steadfast in her conviction that Skywalker was the hero that the galaxy needed.[30] Though her journey to Ahch-To ended in disappointment for Rey,[4] she refused to give up hope—a trait which led Snoke to consider her a true Jedi in spirit, and precisely why he needed her to die.[30]

For years, Rey's imagination took her mind to other worlds, including those with lush green forests[15] and beauty that she could never even dream of. The adventure she found while helping BB-8 and Finn brought her to one such world in the form of Takodana,[7] where she began to realize that her destiny was not in the junkfields of a remote desert planet. Her encounter with Maz Kanata profoundly impacted how she saw herself and what she was capable of, and Rey began to see that she was part of a larger galactic fight—and that the power of the Force was with her. Her recognition of these abilities and her destiny coincided with turbulence in the Cosmic Force, which for years had remained dormant,[15] and ultimately led her to find Skywalker.[7] The years that she spent on Jakku also proved useful when faced with Skywalker's obstinacy; having learned the value of patience, Rey remained on Ahch-To despite the old Jedi Master's refusal of her entreaty, determined to wear him down.[31] Their time became a battle of wits, as Skywalker and Rey were equally stubborn. When she found Skywalker short on answers, Rey improvised on her own, which was what she did best.[29]

For years, Rey remained optimistic and hopeful that her parents would return for her, wearing the same hairstyle and style of clothing that she had when they'd left her in the hopes that they'd recognize her when they came back. The question of who they were haunted her while on Ahch-To, and was left with feelings of disappointment and even greater loneliness when she found no answers. She was distraught when Kylo Ren led her to believe that her parents had been mere junk traders who sold their daughter for drinking money.[9] The truth that she was Palpatine's granddaughter, however, had an even greater effect on her. She began to believe that, as a Palpatine, she was innately evil, and attempted to isolate herself on Ahch-To as Skywalker had, for the good of the galaxy. It was only with encouragement from Skywalker, who admitted he'd been wrong, that Rey overcame this fear and joined the final battle against the First Order on Exegol. Later, after the battle was won, Rey renounced her biological heritage, choosing her new family as she renamed herself Rey Skywalker.[8]

During Rey's time on Ahch-To, Skywalker felt that she reminded him too much of himself:[46] full of hope,[30] impatient[47] and reckless.[48] Snoke preyed on those attributes, knowing that Rey could not "resist the bait" he had laid before her.[9]

The most important friend in Rey's life was Finn. He was the first one to genuinely care about her as a person, immediately asking if she was okay when they'd been knocked off their feet while they fled from stormtroopers at Niima Outpost. Their skills complemented each other while they flew the Millennium Falcon, and by the time they escaped Jakku, they'd begun to form a deep, unbreakable bond, starting to care immensely for one another. Rey begged Finn not to leave on Takodana, and was willing to die with the unconscious Finn on Starkiller Base as it was collapsing on itself, but were saved by Chewbacca's arrival in the Falcon.[7] She continued to worry about him while on Ahch-To, requesting Chewbacca to give Finn a message if she didn't make it. She hugged him tightly when they were reunited on Crait, relieved to once again be with her best friend.[9] Their sense of care and trust for each other carried them throughout their time with the Resistance, inspiring and giving each other strength.

Spirituality

"This is not going to go the way you think."

"It is. Just now, when we touched hands, I saw his future. I saw it—as solid as I'm seeing you. If I go to him, Ben Solo will turn." ―Luke Skywalker and Rey [src]

Rey's greatest advantage was a deeply held faith in the power of the Force and her conn