Warning: This could be nothing or it could be everything. Some time in the past few months, the official Star Wars database entries for Rey and Kylo Ren were updated. Admittedly these get updated fairly regularly, adding detail as plot points slide from being considered spoilers to becoming simple facts. But these last updates are very, very curious.
Both entries have added the specific language that Rey and Kylo Ren have a “mysterious connection” and a “strange connection” to one and other.
We know what you’re thinking because we thought it too. “So what?” The film makes it pretty obvious these two Force users have some sort of connection, even if it’s something as simple as a rivalry. But it’s the timing of this addition that really makes us scratch our head.
It’s difficult to find out when specifically the changes were made but, using web.archive.org we can look back at the most recent captures of both pages. For Rey, that last capture was in October 2016; for Kylo Ren, it was December 2016. Neither archive of the page had the phrases in question. We’ve contacted Lucasfilm for comment but have yet to hear back.
For now, we’re left with speculation. Most people are obviously going to assume it proves they’re siblings, a theory that’s been around since The Force Awakens premiered. That may be a “mysterious connection” for Rey, but it’s not a “strange” one — it’s a pretty normal connection.
I’m gonna swing for the fences here, which could mean a home run or a strikeout, but screw it. The Force did “awaken” with the emergence of Rey, right? And what’s the biggest thing that’s happened in the Star Wars universe recently that could have inspired these additions to their official profiles? The title of Episode VIII being revealed as The Last Jedi, of course.
Many people have wondered if the title refers not to just one or two characters, but the concept of Jedi as a whole — that the Jedi themselves are ending. Over the course of the seven films, it’s become pretty obvious that the Jedi, and their specific tenets, haven’t been doing a great job keeping peace in the galaxy. It seems even Luke hasn’t been successful at reviving them, thanks to the Knights of Ren.
And ever since Disney took over the Star Wars canon, it has introduced a great many Force-connected characters who aren’t Jedi. People like Maz Kanata and Lor San Tekka from Force Awakens. Or Chirrut Imwe and the Whills from Rogue One. The same can be said for the Dark Side, as both the Knights of Ren and the Inquisitors of Star Wars Rebels aren’t specifically “Sith”.
So maybe the mysterious connection between Kylo Ren and Rey is they’re the yin and the yang that’s going to change the interpretation of Force. Maybe their struggles will once and for all get rid of the archaic ideas of “Sith” and “Jedi”, ushering in a new era of Star Wars where anyone with Force ability can be whatever they want to be without needing to pick a side. That certainly would be a nice way to clean the slate of the Skywalker saga and start fresh with, say, Episode X, right?
Again, this is pure conjecture. But, maybe…
[StarWars.com via Heroic Hollywood]