So, obviously “Rey is a Palpatine / Kenobi / whomever” is bad writing, but it may not be immediately obvious why it’s bad writing (01 / 08):

Plot twists in a story don’t exist for their own sake; it may help to think of them as “perspective shifts” that alter the understanding of the protagonist and audience. When done well, these perspective shifts resonate with the heroine’s emotional arc and the story’s themes.

So when Luke learns (spoiler!) that Vader is his father, it completely upends the story he thought he was in, and the story we thought we were watching. Luke is no longer an uncomplicated hero but someone with demons in his past, in his bloodline. His life is now *harder*.

The reason “I am your father” has the power to blow your hair back is because all along Luke has been living in a simple story of good vs evil in which Vader is the monster to be defeated, and now he’s learning that life is more complicated. It’s the LAST thing he wants to hear.

Rey’s perspective is colored by the events of the OT. She WANTS to be a legendary hero like Han or Leia, she’s eagerly awaiting her Hogwarts letter, her “I am your father” moment. She would be thrilled to learn she’s a Kenobi or Palpatine—thrilled, but not challenged.

When Kylo tells her, “You come from nothing, you’re nothing,” it shatters Rey’s sense of identity and the story she’s been telling herself for two movies. It wounds her in the same way Luke was wounded by the truth of his lineage, and we the audience are drawn to woundedness.

Rey is essentially a Star Wars fangirl, she knows the beats of the old story just as we do, and @rianjohnson is challenging her and us to think outside the safe, familiar conventions of narrative and “let the past die” because things don’t always go the way you expect.

“You come from nothing” WORKS both because it’s the last thing we expect and the last thing Rey wants to hear but the very thing she NEEDS to hear if she’s going to fulfill her calling to create a Force that is accessible to everyone, not just the offspring of famous men.