Rey

Rey is a lone scavenger who gets tangled in the war between the Resistanceand the First Order. She uncovers her potential as a Force user while on her quest to seek out the last surviving Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to save the galaxy.

## History

### Early life[1]

"*No! Come back!*"
―Rey screams for her family to return, as seen in a vision she would have later in life
Rey was born in 15 ABY, eleven years after the Battle of Endor.[2] In 1 BBY, more than a decade before her 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. 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. In reality, her parents had sold her to Jakku's economy for drinking money.

Throughout her life on Jakku, she would sometimes see off-worlders in Niima Outpost, the 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.[8] 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.

#### The scavenger[2]

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 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.

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.

#### Growing her skills[3]

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.
 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.

By the time Rey was ten years old, 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.

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 binarylanguage 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.

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.[8]

#### Rescuing Unkar Plutt[4]

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 persons 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 Kelvim Ravine and decided to go there to see if that was the location of Plutt.[9]

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. He then took Rey's corn-clusters and threw them on Zendiat's gang so that the Ripper Raptors would attack them. They did, and Rey and Plutt escaped but Rey threw the head of the droid to Zendiat's gang.[10]

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.[10]

#### The Happabore Hazard[5]

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 were to fail the errand. Rey responded by placing a bet of twenty portions since she was risking her speeder.[11]

Rey traveled on her speeder to the site, which turned out to be a wrecked quadjumper. She found a happaborelying 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.

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.

#### Repairing the Ghtroc 690[6]

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.[12]

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.

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.

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.

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.

#### Rescuing Teedo[7]

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.[13]

### Awakening the Force[8]

#### Escape from Jakku[9]

"*We need a pilot!*"
"*We've got one!*"
―Finn and Rey, while escaping from Niima Outpost
One of the vessels that Rey scavenged from was the *Inflictor*, an *Imperial*-class Star Destroyer that crashed after its commanding officer, Captain Ciena Ree, scuttled the ship to prevent it from falling into the hands of the New Republic.[14] 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[5]—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.[8] 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.[5] 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.[15]

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.[16] 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 Knight 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.[5]

The trio was spotted by a small group of stormtroopers who were sent to to recover the droid from Jakku. Rey and Finn attempted to fleetheir 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 a broken down ship she described as garbage that had not flown for years, the *Millennium Falcon*. Rey took the pilot's seat while Finn manned the gun turrets. 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.[5]

#### Enlisting Han Solo's help[10]

"*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[5] when an energy flux in the hyperdrive motivator caused a fuel backup.[8] 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.
 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[5] called the *Eravana*,[17] 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: 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* and that Solo was the famous smuggler who fought with 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.[5]

The *Eravana* was soon boarded by the 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*.[5]
 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. The group gathered in the ship's common area and BB-8 showed Solo the holographicmap 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—Kylo Ren—turned against the Jedi Master and destroyed Skywalker's attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order. Afterward, Skywalker vanished. Rumors floated around about where he had gone,[5] but those closest to him correctly[18] 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.[5]

#### The Force withinEdit

"*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 operated a pirate castle on the planet. As the ship approached the castle, Rey was taken aback by the lush green world[5] that reminded her of the planets she saw in her dreams as a child,[8] 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 a blaster, 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 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.[5]

Solo led Rey, Finn, and BB-8 to the castle while Chewbacca stayed behind to watch over the ship. Solo explained that Kanata had run the castle for a thousand years and that she would be able 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,[5] Sidon Ithano and Quiggold,[2] about exchanging work for passage to the Outer Rim Territories and, when Rey confronted him, he admitted that he was a 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.[5]
 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 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 Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi telling her that these were her first steps.[5]
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. There was, however, someone who still could: Luke. Kanata 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.[5]

#### Capture and escapeEdit

"*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.[5]
 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 systemand 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, saying he was 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. 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 anymore 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.[5]
 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 the Starkiller, 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.[5]

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 the Starkiller 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 tried to get Ren to turn back to the light, the dark warrior stabbed his father through the torso, sending the famed smuggler tumbling off the bridge to his death in the deep chasm below. Chewbacca, enraged over the loss of his friend, opened fire on Ren and set off the charges, damaging the oscillator and giving the Resistance the opening it needed to destroy the base.[5]

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, knowing 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.

