Star Wars Cleared Up a Big 'Rise of Skywalker' Mystery About Rey's Parents
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Star Wars might be expanding its TV universe with the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi during its break from the big screen, but it's also spent that time filling in gaps from across the Skywalker Saga.
Whether it's why Darth Vader didn't kill Chewbacca in The Empire Strikes Back or just what the hell the Sith Eternal were, Star Wars has been using its extended universe of comic books, novels and more to resolve any lingering questions you may have.
It's now the turn of Rey's parents, who we briefly saw in The Rise of Skywalker, played by Jodie Comer and Billy Howle. In that movie, we saw a flashback to when they left Rey (Daisy Ridley) on Jakku, which also included Ochi of Bestoon tracking them down and killing them when they refused to reveal Rey's location.
What was always a bit confusing to Star Wars fans is why we saw Ochi's ship in Rey's traumatic flashback to when her parents left her.
If Ochi's entire mission was to track Rey down, were we to believe he took her parents' word that she wasn't on Jakku and left after killing them? Seems a bit lazy, but maybe he was just a terrible assassin.
After all, he did contribute to his own downfall when he got himself trapped in sinking sands on Pasaana and perished in the caverns underneath.
It might be a small comfort to any potential Ochi fans out there that a new Star Wars book, Shadow of the Sith, has explained just how he found himself on Pasaana. What's more, it wasn't even him operating his ship when we saw it leaving Jakku.
Instead, the book – set 17 years after the events of Return of the Jedi and 13 years before The Force Awakens – reveals that Rey's parents (named Dathan and Miramir, fact fans) stole Ochi's ship after he had tracked them down to Jakku.
They left Rey behind and fled, assuming that Ochi wouldn't think to look again on Jakku for Rey. Ochi managed to track down Rey's parents again and might have gone back to Jakku for Rey except for one ingenious move on Miramir's part.
She is deliberately wearing beads from Pasaana when Ochi catches up with them. It works as she expected and it means that even though Ochi kills her, he falls for her trap and heads for Pasaana where he meets his sandy demise, as we know from The Rise of Skywalker.
As well as revealing the names of Rey's parents and their involvement in Ochi's death, Shadow of the Sith also shines more light on Rey's father Dathan. We know he was a clone of Palpatine, but it was never quite clear how he ended up meeting Miramir.
It turns out that he was seen as an "abomination" on Exegol, but Palpatine wouldn't let him be killed (he's a softie, clearly).
During Dathan's time on the Sith homeworld, he met a Symeong who was nice to him and let Dathan sneak onto a supply transport ship to escape Exegol.
Rey's father didn't have a name because Palps didn't care that much and, like Han Solo, he was asked for a name at a spaceport. He decided for Dathan after the Symeong who helped him. Dathan ended up on Hyperkarn where he met Miramir and the rest is history.
How exactly Palps worked out he had a granddaughter remains to be seen, but he probably sensed it in the Force or something. Maybe it'll be addressed in a future Star Wars story.
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