### Finding the Last Jedi[11]

#### Discovery of Skywalker[12]

"*Rey. May the Force be with you.*"
―Leia Organa[src]
The *Millennium Falcon* returned to the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar, where Finn was treated for his wounds. The Resistance forces celebrated their victory over the First Order, though Rey was left with a feeling of sadness. She was greeted at the base by General Organa, and the two embraced in a long hug. 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.[5]

Rey kept Skywalker's lightsaber with her and prepared to depart from D'Qar for Skywalker's world with Chewbacca and Artoo. She said goodbye to the unconscious Finn, kissing him on the forehead and stating that "they would see each other again some day".[5] Outside of the *Falcon*, General Organa told her that she was proud of what Rey was about to do. Rey felt her fear, however, as Rey knew that Organa blamed herself for sending her son away to be with her brother only for Ben Solo to turn to the dark side. Organa was confident, however, that Rey would not share the same fate as her son, giving her a beacon to find her way back.[19] Rey boarded the *Millennium Falcon*, took the pilot's seat, and set a course for Ahch-To, the world where Skywalker made his exile. 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.[5] 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[19]—the return of the Jedi.[5]

Upon offering Skywalker his old lightsaber, Rey was shocked to see him discard the weapon after briefly examining it 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, she discovered the wreckage of Skywalker's X-wing starfighter 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.[6]

#### Training and revelations[13]

"*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]
 Rey's raw power reminded Skywalker of another Force prodigy: his nephew, Ben Solo.
On the first day of her training with Skywalker, Rey awoke to find Kylo Ren sitting across from her.[6] She instinctively aimed her blaster at him and fired, only to blow a hole through her stone hut. She could not harm him, yet nor 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.[20] 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.[6] 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.[20] At the same time, Rey sensed nothing from the Jedi exile and came to realize that Skywalker had blocked himself off from the Force.[6]

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.[6]

As her training with Skywalker continued,[6] her connection with Ren became stronger[21] and resulted in more frequent interactions between them.[6] At first, Rey was inconvenienced by the fact that she was bonded with a man whom she regarded as a murderer and a monster.[20] To her surprise, however, Ren no longer tried to hide his feelings of pain[21] and misery[20] from Rey.[21] At one point she inquired—while distracted by the site 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 Ben Solo's life while he slept. She wanted to believe that Ren was lying, but her feelings told her that he was telling the truth.[20]

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 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.[20]

By then, their bond had reached an unprecedented level in strength and raw power[22] 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.[20] 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.[6]

#### Showdown on the *Supremacy*Edit

"*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.[6]

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.[6]

With Snoke's personal guards dead, Ren offered Rey the chance to join him, but when she pleaded with him to join the Resistance, Kylo revealed 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.[6] Before she left the bridge, she looked over at the unconscious form of Ren and briefly considered igniting his own blade and ending his life then and there. Eventually she determined that it was not hers to take. She then proceeded to fly away on Snoke's escape shuttle, using the craft's low profile and countermeasures to avoid detection.[20]

#### Rescue on Crait[14]

Rey manned the *Falcon'*s underbelly turret during the Battle of Crait.
Rey was able to reunite with Chewbacca aboard the *Millennium Falcon* and regrouped with the Rebels on the nearby planet Crait. 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.

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 Luke delayed the First Order's final assault via a force projection, the Resistance sought to escape through a network of tunnels behind their base.

Following Leia'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 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,[6] but she severed the connection[20] 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 Leia, who assured her that the rebellion, and hope, would survive.

## Powers and Abilities

#### Powers

* **The Force:** Rey is very powerful and has a very strong connection to the Force, described by Ren as stronger than she realizes. However, until learning from Luke, she had received very little training and depends mostly on skills she learned before she knew she was Force-sensitive or watched someone else use the Force. Despite this and although she is not quite as powerful as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vaderand Luke Skywalker respectively; at the two latters' peaks, her powers rival that of Kylo Ren, despite the latter being the grandson of the Chosen One, and the nephew of the leader of the New Jedi Order; therefore making her an exceptionally powerful light and dark side Force-user. According to Snoke, Rey will grow stronger with the light side of the Force.
	+ **Telekinesis:** Rey utilizes Telekinesis either as offense or defense. Her power was shown to rival that of a weakened and injured Kylo Ren, as she could pry Luke's lightsaber out of his own telekinetic grip when he tried to summon it to his hand, causing it to fly past him and into her hand instead. Additionally, after the Battle of Crait, Rey proved capable of lifting and moving a pile of small boulders simultaneously without much effort to open a passageway out of a cave for the Resistance.
		- **Force Pull:** Rey utilizes Force pull to pull her opponents or objects towards her.
	+ **Telepathy:** Rey utilizes Telepathy as an extension of her Force powers to mentally communicate over small or vast distances with other individuals, especially Ren, due to the mental connection they share through the Force.
		- **Mind Probe:** Rey utilizes Mind probe to sift through the thoughts of a sentient being. She was able to resist Kylo's attempt to probe her mind for the map to Luke Skywalker's location, and even turned his attack back on him to discover his own fears of inadequacy in the shadow of Vader.
		- **Mind Trick:** Rey utilizes Mind Trick to control the minds of other sentient beings, however, it doesn't work on individuals who have very strong will. It took her three tries to master it, as she used it on a Stormtrooper.
	+ **Force Vision:** Rey utilizes Force vision to have visions of the past, present, and future; however, like all Force-users, her visions are not always clear or sometimes has visions even when she is not utilizing this power at will. It is also possible that some visions, like the one resulting from when she touched Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, are the result of Psychometry, another Force power that allows the wielder to see and discern information about people, events, and places by touching objects people carried.
	+ **Force Sense:** Rey utilizes Force sense to sense another sentient being's emotions, the future, ripples in the Force caused by momentous or traumatic events, or impending danger and the presence of the dark side. She learned this when Kylo attempted to use it against her.
	+ **Battle Meditation:** Rey utilized Battle meditation, allowing her to renew her morale, stamina, and overall battle prowess. This allowed her to defeat the more skilled, yet injured, Kylo Ren in battle by meditating on the Force as Maz Kanata taught her.

#### Abilities

* **Lightsaber Skills:** Despite having no training, Rey has some skills in lightsaber combat and is a very gifted duelist. Rey was able to defeat the Dark Jedi Kylo Ren, despite the latter being far more skilled and experience in lightsaber combat then she is. She was able to overpower him after meditating on the Force as Maz Kanata taught her. However, it should also be noted that Kylo had already been wounded by Chewbacca and Finn respectively, and thus was not at the peak of his strength. Despite her short time training with Luke, she improved enough that she was able to fight Supreme Leader Snoke's Praetorian Guards on even terms alongside Kylo Ren and eventually with his aid, overpower and kill the eight deadly warriors.
* **Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combatant:** Rey is skilled in unarmed combat.
* **Skilled Staff Fighter:** Rey is skilled in staff fighting, having used her staff for much of her life.
* **Skilled Markswoman:** Rey is skilled in utilizing blaster pistols.
* **Master Pilot:** Rey is highly skilled in piloting various speeders and every type of flight craft.
* **Master Engineer:** As a scavenger, Rey has a good understanding of engineering and the things she collects. She has knowledge about multiple different machines and ships, which proves useful when she accidentally comes into possession of the Millennium Falcon. She knew how to work a ship's computer and circuitry systems. which allowed her to prevent the Millennium Falcon from breaking apart by removing one of the ship's circuits.
* **Multilingual:** Rey is currently capable of fluently speaking English, Shyriiwook, and Binary.

### Weapons and Equipment

* **Quarterstaff:** Created by Rey, this staff served as her initial weapon of choice and navigation tool. The staff was crucial to helping Rey explore downed Star Destroyers, as it helped her choose her steps wisely.
* **NN-14 blaster pistol:** Rey acquired this pistol from Han Solo. She only wielded this weapon on Takodana, but it did serve her well.
* **Lightsaber:** Rey first encountered Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber in Maz Kanata's castle, suffering visions after touching the weapon. The lightsaber was apparently calling to Rey through the Force, according to Maz, but Rey refused it. It was not until the battle on Starkiller Base that Rey finally wielded the lightsaber with great skill and kept the weapon during her journey to find Luke.